Google announced yesterday that Google Photos has just crossed the huge milestone of 100 million active users per month. The news comes less than half a year after the May 2015 announcement of the the standalone service, which provides people with free and unlimited photo sharing.
SanDisk just succeeded in its mission to get bought out. Hard drive maker Western Digital announced today that it has agreed to acquire SanDisk in a deal worth about $19 billion in cash and stock. If all goes well, the deal will close in the third quarter or 2016.
Fujifilm today announced its new XF 35mm f/2 R WR lens. It's the equivalent of a 53mm in 35mm terms, so it has an angle of view that's similar to that of the human eye.
If you're a concert photographer looking to shoot Janet Jackson's Unbreakable World Tour 2015, you'll have to agree to some extremely strict terms for permission to do so. First, you'll only get 30 seconds total to shoot. Second, you agree to sign over all copyright to your photos.
Photographer Rachel Hulin got quite a bit of attention a few years ago for Flying Henry, a series of Photoshopped photos showing Hulin's son flying through various scenes. Now she's back again with another creative endeavor.
Hulin is currently working on a 9-month project in which she's publishing an entire novel through Instagram. Titled Hey Harry Hey Matilda, it's being called "the world's first true Instagram novel."
Big news in the camera industry today: Leica has just announced the Leica SL, an entirely new mirrorless camera system that competes directly against the likes of Sony. Yes, the Leica M is technically a "mirrorless camera," but the new SL is a new non-rangefinder, full-frame camera with interchangeable lenses.
A fisherman in Thailand is being lauded as a hero online thanks to a viral video that shows how he rescued an elderly Norwegian photographer couple who got stuck in thick mud while out shooting.
First Lady Michelle Obama launched her new "Better Make Room" campaign at the White House today to encourage teenagers to pursue higher education beyond high school.
The Obama administration announced today that it will be creating the first ever federal drone registry to reign in the wild wild west of drone usage. Drone owners will be required to register their drones with the database in order to fly legally, and those caught flying unregistered drones will face "consequences."
Want to shoot film photos at ISO 6? Now you can. Lomography today announced the new KONO! Donau 35mm film. It's a limited-edition, ultra-slow film that has an ISO of just 6.
The Chinese company ZY Optics just opened up pre-orders for quite an unusual lens. It's a Mitakon Speedmaster 135mm f/1.4 that boasts one of the largest apertures you'll find for the focal length. It'll also be quite expensive and extremely rare: the price tag is a hefty $2,999, and less than 100 units will ever be made.
In the next update to Adobe Photoshop CC, you'll be able to customize the app's toolbars to optimize the layout for your exact needs.
Photoshop educator Howard Pinsky of IceflowStudios published the 2-minute video above that gives a sneak peek in to how the toolbar editing system works.
Luxury wedding selfie sticks are a thing. Not only do they exist, but they're actually a hit with brides who want to shoot selfies on their big day with style.
The New York-based boutique Reem Acra recently unveiled a $500 selfie stick that's covered with Swarovski crystals and white blossoms. It's being sold for a whopping $500 each, and it's already out of stock.
Elinchrom today announced the EL-Skyport Transmitter Plus HS, a transmitter that not only lets you control and visualize the power settings of your lights, but one that opens the door to 1/8000s shooting in Hi-Sync mode.
Google's annual I/O conference is famous for giving attendees free phones, tablets, and laptops over the years. In case you haven't heard, Adobe has the same tradition going on with its Adobe MAX conference. At the MAX 2015 conference in Los Angeles earlier this month, Adobe gave everyone who attended a free Fujifilm X-T10 mirrorless camera and an 18-55mm kit lens. It's a kit that's worth $999.
Hyperspectral cameras can see things in the world that the human eyes can't by capturing information from across the electromagnetic spectrum beyond visible light. This type of technology has all kinds of interesting applications -- researchers are using the cameras to uncover secrets in old documents and paintings, for example.
The HyperCam is a new hyperspectral camera that aims to make the technology cheap enough to be casually used by the masses.
Photographers and other journalists covering the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian violence are on high alert this weekend after an Israeli soldier was stabbed on Friday, October 16th, 2015, by a Palestinian attacker who was posing as a local photojournalist.
At Canon EXPO Paris 2015 last week, in addition to showing off its prototype ultra-sensitive CMOS sensor, Canon was also showing off the power of the ultra-high-resolution 250-megapixel sensor it unveiled back in September.
In the 3-minute video above is what Canon was looping in an exhibit for the new sensor.
Sony's A-mount system has seen its activity slowed to a halt as of late while the company continues to launch new E-mount cameras such as the a7R II and a7S II. There were two A-mount lenses refreshed back in April, but the last A-mount camera announced was the Sony a77 II way back in May 2014 -- an eternity as far as camera refresh cycles go.
Now speculation about the death of the A-mount is being rekindled after Sony UK made public statements saying that there are "no A-mounts planned."
At Canon EXPO Paris 2015 this past week, Canon was showing off the capabilities of a prototype ultra-high sensitivity 35mm full-frame CMOS sensor. The 3.5-minute video above shows what the camera can see when taken into the "Blue Milky Way" of Waitomo glowworm caves in New Zealand, which make for dazzling long-exposure photos.
The problem of photographers being seen as "pedophiles with cameras" is widespread and is a subject we've reported on and written about many times over the years. One of the latest victims is David Updike, a Harvard-educated photographer and writer.
While sitting in Cambridge's Dana Park on September 23rd, Updike found himself suddenly surrounded by police officers and questioned about what he was taking pictures of. It turns out a woman had reported him for "taking pictures of children," and now Updike has responded to the incident by writing an open letter to that woman.
It looks like the US government will soon be tightening its control over drones. A new report says the government will soon announce mandatory registration of hobbyist drones with the US Transportation Department.
If you're one of those who's unhappy about the redesigned Lightroom Import tool that appeared in the latest update, there's some great news for you today: Adobe has heard your cries, and now the company says that it will restore the previous import experience.
Instagram has over 400 million active users now, and top photographers on the service can make thousands of dollars per photo by promoting products. With the value of Instagram followers increasing, it seems that some people are now trying to use their follower counts to get free photography.
A young couple in Chicago posted an ad this week that was aimed at photographers (and other vendors) who would be willing to offer their photography (and other services) in exchange for free publicity... through an Instagram account with 17,600 followers.
As camera drones become increasingly popular as a relatively cheap and easy way to capture aerial photos and videos, there are more and more stories in the news of drone accidents being caused by poor piloting. For those who wish to capture pro-quality shots without having to worry about piloting drones themselves, a group of researchers at Stanford want to help: they've create a computer tool that lets you create a shot virtually and then have a camera drone automatically turn it into real footage.
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Holy Thomas Hawk, Trey Ratcliff, Karen Hutton, and Scott Jarvie does this new camera blow your mind?DSLRs just got very lame.Learn more at http://light.coWow. $1,299 coming next summer.Here Dave Grannan, CEO and cofounder, gives me a first look.Posted by Robert Scoble on Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Last Thursday, the startup Light unveiled the new L16, an innovative compact camera that uses 16 separate camera modules to offer 35-150mm optical zoom, 52MP photos, and 4K video recording when it hits stores in September 2016 for $1,699.
Blogger Robert Scoble caught up with Light CEO Dave Grannan the day of the announcement and recorded the 8-minute video above in which Grannan shows off his company's new camera and delivers his elevator pitch for why the camera will change the photographic landscape.
San Diego-based wedding photographers Jeff and Erin Youngren got an unexpected surprise this past weekend after President Obama stepped into the scene. The wedding was at the Torrey Pines golf course in San Diego, and Obama happened to be playing a round of golf on Sunday.
LCD screens on the backs of cameras have higher and higher resolutions these days, and since the size isn't usually increasing, we're seeing more pixel density. It appears that Canon has been thinking about creative uses of these high-res displays: a recently published patent shows a Canon digital camera with a loupe-style viewfinder that swings down onto the LCD to use a portion of the large display as the smaller electronic viewfinder.
A New York Police Department officer has been convicted of a felony for lying about the arrest of a New York Times photographer back in 2012.
Sigma today announced the new 20mm f/1.4 Art lens, a new full frame lens for Canon, Nikon, and Sigma cameras that's the world's widest full frame f/1.4 lens.
The FAA has published a new warning about the danger of storing spare lithium batteries in checked bags. The batteries, which are widely used in the photography industry to power things like cameras and lighting equipment, "present a risk of both igniting and fueling fires in aircraft cargo/baggage compartments," the FAA says.
It seems that photographer biopics are a hot topic in the film industry these days. An indie film released earlier this year told the story of Eadweard Muybridge, and Steven Spielberg is reportedly working with actress Jennifer Lawrence on a film about war photographer Lynsey Addario.
Now there's another famous actress tied to a movie about a famous photographer: Kate Winslet has reportedly signed on to portray the iconic photographer Lee Miller in an upcoming biopic.
CBS Evening News just aired this short segment about Yann Meersseman and Moira …
Check out this crazy-looking rifle. No, it's not from a sci-fi movie -- it's actually an anti-drone counter-weapon called the DroneDefender that's designed to bring down drones using disruptive radio waves.
Want to see the inside of a DJI drone manufacturing facility? Now you can, thanks to some test footage that was recently found on a new DJI drone camera. Data is normally wiped before cameras are shipped, but it seems that someone forgot to delete this one.
The free browser-based photo editor Polarr is expanding its reach yet again. After launching version 2 of its online photo editor back in February and a wildly popular iOS photo editing app back in June, the company today unveiled version 3 of its flagship photo editor and the company's expansion to Chrome and Windows 10 Desktop.
San Antonio, Texas-based boudoir photographer Victoria Caroline Haltom saw a Facebook post go viral recently after she shared an email she received from a husband who was disappointed after seeing retouched photos of his wife.
Back in July 2015, we reported that 500px had raised an additional $13 million in funding led by China's equivalent of Getty Images, the Visual China Group. The move suggested that 500px was working hard to offer its massive archive of 55 million images to photo buyers in Asia.
Today, 500px announced that it is officially expanding into China with the unveiling of a new website, 500px.me.
Canada amateur photographer Don Gutoski has been crowned Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 for the remarkable photo above, titled "A Tale of Two Foxes." It shows a red fox standing with the carcass of a white fox in its mouth.
Heads up: digital rights management (DRM) could be coming to the JPEG image format. That's right... the same kind of controversial technology that's currently being used to protect movie, music, and book copyrights could one day be used to restrict the usage of images, and that proposal has people up in arms.
Zeiss today unveiled the new Otus 28mm f/1.4 lens, adding a new focal length to the highly regarded Otus family alongside the existing 55mm and 85mm (which we reviewed here and here.
SanDisk is a huge name when it comes to memory cards used by photographers, but it's actually a relatively small company compared to other heavyweights in the memory chip industry -- one of the biggest of which is Samsung. A new report says that SanDisk is actively exploring the potential sale of its business, with at least two competitors expressing interest in the deal.
Sony has just unveiled the new RX1R II, a palm-sized 42.4-megapixel full-frame camera that features the world's first optical variable low-pass filter that can be turned on and off.
Back in 2010, a man named Randy Guijarro in Fresno, California, found and purchased an old tintype photo for $2 at a junk shop. It turns out that photo is worth up to $5 million because it's only the second authenticated picture that shows the famous outlaw Billy the Kid.
500px today unveiled its first major company rebrand since the photo-sharing service was born back in 2009. As part of the move, 500px has introduced a "bold new logo for an evolving community."
B&H is one of the biggest retail names in the world of photography, but it's also the one at the center of a new controversy after nearly 200 workers launched a campaign to unionize. The disgruntled employees accuse the photo retail giant of widespread racial discrimination, wage theft, and unsafe working conditions inside the Brooklyn-based warehouses.
If you have a formal education in photography, there's a good chance you studied the work of Hilla Becher. Together with her late husband Bernd, Hilla founded what's known as the "Becher School" in photography, and the couple's black-and-white industrial photos of Germany -- called "typologies" -- influenced a generation of photographers, including the renowned German photographer Andreas Gursky.
Hilla passed away in Dusseldorf, Germany, this past Saturday at the age of 81.
In what will rank as one of the most disgraceful uses of social media in 2015, a 23-year-old woman in Florida has been arrested after broadcasting a live stream of herself driving while drunk on Periscope.
Lomography today announced the new Lomo’Instant Wide, an instant wide camera and lens system. It's the first Lomography camera to use Fuji Instax Wide instant film, which has twice the area as the Instax Mini.
Adobe has already apologized for fumbling its latest Lightroom update, which was riddled with bugs and missing features. Now there's a new story that's putting a stain on Adobe's image: a new test has found that the latest Lightroom is about 600% slower than its competitors.