360Photography

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  • Fotodiox launches soda-can sized LED lights with Fresnel focusing

    Accessory manufacturer Fotodiox has introduced a battery-powered LED lighting head that uses a Fresnel lens to create a focusing spot function – and the whole thing is as small as a can of soda. The new PopSpot J-500 comes with removable barn doors and can run via the supplied AC adapter or with a NP-F750 video camera battery.

    Using only white LEDs the head has a color balance of 5600k (+/- 300) but will accept filters for matching to tungsten or other light sources. The focusing spot allows the beam of light to be varied between 25° and 55° as the lens is rotated, and the output of the light can be controlled using a 0-100% dimmer switch. A fully charged battery can run the light for up to an hour and twenty minutes at 100% power, or three hours and forty five minutes at 50%. The company says that the emittance at the 55° spot is 2258lx, and is 5400lx at the 25° position.

    The head measures 3¼ x 3¼ x 8¼ inches (8 x 8 x 21cm) without the battery and weighs 2 lbs / 0.95kg, and is available on its own in a three-head kit. The single head costs $ 274.95 without the battery module and $ 399.95 with it, while the three-head kit costs $ 1099.95 including two batteries of each head. For more information see the Fotodiox website.

    Press release

    Compact LED Light Delivers Power, Control and Dramatic Looks for Photo and Video Projects

    Fotodiox Pro, creator and distributor of several lines of specialty solutions for videography, cinematography and photography, has announced the PopSpot Focusable Fresnel – a mighty Fresnel LED light in a tiny package. Roughly the size of a soda can, the PopSpot allows photographers and videographers to focus its powerful beam for fantastic precision, strong contrast and dramatic shadows. It is available now on FotodioxPro.com in three configurations: the PopSpot Focusable Fresnel, the PopSpot Focusable Fresnel + Battery Module, and the PopSpot Focusable Fresnel 3-Light Kit with Rolling Carrying Case.

    “The problem with most Fresnel lights is they’re typically quite bulky, heavy and fragile, and they get screaming hot to the touch,” said Bohus Blahut, marketing director for Fotodiox Pro. “But our new PopSpot Focusable Fresnel does away with those pitfalls by combining power and control in a form factor about the size of a pop can. A simple twist focuses the PopSpot’s output from a 55° to 25° beam angle, and removable barn doors offer further control of the shape and direction of the light. We’ve even included a slot for a slide-in tungsten filter.”

    Not only is the PopSpot an ideal light for tabletop shooting or as a rim or hair light, it can be used as a primary light in many shooting scenarios. Its compact size and lightweight build offers flexibility in mounting, positioning, and concealing, and allows it to travel virtually anywhere. The PopSpot runs off either conventional AC power or an optional battery module for on-the-go lighting, and remains cool throughout use.

    To learn more about the PopSpot Focusable Fresnel and other photography and videography accessories from Fotodiox Pro, please visit FotodioxPro.com.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • It shoots stills too: Panasonic GH5 studio scene and sample gallery

    At first glance, the Panasonic DC-GH5 might appear to be more video-oriented than otherwise, but with an updated 20MP sensor, a new 12-60mm F2.8-4 kit lens bearing the coveted ‘Leica’ designation and refined autofocus performance, that doesn’t mean it’s not capable of shooting impressive stills as well. Panasonic has also told us they’ve been hard at work updating their JPEG engine, so we’ve taken it out on the town, to a Rugby match, and we’ve carefully analyzed its performance in the the studio to see how it really performs. Click through to take a look.

    See the Panasonic GH5 in our
    studio test scene

    Sample Gallery

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    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Panasonic Lumix DC-GX850 real world samples

    The Panasonic GX850 represents the merging of its ‘beauty-oriented’ GF-series and its ultra-small GM-series. Like the GM5 it replaces, it’s just barely coat pocketable with its collapsible 12-32mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens attached. Small as it is, it’s mighty enough to offer a 16MP Four Thirds sensor capable of 4K/30p video capture and Panasonic’s array of 4K-based stills modes. 

    See our Panasonic Lumix GX850
    sample gallery

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    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • PDN announces its 30 emerging photographers of 2017

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    PDN has announced its annual list of 30 emerging photographers to watch, chosen from a pool of almost 300 photographers. To qualify, photographers must have been working professionally for five or less years. Among the photographers included in the list PDN Senior Editor Conor Risch sees themes that reinforce the importance of finding meaningful personal work, and the value of creative problem solving to keep clients coming back. 

    Take a look above at a few of our favorite images from these emerging photographers, and visit PDN’s 30 2017 site to see the full list.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • 2016 CIPA data shows compact digital camera sales lower than ever

    Last month, the Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) released its 2016 report detailing yearly trends in camera shipments. Using that data, photographer Sven Skafisk has created a graph that makes it easy to visualize the data, namely the major growth in smartphone sales over the past few years and the apparent impact it has had on dedicated camera sales.

    The chart shows smartphone sales achieving a big spike around 2010, the same time range in which dedicated camera sales reached its peak. Each following year has represented substantial growth in smartphone sales and significant decreases in dedicated camera sales, particularly in the compact digital cameras category. 

    Per the CIPA report, total digital camera shipments last year fell by 31.7% over the previous year. The report cites multiple factors affecting digital camera sales overall, with smartphones proving the biggest factor affecting the sales of digital cameras with built-in lenses. The Association’s 2017 outlook includes a forecast that compact digital cameras will see another 16.7-percent year-on-year sales decrease this year.

    Skafisk’s graph below shows the massive divide between smartphone sales and camera sales – be prepared to do some scrolling.

    Via: PetaPixel, CIPA

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Food photography with Ashley Rodriguez and the Canon EOS M5

    Baking and taking photos share some fundamental similarities – with all of the right ingredients and some technical know-how, you can make magic happen. We recently joined food photographer Ashley Rodriguez and pie expert Kate McDermott for a bit of both with the Canon EOS M5, the company’s flagship mirrorless camera.

    The EOS M5’s 24MP APS-C sensor, Dual Pixel AF and tilting touch screen gave Ashley plenty of flexibility working in Kate’s kitchen. And did we mention there’s pie? Take a look at the EOS M5 in action.

    Read our full Canon EOS M5 review

    See more videos at our YouTube Channel

    This is sponsored content, created in partnership with Canon. What does this mean?

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Nikon fixes bugs and adds compatibility for WT-7 Wi-Fi transmitter

    Nikon has issued new firmware for its D810, D810A, D750, D7200 and D500 DSLR cameras that fixes a number of issues and which will allow those that can’t already to operate with the company’s WT-7 wireless transmitter. The transmitter itself also has new firmware to accommodate the added models, and to improve the reliability of its connection with SnapBridge on iOS 10.2 devices.

    As well as equipping the D810, D810A, D750 and D7200 for life with the WT-7 the firmware attends to a number of bugs in the cameras, as marked below.

    D500

    • Fixed an issue that resulted in unreliable connections between the camera and the iOS 10.2 version of the SnapBridge app.

    D810

    • The WT-7 wireless transmitter is now supported.

    Fixed the following issues:

    • Multiple exposures were not recorded correctly.
    • Incorrect histograms would be displayed for some images viewed in the RGB histogram display during playback.
    • If On was selected for Auto distortion control, distortion would appear at the edges of photos taken with NEF (RAW) + JPEG fine selected for Image quality and Medium selected for JPEG/TIFF recording > Image size.
    • Photos taken immediately after lenses were exchanged would not be recorded at the correct exposure.
    • The protect icon did not display correctly.
    • If On was selected for Auto distortion control, the camera would stop responding when the user attempted to take pictures with NEF (RAW) + JPEG fine selected for Image quality, Small selected for NEF (RAW) recording > Image size, and RAW primary – JPEG secondary selected for Secondary slot function.
    • Shutter speeds for the electronic front-curtain shutter would sometimes be faster than 1/2000 s.
    • Pictures would sometimes not be recorded.

    D750

    • The WT-7 wireless transmitter is now supported.

    Fixed the following issues:

    • Incorrect histograms would be displayed for some images viewed in the RGB histogram display during playback.
    • If On was selected for Auto distortion control, distortion would appear at the edges of photos taken with NEF (RAW) + JPEG fine selected for Image quality and Medium selected for Image size.
    • The option chosen for Custom Setting f5 (Customize command dials) > Change main/sub in CUSTOM SETTINGS MENU group f (Controls) would not be saved when Save settings was selected for Save/load settings in the SETUP MENU.
    • Pictures would sometimes not be recorded.

    D7200

    • The WT-7 wireless transmitter is now supported.

    Fixed the following issues:

    • If On was selected for Auto distortion control, distortion would appear at the edges of photos taken with NEF (RAW) + JPEG fine selected for Image quality and Medium selected for Image size.
    • Pictures would sometimes not be recorded.
    • Optimal exposure would sometimes not be achieved in photos taken in live view using a lens with electromagnetically controlled aperture (type E and PC-E lenses).
    • WT-7
    • Fixed an issue that resulted in unreliable connections between the camera and the iOS 10.2 version of the SnapBridge app.

    For more information visit the support pages of the Nikon website.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Adobe Camera Raw 9.9 launches with new camera and lens profile support

    Adobe has announced the release of Camera Raw 9.9 for Creative Cloud subscribers, adding expanded lens profile and camera raw support. In addition to the new support, ACR 9.9 fixes a trio of bugs, including a ‘rare crash’ associated with JPEGs, a bug that affected Lens Profile Auto Matching when used with Zeiss Batis 85mm lenses, and an Upright bug issue.

    The latest version of Camera Raw adds support for the following cameras:

    • Canon PowerShot G9 X Mark II
    • Casio EX-ZR3200
    • Fujifilm GFX 50S
    • Fujifilm X100F
    • Fujifilm X-A10
    • Fujifilm X-T20
    • Leica M10
    • Olympus E-M1 Mark II
    • Panasonic DC-FZ80
    • Panasonic DC-GF9
    • Panasonic DC-GH5
    • Panasonic DMC-TZ82
    • Phase One IQ3 100MP (“S” compression mode not supported)

    The update also adds support for another 28 lens profiles, including the iPhone 7 lenses, the DJI Mavic Pro FC220, several Nikon F and Canon EF lenses, and more. The full list can be found here. Existing Camera Raw users can update to the new version by selecting the ‘Help’ menu in the application, then ‘Update.’

    Via: Adobe Blog

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Flickr rolls out neural-network-based Similarity Search

    Flickr has announced a new feature called Similarity Search, a deep neural network-based discovery engine that is designed to uncover a wider range of related image results than is possible under the current search system. It lets users search for a photo and use the results to dig deeper for additional similar photos.

    Powered by Yahoo’s computer vision technology, this new function expands the depth and level of search results, and not coincidentally, will derive additional advantages to users of Flickr’s 13 billion-plus photo database. To use similarity search, just hover over a photo on the search result page to reveal a three-dot (“…”) Similarity Pivot button at the upper right corner. That exposes a menu giving you the option to search for additional similar photos.

    Neural networks are used to map raw pixels of a photo into relevant tags. Credit: Flickr

    This spells more potential exposure for both aspiring and professional photographers, where search results can go far beyond anything that may be obvious, popular or trending. Similar to a web searching or browsing experience, users will likely encounter a wider array of different, unexpected, and hopefully valuable results to choose from without having to conduct increasingly elaborate text searches.

    ‘One of those major problems is that of discovery,’ said Clayton Mellina, Flickr’s software developer engineer, in the blog post explaining the new tech. ‘We understand that the value in our photo corpus is only unlocked when the community can find photos and photographers that inspire them, so we strive to enable the discovery and appreciation of new photos.’

    Points nearer to the query image are semantically similar; points further away are not. Credit: Flickr

    What is similarity?

    While similarity can mean the same person or thing or color or style, Flickr goes into deep neural network territory with semantic similarity — similarity based on the content of photos to help users discover new images and better use Flickr’s tools to find what they’re looking for from its huge database. Flickr has some experience with neural networks and already uses them for object recognition, NSFW prediction, and aesthetic quality. In addition, neural networks power Flickr’s style filters, which allow filtering by styles like ‘minimalist’ or ‘patterns.’
     

    Because visual searching often does not translate well to text, the new Similarity Pivot button now gives users a way to more deeply explore visual concepts. ‘With similarity, we are understanding the photo abstractly with specific aspects that are related to the visual experience and layout of the scene,’ Mellina said.

    Similarity search rolls out today to all Flickr users, and results will be available immediately. Mellina says that the Flickr collection is still in the process of being indexed, but that indexing should be completed by the end of this week. 

    Similarity search will reveal only public photos, so there should be no security issues, Mellina says.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Cinetics announces new Lynx camera slider and motion control system

    Cinetics has announced Lynx, its next generation camera slider and motion control system for photographers and filmmakers. It claims that Lynx is designed to set up and use quickly and easily, incorporates advanced motor control for very precise camera slides, pans, and tilts, and also allows users to program and operate the system through a mobile app.

    The company is turning to Kickstarter for preorders, following successful Kickstarter campaigns for other products.

    Lynx will be available in three kits: a Base Slider kit, which allows for manual moves, a Motorized Slider kit, which adds a slider motor and controller, and a Three Axis Slider kit, which adds motorized pan and tilt head.

    A $ 499 Kickstarter pledge will secure you the Basic Slider Kit, a $ 999 pledge will get you the Motorized slider kit, and a $ 1499 pledge put you in line for the full Three Axis Slider kit. Final non-Kickstarter pricing was not announced.

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    Press Release

    Cinetics Announces Lynx: Camera Slider and Multi Axis Motor Control System That Masters Timelapse and Video Moves

    Fourth Kickstarter Campaign Offers World Class Motion Control System Made Possible by Feedback and Support from Engaged Customer Base

    Austin, TX. – March 07, 2017 – Cinetics, designers and manufacturers of lightweight and portable cinematic systems for videographers and filmmakers, is adding a next generation product to its arsenal of motion control, dolly, and tripod systems for photographers, filmmakers and videographers. Lynx™ is an ultra-smooth camera slider and multi axis motor control system that masters the art of timelapse and is capable of making precision video moves. Following the overwhelming success and community support of three previous Kickstarter campaigns, Cinetics will once again turn to Kickstarter for preorders of Lynx and offer its loyal community of photographers, filmmakers, and videographers a discount on the new system.

    “Lynx is our 4th motion control project, and it’s our very best. It’s a compact camera slider built with input from an amazingly engaged customer base,” explains Justin Jensen, founder of Cinetics. “It’s a ready-to-run, three axis motion control kit that sets up quick and easily, is strong, fast and quiet, and can be driven by a mobile app. We are confident that Lynx will consistently perform as well as other, more expensive, compact motion control systems on the market.

    Lynx is manufactured using the finest materials and incorporates the latest in motor control technology to enable precise, quick and quiet slides, pans and tilts. A beautifully-designed mobile app allows easy and intuitive remote system control while its joystick design and accelerometer controls take live camera movement to an entirely new level. Lynx is designed for fast and easy set up, can run preset programs or be configured creatively to perform complex moves for incredible cinematic results.

    Lynx is available in three primary kits: Base Slider, Motorized Slider and Three Axis Slider.

    The Lynx Base Slider allows users to create manual video moves. The motor control can be added to the slider at any time.

    The Lynx Motorized Slider kit includes the manual slider plus the slider motor and controller for a complete linear motion control system.

    The Lynx Three Axis Slider includes the complete Lynx motorized slider and motorized pan and tilt head.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)