There has been discussion recently about the new DJI Osmo Pocket 4P. DJI claims up to 17 stops of dynamic range on its new 1-inch sensor, and comparisons with cinema cameras like the ARRI Alexa quickly surfaced online. Looking at the numbers, it might seem plausible, but visually the situation is different. Waveform plot for the DJI OSMO Pocket 4P 20mm wide D-Log2 ISO1600. Image credit: CineD Spoiler: no, it is not a micro Alexa. PetaPixel confirmed after testing it that LOFIC improves both

Shooting a Snoot   Underwater photography is an absorbing form of photography. For some, it’s a technical issue of capturing fish portraits. For others an art form about capturing the beauty and mystery of the underwater world.  Whichever you aim for, it presents unique challenges. Everything moves: you, the water, and the subject.  Photography is all about capturing and controlling light. In the underwater world lighting and highlighting the subject is often impacted by either a

Having recently written about installing the o-Turtle trigger into a Nauticam housing, I’ve now had a go with a UWT internal trigger for the Nauticam NA-OM1 housing. UWT describes it as the 11072-22-HSS TTL-Converter for NAUTICAM for OLYMPUS/ OM SYSTEM. The UWT trigger arrives in a bubble-wrap envelope in a small cardboard box. No frills functional. It consists of a small electronics board with two LEDs and a cable leading to a hot shoe connector. The manual explains that strobes are selected

Having bought a Nauticam housing and OM System OM-1ii recently as the base of my new underwater camera setup, I needed an LED trigger to fire the strobes. Although I havn’t used TTL underwater for many years, I did want HSS as I often include the sunball when shooting wide-angle.  This usually requires high shutter speed to avoid exposure burn outs. HSS options for an OM trigger seemed to boil down to the Turtle or UWT. The Nauticam flash trigger, although an attractive option, doesn’t provide

You may have read or seen pictures of the fire that broke out in the Maldives on the Emperor Explorer liveaboard on 9 May. My partner and I were on it as part of a group of 25. Like many members, we’ve been lucky enough to have been on lots of liveaboards. During the pre-departure safety briefing we were given the usual advice:  If an alarm sounds do not return to our cabins to collect stuff: head immediately to the muster station by the dive platform; put together a grab bag in case of emerge

DIY Fibre Optic cables   Like most members, when I bought my first system that used fibre optic cables, I paid for the ones that the dealers sell. Reading various articles about fibre optics, I realised later that they were relatively easy to make and that DIY cables could cost a fraction of shop-bought. I gave it a go.   I thought it worth a write-up here on Waterpixels. And yes, they are really easy to make and are cheap.   The Cable   The best fibr

Panasonic achieved a result that Apple, Sony and Nikon did not. The Japanese Intellectual Property High Court invalidated a major RED patent concerning raw video files. RED had historically used this patent to demand licensing fees and stop competitors. Nikon initially challenged the patent in court but purchased RED before a ruling and dropped the case. When Panasonic recently challenged the same patent in Japan, Nikon defended the claims it had previously opposed. The court ultimately rejecte

It's almost hard to keep up with the updates. Version 15.5 for LR Classic now available. Adobe report the update: "includes enhanced crop tool, mask refinements, render to DNG option, support for newly released cameras and lenses, bug fixes, and more".

On a recent dive trip I met someone who is writing a dissertation on people who are 50+ and diving. If you are interested in contributing, the following is a link to a simple questionnaire which takes about 5 minutes to complete. I've become paranoid about online scams, phishing etc. But this looks fine and I know the author - and the information gathered is pretty innocuous. https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=e3VPRDDLUkaTvMqNbR74E5Cna1DJ6d1KvM2oRz5_gAdUM0Y3UEpYTkZERDJON

.... and another update to LR Classic. This to version 15.4.1 Adobe report this as: "includes improved Subject Masking, Keyword Sync to Cloud, upgraded Assisted Culling, Duplicate Detection, a Background Process Indicator, Al-focused metadata filters, performance improvements, support for newly released cameras and lenses, bug fixes, and more. Available from the usual places

Another update from Adobe for Lightroom Classic. Some details courtesy of the Lightroom Queen: All Versions: Keyword Sync! Yes, between the Cloud Ecosystem and Classic! How long have we been asking for this?! As well as our June release blog, see our special post How do I sync keywords? Classic:  new native duplicate detection added Classic & Desktop: Assisted Culling refinements and additional options with faces All versions: dramatic improvement in Subject Masking (see example below)

There's yet another update to LR Classic - to version 15.3. According to the Adobe website, this includes background Al feature processing, performance improvements, a new Al culling model, PSB file sync support, film-inspired presets, support for opening images in Firefly Boards, support for newly released cameras and lenses, bug fixes, and more. Hard to keep up with all the updates!