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Posts Tagged ‘Probably’

DJI is now a camera company, and we should probably pay attention

14 Oct

When most people think of DJI, they think of drones – Phantoms, Mavics, and Sparks. Some may also know DJI for camera stabilization systems and gimbals, but it’s fair to say that most people probably think of DJI as a drone company.

Starting this week, DJI is also a camera company.

At an event in Hollywood, the company introduced its new Zenmuse X7 cinema camera, which includes some very impressive features including 6K Raw video. (You can find the full rundown of specs in our news story.) It’s a camera aimed primarily at the high-end motion picture market, but it sheds some light on DJI’s approach to the camera industry.

Part of what makes this interesting is the astounding rate at which DJI has been innovating over the past few years. I’m not suggesting that other companies haven’t innovated, but let’s be honest – at times the camera market can feel a little bit predictable.

“Starting this week, DJI is also a camera company.”

What sets DJI apart is that it seems to consistently push boundaries to create inventive products, which sometimes even surprise us a bit, as well as the rate at which they appear to be doing it. In fact, at the launch event for the X7 I felt a genuine sense of excitement about the new camera, not just from DJI employees but from those in attendance.

Although the X7 is undeniably aimed at cinematographers, it presents opportunities for photographers as well. It also illustrates that DJI is prepared to make its own imaging products if the company thinks it can build a better mousetrap than what’s currently out there.

A new system

DJI has built aerial systems with cameras for years, such as the Phantom series, and more recently, the Inspire series. Those models historically relied on either small sensor cameras with fixed gimbals, or adopted standards not originally developed for aerial use, such as Micro Four Thirds. (The original Phantom even used a GoPro camera.)

At the very high end of the market, however, photographers and filmmakers have largely been on their own to figure out how to rig pro-level cameras, such as DSLRs or cinema cams, on much larger drones like the S900 or Matrice 600, something that requires long set up times, provides less stability, and results in short flight times.

The Zenmuse X7 camera was designed specifically for aerial use, with a focus on small size and light weight. The short 16.84mm flange distance of the DL-mount allows lenses to remain small.

The X7 is primarily designed for this latter group, as well as users of the Inspire 2. By building its own camera, DJI had the freedom to engineer both camera and aircraft as a single, integrated system. The result is a very small Super 35 cinema camera that fits easily on an Inspire 2 drone without compromising the flight characteristics, and which can deliver professional cinema quality output. And, at a price point of $ 2699, it almost feels like a bargain.

Further, it’s not just a camera that DJI has introduced, but a full system that includes a new lens mount and lenses. The DL-mount has an extremely short 16.84mm flange distance, allowing for impressively small lenses that keep weight to a minimum. The four lenses available at launch are built from lightweight carbon fiber and have no external moving parts for improved durability. It’s a system that DJI can build on for the future.

In a sense, DJI designed the system because it needed to do so in order to continue innovating in other areas.

“In a sense, DJI designed the system because it needed to do so in order to continue innovating in other areas.”

In my brief hands-on time with the X7 and the new lenses I was impressed with the hardware. It’s remarkably small for what it is. The one thing that caught me off guard was the weight of the lenses; they’re so light that they feel like inexpensive kit lenses. But then you remember that they’re built from carbon fiber in order to be as light as possible and it all makes sense. If the camera and lenses can deliver the level of quality that DJI claims (and indications are that it probably can), the company has a real winner of a product. It’s a strong start for a new system.

The Zenmuse X7 is the first camera in DJI’s new system.

Why should photographers care?

Although the X7 is clearly aimed at the motion picture community, there’s reason for photographers to be excited about DJI’s new camera system as well.

All the press coverage describes the camera as having a Super 35 video sensor, which is a standard in the motion picture industry. That’s true, to a degree. It turns out that the X7’s sensor is actually a full APS-C sensor. When shooting video, the camera uses the full width of the sensor but not the full height, resulting in a cinematic aspect ratio.

When shooting photos, however, the camera uses the full area of its 24MP sensor, supports Raw capture in DNG format, and can even shoot continuously at 20fps. The result is that the X7 may be one of the most compelling options for aerial photographers available today. It’s a bit pricey once you include an Inspire 2 drone and a lens or two, but no more so than a Nikon D5 and a couple good lenses. If you’re serious about aerial work it’s inexpensive compared to helicopter time, and much easier to use than a homebrew system assembled from scratch.

The X7’s Super 35 sensor is really an APS-C sized sensor (23.5mm x 15.7mm). When shooting photos the camera captures the sensor’s full 24MP resolution and supports Raw image capture.

What’s probably more important than the X7 camera, however, is that DJI now has its own camera platform, complete with lens mount, around which it can develop additional imaging products, lenses, and accessories. This could include non-aerial tools, such as gimbal-mounted cameras, and maybe even other products the company has up its sleeve. Additionally, users will be able to buy lenses knowing that they won’t be obsolete when the next camera is introduced, just as with any other system.

“…the X7 may be one of the most compelling options for aerial photographers available today.”

I’m not suggesting that DJI is going to radically shift focus and suddenly start making still cameras, but the company has shown an interest in the photography market, as demonstrated by its stake in Hasselblad. It’s not entirely clear where DJI is headed with this, but I suspect it goes beyond hanging a 100MP Hasselblad H6D off a M600 hexacopter with a Ronin gimbal. However, DJI does have the potential to be a disruptor in the imaging market, and now they have a camera platform with which to do it.

The wrap

It’s not often that we see the introduction of a completely new camera system, so DJI’s announcement this week is notable. What I find particularly exciting is that DJI has a tendency to introduce and iterate products quickly. It’s also in a unique position of not having a legacy system to support. DJI doesn’t have to worry about ‘the way it’s always been done’, or making sure its lenses work with decades-old products. That won’t be true forever, but for now it gives them the freedom to be very creative in their product design.

If you’re going to launch a new cinema camera, you might as well do it in Hollywood. The Inspire 2 and Zenmuse X7 camera.

I don’t imagine DJI is going to shift away from its core strength of aerial imaging, but if the company can keep up its current rate of innovation I believe we’re likely to see some very impressive imaging products coming our way, particularly now that it has committed to a full camera system with room to grow. If DJI can disrupt the market in the process, all the power to them.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Equivalence is useful if you have any interest in light (and as a photographer, you probably should)

23 Aug

Photography is all about light, something you’ll quickly discover even if you’re not familiar with the word’s Greek origins. Most of the time, we use a standard framework (the standard exposure model) to discuss how much light your camera is receiving. However, this isn’t the only way of looking at things.

‘Equivalence’ gives us another way of looking at light, that just happens to give a clearer understanding of the capabilities of different formats. It’s a common misconception that equivalence and the more familiar standard exposure model are at odds with each other, but the two systems aren’t contradictory – they just tell different parts of the same story.

The Standard Exposure Model

The standard exposure model uses shutter speed and F-number (the ratio of a lens’s focal length, relative to its exit pupil) to describe how much light your camera is receiving. Using this ratio normalizes the behavior of lenses based on how much light they project per unit area, meaning it works consistently across different focal lengths. The available light and the exposure you can devote to it tend to dictate most of the noise in your image, so are the most effective way of reducing it.

A third factor (which is applied after the light has been captured, so doesn’t affect exposure, per se) is sensitivity (ISO) which, at its most basic can be thought of as essentially ‘whatever amplification or brightening is needed to provide the expected image brightness from a given exposure.’ This has the effect of ensuring that the exposure system works, regardless of what format you’re shooting on.

Lightmeters are designed to express the light level in terms of the standard exposure model. Since this system is, by design, independent of format so are their results.

There are many benefits to this system. It means that you never have to think about what format you’re shooting with: everything from your smartphone to a medium-format back will work using the same settings in the same lighting conditions. This is the reason light meters are able to work without giving a fig for what camera you’ve got.

The main downside to this*, is that it obscures the effects of format. There’s nothing wrong with thinking in terms of exposure, but it leads to slightly wooly conclusions such as ‘full-frame sensors can give less depth of field and are better in low light’ which is generally correct but not very precise. In turn, this can lead to confusion about why this is the case. ‘Something to do with bigger pixels?**’

Equivalence: the whole image perspective

Equivalence is simply a different way of looking at the same thing. Instead of thinking about light per unit area, it looks at the total amount of light that goes to make up the whole image. As a result, it assumes you’re trying to take a specific picture (matched framing, shot from the same position) and also requires you to compare images at the same size. In other words, it’s about pictures, not pixel peeping.

It’s not a matter of faith, nor does it contradict anything that the exposure model says, it’s simply a question of geometry. In the film era, where most people used a single format and only a generally knowledgeable minority used medium and large formats, the same underlying effects were usually discussed in terms of enlargement. But, since there’s no fundamental link between the size of your pixels and the size you choose to view or print them, ‘enlargement’ becomes a slightly arcane way of thinking about it.

Equivalence is simply a way of looking at how much light a system gets, and just happens to use the 135 film format as the baseline for those comparisons (because it was the dominant system in the film era, which saw it being used as the basis of comparison for focal lengths, when the many and various sensor formats emerged at the beginning of the digital era).

Equivalence, the basics

Equivalent f-numbers are a means of considering the combined effect of the aperture and sensor size.

In the same way that equivalent focal lengths describe the effect of sensor size on the field-of-view a lens gives, equivalent apertures describe the effect of sensor size on the properties that aperture affects (depth of field, diffraction, total light projected). In both instances, the underlying properties are not changed: neither the focal length or F-number of a lens is changed by different sensor sizes, only their effects.

  • F-number = focal length/aperture diameter
  • Equivalent f-number = equivalent focal length/aperture diameter

Comparing equivalent apertures allows you to understand how much control a lens will give you over depth-of-field. It also gives a good idea of how low-light performance will compare between two cameras of different sensor sizes, since it tells you how much total light is making up the final image (most noise is most images comes from the amount of light captured).

However, because the exposure and ISO system is, by design, independent of sensor size, equivalent apertures should only be used to understand camera/lens capability, not exposure.

To keep things real-world relevant, equivalence assumes you’re shooting the same framing from the same position and then viewing the images at the same output size.

Looking at total light or light per image, means we can better recognize the effect of light on depth-of-field, diffraction and noise. Rather than vaguely saying that ‘full-frame is, er, better than APS-C’ we can understand why and how much more or less light a larger or smaller sensor will receive at the same exposure settings (same shutter speed and same F-number), by calculating what the equivalent F-numbers are.

So, since a 50mm F2 lens used on APS-C behaves equivalently to a 75mm F3 lens on full-frame, we can see that a full-frame camera with a 75mm F2 could receive up to one and a sixth stops more light, if you opened the lens up to its maximum aperture. You can see this would give a shallower depth of field and a little over one stop of noise improvement, assuming comparable sensor performance.

Looking at it this way not only shows us the boundaries of the capabilities of each system but also gives us a meaningful way to assess whether either system is under or over-performing, relative to other systems, since it gives us a set of expectations about what it should be capable of.

This really shouldn’t be controversial

You do not need to consider equivalence for a moment when choosing an exposure. You do not have to multiply the F-number by the crop factor, unless you want to understand its behavior, relative to another system. However, it is completely legitimate to do so. The logic behind it is mathematically sound***, it holds up to real-world testing and it can be informative, if you’re interested. It’s an effective tool, whether you have need for it or not.

For more information, with real-world examples, read our more in-depth article on the subject.

* …beyond the flexibility in the ISO standard that means cameras don’t actually have to produce the image brightness you expect, and the fact that ISO as used by camera makers has very little meaning in terms of Raw shooting. [Back to text]

** If you view two images at the same size, the ones taken with the larger sensor at the same field of view, F-number and shutter speed will usually be cleaner in close proportion to the sensor size increase, almost regardless of the pixel size. Whether you have the same number of larger pixels or a larger number of the same sized pixels generally makes very little difference. [Back to text]

*** As Andy Rowlands’ Physics of Digital Photography points out, equivalence works at most normal photographic distances but, because it’s based on a slightly simplified depth of field equation, doesn’t hold true as you approach the close focus distances used for macro photography. This is equally true for focal length equivalence. [Back to text]

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Capturing the ‘Cape’: A beautiful piece of Iceland you probably haven’t seen

10 Aug

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In 2013 I was accepted for a one month artist in residence at the Baer Art Center in northern Iceland. After a wonderful month the other four artists and myself were taken on a boat trip up the coast, right past where we were staying, to the see “Cape” just north of Hofsos, a large land mass of mostly stone with a huge cliff at one end. I don’t know that I’ve been the same since.

Although I’d been told to bring what gear I had I was totally unprepared for what we saw that day. The geological phenomena of these rock columns of basalt being thrust up in ancient times from a violent volcano was just unbelievable, both beautiful and horrific at the same time.

I am writing this for DPReview while back in Iceland, as I was asked back by Baer to teach a photo workshop. Last week we repeated the boat trip up the coast of the fjord and I found myself again in front of the remarkable cliff face of the “Cape”. It was magic once again.

The job was, vey simply, not to screw up. Working to hold the camera steady on a rocking boat, to keep shutter settings fast enough, to make sure I was focused best for my subject and aperture setting and to “get everything”, as there was no going back that day.

To get to the Cape you’ll need to hire an excursion boat in the harbor in Hofsos, in northern Iceland.

Not to be missed.

Neal Rantoul is a career artist and educator. After 10 years teaching at Harvard and 30 years as head of the Photo Program at Northeastern University in Boston, he retired from teaching in 2012. You can find out more about him and see more of his work by visiting his website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How to photograph the August eclipse, and why you probably shouldn’t try

23 Jul

Essentially, it’s the ultimate photo challenge. On August 21st, photographers across the continental United States – and especially photographers within a 70-mile-wide band stretching from Oregon to South Carolina – will have no more than 160 seconds to get the shot of a lifetime.

Starting around 9am PT, the moon will pass in front of the sun, and a large swath of North America will be treated to a total eclipse. And if you ask anybody who knows anything about astronomy, it is a huge deal. Dr. Tyler Nordgren is such a man. He’s a professor of physics and astronomy, an award-winning photographer and a self-described Night Sky Ambassador. Here’s how he puts it:

“Half the people that are alive right now weren’t even alive the last time something like this was visible from the continental US. Secondly, there are 12 million people just living in the path of totality that are going to get the chance to see it, so it will be the most-viewed total solar eclipse probably in history.”

The most seen, most photographed, most shared, most tweeted – potentially the most people in total are going to be able to experience this in one form or another

Given that just about everyone in its path will have a camera in their pocket, he says it’s also likely to be the most photographed in history.

“The most seen, most photographed, most shared, most tweeted – potentially the most people in total are going to be able to experience this in one form or another.”

Hungary – My first eclipse photo that I took in 1999 superimposed on the stamp I bought there comemorating the eclipse by showing its path across the country. Photo and caption by Tyler Nordgren

But unless you’re a seasoned landscape photographer or astrophotographer, Dr. Nordgren thinks you might be better off not photographing it at all and just enjoying the view. He quotes Warren De la Rue, a pioneer of astrophotography. After becoming the first person to photograph a total eclipse “he wrote in his journal afterwards, that if he ever got the chance to see another one, he hoped to be able to see it without any equipment at all.”

In short, “See your first eclipse, photograph your second.” But if you’re unconvinced, Dr. Nordgren does have some advice.

Get ready

Preparation is key. Remember – 160 seconds. Of course, you’ll want a tripod and a cable release to lock everything down and minimize shake.

“If you really must photograph this, you’re going to want to practice a whole bunch of techniques in the weeks leading up so it’s as second nature as absolutely possible during those precious seconds.”

Protecting your eyesight and your gear is equally important. It’s only safe to point your eyes or your camera sensor directly at the sun during totality – a little bit before or after and you’re risking serious damage. He suggests a pair of solar eclipse glasses and a filter for your lens. Per NASA, your glasses should meet the ISO 12312-2 international standard.

Be sure to use both during partial phases of the eclipse – you risk damaging your eyesight, not to mention your camera, with just a pair of glasses and an unfiltered lens. Crucially, don’t forget to take off the filter during totality. You’ll be extremely disappointed with the results if you don’t.

Lensrentals recently posted a useful article detailing some specific settings to dial in if you plan on using a longer lens.

Pick a lens

What kind of lens should you use? Well, not surprisingly, it all depends on what you’re going for. If you want the sun as your main subject, you’ll obviously want a longer lens. “To really capture big detail in the corona and the object itself, you’ll want a lens with a focal length of around 500mm; between 400 and 600mm at least.”

But don’t forget that a total eclipse also presents a unique landscape photo opportunity. If you’d rather capture the eerie effect on the scene, a wider lens will produce excellent results too. It’s all a matter of personal preference.

Star Flyer – the 2013 eclipse as seen from the deck of a four-masted sailing ship racing across the Atlantic. Totality was 42 seconds long and I was on a quickly moving (and rocking) surface. Photo and caption by Tyler Nordgren

No matter what kind of shot you’re going for, you can size things up ahead of time by photographing a full moon.

“Something to keep in mind is that during totality the sun turns black, and is surrounded by this ghostly corona, so the spectacle of the object itself is this black disk with this white glow around it. That black disk is the size of the full moon, so take whatever your camera equipment is, take whatever your lens is and go out and photograph the next full moon. See if whatever size dot that appears. If that’s interesting to you, then great – that’s the lens to use.”

Get thee to the path of totality

If you’re set on photographing the eclipse and have the safety and gear requirements nailed down, all that’s left to do is get yourself into the path of totality for the big moment. Easy enough, right? Well, unless you’re lucky enough to live there, or you started planning your eclipse vacation years ago, chances are extremely slim that you’ll be able to find a campsite or hotel room in the path at this point. Your best bet is to find accommodations within a reasonable driving distance and set out as early as possible.

Ideally, you also want to aim for somewhere that’s less likely to have cloud cover. Dr. Nordgren knows all too well what a cloudy eclipse view looks like.

“If you’re going to do the close up photograph, you could be almost anywhere provided you’ve got clear skies. But I’ve also seen some really spectacular photos of totality through wispy clouds that give this dramatic view as well… just as long as you’re within that path of totality and the cloud cover is not so total that you’re utterly blacked out. And I’ve had that happen.”

This is the partial phase just a minute or two before totality in the Faroe Islands. Those clouds totally socked us all in 30 seconds before totality so we saw nothing. Photo and caption by Tyler Nordgren

If you’re hoping to get a wider shot, then great news: this eclipse will cross some of the most beautiful locations in the continental US. Provided you can get there, you can pretty much take your pick of landscapes. “What do you find compelling? Is it a hardwood forest like the Great Smoky Mountains, is it the big jagged peaks of the wind river range in Wyoming? Or being along the Oregon coast? It’s up to the photographer.”

And really, that’s what makes this such an incredible event.

“Everywhere from rocky shorelines in Oregon to snowcapped volcanic peaks in the Cascade range, to the deserts of Idaho and the mountains of Wyoming, the farmlands of Nebraska, the hardwood forests and the Mississippi river… you really have the entire breadth, literally, of the United States of America to capture this in.”

160 seconds – that is not a lot of time to see what I think is the most awe-inspiring, unnatural, natural experience in nature

Whether or not you can get to the path of totality, and whether or not you choose to photograph the event, you’ll still be treated to an amazing array of photos and videos from photographers across the US. And unless you’re dead set on photographing it, consider leaving the camera at home.

“If you haven’t seen a total solar eclipse, I encourage you, don’t waste your time photographing it. Chances are, somebody else will get a better photo. But if you are that kind of expert photographer, practice so that you can set your camera up and let it do its thing with as little input as possible, because 160 seconds – that is not a lot of time to see what I think is the most awe-inspiring, unnatural, natural experience in nature.”

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Throwback Thursday: Five camera accessories you probably didn’t need

27 Jan

Five camera accessories you probably didn’t need

Plenty of useful camera accessories come on to the market every year – but among them are some real duds. So let’s take a look back at some of the worst offenders, shall we? The first product that comes to mind, at least around here, is the Sony Party-shot.

The Party-shot, introduced in 2009, was actually pretty clever. You popped on a compatible camera (originally the Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 and TX1) and off it went. The ‘personal photographer’ could rotate 360° and tilt up or down 24°, and would use the camera’s Face and Smile Detection features to follow subjects and take a photo at the right moment. It even used the Rule of Thirds for proper composition! The Party-shot was portable, making it the thing to talk about at parties (no pun intended).

Oh, and be sure to watch this:

Five camera accessories you probably didn’t need

No more waving your arms or calling out your childrens’ names to get them to look at the camera, thanks to the Look Lock by Tether Tools. It’s a simple enough gadget: it’s a smartphone holder on an articulating arm that attaches to your camera’s hot shoe. What you put on the screen is up to you. It can be videos, photos or, God forbid, clowns.

To give credit where it’s due, Samsung produced several DualView cameras that had an LCD panel on its front plate to essentially do the same thing. And it did have a clown mode.

Five camera accessories you probably didn’t need

Back in 2007 SanDisk released special ‘Ducati’ edition memory cards as well as a USB stick. This wasn’t just an unusual marketing scheme: at the time these ‘turbo-charged’ cards were also significantly faster than SanDisk’s other offerings at the time. They were also pricey, with that 8GB CF card going for $ 315 and the 4GB SD card priced at $ 130. That snazzy 4GB USB stick was $ 125.

In case you’re wondering about that SD card, it’s what SanDisk called ‘SD Plus’. The card could split open, exposing a hidden USB connector, so you could plug the card right into your PC. Not surprisingly these cards broke quite easily, and the ‘Plus’ designation now means ‘above average’ in SanDisk’s lineup.

Like many things, the partnership between SanDisk and Ducati didn’t last long, which is why I still treasure the 8GB SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition CF card that I hide in my desk.

Five camera accessories you probably didn’t need

Back in the late 1990s transferring photos from camera to computer was a pain in the butt. You had to hook up a serial cable and those big 1.3 Megapixel files chugged along at a whopping 115kb/sec.  Then a company called SmartDisk said ‘why not make a device that lets you put that SmartMedia card into your floppy drive!’ And so the FlashPath adapter was born. 

The concept was pretty simple. Just pop two watch batteries into it, put the SmartMedia card into the side and insert it into your PC’s floppy drive (remember those?). That assumes that you’ve installed the proper drivers for Windows 95/98 or Mac OS, of course. The FlashPath wasn’t blazing fast, but by our estimates it was about double the speed of a serial cable, so it did save time. Not long after the FlashPath arrived, Sony did the same thing for its Memory Stick format. And not long after that, floppy drives started to disappear from PCs, starting with the iMac.

Five camera accessories you probably didn’t need

There have been plenty of accessory lenses for iPhones, but none is more ridiculous than the Turtleback iPhone SLR jacket. This $ 249 accessory, introduced in 2012, let you attach a Nikon F or Canon EF lens to the front of your iPhone 4. To make that happen you had to first attach a case to the phone and screw on an depth-of-field adapter ring, and then you could attach the lens of your choice. It goes without saying that using the SLR jacket required two hands, otherwise something terrible would happen to your iPhone.

We tested the SLR jacket at the time and it earned 2/5 stars, due mainly to do the fact that the iPhone is actually taking a photo of the focusing screen in the depth-of-field adapter, so you see the pattern of the screen and lots of dust. To its credit, Turtleback did offer an app which automatically flipped the image (since there’s no mirror, the image is upside-down) and calibrates the iPhone’s camera to maximize image quality.

Did we miss your most favorite, least useful camera accessory? Let us know in the comments.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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This 4K video tour of the International Space Station is probably as close as you’ll get to being an astronaut

02 Nov

Halloween’s not over yet – NASA has released a 4K treat. The 18 minute UHD video features a fly-through of the International Space Station. Get out your headphones, flip into full-screen mode and pretend your dreams of becoming an astronaut have finally come true.

Related: NASA astronaut Jeff Williams showcases ISS photography equipment

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Mirrorless is ‘probably’ the future: an interview with Hasselblad Product Manager Ove Bengtson

27 Jun

It is quite extraordinary for Hasselblad to produce a mirrorless camera like the X1D for a number of reasons. Firstly is the obvious: it has predominantly produced cameras with very large mirrors since its first consumer camera in 1948 – the 1600F. Second, mirrorless cameras with touch screens and electronic view finders are very modern, and we may not all think of Hasselblad as a manufacturer of entirely up-to-date electronic products.

In the X1D we are looking at a medium-format sensor in a body that can hide behind a standard high-enthusiast 35mm-style DSLR. Okay, so plenty of people will point out that it isn’t ‘full frame’ 645 (the smallest of the 120 film formats), but it’s very similar to 127 film which was considered medium format by the ISO organization. More to the point, it’s much bigger than the ‘full frame’ 35mm format and is essentially the same size as the sensors used in Leica’s S series, the Pentax 645Z, Phase One IQ3 50MP and Hasselblad’s own H6D-50c.

I guess this kind of breakthrough is one we’d expect to come from what we might consider a high-tech company, not a business that has traditionally created a relatively low volume of very high-priced and principally mechanical professional tools.

Of course Hasselblad marked a technological turn around when it introduced the H6D with its new electronic platform, but this new X series camera takes what the H6D did a few steps further. Shortly after the announcement of the X1D in Gothenburg I got some time with Hasselblad product manager Ove Bengtson to discuss some of the technical challenges that had to be overcome to create the X1D and to find out some more detail about how the product will work when it comes to market.

‘…designing a mirrorless system is relatively easy compared to our usual H cameras’

‘The X1D took only between 18 and 20 months to develop from the final concept to where we are today,’ says Ove Bengtson. ‘As it uses the same 50-million-pixel Sony IMX161 sensor, the same electronic platform and same processor as the H6D-50c most of the work was already done – designing a mirrorless system is relatively easy compared to our usual H cameras as there are no moving parts. We started discussing the idea in November 2013 but were still talking about it a year later before we decided to go ahead. The work that we had already done in the development of the H6D saved us a lot of time in research for the X1D.’

As mirrorless cameras are so much easier to make and offer so much more flexibility I wonder if mirrorless is the future for Hasselblad. ‘Yes, it probably is, but not for a while. Mirrorless systems can be smaller and lighter, and because they have no internal movement they are more durable and they create less vibration so there is less to disturb image quality. Electronic viewfinders will need to get better though and the AF systems will need to improve to catch up with phase detection systems.’ 

‘We really do want phase detection but we’ll have to wait for the sensor manufacturer.’

‘It is a great benefit to be able to have AF points all over the screen, as in our H system we are really restricted to the centre of the frame, but phase detection wasn’t even an option for the X1D. We discussed having phase detection AF points built into the sensor, but Sony was already too far down the road with the sensor development at that stage. We really do want phase detection but we’ll have to wait for the sensor manufacturer.

So, while mirrorless has many advantages over mirrored systems there are still just as many reasons to use the H system. The H system has better AF in low light, and a lot of photographers prefer an optical viewfinder. The H system is also modular so you can change the backs and use a waistlevel viewfinder – not to mention a choice of 12 lenses including technical lenses – so it is still a very different experience.’

To allow X1D users access to the existing range of H system lenses Hasselblad will introduce what it describes as a ‘simple adapter’, but in the announcement there wasn’t much more detail than that. ‘Yes, this adapter will allow autofocus to operate with most of the H lenses, but they weren’t designed to work with contrast detection systems. Consequently users will need to update the firmware in their lenses to allow them to work properly. Not all lenses have firmware that can be upgraded as early H lenses in 2002 were fixed, but all more recent lenses will be able to be used.’

‘It is still early days for this camera but when it comes to market it will have touch AF…’

The cameras on display at the announcement event had touch screen controls for working the menus and for making feature selections, but they didn’t allow touch AF controls. ‘It is still early days for this camera but when it comes to market it will have touch AF and the AF points will be spread across the screen. You will press the AF/MF button and an AF point display will appear on the screen and then you can select the point you want to use.’

The X1D’s touch-driven interface. The menu screens and displays are controlled via a series of swiping motions, much as we are used to in smartphones.

Ove said that the company hadn’t directly considered allowing the rear screen to be used as a touch pad while the EVF is in use, but that it would probably be a question of firmware and that they would consider it. ‘The touch experience for the user has been a major consideration for us, and we want the touch sensitivity to be the best there is. Users will all have smart phones and we couldn’t allow the screen of the X1D to present an experience that isn’t as good as people will be used to.’

We also talked about the company’s integration of the Nikon flash system and what the reasons were for not developing a system of their own. ‘We don’t want to have to develop our own flash system, as we’d prefer to concentrate our resources on making cameras and lenses. Any system needs a range of flash units as customers want a choice, so it makes much more sense to work with an existing system that already has that range and choice. When we only had the V system we partnered with Sunpak, and in more recent years we worked with Metz, but Metz discontinued the gun as they didn’t sell enough. Nikon agreed to work with us and we are very happy that they offer excellent flash units that will work well with our X1D.’

‘We have to produce the best that we can and allowing reduced quality just isn’t an option’

The XCD lenses that Hasselblad has developed to go with the X1D use leaf shutters and offer a top shutter speed of 1/2000sec. Leaf shutter systems allow much faster flash synchronization than focal plane shutter systems and, as is the case with the H6D, the X1D can work with full power flash at that shortest shutter opening. ‘In this camera and in the H6D we use a dual shutter system to achieve the top 1/2000sec flash sync speed,’ explains Ove.

‘The new XCD lenses are designed and built to the same specification standards that we use for the H series lenses. We have to produce the best that we can and allowing reduced quality just isn’t an option. In fact these have a short back focus which makes it easier to design them to really excellent standards. The lenses are designed by us and manufactured by Nittoh who have made many great lenses in the past, including the lenses for the X-Pan. These XCD lenses have no crosstalk and the angle of the light as it approaches the sensor is well within the limits. You’ll notice that the exit pupil of the wide angle particularly is set well inside the barrel.’

‘Right now… we have no zooms on the roadmap’

‘To start with we will concentrate on fixed focal length lenses as we can make these small in line with the compact concept of the camera. I expect there will be some demand for zooms but we will wait and see what that demand is and then respond to it. Right now though, we have no zooms on the roadmap. Personally I think they will have to be too big, and I want us to concentrate on the best performance and the highest resolution possible.’

Speaking to Ove and other technicians at the event it is obvious that Hasselblad has built this system around the specific physical dimensions of the 43.8×32.9mm sensor. If there will be a 100MP version of the X camera it will not be one using the current Sony offering that measures 53.4x40mm. ‘The camera isn’t designed to take a larger sensor,’ I was told, ‘and the XCD lenses don’t have the covering circle to work with it. We designed the camera to be small and portable, and a part of that equation is the size of the sensor. If we work with a larger sensor it means we need a bigger body and bigger lenses, and that would defeat the principles of what the X1D is about.’

No one would be drawn on how many lenses the company expects to have in the XDC range in five years’ time, but it is clear there will be more and that they will start coming shortly. The 30mm will be formally announced at Photokina and I think it reasonable to assume there will be hints of other focal lengths at the time, even if the announcements aren’t formal.

The X1D really does mark quite a departure for Hasselblad and a step towards a larger market (though still some way from the mass market) that will allow the company to broaden its user base. The step too though is as much about demonstrating it is a modern company now that can make modern products. It has also drawn an unmistakable line under that period of its life when it rebadged and allowed other brands to have too much of a hand in its manufacturing.

Things are looking up; Hasselblad seems to be back on track, innovating once more and in many ways getting ahead of the game. The X1D is certainly the coolest, most flexible, portable and accessible digital medium format almost on the market.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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5 Photoshop Tips You Probably Didn’t Know

23 Aug

In this video tutorial from the Photoshop Training Channel, Jesús Ramirez goes over five Photoshop tips – you may not know! I have to admit I didn’t know a few of them myself. The things he covers include:

  • Advanced blending options in the layer style panel
  • Add a precise lens flare (using x and y coordinates to place it exactly where you want)
  • Using advanced options for Render Clouds, to get clouds with more contrast
  • Using the Black and White Adjustment layer to control color tones
  • How to open the same image in two windows, one zoomed in and one zoomed out

Do you have any other little known Photoshop tips to share? Please do so in the comments below, I’d love to hear your tips and tricks.

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The post 5 Photoshop Tips You Probably Didn’t Know by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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