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  • iZugar launches 220-degree super fisheye lens for Micro Four Thirds

    Hong Kong-based company iZugar has just launched a pretty quirky, intense little lens.Called the MKX22, it’s a 3.25mm F2.5 super fisheye lens for Micro Four Thirds cameras that offers a whopping 220-degree angle of view.

    This fisheye lens is said to offer “edge-to-edge sharpness” with suitability for 4K video recording, a 0.6m minimum focusing distance, fully circular 10mm design, and extra-slim build for better parallax control, according to iZugar. All of that in addition to that 220-degree angle of view that can more-or-less see behind itself.

    The lens recently appeared for sale on iZugar’s website, where the company explains that the MKX22 can be used with the ZCam E1 – iZugar Custom Edition, Blackmagic Micro Studio 4K, Sony A7R2, Panasonic GX80, and similar cameras. For reference, the company offers a full reference guide showing FOV for these cameras at various resolutions.

    The lens is available from iZugar now for $ 500.

    Lens Specifications:

    • Model: iZugar MKX-22
    • Format: 10mm full circular
    • Mount: Micro Four Thirds mount (MFT)
    • 35mm Equivalent Focal Length: 3.25mm
    • Aperture: f/2.5 (fixed)
    • Minimum Focusing Distance: 0.6m
    • Lens Groups/Elements: 10/11
    • Angle of View (MFT-4k): 220 x 150

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Apple’s auto-generated Memories videos are still kind of weird in iOS 11

    Starting with iOS 10, Apple has been scanning iPhone users’ photo libraries and automatically creating nostalgic videos it calls Memories. They’re basically slideshows of what it deems to be meaningful photos and videos from your collection, set to music, and arranged around a theme. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and sometimes you’ll remember that time you took a picture of the frozen pizza baking directions.

    iOS 11, released to the general public yesterday, brought some updates to Memories. They’re now portrait-format friendly, and more Memories will be automatically created around a wider range of subjects and themes. But if my first Memory video after downloading iOS 11 is any indication, Apple hasn’t gotten much smarter about what photos to include.

    An interesting photo for Instagram, but not a moment I wanted to reminisce about months later. It’s hard for a computer to know the difference.

    Though it does a few things well – it generally picks up on the fact that I like nice photos of my boyfriend and me – Apple’s algorithm makes some pretty weird choices. My latest Memory, titled “Best of the last 2 months,” opens on an image of a discarded Craisins box on a bed of grass. I thought it was an interesting photo for Instagram, but not a moment I wanted to reminisce about months later. It’s hard for a computer to know the difference.

    The misses are all much funnier because of the slightly dramatic treatment: panning, gentle transitions and music give the impression of something that’s been carefully curated to invoke nostalgia. It’s all very serious, and works very well for a post-hike selfie with a majestic backdrop. It’s downright laughable when it’s a photo of some acne-treating serum I took a picture of to send to my sister.

    Ah, how I cherished this moment.

    To be completely fair, Memories videos are meant to be customized and edited by the human viewing them. The algorithm gets you to a starting point, and it’s up to you to take out the shots that don’t work. And it’s a little bit narcissistic, but it’s kind of fun to watch a slideshow of your best moments over the past few months.

    With new iterations, Apple’s subject recognition and photo-picking algorithm will no doubt get smarter, and the automatic videos will get better. Hopefully it’ll learn to ignore the kind of shots that are taken for utilitarian purposes, but it’s already pretty good with some stuff – it correctly identified photos of my boyfriend and put together a slideshow of images of him from baseball games and vacations. More of that please, Apple, and less reminders of my life with acne-prone skin.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • New product overview videos: Canon EOS 6D II and more

    We’re always expanding our collection of product overview content, and we’ve just added videos for the Canon EOS 6D Mark II, the EOS Rebel SL2 and EOS M6. Take a look at some of the key features these cameras offer – demonstrated in the shooting scenarios they were built to handle. For more overviews and gear tests, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

    Canon EOS Rebel SL2 overview

    Canon EOS M6 overview

    This is sponsored content, created with the support of Amazon and Canon. What does this mean?

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Yashica teases ‘Unprecedented Camera’: Coming to Kickstarter in October

    Last week’s Yashica teaser was met with a lot of excitement. But it didn’t take long for people to claim that teaser had nothing to do with a camera. In fact, they said, Yashica was just teasing a clip-on smartphone lens they had already released. Womp womp…

    But not so fast! Another teaser video released yesterday seems to hint at the big return to the camera market we were all actually hoping for.

    The teaser, titled “The Prologue,” shows more of the same girl walking around with an old Yashica film camera (maybe?) and even a brief scene with that clip-on smartphone lens. All unremarkable, except the whole thing starts with this tagline:

    Expect the Unexpected

    The Unprecedented Camera by YASHICA

    And later on a date floats onto the screen:

    October 2017, Kickstarter

    It looks like Yashica may be making a grand return after all. Hopefully they don’t disappoint us after all this teasing. If you’re claiming to release an “unprecedented” camera, you’d better deliver.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • This Kodak Moments chatbot digs through your old photos and tries to sell you prints

    Kodak has created a new Facebook Messenger chatbot called ‘Kodak Moments’ that tries to get users to buy physical products by digging through and resurfacing their old photos.

    The AI algorithm works by searching through the mass of images a user has uploaded to Facebook and suggesting ones that may have been forgotten in hopes the user, when suddenly presented with this fond old memory (or Kodak moment… if you will), will order it as a physical print or photo product like a coffee mug.

    Facebook users are given the option of either dismissing the chatbot’s suggested image, requesting other images that contain the same people as the first image, or requesting a print or product containing the selected image. All you have to do to join this ‘fun’ game that tries to sell you things is search for Kodak Moments in the Messenger app.

    Unfortunately, the chatbot—at least in its current iteration—doesn’t support any sort of filtering options, making it impossible to prevent the bot from digging up photos of old memories better left forgotten. Consider yourself warned.

    Joining this Messenger chatbot is a new Kodak Moments app (Android | iOS) that goes a bit further. After being given permission, the app will search through a Facebook or Google account and camera roll to find images it thinks users may want to turn into physical products.

    The goal behind the new Kodak Moments technology is (obviously) to increase the company’s print sales while reviving the idea of a ‘Kodak Moment’ and helping customers sort through their possibly massive photo albums. We’ll let you decide if the concept is fun, annoying, or maybe a bit traumatizing.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Video Tutorial – How to Work a Scene to Find the best Light and Composition

    In this short video tutorial, photographer Mike Brown takes you on a photo walk looking for images. Watch as he scans the scene and finds the best camera angle, waits for the right light, and frames the shot for the best composition.

    Go on a photo walk and see how Mike goes about working a scene, before quickly snapping a photo and moving on. Take your time, look around. If you see something interesting explore the scene a little. Have patience as well.

    Some key points you can learn from this tutorial include:

    • Sometimes you need to wait for the light to change.
    • Simplification is often a good thing.
    • Move around the scene, and put things in the foreground as well.
    • Use shadows for more creating more dramatic images.

    The post Video Tutorial – How to Work a Scene to Find the best Light and Composition by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


    Digital Photography School

  • Weekly Photography Challenge – Square

    This week for the photography challenge let’s keep it simple and look for shapes. One in particular – the square.

    Weekly Photography Challenge – Square

    Look for square subjects. You can even crop your image into a square and make a composition that is suitable for that format. Shooting for a square is a bit different than using the regular camera format – try it and see how you do.

    Share your images below:

    Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge. Sometimes it takes a while for an image to appear so be patient and try not to post the same image twice.

    Share in the dPS Facebook Group

    You can also share your images on the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.

    The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Square by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


    Digital Photography School

  • The iPhone 8 Plus is the best smartphone camera DxOMark has ever tested

    Photo: Apple

    Apple fans who were hopeful the iPhone 8/Plus would represent a big step up in camera quality over the already-respectable iPhone 7/Plus have something to celebrate. DxOMark just released the results of its iPhone 8 and 8 Plus tests, and the new Apple smartphones represents a significant improvement over the previous versions.

    In fact, the iPhone 8 Plus is now the best smartphone camera DxOMark has ever tested, and the iPhone 8 comes in a close second, pushing the Google Pixel down from the top stop into the #3 position.

    You can read full iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus reviews by clicking on the respective links, but the conclusion from DxOMark’s review of the Plus just about tells you all you need to know:

    Overall, the Apple iPhone 8 Plus is an excellent choice for the needs of nearly every smartphone photographer. It features outstanding image quality, zoom for those needing to get closer to their subjects, and an industry-leading Portrait mode for artistic efforts. It is at the top of our scoring charts in nearly every category — and in particular, its advanced software allows it to do an amazing job of capturing high-dynamic range scenes and images in which it can recognize faces.

    ‘Nuff said? Now we wait to see how much better (or not) the iPhone X is… and what Google’s response will be when the company reveals its new smartphone on October 4th.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Craigslist poster raises the bar on terrible car photography

    A Craigslist post offering a 1990 Mazda RX-7 for sale is going viral today thanks to the photos of the car… and it’s not because they’re good.

    For whatever reason, the ad’s author decided the best way to photograph his or her car for this ad was to take pictures of the car with their cell phone, and then take pictures of the pictures displayed on their cracked, hazy smartphone screen.

    The original Craigslist post, a link to which hasn’t been shared publicly to avoid disrupting the seller’s efforts, was spotted by Murilee Martin and shared with Autoweek. And yes, the pictures are exactly as bad as described.

    The reasoning behind this photographic decision aren’t known and probably never will be. But instead of sharp, colorful, detailed photos of a car what we get are hazy, in some cases out-of-focus shots of a red vehicle that is difficult to make out through the cracks in the screen.

    Even by Craigslist standards these are bad. By car photography standards? It’s like something out of a horror film.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Incredible Grain Silo Transformation: Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa

    [ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

    106 vertical concrete tubes making up a massive disused grain silo in Cape Town, South Africa are sliced and carved from the inside out to produce cathedral-like spaces in this incredible transformation. Architect Thomas Heatherwick and his firm contrasted the cold, aging industrial appearance of the complex with faceted glass and organic shapes for a futuristic looking result, a fittingly monumental setting for the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), the world’s largest museum dedicated to African contemporary art.

    The silo once stood as a symbol of economic progress in 20th century Cape Town, but as the world around it changed, it was abandoned. Sitting empty since the 1990s, the silo had become a bit of an eyesore, especially as the waterfront around it modernized, but remained historically important. Heatherwick’s project creates 6,000 square meters ((64,583 square feet) of exhibition space in a total of 80 individual galleries along with a rooftop garden, book store, restaurant, bar and conservation laboratories.

    “We were excited by this opportunity to unlock this formerly dead structure and transform it into somewhere for people to see and enjoy the most incredible artworks from the continent of Africa,” says Heatherwick. “The technical challenge was to find a way to carve out spaces and galleries from the ten-story high tubular honeycomb without completely destroying the authenticity of the original building.”

    ‘Tubular honeycomb’ is a good way to describe it. The interior photos reveal voids carefully carved out of the bases of the concrete tubes, revealing their geometries in whole new ways. Some of these tubes act as skylights, while others hold glass elevators or spiraling staircases. The museum stands as an awe-inspiring example of how adaptive reuse can reveal qualities you might never have expected in existing structures.

    15 Must-See Modern (& Postmodern) Museum Designs

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    Underground Art: The Repurposed Oil Tanks at Tate Modern

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    [ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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