a bit of everything…

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Panasonic Lumix LX10 Review. Shot In 4K

The Versatile Nifty-Fifty – Olympus 25mm f1.8 Lens Review (OlympusPassion).
Lino Manfrotto: A Legacy of Support to Photographers Around the Globe (Adorama Learning Center).
What You Need To Know About Thunderbolt™ 3 (Explora).
how to shoot your first star trails (Olympus Imagespace).
Raw or JPEG: when to use each file format (CameraJabber).

Plenty of news on the facebook E-M1II group and the GH5 group.

Alfred:I’ve been following your site for months before buying the E-M1 Mark II with the 12-100 lens last week.
In case you are interested, here is a test of the 12-100 lens at different focal lenghts with hi res samples which I just uploaded:
http://myolympus.org/E-M1_II/12_100_lens/

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Panasonic GH5 Review Vs Sony a7S II and Nikon D750 by Fstoppers

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Fstoppers posted their full GH5 review and concludes:

The GH5 is a pretty impressive video camera but it isn’t perfect. I do wish that the ISO performance was a little bit better. I’m not sure if the camera really needs to be 20MP as I imagine most people who buy it will be using it for video. Perhaps if it was only 8MP (the exact size of 4K video) it would be a little better in low light. And if they are going to make the sensor 20MP I would have really appreciated a legitimate “digital zoom” that was actually useful.
One major benefit to the smaller sensor size though, seems to be the inclusion of e-stabilization, which simply does not work on full camera sensors at this time due to rolling shutter. We have to take the good with the bad but in the case of the GH5 it’s mostly good. It’s only real competitor seems to be the a7S II and if its successor, the a7S III, finally removes the record limit, can overcome all overheating issues, plus improve stabilization, the GH5 may no longer my first choice but as things stand today, I’m excited to make the GH5 our standard video camera here at Fstoppers.

GH5 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama and Panasonic US. In EU at Amazon.de, Cyberport.de and ParkCamera.

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Infographic shows the (depressive) state of the camera industry

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That things aren’t going well in the camera industry isn’t a news. But if you want to get a clear overview of how things went in 2016 check out the Inofgraphic made by Lensvid:

  • Smartphones killed the compact camera market – from over 100 million compact cameras sold in 2010 we will most likely see under 10 million sold in 2017. Just for reference, in 2016 the global sales of smart phones reached 1.5 billion units, an increase of 5 percent from 2015.
  • Mirrorless are not fulfilling their promise – mirrorless are making lots of noise in the photo industry but looking at the numbers they have been more or less stagnant for the past 3 years at around 3 million cameras per year – far from impressive numbers.
  • The DSLR market is shrinking – this was to be expected but it is not because of the rise of  mirrorless. Why this is happening is probably a combination of reasons – at the entry level some people who might have considered buying a DSLR a few years back just settle for their smartphone camera which is better than ever and will soon improve even further with dual cameras, smart zoom technologies and more advanced features. At the mid to high end segments – there just isn’t enough innovation to justify replacing gear as often as it used to be and on the more positive side – cameras are quite reliable and replacing a working camera for a new one which doesn’t offer significantly more, just doesn’t make sense to many users.
  • Cameras are for older people – you can’t see this in the numbers but we clearly see this all around us – aside from the professional segment – dedicated cameras do not interest the younger generation. The people who are still interested in photography are typically around the ages of 40-60 or more – the same people who maybe shot with analog cameras as youngsters and now have the time and money to invest in photography as a hobby – their children and grandchildren are far less interested in cameras and prefer to use their smartphones.

The only hope is that 2017 will be the first year were sales will not fall. And so far the January shipment report from CIPA looks promising.

In January we got a 5% increase of camera shipments over the previous year.

Our reader Mistral (Thanks!) also noticed this:

– mirrorless cameras: +48.3 in number of units sold and +47.4% in turnover (shipments)
– DSLRs: -11.1%  in number of units sold and +6.5% in turnover.
– This is also the first month ever during which shipments of mirrorless cameras to Japan were higher than those of DSLRs.

 

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a bit of everything…

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How To Modify An Olympus FL-LM3 Flash To Fit a Panasonic Camera Body

Angetestet: Panasonic G81 mit Objektiv 12-60mm/3.5–5.6 (Photoscala).
7 Ways to Protect Your Camera in the Rain (Adorama Learning Center).
12 Recommended Travel Tripods (Explora).
Horton Productions Supports Educational, Documentary Shoots with Panasonic AG-DVX200 4K Large-Sensor Handheld Camcorder (Panasonic).
Olympus 30mm macro test at DC.watch.
Plenty of news on the facebook E-M1II group and the GH5 group.

Julien:just to share a short doc movie I made with the good GH4 2 years ago. GH4 made a great job and is such a reliable tool. https://vimeo.com/202871217

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Cinema5D GH5 test controversy: Panasonic will issue an official statement to us later this week!

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The Cinem5D GH5 review created quite a huge controversy on the web also leading to some harsh attack on their site and one our site.

Sebastian Wöber who made the test was kind enough to answer all the comments on our post. And today he also wrote this:

Panasonic have announced they will issue an official statement to us later this week.

Furthermore we have received numerous shouts by people who had the same posterized skin tones issues in Vlog on their GH4, which might be another indication that the problem we found is more than a “small bug in preliminary firmware”, but rather a major issue with the camera line.

We still hope it can be fixed. Personally I am shocked by the strong negativism against our tests. I am very careful and conduct these tests thoroughly to reveal the facts for the benefit of our audience. Yet the suspicion among some is so intense that their tone becomes disrespectful and inflammatory, as though we were put on trial. While at the same time ignoring the fact that the manufacturer might have sold them something that won’t hold up to their expectations.

I am not worried about the results of our tests as I have no doubt they are correct, thoroughly researched and executed. But the aftertaste in the comments leaves me truly disappointed in our community of filmmakers.

Let’s see if Panasonic will debunk or confirm the 10bit and V-LOG issues reported by Cinema5D…

43rumors disclaimer: I am not a professional reviewer and I cannot take side on that matter because I dont have the very advanced skills to do so and I don’t have the GH5 in my hands neither. What I can do as an “amateur journalist” is to report about the different opinions on the matter (For example I did report the Cinema5D critic from Giulio Sciorio and Emmanuel Pampuri). What we will never report are the critic from people who are disrespectful in their language and have a purely offensive arrogant tone. Even if Cinema5D would be wrong you have to critize it by using arguments and facts without to get personal.

GH5 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama and Panasonic US. In EU at Amazon.de, Cyberport.de and ParkCamera.

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