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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