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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.
The Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition has become an annual staple in the lives of many photographers. We all want to see what new views of the universe we’re going to be presented with.
But just as interesting to photographers is the gear used to create it. Fortunately, we’ve got Skies and Scopes here again to give us the rundown. They went through all 828 shortlisted images to see how they were made.
The Shure SM7B (buy here) is probably the most popular microphone on YouTube for things like podcasts and indoor spoken videos to the camera. It’s for good reason, too. It’s a decent microphone at a reasonable price point.
But it’s not perfect. The biggest issue is that it’s quiet, often requiring an extra preamp in your signal chain. Well, Shure has addressed this with the new Shure SM7dB (buy here). This mic features a built-in preamp for a stronger signal.
I have to admit, I’m surprised it’s taken this long for Sony to jump into the tiny microphone market. They’ve been making wireless mics for years, so why the wait? Well, whatever the reason, they’re here now.
Sony has announced three new microphones, well, technically two, but one of them is available in two flavours. There are the ECM-W3 (buy here) and ECM-W3S (buy here) dual and single wireless kits and the ECM-S1 (buy here) podcast mic.
Earlier this month, Laowa announced that they’d teamed up with Keslow Camera to produce a range of interchangeable-flare anamorphic lenses. What they did was modify their flagship Proteus line to release the Proteus Flex.
The whole concept is that it’s a standard Proteus lens but with a swappable anamorphic “module”. This module produces the flare colour, offering blue, amber or silver. DIYP went to check the system out in person at IBC 2023.
Medium-format digital photography is expensive. There’s no two ways around it. Digital large format isn’t even really a thing outside of scanning backs, either. But we are able to emulate the look with smaller sensor cameras.
For large format, we’ve got the “Brenizer Method“. For medium format, we’ve got the Fotodiox RhinoCam Vertex (buy here). This adapter lets you mount your old medium format lenses onto mirrorless bodies to shoot larger than full-frame images.
Nanlite has announced its new bicolour FC series LED lights. The FC series, so far, contains two lights. There’s the FC-300B (buy here) and the FC-500B (buy here), offering output of 350w and 520w, respectively. We got our hands on those lights at IBC 2023. The nice thing is that Nanlite are putting the price point on the FC-500B at $699. This opens up a very power light option even for creators with smaller budgets.
The lights have a variable temperature range of 2700-6500K. Remote control is available through Bluetooth with the Nanlink app, wired DMX control, or 2.4GHz with the WS-TB-1 transmitter (buy here) or the WS-RC-C2 remote control (buy here).
Macro photography is such an intense rabbit hole to fall into. There are all kinds of weird and wonderful lenses to try, especially these days, for all manner of subject matter. And we get sucked into every one of them!
Laowa’s adding to the wide array of macro tools available – and Laowa’s own extensive lineup of macro lenses – with the new Laowa Aurogon FF 10-50x NA0.5 Supermicro APO lens set (buy here). A full-frame 10-50x zoom super micro kit for really small subjects.
It looks like Nikon’s finally answered what they’re going to replace the old Nikon 135mm f/2 DC lens with. Naturally, it’s a Z mount lens, it’s the Nikkor Z S 135mm f/1.8 S Plena (buy here), and wants to be the new portrait standard for Z mount.
Of course, the new lens doesn’t gain the defocus control of its F mount predecessor, but it does get a slightly wider aperture. This should make for some very mushy backgrounds – if that’s your thing.
DJI has announced the hotly anticipated DJI Mini 4 Pro (buy here). Leaks earlier in the month told us it was on the way and would have all-around obstacle avoidance, 4K 100fps video and waypoint control.
Well, it’s got all that and more, including 4K 60fps HDR video as well as 10-bit D-Log M, 48-megapixel raw stills, 4K 60fps vertical shooting, and a 20km range – but that’s way beyond visual line of sight rules!
Kodak was once one of the biggest names in photography. For decades, it stood head and shoulders above not only its competitors but every other brand in the photography industry. Their film was used by everybody, from seasoned professionals to those shooting family snapshots.
Then digital came, and Kodak seemed to just sort of disappear from our collective consciousness. Kodak literally invented the digital camera. So, what went wrong? Let’s find out, as James Warner of Snappiness tells the story.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
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.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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