BTM_Pix

Call me cynical but …

I have had two T5 drives go rogue on me. Google “T5 Mac Won’t Mount” and you will see it is a common issue with not much consensus how to fix it. In my case, the only devices that could recognise them afterwards were the BM P4K and 6K, a SteamDeck and the files app of my iPhone. The latter one can give you a path to recover the files by copying them on to your phone and then back out to another drive/SD card. After doing that and then formatting them again they were able to work again but I don’t really trust them for anything except transfers when I still have the original media. They are also very finicky when it comes to cables and the only really reliable way I’ve found is using a USB to C cable as C to C is an issue with mine. To clarify, I have used them in the FP but the issues came after them being in the Mac. Obviously the number of reports of the issue also suggests it’s nothing to do with the FP ! Samsung have their own utility software you can download so you might get some joy there but if you have an iPhone or iPad around then I’d try that first. I have had no such issues with the T7 drives.

Apropos of not much really but looking at this in the camera shop today it’s interesting that here in Japan it is marketed as the G9 PRO II but not in the US/EU/UK etc Maybe there is hope yet for a smaller bodied non ‘PRO’ version.

The startup time on my S5ii is long to the point of me always thinking the battery is flat. Really annoying. I’ve had the unexplained drain as well with a battery that was in for a few weeks. Oddly enough, I’ve just pulled the camera out of my bag to see the lever has moved itself into the ON position whilst travelling (another annoyance as it’s too easy for that to happen) and of course I was fully expecting the battery to be flat and it is still full. So the secret to not draining the battery when it is off might well be to leave the fucker switched on !

They have a used GFX100 and a used Sony Alpha 1 for roughly the same price. I thought I’d have got the former but the latter is creeping up on me now. I’ve decided to resist both. But I’m here for another 8 days so who knows. It’ll be in an S1H body no doubt 😀 Noted !

Yeah, when they see you walking in they start rubbing their hands and when you walk out with nothing they end up stroking their chins! GH1 falls into that no man’s land of being too old for their customer’s to find appealing but still not yet old enough to be considered appealing as a retro purchase for them. Basically it’s in the same ballpark as the base level Ford Sierra! Hard Off have one in red with the 14-140 but it’s about £180 which is a bit steep I think. Like I’ll have any money left anyway once the demands for twenty packs of Instax film a day situation kicks in tomorrow

Live from Tokyo She even wanted it in hipster brown with the retro case to match. The man who served me in MapCamera knows me from all my previous visits of excess and was expecting me to ask for a Z9 so was a bit weirded out !

In response to the rise in video conferencing during COVID both Panasonic and Sony release bridge applications to allow a lot of their cameras to show up as webcams. The Panasonic one will work with your GH5 but if you are buying something dedicated then it also works with their earwig exit aperture compliant G100 MFT camera which is a good value nowadays. https://av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/support/global/cs/soft/download/lumix_webcam.html Sony’s version is a bit more broad as it also includes the compact fixed lens cameras as well as a lot of earlier cameras that you can now pick up used at a good price including some FF options. https://support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/app/webcam/en/download/

Instead of filling it with six seconds in one go, if you do it in one second bursts with a gap will the buffer clear in time to keep going after the sixth? And what length of gap would it be to enable it to do that ?

Stop making me want to buy stuff. My family will be planning an intervention at this rate.

I found the breaking point. Fuji Instax Mini Evo. I don't actually own one so will have to buy it when we get there. A bit of a Pyrrhic vvictory then but in the battle of wills with your kids you'll take whatever win you can.

I don't think anyone is questioning the future of Panasonic though ? It is where they are at and/or heading within this specific format that is under discussion as they are in rude health within the FF market. Again, the camera (which as I've said umpteen times looks very good) and the form/format are very different things. The idea of a compact system that offers the "optimal balance of high image quality, compactness and lightweight in cameras with interchangeable lenses" to quote the actual MFT organisation itself is surely challenged when it becomes the same size as a full frame system from the same manufacturer. We need to examine the word 'dead' in the context of what it actually means to a camera system. It isn't 'dead' as in the absolute discontinuation of all MFT products. Which means it isn't yet 'dead' in terms of the stated ethos of it as a format by the MFT organisation as, if nothing else, BMD have just released a camera that actually fits within those aims. We also don't know whether Panasonic might also have a camera up their sleeves (or in their pocket) that will more closely align with that ethos. I'd say that a more appropriate word, as it currently stands, would more likely be 'moribund'. In a hippier time, it might be described as the 'scene' being 'dead' (man). Indicating that what it was is not currently what it is. But what it is might well work for many people so thats all fine too. I was using it to provide some light relief to this thread 🙂 And to show my own innate hypocrisy and how you can't really rely on the meanderings of a random old fella on the internet. I emphatically agree with both of you that the notion of all MFT cameras having to be small is both a nonsense and ludicrous. Which is why I haven't actually stated that. Equally, the notion that all MFT cameras having to be the same size as a FF camera is also both a nonsense and ludicrous. There is room for both. Its just that Panasonic haven't released one for three years which was the ill fated (but actually not without its merits) G100. With the 12-32m kit lens it was around £600 before it was discontinued and it really did fit with the ethos of MFT as we originally understood it and how the MFT organisation still describe it. It showed that when motivated by hatred (Sony's dominance of the vlogging market) that Panasonic could still do it despite the intervening four years prior to that (the G80 launch) they had been making ever bigger bodies. Time marches on, of course, and things change so if the price that has to be paid now (physically and literally) to move the story along from the G80 (which unlike the G100 had IBIS) in terms of video spec then so be it. Of course, Panasonic are not the only MFT player in town so maybe Olympus will offer that alternative. Yes, the extra reach of the 100-400 on MFT would need the Sigma 150-600 to equal on FF L mount which results in a significant size disadvantage. This is an example where it makes sense both as a format in general anyway but also as a camera itself, if the price to pay for that performance has to be that form factor. Thus far, it appears that it must because there is no alternative with that spec. Maybe I will pre-order one after all 😂

The size of the arsehole when said earwig has been created by Panasonic's MFT design team.

The G9MK2 with the ARRI matte box. If I'm going to have an oversized small camera then I might as well keep the additional gear in equal proportion.

Anyway, I've pre-ordered one.

For me, at least, its not to do with the relative differences between the G9 and G9MK2, it is the difference in what has happened in the six years between their launches. I'm not talking about the difference between a Panasonic camera and then a Sony camera coming along a few years later which made it look a bit too big here. I'm talking about Panasonic themselves bringing out a camera which made it look a bit too big. Before the S5, the G9 was still too big by the way but after the S5 ? Cameras do not have to be so small that you can shove them up an earwig's arsehole, they just have to make some sort of sense. It has to have something that differentiates it, to me at least. The Sigma Fp makes sense on being smaller than an S5ii whilst still having a FF sensor, it makes sense by being modular and most of all it makes sense by shooting RAW. The S5ii makes sense over the Fp on having IBIS, DPAF and internal 10bit recording. So I can see the sense in both in terms of them co-existing and then choosing to take the compromises of either depending on the situation or needs. Exactly like how MFT made sense against APS-C (and to some extent FF) DSLRs when it was a compact system for many years before the goalposts got moved. If the next Fp had IBIS in it but grew a little bit to accommodate it then I'd be fine with that because it would make sense. If they did a version at the same time that was APS-C let alone MFT but in the same case though, I think I'd be stroking my chin at that one. So, when it comes to the G9MK2......can you make it make sense for me? If you are going down that path then ARRI themselves should equally be culpable for slow playing some of their own releases, no ? Or for charging £1K for a basic matte box. I'm struggling to feel that that is them giving us all that they could've given us. Panasonic, like every other company in this world, can do whatever the hell they like, so the only judgement from me is on the merits of the camera. If anything, I'm judging them in a positive light for the S5ii.

I wonder what you are more likely to find in most homes, an Ikea Billy bookcase or a Canon EF24-105mm f4? Its a close call, I reckon. They shifted so many of them in bundles with the 5DMK2 amongst other cameras because it was absolute bargain as an additional price standalone let alone versus buying a 24-70mm f2.8. Do they do the same with the RF version ? Because that would be the way forward to chuck those in with the camera as a bundle with the lens being at 50% of what it would cost extra which is exactly what Panasonic are doing with the S1 with their 24-105mm As it stands, its the fat part of £1300 for the RF24-105mm which is just not appealing at all. The Z and L mount both have the same problem to some extent but the third party range is what gives the other two the advantage not to mention E mount which just keeps motoring along with options everywhere. Of course, there is the massive back catalogue of EF to adapt onto RF but, unlike Nikon with the F mount adapter, this is nothing unique as all the other mounts can do that too. If I bought an RF camera, I definitely think that it wouldn't see a native RF lens for a very long time and thats probably been enough to keep me away so far as I can do that with everything else but also have affordable native glass too. As it stands, the most flexible mount is Z mount (primarily due to the unique ability to have F mount with full AF) closely followed by the E mount. E and L mount currently have the best options in affordable fast native lenses and Nikon are catching up. The key to that, of course, is the 3rd party support most notably from Sigma.

I think the G9 flew under a lot of people's radar on the video side as they didn't really care about it because it was all about the GH5 at that time. The GH5 though did get the same "not keen on the direction of travel for MFT size wise" from many people but it got away with it because of the video specs so everyone was prepared to accept it. The issue now though is not necessarily just that the G9Mkii has the video specs that have aroused interest so its under the microscope (or not actually considering the size of it) a lot more but that what has changed from 2017 when the original G9 was launched. At that time, there was no FF camera from Panasonic. Or indeed an APS-C one. So if you wanted to get their flagship camera then it was what it was and you had no choice. In that respect, the increased size was actually something that helped them as in "it is arguably the best MFT camera around, therefore its obvious that it is this big" etc. However, two years later, they did have a FF camera and that was even bigger which actually preserved that "tope of the range must be bigger" conceit for both cameras and still made it appear the MFT compact system ethos was in play when looking at them in comparison. That was all well and good until the S5 came along because then the whole compact system alternative fell apart because it was actually bigger than the full frame camera. With the Mark2 versions of the G9 and S5, they are now identical of course so, for me, the fact that the G9Mk2 is fractionally smaller than the G9 is moot because as soon as the S5 came out then the G9 was too big anyway. In my view, it got away with it because there was no FF camera from Panasonic at the time and then when one did show up two years later, it actually helped the perception of the G9 because it was also somewhat on the chunky side. As demonstrated by the S5/S5ii. Irrespective of the existence of their full frame cameras, I'd still say the G9 (as I said even from the GH3 onwards) was pulling MFT into the wrong direction for me compared to what they had been doing even in DSLR shapes. (NB before the "ah but the top panel display" comments start its worth remembering that the G9MK2 doesn't have one now either) An optimist would say that at least they've marginally cut the size of the G9MK2 from the MK1 and that is a sign of progress back towards the compact system ethos but its the things that have happened around it during those six years that effectively make it an increase in real terms. So, I'll say it again that this is a fine camera but ultimately the problem with it is that the S5ii exists. Panasonic really finding their way with their FF cameras has coincided almost in lock step with them losing their way with MFT cameras.

Not sure why they would get into a market where everyone and his dog seems to be convinced that their current products will render that market obsolete to all but a dwindling niche of people. It would be like Tesla making a petrol driven car. Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, Leica and RED have all tried to make phone based cameras to reach a prosumer/pro market of film makers and photographers. It never ends well. In the case of RED, it was up there with the ET cartridges in the landfill episode in terms of "lets forget that ever happened" failure. I don't even think that Apple are that arsed about selling the software for creators anymore as long as everyone is using their hardware to run everyone else's apps. Whatever profit they were making on FCPX that they now lose to Resolve they can easily recoup with the price gouging on RAM etc. Apple are currently sat on a cash pile of $165 Billion. Set against the entire worldwide market for cameras this year of $5 Billion. When you can release incremental updates of your products every year and still have people worshipping at your feet at the product launches, I'm not sure there is much motivation there to get a piece of a market that - despite our obsession with it - is actually only comparable to, for example, the sewing machine market.

They are a necessary evil with a lot of gear but I'm no lover of the Sony batteries either really as with the ones I have it would be quicker to charge up a submarine. However, you can use a dummy NP-F battery adapter like this to power it from a USB-C QC outlet. Still somewhat clunky of course.

If you have an iPhone 8 or above, the Acsoon SeeMo can do the trick (and a couple more like recording and streaming( for around €160. https://accsoon.com/accsoon-seemo/ Official video here but there are a lot of user reviews on YouTube who in general seem to not completely hate it.

FM3 was the smaller one but they were only released at the turn of the 2000s so if its further back then it was likely to be the FM2. The Zf is actually just about the same weight as the F3 at 710g so well within your weight criteria !

I hope that unlike the Z9/Z8 that Nikon have got their supply act together otherwise it could be a long wait to get one even at the new price. It looks to have the same/similar processing clout in it as the big cameras so who knows whether that might be an option further down the line. Unless RED have got a super specific patent on "RAW video shot at above 23.89999999 fps inside a camera shell that looks quite reminiscent of classic SLR cameras from the 20th century made by a manufacturer whose name begins with N and who were founded on 25 July 1917 at roughly midday local time". Because they might well have 😉

I'd have to buy one first to enable her to reject that offer. Although I'd be in the right place as MapCamera do now have a fair few used ones in stock for around £2600 following what I'm guessing are a slew of trade ins for the new version !

6K from 8K oversample, 8K ProResRaw out only... Who knows really. They've just put out an MFT sensor in a FF body so anything is possible with them. I'm reading that in this voice. Some savings in cost, some savings in space etc. Primarily though it is the allure of a single object form for a lot of people and that, like the DP series and Leica with the Q, the performance can be absolutely tuned to that lens. If they don't crack the nut with that FF version of the Foveon sensor and have to stick with APS-C then if they can get some higher sensitivity from it (even up to say ISO1600) then I could see them doing the same as the original DP series but using their faster APS-C trio of 16mm, 30mm and 65mm f1.4 lenses to combine to bring that range into a more broadly appealing package. Releasing another Foveon with whole f2.8 lens and maximum ISO200 of the DP2m isn't going to stop the Fujifilm X100 party for most people, irrespective of the outright image quality.