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Archive for August, 2017

Barack Obama photo and quote becomes most popular tweet of all time

17 Aug

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

Former president Barack Obama’s recent photo response to the violent events in Charlottesville, VA has officially become the most popular tweet of all time. The 44th President of these United States tweeted the official White House photograph above—captured by the great Pete Souza—alongside part of a quote by the late Nelson Mandela:

“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

As of this writing, the tweet has received over 53,000 replies, 1.3 million retweets and nearly 3.4 million likes.

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion…” pic.twitter.com/InZ58zkoAm

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 13, 2017

The new record just goes to show: pair a powerful message with a powerful photograph, and you’ve got a lot more power than the proverbial “1,000 words” that photo is supposedly worth.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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The Bizarre, Chaotic Geometry of a Frank Gehry Building in Progress

17 Aug

[ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

Depending on how you feel about Frank Gehry’s work, this building in progress could either be fascinating, monstrous or a combination of both. But it’s hard to argue with the fact that seeing the bones of such a complex structure is more interesting than the renderings of the finished building, which is another of the architect’s mirrored and faceted standouts. Inspired by the silhouettes of the mountain ranges of its southern France setting, ‘LUMA Arles’ will ultimately tower above an experimental contemporary art center.

Set on a former rail depot turned public park, the building is primarily sponsored by Swiss art collector Maja Hoffmann and is scheduled for completion in 2018. The working title for the tower is ‘Centre for Human Dignity and Ecological Justice,’ and it will host spaces for workshops, art studios, exhibitions, seminars and archives.

“We are creating a place where artists, thinkers, scientists – as well as doers and actors of the economic world – can gather and work together on new scripts for the world,” says Hoffmann of the project.

Photographer Victor Picon captured this series of images showing the intricate arrangements of metal ribs that will ultimately support the reflective cladding. Of course, Gehry’s a bit of a controversial figure in the architecture world, with some hailing his creations as visionary and others finding them garish and structurally unsound, noting that his Strata Center design at MIT has leaked, cracked and developed mold. What’s your stance on Gehry’s work?

[ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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Canon beats Nikon to get EISA’s Pro DSLR award for 3rd year running

17 Aug

Canon’s EOS 5D Mk IV has won the European Imaging and Sound Association’s (EISA) Professional DSLR of the Year award, making this the third year in a row that the brand has beaten Nikon to the top spot in the professional camera category. Neither company, though, managed to come out as well as Sony, which won a total of six titles for is compact system range.

One of Sony’s titles was the prestigious European Camera of the Year award—a prize the company hasn’t won in nine years—which went to the a9.

Sony’s other awards included Prosumer Compact Camera of the Year for the a6500, Compact Camera of the Year for the RX100 V, Superzoom Camera of the Year for the RX10 ll, Compact System Lens for its FE 100mm f/2.8 STF GM OSS and Professional Compact System Lens for the FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS.

Other notable lens awards went to Sigma for the 135mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art, and to Tamron’s 150-600 f/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2 and the 18-400mm F3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD. Panasonic’s Lumix DC-GH5 won Photo & Video Camera of the Year, while Prosumer DSLR of the Year went to Nikon’s D7500.

While this was the first year non-European countries were able to take part in the awards process, the Photography Expert Group remained entirely populated by magazine editors from Europe. For more information see the EISA website.

Photography awards in full:

EISA CONSUMER DSLR CAMERA 2017-2018
Canon EOS 77D

EISA PROSUMER DSLR CAMERA 2017-2018
Nikon D7500

EISA PROFESSIONAL DSLR CAMERA 2017-2018
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV

EISA CONSUMER COMPACT SYSTEM CAMERA 2017-2018
Fujifilm X-T20

EISA PROSUMER COMPACT SYSTEM CAMERA 2017-2018
Sony 6500

EISA CAMERA 2017-2018
Sony 9

EISA COMPACT CAMERA 2017-2018
Sony RX100 V

EISA SUPERZOOM CAMERA 2017-2018
Sony RX10 III

EISA PHOTO & VIDEO CAMERA 2017-2018
Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5

EISA INSTANT CAMERA 2017-2018
Fujifilm Instax SQUARE SQ10

EISA DSLR LENS 2017-2018
SIGMA 135mm F1.8 DG HSM | Art

EISA DSLR ZOOM LENS 2017-2018
Tamron SP 150-600mm F5-6.3 Di VC USD G2

EISA PROFESSIONAL DSLR LENS 2017-2018
Canon EF 16-35mm F2.8L III USM

EISA COMPACT SYSTEM CAMERA LENS 2017-2018
Sony FE 100mm F2.8 STF GM OSS

EISA PROFESSIONAL COMPACT SYSTEM CAMERA LENS 2017-2018
Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS

EISA COMPACT SYSTEM CAMERA ZOOM LENS 2017-2018
Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 12-100mm F4.0 IS PRO

EISA PHOTO INNOVATION 2017-2018
Tamron 18-400mm F3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD

EISA PHOTO DISPLAY 2017-2018
EIZO ColorEdge CG2730

EISA SMARTPHONE CAMERA 2017-2018
Huawei P10

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Tips For Drone Photos and Videos

17 Aug

As we move forward in this current era of drone technology innovation, drone cameras are becoming much more advanced and feature- rich which allows you capture stunning images every time you fly your drone high in the sky. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com The question arises why drone photography when we already have all the high end cameras and equipment on Continue Reading

The post Tips For Drone Photos and Videos appeared first on Photodoto.

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B&H Photo will pay $3.2 million to settle federal discrimination case

17 Aug

B&H Foto & Electronics Corp., the company behind retail site B&H Photo, has agreed to pay $ 3,220,000 to settle a federal discrimination case, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. This follows a lawsuit filed by the Department of Labor against B&H Foto & Electronics Corp. in February 2016, in which the department alleged that B&H was engaging in discrimination against multiple groups, as well as harassment of workers.

According to the lawsuit filed by the DoL, B&H Foto ‘systematically discriminated’ against Asian, black, and female jobseekers, instead hiring only male Hispanic workers in its entry-level positions. The individuals it did hire were then paid much less than other employees in similar positions, according to the Department of Labor, and weren’t promoted into higher positions within the company.

The Labor Department’s lawsuit also claimed that B&H Foto subjected its hired workers to harassment on a routine basis, and that it gave them ‘unequal access to restroom facilities.’ Employees complained to the company about these problems, but the lawsuit states that B&H Foto failed to correct them. As a result, the company will pay $ 3.2 million as both monetary relief and back wages to more than 1,300 individuals.

In addition to paying the fee, B&H Foto has agreed to annually train its managers on workplace harassment prevention and equal opportunity principles, and to hire a consultant to fix the negative conduct and practices at its warehouses. Though the lawsuit concerns discriminatory practices at its Brooklyn Navy Yard warehouse, the consultant will also work to ensure the problems don’t arise at B&H’s future Florence, New Jersey warehouse.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Godox A1 smartphone flash trigger officially released, costs $70

17 Aug

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The Godox A1 smartphone flash trigger is finally official. After being announced unofficially over Facebook and teased further with some studio portrait samples, the phone flash and 2.4GHz flash trigger is now available for pre-order.

Chinese company Godox is a rising star in the lighting world thanks to a growing repertoire of affordable, surprisingly versatile and often innovative speedlight and monolight options. The Godox A1 arguably falls into that last “innovative” category: a trigger and flash designed specifically for use with smartphones.

The unit itself features a 1W ‘modeling lamp’ and a daylight-balanced 8W flash with 5 different power settings between 1/1 and 1/16, but chances are good photographers won’t be using those two options much. What’s more interesting is the 2.4GHz trigger built into the unit, which allows you to control Godox’ own X system gear wirelessly using an iPhone app.

Capturing professional-looking, artificial light portraits with a smartphone seems a bit more feasible now.

The flash trigger costs $ 70 and is available for pre-order starting today. Out of the box, the Godox A1 will be compatible with iPhone 6s and newer Apple phones, but Android support is coming soon, starting with Huawei and Samsung phones in September (which might be before the flash arrives on anybody’s doorstep anyhow).

To learn more about the Godox A1, or if you want to pre-order your own, head over to the Godox website by clicking here. And be sure to keep an eye out for a review of the Godox A1 in the coming month: a test unit is winging its way to the DPReview offices as I type this.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Happier Campers: Take Your Gear to a New Level With These 15 Innovations

16 Aug

[ By SA Rogers in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

Elevate your camping style with the latest high-performance gear like twig-burning stoves, tree tents, bear-proof coolers and portable loungers. These major upgrades will keep you dry, warm, fed and comfortable no matter how rugged your destination, even when you’re traveling on foot instead of in a DIY RV, fancy pop-up car tent or luxuriously equipped off-road trailer.

Biolite Basecamp Stove

By now, you’ve probably seen the cool BioLite, a compact portable stove that burns twigs and then uses the heat as energy to power your gadgets (if not, you should check it out!) Now, the company is taking things up a notch with the BaseCamp, a portable grill that runs on larger pieces of wood. Smaller pieces of firewood or fallen branches both can be placed in the stove’s opening to cook your food – even in camping locations that don’t allow campfires – and an orange power pack on the side collects the energy. The BaseCamp also features a built-in light.

Scrubba Portable Laundry Wash Bag

Prefer not to tote dirty laundry around on an extended camping trip, or want to freshen up your favorite hoodie halfway through? The Scrubba is a brilliantly simple way to wash textiles. Its interior is lined with little nubs that scrub your garments as you massage the exterior of the bag for a machine-quality wash in three minutes. That’s more effective than using a bucket, and you never even have to get your hands dirty. The bag weighs just 5 ounces and doubles as a dry bag.

Tentsile Tree Tent

Marketing itself as a ‘portable tree house,’ the Tentstile tree tent lets you sleep high above the ground (how high is up to you!) by attaching to three nearby tree trunks. Stack them on top of each other to create temporary treehouse cities with your friends, or hang hammocks underneath them for an extra dry sleeping space. The number of people you can sleep using these systems is only as limited as the tree trunks around you.

Yeti Hopper Cooler

Dubbed ‘the world’s toughest cooler,’ the Yeti has become a household name for its durability and dependability. The hard-sided Yetis keep food and ice colder for longer than any other cooler on the market, and now the company is offering soft-sided versions, too, like the Hopper and the Hopper Flip. Each one is waterproof, including the Hydrolok zipper, and can withstand a bear mauling.

Sea to Summit Tarp Poncho

Heading into rainy territory? Keep your gear – and yourself – dry with the Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil Nano Tarp Poncho. Made of lightweight waterproof fabric, it’s big enough to accommodate your pack while you’re hiking, and then converts from a wearable into an ultralight 2-person shelter.

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Happier Campers Take Your Gear To A New Level With These 15 Innovations

[ By SA Rogers in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

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How to shoot the solar eclipse: a list of resources for photographers

16 Aug

The first successfully captured photograph of a total solar eclipse was shot on July 28, 1851, by Prussian photographer Johann Julius Friedrich Berkowski. Your eclipse photos can look better than this, with a little advice from some of our friends.

If you live in North America or are a citizen of planet Earth, you’ve probably heard chatter about the upcoming solar eclipse starting the morning of August 21st. It’s a rare opportunity for a lot of folks across the United States to see and/or photograph a partial or total eclipse of the sun, and it’s all happening just under a week from now.

We’ve already published our guide to photographing the eclipse (and a plea to consider not photographing it), but the Internet has no shortage of great information on the subject, some of which goes very in-depth. In an effort to provide you with the totality of eclipse photography resources, we’ve rounded up some of our other favorite articles and guides below. Good luck, and remember to protect those eyes and sensors!

Canon eclipse guide – 16 articles on shooting the eclipse

Canon’s guide to photographing the solar eclipse is very impressive and thorough. It features more than 15 articles on the subject. There’s also a nifty ‘Solar eclipse pocket field guide’ PDF you can download and print. The guide is slightly geared to Canon shooters, but we feel the information is useful to all photographers, regardless of brand of choice.

Read Canon’s eclipse guide

B & H eclipse guide- An easy-to-read complete guide

B & H also posted a really thorough guide on everything you should consider to safely and successfully shoot the eclipse. And unlike the Canon guide, these tips are all in one (long) article.

Read B & H’s eclipse guide

National Geographic – The creative side of photographing the eclipse

National Geographic’s guide to shooting the eclipse is less technical nuts-and-bolts and more about planning, composition and creativity. Nat Geo pinged pro shooters Stan Honda and Babak Tafreshi to share their advice on getting the shot.

Read Nat Geo’s eclipse article

Wired – Tips for shooting an eclipse with a smartphone

Smartphones, with their tiny sensors and wide-angle lenses might not seem like the obvious choice for photographing the eclipse, but Wired has some tips for making the most of the camera you likely always have on you. In short, they recommend purchasing an accessory telephoto lens to attach to your phone (there are several decent brands that make them), and stabilizing the rig with a small tripod.

Read Wired’s eclipse article

Nikon – Exposure advice

Nikon put together some useful information on the various types of eclipses, and what kinds of exposures you might use over the course of a total solar eclipse. If you’re a Nikon shooter, the post addresses camera settings for various Nikon lines.

Read Nikon’s eclipse article

Nikon also put together a couple of videos on eclipse gear preparation and shooting advice, for those who prefer to watch instead of read. Watch them here.

Astropix.com – Catching the light

This eclipse guide was recommended in our forums by a reader. Written by astrophotographer Jerry Lodriguss, it is one of the most complete and detailed guides to eclipse photography we’ve come across on the Internet. If you are serious about nailing the shot, this is your guide. However, for the more casual/enthusiast photographers, this guide goes a tad above and beyond.

Read the Astropix.com guide

Popular Mechanics – How to photograph a total solar eclipse

Unlike the Astropix.com guide above, Popular Mechanics guide is more enthusiast-geared, but still covers all the core eclipse shooting information. There’s also a nine-minute video that largely covers the same material found in the article. And the author also briefly addresses post-production, something most other guides gloss over.

Read Pop Mech‘s guide

Feel free to share your town eclipse resources in the comments below.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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New Qualcomm Spectra system brings 3D depth sensing to Android devices

16 Aug

Qualcomm launched the Clear Sight dual-camera system—which was powered by its Spectra ISP and used a combination of RGB and monochrome images sensors—in 2016. Today the company announced the second generation Spectra Module that introduces 3D computer vision to Qualcomm-powered Android devices.

The Qualcomm system is a dual-camera setup that is capable of sensing depth and motion in real time. In a smartphone’s rear camera, this technology could be used in apps to track motion and measure subject distance, which could ostensibly help improve simulated shallow depth-of-field effects.

In a front-facing camera, the Qualcomm system could help improve biometric security through iris scanning or 3D facial recognition. One of the technology’s advantages is the capability to capture and process image data in real time using off-the-shelf parts, unlike Google’s Tango project that relies on specialized hardware.

Qualcomm hasn’t yet announced any manufacturing partners yet, but given the popularity of the Qualcomm platform it’s arguably only a matter of time before we’ll see the technology pop up in the first Android devices.

Press Release

Qualcomm First to Announce Depth-Sensing Camera Technology Designed For Android Ecosystem

— Unveils next-generation Qualcomm Spectra ISP for computer vision, extended reality and computational photography technologies—

SAN DIEGO — August 15, 2017 — Today Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM), through its subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies Inc., announced an expansion to the Qualcomm® Spectra™ Module Program, capable of improved biometric authentication and high-resolution depth sensing, designed to meet growing demands of photo and video for a broad range of mobile devices and head mounted displays (HMD). This module program is built on the cutting-edge technology behind the Qualcomm® SpectraTM embedded image signal processors (ISP) family. Engineered by Qualcomm Technologies from the ground up, Qualcomm Spectra paves the way for future image quality and computer vision innovations in upcoming Qualcomm® SnapdragonTM Mobile Platforms.

“Whether used for computational photography, video recording, or for computer vision applications that require accurate motion tracking, it’s clear that power efficient camera image signal processing has become more important for the next generation of mobile user experiences,” said Tim Leland, vice president of product management, Qualcomm TechnologiesInc. “Our breakthrough advancements in visual quality and computer vision, combined with our family of integrated Spectra ISPs for Snapdragon, are designed to support an ecosystem of cutting edge mobile applications for our customers.”

Together, the new ISPs and camera modules are engineered to support superior image quality and new computer vision use cases that utilize deep learning techniques and bokeh quality image experiences with a faster time to market for smartphone and HMD devices. The next-generation ISPs feature a new camera architecture designed for advancements in computer vision, image quality and power efficiency for the next Snapdragon mobile and VR platforms. The camera module program additions consist of a trio of camera modules, including an iris authentication module, a passive depth sensing module and an active depth sensing module.

Qualcomm Spectra Module Program

Launched last year, the Qualcomm Spectra Module Program was designed to help customers accelerate time to market for devices with stunning image quality and advanced camera technology. Last year’s offerings provided customers with optimized, dual-camera module solutions that make it easy for manufacturers to produce smartphone cameras with improved low light photography and video recording with smooth zoom. Now, the camera module program is being expanded to include new camera modules capable of utilizing active sensing for superior biometric authentication, and structured light for a variety of computer vision applications that require real-time, dense depth map generation and segmentation.

Second-generation Qualcomm Spectra ISP

The second-generation Qualcomm Spectra ISP is the next family of integrated ISPs that utilizes new hardware and software architecture designed specifically for advancements in computer vision, image quality, and power efficiency in future Snapdragon platforms. It features multiframe noise reduction for superior photographic quality, along with hardware-accelerated motion compensated temporal filtering (MCTF), and inline electronic image stabilization (EIS) for superior camcorder-like video quality.

The low-power, high-performance motion tracking capabilities of the Qualcomm Spectra ISP, in addition to optimized simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms, are designed to support new extended reality (XR) use cases for virtual and augmented reality applications that require SLAM.

The Qualcomm Spectra family of ISPs and new Qualcomm Spectra camera modules are expected to be part of the next flagship Snapdragon Mobile Platform.

About Qualcomm

Qualcomm’s technologies powered the smartphone revolution and connected billions of people. We pioneered 3G and 4G – and now we are leading the way to 5G and a new era of intelligent, connected devices. Our products are revolutionizing industries, including automotive, computing, IoT, healthcare and data center, and are allowing millions of devices to connect with each other in ways never before imagined. Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, all of our engineering, research and development functions, and all of our products and services businesses, including, our QCT semiconductor business. For more information, visit Qualcomm’s website, OnQ blog, Twitter and Facebook pages.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Oprema Jena seeks to resurrect the legendary Zeiss Biotar 75mm F1.5

16 Aug

The company behind the new Meyer Optik Goerlitz lens manufacturing business has formed a new brand to bring back the Biotar 75mm F1.5 that was made by Carl Zeiss Jena in the 1940s and 50s. Many of the original examples were made in East Germany after WWll and in quite low volumes, so they command high prices for their rarity, but also the extraordinary swirling they create when used at wide apertures.

The new version is being redesigned by the company that owns the Meyer Optik Goerlitz brand, but as it will not be made in Germany this time a new name has been conceived—Oprema Jena, in recognition of the location of the original factory. The attempted lens resurrection launched this morning on Kickstarter:

As the Kickstarter describes, this lens is a rarity:

The Biotar 75/1.5 is probably the most legendary lens ever produced in Jena, Germany.

It is a six lens gauss type optical scheme whose design dates back to the year 1927 when famous lens designer Willi Merté developed his first Biotar which was designed for cinematography.

In the 1930th Merté continued to improve the Biotar lenses among which the 75mm/1.5 reached legendary status. The Biotar 75/1.5 was first introduced in 1938, sales began to pick up with a presentation at the Leipzig Spring Fair in 1940.

But due to second world war and to its high price at the time it remained a very special lens for the selected few. Until today it has become one of the most expensive vintage lenses easily selling for over a thousand dollars – if you get a usable one.

The original Biotar (left) next to the Oprema Jena version (right) currently being funded on Kickstarter.

The lens is being designed by Dr Prenzel who works with Meyer Optik on its reinvented lenses, and by Andre de Winter, a former Leica engineer. All the manufacturing will be done in Japan by Tokina, so that this new line doesn’t interfere with production of the Meyer lenses.

The company’s goal is to “maintain the exact Biotar characteristics while carefully improving the mechanical aspects and making it feasible for modern camera equipment and different mounts.” That means a tack-sharp center with “dramatic but not overly-aggressive” swirly bokeh when shot wide-open.

Thanks to new lens technologies, high-quality glass, advanced coatings and more, Oprema Jena is confident they’ve avoided some of the disadvantages of the classic Biotar without sacrificing any of the lens’ advantages.

Launched on Kickstarter this morning, the lens is already fully-funded and the total funding ($ 107,000 as of this writing) goes up with every page reload. Fortunately, there are still some great deals to be had if you hurry over to the Kickstarter page now.

The ‘Crazy Deal’ earlybird special will snag you a Biotar 75mm F1.5 in any mount for $ 950. Once those are gone, Super Early Bird deals are $ 1,000, Early Bird are $ 1,050, and the regular Kickstarter price is $ 1,100. The lens is available in Canon, Nikon, Sony-E, Leica-M (rangefinder coupling supported), Fuji X, and M42 mounts.

To learn more or put down a pledge and claim your own Biotar, head over to the Kickstarter page.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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360Photography

Archive for August, 2017

Barack Obama photo and quote becomes most popular tweet of all time

The Bizarre, Chaotic Geometry of a Frank Gehry Building in Progress

Canon beats Nikon to get EISA’s Pro DSLR award for 3rd year running

Photography awards in full:

Tips For Drone Photos and Videos

B&H Photo will pay $3.2 million to settle federal discrimination case

Godox A1 smartphone flash trigger officially released, costs $70