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The Panasonic 20-60mm F3.5-5.6 is a compact zoom for L-mount cameras. It’s a great kit lens for those who like shooting wide and is well-suited for video work.
View our Panasonic S 20-60mm F3.5-5.6 sample gallery
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
The post 5 Tips for Photographing Wildlife in Low Light Conditions appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Will Nicholls.
NOTE: Check out our Ultimate Guide to Nature and Outdoor Photography.
Most wildlife is active during dawn or dusk, and photographing animals in low light can be frustrating when you’re pushing your equipment to the limit. Even if you’re shooting on the latest and greatest DSLR camera, you’re still going to reach a point where the light is too low to use the ideal settings. It’s at this point that you need to start calling on your skill and technique to improve your success rate.
Here are a few tricks that I use in my own wildlife photography to get better, more usable images in low light.
When shooting in low light, you should use the widest aperture you can (i.e., the lowest f-number) to let in the most light possible.
If you’re using expensive telephoto lenses, then you’ll probably have a maximum aperture of f/4 or even f/2.8. However, the majority of midrange and budget telephoto lenses have a maximum aperture of about f/5.6 or f/6.3. Still, keep the aperture as wide as possible to give yourself the optimum baseline.
With regard to the shutter speed, the rule most people learn is to use a speed of at least 1 over the focal length of your lens. For example, a 400mm lens would need a shutter speed of at least 1/400s to eliminate camera shake effectively. However, this rule often isn’t possible in low light conditions. So you’re going to need to break it!
Drop your shutter speed as much as you can while still keeping the image sharp. You can go much slower than you think. 1/100s is totally plausible.
To prevent camera shake, enable any image stabilization technology offered by your lens. It’s important to use a tripod, too, as it’ll keep things steady.
Once your shutter speed starts to get really slow, then you’ll almost definitely introduce motion blur from the subject moving. But if your subject is walking or running along, you can pan your camera along with it.
With practice, you can move your camera at the same rate as the animal and freeze its body – even with a slow shutter speed. You will get a blurred background, but it’s actually a rather cool effect (see the bear photo above!).
ISO might be the most feared setting among photographers. However, it shouldn’t make you tremble! I meet many photographers who don’t move the ISO above 400, even if their cameras are more than capable of handling the increase.
Sure, higher ISOs introduce noise into your photo, but a noisy image is better than a blurred one.
Test out your camera and see how far you can feasibly increase the ISO before shots become unusable. You can also remove noise in post-production, so you can sometimes salvage a too-noisy image.
The image below was taken at ISO 5000, but you’d be forgiven for thinking the value was much, much lower. The camera in question was a Nikon D4, which has notoriously good ISO capabilities. But this is an extreme example, and at ISO 5000 there was still noise. Even lower-level DSLR cameras can still be pushed to ISO 1600 or so while achieving fairly good quality images.
Be brave and increase your ISO when you need a faster shutter speed. It’ll help you keep shooting as the light gets lower, meaning you’ll have more time to wait for wildlife!
Zoom lenses sometimes use a variable maximum aperture.
What does this mean?
Zoomed out, you may have an aperture of f/4 – but as you zoom in, this can increase to something like f/6.3. If your lens has a constant aperture throughout, then you don’t need to worry. But if it doesn’t, then be conscious of the fact that you’ll have less light reaching the sensor when you’re zoomed in.
When your lens is limited by a variable maximum aperture, think about zooming out and taking a more atmospheric or environmental image. You’ll have a larger aperture to play with, and you may be able to achieve a more usable shot than if you zoom in all the way with less light.
Don’t forget that you have a burst mode. If you’re worried about blurry images, fire off as many frames as possible. This will increase your chances of ending up with a usable shot.
You see, slower shutter speeds mean more chance for both camera blur and motion blur. If an animal moves its head, your shot may well be ruined. But if you’ve been shooting multiple images at once (via burst mode!), then chances are that you’ll get another shot, taken a fraction of a second later, that isn’t blurred.
Burst mode is honestly one of the most useful things you can do when photographing wildlife in low light. It really helps to get usable photos and works like magic alongside the other techniques in this article.
It can be tempting to underexpose your photo, knowing that you can brighten it later. While this may give you a quicker shutter speed, the photo will likely need significant brightening in post-production. And lightening an already-dark scene will introduce a lot of digital noise.
Instead, try to keep your exposure as balanced as possible. If you can keep your histogram happy, then you’ll have a smoother ride through the editing process. The worst thing would be to take an underexposed shot, only to find out later that it’s unusable because brightening it up ruins it.
I prefer to risk blur but fire multiple frames than to take an underexposed, sharp shot. Maybe that’s just me, but the technique frequently works in my favor.
No matter how good you are at photography or how good your gear is, you’re going to have times when your shots are ruined by low light. That’s just part of the game – but, with luck, you will manage to capture strong low light shots some of the time.
With practice, you’ll learn when there’s no point battling against depleting light levels. And a combination of the techniques I’ve shared here should keep you in action for longer.
Do you have any other low light tips to add? Please share them in the comments below!
FURTHER READING: Check out our new Ultimate Guide to Nature and Outdoor Photography.
The post 5 Tips for Photographing Wildlife in Low Light Conditions appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Will Nicholls.
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| Image credit: Wikipedia media, used under CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Baron Wolman, Rolling Stone’s first staff photographer, passed away at age 83 after battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. His longtime representative, Dianne Duenzl, confirmed the news to Rolling Stone this past Monday night. ‘Baron’s pictures gave us a rare, comprehensive, and accurate reflection of that time executed by a gifted artist whose visual intelligence is unsurpassed,’ Duenzl stated.
Wolman was born on June 25, 1937, in Columbus, Ohio, and studied philosophy at Chicago’s Northwestern University. He learned to speak German at the Defense Language School in Monterey, California, before touring with the Army military intelligence in West Berlin. This is where he began his career in photography. He sold his first photo essay, documenting life behind the newly-constructed Berlin Wall, to a print publication.
He returned to Monterey shortly after to pursue a career as a photojournalist. In the mid-1960s, he lived in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury district and worked as a freelance photographer. One of his clients, Oakland’s Mills College, invited him to cover their weekend seminar on the pop music industry. Also in attendance: Jann S. Wenner and Ralph Gleason.
Photographer Baron Wolman, who took some of the earliest and most iconic images of rock & rollers during his stint as Rolling Stone’s first staff photographer, died at age 83.#RIPBaronWolman
?by Baron Wolman. pic.twitter.com/x0zN4VNcMS— Rock N Roll Pictures (@RockNRollPics) November 3, 2020
Wenner and Gleason were working on plans for a new music publication. They initially asked Wolman if he had $ 10,000 to invest in Rolling Stone. He didn’t. Instead, he offered to work for free if the magazine would cover the costs of film and the development of his photos. In a smart business move, Wolman also requested he retain the rights to all of his images.
Wolman went on to shoot the the premiere issue’s cover, featuring the Grateful Dead. Later on, he captured a rare image of their eccentric lead singer, Jerry Garcia, when he raised his hand and revealed a partially missing middle finger. Artists trusted Wolman and opened up to him in an era before handlers carefully constructed their public personas.
Artists trusted Wolman and opened up to him in an era before handlers carefully constructed their public personas.
He not only captured artists performing live, and their fans in the moment at events such as Woodstock, Wolman was also granted backstage access. His most memorable images contain intimate moments with some of rock’s more interesting personalities including Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, and Frank Zappa.
Wolman left Rolling Stone in 1970 and went on to capture images for advertising companies, the NFL, government agencies, universities, and more. His work appeared in leading print publications including Esquire, Vogue, Playboy, and Newsweek. Besides the Berlin Wall, he also documented Israel in flux. Many of these events are documented in his numerous books.
Baron is survived by his sister, Susan, and his brother, Richard. His longtime motto? ‘Mixing business with pleasure since 1965.’
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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Venus Optics has made quite a name for itself with its collection of very wide angle lenses, and especially for the Laowa Zero-D series that features optical designs with very little curvilinear distortion. This little 9mm lens isn’t one of the Zero-D range, but it is still remarkable as the widest rectilinear focal length lens available for full frame cameras.
The 9mm F5.6 FF RL lens has an extraordinary angle of view of 135°, so you’ll need to be careful your feet don’t make an unscheduled appearance in the bottom of the frame.
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| The angle of view is so dramatic that users will have to be careful not to appear in their own pictures when the sun is low in the sky. |
In fact, checking what is and isn’t in the frame is more important than ever when using this lens as it seems to want to include the whole world. It isn’t just your feet or the things on the ground near where you’re standing you have to watch out for – your own shadow, or that of your tripod, can cause quite a problem as well when the sun is low in the sky. This restricts the directions in which the lens can be pointed according to the time of day, and turning the other way to avoid your own shadow will almost inevitably include the sun in the frame.
It took me some time to get in the habit of finding the shadow of something else in which to stand so I wouldn’t cast an obvious shadow on the ground and to begin thinking about composition to take this into account. I actually considered buying a tree costume at one point to disguise my human form. You have to find buildings and trees to block the sun from striking the front element, and if you’re recording video, and intending to move around, I recommend doing a practice run to make sure you are in control of the content of the frame is essential.
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The lens is nice and small (62.4 x 66 mm/2.45 x 2.6″) as well as quite lightweight (350g/12.4oz) given its full-metal body. The aperture ring clicks with stops in each full aperture value with no half or third stop positions, and the distance between F5.6 and F8 is about equal to the distance between F8 and F22.
The focusing ring has a throw of about 90° and is marked in feet and meters from 0.12m (0.4ft) to infinity. The depth-of-field scale suggests that a setting of F22 will allow rendering of 0.19m (0.65ft) to infinity in acceptable focus, and that even F8 will deliver 0.33m (1ft) to infinity – so you may feel focusing is somewhat unnecessary.
The underside of the lens features a tab for finger-focusing the lens. The focus ring turns very nicely indeed, so this tab does provide a useful means of focusing quickly. It is hard to rely on peaking though to find focus without the further assistance of a magnified view, as it can seem that the whole world is in focus as the peaking outlines come to life all over the frame. However, with a good magnified view it is possible to see more clearly what is sharp and what only might be sharp.
With the extensive depth of field of the lens, marks on the front element have a significant impact on the image
The front element is extremely bulbous and protrudes some distance from the main part of the barrel. Although protected in part by the petals of the lens hood it is still quite exposed and a magnet for rain, dust and fingers. With the extensive depth of field of the lens, especially when focused relatively closely, marks on the front element have a significant impact on the image, so it’s particularly important to check it regularly. Sharp-eyed viewers will also notice evidence in the gallery that the sensor of the camera I was using wasn’t spotlessly clean – another thing that shows up with an ultra-wide lens.
It isn’t easy to use filters with this lens without the dedicated filter holder from Laowa – and even that isn’t especially easy. It fits over the lens hood and clamps into place. The holder has a striking resemblance to an H&Y filter holder and uses the same magnetic frames and tightening screw. Even though the holder is designed specifically for this lens it needs to be used with caution because if it’s misaligned only slightly, or if the holder isn’t pushed back far enough, the filter will appear in the edge of your pictures.
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I used the L-mount version of the lens and found the 47MP resolution of the Panasonic Lumix S1R slightly punishing, though when viewed at less than 100% the majority of the images look sharp enough. Resolution in the center of the frame is very good, but it drops off significantly towards the corners.
The lens generally performs better with a close subject, at F8 or F11 and when used on a tripod. Subject motion towards the edges of the frame is also exaggerated, so a faster shutter speed is needed to arrest movement and to produce clean detail.
And if you think you don’t need to pay attention to the focusing ring, you do. The depth-of-field scale is slightly generous regarding ‘acceptable’ sharpness and I found things looked better when I actually focused on the subject rather than relying on all-encompassing hyperfocal distances.
Vignetting, corner smearing and a color shift at the edges are all issues that you should expect when using this lens. Most of the nasties are right at the edge of the frame so it’s fairly easy to take them into account when shooting. Trimming the edges gets rid of the worst of the problems and vignetting and the color shift can easily be removed in Raw editing software, leaving a very nice result still with an extreme wide angle view.
Exposure is also tricky when using a lens with such a wide view as no camera system is designed to cope with it
Remarkably, it is possible to achieve some differential focus at F5.6 when focused quite close, and there is a definite depth-of-field progression moving up the aperture range. All the shots in this gallery were taken at F8 or F11, but actually the F5.6 position delivers equal resolution and more light, while diffraction reduces resolution at F16 and F22. Vignetting and chromatic errors are most obvious in the wider apertures and gradually lessen, though by no means disappear, when the lens is stopped-down.
Exposure is also tricky when using a lens like this with such a wide view as no camera system is designed to cope with it. Evaluative/matrix/honeycomb/pattern systems will inevitably be confused when used outside by the range of brightnesses and the areas from which they are coming, so spot and selective metering arrangements work best.
Curvilinear distortion is pretty well controlled considering the angle of view of the lens, but it is still a significant characteristic of the lens. When focused on a distant subject, barreling is generally quite mild, but it increases dramatically at closer focus distances, as shown in the clip above.
The lens is available in mounts for Leica M, Sony FE, Nikon Z and Leica L, and it costs £869/$ 799. The Leica M version comes in silver or black and costs £979/$ 899. The optional 100mm magnetic filter holder comes with one set of magnetic filter frame edges and costs £129/$ 149. For more information see the Venus Optics website.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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The DJI Mavic Mini is a great beginner-friendly drone in its own right, but the Mavic Mini 2 provides some significant improvements over its predecessor. The result is a fantastic little machine that’s easy to use, convenient to transport and full of sophisticated features in a small package. You can read all about it in our full DJI Mavic Mini 2 review, but be sure to check out the image quality it’s capable of by perusing the sample gallery above.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
The post 6 Ways of Using Reflector to Take Better Portraits appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Dennis Drenner.
I’ve been making my living as a photographer for over 20 years, and I have accumulated thousands of dollars of gear in the process. I have the latest Canon DSLRs, a full complement of lenses, strobes, light stands, gels, filters, softboxes, tripods, and even some video and audio gear.
But the one thing that often makes the biggest difference in the quality of my portraits is a simple $ 20 reflector. I never leave home without one, and neither should you.
When shooting outdoor portraits, the first thing many photographers think about is the background – but first and foremost, the pros consider the quality of the light. They know, for example, that a portrait with nasty overhead lighting is not going to work, no matter how cool the background.
A reflector can help you salvage bad light, and turn okay light into something magical. You can use your reflector from below to fill in shadows, or from above to block distracting light. You can bounce the sun from a silver reflector to create a main light, or you can use a reflector with a black side to create deeper shadows. You can even sit on your reflector to keep your pants clean when shooting outside, or pop it open dramatically to dazzle young children.
Most of the photos in this article were shot with a 5-in-1 reflector you can buy for less than $ 20 USD. 5-in-1 refers to the fact that the reflector and cover can combine to give you five different options: white, silver, gold, and black sides, as well as a diffuser.
Here are six tips to help you use a reflector to transform your photos.
The most traditional use of a reflector is to simply reflect light into the shadows. I took my wife, Karen, out into our local park to demonstrate this.
In the photo on the left (above), Karen is photographed in nice soft light, but there are still pretty deep shadows under her eyes and chin. In the photo on the right, however, she is holding a reflector at her waist. The shadows on her face are noticeably lighter and there is a subtle catchlight (a reflection of the reflector) in her eyes. If she were an older person with more textured skin, the contrast would be even more dramatic.
Of course, you may not always want to fill in the shadows in this way, but if you are trying to flatter someone it almost always helps.
You don’t even need an official photo reflector. Anything that reflects light will work. In a pinch, I’ve used everything from old newspapers to a nearby person wearing a white shirt.
This is one of my go-to reflector moves, and it’s an easy way to wow your friends and family.
You position your subject with the light hitting them from behind, then use a reflector to bounce the light back into their face. You will get nice soft light on your subject’s face, with a dramatic rim light on the back of their head. The only trick is positioning yourself so the light doesn’t go straight into your lens and create lens flare (unless you like that look, of course).
In the photo above, the sun is hitting the left side of my subject’s face and arm. The light from a reflector is bouncing some of the sun back to light up her face.
You may also notice the shallow depth of field in the photo above. If you are lighting with a reflector, you can jack up your shutter speed as much as you like to allow for a wide aperture (this photo was shot at 1/1250s at f/2.0 with a 50mm lens). If you were using flash to create this same effect, you would have to lower your shutter speed (to 1/250s or whatever matches your camera’s sync speed) to sync with the flash, requiring a narrow aperture and a greater depth of field (which will kill the whole look).
Yes, yes, some of you are no doubt thinking, “What about high-speed sync?” Well, yes, that could give you the same effect if you had the right equipment (and know how to pull it off). Or, you know, you could just use an old newspaper as a reflector.
For the example above, I positioned Karen against a tree and had her cousin, Claudia, reflect a spot of sunlight on her from about 10 feet away. At this distance, the light from the reflector looks more like it is coming from a grid spot or snoot (hard light) – in other words, it’s a focused and dramatic beam (notice the fall-off of light on her legs). It’s a cool look that you can recreate with a reflector, a few feet of aluminum foil, or your bathroom mirror. Your friends will be wowed and ask what fancy gear you used for the shot (and your family will ask what happened to the bathroom mirror).
For a slight variation on this technique, we moved the reflector slightly behind the subject (relative to the camera) to create a dramatic rim light on the face in a profile shot (see below).
Sometimes you’ll find yourself in beautiful, shady light under a tree, except for that pesky sunbeam that finds its way through the leaves to light up your subject’s left ear. When this happens, turn your reflector into a light blocker (sometimes called a flag or gobo).
A few years ago, I was doing a maternity portrait in a local park when a newspaper photographer snapped my picture while I was using my reflector as a gobo (shown in the image below). If you look at the reflector, you can see the bright spots of sunlight that it’s blocking (imagine how those spots would have ruined the final image if we didn’t block them!).
Sometimes, you actually want to deepen the shadows. I use this technique all the time in my headshot studio. Below is a photo of me with a white background. In the first shot, I have a silver reflector opposite the main light, sending light back towards my left cheek. In the second shot, the reflector has a black cover on it, gobbling up reflected light to leave a dark shadow on the cheek.
Except for the small change of literally flipping the reflector from one side to the other, the lighting setup is identical, but the effect is pretty dramatic. (For you studio lighting enthusiasts out there, my key light here is a large softbox, and there are two bare heads pointing at the background to make sure it is a nice, bright white).
This is the same technique used in the famous Steve Jobs portrait where he has his hand on his chin. In addition to creating a little drama, you can also use this technique to give someone a photographic face-lift by trimming pounds from the dark side of their face and under their chin.
You may be saying to yourself, “But I don’t have an assistant! Who’s going to hold the reflector for me?” I usually don’t have an assistant, either, but there is often someone nearby who is more than happy to help, be it a family member, passerby, intern, wedding guest, etc. Sometimes, you can even have the subject of the photo hold the reflector themselves. Of course, if you’re in the studio, or outside on a day without too much wind, you can just pop your reflector onto a light stand (like in the studio shots of me above).
In the photo below, I was shooting wedding portraits on a beach in the Florida Keys. My reflector assistant that day was one of the bridesmaids, who truly enjoyed helping her friends out with their portraits.
Once you get the hang of reflectors, you’ll probably start noticing reflected light everywhere. Ever see a white building getting blasted by the sun? Well, that’s nothing but a giant reflector! Depending on what’s around it, you may have found yourself a giant studio with no rental fee.
Mind you, anything that reflects enough light can work as a reflector. A brick building, a large truck, or a flock of seagulls flying by at just the right moment – it all works!
Although they may not be as sexy as strobe kits, reflectors can often yield similar or superior results for your portraits and are cheaper and easier to use. I will leave you with a few more example photos, shot using nothing more than a reflector.
In the child portraits below, note that there is light behind the kids in both cases, but there is still beautiful light on their faces. Same goes for the athlete portraits.
As a final image, I leave you with a group of wedding guests who were so enamored of my reflector that they wanted a picture with it. Hopefully, you will soon have similar feelings toward your own reflector!
Do you have any additional reflector tips to add? Please share them in the comments below!
The post 6 Ways of Using Reflector to Take Better Portraits appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Dennis Drenner.
The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Dark & Moody appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
I spotted a fun theme on the Tamron Australia Facebook page and we’re going to play along because it’s a fun looking theme!! “Dark & Moody” and it can be interpreted in so many different ways! Tag your photos #dPSDarkNMoody
We had darkness a little while back, focussing (boom boom) on shadows, but this theme is more to do with a dark and moody scene, a dark cloudy sky, a gritty lane, a scene lit with moody light – open to interpretation! Make sure you tag your photographs with #dPSDarkNMoody and we’ll feature a selection of images from the month on our blog!
Missed a Weekly Challenge? Catch Up or do them all again here!
Simply upload your shot into the comments field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favourite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them.
You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.
If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites – tag them as #DPSDarkNMoody to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.
Follow us on Instagram?
The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Dark & Moody appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
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Nikon has released financial results for the second quarter (Q2) of its 2021 fiscal year, which starts April 1 (2020) and ends March 31 (2021), revealing a larger operating loss than forecasted despite higher-than-expected revenue.
As tends to be the case with financial results, there are plenty of nuances hidden within the broader numbers, but what is clear is Nikon’s Imaging Products Business is going through changes, not unlike Canon, which is also transitioning its product line and production facilities away from DSLRs and towards mirrorless.
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| Q2 Financial Highlights by segment. We have highlighted the Imaging Products Business, with the last column being the Q2 FY2021 results. |
Starting with the Q2 results for Nikon’s Imaging Products Business, Nikon reports operating revenue of ¥39.3B ($ 372M) and an operating loss of ¥19.3B ($ 184.3M), down ¥12.4B and ¥17.8B, respectfully year-over-year (YoY) for Q2. Nikon further breaks down unit sales in the Imaging Products Business division, noting it sold 240K interchangeable lens cameras (ILC), 70K compact cameras and 390K interchangeable lenses. These numbers are down 31%, 73% and 29%, respectively, YoY for Q2.
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| An overview of the revenue and operating profit/loss for H1 FY2021 by segment. |
Looking at the first half (H1) of Nikon’s Imaging Products Business’ FY2021, the company reported revenue of ¥64.4B ($ 615M) and an operating loss of ¥27.4B ($ 261M). This puts revenue above Nikon’s ¥55B forecast, but it seems expenses outpaced gains, as the company had previously forecast an operating loss of only ¥20B. Unit sales for H1 were also down across the board, with 380K ILC, 120K compact cameras and 610K interchangeable lenses being sold. That’s down 52.5%, 76% and 53%, respectively, compared to H1 FY2020.
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| A breakdown of camera unit sales per quarter going back to FY2018. |
While the operating loss looks grim, it needs to be placed in context. Nikon cites ‘impairment losses on production equipment at production sites in Thailand, etc.’ as the reason for over half of this loss (¥15.6B, to be precise). These ‘impairment losses’ suggest Nikon is depreciating or downright writing-off the value of manufacturing equipment at its Thailand factories. Given the transition to new lines for mirrorless products, this isn’t a huge surprise. It’s likely the equipment Nikon is depreciating is that it used to produce its DSLRs (we know that Nikon is using new, more automated assembly lines for at least some of its Z series mirrorless cameras).
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| Note the additional comments in the yellow box at the bottom of this presentation slide. |
Nikon notes its mirrorless camera sales volumes increased year-over-year, the percentage of revenue from its pro and hobbyist cameras increased ‘steadily’ and even says it saw a ‘better-than-expected market recovery from the impact of COVID-19.’
For its full FY2021 forecast, Nikon says it expects its Imaging Products Business to show ¥140B in revenue and an operating loss of ¥45B.
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Moving forward, Nikon makes its plan for its Imaging Products Business clear: reduce business costs faster than the rate of shrinkage the camera market is experiencing and ‘Shift to a structure that secures profits constantly even when revenue drops.’ It hopes to reduce costs by more than ¥80B by the end of its FY2022 through ‘substantially lowering the breakeven point through improving productivity, production consolidation, headcount optimization and impairment losses of equipment.’ It also states it will be focusing on its pro and hobbyist products, which it wants to see as the bedrock of its Imaging Products Business. This assessment and approach is similar to the one Olympus has been taking for a few years now—downsize the business to match the market size, which is shrinking across the board.
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Nikon also says it wants its Imaging Products Business to enter new fields, including more business-to-business deals. What exactly this looks like remains to be seen, as no details are given, but Nikon says it intends to ‘actively leverage [its] image processing, sensing technology’ and more.
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If we’re to summarize this Q2 financial report into a single sentence, it’s this: Nikon plans to cut costs as much as possible to account for a clearly shrinking camera market while also focusing on its higher-end cameras and lenses, which are steadily increasing as a percentage of Nikon’s sales. This should come as good news to experienced Nikon shooters, particularly those who have already or are looking to dive into Nikon’s Z series mirrorless cameras and lenses; more cameras and lenses are on the way.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Frii Designs, a company known for its unconventional photography accessories, has announced a forthcoming campaign to help fund its new Conda Strap, a camera shoulder strap that also doubles as a flexible mount and grip.
Somewhere between a Joby Gorillapod and a shoulder strap, the Conda starts as a flexible shoulder strap that attaches directly to your camera via the tripod mount. When you need to use it as a tripod, simply flip the lever at the top and the Conda stiffens up for moulding into whatever shape you need.
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You can even separate the strap, wrap it around objects for further security and lock it back in place with the lever engaged to ensure your gear doesn’t take any unwanted tumbles.
It’s an interesting concept and certainly carves out a niche in a market that’s fairly saturated. Due to the components required to turn it into a mounting solution, it doesn’t necessarily look like the most comfortable shoulder strap — and certainly not the lightest — but if it means you don’t have to carry around even a small tripod or mounting solution, it might be worth the compromise.
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The Conda Strap will come in two versions: Conda Strap and Conda Strap Plus. The Conda Strap is the ‘light’ version of the two, designed for mirrorless cameras and light DSLR cameras, while the Conda Strap Plus is the more heavy-duty model for larger mirrorless setups or heavier DSLRs.
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The Kickstarter campaign for the Conda Strap and Conda Strap Plus will go live on November 12. Frii Designs notes the Conda Strap be available for a pledge of $ 97. We have inquired about the price of the Conda Strap Plus and will update this article accordingly when we receive a response.
If successfully funded, the first units are expected to ship out in March 2021. You can sign up to be notified as soon as the campaign goes live on Frii Designs’ website.
Disclaimer: Remember to do your research with any crowdfunding project. DPReview does its best to share only the projects that look legitimate and come from reliable creators, but as with any crowdfunded campaign, there’s always the risk of the product or service never coming to fruition.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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Lomography recently announced two new low ISO black-and-white films: Fantome ISO 8 and Babylon ISO 13. Both films belong to their ‘Kino’ line, which has been created from cine film stock produced by a German company. These monochromatic films offer some of the lowest ISO on the market at the moment.
The slow speed means that they will produce negatives with very fine grain, but it also means it can be challenging to capture enough light for a proper exposure. With this in mind I loaded the test rolls into my Contax T2 and hoped that New York City would grant me some sunny September days.
Babylon ISO 13 is advertised as BW film that has a ‘high dynamic range’ and can capture very subtle gradient transitions. Fantom ISO 8 falls on the opposite side of the spectrum. This film is a high-contrast stock that renders images with super crushed shadows and bright highlights. It’s incredibly moody and the grain is very fine.
For the most part, my favorite frames from these two rolls were ones shot in bright conditions and with a flash. Frames that were captured later in the day or on overcast days just didn’t work as well. Like most of Lomography’s speciality film stocks, the Kino films aren’t necessarily for everyday use, but these black-and-white rolls do seem a little more versatile than some of Lomo’s speciality color films.
Babylon ISO 13 worked nicely for daytime portraits and urban architecture
I love the way that Fantome ISO 8 rendered urban architecture, skies and close-up detail shots. But I found it difficult to get shutter speeds fast enough for scenes with lots of subject movement. As expected, Babylon ISO 13 was a little more forgiving. It worked nicely for daytime portraits, urban architecture and the subtle gradient shifts within a frame are quite lovely.
These low ISO Lomography films certainly aren’t going to be for everyone, and shooters should definitely expect more ‘misses’ than when they are shooting with a standard film stock. That said, I’m happy with the way my frames turned out and would definitely give these films another go. Next time I think I’ll save a roll for an aggressively sunny day at the beach though.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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