Leaderboard

There isn't one reason for the decline in websites like DPR and IR, but clearly the ad money has shifted to TikTok and YouTube social media influencers, and away from written articles so that is a big reason. The jazz media company that bought the magazine company that Dave sold IR to back in 2019, saw no worthwhile profit in IR's books. Not only are these sites predominantly about written articles, they are about a subject that is fast turning into a niche. Smartphone cameras are mainstream as we all know, and that means proper cameras are now about as mainstream as cassette tapes. I think AI will accelerate this retreat even further. The other general trend is that both DPR and IR were not ideal from a content point of view, it was often like reading advertising copy, as is the case with so much in the camera world in 2023. There is a lack of drama, a lack of true insight, it has all become a bit dry. The camera companies should be really worried about these two canaries in a coal mine and they won't be the last to die. It points to the fact that the camera industry should probably do something to stop the rot and support the remaining sites. Sadly they won't.

Yes you are right, the same goes for here, certain churches don't allow flashes during weddings, many events/venues don't let you bring anything even resembling a professional camera on their property or in their venue unless you get approval first which of course is nearly impossible to get. For places that are that bad, I just tell my client that I refuse to film there. These days I don't really do the tourist thing anymore but if I did even the R7 would probably be too big for venues like that. I didn't even think about the smaller size of the venues there. I have been to Europe a few times and each time, the smaller size of everything was the first thing I had to get used to. By comparison most things in America seem large to the point of being wastefully excessive. Events are the same way, most events are in huge venues with large crowds and the zoom lenses really help close those gaps. I think with smaller venues I would be more likely to consider primes or something like the 24-70 F2.8. I guess that's why it was hard for me to even imagine some of the lens choices that people were making here when I was thinking about the amount of space I need to cover in my typical event. I have even used the 70-200 on occasion because things were just so far away or so high up that the 105 wasn't long enough for me to capture the level of detail that I wanted. BTW the 70-200 RF F2.8 is incredibly stable handheld even at 200mm way more so than the EF version ever was. Its funny, I don't look at them as compromises at all as long as you deliver something the client is willing to pay for. At the end of the day it is just photos and video footage, to me it's only a compromise if you compare it to something else you could have done or some other equipment you could have used, but if the client is pleased with the final product then I consider that as having picked the right equipment for the job even if that client happens to be yourself. Sure you could have picked a sharper lens, shot with a higher resolution camera, used a gimbal instead of handheld, etc. etc. but none of those things mattered in the end so I don't consider not using those things to be a compromise.

I seem to be spending a lot of time thinking and posting about the Z series cameras considering that I don't actually own one. Well, not yet at least. What is solidifying what now seems like an inevitable purchase of the Z8/Z9 (more likely the latter) is the mount but not necessarily the native lenses themselves. Not that there is anything wrong with the native lenses from what I have seen more that I have a some may say addiction level collection of lenses and I don't fancy the expense of adding to it with a collection of native Z mount lenses. Not least because, of course, I won't get any utility from them with any of my other some may say addiction level collection of cameras. The supreme adaptability of the Z mount means that it is unsurpassed in terms of allowing me to use the, erm, "carefully curated " collection of lenses of various mounts that I have in no way impulsively purchased over the years, particularly when it comes to providing AF translation too. There are four adapters that I will be buying when I eventually cave in and buy the Z9. Nikon FTZii - Absolute no brainer for most users of course but particularly for me as I do have a legitimately large collection of actually carefully curated high end F mount lenses from when I was a working pro. Meike EF>Z With Drop In Filter Adapter - EF lenses feature second largest in my shame and this lets me use them with full ND control built in. Meike/Megadap E>Z - This one has really pushed my decision to commit to Z mount as I have a few E mount lenses already but the bigger interest is in using it as a pathway to get cost effective mirrorless lenses in the form of the Sigma E mount contemporary range. TechArt Pro TZM02 - The secret weapon for the rest of the groaning draws of glass and metal as it provides AF for manual lenses on Z mount. Predominantly for M mounts (of which I have "a few") but with cheap adapters can also perform the same miracle for my Contax/Zeiss etc and, of course, the old Nikon F mount collection. The only gap is for PL mount lenses but only because I don't want to buy a basic PL>Z adapter when I suspect that Meike will produce a Z mount version of their PL adapter with drop in filter that they already produce for RF, E and L mount. These adapters definitely cement the Z9 as my forever* camera as it fulfils the notion of bridging the requirements of what I need now and the future with a modicum of mitigation for the profligacy of the past. Having said all that, one Z mount lens that I wasn't aware of that looks quite interesting is the 24-200mm. Not fast but very versatile and decent performance. forever* - AKA this week at least.

It’s all been an elaborate ruse to avoid paying redundancy to the two Canadian fellas ?

You're certainly not the only one - isn't that what makes it an interesting challenge? 🙂 But on the other side on the coin, it's everyone's different choice of compromises that gives their productions a personal 'look' - the world of the 'moving image' would be a very boring place if everyone used the same 'look' and style...

AI video just keeps on getting better and better: The video to video feature is especially interesting, I could imagine a very rough video being made cheaply, then being heavily stylized to create a much more polished output for use in an advert. A longer look at AI tools for video:

Yes, this can be an absolute killer... I filmed a friends birthday party on a GoPro once, which was in a nightclub, and edited it up as a sort of birthday present for her. I put it on a handle and in it's waterproof case (it was an older one that wasn't water resistant when naked) and let them pass it around and sort of crowd-source shots. The footage I got back was great from the perspective of angles and content, and the noise was obviously an issue being that it was an older GoPro and the nightclub was almost pitch black in-between the light pulses/flashes, but the colour rendering from the various "white" light sources was spectacular, and not in a good way. This combined with the GoPros 709 colour science was an incredibly difficult challenge to colour grade, because so many shots were close-enough to neutral to need to be balanced but were so far from proper that it was a real challenge. I see similar things in street markets etc where every vendor has their own brand of 70 CRI LED lights that are all different colours to each other, with some vendors even having a mixture of several different colours just in their own booth. Or even string lights where you can tell which bulbs they're replaced and not matched the existing ones. It's like stepping into an alternative universe where you can see all sorts of colours, but not in a good way. I think this is potentially the most significant factor that defines what focal lengths you need. For my own videos of my family I worked out that what I wanted was environmental portraits, and I wanted to shoot them from where I was standing, which was generally at a comfortable distance from them (here in Australia the personal space distance is on the larger side) but without having other people in-between us. I settled on 35mm equivalent, as I felt that the 28mm that smartphones used at the time was too generic a look, but on my last trip I used the 14mm on the GX85, which works out to be a 31mm in 4K mode and I didn't mind or even notice that it was much wider, so I think I might have gotten over my phobia of the 28mm look. Certainly there are situations where it's too crowded for the 35, and in some situations (for example in a crowded local market in India where you were pressed up against at least two other people at all times) I had to film by using my phones wide angle and do it from above, as if I held my phone at eye height it might have been touching both my head and also my wife's at the same time! For my work I like to get the perspective that the video is from my own individual perspective, so I shoot the things I see from where I am when I'm seeing them, but within the confines of what lenses I have. Obviously this is counter to @mercers point about zooming with your feet, but I find that human vision can easily be "zoomed" in that you can easily narrow your attention when looking at a far away object, so I think there's some flexibility if you're trying for the perspective a human might have rather than just watching events and not being in them (as you are in most narrative work). Yes, your eyes are still a wide-angle lens and light from the table you're sitting at and from the people sitting next to you is still hitting your retina but because you're staring at the sailboat out on the water you're no longer aware of the people and the table, you've kind of zoomed in cognitively. Absolutely. My experience has mostly been that I'm experiencing all of them at all times!

Good move. Most of the F mounts are really good. I'd just look at a 3rd party option for the 50mm. Nikon's F mount 50mm was never as good as their other lenses.

The problem I have always had with zooms is that I was either compromising the shot for the luxury of not moving my setup, or I kept moving to get the sweet spot (pop) of the specific focal length I was zoomed in/out to... so the old saying about primes... Zoom with your feet... was still necessary to hit the sweet spot. Of course, time was still saved because I didn't have to change lenses, but I also found that I was mostly using a small portion of the zoom range... usually between 40-65mm. At that point it's easier to split the difference and swap out the heavier zoom for a 50mm, and use my feet to zoom. But then I was losing IS, so I needed a monopod or I wasn't able to hit that lens' sweet spot, so I started going a little wider, but then I'm compromising my specific style for the mechanics of the shot... Point being... there are always compromises with run and gun.

That's my point. You get stuck at the back of a cathedral with permission to shoot from there and only there and your only lens is a 28mm... A word beginning with F and rhyming with duck comes to mind 🤪

Personally. I seem to be able to recall the written word much more easily, than a rambling video by some person more interested in their own voice than getting to the point. I gave up on YouTube years ago. Sorry to see the demise of DPReview. Slowly we move toward the New Dark Ages ...

Shit I just pissed in my mouth made me LOL

Outlawed? Good luck with regulation! A more likely solution would be a combination of a few things: Platform verification and monitoring (Twitter does a good job) NFTs to secure authorship Education. Younger generations grow up w/ digital tech and are much more perceptive and discriminating. The gullible boomers are on the wrong side of disruptive technologies, but this too shall pass Anyways, there's also a creative and productive element. Why can't a creator choose to express in a different voice?