BTM_Pix

Does this mean that those specialist art films his wife made back in the old country will now have a 100% tariff ?
 

Does this mean that those specialist art films his wife made back in the old country will now have a 100% tariff ?
 

I don’t really agree with “if you can’t beat them, join them” attitude to stuff like this.
Being a right wing imbecile is very much on the rise but it doesn’t mean we should just fall into line with it.
AI should be used for taking away mundanity like doing the dishes and laundry from our lives to free us up to do the fun and creative stuff not steal that from us.
I’ve got admiration for whoever’s work was used to “train” this but only contempt for those who are facilitating and grifting on the blatant theft of original work.
Do you not see that these tools that you are espousing will only make that situation immeasurably worse ?
This will literally give these people the ability to say “yeah just make that last one again with a slight variation and set in a different location” and churn this shit out even faster and with waaayyyy more profitability than they do now ?

I don’t really agree with “if you can’t beat them, join them” attitude to stuff like this.
Being a right wing imbecile is very much on the rise but it doesn’t mean we should just fall into line with it.
AI should be used for taking away mundanity like doing the dishes and laundry from our lives to free us up to do the fun and creative stuff not steal that from us.
I’ve got admiration for whoever’s work was used to “train” this but only contempt for those who are facilitating and grifting on the blatant theft of original work.
Do you not see that these tools that you are espousing will only make that situation immeasurably worse ?
This will literally give these people the ability to say “yeah just make that last one again with a slight variation and set in a different location” and churn this shit out even faster and with waaayyyy more profitability than they do now ?

Does this mean that those specialist art films his wife made back in the old country will now have a 100% tariff ?
 

I don’t really agree with “if you can’t beat them, join them” attitude to stuff like this.
Being a right wing imbecile is very much on the rise but it doesn’t mean we should just fall into line with it.
AI should be used for taking away mundanity like doing the dishes and laundry from our lives to free us up to do the fun and creative stuff not steal that from us.
I’ve got admiration for whoever’s work was used to “train” this but only contempt for those who are facilitating and grifting on the blatant theft of original work.
Do you not see that these tools that you are espousing will only make that situation immeasurably worse ?
This will literally give these people the ability to say “yeah just make that last one again with a slight variation and set in a different location” and churn this shit out even faster and with waaayyyy more profitability than they do now ?

My favourite AI outcome would be for it to fuck right off.

My favourite AI outcome would be for it to fuck right off.

Damn, that’s a much better price than I paid even just a few months back, but hey ho.
I am really intrigued now what it can do video-wise, especially with the current RED luts and anything future that may come in that regard.
I guess I really need to shoot a straight heads up against my S9 because I think it could easily slip into that role as at least a run & gun video unit.
That would then mean a switch to Nikon for all video needs which is something I have been complementing for 2026 anyway…

My favourite AI outcome would be for it to fuck right off.

My favourite AI outcome would be for it to fuck right off.

My favourite AI outcome would be for it to fuck right off.

Oddly enough, I actually had a dream last night that I had a Nikon Zf.
Based on its excellent performance in that dream, I can concur with @MrSMW that it is a great camera.
Then this morning I got an alert that the Zf has been reduced to £1400 on Amazon.
This might be a sign.
Possibly a sign not to eat cheese before bed as I’ve never had such a vivid dream about a camera before.
Particularly not one where I was shooting an intimate portrait of the Loch Ness Monster with it.
 
 
 

Well you can but I'd only spend it on cameras and lenses as well.
I've got all four of the MFT PZ lenses (2 Panasonic and 2 Olympus) and they are lurking somewhere around where I am at the moment.
If I can dig them out and get some time next week, I can put them on a P4K and do some quick shots for you if you are keen.
Won't be anything fancy, it will just be a couple of locked off shots of a Northern seaside town well past its mid-20th century pomp but it'll all be at f5.6 😉 

Further north and more nuclear power station adjacent.
Or further west if the S you are thinking of is somewhere on the east coast.
 

It will be available in any colour you like as long as its brown.

Cam Mackey hears your call to action and is now working on it.

Few additional findings and notes:
Tested it in bright sunlight conditions. It is great. Fully isolates the eye. Because it perfectly isolates the eye from external light, once brightness is adjusted there is no need to change it. Optics actually are better than thought initially. It has several lenses not just one loupe. Most likely metal housing was designed and used for smaller sensors - 0.5''. Current one is bigger at 0.7'' that's why far end corners aren't perfectly visible. I saw this only when was feeding it with signal from my laptop. When shooting with Sony ZV-E1 as already mentioned it displays a 3:2 crop at 1620x1080px and everything is perfectly visible and in focus. one relatively simple modification would be to cut the current cable and solder a female HDMI and probably glue it to the side of the EVF. This would allow to use better or custom HDMI cables. size is just perfect for cameras like Sony ZV-E1 and all other mirrorless cameras, especially when you don't want to use a rig and have just the camera and a lens, probably also a cage as it is in my case. Nice experience. Makes shooting with an EVF really comfortable. The more I use it, the more I like it  😀

I did a post about it a while back on the OG Pocket where it’s kind of accidentally par focal at f5.6 but maybe on a native Panasonic body it might be properly corrected ?
I did a video of it on the P4K to illustrate the functionality of the BM controller app that I wrote and it was so so with that as you can see when it shows the servo zoom function .
If you’re looking for a cheap 12-32 then the Panasonic f3.5-5.6 kit lens one is limited functionality wise (no manual focus or aperture) but has OS and is absolutely tiny.
I did some stuff (again with the OG Pocket) here. And it also has a companion lens in the same vein in the 35-100mm f4-5.6 to make a tiny two lens kit with a great range.
 

Man, my 50 years are starting to show. I now remember all of this. At least I didn't technically quote you to you.
And I also remember how fantastic your focus module works. I need to stop buying cameras and lenses and send my money to you. 

I did a post about it a while back on the OG Pocket where it’s kind of accidentally par focal at f5.6 but maybe on a native Panasonic body it might be properly corrected ?
I did a video of it on the P4K to illustrate the functionality of the BM controller app that I wrote and it was so so with that as you can see when it shows the servo zoom function .
If you’re looking for a cheap 12-32 then the Panasonic f3.5-5.6 kit lens one is limited functionality wise (no manual focus or aperture) but has OS and is absolutely tiny.
I did some stuff (again with the OG Pocket) here. And it also has a companion lens in the same vein in the 35-100mm f4-5.6 to make a tiny two lens kit with a great range.
 

Picked up a used GH6 and got the LogC firmware and I am loving it. I have a Lens Turbo in FD mount and the underrated 35-105mm Canon lens, but am looking to keep this set up as native as possible. I picked up a 7artisans 24mm 1.4 on the cheap and am pleasantly surprised by the lens, especially since every review I could find of it, trashes it. Since almost every review was with the lens on an aps-c camera, I assume some of the goop is cropped out with m4/3.
Anyway, I'm looking for a cheap zoom, probably a Panasonic kit, that is better than it should be. I intend on making it my Spielberg f/5.6 lens, but then I got to wondering if any of the kit lenses are accidentally parfocal? I'd love for the little 14-42 PZ to be that lens, but for some reason I doubt it. I assume I'll eventually give in and get the 12-35mm for the added IBIS, but the point of the camera is to keep it on the cheap.
Here are a few frames from the 7artisans in case anyone is interested. These were my first few shots with the lens and the LogC profile. Other than the Arri LUT and an s-curve, no construction equipment was harmed with this set up...
 

Thats a really nice find.
The lack of power requirement and small form factor makes it ideal for cameras like the S9 etc and the BM cameras like the Micro but also for the Pocket4K.
It doesn't really have to be the absolute pinnacle with all the bells and whistles as a lot of the time with something EVF less like the S9 etc as you just need it as an add on for when shooting outdoors.
I'm surprised someone hasn't been buying these, slapping their own logo on and selling them on for twice the price.
CineFran would've done exactly that if he hadn't moved on to barefaced retro console emulation scamming.

Recently saw a second hand Sony ZV-E1 on a local online market place. Price was good and I bought it. Great video camera but lacks EVF. Same is true for it's pro oriented brother FX3.
Typically those type of cameras are used with external monitor on professional shoots or with camera LCD display only when vlogging. If you like EVFs and want to add one,  choice is not great. No external add-on EVF from Sony like the one Sigma FP has. Portkeys LEYE III modified with better loupe is the cheapest one at 450-500 E/$ but I wouldn't call it small. Then Kinefinity EVF for 1250 E/$. Great one but definitely not affordable. There is an obvious gap and need for a relatively small, high quality, affordable external EVFs for cinema / hybrid cameras.
I was looking for quite some time on AliExpress for Mini OLED displays (0.39'' to 0.7'') as a building blocks for DIY External EVF. Usually they come with controller board with HDMI input too. Almost bought some components preparing to do some 3D design and printing around them. Surprisingly found an EVF ready to be used. This type of EVFs were designed to be used with industrial instruments and were on AliExpress for quite some time. They all had lower resolution and AV video inputs in the past. For the first time saw one with 1920x1080 resolution on a 0.7'' mini OLED display and HDMI input. Also for the first time this type of EVFs is targeted toward cameras. Price was good too at 230E/$ so I decided to give it a try.
Received the EVF few days ago and am happy to report that it is better than expected. Here is the list of things that I like and few that I don't like:
What I Like:
High resolution 1920x1080 ( equivalent to 6 220 800 dot camera EVF).  Cameras EVFs have 4:3 ratio to cover 3:2 frame + some black strips on top and bottom to display information like exposure and other camera settings. The sensor on this one has 16:9 aspect ratio. To get 3:2 ratio the EVF crops the image to 1620x1080. Still great resolution at the level of ~5 mln dots EVFs like the one in Panasonic S1 series. I see in the EVF exactly what I see on the LCD screen of Sony ZV-E1 minus peaking. This is a rather good thing. Solid, all metal outer shell, good, even great quality of craftsmanship. Eye cup is big, made from rubber and fits around the eye much better than traditional camera EVFs. Big and bright screen - has at least 10 levels of brightness that can be changed and controlled manually. Picture inside looks big and bright, quite easy to see. Smooth focusing / diopter correction ring. HDMI cable is integrated, ready to be plugged into a camera. HDMI cable looks to have good quality. No need of additional power or battery. It gets small amount of power (500mA) from HDMI. This is a huge plus for me. Has mounting thread, can easily be mounted on rigs or cages or even on camera hot shoe. Can be tilted  and placed in any position you want. Another huge plus. I've simply put it on monitor holder for hot shoe, which is mounted on the camera cage. EVF sits higher and is slightly tilted. It also provides 3rd point of contact and add stability. I am able to hold the camera lower and closer to the chest, which makes it more stable when shooting.  Optimal size for me ! Not too small and not too big. Relatively light. Another huge plus. Optics made of glass, look high quality. Great price for what it offers - 200 Euro ($) including shipping and taxes after some Aliexpress discount. Because EVF receives its power from HDMI you don't have to switch it on separately. It has its own ON/OFF switch but if you stop the camera, EVF stops too as it doesn't receive power from HDMI. This is very convenient because it semi integrates with the camera, you don't have to switch it on/off separately.
What could be better:
While loupe (optics) craftsmanship is high quality, optical schema is probably not the best. Seeing tower end of the frame and in the corners is kind of difficult. In photo mode EVF has to show picture with 3:2 ratio. It crops the display at 1620x1080 to achieve this ratio. Same is true for video. This is great because this way corners of the OLED display are always cropped and dark while picture in the EVF is still high quality and resolution is still great too. So you always look at a picture which is in focus from end to end and you can see the whole of it. Brightness control  has many steps but goes only in one direction. Adjusting it when you want to make picture darker or go at the opposite direction is difficult. You have to cycle trough all settings value until arriving before the setting you were a moment ago. Brightness control button is too small and uncomfortable to use. Both are not huge issues because eye cup completely isolates your eye and cuts external light at almost 100%. Once you set the brightness level you rarely need to adjust it. It doesn't have the additional tools a pro external viewfinder usually has - like peaking, False color, zebras, etc. Because it takes power from camera and becomes additional consumer, battery is drained a little faster. Hard to say how much faster. I still prefer this compared to EVF that have their own battery. Picture is not as clear as in a high quality camera viewfinder. Native camera EVF receives video stream that already has noise reduced. Image on HDMI out from the camera is more like RAW video, lots of noise in the shadows at high ISO, some noise even at lower ISO. I guess the same would be with any external EVF, even expensive PRO ones. It's not EVF's fault. I also see sometimes some texture like noise, not sure because of this particular OLED display or because of the HDMI out stream. Overall picture quality is not up to what you see in a camera integrated EVF but it is close. Surprisingly noise in the shadows helps me better judge exposure and use successfully ETTR. I live in a PAL region but camera was set to NTSC to have 24fps. There was a lot of flicker in EVF image even when only natural (sun) light was available. Maybe this can be avoided with some additional camera settings. No such problem when camera is set to PAL and 25fps. Sometimes when adjusting brightness, EVF looses sync and doesn't display any image. Have to switch camera on/off one time and problem is resolved. Not a big deal but it happened once or twice. HDMI cable is integrated. A PRO EVF has just HDMI out socket and you can choose your own HDMI cable. This one can be easily modified IMHO.   Size: L=~50mm; Diameter ~43mm; weight 188g with the integrated HDMI cable

Overall I like it a lot. There is nothing like it on the market and especially at this price point. I am surprised it took Chinese manufactures so long to figure out that a good market for external EVFs exists. I prefer it over modified Portkey LEYE III because of the smaller size and no need to plug and charge another battery. I may buy another one. 🙂 Now my Sony ZV-E1 has an EVF and a great one too. 🙂 
Here is the link:
On Aliexpress
You can find it on ebay too. Search for V780H EVF
Here how it sits on top of Sony ZV-E1

First day out shooting in Seoul.  Here are some images.
These are all frame-grabs, were ETTR, had a look put over them with Resolve FLC plugin, and I adjusted exposure on each (and contrast on the odd one or two) and that's it.  I'm sure I will finesse them once I start editing for real, but this is essentially just looking at my dailies.










Setup is incredibly easy to use thanks to the huge DR, AF is super-snappy, the 14-140mm zoom gives so much flexibility and I'm finding I'm using the long end a lot more than I thought I would.
I'll post some video footage of it later, but I'm also finding that I can hand-hold at 140mm (280mm FF equivalent) and with the OIS + IBIS working together get almost no movement in the frame at all, and with a slight crop in post I'd get locked-off images.  At anything below 80mm or 100mm the frame is locked and won't need any stabilisation in post.  Incredible results.