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Solarcan Puck is a Limited-Time Palm-Sized Pinhole Solargraph Camera

Solarcan has announced Puck, a smaller limited-time version of its soda-can-shaped Sun-catching camera. The new model comes shaped like a circle and produces round instead of more traditional rectangle images.

Solarcan, created by photographer Sam Cornwell, specializes in producing solargraphy cameras that don’t require any DIY skills. Anyone can use them without knowing a single thing about pinhole cameras, development, or even solargraphs.

The original Solarcan announced in 2017.

The company released its first model in 2017 on Kickstarter. Since then, it has also added a set of tinted Solarcans that produce vibrant and colorful results, and now — the small and round Puck.

Once an exposure is started, the Solarcan Puck will capture the Sun’s path and produce a photo that can be retrieved inside afterward. The resulting image is inverted and can be scanned or photographed to get a digital copy.

To produce an image, photographers have to firmly fix the camera to a chosen outdoor location. The exposure begins when the tab inside is removed to allow light to pass through the pinhole.

The photographic paper inside the camera only reacts to sunshine, so photographers don’t have to worry about light pollution from street lights, the Moon, or other sources.

The camera has f/132 and the exposure can last months or even years. For example, Solarcan customer Robert Miller set the camera to record Sun’s path as seen from Antarctica and produced a 6-months long exposure. Cornwell went a step further and attempted a timelapse shot with 27 Solarcans, thought to be the first of its kind.

The new Puck works the same way as its predecessor model, except it catches a circle image. The new camera also comes with three exposures. Each next exposure is revealed after removing the cover sheet and gives photographers three goes to experiment with.

As the camera has no viewfinder, it can be tough to figure out the best camera placement for a good composition. The company recommends turning to community results to get ideas for this.

Below, the company has shared a few mock-up images of what the results shot by Solarcan Puck could look like.

Solarcan has no plans to sell the Puck as a standalone product — it will instead be bundled with orders of over £30 ($40) for Black Friday weekend through November 28th.

“I’m not planning on making it a future product or selling it,” Cornwell tells PetaPixel. “It’s intended as a bit of fun for the community, hence I’m not putting a price tag on it. I’m just excited to see what people produce with it!”

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1957 Leica MP Camera Sells for a Staggering $1.34 Million at Auction

The 39th Leitz Photographica Auction recently concluded and a rare 1957 Leica MP Black Paint edition camera went for the highest value by far, commanding a final price of 1,200,000 Euros (about $1,344,366).

The Leica MP is one of only 412 ever produced, making it one of the rarest Leica models of all time. The Leitz Photographic auction says that this version was acquired mainly by professional photographers and that many of the most famous Magnum photographers of the time used Leica MP cameras.

“Today it is among the most sought-after Leicas of all,” the auction writes. “The idea which led to the production of the MP model came from several well-known American press photographers, who wanted to make use of the advantages of the Leicavit (available at that time for IIIf only) on their Leica M cameras as well. It was mainly the suggestion of Alfred Eisenstaedt and David Douglas Duncan which aroused the interest of Dr. Ludwig Leitz, who was the director of the development and construction department in 1955.”

The specific Leica MP that was offered at auction this past week was listed as in “beautiful” condition, with only a few minimal signs of use. Leitz Photographica specifically notes that it is one of the best examples of this particular camera model its experts had ever seen and was originally delivered for sale to Leitz London on July 24, 1957.

“The Leica MP is one of the most important Leica cameras made and probably the one that started the trend of black paint M cameras being used by professionals and loved by collectors nowadays,” Leitz Photographica says.

The Leitz MP was estimated to be valued at between 300,000 and 3500,000 Euros (about $336,091 and $392,106) before the auction, started bidding at 150,000 Euros (about $168,045), but after what must have been a serious and spirited bidding session, the final hammer price saw the value balloon to an enormous 1,200,000 Euros (about $1,344,366).

This final value greatly eclipses the other highest selling items, including a Contax Rifle camera that sold for 120,000 Euros (about $134,436), a Prototype Summarit lens that sold for 264,000 Euros (about $295,760), and a Leica M3 that sold for 264,000 Euros (about $295,760).

The top seven items from the auction are listed on the Leitz Photographica Auction’s website and a full list of all items and their final sale values can be found in a detailed PDF document.

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DJI Ronin 4D Review: A Cinema Camera System With No Equal

What does it take to make a camera stand out? Some companies go for specs, some go for looks, some go for versatility. DJI went for all three with the Ronin 4D.

Build Quality and Design

The Ronin 4D combines a camera and a gimbal into one package. In doing so, DJI is able to make the rig more lightweight, better balanced, and offer improved stabilization and control. It’s constructed of carbon fiber and aluminum-magnesium alloy and overall with the DJI 35mm f/2.8 lens mounted, I found it to be an appropriate amount of weight to balance out stability with comfort.

Buttons and controls are laid out on the left side of the camera as well as on the monitor with the implied reason being the operator’s right hand will be holding the top handle. The Ronin also comes with left and right handgrips that feature controls on each. There is nothing cheap feeling about these buttons and scrub wheels, and DJI nailed the tactile experience throughout the camera. There are small, purposeful details found everywhere and it’s shocking that this is the company’s first go at anything of this style.

Monitor

The monitor is a 5.5-inch, 1,920 by 1,080-pixel touchscreen display with 1,000 nits of brightness. It’s a perfect size for a gimbal where a big, rotatable screen is always helpful for monitoring but there needs to be a balance with how much weight it adds and just how much room it takes up. The picture quality looked good from my experience and it had the clarity to be able to discern subject sharpness by eyeballing it.

The touchscreen responsiveness was on point, even with gloves. I did some shooting with the Ronin 4D when the temperature was in the 20-degree Fahrenheit range and didn’t see any ghosting issues or sluggish behavior.

Video Quality

Capable of shooting in 6K ProRes RAW and ProRes 422HQ up to 60 frames per second and up to 120 frames per second in 4K, the Ronin 4D is no slouch in its video performance. At specific high frame rate thresholds, the camera will force a 2.39:1 aspect ratio.

There are a couple of options available to deal with this, and considering this is a 6K-capable camera it’s actually not so bad. First, just use the “cinematic” 2.39:1 aspect if it suits the project. This is the simplest, most obvious option since no matter what is shot it will fit into any finished resolution. The other option is to shoot 6K for a 4K project, or 6K and 4K for a 2K project. The 2.39:1 aspect in 6K will fit into a more standard 16:9 aspect in 4K and still have some wiggle room for frame adjustment or cropping.

The Zenmuse X9-6K sports a full-frame sensor the company claims to have 14-plus stops of dynamic range with dual native ISOs of 800 and 5,000. Pushing the D-log color profiled files in editing reveals its strengths, and I can confirm natural gradations and the ability to save considerable information in the highlights and shadows.

As a gimbal-infused camera setup meant to be handheld more often than not, sensor readout speed and its rolling shutter effects can come into play as the sensor whips about. While I do see some bending of straight vertical lines, I need to be aggressive in order to make them appear and I found the results to be about on par with any other cinema-style camera I’ve used without a global shutter.

Stabilization

While there are many interesting components to the Ronin 4D, it’s the “4D” in the name that obviously DJI feels is a highlight. Most gimbals compensate for pitch, roll, and yaw, but it’s the Ronin 4D that can compensate for up and down movement (Z-axis) as well. This doesn’t have to be active all the time, and there’s a dedicated “4D” button on the side of the camera for easy toggling.

In my testing, the 4D compensation is remarkable. I’m not much of a gimbal operator myself and even I could make relatively smooth shots without really bringing my attention to stability. The video below was taken when I was simply walking around different terrain and specifically not trying to focus on getting super clean, stable shots. Behind the camera, I’m moving about casually with mostly one hand on the handle. I wanted to see if feasibly anyone could pick this camera up and go.

To my eye, plus knowing just how much I was hopping around the forest floor and rocks and whatnot, the stabilization was the real deal. I think to really clean up these shots, I’d fine-tune my panning settings in the camera’s menu, but otherwise, the actual 4D Z-axis movements were nullified.

With that in mind, I went a little more crazy and started running around with the camera. Now, I’m probably the goofiest looking runner you’ll find and still the footage looked smooth as can be. At the end of the sequence shown below, I took it to the final step and just started shaking the camera like a true maniac. There were three stages of low, medium, and high intensity shaking. Yes, you can finally see some shake in the clip, but on any other camera and gimbal system, the picture would be an absolute blur with nothing discernible in the frame.

Autofocus

Autofocus is another area where DJI took a unique approach. The Ronin 4D is equipped with a LiDAR system in a module that sits up near the lens and calculates the distance from a subject to the camera’s sensor.

In practice, autofocus was hit and miss. The worst part may be the implementation where it will jump very unnaturally to attain new focus. I didn’t find any menu setting available to get it to chill out for slower transitions. For non-human subjects like my dog or just walking around in scenery, the autofocus is unreliable and messy.

That said, the autofocus really shines when it comes to filming people. Whether I’m at the edge of the frame, far away, my back turned, walking all around, it doesn’t seem to matter and the Ronin 4D keeps the autofocus locked on. Something I wasn’t able to test was how it handles more than one person in the frame, and I wonder if it would be problematic with jumping around. I suspect so, or at least it is likely more difficult to get it to choose the right person to follow. You can drag a box around the subject to track on the touchscreen display, but from what I saw that only tells the gimbal what to follow and does not affect the autofocus targeting.

The LiDAR system benefits manual focus as well by reporting the distance information in a graphical display. By matching what the camera reports the focus distance of the lens is to the focus distance that the LiDAR is sensing, I have a very handy assistive feature. At the end of the sequence below, I’m using this depth metering option to try my best at keeping manual focus while watching a DJI High-Bright Remote Monitor.

DJI High-Bright Remote Monitor with Ronin 4D handgrips.

A Stunning Display of Technological Craftsmanship

I know this camera isn’t going to be for everyone and isn’t designed to be, but I think it means something when I say that I wish everyone could try it out at some point because they will enjoy it for what it manages to accomplish.

That leads me to think about perspective. Say you’re looking to get your first camera rig and the Ronin 4D happens to check many of the boxes. I think for someone like that who gets used to this camera, going to any other camera system in the future is going to be annoying. For that situation, they’ll probably be losing more than they would gain in making the switch. On the flip side, the rest of us are probably looking at the Ronin 4D with our heads cocked because it doesn’t follow the rules of being a boxy cinema camera that we restlessly build upon.

Are There Alternatives?

The DJI Ronin 4D takes a completely new approach toward offering a full package of products designed from the start to compliment and work with each other. The alternative to this would be going the traditional route in buying everything independently — the camera, the gimbal, the five-inch monitor, and so on — and having a little more independence on the setup.

Honestly though, there isn’t a package deal that works this well together other than what DJI has here. It is, for now, truly unique. Even though it’s not cheap at $11,499, I have to think that anyone who attempts to build a similar system a la carte is going to find themselves spending at least that much and none of those parts will work together quite as well as what DJI has in the 4D.

Should You Buy It?

Yes. The DJI Ronin 4D is too unique and too well designed to look past. It’s not perfect in all areas all the time, but it’s a package deal and one that has no competitor right now. Even if there were, I have a hard time imagining any other company going as hard as DJI did for this one nor succeed nearly as well.

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Nikon Z9 ‘Dual-Stream’ Tech Records and Displays Images with No Lag

Nikon has published a short video that further explains the “Dual-stream” technology in its upcoming Z9 flagship camera, which it says will always assure an accurate reality-to-viewfinder experience.

The Dual-stream technology is part of Nikon’s technology for what it bills as a “real-live” viewfinder experience in the Z9. The company says that the tech is only made possible thanks to the combination of the newly-developed stacked CMOS sensor and the EXPEED 7 image-processing engine, which allows photos to be displayed on the electronic viewfinder or LCD monitor (whichever is being used to monitor capture) as well as record that still-image data to a memory card at the exact same time.

Nikon says this differs from other “blackout-free” shooting experiences from competitors as other implementations have some kind of a delay between what is seen and what is captured.

“Unlike conventional blackout-free shooting that displays the same frame to prevent interruption of the finder image, this viewfinder continues to display the actual movement of the subject within the scene, so that every single moment can be smoothly and continuously confirmed with no skipped frames or loss of view,” Nikon claims.

“Because this is achieved even when continuous shooting is repeated over a short period of time, it is ideal for scenes in which tracking of quickly moving subjects is required, such as during sports, allowing users to reliably capture the finest moments without missing any shutter opportunities.”

The video above shows that the pixel array captures image data and moves it through to the camera’s circuitry and simultaneously then streams that data to two separate outputs, one to the viewfinder or LCD and one to the memory card.

“Dual-stream technology processes data for live view and recording separately and in parallel, which makes the Real-Live Viewfinder possible,” the company further explains.

The company says this particular implementation delivers a smooth view that reveals every single moment of the capture, including those previously missed by conventional electronic viewfinder systems or those that block the view due to a mirror in DSLRs.

The video also shows a “competitor” camera that skips and repeats some frames side by side with Nikon’s implementation, though the company does not state which camera it is comparing the Z9 experience to.

The Nikon Z9 features a 45.7-megapixel stacked CMOS sensor, 8K video capability, and is the first professional full-frame mirrorless camera to be released without a physical shutter. It is scheduled to become available to purchase by the end of the year for $5,500.

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Sony: Global Chip Shortage ‘More Serious’ Than Expected

Sony says that the effects of the semiconductor shortage are “more serious than expected” which has forced it to make decisions on what cameras and lenses it can continue to manufacture.

Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent chip shortage, Sony continued to manufacture and stock what many would consider to be outdated cameras and lenses. Even years after they had been “replaced” by newer models, the company would continue to make those older models available to purchase new for several years.

But the chip shortage has forced Sony to make the tough decision to stop the production of these kinds of cameras. Earlier this year, the company discontinued the original Alpha 9 as well as the Alpha 7R II, the latter after continuing to manufacture and stock the camera for six years.

Earlier this week, Sony issued another notice and apology as it was forced to also halt the production of the Alpha 7 II, a6400, a6100, the ECM-B1M shotgun microphone, and the PXW-Z190 camcorder. Sony technically calls these temporary suspensions of production, but it’s not clear if or when it will resume manufacturing these cameras.

“Currently, with regard to digital imaging products, parts procurement is delayed due to the effects of global semiconductor shortages,” Sony says. “Regarding the resumption of order acceptance, we will consider it while observing the status of parts supply and will inform you separately on the product information page. We deeply apologize for any inconvenience caused to our customers. We will do our utmost to deliver the product as soon as possible, and we appreciate your understanding.”

Nikkei (soft paywall) reports that Sony found the impact of the parts shortage to be more serious than expected, and in an attempt to alleviate the sense of shortage at stores, the company is narrowing its production of new products.

The publication also reports that of the 159 mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras listed for sale on one major camera retailer in Japan earlier this week, 67% were shown as “low stock” while 13% were listed as “out of stock.” That same sentiment carries over into the United States, where some new cameras and lenses are available to purchase, but many are on backorder.

“There is a shortage of various parts such as power supply ICs and audio codecs as well as semiconductors,” a Japanese securities analyst tells Nikkei.

“We are constantly struggling to deal with problems in the supply chain, including the suspension of factories due to the Coronavirus,” a major manufacturer executive added.

While the digital camera market has been bouncing back since its colossal dip in 2020, the lack of product availability has curtailed a full recovery. Because of this, the camera industry feels trapped as the demand is there, but products simply are not.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.

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TourBox Elite is a Hyper-Customizable Bluetooth Editing Controller

Following a successful launch of the original TourBox in 2018, the company is back with its follow-up: the TourBox Elite. This compact Bluetooth controller is designed to provide better control over editing tasks than can be done with a keyboard alone.

The TourBox Elite is a dual-channel Bluetooth controller that features a pinpoint, lag-free, control algorithm, customizable user interface, and macro commands to give editors more control over software without needing to move their hands from a single position.

TourBox says that the Elite controller is a cross-platform and pre-configured tool made to support image editing applications like Photoshop, Lightroom, or Capture One, but also can be configured to support a host of other applications like Illustrator, Final Cut Pro, Premiere, After Effects, and DaVinci Resolve. It can be operated by itself or in tandem with a mouse or drawing tablet and its main goal is to streamline workflow.

TourBox says that the Elite is the first Bluetooth editing controller in the industry designed for digital creators and it plans to create what it describes as an unprecedented and compelling protocol for Bluetooth editing.

“This Bluetooth LE 5.1 technology provides seamless, instant connection to your devices with perfectly consistent and strong pairing ability,” the company says. “As a dual-channel Bluetooth controller, featuring presets auto switch, TourBox Elite allows you to switch seamlessly among various devices and programs. That means you can literally handle multiple programs, projects, and professions all well at the same time.”

The company touts the TourBox Elite as able to completely replace a keyboard when editing and removes what it describes as “unnatural” movements. Instead of clunky keyboard commands, the TourBox uses a series of scroll wheels, dials, and buttons to activate various commands within editing applications. The TourBox Elite allows editors to make adjustments with a single hand.

“You can just focus on the images, hit the buttons, turn the knob and get the work done,” the company says. “No more searching in the parameter bar.”

For culling, TourBox shows how the Elite controller can be used to pan through photos, select them, and rate them quickly and easily. It can also be used to adjust settings like exposure, contrast, and shadows and highlights with the turn of the knob. The knobs can even be calibrated for different speeds based on an editor’s needs and personal workflow.

All the functions of the TourBox Elite can be customized to do different tasks depending on the program in use, and that level of control extends to every button and dial on the device.

Since there are no physical scale marks on the rotary buttons on the TourBox Elite (and they can be fine-tuned to specific users), feedback is instead provided by an internal vibration motor with haptic feedback. It can be switched off or configured to an individual user’s level of choice as well.

“TourBox Elite incorporates the first wide-band motor in the industry, bringing a simulated touch that is immersive and subtle,” the company claims. “Traditional motors feature a low damp, high elasticity and slow response. By contrast, the innovative wide-band vibration motor is characterized by rapid start and stop with accurate and timely response, making it perfect to simulate the haptic touch.”

The TourBox Elite is currently available to back on Kickstarter and at the time of publication had already reached its goal. Backing options start as low as $196 and the company expects to ship completed TourBox Elite controllers by February of 2022.

Disclaimer: Make sure you do your own research into any crowdfunding project you’re considering backing. While we aim to only share legitimate and trustworthy campaigns, there’s always a real chance that you can lose your money when backing any crowdfunded project.

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The Bronine Volkit Charger Made Me Rethink Camera Batteries

Charging is boring and is easily the part of technology, and certainly photography, that I think the least about. But after using the Bronine Volkit, I honestly can say that has changed.

The Bronine Volkit originally landed on our radar nearly exactly a year ago when it hit Kickstarter. It is what is described as a free voltage charging device that uses a main center hub that plays host to up to four interchangeable charging modules at a time. Bronine called it an “AI charger” because it is able to analyze a battery and automatically adjust the voltage to charge that specific battery at between one and 15.6 volts.

At the time, I called it a stretch to consider this technology “AI,” but was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. Bronine sponsored this Showcase so that we could see the finished product, and sent over two of its Volkit hubs (the two-port and the four-port) as well as a few battery chargers of my choosing. I don’t use much outside of Canon these days, so I asked for a set of Canon LP-E6 chargers as well as the dongle to charge a DJI Mavic 2 battery. It all came in individual boxes below, none of which had extraneous plastic wrappings which I certainly appreciated.

What’s in the Box?

The Bronine Volkit is extremely simple, so what is included is pretty straightforward. Each box contains either a main hub or a module. The modules connect magnetically, so there isn’t much in the way of parts other than the plastic charger itself. The hubs have a bit more, and include a USB-C charging cable (but no charging brick) as well as the hub itself.

These are an all-plastic affair other than the metal contact points, and while they feel robust enough, I wouldn’t recommend dropping them on a concrete floor.

Tons of Options

The number of modules that Bronine offers is rather all-encompassing and covers a huge list of the most-used batteries by photographers. At the time of publication, Bronine lists 32 different modules from the Canon LP-E6NH and the DJI Mavic 2 Pro. to the Nikon EN-EL15C and the Sony NP-FZ100. All told, there are battery options for Sony, Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Olympus Fujifilm, GoPro, DJI, and even a cylindrical module that can charge five different lithium-ion batteries.

The two-port charger costs $48, the four-port charger costs $78, and each module is $9, with the exception of the cylindrical battery module which costs $10.

There isn’t a reason why Bronine can’t keep adding more (and I imagine the company will do just that), and it would be nice to see a module for charging four or more AA-sized lithium-ion batteries and also Panasonic’s full-frame camera battery.

Let’s Get to Charging

Once you’ve got the USB-C plugged both into the Volkit itself and into a charging brick, you’re ready to go. The charger works exactly like you would expect: insert a battery, slide the module over to the Volkit hub, and you’re off to the races. Each individual battery charging module or cable is magnetic and connects to any of the open ports on either the four- or two-bay Volkit hub.

It doesn’t matter which port any of the modules are attached to, and they can be plugged and unplugged at will without fuss.

Once locked in, the Volkit needs a couple of seconds to calibrate its voltage, and then it starts charging. The hubs each have a display that shows the progress of the charge, the voltage of the battery, and the mAh that the battery has taken since it has been charged. I originally thought the mAh reading would tell me how much total juice the battery had in it, but it appears to reset any time you plug or unplug the module, so I think it is actually just telling me how much has been added since charging began.

Honestly, I love having this much info. I’ve been using the stock Canon battery charger that ships with the cameras and have been doing so for years, and what the Volkit shows here is so much more useful than a blinking light.

Speaking of that blinking light, it might not be accurate. I had one battery that showed 100% green and fully charged on my Canon wall charger, but it was able to accept more juice once I plugged it into the Volkit.

Basically, it seems like a standard “dumb” charger doesn’t necessarily give you maximum performance as Bronine’s “smart” charger. But the benefits of the system don’t stop there.

Better Than the Official Charger

In addition to charging, I found something else that really sold me on the Volkit. Two of my LP-E6N batteries that I bought directly from Canon had stopped working in my EOS R in the last few months (I use it as my webcam now). While they still work fine in any of my accessories that are powered by the batteries, the EOS R refused to power on and gave me an “Err” code on the top LCD. Even attempting to charge them in Canon’s wall charger left the little red light blinking constantly, as if to further highlight something was wrong. After charging both in the Volkit, however, they appear to have somehow been reset and the EOS R happily accepts them once again. I don’t know what kind of devil magic is at work here, but I’m not complaining one bit.

If I had to levy one complaint about the Volkit, it’s that the display is pretty dim. In bright light, such as the one in my studio, it can be really hard to see the display as it reflects a lot of glare and doesn’t have a lot of output. This is a pretty small niggle though, if I’m being honest.

The Volkit Gives Me Visibility into Charging

Charging batteries has kind of always felt like a mystery box to me. The stock chargers that ship with just about every camera and drone are mostly a guessing game where I felt like I was just waiting for the blinking light to tell me something useful. If something wasn’t working right, I had no idea how to address the problem.

The Volkit has changed that. It appears smart enough to fix the problems batteries are having and provides me with a level of visibility into charging I have never had before. When I first saw the Volkit, I disregarded it as just another charger and kind of scoffed at the “AI” claims. After using it, I’m happy to be wrong. I’m a believer: this thing rocks.

Welcome to a PetaPixel Showcase, where our staff gives you a hands-on with unique and interesting products from across the photography landscape. The Showcase format affords manufacturers the opportunity to sponsor hands-on time with their products and our staff, and lets them highlight what features they think are worth noting, but the opinions expressed from PetaPixel staff are genuine. Showcases should not be considered an endorsement by PetaPixel.

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OWC Launches the Mercury Elite Pro Mini: A Portable 4TB Storage Drive

Other World Computing (OWC) has announced the Mercury Elite Pro mini, a new bus-powered compact and portable storage drive that emulates the design of its larger desktop storage solution.

OWC touts the Mercury Elite Pro mini as a tiny powerhouse that offers creative professionals, including photographers, the benefits of speed and universal USB-C connectivity in a compact interface that provides up to 4TB of storage capacity and 542 MB/s performance speeds. The design of the mini is meant to emulate OWC’s desktop-sized Mercury Elite Pro, which it calls a “sibling” device.

The Mercury Elite Pro mini includes a USB-C cable with a tethered USB-A adapter that allows it to connect with basically any computing device: the company says it supports connections with past, present, and future Macs and PCs and iOS, Android, and Chrome OS devices.

In short, it can connect universally to any USB or Thunderbolt computer or device.

The Mercury Elite Pro mini is bus-powered, so like other popular travel drives, it doesn’t require a separate power adapter. OWC indicates that it is fast enough to work as a streaming device as well, and can be used not just as a backup or work drive, but also can be used to watch videos, listen to music, and view pictures through a gaming console or directly attached to a smart TV. The OWC Mercury Elite Pro mini is compatible with Apple Time Machine and Windows File History as well as gaming consoles.

The compact storage device is fanless and therefore very quiet. It uses a heat-dissipating aircraft-grade aluminum housing and fanless venting to provide cool, nearly silent operation.

Like most OWC products, the Mercury Elite Pro mini comes in various configuration options. It is possible to buy just the housing itself with no storage drive, which allows users to input their own capacity at home. That option is of course the most affordable and is just $43. After that, it’s a matter of deciding between a spinning disk or solid state. Spinning disk options are available in either 5400 RPM or 7200RPM, with the former in 1TB or 2TB options for $94 or $119, or 1TB in the latter for $129. These options are affordable, but won’t provide the fast data transfer speeds OWC quotes above.

For that, the SSD options will be required and the company offers four configurations there: 480GB, 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB, which are available for $149, $229, $419, or $899 accordingly. All purchase options are available to peruse on OWC’s website.

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The Westcott FJ200 One-Light Backpack Kit is Seriously Great

Just about a year ago Westcott expanded on its new wireless flash lineup that started with the FJ400 by offering new sizes and power outputs. After listening to user feedback, it launched the FJ200 as a more compact and travel-friendly light system… and it’s awesome.

This portable strobe is available as part of a one-light backpack kit that includes several modifiers, the FJ-X2m universal wireless trigger, and a backpack that is capable of carrying it all as well as a personal computer and additional camera equipment.

I was super excited to test these lights because they really complimented my on-location shooting style. For me, it’s all about being portable and having the flexibility for fast initial setup as well as the ability to make quick changes while on set. Right out of the box, the FJ200 looked to be a perfect combination of those features.

The FJ200 light offers up a 200Ws power that weighs only 2.53 pounds (with the battery and light stand mount attached) and can put out over 450 full-power flashes per full battery charge. If that isn’t enough to spark some interest, the backpack kit includes the FJ-X2m universal trigger, a five-inch 70-degree metal reflector, a 30-degree honeycomb grid that has a magnetic mount built to also hold gels (six are included with the bundle), a battery charger, a snoot and grid combo for even more creative lighting control, and the Westcott Rapid Box Switch Octa-S. All of this is packed neatly into the included backpack with plenty of room for a laptop, tablet, and several other personal items.

FJ-X2m Universal Trigger

One of my favorite things about this combo is the inclusion of the FJ-X2m universal trigger. This remote will work out of the box with Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic, and Sony cameras, with only the Sony systems requiring an additional $19.90 hot-shoe adapter. While this may not be a big deal to most photographers, as someone who reviews a variety of cameras as well as often works with corporate clients who usually provide their own cameras on set, this makes it incredibly easy to always be sure I have the right remote for whatever system is in front of me; that is one less thing I need to worry about.

The trigger itself boasts a range of approximately 985 feet, has Bluetooth compatibility, and has a battery that can last for about 200,000 shots. Full disclosure, I have not been in a position to test the full range (distance and shot count), but from my short time with this light combo, it was able to hit every shot with ease. In addition to the above features, control-focused creatives will be pleased with the 16 channels and six groups available for precision light controls. Having worked with clients who need multiple looks with only minutes or seconds available, this control is very useful and allows me to quickly swap between setups to get different looks on the fly.

Modifiers And Accessories

There is no shortage of creative modifiers available for photographers with this kit. The tools included are useful for everything from product photography to portraits, with an included snoot and optional grid to create a tight beam of light useful for fashion and beauty work, rim lighting, and many more details.

Additionally, there is a silver reflector that is useful for enhancing the light out of the bare bulb. This reflector connects to a magnetic grid and gel holder where you can use any of your own gels, or one of the six provided with the kit, all magnetically clamped into place. This holder can be used with or without the grid for additional control of the light spread for creative shooting.

If space is an issue when transporting the light between shoots, the light mount of the FJ200 can be detached and stored separately, which frees up more space when it is needed for smaller bags, or allows you to fit the light in a pocket while moving. The mount itself also has a slot for connecting an umbrella and can tilt 180-degrees.

Lastly, we have the Rapid Box Switch Octa-S which sits in a lineup of modifiers that live up to its namesake. The RapidBox modifiers are some of the fastest softboxes I have ever used to set up and tear down, making them some of my favorites to use (I actually personally own three different Rapid Boxes for my location setups). The Octa-S is a 26-inch octabox that comes with a white diffuser that secures to the modifier with a few velcro panels, and they stay seated safely even in pretty windy situations when shooting outdoors.

Each one of these modifiers can be quickly opened, set up, installed, and then removed to swap with another with very minimal effort, making them an ideal combination for photographers who have to move fast. The only trade-off with this speedy system is some of the materials can be broken if you are not careful. This won’t be an issue for most photographers as we tend to baby our gear, but keep in mind that a drop onto a hard surface could break the adapter rings or puncture the softbox materials a little easier than some larger, heavy-duty modifiers.

The FJ200 Light

The FJ200 light itself is small and lightweight and, as mentioned, is capable of dishing out 450 flashes at full power (200w) with a full battery, which takes approximately two hours to charge fully once depleted. Since the flash tube isn’t covered with a frosted glass layer, photographers will get a little more out of the flash power than other systems with the same power rating. The system has a recycle time of 0.5 to 1.3-seconds (with the latter being the full power output) which makes it one of the fastest 200 Ws lights on the market, ensuring its usefulness in action settings should the need to use High-Speed Sync (HSS) and freezing motion arise. The FJ200 can shoot with sync speeds of up to 1/8000 of a second, works with front or rear curtain sync, and can capture up to 20 frames per second (at reduced power of course).

The back of the light shows a large LCD panel that displays the power settings in large numbers with a few buttons on the back for controlling the test flash, turning modeling lights on or off, adjusting the power, and scrolling through the menu. The FJ200 even supports TTL should the need for quick setting changes present themselves. The side of the light has a USB-C connection for updating the firmware, and the opposite side has a sync cable port for wired shooting. The bottom of the light behind the mount is where the battery is housed, only slightly elevated from the system once connected.

It is also worth noting that the modeling light can be set to auto or proportional, which will match the output power of the flash so that photographers can get a preview of how the light will fall once popped, increasing or decreasing in intensity in proportion to the power output chosen to shoot with. Additionally, over the course of several long bursts of shooting, the color temperature showed no significant variation between bursts with a relatively consistent color temperature of 5500K.

Using The Light

For a lighting system as small and compact as the FJ-200, it was surprisingly versatile. I found it capable of creating dramatic portraits in a small studio and, perhaps even more impressively, it is strong enough to compete against the sun while using high-speed sync in an outdoor mid-day lifestyle shoot. The 200-watt system had a very fast recycle time, making it very easy to keep up with my model having a mini dance party on set, let alone the “actual” poses against the mid-day sun. The photos below are examples of where the strobe overpowered the sun, which is strong enough to blow out my model’s hair:

The way I typically shoot on an outdoor session is to back- and side-light my subjects with the sun and use the strobe to fill in any hard shadows or contrast zones to try and make it feel a little more natural. The FJ200 on its own is more than capable of achieving that look, and with its small size, it is even light enough easy to carry without an assistant in a rushed situation. With the way the light stand mount is designed, it is even possible to handhold the light while shooting (if needed) to get some quick guerrilla-style images in tricky locations.

Moving indoors for a studio setting, I found the FJ200 to be an ideal light for a small room portrait. Since I currently do not have access to a full-sized studio, working with the FJ200 makes it easy to shoot in tight quarters. For the images below, I simply propped up a V-flat and stool in my dining room and placed the strobe up nice and close to my subject to create a moody single light portrait. Looping back to how quick it is to work with these lights, I went from setting up to taking portraits in a matter of moments.

The Westcott FJ200 Lights Are Just Fun To Use

I really fell in love with this system over the course of shooting with it. Given the low price of the FJ series of lights, the FJ200 One-Light Backpack Kit with Universal Trigger and Rapid Box Switch Octa-S stands out as a leader in its class for power, ease of travel, reliability, and affordability. While there may be more powerful light systems out there, the FJ200 kit offers a versatility and creative options for $749.

Welcome to a PetaPixel Showcase, where our staff gives you a hands-on with unique and interesting products from across the photography landscape. The Showcase format affords manufacturers the opportunity to sponsor hands-on time with their products and our staff, and lets them highlight what features they think are worth noting, but the opinions expressed from PetaPixel staff are genuine. Showcases should not be considered an endorsement by PetaPixel.

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The ‘Dronut’ is a Cylindrical Drone Straight Out of Science Fiction

The Cleo Robotics Dronut is the world’s first bi-rotor ducted drone that makes it look like something straight out of science fiction.

The Boston-based company that specializes in unconventional robotic systems has released a drone that sports an unconventional design and capabilities which allow it to access spaces that ordinary drones can’t navigate, such as confined rooms and or close to people.

In 2020, the company released a previous version of the drone, simply called the Dronut. The first model was only sold to the military and law enforcement, and at the time the company said its next goal was to make the drone quieter and to release it for consumer use. Thus, the Dronut X1 was born.

The oddly shaped drone is compact enough to fit on the palm of the hand and weighs only 15 ounces (425 grams) but boasts live-streaming capabilities, a high-resolution 4K camera, and a global shutter sensor. The drone navigates through 3D LiDAR (light detection and ranging), which utilizes beams of light that hit an object or a surface and reflect back to the laser scanner to create a 3D visualization of its environment.

The drone has a one-kilometer (0.6 miles) range depending on the environment and the company says it can be controlled using an Android phone with little to no training required. The sophisticated sensors allow the drone to be used also in spaces with low light or with no light at all.

All these claims are not particularly unique in the world of drones, but what sets Dronut X1 apart is its ducted fan design that allows it to fly with no exposed propellers. Because of this, Dronut operators can safely fly it around people, in tight spaces, and around sensitive equipment without posing a risk to those around it or itself.

The company’s founders come from the oil and gas industry, which is where they experienced firsthand how difficult and dangerous it can be to inspect confined spaces. This is what led them to the Dronut X1’s design and is also what the drone is specifically marketed for. So while it is not exactly aimed at traditional drone hobbyists and commercial drone operators, the Dronut X1 has been built with the goal of eliminating manned entry into dangerous, hazardous, and difficult-to-reach environments.

The Dronut X1 isn’t cheap. The innovative drone costs $9,800 and can be can only be ordered on Cleo Robotic’s website. It is available commercially for law enforcement, industrial inspection, construction, and defense industries.

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Nikon Reveals the Strobe’s Dirty Little Secret: It’s Cheap

Nikon recently announced that it is collaborating with Nissin and Profoto on speedlights and studio lights. Is this an admission of the not-so-secret reality that lighting products are actually quite cheap?

Canon and Nikon have made a ton of cash off their lighting systems that are priced — shall we say — enthusiastically. Original equipment manufacturers have always placed a premium on their products on the basis that they are better quality, more feature-laden, more reliable, more compatible, and… more expensive.

For example, Nikon currently lists three main speedlights in their lineup: the SB-5000, SB-700, and SB-500.

Nikon’s camera flash lineup: the SB-5000, SB-700, and SB-500.

Introduced in 2015, the SB-5000 tops the listings and has some mouth-watering specifications: i-TTL, high-speed sync, wireless radio control, 34 guide number, fan cooling, and 24-200mm zoom range (expandable to 14mm with the diffusion panel). This makes it the pinnacle of Nikon’s Creative Lighting System (CLS) and their first flash to offer radio wireless through the newly introduced Advanced Wireless System.

The SB-700 came in as a premium product back in 2010 and included i-TTL, internal zoom, master/slave in the CLS, and a 28 guide number.

The SB-500 still offers the i-TTL but there is a lower 24 guide number and a fixed beam spread; introduced in 2014 it brings i-TTL in at a lower price point in a compact body along with an LED for close video work.

You can’t fault Nikon on the specifications for what is now quite a slimmed-down range. This brings us back to the news announcement; what’s unusual is that Nikon isn’t exactly known for opening up to third-party suppliers. For example, you don’t see vast swathes of non-OEM lenses because of the difficulty in having to reverse engineer the mount in order to support the camera, which is why manufacturers have needed to have deep pockets, plenty of time, and guaranteed sales to do this.

The same is true of the strobe market, so to see Nikon partner with not one but two lighting companies is eye-opening. Nissin, a Japanese manufacturer, specializes in the portable strobe, while Profoto of Sweden, has a range of studio lights and light shaping products. Both are known for their premium products at non-OEM prices. The latter in itself has never been a problem for the likes of Nikon and Canon; make your own product, sell the heck out of it to brand buyers, and make a healthy profit.

The Nissin Di700A flash (left) and the Profoto B10 flash head (right).

So what’s Nikon’s problem? First and foremost, this announcement suggests that the company does not sell many strobes. This is an economic problem for a product that has limited reach and Nikon’s solution is a simple one: stop selling them. Of course, this doesn’t exactly promote buy-in to an all-encompassing professional Z-System, hence the strategic partnership with quality third-party manufacturers. However, this begs the question as to why strobes aren’t selling in the quantities that Nikon believes it needs to achieve.

I think there are potentially five reasons why this might be the case.

Firstly, there are far fewer cameras being sold today than for the best part of twenty years. Fewer cameras is fewer system photographers and so fewer strobes. As much as Nikon would like them to be, strobes are not big-ticket items and, unlike lenses, many photographers will only buy one.

Secondly, of that diminishing pool of photographers with system cameras, there are increasing numbers who now shoot natural light because ISO performance is so good. That simply wasn’t an option in the film days. If it was a dark day or you had a wedding reception to shoot, you had no choice other than to break out the strobe. Now you can just crank up the ISO.

Thirdly, technical innovation seems to have stalled over the last decade. Sure we have had Canon’s Speedlite 470-EX AI with motorized head, as well as Nikon’s cooling system on the SB-5000. These are hardly pushing the boundaries of creative lighting and, arguably, the seismic shift is coming from constant LED lights.

Linked to this has been Nikon’s manifest reluctance to move to a radio wireless triggering system. The SB-5000 was the first model that included radio control as part of Nikon’s AWS; that was released in 2015. What’s astonishing is that the FlashWizard, the pre-cursor to the Pocket Wizard, first appeared in the late 1980s. I know I’ve cursed line-of-sight optical triggers when objects were in the way or other lights interfered with them.

Why so long, Nikon?

This obviously leads on to the fourth point that there are now many third-party manufacturers competing directly with the OEMs and, more importantly, their products are increasingly refined. In the same way that we see competing manufacturers for lenses in both top tier (such as Sigma and Tamron) and budget (such as Viltrox or Samyang) sectors, so the same has happened with lighting. There is Nissin and Profoto, who are joined by the likes of Yongnuo and Viltrox.

This naturally leads on to the last point and the elephant in the room. Price. The price tag for the SB-5000 is $600, along with $330 for the SB-700, and $250 for the SB-500. Let’s compare that to the Yongnuo YN685: iTTL, high speed sync, 20-200mm zoom, radio RC, and a 60 guide number. And the price? $112.

It’s not just Yongnuo; Godox offer the TT685N (AKA the Flashpoint Zoom TTL R2) with similar specifications for $99.

The Yongnuo YN685 (left) and Godox TT685N (right).

It, therefore, seems that the market for lighting products is likely to be contracting in the same way that the camera market is, but unlike cameras, there is significant competition from low-value vendors and not much to differentiate premium products. In short, Nikon can’t justify the price and may well be shifting limited inventory.

We haven’t seen any intimation that Canon is about to jettison its lighting products and this perhaps reflects the relative fortunes of each company. In fact, as part of Nikon’s recovery plan, it has been actively divesting itself of production capacity and superfluous products such as the 1 System. Its lighting range would potentially appear to be the latest casualty as it focuses its Imaging Division on camera bodies and lenses for the Z-System.

Moving forward, Nikon’s sole focus has been to make Imaging at least profit neutral, and anything that deflects its resources from advancing the Z-System would appear to be in the firing line.

Image credits: Header pennies photo licensed from Depositphotos

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K|Lens Unveils World’s First Light Field Lens That Works on Any Camera

A German-based startup named K|Lens is set to launch an ambitious new camera lens that the company claims is the first to bring 3D light field depth mapping to any full-frame camera.

K|Lens has been in contact with PetaPixel regarding its in-development lens system for several months. Since initial outreach, the physical design of the lens has changed a bit (the photos of the finished lens are notably different than the 3D models shown in example videos) but the underlying technology remains the same. In short, K|Lens has created what it claims to be the world’s first light field imaging lens that works for both still images and video and on full-frame cameras.

Light field technology was originally popularized by the now-defunct Lytro, but K|Lens pitches its optic as capable of delivering on those promises in a usable way instead of just what was essentially a gimmick.

The lens itself is quite large because it uses a system of mirrors to project nine slightly different perspectives of a scene onto the camera sensor simultaneously. The company says it is like looking at a scene with nine cameras positioned at slightly different angles all at the same time. The system works like a kaleidoscope, which is where the “K” in K|Lens comes from.

The company claims that each image or video shot with the K|Lens One provides additional data beyond any other optic in the world, specifically in what K|Lens describes as rich light field data in the form of depth maps, point clouds, and nine separate viewpoints for each photo or video captured.

For example, below is a photo taken with the K|Lens One:

Which is captured by the camera as below (click to view full resolution):

From that data, the below depth information was recorded:

Below is another photo, the nine images captured by the K|Lens, and depth information from the center of the frame:

K|Lens provided the video below that illustrates the process:

https://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2021/11/K-Lens_Data_3D.mp4

The actual capture of the images is important, but K|Lens relies on software to make use of those images. The company says that the possibilities with that data are numerous: depth-based editing, focus pulls, re-focusing, extended depth of field, and simplified segmentation are all noted as possibilities.

“K|Lens One photos and videos are also a perfect match for all 3D displays, be it stereo, holographic, or light field,” the company says. “In addition, light-field content can be integrated into web applications to provide for a vivid and living user experience. On top of that, users always have access to multiple perspectives of their scenes to create with.”

The lens will ship with software, but the company hasn’t specifically said what lens mounts it plans to make available; example photos show the lens attached to DSLRs. The K|Lens will launch on Kickstarter on November 29 and will be available to back for $2,049, which is a significant discount off what the company plans to eventually sell the lens for ($4,099) when it becomes commercially available. A dedicated five-inch monitor with native software installed that will aid in image capture will also be available. K|Lens says it will be able to deliver finished lenses by the summer of 2022.

Additional example images and in-use scenarios can be found on the K|Lens website.

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Deal Alert: Save Up to 30% Off Peak Design Bags and Camera Gear

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Your camera, your lenses, your drone—if they’re not by your side and at the ready, they’re multi-thousand-dollar paperweights.

Peak Design has spent the last decade engineering brilliant, award-winning, sustainably-built accessories to help you better transport, protect, and access your creative gear so that you can do more with your camera. And right now, they’re all on sale for an unprecedented discount: up to 30% off.

The deal runs from Nov. 22nd through Cyber Monday (Nov. 29th) on peakdesign.com and participating retailers worldwide. Nearly everything Peak makes: camera bags and organizers, tripods, camera straps, and clips—snag almost everything for up to 30% off.

Full disclosure: This sponsored article was brought to you by Peak Design.

Travel Backpack 45L (30% off $299.95)

Traveling with a full pro kit? Or just a mirrorless body and spare lens? Or with no camera gear at all? The Peak Design Travel Backpack 45L is a game-changer for all kinds of trips, thanks to its numerous access points and compatibility with Peak’s entire line of Camera Cubes and Packing Tools. Winner of multiple design awards, this versatile travel pack is carry-on compatible, yet expands to fit more (or even compresses for use as a day bag). Fair Trade certified and 100% carbon neutral. Currently 30% off—massive savings on a killer piece of gear.

Travel Duffelpack 65L (30% off $219.95 for Sage, 10% for Black)

Get the comfort and carry-ability of a backpack, with the monster gear-hauling capacity of a duffel bag. The Travel Duffelpack 65L has a unique tuck-away shoulder and hip strap system that lets you check this bag on an airplane or in your trunk, and comfortably carry it for a long period of time when you get to your destination. Available in 2 colors…the Sage green version is a whopping 30% off right now. Fair Trade Certified and 100% carbon neutral.

Everyday Backpack Zip 15L (30% off $189.95 for 15L, 10% off 20L)

This rugged, weatherproof daypack has loads of thoughtful features for camera carry, organization, and access, and they’ve all been tucked into an ultra-clean, modern aesthetic. Perfect for discreet travel and everyday commuting. A single weatherproof 270-degree gives top and dual side access, so you can grab your camera without taking the pack off. Inside, patented FlexFold dividers provide instantly customizable organization. 100% recycled nylon canvas shell with a burly 900D bottom liner. Currently on sale for 30% off.

Tech Pouch (10% off $59.95)

The Peak Design Tech Pouch is next-level doo-dad management. Cables, dongles, SD cards, power banks—we’ve all got piles of them, yet all too often we’re digging through drawers and backpacks to find them. Thanks to an origami-inspired 21-pocket design, Tech Pouch holds a ton of stuff, yet keeps it all neatly organized and visible so you can quickly grab what you need. Fair Trade Certified, 100% carbon neutral, and a 100% recycled weatherproof shell available in 4 gorgeous colors. On sale for 10% off.

Capture Camera Clip (15% off $69.95)

This precision-machined aluminum clip has become an iconic piece of photo gear for active photographers, and right now you can get it for 15% off. Capture lets you carry your camera rigidly on any backpack strap or belt, keeping it secure yet accessible with the press of a button. There are a million situations where neck straps don’t cut it—hiking, biking, playing with the kids, exploring a new city—Capture’s 200lb load capacity makes it safe for any camera/lens setup during any activity.

SlideLite Camera Strap (15% off $49.95)

The magic behind Peak Design straps lies in their Anchor Link quick-connection system, which allows them to be instantly attached, removed, and reconfigured to work optimally with whatever camera body/lens setup you’re using. SlideLite can be work as a neck strap, shoulder strap, or cross-body sling strap. Premium seatbelt-style nylon webbing glides over clothing, yet also has a grippy side that prevents slipping in shoulder mode. Dual quick-adjusters provide instant access and easy reconfiguration. On sale for 15% off.

Travel Tripod ($60 off $599.95 for Carbon Fiber, $35 off $349.95 for Aluminum)

It’s the most compact, portable pro-level tripod in the world, and you can get it right now for up to $60 off (for the Carbon Fiber model…Aluminum model is $35 off). For years, traditional tripods have suffered from needless bulk and wasted space—and as a result your tripod often gets left behind when you’re on the move. Peak Design spent 4 redesigning the tripod from the ground up, creating a travel tripod that packs down to the diameter of a water bottle—without compromising height, stability, or features.

Mobile by Peak Design ($29.95 – $99.95)

Whether you’re a seasoned pro photographer or a beginner, the camera you carry and use the most is probably your smartphone. Peak Design’s newest product line is an ecosystem of meticulously-designed mobile mounts and accessories…launched on Kickstarter in late 2020, they’ve just now become available for purchase by the general public. And Peak Design’s ecosystem is already vast: cases, chargers, tripods, car mounts, bike and motorcycle mounts, wallets, and more. Unlock the full creative potential of your smartphone with Mobile, by Peak Design.

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[olivya-r]

Dear Lens Makers: Please Make Slower, Longer, Lighter Macro Lenses

Dear lens manufacturers,

I’m writing this letter to remind you of something you well know. The age of mirrorless cameras is upon us. And with this comes the benefit that we can compose, focus, and shoot at f/8, f/11, and f/16.

In the prior age, that of the SLR, we needed fat lenses to gather light for our optical viewfinders. And that need was very well met. We have thousands of fat lenses.

Now, in this present age, many of us want thin, lightweight lenses. Our arms and our wallets are tired of the weight and cost of fat glass that we don’t need.

Photo by Alan Adler.

With a max aperture of f/8, the lens becomes much lighter for two reasons. First of all, the weight of each glass element diminishes as the inverse of diameter cubed. Second, fewer elements are needed to achieve excellent correction at f/8. And with the reduction of the number of elements comes both the joys of light weight and the beauty of higher contrast.

Photo by Alan Adler.

A smaller maximum aperture will enable something we photographers have long yearned for. That is long macro lenses. And we macro photographers rarely use apertures wider than f/11 because we need depth of field. I have five macro lenses that open to f/2.8. It’s a waste because we don’t shoot at f/2.8, nor f/4, nor f/5.6. Reading the photography forums reveals a steady stream of searches for long, lightweight macro lenses. I can assure you, dear manufactures, that you’ll sell a hundred 200mm f/8 macro lenses for every f/1.0 lens that you make.

Photo by Alan Adler.

So, manufacturers, please give this some thought. Thin lenses will fatten your bottom line and make a lot of photographers love you.

Sincerely yours,

Alan

About the author: Alan Adler lives in Los Altos, California. He has been an avid photographer for 60 years. He is also a well-known inventor with about 40 patents. His best-known inventions are the Aerobie flying ring and the AeroPress coffee maker.

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Western Digital to End Support for Prior Generations of My Cloud OS

Western Digital (WD) has announced that following a series of vulnerabilities and security risks earlier this year, the company will drop support for any device not on its most recent operating system, only allowing them to receive local access.

In early June, Western Digital My Book Live devices were hit by a widespread attack that targeted a vulnerability in the software and allowed those with malicious intent to remotely access and wipe the data of the connected devices. The vulnerability was later discovered to be a “zero-day exploit,” which means it was a problem that existed in the devices from the moment they were sold.

A week later, a report found that Western Digital products running My Cloud OS 3 also had a zero-day vulnerability that the company said it would not address, and only would be fixed by upgrading to OS 5.

In a new a note to customers of affected devices, Western Digital says that as it has evaluated its hardware and as security standards evolve, it has determined that it is necessary for it to end support for prior generations of My Cloud OS entirely, which includes My Cloud OS 3 and My Cloud OS 2. As a note, there is no My Cloud OS 4.

Starting on January 15, 2022, the company says that devices that are compatible with OS 5 will no longer support prior generations of My Cloud OS, including My Cloud OS 3. WD says that anyone who wants to retain remote access to My Cloud drives will need to upgrade those devices to My Cloud OS 5 “now.”

For those who have legacy, My Cloud OS 3 devices that cannot be upgraded to OS 5, WD has said that they will simply be unable to access them remotely. This will take effect on April 15, 2022.

“There are critical security updates that are only available for My Cloud OS 5-compatible devices. If your device isn’t compatible with My Cloud OS 5, you’ll only be able to access it locally,” the company says. “After April 15, 2022, your device will no longer receive remote access, security updates, or technical support. To help protect your content, we recommend that you back up your device, disconnect it from the internet, and protect it with a strong, unique password.”

WD has set up a web page that shows which My Cloud devices are compatible with the My Cloud OS 5 update.

The company seems to understand that this move is bound to upset some customers, and “to make it easier” on them, is sending a 20% discount coupon to customers who own devices that are not compatible with an upgrade.

“We’ll send the coupon through email in January 2022,” the company writes. “You won’t need to return your current device, and the code will be good for 90 days.”

WD’s product lifecycle support policy states that devices will be covered for up to eight years after they have been released, and nine years after a product has been made available, the company reserves the right to discontinue all updates including critical software and security updates. WD may also discontinue cloud service support for a product in this phase. If a product feature depends on cloud services to function, that functionality will end.

If a product is still under warranty, WD says that it will still honor all valid claims. A full list of affected devices and upgrade options that are available is provided on WD’s website.

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Researchers Bundle 24 400mm Lenses into Massive Telescope Array

An international team of researchers has bundled groups of 24 Canon EF 400mm f/2.8 lenses together into what they call the Dragonfly Telephoto Array in order to capture photos of distant stars.

The Dragonfly Telephoto Array is a telescope that is equipped with multiple Canon 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM lenses. The telescope array was designed in 2013 by the team, also named Project Dragonfly, which is an international research team from Yale University and the University of Toronto. The Dragonfly Telephoto Array is capable of capturing images of galaxies that are so faint and large that they had escaped detection by even the largest conventional telescopes. Its mission is to study the low surface brightness universe to elucidate the nature of dark matter and to utilize the concept of distributed telescopes.

Image by Pieter van Dokkum, Yale University

Dragonfly Telephoto Array installed in New Mexico | Image by Pieter van Dokkum, Yale University

“The Dragonfly Telephoto Array is the pre-eminent survey telescope for finding faint, diffuse objects in the night sky,” the reseachers explain. “It has enabled us to discover ultra-diffuse galaxies and other low-surface brightness phenomena—rendering images that deepen our understanding of how galaxies are formed and providing key insights into the nature of dark matter.”

Assembling the Dragonfly Telephoto Array – the first three lenses

In support of this research, Canon provided technical assistance by supplying 40 Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM lenses in 2015, which expanded the array to 48 lenses, with 24 lenses bundled together on two separate mounts. Since then, the research team has produced significant results in extragalactic astronomy, including discovering the ultra-diffuse galaxy Dragonfly 44 in 2016 and the identification of a galaxy that lacks dark matter, NGC 1052-DF2, in 2018.

The Dragonfly Telephoto Array before 2015

Canon will be expanding its support of the project and will be providing technical assistance to the team as well as an additional 120 EF 400mm f/2.8 IS II USM lenses, adding to the original batch it provided six years ago.

Image by Pieter van Dokkum, Yale University

Photo taken with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array. The moon is shown for scale. | Image by Pieter van Dokkum, Yale University

“With the addition of 120 of these lenses, in a newly developed configuration allowing extremely narrow filters to be used, Dragonfly will be the most powerful wide-field spectroscopic line mapping machine in existence,” the researchers say.

“A major goal of the next iteration of the Dragonfly array is to detect and study the faint gas thought to exist around and between galaxies. By opening this new window on the cosmos, Dragonfly will tackle some of the most critical questions in astrophysics today.”

Rendering of the full array of 168 lenses that will be constructed

With a total of 168 lenses, the telescope array has a light-gathering capability equivalent to that of a refracting telescope of 1.8 meters in diameter, with a focal length of only 40 centimeters. Canon and Project Dragonfly expect the additional capability “to open new windows into the universe.”

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Ricoh GR IIIx Review: A Worthwhile Compact Shooter

Ricoh brought the GR IIIx into its lineup to largely address focal length, but to also cement the case that this compact camera shoots bolder than its size would otherwise indicate.

The GR IIIx is a direct follow-up from the GR III, as the two share the same body and layout. Putting in a 40mm equivalent lens is Ricoh’s way of throwing a bone to anyone lamenting how wide the previous camera shot with its 18.3mm lens (28mm equivalent). If you were looking to tighten up your shots with much of the same guts inside, this may be the camera you want in your pocket.

Design and Build Quality

You will find plenty that’s familiar if you’ve used one of Ricoh’s previous GR cameras before. For me, this was a first, so going in with rookie eyes, I had to learn the layout and menu system from scratch. At 257 grams, it’s not a super lightweight camera, even if its dimensions make it easy enough to slip into a pocket. Personally, I could appreciate the heft for the simple fact the magnesium alloy frame made me feel like I was holding a qualified shooter.

On the back, the three-inch TFT LCD is the only way to frame a shot in lieu of any electronic viewfinder (EVF). Standard menu, display, playback, function, and four-way directional buttons are situated there, along with a lever to control shutter speed. At the top are the power button, shutter, shooting mode dial, and another towards the front that adjusts aperture. To the right is the USB-C charging port, and to the left is a dedicated button for video and WiFi connections.

There is a hot shoe at the top, a mount at the bottom, and a slip near the mode dial for the included lanyard to keep this thing wrapped around your wrist. The GR IIIx doesn’t come with a case out of the box, though it may be a good idea to get one for safekeeping when you’re not using it. Even more so in inclement weather, as Ricoh did not take steps to weatherproof the camera, possibly because the compact design must allow the heat it generates to escape from somewhere.

These trappings all but mirror the previous GR III, including under the hood with the same 24-megapixel APS-C sensor. The biggest change is in the lens, where Ricoh gave people the ability to get closer to subjects through the 40mm equivalent f/2.8 fixed lens. Street photographers will probably prefer this focal length for a number of reasons, but it’s applicable to any type of shooter looking for a happy medium when 28mm is too wide and 50mm is too tight.

The ring cap around the lens lets you attach Ricoh’s GA-2 adapter to accommodate the company’s GT-2 Tele conversion lens to extend focal length to a 75mm equivalent. The company’s GV-3 also serves as an EVF, should you want that. I didn’t get to test those accessories, so don’t know how well they perform.

Menu and Features

Ricoh didn’t change the menu system, leaving familiar settings where they should be. For newbies to the GR series, the layout isn’t too difficult to grasp, though it’s worth taking time to not only know where everything is, as well as what it’s trying to do.

Case in point, the shutter speed lever doubles as a button, and when you press it, you can quickly select the kind of filtering you want for your images, including shortcuts to focus, metering, file format, and screen brightness. You can find drive modes in the directional button, along with quick access to ISO, white balance, and Macro.

Macro photo

Ricoh also offers two crop factors of 50mm and 71mm within the menu’s image capture settings. Face and eye detection are on by default, and the ND Filter is set to auto. You have an ISO range of 100 to 102,400 and 1/4000 max shutter, plus hybrid autofocus and sensor-shift IBIS to hold steady. Snap Focus lets you set a focus distance for the camera that starts from one meter to infinity.

If you were thinking about shooting video with the GR IIIx, bear in mind it’s limited to 1080p in 24, 30, or 60 frames per second, so no 4K here. Ricoh isn’t all that shy to position it as a still photo camera anyway, but the video versatility isn’t really there if you’re looking to shoot at higher resolutions.

Image Quality

Some elements come into play before even taking a shot, like the very fast 0.8-second startup time and Snap Focus. This isn’t a rapid-fire shooter, given it maxes out at 4 frames per second in burst, nor can you articulate it easily because the screen is fixed into the body. And because the screen is not especially bright by default, you may have to brighten it in certain conditions to see what you’re doing, which ultimately affects battery life.

Straight out of Camera, unprocessed JPEG

Straight out of Camera, unprocessed JPEG

Take those nuances in stride and you can produce outstanding images with the GR IIIx. I shot in RAW + JPEG to assess how both processed DNG files and unprocessed JPEGs would come out from this portable shooter. It has surprisingly good ISO flexibility with shots up to 6400 being more than usable, and the wider aperture is more than capable of producing creamy bokeh. Night and low-light shots were even better than I expected, especially after previewing them on the camera’s own display.

Focusing was a bit of a mixed bag for me at the outset, though I did get the hang of it after shooting for a while. It’s easy enough to touch the screen to lock onto a subject, but it also depends on where you’ve set Snap Focus to automatically hone in on a subject when pressing the shutter. Ricoh puts it at 2.5 meters to start, with options to go from 1 to 2.5 meters in 0.5-meter increments, along with 5 meters as a longer selection. Instead of those, you could also set it to infinity if you feel you don’t need it. Either way, the GR IIIx locks on quickly, provided it can see the subject well enough, an issue I sometimes came upon in night conditions.

Straight out of Camera, unprocessed JPEG

The best part about how it snaps images is the consistency. I saw no barrel distortion or chromatic aberration in the shots I captured. Not only that, but edges were clean and devoid of nasty vignetting creeping in to force cropping in post. Images looked clean and crisp with excellent detail in a variety of circumstances and scenarios.

And this isn’t just for processed DNG shots, but also for JPEGs, provided they were captured in ideal conditions with the right settings. The image sensor has a tendency to brighten highlights a little too much, even if you take full command of settings in Manual mode. That might be at least one reason why there’s a built-in editor within the camera when you press the video button on the side. It’s neat and balanced enough to work on photos that you may want to transfer to a phone or tablet to share on social media. Personally, I preferred to transfer RAW images to my phone to work on them in Lightroom.

At least you can decide what works best for you, especially if one workflow works better than another at a particular moment and time. The key is to not over or underexpose images too much or else it will be hard to pull detail out of them later.

Thing is, the GR III’s 28mm focal length might make that camera more tourist-friendly because of how much more it captures per frame. I did struggle at times to shoot architecture or vistas because of the tighter 40mm length, so I chose to just fire away in pieces to align and blend them later in Photoshop or a similar program (apologies, as there are no examples of those in this review). For street scenes or other unique perspectives, I would much rather reach for this camera than a smartphone to snap it because the quality is almost certainly going to be much better.

Battery Life

Ricoh claims the GR IIIx can capture up to 200 shots per charge, but that’s simply not true in real-world conditions; at least for me, it wasn’t. At default screen brightness and with some long exposure photos in the mix, I managed 115 shots before the battery hit a critically low charge. My best outing was 152 shots. Good thing it turns on and off so quickly because it was really the only option I had to manage the terrible battery life this camera, unfortunately, comes with.

If you plan to use the GR IIIx a lot, you will need to take that into account, either by getting a second battery, keeping a portable battery pack handy, or trying your best with screen brightness at minimal levels. None of those are ideal solutions, but photographers aren’t strangers to making concessions on camera equipment and improvising as needed.

A Worthwhile Compact Shooter

The Ricoh GR IIIx isn’t cheap at $1,000, yet it justifies the price with its output. This wouldn’t be a primary shooter for me, personally, but as a backup or supporting camera, I would gladly keep it nearby in my bag or pocket. Its ability to shoot well in varying conditions, as well as its deep customization, makes it compelling on a number of levels.

Other photographers who shoot the kind of stills that would work perfectly with this camera could easily reach for it first. Compact enough to take anywhere, and fast enough to snap a quick shot, it’s a good option for street and lifestyle photographers that want a big step up from smartphones and don’t need to go with a DSLR or mirrorless shooter.

Are there Alternatives?

The immediate fixed-focus alternative would have to be the GR III, especially if you prefer a wider field of view. It receives the same firmware updates the GR IIIx does, so some features are also interchangeable between them. The Fujifilm X100V is another compact shooter with retro styling that also shoots video in 4K at 30fps. Ricoh does hold an edge in that its camera is smaller and easier to pocket.

If you’re willing to spend more, the Leica D-Lux 7 might fit the bill, though you do take a resolution hit with the Four Thirds sensor in spite of its better video specs; not to mention it came to market in 2018.

Should You Buy it?

Yes, if you’re a photographer looking for a solid compact shooter with a prime lens. Those who already own a GR III have more of a decision to make since the only real difference is the focal length.

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