MrSMW

Interested to see what DJI may do. Not interested in anything Toneh has to say on the matter.

I also think that Tim. I think there was a bit of a bounce back, “yay, war is over, let’s have a party” and then the reality kicked in that nothing was the same as it was and a lot more damage had occurred than most initially realised. But as has been mentioned, these things tend to go in circles, or at least have peaks & troughs. Where we are at the moment I am not entirely sure but not at any peak, nor in any trough, but are we trending up or down? I suspect down what with everything going on in the world right now…and I am no tin hat pessimist, but rather that’s my gut feeling. I would like an adapted Delorean take me back to the 1980’s please…

Lumix needs to work harder on their trickling then! (Unless there is nothing worth trickling…)

Actually that has always been the case and nothing new there as in the subject has always been the primary interest. However, you would have thought folks would appreciate the highest quality versions available but it’s this part people don’t seem to give a shit about. Or rather some do and always have done, but in ever-decreasing numbers it seems. The bottom line for those of us in the industry is can we survive by doing nothing any different or should we play the game a bit more? I’ve always been resistant to playing the game for the sake of it and conform at a fringe level, but even with just 6 years to go, I’m thinking about doing a little more of ‘giving the crowd what they want’ so my next and last 6 years are not a downhill slope. Adapt or die as they say.

Ah well no idea then! Possibly one of those ‘lost in translation’ games things…

I went there in my 20’s and even then felt out of place and out of time. The 1920’s was probably my era…

Has to be pixel-pixel which on a large sensor is not far off APSC crop. This was the case on the 47mp S1R when the best I could calculate was about 1.6-1.65 crop? In 5k (same as it is for me when I shot 4k with Lumix), I simply selected slightly wider lenses and actually appreciated the longer reach so for instance, my Sigma 28-70 I treated as a 42-105 and on the S1R, around 50-115? Now I shoot 6k OG, but find my 28-70 workhorse is often too short so considering the new 28-105 f2.8 for next year. But of course it’s bigger and heavier and zooms more and aaaaargh, do I even need 6k OG or should I just go back to 4k cropped? Rhetorical question. I really like the SOOC lut burned in 6k OG footage so not sure I could easily go back… I am sitting on my fence waiting to see what gets announced as that will possibly determine what I do as it’s all part of a bigger picture. No needs, just some ‘would likes if the options present themselves’. An S2R to Leicas SL3 as the S1R was to the Leica SL2 is top of my list. An S2H second. An extension of the S5ii line not so much. Anything else, I doubt it.

I don’t know if it’s so much suspicion as that folks have the attention spans of gnats and swipe & scroll is how we role these days. Guilty myself, but not if I am looking at or for something very specific. I don’t think it is something that can be fought however. Better tp pick small battle you can win than all out war you cannot. Sun Tzu (maybe…)

That is about the sum of it unless we are talking movies, series and advertising. Most businesses seem prepared to have any old shit as long as it’s cheap. Or free. And plenty are happy to work for free because it’s a foot in the door innit? And I think it’s happening increasingly in wedding video land… Social media is full of folks gushing about any old shit and actually they seem to genuinely love rubbish over anything crafted. So I’m just counting down the next 6 years and I’m done because I can’t change the situation and am not prepared to dumb down in order to conform. And I think I can squeeze out another 6 seasons… And when I say ‘counting down’ and ‘squeeze out’, I don’t mean coast, or not care, but rather keep putting out the highest quality content for the duration of my career both for myself and my clients. But yes, it’s ‘everything’…quality, prices, attention spans…dumbing down in general.

Similar to the original S1R but max 30fps. That was a really nice image SOOC. Actually, it might have been 4:5 or something but anyway, it was very nice. But I hope if this is a hybrid they do something about the shutter feel and sound as S1R and S1H are sublime. The S5ii’s is shit by comparison and the rear screen res not exactly great. Better than most Sony’s but nothing to write home about. We’ll see…

8k camera vs 6k internal raw with a decent codec and internal VND? Hmmm, I reckon filmmaker/videographers would go the latter almost 100%. The great unwashed however, well yes, they might think they want all the k’s they can get.

Which is why I am also considering 100mp sensor cameras as then 3 primes could become 2… But that would be a serious investment and if I did it, have to see out my career.

I should add that this is not some pointless pontificating but something I am seriously considering doing which is going back to a ‘fixed lens point & shoot’ for my stills work. Except I am looking at it as having a single prime for indoor work and a single prime for outdoor with a specialist lens for ceremonies & speeches. Would this be a ‘better’ option than my current 3 zoom set up? No, not ‘better’ as in it would not be as flexible, but would actually tick boxes in a more purist direction without really sacrificing anything. I’ve never been a fan aesthetically of anything wider than 28mm so 28 would be my indoor lens as it pretty much is already. Outdoors, I already was a big fan of the 40mm look but for certain things, prefer anything from 65 to 90mm. I have shot outdoors with just 65mm and it worked pretty well actually so it’s currently a hypothetical toss up between 40 or 65. If I went 65, that means the ultra compact super slick Sigma 65mm f2 which is one of my all time favourite lenses. That could then be paired with it’s 90mm f2.8 sibling, another sublime compact lens. The only thing with Sigma is they do not have a 28mm in the Contemporary line and I like things to be in a system. But otherwise it would simply be a case of having as I do now, crop mode on a custom button with stills of almost identical file size. So: 28/42 + 40/60 or 65/100 + 90/135 Arguably, this is NOT a purist single focal length approach and technically it isn’t but at the same time, it is not constantly swapping lenses, but rather moving through phases after many hours from one focal length to another and then having 2x working focal lengths at any one time. I’m thinking of it as a ‘Purist Plus’ approach 😉 It’s an option with HUGE appeal for 2025 because I use zooms for more practical reasons, but I lose something in the process by doing so.

And the pic above is to demonstrate the fact that you cannot pocket either of the things unless you have pockets like Matt Granger.

So I finally watched a Q3-43 video and I have to say I REALLY like it. Except for various deal-breakers… 1. Body/form factor. Is it ‘nicer’ than my A7RV? Yes, but not in the same class ergonomically. 2. Does it have the insurance of 2 card slots for paying work? Nope. 3. Does it have a tilt screen good for portrait orientation shots? Nope. 4. Does it have a bigger or better sensor than my A7RV? Nope, it’s the same. 5. Does it have better AF? Err nope, nowhere near as good. 6. Does it have a more desirable badge? Ding ding ding! Without question. 7. Is that badge worth the €4500 it would cost me to downgrade my current workhorse to the Q3-43? Not even close as much as I like the thing (the 43) as an object of desire, that is all it is.

Well I have my fingers crossed for next gen models of the S1H and S1R and anything less than at least one of these is going to be pretty disappointing. If it’s something like this S5D as in D for Dumbed Down (should be double D), the community will fall about with laughter and Lumix’s stock as a brand will take another knock. I don’t ‘need’ either of these cameras. I have everything I need with my mix of 3x S5ii and single A7RV, but if I can in 2025, I would prefer to have both video and stills in a single system for various obvious reasons. I have ruled out going the full Sony route. For stills great, but the video side just doesn’t do it for me. We’re very close with L Mount now… Lenses are now there. Just. Bodies though, mostly it’s just an S2R for me, that poor (but smarter) man’s Leica SL3 that I would need to go all in. We shall see…

Is his name Andreas or something, because if so, not watched his post but it came up as a suggestion on my YouTube just yesterday. But yes, this would make most sense. I'd rather see a MF 100mp version myself (I know, who needs 100mp huh...except read above, Crop City here we come) but if it's a 'new' sensor size, well it probably is FF because I doubt smaller than APSC is an option because the crowd want mp's and k's. And they have had smaller before and may still do so with certain compacts etc.

I was also interested in those Sigma DP cameras except for one thing, shockingly bad low light capability! I like ‘left field’ gear. Partly because I am somewhat willful and partly because I don’t like following the herd. But at the same time, not if it’s to my detriment. Which it was a bit too much when I only used that OG X100. Or rather to my clients detriment. I’d go Hassie X2D with a pair of primes if I could. Something around 28mm for indoor and something around 50mm for outdoor and just use cropping. Maybe in a few years when pricing comes down as my final stills camera for the last few years of what will be a 30 year industry career…

A few years back, I hoped they might do something like this with the X100 series as 35mm on an APSC sensor was always just a little too tight for my needs. And when I say 'little', I mean 150mm. And this is the thing I especially like about my A7RV with the Tamron 28-75 and that is if I treat it like a pair of primes, which is effectively what I do with all my zooms so they are respectively: 20, 40, 28, 75, 70 and 180, I have 6 focal lengths from 3 lenses. If I set and use in camera APSC crop, discounting the wide end of each of the 3 zooms, I now have 9 focal lengths by adding in; 60, 112.5 and 270. I actually DON'T use the APSC crop mode on any of them except the 28-75 and treat that lens/camera combo as a; 28/75/112.5 and that covers me for over 90% of my needs. I could even use it for 100% at a push, but being the consummate professional that I am, will switch out to a wider or longer lens if the situation demands. It gets even more appealing with a 100mp body like the Fuji or Hasselblads because you can then effectively have 3 focal lengths from a prime. I love the purity of a single focal length and as I have mentioned before, shot an entire year's worth of work on just a 35mm lens...but then decided I was being a bit of a pretentious prick at such times as say being stuck at the back of a cathedral, so went back to being less of an arse. But for personal stuff, I have always always always favoured a fixed single prime approach. I have just 'enhanced' that capability by using the extreme ends of any zoom lens on a single body. Last year I did it with a 24-90 lens, but I've always found 24 a but too wide for general purpose and prefer 28 and 90 is a bit too long, especially indoors. The 28-75 is faster, (f2.8 throughout rather than f2.8-4), smaller, lighter and this year I have 61mp and not 24mp to play with. The difference has been quite eye-opening. Expected, but still eye-opening. When the 28mm Q3 came out, I considered it, but I think we're down to something like 10mp (might be less?) at '75mm' and it's still 'just' a 28mm, but this 43 makes things a lot more interesting...except I'd need the 28mm model also. Now if they brought out a 70/75mm model, I'd skip the 43 and go for the book ends. But having said that, £€'s... Even on my vast salary...

You’ll have to take my word for it. Zero agenda, but I don’t have the time to dig out old hard drives but 100% if I shot any of these side by side, I can see a difference. Other than my website and social media, nowhere, - it’s a typical 1000-2000 deliverable images for every client. What they do with them I could not say, but any image could be printed any size. Not sure about that! Extremely high? Rough calculation, gross, about 60x cost? Ha, too personal, but enough to suit our family needs. Not as much as a dentist who can afford that 10k camera 😉

There is. But you can also have the flexibility of going out one day with just a single prime and then on other days, say for work purposes and have a zoom or multiple lenses. Which is why I probably would struggle to go back to a fixed lens these days, ie, because we can have the same principle, but with that interchangeable lens body.

Really? I had the same sensor X100V in the XT3 and the S5ii/Z6ii beats it. I have the same sensor as the Q3 in my A7RV and that beats both of those. Nah. Those APSC sensor cameras put out good quality for sure, but few would say comparable even with 24mp full frame when it comes to outright image quality. 60mp A7RV is on another level. I’ve been through the sensor/image quality improvement process over the last few years and it’s definitely a real thing. There’s a noticeable difference moving up, but the difference is even more apparent if you go back after any time. Just my experience anyway…

I wouldn’t go that far… If it was €£$3500, it would be as cool as f*ck. A modern tilt screen, IBIS, large sensor, relatively compact camera, is highly desirable to a lot of folks, me included! From the OG X100 (my favourite camera of all time relative to it’s time) to it’s latest iteration, plus the Sony RX1R, the Q2/Q3 and even the little Ricoh’s, it suits a lot of folks! My only issue has been the lack of longer lenses with these things and Fuji got around it with a wide angle and tele adapters and the 60mp jobs with cropping and multiple models a la Ricoh are an option, but probably a bit pricey for most having 2x Q3’s! It has got me thinking though that a pair of the latest X100’s, one with the wide and the other with the tele, would make a really great combo, especially now that they have; IBIS, tilt and a decent amount of megapixels for some further cropping…

*SPOILER ALERT BELOW* Or they bring them back from the dead like in The Fall Guy movie (which technically is not a sequel as it was a series) with Lee Majors having a cameo role as an old lady pretending to be a security guard. There was also some other old rubber sex doll security guard who I guess was the ‘hot chick sidekick’ from the series in the 80’s but has since been remodeled too many times with synthetic materials. Otherwise I hate sequels long after the fact other than one exception, Bladerunner 2049. Which coincidently, was also Ryan Gosling.

This is how we get our ‘facts’ these days… Some fella with his clickbait YouTube channel talks a load of shite and some folks instantly believe and report it to others like it’s the gospel. I saw some other fella on his channel the other day, reporting the spec of the S1Hii as fact based on spec lifted off this guys channel which he got from where exactly? I shouldn’t comment, it makes me slightly cross all the utter BS ‘info’ out there 🤪