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Posts Tagged ‘service’

Sigma’s three new EF-M mount lenses and mount conversion service now have release dates

04 Oct

Back in July, Sigma announced it was working to bring three of its DC DN lenses to Canon’s APS-C EF-M mount. Now, we have an official release date for the 16mm F1.4, 30mm F1.4 and 56mm F1.4 lenses.

In a statement on Sigma Global’s website (translated), Sigma says the lenses will be released on October 18th. An additional mount conversion service will also be offered for those who own the MFT or E mount versions of these lenses who would like them adapted for Canon’s M mount. To start the conversion process, Sigma requests you contact your nearest authorized Sigma service center starting October 19.

Based on the information provided on Sigma Global’s website, the Canon M mount versions of the 16mm F1.4, 30mm F1.4 and 56mm F1.4 lenses will cost the same as the other mount options — $ 399, $ 289 and $ 429, respectively. Sigma also offers kits with all three lenses for both E mount and MFT cameras, so it’s not a stretch to imagine the same kit will be offered for the M mount versions as well.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Panono angers remaining customers by deciding to start charging for its stitching service

12 Aug

When we first saw the first prototype of the Panono 360-degree camera after its launch on Indiegogo in 2013, it looked like an impressive hardware and software product that had the potential to revolutionize some areas of photography.

However, it took almost three years for us to hold a production version in our hands, and although we found a lot to like in our test, by 2016 the number of competitors in the 360-degree camera market had grown exponentially, making it a lot more difficult for Panono to compete in the relatively new market for 360-degree cameras.

It’s probably fair to say that since then the path of Panono has been rocky. In May 2017 the original founders filed for bankruptcy. In July of the same year the company was sold to Swiss-based private equity investor Bryanston Group AG after only managing to deliver around 400 cameras to its backers.

Anyone who took up the offer back then could be forgiven for feeling tempted to smash their Panono camera against a wall, as the company has decided to start charging for its cloud-based stitching service.

In December 2017 the new owners contacted about 2,000 Indiegogo backers who received neither refund or camera during the original crowdfunding campaign, offering them to buy the camera at production cost. In addition they would get unrestricted access to Panono’s cloud features.

Anyone who took up the offer back then could be forgiven for feeling tempted to smash their Panono camera against a wall, as the company has decided to start charging for its cloud-based stitching service. In an email to users the company announced that from September 1st, 2019 the previously free service will cost Panono users €0.79 per image.

This is especially frustrating to users like photographer Nico Goodden, who voiced his discontent on Twitter, as there is no offline alternative to the Panono cloud stitching and the files recorded by the camera are not compatible with any third-party services, leaving users without any alternatives.

If it’s the Panono’s 108MP resolution you are after, there aren’t currently many affordable alternatives, but still it’s hard to recommend the camera to anyone at this point. It looks like charging for a service that is an essential element of the product and was always understood to be free to buyers of the camera, could be the final nail in the coffin of a once promising project.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Canon now offers a service to de-click the Control Ring on its RF lenses

23 May

In addition to a larger diameter mount and additional contacts, one of new features of Canon’s RF lenses—and one of its EF to RF adapters—is the Control Ring, a physical dial around the perimeter of the lens that can be customized to control various camera functions including aperture, ISO and shutter speed.

By default, the Control Ring is adjusted in predetermined steps, which click into place while rotating the ring. While this is beneficial when you need a tactile indication of how many steps you’ve adjusted various settings, it does cause a bit of movement and noise, which isn’t helpful if you’re filming video.

An illustration provided by Canon showing off the Control Ring on its RF 35mm F1.8 IS Macro lens.

Canon is addressing this problem by offering a de-clicking service for RF lenses. According to a pricing sheet, Canon will charge $ 79.99 to de-click any RF lens and $ 59.99 to de-click the Control Ring Mount Adapter EF-EOS R, not including the cost of taxes and shipping. Once de-clicked, the lens or adapter will be able to be switched between its default functionality and the de-clicked mode.

The service can be scheduled via Canon’s customer service phone number (1-800-652-2666) or its online support page.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Nikon issues technical service advisory for VR issue in certain Z6, Z7 camera units

21 May

Nikon has issued a technical service advisory for a number of Z6 and Z7 cameras regarding an issue where Nikon’s Vibration Reduction (VR) technology ins’t fully functioning on particular units.

Nikon doesn’t elaborate on what’s causing the issue with the VR malfunction in the affected Z6 and Z7 cameras, but says it will repair affected devices free of charge, including the cost of shipping, even if the warranty on the camera has expired.

A screenshot of the Z7 serial number checker website.

To aid in determining if your unit is an affected one, Nikon has set up dedicated webpages where you can enter your Nikon Z6 and/or Nikon Z7 serial numbers and see if it’s affected and covered by the advisory. No specific serial number ranges have been presented, so the only way to find out is to use the dedicated webpages.

If your camera is affected, the webpage will provide instructions on how to get your camera(s) repaired. If your camera is experiencing VR issues and isn’t recognized by Nikon’s serial number checker, Nikon requests you go through its support platform to address the issue.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Gannett launches Imagn image licensing and wire service sourced from the USA Today Network

27 Apr

Gannett, the media company behind USA Today and dozens of local news publications, has announced the launch of Imagn, its own image licensing and wire service. Imagn is a rebrand of Gannett’s USA Today Sports Images business unit, which has been expanded to provide news and media outlets with images related to entertainment, breaking news, and sports.

The images are sourced from the USA Today Network, which pulls the content from USA Today and the 109 local news brands owned by Gannett, according to a press release from the company. In addition to images from photojournalists working across the USA Today Network, Gannett says specialized images are provided through Imagn from its partner SIPA USA.

The platform kicks off with 600,000 images per year sourced from 300 sports photographers across the nation. That number will grow to 1.8 million images per year under this expansion, Gannett revealed, with the company claiming Imagn is now one of the biggest sources of original editorial images in the US.

Imagn offers both flat fee and subscription-based purchasing options; the subscription is split into three tiers based on image subject matter and offers unlimited images for editorial use. Given Gannett’s vast number of local newsrooms, the company may be uniquely positioned to offer a large library of images from smaller regions around the nation.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Kodak’s photo service KodakIt criticized for stripping photographers of copyrights

27 Feb

Renewed controversy surrounds Eastman Kodak subsidiary KodakIt, a service launched in 2017 as a way to provide businesses with on-demand access to photographers around the globe. The service was criticized in its early days for offering very low payments, but a new report from PDN highlights another problem: it requires photographers to completely surrender their copyrights.

A report from PDN digs into KodakIt’s ‘Photographer Terms and Conditions,’ noting that it requires its photographers to ‘perpetually and irrevocably’ hand over their copyright to the client who purchased the work — in fact, it specifies ‘the entire copyright’ and all rights associated with it.

Photographers are required to get permission from KodakIt and the client before using any images — including outtakes — for personal promotion. As well, the ‘Photographer Terms and Conditions’ requires KodakIt’s photographers to either destroy or surrender to the client any outtakes from the project.

KodakIt’s restrictions continue from there, also including a ‘Moral Rights Waiver’ as part of its terms and conditions. Under this, the service’s photographers are required to waive all ‘moral rights’ to the work, which includes claiming they shot the images and in any way interfering with ‘the modification or destruction of a work.’

A full copy of the Photographer Terms and Conditions, which was valid as of July 1, 2018, can be found here [PDF].

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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MASV 3.0 data transfer service update brings mobile support, new UI and billing tweak

27 Feb

MASV, a cloud data transfer service targeted at media professionals, has been rebuilt from scratch, the company has announced. Its new MASV 3.0 product uses Amazon Web Services as its new cloud provider and now features 160, rather than 10, servers around the world. MASV rebuilt it uploader code and promises average upload speeds faster than Dropbox, Google Drive, and WeTransfer.

In addition to improving its speed and number of servers, MASV 3.0 features a new user interface utilizing Google’s Material Design framework while retaining the features from product version 2.0. MASV 3.0 also adds mobile support for uploading, downloading, and managing content.

The service has retained its pay-as-you-go billing model, though the service now charges based on how much data is downloaded instead of how much is uploaded. Users can upload data for free and will be charged $ 0.25 per gigabyte downloaded by the recipient. MASV also provides its users with ‘portals,’ enabling recipients to pay for the cost of a file they download from someone else.

Users can sign up for MASV 3.0 now. Charges only apply when a recipient downloads content shared by the user.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Man v Dust: video highlights trials of Leica’s in-house sensor cleaning service

12 Jan

The International Leica Society has posted a video of a camera sensor being cleaned at the Leica service centre in the Wetzlar factory in Germany.

The video, taken by member Hari Subramanyam on his iPhone, shows the process of checking for dust on the sensor of his M (Typ 240) and then its removal. Well, that was what it was supposed to show, but after 20 minutes and 25 seconds the video finishes with the dust victorious and the Leica service engineer frustrated and wishing he wasn’t being recorded.

The engineer starts by cleaning the mount of the camera before using a vacuum cleaner to suck dust and debris from the shutter blades. Once that is done the in-camera dust checking function is used to detect a number of dust spots. The rubber-on-a-stick Pentax Sensor Cleaning kit is used to remove the dust as the engineer explains the process needs patience and can take anything from ten minutes to an hour.

We don’t get to see the sensor finally dust-free, as it takes a few goes and the cameraman has less patience than the engineer, but the video shows some useful steps in the process.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Kodak Digitizing Box service breathes life into old media with minimal effort

14 Oct

There’s no shortage of ways to digitize your old film photos, videos, taps, and audio recordings on mediums long extinct. But Kodak is hoping you’ll eschew other methods in favor of its new Kodak Digitizing Box.

As the name suggests, the Kodak Digitizing Box is a simple solution to bringing analogue content into the digital world through the careful hands of professionals. In Kodaks own words, “The Kodak Digitizing Box brings a modern version of Kodak’s yellow envelope back to customer door steps and aims to make the daunting task of digitizing aging media easy,”

The boxes, which arrived with a pre-paid shipping label for easy returns, are available in four sizes: 3 piece, 10 piece, 20 piece, and 40 piece, and are priced at $ 59.99, $ 169.99, $ 289.99, and $ 559.99, respectively. One “piece” can consist of an audio tape, video tape, roll of film, or 25 photos. The below image details what type of media is able to be digitized.

After the box is shipped off, you will begin to receive email notifications throughout the digitization process. Kodak says to allow up to five to six weeks for everything to be digitized.

Once the digitization is finished, the resulting content — and the original media sent in — is returned on DVDs, a USB thumb drive, or via digital downloads, depending on your preference.

To find out more, head on over to the Kodak Digitizing Box website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Delkin introduces 48hr replacement service with new line of premium XQD cards

25 Aug

Nicely timed to coincide with the launch of the Nikon Z series cameras Delkin has announced its own line of premium XQD cards that come with a 48hr replacement service. The new cards run with write speeds of up to 400MB/s, in line with units sold by Sony, and are designed to complement camera models from both Nikon and Sony.

With read/write speeds and capacities aimed at intensive data rate products, the cards are suited to recording high-resolution images in high burst modes, and professional quality video.

The company is so confident of its quality control each card has its own serial number and lifetime warranty. Delkin also promises that should a card fail it will replace it within 48 hours. Obviously, terms and conditions apply, but it sounds a neat way to differentiate its cards from those already on the market.

Delkin says its Premium 2933X cards will become available in October.

64GB – $ 140/£190
120GB – $ 230/£290
240GB – $ 464/£580

For more information see the Delkin Devices website.

Press release

Delkin Launches New Line of Premium XQD Memory Cards

POWAY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Delkin Devices, a manufacturer of flash storage solutions and camera accessories, announced today the newest addition to their ever-growing line of memory-based products: Premium 2933X XQD memory cards. Version 2.0 compliant with speeds suitable for professional photographers and videographers, Delkin XQD cards are specifically designed to excel in the latest generation of cinematic hosts from both Sony & Nikon. As not all memory manufacturers are authorized to produce and sell XQD, Delkin is grateful for the opportunity to provide consumers another choice.

Utilizing a 2nd generation PCI Express interface and delivering blazing-fast write speeds up to 400MB/s (up to 440MB/s read speeds), Delkin Premium XQD memory cards are capable of capturing flawless cinema-quality footage, including DCI 4K & Full HD video at 180 fps, as well as RAW photos in burst mode. Each card has undergone extensive testing to ensure compatibility in today’s high-end XQD hosts, including the Nikon D5, D500 & D850, as well as several of Sony’s XDCAM Super 35 broadcast camcorders (PXW-FS7 & PXW-FS7M2).

As proof that Delkin’s XQD cards are built to the highest standard and full compatibility, each card is serialized, like your camera. This allows Delkin to offer the ultimate level of customer support, while providing customers additional protection and insurance for their purchase. Owners can register their Delkin Premium XQD cards at www.delkindevices.com/xqd/.

In addition to their “Lifetime Warranty” policy, Delkin also offers a unique built-in insurance policy for their XQD memory cards, called their “48 Hour, No-Questions-Asked Replacement Guarantee.” Not offered anywhere else in the world, Delkin will replace any non-working XQD card within 48 hours or less (not including weekends), prior to receiving your non-working card. Cards can also be replaced over-the-counter at any authorized Delkin XQD reseller.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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