Photography Life provides various digital photography reviews, articles, tips, tutorials and guides to photographers of all levels
Although the megapixel race has been going on since digital cameras had been invented, the last few years in particular have seen a huge increase […]
Let me first be clear. Anyone who knows me well would tell you I’m not a materialist and money is not my primary aspiration. I […]
Just as the market is once again graced with higher resolution cameras, so too is the Internet awash with salivating consumers desperate to lap them […]
Having spent quite a bit of time talking to many other photographers, one of the discussions that comes up every once in a while has […]
A comprehensive review of the Canon 7D Mark II DSLR with image samples, detailed analysis and comparisons to other cameras by Nasim Mansurov
When dealing with slow shutter speeds, a solid tripod is a must-have tool for eliminating camera shake and capturing sharp photographs. Although setting up a […]
As promised, Fujifilm has made the new firmware versions for some of its mirrorless cameras available starting today. For those who missed our previous article, the following cameras are eligible for the new firmware: Fujifilm X-T1 (both black and silver edition), X-E2, X-Pro1 and X-E1. It is important to note that all cameras receive slightly different updates with the X-T1 gaining the largest number of improvements and new features.
Nikon has just released firmware updates for two of its most recent and highly regarded full-frame cameras, the D750 and D810. Updates for both cameras fix a small number of equally mild issues, but is still worth downloading for best experience during use. Keep reading for details and download links!
Update: the $95 discount is no longer valid, but the $25 mail-in rebate is still available.
For the next few hours, B&H is offering a huge discount on what is likely among the best screen calibration systems out there – the X-Rite i1Display Pro. It is the system of Nasim’s personal choice and one I am looking to purchase, too. Hopefully, the stock does not run out before I order my copy!
Last update: January 1, 2015
I did the first Lightroom Q&A session over a year ago and I think it is about time I do one again. As before, you are welcome to ask any question you like about Lightroom. I very much hope to answer all of them by updating this article. I will run this session for up to a week and update the article regularly with answers. If there are any questions very specific to a certain case, I may answer them in the comments section. Specific, to-the-point questions will be answered in this article, while questions requiring more extensive explanation may be covered in separate articles in the near future. As always, our readers are very much welcome to pitch in and participate actively in this Q&A session by helping with the inquiries (I doubt I will know all the answers!). If you are new to Adobe’s Lightroom and find it difficult learning what’s what, this is the time and place to ask for help!
Do you remember the Profoto B1 flash? We had the pleasure of reviewing it a few months ago. If you are into flash photography and need a portable, but powerful light source, I suggest you read that review. Suffice to say it left us thoroughly impressed. And now Profoto decided to add to the already good impression by releasing a firmware update. As if a firmware update for a strobe isn’t peculiar enough, it’s not actually meant to fix any issues (not that there were any, in our experience). Nope. It’s there to add an actual feature, and one strobists will very much appreciate – High-Speed Sync.
It reminds me of Goldoni’s “Servant of Two Masters“; only masters are now more than two and quite often they are not only capricious but they do not know what they want. First, any comparison is open to critics because even in a well-equipped lab it is impossible to repeat the shooting conditions from a year ago, or even from a day before while shooting to compare a newer model to an older one; the criteria for necessary accuracy is not set, or not made public, or not recognized by the community. Second, one single body in the testing opens the door for sample variation questions; and once again tolerances are not brought to the light. Third, using different lenses for different mounts does not help leveling the field. Using lens adapters to shoot with the same lens is often suggested, but it opens another can of worms: adapter alignment problems and different amounts of internal flare added by different adapters skew the results.
A while ago, I wrote an article on low-contrast B&W conversions with Lightroom. After reading through some of the response the article received I was pleasantly surprised that so many of our readers actually prefer low-contrast look over the ever-popular high-contrast conversions. That is not to say high-contrast B&W photography is in some way inferior, not at all. It is merely the more popular, the more easily accepted sort of look, which is exactly the reason why I saw fit to go against the wave and start with the opposite. Now, ever since I wrote that piece, I’ve received several requests for a similar article on a high-contrast conversion. This topic is particularly tricky for me since I rarely do high-contrast B&W, but the requests did remind me of one occasion where I was deliberately working towards such a result from the very start. And so, as always, we begin with a photograph.
As some of our readers have found out, there is an issue with the high-resolution, high-density screen of the Surface Pro 3. You see, the more resolution you pack into a small screen, the smaller the elements then appear – buttons, text, just about any content on the Internet. I am certain that the issue is temporary – as high-density screens spread and become common technology, these issues are bound to be resolved at some point. Still, if you are using Lightroom with the Surface Pro 3 now, waiting is not really an option. And I have some good news – there is no need to wait. An issue is only an issue if you can’t solve it. Luckily, there are at least two ways to make the user interface of Adobe’s popular RAW converter more friendly to both mouse and touch input, and both are as easy to set up.
Before we start, thought, let’s see what the issue is all about.
Last month, Fujifilm announced firmware updates for several of its high-end X-mount compact system cameras. No less than four cameras will receive such attention from the famously generous (when it comes to updates) manufacturer come December the 18th – Fujifilm X-T1 (both black and silver versions, which should really not be treated as a separate release), Fujifilm X-E2 and even the now-already-quite-old X-Pro1 and X-E1. That said, it is not all good news, since the firmware updates are very different for X-T1 and the rest of the cameras.
Looks like both Nikon and Canon are not very happy with their holiday sales, since the two just announced aggressive price drops on their high-end cameras. The Nikon D810 has been dropped by $300 to $2,996.95 (regularly $3,299) and the already discounted Nikon D610 has been dropped by another $100 to $1,496.95 (regularly $1,999). Full-frame has never been cheaper! And here is the bonus part – these price drops are available with Nikon’s Buy Together and Save promotion, so you can get additional discounts on lenses. The icing on the cake is free expedited shipping, along with plenty of goodies worth up to $120 from B&H.