BTM_Pix

The a1 has by and large flown under the radar so its diminishing price on the used market does make it an interesting proposition a bit down the road to do a poor man's 10% of the price / 90% of the image version of the Burano with one.
Need a name though.
Base it on the Venice* obviously, so it has to be something with lots of canals.
But a bit more rough and ready to reflect the price.
And a bit more northern for the dourness and attitude.
Right, the Birmingham it is then.

 
* Fun fact is that Birmingham is one of the gazillion places referred to as the Venice of the North but in actual fact it should be that Venice is called the Birmingham of the South as Birmingham actually has more miles of canals. All built by order of The Peaky Fucking Blinders presumably.

Didn't think this would work at first.

Turns out it does, and then some!
The 9.5K sensor in this thing has enough left over for 4.8K in 2x crop mode
The Ultra HD is oversampled from this 4.8K and we have our nice looking Cinema DNG internal to SD card. Something the Micro Four Thirds cameras can't do.
So it is basically a Digital Bolex at this point.
Frame grab:

The form factor is also perfect for these lenses being so small.
It feels balanced as a Super 16mm handheld candid camera.
It has one over on the Sony a1 for c-mount as well... The 2x crop is sticky, between Cine and Stills, and is remembered every time you turn it on. Whereas the Sony clear image zoom keeps getting reset when you power down or switch modes.
So yeah, I think my Digital Bolex D16 itch has finally been scratched!!
It's also perfect for bunny pics

For ages they had the mirrorless market to themselves.
Now Canon DSLRs are finally dead, the mirrorless market has a new leader
https://www.eoshd.com/news/how-panasonic-and-sony-let-canon-steal-the-mirrorless-camera-lead/
Canon!
I take a look at how this happened.

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 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 😉
 

To be fair, the Godfather was a right fucking mess before he stamped his White Balance skill on it.

 

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 😉
 

This had definitely be flying under my radar as a rumour so this was an interesting surprise this morning !

I have had the Df since it was launched and it is a fantastic compact D4 and they have finally brought out its mirrorless equivalent.
Unlike the Df, which has no video at all, the Zf is very competitively equipped for a camera in its $2000 price range.
Key specifications
24MP full-frame BSI CMOS sensor In-body image stabilization rated up to 8EV Dedicated Monochrome mode Up to 14fps continuous shooting (JPEG), 11 fps Raw 'C30' JPEG-only 30fps mode with pre-burst function AF system with tracking and recognition of 9 subject types 4K/60 video from 6K capture with 10-bit N-Log recording 32-shot high-res mode to give 96MP images SD and MicroSD card slots  
Full details here
https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/mirrorless-cameras/z-f.html
 

I own the lens (bought used a few years ago, don't know how old it actually is).
I haven't used it recently, but yes, from memory the power zooming is reasonably smooth but my copy is a little bit noisy (but quieter than the Pana and Oly pancake PZ lenses) - from comments I've seen, there seems to be some sample variation in noise levels. I can't remember what the focus breathing is like.
Do the BM cameras apply the lens distortion and chromatic aberration corrections?
It'll be a few days before I can do it, but I could put it on my OM-1 or G9 and upload a short test video if that would help you decide?
 

After spending far too much time in the G9ii thread bemoaning MFT, I'm now hypocritically looking to buy another MFT lens so after some opinions about this one if anyone here owns it.

It caught my eye during the demo from BMD about the new Micro Studio Camera4K as it has power zoom controllable from an ATEM and I will be using it on the exact same camera (and/or Pocket4K) controlled in the exact same way.
Power zooms are thin on the ground for most systems but I have the Panasonic 14-42mm and I'm interested in this one for a slightly wider range but also because from what I've seen it is a lot less clunky when zooming than the Panasonic.
If anyone is using it in the same capacity with an ATEM controlling it then I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts but if anyone just uses it as a general lens then I'm interested in that as well in particular its longevity.
It is likely that I will be getting a reasonably old used one for cheap as I don't want to throw much money at it.
This means a bit of a leap of faith as I won't have the ability to test it in the way I'm going to use it and won't easily be able to return it (I'll only briefly be in the country I'm buying it in) so if there are any horror stories regarding zoom motors going rough etc then that would be good to know.
I'm also interested in if anyone has used it with a BMD camera (original Pocket or new) if there is a lot of distortion at the wide end that, of course, is not corrected in those cameras.
Thanks

I feel seen !
The last wedding I went to a few months ago had announced a complete ban on posting pictures online and as a consequence no one took any pictures at all, presumably because if they weren't able to post them in semi-real time then they had no value at all.
As a consequence, the only person that had any images at all was this old duffer.
I tell a lie, there was one person who ignored it which was the groom's sister who took the position that her brother and new sister-in-law aren't exactly Jay Z and Beyonce so there was no embargo with Hello magazine to honour. 
 
 

I feel seen !
The last wedding I went to a few months ago had announced a complete ban on posting pictures online and as a consequence no one took any pictures at all, presumably because if they weren't able to post them in semi-real time then they had no value at all.
As a consequence, the only person that had any images at all was this old duffer.
I tell a lie, there was one person who ignored it which was the groom's sister who took the position that her brother and new sister-in-law aren't exactly Jay Z and Beyonce so there was no embargo with Hello magazine to honour. 
 
 

The quote is from Panasonic themselves, it is the writer that is making an illustrative comparison with the Fuji and Sony models so I'm not sure a conclusion can be drawn from that.
It is more complicated with Panasonic because unlike those two with FinePix and CyberShot or Canon with Powershot etc, they don't have a differently named sub-brand.
Lumix is the name whether its the LX10 or the S1-H so it makes it less clear cut what exactly it is they are stopping doing compared to, say, Sony announcing they are stopping all CyberShot models.
The proof of the pudding will be in if they make anything other than an interchangeable lens camera again as I suspect that is what they are referring to.
They have also walked away from a successor to the king of their fixed lens cameras which is the FZ2000/2500, which is a great shame.
 

I feel seen !
The last wedding I went to a few months ago had announced a complete ban on posting pictures online and as a consequence no one took any pictures at all, presumably because if they weren't able to post them in semi-real time then they had no value at all.
As a consequence, the only person that had any images at all was this old duffer.
I tell a lie, there was one person who ignored it which was the groom's sister who took the position that her brother and new sister-in-law aren't exactly Jay Z and Beyonce so there was no embargo with Hello magazine to honour. 
 
 

I'm only reporting it, not agreeing with it as my own position.
The LX10 and LX100 are not to you or I or anyone else on here that owns them something that a smartphone can replace like for like of course.
But to the wider public, the ship has sailed for virtually all of them that might have bought a compact camera as they are happy enough with their phones.
Thats the position that Panasonic are taking.
Funnily enough, in the past couple of months, I have offered my daughter both my LX10 and LX100 when she has gone on trips to places that I have thought merited more than a phone but she's been "thanks but no thanks".
We are going to Tokyo at the end of next week and I've upped my loan offer to my Sigma Fp or Leica T but she is still not interested.
I don't think she is an outlier either, even though she is over 30 so she has grown up around "real cameras"  from my work, let alone what anyone 25 and under must be like.
What is the demographic at the present time for YouTubers though?
I'm guessing its nowhere near as youthful as it once was and far more affluent too.
TikTok is where the younger generation are and they have grown up without "real" cameras.
They don't mind paying €1500 for a phone that they can run their entire life on (particularly as they all pay monthly for it anyway) but dropping that amount on a camera that brings them a marginal gain as they would see it is a tough sell.
Before we even get to the aspect of whether the current financial climate makes that even viable.
The distance from capture to audience is absolutely minimal and that is something that camera manufacturers have failed to grasp and act upon.
I've said it on here before but even with the absolutely fastest cameras, highly optimised workflow with the fastest cards, readers, computers, transmission infrastructure etc then by the time I'd got an image edited and away onto newspapers and published (even online let alone the printed versions) from pitch side was glacially slow compared to the kid sat behind me on the terraces with his iPhone.
Real cameras are just not equipped to compete with that and with the dwindling attention span of the creators and the consumers it just doesn't appeal to them.
YouTube content was too long so they went to YouTube shorts and now that is too long they're on TikTok.
And its worth bearing in mind that actual "content creation" as we would describe it is a niche anyway so longer form, more thoughtful, content is now a niche within that niche.
Requests for advice about getting a camera from my family or friends that even 5-7 years ago were still pretty frequent have now dwindled to absolutely nil. This could be because of the terrible advice I gave them but that is another matter and I'm sure they would all be happy with those Sigma DP2-Ms if only they concentrated on technique a bit more 🙂 
I'm not advocating what Panasonic have done with leaving the compact market but I do understand it.
Camera manufacturers did themselves absolutely no favours in terms of compact cameras by the obsession they all shared over not giving cameras like the GX80, RX100, LX100 etc etc a microphone input.
 

I'd certainly welcome any of those although with the latter two I'm not sure Panasonic are interested in anything compact with an integrated lens any more in view of this quote from them last summer :
"We've halted developing any new models that can be replaced by a smartphone"
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-trends/Panasonic-Nikon-quit-developing-low-end-compact-digital-cameras#:~:text="We've halted developing any,for photography enthusiasts and professionals.
The tie in with Leica which they re-affirmed last year would probably preclude them from producing anything fixed lens wise either to not tread on the Q line.
Speaking of which....
The Leica Q3 does point the way to what one of those might have spec wise, certainly the 8K aspect.
The re-affirmation of their tie up last year as referenced in that piece above says they are jointly developing a new mirrorless camera and I'd suspect that the Q3 is the fixed lens version of that and the mark 2 versions of the S1 will be the first interchangeable lens versions of it, followed by the SL3.
 

It is certainly an "interesting" choice thats for sure and its a bit like a car having one of those skinny spare tyres.
They tick the "does it have two card slots" box but open up the newer question of "are they both adequate though?".
My Leica T has internal memory which is a boon as it gives you extra storage space if you fill the card up but also provides you with security against the "oh shit I've left the SD card in the reader at home" which I have actually done !
Absent of new cameras offering the same internal storage (and why not by the way) and trying to keep the size down then its a pragmatic choice but it is heavily dependent on the real world requirements of the files its generating and how the implementation is in terms of control.
What is the minimum write speed for h265 10 bit 4K would be the obvious question.
Is there a sufficient buffer in the camera to be able to offload at the slower speed (a pre-capture in reverse) ?
Background copying from the SD to the MicroSD to make it a managed overflow option?
Foreground copying from the SD to the MicroSD?
Jpegs to the MicroSD and RAWs to the SD?
When all that is known then we can move it from "strange and also silly" (which on the face of it would be the case) to a best case of "strange but yeah OK its workable".
In terms of strangeness though, it still isn't in the same ballpark as the fundamental one of putting a small sensor in a full frame body 😉
 
 
 
 

My Df has a broken rear LCD screen so I extend the retro experience fully to having to wait until I get home and "develop" the images before I know if they are OK or not !
Leica want $8K for that experience with their screenless M10D so I feel like I'm winning.

After spending far too much time in the G9ii thread bemoaning MFT, I'm now hypocritically looking to buy another MFT lens so after some opinions about this one if anyone here owns it.

It caught my eye during the demo from BMD about the new Micro Studio Camera4K as it has power zoom controllable from an ATEM and I will be using it on the exact same camera (and/or Pocket4K) controlled in the exact same way.
Power zooms are thin on the ground for most systems but I have the Panasonic 14-42mm and I'm interested in this one for a slightly wider range but also because from what I've seen it is a lot less clunky when zooming than the Panasonic.
If anyone is using it in the same capacity with an ATEM controlling it then I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts but if anyone just uses it as a general lens then I'm interested in that as well in particular its longevity.
It is likely that I will be getting a reasonably old used one for cheap as I don't want to throw much money at it.
This means a bit of a leap of faith as I won't have the ability to test it in the way I'm going to use it and won't easily be able to return it (I'll only briefly be in the country I'm buying it in) so if there are any horror stories regarding zoom motors going rough etc then that would be good to know.
I'm also interested in if anyone has used it with a BMD camera (original Pocket or new) if there is a lot of distortion at the wide end that, of course, is not corrected in those cameras.
Thanks

To be fair, the Godfather was a right fucking mess before he stamped his White Balance skill on it.

 

To be fair, the Godfather was a right fucking mess before he stamped his White Balance skill on it.

 

This had definitely be flying under my radar as a rumour so this was an interesting surprise this morning !

I have had the Df since it was launched and it is a fantastic compact D4 and they have finally brought out its mirrorless equivalent.
Unlike the Df, which has no video at all, the Zf is very competitively equipped for a camera in its $2000 price range.
Key specifications
24MP full-frame BSI CMOS sensor In-body image stabilization rated up to 8EV Dedicated Monochrome mode Up to 14fps continuous shooting (JPEG), 11 fps Raw 'C30' JPEG-only 30fps mode with pre-burst function AF system with tracking and recognition of 9 subject types 4K/60 video from 6K capture with 10-bit N-Log recording 32-shot high-res mode to give 96MP images SD and MicroSD card slots  
Full details here
https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/mirrorless-cameras/z-f.html
 

Nikon have just announced the $2K full frame Zf which is in that vein for compact full frame.

Ironically, the Z mount is so adaptable that it is able to take MFT lenses too ! (Albeit dumbly)
 

PDAF and CDAF are not mutually exclusive and Panasonic's Hybrid AF in the G9Mkii and the S5ii does use both, as do other manufacturer's systems, depending on circumstances.
If the camera can choose from either internally then it also means that what is offered to the user can also be offered or not depending on Panasonic's choice.
They have a well established background in offering paid upgrades (usually v-log but latterly ProResRaw/BRAW on the S5ii) that are activated in camera so if the GH6 is indeed the exact same sensor as the G9Mkii then it would give Panasonic the option to do the same using one of their upgrade licenses to activate Hybrid AF.
However, it does hinge on it being exactly the same sensor and not a variant of it like I have seen reported.
If it isn't exactly the same then its over to our correspondent Harry Callaghan.

I'd say it was a ploy to get people to buy a VideoAssist if they have a requirement to record ProRes if it wasn't for the fact that the HDMI output is capped at 1080p.
Even so, if you have to to the external route to even get 1080p ProRes on the BM then the S5iix with the Ninja V gives you 6K ProRes RAW and 5.8K ProRes to SSD if you don't want to use the monitor.
You are then also getting the two bonuses of the PDAF and IBIS.
And considering the form factor of the 6K series is nothing to write home about, the S5iiX doesn't come off worse in that department either plus you don't have to pay extra for the EVF 🙂 
There are a ton of people who couldn't care less about ProRes, AF, IBIS etc though and don't care that it wasn't the massive leap forward that was anticipated who will be absolutely thrilled by this camera.
And rightly so.
Objectively versus an S5iix though, I'm not sure I would personally bite.