It's a strange twist of fate that the company that rivaled Kodak in film manufacturing but currently makes very little of its money from the camera business should now be the largest camera manufacturer in the world.
The Falling Soldier is one of the most famous war photos ever made, but questions have swirled for many years regarding its authenticity as evidence that it was staged has piled up. In my own research into the photo, however, a new question came up: the photo is attributed to renowned war photographer Robert Capa, but could it actually have been captured by his partner, Gerda Taro?
One of the reasons we pursue landscape photography is to connect with nature. Many photographers cite calmness, a sense of peace, and inspiration when they are surrounded by stunning scenery. I am one of them. Unfortunately, it is increasingly common that the encounter is modified by some human-made element.
Digital cameras are great -- the technology they are built upon is remarkable, underpinned by remarkably sophisticated designs. Not only that, but the pictures they acquire are of such astonishing quality that they make anything that went before pale in comparison. So why then do digital cameras have such (relatively) short lifespans compared to film cameras?
The camera sector isn't exactly a thriving business at the moment, with year-on-year declining sales and a slew of manufacturers having exited the market.
A leading textbook on creative photography, released in 1980, devotes more than 90% of its 460 pages to technical considerations — how cameras and lenses work, darkroom procedures, lighting — and just a few pages to aesthetics and composition.
Even though the heyday of the DSLR is well behind us, it does not seem like we're going to shed the acronym any time soon. A newly-published shopping guide by the New York Post confirms as much: nearly half of its picks for "Best DSLRs" are actually mirrorless cameras.
Apple's newly-announced Mac Studio with its new M1 Ultra chip looks to be a juggernaut, but pretty much no photographer will need that kind of power. The base model Mac Studio is a better choice and might be the best deal for a new computer on the market.
I’ve often been asked that question and it’s relevant, so let’s examine it for a while. Let’s start at the very beginning -- the actual exposure of a negative.
The news of falling camera shipments is like the dripping of a faucet. It comes with a regular, steady, beat, and just when you think it has stopped... plink, there it goes again! So perhaps it's no surprise that CIPA -- the trade body for manufacturers -- has a downbeat forecast for 2022, but strangely seems to have missed the good news!
Who are you, when you’re holding your camera in your hands? You're likely less distracted, or less anxious. Maybe you're more aware, or more alive. But now that we are here, looking out over the smoking ruins of a year that has hardly begun, what should we do?
Is this photo worth $10 million? Prince Andrew thinks so, or at least reports indicate that his out-of-court settlement with Virginia Giuffre will cost somewhere north of $10 million. The figure makes this image perhaps the most costly single photo in the world.
In the past few years, we’ve seen the dawn and domination of mirrorless cameras and exponential improvements in software and computing power. Speaking as someone who started shooting on black and white film, moved to digital on a 6-megapixel camera, and now shoots solely only on mirrorless bodies, I can honestly say that it’s never been easier to produce great quality photography.
When not covering presidential rallies for international news agencies I also photograph artists, especially ballet. I've been photographing the professional ballet company of Charlotte, North Carolina, for 17 years now.
Cameras are expensive, and Canon is no stranger to hiking its prices when it sees fit -- the EOS 1D X Mark III flagship DSLR costs a fairly sizeable $6,500. But has it always been this way?
The gentleman that I (and countless others) learned photography from is one O.P. Sharma, an internationally recognized, black-and-white film photographer. He is one of the masters of photography. He founded the India International Photography Council and was the driving force behind establishing 19 August as International Photography Day every year.
It's the dawn of a new era for OM Digital Solutions (OMDS) -- Olympus as was -- as it forges a new beginning, with a new camera, bearing the new name, and the last to be emblazoned with the Olympus logo. Is this the start of a golden age for Micro Four Thirds (MFT) or simply the beginning of the end for both OMDS and MFT?
It's no secret that Nikon has been having a tough time financially -- a result of an over-reliance on its Imaging Division -- and has been implementing a medium-term strategy to help balance the books and foster long-term growth. Results from its Imaging Division suggest it is struggling and possibly caught in a perfect storm.
With 2021 well and truly over, those manufacturers that align their finances to the calendar year are now producing their financial reports. Canon's latest figures reveal strong and sustained performance, even during the pandemic, which is a result of its shift to mirrorless camera manufacture and facilitating the beginning of a new market dominance.
The BCN Awards are a stalwart in the annual calendar as they recognize sales achievements for (among others products) camera manufacturers. While they only account for the Japanese market, they provide a marker for how well manufacturers are doing. So what are the big takeaways this year?
Ricoh seemingly made the significant announcement that it would cease the mass production of digital cameras (which includes the Pentax brand), shifting instead to a direct-to-market model. For now, it only affects its business in Japan, although the ramifications could affect its business more widely. What does this mean for Ricoh (and Pentax) and their future?
Camera resolution in the early 2000s was a space race to the biggest and best. Nikon ushered in the beginning of the end -- with the release of the 36-megapixel era-defining D800 -- to what became the resolution doldrums.
Photography is a tech-heavy job. Camera companies do a great job of hyping up new gear and creating a fear of missing out. However, very few professionals that I know actually go and splurge on the latest and greatest equipment.
Leica has historically been known for rangefinder-style cameras but has branched away in recent years. But if there is one thing the company should take away from the praise the new M11 is getting, it's that it should stick with what it's good at.
Ritz Gear is currently offering a brand new SD Express memory card that it promises boasts up to 820 MB/s read and 500 MB/s write speeds for $300. In real-world use cases, it will never come close to these promises and it says so right on the box.
Manufacturing silicon is patently not required in order to make cameras -- anyone can put together a pinhole model -- however, the wider point is more pertinent. To be a competitive, global, manufacturer, do you need to make the sensors that actually go into camera bodies?
Henri Cartier-Bresson is famously credited with the saying, "Your First 10,000 photos are your worst." Looking back at his first photos, photographer Gordon Laing tends to agree.
It goes without saying that anything that is valuable is eminently stealable. If there's a market for consumer goods, then there's a market for stolen consumer goods.
There are 365 ways to waste your time being busy instead of doing useful work. One of those is the popular concept of a 365 photo project. Let’s dive in and see why it is one of the best ways to waste your time.
In spite of my great fondness for my Fujifilm cameras, I have some constructive criticism. My biggest pet peeve with Fuji is their frustrating lack of consistency among bodies. It drives me a little nuts when switching between my Fujifilm bodies that are different models.
In many art practices, a new method or process does not usually automatically override the old one. You can still use berries and charcoal to paint a cave wall, paint on a canvas, or put pencil to paper. These do not become irrelevant just because a Wacom tablet can be used to make a digital illustration or a VR for a 3D painting.
Nikon unveiled the Z9 back in October to a world desperate for updates about their new top shelf model after months of teasers. This was eagerly awaited, not least to see how it compared to Sony's blockbuster Alpha 1 and because it beat Canon to the proverbial flagship punch.
We're starting a new tradition here at PetaPixel, where our staff gets together to discuss the things they know, not just think, will transpire over the course of the next calendar year. As bold predictions go, we're almost certainly going to get a lot of this wrong.
Everyone on the internet has an opinion and many of them are not exactly productive or supportive. This is even more prevalent in the photography community and in a ten-minute video from Miguel Quiles, he discusses five of the most common "negative" opinions that need to be stopped if creatives want to elevate their craft to the next level.
There are many debates about ethics in photography. One such debate is around making money on photos that show human suffering. It could be appropriate, but there are a few caveats you should consider before selling such work.
EuroWeekly News – based in Malaga, Spain and published by Michel and Steven Euesden – represents itself as the leading English language newspaper in Spain, with six editions and a circulation of over a half a million copies. What they seem less obvious about promulgating is that they also apparently feel entitled to exploit the work of independent visual artists.
Being a professional photographer is often a flashy “seemingly easy” career in which anyone with a camera and a lens can succeed. But why then do so many fail? Having talked to many successful photographers, I’ve noticed certain patterns that they all share.
Remember those halcyon film days? You mailed off that little black cartridge in an envelope and then about a week later negatives and prints were magically returned. With the rise of digital, the inkjet printer promised instant gratification at low per print prices. What could possibly go wrong?
The process of crafting great imagery is something I have been studying for years. One of the undertakings in this riveting pursuit was to study hundreds of great images from many photographers.
Remember those heady days of 2010? The release of the iPhone 4 and iPad, the New Orleans Saints won Superbowl XLIV, Iron Man 2 hit the cinemas, Eminem released Recovery, and Biden was Vice-President. It was also the year when camera shipments peaked at over 120 million units. How did the industry become the bit-part player it now is, shifting 9 million units just ten short years later?
Successful professionals -- that is, people who make most of their living as photographers -- have a kind of global view of their career. They behave as though marketing and contract negotiations and digital workflow are all just as important as composition and lighting.
As a 20-year old concert photographer, one of the questions that I get the most is: “How did you manage to land a touring job so quickly and at a young age?” Here are a few tips that I used when navigating my way into the concert photography industry.
Like chameleons, we photographers change with our environment to survive and thrive. It's inspiring to see the way we have risen to new and ever-evolving challenges in the industry. Yet, photographers are being taken advantage of now more than ever.
When the Sony Alpha 1 was announced, I remember being really impressed but not surprised. Sony had been the brand to beat and had been continuously pushing the envelope. What Sony did was impressive, but not shocking. The Nikon Z9 has shocked me.
Microsoft's first Surface Duo looked promising, but loud complaints about poor photo quality, bugs, and old hardware saw it flop in sales. The Surface Duo 2 directly addresses all the complaints, but the device may be too flawed to fix.
In the corner of my living room lives my piano, a cat tree, and an unassuming black Billingham camera bag containing a film and digital body. The thing that connects the three is that they’re all static objects.
Razer today announced the Enki gaming chair and while the term "gamer" comes with a lot of baggage that will make many immediately ignore it, this one looks promising whether or not you enjoy video games. I mean, we all need to sit, right?
In 2016, after Apple removed the memory card slot from MacBook Pros, I complained about this loudly. “Everything is going wireless,” a since-departed executive told me, adding that there was no need for the slot anymore.
Photographers and editors regularly get overlooked when it comes to a wide range of products. Computers, accessories, you name it, we usually end up buying something originally made for someone else. Never has this been more the case than with our chairs.
In ways much like the chicken and the egg, it is tough to distinguish which came first, my love of photography, or my obsession with optics.
