Canon has announced its Precision Alignment Service to fix autofocus misalignment issues that may arise in both camera bodies and lenses. The service will restore optimal focussing to your camera gear if the point of focus seems to not quite be hitting the mark. Over time, heavy use of lenses and cameras can result in very fractional changes in where the autofocus hits, leaving the photographer frustrated that they are always missing their chosen point of focus....

In this age of the fight against plastic, cardboard has become a common construction material again. Coffee places the world over have switched out to cardboard straws, Google Cardboard remains one of the most popular VR “headsets” for your phone, and now Kodak is using cardboard to make their new Mobile Film Scanner. “Scanning” film with a phone or digital camera is not a new idea, but it typically comes at a heavy expense....

There isn’t really much about this lens that we didn’t already know, except for the surprisingly low $499 price tag, thanks to last month’s leaked specs, photos and video but Venus Optics has now officially announced the new Laowa 90mm f/2.8 2x Ultra-Macro APO “CA-Dreamer” lens. The lens was expected to be announced on May 23rd, although that seems to have been delayed until today. This full-frame lens is available in several mirrorless mounts including Sony E, Canon RF, Nikon Z and Leica L....

Looks like Sony’s not the only one announcing new lenses today. Venus optics has announced their new Proteus line of 2x Anamorphic lenses in 35mm, 45mm, 60mm and 85mm focal lengths. The new lenses provide a constant 2x squeeze ratio for Super 35mm sensors. All lenses offer a maximum T2 aperture for shallow depth of field with smooth elliptical bokeh and that signature anamorphic lens flare. These aren’t cheap lenses, by any means, coming out at around $5,000 each, with some discounts for buying kits containing either the 35mm & 60mm or 45mm and 85mm lenses....

Venus Optics has just announced their new Laowa 85mm f/5.6 2x Ultra Macro APO lens for full-frame mirrorless cameras. They claim that it’s the world’s lightest 2x macro lens for full-frame cameras. Measuring only 53 x 81mm and weighing in at a mere 269g for the Sony E mount version, that might indeed be the case. The lens is coming to a number of mirrorless mounts, including Canon EF, Sony E, Nikon Z and Leica M – but not Leica L (Update: Scroll down to the bottom)....

Lighting glossy metal objects can be really tricky when you incorporate them in photos. They don’t only reflect light in a pretty harsh way, but they also reflect the scene. In this video, Jay P. Morgan teaches you how to light shiny metal objects so you make them look their best in your shots. He guides you through his setup and gives an example of lighting a BB gun in a studio....

When the new Sony A9 announcement came, a fair few people were confused. It shoots up to 20fps with no shutter blackout. It has an apparently amazing autofocus system. It’s clearly aimed at wildlife, sports and action photographers. But it did raise the comment “Ok, Sony, Awesome. But where’s the long fast glass to go with it?” Well, according to Sony Alpha Rumors, It looks like Sony may be ready answer that question soon....

The trouble with rubber is that it gets loose and crackled over time. If you are a fan of vintage lenses, I’m sure you’ve learned this the hard way. But there’s a quick and easy fix for loose rubber rings on old lenses, and it even looks much nicer and more elegant. Marek a.k.a. teh_m uses leather, and he shared with DIYP some tips on how to do it....

So first a little bit about myself. I mean who would take advice from some random stranger on the internets. I am Dan Stein, I have been taking pics of the stars for over 8 years meow, and I love talking about astrophotography and helping others when it comes to their own star shots. I took my first nightscape back in college, and now I travel and take pics away from light pollution in my free time....

Mobile Photography Awards is one of those contests which prove that you can take a stunning photo even with just your smartphone. The winners of the 2020 contest have been announced, showing some of the best, most intriguing, and most interesting shots people took with their phone cameras. The contest celebrates an important milestone, considering that this was the 10th year in a row that it selected the best mobile shots....

We have seen people destroying works of art, nature, and their own lives while taking selfies. A few days ago, a visitor of an exhibition in Russia managed to ruin two works of iconic artists: Salvador Dalí and Francisco Goya. While the Goya painting only had the glass and the frame damaged, in Dalí’s case, the painting itself suffered the damage as well. The incident happened on 27 October at the International Arts Center in Yekaterinburg, Russia....

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has treated us with some stunning photos so far (like that time when it “touched” the Sun). But now, its cameras have turned to Venus. The probe has taken its first-visible light images of the surface of Venus. And not only it’s Parker’s first, but this is the first-ever photo of our neighboring planet taken in the light that the human eye can see. The Parker Solar Probe recently had two recent flybys of Venus, which was a great opportunity to take some photos of the planet....

Shortly after releasing the world’s first 18-400mm zoom lens, Tamron has another announcement. They are launching a new high-speed zoom lens: SP 24-70mm F/2.8 Di VC USD G2. It’s intended for full frame cameras, and it offers some improvements over their previous 24-70mm model. It features faster and highly accurate autofocus, and Tamron emphasizes that this lens has the highest vibration compensation performance of any lens in its class. It’s versatile and intended for a wide range of shooting styles, and shooting in different lighting and weather conditions....

Along with today’s announcement of raw over HDMI for the Nikon Z6 and Z7, Nikon has also announced a downloadable firmware update for the same cameras to provide limited CFexpress support. Version 2.20 firmware for the Nikon Z6 and Z7 is available to download free of charge and you don’t need to send off your camera to have it implemented, although that support is somewhat limited. It only works for Type B CFexpress cards manufactured by Sony....

Durability tests are usually good fun to watch. Some make you marvel at the science that goes into the testing and measuring to see just what kind of punishment the gear can handle. Others make you think “Oh, what’s Kai destroying this week?” This one from the Hydraulic Press Channel, is a little more blunt than most durability tests, and it’s over pretty quickly. Needless to say, everything ultimately failed, although the Nikon won on minor points....

Nikon seems to keep killing off its gear and accessories. Three F-mount lenses have been discontinued: Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR, 12-24mm f/4G IF-ED, and the 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED micro lens. According to Nikon Rumors, Nikon Canada sent a notice to retailers that the three lenses are “no longer available to order.” Two of them are still listed as “in stock” on B&H, whereas the 80-400mm is listed as back-ordered....

Nikon has now released Firmware Update 2.0 for the Nikon Z6 and Z7 mirrorless cameras. The new firmware brings improved low light performance a number of minor tweaks and fixes and, finally, Eye-Detection Autofocus. Lack of Eye Autofocus has been the biggest missing feature, and largest complain from potential mirrorless customers. Not just for Nikon, but for everybody else, too. Sony has set a standard and now everybody else must meet it....

Well, this is an odd turn. Typically, it’s fake “influencers” pretending to be somebody else to try to scam companies out of free gear. This time, though, Nikon has put out an announcement stating that the opposite is true in their case and that people have been contacting content creators on Facebook and YouTube pretending to be Nikon themselves – and possibly other companies. Nikon says that the scammers “may attempt to gain personal or financial information and exploit it for financial gain”, which is pretty much how all online scams work, but here Nikon says that they’re contacting creators requesting they make a gear using a Nikon camera and offering sponsorship opportunities....

It’s bad news for stargazers and astrophotographers. A recent study reports that night skies are becoming almost 10% brighter every single year since the study began in 2011. What’s more, that’s the world over, not just in certain locations. Over 50,000 citizen scientists were asked to monitor how visible the stars were during the research period to measure how light pollution is affecting human views of the stars worldwide. They were shown maps of the sky at different levels of light pollution and asked which most closely matched their view....

If you’ve ever tried slowing down a video shot at 30 fps, you know that it becomes choppy and unusable. Nvidia has an AI-based solution for that which can turn your standard videos into watchable slow motion. The algorithm predicts what should come between two frames and fills in the space between them. As a result, you can get perfectly usable slow motion videos even if they were shot at 30 fps....