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Canon plans to more than double its RF mirrorless lens lineup by 2025
Canon plans to more than double its RF mirrorless lens lineup by 2025, producing around 32 more models over the next four years.
Snapchat's latest custom Lenses are designed for dancing videos
Snap has updated its Lens Studio platform so artists and developers can create custom Lenses — the company’s term for AR experiences — that leverage full body tracking. Snapchat’s maker has created two templates, Full Body Triggers and Full Body Attachments, that can conjure up various effects based on what the user is doing inside the frame.
Adobe officially debuts Photoshop Camera for iOS and Android
Adobe's free Photoshop Camera app is officially available in the App Store and on Google Play.
How to buy a mirrorless camera lens in 2020
If you've decided to take the plunge and buy a new mirrorless camera, possibly ditching your DSLR, you now have another decision: What lenses do you need? That decision could have a large impact on how your photos or videos look and what kind of shooting you can do. And this is no simple decision. You have to consider sharpness, distortion, speed, prime or zoom and, most important, price. In this guide, I'll touch on all that and look at some of the best lenses for Sony, Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm and Micro Four Thirds mirrorless cameras.
Snapchat's latest AR filters turn the floor into lava
There have been immersive Snapchat Lenses before, but this latest batch can literally change the world around you. Snap has unveiled "Ground Transformation" Lenses that turn the ground into a lava pit or water -- yes, you can pretend the floor is lava like you're eight years old all over again. Both use machine learning to understand the geometry of the land and help apply special effects, such as reflections from the buildings around you.
Adobe brings Photoshop tricks directly to your smartphone camera
Adobe has showed off a preview of a new app called Photoshop Camera at its Adobe Max conference that brings Photoshop editing tricks and AI directly to your smartphone's camera. Like most camera apps, you can use it to capture, edit and share photos on social media networks. However, it also brings powerful Photoshop-grade tools, along with automatic AI adjustments, custom lenses and other tricks.
Form's Swim Goggles display heart rate data in the pool
You might have thought Form already perfected the Swim Goggles, but the company is about to add another welcomed feature: heart rate tracking. Today, Form announced that it's teamed up with the fitness wearable company Polar to introduce the heart rate tech. Beginning in November, a free software update from Form will make the Swim Goggles compatible with Polar's OH1 and OH1+ heart rate sensors.
NFL celebrates 100th season with Snapchat AR Lens that comes to life
The National Football League and Snap have made another augmented reality experience together. In celebration of the NFL's 100th season, which kicks off on September 5th, the companies are unveiling an AR Lens that lets people scan an NFL 100 logo and bring it to life inside the Snapchat app. The feature uses Snap's Marker technology, introduced in 2018, to let people use their Snapchat camera to unlock a special video created by the NFL. After scanning an NFL 100 logo, the video will show historic highlights between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers, the two teams that are playing the first game of the 2019-2020 season next Thursday. And right beneath the video, as pictured above, there's a clock counting down the days, hours and minutes to the beginning of the NFL 100 season.
The best lenses for Canon RF mount
Many photographers keep a cheap compact 50mm lens in their bags, but that is not what Canon has made here. The Canon RF 50mm F/1.2 is over 2 pounds and costs more than $2,000, but what you're getting for that is an incredible sharp lens with an ultra-wide aperture, perfect for super-blurred backgrounds or letting in tons of light. With no image stabilization and a noisy focus motor this is not a lens for video, but if you need a top-performing lens that takes full advantage of the new RF mount, the RF 50mm F/1.2 is the top of the class. READ ON: The best lenses for Canon RF mount
The best lenses for Nikon Z mount
While Canon went big in both price and performance with its low-light specialist $2,300 RF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens, Nikon elected to release the cheaper, slower $600 Nikkor Z 50mm f/1.8 S. Don't be fooled by the price, though. While it's a stop slower than Canon's offering, this is still a very speedy lens, as f/1.8 is plenty fast enough for most shooting situations. Of course, it helps that this might be Nikon's sharpest, most flare-resistant lens ever. And to top it all off, it has great bokeh characteristics. READ ON: The best lenses for Nikon Z mount
The best lenses for Fujifilm X mount
If you have an interest in portrait photography, and if you can afford it, the Fujinon XF 56mm f/1.2 R is a no-brainer. Images are sharp edge-to-edge, even when wide open, and out-of-focus areas are buttery smooth. It's not quite as fast to focus as the 50mm on this list, but optically this is perhaps the best Fuji lens money can buy. READ ON: The best lenses for Fujifilm X mount
The best lenses for Sony FE mount
More often than not, there's no wow factor to standard zoom lenses. But that's not necessarily the case with the Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8GM lens, which is designed to be ideal for portrait and travel photography. The best feature of this G Master glass, without a doubt, is the ability to keep the same exposure and depth of field even at its widest aperture of f/2.8. That should give your great level of bokeh, a signature feature of all G Master lenses, including the FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM. Like that lens, the FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM is also priced at $2,200. READ ON: The best lenses for Sony FE mount
How to pick a lens for your mirrorless camera in 2019
When buying a mirrorless camera, there's an equally crucial side question: What lenses do I need for this thing? The glass you place in front of that sensor plays a key role in how your photos or videos look and what kind of shooting you can do. It's a complex decision too. You need to consider factors like sharpness, distortion, speed, prime or zoom and, most important, price. In this guide, I'll touch on all that and look at some of the best lenses for Sony, Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm and Micro Four Thirds mirrorless cameras.
Snapchat 'Landmarkers' bring the Eiffel Tower to life in AR
Snap is kicking off its Partner Summit in Los Angeles with a few announcements about the feature that makes Snapchat tick: augmented reality Lenses. For starters, Lens Studio, which lets anyone create their own AR filters, is getting a new feature called "Landmarkers." This will allow creators to bring landmarks across the world to life using Lens Studio's augmented reality tools, including the US Capitol Building (Washington, D.C.), Flatiron Building (New York City), TCL Chinese Theater (Los Angeles), Buckingham Palace (London) and, as pictured above, the Eiffel Tower (Paris). Snapchat users near any of these locations can check out the new Landmarkers Lenses starting today, and the company says AR support for more landmarks will be coming in the future.
Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument lenses get their first look at space
Scientists are one step closer to precisely 3D mapping the galaxy and better understanding dark energy. For years, a team of more than 70 international organizations have been building the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which will allow us to see the sky in a way we never have before. Earlier this week, DESI reached a "first light" milestone when scientists produced the first focused images with the instrument's precision lenses. The images show the Whirlpool Galaxy -- an estimated 23 million light years from Earth.
Sony's 135mm f/1.8 G Master full-frame lens is all about bokeh
Last year at Photokina 2018, Sony said it had big plans to keep growing its E-mount lens portfolio. The company revealed back then it was working on 12 new lenses for its Alpha mirrorless cameras, which would increase the number of native glass for those shooters from 48 to 60. And Sony is staying true to its word: It has announced the FE 135mm f/1.8 GM lens, the latest addition to its G Master lineup for full-frame mirrorless cameras. This telephoto prime is intended to be a beast for shooting portraits, offering a fast, accurate and quiet autofocus, as well as shallow depth of field for intense bokeh effect. Sony says that the FE 135mm f/1.8 GM's control and ergonomics are designed for both still photography and movie shooting, and it promises "superior performance plus mobility and reliability" compared to any other 135mm full-frame lens on the market. If you're interested, Sony's FE 135mm f/1.8 GM is set to arrive in April for $1,900. Until then, see below for some sample images taken with the lens mounted on an A9 full-frame mirrorless, which turned out to be super sharp and bokeh-laden. To view our sample images in full resolution, click here.
Snapchat is in the middle of an identity crisis
There was a time a year or so ago when, if a friend wanted to send me a meme or a funny selfie, it would be on Snapchat. But I don't remember the last time that happened; at some point Instagram became our go-to messaging app. And apparently I'm not alone: Snapchat lost as many as 3 million daily users in 2018. Meanwhile, Instagram has grown so fast over the past two years that its Stories feature alone is much bigger than Snapchat, with more than 500 million daily users. This has arguably come at Snapchat's expense. But it's not as if Snap isn't looking to turn things around. The company wants to reinvent itself by trying a bunch of different things, like augmented reality shopping, being more open and teaming up with brands such as Nike on AR workshops.
Inside Nike's DIY studio for Snapchat selfie Lenses
Snapchat's Lens Studio, which lets anyone create their own augmented reality filters, has been a big hit for the company. There are now more than 300,000 Lenses created by independent users, and those have been viewed over 35 billion times. Still, Snapchat wants Lens Studio to get even bigger, and what better way to help it do that than by teaming up with one of the biggest brands in the world: Nike. At NBA All-Star Weekend 2019 in Charlotte, North Carolina, Nike and Snapchat built a do-it-yourself studio for people to create AR Lenses on the fly.
Canon unveils more lenses to go with its new EOS RP camera
Canon has announced that, by the end of 2019, it'll add six more lenses to its EOS R and new EOS RP full-frame mirrorless lineup, bringing the total to nine. Coming in the second half of this year, the new models will be the RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM, RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS USM, RF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM, RF 85mm f/1.2L USM, RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS (defocus smoothing) and the RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM.
Panasonic S1 and S1R hands-on: Feature-packed full-frame cameras
Panasonic has officially barged into the full-frame mirrorless fight by launching two new cameras. The S1 is a 24.2-megapixel camera mainly targeting video shooters, while the 47.3-megapixel S1R is for portrait, landscape and other types of high-resolution photography. They looked promising when we saw them at Photokina last year, but there was still a lot we didn't know. Now we not only have the full picture, but I've had a chance to handle the cameras for the better part of a day. The new models beat their rivals from Sony, Nikon and Canon in several ways, especially when it comes to stabilization and 4K video. As it stands now, they look like very competent models that will make your full-frame mirrorless buying decision that much harder -- if it wasn't hard enough already.
