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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

On a side note about overheating. On a underwater photo/video forum people were wondering about a underwater housing for the new ZV-E1. A user posted: Anyone ever test the camera in warm water with either Nauticam or Ikelite housings? My a7siii & A74 overheat in video mode in about 10-15" using an Ikelite housing in >80º F waters. Ikelite housings are made of Acrilic while other brands prefers aluminium with completely different results but you get the picture. It's like closing a toaster in a sealed plastic box.

Just got the TTArtisan 25mm T2 Anamorphot 1.33x. This is just a quick little test with the Sony FS5 and a Tiffen +2 diopter, shooting wide open. So far I love this tiny little anamorphic cine lens. No more janky DIY scope rigs, no more clamps, no more (occasionally) slightly misaligned footage. More than worth the $350 I paid for it. I hope they release a 50mm to pair with it. Look how compact and tiny it is:

Haven't been super active in a while, so I hope you are all doing well 🙂 Two big reasons I might consider this camera instead of sticking with my Nikon Z6 are: 1. 10-bit internal 2. Internal Gyro Data #2 is big for me. I've realized how convenient gyro stabilization is, at least for me. Allows me to get a wide range of awesome motion shots while having a convenient shooting experience. Less weight, less setup time, no need to balance a gimbal or steadicam. Well...it would be convenient if I had a camera that recorded internally. I've done some stuff with gyro data on my Nikno Z6 by using a smartphone as a gyro logger. This works and can work extremely well, but the workflow is a pain because you have to keep track of all the gyro data on your phone and match all of the files, not to mention having one more thing you need to attach to your camera. The Sony A6700 as well as pretty much all of Sony's recent offerings seem very appealing to me for the sole reason that you can quickly get perfectly synced gyro data without needing any external devices. You can process this footage in Gyroflow to get a lot of power, and can even use the Gyroflow OFX plugin in Davinci Resolve to get a very streamlined workflow. The 10-bit internal is nice too. Of course a billion cameras now offer that, and that feature is solely convenience-based for me. I think I could rock the Sigma Contemporary Primes and sacrifice a bit of lowlight for these features. IDK. We'll see.

Funny thing about this… It was harder to shoot and edit a movie in this day; forget about the price of equipment too. Even harder to shoot a “good” movie, forget about an “amazing” movie… with amazing characters and scenes… But, once it was said and done… it was easy to sell… there was always a major buyer/distributor. Fast forward to today… easy to shoot and edit, hell you can do it all on your phone… you can do it well too… it might take some time to write the script, storyboard and even find decent actors - go to a drama school and take your chances with auditions etc…. Nonetheless the price of admission is super low… again you can do it all on your phone. However!!! You will have a hard time selling it.

I found this video to be a breath of fresh air.....

I don't mind manufacturers segmenting by price, in a way that's sort-of reasonable, as long as it doesn't go too far in the direction of being anti-competitive. The thing I mind is that they also segment on camera size. If you want great image quality then the cameras just become unwieldy and attention-grabbing. Modern technology makes everything smaller over time, but they ate up that size advantage with extra megapixels. Of course, the elephant in the room with overheating is that it's caused by the blind pursuit of more and more pixels. Of course, some people have convinced themselves of the "need" for more pixels, but the frilly pink dress that the elephant is wearing that no-one will discuss is that you can't see anything more than 720p (at best) on a smartphone, which is the primary viewing device for most of what is being filmed by these people.

About all these hot new cameras (pun intended): I agree that would be much better them to not overheat. And for me is intentional: it is segmentation. For instance: the X-S20, the A6700 and both the new A7C have a plastic back panel, behind the LCD. If they really want to help dissipating heat, they could do a metal back panel. Specially in the Fuji case, where you can specifically put a fan there. Panasonic also showed in the S5II that you can incorporate a discreet fan without raising the cost. It is segmentation. Same thing with the LCD mechanism from the A7RV - solve one for all the tilt / flip debacle, should be standard for all new cameras. Fuji also made a similar solution with the XT100. But...want more, pay more. If you want to pay less, you have to deal with the limitations. I could use my 1.0 liter car to tow a heavy trailer? For sure, but will not be a very good experience. Not defending the manufacturers, but it is how it works in all markets. Will be this until someone breaks the mold and all need to follow.

Nice!

https://vimeo.com/860191315/ Shared the stills of this a while ago

Ha! Spot on! It’s the exact option I’d go for if switching today; a pair of either plus a 100s, all available used. And may even do so over the Winter after my season has ended… But waiting to see what L Mount does re. S1 line replacement first, mainly re. a replacement for the S1R. In my eternal quest for the perfect hybrid set up, I have established several non-negotiables… Has to be 3 bodies; 2 dedicated to video and 1 to stills and if the stills body has a video capability, bonus, but not a deal breaker. The stills unit needs to be 50-100mp because I am heading back to cropping (in post plus AI software such as DXO) over bigger/longer lenses and steering away from anything that really needs a battery grip for handling. The stills unit must have a damped shutter. I am also moving away from something I wished to explore which was pulling stills from video. I think it would take the joy of photography away from me and make the process, well more ‘a process’. So a pair of used XH2’s, each with something like the Tamron 17-70 would be direct replacements for my pair of S5ii’s but zero real world gain. More a sideways move… GFX100s over S1H with battery grip with pair of zooms (weighing over 2kg for the pair) replaced with 2 primes of around 28mm and 85mm and job done. Just one of several options waiting in the wings but probably the leading contender today.