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Posts Tagged ‘Video’

RED and Lucid unveil 8K 3D camera that produces 4V holographic video in real time

26 May

Computer vision company Lucid and cinema camera maker RED have partnered to create an 8K 3D camera that can capture 4-view (4V) holographic images and video in real-time. The camera is designed to work with RED’s upcoming holographic Hydrogen One smartphone—both by shooting holographic content that can be viewed on the phone’s 4V screen, and by using the modular phone as a “viewfinder.”

The camera itself (which has yet to be named) will be made by RED, but it will be powered by Lucid’s “real-time 3D Fusion Technology.” This tech generates 3D/4V footage in real-time, promising to turn a processing-intensive task into “an instantaneous point-and-shoot experience.”

The camera looks like any other RED cinema camera… sort of. Except instead of one 8K sensor the camera uses two “perfectly hardware-synced” 4K sensors and a beam splitter to capture and output 8K 4-view footage. That footage can be viewed after the fact or even live using the upcoming RED Hydrogen One smartphone, which will be able to integrate directly into the RED 3D/4V and act as a 3D viewfinder.

It’s important to not that this isn’t just a concept. RED and Lucid had a working prototype shooting scenes at the Hydrogen One launch party on May 19th.

If you see this as a gimmick—and an expensive one at that—you’re probably not alone. But Lucid CEO and Co-Founder Han Jin has faith the world is ready for, and in fact craving, 3D/4V content you can digest without goggles or glasses.

“This partnership allows us for the first time to deliver the highest-quality 3D capture to our customers, and now they can view the content immediately in 3D/4V without headsets,” says Jin via press release. “At a time when two of the biggest challenges in the industry have been resolution and easy viewing of 3D content, we believe this is the solution everyone has been waiting for.”

We don’t have official pricing and release date information just yet. All Lucid and RED will reveal is that the camera—colloquially called the RED 3D/4V but still officially unnamed—will “be rolled out” in Q4 of 2018. To learn more about Lucid’s tech or this strange new camera, read the full press release below or visit the Lucid website.

Press Release

Lucid Partners with RED to Build 8K 3D/4V Camera for Hydrogen One

Collaboration will result in the first camera to convert full 8K 3D/4-View (4V) holographic images and videos in real time and the capability to dynamically adjust lens distances for the best 3D focus and zoom

Santa Clara, CA – May 22, 2018 — Lucid, the maker of the first VR180 3D camera, LucidCam, announces today it is working with Hollywood camera maker RED to build the next generation prosumer 3D/4-View (4V) camera for 8K video and image capture. The new camera is the first dual camera to give users full 8K video and picture capabilities converting to 4V in real-time while allowing them to shoot like professionals with dynamically adjustable lens distances for the best 3D focus and zoom. By attaching the soon-to-be-released modular holographic phone–RED Hydrogen One–to the camera, users will be able to view 3D/4V content in post and live as if it were the viewfinder.

The new RED camera is powered by Lucid’s real-time 3D Fusion Technology, transforming the time and processing-intensive 3D/4V workflow into an instantaneous point-and-shoot experience users crave. The look and feel of the new camera sticks to RED’s previous designs, but this time it has two perfectly hardware-synced 4K cameras which leverage a beam splitter to capture and convert the output to 8K 4V (.h4v) files. Once the content is created, all the high resolution 3D/4V videos and images can be distributed on YouTube and Facebook as well as through RED’s curated content universe.

“Having RED as a partner allows us to combine the best of both worlds – the highest resolution and quality hardware from RED with the most advanced software, our 3D Fusion Technology,” said Han Jin, CEO and co-founder, Lucid.

The RED and Lucid partnership enables both companies to extend their customer reach. Over the past year, Lucid has shipped and sold thousands of its VR180 3D LucidCams through Amazon and Best Buy as well as direct to consumers online, confirming the market interest and demand for creating and consuming such content. With Lucid’s solid consumer base and RED’s base of independent filmmakers and Hollywood producers, the new camera meets the need of a large, combined audience. The magic of 3D, VR and AR videos and images created by both the LucidCam and the RED 3D/4V camera can be enjoyed on the Hydrogen One without the hassle of wearing headsets.

The unique functions of the Hydrogen One phone in combination with the new 3D camera were showcased with a live 3D/4V preview at RED’s launch party on May 19th. Many people came to experience the holographic display capabilities, which provide a unique ability to let users look around and behind objects through 4-Views, and allow for viewing 3D, VR and AR content without any glasses or goggles. This phone also attaches easily to RED’s new camera and can act as a 3D viewfinder.

“This partnership allows us for the first time to deliver the highest-quality 3D capture to our customers, and now they can view the content immediately in 3D/4V without headsets,” said Jin. “At a time when two of the biggest challenges in the industry have been resolution and easy viewing of 3D content, we believe this is the solution everyone has been waiting for.”

The camera will be rolled out in Q4. Exact pricing is to be announced, as is the name of the camera. It will be sold through RED and its reseller channels.

For more information about Lucid, visit www.lucidcam.com.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Video: How Tony and Chelsea Northrup won $40,000 in image theft lawsuit

25 May

Well-known photography educators Tony and Chelsea Northrup have published a new video that details the saga of a stolen photograph, and the eventual $ 40,000 settlement they received as a result of going after the offending party.

The image, a portrait of Chelsea originally taken for a book cover, was used by an Australian company to promote a smartphone selfie case with built-in LEDs. According to the duo, they became aware of the unauthorized usage in 2016 after someone who recognized the image alerted them. Tony sent the company an email requesting information, he explains in the video, but instead received a letter from a lawyer hired by the company.

The lawyer’s letter claimed that a graphic designer hired by the company to design the product packaging had acquired the image “from a website” and used it as a stock image without the company’s knowledge. As the Northrups note, a high-resolution version of the image is the first result on Google when searching for “ring light portrait.”

The company, via the lawyer’s letter, had stated that it would recall all of the products with that packaging and cease use of material containing the image. However, Tony explains that the duo continued to receive images from followers showing the cases—complete with the pilfered portrait—being sold in Australian and New Zealand stores.

That ultimately set in motion a long legal tussle that involved hiring an Australian attorney willing to deal with an international copyright case. The duo explain everything that went into this process and the eventual $ 40,000 in settlement payments that resulted, with Tony estimating the company spent around $ 60k total when including fees.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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HTC unveils the U12+: Brings back the dual-camera and adds 4K 60p video

25 May

With the release of the HTC One M8 in 2014, HTC was a true dual-camera pioneer; unfortunately, that phone was also slightly ahead of its time. The One M8’s camera only had a lukewarm reception, and overall the device did not prove to be particularly popular. As a consequence, HTC dropped the dual-camera concept after the M8… until now. HTC has finally rejoined the ranks of dual-camera proponents with the launch of the brand new HTC U12+.

Building on the camera performance of last year’s U11+, the new model appears to have a lot to offer mobile photographers.

The main camera features a 1/2.55? 12MP sensor with stabilized F1.75 aperture lens and 27mm-equivalent focal length. The secondary 2x optical zoom camera features a 16MP pixel count and 54mm equivalent focal length. The aperture is F2.6. The autofocus combines PDAF and laser technology and there are also a “Pro” photography mode for manual control and RAW-support, as well as a background-blurring portrait mode.

On the video side of things, the HTC U12+ is capable of capturing movies at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second which is still quite an unusual feature on a smartphone. 240 fps slow-motion is available at 1080p Full-HD resolution. The front camera also comes with a dual-camera setup. However, unlike the main shooter it is not optimized for zooming but instead designed for creating a natural-looking bokeh effect in portrait mode.

Here’s a quick video into to the new smartphone and all its “bigger, bolder and edgier” features:

Other specifications include Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 845 chipset, 6GB of RAM and a 18:9 6-inch Super LCD6 display that supports HDR10 and DCI-P3 and comes with a 1,440 x 2,280 pixel resolution. The phone comes with 64GB or 128GB of storage that can be expanded via microSD card, and all components are housed in an IP68 certified body.

With the addition of the secondary tele-camera, on paper the new HTC looks like a very solid upgrade over its predecessor. We’ll have to wait and see what the camera is capable of in real-life shooting situations.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Video: There’s no such thing as lens compression, it’s just perspective distortion

24 May

We’ve been saying for years that the term “lens compression” is misleading, but Lee Morris over at Fstoppers has put together a useful video that explains exactly why this is the case, and demonstrates it with two easy-to-understand examples.

The main issue with the term “lens compression” is that the distortion the term refers to has nothing to do with the lens itself. The issue is simply perspective distortion, caused by the distance between your camera and your subject, as well as the distance between your camera and the background.

Put another way: if your subject is 1 meter away (or feet: it doesn’t really matter), and your background is 50 meters away, moving back 1 meter will double the distance between you and your subject, while barely changing the distance between you and the background—the perspective on your subject changes drastically, while the perspective on your background barely shifts at all.

This diagram, from the FStoppers video, shows why changing your perspective appears to compress the background… When you double the distance to your subject you halve its size, but you’ve barely moved in relation to the background, so it remains roughly the same size in your image.

To show this concept in action, Morris uses two examples. First, he shows you how you can get the exact same perspective using a 24mm lens that you can with a 400mm lens by simply cropping the wide-angle shot. Then, he does the opposite, creating the same perspective as a 15mm shot by stitching multiple shots taken at 70mm.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you should go throw out all of your lenses and just pick one focal length to either crop or stitch with. Physical limitations apply: like how much room you have to back up, how much resolution you’re willing to sacrifice by cropping, and how much sanity you have to spare if you’re trying to create a 15mm shot by taking a thousand shots with an 800mm lens.

The demonstration is just that: a demonstration of a concept that is often misunderstood because of the language we use to describe it. The compression you get using a long lens isn’t a result of the lens, so much as the distance between your subject, your background, and the camera.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Video: Astronaut forgets to insert SD card into GoPro before spacewalk

22 May

An unnamed NASA astronaut stationed on the International Space Station recently ran into an issue during a spacewalk: he forgot to check whether his GoPro camera had an SD card installed before embarking on a spacewalk. We’ve all been there, right?

The astronaut, who may have been Andrew Feustel, was featured in a spacewalk livestream on NASA’s Twitch account last Wednesday. During the livestream, viewers were treated to a brief conversation that started with the astronaut asking, “Hey, Houston, I gotta ask a question about the GoPro real quick.” The astronaut explains that he sees a “No SD” warning on the GoPro’s display when pushing a button.

“Do I need that to record?” he asks, referring to the SD card. “And if it’s recording, is there supposed to be a red light on?”

After a long moment of silence, Houston clarifies that the red light should appear while recording if the SD card is inserted, and that the “No SD” message likely meant the camera didn’t have a media card installed. The astronaut ultimately abandoned his plans to use the camera during the spacewalk.

Clarification about the SD card’s whereabouts was not provided, but if we had to guess, it’s probably floating (in this case literally) around in the bottom of Feustel’s camera bag alongside a half-eaten protein bar and a few extra lens cleaning cloths.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Video: Soulumination and the gift of photography

19 May

Soulumination is a non-profit organization that provides life-affirming legacy photography to families facing serious medical conditions, completely free of charge. In addition to the services donated by photographers, community volunteers make handcrafted photo albums and other gifts for the families. This video was made by Soulumination photographer Carrie Yuan of Yi Li Photography in order to share the work of Soulumination.

Soulumination volunteers make hand-crafted photo albums and other gifts to give to the families (photo: Wenmei Hill)

Volunteer photographers for Soulumination are invited in as families face serious illness, difficult treatment, joyous recovery and sorrowful loss. The photographer is there to capture those raw moments at times that are often private and filled with emotion. They are doing the most fundamental job of a photographer – ensuring that the family has something they can look back on, hold in their hands, share with others, fill in gaps in memories – in what can be the most difficult of circumstances.

As a volunteer photographer for Soulumination, I am often asked, “How can you do it?” After years of being invited to witness these important, beautiful, and often painful moments, I can’t think of a better answer than photographer Randell Walton’s: “How can I not?”

Soulumination founder Lynette Huffman Johnson and one of the Soul kids show off their Wonder Woman skills (photo: Wenmei Hill)

Although Soulumination is Seattle-based, there are several organizations throughout the world (such as Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, Shoots for a Cure, and Flashes of Hope) that offer similar services. There are also a multitude of other ways individuals and organizations use photography for charitable causes. What are some groups you know of or participate in?

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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This 12K NYC flyover video was captured with three 8K RED Weapon Monstro VV cameras

19 May

LA-based director and cinematographer Phil Holland of PHFX recently joined forces with Gotham Film Works to create something out-of-this-world. Using the first Shotover K1 Hammerhead Aerial Camera Array, Holland shot a flyover of New York City using not one, not two, but three 8K RED Weapon Monstro VistaVision cameras.

The result, once processed, is a 100MP motion picture made up of images “with a sensor size of approximately 645 medium format film.” Put another way, the 12K by 8K footage above is 48.5 times the resolution of 1080p.

Holland explains how the rig was used and the footage captured in a short behind the scenes blog post, where he also shared some BTS images that he is kindly allowing us to repost for you here:

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Holland’s BTS post covers camera and lens selection, before moving on to explain what it takes to rig something like this up.

“On a technical level there’s a lot that needs to happen in terms of proper spacing, finding the zero parallax point, lens selection, determining your overlap, rigging, payload balancing, etc.” writes Holland. “Every RED Weapon 8K VV Monstro has a JETPACK SDI Module attached to sync genlock, provide power, control the camera, etc. This is actually one of the first times I’ve ever seen this bad boy used to maximum intent. WIthout this module something like this would be very difficult to pull off.”

All of this allowed Holland to control the rig from a single “brain” and create “a quality stitch with pixel and frame accuracy.”

Check out the final video up top to see the stunning results for yourself, and then head over to Holland’s blog for even more details about how this beautiful creation was captured.

All photographs ©Phil Holland/PHFX and used with permission.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Video: Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 FE face and eye-detect autofocus test

18 May

The Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD for Sony FE cameras made a big splash when it was first teased back in February. People were intrigued by its small size and the new Rapid eXtra-silent stepping drive (RXD) AF motor; it even came up in our CP+ interview with Tamron, and we got to see the lens in person at the show.

The lens isn’t going to be officially available for another week; however, photographer David Oastler was able to get his hands on a copy and, while he wasn’t allowed to take photos with it, he was allowed to put it through it’s autofocus paces to see how that RXD motor holds up.

What Oastler really wanted to see is how well the Eye and Face-detect autofocus from the Sony FE body would perform through this third-party lens that was, ostensibly, designed from the ground up to work on this full-frame mirrorless system. While the video isn’t the best quality (a bit of glare) you can still see, and Oastler tells you, that the lens performs exceptionally well. In fact, Oastler goes so far as to say he noticed no performance difference between the Tamron and his own Sony-native lenses.

Tamron promised as much when it released the lens, calling it “quiet, precise, and exceedingly quiet.” But it’s nice to see a real-world test confirm these claims.

We’ll be trying to get our hands on a Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD as soon as humanly possible for our own in-depth testing. But in the meantime, if you’re interested in picking up this $ 800 USD lens when it ships at the end of next week and you want to see how its AF motor performs IRL, check out Oastler’s video at the top.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Video: How to safely and legally fly with camera batteries

18 May

Photography tutorial website The Slanted Lens has published a useful YouTube video guide on how to fly with lithium-ion camera batteries. These batteries are known for their volatility, an issue that reached mass public awareness during the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 recall. The FAA likewise raised concerns last year over lithium-ion batteries in checked luggage, citing their potential fire risk.

In its video, The Slanted Lens outlines all of the different types of batteries photographers may fly with, including ones installed in devices and standalone/spare li-ion batteries. Though some devices with built-in lithium-ion batteries can be packed in checked luggage, the team explains, the TSA requires others—such as a spare/standalone battery—to be packed in a carry-on.

It’s a useful guide if you ever fly with your camera, and especially if you fly to shoots with multiple cameras, spare batteries, drones, etc. Check it out for yourself up top, see a written version of the guide here, and if you’re even more curious, the FAA also has a guide on batteries, which you can find here.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Video: A Sony flash ‘feature’ you may not like, and how to work around it

16 May

Photographer Robert Hall sent us his latest video, because he’s found some interesting things about the way the live view and EVF on recent Sony full-frame mirrorless cameras respond when you attach a flash or flash trigger to the hot shoe. And, usefully, he’s also found a workaround.

Like many mirrorless cameras, the Sonys offer a choice of whether the preview display reflects your settings (to help assess exposure) or ignores them to give a consistently bright preview (useful if you’re working with strobes in a studio). This is one of the key advantages a digital preview can offer over an optical viewfinder. You select this by turning “Setting Effect” On or Off in the Live View Display menu.

However, when you attach a flashgun or trigger, this setting is over-ruled, automatically switching to a ‘corrected’ preview simulating the metered exposure. This is a behavior we quite liked when we tested the camera, but Hall points out that it’s not very helpful if you want to assess the contribution of ambient light to your scene. It essentially surrenders the advantage of using a digital preview.

This, in turn, led Hall to work out what the ‘Shot Result Preview’ option—assignable to a custom button—is for. It lets you work around the camera’s enforced behavior when you have a flash or trigger attached, albeit at the cost of one of your custom buttons. We checked with some other brands and found Panasonic cameras do the same thing as Sony, but without any kind of workaround.

From our perspective, it would be much simpler to add a second option after the ‘Settings Effect’ On/Off option in the menu: one that lets you define what happens when you add a flash. That way you can accommodate the preferences of both kinds of photographer, but without the need for workarounds.

It also goes to show: for all that we criticize the complexity of menus in current cameras, it’s extremely difficult to build a camera that works the way every user will want. It also highlights the occasional need to re-assess the way cameras work, from the ground up, rather than gluing patches and workarounds on top of what’s already there.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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