planet5D

Friday, March 29, 2013

More info about panasonic diffractive colour filtering for small pixel sensors

This is a brief excerpt from Northlight Images

March 2013

Individual rumoured and released cameras have their own specific pages, which are all listed on the rumours index page (along with lenses and printers) This page addresses more general rumours concerning news and information about photographic equipment.

We’ve been keeping tabs on (mostly) Canon rumours for several years and receive all kinds of suggestions – some more believable than others. Please do use your common sense when reading these pages, and remember that they are here for entertainment as much as anything else.

Rumour Archives – 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | Pre 2009

There are also tables of historical Canon camera information that may be of interest, when thinking about just how likely some of these bits of information are to be reliable.

All Canon DSLRs – Timeline | All Canon DSLRs – outline specs | EF Lens Chronology

Latest Deals (links help our site) – rather than clutter up our rumours, I’ll collect any I find here: B&H 6D | T4i Video kit | Amazon Camera & Video deals – Lens selector | Adorama refurb 60D+18-135 $799 7D rf $969 | Gitzo.us – Save 10% Use Code: Save10!

All Nik Plugins for $149 (plus a 15% discount and helping Keith with the site)

>>> Only available until April 1 …

By:

Continued… click here!

via planet5D pinterest news http://pins.planet5d.com/more-info-about-panasonic-diffractive-colour-filtering-for-small-pixel-sensors/

Thursday, March 28, 2013

New Panasonic Sensor Tech Significantly Improves Low Light Performance

This is a brief excerpt from PetaPixel

The folks at Panasonic just developed an exciting new sensor technology that could significantly improve low light performance in all types of cameras very soon. Calling it a sensor technology is a bit misleading, however, because no improvements have been made to the actual sensor at all; instead, Panasonic has decided to change what sits in front of the sensor: the traditional color filter.

In order to generate a color image, most cameras use the same type of color filter in front of their image sensors. That traditional filter works by placing red, green, and blue filters in front of each individual pixel. While this works just fine, it also decreases the amount of light that hits the sensor by 50 to 70 percent.

By doing away with the filter and installing a film of “micro color splitters” instead, Panasonic is able to allow all of the light to pass through, essentially doubling the amount of light that arrives on target.

Here’s an example of two photos taken using the same type of sensor with the same settings at f/4.0. One was taken using a traditional color filter, the other using Panasonic’s new splitters:

We won’t go into the …

By: DL Cade

Continued… click here!

via planet5D pinterest news http://pins.planet5d.com/new-panasonic-sensor-tech-significantly-improves-low-light-performance/

Review: Fujifilm X100s

This is a brief excerpt from thePhoBlographer

The Fujifilm X100s is the successor to the very highly regarded X100. We had a first impressions experience with the camera during CES 2013, and were pretty impressed with it back then. During our time with the camera, we passed it around during our first NYC meetup and we also tested it in the streets. The X100s deserves tons of praise partially because of the fact that Fujifilm actually listened to their customers. Mix this in with its quiet leaf shutter, and a vintage inspired design that will appeal to veterans and you’ve got yourself a winner, right?

For the most part, yes. But nothing is perfect.

Pros and Cons

Pros

- Excellent image quality

- High ISO images are almost noise free

- Drastically improved autofocus

- Super quiet shutter

- The camera retains all of the controls of the X100 being put in just the right spot

- Card write speed has been substantially improved

- Small and super lightweight camera that can become your constant companion

Cons

- We’d love a dial for ISO control. Perhaps incorporating this into the shutter speed dial the same way that old film cameras used to would be …

By: Chris Gampat

Continued… click here!

via planet5D pinterest news http://pins.planet5d.com/review-fujifilm-x100s/

Google Patent Changes Camera Settings Based on Local Weather

This is a brief excerpt from PetaPixel

Google seems to be taking photos seriously. In addition to schmoozing the photography community by selling the entire Nik collection for only $150, the company recently promised to make the cameras in their phones “insanely great.” And a recent patent shows one of the ways Google may go about doing that.

The patent (application number 20130076926 if you’re into that sort of thing) shows how Google plans to connect GPS data to its smartphone cameras in a unique way. Using GPS, the patent has your smartphone automatically changing settings such as white balance and saturation based on local weather info.

Even though settings like white balance are typically adjusted automatically already, getting ambient light data from your local weather forecast could further improve the cameras abilities and yield better photos with no input from the user at all.

It may not be on par with the major sensor improvements we’ve been hearing about recently — and being a patent it may never see the light of day — but it’s a step towards better automatic photography. And that’s a prospect the average smartphone photographer probably won’t be opposed to.

(via Engadget)

Image credit: Google Nexus 4 by John.Karakatsanis

By: DL Cade

Continued… click here!

via planet5D pinterest news http://pins.planet5d.com/google-patent-changes-camera-settings-based-on-local-weather/

Google Takes Street View Cars to Nuclear Ghost Town in Japan

This is a brief excerpt from PetaPixel

Due to the tragic Great East Japan Earthquake and the tsunami and nuclear disaster that it caused, the 21,000 residents of Namie-machi, Fukushima, Japan had to evacuate their homes. Even now, a little over two years later, the residual radiation makes it impossible for those former residents to return to the homes and businesses they were forced to abandon.

Still, many would like to see what has become of their town in the intervening years, and so Google teamed up Namie-machi mayor Tamotsu Baba to make that wish come true. As of yesterday, the displaced residents of Namie-machi (along with the rest of us) can tour the entire nuclear ghost town digitally.

Here are a few areas you can browse both inside and outside of town:

Traveling around the city — with its beached fishing boats, collapsed homes and deserted eateries — is certainly eerie, but Mayor Baba feels the pictures are an important reminder. A reminder to the residents of the home they hope to one day re-inhabit, and a reminder to the rest of us of the long-lasting effects of the now two-year-old tragedy.

(via Engadget)

By: DL Cade

Continued… click here!

via planet5D pinterest news http://pins.planet5d.com/google-takes-street-view-cars-to-nuclear-ghost-town-in-japan/

Apple Pushes Out FCP X Update w/ Sony XAVC 4K Support; Bigger Stuff Coming Soon…?

This is a brief excerpt from PhotographyBay

Apple has just updated Final Cut Pro X to version 10.0.8 and includes support for Sony’s XAVC codec used in its 4K cameras. The XAVC codec is used for 4K capture on the Sony F55. (Recall that I also detailed XAVC and the potential to use XQD cards to capture 4K XAVC footage in Sony’s new “consumer” 4K camcorder back at CES.) It’s a relatively minor update with additional support for the ARRI Alexa and some other fixes and improvements.

Along with the release of the FCP X update, however, Apple is nudging back at the pro market with a campaign to get us back on board the Apple video editing train. It is certainly no coincidence that NAB 2013 kicks off in a little over a week though.

Take a look at the half dozen success stories with pro users featured on Apple’s site now. These are eerily similar to the big coming out party for FCP when the 2007 story surfaced of Walter Murch cutting Cold Mountain on FCP. Yeah, these projects aren’t quite that big when it comes to industry noise, but real pros are using FCP X on big time projects.

Then there’s …

By: Eric Reagan

Continued… click here!

via planet5D pinterest news http://pins.planet5d.com/apple-pushes-out-fcp-x-update-w-sony-xavc-4k-support-bigger-stuff-coming-soon/

Double Exposure: What Happens When Exposing The Same Film (Or CF) Twice

This is a brief excerpt from F-Stoppers

Double Exposure is something most of us who ever had a film camera experienced at least once. By accident. It happened when the film got stuck, or when we used a used film again by mistake. With the digital age coming in and replacing film, in-camera double exposures became a very rare kind of photography, but in recent years, many DSLRs added the option to create a double exposure in camera, and this old style came back to life. Check out these great examples of Double Exposure found on Flickr.

To create in-camera double exposure, just find the “Multiple Exposure” option under the ‘Camera’ sub-menu, in both Canon and Nikon cameras. Set it to capture 2 images, and take your shots. Very simple with great and creative results. Creating double exposure in post processing is as easy: Basically all you have to do is to add 2 images to 2 different layer, and set the top one to ‘screen’ blending mode.

Ever shot a double exposure or created one in Photoshop? share the results on our Facebook Group.

By: Noam Galai

Continued… click here!

via planet5D pinterest news http://pins.planet5d.com/double-exposure-what-happens-when-exposing-the-same-film-or-cf-twice/