360Photography

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  • DJI releases mandatory firmware for DJI Spark: update by September 1st… or else

    Chinese drone maker DJI is releasing a mandatory firmware update for its DJI Spark drone, forcing all Spark owners to update their drone’s software by September 1st. Any Spark drone not updated by that date will be grounded remotely.

    The update brings multiple changes, but the reason it’s ‘mandatory’ is that it contains a fix that prevents the drone from shutting down while flying.

    The announcement was made in a newly released statement from DJI, which explains that it decided to disable any Spark drones that aren’t updated in time “in order to maximize flight safety and product reliability.” All Spark owners will be prompted to update the drone upon opening the DJI GO 4 App, though owners can also run the update through the DJI Assistant 2 desktop software.

    In addition to fixing the safety issue, DJI explains that this new update improves the drone’s battery management system, providing optimized power when the drone is in flight. Spark also gains full DJI Goggles integration support via this firmware, as well as an improved PalmLaunch functionality, better QuickShot Drone mode accuracy and increased remote controller compatibility.

    Press Release

    DJI Spark Firmware Update Enhances Flight Safety

    DJI will be releasing a new firmware update this week to further enhance flight safety and performance of the DJI Spark.

    The new firmware update enhances Spark’s battery management system to optimize power supply during flight. In addition, the new firmware has added support to fully integrate Spark with the DJI Goggles, optimized the PalmLaunch function for better stability after takeoff, improved the accuracy of controls under the QuickShot Dronie mode and enhanced the compatibility of the remote controller when syncing up with new firmware updates.

    When prompted on the DJI GO 4 App, users with internet connectivity will be able to download the new firmware to update their aircraft’s and battery’s firmware. The aircraft and battery firmware updates can also be done via the DJI Assistant 2 desktop software. If the firmware of either the aircraft or the battery is not updated by September 1, Spark will not be able to take off. DJI decided on the option of a mandatory firmware update in order to maximize flight safety and product reliability which we consider as top priorities.

    The update comes after DJI released new features for its Spark in early August to deliver a more powerful combination of video and photo improvements including a new gesture to start and stop video recording and enhanced QuickShot video features for more cinematic control.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • 500px adds support for wide-gamut color profiles and Google WebP format

    Photography sharing and community website 500px has announced support for both Google’s WebP format and wide-gamut images, as well as the ability to search based on color profile. According to 500px, the additional support reportedly reduces bandwidth usage by up to 25% while simultaneously enabling the service to offer images that are “truer to the photographer’s original vision.”

    Until now, 500px’s image hosting service worked by converting uploaded images, when necessary, from their non-sRGB color profiles to sRGB. The rise of wide-gamut displays, though, has paved the way for expanded color profile support. As of this update, 500px can deliver photos in sRGB, Display P3, Adobe RGB and ProPhoto RGB.

    “Though sRGB has been standard in our industry for many years,” said 500px VP Kelly Thompson, “with today’s broad adoption of iPhones and wide-gamut displays, we can finally showcase each image in a more true-to-life way and allow searching by color profile.”

    As far as WebP support goes, 500px explains that it has been rolling out support for this format on Chrome browser over the last month. The format reduces file sizes while offering comparable or improved image quality. The newest version of the 500px Android app features WebP support.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Blind portrait shootout: Sony a9 vs Canon 1DX Mark II vs Nikon D5

    Photographer Michael Andrew of YouTube channel Michael the Maven has put together a ‘Flagship Epic Shootout Review’ video comparing the Sony a9, Nikon D5 and Canon 1DX Mark II. The full video is genuinely worth your time, but if you don’t have 44 minutes to spend watching the full review, one section in particular is both fun and frustrating: the blind portrait test.

    Like it or not, we all have implicit biases when it comes to comparing cameras—it’s hard not to when you’ve spent thousands (or tens of thousands) on your kit. But is the camera you say you like best, the one that produces the images you like most? When it comes down to the camera, by itself, using its own color engine, do you prefer Nikon, Canon, or Sony?

    That’s what Andrew wants to help you figure out, bias-free, in this blind portrait shootout. He shot 12 identical portraits using all three flagship cameras, and he challenges you to rank them before you know which camera shot which portrait. The game is simple: grab a pice of paper and list it from 1 to 12, and then draw three columns labeled A, B, and C at the top. As the images pop up on screen, give your favorite a score of 3, your second favorite a score of 2, and your least favorite a score of 1.

    “At the end, we’ll add the scores to discover which camera’s color science you prefer most,” he says. “Don’t give it too much thought […] I did my very best to take a picture of the same model, in the same lighting conditions, with the same white balance, with the same exposure settings.”

    Which do you prefer?

    It’s a fun little game that can turn a bit sour at the end when you add up the final score… especially if you’ve ranked your personal favorite brand dead last. This has already happened to two of our staff here at DPReview, and it will probably happen to a few of you as well. And before you jump in with a “just shoot Raw” argument, our Technical Editor Rishi has a message for you:

    While shooting Raw helps poor white balance issues, it’s not a panacea for a disagreeable color engine. Putting aside for a moment the convenience of using straight-out-of-camera JPEGs, Raw converters like Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) include camera-specific profiles that emulate the manufacturer’s various color modes, so if they’re not to your taste to begin with, the Raw conversions are also unlikely to be palatable.

    Furthermore, ACR can’t emulate the multitude of non-linear, scene-dependent adjustments camera JPEG engines perform. Even the same colors are not necessarily processed in the same manner in a landscape as it is in a portrait. It’s hard for Raw converters to emulate these complex adjustments unless the manufacturer works directly with them to directly share what they’ve learned over decades of color research.

    So jump in, take the test, and let us know your scores (and whether or not you betrayed your go-to camera brand) in the comments.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Zenit is back in business, plans to release full-frame mirrorless camera in 2018

    Russian publication RNS has revealed that camera maker Zenit has restarted camera production, and may in fact launch a full-frame mirrorless model on the international market as early as 2018. The initial announcement was reportedly made by Krasnogorsk Mechanical Plant’s Deputy Director General for Civilian Production and Consumer Goods, Igor Sergeyev, who revealed the plans via Moscow Region Radio 1.

    The planned full-frame mirrorless camera will retain iconic, brand-recognizable elements, according to the announcement, including “characteristic contours, ergonomics, [and] camera lines.” However, the camera will be modernized for today’s market, featuring both light and dark color options as well as leather trim.

    The price will exceed that of a “good smartphone,” according to Sergeyev, though specifics weren’t provided.

    Zenit, though once popular, ceased production in 2005 following multiple failed attempts to revive its place in the market. According to Sergeyev, the latest production round will not attempt to compete with big-name camera manufacturers like Canon or Nikon. In fact, an unnamed “leading photographic equipment company” will produce some of the components for this camera.

    Additional details on the camera or Zenit’s renaissance weren’t provided, but we’ll let you know just as soon as more is revealed.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Shooting the solar eclipse at DPReview headquarters

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    Most of us on the DPReview staff followed our own advice today: we put the cameras down, donned our eclipse glasses and just enjoyed today’s total solar eclipse… most of us. Unable to contain himself, our own Rishi Sanyal decided last-minute to ignore all sound advice, hack together a rig and photograph the eclipse from DPReview headquarters, risking the life of a young Sony a7R II in the process.

    This is one of those “do as we say, not as we do” moments, because we would never recommend anybody risk their camera gear by not using a proper solar filter to shoot the sun. Rishi knows his stuff, though (to put it mildly) so he stacked a few filters to create a proper rig that would most likely keep the camera safe. The rig included:

    • Sony a7R II
    • Metabones EF-E Smart Adapter (IV)
    • Canon 1.4x II teleconverter
    • Canon EOS 100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS II USM
    • B+W MRC Nano UV filter
    • 10 stop glass ND filter with some IR filtration
    • 6 stop glass ND filter
    • Gitzo 1542T tripod + Markins ballhead

    Fortunately for him (and that Sony sensor) his gambit worked. Between the UV protection of the UV filter, 16 stops of ND filter, and the IR filtration on the 10 stop glass ND, he was able to capture a few really sharp shots of the eclipse in action without burning a hole in the a7R II’s 42.4MP sensor.

    Check out the rig, some sample shots, and a few behind the scenes photos from our building’s rooftop deck up top. And be sure to share your eclipse experience in the comments!

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Sony a9 underwater review: Shooting great white sharks

    Backscatter Underwater Video & Photo is the largest underwater imaging equipment supplier in the world. They love the water, and they personally dive and shoot with the gear they sell. This article originally appeared on their website, and is reproduced here with permission.

    With the high speed shooting of the Sony a9 mirrorless camera and just released Nauticam NA-A9 underwater housing, we decided the best underwater photography test was to take it to the island of Guadalupe off the Baja California coast to shoot great white sharks.

    The white sharks are a perfect subject to test with this camera due to their speed, relative unpredictability, stealthiness, and camouflage. All of these factors require a camera to have fast and accurate autofocus, fast continuous shooting mode, and a really deep image buffer to capture as many pictures as possible to nail that one special shot.

    Sony designed the Sony a9 to do just that and aimed this camera to directly compete with the Nikon D5 and Canon 1DX II, both of which are the top cameras from Nikon and Canon for high-speed shooting.

    Sony a9 Camera, Nauticam NA-A9 Housing, Sony 16-35mm Lens. Shot at 1/250 F8 ISO 320

    Blazing Fast Autofocus Performance

    The Sony a9 has a crazy amount of AF points at 693 when set in wide mode that covers 93% of the frame and updates focus at a stunning rate of 60 times per second. I used the Sony 16-35mm f/4 lens exclusively for this trip and let the camera pick from the 693 autofocus points on its own.

    With this camera and lens combination, I did not have any problems with the camera and lens not tracking the subject, even during high speed “attacks” of the sharks going after the bait, when letting the camera choose on its own among the 693 AF points. Only when a shark was at the limit of visibility did the AF system lose the subject and started to track the water surface instead. When a shark came back to be within the limits of visibility, the AF system immediately picked it back up again. That being said, the visibility at Guadalupe Island is about 70 to 100 feet, which is so far beyond what any acceptable composition distance is for underwater photography.

    A major advantage of the autofocus system of the Sony a9 is the ability to track focus WHILE rapid fire burst shooting without any screen or viewfinder blackout. This allows continuous shooting, auto focusing, framing, and zooming all to happen at the same time seamlessly. This was a godsend for the rapidly changing distance to subject and framing that happens as these sharks move through the scene.

    For shooting technique, I just mashed down and held the AF-ON button on the back of the camera and the shutter release simultaneously, while at the same time moving the zoom knob and panning the camera for framing the shot. The camera continued to shoot and focus track the subject with no issues. This technique might seem rather crude, but worked quite well given the task at hand.

    The Sony a9 is the fastest shooting full frame camera on the planet. Combined with super fast autofocus, it has the ability to capture the subtlest movements. This image sequence was shoot at 20 frames per second. 1/400, F11, ISO 1000

    Fastest Shooting Speed for a Full Frame Camera Ever

    The Sony a9 can shoot up to 20 frames per second in RAW with a 241 shot buffer when using the electronic shutter, and 5 frames per second with the mechanical shutter. The electronic shutter does not sync with strobes (not that a strobe could keep up!) while the mechanical shutter does sync with strobes. The custom function button C3 is setup from the factory to allow the photographer to choose between mechanical or electronic shutter.

    There are three continuous shooting modes on the camera–high, medium, and low. I kept it on continuous high the whole time and used the C3 button to choose between mechanical and electronic depending on whether I wanted to use strobes in the shots.

    For shots with strobes, I kept my strobes at 1/4 power to ensure a super fast recycle that would keep up with the camera’s 5 frames per second shutter. We hope that in the future Sony will make an electronic shutter that will sync with strobes and get past the mechanical flash sync speed limit of 1/250 second.

    Sony a9 Camera, Nauticam NA-A9 Housing, Sony 16-35mm Lens. Shot at 1/250 F9 ISO 400

    Exposure Technique for White Sharks—Auto ISO

    With distances and the amount of light reaching the subject changing rapidly with shooting great white sharks, it’s hard to shoot fully manual and nail each exposure each time.

    We’re up against a few limits that aren’t exactly ideal for going over to program auto exposure, aperture priority, or shutter priority. A fast shutter speed is needed to freeze the motion of the shark. A higher aperture is needed to get the corners sharp with a wide angle zoom lens behind a dome.

    Needing to set both of these in the past has meant needing to shoot full manual exposure, but with Sony’s excellent ISO performance and customizable Auto ISO feature, manual exposure mode with Auto ISO is how I shot each one of these shots in this review.

    Sony a9 vs. Sony A7R Mark II vs. Nikon D810

    Sony’s stills image quality in their flagship cameras have been at the top of the heap of not only the mirrorless camera category, but also beating out top level SLRs as well for the last few years. The color, sharpness, detail, and noise levels are all excellent and find the Sony a9 among the top of the list in each of these categories.

    While the higher resolution cameras of the Sony a7R II and Nikon D810 will edge out the Sony a9 in ultimate image quality, neither of those cameras come close to the speed of this camera, and it’s hard to find another camera besides these two that will outperform the Sony a9 in image quality with what we have available to shoot underwater.

    Sony a9 Camera, Nauticam NA-A9 Housing, Sony 16-35mm Lens. Shot at 1/250 F8 ISO 400

    Who Is This Camera For?

    The Sony a9 doesn’t come cheap. At $ 4,500, it is the most expensive full frame mirrorless camera on the market today. Then again, it’s designed to run head to head against the Nikon D5 which does 12 frames per second, and the Canon 1DX II, which does 16 frames per second—those cameras are $ 6,500 and $ 6,000, respectively.

    Sony definitely shakes up the established competition in this area by besting these cameras in terms of overall speed and image quality. While there may be additional features such as 4K 60p video and the best ambient light white balance out there with the Canon 1DX II, the Sony a9 comes in at a much lower price point, especially for the amount of still image shooting performance you’ll get.

    If you are someone who likes to shoot fast moving pelagic sea life such as sharks, dolphins, whales, mantas, sailfish, etc., this is definitely the camera for you. The speed of focus, focus tracking and shooting, and 241 RAW shot image buffer is mind boggling and second to none. You’ll be able to get the shot with focus nailed better than any other camera out there today.

    For someone who needs more resolution than 24 megapixels, and must have pro level 4K video with accurate custom white balance at depth, those are the only areas where this camera will fall short.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • These incredibly intricate pinhole cameras are made from clay

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    Steve Irvine is an incredibly talented ceramic artist, but he’s been passionate about photography for almost as long as he’s been working with clay. “It only seems natural,” he says, “that the two passions should come together.” And when they do, the ceramic pinhole cameras you see above are the result.

    In the gallery above, each camera is followed by a sample photograph taken with the selfsame camera.

    Most are made using a combination of throwing and hand-building techniques, glazed and fired by Irvine, and then improved upon with little antique dials, gadgets and other accents until the final product looks like something out of your favorite steampunk universe. As Irvine explains on his website, these creations are fully-functional cameras:

    These are fully functional pinhole cameras. They have no lens, light meter, viewfinder, or automatic shutter, and yet they can produce gallery quality images. I use black and white photo paper in them for the negatives. The negatives are either 4 x 5 inches, or 5 x 8 inches.

    You can find more examples of Irvine’s pinhole photography at this link. And if you want to see how one of these cameras is made, you can find a step-by-step tutorial on Irvine’s website here.

    All photos by Steve Irvine and used with permission.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • NASA captured photos and video of the ISS ‘photobombing’ today’s solar eclipse

    The International Space Station, with a crew of six onboard, is seen in silhouette as it transits the Sun at roughly five miles per second during a partial solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017 near Banner, Wyoming. Photo credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

    Plenty of people were pointing their cameras up at the solar eclipse today, but leave it to NASA to capture a little something extra. From his vantage point in Banner, Wyoming, NASA photo editor Joel Kowsky captured a dual eclipse of sorts: the moon obscuring the sun, and the tiny pinprick of the International Space Station obscuring a little bit of what was left.

    As the ISS and its six crew members flew in front of the partially obscured disk of the sun, Kowsky had both still and slow motion video cameras trained on his target.

    Here’s a closer crop of the photograph above:

    Here, a composite that shows the ISS’s full transit across the partial eclipse:

    And, finally, a slow motion video of the transit, recorded by Kowsky at 1,500 frames a second:

    To see these photos and video in their full glory, head over to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Flickr account.

    All photos and video courtesy of NASA/Joel Kowsky

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Video: Six lighting tips for flash photography newbies

    If you’re taking our advice from this morning and buying your first flash soon, a few beginner tips on mixing flash with ambient light will really help you take advantage of your new gear. Enter Mango Street’s Daniel Inskeep and Rachel Gulotta, who teamed up with photographer and filmmaker Daniel DeArco to share just that.

    Mango Street is known for their simple tutorials targeted at beginners, but they mainly use natural light for their photography. So when the topic turned to artificial lighting, they asked DeArco to come on and share some advice. Over the course of two videos, DeArco offers six different tips for getting great results when you mix artificial and natural light.

    Video 1

    1. Keep it Simple: Prioritize one light source first. In this case, DeArco prioritizes the natural light.
    2. Have a go-to hard light and soft light setup
    3. Experiment: Knowledge of studio lighting will make you a more well-rounded photographer

    Video 2

    1. Use a strobe + reflector as a fill light on your subject to avoid blowing out your background
    2. Look for sun reflecting off buildings to provide a hair light and use your favorite strobe and modifier as a fill
    3. Use a blocked or just-out-of-frame strobe to fake a sunset if you miss golden hour

    If you found the tutorials helpful, you can see more from both Mango Street and DeArco on YouTube. And if you’re inspired by these techniques, check out our OpEd from this morning on why your next gear purchase should be a flash, not a new lens:

    Don’t buy another lens, buy a flash instead

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Demo: Gudsen adds ‘Mimic Motion Control’ to Moza Air gimbal

    Chinese gimbal manufacturer Gudsen has released new firmware update for its Moza Air that offers new ways to control the motion of the head, as well as better timelapse features for long exposures. The Moza Air—which is designed for cameras ranging from CSC bodies to high-end enthusiast DSLRs—now allows operators to control the direction and angle of the head remotely just by moving a small handlebar-mounted control unit.

    With the supplied thumb controller attached to a set of handle bars, the Bluetooth-paired head mimics the motion of the bars so that the mounted camera can be moved by small increments without the user even touching the gimbal.

    Pitch, Roll and Yaw movements can be controlled while a read-out on the thumb controller’s screen lets you know the exact position of the head.

    The second part of the update adds improved timelapse functionality, ensuring the head is still during long exposures. It does this by using a ‘move-stop-shoot-move’ process rather than a continuous moving path across the programmed points. The timelapse interface on the Moza Assistant app has also been updated, allowing more control in a clearer design.

    For more information, visit the Gudsen website.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)