eatstoomuchjam

Speaking of IS, the entire thing culminated in me buying a 24-70 f/4L IS from somebody on ebay - since an irrelevant search result when looking for info on the 28-300 reminded me that it existed - and it's smaller and lighter than the 24-70/2.8L II and has IS.  And being an f/4 lens, it's not popular and cost me less than $400 used.  If I decide to bring the R5 as a second camera, I'll just put that on it and call it good.  The entire combo will be smaller than some of the Fujinon lenses for GF.  😅

It has been on my "someday maybe I'll buy that lens" list for about 20 years now.  Every year, the price comes down a bit more.  Prices in the US are now about $500-600 and ebay prices from Japan are about $450.  What's the inflection point where it goes from "maybe someday" to "buy?"  Only time will tell.
It was also superseded by a 28-300/3.5-5.6L which is a more useful range.  Still a push-pull zoom along with the rude comments from friends that comes with that when using it.  Used prices in the US are still high - $800+.  Although...  there is one on ebay for $400 which intermittently throws a communication error connected to the camera.  Kind of tempted to take a flyer on that one and do the rubber eraser trick on the contacts - and if that doesn't work, disassemble the rear of the lens to see if it's a solvable problem...
Exactly.  It's important, when traveling, not to be too focused on a single specific outcome.  In the end, it's about the adventure and the time spent together (the woman I'm dating lives in Brasil so we need to treasure our shared time, at least I can spend a few months there yearly because my job tolerates me working from there for a while).  Renting a truck with a camper on it, there's always a danger that it breaks down and we miss some stuff due to lost time waiting for repair/replacement.  By going with a vague itinerary, it's easier to focus on what we're actually doing vs fretting about things that will be missed (and if they are missed, just about all of them are guaranteed to be there if I ever choose to go back again).
It's a strange world.  😅
Both of our countries feature landscapes from harsh desert to tropical jungle.  Yours has a lot more aggressively dangerous flora/fauna, though.  In mine, the danger is mostly from the residents of rural areas.  In both places, there are spots to stand, breathe, and feel in awe of the amazing landscape sprawled out before you.
(Even here in Minnesota, we have some places like that despite that it's objectively one of the most boring/flat states in the country)
 

Over the past decade I've been a part of thirteen independent micro or no-budget budget films.  Five of which I'd actually feel comfortable enough to show to strangers and say, "I've done this."  It's weird because I've never been too precious about IQ.
My personal-tech-craft-sloppiness-indifference does show in the final product, but only if you're looking real hard (at least I think so).
I kind of want to be better, but I also don't really feel a strong pull to eek out that extra little juice, you know?  I'm more interested in trying to shape a story by putting a bunch of note cards on the wall in the writer's room.
Anyway, I've held tight to my LUMIX cams since the 20-teens.  Also have an Oly cam.  Haven't bothered to upgrade much.  I know I'm missing out on the latest and greatest, but when I look at stuff a decade old vs. the film I just finished, and I think they both look a-okay, I guess I'm just not the type of filmmaker that's eager to change gear.
Anyway, if anyone wants to see those five films I mentioned, let me know.  I've posted them here before, but can share anew.

I love that lens. Wish I didn't sell it. 

Not especially no, but then maybe that’s because I am a hybrid wedding shooter and not a serious filmmaker? 
I mean it is/was on the list, but in no way would I switch to a camera purely just because it has marginally better highlight roll off when it isn’t so great in other areas, or completely misses the mark.
My criteria as I stated was I am replacing both a 61mp and a 24mp cameras for a 44mp one.
For stills which are 50% of my work, absolutely no way would I be considering a 12mp camera as a viable alternative.
Does the A7Siii meet my requirements for ‘all in one system’? Sure as does the A7iv, the A7RV and well…any/all A7 and FX bodies, but do any of them meet my requirement to shoot 6k open gate video? Nope, not a single one.
As I outlined in my reasoning, I have a minimum set of requirements in order to make any change and one of those was not better highlight roll off.
I don’t think you are necessarily being ‘that guy’, but you completely ignored my requirements and instead posed a question based on what I guess would be your main priority.
And that’s cool.
But regarding highlight roll off specifically, have I considered it?
No, not really. I’ve used full-frame Lumix now for 4.5 years and at no time have I considered it an issue and looking at the footage from the S1Rii that I have seen, haven’t noticed anything untoward.
I haven’t looked at or even aware of any comparisons in this specific area either. 
So back to my best Scooby Doo voice, “Idunnoknow” 🤷‍♂️

Speaking of IS, the entire thing culminated in me buying a 24-70 f/4L IS from somebody on ebay - since an irrelevant search result when looking for info on the 28-300 reminded me that it existed - and it's smaller and lighter than the 24-70/2.8L II and has IS.  And being an f/4 lens, it's not popular and cost me less than $400 used.  If I decide to bring the R5 as a second camera, I'll just put that on it and call it good.  The entire combo will be smaller than some of the Fujinon lenses for GF.  😅

It also benefits from having IS.
 

Another range example I did with it here, this time on a GX80.

 
Its a very powerful combo but, despite the 35-350 being compact for what it is, when it is mounted on the GX80 it is all a little bit ... 

I have this lens and this is a simple range example from one spot that  I did with it for someone on here many moons ago.

It is actually more like a 70-200 f2.8 size wise for carrying but that is down to it being a push pull design which isn’t exactly great for smooth continuous zoom shots.
But is ideal for practising the trombone.

It's true - though if they made that lens and it had decent quality, I might be one of the only people who would be excited to get it as soon as it hit the second-hand market.
It's true - when on set, I'm usually shooting my t/1.2-t/2 lenses at closer to t/2.8-4, partly because getting the subject in focus is better than having a razor-thin focus plane.
I tend to like to deliver in 4k, but yes, post-cropping flexibility is the main reason that I usually capture in 6k or 8k for narrative.  I also like wider aspect ratios (even in film, where I like 6x17, 4x10, and 8x20 the most) so even shooting 4k gives some room to reframe up or down a little bit.
I used to have the EF 24-105/4 and I never liked it much, but I have the 24-70/2.8 and it's fantastic.  It could certainly be an option.  I've also, at various points in my life, considered the Canon 35-350/3.5-5.6L - still a fairly large lens, but it's a 10x zoom for FF that manages quality a bit nicer than a coke bottle.  It's pretty affordable used these days.  But I'm more likely to try to stick with things I already have.
Guided safaris are extremely expensive from what I've seen.  It's potentially good advice, but I prefer that we go our own way.  There's always the possibility of seeing one of the guided tour buses rolling around and following it for a bit too.  Plus, if I gave somebody $1,000-2,000/day to show us the animals, I'd probably mentally feel a bit entitled when seeing them.  If we go on our own and I see a single giraffe head snacking on a tree, I'll be beside myself with excitement.  Plus we can research before arriving to see if there are sites listing the most likely places.
I also am focusing on the time in Etosha, but it's also going to be 2-3 days of a 2-week trip.  I'm also really excited to see some of the shipwrecks along the skeleton coast, the dune-filled houses of Kolmanskop, the huge sand dune fields of Sossusvlei, and to take my own version of the iconic field of dead trees in front of an orange dune at Deadvlei...  (among other things)... and from what I've read, random wildlife encounters (zebras, etc) are pretty likely when driving around a lot of the countryside.

Or a full frame 36 megapickshel shensor as its known there.

Nice is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
But if people don't mind log shots of mainly grey buildings under grey skies in Salford then have at it !

According to a book, Dutch company ASML got into a big fight with Nikon a few years back.
They both make lithography tools for semiconductors industry. ASML's optics supplier is Zeiss.
To pressure Nikon into a settlement, they had to take the patent fight to them in cameras.
So ASML got Zeiss to make them a camera.
It also doubled as a marketing adventure, shown off in stores but rarely really ever in stock.
Until one day this popped up on my radar, with the serial number XXX XXX.
The AF wasn't working, or the manual focus (fly by wire), lens stuck at macro 30cm.
So I cracked it open, mopping sweat off forehead.
Inside is 256GB SSD, final release model was bumped to 512GB.
Android 6, with Zeiss test suite of apps onboard including FCC certification test suite 🙂
A music player.
A Dutch full frame 36 megapixel sensor with some analogue colour.
A Zeiss 35mm F2 lens (but different optics to the Sony RX1), 4K video (Super 35mm crop) and an EVF.
And some weird prototype issues. I'll make a YouTube video on it.






Sample shot
And I still have no idea how I fixed the AF.
Just wiggled the lens and sensor ribbon cables a bit and it started working properly, but there was no sign of either cable being loose in the first place!
It is quite a fun tool, and a bit different. Android is decently snappy on it, the camera app is well designed, the physical dials are lovely but it doesn't have a joystick or command dials... So a lot is on the touch screen, but it's well done.
Shall I root it?
Update to 3.0 production firmware? (Risks bricking it).
Given the rarity factor... I probably won't!!

Might be time to release my version for free then!
The download link will self destruct in 48 hours.
Until then... enjoy!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z60UNsWHuc6wFmgEOlp0VgDlucHoutip/view?usp=share_link

Works on Panasonic S9, S5 II, GH7 as well as all the new cameras.
I'd welcome any questions, feedback, help making a guide for regular folk, or even comparisons to the official ARRI LOG profile, or even the odd ALEXA. Sample shots also welcome!!
@BTM_Pixhas shot some nice stuff with it already. If you're ok for me to share it?
And the ARRI LUT library is available here https://www.arri.com/en/learn-help/learn-help-camera-system/tools/arri-look-library-app
Installation is via SD card as a real-time LUT so it sits in-camera, next to V-LOG and the regular picture styles.

Exactly the current info is a mess with half of YT saying it’s the same as a simple CST while the other half (shills) are like “omg your LUMIX s1 II is a baby Alexa and and and it’s different cuz cuz cuz arri engineers tweaked the color look look but my affiliate LUMIX sent me this camera for free”

Someone hit a nerve with poor little Cammy.  🤣
 

This is my most recent finished edit.
I wrote the music for this too.
I've shared it before, but some might not have seen it.  Shot on the trip I did to Seoul last August where the wife and I got sick and spent most of our time in the hotel.
OG BMMCC + 12-35mm F2.8 + TTartisans 50mm F1.2.  Graded in Resolve with heavy use of the Film Look Creator tool.  Music written in Logic Pro.

This was introduced last week and offers a raft of new features but the one that seems to be catching everyone's eye is the (paid for) ARRI LogC3 option.
https://www.panasonic.com/uk/corporate/news/articles/panasonic-introduces-extensive-new-firmware-updates-for-its-lumix-s-series-cameras-s1rii-s1ii-and-s1iie.html
Surprised there hasn't been a discussion about this already on here.
I'm guessing that could be that no one has yet bought those camera types or is too busy wondering why they are spending so much effort looking after a cat that isn't their cat but has just turned up and convinced itself that it is now indeed their cat to be discussing camera firmware updates.
Or, in my case, both.
A bit of a caveat is that it doesn't work in RAW...
 

That's a hell of a lens!
I have a Tokina 400mm F5.6 permanently on my GH5 now to act as a telescope because I looked into buying one and it was cheaper and more fun to buy a super-telephoto lens!  It's not super-sharp wide open but in daylight you can just stop down, plus anything that is quite far away suffers from heat haze anyway, so the sharpness of the air is the limiting factor.
I've thought about going on safari for years but have never actually gone.  My thinking eventually lead me to the idea of having two bodies, one with a very long lens on it, and the other one with a very shot zoom on it so you can get shots of when the monkeys start stealing food out of your van, or the elephants ram you.  My impression from social media is that these things are practically guaranteed to happen.
I have the PanaLeica 100-400mm on my "when I'm a millionaire" list as it seems it would be perfect for things like a safari where you never know how far away the subjects are going to be.

Yeah, I think we’ve hit a ceiling in a lot of ways. Most of the "progress" over the last couple of years has been in resolution increases, but visually it hasn’t been a major leap. It’s nothing like the jump from SD to HD, or even HD to UHD. And honestly, most of us aren’t even making full use of UHD, since our TVs usually aren’t big enough to show the difference clearly.
There have been a lot of quality-of-life improvements when it comes to acquiring images, and things like color science have improved. But visually, you can still take a GH5 and, with some effort, get results that look very close to modern cameras.
I can’t say the images I’m getting from my S5 and S5IIX are that much better than what I got from my old GH5. The larger sensor and better color are definite upgrades, but I don’t always take advantage of them. I often shoot at f/4 or higher because I don’t want extremely shallow depth of field. And while the color is nicer out of the box, it mostly just saves time. I was still able to get the look I wanted from the GH5 with a bit more work.

Truth.
I had a client from just over 10 years ago come back to me the other day having lost what I provided for them.
I went to see if I still had it and expecting it to be a bit trash compared with today, but was actually quite surprised.
It stood up very well and the video was shot on GH3 and the photo on X Pro 2.
I notice more things like technique and editing & grading choices, but as for the raw result, - the client wouldn't notice any 'upgrades' in a decade.

Meanwhile, I'm over here starting my own personal beef with PetaPixel.  They posted some breathy review of how great it was to make a music video in only one night using Midjourney and I basically said they should stick to photo/video stuff for humans instead of posting about shitty AI slop.  The author wrote back saying it was a "complicated" subject.
And now they deleted both of my responses to that - the first, OK, maybe because I wasn't very nice.  But in the second, I got more polite and pointed out that with current AI models, 5 seconds of video uses as much power as running a microwave for an hour - so his nearly 4 minute video was like running a microwave for nearly 2 straight days - and that's enough electricity to power an average household in the US for about 2 1/2 days, especially since it's unlikely that he used 100% of the clips that he generated, adding to the amount of wasted power.  Deleted again.
I guess, though, it's a good thing since it was the final straw in pulling their feed from my news reader (only so many clearly-sponsored (but not disclosed) positive reviews of shitty plastic film cameras that I can watch) and unsubscribing from the YouTube which has become an increasingly formulaic slog of Chris and Jordan reviewing products that they clearly don't give a shit about - and the weekly podcast where they act like smug celebrities, even though 99.9999% of people neither care who they are nor care about anything they've said.
Good encouragement also to fill out my YouTube subscriptions with some smaller creators who actually seem interested in what they do.

Yeah, exactly.  That's what I'm saying.  Their banter is still good/fun, but there doesn't seem to be even the slightest spark in the reviews anymore.  That's probably also a symptom of PetaPixel demanding a higher volume of reviews and with a number of them being for things that are inherently uninteresting. 
And I get it - to some extent, how much is there to say about a 21mm lens?  And in that review in particular, they didn't even seem to be doing any basic research before the videos - talking about Thypoch coming out with one (the Simera-C has had a 21/1.4 lens for months already, though with a different design) - and 21mm has been a Leica staple for many years with the 21/1.4 Summilux having been released in like 2008 (which makes sense since Thypoch, to some extent, is emulating Leica with the Simera series).  But yet, Chris acted like a 21mm lens was something he'd not heard of before...  presumably because he just doesn't care about what he's reviewing anymore.  It's a job.  Lens comes in, take some photos around Calgary, do some LoCa tests, shoot a test chart or two, lens go out.  Ready for the next lens to come in...
But they've also become a channel that won't publish a negative review at all.  I had high hopes for the new person - Sarah?  But then she did a review of some shitty wearable camera that seemed way more like an advertisement and any criticism mixed in with tons of praise, despite that the footage looked like pure garbage.  Then the next week in the Podcast, they acted like people were crazy for suggesting it, given that some small criticism had been slipped in to a 14 minute mostly positive review where the footage is described as "good enough" and since the gross oversaturated colors are "so vibrant there's not much you have to do to them."  To me the footage (the link should go right to the sample clips) could be much better described as "a gross, shaky jello-filled nightmare."  Later, in the conclusion, the presenter concludes that the camera is definitely worth the $200 price tag, despite that it's redundant with a smartphone and records with quality much worse than a smartphone.
If that shit is sponsored, it's not disclosed and they actively denied it - so that's gross.  If it's not sponsored, then PetaPixel's standards on cameras are incredibly different from mine.  It was already a thin ice - and posting videos heaping glowing praise on AI slop and deleting critical comments is just the last push that I needed.
 

Meanwhile, I'm over here starting my own personal beef with PetaPixel.  They posted some breathy review of how great it was to make a music video in only one night using Midjourney and I basically said they should stick to photo/video stuff for humans instead of posting about shitty AI slop.  The author wrote back saying it was a "complicated" subject.
And now they deleted both of my responses to that - the first, OK, maybe because I wasn't very nice.  But in the second, I got more polite and pointed out that with current AI models, 5 seconds of video uses as much power as running a microwave for an hour - so his nearly 4 minute video was like running a microwave for nearly 2 straight days - and that's enough electricity to power an average household in the US for about 2 1/2 days, especially since it's unlikely that he used 100% of the clips that he generated, adding to the amount of wasted power.  Deleted again.
I guess, though, it's a good thing since it was the final straw in pulling their feed from my news reader (only so many clearly-sponsored (but not disclosed) positive reviews of shitty plastic film cameras that I can watch) and unsubscribing from the YouTube which has become an increasingly formulaic slog of Chris and Jordan reviewing products that they clearly don't give a shit about - and the weekly podcast where they act like smug celebrities, even though 99.9999% of people neither care who they are nor care about anything they've said.
Good encouragement also to fill out my YouTube subscriptions with some smaller creators who actually seem interested in what they do.