zerocool22

Wedding seems like of one the safe plays right now. People who want to get married still want actual photo/video.

Ticking along but still here after 25 years comprising approx the first 10 as a photographer and the last 15 as a hybrid shooter in the wedding industry.
5 more years to go and then I will be packing it in out of choice.
In the meantime, just have to make sure I keep my head above water and not overly concerned in that regard as neither AI nor the wannabes can do what I do. Yet, as far as AI goes anyway...
Seen a lot of changes but no real challenges as such and for whatever reason, I just seem to have been in a place where I can just tick along and by 'tick along', I don't mean cruise, because I am always working at it and on it. Rather I just don't feel the need to follow every trend and possibly because of that, why I have remained pretty constant whilst I have seen so many come and go.

It’s definitely been a tough stretch. Budgets are tighter and clients seem slower to move, even on things that would’ve been quick approvals not long ago. I’m seeing the same pattern where more content is being made but with less real investment behind it.
The best move might be putting more time into personal projects that could eventually be licensed or streamed. Even if it only brings in small checks at first, it adds up over time and keeps your creativity active.
I still think there’s room for people who know how to make something feel real. The tools are everywhere now, but the connection and emotion still come from experience.

2023 was so poor for me that I almost left the industry. 2024 was enough to get by on. 2025 seems like I'll gross 10-20% more than last year, even though my costs are up significantly across the board. It's still by no means a "well-paid" job. And I don't know how sustainable this is, because I haven't felt like my market would support a price increase for the past three years. I haven't given dared to give myself a raise. This is one of the problems about making a living in video production and editing into the second half of one's career. @fuzzynormal touched on this above; I can't expect to increase my rate based on experience alone when I am competing with people who are literally half my age.
Now that I'm in my 40s, the stability and security of a staff position hold more appeal. And yet the job market is so volatile that I might have better job security being self-employed -- for now.
My problem is that there is nothing else that I am equally drawn to. Almost every role that draws a decent salary involves sitting in a never-ending stream of unproductive meetings, and I can see a lot of those going away as a result of AI in the next couple of years. I can't reach a place where a career shift makes sense.

I'm looking into semi-retirement.  Weirdly, not because of the jobs I'm getting or not getting in the next 12 months, (that's already set) but because my niche of freelance corporate gigs is definitely on the way out. 
It's the devaluing of video production in general.
With video now, everyone does it.  Quite literally.  Anyone with a new'ish phone camera is on the other side of a gate.  A gate that's been blocking people for over a century of motion picture creating.  Phone IQ is really good.  AI can help generate a ton of stuff with low effort/high reward.  Canva is a thing. Online tutorials explain production concepts.  Creative info flows like a torrent.  Hobbyists are better than careerist, etc. etc.
None of that looks like it'll affect me in 2026.  I have 3 clients with semi-large gigs that'll get me through.  Maybe they come around again in 2027?  Perhaps.  What value can I offer them?  A certain confidence in problem solving they require?  Sure.  For now.
However, for one of the clients specifically, I could easily do via AI in an afternoon compared to what it's gonna take me a week to do live in a studio.
So, yeah, I'm not gonna reveal that my client that yet, but still, that reality is here.
At this point, as a documentarian filmmaker on my CV, that's the thing I feel I can do without AI stealing it away, but, man, not exactly a bunch of people out there have EVER made lucrative careers outta being a documentarian filmmaker.
I mean, I'm decent at this sort of stuff, but I'm not, like, an elite creative, you know?  No ones ever gonna watch a doc I've made (yet) and walk away thinking, "Wow, I need to make sure to see what that guy is going to do next."  Hell, even the elite creatives in the documentary world barely make a living at it.
Looking back I kind of feel like I should've gone all-in on sports-video production when I had the chance 30 years ago.  Live event broadcasting will stick around for awhile.
Other than that, I'm an older married guy without kids that has acquired some in-demand-physical-assets throughout my younger days.  Because of that ownership, the wife and I do, luckily, have some things to help us through the final few decades of life.  Then again, 3 more decades of late-stage capitalism?  Gotta wonder about that too.

All hail the Nikon ZR 4 inch rear LCD

Looks like it supports a wired connection.  If using the phone as a monitor in most places, that's preferable.  In any sort of urban area, congestion in the 2.4ghz and 5ghz zones makes wifi monitoring frustrating - it'll be working perfectly for an hour and then as soon as you start to roll a take, it's either stuttering or turning into a work of impressionist art.
Otherwise, apps like it (without a number of the features like storyboarding, etc) have existed for other cameras for a whlie.  The Z Cam mobile app is so good that it makes you angry at every other camera vendor (it also supports wired connection).  But yet, most users end up still using monitors - among other things because notifications popping up while filming is distracting - and just about everything on set needs a damn app these days and that gets annoying when that app needs to run on what is now your camera's monitor.
The main place I've ended up using this sort of app is for travel - for building out a minimal rig, it's fantastic to pack just a little phone clamp and not have to think about an external screen and some np-f's.

Hi, yesterday panasonic finally released the firmware uodate and lumix flow update for the s5ii. I really like the app. Setup time is also fast.
As this might replace my shinobi ii for travel purposes. Allthough I need to test how long batterylife of my smartphone is while using lumix flow. Not sure if there are any other drawbacks.
But apps like these could give external monitor brands a hard time. Or at least in the consumer section.
 
Cheers

Hi, yesterday panasonic finally released the firmware uodate and lumix flow update for the s5ii. I really like the app. Setup time is also fast.
As this might replace my shinobi ii for travel purposes. Allthough I need to test how long batterylife of my smartphone is while using lumix flow. Not sure if there are any other drawbacks.
But apps like these could give external monitor brands a hard time. Or at least in the consumer section.
 
Cheers

Is it just me or ZR skin tone is more like Arri than RED Komodo X 🤭
2:20
https://youtu.be/MfmajecSwqk

Looks like a nice camera, looking forward to some side by sides with the c50, fx3 and s1ii. AF with adapters, AF with native glass, ibis, colour, dr, battery life.

IBIS for me was a total game changer, and it's crazy that no one has been able to come close to Lumix in this department.

I think such a compact form factor would benefit greatly from IBIS to eliminate micro jitters on handheld shots, but gimbal shooters probably don’t want it to mitigate wobble effect on wide lenses. Not a deal breaker for me personally but I’d be disappointed if they omit it. Sony shill tubers will have a field day pointing that out as a miss if that’s the case. 

There's a lot of "well...." and "it depends" in there.
- If you have a manual focus lens with FF gears on it, the R4D is infinitely better, in that it can do it at all (after you buy the focus gear for additional money and spend time calibrating the lens)
- If the subject is within between 1.5m and 4m of the camera, the R4D might be better (it's really good here, but I haven't tested the S1R II which might also be very good there)
- If there is haze in the air, the S1R II will probably be infinitely better.  Haze reflects light which makes lidar throw up its hands and give up
- If focusing closer than 1m or so, R4D can get weird because of parallax (the lidar unit sits above the lens - this becomes more relevant the closer you get)
- If focusing more than 4-5m away with r4d, the lidar keeps doing alright until about 10m or so and then it just doesn't work at all and calls it infinity.  This is fine with wider lenses, but awful with long lenses.  That's probably also why the calibration doesn't understand that there are lenses longer than 100mm or so.

Totally get the frustration, mixed feelings here too. But honestly, I’ve been directing AI content for agency work and even for music videos where the budget wouldn’t cover full CGI. It’s not about losing work, it’s about adapting. Most clients are abroad and on tight budgets, so outsourcing is just reality. Learning to guide AI creatively is how you stay ahead, not get replaced!

I think this is the first time the S5ii can do raw and it was X model only previously?
Considering the prices of used S5ii’s now, that makes it some piece of kit!
I have a minty S5ii for sale if anyone (EU only) wants one, for €1000 inc postage, or it’s off to MPB within 48 hours…

After 4+ yrs of shooting on my trusty Nikon Z6 I decided it was finally time for an upgrade. I wanted internal 10 bit and better IBIS. I felt I had pushed my Z6 really hard and taken my due diligence to use it on tons of shoots and really make the most out of it, so upgrading felt fine to me haha. Originally got a Canon R7 and Sigma 18-35; I filmed a lot on a Canon R5 and loved it.  I equally love the r7, decent lowlight for a crop sensor, great ergonomics and image, really fun camera to shoot with. 
 
But then I found the deal of a lifetime…a Panasonic S9 AND the 20-60mm for only $700?!?!?  How?!?!?  I’m fortunate to have a good reputable liquidation auction in my area and they happened to have the Panasonic S9 open box with this lens up for bid. I bid on it and won and am picking up today; if I love this camera, I return or sell the Canon R7. If I prefer the R7, I can literally sell the Panasonic for a profit. But seems like such an insane camera for the price even what it normally goes for on eBay. But $700 for this pair is insanity; I could sell the kit lens if I wanted to and be paying under $600 for an S9 body haha…now we are almost in what used to be Panasonic G7 pricing territory (my first camera).  So pumped for this camera; I can overlook its flaws for how cheap it is for me. I never been use an EVF and I don’t take photos enough to really miss the electronic shutter or lack of a hotshoe. For me the excellent IBIS, full frame, lowlight, 6k open gate etc etc make this camera appealing. I ordered the smallrig cage with a grip; this will be my a-cam and I might keep my OG Nikon Z6 as a b-cam, since with the ninja v its full frame 10 bit image will match well with really any camera I get. But yeah, can’t get over how good of a deal this thing is. Picking it up from the auction today, will make a more detailed comparison post against my R7 and document what I decide to keep. 

Try this instagram page. I hope the makers and their tools make a full movie in this style. 
 
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMNxgCdIWxR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

those photogs are veterans with 30+ years experience, all have best nikon, canon, pentax, etc lenses. been there. 
 
ml raw on 5d3 can do 10 bit uhd raw. ml raw at 10 bit and above especially at 14 bit, is vert different from typical mirrorless raw or 10 bit preres h.265. been there. 14 bit raw itself is unparalleled even now. 
 

Always great to hear the ML community is still pushing along. I cut my teeth on the 5D MKII ML and still have two 5D MKIIIs with ML that I refuse to sell! All that said, the R50V is $650 brand new and once those hit the used market they'll be $500 and under vs the 5D MKIII which is still going for roughly the same price. So nostalgia aside, the R50V's price, specs - not to mention form factor and access to RF and EF lenses - really makes it hard to argue that anything ML related is the prudent way to go in 2025, imo.

Ok I bought the C500 mkII. Can't wait to create the first project with it. First tests the AF is so much smoother then my S5II, maybe not faster, but it feels more natural. As does the image. The dynamic range is not crazy better over an S5 or S5II it seems. The highlight rolloff seems smoother though. The internal Nd's are fun too.
 

Same, costed me lots of jobs as well. As often they request the premiere/Ae project files. Or they ask if I can take over an existing premiere edit. Been working in resolve for 10 years now, and stopped using adobe because of their subscription model. All in all I might have made more money, just paying for the subscriptions..
Sorry to get offtopic a bit here.

Ok I bought the C500 mkII. Can't wait to create the first project with it. First tests the AF is so much smoother then my S5II, maybe not faster, but it feels more natural. As does the image. The dynamic range is not crazy better over an S5 or S5II it seems. The highlight rolloff seems smoother though. The internal Nd's are fun too.
 

Ok I bought the C500 mkII. Can't wait to create the first project with it. First tests the AF is so much smoother then my S5II, maybe not faster, but it feels more natural. As does the image. The dynamic range is not crazy better over an S5 or S5II it seems. The highlight rolloff seems smoother though. The internal Nd's are fun too.
 

Ok I bought the C500 mkII. Can't wait to create the first project with it. First tests the AF is so much smoother then my S5II, maybe not faster, but it feels more natural. As does the image. The dynamic range is not crazy better over an S5 or S5II it seems. The highlight rolloff seems smoother though. The internal Nd's are fun too.