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iFixit teardown finds Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus difficult to repair, shows dual-blade aperture

12 Mar

The team at iFixit.com has taken apart Samsung’s brand new Galaxy S9 Plus flagship smartphone and given it a pretty low repairability score of 4/10 points. The testers liked the fact that many components are modular and can be replaced independently, but found accessing the battery to be an unnecessary challenge.

The device’s display and glass back also increase the chance of breakage, and make repairs difficult to start. The need to remove the rear glass panel and disassemble the entire phone when replacing the display was listed as another negative point.

During the teardown, the iFixit crew also had a closer look at the smartphone’s 12MP optically-stabilized camera module with 2x zoom. The dual-camera comes as a single unit on a single PCB and with a single connector. Inside, they found the DRAM chips that power the 960 fps super-slow-motion mode.

The S9 Plus main camera uses a variable F1.5/F2.4 aperture, and the close-up images show the design. Instead of a diaphragm-design with several aperture blades, the lens comes with a simpler construction, comprising of two rotating, ring-like blades for switching between its two aperture values.

Head over to iFixit.com to read the full report.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Why brand market share shouldn’t matter to you

11 Mar
The best-selling camera with 8 buttons, in the western Tri-state area, last Tuesday between 11:47 and 11:49.

“We’re #1 in full frame*,” scream the press releases from the three big full frame camera makers. And, given the price and apparent appeal of the Sony a7 III, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more screaming once it hits the shelves.

The precise wording changes, as does the length of the list of caveats that follows that all-important asterisk but, I’d argue: what doesn’t change is that it’s simple boosterism. And you should pretty much ignore it.

There are a couple of reasons I say this. The first is that, even if you take all the footnotes (in this month, in that territory…) into account, the numbers don’t really tell you very much.

These announcements mainly tell you whose turn it is to be king for the day

Part of this is because you’re cherry-picking data from a small sample: there are only three big brands in the sector and very few products being launched. This means the launch of a new model inevitably causes a sales spike and this can see one brand jump in front of the others in the sales chart. A new model will sell more through pre-orders than an existing competitor that, post launch spike, has been selling steadily for 23 months. So, rather than saying which camera is king, these announcements mainly tell you whose turn it is to be king for the day.

Existing commitments

It’s interesting, of course, when similar models, such as Nikon’s D850 and Sony’s a7R III get launched around the same time. But even though they are targeted at pretty similar customers, the winner of the sales race doesn’t tell you much about the cameras because there’s already a degree of brand loyalty baked into the market.

Investment in lenses and accessories means that anyone already shooting full frame is very unlikely to switch systems. So, if we assume a good proportion of new full frame sales are being made to exactly these photographers, you realize much of the current popularity was defined years ago.

And this doesn’t just apply to people who’re already shooting full frame. The manufacturer-promoted (though arguably mythical) concept of the upgrade path can lead to people feeling committed, or to commit themselves to a system, even if they aren’t shooting full frame.

There’s tremendous inertia to overcome before any brand can make headway in the pro sector. Even once Sony’s 400mm F2.8 becomes available, it’s not going to displace all those Canon ‘L’ lenses overnight.

All these issues are amplified at the high/pro-end of the market. Not only are many pro-orientated lenses much more expensive, thereby increasing the financial commitment to a system, but there’s also a chance that some of your kit belongs to your employer or that you’re already a member of one brand’s pro support network.

So a lot of sales figures are more about whether a brand has convinced its existing user-base to modernize/upgrade, rather than about stealing customers away from other systems.

Further inertia

To cause any significant amount of brand switching a camera would have to be compellingly better. And people have to recognize it.

Canon stole a huge march over Nikon in the early days of autofocus and the sea of white lenses that flanks the sidelines of sports games are a testament to that, as much as anything else. Canon could release a stinker (or, in the case of the EOS-1D III, a camera that develops the reputation as one), but that’s not going to drive customers away unless they release a series of duds and the competition is doing something noticeably better. Again, this counts double for professionals.

To cause any significant amount of brand switching a camera would have to be compellingly better. And people have to recognize it.

Even if one brand does fall behind, its users may not notice. For a while Canon lagged behind in dynamic range, but that didn’t see any mass exodus because many Canon shooters, having not experienced the difference and having adapted to the capabilities of their existing cameras, simply didn’t notice. After all, you can’t miss what you’ve never had. So it’s unlikely many Canon photographers felt any impetus to switch, even though there was a real-world photographic benefit to doing so. Now that Canon has essentially closed that gap and opened up a new front with the development of Dual Pixel AF, the moment has passed.

So while we felt the EOS 6D II was a bit disappointing, compared with its rivals it’s still good enough that existing Canon buyers will stick with ‘their’ system and perhaps never be aware that the grass might be greener just one field over.

Until the fog clears, it’s all bluster

Which is to say: these numbers don’t tell you anything at all about how good the respective brands’ cameras are.

They might tell you something interesting about whether a new technology is finding a foothold in the market, but without a lot more context, it’s hard to meaningfully interpret even that. For instance, no matter what Sony proclaims, it’ll probably take a few more years to establish whether mirrorless is making inroads into DSLR sales or to what extent it’s simply expanding the market.

These numbers don’t tell you anything at all about how good the respective brands’
cameras are

I can see that sales success of the system you’ve bought into can give some reassurance that it has a future, but should you care about how one brand is performing relative to another? Since the numbers tell you next-to-nothing about camera quality or even much about what’s happening in the market, I’d argue most discussion of sales rankings are simply fanboyism. And the canny stirring of it by marketing departments.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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AI-powered Google Lens feature is now available on all Android devices

11 Mar

The latest update to the Google Photos app in the Play Store expands the Google Lens feature’s availability from Google’s own Pixel devices to all Android smartphones.

Google Lens uses Artificial Intelligence to power its visual recognition algorithms and provides information about whatever your smartphone’s camera is pointed at—for example, what type of flower you are looking at or reviews and other information about a restaurant. You can also identify landmarks, look up movies, books or works of art and scan barcodes/QR codes and business cards.

As you can see from the embedded tweet below, Google says current Android users should update to the latest version of Google Photos in order to use the feature. What’s more, an iOS version of Google Lens is reportedly “coming soon.”

To learn more about Google Lens, how it works, and what it does, head over to the Google Lens support page.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How two photographers captured the same millisecond in time

11 Mar

On March 3rd, during a large East Coast winter storm, I headed to the ocean to capture some wave action. My travels eventually took me to Great Island Commons in New Castle, NH where Whaleback Lighthouse is prominently featured 0.8 miles offshore. I was hoping to capture big waves crashing around the lighthouse, and Mother Nature didn’t disappoint.

Great Island Common is a wide open park where people come to picnic during the summer and to watch the ocean during the winter. After arriving, I set up my tripod and my Canon 5D Mark IV with Sigma 150-600mm lens on a tripod and positioned myself just to the right of a tree in order to help reduce the pummeling Northerly winds. As many of you know, it’s a challenge keeping 600mm stable in high winds, even on a tripod.

I set the camera up and then waited until I saw a wave starting to hit the lighthouse. I then kept firing until the splash ended, not knowing ahead of time the action of the wave. Most shots never panned out, but about three of them over the course of about 45 minutes were pretty decent.

Once back at home, I culled through the images and choose one to edit and upload to Instagram, replacing an earlier upload that was done in haste while still in the parking lot.

When a local TV station shared the photo to their Facebook page (with permission) it started to receive a large amount of shares, comments, and likes; however, there was one comment that mentioned that I had stolen the image from another New England photographer, Eric Gendon. After letting the commenter know that it was indeed my image and that I possess the original RAW file, I headed over to the other photographers page and was blown away.

We had what looked like the exact same image, taken at the exact millisecond in time, from what looked like the same exact location and perspective.

Aside from choices made in Lightroom, the photos at first glance look virtually identical aside from water in front and some of the white caps being in different position. Even then, the white caps were identical in size and shape—and I know those things are easily moved using the clone stamp in Photoshop—so I was concerned that maybe MY image was stolen and altered a bit.

Initially, I only had access to his shared, low-resolution, image so I wasn’t able to make out some of the very fine details that ultimately helped to convince me that we both had originals. After overlaying and aligning the images in Photoshop I was blown away that the lighthouse and waves were carbon copies, almost to the pixel. As mentioned already, there were many differences in the foreground water and the white caps on the horizon, and it was these differences that held me back from claiming he stole my image.

It wasn’t until another local photographer started comparing my photo to a higher resolution version of Eric’s image that he noticed that the iron gating around the top of the lighthouse had slightly different spacing between the vertical bars compared to my image. This would indicate that the other photographer was likely standing just a little bit left of where I was standing.

Since the 60D uses an APS-C sensor he would have also likely been back a little further to compensate for the 1.6x “zoom” / crop of the sensor or using a shorter focal length to compensate. This would also explain the white caps being in different positions.

However, the fact that the lighthouse doesn’t really show any rotational changes—and the crashing wave is an exact match—makes this all the more remarkable that these were captured randomly from two different photographers.

The next morning, Eric woke up to a flood of messages from me as well as other photographers, and immediately contacted me to share his EXIF data, and to agree that it was astounding that we both captured the exact same image of water motion at the exact millisecond in time. What makes this even more amazing is that this wasn’t a planned event (aka. sporting event, shuttle launch, etc.).

I also didn’t know Eric—we each chose this location randomly, and we both shot with different cameras (60D and 5D Mark IV) with different size sensors.

The 60D has a burst mode of 5.3fps, the 5DMKIV is 7fps; we both used a 600mm focal length; our exposures and depth-of-field were almost the same as well (F8 aperture, ISO 400, 1/1600th shutter vs. F8, ISO 320, 1/1000th shutter); and, ultimately, we both selected the same photo from that day to promote. Come to find out we were only 28 meters away from each other. He was hunkered down under a picnic enclosure to help block some of the wind and I was up against a tree to help reduce the wind.

I did a Google search to see how often this happens and could only find one article from 2011 where two photographers filming a surf competition on Huntington Beach ended up catching a virtually identical image of a surfer and its wave action.

If you shoot water in burst mode you know how different each exposure is even when the difference in time is just 1/7th of a second between shots. And I have been leading night-sky photography workshops for five years and have had well over 200 photographers who are often aiming at the same subject, shooting with similar cameras and lenses, and capturing at the same moment in time, even doing continuous shooting for time lapse, and until now I have never seen two images that were so close as to be virtual clones of each other.

While this is a rare occurrence, I believe that with cameras getting faster and photographers taking more time to prepare for their shots, I have to imagine that these situations will happen more frequently. It happens every day with stationary or slow motion objects (buildings, sun/moon rise) but almost never with water movement.

One commenter on my FB post mentioned how this mistake brings to light the importance that post-processing plays in making your images your own. Here we had two essentially identical images—one edited to preserve a more natural feel, while the other image was edited to enhance the drama and emotion of the scene.

Photographer Information

Ron Risman
Website: http://www.timelapseworkshops.com
Instagram: Timeographer
Facebook: risman

Eric Gendron
Website: http://www.ericgendronphotography.com/
Instagram: ericgendronphotography
Facebook: ericgendronphotography

Ron Risman is a New England-based photographer, cinematographer, and time-lapse specialist with over 30 years of experience behind the camera. You can find more of his work on his website, Instagram, and Facebook page.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Cosina announced three new Voigtlander lenses at CP+

11 Mar

Japanese optical manufacturer Cosina has announced three new lenses at the CP+ show in Yokohama. The trio consists of two lenses for full frame Sony E-Mount cameras, and a new Nokton 50mm F1.2 lens that will come with a Leica M fitting.

COLOR-SKOPAR 21mm F3.5 Aspherical | Sony E-mount

The COLOR-SKOPAR 21mm F3.5 Aspherical is designed for Sony E-mount cameras and measures only 39.9mm in length. Its 10-bladed iris promises attractive out-of-focus highlights, while the closest focus will be 20cm (~7.9 inches). The optical design uses nine elements in eight groups, and Cosina claims the lens has excellent contrast and resolving power even when used wide open.

The lens will be manual focus, and will feature electronic contact with the camera.

MACRO APO-LANTHAR 110mm F2.5 | Sony E-mount

The other E-mount lens is the MACRO APO – LANTHAR 110mm F2.5, which will offer close-up shooters 1:1 reproduction from a closest focus point of 35cm (~13.8 inches). Cosina says it aims to eliminate chromatic aberration, and that it will use a floating focus group to ensure maximum sharpness at all focusing distances.

The optical design packs 14 elements in 12 groups into a 99.7mm long housing, and the iris will contain 10 blades. Again, focus is manual, but electronic contacts allow the lens to communicate with the camera.

NOKTON 50mm F1.2 Aspherical | Leica M

The lens for Leica M-mount cameras is a new standard NOKTON 50mm F1.2 Aspherical VM that will feature two double aspherical lenses and a coupled rangefinder focusing system.

Cosina claims the lenses performs very well wide open, and that it will produce attractive blur in out-of-focus areas. The 12-bladed iris will contribute to the out-of-focus effect, and the closest focusing distance of 70cm (~27.5 inches) will ensure users can make the most of it. The 4.9cm-long lens will use eight elements in six groups and will accept filters in the 52mm fitting.

This lens joins the existing 50mm F1.1 and F1.5 versions in the Voigtlander Nokton series.

Cosina has not said yet when these lenses will be available or how much they will cost when they arrive; however, the company did have working reference samples on display at the show that visitors could try on their own cameras, so it’s reasonable to expect that we won’t have to wait too long.

For now, the Voigtlander website hasn’t been updated to include the new lenses.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Pro Services: Are they worth it?

10 Mar

When you’re a professional photographer your livelihood is intertwined with the health of your equipment. Like a portable hard drive, it’s only be a matter of time until something fails in the field and has the potential to ruin your assignment, not to mention your relationship with a client.

Although it’s likely that your gear could be covered under your home or renter’s insurance policy, if you are working as full-time pro, it may not be enough. Not to mention that the process of filing a claim to cover that busted gear that you needed back in order yesterday may drive you crazy.

Most major camera companies run Pro Support Service programs to help photographers when they wind up in situations like these. Joining up requires a certain amount of gear and often an annual payment. In exchange, photographers receive discounted gear repairs and equipment loans. We spoke to pros who have used the programs provided by Canon, Nikon and Sony to see how they stack up and if they’re worth the cost.

Canon Pro Support

Application Process How do you Qualify?
  • Apply online instantly
  • No sample images required
  • Earn points for each piece of gear
  • Fees vary depending on service level
  • Must renew annually to continue to receive benefits
  • Own a certain amount of Canon gear

Canon offers four levels of membership within its Pro Support program with different ownership requirements and prices points: Silver, Gold, Platinum and Cinema. Each piece of Canon gear is assigned a number of points. The amount and kind of Canon gear that you own determines the level of membership that you qualify for, and gear depreciates in “points” over time. Canon doesn’t require a certain number of bodies or lenses, but its list of qualifying gear is almost exclusively populated with full-frame cameras (the 7D II and 60Da are exceptions).

The Silver CPS membership is the lowest tier. It has no annual fee, but requires 10 CPS points to join. A Silver CPS membership comes with CPS website profile and program discounts, event support, access to the 24/7 exclusive member hotline and a CPS ID Card. Crucially, what it doesn’t give you is access to is expedited repairs, discounts on repairs or equipment evaluation loaners.

To get all of the perks pros typically need, you’ll want a Gold membership. This level includes all of the Silver benefits plus two business day turnaround on repairs, equipment evaluation loans (a chance to try the newest gear for a 10-day period), and a 20% service discount on up to 10 pieces of gear, among other things. Gold membership costs $ 100 per year and requires 20 CPS points – two pro-level bodies like the 5D Mark III and a 5D Mark IV, plus an EF 24-105mm F4L IS USM will qualify.

The Platinum CPS membership requires at least 50 points and costs $ 300 annually. Essentially, it’s a Gold membership that goes an extra mile. Platinum members get the benefits of Gold, plus priority on equipment evaluation loans, next business day turnarounds on repairs, repair coverage loan once the repair is received, maintenance on up to 10 pieces of gear, free shipping both ways and a 30% discount on repairs on up to 15 pieces of gear.

The quick turnaround time on repairs at the Gold and Platinum levels have been a lifesaver for many of the Pros that we spoke with

The quick turnaround time on repairs at the Gold and Platinum levels have been a lifesaver for many of the Pros that we spoke with. Brooklyn Vegan photographer and photo editor Amanda Hatfield recalled the time her 16-35mm F2.8 lens stopped focusing a few days before she was scheduled to shoot the opening party of a new music venue in Brooklyn. “I definitely needed that lens in particular and was going to rent it if it wasn’t fixed on time,” she says. “I had it back well before Halloween.”

Florida-based freelance photographer Ian Witlin says his CPS Platinum membership has been nothing but excellent.” It’s saved me money in the long run and gets my gear back to me as quickly as possible,” he says.

For Witlin, CPS’s equipment loaner program has been particularly helpful. “I’ve used evaluation loaners many times while on assignment to determine whether or not I should upgrade a body or purchase a new lens,” he says.

Nikon Pro Support

Application Process How Do You Qualify?
  • Online form application which Nikon Professional Services evaluates before approval.
  • Approval takes one-two weeks
  • Gear is not tallied automatically.
  • No application fee
  • Currently NPS renews every December
  • Membership remains uninterrupted when photographers accept updated T&C and keep contact info up to date
  • Own a certain amount of Nikon gear, operate a photographic business in the US and be able to submit work published in the last year to demonstrate that
  • Belonging to an organization such as WPPI, PPA, APA, NPPA doesn’t hurt

Nikon’s Pro Support program also comes in multiple levels and uses a point system related to gear that dictates what level you qualify for. Nikon’s levels are Carbon Plus, Titanium and Titanium E (only open to individuals working in government, law enforcement and military). There is no annual fee to be a member.

To qualify for Carbon Plus and Titanium, photographers must own at least two DSLR bodies and at least two Nikkor lenses and meet a point total of at least 750. The body and lens requirements seem steeper, but Nikon includes much more gear on its list of qualifying bodies and lenses, including APS-C and interestingly, some film cameras. As with Canon, gear does depreciate in ‘point value’ over time, but even an old D90 still gets you a cool 125 points at the moment.

Carbon Plus is for photographers with 750-999 points worth of gear. Titanium is for professional photographers with over 1000 points worth of gear. You’d need, for example, a pair of D5 bodies with a 24-70mm F2.8 VR and a 70-200mm F2.8 VR to qualify for Titanium.

Members at both the Carbon Plus and Titanium get access to NPS membership events, priority delivery, equipment loans and a repair service discount. Where the two programs differ is in the discount percentage (10% vs 20%) and the amount of equipment loans (2 vs 3 per year).

The rep gave me his personal lens for use and told me to just mail it back to him when I was done. I was beyond grateful and relieved

Pros we talked to had numerous stories of NPS saving the day, as well as one instance in which a service rep went well beyond the call of duty.

Photographer Bridgette Supernova recalls a time that Nikon’s on-site field support saved her from a dreaded gear malfunction on the eve of a major protest in Washington. “I found myself with a broken [24-70mm] lens,” says Supernova, who was working as the house photographer for one of the event’s major sponsors. Unfortunately, by the time she made it to the field support center they had run out of loaner 24-70 lenses.

“Panicked and nearly in tears at how important my role was in capturing historic moments at the rally the next day, the rep gave me his personal lens for use and told me to just mail it back to him when I was done. I was beyond grateful and relieved. That could have been a disastrous miss in my career.”

Sony Pro Support

Application Process How Do You Qualify?
  • Online form application
  • Most applicants hear back within one business day
  • Members must renew membership annually
  • Membership fee is $ 100
  • Sony expects the application process to become fully automated within the next few weeks
  • Own a certain amount of Sony gear
  • Provide proof of professional work, such as a website or social accounts

Sony’s Pro Support program offers a single tier of support for a $ 100 annual fee. To qualify, photographers must own two full frame Sony bodies and at least three lenses – but there’s no point system to contend with at the moment. Members receive 24 hour phone and email support, three complimentary maintenance services per year, three-day repair turnarounds, free overnight shipping to and from repair locations, discounts on repairs, short-term trial loans (for new products photographers might be interested in purchasing) as well as service loans with next-day shipping when a repair ends up taking longer than the three day expectation. Sony also has walk in support locations located in urban areas in New York City and LA.

Photographers must own two full frame Sony bodies and at least three lenses – but there’s no point system to contend with at the moment

In the past, within the professional photographer community Sony was often known for their very slow turnarounds on repairs. However, based on the photographers we interviewed, this is outdated and something that the Pro Support program has been diligently working to correct in the past few years.

Seattle based director Eric Becker described Sony Pro Services as being almost “over communicative” when it came to the repair of his a7 II body and a 24-70mm lens.

“They were very prompt,” he says. “I clearly knew the timeline of when something had been received, repaired and returned.” In Becker’s case, the lens was irreparable, but Sony did provide him with a discount to purchase a new lens. Although he has only had to use it once, the annual fee is totally worth it for him. “It saves you money and time when you go to fix stuff,” he says.

Should you join?

Overall these three programs offer very similar services and, according to the pros we spoke to, are exceeding service expectations. Where they differ is the barrier to entry and annual costs.

Surveying the options across the board, it seems that a basic level of professional-grade service includes quick turnarounds on repairs and discounts on maintenance service. Canon’s Gold level and Nikon’s Carbon Plus tier both meet this level, and Sony’s tier-less program is covering these basics currently. Canon’s free Silver tier doesn’t include gear repairs or service discounts, so it’s not much help to a working pro.

Canon and Sony both charge a $ 100 annual membership fees for this baseline level of service, while Nikon’s program is free. Nikon’s gear requirement is also a bit steeper at all levels – even the lower tier requires two bodies and two lenses. But Nikon gear seems to hold its ‘points’ value for much longer than Canon’s, and Nikon considers many more cameras to be ‘points-worthy,’ including more APS-C bodies.

Pros we spoke to said that the fees and costs of keeping gear up to date were worth it for the benefits of regular service and
rapid, reliable repairs

Sony’s Pro Support structure is currently the simplest to navigate – if you’re a working pro and can meet the body and lens requirements, you’re in, no points to worry about. But it’s also the youngest program, and it’s easy to imagine Sony one day moving to a points structure and a tiered system.

If you don’t plan on keeping your camera bodies current within a few years, or if you can handle an equipment failure with whatever’s available at a rental house, you probably can avoid the cost and hassle of getting into a pro support program.

But if you already meet the gear requirements for these programs, or a camera or lens malfunctioning would come with significant penalty to your reputation and finances, we think that joining up with your brand’s pro services program is probably worth it. Pros we spoke to said that the fees and costs of keeping gear up to date were worth it for the benefits of regular service and rapid, reliable repairs. Just know that you’ll likely be faced with a decision down the line: upgrade your gear or risk it depreciating in points and aging out of eligibility.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Photo story of the week: Locomotion

10 Mar

In November 2013, I was fortunate enough to backpack through Southeast Asia with my partner. We visited some incredible places, met some of the nicest people and experienced many amazing moments along the way, but the place that is most memorable for me would be the quiet town of Hoi An, in Vietnam. It is located on the coast of the East Sea in the South Central Coast region of Vietnam.

The thing that convinced me to travel SE Asia was definitely the change of lifestyle from western society and, of course, their culture. I have always been fascinated by the diversity of different cultural lifestyles. Everywhere you look in Asia, especially around the cities and busy little towns there are photo opportunities waiting to be captured. Sometimes the action is difficult to keep up with when you are standing in the middle the bustling streets with people scattered everywhere. Taking a steady shot is impossible when so much spontaneous movement is going on around you.

This is when the cinematic technique comes into play—namely: panning. This works a treat for some unique and fun images. I spent most days walking the streets with my camera hanging from my shoulder, ready for moments like these to come by, and the majority of my photos from Hoi An were of local people riding their bicycles and scooters through town.

This image is of two young Vietnamese boys riding a bicycle through Central Market. I stopped my aperture down to F16 and shot a low ISO of 50 to eliminate as much ambient light reaching my sensor. This gave me an exposure of 1/4 sec: quick enough to pick up definition in the subject, but slow enough capture motion blur. I locked my auto focus onto the boys as they approached and fired continuously while panning my camera with them as they rode past. I ended up with a dozen shots, but this was my favorite.

The photo was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II and Sigma 35mm F1.4 at F16, ISO 50, and 1/4 sec shutter speed.

Drew Hopper is a freelance documentary photographer from NSW, Australia, working on long-term projects whilst exploring the visual literacy of the still image. You can find more of his work on his website, or by following him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Major ON1 Photo RAW update adds tethered shooting, better noise reduction and more

10 Mar

ON1 just released a major update to its photo editing software ON1 Photo RAW. The update, version 2018.1, brings with it a host of feature upgrades, including: better auto-alignment for the HDR mode, improved high ISO noise reduction, and more detailed image sharpening. The update also includes a new tethered shooting function for certain Nikon and Canon DSLRs, as well as a new import utility that allows metadata to be added as images are sucked in from the camera.

Video files can now be seen in the browser, and new sort features allows user to browse imported images in a number of ways, such as by file type, date, file name or rating. Users can also batch rename groups of images, and a date-and-time editing function lets you adjust the recorded moment an image was shot.

Finally, the company has also made some changes to the way images are debayered to improve the amount of micro detail preserved in the final render.

ON1 says its priorities are image quality and processing/handling performance:

“Version 2018.1 isn’t just about the new features, although there are many powerful new additions,” says ON1 Director of Product Dan Harlacher. “Image quality and performance are the top priorities in every update, and we are very excited for our customers to experience these improvements for themselves in this update.”

New users can take advantage of a free trial, or purchase the software in its entirely (usually $ 120) for a special limited-time price of $ 80. If you’re already using Photo Raw 2018, the new version is free.

For more information, visit the ON1 website.

Press Release

ON1 Photo RAW 2018.1 – New Update Available

Portland, OR – March 1, 2018 – ON1, Inc. is pleased to announce the immediate availability of the new ON1 Photo RAW 2018.1, the first major free update to Photo RAW 2018. Version 2018.1 includes image quality enhancements, performance improvements, and key features to optimize the photographer’s workflow.

“Version 2018.1 isn’t just about the new features, although there are many powerful new additions. We’ve been very focused on image quality and the results customers get from using ON1 Photo RAW. Image quality and performance are the top priorities in every update, and we are very excited for our customers to experience these improvements for themselves in this update,” says Dan Harlacher, Director of Product at ON1.

New Improvements

  • Debayering – The algorithms have been improved to increase the amount of micro detail while reducing aliasing, yielding photos that are noticeably crisper with less color artifacts.
  • HDR – HDR alignment and deghosting have improved, yielding sharper results with less ghosting, noise, and color fringe. Users now have the ability to select which frame is used for deghosting and can also adjust the amount of motion visible in water and clouds.
  • Faster Cataloging – The thumbnail and preview generation of images is now faster. Searching photos has also been improved.
  • Noise Reduction – Improvements to reduce large noise from very high ISOs. Automatic hot-pixel removal has been added, and green and purple color aberration reduction has improved.
  • Sharpening – The sharpening algorithms have been improved to enhance micro details and provide sharper initial results.
  • Panorama – The panorama merge dialog now does a better job with vertical panoramas as well as really large ones. It can now stitch together up to 25 photos at a time. Blending of photos to compensate for differences in exposure and white balance have been improved.
  • Preview Quality – The preview window has been improved to more accurately reflect the details and sharpness in photos at different zoom levels.

New Features

  • Import – Get photos from your camera to your computer, choose where you want the photos to go, assign metadata, and more.
  • Tethered Shooting – Get your photos to your computer instantly and apply import settings. Currently supports Canon and Nikon.
  • Soft Proofing – Simulate what your photo will look like when it’s printed.
  • Metadata Templates – Add metadata to a group of photos using presets. This allows you to choose and save only the information you want applied to your photos.
  • Video Browsing & Organizing – Now supports viewing video files so you can organize those as well. Copy, move, name, add metadata, and more.
  • Custom Sorting – This option in Browse allows you to put your photos in any order you choose.
  • Batch Rename – Rename all of your photos in a batch to add unique information to filenames.
  • Edit Capture Date – Adjust date and time on your photos so they match the actual date and time they were taken.
  • Auto Advance – Automatically switch to the next photo during the culling process when rating or tagging photos.
  • Additional Camera & Lens Support — Added support for several new cameras and many new lenses. See the full list here.

About ON1 Photo RAW

ON1 Photo RAW 2018.1 is the only photo editor designed by photographers for photographers. ON1’s unique community-driven development approach via The Photo RAW Project gives customers a voice in how it’s designed, allowing users to submit ideas and vote on new features. With fast photo management, hundreds of customizable photo effects, powerful masking tools, HDR, panos, layers, and other Lightroom and Photoshop-like features, Photo RAW 2018.1 is the ultimate all-in-one photo editor and raw processor with no subscription.

Craig Keudell, CEO of ON1 says “Our vision for Photo RAW has always been that it would the fastest, most flexible, and easiest-to-use raw processor and photo editor on the market. A single photography centric photo editor with powerful Lightroom® and Photoshop®-like features photographers can own and enjoy for many years. Photo RAW has come a long way in a short time and we are both excited and very busy building new exciting technologies for our next update.”

ON1 Photo RAW 2018.1 isn’t just for raw files. Supported file formats include JPEG, TIF, PSD, PSB, PNG, and DNG are supported and benefit from the speed, performance, and abundance of editing tools in the app. Photo RAW 2018.1 continues to work seamlessly within current photography workflows. The app integrates as a plug-in for Adobe® Lightroom® Classic CC and Photoshop® CC and further builds its case as a complete standalone photo editor or alternative to the Adobe Photography Plan. Version 2018.1 also integrates with the major cloud services to allow for uploading, managing, and editing photos across multiple computers. This allows users to sync photos and their edits across multiple computers or in a studio setting.

Price and Availability

ON1 Photo RAW 2018.1 is available now for an introductory price of $ 79.99 for a limited time (Reg: $ 119.99). A free and fully functional 30-day trial is also available on the ON1 website. A single purchase of ON1 Photo RAW 2018.1 will include both Mac and Windows installers and activation for up to five computers. It comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, world-class customer support, hundreds of free video tutorials, and free ON1 Loyalty Rewards every month.

For More Information

* ON1 Photo RAW 2018.1 Introductory Special
* Free 30-Day Trial
* The Photo RAW Project
* About ON1

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Halide update adds ‘blazing fast portrait mode,’ depth maps and more to the iOS app

10 Mar

Halide—the feature-rich third-party camera app for the iPhone—just released version 1.7 which adds support for the dual-camera setups of the iPhones 7 Plus, 8 Plus, and X, using the two lenses to “see” in three dimensions.

When shooting a photo, you can now apply a background-blurring portrait effect or darken the background, similar to Apple’s ‘Portrait Lighting’ effect. But this isn’t just Apple’s portrait mode pasted into Halide, the app allegedly does it better:

In an App Store first, Halide’s Portrait mode uses a combination of smart facial detection and point-of-interest detection to allow Portrait mode with zero waiting; users can snap a shot at any time to get beautiful background blur effects on a subject.

Additionally, the app is capable of storing the actual depth map as a separate .png-file for later fine-tuning of the results in an image processor, and a new ‘Augmented Reality Depth Photo Viewer allows you to “place Depth-Enabled captures like images shot with Portrait Mode in AR.”

Once placed into 3D space, you can walk around and through the captured scene and ‘explore’ your depth map. It’s gimmicky… but actually really cool:

Halide 1.7 is already available to purchase on iTunes for $ 3. To learn more about the app’s new depth mapping feature set, head over to the Halide blog. And if you’re curious about Halide in general, you can read our hands-on of the app’s launch version here.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Venus Optics officially launches the Laowa 25mm F2.8 2.5-5X Ultra Macro

10 Mar

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About a week ago, Venus Optics’ Japanese distributor Sightron announced two new lenses: the Laowa 9mm F2.8 Zero-D and 25mm F2.8 2.5-5x Ultra Macro. And while the 9mm F2.8 Zero-D still hasn’t made its way onto the English language Venus Optics site yet, today did see the official announcement of the strange Laowa 25mm F2.8 2.5-5x Ultra Macro.

Nothing has changed about the lens’ design since last week’s debut: the 25mm F2.8 2.5-5x Ultra Macro is still made from 8 elements in 6 groups—including an ultra low dispersion lens and multilayer coating on each element—which allow for a max working distance of 40 mm (5x) to 45 mm (2.5x). Ultimately, this lens was designed to be as portable as possible, as this comparison between it and the Canon MP-E 65mm F2.8 1-5x Macro demonstrates:

Size comparison: Laowa 25mm F2.8 2.5-5x Ultra Macro vs Canon MP-E 65mm F2.8 1-5x

The Venus Optics Laowa 25mm F2.8 2.5-5x Ultra Macro will be available starting in March for the price of $ 400 USD. You can also purchase an optional tripod collar ($ 30), Micro Four Thirds adapter ($ 30), or Fuji X mount adapter ($ 30).

For more information, if you’d like to pre-order your own, or if you want to scroll through a series of official sample images, head over to the Venus Optics website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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