All tagged Opinion

Fujifilm Rumoured to Be Developing a Camera with New Sensor Size: Full-Frame on the Horizon?

Fujifilm Rumoured to Be Developing a Camera with New Sensor Size: Full-Frame on the Horizon?

Thomas Fitzgerald
Fuji X-Series

Our old friends at Fuji Rumors haver caused quite a bit of a stir in the Fuji community with a recent rumour about a new camera that Fujifilm is working on. According to the rumour, the camera which probably won’t be released until 2025 will have a new sensor that is of a different size to one that Fujifilm has used before! As you can imagine this has caused rampant speculation on various social sites. The leading candidate for this “sensor size that Fujifilm hasn’t used before” is Full Frame. But if this came true it would upend years of Fuji insisting that Full Frame isn’t something they want to do.

Apple really puts the "Pro" in the iPhone Pro (With the iPhone 16 Pro)

Apple really puts the "Pro" in the iPhone Pro (With the iPhone 16 Pro)

Thomas Fitzgerald
Apple, iPhone, Editorial

A few days ago Apple held its annual iPhone event where they launched the iPhone 16 and 16 pro line, and after trying not to fall asleep after they rehashed the Apple Intelligence stuff from WWDC, I was pleasantly surprised by the new iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. Strangely though, after the event people on social media were complaining that there wasn’t a real difference between the pro and the normal models. To which I thought: “Were they even watching the same keynote I was?” Because when I watched that segment I thought to myself, this is the most “pro” pro phone Apple has ever released. In fact, I’d go so far as to say, it’s only really now the Pro iPhone has fully earned the “Pro” name.

Now that Adobe’s Generative Fill is Out of Beta, Here are Some things you should know

Now that Adobe’s Generative Fill is Out of Beta, Here are Some things you should know

Thomas Fitzgerald
Photoshop, AI

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Adobe’s “generative fill” for photoshop. The feature, which uses Adobe’s firefly AI engine to add AI-generated imagery to your photos or artwork directly in photoshop. Now that it is no longer test software, I wanted to share my experience, and address a couple of big issues with generative fill.

Instagram Weirdness and Possible Security Issues

Instagram Weirdness and Possible Security Issues

Thomas Fitzgerald
Misc, Editorial

Last week I started having some weird things happen to one of my Instagram accounts. Instagram suddenly started sending me emails for my “Streets of Dublin” Instagram account in Russian. At first, I thought it musty be a hack or someone had breached my account, but there is a whole thread on Reddit about it from people having the same problem.

Photography and Coffee, A Love Story

Photography and Coffee, A Love Story

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial

I like coffee. A lot. It’s probably one of my biggest obsessions after photography. I have about 10 different methods of making coffee, including three different coffee machines. I like all different kinds of coffee, and I’ll make a different type depending on the time of day and my mood. At this point, you’re probably wondering what any of this has to do with photography, but bear with me. It’s a bit of a journey, but we’ll get there.

An Unpopular View on Adobe’s Recent “Price Hike”

An Unpopular View on Adobe’s Recent “Price Hike”

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial, Lightroom

If you’re into photography at all, unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock (or stayed off the internet) you can’t help but have read about the recent “price hike” on Adobe’s Photography plan. Site after site reported that Adobe had “doubled” the price of its photography plan, which lead to cries and consternation from all corners of the internet. I was really in two minds as to whether to write about this or not, because I know this will be unpopular, and I will get lots of hate mail because of this. I was really angry and annoyed about this news. Not because of what Adobe did, but because of the way it was reported and the crazy carry on afterwards.

The Gap Between Pundits and Reality in the Photo industry

The Gap Between Pundits and Reality in the Photo industry

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial, Industry

I love reading about the photography industry, whether it’s about the market, new gear or so on, it’s as much an interest for me as taking photos itself. In the industry, there is a lot of well-known pundits, whether they are from magazines, blogs or YouTube. As with everything, there are those I like and respect, and those that I don’t have much time for. But even taking that into account, over the past few months especially, I’ve noticed some real credibility issues for industry observers. Why? Let me explain...

Defining Image Quality

Defining Image Quality

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial

“Image Quality”. It’s a term that is used all the time, yet the definition of it can be somewhat nebulous. Whether you’re talking about a camera’s sensor, or evaluating a specific photograph, the term “image quality” often can mean a wide range of things, and different people use the term in different ways.

So what is “image quality?” What does it actually mean? How do you define it?

Signal to Noise Ratio: Why some camera comparisons are wrong

Signal to Noise Ratio: Why some camera comparisons are wrong

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial, Gear

An age-old measure of the performance of many types of recording is “signal to noise ratio”. In essence, it looks at how much noise there is compared to useful signal in any given medium, whether it’s an analogue transmission or even a digital recording. There’s one thing that I’ve noticed a lot recently, and that is when people compare cameras they often look at 1:1 crops to compare the results. In particular, they use this to compare noise performance between cameras. However, when comparing cameras of different resolutions, this may not actually give you an accurate comparison. The reason for this is that when doing this you’re only looking at one part of the equation, the noise, without considering the other part: the signal. 

What I want from an Asset Management System

What I want from an Asset Management System

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial, Software

While we see a renaissance of sorts when it comes to photo editing software, in my opinion, the management side has taken a back seat. If you look at many of the recent developments across newer and updated applications, most of the development has been on the image editing side. Lightroom, for example, has seen only minor changes to the database side of the application in years. There are lots of new technologies out there that would be really useful to photographers if they were all together in one application, and yet, in my opinion, there’s nothing that does everything. At least not yet.

Big Speed Boost coming to Lightroom. Hopefully.

Big Speed Boost coming to Lightroom. Hopefully.

Thomas Fitzgerald
Lightroom, Editorial

A couple of sites have been reporting over the last few days about the upcoming 7.2 release of Lightroom. Adobe have decided to focus on performance for this next release, and as a testament as to how important they feel this is, they’ve sent beta copies to various photography websites and news organisations ahead of time to show how serious they are about it.

The Current State of Lightroom Alternatives

The Current State of Lightroom Alternatives

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial, Software

There has been a lot of talk lately about Lightroom alternatives. Much of this has been amplified by disquiet over the recent decision of Adobe to go subscription only, although there have been grumblings about this for a while. A lot of people are looking for alternatives because of this, and many people are making claims that x software will replace Lightroom and so on. Unfortunately because of the internet echo chamber, many of these claims are either untrue, out only true for specific purposes. 

 

The Results of my Lightroom CC Poll

The Results of my Lightroom CC Poll

Thomas Fitzgerald
Lightroom

A little while ago I put up a poll on the site here, asking if people were planning on using Lightroom CC or not. It was in part, to answer my own curiosity as to whether or not people were going to use it, but also to gauge interest for supporting it in the future. Now that it’s been up for a while, I thought I would share the results.

I’m not sure what to think of PixelPeeper.io

I’m not sure what to think of PixelPeeper.io

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial, Lightroom

If you follow photography news at all, you’ve probably read about this new site called pixelpeeper.io (not to be confused with Pixelpeeper.com). It’s a web application that lets you see what Lightroom edits were done to an image, just by uploading a Jpeg to it. Now, on top of that they’ve added the ability to see what Lightroom preset was used on an image (if it was something like one of the VSCO presets), again just from uploading a Jpeg. I have mixed feelings on whether or not this is a good idea, and I’ve gone back and forth in my mind as to whether I agree with what they’re doing or not

Who do you take pictures for?

Who do you take pictures for?

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial

This may seem like a relatively obtuse question at first but bear with me. I found myself wondering if people actually consider this when reading some online commentary. Who is your audience? Obviously, if you’re a professional, then you are shooting for you clients. But for amateurs and enthusiasts: do you take photos for family or friends? Do you take them for yourself? Do you take pictures for the general public or certain interest groups?

My Dream Nikon Camera

My Dream Nikon Camera

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial, Gear

With Photokina just around the corner, and with most of the major manufacturers probably going to announce new cameras, I’ve been thinking about what my ideal camera would be. Without getting into brand wars and camera maker loyalty, I am particularly keen to see what Nikon will announce. They’ve been on a roll lately with the D500 and the D5 and considering that the D810 and D750 starting to look a little old, an announcement might be on the cards.

(From the Photography Geek)

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