Just a day before this we had a huge typhoon crossing over this area. It was still windy and dark and everything in this garden was very wet when I shot this. The ground was like a huge soft sponge and it was kind of hard to walk around this garden this time.
I like this garden because there are not many grouped tourists or families(because it is a paid part of the castle).
It is extremely quiet here and I think it is a good place to read a book, it is called ,"Philosophers garden or Thinkers garden".
Many traditional camera company fanboys try to tell us Sony or Panasonic cameras are much less reliable than traditional camera branded cameras.......and therefore they will never trust Pana Sony Samsung kind.. It is fine that they do not like Panasonic Sony or Samsung cameras, they do not want to use these, but please do not mislead the public.
I find the Panasonic cameras extremely durable and very incredibly reliable in real world use.
And their cameras have exceptional heat dissipation system and incredibly efficient power management system that allows the system run much cooler than the Nikon, Canon equivalents.
So even after 8 hours of a long video work session, they've never overheated, just worked and worked flawlessly.
Maybe surprisingly to some, but it has been the big name traditional camera brands - Olympus, Nikon , Canon and Fuji that have needed warranty support. New blow-ins to the camera world - Sony and Panasonic - those companies that've come from an electronic goods background are probably more sensitive to the costs of providing regular warranty care and do their utmost to make gear that outlasts their normal working life and not just the warranty period. I have appreciated this.
And therefore, I trust Panasonic cameras much more than anything from Nikon or Canon world, I have never had any Panasonic cameras that broke on me in the middle of a very important shooting session. And all my Sony A7RX cameras even the very original one from 2013 still work flawlessly.
I think those electronics camera companies' cameras are much more reliable than those from Nikon, Canon or Olympus. After all, all digital cameras are just pure computers with a shutter unit. But the global shutter tech will eventually eliminate the mechanical shutter too.
So no CN advantage over the rest and I think actually the electronics giants like Sony and Pana have the huge edge over them.
Why Nikon will still struggle even after the Z(update 2):
For me and I am sure for many others, the Panasonic Leica L mount consortium was the biggest news from this year's Photokina followed closely by the Zeiss ZX1.
I think the L mount is great because it may be able to become some sort of universal or near universal mount system for both video and still people.
It is just like the Sony system, it is also a teamed work of three major players with a very different set of strengths.
The new L mount consortium will appeal to anyone who wants a full frame MILC camera, and:
1 wants to buy from a company with 10 years of expertise building MILC cameras and lenses
2 Doesn't own lots of Canon and Nikon full frame DSLR lenses, or does not mind using adapter solution
3 Wants class leading video performance with the industry leading EVF tech and IBIS.
4 Wants the specific feature set that Panasonic offers such as extremely tough weather sealed body, very forward thinking UI, excellent non-Sony high resolution sensor, etc.
5 Doesn't have any particular brand loyalty to Canon, Nikon or Sony
6 does not have many FF lenses for other mirrorless system.
Admittedly, those people are pretty rare in the old bald-heads dominating online fora, but they do exist in sufficient numbers to make Panasonic's new system viable.
In my university, many art students asking me about this camera and I am recommending them to try both the Panasonic S1R and Sony A7R3 before buying into a particular system.
I tell this to them very honestly since I feel I kinda rushed into the Sony system and invested too much money into it already and I am literally stuck in the system...I kinda regret it.
So for me, there is no other choice than Sony TBH, but I still think I will add the Panasonic system in some point in the next 2 years.....not replacing my Sony kit but getting the Panasonic S1R or its successor in addition to my Sony. And I bet there are quite a lot of people like me out there.
So there is a not huge but relatively profitable and moderately decent sized market for Pana/Leica team.
Many say it is too late since many have already bought into one of the major FF mirrorless mount systems by now, but it is not really true considering the fact CN have just started it in this autumn and lacking any sort of serious native lenses.
If you want native mount MILC lenses, then two of the five full frame MILC competitors,e.g., Canon R and Nikon Z have to start with just a couple of lenses(relative 35mm prime and a kit zoom). Only Sony has anything near a full lens system, and Panasonic gains a slight advantage by partnering with Leica, and with lens powerhouse Sigma.
In fact, Panasonic will already have about 16 lenses to start with this game by the next Feb when the S1R will be actually released. In addition to that their own 16 lenses, Sigma will make at least 14 lenses by then, and I think Leica already has 8 lenses and they will make more than 7 in next year.
So Panasonic Leica Sigma team will have at least 38 lenses by the next Feb.
So the L mount may very well end up with the most complete and diverse lens selection for full frame MILC besides the Sony E, which has already an excellent set of native lenses.
With cameras and lenses from three different companies, and the strong possibility of offering the first full frame camera with a Foveon sensor. It is an very interesting system to say the least, I am seriously interested and very excited about it.....
Also, unlike Nikon or Canon awkward and inefficient mirrorless system, Panasonic is a really adept at battery power management, effective heat sink design, ODM flash systems(they've made flash units for Minolta for many years), durable video codec and very efficient cool running camera chipset design,etc.
Many Nikon fanboys claim Nikon is the most reliable system, but in real life they have serious battery issue, power management issue, excessive heat issue, etc.
Designing and producing a very reliable hybrid mirroless system with a big chip is very difficult and very different kind of work and tech required from the typical D-SLR mechanical camera tech. This very fact is always dismissed but the superb real life reliability of the Sony E compared to the terrible reliability of the Nikon system just shows this very clearly.
Mirrorless is all about electronics , nothing about mechanics , so Nikon has really no chance winning in the battery power management game against Sony and Panasonic, who is one of the largest Lithium-ion battery producers.
So their "over a decade" long mirrorless experimentation with the m43 and video cameras really count a lot for many people. I , for one, never trust Nikon or Canon as much as Sony or Panasonic. Since Panasonic has learned a lot about MILC technology, and can transfer some of the things it developed for the GH series into their L series cameras, I am very sure their first generation cameras will equal to the 4th gen Sony or the third gen Nikon or Canon.
Personally, when the dust settles five years from now, I think full frame MILC market share will end up like this:
1 Canon - simply because of their huge full frame DSLR base
2 Sony - due to their five year head start and extensive lens catalog
3 Panasonic - due to their better video performance
4 Nikon - because they have a pretty large full frame DSLR base
5 Leica - for those people who must have a Leica
6 Sigma - for the diehard Foveon fans. All 40 of them.
Yes, you read that correctly. We think Canon will come on the top, followed closely by Sony and Panasonic. Because it isn't about having the best specifications, it is 100% about having the best execution in manufacturing, marketing, distribution, quality control and customer service. If the best appealing spec sheet is everything , then Nikon should have been always no1 in sells , but they've never been no1......so what forum morons requests or think actually sell is not what actually sell in the actual camera market.
Canon has consistently proven it can be the market leader with a growing market share despite lagging behind in cutting edge feature set.
That is a hard concept for gearheads to grasp, but it is the truth. Most of people just find their system more reliable than Nikon.
When the Z was first rumored and actually revealed, everybody in any camera forum across the world talked about it, but just 3 weeks after that sensational announcement of the Z7, the Panasonic Leica L mount consortium literally robbed every hype from the Nikon.
Then, we got the amazingly futuristic Zeiss Z-X1, which completely shut the Nikon up.
And there have been many Z7 failure reports in Japan, China and even in EU, so I think the Z7 might struggle against the Sony,the Canon and the Panasonic badly.
I think it will fail just like the Nikon One. Nikon was considered to be a great camera maker in the 90's (analog era). But now in this digital era, it is the least reliable camera maker in the world. How many recalls have we got? How many already aborted cameras they produced?
But if I have to be honest this time, I must say the Nikon body fits great in my hand and it seems to be almost an ideal camera body for me, with a bit better video quality than my Sony system.
But Nikon's decision to close the mount completely , was a huge mistake that really combined with the terrible XQD card really kills any positive about the system.
UPDATE1: Now I have tested the Z35mm f1.8S lens 5 times on a Z7 and I am pretty sure it is optically an amazing lens for that modest plastic lens price of 800 US.
I think it is easily rival or better any of the D-SLR 35mm primes from Nikon, Canon, Sony and Sigma, but it is a bit worse optically than the Milvus 35mm f1.4 in the very extreme corner.
But what really surprises me about this lens is it is sharper than the Milvus that costs about 2 times more and weigh more than 2 times more at least in the center and about 1/3rd of the frame. I think it is a true bargain lens.
So I am thinking about getting a Z7 just for the 35mm prime and upcoming 14-30mm f4Z(which takes a normal 77mm filter). And keeping my Sony kit for the amazing GM and Loxia line primes. The GM and Loxia primes are truly outstanding but they are not small or light, definitely not cheap like the new Nikon 35mm f1.8S.
So I think we should give some extra credit for Nikon for that lens and the small collapsible 24-70mmf4S.
UPDATE2: Now we all know Thom Hogan is actually a avid Nikon fanboy at his heart. He seems to be strongly biased towards Nikon, I think his new articled called, 'The FF lens race' has just proved that.
In that article , he says Sony has just 26lenses and their lens lineup will grow to about 60 by 2021 or so, and it is including Zeiss Batis and Loxia line. In comparison he says Nikon will have the total 18 and they have the F mount catalog of total over 60 lenses that will work flawlessly on the Z. It is a huge lie, and not very fair to fair to Sony , Pana and Canon. Since the FTZ adapter does not work as well as Sigma or Metabones plus Canon EF on Sony. Or Canon's own ETR adapter, which really works well without any issue with their EF lens lineup, plus it has a drop-in filter.
He also says Canon will have 12 lenses or so by 2021, and it is what he is guessing. I think if Nikon can crank out an incredible set of 18 lenses in just a matter of a couple of years , then Canon will make more lenses than that since Canon is about 13 times larger than Nikon.
If anyone thinks otherwise, I think he/she cannot deny he is a Nikon fanboy, or fangirl, at least as with many famous camera commentators, he/she is strongly biased towards Nikon.
In addition to that, Mr. Hogan also says both the Canon R and the Nikon Z can just use their respective old mount existing lenses flawlessly.......it is not true.
Canon can do that, but Nikon Z needs new more sophisticated Sony A to E type adapter with SLT tech or something similar to fully utilize all the past Nikkor lenses with mechanical aperture lever in the mount.
And he really underestimates Panasonic Leica team, and he definitely thinks they will be a less interesting or less influential mount system than the Nikon Z.
I do not agree with him on that at all, the Panasonic has tremendous potential with the new organic sensor, which will come in their Pro body sometime in 2019 or 2020.
Plus, unlike Nikon, they have global shutter and 8k tech in- house and it is a huge edge over Nikon since Nikon is the only one in the FF mirrorless players not have it or have no access to it.
Global shutter is the next biggest thing in FF mirrorless game and Sony , Pana and Canon all have it in-house and Nikon does not. If he is honest, he should not call CN or CaNikon since Nikon is just too small to call a rival of Canon now.
If his 'the lens race' article had been written in the early 2009 or so, I would have understood why he used the term,'CN'.
Nikon was huge at in late 2009. But they have failed to keep that huge 32 percent market share they got with the D700/D7000 duo.
I mean Nikon's ILC share is just 23 percent globally today and Canon over 49.3, and they are about 13 times larger than Nikon in terms of revenue.
This CN or CaNikon notion Nikon fanboys push through over a decade or so is really an outdated term and should not use the term any more. It is now Sony vs Canon vs Panasonic L mount alliance, and it is really difficult for Nikon to compete well with those much bigger companies than they are.
Any even a bit rational person can see it. Of course, Thom knows it, he is not stupid. But he has chosen to dismiss it because most of his readers are Nikon fans and so is he himself.
When Sony was the only one in the game, he said no adapters or adapted lens solution would not do anything for any serious work, and all the adapted lens solutions for the E mount system. But now he is saying the Nikon Z already has over 60 plus lenses(at the very launch of it) because it can take all Nikkor S and E lenses. Isn't this logic very contradicting to what he has been preaching about Sony lens lineup? He has said, "Any one buying into the E mount eco system should focus on the native lenses, any adapted lens solution is just a temporal thing." But prizing the Nikon Z for its easy adaptability of the Nikkor legacy lenses.
If Sony or Canon or any one needs an adapter solution, he trashes it. But if it is a Nikon, then forgiven or even prized for it. It is really amazing how contradicting he has become and some other Nikon fanboy reviewers like Lloyd Chamber has also saying similar things over and over again.
They should try to be at least consistent and less contradicting.