News entries for September, 2014

 

 

Ever since the Nikon 1-series launched back in late 2011 with the V1 and J1, it has divided opinions. 1-series cameras are smaller than most rivals, and they offer some truly impressive performance, but while they've done quite well with consumer photographers in some markets, enthusiasts have been a tougher...

When the sun unleashes a certain type of solar flare out into the surrounding cosmos in our general direction, the result is often an impacting plasma cloud bombarding our magnetosphere. OK - so that's a mouthful, but the result to us down here on Earth is generally twofold, as havoc can be wreaked on our power grids and electrical systems, while incredibly beautiful skies...

 

 

The Canon G7 X, the "Big C's" answer to the powerful and popular Sony RX100-series of premium, large-sensor compact cameras, was recently introduced at this year's Photokina trade show. Now, our review sample unit has arrived and is already undergoing rigorous testing in our laboratory. 

With a large, 20.2MP...

 

 

Superzoom cameras are a popular lot, and more people seem to be flocking to them these days, at least here at IR. The race for longer range continues, heating up this year with the farthest achievable focal length to date for an all-in-one superzoom, namely the Nikon P600 which goes to a record-setting 1,440mm...

GoPro had already built a 4K video mode into its Hero3+ Black Edition, but at only 15 frames per seconds users were understandably asking for 'proper' 4K to find its way into the tiny action cams sooner rather than later. And now, a year after the introduction of the Hero3+, GoPro finally announces its first fully 4K-capable action cam, the...

For the working photographer, storage is a very important concern. With ever-rising megapixel numbers and bit-depths, storage solutions need to offer a lot of space for current as well as older projects. On top of that, the ideal storage solution also includes an option to back-up important data.

G-Technology has been creating storage...

 

Jay Kelbley, Senior Marketing Manager, Digital Imaging, Samsung Electronics

6.7 Billion pixels per second image readout? Check. 240fps hardware-based object-recognition and tracking? Check.

Without question, the Samsung NX1 was truly one of the standout products at the Photokina 2014 tradeshow in Cologne, Germany,...

 

 

Friday means firmware, and this week, there's quite a lot of it on which to report. Predominantly, our Firmware Friday roundup this week includes printers, but there are also two camera models in the mix. We'll start with those two models, from Pentax and Nikon respectively.

First up, we have the...

The exchange of camera parts was frequently done back in the day when cameras were all-manual and mechanical. Especially in the Leica world, it's not uncommon to find cameras that contain parts of different models, such as the body from camera A and the viewfinder of camera B, for example. With digital cameras, things are a bit more...

If there's a definitive authority on travel, landscape and wildlife photography, it's National Geographic. With decades of experience in these areas, it's safe to assume that the Society's editors and photographers have a pretty good idea about what kind of photographic gear works best for taking pictures of wild animals, foreign countries or...

 

 

iPhoneographers: If you're using an iPhone 4S or later and you've been putting of updating to iOS 8 while the inevitable kinks are worked out, now might be the time to reevaluate your decision. A new third-party camera app is here that takes advantage of the new features in Apple's latest, greatest mobile OS,...

 

 

For the enthusiast or pro, you can't beat complex apps like Adobe's Photoshop and Photoshop Lightroom that provide every control and feature under the sun, the better to extract the maximum from our photos. But what of the humble consumer photographer? Apps like these can be very intimidating, but if you've...

When Panasonic first introduced its 4K shooting mirrorless camera, the GH4, they also announced that the camera would be compatible with external 4K and HD recorders via the internal HDMI output and the SDI outputs of the YAGH add-on interface unit. At the time, however, suitably portable (and affordable) 4K recorders were hard to find.

In...

 

 

Ever browse your photos in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, and then find yourself wishing you could remember which focus points were active for a particular shot? Well, now you can, courtesy of a cool new plug-in from developer Chris Reimold. (And it's the best kind of cool, as well -- free cool!)

The Show Focus...

 

 

Want to take photos or shoot movies on the 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands controlled by the US Forest Service, and then sell your works without first obtaining a permit? Arguably, since the introduction of the 1964 Wilderness Act that has been illegal. The act states that "except as...

 

 

Now that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have landed, the reviews are pouring in -- including some which focus on the new models' photo features. Yesterday, we reported on an extremely positive review from the folks at DxO Labs, claiming these new cameraphones to be the best they've tested yet. Not every review is...

 

 

And so, we've come to the end of Leica's Photokina 2014 camera announcements, saving the company's new flagship, full-frame rangefinder for last. The Leica M-P takes the design of the previous Leica M, adds in one crucial feature from the earlier Leica M9 whose absence we all felt, and doubles the image...

 

 

Although Olympus is poised to release a 300mm f/4 Zuiko Pro lens in the near future, supertelephoto lenses have arguably been a bit of a weak spot in the Micro Four Thirds lens lineup. While it's almost a sure bet that the 300mm f/4 Pro will be priced at around the $1500 mark or above, for more budget-conscious...

 

 

As we come within sight of the finish line on our coverage of camera announcements at the 2014 Photokina tradeshow, we reach the single product that stands out as probably the most unique -- and yet divisive -- of the bunch. The Leica M Edition 60 will only be sold in extremely limited quantities, but that...