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About John Aldred

John Aldred is based in Scotland and photographs people in the wild and animals in the studio.

You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube.

Godox has killed off its A1 Bluetooth smartphone flash trigger

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The Godox smartphone flash and Bluetooth remote control unit, the Godox A1, has been discontinued. The Godox A1 was released in 2017 to quite some fanfare. It was the first device to really let smartphone users shoot images using the speedlights and strobes they already owned – Well, if you had an iPhone or one of a handful of select Android devices you could.

Since that initial release, though, and despite users constantly asking for better Android support, it hasn’t really seen many updates. And with the Bluetooth functionality now incorporated into the Godox X2T and Flashpoint R2Pro Mark II triggers, Godox has abandoned the original A1 entirely.

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Yongnuo just announced a new 35mm f/2 lens for full-frame Sony E mount

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Yongnuo has announced a new YN35mm F2S DF DSM lens for full-frame Sony E Mount cameras. It appears to not just be their existing 35mm f/2 for DSLRs with an extended barrel, either, but a completely new lens design. Whether or not it’s their own design or they’ve “borrowed” somebody else’s, I don’t know, but this one does seem as if it may be designed specifically for mirrorless cameras.

The lens is constructed of 9 elements in 8 groups including one aspherical element and one low dispersion element. The elements have a Nano-multilayer coating which Yongnuo says helps to improve light transmittance while suppressing ghosting and flare.

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This is how special effects artists made the muscle and “fat” suits for Bill & Ted Face the Music

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Many of us will remember the original adventures of Ted Theodore Logan and Bill S. Preston Esq., and their long-awaited third movie was finally released last month. There was quite a bit of makeup and effects for certain parts of the movie, though, as… well, this post will likely contain spoilers so I’ll save it for after the jump.

But this 9-minute behind the scenes look goes through the process of how special effects artists like Kevin Yagher (who worked on the first two Bill & Ted movies, countless others and is also creator of the original Chucky) built the muscle and “fat suits” for Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter for various scenes during their reprisal of those two iconic characters.

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This stunning flight over San Francisco was captured entirely with the iPhone 12 Pro

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I’m not an Apple fanboy by any stretch of the imagination. Before the iPhone 3GS was released, I hadn’t owned an Apple product since the Apple IIe, and I haven’t owned iPhones in a few years now, either. But I have to say, this footage from aerial photographer and filmmaker Toby Harriman shot on the new iPhone 12 Pro is just gorgeous.

Toby was given the chance to test out the newly announced iPhone 12 Pro to see how the hardware handled the challenges of his typical shoots – which means shooting from a helicopter. So, that’s what he did, filming from the air over the beautiful San Francisco bay.

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Viltrox has released their EF-M 23mm f/1.4 and 33mm f/1.4 autofocus lenses for Canon EOS M cameras

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It’s not exactly news that Viltrox has been planning to expand its lens lineup, and two of the three new lenses designed for APS-C mirrorless cameras have now been released in Canon EF-M mount for EOS M mirrorless cameras.

The Viltrox 23mm f/1.4 STM and 33mm f/1.4 STM are both autofocus lenses with a wide f/1.4 maximum aperture and feature a rugged metal construction with a built-in USB port for firmware updates. Interestingly, they only seem to be available in silver, and not the typical black of the Sony E mount and Fuji X mount versions.

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The Nikon Z6 II and Z7 II will get support for both Blackmagic and ProRes RAW

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As mentioned during the initial announcement of Nikon’s two mirrorless cameras, the Nikon Z6 II and Z7 II, both will be eligible for a firmware upgrade to add RAW over HDMI capabilities (it does not come with the camera out of the box). As with RAW over HDMI on the Z6 and Z7 mirrorless cameras, though, it is still a $200 paid upgrade.

We already knew that ProRes Support would be coming in the form of the Atomos Ninja V, although Blackmagic has now confirmed to No Film School that they’ll also be supporting Z6 II/Z7 II 4K60p BRAW recording in the Blackmagic Video Assist 12G as well. And if you’ve already upgraded your Z6 or Z7, you’ll get it with those, too!

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DJI’s LiDAR module gives you autofocus even with f/0.95 manual focus lenses

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One of the biggest problems I hear people talking about when it comes to gimbals it the lack of autofocus. In an ideal world, we’d either be able to hold the gimbal with one hand and easily move the focus wheel manually with the other or we’d just have a separate focus puller to deal with it for us so we can concentrate on the composition. But it’s rarely that easy for most of us.

It would be great if camera autofocus was perfect, but it isn’t. DJI’s is about to release a LiDAR sensor module to go with their new RS2 gimbal, which sits on top of your camera and talks to the RS2’s focus motor to let you get autofocus on your gimbal with just about anything. MAKE.ART.NOW’s Josh Yeo took it for a spin with the Mitakon Speedmaster 50mm f/0.95 III.

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DxO PhotoLab 4 comes with AI-powered high ISO noise reduction

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DxO’s PhotoLab has seen a lot of improvements over the years. Their latest iteration, PhotoLab 4 comes with some pretty impressive high ISO noise reduction along with a host of workflow speed and other features. These improvements allow you to customise the user interface and provide easier access to your more commonly used tools, as well as adding a few new ones.

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Sidus Link Bridge adds Aputure’s new smartphone control features to their old legacy LED lights

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Aputure’s Sidus Link app for iOS and Android is a way to remote control just about all of Aputure’s newest LED lights. It adds a lot of functionality right in your hand and allows you to easily speed up your lighting workflow. It allows you to control the temperature, colour & gel, brightness, effects modes and other features of your lights.

But what about those older Aputure LED lights that don’t support Sidus? Well, now they do, thanks to the (finally) released Aputure Sidus Link Bridge which, as the name suggests, bridges the communications gap between the new system and the old, allowing you to control those older lights in your kit along with the new.

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Here’s how Fuji engineers shrunk down the IBIS system for the new X-S10

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One of the most useful features to be added to digital cameras in the last few years is in-body image stabilisation, or “IBIS”. Some companies have implemented extremely good implementations over the years while others have only jumped into the IBIS game recently and are still playing catch up. But regardless of which category they fall into, all companies are actively working to improve it.

We recently got a behind the scenes look at the Olympus IBIS system and how it’s grown over the years, and now Fuji has also posted a video going over the evolution of its IBIS system, to coincide with the release of the recently announced new Fuji X-S10 – which has a scaled-down, but very impressive looking IBIS system offering up to six stops of stabilisation.

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