New AF-S NIKKOR 180-400mm F/4E TC1.4 FL ED VR

Nikon Announces New AF-S NIKKOR 180-400mm F/4E TC1.4 FL ED VR Super Telephoto Zoom Lens at CES 2018

LAS VEGAS – Today at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Nikon Inc. announced the new AF-S NIKKOR 180-400mm f/4E TC1.4 FL ED VR super-telephoto zoom lens, which is ideally suited for photographing sports and wildlife with astounding speed and clarity. This professional level FX-format lens is more versatile than ever, and has been updated with the newest NIKKOR lens technologies including Nikon’s first ever built-in teleconverter and an advanced optical formula to enhance performance and minimize weight.

“This lens is a great example of how Nikon continues to push the boundaries of innovation and what’s possible with pro-level optics and high-end imaging equipment,” said Kosuke Kawaura, Director of Marketing and Planning, Nikon Inc.

Popular Pro-Level Lens Gets Even More Versatile

This new NIKKOR lens is a professional super-telephoto zoom lens, which is even more versatile with an extended wide range of 180-400mm, and a constant f/4 aperture to easily isolate a subject from the sidelines, even in challenging light. This is also the first NIKKOR lens to include a built-in 1.4X teleconverter, allowing photographers to seamlessly swap to a 252-560mm1 (FX-format) focal range. The teleconverter is engaged at the flick of a switch, and is easily operated with a single finger while looking through the viewfinder. When used on the Nikon D500 and other DX-format DSLRs, the focal length is the equivalent of 270-600mm (378-840mm with teleconverter engaged).

Whether capturing fast-moving winter sports on the slopes or elusive wildlife at a distance, photographers can shoot with confidence from this high performance NIKKOR lens.  The new 180-400mm f/4 is optimized for high-speed capture, and features an electromagnetic diaphragm, helping to create smooth and consistent exposures while shooting high-speed bursts of images. What’s more, the AF tracking algorithm controlling the motor drive has been enhanced to increase tracking performance of fast moving subjects. When using cameras equipped with Nikon’s advanced 153-point AF system (D5, D500, D850), the outer row of AF points are activated as cross-type sensors to significantly enhance the AF coverage throughout the frame.2

Enhanced Performance with the Addition of New Technology

The lens now uses a fluorite element, which contributes to improved balance while minimizing weight. To further enhance handling and agility, the lens has adopted a new ball-bearing tripod collar ring to create a seamless transition from shooting horizontal to vertical composition.  The VR mechanism offers a normal and sports mode, with up to four stops3 of compensation to help create sharp images, even when handheld.

The lens construction includes the use of durable magnesium alloy for weight reduction, while the lens is also sealed against dust and moisture. A fluorine coating is also used to help repel water droplets and dirt.

The optical formula of the lens uses eight Extra Low Dispersion (ED) elements, doubling the amount of ED elements used by its predecessor, the NIKKOR 200-400mm. These help to provide extremely sharp and detailed images and 4K UHD / 1080p video, and is ideally mated to high resolution Nikon DSLR cameras.  Nikon’s exclusive Nano Crystal Coat is used to effectively suppress instances of ghosting and flare.

 

 

Price and Availability

The AF-S NIKKOR 180-400mm f/4E TC1.4 FL ED VR lens will be available in March 2018 for a suggested retail price of $12,399.954. For more information on this NIKKOR lens and other Nikon products, please visit www.nikonusa.com. 

Nikon 100th Year Anniversary

Since the company was established in 1917, Nikon has cultivated its status as a pioneer of optical technologies around the world. Guided by a corporate philosophy of “Trustworthiness and Creativity,” Nikon provides a wide range of products and services globally by harnessing advanced opto-electronics and precision technologies. Nikon is proud to celebrate their 100th anniversary from July 2017 to July 2018.

Hasselblad Masters 2018

HASSELBLAD ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF MASTERS AWARDS 2018

Hasselblad Masters is widely acclaimed as one of the world’s most prestigious professional photography competitions. The winners are chosen through a combination of a public vote and a professional Masters Jury - comprised internationally renowned photographers and imaging experts. Every Hasselblad Masters award winner will hold the title of ‘Hasselblad Master’ and be a brand ambassador for two years. In addition, they will receive a brand new Hasselblad medium format camera and be invited to shoot for a collaborative project with Hasselblad. This project will be printed and released in the bi-annual Hasselblad Masters book. Winners will receive their awards, medium format cameras, and trophies at a special Photokina 2018 ceremony in Cologne, Germany this September. Bronius Rudnickas, Hasselblad Marketing Manager: “Over 30 000 images were submitted to this year’s competition and that was a record, we are glad to see the competition is growing every year.”
Masters Jury member and professional photographer Tom Oldham said: “It really struck me how progressive many of the entries were this year and how far the entrants were willing to push the brief. These were the photographers who caught my eye - the ballsy, out-there risk-takers who make compelling pictures that refuse to be ignored. I’m proud to have helped to get this great kit into their hands – their images deserve it.”

 

The Hasselblad Masters Awards 2018 jury are:

Tom Oldham – Photographer
Ali Rajabi – Past Master
Martin Hausler – Photographer
Katerina Belkina – Past Master
Swee Oh – Past Master
Lars van de Goor – Past Master
Tim Flach – Photographer
Kevin Then – Photographer
Bara Prasilova – Past Master
Damien Demolder – Journalist
Blair Bunting – Photographer
Hans van Ommeren – Past Master
Mads Nissen – Photographer
Kevin Raber – JournalistF

Wedding – Victor Hamke - Leipzig, Germany

Portrait - Tina Signesdottir Hult - Torvastad, Norway

Landscape - Benjamin Everett - Lopez Island, USA

Architecture - Kamilla Hanapova - St. Petersburg, Russia

Beauty & Fashion - Michal Baran - Trim, Ireland

Project//21 - Nabil Rosman - Kota Bharu, Malaysia

Wildlife - Karim Iliya - Haiku, USA

Art - Maria Svarbova - Bratislava, Slovakia

Street / Urban – Ben Thomas - Kyneton, Australia

Product - Marcin Gizycki - Warszawa, Poland

Aerial - Jorge de la Torriente – Miami, USA

Sony World Photography Awards 2018

Each year the Professional competition of the Sony World Photography Awards draws a huge variety of inspiring, engaging and emotional photography from around the world. Pro submission valid until January 11th

Photojournalism and hard-hitting news photography sit side-by-side with fine-art, still-life and commercial work, as well as awe-inspiring images of the natural world and our travels within it.

The Professional competition is judged on a body of work.  Photographers must submit a minimum of 5 and maximum of 10 images and all submissions must be accompanied by a series description.

At the pinnacle of the Professional competition is the title of Photographer of the Year, one of the most distinguished and highly regarded awards in photography. The winner is chosen each year by the Honorary Jury from among the first place winners of all the Professional categories.

In addition to the main prizes, all winning and shortlisted photographers will be included in a global press campaign, featured across the World Photography Organisation website and exhibited at Somerset House, London in the Spring.

Morning Glory by  Huibo Hou  Morning glory hot spring in Winter, Yellowstone National Park, USA. Copyright: © Huibo Hou, United States of America, Entry, Open, Landscape & Nature (2018 Open competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

Prizes & Exhibition

  • $25,000 (USD) for the Photographer of the Year.
  • $5,000 (USD) for the overall Open competition winner.
  • Professional, Open, Youth, National Award and Student Focus category winners will receive the latest Sony Digital Imaging equipment.
  • Professional category winners are flown to London to attend the Sony World Photography Awards dinner on Thursday April 19, 2018.

All winning and shortlisted images will be included in the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition at Somerset House, London from April 20 - May 6, 2018.

DxO Photolab Review

A few weeks ago, DxO bought the Nik Collection from Google, already a great news for the future of this great plugin suite, but the most important for DxO is the release of this major application incorporating the U-ponit technology developed by Nik. One thing you must know about DxO is that they are a major Benchmarking company. They develop state of the art bechmarking machines and they are extensively testing all the optics and cameras on the market. PhotoLab can be considered as the ultimate Raw image processor today as it adapts to both the specific camera and lenses profiles and by offering options not available in any other Raw image procesor. Please note that the comparison with the other apps I mentioned only concerns the RAW processor Except for the Film Looks emulation with DxO Film Pack if you own it, there are no styling options available. It is not an All in 1 product. That will probably change in 2018 when the integration of the Nik Collection will be fully operational.

The interface

It is not much different than the other applications you can find such as Lightroom Classic, ON1 Photo Raw, Skylum Luminar 2018 or Topaz Studio. Only Capture One has a very different organisation, but this is for a future review. You have the Browse panel on the left, the number of controls you get is really huge. They are separated in 4 main sections. The Essential Tools, the Light section, the Color section, the Geometry section and theDxO plusins such as DxO Film Pack section.

When you choose DxO Photolab from Lightroom, you see a lot more controls than theLighroom Basic adjustments.. You get five main categories. Essential Tools, Light, Color,  Detail and Geometry.

The Essential Tools section is where you find what could be called "Quick edits. If you want a real fast way to enhance your images without real heavy processing, you have the DxO Smart Lighting slider and the DxO Clear view. They work like a radiance and a Micro Contrast / Structure sliders.. This is a one minute quick edit.

Even if the panels are huge and can be a little intimidating, the tools are very well organized and are making a very coherent workflow. Another great thing is that you can create your own workspaces with only the controls you really use. You can also save all your settings as presets.

I really enjoyed the DxO Film pack section that lets you add finishing touches such as frames, textures and even light leaks

Local Adjustments

When you click for the first time on the Local Adjustments button on top of the interface, you can select either the mouse or touch screen depending on what you use.

The first tool DxO brought from the Nik Collection to Photolab are the u-Points controls. The great addition they made to this tool is the controls block presentation. just click on the one you want to use and drag up or down. A very convenient way to use these controls much more effective than in the Nik Collection.. The same system is used for the gradient filter. It is nice when you want to place a gradient to have a selection of tools with a right button mouse click..This is a circular gadget with tool icons around the outside, offering a BrushGraduated FilterControl PointAuto MaskEraserNew Mask and Reset buttons.

 

Final Thoughts

This is the strongest Raw editor available today. The list of controls is gigantic, but lets you build-up a very efficient workflow. Due to the DxO experience on benchmarking, all the camera and lens profiles are very accurate and the image quality you can achieve is really fantastic. I don't think it is a full photo processing software as the tools for stylisation are not present. They will for sure be available when the integration of the Nik collection will be complete.  It really becomes the extension of Lightroom very rapidly and the "Export to Lightroom" button when you finish your editing makes ithe whole process so easy.

With this excellent piece of software and the arrival of the DxO collection, DxO jumps straight into the top photo editors manufacturers group. No doubt we will follow what's coming next..

Download a trial version at DxO.com

 

SKYLUM LUMINAR 2018 is here for MAC and PC

Luminar is a universal all-in-one photo app designed to offer everything a modern photographer needs for photo editing. With intelligent filters and over 100 presets, Luminar speeds up the photo editing workflow to deliver great results in less time. It also features some advanced tools like layers, masking and blending, lens correction and transform tools — to name just a few — that take image editing to the next level. The previous version of Luminar was honored with a TIPA award for Best Imaging Software 2017 and three weeks ago won the 2017 Best Software Plug-in at the Lucie Technical Awards at PhotoPlus Expo, NYC.

In 2018, Luminar will be updated with a new image browser & digital asset manager for efficient image library organization and management. Photographers will be able to sort, rate, organize, and backup their photos, in addition to tapping the award-winning editing power of Luminar. The new digital asset management platform in Luminar will work without a subscription and will arrive as a free update to all Luminar 2018 users.

What's new in Luminar 2018:

  • NEW: RAW develop module that handles high-quality images faster and includes Lens Correction and Transform tools.
  • NEW: Brand new streamlined user interface that speeds up working with presets, filters, and masks.
  • NEW: Intelligent Sun Rays filter that recognizes objects and creates a natural yet impressive look.
  • NEW: LUT Mapping (Look Up Tables)* delivers creative color, perfect black and white conversions, and digital films looks in seconds.
  • NEW: Dodge & Burn filter is designed to selectively lighten or darken specific areas of an image.
  • NEW: Brilliance and Warmth filter adds a rich tone and warmth, or can be used with negative values to cool down an image for a more subtle look.
  • NEW: Matte Filter delivers a trendy vintage look with a silky matte finish.
  • NEW: Hue Shift lets you roll the hue in a photo for subtle or dramatic changes. A little is perfect to eliminate unwanted color tints while a big adjustment is perfect for dramatic stylizing.
  • NEW: Real-time noise removal that quickly fixes noisy (low-light) images.
  • NEW: Support of 3rd party Adobe plugins
  • NEW: Apple HEIF files support
  • IMPROVED: Advanced masking with filters
  • IMPROVED: Advanced Bi-Color Toning
  • IMPROVED: Advanced Cross Processing
  • IMPROVED: Advanced Image Radiance
  • IMPROVED: Advanced Structure and Microstructure
  • IMPROVED: Advanced Split Toning 

* Workspaces, Clone & Stamp, blend modes for layers, luminosity masking, flip and rotate, as well as some other tools and features will be available in the Mac version at launch, and arrive in the PC version with free updates by the end of the year.

* Look-Up Table (LUT) – is mathematically precise way of taking specific RGB image values from a source image – and modifying them to new RGB values by changing the hue, saturation and brightness values of that source image. LUTs are used creatively to impose a specific ‘Look’ on a source image; tens of thousands are available from a variety of sources around the Internet.

 

Order Luminar 2018

Mixed-computer households can share the same product key for Mac and PC which can be activated on 5 devices. A 14-day free trial is also available.

  • $49 upgrade for current Luminar users
  • $59 for Luminar for Windows Beta testers
  • $69 for new users

The Digital Asset Management platform will arrive in 2018 as a free update for all the users of Luminar 2018.

Visit https://macphun.com/luminar to order

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