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I hope that unlike the Z9/Z8 that Nikon have got their supply act together otherwise it could be a long wait to get one even at the new price. It looks to have the same/similar processing clout in it as the big cameras so who knows whether that might be an option further down the line. Unless RED have got a super specific patent on "RAW video shot at above 23.89999999 fps inside a camera shell that looks quite reminiscent of classic SLR cameras from the 20th century made by a manufacturer whose name begins with N and who were founded on 25 July 1917 at roughly midday local time". Because they might well have 😉

Working on a doc and my wife and I use it every now and again to grab stuff off the cuff. Works good when doing car tracking shots, for instance. We're not trying to make studio level color grades with our work, and typically we just push and pull iPhone footage by eye to get it close to our Acam and call it good. But, yeah, our standards are a bit more loosey-goosey than most, probably. Still, we're plenty happy with the results. It's not hard to get them close. At the end of the day, in my world having the shot is more important than have the correct bit depth and all that pixel-peeking stuff. It needs to exist first, then we'll worry about it.

This had definitely be flying under my radar as a rumour so this was an interesting surprise this morning ! I have had the Df since it was launched and it is a fantastic compact D4 and they have finally brought out its mirrorless equivalent. Unlike the Df, which has no video at all, the Zf is very competitively equipped for a camera in its $2000 price range. Key specifications 24MP full-frame BSI CMOS sensor In-body image stabilization rated up to 8EV Dedicated Monochrome mode Up to 14fps continuous shooting (JPEG), 11 fps Raw 'C30' JPEG-only 30fps mode with pre-burst function AF system with tracking and recognition of 9 subject types 4K/60 video from 6K capture with 10-bit N-Log recording 32-shot high-res mode to give 96MP images SD and MicroSD card slots Full details here https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/mirrorless-cameras/z-f.html

After spending far too much time in the G9ii thread bemoaning MFT, I'm now hypocritically looking to buy another MFT lens so after some opinions about this one if anyone here owns it. It caught my eye during the demo from BMD about the new Micro Studio Camera4K as it has power zoom controllable from an ATEM and I will be using it on the exact same camera (and/or Pocket4K) controlled in the exact same way. Power zooms are thin on the ground for most systems but I have the Panasonic 14-42mm and I'm interested in this one for a slightly wider range but also because from what I've seen it is a lot less clunky when zooming than the Panasonic. If anyone is using it in the same capacity with an ATEM controlling it then I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts but if anyone just uses it as a general lens then I'm interested in that as well in particular its longevity. It is likely that I will be getting a reasonably old used one for cheap as I don't want to throw much money at it. This means a bit of a leap of faith as I won't have the ability to test it in the way I'm going to use it and won't easily be able to return it (I'll only briefly be in the country I'm buying it in) so if there are any horror stories regarding zoom motors going rough etc then that would be good to know. I'm also interested in if anyone has used it with a BMD camera (original Pocket or new) if there is a lot of distortion at the wide end that, of course, is not corrected in those cameras. Thanks

Nikon pretty much perfected film bodies back in the late 70s with the FM/FE, and their successors, and the F3, so to see a FF digital go back to those body styles is really exciting for me. If the Zf had a split micro prism viewfinder function, it could be the perfect shooting experience. I was intending on being a late R5 adopter and then go all in with the RF mount, but this release from Nikon is making me second guess.

I have. So far no replies unfortunately 😔 Here: https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=188556&p=983237#p983237

It makes perfect sense to me that ALL sensors today, other than that intended for cinema/TV should be square because then best of both worlds! Just set up custom overlays on the screen and it's easy to see what is possible from any scene. With my photography hat on, I'd MUCH prefer to shoot this way without having to continually rotate the camera physically, but see the projected result/cropping on the screen instead.

I also from time to time intercut to (R5, R5c) iPhone footage, you can spot it but most of the audience does not even notice. I even intercut 360 reframed content that is even more lower quality. But is more important to get the shot. As you said not everywhere is easy to be there with a R5 type of rig. I also started to record with the iPhone on top of the R5c as I tend to use really long lenses in the 300mm to 600mm range so I can have a second view much wider with the iPhone (77mm). I have a 13 Pro Max and contemplating a move to the 15 Pro Max for 3 reasons: 120mm instead of 77mm, satellite emergency (I can skip the Garmin and its subscription) and the most important for me the workflow as the lighting (non really lighting speed 🙂 ) is a huge pita. Hopefully with direct SSD/CFexpress reader support I can record directly or quickly copy to an external storage. I use to use Filmic Pro but is now a robbery and also the UI imo was a bit cumbersome especially when I'm in hectic places so I went back to the normal camera app. I just installed the Blackmagic one and it seems ok but I need to test it out more. Overall I truly hate filming with the iPhone but it get the job done when it would be hard to have a bigger camera. Btw my R5 in 8K RAW never overheated but I had once the iPhone on top in 4k 25fps overheating and shutting down 🙂 It would also be cool if you could use it directly as a wired monitor..... but for Apple is too much to ask...

Dealing in coke is the way to go to able to afford cooke

Well it would have to be is what I mean and with more features or folks will WTF it's existence even more than they will regardless. I've been eying up the new Cookes...and came to the conclusion, I'd need to be Coked up to do that properly, but the Dulens Micro Primes look the business and the entire set of those costs less than one new Cookie...

Got to up your offer even further! Let your daughter borrow a Fujifilm GFX100 Well, the GH7 will probably be at a higher price? And will likely have even more video features: 1) mini XLR?? 2) mini SDI?? 3) built in fan? 4) 4K 240fps??? 5) multi aspect sensor?? 6) six channel audio recording?? True. Better to have a "do it all camera" than a specialist stills vs video mirrorless. Wish Panasonic would

I own the lens (bought used a few years ago, don't know how old it actually is). I haven't used it recently, but yes, from memory the power zooming is reasonably smooth but my copy is a little bit noisy (but quieter than the Pana and Oly pancake PZ lenses) - from comments I've seen, there seems to be some sample variation in noise levels. I can't remember what the focus breathing is like. Do the BM cameras apply the lens distortion and chromatic aberration corrections? It'll be a few days before I can do it, but I could put it on my OM-1 or G9 and upload a short test video if that would help you decide?

To me the perfect embodiment of the four-thirds mount was actually the original Blackmagic Pocket Cinema camera, which technically speaking was only using the mount but equipped with a smaller sensor. The only true ‘pocket cinema’ in my book. That camera was so much fun shooting. It was imperfect, having to change the damn battery every 15 minutes, amongst other quirks and limitations. But the shooting *experience* was completely different from other cameras because it left out anything else and the interface was simple. The footage felt very…organic. Something I haven’t seen in their later products. Not sure what it is. I used it often in combination with a pancake lens while having the flexibility to mount other lenses. I have 4 lenses collecting dust (and a broken GH5 which died when I forgot to turn it off, using it as a webcam). Why is no company making a new version of this concept? It’ll be optically superior to a phone.

I agree, the release of the G9mk2 with PDAF hints at the fact that there will be either a GH6mk2 (basically identical to the GH6, but with PDAF) or a GH7! (maybe even both) If it is a GH6mk2 then it will be "soon" (maybe this year?? At least, "within a year" for sure), if it is a GH7 then it will probably be a bit further away when it happens. Hopefully it will be both? Like what happened with the GH5mk2 / GH6 My hope is they'll surprise us with the GH6mk2 (that adds PDAF, but otherwise makes zero changes to the GH6mk1) and at the same time as they release the GH6mk2 they say that the GH7 is "in development" together with some ground breaking features. (mini SDI, mini XLR, six channel recording, and eNDs pretty please! We could easily fit all this into a S1H sized body for the GH7)

Wish someone would bring out a 12mm to 120mm powered zoom MFT lens with that 10x zoom range (16x would be even better!) so as to make MFT that much better for such applications. As otherwise, the only reasonable way to do this is with adapted B4 lenses (where 16x lenses are quite common place).

Great point. Even an average MFT camera with a 7-8mm lens absolutely slaughters a GoPro once the sun dips below the horizon or you go inside a building. Camera manufacturers haven't just dropped the ball on the whole usability front, they were in a cafe with their friends pretending they were sophisticated and didn't even know there was a game being played at all. Needless to say, they got left behind. The workflow from any ILC camera for any amount of money is stone-age and has stayed that way. In pure economic terms they all deserve to die out completely. Obviously I hope that isn't the case, but yeah, your daughter isn't wrong. It's probably a translation error, but if there's "Mirrorless single-lens models" then where are the mirrorless multi-lens models?? Dear god would I be tempted by a camera with two MFT sensors and lens mounts! I'd put the 12-35mm F2.8 on one and the 7.5mm F2 on the other and I'd never miss a shot ever again! Size be damned! The school that the kids go to puts up signs on their events that says photography is allowed, but no-one can post a photo of any kid that isn't theirs online without written permission from their parents. Combine that with the low-light situation and good luck with your smart phones now......

This is awesome. Finally a cheaper Nikon option with internal 10 bit. Might be my next camera. And I could keep my Z6 as a b-cam.

I love the retro body so much.

Talking about the X-S20 itself - since I was a CDAF m43 user before (my first 2 PDAF cameras were the X-T20 and the X-S10), I could be easily impressed, but I'm liking a lot the camera. Must confess, more than I expected. Was in a music festival this weekend. First test (and one of the reasons that compactness and discreetion are top priorities for me): festival stated that "professional cameras" are forbidden. Attached the 55-200mm on the camera, facing down the ThinkTank bag, only the back of the camera visible. Security saw the size of the camera, did not even bother to ask to take a look. 🙂 Shooting music festivals is a scenario that I'm used to - but, again, using m43 cameras. Always got good results, once even was published on the official Franz Ferdinand instagram channel. Face detection with m43 usually could not detect the face from distance, but single point usually worked, and with low light and bad stage lighting I usually switch to manual focus, focus on the mic stand, put the focus a touch farther and get good sharp photos. The X-S20 not only got the faces all the time, but 90% of the time, find the eye of the subject, at 200mm, even with the singer occupying half the frame. With daylight and stage lighting. Never had so many keepers in a concert. And one of the singers and the festival channel already published some of the photos. 🙂 It is another league from the X-S10. Made two videos, but since I recorded in 6.2k 10bit 4:2:2, will need to work with proxies, and I'm still a beginner in Resolve, will need some spare time. Tested with the internal mics in Auto level, could see that the bass is distorted, was a experiment to see the levels needed, but apart from that the sound was good for internal mics (much better than all my GXs and the FZ1000). AF again was getting the eyes 100% of the time, will see the precision at the footage. Still have to test it more, but my doubts about having to go to Sony to get good AF were killed. From the tests that I saw with screen recorders with the A7CII, A6700 and some other cameras, I see minimal differences. For me, ths one looks like a keeper.

In fact, I was expecting that the fan would not make ANY difference, hence it is a plus. And since a tiny fan could make this improvement, for sure the cheaper Aliexpress versions would perform the same or better, which is good news.

As someone who lives half his life at weddings, I can assure 'you' (ie, folks in general) it is extremely rare to see a guest toting anything resembling a camera at a wedding and it's been that way for quite some years now. I might see the odd 60+ year old guest fumbling with an old DSLR or the occasional hipster with something Fuji flavoured, but otherwise nada, it's wall to wall phones and if they are not taking snaps with them, they are gazing at them for whatever enlightenment they individually receive from these devices.

I agree with you except for the LX10 and LX100. They are not cameras that fall into the category that can be replaced by a smarphone. There is the whole audience of Youtubers/vloggers and both Sony and Canon have recently dropped machines aimed at this group of users. Basically a compact with perfect AF and good microphones. Speaking of my niche: Sony has sold tons of RX100s (seven generations) widely used as compact solutions for underwater shooting. Panasonic proved that both the LX10 and 100 were far superior for underwater use but then they became obsolete and left completely the market to Sony and Olympus. There are a lot of people who still use them with great satisfaction and would welcome an updated version that also competes with the newly released Olympus TG7 (another best-selling camera). In short, it is true that smartphones have eaten a chunk of the market but there are niches where there is still great demand for more specialized tools. Do all these users who buy action cams die with gopros or should they go straight to an R5C?

To be fair, the Godfather was a right fucking mess before he stamped his White Balance skill on it.

If the goal is to renovate all the cameras.... They started with the FF line. They probably were not ready for the flagship so they started with the entry level S5 model (perhaps the best selling). They revamped the older flagship G9. In my opinion even if they had started with the GH6 the result would not have changed in terms of total destruction of sales of the other models. Following this logic, the next step could be: - a new PDAF machine in the rangefinder line (GX80 etc.) OR even in the smallest line, LX10 or LX100. - new SH1x II flagships with PDAF

I understand the criticism of Andrew but rather true, kye : ) your voice, Andrew, is more prominent than any of us can estimate. And as you wrote, this format is much more important than people tend to see. Well observed. So, I don't exactly see it as a negative remark. I guess Andrew is more disappointed with this specific camera release sorta glass half empty throughout their camera line and the way the management pursued by them along these years since the GH3 introduction, as exclusive responsibility of those who launched it, than anything else as far as this format concerns though. Or am I wrong on this idea of mine?

Respectfully, if you are a fan of the format, you wouldn't be shouting from the rooftops that it's dead. I understand that tough love is a pillar of journalism (and one that is sadly lacking at the moment) but there's a point where it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. Your blog likely has more influence than you think, and if so, you're adding nails to the coffin instead of making it stronger.

I agree with most of your thoughts Andrew except possibly two… The ‘chonky’ S5ii is fractionally smaller and lighter than the GH6, thought a tiny bit more than the old G9. Leading on from that, maybe…just maybe, they went with the S5 architecture because by doing so, it allowed them to develop the G9ii at a lower cost than with its own unique body? And they may even have not developed a G9ii otherwise and the GH6 might have been their last ever 4/3 body? But otherwise yes, totally agree. I would also liked to have seen 4/3 be a ‘micro’ sized camera, especially when some of the larger sensor stuff is getting smaller. Lenses aside, just look at a GFX 100S or Hassie X2D next to a GH6. The Fuji is only marginally bigger and heavier but the Hass is smaller and lighter! OK, different beasts I know, but anything bigger than the OM-1 is too big IMO for a 4/3 sensor camera.

IIRC, around the time of the GH6 release (18 months ago), there was live stream/press discussion with some senior Panasonic people, where one of them basically said that including PDAF hardware on the sensor would have delayed the sensor development too much (for the GH6 timescale). So my take on it is the sensor in the G9ii is effectively the 'fully developed' version of it, and the GH6 has an intermediate version without the PDAF hardware capability. I think it would have been commercially crazy to not launch the GH6 with PDAF if they could have - they'd have sold more in the intervening months at higher street prices. We'll have to wait and see, but I think there just has to be a GH6ii or GH7 soon.

It seems to me a suicide decision. It is bad enough that cameras receive fw updates, let alone hw. It would be the first time in history. I simply believe that the sensor is a derivative of that of the GH6 and the marketing sells itself that they are identical. But the devil is in the details. I've read too that they have the same sensor but who is the source? I guess it's just a PR statement. Nobody disassembled it.

It's simply not possible thay are the same sensor. A modern PDAF sensor ha specialized pixels on it. It's not something you are adding later. Only old real DSRL had the space to implement PDAF out of the sensor. If G9II and GH6 have the same image It means that the G9II sensor is a derivation of the GH6 sensor but it's a completely different one. So I think I'll pass the mic to Harry Callaghan https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/124306/confusion-about-the-principle-of-on-sensor-pdaf-technique