Author: David Kilpatrick

Professional photographer and journalist, founder and editor of magazines PHOTOpro, Photon, Freelance Photographer, f2 and Cameracraft. For 25 years director of the Minolta Club. Fellow of the BIPP and Hon. Fellow of the MPA.

Sony UK’s ‘Howto’ videos released

Posted on By

The press release below has just come out from Sony UK. I fear you will be disappointed if you are expecting to watch informative, instructional videos because they are not – they are devoid of high value content, and are just rather superficial plugs for features on Sony cameras. Not all these are even correctly explained or demonstrated, the Low Light video for example has the commentator referring to a camera making two exposures while the LCD display clearly says three (HDR) and talking about DRO-Auto after showing the mode dial carefully being turned to Manual (which disables DRO entirely).

It costs real money to make videos which are meaningful and valuable to the viewer. Real money may have gone on making these, but it’s not reflected in the quality or value of their content. Even the simplest of the subjects covered remains largely untouched by the video, and key information is omitted. Some information is quite misleading, such as the discussion of when to use S, M or L JPEG settings without ever mentioning that large image sizes can be downsized but small ones can not be enlarged without loss of detail.

‘Make sure you use the right image size for the job in hand’ must rank as some of the worst advice ever issued, encouraging digital camera owners to move off Large image size capture and lose vital detail which allows cropping, correction, resizing and higher overall quality. Telling them, in short, to throw away what they have paid for.

Watch the videos, they are free. But they really do not help the digital camera owner or Sony. – DK

————————————————-

Sony Introduces ‘Howto’ video guides

Discover how to get the most out of your Sony Digital Imaging Products

Sony has launched a series of Howto guides across multiple platforms, to give customers handy visual guides to getting the most out of their Sony Digital Imaging products.

The guides, available via YouTube and a number of major retailers’ websites include easy to understand tips and tricks to enhance the Sony product experience and provide answers to the most commonly asked product related questions. The videos are also available via Sony’s BRAVIA Internet Video service, delivered direct to the TV, Blu-ray player or Netbox.

The guides cover all of Sony’s key product ranges, including Digital Imaging, Network Communication, Home Entertainment and Essentials. They also help explain some of the underlying technologies such as HDMI and DLNA, allowing customers to easily understand the features and benefits of their products.

A snapshot of the featured Howto guides including handy tips for your Sony Digital Imaging products include the below among many more:

Capture 3D photographs and video with your new Sony Cybershot or Handycam
Get the benefits of interchangeable lens cameras
Use Bloggie, Picture Motion Browser and Personal Space
Get better results from your digital camera
Learn to shoot photos in low light

All of the Sony Howto videos are professionally recorded and, where possible, made available in HD. If consumers want to find out even more, each video includes a link to a website where further details are available. This can be accessed via a shortened URL or QR code for smartphones, allowing users to receive product information whenever and wherever they may be.

‘Howto’ content development is based on input from customers, Sony user forums and the Sony support centre.

More HowTo guides are planned and outside of the YouTube channel, the guides will also be used as additional training material for Sony retail staff. Keep an eye on the Sony YouTube Channel for the latest content and product information.

2
DK's ramblings, News

Sony’s London warehouse burned to the ground in riots

Posted on By

The Sony Enfield warehouse and distribution centre was torched by rioting ratboys last night. There are several vidoes on YouTube. Comments include that 750 people have lost their jobs (not sure what this means).

Sony is due to hold a press launch event in south London, just one mile away from the Ealing and Clapham riot zones, early next week. We are booked into a hotel in Kingston on Thames (our expense, not Sony – thought that if we had to travel 350 miles to see whatever new stuff was around, we might as well spend a couple of days visiting our former capital city to remind us why we decided to move to rural Scotland 23 years ago…)

We may decide to call that one off. Will be contacting Sony today.

http://gizmodo.com/5829003/sony-distribution-center-goes-up-in-flames-during-london-riots

Our thoughts are with all those unlucky enough to be trying live alongside alongside these morons.

– David & Shirley Kilpatrick

6
DK's ramblings, News

Watch the birdie – will Sony’s GPS surprise?

Posted on By

Before reading this article, which has attracted a lot of traffic and attention, please remember this is my personal speculation and could be entirely wrong (I’ll be very disappointed if it is miles off target and they omit GPS… or my reading-between-the-lines turns out to relate to a different product like a superzoom pocket camera with improved GPS).

There are plenty of detailed rumours about the specifications of the forthcoming Alpha 77, Alpha 65, NEX-7 and NEX-5n to be found on the Sonyalpharumours website:

http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sr5-the-full-a77-a65-nex-7-and-nex-5n-specs/

I’m not here to confirm or deny any of this (like most mainstream journalists, even those with some connection to Sony, I don’t get advance information and I am not running a camera-test website which demands a pre-production preview under strict non-disclosure terms).

The image currently circulating most, purporting to show a new Alpha – 77 or 65. Real or not, it looks good enough.

The 12fps stated maximum shooting speed of the semi-pro specification A77 fits in with information given to me as long as three years ago. A vaguely Alpha 700 like prototype was being tested in the Australasia region with 15fps. Most of the other specifications, such as the magnesium or magalloy body, were apparent right from the first mockups being shown if you know your Alpha construction. The strap lugs were the giveaway. You can tell an A900/850/700 type camera (solid metal carcase under a plastic skin) from an A1/2/3/4/5xx Alpha by the strap lugs connected through the skin to the casting.

But what Sonyalpharumours doesn’t elaborate on its something I believe Sony has put into the new Alpha 77 which will make it the ultimate cameras for bird watchers, aircraft spotters, wilderness ramblers, explorers, police forces and the military. It has GPS. I think that when it is seen by the press later this month the GPS will be a big point.

It will be the fastest locking-on GPS built in to any camera, and it will be the first to record ALL the data you need. That will include not only the latitude and longitude and height above sea level, but also the compass direction the camera is aiming in and the inclination of the camera. Combined with very accurate focal length, focus distance and AF locus data, this will make it possible to use the Alpha 77 for photogrammetry (measurement, mapping, object size identification).

I parked illegally and jumped out of the car for this shot of Bamburgh Castle from the village’s main road. For once, the Alpha 55 GPS locked on instantly and gave me the exact location of the camera on the Google Earth terrain view below.

But two days later I spent ten minutes, using a tripod, carefully photographing an uncommon slightly edible mushroom in our garden over 30 miles from this shot. Needless to say, all the frames of the mushroom display the GPS data from Bamburgh as it had failed to update its position.

This is Leucoagaricus nympharum – white field mushroom with ‘dancing maidens’ on its distinctive cap. Some sources state it is edible. For me, it was. For Shirley – noted as one to avoid for the future… but a great photographic subject. Natural light, CZ 16-80mm, 1/3rd of a second at f/14, 80mm, ISO 100, manual focus and settings.

The GPS in my Alpha 55 has been a real help in travel photography. I use Media Pro, the Phase One cataloguing and keywording software. Since this moved away from Microsoft ownership it no longer has its own own Microsoft Virtual Earth pane to open when GPS embedded data is found. Instead, it opens my web browser to the usual Google Map and Earth page. It’s not as neat as having the map tab within the Media Pro software but it works just as well.

However, the A55 GPS frequently doesn’t get a signal during many minutes of shooting at a new location. I have entire shoots of places, lasting several minutes in clear open conditions, wrongly tagged for the last spot visited. Fortunately, if I have left the camera switched on I sometimes find the correct location attached to the next place en route…

The Alpha 77 will, I believe, see an end to poor GPS and it will add the vital compass and inclination functions. Combined with the 24 megapixel resolution, near-silent mirrorfree high speed sequences, and the 1.4X and 2X teleconverter functions (cropping the sensor field but retaining full HD 1080p video, we hope) this will make the 77 the world’s best camera for wildlife safaris. And for those who like to log their natural history subjects, the accurate GPS tagging is the closest thing you can get to digital evidence of the authenticity of your shot.

All major camera companies have their eye on government and military budgets. It was the US forces’ decision to buy Topcon SLR cameras in the 1960s which gave that small but excellent camera brand a few years of glory. They achieved it by making a camera which was tougher and more versatile (in some ways) that the rival Nikon F – with accurate TTL metering that did not need a bulky prism head.

At different times Olympus, Nikon, Leica, Hasselblad and even Minolta have been favourites for government and military use. I think Sony, realising what the high resolution and very fast capture rate of their new technology mean to such users, will have sealed the deal by upgrading the GPS. The Alpha 77 will not only be the world’s best wildlife and wilnderness companion, it will also be the best evidence camera, surveillance camera and spy’s best friend.

Of course this is all pure speculation. It is based on a well-grounded hunch, and on what I would do myself, if I was in charge of the Sony development plan for the A77. There’s no way I would let another GPS module out in the world with less reliability than the average pocket digicam’s version. I would want my top SLR (SLT) GPS to be a world-beater.

Now you’ll just have to wait and see. But wouldn’t it be good if I’m right?

– David KIlpatrick

7
Cameras (DSLR), DK's ramblings, News

The truth about 24 megapixels

Posted on By

There is a rumour, which the ides of August may stab in the back or elevate to divine truth, that the coming Alpha 77 will have 24 megapixels.

Because of this rumour, there is a lot of very negative discussion going round to the effect that 24MP on APS-C is far too much and the results will be poor (etc).

Well, they may be, if you think Canon’s results are poor – you can judge that for yourself, try a Canon. But they do not have 24MP sensors!

They also do not have APS-C sensors, in the same way that Sony does. They have smaller APS-C sensors with lots of pixels cut off all round the edges. Sony has chunky big APS-C sensors with acres of extra pixels to spare. This is a slight exaggeration of the situation, but hey, I may as well join in the mood of unrestrained opinion!

Facts: Canon’s 18-megapixel sensor makes images 3456 x 5184 pixels in size (give or take a few, depending on your raw processor). Fact: their smaller 1.6X factor sensor measures 22.3 x 14.9mm. Fact: Canon states it is approximately a 19 megapixel sensor with 18 megapixel final output.

Facts: Sony’s 16.2 megapixel sensor measures 23.5 x 15.6mm and into this packs 3264 x 4912 pixels (active area).

If you made a current Canon pixel-pitch sensor the same 1.5X size as a Sony sensor, it would be around 19.7 megapixels active from a 21 megapixel total. If you put Canon pixels on an existing Sony 1.5X sensor, you would be up to 3618 x 5463 pixels and 24 megapixels needs to be 4000 x 6000.

Clearly it’s not the quantum leap some people think, just a quantum leapfrog over Canon’s back with the benefit of the larger sensor. And it’s worth considering that APS-C covers sensor sizes up to a true 24 x 16mm, for Super-35 video use, and that such sensors have already been made. A few wide-angle lenses and zooms might be a bit tight on the image circle, but that half millimetre one way, 0.4mm the other way, adds up to a surprising number of pixels, enough to take the 19.7 megapixels up to 20.7 megapixels without changing from Canon’s current pixel pitch.

So don’t panic. The chances are that 24 megapixels on proper, big Sony APS-C will perform very well. If you’ve got the glass and the technique to make it…

– David Kilpatrick

 

9
Cameras (DSLR), DK's ramblings, News

Mapping the planes

Posted on By

Samsung has a patent and a plan for using two lenses with triangulation (image offset) depth detection between two images in what is roughly a stereo pair. Here’s a link:

http://www.photographybay.com/2011/07/19/samsung-working-on-dslr-like-bokeh-for-compact-cameras/

Pentax also have a system on the new Q range which takes more than one exposure, changes the focus point between them, and uses this to evaluate the focus map and create bokeh-like effects. Or so the pre-launch claims for this system indicate, though the process is not described. It’s almost certain to be a rapid multishot method, and it could equally well involve blending a sharp image with a defocused one.

In theory, the sweep panorama function of Sony and some other cameras can be used to do exactly the same thing – instead of creating a 3D 16:9 shot it could create a depth mapped focus effect in a single shot. 3D is possible with sweep pans by simply taking two frames from the multi-shot pan separated by a certain amount, so the lens positions for the frames are separated enough to be stereographic. 3D ‘moving’ pans (scrolling on the TV screen) can be compared to delaying the playback of the left eye view and shifting the position of subject detail to match the right. But like 16:9 pans, they are just two JPEGs.

All these methods including the Samsung concept can do something else which is not yet common – they can alter any other parameter, not just focus blur. They could for example change the colour balance or saturation so that the focused subject stands out against a monochrome scene, or so the background to a shot is made darker or lighter than the focused plane, or warmer in tone or cooler – etc. Blur is just a filter, in digital image terms. Think of all the filters available from watercolour or scraperboard effects to noise reduction, sharpening, blurring, tone mapping, masking – digital camera makers have already shown that the processors in their tiny cameras can handle such things pretty well.

Once a depth map exists there’s almost no limit to the manipulation possible. Samsung only scratches the surface by proposing this is used for the esoteric and popular bokeh enhancement (a peculiarly Japanese obsession which ended up going viral and infecting the entire world of images). I can easily image a distance-mapped filter turning your background scene into a Monet or a van Gogh, while applying a portrait skin smoothing process to your subjects.

Any camera with two lenses in stereo configuration should also, in theory, be able to focus using a completely different method to existing off-sensor AF – using the two lenses exactly like a rangefinder with two windows. So far this has not been implemented.

Way back – 40 years ago – I devised a rangefinder optical design under which you can see nothing at all at the focus point unless the lens was correctly focused. It works well enough for a single spot, the image detail being the usual double coincident effect when widely out of focus, but blacking out when nearly in focus and suddenly becoming visible only when focus is perfect. I had the idea of making a chequerboard pattern covering an entire image, so that the viewfinder would reveal the focused subject and blank out the rest of the scene, but a little work with a pencil and paper quickly shows why it wouldn’t work like that. The subject plane would have integrity, other planes would not all black out, they’d create an interestingly chaotic mess with phase-related black holes.

Samsung’s concept, in contrast, could isolate the subject entirely – almost as effectively as green screen techniques. It would be able to map the outline of a foreground subject like a newsreader by distance, instead of relying on the colour matte effect of green or blue screen technology. This would free film makers and TV studios from the restraints of chroma-keyed matting (not that you really want the newsreader wearing a green tie).

The sensitivity of the masking could be controlled by detecting the degree of matched image detail offset and its direction (the basic principle of stereographic 3D) – or perhaps more easily by detecting exactly coincident detail, in the focused plane. Photoshop’s snap-to for layers works by detecting a match and so do the stitching functions used for sweep and multi shot in-camera panorama assembly. Snap-to alignment of image data is a very mature function.

Just when you think digital photography has rung all the bells and blown all the whistles, the tones of an approaching caliope can be heard rolling down the river…

– David Kilpatrick

 

0
Leader Columns, Technology, Uncategorized

Pentax Q up to battle it out with NEX and Ricoh

Posted on By

Although it’s not Alpha, this product announcement – embargoed until 5am UK time, 23rd June, though no doubt by adhering to the embargo we will be a day later than hundreds of websites breaking it – speaks volumes for the impact of Sony’s Alpha system, its interformat lens compatibility, and the future of non-SLR systems.

Kenko, a Hoya group company like Pentax, showed a C-mount digital camera body in February, as a prototype planned for release this summer. Nothing more has been heard of this project. It looked rather like the Pentax in a way.

But Pentax Q is not a NEX competitor as it uses a tiny lens mount and a tiny sensor. It’s more like today’s equivalent of the Pentax 110 SLR system. Only Ricoh currently uses such small sensors in a nominally ‘interchangeable lens’ (not really) camera format. And our own testing of the Fujifilm F550 EXR, with a similar back-illuminated CMOS sensor, indicated that the gap between such microformats and the APS-C subformat is massive.

Just as your first dust spot will be… the anti-dust system is going to have to be 100% efficient, as a single dust bunny landing on a 1/2.3″ sensor will be disaster.

The lens throat is approximately 38mm diameter, very slightly smaller than Leica screw. The back focus is around 9mm, or half the thickness of the NEX body from sensor surface to flange. This will present the anti-shake, anti-dust vibration mounted sensor (on a magnetic carriage) in a fairly exposed ‘well’. The high speed limitation of 1/2,000th is unexpected, but the camera does not use a focal plane or electronic gating; instead it uses leaf-shutter lenses, which due to the small aperture size, can achieve this fast speed. But they can still only manage 1/250th flash sync, when it would be expected that a leaf shutter on this scale could achieve 1/1,000th.

Here is the Pentax Q system, due to go on sale in the Autumn (press release with comments).

0
News, NEX System

Hasselblad is new UK Broncolor agent

Posted on By

Hasselblad is set to become sole distributor of broncolor lighting products in the UK.

’We will use the same approach with bron as we have with the new-look Hasselblad UK’ – Chris Russell-Fish, Hasselblad UK MD and Global Sales and Marketing Director

Chris Russell-Fish, Hasselblad UK MD and global sales and marketing director, announced the move following months of negotiation with the Swiss-based lighting manufacturer.

Hasselblad will take over from JP Distribution on July 1st and promises ‘a dynamic array of new ideas and solutions‘ for bron customers nationwide in coming months.

Said Russell-Fish: “I believe we can do a great job for bron users in the UK. Like Hasselblad products, bron equipment sits at the top end of the market. We plan to make a great deal of noise in coming weeks and months around this excellent lighting range.”

Russell-Fish has appointed photo-lighting expert Chris Burfoot as the new broncolor UK manager.

Burfoot, who first started ‘working with light’ in the Eighties said: “Our objective is to create far more awareness around the award-winning bron brand and focus hard on customer service and support for existing users. We also plan a programme of ‘hands-on’ open days with broncolor partners in a non-selling environment – mirroring the success of the popular ‘Hasselblad Studiodays’ programme, and under the name of ‘The beauty of broncolor’.

This premium lighting brand has been built on a rock solid foundation of quality, consistency and reliability. The new-look bron customer care programme will work in exactly the same way as Hasselblad’s renowned ‘Hasselbuddy’ customer care support.”

Hasselblad UK owns the London-based Pro Centre, the photo-equipment rental company, but Russell-Fish insists the bron distribution deal will be no threat to any other brand they work with.

He said: “The Pro Centre acts completely independently as a rental centre. This will simply be an additional line. Bron will be a completely separate entity for us in the same way as our new Hasselblad studio and Didgeridoo services. And just as we have developed energetic new programmes for Hasselblad customers in the UK, we will do the same with bron over time. There will be a separate bron customer care and maintenance team in place in the near future.”

Hasselblad is currently in talks with broncolor with a view to new product launches.

A new website is to go live from the 1st July 2011 at www.ukbroncolor.com, with links to and from the Hasselblad (www.hasselblad.co.uk) website.

0
News, Studio Lighting, Uncategorized

Alamy hits 24m images with added celebrity collection

Posted on By

Alamy.com has further strengthened its collection with the addition of over a million celebrity images, and now has over 24 million images on line. The company represents over 570 of the world’s leading stock and specialist agencies and over 25,000 photographers worldwide.

Rachel Wakefield, head of sales at Alamy, said: “We are extremely popular with newspaper and magazine customers and this additional entertainment and sports content cements our appeal. TV and film stars, royals and sporting celebrities will always be sought after”.

Alamy is well known for its quality and variety of imagery, from the obvious to the obscure. The combination of high profile stock agencies and 25,000 individual photographers gives an extraordinary blend of world class imagery, with a myriad flavours and themes. For these reasons, the company is considered the first, and often only, port-of-call for customers who value this mix.

Alan Capel, head of content at Alamy added: “Our collection has both freshness and variety and our customers appreciate that much of this imagery is unique to Alamy”.

0
News, Stock Photography, Uncategorized

Free 30-page Photobook for Sony owners

Posted on By

Sony UK today announces the launch of PR!NT, an online photo printing service for their e-community, powered by PhotoBox.

Users can upload, archive and share images and order from a wide range of PhotoBox photolab products ranging from straightforward prints to novelty items and albums. Simple to use, photos can be printed at the click of a button. The service will be found at:

www.sony.co.uk/print

and will also be accessible through the growing ‘Communities’ portal. There will be an introductory offer of a free 30 page photo book for all new registrants.

PRINT launches in time for the summer holiday season. The service will develop over time to provide new ways for customers to get the most out of features unique to Sony such as Sweep Panoramic images. It will also offer an unlimited online storage for a secure back-up of images and will compliment other services from Sony such as tutorial and community sites, and Personal Space for private photo and video sharing.

“We are excited to be able to offer a new print service for Sony customers, allowing them to print and bring to life exciting images taken on a Sony product. The service is an important addition to the Sony Digital Imaging range as it will offer consumers the ability to release the unique features in our cameras such as Sweep Panorama, and help them learn more about taking great photos”, said Neil Bowen, Proposition Development Manager, Sony UK, a subsidiary of Sony Europe Limited.

“This is a great match for us, two market leaders with unrivalled expertise in photography, now working together and creating a compelling offer to consumers. We’re thrilled at the prospect of working with Sony UK as we continue developing the service with more innovative products and features, making it a joy for everyone to free their photos”, concluded Lawrence Merritt, PhotoBox Managing Director.

Editor’s Comment: this is something of a scoop for Sony UK in hooking up with a UK fulfilment lab. The dominance of CeWe, the giant German photolab, in on-line as well as retail outlet and kiosk product fulfilment, might have suggested them as a logical European partner. PhotoBox, though UK-founded, is now a subsidiary of Photoways SA, a French group, and offers regionalised services in every European country – which could allow Sony Europe to extend this venture across the region. In April PhotoBox Limited announced that a stock market flotation was being considered within the next year.

The services provided by PhotoBox are generally considered to professional in quality, and are used by many websites such as www.theimagefile.com – a sample collection of my own regional images on theimagefile (with their PhotoBox ordering options) can be viewed here. – DK

2
News
1 … 13 14 15 16 17 … 61