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"What's the point of driving that fast if we were going in the wrong fucking direction" - my vague recollection of a quote from the Gumball 3000 episode of Jackass when the team realise their short-cut is actually a dead end and that driving fast isn't the most important factor. Like most years, I'm doing a personal retrospective of the year, and would encourage others to do so as well. The purpose of this exercise is to get past the stories that we tell ourselves (white lies, if you will) and get to the truth of things, and learn and grow from it. We all choose to focus on certain things and forget other things, always in our own favour, but that doesn't lead to facing up to our own shortcomings and overcoming them, that's just a form of denial. It's normal, but as sentient beings, we can do better. To refer back to the quote above, it's a way of realising we're driving in the wrong direction. Rich people track and manage their wealth, Fit people track and manage their fitness, why not put a small amount of effort into reflecting on our lives? It might be tempting to just say "2021 was fucked because of COVID" and just wanting to forget the whole thing. I would suggest that makes it more important to reflect because we need all the help we can get in such situations, and it's also more valuable because when any COVID-like-substance hits the fan it reveals deeper things about us that wouldn't normally come to the surface, so there's more to learn than ever. I enjoy detail and analysis, so get into it pretty deep, but it doesn't have to be. It just requires that you are real with yourself. I suggest contemplating: What you spent your time on (it's our most valuable resource - look through your calendar if you keep one to get to the truth) What you spent your money on (review credit card purchases, eBay / Amazon / etc purchase history, etc) Where you got your money from and how your finances were tracking (bank statements, value of investments and assets) What you spent your energy on (review emails, journals, blogs, vlogs, etc for the high and low-points, frustrations, etc) What goals you have and what worked to get you closer to them and what didn't work I also divide things into the following categories, which might overlap but are useful prompts: Career Business Finances Wealth Assets Family Friends Relationships (both with others and yourself) Health (physical, emotional, mental) Fitness Fun and Toys (I like toys! I suspect most of us here are in the same boat with this one!) Lifestyle You can list any specific projects or goals separately, but I'd encourage you not to, as the goal is to have the nicest life and if something doesn't align with one/several of the above then why are you doing it? I suggest writing things down, and doing it in two phases. The first is gathering the info - what actually happened? This is how we cut through some of the lies we tell ourselves and get closer to the truth. Then second, review all the notes and contemplate what they mean. Once you collate all the facts it's hard to hide if you're spending too much or too little on some things, and where you actually get your money / energy / inspiration / success from. If you run a business a good exercise is to see which clients generated the most income and which were the biggest PITA, you might find that there are clients that are huge pains but don't generate much income - firing them is an easy life upgrade! Anyone else reflecting back?

not really, no, its kinda depressing really. I'd rather 2022 hurry up and get here. Lots of things i could do better. Of that there is no doubt. New years resolutions and all, i shall endeavor to do more with what i have. Next year will be more about caring for family and friends, where i can help. Cant save the world, but i can probably help some people who deserve it, in my books anyway. I haven't seen any input from @noone for a while, i hope he's ok. I think i may have, even seen webrunner about again. I wish the rest of this community good health and prosperity, although i'd rather you don't confuse prosperity with wealth. I think 2022 will be a tough year, i hope for the best however i fear for the worst. whether your vacinated or unvaxed does not bother me. Its a deeply personal decision, and for me a religious decision. I worked three days leading up to xmas which left me with some spending money, sadly i couldn't get into cinema as i'm unvaxed and new "laws" took effect that pay day. Its rather ironic that i can work, ern money, yet be unable to spend it. Which incidentally doesn't really bother me. It certainly hurts small business owners as that money stays in my pocket. So in a round about way im richer for their efforts. Now that i have an iphone i have been binge watching stuff on my new amazon prime account. I ummed and arrrd about getting netflix, prime, or one of the others. the deciding factor for me, was i have read the wheel of time novels and i wanted to see the amazon prime adaptions, so far im enjoying them. It certainly beats tv in some regards, not having to endure 6 advertisements every 5 minutes is breathtakingly refreshing. summing up, i hope santa was good to you, happy new year and stay safe as you can.

Is this the end for affordable Sony cameras? A7C, A6600, A6100 all cancelled Due to a major chip shortage, Sony has announced it will cancel the production of several recent models, some permanently. Sony are themselves a manufacturer of semiconductors, can't they just make more? Of course it isn't that simple. Sony use thousands of third party chips in their products... Read the full article on blog: https://www.eoshd.com/news/is-this-the-end-for-affordable-sony-cameras-a7c-a6600-a6100-all-cancelled/

I think I prefer the GH5 colors too, but I like the S1's highlight detail. I saw these comparisons, which I think are interesting: Since the "color science" target is presumably set, I think this comparison reveals that the sensors themselves must be quite different. The P4K and P6K I think have somewhat different color, too, which is interesting. In general the Alexa has a very green/warm bias and imo other cameras less so. The EVA1 feels a little greener and warmer than the S1, so that might be why I prefer its color rendering. More Alexa-like. The 150Mbps S1 codec is fine I think but the ALL-I EVA1 codec has a nice noise texture and a bit more noise, more organic. I had to deal with IR pollution and moire with the 4.6K and decided to stay away but the P4K and P6K have images that really impress me for the money. But I suspect you need to figure out the right NDs to use (Hoya Solas I bet) with them etc. I was ready to move to a P4K and speedbooster and sell everything else – I thought the less I owned the more I'd use it. But the S1 is so easy to use and the image is fine if not great that I think I'll stick with that for work and a "b cam." I own some higher end gear for personal use primarily. I rarely shoot professionally anymore or I'd probably own something else.

So funny that the "doomed" EOS M system still going while Sony APS-C just stopped like that.

1660 Ti should be about the same as a 1070. So 1070, 1660 or 1660TI would all be fine, 1070 offering even 8GB of ram.

I've only used the Varicam LT (or 35, I forget) in post but the image is really nice. There's a lot less skew and imo significantly better color than the S1 if I remember right and a better texture to the ProRes files too. It also has a bit more highlight dynamic range, it's really good and has a really good image. Back in the day when it was between that and the F55 for 4K for Netflix or whatever – I preferred the image from the Varicam LT. However the color is not similar to Alexa, it's kind of more its own thing, punchier and more vibrant. Also the skin tones tend more magenta (same issue I have with the S1 I suppose), which can be unflattering on pale caucasian skin. Lately imo Sony has caught up – never used an A7S3 but worked a bit with Venice footage and it's fantastic. I do think the Varicam's image is better than the S1 – the EVA1 occupies a middle ground for me (I prefer the EVA1 color and noise texture to the S1 and S1H for sure) and I have had mixed experience with Black Magic cameras in terms of reliability and IR pollution and moire etc. Great images for the money but less robust in some respects. All of these differences in image quality pale in comparison with ergonomic and workflow differences, which sadly imo probably matter much more. I bought too much and am selling stuff soon. I'm hoping I use more if I own less.

Thank you both for your insightful writings. I am shy of introspective at the moment. So thank you for letting me relate to the important points and thoughts you mentioned, you both! What I can state is that I want to contribute some of my last years findings to this forum and to engage more into discussions and exchange with you guys.

i was not looking for a fast videocard, but for one better than my gtx760 at a price that can be worthy doing the upgrade It never happened to me to have pc render all the night, and i think i'll keep working with proxies even with a better videocard as the rest of the pc is not a monster. My project are usually at 2k, with files shot at 4k, and on average are within 15 minutes lenght, or less I use some fx, not that much, some cc..So i can still work now, but if for a reasonable money i can get a better performance then it'is fine, otherwise i mighht wait till the price of vga become normal

i like the fact that you have thrown something together for your self. If you are happy with your workflow keep going at it. Sometimes the next step can be a pricey one regardless of the product. Standard computers are good for normal tasks, when you start asking them to do the unusual, then you'll hit bottlenecks. At the moment fast video cards are dear. If you want to get around those bottlenecks you have to spend money, it may not be a good time to be buying. Only you can decide if the results, justifies the expense. i am curious, if you did have a faster card is it likely to cut out using proxies all together ? would it save you running the machine over night ? if it did that then its probably worth it. you do not say whether your on a 1080 timeline or 4k or something inbetween h265 files tend to be a bit smaller and maybe more efficient than h264. Depending on what resolution your delivering in, that may have some bearing on the the differences between h265 running smoothly and h264 not

I have a GX9 but the 4K mode is disapointing to say the least. I can live with the 1.25x cropping, however because of this crop, the noise is everywhere, even at ISO 200. It could be awesome if it was possible to remove the crop in 4K. This little camera is almost perfect otherwise for daily use , pocketable with small lenses, good IBIS, nice colors etc.

Yeah its definitely a bit easier to get a clean image on the S1 with the dual native ISO, at least in situations with little control of lighting, which is increasingly common.

S35 still gets a lot of use but all the high end stuff in my area gets shot on the LF or maybe a full frame RED. Most high end cinema is the LF as well. The lower end market seems to be obsessed with full frame. I guess BM is targeting the middle of the two ends. Yeah I know they said a full frame camera is too expensive to do. Every other company is doing them though. I guess BM is a smaller company. Of course I can see why the in house design would be too pricey with full frame.

OnePlus 9 Pro. I will try with the previous processor going along the superb ASUS Zenfone 7 Pro (both are able of 8K 30p and 4K 120fps recording). But, I would not hold my breath too long with smartphone manufacturers... Their motion picture sensibility is the same of someone who doesn't know where the local movie theater is : D Their interface shooting is a truly PITA for filmmaking in 99% of cases, unfortunately. - EAG

I'm not sure: they're marketing this camera mainly to cinematographers, most of whom aren't interested in full-frame as it's still not used much (relative to Super-35) in cinema, but agree that it would be more versatile and could appeal more to people working in other genres.

If they increase the sensor size with 25% large photo sites (better lowlight and dynamic range?) they could potentially use virtually the same electronics and modify the hardware with larger ND window and larger throat to the sensor etc. to accommodate a full frame sensor. If they added on sensor electronic ND's, they could reengineer the lens mount accommodate shorter flange distance mounts like the RF and even micro 4/3. I would also like to see/hear 32 bit audio on their next URSA mini pro release. Then we would have pseudo RAW video and audio. One of the benefits of the BRAW architecture is that I can record 12k or 8k and if my computer has trouble playing it back, I can down sample it to 4k or 2k on the fly and it will play back fined without having to make a proxy. USB-C connection to NVMe M.2 makes this workflow possible and affordable. These drives are so fast and currently on sale for about the same price as a 2.5" SSD drive. Seems like Blackmagic has solved most of the problem at the same time. Affordable high performance storage via USB-C. Scaleable RAW like codec for high resolution low band acquisition. Architecture to support for scaleable playback without transcoding. Editing environment to support BRAW. Cinema camera from factor with professional connection the XLR, SDI, PL Mount and B4 mount and lens connection, view finder option, time code. So what are they missing? Full frame? World class auto focus? Electronic ND? RF mount? 32-bit audio? Better dynamic range? Better low light? Selling their own lenses and lighting so that they can offer end to end solutions and support. Renting and loaning their own cameras, lenses, lighting, editing workstations at a discount in markets they want to enter. Provide local support offices in every major market so they can personally fix any problem that may arise. Provide workflow case studies so that productions can justify adoption. "Acquire" name brand endorsers. Focus efforts to be listed as being shot on for award winning productions. Charge 5 to 10 times as much to pay for market dominating infrastructure and accusation. As someone who wants to continue to be able to afford Blackmagic cinema products, I hope they continue to grow organically (like Aputure) into professional markets rather that build the infrastructure and acquire the adjacent product lines to try and dominate the professional market by force of will. With a better economy Blackmagic probably would not have had to lower the price of the 12k to get it to sell, but I'm glad they did because, if not I would not be able to justify purchasing in one (used). Thanks Blackmagic! Your approach is just right. Steady as she goes Captain Petty, steady as she goes. Regardless of the price drop and how many 12k are selling, the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12k is the King of Affordable Professional Cinema Cameras.

I agree. I like a little more grain but clients might not.

Some Voigtlander 40mm f1.4 M mount stuff on the Sigma fp from a recent trip to the frozen-ish north to see the in laws. The vignette and slight softness when shooting wide open makes it quite suitable for festive stuff ! Didn't shoot RAW so these are grabs from 4K all-i mov files.

Yup, prices of vintage lens sets have been going a bit insane lately.