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Posts Tagged ‘standard’

VESA establishes world’s first open standard for HDR displays

07 Jan

HDR is a term increasingly causing confusion amongst both photographers and the masses. ‘Isn’t it that thing that makes my images look flat and less contrasty by including all the shadows and highlights in my final image?’ many of our friends and forum members ask.

Well, yes, if it’s not done right. But when it comes to displays, the ironic thing is that ‘HDR’ is meant to make imagery look less flat, by taking the wide dynamic range encompassed in HDR images and stretching it back out on the display to no longer look flat but, instead, encompass nearly as much punch as the scene had in the real world.

Whenever a new display technology comes along, and particularly when it falls into that gap before it’s well defined or understood, monitor manufacturers LOVE to throw the spec all over their products. That, in a nutshell, is what has happened with the ‘HDR’ moniker and computer displays, making it very difficult for someone to know what is and isn’t a “real” HDR monitor.

What kind of brightness and contrast ratio should you be looking for? What’s the actual static contrast ratio, not the stupidly high (and irrelevant) dynamic contrast ratio often quoted? What kind of color output should you expect out of an HDR monitor? And what the heck is local dimming?

These are the questions that manufacturers tend to not answer, at least for now, and it’s why VESA has created the world’s first open standard for HDR displays: DisplayHDR.

Targeted largely at LCD-based computer monitors (not OLED), the purpose of DisplayHDR is to establish an open standard with fully transparent testing methodology, so you can “rate” your display and see where it falls on the HDR scales. Is it really just an SDR monitor, or does it rank as DisplayHDR-400 (low-tier), DisplayHDR-600 (mid-tier), or DisplayHDR-1000 (top-tier)?

Here’s how those tiers break down, and the performance metrics they have to hit:

A breakdown of the VESA standard. Click to enlarge

‘Corner Maximum Limit’ is aimed to ensure local dimming implementations can effectively keep black levels low even when small non-central portions are illuminated brightly. ‘Tunnel Maximum Limit’ ensures good overall contrast with varied content all over the screen but with nothing hitting pure white. Many of these targets cannot be met without some sort of local dimming capability, which most computer displays don’t have. Consider these targets a ‘push’ to get manufacturers to embrace the future of HDR display.

Up until now, there was no open standard for HDR displays. The closest thing we had is the UHD Alliance Premium Standard, which is essentially just a stamp that you’ll see on TVs, Blu-ray players, discs, and the like that ensures your device hits 4K resolution, BT.2020 color space, 10-bit encoding, and a few key contrast and brightness specs. But unlike the VESA standard, there’s no gradation: you either have the UHD Alliance Premium Standard badge or you don’t.

VESA’s standard, on the other hand, aims to grade LCD-based computer monitor displays or grading monitors. It establishes tiers that manufacturers can shoot for when designing computer monitors. And since most if not all of these manufacturers are members of VESA, they have access to the documentation outlining the specifications and testing methodologies.

The hope is that the standard becomes widely accepted. That way, you can look for the VESA badge on your next monitor purchase to make sure the manufacturer isn’t just throwing the term “HDR” onto an IPS monitor that can only hit 350 nits brightness and a 1000:1 static contrast ratio (many otherwise highly-rated IPS monitors aimed at photographers from manufacturers like Dell, BenQ, Eizo and the like).

A DisplayHDR-400 rated display would be guaranteed to hit peak brightness of 400 nits, a black level of no more than 0.4 nits for a largely black scene (or 0.1 nits for a more varied scene only hitting 50% white at any point), 10-bit encoding, and 95% sRGB coverage. This would be considered the “first genuine entry point for HDR” by VESA. Funny enough, the otherwise excellent IPS displays many photographers choose might hit this standard, but we’d argue you shouldn’t consider such a display ‘HDR’. In other words, we here at DPReview don’t really consider monitors with the ‘DisplayHDR 400’ truly ‘HDR’. Grading or processing your images on these displays aren’t going to guarantee your images will look proper on future, truly ‘HDR’ displays.

A DisplayHDR-600 rated display would be guaranteed to hit a peak brightness of 600 nits, a black level of no more than 0.1nits, 10-bit encoding, 99% sRGB, and at least 90% DCI-P3 coverage. These specs, according to VESA, describe “professional/enthusiast-level laptops and high-performance monitors.” This rating, in our opinion, is far more stringent and is better indicative or a truly ‘HDR’ display. If you want your images and video to be future-proof, pick a display rated no lower than this.

Finally, a DisplayHDR-1000 rated display would guarantee peak brightness of 1000 nits, a black level of no more than 0.05 nits, 10-bit encoding, 99% sRGB, and at least 90% DCI-P3 coverage. This final tier describes, “professional/enthusiast/content-creator PC monitors.” This is the stamp of approval we’d be looking at were we to be grading video or photos that will look good on displays of the future. Monitors with the DisplayHDR-1000 badge will be far more representative of the displays of the future, so if you want to make sure your content is ready to be displayed on future devices, this is the badge you’ll want to look for when shopping for monitors.

This new 5K UltraWide monitor from LG earned the VESA DisplayHDR-600 badge, meaning it hits at least 600 nits peak brightness, 10-bit encoding, and 99% sRGB and 90% DCI-P3 coverage.

These new standards are also more stringent about color gamut coverage: the 600 and 1000 standards require what we’d call ‘wide gamut’ color coverage, capable of displaying colors well outside of the old (can we say ‘boring’) sRGB standard of yesteryear. That means they can display colors well outside of old photochemical printing devices, so you can edit far more saturated and interesting colors into your image that will be displayed by monitors and printers of the future (and current).

Furthermore, these new standards set stringent requirements on bit-depth: while 8-bit monitors with dithering are allowed, each one of these standards require you hit 10-bit color reproduction with or without 2-bit temporal dithering (many monitors of the past would only hit 8-bit by 6-bit panels with 2-bit dithering: a big no-no for HDR content capable of displaying a wider range of luminances and colors that might otherwise band or posterize with 6-bit panels).

To learn more about the new VESA standards, head over to the DisplayHDR website. There, you’ll find a simple breakdown of what constitutes an HDR display, why the standard was set up, and a link to download the DisplayHDR CTS (Compliance Test Specification) for free.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Work Smarter: 12 Modern Desks Reinvent the Standard Office Surface

24 Oct

[ By SA Rogers in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

The typical desk design has remained the same for centuries, but we need these surfaces to do more – like incorporate our gadgets, offer privacy in loud offices, fit into our homes, fold up to take on the go or offer proper space for our cat overlords. Maybe even all of these things at once.  These designs are more than just a flat slab on legs, adapting to 21st century standards in all sorts of different ways.

Turia Table by Maxime Mellot Incorporates Nature

“Can we admire nature and put it in a cage?” says Maxime Mellot of his own design, this curious desk inspired by a park in the city of Valencia, Spain. “Turia participates in the debate, and forces the user to divert his attention, from his own person to live animals, requiring care and benevolence. In a society focused on performance and permanent connection to the internet, pure moments of privacy become rare and precious. But how can furniture invite us to take a break, drink a tea or have a snack and help us to enjoy this specific disconnected moment? My project tends to merge the universe of nature and relaxation, by combining iconic items such as bird cage and fish tank in an interactive way.”

Koloro-Desk by Torafu Architects

The interior of the Koloro-desk by Torafu Architects is like a cheerful miniature house with its very own operable windows, so you can lean inside to read, work, sketch or nap and feel a sense of disconnection from the world just outside its little walls. The two flip-out windows on either side offer shelves for drinks and other objects, and there’s even a skylight.

Oxymoron Desk by Anna Lotova

Shove stationery, pens and other item between the two little cushions under the surface of Anna Lotova’s Oxymoron Desk. The name comes from the unlikely pairing of materials. The cushion sandwich even lets you slide a piece of plywood inside to create a side table.

“We have to change our behavior, plan and think of work with a different mindset: no matter where an office is situated, it has to have a space it can call its own, identifiable, alterable, on a human scale, with its own history and objects, an enjoyable environment,” says Lotova.

CATable by Hao Ruan

Do you have a persistent feline companion who gets a little jealous of your computer or books when you’re working? This clever table by Hao Ruan of LYCS Architecture doubles as cat furniture, with the underside full of comfy curving hollows and tunnels for your cat friend to hide in.

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Work Smarter 12 Modern Desks Reinvent The Standard Surface

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[ By SA Rogers in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

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6 Reasons Why You Should Use a Standard Lens for Street Photography

03 May

Henri-Cartier Bresson is well-known for his use of a 50mm lens, a standard lens on a 35mm film camera. If it’s good enough for Henri, then I guess it’s good enough for most modern street and travel photographers. When I worked at EOS magazine (Canon) we published an article about a photographer who traveled to India with nothing but a standard 50mm f/1.2 lens. His photos were beautiful.

But what is it about the standard lens that’s so appealing to street and travel photographers? I’m glad you asked! Let’s take a look.

Why You Should Use a Standard Lens for Street Photography

What is a standard lens?

A standard lens is a prime lens with a focal length roughly equivalent to the length of the diagonal measurement of the sensor (or film). A standard lens on a full-frame camera would have a focal length of 42mm. It is a lens that produces a field of view that is similar to the human eye or appears natural. 

In practice, the 50mm lens is considered the standard for full-frame cameras (although Pentax makes a 42mm lens). A 35mm or 28mm lens is standard for an APS-C camera, and a 25mm lens is standard for a Micro Four-Thirds camera.

I made all the photos in this article with a Fujinon 35mm f1.4 lens, a standard lens on my Fujifilm X-T1 camera. Standard lenses have lots of benefits. Here are some of them:

My Fuji 35mm f/1.4 standard lens.

1. Standard lenses are relatively small

Standard lenses are easy to design and make. The optical quality is superb. They are not big lenses and don’t require as many raw materials as larger lenses. They are inexpensive to manufacturer and the savings are passed onto the buyer.

But that doesn’t mean you should buy the cheapest standard lens you can find. You also need to take build quality, autofocus performance and weatherproofing into account when buying a standard lens. That $ 100 standard lens may look like a bargain, but you could easily end up wishing you had bought something better.

The small size of standard lenses is good news if you are going to be walking around for hours at a time taking photos. The lighter your kit the more energy you will have for photography.

Smaller lenses are also more unobtrusive when taking photos of people in the street. If you use a telephoto lens and point it towards somebody it’s obvious that you are taking a photo of them. But use a standard lens and you could be taking a photo of a building, the street, or the scene in general. You can take a photo of somebody without pointing the camera directly at them (as long as you’re not too close). You are much more likely to be ignored.

Why You Should Use a Standard Lens for Street Photography

I made this photo in Hangzhou, China with a standard lens. The girls didn’t notice me. It helped that they were totally engrossed in what they were doing.

3. Standard lenses have wide apertures

This is good news if you work in low light or like to use wide apertures for creative effect. If you like bokeh you’ll love using a standard lens. I used a wide aperture on my standard lens to make this photo. I deliberately focused on the dragon’s head and blurred the background.

Why You Should Use a Standard Lens for Street Photography

4. You can focus close to the subject

Most standard lenses are capable of focusing quite closely to the subject. That means you can take close-up photos without having to change lenses or use an extension tube or close-up lens. This ability, combined with the wide aperture, make standard lenses incredibly versatile.

You can step back from the subject and take a photo that includes plenty of the scene. Likewise, you can move in close and take a close-up. You can open up the aperture and create bokeh, or stop it down and get much more of the scene in focus.

The close focusing ability of a standard lens helps you create a variety of images that show both the entire scene to small details and everything in-between. It’s a great tool for building a body of work around your subject. I used my standard lens to create both these images below, taken in the same building in Beijing, China.

Why You Should Use a Standard Lens for Street Photography

5. Standard lenses teach you to see

When you use the same lens for an extended period of time you get to know it really well. You’ll understand how it sees the scene. You’ll know what to expect in terms of perspective and depth of field, and how that changes as you get closer to the subject.

There is nothing wrong with zoom lenses, but they add an extra element to the photo taking process as you have to decide what focal length to use. An 18-55mm kit lens, for example, can be very useful. But there’s also a dramatic difference between the 18mm and 55mm focal lengths in terms of composition and angle of view. Deciding which focal length to use wastes precious time, especially in a situation where something interesting is happening.

For example, in China, I often didn’t have much time to think. Something happened in front of me, like this boy posing for a photo, and I had to react quickly. A prime lens helped me do that as I didn’t have to think about focal length.

Why You Should Use a Standard Lens for Street Photography

With a standard lens (or any prime) you are committed to that focal length. You don’t have the option to zoom in or out. You can only change the framing by moving closer to or farther away from your subject. It simplifies the photo taking process and helps you create photos with simpler, stronger compositions.

6. Standard lenses occupy the middle ground

Telephoto lenses are great for taking photos of people from a distance, but photos taken with them can lack a feeling of intimacy as they are shot from a distance. It’s also harder to stop down and get the background in focus as well.

Wide-angle lenses are a real challenge as they tend to include too much of the background. It’s hard to create a simplified composition with a wide-angle lens, especially in the street where lots of things happen that are outside your control. You also need to get much closer to your subject, and may need to invade their personal space. It’s hard to do this and not have the subject react to you in some way.

Standard lenses occupy a good middle ground between these two extremes. You can get close to your subject without getting too close. You can create simpler and stronger compositions than you can with a wide-angle lens, but can still stop down and keep the background sharp.

This photo is a good example. I was fairly close to this couple. But, I if had been using a wide-angle lens I would have had to get even closer, invading their personal space and changing the dynamic. A photo taken with a telephoto lens would have a greater sense of distance and separation from the couple. In either case, I wouldn’t have made a photo capturing a candid expression like this.

Why You Should Use a Standard Lens for Street Photography

Your turn

What lenses do you like to use for street and travel photography? Are standard lenses part of your kit or do you prefer something else? Let us know in the comments – it will be interesting to see which lenses DPS readers prefer to use.


Andrew is the author of the ebook The Candid Portrait.

The post 6 Reasons Why You Should Use a Standard Lens for Street Photography by Andrew S. Gibson appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Elinchrom, Phottix and Sekonic form wireless common standard partnership

13 Aug

Lighting manufacturers Elinchrom and Phottix are collaborating with the light meter brand Sekonic to establish a common standard for communication between wireless lighting devices. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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DJI Phantom 3 Standard photography drone unveiled

06 Aug

DJI has announced a new camera drone called the Phantom 3 Standard. The DJI Phantom 3 Standard is a quadcopter with an integrated camera able to record video at up to ‘2.7K’ at 30 fps and take 12 megapixel still images in JPEG and DNG formats. The quadcopter is designed for consumer-level use. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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GoPro mount becomes standard accessory for next year’s Toyota Tacoma, as GoPro plans user-generated-content licensing deals

23 Jul

Toyota has revealed that the 2016 version of its adventure truck will come pre-fitted with a windshield mount for a GoPro camera. Those interested in filming their muddy, dusty and rocky scrambles will be able to fit a camera to point forwards or backwards to capture either the ‘flight’ or passengers reactions. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Drone maker DJI announces support for Micro Four Thirds standard

11 Feb

Three companies joined the Micro Four Thirds system standard group this morning, including DJI, maker of both consumer and professional-level drones. JDC (GuangZhou) Optical Co., a small Chinese optics manufacturer, and Flovel Co., a Japanese optical company, both also announced support. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Gold Standard: Nikon D750 review posted

20 Dec

The D750 is Nikon’s newest FX-format camera, offering a number of features from the D810 in combination with a 24MP sensor. It also boasts a faster frame rate than any non-professional full-frame Nikon DSLR since the D700. Aimed squarely at enthusiasts and full-frame upgraders the D750 boasts a comprehensive video and still photography specification – see how it performed in the field and in our extensive studio tests. Read review

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Sigma announces 24-105mm F4 DG OS HSM full frame standard zoom

17 Oct

635_24-105mm.png

Sigma has announced the 24-105mm F4 DG OS HSM – an image stabilized normal zoom for full frame DSLRs. The 24-105 becomes the latest addition to the company’s ‘Art’ series of lenses designed to offer high image quality. The lens features a 19 element/14 group design including Sigma’s FLD glass and both single- and double-sided aspherical elements which the company says will minimize aberrations. It has a minimum focusing distance of 45cm throughout its range, giving a maximum magnification of 1:4.6. Prices and availability have yet to be announced.

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Sigma announces 24-150mm F4 DG OS HSM full frame standard zoom

16 Oct

635_24-105mm.png

Sigma has announced the 24-150mm F4 DG OS HSM – an image stabilized normal zoom for full frame DSLRs. The 24-105 becomes the latest addition to the company’s ‘Art’ series of lenses designed to offer high image quality. The lens features a 19 element/14 group design including Sigma’s FLD glass and both single- and double-sided aspherical elements which the company says will minimize aberrations. It has a minimum focusing distance of 45cm throughout its range, giving a maximum magnification of 1:4.6. Prices and availability have yet to be announced.

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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