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About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

ARRI settles its patent lawsuits with Rotolight over user-customisable lighting effects

“ARRI has agreed to a settlement with Rotolight”, a joint statement between the two companies begins. In September 2021, ARRI began legal proceedings towards Rotolight, amongst others, disputing the validity of their lighting effect patents. The challenge came in view of what ARRI called “myriad prior art”. Basically, it’s been around for years, so what’s Rotolight done that’s actually new and patentable? They argued that it was “not new, but rather state of the art”.

They argued that the patents should never have been issued in the first place. That the company’s “advances” were nothing more than building upon known technical solutions that had been “well established in the market for many years”. Well, ARRI and Rotolight seem to have figured things out because they’ve reached a settlement, and the patents still stand.

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Rode’s NTH-100 headphones are now a headset with the new NTH-Mic microphone

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A few months ago, Rode, a company more popularly known for its microphones, decided to get on the other end of the audio gear process with their first pair of headphones, the Rode NTH-100. They quickly became very popular headphones – and for good reason. They’ve been the main headphones I use on my desktop computer for editing, as well as general use, since they were first launched.

Now, Rode’s expanding the capability of the NTH-100 headphones with the new NTH-Mic. It exploits a feature of the headphones in that it has two audio sockets – one underneath each earpad. When you’re just using them as regular headphones, this means you can plug the cable into either side of them for ease of use. With the NTH-Mic attached, one is still used for the audio cable, but the other is used for the mic.

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Take a tour inside the Fujifilm factory and see how they make the XF 150-600mm lens

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If there’s one thing CineD’s really good for, it’s behind-the-scenes factory tours, particularly from Fuji. Having been first rumoured way back at the beginning of 2021, officially announced last year and finally now shipping worldwide, the Fujifilm XF 150-600mm f/5.6-8 R LM OIS WR is an interesting-looking lens. What’s even more interesting, though, is seeing how it’s made and the processes that go into it.

In the video above, Johnnie Behiri from CineD goes to visit Fujifilm at their Taiwa factory in Sendai, Japan to do exactly that, see how it’s made. It’s a fairly short video, clocking in at around four and a half minutes, but it covers a lot of detail and gives us an insight into how the gear we use comes together and the things that all need to come together to make it happen.

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How to build your own DIY triple-display laptop to maximise your editing experience

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Triple display laptops have almost sort of been a thing since 2017 when Razer first showed off their then-top-secret triple-display laptop to Linus Tech Tips at CES. Those early prototypes were stolen and somebody was even caught trying to sell them, but they’ve kind of disappeared ever since. There haven’t been any commercially available laptops with triple displays, and most DIY solutions are a little brutal at best.

There are some bolt-on solutions to turn your regular single monitor laptop into a triple monitor machine, but Matt at DIY Perks thinks he’s come up with his own ultimate solution. Naturally, it’s a DIY job, and it actually seems to work pretty well. Matt’s trick is to change the aspect ratio of the displays, going to a pair of vertical iPad displays instead of adding a pair of horizontal screens.

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Sony A7C II announcement rumoured for some time during 2023

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The Sony A7C has proven to be quite popular. As a full-frame camera designed primarily for vlogging, it’s not much of a surprise. Even though there are many full-frame cameras out there now with which you can vlog, the A7C kind of stands alone in its design that’s especially well suited to the task. And despite being smaller, when it comes to video, it largely keeps up with the Sony A7 III.

Well, it appears that we’ve got an A7C II on the way at some point in 2023, according to new rumours over on Sony Alpha Rumors. It’s expected to have the same body and overall form factor as the original Sony A7C but with specs closer to that of the Sony A7 IV. This should mean improved video (perhaps including 10-Bit 4:2:2 and 4K 60p) and better autofocus.

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This DIY gadget captures and saves metadata for your film photography cameras

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One of the great things about digital photography is that it stores metadata within the files of each your photos. It allows you to have a permanent, searchable archive of every image you’ve ever shot. Right now, I can quickly and easily go search for any photograph I’ve shot in the last 21 years (I switched to DSLRs in ’02) and see exactly what camera and lens I used, as well as the exposure settings and other information.

Film doesn’t really do this, though. After all, it’s an analogue medium. At best, typically, we might see the date and time impressed upon the image itself during capture but beyond that… Not really. This device, though, from Alessandro Genova helps you to capture the settings for every film photo you ever take. And it even has a built-in light meter!

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Micron’s 1.5TB microSD cards cost more than diamonds

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If you’re an international art thief dealing in jewels instead of cash, you might want to consider switching to a different currency. Pricing has finally become available for Micron’s 1.5TB i400 microSD cards, announced last June. Micron doesn’t appear to have actually made a price announcement yet, although listings have popped up at online wholesalers around the world.

The prices are enough to make your eyes water. The wholesale cost for a single card is $420 at Newark. Retail price bumps up to $556.05 on Mouser. And for that kind of money, you’re not even getting a super fast (for UHS-I) V30 card, either. These are Class 10, so you’re only guaranteed 10MB/sec sustained transfer speeds. Also, you’re going to be on about a two-month waiting list (at least).

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The Benro Theta is the world’s first tripod that automatically levels itself

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Benro is preparing to release two new tripods via Kickstarter. They’re called the Benro Theta and Theta Max, and they’re sort of “smart” tripods. One of the biggest features they boast is that they’re auto-levelling tripods – the world’s first, they say. I have to admit, when I saw the video of one in action, it didn’t do it the way I thought it would. When we think of “auto-levelling” cameras, we typically think of gimbals. I assumed the head would move, but no, it’s the legs!

As well as automatic leg levelling, the tripods feature the ability through optional modules to control the camera, with remote live view, file syncing and more. You can also instantly live stream from wherever you are (assuming you have a signal), or there’s even an optical sensor module that automatically detects the ambient light levels and adjusts your shooting settings accordingly for those day-to-night holy grail timelapses.

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SLR Lounge’s Impossible Things wants to AI your Lightroom

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In the last year or two, artificial intelligence has become the latest buzzword in the photography industry. From automatic background removal to full-on digital art creation, AI is changing the photography industry and creating new tools to help photographers in various aspects of their workflows.

A new AI photo editing company that recently entered the scene is Impossible Things, created by Lightroom preset makers, DVLOP, and photography educators, SLR Lounge. The AI claims to provide photographers with “an intuitive, powerful editing tool that enhances photos with speed, accuracy, and artistry.”

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The Matte Box IQ is Irix’s take on a lightweight matte box that uses their magnetic filters

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Irix has expanded its product base from just lenses once again. After having already branched out into filters, they’ve now announced the new Irix Matte Box IQ. It’s a small, lightweight matte box designed for filmmakers and video shooters to help control light spill on their lenses. It does have one slight drawback for many filmmakers, though, which might be a deal breaker. It’s only designed to work with Irix’s magnetic filters.

If you’re already an Irix shooter and already own a bunch of Irix’s magnetic filters, then this won’t be a problem. But if you’ve been using industry-standard 4×5.65″ glass filters for video work with other matte boxes, then this one probably won’t be for you. At least, not all the time. It still has some great applications as a secondary matte box for a smaller, portable, lightweight camera rig.

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