D4cl00

Agree 100%, about the look and I'm not the only one.
In terms of why that look seems to have disappeared, I have a theory.....  https://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/52175-are-sony-sensors-ruining-video-with-the-sony-look/
 
Every camera we can name that doesn't have a Sony sensor is known to look incredible.  Just sayin'

To me the perfect embodiment of the four-thirds mount was actually the original Blackmagic Pocket Cinema camera, which technically speaking was only using the mount but equipped with a smaller sensor. The only true ‘pocket cinema’ in my book.
That camera was so much fun shooting.
It was imperfect, having to change the damn battery every 15 minutes, amongst other quirks and limitations. But the shooting *experience* was completely different from other cameras because it left out anything else and the interface was simple. 
The footage felt very…organic. Something I haven’t seen in their later products. Not sure what it is.

I used it often in combination with a pancake lens while having the flexibility to mount other lenses.
I have 4 lenses collecting dust (and a broken GH5 which died when I forgot to turn it off, using it as a webcam).
Why is no company making a new version of this concept? It’ll be optically superior to a phone.

The last 18 months have changed me completely as well.
No more traveling because the company “is remote first”, no more creative minded colleagues, it’s all about process and numbers. All Zoom meetings are to the point, no more laughing. Dealing with 9 hour time difference (USA HQ)
The 2 years before that was helping my wife with her rehabilitation after she suffered a stroke. Which was hard with a 1.5 year old and a 7 year old. We were back in the Netherlands coincidentally (we came back to NL for friends and family) when it happened, and so I decided to immigrate back not knowing whether she was going to recover and be able to speak and walk again. The immigration causes all kinds of financial challenges (taxes, insurance) which cost me close to $100K in the end.
 
These events - rehabilitation, lockdown and now isolation shook me to my core. It changed me. I feel completely burned out. Life has gotten more “bare” and I have to find myself again, find what I truly care about. Connect with people, build something new.
Add on the fact I’m 41 and probably having midlife crisis at the same time (proof: I drive a Tesla!), and the party is complete.
Sorry for the long story - what I’m trying to say is that your personal struggle resonates with me and I want you to know that many people around me including myself have severely struggled the last 2 years. Social media didn’t help either; it has created a fake lens of the world, especially the last few years. It’s like 99% of the people are acting or presenting a version of themselves, instead of being themselves. 

Things will get better, but as you said you may have to force change. Whatever you choose to do next, I wish you all the best. Never, ever give up the values you live by.
Take care.

I just found my original BMPCC in a box after moving and I realized how much fun it was shooting with this camera, despite all its shortcomings.
It are the limitations and the singular focus, stripping it to the core, that makes it such a pleasure to shoot with.
I never used the newer cameras but they don’t seem “pocket” at all, and a bit of overkill to carry along.  

The last 18 months have changed me completely as well.
No more traveling because the company “is remote first”, no more creative minded colleagues, it’s all about process and numbers. All Zoom meetings are to the point, no more laughing. Dealing with 9 hour time difference (USA HQ)
The 2 years before that was helping my wife with her rehabilitation after she suffered a stroke. Which was hard with a 1.5 year old and a 7 year old. We were back in the Netherlands coincidentally (we came back to NL for friends and family) when it happened, and so I decided to immigrate back not knowing whether she was going to recover and be able to speak and walk again. The immigration causes all kinds of financial challenges (taxes, insurance) which cost me close to $100K in the end.
 
These events - rehabilitation, lockdown and now isolation shook me to my core. It changed me. I feel completely burned out. Life has gotten more “bare” and I have to find myself again, find what I truly care about. Connect with people, build something new.
Add on the fact I’m 41 and probably having midlife crisis at the same time (proof: I drive a Tesla!), and the party is complete.
Sorry for the long story - what I’m trying to say is that your personal struggle resonates with me and I want you to know that many people around me including myself have severely struggled the last 2 years. Social media didn’t help either; it has created a fake lens of the world, especially the last few years. It’s like 99% of the people are acting or presenting a version of themselves, instead of being themselves. 

Things will get better, but as you said you may have to force change. Whatever you choose to do next, I wish you all the best. Never, ever give up the values you live by.
Take care.

The last 18 months have changed me completely as well.
No more traveling because the company “is remote first”, no more creative minded colleagues, it’s all about process and numbers. All Zoom meetings are to the point, no more laughing. Dealing with 9 hour time difference (USA HQ)
The 2 years before that was helping my wife with her rehabilitation after she suffered a stroke. Which was hard with a 1.5 year old and a 7 year old. We were back in the Netherlands coincidentally (we came back to NL for friends and family) when it happened, and so I decided to immigrate back not knowing whether she was going to recover and be able to speak and walk again. The immigration causes all kinds of financial challenges (taxes, insurance) which cost me close to $100K in the end.
 
These events - rehabilitation, lockdown and now isolation shook me to my core. It changed me. I feel completely burned out. Life has gotten more “bare” and I have to find myself again, find what I truly care about. Connect with people, build something new.
Add on the fact I’m 41 and probably having midlife crisis at the same time (proof: I drive a Tesla!), and the party is complete.
Sorry for the long story - what I’m trying to say is that your personal struggle resonates with me and I want you to know that many people around me including myself have severely struggled the last 2 years. Social media didn’t help either; it has created a fake lens of the world, especially the last few years. It’s like 99% of the people are acting or presenting a version of themselves, instead of being themselves. 

Things will get better, but as you said you may have to force change. Whatever you choose to do next, I wish you all the best. Never, ever give up the values you live by.
Take care.

The last 18 months have changed me completely as well.
No more traveling because the company “is remote first”, no more creative minded colleagues, it’s all about process and numbers. All Zoom meetings are to the point, no more laughing. Dealing with 9 hour time difference (USA HQ)
The 2 years before that was helping my wife with her rehabilitation after she suffered a stroke. Which was hard with a 1.5 year old and a 7 year old. We were back in the Netherlands coincidentally (we came back to NL for friends and family) when it happened, and so I decided to immigrate back not knowing whether she was going to recover and be able to speak and walk again. The immigration causes all kinds of financial challenges (taxes, insurance) which cost me close to $100K in the end.
 
These events - rehabilitation, lockdown and now isolation shook me to my core. It changed me. I feel completely burned out. Life has gotten more “bare” and I have to find myself again, find what I truly care about. Connect with people, build something new.
Add on the fact I’m 41 and probably having midlife crisis at the same time (proof: I drive a Tesla!), and the party is complete.
Sorry for the long story - what I’m trying to say is that your personal struggle resonates with me and I want you to know that many people around me including myself have severely struggled the last 2 years. Social media didn’t help either; it has created a fake lens of the world, especially the last few years. It’s like 99% of the people are acting or presenting a version of themselves, instead of being themselves. 

Things will get better, but as you said you may have to force change. Whatever you choose to do next, I wish you all the best. Never, ever give up the values you live by.
Take care.

The last 18 months have changed me completely as well.
No more traveling because the company “is remote first”, no more creative minded colleagues, it’s all about process and numbers. All Zoom meetings are to the point, no more laughing. Dealing with 9 hour time difference (USA HQ)
The 2 years before that was helping my wife with her rehabilitation after she suffered a stroke. Which was hard with a 1.5 year old and a 7 year old. We were back in the Netherlands coincidentally (we came back to NL for friends and family) when it happened, and so I decided to immigrate back not knowing whether she was going to recover and be able to speak and walk again. The immigration causes all kinds of financial challenges (taxes, insurance) which cost me close to $100K in the end.
 
These events - rehabilitation, lockdown and now isolation shook me to my core. It changed me. I feel completely burned out. Life has gotten more “bare” and I have to find myself again, find what I truly care about. Connect with people, build something new.
Add on the fact I’m 41 and probably having midlife crisis at the same time (proof: I drive a Tesla!), and the party is complete.
Sorry for the long story - what I’m trying to say is that your personal struggle resonates with me and I want you to know that many people around me including myself have severely struggled the last 2 years. Social media didn’t help either; it has created a fake lens of the world, especially the last few years. It’s like 99% of the people are acting or presenting a version of themselves, instead of being themselves. 

Things will get better, but as you said you may have to force change. Whatever you choose to do next, I wish you all the best. Never, ever give up the values you live by.
Take care.

I just found my original BMPCC in a box after moving and I realized how much fun it was shooting with this camera, despite all its shortcomings.
It are the limitations and the singular focus, stripping it to the core, that makes it such a pleasure to shoot with.
I never used the newer cameras but they don’t seem “pocket” at all, and a bit of overkill to carry along.  

I second above comment. There could still be short 3min videos for critizing or analyzing the state of things, short to the point, witty without bitterness. Rather than calling Undone a guru, just stayin to the fact, that the testing cirucs is a circus of silly beasts or whatever. 2 to 3min pieces, once every three monts and people would get the point across. I mean, after all consumerism is a terrifying with harms to enviroment, resources and labour conditions around the world, epecially where employees rights are weak.
And, holy cow, Andrews 8bit colours from the GH2 look impressively good, better than most stuff from modern high end hybrids like A7s3 or S1H. Testament to the right shooter with the right equipment in the right state of mind.
 
 

This right here.
I am not enjoying your rants, Andrew, because (a) it’s a losing game, (b) makes you come across as bitter and (c) doesn’t seem to be your ‘groove’ and doesn’t accentuate your differentiation and strength. 

Whether you are right or wrong isn’t the point; you can’t change the rules of the game and it doesn’t make for entertaining content.
In my opinion, your strength is the intersection point between technology and creativity (I would love to see more of the latter to balance the tech side).
You aren’t competing with bloggers, YouTube’s or even cinematographers if you create your own category.
And that doesn’t mean you can’t voice a strong opinion as part of your concept. I just would rather see you fight FOR something instead of AGAINST.

This right here.
I am not enjoying your rants, Andrew, because (a) it’s a losing game, (b) makes you come across as bitter and (c) doesn’t seem to be your ‘groove’ and doesn’t accentuate your differentiation and strength. 

Whether you are right or wrong isn’t the point; you can’t change the rules of the game and it doesn’t make for entertaining content.
In my opinion, your strength is the intersection point between technology and creativity (I would love to see more of the latter to balance the tech side).
You aren’t competing with bloggers, YouTube’s or even cinematographers if you create your own category.
And that doesn’t mean you can’t voice a strong opinion as part of your concept. I just would rather see you fight FOR something instead of AGAINST.

This right here.
I am not enjoying your rants, Andrew, because (a) it’s a losing game, (b) makes you come across as bitter and (c) doesn’t seem to be your ‘groove’ and doesn’t accentuate your differentiation and strength. 

Whether you are right or wrong isn’t the point; you can’t change the rules of the game and it doesn’t make for entertaining content.
In my opinion, your strength is the intersection point between technology and creativity (I would love to see more of the latter to balance the tech side).
You aren’t competing with bloggers, YouTube’s or even cinematographers if you create your own category.
And that doesn’t mean you can’t voice a strong opinion as part of your concept. I just would rather see you fight FOR something instead of AGAINST.

This right here.
I am not enjoying your rants, Andrew, because (a) it’s a losing game, (b) makes you come across as bitter and (c) doesn’t seem to be your ‘groove’ and doesn’t accentuate your differentiation and strength. 

Whether you are right or wrong isn’t the point; you can’t change the rules of the game and it doesn’t make for entertaining content.
In my opinion, your strength is the intersection point between technology and creativity (I would love to see more of the latter to balance the tech side).
You aren’t competing with bloggers, YouTube’s or even cinematographers if you create your own category.
And that doesn’t mean you can’t voice a strong opinion as part of your concept. I just would rather see you fight FOR something instead of AGAINST.

This right here.
I am not enjoying your rants, Andrew, because (a) it’s a losing game, (b) makes you come across as bitter and (c) doesn’t seem to be your ‘groove’ and doesn’t accentuate your differentiation and strength. 

Whether you are right or wrong isn’t the point; you can’t change the rules of the game and it doesn’t make for entertaining content.
In my opinion, your strength is the intersection point between technology and creativity (I would love to see more of the latter to balance the tech side).
You aren’t competing with bloggers, YouTube’s or even cinematographers if you create your own category.
And that doesn’t mean you can’t voice a strong opinion as part of your concept. I just would rather see you fight FOR something instead of AGAINST.

This right here.
I am not enjoying your rants, Andrew, because (a) it’s a losing game, (b) makes you come across as bitter and (c) doesn’t seem to be your ‘groove’ and doesn’t accentuate your differentiation and strength. 

Whether you are right or wrong isn’t the point; you can’t change the rules of the game and it doesn’t make for entertaining content.
In my opinion, your strength is the intersection point between technology and creativity (I would love to see more of the latter to balance the tech side).
You aren’t competing with bloggers, YouTube’s or even cinematographers if you create your own category.
And that doesn’t mean you can’t voice a strong opinion as part of your concept. I just would rather see you fight FOR something instead of AGAINST.

One of the other issues not mentioned in the article I think is that writers don’t have the time to properly marinate their screenplays anymore. Quantity above quality. 
 
A past example is The Matrix trilogy. The first one had very smart written dialogue and references and fantastic action, the other two movies which had to be created under the weight of the success of the first movie, tried to cover up ‘smart’ with ‘deep’ philosophic nonsense and pointless chase scenes. No single scene in Matrix 1 was unnecessary. 
I feel a lot of what’s being created today falls into that last bucket, writing wise (which trickles down to direction, time for actors to get in character and editing).
Luckily there’s still a lot of true quality out there, but even that starts to feel unimaginative.
I compare it with jazz or a complex wine that requires an open mind and acquired taste, versus sterile smooth jazz or a coke. 
There’s even the problem of what I call “fake creative authenticity” for a lack of better words. Take the show “The Boys” which deliberately delivers a quirky, weird and violent show, but you can just feel it has been choreographed by marketeers.
It’s incredibly well produced, slick, but for once I would like to see some raw edged, unpolished parts and a director and writer who truly don’t give a fuck. They’ll have an incredibly hard time realizing to a larger market. 
 
The best way forward in this industry is to take something people are comfortable with and mix it up or add something to it - but that’s marketing choreography 😞

This is a really good point and is certainly the case for me. I don’t really add a lot of “new classics” to my collection but often look back at the ones that I discovered at a younger age, which I’m now showing to my kids, and makes me excited all over again. 
It is definitely a part of our perception of “things were better in the past”, even if that’s a highly subjective. 
For me another part is “polish”. Filmmaking and post-(production) technology is so advanced right now that I look back at the craft of filmmaking from times before those advancements. The unpolished editing, camera motion/lens use, practical effects etc, are all specific. constraints that I really love and add to the “rawness”, especially in 70s to 90s films.

There are lots of interview situations that don't call for a chair, or where one isn't even possible. I, for instance, shoot mainly doc-style pieces for environmental nonprofits as a solo shooter, which means 70-85 percent of my works happens outdoors, in the field. Thus, standing interviews are a must almost all the time for me.
And even if you tell someone to stand on a mark and not move their body too much, most of them are going to move in some way or another as you get deep into the interview, especially if you get them comfortable with the camera and really into what they are talking about. And if possible, I'm running two cameras in these interviews, so I can cut between different angles to add interest to the piece and hide cuts that would be obvious I only had one camera angle.
 
If you are trying to get non-pro subjects to say scripted lines, I find you're going to get a pretty wooden delivery most of the time, no matter if your subject is sitting or standing. As a former journalist, in my experience I get much better results if I do a traditional interview and get my subjects really talking about the topic at hand, even if I have some very clear bullet points of information I need them to say. I find getting people comfortable enough with the camera that they forget in the moment that it's rolling is key to getting an good clip. People getting animated and moving around a bit and talking with their hands gives me the most impactful interview material. Basically, if I can film interviews that feel like the subject is just talking to someone (off camera) with all the normal ticks and motions and conversational gestures people expect in a real conversation, the end result is many times better than having someone say scripted lines to the camera.
And there are lots of times in doc work where you want to see your subject moving around while talking. It doesn't have to be an interview necessarily; you might want your subject inspecting a logging site or in a burnt-out forest and talking about what they see, or walking along a river that's the subject of your piece telling a story that is relevant to your video. Or maybe you want your subject talking while driving or riding in a car to an important destination, or through a critical scene. Or you might be recording a protest or town hall meeting or some other live event where you can't direct who is speaking or how they are moving.
In all of these situations, having really good AF-C, especially with face tracking, can be extremely helpful for a single shooter or a small crew without a dedicated focus-puller. And none of them has anything to do with what a pack of self-referential YouTubers recommend or another dreadful blog about someone making coffee or riding a One Wheel around Toronto or LA. They are real-world situations that professional shooters encounter every day. If they are not situations you shoot in, great. But it would be silly to discount them.
Is perfect autofocus a must? No. I do a lot of manual focus in these situations. But solid autofocus is a valuable tool that shooters like me want access to. It definite factors into my camera buying decisions. It's not the only factor I consider, but I'd probably rate it higher than a lot of other features such as RAW shooting or open gate/true anamorphic modes. It just comes down to what each individual shooter prioritizes in their work. In the end, none of the cameras out today are perfect, but it's awesome that we have so many choices and so many key features and jumps in quality are filtering down to sub-$10K and even sub-$5K cameras.

It lacks certain design aesthetics, values. It is the layout, grouping, hierarchy, how and when you expose information, contextual aware design, affordance, terminology, interface design etc that is wrong. Different font sizes, pixelated menus, overload in terminology, too many irrelevant options, no clear understanding of the user, etc...
Japanese companies often are “tech/engineering first”. Their engineering mindset echoes in the user interface and user experience. 
Which is weird - look at Japanese gardens, modern Japanese interior design and architecture; they are minimalist and balanced. Look at their cuisine; minimalist, simple yet rich, delicate and artful. Almost the opposite of tech hardware design. 
An evolution of ingraining their (beautiful) cultural design values into their cameras still needs to happen. It requires their companies to be structured differently and I fear their traditional org structures and formal approach prevents them to keep up with modern times.

That's what I like about the Mac/iOS ecosystem, the final nail in the windows coffin for me was running a digital media production program with 30 workstations on the Adobe suite. Every single day we were diagnosing problems with software/hardware compatibility that kept surfacing. It never ended, even with all windows, Adobe and hardware drivers up to date. It just got to be too much of a drain on resources. We switched to Macs when the slimmer iMac's were introduced and just about every one of those issues disappeared. Not having to address compatibility with every damn component under the sun makes for a much more streamlined and efficient system. I don't care about any of the cost/performance debates - that's all white noise I just tune out, everything integrates beautifully across all my devices allowing me to get stuff done faster with less headaches. The M1 takes it to another level. After the usual iPhone 'S' updates next year to the 12s, hopefully the M1 refresh (M2?) and the next mobile overhaul will fully integrate all device lines.
Cheers
Chris

I think Panasonic will jump straight into LiDAR in combination with their existing DFD technology, and I wouldn’t be surprised this is going to be introduced next year. LiDAR is free from nasty Sony patents and I have seen really impressive results utilizing this technology so far. 
DFD will remain really important for ‘understanding’ the image; LiDAR is just ‘depth information’ so they’ll work together to provide (continuous) focus.

I think Panasonic will jump straight into LiDAR in combination with their existing DFD technology, and I wouldn’t be surprised this is going to be introduced next year. LiDAR is free from nasty Sony patents and I have seen really impressive results utilizing this technology so far. 
DFD will remain really important for ‘understanding’ the image; LiDAR is just ‘depth information’ so they’ll work together to provide (continuous) focus.

The A7siii is $1,500 more. The S5 is going after the same market as the A7iii