BTM_Pix

So, RED have had a few issues passing carrier certification but it looks like the Hydrogen will be an actual retail product on 2nd of November. The Houdini programme is interesting as it basically allows pre-order people to early access a production hardware version with development software (which will continuously be updated) on it two months ahead of the retail release. It comes with this pretty serious caveat from Jim Jannard though if you stray away from RED's intention of it which is for you to help them test and develop it..... One of my concerns about this product from day one has been how RED would cope with the sort of criticism (or naked, vengeful wrath) that can come your way from a consumer product versus how they would normally receive feedback from their, shall we say, more forgiving current user base. The degree of restriction and sensitivity to criticism they are showing to what will, by and large, be stern supporters of the company and the product (its people who actually put their money down a long time ago remember) is a bit concerning considering how close they are to releasing it to the general public. I get where they are coming from in terms of having real beta testers in the field (and actually acknowledging thats what they are rather than just throwing something out the door) but two months is not a very long time if the software is as unfinished as those restrictions and Jannard's comments would make me suspect. https://h4vuser.net/t/schedule-with-houdini/1684 On the upside, this reaction video from people seeing it around the world is quite promising. Well, it might be if we knew what it was they were looking at

Saw this at the airport shop recently and thought it looked really interesting. It's got terrible reviews though unfortunately as it only works with their own not stellar app and takes up your mic input as it, somewhat quaintly, uses audio pulses to drive it. Conceptually from a control point of view it's really good with what you can actually do with the dials though. A real pity and I hope they or someone else takes it on to make it BluetoothLE and work with other apps like Filmic Pro etc

Nikon apparently have though.... Probably an internal name for it rather than the actual name.

Think more Samuel L Jackson He'd double dare you to say that again

Oh and by the way, he kept referring to it by a name. Think about one of their current cameras that has traditional styling and replace one of the letters. Not the second one.

Hmmmm... Just spoke to a Nikon rep regarding trying to fast track a repair for a lens. Currently, I've got a general rather than professional interest in their new mirrorless cameras until everything is known about the lens adapter and AF. But I thought I'd be polite and mention them anyway to which he replied he'd know a bit more when he's got hold of one "in a couple of weeks"...... Considering that the lad I was speaking to isn't, with all due respect to him, at the level within the company that I would have thought afforded him particularly early acess to products then the gap between announcement and availability might be a lot shorter than I was expecting it to be. Take it with a grain of salt of course but he seemed to be fairly assured about it.

Like virtually all cameras released these days, I believe it will generate pretty pictures and ugly arguments. So, yes, absolutely not revolutionary.

You missed out C) The official announcement on DPReview becoming a shitshow

//EDIT

I'm not sure what, if anything, they could put in the X-T3 to make me upgrade to be honest. I saw enough that I didn't like in terms of the IBIS on the X-H1 to mean it probably wouldn't be IBIS that would persuade me. They could fix the stupidity with the app but thats just fiddling around the margins really for my use. They have locked themselves in with regard to the lens coverage I think so full frame isn't going to be happening and their approach to full frame seems to be to go with cropping the GFX sensor. All of which means the X-T2 will be the end of the line for me with the X-T series its become a bit of a cul de sac as far as my needs are concerned. A very nice cul de sac with high quality fast primes and zooms but a cul de sac nonetheless. The promised range of long lenses haven't materialised (and the one that has is short on range and waaay too long on price) and the initial promise of the video aspect hasn't been built upon by adding zebras etc. It doesn't necessarily mean I'll be putting all my Fuji stuff on eBay but I definitely won't be adding to it.

The X1D to me almost feels like its in the same ballpark as that snakeskin covered monstrosity that Robert posted when it comes to being considered a real Hasselblad. Its like they've looked at what Leica did with the T (which was a radical departure for them) and thought "Yeah, lets get hip and down with the kids like they seem to be doing". Its ended up being like someone's Dad thinking about how old their Dad looked at 50 and putting a pair of skinny jeans on and getting a tattoo. Sometimes, its not only appropriate to just be your Dad but its also actually better.

Its a bit of a narrower gap here in the UK GH5 has a £200 cash back so its £1399 and the X-T2 has a £270 one so is £1249. There is a much bigger variation when it comes to buying one used though as the GH5 holds it value much better and you don't often see them below £1200 whereas the X-T2 is around £800. You also don't often see as many GH5 for sale used either, which may be telling another story. I think the X-H1 has caused more people to ditch their X-T2 than the GH5s has with the GH5 because the X-H1 offers more than the X-T2 so is an upgrade whereas the GH5s offers 'different' over the GH5 so is more of an option rather than upgrade. With the new updates, a second hand X-T2 is a bargain at that price though.

Fascinating stuff. Cheers

I'm not going to split hairs with you over the definition of adapted Jon but if Nikon don't have their adapter making their existing currently produced lenses work as closely to native as the new lenses then they won't have those years in which to catch up with Sony so how it performs is arguably as important as the camera performance itself. I said I wasn't going to split hairs over the definition of adapters but if I was ( ) then I'd say that for many, many people, the adapter in this case will be attached with such permanence to these cameras that it will just be called 'the lens mount'. Ironically, the advantage to me of the E mount is just how much can be adapted to it. The smart adapters for Canon alone flesh out Sony's lineup and the genius of the TechArt Pro in giving AF to manual focus lenses both old and new is a huge advantage. Over time, we will no doubt see similar offerings for the new Nikon mount but as it stands, the total lens selection with AF for E mount now surpasses every system even the venerable Micro 4/3.

I think there are adapters and then there are manufacturer's own adapters though Jon. This one should be far more akin to something like Canon's EOS adapter for their M mount cameras or Olympus 43 to M43 etc. When the manufacturer owns both ends of the puzzle (not to mention has examples of all of those ends to work with) it is a different ball game to a 3rd party trying to make something. This adapter should just essentially be a teleconverter without the glass and I've never had anywhere near enough issue with using Nikon's ones even from an optical perspective not to consider using them (given the acceptance of some degradation) let alone an AF and control point of view, which is all they would be doing here. Whether the new system as a whole gives the same level of AF performance as their current DSLRs is an entirely different discussion altogether but unless they drop an almighty bollock with this adapter then there should be no reason why the older lenses shouldn't be close enough in performance to be at least considered pseudo-native or para-native or whatever new category us Nikon fanboys invent for it

Maybe their choice of using the self same brand ambassador of another product means they are pitching it at the 'aspiring selfie expert and leader' market as an alternative to a phone

Well, thats set the frenzy off on that site good and proper hasn't it? "So, as you can see, its probably a 67mm thread on that lens, which if we also reference it to the available data on average index finger length of South East Asian females in the 20-26 years of age group we should be able to extrapolate the exact dimensions of the camera and have a 3D printed model ready before bedtime"

This is currently £50 on eBay. I reckon you could easily graft the BM micro cinema camera in there

Ah, the old GoPro inside an old shoulder mount ENG camera routine

The notion of anyone from a camera company trying to play the heavy is somewhat ludicrous to me but is a testament to how hysterical some people now get about cameras. In all honesty, if that had have been me then I'd have given the Hasselblad rep an opportunity to evaluate the low light performance of that camera by shoving it up his arse.

No problem. Its a Nikon mount.

I have the non-cine version of this lens. Unfortunately, I don't have a rodent to test it with but I have got a couple of charts so popped outside to take a couple for you at close focus and minimum focus at f1.4 to give you an example of what a typical one behaves like. At that aperture, the sharpness drops off rapidly from the centre which is to be expected and the vignetting isn't all that either but these are shot on a full frame camera so your mileage may vary with a crop. Its a lens that was of its time really (I've had mine for 5 years) and if I was buying new today then I'd be looking to spring the extra for the Sigma ART 24mm 1.4 But if you can find a cheap used one that doesn't have a built in pro mist then the Samyang is certainly viable if you need that speed on a budget.

We were looking for a TV for the bedroom last year and ended up getting a small (like stupidly small) LG projector. We just have an Amazon FireStick plugged in to it so we can watch Prime, Netflix and Kodi content and I have to say its worked out brilliantly. Its only 1280 x 720 native resolution so I'll get run out of town for mentioning it on here but its actually pretty decent and at €200 was by far the cheapest and painless way to get a 70" TV in there! As its so portable (and has an internal rechargeable battery too) we throw it in a bag and take it with us if we are going somewhere for a while or, like tomorrow, going to my brother's for a barbecue and a DIY movie under the stars night. I hope his grandkids are keen on WW2 films as we are planning on that particular movie being Where Eagles Dare ! Its a noisy bugger though but its a discontinued one (hence the price) that was released in 2014 so I'm sure the later generations will be better, cheaper, quieter and support bluetooth. Our one has a line out that I just connect to a £10 bluetooth transmitter. As you say, with families all spending so much time watching content on their own screens, it does seem superfluous to have the traditional big TV in a family room these days and I think the projector is a good solution because it does make it a bit more special to kill the lights and have the cinema experience when you actually are going to watch something together.

I'm sure they'll find a way though I've just been on holiday and thought "I'll take the a6500 and try and bond with it". Every time I had to change a lens I was like an octopus trying to unhook a bra.

The release button being on the left on Nikon cameras is to do with the traditional functions of the controls on the right on the film cameras, which were for self timer and depth of field preview. The latter physically engages with the aperture control lever in the lens to stop the lens down to enable the preview so you can retain the viewfinder brightness of having the lens wide open when you are focusing and composing but still be able to check the depth of field before you press the shutter. This functionality is carried on through all their DSLRs today (along with the additional programmable buttons) which means if you are an old git like me then the muscle memory you've built up from starting with an F2 back in the stone age is still valid on a D5 but crucially the lenses that you had attached to it will still work too. It might seem archaic in the age of constant preview for mirrorless (and it is for electronically controlled Nikkors) but its still relevant for Nikon as they have that big back catalogue of lenses that don't have electronic control and have to be engaged physically. I've no idea why they decided originally to put it on that side - though I personally think it makes more sense to keep the lens release away from your 'busy' hand - but once they'd done it they had and have to even now stick to it in order to support all their lenses. The problem for me comes when I'm swapping between my Nikon/Canon/Panasonic cameras to my Sony/Fuji/Leica/Sigma ones and thinking "where the f*** is the lens release" And, like when you get in a different car and try and find the windscreen wipers and indictors, you can guarantee that its on the opposite side to the one you've most recently been using ! The biggest issue is if I use a Leica R lens on my A6500 with the TechArt adapter as I also have to have a Canon adapter in the middle of it and each step has a lens release on the different side so its like doing a Rubik's cube to deconstruct it.