IronFilm

It doesn't. It's cheaper building it back up. It's a genuine price cut. Plus the fact people can exclude the stuff they don't need from their ARRI purchase (then renting it later on, or buying it outright, if a need pops up later on), does indeed significantly drop down the entry price cost for a lot of people. Nikon was the first ever to make a popular zoom lens, it's not their fault that other companies decided to ignore this and go away in their own directions.

Now it's PYXIS' turn to see a big price discount, it's $500 cheaper than normal: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1823584-REG/blackmagic_design_blpyxis6kbc_pyxis_6k_cinema_box.html $2,495.00 (Offer ends Feb 21 at 5:59 PM GMT+13) That's enough saved money to buy the new monitor for the PYXIS, and still have a hundred bucks left over: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1853124-REG/blackmagic_design_cineursabb_am_pyxis_monitor.html

I want BMD to release the Pocket 6K with an L Mount option, rather than only having it in EF

Strange, why not just call it MFT sized? I guess they don't wish to give any extra attention to the MFT system....

It's this: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1280873-REG/sony_selp18110g_e_mount_lens.html It's a cine lens design spin on their much much much cheaper Sony 18-105mm F4 photography lens (one I've had for years and years, a great run and gun lens): https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1001011-REG/sony_selp18105g_18_105mm_f_4_g_lens.html Kinda wish I had this lens for my Fujfilm camera, maybe the Tamron 17-70mm f/2.8 is what I should give into temptation and get instead. Slightly more expensive, very slightly wider, somewhat less range, but a full stop faster. I'd imagine Komodo users will be happy to simply get moderately good enough AF for simple sit down interviews. Means they won't have to: 1) rent an FX6/FX9 instead 2) or pay for a 1st AC for the day 3) or pull it themselves and have to divide focus (ha!) between being in focus vs camera operating vs directing vs lighting vs audio vs etc everything else they do when doing a simple OMB sit down interview It's been normal for years that RED would do massive price slashes to their cameras as they near their end of their lifecycle (or even early into it!). People should stop getting upset about it. Even ARRI does this now. https://ymcinema.com/2025/01/28/arri-unveils-new-alexa-35-entry-level-model-with-flexible-licensing-and-affordable-media/ That's the expectation/hope. And I would personally be shocked if we don't eventually see RED cameras broadly roughly speaking "matching" Nikon mirrorless performance for video AF. The question is only if it happens this generation or in the next generation. As doing it this generation is severely limited by both the hardware architecture and the software architecture RED has been using. The hardware their current generation RED cameras are using might flat out prevent them from ever matching Nikon mirrorless video AF performance, or even coming vaguely close. But even if it's not a barrier, and it has enough horsepower to do it (and the right kind of horsepower), then the entire software architecture that RED is running on might require a total overhaul from scratch to allow good enough AF performance. And Nikon might feel that's not worth it for a generation of cameras that only has a limited lifespan left, and would rather put all those efforts into instead the next generation of RED cameras, and have an entire new software stack built for them to run. (perhaps sharing something with Nikon mirrorless, for productivity efficiencies) In the long run I expect RED/Nikon to drop support for Canon RF Mount, it might even come as soon as their next generation of camera releases ("DSMC4" or whatever they call it, or Komodo Gen2, or whatever) which then will be only in PL / Z Mount. If I was to take a wild guess, that's what I'd think as well. Keep RED as the "luxury / prestige brand", but put in RED the good stuff from Nikon (such as lenses / AF), and put in Nikon the good stuff from RED (such as redcode raw, and matching color science. Make it super very easy to use a Nikon mirrorless with the RED cine cameras. Such as a person might use a Sony FX30 with a FX9 camera, or a Canon R5C with a C400)

Yeah it's too new to show up secondhand just yet in any sort of quantities. But you can find the Viltrox DC-X3 on Aliexpress and B&H: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1842381-REG/viltrox_dc_x3_6_touchscreen_hd_monitor.html Yup, sometimes there are moments in time when there are leaps forward in tech / affordability, such that it no longer makes sense to buy secondhand. For instance when the OG BMPCC went on sale for $500 it killed any reason whatsoever to buy a secondhand BMCC EF (in my personal opinion). Nope, but I've got a very old OG SmallHD 702 that's given up the ghost, and I would like to replace it. And from the research I've done recently, then the Viltrox DC-X3 seems like the best option right now. The only reasons I haven't pulled the trigger just yet is because: 1) only just recently came to this conclusion from doing the research into it, so still thinking over it, and I'm trying to spend less on gear in 2025. And I don't need need it just yet. Because I can just kinda get away with peeking at the other monitors at video village on a small budget shoot. Plus I have an old SmallHD Focus monitor, but it lacks loop through and lacks SDI 😕 However I have an HDMI to SDI converter. Clunky, but "works". 2) I quite like the 7" size of the 702, and if anything I'd rather go bigger than smaller with the 6" Viltrox DC-X3. However as a smaller level Production Sound Mixer I'm not sure I can truly justify the costs of a 10" SDI monitor. The leap up in price from 6" or 7" to 10" is quite significant, seems my only cheap option would be the Lilliput A11? So I dunno, haven't really decided yet if I'd rather go for the cheaper Viltrox DC-X3 (and better features/quality) vs the bigger and more expensive Lilliput A11. 3) spending money for a new monitor then opens the door to spending even more money... as I go down the slippery slope of "well, now I should upgrade / get more SDI cables?" then "but what about getting an SDI wireless transmitter? Some of these new ones look very tempting..." And before I know it I'm a few thousand dollars into monitors/cables/wireless/batteries/mounting/accessories/etc 4) with how common just casting video over WiFi is these days, maybe I could simply just live with dedicating one of my tablets to only this task and getting a cage for it? (to protect / mount it with) Am not focus pulling with it! So I can "live with" a small delay.

Atomos just released raw support for the OM-3. https://www.newsshooter.com/2025/02/13/atomos-releases-new-firmware-that-offers-expanded-hdmi-raw-support-for-ninja-shogun/

That's what I remember as well, the LX100 sensors had standard size MFT sensors (not the oversized GH2/GH5S "MFT sensors"), but the LX100 lens designs were for slightly smaller than MFT size (thus they were extra compact sized) which made the LX100 sensors "oversized" (allowing for their multi aspect ratio design) relative to the lens being used on them.

Right now, I think the very best camera monitor (if you don't need a recorder) on a low budget is the Viltrox DC-X3 (or DC-X2 if you don't care about SDI), which is super cheap on Aliexpress. I'd take this over anything you mentioned.

Maybe the Sony 18-110mm cine zoom with an E to Z Mount adapter? They do. At least two big factors: 1) there are a tonne of Sony E Mount users, now they can very easily transition over to RED 2) Nikon will bring better AF to RED than Canon ever would have

Given your background and current gear, then the Nikon Z6III is the very obvious choice here. (heck, even going with a cheaper Nikon Z6II / Z6 / Z50II / Z50 would be an ok idea as well if on a tight budget).

The point I was making, is that if a production runs into even merely just thirty minutes of overtime, or/and has a very slight increase to post production costs, then those additional costs to production would totally wipe out any "savings" they might get from renting a cheaper camera than an ARRI/Sony/RED/Varicam. I love this feature as a Boom Op and Sound Mixer!! (nothing to do with an actor entering the frame though, I mean for our purposes) Huge time savings having an ARRI on set vs "random Camera X" that nobody has ever worked with before. A great analogy. (to carry on this analogy: you'd save time using a F1 over a Camry at the race track, but you'd lose time if you used the F1 for a shopping trip. Ditto cameras, it could be "fast" or "slow" to use, depending on the type of set it's being used on) Now excuse me while I go do this week's grocery shopping in a F1....

It's about the overall big picture workflow. If shooting with an ARRI Mini saves even a mere 30 minutes each day and makes post merely just 5% more efficient, then the total cost differences between renting an ARRI Mini vs S5II is totally nonexistent. Well, today in 2025 you can buy an ARRI itself (the old classic edition) for sub $5000! Exactly. Even if we accept 100% (even though it's a very debatable claim indeed) that "Camera X" can look exactly as good as an ARRI, to use "Camera X" instead means you're going to have to spend money (because: time = money) of at least a couple of days for at least half a dozen people (Director/DP/Editor/VFX/PSM/Gaffer/1stAC/2ndAC/etc). Of them running tests, pushing/pulling it to its max, and ensuring compatibility with existing workflows. Even if that's merely $500/day for each person (a very low rate indeed, especially so for an HoD), that's $6K blown on costs at least (am using very conservative guesses here) just so that they can use "Camera X" instead of a mainstream well known choice. Those are utterly trivial costs when you consider the costs to rent the whole camera package across say the three weeks you need it for a low-ish budget film. (I say "low-ish" budget in the sense of say a Hallmark TV Movie of the week type of movie, or even something that costs 10x that. Of course as you move up to mid budget or AAA budget films, then saving a few pennies on camera rentals makes even less sense) Makes no sense at all to spend $6K to try and save money on the camera package, when it only costs six grand ish or so for the entire rental cost (for a three week shooting period) to get an ARRI Mini package (just the body and basic supporting accessories, not counting lens etc) is merely six grand ish! https://www.lensrentals.com/rent/arri-alexa-mini-premium-v-mount-kit-pl Or even less.... for an ARRI AMIRA: https://www.lensrentals.com/rent/arri-amira-premium-kit-pl And of course if you go for say Sony BURANO / RED RANGER Monstro / RED V-RAPTOR / RED DSMC2 GEMINI / Blackmagic Design URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 / etc, then these are still at least somewhat mainstream cameras and will be widely known/understood by others on set while still being even cheaper to rent for the length of the production: https://www.lensrentals.com/rent/sony-burano-8k-digital-motion-picture-camera https://www.lensrentals.com/rent/red-ranger-monstro-8k-vista-vision-starter-kit https://www.lensrentals.com/rent/red-v-raptor-8k-vv-dsmc3-starter-pack-v-mount https://www.lensrentals.com/rent/red-dsmc2-gemini-5k-s35-premium-v-mount-kit https://www.lensrentals.com/rent/blackmagic-design-ursa-mini-pro-4.6k-g2-premium-kit-pl

I guess it depends on the buyer. But yeah, it's a pity there isn't a GX9 mk2, as that would likely be a better fit for covering any gap with that niche

Yup! I went to a meetup last night and to take pictures of the speakers I just simply brought along my compact Fujfilm camera with a Siru 23mm f1.2 on it and a Viltrox 56mm f1.7 slipped into my pocket! So easy to bring along.

I expect it will likely be just the V10 with a MFT-ish sensor inside (maaaaybe APS-C). But there are people holding their breath (I wouldn't) that it will be more like a RX100/X100 type P&S. My most optimistic guess for it would be they'll release a Canon flavored version of the Sony ZV-1F. Won't be as great as the latest RX100/X100 cameras are, but it's certainly a release I'd like to see Canon do.

They're more tweaks / gradual evolution of the same basic underlying sensor though?

That's my excuse too for why I never ever sell anything at all 🤪

I doubt it too. Just if it happened, then I'd know LUMIX MFT is minutes away from being EOL. Aside from the very sad death of MFT that it would mean, I'd love a S9 with an APS-C sensor, then I could use teeny tiny lenses that match the small S9 sized body. Rather not use an APS-C lens on a 24MP FF sensor. 100%! They just need more pancake lenses! Viltrox 28mm f4.5 just released their pancake lens (truly teeny tiny, in fact they call it a "chip" lens not pancake) for Fujifilm, which I'll be getting. Hopefully L Mount is next? Yes, I wouldn't expect a big announcement "WE. ARE. KILLING. MFT." rather the years would just slowly roll by without us ever seeing a GH8 or G9iii until 2030 rolls around and we ask "huh, where is our updated flagship??" Reason number eleventy hundredth and the third as to why Panasonic should release a Panasonic GX950, to give us both an affordable / small body alternative to the flagship cameras and to cash in on the compact / retro hype that the X100 series has been generating.

That's nothing compared to what Leica did by releasing a literal "posh overcoat". https://www.dpreview.com/news/5103777926/shackelton-frank-hurley-leica-field-jacket ("it doesn't even have a red button")

Multiple businesses? Yikes, hope that does not include LUMIX. True, but it's also not unheard of for massive company cuts to come out of the blue. The people inside LUMIX might have already seen the writing on the wall for the last few years and thus were trying their best to boost their financial stats with a slimmed down range, but will it be enough for survival? I guess we'll see how 2025 goes. Yikes! If we saw an A7CR with an L Mount and a red dot, then that would be big scary writing on the wall indeed for Panasonic.

I guess the other two lens upgrades you are talking about are these: https://www.dpreview.com/news/9864806631/om-system-updates-17mm-and-25mm-f1-8-lenses-for-micro-four-thirds Small updates with adding weather proofing. Am glad that OM is not just releasing bodies but doing "something" for their lenses too. But it's very minimal. Is interesting what happened with sony vaio laptops vs what happened with IBM's Thinkpads when they sold them off Would be worthy of a Masters' dissertation or a research paper to dig deeply into how differently each of these two went, and others in related areas like Olympus vs OM Or a Fujifilm X-M5 / X-T50 or Zfc with an APS-C sensor for way less money. That thinking really doesn't work when you could just buy a Panasonic GH7 for the same price, or a G9 II for a lot less, or a secondhand OG G9 for waaaaay less. And still be using your MFT lenses.

f stop always stay the same no matter what sensor it is on. Rather I think you're talking about what the DoF would be like. And yeah, it's so very wide angle, and such a teeny sensor, it's the world's easiest job to keep it in focus! With that deep DoF.

Yes, choosing L Mount meant it kept rock and solid and secure their position as OEM manufacturer for Leica. But it's also about the impression / vibes that the L Mount gives to consumers. That there is the broad support for it, not just one company going at it alone. EOS-M for instance I always thought it was going to be a dead end mount, that's is a dead man walking, which Canon would eventualy kill. Because nobody else was making EOS-M mount cameras, and because obviously Canon would bring out a new mount for FF mirrorless, which thus means they must kill the other mount. While L Mount Alliance had a multi company backing of Leica / Panasonic / Sigma right from early on (and now others have joined too, such as BMD and DJI are making L Mount cameras). It gives you confidence that L Mount is in it for the long haul! Not merely at the whims of just one company. (yes it's always possible that L Mount disappears, as nothing but deaths and taxes is certain) If Panasonic brings out an APS-C camera with an L Mount (that isn't specifically a S35 "EVA2" or the next Varicam, which is very unlikely currently) then that's the 10ft high writing on the wall for me to sell all of my MFT equipment before their value totally tanks. Olympus has sold off their cameras to OM, Blackmagic seems to be losing interest in MFT for their future releases, ZCam's one MFT camera is very niche, DJI seems to be stepping away from MFT as well, JVC will likely never make another MFT camera, etc.... so if Panasonic kills their MFT cameras (as surely an APS-C L Mount is a sign of this future) then MFT rapidly loses their reasons to stick with it. Exactly! Panasonic and Olympus could have embraced an approach kinda like Fujifilm does. Have put more S35/APS-C sensors into future MFT camera, and owned this niche instead of Fujifilm. Then ignored / skipped over the FF camera bracket, and gone straight for making Medium Format cameras as the next step up.

China definitely can't. Not without ASML. (and arguably TSMC as well, but China might just try to conquer TSMC by military force?! Hopefully not. Although China can more easily catch up and replace TSMC, would be a massive project that would very optimistically be multi-year long, and China is currently trying to do this. In comparison vs the multi decade project that replacing ASML might require) I've got an undergrad degree in electronics, in particular optoelectronics, a strength my uni is world class at, which is especially very relevant to this situation. Papers I took such as Physics333 (which covers topics about lasers such as: the electron oscillator model, rate equation model, Einstein coefficients, Fabry Perot etalons and resonators, optimum output coupling, reflection at a dielectric surface, waveguide theory, thin films, matrix techniques for optical elements, Gaussian beams and applications etc), those don't normally get taught at the third year level at most normal universities So while I'm a long long long waaaay off what these expert engineers in chip production would know (many who have PhDs), I do at least know enough to have a rough grip on and a glimpse into how ridiculously over the top complex the process! That it's crazy hard wall for China to scale if they wish to catch up.