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Shimoda Designs launches its new ‘ultra-aggressive’ Action X Series camera bags

16 Oct

Camera bag manufacturer Shimoda has launched its Kickstarter campaign for the Action X Camera Bags, its latest camera bag series that builds upon Shimoda’s Adventure Series. The Action X series includes three backpacks, two updated roller bags and a number of add-on accessories.

Pitched as an ‘ultra-aggressive line of camera bags and accessories,’ the Action X Series is made to withstand nearly any environment you throw at them while offering plenty of flexibility to fit your needs thanks to the internal Core Units and modular accessories.

Action X Backpacks

The X50 backpack is the mid-sized model that offers 50 liters of internal capacity at its smallest and up to 58 liters when the roll-top section is completely filled.

Starting with the backpacks, Shimoda is offering three sizes: the X30, X50 and X70. These bags offer roughly the internal volume, in liters, of their respective names and offer a roll-top design that can be used to shrink or expand the internal volume as needed.

Rolling the top closed is a fairly straightforward process, but in the event you forget, don’t worry—Shimoda included instructions right on the bag.

Like their Adventure Series counterparts, the bags offer a number of features, including height-adjustable and swappable shoulder straps, a 15-inch laptop sleeve on the back panel, dual carrying handles, weatherproof designs and countless straps and attachment points for attaching almost anything to the bag, be it a water bottle, tripod, helmet, skis or even a sleeping bag.

Tucked inside the bag is a 50ºF down-alternative sleeping bag, a single-person hammock and an insulated sleeping pad with a windbreaker jacket underneath it all.

The most noticeable difference between the Adventure Series and Action X Series is the new roll-top design that compresses and expands to your needs. However, there’s also a new removable belt and a number of new shoulder strap options, including a trio of female-specific shoulder straps, to ensure the most comfortable fit possible.

This is what the bag looks like folded up with the gear from the previous picture inside.

We were sent a pre-production X50 review unit (with a DSLR Medium Core Unit) to take original photos with for this article and test out before launch. Having spent time with Shimoda’s Adventure Series bags in the past, it’s clear from our time with the X50 backpack that Shimoda has been hard at work fixing a number of sore spots within its inaugural camera bag lineup.

The Core Unit’s side flap now folds neatly into a little slot on the backpack’s side access point, which makes it much easier to access a camera kit quickly without removing the bag from your back.

The most notable improvement from our experience with the bag was the updated side access pockets. On the original Adventure Series camera bags, side access was possible, but it seemed like a bit of an afterthought. The Action X Series dramatically improves side access with the V2 Core Units and a clever little slot in the side access panel that now allows the Core Unit to open with the side access panel on the backpack, making it exponentially easier to access a camera or drone without the need to entirely remove the backpack.

The side access is nice, but when you need access to all of your gear, this is how you’ll get it.

The roll-top design of the Action X Series also proved to be a nice change of pace from the Adventure Series. Not only does it clear up clutter on the top of the bag compared to the Adventure Series, it was also beneficial when we needed to shrink or expand the internal storage depending on what gear we were carrying with us on a given day.

The shoulder straps attached to our X50 pre-production model were the standard straps. Also available is a padded strap and three different female-specific straps with thoughtful contours and padding location.

We didn’t get to test out any of the new female-specific shoulder strap designs or the padded ‘Plus’ shoulder straps, but just having the option to swap out shoulder straps is a welcomed feature that very few other camera backpacks offer.

Updated Roller Bags

In addition to new backpacks, Shimoda has also launched updated roller bags: the Carry On and a new DV (Digital Video) version. The Carry On is essentially the same as the previous roller Shimoda offered, but improves durability and adds new 100mm wheels, which provide more clearance from the ground and are both smoother and quieter than the first-generation roller bags. The new DV version is identical to its Carry On counterpart, but larger in each dimension to offer more real estate when carrying larger video equipment and/or super telephoto lenses.

Core Units

As with Shimoda’s adventure series, the new Action X Camera Bags work alongside Shimoda’s Core Units to protect camera gear inside the bag and make it easy to transfer gear from one bag to another or from a backpack to a roller bag. The updated Core Units come in five sizes: Mirrorless Medium, DSLR Medium, DSLR Large, DV Large and DV Extra Large. Shimoda has provided the below graphic to show what bags are compatible with the different Core Unit sizes.

Aside from the new side-access functionality, the V2 Core Units are essentially identical to the first generation units, aside from the addition of two larger sizes.

Accessories

The Top Loader accessory is large enough to carry a camera body and lens or a small drone kit.

In addition to new bags and updated Core Units, Shimoda has also added a few new accessories, including a new Top Loader bag for smaller kits, a 4 Panel Wrap for organizing cables and a Stuff Sack Kit for compressing clothes and other gear.

Wrapping up

Shimoda has already surpassed its $ 30K goal on Kickstarter. There are countless kit variations available through Kickstarter, but the basic X30 Starter Kit — which includes the backpack, a Medium Mirrorless Core Unit and a Rain Cover — starts at $ 250. Prices go up from there depending on the size of bag you want and the Core Units and accessories you want alongside the bags.

The first backpacks are expected to ship December 2019 to ‘Anywhere in the world.’

Disclaimer: Remember to do your research with any crowdfunding project. DPReview does its best to share only the projects that look legitimate and come from reliable creators, but as with any crowdfunded campaign, there’s always the risk of the product or service never coming to fruition.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Meike launches 85mm F.28 Macro manual lens for Nikon Z-Mount

16 Oct

The previously launched Meike 85mm F2.8 Macro full-frame and APS-C lens is now available for Nikon Z-mount, the company has announced. As with the Canon RF version that followed the model launched for Canon EF, Sony E/FE and Nikon F, the new Nikon Z-mount variant features 8 groups in 11 elements, an F2.8 – F22 aperture, 0 – 1.5x magnification and 0.25m minimum focusing distance.

Meike describes the lens as ideal for macro and portrait photography, offering a durable all-metal body and moisture and dust resistance, a metal bayonet, multi-layer coating to minimize reflections, manual focus ring, and included lens hood.

The full lens specs are:

  • Lens type: Manual macro lens
  • Mount: Canon-RF/Nikon-Z
  • Aperture: F/2.8-F/22
  • Lens Structure: 8 Groups 11 Elements
  • Coating: Multi-layer coating
  • Min. Focus: 0.25m
  • Magnification: 1.5:1
  • Filter size: 55
  • Length: 120mm (Nikon Z / Canon RF)
  • Weight: 500g
  • Lens angle: 28.2°—15.9°

The Meike 85mm F2.8 macro lens for Nikon Z is now available for $ 269.99 directly from Meike Global.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Google Pixel 4 adds telephoto lens, improved portrait mode and HDR in live view

15 Oct

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Google officially unveiled the Pixel 4 today, with the addition of a telephoto camera headlining the camera updates. Other improvements include an enhanced live view experience showing the approximated effects of HDR in real time, added controls for adjusting exposure and tone mapping prior to image capture, and an updated portrait mode with better depth mapping thanks to the additional rear camera.

The Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL offer 5.7″ and 6.3″ OLED displays respectively, each with a 90Hz variable refresh rate that Google calls ‘Smooth Display.’ Gone is the fingerprint sensor on the rear of the device, replaced by face unlock. Also new is a technology called Soli, comprising a radar chip that detects hand motions. Called Motion Sense, this feature makes it possible to skip songs and silence calls with a wave of your hand.

As is the case with high-profile phone launches, along with the main specifications the camera updates are also the center of attention (in fact, Annie Leibovitz made an appearance). In addition to the new F2.4, optically stabilized telephoto camera (about 48mm equiv.), Google has introduced improved Super Resolution Zoom for up to 8x digital zoom. In fact, the telephoto camera uses a hybrid of optical and digital zoom at its default zoom setting to achieve approximately 2x zoom.

The process of taking photos has been improved on the Pixel 4 as well. On previous models, the results of Google’s impressive HDR rendering could only be seen after capture – now, machine learning is used to approximate the effect in real-time for a much more ‘what you see is what you get’ experience.

Google Pixel 4 official sample images

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Additional exposure controls are also available during image capture. Two new sliders give users direct control of overall scene brightness and rendering of shadows, as compared to the single exposure slider offered by the Pixel 3. Google also says the Pixel 4’s camera is more responsive and stable compared to the Pixel 3, thanks to 6GB of RAM at its disposal.

Portrait mode should see significant improvements as well. The mode now uses information from the telephoto camera as well as split pixels to judge subject distance, creating a better depth map than was previously possible only using split pixels. Portrait mode’s range has also been extended, making it possible to capture large objects as well as human subjects from farther back than was possible on the Pixel 3.

While the telephoto camera lends depth information, the standard camera with a 1.5x digital zoom is used for the image itself. Background blur is now applied to the Raw image before tone mapping, with the aim of creating more SLR-like bokeh. The updated Portrait mode should also handle human hair and dog fur better, and Google says that its face detection has been improved and should handle backlit subjects better.

All camera modes will benefit from improved, learning-based white balance – previously used only in Night Sight

An astrophotography mode is added to Night Sight, using longer shutter speeds to capture night skies. Additionally, all camera modes will benefit from improved, learning-based white balance – previously used only in Night Sight. Google has also done some white balance tuning for certain light sources.

Google has reduced the number of front-facing cameras from two back down to one. Citing the popularity of the ultra-wide selfie camera, the Pixel 4’s single front-facing camera offers a focal length that’s a happy medium between the standard and ultra-wide options on the Pixel 3.

Google Pixel 4 pre-orders start today; Pixel 4 starts at $ 799 and Pixel 4 XL starts at $ 899. Both will ship on October 24th. It will be available for all major US carriers for the first time, including AT&T.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Canon’s 32MP chip marks the end of the 24MP APS-C era

15 Oct
The 32MP sensor in the EOS 90D not only tells us about Canon’s APS-C future but also puts pressure on other camera makers to move beyond the 24MP Sony Semiconductor chips that have underpinned so many models

If you’ve bought an APS-C camera in the past few years, there’s a reasonable chance it was built around one of the 24MP sensors from Sony Semiconductor. Since the first version arrived, back in the NEX-7 and a77, it’s been at the heart of a series of excellent cameras from Nikon, Pentax, Ricoh, Fujifilm and, of course, Sony itself.

But the arrival of two newer, higher pixel-count sensors, both of which outperform those 24MP chips in meaningful ways, is likely to herald the end of the 24MP era.

The sensor in the NEX-7 expanded on the excellent low noise, high dynamic range performance of the 12 and 16MP CMOS ‘Exmor’ chips but, especially in its later, copper-wired version, helped usher-in the era of 4K video shooting. But time and technology move on, and the impressive results we saw from Canon’s new 32MP sensor move the battle to higher resolutions, which will push other camera makers to demand more from their own suppliers.

Closing the gap

Canon’s own 24MP sensors closed much of the DR gap that had existed between their cameras and the Sony Semi-based ones, but our DR testing of the 90D suggests the disparity is now even smaller. There’s still a visible difference, but it’s getting small enough that it’d only keep you awake at night if you shot two cameras side-by-side.

And offering more

Having all but caught up in this previous area of weakness, the 32MP Canon pulls ahead in other respects: paired with a sharp lens, the new sensor will resolve recognizably more detail than a 24MP camera can. Its high ISO noise performance looks good, too, when compared at a common output size. And that’s without even considering the lower risk of artifacts that Canon’s dual-pixel design offers, compared with other on-sensor PDAF implementations.

Even scrutinized at 1:1 level (which isn’t necessarily the most natural use of 32MP), the 90D’s sensor can produce impressive amounts of detail.

Canon 90D | 16-35mm F2.8L II | ISO 100 | F5.6 | 1/640 sec
Photo: Dan Bracaglia

4K keeps rolling

We were rather less impressed with the Canon chip when it comes to video. Its full-width output is noticeably less detailed than most of its contemporaries. Some of this may be down to overly conservative sharpening and a desire to avoid aliasing, but the resolution capture appears to be lower even when compared with cameras natively sampling a 3840 x 2160 pixel region, let alone the results from a chip that oversamples.

But this chink in Canon’s armor doesn’t leave room for the 24MP chip to strike back. Because, even in its faster, copper-wired iteration, the Sony Semiconductor sensor is starting to show its age. Rolling shutter is visible (often to an unpleasant degree) on many of the cameras that try to pull 4K from these 24MP sensors. However, it’s not just the Canon chip that they have to now compete with.

The 26MP sensor in Fujifilm’s X-T3 not only delivers 4K 60p, for those who need it, but it also delivers detailed 4K 30p with impressively low rolling shutter rates.

For video, the best APS-C chip on the market is arguably the 26MP chip in Fujifilm’s X-T3 and X-T30 model. These are almost certainly Sony Semiconductor products, too, capable of much less jello-prone oversampled 4K and even 4K/60p if you can live with a bit of a crop.

In some parallel universe, it would be the 4K-capable 28MP chip from Samsung’s NX1 that we’d be recognizing here. Sadly its low sales and Samsung’s withdrawal from the market meant the 24MP era lasted rather longer

With the 24MP sensors looking outdated in terms of both stills and video performance, it’s likely we’ll see more cameras moving to these newer, higher resolution sensors. Despite what you may have heard, the ‘megapixel race’ is far from over. And new cameras will be all the better for it.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Video: How a film camera superimposes the time and date onto a photograph

15 Oct

Have you ever wondered how film cameras expose the date and time the image was captured directly onto the negative? While this little detail might seem like a straightforward process at a cursory glance, the actual implementation is far more interesting than you likely expect.

YouTube channel Applied Science has shared a 14-minute video that details the inner workings of how film cameras impose the date and time onto the film negative. For the video, presenter Ben Krasnow tears apart a seemingly unbranded camera with the model number ‘PC620D.’

While the entire video is well worth a watch for all of the interesting tidbits Krasnow finds along the way, the system works by projecting light from a small incandescent bulb through a micro LCD projector, which in turn exposes a small portion of the film negative when the shutter is pressed.

As for the orange/red coloring often associated with the ‘stamped’ time on a photograph, Krasnow concludes the coloring is due to the light being projected through the film substrate before hitting the silver halide particles, which in turn causes the otherwise white light to have its signature orange glow.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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The Flujo Signature Pro is a USB-C hub with built-in M.2 SSD expandable storage

15 Oct

A new Kickstarter campaign launched in collaboration with Singapore-based Flujo presents Signature Pro, a product claimed to be the first SSD enclosure with an HDMI port that also functions as an adapter hub for USB devices and SD cards. The accessory was designed for graphics professionals and others who deal with large amounts of data, external displays and dongles.

Flujo Signature Pro is around the size of a smartphone, offering USB-C connectivity and M.2 SSD support for use as an external drive. Unlike other external SSDs, however, Signature Pro also packs an HDMI port; it can be connected to a laptop, for example, via Thunderbolt 3 as an external drive and also drive an external 4K monitor via HDMI, offering both functionalities while only using a single port on the computer.

In total, Signature Pro features two USB-A 3.1 Gen 2 ports with up to 10Gbps speeds and power for USB devices, a USB 3.0 TF card reader and a UHS-I SD card reader, a USB-A 2.0 port, a USB-C power delivery port with up to 100w, the Thunderbolt 3 port with support for up to 4K/5K 60Hz video and up to 40Gbps data speeds, and an NVME M.2 PCIe enclosure for SSDs.

The enclosure is made from aluminum; it measures 140 x 72 x 10.45mm (5.5 x 2.8 x 0.4in), making it around the size of an ordinary smartphone. The team has already exceeded its funding goal on Kickstarter where the Signature Pro is offered for pledges of roughly $ 150 USD. The company estimates that products will start shipping to backers in November 2019.

Disclaimer: Remember to do your research with any crowdfunding project. DPReview does its best to share only the projects that look legitimate and come from reliable creators, but as with any crowdfunded campaign, there’s always the risk of the product or service never coming to fruition.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Report: Stalker used eye reflections in online photos to locate, assault pop star

15 Oct
Screenshot from the NHK World-Japan newscast.

A news report from NHK World-Japan claims a crazed fan used eye reflections in images uploaded to social media, among other things, to track down a famous Japanese pop star’s condominium in Tokyo where he allegedly assaulted her.

The report claims Hibiki Sato admitted to figuring out which train station the star left to walk home by studying the light direction visible in some of her videos, as well as a reflection of the station visible in her eyes in an image she uploaded to social media. Equipped with those details, Sato allegedly waited at the station for the pop start to arrive, followed her to her residence, and assaulted her.

Though the situation is bizarre, the idea of high-resolution images inadvertently revealing information via eye reflections isn’t new. In 2013, for example, a study published in PLOS revealed that it is possible to extract images of identifiable bystanders from eye reflections captured in high-resolution images. The technique was presented as a potential tool for helping law enforcement gather data as part of investigations, but it’s clear the concept can be used by anyone for nefarious reasons as well.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How does iPhone 11 Night Mode compare to Google Pixel 3 Night Sight?

15 Oct

Many smartphones today take great images in broad daylight. That’s no surprise – when there’s a lot of light, it doesn’t matter so much that the small smartphone sensor doesn’t collect as many photons as a larger sensor: there’s an abundance of photons to begin with. But smartphone image quality can take a nosedive as light levels drop and there just aren’t many photons to collect (especially for a small sensor). That’s where computational techniques and burst photography come in.

Low light performance is a huge differentiator that separates the best smartphones from
the worst

Low light performance is a huge differentiator that separates the best smartphones from the worst. And Google’s Night Sight has been the low-light king of recent1, thanks to its averaging of many (up to 15) frames, its clever tile-based alignment to deal with hand movement and motion in the scene, and its use of a super-resolution pipeline that yields far better resolution, particularly color resolution, and lower noise than simple frame stacking techniques.

With the iPhone 11, Apple launched its own Night Mode to compete with offerings from Android phones. It uses ‘adaptive bracketing’ to combine both long and short exposures (to freeze any movement) to build a high quality image in low light conditions. Let’s see how it stacks up compared to Google’s Night Sight and Apple’s own previous generation iPhone XS.

The set-up

‘Low light performance’ is difficult to sum up in one number or picture when it comes to computational imaging. Different devices take different approaches, which ultimately means that comparative performance across devices can vary significantly with light level. Hence we’ve chosen to look at how the iPhone 11 performs as light levels decrease from evening light before sunset to very low light conditions well after sunset. The images span an hour-long time frame, from approximately 500 lux to 5 lux. All shots are handheld, since this is how we expect users to operate their smartphones. The iPhone 11 images spanning this time period are shown below.

7:00 pm, evening light
1/60 | ISO 100
485 lux | 7.6 EV

7:25 pm, late evening light
1/8 | ISO 250
25 lux | 3.4 EV
7:50 pm, low light
1/4 | ISO 640
5 lux | 1 EV		 8:05 pm, very low light
1/8 | ISO 1250
<5 lux | <1 EV

Note that Night mode is only available with the main camera unit, not the 2x or 0.5x cameras. And before we proceed to our comparisons, please see this footnote about the rollovers and crops that follow: on ‘HiDPI’ screens like smartphones and higher-end laptops/displays, the following crops are 100%, but on ‘standard’ displays you’ll only see 50% crops.2

Now, on to the comparisons. In the headings, we’ve labeled the winner.

Evening light (485 lux) | Winner: Google Pixel 3

Before sunset, there’s still a good amount of available light. At this light level (485 lux, as measured by the iPhone 11 camera), the option for Night mode on iPhone 11 is not available. Yet Night Sight on the Google Pixel 3 is available, as it is in all situations. And thanks to its averaging of up to 15 frames and its super-resolution pipeline, it provides far more detail than the iPhone 11.

It’s not even close.

Take a look at the detail in the foreground trees and foliage, particularly right behind the fence at the bottom. Or the buildings and their windows up top, which appear far crisper on the Pixel 3.

iPhone 11 (Night mode unavailable)

Pixel 3 Night Sight

Late evening light (25 lux) | Winner: Google Pixel 3

As the sun sets, light levels drop, and at 25 lux we finally have the option to turn on Night Mode on the iPhone, though it’s clearly not suggested by Apple since it’s not turned on by default. You’ll see the Night Mode option as a moon-like icon appearing on the bottom left of the screen in landscape orientation. Below we have a comparison of the iPhone with Night Mode manually turned on next to the Google Pixel 3 Night Sight (also manually enabled).

iPhone 11 Night mode (manually enabled)

Pixel 3 Night Sight

There’s more detail and far less noise – particularly in the skies – in the Google Pixel 3 shot. It’s hard to tell what shutter speeds and total exposure time either camera used, due to stacking techniques using differing shutter speeds and discarding frames or tiles at will based on their quality or usability. But it appears that, at best, the Pixel 3 utilized 15 frames of 1/5s shutter speeds, or 3s total, while the iPhone 11 indicated it would use a total of 1s in the user interface (the EXIF indicates 1/8s, so is likely un-representative). In other words, here it appears the Pixel 3 used a longer total exposure time.

Apart from that, though, the fact that the iPhone result looks noisier than the same shot with Night Mode manually turned off (not shown) leads us to believe that the noisy results are at least in part due to Apple’s decision to use less noise reduction in Night Mode. This mode appears to assume that the longer overall exposures will lead to lower noise and, therefore, less of a need for noise reduction.

However, in the end, it appears that under these light levels Apple is not using a long enough total exposure (the cumulative result of short and long frames) to yield low enough noise results that the lower noise reduction levels are appropriate. So, in these conditions when it appears light levels are not low enough for Apple to turn on Night Mode by default, the Google Pixel 3 outperforms, again.

Low light (5 lux) | Winner: Tie

iPhone 11 Night mode (default)

Pixel 3 Night Sight

As light levels drop further to around 5 lux, the iPhone 11 Night mode appears to catch up to Google’s Night Sight. Take a look above, and it’s hard to choose a winner. The EXIF data indicates the Pixel used 1/8s shutter speeds per frame, while the iPhone used at least 1/4s shutter speed for one or more frames, so it’s possible that the iPhone’s use of longer exposure times per frame allows it to catch up to Google’s result, despite presumably using fewer total frames. Keynotes from Apple and personal conversations with Google indicate that Apple only uses up to 8-9 frames of both short and long exposures, while the Pixel uses up to 15 frames of consistent exposure, for each phone’s respective burst photography frame-stacking methods.

Very low light (< 5 lux) | Winner: iPhone 11

iPhone 11 Night mode (default)

Pixel 3 Night Sight

As light levels drop even further, the iPhone 11 catches up to and surpasses Google’s Night Sight results. Note the lower noise in the dark blue sky above the cityscape. And while overall detail levels appear similar, buildings and windows look crisper thanks to lower noise and a higher signal:noise ratio. We presume this is due to the use of longer exposure times per frame.

It’s worth noting the iPhone, in this case, delivers a slightly darker result, which arguably ends up being more pleasing, to me anyway. Google’s Night Sight also does a good job of ensuring that nighttime shots don’t end up looking like daytime, but Apple appears to take a slightly more conservative approach.

We shot an even darker scene to see if the iPhone’s advantage persisted. Indeed, the iPhone 11’s advantage became even greater as light levels dropped further. Have a look below.

iPhone 11 Night Mode On

(Night Mode Off)

Pixel 3 Night Sight On

(Night Sight Off)

As you can see, the iPhone 11 delivers a more pleasing result, with more detail and considerably less noise, particularly in peripheral areas of the image where lens vignetting considerably lowers image quality as evidenced by the drastically increased noise in the Pixel 3 results.

Ultimately it appears that the lower the light levels, the better the iPhone 11 performs comparatively.

A consideration: (slightly) moving subjects

Neither camera’s night mode is meant for photographing moving subjects, but that doesn’t mean they can’t deal with motion. Because these devices use tile-based alignment to merge frames to the base frame, static and moving subjects in a scene can be treated differently. For example, on the iPhone, shorter and longer exposures can be used for moving and static subjects, respectively. Frames with too much motion blur for the moving subjects may be discarded, or perhaps only have their static portions used if the algorithms are clever enough.

Below we take a look at a slightly moving subject in two lighting conditions: the first dark enough for Night mode to be available as an option on the iPhone (though it isn’t automatically triggered until darker conditions), and the second in very dim indoor lighting where Night mode automatically triggers.

Night Mode

Standard Mode

Although I asked my subject to stay still, she moved around a bit as children are wont to do. The iPhone handles this modest motion well. You’ll recall that Apple’s Night mode uses adaptive bracketing, meaning it can combine both short and long exposures for the final result. It appears that the exposure times used for the face weren’t long enough to avoid a considerable degree of noise, which is exacerbated by more conservative application of noise reduction to Night mode shots. Here, we prefer the results without Night mode enabled, despite the slight watercolor painting-like result when viewed at 100%.

We tested the iPhone 11 vs. the Google Pixel 3 with very slightly moving subjects under even darker conditions below.

iPhone 11
Night Mode

iPhone 11
Deep Fusion

Pixel 3
Night Sight

Pixel 3
Regular camera

Here you can see that Apple’s Night mode yields lower noise than with the mode (manually) turned off. With the mode turned off, it appears Deep Fusion is active3, which yields slightly more detail at the cost of more noise (the lack of a smeary, watercolor painting-like texture is a giveaway that Deep Fusion kicked in). Neither iPhone result is as noise-free and crisply detailed as the Pixel 3 Night Sight shot, though. We can speculate that the better result is due to either the use of more total frames, or perhaps more effective use of frames where the subject has slightly moved, or some combination thereof. Google’s tile-based alignment can deal with inter-frame subject movement of up to 8% of the frame, instead of simply discarding tiles and frames where the subject has moved. It is unclear how robust Apple’s align-and-merge algorithm is comparatively.

Vs. iPhone XS

We tested the iPhone 11 Night Mode vs. the iPhone XS, which has no Night Mode to begin with. As you can see below, the XS image is far darker, with more noise and less detail than the iPhone 11. This is no surprise, but it’s informative to see the difference between the two cameras.

iPhone XS

iPhone 11

Conclusion

iPhone 11’s Night Mode is formidable and a very welcome tool in Apple’s arsenal. It not only provides pleasing images for its users, but it sometimes even surpass what is easily achievable by dedicated cameras. In the very lowest of light conditions, Apple has even managed to surpass the results of Google’s Night Sight, highly regarded – and rightfully so – as the industry standard for low light smartphone photography.

But there are some caveats. First, in less low light conditions – situations you’re actually more likely to be shooting in – Google’s use of more frames and its super-resolution pipeline mean that its Pixel 3 renders considerably better results, both in terms of noise and resolution. In fact, the Pixel 3 can out-resolve even the full-frame Sony a7S II, with more color resolution and less color aliasing.

Second, as soon as you throw people as subjects into the mix, things get a bit muddled. Both cameras perform pretty well, but we found Google’s Night Sight to more consistently yield sharper images with modest subject motion in the scene. Its use of up to 15 frames ensures lower noise, and its align-and-stack method can actually make use of many of those frames even if you subject has slightly moved, since the algorithm can tolerate inter-frame subject movement of up to ~8% of the frame.

If you’re photographing perfectly still scenes in very low light, Apple’s iPhone 11 is your best bet

That shouldn’t undermine Apple’s effort here which, overall, is actually currently class-leading under very, very low light conditions where the iPhone can use and fuse multiple frames of very long exposure. We’re told the iPhone 11 can use total exposure times of 10s handheld, and 28s on a tripod. Google’s Night Sight, on the other hand, tends to use an upper limit of 1/3s per frame handheld, or up to 1s on a tripod. Rumors however appear to suggest the Pixel 4 being capable of even longer total exposures, so it remains to be seen who will be the ultimate low light king.

Currently though, if you’re photographing perfectly still scenes in very low light, Apple’s iPhone 11 is your best bet. For most users, factoring in moving subjects and less low light (yet still dark) conditions, Google’s Night Sight remains the technology to beat.

Footnotes:

1 Huawei phones have their own formidable night modes; while we haven’t gotten our hands on the latest P30 Pro, The Verge has its own results that show a very compelling offering from the Chinese company.

2 A note about our presentation: these are rollovers, so on desktop you can hover your mouse over the states below the image to switch the crop. On mobile, simply tap the states at the bottom of each rollover to switch the crop. Tap (or click) on the crop itself to launch a separate window with the full-resolution image. Finally, on ‘Retina’ laptops and nearly all modern higher-end smartphones, these are 100% crops (each pixel maps 1 display pixel); however, on ‘standard’ (not HiDPI) displays these are 50% crops. In other words, on standard displays the differences you see are actually under-represented. [return to text]

3We had updated the iPhone 11 to the latest iOS 13.2 public beta by the time this set of shots was taken; hence the (sudden) availability of Deep Fusion.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Ilford Photo teases upcoming film stock release in multiple formats

14 Oct

Ilford Photo has posted a teaser on Twitter that appears to show the launch date of an upcoming release (or re-release) of a film stock.

In addition to a release date and time — 3pm (unknown time zone) on October 24, 2019 — Ilford shared four silhouetted images of different film formats. The obvious ones are the 35mm film canister, the roll of 120 film and the vertical 8 x 10 image. But the image with the black background isn’t as clear as the others, although the silhouette does depict a rectangle with what appears to have a 4:3 aspect ratio.

There’s plenty of speculation as to what this tweet is teasing, but Ilford Photo isn’t giving away any hints (aside from the fact it’s not ‘IlfoColor’), so it looks like we won’t know for sure for another ten days.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Ricoh releases firmware version 1.30 for its GR III camera system

14 Oct

Ricoh has released a firmware update for its GR III camera that brings new and improved features to the compact camera.

Below is the changelog provided by Ricoh:

Add the following enhanced features

    • [Cross Processing] has been added to [Image control] of the??6?[Image Process Setting] menu in the [Still Image Settings].
    • [Cross Processing] has been added to [Image control] of the??6?[Image Process Setting] menu in the [Movie Settings].
    • [Crop] and [Touch AF] can be registered to [ADJ Mode Setting] of the?C?2?[Customize Control] menu in the [Customize Settings].
    • [Touch AF] can be registered to [Fn Button Setting] of the?C?2? [Customize Control] menu in the [Customize Settings].
  • For more details click here.

Improved Contents

  • Improved the AF performance of [Macro Mode] in dark places and low contrast.
  • Changed to take over as the initial value after the next time when developing with [JPEG Recorded Pixels] setting changed in RAW development.
  • When preparing to shoot with the shutter button, change the point that the electronic level is hidden by the guide display.
  • Improved stability for general performance.

You can download firmware version 1.30 via Ricoh’s support page for the GR III. To ensure the update goes well, format the SD card in-camera and use a fully-charged battery before applying the firmware.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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