The Pakpod is Kickstarter's latest small-camera tripod to hit the market. It's not made of carbon fiber or even metal. It won't stand much higher than a couple feet. And it looks a little funny - let's be honest. But it does one thing better than any other tripod I've ever seen: it attaches to anything (even under water).
Canon's latest cameras are compact, but pack a punch (maybe). While some might be compelled to ask themselves about the reasons behind releasing the lackluster EOS M10 at all, the G5 X and G9 X both fit well into Canon's high-end compact lineup with interesting features that might draw the casual shooter looking for something a bit more spectacular than le quotidien.
Without a huge media hoopla, today Apple announced updates to some of its entire all-in-one desktop lineup. The 21.5-inch iMac now offers a 4K retina display, the 27-inch iMac now comes standard with the 5K retina display, the Mac sees its first Skylake debut, and Apple's Magic keyboard and mouse accessories see great updates (at a price). With even more under-the-hood changes, these are the iMac's you wanted all year, but may not have known about. (UPDATED)
They say that the ability to still be surprised is the key to happiness. It's growing knowledge of the world around us that informs our expectations of behaviors of all kinds of entities that in turn ruins the surprise in our lives. It's the reason that we're not interested in our boring childhood toys. And it's the reason that it's so easy to stay glued to shorts like the Vimeo Staff Pick, "INPUT/OUTPUT," which juices our bored minds with just enough excitement and surprise to, at the very least, smile on the inside.
So outrageous are the looks of the L16 camera, you might find yourself checking today's date to make sure we haven't entered into April. But no, this is completely real. Light, the company behind the L16 camera, took a compact body and crammed 16 cameras, each with its own plastic-covered lens, into it. The idea is to create an all-in-one camera with multiple focal lengths, allowing the L16 to use computational photography to combine resulting images for higher quality photos from an aggregation of photos taken with small sensors.
Designed to combat flights over private property by paparazzi photographers looking to get glimpses of celebrities in their "natural elements," a new bill, AB 856, signed by California Governor Jerry Brown Tuesday, broadens the definition of a "physical invasion of privacy" to include flying a drone to record images or video over private property. While countless issues surrounding invasion of privacy and drone usage have appeared on the Internet over the years (including one instance of a father shooting down a drone recording his daughter sunbathing in their backyard), this expansion could pose more danger to well-intentioned videographers.
Sony Corporation announced today that it will spin off its semiconductor business into its own company in April 2016. Other parts of the corporation will see a restructuring of operations while all of the research and development, business, sales, and other operations related to the semiconductor and image sensor business will benefit from more autonomy under one separate roof. It has long been known that while Sony's other ventures have struggled recently, their semiconductor business does extremely well, as it is positioned as a market leader, whereas many manufacturers (including Nikon and Apple) use their sensors almost exclusively.
Before I had a Wacom, I seriously questioned the ability that a touchpad without a screen would have to improve my editing workflow. Also the screen-integrated models were way too expensive for me to consider at the time. Those of us that have them now, however, see them as an invaluable tool in our work — and it’s one we probably want to protect.
Freelance videomaker and visual artist Julianna Thomas did something unique recently: she shot an entire series of black and white subjects, but in color. As a response to one of her greatest pet peeves, Thomas created "Black & White In Color" as a "personal response to treating black and white as an editing afterthought."
Every year's Adobe MAX conference marks the an obvious time to expect updates throughout Adobe's product lineup. So what's different this time? Mobile. Adobe has the monopoly in the area of creative applications for media editing, but for the first time in a while, it feels like they're competing with some unknown entity. This year's updates bring so many new features across the widest range of Adobe products ever that there's no doubt they're serious about their making customers happy with a huge concentration on mobile.
Two of Nikon's most popular professional cameras have hit all-time lows in online pricing for new, non-grey-market models with full warranties in the U.S. The Nikon D810 currently sees a $500 discount on B&H while the D750 sees a $400 discount, each selling for $2,796.95 and $1,896.95, respectively. That makes these bodies the cheapest they've been by $200 (for the D810) and $100 (for the D750).
A 17 year-old Russian teenager died recently after attempting to capture a photo of himself that would make it look as though he was falling from the top of a building. After Andrey Retrovesky secured himself with a rope that was used to help with the special effect, in a grim turn of events, the rope snapped, leaving Retrovesky in a free fall. Although some brush reportedly helped to break his fall, sadly, it wasn't enough to keep him from succumbing to his injuries just a couple hours after the incident.
It can be daunting to try to think of a completely new, never-been-done-before concept for a shoot. But sometimes, the answer is surprisingly simple. In an age in which everyone is touting shooting on the latest equipment with 4K video, while begging for ever-greater bit rates, Japanese designer Dan Tomimatsu took pause to give us something refreshingly simple and beautiful. Using a water droplet "stuck" inside a five-yen coin as a lens on an iPhone, Tomimatsu shot "O (eau)" with the intention of reminding the world that beauty can be found outside of razor-sharp 4K imagery.
While the original source couldn't be independently confirmed, the studio behind the recently released movie, "Everest," apparently sent BBC a clip of the still unreleased film without audio effects. Instead, throughout the entire otherwise hair-raising scene, the actors speak to each other in a tone seemingly more appropriate for a focus group discussion between amateurs trying to solve a Rubik's cube than for a life-threatening situation climbing Mount Everest.
While some physical improvements with Spotlight, Photos, Safari, and other Apple apps are definitely welcome with today's new OS X release, perhaps the most exciting aspect of El Capitan are the under-the-hood improvements for performance gains. There’s no need to explain how time-saving performance upgrades can be for working professionals — and for those reasons, everyone will want to update immediately. But there are some things to always take into consideration before an operating system upgrade.
Aside from some people getting theirs early and others being in time zones where "today" was "yesterday," the iPhone comes out today in the U.S. And of course, those who have theirs have already spent plenty of time comparing various features. This new video by Giga Tech highlights the differences between the iPhone 6S' and 6S Plus' respective video qualities when it comes to video stabilization. The larger Plus model features optical stabilization as its predecessor did while the smaller size of the smaller 6S only leaves room for digital stabilization — and the difference is quite dramatic.
It was some time ago now that I reviewed one of Lowepro's first ProTactic AW bags when it first came out, and it was quite well received on this end. Today, Lowepro announced the addition of four new bags to the ProTactic line which are easily recognizable and known for their external SlipLock-compatible accessory and webbing system and semi-rigid, premium build. Today's newest bags come in smaller sizes and, for the first time, in shoulder-bag variants — all maintaining the all-weather (AW) design with smaller mirrorless or single-body kits in mind. For the commuters or über-mobile that don't need room for multiple bodies and half a dozen lenses in addition to a 15-inch laptop, these smaller options may be the best choice now that they're on the market.
First, second, third, and fourth generations of several companies’ drones are now out on the market. But it’s only as we head into 2016 that the drone race is really on and that all the other possible players with their collectively interesting ideas who might have lagged behind a little are now crossing the halfway point. That race won’t end anytime soon, as the consumer drone market’s innovation is only picking up. I caught up with Vantage Robotics Co-Founder and CEO Tobin Fisher on a beautiful San Francisco morning on Crissy Field, where he let his company's new 4K drone, “Snap,” do just that.
New Horizons left Florida's Cape Canaveral launch pad on January 19, 2006, arrived over Pluto more than nine years later on July 14, 2015, and finally gave scientists its first images over Labor Day weekend, when its year-long, tediously slow data dump first began. Coming in at 2,000 bits per second (1/28th the speed of dial-up), these images - many of which are composited in various ways to form a final image - finally shed some light on what secrets Pluto's surface, atmosphere, and core might hold. All told, the results give sci-fi fanatics a run for their money.
Every now and then, it’s good to have a quick update to know what the biggest, fastest, or most affordable drives are for the money. We’re always on the go and in need of more storage, so portable hard drives go to the top of the list when new ones come out. Though it’s not that new, Western Digital’s newest and largest portable 3 TB, single-drive offering is still sometimes out of stock, but the 3 TB My Passport Ultra is certainly not alone in its segment.
Zeiss was long expected to announce at least one new Otus lens today (and I suppose they still might, although I wouldn't hold your breath). Instead, at least for now, Zeiss announced a new line of lenses for Nikon and Canon DSLRs under the moniker, "Milvus." Oddly enough, however, there are some interesting, stand-out differences between the Nikon and Canon versions.
Camera manufacturers have been in a megapixel race for some time. Canon has its new 5DS and 5DS R bodies, Nikon has its D810 and even the D810A for astrophotography, and PhaseOne, Hasselblad, Pentax, and even Leica are competing for medium format, high-megapixel territory. While Canon's 120-megapixel APS-H sensor is actually not entirely new (it was announced some time ago), the announcement that Canon is actually working to get it into a DSLR body and not just using it for bragging rights (their 250 MP sensor now lifts that crown) is a huge development. Meanwhile, Canon is among the first to announce some serious commitment to 8K video.
Professional hard drive and storage solutions company G-Technology unveiled a series of new hard drives that expand compatibility and flexibility with their growing Evolution Series solutions. Denoted with an "ev" in their product names, the Evolution Series products enable professionals to take portable project drives on the go, dock them to professional and extremely fast workstations in the office, and then go mobile again -- all with the same drive(s). Among the new devices is a creation from a G-Technology and RED Digital Cinema partnership: the ev Series Reader RED MINI-MAG Edition.
Steve Perry of Backcountry Gallery has a multitude of great, down-to-earth photography how-to videos, but the latest one tackles an age-old question we've all had numerous fights over. In spite of Perry's self-proclaimed non-scientific standards, perhaps we can finally put this one to rest.
The Department of Energy (DOE) recently gave final approval of $168 million in funding for what would be the most powerful (and likely most expensive) camera to date, created for the new, primarily National Science Foundation-funded Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) that will live on the peak of Chile's Cerro Pachòn.
Canon's EOS M was a good first-try mirrorless, compact APS-C camera that fell a bit short. After withholding the EOS M2 for other markets, the M3 comes to the United States after two generations of much-needed improvements. Those features, however, just might launch the platform into best-in-class territory -- at least on paper.
Canon's rumored 35mm follow-up is finally here. Apart from the obvious general increase in quality with the standard aspheric and ultra-low dispersion elements, the new lens specifically promises to further reduce chromatic aberration (important for wide-aperture lenses) while being the "ideal complement to the latest generation of Canon's high-resolution DSLRs" (i.e. the 50-megapixel Canon 5DS and 5DS R cameras).
Some photographers like that soft, ethereal feel as they specifically seek out types of plastic to stick in front of the lens, or even go so far as to buy defocus control lenses and LensBabies that will allow them to distort an otherwise true image. That has its value. But this isn’t for that. This is the new go-to guide for absolutely everything to know about how to get your images to be tack sharp. Get ready to dive in: this is a no-questions-left-behind study on sharpness.
Nikon's newest AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR isn't any ordinary lens. Aside from the obvious addition of VR, the lens features a number of other features, including a new 82mm filter size and increased weight. While it's hard to consider those last two qualities "features," if you thought it was a bit odd, you were right. There's a reason behind everything -- and the reasons behind the design changes prove this might be a lens to think on more than you otherwise would. It also starts making that hefty price tag feel a whole lot cheaper.
While this is more than your average lens announcement on all counts, Nikon's updated 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR with electromagnetic diaphragm and vibration reduction technologies certainly reigns supreme on fans' hit lists of lens replacements for 2015. Meanwhile, Nikon's 24mm f/1.8G ED fits snuggly between the 20mm and the 28mm variants of the same range, filling a final gap in an otherwise perfectly covered potential f/1.8G video lens kit. The 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR gives lovers of the refreshed 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G something to think about with its combination of extreme affordability and extra reach, despite its narrower wide end.
