eatstoomuchjam

57 minutes ago, PPNS said:

Even on the pyxis 6k, with its old ass sensor, like basically the only other camera that has FF open gate and a 12 bit codec are kinefinities and those are significantly more expensive. 

The Z Cam E2-F6 does open gate 12 bit raw by HDMI to external recorders in 3:2 open gate IIRC.  It uses the same IMX410 sensor from 2018 - which was about when that camera was released.  The X-H2S also does 3:2 open gate 12-bit raw over HDMI, though it isn't full frame.  Heck, even the X-M5 which costs like $900 brand new can do 3:2 open gate 12-bit raw over HDMI - again, not full frame, but given the existence of high-quality focal reducers, beautiful vintage glass made for S35, and beautiful Fujinon glass, I'm not really sure that matters too much.

The Canon R6 III does full frame 3:2 open gate raw and costs less than Pyxis.  The Canon C50 barely costs more (and is about equal if you buy a Pyxis monitor to fix the side screen ergonomics problem) and has full frame 3:2 open gate raw.

Also, I'm pretty sure the S1 II and GH7 support open gate (3:2 and 4:3 respectively) in ProRes RAW for internal recording.  I can't remember if the S1R II or the S1 IIe or whatever the "lite" version is called do.  The S1 II is a bit cheaper than the Pyxis and doesn't have the poor ergonomics of a non-moveable screen stuck on the left side of the camera - and I'm pretty sure it's also using a newer sensor.

And back to S35, a used Pyxis and a used OG Komodo are pretty close to the same price now.  Of course, open gate on the Komodo is 17:9 so it's not a dream camera for people trying to double-frame for single take social media stuff, but it is also a global shutter and at least claims to be using a 16-bit raw codec (some users believe OG Komodo is only sampling 12-bit data from the sensor - FWIW, dynamic range seems pretty similar to what I remember from my E2-F6 which was IMX410 so it's probably similar to Pyxis 6K).

And FWIW, in terms of "the user experience," I'd gladly take the ergonomics of the tilty screen of my GFX 100 II shooting video (which means, probably any of the Fuji APS-C cameras too) over trying to navigate menus on a touchscreen on the side of my camera, especially if on a high hat or similar.  I've considered Pyxis 12K despite the ergonomics problems (partially mitigated by Pyxis monitor), but for the price, the C80 with internal ND and triple native ISO becomes a lot more tempting to me.

45 minutes ago, MurtlandPhoto said:

C'mon now. No one is saying that they only should announce broadcast stuff at NAB. At the same time NAB is precisely when they should announce broadcast stuff. Right?

And similarly, nobody is saying that they shouldn't also announce broadcast stuff at NAB.  They certainly have done so in every other year in recent memory.  It's just that after sitting through an hour of tedious broadcast gear updates, in every other year, the non-broadcaster viewer was rewarded with the updates on the gear they were interested in.

45 minutes ago, MurtlandPhoto said:

They pretty clearly stated this would be a broadcast oriented announcement. Folks reading the tea leaves a different way is their own prerogative. I mean no one forced you to watch the full livestream lol.

Again, as they usually are, but broadcast-oriented is not synonymous with broadcast-only.  And no, nobody forced anybody to do anything.  I watched because I was interested to see what new products I might be interested in owning.  I was irritated that the entire product segment that interests me was almost completely ignored, outside of the software that I use to edit.

Again, stop trying to make it some idiotic meh meh meh it says broadcast, they didn't mention consumer cameras thing.  Other people, including me, are allowed to be annoyed by something, even if it doesn't bother you.

4Kp240 is pretty neat.  If they had pricing in there, I missed it - but if Mission 1 Pro ILS is <$700, I might take a flyer on it.  They made almost exactly the camera I've wanted for a while now.  The sensor could be a little better, but a 1" sensor ain't bad.  If it has usable low-latency HDMI out (or a small adapter to get it), it could be a semi-ideal lightweight travel camera.

3 hours ago, Anaconda_ said:

'I can't believe a company would release broadcast equipment and try to get ahead in a new broadcasting industry at the National Association of Broadcasters.'

This is an intensely stupid take.  For the last several years, BMD have been announcing their entire line of new cameras/gear in their NAB update, regardless of whether they were directly aimed at broadcast.  Having been to NAB, I can tell you that a majority of vendors there aren't selling things directly aimed at broadcast.  But please don't let any of that get in the way of your dumb pedantry.  If Petty had started the stream by saying "Hey, everybody.  We're focusing on broadcast for NAB this year, but we'll have another product announcement ahead of (other camera show)," I think that a lot of their owner-operators, including me, would have shrugged, tuned out, and not cared much.

3 hours ago, Anaconda_ said:

I work in video and it's annoyed me that Canon keep releasing new printers! What do you mean Panasonic has a new microwave, I need faster AF! I don't need a PS5 for God's sake, why won't Sony give me better menus! At the very least, BMD is keeping within the same field and pushing the boundaries throughout the whole workflow as much as they're able to. Parts of this technology will eventually come to the more 'interesting' products and while we're waiting there's plenty of choice from other brands.

It feels like I'm defending the brand, which I don't mean to do, but damn. Complaining that groundbreaking products don't fit your own expectations is pretty wild to me. If it's not for you, it's not for you. No need to get upset. My intial point remains, the amount of times Grant says things like 'but there's a problem with this process, so we've also created this solution' is very promising. I don't see many other companies thinking so far ahead and getting around problems that don't even exist yet.

Derp derp derp.  BMD have been aggressively pursuing the consumer/prosumer market since 2018 when they released the BMPCC 4K.  It is not crazy to be irritated that in what has generally been their yearly new products update, they seemingly abandoned that entire market... 

"Multicamera livestream, but with two square streams instead of one rectangular one" is not a revolution.  It's tedious evolution.  "We needed more data so we upgraded to 100gE" is also not a revolution.  And almost no product that they announced was revolutionary, it was "our old product but newer" and/or "a box to convert things."

The time for speculation is over!

https://gopro.com/en/us/news/gopro-announces-three-cameras-mission-1-2026
 

Quote

The World’s Smallest, Lightest, Most Rugged Cinema Cameras Designed for Any Mission:

 

MISSION 1 PRO— Featuring a Cutting-Edge 50MP 1" Sensor; Incredible Low-Light Performance; 8K60, 4K240, and 1080p960 Ultra-High Frame Rates; 8K30 and 4K120 Open Gate Video Capture; and New GP3 Processor Delivering Category-Leading Image Quality, Battery Runtime, and Thermal Performance for Extreme Use Cases

 

MISSION 1 PRO ILS— A New Class of Ultra-Compact Mirrorless Cinema Camera with the Same Sensor as MISSION 1 PRO, Compatible with Micro Four Thirds (MFT) Lenses for Expanded Cinematic Versatility

 

MISSION 1— Same as MISSION 1 PRO, but with 8K30 Video Capture; 4K120 Open Gate; 4K120 and 1080p240 Slo-Mo Frame Rates

 

MISSION 1 Accessory Ecosystem Includes New Wireless Mic System; Point-and-Shoot Grip and Powered Grip; Higher-Capacity Enduro 2 Battery; I/O Expansion Media Mod and More

6 hours ago, Anaconda_ said:

They invented, solved the problems of and instantly became a leader in a whole new industry. Live, multi-cam immersive production. That's the closest thing to teleportation you can get without the risks of becoming half man half fly.

 

Invented is a real stretch there.  As soon as VR headsets were a thing, it was obvious that people would eventually want to do it live.  Adding multiple cameras into the mix, with the associated awful jarring jumps between places, is hardly a revolution.  Plus there's the dystopia of standing amidst the futbol players after a goal is scored celebrating with them... only to a second later be standing in the midst of an immersive ad for erectile dysfunction pills.

6 hours ago, Anaconda_ said:

Blackmagic stands alone on the forefront of a sci-fi world where the competition aren't even looking.

That's fine, but for me as a filmmaker, I really just don't give even a nugget of a shit about any of that stuff.  I would have really wanted some sort of bridge between the $5,000 and up gear with their fantastic RGBW sensors and the $3,500 and below gear which mostly uses 5+ year-old Sony sensors (such as the Pyxis 6K which uses an IMX410 from 2018, old enough to be in grade school).  IMX410 is a great sensor, but as Andrew pointed out, I can go buy a cheaper Fuji with a newer/better sensor.  An X-H2s costs less and has half the readout time and better dynamic range - and with the money saved, I can add raw and a second monitor with a Video Assist 12G.  Bonus: the video assist won't be locked in place awkwardly on the side of the goddamn camera.

1 hour ago, maxJ4380 said:

Perhaps this new gp3 is designed better, requires less assembly from humans and with all the normal things companies do to save money getting rid of paying salaries is always a winner...

Do they assemble them in-house?  I assumed they'd just outsource a lot of that stuff to someone like FoxConn, if not FoxConn themselves.  If they're running with only 600 total employees, I'd guess that the layoffs were in engineering, sales, support, etc, probably with a bit of middle management thrown under the bus with them.

After all, it's almost never the executives, they've already proven their value by fucking up the strategy and driving the company into the ground.  Better give them a retention bonus so they don't take all that competence somewhere else.  😅

If you'd like to spend about 2 hours learning about a bunch of expensive, high-end broadcast gear, the latest Blackmagic NAB update was made for you!

BEHOLD million bazillion port VIDEO SWITCHING DEVICES

STARE IN AWE at a first-party mount to use 2/3" camera lenses on your FULL FRAME CINEMA CAMERA

GASP WITH AMAZEMENT as instead of making the smaller, cheaper media module reader that everybody wants, they make one BIGGER AND MORE EXPENSIVE!

YOU MAY HAVE PAID FOR THE WHOLE SEAT, BUT YOU WILL ONLY NEED THE EDGE

-------------

Resolve 21 looks nice.

Otherwise, 0 new consumer products.  Every single thing that they announced today was for broadcast and specifically seemed targeted at sports broadcasters, the only people who are trying to multiplex 50+ 4K+ input streams to 50+ output devices all at the same time.

I suspect that rampocalypse pricing for components has basically obliterated profit margins on any consumer gear that Petty was going to announce.  Maybe in 3-6 months, we'll get an out-of-cycle product release livestream.

It's not exactly confidence-inspiring when you lay off about 1/4 of your workforce right before announcing the killer new product.  It seems like either GP3 isn't going to be in any shipping products for a while or GP doesn't think it will be a huge seller.  Otherwise, why go to the bother of laying off a bunch of people and paying severance, only to rehire them in a few months when the new product is selling like crazy?

https://www.cined.com/gopro-to-cut-23-of-its-workforce-ahead-of-gp3-camera-launch-at-nab/

6 hours ago, kye said:

Yes, lots of things to trade-off against each other.  Thus the arguments about what is best when people impose their own values and priorities onto other people then judge them for doing it "wrong" lol.  The more I refine my setup the more that other peoples approaches sound so alien to me.

The only setup that's truly "wrong" is one that you don't enjoy using and that doesn't get you the photos that you want.  The primary camera of a friend of mine is a pinhole that she made herself from... I think it's a coffee can or a cocoa powder jar.  The photos are low-resolution, dreamy, and perfect.  My setup would be totally wrong for her, or you, but I quite like it!  I was at Photostock a few years ago when David Burnett was the speaker - he is famously still shooting sporting events and major political events using either a speed graphic or converted Graflex SLR with an Aero Ektar.  At that event, however, he was carrying the camera he uses most of the time - an A7c with a small Sony lens.  Not a setup that I'd choose, but if it's good enough for one of the most famous living photographers, it's probably not "wrong."  😅

5 hours ago, kye said:

If my goal is to make edits that feel more immersive, then it makes sense to shoot with a lens that's roughly "normal" so it has a perspective similar to the human eye, which is about 50mm on FF.

A number of the big name classic cinematographers/filmmakers favored lenses between 40-60mm or so FF equivalent.  A lot of classic street photographers like 35-50mm because it's seen as immersive.  But if you want an outsider perspective, your choice of a 70mm seems appropriate!

(Cross-posted from reddit)

I've been working on and off for a while now on a Leica M mount for the Ursa Cine 12K LF. I was having problems with minor flexing in the plastic - and the random Micro 4/3 to M mount adapter that I used as a donor turned out to be a bad choice for a few reasons.

In the meantime, I found some ways to mitigate the plastic flexing and I disassembled a Fotodiox L mount to M mount adapter and found it a lot more suitable, plus with a larger diameter which also seems to help with stability. Because of shape of mount cavity on the camera, the lens also needs to be mounted upside-down with my mount.

Unfortunately, there is some play in the adapter so any lens will need support if racking focus.

This latest prototype still focuses just a little too much past infinity with the f/1 Noctilux so I have one or two more prototypes to dial it in just a little closer - and then I'll switch from the cheapest PLA in my house to PCCF and print what I hope will be the adapter that I actually use.

Limitations? Every modern Leica M lens that I own (21, 24, 35mm) that is 35mm or wider cannot be used. They stick out past the rear of the mount and would impact the glass in front of the ND filters. Similarly, with my Simera-C set,

However, my incredibly old 35mm/3.5 Elmar does not protrude and, as can be seen in the couple of snapshots I took from the last round of testing, works great (and is beautiful, as it is on any camera). That's the widest L mount lens that I own that can fit.

HOWEVER

While using my M mount glass is part of my goal in building this, the bigger bonus is that having a Leica M mount lets me adapt a bunch of other vintage SLR glass that is not otherwise usable (without mount conversion) on the UC12K LF. And since those lenses were designed for SLR's, the wide angles don't protrude. This will address one of the few things that I've found to be a bummer - I really love my FD mount and Minolta SR mount glass! With an FD to M mount adapter, they will all be 100% usable now.

In this round of testing, I checked the 50/1 Noctilux and the 35/3.5 screw mount Elmar - both are gorgeous lenses on any camera that I've put them on and this is no exception. Did some 3:2 frame grabs from Resolve with no grading done beyond slapping on a BMD film to rec.709 lut. I also seem to have done the math wrong for a 3:2 ratio in Resolve, but I'm also not going to bother going back to fix the slight letterboxing.

Speed boosting a 45mm f/2.8 lens onto a smaller sensor with a 0.71x converter gives you a 32mm f/2 lens.  That's it.  If you like the character of the medium format lens, that's great and it's a worthwhile endeavor.  But aside from the character unique to that model of lens, it won't look appreciably different from a 32mm f/2 lens that was made to cover the format you're adapting to.

That said, I've been thinking about building graflok DOF adapters that I could stick on some of my medium and large format cameras - not because there is an intrinsic medium or large format look, but because I have some really interesting older lenses and when I adapt them to smaller formats, I'm just using the pretty good/well-corrected centers of the image circle and not the cool outer edges where things get interesting/cool/weird.  I think a medium format one might be my next project after I finish the M mount for the UC12K (which is looking like it will be tomorrow sometime?).  I have a kind of beat up, but otherwise unmarked 6x9cm ground glass handy.  It'll at least be good enough for a proof of concept.  Most of my 4x5 stuff has either a fresnel (visible lines!) or grids on the GG, but I also have at least one spare 4x5 GG lying around that I could use for a proof of concept.  Oh, and now that I think of it, I have an old Seroco 4x5 which has clean GG and I think it's from the 1920's or so - maybe I have a project for tomorrow while I wait for another iteration of my UC12K mount to finish printing (now that I'm near the end and printing the entire part, the prints are taking about 3 1/2 hours each).

I watched that video and instantly didn't regret unsubscribing from the PetaPixel YouTube channel.  I think I lost 3 IQ points watching the dumb infotainment of two adult humans whining about cameras that someone let them use for free, especially about some of the petty shit they cite as an example.  That one Olympus was too big?  Who cares?  They also make/made smaller cameras if that's what you want.

Plus they didn't even get creative when picking "worst designed" cameras - would have been more interesting to go with potentially revolutionary cameras that couldn't live up to the hype - throw out stuff like the Lytro and the Light L16.  It'd still be a dumb video, but at least there's some interest in it. 

1 hour ago, zerocool22 said:

How so? The colours look fantastuc!

The colors from DJI and/or Insta360 also look fantastic, I'm sure, after a professional colorist spends some quality time with them.  It's still best to wait until the cameras are in the hands of normal users before starting to evaluate. 

Otherwise, if GP wants to release some footage that looks like that and they will certify that it's straight out of camera, I'll place a preorder right now.

3 hours ago, Aussie Ash said:

At 33 secs he says PL lenses don't cover a full frame sensor so you are limited to APS-C crop mode .Hopefully M42 to PL and Nikon F to PL will give full frame coverage

Some PL lenses don't cover full frame.  Most vintage ones were intended only for use on Super 35, but some have image circles big enough for vistavision/full frame.

5 hours ago, kye said:

The main candidate would be a 50mm F1.4 to be a 64mm F1.8 equivalent lens for shooting "night cinema".  This would be to replace my M42 Takumar 50mm F1.4 + SB combo (which is very vintage and has distracting bokeh and isn't great on the sides) and the 42.5mm F0.95 + Sirui 1.25x combo (which is heavy and also isn't great on the sides).

If so, I'd strongly consider the 50/1.2L or the Sigma 50/1.4 Art.  The Sigmas are, generally speaking, too clinical for me, but lots of people like them - it really depends on how clean you wanna go.  The 50/1.2L has been around for a long time now.  I got mine pretty close to when they released it - it might be old enough to vote, at this point.  That's to say that it's been out long enough that you could probably find a copy with clean glass and some external dings for not too much money.  Bokeh is completely a matter of taste thing, but I hated the bokeh on the EF 50/1.4.  I remember it was ugly/busy enough that even non-photographers noticed it on some photos.  Maybe I just had a bad copy?  I liked the EF 50/1.8 more, even.

There's also Otus, of course, but used prices on them have stayed surprisingly high.  I think there was also a Zeiss ZE 50/1.4 which is probably more affordable.  I never tried it.  It's probably very good.

4 hours ago, kye said:

I could even sacrifice a small amount of aperture and go with the Sigma 50-100mm F1.8 zoom (equivalent to a 64-128mm F2.3), which would have all the benefits of a zoom.  It's a pity there isn't a mid-range offering in that series so I could go both wider and longer than the 50mm mark.

If considering the Sigma f/1.8 zooms, you might want to double-check how the coverage is with the 0.64x SB.  I remember the 18-35 had a pretty small image circle - the 50-100 is probably a bit better, being more telephoto.

7 hours ago, kye said:

What's the deal with speed boosting to EF?  
Is the Ultra 0.64x worth it over the normal 0.71x adapter? (they seem to be similarly priced used).
Is there a different one I should consider (other than Metabones)?

The difference is not huge.  When wide open on very fast lenses, you're more likely to see some speed booster artifacts with the 0.64x.  Whether those artifacts are acceptable is personal taste.  If the prices weren't similar, I'd just take the cheaper one.

I was also surprised to find that the 0.64x covers the slightly small S35 sensor in my Z Cam E2-S6G.

Anyway, as far as other brands, I think that Kipon's focal reducers are well-regarded.  Otherwise, most of the third-party ones are skippable/don't seem to be too good.

7 hours ago, kye said:

Essentially I'd be getting it to shoot shallow DOF (like I do with my M42 Takumar 50mm F1.4, etc) but with more modern / cleaner results as M42 lenses are quite vintage and far dirtier than fast EF glass, especially when shooting wide open.  AF is of little importance to me, so I'd be expecting manual focus.

FWIW, you can also have your cake and eat it with a focal reducer, if you want.  Pentax K, Nikon F, Leica R, Olympus OM, and M42 lenses (including your Takumar) can all be adapted to EF mount.  I've also thought about building a recessed M39 adapter since it would be theoretically possible on any camera without a mirror assembly (M39 is 28.8mm and EF is 44mm, but I have several M39 lenses with controls near the front and that are skinny enough that they could just sit further back in the EF mount).

Anyway, for EF lenses otherwise, do you know which you're considering? 

1 hour ago, Andrew - EOSHD said:

I have used Luma Fusion, a touch screen tablet / phone app - I don't know about you but I hate NLEs on a phone, you just don't have enough screen real-estate.

I've used Luma Fusion on iPad.  I edited some vlogs with it a while back before deciding I didn't like editing on the iPad, but the editor itself worked fine and was really simple/straightforward.  They released a MacOS version a while back.  I haven't tried it, but I'd guess it's also pretty simple/easy.

1 hour ago, Andrew - EOSHD said:

is the '3d lut editor' this one https://3dlutcreator.com

Yes.  🤦‍♂️. I meant to type "3D lut creator."  And yeah, it's a little expensive, but it's a lot of features to implement/compete with, especially if you want editing as well.  How many hours of your time would you want to burn for $39/seat?

1 hour ago, Andrew - EOSHD said:

speeds up your workflow for 99% of edits.

Unless it's making editing decisions for me, a simpler editor wouldn't fix the thing that costs me the most time in Resolve.  The other things which end up costing me time are things that I should just figure out the hotkey for at some point (like "shift everything on timeline after this point back enough to add this clip").  I take it that the cut page in Resolve is also too bloated for you?  I think it's specifically intended for faster turnaround stuff like you describe.  I've paid it almost no attention beyond that.

21 minutes ago, Andrew - EOSHD said:

What if you want to crop as well? Quick Actions are too limited. Photoshop is too bloated. The in between solutions are all a bit weak.

The MacOS preview tool allows cropping and resizing.  I use it all the time.

Indeed, though "Ursa Cine LF" would be a totally fine name.  There's just no need to say "12K" on there.  For the other?  "Ursa Cine 65" since the 65mm sensor is going to be a whole lot more exciting to most people than telling them it has a 17k sensor that they will mostly use in 8K or 4K mode.  Just about the only competition on the market, the rental-only Alexa 65, is a 6.5k camera.

That is, of course, unless you're selling something to be used for projecting on The Sphere in Vegas.  Then I guess there's a single camera that's competing - like literally just one body, as far as I know - that 18K thing with the 75x75mm or so sensor.

I've been a bit tempted a few times now to try to rig up something with a medium format ground glass or a 4x5 GG, similar to an old DOF adapter for camcorders.  I remember Gale had the Forbes70 which worked that way and there have been some 8x10 projects to do the same, like the FZero from Salazar and the one that Media Division put together.  I should probably just go through my pile of project cameras to see if I have a pretty clean GG around and just do it...

I'm not sure what "a modern approach" is, but iMovie and Luma Fusion are both pretty straightforward and unbloated from what I remember - and they both run on Mac.  I'm not sure if either one has a lut editor, but 3d lut editor has been pretty good for a while now, hasn't it?

2 hours ago, Andrew - EOSHD said:

Which 17K displays will HBO customers be watching this on?

I really wish BMD would stop putting the maximum resolution in the product name!  I make these jokes too about my own UC 12K ("finally, something for you to play on your 12K TV!), but in reality, it's just a really nice 8K/4K camera which has a bonus 12K mode for...  mostly VFX shots.  😅

3 hours ago, kye said:

One thing that comes to mind for the vlogger crowd is having a small manual focus that goes between two useful focal distances, like vlogging distance and normal infinity focus.  This is how the Olympus 15mm F8 MFT pancake lens works, and it's surprisingly functional.  

Sure, slow zone focusing lenses are definitely a possibility.  I used that exact lens for part of my YouTube review of the Z Cam E2c if I remember right, pushing the compact-ness of the body/setup.  It's a potato, but it's alright in the context of "it's a body cap you can use to make photos."

You could also go the route of MS Optics-style designs.  I have their 21/4.5 triplet and there are most definitely compromises to get it as small as it is, but it's also a really fun lens with better quality than the Olympus cap (and full frame-ish coverage).  A design like that one or their 24/4, but stopped down to f/8 could be interesting.

4 hours ago, kye said:

Looking at those GoPro sample shots, both the shallow DOF shots are relatively macro, so that doesn't need a large sensor or super-fast lens, but the moon shot might actually be the more difficult one requiring both a long focal length and also a larger aperture to get enough light.  I don't really do astro-photography but the moon is approaching higher-ISOs I would imagine.

Indeed - and I don't think they've said that the images are SOOC.  It's hard to know how much editing was done with the moon shot.  It's also not out of the question that an auxiliary lens was used to make it more telephoto.  This is the importance of waiting until devices are in the hand of real consumers before getting too hyped.  There aren't many things that I'll preorder and the number gets smaller every year, getting replaced by the number of things that I'll wait are available used for at least a 20-30% discount.  X-M5 for $900?  Shrug.  X-M5 for $824-874 on mpb?  Get bent, mpb.  X-M5 for $781 on adorama?  Starting to move in the right direction...   

4 hours ago, kye said:

Seriously though, there are probably 5-year-old android phones that could replicate both those images, so I'd suggest that most of what we're seeing is the hype and that GoPro shares the same definition of cinema that most YouTubers do.

Yes.  And the close-up stuff could, theoretically, be done with some of the nicer existing action cameras with a diopter.

1 hour ago, kye said:

All true, but the sample images from the promo video all have shallow DOF, so that means another kettle of fish entirely with AF and/or focus guides (peaking etc).

Oh yeah, they absolutely do.  And as the article you linked said, they look like optical shallow DOF instead of simulated!

Another possibility is that they release two versions, one with a small sensor for the traditional action sports use case - and one with a bigger sensor for the vlogger crowd.   If they DID release something like the Z Cam E1, but with a modern SOC supporting 10-bit, a flat profile, and a decent H.265 implementation, I'd be excited for a GoPro for the first time in years.

If the sensor is getting that big, focus is going to be a problem.  On 1" sensor action cameras with a fixed focus range, there's already a problem where manufacturers need to choose whether to optimize for the 2-4' range when someone is filming themselves or the 8'+ range matching traditional action camera usage.  I think they all optimize for the longer range and sell you a diopter if you want to self-film.  Users don't seem to love using diopters.

So if they're bigger than MFT, they're going to need autofocus or a whole series of lenses with preset focus distance and (probably) slow apertures to keep DOF usable.  Autofocus is problematic for a camera that has associated itself with action sports.  The mechanism would need to be able to take a pretty gnarly crash at speed, but also even if the AF is great, people are accustomed to deep DOF from them - will they be unhappy when their footage of their buddy doing some crazy move is trashed because the camera decided to focus, instead, on a passer-by?

Preset focus distance lenses are less of a concern for reliability since they're pretty similar to the diopters currently used, but they do have the problem that the user needs to start recording with a pretty good idea of their focal distance and they also need, necessarily, to be pretty slow lenses so that the user will stay in focus while moving/talking at a distance of 2-4'.

If I were GoPro, I'd be way more likely to follow the approach of phones - use a second sensor to build a depth map and allow setting focus in post.

That said, a camera that small with such a big sensor and, ideally, swappable lenses, would be a dream for me.  😅

11 hours ago, fuzzynormal said:

Has it been a good investment?  You making money with it?

I'm making films with it.  I was recently offered enough for an upcoming feature that it would more than pay for the camera, but it would have also been like half their budget.  I suggested a percentage instead - which will almost certainly yield less money, but allow that money to be spent to improve the parts of the film which are more important than my camera, which is most of them.  😅

4 hours ago, Aussie Ash said:

Thanks for the offer-I'd love to see some footage from your 12K LF please !  Doesn't have to be with Helios i also have several versions & having them auto focus is not far off ! Also which of these two cameras are you happiest with and why.

Just footage in general?  The most recent couple of shorts on my YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/eatstoomuchjam) were with the UC12K.  Otherwise, most of what I've shot is in short films that are still in festival rotation.

Between the UC12K and the GFX 100 II, I'm happy enough with both.  If I'm on set, I'm most likely to bring the Ursa, Ronin 4D, R5, and Pocket 3.  If I'm taking photos or traveling, the GFX or R5, maybe with the Pocket 3.  If I need to travel lighter or be more inconspicuous, the Komodo-X and/or Komodo, probably with the Pocket 3.

I'm thinking about taking the train to Chicago to do a 48 in a couple of weeks.  If I do, I'll most likely bring the Komodo-X and Pocket 3 with my DJI Mini 3 Pro - that's an entire shooting setup that easily can fit in a backpack, more or less - and with EF lenses, I can use the Canon VND adapter when outside and the Canon focal reducer when inside.