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Once upon a time, Vimeo. For reasons officially unknown (I'll come back to this later) Vimeo stopped being, for us Europeans, a community of video storytellers. (As it still likes to call itself). Basically, in certain regions of the world you can no longer use the video search function and at the same time you can no longer browse other users' videos. I can only see and search my own videos and eventually see a video of another user only if I have its link. Even if I know his name I cannot search for him. I can only see his profile if I know his exact url. This post sums up what happened: https://shortverse.beehiiv.com/p/vime-nooo I am so angry. I noticed it by accident and I also looked like an idiot because I as well as thousands of other users thought it was a bug. No communication at all. Out of the blue. The entire UE community lost. Membership fee is the same for everyone but I have most of the features disabled. Those who read this thread and, for example, have an account in the U.S. or other countries not affected by this ban might think that this does not affect them. But it absolutely does not! I have several friends in the U.S. who use their Vimeo account for showreels, basically a videocentric Linked-in. In their profile they have written "available for hire." Here, you must know that their profile is no longer searchable from banned countries. And we don't even know which ones they are. I can only access a video of theirs via direct link but I can't go to their profile or search them by name via the search function. This is my following people page: I can see their names but I cannot click on their profile icons. Sounds like a joke. What is the point of these lists now? Just imagine my frustration, I've been a member for 13 years and I've developed a whole network of relationships over all these years and now I can't even see the profiles of people I've collaborated with, anymore. Think about it before you renew your subscription!

There’s a lot of criticism of Vimeo and to be fair, a lot of it is valid, but playing devils advocate… I have over 750+ videos hosted with them. I use it as an on-line storage and download facility both to host videos on my website and for clients to download. Having an upload issue the other day, I went to delete it and err, oops, deleted the most recent 38 client uploads. After some horrified research (I do not have a great connection and a 10 minute 4k production is an overnight job and it can fail several nights in a row) I found out they could restore the most recent 25. I had a chat with them and within 24 hours they restored all 38 with no quibble. The thought of having to re-upload 38 videos with all the fails would be like 2 months for me to re-do manually 🤬 So fair play to them.

I'm wondering whether the new FujiFilm X-M5 might be an option if you looked for something outside the MFT format. Its a proper little powerhouse for video with IBIS, PDAF, 10 bit 4:2:2 and 6.2K open gate etc It is also just plain little as well, even against the GX80/85 Price wise its also substantially cheaper than anything comparable MFT wise like a G9ii or GH7. X mount is a mature format so there are lots of lens options used to keep the overall cost down and lots of fast primes both first and third party to keep the low light situation up. There are a lot of very capable zoom lenses as well from Sigma's 18-50mm f2.8 to Fuji's own 18-135mmF3.5-5.6. If you need that extra boost to over 10x zoom then the Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 would have you covered and then some. For something more premium but under 10x, the constant aperture Fujifilm 18-120mm f4 would be the option and it also includes servo zoom. The following full kit : X-M5 Fuji 15-45 3.5-5.6 kit lens Viltrox AF 23mm f1.4 Viltrox AF 33mm f1.4 Viltrox AF 56mm f1.4 Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Works out around $200 more than the GH7 body only and of course, aside from the camera itself, are all readily available used to keep the price down further. Its a sobering look at how far MFT prices have crept up. As I say, I know you're not really looking to buy something new but if you were then I think the X-M5 route is worth consideration. Oddly enough, my recent experiences of travelling have shown a shift in the negative perception of people with "real" cameras as my observation is that people are now getting far more irritated by the pouting photoshoots using smartphones happening everywhere. I was walking through St James Park in London a few nights ago and the amount of people draped over the bridge doing the "take a picture of the back of me as I gaze thoughtfully at Buckingham Palace" was ridiculous. Particularly considering it was virtually pitch black !

I’m going to throw another type of hat into this ring and ask have you ever considered shooting faux-anamorphic? That is use a slightly wider lens and use an in camera crop. Or rather crop markers. Few cameras offer this feature, stills or video. Lumix and Fuji do. I can’t remember the Fuji crop markers, but with Lumix you can set up to 2.39:1. With stills, Xpan mode; 65 x 24! I wish Sony and my A7RV had this but it doesn’t so I am making an LCD overlay for this very purpose. OK it’s ONLY a visual framing guide, but if shooting 6k OG, a great starting point to that wide angle anamorphic look, but without the flares (hate them), warped lines (hate them), blurry corners (hate them) etc, all whilst maintaining the smallest unrigged package with the best AF/IBIS, ie, for non-pro filmmakers who are not shooting a moovie or ad for Coca Cola. Hello S5ii. You can ‘black out’ the negative space 25, 50, 75 or 100% At this point in time, it’s almost certainly my direction in 2025. I’ve been shooting 6k 3:2 all year and cropping in post to phone favourite 16:9 but I want a bit more drama for 2025 productions in the width department and shooting anamorphic for me has too many compromises. Not decided on an actual crop yet and waiting for my 3 new lenses to arrive so I can properly play… 20mm f2 replacing 20-60 f3.5-5.6 28-45 f1.8 replacing 28-70 f2.8 28-105 f2.8 replacing 70-200 f4 ^Brings mostly at least a 1 stop lower light capability with a bit of an emphasis on wider end flexibility over actual reach^ I am probably going to end up shooting with frame markers and then actual crop to CinemaScope 21:9 which I think is a nice balance of wide without being too extreme…

Absolutely. But, this is where things are highly contextual. I've written about this before, but the summary was: Priority 1: Get the shot - You can't use the shots you didn't get. Priority 2: Get shots in the best way - Shots that are in focus, aren't shaky, have usable composition, don't have nervous-looking subjects or people in the background are staring at the camera, etc. Priority 4: Get the nicest image quality - Insert all the normal camera stuff here... DR, colour science, etc. No, I didn't mis-number this, priority 4 is so far away from priority 1 & 2 that there is no Priority 3. Now to context. When I came up with that I was shooting my family and friends. The most frequent Priority 1 challenge was security guards wouldn't let you shoot in museums, art galleries, shopping centres, some zoos, and even in parks if you had a "professional looking" camera, and the most frequent Priority 2 challenges were that I couldn't frame up fast enough to catch the moment, shots weren't in focus, and were too shaky. The only times that Priority 4 challenges came up was shooting shots where they weren't moving, or random shots without them in it, like landscapes and street scenes of markets etc. I also spent a lot of time analysing professional and award-winning edits of similar materials (travel / travel food shows such as Parts Unknown, Chefs Table, Street Food, as well as YT) and I discovered that in the professional stuff: the quality of their shots is solid but not breathtaking the quantity of shots was stunning - they're shooting vast quantities of material (one 45 minute episode had 2000 cuts!) the magic came from the structure, the interweaving of images combined with music and sound design, and the layering of interviews with voice-over narration I used to shoot with the GH5 and manual primes as my main camera, but recently realised that the GX85 with AF zooms was the faster way to go, because it was smaller and less 'pro' looking so got into more places and when I was using it the AF and zooms made far more shots in focus, I got far more shots because I was quick enough, and lots less shots had random people in the background staring. The GX85 became my main camera for this reason. Then the kids moved out and so the previous trip (which inspired this post) was just about the location, so I knew that Priority 1 and 2 would be far easier to satisfy. In South Korea many of the interesting places are public spaces (street malls and markets, not big shopping centres - although they have those too) so no security guards to worry about, and because I can mostly take all the time I need to frame up and expose and focus, mostly it came down to image quality. However, you'll notice my setup wasn't only the BMMCC. It was the BMMCC and GX85 for a reason. My thinking on the previous trips and for my next one is that there are four types of places where I might shoot: Tourist places like lookouts etc, where everyone expects people to be filming Use the big camera Public places that are busy but not touristy, where people wouldn't be surprised to see someone filming Take both setups and try the big camera but switch if you have to Public places that people wouldn't expect to see someone shooting Take the small camera, try with a zoom but swap to pancake lens if required, or use phone Places where shooting wouldn't be expected and maybe not welcomed Take the small camera and pancake lens in a pocket and keep it in the pocket when not taking a shot, but potentially grab quick shots with phone instead In terms of the logistics, the BMMCC requires a backpack anyway because the rig is too large for a sling bag, so any time I take it anywhere I take the GX85, zoom, and pancake lens as well. The GX85 and zoom fit into a sling bag, and the other zoom and pancake lens also fit in there, so I take those too. This means I can always "downsize" the rig I'm shooting with, depending on the situation. This is the setup I plan to take on the next one. There's no way I'd just take the "big camera", regardless of what it was (GH5, GH7, BMMCC, Komodo, etc).