Yesterday Canon announced a new DSLR geared specifically towards taking pictures of stars, the 60Da. For $400 more than the original retail price of the standard 60D, avid astrophotographers can purchase a camera that offers a “modified infrared filter and a low-noise sensor with heightened hydrogen-alpha sensitivity” for shooting “‘red hydrogen emission’ nebulae and other cosmic phenomena”. If you have no idea what that means, Canon has helpfully published a number of sample photographs captured with the camera. The side-by-side comparison above shows how the camera’s results differ from the standard 60D. Read more…
YouTube member eaglejm shot this video in downtown St. Louis to show the Canon 5D Mark III’s high ISO video performance. Be sure to watch it full screen and in HD.
Adobe is getting serious about making Photoshop a serious tool for editing video. The sample video above was made entirely using an upcoming version of the program. Regarding why this is being added into Photoshop rather than left to Premiere Pro, product manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes states,
Video is now being generated by photographers… everyone really; the 5D Mk. II really kicked it off on the DSLR, but since then we’ve seen just about every DSLR, point and shoot and PHONE generate video… most of it HD! We did several waves of research and regularly heard, “I want Photoshop for video”; “I need a workflow I understand” and for the people who had seen what we introduced in CS3 Extended – “make that easier to use.” Video is being generated by more people than ever before; it’s being shared more places than ever… and yet people are hitting a wall with what they can do with it! They know and love Photoshop… their stills are already passing through it, the fit is more natural than it sounds at first.
You’ll soon be able to do to video just about anything do with stills: filters, adjustments, etc…
Nokia has released a set of sample photographs in order to show off the camera quality of its new 41MP 808 PureView camera phone. The 33.3MB ZIP file contains just 3 untouched JPEG images — the largest of which (seen above) is a 5368×7152, 38-megapixel photograph that weighs in at 10.3MB. The quality is quite impressive, given that the images were captured with a phone. Read more…
Fujifilm claims that the sensor in its new X-Pro1 mirrorless camera system beats DSLR sensors (both crop and full frame) in resolution and signal/noise ratio. To give salivating photographers a taste of the camera’s image quality, the company has released 9 full-resolution JPEG images shot at different settings and focal lengths. The photo above was captured at ISO 1600 (check out the full-res here). They also provide a glimpse into the camera’s film simulation mode, as each one was shot in either Velvia or Provia mode.
At CES the company also announced that they’ll be releasing a lens adapter for the camera that will make it compatible with Leica M-mount lenses as well as old Fujinon lenses.
After reading about the revolutionary “shoot first, focus later” Lytro camera that’s currently in development, Canadian fashion model Coco Rocha reached out to the company to ask if they could work with a prototype. The next week, Lytro sent photographer Eric Cheng with one of the prototype cameras to do a fashion shoot with Rocha. In addition to the photos from the shoot, Rocha also released a behind-the-scenes video. While the video mainly shows Rocha posing, we get a few very brief glimpses of Chen holding a blurred out camera. The camera is entirely obscured, but we do see that it’s relatively small (roughly the size of a P&S), and that you compose shots with a screen on the back.
Since Sony’s announcement for the NEX-VG10 video camera, Sony has released another demo video with actual footage taken by the camera. The demo video has a slightly creepy storyline of a videographer following a girl around with the NEX-VG10. Nevertheless, the video has some gorgeous footage, filmed in Bali, that really emphasizes the camera’s ability to take advantage of the lenses depth of field and wide apertures in low light. Also, keep watching for the clever shadow puppet show during the credits, complete with a puppet version of the NEX-VG10. Read more…
The Impossible Project’s new instant film for Polaroid cameras will go on sale later this week, but the British Journal of Photography has already gotten their hands on a pack of PX100. They were mailed a comprehensive press kit that included a box of the black and white film, and promptly exposed the film with a SX-70, publishing the results on their blog.
Of the eight exposures they had to play around with, only a few of them produced semi-recognizable images. Olivier Laurent writes,
But my initial impressions are that PX100 behaves like a expired pack of 669 or Time-Zero. You’re never sure of what you will get. To be fair, Impossible did warn us about this during its press conference yesterday. A slight change in temperature or pressure can ruin or enhance your image. One thing is sure, do NOT use this film outside in the winter or early spring, when there is still a cold breeze. Also, in some situations, you will need to keep your ND filter on.
Apart from some disappointing results (especially when shooting outside), it feels good to load a SX-70 with some new film.
$21 a pack means this is some seriously expensive experimentation. However, lets wait until the film is in the hands of the masses before coming to a verdict on this new film. Here’s to hoping the film is a success!
