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Maybe the dopamine hits of social media are to blame? Is there a point anymore for a young twenty-year-old Herzog circa 2021 to beg, scrape, and steal to make a film? When you can just make a tik-tok? Get a million followers. Move on? Maybe social media takes away precious free-time that you need to concentrate to come up with, as David Lynch says, "catching the big fish?" Or maybe the social anxiety of life pre-Covid - the mental-health insanity of it all - left little time to be happy and creative? Or maybe with the movie theatres all about to die and the rise of netflix and movies being "content" as Scorsese calls it - maybe that has sapped everything that forces someone to work so hard to make their own feature. For me I was born in 1981, and movies were the only thing I knew up even past college in 2003 when I could have started a filmmaking career. Netflix was just a mail-order DVD service. There was no social media yet, except maybe Friendster. Now nearly twenty years later - what do young people who want to say things do? Do they have that precious time to be creative? Especially now when in 2021 young people graduate with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt vs the 1970s when young people had barely any debt and could have a decent life and buy a home with little money and had room to wander and explore?

One of the ugliest aspects of this pandemic has been the reminder of the sense of entitlement so many people have. It was always there but it's really been hitting us over the head every day since the pandemic began. Selfishness has been deemed "freedom" and any attempt to reel in such selfishness has been labeled "tyranny." It's to the point where people compare, without even the smallest bit of irony, that it's equal to slavery. Mind you they make these statements on their phones and computers, with minimal restrictions on what they can say (depending on the platform), while living in their nice homes, driving their nice cars, eating in restaurants, and enjoying most of the other wonderful perks that comes with modern technology and society. You know who don't have any of that? Actual slaves. And they exist today, not as these privileged people complaining, but as human beings forced to live in squalor, void of any rights, and forced to work for nothing. The minor inconveniences you've had to live with this last year is still better than anything those people have ever experienced. So yeah, people's insistence on comparing the efforts to combat COVID-19 to slavery is not only dumb but insulting to those that have experienced genuine slavery or whose ancestors were slaves. All of that should go without saying and yet here we are. Embarrassing.

No. It's like saying free people in a country built on genocide and slavery, who daily benefit from that history, shouldn't call themselves enslaved when they're asked to temporarily change their lifestyles in order to save the lives of their neighbours. No. Slavery is a situation where a person or a group of people are forced to labour for no recompense. Some people have concluded that they're in that situation right now because they're too spoilt and entitled to countenance a temporary disruption to their lives in order to save the lives of their neighbours.

Its like saying poor people in developed countries shouldn't call themselves poor, because some kids somewhere in India are dying because there is no enough food. Slavery is about a situation where a person or a group of people, commonly known as master, decides how you should live. Some people have legitimately concluded that they're in that situation right now. The mathematical measurements of misery is not the subject.

It's a completely natural reaction for ignorant people that have never read a history book to compare it to slavery but not anyone that's remotely reasonable.

This response reflects where I'm at right now... asking myself if for now, i really need 10 bit, how much can i do with 8bit and existing profiles (and I have Andrew’s z-log profiles to experiment with further.) Chromakeying is still a question, but some focused trials will shed more light on workability. I can also rent a Ninja recorder to get me to 422 in that specific case. Your observation about Nikon’s history of r&d was helpful reframing!

Unless you work professionally in the industry, it's hard to get excited about this camera as the tech specs are similar to the A7SIII. Features that make your job easier and a camera easier to work with/ more reliable are overlooked by most people. Internal Fan: woohoo what a boring feature for most people but this makes the camera a far more reliable tool professionally. XLR inputs: Not sure how this isn't seen as a huge plus over the A7SIII. Tally lamps: again for most here its not a selling point but professionally very welcome. I would pay the price difference for theses features every day of the week. At the same time, I wish it had internal ND and TC support.

Lectros and Zaxcom are industry standards for bigger productions. But the OP was asking about Sony UWP vs Sennheiser G3/G4. For that class of gear, the Sennheiser is much more" pro" than the Sonys in terms of adoption, availability, and actual use in the industry. Go call the rental houses in New York City. I guarantee you that all of them rent out the Sennheisers along with Lectros and Zaxcoms. Ask them whether the Sennheiser or Sony is more "pro," and most will tell you they don't carry the Sonys. That should tell you something. That's not to say the Sonys are bad! Just be careful listening to some poster on the internet who culls info from jwsoundgroup.net and goes around on other forums as some self-styled expert.

There's a certain context there. Personally, I definitely think the implication is "...[used to be free to] say whatever they wanted and be offensive." I suppose I could be wrong there, let me know if so. But, it seems to me, maybe some people are ticked-off that a certain traditional privilege/entitlement is now being challenged in a more inclusive society. And since being a rude self-centered person is being called-out more often it kind of makes those people upset? If so, I'd ask, is being held accountable to new standards wrong? Or is it only wrong when folks disagree with the new standards? How we define these shifts in society is pretty important, I think.

Dang, that would make at least for of us on this board. I'm kinda shocked. It's a pretty small place, taken from a global perspective. You can probably find/rent a Ninja V pretty easy up in PDX. I've got two down here in Eugene. If you were close enough to make it worth while, I'd let you play with one for a few hours to see if it is something you'd be interested in using and/or rent you one when you needed it. I use them with Fuji X-Ts and definitely appreciate all the pro features they add to the camera, plus the much bigger screen to monitor and capturing in ProRes.

Hi all, My heart goes out to everyone whose livelihood depends on this technology, tough, nay, difficult and challenging times, indeed. Being "just a retired fellow who likes to play with cool toys and try and make something with them" my biggest hit during the pandemic was having to sandbag my night college FCPX class this past spring when in-class learning turned into an attempt at virtual learning...I imagine I took an incomplete on it, haven't had the heart to check. (sigh) I would very much like to retake the course when the campus reopens and I feel that the pandemic is on the wane and I can get tested for the antibodies to determine whether I should get a vaccine or not. My hopes and expectations (here "in the States") is that our new administration will prove more competent and honest in dealing with this pandemic than the previous one and, in those regards, things are looking hopeful. In the meantime, after a fraught year of worry for my immune-compromised daughter and S.O. (and countless friends and loved ones) I'm just beginning to get my head back into my nature/wildlife shooting and have reinvigorated my day-by-day commitments to "just get out there" and put myself in the way of beauty (as the film says!) and grab some footage and stills. It's proved to be good medicine, too easy (it sadly seems) to have been able to allow depressiveness and worry keep me on the couch. I wish everyone future success with their own personal challenges. My biggest challenge since getting "back out" is dealing with those (sometimes-indignant) non-mask-wearing folks who've allowed themselves to be fooled into thinking that doing so has been some grand conspiracy to rob them of their civil liberties. Losing one's life and/or becoming gravely ill because of the carelessness of others is an attack on one's civil liberties, sad to discover that this conversation is actually necessary, so, I've taken to politely asking that they do so. Unfortunately, a few local businesses (deli, laundromat, etc.) have been lax in abiding by our State's (NY) Covid requirements and I've had to have conversations with those proprietors as to why they will not see me in their places of business any further...this pandemic has been an education in seeing how others show respect for their neighbors, and in the case of business owners, their patrons and employees and their own families. All that said, my mental/emotional state has seen a marked upswing since becoming active again, as has my physical health...something to be said for fresh air and sunshine and a sense of purpose and desire! Haw! Best to one and all, 🙂 Jimmy G P.S. Thank you author Cheryl Strayed for the words... WILD: "Sunset" - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ALJfFmwWwU

When I was growing up, in the 1970s, on a wet Sunday or during a winter half-term, if you wanted to watch something on TV there was a very limited choice (in the UK, we only had 3 channels) so at some point one always found oneself watching old black and white movies, old technicolour movies... just old movies. I swear I learnt more about history, humans, social interaction and - importantly in the context of this discussion - storytelling - from those movies. Now and for a good number of years up to now, kids in that same state of wet-weekend ennui can watch terabytes of 'content' tailored precisely to their sensibilities. They have no need to sit on the sofa and gradually get drawn in to a piece of narrative storytelling made decades before their births. One of the results of this that I've noticed in my own children is that movies I consider to be great pieces of art and entertainment, they find unbearably slow-paced. Modern mass-market films - built on beats - have a 'wow' moment roughly every minute or so. It's a relentless succession of - as @Ed David mentions above - dopamine hits. So obviously the industry, competing against social media, 30 second 'fail' videos and needing to attract and retain the attention of an audience that will switch off anything that features slow burns and subtle inferences, has responded by catering to that need for mindless, incessant thrills (Not saying Hollywodd hasn't always done that, to an extent, but its output now is probably less varied and nuanced than ever before). Maybe people get a bit more discerning and open to these things as they get older. I hope so. I sometimes feel like large swathes of us have been the subjects of a giant unintentional experiment, the results of which help no-one and are, one-by-one, destroying so many parts of our shared culture that - had we been asked - we would have preferred to keep intact.

I shoot Raw for stills @LloydPDX ...to date anyway, but looking at all options now I have moved to Panasonic.

I capture Raw almost exclusively for all my still work, but I have to remember that good event photographers (and others) might have their sRGB jpgs dialed in so well that their workflow is simplified. And it looks good! Maybe time for an old dog to learn new tricks.

🙂 Good plan. I find that by using what you have and then seeing what doesn't work for you in real-world shooting, doing the projects that you do, in the way that you do them, with your own particular expectations and tastes, then you'll end up spending the money on what actually matters to you. There's lots of times when something is needed by someone else, but that doesn't mean you should upgrade. There's also lots of people recommending extra features "just in case" which can create a kind of spec inflation that's not based on reality, especially when people read the just-in-case recommendations and then pass them on to others with their own just-in-case inflation added on.

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.

This has been a really helpful thread with thoughtful responses. Thank you. For now, I’ll be pushing myself with the D850 for a better real-world understanding of its capabilities. And maybe borrowing/renting another cam to feel the difference in similar situations, and in the edit.

Yes, this, today, would be the most likely direction. But I’m going to push myself a bit more with the D850 in real life for now. Used Gh5s’ and other choices will be around for awhile, after I have more informative successes and failures.

It became faster with firmware 2.0. Check the S5 readings. Still has the best usable dynamic range though only beaten by the RED Komodo in the sub $10,000 class. FX3 and A7s3 are quite weak in that regard.

Only 8 times an hour? I reckon I’m more like 9 or 10 😉 Nah, not really... Yes, slight concerns in 2 regards and these are: A: Not had the opportunity to shoot a wedding yet (for obvious reasons) with the system. However, 4 commercial shoots bodes well...but ain’t nothing like a wedding shoot to test your skillz + any kit! B: I’m still toying with getting an S1H instead of the second S5, but whichever way I look at it, it’s relatively low priced kit (that I have or am looking at other than the S1H) compared with the comparable Sony or Canon kit and if I get ‘only’ 3 seasons out of it, the investment vs the return negates even zero resale value. I’ve done the maths and it’s a lifetime cost of between 4-5% vs turnover. There has been a lot of talk about Panasonic and Nikon shutting shop but I can’t see it being any time soon. Unless Panny do not pop out a GH6 and don’t sort their video AF out!

I think you make good points. The only issue is that buying a camera can "lock you in" to a certain set of compatible lenses. And then, once you have bought those lenses, you are kind of married to the system. Certainly metabones / sigma / viltrolx adapters make it easier to have affairs with other camera brands. I say this because I am shooting Panasonic L Mount now and about eight times an hour I have an existential crisis over the availability and cost of L Mount glass and wonder if it might not be better to give up being a photographer / videographer and take up painting in watercolors as a profession 😱

I work in a factory running cnc machines and lately a waterjet. I dabble in video for a hobby. I got laid off, not long after covid hit here in aus and nearly everything got shut down. Spent about six- eight months off work. Ended up withdrawing 20k out of my super, as allowed by the government at the time. Paid the mortgage off and bought a 3 year old Mitsubishi outlander. Some might say I haven't had it too tough, and I can't say that I blame them for thinking that. Here in Australia we haven't experienced the death rates in other countries. Whether that's due to the government initiatives or a smaller population more spread out or dumb luck, I couldn't tell. But I am however grateful as I have some rare bug called sarcoidosis which would probably not play well with covid, if I were to catch it. While covid hasn't had the same impact here mortality wise, financially it's probably near crippled a lot of people, families, government. Long time ago I remember a saying ask not what your country can do for you, but rather, what can you do for your country. Personally I think it might the time to focus a bit less on myself and some more on where I can help others,and maybe video something along the way.

This 100%! And the thing about those measures is they work! That's why I'm so exhausted by these debates. Even when you adjust the numbers to account for its small population, Vermont has the second lowest rates in the country. Why? It's not because it's rural since that didn't spare the Dakotas from having the highest numbers in the country. It's not because it was remote, given it bordered New York and Massachusetts, two states that were ravaged by COVID-19 at one point. It's not because they aren't testing; they're 7th in testing per million. It's because they require masks, put limits on how many people can be in stores and restaurants at once, restricted gatherings, etc. Common sense stuff that even after 500,000 have died people still argue against or call "slavery."

Medically justified, temporary, standard public health measures aimed at containing a deadly pandemic are not slavery - the view of the world betrayed by such a characterisation is either simplistic or solipsistic. I'm very sorry for your father's suffering - but really, what is the alternative? Do hospitals allow normal visiting by relatives and friends who may unknowingly be spreading a virus that could kill not only the patient concerned but also many others in the hospital who are highly vulnerable? Or do they devote hours of scarce nursing time helping said visitors to don PPE to a clinical standard? All of the measures enacted around the world have their basis in the fact that we are faced with a virus that many can spread without even realising they're infected, but which for many others is a death sentence. In other words - they call upon those who in the main can withstand the infection to temporarily undergo some personal detriment - be it economic, social, emotional or to their own mental health in order to protect their fellow citizens who might not be so lucky. You say it's your right to take the personal risk of getting sick or dying. But what of the health worker treating you who you infect and goes on to die, or to have their life blighted by long Covid? What of the rights of the key worker infected because they have no choice but to continue to work and mix who is denied a hospital bed because you - who was exercising his rights - have taken it up due to entirely avoidable infection? Why do your 'rights' (really just a conviction that you shouldn't be inconvenienced or disappointed along with everybody else) trump theirs?

"Things have been normal in Florida since May" says the guy that doesn't understand why the rest of the country is embarrassed by the state that just last month was averaging almost 20,000 new cases a day and has ignored the experts advice since the pandemic began, resulting in some of the worst statistics in the country. He then compares lock downs to SLAVERY and wonders why people think he's a fucking idiot.

Like I said, embarrassing.

We shot an indie musical feature earlier this year on the BMPCC6K in Tokyo. It was the best choice for our budget range $40,000 ~ $50,000 and our DP just ended up buying it as opposed to renting. Other gear was Nikkor Lenses and TIffen Black Pro Mist 1/4, plus a lot of smoke machine use, and grain addition in post to try to a achieve something approaching a 'film look'. The trailer is much lower res than the finished film but we're super pleased with the results: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKF0YxqqEiY&t=2s

I thought we were talking about closing down businesses and lock downs and mandating stay at home policies - which I do consider a form of slavery. Who said anything about masks?

1,000/day relocating to Florida tells me that many are not embarrassed by Florida. I am saddened for the mental and emotional destructiveness the paranoia has caused. To me that's worse than the cause. Personally I would rather die free than survive as a slave. That's just me. I know many would disagree. Cheers.

Welcome to the world of woke cancel culture. You can't take risks anymore. Can't offend people. Can't say un-PC things. It already destroyed comedy, especially stand-up acts. Used to be college campuses were where this thrived. Now it's shunned. Maybe we'll be able to laugh at ourselves again in another 50 years.

"Temporary" was a lie. "Its just a disruption" was manipulation of public opinion. Its not a disruption anymore. Its ruining people. "Save the lives" was wishful thinking. It wouldn't work with that level of state incompetency, and it didn't, as expected. Vietnamese didn't have to live in prison and gradually become financially destroyed to save the lives of their neighbors. You still talk in a way like there is two side, the science side and denier side. Sorry, that fake duality expired many months ago. The "know what to do" side have no idea what its doing:

Every policy has its limits. Restriction for two months is very different with same restriction for two years. People calling it slavery or any other names, is completely natural reaction at this point. I live in a country that people simply gave up! Its not that only you understand the common sense. Humans are more complicated than that.. they're not coded with C++.