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  • Serious resolution: Phase One XF with IQ3 100MP back tested

    Phase One XF with IQ3 100MP back tested

    Phase One has enjoyed two significant updates since we last tested the company’s medium format offering: the 645DF+ body has been replaced by the more modern XF, and the IQ2 series of backs has been replaced by the updated IQ3 series. Added to that, Phase One has introduced a 100MP sensor to the IQ3 range. The new 100MP sensor is of the 54 x 40mm format, so somewhat larger than the previous 50MP 44 x33mm sensor. What is also significant is that it is a CMOS sensor and comes with all the flexibility that technology brings to these big and bulky cameras.

    Phase One says that it has developed the sensor alongside Sony, and that a new design has introduced a range of benefits, including helping to increase the ISO range that can be offered, improving color accuracy and boosting dynamic range.

    When I spoke to Lau Nørgaard, the head of R&D at Phase One, and asked him whether anyone needs 100MP he replied that the obvious customer base was anyone who needs to make big prints that will be inspected close-up.

    Less obvious perhaps are the workflow advantages such resolution brings. He cited an example of someone photographing a car and then having to shoot all the details individually. With a 100MP back you shoot the whole car once and cut out all the detail shots from that image. Online clothing retailers like to provide roll-over enlargements of garments that show the texture of the fabric, and this back is ideal for that  – the weave of the finest fabric can be shown even from a full length shot that includes three or four models. The resolution also presents less of a risk of aliasing. Museums, galleries and aerial surveyors are obvious customers, as they need the detail, but Lau also explained that images of anything from this back will benefit from the pixel count even when downscaled – noise is reduced, and the superior color and tonal information is retained.

    The new XF body

    The Phase One XF is a 645-style medium format SLR body that’s designed to accept digital backs, with the company encouraging photographers to use its IQ1 and IQ3 series backs with resolutions of 40, 50, 60, 80 and 100 million pixels. Phase One has given its body a complete make-over and while it remains much the same basic form factor as the previous model, it is now much less mechanical and clunky, and features a number of dramatic improvements.

    Key new features Phase One XF:

    • Shutter and mirror dampening
    • Electronic first curtain
    • Touch screen top plate display
    • Improved integration with the IQ3 backs
    • New handling layout
    • Metering in camera rather than in prism
    • Accepts waistlevel finder
    • Seismograph built-in
    • Separate battery from back – but can power share
    • Built-in wireless flash sync via Profoto Air Sync

    There are so many really key improvements to this body that it is hard to know where to start. The experience of using the XF is dramatically different to using the 645DF+, which is why I think Phase One has given it a completely different name instead of making it a ‘Mark II’ or ‘X’.

    Let’s start with the new shutter and mirror mechanism. The mirror action is still more violent than you’d encounter with a 35mm-style DSLR but the impact created when it flips up and down is a good deal reduced compared to the previous model. The shutter action is also much smoother, so when the shutter is tripped the whole operation is quieter. In the previous camera the mirror and the shutter were connected in the same mechanical set-up, but now the two operate as individual units – so in mirror-up mode the shutter can re-cock itself without the mirror having to flip back and forth.

    Phase One has introduced a seismograph to the body that measures the amount the camera is vibrating, and displays the results as a moving graph on the top plate display. This helps to ensure the user trips the shutter when the camera is at its steadiest, and the incorporation of ‘vibration delay’ allows the camera to trip itself automatically when internal vibrations have died down. 

    Further help towards reducing vibration comes in the form of an electronic first curtain mode that works when the mirror is already up – similar to that used in DSLRs like the Nikon D810. Phase One’s Lau Nørgaard told me that the company’s engineers studied the acceleration and rate of travel of the second curtain and mirrored that with the read-out progress of the electronic first curtain to ensure that the whole frame would be evenly exposed.

    The new handling arrangements also make this a significantly easier camera to use, with a touch screen on the top plate that provides direct access to the shooting and exposure modes. Three dials controls shutter speed, aperture and ISO, while a mini-menu is controlled via a pair of Leica-style long silver buttons. In short, pretty much anything that you’ll need to access quickly and regularly has a short and direct path from the right-hand grip.

    In the 645DF+ metering was handled through the prism of the camera, but in the XF it has moved to the body to allow exposure reading when using the new waist-level finder. There is an additional flash sync socket on the IQ3 backs for when the waist-level finder is in use, as the main one is on the prism head.

    The XF body is light years ahead of the 645DF+, and a good deal more advanced than the Hasselblad H5D series cameras. It feels very modern for a medium format DSLR, and is so much easier to use and navigate as a consequence of the mass of new features.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Going wide: Irix 15mm F2.4 sample gallery

    Swiss company Irix recently released two versions of their 15mm F2.4 prime to the consumer market. The Irix 15mm is offered in two varieties: ‘Blackstone’ and the ‘Firefly.’ The Irix Blackstone features a magnesium and aluminum body able to withstand ‘extreme conditions,’ while the Irix Firefly model is, according to the company, the lightest lens in its class. Both versions of the lens are available in Canon EF-, Nikon F- and Pentax K-mount. 

    The lens is composed of 15 elements in 11 groups and produces a really nice sunstar and some, well, very interesting lens flare. Interestingly enough although the lens states its widest aperture is F2.4, the best we could do on the Canon 5DS R was F2.5. In any case we put the lens to the test over a few weeks of shooting and here are the results. 

    Irix 15mm F2.4 real-world sample gallery

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Abandoned America: Photographing a forgotten history

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    Photographing abandoned spaces has gained a reputation to some as a voyeuristic act, with little respect paid to the subject or its history. But for Matthew Christopher, it’s much more than ‘ruin porn.’ He runs Abandoned America, and his interest in photographing abandoned structures started a decade ago with an asylum in Philadelphia. Working at mental health facilities, he calls exploring Philadelphia State Hospital a life-changing experience. He picked up photography and started keeping a record of the places he visited at Abandoned America.

    He tells Resource Travel ‘If there was one thing I’d hope to achieve, I suppose it would be encouraging people to see abandoned spaces not as eyesores but as the treasures they sometimes are.’ He’s also aware of the often sad stories behind the buildings he enters, and encourages those looking to follow in his footsteps to do two things: ‘be careful and be respectful… just because these places are abandoned, doesn’t mean that nobody cares about them or that it’s OK to loot or vandalize them. Leave them as you found them.’ 

    You can read the full interview with Christopher over at Resource Travel and see more of his images.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Behind the Shot: The Shadow Towers

    In this article I’d like to take you on a nighttime adventure to the remote Torres Del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia. This highly photographed park has attracted many photographers, and for good reason: it offers incredible mountainous landscapes and wonderful weather conditions, making for very interesting photography. 

    There are many hiking routes in the park, which range from relatively easy to hard. After visiting Patagonia in 2014 to scout for my ‘Giants of the Andes’ workshop and Fitz Roy Hiking Annex, I regretted not being able to explore more of the hiking trails. I swore to go back and do some more hiking and shooting. I did just that earlier this year, just before guiding my groups. It was a bit of an adventure, and things didn’t always go as I had planned, but I got a few results I’m happy with. This article is about one of them, entitled ‘The Shadow Towers’.

    ‘The Shadow Towers’, Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine, Chile.
    Canon 5Ds R, Samyang 14mm F2.8

    Getting There and Being There

    The Torres Del Paine are the distinctive three granite peaks of the Paine Massif. They are visible from long distances away, but to truly appreciate them, you really need to hike closer. It’s a day hike, taking a few hours to reach the base camp at the bottom of the Torres and another hour or two (depending on your fitness level) from camp to the lagoon from which I took the shot. This last leg is pretty tough with several hundred meters of elevation gain, along a path which is sometimes quite steep.

    My planning went more or less like this: I had rented a car from El Calafate, Argentina, a few days before, and planned to drive all the way to Torres Del Paine and do the hike all in one go, if weather agreed. The moon was going to be full, and it was going to rise directly opposite the Torres, which I had hoped would illuminate the tops of the peaks and make for a very interestingly-lit shot. A couple of days beforehand the forecast indicated clear skies, and it seemed like everything was going as planned.

    Back to El Calafate. I picked up my car early in the morning and made the 6-hour drive to the park. Upon reaching the start of the trail, I packed the necessities – tent, sleeping bag, some food and all my photography gear in a backpack (which weighed in at a not-too-comfortable 15+ Kg) and began hiking. The sun was shining strongly and I was wearing a light shirt and shorts for most of the hike, even though it was already autumn. 

    The hike to base camp wasn’t too hard. It seemed long after all the driving but elevation gain was moderate, at least after the first several km. Beautiful sights were abundant throughout. After about 4 hours I reached camp in the late afternoon and set up my tent. I was a bit tired but I couldn’t get any peace. I decided to climb to the viewpoint that same evening.

    I left the tent – and everything else which wasn’t crucial – in camp, and started the steep hike. It wasn’t easy at all with the heavy weight on my back, but I made the effort and after 1 or 1.5 hours, I was standing on the rocky edge of the glacial lagoon at the Torres viewpoint – Mirador de las Torres. Last light was approaching and I used the remaining visibility to find a sheltered place to put my sleeping bag for the night. I had heard that there was a cave nearby but didn’t have the time to find it, and so I settled for a spot surrounded by rocks, which would shelter me from strong winds. I did a bit of scouting around the lagoon before dark, to find a suitable composition.

    My sheltered bivvy spot. Pardon the cell phone shot.

    Darkness fell and I had to rest a bit from the long day and tough hike. I was waiting for the moon to rise when clouds began rolling in. I was very disappointed, since that meant I wasn’t going to get the kind of light I was hoping for. I kept on waiting and viewing the movement of the clouds and moon. At some point the moon began peeking between the clouds and producing interesting patches of light on the lagoon and the mountains. It was then that I knew I had an opportunity to create a good shot.

    The light was changing very rapidly at this point, and due to the strong moonlight, I could see very contrasty shadow moving over the lagoon, which was exceptionally beautiful and exciting. I took several shots in the changing light. At some point, the moon was strongly illuminating the lagoon and foreground rocks, while the Torres themselves remained in shadow. It was an awesome sight, and I tried to convey what I saw with my camera.

    Another shot I took on the same shoot, with different composition and light conditions.

    After finishing my shoot I went back to the sleeping bag and rested a bit, hoping to shoot some more later with different light. But as it often is with nature photography, things began to deteriorate quickly. More and more clouds came over and I decided to try to get some sleep before trying again. I got perhaps half an hour of bad sleep when it started to rain on me. This was an unexpected turn of events and I was afraid I’d have to sleep in a wet sleeping bag, which was really not how I had planned to pass that night.

    Luckily I had a very good sleeping bag (thank you Feathered Friends!) which was highly water resistant, and apart from some dampness in the zipper area, kept me protected and dry. Still, I have to admit lying there, hiding in the sleeping bag under pouring rain, utterly alone at night, more than an hour’s hike away from any other living soul, wasn’t too much fun. 

    After a few hours or rain, the sun was about to rise. Sadly, the Torres were shrouded in fog by then, rendering them completely invisible. The hikers who were arriving to see the sunrise were disappointed. I packed my gear and hiked back down, all the way to the car. Even the 2-minute drive to the nearby restaurant was agony, but once I got my big, juicy hamburger I was a happy man.

    Settings and Execution

    I took this shot with my Canon 5DsR and Samyang 14mm F2.8 lens. The image is focus stacked from 2 exposures, since I used F2.8 and depth of field was quite small. One image was focused on the foreground rocks, the other on the mountains in the background. Since I used an ultra-wide angle lens, 2 images were enough to cover the depth range.
    I used ISO 800 and a 13 second exposure. Here are the 2 original RAW files.

    Composition

    The main element in the composition is a virtual spiral running from the big rock on the right, through the foreground rocks and all the way to the mountains. Here’s an illustration.

    I decided to leave a relatively large space above the Torres to show some more of the texture and movement on clouds, and to leave some room above the left peak.
    The most important part of the image is the obscure silhouette of the Torres – giving it its mysterious feel, and, of course, its title.

    Post Processing

    As time goes by, I tend to do less and less post processing. This is both an aesthetic decision and an ideological one. The main things I put an emphasis on here are maintaining fidelity to the actual scene as I saw it and making sure the final image still looked like a night shot, while still keeping details in the dark areas.

    The first thing I did was correct the lens aberrations using ACR’s profile correction. I also made a few global adjustments, shown below. No local adjustments were done.

    I then saved the 2 files as TIFFs and went on to Photoshop. I put the images as layers and used Edit > Auto Align Layers to align them. After aligning, I cropped the image a bit.

    As to the focus stacking itself: to get the sharp parts from both images, I used the eraser tool to expose the right section of each of the shots. This was done by eye.

    At this stage I had a focus-stacked, almost complete image, needing but a few last adjustments. Firstly, since the image was still too bright (as visible in the histogram), I used the curves tool to darken the image with more emphasis on the lighter parts. I wanted a darker result, to better convey the night atmosphere and to be more realistic, all that without losing detail in the shadows.

    After taking the contrast down in ACR, I wanted to take it back up a bit in a controllable fashion. To do this I used luminosity selections. I selected a mid-range mask and applied a levels adjustment layer on it. 

    I also added a bit of local contrast using dodge and burn in LAB color mode, to avoid color shifts. I added some saturation, to bring out the natural colors in the lagoon and rocks, performed size reduction and some sharpening and I was done. 

    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.

    If you’d like to experience and shoot some of the most fascinating landscapes on earth with Erez as your guide, you’re welcome to take a look at his unique photography workshops around the world:

    Land of Ice – Southern Iceland
    Winter Paradise – Northern Iceland
    Northern Spirits – The Lofoten Islands
    Giants of the Andes and Fitz Roy Hiking Annex – Patagonia
    Tales of Arctic Nights – Greenland 

    Selected articles by Erez Marom:

    • Behind the Shot: Dark Matter
    • Mountain Magic: Shooting in the Lofoten Islands
    • Behind the Shot: Nautilus
    • Behind the Shot: Lost in Space
    • Behind the Shot: Spot the Shark
    • Quick Look: The Art of the Unforeground
    • Whatever it Doesn’t Take
    • Winds of Change: Shooting changing landscapes
    • On the Importance of Naming Images
    • Parallelism in Landscape Photography

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • iPhone 7 Plus real-world sample gallery

    With our iPhone 7 Plus review underway, we’ve started off by putting together an initial gallery of real-world samples testing its performance in various light conditions. The 7 Plus is the first Apple device equipped with dual camera modules, so we’ve taken a look at wide and telephoto performance in addition to the camera’s Portrait mode, which simulates shallow depth of field.

    iPhone 7 Plus real-world sample gallery

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Adobe Lightroom for iOS updated with iPhone 7 camera profiles

    With iOS 10.1, currently available in beta, the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are capable of recording Raw image files. Adobe has now updated its Lightroom app for iOS to take advantage of this new feature. The capability to shoot Raw images with all Apple devices with 12MP camera had already been implemented in version 2.5 of the app, but the latest version  v2.5.2 now also comes with lens and sensor profiles for both new iPhones, including specific optimizations for the dual-camera of the 7 Plus. 

    These should ensure color, noise reduction, lens corrections and other parameters are set at the right levels when opening DNG Raw-files that have been captured with one of the new iPhones. In addition, the new version of Lightroom for iOS supports the DCI-P3 wide color gamut display that is also a new feature of the iPhone 7 series. It offers 25 percent more color than the sRGB color space. The latest version of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom can now be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Adobe and UC Berkeley demonstrate image editing tool powered by machine learning

    Researchers with Adobe and the University of California-Berkeley have detailed a new AI-powered photo manipulation tool that enables sophisticated photo modification using ‘target images’ and/or crude user sketches. The end result is a realistically altered photo that has been machine-modified (or, in the case of blank images, completely machine generated) to match a target image without extensive ‘natural’ user editing.

    According to a newly published study detailing the technology, this tool involves a ‘generative adversarial neural network’ that works to modify images in near-real time. As one example demonstrated in the video below, drawing a general shape over a photo of a bag causes the software to automatically adjust the bag’s size to match the sketched shape without compromising its realistic nature. The software can also generate images based on crude user ‘scribbles’ – no artistic talent required.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Throwback Thursday: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1

    With a few exceptions, 2005 was a fairly typical year for new digital cameras. There were millions of point-and-shoots, some ultrazooms (which, back then, were closer to 12X than 60X), and a handful of DSLRs.

    In September of that year something big arrived (literally and figuratively): the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1. The R1 was the first non-SLR camera to sport an APS-C image sensor – a giant leap from what most compacts were using at the time (2/3″ was about as big as you got.) It was the first cameras (or one of the first) with an APS-C sensor that could provide continuous live view – which was a challenge back then due to heat dissipation. (It’s worth noting that the R1 doesn’t capture video because of heat build-up.)

    The difference was between the 2/3″ sensor on the DSC-F828 and the APS-C model on the DSC-R1 is substantial. It’s more than 5X larger, to be exact.

    This 10.3MP sensor offered an impressive ISO range of 160-3200 and could shoot three shots in a row at a whopping 0.3 frames per second. And did I mention that it could shoot Raw?

    The R1 had a lot more going for it than it’s big sensor, though. Its design was, and continues to be, one-of-a-kind. Oh, where to begin.

    What jumps out the most for me in the above photo is the LCD. Two inches in size, it flipped up and rotated 270 degrees. It could be laid down flat, flush with the top of the body, which was good for street shooting or tripod work. Its placement did have a drawback (for some, at least), which you’ll see in a moment.

    Perhaps my favorite feature on the camera was its manual zoom ring. This popped up on a few ultrazoom cameras back then, but then went the way of the Dodo bird. Note to camera manufacturers: bring it back on your long-zoom cameras! The ‘Carl Zeiss’ lens had a range of 24-120mm (equiv.)  a max aperture range of F2.8-4.8, and incredible sharpness. As Phil Askey said in the conclusion of his review, ‘the lens is worth the price of the DSC-R1 alone.’

    As you can see, the DSC-R1 had a large electronic viewfinder that protruded way back from the rear of the camera. While the 232k-dot resolution was nothing to write home about, it was a large finder and offered an eye sensor. The R1 also offered twin control dials AND a joystick for selecting an AF point.

    Something nice about the cameras of that era were all the direct controls. Want a button for spot metering? You got it. A flicker reduction switch? Sure (it’s the framing/preview switch – something I had to look up in the manual.) The menu system is classic, with a 1980s-style font and Nintendo-like beeps when you operate it.

    Keeping with the ‘premium’ theme, the R1 offered two memory card slots; one for CompactFlash, the other for Memory Stick. You had to use a physical switch to choose between the two, and who knows what would happen to the universe if you were using a Memory Stick Select card.

    Remember my mention of the trade-off of having a top-mounted LCD?  You’re looking at it. The DSC-R1 had an offset hot shoe, which some people like, and some people don’t. While the above photo is an extreme example, having a large flash up there did make the camera a bit awkward to hold. (Apologies for the Canon flash – we’re fresh out of Sonys in the office.)

    The Cyber-shot DSC-R1 was a one-of-a-kind camera that had no successor. As Phil Askey points out in his exhaustive review of the R1, it was a product that had a considerable amount of both pros and cons, though it still earned a ‘Highly Recommended’ score, due mainly to its spectacular lens and relatively low price of $ 999. While it’s unlikely that you’ll ever see an R1 ‘in the wild,’ it’s totally worth playing with this beast if given the chance.

    DPReview is grateful to Mark Weir of Sony Electronics for lending us the DSC-R1.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Pleasantly punchy: Nikon D3400 real-world samples gallery

    Photo by Samuel Spencer

    The Nikon D3400 is the company’s newest entry-level DSLR, offering users 24MP and an 11-point AF system in a compact, lightweight body. It may not be the most exciting camera for Nikon faithful on paper, but in the real-world, it offers impressive image quality that will put any smartphone camera to shame. We used the camera mostly in the ‘Auto’ or ‘No Flash Auto’ modes, and were pleasantly surprised by its default output – metering is usually spot-on, with good sharpening and punchy color (though it may be over-the-top for some).

    Over the past week, we’ve had a chance to photograph city living, botanical still-life, playful pups and yes, even some sleepy cats. Take a look at how the D3400, its 18-55mm kit lens and the DX 35mm F1.8G lens fared in our real-world samples gallery. 

    View our D3400 real-world samples gallery

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Narrative will stop selling its life-logging cameras

    Narrative, the company behind the Narrative Clip, has stopped selling its life-logging cameras. The Narrative Clip, first unveiled four years ago, is designed to clip to the owner’s shirt, where it snaps photos of their day in 30 second intervals. The camera has been updated since, but failed to appeal to consumers in any large way, and now the company behind it has stopped both sales and support of the devices.

    Narrative announced the end of its sales and support in a message sent to customers. It isn’t clear what the company plans for the future, though TechCrunch suggests Narrative may continue to exist as a ‘support group’ of some sort for Clip owners; this will apparently involve a tool that enables the cameras to keep functioning, though to what degree isn’t clear.

    Because of the nature of Narrative Clip, a single day’s worth of usage could result in thousands of photos. When used with Narrative’s software, the best moments are automatically selected from those photos, trimming down the mass of content to a more easily managed collection. Without software that provides that functionality, the cameras won’t be nearly as useful due to most people not having time to sort through thousands of images every day.

    Via: TechCrunch

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)