Digital Photography Review Newsletter: Wednesday, 11 June 2014

	Digital Photography Review Newsletter Wednesday, 11 June 2014 The most popular weekly photography newsletter, with over 300,000 subscribers
Welcome to the 513th Digital Photography Review newsletter. I'm writing to you after spending a very pleasant weekend shooting with the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 III, and you can see the fruits of that excursion in our updated gallery of real-world samples which was posted this morning (links below). The RX100 III has been something of a fixture on our homepage of late, which represents not only our enthusiasm for the camera, but also yours. Thanks (as always) for all the comments. Speaking of comments, and indeed enthusiasm, we also launched two new forums recently - one for underwater photography, and one for DIY projects. Check them out if you haven't already. Here are a few highlights from the past few days: Shooting experience and more samples added to Sony RX100 III preview As soon as it arrived we wasted no time getting out with the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 III, and in the past few days we've also added a lot to our first-impressions review, including a movie page, shooting experience and studio comparison images. This weekend presented an opportunity to update our gallery of real-world sample images too, bringing our gallery to 87 images, including a handful of raw conversions. Click the links below to see (and read) more! Click here to view our updated gallery of samples from the Sony RX100 III Click here to read about our experiences shooting with the RX100 III Nikon 1 V3 real-world samples Nikon's 1 V3 is the newest model in the company's enthusiast mirrorless interchangeable lens camera system. The V3 is built around an 18.4 MP CX-format sensor, and uses a hybrid contrast (171 points) and phase detect (105 points) AF system. The V3 boasts a continuous shooting speed that outpaces DSLRs at 20 fps with full autofocus. The camera is also capable of 1080/60p Full HD video. View our gallery of real-world samples on the Nikon 1 V3 1939: England in Color (Part 3) Their relative rarity makes the discovery of color images from the distant past perennially fascinating. In the final part (for now at least) of a three-part article, I'll be showing you a selection of images taken from a collection of 75 year-old color slides found in my grandmother's attic. Some better preserved than others, the photographs provide a unique glimpse into England in August 1939, on the eve of WWII. Click the link below to see the photos and read more of the story... Click here to read part 3 of our '1939: England in Color' series Adorama Flashpoint Budget Studio Monolight Review Offered in 160W ($70) or 300W ($100) power intensities, Adorama's Budget Studio Monolights are geared toward studio photographers who are just starting out and are constrained by modest budgets. At a fraction of the price of professional heads, can the Flashpoint Budget Studio lights do the job? Find out in our review Click here to read our review of the Adorama Flashpoint budget studio monolights What's coming up? As well as playing in the sunshine with cameras we're also working hard on finishing up several reviews, including the RX100 III, Nikon V3 and our 2014 waterproof roundup. As a taste of what to expect in the roundup, watch the site for some sample galleries in a few hours. The full article should follow early next week. A reminder that we're hiring right now so if you think you've got what it takes to join our Seattle-based team, please do get in touch. We're also looking for freelance news and features writers to help out our in-house editors - click here for more information! See you next week! Barney WTD #1463 Check out What The Duck in our Link Directory GearShop update - a message from Laura This week's best deals: Celebrate the upcoming Independence Day by saving $250 on a Canon Rebel T5i combo that covers the distance - from a sky full of fireworks to a close-up of your favorite little rebel. Choose your T5i kit, with either the 18-55mm or 18-135mm kit zooms, then select one of Canon's EF-S 55-250mm lenses to get the rebate. If you want to add a splash of color to your outdoor fun, the Canon Powershot D20 is not only shockproof, but also waterproof up to 33 feet. It's currently selling for only $219, which is $80 less than its MSRP following the release of the newer D30. Snap it up while you can! Until next week - Laura and the GearShop Team
News updates Ricoh releases GR firmware 4.0 Published on Wednesday, June 4, 2014 7:01:00 AM GMT A new firmware updated for the Ricoh GR adds a 'High Speed' AF mode and claims to improve operational performance for aperture preview. Other additions include a 'Shift Crop' effect mode designed to reduce perspective distortion by removing a portion of vertically-oriented images, and improved stability when connecting via USB to a Mac. Read more Read full story → New camera app features in Apple's iOS 8 Published on Wednesday, June 4, 2014 8:00:00 AM GMT We wrote Monday about some of the imaging related changes that Apple announced with the latest version of its mobile operating system, iOS 8, at its annual developers event WWDC. Now that users have had a day or so to play with the beta version of iOS 8, a few more photo features have been discovered that were not mentioned in the keynote. Here's a quick summary. Read more Read full story → Major update to Instagram brings control over filter adjustments Published on Wednesday, June 4, 2014 4:52:00 PM GMT Instagram is one of the most popular image filter and sharing apps for mobile devices but its feature set has remained almost unchanged since it was introduced, with a relatively small number of effects, and little control over them. The latest version 6 update to the Android and iOS versions of Instagram now offers control over filter strength and a range of new editing options, including brightness, contrast, warmth, saturation, highlights, shadows and vignette. Click through to read more at connect.dpreview.com Read full story → A GoPro Hero's journey into a dishwasher Published on Thursday, June 5, 2014 10:00:00 AM GMT The inside of a dishwasher isn't the most likely place you'd think of putting a rugged action camera, but that's exactly what one GoPro Hero 3 owner has done. The camera, along with a couple of light sources and an assortment of dishes, made the trip through a full wash cycle. The resulting video is surprisingly entertaining. See video Read full story → Amazon launch planned for June 18, rumors point to 3D eye-tracking phone Published on Thursday, June 5, 2014 3:33:43 PM GMT Amazon has scheduled a product launch for later this month at its headquarters in Seattle, WA. We are not being told what type of device we should expect but Amazon has started to tease the new model with a picture of one of its corners and a video showing users looking down at a device and reacting with statements like "It moved with me". The teaser seems to support rumors from late last year that Amazon could be planning a smartphone with a 3D eye-tracking user interface using multiple cameras. Click through for more information at connect.dpreview.com. Read full story → Adorama Flashpoint Budget Studio Monolight Review Published on Thursday, June 5, 2014 4:26:03 PM GMT Offered in 160W ($70) or 300W ($100) power intensities, Adorama's Budget Studio Monolights are geared toward studio photographers who are just starting out and are constrained by modest budgets. At a fraction of the price of professional heads, can the Flashpoint Budget Studio lights do the job? Find out in our review Read full story → New forums! DIY Photo Projects and Underwater Photography Published on Thursday, June 5, 2014 4:58:00 PM GMT We're pleased to announce the creation of two new forums. 'DIY and Photo Experiments' is the place to show off your photography-related DIY projects, discuss homemade solutions to hardware problems and share photo experiments with other dpreview users. If it's safe, legal, and you figured it out yourself, this is the place to show it off. Meanwhile, 'Underwater Photography' is the place to share and discuss - yes, you guessed it - all things related to taking pictures underwater. Click though for more information Read full story → Olympus patent describes Google-Glass-like device Published on Friday, June 6, 2014 12:58:00 AM GMT It seems that Olympus might be planning to jump on the wearable camera bandwagon with a device that looks similar to Google's 'Glass'. A newly published Oly patent (JP2013/075623) describes a wearable device that comes with either one or two transparent screens in front of the wearer's eye. Click through for more information on connect.dpreview.com. Read full story → Rare photos of Nagasaki destruction auctioned Published on Friday, June 6, 2014 5:00:00 AM GMT A collection of images, including 24 photographs taken the day after the bombing of Nagasaki, were up for auction this week at Bonhams. According to the auction house, these are the only thorough record from the scene of the August 9, 1945 destruction. Twelve of these photos are though to be prints from original negatives belonging to the photographer, Yosuke Yamahata. The album was expected to fetch between $25,000 and $35,000 at auction. Read more Read full story → Canon launches Irista cloud storage service with 10GB free Published on Friday, June 6, 2014 6:00:00 AM GMT Canon has jumped into the crowded online image storage space with the launch of its new Irista image hosting and sharing site. The result of a several-year-long beta testing program, the new Irista website competes with online storage tools like those from Dropbox, Google, Microsoft and Apple. Naturally, Irista caters to photographers with the ability to upload any standard photo file type including Raw. Though anyone can sign up for a free account, paid accounts are only available to residents of certain European countries. Read more Read full story → Royal Air Force commemorates 70 years since D-Day with recreated photos Published on Friday, June 6, 2014 7:01:00 AM GMT Seventy years after the D-Day landings in Normandy, the Royal Air Force remembers June 6, 1944 by recreating some historic images from the day - though not the kind you might expect. As naval forces made landfall on D-Day, a II (AC) Squadron Mustang took to the sky above, bringing back some of the first images of the landings. The reconnaissance mission was recently mimicked by two Tornado GR4s carrying more sophisticated imaging equipment. Compare the photos and fly along with the modern jets in a behind-the-scenes video. See more Read full story → Reminder: DPReview is hiring! Writer + Web Developer Published on Friday, June 6, 2014 6:03:12 PM GMT We're looking for an editorial writer and a web developer to join our growing team based in Seattle, WA. Responsibilities for the editorial role include testing and producing reviews of digital system cameras, compact cameras and other photographic equipment. Successful applicants for the web developer role will have strong visual design skills to help us craft the look, feel and functionality of dpreview.com. Click though for more information Read full story → What The Duck #1463 Published on Friday, June 6, 2014 9:56:47 PM GMT We've come to the end of another week here at dpreview, and as our thoughts drift to weekend shooting opportunities, it's time to take things a little less seriously. Aaron Johnson's comic strip ‘What the Duck’ is just the thing, taking a gently satirical look through the lens of a photographically inclined waterfowl. You can find it published here (and in our newsletter) every week; we hope you enjoy it, and your weekend. Read full story → In Photos: Iceland captured in infrared Published on Saturday, June 7, 2014 12:00:00 PM GMT Iceland, it seems, is extremely photogenic. Photographers traveling the country routinely emerge with stunning photos of mountains and waterfalls. Visiting for the first time, Andy Lee saw an opportunity to bring out even more of the drama in the country's already dramatic landscapes. He used a DSLR converted for infrared photography, capturing the scenery in deep blues and blacks. See gallery Read full story → 1939: England in Color (part 3) Published on Sunday, June 8, 2014 8:00:00 AM GMT Their relative rarity makes the discovery of color images from the distant past perennially fascinating. In the final part (for now at least) of a three-part article, Barnaby Britton shows us a selection of images taken from a collection of 75 year-old color slides found in his grandmother's attic. Some better preserved than others, the photographs provide a unique glimpse into England in August 1939, on the eve of WWII. See photos and read more of the story... Read full story → Nikon 1 V3: Real-world Sample Images Published on Monday, June 9, 2014 7:13:00 AM GMT Nikon's 1 V3 is the newest model in the company's enthusiast mirrorless interchangeable lens camera system. The V3 is built around an 18.4 MP CX-format sensor, and uses a hybrid contrast (171 points) and phase detect (105 points) AF system. The V3 boasts a continuous shooting speed that outpaces DSLRs at 20 fps with full autofocus. The camera is also capable of 1080/60p Full HD video. Click through to see how it performs. Read full story → Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 III shooting experience Published on Monday, June 9, 2014 2:45:00 PM GMT Our first impressions review of the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 III just keeps growing. The latest aims to answer one of the most important questions potential owners ask about a camera - 'What's it like to use?' With promising specifications like a 20 megapixel 1"-type sensor, a fast 24-70mm equiv F1.8-2.8 Zeiss-branded lens and a pop-up EVF, the RX100 III looks excellent on paper. Does that hold up in real-world use? Read more Read full story → Updated HTC Gallery app offers adjustable UFocus feature Published on Monday, June 9, 2014 6:44:25 PM GMT One of the most talked about new features of the HTC's latest flagship smartphone, the One M8, is the Duo Camera. Using the primary camera and a second sensor to create a shallow depth-of-field effect, the Duo Cam produced less-than-perfect results in our testing. But thanks to an update to the Gallery app, the effect can now be adjusted. Learn more Read full story → Fake Chuck Westfall reveals identity and announces retirement Published on Monday, June 9, 2014 7:31:00 PM GMT Chuck Westfall is the unassuming and authoritative head media liaison for Canon, USA. Fake Chuck Westfall is an invented anti-hero and the surly voice behind the Fake Chuck Westfall blog, a site that pokes fun at Canon, Nikon and the photo industry in general. After maintaining secrecy for six years the man behind the account has revealed his identity, announcing that he's moving on from the blog. Read full story → Everything you wanted to know covered in helpful Lightroom tutorial Published on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 7:30:00 AM GMT Adobe’s Lightroom 5 is a powerful program, but that power comes at the expense of a learning curve that some find pretty steep. In this excellent video shot at B&H, Photographer Robert Rodriguez, Jr. walks photographers through the functions and features of Lightroom’s Develop module in an hour-long hands-on tutorial as he covers just about every panel and slider in the Develop module. Learn more Read full story → UPDATED: Sony Cybershot DSC-RX100 M3 sample images Published on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 8:11:00 AM GMT As soon as it arrived we wasted no time getting out with the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 III, and in the past few days we've also added a lot to our first-impressions review, including a movie page, shooting experience and studio comparison images. This weekend presented an opportunity to update our gallery of real-world sample images too, bringing our gallery to 87 images, including a handful of raw conversions. See more. Read full story → Nikon Coolpix A firmware 1.11 available Published on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 11:13:13 PM GMT Nikon has issued a firmware update for the Coolpix A. Version 1.11 decreases minimum focus distance (in normal focus mode) and boasts improvements to autofocus acquisition. Other improvements are minor, including better battery performance during interval shooting. Get the update Read full story →
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