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DJI Mavic Air: What you need to know

25 Jan

DJI Mavic Air

This week at an event in New York City DJI introduced its newest drone, the Mavic Air, a foldable model that looks like a mashup between the company’s popular Mavic Pro and diminutive Spark models. There’s a lot to be excited about here, given that it seems to have inherited most of the advanced features from the Mavic Pro while visually resembling the smaller Spark.

Who’s it for? The event’s tagline, ‘Adventure Unfolds’, provides a pretty good hint. DJI is clearly aiming the Mavic Air at travelers, outdoor photographers, and particularly adventurers who plan to go off the beaten track. We expect it to be popular among athletes and adventure filmmakers, though its combination of advanced features in a small package will likely appeal to users of all types.

Size and weight

Above: The folded Mavic Air is actually slightly smaller than the Spark, though it’s still a bit heavier.

The Mavic Air weighs in at a svelte 430 grams (a little less than a pound). That’s a bit heavier than the 300 gram Spark, but substantially lighter than than the larger Mavic Pro (734 grams). Impressive, given that its feature set is much closer to that of the Mavic Pro than the Spark.

Also, when you consider the folding design of the Mavic Air, it’s arguably more portable than the Spark which, while very lightweight, doesn’t benefit from the folding design. Unless cost is a deciding factor, it would be hard not to choose the Mavic Air if portability is your priority.

Camera and gimbal

The Mavic Air uses the same 12MP 1/2.3″ CMOS sensor as the Mavic Pro, so it’s reasonable to expect similar image quality at the sensor level, though some miniaturization was required to fit the camera onto such a small drone.

The Air has a 24mm (equiv.) F2.8 lens, providing a 85º FOV. That’s a bit slower than the Mavic Pro, which has a 28mm F2.2 lens with a 79º FOV. In this respect, the Air’s camera has more in common with the Spark, which has a 25mm F2.6 lens and a 82º FOV.

Despite its very small size, the gimbal is a 3-axis design rather than the 2-axis design found on the Spark. That’s a good thing. In our review of the Spark we called out the 2-axis gimbal as one of that model’s weak points. DJI tells us that it put a lot of effort into the design of the gimbal on the Mavic Air, building in multiple layers of vibration reduction and creating a recessed casing that protects the camera. It also claims that it’s the smallest camera mounted on a 3-axis gimbal on the market.

Still photography

The Mavic Air has a lot for still photographers to like. It has the same 12MP sensor as the Mavic Pro and Spark, however unlike the Spark the Air supports Raw image capture in DNG format. Lack of Raw support was one of our major cons when we reviewed the Spark, and we know that it was a showstopper for a lot of photographers who otherwise liked that model. With the Air, there’s now an option for a tiny drone that does shoot Raw, and we anticipate that it will be a product that motivates many photographers to take the leap into the world of drones.

In addition to Raw capture, the Air can capture vertical, horizontal, and 180º panoramas. It will also create very high resolution 32MP spherical panoramas, which it does by automatically shooting 25 still images and stitching them together in about 8 seconds. A built-in HDR function is available for shooting scenes with high dynamic range.

We know a lot of photographers were hoping for a 1″-type sensor similar to the one found on the Phantom 4 Pro/Advanced models. As much as we love the idea ourselves, it’s probably an unrealistic expectation for a drone of this size, especially considering DJI’s focus on making the Mavic Air as compact as possible.

Video

The Mavic Air has impressive video capabilities, and even outperforms both the Mavic Pro and Spark in this area. It captures UHD 4K/30p with a 100Mbps H.264 codec, similar to the more expensive Phantom 4 Pro/Advanced. Unlike those models, however, it doesn’t provide the option to record in the newer HEVC (H.265) codec that retains more detail at a similar bit rate.

In the event that slow motion video is needed, the Mavic Air also captures 2.7K/60p, as well as 1080/120p.

Controller

The included controller works with a smartphone and operates at a range up to 4km / 2.5mi. It appears visually similar to the Mavic Pro and Spark controllers, but unlike those models DJI designed the Air’s controller to be as compact as possible for transport. It’s even possible to remove the flight control sticks if necessary to fit into a very tight space. This should be a welcome feature to adventurers who may want to stuff the Air into a backpack full of other equipment, such as climbing gear and ropes, without risking damage or taking up any more space than absolutely necessary.

Gesture control

Gesture control is a feature that the Mavic Air inherits from it’s smaller sibling, the Spark, which can be used to control the drone using hand motions. This is particularly useful if you’re trying to film yourself while doing an activity, such as climbing or kayaking, in which your hands are occupied with other tasks. (Or, for that matter, when you just don’t want the controller in your shot.)

In our review of the Spark we noted that gesture control was a very hit or miss experience. DJI tells us that the gesture control system on the Mavic Air has been ‘significantly improved’ and has more precision and reliability. Based on our hands-on experience with the Air at DJI’s launch event, we’re inclined to believe this. It seemed much more responsive to our gestures and didn’t hesitate to respond to our commands. We’ll give it a more rigorous test in our full review, but signs are good. Gesture control should work at distances up to 5.8m / 19ft.

One additional useful feature when using gesture control is the obstacle avoidance system; you won’t have to worry about accidentally backing the drone into something if it mis-reads your gestures.

Obstacle avoidance

Above: Obstacle avoidance sensors on the Mavic Air.

Obstacle avoidance is becoming a more common feature on drones, and the Mavic Air has a very comprehensive system, including dual forward, downward, and backward cameras. While not foolproof, obstacle avoidance makes it much less likely that you’ll accidentally run your drone into a barn. We know it sounds kind of funny, but it does happen and can be an expensive mistake.

This feature is useful for other reasons as well, such as when you (or your aircraft) invoke the ‘return to home’ function. With obstacle avoidance, your drone is more likely to actually make it.

Advanced Pilot Awareness System (APAS)

In addition to obstacle avoidance, the Mavic Air goes a step further with a feature DJI calls ‘Flight Autonomy 2.0’, which conducts real-time positioning by building a 3D map of the environment around the aircraft.

This 3D mapping supports DJI’s ‘Advanced Pilot Awareness System’ (or APAS), which provides more sophisticated obstacle avoidance. Instead of simply stopping in its tracks when an obstacle is detected, APAS will plan a path to bypass or go around obstacles, allowing the drone to continue on its course.

Intelligent flight modes

One of the more useful features on DJI’s drones is its ActiveTrack technology. ActiveTrack follows a moving subject while allowing the pilot to focus on getting the right shot, and often results in more cinematic looking footage. However, it’s not infallible and will often lose a subject.

DJI claims that ActiveTrack on the Mavic Air is much more precise than on previous models, and notes that it now has the ability to detect multiple subjects simultaneously. (We’re not sure what will happen when those subject go in opposite directions, but we’ll make sure to test that when we review the product.) Also, thanks to APAS, the Air will be able to follow subjects more effectively thanks to the drone’s ability to navigate around obstacles.

Intelligent flight modes

Above: ‘Asteroid mode’ begins with a spherical panorama and zooms in.

In addition to improved ActiveTrack technology, DJI has introduced two new intelligent flight modes called ‘Asteroid mode’ and ‘Boomerang mode’.

Asteroid mode creates a sort of hybrid clip in which a spherical panorama zooms in to a short video clip. Boomerang mode does pretty much what its name suggests, flying up and away from a subject before returning, creating an interesting cinematic effect.

Animated GIF showing ‘Boomerang mode’ in action.

Memory and connections

Like most drones, the Mavic Air stores photos and video on a microSD card. However, it also includes 8GB of built-in onboard storage. This is a thoughtful addition, and any drone pilot who has been flying for a while has probably had at least one experience of arriving on location only to discover an empty memory card slot. Having some amount of built-in memory could save the day. This is particularly true given the Air’s target audience of adventurers, many of whom may be a long way from their car when discovering their mistake.

The Mavic Air also adopts the newer USB-C standard for connecting to other devices.

Battery

The Mavic Air’s battery provides 21 minutes of flight time. That’s quite a bit less than the Mavic Pro (27 minutes), but five minutes more than the Spark (16 minutes). However, considering that it’s more similar in weight to the Spark it seems to be a reasonable compromise, and extra batteries are relatively small.

Speaking of extra batteries, if you want to add some to your kit they’ll run you $ 79 each. DJI also sells a battery charging hub for the Air that charges up to four batteries in sequence according to their power levels. At $ 49 it seems like a very useful accessory.

Performance

The Mavic Air has an operational ceiling of 5000m / 16,404 ft. It’s unlikely to be a critical factor for most people, but adventure filmmakers documenting mountaineers will probably take all the altitude they can get. DJI is quick to point out that the Mavic Air is the fastest Mavic to date, with a top speed of 42.5 Mph in Sport mode. Is that important? Possibly. If you’re shooting a bicyclist barreling down a hill at breakneck speed it’s likely helpful, though maybe not so much if you’re filming someone canoeing across a glassy pond.

Colors

The Mavic Air is available in three impressively descriptive colors: Arctic White, Onyx Black, and Flame Red. Take your pick.

We were a bit disappointed to discover that there’s no option for DPReview Blue, but we’ll mention this to the folks at DJI so they’ll remember next time around…

Availability

The Mavic Air costs $ 799 in the standard package, which includes a protective case, propeller guards, and a remote control. A ‘Fly More’ combo that includes an additional set of propellers, two extra batteries, a folding charging hub that charges two batteries, and a shoulder pack will be available for $ 999.

It’s possible to pre-order the Mavic Air immediately, with shipments and retail availability expected beginning on January 28.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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This ‘metalens’ breakthrough may revolutionize lenses as we know them

05 Jan
Image credit: Jared Sisler/Harvard SEAS

Until recently, metalenses—flat ‘lenses’ that can focus light using nanopillars on their surface—were a cool-but-limited area of study when it came to photography. Sure, these flat lenses are 100,000x thinner than glass, but they could only work with a limited range of colors, making it unlikely they’d appear in a cameras module any time soon.

That all changed this week, however, when a team at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) announced that they had succeeded in developing the first metalens that can focus the entire spectrum of visible light, including white light, onto a single point in high resolution.

This is a huge breakthrough, and a big leap forward from the same teams’ announcement last February that they had managed to focus all the colors from blue to green.

Image credit: Jared Sisler/Harvard SEAS

The research was published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, where the team describes a metalens that uses “an arrays of titanium dioxide nanofins to equally focus wavelengths of light and eliminate chromatic aberration.” In other words: where a traditional lens needs multiple curved glass elements of varying thicknesses to focus the entire spectrum of visible light onto a single point, this flat metalens does the exact same thing using nano structures.

The details of how this is achieved can get a bit complicated—involving how they pair and space the ‘nanofins’ on the metalens itself—but the result is easy enough to understand: an achromatic flat lens that comes with three very big advantages over traditional glass lenses, as the paper’s lead author Federico Capasso explains:

Metalenses are thin, easy to fabricate and cost effective. This breakthrough extends those advantages across the whole visible range of light. This is the next big step.

The next step for the SEAS team is to make the lens bigger; they’re aiming for 1cm in diameter. In the meantime, Harvard has already licensed the tech to a startup for commercial development, so a real-world product that uses these metalenses might not be as far off as you might imagine.

To learn more, or dive into the research paper itself, head over to the SEAS website or read the full paper in Nature Nanotechnology.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How to Know What to do and Where to Start with Photo Editing in Photoshop

16 Dec

Do you struggle to know what to do with your images in post-processing? Do you know where to start with photo editing? Can you relate to this?

Before and after photo editing.

I recently received a message for help from another photographer, “I’m so frustrated with Photoshop. I don’t know what to do or where to even start!?!?” So I asked, “What’s the plan? What are you trying to achieve?” His reply, “I’m not sure…”.

The uncomfortable truth is that we’ve all been there. Staring at Photoshop wondering which of its tools will achieve the look we’re so desperately trying to replicate. You try clicking on every button, using every tool and creating 1000 different layers to add complexity to your image under the illusion that this will instantly make it awesome.

Frustrated, you give up. And if you’re anything like me, you probably walk into the kitchen, open the pantry and look for answers inside a packet of cookies.

This overwhelming hurdle of frustration can cause you to stumble, fall out of love with editing and certainly begin to make everything feel too hard and unachievable. In this tutorial, I’ll show you a very simple technique that will have you soaring over this hurdle so you can continue on your journey to craft beautiful images.

After some thoughtful and carefully planned out photo editing.

It’s all in the preparation

It doesn’t take long for the process of editing in Photoshop to feel chaotic.

It’s easy to take a look at your photo and instantly get to work by creating a layer on top of layer targeting all sorts of adjustments as you see them. Add a bit of contrast here, some brightness there, sharpen this up and blur that… It’s fast. It’s reactive.

Before you know it, you’ll have curves in places you didn’t know you had and more level adjustments than an ergonomic office chair.

You may find yourself stumbling your way through the edit, the process will probably feel a little clunky but you’ll be somewhat happy with the outcome until you click on the next photo. Where the whole process starts again and you don’t know what to do, where to start, and worst of all – you’ve run out of cookies.

What happens if we remove the chaos?

Creating beautiful images is a craft. And much like any craft, a lot of unsexy work goes into the preparation before the fun stuff starts happening.

  • Landscape photographers spend their time scouting locations, researching where the sun will set (or rise) and studying the weather before they venture out at 4 am to capture the magic.
  • Quality chefs spend hours sourcing and preparing their ingredients before they serve their masterpieces.
  • Painters clean, dust and prime their brushes and canvas before bringing their vision to life.
  • Authors spend hours creating a structure and a content plan before putting pen to paper.
  • Builders draw up blueprints and intricate floor plans before laying bricks and building houses.

Preparation is the key to delivering the best possible final version of your craft. Preparation sets up the foundations from which you can begin to form consistency and style, and it helps you focus and stay on track.

So, what does preparation look like?

Well, just like a builder doesn’t turn up to a site and randomly lay bricks to build a house, or a Michelin-star chef doesn’t turn up on a night of service and create a menu from what’s laying around in the cupboards. You, as a photographer and image editor, should try to avoid randomly plowing your way through Lightroom or Photoshop, aimlessly slapping on layers and adjustments without creating a plan that details what you are trying to achieve.

So, when you approach your image – you know what to edit, where to start and what you’re doing. There is no chaos – it’s systematic and as a result, you’re cool, collected, and methodical.

Pfffft! Who has time to plan!?

It’s easy to become frustrated with Lightroom and Photoshop. And it’s even easier to buy your way out of it with presets and actions. I get it, you want rapid results, you want to see instant progress, you don’t want to stop, think and plan – you just want to do.

The truth is, editing beautiful images is a craft. It’s something to take pride in. It’s the final step for you to infuse your images with your personality and style before you share your work with your clients and followers. Therefore, sometimes it’s a good idea to give the editing process a little more love and care than the press of a button.

Doing so can be the difference between your clients and friends thinking, “Oh that’s nice…” and saying “Oh my! That’s AMAZING! Can I order a copy!?”

So, if you want to know how to build something beautiful — something with craftsmanship, something you’re proud of, something that your audience will love – spend time on the preparation stage and create a plan for your edits. The reality is, it takes a little more effort than pressing a preset button. Here’s how you can make a simple plan.

Step #1 – Load Photoshop

Open your image in Photoshop. You can do this from within Photoshop by navigating to FILE > OPEN and selecting your image. Alternatively, you can load your image into Photoshop from within your Lightroom Library. Do this by right-clicking on your photo inside your Lightroom Library and navigate to EDIT IN > EDIT IN ADOBE PHOTOSHOP.

1 Open Image Photoshop - How to Know What to do and Where to Start with Photo Editing in Photoshop

Step #2 – Convert to Black and White

To establish what to edit and where to start with your image, it’s helpful to begin by temporarily removing the distraction of color. This strips back the information and makes it easier for your eyes to clearly see what is going on inside your image. Convert your image to black and white using the Adjustment Layer menu and navigating to Black and White.

BlackandWhite Adjustment Layer -How to Know What to do and Where to Start with Photo Editing in Photoshop

Photoshop BlackandWhite Conversion - How to Know What to do and Where to Start with Photo Editing in Photoshop

Step #3 – What do you see?

Ensure that you can see the entire image on your screen. At this stage, you’re only taking a high-level look at your image to get an idea of what catches your eye. Navigate to VIEW > FIT ON SCREEN then hold down CMD (Mac) or CTRL (PC) + press the minus key (-) a couple times to zoom out of the image.

While looking at your image ask yourself these questions.

  • What story is the photo trying to tell?
  • Where do your eyes get drawn to first?
  • Where do your eyes go next?
  • What elements enhance the story?
  • Which elements weaken the story?

There’s no need to write an in-depth analysis here. Spend a few seconds on each question and listen to your instincts. What you are trying to do is look at your image from the viewer’s perspective and establish whether or not they are seeing what you want them to see.

Controlling the attention of your viewer’s eye is crucial to a good photo. It’s about leading them on an uninterrupted journey so they can soak up all the goodness of the story within your image.

Have you ever tried to read a book or watch a movie while someone is talking to you? It’s distracting, you disengage from the story and lose focus. The same applies to your eyes when you look at a photo. Eyes are easily distracted and the moment this happens you’ll lose your viewer’s attention and the story breaks down. Eliminating these distractions is key to creating stronger images.

Take a look at your image. As you do so, make a note of the areas, objects, and elements that your eyes are naturally drawn to and settle on. Typically, these areas will be the brightest parts of the image and areas with the most amount of contrast or sharpness. It’s your job to determine whether or not these areas enhance the story or distract the viewer’s attention and therefore weaken the story.

In the next step, we’ll take a look at this example image and establish the distractions so we can create a simple editing plan.

4 Thailand Boat Man Before - How to Know What to do and Where to Start with Photo Editing in Photoshop

Step #4 – Creating your plan

Create a new layer and rename it “Notes”. On this layer, you can use the brush tool to mark-up the areas of your image that you want to pay attention to based on your answers from step #3.

5 Photoshop Notes Layer - How to Know What to do and Where to Start with Photo Editing in Photoshop

The example image is trying to tell the story of a Thai man taking his boat out on the water for a snorkel while trying to keep cool in the harsh midday sun. However, you may find that your eyes are distracted by the flapping black strap, the rope, and what appears to be a random metal pole protruding into the frame.

Mark any distractions and things to remove or hide

With your notes layer selected, use a brightly colored brush to circle the distractions, adding them to your plan. You can also use the Type tool to clarify your thoughts so you don’t forget what your markups are referring to when you go to edit them later.

6 Remove Distractions - How to Know What to do and Where to Start with Photo Editing in Photoshop

7 Reduce Highlight - How to Know What to do and Where to Start with Photo Editing in Photoshop

Mark elements you want to bring more attention to

Continue to let your eyes explore the image and mark-up the elements that enhance the story. In the example image, you’ll notice that the subject is wearing a nice pair of sunglasses and that his face is a little dark. Drawing the viewer’s attention to this area will most definitely enhance the story.

8 Lighten Face Enhance Shades - How to Know What to do and Where to Start with Photo Editing in Photoshop

The example image uses a lot of horizontal leading lines such as the horizon, the edge of the boat, and the canopy. While these are effective at leading your eye across the image towards the subject, you don’t want them to be too effective and allow your viewer’s eyes to continue along those lines and off the image.

A good way to prevent this from happening is to darken the right side of the photo. This will help to control the viewer’s focus by bouncing it back into the frame and onto the subject.

9 Darken Edges - How to Know What to do and Where to Start with Photo Editing in Photoshop

Another element of this example that could potentially enhance the story is the light source. Adding a sun or lens flare may help to add some interest and balance out any adjustments made to the subject’s face and sunglasses.

10 Add Flare - How to Know What to do and Where to Start with Photo Editing in Photoshop

View the image in color again

When you are finished exploring the image and marking-up your notes, it’s a good idea to disable the Black and White adjustment layer you created in step #2 and take a look at the image in full color. As you do so, ask yourself whether the colors you see align and enhance your story or weaken it?

It’s likely that you’ll find one or two additional distractions in the form of color. These might be objects of a particular color that don’t align with the mood of your story or perhaps an overall color cast that you might want to remove or enhance.

In the example image, you can see that disabling the Black and White Adjustment Layer reveals a bright pink object that causes a distraction.

11 Desaturate Pink - How to Know What to do and Where to Start with Photo Editing in Photoshop

Finally, we can work with the overall color of the image to align with the story. Given that the example image is telling a story about a man trying to keep cool under the hot summer sun, adding a subtle warm-to-cool color tone may help to convey the story and pull the image together.

12 Colour Transition - How to Know What to do and Where to Start with Photo Editing in Photoshop

Step #5 – Create a Group

When you are finished making your notes it’s time to group them all together. You can do this by clicking on your Black and White adjustment layer, holding down the SHIFT key on your keyboard and clicking on your NOTES layer (and any other Type layers that you may have created).

13 Shift Click Group - How to Know What to do and Where to Start with Photo Editing in Photoshop

With your layers selected, click on the Group icon to put all of your selected layers into a new group. You can then rename the group to “Edit Plan”.

14 Edit Plan Group - How to Know What to do and Where to Start with Photo Editing in Photoshop

With your editing plan in place, you can now systematically work your way through the image. If at any point during your edit you begin to feel a little distracted, lost, or overwhelmed, just refer to your editing plan to get right back on track.

Here you can see the example image post-edit with minimal distractions. You may notice that your eye settles on the subject’s face a lot quicker than they did before, and it’s easier to absorb the story without the distracting elements.

Before

Before

15 Thailand Boat Man After - How to Know What to do and Where to Start with Photo Editing in Photoshop

After

Conclusion

Spending just a few minutes marking-up your photos and creating a plan can have enormous results. It tells you what to edit and where to start, and it provides clarity when the editing fog starts to settle in.

Yes, it takes a little more time and perhaps it’s not for every image. But if you want to create something with craftsmanship, something beautiful, something your clients and audience will love – it’s worth every second.

So, I encourage you to spend a little time planning your edits the next time you open up an image in Photoshop. Try to resist the temptation to join the trigger-happy chaos – instead, stop for a minute. Spend twice the time on the preparation, be clear on what you want to achieve, and craft something you’re proud of.

The post How to Know What to do and Where to Start with Photo Editing in Photoshop by William Palfrey appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Panasonic Lumix G9: What you need to know

08 Nov

Panasonic Lumix G9: What you need to know

The new Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 is a flagship interchangeable lens camera aimed primarily at stills photographers. Sitting alongside the video-centric GH5 in Panasonic’s high-end Micro Four Thirds lineup, the G9 is designed for speed, durability, and versatility. Between using one for a few days and digging into its lengthy spec sheet, here’s what we think you need to know about it.

Same 20.3MP sensor as GH5

The G9 features the same 20.3MP CMOS sensor as the GH5, capable of a maximum output of 5184 x 3888 pixels. As such, baseline performance in stills mode should be very good indeed. Panasonic did a lot of work with the GH5 to improve JPEG image quality over earlier generations and despite being a video-oriented camera, the GH5 compared well with competitive models from the likes of Olympus and Fujifilm.

Revamped JPEG engine

The really good news is that Panasonic’s engineers didn’t stop with the improvements they made in the GH5. As a stills-focused flagship, the G9 has been further tweaked, with improved color and noise reduction in JPEG mode. We were pretty happy with JPEGs from the GH5, but the improvements in the G9 are obvious. Organic textures are rendered more naturally, and images taken at medium / high ISO sensitivities look better, thanks to more intelligent noise reduction.

Large, high-resolution EVF

The G9’s OLED viewfinder is really something. A resolution of 3.86 million dots (equiv) and 120 fps refresh rate means that it’s detailed and contrasty, and with an equivalent maximum magnification of 0.83X (in full-frame camera terms) it’s enormous, too – and very immersive. Looking through the G9’s finder, it’s easy to forget that it uses a Micro Four Thirds sensor. If the viewfinder image is too big for you (for instance if you wear reading / sunglasses) the magnification can be dialed back to 0.77X or 0.7X if/when required.

Obviously, being a mirrorless camera, a full range of shooting information and various shooting aids (like focus peaking, an electronic level etc.) are available in the G9’s viewfinder, just as they are on the rear LCD.

20fps burst shooting with AF-C

The G9’s conventional mechanical shutter tops out at 9 fps with AF-C, but shifting to a fully electronic shutter ups that to an impressive 20 frames per second. If this still isn’t fast enough for you, the G9 can also shoot at a maximum rate of 60 fps using its electronic shutter with focus locked.

For best performance, you’ll want to install a UHS-II Class 3 (U3) SD card. The G9 offers two card slots, both of which support the UHS-II standard.

4k/60p video

The G9 isn’t meant to replace the GH5 and cannot match that model’s professional video features, but despite the focus on still imaging, its video feature set is still pretty solid. The headline feature is 4K/60p video at a maximum bitrate of 150Mbps but other features, like focusing peaking, zebra stripes and flicker reduction are good to see, and should make the G9 useful for multimedia professionals as well as casual or occasional video shooters.

Encouragingly, the G9’s autofocus in video mode seems much improved over previous models and less prone to ‘hunting’. In the words of our very own technical editor Rishi Sanyal, this makes autofocus in video mode ‘usable’. High praise indeed, as anyone who knows him will tell you.

4K / 6K photo

The G9 also offers 4K and 6K photo modes, which essentially capture high-resolution stills images as video frames, at up to 30fps (6K) and 60fps (4K). Effective resolution is 18MP for 6K photo files and 8MP in 4K photo mode. Panasonic claims that the Venus Engine 10 processor enables more effective ‘Post Recording Refinement’ to improve image quality in 4K/6K photo modes, by reducing noise and rolling shutter effect.

80mp high-res shot mode

Among the most interesting features to emerge into the consumer and professional stills camera market in the past few years have been the various sensor-shift modes, offered by the likes of Olympus and Pentax, aimed at increasing resolution (in one way or another). The G9 joins the club with an 80MP high-resolution shot mode (with JPEG and Raw output) which works by shifting the 20MP sensor by half-pixel increments, eight times – and then combining the exposures into a single, high-resolution image.

We haven’t been able to give this feature a proper try-out yet, but we’d expect it to offer the same benefits as the similar mode built into Olympus’s high-end Micro Four Thirds cameras. At the very least, it should offer a very useful resolution boost for still life and product photography. We’re hopeful that capture is fast enough to also make it useful for landscape work, assuming minimal or no movement within the scene.

6.5 stops of image stabilization

No – that’s not a typo. The G9’s 5-axis system is rated to offer image stabilization to the tune of 6.5 stops of correction, with short lenses and/or longer lenses, in combination with optical stabilization. We’ve been very impressed with improvements made to image stabilization in recent Panasonic and Olympus M43 cameras, and the G9 continues this trend.

To put this in perspective, 6.5 stops of correction means that you should be able to hand-hold a 100mm (equiv) lens at shutter speeds of slightly longer than a quarter of a second. Watch this space for some real-world test results.

Improved DFD autofocus

Panasonic’s clever Depth-from-Defocus (DFD) technology delivers impressively fast and accurate autofocus – including tracking – considering that it’s a pure contrast-detection AF system. In the G9, Panasonic claims that this 225-point system has been further improved compared to the GH5. In addition to various automatic AF area modes, an AF joystick is nicely positioned for use by the right thumb, and the G9’s 1.04 million-dot rear LCD can be used as a touch panel for AF point positioning with your eye to the viewfinder, if required.

Professional build quality

The G9 is built to be a flagship stills camera and as such it offers excellent build quality, with dust and moisture-sealing and a cold weather performance rating down to -10°C (14°F). Designed for use outdoors and in tough conditions, the quality of the G9’s die-cast magnesium alloy construction is obvious as soon as you pick it up. Less tangible, but a time-honored shorthand for durability is the G9’s shutter rating, which like many professional DSLRs should withstand (at least) 200,000 cycles.

USB 3.0 and Bluetooth LE / WiFi

Like the GH5, the G9 features a USB 3.0 interface, but via a conventional Micro-B-type connector, rather than USB C. Not quite as versatile, but probably more practical for the stills photographers at whom the G9 is being aimed. The G9 can be charged via USB and powered from it, too – increasing the camera’s versatility when tethered or used remotely. Bluetooth LE 4.2 and Wi-Fi (5GH) is also built-in, for connection to smart devices.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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5 Camera Settings Every New Photographer Needs to Know

26 Oct

The first time you pick up a camera it can be pretty confusing. With all the bells and whistles crammed inside even entry-level DSLRs nowadays, knowing where to start is anyone’s guess. Teaching yourself, through trial and error, is one of the best means-tested ways to come to grips with your camera and learn how to use it. But sometimes that takes a while, so here are some of the camera settings that I think every photographer needs to know about when they get their hands on a DSLR.

1. Live View Stops Mirror Slap

That satisfying, reassuring “clunk” sound you hear when you press the shutter button isn’t actually the shutter firing on the camera. In fact, that is the mirror moving up and down to expose the sensor to the world. But that relatively aggressive motion of the mirror can introduce camera shake into your images.

It’s something you might notice if you’re shooting a long exposure, but there’s an easy way around it. Switch the camera into Live View mode, forcing the mirror to raise permanently (until you turn off that mode) so that you can see the image on the LCD screen. This means that when you do actually press the button, only the shutter itself is moving – no need to worry about that mirror thudding up and down anymore.

Long exposures are better shot in Live View. 5 Camera Settings Every New Photographer Needs to Know

2. Auto ISO and Manual Mode Helps You Learn

Lots of photographers stay in Automatic mode because of the fear of missing images when they switch to Manual mode. To remove this fear, try shooting in Manual mode with Auto ISO enabled. This means that the camera is still in control of one of the three factors affecting exposure (aperture, shutter speed, and ISO) so that it can balance out the settings with the ISO. But now you get to control the aperture and shutter speed yourself, changing them around to see what effect they will have on your photo.

5 Camera Settings Every New Photographer Needs to Know

Use Manual mode and Auto ISO to experiment safely with the other camera settings.

Try slowing down the shutter speed, or narrowing the aperture of the lens, safe in the knowledge that auto ISO will do a pretty good job at balancing the exposure (unless you slow your shutter down a lot). Being able to experiment freely like this will help you to get a practical knowledge of the exposure triangle and how it works.

3. Disable Area Autofocus Modes

The first thing you should do is disable any Area (zone) Autofocus modes. This is where the camera picks and chooses where it focuses, as it will rarely be at the point you would want. Instead, try using single-point focus. This allows you to be precise and line-up the black square over the target area in the scene.

5 Camera Settings Every New Photographer Needs to Know

Here I used single-point focus to nail the focus on the eye.

If you were taking a photo of a dog, for example, it’s much better to focus on the eyes than to rely on the camera to find that spot for you. Most likely, the camera would be focused on the end of the dog’s nose – not very good for an impactful shot.

4. Mute Your Camera

As a wildlife photographer, one of the really annoying things to hear in a quiet hide or nature reserve is the beep of someone’s camera. Whenever I get a new camera, it’s not long before I dive into the menu and disable all of the autofocus beeps, menu selection beeps, and any other noises the camera might feel so inclined to make.

5 Camera Settings Every New Photographer Needs to Know

Mute your camera to avoid disturbing sensitive animals – or people!

Not only is it pretty pointless, it could alert an animal to your presence! So, wildlife photographers, don’t do it.

5. Pay Attention to the White Balance Setting

The White Balance setting is one that can totally transform your images in a second, but it’s one that most people ignore for quite a while and just leave in auto mode.

If you’re shooting in JPEG file format, and not raw, then the White Balance choice you make in the camera does matter. If you’re shooting raw, you can adjust this later during post-production.

5 Camera Settings Every New Photographer Needs to Know

Adjust your white balance for proper color replication.

Why not Auto White Balance? I find that it never gets things right. Colors always look much flatter and dull, whereas the daylight or cloudy presets add an immediate punch to your shot. Try it, and you’ll probably find things really do change for the better.

You can also look at the manual White Balance setting (measured in degrees Kelvin) if you want to have a much more fine-tuned control over this setting.

Summary

Hopefully, these five tips will help you to navigate through the minefield that is a new DSLR camera. There are of course so many more things to know – and that’s where Digital Photography School can help you, of course. But these are some things that I think will make life easier for you as a new DSLR user.

Let me know in the comments if you have any other great tips or camera settings for new DSLR users!

The post 5 Camera Settings Every New Photographer Needs to Know by Will Nicholls appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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What you need to know about Sony’s a7R III

26 Oct

Introduction

The a7R III is Sony’s latest high resolution camera, which carries over many of the improvements found on the company’s flagship a9. The 42.4MP sensor itself hasn’t changed from the Mark II, but virtually everything else wired into it has. This allows for faster burst shooting, improved autofocus and higher quality 4K video. Some important user interface and ergonomic changes, inspired by the a9, have also made the transition.

Same sensor, better performance

The a7R III uses the same full-frame 42.MP BSI CMOS sensor as its predecessor, though improved readout circuitry lowers the already low read noise, improving dynamic range.

Sony promises a slight improvement in rolling shutter, but not to the level as the a9, so the a7R III didn’t earn the ‘Anti-distortion shutter’ designation.

While the hybrid autofocus continues to offer 399 phase-detect points, there are now 425 contrast-detect points, up from 25 on the a7R II.

From a9 (hardware)

Several items found on the body a9 have thankfully migrated to the a7R III. They include its brilliant 3.69M-dot OLED EVF with incredible contrast and resolution, a joystick for selecting an AF point, an AF-On button and a flash sync port. (The a7R III flash sync speed is 1/250 sec.). Also added is the a9’s ‘C3’ button to the left of the ‘Menu’ button on the camera’s back, and the ability to assign a button to ‘Protect/Rate’ in Playback. This should make it much easier to quickly select images from bursts in camera. Bursts can even be grouped during playback for faster image viewing and selection.

The rear thumb dial on the back plate of the camera has been updated as well from the Mark II to be heftier, with better haptic feedback and less accidental input – just like the one on the a9.

On the memory card front, the Mark III now has two SDHC card slots instead of one on the Mark II. One of the slots supports UHS-II media while the other sticks to UHS-I.

From a9 (firmware)

There are some nice improvements on the software side, as well. Sony says that autofocus is up to two times faster than the Mark II. Low light performance is now rated down to -3 EV with a F2 lens, meaning the a7R III should offer similar low light AF performance to the a9 – a stop better than the Mark II. AF algorithms have been refined, with more ‘tenacious’ subject tracking and improved Eye AF. We’re hoping this means that Eye AF is more prone to stick to your original subject (per the a9), rather than randomly jump between detected faces as with the a7R II. Eye AF is still laggy when shooting bursts though, much like the original a7R II.

Also new is the helpful Touchpad AF feature, which lets you use the LCD to move the focus point while your eye is to the viewfinder. Movement can be absolute (you’re picking a point on the frame) or relative (to the current focus point). You can also restrict the active area to certain parts of the screen. Our first impression is that Touchpad AF seems rather over-sensitive, jumping almost uncontrollably around the screen.

While Sony didn’t make a big deal about it, the a7R III should also inherit the a9’s Improved JPEG color and noise reduction. Today, Sony’s JPEG engine renders some of the finest detail we’ve seen amongst cameras, even at high ISO. But JPEG color still remains a point of contention.

From a9: Battery!

For both stills and video shooters, perhaps the biggest news is that Sony has found room for the larger NP-FZ100 battery used in the a9. This required a complete redesign of the body, including a slightly modified grip, but it means a huge boost in battery life. If you’re using the LCD, expect 650 shots per charge (which is the ‘official’ CIPA number), and 530 shots with the EVF. Compare that to the 290 shot CIPA rating the Mark II received. Color us impressed.

An optional battery grip, the same VG-C3EM model as the a9 uses, doubles battery life, so you’ll get up to 1300 shots.

Entirely new

There are a couple of things that are a7R III ‘originals’. The first is a redesigned low vibration shutter mechanism, which allows 10 fps bursts without the risk of ‘shutter shock.’ It also allows for the 1/250 sec flash sync mentioned earlier. With the proper strobes, you can even get up to 10 fps shots with flash – something even an a9 won’t do (it’s capped at 5 fps with flash, since that’s its maximum mechanical shutter rate).

The camera has two USB ports. The first is USB 3.1 with Type C connector (found on modern smartphones and newer Apple laptops), which allows tethering and battery charging. A more traditional micro USB jack is available which supports existing remotes and external battery packs.

Responding to user feedback, Sony has added the ability to enter the menus while the camera is writing to a memory card. YES!

Video

Better processing means improved detail and lower noise in both full-frame and Super 35 crop mode 4K. The real standout footage, as before, should be the Super 35 4K, since it’s oversampled.

The AF algorithms in video have also been improved and are more resistant to refocusing off to the background. That’s a huge improvement over the Mark II, and means many casual users can leave the camera in complete auto AF area mode (‘Wide’) with Face Detection on and expect precisely focused 4K footage.

If you’re looking for a simple ‘tap-to-track-subject’ mode a la most other manufacturers, you’re still out of luck. The camera unfortunately still has the old outdated ‘Center Lock-On AF’ mode, which you’ll have to turn on to enable ‘tap-to-track’ functionality. Once it’s on, you can tap anywhere on the screen and it’ll put a box around your subject and track it. It doesn’t work as well as Lock-on AF modes in stills in our experience, and it’s still unfortunate that you have to engage this mode to get ‘tap-to-track’ – a functionality you’d just expect out of the box by default. Furthermore, you’ll have to remember to turn ‘Center Lock-on’ off when you switch back to stills mode, since it’s not a mode you’ll ever want to be used and can be accidentally triggered by a touch of the touchscreen.

New video functionality

This one is kind of huge: there are now separate function button configurations for stills and movie modes. By default the movie mode functions are set to ‘As in Stills mode’ but this can be edited, per button, to ensure you have access to the settings you need for both situations. We’ve been asking for this for a long time, as video needs often differ drastically from stills needs, so this is a welcome change. We’d still like to see totally separate settings banks for video vs. stills – where each mode remembers your last used settings – but this is a start in the right direction.

The a7R III now supports S-Log 3 / S-Gamut 3, which offer even flatter profiles to make use of camera’s full dynamic range. Also new is support for Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG), which allows you to view wide dynamic capture on HDR displays, without any post-processing required. Newer displays allow HDR capture to appear less ‘flat’, since HDR displays have a wide range of tones they can reproduce. The ‘flat’ log capture is automatically expanded to the full capability of the display so your high contrast capture look high contrast on-screen, without blown highlights or blocked shadows.

HDR display of HDR capture will become increasingly important in the stills world, as it is already in the video world, so we’re glad to see Sony taking this new movement seriously in even their prosumer cameras.

Multi-shot mode

This mode, similar to that on Olympus and Pentax cameras, shoots four uncompressed Raws, which must be later processed in Sony’s Imaging Edge software to combine them into a .ARQ file, which can then be adjusted. Both Olympus and Pentax do this in-camera.

The benefits of Multi-shot mode are an increase in color resolution (since each pixel has its own red, green and blue value) and a reduction in noise and softness, since there’s no demosaicing needed and since you’ve taken 4 images in place of one. The latter you can do by stacking images from any camera for a nearly ~2 EV noise or dynamic range benefit, but the benefits of not needing to demosaicing are specific to these sorts of multi-shot modes that can use sensor shift to shift the sensor in the precise movements needed to remove the effects of the Bayer color filter. You won’t realize these gains unless you post-process, though.

There’s at least a 1 second delay between shots while the camera waits for the sensor to settle. This delay means that this feature will not work well with moving subjects. You can change the delay to anywhere between 1 and 30s.

What’s missing

There are a couple of things that we would’ve liked to have seen on the a7R III. They include lossless compressed Raw, more use of the touch panel (for adjusting settings, as an example), in-camera Raw conversion and support for downloadable PlayMemories apps.

The lack of PlayMemories apps may be of particular concern to landscape photographers using such apps for timelapse or gradient filters, and for those that use apps like ‘Sync to Smartphone’ to automatically download all JPEGs from camera to their phones and online photo storage services. This is a trend, starting with the a9, we’d really like to see Sony reverse.

Overall, though, the a7R III is an impressive package, and one that we’re eager to spend more time with.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Make Sure You Know all the Drone Regulations Before You Fly

23 Oct

Everywhere you look, it seems like everyone has their hands on a drone. YouTube is crawling with aerial drone footage, and you can buy one at just about any electronics store. But just because drones are everywhere doesn’t mean you can (legally) fly them anywhere.

Here at dPS, we dove into topics such as tips to get started with drone photography and how to get stunning aerial photos with your drone. One thing we haven’t covered that’s worth talking about is where you can and can’t fly your drone. Read on for some tips on things to consider before you fly a drone.

Aerial Drone Photography Rules - Drone Regulations to Consider Before Traveling With One

Why Are There Drone Regulations?

On the surface, drones may seem like fun toys or new tools to add to your photography or videography kit. After all, they’re marketed as such and most of the time, they don’t do any visible harm. However, drones can be dangerous from the perspective of privacy and physical safety.

No one likes the idea of a drone spying on them, or worse yet, a drone that comes crashing down and damages property or hurts someone. But these very plausible scenarios are exactly why drone regulations exist – to protect drone pilots and the general public from accidents.

Aerial Drone Photography Rules

Who Makes Drone Regulations?

So who comes up with drone rules and regulations? That depends entirely on where you live. Generally speaking, drones are considered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and as such, they are regulated by the national aviation authority of each country. Thus, most countries will have their own rules, and often each state or city within the country might have further regulations.

So it’s important to do extensive research about where specifically you plan to fly your drone. Punishment for violating drone regulations can be hefty fines or even imprisonment, so it is very important to follow drone rules, especially in foreign countries.

What Kind of Drone Regulations Are There?

Aerial Drone Photography Rules

Drone rules vary in every country, but here a few common ones:

Register Your Drone

Today, drones vary from fitting in the palm of your hand to requiring a large backpack to transport them. Generally speaking, drones weighing any more than 0.55 pounds must be registered with your national aviation association before flying.

Get Licensed to Fly

Some countries require drone operators to pass an exam to get a license before flying a drone, so be sure to get licensed if it’s necessary.

Aerial Drone Photography Rules Drone Regulations to Consider Before Traveling With One

Get Insurance for Your Drone

In some places, you must have insurance for your drone in order to fly. But drone insurance is something you should have any way to protect your investment.

Avoid Flying over People and Properties

Even the tiniest drone can be a hazard to someone or something if it comes crashing down from the sky or runs into an airplane. As a general rule, don’t fly your drone over crowds of people or near private or government property. You should also avoid flying near airports or helipads.

Sample Drone Regulations in the USA

Drone Regulations to Consider Before Traveling With One

In the United States, drones are considered unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). As such, they are regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). There are two sets of regulations: one for those flying drones for fun, and one for those flying for commercial (professional) reasons. A summary of the FAA rules is below, with more details available here.

  • Flying drones for recreational or educational use is okay without a permit. Drones must be registered if they weigh over 0.55 lbs (250g). Drones cannot be flown within five miles of an airport or helipad without prior notification to the airport and air traffic control.
  • If flying for commercial use, the drone pilot must be over 16 years of age, have a Remote Pilot Airman Certificate, and pass TSA vetting. The drone must fly under 400 feet and at or below 100 miles per hour. Drones can only fly during the daytime, and must not fly over people.

For More Information

  • Global Drone Regulations Database
  • Master List of Drone Laws

Apps

  • UAV Forecast
  • Hover

https://www.faa.gov/uas/

In Conclusion

If your head is spinning when you reach the end of this article, you’re not alone. There are many more drone rules and regulations than most people know about, which makes enforcement of them very patchy.

What’s more is that drone regulations are in a constant state of flux, so it’s hard to say exactly what rules exist and apply at a given time. But with that said, it’s better to know the rules and do your best to follow them, or risk getting arrested and potentially fined like this French tourist in Italy.

The post Make Sure You Know all the Drone Regulations Before You Fly by Suzi Pratt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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What you need to know: Canon G1 X Mark III

16 Oct

Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark III

Canon’s G1 X Mark III is, as the name implies, the third iteration in the company’s range-topping large-sensor enthusiast compact series. However, what the name doesn’t make clear is that it’s a significant departure from its predecessors, in terms of both size and capability.

Rather than mimicking one of the older G series modes, as the original G1 X did, the Mark III most closely resembles the 1″-sensored G5 X: a small, thin body with lots of direct control and a centrally mounted electronic viewfinder. Unlike that model, it’s sealed, to be weather resistant.

Sensor size difference

Unlike the G5 X, though, the G1 X III does not use a 1″-type sensor. Despite being packaged in a smaller body than its immediate predecessor, Canon has managed to fit a larger sensor into the camera. It’s a full APS-C-sized sensor or, at least, the Canon 1.6x crop version of that format. This makes it 27% larger than the chip in the G1 X I and 36% larger than the region of its sensor the Mark II could use.

This means, in equivalent terms, the new camera will receive over 1/3EV more total light, when shot at the same f-number and shutter speed. However, equivalence only tells us about the potential for one system to out-perform another. The actual difference depends on the specific technology used…

Sensor performance

And, from our experience with Canon’s 24MP Dual Pixel sensor, we know it’ll perform pretty well: better at high ISO sensitivities than the chip in the older G1 X models and with less noise at low ISO, giving more flexible files with greater usable dynamic range.

And that’s before we consider the additional utility of its Dual Pixel design: the ability to provide depth-aware phase detection autofocus across most of the frame. So long as the camera can drive its focus fast enough, this should provide the ability to track subjects pretty convincingly, compared to the older G1 X models and most competitors.

Video spec

The other thing that Dual Pixel’s depth awareness brings is decisive autofocus while shooting video. This means that getting the camera to track a subject, or ‘rack’ focus smoothly between two points is as simple as tapping on the screen.

The G1 X Mark III gets a slight tweak over its predecessor, in that it can now shoot 60p video footage, rather than topping out at 30p. This either allows smoother capture of fast motion or the ability to shoot slow-motion (by filming at 60p and outputting via video editing software at 24p).

The G1 X III also has a built-in 3EV ND filter, meaning that you can shoot video at its wider apertures, even in bright light.

Sadly, every Canon we’ve seen using this chip produces slightly blurry video with a little less detail than the nominal resolution would imply. Even if the G1 X Mark III somehow manages to improve on previous models, the increasingly pressing question remains: ‘whither 4K, Canon?’

Lens range

The main means by which Canon has managed to make the G1 X III smaller than its predecessor is the inclusion of a shorter and slower zoom lens. Whereas the Mark II was able to include a 24-120mm equivalent zoom, the Mark III offers a more modest 24-72mm equivalent. It means doing without the classic 85-100ish millimeter equivalent focal lengths that are especially well suited to portraiture, but the 24-70mm range is a widely used and well-respected range.

However, while the F2.8-5.6 maximum aperture range of the Mark III might sound like a big step down from the more impressive sounding F2.0-3.9 of its precursor, the practical differences is smaller than this would seem to imply. The larger sensor (and hence lower crop factor) of the G1 X III means its F4.5-9.0 equivalent range isn’t as different from the F3.8-7.5 equivalent of the Mark II as the actual F-numbers make it appear.

Compared to the G1 X Mark II

The G1 X Mark I was one of the first large sensor enthusiast zoom compacts, meaning that it defined expectations of what could be achieved. Indeed, we were impressed – back in early 2012 – that Canon had fitted such a large sensor and flexible lens range into a camera so close in size to its small-sensor forebears, such as the G12.

The G1 X III may have a shorter, slower zoom than its predecessor, but it’s a much smaller camera and one that should have continuous focus performance to do justice to its 7 frame per second shooting. And, with an in-lens leaf shutter, it can flash sync at up to 1/2000th of a second, which its Rebel siblings can’t come close to.

Compared to the competition

However, just six months later, ‘what’s possible’ got redefined again. In July 2012, Sony unveiled the DSC-RX100, a 1″ sensor camera with a 28-100mm equivalent zoom in a truly minuscule body.

So, whereas the G1 X had no peers when it was launched, the Mark III, with its 24-72mm F4.5-9.0 equivalent zoom will have to compete with the cheaper, 24 frame per second capable RX100 V with its 24-70mm F4.9-7.6 equiv. lens and highly capable AF.

In addition to this potential for slightly better image quality, the RX100 V can also shoot impressive 4K video and, despite its much smaller form factor, promises slightly better battery life (a CIPA rating of 220 shots per charge, rather than 200). As always in reality you’re likely to get more than this number from both cameras, but these are pretty modest figures.

Impressively small, steeply priced

The Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark III is an interesting-looking camera. It’s an impressively small camera with a useful zoom and all the benefits that the company’s Dual Pixel sensor should bring.

However, against the likes of Sony’s RX100 series, Panasonic’s LX10/15 and Canon’s own G5 X and G7 X II models, it will inevitably struggle to set a new bar for enthusiast zoom compacts, in the way its progenitor did.

It’s also an expensive camera: $ 1299 makes the G1 X Mark III one of the priciest compacts on the market. But the prospect of a compact camera with Canon JPEG color, Dual Pixel focus and extensive control is something we look forward to testing.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Congress is considering a copyright small claims bill you should know about

07 Oct
Photo by Dennis Skley

A bill has reached Congress that aims to establish a cheaper route for those seeking settlement of small claims in copyright infringement cases. Put forward by a bypartisan group of representatives, the Copyright Alternative in Small Claims Enforcement Act of 2017 (CASE) intends to provide a more viable alternative to federal courts for those making relatively small claims in cases where the cost of pursuing compensation deters individual photographers and small to medium sized business owners.

The current system can cost professional photographers wishing to file a claim for unauthorized use of an image almost a year’s earnings, according to a report by Copyright Defence, and copyright lawyers are unwilling to take on a case in which damages would be less than $ 30,000.

Copyright Defence says that the average claim made by photographers is $ 3,000 or less, making the pursuit of offenders impractical and letting infringers off scot-free.

The new bill proposes that a small-claims style panel be set up within the Copyright office that would allow these low-value, high-volume disputes to be heard. Such an introduction would benefit not only photographers and artists, but also musicians, film makers and anyone who produces creative work.

Bought to Congress by Hakeem Jeffries of the Democrat Party and Tom Marino, a Republican, the bill is supported by the American Society of Media Photographers, American Photographic Artists, National Press Photographers Association, Professional Photographers of America, North American Nature Photography Association, among others. The bill was first proposed by a collection of visual artists groups in February 2016.

Press release from Hakeem Jeffries:

Reps. Jeffries, Marino Lead Bipartisan Effort to Help Musicians and Artists Protect Their Creative Work

WASHINGTON, DC – A bipartisan solution to help artists, photographers, filmmakers, musicians, songwriters, authors and other creators protect their life’s work from unauthorized reproduction has been introduced today by two key members of the House Judiciary Committee — U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), a Democrat, and U.S. Representative Tom Marino (PA-10), a Republican.

The Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act of 2017 will create a Copyright Claims Board (“CCB”) in order to provide a simple, quick and less expensive forum for copyright owners to enforce their intellectual property. The majority of the copyright owners that are affected by piracy and theft are independent creators with small copyright infringement claims. The CCB will establish an alternative forum to the Federal District Court for copyright owners to protect their work from infringement.
A broad coalition of legislators have co-sponsored the bill, including Democratic Congresswoman Judy Chu (CA-33), Republican Congressman Doug Collins (GA-9), Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu (CA-33) and Republican Congressman Lamar Smith (TX-21).

Rep. Jeffries said: “The establishment of the Copyright Claims Board is critical for the creative middle class who deserve to benefit from the fruits of their labor. Copyright enforcement is essential to ensure that these artists, writers, musicians and other creators are able to commercialize their creative work in order to earn a livelihood. The CASE Act will enable creators to enforce copyright protected content in a fair, timely and affordable manner. This legislation is a strong step in the right direction.”

Representative Marino said: “Creators, solo entrepreneurs, photographers, and artists often struggle to enforce their copyright in a timely and cost efficient manner. This can hinder creativity and prevent these professionals from being able to sustain a profitable livelihood. The CASE Act provides a boost to copyright holders and allows a forum for timely resolutions. This is a positive step in the right direction.”

Representative Collins said: “America’s economic leadership depends on its commitment to protecting intellectual property, and I’m proud to work with my friend Congressman Hakeem Jeffries to provide another tool to make this possible. A copyright small claims system would offer small creators a simple, effective forum for defending their property rights against infringement. We’re working to modernize the Copyright Office to meet the needs of today and tomorrow—including music licensing structures—and this bill is a critical step in strengthening intellectual property protections for creators who find themselves disadvantaged by existing policies.”

Representative Lieu said: “More than 2 million hardworking artists in the United States rely on the U.S. Copyright Office to protect their livelihoods. For too long, our legal system skewed in favor of low-volume, high-value industries. But for many independent artists, whose claims of infringement often total a few thousand dollars, it is far too expensive to sue in federal court – essentially forcing creators to forfeit their rights. The Small Claims Board is an important step toward ensuring that digital photographers, graphic artists, illustrators, and others have a way to resolve disputes quickly and affordably. I commend my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for supporting this crucial effort.”

Representative Smith said: “Our founders enshrined copyright protection for creators’ works in the Constitution. The Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act offers creators an efficient and cost-effective process to protect their creations. I look forward to working with the authors of the bill to protect the intellectual property of all innovators.”

Representative Chu said: “Creators like artists, photographers, and songwriters contribute over a trillion dollars to our economy each year. But intellectual property theft makes it difficult for creators to earn a living. This is especially true for small and individual creators who depend on licensing and copyright, but lack the resources to adequately challenge copyright infringement claims in federal court. I’m proud to support the CASE Act because it proposes a common sense solution that will make it easier for creators to protect their intellectual property and continue to share their works and grow our economy.”

Participation in the CCB will be voluntary, and respondents will have the ability to opt out. The CCB will be housed within the U.S. Copyright Office, and its jurisdiction limited to civil copyright cases with a cap of $ 30,000 in damages. A panel of three Copyright Claims Officers will be designated to adjudicate and settle copyright claims. The simplified proceedings do not require the parties to appear in-person and will permit them to proceed pro se – i.e., without an attorney.

The bill is supported by the Authors Guild, American Society of Media Photographers, American Photographic Artists, National Press Photographers Association, Professional Photographers of America, North American Nature Photography Association, Songwriters Guild of America, Nashville Songwriters Association International, National Music Publishers Association, Digital Media Licensing Association, Graphic Artists Guild, Creative Future, and the Copyright Alliance.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Nine things you should know about the Google Pixel 2

07 Oct

Nine things you should know about the Google Pixel 2

With all the hype surrounding the release of the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL and their “world’s highest rated smartphone camera,” it’s easy to lose the forest for the trees. What’s important about this new phone? Where did Google leave us wanting more? How is this phone’s camera better than its predecessor? And why should photographers care about the technology baked into Google’s new flagship?

After covering the launch in detail and spending some time with the Pixel 2 in San Francisco, we’re setting out to answer those questions (and a few others) for you.

Dual Pixel AF

The new Pixel phones sport a very clever feature found on higher-end Canon cameras: split left- and right-looking pixels behind each microlens on the camera sensor. This allows the camera to sample left and right perspectives behind the lens, which can then be used to focus the camera faster on the subject (it’s essentially a form of phase-detect AF).

It’s officially called dual pixel autofocus, and it has the potential to offer a number of advantages over the ‘focus pixels’ Apple phones use: every pixel can be dedicated to focus without any impact to image quality (see this illustration). We’ve been impressed with its implementation on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and on Canon cameras. So we’re expecting fast autofocus for stills, even in low light, as well as very smooth autofocus in video with little to no hunting. Given how good the Pixel 2’s stabilized 4K video is, you might even make some professional-looking clips from these new phones.

Dual pixel + machine learning driven portraits

The split pixels have another function: the left-looking and right-looking pixels underneath each microlens essentially sample two different perspectives that are slightly shifted from one another. Google then build a rudimentary depth map using this set of separated images and some help from its machine learning algorithms.

Clever. However, the stereo disparity between the two images are likely to be very small compared to a dual camera setup, which is likely to make it difficult for the Pixel 2 cameras to distinguish background from subject for more distant subjects. This might explain the poor results in DXO’s comparison, but better results in the image above where Allison is much closer to the camera.

On the plus side, Portrait mode now renders full resolution 12MP files (you only got 5MP files on the original Pixels), and the ‘lens blur’ Google uses is generally more pleasing than Apple’s more Gaussian blur. Out of focus highlights are rendered as more defined circles compared to Apple’s results. This comes at a cost though: the blurring algorithm is computationally intensive so you’ll generally wait a few seconds before seeing the result (and you can’t see it in real time as you can with Apple).

Hardier hardware

Unsurprisingly if you’ve been following the rumor mill, the hardware specs on the new Pixel 2 phones didn’t particularly impress any more than what we’ve seen from other phones. They’re nice devices, and both are far more durable with IP67 ratings (a huge step up from the poor IP53 ratings of the previous Pixel phones, which were prone to quick wear and tear), but hardware-wise there’s not too much to be excited about.

We’ve lost the headphone jack but gained stereo speakers in the front. The XL has less of a bezel, but it’s still not as bezel-less as Samsung phones. No dual-cameras. RAM and processor are what you get in other Android phones. You can invoke the Assistant with a squeeze, but… well…

Nothing really stands out. But wait, there’s more to the story.

AI First

If there’s one point Google CEO Sundar Pichai continuously makes in his presentations, it’s that we’re moving from a ‘Mobile First’ to an ‘AI First’ world. He’s referring to the move away from thinking of mobile devices simply as pocketable computation devices but, instead, intelligent devices that can adapt to our needs and make our lives easier. And Google is a leader here, thanks to the intelligence it acquires from its search services and apps like Maps and Photos.

AI is increasingly being used in many services to make them better, but often transparently. CEO Pichai recently cited an example of the Fitness app: every time he opens it he navigates to a different page. But rather than have the app team change the default page, or add an option to, he figures AI should just learn your preference transparently.

What’s that mean for photography and videography? We’re purely speculating here, but, imagine a camera learning your taste in photography by the way you edit photos. Or the photos you take. Or the filters you apply. Or the photos you ‘like’. How about learning your taste in music so when Google Assistant auto-builds videos from your library of photos and videos, they’re cut to music you like?

The possibilities are endless, and we’re likely to see lots of cool things make their way into the new Pixel phones, like…

Google Lens

Sundar Pichai first talked about Google Lens at the I/O Developer Conference earlier this year. It marries machine vision and AI, and is now available for the first time in the Photos app and within Google Assistant on the new Pixel phones. Google’s machine vision algorithms can analyze what the camera sees, and use AI to do cool things like identify what type of flower you’re pointing your camera at.

This sort of intelligence is applicable to photography as well: Pichai talked about how AutoML has improved Google’s ability to automatically identify objects in a scene. Anything from a fence to a motorbike to types of food to your face: Google is getting increasingly better at identifying these objects and understanding what they are – automatically using reinforcement learning.

And once you understand what an object is, you can do all sorts of cool things. Remove it. Re-light it. Identify it so you can easily search for it without every keywording your photos. The Photos app can already pull up pictures of planes, birthdays, food, wine, you name it. We look forward to seeing how the inclusion of Google Lens in the new phones makes Photos and Assistant better.

Maybe intelligent object recognition could even fix flare issues by understand what flare is… though this may not be necessary for the new phone…

Goodbye ugly lens flare

Thankfully, the nasty flare issues that plagued the first-gen Pixel phones appear to be remedied by lifting the camera module above the glass backing, which has also been reduced and streamlined to fit flush with the rest of the phone.

The camera unit is raised from the back ever-so-slightly though, but that’s a compromise we’re willing to accept if it means the camera isn’t behind a piece of uncoated glass – a recipe for flare disaster. The only flare we’ve seen so far with our limited hands-on time is what DXO witnessed in their report: the lens element reflections in corners you sometimes see even in professional lenses. That’s something we’ll gladly put up with (and that some of us even like).

If flare bugged you on the previous Pixel phones (it certainly bugged me), consider it a non-issue on the new phones.

Incredibly smooth video

When the original Pixel launched, Google claimed its camera beat other cameras with optical image stabilization (OIS) despite lacking OIS. It claimed its software-based stabilization approach allowed it to get better with time as algorithms got better. Omitting OIS was also crucial to keeping the camera small such that it fit within the slim body.

Google is singing a different tune this year, including both OIS and electronic image stabilization (EIS) in its larger camera unit that extends ever-so-slightly above the back glass. And the results appear to be quite impressive. The original Pixels already had very good stabilization in video (even 4K), but combining OIS + EIS appears to have made the video results even smoother. Check out the video from Google above.

For low light photography, OIS should help steady the camera for longer shutter speeds. You should also get better macro results and better document scanning. Hey, that’s worth something.

Equally as important as what the new phones offer is what the new phones don’t offer…

Color management? HEIF?

Notably absent was any talk about proper color management on the new phones. The previous Pixels had beautiful OLED displays, but colors were wildly inaccurate and often too saturated due to lack of any color management or proper calibrated display modes.

iPhones have some of the most color accurate screens out there. Their wide gamut screens now cover most of DCI-P3 but, more importantly, iOS can automatically switch the screen’s gamut between properly calibrated DCI-P3 and standard gamut (sRGB) modes on-the-fly based on content.

This means you view photos and movies as they were intended. It also means when you send an image from your iPhone to be printed (using a service that at least understands color management, like Apple’s print services), the print comes back looking similar, though perhaps a bit dimmer.*

The Samsung Galaxy S8 also has calibrated DCI-P3 and sRGB modes, though you have to manually switch between them. The new Pixel phones made no mention of calibrated display modes or proper color management, though Android Oreo does at least support color management (though, like Windows, leaves it up to apps). But without a proper display profile, we’re not sure how one will get accurate colors on the Pixel 2 phones.

*That’s only because prints aren’t generally illuminated as much as bright backlit LCDs that these days reach anywhere from 6 to 10 times the brightness prints are generally viewed at.

HDR display?

Sadly there was no mention of 10-bit images or HDR display of photos or videos (using the HDR10 or Dolby Vision standards) at Google’s press event. This leaves much to be desired.

The iPhone X will play back HDR video content using multiple streaming services, but more importantly for photographers it will display photos in HDR mode as well. Remember, this has little to do with HDR capture but, instead, the proper display of photos on displays—like OLED—that can reproduce a wider range of tones.

To put it bluntly: photos taken on an iPhone X and viewed on an iPhone X will look more brilliant and have more pop than anything else you’re likely to have seen before thanks to the support for HDR display and accurate color. It’s a big deal, and Google seems to have missed the boat entirely here.

HDR displays require less of the tonemapping traditional HDR capture algorithms employ (though HDR capture is still usually beneficial, since it preserves highlights and decreases noise in shadows). Instead of brightening shadows and darkening bright skies after capture, as HDR algorithms like the Pixel 2’s are known to do post-capture (above, left), leaving many of these tones alone is the way to go with high dynamic range displays like OLED.

In other words, the image above and to the right, with its brighter highlights and darker shadows, may in fact be better suited for HDR displays like that of the Pixel 2, as long as there’s still color information present in the shadows and highlights of the (ideally 10-bit) image. Unfortunately, Google made no mention of a proper camera-to-display workflow for HDR capture and display.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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