Tim Sewell

I would pay good money to see it!

I think that's possibly to do with the fact that the vast majority of liftgammagain's members are working professionals - many of whom probably know and/or have worked with each other outside of the forum (or might be asking each other for work at some point in the future). I visit the place quite often as there really isn't another resource like it for colour matters.

I'm currently building a set each (28, 35, 50ish, 85, 135) of M42 SMC-Takumars and early Minolta Rokkors, with the intention of keeping and building on the set I prefer and reselling the other. On experience so far I'll no doubt end up keeping both sets!

An excellent piece of work.

"When the market shrinks to one tenth its current size, yes, more expensive because the cost per unit to make anything will be dearer and in order to make a profit it will just have to be. While there is lower stuff to sell in volume they can make higher end stuff a bit cheaper than it otherwise would be but once that lower stuff is swallowed up by phones ...well look at Leica....otherwise it will be cheap rubbish." Absolutely this. The reason Zacuto can charge hundreds of dollars for pieces of shaped metal with threaded holes in them is precisely because - in manufacturing terms - the market for those bits of metal is almost undetectably small.

As an erstwhile tech-oriented ad salesman I have to tell you that any such person - on finding out that editorial were devoting 3 or 4 pages to a favourable review of a particular camera would, within milliseconds, be on the phone to a decision maker at the manufacturer's HQ. There's nothing corrupt about that process, it's just how it works.

So, so sad. I absolutely love the recent Oly M43 bodies and their lenses are gorgeous. Going for a cry!

The day Z Cam brings out a global shutter S35 camera is the day I sell everything (including my children) to buy one!

The one I had was soft below f8. Compared to the others, even once sharp, it was pretty lifeless too.

I used to have the 24, 35, 50 and 85mm Samyangs. The 24mm was so awful that I never used it. The 35 was serviceable, the 50 and the 85 were - for the price - stellar.

This may help - in the second half of the video he demonstrates changing the mount (and de-clicking): youtube.com/watch?v=EUjUxKvXgpw

I recently acquired a Godox SL60W and a SL300W - both seem excellent VFM so far.

I've just seen some LED panels built in UK called Softy Lite: http://www.softylite.com/index.html They're on EBay at £47 a shot - has anyone experienced these? What are your views (whether you've tried them or not) on what's on offer here?

Thanks guys. For now I've gone with a FalconEyes FP7, which looks to be a (pretty good) copy of the PilotFly AtomCube. It just arrived and, while I haven't tested with the camera yet, it seems to put out just sufficient light for my current needs.

Thank you for your kind words! Quite a while ago I had a Mk2, which I liked a lot, but had to sell. With this, I happened to spot one on Ebay that had no bids and a low reserve, which meant I got it for £500. Now, I don't make money from video, but at that price I figured it was cheap enough to have as a 'family' video camera. I have to say, in many ways, I prefer it to the Mk2. It's got the DPAF upgrade and all said, coupled with - in the video above - the 17-55 2.8 it's just a really simple, non-intimidating camera to use. It gets out of the way and lets you concentrate on the creative bits of shooting moving pictures. I also like that I can, if I want, use it fully stripped down - although in general I'm preferring it with the Zacuto EVF I managed to pick up, also for a song, on that well-known auction site! Next project is a short narrative piece, for which I'll start lighting and grading tests tonight. Can't wait!

For my next burst of lockdown creativity I'm going to need to shoot some CU and MCUs night for night. The keylight will be tungsten illumination from inside, but I also want some blue fill from the other side. I was trying to remember the code for the filter gel to get that nice steely fake night blue (and if anyone can remind me, that would be great) but then I got to thinking it's payday and the pubs aren't going to open any time soon, so maybe I should get an RGB LED light source instead. So can anyone point me towards a reasonably punchy RGB panel (other fixtures may also be considered) that will suffice, if necessary as a key in low light, for around or under GBP250? Preferably with a UK or EU supplier. Many thanks, filmic funsters!

I accidentally bought an OG C100 during lockdown! This is my first outing with it - although there's not a lot of action around at the moment!

I haven't bought or used any video gear for over a year, but yesterday I accidentally picked up an OG Canon C100 for GBP500. Oh well.

They're from 2014, and shot on mainly Alexa Studio, but there are a whole bunch of things shot by DoP John De Borman demonstrating Cooke Lenses, including lots of low-light and city stuff. Here's one: https://vimeo.com/89719974 - I'm sure you can track down the rest. I don't know if the original files are available, but given the target audience I expect a visit to the Cooke website might yield some results for you.

This new X-T2 firmware will be like getting a new camera. Top marks to Fuji.

It's the gift that keeps on giving.

Yep. Works particularly well with teh SLR Magic Rangefinder, or so I hear.

Your aggression and unpleasantness is starting to seriously impact the enjoyment that others derive from this forum. You derail thread after thread with your deeply insulting scattergun imprecations. We get that you don't like what Fuji have done with their new camera and we get that you don't like Mattias. So why don't you do the adult thing and leave both this thread and his posts well alone. Edit: for the avoidance of doubt, I'll be using the ignore feature from now on. I shouldn't have to do that, in a generally respectful forum.

Damn! I just bought one that looks just like that. The sales guy told me it was Apple's new 'distressed look' version. He said anything I watch on it will automatically look like it was shot by Vincent Gallo. I can't work out how to turn it on though.

Every job is hard work. That's why it's called 'work'. If one wants to do one of these jobs that are fun, that have far more wannabees than well-paid practitioners, then you have to be prepared to starve a little to get into them. It's always been that way. Of course, there was a period when it was considerably easier to make a living in photography - I did it for a while and did pretty well, but it was always precarious because marketing, advertising, even wedding photography; all that stuff is the first thing to get cut when times are hard. there have always been just a few people at the top who can ride out anything going on in the wider economy and then a lower tier of people who do well when times are good and not so well when things go south. That's why @Mattias Burling is right on the money when he talks about having many strings to your bow. If you're skilled and enthusiastic in a wide range of related activities - copy, reportage, photography, videography, AV etc etc then you can still do well - especially if you're prepared to relocate to somewhere with a thriving media market. It's tough and it's not for everybody. For me - I somehow acquired 3 kids and maybe I hadn't developed my business enough by that point, maybe I wanted to 9-5 to spend time with them, maybe I just plain and simple wasn't good enough at it - but I discovered I could make more in 2 days writing software than I could in a week doing stuff I really wanted to do and the trade off - in terms of supporting a family - just wasn't worth it. But if you're good, have wide range of skills and talent, don't mind hard work, are highly adaptable, make your own opportunities - there's probably never been a better time to make a good living in the creative industries.