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Review of the Godox AD200 Pocket Flash

02 Apr

Can you think of the ideal camera flash which can fit in your pocket, has almost 3-times output or regular speedlights, and also features a modeling light? The Godox AD200 is one such pocket flash (not if you are wearing skinny fit jeans) which meets all three of those expectations. That is why this flash has been my personal favorite outdoor fashion shoot light source.

To give you a quick overview of some of the features of the Godox AD200 flash, it features TTL, HSS (high-speed sync) up to 1/8000th of a second, 60 guide number, multi-stroboscopic flash feature and second-curtain sync.

If these specifications make you interested in this Godox flash, let me share my personal views and experiences after using it for more than six months now.

Review of the Godox AD200 Pocket Flash

Built Quality and Physical Overview

When you hold the Godox AD200 flash in your hand your first reaction might be that it is too heavy, as it weighs about 1 kg (2 lbs). Although it is heavier than any flagship flash than you might have used to date, at the end of this review you may realize that it is still worth carrying along to a shoot.

The built quality seems and feels durable and strong, almost a par with Canon and Nikon speedlights.

Talking about the physical overview, the front side of Godox AD200 has an interchangeable flash head mount. This allows you to mount the standard Fresnel flash head or the bare bulb flash head.

The only difference between this flash as compared to a speedlight is that the head of the AD200 cannot be rotated. And, the AD200 cannot be mounted on a camera, it can only be used as an off-camera flash. This could be a concern for some, but actually, this flash is not built to be used on-camera anyway.

The standard Fresnel head

The Fresnel flash head is ideal for situations when you are shooting without a light modifier and want to use it as any other speedlight. But an additional feature that the AD200 has is two LED strips on this head, which can use used as a modeling or continuous light. The continuous light could help the camera to focus in low-light conditions, instantly.

Bare bulb

The bare bulb flash head is ideal when while using this Godox flash with a light modifier, as the bulb is omnidirectional. I would choose to avoid using this head otherwise, as it is fragile and could easily be damaged shooting without a light modifier.

Controls

On the back side of the flash rests an AV display panel which is big enough for you to clearly see the various icons being displayed. There are five buttons dedicated to respective functions, a dial to adjust the flash exposure and the infrared sensor panel. The placement of the buttons, dial, and the screen is exactly what you as a photographer would desire in a flash.

On one side of this pocket flash, you will spot the Lithium battery slot, an unlock switch to change the flash head and a rubber cover which covers the 3.5mm sync cord jack and wireless control port. On the other side sits the ON/OFF switch, mini USB port, and a 1/4″ tripod/stand mounting hole.

Review of the Godox AD200 Pocket Flash

Highlighted Features and Performance

TTL (Through-the-lens)

This pocket flash by Godox features TTL metering, a technology which allows the flash to sync with the camera and automatically set the flash exposure based on the camera exposure. Using a flash in TTL mode is exactly the same as using the camera in automatic mode. The camera exposure helps the flash to set its own output value accordingly to correctly expose the frame or the subject.

The TTL mode performance on the Godox AD200 is precise in a majority of situations and it works perfectly in sync with the camera exposure to properly expose the subject. I rarely came across any instances where I got an underexposed or overexposed photo when shooting in TTL mode. Even if I did encounter exposure issues, I used the FEC (flash exposure compensation) feature to overcome it.

HSS (High-Speed Sync)

The Godox AD200 can sync up to 1/8000th while using its HSS functionality. This is ideal for situations where you want to freeze a fast-moving subject or shoot at an outdoor location where you need to control the light.

Review of the Godox AD200 Pocket Flash

Rear-Curtain Sync

Using the rear-curtain (or second-curtain) sync feature of the Godox AD200, you can shoot some really creative and cool photos with long exposures.

Ideally, when you shoot using a flash, the light gets fired from the flash the moment the shutter opens. So if you are shooting a long exposure photo of two seconds, the flash will fire the moment you press the shutter release button and whatever happens after that does not get exposed properly.

But by using the second-curtain sync feature, you can instead make the flash fire right before the shutter closes. Considering the above example, the flash will now fire just before the 2-second exposure is completed and the shutter closes.

Using this feature might sound confusing, but trust me, once you practice you may fall in love with it.

Flash Exposure Compensation

Assume flash exposure compensation to be exactly like the exposure compensation feature of your DSLR camera. If you feel that you are not getting the desired exposure in your photo while using the flash in TTL, or if you plan to try something different, you can adjust the flash exposure compensation.

This amazing feature lets you reduce or increase the flash output as per your desire, all you have to do is adjust the exposure value to your requirements. This is basically like shooting in aperture priority or shutter priority mode, without getting into manual mode.

Review of the Godox AD200 Pocket Flash

Flash Output

The AD200 has a guide number of 60 and the flash output that you get is almost three times of what any flagship speedlight can provide. I was able to expose my subject correctly while shooting outdoors in bright daylight conditions, and believe me when I say that the flash is powerful enough to overpower the background light.

Imagine using three speedlights at a time and on the other hand using just one Godox AD200 flash. The light output shall be almost same. For me, it has performed amazingly well even in low light conditions as I used the built-in LED light to ensure that the focus and flash exposure were correct.

Godox AD200 Flash Recycle Time

The recycle time also plays an important role while deciding on the perfect flash, so here are some tests that I conducted to figure out the recycle time of this flash at various powers.

The recycle time on this flash at full power is quite impressive:

While using the flash at 1/1 (full) power, the recycle time that I got was just less than 2 seconds.
While using the flash at 1/2 power, the recycle time that I get was almost half a second.

I mostly use a flash when I’m shooting fashion and portraits, and with this swift recycle time I hardly miss any shots. Even if you plan to buy this flash for wedding, action, or event photography, I am sure you will thank me later.

Review of the Godox AD200 Pocket Flash

Would I recommend this?

At $ 299, this pocket flash by Godox looks like an ideal choice for a fashion, wedding, event, or even sports photographer. This flash has almost all the features that you, as a hobbyist or as a professional photographer, would require to get the desired results, with almost three times the power of a regular speedlight.

I have been using this portable flash for almost 6 months now, and I do not have any major complaint about this beauty, except for the display panel which could be better for outdoor visibility.

The best part about the Godox AD200 is that there is a universal model of this pocket flash. This means that you can pair this flash with the compatible trigger (Canon, Nikon or Sony) and use it as an off-camera light source. So if you own multiple brand cameras, this is another reason you should consider investing your $ 299 in this Godox flash.

The post Review of the Godox AD200 Pocket Flash appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Review: The Petzi Treat Cam is a camera with an integrated pet feeder

02 Apr

Most of the cameras we test at DPReview fall into predicable categories like DSLRs, mirrorless, and compact enthusiast models. However, we feel a sense of obligation to bring you industry-leading technical reviews of other imaging products as well.

With that in mind, we present our review of the Petzi Treat Cam, a camera with an integrated pet treat dispenser. Unlike most cameras, which are designed to take with you, the Treat Cam is meant to be left at home. Once you’re in the field you can check in on Rover or Fluffy using the camera’s smartphone app, give out treats, take photos and even talk to your pets. What’s not to love?

We tried to reproduce the Treat Cam’s unique feature set using a mirrorless camera, a bowl of pet treats, and a DPReview editor. It didn’t end well.

Key features:

Fixed-lens camera with autofocus
Support for video live streaming
Built-in treat dispenser
Speaker for talking to your pets from afar
Night mode with IR light
Smartphone app with remote operation
Social media network for pets

The Treat Cam has a different form factor than most cameras we review, owing to the fact that it includes an integrated storage reservoir for treats. It lacks the ergonomic niceties found on other cameras though, strictly speaking, the Petzi isn’t really designed for handheld use. (OK, it’s totally not intended for handheld use, but that didn’t prevent us from trying.)

Although the Petzi Treat Cam excels at some tasks, it’s not the best camera for hand-held use.

Setting up the Treat Cam is a breeze. Create an account on the Petzi network, pair your phone with the camera using the Petzi app and – Shazam! – you’re connected. Pop off the plastic cover, fill it with treats and you’re ready for action. You can now leave your pets at home to scratch the furniture unabated, knowing you can check in on them anywhere, any time.

Back home, the Treat Cam plays a chime to alert your pets that you’ve dropped in for a visit. Whether your pets actually care that you’ve made the effort is another matter entirely. In my early attempts to drop in on my cats from half a world away, I was usually met with a view of an empty room, because they were no doubt busy scratching the furniture elsewhere in the house.

Stick with it, and you’ll be rewarded. Treat Cam has a built-in speaker so you can talk to your pets, or plead with them to please stop scratching the furniture. Unfortunately, there’s no corresponding microphone on the camera, so you won’t be able to hear them. You can also take photos to share with your friends or with your friends’ pets (more on this later).

The Treat Cam lets you check in on your pets while away from home.

Of course, the most important feature is the Treat Launcher. And launch, it does. This thing shoots treats like little projectiles, halfway across the room, and if you’ve loaded up the camera with extra small treats it becomes a little pet treat shotgun. Good stuff.

Finally, there’s a ‘night mode’, which activates an infrared light and switches to black and white, making the Treat Cam more usable in low light settings.

Treat Cam has a built-in speaker so you can talk to your pets, or plead with them to please stop scratching the furniture.

The entire process is a learning experience for both you and your pets. Over time, my cats learned to recognize the Treat Cam’s chime and now show up quickly when I connect. I’d like to believe they’re showing up for the engaging conversation.

Image quality

Of course, this is DPReview and we know what all you pet-owning photographers really care about image quality, so we took the Treat Cam into the studio and shot our test scene.

The Petzi Treat Cam has modest resolution and exhibits some barrel distortion, but it’s also the only camera we’ve tested that can fire pet treats back at the test scene. As always, tradeoffs.

A quick glance at the image reveals a fair amount of barrel distortion. OK, there’s a lot of barrel distortion, but this isn’t exactly an architectural camera we’re talking about. In practice, the chart reveals more distortion than you’re likely to see in real world photos. Unless, of course, your pets are shaped like squares or wearing a test chart.

The Treat Cam loses a few points when it comes to image quality, and resolution is not particularly high. We tried to determine the camera’s exact resolution, but after a bit of testing discovered that it always matches the resolution of our phone screen. Yep – the app is basically taking a screen shot and saving it to your camera roll.

It occurred to us that we could probably calculate the exact resolution with a bit of additional analysis, but to be honest it was a lot more fun to shoot M&Ms out of the camera and we got sidetracked doing that instead.

Social network

Your dogs or cats may not be on Facebook, but that doesn’t mean they can’t do social media. Your pets can create their own profiles on the Petzi network (likely, with your assistance), post pictures, and even follow your friends’ pets. My cats have been friends with Jeff Keller’s cats for a few months, and we’d like to believe it’s having a positive impact on their social experience.

With the Petzi app, your pets can follow other pets. Or, at least you can pretend they do.

Of course, social networks are social networks, and you can’t force anyone to like you. Wenmei Hill’s dogs have yet to accept my cats’ friend requests, and I think they’re starting to feel a bit miffed.

If you don’t want to use the Petzi network, it’s easy enough to share photos on human-powered networks like Facebook and Twitter as well.

Compared to…

The Petzi is the first camera with an integrated pet feeder we’ve reviewed and our options for comparison were limited, so we decided to compare it to the medium format Fujifilm GFX 50S. Because why not.

	Petzi Treat Cam	Fujifilm GFX 50S
Price	$ 170	$ 6500
Camera type	Fixed lens	Mirrorless
Pixel count	Not specified	50MP
Touchscreen control	Yes	Yes
Still photos	Yes	Yes
Video	Yes (live streaming)	Yes (1080/30p)
Integrated pet feeder	Yes	No
Smartphone app	Yes	Yes
Dedicated social network	Yes	No
Tripod mount	Yes (wall mount)	Yes
Shots per charge	Requires power cord	400
Weight	1814 g (not including treats)	740 g

As this table shows, it’s possible to make any camera look impressive by choosing the right things to compare, and the Treat Cam doesn’t disappoint. Although the GFX 50S has an impressive 50MP resolution, it costs $ 6500, lacks a dedicated social network, and most importantly, does not include an integrated pet feeder.

The Petzi Treat Cam next to the Fujifilm GFX 50S for scale.

As with any choice, this one comes down to what’s most important to you: high resolution, dynamic range and precision optics, or the ability to bond with your pets from half a world away by shooting dog biscuits from your phone. Without making any judgements, its a deeply personal decision.

Who’s it for?

If you’re a frequent traveler with pets at home, a product like the Petzi Treat Cam is a no-brainer. It’s an easy way to drop in on your pets and give them treats while you’re away. However, thanks to our extensive field tests we can provide some pragmatic advice to potential buyers.

The treat cam works pretty well with dogs right out of the box, probably because that little Petzi chime gets them excited every time it goes off, even if they don’t know why. Dogs are pretty easy that way.

Night mode is useful if it’s dark when you call home.

Cats don’t respond quite as quickly to the Petzi, possibly due to the fact that they’re so busy scratching the furniture while you’re gone. However, once they make the association between the chime and chicken treats that appear out of thin air they’re pretty good at coming over to say hi as well.

We had less success with fish, hamsters, tropical birds, snakes, iguanas and flying squirrels, but your mileage may vary. Let us know if you have any luck with these.

Our take

What we liked	What we would improve
Easy setup and configuration Large treat reservoir Ability to visit pets from anywhere in the world	Improved camera resolution Two-way audio

What our pets liked	What our pets would improve
Treat dispenser is sometimes a bit too generous Getting treats when their person is away from home	An even more generous treat dispenser Ability to dispense treats on their own

The final word

The Petzi Treat Cam is the first integrated pet feeder camera we’ve reviewed, and we’re generally impressed. Sure, you might give up certain features found in higher end cameras, such as resolution and image quality, but as we all know, specs aren’t everything. After all, if you’ve ever tried to feed your pet over the Internet using a DSLR (and let’s be honest, who hasn’t) you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about. And for that reason, the Petzi earns a solid ‘Paws Up’ award from the DPReview team.

In case it isn’t obvious at this point, we’d like to make it clear that we’re partaking in the great tradition of April Fool’s silliness with this review. Our pets took it very seriously, though. They don’t really get jokes.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Alien Skin Exposure X3 review

20 Mar

Alien Skin Exposure X3 3.5
$ 149 | www.alienskin.com/exposure/ | Buy Now

This review is based on use of Exposure X3 and a beta version of Exposure X3 Complete Workflow Update for Mac.

Introduction

We’ve reached the point with image editing software that most basic features are covered. Correcting for exposure, saturation, and other settings are the expected baseline, which means applications need something more to differentiate themselves.

Some, like Skylum’s Luminar or Serif’s Affinity Photo (see Review: Affinity Photo 1.5.2 for desktop), are competing on price, along with the fact that they don’t require subscription plans.

Add to the mix Alien Skin Software’s Exposure X3. It’s competitive on price—$ 149 on its own, or $ 199 for a bundle that includes a couple of the company’s utilities, with no subscription—but it also includes several unique features that demonstrate the company is willing to tailor the software experience to how its customers use the product.

Differentiation in organizing

Like Adobe’s Lightroom family of products, Exposure X3 is both an image editor and an organizer for managing your photo library. You can preview thumbnails, rate and flag photos, assign keywords, and fill in basic IPTC metadata such as Title, Caption, Copyright, and contact information.

People who capture many images at a time and need fast turnaround will appreciate Exposure X3’s ability to import from multiple connected memory cards at once. You can rename files at import, specify custom destinations (and create presets for folder structures), and apply keywords and metadata during the ingest process. What it doesn’t do, surprisingly, is let you preview thumbnails of what’s coming in to cull shots before they’re copied to disk. It also doesn’t let you specify how to treat Raw + JPEG image pairs; you get both shots as separate images.

Import photos from multiple sources in the same batch.

Reviewing photos is aided by Exposure X3’s Quad and Six layout views, especially when you have several photos from the same capture burst where the subject is similar in each one. Four or six adjacent images in your library are displayed in a grid so you can compare differences between them, such as the expression on a person’s face. (There are also options to compare two or three images at a time.) If one stands out, you can pin it to the screen and compare it to others. The views are synchronized, so zooming in on one zooms them all at the same location in the image.

Compare four similar images at a time in the Quad view.

An important distinction about Exposure X3’s asset management features is that they’re directory-based, not catalog based. Applications such as Lightroom and Apple’s Photos keep track of where your photos are located on disk—sometimes all within the same library file or folder, set up by the software—and store metadata and edits about the images in a central catalog.

The advantage to this approach is that, as long as you continue to use that application to manage everything, all that data is more easily accessed by the software. You don’t need to worry about managing files, because the application does it for you. On the other hand, it means the metadata and edits don’t live with the image files. If you move an original Raw file on disk to a new location, for example, any edits you made would not go along with it. And in the case of Lightroom, moving the file in the Finder or Windows Explorer confuses Lightroom because it’s lost track of the image.

Exposure X3 doesn’t use standard XMP files, as many applications do

Exposure X3 takes a different tack. It reads images from the folders in which they’re stored, and writes edits to a separate sidecar file that lives in the same directory as the image file. When you view a photo in Exposure X3, the software also reads the information in the sidecar file and displays the edits noted there.

However, Exposure X3 doesn’t use standard XMP files, as many applications do. Within every directory of images, it creates a folder hierarchy, “Alien Skin > Exposure X3,” that contains metadata files ending in “.exposurex3” created for every image you edit. Those files use the same structure as XMP files, but can also include editing instructions that only Exposure X3 understands.

Some directory viewing software is just a visual way to traverse the folders on your disk, but Exposure X3 does use some centralized know-how to help you organize photos. The Collections feature lets you create virtual albums to group related photos that may exist in separate directories, such as shots from a single client captured over several photo shoots. Adding photos to a collection doesn’t move the files on disk.

Differentiation in editing

Before Alien Skin released Exposure as a stand-alone application, it was known for its presets that simulated the looks of film stocks and other effects. Those are all there in Exposure X3, and the results are quite good.

Exposure X3’s many presets simulate the looks of old photo processes, favorite film stocks, and more.

Want to preview how a preset will look before you apply it? Mousing over the preset thumbnails reveals the effect on your image, but you can also “audition” up to four presets at a time by selecting an image and dragging the presets you want to open slots.

Compare presets to the same image before applying your pick.

In addition to the basic editing adjustments (tone, color, and so forth), Exposure X3 also includes controls for controlling grain and creating vignettes that introduce variation such as distortion and lump size for more organic results. An IR panel introduces the soft hazy signature look of infrared photos with sliders to control color contrast and the degree of halation (light spread). A Bokeh panel includes a multitude of controls for adding selective focus. Exposure X3.5 brings the Color tools into the present with the addition of granular Hue, Saturation, and Luminance controls, as well as white balance controls listed in Kelvin units and with camera Raw presets.

One feature I stumbled upon is the software’s batch editing feature, which resulted in me accidentally making the same adjustments to several shots at once. Instead of making edits to one photo and then copying them to other images, you simply select all the images you want to change in the grid view or the filmstrip at the bottom of the screen. As you make edits to one, the adjustments are applied to all of the others.

When you make any adjustment, as with Lightroom, the effect is applied to the entire image. Unlike Lightroom, Exposure X3 supports multiple layers, enabling you to isolate adjustments on their own layers. In fact, local adjustments such as brush strokes or radial or linear gradients automatically appear as new layers. Each layer has an automatic mask that hides the adjustments until you expose them with the brush or gradient tools.

If your images are stored in a shared location, such as a Dropbox folder, someone else running Exposure X3 can view the photos

The Portrait Touch Up preset demonstrates this: when you apply it, Exposure X3 creates three layers designed to whiten teeth, smooth skin, and enhance a subject’s iris. Paint over the affected areas to reveal the effects. You can’t apply blend modes between layers, as some applications allow, but you can choose an opacity level for each layer.

Remember earlier when I mentioned that Exposure X3 stores metadata in its own sidecar files? All of the editing information is also stored in the same place, creating an interesting collaborative possibility. If your images are stored in a shared location, such as a Dropbox folder, someone else running Exposure X3 can view the photos. The adjustment data exists in the text-only sidecar files that are updated on both machines as they’re changed.

You’ll want to make sure you’re not both editing at the same time, which can overwrite edits, but it allows you to work on an image together over the phone or in alternating sessions without having to send file revisions back and forth.

Performance

Working with layers and local adjustments in Exposure X3 is a bit of a mixed bag. When editing Raw .RAF files from my FujiFilm X-T1, there was noticeable lag when using the brush, which meant I became accustomed to painting an area and waiting a beat for the result to appear before moving on. The lag was more pronounced when viewing an image at 1:1 zoom; an onscreen Rendering progress indicator showed up often. Even when reviewing images, I saw pauses as the software processed my Raw files.

This was a surprise, because I came to Exposure X3 with the expectation that it tended to do a better job handling the Raw files from Fuji’s X-Trans sensors. The update from version 3.0.6 to 3.5 did improve performance somewhat, but the lag is still noticeable.

I became accustomed to painting an area and waiting a beat for the result to appear before moving on

I also loaded some Nikon .NEF Raw files from a D90, as well as Sony .ARW Raw files from a Sony a7R III. Performance was just fine on the former, and a little slow on the latter’s significantly larger (86 MB) image files. But the X-T1’s images, which max out at 16.3MP (compared to the larger 24.3MP files from the Fujifilm X-T2, which I didn’t have to test) still performed the slowest.

For context, I tested Exposure X3 on a late-2016 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, outfitted with 16GB of RAM (the maximum the machine can handle) and the Radeon Pro 460 graphics processor with 4GB memory (the top-line GPU upgrade when the computer was offered). This isn’t the most powerful Mac available, but it isn’t a slouch, either.

With the caveat that I’m not a software engineer, I suspect one possibility for the lackluster editing performance is that Exposure X3 doesn’t seem to be making use of the high-performance GPU. (You can check this by opening Activity Monitor, switching to the Energy tab, and looking at the Requires High Perf GPU column.)

I was also surprised that the Shadows control seems subpar. Yes, it brightens shadow areas, but it does so by flattening the entire image more than you’d expect; it feels like using a blunt instrument instead of a surgical one.

It’s a reminder that even basic features need attention, as well as the differentiating ones.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Import from multiple sources at the same time
Edits and metadata are stored in local files, not a central database
Quad layout reviewing
High-quality presets
Ability to audition presets
Fixed price, no subscription

Cons:

Frequent rendering lag using Fujifilm Raw files
Shadows control is heavy-handed
No thumbnail preview during import
Raw+JPEG pairs are treated as separate images

Good for:

Photographers looking for non-subscription software that does more than basic editors.

Not good for:

The impatient.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Fujifilm X-H1 Review

16 Mar

The Fujifilm X-H1 is the company’s range-topping APS-C camera and its most video-capable camera to date. It’s based around the same 24MP sensor as the X-T2 but adds in-body image stabilization as well as a more comprehensive set of video options.

The X-H1 looks like a fractionally larger X-T2 but with the sloped viewfinder ‘prism’ and top-panel LCD that hint at the styling of the GFX 50S. Fujifilm has also clearly been listening to critics of the X-T series and have made the camera’s grip and buttons significantly larger, particularly the AE-L and newly-added AF-On buttons.

Key specifications

24MP X-Trans APS-C sensor
5-axis in-body image stabilization (rated at 5EV)*
3.69M-dot OLED viewfinder
Touch sensitive rear LCD with two-axis tilt
DCI and UHD 4K capture at up to 200 Mbps
Slow motion 1080 (from 120 and 100 fps)
Internal F-Log capture
24-bit audio capture
Eterna/Cinema Film Simulation mode
Timecode
Reduced blackout in continuous shooting
Twin UHS-II-compatible card slots
Anti-flicker shooting mode
Wi-Fi with Bluetooth for constant connection

The company says it’s made further improvements to its AF system and says the new camera will be able to focus in lower light and with smaller apertures.

Despite being based around the same sensor and processor, the X-H1 promises significantly improved video performance, with the range of shooting options extended to include DCI as well as UHD 4K shooting, bitrates up to 200 Mbps and the ability to record F-Log footage internally.

Other additions include the movie style ‘Eterna’ Film Simulation and an anti-flicker option for shooting under artificial lights.

Interestingly, although rated at 5EV, Fujifilm says the stabilization can hit 5.5EV of effectiveness if paired with non-IS lenses. The explanation for this is that the unstabilized lenses tend to be primes and are generally relatively wide focal lengths, both of which mean they’re more likely to project a larger image circle than the sensor requires. This gives the sensor more room to move around, providing greater stabilization.

Enhanced video

The X-T2 is already a very credible video performer: offering good levels of detail capture and Log output over HDMI if needed. The X-H1 takes this a step further. In addition to being able to shoot UHD 4K at up to 30p it can also shoot the wider aspect ratio DCI 4K format at 23.98 and 24p. Enhanced compression options allow capture at up to 200 Mbps and it can also capture F-Log footage internally.

Like the X-T2, the H1 uses a 1.17x crop region of its sensor to capture its UHD and DCI 4K video. This means using roughly 1.4x more pixels than necessary, in each dimension, to produce its UHD footage. This oversampling leads to higher levels of detail capture than would be possible by simply using a 3840 x 2160 region. If the X-T2 is anything to go by, it should look good and have pretty well-controlled rolling shutter.

It seems most of the camera’s additional size relates to the addition of the stabilization unit, but thermal management has also been improved, allowing the camera to shoot 4K for 15 minutes, rather than the 10 of the X-T2. However, as with the X-T2, there’s an optional battery grip that lets the camera cycle between drawing power from each of three batteries. Presumably this avoids too much heat building up in the same place, since it extends the camera’s 4K shooting duration out to the traditional 29 minutes, 59 seconds stipulated by import duty regulations.

On top of this comes the ability for the camera to retain a raft of settings separately for stills and video. This means you don’t have to significantly reconfigure the camera every time you switch from stills to video shooting or back.

Parameters treated independently for movie shooting
Film Simulation Dynamic Range mode White Balance Highlight Tone Shadow Tone Color (saturation) Sharpness (sharpening) Noise reduction	Peripheral light correction (vignetting ) Focus area Focus mode AF-C Custom Settings Pre-AF Face/Eye Detection MF Assist Focus Check

The obvious things that can’t be set independently for stills and movie shooting are the exposure settings, since these are primarily defined by dedicated control dials. If you plan to swap back and forth between stills and video shooting, the camera’s new ‘Movie Silent Control’ mode is one way around this.

Movie Silent Control disables the aperture ring, shutter speed dial and ISO dial, passing control to a touchscreen, joystick and four-way controller-based interface. This means discrete stills and video settings can be maintained, since the dedicated control points no longer have any affect in video mode.

However you choose to control exposure in movie mode, you’ll quickly find that the X-H1 offers shutter speeds equivalent to 360, 180 and 90 degree shutter angles for 24, 30 and 60p video capture, with the options for 1/24th, 1/48th, 1/96th, 120th and 1/240th becoming available.

Like its sibling, the X-H1 offers a series of focus peaking options (color and intensity) but no zebra warnings for setting exposure, beyond the ‘Live View Highlight Warning’ option that indicates an unspecified and unspecifiable brightness.

The X-H1 also brings Fujifilm’s DR modes to movie capture for the first time, allowing you to capture more highlight information, if you can tolerate higher ISO settings. Meanwhile the ‘Eterna/Cinema’ Film simulation is designed to give ‘soft,’ low-saturation footage with low contrast but distinct shadows. Fujifilm says it can be used as an end-point in itself or to give yourself a degree of latitude for color grading.

Users of Fujifilm’s MK lenses (launched in X-mount alongside the X-H1) will appreciate the ability to view aperture as T-stops, rather than F-numbers. It’s unclear at this point whether this option will be available with adapted and third-party lenses identified this way.

Dynamic Range Priority

Fujifilm was one of the first brands to exploit the ISO-invariant properties of the sensors it uses through its Dynamic Range modes (The DR modes offer multiple ways of delivering ISO settings using different amounts of hardware amplification to capture additional highlight information).

The X-H1 takes this further with a ‘Dynamic Range Priority’ mode. This uses the existing DR modes in combination with the camera’s ability to adjust the Highlight and Shadow aspects of its tone curves. There are four settings: Weak, Strong, Auto and Off. The ‘Weak’ setting is DR200% mode with highlights and shadows softened by 1 step (since it’s based on DR200%, is only available from ISO 400 upwards), while ‘Strong’ is DR400% with Highlights and Shadows set to -2. Strong is only available from ISO 800 or higher.

New shutter mechanism

Along with in-body stabilization, the X-H1 gains a new, quieter shutter mechanism. In addition to being quieter, it also allows the camera to offer Electronic First Curtain (EFC) shutter mode. In this mode the sensor being activated starts the exposure but a physical shutter is still used to end it, so that you significantly reduce the risk of shutter shock without increasing the risk of rolling shutter.

Various combinations of EFC, mechanical and fully electronic shutter are available, to allow the use of each mode for the shutter speeds where it gives its greatest advantage.

Compared with its peers

The X-H1 is the latest high-end crop sensor camera to offer both stills and video shooting but each one provides a different set of features:

	Fujifilm X-H1	Fujifilm X-T2	Sony a6500	Panasonic GH5
US MSRP (body only)	$ 1900	$ 1600	$ 1400	$ 2000
Pixel count	24MP	24MP	24MP	20MP
Sensor size	APS-C	APS-C	APS-C	Four Thirds
Image Stablization	5-axis, 5.5EV	Lens only	5-axis, 5EV	5-axis, 5EV
Maximum shooting rate	14 fps with e-shutter, 8 fps mechanical (11 with grip)	14 fps with e-shutter, 8 fps mechanical (11 with grip)	11 fps	9 fps (11 with S-AF)
AF Joystick?	8-way	8-way	No	4-way
Touchscreen	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Screen articulation	Two-axis tilt	Two-axis tilt	Tilt	Fully articulated
EVF	3.69M dots	2.36M dots	2.36M dots	3.69M dots
Viewfinder magnification	0.75x	0.77x	0.70x	0.76x
Video Bit depth	8	8	8	10
Max bitrate (Mbps)	200	100	100	400 (150 in 8-bit mode
Mic / Headphone sockets?	Yes / On VPB-XH1 accessory grip	Yes / On VPB-XT2 accessory grip	Yes / No	Yes / Yes
Log capture?	Yes	HDMI out only	Yes	HLG (V-Log L Via paid upgrade)
HDMI	Micro	Micro	Micro	Full size
USB	3.0 Micro Type B	3.0 Micro Type B	2.0 Micro Type B	3.1 Type C
Shots per charge (CIPA rating)	310	340	310	410
Weight (with card and battery)	673g	507g	453g	725g

Pricing and availability

The X-H1 is available with an MSRP of $ 1899 body only and $ 2199 bundled with the VPB-XH1 vertical grip.

Review Publication History
February 15	Introduction, body and handling, first impressions and samples
March 15	In Use…, Autofocus, Image Stabilization, Image Quality, Dynamic Range, Video and Conclusion added

*Fujifilm says the camera will give up to 5.5EV of stabilization when paired with non-stabilized XF lenses. As with all CIPA ratings, the performance is likely to be lower with very wide or long lenses.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Canon EOS M50 first impressions review

26 Feb

Introduction

The Canon EOS M50 is an entry-level mirrorless camera sporting an electronic viewfinder, fully articulating touchscreen, single control dial and 24MP APS-C sensor – the same used by its M-series siblings. It has Canon’s latest DIGIC 8 processor and offers expanded Dual Pixel AF coverage, 4K/24p video capture (1.6x crop) as well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC.

In a lot of ways it’s a beefier, viewfinder-sporting M100, the brand’s most affordable M-mount offering. And it will likely appeal to the same crowd: beginners and/or those stepping up from a smartphone as their primary photography device. Unlike the M100, the M50 has Canon’s Guide Modes, like those found on the SL2 and T7i. But what’s really exciting about the M50 is that it’s an indicator of what’s down the road for the rest of the M and Rebel series.

Key Features:

24MP APS-C CMOS sensor
Dual Pixel autofocus for stills and video
DIGIC 8 processor
2.36M-dot OLED EVF
1.04M-dot vari-angle LCD
7.4 fps burst in AF-C (10 fps in AF-S)
4K/24p UHD video (1.6 x crop)
1080/60p and 720/120p HD video
Wi-Fi and NFC with Bluetooth
235 shot-per-charge battery live (via CIPA)

One year ago, we met with Canon executives in Yokohama, Japan – you can read the full interview here. At the time, they promised the brand’s main strategic focus going forward would be connectivity and video. The M50 is a clear indication that Canon is making good on that promise. This is the first Canon camera that will automatically send photos to your smartphone after each shot and the first M-series to offer 4K. But before you get too excited about that latter bit, it’s worth noting that 4K comes with a heavy 1.6x crop, and Dual Pixel AF is not available in 4K (contrast detection AF is available).

Dual Pixel AF can be used in all other video modes, including 1080/60p. It still covers 80% x 80% of the sensor but now with 99 selectable points (up from 49 on previous M cameras). And with certain lenses (18-150mm, 28mm macro and 55-200mm) that coverage increases to 88% x 100% with 143 points.

The M50 is the first Canon to use the new CR3 Raw format, which has an updated compression option called C-Raw (compressed full resolution, rather than the downsized ‘Small’ and ‘Medium’ Raw formats).

Other new features include an Eye Detection mode, only available in AF-S, as well as a new silent scene mode. It also has a new gyro sensor that communicates movement to the lens-based IS system for better shake compensation, as well as dual Sensing IS (using data from the image sensor to compensate for shake when shooting stills or video).