Jon-R

BMC as in Ursa. $ 6.5 K vs $ 9 k for a more fully featured camera, lighter and better designed camera. One will more likely sit on the shelf while someone somewhere thought they were saving 2.5k. It's like the Red Pro Primes. Some  thought is was a great deal at 20k until they realized nobody wanted to use them for legit reasons. As where your Cookes, more expensive, slower but lighter and by far better IQ hold their value and in most cases work a lot. 

 

Once you're spending 6G or more, you're thinking of these things as tools with a good ROI. Anyone who can put down 6.5k for an URSA will probably be considering where and how to get an extra 2.5k to avoid a possible flop. 

The CION requires quite a bit of kitting to be on feature parity in many ways with the URSA. You need an external recorder for RAW. As far as I can see, there's no EVF or monitor beside that tiny side-mounted one, so you need one of those. There's only a single capture card. External controls are a lot more limited. I'm not saying that one is better than the other, but that it's important to note that they're using two very different design philosophies. The CION is intended to be kitted out, while the URSA is intended to have everything integrated. There are advantages to both.  

It's a divisive camera.

 

Probably no sure right or wrongs in this. It will work great for some people and for others not.

 

I still think the trend for cameras in general is to go smaller and lighter though.

 

Look at Red as they went from Red One to Epic. Look at Sony between F3 and F55. Canon between XL1 and C300.

 

Lots and lots of people want the convenience.

 

I just don't see how that iMac screen on the end of a hinge is going to hold up to rough & tumble / rental either.

You're right in that it's not the right camera for everyone, but let's not forget that Blackmagic makes 3 other form-factors as well. As long as you're able to make multiple products, you can tailor each to a specific need. As for trends, well, the F55 is a bit smaller than the F3, but only in its bare-bone configuration. The same's true for the Red One and the Epic. I don't think any Cine camera would survive too well if you were to throw it around.

??

The Panny 14-140 sounds similar (more or less).

There's a massive difference in aperture size. 

Most of the German friends I have mentioned this too actually think it's ridiculous as well that you can't be free as an artist to shoot in public spaces without the risk of someone making trouble later through the legal system. It is not the society most German people want to live in actually, it is almost a police state kind of rule that is out of step with modern life.

 

I am very respectful with how and where I point my camera. I do not go round shoving it in unwilling peoples faces.

 

There is something else going on here beyond the privacy issue, as I outlined in the article, it is the hatred of tourists that is driving a general bad atmosphere in Germany with regards to DSLR shooters on the streets.

 

I'm going to give Berlin a break this summer and explore new territory. I will go back to Taiwan and Japan to continue my earlier work there as they are beautiful parts of the world and very friendly. I don't plan to stay in Berlin for the rest of my life. I have enjoyed my time here but maybe it is time to try something new.

That's a big claim. Most Germans I know value the law, because they feel that privacy is something that needs to be protected. And from what I've seen in the media, that's the prevailing opinion. There are strict laws set-up to protect privacy in all aspects of their lives, not just when they're out in the public.They shake their heads at the idea of something like London, where you can't walk two meters before a CCTV picks you up.

And unlike the British CCTVs, the German privacy laws has nothing to do with with the state controlling anything. It has only to do with protecting the born rights of the German people. They view personal privacy as a core right, and as such, you don't lose it just because you're out in the public. Your rights as an artist ends where the other persons rights to privacy begin, and that's true for every western country. The only difference is that in Germany, you've got the right to privacy in public. And like anything, there aren't any god-given right answers. When does freedom of speech become slander? When does fair-use become IP theft? When does candid art become an invasion of privacy?

Troll much?

Nope, I'm being dead serious. Me and Andrew are both are both immigrants in Germany, so I do understand where he's coming from. But if you're choosing where to live, why chose a place where you don't agree with the values of the people there? It's the same reason why I wouldn't chose to live in a country that without equal rights between genders.

Maybe I need to move!

Well, If you can't accept the values of the people where you're living, moving is a solid option.

The technical reason why the German law is not correct is that it defies basic logic.

 

From such a logical bunch of people and such an intelligent culture, I am really surprised at some of their directives and government practices.

It doesn't defy logic, it only defies your preconceptions. You're used to that being in public means that you've got no right to privacy. But there's no reason why that *has* to be the case. In Germany, it isn't, and that makes exactly as much sense as to opposite. There simply is no reason why recoding someone without asking permission first has to be allowed. The law would only defy logic if the Germans would be OK with losing their assumption of privacy in public, but as we both know, the opposite is true.

Look up the definition of public. Public is the opposite of private. A public space is by definition NOT a private space. Yet Germany tries to pass a law that makes it like a private one. Then maybe you can see why I have a problem with the logic of it.

 

What do you do at a gig or concert with faces in the crowd? Is the crowd allowed to sue the videographer shooting back at them from the stage?

 

Nutty or what?

Public spaces are spaces freely accessible by anyone. Nothing within that description dictates that you'll have to allow people to record you without your consent.

Germany doesn't try, they've passed that law long ago, and it fits in perfectly well with their society. In Germany, you do not abandon your right to privacy when you're out in the public. If you've got a problem with that, then that's  your problem. There's no reason why recording others without permission in public would *have* to be allowed, it's something that can just as easily not be allowed. Hence it varies from country to country, based upon what the populus wants.

There's no reason why a concert or the like couldn't have a clause that says that when you attend this concert, eg. purchase a ticket etc, you agree to them recording you. That's the whole point of the Germanys law, that you as a individual have to give express permission for someone to record you under normal circumstances. Having to ask for permission before you record someone in public doesn't not meant that all recording is banned.

Something isn't nutty just because it's different from what you like or what you're used to.

Yes, if it's the law then it's the law. No argument there. I can't even imagine how you could enforce that in the States. At a Starbucks, someone takes a group shot and you're right next to the table... what are you going to do, jump up and demand they delete the photo? You're walking on the boardwalk and everyone is snapping selfies.. you happen to be in the shot, are you going to flip them off? When I go surfing people are taking photos from the parking lot.. what am I going to do, flip them off and scream at them to delete their photos? It seems ridiculous.

Well, laws need to be supported by social norms to be effective. Because the social norm in Germany is that recording other people without their consent is unacceptable, the law works because it only needs to strengthen that. Due to the norm, recording people in general is less comon in Germany than in other places. Due to the law, the people have a way to enforce the norm if push comes to shove. They're in a position where they can, if bothered, with confidence demand that someone deletes recordings of them if someone does record them.

The norm and the law in the US is that recording in public spaces is A-OK. Suddenly chaning that law with the old norm in place would make the law really, really ineffective. As you said, what are you supposed to do when people are recording strangers literally everywhere? It would simply be unenforcable. It's a bit like seatbelts. It took decades of pro-seatbelt propaganda and really active policing before people started wearing them.

Hey Jon-R

 

I get what you are saying, I hate it when I'm out and someone is taking a photo while I eat, walk, ride, hike or probably if I keeled over on Santa Monica Blvd, while I grasped my chest and breathed my last breath; but this is the world we are living in today, for better or worse. There is no going back. 

 

Also, ironically, in a police state, citizens would not be allowed to take photos and post them for public consumption.

There's no reason why Germany has to be like that. They don't like it either, and like it so little that they've made legizlation to that point. It's not that public photography is illegal. Taking idetifiable pictures of persons without their consent is illegal. In practice, that means taking photos/video of people with their faces large and in focus enough to be identifiable without asking them first. The idea is that your privacy is your own, and no-one can rob that from you. If you want to voluntarily reliquish it for a picture or video however, that's completely fine. In a sense, privacy is considered a core right of each individual. Basically, this is very similar to how things work in the States, with the big difference that in the States, being in public spaces automatically means that you have no expectation of privacy. That's not the case in Germany, and there's no technical reason why one law is correct while the other isn't. The laws simply reflect the wishes of the populus.

Well let be the first to say Berlin looks like a complete Eastern European ph-cking dump.  The trash and spray paint everywhere tells you something about the mentality of the people that inhabit that city.  I've never been there and based on your videos I may never go.

 

Also you have to realize privacy laws in Germany are different from other places.  This is covered a lot in photography forums.

Berlin is a 3.5m population city. There are precious few cities of that size that don't have less than desirable quarters.

You Europeans and your laws. You have some absolutely nuts ones. I'll seriously consider taking my blog out of Germany and back to the UK if I was ever stopped from practicing my arts by tree hugging personal privacy nuts.

 

It's just unpleasant, which is why I don't really want to talk about it on the forum.

 

I was once out with Slashcam testing the Canon 1D C and testing the lens for focus breathing by racking focus some shrubbery on my side of the pavement to a woman stood smoking on the other side of the road, at least 25m away and out of earshot. Guess what, 2 mins later she was stomping down the U-bahn steps after me and demanding I format the card. Horrible encounter with a nut job. Some people just need to chill out. It is not the era of the Stasi secret police any more, it is the modern world we live in.

 

The funny thing is these politicians are always banging on about the freedom of artists and freedom of expression then putting laws in place which diminish freedom.

 

Dear Berliner on the street with your finger up... My freedom begins where yours ends. Don't overreach yourself.

Germans value their privacy. It might be a foreign concept for someone from the promised land of CCTV, but Germans take it very, very seriously. You might not like it, but you should at least respect it. And if you can't, then you shouldn't live there. There are plenty of places on earth where there isn't really any concept of privacy when you're out in the public. They might suit you better. When in rome, do as the romans. I've lived in Freiburg for a couple of years now, and that simply means that street photography isn't really an option for me at the moment here, because it's too much of an hassle. But I won't blame the Germans for it. I chose to move here, so I'd damn better respect the way the natives want to live their lives. Different folk, different strokes, and as long as no-one is forcing you to live in Germany, I don't see the problem.