Trek of Joy

I was only speaking to the imaging division, obviously medical devices and things that are not OMD's are Olympus' main business these days. Chris

Olympus is in a tough position, as pointed out, they're not exactly setting the world on fire from an earnings standpoint. Like Fuji they're a small niche brand with a tiny market share. And most reports show Instax is keeping Fuji's imaging division afloat, if you removed Instax would a small volume system like the GFX even exist? Olympus has no cash cow like Instax and they're painted into a bit of a corner by having nothing outside of m43 and compacts. The lack of cooperation between Panasonic/Olympus is a big failing, they should have worked together on things like lens compatibility to strengthen m43, instead they both went their separate ways and fought over a minuscule amount of market share. The most likely scenario for Olympus to add to its lineup outside of m43 is joining another mount. I just can't see how they can justify the expense/risk of a new mount when m43 isn't really helping the bottom line. The L-mount makes most sense, they could do FF, or pivot away from the $3000+ FF bodies and do APS-c. But a larger sensor version of the EM1.2 would be significantly more than the EM1.2's $2k launch price - again painted into a corner by their non-competitive pricing. They could make lenses for other mounts like the EF, F and E-mounts along the lines of Sigma/Tamron/Tokina, but that doesn't seem likely. A few of those FF lens patents sound awesome, but given Olympus pricing, they all sound like $1500-2000 primes, and that's not a very large market either. In a 2-3 years everyone outside of Pentax will be heavily into mirrorless, in a declining market some will really feel the pinch. IMO Fuji (when Instax hits the saturation point and sales fall off a cliff) and Olympus will be hit hardest since stills shooters are still the main driving force behind high end cameras - and the IQ just isn't at FF levels. That combined with the fact top end m43 pricing is moving into FF territory, its easy to see why the a7III has been such a runaway success. Quite frankly, its tough to see where Olympus can grow or even keep their current volume levels if they stay m43 only. But its also tough to see where they can move forward without partnering with someone else. Chris

Photons to Photos has a DR measurement for the XT3, no difference other than a slight bump at base ISO that brings it to a6500 levels. Chris

How does the rolling shutter, 10-bit, 4k60p, log profile and lens selection with the NX1 compare to the XT3? Are you really focusing on the 120p crop and not looking at the entire package? You can shoot 30 raw still images per second with the XT3 and 4k 10-bit internal with a true log profile, come on. The NX1 was a nice camera, but the XT3 is a NX1 that goes to 11, with a much better ecosystem. Chris

Innovation comes from the little guys. The built in SSD, larger LCD, connectivity, and LR integration is brilliant. I still think it sucks we have cheap 5" phones and 3" screens on $3000+ cameras. SSD's are far cheaper than cards like v90, Cfast and XQD that are being spec'd in current high end bodies. Though I'd want at least one card slot for redundancy, you can have much faster write speeds with internal memory. The video on the Zeiss site looks like the LR CC mobile app, which is great for quick edits, and with this camera you don't have to mess with offloading to your phone with a fiddly adapter or crappy app. Nice job Zeiss, I hope they sell a lot of them. With all the new mounts, perhaps they're testing the waters for a ILC too.... Chris Perhaps things like time-lapse, focus stacking and more.

Shot extensively with the 18-55, 16-55, 50-140, 10-24, 23/1.4, 56/1.2 and 55-200 -- all on the XT2. I've also spent time in camera shops demo-ing just about every other X-mount lens available. The absolute worst AF of all my lenses was the 56, followed closely by the 23/1.4. In good light they're fine - slower and noisy compared to the LM lenses like the 16-55 and 50-140. But in dim light they hunt a lot and are really slow to lock. The 56 was useless at night, I just couldn't get it to lock onto anything. I bought it to use as a low light portrait lens and stopped carrying it because it was just so frustrating in use. Bokeh was gorgeous wide open, it has great rendering, but AF is a chore. My Sony 85/1.8 on the a7r2 and now the a73 is a pretty dramatic difference, much faster and very useable in low light conditions. The 23 wasn't as bad as the 56, its moving a lot less glass so that helps. They're both pretty bad for shooting video because of the noise and the hunting. I find the 10-24 to be better in low light, so I typically carry that instead of the 23. The 90 with the LM motors is significantly faster than my 23/56 combo, so are the f/2 primes. I really wish Fuji would update the older primes with newer focusing motors. Chris

Source? In the presser they don't mention anything about exclusive L lenses, and that really doesn't follow Sigma's history of porting lenses to multiple mounts. It wouldn't surprise me to see them in L-mount first, but Sigma needs to recoup development costs so I'm betting everything will find its way to E-mount, and R/Z mount down the line. For a small company, the economy of scale makes a lot more sense. Dpreview now says sigma is doing a FF, L-mount, Foveon body next year. They're also doing a EF-L mount adapter, though after using the MC-11 on the a7s2 and a73, unless the L-alliance has something revolutionary up its sleeve, AF is going to be a chore with adapted glass. https://***URL removed***/news/4798649806/sigma-to-take-foveon-full-frame-and-move-to-l-mount Not sure if its been posted, but there are pics of the prototypes on 43rumors. I hope that on/off switch isn't the final design... https://www.43rumors.com/first-real-world-pictures-of-the-panasonic-sr1-camera/#disqus_thread Chris

DFD. SMH. A 47mp 4k60p body with a AF system from 2005. Not sure what photographers they're focusing on, perhaps film shooters looking for their first digicam? As a video body it could be something, we'll have to wait until next year to see. But I'm sure we see another FF 4k60p body before this is actually released. I do like the big body with lots of controls and space between the grip and lens mount. Sony are you listening? The best thing about this L-mount alliance is that Sigma may finally start designing lenses for short registry mounts instead of just rehousing their gargantuan DSLR lenses. Chris

A lot will hinge on the AF capabilities, rumors have Panasonic still pretending PDAF doesn't exist. A 48mp body can make waves on the stills side, but DFD is not the path to be competitive with CaNikon and Sony. IBIS, 4k60p, FF, we're getting closer to the magical "one body for everything" - but DFD means the S will still have a nasty wart. Chris

Beautiful piece. Columbia is an awesome country to explore, spent a few weeks there at the end of last year. Its a little bit of everything that makes Latin America so special in one place. Chris

I'd be interested in seeing that one. If you have the time, please put something together. Chris

Those curves were part of the FCPx 10.4 update, I love them, makes adjustments so easy. Chris

Sold my a7s2 for the a73, I wouldn't touch the a7s3 unless Sony bumps the MP so FF 4k is oversampled, offers 10-bit and 4k60p internal and a hybrid AF system. I have doubts about Sony's willingness to encroach on the FS5 with an Alpha camera, I just don't think they do it. The whole SAR narrative about "Sony has the a7s3 ready and is watching the competition before releasing" is so silly, the admin makes himself look like more of a blind fanboy every time he posts that nonsense. Chris

That reel is gorgeous, you sir are very talented. Chris

Just saw Train to Busan on Netflix. Kinda brings that full circle, ha, ha. But seriously its pretty good for a genre as tired as zombie movies. Icarus won Best Doc this past year. Its also really good, and has a great twist since I didn't know the whole story going in. Its only a matter of time before Netflix captures more statues as they're investing so heavily in content, more than many studios. Shows like Ozark and Stranger Things demonstrate they are capable of producing something really good - or the complete opposite of Bright. Chris

I wish they'd bring the a99 style hinge to the a7's. I prefer that to the side hinge as I'm constantly using the tilt function to shoot overhead and low to the ground stuff. I do hope to see a slightly larger body too, but that doesn't seem to be a priority with Sony. Chris

Mmmmm.... pancakes..... Hawaii seems to do that to people, the reaction is surprisingly positive from arguably the most uninspiring announcement so far. The XT3 and Zed's both look far better than the RF. Speaking from experience, a few Mai-Tai's can do that to people though... Chris

If they can sort out AF, an adaptable mount could work. Let's say it really is the 8k ILC with a new mount. With a short enough flange distance - in theory - they could do a 2x m43 4k crop with m43 lenses, a 5k-ish oversampled APS-c 4k with APS-c lenses and 8k with FF glass. That would require a m43 adapter, if the flange distance is like Nikon's 16mm that could be enough to make it happen. A EF adapter would make a lot of sense in this scenario if they actually want to move a lot of product. A m43 adapter would say "we're not abandoning m43." Plus you could use focal reducers and FF lenses in m43 mode and swap adapters to shoot FF. I think they could make it happen, but at what price? I doubt their first FF will be cheaper than the $2500 GH5s, which had the benefit of reduced development costs since so much was shared by the GH5. And how far is Panasonic willing to step on/over EVA1 territory? If the AF isn't up to Canon, Nikon or Sony levels, stills shooters will largely ignore this camera, in which case it seems like it could be just another comet streaking across the mirrorless landscape, like the NX1. Chris

I would guess at this point anything not coming from Blackmagic is clickbait fakes. Preorders have undoubtedly gobbled up the first few months of production, perhaps longer. They're going to sell them as fast as they can crank them out for awhile. The P4k certainly doesn't need a blogger junket like the EOS-R to convince people to buy, it looks flat out amazing. Chris

Smaller than what? Not smaller than the Sony's pictured. Its a typo, the GM is obviously 2.8.

The EOS-R is now in the Camerasize database. I don't think Canon understands the meaning of 'go big or go home'

Damn impressive offering for anyone, especially Fuji. Faster readout makes all the video, face detection and high FPS stills shooting possible. It looks like Fuji has been able to match Sony in that regard. I like the locking diopter adjustment, I'm always adjusting mine because it get moved in the bag. But... The stupid mode switch to go between stills and video hasn't changed. The dial fell off one of my XT2's and required a $200 top plate replacement, likely because I was constantly moving between single shot and video. It wouldn't be so bad if they were right next to each other so you're only moving back and forth with one click. That and the 126s battery are the biggest drawbacks, all that capability and the GFX's battery is MIA. Also disappointed they didn't bring the forward facing LCD from the XT100. I'm renting one, but will hold off on buying to see what Sony brings since presumably this is a new Sony sensor and Fuji has really only caught Sony in most respects with zebras, 425 AF points, -3ev AF, and so on - only surpassing them on the video side. Rumors point to a APS-c Sony with the same features so we'll see how it all shakes out. This bodes well for the XH2, hopefully we don't have to wait a couple more years since its still fairly new. Chris

My kit always seems to fluctuate as I shoot a lot of stills. But for now... A-cam: Sony a73, B-cam: a6300 Lenses: 16-35/4, 28-75/2.8 (main lens, with clear image zoom I can go 1.5x magnification for a little more reach), 70-200/4, 28/2 Audio: Rode Video Micro for in cam nat sound, Sennheiser G3 wireless lav and handheld mic for interviews and off cam sound (will be adding the Sony XLR module and a shotgun at some point) Stabilization: Manfrotto Video Monopod, Moza Air Gimbal when traveling by air, Benro S8 Carbon tripod when driving Monitor: 5" Lilliput HDMI monitor - though I haven't integrated this into my travel workflow yet Backpack: Lowepro Flipside Trek 450 AW, all the above fits inside with the monopod strapped to the pack, minus the Benro If I need to shoot any wildlife or sport and I'm not flying, I also have a Sigma 150-600/MC11 combo to adapt to Sony bodies for some extra reach Cheers Chris

Give it a couple weeks until we see how everything shakes down. But so far I agree, Nikon has moved the needle the most. I still think Panasonic's announcement will be the mysterious 8k ILC they've been hinting at, which would be something in the neighborhood of a 40mp 3:2 sensor. I still believe using the EF mount makes the most sense too, otherwise it'll be an incredibly small volume camera, and anything Panasonic is already small volume compared to CaNikon and even Sony. Good times, in a few weeks all will be revealed! Chris

Been working on learning color correction with the new-ish tools in FCPx 10.4, so I'm using the P4k samples as grading practice. I'll admit I'm a total novice, but I hope I'm heading in the right direction. The red jersey in the MTB video was way hot, so I pulled it down a bit. The balloon was tough with the sun in one part of the shot. The bugs gave me the heebie-jeebies. Cool stuff, hopefully more to come. Thanks Blackmagic for the samples. Chris