Nikon Blog
Panasonic S 35mm F1.8 sample gallery (DPReview TV)
Published Dec 13, 2021 | dpreview staff Chris and Jordan recently reviewed the Panasonic 35mm F1.8 lens. In the process, they compared it to another great L-mount option: the Sigma 35mm F2 DG DN. Check out this gallery of images from their review to see if you agree with their conclusions. Did you miss their review of the 20mm F1.4 Pro? If so, you can watch it here. View the Panasonic 35mm F1.8 sample gallery from DPReview TV Gear in this story PANASONIC LUMIX S Series Camera Lens, 50mm F1.8 L-Mount Interchangeable Lens for Mirrorless Full...
read moreAstronomers use ESO’s ‘Very Large Telescope’ to identify a new exoplanet that defies expectations
Lead image and all other images courtesy of ESO The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope has discovered a new star in the night sky. Astronomers have photographed a planet orbiting b Centauri, a two-star system that you can see with the naked eye. The observation is significant because it’s the hottest and most massive planet-hosting star system ever found. The planet orbits its star at about 100 times the distance that Jupiter orbits the Sun. Researchers have published their research in Nature. The research...
read moreXencelabs Pen Tablet Small review: The more affordable rival to Wacom’s Intuos Pro
If you’re looking to speed up your editing workflow, there are few pieces of hardware that can make complex masking, brushing and cloning jobs easier and more intuitive than a digital pen. I first picked up an active-style pen a few years ago as an optional extra for my new laptop, and while I’m no sketch artist, I quickly realized that it was much better than a mouse or touchpad for those fiddly tasks like making complex masks or cloning specks of dust out of product photos. But active pens are really only an option for laptops,...
read moreLens Wars: Episode V – Petzval Strikes Back
Petzval Portrait Lens, circa 1890, from author’s collection. It’s amazing to me that we’re rapidly approaching the 200th anniversary of the first photograph being made: Niepce’s View from the Window of Le Gras, taken in 1827. My last post concluded with the WWF–style camera cage match that was the beginning of photography. Daguerre and Fox Talbot were the main combatants. Sir John Herschel refereed the match rather impartially and helped both sides (and photography) equally. Hippolyte Bayard made a dramatic top rope entrance after the...
read moreSigma vs. Panasonic – 24mm and 35mm Shootout!
Published Dec 11, 2021 | dpreview staff [embedded content] This week Chris and Jordan compare the new Panasonic 24mm F1.8 and 35mm 1.8 to their closest competitors: the Sigma 24mm F2 DG DN and Sigma 35mm F2 DG DN. Which is best for L-mount? TLDR; they’re all good lenses, but there are some big differences worth knowing about. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get new episodes of DPReview TV every week. Sample galleries for all four lenses Panasonic 24mm F1.8 Panasonic 35mm F1.8 Sigma 24mm F2 DG DN Sigma 35mm F2 DG DN Gear in this...
read morePanasonic S 24mm F1.8 sample gallery (DPReview TV)
Published Dec 11, 2021 | dpreview staff Chris and Jordan just reviewed the Panasonic 24mm F1.8 for L-mount cameras. View this sample gallery of images from their review see how it compares to the competition. Did you miss their review of the 20mm F1.4 Pro? If so, you can watch it here. View the Panasonic 24mm F1.8 sample gallery from DPReview TV Gear in this story The Great Joy 60mm T2.9 offers full-frame users an affordable option for 1.33x anamorphic shooting, while the 1.35x adapter can squeeze that to 1.8x, or turn your regular spherical...
read moreMicrosoft’s new SpaceEye technology enables imaging satellites to ‘see’ through clouds using AI
Last year, Microsoft announced Azure Space, making the powerful Azure cloud ecosystem available to the space community. Today, Microsoft has announced new partnerships and capabilities for Azure Space, including innovations such as SpaceEye, which allows users to ‘see’ through clouds from satellites. At any given time, two-thirds of the Earth is covered in clouds, making space-based observation of Earth much more challenging. Built on Azure by Microsoft Research, SpaceEye is an AI-based system that generates daily cloud-free...
read moreCosina announces its fastest full-frame lens, the Nokton 50mm F1 VM
Cosina has announced it will be releasing its new Nokton 50mm F1 VM mount lens in January 2022. This lens will be the fastest full-frame interchangeable Voigtländer lens Cosina has ever produced. The lens is constructed of nine elements in seven groups, including a ground aspherical surface and another aspherical element. It uses a 12-blade aperture diaphragm, has a minimum focusing distance of 90cm (35.5”) and uses a 62mm front filter thread. The manual focus mechanism uses an all-metal helicoid design that Cosina says is made with a...
read moreSlideshow: The adventurous winners of the Red Bull Illume Image Quest 2021 competition
noirdesir For once, the wall is obviously not fully vertical, otherwise something hand-free like this wouldn’t work. It could have a 10 to 15° tilt to it. Second it is not quite as smooth and featureless as this photo shows. I’ve found another photo that shows a bit more nooks and crannies (https://cdn2.apstatic.com/photos/climb/112246680_large_1494328484.jpg). In the position shown in the winning image, you are essentially standing on your two big toes (plus the bones they are connected to) but some weight is also transferred to the wall via...
read moreLeica releases a $5,995 Q2 Reporter with an olive green paint scheme and Kevlar body wrap
If you thought supply chain constraints would stop Leica from releasing new, limited-edition camera models, you’ve been bamboozled. Today, Leica has released the Q2 Reporter, a limited-edition version of its Leica Q2 fixed-lens camera that comes wrapped in Kevlar and features an olive green paint job. If the ‘Reporter’ nomenclature sounds familiar, it’s because Leica released a ‘Reporter’ version of its M10-P camera back in January 2020. As was the case with the M10-P Reporter, the Q2 reporter remains functionally unchanged from its standard...
read moreCapture One 22 adds panorama stitching, HDR merging, auto aotate, wireless tethering and more
Capture One 22 is now available. The latest major release adds new photo editing features, Capture One’s first AI tool, improved camera and lens support, and wireless camera tethering. Capture One has previously teased a couple of Capture One 22’s key new features: Panorama Stitching and HDR Merging. The software now lets users easily merge multiple photos into a single panorama or multiple images captured with different exposures into a single HDR image with extended dynamic range. You can check out these new features in a pair...
read moreDxO announces updates for PhotoLab 5, FilmPack 6 and Nik Collection by DxO
DxO has announced updates to its PhotoLab 5, FilmPack 6 and the Nik Collection by DxO. PhotoLab version 5.1 includes an improved user interface with GPS coordinates that display directly on Google Maps. There’s a revised photo filter menu that promises improved usability. DxO has added support for the Canon EOS R3, Ricoh GRIIIx, the Fujifilm X-T30 II and Fujifilm GFX 50S II. PhotoLab 5.1 also adds Chinese language support. [embedded content] FilmPack 6.1 includes an improved workflow as well. The Time Machine feature that was added to...
read moreTamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III VXD G2 sample gallery
We took the second generation of Tamron’s well-priced F2.8 standard zoom with us to Louisiana and Florida over the Thanksgiving weekend, in the hope of catching some sun. It proved itself to be a capable companion, even when tasked with resolving the Sony a7R IV’s 61 megapixel resolution. In addition to the regular sample images, we’ve also added a series of images shot at F8 at 28mm, 35mm, 50mm and 75mm, for assessing sharpness through the focal length range. We’ll be adding more samples in the coming days and weeks....
read moreLensrentals reveals its ‘Most Rented New Products of 2021’
If you’re wondering what new products have proven to be most popular throughout 2021, Lensrentals has you covered. As it’s done in the past, Lensrentals has published a list revealing what products released in 2021 were the most rented by photographers and cinematographers around the world. As was expected, last year’s list proved to be ‘a bit of an anomaly,’ mostly due to the industry-wide chaos caused by COVID-19. Thankfully, this year brought some semblance of normalcy wherein Lensrentals ‘was able to rebuild some of the momenta it had...
read moreHands-on with the K-Lens, a light field lens that captures 3D data for post-capture refocusing
We’ve seen light field cameras before, such as the Lytro camera, but K-Lens is the first light field interchangeable lens to be available for existing digital still and video cameras. The lens is able to record a grid of images that contain information about the relative distance of different objects in the scene. This information can then be used in post-processing to adjust the focus point in the scene, as well as to easily mask different areas to alter the brightness and colors of different layers in the scene. The images can also be used...
read moreNASA gets the Hubble Space Telescope back online and fully operational
Lead image credit: NASA After more than a month in safe mode, NASA has announced that the Hubble Space Telescope has returned to full science operations. We reported on November 8 that Hubble was in safe mode following its second shutdown of the year. The famous telescope entered safe mode on October 25 after a loss of data synchronization was detected. The Hubble team instantly went to work trying to isolate the problem. Hubble is fully back! The telescope is now operating with all four active instruments after the @NASA team recovered the...
read moreUpdated: Nikon Z 40mm F2 sample gallery
We’ve been continuing to shoot with Nikon’s compact, fast-aperture 40mm F2, and as autumn turns to winter here in the Pacific Northwest, we’ve updated our initial sample gallery with several new images, for your viewing pleasure. Check out our updated gallery of samples from the Nikon Z 40mm F2 Gear in this story After confirming in June that it would be available in 2021, Nikon has officially announced the Nikkor 40mm F2, a compact, affordable prime lens for the mirrorless Z-mount. The Great Joy 60mm T2.9 offers full-frame...
read moreSlideshow: The hilarious winners of the 2021 Comedy Pet Photography Awards
This past Summer, the annual Comedy Pet Photography Awards made a call for entries. ‘Whizz Pop’ by Zoe Ross, which catches a moment where a bubble appears in front of her black Labrador puppy’s behind, was declared the Overall Winner. Ross received a £2,000 cash prize and another £10,000 was donated to competition partner Animal Friends Insurance. The puppy, whose name is Pepper, was adopted as a companion for another dog, Dolly, who was facing separation anxiety. “She’s been a wonderful addition to the family, providing...
read moreOppo teaser suggests it’s developing a smartphone with a retractable-lens camera module
Chinese smartphone manufacturer Oppo has published a teaser video showing off a retractable smartphone camera that pops out from the rear of the phone, similar to what we’re accustomed to seeing with many compact camera systems. Most pop-ups are annoying… But not our self-developed retractable camera! 😉 Explore more in INNO WORLD on 14/12.#OPPOINNODAY2021 pic.twitter.com/33hgJSw8If — OPPO (@oppo) December 7, 2021 Oppo doesn’t specify what the added benefit of this particular telescoping mechanism prototype is, but retractable...
read moreNikon is licensing intoPIX’s TicoRAW technology for 8K/60p Raw video in its Z9 camera
When Nikon announced its forthcoming Z9 camera, it confirmed it would be able to shoot 8K Raw video at up to 60 frames per second (fps) with a firmware set to be released in 2022. At the time, Nikon didn’t specify how it had achieved this, but we now know it’s being done with the help of TicoRAW, a compression technology from intoPIX that Nikon is licensing for its Nikon Z9 camera system. In a press release, published today, intoPIX says Nikon selected its TicoRAW technology for use in its Z9 camera system to achieve 8K Raw recording at up to...
read moreThis 16MP autofocus camera module for Raspberry Pi computers will take your DIY project to the next level
Arducam has launched its first Kickstarter project, a 16MP autofocus-equipped camera module for Raspberry Pi. The 16MP high-res AF camera module fits all Raspberry Pi models and offers twice the resolution of the v2 camera module and 40% higher resolution than the HQ camera. The project has already reached its relatively low funding goal of $1,999. As of writing, the project has received nearly $30,000 in support with 22 days remaining in the campaign. The new Arducam 16MP camera module is the same size as the V1 and V2 cameras for Raspberry...
read moreSony adds Animal Eye AF for video to its a7C, ZV-E10 cameras with 2.00 firmware update
Sony’s ZV-E10 compact camera. Sony has announced a pair of new firmware updates for its a7C and ZV-E10 camera systems. In addition to overall improved performance, the 2.00 firmware updates bring Animal Eye AF to both cameras while recording video. Starting first with the a7C, Sony has added a new USB Streaming option so you can use the camera as a webcam when connected via USB to a computer. Also new is the ability to use Animal Eye AF while recording movies—something previously limited to still images. Sony says the update also...
read moreJust published: More sample images from the Nikon Z9
Published Dec 7, 2021 | dpreview staff We recently took delivery of a pre-production sample of the Nikon Z9, and we spent our time with it shooting as much as possible. We’ve just updated our previously-published gallery of samples with more than 50 new images taken in and around the Pacific Northwest. Please note that as with our earlier gallery, these images were taken using a pre-production camera, and at Nikon’s request, we are only publishing out-of-camera JPEGs at this time. More samples (and Raw files) will come as soon as...
read moreAnother one bites the dust: Sony suspends orders of its ZV-E10 camera, citing chip shortage
Just two weeks after announcing it would no longer take orders for its a7 II series, a6400 and a6100 camera systems, Sony Japan has announced the next casualty of the ongoing chip shortage is its ZV-E10 compact camera system. In an announcement posted to its website, Sony Japan says ‘there is a delay in procurement of parts for digital imaging products due to the global shortage of semiconductors.’ Specifically, the announcement says that as of December 3, 2021, Sony would no longer be accepting orders from dealers and customers for the...
read moreResearchers shrink high-res color camera down to the size of a grain of salt
Researchers from Princeton University and the University of Washington have developed a high-resolution color camera roughly the size of a coarse grain of salt. This new sensor technology combines meta surface optics and machine learning models to reconstruct images via the nano-optic imager. Specifically, the research paper detailing the technology says ‘Nano-optic imagers that modulate light at sub-wavelength scales could enable new applications in diverse domains ranging from robotics to medicine. Although metasurface optics offer a...
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Started out doing photography at the age of 6 using an uncle's old 1940 kodak brownie box camera. At 15 years of age, I decided to buy my very own 1975 Praktica SLR camera. I now shoot with a Nikon D850. I do unpaid TFP and commercial paid work.