u/BackgroundLychee

I’ve been in content creation for the last 15yrs; mainly on the strategic side of broadcast and social but have dabbled in production. I’m looking to buy my first ‘grown up’ camera.

Currently using a Canon EOS70D my dad gifted me and am loving finding creative angles and compositions and getting some lovely family pics.

I shoot a lot of street and short-mid architecture on my weekly commute, but landscapes when I get out of London.

I’m also looking to capture ‘moving postcards’ style video using my tripod setup as well as b-roll with pan reveals and predominantly static shots.

Handheld stabilisation would be useful (I have a Pocket 4P but find it underwhelming in its output) and low light performance would be appreciated. Opengate is a real bonus.

I’ve looked at a few cameras - the Fujifilm XM5 (and have borrowed one for a few weeks but haven’t really fallen in love with it) and Nikon Z6III. I appreciate they’re in different spaces! I’m ok with a bigger body like the Canon and Nikon but the compactness of the Fuji is nice. I’ve got a good sling bag so not fussed about having the big body on my at all times.

Budget is £2k; happy to buy used and welcome any suggestions on trying out bodies and lens where possible.

Thanks in advance!

Photos and videos.

v1.2.1 (131), iPhone 17 pro. I’m loving the app so far but am surprised at how buggy it is given the feedback on it. Have tried clean installs and iPhone restarts.

Can’t delete photos despite all having full library access.

Can’t file bug as mobile form seems to have an issue recognising an email address!

A few have requested sample footage, so uploaded this 4min clip. 25fps, 4K.

Had a Smallrig 5 stop ND filter on for most of it and have marked where it's clearly struggling (need a stronger ND filter but the market is limited).

Let me know if you'd like anything else around the Pocket 4 Pro.

I’ve seen them on car content, but Smallrig have a handheld version which looks like it might help alleviate some vertical bounce when walking - has anyone tried one or should the tilt lock mode solve this?

I may have been wrongly informed, but in trying to shoot 25fps cinematic (1/50) shutter and 100 ISO I’m getting a super high ev. I’m assuming an ND filter is a must or I need to change my FPS? (Following the 180 degree rule)

It's come on quite a way since my post last week. I've spent a ton of time fixing the reported bugs, testing more connection methods and managed to rope in some support from some former colleagues who've shown an interest.

https://preview.redd.it/ajp1bs30dj4h1.png?width=2360&format=png&auto=webp&s=cea6bbb2bba16ce46483d69a3a18ddf33658411f

So What's New?

• Rendering and Animation engine live for testing: you can take your builds and animate them with a few basic options, downloading the photo or video straight to your Photos app. Genuinely can't believe we managed to get this in there and it's amazing to see.
• Studio .io files can now be imported with no conversion
• Part limit raised to 5,000 pieces from 3,000. No noticable performance drop on an M1 iPad, but will keep testing.
• Printed part substituion; decorated parts auto-fallback to the base shape when the print pattern isn't in the LDraw library
• Thumbnails; home page shows your models (and thumbnails) and let's you rename and delete them
• Missing part warnings; banner informs you of any missing parts upon import; I'm using this to close the library gap between LDraw and what Studio can output

There's still a huge way to go before it's end-user ready, but if you'd like to give it a go, you can download it here: https://testflight.apple.com/join/2TkcetYY

Huge thanks to those in this group that provided feedback on v1; I hope you enjoy this new release!

https://preview.redd.it/j59sw9q1dj4h1.png?width=2360&format=png&auto=webp&s=687753482cebe3ceef2d8ac14895b9f6830ba8e7

I’ve got a few apps in the App Store for areas I’m passionate about, but I’ve been curious to see if I can scale a free app for the right community.

With the World Cup is coming up fast I’ve been working on TerraceFC, a community focused prediction based game where users collect points for correct results, scores and the first scorer.

Ahead of the World Cup you’ve got this weekends final Premier League games, the EFL Playoffs etc; plenty to test ahead of the World Cup.

You can compete against the global community or create a group and invite your mates.

Completely free to play, no ads at all. Built in Swift with a few API integrations for data, UX and design built in Affinity.

We’re in Beta on iOS currently; download it here: https://testflight.apple.com/join/K8rdJJ

Would appreciate any and all feedback :)

Hey everyone; wanted to share as I figured this might be useful if anyone's in the same boat of chasing unpaid invoices or juggling the true amount owed.

Client owed me £3,200 from end of February. We're now in May. Four follow-up emails, two phone calls, every excuse you've heard. I was honestly about to write off £200 of disputed line items just to get the rest moving. It's not a new situation TBH, I'm frequently chasing new clients whilst my regulars are generally pretty good.

My account mentioned the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998; one that's been impacted my legal change in March this year. Apparently if you do B2B work in the UK, the moment a client misses the agreed payment date you have a statutory right to charge them BoE base rate + 8% interest on the unpaid amount, plus a fixed compensation fee. No clause needed in the contract, no warning required. The right is just there.

So I worked out what I was actually owed:

• Principal: £3,200
• Interest at 11.75% for 63 days: £64.90
• Fixed compensation (the invoice falls in the £1k-£10k tier): £70
• Total: £3,334.90

Sent one email. Calm, just the figures and a one-line reference to the Act. Got paid Friday, honestly hadn't expected much!

The maths is the annoying bit because the BoE rate isn't the rate today, it's the rate as of the prior 31 Dec or 30 Jun depending which window the days fall in. Which is why most of the free web calculators get it wrong if your invoice straddles a boundary.

I built one that does it correctly. No signup, just plug in the amount and the dates.

There's also a longer plain-English explainer of the Act I wrote up for other freelancing friends if anyone wants the deep version, including the bit about the 2026 reforms (60-day cap, mandatory interest, etc). Shout if this would be useful, but i've seen a few good posts on this already.

Happy to paste the email template I used as a comment if it's helpful and would love to hear people's stories about their wins and challenges here!