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CP+ 2018 interviews: The reign of the DSLR is almost over…

Canon executives (L-R) Yoshiyuki Mizoguchi, Go Tokura, and Naoya Kaneda. Will Canon announce a full-frame mirrorless camera this year? The signs are looking increasingly positive. Read the full interview

At DPReview, we’re in touch with the companies that make your favorite cameras and lenses all year-round. Our best opportunity to really tap into how the leaders of those companies are thinking though comes once a year, at the CP+ show in Yokohama Japan.

Senior executives from all of the major camera and lens manufacturers are present at CP+ and we try our best to speak to as many of them as possible. This year we sat down with leaders from (in alphabetical order) Canon, Fujifilm, Olympus, Panasonic, Ricoh, Sigma, Sony and Tamron to learn more about how they see the market, and to get an indication of what might be coming down the road.

Full-frame mirrorless will become the norm, and it will happen pretty soon

This year, almost all the executives we spoke to seemed to agree on one thing: full-frame mirrorless will become the norm, and it will happen pretty soon. Kenji Tanaka of Sony even put a date on it, saying that in his opinion, Canon and Nikon would join Sony in the full-frame mirrorless space within a year. Executives from Sigma and Tamron were similarly confident, and even Go Tokura of Canon dropped a couple of fairly heavy hints that the move to mirrorless is imminent.

Kenji Tanaka of Sony thinks that it won’t be long before Sony has some company in the full-frame mirrorless market, but must be hoping that products like the A7 III will increase his company’s share of the full-frame market in the meantime. Read the full interview

It certainly makes sense, and honestly, I’m surprised that it’s even taken this long. For quite a while now, I’ve had the feeling that DPReview has been reporting on two camera markets. One is the mirrorless market: new, energetic, and increasingly packed with advanced autofocus systems and high-end video features. And the other is the DSLR market, dominated by increasingly non-essential iterative updates at the low-end, solid money-makers in the middle, and tough but conventional flagships at the top. There are some exciting and innovative DSLRs still being released, no doubt, but they’re starting to look less and less like products of the technology’s continuing evolution and more like its ultimate expression.

At a certain point, the mirror and prism will become barriers to further innovation

It’s hard to imagine, for example, how much more advanced Nikon’s DSLR platform can get, following the release of the D5 and D850. At a certain point, the mirror and prism will become barriers to further innovation, and if we haven’t already reached that point already, surely we must be getting close?

We spent some time at CP+ talking with senior executives from Fujifilm about the runaway success of the GFX system, and how the company is moving into video.

Read the full interview

Canon already has a mirrorless lineup, albeit one that up to now has been primarily aimed at entry-level customers. They’ve been quietly laying the groundwork for high-end mirrorless for a while now though, with key technologies like Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus and a small system of compact EF-M lenses that are optimized for the short flange-back of the M-mount. As Mr. Tokura and his fellow executives told us when we spoke to them in Japan, ‘we have the technology’ – they just need to put it all together. Nikon’s 1 System (it’s not dead, it’s just sleeping…) likewise introduced some important technologies that Nikon could presumably incorporate into a larger-format system when it feels the time is right.

When we spoke to the head of Olympus’s imaging business unit, Shigemi Sugimoto, he told us that he hopes to grow his company’s market share after “a painful period”.

Read the full interview

I think that the time is close at hand. It’s hard to argue with Mr. Tanaka of Sony that “if cameras are going to develop […] manufacturers have to develop mirrorless technologies”. Consider features like face / eye-detection AF, full-frame autofocus coverage and 4K video. All work best with the mirror up, even when it might not technically be a prerequisite.

With a lens like its new 28-75mm, Tamron is not just betting on Sony, but on full-frame mirrorless in general

Sigma and Tamron both announced full-frame Sony E-mount lenses at CP+, and appear committed to further development in the future. Takashi Sawao of Tamron confirmed something that we already suspected – lenses like its upcoming 28-75mm F2.8 for Sony have the potential to be adapted relatively easily for future – new – mirrorless mounts. The not-so-subtle message here is that with a lens like the 28-75mm, his company is betting not just on Sony, but on full-frame mirrorless in general. Sigma isn’t quite there yet (although Sigma has several native FE lenses on the market, they’re based on existing DSLR designs) but CEO Mr. Yamaki told us that his company’s announcement of E-mount versions of some Art-series lenses is ‘just the beginning’.

Among the topics covered in our conversation with Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki were his determination to make more native Sony E-Mount lenses for mirrorless cameras. Read the full interview

Technically speaking, there are plenty of advantages to making lenses for full-frame mirrorless systems from scratch. Mr. Yamaki explained that for wideangle optics especially, the lenses can be made substantially smaller. They can also take advantage of in-camera optical corrections. If and when Canon and Nikon fully commit to full-frame mirrorless, I predict a flood of new lenses, as well as cameras. Nobody is expecting a return to the salad days of the early and mid-2000s, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a little more competition in a market with a few more new products in it? I’m asking for a friend…

Our conversation with Tamron executives covered various topics, including the move to new native mirrorless designs and the decline in DSLR lens sales.

Read the full interview

Sony and Fujifilm both told us that they would welcome Canon and Nikon’s eventual contributions to the high-end mirrorless marketplace, and I believe them – although Sony’s rapid release cycle of full-frame a7 and a9 bodies in the past 18 months certainly looks like an attempt to grab as much market share as possible in the meantime.

Olympus’ Shigemi Sugimoto seems to be looking forward to some growth, after “a painful period” which saw his company’s imaging products lineup shrink. He’s new to his job, but appears confident that his company’s high-performance Micro Four Thirds cameras can compete thanks to their attractive combination of small size and market-leading image stabilization.

Meanwhile, Panasonic also hinted at further development of its stills-focused ILCs, after a period when the company has seemed more focused on meeting the needs of professional and enthusiast videographers. For its part, Fujifilm has made a bold move in the other direction with its new flagship X-H1, explicitly courting video creators for the first time.

Panasonic executives told us that the company is hoping to ‘re-brand’ its stills photography offerings, after a period of investment in video users. Read the full interview

The only manufacturer we spoke to in Japan that appeared uninterested in talking about mirrorless development was Ricoh. I suspect that this is partly strategic and partly also driven by necessity. The R&D resources required to tool up and launch a new system into (presumably, before too long) a crowded market may simply be prohibitive – especially given that the company has only recently started to dip its toes into full-frame digital.

At least for now, it looks as if we can expect little more from Ricoh than consolidation of the existing K-series DSLR lineup and probably a GR II successor of some kind, at some point in the future. A proportion of die-hard Pentax fans will be disappointed by this, but I expect that many simply won’t care. The K-1 II and the imminent arrival of a new 50mm F1.4 represent (at least) a continued investment in the company’s core user-base, and that’s probably enough to keep the loyalists happy for now.

Takashi Arai of Ricoh told us that we can expect new K-series products and possibly also a GR II successor soon, but it seems unlikely that we’ll see any Pentax-branded mirrorless cameras in the near future.

Read the full interview

So what’s coming around the corner? If you’ll indulge some informed guesswork, I’m expecting the announcement of 4K-capable full-frame mirrorless cameras from at least one if not both of the major DSLR manufacturers by late summer, ahead of Photokina in September. That would fit the historical pattern of major product launches from both manufacturers. I don’t think that either Canon or Nikon will attack the professional market straight out of the gate – instead, it’s probably more likely they’ll kick things off with EOS 6D / D600-type products.

I expect flagship professional mirrorless ILCs to be launched ahead of Tokyo 2020 from Canon, Nikon and Sony

A slow build-up of core native-mirrorless lenses (alongside the necessary mount adapters for legacy EF and F lenses) will naturally follow, and development will ramp up as we get close to the Olympic Games in 2020. We know from speaking to executives at CP+ that Tokyo 2020 is going to be a big deal for Canon, and I’d expect it also to be used as a showcase for flagship professional mirrorless ILCs from the other two manufacturers in the ‘big three’ – Nikon and Sony.

By then, it would make sense for both Canon and Nikon to have replicated their most important tele primes and wide-aperture zoom lenses in their new native mirrorless mounts, and for Sigma and Tamron to be offering their own lower-cost alternatives. I don’t want to guess at exactly what those alternatives will look like, but it’s a safe bet that Sigma’s will be larger.

What do you think? Will Fujifilm or Panasonic be competing with the big three in the photographers stands at Tokyo 2020? Will Ricoh ever make another mirrorless ILC? Will Canon’s concept cameras transform how we think about capturing images?

Have your say in the comments.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

April 8, 2018

How to Choose the Right ISO for Landscape Photography
In this article, I will give you some tips on how to choose the right or best ISO for landscape photography.

The challenge as a beginner

Choosing the ideal settings in different scenarios is quite challenging as a photography beginner. We’ve all been there and I certainly know your frustration when your images don’t look as good as you want.

There’s so much to think about including; the composition, the perspective, the camera gear, do you need filters? And what about the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO? Don’t worry, though. It takes some trial and error but soon enough it will be a piece of cake!

Since my camera was mounted on a tripod I could use a low ISO of 80 for this image.

I hope to make one of these questions a little clearer through this article, though. Choosing the ideal ISO is crucial for the image quality, and it has a direct impact on both the shutter speed and aperture.

Always use the lowest possible ISO

I won’t go too much into detail regarding how the ISO works in this article, but to simplify, the ISO expresses your camera’s sensitivity to light. The higher the ISO number, the more sensitive it is to light, while a lower ISO makes the camera less sensitive to light.

Please note: This is a simplification for beginners. It is actually much more complex than this but you don’t need to understand all the science behind the scenes to use ISO correctly.

While a higher ISO is good when aiming for a quick shutter speed, it also introduces a significant amount of grain or digital noise into the image. That’s something you want to avoid, and it’s the reason that you’ll often hear that you should always use ISO100.

To achieve the longest possible exposure I could use an ISO of 64 here.

Now, I agree that you should aim to use ISO100 for most stationary landscapes, you shouldn’t make the mistake of only using that setting. It took me several years before I managed to accept that there’s not only one correct ISO in landscape photography. In fact, I was pretty much an ISO100-nazi, and except for night photography, I stuck to it.

In later years I’ve learned that this isn’t necessarily the best practice.

First of all, you aren’t always able to use ISO 100. Here are a few scenarios where you might need to bump up the ISO:
- Photographing handheld.
- When trying to freeze moving subjects.
- When photographing at night.
ISO 640 was the lowest ISO I could use here in order to achieve a quick enough shutter speed to get a sharp handheld image.

These are just some of the scenarios where ISO 100 might not be possible. However, there are other, and less talked about, times where you need to increase the ISO as well:
- When adjusting the shutter speed for capturing the perfect motion/flow in water.
- If you need to freeze elements moving in the wind (such as bushes, branches etc.).
- When you’re using a telephoto lens handheld.
In other words, you should always aim to use the lowest ISO possible but that doesn’t always mean ISO 100 (even though that’s the “ideal” ISO quality-wise).

Adjusting the ISO at night

I briefly mentioned that ISO 100 is not ideal for night photography. Let’s look a little closer at that and find the best option. Remember that a higher ISO is more sensitive to light. In other words, that means you need less time (a shorter exposure) to achieve a correct exposure when it’s increased.

Now, at night there’s not a lot of light which means that you need more time to capture a well-exposed image. However, just setting the shutter speed to 30-seconds and leaving the ISO at 100, will still result in an underexposed image.

I had to increase the ISO to 4000 to get a well-exposed shot of this night scene.

Instead, you need to sacrifice some image-quality and increase the ISO. Exactly what ISO you need depends on the moon phase and overall brightness of your scene (for example, being close to city lights or other light sources will have an impact on your choice).

The first steps in my night photography workflow are to set the Aperture and Shutter Speed I’m going to use. Next, I use my base ISO for night photography, 1600.

However, just as with ISO 100, it’s not the only one you should use. ISO 1600 works as a starting point and after taking a test shot I’ll often make small adjustments. Most of the time you’ll use an ISO between 1200 and 3200 for night photography (though a full-moon or Aurora session might allow for an ISO as low as 800).

Adjusting the Aperture or ISO for a Quicker Shutter Speed

The most difficult part of manually adjusting settings is to learn what adjustments you need to make in certain situations. Should you adjust the ISO, Aperture, or Shutter Speed? I remember this being one of my biggest frustrations when first making the switch to Manual Mode.

ISO 100 – f/10 – 0.4 seconds.

While leading photography workshops I often tell the participants to adjust the settings as they normally would before I help them. I often notice that many are photographing with an aperture of f/22 and ISO 100. However, when they need a faster shutter speed, their first instinct is to increase the ISO.

That’s when I ask the question; “Do you really need an aperture of f/22? Will an aperture of f/16, f/11 or f/8 give you similar results? If so, then leave the ISO alone.

Remember, always use the lowest ISO possible. In this scenario, the image will benefit from using a wider aperture and maintaining a low ISO.

Let’s Summarize

I hope that I haven’t made you even more confused than what you were before. Understanding the ISO and choosing the correct one is a little tricky, as there isn’t always one correct choice. However, what I hope you take away from this article is that you should aim to use the lowest ISO possible in each given scenario.

For regular daytime photography, I typically use an ISO between 64 and 400 – the latter is when I’m using a telephoto lens handheld, which requires a quicker shutter speed to keep sharp. For night photography, I typically use an ISO between 1200 and 3200.

I used ISO 400 to capture this sharp handheld shot with my 200mm.

Most DSLR cameras are able to take relatively noise-free images at ISO 400 but I recommend spending some time getting used to your camera and finding its limit.

So, as the final word, there isn’t one single correct ISO for each and every scenario but aim to use the lowest possible.

Learning how to choose the ideal settings takes some trial and error to learn. In my eBook, A Comprehensive Introduction to Landscape Photography, I teach the techniques you need to know in order to capture beautiful images, and how you easily can master them.

The post How to Choose the Right ISO for Landscape Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
April 8, 2018
3 Techniques and Tips for Photographing the Moon in the Landscape

It’s been almost 180 years since the first photograph of the full moon was made by an English scientist, chemist, and historian, John William Draper. Since then, the moon has been a subject that has captivated the attention of photographers around the world. Photographing the moon by itself is one thing, but when you want to include the moon in a landscape photo, you have some challenges to overcome.

The first problem is that the moon is exceptionally bright in the night sky. The second problem is that you want both the landscape and the moon detailed and in sharp focus.

To make a dramatic photo of the moon in a landscape, we’ll be using two techniques in the field and one in post-processing to make the final image.

1. Exposure bracketing

To make your job a bit easier, photograph the moon when it is close to the horizon. At this time the light from the moon goes through more atmosphere before it reaches our eyes, so it is not as bright as when the moon is high in the sky.

But, under normal circumstances, you’ll still need to bracket your exposures to capture detail in both the landscape and the moon.

Plan to make one exposure for the landscape and another exposure for the moon. You can either use spot metering in both cases, or you can use exposure compensation after your first image to darken the next shot by four or five stops until the moon is properly exposed.

Here is an example of two photos with different exposures: one exposed for the landscape and one exposed for the moon.

2. Focus stacking

If you are working with a landscape composition where some elements in the frame are relatively close to the camera, you’ll find that your moon is not sharp if you’ve focussed your camera on the landscape. The only way your landscape and the moon will both be in focus at the same time is if everything in the frame is far way away from the camera.

But the solution is simple. Make your first exposure in the normal way, exposing and focussing on the landscape. Then make your second exposure to not only expose for the brightness of the moon, but also focus on the moon to make sure it’s sharp.

In the two brackets shown in the image above, I not only changed the exposure to expose properly for the moon, but I also changed the focus point so that the moon would be sharp.

Sometimes you may need to use focus stacking without changing the exposure settings. For example, when I made the image below I didn’t need to bracket my exposures because the moon was a dark red color due to the eclipse. However, I still needed to use focus stacking to make both the cactus and the moon appear sharp.

3. Exposure Blending

In post-processing, you can combine your two exposures to make an image with a properly exposed and sharp foreground landscape and moon.

But it’s not quite as simple as just doing a copy and paste if you want it to look natural.

Photo 1: Clone out the moon

In the first photo, notice how the brightness of the moon has caused a strong glow in the sky beyond the moon itself. So if you just paste your properly exposed moon on top of that, the glow will look strange. My first step in post-processing is to clone out the original moon and make the color of the sky look even.

Photo 2: Select the moon

In the second photo, use the Quick Selection Tool to make a selection of the moon. You can then improve your selection by using “Refine Edge” in Photoshop Elements or “Select and Mask” in Photoshop CC. Other post-processing programs have similar tools.

Whichever program you use, the objective is the same. You want to smooth out the edge of your selection so the moon looks natural when pasted onto the first image. If the edges are abrupt, it won’t look natural.

To do this, contract your selection by about 3 pixels and then feather it by 2 pixels. When you are done, save your selection on a new layer.

Paste the moon from Photo 2 on to Photo 1

Finally, you can copy your new layer, go to the first photo and paste it in place.

If the moon doesn’t look natural, you may need to experiment with blend modes and opacity. Try using the overlay blend mode and reducing the opacity of the layer until you get the look you are after.

Conclusion

Using these techniques will help you create dramatic images of the moon in the landscape – images that more closely match what you are able to see with your own eyes.

To see exactly how I created my moon composite image using Photoshop Elements, watch the video below.

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If you have any other tips for photographing the moon in the landscape, please share in the comments below.

The post 3 Techniques and Tips for Photographing the Moon in the Landscape appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

April 8, 2018
Upgrading Your Camera – New Camera Body or a New Lens?

A point of contention amongst photographers everywhere who are budgeting for their new gear is one question, “What should I invest most in when upgrading my photography equipment, the camera body or the lens?” This can be a rather complicated answer, as it does depend on the type of photography that you’re interested in doing.

However, for the sake of a thoughtful article, we will be speaking in generalizations. To break it down, the image quality and ease comes from the lens but the capability comes from the camera body. Here is why.

The Camera Body

The body of the camera contains all of the controls necessary to record digital pictures. The camera is basically a container to house the sensor and the lens along with the electronics and controls. Camera bodies come in all shapes, sizes, and weights. The sensor can be a full-frame or a crop which affects how your images are sized and cropped.

The camera body you use will affect the dynamic range of your images, amount of noise in low light, a significant part of the autofocus, the frames-per-second, and the megapixel count (among many other things, but the aforementioned are the most commonly referenced). The camera body is what influences the number of pixels in a photograph and how fast you can shoot. It is also an integral part of the autofocus system.

From a physical standpoint, the camera body is what you’ll hold most in your hands and its comfort is very important when shooting for long hours. Higher end cameras also have better weather sealing than lower end cameras. From a logistics perspective, different camera bodies allow you to control more or fewer aspects of the picture taking process.

The Lens

In laymen’s terms, lenses gather and focus light. Light strikes the front surface of the lens and passes through the glass element. Keeping this in mind, the difference between a good lens and a bad lens is that the former does a much better job at producing properly illuminated and sharp images. Lenses vary in focal length, aperture, type of glass, and so much more.

The lens will make the biggest impact on the final outcome of an image. In regards to the artistic look of a shot, the lens will be in far more control than the camera body. This is because aperture, focal length (the perspective achieved due to the focal length), and sharpness are all dictated by the lens.

Lenses with a wide aperture are considered “fast” lenses because they can achieve the same exposure with a faster shutter speed.

Bonus question: What influences the autofocus, the camera or the lens? The electronic autofocus system is basically a motor. The motor housed inside of the lens will generally provide the greatest performance and highest accuracy. However, the focus motor in the lens is only one part of the process.

The camera body is what drives the motor. In addition to the mechanical components, the firmware in the camera body is what operates the autofocus system. The reason the lens is still the go-to even for autofocus is that it controls the accuracy, and the accuracy tends to be more important!

Which Will Last You Longer?

Everyone will outgrow their equipment eventually, whether it be due to an improvement in skill, a desire for something better, or equipment dating itself too much. Essentially, interest in upgrading equipment comes from someone’s image-quality criteria.

Keeping this in mind, on the grand scale most camera bodies won’t differ in overall image quality unless you are shooting in difficult situations such as low light (in which case higher-end cameras have lower noise levels than others, as an example). The lens will make a significant impact on the final image result.

A good example of this is pairing a high-end lens with a low-end body and a high-end body with a kit lens. You will find that the audience will gravitate towards the photograph produced with the high-end lens / low-end body combination versus the opposite because the lens will impact the shot that significantly.

You’ll likely never be able to figure out what body is used in a shot, but you can often pick out the quality of the lens.

A good lens will withstand the test of time as you try many different camera bodies (so long as it is compatible). The lens will travel with you from camera to camera. The lens will also help you create your specific style of shooting, as the aperture and perspective will mold to your personal preference.

Are you someone that prefers a shallow depth of field? Wide-angle fisheye? What about epic action shots with a tight zoom? All of the aforementioned are thanks to the lens, not the body.

The Lens is a Better Investment

In my opinion, in regard to financial investment, a good lens is the better choice because it’ll last you much longer than the body (as you’ll generally be changing camera bodies faster than lenses). The lens also opens the door for you to create the images you dream of making.

That being said, the camera does determine if you’re capable of photographing what you want to photograph – but you can work around many limitations with an excellent lens. Cheap, low-quality lenses will affect both your shooting experience and the final product far more than the camera body will. This is because cheaper lenses tend to be slow, which results in a harder time capturing low-light scenes or achieving a super shallow depth of field.

The lens will also retain more of its value (both from a monetary and photography standpoint) than the camera body when talking about resale value. This is because camera bodies are upgrading and advancing at a far faster rate, thusly, older bodies become obsolete quickly.

The same lenses, on the other hand, will likely still be used five to 10 years from now (if not even longer).

The best investment is the lens that lets you capture all of the pictures you want. You’ll find ways to work around body limitations, I guarantee it! Though when you do upgrade that camera body, you’ll appreciate the ease even more as you’ll no longer have to work around previous limits.

The post Upgrading Your Camera – New Camera Body or a New Lens? appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

April 7, 2018
Report: Apple won’t release the next Mac Pro until 2019

Credit: Apple

Apple delivered some slightly disappointing news to professional users in an interview with TechCrunch this week. Speaking with the tech publication, Senior director of Mac Hardware Product Marketing Tom Boger revealed that the next version of the Mac Pro is not coming in 2018. It will be a 2019 product.

The current Mac Pro—colloquially referred to as the trash can Mac Pro because of its form factor—was released all the way back in 2013, and even Apple admitted that the design was a mistake. In April of 2017, Apple executive Craig Federighi told BuzzFeed News that the company had “designed ourselves into a bit of a corner” with the circular form-factor, and Phil Schiller promised users that Apple was “completely rethinking the Mac Pro” for the next generation.

Since then, we haven’t heard much, and professional users not content with the all-in-one form-factor of the powerful new iMac Pro were holding out purchasing it in the hopes that the next Mac Pro was right around the corner. It sounds like Apple knows this, and decided to be un-characteristically candid with the professional community through this TechCrunch interview:

“We want to be transparent and communicate openly with our pro community, so we want them to know that the Mac Pro is a 2019 product,” says Boger. “We know that there’s a lot of customers today that are making purchase decisions on the iMac Pro and whether or not they should wait for the Mac Pro.”

Professional creatives who are married to the Apple ecosystem—particularly high-end video producers—still have a choice to make: purchase an iMac Pro now, or wait a year (or more) for the next generation Mac Pro? But at least now they won’t have to worry that a new Mac Pro will come out a few days or weeks after they pull the trigger on their iMac purchase.

To find out more about Apple’s Mac Pro plans—including some interesting tidbits about the company’s secretive “Pro Workflow Team”—head over to TechCrunch to read the full interview.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

April 7, 2018
Panasonic Lumix ZS200 sample gallery updated

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With spring rolling around, the Panasonic ZS200 / TZ200 is likely catching the eyes of photography-minded travelers planning for upcoming trips. Our testing is underway, and in the meantime we’ve added another batch of sample images to our gallery along with some Raw files and conversions.

See our Panasonic Lumix ZS200
Sample Gallery

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

April 7, 2018
Quick Video Review – What is the Best Camera Bag or Way to Carry Your Gear?
There are many ways to carry around your precious camera gear – so which is the best? Well, that is a very subjective question, that only you can answer. In this video from the Camera Store, Jordan demonstrates some of the pros and cons of the most popular options.

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Here is a list of all the camera carrying bags, straps and other options mentioned in the video and a few extras.

List of camera straps mentioned:
- Op/Tech Pro Loop Neoprene neck strap
- BlackRapid Curve Strap Ultra Padded
- Cotton Carrier Camera System
- Lowepro S&F Technical vest system
- Lowepro S&F Technical Belt
Holdfast Moneymaker dual camera strap system

Photography backpacks:
- Pro Trekker 650 AW Camera Backpack
- Manfrotto Pro Light camera backpack RedBee-210
- Lowepro Tahoe BP 150 backpack
- Lowepro Slingshot Edge 250 AW
Agua Versa 90 backpack

Other kinds of bags:
- Domke Journalist Chronicle Shoulder Bag
- Kelly Moore Luna fashion bag
- Ona makes stylish designer leather bags
- Jill-e Designs also make fashionable bags
- Filson makes stylish unisex bags
OR read this to avoid having a bag collection in your closets like I do – 5 Camera Bag Hacks to Help You Curb the Temptation of Buying More.

Others options not mentioned:
- Wrist straps
- Holster systems (like the Cotton Carrier G3 Strapshot Holster)
What do you use?

So of all those options, which do you use to carry your gear? Are their other options we’ve missed? Please tell us in the comments below.

The post Quick Video Review – What is the Best Camera Bag or Way to Carry Your Gear? appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
April 7, 2018
The Winners of the Three NYIP Photography Courses Are . . .
A BIG thank you to everyone who entered our recent competition to win one of three photography courses from our friends at New York Institute of Photography.

The response was wonderful. In fact, it was so wonderful that the team at NYIP decided to offer a special 20% discount off any of their courses (details below).

The winners of the three NYIP photography courses are…

But first – here are the three winners of the competition for Professional Photography Course – worth $ 1,199 (the winners were chosen by NYIP).
- Harry McCann
- Matt Bingaman
- Elizabeth Hollis
A message from NYIP (and a 20% discount offer)

“Congratulations to all three winners! Thank you to all the participants for your many comments. We were so excited to see how many people were interested in our Professional Photography Course. To those who did not win, we wanted to let you know that for a limited time we are offering you the chance to save 20% on the NYIP course of your choice. Learn more here. Simply use the code NY20 at sign-up. But don’t wait, because this offer is only available until April 27th, 2018 (USA time).” – The NYIP Team”

Winners will be emailed with details of how to collect their prize by the team at NYIP.

Thanks to everyone for entering and to NYIP for yet again, sponsoring another wonderful competition.

Photo by Steve Coulombe, NYIP Graduate

The winning comments

By Harry McCann – Nearing the end of my current career I have finally begun to devote more time to my love of photography. For as long as I can remember I have loved to capture the moments. I still remember the Christmas (many, many years ago) I got my Polaroid and the little note on it said: “Open me first.” Since that time I have taken 1000s of photos. However, it wasn’t until recently that I began to take the time and learn what was needed to take photographs that others would also enjoy. I have learned quite a bit in the last couple years. The biggest thing I have learned…is that I still have a lot to learn. A course from the New York Institute of Photography would provide me with the skills and technical experience to take my photography to the next level. I would be grateful for the opportunity.

By Matt Bingaman – I am nearing the end of my Air Force career. This course will help me take my photography to the next level so I can recoup some of the time I lost with my family due to my job. Thank you for the opportunity.

By Elizabeth Hollis – This is a wonderful opportunity for someone like me! I’ve been an enthusiastic amateur for many years and feel I have improved as much as I can through self-direction. I crave a comprehensive course like this to help me grow my skills and determine my focus. Feedback on my photos and goals from an actual professional would be invaluable. My ultimate dream is to become a professional photographer and own my own photography business. This course would be a big step in achieving that goal. Thank you for making this opportunity available.

Thank you all again.

You can learn more about NYIP HERE

Disclaimer: NYIP is a paid partner of dPS.

The post The Winners of the Three NYIP Photography Courses Are . . . appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
April 7, 2018
NiSi jumps into lens game, unveils five full-frame cinema prime lenses
Credit: NiSi

With NAB 2018 just a few days away, the video gear news is coming fast and furious. Atomos shared some exciting news for Panasonic EVA1 shooters, Apple revealed the new ProRes RAW format, Adobe’s video apps got some major updates, and now the more unexpected of them all: NiSi, the camera filter company, has released a set of cinema primes.

If this news had come out on April 1st, it would have been suspect. Alas, it’s April 6th, and the new NiSi F3 cinema lenses are very much real.

Designed to cover full-frame sensors, the NiSi F3 lenses will come with interchangeable PL, Canon EF, and Sony E mounts. There are five lenses in all—25mm T2.1, 35mm T2, 50mm T2, 75mm T2, and 100mm T2—and each is built within an identical housing for maximum convenience when fitting lens accessories. NiSi plans to add an 18mm lens to the lineup in mid-2018, but here’s a closer look at current lineup, followed by a detailed spec breakdown:

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Regarding the F3 lens line’s performance, NiSi promises that the lenses’ “apochromatic optical design […] results in excellent Axial aberration and Transverse aberration performance. It gives a natural and pure color with almost no purple/green fringing both within focus and in bokeh.”

The company also claims “the lenses contain a unique optical coating design which controls dispersion perfectly while retaining rich details.” This allegedly results in “stylized flare and contrast enhancement.”

Credit: NiSi

The lenses are currently live for pre-order on the NiSi website, where you’ll need to put in a deposit of $ 1,000 per lens. Shipping is expected to start on June 1st, and you can see the retail prices listed below:
- NiSi F3 25mm T2.1 – $ 3,000
- NiSi F3 35mm T2 – $ 2,500
- NiSi F3 50mm T2 – $ 2,500
- NiSi F3 75mm T2 – $ 2,500
- NiSi F3 100mm T2 – $ 3,000
- Full Set of Five Lenses – $ 12,000
Note that if you pre-order before April 30th, you can take advantage of a $ 500 discount on each individual lens, or the full set of five. That means that, for the next 24 days, it’s actually cheaper to buy all five lenses individually because of the $ 2,500 in total discounts you’d be getting.

To learn more about the Nisi F3 cinema prime lenses or pre-order a set for yourself, head over to the NiSi website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
April 7, 2018
WD’s new blazing fast gaming SSD is perfect for 4K video editing

Western Digital has unveiled a new line of solid state drives in 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB capacities. Called the Black 3D NVMe, this new model is designed for gaming but is ideal for video production as well, due to its key selling point: the ability to rapidly and seamlessly handle 4K/UHD graphics.

The 500GB and 1TB 3D Black NVMe drives have a sequential read speed up to 3,400MB/s, while the 1TB drive exclusively has a read speed up to 2,800MB/s. Additionally, the new SSD is capable of up to 500,000 random-read IOPs for what Western Digital calls “extreme throughput.” That, the company explains, makes its new NVMe drives particularly ideal for multitasking environments that are data-intensive, as well as multi-threaded applications.

“With our new architecture and controller, the Western Digital Black SSD integrates our 3D NAND technology with the NVMe interface to enable new levels of performance,” says Mark Grace, senior vice president of WD’s Devices Business Unit. “Whether it’s a new gaming rig or a video-editing workstation, our innovative NVMe drives will power many existing and future environments that enable data to thrive.”

The drives will be available in the US by the end of the month for $ 120, $ 230, and $ 450 for the 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB SSDs, respectively.

Press Release

Western Digital Ups the Game with Powerful New Gaming SSD with NVMe Performance

PC gaming is increasingly immersive, with richer and more intense visual content than ever before, and gamers are faced with making technology choices to maximize their experience. To push leading-edge performance, lower power consumption and extended durability for PC gaming systems, Western Digital Corporation(NASDAQ: WDC) today introduced a high-performance Western Digital® Black 3D NVMe™ SSD featuring the company’s own SSD architecture and controller. The drive accelerates data for PC applications to enable users to quickly, access, engage and capture today’s high-resolution video, audio and gaming content.

With growing demand for rich content, PCs must have the capability to run intensive applications and enable the 4K/Ultra HD graphics and video content experiences. To move this immense amount of data quickly and seamlessly, Western Digital developed a new breed of SSDs to help remove the traditional storage bottleneck. This M.2 drive features a new NVMe architecture and controller, which optimally integrates with Western Digital 3D NAND. Western Digital’s new vertically integrated SSD platform was engineered from the ground up, specifically architected to help maximize performance for NVMe SSDs, with advanced power management, durability and endurance for the growing range of applications benefiting from NVMe technology.

“Today’s gaming applications require increasing capability from their PCs, and this will only continue to advance. With our new architecture and controller, the Western Digital Black SSD integrates our 3D NAND technology with the NVMe interface to enable new levels of performance. Whether it’s a new gaming rig or a video-editing workstation, our innovative NVMe drives will power many existing and future environments that enable data to thrive,” said, Mark Grace, senior vice president, Devices Business Unit, Western Digital.

Western Digital Black 3D NVMe SSD – Built to Boost Gaming Systems

With exceptional sequential read (up to 3,400 MB/s for 1TB and 500GB model) and write performance (up to 2,8001MB/s* for 1TB model) combined with up to 1TB capacities, the new drive is ideal for enhancing user experiences in gaming environments that benefit from acceleration of intensive fast data. Additionally, the drives feature up to 500,000 random-read IOPs (for 1TB model) to deliver extreme throughput, which is ideal for multi-threaded applications and data-intensive multitasking environments. The drive offers a five-year limited warranty with up to 600TBW endurance (for 1TB model). The Western Digital Black 3D NVMe SSD is available in the U.S. in capacities of 250GB ($ 119.99 USD), 500GB ($ 229.99 USD) and 1TB ($ 449.99 USD). The new drives will be available by late April 2018 in select Western Digital retailers, e-tailers, resellers, system integrators and distributors globally.

Enabling the possibilities of data, Western Digital offers the industry’s broadest portfolio of products and solutions to help people capture, preserve, access and transform their content. For more information, visit our website: Western Digital.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

April 7, 2018