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Prompted by a tweet from @Andrew Reid about BBC drama production in the 70s/80s, I remembered this gem of a YouTube channel where the production staff of the era discuss and reproduce their work. The videos are a combination of bitesize and longer form and covers every stage of the production process such as these. It is a fascinating collection of pieces and much can be learned and applied to shooting and editing today. Not least of which how lucky we are to have what we have at our disposal. Full collection here https://www.youtube.com/@AdapttvhistoryOrgUk/videos

I've worn varifocals (every day) for longer than I can remember - at least 10 years. As MrSMW said, the first time you wear them it takes a few days - at least - to adapt to them (and some people don't like/can't adapt to them). Personally I really like them and wouldn't have anything else now. I always buy the varifocal lenses with the largest usable lens areas (near, mid, far) the optician offers - it makes a big difference to the usability. They are often the most expensive but for something I use all day, every day I think it's worth it. Much better to spend the money on the lenses than expensive fancy frames, IMHO. It's like buying pro-grade camera zoom lenses versus kit zooms - the performance is less compromised. Like MrSMW, I use the Specsavers chain in the UK - this is their guide to varifocals - https://www.specsavers.co.uk/glasses/glasses-lenses/varifocals (I use their 'Tailor-made' lenses) Note it's more critical for varifocal lenses to be positioned correctly in relation to the eye pupil than single-vision lenses, so make sure the optician adjusts the frames to suit you when you get them.

Popcorn Cameras. You can use them to actually make popcorn and then eat said popcorn whilst reading the non-Sony fanboys reviews. 🍿

The monitor I use on the BMMCC has custom buttons which are super useful so I'd suggest getting familiar with those. Considering your eyesight is the main challenge, a zoom-in function might be a good one to have quickly accessible. Of course, the ergonomics of it in the rig and how to access the controls etc are another matter entirely.

Finally got some time to navigate all the menu and do some quick tests. Call me impressed. Surprise one: one little old desire (that nobody mentioned in the reviews) was that now the "3d" electronic level could be enabled pemanentely on the screen / EVF; in the X-S10 - and I guess in all the last generation's Fujis - only the horizontal level was permanent, the 3D version should be activated by a custom button, and disappeared after taking a shot. Surprise two: a new focus assist tool, only in video mode - Focus Meter. Is a "needle gauge" that shows where to turn the focus ring to bring the image in focus, and that could be used in conjunction with peaking. Works very well and very accurately. And finally, the AF. The face / eye AF interface and working mode was completely changed form the 4th gen Fuji's. In these (X-S10, X-T4, etc), when face / eye AF is on, the camera selects a face / eye and shows it on the screen in green, the other faces are marked with grey boxes, and you could change the face to focus with the joystick. In theory, a good system - until you hit record, and the camera goes haywire changing the face focused at will. For me, with more than one face on the frame, was unusable. Now, you choose a area box (that you could resize), and the camera will focus on the closest face of the box. Period. And tends to stick quite a bit in that face before switching to other. Not a perfect system - did not tested the worst situation, with all other people standing in place and the focused person going to the edge of the frame, far from the box, which in theory will make the camera changing the face focused - but if you keep the subject in the same spot of the frame, or move the box with the joystick, works perfectly. There are more subtleties to discover - one test was filming my wife's father, my wife and my daughter playing in our living room, tracking my daughter (an electric 4 year old), a case which the X-S10 failed completely; the focus point moved from person to person if they are close. With the X-S20, started tracking my daughter, and NEVER let her go. Focus spot on 100% of the time. And with an unexpected behaviour when my daughter got very close to my wife's father, instead of jumping faces, the old gray box appeared on his face, but the AF was kept on my daughter. One touch on the joystick, and then he was in focus - even with my daughter closer to the AF box. Another touch, returned to my daughter. Just as I wanted to be. The detection is much improved too. In the X-S10, if the person turns and the face did not appear, the camera reverts to the original AF mode. The X-S20 recognizes the back of a head - when the person turns, it starts tracking the back of the head. The person turns back, it revert to the eyes again. And the face / eye detection works in much farther distances than before, and gathers eye / face instantly. Is a completely new behaviour, much, much better than before.

Indeed. I think I am personally relatively safe but otherwise there is always flux in most industries and as long as you spend sufficient time and effort on the medium and long term, you should be generally fine. What seems increasingly to be the case is the focus on short term gain. Plenty of folks I come across selling their granny for a small ‘one off’ pay day whilst rejecting anything longer term. I won’t bore you with the details, but just recently I had the situation where a colleague chose 500 euros over a career length full-time situation…just out of sheer short-sightedness. As has always been the case since man stopped fighting the dinosaurs, just because someone is in business does not mean they are good at business. Most people I find are utterly terrible at business and exist more because there is a market demand rather than any business skills.

Not great and getting worse every year. Glasses wearer; varifocals for every day/work and reading glasses for editing. Ideally I’d like laser at some point but not happening any time soon. Lower light especially it really begins to deteriorate… I am actually debating right now whether to go with the weight of a small monitoring screen for my principle video (S5ii) unit just because of this. Never been a fan of rigging stuff out too much as a hybrid shooter but right now, I am more back in the camp of using my 3 units as: Static/gimbal pure video Roaming video Stills plus occasional video So having the biggest, brightest and most detailed rear LCD is quite important to me, mainly for the MF video side of things.

I guess more of those will pop up once the average people got the real world experience.