RSS
 

DynaLite Lighting company shuttered after 50 years over struggle to remain competitive

23 Jan

DynaLite Lighting, the New Jersey-based company founded in 1970, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and will shut down operations. The company’s CEO Peter Poremba revealed in the news in a statement on the DynaLite website, saying, ‘It is with sincere regret and heavy heart that I announce that DynaLite…has closed its doors.’

Poremba cites the ‘decline in the photography market’ as the reason for shuttering the company. His full statement reads:

It is with sincere regret and a heavy heart that I announce that DynaLite Inc. has filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy and has closed its doors.

For over 50 years, DynaLite has been providing lighting solutions for photographers. We are extremely proud of what we have accomplished and the careers we have helped. Unfortunately, due to the current decline in the photography market, we have found it difficult to remain competitive.

I want to thank you all for the years of support. It has been a pleasure servicing the photographic community.

DynaLite sold a large variety of products during its time, including power packs, mono lights, heads, lighting kits, portable lights, light modifiers and more. The photographic lighting industry has seen a large uptick in companies offering affordable products over the years, no doubt making it harder for some businesses to stay afloat.

Though many products are still listed on the DynaLite website, it doesn’t offer a way to directly purchase them. However, existing inventory remains available to buy from third-party retailers like Adorama.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on DynaLite Lighting company shuttered after 50 years over struggle to remain competitive

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Do Photos Lose Quality When Airdropped?

22 Jan

There are plenty of features present in iOS, or Apple devices in general that make the experience “magical,” and AirDrop is one of them. First introduced with iOS7, the file-sharing technology has made life so much simpler with regards to sharing files. As a photographer, AirDrop is invaluable! Not having to rely on cables, dongles, or even an Internet connection Continue Reading

The post Do Photos Lose Quality When Airdropped? appeared first on Photodoto.


Photodoto

 
Comments Off on Do Photos Lose Quality When Airdropped?

Posted in Photography

 

5 Things You Can Do in Capture One You Can’t Do in Lightroom

22 Jan

The post 5 Things You Can Do in Capture One You Can’t Do in Lightroom appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

capture-one-or-lightroom

If you’re a Lightroom user, you may be wondering:

Are there any Lightroom alternatives that can take your editing to the next level? Are there any editing programs that can offer you something more?

The answer is a resounding yes:

Capture One Pro.

capture-one-or-lightroom

You see, Capture One is a step above Lightroom in several key respects. While Capture One isn’t for everyone, if you’re looking to expand your post-processing capabilities, Capture One may be the way to go.

So in this article, you’re going to discover five things you can do in Capture One that you can’t do in Lightroom. It’s certainly not an exhaustive list, but it should give you a sense of Capture One’s power, and why you might consider it as a RAW editor.

Let’s get started.

1. You can create a session-based workflow for efficient organization

I’m a big fan of Lightroom’s catalog-based editor. I like Lightroom’s method of quickly organizing photos with Collections and Albums.

But Capture One’s session-based workflow option is well thought out and amazingly useful.

Here’s how it works:

First, you have a photography outing or a photo shoot of some kind, then you head into Capture One and create a session.

capture-one-or-lightroom

Now, every session involves a parent folder. And within that parent folder, Capture One creates four additional folders:

  • A Capture Folder
  • A Selects Folder
  • An Output Location folder
  • A Trash Folder

5 Things You Can Do in Capture One You Can't Do in Lightroom

So when you begin your session, you can import all of your photos from the day into the Capture Folder. This is where all of your photos can reside until you go through them. When you do, you can move the best shots into the Selects Folder and the worst shots into the Trash Folder.

Once you’ve edited all of your Selects Folder photos, you can create JPEG or TIFF files, which you export into the Output Location folder.

Note that you can create a new session whenever you do a new photoshoot. That way, you can use the same session-based process on every single photography outing.

And your photography workflow will stay quick and efficient.

Plus, you can access every session from within Capture One, as part of the Library.

Cool, right?

2. You can do layer-based editing for advanced post-processing control

One of the biggest things missing from Lightroom that you can find in other post-processing programs?

Layers.

Now, Adobe has found some nice workarounds; the Graduated Filter, Radial Filter, and Adjustment Brush tools are very powerful and give enough fine-tuned control to satisfy plenty of users.

However, if you really want to selectively edit your photos, layers (and the masking functions that go with them) can’t be beaten.

With Capture One’s layer options, you can apply masks using a brush, a gradient, and more. You can make any basic global Capture One adjustment via a layer, then quickly turn it into a local adjustment.

5 Things You Can Do in Capture One You Can't Do in Lightroom

Plus, layers are useful for compartmentalizing different edits. If you’d like to keep your exposure adjustments separate from your color adjustments, put them in separate layers. If you’re like to make multiple exposure adjustments, but aren’t sure which ones you’ll end up using, put them in separate layers. Then quickly toggle on and off layers to see how the adjustments affect the final image.

Of course, you don’t have to use layers in Capture One. If you’re more a fan of Lightroom’s sliders, then there are some options for more selective editing compared to Lightroom, including the enhanced color adjustments I talk about in the next section:

3. You can do enhanced color toning with Capture One’s Color Balance tool

Color toning is one of the most important adjustments I make to my own images, and it’s one of the simpler tweaks you can make to really improve your photos.

So it’s pretty important that you’re able to control color as much as possible.

And while Lightroom offers its (extremely useful) HSL sliders and split toning tool, the Color Balance tool is one of my favorite things about Capture One, from its interface to its control to its power:

capture-one-or-lightroom

You see, with the Capture One Color Balance tool, you can alter the Highlight, Midtone, and Shadow colors. You can do basic split toning by pushing blues into the shadows and golds into the highlights. Or you can go for a more advanced three-toned color grade using the Capture One color wheels.

Plus, color toning in Capture One is very intuitive!

Instead of doing toning while referencing an external color wheel, you can quickly select complementary colors off the wheel and see how they look. And if you don’t like those, well, you can switch to a different pair or harmonious colors, or a color triad, all within the Color Balance interface.

It’s a lot of power in a very simple tool.

4. You can create presets for individual editing tools

Lightroom is known for its preset-creation capabilities.

But did you know that Capture One lets you create presets for individual tools?

If you hit upon a set of values that you like, simply tap the hamburger icon in the right-hand corner of any tool:

capture-one-or-lightroom

And select Save User Preset:

5 Things You Can Do in Capture One You Can't Do in Lightroom

Then, the next time you get stuck using that tool, you can scroll through your saved presets and see if anything sticks out at you.

Capture One also provides you with a number of already-uploaded presets, so you’re free to check those out, as well:

5 Things You Can Do in Capture One You Can't Do in Lightroom

By the way:

While Capture One user presets are nice to use, they’re certainly not a substitute for broader preset editing. Which is why Capture One includes preset functions just like Lightroom (but called Styles).

5 Things You Can Do in Capture One You Can't Do in Lightroom

So you get the best of both worlds:

Tool-specific presets, and image-focused Capture One styles.

5. You can rearrange the interface for streamlined editing

Here’s one more great feature that Capture One offers:

You can arrange your editing interface – and I’m not talking about toggling on and off a few editing panels.

Instead, with Capture One, you can remove tools completely from the editing interface. You can bring them out so that they float in the main editing window, or you can stick them back into entirely different sections of Capture One.

capture-one-or-lightroom

This is especially useful if you have a particular editing workflow that you tend to follow. Instead of hunting around for each tool every time you edit a photo, you can arrange your editing tools in a neat stack. Then, when it’s time to edit your photos, you can go straight down the sequence, doing one edit after another until you’ve finished.

Being able to rearrange the editing interface is also nice if there are certain tools that you never use, and just want to get rid of.

Hate the Levels tool? You can remove it in seconds.

And you’re also free to remove entire tabs. If you never want to use a Capture One style, you can delete the whole Adjustments tab.

5 Things You Can Do in Capture One You Can't Do in Lightroom

Note that Capture One even has several tool tabs that you can add into the Capture One interface, such as a Composition tab and a Black and White tab.

Really, the options are endless!

5 things you can do in Capture One you can’t do in Lightroom: Conclusion

Now that you’ve finished this article, you know all about the power of Capture One, and what it offers compared to Lightroom.

Bottom line:

Capture One is an impressive RAW image editor and one that packs a lot of punch.

So if you’re looking to increase your editing power, testing out Capture One is a good decision!

For those of you who have tried Capture One, what are your thoughts? What did you like or dislike compared to Lightroom? Share your thoughts in the comments!

The post 5 Things You Can Do in Capture One You Can’t Do in Lightroom appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.


Digital Photography School

 
Comments Off on 5 Things You Can Do in Capture One You Can’t Do in Lightroom

Posted in Photography

 

Panasonic Lumix DC-S1H 4K sample reel

22 Jan

As part of our upcoming review, here’s our 4K sample reel, shot using the Panasonic Lumix DC-S1H at Seattle’s Emerald City Soul Club.

All footage is DCI 4K, 23.98p in the 400Mbps mode, with the exception of a short 60p clip, marked in the video. The camera’s Cinelike D2 color profile was used throughout, with minimal color grading subsequently applied.

Interview footage was all shot from a tripod, using the Panasonic 24-70mm F2.8 lens. The bulk of the in-club footage was shot using an L-mount Sigma 24mm F1.8 Art, and mounted on a DJI Ronin-S gimbal unless otherwise noted. All clips were manually focused due to the extreme low-light nature of the club.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Panasonic Lumix DC-S1H 4K sample reel

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Creative Water Photography – A Step-by-Step Guide to Making Water Monsters

22 Jan

The post Creative Water Photography – A Step-by-Step Guide to Making Water Monsters appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ramakant Sharda.

creative-water-photography-making-water-monsters

Have you ever watched an alien movie and wondered how they created those monsters? You’d need a very powerful computer, animation software, and some special skills to create an animated or moving monster. However, you can easily create a series of still monsters by using water. I’ll show you how some creative water photography can enable you to create your own water monsters. It’s simple to do, with great effect!

So let’s get started!

creative-water-photography-making-water-monsters

1. What you need to make water monsters:

To do your creative water photography, you will (obviously) need a camera. You can use any DSLR or Mirrorless camera. In fact, you can use a point-and-shoot camera if it is capable of firing an external flash.

A standard lens, like a 24-70 mm, is good, as you don’t want your splash to go out of the frame. You also don’t want water splashes on your camera.

In addition to a camera, you will need an external flash and a cable or wireless trigger to fire the flash. Then you’ll need a large diffuser. You can use the translucent part of a five-in-one reflector, or you can use a butter paper sheet and paste it on a wooden frame. A reflector is a better choice here, as you don’t need to make a wooden frame, and it also won’t get damaged if some water spills on it.

You’ll need a light stand to affix the flash and a tripod for the camera.

If you have a portable water tub, you can do this shoot in a room. However, if you don’t have one, you’ll have to do it outside.

Also, you’ll need to wait until night, as you can’t do this shoot in daylight.

You’ll also need an assistant to throw the water so you can click the beautiful water monsters.

Creative Water Photography – A Step-by-Step Guide to Making Water Monsters

2. Setup:

The setup is pretty simple.

If you are shooting your water monsters indoors, place your water tub in the room and hang the diffuser behind it.

Set the flash a little bit farther away from the diffuser. If you have a round studio light reflector, use it. It’ll give you a nice, round light effect. If you don’t have one, that’s okay. You can just use the flash.

Fix your camera on the tripod and place it far from the water tub. You don’t want water splashes on your expensive camera, so you’re going to use it on full zoom. If you don’t have a 24-70mm lens, you can use a 100mm lens and place the camera farther.

See the image below to view the setup.

creative-water-photography-making-water-monsters

 

3. Camera and other settings:

Now you have done that, let’s talk about settings.

Place a stick at the center of the water tub and manually focus on it. Don’t forget to set your camera on manual focus after that.

Now you need to finish your camera settings and flash settings. First, we’ll do flash settings.

Change your flash to manual mode and set the power to 1/32. We’re doing this because when the flash is on lower power, it produces the shortest burst of light, which helps to freeze the subject. You can’t go above 1/32 power, as then you’ll start getting motion blur.

Now set the camera to manual mode.

Set your ISO to 100, aperture to f/16, and shutter speed to 1/200 sec or whatever your camera sync speed is. These are the settings I used in all my shots, and they’ll work for you, too.

An aperture of f/16 will give you enough depth of field, and the entire splash will be in focus. Make sure you’re shooting in RAW, too, as this will help in post-processing later.

If you are firing your flash using a radio trigger, set it up. Or if you are using a cable to fire it, attach the cable.

Now your setup is ready, so let’s talk about the workflow and start creating these beautiful water monsters.

creative-water-photography-making-water-monsters

Workflow:

Earlier, you placed a stick in the tub of water. Now remove it and replace it with something like a glass so that your assistant knows where the focus point is and throws the water accordingly. Also, tell your assistant about the area where your frame is so they won’t throw the water outside the frame.

Now all you need to do is press the shutter when your assistant throws the water.

They can throw the water in different ways. For example, they can fill both hands with water and throw it upside. Just make sure their hands don’t enter the frame.

Your assistant can use a mug or glass to throw the water, or they can throw it using two or three cups together.

Different methods of throwing water will give you different results.

Even if you use the same method of throwing, you’ll get different pictures every time.

Take at least 100 photos – the more, the better.

creative-water-photography-making-water-monsters

Post-processing:

Post-processing is quite simple.

First, select good photos from the pictures you’ve taken. If you have clicked 100 pictures, you’ll get 10-12 good photos.

Now open the RAW files in “Camera Raw” and change the white balance to 3000. It’ll convert your gray picture to a blue tone.

If you’re an advanced photographer and you can set custom white balance settings in your camera, set it to 3000 kelvin before the shoot. Then you won’t need to do it in post-processing.

Creative Water Photography – A Step-by-Step Guide to Making Water Monsters

Now you just need to clean up some extra water droplets, crop if needed, and sharpen it. Your water monsters will be ready.

When you’ve finished editing the photos, check out the other images one more time. You’ll find some images that you can merge and use to make something unique. For example, I made this butterfly using three images.

creative-water-photography-making-water-monsters

 

So, let’s do some creative water photography and make these amazing water monsters!

We’d love to see your results, too, so please sharing them in the comments.

Also, if you run into any problems, just comment on this post, and I’ll help you solve them.

Creative Water Photography – A Step-by-Step Guide to Making Water Monsters

The post Creative Water Photography – A Step-by-Step Guide to Making Water Monsters appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ramakant Sharda.


Digital Photography School

 
Comments Off on Creative Water Photography – A Step-by-Step Guide to Making Water Monsters

Posted in Photography

 

‘It should cost…’ The three main ways you’re wrong about camera prices

22 Jan

Every time a camera is launched, our comment section is flooded with comments saying ‘it’s too expensive,’ irrespective of what the price is set at. Are all the camera makers utterly out-of-touch with reality, or is there something else going on?

I’m going to explain the three main misunderstandings that I see prompting these comments. I’m not advocating for higher prices, nor trying to suggest that manufacturers never get it wrong, but just trying to highlight why cameras are priced the way they are.

A new model is always going to cost more than the outgoing one

Prices decline with time. No matter what your pricing strategy, an older product (particularly in a fairly fast-moving marking like electronics) cannot demand as high a price at the end of their lifecycle as they can at the beginning.

This may sound obvious, but the consequence is that a new model will always look expensive compared with the model it replaces.

The D780 was launched at the same price as the D750, so is cheaper in real terms. But heavy discounting of the D750 makes the new camera look very pricey.

This is the error we most often see: ‘How can they charge $ 2200, when I can buy the old model for $ 1400?’

To which the response is: ‘How can they not?’ If you offer your new model at the price of the outgoing one, then what does its price look like, at end-of-life? Do you then have to match that price with the next generation model? That approach would end up with you giving cameras away within a couple of product generations, which isn’t exactly a winning strategy in an already contracting industry.

Prices decline with time, so new cameras tend to be released at around the same cost that the old one was launched at. The alternative (launching to match the current market prices) is a pell-mell race to the bottom.

So cameras tend to be released at around the same prices that the preceding model was launched at. After all, camera makers are companies: they exist to make as much profit as they can. Their job is to maximize the amount of money they generate from each product.

The main exception to matching the previous model’s launch price is if the new model has been stripped-down to hit a lower price point or re-positioned to attract a different audience.

Case study: The stripped-down mass-market special

Sony’s a6000 was launched for $ 799 with a kit zoom: around $ 200 lower than the existing NEX-6 model. It gained a couple of additional features and updates but also saw a drop in viewfinder resolution and had less substantial feeling construction: distinct hints that it wasn’t a like-for-like replacement model.

Sony’s insistence on assigning similar names to all its models doesn’t help, but the pricing alone makes it easier to recognize the a6300 as more of an NEX-6 replacement than an a6000 update. Sure enough, both the a6000 and a6300 continued alongside one another for the next few years: one targeting the ‘price conscious’ consumer, the other offering better build, an NEX-6 level viewfinder and 4K video, for people who were comfortable to spend a bit more.

Manufacturers will occasional try to re-position a particular model, making it cheaper or more expensive, perhaps trying to make room for a new model.

Case study: two models in the place of one

Panasonic’s GX8 had a significantly higher spec and was launched for $ 200 more than the preceding GX7. This created the space for a less expensive GX85 to sit underneath. Looking at the launch prices suggests that Panasonic thought there were two different types of customer buying the GX7: some that wanted a small, mid-priced model and some who wanted something more ambitious, and were willing to pay for it.

However, the next model refresh saw the GX9 launched back at the same price as the GX7 (and called the GX7 III in some markets). ‘This isn’t a GX8 replacement at all’ complained some would-be buyers. The pricing indicated that they were probably partly right.

The lesson in all of this is that you can better interpret a manufacturer’s intentions by comparing the price of a new model to the launch price of the outgoing model, not its depressed end-of-life price.

Case study: getting the price wrong

Manufacturers don’t always get their pricing right, of course. Nikon entered the prime-lens APS-C compact market in 2013 with the Coolpix A, an attractive camera with a 28mm equivalent F2.8 lens. Perhaps emboldened by Fujifilm’s success selling its X100 models for $ 1299, Nikon priced its camera at $ 1099.

Around a month later, Ricoh launched an APS-C version of its much-loved GR, also with a 28mm equiv F2.8 lens, for $ 799. The Coolpix A was a pretty good camera (though we preferred the GR), but without the retro appeal, hybrid viewfinder and burgeoning reputation of the Fujifilm, or the establish fan-base of the GR, that $ 1099 price tag looked awkward.

Without access to sales data, we can’t know for certain how many units were sold at full price but by the second half of 2014, the price had collapsed to just $ 580. A lot of people got a bargain at that discounted price, but it’s noticeable that Nikon hasn’t shown any further interest in that niche.

Of course, sometimes manufacturers will keep old models on the market at a newly lowered price (the Sony a7 II and a7R II, for instance). This makes life a little more complex but should really just focus your attention on what really matters: ‘does the new model offer enough compelling improvements to overlook the older model?’

Your country probably isn’t being ripped-off, even if the US launch price seems cheaper

The RX100 VI was launched for $ 1298 in the US and the equivalent of $ 1450 in Europe. But that’s not the whole story.

The other complaint we regularly see is that the launch price in country ‘X’ is higher than a direct conversion of the US dollar price. There are two main reasons for this.

The first is that US prices tend to be quoted without sales tax, whereas most other countries tend to include sales tax/VAT/GST in consumer-facing communications. As a results, US prices tend to look less expensive simply because the price quoted isn’t the price most people are legally expected to pay. Your local tax level may be more expensive, but that’s more likely to do with your country’s history, style of government and degree of healthcare provision and social support: none of which can be blamed on camera makers.

The second factor is that price competition varies greatly between countries. US prices tend to stay at or near the Manufacturer’s Recommended Sales Price until the manufacturer chooses to adjust it. Countries with more competition between retailers tend to see prices quickly fall away from the initial asking price: early adopters end up paying full price, but anyone buying a few months (or sometimes weeks) later, will get a much better deal.

Case study: why are cameras more expensive in Europe?

Sony’s RX100 VI had an initial MSRP of $ 1298 in the US and €1299 in Europe. This looks bad: €1299 was worth $ 1450 in July 2019. Outrageous, right?

But, if I went to buy one today, I’d end up paying $ 1429 after tax in the US ($ 1298 plus my 10.1% local sales tax rate). If I lived in Germany and bought the same model from a large internet retailer, I’d have to pay €1180, including VAT, which is equivalent to $ 1315.

So, although the launch price in your country may look outrageous, compared with the US price, that doesn’t mean you’ll get ripped-off. The last two times I’ve looked at buying cameras in the US and UK, I found the year-old model I was shopping for to be less expensive in the UK, even with higher local taxes. I’ll concede that this was before the pound plummeted following the Brexit vote: but again, that’s not really the fault of camera makers.

Some things are supposed to look expensive

Marketers have all manner of theories about how to price their goods, and different strategies for maximizing the amount of profit they can make from a specific product. Very few of these have much to do with the costs involved in developing, manufacturing, distributing and supporting that product. Most strategies set the price high enough to make this money back, but there are exceptions even to that.

So there’s little point looking at a product and saying ‘they’ve removed ‘x,’ so it should be cheaper,’ or expecting the price to relate in any way to your estimation of the costs involved.

For instance, a premium pricing strategy holds that it’s sometimes beneficial to price your goods so highly that you end up selling fewer than you could, but at greater profit: the high price and resulting scarcity in itself contributes to the perceived value of the product.

A premium pricing strategy holds that the high price in itself contributes to the perceived value of the product

‘That’s silly,’ you might think: ‘that wouldn’t work on me.’ But it does. Like it or not, you respond to pricing. Read through the comment section of the launch of any Leica product: you’ll see an audience dramatically polarized between ‘it’s not worth that’ and ‘if you could afford it, you’d understand.’ The same goes for luxury items, whether they be Range Rovers or Rolex watches: if they weren’t expensive, they wouldn’t have the same cachet.

This discussion is almost entirely divorced from whether the products themselves are any good (to the degree that any assessment can be entirely rational and dispassionate), it’s primarily a reflection of differing personal responses to the price.

Perceived value is entirely personal and both responses are equally right and wrong: a premium product isn’t worth its exaggerated price to the person who doesn’t care about prestige, scarcity, brand history and reputation or the degree to which something is hand-built, but it is worth it for someone to whom those factors contribute to the item feeling special, or more meaningful.

Is it worth it?

Which ultimately brings us to the question that’s really at stake: not ‘is it too expensive?’ but ‘does it appear to represent good value to me?‘

Again, manufacturers are for-profit companies. They aren’t aiming to offer the product you want at a price you want to pay: they’re trying to price it at the maximum amount you’re willing to pay.

In other words: it’s always going to be a bit more expensive than you’d like.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on ‘It should cost…’ The three main ways you’re wrong about camera prices

Posted in Uncategorized

 

This free, AI-powered Lightroom plug-in will automatically tag your photos with keywords

22 Jan

Powered by artificial intelligence, Imagga’s Wordroom is a plug-in for Adobe Lightroom that ‘sees’ images and recommends a list of up to 30 keywords based on attributes including objects, colors, shapes, emotions, timeframes, and events. With one click, keywords can be added to an image’s metadata so that it’s easily searchable. It was created for professional and hobbyist photographers who don’t want to spend long hours assigning individual keywords to hundreds of thousands of images.

Wordroom relies on machine learning algorithms that get smarter as more people use them. This means the more images it sees, the better it gets at accurately identifying keywords. Users can remove any keyword that doesn’t make sense for a specific image and manually add in as many as they wish. Once the ‘Add to keyword tags’ button is clicked, both automatic and manually entries will be displayed in Lightroom’s Keyword tags panel. Each photo with keywords will have a tag on its thumbnail.

To install Wordroom, select ‘Plugin Manager’ from Lightroom’s dropdown menu ‘File.’ Add the plug-in file stored on your computer, enable it, and click ‘Done.’ Next, select the dropdown menu ‘Library’ and click on ‘Plug-in Extras’ > ‘Auto-keyword.’ It will automatically display suggested keywords for the currently selected photo. Photos are analyzed in the cloud as small thumbnails, so users will need to be connected to the Internet when using it, but Wordroom claims images are not permanently stored.

You can use the plug-in without registering for the first 100 photos. After that, you’ll need to sign up for a free plan. Wordroom will remain free to use if you auto-tag 2,000 or fewer images per month. Any more than that will require a higher-tier plan that allows for up to 12,000 images per month at $ 14. To get started, all Imagga asks for is an email address so it can send you a download link.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on This free, AI-powered Lightroom plug-in will automatically tag your photos with keywords

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Voigtlander brings its Nokton 21mm F1.4 lens to Leica M-mount camera systems

22 Jan

Voigtlander has announced the release of its new Nokton 21mm F1.4 Aspherical VM lens for Leica M-mount camera systems.

The lens, which uses an identical design (mount aside) from its Sony E-mount counterpart, is constructed of 13 elements in 11 groups, has an aperture range of F1.4 through F16 and uses a 12-blade aperture diaphragm. It has a 62mm front filter thread, a minimum focusing distance of 50cm (20in) and features a rangefinder interlocking mechanism that Voigtlander says ‘enables severe focusing near the open aperture.’

The 21mm F1.4 features a Bayonet-type VM mount that can be used with Vessa and M-mount cameras (not including the Bessa L and R).

The Voigtlander 21mm F1.4 Aspherical VM lens has a suggested retail price of ¥150,000 in Japan, which currently puts it at around $ 1,350, despite there being no official U.S. pricing at this time. The Sony E-mount version of this lens is currently listed for $ 1,100 on B&H.

We have contacted Voigtlander to confirm the pricing and availability in other regions. We will update this article accordingly when we hear back.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Voigtlander brings its Nokton 21mm F1.4 lens to Leica M-mount camera systems

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM review

22 Jan

Introduction

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryStripV2({“galleryId”:”0450282494″,”isMobile”:false}) })

Sample photoSample photoSample photoSample photoSample photo
Gold Award

92%
Overall score
Jump to conclusion

Since the launch of the EOS R line in 2018, Canon has mostly concentrated its attentions on high-end RF lenses. And the lens we’re looking at here is likely to be one of the most coveted RF-mount optics, partly because of its classic portrait-friendly focal length and super-wide aperture, but also because Canon bills it as having the finest optical performance of any autofocus-enabled 85mm lens the company has ever released. Quite a claim.

Naturally, all of this goes some way to explain why the RF 85mm F1.2L USM is among the costliest lenses in the RF lineup. It’s considerably pricier than the EF 85mm f1.2 L II USM, which can also be used with EOS R-series bodies via an adapter, and if you’re happy to slum it with an F1.4 option then you’ll find many more cost-effective options from other manufacturers to choose from. Nevertheless, the RF 85mm should prove a tempting option for early EOS R-series adopters with an appetite for fast glass and pockets deep enough to satisfy it.

Key specifications:

  • Focal length: 85mm
  • Aperture range: F1.2-16 (In 1/3 EV stops)
  • Filter thread: 82mm
  • Close focus: 0.85m (2.79 ft.)
  • Maximum magnification: 0.12x
  • Diaphragm blades: 9 (rounded diaphragm)
  • Hood: ET-89 round-shaped hood (supplied)
  • Length / Diameter: approx. 103.2 x 117.3 (4.06 in. x 4.62in)
  • Weight: approx. 1,195g (approx. 2.63lbs)
  • Optical construction: 13 elements in nine groups

Features

Aimed primarily at portrait, fashion, wedding and event photographers, the RF 85mm F1.2L USM brings together a handful of RF-specific technologies with those seen previously in the EF line.

Despite its size and weight, the lens has been designed with just 13 elements in nine groups, although some of these are necessarily quite large. They include a single ground aspherical element to keep spherical aberration and corner softness from being a problem, and an Ultra Low Dispersion element positioned just ahead of it to help combat chromatic aberration.

Canon’s Blue Spectrum Refractive (BR) element greatly refracts shorter wavelengths, ensuring blue wavelengths focus at the same plane as longer wavelengths like red and green. This increases sharpness and reduces longitudinal spherical aberration, commonly seen as color fringing.

Longitudinal chromatic aberration (LoCA), typically seen as purple and green fringing in front of and behind the focal plane, respectively, is further controlled through the use of a Blue Spectrum Refractive (BR) element, something we first saw three years ago inside the EF 35mm F1.4L II USM. Its purpose is to refract blue light – or rather, short wavelengths that correspond with what we see as blue – to a greater degree than conventional optics would manage. By doing so, it’s better able to focus all wavelengths to the same point, which in turn helps to quash longitudinal chromatic aberration and increase sharpness at the focal plane. Quite how well it can do so is something we’ll be digging into later on in this review.

Helping to keep flare and ghosting down are Canon’s conventional multi-coatings, while a single application of the more advanced Air Sphere Coating (ASC) deals with ill effects from light passing either parallel or near parallel to the optical axis. Nine diaphragm blades, meanwhile, promise to keep the diaphragm round for nicer out-of-focus highlights.

The lens accepts 82mm filters at its front and can focus as close as 85cm (2.8 ft) away from the subject, which is a 10cm reduction on the previous EF 85mm f1.2 L II USM. Helping to make its price tag a little easier to swallow, Canon has thrown a deep round lens hood into the box, as well as a pouch to keep it all protected when not in use.

What about the Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM DS?

The lens on test is joined by a slightly more costly (+$ 300) ‘DS’ variant, and while the it adheres to the same basic formula and optical design as the non-DS version, the ‘DS’ suffix denotes the presence of Defocus Smoothing technology. This is a new coating on two of its elements that’s said to help smooth out the edges of out-of-focus areas, which the company claims is more necessary here given the more severe correction for chromatic aberration. The effect is similar to some specialized lenses from Fujifilm and Sony that contain comparable apodization elements.

While potentially very useful to dedicated portrait photographers, the fact that the DS technology comes at the cost of up to 1.5EV stops of light transmission, and also produces images with slightly deeper depth of field than the non-DS version explains why Canon has decided to give the photographer the choice of both options.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM review

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Plugable launches 512GB version of its Thunderbolt 3 NVMe drive with read speeds up to 2,400MB/s

22 Jan

Back in November 2019, accessory manufacturer Plugable launched its 1TB and 2TB Thunderbolt 3 NVMe drives. Now, roughly three months later, Plugable has announced it’s now offering the same drive in a 512GB capacity for those who don’t need as much space or prefer to keep their content spread across multiple smaller drives.

Like its larger counterparts, the 512GB Thunderbolt 3 NVMe drive is powered entirely through its integrated Thunderbolt 3 cable and features sequential read speeds up to 2,400MB/s and write speeds up to 1,800MB/s. The drive works at full-speed with any Thunderbolt 3-compatible macOS or Windows computer and is backward compatible at USB-C speeds on computers without Thunderbolt 3.

The drive is constructed of aluminum and weighs just 173g (6.1oz).The 512GB Plugable Thunderbolt 3 NVMe drive will retail for $ 200, but is currently available for a launch-special price of $ 180 (when you clip the coupon code).

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Plugable launches 512GB version of its Thunderbolt 3 NVMe drive with read speeds up to 2,400MB/s

Posted in Uncategorized

 
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »