February 2017

EI2017 talk: Future challenges in measuring image quality

Submitted by David Cardinal on Tue, 02/28/2017 - 08:29

New technologies like multiple-sensor cameras, multi-frame noise reduction techniques, and new platforms like drones mean that we'll need to totally-overhaul the way we assess the quality of a camera for its intended purpose. I was privileged to be invited to give a talk on the topic – sharing my perspective as a professional photographer, tech journalist, and camera reviewer with a room full of interested imaging scientists that will need to be creating the needed solutions. For those curious about where we’re heading, you can follow along with my presentation:

EI2017
Image Quality
image quality measurement
DxOMark
Imatest
Image Engineering
drone photography
multi-frame capture

Sigma rocks four new high-end DSLR lenses

Submitted by David Cardinal on Mon, 02/27/2017 - 13:16

While the overall DSLR market isn’t super-healthy, and any number of vendors have been slowing down their rate of product introductions, Sigma Photo has been able to churn out impressive new lenses on a regular basis. This month brought four more – three in its high-end Art series, and one super telephoto in its Contemporary series. The Art lenses are a 14mm f/1.8 HSM, a 24-70mm f/2.8 HSM with OS, and a 135mm f/1.8 HSM. In the Contemporary line there is a 100-400mm super-zoom f/5-6.3 HSM with OS. All of the lenses are “DG,” so they will work on both full-frame and APS-C sensors.

Sigma 24-70mm Lens
Sigma 100-400mm lens
Sigma 14mm lens
Sigma 135mm lens
DSLR lenses
Lenses
accessory review

Nikon admits defeat in high-end compact cameras: Cancels its DL series

Submitted by David Cardinal on Mon, 02/13/2017 - 17:45

DL18-50 f/1.8-2.8It’s no secret that the market for compact cameras has been imploding. Their market share has been taken over almost entirely by smartphones. The shining light among them, however, has been the very high-end of the market – typified by cameras like the , and the . Nikon was poised to cash in on those buyers with its DL series of premium point-and-shoots. However, after a series of delays, and apparently increased costs, Nikon has decided to cut its losses and . 

Nikon DL series
Canon G5 X
Sony RX100
compact cameras

Don't like your face? Google's new photo trick might give you a better one:-)

Submitted by David Cardinal on Thu, 02/09/2017 - 10:05

As photographers, we’re all familiar with needing to pull the most detail we can out of an image. Now, Google’s Brain team has come up with a way not just to extract detail, but to add it based on comparing the blurry version with a reference library of potentially-similar images. Since they’ve trained the system with a library of popular media stars, you might like the results even more than the original. Of course, it can’t really be called a photograph when it’s finished. More like an impressionist painting. You can read more about how it works in .

Google Brain
Image Processing
Image Enhancement
Photoshop
portrait photography
AI

Breakthrough new Sony sensor adds DRAM: Speeds up frame rates by a factor of 4!

Submitted by David Cardinal on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 13:07

Sony is threatening to again up the ante for smartphone cameras.

Sony
CMOS sensor
smartphone photography
stacked sensor
DRAM
imaging innovation