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Alien Skin Exposure X3 review

20 Mar

Alien Skin Exposure X3 3.5
$ 149 | www.alienskin.com/exposure/ | Buy Now

This review is based on use of Exposure X3 and a beta version of Exposure X3 Complete Workflow Update for Mac.

Introduction

We’ve reached the point with image editing software that most basic features are covered. Correcting for exposure, saturation, and other settings are the expected baseline, which means applications need something more to differentiate themselves.

Some, like Skylum’s Luminar or Serif’s Affinity Photo (see Review: Affinity Photo 1.5.2 for desktop), are competing on price, along with the fact that they don’t require subscription plans.

Add to the mix Alien Skin Software’s Exposure X3. It’s competitive on price—$ 149 on its own, or $ 199 for a bundle that includes a couple of the company’s utilities, with no subscription—but it also includes several unique features that demonstrate the company is willing to tailor the software experience to how its customers use the product.

Differentiation in organizing

Like Adobe’s Lightroom family of products, Exposure X3 is both an image editor and an organizer for managing your photo library. You can preview thumbnails, rate and flag photos, assign keywords, and fill in basic IPTC metadata such as Title, Caption, Copyright, and contact information.

People who capture many images at a time and need fast turnaround will appreciate Exposure X3’s ability to import from multiple connected memory cards at once. You can rename files at import, specify custom destinations (and create presets for folder structures), and apply keywords and metadata during the ingest process. What it doesn’t do, surprisingly, is let you preview thumbnails of what’s coming in to cull shots before they’re copied to disk. It also doesn’t let you specify how to treat Raw + JPEG image pairs; you get both shots as separate images.

Import photos from multiple sources in the same batch.

Reviewing photos is aided by Exposure X3’s Quad and Six layout views, especially when you have several photos from the same capture burst where the subject is similar in each one. Four or six adjacent images in your library are displayed in a grid so you can compare differences between them, such as the expression on a person’s face. (There are also options to compare two or three images at a time.) If one stands out, you can pin it to the screen and compare it to others. The views are synchronized, so zooming in on one zooms them all at the same location in the image.

Compare four similar images at a time in the Quad view.

An important distinction about Exposure X3’s asset management features is that they’re directory-based, not catalog based. Applications such as Lightroom and Apple’s Photos keep track of where your photos are located on disk—sometimes all within the same library file or folder, set up by the software—and store metadata and edits about the images in a central catalog.

The advantage to this approach is that, as long as you continue to use that application to manage everything, all that data is more easily accessed by the software. You don’t need to worry about managing files, because the application does it for you. On the other hand, it means the metadata and edits don’t live with the image files. If you move an original Raw file on disk to a new location, for example, any edits you made would not go along with it. And in the case of Lightroom, moving the file in the Finder or Windows Explorer confuses Lightroom because it’s lost track of the image.

Exposure X3 doesn’t use standard XMP files, as many applications do

Exposure X3 takes a different tack. It reads images from the folders in which they’re stored, and writes edits to a separate sidecar file that lives in the same directory as the image file. When you view a photo in Exposure X3, the software also reads the information in the sidecar file and displays the edits noted there.

However, Exposure X3 doesn’t use standard XMP files, as many applications do. Within every directory of images, it creates a folder hierarchy, “Alien Skin > Exposure X3,” that contains metadata files ending in “.exposurex3” created for every image you edit. Those files use the same structure as XMP files, but can also include editing instructions that only Exposure X3 understands.

Some directory viewing software is just a visual way to traverse the folders on your disk, but Exposure X3 does use some centralized know-how to help you organize photos. The Collections feature lets you create virtual albums to group related photos that may exist in separate directories, such as shots from a single client captured over several photo shoots. Adding photos to a collection doesn’t move the files on disk.

Differentiation in editing

Before Alien Skin released Exposure as a stand-alone application, it was known for its presets that simulated the looks of film stocks and other effects. Those are all there in Exposure X3, and the results are quite good.

Exposure X3’s many presets simulate the looks of old photo processes, favorite film stocks, and more.

Want to preview how a preset will look before you apply it? Mousing over the preset thumbnails reveals the effect on your image, but you can also “audition” up to four presets at a time by selecting an image and dragging the presets you want to open slots.

Compare presets to the same image before applying your pick.

In addition to the basic editing adjustments (tone, color, and so forth), Exposure X3 also includes controls for controlling grain and creating vignettes that introduce variation such as distortion and lump size for more organic results. An IR panel introduces the soft hazy signature look of infrared photos with sliders to control color contrast and the degree of halation (light spread). A Bokeh panel includes a multitude of controls for adding selective focus. Exposure X3.5 brings the Color tools into the present with the addition of granular Hue, Saturation, and Luminance controls, as well as white balance controls listed in Kelvin units and with camera Raw presets.

One feature I stumbled upon is the software’s batch editing feature, which resulted in me accidentally making the same adjustments to several shots at once. Instead of making edits to one photo and then copying them to other images, you simply select all the images you want to change in the grid view or the filmstrip at the bottom of the screen. As you make edits to one, the adjustments are applied to all of the others.

When you make any adjustment, as with Lightroom, the effect is applied to the entire image. Unlike Lightroom, Exposure X3 supports multiple layers, enabling you to isolate adjustments on their own layers. In fact, local adjustments such as brush strokes or radial or linear gradients automatically appear as new layers. Each layer has an automatic mask that hides the adjustments until you expose them with the brush or gradient tools.

If your images are stored in a shared location, such as a Dropbox folder, someone else running Exposure X3 can view the photos

The Portrait Touch Up preset demonstrates this: when you apply it, Exposure X3 creates three layers designed to whiten teeth, smooth skin, and enhance a subject’s iris. Paint over the affected areas to reveal the effects. You can’t apply blend modes between layers, as some applications allow, but you can choose an opacity level for each layer.

Remember earlier when I mentioned that Exposure X3 stores metadata in its own sidecar files? All of the editing information is also stored in the same place, creating an interesting collaborative possibility. If your images are stored in a shared location, such as a Dropbox folder, someone else running Exposure X3 can view the photos. The adjustment data exists in the text-only sidecar files that are updated on both machines as they’re changed.

You’ll want to make sure you’re not both editing at the same time, which can overwrite edits, but it allows you to work on an image together over the phone or in alternating sessions without having to send file revisions back and forth.

Performance

Working with layers and local adjustments in Exposure X3 is a bit of a mixed bag. When editing Raw .RAF files from my FujiFilm X-T1, there was noticeable lag when using the brush, which meant I became accustomed to painting an area and waiting a beat for the result to appear before moving on. The lag was more pronounced when viewing an image at 1:1 zoom; an onscreen Rendering progress indicator showed up often. Even when reviewing images, I saw pauses as the software processed my Raw files.

This was a surprise, because I came to Exposure X3 with the expectation that it tended to do a better job handling the Raw files from Fuji’s X-Trans sensors. The update from version 3.0.6 to 3.5 did improve performance somewhat, but the lag is still noticeable.

I became accustomed to painting an area and waiting a beat for the result to appear before moving on

I also loaded some Nikon .NEF Raw files from a D90, as well as Sony .ARW Raw files from a Sony a7R III. Performance was just fine on the former, and a little slow on the latter’s significantly larger (86 MB) image files. But the X-T1’s images, which max out at 16.3MP (compared to the larger 24.3MP files from the Fujifilm X-T2, which I didn’t have to test) still performed the slowest.

For context, I tested Exposure X3 on a late-2016 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, outfitted with 16GB of RAM (the maximum the machine can handle) and the Radeon Pro 460 graphics processor with 4GB memory (the top-line GPU upgrade when the computer was offered). This isn’t the most powerful Mac available, but it isn’t a slouch, either.

With the caveat that I’m not a software engineer, I suspect one possibility for the lackluster editing performance is that Exposure X3 doesn’t seem to be making use of the high-performance GPU. (You can check this by opening Activity Monitor, switching to the Energy tab, and looking at the Requires High Perf GPU column.)

I was also surprised that the Shadows control seems subpar. Yes, it brightens shadow areas, but it does so by flattening the entire image more than you’d expect; it feels like using a blunt instrument instead of a surgical one.

It’s a reminder that even basic features need attention, as well as the differentiating ones.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Import from multiple sources at the same time
  • Edits and metadata are stored in local files, not a central database
  • Quad layout reviewing
  • High-quality presets
  • Ability to audition presets
  • Fixed price, no subscription

Cons:

  • Frequent rendering lag using Fujifilm Raw files
  • Shadows control is heavy-handed
  • No thumbnail preview during import
  • Raw+JPEG pairs are treated as separate images

Good for:

Photographers looking for non-subscription software that does more than basic editors.

Not good for:

The impatient.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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The Galaxy S9 Plus’ camera is its third most expensive component

20 Mar

Last week the team at iFixit undertook a teardown of the brand new Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus to examine and evaluate the device’s repairability. Now analysts TechInsights have done the same thing, but with a focus on components and costs.

When taking the device apart the team found Samsung’s Fast 2L3 third-generation 12MP, 1.4 µm pixel-pitch Dual Pixel ISOCELL sensor in the main camera and a 12MP, 1.0 µm pixel-pitch Samsung S5K3M3SM in the tele-camera, the same as in the Galaxy Note 8 dual-camera module.

TechInsights also provides cost estimates for all components and at $ 48 the Samsung’s camera setup is the third largest cost block on the device. Only the display at $ 72.50 and the main chipset at $ 68 have a higher impact on the overall figure. Final assembly and testing is estimated as $ 12.50, and the overall manufacturing cost of the device is $ 379.

Given in the US the S9 Plus currently retails at $ 840 unlocked, this should leave a decent margin for covering overheads and, crucially, making a profit. For more technical details and up-close images of most components have a look at the full report on TechInsights.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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East River helicopter tragedy prompts FAA to halt some doors-off flights

20 Mar
Doors-off flight experiences promoted by FlyNYON. Last Sunday’s tragic flight was booked through the company, and operated by Liberty Helicopters.

A photo tour helicopter crash in New York’s East River that claimed the lives of five passengers has prompted closer scrutiny of doors-off flights. For now, the Federal Aviation Administration has ordered a stop to such flights involving restraints that can’t be released quickly in the event of an emergency.

Doors-off helicopter tours are popular among sightseers and aerial photographers, and typically involve sturdy restraints so that passengers can safely lean toward the open sides of the aircraft for better views. Unfortunately, as was the case in last Sunday’s crash, these harnesses can also prevent passengers from escaping a helicopter in the event of an emergency water landing.

Not all doors-off flights operate with the same kinds of harnesses. Some use restraints that allow less freedom of movement, but can be removed more quickly in an emergency. Travel Resource Editor Michael Bonocore wrote recently about his experience in such a doors-off flight.

Less restrictive – and harder to remove – harnesses allow passengers to capture popular ‘shoe selfie’ shots as they can move with more freedom. Last Sunday’s flight employed these kinds of harnesses, as demonstrated for the Associated Press in the video below.

The FAA states that in addition to ordering operators to mitigate the risks of these kinds of harnesses, it will also review its own regulations to identify any potential misapplications.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Sigma interview: ‘This is just the beginning’

19 Mar
Kazuto Yamaki, CEO of Sigma, pictured at the 2018 CP+ show in Yokohama, Japan.

Recently we visited the 2018 CP+ show in Yokohama, Japan and as usual, we booked interviews with senior executives from several major manufacturers, including Sigma. Among the topics covered were Sigma’s determination to make more native Sony E-Mount lenses for mirrorless cameras, and the story behind why wide-angles are such a Sigma specialty.

The following interview has been edited slightly for clarity and flow.

The new Sony E-mount full-frame lenses – did you basically just build-in the MC-11 adapter, or is it more complicated than that?

The MC-11 adapter can be thought of as kind of a translator. Let’s say the camera speaks English, and the lens speaks Japanese. The MC-11 recognizes which lens is attached, and allows the camera and lens to talk to one another. That’s a complicated task. And even with the best translator, conversation isn’t as smooth as it would be between native speakers. It takes time to fine-tune the communication.

What we did was to optimize the communication, for Sony. It’s faster, smoother, and we were able to utilize Sony [communication] protocols in the lenses.

Will you release a USB dock for the new Sony-mount lenses?

We don’t have a USB dock available for these lenses right now, but we’re considering this as an option for the future.

Sigma’s MC-11 adapter can be used to convert Canon, Nikon and Sigma-mount lenses to work on Sony’s full-frame mirrorless cameras.

The new 14-24mm F2.8 joins the 14mm F1.8 at the wide end of Sigma’s lineup – how do these two lenses compare, optically?

In terms of performance, the two lenses are equivalent. When it comes to zoom lenses, a standard zoom lens [like a 24-70mm] is quite challenging to design. We have to make compromises. However, the performance of wide and telephoto zoom lenses is very good, and [can be] equivalent to prime lenses. But of course we can’t implement such fast maximum apertures [in zooms]. Implementing a maximum aperture of F1.8 in the 14mm was very difficult.

We want to create lenses that don’t exist in the industry today

We’ve spoken in the past about your ambition to create more wide-angle zoom lenses – it seems like they’re a Sigma speciality.

In the past, one of our employees who had been with the company since the very beginning was a mountain climber. He was very passionate about wide-angle lenses. That’s one of the reasons Sigma has always specialized in wide-angle lenses. And it’s also quite interesting to challenge ourselves. We still maintain this mentality – we want to create lenses that don’t exist in the industry today.

If you have a choice between designing a lens that will be large, heavy, but optically amazing, or designing one that might be optically less impressive but smaller and lighter, how do you make that decision?

I personally want to develop excellent lenses, at the cost of size and weight. My personal ambition is for Sigma to be a company that is supported by professionals. But that doesn’t mean that we’d always choose to make lenses like this.

Sigma’s new 70mm F2.8 macro prime lens is small, compact and lightweight, thanks to its front-focus mechanism and lack of an image stabilization system.

For example we just released a 70mm F2.8 macro lens. We had the option of including image stabilization, but it would have become much bulkier – probably equivalent in size to our 105mm macro. Because with a macro lens, the focusing group has to move a big distance. If we had added stabilization we would have had to use an inner focusing system, which would have made the lens long, and bulky.

Is that the same reason there’s no stabilization system in the new 105mm, too?

Partly, yes. Also we didn’t want to compromise performance in terms of vignetting, longitudinal aberrations or coma. That’s why the lens is already quite big. If we had been willing to compromise in any one of these areas, the lens could have been more compact. You don’t see lenses of this kind very often, so we wanted to give it as long a life [in the market] as possible.

Sigma’s 105mm F1.4 is a beast of a lens, thanks to Sigma’s ‘no compromise’ approach to optical performance. Mr. Yamaki is hoping that this fast telephoto prime will become a benchmark lens for astrophotography, among other applications.

There’s another reason for our approach to that lens, too. One of the chief designers is very keen on astrophotography, and he wanted to make a lens that was perfect for this kind of photography. Among this community, the Zeiss 135mm F2 is regarded as a benchmark, but it’s relatively slow. Our target was to make a lens with equivalent performance but at F1.4. That’s very difficult.

If you had designed the recently-announced E-mount primes from the ground up for Sony’s full-frame cameras, would they be smaller?

The wide-angle lenses would be, yes. We just announced E-mount versions of the 14mm, 20mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm and 135mm. Probably, the 14mm, 20mm and 24mm lenses could have been smaller [if they were designed for Sony full-frame from the beginning]. But any lens longer than 35mm, they’d be about the same size. Our 35mm F1.4, for example, is about the same size as the Sony 35mm F1.4. But for wider lenses, because of the short flange-back distance of the E-mount, we could make them smaller.

This is one of the reasons we decided on our approach with these lenses. Because the size difference would have been minimal with most of the focal lengths, we focused on making the performance better and smoother, using our existing optical designs.

Some time ago we were skeptical about lens corrections, but the algorithms have been improved so much

So wide-angle lenses benefit most from being designed for short flange-back distances?

Yes. For example the Sony 12-24mm zoom. Sony achieved very good performance with a small size. They rely on distortion correction in the camera body, but it’s an amazing performance. I don’t think we could achieve that kind of performance in a lens of that size for DSLRs.

We already have two Sony-native lenses for Sony – our 16mm and 30mm F1.4 lenses for APS-C. And we already take advantage of distortion correction in those lenses. It’s beneficial for customers. Some time ago we were skeptical about lens corrections, but today the algorithms have been improved so much.

Sony recently released a range of native Sony E-mount prime lenses, which we’re told will give better performance than lenses attached using the MC-11 adapter.

Do you think Sigma has an opportunity to create more lenses for Sony’s APS-C cameras?

We’re going to release another APS-C lens for Sony E-mount this year, probably around Photokina. We need to see what the response from customers is like. If it’s good, we’ll continue development.

We are working on lenses designed from scratch for Sony E-Mount. This is just the beginning

Are you committing to fully supporting Sony full-frame cameras in the future, alongside Canon and Nikon?

Yes. We are also working on [full-frame] lenses designed just for Sony E-Mount, from scratch. These lenses will take advantage of [aspects of] the Sony system. This is just the beginning.

But the [Sony E-mount versions of the Art-series primes] we’ve just released also offer some advantages for customers. For example if you own a Canon EF mount version of any of them, we can convert your lens to a Sony E-mount version, for a charge. And if that user decides to go back to Canon EF in the future, we can even re-convert the lens back again.

Customer support is just as important as the products themselves

In order to do that practically, you’ll need good, fast service facilities. Is improving this kind of service a priority for you?

Recently, in our internal sales meetings, the first thing we’ve been discussing is not actually sales, it’s customer support. Our lenses are intended for high-end users and professionals, and customer support is [therefore] just as important as the products themselves.

Will you create some kind of version of a pro support system outside of Japan?

We’ve been discussing this with our global subsidiaries, and we’re preparing to roll something out. We’ve made great improvements already in terms of customer support, and it’s very important [that we continue to do so].

Which lenses have most impressed you recently from other manufacturers?

The Sony 12-24mm, and the 16-35mm F2.8 GM. They’re very good lenses for mirrorless cameras. The Canon 35mm F1.4 II is also a great lens. Our 35mm F1.4mm is very good but the Canon 35mm is also great. I think these days Canon does a great job. They put so much effort into developing good optics. Every time they amaze us.

I’m also very interested in the new Tamron 28-75mm F2.8. It’s very compact and lightweight. Of course we haven’t yet seen how it performs, but if the performance is good it should be a great lens, and will be a benchmark for us.

Tamron’s new 28-75mm F2.8 zoom for Sony E-mount is a lens that Mr Yamaki hopes could become a benchmark for his own company, as Sigma works on filling out its lens options for full-frame Sony cameras.

Is there a lens that does not exist right now, which you think should exist?

We successfully developed F1.8 zoom lenses for APS-C. This kind of lens did not exist before. Similarly our F2 zoom for full-frame. That kind of lens did not exist before, either. I can’t give you specific details but we would like to explore that path [further].

Some of our products are planned from a business perspective. But every year we have one or two special projects, where we don’t care too much about sales, but we aim to create unique products. That’s a big motivation for our engineers, and also for me personally. Old manufacturers, like Carl Zeiss, invented many great lenses in the past – and they continue to do so. We would like to do that for the 21st Century.

Our mission is unchanged – we want to provide unique lenses that other manufacturers don’t have. We’ll continue on that path.

A lot of our readers are looking forward to a Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 Art…

I know! And it will come – not too far in the future.

Editor’s note:

We always look forward to speaking to Mr. Yamaki, who stands out as one of the best-liked figures in the entire photography industry in Japan. While many manufacturers seem to prefer to speak about their products as if they existed in a vacuum, Mr. Yamaki is unfailingly candid and open, even when talking about his competitors.

Partly I suspect this reflects the nature of his company – Sigma is primarily a third-party lens manufacturer and as such, of course, it relies on the success of companies like Canon, Nikon and Sony in order to stay in business. Keeping a close eye on the lenses that these manufacturers make is only sensible if Sigma wants to create alternatives that can compete in price and quality.

For the head of a major manufacturer to openly praise specific products made by his main competitors is almost unheard of

But partly, too, it’s the nature of the man. For the head of a major manufacturer to openly praise specific products made by his main competitors is almost unheard of, but over the years we’ve come to expect (and appreciate) such candor from Mr. Yamaki. It’s one of the reasons I always look forward to interviewing him, and why our interviews with him often contain some of the most useful and interesting insights of all the conversations that we have with executives at shows like CP+.

Among the nuggets of information contained in this interview were Sigma’s commitment to develop native Sony E-mount lenses for full-frame cameras in the future, and some interesting information about what kinds of lenses benefit most from being designed for short flange-back mirrorless systems. It’s clear too that Sigma is very focused on improving its post-purchase support, and is actively working to extend its professional service network beyond Japan in the near future. Hopefully this should give more professionals the confidence they need to buy and use Sigma lenses without fear of losing their gear for long periods of time if it ever needs servicing.

Sigma is very focused on improving its post-purchase support, and is actively working to extend its professional service network

I was interested to learn about the background behind Sigma’s new 105mm F1.4 telephoto prime, too. Opportunities for astrophotography are pretty few and far between in a Seattle spring, but after hearing the story behind its inception, I’m keen to see how it performs. And I’m sure I’m not alone in waiting anxiously for a 70-200mm F2.8 in the Art series. Mr. Yamaki specifically mentioned that Sigma is now able to make very high-quality wide and tele zooms, which gives me hope that this lens – whenever it makes it appearance on the market – will be worth the wait.

Previous interviews with Kazuto Yamaki of Sigma:

CP+ 2017: ‘some customers require exceptional lens performance’

CP+ 2015: ‘small office, big factory’

Making ‘Art’: We go inside Sigma’s lens factory (2015)

CP+ 2014: ‘we have survived because we make unique products’

CES 2012: ‘More high-end cameras will be mirrorless in the future’

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Sample Gallery: Documenting a bike build with the Fujifilm X-E3

18 Mar

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We recently got a chance to follow local frame builder Max Kullaway as he created one of his AirLandSea bikes. To document the process, we used the Fujifilm X-E3, the 18-55mm F2.8-4.0 R OIS and a selection of the company’s mid-price F2 prime lenses.

Here are favorites of the photos we got, as the project progressed from bare tubes all the way to rideable bicycle. For the full story, check out our video.

This is sponsored content, created with the support of Amazon and Fujifilm. What does this mean?

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Canon interview: ‘increased competition allows us to level-up’

18 Mar
Canon executives (L-R) Yoshiyuki Mizoguchi, Group Executive of Imaging Communications Business Group, Go Tokura, Chief Executive Officer of Canon’s Image Communications Products Operation, and Naoya Kaneda, Advisory Director and Group Executive of Canon’s Optical Business Group.

At this year’s CP+ show in Yokohama, we sat down with senior executives from several major manufacturers, including Canon. Topics covered during our conversation with Go Tokura, Yoshiyuki Mizoguchi and Naoya Kaneda included Canon’s ambitions for high-end mirrorless cameras, and the importance of responding to changing definitions of image capture from the smartphone generation.

Answers from the three interviewees have been combined, and this interview (which was conducted through an interpreter) has been edited for clarity and flow.

How important is it for Canon to add higher-end mirrorless products to your lineup?

At Canon we have what’s called a ‘full lineup strategy’. This means that we want to satisfy all of the demands in the market, so we have mirrorless and also DSLR, which combined makes an EOS hierarchy. We want to fill the gaps to satisfy customer demands across the board.

The new M50 is an entry-level model, because that’s where the high-volume sales are. We want to establish ourselves in this market, and then move forward [from there]. In accordance with the full lineup strategy, we will be tackling [the mid-range and high-end mirrorless market] going forward.

The EOS M50 offers 4K video and Dual Pixel CMOS AF, but not at the same time. Is there a technical reason for this limitation?

With the EOS 5D Mark IV, we do offer 4K video and Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus, so technically it is feasible. But given the position of the M50 in the lineup, we can’t include all of the features available in a product like the 5D IV. Given the position of the product, we wanted to achieve the optimal balance [of features] in a camera in that range. We’ve optimized the M50 as best we can [for its market position], and within those parameters, the combination of 4K video and Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus was not possible.

Canon’s new EOS M50 offers limited 4K video capability, making it the first of Canon’s mirrorless cameras to go beyond HD video capture.

Another manufacturer that we spoke to estimated that Canon would have a full-frame mirrorless camera within a year. Is that realistic?

That would be nice, wouldn’t it?

The Tokyo Olympics in 2020 is coming up – when we look at photographers shooting with Canon at Tokyo in two years time, what will we see?

The Tokyo Olympics is a very important opportunity for us. If we look at the professional camera market, we would like to introduce a professional model at that time. Having said that, we take reliability very seriously. So when we talk about [creating] a model for the Olympics, we’re not just talking about performance. We’re also want to make sure that we can achieve the same level of reliability that we’ve always delivered [in our professional DSLRs].

The Tokyo Olympics is a very important opportunity for us

We also want to raise Canon’s presence overall, with camera products and also events and services. We have been instructed [by our senior leadership] to maximize the opportunity!

Canon’s gear room at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Major sporting events like this have always been a major focus for Canon, and have often served as showcases for new professional cameras and lenses. The next Olympic Games will be held in Tokyo, in 2020 and is sure to be a major event for Canon.

In your opinion, what is the most important quality for an entry-level camera?

We are always looking for speed, ease of use, and maximum resolution. We’re also thinking about how we can deliver better image quality than a smartphone. So it’s about really focusing on speed, ease of use and image quality. Small size and weight comes into [the calculation] as well, and also the GUI.

Looking beyond the entry-level class towards cameras aimed at high-end amateurs like the 5D class, those customers need even better image quality, and they also want to take more control over operation. They want to expand, and express their creativity. Reliability also comes into play.

The Canon EOS 5D Mark IV offers both 4K video capture and Dual Pixel autofocus – not a combination available lower down in Canon’s ILC lineup (for now).

Do you think that 4K video is a more important feature at the entry-level end of the market, or the enthusiast / professional segment?

We believe that 4K video is important for all market segments, and all users. Given that we have a range of products, we always have to think about how best [to implement 4K] in that class of camera. And you can do more with 4K video in a higher-end camera than in an entry-level model.

Why is that?

The cost required to introduce [features like 4K] into cameras dictates the kind of features that we can introduce [in products of different classes]. 4K is important to offer in all market segments, and in the M50 we’ve achieved 4K at 25 fps, and that’s the best we can do at this time. We can’t introduce all of the features [in an entry-level camera] that we could in a higher-end model. Another point is that consumption of 4K footage in terms of devices to view 4K video – the penetration of those devices in the market, and their adoption, was a little faster than we expected.

In the past, you’ve said that you won’t introduce a high-end mirrorless product until there would be no compromises compared to DSLR technology. Are we getting close?

In the EOS hierarchy we have cameras from entry-level to professional with different features. When it comes to mirrorless cameras, we have entry-level models, and we’ve just about started on the mid-range class. What that tells you is that Canon is confident about mirrorless technology within this range of products.

We still believe there’s work to be done before we can achieve the level of satisfaction that our users are looking for before they could confidently move from DSLR to mirrorless

But if you look at the enthusiast and high-end product class, in terms of both autofocus and viewfinder [experience], we still believe there’s some work to be done before we can achieve the level of satisfaction that our users are looking for before they could confidently move from DSLR to mirrorless. That’s where we are right now. We’re still on the path to development.

So far, the EOS M5 is the nearest thing Canon has made to a high-end mirrorless camera. The M5 is a great product, but a far cry from some of the industry-changing cameras that Canon has been responsible for in the past.

Having said that, it’s not like we don’t have the components required to create a mirrorless model that would be on a par with DSLR models. For example Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus, lenses that can focus quickly, and optical components like the EVF. We have the technology required to create a camera that would be satisfactory. It’s just a matter of combining [those components] together. So you can look forward to our developments in the future.

There’s still a perception among our readers that Canon is a little conservative. Where is Canon innovating right now?

Rather than some of the very novel features that some of our competitors have been introducing, we believe that it’s really important to deliver the basics. Speed, ease of use, and good image quality. Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus is representative of that [philosophy]. It’s not only important for stills photography, but also for video. Only Canon is pursuing this area [of development] right now. We also have Dual Pixel Raw, and we’re looking for new ways of applying [this technology] currently.

Canon’s schematic of its Dual Pixel CMOS AF sensor structure. The top layer illustrates the light-gathering micro-lenses and conventional Bayer-type color filter array. The lower layer shows how each pixel is split into two photo-diodes, left and right, which are colored blue and red respectively. (Note that this does not indicate different color sensitivity.)

With lenses, we introduced the EF 70-300mm [EF70-300mm F4-5.6 IS II USM] zoom lens, and the EF-S 18-135mm [EF-S 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 IS USM] which both have Nano USM focus motors. This makes three focus actuators: ring type, stepping motor and Nano USM. This gives us more options when it comes to optical design. For a super wide lens like the 10-24mm L [EF11-24mm F4L USM] for example, we offer ring-type USM, which provides higher torque. Our optical technology is a strength that we’re proud of.

Maybe Canon lenses don’t look that different to our competitors, but in terms of performance, we’re able to create lenses that are superior

We also have a range of [special] optical materials, and methods to process these materials. If you just look at specs, maybe Canon lenses don’t look that different to our competitors, but in terms of performance, we’re able to create lenses that are superior. It’s also about post-purchase support. Durability, reliability, and the ability to withstand extreme temperatures. Our users are able to enjoy this level of performance and they appreciate that.

We also have a new product – our new Speedlite 470EX-AI flash, for automatic bounce photography. So we believe that we can provide innovation across the system of cameras, lenses and accessories. Our customer base is also diversifying, particularly generations ‘Y’ and ‘Z’. They’re looking for new things. We were just at CES in Las Vegas, where we showed some new concept models. We got a lot of feedback, and we want to turn [the concepts] into a marketable product pretty soon.

When we look at trends in mirrorless technology, we’re considering the technical advancements that are possible.

Clearly, the transition to mirrorless will be a big challenge, technically. When you look ahead to further mirrorless development, are you envisaging a new lens system?

It’s been more than 30 years since we launched our EF lens mount, and we’ve sold more than 130 million EF lenses during that time, so we can’t simply ignore that many lenses in the market. At the same time, when we look at trends in mirrorless technology, we’re considering the technical advancements that are possible. It’s a difficult question to answer, but maybe let your imagination suggest some possibilities!

The move from FD to EF in 1987 was bold but also controversial given the legacy of FD lenses and the lack of compatibility between the two platforms. Do you think that situation will happen again?

That’s a difficult question to answer. There was a lot of discussion and debate about that shift, in 1987, and we’re going through the same thing now. We want to nurture and support our [existing] EF customers and we’re in discussion about that at the moment.

Canon’s recently-announced EF 85mm F1.4L, showing the electronic contacts which are a defining element of the EF lens system, first introduced more than 30 years ago to replace the all-mechanical FD lens platform.

In 1987, the shift was from a mechanical interface to an electronic interface. That [precluded cross-compatibility]. Despite that shift, the change provided significantly more value for our customers, which is why we went ahead. If it turns out that [the introduction of mirrorless] will create a similar situation, this might be a decision that we would take [again]. But we’re not sure yet.

Because we’re already using an electronic interface, the shift will be more gradual [than it was in 1987] so [we would better able to] maintain compatibility.

Looking ahead, what is Canon’s main priority?

We want to improve our product lineup, including lenses. We just released an entry-level model (the EOS M50), and because young people are really getting into photography more actively, the entry-level segment is one that we always need to make sure to tackle.

The entire concept of capturing images has changed over the past couple of years

When it comes to maintaining market share and ensuring growth, what is the most difficult challenge that Canon is facing?

We’ve been producing cameras for a long time, but the entire concept of capturing images has changed over the past couple of years, and we need to engage with this new style of capturing images. The first stage is our new concept cameras. It’s important for us to relax and expand our concepts of image capture.

This is of the several concept cameras that Canon has been showing this year – an ‘intelligent compact camera’ designed to automatically capture images, and intelligently learn about the kinds of pictures you want to take.

Now, maybe the camera can be beside you, or maybe even away from you, and still capture the image that you’re looking for. We need to have the technologies to respond to [these new ways of capturing images] in the way that Canon should.

For a very long time, Canon and Nikon dominated the professional market. There’s a lot more competition these days. Is more competition good for Canon?

More players means more activity in the industry, which is a positive thing. Having said that, of course it’s tough.

Does this pressure generate better ideas? More innovation?

Very much so, and it goes both ways. For all players, to be stimulated by increased competition allows us to level-up across the board.

Is it more important for camera manufacturers to design cameras that behave more like smartphones, or that they communicate the benefits of a dedicated camera to smartphone photographers?

I think we have to do both. We have to continue to evolve the traditional benefits that a camera can provide, and at the same time we have to consider the diversification of image capturing tools, including smartphones, and what they have to offer. Our mission is to pursue both approaches.

Editor’s note:

This interview was the fourth time I’ve spoken to Mr. Tokura in recent years, who has become more senior within Canon since we first met back in 2014. Our conversation at CP+ covered some old ground (the perception among some industry-watchers that Canon is a little conservative, increased competition from the likes of Sony, etc.) but this year I really got the sense from talking to him that Mr. Tokura and his team will have some pretty interesting products to show us in the not too distant future.

We know from previous conversations with both Mr. Tokura and his boss Mr. Maeda that increasing the speed of product development has been a priority at Canon in recent years. Since then, we’ve seen some solid refreshes at the top and middle of Canon’s DSLR lineup (along with some truly excellent new lenses), but a lot of the company’s energy seems to have been directed towards the lower-end, especially within the EOS M lineup. This focus on the entry-level segment of the camera market (‘where the sales are’, as Mr. Tokura said in our interview) makes sense, but I’ve expressed my own disappointment in the past about such a ‘slow and steady’ approach in the face of increasingly fast-moving competition.

Canon has the technology for high-end mirrorless – it just has to put all the pieces together

It’s been a long time coming, but in this interview Mr. Tokura came pretty close to at least hinting that higher-end, perhaps even full-frame mirrorless is imminent – and maybe even within the next 12 months. As he said, Canon has the technology – it just has to put all the pieces together.

Possibly even more exciting is the possibility of a professional model to come by 2020. Back in 2016, Mr. Tokura reminded me that Canon likes to launch flagship models in Olympic years, and the fact that the next Olympiad will be held in Tokyo is likely to present an irresistible opportunity. You heard it here first.

Canon has shaken up the photography market several times in the past, and has the potential to do so again.

Speaking of the future, the Canon executives I spoke to at CP+ were very keen to show me the mockups of a range of concept cameras that were first unveiled at this year’s CES show in Las Vegas, in January. While none are finished, marketable products (yet) it’s clear that Canon is keen to explore products that respond to what Mr. Tokura calls ‘a new style of capturing images’.

Canon is sometimes criticized for taking a conservative approach to product development, and in some cases this is true (although it isn’t always a bad thing). It’s important to remember though that Canon has shaken up the photography market several times in the past, and there’s every chance it could do so again.

Previous interviews with Canon executives:

An interview with the heads of Canon’s L lens factory (2017)

CP+ 2017: ‘We want to be number one in the overall ILC market’

CP+ 2015: ‘Every day I’m saying ‘speed up!’

Photokina 2014: Mirrorless ‘in the very near future’

CP+ 2014: ‘We don’t see the smartphone as an enemy’

CP+ 2013: Interview with Canon’s Masaya Maeda

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Rokinon AF 35mm F2.8 FE sample gallery and impressions

18 Mar

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The Rokinon / Samyang AF 35mm F2.8 FE is an absolutely tiny full-frame lens built for Sony’s E-Mount. Similar in size and specification to Sony’s own Zeiss 35mm F2.8, the Rokinon is listed at an MSRP of $ 349 whereas the Sony is listed at $ 699 at the time of this writing.

So, by virtue of costing half as much as the Sony, does the Rokinon offer merely half the performance? Not exactly. The AF 35mm F2.8 FE may not knock your socks off, but it’s still a solid performer and a great option for budget-oriented E-mount users.

The Rokinon AF 35mm F2.8 FE mounted on a Sony a7R III.

Hold the Rokinon 35mm F2.8 in your hand, and you have to wonder if there’s any glass in it at all. It weighs over an ounce less than the Sony 35mm F2.8, which wasn’t exactly a heavyweight to begin with. It’s also very slightly shorter than its Sony equivalent, though both lenses take 49mm filters and can focus down to 0.35m. Unfortunately, the Rokinon omits the Sony’s claimed weather-sealing, and the lens mount lacks any sort of gasket.

Subjectively, the Rokinon’s plasticky build doesn’t have the premium feel of the Sony (nor would we expect it to at the price), but the construction feels solid. The mount is metal, and the included bayonet mount hood offers a bit of extra protection for the front element. The focus ring is damped enough to prevent accidental turning, but it too suffers an overly plasticky feel.

The Rokinon comes with a compact, bayonet-style hood.

Optical performance is pretty good, even on a 42MP a7R III. It isn’t eye-searingly sharp wide-open, but it’s more than adequate. Bokeh is neither buttery nor overly busy, but out-of-focus highlights take on a cats-eye shape near the edges of the frame, which may or may not be to your taste. Sunstars are possible if you close your aperture far enough, but they’re of average quality.

Autofocus performance is solid. It isn’t as instantaneous as lenses with floating focus elements, but is about on par with Sony’s own 85mm F1.8 and 50mm F1.4 Zeiss – certainly, swift enough for general use.

Though the Rokinon generally exhibits good out-of-focus renderings, there is some green and purple fringing noticeable in the upper-middle of this frame.

Longitudinal chromatic aberration hasn’t been too much of an issue for me, but you can see some green and purple fringing on the high-contrast edges in the upper-middle of the above image. Keep in mind that for our sample gallery, Adobe Camera Raw has a built-in profile for distortion and vignetting corrections. Lateral CA corrections were left off, and the lens seems to control for them fairly well.

It must be said, the Rokinon AF 35mm F2.8 FE is just a fun lens to use. On any a7-series camera, the Rokinon is so small, light and unobtrusive that it basically disappears on the camera body.

Though its F2.8 maximum aperture won’t isolate subjects as well as Rokinon’s or Sony’s F1.4 options, it strikes a great compromise between size, performance, and perhaps most crucially, price. If you’ve been eyeing the Sony Zeiss 35mm F2.8, we think this Rokinon AF 35mm F2.8 FE is also worth a look.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Photo story of the week: Flowing under a solar storm

17 Mar
A night of stunning Northern Lights dancing above Haukland Beach, the Lofoten Islands, Arctic Norway, on a moonless evening.

The serene stream that flows from the surrounding mountains and pours into the Norwegian Sea curved into a beautiful shape, paralleling the curves of the Auroral display. Haukland is a very good location for shooting Aurora, since it has numerous interesting features (such as the mountain and the stream), and since any water left stationary frequently freezes over and supplies more variety and interest. It’s also relatively shielded from artificial lights.

This image was taken in the winter of 2016 during my Lofoten workshop. I used a Sony A7R and a Samyang 14mm F2.8 with a Metabones adapter. The photograph was taken at F2.8, ISO 3200, and 8 sec exposure. The high ISO, wide aperture and long exposure were used to counter the darkness and produce a balanced exposure.

Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez’s work on Instagram, Facebook and 500px, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates. Erez offers photo workshops worldwide.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Sony a7 III dynamic range and high ISO improve over its predecessor

17 Mar

Sony recently announced the a7 III, a comparatively affordable full frame mirrorless camera that incorporates a host of advanced features derived from the a9 and a7R III. The combination of price point and feature set makes it attractive to both enthusiasts and pros, particularly those looking to get into full frame or perhaps even make the switch to mirrorless. While we’ve already shot quite a bit with it and offered our thoughts on the camera as a whole, we hadn’t had a chance to take a deep dive into its image quality performance.

And we know many of you are wondering: what’s the dynamic range like? The high ISO performance?

Let’s take a look.

Low light (high ISO) performance

a7 III
ISO 25,600
a7R III
ISO 25,600
a7 II
ISO 25,600

Low light performance has improved markedly over the a7 II, putting it more or less in-line with the a7R III (and therefore a9) when images are viewed at the same size (we’ve downsized the a7R III shot to 24MP). These are 100% crops here (if you’re viewing on a smartphone or Retina / 4K display, see this footnote* below). Roll over the captions, or click on any of the images to view our full studio scene images for each camera.

This is a great result, but also comes as no surprise: noise performance is broadly determined by a combination of sensor size and technology, and we’ve recently seen some significant improvements to sensor technology made by Sony. In particular, the backside-illuminated (BSI) and dual gain architecture of most recent Sony sensors helps squeeze every last bit of performance out of these already low noise imaging chips. Furthermore, the original a7 and a7 II lagged in high ISO performance, often failing to surpass the best APS-C sensors.

Dynamic range vs. the a7R III

The a7 III more or less matches the base ISO dynamic range of the a7R III, when both are viewed at common size (we’ve normalized all our graphs to 8MP). That means both cameras will give you similar ability to make use of (brighten) shadows in Raw files if you want to show a wider dynamic range than shown with the default tone curve.

In numbers, that’s 14.6 EV and 14.8 EV for the a7 III and a7R III, respectively, which falls within our margin of error. You might see a difference in extreme pushes or exposure adjustments, but it’s not likely to be photographically relevant.

a7 III (orange) vs. a7R III (blue). There’s a slight chance you might notice the 0.2 EV advantage of the a7R III at base ISO or the 0.3 EV advantage of the a7 III at higher ISOs, but we doubt it. As our test scene images show, the two cameras look very similar when viewed at the same output size.

Note the jump in dynamic range at ISO 640 for both cameras. That’s essentially the camera’s second ‘base’ ISO, where the second stage of the dual-gain architecture kicks in. At ISOs 640 and above, most recent Sony sensors use a higher gain mode that essentially amplifies the signal at the pixel-level to get it above the (already pretty low) noise floor.** In laymen’s terms, that just means ‘more picture, less noise’, particularly in shadows – hence the increase in dynamic range.

Our analysis shows the a7 III to just edge out the a7R III at these higher ISOs, albeit only by about 0.3 EV (which happens to be right around our margin of error). You might see this in the deepest shadows – in fact, if you look very closely at the darkest patch in our ISO 25,600 rollover above, you can kind of see a tad bit less noise in the a7 III, but is that photographically relevant? Up to you.

… but it shows a marked improvement over its predecessor

While base ISO dynamic range remains the same as its predecessor, the dual-gain design brings a marked improvement at high ISO. Shadows at high ISO will be notably cleaner on the a7 III, and that’s before you consider the better overall high ISO performance – even in brighter tones – likely due to either a more efficient sensor or lower upstream read noise.

Compared with the a7 II (green), the a7 III (orange) shows much better dynamic range (at least 1.6 EV) at higher ISOs. Also, whereas you can see noise reduction being applied to the a7 II’s Raw at 25,600, it doesn’t kick in until ISO 64,000 (beyond the graph) on the Mark III.

Compressed continuous drive performance

If you shoot compressed Raw, the camera drops to 12-bit sensor readout in continuous drive modes. This negatively impacts dynamic range, dropping 1.4 EV at base ISO and roughly 1 EV at ISO 640. Dynamic range catches up at higher ISOs, though never quite matches the performance of 14-bit readout. Even at ISO 6400, 12-bit files are roughly 0.4 EV behind – though this is unlikely to significantly impact your photography. The differences at lower ISOs and at ISO 640, on the other hand, you might notice in more extreme pushes.

a7 III Uncompressed (orange) vs. Compressed 12-bit (light orange) performance. We’re not sure about the jumps at ISO 160 and 800, but for the most part there’s a drop in dynamic range at lower ISOs that more or less evens out at the higher ISOs.

In Single drive mode, compressed Raw continues to use 14-bit sensor readout, so measured roughly the same dynamic range as Uncompressed (it dropped 0.1 EV, but that’s within our margin of error).

And if you’re confused about when the camera drops to 12-bit – which is the only time you’d see these drops in DR – the only combination that diverges from 14-bit is when you shoot compressed Raw in (any) continuous drive mode. All other combinations of Mechanical or Electronic shutter, drive mode or Raw type are 14-bit.

vs. a7R II

We threw this one in here because the a7 III and a7R II are currently being sold for roughly similar price (the latter is $ 400 more expensive), so we’re aware of some discussion about choosing between the two. You’re unlikely to notice our measured 0.2 EV higher base ISO dynamic range of the a7 III, but you might notice the 0.5 EV advantage at ISO 640. At higher ISOs the cameras even out.

Realistically though, there’s not much difference between these cameras.

a7 III (orange) vs a7R II (red) dynamic range. You might notice the 0.5 EV advantage of the a7 III at ISO 640, but for the most part performance is similar.

Summary

We’ve summarized our results in numbers in the table below.

ISO 100 (24MP) ISO 100 (8MP) ISO 640 (24MP) ISO 640 (8MP)
a7 III 13.8 EV 14.6 EV 13.4 EV 14.2 EV
a7 III (compressed 12-bit) 12.4 EV 13.2 EV 12.3 EV 13.2 EV
a7 II 13.9 EV 14.7 EV 11.8 EV 12.6 EV
a7R III 14 EV 14.8 EV 13.1 EV 13.9 EV
a7R II 13.6 EV 14.4 EV 12.9 EV 13.7 EV
a9 12.6 EV 13.4 EV 12.4 EV 13.2 EV

So what’s the take-away? The a7 III’s image quality more or less matches what we’ve come to expect from modern, well-performing full-frame sensors. There’s really not much difference between the a7 III, the a7R III, the a7R II, or the Nikon D850 for that matter.

The a7 III does show a marked improvement over its predecessor at high ISOs, both in dynamic range and general noise performance, thanks to a number of sensor improvements (efficiency, BSI, dual-gain, etc.). Interestingly, the a7 III, which we’d imagine shares a similar sensor to the a9 minus the stacked design, offers roughly 1 EV more dynamic range than that camera at ISOs 100 and 640 (though the cameras even out at the highest ISOs). General noise performance of the a9 – if you’re not pushing your files – is similar though.

The a7 III’s image quality more or less matches what we’ve come to expect from modern, well-performing full-frame sensors

The a7 III offers great image quality performance at an affordable price point. That said, it’s not image quality that sets this camera apart from its contemporaries but, rather, its significant other capabilities like autofocus, silent shooting, video and a number of other things we’ll be delving into in our full review.

* Retina & smartphone optimized 100% crops:

a7 III
ISO 25,600
a7R III
ISO 25,600
a7 II
ISO 25,600

** Technically speaking, it’s not exactly more amplification. Rather, the sensor switches to a different circuit within the pixel that has different capacitance at the floating diffusion node. This essentially generates a larger voltage swing (signal) per photoelectron captured, which means the signal – your picture – is less affected by the noise floor of the sensor and electronics.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Syrp launches Magic Carpet Pro slider with ‘infinitely extendable’ track

17 Mar

Filmmakers who need really long sliders are the target of the new Magic Carpet Pro, the latest in a series of sliders announced by accessories manufacturer Syrp. The key selling point of the Magic Carpet Pro is its ‘limiteless’ range, a feature made possible by a new track lever design that allow users to lengthen their slide by simply clicking additional lengths of track into place—no tools required.

But that’s not all the Magic Carpet Pro can do.

A newly designed flywheel sits inside the camera carriage, eliminating the need for belts and pulleys while creating smooth motion during manually controlled camera movements. And as with all of Syrp’s other slider systems, automated motion control can be added via a Genie system; in fact, the Genie ll is able to slot directly into the new quick release holder in the carriage itself.

The tracks are made from aluminum, and are expected to manage a payload of up to 70lbs when no extension tracks are in use, and up to 50lb when they are. Here’s a quick video intro from Syrp itself:

The Syrp Magic Carpet Pro can be pre-ordered now for May/June delivery, with kit prices ranging from $ 990 to $ 1470. Three kits will be available, including one with a two foot ‘Short Track’, one with a ‘Medium Track’ of three feet, and a third that includes both the short and the medium tracks to create a combined five foot slider.

For more information, visit the Syrp website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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