Photography News: Sirui 85mm f/1.4, Big Monitor Sales

This has been quite a year for those of us who love astrophotography. The solar eclipse in April took a tour across North America. The Aurora Borealis crept unusually close to the equator multiple times this year. And just recently, the comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS has been putting on a once-in-80,000-years show.

Have you had a chance to photograph any of these celestial events? I managed to catch the comet last week on an unexpectedly clear night in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was an awe-inspiring and humbling thing to see.

Sony a7R V + FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM II @ 16mm, ISO 3200, 15 seconds, f/2.8

With that, let’s get into this week’s photography news! I’m filling in for Libor this week as he travels back to the tropics for some more amazing bird photography.

Recent Announcements

• Sirui Aurora 85mm f/1.4 AF: The tripod company Sirui has announced an 85mm f/1.4 lens with autofocus capabilities, available for Nikon Z, Sony E, and Fuji X mounts. This full-frame lens features 14 elements in 9 groups, and it weighs a very reasonable 540 grams / 1.19 pounds (though a hair heavier in Nikon Z and Fuji X mounts). The price of $600 could make it a very appealing choice for portrait photographers on a budget. Even more so with the pre-order price of $500.
• Insta360 Ace Pro 2: A new action camera from Insta360, improving upon the original Ace Pro with a larger screen, 50% longer battery life, better noise reduction features, and 8K/30p recording. It also can now shoot 4K 60p with “Active HDR” for more dynamic range. At $399, it should make a worthy competitor to GoPro cameras if you’re in the market for something waterproof and rugged.
• Laowa 55mm and 100mm tilt-shifts: Laowa has announced most of the details of their upcoming 55mm f/2.8 and 100mm f/2.8 tilt-shift macro lenses, although we still don’t know the prices and release dates. Both lenses will offer full 1:1 magnification macro photography, and they will be available for Nikon Z, Sony E, Canon RF, and even Fuji GFX and Hasselblad XDC mounts. (Though with the medium format cameras, tilt and shift capabilities will be very limited.) Both lenses can tilt up to 10 degrees and shift +/- 12mm, which is the standard amount of shift and actually a little more tilt than we often see.

The Rumor Mill

Apple expects this to be a big week

We’re likely to see a lot of new Apple products in the coming days. Chief among them are new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros, which should feature Apple’s newest M4 chips. There’s also expected to be a new M4 iMac along with a major redesign of the Mac Mini. Apart from all of these new computers, we can expect to see a lot of software updates and a few smaller accessory redesigns as well.

Via Mac Rumors

Is Tamron just a zoom lens company now?

Probably not, but we should expect to see more zooms than primes coming from Tamron soon, if a recent interview with Tamron France President Jean-Christophe Thiry is to be believed. After talking about the “romantic” nature of fast prime lenses, yet the high level of competition from other manufacturers, he concludes by saying, “we are focusing on our strengths with our zooms.” I tend to doubt that the era of Tamron primes is completely over, but zooms do seem to be their priority these days.

Via PhotoTrend (link in French)

Hints of a new Nikon camera? Or maybe just a website bug…

According to Nikon Rumors, a placeholder was temporarily visible for a new Nikon camera on the Nikon UK website. To be specific, the site indicated 12 Nikon cameras present, but only displayed the current 11. Whether this is a sign of a new camera announcement coming soon (Nikon Rumors says that this is often a good sign), or whether it’s just a bug on the website, remains to be seen. For what it’s worth, Nikon UK has already edited the site to indicate the normal 11 cameras. Well, Nikon will release a new camera at some point! My money is on a Nikon Z50 II.

Via Nikon Rumors

Good Deals and New Sales

I’m not sure exactly why, but a lot of computer monitors are going on sale right now for great prices. This includes companies like HP and Samsung, and even BenQ is getting in on the action. Well, I don’t have to understand a sale to like it! Here are some of my top picks:

• Samsung 22″ 1080p FreeSync IPS (was $120, now $90): Not the biggest or highest resolution display, but it’s probably the lowest price you’ll find for an IPS monitor from a good company.
• BenQ 24.1″ 1920×1200 PhotoVue IPS (was $400, now $270): My top choice for a monitor on a (reasonable) budget. It’s not 4K and it’s not huge, so why do I like it so much? Color accuracy. This monitor covers 99% of the AdobeRGB color space, which is crazy for a sub-$300 display. If you need dual monitors, they’re also selling as a pair for $520, saving you an extra $20.
• HP Series 7 Pro 27″ 4K (was $650, now $450): A monitor with few compromises. It’s big, has a ton of resolution, and covers 98% of the P3 color gamut (approximately the same size as AdobeRGB).
• BenQ DesignVue 34″ 3440 x 1440 (was $700, now $600): Ultra-wide (21:9 aspect ratio) and plenty of resolution. This is almost more like a dual monitor setup than a single display. For photo editing, it covers 98% of the P3 color gamut.

Other Pages of Interest

I love getting inspiration from photography contests even (or especially) when they’re not a genre that I typically shoot. The Architecture Masterprize contest is a great example. Take a look here at the winning photos from all around the world, including a stunning building in Germany under the Northern Lights.

This article – The Incredible Blandness of AI Photography – struck a nerve with me and put into words some concepts that had been swirling in my head. For some people, photography is seen as a substitute for memories. And through that lens, it can be considered acceptable to remove unwanted (or unremembered) elements like people in the background using aggressive AI tools. But in doing so, we actually do a disservice to our memories of the event. The author, Allison Johnson, walks through her steps of re-editing a photo with AI to look like she remembered it, only to result in an “unbearably cheesy” result. Photography is related to memories, but they aren’t one and the same. It’s not a failure of photography to record some imperfections from the real world – if anything, it’s a feature of the art form.

Photo Theme Challenge, Week #73

Last week’s theme was shallow depth of field, and you can see the results in this thread. Thank you to everyone for your submissions! This week’s theme is unexpected, and you can submit your results in this thread by Saturday, November 2, 2024!

Week #72 Results

Let’s check out some of the shots we received for the “shallow depth of field” theme, starting with Robert’s photo:

Often, forests are so busy that it makes a lot of sense to use shallow depth of field, as in this photo. The orange glow of the sun adds calmness to the scene, while the darker exposure adds some mystery. A very autumnal image!

Dave’s photo is a really nice landscape with a shallow depth of field:

The out-of-focus foreground here isolates the wave and makes the photo more unique. The distinct color contrast only serves to enhance the effect – nice work!

Finally, we have AndrewGusew’s shot:

I love the shallow depth of field here and how it creates a painterly look. Almost the entire photo is out of focus, giving a lovely impressionistic look.

Thanks everyone for submitting their photos in the challenge, and we hope to see more next week in the unexpected theme.