A couple of days ago, Synology announced its new DS1517+ and DS1817+ storage arrays that caught my attention. I have been using an 8-bay Synology Network Attached Storage (NAS) device for the past few years and as you have seen from my detailed Synology DS1815+ review, it is a very powerful and robust storage solution that allows me to use it not just as a backup device, but also as my primary storage. And when the DS1815+ is paired up with a fireproof and waterproof ioSafe, one can fully automate the backup process and alleviate the associated pains with potentially losing data due to hard drive or storage failure. However, one of the biggest bottlenecks I have been experiencing with any NAS device is network bottlenecks. Even when using link aggregation with several ports, it is impossible to achieve more than 1 Gbit throughput from the same machine, which means that I am always stuck at roughly 125 MB/sec storage speed, even if my storage unit is capable of handling more load (link aggregation can be very beneficial in a multi-user environment). So I have been anxiously waiting for storage companies to start releasing storage arrays that are capable of handling more network throughput, which is why it is exciting to see the new DS1517+ and DS1817+ units.
How to Get Enough Depth of Field for Landscapes at Night
One of the challenges of nighttime photography — particularly Milky Way and star photography — is to get enough depth of field. If you’re focused at the horizon, and you’re using the widest possible aperture on your lens, how could your foreground possibly be sharp? Yet, if you look at galleries online, you’ll see countless photographers capturing perfectly sharp photos of a landscape underneath the night sky. What techniques are they using? In this quick guide, I’ll lay out a few useful tips for capturing sharp landscape photos at night.
Nikon 19mm f/4E PC Review
This is an in-depth review of the Nikon 19mm f/4E PC, also known as PC NIKKOR 19mm f/4E ED, a special purpose wide-angle lens designed for architecture, cityscape and landscape photography. “PC” stands for “Perspective Control”, but I will refer to this type of lens as “tilt-shift” in this article. Architecture and cityscape photographers often work with straight lines and tilt-shift lenses give the ability to avoid the convergence of vertical lines by shifting the lens upwards or downwards. Landscape photographers often want to keep everything in focus, especially when dealing with close foreground objects. Stopping down to very small apertures results in diffraction, which impedes sharpness. Tilt-shift lenses offer an alternative to stopping down by tilting the plane of focus, putting both closest and furthest objects in focus. Focus stacking in post-processing software is another way to achieve maximum focus without stopping down excessively, however, the technique also has its pros and cons, making tilt-shift lenses unique in their own ways. The ability to apply selective focus on a particular part of the image via lens tilting allows distant subjects to appear “miniaturized”, although this effect can be reproduced in image editing software, as well.
Common Cityscape Photo Mistakes and How to Fix Them
Cityscape photography has become increasingly popular in recent years as downtown revival and walkability have been prioritized by city governments. Humans are intrinsically attracted to the patterns, lines, and vivacity of urban landscape images. Additionally, photographing cityscapes requires only a modest investment in camera gear, with a sturdy tripod and a decent wide-to-normal zoom lens being the most critical. Having spent the past five years living close to bustling city centers I have come to love photographing cityscapes. Research and trial-and-error are my teachers. In this article, I will share some common mistakes made by cityscape photographers, including several tips on how to take better cityscape photos yourself.
The Relative Importance of Regional Camera Markets
There have been some interesting shifts in the relative importance of various segments of the camera market over the past number of years. I thought readers may like to view a few charts based on CIPA data as they relate to the relative importance of various regional camera markets.
Palette Gear Expert Kit Review
In this article, I’m going to review the Palette Gear Expert Kit. This is a control surface that consists of buttons, dials and sliders, all of which are meant to be used with a variety of photo and video editing programs. They can also be used with everyday computer operation such as web browsers and operating systems. Personally, I use it with Lightroom for working with photos, Premiere Pro for working with videos, and Chrome for web browsing.
Are Mirrorless Camera Sales Really Growing?
As a brief follow up to Nasim’s excellent post, Sony “Overtakes” Nikon in Full-Frame Sales, this brief article shares some recent CIPA statistics regarding the shipment of mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras. Depending on how a person interprets this data will determine whether the mirrorless interchangeable camera market is ‘growing’.
Sony “Overtakes” Nikon in Full-Frame Sales
Another day, another headline-grabbing click-bait title we see surfacing all over the Internet on photography blogs and forums. Apparently, Sony overtook Nikon and came second in full-frame sales. And the source of all these titles is none other than Sony itself, who used data from a company called “NPD Group”, which researched the months of January and February to come up with the stats. The company was quick to issue a press release (you can see it below) and as expected, these news were picked up very quickly by many websites. Let’s take a look at these so called “news” and analyze the information in a little more detail.
Nikon D500 vs D7500
Just over a year after Nikon introduced the highly anticipated D500, the company announced an upgrade to its D7200 enthusiast-level DSLR in the form of the Nikon D7500. Nikon decided to skip the model numbers in-between and go directly to the D7500 for a good reason – the camera inherits a lot of the features of its bigger brother, so this naming convention makes sense. So in a way, the Nikon D7500 is a mini-D500. However, to make sure that the cameras do not compete with each other, Nikon not only made sure to keep some of the premium features just on the D500, but it also stripped out some of the features previously seen on the D7x00-series cameras. Let’s take a look at how the two cameras compare with each other in terms of features and specifications.
Nikon D7500 vs D7200
Now that the Nikon D7500 has been officially announced, it is a good time to see how it compares to its predecessor in terms of features and specifications. While Nikon definitely improved the D7500 on a number of different areas, whether it is the faster 8 fps continuous shooting, a larger buffer, better metering system or other ergonomic and firmware improvements, there are some definite drawbacks one needs to be aware of before deciding to upgrade. Let’s take a look at these changes in more detail and see how the two cameras tack up against each other.