BTM_Pix

A 21st century Viewcam 🙂

So, as per reports today, Sigma have registered an EVF in Korea.. Might suggest a new Fp is on the way but I'm wistfully imagining that they've pulled a rabbit out of the hat and made one that side mounts to the current Fp like the hot shoe attachment does.

The embargo for the a1 reviews ends today so if anyone needs me I'll be working on my thumbnail...

It might be bleeping brighter on the radar after Fujfilm issued this statement about the GFX100s yesterday being a far bigger hit than they'd anticipated. "The mirrorless digital camera “FUJIFILM GFX100S” scheduled to be released in late February has received more reservations than expected, and the number of preparations has exceeded. Therefore, it may take some time before the ordered product is delivered." Mind you, "more reservations than expected" might just mean they've sold seven but only expected to sell six 😉 Even if it has sold a load more relative to expectation, it will still be dwarfed by the other $6.5k camera released last week. The embargo for publishing content made with the Alpha One expires on the 4th and judging by the videos already on YouTube of it being unboxed then that particular hype train is already being loaded up and readied to leave the station.

I don't think it is as clear cut as that when it comes to YouTube channels. If you were making money off affiliate links then the click through to purchase rate is going to be far higher for an A7Siii than something more niche than a GFX. Making a video to direct someone to an evolutionary purchase of something they already own or have a comparatively similar product to is going to be far easier than it is to guide them towards a step change in systems. Being in that niche also means there are less opportunities to make spin off content about comparisons with similar products, as once you've done the shock faced thumbnail holding the GFX and a Hasselblad X1D/907x or even the H6D-100C then there aren't many more places to go. The commercial realities of producing that content and building a big enough following to moneitise it aren't always necessarily aligned with a product's performance, which is why Sigma's Foveon cameras or Z-Cam's offerings, for example, are almost criminally underrepresented on that platform. There are a few exceptions but, in general terms, they are basically being the final nudge in selling people more or less the product they were going to buy anyway. To reuse the Spinal Tap analogy from earlier in the thread, consumers are already at 10 and the role of the channel is to give them that extra push.

I'm a photographer first and foremost so look at it the other way round. That the stills side of it exists in such a useable package (particularly in the form reduced GFX100s) is amazing and the video side of it is more than acceptable for me considering the ProRes/ProRes RAW option is also there if I need it. I brought up FF lenses primarily in respect of there not being ultra fast MF lenses being available in that they can also be used if required which means they can also help people transition into the system. I see this as a practical advantage rather than a stick to beat it with in terms of its sensor size not being dramatically bigger than FF. The native lenses is where the additional sensor size is exploited and just as you can use a speedbooster to bridge the APS-C to FF gap you can also do the same here with the Kipon Baveyes 0.7x adapter for "real" medium format lenses. This also gives those old lenses not only a boost in speed but also in sharpness. So in being able to take in lenses from above and below as well as its own native lenses, the GFX is pretty versatile. To be honest though, to return to the original question of MF being the future, then its likely not as a mainstream movement unless other manufacturers follow Fujifilm into the area. A non-combustible Canon R5 would have been the absolute sweetspot for hybrids for a wider audience so its sat right there for Canon if they want it.

It gets very, very close to their IQ but is a significantly better camera when viewed in the round. Size, weather sealing, IBIS, AF etc mean its an everyday camera. As with the Phase One and Hasselblad you are getting F1 performance but the difference is that you can also pop down to the shops in it. My point is of it being a hybrid so they are all going to be compromised but its a question of degree. The P6K has a far, far more limited stills capability than the GFX100 has a limited video capability. If you want RAW from the A7s3 then you'll need an external recorder as well so there's no difference there. The biggest gripes I see about the P6K (aside from AF which I seem to remember someone has a plan for) is that is doesn't have an EVF or IBIS. The biggest gripe about the A7s3 is that it can only do 12mp stills. So the GFX100s kills the P6K on three very desirable features for shooting video and kills the A7s3 for photography and matches it in how you can aquire RAW with it. And so it should for $6500 😉 Another $600 when you are already $6500 in isn't exactly chicken feed but considering the extra quality bump it will give you then there's no point spoiling the job for a ha'porth of tar. Also, in my opinion, a lot of the negativity about having to use a Ninja V etc doesn't really give enough balance in terms of the additional monitoring features and media advantages it brings. Resolution isn't frame rate though so i'm not sure what you mean ? In terms of aquisition then the simple answer is all the time and on every camera I've ever owned. The advantages of having a much higher aquisition resolution than the target output resolution were vital to me in terms of cropping latitude and downsampling. The images being put out on the wire might only have been the equivalent of 5-6mp but we were still shooting on 16 and 20mp cameras. And I would've bitten your hand off to have 100 megapixels! It depends on the lens. Very much like MFT lenses on the APS-C JVC LS300 which theoretically should have covered around 82% of rhe sensor but in practicse some of them could get much closer to 95 or even 100%. But whilst some had that additional coverage some of the edge performance wasn't workable. I seem to recall the Contax Zeiss 35-70mm that we put on @Andrew Reid GFX100 would vignette up to about 40mm. But after that it was fine. It was actually beyond fine and for whatever reason performed better on the GFX100 than I'd seen it on any other camera that I've put it on. I think I got so excited that I almost declared that it had mojo. Almost.

With the sensor size not being the minimum of what is generally considered "true" medium format (645 and above) the difference will not be as stark (and has the potential to open a whole new strand of Oh No Not The Equivalence debate 😉 ) but the upside of it not being larger is that a lot of FF lenses will get very close to full coverage and in some cases achieve full coverage. That increases the fast lens options considerably. I'm sure @Andrew Reid has put up some examples of f1.4 and f1.2 FF lenses from his GFX100 on here to illustrate it. Their hybrid credentials is what makes the GFX100 and GFX100s significant to me though. The stills off it are impeccable to the point of being close to the pinnacle at any price point and if you have a look at image samples on flickr the detail when you zoom in is incredible. You can do the same with the comparison tool on DPReview and if you put it up against the FF high resolution cameras like the A7Riv and D850/Z7ii then the difference is stark. Incidentally, the only one that gets closer to it is the Sigma SD Quattro-H but thats a whole different kettle of pixels. On the video side, the subsequent update from the time that film was made was the addition of ProResRAW which does move the story on in that respect. The GFX100/100s cameras have the best video capability of any medium format camera bar none and by a considerable distance and also have the best stills capability of any video camera bar none and, again, by a considerable distance. Not sure what more any of us need or expect in any hybrid than that. Other than internal ND and a $5K price cut.

The RED EPIC (I'm guessing it was likely this camera he was using?) introduced the HDRx mode which in basic terms recorded two tracks simultaneously at different exposures, predominantly to offer a method of increasing the dynamic range of the capture. These could then be manipulated in post in different ways in terms of blending them to create the composite image but the other use for HDRx was to provide a higher shutter speed capture for stills extraction. https://www.red.com/red-101/hdrx-high-dynamic-range-video This promise of being the nirvana of hybridity (the EPIC had a Stills/Motion switch that was dormant for 3 years!) was what tipped my hand into buying one. It arrived just in time for me to cover the 2012 Tour de France with it but the excitement only lasted a handful of stages before it was packed away and I shot the rest of the stages in the traditional manner with real stills cameras. I found that I was getting both unexciting video and unexciting stills with it due to it having to be tripod based so whilst it was OK as a secondary camera for safety coverage it wasn't bringing anything to the party creatively. The world has certainly come round to meet the potential of this idea though in the last 9 years and something like the Alpha One could certainly offer a version of this dual stream idea in 60p. Although, having said that, RED would no doubt sue the balls of them if they did !

Or thrown away your hard drive and have to offer the local council £50m to let you dig up their landfill site... https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jan/14/man-newport-council-50m-helps-find-bitcoins-landfill-james-howells

For the specific way you are describing how you would shoot where you can keep the shutter speed high-ish (which has always been the bugbear of this if you were respecting the 180 rule) then, with the caveat that you aren't making massive prints, we might well be. The practicalities of the heat, battery life and media usage when shooting 4K120p all day with this camera are still unknown with this particular camera so that is the major potential fly in the ointment but as you are in no particular rush to get one then you can watch how that unfolds when people start using them. As for whether the quality stands up, again, it won't be long before people will start posting downloadable clips from it in its different modes. The picture profile is the other factor but, based on what I've seen of it in their other cameras, the S-Cinetone has certainly got the potential to make that moot(ish).

Ah but my figures are only in response to your original statement regarding those who preferred the fact that Fujifilm released the GFX100S rather than the X-H2. That doesn't directly correlate with the number of those which have any specific intention to purchase the GFX100S. My study has shown that it is only 18.15% of that 10.73% who's reason for preferring Fujfilm having released the GFX100S was because it enabled them to buy one. The remaining 81.85% of that 10.73% preferred it not to be the X-H2 as they were all Fuji X owners who had got tired of waiting for it, got out of the system and would have had seller's remorse. 😉

I've seen the Production4K Camera go for as little as £550-650 and there are a couple on eBay uk now at that sort of price. To be able to get a global shutter camera that can shoot 4K CinemaDNG or ProRes internal straight to cheap high capacity media that has an internal battery and big screen for that sort of money is almost unbelievable, even if it has a limited ISO and the ergonomics of a paving slab. Its certainly not a run and gun shot grabber but if you can live with its limitations, and even actually embrace the benefits of it requiring a bit more graft, then I think its still relevant and an absolute bargain compared to anything else. The interesting thing from my own personal point of view about the Production4K Camera is the "very nice" to "meh" ratio in terms of footage I've seen with it is consistently amongst the highest of any camera. I think that definitely reflects the fact that it doesn't lend itself to being just wafted around and a bit more care has to be taken with it.

Fuji want everyone with an MFT or APS-C camera who is eyeing the move to FF to give it a miss and move straight to MF. Its a good strategy as anyone making the move to FF is also having to factor in buying in to one of the four new mounts (E,L,RF and Z) three of which are far from being established and don't have a plethora of budget options available (although Sigma are rebalancing this a bit with their latest L mount releases). So Fuji are offering a way to not only leapfrog the quality of FF but also, by being pretty much the only realistic player in the hybrid MF area, removing the uncertainty of which mount to go with. It also offers the upgrade path to their X series owners to keep them onboard which Fuji would otherwise have to do by bringing out not only an FF camera but a whole new lens range to go with it. There is an argument that the image bump from APS-C to FF or from FF to MF isn't particularly dramatic (although in the case of the GFX100 it is IMHO) but it certainly is a noticeable one from APS-C to MF. And thats what upgrades should be about isn't it? Actual "wow, this is so much better" rather than simply "OK, this is better". The GFX100S may not be the final destination for everyone but it is certainly the biggest signpost yet that there might be one.

Though that in itself is pretty telling and confirms the suspicion that having the actual product and using it in anger is largely incidental to many of those cranking out that sort of content.

Maybe, but I'd have put the a9 in that same category too though and that had the usual suspects all over it when it was launched. Sign of a different time as well of course but the current COVID situation hasn't really slowed the number of the first day "reviews" of other cameras (including their own a7C as an example). They are also going after the well heeled consumer territory with this camera too as I hadn't really appreciated myself until the past couple of years just how much money was being spent on the flagship Nikon and Canon bodies and the associated long primes by amateur bird and wildlife photographers. In the current market situation, thats a way bigger target than pro sports photographers thats for sure. As I said, I don't necessarily think not having a raft of "hey guys, smash that like button" videos all appearing simultaneously is a definitive sign of anything sinister but its a notable difference to me at least. Maybe Sony are just as sick of all that bullshit as many of the rest of us are.

The 8K being 4:2:0 is one catch if 8K is the primary reason for buying it and the mechanical shutter is still on the low side for one of their target markets compared to the big two's flagships. With regard to heat, the 30 minutes limits are there but who knows in reality how much variance there will be in real use in different environments. One thing that is quite interesting is that this launch has not been backed up with the flurry of 'Embargo has passed, prepare the gurning thumbnail and lets get my "comprehensive review"of the camera up NOW!' YouTube videos. I think that might well be Sony being mindful of what happened to Canon with the R5, as running the same overheating tests that they were eventually forced into doing after so not including them in their initial breathless "reviews" of the R5 it would now be mandatory for any credible reviewer. That doesn't necessarily mean there is anything suspicious in the a1 regarding overheating but by keeping the camera out of the hands of YouTubers (even if by way of extending their publishing embargo for a couple of weeks) then Sony will at least be able to keep any possibility of it being the talking point about the camera for a while and killing the launch buzz!

I think that is probably too high a figure. From my reading of posts on here, I'd put it at 89.27% max. The distinction between the X-H1 and the X-T2 was wide enough when they launched it but two years on, Fujifilm would have to do something dramatic like put RAW and TC etc in it, for an X-H2 to sit above the X-T4 in the same way. Which would be great, of course 😉

Far be it from me to say they deliberately crippled the A9 but they are certainly included this time. https://www.sony.com/electronics/interchangeable-lens-cameras/ilce-1/specifications /// PICTURE PROFILE Yes (Off / PP1-PP11) Parameters: Black level, Gamma (Movie, Still, S-Cinetone, Cine1-4, ITU709, ITU709 (800%), S-Log2, S-Log3, HLG, HLG1-3), Black Gamma, Knee, Color Mode, Saturation, Color Phase, Color Depth, Detail, Copy, Reset ///

If you went for the TechArt then a cheap M42-M adapter stuck on it will give you autofocus capability for them. It works far better (in stills at least which is what you say is your primary use for it) than I'd imagined when I bought it.

I've got an A7Rii so make that 3. Hard to see anything better value at the price if you are already invested in E-mount, particularly if stills are the primary use. If you are using manual focus lenses with it, I'd definitely recommend looking at getting the TechArt PRO adapter as it will give you pretty good AF capability for them. Its designed for M mount lenses but can be used with pretty much anything by stacking a "whatever your lens is to m mount" adapter on top. It comes into its own with small M mount lenses like Voigtlanders as its like having an autofocus high res Leica M with an EVF and its overall size isn't that much bigger either. Battery life isn't great of course but they're small enough (and cheap enough) to not be worried about carrying a few spares.

A funny and very pointed piece by Fujifilm. "We don't negotiate with hobbyists."

I'm going to start a company making cameras that are purpose built for intrusive doorstep photography of autocratic leaders. Hasslevlad.

After spending a bit of time with @Andrew Reid last year looking at his GFX100, it definitely put itself at the top of my "forever" camera list and one of the pleasant surprises was how much frame coverage was possible with the various FF lenses that we put on it and how adaptable it was in terms of AF adapters for not only EF but Nikon F, which would be a big factor for me. Obviously the price of the GFX100 was eye watering (relative to FF but not other 100mp MF cameras !) but if I squinted a bit I could still see it as "affordable" if not a flat out "bargain". To now be able to get the imaging part of the GFX100 in a smaller and lighter form factor for 40% off is huge.