News / Other News

Skyfall, the latest James Bond film, is topping the box office charts around the world and wowing audiences with its cinematography. It includes a sequence set on a deserted island - modeled on Hashima, an abandoned former coal-mining island off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan. Dpreview member Michael Gakuran has written a blog post about his experiences on the island - filming for a Discovery Channel documentary and, earlier, being smuggled onto the island under cover of darkness to perform a little urban exploration (Urbex).

A major copyright reform bill came into effect today in Canada, granting photographers copyright of all of their photographs - regardless of whether they have been commissioned. Previously, copyright on photographs belonged to the commissioner of the images, not to the photographer, transferrable only by a written contract. One of the stated goals of the law is to 'give photographers the same rights as other creators'. Click through for more details (via PetaPixel). 

iFixit.com has performed a complete tear-down of the Nikon D600, reducing it to its component parts to see how easy it is to repair. Nikon's latest full-frame DSLR scored a low 'repairability' score, of 2 out of 10 since 'most components almost require a certification in soldering in order to properly remove'. On the plus side, the tripod mount is easy to remove, if you ever cross-thread it accidentally. iFixit has also worked with semiconductor experts Chipworks to take a very close look at the D600's 24MP CMOS sensor. Click through for more details, images, and a link to both iFixit and Chipworks' tear-downs. 

Poynter.org has published an interesting article examining how photographer Iwan Baan took his striking post-Sandy picture of Manhattan, which is currently gracing the cover of New York Magazine. According to the article, Baan took his photograph of Manhattan - which is half blacked-out due to the destructive effects of Hurricane Sandy - from the open door of a helicopter hovering at 5000 feet above New York. He went up on the night of Wednesday 31st October, when limited air traffic made it possible to hover for longer - and higher - than would normally be allowed over a major city. Click through to see the resulting image, and for more details of how Baan got the shot. 

While we're stuck down here on earth, NASA's Curiosity rover is currently trundling around on the surface of Mars, mapping the terrain and analyzing rocks. This week, Curiosity took time out from its busy schedule to snap an arms-length self-portrait, showing the rover in situ, in Gale Crater - 140 million miles from home. The composite image is made up of 55 high-resolution images, taken using its MAHLI camera, which is mounted on the end of a robotic arm. Click through for more details and a link to the full-resolution image.

Hurricane Sandy has left a swath of destruction across the Caribbean and eastern United States. Thousands of images have been circulating around the web, showing flooded streets, destroyed homes and submerged Subway stations. Some of the images that have popped up around the Internet are truly unbelievable  but how do you know which ones are fake and which ones are real? The Atlantic has posted an exhaustive article, sorting out the genuine images from the fake. Click through for a link to the story.   

Apple has announced an new 'Mini' version of the iPad with a 7.9 inch, 163ppi display. The iPad Mini's display offers a quarter of the pixel count (1024 x 768 pixels compared to 2048 x 1536) of its 9.7", A6 processor-equipped cousin (simply called 'iPad'), the fourth generation of which was also unveiled at an event in San Jose, California. The iPad Mini has created a lot of buzz, but photographers might be disappointed that its screen resolution is lower than the cheaper Google Nexus 7 tablet, which offers 1280 x 800 pixels and a pixel density of 217ppi.

What does your dream camera look like? One of our more enterprising readers has sketched-out what his would look like - creating an interesting contemporary rangefinder concept. Bristling with Nikon F4-inspired manual controls, each dial and switch also has a 'neutral' position to allow the on-screen interface settings to take precedence. Easycass acknowledges the concept may not be entirely possible - an 'ultra-fast' 24-105mm lens would dictate a fairly small sensor, and autofocus rangefinders have never exactly been commonplace - but it raises questions the question: 'What would your perfect camera be?'

National Geographic photographers can find themselves in unusual, extreme and potentially dangerous situations, trying to capture the 'never before seen' images the magazine is famous for. However, contributing photographer Paul Nicklen's story of his close encounter with a huge Leopard Seal (one of the top predators in the Antarctic), shows there's still opportunity for surprises in the job. We heard about this video following Nicklen being given the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the year 2012 award.

Color management company X-Rite has announced its latest round of online education sessions. The forthcoming 'webinars' cover a series of topics from monitor calibration to landscape photo editing in Photoshop. The courses tend to be around an hour long and are free (though it seems reasonable to expect some focus on X-Rite's products), but with a limited number of registered places available. Previous events, including those conducted in French, German and Italian, are available in an archive on the X-Rite website.

The L.A. Times has posted a fascinating time-lapse video, showing the progress of retired space shuttle Endeavour across Los Angeles to its new home in the California Science Center, in Exposition Park. The video spans the entire length of the journey from Los Angeles International Airport, which started on Thursday night and due to delays caused by maintainance issues and obstacles along the route, finally ended 16 hours late, on Sunday afternoon. Click through for a link to the video. 

Sony has published details of its latest 12MP 1/1.7"-type (7.5 x 5.6mm) back-lit CMOS sensor. The IMX144CQJ offers full-resolution 12-bit output at up to 35 frames per second or a roughly 'widescreen' 17:9 crop at up to 60 fps - allowing 4k video. Sony stresses how well the sensor can receive light from oblique angles, thanks to its large pixel size, making it able to work with 'brighter lenses and high power zoom lenses.' This is interesting, given the recent launch of a group of wide-maximum aperture compacts based around 12MP, 1/1.7"-type BSI CMOS sensors, such as the Olympus XZ-2, Nikon Coolpix P7700 and Samsung EX2F.

DxO Labs has announced 'DxOMark Mobile' - its assessment of mobile phone image quality that will support mobile device reviews on connect.dpreview.com. In its first group of tests, DxO has found that the best contemporary mobile devices (in this case the Nokia 808 PureView, with its large sensor) will out-perform a 5-year-old high-end compact camera. And when it comes to video, the Samsung Galaxy SIII will trump last year's Canon PowerShot S100. DxOMark Mobile will analyze 14 aspects of mobile imaging and produce a final score that will be comparable to existing DxOMark figures. We'll be reporting DxOMark Mobile figures alongside our overall scores in connect reviews.

Sensor maker Aptina has released more details of its two most recently-announced chips, including a 10MP, 1"-type sensor that uses its dynamic range-boosting DR-Pix technology. The company, which also makes the 1" sensors used in the Nikon 1 System cameras, is making this new sensor available to the wider market. It has also provided more detail about an 18MP 1/2.3" compact camera sensor that can shoot 1080p video with three different crops at up to 120 frames per second.

Getty Images' scheme for licensing images from the photo sharing site Flickr has added its 500,000th image. The half-millionth image was shot by system engineer and photo hobbyist 'Jiangang Wang' for Tianjin, China, of the Minato Mirai development in Yokohama, Japan. The licensing deal, started in June 2010, allows Flickr members to offer their images for licensing by Getty. If Getty chooses to accept the request, the photographer can choose how to license their images, at rates comparable to Getty's other images libraries.

US mobile carrier AT&T has become the first network to announce that it will be offering Samsung's Galaxy Camera - the first truly camera-like device to include a cellular data connection. The version being offered is being described as 4G but AT&T has confrimed it will use an HSPA+ connection, rather than the faster 'LTE' system that is more widely accepted as '4G.' Prices and details of data plans are also unspecified at this point. (via Engadget)

It's a question that's been on Michael Zhang's mind, over at PetaPixel, and ours too. If Photokina 2012 had a theme it was definitely connectivity, and recent months have seen several moves by manufacturers to introduce smartphone-type functionality into cameras. As camera manufacturers continue to respond to the rise of the smartphone camera with their own solutions, journalists in the industry are faced with an interesting conundrum: what do we call these things? 

Following months of speculation, Olympus has confirmed it will enter a partnership with Sony. Sony has bought 21.2m shares in Olympus, at a value of ¥31bn ($397m). The deal does not constitute a merger or takeover, but will see the companies work together and exchange technologies. Olympus President, Hiroyuki Sasa's statement explains 'In the field of digital cameras, we will seek to achieve collaboration in a manner that further improves the competitiveness of the two companies.'

Manfrotto has announced the Klyp, an iPhone case that allows the use of mini tripods and LED lighting panels. The company rather entertainingly talks in terms of turning the iPhone into 'a complete and professional camera,' but the ability to attach supports and lighting will undoubtedly be useful. The case allows accessories to be clipped-on at various points around the phone, allowing use in different orientations, and packages are available that include the company's compact LED light panels. The case, which fits the iPhone 4 and 4S, will retail for around £25, with lighting a tripod bundles also available

Sony is planning to invest ¥50bn ($642m) in troubled medical and photographic company Olympus, according to news agency Reuters. The report says three sources have confirmed Sony approve a move to take a 10% stake in Olympus, which is still reeling from the revelations that its executives covered-up $1.7bn of loses dating back to the 1990s. The report comes a day after former Olympus Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa and two other former executives pleaded guilty to fraud charges relating to the cover-up.