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This strange gadget literally shocks you into taking ‘better’ photos

21 Feb

A new project called Prosthetic Photographer involves a very real gadget designed to zap humans into taking better images. The system was created by artist and designer Peter Buczkowski, and it works with both DSLR and mirrorless cameras. Using artificial intelligence, the device constantly scans for ‘ideal’ scenes and uses mild electric shocks to force/train the photographer to capture them.

“The Prosthetic Photographer enables anybody to unwillingly take beautiful pictures,” Buczkowski explains on the project’s website. The gadget is a way for an AI to train a human, though the AI itself was first trained using a dataset containing 17,000 images, and those images were captured and rated by humans.

Using what it learned about quality photos, the Prosthetic Photographer AI identifies scenes worth capturing and trains the human behind the camera to recognize them. To do this, the AI triggers a small electric shock delivered through electrodes on the handgrip, which forces the photographer’s finger to press a button and capture said ideal scene.

As demonstrated in the video at the top of this post, users can adjust the shock strength using knobs on the back of the device. “This system is part of a new aesthetic, based on computer-generated decisions that were taught by previous human skill,” Buczkowski explains on his site. “The conscious skill of photography becomes obsolete this way.”

The resulting images feature the AI’s own aesthetic tastes, which are based on the images used to train the system. Of course, some of the scenes captured by the human who is being ‘trained’ are often… less than striking.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Drone may have caused helicopter crash in South Carolina

21 Feb

Officials are investigating whether a recent helicopter crash near Charleston, South Carolina, was caused by a civilian drone operated nearby. The accident, which happened last Wednesday, involved a Robinson Helicopter Co. R22 helicopter carrying an instructor pilot and student.

The two are reporting that a small UAV flew directly in their path, forcing the instructor to perform evasive action. That evasive action, unfortunately, caused the helicopter’s tail to hit a tree, which sent the helicopter into a crash landing, according to Bloomberg. Sources speaking to the publication report that the helicopter’s tail was severely damaged; fortunately, neither person was injured.

A National Transportation Safety Board spokesman confirmed to Bloomberg that it is looking into initial reports claiming a drone contributed to the crash. Assuming that’s true, this would be the first time that a drone has caused an aircraft crash in the US. The FAA hasn’t commented on the possibly of a drone’s involvement.

Reports of drones being operated illegally, near-misses with aircraft, and even possible collisions are increasing. In recent days, a video surfaced of a drone being operated directly above a commercial passenger jet in Las Vegas. Following that, more recent reports claim a drone struck a tour helicopter in Hawaii. Canadian officials also recently released a report detailing a collision between a drone and a small plane.

Though the drone model hasn’t been stated (and may not be known), Chinese drone maker DJI has preemptively released a statement on the matter, saying:

DJI is trying to learn more about this incident and stands ready to assist investigators. While we cannot comment on what may have happened here, DJI is the industry leader in developing educational and technological solutions to help drone pilots steer clear of traditional aircraft.

Last year, DJI introduced a system called AeroScope that helps law enforcement and airport officials identify drones being operated in restricted airspace.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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DPReview on TWiT: tech trends in smartphone cameras

20 Feb

As part of our regular appearances on the TWiT Network (named after its flagship show, This Week in Tech) show ‘The New Screen Savers’, our Science Editor Rishi Sanyal joined host Leo Laporte and co-host Megan Morrone to talk about how smartphone cameras are revolutionizing photography. Watch the segment above, then catch the full episode here.

Rishi has also expounded upon some of the topics covered in the segment below, with detailed examples that clarify some of the points covered. Have a read after the fold once you’ve watched the segment.

You can watch The New Screen Savers live every Saturday at 3pm Pacific Time (23:00 UTC), on demand through our articles, the TWiT website, or YouTube, as well as through most podcasting apps.

So who wins? iPhone X or Pixel 2?

Not so fast. Neither.

Each has its strengths, which we hope to tell you about in our video segment above and in our examples below. Google and Apple take different approaches, and each has its pros and cons, but there are common overlapping practices and themes as well. And that’s before we begin discussing video, where the iPhone’s 4K/60p HEVC video borders on professional quality while Google’s stabilization may make you want to chuck your gimbal.

Smartphones have to deal with the fact that their cameras, and therefore sensors, are tiny. And since we all (now) know that, generally speaking, it’s the amount of light you capture that determines image quality, smartphones have a serious disadvantage to deal with: they don’t capture enough light. But that’s where computational photography comes in. By combining machine learning, computer vision, and computer graphics with traditional optical processes, computational photography aims to enhance what is achievable with traditional methods.

Intelligent exposure and processing? Press. Here.

One of the defining characteristics of smartphone photography is the idea that you can get a great image with one button press, and nothing more. No exposure decision, no tapping on the screen to set your exposure, no exposure compensation, and no post-processing. Just take a look at what the Google Pixel 2 XL did with this huge dynamic range sunrise at Banff National Park in Canada:

Sunrise at Banff, with Mt. Rundle in the background. Shot on Pixel 2 with one button press. I also shot this with my Sony a7R II full-frame camera, but that required a 4-stop reverse graduated neutral density (‘Daryl Benson’) filter, and a dynamic range compensation mode (DRO Lv5) to get a usable image. While the resulting image from the Sony was head-and-shoulders above this one at 100%, I got this image from the Pixel 2 by just pointing and shooting.

Apple’s iPhones try to achieve similar results by combining multiple exposures if the scene has enough contrast to warrant it. But iPhones can’t achieve these results (yet) since they don’t average as many ‘samples’ as the Google Pixel 2. Sometimes Apple’s longer exposures can blur subjects, and iPhones tend to overexpose and blow highlights for the sake of exposing the subject properly. Apple is also still pretty reticent to enable HDR in ‘Auto HDR’.

The Pixel 2 was able to achieve the image above by first determining the correct focal plane exposure required to not blow large bright (non-specular) areas (an approach known as ETTR or ‘expose-to-the-right’). When you press the shutter button, the Pixel 2 goes back in time 9 frames, aligning and averaging them to give you a final image with quality similar to what you might expect from a sensor with 9x as much surface area.

How does it do that? It’s constantly keeping the last 9 frames it shot in memory, so when you press the shutter it can grab them, break each into many square ’tiles’, align them all, and then average them. Breaking each image into small tiles allows for alignment despite photographer or subject movement by ignoring moving elements, discarding blurred elements in some shots, or re-aligning subjects that have moved from frame to frame. Averaging simulates the effects of shooting with a larger sensor by ‘evening out’ noise.

That’s what allows the Pixel 2 to capture such a wide dynamic range scene: expose for the bright regions, while reducing noise in static elements of the scene by image averaging, while not blurring moving (water) elements of the scene by making intelligent decisions about what to do with elements that shift from frame to frame. Sure, moving elements have more noise to them (since they couldn’t have as many of the 9 frames dedicated to them for averaging), but overall, do you see anything but a pleasing image?

Autofocus

Who focuses better? Google Pixel 2, hands down. Its dual pixel AF uses nearly the entire sensor for autofocus (binning the high-resolution sensor into a low-resolution mode to decrease noise), while also using HDR+ and its 9-frame image averaging to further decrease noise and have a usable signal to make AF calculations from.

Google Pixel 2 can focus lightning fast even in indoor artificial light, which allowed me to snap this candid before it was over in a split second. The iPhone X captured a far less interesting moment seconds later when it finally achieved focus, missing the candid moment.

And despite the left and right perspectives the split pixels in the Pixel 2 sensor ‘see’ having less than 1mm stereo disparity, an impressive depth map can be built, rendering an optically accurate lens blur. This isn’t just a matter of masking the foreground and blurring the background, it’s an actual progressive blur based on depth.

That’s what allowed me to nail this candid image the instant after my wife and child whirled around to face the camera. Nearly all my iPhone X images of this scene were either out-of-focus or captured a less interesting, non-candid moment because of the shutter lag required to focus. The iPhone X only uses approximately 3% of its pixels for its ‘Dual PDAF’ autofocus, as opposed to the Pixel 2’s use of its entire sensor combined with multi-frame noise reduction, not just for image capture but also for focus.

Portrait Lighting

While we’ve been praising the Pixel phones, Apple is leading smartphone photography in a number of ways. First and foremost: color accuracy. Apple displays are all calibrated and profiled to display accurate colors, so no matter what Apple or color-managed device (or print) you’re viewing, colors look the same. Android devices are still the Wild West in this regard, but Google is trying to solve this via a proper color management system (CMS) under-the-hood. It’ll be some time before all devices catch up, and even Google itself is struggling with its current display and CMS implementation.

But let’s talk about Portrait Lighting. Look at the iPhone X ‘Contour Lighting’ shot below, left, vs. what the natural lighting looked like at the right (shot on a Google Pixel 2 with no special lighting features). While the Pixel 2 image is more natural, the iPhone X image is far more interesting, as if I’d lit my subject with a light on the spot.

Apple iPhone X, ‘Contour Lighting’ Google Pixel 2

Apple builds a 3D map of a face using trained algorithms, then allows you to re-light your subject using modes such as ‘natural’, ‘studio’ and ‘contour’ lighting. The latter highlights points of the face like the nose, cheeks and chin that would’ve caught the light from an external light source aimed at the subject. This gives the image a dimensionality you could normally only achieve using external lighting solutions or a lot of post-processing.

Currently, the Pixel 2 has no such feature, so we get the flat lighting the scene actually had on the right. But, as you can imagine, it won’t be long before we see other phones and software packages taking advantage of—and even improving on—these computational approaches.

HDR and wide-gamut photography

And then we have HDR. Not the HDR you’re used to thinking about, that creates flat images from large dynamic range scenes. No, we’re talking about the ability of HDR displays—like bright contrasty OLEDs—to display the wide range of tones and colors cameras can capture these days, rather than sacrificing global contrast just to increase and preserve local contrast, as traditional camera JPEGs do.

iPhone X is the first device ever to support the HDR display of HDR photos. That is: it can capture a wide dynamic range and color gamut but then also display them without clipping tones and colors on its class-leading OLED display, all in an effort to get closer to reproducing the range of tones and colors we see in the real world.

iPhone X is the first device ever to support HDR display of HDR photos

Have a look below at a Portrait Mode image I shot of my daughter that utilizes colors and luminances in the P3 color space. P3 is the color space Hollywood is now using for most of its movies (it’s similar, though shifted, to Adobe RGB). You’ll only see the extra colors if you have a P3-capable display and a color-managed OS/browser (macOS + Google Chrome, or the newest iPads and iPhones). On a P3 display, switch between ‘P3’ and ‘sRGB’ to see the colors you’re missing with sRGB-only capture.

Or, on any display, hover over ‘Colors in P3 out-of-gamut of sRGB’ to see (in grey) what you’re missing with a sRGB-only capture/display workflow.

iPhone X Portrait Mode, image in P3 color space iPhone X Portrait mode, image in sRGB color space Colors in P3 out-of-gamut of sRGB highlighted in grey

Apple is not only taking advantage of the extra colors of the P3 color space, it’s also encoding its images in the ‘High Efficiency Image Format’ (HEIF), which is an advanced format aimed to replace JPEG that is more efficient and also allows for 10-bit color encoding (to avoid banding while allowing for more colors) and HDR encoding to allow the display of a larger range of tones on HDR displays.

But will smartphones replace traditional cameras?

For many, yes, absolutely. You’ve seen the autofocus speeds of the Pixel 2, assisted by not only dual pixel AF but also laser AF. You’ve seen the results of HDR+ image stacking, which will only get better with time. We’ve seen dual lens units that give you the focal lengths of a camera body and two primes, and we’ve seen the ability to selectively blur backgrounds and isolate subjects like the pros do.

Below is a shot from the Pixel 2 vs. a shot from a $ 4,000 full-frame body and 55mm F1.8 lens combo—which is which?

Full Frame or Pixel 2? Pixel 2 or Full Frame?

Yes, the trained—myself included—can pick out which is the smartphone image. But when is the smartphone image good enough?

Smartphone cameras are not only catching up with traditional cameras, they’re actually exceeding them in many ways. Take for example…

Creative control…

The image below exemplifies an interesting use of computational blur. The camera has chosen to keep much of the subject—like the front speaker cone, which has significant depth to it—in focus, while blurring the rest of the scene significantly. In fact, if you look at the upper right front of the speaker cabinet, you’ll see a good portion of it in focus. After a certain point, the cabinet suddenly-yet-gradually blurs significantly.

The camera and software has chosen to keep a significant depth-of-focus around the focus plane before blurring objects far enough away from the focus plane significantly. That’s the beauty of computational approaches: while F1.2 lenses can usually only keep one eye in focus—much less the nose or the ear—computational approaches allow you to choose how much you wish to keep in focus even if you wish to blur the rest of the scene to a degree where traditional optics wouldn’t allow for much of your subject to remain in focus.

B&W speakers at sunrise. Take a look at the depth-of-focus vs. depth-of-field in this image. If you look closely, the entire speaker cone and a large front portion of the black cabinet is in focus. There is then a sudden, yet gradual blur to very shallow depth-of-field. That’s the beauty of computational approaches: one can choose extended (say, F5.6 equivalent) depth-of-focus near the focus plane, but then gradually transition to far shallower – say F2.0 – depth-of-field outside of the focus plane. This allows one to keep much of the subject in focus, bet achieve the subject isolation of a much faster lens.

Surprise and delight…

Digital assistants. Love them or hate them, they will be a part of your future, and they’re another way in which smartphone photography augments and exceeds traditional photography approaches. My smartphone is always on me, and when I have my full-frame Sony a7R III with me, I often transfer JPEGs from it to my smartphone. Those images (and 720p video proxies) automatically upload to my Google Photos account. From there any image or video that has my or my daughter’s face in it automatically gets shared with my wife without my so much as lifting a finger.

Better yet? Often I get a notification that Google Assistant has pulled a cute animated GIF from my movie it thinks is interesting. And more often than not, the animations are adorable:

Splash splash! in Xcaret, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Animated GIF auto-generated from a movie shot on the Pixel 2.

Machine learning allowed Google Assistant to automatically guess that this clip from a much longer video was an interesting moment I might wish to revisit and preserve. And it was right. Just as it was right in picking the moment below, where my daughter is clapping in response to her cousin clapping at successfully feeding her… after which my wife claps as well.

Claps all around!

Google Assistant is impressive in its ability to pick out meaningful moments from photos and videos. Apple takes a similar approach in compiling ‘Memories’.

But animated GIFs aren’t the only way Google Assistant helps me curate and find the important moments in my life. It also auto-curates videos that pull together photos and clips from my videos—be it from my smartphone or media I’ve imported from my camera—into emotionally moving ‘Auto Awesome’ compilations:

At any time I can hand-select the photos and videos, down to the portions of each video, I want in a compilation—using an editing interface far simpler than Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere. I can even edit the auto-compilations Google Assistant generates, choosing my favorite photos, clips and music. And did you notice that the video clips and photos are cut down to the beat in the music?

This is a perfect example of where smartphone photography exceeds traditional cameras, especially for us time-starved souls that hardly have the time to download our assets to a hard drive (not to mention back up said assets). And it’s a reminder that traditional cameras that don’t play well with such automated services like Google and Apple Photos will only be left behind simpler services that surprise and delight a majority of us.

The future is bright

This is just the beginning. The computational approaches Apple, Google, Samsung and many others are taking are revolutionizing what we can expect from devices we have in our pockets, devices we always have on us.

Are they going to defy physics and replace traditional cameras tomorrow? Not necessarily, not yet, but for many purposes and people, they will offer pros that are well-worth the cons. In some cases they offer more than we’ve come to expect of traditional cameras, which will have to continue to innovate—perhaps taking advantage of the very computational techniques smartphones and other innovative computational devices are leveraging—to stay ahead of the curve.

But as techniques like HDR+ and Portrait Mode and Portrait Lighting have shown us, we can’t just look at past technologies to predict what’s to come. Computational photography will make things you’ve never imagined a reality. And that’s incredibly exciting.

Hungry for more? We’ve updated our standard studio scene to allow you to compare the Pixel 2 and iPhone X against each other and other cameras in Daylight and Low Light, as well as updated our galleries. Follow the links below:

Studio Scene Comparison | Google Pixel 2 Gallery | Apple iPhone X Gallery

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Samsung unveils massive 30TB solid state drive, the world’s largest SSD

20 Feb
Photo: Samsung

Samsung has reached another solid state storage milestone with its newly-announced Serial Attached SCSI PM1643 30TB SSD. The drive, which was developed for enterprise use, has double the capacity of the 15.36TB SSD Samsung introduced in early 2016. The company packed 512Gb V-NAND chips alongside 1TB NAND flash packages into the new drive, the combination enabling it to offer a 30TB capacity in a 2.5-inch form factor.

“With our launch of the 30.72TB SSD,” Samsung’s Jaesoo Han explained, “we are once again shattering the enterprise storage capacity barrier, and in the process, opening up new horizons for ultra-high capacity storage systems worldwide.”

In addition to hitting a record capacity, Samsung explains that its PM1643 is the first SSD to feature Through Silicon Via (TSV)-applied DRAM, which totals 40GB in this model. The company also managed to include an endurance level that supports writing 30.72TB of data to the drive every day for five years (the warranty period) without failure, an error correction code (ECC) algorithm for reliability, software offering sudden power failure and metadata protection, and sequential read/write speeds up to 2,100MB/s and 1,700MB/s.

Photo: Samsung

Samsung plans to offer other versions of this drive with capacities ranging from 800GB to 15.36TB. As for the 30.72TB model, the South Korean company explains that it started producing “initial quantities” of the drive last month, with lineup expansion planned for later in 2018.

The drive price isn’t listed, but we’re less excited about this specific drive (since it’s an enterprise drive) and more excited about the tech trickling down into consumer-focused higher capacity SSDs that photographers and videographers can use for backups.

Read the full press release below for more details about these drives.

Samsung Electronics Begins Mass Production of Industry’s Largest Capacity SSD – 30.72TB – for Next-Generation Enterprise Systems

New ‘PM1643’ is built on latest 512Gb V-NAND to offer the most advanced storage, featuring industry-first 1TB NAND flash package, 40GB of DRAM, new controller and custom software

Korea on February 20, 2018 – Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has begun mass producing the industry’s largest capacity Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) solid state drive (SSD) – the PM1643 – for use in next-generation enterprise storage systems. Leveraging Samsung’s latest V-NAND technology with 64-layer, 3-bit 512-gigabit (Gb) chips, the 30.72 terabyte (TB) drive delivers twice the capacity and performance of the previous 15.36TB high-capacity lineup introduced in March 2016.

This breakthrough was made possible by combining 32 of the new 1TB NAND flash packages, each comprised of 16 stacked layers of 512Gb V-NAND chips. These super-dense 1TB packages allow for approximately 5,700 5-gigabyte (GB), full HD movie files to be stored within a mere 2.5-inch storage device.

In addition to the doubled capacity, performance levels have risen significantly and are nearly twice that of Samsung’s previous generation high-capacity SAS SSD. Based on a 12Gb/s SAS interface, the new PM1643 drive features random read and write speeds of up to 400,000 IOPS and 50,000 IOPS, and sequential read and write speeds of up to 2,100MB/s and 1,700 MB/s, respectively. These represent approximately four times the random read performance and three times the sequential read performance of a typical 2.5-inch SATA SSD*.

“With our launch of the 30.72TB SSD, we are once again shattering the enterprise storage capacity barrier, and in the process, opening up new horizons for ultra-high capacity storage systems worldwide,” said Jaesoo Han, executive vice president, Memory Sales & Marketing Team at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung will continue to move aggressively in meeting the shifting demand toward SSDs over 10TB and at the same time, accelerating adoption of our trail-blazing storage solutions in a new age of enterprise systems.”

Samsung reached the new capacity and performance enhancements through several technology progressions in the design of its controller, DRAM packaging and associated software. Included in these advancements is a highly efficient controller architecture that integrates nine controllers from the previous high-capacity SSD lineup into a single package, enabling a greater amount of space within the SSD to be used for storage. The PM1643 drive also applies Through Silicon Via (TSV) technology to interconnect 8Gb DDR4 chips, creating 10 4GB TSV DRAM packages, totaling 40GB of DRAM. This marks the first time that TSV-applied DRAM has been used in an SSD.

Complementing the SSD’s hardware ingenuity is enhanced software that supports metadata protection as well as data retention and recovery from sudden power failures, and an error correction code (ECC) algorithm to ensure high reliability and minimal storage maintenance. Furthermore, the SSD provides a robust endurance level of one full drive write per day (DWPD), which translates into writing 30.72TB of data every day over the five-year warranty period without failure. The PM1643 also offers a mean time between failures (MTBF) of two million hours.

Samsung started manufacturing initial quantities of the 30.72TB SSDs in January and plans to expand the lineup later this year – with 15.36TB, 7.68TB, 3.84TB, 1.92TB, 960GB and 800GB versions – to further drive the growth of all-flash-arrays and accelerate the transition from hard disk drives (HDDs) to SSDs in the enterprise market. The wide range of models and much improved performance will be pivotal in meeting the growing storage needs in a host of market segments, including the government, financial services, healthcare, education, oil & gas, pharmaceutical, social media, business services, retail and communications sectors.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Samyang unveils ‘premium’ XP 50mm F1.2 lens for 50MP sensors and 8K capture

20 Feb

It’s official! 24 hours after product photos leaked online, the rumored Samyang/Rokinon XP 50mm F1.2 lens for Canon EF Mount has officially arrived. This is the third so-called “XP” lens—the first two, which were announced in 2016, were the XP 85mm F1.2 and XP 14mm F2.4—which are named for their ‘Excellence in Performance.’ That is: they’re designed to resolve over 50 megapixels for photography purposes, and easily capture crisp 8K video.

Like those lenses, the XP 50mm F1.2 is manual focus and currently only made for the Canon EF mount. It boasts a 9-blade aperture, and is made from 8 groups of 11 lens elements, including one aspherical and one high-refractive lens element that promise to “deliver sharp and vivid images to camera sensors by effectively tuning the light path.”

Finally, Samyang has also included its “ultra multi coating” to help ameliorate flare and ghosting. Here’s a closer look at this lens:

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And here are some sample photos, posted by Samyang on the new XP 50mm F1.2 product page alongside an MTF chart and detailed specs:

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Samyang/Rokinon XP 50mm F1.2 spec sheet

The Samyang XP 50mm F1.2 will be available for purchase in March, at an expected retail price of 950 Euro (and very likely the same price in USD). To learn more, head over to the Samyang Global website.

Press Release

Samyang Optics Launches the Premium Photo Lens- XP 50mm F1.2

February 20th, 2018, Seoul, South Korea – Global optics brand, Samyang Optics (http://www.samyanglensglobal.com) is pleased to unveil the Premium Photo Lens – XP 50mm F1.2 for Canon full frame DSLR cameras. The XP 50mm F1.2 is the third lens of the premium line up, XP series, created under the motto of ‘Excellence in Performance’. The XP 50mm F1.2 lens is expected to expand the brand power of Samyang in the premium lens market thanks to its great image quality, following in the footsteps of the XP 14mm F2.4, XP 85mm F1.2.

The moment of the drama with absolute resolution

This lens, built for DSLR cameras, has a resolution of more than 50 megapixels for photography and 8K for video. The XP 50mm F1.2 manual focus lens enables you to capture those dramatic moments in perfect image quality with a bright F1.2 aperture. In particular, it optimizes for portraits, capturing the delicate change of the eye at the time of a portrait, right down to a strand of hair, and bright and beautiful skin colour. You can express unconstrained depth with the bright aperture, while the 9 blades also deliver beautiful bokeh, starburst, and out-focusing effects. Also, you can even achieve high image quality in low light conditions and indoors thanks to the fast shutter speed

Excellence in Performance

Produced from a total of 11 lenses in 8 groups, you can minimize distortion and various aberrations while producing crystal clear resolution. The special optic lenses, aspherical lens, and high-refractive lens deliver sharp and vivid images to camera sensors by effectively tuning the light path. Also, flare and ghost effects can be well controlled thanks to the ultra multi coating.

Available from March 2018

The absolute resolution XP 50mm F1.2 lens will be available in March at a suggested retail price of EUR 949. To celebrate the launch, Samyang Optics will hold various consumer events on Facebook and Instagram. For more information on the product, visit Samyang Optics’ official website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Fujifilm’s X-mount has suddenly become a credible option for video

20 Feb

When Fujifilm announced its new Fujinon MK 18-55mm T2.9 and MK 50-135mm T2.9 cinema lenses about a year ago it generated a lot of interest. Fujinon is a respected name in the cinema industry and getting these lenses—based on the company’s much more expensive Cabrio line—for a price in the neighborhood of $ 4,000 was exciting to a lot of people.

Unfortunately, for users of Fujifilm’s own X-mount mirrorless cameras, there was one catch: Fujifilm released the lenses in Sony E-mount.

E-mount? That seemed like a strange choice to people in the camera world.

It’s not so strange when you consider the target market. Sony Super 35 cameras like the FS5 and FS7 are very popular among small production houses, budget filmmakers, and independent producers of various stripes, many of whom can’t afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a single lens. As a result, there’s a large addressable market of E-mount shooters who would be interested in this type of product.

We had a chance to use the MK 18-55mm T2.9 when it was introduced and were very impressed. Click here to read our full shooting experience.

X-mount? Not so much. Sure, the X-T2 could shoot 4K video, but came with some big caveats. Video probably wasn’t the feature driving buyers to that camera, especially those serious enough to use cinema lenses for their work.

However, Fujifilm tossed a small easter egg into that announcement: it planned to release the lenses in X-mount (as ‘MKX’ models) by the end of 2017.

However, Fujifilm tossed a small easter egg into that announcement: it planned to release the lenses in X-mount…

While that was a nice bone to throw to its mirrorless customers, it made us wonder if Fujifilm was also giving us a hint of things to come.

Now we know. The new Fujifilm X-H1 is a camera that embraces video – and video shooters – more than any X camera before.

Fujifilm’s cameras don’t have a strong history when it comes to video performance. Early iterations of the company’s video were far from best in class, and in some cases embarrassing.

The Fujinon MK series of lenses were originally released for Sony E-mount (shown here on a Sony FS7 camera), but are now available to X-mount mirrorless camera shooters.

Meanwhile, other companies, such as Panasonic and Sony, overtly courted videographers with cameras that delivered high quality footage and included deep video feature sets.

With the X-H1, Fujifilm now has a camera that’s competitive with just about anything in the DSLR/mirrorless class when it comes to video. It may not MKX-class equipment targeted at working pros, but it holds its own against its peers, with the possible exception of the Panasonic GH5/S. But to be fair, nothing else in this class really holds up to the GH5/S either.

It’s fair to say that Fujifilm shooters no longer need to feel left out in the cold when it comes to video.

It’s fair to say that Fujifilm shooters no longer need to feel left out in the cold when it comes to video

I don’t want to blow this out of proportion. I doubt Fujifilm would have developed the MKX lenses just for the X-H1. It wouldn’t have been worth the sizable development cost, and the E-mount market for these lenses is much larger. The fact that the MK lenses now work on X-mount is a great side benefit, though.

With this set of products in the mix it’s a great opportunity for Fujifilm to test the waters around video. Just a couple years ago, choosing a Fujifilm system for motion picture work was a non-starter. Today, all the pieces seem to be falling into place: high quality 4K/30p, 200Mbps codec, internal F-Log gamma profile, and even a couple high quality cinema lenses. That’s an attractive combination, and I’m sure Fujifilm will be watching to see if it gets traction.

We don’t know whether the Fujinon’s MKX lenses for X-mount signal greater ambitions for Fujifilm, but for the moment it means there’s still a very impressive set of real cinema lenses for Fujifilm’s mirrorless users.

Fujifilm’s decision to focus on the APS-C market may even be helping it here. There’s no pressure to support full frame models, so the company can put its best technologies into flagship APS-C cameras, which will appeal to people wanting to shoot content in the popular Super 35 format. Throw in Fujifilm’s Hollywood-renowned color science, and you have the ingredients for an interesting path forward.

The X-H1 shows that Fujifilm is serious about video. Whether those MKX lenses might signal greater ambitions on the camera side, or are just a pleasant side effect of having already developed them for E-mount remains to be seen.

Until recently, Fujifilm users who wanted to move into the world of video often assumed they would need to migrate to a different system to do so. No longer. Unless you really need the advanced features found in a pro-level video camera, it’s a viable alternative to other DSLR and mirrorless options.

This is a great time to be a Fujifilm shooter, especially if motion pictures are on your brain.

Click here to read our Fujinon MK 18-55mm T2.9 shooting experience

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Leaked: Samyang XP 50mm F1.2 EF lens coming soon

20 Feb
Leaked photo via CanonWatch

Nokishita and CanonWatch have both gotten their hands on some leaked photos of an upcoming Samyang/Rokinon lens that is very intriguing indeed. Meet the unreleased Samyang XP 50mm F1.2 EF.

Based on the moniker, we know that it’s part of Samyang’s manual focus eXtreme Performance series of lenses—the third lens to join the party, after the XP 85mm F1.2 and XP 14mm F2.4 announced in September of 2016. And judging by the “EF” at the end of the name, this one will only be made for the Canon-EF mount as well. Here’s a closer look, courtesy of Nokishita on Twitter:

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No word on price or specifications beyond the focal length and max aperture, but Nokishita’s image leaks typically come within 24-48 hours of release, so we expect this lens to make its official debut in the next day or two.

For comparisons’ sake, the XP 85mm F1.2 goes for $ 900, while the XP 14mm F2.4 retails for $ 1,000.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Photographer hit by Olympic skier Lara Gut during wipeout

20 Feb

Embed from Getty Images

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Swiss Olympic skier Lara Gut crashed during a run last week, and slid directly into a group of sports photographers on the sidelines. While most of them were able to get out of her way in time, one photographer, Sean Haffey, was hit square on. Fortunately, Haffey was quick with his camera and managed to capture multiple excellent shots of Gut as she slid toward him (embedded above).

Neither individual was hurt, but the collision, which was caught on video, still looks pretty intense:

According to Reuters, the crash may have happened due to one of Gut’s skis hitting a gate. She lightheartedly said to reporters after the incident, “No, I‘m OK, I‘m OK. I asked the photographer if he was OK too and he said he was. I think it’s getting scary to be a photographer on skiing hills.”

As for Haffey, Getty told NBC that he and his gear are both fine. “Sean is all OK as is his gear,” said Director and Head of External Communications for Getty Images, Anne Flanagan. “Like a true professional, he was shooting the entire time.”

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Photos of Tamron 70-210mm F4 lens leaked, announcement February 22nd

20 Feb
Tamron Japan shared this teaser on Instagram, shortly after leaked images of the 70-210mm F4 Di VC USD appeared online.

Tamron is preparing to release a couple of new lenses, teasing one (zoom?) lens last week, and now another, on the Tamron Japan Instagram account. Fortunately, unlike the speculation around last week’s teaser, we pretty much know what Tamron is hinting at in the image above.

That’s because, shortly before this teaser went up, a slew of leaked images of the upcoming Tamron 70-210mm F4 Di VC USD lens popped up online, leaving little doubt that this is the zoom depicted in the contrasty shot above. CanonWatch and Nokishita both got their hands on several leaked shots—CW mostly lifestyle images, Nokishita product shots.

Check them all out in the gallery below:

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As the teaser confirms, this new lens—very likely the 70-210mm F4 seen in the gallery—will be officially announced in three days time, on February 22nd, 2018. We expect the other Tamron lens teased last week to be announced at the same time.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Crypto-art ‘Forever Rose’ photo sells for $1M, making it the world’s most valuable virtual art

20 Feb

A blockchain crypto-art rose titled “Forever Rose” has been sold to a collective of investors for cryptocurrencies with a value equivalent to $ 1,000,000 USD. The collective is composed of 10 investors, each of whom contributed an equal amount toward the digital rose. The artwork is based on Kevin Abosch’s photograph of a rose and was created by Abosch and GIFTO, a decentralized universal gifting protocol.

Blockchain technology is behind cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and rights management platforms like KODAKOne. The tech can also be used for art, as demonstrated by Abosch with “Forever Rose.” Abosch previously sold an image of a potato titled “Potato #345” in 2016 for more than $ 1 million.

More than 150 buyers expressed interest in the Forever Rose, according to a press release detailing the sale. Ten collectors were ultimately chosen using a ballot—the buyers include ORCA Fund, Chinese crypto-investor Ms. Meng Zu, blockchain advisory firm TLDR Capital, and others. Payments were made in IAMA and GTO-by-GIFTO cryptocurrencies, with each buyer paying the crypto-equivalent of $ 100,000 to get 1/10 of the ROSE, an ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockchain.

Forever Rose is believed to currently be the most valuable virtual artwork in the world. The buyers can choose to hold onto their rose tokens, sell them, or give them away. Abosch and GIFTO will donate the sale proceeds to The CoderDojo Foundation, which provides kids around the world with the opportunity to learn coding skills for free.

Press Release

World’s Most Valuable Crypto-Artwork Sells for US$ 1 million

HONG KONG, Wednesday, February 14, 2018 – IN CELEBRATION of Valentine’s Day, the Forever Rose, a crypto-art project produced by world-renowned visual conceptual artist Kevin Abosch and blockchain universal virtual gifting protocol project GIFTO, sold for US$ 1 million worth of cryptocurrency to a group of 10 collectors.

With the sale, the Forever Rose is now the world’s most valuable piece of virtual artwork ever sold, and marks the historical merging of blockchain technology, fine art, and charitable causes.

Due to an overwhelming response with over 150 potential buyers from around the world indicating their interest, the decision was made to allow 10 buyers to buy the Forever Rose, as a way to show how the crypto community can come together to do their part to benefit the underprivileged.

To select the buyers for the Forever Rose, a ballot was held to determine the 10 collectors who can purchase the Forever Rose on 14 February at 14:00 Hong Kong time. These 10 collectors are some of the leading projects and investors in the crypto community. They are:

  • ORCA Fund, the premier digital asset fund in Asia
  • Future Money and Ink, a leading blockchain investment fund and IP asset exchange
  • Node Capital and Jinse Finance, a leading crypto fund and financial media in Asia
  • TLDR Capital, a leading blockchain advisory firm
  • Project Boosto, power global influencers with their own dApps and tokens
  • Project DAC, a platform for decentralized interactive audio
  • Project Nebulas, a search framework for blockchains
  • Project Caring Chain, a decentralized charitable cause platform
  • Ms. Meng Zu, a leading crypto investor in China
  • 1 collector who wishes to remain anonymous

Charles Thach, Managing Partner of ORCA Fund said: “ORCA is honored to support the Forever Rose project, our philosophy of bridging the best of west and east in blockchain industries fits nicely into the ethos of the Rose, and we will continue to contribute back to society via future charitable endeavors.”

Mori Wang, Founder of Project Caring Chain, said: “I believe blockchain technology has a huge potential to transform the entire charitable world, bringing transparency and accountability to projects worldwide. Project Caring Chain is proud to be a part of this historical milestone, the world’s first crypto charitable artwork.”

The cost of the Forever Rose was paid using two cryptocurrencies – GTO by GIFTO and IAMA by Kevin Abosch, with the 10 buyers splitting the cost of the crypto-artwork evenly, with each buyer paying US$ 100,000 in crypto currencies. The Forever Rose is an ERC20 token called ROSE on the Ethereum blockchain that is based on Mr Abosch’s photograph of a rose. The buyers each receives 1/10 of the ROSE token, as ERC20 tokens are divisible. They can then choose to hold their portion, sell it, or give it as a special gift for Valentine’s Day or any other special occasion.

The exact number of tokens required was determined according to their value on 14 February at 10:00 Hong Kong time. All proceeds from the sale will be donated to The CoderDojo Foundation, whose mission is to ensure that every child around the world should have the opportunity to learn code and to be creative with technology in a safe and social environment.

With the donation, Mr Abosch and the GIFTO team aim to inspire future generations to continuously push the boundaries and tap on technology to create a better world, and also to call on the crypto community to use more of the vast wealth created for charitable causes.

Ms Giustina Mizzoni, Executive Director of the CoderDojo Foundation, said: “A huge thank you to both Kevin and the GIFTO team for choosing the CoderDojo Foundation to benefit from this historic project. Technology is rapidly changing the world we live in. We have a duty to ensure that the next generation can not only seize the opportunities presented by this, but also influence and shape its future. Thousands of volunteers around the world are working to ensure this by creating opportunities for young people to code and create through the global CoderDojo movement.”

The Forever Rose project started as a personal collaboration between Mr. Abosch and Andy Tian, founder of GIFTO, as a way to stimulate a deeper discussion on the state of the crypto and blockchain industry, which has captured the world’s attention over the last few months. The project is symbolic of the current massive global popularity of cryptocurrency, and also aims to drive discussion regarding the entry of blockchain technology into the mainstream economy.

After it is sold, a dedicated website will be available to track the value of the artwork based on movements of GTO and IAMA and giving the public a visual representation of the movements and trends in the current cryptocurrency environment. Mr. Abosch and Mr. Tian hope that The Forever Rose will become a symbol of the blockchain and crypto world, and extend an invitation for everyone to participate in the project by recording and submitting their responses on video. Instructions are on the Forever Rose website.

Mr Abosch is most famous for creating and selling his iconic photographic portrait of a potato – “Potato #345” for more than US$ 1 million in 2016, and is much sought after for his portraits of top global celebrities from the entertainment and technology sectors. He has been pushing the limits of visual and conceptual art for most of his career.

He said: “I’m delighted that the crypto world has come together around The Forever Rose to further demonstrate the elegant power of the blockchain as a technology, but more importantly, as an instrument through which goodwill and humanity can be amplified.”

The GIFTO project, which completed the fastest-ever token sale in Asia in 1 min in Dec 2017, is the world’s first universal gifting protocol. GIFTO was created by the makers of Uplive (http://up.live/), one of the most popular live streaming mobile applications in the world with over 35 million users. IAMA Coin is a crypto-art project that Mr Abosch launched recently (http://www.iamacoin.com/), in which the artist himself explores the value of a crypto coin.

Mr Andy Tian, CEO and founder of GIFTO, said: “We are excited that the community has embraced the Forever Rose Project, and has come together for a great cause. We see a lot of parallels between blockchain technology and art, and hope that the Forever Rose can become a historical point marking blockchain moving from an esoteric technology, into the minds and hearts of every day people.”

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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