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Who will take America's place on the global stage. Clue... It won't be Belgium.

Is this global re-alignment ultimately going to be a bad thing? As an American I do wonder if things might improve for humanity if or time on the global stage concludes. False optimism? I'm not a fan of human exploitation and hyper consumerism. Environmental abuse is disheartening. I don't suspect the USA would curb any of it. Would the next global power do so? I really don't know. Such a bummer that such promising ideals of this new nation were never met, nor could be. Would have been nice to keep trying.

He is a liability. The tariffs could be back at any moment, he's giving the market a jump scare like he's in Scream 3. Which means if you are China or Japan with trillions invested in the US and in dollars, you are likely to start selling and putting the money somewhere else. Personally I am hoping they give it to me.

Here is the list of the new exemptions. https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSCBP/bulletins/3db9e55 The general HTS code for cameras is 8025. So they are not included in the list. As it currently stands, if you buy the Ursa Cine 12K then you will be hit with 150% for the camera but not the media module. All of this is “as it currently stands” because he’s probably not finished his morning double cheeseburger yet so is almost certainly subject to further “strategic alterations” and all the new tariffs are removed over the next two weeks. I’m surprised they didn’t disappear in real time while I was reading the document.

Not locally owned any more but RED are still there. And with significantly less cringe.

I just read that computers and phones from China are now exempt from the tariffs. Anyone think cameras will also get on that list? Maybe I'm mistaken, but I don't think there's an actual camera maker in the USA.

It's more than half, just not by enough. Minority rule. As all totalitarian states are. Plus, there's a lot of the sane ones that like to claim they "don't do politics" Well, politics is about to "do" you. And, you know, this fascist playbook we're seeing here in the USA is a book that is wide open. It's easy to read because it's simple. The ones that are attracted to that are insatiable. And the book has been used numerous times by bad people because it works. What's happening here is neither new or abnormal. These folks and their followers are ridiculous people that are gross, small, mentally horrible, and should be shamed for their terrible attitudes, but they've built political momentum and they're very close to reaching their orbit. The journey leads no where good. Not even for them. Finally, I like shooting f8 on an M43rd sensor. It's "Spielbergean cinema"! (gotta stay relevant to the website after that rant; cleanse the mental palette)

I really thought I'd die before the down fall of the USA. Mind, I figured the downfall was inevitable, like all things, but I suspected it would be late 21 st century, not early -- while I'll be checking out in the mids; could've missed it. Bleh.

In the testing process we discovered some interesting special sauce, hence I have held off on the release to go through that as well... but this week it will be out along with some of the extras too. Get your ALEXA LUTs ready 🙂

China holds nearly $1 trillion in US debt and could tank the bond market if they wanted to. Indeed, they now might. I wonder if Drump and his cronies even realised this basic economic fact before deciding on their trade war bullying move. Or maybe it's a mistake to believe they even care about the country... And it's all about enriching themselves personally with some stock market manipulation. Either way things could be about to get very nasty for the world economy. Buy a camera now before the new prices hit.

Yeah, I don't think you'd see such blind faith in such complete bollocks here. Ever since I was a kid in the 80s I've always thought the glamour, the rock'n'roll, the blockbusters etc was always covering up a dark seething mess of ignorance, power and violence. It's a shame that my instinct was right. The amount of seemingly normal people warbling on about missions from god etc is scary. There seems like a huge disconnect from any reality and people just lap up what they are fed. Of course I realise that half of the US population is sane and probably very scared right now. I really hope they find a way to turn this all around asap without things getting worse.

Some do it like this: https://www.instagram.com/vanessahorabuena/reel/DFaxsz3IAjD/ Hope that helps give you some context.

I have some experience with the 15 1.7 and while its sharp and tiny with nice color rendition I think it's best as a kind of point and shoot lens for the system. It's nice enough but I wouldn't use it for serious video work - it lacks good manual controls and character. No comment on the Sigma, but my highest recommendations for the Voigtlander 17.5mm f0.95 if you're looking in that focal range. Tons of character wide open, tack sharp stopped down, incredible ergonomics and manual control.

I've been thinking about the 15mm Panny Leica for a while. It's a pretty looking lens. I am very happy with my 14mm pancake though, which is an awesome little lens on my GX85 and my og pocket. The 15mm has about 1 stop more light gathering in comparison. If it had a clutch mechanism for hard stops in MF like the Oly 12 and 17mm, it would be hard to resist for me. There is also a cheaper Dji branded variante out there which came with Dji's mft raw recording gimbal camera. What would speak for the Sigma over the Leica? Maybe the big focus ring and ultimate image quality? Though I imagine the Panny Leica is no slouch in the image department. What camera would you mount your lens of choice to? Did I read something about a GH6 or GH7? Maybe big lens for a big camera then?:) @mercer

15mm f1.7. The Sigma is much bigger and heavier which of course can be good for stability however it suffers badly with focus breathing apparently. Plenty of reviews out there comparing the two.

This lens breathing is what I experienced, at F8 or F5.6, even at F4. I will try MF. Thanks a lot for the input.

i used +1. will try 0 for moving.

For the m4/3 shooters, Pan/Leica 15mm 1.7 or Sigma 16mm 1.4?

Genie. Bottle. Too late. No, in my opinion, from here it's a national existential crisis for the change to happen. Like, mid 19th century stuff. We got the monied power in the USA angling towards city states. Their ship has a pretty strong wake. Media is the rudder. And the USA is more of a business than a country. If there's enough people here to lay down their lives to claw back the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, I kinda doubt it. Most don't even understand the founding concepts of this nation much less respect them. Trump is the idiot that will help speed run this thing, but if not for him then it would be some other puppet. Our culture demands it.

Is it possible to test on my S9 ? love to test on it thankss olivier.saintdenislefilm@gmail.com Best

I know this sounds strange, but if Democrats organize and steer Trump in the right direction, it would also give him a win. Trump is trying with all his might to hit a home run when he should simply be trying to get on first base (excuse the baseball metaphor). He's going to keep *ucking up, over and over and over because he's also surrounded himself with a bunch of "yes" men and women. Trump will ONLY fall if his base of ignorant supporters feel the pain. Sadly, this needs to happen before anyone can move on, including the Democrats. If not, Trump will continue blaming the Democrats for everything under the sun and his ignorant loyalists will continue to believe every word. Pain needs to be felt. The good news is that, at the rate he's going, it might be a lot sooner than most think- it will be the moment to make a move.

I think it's not clear whether the MAGA politicians are rational or not. Clearly, many of them know little about the government of states, which explains why there is so much fumbling about and obvious mistakes and unintended consequences. However, it's clear that Trump is a con artist. He is using the power of the presidency for personal gain. Just now there are videos showing how Trump is bragging about how he and his friends made a lot of money by taking advantage of the stock market fluctuations caused by Trump's tariffs (being turned on and off). This is entirely rational behavior from a con artist and a narcissist. He's got the all-clear from the Supreme Court that he can't be held responsible for his official actions as president in court. Congress could still hold him responsible (impeachment), and the people maybe can (if there are free elections in the future) but it could very well happen that he gets away with it, and he's old enough that even if he does go into prison, he wouldn't be there for a long time. Tariff wars tend to be followed by actual wars where people die. That's why the EU was founded, by removing tariffs between European states, it was thought that wars between the states can be avoided, which has been the case so far. However, for Trump, the tariffs are just a means towards personal enrichment (and his friends' enrichment), plus getting a lot of personal attention in the media that he craves.

And the centre-left parties are letting it spread and enabling it. A lot of people are stupid, but a lot of them just feel that the traditional career politicians don't speak for them. Then we have 4 or 5 years of this or that liberal party in power and nothing changes. Where is Kamala Harris now? How do you lose to a fucking convicted felon? How useless do you have to be? The democrats are now holding little signs up in congress! What is that achieving? You can't play diplomacy games with a fascist thug. It's one of the reasons Putin is so powerful, he had half of them round his little finger, whilst Russian influence & money was deeply embedded in western society. The only way you remove a fascist dictator or a mafia from power is violence. The US might be about to find that out at the next election. In the meantime, this China trade-war is really ramping up towards a possible armed conflict, and not a lot of Trump voters realise the seriousness of what he's started.

There seems to be a big discrepancy these days in what we used to call 'the working class' feel about the 'wealthy'. If they worked hard, then they are often sneered at and derided, but if they went viral on TikTok or some uber-shallow reality TV show and became 'rich & famous' as a result, then that is something to aspire to. The world gets ever more mad.

It's like the polar opposite of how people view things in my country. If someone is rich, in my country, many people will invariably feel that that person didn't get rich via honest work but instead probably did something either unlawful (stole something, didn't pay taxes, smuggled something etc.) or at least morally questionable (oppressed workers for personal gain). And so it's something to be ashamed of rather than proud.