In advance of Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference next week, we’re sharing our photographer’s wishlist of the announcements we’re hoping to see from the annual event. Compare our thoughts with yours on an expected new iOS 7 mobile operating system, whether or not we’ll see a new iPhone and more at connect.dpreview.com.
Just posted: Our review of the Nikon Coolpix A. With a 28mm-equivalent wideangle lens, and the same 16MP DX format sensor as used by the D7000 SLR, the Coolpix A is designed as a serious compact camera capable of professional-quality results. But it’s up against stiff competition, in the shape of the similarly-specified but cheaper Ricoh GR that was announced a month later. In our 16-page comparative review, we take a detailed at how the Coolpix A measures up to the challenge posed by its close rival.
Canon has announced the EF-M 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM – an image-stabilized wideangle zoom for its EOS M mirrorless camera. It’s Canon’s first wide zoom with IS, promising three stops of stabilization for stills and ‘Dynamic IS’ for video. A linear stepper motor offers silent autofocus during movie shooting, and a retractable barrel design makes the lens about the same size as the 18-55mm kit zoom. It should be in shops at the end of June, at an MSRP of £379.99 / €399. A firmware update for the EOS M (v.2) will give full compatibility with the 11-22mm, and faster autofocus with all lenses.
Just posted: Our hands-on preview of the Canon EF-M 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM. Canon’s third lens for its EOS M mirrorless camera is its first image-stabilized wideangle zoom, and first with a collapsible barrel design. With an 18-35mm equivalent angle of view and silent STM focusing, it could be an interesting option for photographers wanting the wider view but looking to travel light. Click through for our first look.
If you’ve ever spent any time as a self-employed photographer, you’ve not doubt heard countless rationales from clients about why you should work for free, or at least lower your rate. PhotographyTalk.com posted a pitch-perfect list of five classic lines that not only ring true to those of us on staff with freelance backgrounds, but would be perfect punchline setups in an Aaron Johnson ‘What The Duck’ comic strip. Click through to see if any of them sound familiar. (via PhotographyTalk.com)
For nearly forty years, photographer D. James Dee has documented artwork and installations for seminal artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schanbel and prominent New York City galleries. He’s now closing up shop and faces the prospect of finding a home for roughly 250,000 color slides and negatives that chronicle the explosive growth of the Soho art scene of the 70s, 80s and 90s. So far he’s found no takers. Is this trove of recent art history headed for the dumpster? Click through to read more. (via The New York Times)
DxO Labs has released version 8.2 of its DxO Optics Pro software. Both the Elite and Standard versions gain support for the Canon EOS Rebel SL1, the Sony SLT-A58, and the Ricoh GR. Version 8.2 of DxO Optics Pro also supports all features of the newly announced FilmPack 4 as a plugin. Click through for a download link and the full press release.
DxO has announced availability of FilmPack 4, the fourth version of its film-simulation software. FilmPack 4 adds 65 ‘even more aesthetically-pleasing renderings’. Available in two editions, Essential and Expert, a single DxO FilmPack 4 license can be used as a plugin for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Apple Aperture, and DxO Optics Pro, and as a standalone application for Mac and Windows. Click through for the press release.
The HTC One smartphone made headlines with its claims about ‘ultrapixel technology,’ which the company used to describe the device’s 4MP CMOS sensor. While current competitors boast 8-13MP cameras, HTC is betting on fewer, larger pixels a same-sized sensor to offer better image quality. But does the innovative approach work? We’ve put the HTC One and its ultrapixels through our rigorous real life and studio testing trials to find out. See how it fared at connect.dpreview.com.
Scientists at Bell Labs have built a prototype camera that uses no lens and a single-pixel sensor. This idea is based around a grid of small apertures that each direct light rays from different parts of the scene to the sensor, and can be opened and closed independently. The sensor makes a series of measurements with different combinations of open apertures, and uses this data to reconstruct the scene in front of the camera. No lens to focus the resultant image means infinite depth of field and low cost. Click through for more details and a link to the original research.