Today, Adobe is announcing the Lightroom 5 Beta–which is obviously hinting at a newer version of the highly loved program. The new version incorporates a bunch of changes but the biggest ones are the addition of a spot heal/clone brush (no longer just a tool), radial gradients, smart previews that will sync with an external hard drive when hooked up later, a new tool called upright which dramatically fixes perspectives, and much more.
We’ve been testing the program for a couple of days now, and here are our first impressions.
[click to continue…]
Nikon recently announced their D7100 DSLR–and they have also clearly stated that this camera is now the flagship APS-C DSLR in their lineup. It’s predecessor, the D7000 and in some ways the D300s, were met very well by photographers of all likes. They were extremely powerful cameras–especially the former as no one could keep it on their shelves for a while. But the D7100 enjoys some major upgrades such as an APS-C sized sensor with 24.1MP and weather sealing.
I’ve been playing with this camera for less an than hour as it just got in the door. But the good news is that I took it out into NYC’s snow already and have JPG samples.
Editor’s Note: more image samples here plus images shot during the Golden Hour.
[click to continue…]
When Sony’s new Zeiss branded 50mm f1.4 lens was announced, we were excited. The Sony Zeiss glass is often amongst some of the best with micro-contrast built in, sharpness, and most of all–autofocusing built in. Then the company announced the crazy price. We were given a chance to fondle the lens, but not put the pre-production sample that we saw a camera to test the image quality yet. From what we saw so far, we’re not sure that it may be worth the price but it does surely show lots of promise.
[click to continue…]
This here’s my second piece of glass from creative company Lensbaby, the same group of folks responsible for the Muse (reviewed by yours truly). The Scout is Lensbaby’s only fixed lens. That is to say it walks with other lenses that use a standard issue focusing ring as opposed to a compress-to-focus accordion-style body. I received the lens a week ago, and I’ve had some to take it out for a test run on the streets of New York City. Here are my first impressions.
[click to continue…]
The Nikon J series of cameras, believe it or not, sell very well here in the US. They’re small, portable, simple to use, and they’re stylish. Our News Editor Peter Walkowiak owns one, and playing with the new J3 and S1 was an experience that was really quite intriguing. This is a fast refresh to the J series with some minor updates; and the new S1 is positioned as a brand new entry level J series camera.
At CES 2013, we were able to play with the new cameras at Nikon’s booth. From what we’ve seen so far, we’re actually extremely impressed.
[click to continue…]
Sigma’s DP3 was just announced at CES 2013. The new camera once again Sigma’s Foveon sensor technology and finds a way to differentiate itself from the other DP camera models. What’s so different about this camera is the fact that there is a 50mm f2.8 lens permanently attached to it: rendering the field of view to 75mm.
In my original news post, I bashed this a bit. And then, I tried it.
[click to continue…]
