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I settled on using the A7iii for video and will leave my Blackmagic cams at home. I did a lot of tests with the Sony, including one at a concert Tuesday night, all of which came out better than I expected. Now my only quandary is lenses. Ideally I'd shoot all the video on one lens for consistency/continuity, but I only have one zoom, the Tokina ATX Pro 28-70 f2.6-2.8 (the Angénieux design) and while I love it in daylight I've been less than thrilled with the images I get from it at concerts. I have that lens in Nikon mount, and the other Nikon mount lens I have is the Zeiss ZF.2 Distagon 35mm/1.4, which is an amazing lens but won't match well with the Tokina. On the rangefinder prime side I have three Sonnar lenses (50mm, 73mm, and 105mm) but nothing wider than 35mm. The first dance is tonight, but the headline acts are tomorrow night so I'll be able to try out a few different lens strategies tonight to see what works best in this location and under this lighting.

The way to choose the best camera for you is to look at what absolutely sucks about each camera (every camera sucks in several major ways) then pick the one that would hurt you the least. Film-making equipment involves a huge amount of compromise, at every level, even regardless of budget (although that definitely sucks for most cameras!).

8K 60P RAW. Hot card warning only.

Has anyone been able to test the X-S20 vs X-H2S for video? CineD have the X-S20 dynamic range as lower than even the XT4/XT3 and shockingly even the XT2. Would love to see their testings. Surely it cannot be that bad? I believe it shares the same sensor as the XT4 but with a newer processor? I haven't see many X-S20 video yet but none of them seem to jump out at me in terms of dynamic range tbh. Cheers in advance

I suspect that a primary problem with fora is that over time they become too one-sided, narrow minded and restrictive. Reduser doesn’t tolerate criticism - it would be fabulous to engage in (and learn from) genuine debate about braw vs. redcode etc. But that can’t happen because anyone who extols the virtues of braw will undoubtably be met with hostility. Here, it possibly isn’t a great idea to discuss Bloom’s reviews - why not? They are often informative and entertaining. But… Fora tend to become echo chambers and new, different or dissenting voices leave (voluntarily or otherwise). I fear that the majority of users go to their forum of choice (photo, automobile, hifi, whisky etc.) simply to have their views (or buying choice) reinforced and validated. Lots of us remember interesting (?), useful (?) or controversial (?) contributions from those who are no longer here. We might not have agreed with or liked or even understood them (young Zach…) but they presenting a range of opinion to keep things lively. And why don’t the “experts” (eg JB and, yes, even PB) pop in from time to time to share and discuss ideas? This space manages to retain neutrality with respect to brands and I think that is possibly unique. But - and without being deliberately critical - it has also driven people away. Why? Personally I’d like to see Andrew promote a topic of the month - eg “does 8 or 10 bit really matter?” and let a thoughtful, knowledgable and informative debate develop. And develop without being lost in “what camera should I use/buy?” or similar posts. Or a discussion about audio options at relevant and appropriate prices and level or expertise. The forum then becomes a place of genuine learning and debate not simply an exchange of opinions. But perhaps I miss the point…

Just to get back on topic... The trend isn't limited to photo, video or filmmaking forums, it's all forums... A friend recently reminisced how he used to talk to fans of his favourite band online all the time and do meet-ups. The band's unofficial forum was a hub for this, but now it doesn't even exist. It is just people on a Facebook group now, posting pics and pressing like. This is due to smartphones and the fact they lack a proper keyboard for longer form content and interactions. Plus a few social media apps have replaced .com websites. Hope to see a reversal of it as this is not using the internet to its true potential. People should put the phone down and get back online via a laptop or desktop machine instead!

There is a lot of great capabilities with computational photography that Japanese camera makers could use, and didn't, but the point of having interchangeable lens camera is to have more control, not less. Of course you get more noise, to control how you like to deal with it. And what iPhone does with highlights is anything but pleasing. I don't blame the AI tho. Stacking multiple frames with different exposure to get a "normal" looking image is still a challenge for humans too.