Dear Santa: Peter makes his wishlist for 2024

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And last but not least, Peter makes his wishlist. This year, is an aspirational year for our veteran collector. And that is what he wrote to Santa Claus for this year.

Dear Santa: Peter makes his wishlist for 2024

And here is my list. As usual, to round up the Dear Santa posts. But allow me a moment to re-iterate why we do this Dear Santa posts. And allow me to quote myself from 2023:

“We do this Dear Santa Wishlist assignment every year, and it has become a tradition for Deployant. But this is not an exercise in frivolity or revisiting lost childhood, but one that is very serious. We ask our writers, and the Chief Editor, to pick what they would like to see as Christmas presents. This will allow you, our dear readers to have a peek and gain an understanding on what drives and excites of us. With this insight, we hope that you may be able to have a feel of our biases. Let’s face it, everybody is biased. And we no more than the next reviewer. But let it be known that at Deployant, our biases are not commercially driven. We do not sell any watches or accessories, new or pre-owned. We do not make collaborations with brands. 

We are also not journalists. Not per se. Our role is to share the passion, spread the love, deliver the message and if we may, allow ourselves to add some of the insights we have garnered as long term collectors and media. And with these Dear Santa essays, we hope to arm you with the markers to allow you to more accurately decipher our enthusiasms and criticisms. As we once again reinforce our mantra of “For collectors, by collectors”.

And with this out of the way, its off to the races!

Greubel Forsey Nano Foudroyante

I begin with a watch which really swooned me this year. As a veteran of more than a quarter century, most watches do not make me weak in the knees anymore. But yet, this one did. And even before I could even see or handle the watch in the metal, I was besotted. I penned the commentary which is linked here. Of course I had a nit or two to pick…but this was a spectacular watch. Even if on paper.

But I did manage to handle and play with it a bit. Michel Nydegger, Greubel Forsey’s CEO had kept a lookout for me after the GPHG ceremony in Geneva on November 13, 2024. And he managed to find me. After salutations, he promptly handed me the watch off his wrist. And it was even more beautiful than I had imagined. The foudroyante is spectacular, running furiously around inside its tourbillon cage which is making a more sedate progress around the sub-dial. I spoke to Michel about the nit I had…and to quote myself: “We wonder why this is essential, as the tourbillon cage carries a running seconds indicator. Perhaps it is to balance the visual of the dial, though we feel it clutters more than it balances, and would opt to not have it, and leave the space blank. But this is really just a nano-nit pick (pun intended!).“. He agreed, and said he discussed this very same with Robert Gruebel, but Robert said the matter was not for discussion…even when the request came from the CEO. So I guess we must accept this double seconds indications. But still. The watch took my breath away. And I even entertained the thought of selling my Dufour Simplicity to buy one of these. But perhaps no. Not yet, at least.

Rudis Sylva RS23

Next a watch which I have had several encounters with. I have known Jacky Epitaux, the CEO of Rudis Sylva for many years. And the way in which I came to be introduced to him is also interesting. I talked about this in the article introducing the Rudis Sylva video. And recently, I co-hosted a special dinner event with top Singapore collectors with Jacky.

And my second pick is the Rudis Sylva RS23. In particular this monotone silver version, cased in a titanium case. The RS23 was introduced in 2023, is currently available in either a silver toned case, or a black DLC case. Both in titanium. It carries on it a simpler version of the Harmonious Oscillator. The Tourbillon cage is dispensed with and the double balance wheel is now directly attached to the base plate of the movement. Both the balance wheels still carry teeth, which allow them to be interlocked to each other to cancel out all the errors made by the balance springs as they breathe. We covered some of the details in a video with Jacky introducing the RS23 which we made during Watches & Wonders 2024.

Rudis Sylva RS23.

A full hands on comprehensive review is forthcoming…very soon on these pages. With more videos!

And…surprise: not a watch!

As you all know, we have just revamped our YouTube channel. And we have been shooting the videos in 4K UltraHD (3840×2180). We have been using our iPhones. At first using the native Apple camera app in iOS, and more recently we started to use the Blackmagic Camera App. This app affords us with better control of the shooting parameters. We also upgraded our audio from the built in audio of the iPhones, to the Hollyland Lark M2 wireless microphones. This gives us much better audio. For post processing, we have also moved from iMovie on Mac and learned to use Davinci Resolve. We are progressing, and improving. But seek to improve more. So are looking at more movie gear. At this point, we are totally undecided. But here are some considerations, and my rationale.

We currently have on a one month loan from Sony, the excellent ZVE 10 II, a hybrid camera tuned more for videos than stills. This is candidate no 1. The sensor is APS-C, or in the movie world Super35.

Side note: Though 35mm still photography is based off the movie industry’s 35mm format. Leitz (Leica) was the first to use this film roll for stills photography. The Leica camera arranged to use the film in a horizontal format. While in the movie industry, the film strip runs vertically. Thus a frame on 35mm movie in the classical Academy Ratio, known as “4 perf”, measures 16mm x 22mm. The width of the film is 24mm, but in movies, 2mm of the edge is used to carry the soundtrack, leaving 22mm for the image. For stills photography, Leica’s chosen full frame, which is laid out horizontally to measure 36mm x 24mm.

And what the stills photography industry calls APS-C is 25.1mm by 16.7mm, is known as Super35 in the movie industry. This is a size which is actually larger than full frame for moving pictures, but smaller than stills full frame. In movies, there is an 8 perf horizontal format which measures 37.7mm x 25.1mm, known as VistaVision. This roughly corresponds to the photography industry as full frame. Note in this case, both formats run the film in horizontal format.

The Sony ZVE 10 II is tiny little camera, weighing no more than 292g. Quite remarkable for a camera that uses a high-capacity NP-FZ100 battery. And quite capable too. It can shoot in 4k Ultra HD format in 10 bit (4:2:2), and can do S-LOG3. The image it gets is gorgeous. Here is a sneak peek.

Sony ZVE 10 ii with the SEL24F14 24mm f/1.4 G-Master lens. Mounted on my usual Multiflex tripod head for scale. The head, as well as the lens, look massive compared to tiny camera body.

And with the lenses that we have on loan, the autofocus is as good as it gets with cine cameras. It can be rigged out to be a larger cine camera, but for our test, we do not have a cage. So in our use, it is used either hand held or mounted on a tripod. We also have on test, the minuscule PZ 16-50 OSS II lens, as well as two primes, the SEL50F14GM and the SEL24F14GM. The loaner lenses are not quite wide enough for one or two talking head table top style, which may need the 11mm SEL11F18 lens. A full review will be coming soon.

In selfie or vlogging mode. The LCD is turned towards the single operator. The parts in red on the LCD indicate the focus peaking. SLog3 is applied as the LUT to the LCD, and remains uncorrected, so the image looks a washed out. This is corrected in by applying the SLog3 to Rec 709 LUT in post production in Davinci Resolve.

Candidate no2 is also attractive to me, and is the Blackmagic Studio Micro G2 camera. This is a super tiny (smaller but weighs the same as the Sony ZVE 10 II) box style camera. This camera is intended for studio use, and features excellent connectivity. It features a smaller Micro Four Thirds sensor (17.3mm × 13.0mm) but also shoots UltraHD 4k at 60 fps in Blackmagic Raw format. It is also quite inexpensive, but needs to be rigged out to be fully functional. It will need a monitor, a battery system and a cage. Another MFT candidate is the Panasonic Lumix GH7, and that can double as a well rounded stills camera as well.

Blackmagic Studio Micro G2, with a selection of MFT lenses.

The added advantage is that with cameras which use lenses with the MFT mount, I already have those for my old Panasonic GH-2 system, and that can be put to good use. Especially my excellent Leica DG Macro-Elmarit 45mm F2.8 ASPH Mega OIS. My Lumix G Vario 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 ASPH Power O.I.S will work well too. Generally MFT lenses are smaller and less expensive than larger formats. The 4X3 format also lends itself to use with Anamorphic lenses, especially when operated in Open Gate mode (only available in the GH7). The 1.33 squeeze will bring the image to the 16:9 aspect ratio for YouTube.

Candidate no3 is also tempting. This the high end Red Komodo X. This a bit more stretched in budget, but hey, this is Dear Santa, so I might as well go for it. This also will need a Mini-V battery, a top handle, a side handle and an external monitor. It will shoot RedRaw in 6k, and has a global shutter. The sensor is also Super35 and the camera is delivered with a native Canon RF lens mount. This mount has a short flange, and will allow lenses to be adapted. The Komodo X also shoots Open Gate, and will do well with an anamorphic lenses. This time with the 3:2 aspect Super35 sensor, a lens with 1.5 squeeze factor will bring the image format to 16:9. Perfect for YouTube. Overkill, perhaps…um, actually certainly an overkill. But YouTube giant Marquess Brownlee uses one for his work on his MKBHD channel.

Red Komodo X in a run and gun minimalist setup. Photo from Falco Films, a rental house.

And of course, the Nexus G2, which is still currently still vapourware, but may well come true.

Concluding thoughts

So these are my wishes for this Christmas. And hopefully it gives you a glimpse on my biases. And the priorities I have set for Deployant for 2025 and beyond. We hope to be able to continue to inform, to entertain and to deliver solid content for you. And as always, we remain fully independent, and true to our mantra: For Collectors, By Collectors.

But most of all, for this coming year, I wish for you the blessings of the Christ child, and that you may experience Christmas every day of your life.

Emmanuel. God with us!

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