leeys

Andrew isn't quite wrong about multiple sources being the sum of a PR move. Canon famously doesn't let anyone with negative words about them get their hands on a review unit - I was denied any form of Canon gear for review after pointing out how Canon likes to "castrate" features for product segmentation (I think it was for the EOS 6D). O&M, Canon's PR firm, told me as such in polite terms. So if Canon only lets bloggers and reviewers who say nice things about their cameras have review units, you get this wall of positive noise about their cameras.

I agree, it's about the only blog I visit for DSLR video. As Andrew mentioned, pressure from PR firms is REAL, having felt it myself, so I generally don't take a lot of stock in any review site that's not particularly large (DPReview can sort of get away with it, but even then I suspect their influence is waning).

If you take the larger perspective of the stills camera market, the D500 is great value. If Nikon didn't take such a long time with it I'd have upgraded from my D300 and still be shooting Nikon. Nikon and Canon can call upon other Japanese partners if they want to, and they're not lacking in any cutting-edge tech either. Nikon's Expeed is co-produced with Fujitsu (now spun off and renamed to something I can't remember) and Expeed 4 was not too far behind the latest SoCs of its time (32 bit A5 ARM architecture). No one's analysed what the Expeed 5 has so I have no idea what it's in now. BTW, top end DSLRs and top end mirrorless aren't too different - sensors and ASICs are similar to begin with, it's not like mirrorless requires significantly advanced resources. No one says you can't change the shutter speed? It just means that you have a camera that you choose to shoot stills or video with, but you still record a video stream regardless.

I think it's best you ask around in the music circles where most of their exposure comes from. Any musicians here as well?

So, at this rate, when is 8x10 LF going to be the new premium look?

Bit late, but the figure is correct - many still cameras have a buffer (usually RAM) that they dump the data into first before writing it to memory card. When using a fast XQD you'll never see the buffer on a D500, but on slower cards you will. This is basically a test of the camera's memory card controller speed, which loops back to the argument about cameras not fully utilising the speeds of the fastest cards, even with the newest hardware in place.

No one really shoots horror films at that ISO either - you still light the scene with proper lights, it's not like they're filmed in pitch darkness.

Knowing IR, you're comparing JPEG engines.

It seems like DPR shot the scenes as though they were shooting RAW stills. Very much ETTL and willing to err on underexposing to not clip ANY part of the scene.

Yes, you're right. Like I said, the Nikon 1 (which the DLs are based on) have some strengths, but Nikon never did anything to market its strengths. I mean, look at this: I can tell you straight off, the FZ2500 and RX 10 III will not come close to the operational speed of the DL 24-500 ever. For a big zoom camera this is a great advantage to have, but Nikon just doesn't seem to know how to (or worse, want to) market it, so it leads to people thinking that they're all very similar cameras. They're not. The DL 24-500 had a chance of capturing that segment, along with the 18-50 owning a special place, but Nikon just... well, they're just useless at the moment.

I'm a Panasonic stills shooter! That's not completely true; the 18-50 is unique product with no competition (I was saving up money to get it), and the 24-500 lens coupled with the Nikon 1 AF's system could be something special. If you've never used the Nikon 1 you won't really know how good it is - it's still the only mirrorless system that is on par with a pro DSLR in terms of speed. Not even the A6300 can come close to that. (Disclaimer: I haven't tried the A6500 and E-M1 II yet) Plus I've always liked base Nikon colour profiles. Wish I could get the same from my Panasonic when I want to do something quick. You two just described how they got into this mess. I now worry about them, as I've never seen them bungle a product launch this bad. Together with news of restructuring and an extraordinary write-down, it doesn't look good.

My experience in scanning has been the opposite for me - a modern reversal always seemed to scan better than say, Portra 160 NC. This was on a Nikon Coolscan though.

I'll echo what many have said: DXO is a fantastic resource, but you need to ignore the silly score they give and look at the test charts in the areas that are important to you. Also make sure the chart you're reading is showing the ACTUAL resolution, not the downsampled one.

Canon's sensors have weaknesses in low ISO dynamic range and read noise - these the former doesn't affect low-light as much, which is why a 5D3 still looks good at ISO 1600 and above. In the end you're still collecting 2 stops worth of light more than a 4/3 sensor. And the current APS-C cameras? They all have similar tech (Sony or Sony-derived), so there's little to separate them... except for the sensor size.

That's good to know - I don't have to replace my lenses. :D

I love my Micro 4/3s cameras, and in general anyone belly aching about "needing" full-frame to take better photos or videos really needs to look at themselves... However from a pure technical perspective I can't see that happening, even if you include things like a focal reducer. Ultimately the sensor in the 5D is 4x the size and it's not that terribly outdated. As for the GH5 itself, I'm in trouble. It looks like I need to find US$2000 by this summer!

Making smaller production runs will drive prices up, regardless. Without the mass of consumer sales, manufacturers will be looking to up profit margins as well. On the post at hand: Tony seems to take a lot of ideas from all over the Internet, including Thom Hogan (some of the stuff he talks Thom has written about for nearly a decade). Most of them might have worked had the Japanese moved earlier, but that ship has long sailed. I'll just echo what has been said: Camera manufacturers need to make workflow a priority. Right now compared to a smartphone it's completely clunky and annoying to work with.

Damn. I still do mostly stills work and that has me tempted. But the price... DCI 4K is definitely usable for web-work.

Actually, given the smaller sensors, smartphone lenses are technically outresolving lenses from larger formats. It's always been this way - the smaller the imaging area, the harder the lens has to work. The volume moved means there's more R&D being done there - again, just like how 35mm lenses became so much better over time; more people were buying them so more R&D was done there. The main problem really is the tiny sensor. I wasn't expecting to see this here, unlike in mainstream tech sites where people were going by Google's announcements... but ask yourself, how does an OIS system know which direction to shift the lens element?

OMG! It's going to be a proper rectilinear lens instead of that weird half-fisheye I've seen in some many action cameras? This alone is a big win for me.

Isn't the Samyang a dumb mount? Then no, there will be no software corrections applied. I suppose with other players like Yi entering the market, it may muddy the waters. No idea if the lenses will play properly with the m4/3 standard.

Oh good, a bigger battery. The E-M1 had such a small battery for a pro level camera.

M43 spec includes corrections to geometric distortion and vignetting. The unique corrections for Panasonic are done to chromatic aberration. I don't recall anything for moire, but that may be new.

Learn some Chinese, order through Taobao, use a forwarder.

Don't let the camera AF - CDAF looks terrible in video. If you're setting focus before-hand there is an indicator with infinity and minimum... everything in-between is useless on its own as there's no actual scale! However if you don't mind you can get some plastic films as overlays to mark points with using a marker. It irks me because Panasonic lenses do have the distance info in them, the camera doesn't display them. And of course all MF indicators disappear when the camera starts recording.