Andrew Reid

Of course if you're a professional camera tester you'd think it's just dust, easy mistake to make!

Canon price increases on all products coming within 2 weeks. https://www.canonrumors.com/price-increases-coming-from-canon-usa/ This will have a ripple effect too, on second hand prices globally. It might finally be time to stop buying shit.

The going rate for an a7R V in mint condition used is currently £2500 which is quite tempting.

Did you open it yet?

Granted, hilarious as all the job losses and the rise of a fascist dictatorship in the West is, we must remind ourselves to buy local because it'll be local businesses that die first in all this buffoonery. For example, the niche smaller camera shops in America which import from Asia. Smaller Chinese manufacturers that make niche products like camera cages and rigs. And so on. It'll be good for the climate though won't it?

I can only assume MPB must have now seen this thread, because they have given me nothing but radio silence on all channels since a week ago. The CEO himself Matt Baker, has now ignored 3 emails after starting off all chipper. A Sony RX1R which was described as having a bit of dust on the sensor (easy to disassemble and clean, I have done it before with one), turned out to have a laser damaged sensor with a string of damaged pixels. So if you do purchase from MPB make sure you are luckier than I have been.

A sign of things to come for those outside the US. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce82391x2kyo Sony raising PS5 prices in double digit percentages. This is all to protect the ailing US market and... Just because they can. Because when there's an expectation all your rivals will have to raise prices as well due to a global force, and they all go up together that means they can get away with it as there's no cheaper competition keeping them in check. It's like a cartel, or a monopoly. Trump is the shit that just won't flush.

Yes this week.

Did you happen to receive an A7S III with faulty bluetooth for just over a grand? And a Leica Q? Maybe it will turn up in about 3 months speaking french?!

New set of pre-order cancellations for the US. https://www.fujirumors.com/fujifilm-to-suspend-orders-for-gfx100rf-x100vi-and-x-m5-black-only/ Many more to come.

Whilst watching YouTube with my popcorn last night the thought did occur that Blackmagic probably can't exactly upend their manufacturing over night and move stuff to other countries on a whim, let alone Sony... and given how unstable the Fascist Regime of American Trade (FRAT) policies are, it would probably be a pretty silly business decision anyway to make any decision at all based at a time like this based on the real life Apprentice USA episodes airing daily that can come up with real laws that are either permanent or about as long-lived as a non-chlorinated Liz Truss lettuce. Even the FRAT cabinet itself is almost as unstable as the economic circumstances they've created, with Elon probably on his way out in a similar manner to this...

I'll believe it when I see it 😉

Who will take America's place on the global stage. Clue... It won't be Belgium.

He is a liability. The tariffs could be back at any moment, he's giving the market a jump scare like he's in Scream 3. Which means if you are China or Japan with trillions invested in the US and in dollars, you are likely to start selling and putting the money somewhere else. Personally I am hoping they give it to me.

In the testing process we discovered some interesting special sauce, hence I have held off on the release to go through that as well... but this week it will be out along with some of the extras too. Get your ALEXA LUTs ready 🙂

China holds nearly $1 trillion in US debt and could tank the bond market if they wanted to. Indeed, they now might. I wonder if Drump and his cronies even realised this basic economic fact before deciding on their trade war bullying move. Or maybe it's a mistake to believe they even care about the country... And it's all about enriching themselves personally with some stock market manipulation. Either way things could be about to get very nasty for the world economy. Buy a camera now before the new prices hit.

And the centre-left parties are letting it spread and enabling it. A lot of people are stupid, but a lot of them just feel that the traditional career politicians don't speak for them. Then we have 4 or 5 years of this or that liberal party in power and nothing changes. Where is Kamala Harris now? How do you lose to a fucking convicted felon? How useless do you have to be? The democrats are now holding little signs up in congress! What is that achieving? You can't play diplomacy games with a fascist thug. It's one of the reasons Putin is so powerful, he had half of them round his little finger, whilst Russian influence & money was deeply embedded in western society. The only way you remove a fascist dictator or a mafia from power is violence. The US might be about to find that out at the next election. In the meantime, this China trade-war is really ramping up towards a possible armed conflict, and not a lot of Trump voters realise the seriousness of what he's started.

Very good point about services. So when Dump talks about terrible trade deficits with certain countries, did he forget about Amazon Web Services, Apple App Store, Netflix, VISA, Master Card and Cloudflare? More to the point.. does he even know what they are? 🙂 Best way to fight fire with fire is for the rest of the world to kick out VISA and to sell all their reserve currency (USD) Then the Americans would come grovelling to us instead of the other way round.

We are not talking about pork sausages though are we? This is a topic about tariffs on cameras and cutting edge electronics. So why mention it? Your argument doesn't fit here, and I don't know what the point of it is. So back on topic... The US is a third of the global market for consumer electronics and professional cameras, and actually much more than a third for certain products and companies. If this market was to vanish behind a nationalist, protectionist trade barrier then it won't matter how much you bang on about buying local, the country's economy and jobs will go through a catastrophic breakdown as the Americans are about to find out.

Buying local, if it means the complete destruction of the economy of China, Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand will not be a good thing for the planet. It'll lead to WW3 and possibly even nuclear war. The uncultured twits in the white house don't understand this but often in history whenever you have a great depression, it leads to a military confrontation. Trade is what binds us together and prevents a lot of fighting. People should buy local as well as support jobs in Asia. Buy as much as you can, it keeps the economy going. The alternative is not worth thinking about. In terms of the environment, there are a certain number of people on the planet - they are not going away. The damage has already been done. For the world's population to have any sort of quality of life they need to consume, eat well, have jobs, shelter, transport. That should not come at the cost of the environment, but it does. Impossible situation. Technology can help but I think we're past the point of no return anyway. I want to buy Asian made goods, like cameras, lenses, computers, audio gear, and until it is made down the road in a small village in the same quantities for the same price, which will never happen, I will continue to want less trade barriers between countries.

Yeah, it's all quite obvious to us but apparently not to Trump voters, who only know the goal is to promote American manufacturing but don't understand the reality. The reality is that American manufacturing even when it's on US soil requires suppliers across borders, and all over the world. Raw materials that cannot be sourced in the US. Trading partners with cheaper labour - Mexico, Vietnam, China... And supply chains in Canada just across the border for automotive manufacturing and more... So even when you have dismantled all of this, aside from the fact US manufacturing will collapse if you do, there's the clear-as-day problem of wage levels... It just isn't economical to make large volume electronics (or much else consumer-wise) in the US due to the average wage level vs places like China and Vietnam. Foxconn employ a city's worth of millions. It's the big elephant in the room every time Trump bangs on about protecting American jobs and bringing manufacturing back home. What is the cost to the consumer? If he succeeds then consumers won't be buying much as it will be 1000% more expensive. Yeah, can you imagine TSMC bringing their fabs over to the US... The world's most expensive relocation for what... zero political stability, massively higher wage bill, there isn't even the talent pool for stuff like semiconductor engineering - it's mainly in Asia. They will not convince their best people to leave Taiwan and go and live in a hostile environment for foreigners (sad to say that about the US, isn't it?) And the other problem is that the US government, in particular Trump himself are making themselves look TOTALLY economically illiterate and completely untrustworthy in terms of managing the US economy, which scares off the investment even more. He wants maximum leverage for the upcoming talks with 50-odd countries. The danger here is that the damage has already been done. US untrustworthy. Global supply chains and shipping disrupted in similar manner as COVID. Inflation and supply problems beginning to mount up big style in only a short few days. Trillions wiped off stocks. And more shit... All for a supposably 'better bargaining position' in trade-talks. Then there's still the chance that they will just end up fighting with China rather than striking a deal and the trade-war rumbles on for years, leading to a military confrontation and devastating unemployment and poverty all over the world, but especially in the US and China. All because of one idiot and the idiots who thought voting for a convicted economically illiterate crook was a good idea.

Apparently all camera pre-orders in the US will be cancelled in the coming days, most already have. Due to the tariffs, retailers can't predict the unit cost when an item actually ships from Asia. So they can't honour any of the pre-orders. Millions of $ wiped off retailers books. Hundreds of lost customers. And this is the same for everything... cameras, graphics cards, games consoles, Nintendo Switch 2. Nobody has any idea of what the actual price will be from one week to the next. Currently imports are stacking up at the ports. Cars stuck on ships. I feel sorry for those in the US who didn't vote for this. You are in for a shocking time.

They had the chance to prevent WW2 but wimped out of it. Similarly MPB have the chance to prevent WW2 with me but continue to perform a cover-up on the a7s III situation. The order was simply nerfed. It's vanished.

It's full 6K readout in full frame 4K innit? SD UHS II is fine for 4K H.265. Even at 50Mbit it looks nice. This is a Nikon Df basically with the new flexible colour profiles. My Z8 is made in Thailand by the way so if this is the same, price could be +36% +20% after import to US. Which makes a used Nikon Df a much better option there.