At least once a year I try to take a complete break from the Internet, which means no reading other sites, no posting in fora or on my sites, and no answering email for a month. For the most part I'm not even online at all during that month, as I'm out and about doing other things, like testing lenses, scouting locations, writing future articles, thinking about my site design, cleaning my office, fixing something at the house, and more. My iPad is now in "read books and watch Netflix mode," the iPhone is off, the office Mac is also off, and the only thing I'm doing on my MacBook is working o ..read more

"OMDS says it is shifting to become an outdoor company making imaging products. It’s a subtle shift, but also a significant one in terms of positioning the OM System brand in a different… ahem, space to the other camera-makers." --Digitalcameraworld When marketing can't describe why their products are a better choice, they look for truth-adjacent rationalizations to explain.  First off, I don't think any of us were aware that Olympus (and now OMDS) was an "indoor" company. True, they made some products that were used indoors, some that were used outdoors, some that were used in both loca ..read more

"It takes about six months of learning and daily use" for a professional to be able to use any camera in real-world competition conditions. — Canon general manager Go Tokura in Photo Trends interview While amateurs argue about who has the best "all magic autofocus" system constantly, those of us trying to get real work done know the reality: we have to learn how to master our tools.  I'm not going to say it takes a specific amount of time (e.g. six months), but it does take considerable time and effort to understand and maximize our use of any significant change to our tools. The recent ..read more

"Due to the declining number of users, we have decided to terminate the Map view service in NIKON IMAGE SPACE on May 20, 2024 (scheduled).” —Nikon email to NIS users First off, that’s terrible wording. What PR department in the world would use that first clause? And is that users overall, or users of the feature?  But more important is this: did you even know that Nikon has a free cloud-based image storage system? Do you have any idea what the features of that system are and why you might use it?  My guess is no to both questions. When I ask around among Nikon users, about the best ..read more

"Why can't we have a metering system that produces perfectly exposed images?" We do, it's called you. ;~) First, we have to get to the critical word in your question: "perfectly." I'd like you to explain what you mean by that word.  What happens when I ask for such an explanation is one of two things (sometimes a combination of both): (1) the person being questioned starts to awkwardly talk in circles; and/or (2) they want the camera to not blow out highlights and then tonally compensate everything down to black. Good luck with #2, as you and I will certainly disagree on the second half ..read more

As everyone gets more time to think about Nikon’s announced acquisition of RED, it’s been interesting to see how many more questions keep getting asked, as opposed to being answered.  If you think about it, Nikon acquired RED to answer a question: when is Nikon going to get serious about video? Buying RED answers the broad question: Nikon’s now going to have a dedicated video lineup, centered around a well-established top performer.  What I and others are wondering, though, is about the smaller details.  RED is an innovator and very leaky. It meets regularly with and embraces c ..read more

I recently read a Japanese article lamenting the fact that all the good compact cameras are currently unobtainable. In Japan, it seems, the Fujifilm X100, Leica Q3, Ricoh GR,  are either on perpetual back-ordered status, or worse. The Canon G7X and Panasonic LX100II is no longer available. About the only compacts that appear to be readily obtainable in Japan are the older (and largish) Sony RX1R II and pocketable RX100 Mark VII. A quick look at B&H’s inventory says the same problem exists here in the US. There’s clearly demand for the “right” compact camera. There always has been, an ..read more

RED, the video/cinema camera company started by Oakley founder Jim Jannard, has been fully acquired by Nikon. RED and its 220 employees is now a subsidiary of the Japanese company. Both companies issued press releases today announcing the completion of the deal, but with almost no detail. I happened to be with Nikon employees at WPPI just after the deal was announced. I’m not going to divulge any specific information from those conversations, but rather make an observation. Pretty much since the Z9 first was announced, I’ve witnessed a ressurection of energy, enthusiasm, and excitement at Nik ..read more

I generally don’t post much about discounts. Most sales are obvious, and you are probably well aware of the ongoing manufacturer discounts that seem to now be a permanent monthly rotating cycle of products on discount. That said, Nikon and the other companies don’t always make this obvious. For instance, on Nikon’s site under “Deals” you’ll often find “multiple promotions available,” but trying to figure out exactly what they are might take detective work. I learned last week of a discount I hadn’t been aware of at this site’s exclusive advertiser, plus this week B&H is also offering spec ..read more

Bear with me; it’ll take a bit of windup before I get to the point. From time to time I’ve written that 4K video is a low bar. It seems that some don’t know what I mean by that, or what it implies.  The simplest form of 4K video is 3840 × 2160 pixels. That’s 8,294,400 pixels. We passed 8mp with interchangeable lens cameras almost two decades ago. Thus it’s not the number of pixels that’s an issue. Low bar.  So why didn’t we get 4K video in our, say, Nikon D3 back in 2007? That had to do with two things, compression efficiency and how fast those pixels could be moved to and fro ..read more