The Relounch costs $99 per month and has only one button and no LCD screen

 

Well this is certainly a weird way of trying to make money on cameras: Relounch (website here) offers a subscription service which costs $99 per month. For that you get a camera with one button only(!) and a photo development service:

At Relonch, we understand that you shouldn’t be forced to deal with a bunch of hassles to get the remarkable photos you want. We’ve replaced the traditional Chain of Pain with a single small round button. With Relonch, you get:

  1. An image capture device that is perfectly pre-configured with a large sensor and the right lens
  2. Pictured Technology – a different approach to photo development that applies the best settings for each object in the photo and takes lighting conditions into account.

Only this technology ensures that you get remarkable photos with just one click.

 

Hasselblad CEO apologizes for the X1D shipment delay and gives extra 6 months free warranty on the camera!

Luminous Landscape had a chat with Hasselblad CEO. We finally got an answer about why the camera shipment has been delayed multiple times:

Hasselblad had the problem of how to ramp up manufacturing, and how to fix issues in firmware so they wouldn’t deliver a camera that was buggy.  And, to complicate things even worse, there was the Kumamoto earthquake that severely hit many Japanese camera makers as well as the Sony chip plant. 
He (CEO Perry Oosting) certainly wishes to apologize to those that have ordered cameras and wants to reassure everyone that the team at Hasselblad is working very hard to get orders out the door. He knows they should have been more transparent and wanted me to express this to those that read this.  They need to and will do a better job in the future.

But at last the cameras are shipping:

As of today, Hasselblad is now shipping cameras with version 1 firmware.  This shipping firmware has some things added since the early firmware, and many people will enjoy these, like Auto-White Balance and especially the ability to select from 30 AF points. They feel the majority of shipments will begin in January with higher quantities of product. Hasselblad will offer anyone who ordered an X1D in 2016 an extra six months of warranty as a way saying Thank You and We Are Sorry.

And Dpreview started testing the camera and writes:

The samples I shot with it demonstrate that we have some great resolution and dynamic range to look forward to. With such a large sensor, and the ability 50 million pixels gives for magnification, there is little room for focusing error, but the amount of detail that it is possible to record is fantastic.
The dynamic range also allows for plenty exposure latitude and curves adjustments before tones begin to separate and before noise becomes an issue.
I don’t know if Hasselblad has finished tuning the sensor’s color, but I have been very happy with skin tones and the way a wide range of shades have been rendered.

Preorder the camera at BHphoto (Click here).

What to expect from Sony in 2017: new 70+ Megapixel camera, Dual card slot A7III, STF lens and 16-35mm GM

In 2016 Sony had quite a weird release strategy. We did not get any new FF E-mount camera but instead we got two very similar APS-C E-mount cameras. First the A6300 and then the A6500. Well 2017 promises to be quite different with a focus on FF cameras. These are the new cameras and lenses we can hope to get in 2017:

  1. Sony A7 mark III. Release before Summer. Has new 24MP sensor with improved AF and dual card slot
  2. Sony High End Professional camera (named A7rIII or A9): 70+ Megapixel sensor, duals slot card. Priced like the 1DX2 and D5.
  3. 16-35mm f/2.8 GM lens
  4. STF FE autofocus lens
  5. Telephoto zoom lens (like 70-400mm f4-5.6 G)
  6. telephoto prime lens (like 300mm f2.8G)
  7. wideangle lens (like 24mm zeiss)
  8. standard zoom lens (like 24-105mm)

And quite some folks on the web is joking about a new A6700 release too :)

via SonyAlphaRumors

Future tech news (Quanta sensor, Caos Camera and Metalens)

A quick glimpse into the future:
CAOS-CMOS Camera brings a 1000x Dynamic Range Improvement (Image Sensor World).
Metalens works in the visible spectrum, sees smaller than a wavelength of light (Opli).
Non-Iterative Image Reconstruction for Quanta Image Sensors (Mdpi).

Seomthing else:
New Fujifilm EF-X500 flashgun (Fotograficoweb)
4K video of the the Himalayas show with the Sony 6300 (youtube.com/watch?v=-hQURVc5Lv0)