Alec

Can I have a goat wearing a little bell pre-exposed in the lower-right corner of each frame? Because I don't know how to add that in photoshop, and everything I shoot surely can use a goat wearing a little bell in the lower-right corner of each frame.

It's not same level as SpaceX by a long shot, but that's not the point. Tinkerers should be given an environment where they can tinker and inspire others, in a way that's reasonably safe and responsible, with the understanding that while avoidable/careless/reckless risks are inexcusable, there's no such thing as 100.0% safe.

And yeah, there was a time when both Goddard and Korolyev would launch scrappy rockets up in the sky just to see how high they would go.

Even has an airport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strezhevoy_Airport but again, it is a matter of laws of the land and a practical situation on the ground.

As for DPReview's stance, it is understandable - in this day and age where it's not unusual to try to pin any fallout on whoever has the money (no matter how superficial their involvement) had to cover their butts legally.

Is it a true 0% chance a SpaceX booster would malfunction (guidance and comms incl. self-destruct) and hit the nearest town or even NYC? It's not strictly 0%. Should SpaceX quit? Not by a long shot.

Nothing in the world is 100% safe - I don't know with 100% certainty if I'll survive the end of this sentence I'm typing. I think it's not a bad approach to share awesome things (done reasonably safely) and give a reasonable disclaimer.

This was deliberately in the middle of nowhere, Russia. No commercial air traffic for hundreds off miles, and no reason for military air posture of any significance.

I'll be willing to receive and leaf through their drivel, but I require a stipend of $12 per issue.

If the grain looks blotchy that means the scan is out of focus and/or we're seeing the interference pattern between the grains and pixels - not the actual grains.

We'll not hit the limits of film by a long shot until we resolve the individual pigment grains in all 3 layers (for color) and use a form of "de-Bayer" algorithm (except one for random grain, but at a sophistication parity with the best contemporary de-Bayer algos) to fill in those gaps among the grains.

come back in another 10 years

That's nothing. We need a bot that will watch all that drivel on youtube for us and auto-engage in heated arguments with trolls in the comments about the relative merits of this vs. next-year drone model yet to be announced, the legality of the flight in question, and the asininity of other bots posting "cool vid bro check out my mad bike wipeout vid".

The fact that the photos have been meticulously sanitized from the internet is telling me that it was done as a part of the settlement, and that chances are they're pretty indefensible for a client to see in the first place.

I'm not defending the bride's actions - a negative review that is fair and balanced is a difficult thing to write under the best of circumstances, and many folks feel they can just go nuts.

On the other hand, a bad review that's thoroughly fair and balanced could probably hurt a business just as much if not more in the long run vs something angrily written by an unstable individual - in no small part because it might encourage other borderline slighted customers to also tell their similar stories, who might otherwise have been silent. Many businesses nowadays put anti-disparaging clauses in their contract in an attempt to control this. While I understand their reasons, I'll never do it myself and I'll never support a business that feels it needs this, either.

when is the 100 megapixel firmware update + press release coming out?

Those are a lot more about SDI connectivity, genlock, ..... , and ultimately plain mechanics - how the rails are attached to the camera body and how stout the lens mount is. If you pull focus manually on a7 III, the view is going to shift several pixels on 4K, because the body, the lens mount, and the tripod / rail system mount all have significant flex to them. That alone completely rules it out from a serious production. When you have 100 people on set and they're all SAG / union, what your camera costs (incl Venice) is a rounding error in terms of costs - you do NOT want any takes ruined by the rig wobbling.

I agree. I mean, I'm frustrated same as you about these handicaps (and while the 4:2:0 can be mitigated with an external recorder, 8 bits not so much). Providing a 12 or 14 bit out for an external recorder, even if internal is 8 bits, would have been a nice gesture, and I can't see how it would threaten their CineAlta sales. Not to mention, SONY of all should know that the way to capture the market is to give people more and push innovation across the board (so your cheap cam has what the competition's upper-midrange lacks) without holding back trivial features.

And 8 bit color. And 30fps. But, it's a $2K camera. Exactly what % of the footage shot with it will have been world's cinematic treasure if it wouldn't have been for these devastating handicaps?

2018 = Year of SONY

Colors are still better with Kodachrome. But life moves on.

It's "the standard non-standard" in that, same as Canon and Nikon, the center contact (plus ground) works the same way, and it has extra brand-specific contacts.

But even the central contact (flash trigger) should have been sufficient to trigger the 2nd camera's shutter.

I agree. A hotshoe bracket that mounts the camera a couple of inches forward, AND has the release via the hotshoe (surely if it can trigger a flash, it can trigger anything) would have been smarter.

Exactly.

I think the photographer(s) should be invited to the grand stage to receive the award, and at the last minute everybody should be like, "nah, we're kidding, the award was just staged because we were live-streaming your reaction" - look at all the clicks and views we got"

* Not implying these companies have a burning desire for anyone's privacy - it's simply they're and their principal investors are not answerable to Uncle Sam to the same extent, and their "masters" don't mind the Uncle to get a taste of his own medicine.

The conventional wisdom would be, use when in America, use Russian (and/or opensource) software on Chinese hardware, and do the opposite when in Russia or China.