BTM_Pix

I can’t remember but did they get a lot of negativity when video was included in the X1D range so left it out of the X2D and haven’t bothered putting it back in? It was a period of photographers whining about any sort of video sullying their purist fetish but most of that noise has died out these days. Possibly literally in many cases. I suspect it’s only a (paid perhaps) firmware update away from being included, particularly as the collection of bros they gave it to to “review” are hybrid shooters who would welcome the chance to generate some more “This changes everything” fluff a few months down the line. I suspected the inclusion of IBIS was originally to facilitate a pixel shift mode for when 100mp isn’t enough (!) but that’s not in there either. They just say it’s there for handheld shots of blurred streams and nighttime traffic streaks, which has it’s place I suppose.

I was pondering going to the IBC but decided against it yesterday. If this date is correct (2 days before the show opens) then it is a fair bet that it will be on display at the Nikon/RED booth. Might change my mind now.

The cupboard in question

If you want a vintage set from the same range that are pretty uniform and readily available then the Nikon Series E are worth a look. They are available in the following focal lengths. Prime Lenses: E 28mm f/2.8, E 35mm f/2.5, E 50mm f/1.8, E 100mm f/2.8, and E 135mm f/2.8. Zoom Lenses: E 36-72mm f/3.5, E 75-150mm f/3.5, and E 70-210mm f/4.0. Obviously, no wider than 28mm may or may not be a deal breaker for you personally. The zooms are one touch such was the fashion at the time but are good performers. As I say they are all from the same range so are more matched than having to pick from this and that branch of, say, CZJ etc. You can get them for an average across the set of around £75-90 per lens plus budget £10 for each F to EF adapter. Plenty of examples to peruse here https://www.flickr.com/groups/1032976@N23/pool/ If you can stretch the budget, the Contax Zeiss range is compelling but for 1/3rd of the price the Series E range is a decent option.

No additional functionality. I’m not really that bothered about it either currently but I figure for the price of a McDonalds then I might as well get it in case I do want to use it at some point. Also, when the price of this reverts back to £160 then for barely any money I’ve made my S5ii a bit more desirable/slightly more valuable when I come to sell it or part ex it.

This offer is only for the UK. The SFU-2 software key provides RAW over HDMI for the S5ii as well as V-Log and waveform monitoring for the original S1. This offer from Panasonic is quite a bit of a drop from the £160 that it usually is and it’s available here for an undetermined amount of time. https://store.panasonic.co.uk/upgrade-software-key-for-lumix-s1-dmw-sfu2gu?___store=default

And now due to the overreach of the online safety bill in the UK, the government are determined that they will be in the room with us. With regard to the look, have you got anywhere local to you that has featured in a programme/film that you like ? Might be an idea to take a screen grab, put it on your phone as reference for framing and basic time of day and see if you can take some footage to get anywhere close to emulating it.

@Tulpa If you are buying from scratch and don't have a lot of lenses etc in a particular format that you want/need to use then I'd be looking at this camera too. It is smaller and lighter than even the very compact GX-80/85. Compared to the bigger MFT offerings in the G and GH series then it is even more of a stark difference in form factor but it is also dramatically cheaper. Video specs, it shoots 4:2:2 10-Bit and has the open gate mode which for this sort of expedition might well be beneficial to you as you can more easily reformat the footage in different aspect ratios for social media etc. It has the colour profiles for ease of use but it also shoots in both flavours of F-Log so you can roll your own look. Lens wise, it has not only got a huge back catalogue of native lenses (a lot of which have stabilisation) and are plentiful on the used market but it also has a lot of fast compact 3rd party lenses like Viltrox which are available at the sort of prices we all remember MFT lenses being back in the day ! Obviously, it has the larger sensor too.... The "downsides" would be considered to be the lack of IBIS and having what appears to be a vague degree of weather resistance - I couldn't find any definitive answers on that one. The lack of IBIS may well actually prove to be a blessing in disguise if the camera is going to spend any amount of time on the handlebars while you traverse over what for large chunks of the journey will be less than smooth surfaces. Wear and tear over three years will be bad enough without throwing the fragile mechanisms into the mix. There is a reason why shows such as Top Gear went with the IBIS-less GH5s (although I'm not sure if the story of show wanting to use the GH5 minus it was actually the trigger for Panasonic to make that version is apocryphal or not). Whatever way you go, I'd spend some research time on the best shock mounting options as it will be a point of failure for any camera that you go with over that period of time. As for the weather sealing... Back in the dark distant past when I was a professional sports photographer using battleships like the D3/D4/D5 etc they could take a hammering but as soon as the rain/sleet/snow became a bit too much none of us were taking that chance that they were immune to it so out would come the covers for both the bodies and the lenses. Think Tank make good ones but they are all designed for bigger cameras rather than the X-M5 so on a more prosaic level, these are cheap and cheerful at less than £11 for a pack of four and won't take up much space. On a trip like this when you are likely going to encounter very real weather, I wouldn't take any chances with the weather sealing rating vague or otherwise of smaller cameras.

It certainly is, thanks for doing that. Much appreciated.

I thought you had a bunch of old tat like the rest of us with M42, Y/C etc mounts but yeah if you have non electronic MFT lenses then thats fine. The 17mm f1.4 would be fine if you get a chance.

Have you got a non native MFT lens at that 14-24mm range that you could have a quick test with as the taking lens ? Trying to see the wood from the trees regarding the extent of the (expected) barrel distortion of the adapter without the camera's built in correction of the native lenses adding or subtracting from the party.

Comparing the a7RC versus the RX1R III, it is £1700 cheaper. There are plenty of compact 35mm full frame e-mount lenses that will leave you with enough change to buy a few (many) more focal lengths if you don’t want to be locked into the 35mm. Its going to be bigger of course but so is your bank balance. This might actually tip people over the edge to the a7RC that were sitting on the fence waiting for the MkIII of the RX1R. So the bastards win either way.

Do you have those clips that I did with it? Because I’m fucked if I can find them anywhere ! I’ve got some frame grabs from them (with the base then the different ARRI LUTs applied) when I was moaning on here about the warpy IBIS on the S5ii but not the actual clips. Not that they are a great loss to the world !

I was on a very, very slow internet connection this morning so YouTube was loading in instalments. It loaded the titles but the thumbnails were a long time coming and it’s interesting how much more appealing a lot of the videos were to me when just looking at the title but how much less so they were when the thumbnails eventually loaded. I’m probably missing out on a great deal of good content by my inner “oh fuck off you absolute tit” dialogue when I see the content creators stupid gurning shock faced bullshit. Whether the narcissism that infects so many of them would allow them to just do a content relevant thumbnail is the big question. I can hear the ”But the algorithm makes us do it” whining from here.