Phone cameras are getting more complex and more advanced with practically every new phone. But are the manufacturers focusing on the features people actually want? BlinkAI conducted a survey to find out what users want in their next phone and its camera, and it appears that better nighttime capabilities are high among the priority list. BlinkAI’s survey was conducted on more than 1,000 American smartphone owners in February 2021. The sample was nearly evenly split between iPhone (55%) and Android users (45%)....

Itamar Campos is a Brazilian landscape and nature photographer whose “birds sitting on long lens” images have caused marvel among his peers and photographers in general. The bird images are captured inside the Atlantic Forest which is 70km outside the city Curitiba, where Itamar resides. The city is located in the Parana state in the southern parts of Brazil. Itamar tells DIYP that it is only during the coldest winter days that he heads out for bird photography....

GorillaPod has a new member of their family of flexible tripods. JOBY has announced GorillaPod Mobile Rig, aimed particularly at smartphone filmmakers. This rig has the same flexible design, but with an extra pair of “arms” in addition to the three legs. So, it lets you mount the additional accessories for a better smartphone video or vlog. https://vimeo.com/247569861 GorillaPod Mobile Rig keeps the recognizable design, flexibility, and versatility. You can grip it, wrap it around something or use it as a regular tripod....

Nikon has prepared their existing (and perhaps future) users for the development of a new mirrorless camera. However, it seems they’ve decided to kill the old ones completely. Judging from the post on digitalkamera.de, Nikon will no longer be producing subsequent models to their remaining mirrorless cameras from the “1” line. The post on their page is German, but when translated, it reads this: As I mentioned, Nikon has announced that they plan to develop a new mirrorless camera, as well as to focus on high-end DSLRs....

The division of Nikon in Brazil has officially ended its activities in this country. After announcing the closing of all e-commerce operations last year, Nikon has now left the Brazilian market. The only option for the customers is now buying gear on the gray market. According to the announcement on Nikon Brazil’s website, all the repairs will still be handled through the Nikon Group. If your gear is under warranty, you can get technical assistance and repair by filling in the form on Nikon Brazil’s website....

Well, it’s been a while, but Nikon’s Q1 FY2022 report, the first quarterly financial report for their 2022 fiscal year beginning April 1st, 2021 actually shows a profit – a significant increase on last year. The revenue shows 50 billion yen (~$457 million) and an operating profit of 9.2 billion yen (~$84 million). All may not be as it seems, though. The report only covers the first quarter, running from April 1st to July 31st, 2021....

2020 wasn’t the best year for Nikon, and it looks like the trend lingers in 2021. Due to decreasing demand in the consumer market, Nikon has decided to shut down and sell two lens factories in Japan. Nikon plants in Nagai City (Yamagata prefecture) and Tadami Town (Fukushima prefecture) will be closed. Nikon said in a statement that the 162 employees of these factories will be relocated to the factory in Otawara City:...

For those who hate having to actually get up off their computers and leave the house, photography can be a potentially tricky prospect. Now, Nvidia have presented the world with a possible solution to this problem in the form of Ansel; An in-game “camera system”. Ok, so it’s not really photography, but it is quite an interesting technology. The Ansel photo mode allows you to step outside of the game’s predetermined destiny for your character, and allow you to position your camera and compose your shot with a fully free form camera, with full 360 degree stereoscopic abilities viewable on a range of devices including your mobile phone....

Tamron hasn’t announced its upcoming 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD lens yet, however product photographs of the new lens have leaked online. As is often the case these days, the images have been released by Nokishita by way of Twitter. There are no official specs yet, other than the obvious ones – the focal length range and maximum aperture, but here’s what the new lens looks like. https://twitter.com/nokishita_c/status/1242376857363689472 Tamron did announce last year that four new lenses were coming for Sony E mount, with one of them possibly being the 70-180mm f/2....

After some rumours and speculations, the new Presidential photographer has finally been announced. Obama’s photographer Pete Souza left the White House, and the one to replace him and work with Donald Trump is Shealah Craighead. She is a photojournalist who already has the history of photographing politicians, and even working in the White House for George W. Bush. Shealah was chosen for the job that will require her to document the work, travel and life of President Trump every day....

As this year’s host of the Olympic Games, it’s not a surprise that Rio currently contains so many photographers. With a lot of photographers come a lot of expensive kit. This has not escaped the notice of local criminals. News Corp photographer Brett Costello just discovered this, when $40,000 worth of equipment went missing from right beside him. In a well planned and coordinated effort, it took only 10 seconds for his gear to vanish....

Today, OnePlus has officially announced One Plus 5. It’s their latest smartphone, and according to the camera specs, it’s aimed at photographers (or “phoneographers”). It’s a smartphone with the highest resolution dual-camera system currently on the market. Other than this, it allows a few other features that make it competitive to high-end smartphones like iPhone 7 Plus. The man camera of OnePlus 5 features a 1/2.8″ 16MP Sony IMX 398 sensor, and a wide aperture of f/1....

The usual advice is to keep the camera as steady as possible when we attempt to make a photograph. But sometimes adding movement can create great and interesting effects. One such technique for that is to pan with your subject. Whether you shoot action photography or not, learning to pan with your subject is a valuable skill to learn. It can make your shots feel very dynamic and exciting. This video from YouTuber Josh Katz offers an introduction to panning photography in plain English....

Fixing distortion and tilt is a tricky problem. It was solved back in the large format days by having lens boards and film backs that could tilt, shift and move around in all kinds of directions. And while tilt-shift lenses are available for modern cameras, the one thing they can’t fix is lens distortion – particularly from things like fisheye lenses. Of course, such distortion can be fixed in software using manual tweaks or custom lens profiles....

Panasonic announced a small handful of firmware updates a couple of weeks ago for the Panasonic G9, GH5, GH5S, S1 and S1R mirrorless cameras. The biggest changes were noted for the Panasonic G9, which gives it pretty much all of the video capabilities of the somewhat legendary GH5. Now, those firmware updates have been released, but Panasonic has added updates for a few more cameras to the list, too. The updates add new features, new compatibility, and bug fixes for various models of full-frame and Micro Four Thirds interchangeable lens mirrorless cameras, as well as some of Panasonic’s compact cameras....

In a recent interview with DPReview, Yosuke Yamane, Vice President of Panasonic’s Entertainment and Communication business and director of its imaging business unit, spoke about a number of topics in Panasonic’s future. It covers, amongst others, things such as stills vs video, phase-detect autofocus and the role that AI will play in the future of photography. But what was particularly interesting to me was how he spoke about Micro Four Thirds....

Beam me up, Scotty! At least, that’s what photographer Timothy Joseph Elzinga (AKA Timmy Joe) thought when he was woken up by his 2 year old son at 1:30am and saw this through the window. Being based in Canada, Timmy initially thought these were actually the Northern Lights. What was odd, though, was that they seemed to be emanating from the ground. He says they were “blasting hundreds of feet into the air” while shimmering and moving....

Photo manipulation lets you create all sorts of imaginary worlds and situations and let your creativity go wild. Justin Peters is a young digital artist from Germany, who creates his own imaginary worlds using stock photos and his extensive Photoshop skills. Pablo Picasso’s quote “Everything you can imagine is real” is his motto, and his imagination sure is vivid! DIYP chatted a bit with Justin about his work, and we bring you some of his imaginative, dreamy creations....

One day, humans will probably land on Mars and take photos, like Apollo astronauts did on the Moon. But probably not in our lifetime. So photographer and videographer Jan Fröjdman created a fictive flight above Mars using real images of the “red planet”. He has hand-picked reference points on anaglyph images from the HiRISE camera. It took over 33,000 reference points and 3 months to create the film, but it was worth it....

Using the same techniques of high-speed photography and expertly splashed milk, Jaroslav created an outstanding series of photos which he used to make a calendar (sold out in days). Jaroslav was kind enough to share a lot of information regarding this project, including his gear, lighting setup, work process and plenty of behind-the-scenes footage. Inspired by a series of action shots where he used blue and red colored milk, Jaroslav decided to continue exploring colors in liquids....