G-Technology updated its lineup today with the introduction of two eight-bay storage arrays made to be easily transportable. From enterprise-class hard drives for robust performance to handles on top of the units that let them be more easily moved from studio to car, to set, and back, the G-Speed Shuttle XLs are the ultimate on-the-go editor's dream direct-attached-storage system.
Before CP+ kicks off next week, Canon just announced the successor to the 70D, the Canon 80D. Featuring multiple improvements, especially in areas surrounding autofocus, the 80D provides a more professional standing for Canon's representation in the advanced APS-C DSLR segment. Additionally, Canon introduced a new PZ-E1 power zoom adapter for a new lens, the EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM. Finally, the PowerShot G7 X was updated with a Mark II version along with a new compact superzoom, the PowerShot SX720 HS.
For an instant, she stares blankly out into the distance as she would for any photograph. But almost immediately, she takes notice. You're there. She turns her head, looks over, and then slowly turns back, looking down at her outstretched legs. Her eyes move slowly, looking down, as her chin lifts her gaze from the top of her legs to her feet. She's admiring herself — for you. She even starts crawling toward you. You turn your head to look around ("Toward me?," you think, but no one else is there). You turn back to her. The clip is over. You can take off your Google Cardboard viewer and go back to flipping channels on your living room TV.
A bug in a recent Adobe Creative Cloud update is currently deleting a folder on the root drive (Macintosh HD, by default) of Macs upon installation. This issue is affecting Backblaze users disproportionately due to the fact that the bug results in the deletion of the contents of the alphabetically first hidden folder on the root drive, which is often the folder ".bzbol" for Backblaze users.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), based in Pasadena, CA, recently released a 360-degree video of a vista of Mars' Namib Dune from their rover, Curiosity. On one hand, it's an all-encompassing, but static, noiseless video. Yet, on the other hand, it's the most realistic, hands-on, feels-like-you-were-there video of another planet that we have. If you think about it for a moment while you're watching, it suddenly hits you: we're really there. We have a presence on Martian land.
When Pixellu came out with its too easy to believe drag and drop album creator that synced with every popular album company's layouts, those who were not Mac users were certainly bummed to hear they would be missing out. But today, after Pixellu released SmartAlbums 2 for Mac, the SmartAlbums version for Windows is here and it comes at a generous $50 discount for those who have waited so patiently.
Your headache from over-drinking (either in celebration or in deep depression) may be wearing off, but for those that had to photograph Super Bowl 50, that headache began days before the big day. The preparation for covering the game took its toll on those that enable us look back on it this week. Fstoppers caught up with ESPN photographer Andrew Hancock to get a look into the gear, setup, and planning to cover the most important event of America’s favorite sport.
Adobe Stock has been around for a short while now, featuring useful, deep integration into Creative Cloud products, as well as a more traditional online portal through which to purchase content. Through a blog post on its website, Adobe recently announced these platforms will now benefit from native 4K video content in addition to the photos and standard high-definition videos previously offered.
I don't rate my photos nearly as much as I should. And part of it has been because I've been too lazy to look this exact tip up! Thankfully, Adobe has provided us with one of their now famous under-a-minute Lightroom Coffee Break videos to quickly explain how to auto-advance as you rate your photos. This trick also works for auto-advancing while flagging photos. The key to the trick? Caps lock.
We fell head-over-heels when we saw CineStill’s 35mm 800T film, repackaged from Kodak cinema film. Beautiful golden skin tones, cool shadows, and that ever-difficult-to-explain magic glow, brought the beauty of true filmmaking to the still format. It’s been a long wait since the 35mm format was introduced in 2012, but today, CineStill launches their high-speed, tungsten-balanced cinema film in the 120 format.
Just behind Nikon's announcement of the D5, Canon comes with their own anxiously-awaited update to their flagship DSLR: the new EOS-1D X Mark II. Building on the experience of both the 1D X and the 1D C, the 1D X Mark II features a modest increase in resolution to 20 megapixels, instead counting its improvements mostly in the areas of image quality, autofocus, and speed.
Drones are great, but they also pose a huge threat to general safety and national security if in the hands of the wrong people. The Secret Service has even said they don't yet have an effective method of defending against drones, although they recently began testing drone flights in their own backyard to defend against them. While some turn to strictly technological methods of bringing drones to the ground, the Dutch police are evaluating the effectiveness of a new program that trains eagles to grab drones from the sky with their talons.
Big movies mean big budgets, which usually mean big visual effects. The Moving Picture Company (better known as MPC) recently released another one of those mesmerizing VFX breakdown videos for their most recent feature film, “The Martian.” The breakdown reveals some aspects of the film and of Matt Damon's performance that were both challenging and impressive, like the fact that the helmets worn in the film didn't feature physical windscreens. Those were added later with matching reflections to the scenery.
Adobe launched a new YouTube series through their Lightroom channel to give Lightroom users some extra tips on features they may not have come across yet. While some highlighted features such as viewing masking for the sharpening tool are a little better known, others are more tucked away and might come as a surprise, like this feature that allows you to update the overall effect of a local adjustment with multiple sliders in effect.
In addition to the X-Pro2 announcement, Fujifilm also announced the release of the X-E2S, X70, and XF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens, each helping to further refine and round out Fuji's mirrorless lineup. The X-E2S is largely similar to it's predecessor (the X-E2), but improves ISO performance and offers several software enhancements. The X70 offers the same 16-megapixel X-Trans II CMOS sensor as the X-E2S in an appropriate update to Fuji's more affordable, fixed-lens XF line-up with an 18.5mm f/2.8 (28mm in 35mm equivalent) lens. And the 100-400mm lens fills out a part of Fuji's XF platform that has historically been in sore need of bolstering: it's lens selection.
The X-Pro1 started it all as it cemented its place while paving the way for its segment — the mirrorless rangefinder-style APS-C camera — as the way of the future. But until today, Fuji’s focus has been on further diversifying the segment with other high-end, mid-range, and budget mirrorless systems. Today’s announcement brings a new, true compact flagship to XF platform in the form of the 24-megapixel, professional-level X-Pro2.
Just in time for 2016, the FAA released a registration system and will require anyone currently operating unmanned aerial systems (UAS), otherwise known as "drones," to register by February 19 of this year. Although the FAA's legal authority over this issue is questionable and although this applies to anyone flying drones only within certain weight guidelines for hobby or recreational use outdoors, there are a number of reasons you should register in the next 10 days, even if these particular circumstances do not apply to you.
CameraLends has been letting gear owners rent out their gear to peers when it's not in use since its inception three years ago. Until now, everything has been done through their website. The new CameraLends iPhone app, however, lets users manage the entire rental process from the ease and mobility of their iPhones. Making money on your gear when you're not using it is now easier than ever.
Samsung's Portable SSD T1, has been a fantastically tiny and handy external drive since its inception. Yesterday, for CES 2016, Samsung announced its successor, the Portable SSD T3, sharing many of the same features with the T1, such as the claimed 450MB/s transfer rate, 850 EVO-based NAND flash memory, and AES 256-bit encryption that won't slow the drive down. Meanwhile, a new shockproof design almost doubles the weight and adds to its bulk a bit, but protects the drive in up to 1500 g drops. Also new to the line is the 2 TB capacity and USB-C connection.
Sony's 50-megapixel sensor found in the latest 645 medium format digital CMOS bodies brought such cameras down in price considerably for the first time while extending ISO usability to the more DSLR-normal ISO 6,400. Today's announcement brings a new iteration of that technology in the form of the IQ3 100MP, also in a CMOS flavor. Although the resolution is doubled (and file size is quadrupled), Phase One also managed to pull out an extra stop of ISO performance on both ends of the spectrum, which now goes from ISO 50–12,800. Dynamic range also increases a stop over other models to 15 stops.
Whether your business is in photography, videography, or the evolving field virtual reality (VR), your job is to create a visual experience for your clients. As VR grows in popularity and in quality, its potential to create more immersive experiences in relation to more traditional media types increases immensely. The effect that systems like Oculus Rift can have ultimately depend, however, on how realistic one can make not only the imagery, but also the user feedback. Castrol EDGE's custom VR solution pushes the limit between what you can expect from a VR setup as it pits two race car drivers on different real-world tracks against each other in the same virtual world.
I have been following and reporting on Vincent Laforet's "AIR" series since its first round was released. I came across an early printing of the book itself in the waiting area of San Francisco's Storehouse startup while I was about to take on another interview. I knew Storehouse and Laforet had a good working relationship, and I knew the images so well. But I didn't have time to look inside -- not that I felt I had to, however, since I knew the work inside and out. So when Laforet offered me a copy of the book to review, I simply had to say, "Of course," even if it was with mixed feelings. What could I, objectively speaking, really get out of it? Hadn't I seen it all?
Leave it to a German drone company to create the world's first light painting by drone with a fully programmed flight path, all to create one fantastic holiday time-lapse of Santa Claus delivering presents. Perhaps the most unique part of the project isn't the world-first of programming a drone to complete a multi-colored light painting, but is instead the reimagining of Santa Claus' method of delivery, as something more similar to that of your neighborhood newspaper boy with perfect accuracy.
Today's airspace is more and more crowded with drones that, for the most part, all do the same thing. This lack of product diversity is the reason Lily, with its unique combination of features including landing and taking off in water or on your hand, awed thousands when its promo video launched. Its incredibly good pre-order deal undoubtedly helped spread it further at a low price of $499. The best part: this wasn't a crowd-funding campaign. Lily had financing. This was happening. Until it wasn't.
Adobe’s last quarter results are out, and they’re better than ever. Adobe’s Creative Cloud and media business rose 35 percent thanks to a 23 percent beat on subscriber expectations, while the company’s overall net income more than doubled from $88.1 million to a staggering $222 million. Adobe’s fourth-quarter earnings report shot its stock to all-time highs. On one hand, that’s good business. But what does this mean for creatives who have felt an increasingly rocky relationship with the software giant?
Landscape photographers use polarizing, neutral density, and graduated filters of all types for effects they would consider pivotal to their work. Meanwhile, however, the Internet has been beating up UV and other clear types of filters, bringing to light that "UV filters protect your lens" is a falsehood. While even the best UV filters might shatter in an impact, Sigma has developed a brand new filter type called the "WR Ceramic Protector," which is actually supposed to absorb, bend with, and mitigate shock from an impact.
The Verge reported Tuesday that British hydrogen fuel cell technology company Intelligent Energy has been successfully testing a miniaturized version of a hydrogen fuel cell as part of a drone system with the intent to increase flight times. Through such hydrogen fuel cell technology, drones could start flying for up to and over two hours, which would be a six-fold increase over the current industry-standard 20-minute flight time for many drones.
Not long ago, I released a review of Sigma's newest Art-series lens, the 20mm f/1.4 Art. Unfortunately, Northern California skies have had bit of a tough time clearing up despite numerous requests from astrophotographers below, patiently waiting for news of this lens' nighttime, Milky Way performance. Last night, although far from perfect, areas of the sky did clear up enough to get a small consensus on how this lens fares when pointed toward the stars.
MacPhun released Aurora HDR just a few weeks ago and touts it as the most advanced high dynamic range (HDR) software in the world. Certainly, veteran users of Photoshop and Lightroom might be skeptical. But if your sole purpose is to create HDR photos on the Mac, Aurora HDR might be the best option out there, seeing as it was created with the close consultation of HDR photographer Trey Ratcliff. In this video, Ratcliff dives deep in a first-hand look into how to get the most from Aurora HDR.
RED's been busy again, this time bringing its most loved sensor to its most affordable DRAGON configuration yet. Utilizing a portion of that 6K sensor, the SCARLET-W shoots 5K at 60fps, 4K at 150fps, and 2K at 300fps with REDCODE RAW and will shoot RAW plus scaled 2K ProRes HQ at 60fps. Additionally, it comes with the built-in wireless, 3D LUTs, and same system compatibility of the rest of the DSMC² lineup.
Anyone with a MagSafe 2 Apple laptop might think it looks a bit prettier than the previous version, but how many times does that charger inadvertently get knocked out of place? There is a solution, or didn’t you know?
If you don't know Sigma's Art series lenses yet, you're missing out. Their well established 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, and zoom options in the Art lineup shine, but it's hard to believe it took this long for a wide-angle 20mm f/1.4 Art to make it out into the real world. But the moment I began shooting with this beauty is the moment of the past didn't matter anymore. We're in a new world: there's a 20mm to die for; and this is it.
It’s a mystery USB stick. And in keeping with the holiday (and mystery) spirit, I won’t give much away. But there are a few things I feel comfortable mentioning that might at least entice some of the open-minded to give it a shot.
Nikon upset and confused some customers when they moved the overall size and filter thread of their 24-70mm f/2.8 follow-up to 82mm (up from the standard 77mm). While this would mean that those wanting the latest upgrade for their mid-range zoom would need to invest in new filters and lift heavier weights at the gym, the change allowed Nikon to introduce unprecedented image quality and, of course, vibration reduction. But what if that image quality wasn't unprecedented? What if it wasn't even better? What if, God forbid, it was worse?
Storehouse launched with much fanfare on iOS, eventually moving onto Storehouse 2.0 and Storehouse on the new Apple TV. Android users have had to be incredibly patient to get access to what is easily the best and easiest way to lay out your content into a well-designed, easily digestible format. Today, Android users can download the app via the Google Play store for free and explore every feature Storehouse's iOS users have enjoyed for the last several months.
