Just three days after California Governor rejected several drone-related bills, the Los Angeles Times reports that Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation intended to protect the rich and famous from the prying eyes of the paparazzi. Bill AB 856 expands privacy protections by changing the definition of a “physical invasion of privacy” to include a drone invading the airspace above private property in order to record video, sound or capture photographs....

I said I wasn’t going to post any more of these. The “winner” in pretty much all cases is obvious. Or is it? There is no doubt that a $6,000 flagship DSLR (even if it is a generation old) is going to hammer a smartphone (of any resolution) when it comes to absolute image quality, dynamic range and all the other reasons we buy flagship bodies. But does it always really matter?...

None of us like having our gear damaged. Unfortunately, sh*t happens, and a moment of inattention can see you wind up with a broken lens. This is what happened to Benj Haisch, leaving him with a pretty obvious crack on his lens. But could he still use it? You would be surprised. Benj shares his experience and photos in his recent video, and it could make you put your damaged lens to use again....

Canon has today announced the newest addition to its EOS Cinema Line, the EOS C500 Mark II. It’s the next generation of the original EOS C500 and it sees some quite notable upgrades. The Super 35mm CMOS sensor has been upgraded to full-frame, the 4K resolution has been bumped up to 5.9K, and the CFast card slots are gone, replaced by a pair of faster CFexpress and an SD card slot for proxies....

If you thought that the Canon EOS R5 will take a beating for its heating issues, think again. The R5 just won top seller over at B&H, and is ranked as the #1 seller in the mirrorless category. The second and third in line are EOS R6, and Sony A7III which held the first position for a very long time is now only ranked in the third spot. [note: if you look at the B&H site via mobile Canon EOS M50 and Sony a6100 hold places 3 and 4, I suspect that it has more to do with their usage as streaming cameras and not with those bodies being used for actual shooting, but we will have to see what happens to sales once COVID-19 goes away....

According to DC Watch, Canon Marketing Japan Inc. is expected to officially announce and start pre-orders for the upcoming PowerShot PICK (that’s the name of their AI-powered camera, apparently) at 12 noon on January 29th – But only for those in Japan. It’s being launched on the Japanese crowdfunding platform, Makuake, so those of us outside of Japan are still going to have a bit of a wait on our hands....

Despite rumours of a 1DX-like mirrorless camera to add to Canon’s EOS R line up in 2021, it seems that Canon plans to offer the best of both worlds. According to a report on Canon Rumors, Canon is also going to release a 1DX Mark III DSLR, too, in 2020. While this is still just a rumour, Canon Rumors says that it comes “from a very solid source” that Canon will be releasing the 1DX Mark III....

In December, Capture One announced that they were ditching their annual release cycle, changing its perpetual license model and switching primarily to a subscription model with more frequent releases. It’s a good compromise between only offering infrequent updates vs the lifelong subscription model of companies like Adobe and Autodesk. Capture One was offering the best of both worlds. The only question that remained was over the announced “Loyalty Program” (or “Loyalty Scheme”, as it was called then) for Capture One users....

Tyler Fairbank’s Safari Botswana offers a unique way to see the majestic animals of Africa. This immersive video takes you on an epic journey across the desert and savannas of the country in hyperlapse speed. It may not be evident in this flowmotion video, but shooting wild animals had its own set of challenges. In an interview with Fstoppers, Fairbank said he even missed opportunities because his camera was disturbing the animals....

Advertisements Just like always, absolutely anyone is invited to enter: photographers of all ages, from all over the globe; amateur, aspiring enthusiasts, or professionals. After all, we all love photographing our pets, right? The Animal Friends Comedy Pet Photo Awards is calling for entries up until 15 August in the following categories: DogsCatsHorsesAll the Other CreaturesPets who look like their ownersJuniorVideo The winner will receive a cash prize of £2,000 and the flattering title of 2021 Animal Friends Comedy Pet Photographer of the Year....

I treat my camera like I treat a car, it has one core job and that’s what I use it for with very little interest or need for the peripheral add-ons and shiny new features that may also be part of that product. A car gets you from point A to B and everything else is fairly superfluous, sure there are often quality-of-life features but when it comes down to it, we buy a car for transport not seat warmers and illuminated mirrors in the sun visor....

New cameras get a lot of hassle over their autofocus systems. Either it doesn’t have Eye AF, or it isn’t dual pixel or it’s not phase detection. But what do all of these things mean? And I don’t just mean what are the technical differences, but how and why does this matter in the real world? And to whom does it matter? That’s what this video from Gerald Undone covers, in probably the most unbiased way I’ve ever seen....

According to a recent report, B&H Photo & Electronics recently furloughed around 20% of employees. The major electronics retailer managed to postpone the decision for weeks, but it was eventually forced to do it due to the coronavirus crisis and the resulting lockdown. The New York Post shared the report, writing that B&H furloughed “400 of its 2,000 employees on Wednesday,” citing the sources close to the company. B&H’s human resources director Izzy Friedman reportedly said that the company “waited as long as possible” before making the decision....

Got a figure in mind? Fabulous! Well, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) latest figures, released at CES in January, there are over 670,000 UAS on its books. That’s a number which considerably outdoes the number of registered piloted aircraft, which stands at 320,000. Since December 2015, and the commencement of the UAS registration programme, through to the implementation of Part 107 in August 2016 it’s clear that the FAA is seeking to exert some kind of control over the increasing numbers of UAS that are zooming about the skies over the USA....

Using social media to promote our work and try to pick up clients is just the way things are today. Too many, though, aren’t seeing the return they’d been hoping for. They’re not seeing the interaction and community of their peers, and they don’t know why. They believe that simply creating it and posting it is all you need to do. Build it and they will come, right? Well, not exactly....

Ever since I got to play with the original Zhiyun Crane at Photokina 2016 I’ve wanted to put one of these things to work and see how it handles. I’ve used a number of smaller gimbals for phones, but the ability to load up a DSLR or mirrorless camera offers huge benefits. I almost never invest in the first generation of anything, but then they released the Zhiyun Crane 2....

GoPro isn’t the only camera brand to announce a new action camera today. DJI also launched its Osmo Action 3. Coincidence? Conspiracy theorists might say yes, but honestly, who knows? What we do know is that this is a very decent upgrade from the Osmo Action 2, with plenty of new features to sink your teeth into. So what’s new? Well, quite a lot actually. We’re looking at a considerable amount of redesign from the previous version....

We’ve been mesmerised for a while now by images and footage of the erupting Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland. But just this last week, The Cumbre Volcano in La Palma in the Canary Islands decided to join the action. The documentary video and photography team I Love the World happened to find themselves in the right place at the right time, with drones and a helicopter no less. They have been busy capturing the event and here we can share some impressive examples of what they have been witnessing....

Some photographers love spending hours in Photoshop, turning their photos into digital art. Others enhance their photos and remove mistakes and distractions. But there are also many of those who believe that editing and changing your photos is cheating. In this video, Serge Ramelli brings up some fantastic arguments to support image editing. If you believe that it’s cheating, this video might just change your mind. Those who believe image editing is “cheating” often argue that overly edited photos look unreal....

No matter where you live, it can be difficult to clearly see differences between the communities. But when you rise above it (literally), you can see just how many discrepancies there are in the same city, even in a very small space. And more than that, you see how clearly people are divided. South African photographer Johnny Miller creates aerial images that show inequality, differences and separation within the same town....