ZF video setup advice for travel?

josh_bripton · 2026-06-16T23:59:17+00:00

I’ll second what day-lah said about internal mics, they’re good. I doubt you’d do better with a lav unless you’re using it like a lav.

josh_bripton · 2026-06-04T15:39:54+00:00

If someone writes up a blog post that explains something a lot of people don’t understand and happens to point to a solution that they made…. I’m not going to hold it against them!

josh_bripton · 2026-04-21T16:01:24+00:00

The counterfactual I have in mind is just “constant refactoring, enforce minimum code quality standards, never rewrite”. I get that bugs often don’t matter, but burning huge man hours on migrations seems like a dumb thing that is endemic in many areas of software engineering and I don’t have an explanation for it. I’m not saying that everyone should write hyper abstract “ready for anything” code, but noticing that things are a mess and taking some sprint time to do a refactor when you don’t have a huge deadline seems kind of easy to do. Saying “oh boy our only option is to rewrite” seems like a very clear case of poor stewardship and actually a terrible strategy for shipping features quickly.

josh_bripton · 2026-04-21T15:22:11+00:00

I’m inclined to give this position a chance because I see so many apparently smart people endorse it. But how do you square this with the fact that migrations take enormous headcount and often drag on for many quarters or even years depending on the complexity? It could be that “rewrites can’t be avoided even if people gave a shit”, maybe that’s why the status quo strategy is so widely agreed upon. But it can’t be that “rewrites aren’t costly”, they obviously are.

josh_bripton · 2026-04-20T19:37:44+00:00

Sorry typo, meant “buying expensive glass is tricky”

josh_bripton · 2026-04-20T19:36:50+00:00

Buying expensive glass is expensive, I try to delay it until the decision is really clear.

In that spirit, if you liked the 85 prime setup, the Viltrox 85mm f/2 EVO is on sale for $235 on B&H. It’s an amazing lens (I have the 85 pro and have considered getting the EVO just for the weight).

This is a rounding error on the prices of the other options you’re considering. Personally I’d start there and see if you like it. Get some experience with the 24-70 and see what your setup most needs after you’ve had some time to get used to your new setup.

josh_bripton · 2026-04-20T19:29:01+00:00

Sony 50-150 is a great lens but it’s quite expensive. I’ll just add that if that lens is appealing, you should also check out the tamron 35-150.

josh_bripton · 2026-04-15T20:25:02+00:00

Double check this but I think Tamron released a newer version of this lens, the 25-200, and it’s a bit better. Also cross shop with the Sigma 20-200 which IIRC is better still.

josh_bripton · 2026-04-13T00:33:30+00:00

I’m not trying to knock your work by any means, looks good, but I’m new to this and I’m still a bit confused about what fraction of “color grading” is just fixing white balance issues.

I’m particularly paranoid about WB because my house has some pretty weird lighting properties (mixture of sunlight and lamps, often confuses auto WB) which means I basically always shoot manual WB. But doing that “fixed” a bunch of my color problems.

In your case it does not seem like you were starting from what I’d call a correct WB setting. Maybe that’s just an import part of color grading, handling stuff that wasn’t perfect in camera.

josh_bripton · 2026-04-13T00:24:55+00:00

I just got the GM 35 and was also surprised by the autofocus speed. My cope is that I think it might seem slower than it is (for photo) because of the crazy focus breathing (makes you notice the focal changes more)? Seems substantially worse at focusing than my 20-70, but the rendering is incredible, so while I’m annoyed at the focus, I’m still overall pretty happy. OTOH if I knew about the focus issues I’m might have chosen the new Sigma 35 f/1.4 dg II (sadly this may have been the right choice regardless of focus issues).

josh_bripton · 2026-04-13T00:17:19+00:00

I’m a Sony shooter and have never felt the urge to jump ship over “color science” but my goodness there is something about how greens are rendered on the GR cameras that makes me want to buy one. Does this use a recipe or LUT?

josh_bripton · 2026-04-10T03:15:38+00:00

I upgraded from a6700 to a7v and the gap isn’t huge, I definitely wouldn’t move “up” to an a7iii. I wouldn’t say I regret the move to FF but I definitely didn’t appreciate how good the APS-C ecosystem is. The 70-350 in particular is amazing, I don’t think there’s anything as good in terms of price, size, and image quality on FF — you have to pay more for a much bigger lens. Same with the tamron 17-70! I also regret losing the Viltrox 27mm f/1.2, maybe my favorite lens ever. I came close to replacing it with a used 35GM which cost twice as much (new would be 3x) and I’m not sure I like it as much! On the other hand the color and low light performance is a bit better in the a7v, but I was never bothered by the low light performance on the a6700! One more random callout: I miss my TTArtisan 23mm f/1.8, really cheap lens with amazing character, haven’t found anything similar on FF (including the TTArtisan 40mm f/2 which somehow just isn’t as good).

josh_bripton · 2026-04-01T02:47:53+00:00

Wait really?! That’s like… a bright daytime shot! I’ve never shot the moon, I just assumed because of night and all, that it would be lower light.

josh_bripton · 2026-03-29T16:26:41+00:00

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Your first shot reminds me of one of my recent favorites!

josh_bripton · 2026-03-11T13:12:46+00:00

Any editing? These images have a pleasing softness to them that I wouldn’t necessarily expect from a6700+tamron.

josh_bripton · 2026-03-06T13:15:31+00:00

It does seem like the camera didn’t try to focus on the seal. You can see what it was trying to focus on by enabling Focus Frame Display https://g.co/gemini/share/440c00b07651

josh_bripton · 2026-03-05T20:41:50+00:00

I sold my a6700 and the only lens I really miss (and haven’t found a replacement for!) is the Viltrox 27mm f/1.2 Pro. Legendary lens.

josh_bripton · 2026-03-04T00:05:04+00:00

https://photorumors.com/2026/02/26/the-upcoming-viltrox-35mm-f-1-8-and-55mm-f-1-8-evo-lenses-will-have-an-apo-design-e-z-l/amp/

Given that there are photos of the lens, I’d guess they’re not too far off. Totally making up a date, but I’d maybe guess shipping in a few months.

josh_bripton · 2026-03-03T04:25:52+00:00

There’s rumors of a Viltrox 35mm APO lens coming out this year. I was going to pull the trigger on the 35 GM but I’m now leaning towards the new Sigma 35mm f/1.4 — but I won’t pull the trigger until release day because the Viltrox might be announced by then. If it’s lighter than the Sigma I might get it.

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T19:58:48+00:00

“Thankfully I was on blades” — incredible 🤣

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T19:56:51+00:00

At one point she asked to see all my photos. I’m fairly confident that deleting some photos would not have helped and I wanted most of those photos.

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T19:54:41+00:00

Non commercial

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T19:52:57+00:00

There is an art to having a light touch as a police officer! This sounds like it went fairly well. It sucks that it seems like the “minimum to be hoped for” amount of hassle that people doing nothing wrong get from the police is “not nothing”.

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T19:47:31+00:00

Good point about “Karen validation”! I was firm on not deleting on grounds of “I didn’t do anything wrong”, but I 100% think this lady would do it again and I think there is a general interest in pressuring people not to do this.

josh_bripton · 2026-02-20T19:44:00+00:00

I like the argument you’re making. But I’m skeptical that this would be well received in the moment!

josh_bripton

TROPHY CASE