I wrote about the OZO virtual reality camera that was teased by Nokia earlier this year. Much like Samsung and GoPro, they are taking a big gamble and put a lot of time and energy into virtual reality technology. After months of releasing vague teasers, they have finally announced details on their epic and expensive new camera system. Read below to see the stats.
In case you did not know, virtual reality is a big deal. Thanks to Facebook's recent announcement that you can now upload and play 360-degree videos (they call it "spherical content") to your feed natively, it is now much easier to share your virtual reality videos to the average Facebook-using consumer, which is everyone — even my mom.
So if you've been following my articles the past year, you know that some major brands have been developing either virtual reality headsets, started developing 360-degree content, or announced they are building a VR camera.
Let me preface this article by stating that this is based on educated rumors. Late in September, the rumor mill was flying with speculation about Samsung shutting down its Digital Camera Division and the NX line in particular. This was sad news because many photographers throughout the industry have found that they really like the NX cameras and their price point values.
Most of us know Lytro for their light field cameras that capture scenes in a way that allows you to refocus an image anywhere you want with the click of a button without having to take a new image. I'll admit, I thought it was a neat trick, but as a commercial photographer, I never saw how it would apply to someone like myself.
Like it or not, 2016 is going to be a huge year for virtual reality content and technology. It seems like every major brand is dipping their toe in one way or another. Even Pixar is creating their own movie studio in order to create 360-degree films. Magazines are no exception for desiring and creating this content. It's a perfect way to immerse their readers into their content.
You know, I always thought that Chatroulette was a place you went to speak to random strangers in foreign lands and sometimes see the unwanted privates of strangers in distant lands.
As Fstoppers' resident virtual reality content creator, I'm excited to share our most recent project we did for AOL. A few weeks back, the Autoblog/Translogic team flew my business partner and I to southern California and rented out a race track so we could film an awesome 1980s Ferrari that was converted to an all-electric high-performance sports car in virtual reality.
I've always been a big fan of Dave Hill's photography and creative vision. If you're familiar with his earlier commercial work, you probably know him for his progressive digital and composite techniques.
Fan of the TV show “Doctor Who” and the Beatles? Well then, last week was your week indeed. The cast and crew decided to recreate the legendary 1969 “Abbey Road” album cover along with two prop Dalek cyborg aliens (always thought they were robots, but upon further fact-checking, they are in fact cyborg aliens).
This is it... I've come across the mother lode of photography personal projects that will just blow you away. Czech photographer Jan Rambousek and Creative Director Tomas Kopecny were inspired to visually recreate some of the most noteworthy scenes from Grand Prix racing during the 1930s.
At this point, you've probably heard that the Virtual Reality revolution is coming. Seemingly every week, big companies are making announcements about dipping their toes into the 360 video technology game.
As a young photographer, I used to think a beautiful flat light, that gave smooth skin tones was the best way to capture a portrait. I invested in a bunch of large diffuse light modifiers, such as softboxes, beauty dishes, and octoboxes, and shot photos of people with the smoothest and flattest lighting I could muster.
Platon has photographed many of the world's most powerful leaders and biggest celebrities and often shoots covers for magazines such as Wired, Esquire, Newsweek, Rolling Stone and New York Times Magazine. Most recently, he captured comedian and TV show personality Stephen Colbert for the cover of Time, which you can see in the video posted above.
So if you have been watching social media this week, then you most likely heard about British photographer David Yarrow who made headlines after a tiger allegedly got "loose" during a photo shoot that was taking place in the well-known Packard Plant in Detroit.
If you hadn't heard of it before, the Stand Out! Photographic Forums is a huge photography industry event (taking place in New York City, Toronto, and Los Angeles) loaded with affordable workshops taught by some of the biggest and most successful names in the industry.
Here at Fstoppers, we all know Canon makes some pretty cool cameras, but you may have forgotten they also make really nice photo and document printers. Canon realized that, in this digital age of Facbeook, Instagram, RFID devices, and Apple Pay on your iPhone, many of us have dramatically decreased or stopped printing things out.
I knew when I saw this image up in the photo section of our Fstoppers website, I had to inquire about how it was created. It is clearly a thoughtful re-imagining of the iconic painting "Liberty Leading The People", but I had no idea how much effort Anthony Kurtz went into creating this photo.
Yes, you've read that correctly. Nokia, the former maker of my favorite cell phone in which I could play "Snake" during high school math class, has entered the hot new virtual reality camera market.
Last year I wrote an exclusive article talking about RED's plans to attack the photography camera market by adding a still photo mode to the RED SCARLET and EPIC cameras. That day has come with their latest firmware update release. Some of you still photographers may be saying, "So what?" Well, 16.5 stops of dynamic range at nearly 20 megapixels is what.
I always love a good well-planned time-lapse as I'm sure most of us do.
Last week I received a message from my buddy and talented photographer Ben Von Wong. We all know him for his incredible photos that mix practical effects as well as precisely-applied post production visuals. His recent photoshoot entitled "MAKING OF: BALLANTINE’S PRESENTS VON WONG’S UNDERWATER RIVER" is no exception.
No, the new GoPro Hero 4 Session doesn't have greater resolution or frame rate capabilities than the pre-existing Hero 4 black's 4K resolution and high frame rate...in fact, it's actually limited to 1920 x 1440 at 30 frames per second, or 1920 x 1080 at 60 frames a second.
The other week, I wrote that I was excited about Phase One's newest gear announcements for a multitude of reasons. Well, thanks to my friends at Digital Transitions and Phase One, I was lucky enough to do a photoshoot with the BRAND NEW Phase One XF body, the updated IQ350 50 megapixel CMOS medium format back, and their newest 35mm leaf shutter lens.
A well-known member of our photo community passed away this weekend. Photographer Wyatt Neumann died after suffering a brain aneurysm which caused him to lose control of the motorcycle he was driving and causing him to crash. As Stephen Lucier put it, Wyatt was known to many as a "photographer, friend, bad boy, husband, dad, man" as well as a mentor to numerous others.
As a traveling commercial photographer and filmmaker who flies over 100k miles a year, I NEVER let my camera bodies and lenses leave my side. Well, soon, filmmakers like myself may be in big trouble.
This week, Phase One announced a brand-new camera platform, the Phase One XF, and three new IQ3 digital backs. Every photo media outlet in the world has the press release and various levels of speculation and information, all focused on those two main announcements.
Summer movie season is here, and so are the movies with the biggest budgets trying to up the wow factor against their cinematic competition. "San Andreas" is the latest disaster flick to showcase some of the best effects Hollywood has to offer right now.
Last year I had an exciting opportunity to shoot what I am told is the first combined Jaguar and Land Rover USA ad campaign now that they are both under new combined ownership. The goal of the campaign was to create content that would appeal to the users of both car markers and promote brand loyalty.
As a huge movie car buff and lover of the original "Mad Max" films, it goes without saying that I am more than excited for the release of the latest iteration of the series. I'm going to assume statistically that you are too because it is rating incredibly well among most of the movie reviewers. One of their biggest compliments toward the film?
Well it has been a rollercoaster for the team over at Photoflex, makers of some of my favorite studio lighting accessories. First, they pulled what many thought was an April fools joke by announcing that they were closing their doors as of late March 31st.
As photographers starting out, we quickly learn that shoots do not always go as planned. This fact seems to remain the constant even as we proceed through our careers, but we know we have to make the most out of what we are given or we risk not getting the job done!
Some of you thought that my post last week about photography accessories brand Photoflex suddenly closing its doors without warning after 30 years of business was a possible April Fools' joke. I wouldn't blame you since it seemed to be annouced late in the day prior to April 1st and they seemed to be a fully-functioning business right up until the final moments.
After 30 years in business, the popular photography and video lighting accessory company Photoflex has suddenly and without warning closed its doors. To this day, I still use and enjoy my Photoflex extra large softboxes, and I am shocked by the news considering they were just at Photokina earlier in March. Read below to learn more.
This year has already been filled with some compelling DSLR camera releases and announcements and the new Nikon D5500 is no exception.
