360Photography

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  • Apple’s auto-generated Memories videos are still kind of weird in iOS 11

    Starting with iOS 10, Apple has been scanning iPhone users’ photo libraries and automatically creating nostalgic videos it calls Memories. They’re basically slideshows of what it deems to be meaningful photos and videos from your collection, set to music, and arranged around a theme. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and sometimes you’ll remember that time you took a picture of the frozen pizza baking directions.

    iOS 11, released to the general public yesterday, brought some updates to Memories. They’re now portrait-format friendly, and more Memories will be automatically created around a wider range of subjects and themes. But if my first Memory video after downloading iOS 11 is any indication, Apple hasn’t gotten much smarter about what photos to include.

    An interesting photo for Instagram, but not a moment I wanted to reminisce about months later. It’s hard for a computer to know the difference.

    Though it does a few things well – it generally picks up on the fact that I like nice photos of my boyfriend and me – Apple’s algorithm makes some pretty weird choices. My latest Memory, titled “Best of the last 2 months,” opens on an image of a discarded Craisins box on a bed of grass. I thought it was an interesting photo for Instagram, but not a moment I wanted to reminisce about months later. It’s hard for a computer to know the difference.

    The misses are all much funnier because of the slightly dramatic treatment: panning, gentle transitions and music give the impression of something that’s been carefully curated to invoke nostalgia. It’s all very serious, and works very well for a post-hike selfie with a majestic backdrop. It’s downright laughable when it’s a photo of some acne-treating serum I took a picture of to send to my sister.

    Ah, how I cherished this moment.

    To be completely fair, Memories videos are meant to be customized and edited by the human viewing them. The algorithm gets you to a starting point, and it’s up to you to take out the shots that don’t work. And it’s a little bit narcissistic, but it’s kind of fun to watch a slideshow of your best moments over the past few months.

    With new iterations, Apple’s subject recognition and photo-picking algorithm will no doubt get smarter, and the automatic videos will get better. Hopefully it’ll learn to ignore the kind of shots that are taken for utilitarian purposes, but it’s already pretty good with some stuff – it correctly identified photos of my boyfriend and put together a slideshow of images of him from baseball games and vacations. More of that please, Apple, and less reminders of my life with acne-prone skin.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • New product overview videos: Canon EOS 6D II and more

    We’re always expanding our collection of product overview content, and we’ve just added videos for the Canon EOS 6D Mark II, the EOS Rebel SL2 and EOS M6. Take a look at some of the key features these cameras offer – demonstrated in the shooting scenarios they were built to handle. For more overviews and gear tests, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

    Canon EOS Rebel SL2 overview

    Canon EOS M6 overview

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

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Yashica teases ‘Unprecedented Camera’: Coming to Kickstarter in October

    Last week’s Yashica teaser was met with a lot of excitement. But it didn’t take long for people to claim that teaser had nothing to do with a camera. In fact, they said, Yashica was just teasing a clip-on smartphone lens they had already released. Womp womp…

    But not so fast! Another teaser video released yesterday seems to hint at the big return to the camera market we were all actually hoping for.

    The teaser, titled “The Prologue,” shows more of the same girl walking around with an old Yashica film camera (maybe?) and even a brief scene with that clip-on smartphone lens. All unremarkable, except the whole thing starts with this tagline:

    Expect the Unexpected

    The Unprecedented Camera by YASHICA

    And later on a date floats onto the screen:

    October 2017, Kickstarter

    It looks like Yashica may be making a grand return after all. Hopefully they don’t disappoint us after all this teasing. If you’re claiming to release an “unprecedented” camera, you’d better deliver.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • This Kodak Moments chatbot digs through your old photos and tries to sell you prints

    Kodak has created a new Facebook Messenger chatbot called ‘Kodak Moments’ that tries to get users to buy physical products by digging through and resurfacing their old photos.

    The AI algorithm works by searching through the mass of images a user has uploaded to Facebook and suggesting ones that may have been forgotten in hopes the user, when suddenly presented with this fond old memory (or Kodak moment… if you will), will order it as a physical print or photo product like a coffee mug.

    Facebook users are given the option of either dismissing the chatbot’s suggested image, requesting other images that contain the same people as the first image, or requesting a print or product containing the selected image. All you have to do to join this ‘fun’ game that tries to sell you things is search for Kodak Moments in the Messenger app.

    Unfortunately, the chatbot—at least in its current iteration—doesn’t support any sort of filtering options, making it impossible to prevent the bot from digging up photos of old memories better left forgotten. Consider yourself warned.

    Joining this Messenger chatbot is a new Kodak Moments app (Android | iOS) that goes a bit further. After being given permission, the app will search through a Facebook or Google account and camera roll to find images it thinks users may want to turn into physical products.

    The goal behind the new Kodak Moments technology is (obviously) to increase the company’s print sales while reviving the idea of a ‘Kodak Moment’ and helping customers sort through their possibly massive photo albums. We’ll let you decide if the concept is fun, annoying, or maybe a bit traumatizing.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • The iPhone 8 Plus is the best smartphone camera DxOMark has ever tested

    Photo: Apple

    Apple fans who were hopeful the iPhone 8/Plus would represent a big step up in camera quality over the already-respectable iPhone 7/Plus have something to celebrate. DxOMark just released the results of its iPhone 8 and 8 Plus tests, and the new Apple smartphones represents a significant improvement over the previous versions.

    In fact, the iPhone 8 Plus is now the best smartphone camera DxOMark has ever tested, and the iPhone 8 comes in a close second, pushing the Google Pixel down from the top stop into the #3 position.

    You can read full iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus reviews by clicking on the respective links, but the conclusion from DxOMark’s review of the Plus just about tells you all you need to know:

    Overall, the Apple iPhone 8 Plus is an excellent choice for the needs of nearly every smartphone photographer. It features outstanding image quality, zoom for those needing to get closer to their subjects, and an industry-leading Portrait mode for artistic efforts. It is at the top of our scoring charts in nearly every category — and in particular, its advanced software allows it to do an amazing job of capturing high-dynamic range scenes and images in which it can recognize faces.

    ‘Nuff said? Now we wait to see how much better (or not) the iPhone X is… and what Google’s response will be when the company reveals its new smartphone on October 4th.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Craigslist poster raises the bar on terrible car photography

    A Craigslist post offering a 1990 Mazda RX-7 for sale is going viral today thanks to the photos of the car… and it’s not because they’re good.

    For whatever reason, the ad’s author decided the best way to photograph his or her car for this ad was to take pictures of the car with their cell phone, and then take pictures of the pictures displayed on their cracked, hazy smartphone screen.

    The original Craigslist post, a link to which hasn’t been shared publicly to avoid disrupting the seller’s efforts, was spotted by Murilee Martin and shared with Autoweek. And yes, the pictures are exactly as bad as described.

    The reasoning behind this photographic decision aren’t known and probably never will be. But instead of sharp, colorful, detailed photos of a car what we get are hazy, in some cases out-of-focus shots of a red vehicle that is difficult to make out through the cracks in the screen.

    Even by Craigslist standards these are bad. By car photography standards? It’s like something out of a horror film.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Affinity Photo for iPad adds extremely useful drag-and-drop feature with iOS 11 update

    One of the useful features added to the iPad with the update to iOS 11 this week was drag-and-drop between the operating system’s “Files” app and other applications on the tablet. And popular photo editor Affinity Photo has already updated its iPad app to take advantage of this really handy feature.

    Now, if you want to edit a photograph in the Affinity Photo app, all you have to do is drag it from the files app into Affinity… that’s it. No need to get the image onto your iPad in some other, more convoluted way—as long as it’s accessible from your Files app (read: in a cloud-connected folder on your Apple computer) you can drag it into the app.

    What’s more, you can drag multiple files in at once for HDR merging, panorama creation, and focus stacking. Here’s the description direct from Serif, the makers of Affinity Photo:

    Thanks to iOS 11’s new Files app you can now drag and drop multiple images straight into Affinity Photo for iPad and start editing. This is tremendously useful when working with HDR merge, image stacking and panoramas and will provide an instant boost to your workflow. And if you ever receive images, or even PSD files, via email, you can now open and edit that file – with all layers intact – by simply dragging it in.

    Affinity Photo made a big splash with their iPad release, calling it “the first full blown, truly professional photo editing tool to make its way onto the Apple tablet.” As Serif builds more and more functionality into the app, they’re hoping to close the gap between mobile and desktop editing. This represents a big step in that direction.

    Learn more about Affinity Photo for iPad by clicking here. And if you’re more of a desktop editor sort of person, don’t forget to check out our review of Affinity Photo 1.5.2 posted this week!

    Full Review: Affinity Photo 1.5.2 for Desktop

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Synology launches its first 6-bay NAS tower, updates more affordable options

    Storage solution company Synology has introduced its first six-bay NAS device: the DS3018xs. The new model holds six drives of its own, but if that’s still not enough storage for your epic photo library, it can combine with the company’s DX1215 expansion units to control up to thirty.

    The company has used the Pentium D1208 dual-core 2.2GHz processor that can boost to 2.6GHz, and provides a PCle slot for users to install an optional dual M.2 SATA SSD adapter to shift processing onto solid state drives for speed and efficiency. The DS3018xs comes with 8GB of RAM installed, but has two memory slots for expansion up to 32GB, and an optional 10GbE network card can provide 2230MB/s sequential read speeds.

    At the same time, Synology has launched four other DS and DS+ models that replace existing NAS enclosures. The new DS918+ and DS718+ are upgrades of the DS..16+ models, and bring more memory capacity and options for adding extra slots via DX517 expansion unit. These models and the DS218+ and DS418 get new processors as well, while all are said to be capable of transcoding 4K video on the go.

    Synology has started a series of workshops around the world that demonstrate some of these models and show off the company’s technology. They are free to attend to anyone registered via the Synology 2018 events page. For more information about the new NAS enclosures visit the Synology website.

    Pricing

    DS3018xs – £1298.18 (including VAT), €1190 (excluding taxes)
    DS918+ – £518.18 (including VAT), €475 (excluding taxes)
    DS718+ – £414.55 (including VAT), €380 (excluding taxes)
    DS218+ – £310.90 (including VAT), €285 (excluding taxes)
    DS418 – £387.91 (including VAT), €351 (excluding taxes)

    Press Release

    From Home to Business: Synology® Unveils New XS/Plus/Value-Series Product Lineup

    Storage solutions designed to meet a multitude of needs

    Synology® Inc. announced the official launch of new product lineup featuring:

    DS3018xs: Synology’s first 6-bay tower NAS with optional 10GbE and NVMe SATA SSD supports

    Plus-series DS918+, DS718+, and DS218+: Designed to meet your intensive daily workloads

    Value-series DS418: Featuring optimized 4K online transcoding capability

    To allow for ultra-high performance using SSD cache without occupying internal drive bays, DS3018xs features a PCIe slot, which can be installed with a dual M.2 SATA SSD adapter card (M2D17). DS918+ comes with dedicated dual M.2 NVMe slots at the bottom where you can directly install M.2 NVMe SSDs. DS418 features 10-bit H.265 4K video transcoding, and while supporting the next-generation Btrfs file system in DSM 6.2 official, expected to release in early Q1 next year. Btrfs provides reliable data protection through its cutting-edge self-healing and point-in-time snapshot features.

    DS3018xs, Synology’s first 6-bay tower NAS, is compact yet powerful as it features the Intel’s advanced Pentium D1508 dual-core 2.2GHz processor (Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz) with AES-NI encryption engine; offering scalability of RAM up to 32 GB and storage capacity up to 30 drives with two Synology DX1215. In addition to four Gigabit LAN ports, DS3018xs takes advantage of boosting maximum throughput with an optional 10GbE network interface card, delivering stunning performance at over 2,230 MB/s sequential reading and 265,000 sequential read IOPS.

    DS918+ and DS718+ are powered by Intel‘s Celeron® J3455 quad-core processor. DS218+ is powered by Intel’s Celeron® J3355 dual core processor. Both models are equipped with AES-NI hardware encryption engine and support up to two channels of H.265/H.264 4K video transcoding.DS918+’s RAM is scalable up to 8GB, while DS718+ and DS218+ are scalable up to 6 GB, allowing you to operate more intensive tasks at once. DS918+ and DS718+ are equipped with two LAN ports, and their storage capacity can be scaled up to 9 and 7 drives, respectively, with Synology’s DX517 expansion unit.

    “Responding to the demands from our customers, DS3018xs is built as a comprehensive business-ready desktop NAS. Running mission-critical applications or planning virtualization deployment with DS3018xs has never been easier.” said Katarina Shao, Product Manager at Synology Inc. “The new DS918+, DS718+, and DS218+ are optimized to be your digital video libraries, and will bring you an excellent viewing experience with high definition live video transcoding, regardless of device limitations.”

    DS418 is equipped with a 1.4GHz quad-core processor with hardware encryption engine, 2 GB RAM, and two LAN ports. Powered by the hardware transcoding engine, DS418 supports H.265 4K transcoding allowing it to serve as your media library. Combined with Btrfs and Snapshot supports, DS418 is delivers more efficient data storage and more reliable data protection.

    For more information on DS3018xs, please visit https://www.synology.com/products/DS3018xs

    For more information on DS918+, please visit https://www.synology.com/products/DS918+

    For more information on DS718+, please visit https://www.synology.com/products/DS718+

    For more information on DS218+, please visit https://www.synology.com/products/DS218+

    For more information on DS418, please visit https://www.synology.com/products/DS418

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • GoPro Hero6 leaked again: Shoots 4K at 60fps, 1080p at 240fps, and costs $500

    Newly leaked photos of the GoPro Hero6 form a Best Buy in Canada. Photo credit: The Verge

    Days after the first photo of the upcoming GoPro Hero6 action camera leaked online, showing that the little cam will finally be able to shoot 4K at 60fps, another set of images has appeared after the camera was put up (by mistake, we assume) at a Best Buy in Canada. The photos were sent to tech site The Verge by a tipster who got to see that camera, and the leak reveals two more tantalizing details about the Hero6.

    In addition to confirming the 4K 60fps news, the photo shows that the Hero6 will also be able to shoot FullHD 1080p video at 240fps slow motion, and the camera will sell for $ 650 CAD, or approximately $ 500 USD when it’s released.

    The Verge is also reporting that GoPro will no longer use an Ambarella processor from the Hero6 onwards. Instead, the new camera will reportedly contain a custom-built processor known at GoPro as the “GP1,” leaving many to hope that this new chip will translate into better battery life and higher performance from GoPro’s future models.

    Finally, the last piece of the puzzle is a release date, which was also leaked today. According to Twitter user Konrad Iturbe, who was able to gain access to GoPro’s staging website, the announcement/release date is set for September 28th.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Review: Affinity Photo 1.5.2 for desktop

    Affinity Photo for desktop (Mac + PC)
    $ 50 | Affinity.Serif.com | Buy Now

    Usually, the price of software comes at the end of the review, but with Affinity Photo 1.5, the image editor for Mac and Windows, the price is the starting point, along with a prominent qualifier from the product’s website: ‘No subscription.’

    Key Features

    • Professional editing tools for almost anyone who needs to manipulate images
    • Edits are mostly non-destructive
    • Windows and Mac support
    • Inexpensive, with no subscription required
    • Batch processing

    Affinity Photo’s developer, Serif, knows its audience. When Adobe shifted Photoshop and nearly all of its other products to a subscription model in 2013, it prompted an outcry from customers who didn’t want to be locked into a perpetual fee. Four years later, despite the move being apparently successful for Adobe, subscription pricing continues to be a point of contention for many people, turning into an opportunity for developers like Serif.

    If you’re already familiar with Adobe’s flagship, it won’t take long to orient yourself in Affinity Photo.

    However, simply offering a less expensive image editor isn’t enough. We’re beyond the point where photographers will put up with limited software to save a few bucks, and with Affinity Photo, we don’t have to. You won’t find some of the specialized features Photoshop includes, such as its 3D tools, but most everything else is there – sometimes to Affinity Photo’s detriment.

    Getting Started

    Affinity Photo’s personas break up the editing experience into five main categories.

    Software should be evaluated on its own merits, and for the most part I’m looking at Affinity Photo through that lens. How does it perform for photographers? Does it get in the way when handling familiar operations? Does it improve the editing experience? Comparisons to Photoshop inevitably come up, and I’ll refer to them when needed, but this isn’t specifically a comparative review between Affinity Photo and Photoshop.

    That said, if you’re already familiar with Adobe’s flagship, it won’t take long to orient yourself in Affinity Photo. If photo editing beyond the basics is new to you, it’s easy to pick up.

    Working modes, aka ‘Personas’

    Affinity Photo is built around four working modes, referred to as “personas,” each of which contains its own specialized tools. These personas include: Photo, Develop, Tone Mapping and Export.

    The Photo persona is the main editing interface, with adjustments, layers, masks, and the like. The Liquify persona is a playground for distorting areas when retouching (creating an editable mesh of the entire image and then pushing and pulling the pixels to do things like make areas seem slimmer or to correct distortion). The Develop persona kicks in when opening a raw file for pre-processing, akin to Adobe Camera Raw. The Tone Mapping persona is exclusive for working with HDR (high dynamic range) effects, which can apply to single images as well as several merged shots. And lastly, the Export persona provides tools for creating versions of the image outside the application, from specifying file types and compression levels to preset slices.

    You’ll also find tools for painting and drawing, including extensive controls for creating and manipulating brushes, but for the sake of brevity, I’m looking at the application in terms of editing photos.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)