The Saga Continues | 1st World Camera Problems [S4E18]

Just when you thought it was safe…the Cameranundrum continues! This week I dive in to some less than great, but still not too terrible developments with my new Sony a7SIII, explain why I currently have two of them, and also give an exhilarating backstory to explain the intense anxiety I feel around large purchases and the outlandish sentimental value I attach to these objects What a ride!

Thank you to Aris for sending in this week’s voice message! If you’d like to be included in a future episode, just send a quick message to tom@enthusiasmproject.com

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S4E18 | Series Episode 81

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:24

Hello and welcome. My name is Tom. This is the Enthusiasm Project Season 4, episode 18, better titled Welcome to Me Stressing Out About Camera Stuff Again. So we're going to continue the discussion that started last week. And uh there is a video version of this episode up on Patreon and YouTube channel memberships for anyone who's interested. If you want to see some of the specifics I'm talking about, but if not, I will use my words to describe them as accurately as possible. So the camera conundrum, the camera nundrum continues. I want to dive into that because last week when I did my am I not recording in this? Oh my god. No, I am recording. Oh, good for me. I thought I was not recording in eCamm, but I am because I do eCam for the video version, roadcaster for the audio version, and I thought I forgot to press record on Ecamm, but I didn't. So you got to see me and hear me freak out about that for a second. Um, so anyway, last week I did my whole camera thing where I talked about having all the different cameras and all the stuff and yada yada and and choosing the right camera for me and all that great stuff. And I ended up choosing the Sony A7S3, and I recorded that episode. It ended up being 90 minutes long. And when I was done with that, I thought, oh my gosh, who is gonna listen to 90 minutes of this? And then I I think I got almost more messages from that episode than any episode I've done this season, including the ones about like quitting my job or how much money making on YouTube. And uh so that was cool. I mean, I'm glad. I'm glad that people found that helpful. And the thing that that a lot of people said they were interested in wasn't even so much the camera stuff, but it was more the like decision-making process and hearing kind of the thought that goes into it and relating that to their own decision-making process and that sort of thing. So that was really cool. Uh, I'm not trying to recreate that. We don't need 90 minutes of that, but I do want to go into, I do want to update everybody on what has happened since then, because there have been some updates. One of which, if you're watching this, I'm holding up a Sony A7S3 body, but I'm also recording this on a Sony A7S III. So what the heck is that all about? We'll explain that in a second. This one that I'm holding in my hand literally got delivered maybe 30 minutes ago, 25 minutes ago, maybe. Uh, and the the one I'm recording on right now is the one that that I got originally. So we'll talk about why that's happening, because I uh both of these are not gonna be sticking around. I'm not gonna have two. I do not have the budget for that by any means. Before we do any of that though, I have a voice message, which I'm very excited about because I always at the end of every episode or sometime throughout the episode, I say, hey, if you want to leave a voice message to be included in part of a future episode, go ahead and do that. I've got a message from Aries from Greece. Aries from Greece. I can't make it rhyme. I tried to make it rhyme. Um, who's who's just been an awesome guy that that you know we've talked a lot online. He left me a voice message and it it's perfect. So one, thank you, Aries, for bringing for leaving the message. And two, it's great just because the stuff that you you touch on in your voice message also includes some things that I wanted to touch on, but it's sort of a much better uh jumping off point than just me going like this is what we're gonna talk about today. So here is Aries from Greece.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Hey Tom, this is Aris from Greece, Aris Garontakis. I have been enjoying the podcast, especially the latest episode so much. Congratulations on your career moves. Congratulations on the new camera! We now have the same camera. I also have the A7S3 with the 24 uh F1.4 G Master, and I was influenced by Peter for this, as I was influenced um by you in order to buy the Rodecaster Pro, as I have mentioned. Um and I expected you to mention Peter in this podcast that you were talking about the camera, but you didn't. But I know you were influenced by Peter. I know you were. So I'm just throwing this out there. I also recently ordered the BP BM something microphone that comes with the A7S III, you know, the one that they recently released with the A7 III, uh, which is supposed to be sounding amazing, and I'm I can't wait to test that out. But I also went and did another thing, and that is not justified at all by my channel because it's at 730 subscribers, so I don't know why I'm purchasing all this gear. Uh, and I'm not even a camera-focused channel, even. I am just a vlogger, you know, doing my thing. So um I ordered a camera that I used to own. Uh, I ordered the newer version, I ordered the Fuji X100V, and this is nothing like the rest of the cameras that we're talking about, like the R5s and the R's and the A7S3s. This little camera is a fixed-lens camera. It's like a point-and-shoot, and it is uh the equivalent of a Leica because uh this camera is uh uh primarily it's a photo camera. And uh for some uh weird, bizarre reason, uh this camera has soul. The colors in this one are not crystal clear. The the image quality is not the amazing quality that you expect from cameras. This is this is a camera that I set to the one of the film emulations, the classic Chrome, which uh uses some tinting uh in the on the image, and I just set it to JPEG and I forget it. I take all the pictures from my family with this camera, and I street photography, a little bit of landscape uh when I'm traveling, and also the videos that I've done, this camera has soul. And it I I know you just bought a camera. I don't want to get you into trouble. I don't want to get you into trouble with Heather or you know, uh no, I your relationship doesn't work that way, does it? So um yeah, I don't want to get you into uh thinking, you know, what what what is my next camera? But if you ever think about renting a camera that feels amazing and has insane tactile feedback on your hands, uh the X100V. Yes, you're welcome. Um thanks for being awesome on every social media that you're on to uh and uh all the podcasts uh that you're you're doing. Um I love them. So thanks, ma'am. Aris out.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

All right, Eris out and Tom in. And if you're watching the recording, I'm changing some settings right here. I realize I was on a uh not super smooth setting. I was not on 30 FPS, which is what the A10 Mini likes. If you're listening to this, you don't need to know any of that, but now the video should look better if you're um if you're watching this. So, a couple of things I want to address, Aries from Greece. Uh, first of all, again, thank you for your message. I uh emailed you after you sent it to me. And uh, if you want to send a message and be included in a future episode, just send a message to Tom at enthusiasmproject.com and uh I'll get you included in a show as long as it's not, you know, I don't know, weird or inappropriate or something. That was a weird disclaimer, but a couple things I wanted to touch on here. So, first, you're talking about the Fuji, uh the Fuji camera, and I if you're watching this, this is the camera that he is referring to. It does look like an old school Leica camera, nice little point shoot. I've never used a Fuji camera, but I have heard there's there's definitely a fan base around them. And I think you touched on something really important in your message, which is the idea of soul in not just a camera, but just sort of in any tool. Because sometimes you can go for the you know the best or or the most spec'd out or whatever, but it's it's it can be lacking that soul, as you said. And I think I think it's hard to it's hard to say what that even is. The black magic camera that I rented, I think it had that. It just had something about it where it's like it's in it was imperfect, it wasn't even the most practical choice for me, but using it, there was just something so much fun about it. You know, I've played guitars for many years, and it's kind of the same thing. It's like sometimes uh, you know, a cheap little crummy guitar will end up being like the best or the most soulful guitar versus some of the others. So I I totally get that, and I love I love that I have no plans on getting uh another camera, much less another whole camera system anytime soon. But I I do appreciate um the feedback on the Fuji. I will address the comments about Peter, Peter Lindgren. Uh it was actually a different Peter that that kind of pushed me over. Peter Gregg was the one who like gave me the the real big push mainly because of our workflows. So Peter Gregg with two Gs on the end, actually, I guess last name is three Gs. He has a YouTube channel, he live streams a lot, uses lots of different cameras. So if you want to see someone who's mixing you know Sony and Canon and Fuji and Olympus and Nikon and everything, that's Peter. And he's been using an A7S3 as like his main streaming camera, probably I would say, maybe for the last four months, maybe five months. And it'll it'll run. I think his longest stream he did with it was like seven and a half hours, and it ran like a champ, and the autofocus is great, and the image quality is great. So that was kind of the thing, you know, all running through Ecamm Live that really was like, okay, this is uh he's putting it through some of the paces that I would put it through, as in the camera's gonna be in a studio environment, on for long periods of time, mainly talking head stuff, and that worked. Peter Lindgren, on the other hand, uh last summer when the R5 and A7S3 were announced, I had ordered the R5, he had ordered the A7S III, and he got like a pre-production unit to do in a review, and you know, obviously loved it and just said it's the most amazing camera. And when he was telling me about the specs on it, you know, when we were talking about cameras, I was like, wow, it uh it really addresses all the shortcomings of the other cameras, and that was kind of amazing to me. And but of course, you know, I ended up just canceling my R5 order, going with another R, as you probably know by now. And uh Peter has been pushing me, he's like, just get a Sony, do the da da da da da. But the reason that I mean, I won't say it didn't influence me. A big thing is I talked to him a couple weeks ago, and I was talking about cameras, and um I was like, so now that you've had the Sony A7S3 for a while, what do you think of it? And he basically said, Well, there's a reason that I now have two of them. I was like, Oh, I didn't even know you had two of them. So, okay, that's a ringing endorsement. And and that really did kind of push me over the edge. But the thing is, though, Peter's main cameras have been Sony's for so long, and I know he shoots great stuff with them, they look amazing, nothing there. Um, but I I kind of was more looking at like people who had like Canon versus Sony experience, so you kind of know like when you're leaving one system, not leaving one system, but when you're just sort of knowing the difference and the breadth a little bit more of those specific systems, that's kind of the feedback I was looking for. So, yes, Peter did did affect the decision, but actually um it was Peter Gregg who probably did it more. And then it in addition to Peter Lindgren and his two A7S IIIs, Tommy Callaway now has two A7S IIs, got rid of the red Komodo for a second one. Uh Kevin the Basic Filmmaker has one. Um, who else? Luke Miani bought Gary Everyday Dad's old A7S III. Uh who else? There's a couple people I'm trying to think of off the top of my head. Jake Sloan has an A7S III, Cody Warner. Uh, there's a lot of people that just sort of like Becky and Chris that transitioned over to that, and a number of them have two of them. So anyway, uh yeah, Peter's kind of a part of that. A couple other things though, though, that I wanted to touch on in your message, real quick. Um, Aries was uh at one point you said that the the Fuji camera, there's no real justification for it because your channel's only at 700 subscribers, and I'm doing air quotes if you're not watching me. Uh, one, that's a lot, and it's really hard to get to 700 subscribers, so you should be proud of that. And two, there is no need to say that like something is or is not justified uh just because of a subscriber number. So, you know, obviously I'm not saying everybody, hey, max out your credit cards and go into debt and buy all this equipment and do all this stuff just haphazardly. For sure, don't do that. But if you if you can do things responsibly and you're like, hey, I kind of like this nice camera right here, or you know, I want to upgrade this thing over here. Do I have a super large audience that you know totally makes sense and could justify it to anybody? No, but who cares? Like if you if you are gonna get joy out of using that stuff, if it's gonna make you, you know, able to do things you couldn't do before, if it's gonna let you have more fun or it has the soul that you're looking for, there's no like magic number. Like now you have this number of subscribers or viewers or whatever, so now you're allowed to to invest and get new stuff. No, as long as you're being financially responsible, uh, then by all means do that. And that's why uh we're gonna talk about this second A7S3 in just a second here. Um so I just wanted to make sure, not just for you, but for other people, that like please don't don't look at like metrics and analytics and numbers as justification for whether you can or cannot get something. Um, and then renting again, like I I talked about renting a camera. Um, all of these different cameras, if it's possible to rent them, I still stand behind that as being a great option. The reason I didn't rent a Sony was because uh lens rentals where I got my stuff from didn't have it. I found a few other rental websites, but I wasn't that it was like it was almost weird. I wasn't that concerned about renting the Sony because I kind of like knew it was gonna be good. Um so anyway, that that's sort of that's sort of that. Now, where this takes me is to explaining is to explain why there is a second Sony here. And so I wanted to update everybody on this camera saga, which ties into just a thing that I have experienced throughout the course of my life, and that has to do with the anxiety that comes with making large purchases. What qualifies as a large purchase has changed throughout my life. Uh, as a kid, I remember you know being like 11 or 12 years old, I got really into watches, but you know, not like Rolex watches or Omega watches or something, like you know, different Timex watches from Walmart, that kind of a thing. And I would go to Walmart and I'd go to the watch counter and I would look at all the different ones and they'd change. It's like, oh, this one's cool. And you know, what's the difference between like having a leather band or a nylon band or a metal band? And oh boy, these are all so different. But I could not afford one watch, let alone many watches. And so what I specifically remember doing was spending a few weeks just doing yard work everywhere and trying to get, I think the the number was like $30 or $35. If I could have gotten that, I I could have almost had my pick of like any of the Timex watches in the in the counter. And I did that and I went and I got one, and it it I was so excited because I was like, you know, you go to the shiny watch jewelry counter looking thing, and I want that one there, they do it and they put it in the little box, and then they give you the watch. And I was so excited, and I got home, and I remember like after a day or two, I noticed something was like the it had the indigo indigo light that Timex watches have where the whole thing illuminates, and part of the face didn't illuminate, it was like it was like almost defective, and I was like, oh, huh. I didn't notice that. And then it kind of bothered me and it kind of bummed me out because it wasn't even you know, I would be upset if I broke it, if I damaged it, that would upset me. But this wasn't even that, and this wasn't even like, oh, you've been using it for a long time and it's getting worn out, it's getting you know, wear and tear. This was literally like it's brand new, and it's just sort of it has a defect, and it really bothered me. And I I that was, you know, I think one of my mom or my dad was like, well, you could return it if you want. So I had my receipt, took it back, they it let me return it, exchange it for a different one. And then it was like I got I got this thing where I was like, I have uh hyper, I was gonna say obsessive compulsive tendencies, if you couldn't tell. Um and and I don't mean that in the like quirky, you know, boy, I sure like it when my books are neatly lined up. I mean like actual like OCD stuff that uh has been a lifelong long thing. And then I started becoming obsessed with you know finding any sort of imperfection on something, which wasn't great. And I think that $30 that I earned and then spent on the one watch, I think that translated in the end to like seven different watches because I kept getting them and something was wrong, or or even a couple of them things were wrong, and other ones I just kind of freaked out and was like, oh my god, I got the wrong model, or you know, whatever. And the the Walmart return counter was very patient with me. So thank you, 1998 Walmart workers, for that. I appreciate that. Uh, but that that's sort of a weird thing where I knew I was like, this is not uh a behavior that I want to keep going, even at like 12 or 13 years old. I was like, okay, I don't I don't want to be this weird obsessive dude. As I got older, what constitutes an expensive purchase changed. You know, at a certain point, $100 became expensive, and then $200, $300, you know, it just kind of as you get older and and your perspective on money changes, that kind of stuff changes. And boy, this is a long story. So I just realized maybe we don't need to start in the 90s. We'll come back to this because here's where I'm at right now. So let me let me fast forward to present day. Uh this is like one of those cheesy movies where the movie begins and then it freeze frames and is like, you might wonder how I got into this situation, and then it like rewinds and goes back. Okay, let's jump back to present day. I've been using my Sony A7S3. It's the camera, if you're watching this, that you're looking at right now for what it two weeks now almost. And it is an outstanding camera. I still have stuff that I need to learn about. I'm still, you know, playing around with it, but I have a lot of it customized now. I understand the menu and the settings much better. I've used it on several live streams, I've used it on recordings, I've done all kinds of tests with it. I've done two actual video videos with it where I've mixed it with the two Canon R's, and it has been shockingly easy using S Cynatone to match with the Canons very well in Final Cut Pro. Um, if you really look for it, you know, I haven't spent a ton of time trying to be absolutely, you know, bringing up like the scopes and things and making sure every shade of every color is exactly matching. Uh, but unless you're looking for it, you're not gonna notice a difference. It's usually something like if I have blue in my shirt, the Sony is a little more teal and the can is a little more purple-y, but it's like you really can't notice it, especially someone watching on their phone or whatever, like 480p or whatever YouTube downscales it to, you're not gonna notice that at all. So it's been it's been great, and I love the autofocus on it. Um you know, it's a it's a great camera. I get the hype. However, there was something that started popping up a few days ago, and if you've been, you know, following me on social media, you you probably know what this is, and it involves the screen of the A7S III. Now, last week I said so far in my early experience with it, one of the things I didn't like about the camera, it's not even that I didn't like it, it was just I was kind of surprised that the screen wasn't like wasn't as high quality as the rest of the camera. Uh it's just a three-inch display, it's like a four by three aspect ratio, which is strange on a camera that is primarily designed for video, but it seems like Sony has been using these three-inch LCD displays on like a bunch of their stuff, including some of their higher-end cameras. The FX3 has the exact same one. Um, I think, don't 100% quote me on this, but I think the A1, the Sony A1, which is like their flagship mirrorless camera, it's like a $6,500 camera. I believe it has the exact same screen, which is so strange because, as I mentioned last week, the Canon EOS R has a 16 by 9 screen, as do most Canon cameras from recent years that is higher resolution, higher quality, and fully touch interactive. I guess the Sony screen is fully touch, it's the operating system that doesn't let you enable touch on everything. But I was just shocked that like, wow, this very expensive camera from late 2020 doesn't have as nice of a screen as a mid level Canon camera from three years ago. Uh, but it's fine. Like it's still a flip out screen on a Sony. Oh my gosh, that's something that you know people have been asking for. For for years. It does have touch functionality, and it's fine. So that's cool. That's not a problem. However, what I started noticing, and I'll if you're again, if you're watching this, um, I'll point this out to you right here. I'll kind of show you how I'm using this most of the time, which is when I'm streaming, when I'm recording, when I'm doing this podcast, I have the camera set up in front of my desk filming me. And that's where things are most of the time. And then in order to have a monitor where I can see things better, or in the case of streaming or Zoom or whatever, I need to be doing this, I run it through eCamm Live. So I've got my camera and then my computer display right next to each other. And you can see there's, you know, the camera has its screen. I'm gonna try to get this focused here. It's a lot of multitasking here. You're probably not gonna be able to see the exposure. The camera has its screen, and then just a few inches away is my computer screen with its display. And so what I have been noticing since the time I've been using the A7S3 is that when I am on screen for both of these, when like right now, if you're watching this, you can't see me, but when it's my face filling up the eCam screen and the Sony and my face also filling up the screen on the Sony, the colors don't match. And it was weird. And that was something I noticed. Like, have you ever done this thing where like you wake up sick one day, maybe like you know, you have a cold or the flu or something, and you're like, oh my gosh, I feel so sick. I didn't realize I was sick. And then when you start thinking about it, you start realizing that you you noticed symptoms the night before, but they were like kind of small and unnoticable, and you never would have thought about them again had you not gotten sick the next day. This is kind of I don't know if that makes sense, but this is kind of that. Whereas when I got this the A7S3 and I started setting it up, I definitely noticed the screen. I've been used to these same settings in this room for years now, you know, like same white balance, same ISO, same focal length, same aperture, very similar color profiles, everything the same. And I was like, wow, this looks so different in here. But that wasn't even really surprising because I was like, yeah, Canon and Sony are gonna have different colors. That's something I expected. Um, not a problem. We're also dealing with like 10-bit versus 8-bit. So if you're watching this, here's the Sony A7S3, here's the Canon EOS R. So you can kind of see a difference. This clearly is not in uh 30p, so it's a little stuttery, but you can kind of see some of the difference. Their settings are actually exactly the same. Um, but you can kind of just see some of the difference in, you know, it just the difference between them. Now wait, what camera am I looking at? There we go, there's a Sony. And um so that wasn't really surprising, but having the camera right next to the screen brought up an issue, which was the image I'm seeing on screen did not match the image that was on the camera. Whether it's I'm using eCam or it's popping up in Zoom or whatever, the camera's image looked brighter and warmer, and the computer's image looked colder and dimmer. And that was weird because that hadn't been an issue. I've had a Canon camera in this exact same position for, you know, two years now and not had that issue. Everything's very matched up. I don't have like a professional color balance screen, but I did take some time and use the actual little color calibrator to match my screen. It I trust it to be pretty darn accurate. I also have a little display above it that shows the output for the ATEM Mini, and both of those things match, and my Canon EOS R matches that. So whatever it looks like on the R is what it looks like on the screen right next to it. And both of my Rs match each other perfectly. So everything has been playing along, and then the Sony shows up, and the Sony display is kind of bright and kind of yellow, but what's on the screen is not brighter and yellower, if that makes sense. So I kind of pinpointed that to the Sony display. And that was like, huh, okay. This is a little weird and a little frustrating because it's like it's one of those things where like I don't know if that's an issue or not, because I could account for that and just know that okay, what I'm seeing in the camera's screen is a little bit brighter and a little bit warmer than what's actually being recorded or what's actually being output. Just keep that in mind. That does get a little tricky when then I switch to another camera like my R, where it's accurate, and then I'm like, okay, I don't need to overcompensate, but here I'm compensating, but there I'm not compensating. That gets strange, and that that's you know a little funky. But I I I yeah, I'm not sure if it's an issue because when the screen, however, the screen looks, once I put it into eCam to do a stream, I can just adjust, you know, the colors right in here. I can add a LUT to it, I can change the brightness, the saturation, get it looking how I want. So it almost doesn't matter what's on the screen. Same thing kind of goes with editing. I don't really shoot ever in log or raw or any of that kind of stuff for the most part. So I want it to look as good as possible straight out of the camera. But if it's slightly off, it's not hard to use final cut and you know move the colors around a little bit and just do some minor editing. It really hasn't been an issue so far. It's just weird to me when I'm looking at a display on the camera and it looks one way, and then I look at what everyone else is seeing and it doesn't look that way. It just kind of bothers me. And so there's no satisfying end to this story. So, what I did was I took to social media earlier this week and I just asked a question like, hey, people with Sony cameras, um this is what I'm experiencing. My flip-out screen seems to not be as accurate as what the camera is showing. Is there a setting I can change that? Because this is where my frustration comes in, is uh with Blackmagic, for example, the 6K Pro, when they started shipping those a few months ago, there were huge reports of the camera having a blue tinted display. And and if you look up pictures or videos of people talking about their blue tinted display, it's not something you have to try and see. Like it's like, whoa, that is like a blue friggin' display. And that's gonna be a problem if you're setting white balance. Obviously, if you're filming in raw, it doesn't really matter, but it's it's not great to have an inaccurate display on a camera, on an imaging device, right? And black magic, I think the reason that that happened was because they pack so this is my theory, they pack so much into their stuff, like the 6K Pro, they try to keep the price down. And what happens is manufacturing gets cosket cut a little bit. And so maybe some of the displays, you know, they're from different manufacturers or different whatever. It's inconsistent from unit to unit, um, which is, you know, a bummer. But their fix to that was they released a firmware update that has a calibration option. You go in there, it's got a couple sliders, it has like some reference things, like a gray square and a white square, and some other colors and stuff, and you just slide the sliders around. It's not super scientific till it looks accurate, and then you're all set. The camera that I rented had a blue screen. I went into that menu, I spent probably less than 20 seconds in there, got it dialed in exactly how I wanted it. It looked great, it matched everything. The rest of the 10 days or whatever I had the camera, it was awesome. So that was such a simple fix, and I was like, wow, like every everything that has a screen that color depends on it should just have something like this. Why wouldn't it, you know? And digging through the Sony menu, this is so frustrating. There's not really any controls for the flip-out screen. You can change the brightness of it. And there's a thing called like sun sunny mode or sun sunshine. I don't know, but it's like if you're gonna be out in the bright light, it just maxes out everything and goes crazy. I don't have any of that stuff turned on. You can change the color temperature of the viewfinder. So of the the tiny viewfinder that you put your eye up to, which you probably don't ever use that much on a camera that's dedicated for video, unless you're outside in bright light, you can change the color temperature of that to suit your your needs. The screen that you probably use most of the time, nope, no change of color temperature, which makes no sense to me. Why is that setting only available for one of the two viewing options? That makes no sense. And what makes even less sense is if it is only gonna be available for one of those options, why is it the one that's probably being used the least? What? And then Sony just released a firmware update not that long ago for this camera that didn't include any fixes for that. But since I haven't heard this talked about, it's like a widespread issue. I don't think there's gonna be an update coming anytime soon that would address this if ever. So that was kind of frustrating. And then on social media, the responses I was getting was kind of interesting. For the most part, all the people I talked to who use Sony cameras said, no, their stuff looks great and the it's super accurate and they're very happy with it. And I was like, okay, you know, it's very anecdotal. The only person who said otherwise was actually Cody Warner, who said, Oh, yeah, I noticed the same thing on mine, but I just thought that's the way it is. And I found that interesting because I know Cody also came from a Canon EOS R to the Sony A7S3. And so I feel like maybe our eyes were sort of used to something, and then switching to it's like, are all Sony screens this way? Because that would be weird. Like if that's a thing that people know, like, oh, your Sony camera overexposes and warms things up. Like that, I feel like that would be all of our message boards. But then it's also, I know a lot of people who use these cameras shoot in log profiles or shoot raw or have external recorders connected. So maybe it like literally hasn't really been an issue. I don't know. I found that very strange. And the reason I'm laughing is because this is something that's a very first-world camera problem, right? Like the camera's great, it functions awesome. The fact that I even have time to worry about this means I'm in a pretty nice position. However, and I know I could probably live with it, I could probably just talk myself into it and go in, like, ah, this is fine, just live with it. This is also though really expensive. And to me, the same way when I was 11 or 12, and I was like, I raked a lot of yards and whatever, like pulled out a lot of weeds to get this $30 to buy this camera. If it's not perfect, I want to make sure I exchange it. That's very much how I feel with something like this. And if it's not, I don't want to spend $3,500 on something plus tax and shipping to then go like, I guess I could just live with this one thing here. Like that just does not compute with me at all. And I get so nervous when I make big purchases because I'm scared of that kind of thing happening. And of course, like I know again, a company like Sony, a company like Canon, a company like Apple, like they're gonna stand behind their products. The places I buy them from aren't some shady retailers, like somewhere like BH or the Apple store or Sammy's camera or whatever. Like, yeah, you can exchange stuff, you can return it. So it's no big deal, it's just kind of a hassle. However, I'm a little bit scarred. So now, you might be wondering how I got scarred from something like this. Let me explain. And this is where the rewind sound effect comes in. And we go all the way back now. We started in 1998 talking about watches. Now we're gonna jump over to 2008 and talk about computers. Because if you're an Apple user or an Apple News follower, you might remember that in 2008, Apple released their unibody MacBook Pro design, which was a pretty huge design shift. That was when uh and and their computers have changed design since 2008, and they're likely going to change pretty drastically this year. But the basic unibody design has actually been kind of the same since then. They've gotten a little thinner, a little like rounder, or you know, ports have changed and stuff, but the basics are still there. And what it is is instead of being a bunch of different like casing parts put together, it's essentially the computer's like chassis, is just one piece of aluminum, aluminium that it's like machined out of. And they released that design in 2008. I needed a new computer for college in 2008. I was in what was that my like my junior year of college, uh, very broke, uh, and but needed a new computer. And I had had a desktop, but I needed a laptop. I needed something that I could take to classes. I was taking classes at two different campuses, so it was like a lot of bouncing around back and forth and then working on stuff at home. And I needed a laptop. Apple released these new ones. I had saved up like a couple years worth of tax returns to get my like $1300 or $1,400 to afford the computer. And I was ready to buy my computer. Now, at the time, so that was a big purchase, you know, that was probably about the just had to be just about like one of the biggest purchases I'd ever made in my life at that point, up to that point in time. Um, so I was ready to get my new computer. I was hesitant to order online just because I had tried to order a computer in the past online and it came defective, and it had it had a defective screen. There's a pattern that will emerge here. Uh, and you know, I was able to return it and all this stuff, but it was quite a nightmare process because it's also like shipping and dropping things off and repackaging this and then waiting. And oh my gosh, but it's an open box. But like, do you get your full thing? Do you get a 15% open box charge? Like, there's a whole thing you have to deal with. And anyway, I decided okay, I'm gonna buy my computer, I'm gonna buy it straight straight from the Apple store so that way get the support that comes with that. I can see right away if it's good or bad or whatever. And at the time, the nearest Apple store to us was 90 minutes away, so it's a pretty long drive. And I was like, that's no problem. Drove out there, bought my computer, drove home, opened it up. The most beautiful computer I'd ever used in my life at that point. So nice. I remember I had my that was I had had my first uh DSLR at the time. That was my Canon Rebel XTI, and I was like taken with my nifty 50 prime lens. I was taking photos of that computer because it looked so pretty and like the keys and all this stuff. It was neat. It's a little 13-inch MacBook. Um, it was taking it to classes, really loved it. And maybe over like the first week I had it, this will sound familiar. I started to notice the screen looks a little yellow. And you know, I was doing, I was writing a ton of papers, so black text on a white background. I was doing like, you know, graphic design stuff for my job and also just for fun. And it was like everything just sort of like the colors are just off from what I'm used to. And I'd been using it in enough different environments that I finally determined, like, this isn't just me, this is the computer. And then, you know, you go to like Mac rumors forums, and yep, turns out there's a thing of like yellow screen issue, and blah, blah, blah. I was like, okay. Uh, so I called the Apple store. They're like, yeah, no problem. You know, it's been less than two weeks, just come back with your receipt and we'll exchange it. Okay, cool. Three hours round trip, and I'm driving a car that's you know, 100,000 miles. It should last. Oh my gosh, I just remembered a different part of this story, actually. Okay, cool. Uh, addendum at the end. Um, anyway, so drove back out there, uh, talked to the people I had talked to on the phone. They're like, okay, no problem. Here's the here's the new computer. And I was like, before I drive 90 minutes home, uh, let me open this up, you know, here and look at it. And I opened it up. The screen wasn't yellow or anything. It was like perfect, awesome. Got home that night using my new computer, really happy. There's like a smudge on the screen, so I was like trying to wipe it off, couldn't get it off. And then I realized it had a little cluster of dead pixels kind of right in the middle of the screen. And if you've ever had a dead pixel on a computer, especially we're not talking about high-resolution screens, a 1080 screen, 2008. Uh, you can definitely see the individual pixels, and there was just a little cluster of maybe like three or four of them that were dead, just black, look like black specks. There's nothing you can do to fix that. Um, and this computer's brand new, and I was like, oh my god, it's like right in the middle. Like that's gonna annoy me every time I look at the screen. Like, it's the screen of the computer. It's not like there was a tiny scratch on the bottom of the computer that I'll never see or something. It's like every time I'm using it, I'm gonna be staring right at these little specs. So, as you would expect, called the Apple store, told them what happened. They said, Okay, you can bring it back in. So, this is now my third trip to the Apple store. Uh, second trip in two days. The guy who had helped me the day before, there was like a manager I talked to when I first came in, and then she said, Okay, hey, guy over here, you help this guy. He did the exchange. He was there again when I came back the next day, exchange it for the third computer. And then I asked, like, before I leave the store, can I open it up in here to check it out? And he was like, Yeah, yeah, whatever. So I walked over to a table, opened up the computer. As soon as I opened it up, the palm rest of the computer had this big metal gash in it. And I don't mean something that like I had to have like a little magnifying glass to see. It looked like somewhere on the assembly line it had gotten like caught in a piece of equipment and like like something had like gashed into the palm rest. And this was straight out of the box. Um, and so like I had to ask the guy. This computer, this is my third computer now. This computer has like a thing on it. Uh, you know, can I exchange it again? And he was starting to seem kind of annoyed. Uh, and I was like feeling uncomfortable. He wasn't like the friendliest dude. And so I was like, okay, can I please exchange this? He said yes, he exchanged it for another one, and he was kind of like giving me like he came out with another one and sort of like handed it to me, and I didn't really feel comfortable opening it in the store. So this is now my fourth computer, right? The first one had the the yeah, this is my fourth one. Um, so I went into my car in the parking lot, opened it up, um, and there were just more, it was another cluster of dead pixels, but in a different part of the screen. I was like, oh my god. So what I thought was happening, which I do think is the case, this was an entirely new manufacturing process, and uh, you know, Foxconn or whoever was manufacturing these for Apple maybe just didn't have things dialed in all the way, and there's just in this first first like batch of shipments, there were just quality control was kind of all over the place. I think that's what happened. Realizing that, and now getting like scared to go back in the store and tell them something was wrong, uh, I decided I'll just get a refund because I don't want to just keep doing this. And so I walked in, and it was crazy because as soon as the guy saw me walk in the store, he like beelined it straight for me, but not in an excited or helpful way, in kind of a like menacing, stompy way. This is the kind of stuff that happens to me for some reason. And I was like, I I know I'm sorry, but there's there's dead pixels here. And he um he like opened up the screen, he saw it, and he actually like hit the table of like frustration. I had worked retail for many years. If I were in his shoes, I would have been frustrated too. But my frustration would have been actually at the product, at the company, at the situation. I would have been frustrated for the customer, and I probably also would have been a little bit embarrassed. Like, here, we're Apple, we're a company that literally half our marketing is about how perfect our designs are and how perfect our perfection is, and perfect, perfect, perfect. And now you've gotten four defective computers in a row. Like, that's when I would also start, hey, uh here's uh an accessory that we can include for your trouble. Uh hey, you're getting the base model and they're all defective. Let's see if we can bump you up to maybe like the mid-range model and see if you're gonna have better luck there. Like, that's where I would start trying to please the customer. His frustration was directed at me. And I don't know. It made me very uncomfortable. So, anyway, he went and got a computer, you know, out of the back, did the exchange, came back with it. Literally, it's in like the Apple thing. He kind of like pushed it into my chest and he said, You need to leave. It's like, yeah, okay. $1,400. I saved up for like a year or two for this. Cool. So I went in the car, and of course, I'm like, I'm not driving now. 90 minutes home after this situation. I had asked, I forgot to mention, I had asked them to just return it. And it was that's why it was so weird. It's because he was like, No, like you're not gonna return it, you're gonna get the computer. And I was like, Cool, this is yeah, I appreciate you wanting me to get what I paid for, but like, why are you mad at me about it? Like, it was like you're helping me, but you're angry helping me, and I don't know, it was weird. So I went back in my car, opened up the screen, no gashes on the palm rest, no dead pixels in the screen. Screen interesting. So I was noticing something on the display. It wasn't yellow, but it also wasn't not yellow. And I was like, oh my god. And so I opened up a pages document, which is just plain white, and I dragged it from one end of the screen to the other. And the screen was like half magenta and half yellow, and literally on a white document, you could see it shift. It wasn't something, you know, again, it wasn't something like if you squint your eyes and like look through the screen and and you know, light some incense, you can see what I'm talking about. This was very, very obvious. You can tell what I'm talking about. And I was like, oh my god, like it would have just been better to keep the first computer that just had a yellow screen, and then I just go, hey, everything's yellow, whatever. And I was sitting there, like, keep in mind, at 35 years old now, I would know how to handle this situation, you know. I would know how to stick up for myself diplomatically and resolve the situation. At 22 years old, having driven hundreds of miles at this point, spending money on all that gas, having spent money on a big purchase, having gotten four now, well, this was five defective things, been yelled at by the employee in the store, literally had the thing pushed into me by the employee at the store. I was like, I don't know what to do, but I'm not just gonna go home with clearly a defective computer. So I was like, okay, you paid for this, get a refund. Just go in there and just get a refund. And this was before, like, if you go into an Apple store now, like they don't even let you go in without like, what are you here for? And like, go stand over there and wait for this person to come help you. This was more when you could just go in and browse. And so I kind of like went around and like I saw the guy that had been like quote unquote helping me. He was over in one corner, like helping some helping somebody else. And I saw like another manager over in the other corner. So I kind of like went in and like very like quietly tried to like squeak through. And the store was nice and crowded. It was like a Friday night or something. So trying to go to the manager and like literally the guy who was helping somebody else, I heard him go, no, like he said that across the store, just left the person he was helping and came right over to me. And he was like, What are you doing? It's like I was in trouble. And I was like, Of course, me, I'm I'm apologizing. You know, I'm so sorry that I bought a defective product. But I was like, I'm so sorry. I know you think I'm crazy. And I set the computer back on the table. I opened it up, I dragged the little pages document back and forth, and I was like, this screen is just it's two different colors. Like, I'm sorry, I can't work on that. I type papers all day, I do graphic design stuff, I photos, like I can't have a screen that's two different colors. And he kind of did the same thing where he like hit the table and was frustrated. And I was like, I don't want to just go through every computer in the store. Like, I'm frustrated, you're frustrated. Can I please, please just have a refund? And I'll I'll try again in like six months. Maybe the manufacturing process will like even itself out. And finally he like agreed to go get a manager, got me my refund, and I left. And I just didn't get a computer, but I drove, you know, hundreds and hundreds of miles and got yelled at and stuff. So that was fun. Uh, and that's sort of how that story ends. So I just remembered another part of that story, actually, which is two years later in 2010, they were finally going to open an Apple store near where I live, which was great. No more driving, an hour and a half to go to the Apple store. And my girlfriend at the time applied for and got a job at that Apple store when it was opening. So, like as they were still building the store before it was open. So she was going to her trainings for like the two weeks before it opened. And of course, when a new store is opening in a place where there hasn't been one before, they're gonna bring in veteran employees from another store to train the new people. So they brought in veteran employees from the next closest store, 90 minutes away, to train these people. So, guess who the lead trainer was? It was the angry guy. And then also, guess who then proceeded to like be weirdly flirty with my girlfriend at the time for the next two weeks they were training? That was weird. Um, and the reason I know that is because when I would talk to her after her days, she would just constantly talk about this one trainer, and he had a very specific name, uh, very unusual name. And also I know it was him because they're taking lunchtime selfies all the time together, so it wasn't even just me being like weirdly possessive boyfriend or anything. Anyway, there's a reason that uh that it it didn't work out, I guess, between us. But what are the odds, first of all? So my lessons are that guy sucks. I know it's been 12 years, but he probably still sucks. Uh, and then also I'm terrified of getting defective products when I spend a lot of money on something because I'm a little bit scarred. So in 2021, when I bought the most expensive camera ever, the most expensive thing I've ever purchased, it's not a house or a car, and the screen, the screen is freaking yellow. Hey, screen manufacturers, stop making yellow screens. Or, or other manufacturers, put in in your interfaces things to let us adjust our screens, because then it won't be an issue. I could fix the yellow screen in two seconds and it won't be a problem. Anyway, not that I'm a little frustrated by this or anything. Because of this, what I was scared of, I got my Sony A7S3. Yeah, because that's what we're still talking about. I got that from BH Photo. Love BH, they're amazing, and I know they would let me exchange it, no problem. They're in the other side. I'm in California, they're in New York, shipping times are long, they're also closed for like a Jewish holiday at the moment, so it's gonna be a while. Um, and my fear, because I live in fear, is that I would do an exchange, send my camera back, get another camera shipped all the way over from New York, open it up, and it would either have the same problem or a worse problem. It'd be like the MacBooks again. Like the screen is nice, but now you know this button is broken or the sensor has dead pixels in it or something. And so knowing that like the camera itself is great, it's just the coloring on the display that's a little off, but everything else has been completely fine. And I really do like the camera, and I really like the lens, and I like all that stuff. So, what I decided to do. Oh, there's also sorry, there's another layer to this, which is that uh next week is Heather and I's anniversary, and we'll be um going somewhere special for that, and I would really love to take my new camera on this special thing and like do some photos and videos and stuff. And I'm weird if you haven't if you've listened to this for 51 minutes and you haven't gathered that I'm a little weird. Uh I'm a little weird, and I have a weird sentimentality with objects, and I kind of wish I didn't. But uh the reason I'm telling you this is because sometimes I share these things and then people send me messages and they say, I'm the same way, and then I don't feel as weird. So that's why I'm sharing this with you. Um, but basically, I'm not huge on souvenirs, but like for example, Heather uses my Canon 6D Mark II or my old Canon 6D Mark II as her main camera. That was the camera that I took with me to like Iceland, New York, Switzerland, like all these places. And so that camera's not from there, but I I remember using it in all these places and setting it up at like a waterfall and on a black sand beach and all this stuff. And and it's like those things are now tied to that camera in a really specific way. This Canon EOS R that I'm holding up, um, this is the one that I had with us when like Heather and I got engaged. And so we when I proposed to her, she had proposed to me earlier, and then when I proposed to her later, because that was how we had planned it. There's a whole video on her channel. You should watch it. It's great. Um, we decided, okay, let's take a I proposed to her at these rocks out in the middle of the desert. It it was cool. Uh I was like, oh, let's get a photo. There's nobody here, so I just set up camera on a tripod and did a timer thing, and that was this camera right here. And it's like, wow, this camera is like the one that took the photo of you know, our engagement photo. This, you know, the number of different YouTube videos that this camera has helped me make. Like all that stuff gets tied into it. And so what I didn't want to do was go, oh, I'm gonna bring this camera on our like special one-year anniversary trip, make all these memories with it, and then just send it back. Because I I I know it doesn't matter. It's a camera, it's just metal and electronics and stuff, but I would feel like I don't know, I would just I would be feel uncomfortable. It would make me feel uncomfortable to do that. So my thought was, well, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna order a second one because I'm an adult with a credit card. I'm not gonna have two cameras, but I'm gonna order a second one so that way the one here that I know is you know 98% perfect and just has this weird screen thing, that's here. Then I will get a second one, and then I will compare them and I will go, okay. Uh are they, you know, this one. My thought is that the second one would have a normal screen, an accurate screen, and then double check that. Cool. This would be my camera. I could then return the first one that had the yellow screen. Everything is is solved. Um, I've been ordering a lot more stuff lately. This might be a helpful tip if you're on the west coast of the United States. Sammy's camera in Hollywood, super helpful. Not quite as big as BH, um, but they're closer. So if you need like I'm only a couple hours away from them. So if I need like one or two-day delivery, it's really easy to get stuff from them. So I got Saturday delivery on this camera, which I ordered like yesterday, um, that was which is pretty amazing. So here's where I am now with this thing. This is this long journey. It's like not even what I actually intended to talk about for the whole time. Um, but this long journey is I got this camera, I put a 24 millimeter lens on it, I set it up in the exact same spot with the one that I had gotten first, exact same settings. I just turned picture profile off, same ISO, same white balance, same shutter speed, same um you know, frame, everything exactly the same. And both of these Sony screens match perfectly, which means both of them are equally as unmatched to everything else that I have, which is I don't know what this means. I was I don't know what this means. Um I think that basically all of the Sony displays, based on the info I have, all of the Sony displays must be the same. Which, you know, I had a lot of people telling me on Twitter that their Sony S3 display was super accurate and it looked really good. And I know a number of people have two Sony A7S3s or an S3 and an A7C, and they're like, yeah, everything matches great. All I can think of is like, well, maybe they did because they looked exactly the same. But if you're not using it like I am with other things where you would notice the colors being off, I don't know. They're they're exactly I got them from two different retailers. The one I just got today already had the latest firmware installed on it. The one I got before did not, so they're clearly manufactured at different times. Um and they're from different retailers, they're not the same batch. Uh and I don't so they're they're exactly the same, which basically means I don't know. I don't know. It means that I guess if I want to use the Sony, I just have to accept that the screen doesn't show the most accurate colors and move on with my life, which is fine. But geez, and now I feel bad because I'm like this second, I just I feel wasteful when there's shipping and there's like it's just so wasteful. Um, so I didn't open any of the other accessories for this. I just took it out of the box, put an already existing battery in it, so everything else is still like wrapped up in the box so I could send it back without any of that stuff being messed with. So if it hey, keep an eye out for an open box deal on an A7S3 from Sammy's camera in the next few weeks, I guess. So I don't know. Um it's weird. It's weird to me because, like I said, both of my Canon cameras, my computer monitor, my external monitor for the ATEM all match exactly. The only thing that doesn't are these two Sony cameras, but these two match each other perfectly. And when I put the footage from the camera onto the computer, it doesn't match. Like I don't like it is the screen on the camera, I guess is what I'm saying. I've determined that based on all of this obsessive testing that I've done. And I don't know. I guess I mean maybe it's just not that big of a deal, and it probably isn't. It's like the most first world camera problem ever, but it goes back to the principle of this is a very expensive thing that I have purchased. If something is wrong with it, or if there's something I have to just live with, you know, like the Canon EOS R has cropped 4K. That's something I had to learn to live with on an expensive camera. But it also is like, hey, when you buy this camera, you're getting cropped 4K. Like you go into it knowing that this wasn't like, hey, when you buy this camera, nah, the display's not gonna be super accurate. Also, for some random reason, there's no software method to just update that, which if I'm wrong about that, and you're like, Tom, just go into this one specific setting, um, please let me know. But from all the troubleshooting I did online, all the weird message boards I looked up, there's not a way to do it. And it's not like this is a huge issue that's all over like the black magic blue screens were everywhere. This isn't that. Like, I cannot find really anybody for the most part talking about this. So I don't I don't know, but the fact that these two cameras match exactly leads me to believe that Sony's screens are all consistently the same. I don't know. I even thought about like, well, what if I got instead of an A7S III, what if I got the FX3 and compared that? But it has the same display, so it's like it's you know, it's just the same display. And the theory that I had read online was that um I've please don't like hold me to this, but I believe they're Samsung displays and I believe they're LCD displays, and Samsung stopped making L C D displays, and the theory was that Sony just purchased like a huge lot of three-inch LCD displays that are kind of like out of date, and then they're just sort of stuck with them, and now they're just like every device that's coming out just has the same display in it, so they they just need to burn through them, which explains why the camera doesn't have 16 by 9, why it's not a higher resolution thing because they're just like we have millions of these displays we paid for. I don't know if that's true or not. That was like the theory that I had read. So anyway, um yeah, that's where I'm at with this. Uh, it doesn't feel satisfying because now it's not only is the problem not solved, I I guess here's the one satisfying thing. The fact that the cameras do match makes me feel at least like, okay, it's not a defect, it just sort of is. You know, it's just a a a way of the camera. So if if this is how every Sony camera looks or every A7S3 looks, then okay. I mean, that means it's just part of using the camera. It's just it's not it's not something like, well, my version that I spent a bunch of money on has a problem, but your version that you spent a bunch of money on is totally perfect. Um, it's not that kind of a thing. It's like they're all just sort of like this. You may or may not even notice it or care that it's like that. Um so there's that. So there's that. And I feel I guess it feels good to know they're the same. So at least it's like, yeah. Um I just feel bad, like again, wasting resources to ship something and then to return it, it just feels crummy. Um, I guess what I'll do is really, really closely inspect these just to make sure there's not like dead pixels on one of them and not on the other, and then I'll just be sure to keep the one that's absolutely perfect. But they both seem they both seem equal, like identically manufactured. I don't know. Anyway, um if you're listening to this and you have thoughts or input on this situation, uh, I'd love to hear it because I this is where I'm at, sort of at a loss over here. But anyway, um, overall, overall, it's been great. I'm trying to explain, like, it's this weird line that I walk where I have a hard time telling when I'm just being obsessive about something and it's unnecessary, versus yeah, like you spent $3,500 on something and the display is bad. You should do something about that, or just like let it go. Um, and there are certain things too, like I'm fully aware that sometimes when you spend a lot of money on something, when you first get it, you might be like anxious or whatever, but literally just after a couple weeks or whatever, and you start using it and you don't have time to focus on that little stuff anymore, you totally forget about it and everything's fine. Um, so anyway, um, if you have thoughts or feedback about that, I'd love to hear it. If now you've listened to this whole thing and you want to uh share a voice message for next week's episode, Tom at enthusiasmproject.com, you can share that message. And uh uh next week's episode will not be over an hour of just random camera talk. I unless unless that's what everyone wants. I don't know if I could keep going, but you know, hopefully things will be resolved by then. It's just, you know, I don't know. It is what it is. I'm scared and nervous about everything, and this is how it's how it is manifesting. So join me next week for what will hopefully be a fun episode. If you want to reach out to me or follow all these super weird social media questions that I'm trying to find out throughout the week, you can just check me, check it out at so darn tom on Twitter and Instagram. If you want to support the show, of course, you can do so through patreon.com slash tombuck or buymeacoffee.com slash tombuck. Links to everything are in the description. And oh, that's the wrong song. And I just want to say thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it, and I will see you next time.