karin

Forums were toxic as hell. But their Comparison Tool helped me a lot.

But Amazon have almost infinity storage. They could keep the site open as an archive.

(but probably they won´t because will remember everyone that they killed it)

Wow! I guess site founder Phil Askey got out at the right time. His Insta profile describes him as "now travelling and eating around the world". Here's a recent interview with him.
https://www.dpreview.com/interviews/5323285840/phil-askey-founders-interview
The comments towards the end are a little ironic now
"Amazon are giving the site everything it needs to continue to be the leading voice for everything photography related."
...until they pull the plug! The forums will be gone. I still have esoteric questions that a dpreview thread will answer. Are FB groups where it's at nowadays? They suck because they're insular, hard to read, and search. 
I imagine in the future, when these words are also gone, I'll be telling my kids "once upon a time there were internet boards and forums".
 

I know everyone wasn't a fan, but one less camera media outlet is not good. Such are the risks when you sell your site to a larger company that only cares about the bottom line, I guess. Not good news for the community as a whole, and really unfortunate for all those who are losing their jobs.

https://www.dpreview.com/news/5901145460/dpreview-com-to-close

I’m not sure that really matters. What we really should fear is when humanity is bereft of the ability to distinguish between propaganda - irrespective of the source - and useful, factual information.
And, possibly worse, lacking in any apparent desire to be able to differentiate between the two.

It's learning...

Might sell them my 1D C first.

This was the answer when I asked again after training it!

🙂
It is interesting in that it won't write a naughty poem about Trump, but it will write all this about me.
Some "fine tuning" needed?!!

So, I asked it the same questions about you being involved in controversies, hoping that maybe you calling it a lying prick might have had some effect.
And...well.

So, it seems to have dropped the 1DC theft allegation but when pressed further for other controversies, it replied with this..

So you are apparently a fraudster, a racist and a sex pest.
I honestly don't know where you get the time 😉 
Pressed further for sources, it came up with the same bogus link shit.

I then asked it what role EOSHD had in the R5 controversy and it came back with a decent summation.

When pressed further though about whether an app was created in pursuit of the testing, it confirmed it was but then went off into fantasy land about what it did and it being sold on here 

I've got to say that this is horrendous.
It blatantly makes stuff up about someone then when the subject of those accusations corrects the record (which should make it smarter) it then immediately pivots and starts making up totally different shit about them.
Who the fuck is this "intelligence" actually modelled on?
Boris Johnson by the looks of it.
The 2020 allegation is interesting as it clearly just randomly tying anything controversial in the camera industry with you as I think we can both guess what that one is about based on a recent settlement.
I'm surprised it didn't blame you for the M8 sensor debacle...
"Reid is well known for pouring cold water on camera manufacturer's hype and it is believed that the sensors in the Leica M8  began to rust due to this ingress of liquid from Reid."
 
 
 

It's kind of like the old-school difference between "broadcaster" and "filmmaker".  Aspects of both crafts can often be interchangeable and muddied, but there's a philosophical difference between the two.
'Broadcasting' the States has most often been about making quick, often shitty, content.  News, game shows, talk shows, soap operas --just constant stuff stuff stuff.
A lot of that is now being built on independent folks, rather than organized broadcasting business entities, but it's still the same low-effort-with-the-narrrative content.
Decent filmmmakiing is considered and slow.  There's typically a serious effort to infuse some story telling art into it.  
Churning out content... eh, there's some of that, but not so much.
 

On a side note, I never liked the term "creator" from the start. It's pretentious. 
No matter how awesome a video I make is, I didn't cReAte anything. I captured something that God created, and edited it into something cool. I produced something, but I didn't create shit.
Imagine an architect looking at a building he/she designed and declaring: "I created this". 
But it makes people who make a basic-ass video or reel feel good and important, so that's one of the reasons it's so popular IMO.
/rant.

I read a few days ago that Sony changed the Imaging Edge app to Creators app, and that then connects to the Creators Cloud. Very creative indeed. It's been happening for some time but only now feels like it's happening all at once.
 
It has certainly become a calling card of younger millennials and older gen z to present themselves as "multi-disciplined". One can't just be a photographer anymore, but a photographer, videographer, model, talent agent, etc. It's not just social media in the creative sector of the economy that has ruined us but work culture in general. In a capitalist dominant world where the few with resources ensure that the many without resources know that they are replaceable, what other outcome could you expect. Make yourself irreplaceable and you'll prosper, right?
 
Regarding older millennials, like myself, and younger gen z I believe; millennials have grown tired of busting their ass to chase a carrot they'll never eat and gen z have seen enough from the older generations to know that the hustle is a fruitless effort. This is all coming from mine own American perspective. I know this forum spans many cultures and generations. If you embrace the hustle, more power to you and I wish you the best.
 
As far as the "good-enough-is-good-enough" goes in the creative world, It has simply become an esthetic for the younger population and of course corporate number crunchers will happily follow suit. The current state of the arts and creative commerce tells us all we need to know. Vinyl records are outselling cds. Music is being made made in Garage Band with cheap instruments and microphones. More people will watch a Tik-Tok video that took 15 minutes to make than will watch a properly produced motion picture that took 3 years and thousands of man-hours to make. Polaroid and other film technologies are being embraced once again. As well, early digital camera technology is exploding on the secondhand market. Look at the success of the horror movie Skinamarink (2022). It was shot with an FX-6 but it looks like absolute shit . The lo-fi look is where it's at right now. Why is that? I definitely have thoughts on the subject, but I'll save everyone's eyes from continuing this rant.
 
 

Sad but true..after 23 years in the business, we are too tired to compete again for the bottom!
I have these conversations all the time the last couple of years.
The energy and time to "educate" the customer is so tiring right now, and usually they have a photo or video on their phone which is good enough for them and their social media "campaign", or after a couple of meetings and a half a dozen phone calls everything concludes "just do some drone shots"!
No, thank you.. 

The gig economy is the future economy.  As a freelancer my whole life I ironically find it kinda sad, actually.  It's yet another corporate race to the bottom.

My vote is to formally change the term ‘creator’ to that of ‘shitter’ from this point onwards.
But being serious for a moment and playing devils advocate, I think there is room…a need even, for ‘content creators’ alongside the more traditional titles of photographer, videographer, filmmaker etc.
Ultimately, we are defined by what we do/produce rather than the titles we give ourselves. 
Now I do have 2 creators that need to go for their morning walk in the woods… 

When our music turns rubbish and our language ugly we know there's trouble ahead. Filmmakers and photographers seem to be on the way out, to be replaced by something altogether more homogenous - the "content creator" or simply "creator". Why specialise when you can just "create stuff"?
New blog post:
https://www.eoshd.com/news/creator-replaces-filmmaker-meet-thy-creator

I think the one thing we can unanimously agree upon is that Fuji makes the best looking hybrid bodies by a significant margin. They’ve had the “vintage manual dial” look locked up for some time, but honestly, this “neo/modern” style they’ve worked out is a straight work of art.

I've posted the trailer & BTS here earlier, here is the official page: Short film "AION" Trailer by Giulio Meliani
Shot in ProRes HQ F-Log2 with the MK 18-55mm & Fujinon 19-90mm Cabrio Cinema Zoom.
 
A7S3/FX3 are solid all-rounders but the shooting experience still lacks. 
R5C has it all except IBIS with internal RAW, 8K and full video assist tools, shutter angle, LUT import etc.
XH2S is interesting as for $2500 you get 6K/4K120p, ProRes, Open Gate. Great DR & minimal RS.
I do wish the video mode would have proper exposure tools, shutter angle, LUT support.
That's still what a lot of these hybrids are missing. Only Panasonic & R5C seem to get it.

The footage looks damned good to me. Stacked sensor seems like the move. A GFX with a stacked sensor will be great. For filmmaking the XH2s looks like it will be a little monster.

The video features of the camera, specially codec-related, really drawn the attention to the video sid of it, but I'm interested (for curiosity and prossible trickled down the line - I'm a midrange body guy) to see more tests of the stills performance. Ok, the supposed "stills centric" camera would be the next X-H2 non-S, with 40mp, but this is the wildflfe / sports model (the 40mp model reportedly will not have a stacked sensor). The dedicated grip with MIMO WiFi and Ethernet reinforces that. The buffer sizes are amazing, the fps rates too, but the AF performance is crucial in this scenarios.

Did not saw a really dedicated anamorphic mode (the open gate was cited as an option for multiple crops), but probably we will see it in a future firmware update. Anamorphic is getting attention, lots of newer lenses, probaly will be implemented, with more video tools too, like a waveform viewer.

About AF and IBIS performance...already a bunch of reviews from smaller reviewers praising it (it becomes norm from ALL manufacturers). I would wait for a production version and more "calm" reviews. For now, albeit they are kind of hated here, I'm more in the camps of Chris & Jordan in their review - AF is better but still not on par with Sony and Canon, and IBIS for video looks the same of the X-T4. But the firmware is not final (almost all reviewers got bugs, even locking the cameras and needing battery removal), better wait the production version.

I think that Fuji need to snatch someone from Sony / OM Digital / Canon that have a video focus approach - I always have the impression that thay use the same "logic" for AF and IBIS for both stills and video, and they are different animals. In stills, AF needs absolute precision and IBIS need a stable fram at all costs. For video, AF precision is desirable, but between a slight unprecise focus point is preferrable than a hunting image to achieve focus perfection - is better a single movement to a point a (very) little out of focus than pulsing. And IBIS must priorize smooth movement that a fast movement to stabilize - better drift than jump. Both AF and IBIS must have different logic for video and stills.

Would love to see a shootout between the GH6 and the X-H2s. I am guessing for pure image quality it would win by a whisker, and for autofocus it would be much better (maybe not great though). For everything else (stabilization, high speed, low light etc, they would be closely matched).
Did anyone figure who Panasonic got the sensor from? And why it's so lousy in non dynamic range boost mode? 

ProRes internal is great momentum going forward. Seems like more and more companies are adding it.
IBIS looks like it is not the best even just static hand holding. Not sure what is going on there.
I've seen a lot of people complain about CF Express being expensive in reviews. You can get a Angelbird 512GB card that will handle 8K for $179. Prograde 256GB SD card is 62% more expensive for half the space.
Prograde 256 SD   = $1.12/GB
Angelbird 512 CFX = 0.34/GB
Angelbird 1TB CFX = 0.48/GB
Angelbird 2TB CFX = 0.48/GB
Angelbird 4TB CFX = 0.45/GB

Was interesting seeing Gerald show how to squeeze out 14+ stops with the NR off and doing it in post though. Not seen those sort of numbers on mirrorless before
Props for Fuji using full size hdmi too

I will never understand why more companies haven't done more power zooms. That lens sounds like a killer, even if it is a little bit on the slow side. Well worth it for a versatile lens that can do all of that.
I kind of agree, but also kinda just wish they'd build a fan straight into the camera. I get why they didn't, and I get that for MOST uses it will not be required, but it's just hard to get behind the idea of having to buy an external fan accessory to help with overheating.
They are getting SO CLOSE, but I agree. There are just enough quirks still that make it hard to jump into the Fuji system. The big thing for me is they need updated lenses that can handle changes in exposure better. This new lens is definitely incredible, but what they've got out there right now aren't too good in this regard. That's a dealbreaker for me. The IBIS also doesn't look very good at all in video and seems more geared towards stills. My sports work needs good stabilization, because the cameras are so lightweight and small (+1 for the old heavy camcorders of yesteryear not needing stabilization because of how big and heavy they were!)
I love those Fuji colors so much though! I look forward to trying it anyway!