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Sony’s a7C is a really compact full-frame camera – especially when paired with the new FE 28-60mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens. We’ve been doing plenty of shooting with the combo and have updated our gallery to show you just what you can expect.
Check out our gallery of sample images
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Tamron Japan has published a statement [machine-translated] on its website noting that two of its three main factories will remain closed through the end of 2020 due to the ‘decrease in global demand due to the worldwide spread of the [novel] coronavirus.’\
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This closure extension affects Tamron’s Hirosaki and Namioka factories, which were originally set to open back up on October 1. These facilities, located in Japan’s Aomori prefecture, are two of Tamron’s ‘mother plants.’ Each of these three plants play a role in the lens development process: the Hirosaki plant handles metal processing, assembly and repairs; the Namioka plant processes the lens elements; and the Owani plant molds the plastic components.1
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Tamron says ‘the global market has not yet recovered, and in consideration of the uncertainty of the market environment in the future, we will continue to extend the partial closure of the domestic Aomori factory until the end of the year.’ Tamron notes business will continue during these closures, but it could ‘cause inconvenience and inconvenience to our business partners.’
If you’re interested in finding out more about the production process, Tamron Japan has an interesting online factory tour that walks through the steps it takes to manufacture a lens.
1 Tamron Japan
The post Nikon’s 2019 Mirrorless Shipments Lag Behind Sony, Fujifilm, and Olympus appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.
Last month, we reported on Nikon’s decreased 2019 market share (Nikon now sits behind both Canon and Sony, but ahead of Fujifilm, Panasonic, and Olympus).
And we can now follow that up with additional data that highlights Nikon’s struggles, recently published in Nikkei article.
In 2019, over eight million interchangeable lens cameras (ILCs) were shipped, and here’s the breakdown by camera manufacturer:
These numbers are pretty much what you’d expect, with Canon leading the digital camera manufacturers by a large margin and Nikon in second place, closely followed by Sony. Fujifilm sits at the back half of the pack, then Olympus, while Panasonic and Ricoh/Pentax fail to make the top five.
Here, we can see that Nikon still remains competitive, even as Sony threatens its position. But bear in mind that these numbers include all interchangeable lens cameras, not just mirrorless models.
And when you look at mirrorless cameras (MILCs) alone, Nikon’s position becomes much more tenuous:
As the data indicate, Sony is firmly on top, though I expect its lead will narrow over the next year or so. Canon’s dedication to its full-frame mirrorless system, as displayed in the EOS R5/EOS R6 release, will boost Canon’s numbers to at least become competitive with Sony.
But for Nikon, the future isn’t looking so rosy. It’s now been two years since the release of Nikon’s initial mirrorless offerings, the Z6 and the Z7. And while we’ve gotten two additional mirrorless cameras to show for it (the full-frame Z5 and the APS-C Z50), Nikon hasn’t even outperformed Olympus, a company in the process of selling its unprofitable camera division.
It’s clear that Nikon has big plans for the future (rumors of a Nikon Z8 abound), and Nikon recently announced several impressive Z-mount lenses. But right now, the company seems to be held up primarily by DSLR sales, which just doesn’t seem sustainable.
Let’s just hope that Nikon manages to turn things around in the coming years. For me (and, I imagine, for most photographers), more camera choice is pretty much always better.
Now over to you:
What do you think about Nikon’s recent camera sales? Do you think the company will make a comeback? What do you think Nikon needs to do to be successful? Share your thoughts in the comments!
The post Nikon’s 2019 Mirrorless Shipments Lag Behind Sony, Fujifilm, and Olympus appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.
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Pixelmator, makers of the photo editing application Pixelmator Photo, has released Pixelmator Photo version 1.4. The new update includes ML Super Resolution, a new tool designed to enlarge low-resolution photos with a single tap. ML Super Resolution utilizes machine learning (hence the ‘ML’ in the name) and the processing power available in Apple iPad devices to enlarge photos, illustrations, paintings and designs while preserving and enhancing details, edges and textures.
ML Super Resolution was designed for the newly released iPad Air and was presented during Apple’s ‘Time Flies’ event last week. The app is powered by the new A14 Bionic chip and Pixelmator states that it is the first AI-powered image enlargement tool available on a mobile device.
To enlarge images, ML Super Resolution ‘creates a layered representation of the image that is over 100 channels deep, detecting features such as edges, patterns, textures, gradients, and colors.’ After this, the channels are upscaled individually and combined back into a single image. Pixelmator states that the process ‘requires up to 62 thousand times more processing power than traditional approaches,’ something that Pixelmator states is only possible on iPad thanks to recent advancements in iPad performance and the dedicated processor in the Apple Neural Engine.
Tomas Andrijauskas, lead developer of Pixelmator Photo, says, ‘The processing power of iPad has advanced in leaps and bounds over the last few years. With these advances, it is now possible to open up workflows that simply were not available in the past. One such workflow is using machine learning techniques to enlarge photos while retaining sharpness and enhancing intricate details.’
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| Pixelmator Photo 1.4 includes ML Super Resolution, a new AI-powered image upscaling feature. Image credit: Pixelmator |
Of being able to show Pixelmator’s work during an Apple event, Andrijauskas continues, ‘Our team consists of 20 people and is based in a tiny Baltic country. So it is an incredible honor to be recognized by a company as respected and influential as Apple. It also shows that if you work hard to create powerful, beautiful, and easy-to-use products, your work will be recognized, no matter your location or size.’
In addition to the new ML Super Resolution tool, Pixelmator Photo version 1.4 includes a new split-screen view of original and edited images and support for the Apple Pencil’s double-tap gesture.
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| Pixelmator Photo 1.4 also includes a new before/after comparison tool. Image credit: Pixelmator |
If you’d like to learn more about Pixelmator Photo and its RAW editing tools, check out the overview video below and head to the Pixelmator Photo website.
Pixelmator Photo 1.4 is available now from the App Store as a free update for existing users or for $ 7.99 USD for new customers. Pixelmator Photo requires iOS 11 or later and a compatible iPad device. A list of compatible devices can be found on the App Store product page.
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Researchers with the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and MIT have developed a new type of fisheye lens that is flat and crafted from a single piece of glass. The lens is round, according to the researchers, and it is capable of capturing sharp 180-degree panoramas. This is the first flat fisheye lens made from a single piece of glass, which measures 1mm thick.
Ordinary spherical fisheye lenses are made from multiple pieces of glass designed to bend the light in such a way that it produces circular wide-angle images. The newly developed flat lens instead captures wide-angle panoramas by utilizing ‘tiny structures’ that scatter light in place of the curved glass elements in more costly spherical fisheye lenses.
The version of the lense introduced by the researchers is made for infrared photography, but the team says that it could be modified for use as a regular visible spectrum lens, as well. The flat design is ultimately more compact and less expensive to produce than spherical multi-element lenses.
The researchers envision a variety of uses for their lens design beyond interchangeable lenses. The thin, flat nature of the design would make it possible to implement the fisheye into smartphones, for example, eliminating the need to use a third-party lens add-on. Similar implementation could be used with laptops, VR headsets and even devices like medical imaging equipment.
MIT associate professor Juejun Hu, one of the researchers on the project, explained:
This design comes as somewhat of a surprise, because some have thought it would be impossible to make a metalens with an ultra-wide-field view. The fact that this can actually realize fisheye images is completely outside expectation. This isn’t just light-bending — it’s mind-bending.
Metalens refers to a flat lens that has tiny structures for focusing light. While wide-angle metalenses aren’t new, the researchers note that a single piece of glass without any extra optics have been limited to 60-degrees. The newly published study details how the team got around these restrictions to develop an ultra-wide-angle lens capable of capturing 180-degree panoramas without extra components.
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This 180-degree fisheye metalens features a single piece of transparent glass made from calcium fluoride with a lead telluride film on one side. A pattern of ‘optical structures’ called meta-atoms was carved into the film using lithographic techniques, the result of which were many ‘nanoscale geometries’ used to bend the light in specific, precise ways.
The carved structures can introduce phase delays into the scattering of the light — depending on their shape — to imitate the natural phase delays produced by the curved glass elements in spherical fisheye lenses. The light passes from the carved structures on the back of the lens through an optical aperture on the front of the lens.
Study co-author Mikhail Shalaginov said:
When light comes in through this aperture, it will refract at the first surface of the glass, and then will get angularly dispersed. The light will then hit different parts of the backside, from different and yet continuous angles. As long as you design the back side properly, you can be sure to achieve high-quality imaging across the entire panoramic view.
The study was partially funded by DARPA through its EXTREME program, which tasks experts with developing optical tools ‘to enable new functionality and/or vastly improve size, weight, and power characteristics of traditional optical systems.’ The agency goes on to explain that EXTREME will ‘explore this optical design space and aims to understand the trade-offs, and harness the possibilities, afforded’ by Engineered Optical Materials (EnMats).
Via: MIT
Today, Adobe published a sneak peek video of its latest Sensei-powered feature coming soon to Photoshop, Sky Replacement.
Similar to the AI-powered sky replacement feature found in Skylum’s Luminar 4 editing program, Adobe’s new feature uses its Sensei AI to determine the foreground from the sky in an image and automatically masks the sky overlay to blend in seamlessly. While Photoshop will offer its own selection of presets, it’s also possible to import your own image of the sky.
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| Note how even the small details at the top of the structure are preserved and properly masked. |
In addition to automatically masking out the sky, the Sky Replacement feature will also automatically tone the foreground of the image based on the color temperature of the sky being shown in the frame. As you can see around the two-minute mark of the above video, using a cooler part of the sunset in an image will result in a cooler foreground while using the warmer part of the sunset will give the foreground a warm, orange glow.
In addition to the automatic adjustments, there are also multiple parameters you can tweak yourself to ensure the sky looks exactly how you’d like. When you’re happy with the results, Photoshop will automatically create new layers for the masks and adjustments so you can further refine the image as you see fit.
Adobe doesn’t specify when we can expect to see this new feature in Photoshop.
The Olympus M.Zuiko 100-400mm F5-6.3 IS offers an equivalent focal length range of 200-800mm, making it perfect for casual wildlife and motorsports photography. Relative compact, lightweight and weather-sealed, the 100-400mm also offers powerful image stabilization, which works with the 5-axis in-body system used in current Olympus mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras.
We took the 100-400mm and an OM-D E-M1 Mark III to the Pacific Raceway here in Washington State recently, to see how it performs.
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This is sponsored content, created with the support of Amazon and Olympus. What does this mean?
The post Why It’s Important to Pay Attention to Your Backgrounds in Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.
In today’s article, you’re going to learn about the importance of backgrounds in photography. Knowing how to best use the background will have a big impact on the success of your photo.
You’re going to discover the different approaches to dealing with the background, and how that background will then work as a counterweight to your main subject.
So turn your eye away from the main subject, and see what a good background will do for your final image.
The answer to this question is, of course, both.
As a photographer, you need to pay equal attention to the main subject and the background. It’s easy to lose track of the background while you focus on your main subject. Take a little longer composing your photo and look to the background. You’re looking to avoid clutter in the background while lining up leading lines with your main subject.
The background is an important aspect of portrait and still life photography. And the background often takes up the entire photograph when shooting landscapes, so you pay particular attention to it by default.
So what are you looking for in the background, when the main focus of the image is your main subject? The answer is design elements, such as:
You have a choice as a photographer whether you want to use the background in your frame, or whether you want to eliminate it.
The choice is an artistic one, and for certain types of photography (such as street photography), you’ll certainly want to include the background.
So let’s look at these two approaches.
The background is vital in that it gives your photo context. How your main subject interacts with the background gives your photo more narrative, and hence it becomes a stronger photo. That’s not an excuse to include clutter, though; you should still look to see what elements can be removed from the background.
The ideal photo then shows your main subject, and just enough of the background to provide that story. So how will you achieve this?
The other way to deal with the background is to remove it, blur it out, or ensure it’s one particular texture.
Taking this approach will give your photo a much more minimal feel, and this can be just as effective when producing an interesting image. This option is well worth considering when you have a very interesting main subject or, even better, a main subject that provides its own story by doing something interesting.
So how will you go about producing minimal backgrounds in photography?
Now that you know how important it is to pay attention to the background, how will that change your photography? Are there techniques you use that haven’t been mentioned in this article?
As always, we’d love to see your photos and for you to share your opinions. If you have photos where the background is key to the success of the photo, then please share those in the comments section. And explain why you think the background is so important!
The post Why It’s Important to Pay Attention to Your Backgrounds in Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.
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Optics manufacturer Samyang has released a new lens simulator web app that allows you to see how certain lenses will affect the look of a scene based on sensor size and lens settings.
The web app creates a simulated scene using a cutout portrait of a woman as well as three backgrounds. By changing the sensor size, focal length, aperture and distance, the scene will adjust to show a simulated representation of what the image would like like when the shutter is pressed.
The web app is somewhat rudimentary, but its simulated representations do a good job of showing photography newcomers how crop factors, focal lengths, apertures and the subject’s distance from the lens can impact the look of an image. Samyang also includes an option to select on of its lenses to use as a preset of sorts to see what a given Samyang (also sold under the Rokinon/Bowen brands) lens will produce.
Both Canon and Nikon have lens simulators of their own, so this isn’t exactly an original idea, but it’s yet another option you can try out.
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The Olympus 100-400mm F5-6.3 offers Micro Four Thirds shooters a whole lot of reach in a hand-holdable lens. We’ve been putting its versatile zoom range to use ever since it was announced last month, and have updated our initial sample gallery with even more images – including Raw conversions. Take a peek at what it can do.