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The thing I find funniest is that people seem to think shooting long clips = watching long clips. It's like they've never heard of editing.

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

In theory, yes, these things are all true, but not for this camera. Here's the video posted earlier by @SRV1981... check out the outside testing. In case you don't want to watch a couple of minutes of video, here's the results: Tested in North Carolina in mid-morning 80F and humid, in direct sun Tested from cold in AC all night Tested in 4K XAVCS, auto temp set to high, screen open Tested at 24p Overheated in 22 minutes Let me summarise: camera is not reliable. Will it work for some people in some conditions? Sure. Will it work for you? No way to tell. There's no way I'd buy a camera like this, because you would have to know you can't record with it in the sun (even at indoor temps!), or in a hot building, or at 60p, etc etc

IKR... and for those long voiceovers that you get from interviews, well, that's AI isn't it. Maybe that's the end-game... Sony cameras: Recording times ready for AI™

Another point that is bothering me right now: the lack of testing some details point, coupled together with (looks like) the companies refusing to answer some technical details. Some examples: - Electronic shutter for stills: what are the penalties, if any, besides rolling shutter? In the past, I remember some smaller Panasonics reverting to a lower bit depth when using it. Tested in my current cameras, the RAWs have the full bit depth, but it is real bit depth or less bits wrapped in a bigger bit depth "container"? There is a dynamic range penalty? Never find a correct (and justified) answer. - Always is said that a 4k image downsampled from a larger read in camera render a better image than a 4k crop of the sensor. Looks logical - but why the image quality from the Open Gate cameras (hence, using a 1:1 readout of the sensor) are showing no image penalty? - Which cameras have (or not) plug-in power for using external mics? Good luck to find out. Every review is the same topics over and over. Taking the X-S20 for example: no one mentioned that the Face / Eye AF is not only better, but is totaly different than before, you have to use is a very different way. No comparison between the penalties of using lower data bitrates - is 360mbps and 200mbps much different? Or 10-bit 4:2:2 and 10-bit 4:2:0 - I've discovered this is a HUGE topic for Windows users this week, because Nvidia cards only have decoders for 10 bit 4:2:0, you could have the best RTX 4xxx card and your 10 bit 4:2:2 footage will only decode using CPU; and only the newer Intels CPUs with iGpu have hardware decoders 10 bit 4:2:2. Everything is very shallow.

Real pros film with laser precision anyway. If you need more than 3.5 seconds of footage the problem ain't the camera, bro, it's you!

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

Imagine the reaction if Canon was releasing these cameras. You'd have your Canon apologists, of course, but man, Canon would be getting torn to shreds in Facebook groups, forums, and on YouTube (and rightfully so!). Sony though... not much of a peep from the usual crowd.

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.