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Posts Tagged ‘Begins’

Kodak begins shipping Ektachrome film to select photographers for testing

16 Aug
Kodak via Instagram

During CES 2017, Kodak announced plans to resurrect its Ektachrome film, which was discontinued in 2012. Though the first batch of film isn’t available to purchase yet, Kodak released sample images shot on the new Ektachrome in June, and now it has started shipping test film to select photographers.

Images and videos of the new Ektachrome film have surfaced on Kodak’s Instagram page, where it points toward its beta film test team. One video by @benjhaisch shows a brick of packaged film boxes being removed from its shipping box; another (embedded below) by beta tester @michaelturek shows the same package with eight boxes of new film.

Thank you @michaelturek

A post shared by Kodak Professional (@kodakprofessional) on

Glimpses of the product are similarly present on the Kodak Professional Facebook page, where the company shared a shot of one of the Ektachrome film boxes unwrapped, as well as an unboxing video. In June, Popular Science editor Stan Horaczek was given a look inside the Kodak factory where Ektachrome is produced.

Kodak originally planned to release its new Ektachrome film for purchase by the end of 2017, but the timeline has since been updated to the end of 2018.

Via: Koso Foto

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Lucid VR begins sales of its LucidCam 3D VR camera

24 Jun

Lucid VR has announced the general availability of the LucidCam, its 3D VR camera.

The LucidCam captures a 180º field of view, less than the spherical 360º field of view found on many consumer VR cameras, however it does so with binocular vision, creating a 3D VR experience with a sense of depth. If you want to capture a full 360º view, three LucidCams can be combined to do so.

The LucidCam was developed with the help of a crowdfunding campaign in 2015, and while it’s just now becoming available, the wait appears to have had at least one side benefit: the camera’s original specs called for 1080p resolution per eye, but the final product will ship with 4K cameras instead.

In addition to 4K binocular recording, the LucidCam also supports live streaming through Facebook, YouTube, and Lucid’s own iOS and Android apps, so that you can share what you’re doing with friends in 3D VR. The camera also features stereo audio, 32GB of internal storage as well as MicroSD card support, HDMI out, and 1.5 hour battery life.

For those of you in the in the Bay Area, Lucid will be touring around San Francisco on Friday, June 23 to give people a chance to experience the LucidCam in person. The company will begin taking orders for the $ 499 camera on June 26, with shipments expected to begin in early August. As a promotion, Lucid will be offering a 15% discount to anyone who orders a camera between June 26 and July 26.

Press release:

LucidCam Launching into General Availability with Truck Tour of SF Landmarks

Lucid VR truck to tour SF landmarks on Friday, June 23 encouraging consumers to capture and share VR experiences with friends & family far away

Santa Clara, CA – June 21, 2017— Lucid VR is officially kicking off the general availability of its simple-to-use, pocket-size 3D VR camera, the LucidCam with a billboard truck touring photogenic San Francisco landmarks all day on Friday, June 23. View the itinerary here.

This launch tour aims at encouraging more consumers to tap into VR and bridge the distances to their loved ones by capturing and sharing experiences the same way they see them. Lucid CEO Han Jin’s vision–to create a technology that brings the world closer together through a true 3D VR camera, the LucidCam–started with a crowdfunding campaign two years ago and has now come to reality.

“It’s been an incredible journey to bring this product to life and to the masses, as initially all I wanted was to build one for myself which would capture and share my life with my grandmother in China,” said Jin. “LucidCam creates images and videos which let you for the first time see the world through someone else’s eyes as if you were really there. I want everyone to have such incredible superpowers.”

On tour day, the Lucid VR truck will visit top SF tourist sights. Anyone can follow the truck, take pictures and share them with #LucidCam for a chance to win a free VR camera. Complimentary VR viewers will be handed out at every stop. The Friday tour kicks off the one-month LucidCam preview sale which starts Monday, June 26, where the camera will be discounted 15 percent off the retail price and delivered as early as August 9, just two weeks after the campaign closes July 26.

LucidCam makes virtual reality content creation and livestreaming in 3D at very high resolutions easy, with a simple plug-n-play process flow. Consumers can create their own 3D VR without a computer or any additional processing requirements, making LucidCam an all-mobile experience for capturing, viewing, sharing and delivering immersive content either through Facebook/YouTube or Lucid’s iOS and Android app to anyone around the globe. With two lenses like your eyes and two microphones like your ears, LucidCam recreates a first-person experience, allowing people to feel like they are seeing the world through someone else’s eyes.

Exceeding the original specifications of the LucidCam crowdfunding campaign, the engineers at Lucid VR enhanced it and developed a robust 4K 3D VR camera with on-the-go VR content processing of pictures and videos, plus livestreaming capabilities. With the addition of Lucid’s viewing clip or phone case, you can create and view your own 3D VR anywhere with a click of a button.

The special LucidCam preview sale begins June 26, and includes a 15 percent discount off the retail price, with delivery as early as two weeks after the promotion ends. Retail availability of LucidCams begins in August, with thousands of units coming into the online and offline sales channels. For more information about LucidCam or to purchase the device, visit www.lucidcam.com.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Here it comes: Japanese network begins airing 8K broadcasts

04 Aug

Japan’s NHK has started broadcasting the world’s first 8K television content on a new ‘Super Hi-Vision’ satellite channel. NHK will air a mix of 4K and 7680 x 4320 8K content from 10AM to 5PM, with programming that includes concerts and highlights from the 2012 Olympics. There’s just one problem – nobody actually owns an 8K TV, so NHK has set up six viewing stations in Japan as well as in Rio de Janeiro, and plans to air live footage from Opening and Closing Ceremonies at the Olympic Games kicking off this Friday.

NHK has had its eye on 8K broadcasts for years, hosting public viewing events as early as 2014. The company has used NAB in Las Vegas as a showcase for its latest innovations since 2006, highlighting its advances in high-resolution broadcasting in April of this year by using a 133MP ‘portable 8K camera’. 

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Instagram begins rolling out reordered feeds to all users

07 Jun

In March, Instagram announced plans to reorder user feeds using an algorithm, eliminating the chronological arrangement and replacing it with a personalized order that prioritizes content based on a user’s behavior. In a recent blog post, Instagram announced that it is now rolling out these reordered feeds to all of its users.

The initial feed change announcement was not well received; many users worried it would result in decreased usability, and a Change.org petition attempting to halt the plan garnered about 160k signatures. Still, Instagram went ahead and introduced the reordered feeds to small groups of users over the past couple months, expanding that rollout to all of its users over the course of June.

According to Instagram, users on the service don’t see approximately 70% of the content in their feeds. Reordering the feeds based on an algorithm will, in theory, ensure users see the content they’re most interested in while pushing the less desirable photos and videos to the fringes. In the past, Facebook enacted a similar feed change that replaced chronological posts with algorithm-based arrangements, but many users complained they no longer saw posts from people they were interested in.

The Instagram feed change hasn’t been wildly popular with some users who have already seen the update, judging from comments on Twitter using the hashtag #InstagramUpdate. They cite trouble finding newer posts, less posts surfaced from accounts they enjoy and difficulty seeing what others are up to in real-time.

Via: Instagram

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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New test scene beta begins with Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7 samples

15 Aug

Screen_Shot_2013-08-14_at_12.13.57_PM.png

We’ve been working on a brand-new studio comparison scene for some time, and we’ve decided to give you a sneak peak, using images from the new Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7. We’ll be speaking more about this new scene (and the new interface that goes with it) very soon, but for now we wanted to let you have a look, try it, play around and tell us what you think. As well as the new scene, you’ll notice two new options – ‘daylight’ and ‘low light’ simulation modes and the option to ‘normalize’ resolution to simulate print and web output, as well as 100%. Click through for a link. 

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Journey to Portland: Begins

18 Feb

January 31st, 2011 – Salt Lake City, UT to Portland, OR

iPhone using Hipstamatic (a great photography app)

Steven Wood and I landed at 6:04PM, drove straight from the Portland Airport to Stereoblind studio where we met our two hosts along with two models and two stylists.  This would be the first day of a three day shooting trip, seven models in three days.

The first day, right off the plane, was a shoot planned with a full styling team and three models.  None of whom I’d ever met in real life.

This trip was a bit of an experiment.  I wanted to see how hard it was to leave my geographic comfort zone and shoot, was it worth the hassle to bring a camera on short trips?  Away from my lights, away from my studio, away from my connections.  On a bit of a whim I was browsing Modelmayhem and spotted a model or two that I thought I would LOVE to shoot, and both were in the same city..Portland, a city less than an hour and a half away by plane.   One thing led to another and I looked up prices which seemed much to inexpensive to be right, Steven agreed to join me.  We’d do some shooting, check out the sites and maybe even test drive a Ferrari with a blind Al Pacino, who knows.  I was ready for anything.

About 45 minutes before getting on the plane, a few hours before the shoot, I received an email from one of the models.  “Family emergency, can’t make it.  Sorry for the late notice…,” that sort of thing.

These happen, the longer I’ve been a photographer the more rarely they occur… leading me to believe that when they do occur it’s probably legitimate.  I emailed her back thanking her for letting me know and… well, didn’t know what we’d do.  No cell service in the plane, which was leaving soon.

We formulated a plan B at the shoot.  Instead of one look each for three models we’d do two looks of two models.  The results were… well… if I were into sports analogies I’d say it was a home run.

The lighting setup I used to achieve these is simple.  A single strobe with a parabolic umbrella (86″) creates a very soft even lighting. The umbrella is directly behind me with the face of it perpendicular to the ground, if you look closely into the catch lights you’d see me standing in front of the light.  To bring back some definition in the edges I placed two large, black foam boards on either side of the model, just barely out of frame.  That is what gives that distinctive shaded contouring around the edges of the model, so to speak.

As seen in this simple lighting diagram.

Setup photo courtesy of Dan LaHaie and his iPhone

Lighting doesn’t need to be complicated, but it does need a lot of attention to detail.  As anyone on set that day can probably attest to – angles, distances, power and reflectors are tweaked and tweaked and tweaked… until… well, you just know it’s right.

Complete Equipment Used for this test

  • Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
  • Lens: Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM
  • Tripod: Manfrotto 190XPROB
  • Tripod Grip: Manfrotto Ballhead (322RC2)
  • (Provided by Stereoblind) Strobe: Profoto
  • (Provided by Stereoblind) Light Modifier: PLM Parabolic Umbrella (Silver back)
  • (Provided by Stereoblind) Modifier Accessory: Translucent White front diffuser for Umbrella
  • (Provided by Stereoblind) Black Foam Core – from an art supply store.


Jake Garn Photography

 
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