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These are the five top tools and features Photoshop needs that Affinity Photo has

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Until just a few short years ago, pretty much the only serious player in the game when it photo editing was Photoshop. Sure, there was always GIMP, but it hasn’t ever really been a serious contender (sorry, but it’s true). But in those last few years, we’ve seen quite a few potential hopefuls come up and really eat a chunk of Adobe’s share.

One of the biggest names amongst them has been Affinity Photo, which offers many similar features to Photoshop, but also has a few unique tricks up its sleeve. Tricks that some people wish Adobe would pay attention to and add to Photoshop – at least according to this wish list from the Abbey Esparza at Photo Manipulation.

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Laowa has released an automatic aperture version of their 7.5mm f/2 lens for Micro Four Thirds

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Third-party lenses are wonderful things. They prevent us from being locked those manufactured solely by the company that makes our cameras. It provides us with options that the camera manufacturers don’t even offer. For some systems, though, they don’t always offer the same feature set as OEM lenses. For Micro Four Thirds, that sometimes means no automatic aperture.

Laowa’s original 7.5mm f/2 lens for MFT was one such lens. So, they’ve now announced a new 7.5mm f/2 lens for MFT which updates the old one with automatic aperture capability, allowing you to control your aperture from the camera itself and have that setting stored in the EXIF data of your images.

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Watch the solar eclipse’s shadow on Earth as seen from space

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Did you manage to catch the partial solar eclipse yesterday? Did you wonder what it looked like from space? NASA shared an interesting video that shows what the Earth looked like during the eclipse. It shows the moon’s shadow cast on our planet and it’s pretty cool to see the eclipse from a totally different perspective.

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Here are the satisfying shutter sounds of 18 different cameras from 35mm to 8×10 large format

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With so many cameras offering completely silent electronic shutter these days – which is understandable for things like weddings and events where the noise of shutters can be quite distracting – it’s easy to forget just how satisfying the sounds of some camera shutters can be. It’s also quite interesting how these sounds can take some of us back to our past when we hear certain sounds from cameras we’ve shot and have pleasant memories of.

In this video, photographer Sails Chong has recorded the sounds from 18 different camera shutters, and various other noises and compiled them into a very relaxing 5-minute video. The video covers everything from 35mm SLRs through Fuji, Hasselblad and Phase One medium format up to 8×10 large format.

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ZY Optics brings its Mitakon Speedmaster 50mm f/0.95 to Leica L mount

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ZY Optics has announced the release of their Mitakon Speedmaster 50mm f/0.95 lens for L mount. The fast aperture manual focus lens is designed for use with full-frame mirrorless cameras and is compatible with the complete line of L mount cameras from Sigma, Panasonic and Leica.

The Mitakon Speedmaster 50mm f/0.95 was initially offered in full-frame format with Sony E mount in 2014. A Mark II came in 2017 and it was then refreshed in 2019 with a new Mark III version. The Mark III was still available in Sony E mount but also Nikon Z and Canon RF, too. Today’s release now makes it available for every full-frame mirrorless system currently available.

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Computational vs. traditional photography — Complementary, not contradictory

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There are now two ways of creating digital images with a camera. You can either follow a software-centric computational photography approach. The other way is to stick to traditional hardware-centric optical photography. The former is used with AI to help enhance the final image, the latter relies on the quality of the camera’s components (e.g. lens, sensor). The two techniques may differ, but they are not at all on a collision course. They can complement each other and even address each technique’s limitations.

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Samsung’s new 50-megapixel JN1 sensor has the smallest pixels in the world

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When it comes to smartphone camera sensors, there are only really two big players. Sony and Samsung. And while Sony might be selling more units, Samsung always seems to be pushing things that little bit further. Or, in this case, smaller. Samsung has announced its new 50-megapixel ISOCELL 2.0 JN1 sensor, boasting smaller pixels than even its 108-megapixel flagship smartphone sensor.

This tiny 1/2.8-inch chip has a pixel pitch of only 0.64μm compared to the slightly larger 0.7μm pixel pitch of Samsung’s ISOCELL HM2 108-megapixel 1/1.52-inch sensor. Yet they still manage to pack in their Smart-ISO tech along with the “Double Super PDAF” autofocus system. And it sounds like it’s basically just a drop-in replacement for existing 1/2.8″ devices.

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First specs leak of a possible Sony FE 100mm f/1.4 GM lens

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There have been one or two rumours that Sony might be about to introduce a 100mm f/1.4 GM lens. They may not be true, but it would be a great lens for Sony to add to their lineup. Nikon has its 105mm f/1.4 and while there is an FE mount version of Sigma’s 105mm f/1.4 “Bokeh Master” Art lens, it’s essentially still an adapted DSLR lens.

Sony Alpha Rumours has posted what might a possible spec sheet for an upcoming Sony 100mm f/1.4 GM lens – although “spec sheet” would be generous. There’s very little actual information, even if it turns out to be true. But the idea of a native FE mount 100mm f/1.4 by Sony themselves in the form of a GM lens is quite exciting.

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