Best « 360Photography

RSS

Posts Tagged ‘Best’

2017 Buying Guides: Best cameras for any budget

22 Nov

Shopping for a camera with a set budget? No problem! We’ve rounded up our favorite cameras, broken them into price brackets from around $ 500 to well over $ 2000 and listed our favorite choices. So, if you want to give that special someone a holiday gift that won’t bust your wallet, we’ve got you covered.

If you’re looking for a camera for a specific use case, we have plenty of suggestions right here.

The cameras in this buying guide are light and portable, and several feature selfie-friendly LCDs. Generally speaking, you won’t find a lot of direct controls or a lot of customizability, and 4K video is rare, but for those seeking a point-and-shoot experience with better image quality, these cameras fit the bill.

Best cameras under $ 500

The cameras in this buying guide tend to offer more direct controls than cheaper models, better autofocus systems, and some feature 4K video capture as well. Some of them are easy to pick up and use, while others require a bit more work to get the hang of.

Best cameras under $ 1000

Cameras in the $ 1000-1500 price range have excellent sensors (some full-frame), advanced autofocus systems and 4K video capture. Expect plenty of direct controls and customizability and, in some cases, weather-sealed bodies.

Best cameras under $ 1500

As you approach the $ 2000 price point you’ll find flagship APS-C and Four Thirds cameras, built for speed and durability. You’ll also find a handful of full-frame ILCs and DSLRs, with their own unique selling points.

Best cameras under $ 2000

If you’re a serious enthusiast or working pro, the very best digital cameras on the market will cost you at least $ 2000. That’s a lot of money, but generally speaking these cameras offer the highest resolution, the best build quality and the most advanced video specs out there, as well as fast burst rates and top-notch autofocus.

Best cameras over $ 2000

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

Comments Off

Posted in Uncategorized

2017 Buying Guides: Best cameras for every kind of photographer

22 Nov

There’s never been a better time to shop for a new camera, but the number of options available can be overwhelming. In this series of buying guides we’ve provided customized recommendations for several use cases, from shooting landscapes to buying a first camera for a student photographer.

In each of these guides you’ll find one or two main recommendations, and detailed content on several other cameras that deserve your consideration. Our recommendations span product class and cost, but if you’d rather shop by price, click here

If you’re specifically looking for a compact camera, check out our phones, drones and compacts buying guide hub here

Maybe you want better photos in low light. Maybe you’re tired of digital zoom. Whatever the reason, if you’re looking for a capable, beginner-friendly camera to grow and learn with, we’ve got you covered in our guide to best cameras for beginners.

Best cameras for beginners

Quick. Unpredictable. Unwilling to sit still. Kids really are the ultimate test for a camera’s autofocus system. In this guide we’ve compiled a shortlist of what we think are the best options for parents trying to keep up with young kids.

Best cameras for parents

There’s no doubt that the digital revolution made it easier than ever before to pick up a camera and start learning photography. But it hasn’t necessarily gotten easier to choose a first camera. We’re here to help.

Best cameras for students

Whether you’re piling the family in the minivan for a trip to the Magic Kingdom or backpacking through Southeast Asia, you’re going to want to capture the experience with photographs.

Best cameras for travel

Are you a speed freak? Hungry to photograph anything that goes zoom? Or perhaps you just want to get Sports Illustrated level shots of your child’s soccer game. Keep reading to find out which cameras we think are best for sports and action shooting.

Best cameras for sports and action

Video features have become an important factor to many photographers when choosing a new camera. Read on to find out which cameras we think are best for the videophile, at a variety of price points.

Best cameras for video

Landscape photography isn’t as simple as just showing up in front of a beautiful view and taking a couple of pictures. Landscape shooters have a unique set of needs and requirements for their gear, and we’ve selected some of our favorites in this buying guide.

Best cameras for landscapes

Those shooting portraits and weddings need a camera with a decent autofocus system, which won’t give up in low interior lighting. Good image quality at medium/high ISO sensitivity settings is a must, and great colors straight out of the camera will make your life much easier. These days, video is a big deal too. Read on to see which cameras are best suited to those tasks.

Best cameras for people and events

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

Comments Off

Posted in Uncategorized

Full Frame or APS-C for Wildlife Photography – Which is Best?

20 Nov

Choosing between a full frame or cropped sensor camera for wildlife photography can be a tough decision. Both options offer their own benefits, so choosing between the two can cause quite the headache. Lots of photographers have their opinions, but choosing what’s right for your own use will largely come down to your personal style of shooting. So let’s break it down.

FX full frame and APS-C - Full Frame or APS-C for Wildlife Photography - Which is Best?

The Basics

Most modern camera companies use either full frame or APS-C (crop) type sensors in their DSLR (and mirrorless) cameras. The former is often classed as the professional standard, with the sensor size being a close replica to that of a 35mm film negative.

APS-C on the other hand, is roughly two thirds the size of a full frame sensor, resulting in the field of view being multiplied by a factor of 1.5-1.6x that of a standard full frame model. These sensors feature mostly in the lower tiered offerings by camera companies, with the chips being less expensive to produce.

Full Frame or APS-C for Wildlife Photography - Which is Best?

Working with APS-C means you can travel lighter.

Crop Factor

For APS-C models one of the largest benefits for wildlife photographers is that of the additional crop factor. The 1.5-1.6x magnification of your optics can be hugely beneficial when working out in the field, trying to photograph small birds or distant wildlife.

The crop factor also allows you to get a similar angle of view with a far smaller lens, helping to reduce the gear you need to carry while still giving you great telephoto reach. This is something a lot of photographers find as a huge benefit, as they can minimize the size and weight of the gear they need to carry out into the field.

For example, a 70-200mm lens on a 1.5x crop-factor body gives you the equivalent of a 105-300mm lens. A perfect compact wildlife setup.

APS-C cameras crop factor can be a great benefit for wildlife photography.

ISO Sensitivity

One of the large benefits of a full frame camera is that of better image quality when shooting at high ISO. The larger sensor means in the individual pixels (and light sensitive photo sites) are larger than those on an APS-C type camera. This means as a general rule they are more sensitive to light, allowing cleaner noise-free images at high ISO settings, something that is fabulous when trying to work and photograph wildlife in low light conditions.

Now with modern sensor advances, APS-C models of the past few years have come up leaps and bounds in terms of ISO performance – easily being useable to ISO 6,400. But, if low light usability is key for the subjects you’re working with, a full frame camera is still king.

APS-C cameras can still make great results at a high ISO.

Depth of Field

When comparing that of full frame sensors with APS-C models, one extra thing to consider is the depth of field characteristics and how areas are rendered out of focus.

With the smaller sensor in APS-C models, they give the effect of having a larger depth of field at equivalent apertures when compared to a full frame camera. This means that if you are going after images that render clean bokeh and have a very restricted depth of field to isolate and direct your viewer’s attention to your subject, a full frame model will be better suited.

Full frame cameras are great for shallow depth of field effects.

Of course, if you do a large amount of macro work and want to maximize the depth then an APS-C camera might be right up your alley.

Resolution

In the past few years, technology has advanced in resolution steadily, with cameras being introduced that have high 36-42 megapixel sensors. For the most part, ultra high-res sensors have been used in the realms of advertising and commercial photography for years. But of course, now having been brought into DSLRs they offer photographers more flexibility.

The high resolutions models are mainly full frame sensors, as packing huge numbers of pixels onto small sensors can heavily impact their quality. The FX models that have high resolution offer a unique advantage, as they make the most of the benefits of full frame models, yet offer the ability to crop heavily to replicate the crop factor of those advanced APS-C DSLRs.

Often a disadvantage is that these high-resolution cameras are slower in terms of frames per second, due to internal data writing limitations. But this is advancing all the time, especially with new forms of storage media offering faster write times.

High megapixel full frame cameras offer great all-around performance.

The full frame camera with a high-resolution sensor can be somewhat of a perfect compromise for those wanting the ISO performance and bokeh rendering benefits of full frame, combined with the ability to crop. Providing, of course, that they aren’t to hung up on needing blazing fast frame per second shooting rates.

Cost

One factor that always plays a part when looking to buy new gear is that of cost. Full frame bodies by their nature are more expensive, with the chips inside being harder to engineer and more expensive to produce. APS-C cameras are often found at lower price points, but this depends on the body design and extra features such as speed, construction, and technologies implemented.

Some full spec APS-C cameras are significantly more expensive than full frame models due to the advanced autofocus features, frame rates, and build quality.

So what to choose?

For wildlife photography, it largely depends on your target subjects.

If you love photographing birds and small creatures, a high-end APS-C body that combines the crop factor with speed will serve you well. The crop factor is also a huge benefit if you want to get a longer telephoto reach without having to shell out for ultra-expensive super telephoto lenses. Meaning you can have a small set up that offers a good compromise for most situations.

If you want to truly get the best performance and quality, full frame models are where to look. The high-resolution sensors and excellent low light performance make for great image quality. However, of course, you’ll also need to invest in the best optics to make the most of them.

These are both costly and a large burden to carry around. However, if you want the best quality imaginable that’s what it takes. For those starting out investing, an APS-C model would be my recommendation. Save your funds to buy decent quality lenses, as these will largely make more of a difference to your images than a single stop of ISO or a slightly higher resolution sensor.

The post Full Frame or APS-C for Wildlife Photography – Which is Best? by Tom Mason appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

Comments Off

Posted in Photography

These are the best smartphone cameras you can buy now

19 Nov

Few would argue that in 2017 the mobile device industry is a major driver of imaging hardware innovation. Long gone are the days when the size of the image sensor and the aperture were the major determining factors for image quality. Instead, phone manufacturers have turned to software and computational imaging methods to achieve better detail, wider dynamic range and lower noise levels, as well as high-quality zooming and DSLR-like bokeh effects.

High-powered chipsets with built-in image signal processors and sensors with very fast read-out times make it possible to combine image data that is captured by dual-lenses, or several frames recorded in quick succession, within milliseconds. These methods produce image quality that would have been unthinkable on a smartphone only a few years ago and often surpasses basic compact cameras.

Thanks to those advances in software, but also new hardware concepts, such as dual-cameras, hybrid AF-systems and more powerful image signal processors, current smartphone cameras are better than ever before. Here is our selection of the best models available in 2017, noting where their particular strengths lie.

Best display: Apple iPhone X

Apple’s brand new flagship iPhone X pulls all the technological plugs and comes with features and specifications that we haven’t seen on any iPhones or even other smartphones before. The iPhone X offers a marginally faster F2.4 telephoto lens than its cousin iPhone 8 Plus and, compared to last year’s 7 Plus, adds optical image stabilization in the telephoto lens. On the video side of things the X is capable of recording 4K footage at 60 frames per second and slow-motion clips at 1080p resolution and 240fps.

As you would expect, all the new technology has a boosting effect on image quality and the iPhone X is currently ranked second on DxOMark.com, behind only the Google Pixel 2, and with the currently highest Photo score of 101 points.

But the iPhone X not only offers outstanding image quality, it improves on the imaging viewing experience too. The iPhone X’s wide gamut OLED is the most color accurate device on the market, partially thanks to iOS’ internal color management but also because of display calibration. That’s a benefit to anyone who takes and looks at photos on their mobile device.

The device also comes with a number of innovative features. Portrait Lighting is an AI-powered feature in beta that works with front and rear cameras. It allows users to apply different lighting styles on top of simulated-bokeh-portraits. The iPhone X also used Face-ID to unlock the device, relying on an array of cameras and sensors at the top of the edge-to-edge display.

What we like: Excellent detail and dynamic range, natural bokeh mode, 4K video at 60 fps

What we don’t like: Price, underexposure and red-eye with flash

Best for video: LG V30

The LG V30 is the Korean manufacturer’s latest flagship smartphone and comes with an unusual dual-camera setup. Instead of a telephoto lens the V30 offers a secondary super-wide-angle that lets you squeeze more scene into the frame, without the need for accessory lenses.

The V30 also sets itself apart from the competition with a very comprehensive video mode that comes with manual control over shutter speed and sound recording levels, among many other parameters. You can also choose from 15 new Cine Effect color presets that are based on film genres and the Point Zoom mode allows for stable zooming into a target in the frame rather than the center.

In testing for our forthcoming review we found the V30 to deliver excellent video image quality. Still images are good as well, with wide dynamic range and good sharpness across the frame, but levels of detail lag just a touch behind the very best on the main camera and can be pretty low on the super-wide-angle. Still, the V30 is an excellent option for mobile videographers and those who appreciate a super-wide-angle.

What we like: Great video feature set and stabilization, super-wide-angle offers new framing options, excellent display

What we don’t like: Poor detail on super-wide-angle, zoom quality, no bokeh mode

Best for zoom: Samsung Galaxy Note 8

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is the Korean company’s late entry to the dual-camera game but has immediately set new standards. The camera module combines a 26mm equivalent 12MP wide-angle module with a 52mm equivalent tele camera.

The secondary camera comes with a smaller sensor and slower aperture than the main module, but together with the iPhone X the Note 8 is one of very few dual-cam smartphones to offer optical image stabilization in both lenses. In DxOMark’s Mobile testing the dual-camera setup achieves outstanding results, including the best zoom performance among all current smartphones. Good detail and a natural looking bokeh mode also contribute to the high overall score of 94 points.

In the video department the Note 8 comes with 4K resolution and a 240fps slow-motion option. With its massive 6.3″ Quad-HD+ display and S-Pen stylus the Note 8 is also an interesting option for those photographers who like image editing on the device. It stands up very well in our comparison against the iPhone X, making it a great option for any Android user.

What we like: Class-leading zoom, large display and stylus, good bokeh mode

What we don’t like: Lower DR than some competitors, price

Best computational imaging device: Google Pixel 2

12.2MP 1/2.6″ sensor | F1.8 aperture | OIS | 4K/30fps video | 5.0-inch display

The original Pixel was one of last year’s best smartphones and there is no doubt version two is following right in its footsteps. The Pixel 2 is one of the few current high-end smartphones with a single-lens camera but it makes up for a secondary camera with a host of advanced Google software features.

Despite a slightly smaller image sensor than on the predecessor, the Pixel 2 achieves excellent dynamic range and very good detail in all conditions, earning it the best overall performance and the current top spot in the DxOMark Mobile ranking. Testers were also impressed with the video mode that combines optical and electronic stabilization for ultra-smooth footage.

The Pixel 2 might have to make do without a secondary lens but thanks to Google’s software wizardry and Dual Pixel technology (split left/right pixels) it’s still capable of creating a usable fake bokeh Portrait Mode effect, and digital zoom has improved over the previous generation as well.

Early Pixel 2 adopters have reported some display troubles but Google has taken measures to fix them, making the Pixel 2 an easy recommendation for any mobile photographer. As a bonus the device comes with an integrated but currently dormant image processor called Visual Core. When it’s activated via a software update in the near future, it should give the Pixel 2’s image quality another boost.

What we like: Class-leading detail and dynamic range, excellent hybrid video stabilization, “pure” Android operating system

What we don’t like: Display issues on early units, lower zoom and bokeh performance than closest competitors

Best for black-and-white photography fans: Huawei Mate 10 Pro

The Huawei Mate 10 Pro is not a cheap smartphone but will cost you significantly less than the Leica M10 or pretty much any other Leica camera for that matter. So, if you always wanted to carry a Leica in your pocket but are strapped for cash, the Huawei device might be a good compromise. It doesn’t come with the famous red dot but, like the P10 and several other recent Huawei smartphones it has a Leica badge right next to its camera module.

It’s not all about the badge though. The Mate 10 Pro comes with an innovative dual-camera setup that combines a 12MP RGB sensor with a 20MP monochrome chip. Image data from both sensors is combined computationally to achieve better detail, increased dynamic range and lower noise levels. The high-resolution monochrome sensor also allows for a 2x lossless zoom and a unique Huawei feature: a monochrome mode that doesn’t simply convert RGB images, but captures black and white images natively.

And Huawei isn’t relying on hardware alone on the Mate 10 Pro. AI and neural networking are applied to improve the quality of the fake bokeh mode and power the automatic scene selection’s object recognition. Motion detection reduces motion blur in low light conditions.

The combination of innovative hardware and software concepts pays off and at 97 points the Mate 10 Pro achieves one of the best overall scores on DxOMark, tying the iPhone X for second place in the ranking.

What we like: Great detail in low light, monochrome mode, decent zoom and bokeh

What we don’t like: Limited slow-motion video options

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

Comments Off

Posted in Uncategorized

Best Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deals for Photographers

19 Nov

While Black Friday was born in the United States, people from all over the world now wait for this day to do some serious shopping too, and photographers are no exception. The Friday after Thanksgiving has become popular everywhere marking the beginning of the winter holiday season. So are Black Friday deals really a “big deal” for photography enthusiasts? Yes, Continue Reading

The post Best Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deals for Photographers appeared first on Photodoto.

Photodoto

Comments Off

Posted in Photography

iPhone X is the world’s best smartphone for photos, second best overall on DxOMark

08 Nov

The past few months have been a ratings-palooza for DxOMark Mobile, as flagship after flagship has come out raised the bar on smartphone sensor quality. From the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and its 100 photo score, to the iPhone 8 Plus’ week-long stint at the top of the charts, to the Google Pixel 2’s highest ever score of 98, we’ve had plenty to keep an eye on.

But there was one major flagship phone conspicuously absent from the rankings… until now that is. DxOMark has officially released its Apple iPhone X test results.

As always, you can dive into the detailed results and side-by-side comparisons on DxOMark, but the TL;DR version is this: the iPhone X is the best smartphone DxO has ever tested in the photo category (earning a score of 101) and the second best smartphone camera overall, tying the Huawei Mate 10 Pro with a score of 97. You can see the score and category breakdown below:

More impressive than the numbers is DxO’s conclusion, which stresses how well the iPhone X performs in real-world shooting situations:

For portraits, the improved telephoto lens delivers sharp results even indoors, and the bokeh simulation produces a natural and pleasing background blur. Outdoors, exposures are outstanding, with great dynamic range, impressive skies, good fine detail, and punchy color rendering. Add to all that the extra features on the front-facing camera, including a Portrait mode for blurred-background selfies, and the iPhone X delivers one hell of a smartphone camera.

To see the full test results for yourself, head over to the DxOMark website. And keep an eye on DPReview in the next few weeks because we’ll be getting our own iPhone X to test very soon!

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

Comments Off

Posted in Uncategorized

9 of the Best Apps to Help You Do Awesome Mobile Phone Photography

05 Nov

They say the best camera is the one that you have with you. Even though I love my digital SLR, quite frequently, I shoot with my smartphone. This is why mobile phone photography is so popular.

There is a collection of stunning oak trees near where I live. Each time I go there, the trees look different based on the weather and time of year. Did I need an expensive $ 5,000 camera to get these pictures? No, because I know some tricks for shooting with my smartphone.

9 of the Best Apps to Help You Do Awesome Phone Photography

For these types of images, it doesn’t matter what type of camera you have. If you’ve got a camera, the inspiration, and the time, you can create some great images with your smartphone. Great images come from a good eye and a basic knowledge of composition and light. If you practice with these elements, you can take awesome pictures with any device even if it’s a phone camera. In this article, I will give you some of my favorite apps that will inspire you to have some fun with the camera that is always with you.

Is the era of the compact camera coming to a close?

9 of the Best Apps to Help You Do Awesome Mobile Phone Photography

Either people shoot with their smartphones or they use an advanced digital SLR. There’s not much in between. Why is this happening?

For the general public, smartphones have more capacity and are easier to use than the current lower-end point and shoot cameras on the market. People are getting better results with less effort. When someone asks for a recommendation on a camera and they only have a couple hundred dollars to spend, I usually recommend that they use their cellphone.

As a photography educator, I find my iPhone to be easier to use and more consistent across multiple models. Some Android models work differently and don’t have the same capabilities as other phones. Some apps don’t work on all Androids, so please take that into account when trying out the apps mentioned in this article.

Smartphone-workshop 9 of the Best Apps to Help You Do Awesome Mobile Phone Photography

The current compact cameras are more menu-driven than most people can handle. And if their photography skills are not up to snuff, it is hard to get past the automatic modes on those cameras. I have had clients in my classes with these lower-end compact cameras where the manual modes do not work at all. These little gadgets are almost as complicated as the advanced digital SLRs, but without the quality results. The only things that are of benefit are their size and price point, but even then it means a smaller lens, a smaller sensor and diminished results.

Smartphone photography

I discovered smartphone photography after attending a professional photographic trade show. I took a little seminar on an app called Hipstamatic for iPhone and I was hooked. I was no longer a photo snob! All of a sudden, I realized I could create stunning photos in moments that would take hours in Photoshop.

Over the next year or so, I shot thousands of pictures on my smartphone and I got really familiar with the ins and outs of this type of photography.

San Simeon Hipstamatic - 9 of the Best Apps to Help You Do Awesome Mobile Phone Photography

I also realized this was the future of social media and photography for the general public. You could create little masterpieces that were appreciated online. They were not high resolution and the use of these images was limited, but that works just fine for most people. As a photographer, you don’t want to post images that can be stolen and easily used somewhere else, so the smartphone low-resolution image size is perfect.

I knew then there was a huge future in this art form for the general public. I continued to research new apps, reading everything I could and staying updated. Here are some of my favorite apps for mobile phone photography.

Shooting apps

Camera+ for IOS

This app allows you to control separate focus and exposure points, one of the secrets to good mobile phone photography. You can also use additional features such as selective focus, exposure compensation, and exposure lock. I use Camera+ on every picture I take.

Unfortunately, Camera+ is not available for Android.

Big Sur-iPhone 9 of the Best Apps to Help You Do Awesome Mobile Phone Photography

ProShot – for IOS and Android

This app has all of the auto, program and manual modes that Camera+ has and is available for both IOS and Android (as well as Windows phones). With ProShot you have full manual control over exposure, ISO, and shutter speed. The most important aspect here is the ability to separate focus and exposure like you can with the Camera+ app.

My go-to editing app

Snapseed

This app is a must for both IOS and Android users! Snapseed is a go-to app for processing photos. It has such an easy interface, that you can make it part of your normal workflow and literally do your editing in seconds when taking a shot with your mobile phone. There are so many options in this app, but my favorite is the selective contrast and exposure settings. It allows you to go into the image and change exposure, contrast, and saturation in specific parts of your picture. Other settings such as grunge, HDR and Retroux let you create a variety of special effects.

Snapseed is available for both iPhone and Android.

Graphic Apps

Wordswag – for IOS and Android

Are you looking for a simple text app where you can create text overlay or a watermark? Wordswag will help you create professional looking graphics like this in just seconds!

Retro Apps

Hipstamatic – for IOS

This app allows you to select “film” and “lenses” in the “classic mode” before you shoot to create the perfect effect. Hipstamatic also added a modern interface with the ability to change your “lenses” and “filters” after you have taken the shot. Find one combination you like to create your own shooting style.

Hipstamatic - 9 of the Best Apps to Help You Do Awesome Mobile Phone Photography

Retro Camera – for Android

With Retro Camera you can take Hipstamatic-style images with five cameras, five sets of vintage vignetting, film scratch and cross-processing options.

Creative art apps

Prisma – for IOS and Android

Prisma

Here’s a fun app that will turn your images into works of art in seconds. Lots of different options to create in this app. Each option in Prisma is preset and instant with very little custom editing needed.

9 of the Best Apps to Help You Do Awesome Mobile Phone Photography

Diana – for IOS and Android

This app is an easy way to create double-exposure images in seconds. You can create images by selecting specific photos to combine, or you can randomly let Diana select for you. It works better if you have a vision in mind before working with this app, but sometimes a random selection works as well!

Diana app - 9 of the Best Apps to Help You Do Awesome Mobile Phone Photography

Waterlogue – for IOS and Windows 10 devices

Waterlogue

Create beautiful watercolor style images with Waterlogue. Select from a number of different styles to create your own masterpiece!

waterlogue

Conclusion

The beautiful thing about photography with the smartphone is that it expands your creativity and can even help with your Digital SLR photography. You can use more than one app to create even more customized effects. Take each image through a series of apps before getting the final look you want. You never know where you’re going to end up, and you might just like that.

What are your favorite Smartphone apps? Has it changed the way you shoot with your Digital SLR? Which of these apps is going to become a regular part of your smartphone photography workflow?

The post 9 of the Best Apps to Help You Do Awesome Mobile Phone Photography by Holly Higbee-Jansen appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

Comments Off

Posted in Photography

The D850 is Nikon’s best video camera yet, but it’s not ideal for beginners

23 Oct

What’s it like to use D850 as a video camera?

Despite there being a mirror between the sensor and the thing you’re trying to film, the D850 is a pretty capable video camera

SLRs weren’t really designed for video but, thanks to the pioneering work of the Canon 5D Mark II, it’s increasingly expected to be a feature they offer. Nikon has struggled more than its big rival in this respect, not helped by a reliance on contrast detect AF and a lens mount designed around the assumption that you’d never need to change aperture while taking a shot. It’s also been somewhat held back by not having a camcorder or broadcast equipment division to lean on during the development process.

Despite all these hurdles, the D850 is the company’s most capable video camera yet, with 4K capture taken from the full width of the sensor. But how videographer-friendly is accessing this capability? And, just as importantly for this do-everything super camera, what’s it like to use for stills shooters, such as wedding photographers and photojournalists who’re increasingly being asked to capture clips as well as stills?

Features

Beyond the headline specs: 4K UHD capture from the full sensor width or 1.5x crop and slow mo 1080 from 120 fps capture, Nikon has added a host of features to make video capture easier.

The most obvious of these features is the addition of focus peaking to help indicate the plane of focus as you shoot. As is fairly common, there are three settings for peaking intensity and a choice of four colors. In addition, there’s a zebra-style highlight warning for setting exposure. But, as we’ll see, having a feature and having it well implemented are not always the same thing.

Having a feature and having it well implemented are not always the same thing

Other features include a Flat Picture Control color profile, which uses a low-contrast tone curve to avoid clipping to black as aggressively as the standard stills profiles do. Some users have tried to create Log or psuedo-Log profiles using Nikon’s Picture Control Utility software, but we’ve not had a chance to test any of these yet, and we’ve not heard of any attempts to build LUTs to simplify the grading process.

There are some other nice touches, too. The camera records its starting aperture and ISO setting along with other shooting metadata such as Picture Style and D-Lighting setting with each clip. This is something you take for granted as a stills shooter, but without any widely-adopted equivalent of the EXIF standard, it’s still pretty rare for the kinds of hybrid stills/video cameras we usually encounter.

The experience

The experience doesn’t always live up to the promise that this list of video-friendly features might imply. Sadly, it’s the headline features that fail first.

The D850 has focus peaking but it can’t be used when you’re shooting 4K. Or when you’re using electronic stabilization. Or Slo-Mo mode. Or when you’ve got highlight warnings engaged. Or in combination with Active D-Lighting. Which, in my experience, isn’t that different from not having focus peaking at all.

The highlight warnings are a lot better. They’re easily engaged* via the touchscreen and persist across the different view modes (grid view, histogram, audio meters, virtual horizon) as you cycle through them. They’re fairly simplistic, though, only indicating areas brighter than the threshold, so they can’t be set to indicate regions that are roughly 75% for Caucasian skin tones, for instance. Also, this threshold is specified in 8-bit brightness values, not IRE %, as is more common.

Then, of course, there’s video autofocus, which is every bit as bad as you’d expect of a system designed around contrast detection using lenses that weren’t. It’s jumpy and indecisive, even when asked to pull focus between two stationary objects.

However, the touchscreen access to many key settings is very good, allowing you to adjust the audio capture on-the-fly without the need for any noise or vibration-creating button presses.

Better still is the option to use the two buttons on the camera’s front plate to adjust either exposure compensation (if you’re using Auto ISO to maintain brightness in manual exposure mode) or Power Aperture, the smooth, motor-driven aperture control mode. These buttons are easily accessible as you shoot, without causing too much camera shake.

What does this end up meaning?

For experienced videographers, none of these are issues you can’t work around to one degree or another. Planning shots to minimize the need to refocus or ‘blocking’ a shot so that any movement is predictable are pretty basic techniques. When working this way, using magnified live view or tap-to-focus single AF to set initial focus then using the lens distance scale to judge movement may be enough.

Alternatively, adding on an external recorder will often bring much more powerful versions of Zebra and Peaking tools where the D850 fumbles, as well as features such as waveforms and false color that are vanishingly rare on hybrid cameras anyway.

Videographers are likely to appreciate the features gained from Nikon’s well-polished stills interface

The camera’s HDMI output is limited to an 8-bit 4:2:2 stream, so there won’t be a big hike in quality, but the videographer willing to experiment with homebrew Log-like profiles will no doubt find it a very capable camera. Ultimately, the D850’s video quality is easily good enough to make these sorts of workarounds worthwhile.

Videographers are also likely to appreciate the degree to which the video side of the camera has gained from Nikon’s well-polished stills interface. Hold the ISO button and the rear dial changes ISO while the front toggles Auto ISO, hold the WB button down when one of the camera’s 6 (!) Custom WB values is selected and you can set a new custom value at the tap of the rear controller. It’s pretty slick when you’re out and shooting.

For stills shooters

For the less experienced video shooter the D850 is likely to be quite a handful, though. Without usable autofocus, you’ll need to learn how to manual focus and minimize the need to, to work around the camera’s shortcomings. This makes it challenging for anyone who can’t control or choreograph the action, which is likely to include exactly the sort of wedding photographers and photojournalists who might be attracted to the D850.

However, you won’t need to learn too much about video exposure in order to make use of highlight warnings and the simple aperture control on the camera, beyond basics such as the 180 degree shutter ‘rule.’

This is helped by at least one feature we’ve been requesting for many years: the camera retains two banks of shooting settings, one for stills, one for video. This means you can specify a custom white balance and color profile and choose exposure settings (including ISO behavior) for video, then jump back to your stills settings at a moment’s notice.

In a clever piece of design, you can even define a button let you check your stills settings, while you’re shooting movies, so you need never be caught out. But this two-setting design is perfect for wedding shooters, who can hit the shutter button to shoot a grabbed still, fractions of a second after capturing some video footage, without the risk of everything looking, well, a bit Flat.

It’s also worth noting that the “e-stabilizer” mode that’s available when shooting 1080 footage is very impressive, making on-the-go handheld shooting a realistic proposition. Better still, its resolution is near indistinguishable from the unstabilized variety, so you can shoot both and intercut at will.

Overall, then, there’s a lot to like about the D850 and Nikon deserves recognition for putting a lot of thought and effort into making its video capture better. However, it does little to make video any easier to shoot for video novices in a way that Canon’s Dual Pixel AF system does. For now, at least, you still need to build up plenty of videography experience to work your way around the D850’s wobbly AF and occasional quirks.

*There’s currently a fun glitch by which, if you move to 4K mode but leave focus peaking on, you lose access to all the features it’s incompatible with, such as highlight warnings. There are no clues to why they’re unavailable, you just have to drop back down to 1080 mode, disengage peaking, then move back to 4K to regain access. [Back to text]

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

Comments Off

Posted in Uncategorized

DxOMark: Samsung Galaxy Note 8 ties iPhone 8 Plus as best ever smartphone camera

07 Oct

News that Apple’s new iPhone 8 Plus had suddenly taken the top spot on DxOMark’s smartphone camera rankings was met with the expected range of praise and critique—everything from “of course, iPhone’s are awesome cameras” to “how much did Apple pay DxOMark for this result!?” But it turns out the iPhone 8 Plus’ ranking as the best smartphone camera DxOMark had ever tested didn’t last very long.

As of today, the iPhone 8 Plus has been tied by the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, which significantly bested its Photo score and only tied the iPhone 8 Plus overall because Apple’s smartphone does so much better in the video category.

The full breakdown of the results can be found on DxOMark, but this comparison between the two phones’ scores speaks volumes:

The Photo categories where the Note 8 really outperformed the iPhone include Autofocus (94 vs 74) and Zoom, where the Note 8 got a score of 66 to the iPhone’s 51. DxOMark’s conclusion is appropriately praiseworthy:

When all the tests are verified, the scores calculated, and the perceptual analyses discussed, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 comes out as an outstanding choice for the smartphone photography enthusiast, matching the top overall score of 94 points of the iPhone 8 Plus. Dual-cam setups offering a second telephoto zoom for portraits are a real step forward for high-end smartphone photography, and the implementation on the Note 8 is exceptional, making it the best smartphone for zoom shots we’ve tested.

Read DxO’s full thoughts and see all of their sample and test photos at this link. And if you’re an Android user in need of some serious photography power from you smartphone, the Galaxy Note 8 should definitely make it to the top of your list.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

Comments Off

Posted in Uncategorized

The Nikon D850 is the best camera DxOMark has ever tested, first to hit score of 100

07 Oct

Forget all of those DxOMark Mobile scores, it’s time to talk about “real” cameras again. DxOMark just completed their review of the Nikon D850 and, not entirely surprising, it is officially the best camera DxOMark has ever tested. In fact, it’s the first camera ever to reach a score of 100, pushing the Sony a7R II into second place with its score of 98.

As it stands now, the camera rankings put the Nikon D850 and its predecessor, the D810, in the number 1 and 3 spots.

While the D850 isn’t the best camera DxO has tested across the board, it nevertheless put in top notch performance in every category. “The D850’s key strengths are its outstanding color and dynamic range at base ISO, where it again ranks as the number one among all commercially available cameras we’ve tested for these attributes,” explains DxOMark. If it falls even slightly short in any regard, it’s in the low-light ISO category where its higher resolution starts to sting.

That said, you can’t help but go wide-eyed reading DxOMark’s conclusion. As they say, this camera is “in a class of its own for image quality.”:

The introduction of the first BSI sensor in a full-frame Nikon DSLR with a super-high 45.7Mp resolution puts the Nikon D850’s image quality on par with, and often better than, medium-format cameras. The first DSLR to hit 100 points — rather apt for Nikon’s hundredth anniversary year — puts the Nikon D850 in a class of its own for image quality. At base ISO, it’s unrivaled for color in the DSLR class, and its headline dynamic range score is outstanding, too.

To read the full conclusion—the full review, for that matter—and see how the D850 compares to the competition from Sony and Canon, head over to DxOMark.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

Comments Off

Posted in Uncategorized