k-robert

Dear Andrew, First, thank you for sharing your knowledge, experiences and values with us. Thanks for your time, work, energy and inspiration. I feel with you throughout. I have initiated and managed an online magazin covering my hobby, with articles, forum, gallery, etc… It was by far the leading site in my country, but I never wanted to monetise it. It was just a hobby, should be kept free of commercial interests. After almost 7 years I closed it. I just lost my original interest and energy, kind of burned out. I still did have ideas for themes but had little desire to share them. One of the reasons for my fatigue, was also the malicious comments of evil losers, strengthening their self-confidence on the virtual battleground. But after a while people were contacting me, asking when-if the site will be active again. They said, the site was a useful knowledge base, especially for beginners, there are missing valuable information, and also the online-friends. So I decided to reopen the site. Under a different domain name I put back the best articles and themes, and there is also possibility for comments. Now and than I or one of the other guys publish a new article… I have started working as international business consultant in the previous century 🙂 I love the job, the changing environment presenting different challenges. The last two years were horrible. Slow down, lock down, locked in, getting a frustrated introvert in my home office. As a consultant, I would advice to take your time to “reengineer” your life. A personal SWOT always helpful. Discuss with people, who loves and respect you, they will give honest, valuable feed-back. You have obvious strengths, “core competencies”. You have been living-working in an international environment, have talent, creativity, experience in film making and a straight attitude to morality. We have enough problems on the Earth, and many charity-aid organisations, NGO-s try to solve them, making the world a better place. All of them needs impressive and convincing film material to introduce them selves and support their goals, campaigns etc… Many consultants help such organisations, young businessmen or startups. It feels right to work for a good case, and some of them can even pay 🙂 For instance, I have helped (for free) the European Foodbank. https://www.eurofoodbank.org As a private person, a “virtual friend”, I hope, this rethinking will help you to sort out the way leading you to private and professional happiness full of creative energy. Take care, hope to see you around 🙂

colour science is very personal cripple science is real, objective

Sorry to read what happened to you. Just push eBay, eventually they have to refound your money. Unfortunately, most huge companies end up like this. I have had a problem with amazon.de last year, even I wanted to buy from them, they could not solve the issue. These monster marketplaces create an optimal business process flow, build than into an integrated solution, and have a profitable business model. I am a business consultant my selv. Everything is fine, until something unforeseen (unprogrammed) happens. As the system can’t handle it, you need people. Unfortunately most of the first and second level suppport stuffed by folk with no real knowledge about the business. Oftest the first, even the second answer from them is just a prebaked “sorry, we will help you” template. Your letter might not even be read before. But if you insist, sooner or later somebody gets the message, understands the situation and handles. You could create here a “market place forum” for registered users. You could ask for a fee if something listed for sale, or if that gets sold, or just let it run for free, and accept peoples voluntary donations for the site and service.

Happy New Year to you Andrew! Thanks for you effort to make our "camera world" better. Unfortunately you are up to some enormous interest, surrounded by ignorants. But being honest and stand up for that, has never been easy. Keep up this important work. Concerning 2020.... I think this graphic illustrates best, what many of us feel. Good Bye 2020, We Won’t Miss You! Found on https://www.fujirumors.com/good-bye-2020-we-wont-miss-you-and-best-wishes-for-2021-to-all-of-you/

Accepting the overheating limitations means, accepting having a toy in stead of a tool. So we can play a little with our toy, not much, as the memory card is right full, and we can buy a new computer to be able to edit this fantastic footage. There are several "carefully planned" shortcomings in the R5, so the main function of the R5 is to get you long for the mark-II, which again will have some "carefully planned" shortcomings. I do not have the A7sIII yet but it seems more to be a tool, not a toy.

No, I need not, we need not. This is exactly the moral of the story, for me at least. Market economy is the best democracy, I decide who I support with my money. I can not support companies, which tries to sell their products with misleading information and incorrect promises. I wanted to upgrade this year but don't know how this pandemic continues. I am affraid, I don1t need new equipment for jobs and I couldn1t really pay it either. Even if everything was OK with the R5, I would think twice about spending 4000+ for the body and the same on lense, as I don't need 8K at all. Sony has some good cameras and all the lenses for them, what Nikon unfortunately is missing, Panasonic's new little model looks promising, Fuji might surprise us with the X-H2.... I have just seen Matt Granger selling all his old gear but not buying anything, just awating which systems offers most when we can really word again.

I think, this picture must be fake. The lower part of the body, which imitates a battery grip, is so close to the mount, there is very little place between that and the lens. It looks like no bigger-ticker lens could be attached.... Maybe the whole rumor is fake.

Som years ago it came out that a famous car company has manipulated the control system of their cars, so when measuring how pollutive the exhaust is, the software adjusted the engine management, so very low values were registered. The company did advertise the cars with these impossible to archive values, so actually were misleading, cheating the customers. Investigations showed that also other car manufacturers made use of this ingenious trick… Since these firms have paid billions as penalty, have “reengineered” the control software, have recalled millions of cars, the responsible ones have faced serious sanctions and most of the CEO-s are not seeeous anymore. Most people find all this rightful. I really hope that in some of the most important countries, markets for Canon, where customers are not willing to be defrauded and the legal system is grown up to such situations, Canon is going to be punished for this absurd dishonesty. It will also be an important message for the whole high-tech/IT industry, where shiny marketing brochures often promise values, never archivable in real world.

You are right about this Andrew, this happens on purpose. A pre-programmed sophisticated hammer. More a "bummer-hammer", as we are not so naive idiots. But I am not surprised at all, this was to be expected, Canon's usual business practices.... One of my friends has been servicing printers for ages. A few years ago my "all in one" Canon printer suddenly died with an error code. The strange thing was that the error code mentioned the printing head but not only printing, copying did not function either. I called my friend, he asked for the model number and how old it was. When I told him 6-7 years, he started to laugh. He explained, the cheap printers have app. 3 years, and the medium segment, like mine, have 6-7, then they just die. Actually a preprogrammed "suicide-code" kills them. Most printer manufacturer do something like this but Canon is the most brutal. Many years ago the printers just said "error code xx" but it became too obvious, so Canon has implemented hundreds of error codes, and nowadays one of them comes up randomly to create the obituary. Servicing the defect printer head, I mean the "printer head in coma", would cost more than a new printer. Just allowing the copy function to operate was not possible. Checkmate. The reason is well-known, greed. I have been in business for many years and personally, I go NEVER back to a company where I have experienced so immense lack of business ethic. Just think back to the previous Canon models with missing 24p.... Canon has been market leader for many years but I still can't understand, how a corporation can become so arrogant, they purposely annoy their customers in stead of trying to please them. Especially now, in this hostile business environment for the camera industry. But people are preordering these cameras, so we obviously need a lot larger economic crisis...

No. I am sorry. The entry level, lowest camera in the M line is the M100, but even the M3 is still on the shelves. I would neither consider an 800 USD camera as entry level. For this price, the M50 is rather an insult. Actually, the whole M-line is a mess. Incomprehensible naming, i.e. segmentation, mediocre lens line-up, and empty marketing buzzwords. The "5-axis "image stabilization is "non-axis", as Canon uses electronic, software-based picture make-up, The 4K is a joke, huge crop, no dual pixel AF, and on this "Vlogging-monster" the microphone input blocks the articulated screen.

Nikon needs wild dogs!!! They have to change, think differently. Otherwise, but only if they are lucky, NIkon will end up as Hasselblad, bought by a capital-strong Chinese company.

:D It was the first thing this morning I read with my coffee. It looks like it could be a beautiful day :-) But I am wondering, if this writing was not published 2 weeks too early :-)

Thanks Andrew for speaking up. It is very sad in deed. I was doing my daily walk-around, EOSHD – slashcam – dpreview… and as I saw this, my first thoughts were also: OK, sponsored with orange, but what does this content doing here, among real articles? And I got angry, as I read: “Filmmaker ScottDW trades his pro video gear for Canon EOS 80D…. and the results surprised him” In the camera PR and marketing, the words “pro” and “gamechanger” are probably the most devaluated ones. For me, they have a rather negative meaning, as these words are often used, when they have nothing better to say. So when a pro trades his pro gear for an 80D, and gets surprised…. I think, either - he isn’t a pro, or - it wasn’t an 80D, or - he was not really surprised at all :-) Then I thought, I would write a comment about it, but there is no place for comments there. So I comment it here :-)

It would be normal to hear such an argument from an arrogant, smart-ass Canon lawyer, but you should know better. We don’t know Canon’s strategy and we don’t have to understand it either. Every company produces products, they think are good, and every consumer buys, what they find interesting. BUT Everybody, just a bit serious about photography makes a decision for a brand, trusts a company, and invests in that system. So when you have invested in lenses, flashes, remote controls, etc… you might be disappointed, if your chosen company lets you down. You have thought, you make a strategic partnership, and you are a hostage. So when you develop anti-stockholm syndrome, you are going to be angry and hate that buster. And it is your best right to express these feelings and even flame. It is a stupid argument, and nonsense from Canon to think, that it would compete against their cinema-line by adding video-technology to the XD and XXD series. They don’t have to protect the Cinema cameras, because I am not going to attack. Don’t even consider it, for me it would be overkill. A person, who doesn’t buy the 80D, because important features are not implemented, would certainly not buy the 300D. Can you imagine that Mercedes doesn’t put ABS or aircon in their A and B series, in order to protect the S-class???

There is no way Panasonic is using the few years old GX80 sensor in the new GH5. I don"t believe it and don"t know where this info comes from, and don"t understand why people are repeating it. Just think about it. Within this business unit, the GH5 is going to be the most important camera for Panasonic. In the electronic business, no "normal" company can come out with a technology from yesterday. If Sony is delivering the sensor, than it is going to be the a6300 stacked and back-lit technology. That's exactly why, we are waiting for the GH5! There is plenty of GX80s on the shelves,so that sensor would be available, but the GH5 is waiting for another sensor :-)

I am afraid, most of us here, has never had an XC10 in their hand. But we can still exchange views and ideas, that’s the forum about. I don’t buy a camera, like my wife chooses a car. -Look honey, I want this one, it has such a nice color :-) If a camera’s specifications are not good enough, why should I use time to test it??? For me the XC10 is a monster, clear mistake from product management. Not good for photography. No RAW. It could be a firmware update but Canon would for sure not do it. The lens is so-so Weak continuous shooting No IR flash-sync No autofocus lamp Few manual adjustments, everything is in menus No B shutter Not good enough for professional video work. The lens is so-so… There is a On/Off ND-filter, but no control over it. There is no powerzoom. No XLR Strange solution for viewfinder The bitrate (305 Mbs) is more a sign of bad codec Not interesting for the amateurs either. Too expensive, especially with the memory cards. Too much data to work with Probably very high loss of value. Too big and strange ergonomics Too weak for the competition :-) I doubt, the video file of the XC10 is better than the GH4 with the 14-140 kit lens, and the Panasonic is way better for photography. And, don't forget to check the price. That is my view on it :-)

I am also confused. There is this whole internet with a galaxy of information, and it is tougher and tougher to find the correct ones. You almost have to be a professional, to be able to see, who you can trust, what is right and what is BS. Many sites are sponsored by somebody, Canon-Nikon-Sony ambassadors are not unbiased either, and all the fanboys with their own truth, as there were nothing else important to photography. Full-frame fanboys are the most visible. Some of them are educated enough to understand, in reality they are swallow DoF fanboys. And there are the low-light-funboys, the DR-fanboys, the filmic-look-fanboys, the MP-fanboys, the 24p-fanboys, the color-science-fanboys... All of them suggest, exactly that function has to be superior, but I believe, usability is a mix of functions, and for every job there can be a different mix. And there is no perfect camera. For me the XC10 is a strange bastard. Like a tired product management came together on a Monday to decide, what should be in and what out for this camera, positioned between the pro and consumer segment. As it doesn't shoot RAW, it is not a real bridge camera, and not a real video-reporter camera either. In comparison with the RX10, for me the Sony is a way better all-round offer. Probably, for video-reporting the Sony AX100 would also be a better choice. Looking wider at the competition, for 2.000 EUR/USD there are better all-round cameras.

Equivalent??? 1,4 ≠ 2,8 Photography is a lot more than DoF...

No, no, no! Dear Panasonic, please don’t listen to Andrew. He’s a nice guy, but this time…. :-) I don’t think, businesswise it would be a clever decision. From my consumer segment point of view, it wouldn’t be an attractive one either. The main benefit from the MFT is not the FT, but the “M”. Micro! If somebody wants “full-frame”, than buy a full-frame camera. MFT gives the best size/quality compromise. There is no perfect camera, no “one size fits all” system. Size-quality-price is all important but antagonistic factors! I don’t want to invest into speedbusters and co. and I certainly wouldn’t buy a camera, i.e. pay for features, I could only use with other lenses. That’s the whole idea with having a system. I want a light and efficient gear, exactly as MFT is. Actually, I would rather ask Panasonic for the opposite. Make the new sensor with fewer pixels. I would love to see a native 4K MFT sensor with app. 8 MP. but with excellent low light capability. Aka a7s… Full pixel readout and no mathematics, how to make 4K from 6K, instead of that, using the processor for more color and dynamic range. God forbid it, even RAW :-) Of course, 8-10 MP would not be so attractive for some photographers, but that’s why, there are other cameras. You can’t please all. In business strategy, segmentation is like DoF, it’s about taking choices, focusing. I certainly hope, Panasonic would not change their focus :-)

I think, Samsung is a very different story. With the NX1, they have made some serious strategic mistakes and taken tough choices. Samsung placed their new product, as we say, in the worst of "red ocean". They aimed for a segment but didn't realize, what it takes to be successful there. The H.265 codec is also a brave but tough choice. Blackmagic has made clever strategy, by sticking to their core competence and buying the sensors from elsewhere and using mounts like EF or MFT. Sony teamed up with Zeiss in order to have a reasonable choice of glass. Offering a fair range of lenses is one of the main success factor in the prosumer/pro segment. That's why Canon is still doing OK, despite of their almost total lack of innovation. I think there is only place for 2-3 mount systems on the global market and my guess is for the future: Canon EF MFT Sony E Maybe Nikon also, if the get bought by a capital-strong Chinese company. If not, I believe, Nikon will disappear. My 2 cents :-)

There is something about this interview, I have to reflect on. In Japan, most of Far-East, if a manager talks about their problems, difficulties, that has to be appreciated. It is more a sign of trust, and anything but arrogance. It is difficult to see behind the curtains, but I still believe, Canon has made mistakes or nothing, they have ignored important market and technology changes. It is though clear from their Cinemaline cameras that they have the technology. They offer it for an interesting segment of professionals, who understand technology, know what they want, and can pay for it. Canon also offers products for that other interesting segment of millions of amateurs, who do not understand and don’t want to pay either. And we, enthusiasts, are stuck in the middle. We do understand, we know what we want, but we don’t want to (can’t) pay. This is the segment, Canon doesn’t want to take seriously. I believe, Canon is making a critical mistake…. Back to technology. Canon can obviously produce beautiful 4K film material. And they are genius about one thing. They use native 4K sensors, even in the XC10, and this means no downsampling, no need for processor power. This is why, I doubt the heating-problem explanation… On the other hand, if I had Canon lenses and wanted to use them on a large-format sensor 4K camera, I wouldn’t wait for Canon’s 5Dxxx, for 3.000 EUR. I would buy a Blackmagic URSA. Now. And now to something completely different. Dear Ebrahim, I am really sorry about, what you have experienced. This happens everywhere, but we don’t need this bad feeling here. I run a somehow similar hobby-site, and we ban the people, who can’t behave. Of course, they can come back with a new user-ID, but we have made our point. Maybe Andrew should know about this. Take care and take pictures :-)

So, are we back, where we have started? I mean, instead of “inventing” 4K, first the industry should have implemented “proper” HD… Has maybe Mr. Canon right, when he doesn’t want to jump from line-skipping HD to whao-whao 4K? I don’t like Mr. Canon, because he hasn’t jumped anywhere in the last 5 years, but I believe, 4K has come a bit too fast for filmmakers. Like this post. I have checked very accurately both footages on my 1366x768 laptop monitor… and what can I say? Honestly, what could I say? Please don’t tell it anybody, I just share this information with you. I don’t have any 4K monitor home… How should I argue over things, I don’t see? Probably, the magic word is bandwidth. How much information you can write in a given time. 50 Mbs sounds good, but is it color or resolution or dynamic range information, what is being written? What do you prioritize? It could be the future profile of companies, to focus on color, or focus on dynamic range…. The industry promises you anything. That’s why, such an independent site is so important, where we can find “our” holy stuff among all the marketing BS-s. So, thanks for sharing :-)

I think also that Canon and Nikon has lost important market shares, and I believe, they will suffer even more. I have said earlier, if Nikon doesn’t change their strategy, in a few years (6-7 years) they could be out of the market. Like Pentax, the Nikon brand will probably survive, owned by a large Chinese electronic/mobile phone/optical company. And I won’t feel sorry for them. They have highly paid people, who just don’t see the “point”. Probably most of the managers are from the optical-camera business, and therefore they have difficulties to make strategy in the computer-camera business. If you take the lens away, a modern camera is nothing else than a computer. And in computer business you must not forget Moore’s law. It states that processor speeds, or overall processing power for computers will double every two years. http://www.mooreslaw.org/ From this, my interpretation for the camera business is, that the sensor-processor-storage part will probably in every 3-5 years “double up”, i.e. give significant benefits. So the new model will either be: Half so pricy Double so fast Twice “better” image quality The same quality from half the sensor-size!!! This last statement makes the MFT the best future system, and makes dinosaurs of the DSLRs. The present MFT sensors give us better pictures than the first full-frame Canon 5D, and video-wise the mirrorless cameras are superior. Even the 1” sensors are excellent today and in 5 years…. Who is going to carry around a 2kg. packet when 0,5 is perfect. Of course, a larger sensor will always have a better image quality. The question is if we can see that difference and if we need that quality and if we are willing to pay for it. For me, when I travel, size and weight are certainly cost factors. No wonder, medium format has almost disappeared. Some other things about the camera market shouldn’t be forgotten either. In the future, I don’t think anybody would buy a camera without a good video function. In the future, I think mobile phones will have so good picture/video quality that most families would not even consider to buy a separate camera. And I don’t just think, I believe, that the camera market is going to fall a lot more. We have read here and there that the global camera market is declining. But this is not falling, it is normalizing! The only reason, why camera sales were up during the last 7-8 years is, that everybody replaced their old, film camera with new digital ones. No, it is done. New sales are minimal, replacement sales only if admirable new functionality is there. And exactly this in NOT present with DSLRs…. Look at this graph from Germany, which is one of the largest markets. In 2012, more than 1 mill. DSLRs were sold, since less and less. But the most important number is the 2001 sales, stating 200.000 cameras sold, the fourth of the last year’s sale, and probably this is the normal market size. Canon and Nikon have to find their market share under these conditions, and it is not going to be easy. Especially not for Nikon. Of course, these numbers are for the total camera market and not for the professional video segment. There are for sure differences, though mainly similarities. And a better car is a better car, nevertheless if you use it for taxi driving or family trips….

OMG.... I have been shooting with Canon for many years, never got any feelings about it, they were just tools. But nowadays, I am getting personal feeling about Canon. It is embarrassing. You treat me like an idiot. What cost-saving? This is a bloody expensive camera. Without any lens, you could have realized even more "cost-saving". No RAW while cost-saving.... Even my little cousin knows, that first comes the RAW then the JPEG. Shame. This is my other favorite.Canon tells us about their fantastic 4K lenses. Oohhh, yes, they are able to resolve 8MP... And now you think, what should you put on your 50+MP topmodel

Kudos for Panasonic!!! Again. They are the real champions of the last 10 years of digital camera convergence. They have made a fantastic camera, the first of the kind again! It looks like the first real video-cam with a large sensor. Yes, I am excited. I have been waiting for such a thing so long. Everything started after DSLRs became capable of making video. The indy-cinema and enthusiast filmmakers were happy for the swallow DOF and the lowlight potential of the large sensors. But beside these things, almost everything else was and is troublesome. You need a rig, external solutions for sound, focus, ND-filters etc… When you are creative, you work around these and find solutions. But if you have to move around with your camera, like documentary or news, a good old fashioned video-cam is a better solution. A fixed, reasonable lens with motor-zoom and autofocus, built-in ND filters, XLR and place for a mic, strong battery, viewfinder and LCD, functional buttons for everything, etc… Like Panasonic has been thinking out of their box, we should also be able to. Large sensor cameras are not only for creative filmmakers and enthusiasts, and there are so many models to choose from already. So please don’t think about, why Panasonic haven’t done another kind of camera. This time it was our turn :-) Let's see first the correct specifications and some pictures of course.