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Robert Collins

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Posts posted by Robert Collins

  1. I doubt Pentax will survive. Ricoh could probably justify (in a Japanese sort of way) keeping the business open while its core business was doing well. But now that its office equipment business has collapsed (and is likely to be difficult for several years) the camera business just becomes an obvious cost saving item.

    I am not sure Canon and Nikon moving their focus to mirrorless really helps Pentax. You now just find that you can pick up Canon and Nikon DSLRs (and to some extent dslr lenses) dirt cheap, so there is no real advantage to moving or choosing Pentax.

    My feeling is that Pentax's lack of move into mirrorless is a sign of weakness (Ricoh not committing to the investment) rather than a core strategic decision. (A bit like Olympus's decision not to join the L mount but stick to M43.)

  2. 2 hours ago, Trek of Joy said:

    There are really no bad options among all the 10-bit FF hybrids, they all have warts, but they all are capable of producing an amazing image. Sometimes we get hung up on bickering over aspects that are dealbreakers for me but not an issue for you. I don’t have the time while I work or the eyesight for manual focus, so for me I need good AF and a few key primes. And I have no interest in a c300 size camera. Obviously others don’t have the same problem. But right now only Sony, Canon and Nikon cover the bases and despite a brief flirtation with the RF mount I’m sticking with Sony. My a7s3 is on the way, it’ll be my first camera that shoots decent 120fps and 10-bit after years of Sony’s 8-bit codec. Good times. 

    cheers

    chris

    Also I feel the majority of people are effectively 'married' to whichever brand they choose. They simply dont have the money, time or inclination to switch to another brand. I am a Sony user with a bunch of Sony compatible lenses, flashes and other equipment so really I only get to choose between Sony cameras. No big deal of course although it has been a little frustrating to see Sony fall behind in the video specs - particularly the move to 10 bit. Still they seemed to have made really good choices (for me) with the A7siii and I cant wait to get my hands on the camera....

  3. 8 minutes ago, Thomas Hill said:

    Back in February, they had the lightest 6 core laptop, fwiw.

    https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/6/21126718/vaio-sx12-laptop-six-cores-light-ultrabook

    Actually I did see that - also it is probably the only laptop with a VGA port...

    Still my question remains - has anyone actually seen a Vaio laptop in the last 5 years? Or is it all some Sony vaporware graveyard?

  4. Honestly Andrew, I think you dont fully appreciate Sony's business model.

    Essentially Sony has close to a monopoly of sensors. As such Sony is not trying to sell 'cameras' - it is trying to sell 'square inch of sensors'. In other words it makes perfect sense to cannibalize APSC in order to promote a sensor size that is 2.25x bigger even at a lower cost per square inch.....

    What Sony is doing here is making 'full frame' - the commodity.....

    The likes of Panasonic can pursue their small sensor, big camera model until they die - but anyone with a basic grasp of finance knows how this will end up...

  5. 7 minutes ago, elgabogomez said:

    So, it looks to be the same sensor from a73... how is it that Sony is the biggest sensor maker in the industry but it doesn’t use innovation on their own cameras??

    Actually this is normal business practice. Becoming the largest producer (or essentially a monopoly) reduces the (profit) incentive to innovate..

  6. 13 hours ago, Trek of Joy said:

    My guess would be next gen AF, the touchscreen, new processor, a better EVF (a7III's is bottom spec as it gets), and better weather sealing. It wouldn't be tough to take it above the a7III's specs/build, and combined with a launch price for a new line - early adopters will pay the price just in time for the holiday shopping season. 

     

    Yes that all sort of makes sense apart from the fact there is probably an A7iv around the corner...

     

    Anyways it seems from the above video that the price in the US is going to be US$1800 which makes far more sense.

  7. On 9/13/2020 at 12:59 AM, Trankilstef said:

    Of course but not this one. Really I don't get it, ergonomically shitty, nothing improved from the A7III and pricey for what it offers.
    I had some other small cameras with big sensors (Sony RX-1RII, Fuji X100F and Leica Q for example) and I could really  understand why those appeal to photographers.
    butseriously this A7c is kind of a joke, no personnality at all, ergonomics seems nothing but bad, good sensor but nothing to write home about.... Very dull in my book.

    I get everything about this camera apart from its pricing. It just sort of seems 'priced not to sell'.

    I mean it is essentially being sold with a 'cheap consumer lens' so how does it make sense to position the camera above the A7iii?

  8. 15 minutes ago, Trek of Joy said:

    I wonder if this new line means the end of the RX1 series? With the 61mp sensor you'd have a lot more room to crop on top of clear image zoom with a fixed lens. But they'd probably need to move to a bigger battery to handle a new processor and larger EVF and such.

    It will be interesting to see if they crank out a7c versions of the a9 or a7r series. If this camera sells well there's nothing to lose for Sony to just recycle internals from those cameras and milk them for more cash. I don't like the controls so its a no-go for me. If they would have simply made that damn EC dial a blank customizable dial or added a front dial it would be something I'd consider. I've used the a6000 series extensively, its annoying trying to adjust what's not on the one rear dial efficiently.

    The new touchscreen fixes the button dance hassle of moving the AF point. But controls are still lacking.

    Chris

    Very much my thoughts too.

    The low key point and shoot design holds a lot of attraction to me. 

    BUT just because it looks like a point and shoot doesnt mean I want it to have the controls of a point and shoot. The lack of front dial is a deal breaker for me...

    Also an 'R' sensor would be great so you can zoom with a small fast prime.

    All in all though, I like the concept and can see buying one (for me or the GF) in the future...

  9. Here in Asia, I have been told that pre-orders will come with a free 80gb 'type A' card - no idea whether this is a global thing.

    BTW, kudos to Sony here - the combined type A/SD card slot is a very smart and consumer friendly approach to memory storage...

  10. 7 hours ago, LightShooter said:

    I dont understand the whole concern about 12MP photos.

    2048 pixels is the max res that the large majority of places that people publish their work. As far as the very few times most people with print their work, I have printed size A3 all day long from my Nikon D3 and even A2 (23.5" x 16.5") with simple upRes technology that most print shops have.

    Question is are the very few times that people are actually getting prints done above 24", then if so, ok.. Yeah 18MP or 24MP.  But seriously, short of poor composition or not having long enough lenses, where crop is involved, but even then that is going to be rare AND rarer that they need to print that larger than 24".  Don't even get me started on needing more storage space.

    For a very large majority, 12MP is more than enough for photos.  So I dont get the argument

    I agree. And I primarily take photos and have an A7riv with 63MP. Sure those MP are nice to have and come in handy for cropping or shooting birds - but 90% of the time they are not strictly necessary. As for printing - the largest print I have in my house is 210cm x 210cm and that print was created from an 8MP photo!!

  11. 1 hour ago, MeanRevert said:

    Good info, thank you.

    So any V90 card can handle all the modes including slow mo and All I?

    There are a couple of 'All I' modes - HD 240 and 4K 120 I believe - that need CF Express cards. Phillip Bloom covers it in this video....

    But essentially V90 have you covered if you sacrifice 'All i' in some modes, Of course V90 are still pretty expensive - ProGrade often has good deals on them.

  12. 8 hours ago, Clément Gabriel Jolivet said:

     

     

    What i'm curious to know is what non Sony lenses will support this (Tamron ? Sigma?). And if a profile could be added in catalyst to support non Electronic lenses like vintage ones for instance (which you can do with Steadxp btw as you have to create profiles for each lenses / focals).

     

     

    I dont have a definitive answer although in this video below the guy shows working with a 'Sigma EF' lens/adapter/FX9 ....

     

     

  13. 59 minutes ago, thefactory said:

    I have pre ordered a7siii as i can’t wait any longer for picture profiles on my a9. Still not sure if i will go through with it though. 

    Isnt there a technical limitation for Picture Profiles on the A9 series due to the stacked sensor?

    I have pre-ordered an A7siii too. The camera has come through the last two weeks of reviews pretty unscathed. Biggest disappointment for me is that IBIS remains behind the competition (although improved.) But Sony seems to have got things mostly right with this camera and it is a marked improvement over their last 2 A9/A7 releases which were limited to a refresh of a few features....

  14. In the photography stills world nobody talks about color science. Nobody says Panasonics jpegs are better than Canon or Sonys. That is because people are shooting 12/14 bit raws and you get to choose exactly what colors you want. I sort of feel in a 10 bit world straight out of camera colors are simply less important because you get so much more leeway to create the colors that you desire.

    Of course there will be always be people who like to shoot jpegs or straight out of camera video but then you dont really need 10 bit at all.

  15. As a Sony user, I can say that it has been pretty easy to overheat the last 3 Sony A7 cameras I have bought - particularly the A7r3 - when shooting 4k 30p video for any length of time. As such, the A7siii seems to be something of an improvement from what I have read even though it clearly does overheat in some instances. Sony were clearly asking for trouble though by stating that that it wouldnt overheat.

    Overall though my theory is that Sony didnt really take the 'high road' but the Canon decided to take the 'low road'. Canon probably reasoned that if Sony can put out cameras that 'overheat' and still sell boatloads why cant they do the same?

  16. 2 hours ago, Danyyyel said:

     

    Do people think that Sony or even Panasonic will stay in this market for long. Just look at the graph, do you think giant company like Sony are going to stick to like (I read somewhere) 5% or less for a side business that is going even further down. My guess in Max 5 years Sony and Panasonic will have moved from the MILC market, while the historic camera manufacturers will still continue into a post digital era camera market. Which will comprise of enthusiast and professional that will renew their camera every 3 to 5 years.

    Sony is not really in the business of selling 'cameras' but 'image sensors' - a business they dominate and until recently couldnt make enough of (smartphones now often have 5 image sensors when 10 years ago they had 1 or 2.)

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-23/sony-can-t-make-image-sensors-fast-enough-to-keep-up-with-demand

    The camera business is simply a halo product for this business where they can show off their latest tech and be at the forefront of this business. The camera business doesnt really have to make money itself if it is promoting their image sensor business. Their strategy has been incredibly successful judging from their share price....

    376124646_ClipboardImage(90).thumb.jpg.2ce66960ea69d84be1fb528a967b7d56.jpg

    ....in marked contrast with someone like Canon....

    658493029_ClipboardImage(91).thumb.jpg.3b77ef491a97b72667e5134442ccd28a.jpg

    So I dont think Sony's camera business will be disappearing anytime soon....

  17. On the A7siii - is it confirmed that 1080 120fps is pixel binned/line skipped (or both)? (Androidlad pointed this out.) I keep on reading reviews saying it is down sampled from 4k

  18. 2 hours ago, Trek of Joy said:

    Damn, on the DR side - much like the 1dx3 - Canon has clearly caught Sony with the R5. Its now at the head of the class with Sony's best. That extra stop advantage Sony had is no more...

    Chris

    Screen Shot 2020-08-01 at 8.04.03 PM.png

    Looks like Canon made a marketing mistake, focusing on video specs - where the camera clearly has some drawbacks. As a stills camera it looks to be very impressive indeed.

  19. 5 minutes ago, Trek of Joy said:

    I'm with you. Still waiting for that unicorn to appear, for a brief second the R5 was it and I had one that would have been delivered Thursday. Then it literally went down in flames. Given that we really won't see anything significant for another couple of years now that Canon has gone all-in with the R5/6, Nikon is drunk and passed out with the rumored Z6s/7s, all Sony has left is the a7IV which will be hit with the cripple hammer compared to the a7s3, and nobody else is making significant headway - I've accepted the fact that the one camera hybrid solution isn't happening anytime soon. One body will shoot mostly stills, one mostly video, lots of lens changes, and lots of damn sensor swabs since Sony's 3rd/4th gen cams attract dust like no other camera I've used. Holy shit the a73/a7r3's are a dust magnet compared to the a7r2/s2 I carried across six continents!

    Anyway, needing to go two cameras means I've ordered the a7s3 and I'm now looking to shift my a7r3 to a a7r4 so AF and accessories are mirrored (pun intended) between the two with grips, underwater housings and so on. This will cover me for the next 2-3 years until someone gets it right in the next round of updates.

    Cheers

    Chris

    Going the same route. Have an A7riii and A7riv. Will sell the A7riii and buy an A7siii. Will be set for a couple of years....

  20. 2 hours ago, Video Hummus said:

    Dans overheated. Kai’s overheated in direct sun. Gerald said he didn’t have a problem. Tony said he couldn’t get it to overheat. B&H used it in direct sun and didn’t have a problem. Potato Jet recorded 40 mins in a room. Put it in a 104 degree oven and it lasted 13 minutes directly after the 40.

    So we have wildly different temperature results.

    R5/6 seem to overheat more consistently problem is it’s consistently worse with a huge recover time so bad you might as well try again tomorrow.

    The Sony has an overheating cut off setting which is normal by default but can be set to high. Probably explains the different overheating results to some extent.

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