Items tagged with photography
Canon on Wednesday unveiled a brand new camera, though it's not another digital SLR (DSLR). As previously rumored, Canon announced its EOS R, a full-frame mirrorless camera featuring a redesigned RF mount and a 30.3 megapixel CMOS sensor powered by the company's DIGIC 8 image processor. It can shoot at up to 8 frames per second. This is a prosumer camera that is relatively compact and lightweight. It measures 5.35 x 3.87 x 3.32 inches based on CIPA standards (5.35 x 3.87 x 2.67 inches from grip to monitor) with a body weight of 1.28 pounds, or 1.46 pounds including the battery and SD memory card. Here's how it compares (in size) to the EOS 5D Mark IV... Canon is really pushing the new RF mount...
Read more...
It looks as though camera guru Canon is readying a full-frame mirrorless shooter for photographers who prefer to go that route as opposed to a digital SLR (DSLR). Called the EOS R, the upcoming mirrorless camera features a 30.3-megapixel full size CMOS sensor with dual pixel CMOS autofocus and a bunch of other goodies. Nothing is yet official, mind you, and all of the specs and photos are coming from a Japanese-language website that has leaked the details. We always caution to take these things with a grain of salt. That said, the information at least appears legitimate, and falls in line with other rumors that are out there. What's also interesting here is Canon's timing. Less than two weeks...
Read more...
Nikon has rolled out a new entry-level DSLR camera called the new D3500, and this camera is an affordable way for new users to step into the DSLR realm. While the Z7 and Z6 mirrorless cameras that Nikon rolled out earlier this month would set you back at least $2,600 in kit form, the new entry-level D3500 will cost you a much more affordable $849.95 when it lands in September including two lenses. Those lenses are the AF-P DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR and AF-P DX NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3G ED. If you want to spend even less to get into DSLR quality images, you can get a single-lens kit with only the 18-55mm lens and D3500 body for a much more affordable $499.95. For the money, the new D3500...
Read more...
DJI has created a lot of buzz in the drone and photography communities with the Mavic 2 that leaked last month. Along with a leaked image of that device came some alleged specifications. Later in the month, a catalog page for the new drone leaked that called out a Hasselblad camera for the Mavic 2 Pro with a 1-inch sensor, 31-minute flight time, and the ability to stream video and images over 5 miles. A Mavic 2 Zoom was also called out with a zoom lens. Mavic 2 Pro The drone is also tipped to be 360-degree hazard aware in the leaked catalog. One thing we didn’t know was when exactly the drone would be unveiled. We now have an answer to that and know that DJI is having an event tomorrow...
Read more...
Never believe what you see in online ads and television commercials. Have you ever seen a breakfast cereal commercial? It looks delicious, but that's not really milk you see in the bowl—a common replacement is glue, as it won't make the cereal soggy for photos. Lest anyone need a reminder that what you see might not actually be what it purports to be, Huawei has once again been 'caught' using an image take with a DSLR camera to demonstrate one its smartphone cameras. The latest incident involves an ad in Egypt for the company's Nova 3 handset. It features two central characters, one of which is actress Sarah Elshamy. In the ad, her presumed boyfriend is attempting to take a selfie with...
Read more...
If you want to take better photos, the first thing you should do is put in the research, or even take a photography class, to learn things like the rule of thirds and the interaction between ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. Once you have a firm grip on the basics, you'll be ready for a more capable camera than what is found on your smartphone or that discounted point-in-shoot in Kmart's sale bin. In the right hands, a digital SLR (DSLR) can take outstanding photos, and you can grab one at a hefty discount today. Over at Woot, the Amazon-owned flash sale site is offering Canon's EOS Rebel T6 DSLR with 18-55mm lens for $309.99. That is 44 percent off its $549 list price, and a good chunk below...
Read more...
Photographers do not always have the luxury of getting up close and personal with their subject matter. So, it's sometimes up to the zoom capabilities of the camera. Nikon is hoping to help with far away shots with its Coolpix P1000, a compact digital camera with an mind boggling 125x optical zoom, which is the world's highest on any digital camera to date. The zoom lens on the Coolpix P1000 has the 35mm-equivalent focal range of 24-3000mm. On top of the optical zoom capabilities, Nikon's latest camera has a 250x Dynamic Fine Zoom to shoot up to 6000mm, when those situations arise. "The Coolpix P1000 is equipped with a 125x optical zoom NIKKOR lens that covers the wide-angle 24mm to super-telephoto...
Read more...
Samsung is rolling out a new image sensor technology called ISOCELL Plus that aims to deliver better looking photos taken with a smartphone and other mobile devices, especially when lighting is less than ideal. In short, ISOCELL Plus allows CMOS image sensors to capture more ambient light, which in turn significantly increases light sensitivity and color fidelity in photos. This can help reduce the unwanted 'noise' and graininess that plague photos taken in darker areas. As any photographer will attest, proper lighting is the key to taking a nice looking photo. The more light (or photons) a camera sensor is able to taken in and hold, the more accurate it can transmit the right color information...
Read more...
Seeing is believing, but you can't always trust your eyes, especially now that we are living in the digital age of photography. For better or worse, programs like Photoshop make it all too easy to manipulate an image. It's great for photographers who want to clean up their images, but can also be used for nefarious purposes. Can you ever really be sure that what you're looking at is the real deal? Probably not, though to help with that very task, Adobe is leveraging artificial intelligence to detect when a photo has been doctored. On the surface, that might not seem like a big deal. However, we are living in an era where the bulk of information about any given topic is shared online. The ease...
Read more...
Photography is a tricky thing, and we're not even talking about principles like the rule-of-thirds or using Bokeh effects to spice up a snapshot. No, the real trick is dealing with that subject that has a tendency to close his or her eyes. In my neck of the woods, we call that subject "Tammy," and if it's a group photo, there's a 99.9 percent chance (rough estimate) she'll close her eyes right as the photo is taken. This leads to laughs and groans, followed by a retake, but what if there was another way? Facebook is working on that very thing. Over at Facebook Research, the dudes and dudettes in white coats (that's how we envision them, anyway) have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) scheme...
Read more...
Blackmagic rolled out a slick-looking new cinema camera this week at the National Association of Broadcasters Show. It's a camera that uses a compact handheld still camera design and records video in 4K. The big deal here is that the cinema camera has a very affordable price tag that should put it right in reach of the movie shooters and videophiles out there looking for 4K support. The retail price for the camera body is $1,295 and it uses lenses with the Active MFT mount. The body can control iris, focus, and zoom on supported lenses and the dynamic range has 13 stops and the effective sensor size of the camera is 18.96mm x 10mm. Supported shooting resolutions include 4096 x 2160 (4K DCI),...
Read more...
Canon has unveiled its latest mirrorless interchangeable lens camera called the EOS M50. Canon is very clear in calling this camera an entry-level unit, and the camera maker wants smartphone users to think of this as their step up from primary shooter. The EOS M50 will most certainly offer better image quality than any smartphone camera out there. M50 has the distinction of being the first EOS M-series camera able to record 24fps video at 4K resolution. Canon also fits the M50 with a Dual Pixel CMOS AF, which is a 24.1MP APS-C CMOS sensor that captures images with less noise and higher definition in low-light situations. "Our core goal when developing new entry-level interchangeable lens...
Read more...
Canon has announced a new digital camera that has a pair of firsts for the company's point-and-shoot camera line. The major feature of the new flagship G1 X Mark III PowerShot camera is that it has the largest imaging sensor ever crammed inside a Canon point-and-shoot camera: a 24.3MP APS-C CMOS sensor.The other big feature for the camera is that the G1 X Mark III is the first Canon point-and-shoot compact offering to use Dual Pixel CMOS AF (Auto Focus) technology. The massive image sensor promises to deliver "fantastic image quality in both stills and video." The sensor is paired with a wide-angle 24-72mm 3x zoom lens with Optical Image Stabilization. That lens has an f/2.8-5.6 aperture for...
Read more...
Being a child of the '80s, literally everyone I knew had a Polaroid instant camera. They were a staple of every holiday and birthday party growing up and if you open the photo albums at the home of anyone around in the '80s up to the early '90s, you will find hoards of Polaroid pictures in there. Nostalgia is a big selling point for all sorts of devices; just look all the money Nintendo is raking in on its miniaturized retro consoles like the NES Classic Edition and the pre-order hype surrounding the SNES Classic Edition. If your nostalgia leans more towards photos that you can watch develop and have in physical format immediately, the new Polaroid OneStep 2 camera is just the ticket. The...
Read more...
For many consumers, choosing a new smartphone is a difficult decision that usually boils down to a few prominent devices. With the current generation of smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy S8+ and the new LG V30 are likely to be among the most popular options for consumers looking for a large screen device. The Galaxy S8+ is widely considered one of the best Android-based smartphones on the market. And although it was just announced a few days ago, we have already spent some hands on time with the LG V30 and figure it's lining-up to be a fantastic Android flagship device that is worthy of serious consideration as well. With high-end phones that feature similar processors and have...
Read more...
Qualcomm is bringing advanced depth-sensing technology to the Android ecosystem, and doing so in a big way. Through the expansion of its Spectra Module Program, Qualcomm's camera technology will introduce a host of goodies to Android devices, including improved biometric authentication, high resolution depth sensing, and multi-frame noise reduction for superior photographic quality snapshots. "Whether used for computational photography, video recording, or for computer vision applications that require accurate motion tracking, it’s clear that power efficient camera image signal processing has become more important for the next generation of mobile user experiences," said Tim Leland, vice president...
Read more...
Do you remember when Nokia went all-in with Microsoft's Windows Phone platform? While Nokia chose to go with an underdog, it hoped to compete in the smartphone space by focusing on camera performance, and many of its devices featured camera sensors with high megapixel counts. Well, much has changed since then. These days HMD Global owns the rights to market Nokia branded phones (and tablets), and while the landscape is decidedly different this time around, camera performance is still a point of focus. As such, the Finnish startup announced today that it has sign an exclusive partnership with Zeiss to design optics and software for upcoming Nokia phones. Zeiss is no stranger to the Nokia brand,...
Read more...
Samsung is officially owns an image sensor brand. Adding to its many product segments—smartphones, televisions, displays, washing machines, and the list goes one—Samsung today introduced its image sensor brand called ISOCELL at the 2017 Mobile World Congress in Shanghai. Fittingly enough, the new brand is named after Samsung's own ISOCELL technology. Might we find this integrated into the company's forthcoming Galaxy Note 8? More on that in a moment. This is not actually Samsung's first foray into image sensors. Samsung first introduced its ISOCELL technology in 2013. What it does is separate each pixel with a physical barrier that reduces unwanted color cross-talk among pixels, which results...
Read more...
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.8"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Facebook tried on at least two occasions to acquire Snapchat, once for $1 billion and then again for $3 billion. Snapchat's founders boldly rebuffed both offers and now several years later Snapchat is more popular than ever. The asking price might be too high for Facebook at this point, but rather than acquire the photo and video sharing app, it appears the new strategy is to emulate Snapchat. Mark Zuckerberg and...
Read more...
Little did we know it, but Facebook's engineers have been experimenting with a computer vision platform that is able to sort through photographs and search for what's contained in them, even when they're not tagged or captioned. For example, the platform can tell if the photo has a tiger in it or if someone is wearing a black shirt. Facebook initially worked on this to boost the experience for the visually impaired but has now been incorporated into the social network's search function for all users. This started out as a small research project. Engineers needed a general-purpose platform that they leverage at scale, so they built one and called it FBLearner Flow. In the beginning, there was...
Read more...
Nikon has a new entry-level digital SLR (DSLR) camera for anyone who's outgrown their point-and-shoot and is looking for something better suited for serious photography. It's the Nikon D3400 and it's designed to help budding photography buffs learn more about the hobby without feeling intimidated by a swath of advanced settings. The way it does that is through Nikon's Guide Mode, an integrated feature that provides step-by-step assistance when adjusting camera settings. Photographers can turn the top Command Dial to Guide Mode and see a full range of capture options, which the camera then guides them through to snap the desired shot. It's intended for first-time DSLR owners and helps make the...
Read more...
When you're the largest social networking site on the planet, you get to call the shots, good or bad. To that end, Facebook is wielding its power to strong-arm users into installing its standalone photo sharing app called Moments -- a free download available on Google Play and iTunes -- or you can kiss your previously synced photos goodbye. That's one way to propel your app to the top spot in the App Store, as Moments currently sits. And it will probably stay there at least for a couple of weeks. Facebook is warning users that they have until July 7, 2016, to either move their synced photos to Moments or download their synced albums. Once the deadline passes, Facebook will delete albums...
Read more...
