Photography News: Hasselblad X2D Rumor, Hard Drive Sales

My Ecuador expedition is over. It’s time to sort out the memories and also the photographs. What I love about traveling are the places that provide the eyes with different flavors  than they normally experience. Such as the scene of fishermen in Puerto López bringing out their night catch from the boats, shoulders loaded with 70 kg of fish. Let me share with you not only this bizarre scene, but also other photography news from the past week.

Recent Announcements

• Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD: For Sony E-Mount. An interesting ultra-zoom for fans of the “do-it-all” narrow-aperture lenses. 1:2 magnification, 67mm filter size, VC Image Stabilization, Moisture-Resistant Construction. Available from September for $1,299.
• New Sony A7IV firmware: Expands lossless RAW compression options to M (14.2MP) and S (8.2MP) sizes, improves eye autofocus accuracy, supports touch shutter, retains shutter speed and ISO settings for flash photography, and more.
• NiSi Filter System for iPhone: Not digital, but real filters, such as square ND filters, Graduated ND, Polarizer and more are newly announced by NiSi. No more holding your iPhone in one hand and your 77mm polarizer in the other.
• DJI Avata: DJI’s latest first-person view drone has finally landed. It will offer 4K/60p video recording, 48MP stills, and 18 minutes of flight time. There are also new DJI Goggles 2 and the DJI Motion controller. The ultra-wide angle lens with an f/2.8 aperture will provide a field of view of up to 155 degrees. Priced from $629.
• Luminar Neo adds two more extensions: The previously announced extensions, the HDR Merge and Noiseless AI, will be joined in November by Upscale AI and AI Background Removal. Luminar Neo is thus gradually becoming a “platform.”

The Rumor Mill

New 100MP Hasselblad X2D with optical stabilization

You may be able to capture the magical colors of autumn this year with the new medium format Hasselblad X2D. According to the latest rumors, it should capture a ton of detail on a new 100MP sensor that will also be stabilized. If you’ve already got $8,000 lined up, which is the expected price of the new body, you might want to save up a few extra grand for the rumored Hasselblad XCD 38mm f/2.5 lens. It also looks like you won’t have to lay in the dust to get shots taken from a frog’s-eye view anymore, as the Hasselblad X2D gets an adjustable screen. Lastly, Capture One will likely show mercy on Hasselblad and provide support for their RAWs.

Via: Photorumors

DJI arms up for action

Action cameras aren’t unique to GoPro, but they’re certainly the most popular of the different companies. Now, though, DJI is trying to break into the niche. Instead of four propellers buzzing around this camera, now it’s going to be your helmet or handlebars. The specs are not yet known, but the design of the new camera and the likely month of its announcement (September 2022) already are.

Via: Photorumors

Fujifilm X-H2 rumored specs

After the Fujifilm X-H2s, its twin, which focuses more on details than speed, is starting to get some detailed rumors. The sensor resolution is expected to be 40MP. The pixel shift function could further increase this value up to 160MP! The high resolution of the sensor will also enable 8K video recording. The base ISO is expected to be 125. The electronic shutter with with a fastest shutter speed of 1/180,000 second will allow you to shoot portraits with an aperture of f/1.2 on the surface of the sun. Other specs like dual memory card slots (CFexpress Type B and one UHS-II), display, control layout, etc. are rumored to be the same as on its faster brother.

Via: FujiRumors

Photo Contest Corner

Nature Conservancy’s 2022 Global Photo Contest

• Topic: People and Nature, Landscape, Water, Wildlife, Plants or Fungi, Climate
• Fees: Free
• Prize: Admission ticket to Extreme E’s Uruguay Race, $5,000 Camera kit, $500 to $2,500 gift cards
• Deadline: August 31

Environmental Photographer of the Year 2022

• Topic: Four categories with environmental themes
• Fees: Free
• Prize: £5,000 cash prize for the overall winner; Nikon Z series camera and two Z lenses for photographer under 21 years; £1,000 for category winners.
• Deadline: August 31

Greenstorm Global Photography Award 2022

• Topic: In harmony with nature
• Fees: Free
• Prize: Grand prize ($1,000), jury mention ($500), 3 finalists ($100)
• Deadline: August 31

Good Deals and New Sales

This news is not a good deal and certainly not a new sale. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. After the previously announced price increase of most of the big photo equipment producers, Sony will also increase the prices (for the second time this year). So far only in Japan, but we can expect that the rest of the world will not be left behind. The price increase will be 8% from September 1st. Seen through this perspective, all currently sold Sony products can be considered as a deal.

Photographing while traveling brings with it the pitfalls of how to back up your photos. Personally, I feel comfortable always having my photos in at least two places. On a computer locked in my hotel room and on a portable drive that I carry in my photo backpack. For these purposes, ssd drives are perfect because they can withstand I rough handling. B&H Photo is now running a sale on the SanDisk 2TB Extreme Portable SSD V2, which can be used even on a month-long photo expedition. At a price of $208 (was $449) it’s a tempting deal.

When I get home, I store my photos on one of the classic hard drives. With those, portability and mechanical durability are not as important. Capacity and reliability are key. A good choice might be the WD 14TB My Book Desktop USB 3.0 External Hard Drive, which is currently offered for $279 (was $389).

Other Pages of Interest

• Recently, thanks to you, a piece of the Ecuadorian wilderness was saved. Now you have another chance to help preserve the remaining wildlife refuges, this time in Africa. A fundraiser called Prints for Wildlife, through the sale of limited numbers of wildlife photo prints, supports African Parks, a non-profit that manages 22 parks in 12 countries in Africa. There are few places in the world where the contrast between nature inside and outside protected areas is as striking as in Africa. For this reason, I consider the preservation and expansion of parks to be essential for the maintenance of wilderness throughout Africa.
• NASA is launching the next chapter of lunar exploration with its Artemis project. The first unmanned flight test will travel 40,000 miles beyond the Moon and back. Future Artemis missions will include a human crew. In anticipation of this great event of space exploration, Nasa wants to see your photos of the Moon. If you’ve already taken some, this is a nice opportunity to share them. If you haven’t and don’t know how to do it, I recommend you study our article How to Photograph the Moon and the Supermoon to learn everything you need to know.
• Let’s stick with the Moon for a while. Two astrophotographers, Andrew McCarthy and Connor Matherne, were so fascinated by the Moon that they spent nearly a year taking this incredibly detailed and colorful photograph. The resulting image has a resolution of 174 megapixels! If Neil Armstrong dropped something out of the pocket of his spacesuit, you might find it in the photo.