Juank

Recently saw a second hand Sony ZV-E1 on a local online market place. Price was good and I bought it. Great video camera but lacks EVF. Same is true for it's pro oriented brother FX3.
Typically those type of cameras are used with external monitor on professional shoots or with camera LCD display only when vlogging. If you like EVFs and want to add one,  choice is not great. No external add-on EVF from Sony like the one Sigma FP has. Portkeys LEYE III modified with better loupe is the cheapest one at 450-500 E/$ but I wouldn't call it small. Then Kinefinity EVF for 1250 E/$. Great one but definitely not affordable. There is an obvious gap and need for a relatively small, high quality, affordable external EVFs for cinema / hybrid cameras.
I was looking for quite some time on AliExpress for Mini OLED displays (0.39'' to 0.7'') as a building blocks for DIY External EVF. Usually they come with controller board with HDMI input too. Almost bought some components preparing to do some 3D design and printing around them. Surprisingly found an EVF ready to be used. This type of EVFs were designed to be used with industrial instruments and were on AliExpress for quite some time. They all had lower resolution and AV video inputs in the past. For the first time saw one with 1920x1080 resolution on a 0.7'' mini OLED display and HDMI input. Also for the first time this type of EVFs is targeted toward cameras. Price was good too at 230E/$ so I decided to give it a try.
Received the EVF few days ago and am happy to report that it is better than expected. Here is the list of things that I like and few that I don't like:
What I Like:
High resolution 1920x1080 ( equivalent to 6 220 800 dot camera EVF).  Cameras EVFs have 4:3 ratio to cover 3:2 frame + some black strips on top and bottom to display information like exposure and other camera settings. The sensor on this one has 16:9 aspect ratio. To get 3:2 ratio the EVF crops the image to 1620x1080. Still great resolution at the level of ~5 mln dots EVFs like the one in Panasonic S1 series. I see in the EVF exactly what I see on the LCD screen of Sony ZV-E1 minus peaking. This is a rather good thing. Solid, all metal outer shell, good, even great quality of craftsmanship. Eye cup is big, made from rubber and fits around the eye much better than traditional camera EVFs. Big and bright screen - has at least 10 levels of brightness that can be changed and controlled manually. Picture inside looks big and bright, quite easy to see. Smooth focusing / diopter correction ring. HDMI cable is integrated, ready to be plugged into a camera. HDMI cable looks to have good quality. No need of additional power or battery. It gets small amount of power (500mA) from HDMI. This is a huge plus for me. Has mounting thread, can easily be mounted on rigs or cages or even on camera hot shoe. Can be tilted  and placed in any position you want. Another huge plus. I've simply put it on monitor holder for hot shoe, which is mounted on the camera cage. EVF sits higher and is slightly tilted. It also provides 3rd point of contact and add stability. I am able to hold the camera lower and closer to the chest, which makes it more stable when shooting.  Optimal size for me ! Not too small and not too big. Relatively light. Another huge plus. Optics made of glass, look high quality. Great price for what it offers - 200 Euro ($) including shipping and taxes after some Aliexpress discount. Because EVF receives its power from HDMI you don't have to switch it on separately. It has its own ON/OFF switch but if you stop the camera, EVF stops too as it doesn't receive power from HDMI. This is very convenient because it semi integrates with the camera, you don't have to switch it on/off separately.
What could be better:
While loupe (optics) craftsmanship is high quality, optical schema is probably not the best. Seeing tower end of the frame and in the corners is kind of difficult. In photo mode EVF has to show picture with 3:2 ratio. It crops the display at 1620x1080 to achieve this ratio. Same is true for video. This is great because this way corners of the OLED display are always cropped and dark while picture in the EVF is still high quality and resolution is still great too. So you always look at a picture which is in focus from end to end and you can see the whole of it. Brightness control  has many steps but goes only in one direction. Adjusting it when you want to make picture darker or go at the opposite direction is difficult. You have to cycle trough all settings value until arriving before the setting you were a moment ago. Brightness control button is too small and uncomfortable to use. Both are not huge issues because eye cup completely isolates your eye and cuts external light at almost 100%. Once you set the brightness level you rarely need to adjust it. It doesn't have the additional tools a pro external viewfinder usually has - like peaking, False color, zebras, etc. Because it takes power from camera and becomes additional consumer, battery is drained a little faster. Hard to say how much faster. I still prefer this compared to EVF that have their own battery. Picture is not as clear as in a high quality camera viewfinder. Native camera EVF receives video stream that already has noise reduced. Image on HDMI out from the camera is more like RAW video, lots of noise in the shadows at high ISO, some noise even at lower ISO. I guess the same would be with any external EVF, even expensive PRO ones. It's not EVF's fault. I also see sometimes some texture like noise, not sure because of this particular OLED display or because of the HDMI out stream. Overall picture quality is not up to what you see in a camera integrated EVF but it is close. Surprisingly noise in the shadows helps me better judge exposure and use successfully ETTR. I live in a PAL region but camera was set to NTSC to have 24fps. There was a lot of flicker in EVF image even when only natural (sun) light was available. Maybe this can be avoided with some additional camera settings. No such problem when camera is set to PAL and 25fps. Sometimes when adjusting brightness, EVF looses sync and doesn't display any image. Have to switch camera on/off one time and problem is resolved. Not a big deal but it happened once or twice. HDMI cable is integrated. A PRO EVF has just HDMI out socket and you can choose your own HDMI cable. This one can be easily modified IMHO.   Size: L=~50mm; Diameter ~43mm; weight 188g with the integrated HDMI cable

Overall I like it a lot. There is nothing like it on the market and especially at this price point. I am surprised it took Chinese manufactures so long to figure out that a good market for external EVFs exists. I prefer it over modified Portkey LEYE III because of the smaller size and no need to plug and charge another battery. I may buy another one. 🙂 Now my Sony ZV-E1 has an EVF and a great one too. 🙂 
Here is the link:
On Aliexpress
You can find it on ebay too. Search for V780H EVF
Here how it sits on top of Sony ZV-E1

Pre-tarrifs and recent inflation up-tick, I was wondering how sustainable $7000 was for a flagship mirrorless camera, or $3200+tax for a mid-range camera like the S1 II ($4k with kit lens), and now we have the first joke camera with bad AF for $850 thanks to Fujifilm.
https://www.eoshd.com/news/camera-prices-have-the-japanese-taken-leave-of-their-senses/
Now we're about to add more inflation and tarrifs to these numbers, so it's possible that by the end of the year a new mid-range full frame camera will be released to the market for over $4500, and that the Sony a1 III might cost $9000.
At what point does the line get crossed for you guys, when will you stop buying?

Like I said these idiotic tariffs are causing the market to act as a cartel.
Capitalism is all about competition so if one company faces higher costs, and the others don't, then that company suffers and the rest can keep their prices low.
If all companies are forced to up-their prices, it sets a new expectation for the entire market for costs, and nobody loses as the consumer can't simply turn to a company with lower prices when they are all subject to the same market forces.
So even if the prices go up in the US, that gives the camera companies the perfect excuse to do the dirty on the UK and Europe as well.

Ouch
LensSEL24F28G
$599.99
$799.99
33.3%
LensSEL50F18/B
$349.99
$449.99
28.6%
LensSEL50F18/S
$349.99
$449.99
28.6%
When is a cheap lens no longer a cheap lens!
The irony is this will only benefit the CHINESE lens makers!!

Maybe the Arri/Panasonic relationship is more than just the LogC thing, maybe they're sharing costs/tech at OnSemi.

I think it's OnSemi.
They are ARRI's partner on the new ALEXA sensor.
TowerJazz had / have a joint venture with Panasonic, but OnSemi make the more up-to-date sensor tech and there are quite a few parallels between the ALEXA sensor readout tech and latest Panasonic cameras.
In 2022 Panasonic exited the semiconductors business and sold all the assets. The organic sensor project is official dead, but it allowed them to partner with more than just Sony for sensors.

I feel for them a little bit.
Full-frame mirrorless camera with a 24.1MP partially stacked CMOS sensor Powered by a Venus Engine for fast processing, refined colour and low noise Over 15 stops of dynamic range with Dual Native ISO support 1.6x faster Phase Hybrid AF system with 779 focus points and AI tracking Records uncropped 5.1K open gate video at up to 60p and 6K at 30p Supports 5.9K 60p and 5.8K Apple ProRes internal recording via CFexpress C4K and 4K video recording up to 120p in 10-bit for high frame rate capture 10-bit HEIF captures rich tonal detail, smaller file sizes and HDR-ready stills Real-time LUT preview and false colour for on-set monitoring Features 8-stop in-body image stabilisation without crop 32-bit float audio recording achieved via optional XLR adapter Dual card slots with CFexpress Type B and SD UHS-II support Supports direct USB-SSD recording for high bitrate capture and fast offloading Compatible with UltraSync BLUE for wireless Bluetooth timecode sync Blackout-free electronic burst shooting up to 70fps for fast action capture Tilt and vari-angle 3.0-inch LCD with 1.84M-dot resolution 5.76M-dot OLED EVF with 100% frame coverage and high refresh rate Dust and splash-resistant body, weighing only 800g Includes a 3-month Capture One licence in the box After producing something with that spec, they're entitled to be a bit like..

By the same token, we are probably entitled to say "we might have been a couple of years ago and if it was cheaper".
I've said it before but the S5ii continues to be Panasonic's problem child in that it raised expectation for the 2nd generation of cameras and at a price that was pretty surprising.
That camera got the upgraders from Panasonic's MFT cameras (myself included) and this new one is asking the question "2x the price, 2x the camera?" for both the holdouts of to the MFT system and those who already moved up to the S5ii and are looking to go up again.
I think it probably is 2x the camera for some people but I can't see anyone who isn't in the L mount prison (and that is what L mount is) walking into a shop and paying 50% more for it over the Z6iii let alone paying the 10% more than a lightly used Z8.
Hard reality is that they are not Nikon, Canon or even Sony and they're going to struggle with flagship cameras.
Annoyingly for them, they can create the cameras that will attract a premium price technology wise and produce a fine image as they've been doing it for years with Leica branded versions but, again, when it comes to the other type of image they aren't Leica.
They have the opportunity to do a FujiFilm and offer an alternative but they've left them to it to pursue two companies that absolutely out heritage them and another company that  they are at the mercy of when it comes to sensors.
This will all end with someone at corporate HQ dispassionately looking at the Lumix division and striking a red pen through it.
Exactly like what happened to Samsung.
Cameras that I think they could look at doing to offer some difference would be :
New GX80 with the bulk of the GH7 inside or at the very least the GH5 and then not charge a stupid amount of money for it  as it should be possible for sub £1000.
A Super35 bridge camera with a 7x or even 5x zoom, no compromise video internals, ND and then not charge a stupid amount of money for it  as it should be possible for sub £2000.  Essentially a grown up version of the FZ2000.
I'd buy either of those and I don't think I'd be alone.
Currently, Lumix are like the smart, quirky indie girl that you fell in love with and now ten years later she's got hair extensions, fake tits, a trout pout and two ton of fillers because she wants to be a Kardashian.
 
 
 
 

Funnily enough, a former client from 2014 contacted me today to say that she had 'lost' her wedding video and did I still have it?
After I stopped laughing, I thought hang on, it is probably still on Vimeo. And it was.
I thought it would look so dated and be an utter cringe-fest, but actually it wasn't and I was a bit surprised.
It was shot on the GH3.

I have one on the way after looking at the image samples here:
https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_14_ultra-review-2683p5.php
The 75mm F1.8 lens in particular...



Like some of the famous Zeiss Distagons it has a floating element to get close.
With such a fast aperture in combination with the close-focussing abilities make it look incredible.
The 14 Ultra in fact has two such lenses, a 75mm and 120mm.
And the main imager is 1"
Which also in the close-to-mid focus range has a very shallow DOF.

I have lighted tweaked that last one in Pixelmator Pro, the JPEGs have a surprising amount of chonkiness to play with.
Then there's the RAW capabilities...
With Motion Cam Pro there's the RAW Cinema DNG recording.
Within Xiaomi's own camera app is the expert RAW mode for stills, with Leica's colour tuning.
This allows you to completely turn off any noise reduction and sharpening... one of the main caveats of modern smartphones.
I think at £600 used this is the real deal.
The 15 Ultra doesn't change things very much, indeed to go any better would require a big leap.
We're talking at least Micro Four Thirds size sensor instead of 1", and F1.4 maximum aperture.
And to make this pocketable is going to require a lot of physics bending.
There are some other options like the Oppo Find 7 Ultra, and Vivo X100 Pro which have a large 1/1.4" sensor on the telephoto lens, 200MP.
But the lens quality itself is a bit compromised as a result.
The Vivo X100 Pro has the Zeiss modes, Zeiss lens simulations, even RAW video built into the main camera app I believe.
But I find Xiaomi's image processing with Leica to be the best of the bunch.
Looking forward to when it turns up from CEX this weekend with the photography kit which gives it ability to use filters and a proper shutter release button!
I think for street photography requiring stealth, 3 lenses in one pocket and very high speed, this is a better choice than a proper camera, X100 VI or Leica Q. The ultimate shot getter?

Have the older Xiaomi 13 Ultra for almost 2 years. Same sensors and lenses except 75mm telephoto one is 62mm in reality.  My idea was to use it as a pocket video / cinema camera that is all the time with me. And also as my main and only camera on some trips where I don't want to bring additional photo / video equipment.
Still use it from time to time but not as much as thought would be using it. It has many limitations that make getting good footage difficult and ruin as a whole the joy to shoot.
Maybe as a photo camera it would be better
The good:
    Picture and video quality from main sensor is really good. Can be treated as BM BRAW video in Resolve. Can easily color grade it and get great results. Really impressive picture quality from a smartphone and tiny camera that is always in my pocket     Main 1 inch sensor (23mm) lens is good in low light     All 4 sensors/lenses are capable of shooting RAW video at 4K 24fps, 30fps and 60fps     As you said, those smartphones have standard case that makes attaching ND filters really easy. I use 67mm magnetic ND filters and they work like a charm. The not so good or the shortcomings and limitations
    Lens optical IS should be working in MotionCam but in practice I can't get stable handled footage by just using the phone with a simple plastic case for the filters. Gimbal or special metal case with  two handles are needed which totally kills the idea of pocket cinema camera for me. This was not the case with iPhone which I could use and get stable handheld footage by simply holding it and even when walking with no additional support.     Main sensor is good in low light but the other (three) 1/2'' inch sensors are not.     Multiple dot like flares when shooting at night. This is common problem with all smartphones including iPhone. Because of the lenses being so small at night when there are multiple light sources on some occasions you can get multiple small bright dots dancing in your frame. It can completely ruin the footage.     Limited lens focal lengths. My preferred focal length for video are 35mm and 50mm. Xiaomi best sensor is on the 23mm lens. MotionCam can't crop the sensor. It can't even properly frame to 35mm or any given focal length other than native one. Can zoom in the screen which is also the viewfinder but there is no indicators to which focal length it corresponds. Video still will be shot at 23mm and I have to crop in post to get 35mm or 28mm eqv. focal length field of view     Bad ergonomics.  Yes I can get the shots but there is no joy in the process.     While picture quality is impressive for a smartphone it can't match a Full Frame sensor or even APS-C sensor. As you said it can't bend the law of physics     I need to look from time to time trough a viewfinder. Old habit and addiction that I can't overcome. 🙂 Bottom line: I still prefer a hybrid camera and a lens and I don't use much Xiaomi 13 Ultra as camera.
Watched a video about street photography where the author argued that having a tilting screen and shooting from waist  level is the best if we want to take stealth photos where people don't stare at the camera. We can even keep interacting and talking with the people while shooting. This would be impossible with a smartphone.
Anyway this is my experience, hope it will work better for you.

Defocus Test:  1+8 pro with Vega20mm @f2 wide open  (78mm FF equivalent) Vs canon 5D3 with Lomo 75mm @f4

1+8 pro with Helios 58mm on a steady tripod, 226mm FF equivalent.

Nice shots.
With the telephoto modules on the 14 Ultra they benefit from 3 things:
- Computational side
- Fast apertures
- Very close minimum focus distances

As a result, especially at the closer focus distances the small sensor look disappears.
The apertures are fast at F1.8 and F2.4 which for long lenses is impressive especially as they are the size of postage stamps in your pocket.
The computation side has also taken a huge leap.

On the main sensor there's so much more depth information and a shallower DOF to begin with which helps the bokeh simulation to be much more convincing.
On this shot of the car it has just embellished a bit the background separation which was already there at 1", F1.63.
It really is an extraordinary shot getter in every way.
Fast, tiny, wide range of Leica modes and you can create so many different styles of shot in a couple of seconds with a few swipes.
It is the moment for me when I realise that traditional mirrorless cameras and especially the lenses aren't long for this world.

LX10 in photo raw is very nice. If it had 10bit HLG for video, it would be a perfect pocket camera, even moreso with an evf. I don't enjoy slippery phones for taking images, billions of people do though. I love the 24 to 70 F1.4-2.8 zoom on the LX btw. A 24 to 50 zoom coupled with a 1 or 1/1.5" sensor would be nice and a mechanical focus wheel as well. Afaik only a few phones offer the latter. Is that right?
Are these your shots? @Andrew Reid
Nice images and colours. @Cosimo   Colors remind me of GH2 palette when in use of skilled hands. Old school digi vintage look by oldschool 8bit masters like Martin Walgren or Andrew Reid.:) That reminds me how much of imagelovers GH2 users were when creating their pieces. I barely find any good stuff shot on recent cameras. The destruction of vimeo didn't help that I guess.
 

Hi Andrew exciting to see you have the x14u as well! I've started writing a Xiaomi 14 Ultra mod guide to maximize its MotionCam Raw Video potential. It's far from complete yet (still many questions unanswered xD) so all input is welcome 🙂. P.S. I've been reading your blog posts since forever and read new articles the same day they're posted. But I don't look in the forums that much, found this thread by coincidence. Would love to one day read a full blog post, featured on the front page, about your experience and experiments with the x14u! 😁

Nice work @Jip-Hop
I was working a few years ago with MotionCam devs on the Discord, really nice guys. The app has come on a lot since then. So much to get into.
I tested around 30 or 40 phones with it at one point. Personal favourites were the 6K capable Moto Edge+ (2020 version) with large 1/1.33" Samsung sensor, similar to Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro, both really cheap phones now on eBay, and the Oneplus 8 Pro did well with it too, 4K/60p and the dev's favourite... For a month or so I became completely obsessed with discovering the hidden raw video talents of telephones... Went round Berlin's Saturn stores and installed it on a few models there too 🙂
I had the RED Hydrogen to play with too, but that one's a bit old to support it.
Xiaomi 14 Ultra is a perfect tool for it, but yes the guide is much needed to get the settings optimised for it.
If you wanna collab on anything just DM me!

Not cinematic enough.  I fixed it for you.  Now that's cinematic.

I'm not really seeing any difference between any of them; S5, S1H, S5ii.
Yes there are some very subtle differences such as that from the S1H is a teeny weeny bit softer due to the OLPF, but otherwise, nothing for me.
There's some chatter about over-sharpening. I don't see it.
There's some chatter about moire. I'm not seeing that either.
Highlight roll off and blah di blah, - what are we shooting here with these things? Are we really comparing the results from our humble mirrorless cameras with Hollywood lighting, productions, lenses and budgets? I'm not, - to be even remotely in the ball park is hilariously ridiculous.
Here's a screen grab from my S9 which is my principal run & gun unit, from last weekends wedding I am currently editing.
A pretty dark hole of a room for bride prep and unless anywhere near that window, then screwed. It's SOOC and not touched it in any way; exposure, WB...nuffink. 6k 30p shot at 1/50th, 4000 iso, 5000 WB, Freewell ND 2-5, exposure otherwise eyeballed on the rear LCD with the wave form I rarely look at.

Easily doable even with the Z mount, but I doubt Nikon goes so big. So far, nobody among Japanese camera makers have implemeted 5 inch display into their morrorless bodies. Its like a taboo over there. Maybe because they think it ruins the ergonomics of the body.

What I would like is:
A. The frame markers and 6k 30p open gate (preferably 50/60p) from Lumix, plus,
B. Ability to burn in RED luts, plus, 
C. Zf or e Mount, I don't mind which as all my e Mount lenses mount near natively to Zf mount, plus,
D. FX3/30 style body.
Ability to shoot stills not required, but if it can, fair enough.
Mechanical shutter optional, - I don't care either way.
No EVF, don't care.
Must have good IBIS.
Must be relatively compact and not require any rigging out, ie, primarily, a really decent flip and rotate screen a la A7RV/S1H/S1Rii.
Could be a Nikon Zr...
Could be a Sony FX2...
Unlikely to be anything Lumix because the lens options are still just a bit lacking for me.

https://www.eoshd.com/news/what-to-expect-from-nikons-first-red-mirrorless-camera-the-nikon-zr/
Finally a larger than 3.5" screen on a mirrorless camera? Sign me up
If they bring the RED Motion Mount technology to it, then sign me up for 2!

from Nikon Rumors:
Brick-shaped, video-oriented design, without pentaprism and EVF – a combination of the current RED models design, the Sony FX3, and the Nikon Z30
Many features and tech from RED will be incorporated inside (not a new RED camera with Z-mount – we already got that)
Z6 III sensor inside
Very large LCD screen
The official announcement is expected later this year, most likely in the third or fourth quarter of 2025
 
I don't know what Frankenstein of a brick body would be the combination of RED/FX3/Z30, but "very large" LCD gives hope its a bit different from whats already available in the market.

Can you say all of that again in one of Camera Conspiracies 'flashback' skits please.
Whilst wearing a blonde wig.
Money waiting if you put it on YouTube.

If I were the modern day Chris and Jordan in a camera store somewhere I would try and explain it like this...
Buy the S5 II as it's cheapest, unless you need a few extra video features, which I'll explain in a moment. But if you're a photographer it's an easy choice, definitely S5 II best and cheapest. Unless you compare it to the Canon R8, Nikon Z6 II, Sony a7c, or wait actually I forgot the S9... That is the cheapest for photographers, except not if you are a photographer that needs to look through an EVF or wants a mechanical shutter. I'll explain what that does in a moment. But first, you say you're actually quite interested in video, so I'd recommend the S1 IIE instead, as the S5 II is already made obsolete by it, so pay the extra for the E version and you will get... erm... An E on the badge. Also are you sure you don't want to go all the way out to $3500 for the S1 II, yes that is $1000 more than a Z6 III for the same sensor and no N-RAW, worse body design, but it is the best Panasonic... for video... I think... At least for a month or 2 before the S1H II might come out, or it might not... Oh shit, we're forgetting the S1R II. That does 8K open gate now, they just gave it a firmware update. Hey, Johnny where're you're going... Come back Johnny! HEY! STAY AWAY FROM THAT CANON EOS R5 II FFS!

They must have needed to buy that 24 megapixel sensor in such large quantities, the 7 different models were a necessity.
And by the time the year is out, it might turn into 10!