Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
With the brand new release of the 504x and the 645 Fast Twin Leg Video Tripod by Manfrotto, I thought it would be a great time to talk about your next tripod.
When we spoke to Manfrotto at IBC they had just announced their new “FAST” tripod system. The name fast comes from their super quick usability. You can open a latch and pop open the full length of the tripod with just one click.
Zhiyun just announced a smartphone gimbal that is cheaper than a cup of soup in some restaurants – the Smooth X. I am actually kinda surprised by the number of features you can cram into a gadget that costs so little.
The biggest highlight of this gimbal is the fact that it folds down to pocket size. Ideally, that would make it easier to have the gimbal ready whenever you want it. In a world that may soon rid of smartphone gimbals (See Huawei P40), this is a big move in the direction of reducing the overhead of carrying another gadget.
COVID-19 got everybody to create and upload content. If you are just using your webcam, you need nothing more. If you want to up the quality, you need a DSLR or a mirrorless camera to utilize the bigger sensors, better lenses and nicer overall look.
Most “serious” cameras, though, can not operate as webcams and need a gizmo called a capture card. It’s a device that turns your camera’s HDMI output into a stream that a computer can take via its USB port. Elegato HD60 series (ranging from $179 to $350) is a family of such devices for example. But! Sigma took the Sigma fp a step further and you can use it as a webcam right out of the box. Sigma’s blog details the exact steps to use the fp as a webcam.
ONsite is a system that provides 110 volts of power from DTAP batteries. If you are coming from the video or movie industry you are probably familiar with DTAP. If you are coming from the stills industry, DTAP is a port often used on V-Mount (and Gold mount) batteries to supply a second power port aside from the main connector. This family of batteries packs a lot of power in a small form factor. you usually use a V-Mount battery to power a big camera, a monitor, some lights and more accessories; they are mighty.
If you are on the creative side, it’s hard to stay at home without any humans to shoot. If you are not familiar with Set.A.Light 3d, it’s a piece of software that creates realistic studio setups, including pretty realistic models.
So if you are stuck at home, and can’t transform it into a studio, or if you have no one to shoot, this can be a perfect way to feed your creative needs.
Here is some exciting news. A while back Sony Alpha Rumors reported on a new Laowa 15mm f/4.5 full-frame W-Dreamer shift lens. We now have an exclusive look at the image this lens produces.
While the full specs are secretly kept close to Laowa’s chest, we do have some photos of the lens used on a Fuji GFX100.
In a bold move, Nikon just announced that they will not attend this year’s NAB show due to Coronavirus concerns. Nikon’s announcement comes only two days after AJA, a leading video gear manufacturer pulled out of the show.
Things are not looking good for the tradeshow industry, with many conferenced baing canceled. AS a quick recap: Google have announced that they’ve canceled two of their conferences. Microsoft’s MVP Summit in Seattle, Google’s Cloud Next in San Francisco, and Facebook’s F8 have also now been canceled, days after the cancellation of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. CP+ and MWC were both also canceled last month.
A little while back, Laowa (A.K.A. Venus optics) announced a very exciting new 9mm f/5.6 full-frame lens. (Laowa already has a 9mm 2.8 lens for crop sensors, but this lens is for full-frame and lower aperture).
One of the exciting features of this lens is that it is a Rectilinear, low distortion lens and does not create any fish-eye distortion. It is not as distortion-free as Laowa’s Zero-D, but still has very (very!) low distortion for a 9mm lens.
We managed to get our hands on a few sample photos for the lens made with various cameras, click on each image for larger resolution.
The world’s biggest phone show, MWC in Barcelona, just notified that world that it will not happen this year. GSMA CEO John Hoffman said that “With due regard to the safe and healthy environment in Barcelona and the host country today, the GSMA has cancelled MWC Barcelona 2020 because the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances, make it impossible for the GSMA to hold the event“.
The show has seen a few big companies canceling participation over the last month, starting with LG and ZTE. Then the flood gates opened with Ericsson, Nvidia, Intel, Vivo, Sony, Amazon, NTT Docomo, Cisco, Nokia, BT, and HMD. If the show was to be held, it would have been empty halls.
While this show does not relate to photography, NAB released a statement that it is closely monitoring the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation:
It sometimes amazes me how big artists can be ignorant of copyright laws. Take this latest incident with Lady Gaga from earlier this week.
Lady Gaga tweeted a short “can y’all stop” message. Now, this message would have been a no-story unless it was accompanied by a photo of a masked girl wearing headphones. Headphones and a Shutterstock watermark.
Shutterstock replied to that tweet with a link to the image page on Shutterstock, a message about supporting the artist and a winking smiley: “.@ladygaga We hear you! We like artists to be paid for their work too. Here’s a link to the photographer’s work where you can license these quality images: shutterstock … and shutterstock … 😉”
Funnily enough, that tweet was Lady Gaga’s response to her new song that was leaked – Stupid Love. According to some sources, this is Lady Gaga’s way of saying stop stealing my song.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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