News / Other News

Our friends and collaborators over at DxOMark have recently been looking into how lenses score on specific cameras, and the latest model they've examined is the Nikon D600. In a three-part article published at the end of last week, they investigate how 70 lenses from Carl Zeiss, Nikon, Samyang, Sigma, Tamron and Tokina measure up on the D600's 24MP sensor.  The article also compares how given lenses score on the D600 compared to the 36MP D800 and 24MP D3X. Click through for links to the three parts of the article.    

We've been fans of Aaron Johnson's comic strip 'What the Duck' for years. 'WTD' is one of the best satirical comic strips in the world, and we're pleased to announce that we'll be publishing it weekly on dpreview.com, starting today. Click through for the first in what we hope will be a long series!

A patent filed by Apple in 2011 and discovered this week by appleinsider.com seems to hint at a 'social camera flash' system, allowing multiple iOS devices to be connected and used as secondary strobes for impromptu flash setups. The patent is filed as an 'illumination system' and describes 'initiating a master-slave relationship between the image capture device and at least one secondary device'. Click through for more details.

The BBC's Technology Correspondant, Rory Cellan-Jones, has been getting to grips with the new camera module for Raspberry Pi - the low-cost DIY computer. The camera board was announced earlier this year, and opens up enormous potential for applications including robotics and high risk aerial/underwater use. Cellan-Jones got hold of one of the new camera boards and has written a short article in which he details the 'nightmarish complexity' of making it work. Click through for a link to the full article.

Sony's RX1 fixed 35mm full frame compact has received the prestigious Camera Grand Prix 2013 title, while Sigma's 35mm F1.4 DG HSM was named lens of the year. The awards, organized by the Japanese Camera Journal Press Club have a history of recognizing what prove to be historically significant cameras. Meanwhile, the Editors Awards were given to the Canon EOS 6D and Sigma's DP Merrill series of compacts.

The 2013 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest is accepting submissions. Now in its 25th year, this photo contest offers a top prize that includes a 10-day expedition to the Galapagos Islands and publication of the winning image in the upcoming December/January edition of National Geographic Traveler magazine. The entry fee is $15 per image and contestants can submit as many images as they wish. Submissions must be received by June 30. Click through for more entry information and a look at some of the current submissions.

How do you balance the demands of aesthetics and documentary truth? Image manipulation of documentary photographs is nothing new, but it is certainly much easier now than ever before. DW Akadamie has published a feature examining the challenges faced by photojournalists and picture editors in creating attractive and atmospheric images, without compromising their authenticity. Click through for extracts from the article, images and a link to the full feature at www.dw.de.com.

Stephan Schulz, the Head of Professional Photo at Leica Camera AG has given an interview to Forbes.com in which he explains the opportunities - and challenges - of moving into the professional digital medium-format marketplace. Traditionally identified with 35mm (film and latterly 'full frame' digital), Leica announced the creation of the S2 back in 2009, and followed it with the 37MP late last year. Click through for some extracts, and a link to the full interview at Forbes.com.

The UK Intellectual Property Office has issued a 'myth-busting' document about the effect on photographers of a newly-introduced law. The law includes new rules regulating the use of 'orphan works' - intellectual property whose copyright holder cannot be identified. This has led to concern that the changes will allow UK companies to use copyright material from anywhere in the world without the approval of the copyright holder.

DPReview reader Eric Lew is a keen wildlife photographer, and recently returned from a trip to Antarctica. He shared some recollections, advice and photographs in a post on our forums, but we thought what he wrote was so good it deserved a wider audience. Click through for Eric's 2-page article 'Flying Penguins: Photography in Antactica' and find out how you too can publish articles like this on dpreview.

Falling into the interesting photo experiments category, Patrick Letourneau adapted a Kodak Aero Ektar 178mm F2.5 lens, a surplus lens originally used during World War II in bomber-mounted cameras, to use with his Panasonic GH2. A Thorium-oxide coating was used on the Aero Ektar's rear element to improve its refraction index, a fact that adds a sense of intrigue to the unique project. Click through for more details, and pictures. 

South Africa-based filmmaker David East uses a GoPro camera for his video work, but has started to use it for stills as well. Although not as technically sound as images taken on a dedicated stills camera, there's an evocative quality to his work, taken using an 11MP GoPro HD HERO2, which we really like. Click through for more details, and a small selection of images. 

Engineers have developed a curved camera designed to mimic insects' compound eyes. The hemispherical design gives a wide field-of-view with no aberrations and effectively infinite depth-of-field, with the hope it could be used in applications such as endoscopy or as visual sensors on unmanned aircraft. The current design uses 180 light-sensitive elements, each behind its own lens, but researchers hope to build one with 20,000 elements, giving a similar resolution to that seen by dragonflies.

Mike Brodie spent five years riding freight trains across America, returning with an astonishing visual record of the teenage 'freighthoppers' that travel the USA illegally, by rail. Brodie had no formal training in photography, but began documenting his experiences after finding a discarded Polaroid camera behind a car seat. Brodie's images are collected in his new book 'A Period of Juvenile Prosperity'. Click through for more details and a selection of images.

Detailed images on a Chinese blog may reveal more about the next-generation Olympus PEN. Although no official announcement has been made, the extent of the leaks about the camera make its existence an open secret. Rumors suggest the camera will be called the E-P5, and suggest it will have Wi-Fi capabilities (both of which seem plausible, based on the company's naming scheme and recent industry trends).

The overwhelming majority of photographers, even those who derive income from their images, practice the craft alongside their primary gig. And celebrities are no different. While they certainly have fewer budget constraints than the rest of us and easy access to fellow A-listers, there are quite a few with real talent who take their photography seriously. Here's a look at a few of them. (via PhotographyTalk.com)

Kodak hopes to sell its consumer film and processing kiosk businesses to its UK pension scheme, to allow it to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The move pays off the company's biggest debt - an estimated $2.8bn it was expected to have to pay to the pension scheme over the coming years. The pension scheme is reported to be paying $650m for the Personalized Imaging and Document Imaging units the company announced it would sell last August.

Olympus has opened an exhibition that it's calling the "OM-D: Photography Playground" in Berlin, Germany. Situated in the Opernwerkstaetten gallery space, it's an installation of works by 12 artists and collectives that visitors are encouraged to explore, interact with, and photograph. It's open daily from 11am to 7pm until 24 May 2013, and entry is free. Visitors can also borrow an OM-D E-M5 during their visit, to try out the camera at no charge.

As part of its partnership with the World Photography Awards, Sony is hosting a series of workshops at London's Somerset House. The sessions take place from April 26th - 28th and cover a range of interests from beginner topics to those looking to make a career out of photography. Individual sessions are are priced at £5 each. The workshops promote the Winners Exhibition of the World Photography Awards 2013 that will be showcased from April 26th - May 12th at Somerset House. Click though for more details

British sports photographer Tom Jenkins has written a thought-provoking article for The Guardian about how quickly sports stories can turn into breaking news events. In the aftermath of the bomb attacks at the Boston Marathon, Jenkins draws parallels with past tragedies including the Hillsborough disaster, which occurred on the same day 24 years earlier. Jenkins also adds personal reminiscences about how he has made the transition from sports to 'news' photography in the past. Click through for excerpts and a link to the full article at The Guardian.