ACJC.S
Biwako minimalism
Interesting rock formation jutting out from the surface of Lake Biwa.
One of the world's oldest lake at over 4 million years old, an ancient lake is one that has consistently contained water for more than 1 million years.
The camera industry is dominated by 3 big names from just 1 country, they are worse than oligopolies since they also behave like a cabal. The lack of real, serious competition is a huge detriment to consumers, contrast this with the highly competitive smartphone market.
We now have cameras using the exact same sensor for 3 or more generations; Nikon D850 to Z7, then Z7ii and even the latest Z9 appears to be the same with just an additional stacked layer; Olympus E-M1 Mkii to EM-1X to E-M5iii to E-M1 Mkii. Olympus however imploded shortly after and is now OM Solutions.
The recent OM Solutions (previously Olympus) OM-1 came with a new stacked sensor touting 2 stops improvement in Dynamic Range plus 1 stop better in noise turned out to be nothing more than skin deep software tweaks giving better Straight Out Of Camera (SOOC) JPEGs only while the RAW file quality remained no better than the 2 generations older OMD E-M1 MKii. OM-1’s superiority over previous iterations is largely in subject tracking AF.
The Korean brand Samyang however managed to release their AF 135mm f1.8 FE just recently which more than matched the optical performance of the hallowed Sony FE 135mm f1.8 GM at less than 1/2 the price and 178g lighter! This is a good sign, hopefully more will come. The marketeers and shills meanwhile will be using their bullhorn to tell everyone why we need to spend much more instead.
Can’t help but agree with those who have been saying that a shakeup in the industry is long overdue especially if they continue with this trend of unfettered price escalation without any meaningful improvement in RAW quality, especially on the back of a declining market coupled with the highly competitive and progressive smartphone market involving major players from different countries.
In the world of HiFi and in particular the market for In-Ear-Monitors (IEM or earbuds), the entrance of so many quality manufacturers from China over the past few years brought down the prices such that very good quality IEMs can now be had for $100 when in the past one needs to pay many multiples more for the same level of performance.
There’ll still be some who will tell us we need that $1,000 special cable to be able to get the very best out of our IEM, no different from camera shills who like to tell us we need the latest lenses to get the best out of our high resolution cameras because the sensors out-resolved our existing lenses.
Just like the camera industry moving towards mirrorless, the IEM market has been transitioning to wireless bluetooth earbuds. The fundamental difference in the HiFi space is that serious audiophiles are not giving up their high end wired IEMs anytime soon. Contrast this with the innumerable incessant camera marketeers/shills that have infested the gear forums, DSLRs and especially DSLR lenses are now being declared as inferior, how else can camera companies sell us new stuff unless they move us all to a different (though not always superior) mount!?
Best be informed, improve our skills and avoid falling for the siren song of shills. See the tree from the forest to avoid getting lost in a sea of cameras and lenses…..
Biwako minimalism
Interesting rock formation jutting out from the surface of Lake Biwa.
One of the world's oldest lake at over 4 million years old, an ancient lake is one that has consistently contained water for more than 1 million years.
The camera industry is dominated by 3 big names from just 1 country, they are worse than oligopolies since they also behave like a cabal. The lack of real, serious competition is a huge detriment to consumers, contrast this with the highly competitive smartphone market.
We now have cameras using the exact same sensor for 3 or more generations; Nikon D850 to Z7, then Z7ii and even the latest Z9 appears to be the same with just an additional stacked layer; Olympus E-M1 Mkii to EM-1X to E-M5iii to E-M1 Mkii. Olympus however imploded shortly after and is now OM Solutions.
The recent OM Solutions (previously Olympus) OM-1 came with a new stacked sensor touting 2 stops improvement in Dynamic Range plus 1 stop better in noise turned out to be nothing more than skin deep software tweaks giving better Straight Out Of Camera (SOOC) JPEGs only while the RAW file quality remained no better than the 2 generations older OMD E-M1 MKii. OM-1’s superiority over previous iterations is largely in subject tracking AF.
The Korean brand Samyang however managed to release their AF 135mm f1.8 FE just recently which more than matched the optical performance of the hallowed Sony FE 135mm f1.8 GM at less than 1/2 the price and 178g lighter! This is a good sign, hopefully more will come. The marketeers and shills meanwhile will be using their bullhorn to tell everyone why we need to spend much more instead.
Can’t help but agree with those who have been saying that a shakeup in the industry is long overdue especially if they continue with this trend of unfettered price escalation without any meaningful improvement in RAW quality, especially on the back of a declining market coupled with the highly competitive and progressive smartphone market involving major players from different countries.
In the world of HiFi and in particular the market for In-Ear-Monitors (IEM or earbuds), the entrance of so many quality manufacturers from China over the past few years brought down the prices such that very good quality IEMs can now be had for $100 when in the past one needs to pay many multiples more for the same level of performance.
There’ll still be some who will tell us we need that $1,000 special cable to be able to get the very best out of our IEM, no different from camera shills who like to tell us we need the latest lenses to get the best out of our high resolution cameras because the sensors out-resolved our existing lenses.
Just like the camera industry moving towards mirrorless, the IEM market has been transitioning to wireless bluetooth earbuds. The fundamental difference in the HiFi space is that serious audiophiles are not giving up their high end wired IEMs anytime soon. Contrast this with the innumerable incessant camera marketeers/shills that have infested the gear forums, DSLRs and especially DSLR lenses are now being declared as inferior, how else can camera companies sell us new stuff unless they move us all to a different (though not always superior) mount!?
Best be informed, improve our skills and avoid falling for the siren song of shills. See the tree from the forest to avoid getting lost in a sea of cameras and lenses…..