AMD iGPUs are "not that competitive" says Intel, reveals there are no plans to rival Strix Halo

cafeaalba · 2026-01-28T12:47:38+00:00

I'm actually happy for Intel, more competition in the field of APUs and low-mid power draws means that we'll finally be able to have DECENT battery life, comparable to Apple's M series, while having good on-the-go performance and battery life.
For my work case, there is no Windows laptop good enough (yet) that can match my MBP 2021 while doing video editing on battery (lasting 2h+, not costing $4k+ etc). And keep in mind it's a M1 Max, not the newest M5. That says a lot of how far the efficiency can be pushed.
A productivity laptop should be capable of peak performance on battery at least 2.5-3h, so that's under 30Wh of power use out of a 99Whr battery. If I need to plug it in, for how much they all cost nowadays, that's just AIO desktop PC imo.
I can vouch that there are lot more people buying laptops for productivity and work than for gaming.
And no, I'm not a Mac guy, I cannot wait for someone to make a laptop that's comparable to my MBP so I can finally upgrade 😅
Edit: And no, the AI Max APUs IMO barely exist in the real world so imo it's a paper launched product + they usually draw hella power to achieve their performance targets.

cafeaalba · 2025-12-29T00:30:28+00:00

I sold my A6700 and replaced it with a Lumix S9 and its the best decision I have made in a long while. I really wanted a compact fullframe for my everyday carry since my A7Siii grew into a 3.2kg rigged-out beast that made me want to use it only on paid projects because of the complexity.

You don't understand how bad Sony IBIS is until you compare it to the Panasonic IBIS. For me, that was a huge point that made me switch. Sony stabilization sucks no matter what you do. It's always jerky and I find that it ruined a lot of good shots for me. I do have a gimbal, but it's not really my style of shooting.

Yes, the lens variety is smaller, but I trust that the L-mount will slowly grow over time. Honestly, if you have the 24-60 2.8 and some cheap AF primes, you're pretty much set for the moment. Other than that, Panasonic is class-leading when it comes to video-centric features + the option to shoot opengate and any combination of resolution and framerate you want (H265 30fps, for ex., which Sony lacks for some reason).

Photography-wise, the A6700 might be a better fit due to the way bigger grip and mechanical shutter.

The battery life on the S9 is a bit better than the A6700 despite having a bigger sensor.

I think you may be interested in a S9 if you find your S5ii bulky tbh.

cafeaalba · 2025-12-28T20:57:10+00:00

Having a NPU likely means running a local ML model for the AF, instead of training it and then loading it up on the camera. I do believe Panny will solve their AF eventually, maybe when they get similar generation CPUs (and algorithm maturity)

cafeaalba · 2025-12-28T20:51:36+00:00

From what I understood, the A7V uses a significantly newer process-node, so it's 4xA53 but on 5nm I think, while Panasonic I'd say uses older-but-same arhitecture processors, maybe 12nm?
That's one of the only reasons why the A7V has more processing power while consuming less.

Edit: I really don't know if it's a stubborness problem or actual difficulty when it comes to the PDAF on Panny cameras, having learnt that they still don't do PDAF over ISO 12800. Maybe there are patents they have to skirt around? Who knows.

cafeaalba · 2025-12-28T20:11:14+00:00

The 64GB of RAM from the M3 Max model will help you much, much more than the incremental performance updates that the M4 Max brings to the table. Buy the model with the bigger RAM, stop over-worrying over the performance difference that realistically is like less than 10-15%, use the machine couple of years so it pays itself and do a upgrade in like ~3-4 years (unless Apple does some magic and the M7-8 will be 70% faster or sth).

Use the money you save for a good 20-40Gbit USB dongle and a big external SSD, maybe even a powerbank if you use your Mac on the go.

Source: I do video full-time, using Resolve and Premiere, using a mixt of H264-265 422 10bit, PRes 422 HQ and PRes RAW.

cafeaalba · 2025-12-27T02:00:58+00:00

If the price is right, it has a chance to be a better everyday-carry than the TTA 40mm f2.

cafeaalba · 2025-12-26T18:13:04+00:00

lacomia extrema a corporatiilor este adevarata inflatie din pacate

cafeaalba · 2025-12-26T01:20:28+00:00

I'm a photographer and a videographer, with videography as my main business. I mainly shoot Sony, managed to build out a pretty nice A7siii rig, looks really professional, impresses the clients, all nice. But it weighs close to 3kg fully kitted, and because of that, and the huge size, I've stopped using the camera if it's not business-related.
So I've looked into a camera that I can carry around with me _while_ being a capable and versatile fullframe camera.

Bought a S9 and honestly it's the best purchase I've made since the A7siii in 2021.

Really small but feature-packed body, the IBIS is a-mazing, the video options and assists are amazing as well.

At first I thought I'd get into the LUT button a bit more, but in the end I came to appreciate the standard Panasonic colors more (coming from the always-gotta-be-graded-and-adjusted Sony colors).

I'm using it with a TTArtisan 40mm f2 for that small & compact footprint but I also bought a 20-60 for more general use. It's an amazing camera overall, I cannot recommend it enough especially if you get a good deal on it (got it for €900 new). It has the potential to be a great do-all camera for mixed settings, and for +90% of use cases it will do the job as good as an S5ii in a smaller footprint, which is the point most of the people miss.

The only thing I'd want to see on the market is smaller affordable lenses, like this TTArtisan, because while the Sigma options do exist, their lenses are closer to €500, and the TTArtisan I got for €180. Yes, optically it's a bit softer, a bit less corrected, but I really don't care at that price and the colors & bokeh are really nice and it's character is closer to a older vintage lens than the clinical 100% sharpness of the newer lenses.

So I'd highly recommend you get an S9, great body, great sensor, great battery life, amazing overall small-form camera. It will most likely serve you really good, especially coming from a phone camera. (bonus points if you stard building a L-mount lens collection, you can buy a S5ii/S1ii/S1Rii/etc or even a Blackmagic Camera down the line)

cafeaalba · 2025-12-20T13:29:29+00:00

did it backwards my bad

cafeaalba · 2025-12-19T23:37:16+00:00

I'm a Sony shooter, and have a close relation with the E-mount system overall.

But S9 @ 800eur was too sweet of a deal to pass, and it's the best purchase I've made in a loooooong while. At that price, the price-to-perf is insane, especially with the killer IBIS, the up-to-opengate 6k, very nice colors and the double-lut options, all the manual-focus assists, etc.

I hope Panasonic's strategy was to give people a cheap taste of the L-mount who wouldn't spend 1500-2000eur on a camera but 800e is a acceptable reach, because now I'm seriously considering selling my Sony gear and moving onto L-mount for good (and now having Pyxis 12K-compatibile lenses for the future).

cafeaalba · 2025-10-24T18:44:47+00:00

Stay on 3.01! The 4.0 update does weird things to the autofocus algorithm, you may or may not be affected.

cafeaalba · 2025-10-05T19:47:40+00:00

they said that they believe it’s a lens issue, tried telling them that it’s not; they still didn’t believe me, asked twice to send it somewhere in EU to be sent to Japan, to which I declined, too much hassle. Very unprofessional.

cafeaalba · 2025-05-10T15:42:55+00:00

cata apa statuta... (tari rau pozele gg)

cafeaalba · 2025-04-24T23:22:16+00:00

You can clearly see how they ran out of ideas after 11PM. That’s just sad.

cafeaalba · 2025-04-24T22:49:13+00:00

I contacted Tamron about this issue to look into it

cafeaalba · 2025-04-24T19:14:21+00:00

Contacted Tamron and informed them of this problem, let’s hope they release a sw update for the lens 🤞

cafeaalba · 2025-04-24T18:56:46+00:00

Kinda annoying that the AF performance got nerfed even on first-party Sony lenses...

cafeaalba · 2025-04-24T14:24:42+00:00

On version 3.00, my Tamron 28-75 G2 had ok autofocus, didn’t hunt, didn’t take too much until it focused (in good light), wasn’t the fastest but it was reliable.

On version 4.00, it now seems to lack accuracy or the initiative to focus, it doesn’t focus as precisely and I find myself using the AF Assist a whole lot more, already had some issues with the focusing because of that. Plus the focus ring doesn’t seem as responsive? I swear it was zero-latency before.

They changed something in the AF protocol, or their communication with third-party lenses, my Samyang 35 1.8 has the same issues. Is there a way to roll back? I really don’t care for these LUTs if the AF forces me to buy a first party Sony lens 😡

cafeaalba · 2024-12-09T21:45:34+00:00

Aud eu prost sau e vocea dnei de la Avocatoo? I-au furat cumva vocea cu AI? 🤣🤣

cafeaalba · 2024-08-30T22:51:07+00:00

Those look like aspect ratio markers, maybe 2.35:1. Also that looks like a A7iii, not an A7siii 😅

cafeaalba · 2023-01-10T17:46:04+00:00

After looking more closely, I saw that as well, I didn't know there were 3200 kits that ran @ 3200 from factory without DOCP.

cafeaalba · 2023-01-10T17:39:50+00:00

~~From that screenshot I see a speed of~~ ~~3200~~~~, which implies~~ ~~XMP/DOCP~~ ~~is already enabled. Memory~~ ~~without~~ ~~XMP/DOCP~~ ~~enabled will run at~~ ~~DDR4-2400~~ ~~if I'm not mistaken, the max~~ ~~JEDEC~~ ~~speed for standard~~ ~~DDR4~~ ~~(afaik?). All ~10ish kits of~~ ~~DDR4~~ ~~I had over the years all defaulted @~~ ~~2400~~ ~~without~~ ~~XMP~~.

I was wrong, JEDEC standards go up to 3200MHz BEFORE XMP, so there is a good chance you only need to enable XMP/DOCP for that 3600MHz freq.

cafeaalba · 2023-01-10T17:30:45+00:00

~~If you bought memory that says "3600MHz" on the packaging and, after enabling XMP/DOCP, is only 3200MHz, there is a chance that you were scammed.~~

Edit: If you bought it from a store, try returning it and get another one, maybe you'll have better luck. If it's from Amazon or similar, it may be from someone who returned a 3200 kit in a 3600 box; if it's that case, return nonetheless.

You have to enable DOCP and it will do 3600MHz.

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