Here Are More Wonderful Links From The Photography World For Your Enjoyment

Photo by Carl Raw
Photo by Carl Raw

Keeping up with all the ton of photography related news is hard; but don't worry, we are doing the hard work for you!

Welcome to your highlights reel from the fantastic world of Photography.

HARDWARE & GEAR

Mastering Light via Filtering

Light is extremely generous but it has to be tamed to some extent in order to achieve particular desired effects – that is where filters come in. Lee Filters has a solid legacy and has recently introduced a new filter holder system that promises to help us, photographers. This new holder has been designed around the photographers' mindset. The Lee100 is the next-step from their previously ultimately tested 100mm filter holder, and it has been improved in every way. Check out all their powerful kits here and download the product brochure here. You can also watch the next-generation filter holder promotional video here.

New APS-C from Sony tagged as “For Enthusiasts”

Sony has announced a new APS-C camera that is defined as a camera for enthusiasts, and please don't get me wrong, personally speaking, this is actually a good thing for me. Thanks to marketing research, Sony has spotted that photography enthusiasts are still overlapping between high-end APS-C cameras and entry-level full-frames. Mirrorless camera systems are no longer the future, and this is a great opportunity for people intrigued by photography to feel what it is like to shoot images beyond the smart-phone. These cameras are usually pretty powerful so they can also work as every-day-carrying cameras for photographers as well.

What About an Affordable 85mm Fast Lens for Fuji cameras?

It sounds nice, right? Well, that is what the Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 is all about. You can check out this lens here and it has a retail price tag of US $459.99. According to Mattias Burling, the lens construction feels very high quality, which makes it a very interesting lens for people who need of a nice portrait lens but spent almost all their money on the camera body. The great thing is that this lens fits every X-Mount so you can get one of the still powerful earlier Fuji cameras and this lens for a killer low price combo.

35mm Equivalent Action Camera

Yup, that is right, calling all street photographers out there. Sony has announced a tiny but tough camera that promises to deliver premium imaging everywhere in a familiar format, the action camera one. This camera comes with a 1″ inch sensor and a low distortion Zeiss 24mm (35mm equivalent) f/4 lens, and you can control it from your smart-phone. Beyond Manual Exposure and Tiltable Screen (which are obvious innovations for an action camera) here are all the specifications and features on this still just announced camera. The price is supposed to be $699. Watch the promotional video here.

Canon's Design Jeopardizes 30% of their potential customers

After getting rid of the joystick, they came up with something that looks like an elegant solution, however, it's not so great for left-eye dominant shooters wanting to use their EOS RP M50 camera. The solution they have designed is to include an option in which a portion of the screen sorts of unlocks for focusing purposes via the touch screen. It does sound cool, and for right-eye dominant shooters this is not a problem at all. Watch this video by Michael The Maven to see how your nose will make it impossible to select where to focus if you are a left-eye dominant shooter. We hope that this problem gets fixed as soon as possible.

Better News from Canon

Not everything is bad news from the old and trusty Japanese camera manufacturing company. Canon Asia has recently pre-announced new firmware for their Canon EOS R system. The new firmware will be available on Canon's website around mid-April, 2019. Some of the big enhancements are:

Eye-detection AF

  • Supports Servo AF when shooting still images.
  • Now available when shooting movies regardless of “Movie Servo AF” setting.
  • Small AF Frame Size
    • Supports Servo AF when shooting still images.
    • Now available when shooting movies regardless of “Movie Servo AF” setting.

And some of the fixes are

  • Under certain conditions, the electronic level displayed in the electronic viewfinder did not display properly.
  • Under certain conditions information displayed in the electronic viewfinder was not properly rotated.
  • Under certain conditions updating the firmware for the wireless file transmitter, WFT-E7 was not possible.

Variable Prism Filters

Many people reacted in a negative way about these variable prism filters released by prismlensfx. I find them to be quite nice, although kind of pricey. Some people say that you can use cracked UV filters, but honestly, those will shatter and they don't have rotating capabilities. And if your workflow relies on having all these flares, light leaks and various artifacts constantly, then you should consider them. You can reduce a lot of time mimicking the effect in post-production by simply threading one of these odd looking filters on your camera.

Oh no!

This is really sad news to hear, but fortunately, Ricoh is doing something about. The long-awaited GR III camera comes with a wobbly control dial pad button, and we can only imagine that it makes it awful to use. Ricoh will start accepting applications for a free repair from 8 April 2019. And here are the affected serial numbers:

  • 0010046 to 0022290
  • 2010043 to 2012044
  • 3010045 to 3010544
  • 4010041 to 4010230

SOFTWARE & APPS

Making your Clients' Ideas Clear for You

Alright, this isn't quite a software or app-related news, but it could be seen as a very good tool for every photographer. Here, Anete Lusina wrote about the importance of having a brief that will help you out with the hard task of pulling valuable information from your clients. In other words, you can help your clients with defining what exactly what they want with the aid of a simple brief. She recommends reading “Briefing a photographer: how to write a photography brief” as a baseline for writing your own brief. This can, of course, be set-up to work as an elegant form on your website, but the essential thing here is to be able to pull valuable insights from your clients' creative minds.

You Could be Making Extra Money with Your Photos

According to Copytrack's global infringement report 2019, there is a huge amount of money being misused by people using and stealing photos without giving proper recognition or attribution. The amount seems exaggerated, however, it seems logical if we consider that a single photo could be used multiple times across the globe. But don't panic, the same company who released the report (hmm???) offers a solution for you. They state that 3 billion images are shared online every day and 85% of them get stolen. Based on that, they do the dirty work of tracking your photos and dealing with people and getting money for you. You can read more about their financial structure here.

SOME STORIES

Gear Acquisition Syndrome has a Song

This song has become quite a thing among photographers since it makes fun in a good way of something we all have experienced at least once in our lives, the Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS). The song is called Gear Lust and it belongs to Taylor Jackson, and beyond its obvious silliness, it could make a lot of photographers smile at least once. This isn't the first song about photography, Indie Rock band Alt-J has a song called Taro dedicated to the legendary war photographers Gerda Taro and Robert Capa.

Harvard is Being Sued due to some Photographs

Harvard University is in the spotlight thanks to debate related to a number of daguerreotypes commissioned by a Harvard professor in 1850. The images were taken as research tools for the now thankfully unpopular Polygenism theory which sprouted in the 18th century. The lawsuit has been raised by Tamara Lanier, a direct descendant of the man photographed under diminishing conditions while being enslaved, you can get a better context here.

It was Enough for the Auschwitz Museum

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum made a respectful and very understandable request for tourists to stop using their railroads for silly social-media purposes. You can watch more here about the following request made by the Auschwitz Museum via Twitter: “When you come to @AuschwitzMuseum remember you are at the site where over 1 million people were killed. Respect their memory. There are better places to learn how to walk on a balance beam than the site which symbolizes deportation of hundreds of thousands to their deaths.”

Fired for Blocking Jong-un's Neck

This sounds like an April Fools' joke but it isn't really, we heard all about it on the internet. Apparently, Kim Jong-un has a policy of no intermission between his own presence and the crowds cheering him. Unfortunately for Ri (the photographer), he forgot about this rule, and even when he intruded briefly between Kim and the crowd, he got fired for blocking Kim's neck with the flash. You can read the complete story here.

Another Great Film by SmugMug

SmugMug has been doing some really nice films about photography and photographers. Today's turn is Alan Schaller, a mature street photographer very well known for his compelling compositions filled with complex narratives. Being able to see how a photographer works is always a delight, and SmugMug is doing an excellent job by sharing with us these amazing stories from the other side of the lenses.

And Speaking of Which

Short videos are great, they tell you really inspiring stories in easy to digest formats. Here is an amazingly well produced short video by Will Campbell dedicated to the beautiful process behind large format photography. Beyond being a true visual delight, the video is a strong statement about why well though photography matter way more than just meaningless snapshots.

THE BOOKSHELF

The Ongoing Moment

I just got in the mail an amazing gift from my friend Ben Lundsten. This book written by Geoff Dyer focuses not only on great masters of photography by on how many of them have approached the same topics in very different ways. From Kertész to Lange, or from Evans to Eggleston, the book is considered to be a kaleidoscopic work of extraordinary originality and insight.

IN IMAGES

Winners of Smithsonian Magazine's 2018 Photo Contest

More than 48,000 entries were received last year on the 16th edition of the Smithsonian Magazine's Photo Contest, and the winners have been announced. Take a look at the photos here.