Trek of Joy

Maybe, but my point is its silly to point out any retailer that isn't stocking one particular camera body as evidence of anything beyond them not carrying it, its not relevant to any big picture discussion. There's literally no conclusion that can be drawn from a sample size of one out of many thousands of retailers, other than the fact one store isn't stocking the A9. Over the last few months I've seen them in China, Japan, Paris, Amsterdam, Cairo, Tel Aviv, Dubai, Rome, NYC and so on.

Anecdotal. As a counterpoint I was in Chengdu China a couple months ago and Sony was demo-ing the A9 to a crowd of about 50 people, including three bodies with GM zooms. This was just before the A9 shipped. They went outside to shoot a model dancing around, everyone had the chance to shoot with the cameras and pull their respective images off the card. After it was released I saw them at every Chinese Sony dealer. Just went to Adorama and B&H in NYC this weekend, each had a couple A9's out for people to tinker with and they had bodies in stock. The C line is very popular with doc shooters. My sister worked for NBC's doc unit for almost 2 decades, she screened pitches from production houses all over the world on a daily basis, many were shot on Canon. Its a pretty common ENG camera as well. News crews have adopted them as cheaper replacements for betacams.

The 1dc was whacked partly because of the success of the Cinema line, which seemed to catch everyone by surprise. They went from a new entry to a dominant player in a very short amount of time. And it didn't make sense to continue it when the 1dx2 was released. The 1dx2 is clearly the replacement as its a better stills camera than the original and a better video camera than the 1dc. The decision to bump the 1dx2's video spec was obviously made early on since development takes years, leaving the 1dc to twist in the wind. It was a cool idea that got overrun by its larger C100/300 siblings.

Dang, wish I would have known that, I was touring Sweden back in June. Sweet deal.

The Q I was looking at was $4000 new at Bic Camera, same at the HK stores and its the same at B&H in the states. Even used they're still well over $3000 on Fred Miranda. I realize its different where you are, but that's what I was looking at. I'm not fan of A7 ergos either. But the stills on the A7rII are still better, more DR and more detail. Leica's Panasonic sensors are a generation behind Sony, if not more given the A9's advancements. Colors can be matched in LR. If you prefer the lens that's another story. I agree that the RX1 is a little too small and the EVF is cramped, it would be much more user friendly if it were a little bigger. You can add a WA adapter to make the RX1 go wider. http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1369103 Depends on your preferences, I love the Sonnar rendering and the 35mm FL - or I'd prefer to be a little wider than 28mm, for me 24/25 or 35 works better. Again YMMV. But the sensor and the AF in the RX1rII is still superior, so I'd rather hack a wide angle adapter and get the better IQ. Or just live with the A7rII to get IBIS, better video and use smaller lenses like the Batis 25 or FE 28/35/55/85. I've almost bought a Q (and the RX1rII) a number of times after renting - I really do like it, just can't quite commit to a single FL when there are now so many good Fuji and Sony FE lenses. Cheers

Personally I'd take the A7rII/Batis 25 over the Q. I like the rendering of the RX1rII better too, but that's a personal thing. I spent some time playing with the Q in Tokyo and Hong Kong, AF-c and eye AF is far superior in the Sony. Plus there's video, better DR in the Sony and so on... I'm not a red-dot hater at all, I've owned a few R lenses including a 28, 35, 50 and the 35-70/4 is one of my all-time favorite lenses for video. I just didn't find anything particularly special about the Q other than its size and feel in hand - which I did like.

Agreed, and Fuji has already said as much. The smart move for them is to strengthen the GFX line, improve AF and video, and bring body costs down more to entice FF shooters to switch.

I'm not selling my tripod either, I do use it a lot. But I'm finding myself shooting less B-roll on the sticks these days, IBIS and a gimbal make the run-and-gun stuff easier for me. The tripod gets a lot of use shooting long exposures and time lapses. As always, YMMV.

Hmm... I'm at the point where I don't know if I'm ever going to upgrade my sticks again. For locked down interview stuff a tripod is a must, but a gimbal adds dimension to pans and tilts that makes the shots better visually IMO. With IBIS find and a gimbal I find myself using a tripod less and less all the time. Feels a little like this is 5 years too late.

This was done with a d800, agree its really cool.

To the OP, I would sell the a6300 get the R2 over another S2. Stills are much, much better at 42mp, and AF will be better in all but the darkest situations. Noise, DR and detail are better on the R2 compared to the a6300 when shooting stills. Heck, even in crop mode you still have 18mp images, giving you better IQ than any S2 image. I've always felt 24mp is enough, but when looking at the incredible detail 42mp resolves and the flexibility to crop or correct perspective with UWA lenses in post, I'm fast becoming a resolution junkie. Video-wise, the R2 4k is awesome in s35 mode, its softer in FF and much noisier when you get above 1600. I wouldn't use FF in anything but good light. Unless you need an ultrawide FOV, you aren't losing anything shooting the R2 in s35 mode, and in fact its a little more detailed IMO than the S2 because its an oversampled image. And since you have the S2, you still have an amazing FF 4k image. Then there's the small things, you can set them up with the same custom button settings and Fn menus so moving between cameras is easy. I've gotten to the point where I hate using different cameras together simply because of the muscle memory involved with finding/adjusting settings. With the R2/S2 you have two very different cameras that can be setup to mirror each other, unlike shooting with many other brands.

I'm guessing you're shooting raw. What you see in the EVF and on the LCD is a processed version of the raw. If you shoot a jpeg it should be pretty much identical outside of how your monitor is calibrated. If you're shooting raw it'll be flatter and less sharp when viewed on a computer. When you process it, then you can replicate the look you see in the camera. Chris

Great review, it'll be interesting to see how much Sony puts into the A7sIII. As of now, the GH5 really stands out as the camera for video. This update has me seriously thinking GH5 for a upcoming doc. It would be an easier decision if Panasonic had a PDAF system like the Em1.2, or Fuji, or Sony or...

I've been using the G3 for years, its a well proven system and you can find deals on ebay. I have the handheld cardioid and the lav. I had the plug in transmitter as well, but I rarely used it so I swapped it for the all-in-one mic. If I were shooting Sony, I'd seriously consider the MIS capable stuff to get a good feed right into the camera, for me that makes editing easier.

Huh? Batis is 11 elements 8 groups (identical to Tamron patent), Sony is 9 elements in 8 groups. Rendering is significantly different with busy backgrounds. They're clearly different lenses.

Great job, drone shots are getting a little tired, time lapses certainly aren't typical and they look much better IMO.

45mp Full touch screen/tiltable 4k/no crop 120fps/Full HD D5 AF 9fps 6fps/E-shutter 30fps/E-shutter at 8mp Sm/Med/Lg raw options (wish more cameras had this!) --- IMO, looks like a winner on paper ---

In that price range, why not just go A7rII? Anything $3k will likely be slow and pretty limited in its ISO range. Plus the size. cheers chris

Nice test Andrew, thanks for putting this together!

Most of the pros/cons have already been addressed. I will add the XT2's image also oversampled so its pretty much aliasing/moire free, I hate moire so that's a big plus for me. There's a thread here where someone matched a XT2 to a C100 with a color checker, so you can use them side-by-side. No zebras. I shot with Sony video cams for years and the A7s before moving to the XT2, I really miss zebras as they've always been my main exposure tool. Its ergos can be a little annoying at times - I shoot stills/video at the same time and there's no way to just simply hit record - you have to move the tiny mode switch four clicks in either direction to go from single shot to video. Really wish Fuji had put a dedicated record button or at least put single shot right next to video so you could click back and forth without having to check what mode you're in. If you miss you're in bracketing or multi shot. I'm traveling for a year with my cameras and find this especially annoying since I grab stills and video of everything I find interesting, so there's a lot of fiddling with that damn switch. With stills the X-trans still has the worm/watercolor issue with fine detail if you're using Lightroom. Its not as bad as the 16mp sensor, but it's still there. Personally if you're in the Canon camp with the C100, I'd go with Sony for the simple reason of electronic adapters - your Canon lenses will be fully functional on all bodies. Its a great camera, but with the a6500 offering IBIS and better AF - I'm not sure I'd be shooting Fuji right now if the a6500 was released instead of the a6300 - which I sold to go Fuji. Especially with the recent Sony lens releases. Chris

Still not impressed. I'd like to see some comparisons with other cameras because those smudged details and watercolor looking foliage look worse than Fuji files. I find the Red Hydrogen more interesting at this point.

If they want to be competitive with the rumored mirrorless body, sensor based PADF needs to be part of the equation.

If I put a deposit on one, I'd be pissed if someone really can jump the queue by walking into an Apple store. If they can't build them fast enough, perhaps Apple is helping out, but still. IMO placing it in the Apple Store is strictly for the loads of free PR providing added attention to the Hydrogen - since about 2 billion handheld mobile devices will be purchased this year, compared to the Raven which likely sells in the tens of thousands - at the expense of putting off a few Raven customers. For some reason this announcement is blowing up all over the web. A win for Red. It does appear Apple is trying to show it hasn't abandoned pro users as well. Time will tell.

What are you smoking, BSI would not add a full stop. It hasn't come close in any other application, not 1", not APS-c and certainly not FF. No currently available sensor tech is capable of adding a full stop to any sensor size. Personally I've found the battery life to be good with the new batteries, but I'm comparing it to the Sony A7's which are much, much worse. As far as lenses, the kit is ok, the 2.8 zooms are much better. For primes I prefer the faster lenses to keep ISO's down.

Interesting concept. I've yet to see one image that matches or exceeds the DR of the A6500 or A7rII. Quite frankly they still look like iPhone shots IMO. But I haven't seen actual raws from one either. I hope this succeeds, but the price - again IMO - means it will die a slow death once the initial shipments are fulfilled. Hopefully someone with deeper pockets will buy the IP and get the price point down.