NEW CAMERA DAY!
Welcome back!
My name’s Jeremy. If you’ve never been here before, welcome! Today’s going to be a quick one. It’s an exciting day here in East Tennessee.
Speaking of which — East Tennessee State University — that’s where I work. I just got home from the gym a couple of hours ago. Long day at work, but I powered through. When I got home, I saw a package waiting for me and wanted to rip it open immediately... but I waited. I waited until my camera-the Z30 was charged.
Once it was ready, I got excited, hit record, and set up the overhead rig with my phone… only to realize the footage was completely out of focus. So frustrating. I had already opened the box, so that kind of defeated the whole unboxing vibe.
So, I recorded it again. I used this table-mounted arm from SmallRig (I think) — it holds a light and also has a camera mount. I mounted the Z30 to it, and as I was talking, I noticed it was shaking. The footage was wobbly and distracting. At that point, I was like, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Take three — which is this one.
The camera was moved on a tripod. It’s secure. It’s not attached to the desk. Audio’s running. So, finally, I can talk about this new camera I got.
I actually sold the Z8 for this, which, honestly, was a bit of a risky move. The Z8 was nearly perfect for the way I shoot. I loved how it was laid out, the way it felt in the hand... really intuitive.
But I didn’t love the lack of native lenses. Same issue I had back with the Z6 III. I had one lens I loved, but beyond that, the Z-mount just didn’t offer enough. And I’m not really into adapting Sony glass — that never made sense for me.
I actually made a video a while back calling this particular mount “the one to watch in 2025”… and yet, I sold both of my cameras in that mount recently. That said, this is my fifth camera in this mount — so clearly, I keep coming back to it.
This new camera does a lot of things the Z8 didn’t — and I’m excited about that. I’ll give you a couple hints:
Open gate full-frame
4K 120 with no crop
4K 60, also open gate — again, no crop
At this point, you probably know where this is going...
It’s the Lumix S1R Mark II.
She’s a beauty — with the Tilta cage and carbon fiber accents. I love the way it locks, and more importantly, the way it fits in my hand. It feels great. Even my pinky has a place to land — no weird fall-off like some cameras have.
I’m genuinely pumped about it.
The only thing I wish worked — and maybe one of you knows how to fix this — is using my DJI RavenEye system to start/stop recording and monitor footage remotely. I used to do that with Canon cameras and it was amazing. I’d love to replicate that setup here, especially when I’m filming solo. If anyone knows how to get RavenEye to work with this camera, please let me know. That would seriously make my life so much easier.
Now, I’m not going to get into the specs — there are tons of videos on that. I just want to say: it’s an incredible camera, and I can’t wait to shoot with it.
But more than anything, I can’t wait to grade some footage. That’s really where my head’s at lately — even though I’ve always been a photo-first guy, I’m really diving into video more.
At the moment, the only lens I have for it is my Leica Summicron, which I’m adapting using a TTArtisan adapter. It looks a little funny on this body.
By the way — shout out to Lumix for the new shutter curtain. It's gorgeous.
That’s it. I won’t bore you any further. Thanks so much for being here and for sharing in this excitement with me. This is what I love about this community — we all have those days where life just feels better because it’s new camera day.
Love y’all. Thanks again.
We’ll see you around. Later, neighbor.