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Ditto. I used to always upgrade to the most recent latest & greatest whether it really was or not and sometimes it was and other times it wasn’t. Ideally, unless I absolutely need it, I hold off. Since 2018, I have bought precisely 2 new cameras. That I have kept anyway (returned the OM-1 and XH2). These have been the S5 after I sold off all my Fuji gear knowing I was not going to stick with what I had and then recently the S5ii as I do have need for reliable AF for a % of my work. But my S1R's, both now gone, purchased used for 1500 and 1600 euros and my current pair of S1H's, 2150 and 1850. For me it is the equation: need + cost + timing and I like to start any season with all the kit I am going to use and if I can, not make changes until after any season has finished. Too many lens changes last year as I wrestled L Mount into submission but think I have it nailed down now…

I'm not recommending him anything in particular, we're just talking shop and comparing cameras. There are enthusiasts with high budgets and also high expectations. There are pros that are very budget conscious and don't place priority on specs. There are Canon fans, Panasonic fans, Sony fans. FF fans, S35 fans, MFT fans. Etc. I don't know who is who when on gear forums, I can only give you my perspective.

My Leica M-P 240 got sold last month due to needing the money to keep EOSHD afloat and new gear coming in. Was sad to let it go but need to sell a LOT of my inventory to keep the wolf from the door at the moment. However before I let it go, made sure to do one last shoot with it, alongside my Canon 1D C and Leica M9. As far as colour science goes, I rate the 240, M9 and 1D C right at the top of the tree. The M9 has a special look with CCD but 1D C and the 240 are very very close, and much better in low light. It got me thinking, what other cameras like the 1D C better known for video, are actually really really good stills cameras? Panasonic G9 springs to mind with the amazing EVF and very responsive performance, fast bursts, all-round very big feature set for stills. E-M1 X I think is also underrated, it feels lovely in the hand, controls are fantastic, every bit the pro Micro Four Thirds camera it set out to be. Olympus colour science and white balance always nails the look you're after. But I think the Panasonic S1H takes the prize. It's better than a Leica SL2-S. Better battery life, better screen, more features. The main strengths for stills are the best EVF on the market, even better than the S1R and GFX 100. It's enormous and 5.76m dots! AF is absolutely fine for stills in S-AF mode, decent light, native lens. It's very fast and reliable. Sure it's rubbish with Canon EF adapter and in 24fps video mode but don't mind manual focus with Leica M lenses on it - much nicer, and less heavy. Dual native ISO full frame sensor, absolutely rocks in low light. 6K / 24 megapixel is enough resolution for me and makes for much faster performance, more responsive, smaller file sizes when shooting a lot of stills. It also has XPAN style wide aspect ratio settings, one of my favourite shooting styles so you can accurately compose in these modes, looks fantastic in black and white. Picture styles even have a film grain setting. Built quality is amazing, the huge top panel LCD great for checking settings at a glance whilst leaving the back screen completely free of clutter. Shutter mechanism feels so premium, better than Leica. What's more it cost me £1800. And that's before you even factor in the FX6 level video camera thrown in for free 🙂

I liked the DR in this shot

It'd be fine as an a-cam for a lot of pros too. The biggest knock I have towards the FX3 and the FX30 is that they are supposed to be part of the cine line, but they lack most of the cine features. But still, the FX30 is a more than capable a-cam for a lot of professional work. Maybe not HIGH HIGH end work, but still.

From a purely business perspective, exactly. Their sole function and existence is to make enough profit in order that the owner can one day go to Mars. Some would say, that couldn’t happen soon enough… On the other hand, this kind of business practice is not new. It has existed for thousands of years. There are of course many more ethical businesses but they tend to be the ‘corner shop’ kind that care about their customers and their customers care about them. No one loves Amazon, only the ability to obtain stuff at a click of a button next day or even in some places, same day. Something like DPR has next to zero chance of long term survival if it is not owned and operated by enthusiasts. Poor leadership is the death of any and all institutions whether it be a government or a business because if the guy at the top does not give a shit, no one else has a chance. Whether it’s simple mismanagement or plain incompetence, it’s the management who ultimately make or break any business, large or small.

The problem with Japanese camera makers is that they don't know how to make money anymore. You want to attract younger customers, you have to support the platforms that encourage them to use dedicated cameras. That's about a combination of knowledge and culture. Its a shame that these days its Apple, the king of parental "auto everything", that advocates manual control for its iphone cinematic mode. The Apple way of "manual" of course. Soon they change the taste of an entire generation to believe 60fps is artistic! Dedicated camera needs its own narrative to survive, and we're losing the narrative.

I use the site filter when I want to see google search results for a specific site. The below google search provides all dpreview forum results that contain Andrew and eoshd. 😉 "andrew eoshd site:*.dpreview.com/forums"

COVID really opened my eyes about being extra thoughtful about how I spend my money and what I have my money tied up in. There were several times, even early in the pandemic when I tried to convince myself that things would be better by the summer, where I almost pulled the trigger on completely overhauling my kit. I had the money to do it, and my gear would've fetched more than it did last year when I finally did start the transition to the S5. But I'd have been in a really BAD situation if I had spent that money in 2019 or early 2020. I'd probably have had to start selling my gear, which I would need when things got back to "normal", to survive. By waiting though I scored two S5 bodies in the last 12 months for a little over $2000 total and didn't put myself in a poor financial situation doing so. These cameras will serve me for at least the next two years, I'm sure longer if I really want them to, and will have paid for themselves over and over again by the time I decide to upgrade. By then they'll be 4 or 5 years old, but they'll still do the job just as the GH5 continues to do for me 6 years after buying it. I'll let others take the financial hit that comes with buying a new camera, because short of some MUST HAVE release, my days of buying the latest gear new are over. I'd rather keep that money in my pocket because if COVID showed me anything it's that I just don't know what the future holds and when we leave it to people to make the best decisions for the collective they often times don't.

One less pointless trip to the stratosphere (barely space!) would run DPR for 4 or 5 lives! The forum there had a very strong NX presence, I hope we can attract here most of that traffic, even thought there are too many hobbyists and newbies, which I am not sure if they are the right target group for eoshd, still, it is a possibility..

I see what you did there 😉

I guarantee you this will have substantial Sony cripple hammer. It's a ZV series aimed at Vloggers. So what crippling to expect? No EVF, no IBIS, no fan, no 10-bit, no S-Log, no dual card slot. There is simply no way Sony is releasing an A7S3/FX3 in a A7C body for $2500.

That wolves are absolutely coining it and won't get out of the lair for less than £10K a day plus points?

No idea, but would that matter? ”In a recent poll, 89% said they preferred Brand A”. Doesn’t make the 11% who chose Brand B ‘wrong’. Personally, I’d be more than happy using FX30’s for all my video needs. And almost certainly would be right now if Panasonic had not gone PDAF. And that is the part that makes them ‘sub-pro’ in one sense as not having DCI 4K or waveform or shutter angle does not = dealbreaker, at least not in my book, but might a serious filmmaker.

Sounds like it'll sit between the A7C and FX3. Probably the A7C form factor but no EVF? Not expecting a mechanical shutter. I reckon they will go all electronic like Sigma Fp and FX30. Would prefer if they give it a similar body and ergonomics to FX3 and FX30, but it being more a ZV range vlogging camera I expect it to be more of a rebadged A7C with the A7S III sensor.

All excellent points - I’m an enthusiast but wanted to discuss ideas for both pro and non pro alike so I think both views are warranted here.

He seems to be an enthusiast that is looking to film personal videos and some stuff to put on YouTube. There really is no reason to get the FX3 or any other expensive camera when he would be just fine filming with a more affordable one, like the A7IV. Please re-read the original post before recommending that a $4000 camera is a good investment for someone that is looking to film personal stuff that he might put on YouTube. If he has the money to blow, then I guess go for it, but he does not need a cine camera. As far as my own personal philosophy, I want to get the most out of each and every camera investment I make. By waiting I not only will have made more money using the equipment I have, but the equipment that I want to upgrade to will have come down in price even more. In our disposable society where people need the latest and greatest that might seem goofy, but for me it makes the most financial sense and ensures that more money goes into my pocket. In the 5 years I've owned the GH5 it has paid for itself at least 50x over and continues to be a camera I can make money using over the next couple of years. That's what I'm concerned about the most as a freelancer who could one day find himself out of work for a year because of a global pandemic.

Not an answer to your specific query about BRAW playing a role but here is a side by side that someone has done with the S5ii and S1H comparing moiré. Its there in both but far more pronounced in the S5ii with the suspicion that the OLPF of the S1H is the differentiator but I doubt that is the whole tale. From that test, it would be expected to be more from the S5ii but its interesting that you are seeing more with the S1H in BRAW than internal. Could be additional processing in the camera is taming it when recording internally ?

I dunno sorry but that's a really goofy way of looking at things, especially if you're a pro. Buy the best camera you can afford that fits your requirements wether that's specs (resolution, codecs etc) or i/o's ergonomics etc. Obviously be smart and on the lookout for what camera will be a better long term investment rather than short if the camera is at the end of a cycle. The FX3 is imo a much better investment and solution than the A7IV. First it doesn't overheat. That alone is key. Then you have all the cine features including LUT support. The fast readout sensor, A7IV has terrible RS. And of course the cage-less body and top handle with XLRs. If you're on a budget or don't need FF then the FX30 makes even better sense. S5ii is also very competitive. Why wait a year or two if you need the camera today? Don't get me wrong, I don't buy cameras often at all, in fact much less than your average person around here. When I find a camera I'm comfortable with I stick with it forever. And I rarely go for flagships when they are new (I skipped R5, A7S3). But there are plenty of excellent options in the $2K-$3K region right now both new and used if you're in the market for an upgrade. So many in fact that it is hard to choose!

Most Alpha Sony shooters are FF at this point. Sony kind of abandoned APS-C even on the FX line. Its only now making a return mainly thanks to FX30 and some new APS-C lenses. But with speed boosters its actually kinda more versatile than FX3/A7S3 which cannot shoot Super35 crop modes due to 12MP sensor. No EVF and no mechanical shutter does mean its not a great hybrid and Sony for some silly reason doesn't give FX3/30 shutter angle or WFM. And no DCI options either. Still as Ironfilm says its the ideal side-kick to a FS/FX camera (has TC) and a great compact video option for the Sony ecosystem. I'd have already bought one if it wasn't for XH2S. Stacked sensor, 6K Opengate & ProRes is just so hard to overlook. Plus with EVF and solid stills performance. It ticks so many boxes. But the Fuji look is an acquired taste and won't play friendly with most production houses. Its pretty much relegated to indie or standalone shooting. Resolve doesn't even support F-Log2 yet for an ACES workflow. And yet despite all those rational reasons to avoid Fuji and stick with Sony, I'm still VERY tempted by XH2S.

MANY things! Timecode. SDI outputs. Reliability. Internal NDs. More recording options. etc etc etc etc But for many people these extra factors don't matter to them. However, for many professionals these would be deal breakers for these to be missing.

Yeah, I remember DC Resource too. Steve's Digicams in the early days was right up there with DPReview for prominence and usefulness! Have we gone forwards or backwards by replacing all these great web resources with social media influencers? I think we know the answer.

Yeah. If they were 20 somethings that weren't married with kids they might've gone a different direction, but they're older guys with wives and kids so they were gonna go with whatever site offered them a steady paycheck while allowing them to continue doing what they do. They can always fall back on doing their own thing eventually if they need to.

I suspect they are simply going where there is another regular presenting income without having to really do any marketing themselves. Nothing wrong with that and we all have bills to pay and being a self-employed creator has as many risks as it does potential rewards. I get the impression they have gone from one regular paid position to another as one door closes and another opens.

I tried the Z9 on a few jobs but didn't keep it in the end. The colours are beautiful and I loved the ergonomics and battery life but as you mentioned the workflow wasn't ideal. I just couldn't get decent dynamic range out of it using the supplied Nikon conversion LUTs. As it's a bit of a niche camera there wasn't much info out there on how to get the best out of it.

To me winning at an Oscar is more politics than talent. Sure your film won't get nominated if it is crap but it also won't get nominated just because it is really good. The people that care on a $5 mil budget indie like Nomadland are the producers, director, and DP. None of which want to be seen working with anything besides a camera that costs over 30k

I'm curious if this is doable should the site really "die"... does anyone remember Geocities, the free web hosting company? There was an effort to basically crawl every Geocities site possible and preserve it, because of all the data that would be lost once Yahoo deleted all the sites. Those sites are still available years on at https://www.oocities.org/ and https://www.geocities.ws/ To be clear, they are incomplete archives because it relied on the same crawling tactics that Google and Yahoo use, and if a site wasn't linked elsewhere it likely would fall through the cracks. But with DPReview I think that would be less of an issue. The primary issue would be hosting all that data, as while it might not cost a lot for Amazon it probably would cost a bit for a normal person. There also then would be the issue of whether Amazon would object and take legal action. Perhaps reaching out to the Internet Archive to see if they could take this project on with some volunteers might be worth doing? Just an idea that I haven't seen discussed really yet. It would at least preserve and make all that data available.

Word has it that the mark 2 is imminent and will apparently have the following : 50MP sensor 8K/60 6K/8K ProRes RAW (to external SSD as far as I can tell) Phase Detect AF I suppose that would take care of your AF woes and it does all that at the current price of the mark 1 then you might be flogging off more gear to get it. It might change my Z9 plans as well.

In many businesses, it is so often the case to operate in one of the extreme ends as it’s too easy to get lost in the middle.

He backs his humour up with proper real world information that's why, he shows the differences, he uses the gear, he actually shoots even if its squirrels!

Amazon told them in January, some left the very next week and got a new job. During these last 3 months, it appears absolutely nobody in charge has made an effort to save the site or kick up a fuss, let alone sell what is a very valuable asset for certain other companies. It's ridiculous that Amazon isn't considering a sale. Jeff must be a bigger loser than even I imagine him to be. Although not quite as big an idiot as that guy who wasted $44bn on Twitter, the likes of which can't seem to find even .00001% of that amount to preserve 25 years of photographic gear culture.

The more I think about all this the angrier I get at the current staff there. Nearly all scurrying off the deck of the ship like DPReview is nothing but fit for the bin. If they had stuck with the site for longer than a few months it could encourage the sale to a new owner. Instead they jumped like rats off the deck and have nearly all got new jobs already. Meanwhile we're left with an empty shell of a website pending deletion. It is an absolute disgrace and a total disregard of the global camera community.

I'm actually surprised that they didn't go their own way too, though they might feel more financially secure to be on the payroll somewhere. The big difference between them and the rest of the YouTubers out there is that they're older and have families, so being on payroll somewhere might be more appealing. Probably provides more stability than having to rely on YouTube ad revenue that can really fluctuate.

That was quick!

I knwo that Amazon needs to cut costs, but close a website with THIRTEEN people on staff? Jeff Bezos have a bigger crew just to clean his balls.

They won't close. It's a big asset and will have a lot of buyers. Current staff might go over to the new non-Amazon site or they will leave and do something else, which for me would be a good thing as they're not really up to the job. DPR has a ton of camera info that would be very sad to lose from the internet, the database of specs, and historic reviews are part of the camera world's culture and it would be vandalism of the highest order if some idiot decided to delete it all rather than keep it online. It costs almost nothing to keep a website online and I am surprised Amazon is making such deep cuts at all, as DPReview is hardly likely to be a huge loss making part of the company. What are the REAL reasons the site is closing? It surely can't be due to money. Perhaps a big fall out at the top between the DPReview management and Amazon? If Amazon really are looking to save a few thousand dollars running DPReview which drives a ton of traffic to Amazon for camera purchases, then how bad must it be at Amazon?! They were hiring like crazy during covid, big profit boom, then suddenly they can't afford to run a camera blog? Even I can afford to run a fucking camera blog. I smell something fishy. Either the news is fake and they already have a buyer lined up. Chris and Jordan seemed really chirpy in their jokey closing video. Or they are all hired already by a new site and will simply rebrand the existing one. There is simply no way they will delete it. The SEO and Google links alone are worth redirecting to a new site domain. Why bin it? They're not telling the truth.

The C70 doesn't have SDI unfortunately.