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Posts Tagged ‘Major’

OnePlus promises major video improvements on its future smartphones

28 Jan

Earlier this month smartphone manufacturer OnePlus hosted on Open Ears Forum, an event designed to gather user feedback, in New York City. This time around the focus was on smartphone videography and attendees included OnePlus users with varying degrees of video experience, from casual users to video shooters that use smartphones as a work tool.

Now OnePlus has published its own comments from the Q&A sessions held at the event and committed to improving video quality and features on its existing products as well as upcoming models. The most important points include exposure and color consistency across all camera modules, LUT options in editing and a video night mode. You can see the full list below:

  • Exposure / color / white balance shift and consistency across all cameras
    Tuning all the cameras to have the identical exposure, white balance is our first priority and main goal.
  • Auto focus consistency
    We weren’t be able to reproduce the issue reported by the OEF attendees in our lab, but an upgrade both on hardware and software for auto focus will come in 2020.
  • Skin tone consistency
    Skin tone improvement is one of our top priorities. It will improve via future system updates.
  • Sharpness: Sharpness needs improvement across all scenarios
    We are trying to find the new balance between sharpness and noise.
  • Super stabilization: Support for 4K recording; Reducing noise and improving low light quality.
    There are hardware limitations, but 4K super stabilization will be supported in some of our future devices.
  • Dynamic range: Subject is lit but background is too dark
    We have been working on video HDR, which will solve these dynamic range problems.
  • Light flickering
    We’ve heard a lot of feedback about this, and we are working on de-flickering solutions to reduce this issue.
  • Panning shots are not smooth: Improve panning shots stabilization and smoothness
    So far, we weren’t be able to reproduce this issue in our lab, but smoothness and video are part of our key improvement points for 2020.
  • Faster camera
    Again, this is one of our main goals in 2020. Faster shutter requires updates from system, application, as well as the animation. It will constantly be improved via future updates.
  • Lens feature-parity: 1080P and 4K should be supported in all three lenses, allowing to switch between lenses while recording
    This is due to a hardware limitation in current devices, but we’re exploring ways to make it possible for future devices.
  • Limited 4K record length
    Having considered overall performance and temperature, we will not change current limit, but will keep working on optimizing this in the future.
  • Single handed use: Difficult to reach the top bar for features; Single hand zooming
    This is very important feedback for us, and we’ve already been discussing solutions with the design team.
  • Video editing
    We plan on completely updating our Gallery app’s video tools, so many of the features requested during the OEF will be supported. For color grading or LUT options, we will have news soon.
  • Pro video mode
    Pro video mode will be put into backlog, since our high priority is improving default video quality and use experience across the board.
  • Depth of field for tele camera recording (optical)
    We have already been researching and working on this feature, and the current quality has not reached our standard to release.
  • Zoom-in time-lapse
    We have some similar ideas for time-lapse as well, they are already in future product plan.
  • Reverse recording video
    Less frequent user scenario, so we’ve put into backlog. Our main focus in video is basic quality and user experience for all users.
  • Night mode for night video
    This is something we believe to be very interesting, we have already been researching and working on it.
  • AR emoji and stickers recording
    We still haven’t found a killer scenario for AR in video. There are some third-party apps that already offer interesting sticker features, so this isn’t a big priority for now.
  • Social media mode: Directly to twitter, crop ratio for Instagram, etc.
    We believe the image quality in third-party apps is of high importance and has a higher priority. We have been working on this, these features are planned after image quality improvement.
  • Light painting mode
    We decide not to follow on light painting effect due to a narrow user scenario.
  • 2 cameras recording at the same time: Wide and ultra-wide; rear and front
    This is already supported by current platform and cameras, but we are looking for user scene to fully take advantage of this feature.

It’s a long list and we’ll have to see if the OnePlus engineers will manage to implement all of the features and improvements in it. In any case it’s good to see manufacturers interact this closely with its customers and vowing to make improvements that users are asking for.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Darktable 3.0 released with new features, bug fixes and major GUI update

27 Dec

Darktable 3.0, the latest version of the open source photo editing software DRP reported on early last month, has officially been released. As revealed when the first release candidate was made available for public testing, Darktable 3.0 brings a number of large changes and improvements to the software, including a reworked GUI that makes it possible to apply full themes to the software.

‘Darktable’ will be the default theme in Darktable 3.0, but users will also be able to use alternatives like the ‘Darktable Elegant Dark,’ a lighter version of the theme, and ‘Darktable Elegant Darker,’ which has more condensed fonts best used with the Roboto font, according to the developers.

GUI changes aside, Darktable 3.0 adds a number of improvements and new features, including ‘many changes’ to the ‘denoise (profiled)’ module, a rewrite of the previous Picasa export module that switches it over to Google Photos, the addition of new ‘RGB Curve’ and ‘RGB Levels’ modules, a new ‘Basic Adjustments’ module, new color pickers for modules like ‘Watermark’ and ‘Split Toning,’ what the developers refer to as ‘many code optimizations’ for SSE and CPU paths and much more.

In addition to the new features and improvements, Darktable 3.0 includes several bug fixes and support for additional camera models, noise profiles and white balance presets. As expected, the latest version of the software is free to download on Windows, macOS and Linux.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Final Cut Pro X 10.4.7 arrives with major performance boosts, GPU selection and Pro Display XDR support

09 Oct

Apple has released Final Cut Pro X version 10.4.7, adding a new Metal-based processing engine designed to speed up various graphics tasks and improve content playback. In addition, the update boosts performance for a number of GPU models, adds support for the new 32″ Retina 6K Pro Display XDR, and more.

According to Apple, users can expect to see performance improvements across ‘a wide range of Mac systems.’ The company’s new Mac Pro in particular offers ‘unprecedented power’ when paired with the software, Apple says. Final Cut Pro X v10.4.7 brings support for up to 28 CPU cores and multiple GPUs, including ‘enhanced performance’ for the Radeon Pro Vega II Duo and Pro Vega II GPUs found on the Mac Pro.

When compared to the previous Mac Pro generation, the new Mac Pro offers up to 3.2 times faster transcoding and 2.9 times faster rendering in Final Cut Pro, plus there’s support for the Mac Pro’s Afterburner card for accelerating ProRes and ProRes RAW playback.

The 15in MacBook Pro is the most commonly used model by video editors, according to Apple. These customers can expect up to 20% faster performance. iMac Pro users, meanwhile, will see a performance boost up to 35% compared to the previous version.

In addition, the new Final Cut Pro X adds support for macOS Catalina’s Sidecar, a new feature that enables Mac users to extend their device’s display to an iPad. Other changes include the ability to choose with external or internal GPU will be used for accelerating graphics processing, the ability to grade HDR videos with ‘enhanced color mask and range isolation tools’ and support for viewing HDR videos tone-mapped to standard dynamic range displays on macOS Catalina.

Existing Final Cut Pro X users can download the new update for free. New customers can purchase the software from the App Store for $ 299.99 USD. In addition, existing Compressor and Motion customers can update to versions 4.4.5 and 5.4.4, respectively, for free; new customers will need to pay $ 49.99 each.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Pixelmator Photo gets major v1.1 update with iPadOS 13 support and more

02 Oct

Photo editing app Pixelmator Photo has received a major update to version 1.1, gaining support for Apple’s newly released iPadOS 13, including its redesigned Files app. As well, the updated app brings ‘deeper integration’ with Apple’s iCloud Photos service, batch photo editing that is ‘enhanced’ via machine learning, and the ability to resize exported images.

Pixelmator Photo is a version of the Pixelmator desktop software designed specifically for the iPad. Apple released iPadOS 13 earlier this month for its tablets, bringing a version of iOS tailored specifically for the iPad, including an improved Files app.

The Pixelmator Photo 1.1 update adds support for both iPadOS 13 and that new Files app, enabling users to edit images stored on external devices, including USB drives and SD cards, as well as remote online services including file servers.

Joining that new capability is ML-enhanced batch photo editing, offering users access to machine learning algorithms trained on what the company says were millions of professional images. Pixelmator includes its own batch editing workflows with Pixelmator Photo 1.1, though users can also create their own with actions like cropping and straightening, as well as custom color adjustment presets.

Going forward, Pixelmator Photo will now automatically manage photo edits and save the changes to the user’s library thanks to the updated iCloud Photos integration. Users no longer have to create duplicates or manually import images, plus it is now possible to revert images, favorite them, and delete them in the Photos library without exiting Pixelmator Photo.

Pixelmator Photo is available to purchase for iPad from the Apple App Store for $ 4.99 USD.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Major Facebook bug exposed private photos of 6.8 million users to third-party apps

15 Dec

On its developers blog today, Facebook disclosed a major photo API bug that left the private images of millions of users exposed to third-party apps. The bug, which has been fixed, was live from September 13, 2018 to September 25, 2018. During that time, some third-party apps may have had permission to access images uploaded to the service but not posted, as well as photos shared outside of the user’s timeline.

Facebook users can grant third-party apps permission to access images they’ve shared on the platform, but that permission is “usually” limited to photos the user published on their timeline, according to the company. The photo API bug may have given some third-party apps permission beyond timeline images, however, also including ones uploaded to the platform but not published, Facebook Stories content, and images shared on Marketplace.

As of its initial disclosure on December 14, Facebook said, ‘Currently, we believe this may have affected up to 6.8 million users and up to 1,500 apps built by 876 developers.’

Facebook plans to alert users who were potentially affected by the bug. A new Help Center page on Facebook’s support website provides a tool that shows users whether they have used any apps that potentially had access to their private images. As well, the company will provide app developers with a tool “early next week” that shows whether their apps were affected by the photo API bug.

“We are also recommending people log into any apps with which they have shared their Facebook photos to check which photos they have access to,” the company said in its disclosure.

The bug is the latest in a growing number of privacy debacles at Facebook. Earlier this year, the company suspended hundreds of third-party apps during its Cambridge Analytica scandal, which had revealed that data on 87 million Facebook users had been harvested and improperly used.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Some iPhone X users report major display color and contrast changes in iOS 12

22 Sep

Apple officially released iOS 12 to the public on September 17 and reports from users are rolling in. According to a post on Reddit’s Apple subreddit, some iPhone X users are less than happy with the new operating system, after experiencing decreased display contrast levels, slightly desaturated colors, overexposed black regions, and more.

The post, made by user “shannister”, claims the display changes appeared after updating to iOS 12. “Experiencing a slightly washed out screen, colours popping less and blacks appearing more greyed out,” the post states. Several other users report similar experiences,

One poster going by the name “RandomUser9785” states, “The OLED panel on the iPhone X had such wonderful colours and contrast on iOS 11. After the iOS 12 update, the colours and the contrast have been ruined on my iPhone X.”

An ongoing thread on the MacRumors forum contains dozens of reports and complaints following the public iOS 12 release.

Some users report the Accessibility contrast feature being enabled automatically after updating, requiring them to manually disable it. This doesn’t eliminate the problem, however, according to at least one user who says toggling the setting wasn’t effective. The issue is reportedly present on both the iOS 12 interface and within apps.

This isn’t the first mention of washed out colors in iOS 12. Earlier this summer, iPhone X users reported issues with colors and contrast while using the beta version of the software. An ongoing thread on the MacRumors forum contains dozens of reports and complaints following the public iOS 12 release.

We’ve updated our iPhone X here at DPReview and while we haven’t carried out any controlled tests, we haven’t noticed any significant changes to screen experience in iOS 12. Apple has yet to comment on the issue, but if you’re experiencing washed our or subdued colors on your iPhone, let us know.

Via: Reddit

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Affinity Photo for iPad gets major update, 30% off discount

16 Sep

Affinity Photo for iPad has put out a new update that further improves the Photoshop competitor with new features, updated tools and bug fixes.

Serif, the company behind the Affinity suite, also noted there’s now more than a quarter of a million people worldwide using Affinity Photo for iPad, following on the heels of Apple’s App of the Year accolade it received at WWDC in May 2018.

Affinity Photo version 1.6.9 introduces a long list of changes including ‘massively’ expanded support for touch gesture control, a tweaked UI designed for more intuitive control and better brush management, a new Export persona for easy exporting of multiple layers and a slew of under-the-hood changes to boost performance.

Below is the full list of features and tools that have been updated in Affinity Photo for iPad:

  • Added support for brush nozzle base texture mode.
  • New Undo/Redo gesture with two and three finger tap.
  • Added drag modifiers to studio icons for color, text, navigator and history.
  • Added canvas rotation control via Navigator Studio.
  • Added swipe gesture to swap primary and secondary colors on the Color Studio
  • Context menu now uses a long-press release gesture to invoke.
  • Added two-finger hold gesture to resize a layer from its centre.
  • During shape creation, a two-finger hold gesture will transform the layer.
  • On the Layers Studio, with a layer selected, a two-finger tap on another layer will select all layers in between.
  • On the Layers Studio, pinch inwards (either vertically or horizontally) to group selected layers. To ungroup, do the opposite and pinch out.
  • With the Move Tool active, a two-finger hold gesture on a layer plus a one finger drag duplicates the selected layer.
  • Easy access to merge and rasterize commands via Layer Studio icons.
  • New Export persona. A new workspace for exporting regions of your image as slices.
  • Improved brush stroke lag and small stroke response.
  • Brushes remember previously used stroke settings.
  • Move any custom brush to any category.
  • Added support for on-screen keyboard trackpad mode.
  • Added Tab key to on-screen keyboard context bar.
  • Updated Persona icons.
  • Numerous other improvements and bug fixes.

To entice new users, Serif has announced a 30% off sale through 7AM ET on Tuesday, September 18th. Normally, Affinity Photo for iPad retails for $ 20, but with this discount, you can snag it for $ 14 in the iOS App Store.

Do note Affinity Photo for iPad only supports iPad Pro, iPad Air 2 and iPad (early 2017). If you have an older device, it won’t run — so don’t waste your money.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Flickr announces major update to Galleries section

07 Sep

It’s been fairly quiet around Flickr since it was taken over by SmugMug but now the image sharing platform has announced a major update to its galleries section. The new Flickr galleries come with a redesigned user interface and a number of new tools to “facilitate your creativity.”

In a post on the Flickr Blog the company says that “Flickr’s galleries have long been one of the tools available to our community for visual storytelling, though they have gotten dusty over time as the rest of the site progresses.”

The new layout has been designed for larger screen sizes and resolutions than the previous version and the maximum number of photos in galleries has been increased from 50 to 500. To facilitate work with large numbers of photos you now batch add them to a gallery directly from your Favorites.

“By explicitly connecting Faves to gallery creation, we’re making your workflow simpler when you’re curating your favorite works from other Flickr members,” Flickr says.

On the galleries list page you’ll now find a triptych of photos for each gallery (the cover photo and the two most recent images), plus some metadata.

You can still select any image from the gallery to use it as the cover, edit title and description and reorder images. Galleries can also be shared “with an intuitive share sheet that will improve the presentation of your galleries on other social networks.”

If you are a Flickr user, head over to the Flickr galleries page to check out the redesign and new features.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Adobe won’t support older operating systems with its next major Creative Cloud update

29 Aug

If you’re not one to update your computer gear often, you might want to reconsider. Adobe has issued a notice future releases of Creative Cloud programs will no longer support older versions of MacOS and Windows operating systems.

‘As we prepare for our next major release of Creative Cloud, we wanted to share some information on updated operating system requirements,’ says Adobe. ‘To take advantage of the latest operating system features and technologies, the next major release of Creative Cloud will not support Windows 8.1, Windows 10 v1511 and v1607, and Mac OS 10.11 (El Capitan).’

Adobe notes all past and current versions of Creative Cloud applications will continue to work on the aforementioned operating systems. Creative Cloud Desktop — the management application for all Creative Cloud apps — will continue to be supported on Windows 7 or later and MacOS 10.9 (Mavericks) and later.

According to Adobe, ‘focusing [its] efforts on more modern versions of Windows and Mac operating systems allows [it] to concentrate on developing the features and functionality most requested by members, while ensuring peak performance that takes advantage of modern hardware.’

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Major Fuji X-T2 firmware update adds internal F-log recording, slow-mo, and more

09 May

Fujifilm has released a major firmware update for the Fuji X-T2 that may make it even harder for owners of that camera to justify the jump to the newly-released Fuji X-H1. As we mentioned in our review—and as Chris and Jordan pointed out in Episode 2 of DPRTV—the price of the X-H1 makes it a tough sell to owners of the X-T2 who have been looking to upgrade. And now, with Firmware Version 4.0, those users may not want to upgrade anymore anyhow.

Version 4.0 replaces version 3.0 (imagine that), and adds nine new features in all. Some of the video highlights include the ability to record 4:2:0 F-log directly to the SD card, and the addition of a 1080p 120fps slow motion mode. There are also major improvements to the Phase Detect AF algorithm, with the low-light limit dropping from +0.5EV to -1.0EV, the maximum aperture increasing from F8 to F11, and “major improvements” in AF-C performance while operating zoom. Finally, a focus bracketing feature has been added that lets you bracketing up to 999 frames in intervals of focus shift between 1 and 10.

There’s no word on whether the X-T2 gains the improved video processing of the X-H1 (it doesn’t gain 200Mbps capture), but this is one of the things we’ll be checking when we re-assess the X-T2 review in the coming weeks.

To learn more about this update or download it for yourself (and if you own an X-T2, you definitely need to download it ASAP), read the release notes below and then pay Fuji’s support website a visit.

Release Notes:

The firmware update Ver.4.00 from Ver.3.00 incorporates the following issues:

  1. Addition of “Focus Bracketing”
    The update will enable the photographer to shoot focus distance bracketing up to 999 frames. When the photographer starts shooting, the focal location is shifted with each activation of the shutter by the step of focus shift set from 1 to 10.
  2. Compatible with the newly developed cinema lens FUJINON MKX18-55mm T2.9 lens and FUJINON MKX50-135mm T2.9 lens
    • Aperture information can be displayed on the monitor. The upgrade allows users to select T-stop or F-stop.
    • The upgrade allows users to check the focus distance with the distance indicator shown on the monitor.
    • Automatically corrects the distortion and the color/brightness shading.
    • Camera automatically calculate the White Balance based on the lens position and deliver the color expressions with Film Simulation modes.
  3. Enlarged and customizable indicators or information
    The upgrade allows users to enlarge indicators and information in the viewfinder and/or LCD monitor. This upgrade will also enable users to customize the location of where the information is shown on the display.
  4. Addition of F-log SD card recording
    The upgrade allows users to record F-log movie data into their SD card.
  5. Addition of 1080/120P high-speed video mode
    The upgrade allows users to shoot 1080/120P high-speed video (1/2, 1/4 and 1/5 speed slow motion), ideal for recording spectacular slow-motion footage.
  6. Enhanced Phase Detection AF
    Latest updates to the AF algorithm provide the following performance enhancements:
    • The low-light limit for phase detection autofocus has been improved by approximately 1.5 stops from 0.5EV to -1.0EV, raising the precision and speed of autofocus in low-light environments.
    • The range at minimum aperture has been expanded from F8 to F11. For example, even when using the XF100-400mmF4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with the tele converter XF2X TC WR, phase detection autofocus can now be used.
    • Major improvements have been made to the AF-C performance while operating the zoom, which provides major benefits when shooting sports and other scenarios in which the subjects moves unpredictably.
    • Finely-detailed surface textures of wild birds and wild animals can now be captured at high speed and with high precision as a result of improvement in phase detection autofocus.
  7. Addition of “Flicker Reduction”
    For enhancing the quality of indoor sports photography, the upgrade allows users to reduce flicker in pictures and the display when shooting under fluorescent lighting and other similar light sources.
  8. Addition of “Select Folder” and “Create Folder”
    Enables the user to choose the folder in which subsequent pictures will be stored. And also enable to enter a five-character folder name to create a new folder in which to store subsequent pictures.
  9. New functions are added to store and read of camera settings by FUJIFILM X Acquire
    Once connecting a camera to a computer via USB cable, the “FUJIFILM X Acquire” allows users to backup/restore camera settings to/from a file. With “FUJIFILM X Acquire” (ver.1.7 or newer), CUSTOM REGISTRATION/EDIT settings are also stored and read.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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