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Hands on: Olympus 150-400mm F4.5 TC1.25x

Hands on: Olympus 150-400mm F4.5 TC1.25x

It’s here! We’ve known that the Olympus 150-400mm F4.5 TC1.25x was coming for a long time, and mockups have been on display here and there at trade shows (remember those?) for a year or so, but now it’s official. Designed for professional and advanced amateur photographers, especially fans of wildlife and sports, the Olympus 150-400mm F4.5 TC1.25x is shaping up to be a seriously impressive lens for serious Micro Four Thirds shooters.

Click through this article to learn more.

Focal length range

First let’s start by going over its focal length range. This is a 150-400mm tele-zoom, which covers an equivalent range of 300-800mm in full-frame terms. Meanwhile, its constant maximum aperture of F4.5 works out equivalent (in full-frame depth-of-field terms) to F9. The built-in teleconverter provides a boost in magnification of 1.25X, and when activated, the lens effectively becomes a ~190-500mm F5.6, or an equivalent 380-1000mm zoom.

Up to 8 stops of stabilization

That kind of focal length reach is impressive, despite the relatively slow aperture, and Olympus insists that the lens is fully hand-holdable, even at an equivalent focal length of 1000mm. Boasting a claimed 4.5 stops of stabilization as standard and up to eight stops of stabilization at the 150mm setting in combination with Olympus’s newest high-end ILCs (dropping to a claimed six stops when zoomed all the way), our experience so far suggests that this is indeed a lens which can be shot without a tripod. At least for a short while…

Size and weight

A tripod is still a good idea for extended shooting, because while undoubtedly smaller and lighter than an equivalent lens for full-frame would be, at 4.1lb (1.9 kg) you will quickly feel the weight of the 150-400mm around your neck – especially if it’s mounted on an E-M1X. Olympus has kept the weight down as much as possible by liberal use of reinforced plastics (including a ‘Heat Shielding Coating’ to stop sunlight from heating up the internals) over a magnesium-alloy chassis, with carbon fiber employed for the large detachable hood.

Weather-sealing

As we’d expect from a lens in Olympus’s ‘PRO’ lineup, the 150-400mm is sealed against dust and moisture, and is rated for use in conditions as cold as -10°C (14°F).

Despite its long reach, the 150-400mm accepts conventional 95mm screw-in filters. Several third-party options are available, but Olympus will be selling one alongside the new lens for $ 324.99.

Optical construction and autofocus

Optical construction of this tele-zoom lens is complex, consisting of 28 elements in 18 groups. The optical design comprises several special glass elements, including four ED elements and two ‘HR’ high refractive-index elements. The built-in 1.25X TC alone accounts for seven elements, in four groups.

Olympus’s ‘Z Nano’ coating is used to keep transmission and contrast high, and the front element is coated with fluorine to help repel dust and moisture.

The 150-400’s focus group is driven by a stepping motor. We found focus speeds to be very quick (Olympus claims that this lens is 25% faster than the 300mm F4 Pro) and the motor is nearly silent.

Minimum focus and max magnification

Minimum focus is 1.3m (51″) across the entire focal length range, which equates to a maximum magnification of 0.57X, increasing to 0.71X when the built-in teleconverter is used. While it wouldn’t be our first choice for true macro photography, this is impressive for a tele-zoom lens, and makes the 150-400mm very versatile when it comes to smaller subjects like butterflies.

Customization

Being a professional-grade lens, the 150-400mm features no fewer than four customizable L-Fn buttons, as well as preset focus buttons to quickly recall a saved focus position. The new Olympus 150-400mm F4.5 TC1.25x will be available at the end of January, 2021, at an MSRP of $ 7,499 ($ 10,000 CAD).

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

November 17, 2020
Video: Astrophotographer creates stunning global map of Mars

Astrophotographer Jean-Luc Dauvergne spent six nights this fall capturing images of Mars. Dauvergne used the 1.06m telescope of Pic du Midi observatory in the French Pyrenees to capture his photos, which he has since used to create a global map of Mars.

In addition to the six nights Dauvergne spent at the observatory, he told PetaPixel that it took him an additional 10 days to process the images. He says that Pic du Midi ‘is one of the best places in the world for planetary imaging.’

The 1m telescope has a 17,000mm focal length and was originally installed in 1963 to help NASA with its Apollo missions. Dauvergne says that ‘it’s still one of the best [telescopes] in the world to study planetary surfaces in the visible part of the spectrum.’ He’s used the telescope to create what he says is the best global map of Mars shot from Earth’s surface.

Dauvergne photographed Mars this October and November due to the Mars opposition. This event happens roughly every 26 months. This year, the opposition itself occurred on October 13. You can learn much more about the Mars opposition by clicking here. Dauvergne picked a great place for his observations and the Pic du Midi Observatory has an interesting history with observing Mars.

Image credit: Jean-Luc Dauvergne. Click to enlarge.

The Pic du Midi observatory is located 9,439′ (2,877m) above sea level at the top of the Pic du midi de Bigorre mountain. The Pic Du Midi Observatory is part of the Midi-Pyrenees Observatory, which includes additional research stations in France. Construction of the observatory began on the mountaintop all the way back in 1878, although costs slowed progression significantly. In 1908, an 8m dome with a mechanical equatorial reflector was built. Interestingly, this reflector was used to observe Mars and discredit the theory that there were canals on its surface.

When NASA funded the building of the 1m telescope in 1963, the telescope was used to photograph the surface of the Moon. In 1965, the telescope was then used by astronomers Pierre and Janine Connes to analyze Mars and Venus. Their work helped inform James Lovelock, a scientist in California, to theorize that these planets didn’t support life.

The observatory includes a 2m telescope as well, which was built in 1980. It’s the largest telescope in France. There’s also a 0.6m telescope which has been used by amateur astronomers since the early 80s. In total, the Pic du Midi Observatory includes four telescopes. With the aid of these telescopes, the discovery of nine minor planets are credited to the Pic du Midi Observatory.

If you’d like to see more from Jean-Luc Dauvergne, check out his Twitter and YouTube channel. On YouTube, he has additional videos of Mars from his observations at Pic du Midi.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

November 17, 2020
Pixelmator Pro 2 announced, featuring all-new interface and Apple M1 support

Pixelmator has announced Pixelmator Pro 2.0. Pixelmator calls it ‘the biggest update to Pixelmator Pro yet,’ and it includes an all-new design, support for Macs using Apple’s new M1 chip, full compatibility with the upcoming macOS Big Sur (macOS 11.0) and much more. Further, the update is free for all existing Pixelmator Pro users.

Pixelmator Pro’s editing engine is underpinned by Metal code, allowing the team to take full advantage of the unified memory architecture of the Apple M1 chip. The result is ‘much speedier and much more responsive image editing.’ Tasks relying upon machine learning, such as ML Super Resolution, are up to 15 times faster on the new Macs equipped with the M1 chip. Pixelmator Pro 2.0 remains a Universal app, meaning it runs natively on both M1 and Intel-based Apple devices.

Regarding the all-new design, Pixelmator has worked hard to make Pixelmator Pro 2.0 a more intuitive application and has given it a modern makeover. The team states that ‘almost every tool, every menu, and every button has been updated to make the app more intuitive and more fun to use…’ Further, users can customize the Pixelmator Pro interface, including the app’s list of tools and its toolbar. There are also four new workspace presets to choose from, including photography, design, illustration and painting.

You can see the new ‘Photography’ workspace in Pixelmator Pro 2 here. Image credit: Pixelmator. Click to enlarge.

In terms of tools, Pixelmator Pro 2.0 includes a new Effects Browser, a new Presets Browser (including over 200 new presets) and more. There are seven new color adjustment preset collections and eight new effect preset collections. You can read the full list of updates by clicking here.

Pixelmator Pro 2.0 will be available on November 19. For existing Pixelmator Pro users, the update will be free. For new customers, Pixelmator Pro is available for $ 39.99 USD. You can purchase the app now in the Mac App Store and receive the major update at no additional charge on November 19. To learn more about Pixelmator Pro, click here.

Image credit: Pixelmator. Click to enlarge.

While you do not need a Mac with the M1 chip to take advantage of the new features in Pixelmator Pro 2.0, the software does especially benefit from the performance gains granted by the M1 chip. You can learn more about the M1 chip and the new Macs by checking out our coverage.

Via 9to5Mac

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

November 17, 2020
Leica’s FOTOS app is now free for all after the $50/year ‘Pro’ subscription was removed
Last month, Leica quietly announced in the changelog of the version 2.2.0 update of its FOTOS mobile app that it was making all ‘FOTOS PRO’ features available for free to all users.

Previously, FOTOS was free to download, but held most of its premium functionality behind a $ 50 per year subscription plan. Now, in addition to being able to wirelessly capture, transfer, organize, edit and share images, anyone with FOTOS app can also make full use of the iPad version of the app, use the Adobe Lightroom integration (open the image in Lightroom Mobile’s develop module), transfer Raw images and use live view for video capture — all things previously hidden behind the $ 70 subscription.

While $ 50 in comparison to the cost of a new Leica might not be much, having access to these features without having to spend any additional money is a nice change of pace if you own one of the compatible Leica cameras:
- Leica S (Typ 007)
- Leica S3
- Leica SL
- Leica SL2
- Leica M10
- Leica M10-P
- Leica M10-D
- Leica M10 MONOCHROM
- Leica M10-R
- Leica Q
- Leica Q-P
- Leica Q2
- Leica CL
- Leica T (Typ 701)
- Leica TL
- Leica TL2
- Leica D-Lux (Type 109)
- Leica D-Lux 7
- Leica V-Lux
- Leica V-Lux 5
- Leica C-Lux.
You can download, for free, the Leica FOTOS app for both Android and iOS devices in the Google Play Store and iOS App Store.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
November 17, 2020
Zeiss ZX1 real-world samples gallery

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One of 2020’s many, many surprises has been the emergence of the Zeiss ZX1, a full-frame, fixed lens compact first announced in late 2018. Not only is it the optical company’s first-ever camera, it’s also built on Android with the ability to run Lightroom CC. At long last, this unusual camera has made its official debut and we’ve got our first batch of samples to share.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

November 16, 2020
The Sony a7 IV Will Launch in 2021, With a 30+ MP Sensor and 4K/60p Recording

The post The Sony a7 IV Will Launch in 2021, With a 30+ MP Sensor and 4K/60p Recording appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

The Sony a7 IV will likely be the next a7 model to launch, around a year after the a7S III (pictured above).

It’s been over two years since the release of the Sony a7 III, but it seems like we’re finally getting close to its successor.

According to Sony Alpha Rumors, the a7 IV will debut midway through 2021. And while the camera won’t offer any truly groundbreaking features, SAR’s “usually very good source” suggests a suite of intriguing specs.

First, the sensor will no longer fit Sony’s 24 MP mold. Instead, we’ll be treated to a megapixel upgrade, something in the “30-32 MP region.” If this is true, the Sony a7 IV resolution will offer a meaningful boost over the 24 MP a7 III and a7C, without reaching the storage-hogging heights of the a7R series. Personally, I’m a big fan of this megapixel “middle ground” – it guarantees some additional pixels without significantly affecting high-ISO noise performance (and you can bet that Sony’s done a good job with the sensor, which means that it’ll offer a noise performance at least comparable to the excellent a7 III).

One of the few areas where the a7 III has lagged behind the competition is with the electronic viewfinder, which comes in at 2.36M-dots, compared to the Canon EOS R’s and the Nikon Z6’s 3.69M-dot resolution. But while the a7 IV won’t compete with its 5.76M-dot sibling, the a7R IV, SAR claims the a7 IV should offer a 3.69M-dot EVF, which puts it in a “professional” range and should improve the overall a7 IV shooting experience.

Sony Alpha Rumors also claims that, despite a “cheap” LCD, the “image quality and AF will be top-notch.” While I wouldn’t expect anything less from an a7 III successor, it’s nice to hear it from a source.

As for video:

The a7 IV will offer (unsurprisingly) 4K/60p recording, which should be enough for most videographers, though it certainly won’t turn heads like the a7S III with its 4K/120p capabilities, or the Canon EOS R5 with its 8K option.

Finally, you can expect a price of around $ 2500 USD, which is expensive without heading into that “niche professional” category.

We’re a long way off from an announcement, but make sure to check back on dPS for any relevant updates!

The post The Sony a7 IV Will Launch in 2021, With a 30+ MP Sensor and 4K/60p Recording appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

Digital Photography School

November 16, 2020
Nikon Z 70-200mm F2.8 VR S sample gallery updated

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We’ve been spending more with the 70-200mm F2.8 VR S, a cornerstone lens in Nikon’s relatively young Z-mount lineup. In the time since we’ve gotten our hands on it we’ve taken it along on local trips to the coast and around our corner of the Puget Sound area – take a look at our updated sample gallery for even more photos from this much-anticipated lens, including several shots from the new Z6 II.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

November 15, 2020
How to Photograph Sun Flares: 14 Tips for Beginners
The post How to Photograph Sun Flares: 14 Tips for Beginners appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Dena Haines.

Sun flares can add beauty and drama to your photos. Cameras and lenses are designed to cut down on flare – so when it comes to sun flares, you have to be a rule-breaker right from the beginning.

In this article, I’ll share 14 tips to help you get started photographing sun flares!

Photographing sun flares: 14 tips for beginners

There are no rules for sun flare photography; it’s all about creativity. You can capture sun flares at any time of day, and with these easy tips, you’ll be out experimenting in no time.

1. Try various aperture settings

Have you noticed that in some photos sun flares look soft and diffused, while in others they look bold and defined? That has a lot to do with which aperture setting was used.

If you use a fairly wide aperture, like f/5.6, you’ll get soft flares. But if you use a small aperture, like f/22, you’ll get stronger, more defined flares.

In the split image above, the f/5.6 shot is a softer-looking flare, and the f/22 shot is more defined. The points of the flare are created by the blades of the aperture inside your lens. When the blades come closer together (as with narrow apertures like f/22), you get more defined points in your flares.

Using different apertures will give you a variety of looks to choose from when you’re editing. You’ll also learn which type of sun flare you prefer, depending on the setting and feel you want in your photo.

2. Use Aperture Priority mode

The easiest way to control the aperture (as discussed above) is to put your camera in Aperture Priority mode (indicated with an “AV” on a Canon camera, and an “A” on a Nikon camera). That way, you’ll be able to easily adjust the aperture setting.

And with your camera set to Auto ISO, it will automatically choose the ISO and shutter speed settings for you.

Now you’ll be able to quickly switch apertures and see the difference it makes to your sun flares.

3. Partially hide the sun

Use an object (such as a fence post, building, or tree, etc.) to partially hide the sun. This will allow you to capture flare while adding an artistic touch to the object you’re shooting.

Move around the object and let the sun peek out at different locations as you keep taking photos. I love doing this, and I always come away with something unique.

4. Move around and take lots of pictures

When shooting sun flares, it really helps to move around – a lot. If you are partially hiding the sun (as mentioned in the previous tip), a slight movement to the right or left will cause a big change in the flare. Your photo could be flooded with too much light, or you might miss the flare altogether. But moving could also reveal the flare in just the right spot to create the look you want.

It’s important to take lots of pictures. You’ll eventually learn how much sun to include in relation to the amount of flare you want.

Sun flares can be unpredictable; that’s part of what makes them fun to work with.

5. Try using some filters

When photographing sun flares, filters can be helpful. I recommend considering either of the following options:
- Polarizing filter: You’ll get different effects as you rotate this filter. It can help increase color saturation and decrease reflections. If you have a polarizer, play around with it and see how it affects the flares.
- Graduated neutral density filter: This filter is darker at the top and becomes lighter near the bottom. It can prevent part of the image from looking blown-out when shooting into the sun.
I used a graduated neutral density filter for the photo on the right. It helped control the light, which kept the colors richer.

6. Shoot during different times of day

Around sunrise and sunset, the sunlight comes in at a unique angle. This creates a warmer, golden color, whereas during midday, there is a cooler (bluish) or more neutral light.

In the following image, two of the photos were taken around sunset, and the other two were taken a few hours after sunrise. Can you guess when each photo was taken?

I bet you got it right – the images on the left were taken near sunset. They have a warmer feel, don’t they? Whereas the images on the right have a cooler feel.

7. Divide the sun with your camera

You can get a softer, more diffused look by composing your photo so that the sun is not fully in the frame. Try cutting the sun in half, or only including its bottom third.

Play with it. Create different effects and see which you prefer.

8. Use a tripod and a remote shutter release

As I mentioned earlier, a smaller aperture setting (higher f-number) will give you a sharper, more defined flare.

But using a small aperture also means that your camera will require more time to take the photo. The longer the image takes, the more chance there is for camera shake to cause blur.

If you are handholding your camera, this could be a problem. When your camera is on a tripod, there is much less chance of camera shake.

Using a tripod will help keep your photos looking sharp and your sun flares looking crisp. By using a remote shutter release (or your camera’s self-timer), you’ll reduce camera shake even more.

9. Keep the sun at your model’s back

By keeping the sun at your model’s back, you’ll allow the light of the flare to spill out around them in interesting ways.

Depending on the time of day, you might need to lie down, and have your model sit or lie down, too. The image above was taken around 3:00 PM in the afternoon, and I was lying on the ground.

The higher the sun is, the lower you’ll need to be in order to place the flare at your model’s head or at your model’s shoulders. Having your model sit down will make it easier for you.

And when the sun is lower in the sky, positioning becomes easier for both of you.

10. Use a reflector

A reflector is designed to reflect the light back onto your subject. Reflectors are usually made of fabric (white, silver, or gold) and can be handheld, hung from a freestanding base, or placed on the ground.

Using a reflector can be helpful if your model is in the shade. It helps to brighten the face, making the photo look more pleasing.

11. Cover the sun with your hand to focus

It can be hard to focus when shooting sun flares. There is so much light that your camera may struggle to lock focus on the right spot.

When this happens, hold up your hand to cover the sun, compose your photo, and press your shutter release halfway. Once your camera focuses, take your hand down and press the shutter the rest of the way.

You may have to try this a number of times until you get exactly what you want.

12. Place the sun out of the frame

To get a really soft flare effect without a bright point, try placing the sun out of your frame.

I love how this adds soft light (as shown in the photo above), and how the eye is drawn up to the source of light.

13. Use spot metering

Spot metering handles bright light really well, so if you’ve got a choice, go with this metering mode. All but one of the photos in this article were taken using spot metering.

If your camera does not have spot metering, then partial metering is the next best choice. Note that I use autofocus with the focus point set to the center (as the focus point is where your metering mode will be active).

14. Have fun!

This last tip is probably the most important:

When photographing sun flares, experiment and have fun.

Don’t be afraid to take tons of pictures, try different aperture settings, and move around. Sun flares are wild and unpredictable. Be creative and use different objects to block (or diffuse) the light. You’re bound to get lots of overexposed and underexposed photos, but you’ll get a lot of gorgeous results, as well.

Photographing sun flares: Now it’s your turn

I would love to see your sun flare photos and hear your tips! Please share them in the comments below.

The post How to Photograph Sun Flares: 14 Tips for Beginners appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Dena Haines.

Digital Photography School
November 15, 2020
dPS Roundup: The Best Photos of October

The post dPS Roundup: The Best Photos of October appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.

Welcome to a new segment we like to call “dPS Roundup: The Best Photos of the Month,” which is exactly what it sounds like:

We share a handful of some fantastic photographs that you have submitted to our weekly challenge!

Don’t know what our weekly challenge is? You can find the current challenge, as well as all of our previous challenges, right here. Feel free to work your way back through the archive and try them all!

Our themes for October were Minimalism, Iconic, Bicycle, Silhouette, and Grey (if you missed them, you can still post a photo).

So let’s take a look at the best photos of the month!

A stunning photograph from our #dPSMinimalism challenge comes from Chris Roe. What is minimalism as applied to a photograph? Well, it’s subjective, I guess. But it’s generally described as such:

“Minimalist photography is a form of photography that is distinguished by extreme, austere simplicity. It emphasizes spareness and focuses solely on the smallest number of objects in the composition process.”

dPS Minimalism | Photo by © Chris Roe

Iconic was our second theme for October. Again, that subjective phrase comes into play; I guess things can be iconic for different reasons to different people! There were some amazing images, but this is one that jumped out at us by Peter. Maybe because it’s “our city” #dPSIconic – Flinders Street Station.

dPS Iconic | Photo by © Peter/Cdatar

I may have chosen the #dPSBicycle theme as I had just picked up my new bicycle (an attempt to regain some fitness!) and was (and still am!) inspired! We had some fantastic images submitted for this theme, but the one we’ve chosen for the round-up is from Stamatis Iliadakis and combines some great aspects: leading lines, slow shutter, and “silly walks!” (if you know, you know). Well done, Stamatis!

dPS Bicycle | Photo by © Stamatis Iliadakis

This stunning photograph for our #dPSSilhouette theme is by Piotr Plaskon, and was a stand-out for me! If you want to try silhouette photography but you’re not sure how, take a look at this post to get some tips.

dPS Silhouette | Photo by © Piotr Plaskon

Our last challenge for the month of October was #dPSGrey, and our stand-out photo comes from Paula Gallagher Brown in our Facebook group (join, it’s fun!). Well done, Paula!

dPS Grey | Photo by © Paula Gallagher Brown

There are so many well-thought-out, perfectly photographed images every week! Thank you for joining in the weekly challenge, and we hope to see your photographs up here for November!

The post dPS Roundup: The Best Photos of October appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.

Digital Photography School

November 15, 2020
The best Google Photo alternatives

The best alternatives for Google Photos

With news that Google will stop unlimited uploads to Google Photos starting June 15, 2021, many photographers are thinking about alternatives. While ‘free’ and ‘unlimited’ options are all but non-existent with Google Photos gone, there are plenty of options if you’re looking to get away from the Google ecosystem and don’t mind paying for either subscriptions or one-time purchases.

We’ve rounded up a few of the best alternatives, ranging from simple to sophisticated, and have summarized their features and functionality. While some of these services do offer free storage, most are limited by data or the number of files uploaded, and some require a subscription or purchase before you can even use them.

If there are other options we’re missing, leave us a message in the comments below and we’ll consider adding them to our list.

Apple iCloud Photos

Let’s get this out of the way first — iCloud Photos is clearly meant for people invested in the Apple ecosystem. While it is possible to use iCloud Photos to back up your images on Android and Windows devices, it’s not suggested. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s continue.

Apple’s iCloud Photos service is effectively Apple’s version of Google Photos. It uses your iCloud storage space to automatically back up the Camera Roll on your iOS device to the cloud. Once uploaded, those images are accessible from all of your other iOS, iPadOS and macOS devices through the respective Photos apps, so long as you have iCloud Photos enabled.

Much like Google Photos, iCloud Photos will automatically recognize faces, intelligently tag your images for easy searching, show where images were captured on a map and even create ‘Moments’ that combine photos and videos together in easy-to-share collections. The best part is that it does all of this directly on-device, adding an additional privacy layer that Google Photos doesn’t offer.

The option to turn on iCloud Photos is inside the Photos section of the iOS Settings app.

As for determining how many photos and videos you can store, that will depend on how much iCloud storage you have. Every iCloud account is given 15GB, but beyond that is up to you, based on how much you’re willing to spend (and that 15GB is shared between all of your iCloud services). You can add an additional 50GB, 200GB or 2TB of storage for $ 0.99, $ 2.99 or $ 9.99 per month, respectively (Apple has a full support page dedicated to breaking iCloud storage prices down by region). Apple’s new all-encompassing Apple One subscription is another option for adding more storage to your iCloud account; and it even makes it possible to share storage across multiple iCloud accounts in the same family, which could help spread out the cost.

This isn’t the cheapest option by any means, but in terms of functionality, it’s about as close to Google Photos as you can get and if you’re already invested in the Apple ecosystem it should be an easy transition.

Photos (iOS/macOS app)

If you’re an Apple user, but prefer to keep your content local, another option is to use Apple’s Photos app without iCloud Photos turned on. The macOS Photos app will effectively work the same as if you were using it with iCloud photos, but this option would require you to store images on a harddrive connected to your computer. It also means that you won’t have access to all of your images on your iOS or iPadOS device when your storage fills up.

The workflow would look something like this: Capture as many photos and videos as you can on your iOS or iPadOS device, manually connect the device to your macOS computer and import the images from your mobile device into the macOS Photo app library. You would then have to remove the images from your mobile device to make space for more and repeat the process once your storage is once again full.

This isn’t the most convenient solution, as it doesn’t do everything behind-the-scenes as Google Photos and iCloud Photos does, but it is the most privacy-focused, as everything is local. It does still feature all of the same great tagging, location and ‘Moments’ functions as iCloud Photos though, and even has built-in services for making photo prints and books. Thanks to Apple’s extension integration, you can also edit photos using third-party software, such as Affinity Photo, Pixelmator, Skylum’s Luminar and more. Apple-focused website iMore has a great collection of the best photo apps that have support for Photos extensions.

Flickr

This one shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Flickr has been around for 16 years and was arguably the go-to services for storing mobile images until Google spun off Google Photos from its Google+ social networking site in 2015. Flickr isn’t mobile-specific, but its mobile app — available for both Android and iOS — makes it easy to sync your photo library on-the-fly.

Flickr has seen plenty of ups and downs since Yahoo! purchased it back in 2005, but since being purchased by SmugMug in 2018, the photo-sharing site has seen a steady improvement in features and functionality. It lacks the automated tagging and fancy AI-powered collection features Google Photos and iCloud Photos offers, but it still has tools to manually create collections, add tags, share albums and more.

For a while, when it was owned by Yahoo!, Flickr offered an incredible 1TB of free storage to everyone who signed up for a free account. SmugMug reversed that decision, presumably to reduce costs, limiting it to 1,000 images in total.

While that’s enough to get most people started, you’re probably going to need more storage if you’re using it to replace Google Photos. For that, you can pick up Flickr Pro, a premium version of the Flickr experience which not only offers unlimited full-resolution photos, but also removes all ads, shows detailed analytics of images you’ve made public and offers discounts on other photo products and services, including Adobe subscriptions, Peak Design gear, Pixsy and more.

Flickr Pro has multiple subscription options, including monthly, every three months and annually. These plans cost $ 6.99 per month, $ 18.99 every three months and $ 60 per year, respectively.

Prime Photos

Amazon’s Prime Photos is included with an Amazon Prime membership. The service is similar to Google Photos in that you can upload unlimited full-resolution photos to the cloud, organize your content, search by tags/locations/people, share your albums and even create custom photo products, including prints, books, mugs and more. Prime Photos has apps for Android, iOS, macOS and Windows computers, making it easy to upload photos from essentially any device you own.

One of the limits of Prime Photos is that you’re capped at 5GB for video uploads. With more and more phones shooting 4K video at increasing data rates nowadays, that 5GB of storage could be used up pretty quickly, so if you want all of your videos backed up to the cloud as well, Prime Photos might not be the way to go.

Still, if you’re an Amazon Prime member, it’s a benefit that’s there for you when you need it. Amazon Prime memberships cost either $ 12.99 per month or $ 119 per year. There is a free 30-day trial and multiple discounts, including a student discount that offers six months of Amazon Prime for free and an annual subscription cost of $ 59 per year.

Note: DPReview is a wholly-owned but editorially-independant subsidiary of Amazon

Plex

Plex is a multimedia server that makes it possible to self-host music, videos, TV shows and photos that can be viewed and played back anywhere in the world so long as the computer or network-attached storage (NAS) device you’re using to store your content is connected to the internet.

Plex itself is free to download and use. The process might sound complicated, but it’s as simple as downloading the Plex server app to your computer or NAS and pointing it to the specific folders with your media in it. It’s a fantastic tool for those with large movie and music libraries, but it also works great for managing personal photos and videos on-the-go.

Once the Plex Media Server app (available for both macOS and Windows computers) is installed, you can create various libraries using individual folders on a harddrive connected to your computer or the NAS you have the Plex Media Server app installed on. Once the Plex Media Server has a new library of images to work with, it will put them into a timeline and even organize your subfolders into albums if you choose to do so. Plex also offers an option to automatically add tags to images by letting it upload a small thumbnail of the image for analysis; if you don’t mind the privacy implications of this, the functionality is quite impressive and makes searching for images much easier.

The Android and iOS Plex Mobile app even have a built-in camera upload feature that will automatically take images and video from your mobile device and upload it to your home server, similar to Google Photos, iCloud Photos, Flickr and others. This can be done manually or behind-the-scenes and can be limited to just upload when you’re on Wi-Fi or also on LTE/5G if you don’t mind hitting your bandwidth cap.

Setting up Plex isn’t for novice users looking for a hands-off approach with minimal interaction. But if privacy is a concern and you want full control over every facet of your content, it’s hard to argue with the benefits Plex offers.

While all of the features mentioned above are free, Plex does offer a Plex Pass, which adds a handful of premium features for viewing, downloading and syncing your other media, as well as improved access to analytics for when other people — whom you’ve shared certain media libraries with — are accessing your data. Plex Pass costs either $ 4.99 per month or $ 39.99 per year. There’s also a Lifetime Plex Pass for $ 119.99, which will give you all of these features in perpetuity, even if the price increases down the road (spoiler alert: they usually drop the Lifetime option a good bit during Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales).

NAS Solutions

If you have a network-attached storage (NAS) device, there’s a good chance you can install your own, self-hosted photo storage solution. Support varies from company to company, but QNAP, Synology and Western Digital all have dedicated photo management programs that can be installed onto their respective NAS units.

These self-hosted solutions tend to be less fleshed out than their more commercial-oriented counterparts and oftentimes require a more hands-on approach, but if you want to ensure privacy and like the granularity of managing everything yourself and have the compatible hardware, these are available options.

Below are the photo management solutions offered by the various manufacturers. If you notice we’re missing one, leave a note in the comments and we’ll be sure to add it to the list.

Synology

Moments — Aside from a similar logo to Google Photos, Moments offers similar features as well. It not only supports live photos, 360-degree photos and more, it also automatically tags and groups images based on subject matter, date and location.

Photo Station — Unlike Moments, which seems to be more focused on mobile photographer, Photo Station appears to be more of a professional-oriented storage solution, with an emphasis on metadata, watermarking features and even galleries which can be shared with friends, family or clients.

Synology has a great overview of the two programs and how they compare with one another.

QNAP

A look at the Synology QuMagie photo app.

QuMagie — Defined as an ‘AI photo manager,’ QuMagie works similarly to Google Photos in that you can automatically offload photos and video from your smartphone using an accompanying app and have the content automatically analyzed for facial and subject recognition. It offers a timeline view, smart album features and has multiple sharing options for sharing one-off images or full galleries with friends and family.

Photo Station — It’s the same app that’s available on Synology NAS units, although there might be a slight difference in version numbers based on how often either NAS manufacturer updates the app.

Western Digital

Camera Backups — Western Digital doesn’t go into detail about its Camera Backups NAS app, aside from saying it ‘[backs up] photos and videos from your camera to the My Cloud system.’

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

November 15, 2020