Regular as clockwork, every year, Apple announces their new products and mobile operating system updates. And that includes their line of watches. The new WatchOS 5 comes with new dynamic faces. Designed to work with the Apple Watch Series 4, these new faces are not CG as we might first think. They were actually made using practical effects. The new faces include Fire & Water, Vapour and Liquid Metal. They can be configured in numerous ways, and animate when you raise your arm to look at your watch....

Shortly after displaying its consumer 8K MFT camera prototype at CES 2019, Sharp has announced that it’s officially joining the Micro Four Thirds market. Along with Olympus and Panasonic, Sharp will now also add MFT products to their lineup. As Tech Radar notes, there was a slight decline in the MFT camera market in 2018. Olympus was having a hard time, so it held off from releasing new gear until January 2019....

Aputure’s Sidus Link app for iOS and Android is a way to remote control just about all of Aputure’s newest LED lights. It adds a lot of functionality right in your hand and allows you to easily speed up your lighting workflow. It allows you to control the temperature, colour & gel, brightness, effects modes and other features of your lights. But what about those older Aputure LED lights that don’t support Sidus?...

Canon Rumors is reporting that distributors have received some early information about Sigma’s plans for RF mount lenses for the Canon EOS R system. Beyond that, there isn’t really any more information, except that CR expects there might be an announcement ahead of CP+ in February. They don’t name their source, but they have ranked it as “CR2”, which sits somewhere around the “Ok, you have my attention, but let’s see how it pans out” level....

The announcement that many people have been waiting for, ever since the L Mount Alliance was first made official back at Photokina 2018, may finally be upon us. Sigma noted at the time of the initial alliance announcement that a full-frame Foveon sensor camera was on the way, but it was expected in 2019. But instead, they released the Sigma fp, and pushed the Foveon camera back to 2020. Now, though, Sigma Imaging UK has posted up a “Sigma News from CP Plus 2020“ event on their Facebook page, which suggests that a big announcement is on the way....

As you could have seen on our blog, action cams sometimes get to capture pretty crazy stuff while people record their sports activities. This time, Jamie Mullner had his GoPro on while he was skiing, and he accidentally captured something that could have ended with severe injuries. He fell into a 60ft deep crevasse, and his camera kept on running and recorded the entire accident and the rescue. The video shows the skiing that looks like any other, and the guys mention that they’re a bit freaked out by the crevasse at the bottom of the slope....

It’s been a long time coming for Sony shooters, but they now have an official fast standard lens available with the newly announced Sony Planar T* FE 50mm f/1.4 ZA. No longer do you need to mess around with metabones adapters and put up with limited autofocus capabilities, at least, not if you want a 50mm f/1.4. Similar in construction to the FE 35mm f/1.4, the 50mm is weather sealed, and uses Sony’s Super Sonic Wave Motor for fast and near-silent autofocus....

In February, it was rumoured that Sony was planning to release a new 12-24mm f/2.8 GM lens at some point during the summer. The thought process at that time was that it would be a little wider than the Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN Art for Sony E mount, but at likely a significantly higher price – possibly double. Now, according to Sony Alpha Rumours, it looks like the Sony will cost almost three times as much as the Sigma, and the announcement is going to be delayed, too....

The Sony A7III announcement that some were expecting yesterday never happened. Perhaps Sony simply didn’t want to compete with Apple’s new iPhone releases. Regardless, Sony did still have an announcement yesterday, which included the Sony RX10 IV; a 20.1MP bridge camera with a Zeiss 24-600mm lens that shoots up to 24 still photographs per second. The biggest focus on the new RX10 IV seems to be on speed. Both shooting speed as well as autofocus speed....

It’s hardly a secret that Olympus was struggling a few years ago. After former Olympus president Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, along with several others were arrested as part of a major scandal, they needed some substantial help to get back on their feet. Part of that came in the form Sony buying an 11.5% stake in Olympus for 50 billion yen ($47m at today’s rate) in 2012-13. Sony previously sold off some of those shares, bringing back almost all of their initial investment while still allowing them to keep 5% of Olympus....

Advertisements The main goal of the Student and Youth competitions is to “uplift the next generation of photographers and inspire them in the next steps of their photography journey,” the World Photography Organisation explains. This year, the contest has received more entries this year than ever before, and the judges will have a tough task picking the overall winners. The Student competition shortlist showcases work by ten students at leading international higher education institutions....

Nothing says “I love my camera” more than a handmade wooden grip, and this grip by Stefano Borghi says it perfectly. Stefano build this wooden grip to replace his Fuji Xpro-1 plastic grip. Of course, similar procedure can be implemented to create a wooden grip for the newer Xpro 2 as well, and probably the Xpro3 when it comes. (we are not starting a rumor now!). It is kinda straight forward, so I am just gonna lay out the photos to show you how it’s done step by step....

The fourth season of Stranger Things is over, and I finally got to watch the finale two days ago. Even if you haven’t watched it yet, I’m sure you’ve seen Vecna, the monster appearing in the series’ latest season. I mean, memes are all over the Internet! Either way, you may find it interesting to see how this creepy creature was made. It was almost entirely practical effects, with a dash of VFX just to make it extra-terrifying....

The general population seems to have got it through their head that texting while driving is a stupid idea. It seems, though, that when it comes to selfies, people quite gotten so smart yet. A recent study by the Auto Insurance Center says that at any given moment during daylight hours in the USA, around 660,000 people are using cellphones or other electronic devices wile driving. This covers talking, texting, or playing games....

Selfies are a 21st-century thing, right? Well, they certainly got popular in the 2000s, but the first selfies were taken way back. Before it was cool. Photographer Joseph Byron may be responsible for the first selfies ever taken, both individual and group. I think they could easily get tons of likes on Instagram today. Joseph Byron took a snapshot of himself in 1909, almost 110 years ago. An elegant man in a top hat and a suit holding the camera as kids today hold their cell phones....

Tamron are getting ready to announce a new 17-28mm f/2.8 Di III RXD lens for Sony FE, according to a post on Sony Alpha Rumors. While not quite as wide or as long, it should offer Sony shooters a less expensive alternative to the Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 GM lens for a short focal length zoom with a fast aperture. This is to be Tamron’s second zoom for the Sony FE mount, having previously launched the 28-75mm f/2....

2020 is just around the corner, and if there is one thing we can be sure of, it’s that Sony probably isn’t going to be slowing down. While every iteration of the different A7 and a6000 camera lines launch with significant improvements over their predecessors, the most recent A7R took leaps and bounds in both capability and design progress. We’re at 61 megapixels on a full-frame now. The A7R IV brought us here, past the D850, the 5Ds, and even Fuji’s GFX 50 cameras....

If you want to capture genuine, candid moments in street photography, you need to be discreet. Oftentimes, getting noticed by your subject will completely ruin the moment you wanted to photograph. So, you need some techniques to stay unnoticed, yet don’t seem like a creep. In this video, Samuel Lintaro Hopf will show you ten tricks that will keep you low-key just the right way. Samuel adds a healthy dose of humor to the video, demonstrating his ten techniques in a very amusing way....

CamRanger was almost a solo player in the wireless tethering arena for a very long time. While some suspected that CamRanger was simply an upgraded TPLINK 3040 router, the fact was that it delivered. Now Tethertools are making their entry into this market and I am curious to see how they will match up. Their device is called The Case Air and it is a dongle that “sits” on your camera hot shoe....

How creative can you become as a photographer? Are you pushing your limits or not even close to reaching them? When I read Steven Covey’s Book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, I wondered what those habits might be for us photographers. Effectiveness is important in photography, but given its artistic nature it’s all about creativity in the end. Creativity is a sport. Everyone starts out in the Little League, some make it to the Major League and others end up in the Champions League....