mercer

I'm not really one to say... I still shoot ML Raw on a Canon 5D3...
I will say that the FZ2500 is hefty. It's kinda like a brick, but it's a solid camera. The all-i 1080p out of it is really nice.
I stopped looking at the newer RX10s once they moved away from the constant aperture lens and the built in nd filters. I've only had version ii and I liked it a lot. They also seem to hold their value. The last one i bought used back in 2017, I paid the same amount that i see them listed for now.
Here are a couple frames from it...

I think it still looks pretty good, those old Panasonic CCD sensors were really cool... I had one of their P&S cameras back in 2009... I think it was an FX150. Loved that camera. The mjpeg files had such a thickness to them.
I grew up in the 80s and I agree about the footage giving a nostalgic feeling... I swear when I remember my childhood, I see it in 110 film.
Back in the camcorder days, there used to be a trick where you'd copy a clip and stack it on top of the other to make it have a little extra heft, you should try it with one of your film emulations. 

I'm not really one to say... I still shoot ML Raw on a Canon 5D3...
I will say that the FZ2500 is hefty. It's kinda like a brick, but it's a solid camera. The all-i 1080p out of it is really nice.
I stopped looking at the newer RX10s once they moved away from the constant aperture lens and the built in nd filters. I've only had version ii and I liked it a lot. They also seem to hold their value. The last one i bought used back in 2017, I paid the same amount that i see them listed for now.
Here are a couple frames from it...

I'm not really one to say... I still shoot ML Raw on a Canon 5D3...
I will say that the FZ2500 is hefty. It's kinda like a brick, but it's a solid camera. The all-i 1080p out of it is really nice.
I stopped looking at the newer RX10s once they moved away from the constant aperture lens and the built in nd filters. I've only had version ii and I liked it a lot. They also seem to hold their value. The last one i bought used back in 2017, I paid the same amount that i see them listed for now.
Here are a couple frames from it...

Yeah that's annoying too! I liked the XC10 when I had it. I thought it was a lot of fun to shoot with and it felt like a point and shoot cinema camera but I felt that way about the FZ2500 and the RX10ii as well. All of them had really nice lenses, good internal preamps and decent internal codecs. And you're right, any one would probably be good enough for more than half of the people that read/contribute to this forum.
Every couple months I look to see if there are any new prosumer camcorders on the market. 

I think it still looks pretty good, those old Panasonic CCD sensors were really cool... I had one of their P&S cameras back in 2009... I think it was an FX150. Loved that camera. The mjpeg files had such a thickness to them.
I grew up in the 80s and I agree about the footage giving a nostalgic feeling... I swear when I remember my childhood, I see it in 110 film.
Back in the camcorder days, there used to be a trick where you'd copy a clip and stack it on top of the other to make it have a little extra heft, you should try it with one of your film emulations. 

I love seeing the reels that everyone has posted!
2023 was a fantastic year, just not for film or video! It was the first year since 2012 where I made 0 video projects. My hope is to spend 2024 getting back to narrative films. The difficulty is finding people with the time and resources to make movies for fun.
I did get to take some fun photos. I've used an A7rII for photos the last couple years. My primary lens is a 28mm Nikon AI, which it has been since I bought it 6 or 7 years ago--talk about good return on investment! I attached a couple pictures I took this year. The snowy one is a Canon 24-105, and the others are the Nikon 28. Importantly, my photography kit weighs just 2.28lbs/1.03kg with filter and lens cap, and fits in a pouch on my daypack. Most of my adventures include a lot of hiking, and some rock climbing, so I like a camera that is A) small and light B) not stored in front of me and C) can be retrieved without removing my pack.
I did also side/down-grade from a Zoom F4 to an F3 for audio. It's unlikely I'll work on proper productions any time soon. The F3's size and 32 bit are great for recording effects, and for production use I'll velcro it to boom pole next to an NPF battery sled (and then hope whoever is using it while I run camera aims it well). It's overall a better fit for what I do now.
 
 
For 2024, my plan is to make videos of all kinds. Narrative films, tutorials on video game design (my other creative hobby), videos about DIY projects, and maybe some animation. I'm also interested in building a projector-based virtual set--I did a proof of concept, but I'd need to invest in good backdrops to make it photorealistic.
Aside from virtual sets, I have all the gear I need. However, I do plan a couple new items.
- A couple lights for narrative films. Probably LEDs that can run off batteries when needed.
- Switching my video camera to full frame. Maybe a Z Cam F6 instead of my M4.
- Considering lens upgrades. I never owned high quality glass, it's always been borrowed or rented by the production. I might get Sigma Arts--I always enjoyed using them. I look at cinema lens sets every now and then, but honestly I won't get much more out of "real" cinema housings vs 3D printed gears, and you have to go waaay up in price before optical quality rises.

I remember your original post and this is still some of the most compelling footage that I have seen on this site.
My working theory is that I think less resolution allows the audience to subconsciously fill in that detail in a way that makes sense to them and sum of their life experience. And the very act of this can make a video more interactive and engaging, kind of like reading a book. And one can argue that this active participation is nostalgic in itself, since a lot of us grew up in the era of film projections and standard definition video.
To me, the same idea applies to keeping the monster in your horror film in the shadows until the last possible minute. It is always going to be scarier in the imagination.
It's also why we gravitate towards keeping half of the face in shadow. It's been proven that humans find symmetrical faces more attractive and very few people actually have them. But if you don't show half of the face, the audience creates their own idea of a face and oftentimes that is going to be more appealing than the actor's real face. This is why I think that some people look great on camera, but not so much in-person; possibly because we never actually see their whole face in flat light, as is more common in the real world.
Here's the same video from the original post, without any processing. To me, it evokes a very different feeling than the original:
 

Let’s see how long this post stays up.
I have started a countdown…

I'm not really one to say... I still shoot ML Raw on a Canon 5D3...
I will say that the FZ2500 is hefty. It's kinda like a brick, but it's a solid camera. The all-i 1080p out of it is really nice.
I stopped looking at the newer RX10s once they moved away from the constant aperture lens and the built in nd filters. I've only had version ii and I liked it a lot. They also seem to hold their value. The last one i bought used back in 2017, I paid the same amount that i see them listed for now.
Here are a couple frames from it...

It records everything internally to an ide drive which everyone swaps out with a €10 adapter to record onto compact flash cards instead.

Just thinking further about this, I think that the competition is so hot right now, but for things that have been over-delivered.  Upping the resolution from 6K wouldn't be a game changer because it's already more than most people need.  RAW can't be improved on.  
But, do we think that cameras are perfect now?  Hell no!
So, I think there's tonnes of room for them to make it a huge release, simply by focusing on the things that the entire industry (apart from perhaps ARRI) seem to have put in the too-hard basket.
I've been watching Twin Peaks (shot in 4:3 35mm film) on Paramount+ which seems to be streaming in 480p or something, but it just looks incredible regardless.  If motion picture film from 1990 being streamed in 480p can look better than a $10K 8K RAW shooting FF camera, then I'd say there's lots of stuff left that can be improved.

On so many threads, I have to resist the temptation to just say "we should all just buy an FZ2000/2500 and get on with it" but its never far from my thoughts !
Again, its one of those where if they incorporated a couple of things like 10bit and PDAF into a newer version it might get a wider audience. Not bothered about the IBIS because the hybrid stabilisation in it is pretty great.
 

In the race to 8K, 12K, and beyond, how much resolution do we really need to tell a story? I brought my trusty FZ47 on a little New Year's trip to Arizona, and I think that 640x480 might just be enough:
Technical: I scaled up to 1920x1440 (no "smart" or AI rescaling). I did not add any sharpening or softening to the image, and I resisted the urge to clean up the digital artifacts and just embraced them instead. I did however do a little color work.
I was actually shocked by how good this footage looks, probably because it's progressive and not interlaced. I think I'd put this footage up against the DVX100, XL1/2, or comparable camera. And as we've seen in the 8-bit grading tests that @kye shared with us, it's kind of shocking how much you can push the image around in post (especially if you are either okay with some macro-blocking, or willing to soften/hide it). I think that's part of what makes this camera so much fun.
Is there a unique aesthetic afforded by this low resolution? I'm not sure. I've degraded 1080P footage to have a similar level of detail in the past. The compression artifacts are definitely smaller and easier to hide. But in full motion, I feel like they add a nice texture.

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but glad your wife seems to be on the other end of her cancer!
Well, your loss of work cannot be do to your skill set! That is some of the nicest work I've seen posted on this site! Really top notch!
I love the Super 8 film/emulations and the B&W baseball footage! Is the C70 your workhorse? I'd love to know every camera used for every shot because we all know it's all about the camera...
Btw, I'm pretty sure I still owe you a c-mount test. It's been a rough year for me and I have considered giving up on filmmaking altogether. I've definitely shifted a lot of my effort back to writing and I've been working on some audio dramas.
With that said, I did get a chance to go out and shoot a little over the holidays and I am getting the bug back, so we'll see. I have a bunch of stuff to sell... cameras and lenses but I'd like to do that c-mount test with the BMMCC before I sell it. Does the C70 have a S16 crop mode?
Also how do you like the Scarlet?

Classic BTM... haha!
I must admit, I'd really like a ZF but I'll have to wait a couple years for that one.
You're right, though about Panasonic... they used to be punk rock, now they're Rick Roll. He really is making a lot of videos. Camera Conspiracy can be a bit much, but I appreciate the shorter videos compared to others that force a 20 minute video out of a 10 minute subject.
With that said, I'm probably going to buy another GH6. I didn't love it the first time around m, but I think I was being too picky and I have a different... use-case for it now.
Honestly, I'm kinda tired of all cameras right now. 

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but glad your wife seems to be on the other end of her cancer!
Well, your loss of work cannot be do to your skill set! That is some of the nicest work I've seen posted on this site! Really top notch!
I love the Super 8 film/emulations and the B&W baseball footage! Is the C70 your workhorse? I'd love to know every camera used for every shot because we all know it's all about the camera...
Btw, I'm pretty sure I still owe you a c-mount test. It's been a rough year for me and I have considered giving up on filmmaking altogether. I've definitely shifted a lot of my effort back to writing and I've been working on some audio dramas.
With that said, I did get a chance to go out and shoot a little over the holidays and I am getting the bug back, so we'll see. I have a bunch of stuff to sell... cameras and lenses but I'd like to do that c-mount test with the BMMCC before I sell it. Does the C70 have a S16 crop mode?
Also how do you like the Scarlet?

I don't think you're following what he is saying. Go back and reread. 

I don't think you're following what he is saying. Go back and reread. 

As a full-time freelancer, it was a rough year for me. I made about 2/3 of what I did in 2022; it was the worst year I've had since 2018. I'm still trying to understand why. It was probably a lack of focus as I helped my wife through her cancer treatments, the last of which was in April (as far as we know, she is cancer-free). Also, I lost a large account -- a relief for my mental health, but it did account for a double digit percentage of my income over the past two years. And I took two personal trips, which meant turning down quite a bit of work (as they say, "take two weeks off, lose six weeks of work"). But yeah, it just felt really slow, especially the Fall/Winter. I've been watching the rise of AI and big jumps in smartphone technology closely, and I am wondering how much longer my skill set will be relevant. It may be time for a change soon, though I can't think of anything that I would rather do.
Equipment-wise, I bought a second C70, two RF zooms, a Red Scarlet-X, and an M2 Mac Studio + BenQ monitor. I sold about 50 items that I just haven't been using. I probably have another 10 that I can let go of too.
My new reel for 2024:
 

I've been doing a fair amount of editing on LumaFusion again recently since I got a new(er) iPad Pro.
I've been using it with the interface that I created (but never released) to enable it to be controlled wirelessly by a Contour Jog/Shuttle controller.
It turns the whole thing into more of a dedicated device and is far, far quicker to knock something together with, particularly as the new iPad blasts through content.
LumaFusion does have the depth to it now it do everything including correction, multi cam etc etc but its not sat there in your face going "tweak me, tweak me!".
It has the FCPX exporter plugin now if you want to send the whole thing to a FCPX for navel gazing/finishing but I haven't bought it as I haven't felt the need.
The issue I have with the MacBook for editing is the same one that I have with it for doing music.
It can do anything but I prefer the tactile immediacy of dedicated devices.
 

Goes off to check out Nikon Z30…

This is the sort of thinking that logically should end up in the "fuck it I'll get a Z8" category.
I'm with you on transcoding but indeed increasingly the faff of any kind of NLE.
I'm quite interested in whether people felt they were more productive when they had hardware devices, as in camcorders and tape decks.
The immediacy of coming home, getting the tape out of the camera and then putting it in your playback deck and assembling it onto the recording deck had a lot going for it in terms of productivity.
Maybe if we had equivalent hardware devices now instead of everything going into the multi purpose computer it might be more enjoyable to actually edit things.
And would stop the fall down the rabbit hole of tweaking the bollocks off every single shot. 

I've been saying that for the past 40 years and I almost mean it now.