Sony E Mount Rokinon Lenses
Sony A7 and A7R shooters rejoice! Announced back in in October, Samyang today confirmed that five of its full frame Rokinon lenses are now available in Sony E-mount, and are therefore the first third-party optics with native mounts for the Sony A7 and A7R. The short video at the top of this page was made with them. The lenses are the 14mm F2.8, 24mm F1.4, 24mm F3.5 tilt-and-shift, 35mm F1.4, and 85mm F1.4. All feature manual focus and manual aperture operation. The quite reasonable retail prices do reflect that. I don’t know what you folks talk about when you get together where you live, but around
Read moreFujifilm X-E2 First Look
In addition to improvements in just about every area, Fujifilm has also brought some interesting new features to the X-E2. What’s the coolest? To me, one has to be the new Digital Split Image™ for interchangeable lens cameras. Split image focusing was originally used in manual focus SLR film cameras and the Leica Rangefinders of old that the Fuji X-E2 is retro modeled after. I was one of the pleasures of using a rangefinder, aligning those two images. It worked by splitting the subject in the center of the viewfinder in half when it wasn’t in focus. Turning the focusing
Read moreDigital Grotesque
Digital Grotesque . Printing Architecture from Digital Grotesque on Vimeo. Digital Grotesque is the first human-scale immersive space entirely constructed out of 3D printed sandstone. Yep, you read that right, it is a human-scale space “printed” as a room. And not just an ordinary room, either. Now, how cool is that? The “room” design consists of two individual halves (Aediculae) that form a volume – what the designers call “the grotto” – as a habitat space in the middle. While on the outside the grotto presents itself as a flat cubical volume, on the inside a complex geometry, consisting of
Read morePerspective Warp in Photoshop CC
Perspective Warp in Photoshop CC 14.2 01-24-2014 Uwe Steinmueller in Photoshop Perspective distortions are hard to avoid if you photograph buildings and some scenery. That is why perspective corrections are a standard part of many raw converters and, of course, Photoshop. • Lightroom: Upright and perspective transformations • Photoshop: Perspective crop and perspective transform • DxO Viewpoint as plugin for Photoshop and Lightroom In many cases these tools work just fine and we use them all the time. The new Perspective Warp tool in Photoshop CC (V14.2) brings perspective corrections to a new level. Lets check an example. This is a
Read moreThe Evolution of Editing Software
Which I choose? Why do I choose? Who wants that I choose? I am not their beauty product, their precious. They cannot change me. Editing software has come a long way since the early days. Even Final Cut Pro X is finally becoming a decent editing suite. But still, as this glimpse into a future different shows, the presently marketed editing software still has a long ways to go before it becomes both user friendly and powerful at the same time. This excellent animation effort by the Hungarian Production and VFX Team shows the way for anyone interested in building
Read moreThe Lanzarote Effect
The Lanzarote Effect from Lea et Nicolas Features on Vimeo. The Lanzarote Effect by Lea Amiel and Nicolas Libersalle. With 6 other filmmakers from all around the world, they were chosen to make shorts films about the canary islands : 7 filmmakers, 7 islands, 7 stories. The Island assigned to Lea Amiel and Nicolas Libersalle was Lanzarote: a small volcanic island. So off they went for a week and tried to show the beauty of this special island. Here is the result. They hope you’ll enjoy it, and thank for watching 😉 The team would like to thank especially Patricia Betancort
Read moreDroplets – Using Photoshop Automation for Lightroom
by Uwe Steinmueller Originally Posted On OutbackPhoto.Net We are currently working on some new scripts and this reminded us to share the use of Droplets with our readers. We like to streamline our workflow as much as possible. Lightroom is very powerful but yet there are tasks that you may want to perform in Photoshop (we use CS6 and CC). For example we integrate our commercial “OptimalSharp V3” script into our workflow. We want to use the script without any interaction in Photoshop. There is no direct way to call a Photoshop script from Lightroom. But we can execute so-called Photoshop
Read moreThe Sight And Sound Of Taste
The Sight And Sound Of Taste is an audio visual installation produced in association with Schwartz Flavour Shots, an innovative new range of herb and spice blends locked in oil. What does flavor look like? How does flavor sound? These are the questions that inspired herb and spice experts, Schwartz, to create what they describe as a ‘Sonic Flavourscape’. Several tons of black peppercorns, cardamom, turmeric, paprika, cumin seeds, ginger, chili, and coriander were rigged to explode in perfect sync with a bespoke musical composition in The Sight And Sound Of Taste. Each explosion represents an individual piano note or chord, which when
Read moreDaniel Morel vs AFP/Getty Images
After a seven day trial, on November 22, 2013 the jury in the Daniel Morel vs. Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Getty Images (Getty) trial awarded the defendant, Daniel Morel, the maximum statutory damages allowed by the law. The jury awarded in the amount of $1.2 million while finding that the corporations acted willfully in violating the copyright act and that they were not innocent in their actions. – See more here. Getty and AFP were also found guilty for a total of 16 counts (based on eight images) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, for the amount of $400,000, according to Joseph Baio, Morel’s attorney.
Read moreOlympus 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 With The EM-1
From: OutbackPhoto.Net We recently found some fun to photograph again some animals and birds. For our Nikon and Canon systems, faster long tele lenses or zooms (at least 400mm and f/4) were never a real option. Why? One may think first of the price and rightly so. But even if we would be willing to swallow the price, the size and weight would be clear deal breakers for us. We currently try to focus on our m43 system. As cameras we use the Panasonic GH3 and Olympus OM-D E-M1 (we bought it mainly for the excellent EVF). Because we own
Read moreCES Round Up For 2014
While most of the country chilled out inside avoiding the “Arctic Vortex,” thousands of brave souls battled the crowded isles for the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week in Las Vegas, NV. Show attendance was reportedly brisk again this year, where the features were focused more on services and coming attractions than on new hardware releases, that is, unless you were looking for a new 4k TV. 4k TV was everywhere. The mantra for this week was fewer new cameras, with greatly enhanced features like Wi-Fi and NFC for wireless communications between camera and your smartphone, er laptop ;=) This is
Read moreCounting On SD Cards
Christmas is past but the Grinch left me one more New Years present. I discovered a new 32GB SDXC card bit the dust, and took my whole Happy New Year along with it. Everything. The whole lot, stills and video both from New Years Eve and New Years Day. Two events, foolishly recorded to the same large 32GB SD card. It was a long, late night, and a very early morning start for a New Years Day. I had a choice: sleep or download SD cards and charge batteries. I chose sleep. But as it turns out, it would
Read moreSony FDR-AX100 4k Handycam
A first look at the new Sony FDR-AX100 4K Handycam®. Christina from the Sony Digital Imaging Team sits down with Anthony to show off the latest edition to the Handycam family, the FDR-AX100. Does it support XAVC-S, AVCHD and MP4 codecs? Yep. Does it record in 4K/30p video? You bet! Check out the video for all the features and specs. CES is certainly shaping up to be a big show for Ultra HD equipment. We will try to get our hands on one of these as soon as we can to test further. At this price point and with this
Read moreFujinon XF 56mm f/1.2 R Lens Announced
Fujifilm has announced another lens for their X series mirrorless digital cameras. The Fujinon XF 56mm f/1.2 R lens is the twelfth lens made for the X-mount cameras and is an impressive portrait-length lens with a very fast maximum aperture, ideal for shallow depth-of-field control and excellent in low-light situations. Its 35mm equivalent focal length is 85mm and its optical design includes two extra-low dispersion elements and one double-sided aspherical element. Exciting stuff to a portrait photographers of all kinds. Autofocus should be fast, thanks to an inner focusing system that moves the central and rear lens elements while keeping the front
Read more4k Workflow?
The International CES is the annual gathering place for all whose business is a part of the $203 Billion a year business of consumer electronics. Held in Las Vegas every year, it has served as the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for more than 40 years. It is a primary stage where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace. Over the 40 year history, CES has been where many manufacturer’s dreams have come true. It is also the place where some ideas fail at gaining consumer acceptance, a harsh reality of business. From Engadget, last year’s video review
Read moreLightroom 5 LAB Color Readout
This is a helpful LAB color tip by our good friend and master photographer Charles Cramer. Lightroom 5 now allows for the eyedropper readout to show Lab color values! Lab is a color model that separates the color information from the luminosity. Let me explain why I think this is wonderful. Since I believe that perception of colors and tones on a monitor can be deceptive, I like to move the cursor into the image to see what the numbers tell me. You can’t always trust your eyes, but you can trust those numbers. You can see these numbers only
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