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Posts Tagged ‘score’

Did You Score Any Gear From This Massive Amazon Prime Blooper? Need to Know How to Use It?

23 Jul

The post Did You Score Any Gear From This Massive Amazon Prime Blooper? Need to Know How to Use It? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

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This week, people flocked to Amazon for some annual Prime Day deals.

But a select few got a bit more than they were expecting:

Gear that normally costs thousands of dollars…

…on sale for just $ 94.50 USD. 

It all began when an observant Amazon shopper saw that a Sony a6000 bundle was on sale for $ 94.50. They shared this bargain on Slickdeals, and other photographers immediately began to take notice.

Slickdeals users raced to grab the bargain, but it soon became apparent that the Sony a6000 bundle wasn’t the only thing on sale.

Consider the Canon 800mm f/5.6L, which normally comes for $ 13,000 USD. One Amazon customer reportedly managed to snap it up for just $ 94.50 USD.

The same story is true for a number of other pieces of camera kit: the Fujifilm X100F, the Sony a7III, and the Canon EOS R, all of which normally go for over $ 1000 USD, all marked down to $ 94.50.

This was a mistake on Amazon’s part. First, it’s highly unlikely they would offer these items at such laughably low prices. And the deals weren’t seen by all customers; only some folks were able to view the bargain prices.

Many have claimed that Amazon will cancel any orders made for these products. And this might make sense – if it weren’t for the fact that many items have already shipped. Some customers have even received their items.

(Though it remains to be seen whether Amazon will honor the slashed prices for backordered items.)

Unfortunately, this deal-of-a-lifetime is long gone. And only a few Amazon customers managed to grab professional-grade gear for under a hundred dollars.

Were you one of them?

And even if you weren’t able to lock in any of these accidental bargains, did you get any new photography equipment for Prime Day? Let me know in the comments!

Also, for those who did get their hands on some exciting new photography gear, I’d like to take a minute to mention our course, which is only open for a limited time:

31 Days to Become a Better Photographer.

In it, you’ll discover how to use your new gear – so you can take stunning photos, consistently!

Don’t miss out! Sign up here:

31 Days to Become a Better Photographer

The post Did You Score Any Gear From This Massive Amazon Prime Blooper? Need to Know How to Use It? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.


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Huawei P20 Pro triple-camera receives DxOMark score of 109, smashing the competition

28 Mar

There’s no other way to put it: at least according to DxOMark, the Huawei P20 Pro is far and away the most capable smartphone camera on the market. In fact, with a score of 109, the world’s first triple-cam smartphone ranks a full 10 points ahead of its nearest rival, the Samsung Galaxy S9. And it’s not just the P20 Pro; even the P20, which only has a dual-cam, broke into three digits with a score of 102. That makes the Huawei P20 Pro and P20 the two best smartphone cameras DxOMark has ever tested, and puts them right at the top of our must-review list.

You can read the full P20 Pro and P20 reviews by following those links, but the TL;DR is simple: Huawei cleaned up across the board. DxOMark put it simply enough it the conclusion to its Huawei P20 Pro review:

We are used to every new smartphone camera generation being slightly better than the previous one, but looking at the images and test results from the P20 Pro, it seems Huawei has skipped one or two generations. The results are simply that good. The P20 Pro’s triple camera setup is the biggest innovation we have seen in mobile imaging for quite some time and is a real game changer.

Terms like “game changer” tend to make me cringe, but in this case it might just fit. At least according to DxO’s scores, the P20 Pro leaves competitors in the dust “in virtually every category.” Even if you’re exclusively interested in stills (and not video), nobody even comes close to the Huawei smartphone’s Photo score of 114—its nearest competition comes from the Samsung Galaxy S9 (104) and the Apple iPhone X (101).

Check out the full review, test images, and score breakdown on DxOMark, and let us know what you think of this impressive new smartphone camera in the comments. And, of course, stay tuned for our own review of the Huawei P20 Pro, which we’re hoping to get from Huawei shortly.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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This is why the Pentax 645Z DxOMark score of 101 was never published

12 Oct

If you dive into the comments on the recent news of the Nikon D850’s chart-topping DxOMark score of 100, you’ll notice a trend: people claiming that the Pentax 645Z actually scored 101 way back in 2015… before that score was unceremoniously scrubbed from the DxOMark website. So what’s going on here? Conspiracy? Foul play? Piles of money being passed around under corporate board room desks?

Not quite. The truth, as is so often the case, is a little less salacious.

A full review of the Pentax 645Z was never published, and that score of 101 only appeared online as part of a top cameras chart that showed up in DxOMark’s review of the Sony RX1R II sensor. The chart (below) showed Pentax on top with a score of 101, followed by the Sony A7R II with a score of 98. People asked about the score in the comments and were told a full review was “delayed” but “on its way,” yet that review never arrived. Later, the score was quietly removed and the chart was replaced.

Speaking to DxOMark earlier today, photography blog PetaPixel finally learned why DxOMark decided to pull that score: not for some nefarious reason, but because they never actually finished the review. Before they could publish, the company decided to pause medium format sensor reviews altogether.

“We made a pause on medium format a few years ago just because of our production bandwidth,” a DxOMark spokesperson told PetaPixel, explaining that they simply couldn’t keep up with the other tests they needed to do. “We will now soon republish this type of camera, and Pentax 645Z should be published soon […] in a matter of days.”

That last part is very exciting news. As medium format—and especially mirrorless medium format—becomes more affordable, people will be very curious indeed to see how these larger sensors stack up against the amazing full-frame sensors we’ve seen lately in cameras like the Nikon D850 and Sony a7R II.

We’ve had our own request for comment about this same issue out to DxOMark for a couple of days now, and will update this post with a full statement as soon as we hear back. But in the meantime, it sounds like the Nikon D850 might not retain its chart-topping score for long… at least not if it has to go head-to-head against medium format sensors.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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The Nikon D850 is the best camera DxOMark has ever tested, first to hit score of 100

07 Oct

Forget all of those DxOMark Mobile scores, it’s time to talk about “real” cameras again. DxOMark just completed their review of the Nikon D850 and, not entirely surprising, it is officially the best camera DxOMark has ever tested. In fact, it’s the first camera ever to reach a score of 100, pushing the Sony a7R II into second place with its score of 98.

As it stands now, the camera rankings put the Nikon D850 and its predecessor, the D810, in the number 1 and 3 spots.

While the D850 isn’t the best camera DxO has tested across the board, it nevertheless put in top notch performance in every category. “The D850’s key strengths are its outstanding color and dynamic range at base ISO, where it again ranks as the number one among all commercially available cameras we’ve tested for these attributes,” explains DxOMark. If it falls even slightly short in any regard, it’s in the low-light ISO category where its higher resolution starts to sting.

That said, you can’t help but go wide-eyed reading DxOMark’s conclusion. As they say, this camera is “in a class of its own for image quality.”:

The introduction of the first BSI sensor in a full-frame Nikon DSLR with a super-high 45.7Mp resolution puts the Nikon D850’s image quality on par with, and often better than, medium-format cameras. The first DSLR to hit 100 points — rather apt for Nikon’s hundredth anniversary year — puts the Nikon D850 in a class of its own for image quality. At base ISO, it’s unrivaled for color in the DSLR class, and its headline dynamic range score is outstanding, too.

To read the full conclusion—the full review, for that matter—and see how the D850 compares to the competition from Sony and Canon, head over to DxOMark.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Google Pixel 2 trumps iPhone as ‘best smartphone camera’ with highest DxOMark score ever

05 Oct

It’s been a couple weeks of amazing camera phone tests over at DxOMark. First the iPhone 8 Plus beat all former phones with a score of 94. Then the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 came in and earned the same overall score, beating the iPhone 8 Plus in the Photo category but falling short in Video. And now… now we have a new proper king.

After testing the brand new Google Pixel 2, DxOMark has awarded the flagship phone its highest ever marks for a smartphone camera with an overall score of 98.

As usual, you can read the full review over on DxOMark’s website, where they pit the Pixel 2 against its main rivals in a few head-to-head challenges, but the overall score results can be seen below:

In the Photo category, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is still the best phone out there, besting the Google Pixel 2’s score of 99 by a single point. But when it comes to video, the Pixel 2 is totally and completely unmatched. Its Video score of 96 makes Samsung’s paltry 84 seem a bit weak, and even Apple’s respectable 89 is nowhere close.

Ahead of doing our own tests with these phones, we’ve been looking closely at the results in the DxOMark tests, and we are very intrigued to say the least. Some of the numbers themselves are rather subjective, and we don’t entirely agree with DxO’s assessment in every category.

For example, in their outdoor bokeh comparison, the new Pixel 2 fares the worst:

Google Pixel (original) Portrait mode: 5MP sRGB JPEG.

The original Pixel simulated lens blur well (note the circular appearance of out-of-focus highlights), but did so at a resolution cost (you only got 5MP files). You also had to move the camera upward while taking the photo – problematic for moving subjects. There are artifacts present if you look closely.

Google Pixel 2 Portrait Mode: 12MP sRGB JPEG.

The new Pixel 2 fares the worst in this comparison, with multiple aritfacts throughout the image. At least it’s instantaneous (no need to move camera) and a full 12MP now though. Hopefully Portrait mode fares better in other situations.

iPhone 8 Plus Portrait Mode: 12MP DCI-P3 HEIF (10-bit).

The iPhone 8 Plus uses dual cameras to create the most artifact-free blur. It’s more Gaussian in nature than like a true lens blur (whichthe original Pixel simulated quite well). It’s also worth noting Apple is encoding images in higher bit-depth wider color space using the High Efficiency Image Format.

Something else overlooked by the DXO assessment: Apple now saves images in a new image format: HEIF, which allows for a wider color gamut (DCI-P3) and higher bit-depth (10-bit). That means the potential for more vivid images with less posterization compared to the conventional 8-bit sRGB JPEGs even the new Pixel phones (and most phones / cameras) continue to use today. In fact, even some of the colors in the iPhone 8 Plus image above are outside of the sRGB color space. Point: Apple.

Another point of contention we have: the sometimes overly tonemapped (flat) images HDR+ renders may or may not suit your taste. The Pixel 2 vs. HTC U11 high contrast scene demonstration shows the Pixel 2 preserving more overall detail in shadows and highlights, but doing so at the cost of global contrast. With the display capabilities of wide gamut, high brightness/contrast OLED displays that are technically capable of HDR display, that may not always be the optimal result. The iPhone X will likely be first device to show how good photos can look when you pair HDR capture with HDR display. We’re a bit disappointed that Google didn’t even mention HDR display, despite the devices’ displays clearly being capable of it.

Still, DxOMark’s conclusion doesn’t skimp on the superlatives… except that they’re running out of them:

We’re in danger of running out of superlatives when describing the major image quality attributes of the Google Pixel 2. That makes sense for a device that tops our scoring charts —up from the 94 of the Apple iPhone 8 Plus and Samsung Galaxy Note 8 to a record-setting 98. So for just about any Photo or Video ” href=”https://www.dxomark.com/glossary/use-case/”>use case, it recommends itself as the phone camera with the best image quality.

To read the full review for yourself, head over to the DxOMark website by clicking here.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Phantom of the opera full score pdf

29 Aug

I dutifully downloaded the ISO file and booted the system from it — cinema: The New Pictures Sep. Firmin and André, lloyd Webber and Stilgoe phantom of the opera full score pdf wrote the musical’s book together. I use a feed of the very latest malware, option to install many related Avira products. CULTUREEnter the […]
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DxOMark gives RED Helium 8K sensor a record-breaking 108 score

12 Jan

DxOMark has given RED’s 35.4MP Helium 8K sensor its highest overall score ever: 108. This makes the prototype sensor the second ever to exceed the 100 point milestone, joined only by the RED Epic Dragon prototype, which scored 101. DxOMark says the Helium is a ‘solid upgrade’ over the Epic Dragon, offering better color depth, less noise, improved low-light ISO and a greater dynamic range.

DxOMark explains that while both the Dragon and Helium sensors are ‘physically similar,’ the Helium ultimately offers more densely packed pixels at approximately 3.65 microns each. Less impressive is the organization’s assessment of the dynamic range, which measured at 15.2 stops versus RED’s advertised 16.5+ stops. That is still greater than the Epic Dragon’s DxOMark dynamic range rating of 14.8 stops, however. 

Because both the Helium 8K and Epic Dragon tests were performed with prototype devices, neither model will be officially added to DxOMark’s device ranking list. The company does present a ‘simulation’ ranking that shows where the two models would fall if they were included, however: above the Sony a7R II, Nikon D810, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX1R II, and the Pentax K-1.

Via: DxOMark

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Sony Xperia X Performance achieves top score in DxOMark Mobile ranking

29 Jul

DxoMark has published its test results for Sony’s flagship device in the Xperia X series, the Xperia X Performance. At 88 points the Sony achieves the same score as the HTC 10 and Samsung Galaxy S7 and now shares the top spot in the DxOMark Mobile rankings with those phones. 

The DxOMark testers were particularly impressed by the Xperia X Performance’s fast and accurate AF system, good exposure and dynamic range, well-controlled noise in low light and good detail in flash images. On the downside, the HDR mode does not always trigger when it should, small amounts of chroma noise are visible in outdoor conditions and the white balance is inconsistent when shooting with flash. 

The Xperia X Performance comes with a very similar camera specification to the Xperia Z5. A 23MP 1/2.3-inch Sony Exmor multi-aspect sensor is coupled with a F2.0 aperture in a wide angle lens with an equivalent focal length of 24mm. A predictive AF system, developed in collaboration with the engineers in Sony’s Alpha camera division, allows for improved subject tracking and low light mode ISO to be increased to 12800. You can read the full test report on the DxOMark website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Mozilla Firefox – Plugins and Extensions – Grab a Word Count and Readability Score of Selected Text

21 Apr

Need a quick count of the number of words or characters on a webpage or section of text?

Typing a comment on a webpage and curious if you’re getting a little long-winded? Writing a blog post for an assignment and need to satisfy a word count minimum? Or writing an article and want to get an estimated readability score to help ensure your text can be understood by as many people as possible?

The “Word Count Tool” extension for Mozilla Firefox lets you select a block of text on a webpage and see the word and character counts in the Add-On bar. Pressing Ctrl + Alt + C (or navigating the right-click menu) shows an enhanced details screen displaying the number of sentences, paragraphs, average word length, estimated readability score, and more….

Read more at MalekTips.
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Red Epic Dragon jumps to top of DxOMark Sensor charts with score of 101

04 Mar

DxOMark-logo-520.jpg

Over the past few years, DxOMark’s tests and scores have provided a numerical measure for the Raw image quality potential of cameras. They’ve therefore been debated at some length by enthusiasts looking to see where their favourite model stands in the rankings. Now there’s a new DxOMark Sensor score champion, but perhaps surprisingly, the first camera to break the 100-point barrier isn’t a full frame model from Nikon or Sony, but the RED Epic Dragon movie camera. Click through for details and a link to the full report. 

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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