IronFilm

Likely because they felt trying to appeal exclusively only to the fashionable photography hype was a risky bet to put all their eggs into that basket. Thus they made a camera with the S9 they hoped to appeal to that market and to content creators (who arguably are an even bigger and more enduring market niche) To be fair, probably 90% of the hype buyers of the X100 series don't care too much about a viewfinder (they're from the smartphone generation!) or hotshoe, don't know what NDs are or what the hell a mechanical leaf shutter is either! And it's easy to see how the marketing minds thought a pocketable pancake lens might be a smash hit, and never predicted this amount of backlast. (with hindsight, they should have released the lens either a month earlier or a month later)

There was the Fujifilm X70 too, a wide angle version of the X100. Remember also the Nikon Coolpix A? Almost got one when it was discontinued and on sale, but too expensive! Remember too the announced Nikon DL series? (DL24-85, DL18-50 and DL24-500) Would have loved a Nikon DL18-50 😞 How about Panasonic's premium compacts, such as the LX100? Back in the day there was a huge demand for P&S cameras, thus if only a small percentage of those people would splurge out on a premium P&S camera model, it was enough demand to keep on updating them regularly. But today? General demand for P&S cameras has totally collapsed to nearly zero. You can't justify making new premium models based on capturing the upper end of that broader general P&S market which no longer exists. Thus you are only catering to specialist niches, such as rich hobbyist photographers who specifically want a pocketable high quality camera. However.... just lately in very recent months/years we've seen some social media influcencers (outside the normal world of photography enthusiasts) hype up demand for: 1) the latest Fujifilm X100 specifically 2) retro "vintage" look of old school point and shoot cameras from a couple of decades ago (ouch, this makes me feel so old....). Those are kinda two different trends that were happening for P&S cameras at the same time. It's tricky to cater to the second category, it's like if you brought out "vintage" brand new clothing. Maybe some pop up boutique clothing brands can pull that off, but tough for a big mainstream brand to do it effectively. I can't see the likes of Panasonic/Sony/Canon/etc effectively pulling that off, but they might try. The closest comparison I can think of today is something like the Kodak PIXPRO FZ series of cameras which is somewhat price comparable to secondhand P&S pricing and gives you that retro "vintage" 2000's vibes as a fashion accessory. But those are certainly not what this thread is about! They've bad quality. This thread is about the first category, how the latest Fujifilm X100 became super crazy hyper popular (with knock on effects then on every single other model in the X100 series, and even other Fujifilm cameras, and even other premium P&S cameras such as the Sony RX100 series / Ricoh GR series / Canon G7X / Nikon Coolpix A / etc becoming overpriced on eBay). The very tricky thing though is if you rewind just a couple of year, especially if you go back to pre-pandemic era (or even just the early part of the pandemic era) then you could easily find the latest X100 series in stock (and you'd never see them selling for over RRP! Unlike what we've seen sometimes), and secondhand X100 series would have a reasonable and sensible discount to them (never selling over RRP!! That's crazy talk). However the fashionable winds of social media influencers can be a fickle thing. What if they ramped up production of the X100V only to see demand immediately collapse back down to lower levels than before? They've be screwed! Likewise what if they had 10x more X100VI ready to sell only to find out it flops vs the X100V and they couldn't catch that magic "spark" in the bottle again? They'd have tonnes of X100VI on the shelves unable to move! (maybe there is only hype and demand because they're out of stock? What if as soon as they're in stock everywhere, then the hype dies away just as quickly?) They'd have to slash deep prices to get rid of it. And if even Fujfilm is looking at all these risks factors and trying to figure out what is right for the market, imagine how much harder it would be for any other player to jump into the premium P&S market with a brand new camera. Panasonic tried to appeal to this market with the S9 (as fair enough, with a pancake lens it's not too different to a X100VI or a Sony RX1), but look at the pure hate they got for their attempt! Fujfilm's new X-M5 feels like to me a camera that's attempting at cross over appeal to both X100 fans and X Mount users.

If this will be used with a Blackmagic live streaming / switching set up, then certainly there could be some pros leaning it in the direction of going with Blackmagic cameras. In this situation then I'd be strongly considering having at least one camera with solidly good AF, for your tight shots, but the wide / mid shots (which are very likely going to be mostly unmanned, because you're working OMB) could use cheaper cameras with average / bad AF and even manual lenses, as those can be kinda just set and forget cameras. (well, checking in on them now or then, but they don't have your full 24/7 attention) Two grand? I guess per camera? Not in total. Also I very strongly suspect you're underbudgeting for lighting / lenses / audio / camera support, so let's try and go as far under $2K/camera as we can! In that is the case then it's hard to look past getting 2x Panasonic OG S5 cameras secondhand, plus one new Panasonic S5II. Maybe if you have a lot of MFT lenses that you don't wish to sell off, then you might go for a hybrid approach, with 2x secondhand Panasonic GH5S + 1x Panasonic S5II (just getting perhaps a couple of native L mount lenses for the S5II, say the Panasonic Lumix S 85mm f/1.8 Lens and the Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 are both very affordable but great lenses) If compact size is very important (perhaps for travel work for instance, or docos where you'll be hiking carrying your gear a lot) then go for 2x secondhand GH5S + 1x new GH7, that way you can go all in on lightweight and compact MFT lenses. If you want some kind of compromise middle ground, the Sony FX30 would be very appealing. Their S35 lenses are sometimes not that much bigger than MFT lenses, but are at least a lot more compact than FF lenses are! (with more reach) https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1729317-REG/sony_ilme_fx30_fx30_digital_cinema_camera.html FF lenses from what brand, for what mount? Nope! It's three years old now. You can kinda vaguely think of them as sort of ish comparable to the AF in the GH5/GH6 cameras. Workable enough autofocus for stills work, even professional work. But for video? You can use the AF to set your focus very accurately, then flip it over to manual focus to leave the focus point there. But you don't want it to try and track a shot during a take. Not until PDAF arrived in the G9II / GH7 / S5II / etc did Panasonic get to have truly good (but not perfect! Nothing is) autofocus performance for during a take. Sony just dominates in the low / mid budget work of professional shooting. If you think you'll be working a lot for/with other professionals then that's a very strong reason to go for the FX9 or FX6 (or perhaps one of the even cheaper FX models). If you'll be working independently, then just ignore this factor though. (or if you'll be working with just a small group of friends/colleague, then go with whatevere they're using. Most are Canon? Go with Canon! Most are Blackmagic? Get a Blackmagic yourself! Or are they all using LUMIX? Then guess what... you do the same!) GH5S is essentially identical to the GH5, but it removes IBIS (no big deal at all if you'll be shooting on sticks), however it adds timecode support (yay! A big deal for me), and uses a 12 megapixel sensor instead of the GH5's 20 megapixel (the new GH5S sensor is a lot better in low light than the GH5. BTW, "the same sensor" ish in the GH5S is also used in the P4K and Z Cam E2-M4). As for the GH5 vs GH5II? Almost identical cameras, there is trivially little difference between them. It's more like a whole bunch of little improves in the GH5II that all add up to make a difference vs the GH5. But I'd summarize it briefly like this: Features: GH5 vs GH5 II Video Quality: 4K 60p (8-bit), 4K 30p (10-bit) vs 4K 60p (10-bit), pre-installed V-LogL Live Streaming: later updates gave it beta software compatibility for live streaming vs Built-in wired/wireless live streaming Autofocus: Somewhat slower, less accurate vs somewhat marginally improved face/eye detection, better tracking Stabilization: 5 stops IBIS vs 6.5 stops IBIS Display: Standard brightness vs Brighter, better color accuracy Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 4 vs Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 5 (faster wireless transfer) Power Options: Standard battery vs USB-C power delivery support Personally I wouldn't spend the couple of hundred dollars extra for a secondhand GH5II over an OG GH5, but if the difference is a hundred bucks or less between them? Then sure, I'd get the newer GH5II. It's worthwhile learning Resolve, it's arguably the best NLE right now, and certainly the best tool for color grading. Yes, the GH5 / GH5S / P4K / a7Sii (heck, even the GH4 in controlled conditions or the a7S mk1 with an external recorder. Or hell the OG BMPCC if you don't mind FHD!) still hold up so well today that if you don't mind missing out on arguably marginal improvement gains they can still do the job professionally in 2025 for low budget productions. And the slow down to more incremental changes happened even earlier over in the stills world than for us in the film/video world. The likes of a Nikon D800 or D750 holds up shooting with professionally in 2025 a lot better than a GH4 or GH5 does today. (and arguably a person could even get away with a Canon 5Dmk1 or Nikon D700 from 2005 and 2008 respectively, depending on exactly what sorts of shooting they're doing) Remember, when the Nikon D800 was launched, then the very latest GH series camera from Panasonic was merely the Panasonic GH2!

How limited in budget? Probably 3x secondhand Panasonic GH4, can't do beter than that for less! ARRI 35 obviously. And it just got itself to be even cheaper: https://ymcinema.com/2025/01/28/arri-unveils-new-alexa-35-entry-level-model-with-flexible-licensing-and-affordable-media/ Depends on budget? And if you have a competent 1st AC or not. (presumably yes... but got to ask! Sometimes they don't, for instance I just the other day finished up working on a feature film done without an AC) If you have the extra money, get a GH7 or S5mk2. Wouldn't ever consider GH5II or S1 if I could get those instead. But if the level of GH5 / GH5II / S1 money is the strict money limit here, then go for the Panasonic GH5S instead of a GH5, if you're doing these interviews on sticks. (I'd assume you are! No way are you handholding 3x GH5 at once) P4K is also a consideration as well. I guess you have a very different idea to me what "no budget constraints" means. Personally I think of the FX6 as a low priced professional camera. And if you can step up the budget from Panasonic GH/S series price points, then going for 3x Sony FX6 is the way to go for sure. If I was very tight on a budget, I'd even seriously consider going for 1x Sony FX6 + 2x Sony FX30 rather than doing 3x Panasonic GH7 / S5II. (the Sony setup is still a fair bit more expensive, but at least it makes the option of working for/with others more viable) If you wish to stick with MFT, then clearly go for BMD P4K or Panasonic GH7 or Z CAM E2-M4 Mark II. If you will consider other non-MFT options, and you don't have an AC, then go for Sony FX6 if you have a modest budget. Otherwise, the other ultra low budget non-MFT top options for filmmaking would be: Sony FX3, Sony FX30, Fujfilm X-H2S, Fujfillm X-T5 (or the even cheaper X-T50), Fujifilm X-M5, Nikon Z8, Nikon Z6 III (or even the older Mk2 or heck the Mk1 with an Atomos recorder), Z Cam E2-S6 Mark II (or the bigger sensor Z Cam E2-F6 Mark II), Blackmagic PYXIS (I think all the other cheaper Blackmagics are not really cheap enough to justify getting them instead of the obviously better PYXIS, except for the P4K which is waaay cheaper. Cheap enough to justify itself over the PYXIS!), Panasonic S1H, Panasonic S5II/S5IIX (the S5II is so cheap, I wouldn't consider the OG S5 unless it's insanely cheap secondhand), or Canon (but nah, don't like them, so won't go into much detail here, wellll... ok, fine, go check out the C80/C70/R5C).

Blackmagic made a bold attempt to appeal to the mid-market that sadly kinda doesn't exist. It's exceptionally hard in 2025 to sell any non-ARRI camera in any price bracket that's above US$10K. Sony with the VENICE is the only one who has been successful. RED kinda has their little niche. Panasonic? Gone. Canon? Only their sub $10K cameras are successful-ish. Thus BMD made the decision to move their price back down into the sub $10K region, where I suspect/hope they'll find a lot more success. The URSA Cine 12K LF still has very high media costs, however there are ways to work around that, you could for instance record most formats directly to a connected USB drive over USB-C (like you can do with most other BMD cameras). Love how I got my OG BMPCC back in the day when it went on sale for just US$500! (plus the NZD was strong then too against the USD than it is today)

Here you go, a f/0.38 lens! Go nuts with filming this extremely super ultra fast lens for your next project. Take that Stanley Kubrick and your puny slow f/0.7 lens!

They will indeed say nothing about Panasonic. But we all know the SL3S is just going to be a rebadged Lumix camera. That it's relatively easy to reverse engineer the logic to conclude we'll probably see the Panasonic version of the SL3 released six-ish months later.

I guess for audio the Amish won't be allowed to use a carbon fibre boom, and it has to be a wooden boom?

Whoops!! My bad, I got one totally batsh*t crazy cult mixed up with another totally different and only somewhat less crazy cult. Think I just had Mormons on my brain during that moment I was writing that post, as they just opened up a massive new temple (biggest in the entire country! Did you know our former Prime Minister was a Mormon? And Jacinda Arden's uncle was in charge of Mormons for the entire Pacific Region) right across the road from where I grew up and my family is. Yup, doesn't change at all my conclusions in my previous post at all.

I am very skeptical about the claim that all the labour is fully donated totally "for free". I highly doubt there are any Mormons in Australia who own a Sound Devices CL12 or a technocrane of that level. And even if there is one (again, doubt it), would they necessarily give up for free weeks/months of their time each year to work for free on a production??? And on top of that, they're each bringing along six figures worth of equipment! (or even more!) Doubt it! That's why I suspect they're hired professionals they've brought onto the production, and at the very least most of the HoDs are pros who have joined on for this. (sure, the LX Assist or 3rd AC or 3rd AD or whatever, then they'll quite possibly Mormon members who are volunteering their time. But not most of the HoDs) A final possibility, but a pretty wild one if true, is that the local Mormon organisation has purchased outright this equipment. That they (the local Mormon organization) own a Sound Devices CL12 (and the rest of the six figures worth of sound equipment that would go with this type of sound package!) and that they own a technocrane (one of this type is very very easily six figures worth, could even be a million dollar grip package), and so on ditto for all the other gear we saw in that BTS. Then the local Mormon members are then working "for free" using this equipment?? I mean, maybe when you consider they fact they likely have a full time in house AV team that's employed by them on regular salaries, then this possibility starts to become a little less wild. Maybe the person who does the live sound mixer each Sunday, who they have on a full time salary, is also the person who is during the week doing these film/tv productions when they're shooting it.

VR is fun! I've worked on a number of VR projects over the years. I've got my own 360VR cameras and an ambisonic microphone, so if you ever wish to get together to collaborate on anything then I'll be keen to join in and help.

That's brave! I wish you the best of luck in 2025 with your new path. What non-video things will you be exploring?

good grief, they have a techno crane on set, that's not cheap at all. $$$$$$ Shooting with an ARRI. ARRI WCU4 focus controller. Jealous, they're using a Sound Devices CL16!!

As freelancers we certainly do get paid very well on a per day / per hour basis. But yes, we don't get to work the same number of days per year as a regular Monday to Friday person does. Last year though I was looking at the rates that IT Contractors get, who are always freelancers (thus on a per hour / per day basis should be earning higher than those who have the perks and stability of normal full time employment), for the bottom couple of rungs in the IT sector (i.e. fairly inexperienced newbies, we're not talking about high qualified people here with decades of experience) then it's not too different from what say a Boom Op or AC in the film/tv world would also earn as a freelancer. Really puts it into perspective how well (or not) we get paid relative to other industries as a freelancer / contractor.

Just noticed they were using the Blackmagic Micro (not sure if the Cinema version? Then again, given it's for streaming.... perhaps the 4K version? Or even the G2 version?) for the US Chess Open Championships: https://x.com/STLChessClub/status/1847779295860838789

This forum is about filmmaking? He's doing literally the biggest scale filmmaking there is right now in some aspects (such as the most cameras ever). Of course people might be naturally curious about how it works behind the scenes. Yes, it's very normal for productions to rent equipment. (although they do such a high volume of productions, I'm sure there is a lot of equipment that they also own in house themselves)

ah, a new UWA lens just came out: https://www.newsshooter.com/2024/12/26/pergear-12mm-f2-ii-wide-angle-lens-for-x-e-z-and-m4-3-mount-cameras/ At US$169 it might be the cheapest f2 UWA lens there is.

Don't think my old Fujifilm X-A3 counts as "reliable autofocus"! 😭 Never too late to start a new YT channel! I might just start up a YT travel channel myself if/when I move overseas next year. The 7artisans 12mm f2.8 lens I've got would be a good choice for vlogging, although I went for this 7artisans largely because I got it for next to nothing secondhand. If you're buying brand new then the Meike 12mm f/2 is only slightly more expensive than the 7artisans 12mm f2.8, but the Meike is a full stop faster which might be handy sometimes. Ahhhh.... so you can't get them in any rangefinder mount? (such as M mount) But rather than need to be removed from a fixed lens camera then get a mount added to it? (such as M mount) When I was looking through eBay beforehand, I did come across those with mounts already added to them, but they're at least a couple of hundred dollars! (if not even double, or tripple, or even quadruple that price) Seems a bit pricey, when I could get vintage / dead mount DSLR lenses for a similar cost, or even far far less.

YouTubers making drama up about Bigger YouTubers. Normal par for the course, been going on since day one of YT history. So far nothing seems that unusual such as you'd expect from any massively large scale reality tv series (especially survival / sports contestants) or even working on a normal AA narrative film title. (some of them just need to harden up, it's as if they've never worked a day before in their life as an Extra?!) Seems like she's got a vendetta against Mr Beast, she's made a tonne of videos against Mr Best: https://www.youtube.com/@RosannaPansino/search?query=beast I bet if we heard the other side, such as from the 1st/2nd/3rd ADs, the story would be very different. In the early years it seemed like he just poured close to 100% of whatever he'd make from a video right back into making the next video. Yeah I greatly admire him for what he's achieved with his YouTube videos (and now in the conventional mainstream media space too, doing a series for Amazon), he clearly has got it dialed right in and understands the YT algorithm better than anybody else on planet earth, but in the non-YouTube space I feel he might have done some kinda sketchy things. It is curious why they wouldn't use Sony FX3/FX30 cameras for handheld cameras instead? (or were they already? Maybe they simply ran out of them and were trying to get their hands on as many cameras as possible!) Wonder what the ingestion process was for those thousand GoPros? I wonder in particular about how they handled timecode on those, if at all. And likewise, what did they do for the handheld cameras such as the R5C? Did you see a TC box on them? Honestly with a budget like that I'd even think about handing out a few Sony RX100 (or RX0??) cameras to key cast members, to act as their handheld vlogging cameras, as an RX100/RX0 on their budget level is so dirt cheap they're basically almost disposable cameras. But perhaps the footage gained wouldn't be worth the editing time. Am a bit tempted to get a Sony RX0 mk2 myself before I move overseas next year, as I reckon a Sony RX100 with a wide angle prime lens would be awesome. Which is kinda like what the RX0 is, has a 24mm FF FoV prime lens, with a "big" 1 inch sensor (same as the RX100 has). Makes it super small and pocketable, even though it has a selfie screen! While watching the video again, I saw this: As they're rechecking the date at 6am I have a theory that they're not using Time of Day TC, but rather they're using Time Elapsed since call time each day (6am). I see they're recording onto a tonne of these: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1834930-REG/aja_ki_pro_go2_ki_pro_go2_multi_channel.html Is quite sad that Video Devices / Sound Devices completely gave up on this market, and never made an updated replacement for the Sound Devices 970

I feel that's a fairly fixable issue within the next few short years. You'll use a reference image that the generated video needs to adhere to.

ah I see, they've got now a 35mm, 50mm, and an 85mm that's cheaper than anything else at the moment for L Mount: https://meikeglobal.com/collections/auto-focus-lenses/products/3520?variant=45550769307876 https://meikeglobal.com/collections/auto-focus-lenses/products/50mm-f1-8-auto-focus-lens-for-portrait-photography?variant=45396236108004 https://meikeglobal.com/collections/auto-focus-lenses/products/85mm-f1-8-full-frame-auto-focus-stm-lens-for-sony-e-mount-cameras?variant=45493148614884 Like @newfoundmass said, they're not on major sites such as B&H yet. But give it another 18 months, for the prices of a secondhand Panasonic S9 to come down then this (plus perhaps the kit zoom too) could be a very appealing everyday casual camera on the cheap.

ohhhhh.... I'd never even looked into those lenses. (how should I search for them on eBay? How do I specifically restrict the search just to half frame rangerfinder lenses?) I guess due to them being rangefinder lenses, they must not have been too popular during the DSLR era at all. (as DSLR mounts are too deep) And being half frame lenses I guess the mirrorless FF shooters don't want them either. Would be perfect however for Fujifilm shooters. Only just starting lately to dabble in using my old Fujifilm X-A3 as a casual stills camera I can carry with me most times whenever I feel like it (I want something compact / light / cheap / decent, I think the X-A3 with APS-C lenses fits the bill here). So thus I recently put together a very cheap Fujifilm lens kit of native X mount lenses: 7artisans 12mm F2.8 II (Manual Focus) Sirui 21mm f1.2 (Auto Focus) TTArtisan 25mm f2 (Manual Focus) Vivitar 56mm f1.7 (Auto Focus) (I half wonder if the 21mm f1.2 lens was a mistake, was using it for the first time on Christmas Eve, and it was a lot bigger and heavier than I imagined! Perhaps a bit too much so for the little X-A3? Maybe I should have got the TTArtisan 27mm f/2.8 lens instead)

First you might like to watch this video on Mr Beast's youtube channel, so you get to see what the end result looks like: Then check out the behind the scenes, of how it got made: Check out the camera plan (well, one of the camera plans) they show thirteen minutes into it (yes, that's one THOUSAND GoPros): Two more BTS videos about this same YouTuber production series:

NICE! What other X Mount lenses do you already have for it? (other than the 15-45mm kit lens the X-M5 is coming with) Will you be using it just for filming with, or photography too?

Using the S35 mode of the FX6 was the first reference to using FF cameras with the S35 mode in this thread, and I thus replied how that can't be done if you wish to film in 4K. I think that's more a comment on the dominance of Sony, and how Canon has lost the top spot in the low/mid market. (after all both the C400 and FX6 are VV/LF/FF cameras)