All posts in “Photography”

Hasselblad Adds Ultralight XCD 4/45P To Its X1D Lens Lineup

Hasselblad’s new XCD 4/45P is the world’s lightest digital medium format autofocus lens on the market today. That means legendary Hasselblad image quality in a really portable package. Weighing in at just over a half a pound and not even 2-inches tall, the f4 45mm lens is comprised of 9 elements, for state-of-the-art optics & that timeless square format in the brand’s compact X1D camera system.

[embedded content]

The PowerEgg X is a Drone & AI Tracking Camera in One

With its 3-axis gimbal, the PowerEgg X drone from PowerVision captures smooth, stabilized 4K video at speeds up to 60fps and utilizes AI capabilities to double as a stationary tracking camera. The drone boasts a 30-minute flight time and offers features like obstacle avoidance even in winds up to 43mph. In tracking camera mode, the PowerEgg stands on a compact tripod & uses advanced sensors and AI to keep whatever you’re filming perfectly framed as it moves.

[embedded content]

This Camera Drone Flies for 50 Minutes

Zero Zero Robotics’ V-Coptr Falcon camera drone has only 2 rotors rather than the normal 4 but that’s not what makes it such a standout. This thing is all about flight time. 50-minutes. About twice what similar competitors can claim. So that’s a big deal. The camera captures 4K video at speeds up to 30fps and video transmission boasts a range of 4.3 miles. Object avoidance, auto-homing—all the features you’d expect and then some.

[embedded content]

Display Your Photos Like Fine Art with Netgear’s Meural Canvas II

Netgear’s Meural Canvas II is a wi-fi-enabled digital picture frame that brings your digital photos to life up on the wall. It will also display famous works of art in 1080P HD through a subscription-based service. Available in 16” X 14” or 19” X 29”, the Canvas can be hung vertically or horizontal & the gesture-control screen lets you swipe through physically, like your phone.

[embedded content]

GoPro’s Hero Max 360 Shoots Everything Around You

With the launch of the Hero Max 360, GoPro is hoping to erase any lingering memory of its last foray into 360º panoramic video. The camera uses a dual lens configuration to capture 360º video with ambisonic spatial audio from a 6-mic array and it features a selfie-screen as well as offering all the functionality of the brand’s Hero8 Black model. As a hero camera & vlog tool it’s powerful and now with 360º capabilities, you can get more creative than ever. Available for pre-order now.

[embedded content]

OCLU Introduces 4K Action Cam

Arizona-based OCLU is a new brand with a brand new 4k action camera. In addition to shooting 4k at 30 fps, it shoots 1080p at 120 fps for super slo-mo and 12mp still images. It features a 150º wide-angle lens, wi-fi, waterproofing to 50-meters, and it’s compatible with GoPro’s many mounts.

150-Megapixel Medium Format Manual: The PhaseOne XT

Designed for professional photographers in the field seeking the image & resolution quality of the brand’s studio cameras, PhaseOne’s new medium format XT system is fully manual with no autofocus and features a carbon leaf shutter system for dedicated XT lenses. The system comes with the brand’s 150-megapixel digital back & a lens.

[embedded content]

Terrific Tripods to Take Your Photography to the Next Level

Looking for a tripod? There’s no wonder. A tripod might be the signal most important tool for photographers and videographers, other than the actual camera, because it opens up a world of creative opportunities. It’s great for nighttime, landscape, wildlife and sports photography, or basically anything shot with a telephoto lens, plus it provides the much-needed stability for long exposures, hyperlapses and panoramas. And then there’s the relief aspect; photographers just don’t want to hold a heavy camera for that long.

So what kind of tripod should you buy? It depends on what type of photos you’re looking to take, as well as what kind of camera you’re shooting on (DSLR, mirrorless, point-and-shoot or even smartphone), but ultimately, here’s what you need to know: a big and heavy tripod is gonna do a much better job stabilizing the camera, which is why most professional studios you large full-sized tripods, but most people are willing to give up some of that stability for a tripod they can pack in bag.

Manfrotto 5-Section Compact Action Tripod

Best Tripod Under $100: Manfrotto makes some of the best and most popular tripods that you’ll find. This one, the 5-Section Compact Action Tripod, is great because it’s surpisingly durable and sturdy, plus it comes in at well under $100, making it a solid-buy for budget-conscious photographers. It has a joystick head to help you adjust the angle of your camera. And it’s really lightweight – less than three pounds – and compact. It’s an ideal tripod for photographers using an entry-level DSLR with a standard lens or a compact travel camera.

Manfrotto 500 Fluid Video Head with 190X Video Tripod

Best Video Tripod: Videographers shooting in 4K tend to need heavier, more supportive tripods because they are typically better at eliminating vibrations. This one by Manfrotto, for example, is over seven pounds and it’s sturdier than any other tripod on this list. It has a number of key features for video, too, like an innovative head with fluid cartridges on both pan and tilt axes, a leveling column and a five-pound counterbalance; all of which allow the photographer to move their camera smoothly and accurately. There are admittedly more moving parts in the system, but this Manfrotto tripod still manages to be pretty intuitive to use.

CamKix Premium 3in1 Kit

Best for Action Cameras: This is a simple, affordable and pretty great impulse buy for anybody with an action camera (or even a compact camera or smartphone). The tripod has a socket-ball mount with a locking switch that allows you to rotate the camera a full 180 degrees. And there’s a telescopic pole attachment, which you can use to achieve better height on your shots, or just use it as a glorified selfie stick. It’s worth pointing out that while compact cameras and smartphones can be attached directly to the tripod, your GoPro needs to be housed in a GoPro mount.

MeFoto Globetrotter Travel TriPod

Best Travel Tripod: As the name hints, the MeFoto Globetrotter is one of the best travel tripods. It’s compact and lightweight (less than four pounds), and it’s carbon fiber frame is strong enough to support larger systems (up to 26 pounds). It has five leg sections so you can set the camera to stand over five-feet high, and the cushioned legs actually come together to convert the tripod into a monopod, which is neat. This is an ideal travel tripod for anybody shooting DSLR or mirrorless.

Peak Design Travel Tripod

One for the Future: Peak Design’s first tripod is, as you’d expect, designed for adventurers and outdoor photographers. It’s super compact and packable, about the size of a water bottle, and everything on the tripod is designed to be efficient and intuitive. For example, there are latches instead of annoying twist locks, to quickly extend the legs; to adjust the orientation of the ball head, there’s a single adjustment ring instead of a series of knobs; and small levers let you spread the legs wider to help you take low-angle photos. It’s available in aluminum or carbon fiber, the latter being the noticeably lighter (and significantly more expensive) model.

The Peak Design Travel Tripod is available for pre-order today. It’s expected to ship in January 2020.

|

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

DJI Introduces Foldable Osmo Mobile 3 Gimbal

It took a minute but DJI has finally integrated their industry-leading Gimbal technologies into a foldable design—making it possible to bring the new Osmo Mobile 3 almost anywhere. It weighs less than a pound, and folded down, measures 6.18 x 5.11 x 1.8 in. making it the ideal companion for shooting content from your phone. Especially when linked with DJI’s Mimo app for mobile editing controls.

The Sigma FP is the World’s Smallest Full-Frame Mirrorless Camera

The forthcoming Sigma FP is the world’s smallest & lightest full-frame mirrorless camera. Sigma built this little guy out with a 35mm full-frame backlit Bayer CMOS sensor that captures 24.6-megapixel images & records Cine Mode UHD 4K footage while weighing less than a pound. It is designed to be modular, allowing users to customize the set-up for all sorts of shooting scenarios from shooting stills to filmmaking. No word yet on price or drop date.

Spry Underwater Drone Goes Literally Everywhere

Designed to capture watersports up close, Spry is a quadcopter underwater drone that captures 4k video from the air, the surface of the water and underwater. The fuselage floats, so the drone simply floats up to go from underwater to aerial shooting at speeds up to 40 MPH. The controller is also waterproof & floats, or if you prefer, run it in autonomous Follow Me mode while you: surf, swim, kitesurf, wakeboard, SUP, skim, kayak, fish, bodysurf, sail, cliff dive, etc.

Leica’s Compact Q2 Camera Has a Super-Size Sensor

Leica’s Compact Q2 Camera Has a Super-Size Sensor | werd.com<meta property="og:description" content="With the introduction of the Q2,

Leica adds some serious firepower to its compact full-frame camera. Namely, a super high-res 47.3-megapixel sensor as well as 4K video capture. It’s fitted with a Summilux 28mm f/1.7 prime lens with a cropping/zooming feature that can make your shots look like you used a 35mm, 50mm or 75mm lens. The camera also offers continuous still shooting at 10 fps & is dust and weather resistant.”/>

Leica’s Compact Q2 Camera Has a Super-Size Sensor at werd.com

With the introduction of the Q2, Leica adds some serious firepower to its compact full-frame camera. Namely, a super high-res 47.3-megapixel sensor as well as 4K video capture. It’s fitted with a Summilux 28mm f/1.7 prime lens with a cropping/zooming feature that can make your shots look like you used a 35mm, 50mm or 75mm lens. The camera also offers continuous still shooting at 10 fps & is dust and weather resistant.

Leica Unveils a Limited M10-P Rangefinder with New Cinematic Functions

Created to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the American Society of Cinematographers, Leica created a special limited-edition ASC variant of its M10-P digital rangefinder camera. Aside from ASC branding on the top plate and the gold-finished Leica Summicron-M 35 f/2 ASPH lens, it looks like other M10 models. But it’s got what they don’t: 2 built-in cinematic modes. The“ASC Cine Classic” mode recreates the look of 35mm motion-picture film & the “ASC Contemporary” mode mimics the digital look of more modern movies.

The Black Hornet PRS is a Combat-Proven, Pocket-Sized Drone

FLIR’s Black Hornet PRS is an “airborne personal reconnaissance system for dismounted soldiers.” Translation: it’s a pocket-size drone originally designed for military units who need undetectable recon in combat situations. This combat-proven drone is extremely light, nearly silent, and boasts a flight time up to 25 minutes. It uses EO & infrared optical technologies to transmit live video & HD still images day or night. The imagery is transmitted through an encrypted data link with ranges up to 2 kilometers & is stored on removable SD cards in the device. No word yet on civilian availability.

For Better Phone Photos, Pull Out the Pocket Tripod PRO

You’d probably carry a tripod if it fit in your wallet, right? Okay, well the Pocket Tripod PRO does. It’s the size of a credit card and twice as thick, so it slides right into your pocket or wallet. And despite its small size, it delivers all the essential functions you’d expect from a full-size tripod: Carbon fiber legs, angle indicator, soft-contact grip, and fluid tilt adjustment.

DJI’s Osmo Pocket Will Turn You Into a Gimbal God

The Osmo Pocket is the smallest action camera & handheld 3-axis gimbal the drone lords at DJI have ever created. It records 4K 60fps video with mechanical stabilization that gives your motion clips a cinematic look no matter how radical you’re getting. It has features like Auto-track to follow the motion of your subject, a 3X3 panoramic mode and the battery lasts for 140 minutes.

A Veteran Photographer on the Intimacy of Portraiture

Born in Southern California and raised from what he calls “humble beginnings,” Tim Davis has built an enviable career as a photographer. First starting out in graphic design, an internship at Patagonia eventually led him to shift his focus behind the lens. Now, 13 years into his tenure as a staff photographer at Patagonia, Davis spends the chunk of his time in the field, shooting gear in action, with refreshing reprieves in the studio and editing deskside.

By nature, most of Davis’ work in the outdoor space has required him to be somewhat removed, an observer documenting as a photojournalist. But in his free time, Davis has been taken by the more intimate nature of portraiture. He’s studied the work of the masters of the craft, recreating classic set-ups and dialing-in studio lighting. His go-to has been the Leica M10, favoring its history, timeless craftsmanship and slender design. Davis took us along on some of his recent portrait shoots, behind the curtain at Patagonia’s creative studios and into his own home workshop to share more about this nuanced form of photography and how he approaches it. Read on for a look into his world.

On becoming a photographer:
“I’ve had an affinity for still photography since I was a kid. My uncle was a special effects photographer in the film days back in the ‘70s-’80s in New York City. I remember being 7- or 8-years-old and visiting his studio, being really impressed. My grandfather also owned a little camera store. My first camera was a little Kodak; I can’t even remember what it was called. It had discs of film and I would blast through them. By the time I was 16 or 17, my mom got me my first SLR, which was a Minolta with three lenses. It wasn’t a quality camera but I thought it was amazing.

Initially, in college, I was a fine art major. But I came from pretty humble beginnings so I had to figure out how to make a little money. I knew I wanted to do something in the arts. But I knew being a fine art major and making fine art was a really sketchy gamble. At first, getting into graphic design was amazing because you start making a little bit of money, but it was too much computer time. When I was at UCSB in the Graphic Design Department, I freelanced at Patagonia doing graphic design. While I was freelancing as a graphic designer, I switched [disciplines] and went to Brooks Institute of Photography back when it was located in Santa Barbara. Photography and filmmaking was a really neat way to see the world and be out and shooting amazing stuff. You do still get some technical stuff. You work really hard and then you get back in the office and have a more civilized environment with a cup of coffee at 8:30 in the morning and you get to process.”


On portraiture:
“The drawback to outdoor photojournalistic photography, at least for me, is that it’s a lonelier experience. You’re not involved, ideally, in the making of a photo. You’re just there to document it. That’s a neat experience, but the advantage to portraiture is that you’re involved in creating the photo. Portraiture is a lot more intimate in that sense. You get to work with the subject. If you look at the Henri Cartier-Bresson approach to it, he looked at the camera as a tool. In a way, it could encumber the process if you let it. It was about you and me and if I did my job right, I really captured the moment. It’s as simple as that.

When you’re taking someone’s portrait, it’s case by case. When working with a professional athlete or model, someone who has been photographed a lot, it’s a really easy process. They do what they do and I do what I do, and hopefully, we make something really great. If you get someone that’s nervous in front of the camera, the direction becomes more nuanced. You want to evoke the right look but you don’t want to make them feel more nervous. It’s a delicate balance. We have a finite limit to how long we can be photographed; I think a human can be photographed for maybe 8 minutes.”

On shooting with the Leica M:
“For photojournalism, it’s really nice to show up with something small and lightweight and unobtrusive. If you show up with a big SLR, and you’re trying to be stealthy, it’s just not going to happen. If you show up with the Leica M with a small 50mm on it, they might not know you’re shooting amazing photos on it. And the beauty of a manual camera like the M is that it makes a different photo.

There is something really special about a camera that’s been relatively unchanged for 100 years. These really teeny beautiful lenses are handmade and these camera bodies still look the same. There’s something tactile. They’re heavy. It’s handmade with brass and glass and someone is making each one.”

Meet the Leica M10

Leica took its expertise from more than 60 years since launching the M Series — 11 making digital M Cameras — to create the Leica M10. It is the slimmest digital M ever made with dimensions as slender as analogue M-Cameras. Combining heritage with technology, the slim and elegant camera uses a specially developed 24 MP, full-frame CMOS sensor and a Maestro II image processor, delivering extended dynamic range as well as ISO values up to 50,000. Learn More




On photographic legends:
“I have a slight obsession with black and white portrait photographers. We don’t use a ton of portraiture here [at Patagonia], even less black and white, so developing those ideas happens outside of work. Researching the old images and techniques of the legends (like Avedon, Newton, Elgort, Demarchelier, Lindberg and so on) is so rewarding: a Bob Marley portrait shot on auto with Kodak film bought at the local drug store; Avedon teasing his subjects or his 8×10 wooden camera with a white seamless taped to a barn; Bresson’s 50mm that he shot his entire career; Nachtwey’s focusing techniques and Tri-X film; Capa and Gerda Taro and love, war and death; Mark Seliger’s brick studio stairwell; Leibovitz and box studios. There is so much to learn: the techniques, the mistakes, the complexities, simple solutions, love of the medium and their subjects, the heartbreak, drugs, death, insecurities or regrets. It’s all so amazing and so human. I’m fascinated with the old legends and their lore.

Everything that’s happening in photography has been done and has maybe been done 100 years ago. It’s at least been done 50 years ago. We’re almost 70 years past when Richard Avedon was at his prime and Irving Penn was at his prime — and the fashion magazines on every shelf today are clearly influenced by these guys. I’m just trying to pay homage to the legends.” — Tim Davis, Senior Photographer, Patagonia









Yuneec Introduces Voice-Controlled Mantis Q Drone

The Mantis Q drone from Yuneec captures 4K & stabilized 1080P video, uses voice commands and features a 33-minute battery. Gesture control and facial detection are also on the list, as well as a tiny, portable controller. It’s got a top-speed of 44mph, weighs less than a pound and it’s designed for easy portability with fold-up arms. The camera also shoots 13-megapixel photos in either JPG or DNG format.

The Best iPhone Photography of 2018

As the cameras on the back and front of the iPhone get better and better, those “Shot on iPhone” ads become less and less impressive. Still, it’s hard not to still get blown away when…

        

Fujifilm X100F Camera Brown Leather Edition

The ultimate rig for travel and street photography will soon be available in a vintage-inspired colorway that compliments its old-school body. Fujifilm’s X100F Camera Brown Leather Edition will sport an irresistible brown and silver combo that is sure to make classic camera enthusiasts drool over it.

Exterior looks aside, the new model packs the same features that made the original so cherished by photographers. These feats include a 24.3MP X-Trans CMOS III APS-C sensor with no low-pass filter, X-Processor Pro high-speed image processing engine, Advanced Hybrid Viewfinder, Focus Lever for quick selection of focus areas, “ACROS“ film simulation, digital teleconverter, 3.0-inch LCD, built-in Wi-Fi, ISO sensitivity up to 51200, and other goodies crammed inside a compact and ultra-versatile camera.

Buy the black version from Amazon $1,200