Andrew Reid

I tried that phone, it's really good... Redmagic 8S Pro? These things are doing ProRes and 6K RAW video now and of course no overheating. However they have much smaller sensors vs a mirrorless cam. Which makes me think it is the sensor that gets too hot in something like the A6700, or that they are using an inefficient old LSI to cut costs... Or it is both. Either way, it ain't cricket is it?

It's being hoovered up by Meta and X. Facebook Groups especially. Most of the content on the internet is now on just a few major social media networks. Smartphones are partly responsible as a desktop website doesn't work as well as an app on a small screen without a keyboard. Yes definitely a shift to video informercials. The enjoyment they get out of cars and hifi is huge. But a car without a road and hifi without music isn't very much fun. With cameras it's the same, they are only fulfilling when you have something worthwhile to shoot, or at least the expectation of something in the future, other than just testing, but unfortunately there is less stuff worthwhile to shoot around at the moment. Fewer actors, writers, communities of artists, and less beauty in the world full stop. Yeah a lot of the leading pros have withdrawn back into their careers and don't give as much input into the community. When it was an emerging area they were all over it, but I guess the use (and knowledge) they can get out of us peaked a long time ago. Yeah this is a good point, have noticed that. This comes with the hyper-subjective and ultra-personal perspective of most people today rather than being part of a collective and objective whole. Each person has their atomised 'version' of the truth. Very relevant thoughts. I feel the same way. Hopefully things take a turn for the better soon and people go back to being more productive and spend less time on their phones.

Of course the buck stops with the studios, but the unions also have a responsibility to the wider ecosystem of the film industry, because without them, there is no industry. As far as I can see they didn't even consult with the non-union freelancers, they just went and did their own thing and put them out of work. The polite thing to do, surely, would to be to at least consult them and support them financially during the strike. But of course, the knock on effect of it is so huge, the financial support would have to be unfeasibly big. The studios know this of course, which is why the strike will fail. The studios know they can't afford to have it go on for very long. Someone has made a very large strategic error, and it ain't Netflix.

Filmmaking is an art form. In the realm of creativity, people often crave the authenticity that only real humans can provide. This is why blockbusters often enlist well-known actors to generate interest and why, despite our daily reliance on them, our personal computers don't make headlines in gossip columns. https://www.eoshd.com/news/dont-panic-about-ai-its-just-a-tool/

“Today we lost our jobs for you” https://www.eoshd.com/news/film-support-crews-hit-out-at-sag-strike/ The strike is only ok for those who can afford it!

A new blog post: https://www.eoshd.com/news/oppenheimer-why-christopher-nolan-uses-a-flip-phone/ It is interesting that the same technology that enables modern life, also at the same time destroys us.

Panasonic GH2, 2023 edition Very nice.

The 8K is really quite surprising isn't it? Usually in such a stills orientated camera, this small, they don't push the video spec to the maximum. I doubt it will do long record times, but hopefully it will be unshackled from 30p-only and do 24p this time with a decent codec. Any mention of L-LOG? Sigma should definitely get in on the premium full frame compact market. The Leica 28mm has a lovely look but it relies on a lot of digital correction. The "optical masterpiece" is pretty terribly optically. Sigma can give us a small 35mm F1.4 full frame compact for half the price.

Very mixed. I am not dependant on ads and never have been so that side makes no difference to me, but there is definitely a shift to YouTube and social media. People aren't researching Google or reading long articles as much as before. YouTube is a grind and I have mixed feelings about that too. I enjoy it when I have some ideas. But the thought of being on a treadmill of content is horrific. Don't post for a week and you may as well be dead. On the other hand, EOSHD is great, having your own site independent from the algorithms of social media and YouTube is much more relaxed and I can do what I like, post what I want, when I want. And then there is this lovely forum, which is pretty unique. Never was close to the PR side of the camera industry and rejected a lot of advances. The site is not in a better position to cuddle up to the manufacturers, they are putting their free loans and exclusive invitations behind social media influencers instead now. Bloggers with articles are the previous gen of social media influencers. Now it is clowns and show offs on social media. They are perfect for one another and I don't want to be involved to be honest. I am looking to the future now and that is keeping EOSHD updated, at the same time as moving onto two new sites: Full Frame AI (making most of AI for photographers) and Ultra Camera Review (smartphone cameras and apps) There is much more future development in these areas than in mirrorless cameras, or filmmaking. Video on stills camera has kind of been "done" hasn't it?

There isn't one reason for the decline in websites like DPR and IR, but clearly the ad money has shifted to TikTok and YouTube social media influencers, and away from written articles so that is a big reason. The jazz media company that bought the magazine company that Dave sold IR to back in 2019, saw no worthwhile profit in IR's books. Not only are these sites predominantly about written articles, they are about a subject that is fast turning into a niche. Smartphone cameras are mainstream as we all know, and that means proper cameras are now about as mainstream as cassette tapes. I think AI will accelerate this retreat even further. The other general trend is that both DPR and IR were not ideal from a content point of view, it was often like reading advertising copy, as is the case with so much in the camera world in 2023. There is a lack of drama, a lack of true insight, it has all become a bit dry. The camera companies should be really worried about these two canaries in a coal mine and they won't be the last to die. It points to the fact that the camera industry should probably do something to stop the rot and support the remaining sites. Sadly they won't.

I'd rather they DIDN'T turn the A7S III into a ZV-E1 Nearly all the new features are a dumb bag of shite designed to help people with no effort to make better vlogs! What do you want from the ZV-E1 that isn't in the A7S III that you really need? As for the reason behind a lack of firmware updates, it's because the A7S III is still selling well and is already feature-packed... so it doesn't matter what Gerald says really, if it is selling well, they don't need to change it. They'd just give me a PR line and mention the firmware updates they have done, like the a1 10bit 422. I agree with you Sony is lazy when it comes to nice firmware updates vs the others, but the best option is to sell the camera and buy a Panasonic or a Fuji if you are unhappy with it. Best way to get Sony to change. On the other hand I do think the A7S III is hardly lacking in features?

Where's the chart from? Is it Gerald?

Speculative, but wonder if Blackmagic reserves a higher quality proprietary BRAW debayer for their own cameras, and uses a less advanced method for everyone else? I am curious to see how the S5 II is for moire vs the A7 IV, Nikon Z9, and the X-H2. The S1H internal recording in 6K is really nice and OLPF great to have. It's one of those camera that's just absolutely great straight out the box bare bones. Just be careful updating firmware as when I went from V1.0 on my S1H loan unit from Panasonic to 2.5 it bricked it!

What REALLY happened to DPReview?

Wunderbar.

It might not be the right target group for those uninterested in video here. Photo Camera Review on the other hand... https://www.photocamerareview.com 🙂

It just has to be kept to a realistic level of operations. Why does DPReview for example need to be based in Seattle with such expensive real estate and offices, not to mention massively inflated salaries! It would be better of with an HQ in Manchester or Berlin, and a modest office with 5 or 6 very talented employees. Also a big cost for DPR is all the custom software engineering that powers the site and forum. That doesn't make much sense, you can use off the shelf solutions that are far better than their custom forum software anyway. At the end of the day I don't think Amazon gave it much thought. They are cutting very deeply into non-core stuff and lumping things in together. They don't consider it important enough to even sell it. This is all about making 18,000 people redundant and saving money in a recession, after they hired too eagerly during covid. Those mega bucks profit at the height of human suffering during lockdowns did not go into a bank to be saved for a rainy day at any of these corporations. It's all been spent and a lot of it has gone into the pockets of shareholders! So they have nothing to get them through a rainy day. Also rockets are fucking expensive.

Well the A7S III has been out a while now hasn't it? Is it 3 years? Crazy. So they're not exactly putting the latest tech in it. You can get a used A7S III for around $3K too don't forget, although $2500 for this new is a very decent deal if it turns out to be ergonomically well designed and with some new advances. A7S IV I am sure will be 8K not 6K. The current sensor in the A7S3 is already actually a quad bayer, I think it is 48 megapixels binning to 12. They'll probably use the same sensor! Just open up the 8K mode and keep the 12 megapixel as a 4K mode / low light mode. They could also do a HDR trick with quad bayer. As is already present on smartphones with quad bayer sensors.

Sure it's early days, N-RAW might get better software support as we go along... H.265 certainly did. I don't think it does 14bit RAW in video, it'll be 12bit to achieve the higher frame rates especially above 30p.

Sounds like it'll sit between the A7C and FX3. Probably the A7C form factor but no EVF? Not expecting a mechanical shutter. I reckon they will go all electronic like Sigma Fp and FX30. Would prefer if they give it a similar body and ergonomics to FX3 and FX30, but it being more a ZV range vlogging camera I expect it to be more of a rebadged A7C with the A7S III sensor.

Yeah, I remember DC Resource too. Steve's Digicams in the early days was right up there with DPReview for prominence and usefulness! Have we gone forwards or backwards by replacing all these great web resources with social media influencers? I think we know the answer.

My Leica M-P 240 got sold last month due to needing the money to keep EOSHD afloat and new gear coming in. Was sad to let it go but need to sell a LOT of my inventory to keep the wolf from the door at the moment. However before I let it go, made sure to do one last shoot with it, alongside my Canon 1D C and Leica M9. As far as colour science goes, I rate the 240, M9 and 1D C right at the top of the tree. The M9 has a special look with CCD but 1D C and the 240 are very very close, and much better in low light. It got me thinking, what other cameras like the 1D C better known for video, are actually really really good stills cameras? Panasonic G9 springs to mind with the amazing EVF and very responsive performance, fast bursts, all-round very big feature set for stills. E-M1 X I think is also underrated, it feels lovely in the hand, controls are fantastic, every bit the pro Micro Four Thirds camera it set out to be. Olympus colour science and white balance always nails the look you're after. But I think the Panasonic S1H takes the prize. It's better than a Leica SL2-S. Better battery life, better screen, more features. The main strengths for stills are the best EVF on the market, even better than the S1R and GFX 100. It's enormous and 5.76m dots! AF is absolutely fine for stills in S-AF mode, decent light, native lens. It's very fast and reliable. Sure it's rubbish with Canon EF adapter and in 24fps video mode but don't mind manual focus with Leica M lenses on it - much nicer, and less heavy. Dual native ISO full frame sensor, absolutely rocks in low light. 6K / 24 megapixel is enough resolution for me and makes for much faster performance, more responsive, smaller file sizes when shooting a lot of stills. It also has XPAN style wide aspect ratio settings, one of my favourite shooting styles so you can accurately compose in these modes, looks fantastic in black and white. Picture styles even have a film grain setting. Built quality is amazing, the huge top panel LCD great for checking settings at a glance whilst leaving the back screen completely free of clutter. Shutter mechanism feels so premium, better than Leica. What's more it cost me £1800. And that's before you even factor in the FX6 level video camera thrown in for free 🙂

Nice, didn't realise you could narrow Google down to certain URLs within a domain like that. Very useful to know 👏 👏 👏

He backs his humour up with proper real world information that's why, he shows the differences, he uses the gear, he actually shoots even if its squirrels!

Amazon told them in January, some left the very next week and got a new job. During these last 3 months, it appears absolutely nobody in charge has made an effort to save the site or kick up a fuss, let alone sell what is a very valuable asset for certain other companies. It's ridiculous that Amazon isn't considering a sale. Jeff must be a bigger loser than even I imagine him to be. Although not quite as big an idiot as that guy who wasted $44bn on Twitter, the likes of which can't seem to find even .00001% of that amount to preserve 25 years of photographic gear culture.