News entries for October, 2014

 

 

HDR fans: Want a little more control than your camera can provide you with for your high dynamic range photos? If so, it's time to switch to your computer and really take charge of your photography -- and an update to Unified Color Technologies' consumer-friendly HDR Express app is here to help.

Based...

 

 

[UPDATE: We've just been informed that the high-ISO noise reduction processing has, in fact, not been finalized in the firmware of the NX1 used for these sample photos. Final image quality for higher ISO shots could potentially change with a full production version.]

[UDPATE 2, 3:45pm: We've now confirmed that...

 

 

Firmware Friday is all about Sony this week, as the company updates no less than six of its Alpha E-mount mirrorless cameras. If you've noticed slower-than-expected startup of your camera, fear not: The solution is here!

For all six cameras, the change made in current firmware is identical. Upon installing...

 

 

Nikon released an updated version of its 20mm prime lens back in September 2014 -- the Nikon 20mm f/1.8G ED AF-S -- offering a very fast f/1.8 aperture, plus a new design to match the look and build of their other "G" lenses, along with modern amenities such as ED glass and Nano Crystal Coat. The new lens isn't a...

 

 

Do you shoot film, either alongside your digital camera or exclusively? Perhaps you have a treasure trove of old photos you've never brought into the digital age, or maybe you did so years ago with a scanner of dubious quality, and feel you could extract more from those old negatives and slides. Either way,...

 

 

Nikon fans, the wait is over. Our Nikon D750 Shooter's Report is underway! Taking off to the wilderness of Maine, nature and landscape photographer Jeremy Gray has now returned with the first installment of his hands-on review of Nikon's latest full-frame DSLR.

In this part, Jeremy shares his thoughts on the...

 

 

Over the years, we've seen some pretty significant updates to French software company DxO Labs' flagship Optics Pro raw image processing app, not least of which was last year's Optics Pro 9, which brought a radically rethough noise-processing engine. A year later, though, the company has taken things to the...

 

 

Camera Deals of the Day is back! Yes, there's been a quite a bit of time since the last deals post, but boy, oh, boy, are there a lot of awesome deals for camera gear now. We've found major savings on everything from Nikon full-frame DSLRs, big bundle deals on Panasonic GH4s, lens and camera rebates on Fuji gear, a...

 

 

During the recent Photokina tradeshow in Germany, Ricoh didn't have any new products to show under its Pentax interchangeable-lens camera brand, but the company did have a new lens roadmap on hand, forecasting delivery of four new K-mount zoom lenses in 2014 or later. Today, the first of those four optics has...

 

 

Last spring, we told readers about a new support program launched by Sony in Japan, and aimed at professional photographers shooting with the company's Alpha cameras. If you're an Alpha-mount pro in the US market, we have good news for you today -- a similar scheme has just launched in the US market.

 

 

Can't get enough of black and white photography, but find it hard to recreate in print what you see on the screen? If so, you're the target customer for Epson's latest photo printer, the just-announced SureColor P600. Among the many features of this capable 13-inch model, Epson is focusing on its black and...

Nikon Rumors has spotted a number of interesting patents filed by Nikon and published by Egami and IPWatchdog. Among these, there's what appears to be a camera case for smartphones, a hotshoe-mounted add-on EVF that comes with a second accessory hot-shoe, a superzoom lens for the 1 system, as well as a technology for a combined 2D/3D display.

 

 

Back in early 2013, Ricoh first showed a prototype of one of the most unusual digital cameras we've ever seen, featuring twin fisheye lenses facing in opposite directions. The idea of that camera, which six months later hit retail as the Ricoh Theta, was that it would capture a full 360-degree spherical panorama in...

We've seen a good many timelapse videos in the past, many of them which were truly outstanding as they made use of some clever techniques, or simply because they were showing extraordinarily beautiful imagery. We've also seen a couple of prime example of night sky and storm photography. The latest video that we stumbled upon effectively...

 

 

After some extensive testing, shooting, filming, editing and comparing, the second installment of my Sony A7S Shooter's Report is now published. After investigating the handling as well as the insanely high ISO performance of this popular full-frame mirrorless camera, this second Shooter's Report section focuses on...

 

 

In the world of superzoom lenses for DSLRs, we thought that Tamron's 16-300mm f/3.5-6.3 APS-C lens with its 18.8x zoom factor was about as good as it gets, but we were apparently wrong. If you need even more zoom and an even longer reach, Canon now has you covered with a new 50-1000mm monster. Sort of.

This is...

Canon's EOS M series has long been the underdog of mirrorless systems, especially in the western parts of the world where compact system cameras still have a hard time against traditional DSLRs. Nevertheless, Canon is continuing to improve its mirrorless lineup, developing new cameras and lenses for the EOS M series.

Only a couple of months...

 

 

Way back in 2011, we reviewed Pentax's first medium-format digital camera, the 645D. We found lots to love, but also quite a few limitations -- although in fairness to Pentax, they were shared with all of its medium-format competition. Fast-forward three years, and the followup Pentax 645Z keeps the best of...

Liquid lenses are nothing new, the concept has been around for a while and has been proposed for use in smartphone cameras in the past. The advantage that a liquid lens has over a lens made of solid glass is that its shape can easily be changed, altering its refractive properties. This allows for both zooming and focusing without physically...