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Canon ranked in top five for US patent awards for 33 consecutive years

11 Jan

The Canon Sure Shot Delsol used solar panels on its front cover to power some of the camera’s functions. Solar power drove the AF system, the electro-magnetic shutter unit, film advance and even the flash. A secondary lithium battery was used as a back-up. C1995

Canon has proudly announced it ranked third in the world for the number of patents awarded to it by the US Patents Office during 2018. The company is quite used to being at the top of the table though, and has managed to remain in the top five every year for the last 33 – since 1985. The company also says that it has ranked as the number one Japanese company in the charts for the last 14 years.

Canon explains in a statement that the US is an important market not only for its products but also for its technologies. The company says its innovations ‘serve society’ as they lead to better products, more convenience and improved manufacturing techniques.

It is important to remember the photography is just a part of Canon’s business, but it would be interesting to know what proportion of its 3000+ awarded patents last year came from its photographic operations.

Press release

Canon places top five in U.S. patent rankings for 33 years running and first among Japanese companies for fourteen years running

TOKYO, January 8, 2019—Canon Inc. ranked third for the number of U.S. patents awarded in 2018, becoming the only company in the world to have ranked in the top five for 33 years running, according to the latest ranking of preliminary patent results issued by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services. What’s more, Canon once again ranked first among Japanese companies.

Canon actively promotes the globalization of its business and places great value on obtaining patents overseas, carefully adhering to a patent-filing strategy that pursues patents in essential countries and regions while taking into consideration the business strategies and technology and product trends unique to each location. Among these, the United States, with its many high-tech companies and large market scale, represents a particularly important region in terms of business expansion and technology alliances.

Canon promotes the acquisition and application of intellectual property rights, not only for fundamental technologies required for next-generation products, but also such technologies as the wireless communication and image compression technologies shared by next-generation social infrastructure. Canon contributes to the realization of technology that serves society by continuing to provide even better products, greater convenience and by contributing to the development of manufacturing.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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2019 camera and lens manufacturers’ New Year’s resolutions

31 Dec

New Year’s resolutions

There’s plenty in this world that we’re not sure about (Peas in guacamole? The resurgence of 90’s fashion trends? Pineapple on pizza??) but one thing we’re certain of: a few companies, many of which are headquartered in Japan, will produce new cameras, lenses and photographic accessories in 2019. And just like every year, some will be great, some will be OK, and one or two will be crushingly dull.

Thanks to some early product development announcements we already know a little of what the next year holds in store, but much remains a mystery. We can only guess what the next 12 months will bring – guess, hope, and play backseat camera engineer.

In the spirit of New Years’ resolutions, we got together as a team and talked about what we’d like the major manufacturers to do next year. Things we want to see fixed, directions we’d like to see taken (plus some we’d like to see reversed…) and products we’d like to be released. So without further ado, here are our collected New Years’ resolutions, on behalf of the manufacturers, courtesy of DPReview. Call it wishful thinking.

Feel free to play along at home via the comments.

Canon

Oh, Canon – where should we start? You’re one of the biggest camera manufacturers in the industry, but you’re still among the most conservative. This year you’ve teased us with a range of superb new RF lenses, but we’re really hoping that 2019 brings a slightly higher-end camera to shoot them with. But even as you build out the RF lineup, we hope you don’t neglect EF-M. An M50 successor with un-cropped 4K would be lovely – pretty please?

Canon – in 2019 we wish you would…

Add IBIS to the RF lineup and update your sensors (or buy Sony’s).
Make the RF mount an open standard.
Reclaim your ILC video crown – no more cropped 4K!
Dump the MFn bar…
Make the 5D Mark V a true digital EOS 3.
Think different – embrace computational photography.

Fujifilm

Fujifilm, you’re the darling of camera reviewers everywhere. You’re one of the few brands that, from time to time, still makes products which are better than they need to be in order to be competitive. The X-T2 was a great camera, and you didn’t need to replace it, but you went and did it anyway! The X-T3 was one of our favorite cameras of 2018. It almost made up for the ‘4K capable’ X-A5… But we’re still hoping for more in 2019.

Fujifilm – in 2019 we wish you would…

Make a full-frame X100 / monochrome X100 / 28mm-equiv X100. (We really like the X100).
Continue improving your face and eye-detection autofocus. The X-T3 was a great start.
Make a proper X70 successor. The XF10 doesn’t count.
Refresh your F1.4 primes.
Don’t try to palm us off with 15fps ‘4K video’ ever again. For shame.

Leica

Let’s be honest, Leica – this is pointless. It doesn’t matter what we want, or what we say, or what anyone wants or says, you’re Leica! You’ll just continue to do whatever you want, and there’s every chance that in a few weeks’ time we’ll find ourselves reviewing a limited edition ping-pong-bat-rubber-clad Melania Trump signature-edition M10. And that’s why we love you.

Leica – in 2019 we wish you would…

Stop with the special editions already – this isn’t the 90s.
Make a Q2 – maybe even with a 35mm lens…
Say goodbye to 1950s technology and make an M-mount camera with an EVF.
Give your customers their moneys’ worth and turn camera repairs around in days, not months. It’s not impossible – everyone else can do it.

Nikon

Nikon, you’re getting there. You launched the Z-mount with a bang in 2018, but despite its high-end pricing you must have known that the flagship Z7 wouldn’t be quite enough to tempt professionals and enthusiasts away from their D850 and D5 bodies. Don’t let the haters get you down, though. Keep up the pace and turn the Z mount into the professional system that we know it can be. We’re rooting for you.

Nikon – in 2019 we wish you would…

Keep developing that Z-series lens roadmap.
Bring 3D AF Tracking to the Z-series – in fact, bring all of your industry-leading AF area modes to the Z-series.
Make an FTZ adapter with a built-in AF motor. Carey’s got a 105mm F2 DC he really wants to shoot with.
Make the Z mount an open standard.

Olympus

Olympus – we feel for you. You were among the first manufacturers to create a modern mirrorless camera, and now, a decade on, you’re the only brand that doesn’t (or isn’t preparing to) offer its customers a full-frame sensor. We know that it’s been a tough few years for you guys over in the camera division but we’ve got a few ideas for how you can disrupt things in 2019 and beyond.

Olympus – in 2019 we wish you would…

Start making small cameras again. Maybe an updated PEN-F?
Update the OM-D E-M5 II.
Simplify your cameras’ menu systems, please!
Add PDAF to your lower-end PEN and OM-D cameras.
Add a large sensor to the TOUGH range. You already make the best rugged cameras, why not go one step further?

Panasonic

As you prepare to enter the full-frame market in a few months, we can only imagine that things are pretty hectic in your Osaka headquarters right now. Hopefully you’re not working the engineers too hard, and they get a little downtime to read DPReview, because we’ve got some suggestions that we think might really help Panasonic out in 2019.

Panasonic – in 2019 we wish you would…

Ditch field-sequential EVFs, for good.
Either fix DFD for video, or use PDAF instead.
Now that you’re in the L mount alliance, how about making a full-frame 4K video camera?

Ricoh / Pentax

Pentax, we need to be careful what we say here…

We admire your loyal customer base, and we respect the way that many of them react to anything short of uncritically gushing praise for their favorite camera maker with… let’s say… passion. But we’re also terrified of them. For the record, we like a lot of your products! And we want you to succeed just as much as your customers do. Here are some suggestions.

Ricoh – in 2019 we wish you would

Make a true successor to the K-1.
Reissue the K-01 – just kidding! Give your fans a proper mirrorless camera – maybe the L-mount alliance has room for another member?
Make a full-frame GR to compete with the Leica Q and Sony RX1R II.

Sigma

Sigma, we hardly recognize you. Over the past decade you’ve gone from being a respected but midrange third-party lens maker (and a quietly prolific OEM manufacturer) to becoming a force to be reckoned with in the high-end optics market. You’re making some of the finest lenses available, while still undercutting the ‘big’ brands, often by a considerable margin. How do you do that?

We love what you’ve become, but sometimes love is about being honest. Here are some ideas for 2019 and beyond.

Sigma – in 2019 we wish you would…

Calm down a bit with the ‘biggest, heaviest and fastest’ primes thing and create a range of compact F2 lenses.
Try again with the 24-70mm F2.8 Art.
Follow Tamron’s example and develop some native Sony FE lenses.
Reverse-engineer the Canon RF and Nikon Z mounts and show them how it’s done.
Create a range of full-frame Merrill compacts.

Sony

Oh, Sony, we can’t keep up! At your current rate of product announcements, you’ll have released at least one new RX100-series compact, a GM lens or two and an a7 IV by the time we’ve finished writing this sentence. That’s fine, but in 2019 we’d like to see you taking a bit of a break, making some time to reflect, and maybe reprioritizing a little.

Sony – in 2019 we wish you would…

Create a Cyber-shot RX1R III (with a real battery, not that joke-shop one from last time).
Throw your a6000-series customers a bone and make some new APS-C lenses.
Make your video and stills AF experience consistent.
Speaking of 35mm, make an FE 35mm F1.8. Your non-pro and pro customers will thank you.
Focus on user experience, as well as technology. We get it, you’re smart!

Tamron

Tamron, you dark horse. You’ve been quietly adding some really impressive lenses to your lineup over the past year, including the first ever zoom lens designed natively for a full-frame mirrorless system. Not as prolific as Sigma, or as niche as the likes of Laowa or Zeiss, you’re a good, solid, photographer-friendly company that we think deserves to succeed in 2019. And here’s how we think you should do that.

Tamron – in 2019 we wish you would…

Continue developing full-frame E-mount lenses.
Reverse-engineer the Canon RF and Nikon Z mounts as soon as possible.
Resist the temptation to create large, heavy F1.4 glass – F1.8 is fine!

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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DPReview 20th Anniversary: Simon Joinson on the Seattle years

26 Dec

Simon Joinson was DPReview’s second general manager, after founder Phil Askey. During Simon’s years with the site, DPReview underwent enormous changes, not least the relocation of almost the entire team in 2010 from London to Seattle, thousands of miles away on the west coast of America.

How did you first become aware of DPReview?

I don’t remember specifically. It kind of crept onto my radar gradually, because to be honest, back in the late 90’s / early 2000s, few of us in the publishing world were that focused on the internet as a potential competitor. I do remember that the first time I saw it it was still on the askey.net domain, so it must’ve been early. In the very early days there were other sites that popped up more regularly – Steve’s Digicams, DCResource – but by the 2002, 2003 timeframe, DPReview was an unavoidable

What set DPReview apart, in the industry?

You have to remember that 20-ish years ago the difference between the traditional print media and what was starting to be called the ‘new media’ was stark. On the internet content was always free, but it was generally seen as something of a digital ‘wild west’, where anyone with a computer and a modem could publish their opinions and you couldn’t move for unqualified ‘experts’. Websites simply lacked the credibility and trust of camera magazines, which in some cases were household names that had been published for decades.

Most print magazines reviewed cameras using a template that was, give-or-take, about 80% subjective

DPR was different. There were consistent, repeatable tests and metrics and, critically, there was no ‘take my word for it’ with Phil – he presented all his results on the page for you to download and look at yourself. In the early days he was pretty cautious about offering much ‘opinion’ at all (beyond the final rating), preferring to let the data speak for itself. By comparison, most print magazines (including mine) reviewed cameras using a template that was, give-or-take, about 80% subjective. It’s impossible to overstate the impact Phil’s approach to reviewing and objective testing had on the photographic publishing world.

Simon using an early sample of Canon’s PowerShot Pro1, back in 2004. Simon had yet to officially join DPReview, and was credited by Phil in his Pro1 hands-on as ‘editor of the excellent UK magazine Total Digital Photography’.

How did you join the team?

Phil and I had been pretty close friends since we sat together on a 12 hour flight to Tokyo for the 2002 World Cup final – part of a Fujifilm press trip that included meeting senior executives and touring a digital camera factory. We’d often talked about working together, and in 2004, with Phil was struggling to keep up with the increasing rate of new camera launches on his own, we signed a contract with DPReview to produce compact camera reviews and news stories. I already had a team of writers, photographers testers and designers working for my for my company, and so, initially, at least, DPReview was just another client. It didn’t take long, however, for it to totally consume my life.

Can you tell us a bit about those early days?

Phil and I didn’t work in the same place – he worked from home on one side of London and I worked out of my offices in Covent Garden. And we worked incredibly long hours and almost every weekend, but it was incredibly rewarding. I still miss those days when it was just the two of us doing almost everything. We even used to take our wives (the DPReview widows) on weekend city breaks together. Thinking about it now, the fact we took about a dozen cameras and spend most of the time talking work probably made it less enjoyable for the ladies, but they were kind enough not to complain.

I slowly got used to having hundreds of anonymous people publicly accusing me of dishonesty / incompetence / corruption whenever I posted anything – it was a big change from the occasional angry handwritten letter we’d receive about magazine content we’d already forgotten about. But hey, at least it meant people were reading.

Phil had poured his heart and soul into DPReview for over five years, and he wasn’t about to start messing about with a winning formula

Did you make any changes when you arrived?

I pushed for a ton of changes, but there was never any doubt in the early days who was boss, so I wasn’t very successful (it was three years before I was even trusted to review a DSLR!). Phil had poured his heart and soul into DPReview for over five years, and he wasn’t about to start messing about with what was obviously a winning formula.

I think my biggest contribution back then was to implement, to some degree, a few standard practices from the world of publishing – for example using an Editor and Sub Editor to tidy things up before posting. Looking back I’m glad Phil wouldn’t let me change much – I knew a lot less about the internet than I thought I did, and I had plenty of time to develop my understanding – and my ideas for the site – over the years we worked together.

DPReview gets a redesign
(May 2010)

Tell us a little about the Amazon acquisition

I wasn’t involved in the deal at all – DPReview was still Phil’s site, and he wasn’t allowed to tell anyone he was even talking to Amazon. I guess by the time I heard about the negotiations they were almost over, and the deal was only a few months from closing. Long story short, I got an offer compelling enough to resign as Managing Director of my own company and take a job with Amazon.

How did the acquisition change the way that DPReview operated?

On the one hand it changed everything – we started looking for a dedicated office / studio space, started hiring, had real jobs with a real boss. But in many other ways nothing changed – Amazon made it clear from day one that this was our site, and we should just carry on doing exactly what we were before it changed hands.

Describe how the team grew

As soon as the acquisition was public and we’d found our new offices we started hiring developers and editors, including some (looking at you Richard Butler!) who are still part of the DPReview team. Phil was focused mostly on running the business and being the interface with Amazon, and on managing the engineering / dev side of our work. I managed the editorial side. By the end of 2008 we had a team of 10 people, meaning Phil and I finally got to spend our weekends away from work…

We gathered the staff and told them Phil was leaving and we were relocating the entire business to Seattle. Then we went to the pub.

Describe the buildup to the Seattle move

The catalyst for the move was Phil’s decision to leave the business in late 2009, but in the end the decision was mine. It was clear that moving to the mothership in Seattle would be the best thing for DPR at a time when the global financial downturn and growing weakness in the compact camera market (thanks iPhone!) we’d get more support, more staff and more visibility if we relocated. And to be honest, working as a remote team with its own premises had lots of perks, but it wasn’t all fun and games; it also brought with it a ton of admin overhead, lots of travel and endless late night conference calls between London and Seattle.

We gathered the staff one morning in April 2010 and told them Phil was leaving and we were proposing relocating the entire business to Seattle. Then we went to the pub for the rest of the day.

A new office in a new country called for a new studio scene. One of Simon’s lasting contributions to DPReview was our patented studio scene comparison ‘widget’.

How did the move affect the team?

As you can imagine the news about Phil and the move created a certain amount of worry. We offered the entire team a full relocation package and initiated a month-long consultation period, at the end of which we asked everyone if they wanted to come with us on our new adventure. All but two of the team accepted, and – after a surreal six months or so of preparing to emigrate – most of them moved to Seattle in the late fall of 2010. I was the last to relocate because we had our second child on the way. For about four months I managed the business from 5000 miles away, with an 8 hour time difference.

Inevitably all this had some short-term negative consequences for the site – we couldn’t produce any reviews whilst our equipment made its way across the ocean and our new studio was being fitted out – not to mention the fact that several of the team had to take time off to organize moving their entire lives to another continent. And yeah, we kinda lost lens reviews for a while after the move (our lens reviewer didn’t relocate with us).

DPReview relocates to America
(November 2010)

Describe that transitional period, with half the team in one hemisphere and half in another?

Honestly it worked really well for me – I prefer to work late and I had a newborn baby in the house, so I tended to start work mid afternoon to maximize my overlap with the rest of the team (there were a couple of people still in the UK, but most were already in the US).

What was your ‘mission’ for DPReview?

When I took the reins at DPReview in 2010 camera sales had already been in decline for a couple of years, and I knew I couldn’t just sit there watching the site slowly pulled under by falling demand in the camera market. I wanted to bring more photography and more diverse voices to the site, to revamp our reviews and expand our coverage of accessories and techniques, and to raise the bar in general, editorially. I was also desperate to change the UX and visual design of the site (and offer users an alternative to the black background). DPR was already the place for camera reviews, and I dreamed of a time when it would also be the primary destination for all things photographic, adding photographic art, commentary, education and analysis to our world-class reviews and product launch content. I got some of the way there in the next 8 years…

What are your hopes for the future of DPReview?

I hope DPReview goes from strength to strength and I expect to be still visiting daily after another 20 years! I’m also super excited to see some of the things I was working on before I left finally making their way onto the site, and to see where the new leadership takes DPR in the future.

What are you proudest of from your time at DPReview?

I’m incredibly proud of the work I did during the almost 14 years at DPReview, and there’s very little on the site today that I wasn’t directly involved with. Highlights for me include the side-by-side studio comparison feature, the (white background) site redesign and the painful but necessary forums revamp, which introduced scores of new features and fixed the crumbling infrastructure, significantly improving performance and reliability, and which almost none of our users liked.

I’m also very proud of the PIX2015 photography expo, which with hindsight was a stupidly ambitious project for a handful of people with no experience in live events to take on… But honestly the thing that makes me proudest is the amazing talented people I got to work with. Many became friends, and many went on to even bigger and better things after DPReview. But many stayed around, and it’s been a delight watching them grow into the best damned camera review team in the world.

What are you up to these days, post-DPReview?

I’m working for Lab126 (the Amazon subsidiary that designs and builds devices) in California. I still work on cameras, and I’m able to feed my curiosity and love of invention, working on products I can’t talk about that may, or may, not see the light of day in years to come. It’s challenging and demanding and very fast-paced, and I love it.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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DPReview 20th Anniversary: Founder Phil Askey on the first ten years

26 Dec

As DPReview enters its 20th year of publishing, we spoke to the site’s founder, Phil Askey – DPReview employee #1. In this interview, Phil remembers the first ten years of DPReview’s development from its original conception, through a period of massive growth, to the site’s acquisition by Amazon.

Pre-DPReview, what were you doing?

Before starting DPReview I was the lead developer for a software company based in Singapore, working on a web based business-to-business hospitality marketplace. The “world wide web” was still very new in 1998 but I had already established a sort of tech blog (before they were called that), mostly at that time discussing the Palm Pilot and similar electronic PDAs. The rough design for the PDA site ended up being the foundation for DPReview (including the love / hate black background).

How was the idea for DPReview born?

My passion for photography began with my first proper camera, a gift from my parents, an Olympus OM-10 with a 50mm F1.8. At the end of 1998 digital cameras were just starting to appear. I took an interest immediately, being a bit of a geek, loving my tech toys and being into photography.

I created a new sub-domain on my “blog” called photo.askey.net (props to anyone who can remember that) and began writing news articles about digital cameras, at that time quite a lot of my news leads came from Japanese digital camera sites like dcwatch. My first camera review covered the Canon Pro70 (at that time a groundbreaking product), supplied to me by the marketing department at Canon Singapore and the first proper DPReview review was born.

When you first started DPReview, what did the setup look like?

In the very early days, in our Singapore flat it was a very makeshift setup: a few fixed tables, tape marks on the floor, items arranged in a certain way, home printed charts, etc. Nobody was really trying to test digital cameras in a repeatable way, and that was my aim, to have tests we could apply over and over and get the same results (within a margin of error). When we returned to live in London in early 2000 we had a more permanent setup with a cove for product photography, permanently mounted professionally printed charts, studio lights and so on.

The DPReview homepage complete with its ‘love it or hate it’ black background, in November 1999 – just under a year after the site was launched.

From 1998 to 2008 all of the backend software (i.e., the site code), the testing, news, reviews, forums management was my job. My wife, Joanna, handled the growing load of actually running a business (paperwork, bills, invoicing) as well as being a fantastic photographer and model for the reviews. Many of the better gallery photographs from those days were taken by her. Simon Joinson joined us in mid-2004 contributing news and reviews (click here to check out Simon’s first review). At the beginning of 2008, after the Amazon acquisition, we established a larger office in London and grew the team out.

What was your ‘mission’ for DPReview?

Initially I had no particular expectations but as traffic grew I knew we must have been doing something right, and in hindsight I would pick out these four key values.

First, always be honest. Write a review truthfully as though you’re writing it for a family member. If a product has an issue, talk about it. Manufacturers may not like to hear it but it’s the right thing for the buyer and in the long term for the manufacturer. I also had a strict no-advertorial policy.

Second, try to be first, and most in-depth. Despite the massive amount of work involved in producing a review I always aimed to be the first to publish and to have the most detailed reviews. This became a little easier later as manufacturers provided us with pre-production units before launch.

Despite the massive amount of work involved in producing a review I always aimed to be the first to publish and to have the most detailed reviews

Third, always listen to your community – I spent hours and hours analyzing logs and trying to understand how people used the site. I scrapped many an idea when it didn’t work, and added lots of features based on user requests. We always had an open “feedback” system which I believe to be invaluable.

Finally, build a strong relationship with the manufacturers through mutual respect. This might seem slightly counterintuitive for an independent review site but as long as your testing is rigorous and your writing is honest you will earn respect on all sides.

What were the biggest challenges, running DPReview in the early days?

The single biggest issue back in those days was simply technical; scaling the servers to cope with the massive growth in visitors. A good 30% of my time was developing, optimizing and maintaining the site code and the servers. There weren’t many “small businesses” running servers out of hosting facilities dealing with the amount of traffic we had, and cloud services had yet to be invented.

Also as a small business there is also a lot of pressure to keep the site up. My phone would always be with me and there were many instances of early morning panic getting the servers back up and running.

Phil (left) and his son Kai.

Has anything surprised you about how the digital photography industry has evolved over DPR’s lifespan?

I was pleasantly surprised by how receptive the camera manufacturers were / are to our often critical feedback, this I believe has had a direct influence on the development of certain models. I can think of a few cameras that I can say “it’s that way because we pointed out X, Y and Z on the previous version” or “that’s the camera we always talked about”.

I remember one factory tour trip in particular to Tokyo where we labelled “VIP” which took me by surprise

When did you realize that DPReview had the potential to be very influential?

When we moved back to London in early 2000 and begun working full time on the site, we had already surpassed any other digital camera site in terms of visitor numbers and were being taken seriously by the manufacturers, I remember one factory tour trip in particular to Tokyo where we labelled “VIP” which took me by surprise as we were sharing the trip with many industry veterans. It was I think at that time I realized we had earned enough respect to be taken seriously.

What were those first years of growth like?

Crazy is probably the correct adjective. We went from around 40,000 visitors per month in January 1999 to 600,000 by January 2000, to over 3 million per month by January 2002. By January 2006 we were seeing almost 20 million visitors per month. All this though simply drove us to keep doing more and building the site out.

How did Amazon approach you and how did the acquisition affect DPReview?

Amazon simply emailed me and a long, long conversation began, it wasn’t the first M&A approach we’d had but it was the most attractive, in terms of Amazon’s track record of helping sites at that tipping point (and we were definitely there) to grow without spoiling them. Amazon was by far the best fit for DPReview and we knew their assurances about editorial neutrality and supportive site development were invaluable to growing the site.

After the acquisition we opened an office in London and grew out the staff, creating a whole new studio space and introducing a host of new site and review features.

Announcement of Amazon acquisition (May 2007)

What are you most proud of from those early years?

This question took me the longest to answer, I guess I’m proud that we built up such a loyal and strong community, I put a lot of effort into the forums and I still believe it’s the backbone of the site (remember, back then discussion “boards” were far less feature-rich). I guess today I’m still very proud that we made the right choices at the right time and that Amazon are giving the site everything it needs to continue to be the leading voice for everything photography related.

What are you up to these days, post-DPReview?

These days I’m likely to be found at the side of a race track somewhere in Europe (mostly Italy) supporting my son’s racing career.

Keep an eye on the site tomorrow, when Simon Joinson, DPReview’s general manager during the period when the team moved from London, UK, to Seattle, USA, will share his memories.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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See this year’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year winners

26 Oct

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

The Royal Observatory Greenwich has announced the winners of its annual astronomy photo competition. American photographer Brad Goldpaint’s Transport the Soul, a dreamy photo of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxy hanging over Moab, Utah, took the People and Space category’s top prize and was named Overall Winner. A total of 31 winning images were selected across 11 categories – take a look at them here and visit Royal Observatory Greenwich’s site to get yourself ready for next year’s competition.

Transport the Soul © Brad Goldpaint (USA) – WINNER (PEOPLE AND SPACE) AND OVERALL WINNER
Interested in adding a ‘human element’ to his photographs, once the quarter moon rose and revealed the incredible, vast landscape of the shale hills below the viewpoint, the lone photographer, to the left of the frame, stood motionless while he captured this photograph. The Andromeda Galaxy, quarter moon, Milky Way Galaxy, and position of the photographer all combined to create a captivating, harmonious portrait of a night sky photographer at work.
Moab, Utah, USA, 20 May 2017
Nikon D810 camera, 14-mm f/4.0 lens, ISO 2500, 20-second exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

PEOPLE AND SPACE: Living Space © Andrew Whyte (UK) – RUNNER-UP
This is a single-frame image and not a speculative composite. Situated on a south-coast peninsula, this street falls within a part-night street lighting zone; when the lights go out, there’s nothing to interfere with the view of the stars until continental Europe- miles across the English Channel. The scene might be perceived incongruous or surreal and almost shows how accustomed we’ve become to the loss of night sky views due to light pollution. It was a conscious decision by the photographer to feature the unlit streetlamps, hinting how it might be possible to undo the damage and restore awe-inspiring views. Pagham, West Sussex, UK, 29 April 2017
Sony ILCE-7S camera, 28-mm f/2 lens, ISO 6400, 15-second exposure

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners

PEOPLE AND SPACE: Me versus the Galaxy © Mark McNeill (UK) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
This photograph was taken just after Christmas at the Sycamore Gap, Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland and showcases the majestic winter Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy. The temperature was about -4°C and the photographer arrived from Lancashire at 11am but had to wait till 2.30am for the Moon to set and for all the stars to be visible. Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland, UK, 28 December 2017
Nikon D810 camera, 20-mm f/1.4 lens, ISO 5000, 10-second exposure

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AURORAE: Speeding on the Aurora lane © Nicolas Lefaudeux (France) – WINNER
A hazy, subtle auroral band is leisurely drifting across the sky providing an unusual perspective with faint bands appearing to radiate from a vanishing point, like a road disappearing over the horizon. As the aurora glided overhead, it made the photographer feel like he was driving a spaceship about to reach light speed toward the Big Dipper. This view lasted less than a minute.
Sirkka, Finland, 30 March 2017
Sony ILCE-7S2 camera, 20-mm f/1.4 lens, ISO 2000, 3.2-second exposure

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AURORAE: Castlerigg Stone Circle © Matthew James Turner (UK) – RUNNER-UP
This was the photographer’s first ever encounter with the aurora borealis in the UK. The Moon was bright enough to illuminate the foreground arena of standing stones perfectly and the aurora surfaced from behind the majestic mountains, giving the appearance that the hills themselves were emitting the ethereal green glow.
Keswick, Cumbria, UK, 7 November 2017
Sony ILCE-7R camera, 22-mm f/4 lens, ISO 1000, 30-second exposure

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AURORAE: Aurorascape © Mikkel Beiter (Denmark) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
The conditions to shoot an aurora that night were not ideal because of the bright Moon but the photographer managed to capture the breathtaking Aurora Borealis above the fjord in the gorgeous Lofoten archipelago, in Northern Norway. The small pool of water with rocks made the perfect foreground and a natural leading line into the frame.
Haukland Beach, Lofoten, Norway, 26 February 2018
Canon EOS 5DS R camera, 17-mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 2000, 8-second exposure

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GALAXIES: NGC 3521, Mysterious Galaxy © Steven Mohr (Australia) – WINNER
The spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is located around 26 million light-years away in the constellation Leo and presents complex scene, with enormous amounts of surrounding dust and stray stars glowing far out from its disk. Emerging from the photographer’s colour data was a bright array of contrasting colour tones, generated by aging yellow-red stars, younger burning aggressively blue-white stars, and various nebulae throughout the disk. This image comprises approximately 20.5 hours of exposure time, collecting data in various filter types.
Carrapooee, Victoria, Australia, 13 February 2018
Planewave CDK 12.5 telescope, Astrodon Gen II LRGB, Baarder H? lens at 2541 mm f/8, Astro Physics 900 mount, SBIG STXL-11000 camera, Luminance: 33 x 1200 seconds [11hrs], H?: 12 x 1200 seconds [4hrs], Red-Green-Blue: 450 x 12–18 seconds

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GALAXIES: From Mirach © Raul Villaverde Fraile (Spain) – RUNNER-UP
This photograph is a mosaic of 24 images and depicts how the galaxies Messier 31 and Messier 33 appear symmetrically on either side of the star Mirach. Despite being the two galaxies closest to our own, they are still significantly further away from us than Mirach, which is a star within our own Milky Way. We can also see the two smaller satellite galaxies of M31, M32 and M110.
Ocentejo, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, 14 November 2017
Takahashi FSQ 106ED telescope, Idas lps 2-inch lens, SkyWatcher Nq6pro mount, Canon 6D camera, 414-mm f/3.9 lens, ISO 1600, 24x30x400″ exposure

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GALAXIES: Fireworks Galaxy NGC 6939 – SN 2017 EAW © César Blanco (Spain) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
This image showcases the open cluster of stars NGC 6939 and the galaxy NGC 6949 with the stellar explosion of the supernova SN 2017 EAW. The data gathering for this image was carried out over a few different days and the photographer tried to obtain sharp details as well as some of the ‘foggy’ background light. The image depicts the great variety of objects we can observe in the Universe, a stellar explosion with an enormous diversity of the colours of the stars which depends on the temperature, a magnificent galaxy that can be seen directly face-on; the show of the supernova, a fantastic phenomenon which is produced not very often in our skies; and a dim nebula of IFN type in the background. Escobar de Campos, Castile and León, Spain, 18 June 2017
Takahashi FSQ 106ED telescope, Idas lps 2-inch lens, SkyWatcher Nq6pro mount, Canon 6D camera, 414-mm f/3.9 lens, ISO 1600, 24x30x400″ exposure

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OUR MOON: Inverted Colours of the boundary between Mare Serenitatis and Mare Tranquilitatis © Jordi Delpeix Borrell (Spain) – WINNER
Inverting the image is a legacy of deep sky imaging, where tenuous extensions of galaxies and nebulae can be more visible on a negative image because our eye more easily detects tenuous dark details on a white background. This is also useful in Moon imaging helping to reveal otherwise barely detectable soil features such as ray systems. Low contrast areas like the lunar seas and ray systems, look much more interesting because low contrast details are revealed and according to the photographer this is a new way for Moon exploration that should be considered.
L’ Ametlla del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain, 6 December 2017
Celestron 14 telescope, Sky-Watcher NEQ6 Pro mount, ZWO ASI 224MC camera, 4,200-mm f/12 lens, multiple 20ms exposures

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OUR MOON: Earth Shine © Peter Ward (Australia) – RUNNER-UP
During a total solar eclipse the brightness of the solar corona hides details of the Moon to the human eye. But by layering multiple digital exposures in this image from 2 seconds to 1/2000th of a second, the photographer managed to reveal much more. The image showcases not just the brilliant solar corona, but the newest possible of new moons, seen here illuminated by sunlight reflecting off the Earth.
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USA, 21 August 2017
Takahashi FSQ85 telescope, Losmandy Starlapse mount, Canon 5D Mark IV camera, 500-mm f/5 lens, 9 exposures ranging from ISO 100 to 900, 150 2-seconds through to 1/4000th second exposures

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OUR MOON: From the Dark Side © László Francsics (Hungary) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
The photographer had planned to capture a high resolution image of the morning crescent Moon for a long time. The waning crescent Moon only rises high above the horizon of the Carpathian basin in autumn, but in this period of the year the weather is usually cloudy and rainy. Fortunately, in October 2017, an anticyclone wiped the area clear, which allowed the photographer to take a good resolution picture capturing the special atmosphere of the thin crescent in a glitteringly bright sky.
Budapest, Hungary, 10 October 2017
Homemade 250-mm f/4 Carbon Newton telescope, f/11, 250/1000 mirror lens, Skywatcher EQ6 mount, ZWO ASI 174 MM camera, 6250 mm f/4 lens increased to f/11, multiple 1/200-second exposures

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OUR SUN: Sun King, Little King, and God of War © Nicolas Lefaudeux (France) – WINNER
In order to capture this mesmerising image, the photographer chose the area according to weather forecasts to make sure he would get a clear sky. The image shows the Sun corona in all its glory during the August total solar eclipse. It is flanked on left hand side by the blue star Regulus – the little King – and by the red planet Mars on the right. The many radial streamers of the solar Corona are a real crown for the Sun King and the corona can be traced almost to 30 solar radii distance. The total exposure duration of 100-seconds was recorded in more than 120 individual images and it is a setup consisting of both a fast f/1.4 lens, at full aperture to get as much signal as possible, and a large buffer camera at base ISO to avoid overexposure. The inner corona was recorded using a longer focal length setup.
Unity, Oregon, USA, 21 August 2017
AF-S NIKKOR 105-mm f/1.4E ED lens, Nikon D810 camera on an untracked tripod, 105 mm f/1.4 lens, ISO 64, multiple exposures of 0.3-second, 0.6-second and 1.3-second

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OUR SUN: Coloured Eruptive Prominence © Stuart Green (UK) – RUNNER-UP
In this image the photographer managed to capture an eruptive prominence just hours after this active region produced a massive X9.0 class solar flare. Close to the solar limb and presented here in an inverted format (black to white) and colour enhanced to create a warm sunny glow, the photograph showcases the beautiful 3D structure within the hydrogen chromosphere. Captured in hydrogen alpha light at 656.3nm, the photographer used a 150mm solar telescope and monochrome machine vision camera to record a video sequence which was stacked to bring out the fine details and image processing techniques to produce colour and a backlit effect in order to enhance the spicule features around the solar limb.
Preston, Lancashire, UK, 9 September 2017
Home-built telescope based on iStar Optical 150mm f/10 lens, double stacked hydrogen-alpha filter at 5250 mm, Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro mount, Basler acA1920-155um camera, 150-mm f/35 lens, multiple 0.006-second exposures as an AVI

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OUR SUN: AR2673 © Haiyang Zong (China) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
AR2673 is a large sunspot group which formed in 2017. Clearly visible is the beautiful “rice grain” structure of the paler, outer regions of the sunspots.
Tongzhou, Beijing, China, 5 September 2017
Sky-Watcher DOB10 GOTO telescope, Optolong R Filter, QHY5III290M camera, 3,600-mm f/4.7 lens, ISO 160, 0.7ms exposure

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PLANETS, COMETS AND ASTEROIDS: The Grace of Venus © Martin Lewis (UK) – WINNER
Shortly before sunset, a slender and graceful Venus hangs low in the western sky, just 10 days before meeting the Sun at inferior conjunction. This is an infra-red image of that view, taken using a monochrome digital video camera mounted on a reflector telescope. The recording was processed to remove the blurring effects of our atmosphere and combine the video frames to create a single still image of the planet. The infra-red filter used on the camera helps steady the effects of atmospheric movement.
St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK, 15 March 2017
Home-built 444-mm Dobsonian reflecting telescope, Astronomik 807nm IR filter, Home-built Equatorial tracking platform, ZWO ASI174MM camera, 12.4-m f/28 lens, 6msec frame time, 5.3sec total exposure duration

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PLANETS, COMETS AND ASTEROIDS: Parade of the Planets © Martin Lewis (UK) – RUNNER-UP
During the course of just one year the photographer managed to image surface details on every planet in our Solar System from his own back garden. At the start of the year, the photographer had captured distant Mars, eight months after opposition, sporting a tiny polar cap and dark features. Later on, he captured Venus, then Jupiter and Saturn. In September, the photographer had imaged details on the rocky face of Mercury for the first time and in November he recorded Uranus’s distinct polar region, making the set complete. The more challenging planets, Mercury, Uranus and Neptune, required IR (infrared) imaging to bring out surface details and have been colourised to match their more normal visual appearance. All images are displayed at the same relative size that they would appear through a telescope.
St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK, 1 November 2017
Home-built 444-mm Dobsonian Newtonian reflector telescope (Mercury used 222-mm Dobsonian), various IR filters for Uranus, Neptune, Mercury, Saturn (L). UV filter for Venus, home-built Equatorial Platform, ZWO ASI174MC/ASI174MM/ ASI290MM camera, various focal lengths f/12 to f/36, various exposures

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PLANETS, COMETS AND ASTEROIDS: Comet C/2016 R2 Panstarrs the blue carbon monoxide comet © Gerald Rhemann (Austria) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
Still relatively far from the Sun, the comet’s well-developed ion tail shines bright in the night sky. Emission from unusually abundant ionized carbon monoxide (CO+) molecules fluorescing in the increasing sunlight is largely responsible for the beautiful blue tint. This is a median stack of the total event from 5p.m. until 11.12p.m and the comet’s magnitude was approx. 12.5 mag.
Eichgraben, Lower Austria, Austria, 19 January 2018
ASA 12-inch (300 mm) Astrograph telescope at f/3.62, ASA DDM 85 telescope mount, ASI ZWO 1600 MC colour CCD camera, exposure: RGB composite, 4.6-hours total exposure

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SKYSCAPES: Circumpolar © Ferenc Szémár (Hungary) – WINNER
The cold winter weather weaves a transparent blanket above the human settlements. If one rises above this coherent surface of mist, the colourful star trails can be brought together with the glowing lights of the cities. This extremely long capture sequence took half of the winter’s nights facing the clear northern sky as the circumpolar star Almach, also known as Gamma Andromedae, just touched the horizon.
Gatyatet?, Hungary, 17 February 2018
Minolta 80–200 f/2.8 telescope, tripod, Sony SLT-A99V camera, 135-mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 640, 50 x 300-second exposures

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SKYSCAPES: Eclipsed Moon Trail © Chuanjin Su (China) – RUNNER-UP
On 31 January 2018, a spectacular total lunar eclipse occurred. The photographer set his camera for a four-hour stack exposure and after he took about one thousand images, he finally captured an image that reflects the changes of the Moon’s colour and brightness before, during and after the eclipse. The picture reminded the photographer of the Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod, which is the weapon of the Monkey King, who is described in ancient Chinese literature.
Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, China, 31 January 2018
Sony ILCE-7RM2 camera, 17-mm f/4 lens, ISO 100, 950 x 15-seconds

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SKYSCAPES: Midnight Glow over Limfjord © Ruslan Merzlyakov (Latvia) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
The dark summer sky in Denmark and the ideal weather on 22 May 2017 allowed the photographer to capture this magnificent orange glow over Limfjord, a beautiful place just five minutes away from where the photographer had lived for six years. The weather was so calm and quiet, which made the photographer think that time was standing still. Nykøbing Mors, Denmark, 22 May 2017
Canon EOS 6D camera, 14-mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 400, 10-second exposure

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STARS AND NEBULAE: Corona Australis Dust Complex © Mario Cogo (Italy) – WINNER
Under the dark Namibian sky, the photographer set his camera to a six-hour exposure in order to capture the CrA Molecular Complex, a large, dark and irregular area in the northern part of Corona Australis where we can see reflection nebulas NGC 6726-27-29, dark dust cloud Bernes 157, globular cluster NGC 6723 and other objects. Interestingly, there is a huge difference in distance: under 500 light years for the dust complex and 30,000 light years for the globular cluster.
Tivoli Southern Sky Guest Farm, Namibia, 18 August 2017
Takahashi FSQ 106 ED telescope, Astro-Physics 1200 GTO mount, Canon EOS 6D Cooling CDS Mod camera, 530-mm f/5 lens, ISO 1600, total 6-hours exposure

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STARS AND NEBULAE: Rigel and the Witch Head Nebula © Mario Cogo (Italy) – RUNNER-UP
The dark Namibian sky was the perfect location to capture the wonder of the Witch Head Nebula and Rigel. The Witch Head Nebula is a very faint molecular gas cloud which is illuminated by supergiant star Rigel, the seventh brightest star of the sky and the brightest star in the constellation of Orion.
Tivoli Southern Sky Guest Farm, Namibia, 20 August 2017
Takahashi FSQ 106 ED telescope, Astro-Physics 1200 GTO mount, Canon EOS 6D Cooling CDS Mod camera, 383-mm f/3.6 lens, ISO 1600, 1, 3 and 6 min, total 5 Hours exposure

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STARS AND NEBULAE: Thackeray’s Globules in Narrowband Colour © Rolf Wahl Olsen (Denmark) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
Almost 5,900 light years away, toward the southern constellation Centaurus, lies a large beautiful nebula known as the Lambda Centauri Nebula. The intense light from stars in a young open cluster cause the surrounding gas to glow with a magenta hue from emission lines of ionised Hydrogen atoms. In the centre of the image, is a group of Bok globules, which are dark, dense collapsing patches of gas and dust where new stars are frequently born. These were discovered by South African astronomer, A. David Thackeray, in 1950 and are now known as Thackeray’s Globules and are a favourite target for backyard astrophotographers. The largest globule is two separate clouds that overlap slightly. While they appear small in the context of the grand nebula, these overlapping globules are each 1.4 light years across and together they contain more than 15 times the mass of our Sun.
Auckland, New Zealand, 13 May 2017
Homebuilt 12.5-inch f/4 Serrurier Truss Newtonian telescope, Losmandy G-11 mount, QSI 683wsg-8 camera, 1,450-mm 12.5” f/4 lens, 14 hours and 40 minute exposure

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YOUNG ASTRONOMY PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR: Great Autumn Morning © Fabian Dalpiaz (Italy – aged 15) – WINNER
On an early Monday morning before taking an exam at school, the photographer decided to go out and take some images. Shooting on a 50mm lens the photographer got lucky and captured this incredible photograph of a meteor passing over the Dolomites. On the left side of the image the Moon is shining over the stunning landscape of the Alpe di Siusi with the autumn colours on the was illuminated only at 13.5 per cent.
Alpe di Siusi, Dolomites, South Tyrol, Italy, 16 October 2017
Canon EOS 5D Mark III camera, 50-mm panorama f/2.0 lens, ISO 6400, 8-second exposure

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YOUNG ASTRONOMY PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR: The Eta Carinae Nebula © Logan Nicholson (Australia – aged 13) – RUNNER-UP
The Eta Carina Nebula, or NGC 3372, is the biggest and brightest nebula in the sky and is located in the constellation Carina. It is mostly made out of hydrogen, created when the bright orange star mid-left went nova, spewing out large amounts of hydrogen gas which now emits light at the Hydrogen-alpha wavelength. The photographer took and stacked multiple shots and processed them in Pixinsight.
Heathcote, Victoria, Australia, 16 December 2017
Takahashi MT-160 telescope, f/4.8 reducer for MT-160, Celestron CGEM mount, Canon EOS 700D camera, 776-mm f/4.8 lens, ISO 800, 12 x 5 minute exposures

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YOUNG ASTRONOMY PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR: Inverted Sun © Thea Hutchinson (UK – aged 11) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
This was the photographer’s first attempt at solar imaging and was from the observatory in her back garden in Wimbledon. She used her father’s solar scope and after following her father’s advice, the photographer beautifully captured our nearest star, the Sun. The picture is a mosaic of two stacked images that were merged in Photoshop CC, cropped and inverted. The final image was then converted to false colour.
London, UK, 24 September 2017
Lunt LS60 telescope, Celestron CGE Pro mount, ZWO ASI174MM camera, 1250 (500-mm with x2.5 Powermate) f/21 (f/8.3 x 2.5) lens, 2000 frames best 20% retained

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YOUNG ASTRONOMY PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR: First Impressions © Casper Kentish (UK – aged 8) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
After a few days of cloudy skies the photographer finally got the chance to use his birthday present, a new telescope. The clouds were moving fast so there was not much time to capture the Moon. With the help of his grandfather who kept moving the telescope and trying to keep an iPad at the right position, he managed to capture this wonderful and artistic image of his first viewing of our Moon.
Ponthirwaun, Ceredigion, UK, 23 January 2018
SkyWatcher Skyliner 200 p, SkyWatcher 25mm wide angle, Dobsonian mount, Apple iPad 5th generation, 3.3-mm f/2.4 lens, ISO 250, 1/17-second exposure

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YOUNG ASTRONOMY PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR: A Valley on the Moon… © Davy van der Hoeven (Netherlands – aged 10) – HIGHLY COMMENDED
The photographer’s father taught him how to focus the telescope, capture and process the data. Once the telescope was set up the photographer started taking images of the surface of the Moon and even managed to capture more details than his father did in the past. Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, Netherlands, 25 February 2018
Celestron C11 Schmidt Cassegrain telescope, Baader red filter, SkyWatcher NEQ6 mount, Imaging Resource DMK21 camera, 2,700-mm f/10 lens, 1/300-second exposure

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SIR PATRICK MOORE PRIZE FOR BEST NEWCOMER: Galaxy Curtain Call Performance © Tianhong Li (China) – WINNER
This was the last opportunity in 2017 to see the silver core of the Milky Way before it sunk below the horizon. It was accompanied by the gradual curtain call of Scorpio heralding the upward trend of Orion in the sky. Meanwhile the season of bright shooting stars quietly arrived. The image is stitched together from a total of twenty pictures.
Ming’antu, China, 23 September 2017
Nikon D810A camera, 35-mm f/2 lens; sky: ISO 1250, 16 x 60-second exposures, total 16 pictures; ground: ISO 640, 4 x 120-second exposures, total 4 pictures

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ROBOTIC SCOPE: Two Comets with the Pleiades © Damian Peach (UK) – WINNER
The image showcases a very rare conjunction of two bright comets both passing the famous Pleiades star cluster in Taurus at the same time. Comet C/2017 O1 (ASASSN) is at far left while C2015 ER61 (PanSTARRS) is in the centre. Both comets have strikingly different appearances. The whole region is embedded in the faint nebulosity of the Taurus Molecular Cloud. The photographer used a remote telescope located in Mayhill, New Mexico.
Remote Astronomical Society (RAS) Observatory, Mayhill, New Mexico, USA, 19 September 2017
Takahashi FSQ106 telescope at 106 mm, Paramount ME mount, SBIG STL-11000M camera, 530-mm f/5 lens, exposure: four LRGB frames, each frame 30 minutes each

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Sony to release 12 more E-mount lenses in two years, add AI to cameras

26 Sep

At Sony’s press conference at Photokina the company announced that 12 more E-mount lenses will be arriving over the next two years, bringing the total to 60.

In addition, the company emphasized its focus on both speed and integrating artificial intelligence into its approaches. One application of the latter Sony talked about was using machine learning to train its Eye AF algorithm to detect and track eyes of animals, with benefits to both wildlife and pet photography.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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CatLABS of JP ceases efforts to keep Packfilm alive after two years of trying

18 Sep

Two-and-a-half years after it announced plans to keep Packfilm alive, CatLABS of JP has announced it’s no longer continuing its efforts.

Typically known for its impressive collection of analogue photography products, CatLABS of JP announced in March 2016 that it had plans to revitalize Packfilm — an endeavor further expedited by Fujifilm’s discontinuation of its Packfilm offerings. Over the next two years, CatLABS of JP spent a great deal of time and capital looking for the puzzle pieces it needed to keep Packfilm alive.

‘We had begun a globe-trotting effort to secure things for the future, and met (sometimes secretly) with top executives from companies all around the world, (Japan, Germany, France, China and the US),’ says CatLABS of JP on its update page. ‘We visited factories, warehouses and dungeons, walked knee deep in dust and detritus to try and uncover some long lost or forgotten piece of technology we hoped would aid us in this quest. We met with suppliers, designers, chemists and engineers and secured what would potentially be the base upon which a new production line would be built.’

As you can imagine, it wasn’t a cheap process. After two years of research, travel and communications, CatLABS of JP realized its efforts and capital would be better spent elsewhere. Thus, the effort to keep Packfilm alive is officially over.

On the page announcing the end of its efforts, CatLABS of JP thanks its supporters, saying ‘we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported us along the way. We got thousands of emails and phone calls, and while [we were] not able to respond to all of them, know that we took each and every one of them to heart – it has meant the world to us to know there is a strong and active analog community out there.’

Despite the ending of its own efforts, CatLABS of JP ends its update with a call to action for analog photographers around the world — get out there and buy what Packfilm remains in an effort to show how many photographers around the world still use it.

‘Those who have been lamenting the demise of Packfilm (FP100c) and those just jumping onboard now, should know that Packfilm was and still is readily available around the world (and probably will still be available for the next few years), says CatLABS of JP. ‘Everyone should go out and buy some now, buy lots of it and go shoot. Its the only way to keep the industry going.’

CatLABS of JP even links out to another effort to keep Packfilm alive, a revival aptly named Save Packfilm. In addition to an online community full of resources to show support, Save Packfilm is also launching a Kickstarter in two days to help crowdfund its efforts. To find out more information and to be notified when the Kickstart goes live, head on over to the Save Packfilm website.

CatLABS of JP ends its farewell with a simple request ‘as always – BUY MORE FILM. SUPPORT THE INDUSTRY.’

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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DPReview TV: Looking back at the Panasonic G1 and ten years of mirrorless

20 Aug

It’s not just the Seattle team celebrating ten years since the announcement of the first mirrorless system. Chris and Jordan have also been looking back at the camera that started it all: the Panasonic Lumix DMC G1. This week they’ve been remembering what it was like and how things have progressed from there.

Click here to see Richard’s look back at Micro Four Thirds and the birth of Mirrorless

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get new episodes of DPReview TV every week.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Looking back on 10 years of Mirrorless

11 Aug

Micro Four Thirds: ten years old this week

There were no illustrations when the Micro Four Thirds concept was announced, so we had to draw our own.

Ten years ago this week, Panasonic and Olympus announced the Micro Four Thirds format. And in doing so, prompted us to use the term ‘mirrorless’ for the first time.

The rather corporate press release didn’t necessarily spell out just how important a development it was. The two camera makers thought they were announcing a new mount, while trying not to upset existing Four Thirds customers. What they were actually doing was changing the direction of the industry.

We’d initially written a story stating that “Panasonic and Olympus have said they’ve developed a new mount with a shorter flange-back distance that will … ” but that wasn’t the story at all. So instead we ran with: “Olympus and Panasonic have announced a new, mirrorless format / lens mount.”

With hindsight we can see that Panasonic and Olympus were heralding the start of the mirrorless era.

A DSLR, but without the mirror

The idea of removing the mirror from a DSLR wasn’t new: Pentax created this design study as far back as 1997. Phil shot this image when it was displayed at Photokina in 2006: still two years before Micro Four Thirds was announced.

For the first few hours there were no illustrations available, so we traced the outline of an existing E-series DSLR and scaled the other elements of the camera to show roughly what a mirrorless version could look like. It would be another six weeks before the public got to see the first Micro Four Thirds camera.

September 2008 [Announcement + 6 weeks]

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 did everything it could to downplay how radical it was. It looked a bit like a Canon Rebel XSi / 450D that had shrunk in the wash but, more significantly, it also operated a lot like an existing DSLR. Critically though, it worked in live view as well as through the viewfinder. Or, more to the point, it worked identically, regardless of whether you used the viewfinder or the rear screen.

Panasonic had clearly been working on the camera for a long time: I’m not sure I can think of another ‘version 1’ product that’s worked so well from the word go. And yet 10 days later Olympus managed to upstage the G1. With a block of wood.

September 2008 [Announcement + 6 weeks]

Sure, it’s much smaller that the real PEN would be and looks nothing like the final design, but as a placeholder to say ‘we’re doing this too,’ it was a powerful one.

I remember hearing that Olympus was going to unveil a mockup of it first Micro Four Thirds camera as soon as I arrived at the Photokina trade show, straight from the G1 launch. I raced over to the Olympus stand and begged, harassed and cajoled our press contact to let me get a shot of it without a glass case covering it.

It would be another nine months before a real product, the Olympus PEN E-P1, was ‘ready.’

March 2009 [Announcement + 5 months]

The GH1 looked, to us, like a G1 but with the video function now working. Did we miss the clues as to what the ‘GH’ line would deliver or did they only start to emerge in the later models?

Yet, while all this was going on, Panasonic would quietly begin a second revolution with the release of the 1080-capable GH1.

It’s strange to think back now and realize that Nikon and Canon introduced HD video to DSLRs before those capabilities came to mirrorless (the 720p-shooting Nikon D90, also launched at Photokina 2008, was completely overshadowed by the EOS 5D Mark II’s ability to shoot 1080 just a few days later). But I don’t think we were alone in not seeing just how significant the GH line was going to become for filmmakers, when high quality video arrived in mirrorless.

June 2009 [Announcement + 10 months]

The E-P1 was a pretty camera. There was a lot that still needed work, which meant it only achieved a rating of 66% – and a Highly Recommended award (Really, Simon? Really?)

When it finally arrived, the E-P1 was really pretty. Yes it was essentially an E-620 in a retro-styled SPAM can (I kept looking for the little ‘key’ for peeling the tin open). Yes, the initial two lenses were unacceptably slow to focus. But, coming almost two years before Fujifilm’s X100, it offered the most image quality possible from such a small (and oh-so-stylish) package.

We all wanted one. I think everyone in the office decided they were going to buy this beautiful little camera, regardless of its flaws. Then Panasonic came to visit, with Phil and Simon emerging from the meeting with the words “you might want to wait for a bit.” They’d just seen the GF1.

September 2009 [Announcement + 13 months]

We all wanted an E-P1, until Panasonic arrived to show us this: The DMC-GF1

Just over a year on from the announcement of the Micro Four Thirds system, Panasonic unveiled its third mirrorless camera: the DMC-GF1. Or “The world’s smallest and lightest digital interchangeable lens system camera with a built-in flash” as they snappily put it at the time.

I’ve lost count of how many camera journalists I’ve met who said they own or owed a GF1: it was exactly the small body, big image quality, plenty of control camera we’d all been waiting for. Except Panasonic thought they’d made a camera for upgraders, so spent the next couple of years taking the buttons away to make it easier to use. Still, we eventually got a spiritual successor in the DMC-GX1.

Mirrorless, for short

Nobody really used the term ‘mirrorless’ before the G1 so no, your smartphone, 20-year-old compact or fifty-year-old rangefinder can’t be retconned to count as ‘mirrorless.’

The early running made by the Micro Four Thirds system nearly saw it get adopted as the generic name for all mirrorless cameras (it would be over a year until Samsung introduced the second mirrorless system, with its NX10).

As you might expect, the existing forum favorite: EVIL (electronic viewfinder, interchangeable lens), wan’t exactly embraced by the industry. The almost painfully literal ‘Compact System Camera’ faired a little better, but arguably isn’t the best way to describe the far-from-compact GFX 50S.

We stuck with ‘Mirrorless’ as shorthand for ‘Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera,’ a decision validated by a reader poll in early 2011. 45% of readers chose MILC, making it nearly two-and-a-half times more popular than ‘Interchangeable Lens Compact,’ which polled second.

August 2018 [Announcement + 10 years]

The first great mirrorless camera? The Olympus OM-D E-M5 is the first example I can think of that was every bit as good as its DSLR peers. Only smaller. And prettier.

A lot has changed in the decade since that first hectic year of Micro Four Thirds launches. Sony, Fujifilm, Canon, Sigma and even Leica have introduced their own mirrorless systems. Samsung, Nikon and Pentax have all had a go, only to give up.

Every manufacturer has made some lenses that are terrible at focusing before recognizing that low-inertia, single focus element designs are usually the way to go. Pretty much every camera maker has tried to chase an upgrader crowd (from compacts or smartphones) that turns out not to want cameras at all.

August 2018 [Announcement + 10 years]

Panasonic’s Micro Four Thirds lineup includes the most capable video cameras we’ve yet tested.

All the while both Panasonic and Olympus have continued to build out one of the most comprehensive systems of modern lenses. And improve their cameras: unlike the E-P1, the PEN-F is as good as it is pretty. Meanwhile the Panasonic GH5 and GH5S define the current high water mark for video in stills/video hybrid cameras, and camera such as the E-M1 II have helped dismiss the idea that DSLRs are inherently better at autofocus.

The move to mirrorless was a big step for both companies: moving on from a system they’d both spent a lot of time and money on, and that had developed a passionate following. But I think the last ten years has vindicated that decision.

August 2018 [Announcement + 10 years]

More than anything else, the expectation that Canon and Nikon – the two companies most committed to their DSLR legacies – are going to introduce full-frame mirrorless systems, confirms that Panasonic and Olympus were right to turn their backs to the mirror and look to the future.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s raise our glasses to Micro Four Thirds: the little revolutionary.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Shutterbug shuts down print publication after 45 years, goes ‘web only’

23 May

Popular photography magazine Shutterbug has announced that it is shutting down its print publication of 45 years, and will focus instead on reaching its audience online as a “web-only publication.”

The news was published earlier today by Shutterbug Editor-in-Chef Dan Havlik, who says the media landscape simply cannot sustain a photography print publication any longer. The best way to serve Shutterbug’s readers, says Havlik, is by dedicating all of the company’s resources towards becoming a “dynamic, web-only publication.”

Shutterbug magazine had a great run, but the media landscape has changed dramatically in the last 4+ decades, and we felt now was the time for Shutterbug to become a dynamic, web-only publication. Shutterbug.com has grown dramatically in recent years with record traffic and expanded reach to photographers around the world. We can now dedicate all our resources to further growing our online presence and expanding our video, social media, mobile and e-commerce channels.

Beyond simply shutting down the print side of the business, the brand has big plans for Shutterbug.com. In addition to continued how-to content, feature stories, and gear reviews, the website plans to expand its reader photo galleries and launch an online store where readers can purchase cameras, lenses, software, photo accessories, and Shutterbug-branded merchandise.

Press Release

Shutterbug Moves Forward as Web-Only Publication

Venerable Photography Media Brand to Focus on Website After Ending Print Edition

May 22, 2018 – Shutterbug is moving forward as a web-only publication (Shutterbug.com) after ending its print magazine after 45 years, Shutterbug Editor-in-Chief Dan Havlik announced today.

“Shutterbug magazine had a great run, but the media landscape has changed dramatically in the last 4+ decades, and we felt now was the time for Shutterbug to become a dynamic, web-only publication,” Havlik said. “Shutterbug.com has grown dramatically in recent years with record traffic and expanded reach to photographers around the world. We can now dedicate all our resources to further growing our online presence and expanding our video, social media, mobile and e-commerce channels.”

In the last four years since Havlik joined Shutterbug as editor-in-chief, Shutterbug.com’s traffic has increased over 700%. Shutterbug.com was also recently named one of the top five best photography news sites by Feedspot. Meanwhile, Shutterbug’s social media channels have grown exponentially in recent years, with nearly one million followers on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Flipboard, Twitter and other social sites combined.

“The web, social media and video are simply the best ways for Shutterbug to reach the growing audience of photographers out there, including everyone who is graduating up from shooting with their smart phones and wants to learn how to capture photos with real cameras, to photo enthusiasts and seasoned pros who want to read the latest news and reviews of the hottest photo gear. Shutterbug.com offers it all.”

Along with continuing to post the best photography how-tos, video tutorials, feature stories and camera gear reviews on the web, Shutterbug.com will expand its popular photo galleries where readers share and comment on their images. Shutterbug.com will also open an online photography store where visitors can buy cameras, lenses, software, and photo accessories, along with Shutterbug-branded merchandise such as t-shirts and camera bags.

Shutterbug is owned by AVTech Media Americas Inc., a division of the UK-based AVTech Media Ltd (UK) company.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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