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Quick Review of the Sigma 135mm F1.8 DG HSM Art Lens

22 Jun

In this quick review of the Sigma 135mm f1.8 Art Lens, I will go over some of its features and give you my overall impression of this lens.

Photographers like gear

I belong to several photography groups, both online as well as within my local area, and often times when we meet, we end up talking about our gear. Conversations typically revolve around the gear we have, what we would like to have, and what we want to sell off. On several occasions, I have heard my fellow photographers talk about the Sigma Art series of lenses. They always start the conversation with, “Oh, I absolutely love my Sigma Art lens. The bokeh is so dreamy!” Now, I am a Canon shooter – always have been and always will be. But that does not mean that every once in a while, I don’t like to test out gear from other companies to compare performance, specifications, and price.

Quick Review of the Sigma 135mm F1.8 DG HSM Art Lens

The Sigma 135mm F1.8 DG HSM Art Lens comes with a case and a lens hood.

So when I had the opportunity to test out the Sigma 135mm 1.8 DG HSM Art lens, I jumped at the chance. I spent about three weeks with this lens and used it for a variety of photography assignments – both indoors and outdoors. Here is my review based on my personal experiences with this lens.

Technical Specifications

As per Sigma’s website, the Sigma 135mm F1.8 DG HSM Art is a medium range telephoto prime lens designed for modern high-megapixel DSLRs. A new large Hyper Sonic Motor (HSM) delivers ample torque to the focusing group for outstanding speed, ensuring exceptionally stable performance even at lower speeds. This state-of-the-art prime lens touts a dust and splash proof mount for guaranteed performance in any condition and its large 1.8 aperture allows for more creative control over imagery.

Quick Review of the Sigma 135mm F1.8 DG HSM Art Lens

The Sigma 135mm F1.8 DG HSM Art Lens attached to my Canon 1V film camera.

My telephoto lens of choice is my Canon EF 70-200L lens. It’s heavy and bulky but gives me some of the best picture quality in its class. Compared to that lens, the 135mm felt lightweight and comfortable to carry around all day. Being a fixed lens, there are no moving parts, unlike the zoom ring on the 70-200mm. While this meant that I had to move around to get shots at various distances, it was not an inconvenience. I just used pretended to have a zoom lens by moving my feet!

The lens looks very sharp and clean. The smooth matte black finish of the lens gives it a certain visual appeal. The build quality is very clean and it feels like a solid piece of glass. The lens is a little heavy (at about 2.56 pounds or 1.2 kg) but if you are used to walking around with other telephoto lenses, it’s not any different compared to using those.

Sharpness of the Sigma 135mm F1.8 Art Lens

The legendary quality of having the dreamiest bokeh is very true with this lens. It is super sharp even when shooting absolutely wide open. I typically shoot very wide opened with all my Canon L-lenses which fits my style of photography. The aperture of f/2.0 is my personal sweet spot – the one that I really trust to give me a shallow depth of field and dreamy bokeh (blurry background). This lens did not disappoint at my favorite f-stop.

But even at f/1.8 (the widest aperture on the Sigma 135mm), the lens was tack sharp with very shallow depth of field. Once it was stopped down to f/16, there was some softness on the edges of the frame but it’s not very prominent. With a lens of this quality, the best aperture would be between f/1.8 to f/4 (in my opinion) to get the best of the shallow depth of field and bokeh that we all love.

Quick Review of the Sigma 135mm F1.8 DG HSM Art Lens

Shot at ISO 200, f/1.8 – wide open – look at that dreamy bokeh.

Quick Review of the Sigma 135mm F1.8 DG HSM Art Lens

ISO 200 at f/2.0

Quick Review of the Sigma 135mm F1.8 DG HSM Art Lens

ISO 200 at f/9 – more of the entire scene is clear and visible – with a wider (deeper) depth of field here.

Vignetting

The Sigma 135mm at f/1.8 Art Lens showed slight edge vignetting when shot wide open. But for my style of photography, it’s minimal and nothing I could not fix in post-processing. I was very impressed with the number of tack sharp images that I could keep even when I used the lens completely wide open at f/1.8.

Quick Review of the Sigma 135mm F1.8 DG HSM Art Lens

The image above left was shot at ISO 200, f/2.0 and on the right, the same scene was shot at ISO 200, f/9. There is no visible softness or vignetting at either aperture. The bokeh at f/2.0 is so dreamy (shallow depth of field) and at f/9 more of the background is visible.

Autofocus

The Sigma 135mm has an electronic hypersonic motor. This makes the autofocus very fast and smooth. I found that the lens locked focus easily and did not hunt while focusing. The AF motor was also relatively quiet and smooth as compared to other telephoto lenses like the Canon 85mm f/1.2L II USM that is really slow while hunting for focus in the AF mode.

Quick Review of the Sigma 135mm F1.8 DG HSM Art Lens

While hiking my two boys decided they would lead the pack. I really wanted to capture this independent streak and both images are shot less than 2 seconds apart. The Sigma 135mm had no problems tracking focus as they moved up the trail. Both images were shot at ISO 200, f/2.0 and both have the subjects tack sharp and in focus in spite of the movement.

Macro capabilities

While the Sigma 135mm is not described as a macro lens, it did offer 0.2x magnification with a minimum focusing distance of just under three feet. Since I have a dedicated macro lens that I use for my detail shots, I did not pay much attention to this feature. However, in a pinch, this lens could be used to provide some magnification.

Karthika Gupta Memorable Jaunts DPS Article - Sigma 135mm lens review-11

The 135mm zoom was a little tight when I had to take in-studio headshots but once I got the focus locked, it turned out beautifully. Both images were shot at f/2.0 ISO 640, 1/125th.

Summary

Overall I was really very impressed with the Sigma 135mm 1.8 DG HSM Art lens. It is a superbly built piece of gear that was incredibly fast, easy to carry, handle, and use.

The only thing I needed to get used to was the fact that it was a prime lens and not a zoom, unlike my favorite 70-200mm telephoto lens. This meant I had to move around to get shots at different angles and different focal lengths, but I don’t consider that a con. Instead, I feel that shooting with a prime lens makes you more careful and thoughtful about your compositions since you have to physically move around to get a diverse range of shots.

The Sigma 135mm lens is definitely something to look into if you are in the market for a good quality telephoto lens.

The post Quick Review of the Sigma 135mm F1.8 DG HSM Art Lens by Karthika Gupta appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Flash review: the Godox Ving V860 II is a great-value wireless solution

19 Jun
  • Godox Ving V860 ll flash – $ 199/£161
  • Godox Ving V860 ll flash kit with X1 transmitter – $ 245/£199
  • X1 transmitter – $ 40/£37
  • www.godox.com

I’ve been a big fan of independent flash brands since I was a teenager. Marquee brands’ hotshoe units were always disproportionately expensive, and for a young photographer on a stacking-shelves budget the appeal of cheaper and more powerful models from secondary manufacturers was obvious.

In those days of course flash unit controls were much less complicated, but working with flash was generally much harder than it is today – all we expected back then was a cable socket and a manually variable burst of illumination.

The Godox V860 ll is a very well made flash unit that comes equipped with an AF assist light on the front, a sync socket for cabled triggering and a USB port for firmware updates.

The head offers full tilt and swivel movements, manual and automatic zoom, a diffuser and a white card reflector for catchlights

Flash changed with the advent of aperture priority options, the coming of full TTL metering, optical off-camera communications and then, eventually, radio controls. While in the distant past the independent flash brands were very much following in the footsteps of the big names, now we often see the resourcefulness of some companies putting the sluggish progress of the main brands to shame.

While Nikon and Canon have held on to their intermittently effective optical flash control systems for far too long, innovative brands such as Godox, Phottix and others have been making real progress in the field of 2.4GHz radio controls. The big names have been catching up of course, but for those looking for something that doesn’t come with a significant premium for having radio wireless TTL control these companies offer an interesting set of alternatives.

Specification

Godox V860 ll
Compatible Canon, Nikon, Sony
Guide No 60m/190ft @ ISO 100
Flash coverage 20-200mm (14mm with diffuse)
Zoom control Auto and manual
Tilt/Swivel -7-90 degrees/180 degrees both L and R
Flash duration 1/300-1/20000sec
Exposure TTL and manual

Flash exp comp

 +/- 3 stops
Sync mode

High speed (up to 1/8000sec)
First curtain and second curtain
Strobe-flash Up to 90 bursts at 100Hz
Wireless functions Master, Slave, Off
Slave groups

3 (A, B, C)
Transmission range

Optical indoors: 39-49ft
Optical outdoors: 26-33ft
2.4G Radio: 100m/328ft
Channels

Optical: 4
Radio: 32
Modelling flash Yes, via camera’s depth of field button
AF assist beam Yes. Range – Centre: 33ft, Edge: 16ft
Power 11.1V/2000mAh Li-ion polymer battery
Recycle time <1.5 seconds
Battery life Approx 650 full power flashes
Sync triggering Hotshoe, 2.5mm port, wireless
Color Temperature 5600 +/-200k
W x H x D 64x76x190mm/2.5x3x7.5in
Weight without battery 430g/15.2oz
Weight with battery 540g/19oz

In case you aren’t aware, the attraction of radio over optical controls in flash-to-flash communications is that the signal is more reliable outside on a sunny day and it can pass through walls and other physical barriers. Units don’t have to be the same room or very close together, and we don’t have problems of modifiers covering sensors if the flash unit needs to sit inside a softbox or similar. And that is what makes me excited about using these Godox Ving V860 ll units.

Features

The V860 II is the latest Godox offering for Canon, Nikon and Sony users, and it provides TTL metering and off-camera control via a wireless 2.4GHz radio system, as well as the usual optical control system. The unit can operate on the camera’s hotshoe as a commander unit for both other Godox flashguns and the marque brand’s own radio units, or it can join a network controlled by an ‘official’ flash unit – or indeed by a radio transmitter plugged into the camera.

The output is healthy enough, with an official guide number of 60m/190ft @ ISO 100 at 200mm, and we are offered full manual control from full to 1/128th power in 1/3rd EV increments. Flash duration figures range from 1/300sec at the more powerful settings to 1/20,000sec for the lighter bursts.

High speed sync allowed me to shoot with shutter speeds well above the standard sync speeds of the Nikon D810. The shot on the left was taken at 1/640sec and that on the right at 1/1000sec. Despite the short shutter speed and the reduced opportunity for the flash to get its illumination out, the V860 ll was easily able to compete with the bright sunlight – even when hindered by a mini softbox

The flash provides rear curtain sync even if your camera doesn’t, and high speed sync allows the flash units to be used on or off-camera at shutter speeds of up to 1/8000sec. The head has zoom positions to cover the angle of view of lenses from 20mm to 200mm, while a wide angle diffuser provides for focal lengths as short as 14mm. Comprehensive swivel and tilt positions help us direct that coverage in practically every direction except directly downwards.

Strobing can be arranged at a range of frequencies, intensities and over fixed periods, though the over-heating protection asks that we limit ourselves to 10 sequences before resting. To give you an idea of what the unit is capable of at ¼ power it is possible to choose options between 1 flash per second for 7 seconds and 2 flashes at a rate of 100 flashes per second. At minimum power that changes to 90 bursts at 1 per second, and 40 bursts at 100 per second. In normal shooting though Godox says 30 full power or 100 ¼ power flashes can be fired in quick succession before the over-heating protection kicks in and demands a 10 minute break.

One of the interesting elements of the flashgun is its power source. The V860 II is powered by the sort of rechargeable lithium ion block battery we might expect to see in a large camera. With a 2000mAh capacity the battery is claimed to be good for 650 full-power bursts and can be recharged in about two and a half hours. I’m not sure this constitutes a revolution, but it feels like one and is a good deal more convenient and civilized than carrying and burning endless AA cells.

What can be controlled wirelessly?

The V860 II is very flexible. It’s happy to to be used to command a group of connected flash units or to be controlled by another. As a commander it can fire to influence the exposure itself or be used as a pure trigger, with no flash output. Godox offers a separate commander/receiver called the X1 that makes a more cost-effective hotshoe commander when no light is required from the camera position.

The system allows three groups of flashes to be controlled at the same time, and users can pick between 32 channels to steer clear of other radio systems in the vicinity. The V860 II can still be controlled optically across four channels, but when in radio mode it has a range of 100m and works outside even in bright light, as well as when positioned in a different room with a wall between the flash and the controller.

This scene was lit with a pair of V860 ll units – one inside and one outside the house. The main flash unit was fitted into a Godox S-Type Speedlite Bracket with a SFUV softbox, and was positioned in the garden to fire through the window on the left of the frame. A second V860 ll was placed camera-right, to light the back of the subject’s head through a Rogue snoot. The camera’s metering was set to matrix, while both heads were set to +1EV via the X1 transmitter on the camera.

I found the flash’s color consistent, well balanced and in no need of correction. The cool-day/warm-day effects here were created in post-production.

Wireless control extends to manual and TTL control, as well as high speed working and strobotic operation, and a modelling burst is still possible with a press of the camera’s depth-of-field preview button.

Handling

The V860 II has a clear enough screen and lays out its wares in a pretty logical way. Once we are familiar with the mostly standard type icons it is easy to see what settings are prevailing at any one time. Changing the settings though is less straightforward so a good and thorough read of the instruction manual is recommended. The controls are really not intuitive enough that they can be used with a hazy memory or no previous experience.

With familiarity we can take advantage of a good range of control in the master and slave units. Exposure compensation runs only to +/-3EV for in-unit controls and for slaves across the three channels, which some may consider a little short for complex set-ups. On a similar note it isn’t possible to control the zoom position on slave units from the master control panel. To be fair this is not a standard feature on this sort of flash unit, but it would be useful.

A nice touch – when in commander mode the rear screen of the V860 ll turns green and when being used as a slave it turns orange. The button arrangement is simple enough – at least once you’re used to it and know what the icons mean.

Buttons and dials on the rear of the flash are nicely designed and make operation deliberate once you’ve worked out what each one does, but the controls on the X1 transceiver are a little more fiddly than they need to be and require quite small fingers. The display screen is adequate but a bit small, and on every occasion I used the rear wheel I turned it the wrong way.

The controls on the X1 are small and quite fiddly. They are fine in a relaxed studio environment, but less easy to operate on the go or with gloves on

Changing batteries in mid-shoot is fantastically easy and can be achieved in much less than a quarter of the time it takes to change four AA cells – which makes for much more relaxing weddings. And when fumbled these batteries don’t clatter and roll all the way down the church either. I am rather taken with this idea and wonder why we haven’t been using lithium blocks in our flash units for years. I’m told it makes export more difficult, but I’m not sure how much I believe that’s the whole reason.

Cheap flashguns are all very well but we need something well made and built to last, and these Godox units seem to satisfy both requirements. They feel nice to use and have a reassuring solidity about them without being too weighty. They are actually really well made and I can personally vouch for the fact that they can withstand being dropped from about waist height on to pretty hard ground.

Performance

I used a pair of these V860 ll units with the X1 transceiver on a Nikon D810, and across a couple of weddings and a few portrait shoots they did very well indeed. Nikon I suppose must be given credit for the accuracy of the metering, but the Godox units worked with the camera seamlessly.

Godox’s operating range claims seem well-founded and the radio communication does in fact work well through walls and around corners, though in a couple of instances at very close range I managed to find a blind spot when using the X1 hotshoe transmitter. I was quite surprised to encounter this on a number of occasions when holding the gun in my hand while shooting, and also while the gun was mounted on a bracket next to the camera. The blind spot seems to be at 45 degrees forward of the transmitter when the flash is placed directly alongside.

At greater distances, more normal perhaps for off-camera work, the system performed really very well, but the short range reliability became a bit of an issue for me until I got used to it – I often hold a unit in one hand and the camera in the other when working on my own at events.

Here is an overhead view of the set-up, with flash A in the softbox and flash B bouncing into the reflector. The Godox bag is being used to create a shadow around the base of the bowl. I used an X-Rite Color Checker Passport to white balance the rear flash, and found the shift in color from the camera’s flash white balance setting was hardly noticeable .
For this shot I used a single flash (A) in a softbox, set to 0EV compensation, positioned behind the subject. Here the only light is coming from flash B, positioned forward to the side and bouncing into a gold reflector.
This shot shows the effect of both flashes lighting the scene, with both set to 0EV compensation To create a little more of a three-dimensional feel I increased the power of flash A in the rear to +2EV, and reduced flash B at the front to -1.3EV

At one stage I found the X1 wouldn’t trigger the guns at all, and no matter what I tried I couldn’t make it work. This was extremely frustrating for a long time. I solved the issue by accident when I triggered one V860 ll from the other and then found that suddenly the X1 wanted to work again. I’m not entirely sure what the problem was, but suspect some sort of communication issue that was somehow unblocked when the second flash unit kicked in.

The limitations of the over-heating system will prohibit a few users from being able to make use of these units, but for the vast majority of photographers requiring more than 30 full blast bursts in quick succession is something of a rarity. I certainly can’t complain about recycle times as even at full power the lithium ion battery feeds the flash quickly enough that we can expect a burst every second.

With one flash in another room off the corridor and aimed towards the groom, and another in my hand positioned to bounce from the ceiling, I was able to create some nice lighting effects quickly with this system. The bounced flash was set to -1.3EV so it would just fill the shadows.
The robust metal threads on the supplied feet make the V860 ll units easy to mount on tripods or lighting stands. I used a pair of softboxes to light this shot, one either side of the couple. The small size of the softboxes and the flash heads contributes to the cut-out feeling and illustrates a limitation of hotshoe flashes.

I found the coverage to be even enough at most focal length settings and the output of manual burst to be consistent from shot to shot. The color shifts somewhat between the brightest and the weakest bursts, but not so much that it will be an issue for most non-technical applications.

The flash duration quoted by Godox seems to be the total flash duration rather than the effective duration (the time the maximum intensity drops by half) . Using a Sekonic L-858D meter I measured the total duration at full power to be approx. 1/450sec, and the effective duration to be more like 1/1600sec. The difference will probably not be noticed by most.

Shot in bright sunshine at f/5.6 and 1/400sec at ISO 100, and the zoom in the 70mm position. The flash was in the hotshoe and was more than powerful enough to reach the subjects in an effective way. I was glad of the long-lasting lithium ion batteries on such a day of full power bursts. The main light here is daylight from a window to camera-right. The walls behind the bride though were rather too dull and shaded, so I placed a single V860 ll behind her to light them up a bit. I left it at 0EV and it did the job nicely.

Translating the guide number into real world situations, I found that full power gave me a meter reading of f/8@ISO 100 with the flash 10 feet away and the zoom head set to 50mm. Changing the zoom position to 200mm increased the reading to f/11 ½ in the same situation.

Add-ons and accessories

Included in the two-flash kit I received were feet/stands with a brass tripod thread in the base, a pair of strap-on diffusers, a set of colored gels and a pouch for each flash.

Like many other flash brands, Godox offers a range of accessories that help to modify the light from their units. My favorite accessory though is the S-mount adapter that allows the flash to be clamped within an adapter ring for S-Mount (Bowens) accessories. I tried the V860 ll flashes with big and small softboxes and dishes, as well as the good-sized pop-up softbox that comes with the adapter. As you will know, some speedlight accessories are too big, floppy and cumbersome to use easily, but with its own clamp the S-adapter is excellent and the softbox genuinely useful.

The company also sells an external battery pack for these flash units. The ProPac Lithium Power Pack PB960 can deliver 1800 full power bursts after a three-hour charge, and can accommodate two flash units at the same time. Via adapter cables it can run Godox, Canon, Nikon and/or Sony guns.

It is worth noting too that the radio system of the V860 ll flash units is the same as that which controls some of the company’s studio flash heads, so you can use a mixture of speedlite and studio style sources together.

Conclusion

I have been really very impressed with this system. Firstly because these V860 II units make excellent hotshoe flashguns on their own, and secondly as they provide a comprehensive amount of control and a mostly-reliable wireless radio connection. They perform well when paired with other Godox flashes and are equally well behaved within a group of Nikon radio units, as well as within a collection of optically controlled flashguns.

I really appreciate the reliability and range of radio controlled flash units, not just in these flashes, and that they can be used in a much wider set of circumstances. I got thoroughly sick of trying to use optical systems outside some years ago, and was frustrated at the chances I was missing out on.

The light in this room was nice and even, but being able to balance a flash unit on a basin in the adjoining bathroom allowed me to quickly add an extra dimension to the bride’s face and body with a bit of a broad keyline. Knocking 0.7EV off the brightness of a single V860 ll placed wide camera-left was enough to get the balance right for this early evening shot. The flexibility of the system allowed me to work quickly to get a nice result without having to dash to the flash unit to change the power

I really enjoyed having a block battery and not carrying and disposing of AA cells – it just makes life that much more relaxing and enjoyable. And with the 650-burst capacity it makes me wonder why other brands don’t adopt the same idea.

The most surprising thing about these flashguns though is their price, and that when they turn up they don’t feel like or perform like low cost alternatives. They make an astonishingly good purchase, and I highly recommend them.

Pros

  • Good wireless connection at normal distances
  • Very well made
  • Great block battery with good life
  • Plenty of control on and off the camera
  • Powerful enough for most users
  • Really good price

Cons

  • X1 transceiver could be easier to use
  • Radio signal not so reliable when the flash is close to the X1
  • Needs more than +/-3EV range of compensation

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Image Editing Software Review: PortraitPro 15

15 Jun

mWhen it comes to portrait photography, there seem to be two predominant schools of thought. The first says that retouching is bad, that people should be presented as they are and retouching is a no-no. The second school of thought says that when people have their portrait taken, it should be an idealistic representation of the person, flattering the subject and minimizing any flaws.

The truth, however, probably lies somewhere in the middle. When people have their portrait taken, they want the photographer to make them look as good as possible. Most portraiture requires some level of retouching, and truth be told, retouching was in vogue long before the digital age. Digital photography, however, has brought with it some new tools. One of those tools is PortraitPro 15, from Anthropics Technology.

An example of a portrait retouched using PortraitPro 15

An example of a portrait retouched using PortraitPro 15.

Overview of PortraitPro 15

PortraitPro 15 is available as a standalone application, or as a plugin for Photoshop, Lightroom, or Aperture. There are three different versions available; Standard, Studio, and Studio Max. PortraitPro Standard is the standalone version, which also has a few other limitations. PortraitPro Studio and Studio Max can both be used as plugins, and they also offer a variety of other options including RAW file support, color profile support, the ability to read and write TIFF and PNG files in 16-bit mode, and a batch dialog. The Studio Max version also offers a Full Batch Mode to greatly speed up your workflow. Compare all editions of PortraitPro 15 here.

Before and after using PortraitPro 15

Before and after using Portrait Professional 15

Getting started with PortraitPro 15

Getting started in PortraitPro 15 is simple. If you’re using the standalone application, simply open the file you wish to work on. From Photoshop (if you’re using the Studio or Studio Max version), go to the Filters menu and Select Anthropics > Portrait Professional.

Once your image is open, PortraitPro 15 will detect the facial outline of the subject. It will sometimes detect gender and age, or it may ask if the subject is male or female or a young girl or boy under 12. You will then be shown a side-by-side comparison, with the image on the left showing the outlines of the face that the software will use for its retouching. These outlines can be adjusted to provide better accuracy, but the software does a pretty good job of selecting facial features on its own. On the right is a preview of what the subject will look like after the retouching is applied.

On the far right, you will see a navigator window that allows you to move around the image easily. Beneath that is a list of presets so you can easily apply a particular look to your subject. Beneath the presets is a group of “Portrait Improving Sliders”. These sliders include;

  • Face Sculpt Controls
  • Skin Smoothing Controls
  • Skin Lighting Controls
  • Makeup Controls
  • Eye Controls
  • Mouth and Nose Controls
  • Hair Controls
  • Skin Coloring Controls
  • Picture Controls

Each of these groups of sliders affects different aspects of the image and provide an incredible amount of control over the retouching process.

Before and after using PortraitPro 15

Before and after using PortraitPro 15.

Some of these sliders, particularly Face Sculpting may seem a bit controversial. Like most digital photo editing tools, you can certainly go too far with its use. But, there are times when it has come in handy and improved the subject, such as when one eye may not be fully open. As with all things, moderation is the key to using these sliders.

The Basic Retouch

Gender Selection in PortraitPro 15

When you open an image using PortraitPro 15, the application will ask you to confirm the gender and age of your subject.

Whether you choose to use the plugin version or the standalone version, the workflow is the same. From Photoshop you’ll select Portrait Professional from the Filters menu, and from Lightroom, you’ll select “Edit In”, which will open the current image in PortraitPro 15. If using the standalone version, simply go to File > Open.

Facial features selection

PortraitPro 15 will try to automatically detect the age and gender of your subject and try to select their eyes, nose, and mouth. If it is unable to detect the gender and age, or any facial features, you will be prompted to do this. Selection, if needed, is easy. You’ll click the outer corner of the left eye, hit next, then click the outer corner of the right eye. Hit next again, and you’ll be prompted to click the tip of the nose. You’ll continue until the eyes, nose, and mouth are selected. PortraitPro will then find the top of the head and the jawline.

The main screen of PortraitPro 15

The main screen of PortraitPro 15

First editing steps

Once the selection is made, PortraitPro will automatically adjust your image using the Standard settings. From here, you are free to choose a different preset or start moving the sliders to better retouch your portrait.

The first slider I adjust is the Face Sculpt Controls. I will say that I’m not a huge fan of this adjustment so normally I just turn it off. There are times it can get too aggressive and will really alter the look of the subject’s face. You can minimize the amount of adjustment using the Master Fade slider to amend the overall look, or the individual sliders to only affect certain features. For instance, I will often set all the sliders to zero but then use the Eye Widening slider if the subject happens to have a sleepy eye. I do try and keep the digital plastic surgery to a minimum.

Skin Smoothing

The next slider group is the Skin Smoothing Control. This set of sliders does a nice job of minimizing wrinkles and removing blemishes. You do need to be careful when you have a subject with freckles or beauty marks that you want to retain. Again, adjusting the individual sliders will help you find the right amount of smoothing without making things look too plastic, and the Touch Up Brush will allow you to remove strong blemishes without affecting the overall skin texture.

Skin Selection PortraitPro 15

If you need to adjust the area affected by skin smoothing and lighting, you can manually paint in your selection.

PortraitPro offers some quick tips when you select the various sliders. In addition, you may notice that the application hasn’t quite selected all of the skin you want to be retouched, due to changes in tone. Or, conversely, that it has selected areas which you don’t want to be affected, such as clothing with colors close to the skin tone, or hair. You can adjust the skin selection by clicking View/Edit Skin Area and adding or subtracting from the skin selection using a brush, similar to applying a selection by using a layer mask in Photoshop.

Before skin smoothing

Medium skin smoothing applied.

Heavy skin smoothing applied.

Skin Lighting

The Skin Lighting slider controls can actually adjust the lighting on your subject. This is another set of sliders that are best used with care, but a judicious adjustment can help improve your image. Going too far with it, on the other hand, will result in images that have a definitive fake look to them. You have the ability to adjust shadows to the left or right, a kick light to the left or right, and even adjust the angle of your main light.

Before skin lighting effects applied.

Skin lighting medium applied.

Skin lighting heavy applied.

Makeup

The Makeup Controls sliders allow you to add digital makeup to your subject. Everything including lipstick, mascara, eye shadow and eyeliner can be added or enhanced here. As with the Face Sculpting and Lighting Controls, you will want to be careful not to overdo things here. But again, I’ve had occasions where a little eyeliner or a change in lipstick color has helped the image.

By the same token, if you are taking a portrait as a starting point, you can create some incredibly different looks by changing the subject’s makeup. This makes it an excellent tool if you are creating a digital illustration from a photo.

Skin Smoothing Controls PortraitPro 15

The skin smoothing controls inside PortraitPro 15

Before make-up applied using PortraitPro 15.

Make-up added.

Make-up added heavily, this is over done.

Facial feature control sliders

The Eye Control sliders do a nice job of enhancing the subject’s eyes and bringing them out. Brightening the irises, sharpening the eyes, and whitening them are all done here. You can even change the eye color and add catch lights. The biggest mistake I’ve made (and seen others make) is going too far with the whitening, giving the eyes an unnatural glow. Eyes can be adjusted individually, so you have a lot of control over their look.

Before eye controls applied.

Eye controls medium applied.

Eye color change applied.

Mouth & Nose Controls are sliders to enhance the mouth and nose. Here you can adjust the saturation of the lips, their brightness, and contrast. You have the ability to make the same adjustments to the nose.

Hair and skin sliders

Hair Controls is a set of sliders that I like a lot. You have the ability to re-color hair, adjust the shine, reddening, and vibrance. In addition, as with the skin selection, you can adjust the hair selection. Especially cool is the Hair Tidying Mode, which allows you to smooth and soften the hair. It can give the hair an almost painted look, which is one I tend to like, but again, it is possible to go too far.

Skin Coloring Controls allow you to adjust skin color, add a glow, or a bit of a tan. In addition, you can add cheek coloring here and adjust the exposure on the face.

Before skin coloring

Tan skin coloring applied.
PortraitPro 15

On the right side of the application window, you’ll find a navigator, a list of presets, and the Portrait Enhancement Sliders.

Picture Controls

Finally, the Picture Controls slider allows overall adjustment of the color temperature, tint, exposure, contrast, and vibrancy. You can also crop here. If you’re using Photoshop or Lightroom, these adjustments are better handled there, after retouching. But if you’re using the standalone version, this is an excellent way to finish off your image.

Once you’ve finished with the face you’re working on, you click the Next button at top right, and either click “Return from Plugin”, or “Enhance Another Face”, if you have more than one subject in your photo.

Pros of PortraitPro 15

PortraitPro 15 is an excellent application for quick and easy retouching of portraits. Blemish retouching, eye enhancing, and cleanup of hair is simple and can PortraitPro 15 can provide a nice finished look to a portrait. In addition, the ability to adjust lighting can give added pop and make a flatly lit portrait much more interesting. The same goes for the ability to add or enhance makeup. It’s easy to see the effects of the changes you make usingPortraitPro and compare them to the unretouched photo, so you can judge the edits as you work.

Before and After

Before and After

Cons of PortraitPro 15

My biggest issue with PortraitPro 15 is that it’s easy to go too far with an adjustment and suddenly your image looks fake or digitized, almost like a 3D animation. Like most photo-enhancing filters, a little goes a long way and moderation is required. In the right hands, PortraitPro can be an awesome editing tool. In the wrong hands, it can return some ugly results. Additionally, PortraitPro appears to have some issues when one eye is covered by hair or a hat, or when the face is at a 3/4 angle to the camera. So in those situations, you’ll need to pay extra attention to your selections, and in the case where one eye is hidden, set all sliders for that eye to zero.

My other issue with PortraitPro is that it does seem to be a resource hog. As soon as I enter the plugin from Photoshop, the fan on my 2014 iMac (with the max amount of RAM) starts up and keeps going until I’m done. Some of the adjustments are slow, and on my machine, adjusting the outlines takes a moment as my computer catches up.

Before & After PortraitPro 15

Before & After

Bottom Line

Overall, I love PortraitPro 15 and the ability it has to retouch portraits quickly and easily. While I prefer not to use all of the features all of the time, such as face sculpting or skin lighting, things such as skin smoothing and eye retouching really help give my portraits a finished look. The learning curve is not terribly high and it is fairly easy to tell when you’ve gone too far. It’s become an essential part of my portrait workflow.

See the three editions available on Amazon. The Studio version is a great value.

Before & After PortraitPro

Before & After PortraitPro

Before & After PortraitPro

Before & After PortraitPro

The post Image Editing Software Review: PortraitPro 15 by Rick Berk appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Sony a9 Full Review: Mirrorless Redefined

15 Jun

The Sony Alpha 9 is the company’s first camera aimed at professional wedding, action and sports photographers. It’s a 24MP, full-frame mirrorless camera that can shoot at 20 frames per second with full autofocus. And, just as importantly, with very low viewfinder lag and absolutely no blackout during continuous shooting.

That’s right, a mirrorless camera targeted at wedding, action and sports photographers – a strike at the DSLR’s area of greatest strength. It’s true that Olympus has pushed in this direction with its E-M1 Mark II, but Sony is promising both super-fast readout and full-frame image quality, backed up with an expansion of its Pro Support scheme that will be needed to break into the pro market. This is ambitious stuff.

Of particular note for wedding and event photographers are the a9’s speed and silent shooting, both of which are certain to have a positive impact on capturing just the right moment without any interruption from the clacking of a conventional shutter.

All this capability stems from a stacked CMOS image sensor, which includes processing circuitry nearer the pixels and features built-in memory to deliver all this data to the off-board processors at a rate they can cope with. It’s this structure that enables the camera to shoot at 20 frames per second and do so with an electronic shutter that’s fast enough to minimize the rolling shutter effect. The fast readout also allows 60 AF/AE calculations per second, promising better subject tracking and prediction.

Key specifications

  • 24MP full-frame Stacked CMOS
  • 20 fps continuous shooting with full AF (electronic shutter, 12-bit files)
  • Continuous shooting buffer of up to 241 compressed Raw files (362 JPEG)
  • 10 fps continuous shooting with AF with adapted lenses
  • 5-stop (estimated) 5-axis image stabilization
  • 3.7M-dot OLED viewfinder (1280 x 960 pixels) with up to 120 fps update
  • 1.44M-dot rear touchscreen LCD
  • Oversampled UHD 4K/24p video from full sensor width (1.24x crop for 30p)

The stacked CMOS design not only allows the super-fast readout that powers so much of the camera’s attention-grabbing spec, it also means it has all the benefits of BSI design. This means that the light-sensitive section of each pixel is closer to the surface of the sensor which, in turn, means the sensor is better at collecting light near the corners, where the incident angle will be high. It also generally means improved low light performance, and sharper pixel-level imagery.

Sony’s crammed the a9 with seriously speedy technology and is aiming it at true sports professionals. Out-of-camera JPEG cropped to taste.
Sony 24-70mm F2.8 GM | ISO 2500 | 1/800 sec | F2.8
Photo by Carey Rose

Beyond the technical wonders of the new sensor, there are a large number of significant changes to the a9 relative to Sony’s a7-series that have all been made with demanding professionals in mind; these include updates to menus, controls, image quality, and more. Will all of this be enough to tempt professionals to switch? Let’s dig in and find out.

Review History
23 Apr 2017 Introduction, Shooting Experience, Image Quality Impressions, Autofocus Impressions published
30 May 2017 Studio Scene and Raw Dynamic Range published
14 June 2017 Full review published

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Shiftcam for iPhone 7 Plus review

07 Jun

The selection of accessory lenses for most iPhone models is pretty overwhelming. However, there is one exception: the iPhone 7 Plus dual-cam with its new 28 and 56mm equivalent lenses makes design and engineering of accessory lens solutions somewhat more complex than on the standard models. As a result, there still aren’t a lot of add-on lenses to choose from. Some time ago we tested the Kamerar attachment which adds more tele reach, macro capability and a fish-eye lens to the 7 Plus camera.

Now, you can get behind a new option on the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform. The Shiftcam camera lens case offers a similar concept to the Kamerar but aims to take things one step further by adding even more lens options. The current prototype design includes the following three lens pairs that slide over the iPhone’s dual-camera lenses:

  • 120-degree Wide-angle / 2X Telephoto
  • 10X Macro / 20X Macro
  • 180 Degree Fisheye Lens / 2X Telephoto

The makers of the Shiftcam are currently collecting funds for finalization of the design and mass production on the Shiftcam Kickstarter page, but got ahold of a prototype unit. Read on to find out how it performed in our testing.

Operation and build quality

The Shiftcam system consists of two parts: a protective case and the lens module that slides into a guide rail on the case. The module can be removed if you aren’t planning to use the lenses for a while and want to keep them in a safe place. The build quality is a far cry from the premium look and feel of the iPhone, but the Shiftcam’s plastic material feels solid and the design is functional. The lens module moves noticeably smoother than on the Kamerar, but still slots into place with reassurance. A small camera grip allows for comfortable holding and the corrugated surface ensures a safe grip. You can also attach a camera strap.

As with the Kamerar, it is advisable to use a camera app that allows you to force the camera to use the tele-lens in lower light, such as Camera+ or Manual Camera for example. In dimmer conditions, the iPhone 7 Plus stock camera app will digitally zoom the wide-angle rather than using the telephoto lens, which means the Shiftcam lenses don’t line up properly with the iPhone’s camera modules anymore.

Image quality

As you can see in the samples below the add-on lenses only have a minimal impact on color response and exposure. Both wide-angle and fisheye are sharp at the center of the frame but fall off towards the edges. As you would expect, this fall-off is more drastic on the fisheye. Some vignetting is noticeable when photographing bright scenes on the wide-angle but the effect is within acceptable limits.

Overall the optical quality of the Shiftcam wide-angle and fisheye is not outstanding, but decent for smartphone add-on lenses in this price range. Both lenses are useful for those situations when you want to squeeze more of a scene into your frame.

iPhone 7 Plus wide-angle, ISO 20, 1/754 sec
Shiftcam wide-angle, ISO 20, 1/2037 sec
Shiftcam fisheye, ISO 20, 1/2179 sec

The Shiftcam comes with two tele lenses, one combined with the wide-angle, the other comes in a pair with the fisheye. The two lenses offer an identical focal length multiplier but having two of them simply means you don’t have to change the position of the Shiftcam lens slider so often.

However, on our prototype unit the image results of the two tele lenses were quite different. One lens showed a very noticeable softness across the frame while the other was much sharper. If Shiftcam manages to get the optical quality for both tele lenses on the same high level as our second telephoto sample shot below, it offers a great way of getting closer to your subject when shooting with an iPhone.

iPhone 7 Plus tele lens, ISO 20, 1/2128 sec
Shiftcam telephoto lens 1, ISO 20, 1/643 sec
Shiftcam telephoto lens 2, ISO 20, 1/736 sec

The Shiftcam case also comes with 10x and 20x macro lenses which are located next to each other on the lens slider. The 10x uses the iPhone’s wide-angle lens, the 20x is in front of the tele. Both lenses are capable of producing good sharpness in the focal plane and very useful levels of magnification.

That said, depth-of-field is minimal and putting the focus where you want it is a real challenge. As you can see in the sample below, shooting handheld I did not quite manage to do so with the 10x lens, despite several attempts. My hit rate with the 20x was better and with the right subject it’s possible to capture very nice macro images. You’ll have to get very close to the subject though, so living creatures might be scared away. You also have to be careful to not shade the scene with your phone.

Shiftcam 10x Macro, ISO 20, 1/1140 sec
Shiftcam 20x Macro, ISO 20, 1/479 sec

Conclusion

The optical quality of the Shiftcam lenses is pretty much in line with typical add-on lenses in the lower price bracket. The wide-angle and fisheye are fine at the center of the frame but get pretty bad towards the edges. One of the tele lenses is pretty sharp, but the other one on our test unit appears to be slightly misaligned. The macro lenses can produce decent quality if focused correctly.

However, the Shiftcam’s unique selling proposition is not optical quality but the fact that it combines all those lenses in a very easy-to-use lens case. Switching lenses is really quick and much less fiddly than with individual add-ons or even the Kamerar, which, despite a similar concept to the Shiftcam, uses 2 lens sliders instead just one.

If you own an iPhone 7 Plus, the Shiftcam is a very affordable and convenient way of experimenting with add-on lenses and expanding the focal range of your built-in camera. Given that we were using a prototype unit, there is also a chance that optical quality will be further improved for production lenses. You’ve still got a few more hours to secure a Shiftcam case by pledging $ 59 on Kickstarter. The Shiftcam makers have also modified the original August shipping date and are now envisaging the first units to ship by the end of June.

What we like:

  • Easy operation
  • Useful hand grip and good ergonomics
  • Good selection of lenses

What we don’t like:

  • Strong corner softness on fisheye and wide-angle
  • One of the tele lenses is soft
  • Macro lenses difficult to focus

Sample gallery

There are 17 images in our Shiftcam for iPhone 7 Plus samples gallery. Please do not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter / magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page). We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines for personal examination or printing (in conjunction with this review), we do so in good faith, please don’t abuse it.

Unless otherwise noted images taken with no particular settings at full resolution.

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Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Think Tank Signature 13 Camera Shoulder Bag Review

07 Jun

There are certain features most people would expect to find in any camera bag, such as spacious areas for holding gear, a shoulder strap, and pockets in and around the bag for carrying smaller items like memory cards, a flash, or even car keys. Judged by those standards, the Think Tank Signature 13 Shoulder Bag excels admirably. But handing out that kind of compliment for a camera bag is like giving kudos to a car company for including seats and a steering wheel on one of their latest sedans.

Pick nearly any camera bag on the market and you’ll find options and features similar to what you might see in Think Tank’s latest creation. But evaluating a bag like this by talking about a bulleted list of features kind of misses the point. This is one case in which the whole truly is much more than the sum of its parts, and the result is a capable and refined camera bag that will suit the needs of most photographers quite well.

Think Tank Signature 13 Camera Shoulder Bag Review

The Think Tank Signature 13 Camera Shoulder Bag

I have owned and used many camera bags over the years, from freebies that were included with a camera to expensive models uniquely suited to specific purposes. In my closet right now I’ve got backpack-style bags, messenger-style bags, over-the-shoulder bags, sling-style bags, and even one small little oddity whose purpose I can’t even articulate clearly. The Think Tank Signature 13 easily rests at or near the top of this relatively crowded consortium. Not necessarily because it has one single standout feature, but because it does many things so well and with a level of craftsmanship and refinement that I don’t often see especially on less expensive bags.

Design and appearance of the Think Tank Signature 13

The first thing I noticed when I got this bag, which held true for everyone to whom I showed it, is that the Signature 13 looks fantastic. Not that a nice-looking bag will help you take better photos or protect your gear, but if you value style then the Signature series is definitely worth a look. I have the Slate Gray version. It also comes in a greenish color called Dusty Olive, which I didn’t see in person although online it seemed a little too dull for my taste.

Bold leather accents and thick metal clasps made some heads turn when I brought the bag to my office. But these flourishes could also send a message to would-be camera pilferers that inside the bag is a lot of gear worth stealing. It’s not a drawback of the Signature 13 per se but is a reality of using a nice-looking camera bag. It’s also one of the reasons my father continues to keep his camera gear in what’s basically an old padded lunch sack. I do think even he would be tempted by the Signature 13 though, and it’s certainly a cut above some of the black and gray monochromatic nylon bags in my closet.

Details

Small, but significant, design touches abound, and you’re not likely to find a zipper, clasp, or velcro that isn’t a cut above what you’re used to seeing. The material from which the bag is made feels quite soft and yet surprisingly durable. My wife remarked that it felt a little bit like wool even though it’s actually a blend of nylon and polyester. In terms of overall appearance I like the way the fabric is accented with thick leather trim, hefty and durable clasps, and a generously-padded shoulder strap that distributes weight quite nicely. One of my coworkers stated that this bag would easily be suited to a professional environment such as business travel or public presentations, even though its primary function is to hold camera gear.

Think Tank Signature 13 Camera Shoulder Bag Review

Detail of the Think Tank Signature 13

Size

The Signature series comes in two sizes. A smaller Signature 10 is designed for mirrorless systems or those without a lot of camera gear, and the larger Signature 13 which can accommodate more equipment and even a 13″ laptop. I have the latter version which I found more than adequate for my camera kit on any given day of shooting. Although if I wanted to put all my gear inside it probably wouldn’t fit.

A bag like this is not really comparable to something like my Everyday Backpack 30L whose cavernous compartments can swallow up cameras, lenses, laptops, batteries, and a myriad of other accessories all at the same time. The Signature series takes a more measured and thoughtful approach to gear transportation. Instead of lugging everything you own, it’s ideally suited for the times when you want a bag that is small enough to hold the essentials, yet large enough that you can take what you need without having to worry about trade-offs.

Think Tank Signature 13 Camera Shoulder Bag Review

Practicalities of the Signature 13

In terms of regular daily usage there are lots of little details that make the Signature 13 bag pleasant to carry, with a couple of small nagging items that cast a shadow on an otherwise outstanding product.

Shoulder strap is a cut above

The main shoulder strap is, and I hope I don’t come across as overly effusive, exceedingly comfortable and ideally suited to carry a bag of this size with whatever gear you choose to put in it. Plenty of the bags in my collection seem to treat the shoulder strap as an afterthought, with basic nylon construction and perhaps a small sliding pad to keep your shoulder from hurting too much. The shoulder strap on the Signature 13 bag is almost worth the price alone, with thick luxurious (I’m serious, it’s really nice) padding running a full 20 inches throughout the length of the strap and a classy leather accent to boot. It’s a huge improvement over most other shoulder straps and makes carrying the bag an easy and pleasant experience.

There’s also a traditional handle for times when you want to grab the bag with one hand. While that isn’t generally how I use my camera bags I did find it to be sturdy and comfortable.

Think Tank Signature 13 Camera Shoulder Bag Review

These clasps fasten securely but I did sometimes have trouble opening them quickly.

Bag flaps

Inside the bag are other equally thoughtful considerations that are quite well suited to the needs of photographers. The main protective flap closes securely with two metal clasps on the front of the bag. They work just fine but did leave me frustrated a few times when I needed to open the bag quickly or close it without looking down.

The flap opens to reveal a front pouch with a dual-position strap to hold it shut, and an additional zipper pouch behind it for thin items like a cell phone, memory cards, shot list, etc. I did find myself fishing around in both of these front pouches a bit more than I thought I would, but it’s not really a design flaw so much as it’s a result of the pockets being so deep. There’s also a zippered top for the main storage compartment that acts as a second layer of protection if you’re a bit nervous at the thought of only using the main flap to keep your gear from tumbling out. But fortunately, this flap can be either buttoned to the top flap or tucked away altogether so it stays out of your way unless you really need it.

Signature 13 interior

The main cavity of the Signature 13 bag is, in many respects, standard fare for this type of storage device. Look inside and you will see a deep and well-padded chamber with plenty of velcro-style dividers that you can customize and reposition to your heart’s content. Some people like this style of bag and others don’t, so I can’t say whether this will specifically work for every photographer. But if you are the kind of person who likes to use velcro dividers to separate your gear then the Signature 13 will certainly work very well for you.

It’s not so much the functionality of this bag that differentiates it from others on the market, but the thoughtful construction and design choices made when creating it. One example is the quilted nature of the inner pocket and dividers which help them feel strong, sturdy, and quite durable. I found the dividers just as easy to use and reposition as any bag of this type, but they did have a more solid, confident feel than most others.

Detail inside the Signature 13

Detail inside the Signature 13

Bottom of the Signature 13

Rounding out the design of the Signature 13 is a massive leather base that extends the length of the bag and wraps about an inch up on either side as well. I don’t know if it’s because of this leather base or the sidewall construction, but I never had issues with the bag tipping over when I set it down regardless of whether it was empty or stuffed with cameras and lenses. Combine this with the nicely padded exterior and I would feel quite comfortable taking this bag on an extended trip, knowing my gear would be safe whether tossed in an overhead luggage bin or sitting among suitcases in the trunk of my car.

The Verdict

It probably sounds like I’m heaping compliments on this bag and to some extent that’s true. But I feel like praise is best given when it is well earned and that is certainly the case here. Still, I do have a few issues with the Signature 13 and would be remiss in not pointing them out for other buyers.

Con – the bag is not waterproof

For one, the bag is not entirely waterproof which could be a major drawback for some photographers who carry their gear in all kinds of weather. I do believe it would keep things dry well enough (though I must admit I am loathed to take it out in a rainstorm to test this out) but even so, the copious amounts of leather accents would likely get damaged or at least discolored in heavy amounts of rainfall. According to Think Tank the polyester/nylon shell is water resistant, so in theory, it should keep your gear safe and dry. It also comes with a collapsible nylon shell if you do find yourself caught in a downpour.

Think Tank Signature 13 Camera Shoulder Bag Review

The Signature 13 easily accommodates a DSLR body, 70-200 f/2.8 lens, external speedlight, and an iPad with some room to spare.

Con – clasps can be a bit clunky to use

I also think the dual front clasps are a bit impractical, and at times I found myself getting a little frustrated when trying to release or secure them in a hurry. They work just fine for what they are, but I tend to prefer magnetic or snap-based closure mechanisms that are easier to use with one hand or without looking.

Con  – large price tag

One other potential drawback is the price which, at $ 249 for the Signature 10 and $ 279 for the Signature 13, is not exactly cheap. For that price, you are certainly getting a high level of quality, but you are also paying for some of the appearance and design elements that just might not matter to some photographers. If the price is your primary consideration you might want to look elsewhere as there are certainly less expensive bags which perform most of the same functions as the Signature series. But you are also not likely to get a bag with such pleasantly pervasive flourishes and design touches.

Think Tank Signature 13 Camera Shoulder Bag Review

A sturdy leather base helps the bag sit upright whether empty or stuffed with gear.

Overall I have found the Think Tank Signature 13 Shoulder Bag to be outstanding and a fine addition to my carrying collection. It’s not revolutionary in any one single way, but it takes the concept of a shoulder-style bag with velcro dividers and enhances it to a level of refinement and craftsmanship that I don’t see in a lot of other bags. If you’re the kind of photographer who likes this type of bag, I heartily recommend the Think Tank Signature 13.

Rating (out of five stars)

  • Design: 5
  • Ease of Use: 4.5
  • Comfort: 5
  • Durability: 4.5
  • Functionality: 5
  • Overall: 4.5/5

The post Think Tank Signature 13 Camera Shoulder Bag Review by Simon Ringsmuth appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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LG G6 camera review

04 Jun

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The G6 is LG’s latest flagship smartphone. For the new model, LG has abandoned the G5’s modular concept and has instead designed a device that offers a water- and dust-proof body and a 5.7″ QHD+ display with an unusual 18:9 aspect ratio.

In the camera department, LG sticks with the G5’s dual-camera concept but both sensors now offer the same 13MP resolution. The wide-angle lens comes with a 71 degree angle of view and F1.8 aperture while the super-wide-angle offers 125 degrees and a slower F2.4 aperture. OIS is available on the wide-angle. 4K video capture with stereo sound recording and a laser-assisted AF system are on board as well.

Other specs are flagship-worthy too. Android 7.0 is powered by last year’s top-end chipset Snapdragon 821 and 4GB of RAM. 32 or 64GB of internal storage are expandable via a microSD slot. And unlike some of its competitors the G6 still offers a 3.5mm headphone jack.

With improved camera specs, the interesting new display format and the waterproof body, the LG G6 looks like an appealing option for mobile photographers. Read the full article to find out how it performed in our test.

Key Photographic / Video Specifications

  • Dual-camera with two 1/3″ 13MP sensors
  • Wide-angle, 71 degree angle of view, F1.8, 3-axis OIS
  • Super-wide-angle, 125 degree angle of view, F2.4
  • Laser-assisted autofocus
  • 4K video with stereo sound recording
  • 5MP front camera with 100 degree angle of view, F2.2
  • Dual-LED flash

Other Specifications

  • Android 7.0
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset
  • 4GB RAM, 32/64GB storage
  • microSD support up to 256GB
  • 5.7″ 18:9 QHD+ IPS display, 2880 x 1440 resolution, 564 ppi
  • IP68 certified, water and dust resistant
  • Fingerprint reader
  • Google Assistant
  • 3300 battery with Quick Charge 3.0

DPReview smartphone reviews are written with the needs of photographers in mind. We focus on camera features, performance, and image quality.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Sigma Quattro H Review

31 May

The Sigma Quattro H is a mirrorless interchangable lens camera with an APS-H (1.3x crop) sensor. It has a spacial resolution of 25.5MP but uses a sensor technology very different from other cameras, capturing around 38M pieces of information and capable of producing files with far higher levels of detail than you’d expect from a conventional 25.5MP camera.

Key Features

  • 25.5MP Foveon X3 Quattro APS-H sensor
  • Hybrid (combined phase + contrast detection) autofocus system
  • JPEG, X3F Raw or DNG file output
  • 2.36m dot (1024 x 768 pixel) LCD viewfinder
  • 1.62m dot (900 x 600 pixel ) LCD rear screen
  • Dust and splash-resistant magnesium alloy body
  • In-camera Raw conversion (X3F only)

In keeping with Sigma’s history of idiosyncratic innovation, there are two things that set it apart from the majority of mirrorless cameras: the use of a full-depth DSLR mount (the company’s own SA mount) and the use of a Foveon X3 Quattro sensor, which captures light and perceives color very differently from other cameras.

Full depth SA mount

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a camera maker build a camera around a full depth DSLR mount, rather than taking advantage of the lack of mirror to make the camera smaller: Pentax’s K-01 took the same approach.

There are two potential disadvantages of this approach. The first is, as you’d expect, the wasted space of building a mirror box for a camera with no mirror. The second, arguably more important downside, is that most DSLR lenses are designed and optimized for phase detection autofocus and they often perform poorly when asked to focus by contrast detection, meaning you have a wide choice of lenses but perpetually hamstrung performance. Sigma has tried to mitigate this by adopting on-sensor phase detection in the SD Quattro H.

If nothing else, the use of the full-depth SA lens mount means you can use any of Sigma’s impressive Art series of lenses.

The obvious appeal of using an existing mount is that the lenses already exist for it. Sigma produces SA mount versions of 39 of its lenses, which plausibly means the Quattro H has more native lenses available than any other mirrorless camera.

Foveon X3 Quattro Sensor

The X3 Quattro sensor is at the heart of what makes the SD Quattro H interesting and is, far more than any physical difference, the thing that most sets this camera apart from all its rivals.

As with all Foveon chips, the sensor interprets color based on the fact that different colors of light have different amounts of energy and so can penetrate the sensor to different depths. This is radically different from conventional designs that place filters in front of the sensor, throwing away around half of all the light so that each pixel only ‘sees’ light of a predetermined color.

Unlike previous Foveon chips, the Quattro design doesn’t attempt to capture full color information at every pixel, instead capturing more spatial resolution than color resolution. This is a fundamentally similar trade-off made by conventional sensors, so it’ll be interesting to see whether this latest design can maintain enough of what made Foveon distinctive while trying to offer more competitive results in other respects.

DNG capability

The other big difference is that the Quattro H can be set to shoot DNG files. These are produced by the camera deconvoluting its sensor’s output and writing them as ~150MB files with three 12-bit color channels. This means the files are significantly larger and theoretically less flexible than the camera’s native X3F Raw files.

The DNGs can’t be used with the camera’s in-camera Raw converter and you can’t shoot DNG + JPEG, but it hugely expands choice of software for processing the files. For this reason, the rest of the review will primarily be based on the camera’s DNG output.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Roadtrip Review Redux: The Fujifilm X100F

28 May
Beautiful flowers in golden sunlight along the southern California coast

I had to leave all my musical instruments in Cincinnati when I first moved to Seattle three years ago. Recently, I found the time to road trip back and collect them. Seattle is about as far removed from the rest of the United States as a major US city can be, while still being part of the ‘lower 48’. This means that if you’re headed a great distance East, there are a number of ways you can go. And when you work at DPReview, there are also a number of cameras you can take. 

Welcome to my journey down the West Coast, where I have decided to discuss one of my favorite cameras from the past couple of years to use as a point and shoot. That ‘point and shoot’ bit is very important. This is my vacation. All of these photos have been taken in a state of total relaxation, focused much more on enjoyment and capturing places I have traveled. With enjoyment in mind, I take you to where my journey began:

This photo was shot alongside the 101 in Washington state, where it all began.

Highway 101 is a road that circles the Olympic peninsula and runs all the way down Washington, Oregon, and California, with large sections of it skirting the Pacific coast. My plan was to avoid the interstate freeway entirely until I made it to Los Angeles two days later. It turned out to be a good decision. 

Now, to the camera: the Fujifilm X100F. 

The first time I impulsively decided to drive cross-country it was right around the end of 2012. I had a week of time off to burn and decided it would be a great opportunity to rent a camera I was considering purchasing: the original X100. 

The X100-series is perfect for road trips. The 23mm, 35mm equivalent field of view lens handles a variety of duties well: it can be wide enough for landscapes, tight enough for environmental portraits, and the minimum focus distance allows the capture of close-up details. Its size encouraged me to bring it absolutely everywhere. It even fit perfectly in the pocket of my car door, ready for action whenever the road got interesting. 

The result was a camera that I looked forward to using at every stop. It led to the eventual purchase of an X100S, which I loved up to the moment it stopped working (full disclosure: it was my fault).

The Astoria-Megler bridge crossing the mouth of the Columbia River. The total length of the bridge is a staggering 4.1 miles.

While making my first stop in Astoria, OR, the X100F was igniting the romance all over again, even in the dismal grey that had fueled my wanderlust since last October.  One of the biggest differences between all the X100 cameras are their sensors. We start at 12MP with CDAF only with the X100, then to the 16MP X-Trans with Hybrid AF on the X100S, then the 16MP X-Trans II in the ‘T’, and finally the new 24MP X-trans sensor from the X-T2 and X-Pro2 in the ‘F’. 

Meandering about the docks of Garibaldi, OR was great for stretching out the legs and showing off the X100F’s Acros mode

Not everyone agrees that the move to the X-Trans style of color filter array was the best for the X100 series. I, for one, wasn’t always a huge fan of the JPEG output of the X100S like I was with the X100. Sure, there was an improvement in sensor performance, but without changing the default noise reduction settings, things would start to look a bit waxy at higher ISOs. 

The X100F still uses X-trans, but the 24MP sensor and updated processor combination is a significant step forward for the series. While in the northern parts of Oregon I switched the camera to Acros, one of my favorite JPEG modes, to try and make the most of the grey overcast conditions by adding a bit more contrast.

Combining this mode with the optical viewfinder is a real treat, blending nostalgic elements of film photography with modern convenience. Plus, it made it way easier to sit and wait for seagulls to fly through the emptiest part of the frame before releasing the satisfyingly quiet leaf shutter. 

‘Combining this mode with the optical viewfinder is a real treat, blending nostalgic elements of film photography with modern convenience.’

Somewhere south of Tillamook, the grey suede blanket of clouds that covers the Northern parts of the coast ended. So far for in 2017, Seattle has been posting record rainfall and a record lack of sunshine along with it. After crossing this meteorologic divide between blue and grey, I didn’t see a cloud for three days. It was time to take the camera out of black and white and choose a color film simulation to bring the best out of the new found daylight. 

The Oregon coast of the Pacific Ocean under some welcome blue skies.

Velvia brings out the blue in shadows too much for my taste, and can look cheesy when used outside of landscape duty. While Classic Chrome has its moments, I think I’ve moved past the shifted blues and crushed shadows. For this trip and the already vibrant environment around me, Provia worked perfectly. 

When I shot with the original X100, I mostly used focus and recompose in AF-S and rarely used the optical viewfinder due to focus not being a sure bet. AF improved with each iteration of the camera, though. And with the X100F, armed with improved PDAF coverage on the 24MP sensor, I feel comfortable shooting with the optical finder because of how reliable AF is.

When AF-C is turned on, the camera depth tracks using a single point (in good light) with ease. It also repositions the AF box in the viewfinder to help keep framing corrected for parallax. This means that if I am waiting for the perfect moment, I don’t need to worry about subject distance changing as long as I have kept my subject under the focus point.

As the sun raced for the horizon I found the X100F’s focus slowing down, although its pace is still miles ahead of the early generations of the X100

Good AF-C also meant that when shooting close-up subjects, like a leaf in the sunset, I didn’t have to worry about my body rocking back and forth or a gentle breeze moving my subject, as I would if I were shooting in AF-S. This wasn’t a scenario I ran in to too often on my trip, but it is something that makes the X100F much more versatile than previous iterations.

The final sliver of sun from my amazing first day on the Pacific coast.

The camera’s autofocus abilities aren’t perfect though, due to two main issues. First, when using AF-C, focus acquisition (the time it takes for the box to turn bright green, confirming focus) is delayed compared to AF-S. Second, as light decreases, or if the lens is stopped down past a certain point, focus can hunt, slow down or fail entirely. In spite of these issues, I still feel that this is the X100 camera I like best since the original.

One day for the Oregon coast isn’t enough. Plan two, or maybe three, if you ever intend to visit.

As my first day of sunshine came close to an end, I came close to the end of Oregon and the start of California. The former’s coast, with its rocky shores and blue waters, adds to what has become my favorite state in the ‘Lower 48’. I have only began to glimpse the surface of Washington’s downstairs neighbor and hope to spend more time exploring its corners. My last moments basking in a sunset on the beach simply cemented my conclusions.

The second day started brilliantly with a walk around a sunny farmers market and several of the best grilled oysters I’ve ever had.

Growing up landlocked means I was never around delicious seafood like these spicy grilled oysters from Humboldt County. The close focus capabilities of the X100F allowed me to capture all the spices and pieces of dill floating in those beautiful shells.

Having the ability to shoot both wide and close-up shots is one of the great things about the X100F and its 35mm equivalent focal length, even if the lens is a bit soft wide open at the close end. Having a close minimum focus distance helps fill the frame with smaller subjects, and as mentioned before, the improved depth tracking in AF-C helps keep these shots sharp when snapping handheld.

Reviewing my images the night before revealed some of the lens’ sharpness shortcomings in regards to fine detail in landscapes, which isn’t a huge deal to me personally. For me, the camera’s biggest downfall became apparent when I was in tight quarters, surrounded by massive trees towering above me. I couldn’t help but long for something a bit wider (I did not have the wide angle adapter with me). 

The Avenue of the Giants

Even so, I think if I were stranded with one camera, the X100F would be one of the contenders for my choice. Leave it in full auto mode, and it works almost flawlessly. Of course classic ergonomics and physical controls have always been part of the X100-series DNA. But robust continuous autofocus has not. Fortunately, with the X100F, suddenly the camera’s autofocus can keep up with the movement of a quickly approaching subject. Combine that with the ultimate timing precision of an optical viewfinder, and you are left with a simple and fun camera that can easily capture that ‘decisive moment’ – even if that decisive moment is just a seagull entering your frame.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Review of the Benro Ranger 400 Pro Backpack

20 May

Ask most photographers and they will tell you that one of the hardest things to find with respect to photography gear is the perfect camera bag. One that will suit your every need. We search and search, but in the end, we all come to the realization there isn’t one bag that will be great for every situation. Though, sometimes you can find one that comes close, for me it was the Benro Ranger 400 Pro backpack.

Review of the Benro Ranger 400 Pro Backpack

Lots of options

One of the things to look for in a bag is one that gives you lots of options when using it. One that can handle most photographic situations that you might encounter.

I was looking for a bag that would hold my camera, my filters and holder, plus up to three lenses. Also ideally one that would take my laptop from time to time. It was also very important that it would hold my tripod.

The Benro 400 Pro backpack is lightweight and has a lot of protective elements. The outside of it measures 14 in (35cm) wide, by 19 in (50cm) high, and 8 in (20cm) in depth. It isn’t a large bag, but it’s big enough for most people. The inside is 12(W) x 17(H)x 6(D) inches, or 30(W) x 42(H) x 15(D) cm.

Review of the Benro Ranger 400 Pro Backpack

Sitting next to the Benro Tripod.

Space in the bag

The bag has three separate ways to enter it. The main zipper, that allows full access to the inside of the bag. There is a side zipper to allow easy removal of the camera with the lens attached. There is also a small zipper on the back near the top to help you get to your lenses faster for quick changes.

Review of the Benro Ranger 400 Pro Backpack

The side entrance to get your camera.

Inside the bag, you can move the dividers around to suit your needs. It is like most camera bags in that respect. It will take the camera, and more importantly large cameras fit easily. There are plenty of sections for your lenses, and  it will also allow you to take up to three others (besides the one on the camera), filters, and other smaller accessories you may need for your trip. You do need to be careful that you don’t carry too much, think of your back.

Review of the Benro Ranger 400 Pro Backpack

The inside of the bag.

The bag is deep and you can put your lenses in length ways, unlike other bags where they need to lay down and take up more room. For most lenses you can put them in this way.

There are also places to keep memory cards and batteries. If you want to carry your laptop it will take up to a 14-inch one. A 13-inch Wacom MobileStudio Pro also fits into it fine.

Review of the Benro Ranger 400 Pro Backpack

The area at the back so you can easily reach your lenses.

Materials

The Benro 400 Pro backpack is made with a black water-resistant nylon. It has a hard bottom, so for a backpack it will stands up really well when you put it down. When moving around you can just place it down and not worry about it falling over as many other bags do. It is very hard and gives the bag a lot of support with the structure of the bag as well.

Comfortable to wear

It is very comfortable to wear and the smaller size makes it a good bag for most people. The straps are thick and provide a lot of padding which make it good to carry on your shoulders. When the bag is full of gear you can carry it with ease.

Review of the Benro Ranger 400 Pro Backpack

The bag sits well on the back and is comfortable.

Waist band strap

It does come with a waist strap that you cannot remove from the bag. The sides that come around your waist to sit on your hips also have small compartments with zips. When you get the bag, one of the pockets holds the strap for the tripod and the other side has the rain cover. You can remove both and use them as pockets for easy access. I use one to store my car keys. The zip means they will be safe there.

Tripod attachment

The strap that is found in the side waist strap pocket is used to put across the front of the bag, and another pocket from down the bottom at the front pulls out so you can attach your tripod. The strap is fiddly and can take a bit to put your tripod on it.  I found it frustrating, and instead, choose to attach it a different way.

Review of the Benro Ranger 400 Pro Backpack

How the tripod fits to the front of the bag.

You can also attach it on the side of the bag as well, There is a strap at the bottom of the side that doesn’t seem to have much purpose, and then the strap that is used to keep the front section to the back section, extra security at the top of the side. You can use them to hold the tripod onto the bag. It is, in some ways, a much easier way to attach it. It is nice that you get a couple of choices.

Review of the Benro Ranger 400 Pro Backpack

The tripod attached to the side.

In the end

Since getting the Benro Ranger 400 Pro Backpack I’ve used it continuously. The only time I change bags is when I want to use one on wheels. It has been to many places and has not let me down so far. It has been comfortable to wear for hours and the tripod is easy to get on and off. For me it is almost the perfect camera bag.

The post Review of the Benro Ranger 400 Pro Backpack by Leanne Cole appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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