Digital Photography Review Newsletter: Tuesday, August 25, 2015

The Digital Photography Review Newsletter for Tuesday, August 25, 2015

The Digital Photography Review Newsletter The most popular weekly photography newsletter, with over 400,000 subscribers Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Welcome to the 575th Digital Photography Review newsletter. First - a reminder, in case you missed last week's newsletter: We're putting on a show! Save the date for PIX 2015 Join us in Seattle and online for PIX 2015, a live-streamed expo, conference and interactive photo playground! On October 6th and 7th we'll be hosting two days of talks, hands-on photo activities, demos and inspiration for your photography at the Seattle Center, home of the Space Needle. The event is open to the public and will also be streamed live online. Our featured speakers include: wedding and portrait photographer Bambi Cantrell, Robert Hurt of NASA, Lynette Johnson of Soulumination, Joe McNally, Jared Polin of FroKnowsPhoto, celebrity portrait photographer Brian Smith and you won’t want to miss our keynote speaker Cristina Mittermeier. Christina is a celebrated writer and photographer who among a career's worth of achievements, founded the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP). RSVP on Facebook to let us know you're coming and stay tuned to PIX2015.com to learn more about our speakers, sign up for email updates and register for tickets to the show. See you at PIX! Click here to learn more about PIX 2015 Bang for the Buck: Olympus OM-D E-M10 II Review The Olympus OM-D E-M10 II is the next evolution of an already impressive camera. The E-M10 II introduces 5-axis stabilization to the entry-level OM-D line, while it maintains the 16.1MP Live Mos sensor and TruePic VII engine of its predecessor. A number of ergonomic and feature upgrades make the E-M10 II an enticing little ILC at a nice price. Does it deliver? Read our full review of the Olympus OM-D E-M10 II Sony Alpha 7R II: Real-world ISO invariance study The recently announced Sony Alpha 7R II packs a lot of groundbreaking features, and one of its highlights is the new full-frame 42.4MP BSI-CMOS sensor. Sony sensors tend to show very high Raw dynamic range due to low noise characteristics, but we wanted to take a closer look at exactly how little noise the camera itself contributes to images. Check out our real-world study of ISO invariance with the Sony a7R II Crazy 8: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 sample gallery The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 is the follow-up to the company's successful GX7 rangefinder-style mirrorless camera. The GX8 boasts a new 20MP Four Thirds sensor and 'Dual IS', which combines sensor and lens shift image stabilization for better results. The camera's ISO range tops out at 25,600 and it offers a max burst rate of 10 fps with single AF and 6 fps with continuous AF. We've been shooting with one for a little while - check out our gallery of samples! Take a look at our gallery of samples from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 Readers' Showcase: Zhi Yuen Yap Zhi Yuen Yap finds living in New Zealand a blessing and a curse. Getting off the beaten path to find unique locations can mean braving harsh, unpredictable weather and inhospitable terrain. Based on his photos, though, we'd say he's been pretty well rewarded for his troubles. Take a look at his work and find out more about him in our Q&A. Read our Q&A with DPReview reader Zhi Yuen Yap Sony Alpha 7R II can match or beat DSLR low light AF performance When the Sony Alpha 7R II was announced, it promised a lot of game-changing features, but its low light AF capability was an unknown. We've already seen some of the incredible continuous AF abilities of the a7R II, including pinpoint eye AF for even moving subjects, but a lot of pros may be wondering: 'if I ditch my DSLR for some of the advanced AF features the a7R II offers, will I be sacrificing low-light AF performance?' Check out our low-light AF tests with the Sony A7R II What else is coming up? We're hard at work on show planning for PIX, but the reviews aren't taking a back seat. We're also preparing to publish a detailed shooting experience report on the Sony Cyber-shot RX10 II, and we're wrapping up the lengthy process of investigating shutter and mirror vibration issues with Canon's EOS 5DS / R, the Nikon D810 and Sony's a7R II. Once this is done, we're really hoping to get all three reviews published in short order. Thanks for your patience! Barney

News updates Samsung NX1 firmware 1.40 adds digital video IS and AF while zooming Published Monday, August 24, 2015 9:46:31 PM GMT Samsung has released another firmware update for the NX1 mirrorless camera, taking the model from firmware version 1.32 to 1.40. The newest software improves existing features such as the audio quality from external microphones, and adds new features including video digital image stabilization. Read more Apple offers to replace faulty iPhone 6 Plus camera modules Published Monday, August 24, 2015 7:19:55 PM GMT Recently we've heard reports of some Apple iPhone 6 Plus cameras failing and producing blurry images. Apple has acknowledged the problem and is offering to replace the faulty camera unit for free. Read more Sony Alpha 7R II: Real-world ISO invariance study Published Monday, August 24, 2015 3:37:00 PM GMT The recently announced Sony Alpha 7R II packs a lot of groundbreaking features, and one of its highlights is the new full-frame 42.4MP BSI-CMOS sensor. Sony sensors tend to show very high Raw dynamic range due to low noise characteristics, but we wanted to take a closer look at exactly how little noise the camera itself contributes to images. Read on Crazy 8: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 sample gallery Published Monday, August 24, 2015 11:00:00 AM GMT The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 is the follow-up to the company's successful GX7 rangefinder-style mirrorless camera. The GX8 boasts a new 20MP Four Thirds sensor and 'Dual IS', which combines sensor and lens shift image stabilization for better results. The camera's ISO range tops out at 25,600 and it offers a max burst rate of 10 fps with single AF and 6 fps with continuous AF. We've been shooting with one for a little while - check out our gallery of samples! Readers' Showcase: Zhi Yuen Yap Published Sunday, August 23, 2015 7:00:00 AM GMT Zhi Yuen Yap finds living in New Zealand a blessing and a curse. Getting off the beaten path to find unique locations can mean braving harsh, unpredictable weather and inhospitable terrain. Based on his photos, though, we'd say he's been pretty well rewarded for his troubles. Take a look at his work and find out more about him in our Q&A. Read more Parallax View: Apple patent hints at 3D effect in photos Published Friday, August 21, 2015 6:59:00 PM GMT Patent spotting site Patentlyaple has discovered an Apple patent application titled "Parallax Depth Rendering" which describes a methodology for rendering images and video that, when viewed on a standard 2D display, give the impression of showing a 3D view. Click through for more details Nikon delays AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR lens until October Published Friday, August 21, 2015 5:46:00 PM GMT In a press release on its Japanese website, Nikon has announced that its new AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm F2.8E ED VR lens - announced earlier this month - is being delayed from its original shipping date of 27th August to October. No specific reason for the delay has been given, only that it is necessary to 'satisfy the customer'. Click through for more information Huawei's Honor 7i comes with 13MP flip-out camera Published Thursday, August 20, 2015 6:36:00 PM GMT Huawei has launched a new smartphone - the Honor 7i. In many ways the Honor 7i is very similar to its sister model the Honor 7. However, one major differentiator between the two models is the camera. On the 7i the Honor 7's conventional 20MP module has been replaced with a 13MP camera unit with dual-LED flash that, thanks to a flip-out mechanism, can be used as both front and rear camera. Click through to read more at connect.dpreview.com Sony Alpha 7R II can match or beat DSLR low light AF performance Published Thursday, August 20, 2015 12:30:00 PM GMT When the Sony Alpha 7R II was announced, it promised a lot of game-changing features, but its low light AF capability was an unknown. We've already seen some of the incredible continuous AF abilities of the a7R II, including pinpoint eye AF for even moving subjects, but a lot of pros may be wondering: 'if I ditch my DSLR for some of the advanced AF features the a7R II offers, will I be sacrificing low-light AF performance?' Find out in our video MIT proposes new approach to HDR with 'Modulo' camera Published Thursday, August 20, 2015 12:00:00 PM GMT Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have come up with a theory for a new way to solve the issue of bright skies burning out in a landscape photograph. Using what they call Unbounded High Dynamic Range photography they are working on the idea of pixels that reset themselves once they have reached their capacity for recording light so that they can carry on recording - and resetting if necessary. Click through for more details Loki camera rig transforms into four ultra-portable forms Published Wednesday, August 19, 2015 6:11:59 PM GMT UK company Scratch Ideas is seeking £25,000 in funding on crowdsourcing site Kickstarter for a new camera mount it's calling 'Loki'. Loki can be transformed into a dolly, underslung rig, shoulder rig, and cage, and folds up into a portable rectangular brick about the size of a battery grip for transportation and storage. Click through for more details Leica M9 falls from balcony onto granite, granite comes off worse Published Wednesday, August 19, 2015 6:00:00 PM GMT Leica has a reputation for making pretty rugged cameras, going back more than 100 years. But nobody would expect a rangefinder to survive a fall from a balcony, onto granite tiles. However, if a recent post on Chinese social network Sina Weibo is to be believed, that's exactly what happened to a Leica M9 recently, and somehow it survived the experience. Click through to read more iFixit tears down Sony's new a7R II to find its secrets Published Wednesday, August 19, 2015 3:52:00 PM GMT Earlier this week we took you 'under the hood' of the Sony a7R II, metaphorically. Now, thanks to our friends at iFixit, it's possible to take a literal look inside the a7R II. Ifixit took delivery of a production sample a7R II at around the same time as we did, but while we were out testing its AF system and checking to see how its sensor measures up, the hard-working crew at iFixit were busy taking it to pieces. Click through to see what they found   Gitzo updates Traveler range with stronger legs and new locks Published Wednesday, August 19, 2015 10:00:00 AM GMT Premium tripod manufacturer Gitzo has released updates to its well-known Traveler range of carbon fiber tripods. The company has introduced its Carbon eXact carbon fiber tubing to the range, which it claims makes the legs stronger. Read more Apple Digital Camera Raw update extends compatibility to Sony RX100 IV, Leica Q Published Tuesday, August 18, 2015 7:18:07 PM GMT Apple's latest Digital Camera Raw update for its Mac OS X extends support to a handful of new and notable cameras, including the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 IV, a7R II and Leica Q. Read more Pete Ashton's 'Sitting In Stagram' shows image degradation after 90 reposts Published Tuesday, August 18, 2015 6:49:55 PM GMT What happens when you screen-cap and re-post a photo to Instagram 90 times? Artist Pete Ashton's 'Sitting In Stagram' project shows just that - and it's not pretty. Read more Modular, open-source Focal Camera lets you design your own SLR Published Tuesday, August 18, 2015 12:00:00 PM GMT Focal Camera is an open source project designed to teach participants about the inner workings of a camera. With access to a laser cutter, a supply of 3mm plywood and the directions provided, you can be well on your way to creating a camera of your own. Read more

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Digital Photography Review Newsletter: Tuesday, August 18, 2015

The Digital Photography Review Newsletter for Tuesday, August 18, 2015

The Digital Photography Review Newsletter The most popular weekly photography newsletter, with over 400,000 subscribers Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Welcome to the 574th Digital Photography Review newsletter. First - an announcement: We're putting on a show! Save the date for PIX 2015 Join us in Seattle and online for PIX 2015, a live-streamed expo, conference and interactive photo playground! On October 6th and 7th we'll be hosting two days of talks, hands-on photo activities, demos and inspiration for your photography at the Seattle Center, home of the Space Needle. The event is open to the public and will also be streamed live online. Our featured speakers include: wedding and portrait photographer Bambi Cantrell, Robert Hurt of NASA, Lynette Johnson of Soulumination, Joe McNally, Jared Polin of FroKnowsPhoto, celebrity portrait photographer Brian Smith and you won’t want to miss our keynote speaker Cristina Mittermeier. Christina is a celebrated writer and photographer who among a career's worth of achievements, founded the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP). RSVP on Facebook to let us know you're coming and stay tuned to PIX2015.com to learn more about our speakers, sign up for email updates and register for tickets to the show. See you at PIX! Click here to learn more about PIX 2015 Under the hood: A closer look at the Sony a7R II There's a lot of new technology in the Sony a7R II, and here we were briefed on some of the salient features by Sony engineers during a recent Sony Digital Imaging event in Portland, OR. Join our Technical Editor Rishi Sanyal as he explains some of the capabilities of this camera, and why they matter to photographers. Read more about the technologies inside the Sony a7R II Show off: Sony Cyber-shot RX10 II slow-motion and 4K video samples The Sony Cyber-shot RX10 II offers some impressive video capture capabilities including the option to record in 4K. And like the RX100 IV, the RX10 II can capture slow motion video at 240, 480 or 960fps, the latter of which gives the equivalent of 40x super slow motion. Check out some video samples from the new Sony Cyber-shot RX10 II Readers' Showcase: Greg Krycinski When he learned that he had a hearing condition that would make continuing his work in music production difficult, Greg Krycinski picked up photography. His stark black-white-landscapes and street scenes resonate in their simplicity. See a sample of his work here and find out more about him in our Q&A. Take a look at the work of Greg Krycinski War Rigs: The tech used to shoot Mad Max: Fury Road One of this summer's biggest hits is undoubtedly 'Mad Max: Fury Road'. Its narrative is built around an extended car chase, brought to life through physical stunts and visual effects work. We spoke with a few of the film's visual effects supervisors about the gear used to shoot the film (from an Arri Alexa to an iPhone 6) and the impact it had on their work. Read our article about the VFX in 'Mad Max: Fury Road' What else is coming up? There's plenty on the way to keep us busy - we're putting a lot of energy into planning PIX but we're not taking our eye off the DPReview homepage, and hope to finish up some major reviews over the next few weeks, and start on updates to our popular seasonal product roundups. I've been shooting with the Leica Q (a gallery update will follow soon) and we're working hard on the Sony RX10 II, and finishing up testing on the Canon EOS 5DS / R.Watch this space! Barney

News updates Canon sweeps DSLR categories as EISA announces awards for cameras and lenses Published Monday, August 17, 2015 11:13:19 PM GMT Canon has taken the main DSLR awards for the best products of the year as voted by the prestigious European Imaging and Sound Association. The EOS 7D Mark ll won 'European Prosumer DSLR Camera' while the EOS 5DS/5DS R won the award for 'European Professional DSLR Camera'. Read more Samsung introduces PM1633a, world's first 2.5" 16TB SSD Published Monday, August 17, 2015 7:48:26 PM GMT This month at the 2015 Flash Memory Summit, Samsung introduced an SSD with the highest capacity ever: 16TB. The new drive has a total usable storage space of 15.36TB, exceeding all other similar high-capacity SSDs. Read more Under the hood: A closer look at the Sony a7R II Published Monday, August 17, 2015 1:00:00 PM GMT There's a lot of new technology in the Sony a7R II, and here we were briefed on some of the salient features by Sony engineers during a recent Sony Digital Imaging event in Portland, OR. Join our Technical Editor Rishi Sanyal as he explains some of the capabilities of this camera, and why they matter to photographers. Click through to read more Readers' Showcase: Greg Krycinski Published Sunday, August 16, 2015 12:00:00 PM GMT When he learned that he had a hearing condition that would make continuing his work in music production difficult, Greg Krycinski picked up photography. His stark black-white-landscapes and street scenes resonate in their simplicity. See a sample of his work here and find out more about him in our Q&A. Read more Royal Family expresses concerns over alarming measures used by paparazzi seeking photos of Prince George Published Saturday, August 15, 2015 12:00:00 PM GMT The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have expressed concerns with some of the recent tactics used by paparazzi trying to photograph their two-year-old son. The letter details some of the methods photographers have used to try and get their shots, including hiding in sand dunes and using other children to lure Prince George into view at playgrounds. Read more This is what it's like to be dumped with fire retardant Published Saturday, August 15, 2015 12:04:00 AM GMT DPReview's home state of Washington has been hot and dry of late - severely so. As wild fires rage in the east of the state, local authorities are fighting to contain the flames and prevent property damage. KOMO News videographer Eric Jensen was in the town of Chelan today covering the evacuation, and captured some incredible footage of fire retardant being deployed from a low-flying aircraft. Click through to take a look Join us October 6 & 7 for PIX 2015 Published Friday, August 14, 2015 11:41:00 PM GMT Join us in Seattle and online for PIX 2015, a live-streamed expo, conference and interactive photo playground! On October 6th and 7th we'll be hosting two days of talks, hands-on photo activities, demos and inspiration for your photography at the Seattle Center, home of the Space Needle. Read more Pixbuf photography analytics tool launches as public beta Published Friday, August 14, 2015 6:27:54 PM GMT Pixbuf, a free social media management service for photographers, has launched a new analytics tool. With Pixbuf, photographers can upload images and then share them directly with several supported social networks, including 500px, Twitter, and Flickr. Pixbuf will then track analytics data related to the images. Read more Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 comes with new image signal processor Published Friday, August 14, 2015 5:54:04 PM GMT Qualcomm has announced the latest generation of its top-end chip, the Snapdragon 820, which is expected to start appearing in devices in the first half of 2016. It comes with the brand new Spectra camera ISP (Image Signal Processor), which it claims will make a number of improvements in image quality. Read more War Rigs: The tech used to shoot Mad Max: Fury Road Published Friday, August 14, 2015 12:00:00 PM GMT One of this summer's biggest hits is undoubtedly 'Mad Max: Fury Road'. Its narrative is built around an extended car chase, brought to life through physical stunts and visual effects work. We spoke with a few of the film's visual effects supervisors about the gear used to shoot the film (from an Arri Alexa to an iPhone 6) and the impact it had on their work. Read more Suggestions needed: Interesting / unusual crowd-funded projects Published Thursday, August 13, 2015 11:57:18 PM GMT We're busy planning our PIX show in early October, and we want your ideas! We're putting together a list of companies who are using crowd-funding to create fun and interesting photo-related gear, to exhibit at the event. We've got a few names already but if you've seen a particularly interesting crowd-funded project or product that you think we should feature, we'd love to hear from you. Click through to leave your suggestions Gitzo introduces three new Center Ball Heads Published Thursday, August 13, 2015 7:54:55 PM GMT Gitzo has introduced new Center Ball Heads, a lineup composed of three different-sized models aimed at professionals and advanced amateur photographers. Each offers a tungsten disulfide coating for smooth movements. Read more Samsung launches Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ Published Thursday, August 13, 2015 6:56:10 PM GMT Samsung has today announced two new smartphones in its mobile device line-up. With their large 5.7-inch screens the Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 Edge+ both qualify as phablets and share most components, including camera hardware borrowed from the Galaxy S6. Read more Elinchrom, Phottix and Sekonic form wireless common standard partnership Published Thursday, August 13, 2015 12:01:00 AM GMT Lighting manufacturers Elinchrom and Phottix are collaborating with the light meter brand Sekonic to establish a common standard for communication between wireless lighting devices. Read more Nikon updates Coolpix P900 and S6700 firmware Published Wednesday, August 12, 2015 6:35:00 PM GMT Nikon has released firmware updates for a pair of its Coolpix compact cameras. Firmware v1.2 for the Coolpix P900 superzoom resolves issues that can occur when using a wireless remote, while the v1.1 update for the S6700 fixes a rare problem where the camera locks up when powered on. Read more Corel releases ParticleShop brush plugin for Photoshop Published Wednesday, August 12, 2015 6:08:07 PM GMT Corel has released a new brush plugin for PhotoShop called ParticleShop. It uses Corel's Painter Particle brush technology to create photo-realistic effects like smoke, dust, fabric, fire, hair, lighting and fur. These effects are added to photos using brush strokes. Read more So what do we think? Our video review of the Sony RX100 IV Published Wednesday, August 12, 2015 12:00:00 PM GMT We've condensed everything you need to know about the Sony RX100 IV into less than the length of a pop record. Having shot, tested and lived with the little Sony for more than a month, we've summed up the findings of our review in video form. Is it worth the extra cash over the Mark III? Come join us in sunny Seattle as we look at the pros and cons of Sony's capable super-compact. Read more Show off: Sony Cyber-shot RX10 II slow-motion and 4K video samples Published Tuesday, August 11, 2015 8:16:00 PM GMT The Sony Cyber-shot RX10 II offers some impressive video capture capabilities including the option to record in 4K. And like the RX100 IV, the RX10 II can capture slow motion video at 240, 480 or 960fps, the latter of which gives the equivalent of 40x super slow motion. Read more Samyang introduces new Xeen pro video lens series with interchangeable mounts Published Tuesday, August 11, 2015 6:12:57 PM GMT Korean lens brand Samyang has announced a new series of video lenses under the Xeen name. They feature wide apertures and resolution that the company says is aimed at users who shoot 4K and above footage. There will be 24mm, 50mm and 85mm focal lengths initially, and three more to follow next year. Read more Olympus 'Pro' wideangle lens Field Test: Rock n' Roll and Skateboards Published Tuesday, August 11, 2015 12:00:00 PM GMT In our latest Field Test we put Olympus's new M.Zuiko Digital ED 8mm F1.8 Fisheye PRO and M.Zuiko Digital ED 7-14mm F2.8 PRO in the hands of DPReview writer Dan Bracaglia. Dan put them to the test in some of his natural environments: a rock concert, skate park, and a beach landscape at sunset. See video

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