Davide DB

Yes, long story short. the right tool for the job.
I am a wildlife enthusiast and despite being an amateur, I find myself facing "on a small scale" the challenges I see in blue-chip productions, and there I realize how truly fundamental the equipment is in these situations. A true watershed between getting the shot and not getting it.
For a project on the marine fauna of the sand, I spent hours filming various types of mollusks burying themselves. I have a rebreather and therefore no time limit underwater. But the camera in an underwater housing does not have a V-mount battery (unless you have a RED with a 30K euro housing) and therefore you have battery limits. A clam took an hour and a half before burying itself, and I had to film the initial moment. It took me 3 hours and two dives before succeeding. Dives in which I filmed and every minute I stopped and started again. A couple of times that damn clam buried itself while I was stopping and restarting the recording. The same thing happened while waiting for a crab to eat a fish.
I cursed because my GH5M2 does not have the pre-recording function (the GH6 has it and the GH7 does not). I thus discovered that the pre-recording function is one of the most useful functions for those who do wildlife. A practically mandatory choice if you shoot in RAW and fill memory cards in a few minutes.

And a lot of small improvements too

And a lot of small improvements too

I'll return to Lubezki's work.  Feeling the same vibes.  The stuff he does with Cuarón, and overall in general I guess, really nurture the deep dof.
Here's a film he shot in my back yard.  I can literally see the location from my office -- which I still get a kick out of being able to 'name-drop'
 
As an indy documentarian, I gotta say, I can't really get completely behind this notion, but I do think I know what you're getting at and why useage-context with a camera is important. 
I just came off a project where the cinematographer was leaving an insane amount of shots and potential in the field.  Why?  He was trying to wield a bunch of large production shit on an full-fledged ARRI set up rather than just shooting good extensive coverage with a small simple rig. 
Yes, sometimes what he got looks great.  But, trust me, what he missed (and missed often) had better potential.  You can chalk some of it to him not being that spry anymore ... which to me would demand you go light and small to mitigate that, but he is definitely a boy-with-his-toys kind of guy rather than a remarkable creative.  Wants to have the best most powerful super car, even if he can't drive it, y'know?
Anyway, IQ superior?  Yes.  Practicality?  Debatable.  Which, coincidentally, practicality is the DP's argument for the GH7 and a 12mm lens on this Magellan movie.  I kind of like the 'too-much-grain' treatment, but, yeah, it's a choice.
Damn.  I'm rambling.  Too much wine tonight.

Media Division did a deep dive.  Big improvements for sure.  They were able to trigger overheating in some pretty extreme scenarios, but it no longer seems to be a likelihood in any reasonable shooting situation.
 
 

One of the best channels on YouTube in this industry.
Thorough, no hype and do actually make quality productions out in the field and not simply spout BS from behind a desk, holding a lav mic wearing clothing back to front.

Read this:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/oceanfootagemastery_underwatercinematography-myoctopusteacher-activity-7396815155616989184-C-CD
 

I saw one part when he was saying that it was a little annoying that they did not get exact time remaining for recording. The same guy said that it was totally unacceptable a cine camera did not give exact time remaining on the card. OK, it is written cine, but it is still a 2200 USD camera, and h265 by its nature is variable bit rate. Simple example on a sitting interview with a static background and the bitrate goes a lot lower, while have dynamic shot with lots of movement or movement in the shots and the bitrate goes up drastically. 
The just couldn't find any thing to say positive at the camera except about Nikon color and his luts, that he sell!!!

For comparison its his ZR test

At 0.1 High S/N ratio, DR is 6 stops. In his R6III test its only 3. Not only he is not curious at all why its so low, but doesn't even notice the drastic fall of it (from 8.26 to 3.04). As a reviewer I would dig into the data.
I seriously feel he's not interested about what he's doing anymore. He's like "AF is good". What? How you tested that? Where is the evidence that its good? Canon website says its good, what else you know? And good for who? and why people should pay near $3k to have "good AF" when their current camera already has good AF? I assume R6III AF is "better" than R6II, but I need to see the evidence in practical situations. That's the job of someone who reviews gears for living.

And a lot of small improvements too

Suddenly Gerald finds no problem in DR and 10 stops is good enough to declare "cameras peaked". 

I thought I would add my project to this thread as I was somewhat inspired by it. Long story short, I modded my BMPCC to turn it into a D-mount camera. 
 

My Takumar 50mm F1.4 arrived and I took it out to compare it with the Voigt 42.5mm F0.95 with Sirui 1.25x adapter setup.
The Voigt+Sirui is equivalent to 68mm F1.5 and the Takumar+Speedbooster is equivalent to 71mm F2.0, so a bit longer and a bit slower.
In order to avoid changing lenses all the time, I did a little lap with the Voigt+Sirui, then did another lap with the Takumar and re-created the compositions from the first lap (as well as grabbing other shots too).  These images have had a film-emulation applied, and have had exposures matched, but no other changes, so things like contrast and WB etc should be the same.












My impressions:
Voigtlander is softer at F0.95 than the Takumar at F1.4
I haven't compared them with the Voigt stopped down, but I'd probably rather get a bit more subject separation than sharper images.  The extra sharpness of the Takumar makes the focus peaking a lot easier to use when using the screen (using the EVF you can see what is in focus but the monitor you need peaking on) The focus ring on the Takumar is a lot looser (not that damped but not too loose either), but of course it's backwards The extra width of the Voigt is apparent.  It makes me wonder if the Speedbooster is a little less boosting than I claimed. The Sirui has a lot of coma on the edges (stretching light sources horizontally) so the bokeh seems more horizontal than vertical on lights, whereas the Tak seems to have a zoom-blur sort of effect which is a bit odd The Tak has slightly lower contrast (hard to see but I noticed it when trying to match exposures) In addition to those, I also grabbed these with the Takumar:

Swirly bokeh! and it's not a Helios!!


It has a nice halation/glow but the ghosts from the light sources are real.  This is something I am thinking a lot about because I find them to be very distracting.




Seems sharp at the edges at closest focus.  The bokeh is confusing - sometimes with bubbles and sometimes not.
I actually find that the response to light sources in this lens is very complicated - sometimes it stretches along the spokes of a wheel and other times along the rim of the wheel. 
Also something I noticed but isn't really visible in stills is that light sources pointed straight at the camera have a flare that's like a loop, like this, which can look pretty distracting too.

My conclusions are:
The focus being lighter and peaking being more obvious makes it a bit easier and faster to use, so much so that I changed my process to where I'd adjust the vND, then hit record and then focus in the 2s it takes the GH7 to begin recording The size and weight difference is significant and I found I was able to shoot people from a lot closer with it than the Sirui The small size and weight mean it's a no-brainer to pack on trips where I'm reluctant to pack the Voig/Sirui combo Next is to test it with an oval insert to get some stretched bokeh.  As a proof of concept it certainly looks promising.

The gear doesn't matter thing is so boring, it does matter and you can't shoot much without it.
The GH1 opened a door, because the aesthetic on offer was very different to the small chip digital camcorders at the time or Mini DV.
It opened the door to all those interchangeable lenses, and there's a big difference in look between these lenses let alone between a GH1 and a Mini DV cam.
Actually you can tell the Magellan is going for a certain look too with the GH7 - it isn't Hollywood, it's documentary style and looks quite clinical in places with a deep DOF, which they didn't have to do but the Lumix lenses are like that and it works well.
So choice of gear, informs the look of what you're making and does matter greatly.
The difference in image quality between a GH6 and GH7 doesn't matter quite so much...
But the format of camera, and era of camera does.

How about Black Magic Design to buy them?
 
COMING SOON: Arri Pocket Cinema Camera 24K

I just think it's a form of culture rot and US cinema will go down with the ship. The west is in decline and it's time for China to take over at the top of the world order, and that includes cinema. Better start learning Mandarin.

If Panasonic would wake up, they could be the ones to get their hands on Arri.
They already have a collaboration for the color profile, and Panasonic no longer has the professional division.
But, as you say, the old Japanese guys have completely lost their minds.
Could it be a Chinese company that pulls off the big coup?
 

You don't love anything except huffing those "alternative truthers" farts. I guess when you eat enough of the shit pies those types of people serve you, you eventually forget what shit tastes like and start enjoying it.

So you feel it in your bones that something is wrong with society and that corporations are doing a lot of harm, turning the frogs gay and so on.
What was it specifically about the aquarium exactly that triggered these feelings?
The science of fish? Some naughty toads? A pink goldfish?
The financial institutions, like it or not, along with food and oil, are needed for civilisation.
I'm not saying they can't or shouldn't be reformed, and refocused so the interests of the people are put first ahead of offshore tax dodging profit-making.
It is true that neo liberalism and big business has failed to make society or communities better, it has failed us and the environment, they are parasitical and we really need someone to turn to in these dark times who can do something about it.
I am just confused as to why that hero has to be a pedophile rapist with criminal convictions and fraudulent businesses, a fascist and a racist, old as hell, fat and stupid, born into privilege, a cold heartless landlord and a cultural wasteland of a person who likes to fawn over supermodels and traffic women.
No names of course.
A clue... it's not Bill Gates or the boss of Pepsi.
Ah yes the NGOs and USAID are at the root of all evil aren't they wanting to end world hunger.
Ah yes Russia that hero state where the quality of life for most people barely rises above the grade of heavy depression and alcoholism, and for good reasons. A shit economy, stripped of its dignity by a mafia state, which likes to routinely arrest and murder it's own citizens, and one that likes to spend countless billions on a hybrid war with Europe and the UK rather than spending it on fucking hospitals.
You really believe he's moving away from the imperialist clutches of wall street?
What are the actual things which have occurred to suggest wall street is weaker under Trump?
He's had 4 years 2016-2020 in power and now again embarking on another term and as far as I can see the stock market has never been more of a bubble, more damaging and more highly inflated and inequality of wealth never worse especially in the US.
And this is not me spouting an opinion, there's factual evidence for it, not that you'd trust any of the journalists who'd trojan the inconvenient truth into your pathetic little fantasy land.
 

It's absolutely pointless even talking to these people (if they are indeed real people), we are so far apart and they are so far down the rabbit hole thanks to social media. The great tragedy is that the internet in it's original concept was supposed to level up people's knowledge of the factual world and to broaden their minds, connect them with other cultures and other people.
The way the billionaires have just completely subverted the technology is horrific and they are all mega rich as a result. Zuckerberg should be in jail.
On social media, even the order of comments under a post swaps around depending on who the algorithm believes you will agree with most, so the counterbalance of views just never gets seen.
And the end goal of all of this was never to break society - that's just collateral to the main mission, which is shareholder value.
And if Zuck and Elon weren't bad enough and all the dark money sloshing about from Russia, I am equally as disgusted at the so-called "moral" liberal elite of tech leaders who stay silent on the destruction of our society and community cohesion in the name of profit.
Like Tim Cook for instance.

Had a chance to have a look at one in the flesh.

It feels good in the hand and the screen is everything that everyone has already said it is.
The overall size of the camera is even more compact than I thought it would be, particularly when they are displaying it alongside the next one up in the Nikon RED range !

I was sorely tempted at the price here which works out at £1650 including the 24-70mm f4 lens for visitors.

I’m here for a few more weeks so maybe I might buckle but the issue for me is that they had a Z8 at the next display and for an old fart like me that just appeals more, especially in light of the is it/isn’t it stuff about the RAW and the file extensions etc.
I might just sit this out (again) for another year to see how the dust settles with firmware updates for the ZR and actually the Z6III as that might be the compromise play for me, although the Z8 will likely still win out.
So, ultimately, I was able to put the ZR down and walk away fairly easily.
Unexpectedly, the one I had far more difficulty walking away from the was the much maligned Fujifilm X-Half.
Kinky.
 

Same here.
We are all excited for seeing a small package with all these features at that price. I like seeing these young "creators" publishing all these nice video handheld. But seriously, for travel or vacation do I need a RAW camera and a countless TB of storage with me?
Despite the character, I mostly appreciated the honest Philip Bloom review of this camera.

I think they're acting either conservatively with a wait-and-see approach. IMO, they're waiting to see how the S1 series sells. Based on that and the market/competition, they'll act or not.
I've been having a hard time getting excited about these newer bodies. Really, it's more about 4k120fps (if anything). I just cannot justify that kind of expense as a hobbyist. RAW isn't for me. I'm much more excited about lenses now, but even with them, they're becoming too similar across brands. I don't know why, but they're also becoming boring. The Chinese lenses seem to be where the more unique looks are coming from.
I have a really hard time thinking that the ZR will be viable on the beach in summer with MF lenses. After the GX800 and S9, even though they can be bright, the EVF is non-negotiable now. Maybe I'm getting old.

I like this way of marketing to give the camera to youtubers with low number followers and turns out they're talented and need more recognition.
 

The R6 Mark III has IBIS, so that point’s off. Canon’s lineup is just segmented now: the C50 is the pro cine body, while the R5 and R6 series are prosumer hybrids.
I’ve tried both the ZR and R6 (mk2) back to back. The ZR looks cooler and that big screen is gorgeous, but ergonomically it’s kinda average: very thin, shallow grip, no EVF, cheap buttons and a menu system in dire need of a revamp. Lack of DCI, open gate and meh exposure tools on the ZR is what bugs me most. Overall I still really like it for its streamlined compactness and big display but it's clearly a first gen product. The Canon feels faster, more natural, and better balanced once in hand for hybrid usage.
 
That said I admit the R series design language has zero mojo compared to the cine oriented C50, FX or ZR, but the R6 III is far from crippled. It’s balanced, feature complete, and a solid proposition in today’s mid tier hybrid market. The real genius move I think is launching it alongside that super affordable 45mm f1.2 where other brands keep pairing slow zooms as their kits.
Side note but speaking of sex appeal the camera that really had me drooling at the shop was the Sigma BF. Totally unpractical form over function design but that heavy solid unibody paired with minimal clever UI make it one of the most unique and oddly inspiring designs in recent times.