MrSMW

It’s a tricky one for sure because sometimes it’s just his wife burning the toast again.

Best dunno, but I use Freewell and have zero complaints. Mostly 2-5's but I also have a 6-9 for the most super sunny of days, but rarely need it and prefer to stop the aperture down a bit. Screw in because I was always knocking off magnetic's. Never seen an X in camera or in post. Barely any colour cast and because they are on the whole time unless it actually gets dark, the image is always the same.

As a low-key hybrid wedding shooter, that’s a mainstay for me as folks act differently if they become aware the focus is on them. Sometimes they do something that works as part of the whole, but mostly I just want to observe the candid. Top down, rear LCD, limited or zero eye contact. Not because I’m a social freak or wannabe hipster, but because it gets the result I want. I tried the viewfinder the other day and can’t go back now despite having cut my teeth back in the day as a film photographer in the 90’s and early 2000’s.

Indeed. The only thing that bothered me about this test was that it was of a chart and who shoots charts in the real world? I appreciate Gordon doing this and he did put various caveats in the piece, but real world, 90%+ of all video shot has people in it. On that basis, I’d rather see at least a static head shot. Outdoors for anything up to say 800 iso and anything higher indoors. And lighting will/can create contrast which will add to at least the perception of sharpening. But then as we always say, how much sharpening do we want on a face? Detail even? Personally, I prefer as much as to the point of it not being over-sharpened so in post, when not desired, I can dial some of that back. I’ve tried the ‘advised’ dial back the sharpening in camera, but the footage to me in post, looks like mush/shit, so leave my cameras at the default level.

Well that’s a bit of a shame then, considering the price… I haven’t watched a single review but based purely on the YouTube thumbnails I have seen plus the price, dismissed it out of hand for my needs. I do however like the fact that it exists as I do anything ‘different’. Even the Pixie camera.

Nope, I did not now that. I still have a sub-Hasselblad Mavic Air 2S which won’t have as good image quality without that branding 😉 But that was my point as in the badge DOES have an effect, even if it’s just a placebo one! Also there is a Hasselblad phone, a tie up with someone I presume… As a photographer, do I want a Hasselblad phone? Hell yeah! (Aware of it, but beyond that, not actually looked). Please no. I don’t want to see the X2D become the next X100vi and become known as ‘The Tit Tock Camera’ 🤪

Their image as a brand or the quality of the images they produce? If the former, yes, I think of DJI as being THE drone company. Hasselblad though, I see as the epitome of stills photography cameras. Outside of large format brands no one has ever heard of. But then are the great unwashed even aware of Hasselblad? Outside of photography circles, very few I suspect and the majority of cameras are sold to people who are not 'photographers' as such. If DJI can market anything with a Hassie brand association at the very least, that surely has to be in their favour though?

Phones was one the missus and I were discussing just the other day and how, other than some photo/lens options, there hasn't been anything we have been slightly interested in with the last 3 or 4 iterations of the iPhone. Nope, nothing, nada. I think I have peaked for my needs on all things tech whether cameras, audio gear, laptop, phone... Now it's not even a case of 'want', but rather 'might like' at some point if it floats my boat. I'd rather see innovation now rather than incremental steps of 'progress' of essentially 'the same thing'.

That’s a good point and even how many of ‘The Chosen’ are actually using the things after their initial review despite hailing it The Messiah? Food for thought…or maybe DJI just want to give it a go as in have a punt and see what unfolds?

And ‘we’ are pushed into vertical content. I shoot increasingly (photo) in a vertical format at time of capture rather than cropping simply with one eye on marketing. Video, 6k open gate so again, I can maximise how I can present to potential clients. But I don’t much care for it…

S5ii is very good, especially after the I think it was April firmware. Boost is almost tripod like. I still find I need to take a deep breath, hold it and hold absolutely still and there can be a tiny bit of movement, but I have used that method to capture impromptu 2-3 minute speeches etc. Not the holding my breath part obviously as I am not a pearl diver, but otherwise, it’s really good. Then there is the highest level which with a bit of ninja walking is close enough for me to being gimbal-like, I managed to ditch the hated thing this year. There is a crop though in that mode but it just means I keep a bit more distance. The one last factor is I don’t use anything wider than 28mm for the best result.

I can’t see Hasselblad themselves using the L Mount. Adapted maybe, but they just live in another plane of existence so whilst any new DJI camera might use some Hasselblad tech, I would suspect that Hassie would not want their brand ‘dumbing down’ and having any DJI product branded as HASSELBLAD. Or maybe under new ownership they would just as Leica have done previously with Panasonic? But that one seems to only have happened with the low end compact stuff and the I think actually semi-officially announced last year, new Leica/Lumix camera never appeared. I don’t know but DJI has some momentum and seem to be one of the more innovative camera companies and Hassie arguably have an even higher status than Leica, so there is potentially a lot of ammunition there…??

Sony, Canon, Nikon, Fuji, L Mount combining Lumix and Leica surely = ‘Big 5’, but semantics aside, could be an interesting move… If Lumix for instance do not bring out a next gen S1 line as some think might be a very real possibility, then this may very well leave a hole that DJI will gobble up. Why? Disillusioned L Mount users is who! Ie, if we feel snubbed by Lumix effectively stopping with the S5ii and any new DJI body is up to snuff, we may very well port all our L Mount glass in that direction. The X2D is beyond my means and the Ronin jobbie a bit overkill for my needs and then there is the Pocket series… I can very well see how they could produce something quite disruptive. Potentially very interesting…

I did say stills and for me, with my workload, it equates to approximately 1 extra 5TB HD plus upgraded my on-line storage from 20GB to unlimited. Total cost, just under +€400 per annum. Having on my person, 2 bodies instead of juggling 3, plus 3 lens options rather than 4 is a massive bonus re. logistics and creativity. It’s a win for me. But YMMV and if you are shooting and storing 20 mins of raw footage per day when previously it might have been log, yep, I can see that your storage costs will be considerable!

Each to their own, but I find it a seriously useful tool, especially with 6k as it extends the focal length of my lenses by up to around 2x. This allows me to use shorter and lighter lenses which are also cheaper to buy in the first place such as a pair of Lumix 20-60mm’s which I can easily get over 100mm of reach with in post. Arguably, you can crop any footage, but 6k has an advantage over 4k as 8k does over 6k, but sweet spots and all that… Same approach for me with stills these days as in using a higher megapixel camera as it allows me to use less hardware which means a lighter load and more flexibility from less kit, albeit at the expense of some storage, but that in itself is much cheaper than extra bodies and lenses etc.

I went with the RX10ii back in the day and my only criticism was the lack of low light performance otherwise it was a superb bit of kit for photo or video. At the time.

Yes, the S5ii I think has very much claimed the place of the S1. The S9 is a bit…well not very robust in terms of feel compared with the S5ii. The G9ii using the same body I kind of got and made sense. No S2R 6 months after the SL3 makes me think what was all that L3 alliance bollocks then because to the best of my knowledge, other than if Panasonic gifted Leica some video tech, it was a one way street. Maybe the delay (not that anything has been announced so nothing official anyway) is a bad sign…or maybe it’s a good sign… Fingers crossed though as Lumix were just beginning to get some traction. Their two biggest problems IMO have always been: A. Too slow to market (with limited official announcements) and B. Limited if not absolute piss poor marketing. As with so many companies, maybe there’s an element of ‘chicken and egg’ going on in that they haven’t, or more likely choose, not to spend enough on marketing, but then sales are poor? It’s not enough simply to be the best. There needs to be hype or you might as well not exist and someone else (Sony) WILL be eating your lunch. Or maybe next week, they will announce the greatest product line ever…

Sounds like someone else I know… The latter sentence especially…

Shhh, don’t want to hear that… Actually, it would not be the end of the world, at least my world, if they never made another FF camera because the S5ii does all I need it to do and arguably, could see out my working life with them. I think it’s unlikely though. The S5ii has been and is pretty popular, at least on MeTube…but not sure if that has any relation to actual sales, but you mostly only come across praise. So I would be highly surprised if there wasn’t and Lumix are not like Sony and bang out new cameras every year and how long did it take for both the GH6 and GH7 to appear?! I have faith something FF is coming, but slightly surprised no 1/2 price SL3 which is slightly concerning… I don’t ‘need’ a S2H or an S2R, but might want one…or both, and the world will just be a better place with them in it regardless 💫

Watched on 16" MacBook full screen and my takeaway/opinion was: Best detail 4k 25p = Canon Best detail 4k 50p = Canon Best low light 4k = Sony Best colour = Lumix (which surprised me) Best DR = Lumix and worst DR = Canon Best image of the lot, Lumix 6k 25p, especially in open gate. Does the 6k mode reduce IBIS ability slightly? Maybe but as Lumix already has arguably the best IBIS as a starting point, it's probably comparable at least with Canon and better than the Sony which most reckon is still a bit behind. Lumix 6k 25p open gate for the win then. I prefer 30p for various reasons.

Well this last weekend 3 day job was the first time I actually got to use every bit of kit as intended and it passed. With flying colours. And it was not without it's challenges at times including some rain and a fair bit of wind... The S5ii's are for me right now, just perfect and will be for the foreseeable future. The A7RV for stills, other than the occasional need to drop out and reinsert the battery, approx 1 in every 500 actuations (I switch off in-between use a couple of hundred times per shoot at least) really only has one niggle and that is even with the Smallrig baseplate, still isn't quite as good in the hand as I'd like (but waaaaaay better than the Nikon Zf) so added a Peak Design clutch strap for the next couple of jobs that I think will fix that, but if not, I might consider a battery grip because with the 20-40, it's no issue, 28-75, slight issue and it's really only with the 70-180, it becomes a bit annoying. I have nothing now I feel any NEED to change and won't for the rest of the year, but for the future/2025... A 'S2H' might be of interest to replace one of the S5ii's as my run & gun unit, but not sure it will bring anything to the party...but we'll see. It might be an option just for interest and to replace spiritually, my now dearly departed S1H. A 'S2R' might be of interest to replace the A7RV, but struggling a bit with lenses for that to happen. The Sigma 28-45mm f1.8 would need to spawn a longer sibling...so again, we'll see, but 2 things that would need to happen there. Pondering either a fast prime around 35mm'ish for low light photography or possibly a sidekick for the A7RV to weld the 20-40mm to and reserve this unit purely for 'after dark' duty which can be 20-25% of any job. It would also act as a stills back up (at all other parts of any job) to the A7RV as currently, I'd have to pull one of the S5ii's off video duty to fill that role of called upon. Contenders for this backup/night role are: ZV-E1 (12mp stills does not faze me in the slightest but it's AF ability in low light does a bit) A7Cii (AF ability in low light again, concerns me slightly compared with say the Zf...) Nikon Zf which was fantastic in low light, but is a bit of a chonky boy. Hmmm, fact cheap f1.8 lens sub 500 vs second used body around 1.5-2k... It's the only area where the A7RV could be improved upon. It's not bad, fairly decent even, but I know it could be better and probably won't happen this year as I'm getting close to season end and don't really need to test anything, but ideally would like to do something for 2025. But then there is a rumoured Sony 24/28-105mm f2.8 coming soon and that could throw a spanner in the works and push me towards a second body and lose a lens in the process. We'll see, but very happy with the hybrid set up I have now finally achieved after almost 15 years of effort in this genre. I have now merely entered the stage I shall call, 'just fannying about really', as in anything else/new now is just tinkering for tinkering sake rather than need.

Is that level of haze/smog a regular thing in Seoul? If so, makes it a very cinematic city to work in!

Liar liar, overheating Canon R5 user's house on fire.

I want to believe.

Late ‘24 would be perfect for me as my season would be over and that would mean 4+ months to consider prior to my ‘25 season. I miss my S1H but to be fair it’s been in a B cam role since the S5ii came out for reasons of autofocus.