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  • Canon’s Q1 financial report shows Imaging Systems net sales and profits are down 13.9%, 80.6% YoY

    Canon has released its first-quarter (Q1) financial report, revealing just how bad the COVID-19 pandemic has affected its bottom line and suggesting it’s only going to get worse before it gets better.

    The report starts off by stating on its ‘Key Message’ summary page that the COVID-19 pandemic has ‘completely [changed the] global economic landscape’ with the following bullet point saying the ‘global economy faces worst recession since the Great Depression’ due to the ongoing pandemic.

    Across the board, Canon saw a 9.5% drop in net sales and an 18.7% decline in operating profit for Q1 (January 1 through April 23), year-over-year (YoY). But even those numbers look great in comparison to those found within Canon’s Imaging Systems division, which accounts for camera and inkjet printer sales.

    The report shows net sales and operating profit for Q1 within the Imaging System division is down 13.9% and 80.6%, respectively, YoY. Further split up, Canon states its net sales are down 24.8% YoY specifically for cameras, while its inkjet printer net sales were actually up 7.3%. Despite the current situation, Canon hasn’t changed its projections which currently have net sales and operating profits down 2.5% and up 11.5%, respectively for the entire 2020 fiscal year.

    That may very well change though, as Canon expects its second quarter (Q2) to be even worse, as Canon’s current downward trajectory didn’t even start until mid-way through Q1. Combined with the uncertainty of when the COVID-19 pandemic will begin to subside, Canon says it’s difficult to provide accurate estimates of future financials and even clarifies that once the global economy is back on the rise, it’s unlikely cameras will see an immediate return to normal sales.

    In addition to the impact on supply, sales of interchangeable-lens cameras were also greatly affected. One after another, live events were canceled or postponed and chances to use cameras decreased. In addition to this, we believe it will take time to see a recovery in the demand for cameras, which are considered luxury items, even after the global economic turmoil has subsided.’

    Whatever happens, it seems Canon has little intent on slowing down. In its summary of the results, Canon says it ‘will steadily push forward [its] strategy that focuses on models for professionals and advanced-amateurs to maintain medium- to longterm profitability,’ an obvious nod to the forthcoming EOS R5 camera, as well as new RF lenses on the horizon.

    Something worth keeping in mind, as with all financial reports, is that numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. There is plenty going on behind-the-scenes and there is a lot of grey area within the net sales and operating profits within any given division.

    For this particular Q1 report, a standout example of this is in the dramatic discrepancy between the net sales and operating profit within Canon’s Imaging Systems division. While we obviously can’t confirm this to be the case, the 80.6% decline in operating profit could very well be due, at least in part, to the research, development and marketing expenses of the EOS R5 and other professional and ‘advanced amateur’ camera systems Canon plans to release in the near future. It’s shaping up to be an industry-shaking camera based on the currently-known specs and actively developing such a system doesn’t come cheap.

    You can read through all of the Q1 financial documents on Canon’s investor relations website.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Fujifilm releases very minor firmware updates for six of its XF lenses

    Fujifilm has released minor firmware updates for a number of its XF lenses, including five zooms and a single prime.

    The firmware version numbers vary from lens to lens, but across the board, all five updates simply list ‘Fix of minor bugs’ as the only change in these updates. Below is a list of the lenses and a link to their respective firmware updates:

    • Fujifilm XF 200mm F2 R LM OIS WR — Firmware version 1.01 (up from 1.00)
    • Fujifilm XF 8–16mm F2.8 R LM WR — Firmware version 1.01 (up from 1.00)
    • Fujifilm XF 16–80mm F4 R OIS WR — Firmware version 1.04 (up from 1.03
    • Fujifilm 50–140mm F2.8 R LM OIS WR — Firmware version 1.31 (up from 1.30)
    • Fujifilm 55–200mm F3.5–4.8 R LM OIS — Firmware version 1.21 (up from 1.20)
    • Fujifilm 100–400mm F4.5–5.6 R LM OIS — Firmware version 1.21 (up from 1.20)

    You can keep up with the latest firmware updates via Fujifilm’s comprehensive list of the latest updates for its lenses.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Canon EOS R5: The long game ends with a big leap

    The fruit of Canon’s R&D emerges from the shadows

    Canon has been the best selling camera brand for most of the digital era. Different people might ascribe this dominance to different areas of strength, be that lens design, ergonomics, color response or simply very successful marketing that’s resulted in a history of cameras that people want at a price they’re willing to pay. For the past few years though, its once proud reputation for innovation hasn’t seemed so evident.

    Canon’s US press releases still proudly boast about how many patents the company has been granted, but its electronics development prowess hasn’t shone especially brightly in recent models. The EOS R5’s disclosed specs reveal a camera capable of generating and processing immense amounts of data. This suggests a leap forward in Canon’s semiconductor design and one that might shed some light on why some of their most recent cameras have seemed somewhat lackluster.

    Blimey!

    It’s difficult to over-stress how much of a technical challenge it is to capture and record 8K footage. Just four years ago virtually every camera maker we interviewed said that 4K was really difficult because of the heat generated in the process and there are many models that stop recording or become very hot if they shoot for extended periods. Canon is promising a camera that can capture four times as much data, from the full width of its sensor while still being able to run its dual pixel AF system in parallel.

    The EOS R5’s disclosed specs suggests a leap forward in Canon’s semiconductor design

    If that doesn’t strike you as ground-breaking, consider that the EOS R5 can shoot 4K at up to 120 fps. Then look around the current batch of large sensor cameras and count how many can achieve 4K/60. It’s a short list, and one that gets even shorter if you mark off the ones that can only do so using a cropped region of their sensor. The EOS R5 almost certainly sub-samples to achieve this, but that’s still a lot of data.

    We don’t know the camera’s full specs, yet, but this all points to a radical improvement in sensor and processing technologies.

    A history of innovation

    Canon was the first camera maker to fully embrace CMOS technology for its DSLRs, which gave it industry-leading performance for many years (it was another seven years until we saw a camera with a CMOS chip from Sony Semiconductor). It was also the first company to produce a large sensor camera that could capture Full HD video. Technologies such Dual Pixel AF show that the company has continued to work away at pushing its cameras forwards.

    And yet, the last few generations of Canon stills cameras haven’t always sparkled, particularly in terms of video: notably the most processor-intensive feature. The EOS 5D Mark IV had to crop its sensor to deliver 4K and still showed a fair amount of rolling shutter when it did, suggesting there was a major bottleneck either in terms of sensor readout rate or the ability to process this data fast enough.

    It’s also interesting to note that Canon cameras tend to achieve much lower shot-count ratings per Watt Hour of battery capacity than other companies manage, which is likely to be indicative of lower processor efficiency.

    The EOS R, as the first RF mount camera, had plenty of innovations in it, but its cropped 4K video suggests a similar lack of processing power to that of the EOS 5D VI, which wasn’t especially cutting edge two years earlier. The EOS R5 is a vast leap forward from this.

    And this has seen Canon’s specs begin to fall behind. This need to crop to produce 4K video was off the pace in when the 5D IV was launched in 2016 (Sony’s a7R II offered full-width 4K capture a year earlier), so to see that same limitation in 2018’s EOS R looked a little embarrassing compared to the oversampled 4K footage offered by Leica, Nikon, Panasonic, Sigma and Sony in their contemporaneous full frame models. It’s a similar story with the EOS 6D II and EOS RP and, despite the appearance of a novel 32MP sensor in the EOS M6 Mark II, the need to sub-sample the chip to generate its video also hints at a processing bottleneck.

    So why had this company with a history of innovation dropped so far behind its rivals?

    What’s been going on, then?

    While it sources 1-inch and smaller sensors from other companies, Canon makes its own APS-C and full-frame sensors and generally hasn’t made them available to rival camera companies. This means that Canon has to recoup its R&D costs entirely from its own models, whereas most other camera makers buy all of their sensors in from a supplier that can spread out those costs amongst its many customers. That obviously creates an incentive for Canon to keep using the same chips for as long as it can.

    The differing challenges of building cinema and consumer cameras make it impossible to say whether know-how has been reserved for the Cinema EOS line or has trickled down from it.

    Another possibility is that Canon has been keeping this know-how for its more profitable pro video users, holding the main EOS line back to avoid cannibalizing its Cinema EOS sales. But this isn’t necessarily true: the Cinema EOS cameras work in an environment where large batteries and built-in fans are the norm, meaning there isn’t the same pressure on them to be as super-efficient as the mainline EOS cameras need to be. So I’m not sure that’s what we’ve seen: if anything it’s just as likely that the EOS R5 is benefitting from lessons Canon learned through the process of developing the Cinema EOS line.

    Playing the long game

    Instead, I wonder whether Canon made the decision to step back from the constant two-year development cycle for sensors and processors that other camera makers build their model ranges around, and instead decided to conduct a longer-term project to reclaim the technological lead it’d previously enjoyed.

    There are, perhaps, parallels with the way Canon approached its switch to autofocus, back in the 1980s: seemingly content to let Minolta and Nikon own the AF market, only to leap ahead with its EOS system.

    Taking a longer-term approach would explain both why the company had dropped so far behind and how it can now not just to catch up but jump ahead

    We may never know for sure, but I can’t think of a time when Canon has so clearly fallen behind what the rest of its rivals are offering. That’s why it looks to me like the apparent lull in Canon’s innovation might have been because it wasn’t content to just keep up with its rivals but instead was willing to cede a little ground in the short term, so that it could take a significant lead in the long run. That would explain both why the company had seemingly dropped so far behind and how it’s now looks able not just to catch up, but to jump ahead.

    Of course this is likely to be little comfort for customers who bought Canon cameras from the end of the previous cycle, built on technology that was significantly outdated in comparison to their rivals.

    So while the rest of the market has been constantly tussling over small gains, seemingly leaving Canon in the dust, the industry’s biggest player appears to have been patiently working to leapfrog them all, taking a bigger lead than we’ve become used to seeing in the industry.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Shoot now, focus later: multi-view E-mount lens patent is Sony’s latest foray in to light field photography

    According to Sony Alpha Rumors, Sony has filed a patent for an interchangeable E-mount lens that will allow users to adjust focus after the shot has been recorded. The lens appears to contain a number of lenses arranged next to each other to record multiple individual images on the camera’s sensor that can be combined later presumably to control focus and depth-of-field.

    The site doesn’t tell us where the patent information was seen so we can’t read it for ourselves, but some diagrams are provided that we are told are part of the application.

    The Light L16 light field camera from Light Labs Inc

    Sony investigating light field technology is nothing new, as in the past it has filed patents for a light field sensor and has a partnership to supply sensors to Light Labs Inc, the manufacturer of the Light L16 camera that was announced in 2015. The draw of the technology is obvious as it can allow multiple focal lengths to be used for full-resolution zooming and/or focus and depth-of-field selection after the event.

    We have seen a few attempts at harnessing the idea in commercial camera products in the past, including the Lytro Illum, Nokia’s 9 PureView and to some extent a number of other multi-lens and multi-sensor smartphones. It is hard to tell from the available information exactly what these lenses will used for in this patented idea, and whether they will be to collect distance information or be used to expand the range of tones that can be recorded in a single shot – or both.

    Either way, such a lens will need a camera with an extremely powerful processor or the ability to simply record the images for processing in software later – as with Sony’s Pixel Shift Multi Shooting mode that requires images are processed in the company’s Imaging Edge desktop application.

    As we have all noticed in the past though, exciting patent applications don’t always result in a product that comes to market. If genuine however this does at least demonstrate Sony is still pursuing ideas in this area.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • 8K and then some: what the Canon EOS R5’s video specs mean

    Introduction

    Canon kickstarted the success of the stills/video hybrid ILC with the introduction of the EOS 5D Mark II in 2008. Since then it appears to have focused most of its video efforts on its Cinema EOS line of professional video cameras.

    However, as part of its drip-feed of EOS R5 specs, Canon has spelled out a lot more about its video capabilities. And, from what’s been said, it looks like the biggest leap forward in video for Canon’s main EOS line since that launch 12 years ago.

    We already knew that the EOS R5 was going to be able to shoot at 12 fps with its mechanical shutter and 20 in e-shutter mode and that it was going to shoot 8K, but the more detailed video specs are worth digesting…

    8K video capture

    The most eye-catching spec is one that Canon’s previously announced. The EOS R5 will become the first consumer ILC to offer 8K video capture. That’s a huge deal, in part because of what it tells us about the camera’s processing power.

    8K is usually taken to mean a resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixels, which is exactly four times the size of UHD 4K (also meaning it’s the theoretical perfect capture resolution if you wish to correctly represent all the spatial frequencies that can be conveyed in a 4K image).

    However, Canon has previously tended to prefer the wider 1.90:1 DCI format to the 16:9 of UHD for its high end cameras. Canon also says that it’s both the 8K and DCI 4K modes that use the full width of the sensor, which could imply the use of a 8192 x 4230 region. This would require a 44.7MP sensor, rather than the ~40MP chip needed for 16:9 8K.

    Even though 8K displays aren’t exactly widespread, yet, there are plenty of reasons it can still be useful. Whether it’s to provide greater compositional flexibility in the edit, to provide better quality 4K footage, or to future-proof your next project, 8K capability will have its uses.

    8K Raw

    And, as if 8K video weren’t impressive enough (and just a reminder, that’s at least four times the data demand that causes some cameras to struggle), Canon says the EOS R5 will capture Raw video data.

    Internal Raw video capture is scarce enough in the 4K realm, being almost the sole preserve of the EOS-1D X Mark III, with just a handful of cameras having to hand-off much of the heavy lifting to Atomos’ external recorders. But Canon says the EOS R5 will handle 8K 30p in Raw: that’s like shooting thirty 32MP images per second.

    Given the 1D X III shoots 5.5K Raw in 12-bit, we’d assume a similar setup here. Canon hasn’t specified the data rates yet. The R5’s 8K is a little more than twice the number of pixels as the 1D X III’s video, so we’d expect its 8K/30p to be anywhere from a bit above the 2600 Mbps that the 1D X III uses to store 5.5K/60p to somewhere in the high 3000 Mbps range, if the compression ratio is closer to that of the 1D X III’s 5.5K/30p data rate.

    Unlike the 1D X III, it’ll be able to output its maximum rate while maintaining Dual Pixel AF.

    10-bit C-Log

    For those of us without cooled server farms and infinite storage, the EOS R5 will be able to shoot C-Log footage. Like the 1D X Mark III, this is output as 10-bit 4:2:2 H.265 footage.

    This is likely to be the Canon Log response that incorporates around 12 stops of dynamic range, giving a good degree of flexibility in when post-processing. LUTs for the Canon Log response are already widely available, for both SDR and HDR output, making it easy to incorporate the R5 into an existing workflow.

    10-bit HDR PQ

    As an alternative option, the camera will output footage encoded using the PQ (perceptual quantizer) curve used in several of the most sophisticated HDR TV standards.

    This provides a means of shooting footage directly for use on HDR displays. It’s interesting to see Canon plump for the PQ response, rather than the simpler and SDR-compatible HLG system adopted by Panasonic, Fujifilm and Sony.

    4K/120

    As if the promise of 8K video weren’t impressive enough, Canon says the EOS R5 will be able to shoot 4K footage from the full width of its sensor at up to 120p. While maintaining full Dual Pixel AF.

    In an era when most of the handful of cameras that can shoot 4K/60 have to crop or sub-sample their sensors to do so, the idea of shooting 120p (119.94) is a big step forward.

    It’s likely that both this and the 60p footage will be sub-sampled in some manner (if it could read and process that entire sensor region 120 times a second, it could presumably offer 8K/120, too!).

    But played back as 24p, it can be used as 1/5th speed slow-mo, or 1/4th speed for 30p playback, which is a useful creative option in 4K workflows.

    IBIS
    Like the Nikon Z7, the EOS R5 will have in-body image stabilization.

    Another key capability is the inclusion of in-body image stabilization. Canon has pretty well-established digital stabilization in many of its cameras but the EOS R5 will be the first instance of a Canon ILC with a moving sensor providing stabilization, too.

    No details were given about whether the in-body system shares the stabilization duties when an IS lens is mounted (passing off pitch and yaw correction to the lens), or whether they both work together, simultaneously.

    This feature, combined with dual pixel AF and internal capture of even the highest-quality footage make the EOS R5 an effectively self-contained video package, able to turn its hand to a wide range of shooting styles and situations, including run-and-gun operation.

    Potential limitations

    There are a couple of details that are still unknown. Many current cameras’ maximum recording times are limited by the heat build-up, especially at their highest resolution modes. The EOS R5 promises to juggle tremendous amounts of data, which is likely to generate a lot of heat, so it’s not clear how long it will be able to run continuously, in its more technically impressive modes.

    Also, although it’s a two-slot camera, Canon has opted for one of these to be UHS-II. At present, the fastest SD card standards only guarantee 90 MB/s write speeds (no matter what the peak speeds quoted on the card say). At ‘only’ 720 Mbps, it’s unlikely most of the R5’s highest video rates can be dependably written to the SD card slot, potentially making it a single card slot camera from a high-end video perspective.

    Unless data can be channelled to an external SSD across USB-C, the capacity of your CFexpress card might another bottleneck that limits the camera’s shooting duration.

    Battery life is the other potential limitation for a camera doing so much hard work. The mockups and computer renderings Canon has shown so far suggest there won’t be room for a battery much bigger than in existing models, so that’s another potential limit (though again, one that clever use of the USB socket might alleviate.

    Summary

    Canon has let its main EOS line fall significantly behind its rivals (the EOS 5D IV’s cropped video was off the pace when it was launched, so looked even more tired by the time it appeared in the EOS R, two years later), whereas the EOS R5 is not so much a case of catching up as establishing a significant lead.

    Canon’s latest spec disclosure was solely focused on video but we’d expect it to be as much a camera for stills shooters as it is a video tool. When more details become available, we look forward to learning what all this processing power will mean for AF and stills shooting, too.

    We’ve looked into the implication of the R5’s video specs a bit more detail, in this article, but even if you’re not interested in video, this is a camera worth watching.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Florian Ledoux’s ‘I Am Vital’ is a short film fit for Earth Day

    Florian Ledoux is an award-winning photographer and filmmaker. His work documents the effects of climate change. DPReview featured some of his images, captured while traveling with the Arctic Arts Project, earlier this year. 2 months ago, his second short film ‘I Am Vital’ was released. It presents a timely message for today’s 50th annual Earth Day celebration.

    ‘Like all my work, and my previous documentary, ‘I Am Fragile,’ the beauty, power, and fragility of these polar regions inspire me,’ Ledoux explains to DPReview when asked about his inspiration behind the film. ‘I feel so many emotions when I find myself in the remote Arctic, co-existing in harmony with the wildlife that calls it home.’

    ‘I Am Vital’ was filmed across Greenland, Antarctica, Nunavut, Svalbard and Iceland over the course of 3 years. Its purpose is to remind viewers of the important role water plays in our ecosystems. Preventing glaciers and ice sheets, which hold almost 70% of the world’s water supply, from melting away is crucial for maintaining sea levels. 2019 was the second-hottest year in recorded history. Antarctica hit a peak temperature of 18ºC (64.9F), according to a reading from an Argentinian research station thermometer.

    ‘The main body of my work is still photography but over the last few years I have developed video skills. This allows me to use footage that creates an emotional atmosphere in my films. My aim is to connect people a little bit more with this part (Arctic) of the world,’ explains Ledoux about his choice to start filming up close, from an aerial perspective, with a combination of DJI Inspire, Phantom 4 Pro and Mavic 2 Pro drones. ‘The choice of an ultra short documentary is to keep people focused on the message that is clear and direct for a very short time mixed with powerful images,’ he tells us.

    ‘I believe in and aspire to share a new perspective of our incredibly resilient, yet fragile planet beyond what we’ve already seen through traditional photography. I hope my work allows viewers to observe our Mother Earth and wildlife from new angles and approaches never before possible,’ he concludes. ‘It is my goal to present a new way of learning about the great white North. It is more than time to act and I want my work to positively impact conservation and result in new and expanded Marine Conservation Areas.’

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Pixelmator for iOS gets major version 2.5 update with three new browsers

    Image editing software company Pixelmator has announced the release of Pixelmator for iOS version 2.5. The company describes this as a major update to its photo editor, one that adds a new file browser, a new document browser based on Apple’s Files app and new image size presets that likewise come with a new browser. According to the company, ‘This update is a really big deal for Pixelmator for iOS.’

    Pixelmator for iOS 2.5 brings a total of three big new features; the company notes that while they ‘might not be amazingly flashy,’ they are ‘incredibly important to the future’ of the app.

    The new Files-based document browser offers a much better file browsing experience compared to the previous version of the software, offering users access to important features like tagging and search. Pixelmator explains that introducing this new feature is the ‘key first step’ in its plan to refresh the mobile image editor.

    Users will note that the new browser makes it easier to open and edit images that are stored in iCloud, as well as ones on external devices, third-party cloud services and ones stored on iPhone or iPad itself. The new photo browser joins this, simplifying the process of finding and opening images from the Photos app.

    The third big feature is the new image size presets, which are exactly what they sound like: a way to rapidly create new images that feature commonly used resolutions. These three major additions are joined by a number of smaller updates, including new quick actions for ‘Open Most Recent Photo’ and ‘Take Photo,’ plus Pixelmator for iOS will now preserve the selected Flash mode when the camera has been closed and then reopened.

    Other changes to Pixelmator for iOS version 2.5 include an adjustment to the True Tone effect that reduces its strength while editing, as well as multiple bug fixes for problems that included memory management issues, trouble opening and creating files if select third-party apps were installed, a crashing bug that involved the Full Keyboard Access setting and a display issue with the Help feature.

    These features build upon the app’s existing tools and other offerings; Pixelmator bills its app as a full-featured image editor, one designed for the iPad and iPhone. The software features expected image editing tools like cloning, blurring, levels, curves, and more, as well as a variety of image templates, effects presets and distortion tools.

    The new Pixelmator for iOS 2.5 update can be downloaded now. The app is available on the Apple App Store now for $ 4.99.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Lensbaby releases the ‘Velvet 28,’ a wide-angle prime with ‘dreamy’ bokeh

    Lensbaby has made available its latest lens, the Velvet 28. As the name suggests, it’s a 28mm F2.5 lens is a wide-angle lens available for a slew of full-frame and APS-C camera systems.

    Like other focal lengths in its ‘Velvet’ lineup, the 28mm lens adds a ‘velvety glow’ to images when shot wide open. As the lens is stopped down, the effect becomes less pronounced. The lens is constructed of eight elements in seven groups, features a 12-blade aperture diaphragm, uses a 67mm front filter thread and also can also capture 1:2 ratio macro photos, with a minimum focusing distance of 14cm (5.5”).

    Below is a sample gallery of images, provided by Lensbaby:

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    The lens is offered in Canon EF, Canon RF, Fujifilm X, Micro Four Thirds, Nikon F, Nikon Z and Sony E mounts. While the dimensions and weight does differ slightly from mount to mount, it weighs roughly 600g (1.35lbs) and measures in at approximately 72mm (2.85”) by 89mm (3.5”). The Lensbaby Velvet 28mm F2.5 is currently available to purchase for $ 550 on Lensbaby’s online store, as well as Adorama and B&H.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Lensrentals survey: 19% of professional photographers are considering a career change due to COVID-19 pandemic

    Lensrentals has published the results of its COVID-19 pandemic survey that’s attempting to gauge how the ongoing pandemic has been and will continue to affect the work and outlook of professional photographers and videographers (defined as making the majority of their income from photo and video work) around the world, many of whom are self-employed.

    Over 1,000 self-labeled professional photographers and videographers responded to the survey, which was specifically designed ‘to focus on the main source of income per participant to gain an understanding that will align with the unemployment resources for each state,’ according to Lensrentals. While many of the resulting data points from the survey were —such as 96% of respondents stating their income and/or work has been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic—there was one stand-out data point.

    According to the results of the survey, 18.6% of respondents said they are considering leaving their respective industries due to the loss of income caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, 18.4% of photographers and 20.4% of videographers who took part in the survey said they are actively considering leaving their line of work. Seeing as how it was simply a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question, it’s difficult to gauge how likely it is these particular respondents will follow through on their considerations, but roughly one out of every five professionals is a rather serious number.

    Other less-surprising data points include 74.5% of respondents saying ‘all or almost all’ of their jobs (defined as >80%) have been cancelled for the month of April with 59.7% and 20% of respondents saying the same for the month of May and June, respectively.

    To read a more detailed breakdown of the numbers, head on over to Lensrentals’ blog post. In the closing paragraph, Lensrentals links to numerous resources its compiled the help creatives amidst the ongoing pandemic and social distancing initiatives.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • The gear that changed my (photographic) life: the Nikon D3

    This article was originally published in 2017 as part of our ‘Throwback Thursday’ series.

    In 2007, after several years of lagging behind Canon in the enthusiast and professional DSLR market, Nikon was doing alright. Not spectacularly, but they were hanging in there. The D200 was a popular and capable enthusiast model, and the professional D2x was a significant advance on the muddled ‘h’ and ‘s’ releases of the past. But it was their biggest competitor that seemed to have all the momentum. While Canon had been using APS-H and full-frame sensors for years, none of Nikon’s DSLRs offered sensors bigger than APS-C, and Canon still ruled the roost in terms of autofocus1 and high ISO imaging capability.

    But around that time, we had an inkling that Nikon had something big on the way. Not a company prone to grand gestures, Nikon invited the world’s press (and I do mean the world’s press) to Tokyo, in the sapping humidity of a Japanese heatwave for a top secret announcement…

    The magnesium alloy-bodied D3 was as tough as anything that Canon ever brought to market, but offered a combination of speed, sensitivity and autofocus performance that the industry had never seen before.

    Ten years ago, camera technology was advancing continuously, and quickly. For quite a long time, it seemed like every new generation of digital cameras was better than the last in ways that camera buyers (and reviewers) actually cared about. Obviously, each new cycle brought more megapixels, but equally as important were the ergonomic and performance improvements that made each new generation of cameras easier to use, and more effective than the last.

    Buzz Aldrin, in London to mark the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.

    Nowhere were these advances more obvious than in the professional DSLR segment. Compare the original EOS-1D of 2001 to the EOS-1D Mark IV of 2010. They look similar, but in terms of usability and image quality they’re worlds apart.

    Let’s take usability, to start with. If we look at just the screen interfaces alone, in less than a decade, LCDs got bigger, and much sharper. Live view became standard, and, camera menu systems evolved from messy lists that looked like Windows ME error messages to friendly tabs and mobile-inspired icons.

    My personal D3S, nestled alongside a D810 and several lenses in a Pelican case. It’s still great, and I still use it.

    The 4MP Canon EOS-1D is still capable of turning out decent-looking images for web and limited print use, and it can do so impressive quickly (8 fps ain’t bad for a sixteen year-old DSLR). But the EOS-1D Mark IV offered four times the pixel count, better image quality across the board, including a far superior high ISO imaging capability, a faster continuous shooting rate, and a much more sophisticated autofocus system – plus live view and movie mode.

    High Barn, not far from where I grew up, in North Yorkshire. 12MP might not be much by 2017 standards, but it’s enough for a high quality 13-inch print.

    All of this is by way of preamble. The point (finally! He gets to the point!) is that even by the fast-paced standards of the professional DSLR market in the mid 2000s, the Nikon D3 was a major technological achievement. Arguably, (and I admit it’s a big ‘arguably’) the EOS-1D Mark IV and its successors might not have been quite such advanced cameras without the technological game-upping that Canon had to do in the years following the launch of the D3.

    Nikon D3 Sample Images (2008)

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    As a working photographer and photography writer at the time, the D3 was (and remains, actually) the single most impactful product to be released during my career. Before Nikon’s presentation in Tokyo had even drawn to a close,2 our industry’s expectations of what a DSLR could do had been shifted.

    Until the D3, you could either have a fast cropped sensor DSLR, or a slow full-frame one – not both. Until the D3, the maximum ISO sensitivity setting that you might be able to shoot at was either 1600 or 3200 (depending on the model), and even then, not particularly confidently. Until the D3 (and its sister model the D300) came along, if you wanted the best autofocus performance, there was no question – you bought Canon.

    Melody Gardot, performing in London. The D3’s shutter sounds like someone just dropped a cribbage board onto a marble floor, but the D3S introduced a fairly discreet ‘Q’ mode.

    I was happily shooting with a Canon EOS-1D Mark II when the D3 was released. For the kind of photography I was doing at the time, the Mark II was one of the best cameras on the market, and did the job perfectly well – or so I thought. I felt the same way about the 1D Mark II in 2007 as I did about my Nokia 3210. Solid, reliable, and elegant in its own way. A useful and streamlined tool.

    At risk of overstating the point, the D3 was to my EOS-1D Mark II what the iPhone was to the Nokia 3210: a paradigm shift.3

    Florence Welch, shot with the D3’s successor, the D3S. The D3S added some welcome tweaks over the D3, including in-camera sensor cleaning, and slightly improved high ISO image quality.

    Using the D3, I could shoot quickly and without a crop factor for the first time. I could capture full-color images in light so low that my own eyes couldn’t fully discern what I was looking at (and the AF could usually keep up). I could shoot at ISO 6400, and marvel at the moderate film-like grain – a grain pattern that wasn’t distracting at all, and showed no banding. The D3’s autofocus system was at least a generation ahead of what I was used to in terms of tracking too, allowing me to reliably use AF-C, even with off-center AF points in poor light.

    Nikon D3S Sample Images (2010)

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    In practical terms, this meant that I could capture images of performers in light so marginal that none of the other photographers working alongside me were able to get a sharp exposure.

    A couple of times during my first few months of shooting with the D3 (when I had the camera for review, but before it was shipping in significant numbers) I found myself alone in the photo pit at a small venue, still shooting in punishingly low light after the other photographers had given up and left.4

    But it wasn’t just performance photographers that were amazed by the D3. Wildlife photographers, too, were raving about this amazing new camera that let them shoot in full color, in situations where previously they would have been limited to infrared. Like I said, it was a paradigm shift.

    The D3S has accompanied me on a few shooting trips in 2017, including a protest against the Trump administration’s attempted travel ban, back in January.

    So of course I bought one. I sold all my Canon gear, took a hit on the exchange, ate tinned food for a few months and picked up a D3 with a 24-70mm F2.8. I added more lenses over the following couple of years when I could afford to, and ultimately traded the D3 for a D3S. The D3S added in-camera sensor-cleaning (one of the D3’s few deficiencies), even better high ISO image quality and a basic HD video function. That was around the same time I started to write for DPReview, and about a year after that we moved to America and I mostly stopped shooting live music.

    My life has changed a lot since then, but I still have my D3S and I still use it – mostly now as a second camera for event photography. And no, Dan Bracaglia – I’m not selling, so stop asking.

    A still from a commercial shoot for a young singer-songwriter, Anna Sinfield, in 2008. She’s a producer, these days, for UK radio.

    One last anecdote…

    Not long after the D3’s launch, back in London, I spoke to a young Nikon engineer who had been heavily involved in the design of the new camera. He was visiting from Tokyo. He brought with him two sets of prints – one set from the then-current Canon EOS-1D Mark III, and an equivalent set from the D3. Pointing to the shots from the Canon, he said “in my opinion, these look like digital images”. Turning to the images from the D3 he said “but these look like photographs”.

    That might sound like hyperbole, but the thing is – he was right.

    1. Setting aside the much-reported and in my opinion overblown autofocus woes of the EOS-1D Mark III.

    2. In addition to the cameras, the presentation was also memorable for a closing appeal from a very senior Nikon executive to the assembled US press. Please – he requested – please pronounce ‘Nikon’ correctly as ‘Nick-on’ not ‘Nye-con’ – a plea that was of course completely ignored by all concerned. That trip was also the first time I encountered a Geisha (it would not be the last).

    3. If the D3 had come loaded with ‘Snake II’ it would have been perfect. Actually, given the amount of time professional photographers spend just waiting around, I’ve always wondered why simple arcade games weren’t pre-loaded on professional DSLRs.

    4. The Pogues – I’m looking at you. Or rather, I was trying to…

    If you have a piece of gear that you’d like to write about, we’d love to hear from you – and you might even get featured on the DPReview homepage. Leave us a short note in the comments and if you have a longer story to tell, send it to us, and we’ll take it from there.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)