Sony has announced that throughout the remainder of this week, it is offering a series of discounts across a number of its popular Sony Alpha cameras and lenses, as well as bundles, the RX lineup and accessories. The deals, some of which have dropped certain gear to their lowest non-grey-market price, are taking place in the United States across all official Sony retailers, including Adorama, Amazon, B&H, Best Buy, Samy’s Camera and others.
While Sony has posted a full rundown of all the sales currently available, we’ve rounded up a few of the best deals from the bunch (links go to their respective reviews/product pages on DPReview):
Sony a9 (body only) — $ 3,000 ($ 1,000 off retail, ~$ 500 recent street prices)
Sony a7R IV (body only) — $ 3,000 ($ 500 off retail, ~$ 300 off recent street prices)
Sony a7R III (body only) — $ 2,300 ($ 500 off retail, ~$ 300 off recent street prices)
Sony ?6000 kit with 16–50mm & 55–210mm lenses — $ 700 ($ 300 off retail)
Sony FE 16–35mm F2.8 GM — $ 2,000 ($ 200 off retail, same for street prices)
Sony FE 24–70 mm F2.8 GM — $ 2,000 ($ 200 off retail, same for street prices)
Sony VARIO-TESSAR T* FE 16–35mm F4 ZA OSS — $ 1,100 ($ 250 off retail, ~$ 150 off recent street prices)
Sony FE 70–200mm F2.8 GM OSS — $ 2,400 ($ 200 off retail, same for street prices)
Sony RX100 III — $ 650 ($ 100 off retail, roughly the same price as other recent deals)
There are other bundles, action cams, accessories and more on sale worth checking out. Head on over to Sony USA’s website for the complete list.
Moments after revealing its iPhone 12 devices at today’s virtual event, Apple showed off the next-generation of its flagship mobile devices, the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max.
The two new models are constructed of surgical-grade steel and use advanced physical vapor deposition (VPD) technology that results in a ’spectacular luster.’ Despite having effectively the same physical dimensions of their predecessors, the iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max feature larger screens, 6.1” and 6.7”, respectively, as Apple has managed to further shrink the bezel.
The new iPhone 12 Pro models are based on Apple’s A14 Bionic chip, which was first seen its the company’s iPad Air refresh last month. The 5nm process chipset features a 6-core CPU and a 4-core GPU that Apple claims is up to 50% faster than any other phone on the market.
As with the iPhone 12, both the Pro and Pro Max receive sub—6GHz and mmWave 5G connectivity, ensuring the devices should work with the array of various 5G networks major carriers around the world are supporting. Apple has also included its new ‘Ceramic Shield’ technology to its flagship devices, which should help reduce the likeliness of cracked screens.
As has been the case for most of Apple’s ‘Pro’ devices, the company put a huge emphasis on the camera capabilities of its latest flagship devices. The iPhone 12 Pro features a 12MP (13mm equivalent) ultrawide module, a 12MP F1.6 wide module and a 12MP (52mm equivalent) telephoto module. Apple says the wide module captures 27% more light than previous-generations, aided by the larger aperture and seven-element lens. The optical image stabilization has also been improved, as well as autofocus thanks to the improved LiDAR capabilities.
Apple further pushed the photography boundaries with the iPhone 12 Pro Max, putting in a 47% larger sensor that offers an 87% improvement in low-light photos thanks to its larger 1.7um pixels. Apple also added swapped out the telephoto on the 12 Pro for a 5x (65mm equivalent) telephoto lens.
Apple has also added the ability to record HDR video, including the ability to shoot and in Dobly Vision HDR directly within the Photos app.
The iPhone 12 Pro will be available to pre-order on October 16, starting at $ 999. iPhone 12 Pro Max pre-orders will open on November 6 and pricing starts at $ 1,099. Both models are available in blue, gold, graphite and silver.
Apple ProRAW
In addition to the new hardware, Apple also revealed it will bring Apple ProRAW to its latest iPhone devices later this year. Apple says the new format will combine the benefits of its Deep Fusion and Smart HDR technology with the flexibility of a Raw file format when editing. The format will be able to be captured with all the onboard cameras.
To ensure third-party apps will also be able to make the most of the new format, Apple will be launching an API for both desktop and mobile apps for third-party developers to use. There’s no mention on when exactly we’ll see this update get pushed to devices.
This story is developing. Refresh the page for the latest information.
Negative conversion tool Negative Lab Pro has released a version 2.2 update it calls ‘the most rigorously developed update’ to date, bringing with it a ‘new engine, easier editing tools, and breathtaking color and tone reproduction’
For those unfamiliar with Negative Lab Pro, it’s a plug-in for Lightroom 6 and Lightroom Classic that adds a specific toolset and workflow for converting negative film scans. It rids the need for hand-editing curves and manually accounting for scan densities, making it easy to go from scan to final image in a matter of minutes through its own graphic interface within Lightroom. Below is a year-old introduction to how Negative Lab Pro works:
With that out of the way, let’s get on to the new features Negative Lab Pro 2.2 brings to the table.
First up, Negative Lab Pro 2.2 features an entirely rebuilt engine that ensures the entire workflow can be done with Raw file formats and is non-destructive. Now, rather than there being multiple layers of adjustments atop the image, all conversions and adjustments are made directly to the Raw negative scan (if you convert the scanned negative into a Raw file format upon import). In theory, this should mean there isn’t any loss of quality when multiple adjustments are made on top of one another.
A screen recording showing how the curves will intelligently adjust based on the adjustments made to scans.
The new engine also features what its developer calls ‘Multilayer Auto-Generating Integrated Curves,’ which is a fancy way of saying the plug-in is able to intelligently adjust the curves to preserve the tonality and scans as adjustments are made. Negative Lab Pro developer Nate Johnson provides an explanation for how this new technology works:
‘The new engine has its own processing pipeline with 9 internal processing layers working together seamlessly under the hood. Internally, I can define, order and combine each layer in the way that makes the most sense for film processing. For instance, color balancing happens earliest in the pipeline, so your color balance remains stable even if you drastically adjust your tones. Negative Lab Pro then auto-generates up to 42 curve points in real time (14 integrated points for each color channel), which are then fed directly into Lightroom’s curve control.’
Put simply, this new development should result in ‘purer tones and colors’ in your negatives, even as adjustments are applied.
Another benefit of the redesigned engine is improved color stability. Now, adjustments made to the image — such as contrast, brightness and more — won’t affect the color balance of an image. Nate demonstrates in the comparison images below the difference between Negative Lab Pro version 2.1 and version 2.2 when making changes to contrast:
A collection of new tools have also been added to Negative Lab Pro 2.2, including film-specific color temperature and tint sliders, a new color picker, range control for highlights and shadows, and new tone profile families, which provide different baselines for getting started with editing your scans.
The integrated temp/tint sliders that use the new 2.2 engine.
If you’re using Negative Lab Pro 2.2 with Lightroom Classic, the update also adds new LUT-based emulations. Unlike Adobe Lightroom 6, Lightroom Classic has integrated 3D Lookup Tables. This capabilities allows the new LUT-based emulations to make ‘incredibly nuanced adjustments to color and tone reproduction,’ which should result in more accurate film stock emulations.
The best part is, in the case of most scans edited with previous versions of Negative Lab Pro should automatically be converted to the rebuilt engine in version 2.2. So, unless you want to make more precise edits with the new engine, you shouldn’t have to go back and manually re-edit all of your scans.
Negative Lab Pro version 2.2 is free for anyone who currently has a license. If you’re trying out Negative Lab Pro for the first time, you will be able to convert 12 images for free before you’re required to purchase a license.
Negative Lab Pro 2.2 is available to purchase for $ 99. The plug-in receives consistent updates and to date, all past updates have been free so long as you own a license. Nate does note, however, that at some point there may be paid updates or extras available for purchase.
You can find out more information about Negative Labs 2.2 in Nate’s incredibly comprehensive update post. on the Negative Lab Pro forums.
Last October, Funleader started a Kickstarter campaign to help raise funds to produce its ridiculously small 18mm F8 pancake lens for Sony E mount and Leica L mount camera systems. As promised in its campaign, it started shipping to global backers in December 2019 and now, nine months later, the lens is available to purchase by the general public in three additional lens mounts.
The pancake lens is constructed of six multi-coated elements in four groups, has a 100º field of view on a full-frame camera and is made of aluminum. The lens measures just 15mm (.59in) and weighs only 80g (2.8oz), making it only marginally larger than the lens cap you probably keep on your camera to keep the mirror and sensor protected.
Funleader designed the lens around its hyperfocal distance, ensuring everything from 80cm (2.6ft) to infinity is in focus at its F8 aperture.
Below is a sample gallery of images taken with the lens and various cameras:
The Funleader 18mm F8 cap lens is available for Canon RF, Fujifilm X, Leica L, Nikon Z and Sony E mount camera systems. Funleader has it available on its website for $ 150 with free worldwide shipping.
The post Tips for Culling Images for Better Results and More Efficiency appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by John McIntire.
When it comes to a photographer’s workflow, there is one stage that might be more important than any other. It is the image selection process, also known as the culling stage. This critical stage is the point where you get your images into Lightroom (or other software) and start choosing which to work on.
But while this is the stage where you choose the photos that ultimately end up representing your work as a photographer, without systems in place it can turn into a huge time sink.
So focusing on the process of culling images can help speed up image selection significantly.
Being able to quickly whittle down a set of photos is an important skill for any photographer. At 36 images, this is a small set of photos, but the principles are the same whether it’s 36 images or 360.
This article aims to show you why having a good system for image selection can be beneficial to your photography and your portfolio. It will also provide an overview of a basic system that you can start to use in your workflow right away, and it will provide tips on how to use Lightroom’s built-in functionality for this purpose.
Note: My examples here are portraits, but the system applies to just about any genre in photography. There are instances where you might not be able to apply some of these principles and the criteria you apply in different genres will be different, but they are exceptions.
The forest for the trees
Take a moment to imagine that you’ve just finished a big session and imported all the images into Lightroom. Now you may have hundreds of images that you have to sift through to find the ones that you want to work on.
When you have hundreds of photos from a shoot all in one place, and test shots, outtakes, and misfires are still included, it can feel like a chore to go through them all.
Without a system for culling images in place, it’s all too easy to find yourself continually scrolling through the same set of images and reviewing the same ones multiple times. This may not be a problem if you only have a handful of frames, but once you get into larger shoots, you can waste a lot of time doing things this way.
Additionally, after going through the same images over and over again, it can also become discouraging. This makes it easy to give up and leave some gems unspotted, which are ultimately relegated to obscurity on your hard drive.
By using Collection Sets to divide a large shoot into ten outfit changes, the images become much easier to manage.
So what type of system can you create?
Using Collection Sets to divide up large shoots into smaller, more manageable chunks is a good place to start.
This is just a small reason why you should consider developing a system for your editing process.
Editing
The image selection process is also known as editing. Now, I know that the word edit (and editing) has come to mean something else in everyday vernacular for photographers. You can call it whatever you want, as I am not one to dictate or prescribe. But as you will be going about image editing in the future, consider thinking about your post-processing workflow in terms of these two job descriptions:
Photo (Picture) Editor: Someone whose job it is to select photos appropriate for the use in question.
Retoucher: Someone whose job it is to alter the appearance of photos and manipulate photos to achieve a final result.
Tools
Lightroom has a huge variety of tools that makes culling images easier. While this is not an exhaustive list, here are a few features that I use regularly:
Fullscreen Mode
Using Fullscreen Mode during the image selection process will help to remove any distractions from your screen. You’ll see the photo that you are evaluating and nothing else.
Being able to view a single image at a time makes this whole process go more smoothly. It also takes away the distraction of Lightroom’s standard interface on the screen. To enter Fullscreen Mode, select any single image in the Library Module and press the “F” key.
Compare
If you want to look at two similar images side by side, use the Compare feature in Lightroom.
The Compare feature allows you to look at two images side by side. Although you won’t use this until later in the selection process, it becomes very useful when you are trying to choose between two similar images with minor differences.
To use the Compare feature, select any two images in the Library Module and press the “C” key. To get back to your normal view, press “G.”
Reject
When you reject a photo in Lightroom, the image will be grayed out and marked by a black flag with an “X.” Any images you mark in this way should be recognizable at a glance.
If you follow my process, you are going to use this tool a lot. When you press the “X” key while any image is selected, you flag that image as a reject. This marks the image with a black flag with an “X” in the upper left-hand corner, and it grays the image out in the Library Module. This makes it very easy to see which images you have already reviewed and marked as unsuitable.
Pick
Marking an image as a Pick will annotate it with a highly-visible white flag.
When you are going through your images, you will eventually come across a photo that you love. You’ll know that you want to work on it no matter what.
In this instance, press the “P” key; the image will be flagged as a Pick. A little white flag icon will appear at the top left of the image in Lightroom.
Star ratings
Using the star ratings in Lightroom is another quick and useful way to annotate images that you want to review again later.
Because you will be going through your images multiple times, you can use the star ratings in Lightroom to mark any images you are unsure of or aren’t able to make a final decision on yet. You can mark them with one to five stars by using the corresponding number key. This makes them clearly labeled when you return to them in the future.
On being ruthless
Before we get into the actual steps of the editing process, there is one thing to discuss. Most everything outlined in this article can be changed up as required, but there is one thing that will be important for you to follow no matter what.
To make this process faster and more efficient, and to ensure that you are only left with your best images, you have to be ruthless. If something is not right about an image, reject it. If you have to think about it for more than a few seconds, reject it. If you have even so much as a niggling doubt, reject it.
Being able to quickly recognize obvious faults will allow you to reject images quickly. Overexposure, outtakes, reflections in glasses, cropped body parts, and awkward arm placements are some of the reasons these images were rejected at first glance.
A lot of the wasted time in this part of the workflow comes from hemming and hawing over an image for a length of time when the image doesn’t wind up getting used anyway. Make decisions fast. Be ruthless.
The system
Keeping the images you are working on separate from the rest will make this process go much more smoothly.
Now that you know the desired end result, you can get started with the actual process of image selection.
The first step is to isolate the set of images you are working on from everything else. There should be no distractions. If you are working on a set from a portrait session where there were multiple outfit changes, separate each outfit into its own folder.
In Lightroom, this is easy. You can create a Collection Set for your shoot, and then create a Collection for every outfit change inside that set. This will keep all of the images from a session in one place, but separated by things like outfit changes or lighting changes.
Criteria
Chances are that you already have preconceived notions of what you don’t like in photos. Whether these ideas come from things you’ve heard from other photographers or opinions you’ve developed yourself, it doesn’t matter. Knowing what these things are is going to help you speed through the process much, much faster.
Technical: Things that fall on the technical side are relatively easy to identify. What you are evaluating for here are things like focus, exposure, the absence of motion blur, etc. When you are going through your images, learn to identify technical faults at a glance.
Technical faults, like reflections in glasses, are easy to spot and make quick decisions on.
Aesthetic: This one is all down to your personal tastes. If you can figure out what you don’t like, then you can spot those things in an instant and rule the photos out of the selection process.
Don’t like when portrait subjects bring their hands to their face? That rules out any photos fitting that description. Don’t like it when catchlights appear in the whites of the eyes? You get where I’m going with this.
Aesthetic faults come down to personal preference and taste. Here, the eyes are dark and the pose isn’t the best.
The first pass
The goal of your first pass is to reject as many images as possible as fast as possible. If you can identify a reject at a glance and mark it as such, you won’t waste any time later going over that image multiple times.
Once you’ve isolated the images that you’re working on, you can begin the first pass of the culling process.
The only goal here is culling images as fast as possible. Select the first photo in your folder and enter Fullscreen Mode in Lightroom (press “F”). Use the right arrow key to scroll through your images one at a time.
You should have an idea of what isn’t a good photo in your mind. You’re looking for things that fall into that category. Did the flash misfire? Are the eyes partly closed? Is the facial expression not flattering? Is the lighting not quite right? Is the focus off?
If there’s a fault in the image, find it and press “X.”
The second pass
Now that you have completed the first run through your images, you should find that you’ve rejected most of them. The next step is to isolate the images that you haven’t culled from the ones you need to review again.
There are a few ways you can do this. You can create a new Collection and add the images that are to be reviewed. Or you could remove the rejected images from the Collection you are working in.
Using the sorting options on the bottom toolbar, you can sort by Pick. This will put all of your rejects at the bottom of the catalog, making it easy to go through for the second pass.
You could also use the sorting options on the bottom toolbar in the Library Module. This will put any rejected images at the end of the gallery. From there, you can select all of the unflagged images and enter Fullscreen Mode again. As you cycle through the images a second time, you’ll first see the shots you have selected.
For this pass, you are trying to achieve the same thing as the first: to reject as many images as possible. This time it will take longer, as these are images that you have already decided don’t have any immediate faults. Feel free to take extra time and have a careful look over the images. Just remember that you are still not picking any photos yet, merely getting rid of the ones that aren’t suitable.
You can repeat this stage as many times as you need in order to narrow down your Collection to the few best images. For the sake of brevity, we’ll move directly on to the next stage and assume you’ve narrowed your images down as much as possible.
The third pass
Using this method, I was able to narrow down this set to three images in a little over ten minutes.
At this point, you should have a much smaller group of images to work with.
(If you still have a lot of photos, go back and be more ruthless.)
You can now go through and start making your final selections. It should be a lot easier now that you have a much smaller pool to go through. Use the Pick flags or star ratings to indicate the photos you want to work on and reject any photos that still need rejecting.
At the end of your culling sessions, you should have a concise selection of images that reflect the best shots from a particular set.
How many should you aim for?
If you’re wondering how many images you should aim to have left once this is all over, the answer is: it depends.
The number of final images is going to vary wildly depending on how you shoot and what you are shooting for. For example, if I am shooting for myself, I will be looking for one or two images per set. That set may start with 10 photos in it. It may start with 100. I am still only looking for one or two.
If I’m doing a short portrait session for a client, I might end up with 15-20 proofs to present. If I was photographing an event, I would go through and get rid of the obvious rejects and keep everything that was left.
Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 | 85mm | 1/2000 sec | f/2.8 | ISO 200
There is no right answer. Only you can answer how many images you need in the end. This whole process of culling images is there to get you to those final photos faster, rather than get you to a certain number.
Keeping it basic
The tools and the process outlined in this article are very basic. It’s how I do it and it’s like that for a reason. The process is uncomfortable and forces you, for a little while, to focus on your mistakes.
When I am culling images, I want it completed as soon as possible, and I don’t want my tools to get in the way of the process. That said, Lightroom has a whole host of other features that could be used in the culling process. By all means, use them if they suit you. It doesn’t matter how you get the job done as long as you get it done.
Conclusion
I know that this can be a difficult process. You have a catalog of images on the screen that you created and poured all kinds of effort into. You just want to look through them and feel good about the photos you’ve made. You don’t want to jump in and start finding faults with 90% of them. I understand. I’m the same.
However, as disheartening as it feels at first, once you start culling images and the best images from a shoot start showing themselves (usually after a short while), that allows you to focus only on the best.
Trust me: The images that you cut get quickly forgotten, anyway. It’s best to be done with them fast; that way you can focus the rest of your time and effort on the images that will benefit you and your portfolio.
The post Tips for Culling Images for Better Results and More Efficiency appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by John McIntire.
Facebook has announced a new rights management feature designed to give creators more control over their images. On Monday, Facebook product manager of the creator and publisher experience Dave Axelgard said, ‘We want to ensure Facebook is a safe and valuable place for creators to share their content.’ Key to that goal is the newly announced Rights Manager for Images.
Instagram is the dominant image-based social network at the moment, making it a valuable platform for creators…but it’s not without its controversy in the industry. Parent company Facebook is taking steps to address some of the criticism with its new Rights Manager for Images, which builds upon the existing Rights Manager to give photographers control over where their images appear on the social platform.
Rights Manager is a customizable tool found within the Facebook Creator Studio platform, which is built for creators to give them an element of control over their content across both Facebook and Instagram. The tool works by enabling users to add their content, after which Facebook will scan the two social platforms to find the content if it is posted on either.
Reposted content found on another user’s Page or profile can be removed or, in cases where it may be beneficial to the creator, the owner can either add an ownership link to the content or simply monitor the repost going forward. Creators have the option of adding exemptions for partners who have permission to share the content so that it isn’t flagged by the Rights Manager tool.
The newly announced Rights Manager for Images is described by Axelgard as a new version of the tool that is designed to offer management of photos ‘at scale.’ As with the original version of Rights Manager, Facebook requires creators to submit an application to get access to the tool.
The application includes selecting which Pages the user may want to protect, what type of rights owner they are (individual, publisher, etc.), the type of content that needs protected and similar details.
Facebook notes that this Rights Manager tool exists in addition to a number of other options creators have, including what it refers to as a ‘fast and effective’ intellectual property reporting system, as well as a policy for dealing with repeat copyright offenders and more. The tool ultimately gives creators the ability to prevent unauthorized sharing of copyrighted content, potentially bringing an end to reposts on Instagram.
It’s unclear how many creators have access to the Rights Manager, which addresses only one aspect of copyright issues on social media. Facebook has been criticized for failing to give Instagram users the ability to limit the sharing of public posts, something that was recently brought to public attention due to a couple of lawsuits earlier this year.
Facebook indicated earlier this summer that it may give Instagram users the ability to disable sharing or embedding posts, which would, for example, prevent media companies from embedding images to get around paying the photographer a licensing fee. The social media company complicated the matter in June when it clarified that its terms of service does not include sublicensing embedded content.
Though this may give creators more control over where their images are embedded, critics have said that it still places the burden on creators to find and police the use of their images due to Instagram’s readily available sharing and embedding tools. As well, the presence of these tools implies to users that they are allowed to embed public content on other websites without getting permission from the photographer first, potentially putting them at risk of unwittingly violating a photographer’s copyright.
Instagram told Ars Technica back in June that it was ‘exploring the possibility’ of offering users the option of disabling the embed tool. Such a feature remains unavailable at this time, however, meaning that Instagram users must make their images private if they don’t want users to have the option of sharing them.
Sony’s a7C is a really compact full-frame camera – especially when paired with the new FE 28-60mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens. We’ve been doing plenty of shooting with the combo and have updated our gallery to show you just what you can expect.
Canon has announced its EOS Webcam Utility is now out of beta for Windows, bringing improved support and additional compatibility with more Canon cameras.
Originally released in beta for Windows, Canon’s EOS Webcam Utility is now an official release. In addition to supporting more livestreaming, messaging and video conferencing programs, the official release also adds support for more cameras, ensuring more than 40 Canon camera models can be used as webcams over USB and Wi-Fi (with compatible cameras).
Below is a list of the programs that will now work with EOS Webcam Utility for Windows:
Cisco Webex®
Messenger
Streamlabs
Discord
Microsoft Teams
YouTube Live
LIVE Facebook Live
Open Broadcaster Software
ZOOM
Hangouts
Skype
Hangouts Meet
Slack
As for cameras, below is a list of the models that are currently supported by the official release:
EOS Digital Cameras
EOS-1D C*
EOS-1D X*
EOS-1D X Mark II
EOS-1D X Mark IlI
EOS 5D Mark III*
EOS 5D Mark IV
EOS 5DS
EOS 5DS R
EOS 6D *
EOS 6D Mark I **
EOS 60D *
EOS 7D *
EOS 7D Mark I1
EOS 70D *
EOS 77D**
EOS 80D **
EOS 90D **
EOS M200 ***
EOS M50 **
EOS M6 Mark II **
EOS R
EOS R5*
EOS R6 ***
EOS Ra*
EOS Rebel SL1*
EOS Rebel SL2 **
EOS Rebel SL3 **
EOS Rebel T3*
EOS Rebel T3i*
EOS Rebel T5*
EOS Rebel T5i*
EOS Rebel T6
EOS Rebel T6i
EOS Rebel T6s *
EOS Rebel T7 **
EOS Rebel T7i **
EOS Rebel T8i***
EOS Rebel T100 **
EOS RP **
PowerShot Cameras:
PowerShot G5X Mark II **
PowerShot G7X Mark Ill **
PowerShot SX70 HS
* Recently added camera ** USB not included with camera
You can find installation instructions and a link to download the EOS Webcam Utility Official Release for Windows on Canon’s website.
The GoPro HERO9 Black is here, with a tweaked design and improved specifications for getting more out of your action photos and video.
The new device retains an overall design similar to its HERO8 predecessor, but has a few new tricks up its sleeve. First off, the HERO9 Black is slightly wider — 4.7mm to be precise — than its HERO8 Black predecessor, likely due to the new front-facing live-view screen on the front of the action cam.
The HERO9 Black also features a removable wider-angle lens that can be swapped out for the new ‘Max Lens Mod’ that makes the field-of-view even wider for photos and videos (155º). When attached, the Max Lens Mod also offers GoPro’s Max Hypersmooth stabilization (limited to 2.7K60p), Max SuperView and Max Timewarp, which appear to be tweaked versions of the more standard versions, designed specifically with the wider-angle lens in mind.
Moving to the inside of the action cam, the HERO9 Black features a 20MP sensor that can video at 5K30p and 4K60p. GoPro is using its third-generation Hypersmooth 3.0 technology as well as improved versions of its Superphoto and HDR technology. Raw photo capture is still possible, as well as 1080p livestreaming, inclusion of data overlays in footage and plenty of slow-motion modes (1080p at 240 frames per second).
GoPro says the HERO9 Black will have 30% better battery life than the HERO8 Black and is waterproof down to 10m (33ft). The HERO9 Black is also compatible with over 40 of GoPro’s mods and accessories for decking out the camera to fit your photo and video needs.
The GoPro HERO9 Black is available today for $ 450 as a standalone purchase. If you purchase a year’s subscription to GoPro though — a subscription from GoPro that offers total camera replacement, unlimited cloud storage and discounts on gear — you can snag a HERO9 Black for $ 350.
The Max Lens Mod isn’t yet available for purchase, but the GoPro website says it will retail for $ 100 and offers an option to submit your email on the product page for more information when it becomes available.
In addition to the EOS R5 1.1 firmware update, Canon has also released firmware version 1.2 for the Canon 1D X Mark III. The new firmware improves a number of features and addresses a handful of bug fixes for Canon’s flagship DSLR.
Specifically, Canon says firmware version 1.2 improves face and eye recognition autofocus (AF) at greater distances, improves FTP connectivity during transmission and improves Wi-Fi connectivity when using the Canon EFT-E9 Wireless File Transmitter.
Canon has also improved the experience when using the Browser Remote and addressed a number of ‘phenomenons’ — AKA bugs — that can occur during viewfinder shooting when specific settings are selected. You can see a full list of the bug fixes in the changelog below.
Firmware version 1.2.0 for the Canon 1DX Mark III is available to download from Canon’s product page.
Changelog:
Firmware Version 1.2.0 incorporates the following enhancements and fixes:
Enhancements when using Browser Remote:
The image list displayed will be refreshed automatically on the browser.
On the shooting screen of the browser, you can set the movie resolution and a high frame rate.
On the shooting screen of the browser, you can change the movie shooting mode.
On the shooting screen of the browser, Live View will be displayed as soon as you select the movie shooting button.
Enhances Auto Focus (AF) for improved face and eye recognition at greater distances.
Fixes a phenomenon that may occur during viewfinder shooting, in which the shutter may not be released or the camera may not operate in the following settings:
In One-Shot AF mode, when the AF Area Selection Mode is set as Zone AF, Large Zone AF or Automatic Selection AF.
In AI Servo AF, when direct AF point selection is made using the smart controller.
When the Register/Recall Shooting Function is assigned to the AE Lock button, in the Custom Controls.
Connectivity during FTP transmission has been improved.
Improves Wi-Fi connectivity when using the Wireless File Transmitter WFT-E9.
Fixes a phenomenon, in which the card access time may take longer when using certain CFexpress cards.
