BTM_Pix

Leica SL

I've never looked back at anything I shot with the H3D and mumbled "what was I thinking when I bought that" and I suppose thats the acid test. Ten years on it still smokes every other camera I've had image quality wise. Unfortunately, it developed a fault on the main board in the digital back and the quote from them to fix it was a "what are they thinking" moment. So much so that I've resigned myself to waiting until a used one comes up at the same price as the repair and buy it, which it is virtually at now. The good thing with it being modular is I'll then have a spare of the camera body and OVF as well as a spares kit for most of the parts in the digital back. That's what would concern me about the Alexa in that you're buying a £50K camera for £5K but as soon as anything goes wrong on it then its a £50K camera again But then again when you look at the devaluation of new cameras then if you got three years out of it and had to throw it in the bin you'd still be about even with the cost of ownership against a even a low/mid range Canon or Sony cinema model. I suspect that there are many people that have lost more than £5K trading in gear in the past few years in pursuit of the Alexa look so at least this would stop that. Shall we go halves on that one from CVP then?

First purchase of the 2019 edition of Tokyo Used Photo Gear Frenzy. Found a 7Artisans 28mm f1.4 and adjourned to a cafe to put it on so this is literally the first shot with it but more to come later in the week. Shot wide open obviously and, well, it certainly glows.

Thats what I was driving at really, I'm not aware of any substantial numbers of reports of hangups with these specific models (or any these days to be fair) that would require it, particularly as some of them have been out in the wild for a good few years. IBIS is the common link between them so perhaps its just pre-emptive based on there being something that has come up as a potential long term risk based on their service data. Interesting timing with it coinciding with Nikon having to recall Z6 and Z7 because of IBIS issues as well. I was thinking about getting a used Z6 on this trip if I saw one cheap enough but I'll be taking a big swerve on that one now With regard to the Playmemories, the A9, A7iii and A7Riii have already had it removed so this won't be specifically to close the door on the hack but as you say it may well do it indirectly on those that can be language changed/record limit removed using it.

You haven't installed any dodgy hacks on it have you?

So, Sony have released a set of firmware updates for cameras old and new. These are : A6500, A7ii, A7iii, A7Rii, A7Riii, A7Sii, A77ii and A9 Beyond saying these firmware updates "improve the overall stability of the cameras" they don't elaborate at all on what the specific issues might have been. I'm presuming that there must be some sort of common library that these models share that they've found a bug with but I wonder if its something else? Possibly some new future functionality that needs an intermediate update for would be one possibility. Another might be a patch related to similar issues that Blackmagic original Pocket/Micro and VideoAssists have with reading new Sandisk cards. Another might be some sort of semi-lockout/feature reduction or enhancement related to 3rd party lenses in relation to IBIS? The last one I could think of would be to patch some vulnerability to a hack. Its this last one that is an immediate concern to me as I'm writing this jetlagged to fuck in Tokyo and looking to go out and pick up a cheap used A7Rii or A7Sii in the next few days which both rely on using the PlayMemories hack to get them into English and I don't want the very diligent vendor to have upgraded them I think the IBIS one might be the most likely though as it is the common link between all of them. Curious though and I do wonder how many of us who own a camera on that list consider it unstable enough to upgrade it based on such a vague statement as that from Sony?

Oh, well played Sir.

Its one that came up a few times so in this one I've added the B&H link to the, currently, 50 different L mount adapters they supply.

I doubt they will do anything now if they haven't already but here is a link to a one page site made by one of the victims of the scam about it. https://ebrahimsaadawi.wordpress.com/ This is his vimeo page https://vimeo.com/ebrahimsaadawi And these are links to posts in this thread regarding the actual creators of that content that he his is passing off as his own. So if he doesn't steal your money, he'll steal your work. The point I raised a couple of days back about his post on THEIR site is very relavant as through this whole saga he was claiming to be the Grandfather and yet when confronted on DPR its suddenly was his Father. Who in another attempted deflection is also now deceased. That post also states quite clearly that the production company if it ever existed was never his and that he is a dentist. So by his own admission on THEIR site he has no organisation under which to perform media production and is actually gainfully employed doing something entirely unrelated on a full time basis. Allied to the only visible evidence of his film making being proven to be plagiarism then I'm not sure how much more evidence of him NOT being a professional film maker is actually required. None of this is new and is all contained in this thread which they have been alerted to on many occasions so either they haven't read it, don't consider it damning enough or don't care. As I said in the previous post, because of that, if something happens to one of their members then its on them. If you feel strongly enough that they are not doing enough to prevent him developing a similar scam on there then the next step would be to contact the actual owners of the site and tell them about your efforts. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Photography_Review

I've had a look and the answer, unfortunately, would be no. Well, no, in the sense of the practicality of it rather than it being completely impossible. The Sony cameras and the GH5/S are supported because they are able to be controlled and provide live view through the PTP protocol which the GX80 isn't. In fact, I think the GH5/S are the only Panasonic ones that can whereas its more or less ubiquitous on Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax and of course Sony. How the Weebill is operating as far as I can see is that the control input from the handle goes to the camera through USB and the return data from the camera, including the live view, is then passed by wifi to the app which then returns any changes you make back to the handle which then passes them through USB to the camera again. So.... To make this work with a GX80 we would need to make A) An interface box that pretended to be a camera to take and return the control information from the handle and then pass those controls via bluetooth to... B) A custom app that would be connected to the GX80 via wifi to pretend to be the Panasonic app to take the live camera feed and pass the controls it was receiving via bluetooth to the camera. Neither of those things are insurmountable by any means but they would require a fair amount of time and, crucially, buying the gimbal to develop and test it with. The end result in terms of cost to make something that custom and with a potentially very limited market would make it pretty expensive.

It is not going to give you the same targeting capabilities of that array of 360 microphones but it is capable of some flexibility in the simulation of different polar patterns. The original Soundfield ambisonic microphones have been used for many years for orchestral recording and the advent of DAWs and plugins now makes it more effective for post targeting. https://www.prosoundweb.com/topics/studio/soundfield_sps200_microphone_used_on_recent_abbey_road_session/ Some more general information here, although it is related to a product but is useful nonetheless as the principles are the same in other products. https://knightlab.northwestern.edu/2018/03/29/capturing-the-soundfield/

Based on this particular requirement, where you are wanting to capture behind as well forward of the camera, I'd see if you could get a demo of the Zoom H3VR ambisonic mic/recorder. Its slightly different (and slightly more expensive too) in being a recorder as well but it can be camera mounted and has a line out to feed the camera a guide track for easy sync later. Because it records in the Ambisonics format you then have the ability to steer the listening position in post to create the balance that you need between the action and the crowd. I am looking to buy one of these myself but haven't as yet so can't vouch for the quality at all (and the price of £300 is very cheap in comparison to anything else you'd need to have this capability) so as I say try and get a demo of it first. This is a demo that B&H did of it recording a jazz quartet in binaural mode so pop your headphones on to listen. It is meant for 360 viewing really but if you view it flat with the trumpet player and bass player facing you then you should be able to get the placement cues of the sax and guitar player to the rear of the listening position. When recorded in ambisonic mode, you will be able to alter the listening position to alter the balance to suit what you are after to make it more immersive.

I finally finished that roll of filament so Black is the new Electric Blue If you did want to go wireless with your project, Bluetooth might be a bit too short range. The easiest thing to do would be to use two Arduinos (one with the wiichuck and the other connected to the tripod head) and put one of these HC12 modules on each one. They are about £4 each and will let you have a wireless serial link between the controller and the head of in excess of 1km as opposed to probably 20-30m of bluetooth. They are really simple to implement in your code as the library lets you address them exactly as you would a serial port for debugging etc so you should be able to get it up and running in your current sketch really quickly by sending the values from the Arudino with the wiichuck that you would have sent to the controlling pins as data out to the HC12 serial port instead and have the Arduino with the head attached picking them up and actioning them. Mmmm.....I might even think about making that the 73rd project that I'm simultaneously working on as I've just thought of a way to send camera data to it as well to make a cheap high end PTZ camera.

Too big and too heavy are all a bit relative to me considering the rocket launcher sized lenses I've had to hawk around for work Funnily enough though, I saw the lens in the flesh for the first time the other day in a display case at a camera shop and it was actually smaller than I had been expecting. I've just used the camerasize.com tool to see how it fares to a lens that I use a lot which is the Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 and they are actually reasonably similar size and weight wise. Based on my experiences with the 14-24mm, its still a bit of a lump (though thats not always a bad thing stability wise) but I wouldn't be worried about using it all day. I'm looking at it really as three f2 primes, and all points in between of course, so for me there is an overall saving in terms of size and weight in the bag from carrying multiple primes which is often more of a priority than the size and weight when its in use. Doesn't hurt not having to change lenses (24 to 35 is definitely a regular swap for me) not just for speed and convenience but also in keeping the dust/out of focus birds off the sensor which I'm far more plagued with here in Spain than I was in the UK.

Yes, the mic output (the one on the top of the unit rather than the headphone output) is used to pass the input out to a transmitter so you can have the best of both worlds of a wireless setup with the recorder being a backup. I don't have a DR10 but I when I was looking at getting one this was one of the aspects that I liked and thought it would be useful to troubleshoot as the headphone output will be post the input and the processing whereas the mic output should be before the processing. This comment from an owner under a Cinema5D piece about them should help eliminate whether it is the physical input that is broken or whether the problem is in the subsequent processing as it should be passing signal even without the power on. The mic output will not be sufficient to drive a pair of headphones so you will need to connect it to the mic input of your camera or laptop etc to hear it. If you can hear sound when you do that (and even if you can't actually as you'll need to do something else ) the manual provides instructions in how to remove the top plate to change the connector types and I think it would be well worth you checking the connector (noted as B in the instructions) as that looks a very obvious place for a problem to occur between the input/output ports and the main unit.

Considering their intense dislike of this site, if he'd put links in his post to stuff on here then that would probably do the trick.

From their controller you mean? So you would want their controller to be used but to control the camera by wifi ? Do you have a link for it?

If it wasn't for it being entirely the wrong mount for you, I'd definitely say have a look at the 7Artisans 28mm f1.4 which has been on my radar for a while but been waiting for more reviews. https://phillipreeve.net/blog/review-7artisans-28mm-1-4-fe-plus/ The other lens I've been looking at that might be worth a look even though it is a zoom is the Sigma ART 24-35mm f2 I was definitely going to buy a (cheap) used EF mount one of these for my SL later this week when I'm in Japan but this whole Sigma MC21 fiasco has thrown a spanner in the works for that but with it being EF it won't go to waste if I see a cheap enough one. One of the shops I know has the 7Artisans 28mm f1.4 in stock so I'll be having a look at that in the flesh. So expect some sample images from one of these two roughly this time next week. Or both

Sorry for the stupid question but does it pass the mic signal to its output or is it not appearing there either ?

Sorry, I've only just seen this post. Can you describe exactly what you want to do?

I've had three where the case separates slightly and the guards between the contacts break off. I'm going to buy a few just to be on the safe side in case BM don't produce a fix. Surprising that they haven't thus far really as it impacts the Micro and the Video Assists which are still current products.

I haven't used that one but I did used to use this one, which is known by a few names (Bescor and Hague being two). They are available standalone with a wired connector or, like this one, used in conjunction with the Camranger wireless remote and interface which is the version I had. I used them for behind the goal cameras as they could be remotely moved with a live view back to my main shooting position and files could also be transferred wirelessly back to me instead of having to wait until half/full time to retrieve the images as we aren't allowed to enter the field during play. This setup can also control the camera, which was important in the role I was using it for as the exposure changes during a game with a floor level camera with a very wide angle lens with a lot of sky in the shot can be wide ranging enough (especially in winter games which go from daylight to floodlit) to cause big problems. In that role it worked very well although it was for stills so I can't really comment on whether the action is smooth enough for video use but it does have variable speed and it wasn't particularly clunky as far as I remember. There should be enough examples on YouTube though for you to look at as it was pretty popular for what people referred to as aerial photography before drones became popular The basic head that you just control from the wired remote is about £120 and goes up to around £400 with the Camranger wireless control/live view set.

Hang on, I thought it was his Grandfather that was doing the talking on here?? Seems on that DPR thread he's now saying its his Father.... The staff over there "monitoring" him is one thing but thats completely different to actually raising awareness of what a little shit he is and is completely ineffective and preventing him doing this again. He's not going to be dumb enough to actually use their forums directly to do the next scam but by being allowed to use them he can use it to build his credibility to sting someone off board.

This is following on from something in the thread for the Pocket4K for anyone looking to pick up an original Pocket or Micro or, like myself, dusting off an old one that might not be aware of an issue with available SD cards. All of the SD cards that I put in it (and I tried a lot !) where coming up with No Card error and no amount of re-formatting internally or externally was resolving the issue and then I went and had a look at the official forum and saw this https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=83050&sid=2c193679bb69a8d8f2c48ac0b85ced38 Basically, Sandisk made a change and the original cameras (and the Video Assist as well I understand) can no longer read them. Sony made a firmware change to accommodate it for their cameras but BM haven't and likely won't. The upshot is that it is a nightmare trying to find recently produced SD cards that will work with them and users have been trying and returning all sorts of different ones trying to find a solution. After a lot of this effort, the card type that came up as being able to work is, ironically, a Sony one. It is the UZ designation at the end that is important as there are a few similar looking ones. This is the Amazon link to this exact one https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00YOKOJOU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Mine arrived yesterday and I'm happy to confirm that it does indeed work perfectly well with my original Pocket camera so if you are looking at picking a camera up used or getting one out of the back of a drawer and don't have the original media for it then I'd recommend picking one of these up. Apologies for the cross post but the info would have got lost in the behemoth Pocket4K thread and at the time of my original post to @mercer in there about it I hadn't been able to confirm personally if this particular card worked. And now I can

Unfortunately it is difficult to raise awareness on DPR of what happened here due to them banning any links with EOSHD.com in them. So if he does pull the same stunt over there to one of their users then I'd have to say that it will have been entirely down to DPR themselves.