360Photography

Category: Uncategorized

  • Zenmuse Z3 is DJI’s first aerial zoom camera

    Drone maker DJI has today announced its first aerial zoom camera, the Zenmuse Z3. The new model is optimized for still photography and combines a 3.5x optical zoom with 2x digital magnification, resulting in a 7x overall zoom factor, covering equivalent focal ranges from 22-77mm. Aperture ranges from F2.8 at wide angle to F5.2 at the long end of the zoom. Inside the 262-gram camera body images are captured on a 12MP 1/2.3-inch Sony sensor that can also record 4K video at 30fps and save DNG Raw files. 

     Drone shot at 22mm equivalent focal length
     Done shot at 77mm equivalent focal length (7x zoom)

    The camera can be used on the DJI’s Inspire 1, Matrice 100 or Matrice 600 drones and the company’s dedicated HD video downlink allows for transmission from a distance of up to 3.1 miles (5km) away. The zoom is operated via the DJI GO app or the Drone remote control. DJI says it has refined and improved image stabilization, as any camera movement is magnified at the longer end of the zoom lens.  The Z3 also comes with an upgraded gimbal. The camera will be available from July 28th and retail for $ 899.

    SHENZHEN, July 14, 2016 – DJI, the world’s leading aerial-imaging company, on Thursday announced the Zenmuse Z3, DJI’s first integrated aerial zoom camera optimized for still photography.

    The Zenmuse Z3 will offer up to a 7x zoom. The camera incorporates DJI’s leading gimbal technology, which has been upgraded to work optimally with its zoom capabilities.

    “The Zenmuse Z3 pushes the possibilities of use for industrial applications,” said Senior Product Manager Paul Pan. “Before this camera, the only way to zoom in on a subject or object was to fly closer to it. Now, pilots in a search-and-rescue situation, or conducting surveys or inspections, can maintain distance and still zoom in for sharp, detailed images.”

    The zoom camera is aimed at providing new capabilities for industrial applications, such as inspection and surveying.

    The Zenmuse Z3 is compatible with the Inspire 1, Matrice 100 and Matrice 600 drones and uses the company’s dedicated HD video downlink, Lightbridge and Lightbridge 2, providing up to 3.1 miles (5.0 kilometers) of HD transmission range.

    The Zenmuse Z3 is fully integrated into the DJI GO app and provides a seamless user experience, including a live feed from the camera and the ability to change camera settings, swipe to zoom in and out, capture photos or video and to activate intelligent flight modes. Users may also choose to employ camera controls, such as capturing photos and video and zoom, through their drone’s remote controller.

    The Zenmuse Z3 weighs 262-gram and achives up to a 7x zoom via a 3.5x optical zoom, combined with a 2x digital zoom. This gives the Zenmuse Z3 an effective zoom range of 22 millimeters to 77 millimeters. It has a maximum aperture of F2.8 and F5.2 at 22 millimeters and 77 millimeters, respectively.

    When the camera zooms in, the smallest movements are magnified. Adding an additional layer of fine-tuning to the yaw control of the Z3 is a custom-designed reaction wheel. This works in tandem with the normal yaw motor to allow for more refined and controlled movement and greater stability.

    The Zenmuse Z3 features the same highly refined Sony 1/2.3-inch sensor that is found on the Inspire 1 and the Phantom 4, leading the class in image quality. It can shoot still images at 12 megapixels with additional Adobe DNG Raw Support for maximum editing options in post-production. The camera also shoots video at up to 30 FPS in 4k resolution.

    Flight time with the Zenmuse Z3 is up to 19 minutes on the Inspire 1. Pilots can extend flight time up to 30 minutes with the dual-battery-equipped M100 and up to 39 minutes with the M600.

    The Zenmuse Z3 is priced at USD899 and will start shipping after July 28, 2016.

    For more details please visit:
    www.dji.com/product/zenmuse-z3

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Photographer captures the ruin of Fukushima’s exclusion zone

    Inside the Fukushima exclusion zone

    An abandoned supermarket in Fukushima. Photo by Keow Wee Loong

    Much of the area around Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has been closed to the public following the disaster that struck the region over five years ago. The earthquake and subsequent tsunami of March 11, 2011 caused a meltdown at the plant, and some 170,000 people were evacuated immediately from the Prefecture. The area closest to the plant has remained closed since then as the lingering radiation contamination continues to pose a health risk, but one curious photographer would not be deterred.

    Keow Wee Loong, a Malaysian photographer currently based in Thailand, snuck into the zone with his fianceé to document the current state of Fukushima’s abandoned towns – and what was left behind. From a supermarket picked over by wild animals, forgotten laundry at a laundromat and a wall calendar forever frozen on March 2011, his photos show the eerie remains of daily life brought to an abrupt halt.

    You can see more of his Fukushima photos and his photography on his Facebook page.

    Inside the Fukushima exclusion zone

    Structure collapse resulting from the magnitude 9.0 earthquake. Photo by Keow Wee Loong

    Inside the Fukushima exclusion zone

    Abandoned video rental store. Photo by Keow Wee Loong

    Inside the Fukushima exclusion zone

    CDs and videos still on the shelves. Photo by Keow Wee Loong

    Inside the Fukushima exclusion zone

    Merchandise litters the floor of an abandoned bookstore. Photo by Keow Wee Loong

    Inside the Fukushima exclusion zone

    Overgrown parking lot of an abandoned convenience store. Photo by Keow Wee Loong

    Inside the Fukushima exclusion zone

    Residents left laundry and 100 yen coins behind in this Fukushima laundromat. Photo by Keow Wee Loong

    Inside the Fukushima exclusion zone

    A calendar page showing the month of the disaster. Photo by Keow Wee Loong

    Inside the Fukushima exclusion zone

    A mall in the town of Tomioka. Photo by Keow Wee Loong

    Inside the Fukushima exclusion zone

    An abandoned supermarket that has likely been visited by wild animals in the area. Photo by Keow Wee Loong

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Polaroid Swing is a new take on Apple’s Live Photos

    Apple didn’t invent the concept, but ever since the company launched its Live Photos feature it has been en vogue to add a touch of motion to still images – just enough to give you a better idea of the atmosphere at the time and place of capture.

    The latest new app to slightly vary this theme is Polaroid Swing. The app captures 60 frames in a quick burst and combines them into an animated image. When viewing you can trigger the 1-second animation by twisting your device or swiping across the screen. This works in both directions. Below are a couple of samples for you to try, just move the mouse across the images:

    As you would imagine, final results can be shared via Facebook, Twitter and other means. The effect is pretty neat but, as we’ve seen many times before, there is danger of the novelty factor wearing off pretty quickly. That said, the owners of the legendary Polaroid name seem to firmly believe in Polaroid Swing’s success. They have not only licensed the Polaroid name but also invested in the app. Polaroid Swing is available as a free download from the App Store now; an Android version is still in the works.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Peak Design launches Everyday backpack, tote and sling bags on Kickstarter

    Peak Design has launched four new bags in its Everyday product line: the Everyday Backpack in 20L and 30L sizes, the Everyday Tote, and the Everyday Sling. All four bags are offered in two different configurations, one Charcoal in color with black trim and red accents, the other Ash with black trim, blue accents, and leather accents. 

    Peak Design says its new bags, while ideal for photographers, ‘ain’t just camera bags,’ hence the Everyday moniker. The array of bags are made from weather-resistant materials and integrate protective design elements including both ultra-thick felt and high-density compression-molded EVA materials. The Everyday bags can be customized via the removable FlexFold dividers, are ‘loaded’ with storage spaces, and offer expanding internal structures with a system for attaching items to the bags’ exteriors.

    The new Everyday bags are currently being funded on Kickstarter where the campaign has reached nearly double its $ 500k funding goal with 58 days remaining. Peak Design estimates it will deliver bags to backers this coming December.

    Via: Kickstarter

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Adobe boosts Lightroom Mobile with Raw editing for iOS

    Adobe’s Lightroom Mobile apps for Apple and Android mobile devices have both been given significant updates that allow users a much wider range of controls when editing and shooting. The company has quite different apps for the two operating systems, and while Android users have been able to edit Raw files for some time the facility is now offered to iOS users via version 2.4. Owners of Android devices can now install version 2.1 which offers what Adobe calls a ‘Pro’ shooting mode that allows much more detailed control over the way pictures are recorded.

    Adobe says the version 2.1 for Android has a completely new Lightroom Camera function that features a mode that gives the photographer access to shutter speed, ISO, white balance and focus so that they can all be adjusted manually. Aperture isn’t listed as few mobile cameras have significantly variable apertures. The company also says it has improved the app’s ability to export high resolution files.

    Apple iPhone and iPad users get Raw Technology Preview, which effectively allows photographers to import files from all the cameras supported by the main desktop version of Camera Raw. These Raw files can be edited using a wide range of tools to control contrast, exposure and white balance, and marked with star ratings and flags – all of which can be synched with Lightroom on the owner’s other devices. The company says it has edited 50MP images from the Canon EOS 5DS on an iPhone 6 to demonstrate how powerful the application is.

    iOS users can also now make radial and linear selections that allow local editing of particular areas of the image.

    Both the Android and iOS versions of Lightroom Mobile are free to download and use, but to enjoy the new features iOS users need to have a subscription to Creative Cloud.

    For more information see the Adobe blog. 

    Photograph by Elia Locardi of the valley in Meteora, Greece. Shot in raw on a Fuji XT-2 and edited on location with an iPad Pro with Lightroom for iOS.

    Manufacturer’s information:

    Two big updates for Lightroom for mobile are now available for download

    Lightroom for iOS 2.4
    In version 2.4, two major improvements have been added: a raw technology preview and the addition of local adjustment tools. In addition to these major improvements, we’ve also added the ability to use keyboard shortcuts with physical keyboards connected to iPads, the ability to add your copyright to all imported photos, functionality to turn on lens profiles (if your camera and lens combination are supported), as well as the usual bug fixes and improvements.

    Raw Technology Preview
    We’re sure it’s happened to you before: you’re out taking photos (in raw of course) and you capture a real stunner that you can’t wait to share with the world. Until now, you had to either transfer a JPEG version of the file over or you had to wait until you got back to your desktop or laptop. With the raw technology preview, you’ll be able to import raw photos immediately to either your iPhone or iPad, edit them, and then share them, anywhere you’ve got a connection. Our goal with Lightroom for mobile is to make it an indispensable part of your photography workflow, providing the tools that you’re familiar with and the quality you expect in a product that can be with you, no matter when inspiration strikes. With this technology preview, we want to push the boundaries of how photographers around the world work with their mobile devices.

    You get all of the benefits of raw, such as the ability to change the white balance, being able to recover blown out highlights, access to the full range of color information, as well as editing an uncompressed file, all using the exact same technology that powers Lightroom on your desktop. An added benefit is that the raw file that you’ve imported into Lightroom for iOS will be synced with Lightroom on your other devices, such as Lightroom for desktop or Lightroom on the web, along with any of the edits, star ratings, or flags that you added.

    Lightroom for mobile supports all of the same raw files that Lightroom for desktop as well as Adobe Camera Raw support, with the full list available here.

    To transfer photos to your mobile device, you need to use either the camera connection kit or the lightning to SD or USB kits from Apple to transfer your raw files over to your device, which will bring up the Import tab within the iOS Photos app. Importing the files will add them into your camera roll, where you can then access and load in any raw file directly into Lightroom mobile. It’s important to keep in mind that raw files are significantly larger (3-5 times larger) than JPEGs, meaning the raw files will take longer to import, upload, and take up more space on your device. Even as such, we found that the added control and quality that the raw files afforded were so useful that it outweighed the negatives.

    Just as when working with raw files that were synced from Lightroom for desktop or Lightroom on the web, you’ll be able to perform raw-specific enhancements, such as changing the white balance with greater control and recovering clipped highlights, but unlike when working with raw files synced from Lightroom for desktop, you’ll have access to the full resolution file AND you can do it anywhere in the world, even from your iPhone! 

    We’ve run Lightroom for mobile through its paces on a number of different files, including the 50MP Canon 5DS running on an iPhone 6, proving that you really can edit nearly any photo anywhere. After playing with the app for a few months, we’ve found that it’s a really great way to take a few of your favorite images from the day (or even that you just captured), review to make sure you captured what you saw, edit, and then share them, all right away, and with all of your edits carried through the rest of the Lightroom ecosystem.

    We had the pleasure of working with a number of photographers while creating the raw technology preview, take a look at how travel photographer Elia Locardi was able to put the technology to use while shooting on location in Greece.

    You can read more about the images that were created for this release through an article about Elia on Adobe Create as well as on Elia’s own blog.

    Linear and Radial Selections
    In addition to the raw technology preview, we’ve also added in the ability to perform local adjustments with linear and radial selections, the two most requested features after raw support.

    Lightroom for iOS Availability
    Lightroom mobile 2.4 is available immediately for iPhone and iPad from the iOS App Store for free. Both of these improvements are available only for members with a creative cloud subscription or or if you start a free Creative Cloud trial.

    Lightroom for Android 2.1

    While the iOS team was working hard on the raw technology preview, the Android team doubled-down on the unique end-to-end DNG capture experience first announced in Lightroom for Android 2.0 and created a brand new capture experience. Our goal is to create the best mobile photography experience available, and with the amazing quality possible on Android devices, especially thanks to DNG raw capture, we wanted to provide all of the controls and functionality needed.

    Now, the built-in camera has a new Pro mode that lets you control the shutter speed, ISO, white balance, and focus all manually, in a brand new interface.

    You can access the camera directly using the new Lightroom Camera widget. This new widget will launch the Lightroom camera directly, making it faster for you to get in and start taking pictures.

    In addition to the new built-in camera, we’ve also improved the app’s ability to export full-resolution files. If the files are available somewhere within the Lightroom ecosystem, Lightroom for Android will now download the full resolution version and enable you to export them.

    You can download Lightroom for Android 2.1 here now for free.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • A photographer’s intro to the world of video

    It took me a long time to recognize the appeal of video shooting. Even in a job where I have to use a camera’s video features, it was only fairly recently that I moved beyond just taking short clips (essentially stills with a little bit of movement in them) and started to think in terms of using video and editing to tell stories.

    Given that most modern cameras offer at least rudimentary video tools, I wanted to share my experiences and perhaps encourage others to start thinking about shooting at 24 or more frames per second.

    The good news is that a lot of the things you learn as a photographer are immediately useful as you take your first steps in video shooting. But, as I discovered, at almost every stage I encountered differences and additional factors to consider. Many of which I wished someone had told me when I started…

    Stop shaking the camera, you’re making me feel sick

    The first thing that became apparent when shooting video for the first time was the need to keep the camera steady. I remember my Dad teaching me how to keep my camera steady and be aware of my breathing when shooting relatively long exposures, but no amount of good breathing technique or bracing the camera against a pillar is enough to give steady video.

    Even if your camera is hand-holdable, don’t expect that to mean you’ll shoot it hand-held.

    This makes sense, of course: most stills shooting only requires you to hold your camera steady for fractions of a second whereas video lets the viewer see how steady you’ve been for seconds or minutes at a time.

    What I’ve learned is that in-camera stabilization can be enough to stop your footage looking unwatchably juddery, but unless you’re aiming for a ‘run-and-gun’ aesthetic, you’ll need to use a tripod or some sort of stabilization rig.

    Exposing some limitations

    Exposure is another area where the lessons I’d learned from stills photography are useful but incomplete. You still get to control the same variables, but the range of control you have is somewhat restricted. It’s still a question of managing light, but with a greater risk of finding yourself with too much of the stuff.

    For me it’s a question of shutter speed, which has a more obvious impact on the appearance of your footage than is usually the case in stills shooting. A fast shutter speed in stills photography will freeze motion, a slow one will allow the subject to blur but there’s often a large range in between these two extremes. In video, there’s a narrower range before the viewer starts to notice the difference.

    The 180 degree shutter ‘rule,’ where you use a shutter speed that’s half the duration of each frame (so 1/48th seconds for 24 fps shooting) isn’t an inviolable law, but the further you stray from it, the more jarring or muddled your footage will look. This can be a creative choice, of course, but only counts as such if you’ve consciously made it.

    This made me think back to when I was first experimenting with stills photography, and getting a feel for the boundaries set by the longest shutter speed I could hand-hold, the widest aperture I had available and the highest ISO setting I found acceptable. Once I was familiar with these, one of the first purchases I made was a faster lens (that’s right: a 50mm F1.8) to get more light to extend these capabilities.

    With stills shooting, one of the first things you buy is a bright lens to get more light, with video it’s an ND filter, to get rid of it.

    With video and the further restriction over the fastest shutter speed I’m willing to use, it’s a decent ND filter I need to buy, to reduce the light level to fit your boundaries.

    A neutral density (ND) filter allows you to use use wide apertures and the relatively slow shutter speeds that a lot of videographers favor. An adjustable ND filter provides even more flexibility.

    A return to JPEGs

    Added to these exposure limitations has been another throw-back to my first days as a photographer: having to revert to an 8-bit, compressed shooting format. Having spent some time learning the distinctions between video file formats, the main lesson has been that none of the ones I’m likely to encounter are anything like Raw.

    Once you’ve been spoiled by the seemingly endless dynamic range that can fit in a 14-bit Raw file and the ability to set and adjust the white balance at the ending stage, it’s a shock to go back to having to get exposure and white balance perfect when you shoot.

    Flat tone curves and Log profiles provide a means of squeezing a bit more useable DR into those 8-bit files, but this can make it even harder to judge correct exposure. I’d highly recommend shooting some test footage and trying to grade it back into something useful, before committing yourself to the flattest tone curve you can find.

    Continued on Page 2 [Focus, movement, sound and editing]

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Parachut is a subscription service for borrowing expensive camera gear

    If you’re really keen to shoot with a particular camera or lens, but you can’t afford to buy it, you don’t have many options. Renting gear for long periods of time can get very expensive, very quickly.

    Parachut is a new subscription-based service that allows you to borrow from a wide variety of equipment – old and new – for $ 149 per month. Pitched as a service geared around ‘exploration’, Parachut allows subscribers to lease equipment based on their personal interests. You can add specific items to a wish list, but the precise contents of your first delivery – called a ‘Chut Drop’ – will be tailored to your picture-taking preferences, and skill level, and may include ‘surprises’. 

    Parachut is a subscription-based service for long-term leasing of photographic equipment, both old and new.

    Once you take delivery of a piece of equipment, provided that you maintain your subscription, you can keep it for as long as you like. An additional $ 49 per month covers accidental loss or damage.

    Parachut is currently in beta, and only available to US-based subscribers. Expansion to other countries is planned, and an official launch for ‘founding members’ is scheduled for later this year. Right now, $ 149 will get you on the founding members list, ready for the first Chut Drop in autumn. 

    For more information, watch the (slightly cringeworthy) video, above, and check out Parachut’s website. What do you think? For what amounts to almost $ 2000 a year, would you make use of a service like Parachut? Let us know in the comments. 

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Vorticity: Time-lapse captures the drama of storm chasing

    Mike Olbinski recently spent 18 days and drove some 20,000 miles to capture one of nature’s most powerful forces on camera, and in doing so has created one of the most compelling time-lapse videos we’ve seen in a long time. He shot some 60,000 time-lapse frames between April 15th and June 15th, 2016 and compiled them into a six minute long epic that concludes with the holy grail of storm chasing: capturing a tornado on camera. Definitely view this one in full screen mode and enjoy!

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Take a look around: traditional stills versus VR in Iceland

    Introduction

    Time to relax – does VR capture lower the barrier for creating memorable vacation content? Let’s take a look. Nikon D810 + Nikon AF-S 35mm F1.4G @ F2 | 1/8000 sec | ISO 200. Photo by Carey Rose

    Back in April, two friends and I took a trip to Iceland, spending eight days circumnavigating the island via its famous ring road. Happily, around that time we were looking for some updated content for our review of the Nikon D810, so I took one along and wrote up a shooting experience.

    In general, though, I enjoy documenting my travels even when I’m just traveling for fun. I find it to be a nice creative recharge, simply photographing for myself, in my style, with my choice of equipment. Of course, the D810 I borrowed wasn’t my personal equipment, but it was near-ideal for the sorts of situations I found myself in (plus, handling-wise, it isn’t quite so different from the D700 I was originally planning on bringing).

    But now we’ve got VR technology beginning to make waves in the consumer electronics industry. What’s more, capture devices are getting more accessible: the Ricoh Theta S retails for just $ 349, making it a cheaper proposition than most DSLRs, as well as my secondhand X100 and Ricoh GR, which are my usual go-to cameras for casual photography.

    The Ricoh Theta S carries an MSRP of $ 349, and offers full 360 stills and video capture as well as smartphone integration.

    At its core, the act of taking a photograph requires some translation of the 360-degree setting in which the photographer stands into a two-dimensional window, for viewing on the web or in print. But 360-degree VR capture changes that. When you’re literally just capturing the entirety of a scene around you, is there value in it for other viewers? When you’ve removed one of the most basic creative tenets of capturing a photograph, what are you left with?

    During our time in Iceland, my friends and I were lucky enough to have the opportunity to borrow a Ricoh Theta S as well. Without any prior experience, we tried to use it as we did our DSLRs – to see if and how it could offer value to us above and beyond our traditional camera kits.

    Click-and-drag on a desktop or laptop to view the 360 footage. All ‘traditional’ photographs by Carey Rose, and all Theta S 360 images by Jordan Stead.

    360-degree viewing methods

    Spoiler alert – when viewing the Theta S footage on a 2D viewing device, such as a laptop or smartphone, I find the results somewhat underwhelming. And throughout this article, you will, of course, notice that the files from the Ricoh are a little low-res, and lack some ‘pop’ that you can see in files from the D810. This shouldn’t really be a surprise given the dramatic differences in hardware, so I’ll be focusing on the viewing experience concerning the 360-stills rather than outright image quality.

    Here’s a collection of stills captured on a D810 from a black sand beach outside Vik, in southern Iceland.

    The top two images are shot with a 35mm prime, and the bottom two with an 80-200mm F2.8 zoom. Now, as I alluded to in my shooting experience, these may not be your standard picture-perfect postcard images from this setting. But that’s okay, because that’s not generally how I shoot when I’m shooting for myself. I like to use several different photos to focus on several different aspects of a scene, as opposed to shooting wider-angle ‘overall’ photos that get more of a sense of place in a single image. Something approaching the latter is what you get when you use the Theta S. 

    I find viewing the 360 as you see it above in a web browser or on a mobile phone to be somewhat ‘distant.’ The distortion is strong, and therefore distorts the sense of place, even though you can see everything in the scene. Everything also feels very far away, which ties in with an overall sense of detachment I feel looking at it, even though I know that I’m just a little ways down the beach in the image. You can zoom into the 360 image to reduce the distortion somewhat, but then the experience becomes even less immersive.

    The overall feeling I get is of a person quickly taking an eye-level wide-angle photograph of something in front of them (not a criticism of my friend Jordan who was shooting with the Theta – the 360’s I took on this trip also had the same feel). Also, if you happen to view it on a phone, by default you ‘look’ around the scene by reorienting your phone in 3D space, which makes you look very silly if you are looking at it in public.

    But then I looked at it through a Galaxy Gear VR headset, and everything changed.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Nikon D500 firmware update adds workaround for SD card errors

    Nikon has released a firmware update for the D500, correcting the card error issue we discussed in our D500 review. The error — which happened once in our office and has been reported by many camera owners — manifests when some UHS-II SD cards are used (Lexar cards seem to be particularly affected). According to Nikon, these card errors are resulting from the cards themselves, not the camera.

    The update takes the D500’s firmware from version 1.01 to 1.02, and only corrects the card error. Per Nikon’s changelog, the new firmware does the following:

    Download Nikon D500 firmware version 1.02

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)