Andrew Reid

Might sell them my 1D C first.

This was the answer when I asked again after training it! 🙂 It is interesting in that it won't write a naughty poem about Trump, but it will write all this about me. Some "fine tuning" needed?!!

Clearly overhyped, but with strong long term potential to destroy the planet, AI natural language chatbots have taken 2023 by storm. I admit, it's an entertaining spectacle. They're fantastic at certain things and it's nice to see a new type of tool born, but I can't help feeling it is capable of wildly fantasying about things that never happened. I also think there is no way a large company like Microsoft or Google will truly let this technology off the hook and it will be incredibly heavily censored. This means first prize in AI will go to a startup and you better sell your Google shares right now. But should you trust it? EOSHD sets out to find out, by putting it through a camera nerd exam. https://www.eoshd.com/news/hows-ais-camera-knowledge-unhinged-chatgpt-stalks-eoshd-and-makes-up-controversies (It doesn't go well)

Quite the eye opener 🙂

That is because ProRes 422 HQ in LOG looks just as nice, with smaller file? ProRes on the Nikon Z9 is my next thing to test... Would be interesting if that comes out better than N-RAW wouldn't it!

True, true.

Will do, I might reshoot the Sigma Fp-L in 12bit first to give it a fair crack of the whip against the more expensive bros.

You could say it's a bit of a dogs breakfast?

500Mbit in HEVC is like having 1000Mbit in H.264, so that A6500 (which I still have btw) was 100Mbit and still stood up well, so the a1 truly has some thick files going on. X-H2 ProRes would be an interesting comparison. I love the idea of RAW but it never seems to compel me to use it that much. Sigma Fp-L 12bit needs a test though...as does the 5D3 Magic Lantern as that truly was proper RAW!

It is time for a good old fashioned EOSHD article. Everything you’ve seen so far on YouTube is meaningless - yes it is. Check out a new novelty on the web... with my WRITTEN BLOG POST! https://www.eoshd.com/news/is-n-raw-real-raw-nikon-z9-under-the-spotlight-at-eoshd

This is a good article and really spells out what's at stake https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-chatbots-chatgpt-google-bard-microsoft-bing-break-internet-search-2023-2 How on earth will independent blogs, magazines, review sites, forums and pretty much everyone else get noticed in an era of ChatGPT taking over from traditional web search? It's the beginning of the end for user generated content outside of social media platforms. Very sad indeed.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/09/google-ai-chatbot-bard-error-sends-shares-plummeting-in-battle-with-microsoft Google off to a bad start.

Well, EF on E-mount is good. On L-mount it didn't make sense until they sorted out phase-detect AF with the S5 II, now it does. On Nikon Z the Finger EF adapter works great. On Fuji the same but all the good EF lenses are designed for full frame and there are better, smaller, cheaper choices for APS-C. I really think the days of EF are numbered now there's so much mirrorless glass. It's just that RF is a very closed mount, no Sigma, no Tamron, you are stuck with what Canon says and does. For example on the EOS R3, even at that level it is crippled with non Canon-branded lenses. The IBIS stops working properly. So if I were to commit to a mirrorless mount it would be Sony E, followed by L-mount. Sony E I can use on Nikon Z as well. I found myself using my Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 E-mount lens so much more than the Canon EF 24-70mm F2.8 recently. It's just better.

Tech starts off as a toolset and morphs into an all consuming culture. Much of the way we live our lives today is shaped by technology. A simple tool for convenience is how it gets a foothold and then before you know it... plenty of unintended consequences. When the internet was merely a tool for example, before social media, it didn't have as large impact on culture, politics and people's social lives. It was ticking along as a knowledge-base, a store front and a source of entertainment quite nicely. Then suddenly you have people working from home, socialising from home, and when they do venture outside, they are staring at their phone constantly. Here's how I think AI will develop. Step one, is the complete obliteration of Google, they are the next Blackberry. That's not to say they won't have skin in the game, but you can be sure (as ChatGPT is showing) that as the "establishment" they will always be a step behind the cutting edge like Nokia vs Apple. Google can't even get their established products working well. Search is a total mess. YouTube isn't fulfilling full potential, and their smartphone business is a bit player even after all this time. Step two, is widespread unemployment. Companies simply won't need as many staff any more. Some jobs will be entirely obsolete. Going to be fun! Step three is where it takes a physical form. Starting with the very rich, they will be able to train a physical form of AI to go out and simply do their job for them whist they sit at home drinking gin. Step four is the complete replacement of all human beings.

So a bit better than shit then. Thumbs up!

Yes but the R6 image vs 1DX3 there is no comparison. 1D X Mark III just stomps all over it. Especially with the internal 5.5K RAW. Do we actually know if the R6 II and R8 are the same image quality wise just because they have a similar sensor? There's a lot more to it than that. It's not one of Canon's flagship sensors. That would be R3 and R5 sensors. The R6 II sensor is a mid-range chip, and only just catching up with the Sony A7 III sensor from 2018!

Sales make no difference to your use of the camera, unless in the case of the NX it gets discontinued of course, but that's rare. You shouldn't concern yourself with what other people are buying in large numbers! Just pick what's right for you. Actually it is an advantage to choose something different to the masses as you then have a tool and image that stands out. NX1 still stands up well today but Samsung had bigger fish to fry with their smartphone cameras. They felt the mirrorless camera market just wasn't big enough, taken as a whole, not enough growth potential compared to smartphones. I have to say they were right. It is a bit like Exxonmobil deciding to quit gasoline and going into olive oil instead. It isn't at all though is it. It doesn't have IBIS. It has pound shop ergonomics. It probably won't even let you shoot video in the PSAM modes like R6. It has a tiny battery and silly single card slot you can't get at when it's rigged up or on a tripod! The EVF is probably the size of a pinhead and the codec bitrates are probably crippled with mud. Add to that the not inconsiderable price difference between £1699 + £1699 again for a lens, and compare that to a beautiful vintage Contax Zeiss on a second hand Panasonic S1 for £1000, and you must really have to prioritise autofocus over literally everything else artistic to get an R8 instead! EF is on the way out now, it's been a good run. I can use my Sigma E-mount lenses on both Sony and Nikon cameras. Sony A1 and Nikon Z9 way to go for me. Absolutely zero appeal in the R8 even as a curiosity or a second (20th?) body. Whereas X-H2 gives me 8K ProRes!

The Fp has absolutely no competition when it comes to size and the ergonomics are well thought out. Build quality is very solid. It feels and looks like a professional tool. Can you really say the back of the R8 looks anything like a near $2000 tool in 2023? Looks like the controls you'd find on a $200 compact. 4K/60p 15ms rolling shutter with good AF does not a great film make. It will not make you into Spielberg. Taken as an all-round package it just isn't very exciting as, say the X-H2 is. The X-H2 is a proper pro and enthusiast camera with cutting edge specs. This is an upgrade for all those Instagram click weasels still holding onto the their entry level DSLRs.

Sales have never really been a very good indicator of quality. When GH2 was out everyone was buying a DSLR or 70D for video instead. Fact is RF lenses are very shit indeed. Massively overpriced, massive, huge, enormous, and build quality varies from office inkjet cartridge to office photocopier machine if you're lucky. Give me Sigma L-mount or E-mount lenses over RF any day!

It exists mainly as an upgrade path into more expensive lenses for EOS R7 APS-C users. So a full frame R7 basically. You really have to want to invest in the RF full frame lenses to make the most of it. Therefore the price of £1699 is a bit of a misnomer. Pretty much any 4K FF camera from last 5 years currently over £1000 on eBay would be better choice for manual focus glass... Pana S1, S5, Nikon Z6, Sony A7 III, A7C, Sigma Fp, etc.

I could never dumb myself down to an Rp style body again, especially not for $1700 when stuff like X-H2 or S5 II exists. The ergonomics are like a compact camera from 20 years ago. The devil is in the detail when it comes to what they have taken out. Like aperture priority mode in video mode and stuff like that. Look at how much Panasonic are packing into the S5 II by comparison. Would much rather fish for a lightly used "as-new" S5 II on eBay for same price as a new R8!

Fuji X-H2 Panasonic S5 II.

So Google search might be going away, along with our URLS. Read my thoughts on it here: https://www.eoshd.com/news/the-ai-chatgpt-future-of-search-theft-of-the-century

Don't upset the ChatGPT bots I am currently negotiating with one to write the next 100 blog posts for free 🙂

The stuff that bothers me about current online content, I could write a 10,000 page book about it... Camera tests (the ones that grab the most views that is) have become completely meaningless. They're just about undisclosed variables. Everything looks more or less the same and if there's a difference then you can be 99% sure it's due to a random undisclosed variable like somebody grading two LOG formats a bit differently, trying to match but not quite. Tells me nothing about the camera. Any subtly even big differences in texture between uncompressed Cinema DNG and silky smooth H265 just gets completely obliterated on YouTube and most people probably even watching it on a phone! It is like evaluating MP3 vs FLAC through a $10 bluetooth speaker. Completely pointless. The format is all so similar now as well. American YouTube clickweasels who chuck a cheap bit of eye candy in front of the lens and think the results are the definitive verdict on image quality! Manny has a model walking stiffly up to the lens and that is supposed to be definitive verdict on an AF system. Toneh has a pool table in Rec.709 colour profiles and that is supposed to say everything about high ISO performance. Not that simple now there is dual native gain circuits is it? This is where Gerald at least goes further than skin-deep, but it always ends up being a box specs reading or box ticking exercise that doesn't merge the technical data he collects with the creative appropriation of it through the eye of an artist or story-teller. So what REALLY looks best out of the Z9 and A1? All I get out of these videos is... slight colour differences? From different colour profiles? And different grades? Don't even mention what codec and modes they're comparing. Pointless shit. If you fall for this shit, you're enabling those high viewing figures. Wonder if what you're doing is just consumerism, entertainment. Nothing wrong with that. Just don't pretend anything otherwise or pretend it says anything useful about the current differences in camera technology and performance. We need a standard benchmark look for cinema as well to judge the mirrorless cameras by too. Perhaps in a useful camera test there should be an appreciation of the grain and texture of film, the imperfections of it, because everything looking technically perfect and clean is not really doing it for me.