TrueIndigo

I liked the feel in the hand of some of those old Canon's too, Panny, which I bought purely for Magic Lantern RAW. The 5DII was thoroughly solid like cast metal. But strangely, I did prefer the industrial feel of the lowly 50D (so different from the hollow plastic of it's successor the 60D, that I also owned), which had a stiff metal plate structure beneath the grip fabric that I liked more than almost any other camera.

As if it weren't bad enough, when the world seems to be going mad each week with yet another WTF moment, at a personal level half the universe is suddenly in question and we wonder what's going on? In all inadequacy I know, but I send my healing thoughts to Zara and you Andrew at this difficult time. I've been very moved reading these posts, and hope they also help you to know something of the reality of the regard and honest feelings community people here have in support to you and the family. All the best.

Yeah, first camera I ever used (in a studio setting) was a Sinar 4x5, and you could only clearly see the image under a dark cloth (with your head to one side, of course, because the image was upside down). Punch-in focus in those days meant using a stamp magnifier on the ground glass screen, and the exposure check was a Polaroid back slotted in to give some idea of what the exposure (usually measured in seconds) might actually look like.

This is quite a well-known song but I only saw this official video recently - it's quite an enthusiastic performance video which captures very well the energy of the band.

Love the guitar work on this and a wonderful vocal from Rod Stewart:

Thanks androidlad, I saw that in the user guide and thought it was just "thirds" or something similar. Any idea what film ratios are available? There seems to be no screenshot or text info about the options.

I've quickly gone through the Z9 PDF user manual but can't find it -- are there film ratio marking options available in the display? Considering the headline video specs of this camera, I'm surprised if Nikon still expects you to put masking tape across the rear screen for 2.39:1 guidelines in 2022.

The Minolta 50mm:

The Yashica 50mm:

The Pentax 50mm:

Here is a vintage (SLR film era) 50mm lens comparison test, concerned with colour and bokeh characteristics, with all examples shot at f2.8 and the same exposure/camera settings, which were: Panasonic GH5 camera, UHD at 25p, 200 ISO, auto white balance (mod: green 4). Natural picture profile (mod: contrast 0, sharpness -5, NR 0, saturation 0), camera curves (mod: H-2, S+2). Exterior, overcast daylight. Focus point was the yellow flower head. Lenses used: Nikon AIS f1.4, Minolta MD f1.7, Pentax PK f1.7, Yashica ML f2.0. I was surprised at how similar some of the images were and labelled each as I went along to make sure there was no mix-up. Images are straight out of the camera with no post work, with a reduced scale image followed by 100% scale details. The first example: Nikon 50mm.

Webrunner5 - thanks for the comment, it was hyalinejim's LUT which did the heavy lifting on that image. Hyalinejim - Skin tones in this example were pleasing and accurate. I would say my dad's actual skin tone is highly similar to what you see here. For this particular image I actually increased the contrast a bit with colour correction, but I did not have much to do - your LUT nicely produced the image by itself. I arranged some coloured objects in the background as a crude colour chart and it's nice to see the coffee jar top rendering as a good red instead of orangey. Thank you for your big effort. Didn't keep many details of this test but it was: UHD, 25p, 10-bit, VLOG-L, 400 ISO, custom white balance from a grey card. Daylight interior with the subject lit by a single LED panel. Can't remember the exact lens but it would have been one of my vintage Nikon primes (AIS series). I know it's easy for me to say (because it must take a lot of work), but is it possible to make a version of your LUT for the HLG profile so that more people can use it?

Here are some 100% scale details from this frame.

Here is the image with just simple colour correction (colour wheels) to improve the image and then applying the LUT (ie. the filters used in that order), along with the resulting RGB parade.

Mostly shooting HLG on the GH5, but I found this test shot I made in VLOG-L some time ago and used the -7 version of your LUT on it. Skin tones look quite good. First of all here is the unchanged image with its RGB parade.

I use a GH5 and it's enough camera for my skills and modest ambitions. But for the sake of MFT survival, if the GH6 is evolutionary and not revolutionary then they might as well call it a GH5 III -- just how well did the GH5 II sell anyway?

It's a good question. I remember looking into this a while ago because I didn't know much about small external recorders, and was surprised there weren't many products to choose from and somewhat mystified that the Ninja Star had not been updated. I think there's a use value for these if the price is right.

Since the organic sensor has obviously failed to show up this time, it would be good if they did something extraordinary for sensor dynamic range (precisely because of the smaller sensor size and fast enough readout). For example, pushing the dual ISO technology to instead make two separate (tone mapped) pixel exposures within the same frame as a standout and unique MFT feature.

Many years ago when I used to regularly read the photography magazines, I was reading an article about "Classic cameras" and was surprised to see my own camera (at the time I had two Pentax MX bodies) was included in the article! Having bought them new it made me feel quite old, especially when it said: "These cameras are still capable of serious work" -- I thought: well, I'm still seriously using mine anyway! With digital things get older much quicker, so it's just my 1970's lenses that still shine now. That's progress I suppose.

Yes, I was thinking of the older cameras which only shoot FHD as their native resolution. I remember years ago doing an UHD upscale of some FHD footage from the old Nikon D5200 which looked quite pastel and smooth with some careful noise reduction. I think that camera used a Toshiba sensor and had a nice cyan tint to it which I liked. Later I bought the D5500 to pair with it, but it was quite different from the earlier camera, looked more generic, more modern I suppose.

I know it's probably not in the spirit of the thread, but with the passage of time there are some good quality and now cheap FHD cameras from the past that can make an organic-looking UHD enlargement during post. Some subtle sharpening can help if required, though the impression I get was native UHD can sometimes look too sharp for cinematic video. You can shoot in 2K and deliver in 4K - maybe that keeps you under $200.

Merry Christmas everyone, hope you had a good one. Here's hoping for a better New Year -- all the best.

I've gone through the PDF manual but can't find the answer: do you still have IBIS when shooting UHD in Ex. Tele Conv. mode?

I don't know, you're probably right; be interesting to see how it shakes out. Everyone has their ideas, ultimately we'll have to wait for the Fuji announcement.

On his YouTube channel Theoria Apophasis believes it's too early on the T series cycle to be an X-T4, so perhaps an H camera with a built-in battery grip to mark the Japanese Olympic Games. If so, expect it to be at least the launch price of a X-H1 plus the battery grip, maybe a bit more. Be interesting to see how this one shapes up, and what gets carried over in a firmware update for existing X-T3 owners. Fuji is very much on it at the moment.