darrellcraig

Do not be misled! The Great Conspiracy of Cartographers will not prevail! Despite their efforts to sabotage the search for TRUTH with this “accident”, the TRUTH will be revealed!!! Martyr Mike’s body may now be led to rest under the flat earth, but the TRUTH will rise and take it’s ascendancy over the promulgations of the false spherical earth theorists!!!!!

F1.7 is more like f3.5 in full frame.  There aren’t really any AF pancakes at f3.5, probably no market for them.  The Sigma 45/2.8 is small, the FE 35/2.8 is smaller.  On the MF side, the Voigtlander 21/3.5 is small.  

Asking which of these companies will be in business in five years vs which of these companies will be in the camera business in five years are very different questions.  Nikon is primarily a camera company and will live or die based on performance of their camera business.  Fuji’s camera business is probably a tiny sliver of their overall business as it is for Panasonic.  The later two could probably cease camera operations tomorrow and their stock price might go up in response.  Nikon might go bankrupt in response.  

http://bullettmedia.com/article/pixelface-is-the-loudest-artist-on-the-internet/

some backstory on the director.  Reading that, maybe the BTS video is the art... maybe there isn’t even a music video.

Ricoh GR if stills focused, else try an Rx100 or Panasonic ZS100?

Season 8 a huge disappointment here as well... i feel like I could skip the last episode and feel no loss. I'll probably watch it  just for the sake of completion - kind of like I did with the 3rd Matrix movie (wow that sucked) and with Walking Dead (I went a couple seasons too long just because and gave up completely a couple of years ago).

I've moved on emotionally from GoT and don't really care about the series wrap. But I still feel the thrill of the first few seasons, wow they were great and the failure of the final season doesn't distract from it.

Good news is that if the books are eventually written, it will create an opportunity to re-do the series or at least redo from where the divergence occurred. Maybe HBO has an option for that... I imagine the financial success of this round all but guarantees someone will put the new books to film.

I’ve been using the iPad Pro for a couple of years now... 1st gen 12.9 and now the 2nd gen 10.5. I have the WD wireless pro but don’t really use it as (a) the weight combined with the 10.5 is about the same as my 13” MacBook Pro and (2) it’s WiFi transfer speeds are too slow. So if I want to edit video on my iPad for a quick project I’ll just go direct via airdrop or via my NAS between MBP and iPad.

I do a lot of work on the iPad (writing, presentations, email, note taking and idea generation w/ pencil). But the MacBook Pro is better for so many things I’ll continue to own both - which may be Apple’s intent.

If Apple just made a productivity push for one or two cycles of iOS and did the obvious things every user complains about and every editor / reviewer calls out as software deficiencies of the incredible iPad hardware platform, I could see most people not needing a PC/Mac.

My primary reason for using the iPad is that I feel idea generation works much better visually with the pencil and apps like paper, notability, linea sketch, etc. Flows with how I think much better than presentation software like PowerPoint or keynote or text apps like word, google docs, pages. Easy to go between sketch, text, images notation, shapes, etc. in one workspace.

I hate anything to do with moving files around. Cloud services are a horrible workflow replacement for a file system and external device support.

Anyone know if it works with the other rode wireless products (filmmaker kit Transmitter or receiver or the Tx-m2 mic etc.).  I couldn’t find anything on interoperability on the website or in the press release.  Since it doesn’t come with a mic, would seem it would support them....

I would add that photo stuff moves fast on FM, not a lot of video traffic there though. 

Been buying & selling on FM since 2005... I pretty much only buy and sell there, there's just too much noise and too little signal on Craigslist and eBay. I ALWAYS regret it when I bother listing photo/video stuff on Craigslist or eBay.

Stuff on FM moves quickly if you price it well... you just might get a bit more somewhere else, but in the long run it isn't worth it if you buy and sell much. I usually price about 10% below what the market value seems like because my time is worth more than a few bucks.

I pretty much only trade with established members with impeccable ratings and as Trek of Joy says, as a seller show lots of pictures and be clear and honest about the state of equipment and you'll maintain a good reputation there and have smooth transactions.

1 hour ago, Mark Romero 2 said:

Or... should I just convince my wife to use her Galaxy S7?

You probably won't have to convince her... don't be surprised if they come back with mostly S7 pics & vids regardless of what camera you send.

Might consider spending the $ to upgrade the phone vs. getting a camera.

The Yashica MLs are so cheap you should just buy them and test them yourself. The reviews seem good to very good so hopefully not a waste of time...

I assume none of you are black americans. it is the #1 show among black americans. with so much content available there has been a lot of segmentation, so you see a bunch of divergence by race among top shows. I remember years ago being struck by some nielsen data showing friends the top show among white viewers and close to the bottom for black viewers. strangely, friends is/was hugely popular in china.

EM1-X is 99% about appealing to sports and wildlife photographers. I don't think it has anything to do with video. I think they see an opportunity in high performance crop sensor cameras that Nikon kind of addressed with the D500 and Canon has abandoned since the mega selling 7D/7DII. Weather sealed, robust bodies, gripped to match big fast telephoto lenses, super high frame rates, etc. These photographers like crop cameras for increased reach and Canikon haven't really met their needs with their lame lineups of DX focused lenses. They are used to paying crazy amounts of money for glass (seen the price of a 400/2.8 or 600/4?) and so lots of money to chase there. Look at Panasonic 200/2.8, 100-400, the crazy expensive Fuji 200/2... all the crop manufacturers sense opportunity now that Sony/Canon/Nikon and maybe Panasonic are all focused on the FF battle.

I could be happy with a fast 35 or 40 f/1.4 forever...

Favorite lens is probably the FE 50/1.4 (too soon to say this one definitively) or VC 40/1.2 though I really liked the ZM Sonnar 50/1.5...

I have the lenses I want to own, but am curious about the Leica Noctilux or 50 APO but I would never spend that much on a lens...

None of the announced lenses would tempt me away from Sony. At this point the native FE mount lineup is the most appealing with a wide diversity of quality glass in the focal lengths I care about from Sony, Sony/Zeiss, Zeiss and Voigtlander and ability to adapt all kinds of great glass.

Ida is a beautiful movie. One of the few movies I've purchased. Each frame is a perfect picture.

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2018/03/veydra-cine-mini-prime-mtf-optical-bench-tests/

Lens Rentals is absolutely the best technical tester of lenses out there. Interesting article about why Roger decided to spend the time to test the Veydra cine primes despite him expecting poor performance and high variability like other low cost, off-brand photo or cine lenses, and what he discovered testing on an optical bench.

Turns out they perform very well with little copy to copy variance. Worth a read if you're curious about these lenses.

17 minutes ago, Inazuma said:

The Sony A7 has abysmal video quality. Worse than any Canon even. Stay away. 

Absolutely agree, horrible. I'm a rank amateur and just about every camera is better at video than I am. But A7 is horrible, worse than I am. So is A7II. Buy an A7S instead if you need Sony. At this price level I'd look elsewhere.

Thought this article on a Sky News cameraman using a GH5 based kit every day to create daily and feature news was fascinating... http://www.newsshooter.com/2018/01/26/sky-news-washington-cameraman-duncan-sharp-shooting-gh5/

6 hours ago, Matthew Hartman said:

Curious, which image to you prefer? 

Matthew, on GH5 vs. A7RIII image...

For stills: the A7RIII is vastly superior to me. But A7RIII does weird white balance stuff (same problem with A7/A7II/A7RII) - inconsistent and often wrong. GH5 stills quality is vastly improved over the GH4 and the ghastly GH3/2. The jpeg engine on the GH5 is really good and I often don't bother messing with RAW. And I found DR is much better on GH5 over GH4, files are much more malleable, especially on highlight retention. But shadows are cleaner too. But A7RIII stills just have a lot more latitude and I actually prefer Sony color (feels more natural, accurate) when white balance is right. I shot with Fuji X-Pro 2 and X-T2 and X100T for a while and those cameras are awesome at auto white balance. Colors are really pleasing, if not accurate.

For video:  I haven't shot the A7RIII much, just got it and I've had a bunch of opportunities to shoot stills but not video, so far. So nothing meaningful to add on video image quality. But clearly IBIS is not in the same league, that is immediately clear. 

The main reason I bailed on the A7RII was usability as a hybrid cam rather than stills or video image quality. The A7RIII is much, much better as a hybrid camera. Not as seamless as the GH5 in switching between roles as stills and video camera, but much closer to the GH5 than the A7RII. The other reason I prefer Sony is the access to a wonderful range of glass, especially the ability to use wider angle legacy and manual focus glass without crop factor. I recently picked up the Voigtlander 40/1.2 and am really enjoying that lens. I think the Oly 25/1.2 Pro is one of the best 50mm equiv lenses I've ever used, for any platform (it really is all about the glass), but that is still like a 50/2.4 from DoF perspective, so somewhat limited in what you can do.

1 hour ago, jonpais said:

Top 5 issues for video shooters:

https://youtu.be/Qu7EV3KEfVA

Thanks for pointing to this Jon... maybe Sony will listen to him. Totally agree on the 5 video criticisms. Esp. the file numbering convention - it is idiotic and creates confusion and adds a bunch of extra work.

I'm running both a GH5 and A7R3 and evaluating the later as I want to switch to a single system solution, but stupid things like this that could easily be dealt with in firmware make me want to stick with the GH5, which I find a pleasure to use. Trying to decide which set of tradeoffs I want to make... pretty sure I'll just deal with the A7R3 as I do 80% stills, it is way better than the A7R2 for video (with ability to customize buttons for stills or video, and a bunch more parameters in the custom settings banks). Crazily, I'm doing an a/b with lenses and the good glass isn't really that much bigger on Sony side under 100mm where I do 99% of my stills & video shooting.

19 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

To be fair, Sony 24-70mm F2.8 GM is a brick as well

24-70 F4 on the other hand... tiny. But is it any good? Anyone used it?

I had 24-70/4 and GM with A7RII...

Tons of quality detailed reviews on glass (from photo perspective) over on Fredmiranda.com.

24-70/4 is good in the middle of the range, corners never get sharp in corners, weak at end points of the zoom. Color and contrast generally regarded OK though I didn't care for them - the image often seemed very flat. Would sometimes get a nice image, but didn't consistently deliver pleasing images (unlike the 24-70 and the better FE/Batis/Loxia primes).

There is a bunch of testing that Fred Miranda has done on the new 24-105 and that is shaping up to be a fantastic zoom... outperforms the 24-70 at the long end, really sharp throughout the range. Validated by a bunch of other photographers with the lens on the same forum. There is likely a reason it is sold out everywhere. Sounds intriguing if you don't need the f/2.8.

I like Amos Chapple (http://www.amoschapplephoto.com/) because (1) he shoots cheap, small m4/3 equipment (smaller bodies, some of the consumer glass) and  still seems to have great results, (2) his stories are very, very interesting and unusual, (3) he goes places I'd never go, (4) his images seem fresh, much of it is content I've never seen before.

Sigma 18-35 1.8 Canon or Nikon w/ the USB dock for $599, from an authorized USA dealer (buydig) on eBay with USA warranty for those in the US.

2 hours ago, jonpais said:

But this is not exactly the same. Panasonic is passing off lenses like the 12mm as designed by Leica for Panasonic. That is, if the lens was in fact designed by Sigma. 

I think Panasonic has detailed the relationship in various interviews... If I recall correctly, the lenses are designed and built by Panasonic (or some licensor like Sigma), but they are reviewed by Leica through product development and approved by Leica before commercialization. It is basically a licensing agreement with some oversight by Leica to ensure their brand isn't diluted by Panasonic. Really just a marketing move by Panasonic to differentiate their premium brand requiring royalties to Leica and a dash of Leica engineering input to give it credibility and maybe some actual improvement in the lenses over what Panasonic engineering could do solo.

Goes both ways... the Leica Q feels like a Panasonic camera, so they probably had a bunch of input and further, I'd guess they designed and built much of it. It makes me wish Panasonic would build a FF camera... a FF GH5 with a short flange lens mount would be awesome.

All these Leica, Zeiss, Schneider, etc. branded mobile camera lens modules are probably the same kind of marketing / licensing arrangements.