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Yup. They were my favourite for primes, but I preferred various recent Tamron's for zoom stuff, notably my current trinity of 20-40, 28-75 and 70-180. But this year, Sigma moved the game on with their 28-45 f1.8 and 28-105 2.8 and all that's 'missing' for me with them right now is a longer sibling to that 28-45. I've said it before and will say it again, - if they make something like a 45-90 or 50-100, also f1.8 and internal zoom, I'm done! As it is, I'm getting the 28-45 and 28-105 for next season as they just make complete sense for my needs. Plus, yes, I also love their philosophy and family run nature.

A bit of social networking and Google as one of the big 3 tech giants can have a high influence over appointees at all sorts of smaller companies. I'm not suggesting it's true in the case of Vimeo, we simply don't know, but it can't be completely ruled out either. It just seems very suspicious that the moment they became clear no.2 competition for YouTube, someone came in and took them in a completely different direction. And for very little rewards.

If anyone spots a 50% off all things Hasselblad, shout in my direction. Thanks in advance.

Honorable mention to DJI - because they are thinking kinda outside the box. And choose to grow in unexplored markets. They started with drones, and snowballed the market - except in some niche sectors, they crushed everyone else. Second marlet tried was cine, with the DJI Ronin 4D - which I think is the most innovative camera of the decade. A lot of completely new stuff there - the LIDAR Af with the depth map for manual focus, the wheel control, the 4 axis gimbal. Not so great in ergo, but was an amazing achievement. This path they not suceed, but was a ambitious 1st try. And the Osmo Pocket 3 - almost everyone that tries it falls in love (including me). Amazingly easy to operate (my wife is using it to make social media videos for her clients, she knows NOTHING about filming, and the videos come out very good), very good stabilization, and the image quality is like 80% of my X-S20. The only camera that I ever used in auto ISO - its metering is VERY good. And in a very unusual and compact form factor, a REAL pocket cam. There are rumors that they will enter the traditional camera market - I have my doubts, since all the markets already established that they entered they have no (the Ronin 4D) or ok success (action cams and gimbals). They rise on unexplored paths - and I guess that if they make a camera, would be breaking some molds. (albeit I suspect that the 1st breaking mold camera should be - or MUST be, to be a success - the 1 inch "half-frame" Fuji)

It's admirable how Yamaki-san looks after his factory, his employees. The temptation to hive off everything to China to please the shareholders isn't there in Sigma's case, which makes them unique in the industry.

Favourite COMPANY or favourite cameras? From a personal point of view favourite company is definitely Sigma... Family run, different, innovative, the best of all the companies at modern lenses, and best bang for buck too on those. The Fp-L may not be the best all-round mirrorless camera... this would be the Sony a1 or a Nikon Z8... But they're a proper thinking-man's camera company and embolic of what makes Japan so special when it comes to their family run companies. Sigma behaves the opposite of American anything-for-profit evil entities. Their APS-C primes are lovely on a Fuji body, and much better bang for buck than your Sony GM primes for example or Canon RF. In terms of favourite tools by one company overall - if I had to pick just one or two then these would be by Sony, the a7 IV bang for buck is very good, Sony a1 and a9 III are all-rounders with faultless capabilities in every area - there's very little you can't do armed with one of these Sony bodies... In fact ever since the a7r II and a7s II they have been on a very good incremental improvement path, starting with ergonomic improvements, then colour, but really in every single area of a camera spec they have not put many a foot wrong. Favourite company though? Not a chance. I don't agree with their hugely inflated prices on lenses and the higher-end bodies, I don't care for any of the top brands in terms of companies - not Sony, not Canon, they are a corporate shadow of their former selves in terms of philosophy and company culture. Fuji would be second to Sigma for me as a company - their strategy is unique and there's nothing better in medium format, APS-C or compact cameras than what they're providing in 2024... X100 VI, GFX 100 II, X-H2 - wow what a trio that is...in terms of the ULTIMATE power, feature-set and specs the GFX 100 II is better than anything, even Sony a1 II. Third favourite company would be Atomos... haha only kidding.

some outdoor test

And people wonder why there's not more competition to YouTube, it's because of mismanagement like that seen at Vimeo. They had the chance to become the thinking man's YouTube but blew it, to become a failing business service for videography clients and pros. The price increase reflects that too, that they preferred to focus on a tiny niche rather than the huge community they used to have. At this point the mismanagement is so bad, you could even assume Google planted a covert CEO there just to absolutely make sure it would never become a valid competitor. And today I don't think it matters that much as YouTube provides a much better platform, and the Vimeo community has been dead for well over 6 years now.

Just got this email: Given that I have been using a plus account for over 13 years... WHAT IF I already uploaded more than 250GB? Until now I had unlimited space and a 5GB weekly limit. ATM I have no tool to check it. YouTube let youo pload a unlisted video so you could share to a client but there's no way to download the original version. You can download only a crap 720p downsized version. Other alternatives could be Frame.Io or https://www.gumlet.com/pricing/ Frame.io it's very expensive and doesn't support embedding

Hi Guys, I might jump brands again. Last years I have been shooting panasonic and blackmagic, but I might transfer to sony once again (I love the IBIS on the panasonic camera's, but I feel they are lacking some mojo vs sony/canon images, and while I do love that the L mount lenses have the same weight/filter thread, they do have a clinical/boring image). ho here has experience shooting anamorphic on the latest sony camera's A7SIII, FX3 and Sony ZV-E1? What is your experience with 1.5X, 2X anamorphics. Do you need an additional monitor (as I hate charging and carrying extra weight, so would always prefer the camera monitor itself). Do these camera's have desqueeze built in? I know panasonic camera's have this, but not sure of Sony. Thanks,

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…

If you insist on going Sony one nice setup I’ve seen good results with is using the controversial and cheaper Blazar Anamorphic lenses and adapters. A lot of people have issues with the quality of these lenses even though they are priced really well. The thing is, most of the issues are with the edges and the swirly, swimming look and extreme distortion. By shooting with the FX3 or ZV-E1 and cropping most of the edges off, you’re getting rid of the more extreme character and retaining a more useable final image. Another great option is shooting with the cheaper FX30 and using the APS-C crop to your advantage and essentially doing the same thing. The real mojo with the FX30 is going external though and recording RAW 4.7K (16:9) 4672 x 2628 mode. This slight bump in quality helps negate the crop in post and is a really good image.

Sounds like you don’t want to shoot with an external recorder? If you’re that concerned about camera size building out a 5” monitor/recorder you might need to give up something. And again, I think if you’re talking about anamorphic shooting you need to really focus on other aspects of the image and not obsess over things like highlight roll off. Namely the ease and quality of anamorphic friendly modes on any particular camera. Sony has no open gate or anamorphic modes so you are forced to use a 1.33x lens to achieve the proper final aspect ratio. You won’t have very much anamorphic character, bokeh or distortion but you will retain the maximum resolution. What most people do is use the 1.5x aivascope or other 1.5x lens to achieve a super wide desqueezed image and then crop off a huge are of the sides to get the proper scope aspect ratio. For something like the FX3 it’s useable and I’ve seen good results but it is not ideal. The 10mp 3840x2160 image on the FX3 is already cropped in from the full height sensor and then you’re going to crop in again to loose even more resolution by chopping off the sides in post. in late 2024 my money for anamorphic is on the LUMIX S5iix and the Fuji X-H2s. Both start out with a 6k open gate image which gives you a huge 9k-10k desqueezed image and when you resize down to your final deliverable format you’re really gaining some mojo. Heck, even the Older S1H and S1R are going to be better for anamorphic and image mojo and you’re going to be out of pocket $1,300 US or less compared to more than double the price of a Sony.

all of these cameras look like shit with their stock r709 luts applied, just slightly differently. trying to shoot anamorphic without an external monitor seems insane to me

There is no way to turn down internal sharpening on Sony where as with Panasonic you can dial it down quite a bit and then mess with it later in post if so desired. Gerald Undone talks about this quite a bit as one of his main requests from Sony even on the higher end cameras like the A1. It could be a good thing or a bad thing just depends what you shoot and who it’s for. I like the more filmic image out of LUMIX for an easier color grade and have found it very time consuming to deal with the latest Sony cameras the last several years. Mostly skin tones and faces are troublesome with the exception of the more recent A1 and ZV-E1 which somehow have been less green and more neutral

Well panasonic seems to treat highlights desaturated (more like film), while canon and sony seem to saturate the highlights a lot more. And clients seem to prefer the saturated look these days. Especially when shooting golden hour there is a big difference, while panasonic looks bland/neutral in comparison to sony/canon. I think the look clients want has evolved more to the sony/canon look straight out camera instead.

Agree on all points. You really can't beat it currently for features and price. I've even found a company that will put in OLPF filters in the S5ii and other cameras and am wondering if that might bring back some of the mojo some people are saying they really miss from the S1h vs newer S models...

I’ve limited experience of shooting Sony for video, but based on the specs alone, without real pro level grading as in folks that do that and only that for a living…and considering the value aspect, the S5ii is crazy good. It’s got open gate 6k, anamorphic de-squeeze, the best IBIS in full frame and while many say the image is not quite as good as that of the OG S5 or the S1H, I’d say there is so little in it, it’s not a consideration and something only noticeable if shot side by side with everything identical. And then pixel-peeped etc. Will there be that S2H? Maybe, if so, bonus but if someone can’t make an S5ii work for them, it probably isn’t the tool’s fault.

You’re going in the wrong direction for everything you’re asking about. Sony is the image with no mojo and the clean clinical look. Very old sensor in all the cameras you mention and poor color science with green cast on faces. ZVe1 is fun and a good bargain and that’s a camera that has slightly improved color as well as many of the FX3 features for half the price. However anamorphic is not the strong suit and you’re going to throw away a lot of the resolution by cropping in on ultra wide image sides in post since there is no open gate settings. I’ve seen some nice results with the FX3 and Aivascope as well as the FX30 with Blazar lenses but you’re limited to 1.5x max so do some research. In my opinion you’re better off with Panasonic for these things or waiting for some new models from someone else. A7siii especially. Overpriced for its specs and poor color performance in late 2024. If the S1H 2 ever comes out it sounds like it will be a good choice for you.

It's weird u feel no mojo for Panasonic colour, I was dropping my mouth when I edit footage from GH6 to my Canon and I was like I actually prefer Panasonic colour more. I was rocking with FX3, FX30 and E1 earlier this year, but all sold and only just got E10II recently cause it was cheap, back to mostly Canon now but still thinking of getting Panasonic in the future I guess if u stick with one brand all these u might try other stuff to see if glass was greener on other side, I was on R5 all those years but last year decide to give Sony a try again being A7iii was my last Sony.

No desqueeze and no ibis specific support for anamorphic for s3 and e1, Fx3 got anamorphic desqueeze (2.0x and 1.3x) since ver 2.0, Sony's ibis is weak anyway so that one doesn't matter. And no opengate for all those Sony.

Agreed that it seems this will be the last round of IMX410-sensored cameras, in a year or two the rolling shutter and framerate performance will just be so far behind the competition that it seems it wouldn't be worth it. Maybe on some super-budget model. BMCC6K and Pyxis have an OLPF don't they? That was the only tempting aspect of those cams for me. When the S5ii/X was teased I hoped that they would have figured out a way to get a FF 60fps, >1080p mode out of the IMX410. We know it can't do 4K/UHD at 60p but I think a 2.5K or 2.8K or 3K mode would have made the camera much more competitive, even if it had to use some binning and wasn't absolutely pristine quality. I wouldn't expect any of the other Japanese companies to consider this as it would be a "weird" resolution, but Panasonic already does open gate, 5.8K, 6K, etc so I don't think they'd have any of those reservations. Hopefully they did try and it's just a hardware restriction.

Last week I shot two ice hockey matches and a horse endurance race. Shot mostly 8k 25 and 50 RAW and some 10bit 2k 200fps. I did not have any issue with black/green screen, but I never had it in RAW. As I film the hockey matches in the same arena so same lighting and similar situations, I can confirm that AF is better than R5 and R5c and the image quality too, it is less noisy, and I find it easier to expose. The AWB I feel the R5c is better but as I mostly shot RAW it does not really matter. I'm exposing the highlight to just barely pass the last top row of the WFM and it seems to be working well in most of my scenarios. Now Canon please add a button to show and hide WFM!! Battery life in 8k 25 is about the same as the R5 and much better than the R5c. At 8k 50 I shoot around 30 min of footage with the camera on, continuously AF and IS (no standby) for around 1.5h with 1 battery and still had juice left. In 8k 50 it will eventually overheat, for the endurance race (under the sun at 25c) I did longer takes like 5-10 min each and the overheating warning was at 2 out 10. Is the only occurrence so far that the warning came out but most of my takes are below 5 min. I got scared because a couple of times the brightness of the EVF did change while shooting, the recorded video was normal with no brightness change, then I realized that I did disable auto brightness of the LCD but not for the EVF.... rookie mistake. I did a quick test at 14mm and the IBIS wobbling is much improved over the R5, where it was not usable imo... I need to do some more tests as I did only by standing still and panning (fast and slow) but no walking/running yet. I'm starting to consider replacing my beloved R5c with a second R5 II, for my usage the only two things that I would really miss from the R5c on the R5 II are: peaking during AF (less needed as the R5 II AF is better) and no overheating. The biggest improvement over the R5c is AF, battery life, DR (noise, highlights and easy to expose), 2k 240fps, c1-c3, IBIS (although I'm sure there will be occurrences that I wish it did have full locked system)