RSS
 

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

More than a speed light: Shooting with the Rotolight Neo 2

18 Feb

Introduction

One Neo 2, lit by another Neo 2.

Artificial lighting falls into two categories: Continuous and strobe. Continuous lighting is a great option for beginning photographers, because you can see your results before tripping the shutter (also, they’re handy for the whole ‘video’ thing). Unfortunately, the continuous lights of yesteryear were very power hungry and put out a ton of heat to get light levels that even approached a small, battery-powered strobe.

The advent of LED lights changes this somewhat, offering users a more convenient means of entry into the world of continuous lighting. But their power output still pales in comparison to even a low-end hotshoe flash. Plus, even basic studio strobes come with modeling lights to help with setup, and many on-camera flashes now have LED lights for video shooting in dim conditions.

But Rotolight has come from the other direction; instead of a strobe that happens to include a continuous light source, the Neo 2 is a continuous light source that happens to be capable of strobing at a respectable power output.

The Neo 2’s high-speed sync feature allowed me to get some nice fill-light on Allison’s face at a wide aperture while still exposing for the direct-sun highlights in the scene.
Nikon D5 | Nikon 105mm F1.4G @ F2.8 | 1/1000 sec | ISO 100
Photo by Carey Rose

Designed to be versatile for both on-the-go photographers and videographers, the Neo 2 packs a ton of neat features into a truly portable package. Let’s take a closer look.

Key features

  • Continuous light power of 2000 lux at 3 ft
  • Strobe power of F8, ISO 200 at 3 ft (AC power – roughly half this on batteries)
  • Zero recycle time for strobe work
  • Built-in Elinchrom Skyport receiver for remote high-speed sync triggering (up to 1/8000 sec)
  • Battery or AC power
  • 85,000 full-power flashes or 1.5 hours continuous light on battery power
  • Color temperature adjustable from 3150 – 6300K

Of particular interest to me was the ability to control color temperatures without using gels, the wireless triggering with high-speed sync (HSS) capability, and the lack of any sort of recharge time, even on batteries.

I’m primarily a stills photographer, so I brought along a set of Neo 2’s to a few situations where I’d ordinarily be tempted to use a speedlight. In some ways, they’re hugely impressive, but in others, well, there’s a little ways for Rotolight to go.

Getting started with continuous light

The Rotolight Neo 2’s controls – two clickable rotary dials and a power switch.

As a continuous light, the Neo 2 is really straightforward. You hit the power button on the back of the light; one rotary knob controls the brightness, and the other controls the color temperature. Because the color temperature is varied depending on a ratio of brightness between cool and warm LEDs on the panel, a mix of the two – around 4100K – will give you maximum light output.

When I was wrapping up our iPhone X review, I wanted to take a photograph of the phone being splashed with water, but I wanted to be able to fire the fastest bursts I could to catch just the right moment. That’s tough with a traditional strobe, but perfect for continuous lighting.

Sony a9 | Sony 90mm F2.8 Macro | ISO 6400 | 1/1000 sec | F5.6

I took this shot in an office building lounge area, with some ambient light, the Neo 2 directly behind the subject and firing back at the camera at full power, and my cell phone LED giving a bit of kick to the corner of the phone closest to the camera.

I set a Sony a9 to shoot at its maximum rate of 20fps (which uses an electronic shutter, and therefore is incompatible with traditional strobes anyway), and fired away as my coworker nervously emptied the cup of water from an exaggerated height. The end result, though a little noisy because of the shutter speed I wanted, has all the drama I was envisioning.

Here’s another example of using the Neo 2 in continuous mode in the same room, but with a different subject.

Fujifilm X-H1 | ISO 200 | 1/100 sec | F1.4
Photo by Jeff Keller

Part of what makes a continuous light so fun and easy to use is the instant feedback of how the image looks, and with the Neo 2, it’s small enough and powerful enough to be great for product work. This could be particularly valuable for those who aren’t necessarily comfortable with flash photography, but are looking to up their production value for an eBay or Etsy store.

Then I took our Neo 2 set into the studio for some macro shots, and things weren’t so straightforward any more.

Strobe time

This is the time where I advise you to do what you really should do anyway: read the manual. While the Neo 2’s are perfectly intuitive just as constant lights, using them in flash mode is a little tricky at first, particularly if you’re using the optional Elinchrom Skyport radio controller.

But after some reading (and re-reading) of the manual and a healthy dose of trial and error, I was able to consistently control each of the Rotolights independently in terms of flash output, color temperature and modeling light output right from the transmitter.

Fujifilm X-T2 | Fujifilm XF 80mm F2.8 Macro| ISO 200 | 1/250 sec | F5.6

Though the HSS capability of the system is limited to whichever system you choose at purchase, our Nikon transmitter worked perfectly fine on a Fujifilm X-T2 up to that camera’s maximum sync speed.

For the above image, one Rotolight was behind the subject to the right, with one of the included diffusion panels on the front so that individual LEDs aren’t discernible, and I set the color temperature to the cooler side. There’s an additional Rotolight off camera left providing some fill, and the extra highlights you can see in the reflections off of the iPhone’s lenses are non-dimming ceiling lights.

Overall, it’s a nice system for macro work, but if you require really deep depth of field, your ISO will climb quickly (a later shot with this same setup at F22 required ISO 3200). But at the very least, for macro work, you can place the lights very close to your subject.

Balancing with daylight

One of the main issues with using continuous LED lights as a one-stop shop solution for lighting became apparent anytime you took them outdoors. Without a huge panel and accompanying huge battery, overcoming sunlight or even bright overcast conditions was a non-starter, and you really were just better off with a strobe. The Rotolight Neo 2’s, it turns out, split the difference nicely.

Rotolight Neo 2
Nikon D700 | F4 | 1/125 sec | ISO 200		 Ambient Only
Nikon D700 | F4 | 1/40 sec | ISO 200

Although I tend to like each of these images for different reasons, you can clearly see that the single Neo 2 off to camera left changes the feel of the scene entirely. By raising my shutter speed to take the background brightness down, I can ‘shape’ the light effectively with the Rotolight, while still maintaining context. Plus, with high speed sync, I could use the Rotolight to overpower the ambient entirely in this situation, if I wanted to.

Let’s look at how the Neo 2 copes with a much brighter scene involving direct sunlight.

Ambient only
Nikon D5 | F2.8 | 1/1000 sec | ISO 100		 Rotolight Neo 2
Nikon D5 | F2.8 | 1/1000 sec | ISO 100

In this situation, I exposed for the brightest highlights in the scene while still maintaining a fairly shallow depth of field. Then I brought in the Neo 2 at maximum power to see if it could keep up – I really like the effect it has here. It’s soft, but the added fill light looks almost like it could be a reflection off of another building.

But for this situation, I needed to place the Neo 2 pretty darn close to my subject. This was necessary because, over the course of using our Neo 2’s, they would completely synchronize with our Nikon’s all the way up to 1/8000 sec – but between 1/1000 and 1/2000 sec, I started to notice a reduction in the light’s intensity.

A mediocre BTS photo, courtesy of my cell phone, shows how close the Neo 2 was to the subject.

As it happens, this 1/1000 sec shutter speed made for a good exposure for the ambient in this scene while still allowing the Neo 2 to operate optimally. But it should be pretty apparent that in bright conditions, you’ll struggle with framing your subjects wider than just head-and-shoulders with the Neo 2, to say nothing of trying to get a second evenly lit person into the scene.

The recycle time

Instant recycle time means 11fps bursts with flash are as easy as it is for Andrew to juggle this soccer ball.
Nikon D5 | Nikon AF-S 14-24mm F2.8 G | ISO 6400 | 1/1000 sec | F2.8
Photo by Carey Rose

For the above casual demo, I wanted to see just how effective and reliable the Neo 2’s were when shooting bursts. With zero recycle time and 85,000 full power flashes per battery charge, sports and action could be a really neat use case for these lights.

I cross-lit Andrew with two Neo 2’s – one upper camera left, one lower camera right. Check out the illumination on the grass in the lower right to see just how consistent the output is, even as the stadium lights caused some flicker at these shutter speeds.

ISO 6400 | 1/800 sec | F2.8
Photo by Carey Rose

It should be noted, though, that the D5 was set to 11fps instead of its maximum of 12fps – with the current setup, the Neo 2’s would occasionally fail to fire during the D5’s highest burst speed. That said, having 11fps at my disposal as Andrew went through a few penalty kicks still gave me lots of options to choose from.

Thoughts and takeaways

The Rotolight Neo 2 is a really clever device, and the more I use them, the more I enjoy them. I can envision myself really taking advantage of their versatility in a previous job of mine; I could use them as indoor interview lights for an on-location video, and then bring them outdoors to get a nice portrait of the subject to go along with the video. Two uses, one solution, and my bag is that much lighter.

Again, a Neo 2 lit by another Neo 2.
Nikon D750 | Micro-Nikkor 55mm F2.8 AI-s | ISO 100 | 1/125 sec | F8

The quality of the light is nice and soft, and the instantaneous recycle time and long battery life (for strobing) are appealing. The consistency of color accuracy, even during burst shooting, impresses further.

There’s also a litany of features that are far beyond the scope of this experience; impressive lighting simulations, like the glow of a fire or flashes of lightning, are built-in. The CRI (color rendering index) is very high, good enough for broadcast television.

And yet, I can’t help but feel that these are a bit of a niche product, that their appeal will be limited. For people that are primarily stills shooters, smaller, cheaper, battery-powered flashes will offer you far more power (you may need to get some light modifiers to approach the softness of the Neo 2’s).

For dedicated video shooters, you may find you need more power if you’re in bright conditions. For beginners just getting into artificial lighting, there are basic LED light panels all over the Internet for less than the cost of a tank of gas.

Despite all of this, I think that the Rotolight Neo 2’s have their place as a high-end, portable and versatile lighting solution, admittedly for a very specific type of customer. And more than anything else, I’m excited to see how Rotolight continues to develop this technology into the future.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on More than a speed light: Shooting with the Rotolight Neo 2

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 sample gallery

18 Feb

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_5058069396″,”galleryId”:”5058069396″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”isMobile”:false}) });

We’ve had some time to shoot around with Panasonic’s freshest interchangeable lens camera, the GX9. This rangefinder-style camera features a tilting EVF and a 20.3MP Four Thirds sensor with no low-pass filter. It also gains Panasonic’s new L.Monochrome D mode photo style, which offers deeper blacks and richer gradation than the camera’s other monochrome modes. We put the new black-and-white mode to work and started to get a feel for how it handles out and about; take a look at our full gallery.

See our Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9
sample gallery

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 sample gallery

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Behind the scenes: Shooting a motion time-lapse in the Canadian wilderness

17 Feb

Back in summer 2017, I went on a six week adventure to British Columbia and Alberta in order to capture Canada’s beautiful landscapes in the most impressive way possible. I wanted to make a time-lapse film that raises more awareness of our planet and our environment.

Planning

When it came to logistics, I tried to be as prepared as possible for this 6-week trip, and did tons of research ahead of departure. I knew I probably wouldn’t have a whole lot of internet (or time to waste on the internet) in the Canadian wilderness, and wanted to be prepared to just take things as they came. So I collected locations that I discovered on Google, on Instagram, or on other photographers’ portfolios, and created a long list of spots that were worth checking out.

I didn’t have a specific shot list. I just tried to capture the most beautiful scenery and moments that I could find along my adventure. However, I paid a lot of attention to interesting details around me instead of going for spectacular vantage points only. That’s how the whole moody intro sequence was conceived. By stepping closer to the subject, I tried to approach time-lapse in a slightly different way than you see in your typical, ‘epic’ time-lapse films online.

Challenges

I guess my biggest challenge with shooting this project was my own safety—doing all of alone, in an area packed with grizzly bears, was pretty scary.

Hiking alone comes with a risk that I always had to bear in mind. I carried bear spray at all times, and tried to let the bears know that I was there by creating a lot of noise on the hiking trail (they can get really dangerous when they’re startled). When I set up a time-lapse shot, I always had to have an eye on my surroundings and make a lot of noise by singing or talking to myself. Over the course of my trip, that risk was something I got used to.

Being all alone also didn’t make it possible for me to camp out on location. Obviously because it is very risky, but most of all because I simply couldn’t carry camping gear along with my camera gear and slider all by myself.

As a result of this, I had trouble getting to the best possible location at the best times of day. In order to shoot at sunset or sunrise, I either had to find a location that was fairly close to the parking lot, or take the risk of hiking up or down in the darkness with my head lamp as the only light source.

This is all of the gear I brought with me into the Canadian wilderness

Gear

Since I was all alone on this mission and wanted to hike out to locations a lot, I had to keep my gear package as compact and efficient as possible. I packed my Sony a7S II and Nikon D5100 (as backup camera) together with a newly purchased Canon 16-35mm F4 and Rokinon 14mm F2.8, as well as two cheap vintage lenses: an SMC Pentax-M 50mm F1.7 and an SMC Pentax-M 100mm F2.8.

As you might have noticed, my camera package was pretty humble. That was all I had and all I could afford, and honestly—that was all I needed.

A great Sony camera with only 12 MP paired with a sharp Canon wide-angle lens that could almost do anything on location. This lens is my absolute favorite due to its great flexibility for wide three-dimensional time-lapse movements. The Rokinon lens is well-known for its night- and astrophotography abilities, as it has just little amount of coma and is wide enough to capture almost the whole night sky. The Pentax lenses are actually my first lenses I’ve ever bought. Obviously, they’re old, cheap, and not the sharpest; they’re also small, light, and capable of projecting an image onto my sensor I was totally happy with.

In contrast, my time-lapse gear was downright extravagant thanks to a sponsorship from the innovative company eMotimo. They gave me a loaner for a great package for the duration of my whole trip: The spectrum ST4 is a newly designed 4-axis motion control system that, combined with the iFootage Shark Slider S1, simply can do it all—slide, pan, tilt and even pull focus in video or time-lapse shooting mode.

Using a Playstation Controller, I could easily set up literally any shot I wanted, and the ability to set keyframes in between the start and end point of my programmed shot gave me ultimate control over my composition. Additionally, an innovation that I’ve never seen before is a mountable extra motor to automatically pull the focus as the time-lapse is running. There are many ways to mess around with that: one I used was to shift focus from an interesting foreground to the revealing scenery in the background.

Another great feature worth mentioning is the ability to repeat a programmed movement at different speeds. This allowed me to record shots at different frame rates, but still have the exact same camera movement in each.

Since I couldn’t get the idea out of my head to combine a moving time-lapse shot with a real time video, with both shots having the very same camera movement, I did exactly that in the final shot of ALIVE. I recorded the whole scenery in dynamic time-lapse except for the person (me) being recorded in real-time video 25fps. Even though it took a lot of time perfectly masking out the person in post production, this shot probably wouldn’t have been possible without the spectrum ST4.

With all the flexibility of the motion control devise I felt an enormous freedom as a time-lapse photographer and could explore further ways to creatively make use of its features. However, this turned out to be a weakness as well, as I often found myself tempted to design way too sophisticated time-lapse shots. In this case, the inorganic/mechanical camera motion often drew way too much attention when watching the processed time-lapse sequence making the scenery appear surreal.

So in the process of my trip I learned that less is more in this case. It is way more important so be at the right spot at the right time—which is ultimately what I was seeking for my whole adventure.

Editing

In the editing process of ALIVE it was certainly very hard to come up with an edit as I had to choose the best among 149 time-lapse shots I recorded on my trip. Since I wanted to keep my film under 4 minutes, I forced myself to make some hard decisions. That turned out to be a pretty emotional process because every shot has a background story that connects to me personally.

It just often felt super frustrating to kick out a shot for which I woke up at 4 a.m. and hiked up a mountain for two hours in order to be there for sunrise.

A Story

Let me conclude my little behind the scenes tale with a story from Lake O’Hara, one of the most captivating landscapes I have ever experienced in person, and the final shot of the film. I decided to hike up to this incredible viewpoint for sunset and kept shooting until there was no light left to work with. That was the moment when I found myself alone in the darkness on the edge of a cliff.

The final shot of the film, captured above Lake O’Hara at sunset.

Should I take the risk of hiking down the steep and forested trail in the darkness potentially ending up as grizzly bear food? Or should I rather just stay up here all night and do another time-lapse of the milky way? Without camping gear and food, I stayed and spent another 5 hours in the cold darkness until the sun came back up.

Even though this shot of the milky way didn’t even make it into the final film, there is nothing I regret about staying up on this mountain all night all alone without a tent in bear territory… simply because it was one of these adventures that made my trip so unique.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Behind the scenes: Shooting a motion time-lapse in the Canadian wilderness

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Hands-on with Panasonic Lumix DC-ZS200 / TZ200

17 Feb

Hands-on with Panasonic Lumix DC-ZS200 (TZ200)

The Panasonic Lumix DC-ZS200 is a powerful, pocketable travel zoom compact camera, with an impressively long lens. We’ve had our hands on one – click through for a closer look.

20MP 1″-type sensor

The ZS200 is built around the same 1″ 20MP BSI-CMOS sensor as its predecessor the ZS100, which immediately makes it a cut above traditional superzooms that sacrificed (among other thing) sensor size for lens reach.

15X optical zoom lens

The ZS200 scores over its predecessor in a few ways, but the most obvious upgrade is to the lens. While the ZS100’s zoom range of 25-250mm was pretty good, the ZS200 turns things up to 11, spanning a much wider range, of 24-360mm (equiv).

Comprising 13 elements in six groups, this complex lens contains three extra low-dispersion elements and five aspherical, plus one that’s both extra low-disperson and aspherical. That’s pretty impressive for such a small camera.

Also updated compared to the ZS100 is minimum focus, which has been reduced to 3cm from 5cm (at 24mm equiv). Distortion at such a close distance (and at such a wide focal length) will be pretty wild, but for flowers, bugs and other organic subjects, it should be fine.

15X optical zoom lens

The extra zoom range doesn’t come free though, and at F3.3-6.4, the ZS200’s lens is slightly slower across its focal length span than its predecessor (shown above, on the left). The longer lens contributes to a slightly greater bodyweight, too. The ZS200 weighs 340g with a card and battery installed, compared to 310g for the ZS100.

This side-by-side shot shows off our ZS200’s ‘gunmetal’ finish. Not quite gray, not quite silver, we think it looks rather nice. Good old black will still be an option when the camera ships next month.

4K video

The ZS200 offers 4K video recording at 30p and 24p. Familiar 4K Photo features like Post Focus are available, in addition to a couple of new modes which were also introduced into the DC-GX9.

Auto Marking analyzes a 4K video clip and automatically marks points at which it detects action, and Sequence Composition (illustrated above in a Panasonic-supplied example shot with the DC-GX9) is a 4K Photo feature that allows you to composite multiple frames of a moving subject in front of a static background into a single 4K-resolution still image.

2.3 million-dot EVF

Here at DPReview we love a good EVF, especially in pocketable travel cameras, where it can really make a difference to handling in bright light. The good news is that the ZS200’s EVF is improved quite a bit over its predecessor. Resolution has been upped to 2.3 million dots, and magnification has been increased from 0.45X to 0.53X (equiv).

The bad news is that the viewfinder is still field-sequential, so the rainbow effect is alive and well, and shooting with a 0.53X magnification finder is still a bit like watching a television from the end of a hallway. As such, while the ZS200’s EVF is much nicer than its predecessor’s, it’s not a match for the OLED finders in some competitors, such as Sony’s RX100-series.

1.24 million-dot touchscreen

Keeping the ZS200’s electronic viewfinder company is a fixed 3″ rear LCD, which boasts 1.24 million dots and touch-sensitivity. As such, placing your desired AF point is as easy as simply tapping the screen.

We’re also pleased to see that Panasonic has included its ‘Touch Pad AF’ feature to the ZS200. In essence, this is exactly what it sounds like – with your eye to the viewfinder, the ZS200’s rear LCD can be used as a touch-pad to position the AF point. Pretty neat. And as you can see, despite the touchscreen, the ZS200 still has enough direct-access buttons to satisfy someone used to more traditional user interfaces (or someone wearing gloves).

Depth-from-Defocus (DFD) Autofocus

The ZS200 features a version of Panasonic’s Depth-from-Defocus autofocus technology. In very simple terms, DFD uses known blur characteristics of Panasonic lenses to work out whether a subject is front or back focused, before driving the focusing group to achieve focus. This reduces the characteristic focus ‘hunting’ of a typical contrast-detection AF system, by increasing the processor’s confidence that it’s moving things in the right direction.

While we haven’t had the chance to properly test the ZS200 (or use it much outside of a conference room and our upper floor balcony), AF speed is impressive at all focal lengths, albeit with some very slight ‘wobble’ when focus is acquired at long telephoto settings. In theory, the ZS200 should be capable of continuous autofocus at up to 6 fps – something we’re keen to try out when we receive a final production camera.

Increased battery life and Bluetooth Low Energy

Built-in Wi-Fi is to be expected these days, but we’re pleased to see that Panasonic has also included low-energy Bluetooth (BLE) in the ZS200. This allows for ‘aways on’ functionality, enabling easy remote trigger functionality from a smartphone without a huge hit in battery life.

Battery life is actually something of a strength of the ZS200. Usually when features get added to a camera, battery life goes down. Not so with the ZS200. Panasonic tells us that improvements have been made to power management, which have paid off in a CIPA rating of 350 shots (compared to 300 from the ZS200) when the LCD is used, and ~250 when shooting with the EVF.

Putting the camera into ‘Eco’ mode should ensure ~300 shots between charges, regardless of shooting style.

What do you think?

So what do you make of the Panasonic Lumix ZS200? Did one of the best travel zoom compacts just get better, or are you ambivalent about the extra zoom reach and slower lens? Let us know in the comments.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Hands-on with Panasonic Lumix DC-ZS200 / TZ200

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Fujifilm X-H1: What you need to know

17 Feb

Introduction

The Fujifilm X-H1 arrived in the last few hours of February 14th, at least out here on the West Coast in the US, making it a Valentine’s gift that came in just under the wire for the Fujifilm faithful. It’s deserving of a big red bow with a range-topping APS-C 24MP X-Trans sensor, sitting above the X-T2. It builds on many of the X-T2’s features by adding in-body image stabilization, a touchscreen and enhanced video options. Here’s a detailed look at everything that’s new and improved.

Image Quality

Given the camera’s pedigree and the initial results we’ve seen, the X-H1 looks highly capable of great image quality. The sensor, shared with the X-T2, has already shown itself to have performance comparable with the best of its APS-C peers, both in terms of dynamic range and noise performance at high ISO settings.

Throw in Fujifilm’s excellent film simulation modes (plus a bonus new one!), and you’ve got a mighty tempting camera for stills shooters. However, the camera’s unique X-Trans color filter pattern is worth taking into account – your results will vary greatly depending on your Raw conversion software.

Further enticing stills photographers is the X-H1’s healthy 14 fps burst rate with electronic shutter and 8 fps with mechanical shutter (which can be boosted to 11 with an optional grip). Buffer depth looks reasonably good too, allowing for 40 JPEG shots or 23 uncompressed Raws (27 compressed). Fujifilm also promises autofocus improvement, with better performance in low light and at smaller apertures. All excellent news.

Image Stabilization

Despite Fujifilm previously suggesting that it couldn’t be done, the X-H1 offers in-body stabilization rated up to 5 stops. Unusually, Fujifilm says the system works better with non-IS lenses because they project a larger image circle and tend to be neither too long nor too wide, both of which are harder to stabilize. With such a lens, up to 5.5 stops of stabilization can be achieved.

Viewfinder and rear LCD

Comparing to the X-T2, the X-H1 gets a higher resolution viewfinder: a 3.69 million dot OLED panel with 0.75x magnification to the X-T2’s 2.36 million dots and 0.77x magnification. Like the X-T2, the X-H1 provides a 3″ 1.04 million dot rear LCD that tilts upwards and downwards, but of course, adds touch sensitivity where the X-T2 has none.

The X-H1, like the X-T2, also comes with a ‘Boost’ mode that increases the viewfinder refresh rate from 60Hz to 100Hz for a smoother look.

Touchscreen

The X-H1’s touchscreen is all-around nice to have, allowing you to place a focus point with a tap, tap and acquire focus, or acquire focus and shoot all with one touch. It’s also usable as a touchpad with the camera to your eye. That said, we have a word of caution – in our initial use of the touchscreen both setting focus points and touchpad operation, the screen has felt noticeably laggy.

The LCD also provides touch control of the camera’s Q.Menu, and in playback mode offers quick access to 100% image viewing, along with gesture-controlled swiping and scrolling. As in the X-E3, a swipe across the shooting screen acts as a Fn button shortcut.

Video specs

The latest generation of flagship mirrorless cameras take video very seriously, and Fujifilm has definitely gotten the memo. The X-H1 offers DCI 4K in 23.98p and 24p, as well as UHD 4K in 23.98/24/25/29.97p. Where the X-T2 requires an external recorder to use flat Log capture, the X-H1 allows for internal F-Log recording. The camera offers bitrates of up to 200 Mbps and 24-bit audio (vs 16-bit on the X-T2).

Plenty of other goodies are on offer for videographers, like a new Eterna/Cinema film simulation mode, slow motion 1080p capture, and the ability to record full HD internally while outputting 4K over HDMI. Autofocus in movie mode is still a bit of a question mark, but rest assured we’ll be putting it to the test in short order.

Video interface and usability

In a further nod to the X-H1’s cinematic leanings, Fujifilm’s included specific shutter speed options in video mode that directly correspond to 90, 180 and 360 degree shutter angles on more dedicated video cameras. In other words, instead of being stuck with shutter speeds of 1/25 sec, 1/50 sec or 1/100 sec for shooting 24p video, you can choose 1/24 sec, 1/48 sec, 1/96 sec, and so on.

Touchscreen benefits aren’t limited to stills applications either – Fujifilm put a lot of thought into adding touch control for video shooters. Movie Silent Control disables the aperture ring, shutter speed dial and ISO dial, shifting those settings to touch control. This makes it easy to leave settings dialed in for stills, and then jump quickly to video shooting with separate settings. It’s a great feature to have if you’re, say, shooting stills and video at the same time at a wedding reception, but our initial impression is that the interface itself feels a bit fiddly.

It’s worth noting that the newly announced X-mount versions of Fujifilm’s MK cinema lenses will work beautifully on the X-H1, as you can see your aperture as T-stops rather than F-stops.

Unfortunately, despite all the strides Fujfilm’s made for video users, there’s a notable lack of exposure aids of any kind – you don’t even get zebra warnings, much less waveforms.

Who’s it for?

It’s not totally clear-cut who this camera is for. High-end stills shooters who want an X-T2 with stabilization may feel that their ship has finally arrived. But with so much emphasis on video features, is this a camera that’s better suited for photographers who need to shoot video along with their stills?

Fujifilm tells us it’s a camera for both parties. Like the Sony a6500, it acts as a step-up model even if you aren’t planning on shooting video (a step-up model that happens to be VERY capable in the video department). So if you’re a stills shooter who buys one, do us a favor and give the movie mode a try – it looks pretty darn good so far.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Fujifilm X-H1: What you need to know

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Microsoft Photos Companion app offers easy photo transfer from smartphones to PC

17 Feb

Microsoft has launched a new app to facilitate easy photo transfer from mobile devices to a Windows 10 PC, without using the cloud. Photos Companion is available for iOS and Android and deposits your mobile images in the Windows Photos app on the desktop or laptop PC using just a WiFi network.

To get started, you have to scan a QR code in the Windows Photos desktop app to pair smartphone and computer. Both devices have to be connected to the same WiFi network, which in turn allows you to send individual images or entire batches across very quickly. It is, in essence, the exact same system as Apple’s AirDrop, but limited to photos and videos.

Pairing isn’t permanent, and will have to be re-established for each sharing operation. Still, that’s easily done and the app looks like an interesting solution for collecting media files from multiple mobile devices on a single PC for working on collaborative projects.

Once on the PC, images and videos can be shared and edited in the Windows Photo app as usual. If Photos Companion sounds like an app that could potentially improve your workflow, you can find more information and app store links on the Microsoft website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Microsoft Photos Companion app offers easy photo transfer from smartphones to PC

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Judge rules that embedding a photo tweet is still copyright infringement

17 Feb

In a court case that could fundamentally change what constitutes copyright infringement online, a New York district judge has ruled that embedding a tweet that contains a copyright protected photo does, in fact, constitute a copyright violation. If the ruling is upheld, its impact across the internet is hard to understate.

The case involves a photographer, Justin Goldman, who sued several major publications including Time, Vox, Breitbart, and others, when they embedded someone else’s tweet of his copyright-protected photo of NFL star Tom Brady. Judge Katherine B. Forrest is ruling in favor of Goldman, writing:

…when defendants caused the embedded Tweets to appear on their websites, their actions violated plaintiff’s exclusive display right; the fact that the image was hosted on a server owned and operated by an unrelated third party (Twitter) does not shield them from this result.

As the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) points out, this ruling rejects a decade-old legal precedent set by the Ninth Circuit Court in a 2007 ruling called “Perfect 10 v. Amazon.” That case ruled that the company hosting the content—Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.—was liable, and absolved the company or publication or person who actually embeds the content. This, in essence, is how the internet has worked ever since.

Some sites, like YouTube, give creators the option to limit embedding so that only sites they specify (or nobody at all) can embed the content on their own platform, but others like Instagram and Twitter offer no such control. If your account is public, and you share a copyright-protected photo on it that goes viral, you can expect it to crop up on any number of outside websites, publications, and blogs with nary a permission request.

Of course, if it’s your own share, you could always take down the original Tweet or Instagram post or shift your account to private, breaking all of those embeds all at once. You (or the original poster) could also change what the post says or even swap out the file that shows up under that embed. But irrespective of those things, up until now, you had no legal case against the people or publications embedding your photo, since they have no control over what the hosting server will provide with that embed code—this is called the “server” test.

According to this ruling, embedding the DPReview tweet above without permission from the original creator of the GIF constitutes copyright infringement.

The server test is what Judge Forrest ultimately rejected, and if the ruling is upheld, it could apply to more than just embedding a tweet. As the EFF explains, the wording is broad enough that “the logic of the ruling applies to all in-line linking,” which could “threaten millions of ordinary Internet users with infringement liability.”

Appeals will no doubt be filed, and a closer look at the ruling and the standard practice of embedding on the internet may very well lead to its being overturned. But if it’s not, expect it to be open season for social media copyright infringement cases.

If you’d like to dive deeper, you can read the full ruling for yourself at this link.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Judge rules that embedding a photo tweet is still copyright infringement

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Google has removed the ‘View Image’ button from Image Search

17 Feb
Bye bye ‘View Image’ button…

On Monday, we told you about licensing deal between Getty Images and Google that would result in the end of the “View Image” button on Google Image Search. Today, we get to see the fruits of that deal, as Google Images officially removes View Image, forcing users to actually visit the site that hosts an image, rather than going straight to the image file on its servers.

The deal between Getty and Google served to end a legal feud that began in 2016, a lawsuit in which Getty accused Google of “promoting piracy” by linking to high-resolution copyrighted images without watermarks.

Getty claimed that Google was creating “accidental pirates” who would find legally licensed images through Google Image Search and, since they weren’t required to go to the actual website where these images were hosted (and properly credited with copyright notice), they would simply download the high-res file. Instead of settling this question in court, Getty and Google struck a multi-year licensing deal last week; a deal that should benefit all photographers.

The View Image button is gone, as is the “Search by Image” button. All that’s left is Visit, Save, View Saved, and Share.

All of the details were shared through the Google SearchLiason Twitter feed, where Google explained that yes, these changes are “in part” due to the deal with Getty. Ultimately, however, Google wants to emphasize that this is good for everyone:

For those asking, yes, these changes came about in part due to our settlement with Getty Images this week. They are designed to strike a balance between serving user needs and publisher concerns, both stakeholders we value.

Ultimately, Google Images is a way for people to discover information in cases where browsing images is a better experience than text. Having a single button that takes people to actionable information about the image is good for users, web publishers and copyright holders.

Now we just have to wait and see what kind of impact this will have on rampant online image theft. Of course, someone who wants to knowingly steal an image won’t be deterred by the lack of a direct link, but many of those “accidental pirates” that Getty claims exist should be saved from themselves by this change.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Google has removed the ‘View Image’ button from Image Search

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Sensor breakthrough: Sony has developed a backlit CMOS sensor with global shutter

17 Feb

Sony has made something of a breakthrough in sensor development, announcing a new backside-illuminated stacked sensor that can read out every pixel simultaneously to enable global shutter. While the company has only made it work with a 1.46-million-pixel sensor so far, the nascent technology has significant potential.

The sensor is able to read out from every pixel instantly because each pixel has its own analog-to-digital converter (ADC) buried in a ‘bottom chip,’ which is stacked beneath a ‘top chip’ containing the active, photosensitive pixels. This allows all exposed pixels to be read simultaneously, rather than sequentially row-by-row as is done with traditional CMOS sensors containing far fewer ‘column parallel’ ADCs.

This instant read-out avoids the rolling shutter distortion caused by the time delay as each row of pixels is recorded one after the other. In most existing chips, fast-moving objects become warped as they progress across the frame, because the pixels at the top of the sensor were read earlier than those at the bottom. This can also lead to banding under certain types of artificial lighting.

Global shutter—reading out all of the pixels at once—solves both these problems.

Shot with an exposure time of 0.56ms

Sony claims its sensor is the first back-illuminated high-sensitivity CMOS sensor with pixel-parallel ADCs and a pixel-count greater than 1 million.

While one million pixels may not be much good to photographers, this is a big step towards the production of a photographic quality sensor. Chips with ‘global shutter’ need only an electronic shutter to record undistorted action pictures, boast the ability to use short electronic shutter speeds with flash, and are able to work under fluorescent and solid state (LED) lighting without banding.

In the end, a global shutter sensor like this be useful for both still and movie photographers.

It’s also a major improvement over current global shutter CMOS sensors, which have a photosensitive pixel, and then a ‘storage’ pixel that the charge is transferred to after the exposure is made. This storage pixel holds the charge until the column ADCs read out, row by row. The problem with this approach is that your active pixel area now has a bunch of dead space per pixel taken up by the ‘storage pixel’.

By going BSI and stacked, we believe this technology eliminates the need for the storage pixel entirely, because you can read all the pixels at once at the end of your exposure.

The company says it has had to include 1000x more ADCs than it would normally in a 1MP sensor. The extra ADCs would require far more current, so Sony developed low current, compact ADCs for this chip. Additionally, new high speed data transfer construction allows for the fast read and write speeds required to operate all the ADCs in parallel and transfer the digital data.

While it might be some time before one is ready for use in a standard camera, this is a big step forward for global shutter sensor technology, which has traditionally been plagued by higher noise levels and lower dynamic range.

When will we see it scaled up to larger, smaller pixel pitch higher-resolution sensors? Hard to tell, but we’re keeping our fingers and toes crossed.

Press Release

Sony Develops a Back-Illuminated CMOS Image Sensor with Pixel-Parallel A/D Converter That Enables Global Shutter Function

Sony CorporationSony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation Tokyo, Japan – Sony Corporation today announced that it has developed a 1.46 effective megapixel back-illuminated CMOS image sensor equipped with a Global Shutter function*1. The newly developed pixel-parallel analog-to-digital converters provide the function to instantly convert the analog signal from all pixels, simultaneously exposed, to a digital signal in parallel. This new technology was announced at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) on February 11, 2018 in San Francisco in the United States.

CMOS image sensors using the conventional column A/D conversion method*2 read out the photoelectrically converted analog signals from pixels row by row, which results in image distortion (focal plane distortion) caused by the time shift due to the row-by-row readout.

The new Sony sensor comes with newly developed low-current, compact A/D converters positioned beneath each pixel. These A/D converters instantly convert the analog signal from all the simultaneously exposed pixels in parallel to a digital signal to temporarily store it in digital memory. This architecture eliminates focal plane distortion due to readout time shift, making it possible to provide a Global Shutter function*1, an industry-first for a high-sensitivity back-illuminated CMOS sensor with pixel-parallel A/D Converter with more than one megapixel*3.

The inclusion of nearly 1,000 times as many A/D converters compared to the traditional column A/D conversion method*2 means an increased demand for current. Sony addressed this issue by developing a compact 14-bit A/D converter which boasts the industry’s best performance*4 in low-current operation.

Both the A/D converter and digital memory spaces are secured in a stacked configuration with these elements integrated into the bottom chip. The connection between each pixel on the top chip uses Cu-Cu (copper-copper) connection*5, a technology that Sony put into mass production as a world-first in January 2016.

In addition, a newly developed data transfer mechanism is implemented into the sensor to enable the high-speed massively parallel readout data required for the A/D conversion process.

*1:A function that alleviates the image distortion (focal plane distortion) specific to CMOS image sensors that read pixel signals row by row.*2:Method where the A/D converter is provided for each vertical row of pixels in a parallel configuration.*3:As of announcement on February 13, 2018.*4:As of announcement on February 13, 2018. FoM (Figure of Merit): 0.24e-?nJ/step. (power consumption x noise) / {no. of pixels x frame speed x 2^(ADC resolution)}.*5:Technology that provides electrical continuity via connected Cu (copper) pads when stacking the back-illuminated CMOS image sensor section (top chip) and logic circuits (bottom chip). Compared with through-silicon via (TSV) wiring, where the connection is achieved by penetrating electrodes around the circumference of the pixel area, this method gives more freedom in design, improves productivity, allows for a more compact size, and increases performance. Sony announced this technology in December 2016 at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco.

Main FeaturesGlobal Shutter function*1 achieved in a high-sensitivity back-illuminated CMOS image sensor by using the following key technologies:

Low-current, compact pixel-parallel A/D converter In order to curtail power consumption, the new converter uses comparators that operate with subthreshold currents, resulting in the industry’s best-performing*4, low current, compact 14-bit A/D converter. This overcomes the issue of the increased demand for current due to the inclusion of nearly 1,000 times as many A/D converters in comparison with the traditional column A/D conversion method*2.

Cu-Cu (copper-copper) connection*5 To achieve the parallel A/D conversion for all pixels, Sony has developed a technology which makes it possible to include approximately three million Cu-Cu (copper-copper) connections*5 in one sensor. The Cu-Cu connection provides electrical continuity between the pixel and logic substrate, while securing space for implementing as many as 1.46 million A/D converters, the same number as the effective megapixels, as well as the digital memory.

High-speed data transfer construction Sony has developed a new readout circuit to support the massively parallel digital signal transfer required in the A/D conversion process using 1.46 million A/D converters, making it possible to read and write all the pixel signals at high speed.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Sensor breakthrough: Sony has developed a backlit CMOS sensor with global shutter

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Microsoft adds ‘Ultimate Performance’ mode to latest Windows 10 Pro build

16 Feb

Microsoft has introduced a new “Ultimate Performance” power scheme in its latest Windows 10 preview build. The new mode will be available to Windows 10 Pro for Workstations, a high-end version of Windows 10 that Microsoft introduced back in August. The company explains that Ultimate Performance is a way to “provide the absolute maximum performance” on these workstations for users who need as much power as possible.

Ultimate Performance mode builds upon the existing High-Performance option, working to eliminate micro-latencies, says Microsoft, that are “associated with fine grained power management techniques.” Ultimately, the new mode is designed for reducing those micro-latencies and it may result in increased power consumption; as such, Microsoft hasn’t made this mode available on system powered by batteries (like laptops).

For creatives who need to squeeze the most power possible out of their Windows machine as they edit 8K footage in Premiere Pro or cull and edit thousands of photos in the speedier new build of Lightroom Classic, the new mode could potentially give you a performance boost in exchange for higher power consumption.

Both OEMs and users can enable Ultimate Performance via Control Panel > Power Options > Hardware and Sound. The feature is only available to Windows Insiders running Windows 10 Pro for Workstations via Preview Builds 17079 or greater, for now.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Microsoft adds ‘Ultimate Performance’ mode to latest Windows 10 Pro build

Posted in Uncategorized

 
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »