Robert Collins

It is a new feature. The Sony announcement also mentions a 'new AWB algorithm' which results in 'better color reproduction'. Hopefully this will hold true as Sony's AWB isnt the best. One feature I would have liked to see added to the firmware update (that isnt) is the ability to send RAW stills to smart devices via wifi.

My 'guess' would be very little difference. Samsung has been interchanging image sensors between its own and Sony's on its Sx smartphone series for years without anyone really noticing or finding very much of a difference.

I use polar pro - well built,good quality, fit well and go on and off easily. Can’t say whether they are worth the premium price over pgytech. For the Mavic pro 2 - with its variable aperture - you really only need an nd8 equivalent to control your shutter speed and you can buy single nds at Polarpro.

DJI announced their ‘smart controller’ a couple of days ago to little fanfare and a very lukewarm reception. The chief complaint seems to be the price - @US$649. Seems not at all bad to me considering the 1000 nit 5.5inch CS screen. (Very useful here in Asia.) I guess if you don’t want that, there.is not much point.

My previous bag was a Lowepro protactic. Lowepro bags are extremely well made, good looking and comfortable. However, there was one major problem for me. The divider system was extremely fiddly and prone to falling apart. This was especially true in my case as I chop and change layouts quite a bit. My current backpack is the Peak Design 45L travel backpack which has by far the best divider system I have come across. Currently in Rajasthan with two Sony bodies, 8 lenses, a Mavic 2 Pro + stuff, ipad and laptop. I think it is well worth taking a look at - it is certainly high quality and pricey! But people tend to either love or hate Peak Design and I guess I am a bit of a fan boy (I have 2 of their everyday messenger bags.) There are plenty of youtube videos on the product..

Settings Gimbal pitch speed 12, smoothness 20 (makes gimbal movement smoother and less twitchy) Controller Expo settings .25, .10, .25 (makes yaw movement less twitchy)

Also the newer 19 9900k looks to be a nice upgrade over the 8700k if you are doing a new build. https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Premiere-Pro-CC-2018-Core-i7-9700K-i9-9900K-Performance-1254/

It would be sort of depressing if you did!!!

When I took up doing a bit of video about 18 months ago, one of the first things I did was to watch a 10 hour video called something like 'The Phillip Bloom Master Class'. One of the things that really struck me was how little video grading he did. Basically he applies 'Film Convert' plugin to his video and tweaks it a bit.I guess this gives him a consistent look across cameras because the camera and profile are inputs for the plugin. It also tends to add grain although I vaguely remember that he tended to dial it back.

For the 1 x 4 panos they typically end up at 20-24mp. The 3x3 panos will be a lot larger but they are pretty much unusable due to the lens distortion when the camera points up and down.

This is a good review although I think (like a lot of the reviews) it sort of misses the point. Most of the 'reviewers' are serious photo and video enthusiasts and I would 100% agree that if you are looking at it from the perspective of a pro/enthusiast tool it is fiddly and frustrating. Half the more 'pro' features only sort of work and usually come with with some sort of gotcha. 4k 60 loses facial recognition and tracking and cant be downloaded to a smartphone, histograms and zebras arent much use if you cant do a lot with exposure, raw stills/panos only work with the smartphone attached (unless you dont switch modes) and cant be downloaded to your smartphone. Etc, etc.... But this product seems firmly aimed at smartphone users who want to take their photos/videos up a notch or two with the minimum of hassle or effort. And this it does really well and is a lot of 'fun' to use. My just turned 5 year old son absolutely loves it - so does my GF... And the quality is really impressive, as is the auto focus (following the update). As an example here is a jpeg (you can do raw) pano.... And here is a 1:1 zoom (1920 x 1080) of the red box area. Generally speaking, lots of detail and not much noise. How does DJI do it? Well it takes advantage of the fact that the camera is on a gimbal to shoot at a very slow shutter speed - choosing 1/10th of a second (resulting in a relatively low iso of 400) - for the pano shots.

Apparently, there may not have been a drone at all, at Gatwick!! https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/749790/gatwick-drone-couple-released-arrest-flights-cancelled-airport

I do think it takes two to tango. There are a couple of aggravating factors. First most Sony users are recent ex-Canon or ex-Nikon users and some tend to have the irritating habit of going back to their old stomping grounds (Canikon forums) and telling people how ‘fab’ there new camera is. Second, there has historically been the whole dslr v mirrorless debate which has tended to lead to dslr users being anti-Sony which is the perfect recipe to clash with Sony fan-boyism. I mean I once saw someone post that he/she would never ever be seen with a Sony A7 even if someone paid two grand...

There would be a lot of resistance from A7x 'still photographer' users (the bulk of the buyers), to a larger body. One of the major attractions of the A7x series is the relatively small body (not everyone is coming from bulky DSLRs) and not everyone is putting large bulky lenses on their A7x. Remember Fuji tried this with the X-H1 and it didnt sell well. The A7siii is a different story though. Clearly it is for video shooters and they tend to prefer bigger bodies and would accept it for better video. We seem to have reached something of a 'crossroads' in terms of FF 'hybrid' cameras. It seems the tech (processors/sensor) is there to give 'stills' photographers exactly what they want - say an A7riv with a 60mp sensor capable of shooting 14 bit 'raw' at 10 frames a second. But for 'better video' we need 'more efficient processors' and/or bigger bodies - both of which 'add cost' but bring no real benefits for still photographers.

I have had one for a few days but I am still trying to get to grips with it. Overall, it seems remarkably accomplished for a 1st gen product. They have got a lot right. As examples... 1) The startup time is incredibly fast - max 5 seconds. 2) The screen is both very clear and bright. 3) The touch interface is really fast and responsive 4) ..same with the software interface There are a whole load of gotchas admittedly. No face or active tracking in 4k 60p. If you really need to take advantage of 'pro' mode you need to attach a phone (although there is quite a lot of scope to switch between stills and video without a phone.) Battery life is pretty feeble (and seems less than the reviews I have seen). Audio quality issues might be partially down to two separate mics - one of which is right next to the control buttons that some reviewers might have accidentally covered up. Some of the advertised features 'story mode' and 'D-Cinelike' I dont think are in the app/camera yet. Difficult not to be impressed though. Biggest complaint from me is the lack of integrated wifi/bluetooth.