Phil A

While I really dislike the film simulation dial (I shoot raw so it's wasted), I absolutely love the fact that Fujifilm put a joystick on every camera. I will never ever buy a camera (especially for photography) without a joystick for focus point selection. With most brands, you have to buy the upper-mid / high-end models to get a joystick as focus point selector.

I’ve received my filter adapter for the iPhone today. I wanted it to be as flexible as possible and didn’t want one that’s integrated with a proprietary case nor one using proprietary magnetic filters. Setup is the iPhone 16 Pro with the JJC MFS-II MagSafe 67mm filter holder and the ACASIS 2239 MagSafe SSD case with a 1TB Corsair MP600 Mini in it. I’m using it with my normal Torras case, because when you take off the rubber it fits perfectly in (twss).

Where I live, the S5 II came out for 2450 EUR equivalent at today's exchange rate... and since a month, with the current discount, it sells new for 1299 EUR. To be honest, as a former Product Manager, you don't give nearly 50% discount because your product is doing amazing. So hard to say how much of a success it was. I still believe the weakness is the lens eco system of L mount for a lot of people.

The only product I'd consider would be the Shinobi II because they made it smaller and it seems decent for the price. Critical focus and exposure are sometimes hard to judge on the small screens of mirrorless cameras. Comparable products from other manufacturers are not that much cheaper. But let's be honest, what we really want is a monitor like the new BMD PYXIS monitor, that we just plug in with one cable, no battery and be done. Most monitors for consumers/prosumers are thicker than they should be and have borders that are way too thick (incl. the new Shinobi). Having external recorders always was a dumb idea to me because I don't want different formats/bit depth/color spaces depending on if I shot that part of the project with or without the recorder.

I struggle with the prices of the Q and SL Leica systems. While the M has a clear differentiator because there are no competitors (except for that super niche PIXII that I never saw someone use even on social media), the other two are something that Sony/Panasonic/... could easily replicate for half the price if they'd want to. It's funny when the Leica fanboys start arguing that it's worth paying 3k more than a competing product because it has less buttons or no "unnecessary" video function, etc. Reminds me of back when the DSLR guys were suspecting that the camera would be WAY cheaper if they had no video recording (but of course still have live view).

The Light camera that was hyped a decade ago would have really hit this spot. Too bad that never panned out. I used to shoot a Canon EOS 1Ds III with assorted L glass when traveling... now I am already frustrated by carrying a X-H2s with 2 lenses around on trips. Can't wait for the same results with smaller/less gear.

That thing looks like it will not even remotely cool the CPU under sustained load and will thermal throttle the performance into Nirvana.

I would definitely not buy an Alienware prebuilt. They tend to have poor upgradability, might use weird custom parts (I think in the past there were custom sized mainboards and/or PSU used in some models) and tend to have no too great thermals. Building a PC is quite easy and there are part lists available to ensure compatibility between components.

I just bought the Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 for my Fujifilm, but it's also available in E-Mount. I'd rather sacrifice some range and have a smaller lens. Else there is also the Tamron 17-70mm f/2.8

You can't, that's only on iPhone 15 Pro (Max)

The disappointing but absolutely not surprising part is, that this feature doesn't come to the older iPhone Pro (Max) models. It would probably be technically possible to implement the log profile via an update on e.g., iPhone 14 Pro as it already has a 48mp sensor with HDR, but that's not helping the sales cycle from Apple's perspective. I don't think it's impossible from the hardware side to skip some of the (over)processing of the image.

What I kinda wonder is about the dynamic range for photography. I still have my GH5 that I never parted with and objectively the pictures of the X-T4 have more latitude for editing, but I just liked using the GH5 so much more as I find Fujifilm's controls just not conductive to the user experience (obviously subjective). I guess just jumping to a S5 II would be the best of both worlds? "Bad" rolling shutter though for handheld. Still no perfect camera out there.

In Switzerland a new S5II from a store is 1763 CHF while the S5IIX is 2599 CHF... so hard to justify the price difference, considering what you can get for the 200$ firmware upgrade... so I guess with some luck, one might get a used S5II for 1000 less than a new S5IIX at this point. But I have to agree that I feel like there's a big opportunity missed by not having BRAW to an SSD instead of to an external recorder.

I still have my GH5 because I couldn't pull the trigger on selling it. It's a camera I always had 100% confidence in, imho top notch user experience too, and I wish the S5 would have been just basically a carbon copy of its features and body with a bigger sensor (biggest deal breaker for me was the step back with the EVF; S1 obviously with a great EVF but just too big & heavy). I also believe that the GH6 is a great camera with a huge feature set. But I've seen reviews where they said that the sensor is actually a downgrade to the GH5 when it comes to quality for still images, which is a big downside for a hybrid. There's the mentioned BMPCC4k, but that's a 4 year old camera with no signs of them updating it (looks like they moved on to APS-C, which would be more interesting to me if it retained a mirrorless mount). Generally I look at these things sometimes a bit in a different perspective because I'm not working in a creative / art endeavor but in an industrial field where there is less emotion involved. It's good to have variety of choice and many different niche options, but Panasonic is heavily cutting prices and the people who do buy their cameras prefer to shoot with 3rd party lenses (because half of the M43 lenses nowadays are the same size as APS-C/FF) on 3rd party adapters while using 3rd party batteries. There was always that talk about Canon selling lenses over cameras when it was EF mount, seems for Panasonic it is pretty much the reverse. There is no real "manufacturer ecosystem" that people are locked in because they often buy nothing from the camera manufacturer besides the body. People like to talk about what corporations ought to do for their loyal customers, the good of mankind/art, etc. but in the end, when you look behind all the mission/vision talk, most big companies operate to make higher profit to increase shareholder value.

So here in Switzerland, the GH6 released for 2499 CHF in end of February. Today I've seen it for 1757 CHF with an additional 200 CHF cash back offer. So basically price dropped by nearly 38% in just 8 months. Is it now time to say Micro4/3 is dead? 🤐 I assume the fact that the market is saturated with affordable new/used full frame options and the majority of buyers of dedicated camera systems being into photography is pretty bad for the M43 ecosystem. BlackmagicDesign has moved on to APS-C sensors, the Sharp 8k M43 camera never materialized. People who want to shoot vintage S16 glass just use a high-res FF/APS-C body with a crop function.