Robert Collins

Max really does a good job and fast too!! Mind you he does look as though he hasnt slept for a week!!

Well I think the very definition of 'Mojo' is 'something' based on very little 'information' at all.

Well strangely enough I 'am' an economist (or have a PHD in Economics from Cambridge Uni (UK))...

I dont think that prediction is particularly 'wild'. I know absolutely nothing about electronics but all I am really doing is extending 'Moore's Law' (which has held true for the last 40 years) into the next 10. Moore's Law states at its simplest that pretty much everything in electronics gets 'faster, more powerful and cheaper' by a factor of 30% every year. As an example my Sony A7r3 is already capable of reading at least 8 x 14bit Raws (equivalent to 604mbytes/sec or 5,000mbits/sec) off its 42 mp sensor at 8 fps. That is enough to read 9 mp 14 bit RAWs at 30fps in 4k. Unfortunately no cards can write that fast but that is changing pretty fast. So I really dont think it is a huge stretch to say that ILCs will be able to write 4k raw video internally at a price point of say US$1500 within 10 years.

I wont necessarily disagree with you but I think there is a high chance we are coming from different perspectives. What you say might well hold for 'jpegs' or 'video' but it simply isnt true for RAW. As an example here is a photo I took (on an A7ii) a couple of years ago - 'raw unprocessed' And here is the Lightroom processed image - you cant do this with M43 (and this was FF 3 years ago.) Now, of course, I cant shoot raw video with my FF Sony (or 12/14 bit) but this will eventually come to video (and I would guess at a very reasonable price) and at that point M43 will be at a major disadvantage.

Conceptually 'video' has always had bigger trade offs for going FF than a smaller sensor. A smaller sensor makes it easier to autofocus in video - less of a problem with FF. A smaller sensor makes it easier to stabilize than FF. A year ago I was of the view that FF was the 'sweet spot' for stills and M43 for video. Now I use FF (for both) (Sony). But that is partly out of a desire for one system to do it all. Theoretically sensor silicon gets cheaper every year while lens glass does not - so an extra 'equivalent' stop in sensor gets cheaper relative to an extra 'equivalent' glass stop. Stills shooters tend to be sensor size snobs so this argument is pretty much done. Video is different but I still think the tech will tend to converge to FF.

No doubt. But as I have said before 'equivalence' means different things to different people and probably different things to a 'mostly stills shooter' as opposed to a 'mostly video' guy. To me a Nocticron (42.5/1.2) on M43 is equivalent to an 85 f2.4 on a FF sensor in terms of both DOF and total light on the sensor. I have owned both (and currently own the 85 1.4 for Sony) and can tell you the 85 1.4 absolutely smokes what I was getting for stills with M43 (and the Nocticron was my favorite M43 lens). Pretty much the same applies for the 100-400 FE on FF which is 4.5-5.6 as opposed to 5.6-8.0 equivalent on M43.

I am not really sure that is the right way of looking at things. The Sony A7 was launched at US$1700 in October 2013. Today it can be bought from B&H new for US$800. 4 years ago a sub US$1,000 FF new for less than US$1,000 was almost unthinkable. The A7iii is a powerhouse. In most respects it surpasses (imho) the US$3200 Canon 5D MK4 - so you can easily argue it is a bargain. In fact, in the stills world at least, this makes things fairly tricky for Panasonic, Olympus and Fuji who price their premium models at the same price point but with much smaller sensors. Canon appears to have morphed into a manufacturer of entry level cameras.

Well the Sonyalpharumors rumors were pretty wide of the mark 167 autofocus points (actual 693) No 1080 120 fps So I am guessing the source really didnt know anything. I would be seriously surprised if those specs were ever planned for US$1899 - they seem incredibly reasonable at the US$1999 price point.

Yes sure, you may well be right. I am merely speculating along with everyone else. I think expectations are high - almost like a GH5 specs with a sensor 4 times the size. And given the problems that Sony have had with overheating (and also Fuji specs or Canon specs) I am just not sure that's possible. The A7iii already brings substantial improvements over the A7sii in areas such as af (and maybe matching lowlight) at significantly lower price point. Sony has already exceeded expectations with the A9, A7riii and A7iii and I just feel if it cant produce a home run with the A7siii it wont materialise anytime soon.

Well one of the reasons I say that is that Sony manufactures batches off the same assembly line. The A7iii will be its best selling camera so they will run a long batch. I dont think they will have the time to release the A7siii at NAB in early April.

I am not actually that convinced there will be an A7siii in the near future. I mean if Sony cant give 1080 240, 4k60 or internal 10 bit due to overheating there actually doesnt seem to be any point. I would also have expected the A7siii to be released before the A7iii if it was coming.

I guess that is also debatable with speedboosters etc. But I do think that Sony is making a powerful argument that FF is where we are going to eventually end up....

Well of course the whole equivalence argument tends to mean different things to different people. But I found that I was increasingly looking for bigger and more expensive lenses with M43 than what I considered their equivalent with FF.... http://camerasize.com/compact/#579.639,482.683,ha,t

You know, I would like to believe this is true but I dont think it is. I just find it incredibly hard to believe that a company with double the camera revenues of its nearest competitor has half the tech of everyone else...

You know I already find it pretty staggering the amount of patience shown towards Canon and their lack luster releases. It seems every other camera manufacturer can release products that their customers can get genuinely excited about.

I think you are misreading the press release - I believe it is saying that the 4k 30fps is oversampled 1.6x

Seems very likely the A7iii will be launched today - 4pm Las Vegas time, midnight London. Rumored specs and price sound pretty good....

This seems to be shaping up to a dream drone - basically the best of the P4 pro combined with the best of a Mavic

I just got my son’s first school class group photo. By any standards it was terrible.Blown out white shirts, very poor printing and even worse mounting. It looks like one of those photos they stick on a plate and try to flog you at the end of a day trip. On the plus side it was very cheap. So I would imagine the photog could have done a lot better. But it seems to me the most likely reason it was cheap is that the parents aren’t prepared to pay a premium these days. I guess they all have plenty of great photos of their kids that they are unlikely to treasure a class photo of their kid looking like a mannequin in a shop window.

If you want a really good lens that is really cheap, look no further than the 28-70 kit lens.

I have looked but couldn’t find anything so I have just made my own... I have been shooting hlg2 and rec709 because I don’t understand BT2020 properly (again not a lot of info around). I just happen to like hlg because I can shoot at iso100.

The story doesn’t really pass the smell test in terms of turning into reality. Red is a company that sells an oversized smartphone for us$1600 and oversized ssds at us$5/gb (which is 10 times the going rate.)

Agree about the a6500 - a strange body. And in any case the lens selection just isnt there with Sony apsc (nothing like the Fuji 56 1.2 for instance). My feeling is that Sony is trying to move its customers over to FF and is losing interest in apsc. I think all these arguments over 8 bit v 10 bit are rather moot when you are talking about DSLR/ILCs. It is fine for Panasonic to be able to introduce 10 bit because they have a sensor a quarter the size of FF in a massive body (relatively). We know that Sony have had overheating problems with 4k 8 bit in the past (both apsc and FF). We can probably see that Fuji is struggling heatwise with 4k - by the 20 minute time limit and the bigger, thicker heat sink body size. The same argument goes for 4k 60p.