Digital Photography Review Newsletter: Wednesday, 2 October 2013

	Digital Photography Review Newsletter Wednesday, 2 October 2013 The most popular weekly photography newsletter, with over 300,000 subscribers
Hello! And welcome to the 477th Digital Photography Review newsletter. As the year runs down we're still keeping very busy. In the past few days we posted a detailed review of Fujifilm's 55-200mm telephoto zoom for its X-series interchangeable lens cameras and I finished-up what we've called a 'first impressions review' of the Canon PowerShot G16. Our original studio work hit a snag, but we'll be adding studio comparison shots as soon as we can. I've also been putting a lot of time into creating some educational content for dpreview, starting with useful (I hope) updates to our existing DSLR, lens and mirrorless camera buying guides. And there's more on the way. It's been pretty stormy here in Seattle for the past few days, but despite the inclement weather we've published a small gallery of sample images from Nikon's new Coolpix P7800 (see below). Right! Let's take a look at some recent content highlights! Canon PowerShot G16 First Impressions Review Canon's PowerShot G16 might not be a massive upgrade compared to its predecessor, but it is a a solid camera that evolves the G-series in some interesting ways. In this article, we take a look at the G16's real-world performance and dig into its new Wi-Fi feature as well as taking a critical look at its improved video mode. We've also added many more images to our previously-published gallery of real-world samples. Click through for a link to our first-impressions review. Click here to read our first impressions review of the Canon PowerShot G16 Fujifilm XF 55-200mm F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS review Last week we posted our review of the FUJINON XF 55-200mm F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS, Fujifilm's first telephoto zoom for its X system mirrorless cameras. We've been out and about with the lens taking hundreds of real-world pictures, and analyzed them closely to see what it can deliver in terms of image quality. We've also looked at how the system's integrated software corrections for lens aberrations such as distortion affect the final out-of-camera JPEGs in comparison to RAW files. Click the links below to read our review. Click here to read our review of the Fujifilm XF 55-200mm F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS Nikon Coolpix P7800 real-world samples Nikon's new Coolpix P7800 arrived in our Seattle office a few days ago and we've been doing our best to get as many sample images as possible on it, despite the unpredictable autumn weather. We've managed to create a small gallery of samples, taken in a range of different conditions to show off what the camera can do. There's more on the way, but for now, check out our gallery of pictures from Nikon's newest zoom compact flagship. Click here to view our gallery of real-world samples from the Nikon Coolpix P7800 Can computer corrections make simple lenses look good? Modern lenses tend to be large and expensive, with multiple glass elements combining to minimise optical aberrations. But what if we could just use a cheap single-element lens, and remove those aberrations computationally instead? This is the question scientists at the University of British Columbia are asking, and they've come up with a way of improving images from a simple single element lens that gives pretty impressive results. Click through to read more. Click here to read more about how computer corrections can benefit simple optics Latest and greatest smartphones battle it out in mobile photo comparison Thinking of upgrading to the latest smartphone, and want to see which takes the best photos? We pit four top photocentric mobile devices in an imaging showdown to test three new smartphones — the Sony Xperia Z1, Nokia Lumia 1020 and LG G2 — and Samsung's Galaxy S4 Zoom in real world shooting scenarios. See how they fared in our tests at our sister site, connect.dpreview.com. Click here to read our mobile photo comparison shootout over at connect.dpreview.com What's coming up? We're working hard this week on getting some of our outstanding reviews finished, and work continues on our reviews of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7 and the Canon EOS 70D, as well as the Olympus E-P5 and Olympus OM-D E-M1. We're also expecting some new products to be announced as we move into October, and of course we'll be bringing you full coverage of anything that should happen to be unveiled this autumn. Thanks for reading! Until next time... Barney WTD #1436 Check out What The Duck in our Link Directory   GearShop update - a message from Laura It's all about what's on sale this week at GearShop! Starting today, save $200 on the DPReview Gold Award winning Fujifilm X-E1 mirrorless camera kit. It's available in black or silver, and the kit includes the excellent all-around companion 18-55mm F2.8-4 R LM OIS lens. Canon's best glass is on sale with big mail-in rebates of up to $300 when you purchase select L-series lenses. Most Canon lenses, flashes, and popular DSLRs have significant instant savings too. Now is a great time to round out your kit with the new lens or flash you've been thinking about. Nikon also has some impressive deals on select DSLRs, mirrorless, and high-end COOLPIX cameras. The best Nikon deal? Save $500 instantly on the D7100 two-lens bundle. The bundle includes the D7100 camera body, Nikon's new 18-140mm DX VR lens, 55-300mm DX VR lens, a 32GB SDHC card, camera bag, and the WU-1A wireless adapter. As always, everything in the store ships free with 2-day delivery on top of these big savings. Until next week - Laura and the GearShop Team
News updates X is for zoom? Our Fujifilm XF 55-200mm F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS review Published on Wednesday, September 25, 2013 11:10:33 AM GMT We've just posted our review of the FUJINON XF 55-200mm F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS, Fujifilm's first telephoto zoom for its X system mirrorless cameras. We've been out and about with the lens taking hundreds of real-world pictures, and looked at them closely to find out what it can deliver in terms of image quality. We've also looked at how the system's integrated software corrections for lens aberrations such as distortion affect the final out-of-camera JPEGs in comparison to RAW files. Click through to read all about it.   Read full story → DxO Labs releases ViewPoint 2, with added lens corrections Published on Wednesday, September 25, 2013 2:27:14 PM GMT DxO Labs has released version 2 of its distortion-correction software Viewpoint. Designed to correct for perspective distortions such as converging verticals, Viewpoint can now also use DxO Optics Modules to correct for the lens's barrel or pincushion distortion. It can work both as standalone software and as a plug-in, which is now compatible with Adobe Photoshop Elements and Apple Aperture (as well as Adobe Photoshop CC and Lightroom 5). A one month free trial version is available to download now, and Viewpoint 2 is on sale at reduced prices until 20th October. Click through for more info and download links. Read full story → Canon PowerShot G16 First Impressions Review Published on Thursday, September 26, 2013 12:00:15 PM GMT Canon's PowerShot G16 might not be a massive upgrade compared to its predecessor, but it is a a solid camera that evolves the G-series in some interesting ways. In this article, we take a look at the G16's real-world performance and dig into its new Wi-Fi feature as well as taking a critical look at its improved video mode. We've also added many more images to our previously-published gallery of real-world samples. Click through for a link to our first-impressions review.  Read full story → Tablets for photographers: A versatile tool in your capture workflow Published on Thursday, September 26, 2013 2:47:15 PM GMT Tablets may be used as versatile tools in your photographic workflow, providing instant feedback as you shoot on a much larger format screen than your camera's tiny LCD and helping you experiment with a final look while you still have the opportunity to make major changes on set. We're looking at tools and tips for integrating a tablet into a live shoot with a DSLR, whether you're shooting tethered or wirelessly. Learn more on connect.dpreview.com. Read full story → Google+ gets improved Raw-to-JPEG conversion Published on Thursday, September 26, 2013 8:35:35 PM GMT Google+ has introduced improved Raw-to-JPEG conversion for a number of cameras with some help from Nik Photography. As before, Raw files may be uploaded to Google+ for storage, and are automatically converted to JPEGs for previewing. The conversion from Raw has been fine-tuned for about 70 cameras, including high-end models like the Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Nikon D800 and D800E. Click through for the full list of cameras and see how it handles a Raw file from the Sony RX100. Read full story → Latest and greatest smartphones battle it out in mobile photo comparison Published on Friday, September 27, 2013 6:54:22 PM GMT Thinking of upgrading to the latest smartphone, and want to see which takes the best photos? We pit four top photocentric mobile devices in an imaging showdown to test three new smartphones — the Sony Xperia Z1, Nokia Lumia 1020 and LG G2 — and Samsung's Galaxy S4 Zoom in real world shooting scenarios. See how they fared in our tests on connect.dpreview.com. Read full story → Miniature wide angle lens under development at UCSD Published on Friday, September 27, 2013 9:40:58 PM GMT Researchers at University of California, San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering are working on a miniature wide angle lens, taking advantage of the benefits of spherical lenses. At just a tenth of the size of a traditional wide angle lens, a spherical lens can create wide angle images without chromatic aberration or loss of resolution at corners. The challenge is capturing the lens' spherical projection on a flat sensor. The team have overcome this by using optical fibers fused to the rear of the lens to relay light to electronic sensors. Click through to read more. Read full story → What The Duck #1436 Published on Saturday, September 28, 2013 2:08:36 AM GMT We've been fans of Aaron Johnson's comic strip 'What the Duck' for years. 'WTD' is one of the best satirical comic strips in the world, and it's published here every week, as well as being included in our weekly newsletter. Barbed, topical and always amusing, we hope you enjoy WTD as much as we do.  Read full story → Fair use? US stamp featuring photo of monument nets sculptor $650,000 Published on Sunday, September 29, 2013 11:00:00 AM GMT Heard the one about the sculptor awarded over half a million dollars because a stamp was made including a war memorial he'd designed? At first that may sound surprising, but reading the court's judgement (and the rejections of the various defenses put forward by the US Postal Service), is an informative lesson about copyright and fair use. Click here to read more. Read full story → Roger Cicala investigates accuracy of lens adapters Published on Monday, September 30, 2013 11:00:00 AM GMT Mount adapters are incredibly useful for their ability to make lenses from one manufacturer usable with camera bodies from another. But do they have any impact on image quality? LensRentals' Roger Cicala, not one to take manufacturer's claims at face value, investigated. Knowing that slight mis-alignments between a lens and even its native mount can cause softness in images, the added complexity with a lens adapter in the mix seemed likely to cause more problems. His findings are indeed interesting.  Read full story → National Geographic's 125th anniversary celebrations continue Published on Monday, September 30, 2013 5:27:38 PM GMT As part of the continuing celebration of its 125th anniversary, National Geographic once again features Steve McCurry's famous 'Afghan Girl' photograph on the cover of October's 'The Photography Issue'. Along with the new issue, National Geographic has launched some supporting content, as well as a new blog called Proof, offering 'new avenues for our audience to get a behind-the-scenes look at the National Geographic storytelling process.'  Read full story → Can computer corrections make simple lenses look good? Published on Monday, September 30, 2013 5:51:41 PM GMT Modern lenses tend to be large and expensive, with multiple glass elements combining to minimise optical aberrations. But what if we could just use a cheap single-element lens, and remove those aberrations computationally instead? This is the question scientists at the University of British Columbia are asking, and they've come up with a way of improving images from a simple single element lens that gives pretty impressive results. Click through to read more.   Read full story → Fashion photography with the 41MP Nokia Lumia 1020 Published on Tuesday, October 1, 2013 11:00:10 AM GMT We all know that smartphones are being equipped with better and better cameras, but few of us would ever consider using one for 'serious' photography except in an emergency. Nokia's 'conversations' blog is featuring an interesting project by its own 'camera expert', Ari Partinen and colleague Marko Saari, who wanted to see whether the new Nokia Lumia 1020, which features a 41 megapixel 'PureView' sensor, could hold its own in a studio fashion shoot. The results might surprise you.  Read full story → Leica announces Elmarit-S 45 mm f/2.8 ASPH wide-angle lens Published on Tuesday, October 1, 2013 2:07:52 PM GMT Leica has announced the Elmarit-S 45 mm f/2.8 ASPH lens for its medium format S system. With an angle of view equivalent to a 35mm lens on full frame, it offers a classic moderate wide-angle field of view. Like several of the other S lenses it'll be available in two versions, either with or without an in-lens 'Central Shutter' (that allows flash sync at shutter speeds up to 1/1000 sec). At the same time, Leica is offering firmware updates for its S, S2 and S2-P cameras to give 'optimum functionality' with the lens. The Elmarit-S 45 mm f/2.8 ASPH will be in dealers this month at a price of £4650, or £5500 for the CS model. Read full story → Site update: two new forums Published on Tuesday, October 1, 2013 6:33:58 PM GMT Just a quick update on a couple of new forums we've added over the weekend. The first is Feedback and Suggestions, a place for your questions, feedback and suggestions for the DPReview team (both technical and editorial). We hope this will be a more efficient and more effective method than the feedback form / email system we had previously, and will ensure we don't miss bugs, suggestions and feedback that until now has been spread over dozens of forums. The second new forum is Photographic Science and Technology: a home for those wishing to discuss  advanced technical matters related to imaging science outside the brand-specific forums. It's also intended to be the place for less technically-minded readers to pose questions of our community's smartest eggheads. Read full story →
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