Trek of Joy

Just speculating, but we all know Panasonic basically owns half of Towerjazz - a company with a stated goal to gain market share in the photo sensor world. That's what sparked the rampant (and incorrect) speculation about the d850's sensor. Perhaps the Towerjazz partnership is finally going to bear fruit for Panasonic? 8k with m43 never made any sense to me, after seeing the EVA-1 with a larger sensor and EF mount, I figured Panasonic would take a similar path with its 8k ILC. Chris

The only Ai-s lens I've used was the 50/1.2 with the rubber ring, so I can't comment of the performance of anything else. The 28-70 I had was the AF-s with the common dead AF motor - which means they're really cheap for such a great optic. The Nik is definitely a more modern optic that's better corrected with modern coatings - its well regarded as a very sharp zoom. My copies of Tok were soft until about f/4, especially on the wide end. I wish the focus throw was a little longer too. But the CA drove me nuts, so I ultimately moved on. The shot you posted looks good, the issues I had don't show as much. As always YMMV. Cheers Chris

IMO this is a good, but not great lens - and only in certain situations. I've had two copies of the bayonet version that I used on the 5d3 and a7s, and both were pretty soft wide open and had lots of CA - to the point it made shots unusable for me since I'm always shooting in bright sun. The Nikon 28-70/2.8 is a better lens IMO. Lots of people say great things about the Ang/Tok, and they can be found cheap - I don't think it'll be all that great on a 4k camera and its a brick if you're only shooting at f/5.6 to get a sharp shot. Just my opinion. Chris

43 rumors just posted a hot new rumor, Panasonic is crashing the FF party. Could it be a FF GH5? Or is this the 8k camera that's been rumored? https://www.43rumors.com/ft5-panasonic-will-announce-its-first-full-frame-system-camera-on-september-25/#disqus_thread

RS will probably be pretty bad on the 45mp sensor. It would have been nice if they did a couple whip pans, then we can compare the pole across the street with other cameras. I'd expect the Z6 to be better than the Z7, sensor readout should be a little quicker. Chris I was thinking the same thing, especially given they're pre-prod jpeg's. Sunstars on the 24-70 look good and the bokeh on the 35/1.8 I wish Sony would build looks great.

Are you in the US? Most of the listings on Fred Miranda's Buy & Sell board are US/Canada based, and you'll generally get better deals than fleabay since you're avoiding their ridiculous fees. You can regularly find 24-70/2.8 II's in the $1000 range, sometimes less if you don't mind external wear on the barrel. http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/board/10 There was a C100 on there a couple months ago for $1200. And there are a few WTB listings that show a mkII was bought. I'd post a WTB thread and an alert for any new FS listings to see what comes up. IMO 24mm is a little tight on a s35 sensor, especially inside, do you have any wides? Most of Cartel Land was shot with the 17-55/2.8 on a C300, and if you've watched it, the lens can certainly take a beating. I've only used it on a 60d, while its not perfect and a little noisy, its a useful range and brings in twice as much light as the 24-105 and its a constant aperture so no worries about exposure changes compared to something like the 18-135. If you're shooting R&G and 1080p, I can't imagine anyone would notice the IQ difference between that and something like the Sigma 18-35, but you do get the extra stop with the Sig and some wide angle/shallow DOF, which is a look I really like. Though something like the 18-135 nano seems like a no brainer as a knock-around lens, especially at used prices. Cheers Chris

From one of those interviews, they said the D5 and Df production is on pause right now too. Its all Z7. One other little tidbit, they said brass lens mounts were consumer models like the d5300, the high end stuff is all steel -- in one of the images it looks like brass rings next to steel rings. Hmmm... Chris

Nikon says they can make 20,000 Z7's a month in this interview. https://nikonrumors.com/2018/08/24/sendai-factory-media-tour-qa-currently-nikon-makes-20k-z7-mirrorless-cameras-per-month.aspx/ Here's some images from inside the factory showing the Z7 assembly line. If the d850 is made in Thailand, its not the same factory. https://www.shutterbug.com/content/these-50-images-show-new-nikon-z-7-mirrorless-camera-being-made-factory-japan Reading other reports from that factory tour, it sounds like they're not sure they'll be able to fill all the Z7 pre-orders before the Z6 is supposed to be released. Chris

I've shown no hostility toward anyone, its simply a figure of speech. I'm not going to continue some silly sophomoric debate about your incorrect interpretation of something I typed. If I wanted to show hostility, I would clearly state such, but I really don't care to bother. I've seen plenty of $4000 Otuses and more $10k+ long teles than I can count, so there's clearly a market for exotic glass at used car prices, even if its doesn't suite your needs or budget since Nikon isn't building gear just for you, its a unique addition to the system since current 0.95 FF glass is either not very good wide open or $12,000 in Leica land. I'm looking forward to tinkering with one. The Noct aside, MTF curves look really good with the 35/50 primes. They should be exceptional lenses, despite "only" being f/1.8. Cheers Chris

Please, get off your high horse. Once again you've injected a subtext into something I've typed. The price is speculation, it hasn't even been announced. If you "fail to understand" where this lens is aimed, that's a you issue, but its clearly a dagger aimed at the Otus line. My purchasing decisions are irrelevant. I will rent one when it and the Z6 are available, but I have no used for large MF primes on a day-to-day basis, so its not likely I'll buy one. Cheers Chris

Don't forget, you do have almost 20mp in crop mode on the Z7, but there's been talk of DX coming at some point. Most of the heavy lifting has been done with the development of the first Zed's. I think we see a down spec FF model too, with the Z6 sensor/AF, lower res EVF/LCD and a cheaper build body priced around $400 less - kind of the D600 of the lineup, call it the Z5. Early next year at CES makes sense for entry level DX models since its a consumer show with a much wider reach than photo specific events like Photokina. Chris

Given overall market share numbers - I'd bet Canon and Nikon are likely 1-2 in lenses, no way Sigma and Tamron are moving more lenses than the kit lenses on CaNikon's plastic DSLR's. Nikon has 25% of the overall market as seen in the graph below and Canon is pushing toward 50%. CIPA says 19 million lenses were shipped last year, and Nikon's annual report says they shipped 4.6 million, though Nikon's fiscal year runs through March 2018, and that is the slowest quarter for sales on a calendar year basis so they aren't perfectly aligned - especially since 2018 has been down YOY compared to 2017. I'm too lazy to try and find all the quarterly numbers to make everything match up, but that's still over 24%. Japan is obviously different, Olympus is huge there. Much like how Fuji is supposedly the #1camera brand in Thailand. Chris

Nikon building their own F-mount focal reducer, that's a brilliant idea, hadn't thought of that. Someone get Ken Rockwell to start banging that drum! Chris

Yeah, a Z6 body/evf/lcd would make a badass a6500 competitor. Though crop version would look funny with the smaller sensor in the big mount. But APS-c is where the volume lies, eventually they will enter that space, hopefully sooner rather than later. I get cashing in on the high-end, high margin hype, but there needs to be a couple bodies for the masses and they need to keep cranking out new product to hog the spotlight. Thom Hogan said they have a couple DX prototypes. He also said something I haven't seen elsewhere, the lens focus rings can be programmed for something else like aperture when the camera is in AF. If the 14-30 was available now, I'd probably give the Z6 a serious look when it starts shipping in a couple months. Fortunately for my credit card (and my marriage) we won't see it until sometime next year. Till then, I'll definitely rent one when Lens Rentals has them available. That 28/1.4 is calling me though... Chris

That 24-70 looks Sony GM sized, but that's to be expected. The 14-30 looks pretty reasonable given how wide it is, doesn't look much larger than the FE 16-35/4 outside of a fatter front element. I dig that Nikon is giving the Otus line the middle finger with the Noct. Hopefully they build more.

Damn, 10-bit, 1" sensor on the compact Mavic chassis. This will be my first real drone. I get the feeling we're about to see an onslaught of dolly zoom shots as well. Worth it though. Great job DJI. Great job. Chris

For a first effort, kudos to Nikon for swinging for the fences and not leaving a lot on the table. The Z6/7's look damn impressive, especially when you look at the Gen1 a7's. The EVF and LCD look awesome, I wish my a7III had the same spec. AF-c with F-mount lenses looks really good in the Dpreview video with Chris running at the camera, current Nikon users aren't losing much - or anything depending on what you shoot - by adding a Z body to their kit. Face tracking looks good, no eye AF, but you can't expect everything. The 6k-4k video should be awesome, if they can improve on the a7III's rolling shutter with the newer sensor, that would be a bonus. 10-bit out and Nlog shows they're taking video seriously. The lens roadmap looks good too. By the end of next year they'll have 2.8 zooms, a 14-30 UWA, and the most common primes. Nikon crashed the mirrorless party in a big way, personally they've exceeded expectations. By the time the Gen2 bodies come out they will be a force to be reckoned with. Hopefully product cycles aren't 4 years like the d850, and instead get D3/4/5 every other year updates. I'm sure we see more bodies - APS-c and a a9 competitor - before the 2020 Olympics too. Like the Dpreview guys, I'm going to call it the Zed. In a year or so when more lenses are out, used Z6's will be on my radar. I just don't want to buy yet another new card at the moment. Chris

The Noct has been unveiled.

Bastards, they fooled me! That looks like the shutter. They now say "no brand is safe in the mirrorless jungle." M43 is the only open source mirrorless mount. But Batis lenses are all E-mount so far. Let the speculation begin...

Nikon Rumors is saying dual cards, 1x XQD card or 1x CF Express card or 2x SD cards. None of the alphas can do 10-bit video over HDMi either. Plus they can do time-lapse, something Sony forgot about in the new cams.

The Chinese translation supposedly says its going to fill a void in the photo market. A left handed camera would certainly do just that.

I'd search Flickr and B&W (or other parameters) for whatever camera you're considering. The image threads on Fred Miranda have a lot of good samples too. Cool B&W's. Edit: stills-wise the XE3 and XT20 are going to be identical to the XT2 and so on, they all use the same sensor. And they (XE3/XT20) share the same internals, just a different form factor and the XT20 has a tilting screen. Chris

I'm still trying to figure out what that lame teaser image shows. Any ideas? Chris

For instagram and the web the GH5 is more than adequate, its even good for decent sized prints at 20mp. Where it falls apart is higher ISO's and larger prints - but that's the Achilles heel of m43 in general. The EM10mkIII and bodies like the GX85 are a great bargain on the m43 front. If you're looking at IBIS, Fuji is still a little wonky IMO on the video side and its good to marginal on the stills side depending on the lenses used due to the imaging circle. Fuji has a chart showing the best lenses. I spent some time with the XH1 and to me the IBIS was no better than the a7r2. I was all set to buy one, but was just unimpressed after comparing it to the XT2 and the a7r2. Its also fairly large compared to most mirrorless bodies. And it'd be the top of your budget before lenses, used copies are only in the $1400 range. I'd get the a7r2 before the XH1 if you're spending that kind of cash, but that's just me. I second BTM's recommendation of the a6500 with the Sigma primes as a small all-around camera that packs a big punch. Its small, has great AF and shoots great video - along with all its known issues. The Sig 16/30 1.4 are great lenses and can be found super cheap, especially used. I have the a6300, though mine spends most of its time mounted to a Sigma 150-600/MC11 these days, there's no denying Sony's APS-c cams are very capable. I'm not a jpeg shooter, so jpeg quality is irrelevant to me. I shot a lot of jpeg's when I first got into Fuji just to see what all the hype was about, and found I still prefer tweaking raws a bit and applying the Fuji profile in LR so things like blue skies don't get any baked in sharpening noise or just recovering highlights. I also like how easy it is to apply LUT's to stills in LR now, since I tend to shoot wide or with shallow DOF, a more cinematic look to stills really appeals to me. But that's a personal preference. Is IBIS a necessity? Since you have Canon, one of the EOS-m bodies with the stellar 22/2 would make a great street cam. Lots of choices. Chris

Latest rumors say 4 lenses this year - sounds like the 3 launch lenses and the Noct, and 4-5 more next year including 2 more zooms and a roadmap to spell it out. Chris