Tuesday, 7 November 2017
iPhone X Best Smartphone Ever for Still Photos But Not Video: DxOMark
The new Apple iPhone X is the best smartphone on the market for shooting still photos. That’s what DxOMark concluded in its new review, giving the phone a best-ever sub-score of 101 for photos. For video, however, the iPhone X scored a weaker 89, dragging its overall score down to 97.
While the iPhone 8 Plus features a f/2.8 telephoto lens in its dual camera, the iPhone X’s telephoto camera packs a f/2.4 lens.
“Compared to its cousin iPhone 8 Plus, the X improves noticeably on Zoom performance, but also does better in terms of Exposure, Color, Texture, Noise and Artifacts,” DxOMark says. “Other key strengths in still image mode include very good exposures and HDR images, accurate color rendering, good detail with low noise, as well as a natural-looking bokeh effect in Portrait mode.”
For video, the iPhone X has virtually the same scores as the iPhone 8 Plus. While the camera handles lighting changes well and has good color, white balance, exposure, autofocus, details, and stabilization, it also has oscillations during walking movements, noise in low light, and a loss of sharpness while tracking in low light.
“With all of the analyses completed, the scores calculated, and the results verified, the iPhone X turns in an excellent result, delivering outstanding images for smartphone photography enthusiasts,” DxOMark concludes. “It’s exceptional for stills […]”
For portraits, the improved telephoto lens delivers sharp results even indoors, and the bokeh simulation produces a natural and pleasing background blur. Outdoors, exposures are outstanding, with great dynamic range, impressive skies, good fine detail, and punchy color rendering. Add to all that the extra features on the front-facing camera, including a Portrait mode for blurred-background selfies, and the iPhone X delivers one hell of a smartphone camera.
The iPhone X’s overall score of 97 puts it in second place behind the Google Pixel 2 and tied with the Huawei Mate 10 Pro.
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Nikon to Shutter Its Sales in Brazil
A week after announcing the closure of its camera factory in China due to the rise of smartphone cameras, Nikon has just announced that it’s shuttering its sales operations in Brazil.
In an announcement on its Brazilian website, Nikon says it will end the sale of cameras, lenses, and accessories for the Brazilian market, something that was being done exclusively through the Nikon Store website. The e-commerce operations will be ending on December 31st, 2017.
“Nikon Corporation is optimizing R&D, Sales and Manufacturing structures in a global scale restructuring,” Nikon Brazil president Auster Nascimento writes.
Nikon Brazil says it will continue offering customer service and technical assistance after sales end, and that those “business segments […] will continue to operate normally.” Camera equipment purchased through December 31st will still have their warranties honored.
This news may sound terrible for Nikon photographers in Brazil, at least to outsiders, but its actual effect in the country may be limited.
“Nikon never had a real distribution there and sold only from their website,” Nikon Rumors tells PetaPixel after speaking to a Brazilian photographer. “They are basically shutting down their online store. Photo stores in Brazil never sold Nikon gear with warranty — only gray market.
“There are many countries out there without a ‘real’ Nikon distribution. Many people buy from the US because we almost always have the lowest prices.”
Image credits: Header Brazil map by Ssolbergj
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Monday, 6 November 2017
Samsung Mocks the iPhone in New Ad
Samsung just released this 1-minute commercial for the Galaxy Smartphone. Titled “Growing Up,” it directly mocks the Apple iPhone and its history of competing with the Samsung Galaxy.
In the ad, Samsung suggests that its devices have always been a step ahead of Apple’s when it comes to things like screen size, storage space, weatherproofing, and more.
Taking a page from Google’s Photos ads, Samsung highlights the pain iPhone photographers with smaller storage spaces feel when the “Storage Full” warning pops up when trying to shoot photos.
The ad also shows a guy and girl falling into a lake after the girl shoots a photo. The Samsung phone and the beautiful photo survives, but the non-waterproof iPhone is a goner.
What Samsung conveniently leaves out of the commercial, however, is the fact that Samsung recalled its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone worldwide in 2016 when it was found to burst into flames and explode.
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Focos Brings Custom Bokeh and Focus-After-You-Shoot to Dual Cam iPhones
Want to take your iPhone 7 Plus or 8 Plus beyond Portrait mode? Focos is an app that takes bokeh to the next level while also giving you the ability to choose your focus point after your shoot your photos.
Focos was created by Xiaodong Wang, the developer behind two top apps in the iTunes App Store in 2015 and 2016, Colorburn and MaxCurve.
“As a beginner having no prior photo shooting experience, you can take professional-grade pictures with this app at a go without expert skills,” Wang writes. “As a professional, you’ll be amazed at professional options available in this offer for you to simulate any type of lens including the top-level or defective ones.”
Focos can capture photos with a shallow depth of field using “true 3D imaging” calculated from the dual iPhone cameras. As with the Portrait mode that’s built into the iPhone, Focos can create bokeh in your portraits to make it look like your image was captured with a professional lens with a large aperture.
What’s neat is that the app is also compatible with existing Portrait mode photos that you’ve shot already — you can load them in and re-edit the bokeh effect if you’re not satisfied with your original results.
Another powerful feature of Focos is the ability to focus your photos after you shoot them. Since depth information is captured with the photos, you can tap the area of the frame you’d like to focus on while reviewing your shots.
Focos also allows you to customize the look of your bokeh. You can choose different diaphragms to give your bokeh custom shapes, and you can also customize the look of the out-of-focus areas with options such as creamy, bilinear, swirl, and more.
Focos is a free app and is available in the iTunes App Store for the iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X. Certain features are unlocked with a $6/year subscription.
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Review: The Touch Bar Macbook Pro Through the Eyes of a Creative
This post is a concise review of the touch bar MacBook Pro from a creative point of view. I use and like both PC and Macs and don’t have loyalty to one or the other. This has been a long time coming, and for good reason: I really wanted to put my laptop through the paces for a few months before I formed a true opinion.
The Pros
Build
I travel a hell of a lot, and the one thing that mattered to me the most was the build quality of a laptop. Having owned a MBP in the past, the metal build really lends a lot of confidence over a lot of plastic bodies out there. The unibody design and sturdiness has been wonderful. It hasn’t let me down. The hinge is solid, and it looks beautiful (side bonus).
Trackpad
I haven’t used a trackpad that I have liked more than the ones on MacBooks. The response is fantastic. This new one has a larger trackpad and the palm rejection works extremely well! There are some moments where it picks it up but not enough to even mention otherwise. The extended size was beneficial as you never run into the edges. Also, having every corner as a clickable area really helps not having to start at the bottom.
Weight
When I saw the first announcement of the new MBP, they included a size reduction as a part of their “upgraded features” list. I scoffed at it because let’s face it, how much lighter does it really need to be? Give me something a little bigger with better battery life! However, after the infinite amount of times I’ve been throwing this laptop around, including in and out of my laptop bag, it feels considerably lighter and it makes me almost want to dance with it (okay not really). Security, coffee shops, home to transit, the travel is quite extensive.
Apple Store and Global Compatability
This is something I didn’t consider till it mattered. I remember being in Italy for a conference and my battery cable died the night before presenting to a crowd of a 100. The night before, I had to use up my reserve to prepare as well as meet a few deadlines. Simultaneously, I was able to get another charger from one of the hosts as well as pick up a new charger once the seminar finished at the Apple Store. Had I been with another device, could I be as confident that replacement parts would be accessible in most cities across the world? Also with Apple Care I felt a little more confident knowing I could go into a store to get something sorted if I had to. Obviously, it’s no guarantee but having the global support felt great when in a pinch.
The situation with finding replacements at the last minute has happened multiple times in other scenarios. The peace of mind and confidence is worth the extra cost.
Screen
Now that the new screens have P3 colors, it has been advantageous in seeing additional ranges of colors that I previously couldn’t see, especially in the spectrum where over saturation tends to happen. I haven’t had a chance to play with the Razer laptops or others that have 100% Adobe RGB support, but I am so happy laptop screens all around have evolved as well.
Fans
My previous MBP had the fans come up a lot more often. No matter how hard I work this device with multiple programs and multi-tasking, it stays really quiet. I noticed that the vents at the top of the keyboard, near the bottom of the screen, are missing, so perhaps they’ve really changed the airflow of the device.
The Cons
16 GB Limitation
At home, I have 32gb of ram on my PC system. Even the 5k iMac that I use has 32GB of ram. They both operate smoothly and really notice a big difference on how buttery smooth it makes a system, granted everything else is up to spec. It’s such a shame this couldn’t utilize having 32GB of ram. With that being said, this system still operates fine. I notice it during the times that I have to do huge composites and I am moving large source files around to composite with.
Aside from that, I don’t mind the smaller form factor for 95% of my work. Could I have had the extra ram with the compromise of having a thicker laptop, I would absolutely do it!
Touch Bar
Haha. I haven’t been able to use the touch bar aside from looking at it for entertainment. Most of the time my eyes are glued to the screen and I rarely look down. Also, on the road, I use a laptop riser and a Bluetooth keyboard so I wouldn’t get to really utilize it. Laptop risers are awesome to prevent neck strain as the laptop screen is at eye level (highly recommended)! The only time I’ve used the touch bar is when I am screen recording via QuickTime and want to start or stop recording without clicking on the program.
MagSafe
I miss MagSafe as much as Rose misses Jack on the Titanic! *plays the sad flute*. I have seen 3rd party USB-C MagSafe options but I haven’t tried them yet. I’d only try them if they were Apple certified because you don’t want your laptop frying from faulty electrical charging components. I don’t know enough about it but I don’t trust it. It’s one of those things, it doesn’t matter, except the time that it actually does and some over-anxious caffeinated stranger next to you at the coffee shop wraps his foot around your charging cable and takes a step forward. MacBooks do fly!
Messy Charging Block
A small issue, but packing up the charging cable and block is still messy. You can now disconnect the wire itself from the block since It’s just a USB-C cable, but I wish Ives would come out with a more sophisticated way to wrap up and pack your charging cable. The old charger block had little wings where you could wrap the wire around, and the little snap on the end of the charger so you can hold it in place. This new one is just spaghetti noodles everywhere in your laptop bag if you’re in a hurry.
Mixed Feelings
Keys
The butterfly keys are like particular family members, you love them but you sometimes hate them. It’s a duality of confusion. I’ve had issues with certain keys sticking. It happens in certain conditions like humid climates or being on planes. I don’t know why this happens, but it does. The older keys were way more accurate and dependable. However, for short-term typing these new keys are faster. I do like them a lot but it’s a little too close to feeling like you’re typing on a flat piece of paper. My fingers almost miss having to press a little more on keys to register letters.
Secondly, I have a sneaky suspicion that the keys were made shorter so that they could simply make the laptop smaller by fractions of an inch.
I also feel like the keys are a little louder than the older ones as well. You will either love them or hate them.
Ports
USB-C everything is annoying, still. There are some devices where I couldn’t simply swap out the cables. To circumvent this issue, I decided to buy Amazon Basics USB-C to USB 3 adapters and keep them attached to the cables. And then when I need to use it on a USB 3 device, I simply take off the adapter. For $20 I converted everything. Secondly, I got a HooToo Suite dock so I could use HDMI and an SD along with additional ports should I need more peripherals. I mostly got it for projectors as I use HDMI a lot.
Battery Power
The battery life on this device is a lot less. I feel like I get 4 hours using it fully with Photoshop. It’s ample if you don’t work without a charger that often. But if need it to last, I’d recommend getting a backup battery. I would love more for long-haul flights.
Conclusion
I don’t think this is the perfect laptop. It has pros and cons, and I think other laptops out there are in the same boat as well.
I was highly skeptical of this laptop before buying it because on paper, it looked dumb. I needed it because I teach a lot and I do believe the familiarity benefits my students who are primarily still in the Apple ecosystem. At home, I am on Windows and just like laptops, they both have their pros and cons. Knowing both systems has been a huge advantage for me, if not only to help my students.
I have to say that it did beat my expectations and I don’t regret my purchase. It actually keeps up with me and I work like a maniac! If I was doing composites full time, I’d opt for an XPS 15 as my work laptop. I really wanted to hate this laptop but I can’t say that I really do granted that it has done what I have asked it to without fail. Especially in a month like this last one, I have been retouching and working in excess of 16 hours a day for a month and it has added no additional stress.
(via Retouchist)
About the author: Pratik Naik is a photo retoucher specializing in commercial and editorial work. To see his work, head over to his website or give him a follow on Instagram and Facebook. This article was also published here.
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