Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
If you’re wondering why someone who loves Sigma cameras and gets called the ‘Foveon Wizard’ by his peers is writing about the Panasonic Lumix S1R I need to take you back to 2007.
Back then my love for gadgets and tech-related things eventually lead me to buying a Panasonic Lumix Fz8, a small bridge camera with a 36-432mm f2.8-f3.2 zoom lens. That was my first entry into the world of photography.
Sony’s live event has just come to a close and the earlier rumours were true. The Sony A7R IV is here. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any sign of an A7S III, but still. The A7R IV comes with a 61-megapixel sensor, 15 stops of dynamic range, 4K UHD video with 5-axis in-body image stabilisation (IBIS), with what Sony claims is “medium format level” image quality.
Sigma has just announced FP, a full frame L-mount mirrorless camera with a 24.6MP backlit Bayer sensor. But don’t let the size fool you: this tiny camera has so much to offer to both photographers and filmmakers, and it sure brings together a lot of “firsts” for Sigma. It’s the company’s first full frame camera, and the first one to shoot video (and yes, it’s 4K). It’s also the first one with a Bayer sensor. So, it’s quite a lot of news from Sigma in a single camera, so let’s dive in and learn more!
When this camera was first teased last October, my mind was stuck somewhere between “wtf?” and “this is so crazy, it just might work!”. They made the camera sort-off official a few days later by releasing some early specs, which just made me even more confused at this odd combination of tech. Since then, it’s all been a little quiet on the Yongnuo front.
But now, the folks at Cinema5D had the chance to chat with Yongnuo about the new camera during CP+ 2019 and hold one in their hands. It confirms a lot of the specs and answers some questions that had thus far remained unanswered.
The Canon EOS RP isn’t the only new camera being announced today. The hotly anticipated (and much rumoured) Fujifilm X-T30 is now officially here. It sees some rather nice upgrades over the previous generation X-T20 announced back in January 2017. It maintains the same size 1.5x crop APS-C CMOS X-Trans sensor, but with a bump from 24.3 to 26.1-megapixels.
The X-T30 sees some new shooting aspect ratios, along with slight increase in video shooting resolution, offering 4K DCI. The autofocus system also gets a boost, going from 91 Hybrid AF points in the X-T20 to 425 phase detection AF points in the X-T30. And when it comes to stills shooting speed, that’s increased from an already impressive 14fps up to 20fps.
We know that you are constantly hitting refresh to see if the new Sony a6400 has been announced yet. It has!
Here is the executive brief, but hit the jump for the full scope:
While announcement date rumours aren’t always that reliable, the spec sheets often are, especially as we get closer to (or past) those expected announcement dates. Sony Rumors just posted a new list of specs along with some photos they discovered through Weibo for the new Sony A7000, which will be announced either during CES next week, or later in January 2019.
Did you know that using an electronic instead of a mechanical shutter can affect a background in your images? After a subscriber pointed it out to Manny Ortiz, he tested it on a Fuji and a Sony mirrorless camera. And indeed, it turned out that an electronic shutter may not be the best option when you shoot portraits.
Last year, the first commercial-quality footage of the Earth from outer space was shot on a Sony Alpha a7S II. And now, the same camera was used for the first ever Hollywood feature-length movie shot on a full-frame mirrorless. A new horror thriller The Possession of Hannah Grace was not shot on a high-end movie camera but on a $2,200 Sony mirrorless.
People often ask me, given the improvement and ubiquity of cell phones, whether DSLRs survive. This actually entails two slightly different questions: will standalone large-ish cameras survive, and will the particular reflex design (the R in DSLR) survive? I am cautiously optimistic about the former, and very pessimistic about the latter. In this piece, I will discuss DSLR vs. mirrorless. In a future post, I will discuss cell phone vs. big discrete camera.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.
To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.
JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.
FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!