News / Features & Articles

We've just published the third in a series of articles by Uwe Steinmueller of Digital Outback Photo on the art of HDR photography. The third chapter (of what will eventually become Uwe's next E-book) covers HDR workflow essentials. Future chapters will cover advanced HDR techniques. For now, enjoy this exclusive third part of what we hope will develop into a useful manual for anyone interested in getting more of the dynamic range they see in the scenes they photograph into the images and prints they produce.

We've just published the second in a series of articles by Uwe Steinmueller of Digital Outback Photo on the art of HDR photography. The second chapter (of what will eventually become Uwe's next E-book) covers the challenges faced by HDR photographers. Future chapters will cover capture, workflow and advanced HDR techniques. For now, enjoy this exclusive second part of what we hope will develop into a useful manual for anyone interested in getting more of the dynamic range they see in the scenes they photograph into the images and prints they produce.

Just Posted: It seems like everybody is talking about tablet computers at the moment, and one of the most talked-about - Apple's iPad 2 - launched last week here in the US. We thought this was a good opportunity to take a look at the iPad 2 from the point of view of enthusiast photographers. Apple's App Store contains hundreds of photography-related applications for the iPad - is Apple's latest shiny gadget just a toy, or can it be genuinely useful as a photographic tool? Read our 3-page article to find out...

'We really can change the world' says Masashi 'Tiger' Imamura, President of Personal Imaging & Sound Business Group in an exclusive interview with dpreview.com. The company will try to bring together all its technologies to produce a worthy successor to the A700, he told us in a talk that also touched on the future expansion of the NEX system and the company's position on 'full frame' models.

Dpreview.com is back from Las Vegas and returning to the job of turning our previews into full reviews. This year we brought you two camera previews, a samples gallery, more than 30 news stories, a report from the CES Digital Experience event, eight stand reports, and a roundup of some of the latest developments in camcorders - both conventional and 3D. We also published two brief interviews, and have at least one more on the way.

Pentax US has said it has not ruled out introducing a mirrorless interchangable lens camera. Chris Pound, Product Manager, Digital Imaging Systems said: 'if a product makes sense, and is feasible economically, we'll come out with it'.

In an exclusive meeting with dpreview.com at this year's CES, Adrian Clarke of Fujifilm told us that the company has been 'surprised and delighted' by reaction to the X100 - the innovative, retro-styled high-end compact camera announced at Photokina 2010. Featuring a 12MP CMOS sensor and fixed, 35mm (equivalent) f/2 lens, the X100 also features a hybrid, switchable optical/electronic viewfinder.

Pre-CES 2011: We've just returned from the extra-terrestrial themed pre-show 'Digital Experience' where we've seen a little bit of the future (or, at least, had a chance to get our hands on the products we'll be showing you in the coming days). The two most interesting cameras were undoubtedly the Olympus E-PL2 and Olympus XZ-1, both of which we've already had the opportunity to preview. However, they were far from the only new cameras that we saw tonight...

Greetings from Las Vegas. We're here at CES - the consumer electronics show, held every year in Nevada's fantastic, high-rolling, surreal glimmering city in the desert. This is dpreview's first year at CES (and the first show that we've reported from following our relocation from the UK to the US, late last year) so we're very excited to be here in the original Sin City. Over the next few days we'll be bringing you live updates from the show, interviews with manufacturers, and previews of some of the latest new releases, so stay tuned.

Today we're publishing the first in a series of articles by Uwe Steinmueller of Digital Outback Photo on the art of HDR photography. The first chapter (of what will eventually become Uwe's next E-book) covers the basics of dynamic range and the basics of High Dynamic Range photography. Future chapters will cover capture, workflow and advanced HDR techniques. For now, enjoy this exclusive first part of what we hope will develop into a useful manual for anyone interested in getting more of the dynamic range they see in the scenes they photograph into the images and prints they produce.

We've just added another article to our growing collection of guides. This one is designed as a primer on Video Compression, Codecs and Transcoding and has been produced for us by Uwe Steinmueller of Digital Outback Photo. So if you've ever found yourself confused by M-JPEGs and MPEGs and Long GOPs, check out the link after the click.

Sony's announcement of revised firmware for the NEX mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras was easily missed amongst all of the excitement of Photokina 2010. Version 03 brings extensive revisions, including the ability to set the aperture when recording movies and the enabling of autofocus when using SAM and SSM Alpha-mount lenses via the adapter. But, perhaps most importantly, it addresses some of the major criticisms of the user interface made by reviewers and users alike. We've had a bit of a chance to use the latest firmware so thought we would publish our initial thoughts, ahead of revising the camera review. The review itself is in the process of being updated and will be re-published with updated scoring as soon as firmware 03 becomes publicly available.

One of the few real surprises at Photokina 2010 was Sigma's announcement of its forthcoming SD1 DSLR, and that at its heart would be a new Foveon sensor that would offer 15.4x3MP resolution rather than the existing 4.7x3MP. We spoke to Sigma Chief Operating Officer Kazuto Yamaki, Foveon Vice President for Technology and Operations, Shri Ramaswami and its Vice President for Strategic Marketing, Rudy Guttosch about the work that's gone on.

Photokina 2010: It's now less than 18 hours until the start of the Photokina 2010 exhibition and the dpreview.com team has just arrived. We're preparing for three days of live show coverage, during which time we'll be trying to get our hands on the latest models and mockups both for those products that have been announced and any that are still to come. So stay tuned and we'll try to bring you a taste of the show and the most exciting products being shown here.

Photokina 2010: In just under 24 hours time Photokina, the world's biggest photography trade show, will get under way. As usual the lead-up has been long and drawn out with announcements of 'Photokina products' stretching back to the beginning of August. To help you make sense of these and the coming swathe of new products head over to our Photokina 2010 show report page. This provides you with an index of new product releases as well as our live 'from the show floor' reporting as it happens. We've also added a short preview / predictions list. Bookmark our show report page and you won't miss any of the action!

With the announcement of the Fujifilm F300 EXR and Z800 EXR coming on a day that also saw four other cameras being launched, it would be easy to overlook their most radical feature. Because, with the latest version of its EXR sensor, Fujifilm has achieved something that's been hoped for but not previously brought to market - through-the-lens phase detection autofocus on a compact camera. The company is claiming the system enables focus times as fast as 0.158 sec. We got some more details of the system from Hitoshi Yamashita, manager of the company's Technical Support Group.

A few days before the release of Unified Color Technology's HDR Expose software, we got a chance to speak to the company's marketing director John Omvik. He told us how different it is from the previous HDR PhotoStudio software, what's in store for high dynamic range users and how will they can benefit from the new features.

Print-on-demand book publisher Blurb's third annual international Photography Book Now competition is now in the final phase for submissions - the deadline being July 15, 2010. The competition has had 880 book submissions to date. As the company's founder and CEO Eileen Gittins was on visit to sunny London, we took the opportunity to talk to her about Blurb - how it works, who uses it and what they get out of it.