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  • Beautiful images from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    A Battle We Are Losing © Haitong Yu (China)

    The Milky Way rises ominously above a small radio telescope from a large array at Miyun Station, National Astronomical Observatory of China, in the suburbs of Beijing. The image depicts the ever-growing light pollution we now experience, which together with electromagnetic noise has turned many optical and radio observatories near cities both blind and deaf – a battle that inspired the photographer’s title of the shot. The image used a light pollution filter (iOptron L-Pro) and multiple frame stacking to get the most of the Milky Way out of the city light.

    The Royal Museums Greenwich has announced the shortlist for its ninth annual Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. Thousands of entries were received from over 90 countries; winners will be announced on September 14th.

    Here are just a handful of the more than 130 images that made the shortlist – head to the Royal Museums Greenwich site to learn more about the competition.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    A Brief Rotation of Mount Olympus © Avani Soares (Brazil)

    A series photos of Mars taken between 1 June and 3 July 2016 showing Mount Olympus in three different positions. Mount Olympus also known as Olympus Mons is the tallest volcano in the Solar System. The features on the surface of Mars as seen from Earth change rapidly, as seen in the contrast between the central photo, made during the opposition (when Mars is at its closest to the Earth), and the photo on the left, taken 33 days later.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    An Icy Moonscape © Kris Williams (UK)

    A lone stargazer sits atop the peak of Castell-Y-Gwynt (Castle of the Winds) on Glyder Fach Mountain in Snowdonia, North Wales, beneath a starry night sky during freezing temperatures in mid-winter. The lunar-like landscape was formed through a process called freeze-thaw weathering: water seeps into cracks in the rock, freezing and expanding as ice forms, eventually cracking the rock over hundreds and thousands of years.

    Despite the full cloud and fog on the night the photographer set up his one-man tent in the snow and began the long wait of 15 hours of darkness in -10°C temperatures but the sky clearing for a mere 20 minutes, was all the time needed to capture this shot.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Aurora over Svea © Agurtxane Concellon (Spain)

    The purples and greens of the Northern Lights radiate over the coal mining city of Svea, in the archipelago of Svalbard. The earthy landscape below the glittering sky is illuminated by the strong lights of industry at the pier of Svea.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Beautiful Trømso © Derek Burdeny (USA)

    The aurora activity forecast was low for this evening, so the photographer remained in Tromsø rather than driving to the fjord. The unwitting photographer captured Nature’s answer to a stunning firework display as the Northern Lights dance above a rainbow cast in the waters of the harbour in Trømso made for a spectacular display, but did not realize what he had shot until six months later when reviewing his images.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Crescent Moon over the Needles © Ainsley Bennett (UK)

    The 7% waxing crescent Moon setting in the evening sky over the Needles Lighthouse at the western tip of the Isle of Wight. Despite the Moon being a thin crescent, the rest of its shape is defined by sunlight reflecting back from the Earth’s surface.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Eastern Prominence © Paul Andrew (UK)

    A large, searing hedgerow prominence extends from the surface of the Sun on 29 August 2016. There are a number of different prominence types that have been observed emanating from the Sun, and the hedgerow prominence is so called due the grouping of small prominences resembling rough and wild shrubbery.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Fall Milk © Brandon Yoshizawa (USA)

    The snow-clad mountain in the Eastern Sierras towers over the rusty aspen grove aligned perfectly in front of it, whilst our galaxy the Milky Way glistens above.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Ghostly Sun © Michael Wilkinson (UK)

    The Sun photographed in Calcium-K light, depicting the star’s inner chromosphere. In the colour-rendering scheme used, the surface is shown as negative, with the sunspots as bright spots, but the area outside the limb is shown with increased contrast, highlighting a surge on the western limb, and several small prominences. Although the Sun is shown entering a quieter phase, a lot of activity is still taking place, illustrating just how dynamic our star is.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Hustle and Peaceful © Prisca Law (Hong Kong)

    Taken from The Peak, the highest mountain on Hong Kong Island, the image shows the hustle and bustle of the city in contrast to the peaceful starry sky. The haze above the beautiful landscape reminds us that light pollution prevents us from enjoying an even more stunning sky view. Along the coastline the sharp, vibrant light signifies the fast-paced life of cities that many of us have become accustomed to.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Ignite the Lights © Nicolas Alexander Otto (Germany)

    After a long hike from his small cabin to Kvalvika, Lofoten Islands in Norway, the photographer arrived at the slopes above the beach around midnight. During the hike the auroral display was relatively weak, but when he made it to the beach the sky ignited in a colourful spectacle of greens and purples framed by the mossy, green landscape. The image is stacked from six different exposures to combat high ISO and thermal noise in the foreground. The sky was added from one of these exposures.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    ISS Daylight Transit © Dani Caxete (Spain)

    The International Space Station (ISS) whizzes across the dusky face of the Earth’s natural satellite, the Moon, whilst photographed in broad daylight. Shining with a magnitude of -3.5, the ISS was illuminated by the Sun at a height of 9º on the horizon. Like the Moon, the ISS receives solar rays in a similar way during its 15 orbits of the Earth a day, making it possible to see it when the Sun is still up. This is a real shot, with no composite or clipping in the process.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Moon Rise Reflections © Joshua Wood (New Zealand)

    An unexpected shot of the Moon rising over the glistening ocean off the Wairarapa coast, bearing a remarkable resemblance to the Sun. As the photographer was capturing the sunset over Castlepoint, he looked over his shoulder to see the Moon rising behind, reflecting off the wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean, and it became the new subject of his image.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Mr Big Dipper © Nicholas Roemmelt (Denmark)

    A stargazer observes the constellation of the Big Dipper perfectly aligned with the window of the entrance to a large glacier cave in Engadin, Switzerland. This is a panorama of two pictures, and each is a stack of another two pictures: one for the stars and another one for the foreground, but with no composing or time blending.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Near Earth Object 164121 (2003 YTI) © Derek Robson (UK)

    On 31 October 2016, Near Earth Asteroid 164121 (2003 YT1) made a close encounter with Earth at 3 million miles. This Apollo asteroid with an orbital period of 427 days was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey on 18 December 2003. The photographer’s first attempt at imaging the asteroid was done with a camera on a fixed tripod, controlled by Astrophotography Tool software.

    The asteroid moved so fast I could see it moving on the live screen. The negative image is a stack of 56 cropped images created using PIPP and Deep Sky Stacker software and was processed with IrfanView and Photoshop for scientific content rather than cosmetic appearance.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    NGC 2023 © Warren Keller (USA)

    Lying in the constellation of Orion, at a distance of 1467 light years from our planet is the emission and reflection nebula NGC 2023. Most often photographed next to the famous Horsehead Nebula, the photographer has instead given NGC 2023 the spotlight in order to try and bring out all of the wonderful detail seen across its diameter of 4 light years, making it one of the largest reflection nebulae ever discovered. Partner Steve Mazlin is the lead processor on this one for SSRO.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    NGC 7331 – The Deer Lick Group © Bernard Miller (USA)

    NGC 7331 is an unbarred spiral galaxy found some 40 million light years away from Earth, in the constellation Pegasus. Of the group of galaxies known as the Deer Lick Group, NGC 7331 is the largest, and can be seen dominating the image whilst the smaller galaxies NGC 7335, NGC 7336, NGC 7337, NGC 7338 and NGC 7340 drift above it.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Orion’s Gaseous Nebula © Sebastien Grech (UK)

    Lying 1,300 light years away from Earth, the Orion Nebula is found in Orion’s Sword in the famous constellation named after the blade’s owner. The Orion Nebula is one of the most photographed and studied objects in the night sky due to the intense activity within the stellar nursery that sees thousands of new stars being created, which also makes it a relatively easy target for beginners. The nebula is thought to measure about 24 light years across and have a mass 2000 times that of our Sun.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Reflection © Beate Behnke (Germany)

    The reflection in the wave ripples of Skagsanden beach mirrors the brilliant green whirls of the Aurora Borealis in the night sky overhead. To obtain the effect of the shiny surface, the photographer had to stand in the wave zone of the incoming flood, and only when the water receded very low did the opportunity to capture the beautiful scene occur.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Scintillating Sirius © Steve Brown (UK)

    The seemingly pop art inspired canvas of the rainbow of colours exhibited by the brightest star in our sky, Sirius. These colours are obvious to the naked eye and more so through the eyepiece of a telescope, but are difficult to capture in an image. To do this the photographer had to somehow ‘freeze’ each colour as it happened by taking a series of videos at different levels of focus and then extracted the frames from each video to make up this composite image.

    By capturing the star out of focus, the light from Sirius was spread out over a larger area, which resulted in the colours it displayed being more obvious. The image is made up of 782 different frames at different levels of focus. There is a single frame of a focused Sirius in the centre of the image.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Sh2-249 Jellyfish Nebula © Chris Heapy (UK)

    Lying in the constellation of Gemini, IC443 is a galactic supernova remnant, a star that could have exploded as many as 30,000 years ago. Its globular appearance has earned the celestial structure the moniker of the Jellyfish Nebula. Pictured to the upper left of the Jellyfish Nebula is a much fainter background area of nebulosity, which is actually a large cloud of mostly molecular hydrogen gas and dust.. ‘The Jellyfish’ is a convoluted tangle of gaseous filaments rapidly expanding away from the initial explosion.

    Professional observatory data shows that what we are actually seeing are two lobes superimposed on each other, but from this angle one appears as the head of the jellyfish (to the left) and the other lobe (to the right) as the dangling tentacles. It is illuminated by a few young blue embedded stars and criss-crossed by tendrils of dark dust clouds lying between us and the bright nebula.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Shooting Star and Jupiter © Rob Bowes (UK)

    A shooting star flashes across the sky over the craggy landscape of Portland, Dorset, as the planet Jupiter looks on. The image is of two stacked exposures: one for the sky and one for the rocks.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Solar Trails above the Telescope © Maciej Zapior (Poland)

    Taken with a solargraphy pinhole camera, the image charts the movement of the Sun over the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague with an exposure of half a year (21 December 2015–21 June 2016). As a photosensitive material, regular black-and-white photographic paper without developing was used, and after exposure the negative was scanned and post-processed using a graphic program (colour and contrast enhancement).

    The exposure time was from solstice to solstice, thus recording the solar trails above the telescope dome and the rainbow of colours of the trails are the result of the sensitivity of the paper changing as it is exposed to different temperatures and humidity.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Star Track in Kawakarpo © Zhong Wu (China)

    The stars beam down on to the Meili Snow Mountains, also known as the Prince Snow Mountains – the highest peaks in the Yunnan Province, China. It is world-renowned for its beauty and is one of the most sacred mountains in Tibetan Buddhism. The moonlight striking the top of the mountains appears to give them an ethereal quality.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Starburst Galaxy M82 © Bernard Miller (USA)

    The starburst galaxy M82, also known as the Cigar Galaxy, gleams five times brighter than our galaxy lies some 12 million light years away from Earth in the constellation of Ursa Major. In a show of radiant oranges and reds, the superwind bursts out from the galaxy, believed to be the closest place to our planet in which the conditions are similar to that of the early Universe, where a plethora of stars are forming.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Super Moon © Giorgia Hofer (Italy)

    The magnificent sight of the Super Moon illuminating the night sky as it sets behind the Marmarole, in the heart of the Dolomites in Italy. On the night of 14 November 2016, the Moon was at perigee at 356.511 km away from the centre of Earth, the closest occurrence since 1948. It will not be closer again until 2034. On this night, the Moon was 30% brighter and 14% bigger than other full moons.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    The Blue Hour © Tommy Eliassen (Norway)

    The setting crescent Moon and Mars gaze over Saltfjellet, Norway as the Northern Lights appear to emanate from the snowy landsape. The Aurora Borealis were an unexpected guest in the shot as the Sun was only about ten degrees under the horizon meaning the early display came as a surprise.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    The Lost Hour © Andrew Whyte (UK)

    The radiant, concentric star trails seemingly spinning over a lone stargazer against the glowing purples and pinks of the night sky during the hour when the clocks ‘spring forward’ to begin British Summer Time. With time so intrinsically linked to celestial activity, a one-hour star trail seemed the perfect metaphor. Through the use of long exposures, the trails depict the rotation of the Earth on its axis centring on the north celestial pole, the sky moving anti-clockwise around this point.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    The Road Back Home © Ruslan Merzlyakov (Latvia)

    Noctilucent clouds stretch across the Swedish sky illuminating a motorcyclist’s ride home in this dramatic display. Noctilucent clouds are the highest clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere and form above 200,000 ft. Thought to be formed of ice crystals, the clouds occasionally become visible at twilight when the Sun is below the horizon and illuminates them.

    Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist

    Winter Ice Giant Uranus © Martin Lewis (UK)

    The distant ice giant Uranus, the seventh furthest planet from the Sun, some 2.6 billion kilometres (at its closest) away from our own planet is entered into the competition for the first time. Found in the constellation of Pisces, here it can be seen surrounded by its five brightest moons: Ariel, Miranda, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon.

    Taken on an exceptionally still night in late December, an infrared filter was used to further improve the viewing and to bring out the planet’s belt and cloud details. As the planet lies so far away and appears so dim to us on Earth, Uranus seems to be tiny at 3.7-arcseconds across.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Photo of the week: Point of Transition

    At the end of the Tsauchab Dune Valley in Namibia is the famous Deadvlei, which was cut off from Sossusvlei—and any water source—by a low dune an estimated 700-800 years ago.

    The lack of water, the arid climate and the hard wood of the Namibian Camel Thorn tree have kept the trees of Deadvlei from decomposing. The result is a collection of ghostly trees rising from a cracked white clay surface. The pan is deceptively large and offers about 50 of the oddly shaped trees to photograph.

    I took this morning shot back in 2014 while scouting for my Namibia workshop. The sun was coming up behind a huge dune, gradually lighting the pan. This was the moment the light started to touch this unique tree, leaving it partly lit and partly in shade, a point of beautiful transition. The shade line can also be seen on the dune behind.

    The final image was taken with my Sony a7R and Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS.

    Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez’s work on Instagram, Facebook and 500px, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates. Erez offers photo workshops worldwide.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • I made a book of pictures of my cat, and I think it’s going to make me a better photographer

    Hear me out.

    Many years ago I made a Blurb photo book that was beautiful, but required hours and hours of my time to get it all just right. It was an enjoyable process really, but I just don’t find I have that kind of time or patience anymore. But I love a nice photo book – what better way to get photos off your phone or hard drive and make them into something tangible?

    Whatever your level of interest and
    time commitment, there’s a photo book
    service for you

    In the years since I made my first book, options for would-be photo book makers have exploded. They range from time-intensive to almost totally automated. Whatever your level of interest and time commitment, there’s a photo book service for you.

    The other part of this story is that I’ve been struggling with finding inspiration for my personal photography lately. It’s hard to find a reason to bring a dedicated camera when I know I can get usable snapshots with my phone. Above all, I don’t end up doing anything with the photos I do take. I post the stray photo to Instagram or Facebook, but that’s as far as they go.

    But recently, I downloaded Mosaic, an app from Mixbook that creates incredibly simple photo books out of 20 of your photos – no more, no less. You pick the photos from your camera roll, Facebook or Instagram account, put them in an order you like – and that’s about it.

    The photos are arranged into a mosaic (see what they did there) for your front cover, which you can ‘shuffle’ to re-organize, but you can’t manually select how the images are arranged. Text can be added to the first page, but none on the following pages.

    In trying it out I dove into my camera roll and looked for a story I could tell in 20 photos and by pure coincidence, I happened to have a large number of photos of my cat. I saw a theme emerge and began filling the pages of my book with pictures of him sleeping.

    I know, I know. But you wouldn’t believe this cat. He sleeps in the strangest positions, and the photos fell into a neat symmetry as I placed them on opposing pages: two photos of him curled into a donut shape in his bed, two photos of him sprawled on the floor next to his bed, for some God damn reason. The book materialized in front of my eyes, and the temptation of the ‘order now’ button became too great.

    See what I mean? He’s ridiculous.

    Cats are bona-fide jerks but I’m in the part of the population that finds them irresistible against better judgement. And I know this sounds ridiculous, but my cat really does have a funny personality. One day he’ll be gone, not roaming around my apartment screaming for treats and attention, and I’ll have this silly little book to remember him by.

    Mosaic is definitely not designed for professional photographers. For one, it only exists in app form, so it lends itself best to photos taken with your phone. You can source them from your Dropbox or a social media account, but the app certainly lacks the customization features a pro would want.

    Creating a book is dead simple, and without the option to add text or captions, all emphasis is on the images and the story they tell

    So Mosaic isn’t really intended for ‘serious photography,’ but to me there’s beauty in its limitations. Creating a book is dead simple, and without the option to add text or captions, all emphasis is on the images and the story they tell.

    By making this book I may have unlocked a new cat lady achievement, but it also made me think about other stories I could tell in 20 photos. Open-ended photo projects feel too overwhelming to me, but the thought of assembling just 20 photos on a theme and having an easy, yet polished output mechanism for them is very appealing. Suddenly, I’m reconsidering the projects that seemed too onerous to take on. Documenting a trip or a social outing seems doable with a purpose, vision and boundaries for the final product.

    Maybe this experience will help nudge me forward on a path I’m currently stalled on

    Realistically, I’m not going to be making huge number of $ 25 photo books (plus an extra $ 5 for shipping). But maybe this experience will help nudge me forward on a path I’m currently stalled on. And isn’t that what it’s all about? At the very least, I’ve got one very fancy book of cat photos.

    Also read: Ten ways to shake ‘photographer’s block’ for good

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Fujifilm GF 110mm F2 sample gallery

    Fujifilm’s GFX system is growing fast, and among the company’s latest lenses is the GF 110mm F2 R LM WR. With a 35mm-equivalent focal length of 87mm, it’s very close to the ‘classic’ 85mm portrait lenses offered by other manufacturers. It’s weather sealed, focuses internally and quickly, and is quite large, especially with the optional hood attached.

    But good gravy, this is one beautiful lens. It’s capable of outstanding sharpness and buttery-smooth backgrounds at wider apertures. And though it’s positioned as the GFX system’s standard portrait lens, we didn’t just shoot portraits with it. Check out our gallery to see what this $ 2800 lens can do.

    See our Fujifilm GF 110mm F2
    sample gallery

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    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Lensrentals on the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 Art: a lot for less than the competition

    Following some initial lab testing results, Lensrentals has published a full review of the highly-anticipated Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 Art. While lab testing suggests that it doesn’t quite keep up with the established, much more expensive options from Canon and Nikon, a competitive price tag is one of the lens’ major selling points. Depending on your budget and needs, that price difference might tip the scale. Reviewer Zach Sutton sums it up:

    “However, here is where the Sigma shines once again, offering itself at a $ 1,300 price tag, whereas the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L II sits at $ 1,750, and the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E at $ 2,400. The Sigma provides a lot for significantly less than the competition.”

    Check out the full review and let us know what you think of the 24-70 in the comments.

    Read Lensrentals’ full
    Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 Art review

    See our Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 Art sample gallery

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • EyeEm 2017 Photography Awards finalists revealed

    EyeEm has revealed the finalists for its fourth annual photography contest, the largest competition of its kind. Chosen from more than 590,000 submissions, these photos are contending for the top spot in one of five different categories: ‘The Street Photographer,’ ‘The Great Outdoors,’ ‘The Portraitist,’ ‘The Architect,’ and ‘The Photojournalist.’ The 100 selected photos can be viewed on EyeEm’s awards website.

    According to EyeEm, more than 88,000 photographers from around the globe submitted photos for consideration. The images chosen from the submissions will be judged by a panel of judges that include National Geographic Traveler’s Director of Photography Anne Farrar, Refinery29’s photography director Toby Kaufmann, BBC Picture Editor Emma Lynch, EyeEm’s 2016 winner Zacharie Rabehi, and others.

    The contest’s winners will be revealed in Berlin at the 2017 EyeEm Photography Festival running from September 15 to 17, with the announcement itself happening on September 16. The awards ceremony will take place at the Radialsystem V; those who want to attend can still order tickets.

    Via: EyeEm

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Blackmagic Video Assist 4K review

    If you find yourself wondering ‘why would I even want an external monitor/recorder’ then I’d suggest you spend a few moments reading our article on the topic. The short answer is that it’s a great way to expand the tools for, and maximize the quality of, video capture on your current camera.

    The Video Assist 4K is the larger of Blackmagic Design’s current monitor/recorders. It features a 7″, 1920 x 1200 pixel display and the ability to capture up to UHD/30p video in 10-bit 4:2:2 quality. It can accept video across HDMI or 6G-SDI inputs and offers outputs for when you want to include it in a more complex setup.

    It’s been on the market since April 2016 so it doesn’t match the spec of the latest 4K/60p capable competitors, nor can it cope with the wider-screen DCI flavor of 4K but, through a series of firmware updates, Blackmagic has been adding features to this sub-$ 1000 monitor/recorder.

    And, since it’s likely to be a while before a majority of brands offer cameras capable of 4K/60p, its age doesn’t weigh too heavily against it, unless you want to shoot the more cinema-like 1.85:1 DCI aspect ratio.

    The Video Assist 4K can record in a variety of popular codecs, so that the files are immediately ready for use in Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut Pro or AVID Media Composer. All the Apple codecs and the 220 and HQX versions DNx are captured in up to 10-bit detail.

    Apple codecs
    • ProRes Proxy
    • ProRes 422 LT
    • ProRes 422
    • ProRes 422 HQ

    AVID codecs
    (in either Quicktime or MXF wrapper)

    		 HD Codecs

    • DNxHD 45
    • DNxHD 145
    • DNxHD 220x
    		 4K Codecs

    • DNxHR LB
    • DNxHR SQ
    • DNxHR HQX

    It’s also a fairly well-connected little beast, though, which makes it easy to hook up to most cameras.

    Inputs Outputs
    Video
    • 1 x HDMI
    • 1 x 6G SDI
    • 1 x HDMI
    • 1 x 6G SDI
    Audio
    • 2 x Mini XLR (balanced)
      with phantom power
    • Over HDMI
    • 3.5mm headphone socket

    Batteries and storage

    Unlike the Atomos recorders, which tend to use Sony L-series-style batteries and write to SSD drives, the Blackmagic uses Canon LP-E6 batteries and writes to SD cards. This use of more photographer-friendly formats has both advantages and disadvantages.

    The obvious advantages are that, especially if you already shoot Canon, you may well already have the equipment you need to start shooting. No messing around with cradles to mount the SSD on your computer, you just use the same SD reader you use for stills photography.

    The downside is that, until V60 and V90-rated SD cards become more common, even the most expensive U3 cards, for all their promises of transfer rates in the hundreds of MB/s, only guarantee to sustainably write at up to 30MB/s (240Mbps). If you’re capturing video, it’s this sustained write rate that you need to worry about and 4K can easily exceed this figure.

    The Video Assist 4K uses common, Canon-style batteries and fast SD card, both of which you may already own and which are very widely available.

    As a result, Blackmagic has to publish a list of SD cards it recommends for its higher frame rates and codecs. For most of the better ones, you’ll need a UHS II, U3 card. Given the company’s history of adding features to the Video Assist via firmware, the hope has to be that it’s possible to offer proper support for V60 and V90 cards, but they wouldn’t comment, when asked.

    The downside of using the common LP-E6 batteries is that, although pretty powerful in comparison with other DSLR batteries, they’re tiny compared to some of the huge L-series blocks you can get. Consequently, you’ll need a handful of them if you’re planning an extended shoot away from a power supply. I found I was getting 20-30 minutes of capture out of two fully charged batteries. The batteries can be hot-swapped while recording, in the unlikely event of you needing a single clip to last longer than that.

    What’s it like to use?

    The first thing to get used to is how much size and weight shooting with any external recorder adds. The use of such a big screen immediately limits your ability to ‘run and gun.’ If you’re just trying to grab some quick, on-the-move, on-the-fly footage, the Video Assist will slow you down. However, if you have the few extra moments to consider each shot, it increases the chances of you getting it right as well as increasing the quality of your footage.

    if you have the few extra moments to consider each shot, it increases the chances of you getting it right

    Its weight means that it’s not easily mounted on your camera. There are plenty of hotshoe-to-tripod mount adapters available and, given the Video Assist’s 928g (2lb) mass (with batteries), we’d recommend the use of the most sturdy ballhead-type adapter you can find. It’s much happier if you have some kind of arm to attach it to your tripod or have your camera mounted in a rig, to which you can then add the Video Assist.

    However, one of the benefits you gain for this weight is pretty rugged construction. The Video Assist’s metal and rubber build doesn’t promise any level of shockproofing, but our review unit survived an accidental fall onto pavement and has worked flawlessly since, suggesting it’ll stand up to the rough-and-tumble of shooting in the real world.

    Touchscreen interface

    In terms of actual use, everything on the Video Assist is operated by touchscreen. It’s pretty responsive, with only the slightest hint of lag and there are few enough options that you very quickly find your way around and learn it in no time at all.

    The Video Assist gives you access to adjustable zebra highlight warnings as well as focus peaking, regardless of whether your camera offers these features.

    However, the more you think about the way the interface works, the less sense it makes: three of the six button arrayed along the top of the main screen take you to the same menu, some options have left/right arrows with the Off option at the far left, others just have On and Off buttons, with Off on the right. The monitor and audio setup menu is accessed by pressing the ‘Card’ button. Even by the standard of camera menus, it feels like more and more has been added onto the system without any thought given to what a blank-sheet design would look like.

    You can select what triggers recording from the main screen but toggling false color, peaking or zebras is an extra button-press away

    Some of this may be down to my inexperience, of course. Perhaps more experienced users constantly need to change which input triggers recording or change codec mid shoot, but I find myself needing to toggle False Color on and off far more frequently, and I have to visit a separate menu page each time I want to do so. Revising this design would speed up operation of the Video Assist considerably.

    It’s also a little disappointing to see that you can only magnify the central portion of the scene: there’s no way of moving the focused region around, which is awkward if your composition requires an off-center point of interest.

    The Video Assist 4K can capture Log footage but apply a LUT to the image it displays. This GIF approximates the effect of applying the F-Log/F-Gamut -> WDR/BT 709 LUT available from Fujifilm.

    Overall, though, the Video Assist is really easy to use, even for a novice like me. It was easy enough to upload a LUT using the desktop-based software, meaning I can shoot Log but with a comprehensible preview. Equally, once you get used to shooting with False Colors, it’s awkward to live without them. Which brings us to…

    Scopes

    In keeping with its history of adding features via firmware, Blackmagic Designs recently released the long-promised update that brings ‘scopes to the Video Assist. This is a big deal, since scopes are a very powerful way of interpreting the tonal and color distribution in the footage you’re capturing.

    The Vectorscope shows you how the color in your image is distributed.

    The latest update brings a luminance waveform, an RGB waveform/parade (though only represented in white, so a little hard to interpret) and a vectorscope.

    The implementation is not great, however. All scopes are accessed by tapping the histogram at the lower left of the panel and they all take up the whole screen. Two tiny, tiny buttons inconsistent with the rest of the interface let you control over how the waveforms and video appear. The right-hand button brings up two sliders that adjust how bright the video feed is shown in the background and how bright the waves are displayed.

    Waveform Waveform overlaid Video PiP

    The second acts as a toggle to show the video feed as a small picture-in-picture window, but no way of showing the scopes themselves on anything but the full width of the screen, so you may find you have to toggle them on and off, rather than leaving them open to monitor as you shoot.

    Despite this slightly rough-round-the-edges implementation, the addition of scopes is a significant addition to the Video Assist, especially as they’re tools that are generally lacking from the cameras we tend to review. They’re also a free upgrade to any existing owners and coincide with Blackmagic Designs offering a significant temporary price cut on the device, so we’re not going to be too critical of the slightly imperfect integration.

    Conclusion

    For many people it won’t be obvious why they should go out and spend $ 900 on an accessory that does something their camera tries to do already: preview and capture movies. However, for a certain kind of videography, the Video Assist makes life a lot easier (and the peace of mind it brings, in terms of knowing that your footage is going to be correctly shot is immense).

    With a simple L-shaped bracket, you can make a relatively hand-holdable combination with some small cameras (though you’ll need to think pretty hard about stabilization).

    And, despite a couple of gripes about its operation, the Video Assist 4K is still a very easy-to-use, well specified device. It means that, for less than the cost of a new camera, you can maximize the quality of the footage you’re capturing from your current one while also gaining access to a host of useful tools it almost certainly hasn’t got.

    In addition, shooting in formats such as ProRes and DNx means your footage is in and edit-friendly format, straight out of the recorder, potentially removing a time-consuming transcoding step from your workflow.

    $ 900 isn’t a trivial amount of money but, for a great many photographers, it’s an amount they’d be happy to spend on a new lens. And, like a lens, it’s a purchase that will probably outlive your current camera and work happily with whatever you’re shooting in a few years time. Only the lack of 4K/60p or DCI 4K capture and the uncertainty over fast SD card support casts a doubt over its future-proof-ness.

    What we like:

    • Captures the best of your camera’s output
    • Adds hugely useful tools to support video capture
    • Durable build

    What we don’t:

    • Question mark over future SD card support
    • Increasingly convoluted interface

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Leica chairman contemplates Leica smartphone

    Leica chairman of the supervisory board Andreas Kaufmann, image: Leica

    Leica is one of the camera makers with the most tradition and, via its strategic partnership with Huawei, already involved in the development of smartphone camera technology. However, it appears chairman of the supervisory board Andreas Kaufmann can imagine the German manufacturer taking things one step further and making its own camera phone.

    In an interview with CNBC Kaufman explained how the company has adapted its strategies and diversified the product range as it dealt with the digital revolution in photography. First film was replaced by digital cameras, then the smartphone was adopted as the modern amateur camera, Kaufmann explained.

    The next logical step could be a true Leica smartphone. “I am not sure whether the company can do (this) … (But) one dream would be my personal dream: a true Leica phone,” Kaufmann said. “Every smartphone is wrong for photography at the moment,” he told CNBC, explaining that smartphones were generally used vertically but tilted into landscape orientation for photography.

    Kaufmann also said that smartphones don’t have the right set up for street photography or video. “The phone nowadays is not fit really for photography … It’s used as a camera, it’s used as a video camera, but it’s not built that way and I think there’s a long way to go still.”

    While most average consumers appear to be quite happy with the imaging setup of current smartphones it’s not a surprise the Leica chairman has a slightly different point of view. What do you think? Could a Leica smartphone a better alternative to Apple and Samsung? Let us know in the comments.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Sample gallery and impressions: Tamron 18-400 F3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD

    The Tamron 18-400 F3.5-6.3 wants to be the only lens you’ll ever need. In my experience, lenses of this nature tend to offer zoom versatility at the cost of sharpness, especially at the telephoto end of the zoom range. But I was pleasantly surprised by how solid this ‘ultra-telephoto’ performs at all focal lengths in bright, direct light.

    More specifically, I found it produced adequately sharp images throughout the zoom range with acceptable levels of CA, distortion and vignetting. It’s also a fun lens to use, given its focal length range and reasonable size. As a bonus, it also offers a surprisingly close focus distance at the long end (see image at the bottom of this page).

    See our Tamron 18-400mm F3.5-6.3 sample gallery

    Available for both Canon and Nikon APS-C camera bodies (it offers an equivalent zoom range of 27-600mm on Nikon’s DX format, and 29-600mm on a Canon) I used the 18-400mm with the Canon EOS 80D, and and in terms of size and balance, it proved a good pairing. Despite having a plastic housing, the 18-400mm is reassuringly solid, and unlike some cheaper zooms the mount is made of metal. A small rubber ring around the mount is a reminder that the lens is also moisture-resistant.

    Vibration Control is a useful feature given the insane zoom range – I definitely noticed it kicking in while shooting.

    The wide, 27mm equivalent. And the tele, 600mm equivalent.

    The lens also offers a nifty locking mechanism when zoomed to 18mm. This is a great way to avoid the dreaded ‘lens creep,’ though I found even without using the lock, the lens never crept when left at or near 18mm. The body also offers an AF/MF toggle, in addition to a VC on/off switch.

    Overall, the Tamron 18-400mm F3.5-6.3 strikes me as a great and versatile lens for most daylight shooting scenarios. Travelers in particular will find it useful. And though it is heftier than your average kit lens, at 24.9oz / 705g, it shouldn’t weigh you down too much.

    I was impressed by the close focus distance when shooting at the tele end.
    400 mm | 1/1600 sec | F6.3 | ISO 800

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • This video compares a $50 Sony camcorder with a $50,000 RED Epic Dragon

    Ever wonder whether a more expensive camera is truly worth the cost? Sam and Niko of Corridor recently set out to compare footage from a $ 50 Sony HD camcorder and the RED Epic Dragon, a $ 50,000 6K cinema camera. As you’d expect, the differences are immediately apparent, cost aside, when the two cameras are put side-by-side: the RED camera’s lens alone is about the same size as the entire Sony camcorder.

    The RED Epic Dragon has proven capable many times throughout its life, with perhaps one of the model’s most notable achievements being a trip into space where it was used by NASA astronauts to capture images from the International Space Station. The RED camera has also been used for several major Hollywood movies. The Sony HD camcorder used in the video, however, is a simple model with a low price point aimed at the average consumer.

    At nearly 15 minutes in length, the comparison video above runs through several major aspects of both cameras’ footage, looking at things like noise level, exposure, low-light performance, post-processing results and more. As expected, the RED camera dominates in each category. More of the team’s videos can be found on the ‘Sam and Niko’ YouTube channel.

    Via: iso1200

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)