MrSMW

I have the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 welded to my S5ii because it makes for a superb lightweight, autofocus 4k 50p beast. The focal length works for me here with 27-75 FF equivalent being just about perfect for my needs. The pairing also live on the gimbal which itself spends most of it's time, on a lightweight but full-sized tripod rather than the dinky tabletop thing they tend to come with. I like the fact that it's not faster than f2.8 also because that's just about a perfect DOF for the main use I have for this set up which is; longer static stuff (ceremonies and speeches at weddings), entrances and exits (tracking) plus couple walking gimbal stuff. But if Lumix did not have cropped 4k 50/60p, I probably would use a FF lens instead. Image quality-wise though, I can't see any difference but as the S5ii only shoots 4k 50p in S35, it makes sense to have the smallest and lightest lens.

We should meet up some time and do a photo walk or something now that I live only 2 hours away from Paris by train. I was there last weekend actually, but family stuff for a few days. I didn't know about the Nikon place/event, - could be interesting even though I have not been a Nikon shooter in over a decade now.

Same as it’s always been and something I have never understood because surely any company, large or small, is going to maintain loyalty by looking after their existing customers which is cheaper than chasing new ones. I have never understood this mentality 🤔 When it comes to the camera industry, certain folks such as Canon and Leica seem to have a lot of brand loyalty from their older fan base as does Nikon just because of their perceived established history. Fuji has developed a certain cache in recent years due to their product, their firmware upgrades and the whole vintage/retro/funky slight underdog vibe. Panasonic have some brand loyalty due to their quality but almost near fuck all community recently, (had some with the GH cameras but limited with full frame) though that seems to be coming back a bit with the S5ii as many of last weeks Sony fan club have jumped on Lumix this week. Sony is the wunderkind on the block that seems to attract the youngest element (along with Fuji) but seems to have the most flip floppers who seem to dip in and out of the brand all the time, but seem to be giving with one hand (inovation) but withholding on the other a la Canon in order to protect sales of other lines. Basically I don’t give a single one of them a pass and not a single one of them earns my loyalty as a brand. I simply choose and use what is the least compromised option, within my budget, for my needs.

Exactly. Anything can have all the paper specs in the world but if when you step outside your front door… Or even remain on your couch like Dan 🤔 I’m all for small, light and ingenious and I am well aware of what/who the target market is, but there are plenty of other options sooooo much better than this. Who would it work for? C/casual cam for someone who can say, “OKfuckit” and flip over to their FX30 in under 10 seconds when it shuts down. I can see a place for it and some of it’s features are pretty funky, but I think what most of us are mainly criticising is it’s not going to be a reliable sole camera for anyone that is working I guess. The ZV1 was great but it had that problem most small cameras suffer from, near zero thermal management. Mine overheated too many times so it had to go. But then I probably should not have been using it for what I was using it for! 🤪

Sony not offering firmware updates doesn’t bother me. I use Lumix cameras. But being serious, I have never purchased a camera based on a promise of what it might or will be at some point in the future. I will buy it (or not) based on merit with what it comes with. If something is updated with something I find useful, then that is a bonus, but not an expectation. I’d be very happy with a pair of FX30’s plus a single A7V straight out of their boxes.

OK, found it pretty quickly but my mistake, was cine lenses again but relatively affordable DZO. There is also a BTS

Ditto. I have also seen some utter garbage but then those folks putting that out seem to specialise in garbage no matter what camera they are playing with that week, so… Some of the early really good stuff, as with the S1H and the Sigma FP, they used pretty expensive cine lenses for their approx 10-15 minute short films (think Blur or Blurred? by Sigma and Lumix’s lost in space job) but for one recent one I saw, just ‘ordinary’ lenses. I’ll go see if I can find it…

I thought you said in a few posts back I was being too harsh regarding this release? 🤔😉

I just have one word: Weddings 💰 Sure, they don’t have the caché of shooting music videos never mind even short films, but a lot more creative freedom compared with working for an actual client! OK, the couple are your client but if you are doing it right, they will have next to zero creative input. If I could restart my career, sure, I’d rather be working towards being the cinematographer on Dune, but like 95% of actors who work in coffee shops to make ends meet, I decided to be the indépendant coffee shop owner over the casual working there. I digress, but the one thing this industry has taught me is to steer well clear of demanding people with ‘ideas’ 🤪

I thought of a use for it, as a gimbal cam. Then I remembered the ZV-E10 exists at 1/4 of the price. This new boy, the Sony Narcissist or whatever it is called, really is a turd of a camera. At sub 1k cost, OK, maybe I would give it a pass, but at what they are asking?! 😵‍💫

Over-priced trash. OK, it has some individual elements, but as a whole? Nah. FX30 easily. Or if you want a mechanical shutter (and other than Z9, I would), then S5ii, R6ii, R8, XH2/s and maybe even Nikon Z6ii… Or Sony’s own A7iv. This new Sony however seems to be one of those ‘paper spec cameras’ but in any real world use, is a bit shite. I don’t like it. I had a ZV1 and I did like that. This doesn’t fix any of the (few) issues I had with the ZV1. Neither did the other ‘in between’ one whose name I forget… ZVsomething else. I’d rather they just have them girls names or something as it would be easier to remember…

No such thing. Unless we don’t actually use any of this stuff we talk about, ie, simply collect and then talk about the next thing that might actually work as the current thing doesn’t actually have magical properties… I think some folks really do think that if they point the latest ‘Netflix Approved’ camera at their wife & kids, the results will indeed look like a Netflix production… 🤔 Wedding season starts for me in 2 days. These S1H’s had better make my clients weddings look like Ozark…

This is ridiculous advice because some may wish to sell whatever barely used camera they currently have (because someone in the comments section of a YouTube post stated that they had a friend who thought it was crap), skip the current generation of gear and wait for what the early shill reviewers with affiliate links and Squarespace ad sponsors, say about; the Canon R Crystal Ball camera or the Fuji Grail camera or the Lumix Goat camera. Or I suppose you could just go out and use what you got…

For me, the weakness with the Fuji system when I used it (9 years), was the lenses. There was and still is very little that actually ticked the right boxes for me and the best stills lenses tended to be the worst video lenses and as a hybrid shooter… I was continually tinkering with lens options but never managed to perfect it (for my needs) but then until now, had the same problem with L Mount… This is why, as much as I like Fuji in principle (the XH2/s for me would be The Perfect body if only it had a tilt screen) and I think the video side of things is more than good enough for my needs (of course there are MUCH better options to shoot a movie or commercial projects on), as a system, it comes behind L Mount and Sony for me. If I took cost and all subjective matters out of the equation, I think I would have to put it behind Canon also. R6 II/R7…

Is it going to be the subject of the first review on the new site? Hope so…

You can have the best of both worlds I believe with your own custom LUT baked into your Jpeg and also have a clean raw file if you over-cooked the baking.

That's why I just bought a used Leica TL2. I didn't want to use my work tools for personal stuff and have been getting by with my phone for a few years now, but decided it's a bit too 'immediate' and easy. So the oddball but very capable and underrated Leica plus what is almost certainly going to be an adapted M Mount lens, so manual focus only. My second option was the OG X100 and it has been in an out of my shopping basket several times, but I've been there and done that so... I also considered other new options such as the X100V, XE4 and GR3X, but in the end I decided they were all too new, too obvious and too easy.

I signed up to the Andrew Reid Subscriber Email Looking forward to some good old fashioned wordy stuff.

A couple of years back I would have said image, but Sony have upped their game and in recent years and I’d say it is now pretty much a non-issue now. Image as a brand? Lumix have much less of one with the great unwashed so that is a positive in my book. People is thick and so easily led… Used to be that Sony ergos were trash but they have upped their game there also. I prefer to back the underdog in principal … but prepared to chuck my principles out of the window if the other option is quantifiable better and worth the cost.

Side-hinged screen was pretty much the only thing I did not like about the XH2…but ultimately it was not just about the camera, but the system including lenses and L Mount just serves my needs better. Never done a direct comparison and the only reason(s) I ever considered a move to Sony was the more compact form factor (compared with S1 sized bodies) and Tamron lenses. Tamron IMO have the best focal length zooms currently with the 20-40 and 35–150 for my needs. No other system have enough for me to switch. If you were asking me whether I would come to the same conclusion if starting from scratch, as of today, it would be a toss up between Fuji or Sony and L Mount would be third, $£€ come into it… The bottom line is they are ALL fucking good!

I see what you did there 😉

Loved the build and form factor, it just felt ‘right’ in the hands. Stills OK but I thought the video was meh. Maybe because I tried mixing it with that from the S1H and it was not even in the ballpark. On that basis alone, no choice but to send it back for a full refund (ie, it cost me one way postage to test it for a couple of weeks). APSC is my minimum really, but that is speaking personally.

Ditto. I used to always upgrade to the most recent latest & greatest whether it really was or not and sometimes it was and other times it wasn’t. Ideally, unless I absolutely need it, I hold off. Since 2018, I have bought precisely 2 new cameras. That I have kept anyway (returned the OM-1 and XH2). These have been the S5 after I sold off all my Fuji gear knowing I was not going to stick with what I had and then recently the S5ii as I do have need for reliable AF for a % of my work. But my S1R's, both now gone, purchased used for 1500 and 1600 euros and my current pair of S1H's, 2150 and 1850. For me it is the equation: need + cost + timing and I like to start any season with all the kit I am going to use and if I can, not make changes until after any season has finished. Too many lens changes last year as I wrestled L Mount into submission but think I have it nailed down now…

Oh, A7C body? I thought ZV1… Well that is the FX30’s lunch eaten then 😉

No idea, but would that matter? ”In a recent poll, 89% said they preferred Brand A”. Doesn’t make the 11% who chose Brand B ‘wrong’. Personally, I’d be more than happy using FX30’s for all my video needs. And almost certainly would be right now if Panasonic had not gone PDAF. And that is the part that makes them ‘sub-pro’ in one sense as not having DCI 4K or waveform or shutter angle does not = dealbreaker, at least not in my book, but might a serious filmmaker.