BTM_Pix

The original article says the new service will consist exclusively of vertical content so it sounds like it you won't be able to upload landscape format. Philip Bloom is already gearing up for it . According to the article, its 1.8 billion users to 1 billion users in YouTube's favour at the moment but it also quotes a stat about the 40% reduction in teens watching TV in the past 5 years. I wouldn't have put teens watching regular linear TV as being very high 5 years ago so God knows what the figure is comparative to 10 or 20 years ago! YouTube is primarily a linear TV replacement service but if you've grown up consuming your media in a different way then YouTube becomes much less of draw. Those girls liking the stuff on Instagram won't be 12 forever, just as those of us who have grown up watching regular TV won't be around forever either. As we fall off one end, they'll rise at the other so it won't take much of a swing for 1.8 billion to 1 billion becoming 1.4 billion to 1.4 billion. I don't think YouTube is going to go the way of MySpace of course but they do have more than a little groundswell of discontent from some of their 'stars' (both established and upcoming) regarding decreasing earnings who thus far have had to shrug and put up with it because there wasn't a viable alternative. I imagine some of them will be wondering about the possibilities with this alternative.

From my own point of view, I voted No to the specific question of would you pay twice the price of the camera rather than do I not want it at all. I can imagine others did as well so I wouldn't take anyone voting No to be a definitive indication of their rejection of AF. We're already taking a (considered) leap of faith buying this camera without seeing a single frame of real footage to then compound it by doubling the price for the addition of a technology that BM have no track record of implementing even if they did have access to it. In some parallel universe where they could just flick a switch and have it implemented as well as Canon does ? Yeah, I'd pay some extra for a bit of that certainty in performance. But then if you look at the countless posts and debates all over the internet about AF performance, I have to say that it would throw up more problems than it solved for BM if it wasn't implemented perfectly from the get go and I'd sooner them focus (ho ho) on doing what they do best which is the image itself.

I have this lens and its AF performance is slightly better than the other small Sigma primes that I have for the A6500 (the 30mm f1.4 and the 60mm f2.8). Having said that, when I was testing it in the kitchen it decided to activate the face detect when it spotted the deep fat fryer. But thats the modern non judgemental way I suppose.

TechArt making a version of their AF for MF lenses adapter for MFT would be a huge seller just for this camera alone, let alone all the other MFT cameras. I've just ordered the E mount version so may revise this opinion if its shit

I was mainly musing about the format in general to be honest and I meant them as separate entities to be fair rather than the whole driver behind the decision. The first being a general observation regarding an increasing amount of non consumer created content being shot in a vertical format, so there is commercial content for Instagram TV. The last part of the linked post referenced future ad content so I meant it in reference to that. The second being that the user generated content from their most active creators (the younger end of the market using smartphones to shoot on) are more than likely shooting vertically as well. Every time one of my nieces or nephews hands me their phone to look at a video, I instinctively turn it landscape and tut and have to turn it portrait because most of the screen is black. And of course the reverse is true if I hand them my phone to look at a video they turn it portrait and tut and have to turn it landscape for the same reason This is not the death knell or anywhere even near close to being the end (or even the beginning of the end) of landscape format for video but it's probably the biggest marker that vertical format is definitely not going away and will likely co-exist at least. Which presents a challenge or opportunity I suppose in how to adapt or adobt for many people if they want to create content for it. This doesn't just mean for your own content for an Instagram channel but if you're looking to produce content for it for other people. And will need different solutions. Might it even be something that a 360 camera is suited for be because its framing agnostic and you can steer the point of interest in post ? Or maybe even in the app itself? Or do you shoot "landscape for portrait" with a regular camera for the same point of interest dynamic framing in post? It will all be moot of course if it doesn't have a strong pick up from users so only time will tell if the production value requirement of the uploaded content ever warrants any more consideration than holding a smartphone steady. The aspirational nature of a lot of the current still image content on there would suggest otherwise though but who knows how it will shake out. Certainly not me. I'm so far out of touch with Instagram that I might as well be sat in my attic listening to 78s and reading a book by candlelight.

A lot of ad boards in shops etc are showing vertical video content either on a portrait oriented display or as twin content arrangement (with info on the right) in a landscape oriented display. This is especially prominent in clothing and cosmetic stores, probably as a continuity of a traditional magazine format that those ads would be seen in if they were in print. Instagram is very big with fashion influencers so its quite a natural fit from that point of view as well as from those pesky youngsters tending to shoot everything in general in vertical mode.

And a testament to my addled brain that I'd forgotten all about it !

To be fair, its an easy hack for the unlimited record time and the USB powering means you can run it for as long as you have space on the memory card. Or until it goes on fire, which ever happens sooner.

I think its just a big button job isn't it? Person comes in, presses button, shakes hair for a few seconds and then it autoplays on a TV. So a button into a Raspberry Pi (either connected to a GPIO or a bluetooth key or midi button/footswitch), when it picks up the trigger it starts the camera, counts to however many seconds are needed, stops the camera, requests the files.html from the FlashAir, pulls out the last file name in that list, fires up mplayer with that file name, HDMI out of Pi to TV and job done. Funnily enough, I actually experienced a slow-mo photo booth in Tokyo last month at a Sasmung event for the S9. Which I had completely forgot about ! So, the alternative answer to this might well be to use a Samsung S9

Yes, its certainly functional and is a solid buy as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure that you can probably tweak it somewhere in those menus to eek a bit more out of it.

I've recently bought the Sigma 1.4 30mm lens for my A6500. I can't bring myself to do the whole sashay towards the camera or appearing from the bottom of the frame routines to test the AF in what appears to now be the accepted industry standard manner though. What I will say though is that in the brief testing I've done with it on non-catwalk or weightlifting simulation situations, it has thrown a couple of those "no, I'm fine where I am thanks" moments where it just wouldn't catch again that @jonpais saw on his 50mm version.

If you're looking for something where the presence of it was previously only available at the highest end so was also a reasonably good indicator of overall performance but when incorporated into cheap products is not only not a magic bullet but can be completely rendered pointless by the rest of the junk that makes up the product? Got to be the resurrection of valve mic pre-amps for me .

I probably should have mentioned that I do have one of the FlashAir cards that I have been testing with in a GX85 so I can confirm the functionality with mplayer addressing it and the simultaneous remote playback of a video file whilst recording a new one (which is a functionality I have an interest in for a different purpose ). The rest of it in terms of programming is just http request stuff which is no major hardship so that will be fine too. The only bugbear may be the start up speed for the sort of files that you are generating but, as I say, I can't think of an alternative hands off solution with the way Panasonic cameras operate. Well, I can but I'm not sure how keen you are to take the camera apart.....

As far as I can see from the manual (I don't have a GH5), the Tether app has the option to write to the host PC as well as the card? If mplayer can play files while they're still writing as @tupp says then it would be able to do that so wouldn't need playback within the Tether app. It depends on your file but mplayer should at least smooth out the playback even if it does take some time to buffer. Its obviously limited by the nature of it being a wifi device but I'm out of options for getting it out of the camera any other way Yes, I was playing fast and loose with terminology but WebDAV mapped as a drive if you need it. In this application with mplayer we would just access it directly by ip address

Turns out he went to work for Panasonic themselves...... http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?243166-DVX100-modification-HD-4-4-4-information-request/page2&s=628906553bed12c28f1ced68df216f3d That makes it an even bigger conspiracy theory than the other mob buying him out

It has 8 storable focus points and you can transition from any to any with 4 preset speeds. The stick can do both manual focus or can act as a transition controller between 2 stored points.

They've missed a trick by not having a music streaming service for us gentlemen of a certain age and calling it Instagramophone

OK, here we go ... My understanding of what the actual setup is going to be is that it is pretty much akin to a photobooth but for slo motion video. (please chime in @18hans if I'm mistaken) I'm guessing its either an art installation or something to help people with their golf swing So, the flow would be as follows : Person enters booth Person presses physical switch to instigate recording After a defined period of time recording is stopped Recorded video is automatically replayed on a screen in the booth To instigate the recording, we are going to need some way of interfacing with that physical switch and putting the camera in record whether thats via wifi or with a shutter release cable and then having a counter and then stopping the recording. Consequently we are going to need some sort of microcontroller to handle the switch, the logic and the camera control, whether thats a Pi or an Arduino or some such. That bit is the easy part. The main issue is in having a way to extract files off the camera whilst still keeping it operative. Going into playback mode over wifi by spoofing being Panasonic's app is a non-starter as it kills the HDMI output. The standard USB mode will stop the camera functionality and just use it as a very expensive SD card reader whilst the Tether app for the GH5 has a few drawbacks It lists 'some limitations' when being used for video (I have no idea what they are but that doesn't sound good It needs a 'real' computer to run it on, which may or may not present budget and/or footprint issues for the application its being used for There is no way within the Tether app to instigate the record start/stop from a physical switch complete with the timer aspect If the budget does allow for a Mac to run it on then it might well be a workable solution as whilst its not possible to create the record start/stop logic inside the Tether app it is possible to create it using something like Keyboard Maestro https://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/ to record screen macros of the record button being pressed and trigger it from a keyboard or even over midi. Midi might well be the way to do it because there are numerous small controllers and foot switches available off the shelf that could be used to handle the input from the user of the booth. That setup would keep the camera operative whilst it is transferring files back to the Mac. I'm not familiar with mplayer scripting so @tupp can chime in here but my presumption would be that it can be scripted to play the last file in a folder which could then be triggered by a watch folder option on the incoming folder? So, if you've got the budget and the space for the computer and the midi controller then this could be all you need. However..... If you don't or would prefer a smaller and cheaper option, my £40 solution would be to put one of these Toshiba FlashAir wifi SD cards in the camera : Because the camera doesn't know or care that it has these extra capabilities, there is no interruption to the camera operations as it just thinks it is an SD card. Although it serves a similar purpose to the EyeFi cards, its actually a lot more open in terms of what you can do with it and can be used just as if it were a typical network drive. So if you simply put "http://192.168.0.1/DCIM/101_PANA/P1010790.MP4" into mplayer then it will play that file off the camera without the camera being any the wiser or stopping you doing anything. This includes recording another video on the camera at the same time as you are streaming from it by the way ! Obviously, from a programming point of view, this openness makes it easy and fast to come up with custom solutions as it can all be done with standard http commands (it stores its file list on a specific html page on the card for instance for quick retrieval). It also means that you can remotely manipulate files on there to do routine file deletions (or moving to another drive in your network if you use it in Station mode) so it can be left running unattended. It can also run LUA scripts from the card to do even more stuff like being able to ftp in and out of it. Full documentation here : https://www.flashair-developers.com/en/documents/api/ From the control of the camera point of view, if you are using a Pi, then its a small Python script with the GPIO to get the user switch, instigate the camera record out of another GPIO (hack a cheap remote shutter release), timer, stop recording, get the file list html file off the card, extract the last file name and then fire up mplayer to auto play it. This script looks like it would be easily modifiable to get something up and running fairly painlessly https://github.com/baudm/mplayer.py/wiki/Player You could also instigate the record start/stop over wifi to the camera but you would then have to use a small router for the Pi to be able to address both the camera and the FlashAir card. If you do go this route, make sure you get the W-04 version obviously as this has the fastest performance. In summary ( ) the PC/Macro/Midi/Mplayer route would be something that you can get up and running with a USB cable quicker but at quite a big cost expense and footprint wise but the FlashAir route is cheaper, smaller and a bit neater if you can invest the time in the Python/hardware side of it.

It was a hardware modification that took a tap straight from the A/D The original development thread is here http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/alternative-imaging-methods/20332-4-4-4-12-bit-uncompressed-dvx100.html There is a degree of conspiracy theory about who the company sold out to and if the buying company then went about acquiring all the modded cameras that were out in the wild. The strongest theory was that it was bought by a company that was about to start developing a cinema camera and needed to acquire the tech to stand up the patent they were filling for recording video in a RAW format. The sort of company that would have re-branded it in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS and put vaguely military industrial styling on it....... Allegedly.

The issue/challenge is the automation aspect though @tupp in that the files need to be accessed from the camera directly without any manual intervention (ie taking the card out to be played in an external player or even using the camera's physical controls to instigate playback). I think I have worked out a sneaky solution to this problem though........ Tune in tomorrow night for details

Thats what I thought before I went hunting for the EVF/LCD switch option. Spoiler Alert :::: There isn't one so kiss goodbye to one of your function buttons

OK, I'll see what I can do. I was thinking of incorporating some playback into my controller anyway so it could be useful. I don't have a GH5 to test with so can you do me a favour and subscribe to this thread, that way you'll get an alert if I add something as there may be some testing I need you to do if I come up with a solution.

Yeah, I'm probably going to have do something radical and download the user guide. And actually read it. Oh the humanity !

OK Leave it with me. My initial reaction is to say this is more readily doable with a Sony camera because their remote protocol is a bit more rounded (not to mentioned documented) than the Panasonic one but I'll have a look.

My view as a recent reluctant joiner to the Sony party via the A6500 is that as you are going to be spending a significant amount of timing cursing it and ploughing through endless menus shouting "Where the f** are you, you little f***" to hunt down and change a setting then you might as well spring for the A6500 over the A6300 as at least you'll be getting a bit better reward for your quests