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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.

This crazy lens lets you shoot full 360° photos and video with the need for stitching

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Ok, this is pretty impressive and also extremely cool. Industrial and interaction designers, Rob Englert and Meyer Giordano have created a very unique lens for, in this case, Nikon F mount that lets you get a full 360° field of view and 180° vertically in a single shot with no stitching required.

The pair founded Sphere Optics (aka “(sphere)”). Their first lens is called the (sphere) Pro1, which they describe as “the world’s first and only single-lens 360° full-spherical capture solution”. It has a focal length of 1mm with a fixed f/8 aperture and it sure does look pretty crazy on the camera. Its design, though, is a thing of beauty and has a level of obviousness that it’s amazing nobody ever did it before.

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Two A7R V spec sheets “leak” but they’re a bit difficult to believe

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Two rumours have started spreading out of Chinese forums and social media, purportedly detailing specs of an upcoming Sony A7R V. I have to admit, they seem unbelievable without even having looked at them. Even though Sony has had an often… aggressive refresh cycle, this seems way to soon, even for them. The A7R IV was only released in September 2019.

If the specs are to be believed, the rumours seem to be more of an incremental change rather than a revolutionary one, in order to bring the A7R product line more in line with other recent bodies we’ve seen from Sony recently (higher resolution EVF, new menus, etc) and features the competition is pushing – like 8K video. Still… It’s a bit soon.

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Canon reported to bring autofocus tilt-shift lenses to RF mount this year

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If there’s one thing that’s been distinctly lacking from mirrorless cameras – of all brands – it’s tilt-shift lenses. Sure, they’re not exactly mainstream and pretty much all of Nikon and Canon’s tilt-shift lenses for F and EF mounts can be used on mirrorless cameras with adapters, so it’s understandable that they’ve been on the backburner.

But now, it appears that Canon is leading the charge by introducing not one but two tilt-shift lenses with autofocus into the Canon RF mount mirrorless system, according to a report on Canon Rumors. And they’re expected to be announced this year.

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That bowling alley drone guy’s back with an even more epic video flying through Mall of America

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Every now and again, a piece of content comes up, whether it’s a photo project or video or whatever that just makes your jaw hit the floor. And you wonder, after you watch it, just how they could follow up from something so epic and amazing. One such piece of content was the video we saw recently from drone pilot Jay Christensen.

In it, he flew a drone through a bowling alley with such skill and finesse that it even caught the eye of James Gunn (who now wants him to come shoot on Guardians of the Galaxy 3). Well, now, he’s done it again, with an amazingly choreographed flight through the Mall of America. And it’s even more epic than the bowling alley!

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RUHAcam is a retro 3D printable digital camera you can make with a Raspberry Pi

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The camera capabilities of the Raspberry Pi took a pretty big leap forward when they released their new High Quality Camera module last year. The then-new module allowed you to finally get full manual control over your exposure, but it also lets you attach CS and C mount lenses (or just about anything else with the right adapter).

It was only a matter of time before somebody built it into a “real” camera form factor, and it actually didn’t take long, as this film-to-digital conversion shows. But now a new project has popped up. RUHAcam. It’s a 3D printable retro-looking camera based around the Raspberry Pi Zero W and it operates just like a regular interchangeable lens digital camera. Kinda.

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Leica launches their new 24-70mm f/2.8 L and it looks like a rehoused Sigma Art lens

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Leica has now officially unveiled the Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-70mm f/2.8 ASPH lens and, well… it looks like it’s basically the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art lens in a different housing. The specs of the two lenses are virtually identical, except the one with Leica written on it is more than two and a half times the price at $2,795.

The number of elements, groups, minimum focus distance, magnification factor, everything is basically the same. The only real difference seems to be that the Leica uses a metal housing instead of Sigma’s carbon-composite housing.  What other changes there may be internally are unknown. But it almost certainly seems to be using Sigma’s optics.

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YouTube’s TikTok rival, Shorts is now out of beta and rolling out across the US

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YouTube’s “Shorts” is YouTube’s attempt to take on apps like TikTok. Quick videos designed to help keep your audience updated on what’s going on. Show some behind the scenes, quick tips, dumb viral challenges, whatever. It’s been in beta for a while, but now it’s finally hitting the mainstream as a regular feature in the app – at least in the USA.

There’s no word on when it’ll roll out globally, although the US rollout is expected to have completed by next week. You’ll be allowed to show off your 15-60 second videos to your audience and there’ll be a dedicated tab for viewers to watch them in the YouTube app. YouTube says they’ll be expanding the feature to add stupid AR filters like its competitors.

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Fujifilm is using its photo developing tech to create rapid COVID-19 tests

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When the world went to digital and companies like Kodak and Polaroid bit the dust, Fujifilm managed to succeed, and still brings us film today (even if they have killed off a lot of the favourites). How? By switching things up and expanding into other areas, taking their chemical expertise to fields such as cosmetics and medicine.

Fujifilm has been working in rapid diagnostic testing equipment and reagents for infectious diseases since 2011. And now, Fuji’s announced that they’ve received CE certification for a “highly-sensitive and rapid antigen test kit for SARS-CoV-2 in Europe utilizing silver halide amplification technology”, according to a press release from the company.

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Price and more Leica 24-70mm f/2.8 L mount lens photos leak ahead of official announcement

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After yesterday’s leak of the first product photo of Leica’s new VARIO-ELMARIT-SL f2.8 / 24-70mm ASPH lens, three more have now also leaked. No surprises for guessing who leaked them. Yes, that’s right, it’s Nokishita. They’ve also confirmed a price for the two kits, including the Leica SL2 or SL2-S cameras.

As a reminder, Sigma’s old 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art lens that they adapted for L mount costs a mere $1,059. Panasonic’s Lumix S Pro 24-70mm f/2.8 L mount lens costs $2,200. Yesterday’s estimate for the new Leica lens was $2,750. According to this latest post, the Leica 24-70mm f/2.8 L kits will cost you around $8,050 bundled with the SL2-S and $10,500 with the SL2.

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Instagram wants you to turn on data tracking to keep it “free of charge”

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Well, this is kind of a surprise, but also not. It’s not surprising that Instagram (and Facebook) would be capable of trying something like this, but it’s a bit of a surprise that they actually went through with it. According to a new iOS 14.5 notice in the Instagram and Apps users are promoted to ask permission to track user data on the device to improve ads.

The initial statement seems all well and good, but when we get to how Instagram and Facebook say they use this data, one of the arguments given for both apps is to help keep it “free of charge”. Oh yes, that’s right. The “It’s free and always will be” philosophy of Facebook (and apparently other companies it owns) has apparently morphed into “It’s free as long as we get our way”.

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