Retro « 360Photography

RSS

Posts Tagged ‘Retro’

Video: a Retro Review of Sony’s 24-year-old Mavica FD5 camera, which used floppy discs for storage

04 Oct

Gordon Laing has shared another episode of Retro Reviews, this time reviewing the 24-year-old Sony Mavica FD5, one of Sony’s earliest digital cameras that recorded cameras directly to 3.5” floppy discs.

The Mavica FD5 was released in 1997 and retailed for around $ 600. While not the first Mavica camera, it was the first digital Mavica camera. As Gordon explains in the 13-minute video, the selling point of the FD5 was its use of the ubiquitous 3.5” floppy disc as a storage medium. Whereas most other digital cameras in the mid-to-late 1990s either used built-in storage or more expensive (and sometimes proprietary) storage solutions, Sony opted to go for a solution that didn’t require most consumers to go out and purchase additional hardware.

Naturally, this solution made for a rather large, square-shaped camera. But, aside from its brick-like ergonomics [insert Sony ergonomics joke here], Gordon suggests the camera is fairly intuitive and straightforward due to its almost entirely auto nature (the only adjustable setting was exposure compensation +/- 1.5EV in .5EV increments). However, there are a few user experience quirks, such as the camera displaying only the numbers of images captured, not how many remain until your 1.4MB of storage is used up.

Below is a collection of sample photographs captured by Gordon with the Mavica FD5, used with his permission:

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_5307541400″,”galleryId”:”5307541400″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”isMobile”:false}) });

At the heart of the FD5 was a CCD sensor that was carried over from Sony’s line of digital video cameras and offered a whopping .3MP (640 x 480 pixels) of resolution. Gordon notes the camera applies rather aggressive JPEG compression to the images in order to fit 20–40 _60KB photographs onto a single 3.5” 1.4MP floppy disc. The fixed focal length lens on the FD5 is a 47mm equivalent with a slider on the front of the camera for activating a macro lens that popped in front of the main lens.

The FD5 uses Sony’s FP-530 batteries, which were rated for up to 500 shots per charge. However, reviewing images and keeping the rear LCD display on for extended periods of time dramatically cuts into that shot count.

As always, Gordon’s video coincides with a written Retro Review of the camera, which you can read over on CameraLabs. You can find more of his Retro Reviews on Gordon’s DinoBytes YouTube channel and find his other photography work on his camera review website, CameraLabs.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

Comments Off

Posted in Uncategorized

Nikon to Announce the Zfc, a Retro Mirrorless Camera, This Summer

18 Jun

The post Nikon to Announce the Zfc, a Retro Mirrorless Camera, This Summer appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

Nikon to announce the retro mirrorless Zfc

For months, we’ve had hints of a second Nikon Z-mount APS-C camera, frequently dubbed the “Z30” – and according to Nikon Rumors, that camera “is real and will be announced soon.”

But it will not be a standard, entry-level APS-C camera to match the Nikon Z50 or the Nikon D3500. Instead, the new Nikon mirrorless model, now referred to as the “Nikon Zfc,” will be a retro-style camera reminiscent of 20th-century film bodies as well as Nikon’s only retro DSLR, the Df:

Nikon Zfc rumors Df image — The Nikon Df is a retro-style DSLR and likely bears a resemblance to the upcoming Nikon Zfc.

Here’s what you can expect in terms of design, based on Nikon Rumors reporting:

Mechanical dials (likely for ISO, shutter speed, and exposure compensation)
A fully-articulating screen
A “very thin camera body without a handgrip” and a “Nikon Df-inspired design”
“Shape and handling similar to old Nikon FM cameras”

Of course, any mirrorless model from Nikon will undoubtedly pack Nikon’s latest and greatest technology, from Eye AF and fast continuous shooting speeds to a powerful electronic viewfinder and an articulating touchscreen. And Nikon Rumors does claim the Zfc will offer capabilities similar to that of the Z50, a robust but well-priced APS-C camera featuring a respectable 21 MP sensor and an 11 frames-per-second burst mode.

But as film (and Fujifilm) shooters know, the photography experience on a retro-style body is wildly different from what you get on a standard DSLR or mirrorless camera. I’m a big fan of film-inspired designs, myself – the dials force you to slow down and really appreciate your settings, plus they make everything feel more real. And with the Zfc, you’ll get the best of both worlds: the tactile, mechanical ergonomics of a film camera, combined with the impressive speed and efficiency of a 2021 mirrorless camera.

While the Zfc is still only a rumored camera, and while the announcement and release date are technically unknown, Nikon Rumors is pushing a June 28th announcement date and expects the camera to begin shipping on July 31st.

The older Nikon Z50 currently sells for around $ 850 USD, body only, or $ 900 USD with a basic kit lens, and you can expect a slightly higher price for the Nikon Zfc; Nikon Rumors claims $ 999 USD (with a kit lens included).

So keep an eye out for the Nikon Zfc announcement later this month, especially if you like the sound of a reasonably priced, retro-style camera that can use Nikon Z lenses!

Now over to you:

Are you excited by the prospect of a retro-style camera from Nikon? Or would you have preferred a standard entry-level mirrorless camera? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Nikon to Announce the Zfc, a Retro Mirrorless Camera, This Summer appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

Digital Photography School

Comments Off

Posted in Photography

Video: A ‘Retro Review’ of the 20-year-old Canon Pro90 IS, Canon’s first digital camera with optical image stabilization

12 Jun

Gordon Laing, Editor of Camera Labs, is back again with another episode of ‘Retro Review.’ In this video, he puts the Canon Pro90 to the test to see how well it holds up two decades after it was released.

At the time of its release, the Canon Pro90 IS was Canon’s flagship PowerShot camera. It retailed for $ 1,300, used a 3.3MP sensor and had a design similar to its Pro70 predecessor, but featured a 10x zoom lens compared to the 2.5x zoom lens on the Pro70. It was also Canon’s first camera with optical image stabilization.

As impressive as the optics were though, the camera had an interesting design quirk—the image circle of the lens didn’t fully cover the 1/1.8″ sensor, so the resulting images were digitally cropped down to just 2.6MP. Incredibly, the camera featured a Raw capture mode though, in addition to JPEG support (with various compression ratios) as well as QVGA (329 x 240 pixel) video recording.

To find out more, set some time aside to watch the entire 12 minute video. To see more Retro Review content and other interesting insights on vintage tech, head over and subscribe to Laing’s Dino Bytes YouTube Channel.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

Comments Off

Posted in Uncategorized

Hands-on with the quirky, retro fantastic Fujifilm X-Pro3

23 Oct

Hands-on with the Fujifilm X-Pro3

Fujifilm has just announced the X-Pro3 – an X-mount mirrorless camera which is styled to look like a classic rangefinder camera, but is built around a modern 26MP APS-C sensor. From a purely specs-based point of view, there’s not a whole lot separating the X-Pro3 from Fujifilm’s other high-end APS-C camera, the X-T3, so the company has doubled down on design philosophy and ergonomics as the main differentiators between the two.

We were certainly curious not only about how the camera would handle, but how some of its out-of-the-ordinary features would impact how we used it. Click through for a closer look at our pre-production X-Pro3.

The rear screen(s)

The X-Pro3 features a unique dual-screen system, which is intended to both encourage use of the hybrid optical / electronic viewfinder (more on that later) and inspire a bit of nostalgia.

The rear status panel, pictured here, defaults to showing you which film simulation you’ve chosen, as well as your white balance and ISO setting. The nostalgia sets in when you notice that the on-screen display changes depending on which film simulation you use, with looks that are inspired by the packaging of Fujifilm’s classic film stocks. It’s the digital equivalent of ripping a portion of the film packaging off the box and tucking it into a slot on the back of your camera – ah, the good ‘ole days.

Though the legibility of the screen is reasonably good (despite fairly low resolution), it lacks a backlight, so you’ll need to rely on ambient lighting to be able to make out what it’s showing. Also, if you’ve programmed any custom buttons to change any of the options shown, be aware that the option you’re changing doesn’t become highlighted. So if you’re still learning the camera, you may hit a custom button intending to change the ISO value, but end up changing the white balance instead.

The rear screen(s)

When the camera is powered down, this is the view that you’ll see – it shows the remaining number of shots on the memory card, your exposure compensation setting (though if you move the exposure compensation dial when the camera is off, the screen will not update until you power it back on) as well as remaining battery life.

Oh, and if film-box nostalgia isn’t your thing, you can configure the panel to show a screen similar to this when the camera is on and in use, and you can customize which options you want to be shown. In this regard, the monitor is akin to a rear-mounted version of the top-plate display on the Fujifilm X-H1.

Flipping out

Now, the bottom-hinged design is where we expect a bit of controversy. It’s a touch-enabled screen, so you can place your desired autofocus point by touching anywhere, and it’s very sharp with a resolution of 1.62 million dots. But the bottom hinge makes it inconvenient and unwieldy for general use. Fujifilm really seems to want you to use the viewfinder.

In our time with the camera, the screen design did indeed encourage us to rely on the viewfinder more than we generally would while still allowing us to get ground-level shots without laying on our stomachs. But of course, some photographers just won’t be able to stomach this design choice, and that’s fine – within Fujifilm’s own lineup there’s always the X-T3’s more conventional screen if you need it.

Hybrid viewfinder

The hybrid viewfinder has always been a big element of what set the X-Pro series apart, and with the X-Pro3, Fujifilm has completely redesigned it. Let’s start with the viewfinder in its optical mode.

The optics in the finder are a reverse Galilean implementation with an electronic overlay, but the optical formula is all new and offers 0.52x magnification. Unfortunately, gone is the option to change the magnification if you want to use more telephoto lenses. Basically, shooting with anything over 75mm-equivalent will be difficult, as the actual image area corresponds to a pretty small portion of the viewfinder frame. But for Fujifilm’s 23mm, 35mm and 50mm F2 primes, it’s a good fit (the 16mm F2.8 prime actually captures a wider area than the optical viewfinder can show you).

Lastly, you also have to bear in mind the parallax effect when using the optical viewfinder, particularly when changing from nearby to faraway subjects and vice versa – this is because you’re getting a different view than what the sensor is getting through the lens. Unfortunately, Fujifilm has done away with the ability to see where your focus point would show up at infinity as well as where it would show up at minimum focus distance; it only shows your current focus distance, and the minimum. This can make it hard to estimate framing with changing subject distances.

Hybrid viewfinder

A lever on the front of the camera allows you to switch from the optical viewfinder to a fully-electronic display, similar to what you’d see on other mirrorless cameras. It offers great quality, having 3.69M dots of resolution on a 0.5-inch OLED panel. With a 50mm-equivalent lens, you’re getting 0.66x magnification.

But if you’re not sure whether to choose EVF or OVF, Fujifilm goes one step further by letting you use both, in a way. The viewfinder lever also allows you to enable a pop-up display tab in the corner, showing a live digital view of the portion of your frame that’s directly under your focus area. It’s a handy way to check your critical focus without losing the immediacy the optical finder provides.

Rear panel controls

The rear panel of the X-Pro3 has seen some further changes; the four-way controller is gone, and the ‘View Mode’ button from its predecessor has departed as well. The 8-way AF joystick works well for navigating the menus, and that rear control dial can be pushed inwards, as well as scrolled.

Typically for Fujifilm, the X-Pro 3 features a lot of customization options as well. You can adjust the functionality of the AE-L/AF-L button, the rear dial click-in action, and customize the blank button above the Q button. The Q button gives you access to a Q menu, which can be customized with your choice of 4, 8 12 or 16 commonly used settings.

Top plate controls

The X-Pro3’s top plate controls will be familiar to Fujifilm users, with a dedicated exposure compensation dial and a dual-function shutter speed and ISO dial (you lift this dial to change the ISO value). There’s one custom function button near the shutter and the on/off switch as well.

It’s also worth pointing out that the top and bottom plates of the X-Pro3 are both now made of titanium. This is the base black model, but ‘Duratect’ coated ‘Dura Black’ and ‘Dura Silver’ versions feature increased scratch resistance for a $ 200 price premium.

Updated sensor and front controls

Here you can see the new 26MP APS-C X-Trans sensor that we first saw in Fujifilm’s X-T3. Given equivalent lenses, this sensor should offer identical image quality and autofocus performance (at least when using the screen or electronic viewfinder) as the X-T3 offers – and we’ve been pretty impressed with what the X-T3 is capable of.

You can also clearly see the EVF / OVF lever here to the upper right of the lens mount, and this has a customizable button within it. There is also a customizable front control dial and the single-continuous-manual focus switch on the bottom right.

Card slots

The X-Pro3 comes with dual card slots, which is a nice touch. One could argue, of course, that for the way this camera is meant to be used, it’s unlikely that this is a deal-breaking feature for potential buyers. But then again, given the premium pricing, we’re still glad to see them. They can be set up so that Raw and JPEG files are split between them, so that still and movie files are split between them, and also so that one is a redundant backup of the other.

Battery

No surprise, the X-Pro3 uses the same NP-W126S battery that is ubiquitous among Fujifilm’s current APS-C mirrorless lineup. The camera is CIPA rated to 440 shots per charge if you use the optical viewfinder, and 370 if you use the EVF – not amazing numbers, but certainly not bad. In our experience, a rating of around 400 shots per charge is likely to last you a day of heavy shooting, or several days of more lighter use.

And of course, you can top the camera battery up over USB-C, which brings us to…

Ports

The X-Pro3 has a USB type C port as well as a 2.5mm remote / headphone jack. As mentioned, the USB port supports in-camera battery charging, though with the proper adapter, it can be used as a headphone port for monitoring audio while shooting video. And not that we think this is really a camera for video shooters, but the quality and feature set its capable of are honestly quite impressive. You can read more about its video feature set in our initial review.

Fujifilm X-Pro3 hands-on

And that about does it. There’s no doubt that the X-Pro3 is a strikingly handsome camera. It feels great in the hand, and the controls are excellent and highly customizable. With the right lenses, it’s a fun camera to carry around and shoot. But the screen mechanism and likewise the optical viewfinder, with the limitations that both create, are going to limit the broader appeal of the X-Pro3. But that’s the point – if you want something that has more of a personality to it, get the X-Pro3. You want a generalist camera? The X-T3 might be a better option.

But we’re curious – let us know what you think in the comments. Are you drawn in by the X-Pro 3’s redesigned optical viewfinder and unconventional rear screen? Or, would you rather just have the X-T3? Let us know.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

Comments Off

Posted in Uncategorized

Voigtlander introduces a pair of retro wide lenses for Leica M mount

28 Nov

Lens manufacturer Voigtlander has announced a pair of new lenses in what it calls its Vintage Line. The Color-Skopar 21mm F3.5 and Ultron 35mm F2 Aspherical are both designed for M mount cameras, including Voigtlander’s Bessa models as well as Leica’s M rangefinders.

The lenses are styled to conjure up the feel of the 1950s, according to the manufacturer. While the exteriors are retro, the optical construction aims to be a match match modern digital sensors as well as for film. Voigtlander says it has used ‘practical’ maximum apertures rather than going too wide so that it could keep the lenses small and the quality high. The aperture range is ‘practical’ because, according to Voigtlander, it is more difficult to focus with a shallow depth of field with a rangefinder when faced with moving subjects, and these lenses are intended to be used stopped down for zone focusing when responding to fluid situations.

The barrels and moving parts are made of metal and the focusing mechanism is claimed to be well greased for smooth movements. The Color-Skopar 21mm uses nine elements in eight groups, while the Ultron 35mm has eight elements in five groups – and both have a ten-bladed iris.

Below is a gallery of sample images from the Color-Skopar 21mm F3.5:

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_8783508831″,”galleryId”:”8783508831″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”isMobile”:false}) });

Below is a gallery of sample images from the Ultron 35mm F2:

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_6803120888″,”galleryId”:”6803120888″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”isMobile”:false}) });

The lenses will be available in January priced ¥95,000 and ¥90,000 (approx. $ 840 and $ 800). For more information see the Voitlander pages of the Cosina website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

Comments Off

Posted in Uncategorized

How to Create a Retro Look for Your Images with Luminar

13 Feb

Over the past few months, I’ve been testing out the features of Luminar. I’ve looked at the time-saving features that can help reduce your editing headaches. I’ve also played around with the AI filter to see how it holds up in quickly editing holiday photos and now it’s time to check Luminar’s capabilities when it comes to creating a retro look for your photos.

I wanted to know if Luminar would be quick, easy to use and create a look that tastefully gave my photos the look and feel of shooting with film.

Retro Look #1

To embark on this experiment, I studied some famous older photographs. My goal was to shoot a few images that paid tribute to the look and feel of old-school Hollywood. I saw this first image of Sophia Loren from the 1960’s and knew it was perfect. I love the style of dress from past eras and thought this would be a suitable project.

Sophia Loren Image

The goal was to create an image with a similar look and feel. I borrowed my friend Nahleen, she has some similar features to Sophia Loren. Once she agreed we set out to capture an image and then process for that 1960’s film look. Here’s the original image we took.

How to Create a Retro Look for Your Images with Luminar

This is the original unedited photo.

It was shot outdoors on a cold and frosty December afternoon. Nahleen has some similar features to Sophia Loren but is by no means a carbon copy. Instead, I was more interested in attaining a photo in which the fur hood framed her face.

So now that we had captured the image, it was time to bring it into Luminar. I tried to make to make the conversion as simple and quick to complete as possible. I will admit that I tried several times with different settings, etc. until I found a look that I felt was similar to the Sophia Loren image.

The AI Filter was used to bring out some contrast in the image. The photo of Sophia Loren was quite sharp and also had a fairly contrasty look, so my first goal was to pull out the dark tones and brighten my lighter tones to match more closely.

The Accent slider made adjustments quickly and easily.

The B&W Workspace

I then used the B&W Workspace to guide my editing of the photo. I adjusted several sliders. The intention was to increase the contrast and create some fairly strong blacks.

The B&W Workspace comes equipped with a variety of filters all designed to help with black and white conversions.

Here are the settings I used.

Adding Film Grain

My final step was to add film grain. At first, I cranked up the amount of film grain. In this screenshot, you can see how strongly I adjusted it. I always like to adjust a setting by purposely using too much. Then I back off the amount until I find a nice balance.

Here you can see that I’ve adjusted the grain to a fairly heavy amount. For the final image, I backed off a bit.

The whole process was pretty quick. Once I found the right settings it didn’t take too long to recreate this retro look. The final photograph is dark and contrasty but also a little different from the original Sophia Loren shot.

The final image is cropped in closer. My use of film grain is also heavier than in the original Sophia Loren shot.

Retro Look #2

In this second shot, I used a photo from a recent photo shoot in which I was working with a young lady to create a portfolio of modeling images. The 10-hour photo session was created using a very basic budget, but we made sure to utilize a retro outfit for this article.

The bell bottoms and the fur jacket were both found at the thrift store, as was the backdrop. We were working a tight space with limited materials.

Here’s the original unedited file. It was shot in my living room. We used a very basic DIY type of set up.

Free Presets

For this shot, I decided to take advantage of Luminar’s free presets. There are lots of free presets available for download, and I was lucky enough to find a set of free analog-film looks.

Here’s a look at all the free presets available on the Luminar website.

Quick Clicks and Some Cloning

The look of this image was very easy to create with just a few simple adjustments. I chose a cross-processing look and then tweaked it to my liking. The accompanying texture was applied pretty heavily. I found that it was overwhelming the image. So I chose to back off the strength of the texture.

I also cropped the image slightly and applied the Orton Effect filter. It quickly smoothed the model’s skin, and I didn’t need to go in and do any retouching on her face. This saved me quite a lot of time.

Finally, I took the image into Photoshop, where I cloned and added a layer to fill in the areas around the outside where you could see my living room in the original shot.

The preset applied without any adjustments to the original settings.

I started to make some minor adjustment to the original settings found in the preset which included adjusting the saturation in cross-processing.

Here’s the split screen of the before and after views. I completed some cropping and clone stamping.

Plug in for Photoshop

Luminar also has the capability to clone and add layers, but I’ll be honest there’s a part of me that will forever remain loyal to Photoshop for completing these parts of the editing process. This is partly why I really like Luminar – it works as a plug-in for Photoshop as well. I can move back and forth between the two programs pretty seamlessly.

Here’s the final edited image.

Retro look #3

This is the original unedited file.

For this final shot, I decided to edit the image fully in Luminar. I started from scratch with a RAW file. The goal was to experiment with the full editing capabilities of Luminar. The intention was to create a sepia look image that felt like an older faded photograph.

To start, I opened the B&W Workspace. It contains all the tools I needed for this conversion. That means I didn’t have to search through the list of filters to find anything.

Next, I applied the orange filter, cropped the image and adjusted contrast. I also adjusted the black and white sliders and played around with the strength of this first filter. I did consider creating a color image with a faded look but decided to go with full black and white.

Here’s a look at the faded film style.

Split Toning

After making these adjustments, I started to experiment with the Split Toning sliders. I gave the image a more brownish tone. This step took some experimentation with saturation and various colors.

These are the sliders and colors I experimented with during editing.

How to Create a Retro Look for Your Images with Luminar

After adding the split toning, it was time to add a vignette and film grain. Again I adjusted the grain so it was very heavy and then backed it off to a more suitable amount. The longest part of this whole process was finding a texture that I liked which I felt fit with the feel of the image I wanted to create. I tried several. Luminar comes with lots of free textures you can download. They all seemed to work quite nicely.

In the end, I chose a weathered-looking texture and used the brush tool to apply it to the image in varying amounts. I didn’t want a lot of heavy texture over her face. Here are the final results of my editing and experimentation. The image has a heavier texture application along with film grain and a stronger vignette. The B&W Workspace worked perfectly. It placed all the necessary tools right at my fingertips.

Experimenting with Different Textures

I tend to adjust the image quite strongly then slowly back off the effect until I find the treatment I like.

I played around with several different textures to create the old damaged photograph type of look.

Overlay option number two.

Overlay option number three.

The Finished Image

The final image includes the texture you see in the image above, but I backed it off quite a bit. Here are the results of the experiment. The application of the texture was reduced down to about 14. I didn’t want the effect to be as heavy-handed as in the image above.

In this final finished image, you can see the texture is most obvious around the edges. It’s a subtle texture called tattered that was available in the free downloads section of the Luminar webpage.

How to Create a Retro Look for Your Images with Luminar

Your turn

Luminar comes equipped with a full array of filters that can help you to create a retro look for your images in both black and white and color. Give it a try, they have a 14-day free trial.

Disclaimer: Macphun, soon to be Skylum, is a dPS advertising partner.

The post How to Create a Retro Look for Your Images with Luminar by Erin Fitzgibbon appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

Comments Off

Posted in Photography

Leica unveils retro version of the APO-Summicron-M 50mm F2.0 ASPH to honor the LHSA

01 Dec

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_5189466503″,”galleryId”:”5189466503″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”standalone”:false,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”startInCommentsView”:false,”isMobile”:false}) });

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s Noctilux-M 75mm F1.25 ASPH announcement, Leica has debuted yet another lens this week. This time, it’s a special edition: the Leica APO-Summicron-M 50mm F2 ASPH ‘LHSA’ released in honor of the 50th anniversary of The International Leica Society (LHSA).

What makes this lens special is, basically, that it meshes the styling of the original Summicon 50mm F2 from 1954 with the optics of the current APO-Summicron 50mm F2 ASPH released in May of 2012. Optically, it’s identical to the 2012 lens, but on the outside it features either a black paint or silver chrome finish, a 1950s style lens hood, and red engravings of the distance scale. Other special markings include:

The special serial number is engraved on the aperture ring and is picked out in black on the silver chrome version and is not coloured on the black paint lens. Further engravings are found on the bayonet ring: ‘MADE IN GERMANY’ and the LHSA Logo – both of which are not picked out in colour.

This special edition Leica APO-Summicron-M 50mm F2 ASPH ‘LHSA’ will be limited to just 500 copies—300 in the black finish and 200 in silver—and each of them will come in ‘high quality packaging’ with a certificate of authenticity.

Both colors will be available starting the 4th of December, and according to our contacts at Leica it will retail for $ 9,595. That’s $ 1,800 more than the non-special edition lens retails for.

To learn more about this lens, visit the Leica website.

Press Release

Leica APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH. ‘LHSA’: Special Edition to Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of ‘The International Leica Society’ (LHSA)

Wetzlar, 30 November 2017 – For the past 50 years, ‘The International Leica Society’ (LHSA) has dedicated itself to researching the history of Leica and the use of the company’s products. The beginning of the celebration of the 50th anniversary in 2018 will be marked by the launch of a special edition of the Leica APO-Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 ASPH. produced especially for the occasion. The appearance of the lens is reminiscent of the Summicron 50 mm f/2 from 1954. The special edition thus unites the outstanding imaging performance of the current lens—which was the first to be able to fully exploit the contrast and resolution offered by modern digital cameras—with the look of the nineteen-fifties.

Depending on the choice of colour of the ‘LHSA’ special edition, the outer brass elements of the lens are finished either in black paint or in silver chrome. This also applies to the separate lens hood in the style of the nineteen-fifties that is also made of brass. While the engravings of the distance scale in feet are picked out in red on both versions, the other engravings vary in colour depending on the version of the lens selected: these are in white on the black paint version and black in the case of the silver chrome option. The special serial number is engraved on the aperture ring and is picked out in black on the silver chrome version and is not coloured on the black paint lens. Further engravings are found on the bayonet ring: ‘MADE IN GERMANY’ and the LHSA Logo—both of which are not picked out in colour.

The cordial collaboration between Leica and the LHSA has a long tradition and has already been the source of a number of special editions in the past. These include, for example, a set comprising a silver chrome Leica M6 and three Summicron-M lenses of different focal lengths produced in 1993 and a Leica MP from 2003 finished in a special hammertone lacquer.

The LHSA special edition of the APO-Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 ASPH. is strictly limited to 500 examples, 300 in black paint finish and 200 in silver chrome. Both versions will be supplied together with a certificate of authenticity in particularly high-quality packaging and will be available from 4 December 2017.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

Comments Off

Posted in Uncategorized

The Yashica digiFilm Y35 exemplifies everything wrong with retro styling

14 Oct

Allen Murabayashi is the Chairman and Co-Founder of PhotoShelter. He’s an avid photographer and frequently speaks on how photographers can use online marketing to grow their businesses. This article was originally published on PhotoShelter, and is reproduced here with permission.

At the turn of the millennium, Chrysler introduced the PT Cruiser, a retro-styled automobile that echoed design elements from the 1930s.

People went gaga for it because it was retro cool while retaining modern utility. Turning on the car didn’t require the driver to manually crank the engine. The car had air conditioning, power windows, and all the modern accoutrement that said retro cool need not be inconvenient to be successful.

In photography, a resurgence of interest in film isn’t a self-flagellating exercise. Film possesses a quality that can only be simulated in digital. Large format digital simply doesn’t exist, and many alternative processes have no digital equivalent.

Companies like Fujifilm have succeeded in incorporating rangefinder-style design, which feels nostalgic while incorporating incredible technology that place their cameras on par with other top-of-the-line offerings from other manufacturers.

Then, there is Yashica. A few weeks ago, the company teased their “Coming Chapter” featuring an attractive Chinese model in jumpcut vignette that seemed to take styling cues from Blade Runner (PSA: smoking is bad for your health). Although Yashica never scaled the heights of its contemporaries, Nikon and Canon, it still had a fairly storied history with its SLRs and TLRs before Kyocera sold the trademark rights to a Hong Kong-based firm in 2008.

An initial announcement about a smartphone lens system brought about a collective yawn, but photographers were still waiting to be delighted with a more substantive announcement of their “unprecedented” return to the camera world. And here is.

The Yashica digiFilm Y35 is a digital camera with a 1/3.2inch 14-megapixel sensor that uses pretend film—each with different ISO ratings, aspect ratio, and color. They’ve launched a Kickstarter to give you an opportunity to purchase the $ 125 camera. Over 5,100 ~~fools~~ people have backed this project to the tune of nearly $ 1m.

As I wrote in 2013, the camera of the future isn’t from the past. The Yashica Y35 reminds me of those old DigitalRev videos where Kai and crew would purposely handicap themselves using inferior cameras like the Barbiecam for, well, no purpose at all.

You can plausibly make an argument that vinyl records have an acoustic advantage over low resolution streamed audio, that a handmade knife is more balanced and sharper than a factory manufactured version, but you can’t convince me that the Y35 yields any advantage in any aspect of photography whatsoever.

The only unprecedented aspect of this comeback is how unprecedentedly disappointing it is. In the pursuit of brash consumerism, this newly branded Yashica has forgotten a large part of why we take photos in the first place: joy.

Here’s a suggestion, save your $ 125 to donate to Hurricane Relief in Puerto Rico and use your smartphone instead. You’ll feel better and your photos will look better too.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

Comments Off

Posted in Uncategorized

How to Create a Retro Faded Look Using Lightroom or Photoshop

15 Apr

You’ve probably seen images floating around because it’s popular these days, you know, the ones with the retro faded look. It’s pretty popular with the instagram and wedding photography crowd. It’s not my fancy but I am all about empowering photographers to shoot what they have in mind. If that happens to be retro-faded here’s how to achieve that look in Lightroom and Photoshop.

How to Create a Retro Faded Look in Lightroom and Photoshop

Why this look is so popular

Here’s why I believe this look is very popular, it’s a quick and easy way to de-digitalize digital images. When you click that shutter release button, you get a straight, clinical, boring representation of reality. The faded retro look makes the images seem dreamy and ethereal because the colors are muted. Since it’s easy to do and already built into apps like Instagram, you have a recipe for popularity.

How to Create a Retro Faded Look in Lightroom and Photoshop

How to get this look using Lightroom

In Lightroom go ahead and process the image the way you want first. Once you are done, go to the Develop Module and scroll down until you reach the Tone Curves panel. Click the button on the bottom right.

How to Create a Retro Faded Look in Lightroom and Photoshop

First, click the button on the bottom right. Next, click on the little circle on the bottom left of the graph and drag it up. The higher you put it, the more faded the look. Adjust to your tastes and you’re done!

What you are essentially doing is putting a cap on how dark the black pixels will be. Imagine you had 3 groups of students with black, gray, and white shirts. The darkest shirt is black. But if you tell the group of students in black to become grey, the darkest shirt will be grey. It’s the same principle here, you are taking pixels that would normally be black to become dark gray.

How to get this look using Photoshop

In Photoshop the principle is the same. After you have processed the image, go in Image>Adjustments>Levels. You could also alternatively make an adjustment layer to do non-destructive edits by going to Layer>Adjustment Layer>Levels.

How to Create a Retro Faded Look in Lightroom and Photoshop

Drag the black output adjustment to the right to taste and you are done!

Examples

So to recap, take your straight image:

Straight original image.

Post-process to taste:

Post-processed with basic adjustments.

Then edit the blacks using Levels/Curves:

Black level lowered using Levels or Curves.

Further customization

Just like for any new technique, the trick is in experimenting, mixing, and finding your own favorite style. You can add some grain in Lightroom (My favorite, de-facto settings are 50-50-50 for Amount, size, and roughness) but you can also play around with the colors of the photograph for an added effect.

Under the Develop Module, you will find Split Toning in the right-side panel.

Split-toning adjustment panel.

The top is where you color the highlights of your image, the saturation controls how strong that color will be. The bottom is where you select the color for your shadows and saturation does the same as above. The Balance slider adjusts which direction you want the colors to lean more toward. If you push that slider to the right, the image will lean more towards the color you have chosen for highlights. If you push the slider left, the overall image will lean more towards the colors selected for the shadows. It’s usually best to keep it at 0 (in the middle) and play around with it after selecting the colors.

Starting points and examples

I personally keep my saturation levels around 10 for Highlights and Shadows because too much saturation will make the image go completely one color. Color images, I find 35 maximum saturation fit my tastes. Here are some results:

Playing with split-toning to add to the retro look. Top left is the original faded image.
Top right: Highlights color 299, Saturation at 25, Shadows at 99 and Saturation 31 (Balance at 0)
Bottom right: Highlights color 101, Saturation at 25, Shadows at 47 and Saturation 31 (Balance at 0)
Bottom left: Highlights color 30, Saturation at 25, Shadows at 253 and Saturation 31 (Balance at 0)

Yes, that is indeed how you get a cross-processed look in Lightroom. It fits in well with the overall retro faded look.

Conclusion

That’s it. It’s pretty easy to do if you ask me. It probably takes a bit more time (and you have more control) than using Instagram filters but it’s worth the time to learn if the look resonates with you. You will quickly learn “the numbers” that you like most and be able to be consistent throughout your images. Be yourself, stay focused and keep on shooting.

Please sure your faded retro look images in the comments below and tell us how you achieved it.

The post How to Create a Retro Faded Look Using Lightroom or Photoshop by Olivier Duong appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

Comments Off

Posted in Photography

Retro through-and-through: Fujifilm X-Pro2 Review

15 Mar

The X-Pro2 is a high-end, rangefinder-esque mirrorless camera that directly succeeds the first X-mount camera: the X-Pro1. The Pro2 is based around a 24MP APS-C sensor and a host of feature improvements in a body that very closely resembles that of its predecessor.

Fujifilm X-Pro2 features

24MP X-Trans CMOS III sensor (APS-C)
273 Autofocus points (169 of which PDAF)
2.36M-dot OLED/Optical hybrid viewfinder with pop-up picture-in-picture tab
ISO 200-12800, expandable to 100-51200 with Raw shooting at all settings
1/8000 sec maximum shutter speed and 1/250 sec flash sync
Acros black and white film simulation
Grain Effect option for JPEGs
1080/60p movies

The X-Pro2’s higher resolution sensor also gains wider-spread on-sensor phase-detect AF coverage, which is another significant improvement. In addition it has a small, thumb-operated joystick that allows you to more easily select an AF point and, in turn, the camera lets you select from a any of the camera’s AF points.

Other changes include allowing Auto ISO to extend up to 12800 and the ability to shoot Raw files at all the camera’s ISO settings (extended settings have always been JPEG-only on previous X-series cameras), as well as the ability to apply lossless compression to Raw files. The X-Pro2’s shutter has been improved, too, and can now shoot as fast as 1/8000 sec, with flash sync extended to 1/250 sec of a second.

But much of what else made the original X-Pro1 stand out remains. The genuinely rangefinder-styled body, rather than just being a rectangle with a band of faux leather around it, mimics most of the control points and design accents of a 1960s camera. It still has the all-metal construction but more attention has been made to provide environmental sealing, as you’d expect in a camera at this price.

And, although the body looks broadly the same, it’s been significantly reworked to offer improved ergonomics as well as additional features. The hybrid viewfinder has been improved through the inclusion of an X100T-style pop-up tab in the corner, onto which an LCD image can be projected.

Here’s a spec comparison between the X-Pro2 and its predecessor, as well as the X-T1:

	Fujifilm X-Pro2	Fujifilm X-T1	Fujifilm X-Pro1
Pixel count	24MP	16MP	16MP
AF points	273 points (169 of which PDAF) hybrid system. All directly selectable.	77 point (15 of which PDAF) hybrid system 49 directly selectable (9 of which PDAF)	49 point CDAF system All directly selectable.
Viewfinder	2.36M-dot OLED/Optical Hybrid	2.36M-dot OLED	1.44M-dot LCD/Optical Hybrid
ISO Range	200-12800 (100-51200 Extended)	200-6400 (100-51200 JPEG-only)	200-6400 (100-25600 JPEG-only)
Auto ISO settings	3	1	1
Maximum frame rate With AFC/With Live View	8 fps / 3 fps	8 fps / 3 fps	6 fps / 3 fps
Maximum shutter speed	1/8000 (Mechanical) 1/32000 (Electronic)	1/4000 (Mechanical) 1/32000 (Electronic)	1/4000 (Mechanical)
X-Sync Speed	1/250 sec	1/180 sec	1/180 sec
Movie shooting	1080/60p	1080/60p	1080/24p
Wi-FI	Yes	Yes	No
Customizable Q Menu	Yes	Yes	No
Custom ‘My Menu’	Yes	No	No
Direct controls	Shutter Speed Exposure Comp AF Drive Mode ISO	Shutter Speed Exposure Comp AF Drive Mode ISO Drive Mode Metering Mode	Shutter Speed Exposure Comp AF Drive Mode
Direct AF point control	Yes – Joystick	Optional – At expense of custom buttons	No
Custom buttons	6	6 (2 if direct AF select chosen)	2
Exposure Comp Dial	±3EV (±5EV using front dial)	±3EV	±2EV
Rear screen	3″ Fixed (3:2) 1.62M-dot (900 x 600)	3″ Tilting (3:2) 1.04M-dot (720 x 480)	3″ Fixed (4:3) 1.23M-dot (640 x 480)
Command dials	2 (Push-button type)	2	1 (Push-button type)
Card slots	2 (1 of which UHS-II)	1 (UHS-II)	1 (UHS-I)
Film Simulations*	9	8	7
AF Tracking	Yes	Yes	No
Eye-detection AF	Yes	Yes	No
AF in MF mode	AF-C or AF-S	AF-C or AF-S	AF-S
Panorama mode	No	Yes	Yes
Compressed Raw?	Optional (Lossless)	No	No
Battery life	350 OVF 250 EVF	350 EVF	~300 OVF
Battery percentage?	Yes	No	No
Maintain zoom when changing image in playback	Yes	Yes	No
Lens Modulation Opt	Yes	Yes	No
Grain simulation	Yes	No	No
Split prism focus guide	Color/Mono	Mono	No
Brightline display	Yes	N/A	No

*Not including color filter simulation variations

As you can see, compared to the X-Pro1, the Pro2 is significantly improved. Almost every aspect of the camera has been refreshed and these updates quickly add up to a much nicer-to-use, more capable camera.

However, in the four years that have passed since the launch of the X-Pro1, a lot has changed, with mirrorless cameras maturing dramatically and expectations for features such as continuous autofocus and movie shooting leaping forwards. However, neither of these two factors is likely to be a prime concern for would-be buyers, instead, the main thing likely to make life difficult for the X-Pro2 could be the existence of its own sister model: the X-T1.

The X-T1 was described at launch as a flagship model and offers a fully fleshed-out feature set for enthusiasts, semi-pros and perhaps even some professionals. It has sealed magnesium alloy construction, a huge electronic viewfinder, weather sealing and abundant external controls. So is there really still room for a new X-Pro alongside the DSLR-style model?

Scanning through the table above, there are certainly some areas in which the X-Pro2 is more advanced than the X-T1, but details such as shutter speed and pixel count are just generational improvements that would make just as much sense in a X-T2. So one of the main things we’ll be looking to address in this review is: how does the hybrid viewfinder change the shooting experience and is it enough to allow the X-Pro and X-T lines to continue in parallel?

Review History
15 Jan 2016	First Impression Review based on Pre-Production camera running Firmware 1.00
25 Jan 2016	Raw Dynamic Range, Studio Test Scene & Full-production Samples Gallery added.
8 Feb 2016	Movie page added.
14 Mar 2016	Autofocus and Conclusion published

If you're new to digital photography you may wish to read the Digital Photography Glossary before diving into this article (it may help you understand some of the terms used).

Conclusion / Recommendation / Ratings are based on the opinion of the reviewer, you should read the ENTIRE review before coming to your own conclusions.

We recommend to make the most of this review you should be able to see the difference (at least) between X, Y, and Z and ideally A, B, and C.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

Comments Off

Posted in Uncategorized