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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 and Facebook.

Unsplash has released over 2 million images in a new massive open source dataset

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The “free” image website Unsplash – a site that remains as controversial as it is popular – has released what it describes as “the most complete high-quality open image dataset ever”. The “dataset” in this instance is essentially the keywords and search metadata of a whole bunch of images that can be downloaded in one big lump.

There are two datasets available. The “Full” version contains information for over 2 million images from more than 200,000 photographers around the world and is available for non-commercial use only. It covers over 5 million keywords and 250 million+ searches. The “Lite” dataset is limited to 25,000 nature-themed images and keywords and 1 million searches.

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The Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 for Sony E Mount can become an f/1.6 lens with just a simple firmware update

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The Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 lens has started to become quite a popular lens choice for Sony E mount shooters due to its decent level of performance vs its fairly low $399 price tag (compared to the $600 Sony). It’s also available in Fuji X flavour, too. But can this lens go even faster than f/1.8? Yeah, apparently.

The video above by Stefan Malloch was actually posted back in April, but only just now seems to have gained any real traction, but it turns out you can update the Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 lens to f/1.6, giving you an extra third of a stop, rounder bokeh and a slightly (barely noticeable, really) shallower depth of field, with just a simple firmware update.

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Does sensor size matter? Part 2 – What the heck is equivalency?

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Equivalency is one of those topics that not only confuses a lot of people but also turns into some pretty heated arguments. It’s why people think that a lens of one focal length “turns” into another when you put it on a camera with a differently sized sensor. It’s why your depth of field both does and doesn’t change at the same time.

The video above was made as a follow-up to a video recently published by The Slanted Lens to ask does size really matter?. Naturally, when comparing medium format, full-frame, APS-C and Micro Four Thirds cameras, each with their own unique sensor sizes, it raises a lot of questions. And it did. So, this video is designed to answer them.

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Sony delays A7S III shipments due to demand that “greatly exceeded our expectations”

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Another day, another camera, another “There are delays because we underestimated the demand!” notification from that camera’s manufacturer. This time, it’s Sony. Sony Japan has announced via their website that the Sony A7S III orders have “greatly exceeded our expectations”.

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Nikon releases its Webcam Utility Software – but it’s a beta and it’s only for Windows

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Recently, Nikon announced that they were going to be releasing a beta of their new “Webcam Utility Software” that allows certain Nikon DSLRs and Z mirrorless cameras to act as webcams when connected to a computer without any type of capture device. All you need is a USB cable. Well, Nikon has now finally released that software. Well, a beta of it.

It’s compatible with all of the Nikon Z mirrorless cameras (including the new Nikon Z5) as well as some of their recent DSLRs including the Nikon D6, D850, D780, D500, D7500 and D5600.

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Digitalfoto’s new RGB LED tube lights are IP68 rated for use underwater

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Digitalofoto has just announced their new P7RGBPRO and P120 RGB tube LED lights. These bicolour RGB lights offer 36,000 possible RGB colours, with a white balance temperature of 3,000K to 5,700K with a claimed CRI of over 95. And like many other new lights today, you can control a bunch of them at once from an app on your smartphone.

But what makes them special is that they’re IP68 rated. This means that they’re resistant to dirt and dust, but you can also use them underwater to depths down to 1.5 metres for up to half an hour.

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Sigma’s new 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art Lens for Sony E and Leica L officially announced

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Well, after a few days of leaks and excitement, Sigma’s new 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art Lens for Sony E and Leica L mount has officially been announced. It might not quite be the “half the size and half the weight” of the DSLR-modified 85mm f/1.4 Art for Sony E, but it’s pretty close!

The new lens isn’t just for Sony E mount, though. It’s for mirrorless systems in general. At the moment, that means it’s also available for the Leica L mount for use with all of the cameras in the Sigma/Panasonic/Leica L mount alliance.

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Is Canon announcing a new flagship EOS-M7 APS-C mirrorless camera in 2020?

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With 2020 rapidly approaching Q4, there isn’t much time left for manufacturers to announce new cameras this year. But with the pace at which new ones have been announced over the last few months, it wouldn’t surprise me if there were a few more yet to come. And according to a report on Canon Rumors, it looks like there are.

CR says that they’ve received multiple reports over the last few months that a pair of EOS M cameras are coming in 2020, and recently they’ve received some information on what these cameras may be. According to the rumour, we can expect the EOS-M50 Mark II and a new EOS-M7 flagship model.

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Canon RF 85mm f/1.2 vs Canon RF 85mm f/1.2 DS – Is it worth the extra cost?

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Canon’s announcement of two RF 85mm f/1.2L lenses for their mirrorless camera system was quite surprising. One of them has that “DS” moniker, or “Defocus Smoothing” and the other does not. It was announced early last year, but what does it actually do? And how do the two lenses stand up side-by-side?

The DS version of the lens costs significantly more than the non-DS version, at $2,999 vs $2,599. But is it worth the extra cost? Does it really make a difference? In this video, photographer and YouTuber Christopher Frost takes a look at the two side-by-side in order to find out.

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This guy stuck a GoPro inside a tire while he drove and it sort of looks like a beating heart

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People do put GoPros in some strange places. This one is courtesy of the Matt Mikka at Warped Perception. When Matt decided that he needed to change the tire on his car, he thought “hey, why don’t I stick a GoPro in here while it’s open and see how that looks from the inside as I drive?”. So, that’s exactly what he did.

Inside the rim, Matt mounted a GoPro Hero 7 Black with an LED light so you could actually see what was going on in there, along with a Mophie power bank to supply everything with power. The camera shows a fixed point inside the wheel, and he drives fairly slowly, but it kinda reminds me of a beating heart – except without all the blood.

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