TrueIndigo

Thanks for the kind words, John. I remember an old friend of mine, who is a very experienced DP, once said - with regard to "unmotivated camera movement" - that you "shouldn't move without a reason". For the purpose of the camera test I just enjoyed finding the CinemaScope compositions and letting the action (a very busy location) move within the frame instead. I now have a GH5 and a S5, but my use of IBIS is still very modest - it's more useful to me to simply iron out the micro jitters in my hands than to try to emulate a gimble.

I still have my G7 -- I got rid of my GH1, nice though it was back in the day, but kept this little camera; the simplicity of using it remains an attraction. This was my first camera test with it:

In recent years I have tended to go see films mid day, and that usually means it's just me and about seven other people, politely watching silently in the dark (even when it's a comedy, there's usually no laughing -- we're British). But many years ago I remember a full house group connection I have never experienced before, when the audience was at one with itself along with the emotional world building of the film. I had seen Aliens when it was first going around London, and took the opportunity to watch it again; they were showing a 70mm print in the historic Marble Arch theatre. And in that place, the escalating tensions of the drama was somehow felt more intensely. And when it got to the part where they decide to nuke the place, but the company guy says: "Wait a minute, we're talking about a billion dollar plant here." The collective audience release (from the humour in adversity) when Ripley answers "Well...bill me" was just incredible. And later when she says to the alien queen: "Stay away from her, you bitch!" the audience just erupted. That experience always stayed with me. An example of what cinema was capable of.

Since there was a C-mount adapter for the Nikon 1 mount, in 2015 I was thinking of getting a Nikon 1J5 - for the fun of using my old C-mount lenses on a small camera with a 1-inch sensor (even more fun, the UHD video mode was at 15 fps!). I never did get one in the end, though, and got caught up in the Magic Lantern RAW video craze at that time instead.

I liked the feel in the hand of some of those old Canon's too, Panny, which I bought purely for Magic Lantern RAW. The 5DII was thoroughly solid like cast metal. But strangely, I did prefer the industrial feel of the lowly 50D (so different from the hollow plastic of it's successor the 60D, that I also owned), which had a stiff metal plate structure beneath the grip fabric that I liked more than almost any other camera.

As if it weren't bad enough, when the world seems to be going mad each week with yet another WTF moment, at a personal level half the universe is suddenly in question and we wonder what's going on? In all inadequacy I know, but I send my healing thoughts to Zara and you Andrew at this difficult time. I've been very moved reading these posts, and hope they also help you to know something of the reality of the regard and honest feelings community people here have in support to you and the family. All the best.

Yeah, first camera I ever used (in a studio setting) was a Sinar 4x5, and you could only clearly see the image under a dark cloth (with your head to one side, of course, because the image was upside down). Punch-in focus in those days meant using a stamp magnifier on the ground glass screen, and the exposure check was a Polaroid back slotted in to give some idea of what the exposure (usually measured in seconds) might actually look like.

This is quite a well-known song but I only saw this official video recently - it's quite an enthusiastic performance video which captures very well the energy of the band.

Love the guitar work on this and a wonderful vocal from Rod Stewart:

Thanks androidlad, I saw that in the user guide and thought it was just "thirds" or something similar. Any idea what film ratios are available? There seems to be no screenshot or text info about the options.

I've quickly gone through the Z9 PDF user manual but can't find it -- are there film ratio marking options available in the display? Considering the headline video specs of this camera, I'm surprised if Nikon still expects you to put masking tape across the rear screen for 2.39:1 guidelines in 2022.

The Minolta 50mm:

The Yashica 50mm:

The Pentax 50mm:

Here is a vintage (SLR film era) 50mm lens comparison test, concerned with colour and bokeh characteristics, with all examples shot at f2.8 and the same exposure/camera settings, which were: Panasonic GH5 camera, UHD at 25p, 200 ISO, auto white balance (mod: green 4). Natural picture profile (mod: contrast 0, sharpness -5, NR 0, saturation 0), camera curves (mod: H-2, S+2). Exterior, overcast daylight. Focus point was the yellow flower head. Lenses used: Nikon AIS f1.4, Minolta MD f1.7, Pentax PK f1.7, Yashica ML f2.0. I was surprised at how similar some of the images were and labelled each as I went along to make sure there was no mix-up. Images are straight out of the camera with no post work, with a reduced scale image followed by 100% scale details. The first example: Nikon 50mm.