We begin our review of the top stories of the year with a look at the first three months of 2021.
It has, on the whole, been a weird year. Bracketed by the pandemic at both ends with a brief surge of normality in the middle, we failed to have a major trade show once more, but the industry returned to pretty much full production and some titles even made it into movie theatres. Some interesting new cameras were released as well, but our first big story of the year was about a storied manufacturer leaving the market.
The Imaging Division of Olympus was effectively relaunched as OM Digital Solutions Corporation, and the press release stated that this really is a reincarnation of effectively the same organisation that was part of Olympus. “Certainly, the company’s R&D division will need resourcing appropriately to keep up with the likes of Canon and Nikon if the Zuiko and OM-D series are to remain relevant,” we wrote.
Some people were’t waiting. “I just ordered a Sony Alpha 1,” wrote Ned Soltz. “So now I write from the perspective of why I think this camera was worth $6500 to me and how it is positioned amidst the plethora of still and video choices available to creators today.”
Of course, making a decision about something as big as a camera purchase - especially a $6500 one - involves sticking a pin in a technology roadmap somewhere along the line. Simon Wyndham reckoned that "by 2030 our current devices will appear much more out-of-date than many devices from 2010 looked in 2020 as the assistive technologies by which we capture images advances considerably."
New kit is always nice and, if you can't have new kit, new capabilities are good too. We liked the Ninja V upgrade. "Using the AtomX SDI module you can now take a raw signal off the Varicam LT, EVA1, C500 Mk I, C300 Mk II, FX9 and the FX6 via their SDI outputs allowing recording of the raw signal up to 60fps in 4K (or 5.7K in the case of the EVA1) and, depending on the camera, 240fps in 2K," we said. This made us happy.
Then there was this, undoubtedly one of the cameras of the year. "There are enough compelling features here to make any would-be mirrorless camera purchaser turn their collective heads. We look forward to putting the camera through its paces once we get a hold of a review sample. Stay tuned!" was what we wrote then. And it's as true today as it was then; the review is coming up in a bit...
In the meantime, though, there was this to drool over. Phil Rhodes summarised it thus: "In the end, the GFX100 is not an easy device to summarise. It’s very clearly not intended to compete for the mainstream mirrorless video market. It’s far too expensive; you can get an Ursa Mini 12K for similar money. Sure, there are video features for which we’d have chewed off a limb a few years ago, especially given that vast slab of silicon in the front, but in 2020, 4K at 30p is everyday. It would be nice to see sensor-cropped video options with higher frame rates, which is really an issue of whether the underlying hardware will do it and whether it’s worth spending the time developing firmware for a niche product. In the end, if you want a video camera, there’s more for less elsewhere. The X-T4, for instance."
Well, while we're up at the high-end, might as well drop in a Hasselblad review...
Meanwhile, away from new cameras, we were excised by problems of copyright. "Let’s go and shoot some landscapes, shall we? Hold that thought for a moment, because according to some organisations you might be breaking copyright law..."
And finally for this quarter, the new Canon EOS M50 Mark II debuted. We reckoned it was a no frills camera designed for users who simply want to get content out there as quickly and as easily as possible. "At £589.99/€659.99 this is very clearly a budget offering that will suit those who are getting their first interchangeable lens camera."