as I DIY a lot and also prefere to get my gear without the "premium price tag" of European resellers, I order things very often directly from China via Ebay. Its the general market place in the web, its quite save, a lot of offers arround the world....oh and you get fucked over quite hard:

If you use the search function in Ebay with "world wide" enabled (and who doesn't?) it does not display all offers that match your search words. It filters out many auctions that 100% match your search, especially offers from China!

I had this issue with Olympus pro lenses for arround $2000 from Japan and tiny parts for soldering for $0.50 from China. I typed in some words to search, got 0 hits and the exact item I was looking for was displayed in the "more items related to.." below. I used copy&paste of that auction headline into the search window and again got 0 hits. I clicked on the item, the auction/item was display properly and also stated that this seller has 935 other items for sale. Klicking on "see other items" resulted in 0 items found.

I was using ebay Germany. So I tried ebay USA - some items got now "found" properly, others didn't. Lately I was using ebay Germany but with a proxy server in between - this looked like it showed all results. If ebay doesn't know where you sit, it doesn't know what to filter for.

I contacted ebay support with this issue:

1. "It can take time to display your auctions properly" - automatic answer, totally off topic.
2. "You should update your browser and enable cookies. The ebay search function is working fine." - standart reply, off topic.
3. "Can you please give an example of that problem" - wow! I did.
4. "We had a look at your problem. This is a KNOWN issue. We are working on it." - What?! Now its a known problem...and not solved..?

But...they solved the problem: Today I was using a proxy server again to get some "single row 2.54mm round pin male headers" for PCB soldering and the proxy-method doesn't work anymore. And it will take them not much time to adjust the "related items..." search function aswell to not display auctions that are not "good" for you.

The only way I know of now to find all items that match a search frase is using Google. But as Google scanns through all listings from time to time, its not up to date and very often you find what you are looking for, but the auction allready ended.

Has anybody any ideas how to get around this censorship?

As a DoP I see 4K as falling solidly into the "nice to have" camp, but also being very non-essential (at least for now, this will change with time). So I really don't mind hugely either way, to have 4K or not. There is other more important considerations to take care of first.

But maybe there is an extra point to 4K that I'm missing when viewing it solely through my DoP eyes.... and that is marketing!

Might it make it easier for the producer/director to sell afterwards if it is a "shot in 4K" film? I thought I read somewhere that there are content providers (for instance Amazon who announced they'll be filming all their created content in 4K) who have a lack of 4K content and thus could pick up indie 4K films simply as "4K fillers"? It is after all very common to read consumer articles about the lack of 4K content out there.

This is a place to detail out exactly what you would like your ideal camera to do, be it your next camera, or the camera you want to have in your dreams, the one that would help you tell your stories the way you envision them... Go on, be creative!

Does anyone have any insight into the best system to market my video?

When the episode of 'Dr House' was shot with a Canon 5D that was an event, not stop mentioning it on the internet. Then there have been more movies and short films using DSLR's Canon in whole or in any scene and usually tends to be highlighted, such as the case of 'The Avengers'.

Across the street I see is different, 'Musgo' was shot with a GH2, for some the first film made with a GH2 and was a success but not of such magnitude as 'Dr House', was following more in underground forums. (I want to clarify that 'Musgo' is not the first film shot with a GH2, another movie so spanish which was also before shot with a GH2 entitled 'Diamond Flash' in 2011, but the time difference is small, only few months, but it was released in 2011, 'Musgo' was released in 2013). Following the main idea 'Upstream Color' was filmed with GH2 and this fact was not so great repercussion. So too are some movies and a lot of short films made with a GH2 without much discussion.

Something similar happens in the case of films and shorts which uses Nikon, for example, few know that in the series 'Dexter' was used the Nikon D800, while 'Dr House' Canon case was known even people who dont know of cinema or photography, but I'm sure if it was with a Canon the news was a great event.

I see the camera as a means or a tool, really the important in a film is to have a good script -is preferable to have a good script and not a good camera with a bad script-, there are excellent movies that have a great script and the cinematography is austere and even loose, but the spectator is left with the memory of a good story. Sure, good cinematography helps a lot, the ideal is to have a balanced, although a great director can rescue a loose script or story ordinary. I see how many in the industry -mostly low budget- so focused in Canon cameras and I think that marketing has eaten the brain of many people, is obvious that if you feel comfortable with a particular camera is great to use it, but be more open and know isnt a mark problem, this causes ridiculous arguments from experts Canonboy that the GH2 has a video look (videoish). I'm sure if many of them see 'Upstream color' without know that camera was shot ​​will comment; 'very good cinematography, great look', and it was made with a high budget camera, but if you tell thar was made with a GH2 will be conditioned in advance.

In my case I bought a GH2 after many inquiries on the internet, in my country everybody told me what buy Canon, the 550D was the only one that was close to my budget, but its video quality not convicting them and another cameras as the 5D is away much of my pocket and in a forum someone told me about the GH2 and as I have open mind I saw something that I liked and made inquiries understanding for that price I get quality near to cameras of high budget. I dont want to talk from me, just put my example, only what dont understand how some people are so focused on a brand, as if the mark were doing you a favor by using or as if you were paying you.