Lmst

Just reflected graffiti in the Bristol Canal

#Reflected #reflectedinthewater #reflectedgraffiti #graffiti #rivergraffiti

#rx1007 #1inchsensor
#SpoonyPhotography

Some graffiti reflected in the murky canal water, on some brickwork

I just enjoyed the yellowed sign against the deep blue skies
#contemporarysignage #signage #signagedesign #modernsign #experimentalsignage #bluesky #blueskies #northlainesbrighton #northlainesindependent #blackpearl #sonyrx1007 #1_1000s #24200mm #1inchsensor #109mm #compact #integratedlens #compactlens #rx1007 #F5_6 #sony #variableaperture #zeisslens #rx1007sony #39_61mm @blackpearl_banyantree https://instagr.am/p/CZu_ktPM_Kj/

Seagull riding on the thermals while not moving forwards
#Seagull #SeagullAntics #animalantics #sonyrx1007 #200mm #rx1007 #integratedlens #72mm #F4_5 #variableaperture #rx1007sony #compactlens #compact #1_1000s #1inchsensor #24200mm #zeisslens #sony https://instagr.am/p/CZzgn8es8N1/

So this was when I was walking during sunset, and I grabbed this squirrel.
It’s not perfectly in focus, and noisy, but I still like the result and plan on playing more with this camera.
(Another in my #MessingAround #RoughAndReady #NewCamera series)
#squirrel #leaping #leapingsquirrel #prestonpark #noisy
#72mm #sony #rx1007 #integratedlens #1inchsensor #variableaperture #sonyrx1007 #24200mm #rx1007sony #zeisslens #compactlens #compact #200mm #1_320s #F4_5 https://instagr.am/p/CY3kzSpMCxY/

Autel Aims at DJI, Launches EVO Nano and EVO Lite Compact Drones

Autel Robotics has announced the EVO Nano and EVO Lite drones that are designed for beginner enthusiasts and compete directly against the DJI Mini 2 and Air 2S. In particular, the Nano is the first sub-250 gram drone to offer obstacle avoidance.

Autel Robotics might not be as household of a name as DJI, but the Seattle-based and China-owned company won a lawsuit against DJI in May of 2020 involving the design of its most recent run of quadcopters. Victory in that lawsuit may explain why Autel's drones look remarkably similar to the ones DJI has been marketing and selling for years.

The Nano is armed with a 1/1.28-inch CMOS sensor that is capable of capturing 50-megapixel or a 1/2-inch sensor 48-megapixel photos (depending on model between the Nano and Nano+) and uses a large f/1.9 aperture to offer what Autel touts as superior noise reduction capability and the ability to operate in low light conditions. It is also capable of tracking subjects using a combination of phase and contrast detection autofocus, and the company also claims wide dynamic range that will show details in both highlights and shadows.

The Nano weighs 249-pounds and features three-way obstacle avoidance -- a first for a sub-250 gram drone.

Additionally, it has a flight range with live video transmission of up to 6.2 miles, has a 30-minute flight time, and can shoot 4K video. It will be available in four colors: Autel Orange, Arctic White, Deep Space Gray, and Blazing Red

The EVO Lite offers the choice between a 1/1.28-inch sensor capable of 50-megapixel photos a one-inch CMOS sensor capable of 20-megapixel photos -- either the Lite or Lite +. It is armed with Autel's "intelligent moonlight algorithm" that it says allows the drone to capture crisp and vibrant details at night with low noise, even at high ISO settings. It also comes with an adjustable aperture with a range of f/2.8 through f/11 and is capable of capturing 4K HDR content and 6K video at up to 30 frames per second.

The Lite also has what Autel claims is the world's first four-axis gimbal design that promises the ability to orient the camera sideways to capture vertical videos that would be specifically shared on mobile devices. The EVO Lite weighs 820 grams, but shares the same 6.2-mile transmission, 30-minute flight time, and three-way obstacle avoidance found in the Nano. It will be available in three colors: Autel Orange, Arctic White, and Deep Space Gray.

Both drones will, as expected, ship with various automatic modes for different cinematic motions that can be captured via an aerial perspecitive.

The EVO Nano will start at $649 while the Nano+ will cost $799. The EVO Lite series will start $1,149 while the Lite+ will cost $1,249. The availability of the drones was not clear, but expect them to come to market soon.

#equipment #news #1inchsensor #autel #autelrobotics #djiair2s #djimini2 #drones #flyingcamera #newdrone #sub250gram #sub250gramdrone

How Good Is The DJI Air 2S For Drone Landscape Photography?

As someone who enjoys very high-quality images from my 42-megapixel full-frame Sony Alpha 7R III, I was wondering how good the pictures would be out of my new DJI Air 2S drone.

Anyone who enjoys landscape photography will know that before they realize it, they are pixel peeping and fussing over the smallest imperfection in their photos. Of course, there's no way I'm expecting that same quality to come from this drone, but the only thing it can do that I can't do already is fly. So, ultimately, that is the only reason I bought this drone. The interesting question to answer though, is how big or small is that gap from what I’m used to?

To put it in perspective, the 20-megapixel, one-inch sensor of the Air 2S has a surface area of 7.4 times smaller than a full frame camera. To further help give a comparison, due to equivalency, the Air 2S is the same as shooting at 22mm, f/8 at ISO 800 on the full-frame camera.

As you can see in the comparison between the Air2s at ISO100 and the Sony A7III at ISO 800 the difference in quality is very minimal. Being fussy I could say that there's a touch more noise and slightly less sharpness on the Air2s though.

The next picture shows how ISO performs from 100 through to 12,8000. I think the noise is usable for photography up to 400, with 800 at a push. 1,600 onwards though quickly falls apart and really isn't usable. Note that the green light as the ISO increases is due to bringing down the ambient light and the green light on the drone becoming more obvious.

In the real world, understanding the limitations of the drone's sensor helps when it comes to working around them. The photo below is of Rossbeigh, Ireland, and was shot with a three-bracket exposure which helped increase the dynamic range and helped lessen any noise.

For anyone who is trying to decide if they should get the DJI Air 2S for photography, in a nutshell, I believe the DJI Air2s -- for the price -- is the best quality flying photography tool you can get. It's super portable, quick to get flying, easy to fly, and its greatest advantage is how it gives you the ability to get photos you can't get on the land. Essentially, It's a great addition to anyone's photography toolkit.

About the author: Jamie Gillies is an award-winning wedding photographer based in Ireland. He loves to spend his spare time exploring and photographing the stunning landscapes of Ireland and documenting them on his YouTube Channel. To learn more about Jamie, you can visit his website, YouTube, or follow him on Instagram.

#editorial #equipment #technology #1inch #1inchsensor #aerial #aeriallandscapephotography #air2s #dji #djiair2s #drone #landscapephotographer #landscapephotography

Leica Unveils the Leitz Phone 1: 1-Inch Sensor, B&W UI, and Lens Cap

Leica is launching its own smartphone -the Leitz Phone 1 -- that will be exclusively available through Softbank in Japan when it becomes available in Japan. While it's a Leica phone, it shares the same guts as the Aquos R6, a smartphone that boasts a 1-inch sensor camera that Sharp announced in partnership with Leica in May.

According to a report on Engadget, Leica was not afraid to admit that the Leitz Phone 1 was just a rebadged version of the Sharp Aquos R6, but as it has done in the past, Leica focused on giving the phone a "true Leica experience" with different exterior design and user interface. So while the actual hardware is the same as the Aquos R6, the experience of holding and using the phone appears to be quite different.

Starting with what's different, the Leitz Phone 1 runs on Android 11 and features what Leica calls a "largely monochrome" user interface designed by the German camera company. That description doesn't mean the phone isn't in color, but rather the stock apps like the camera phone feature desaturated menus and buttons. The home screen of the phone as well as app icons are still in color, and the camera can also still shoot in full color. That said, the camera app comes pre-loaded with "Leitz Looks" which focus on black and white images. Aside from those changes, reportedly the actual interface and experience of using the phone are pretty similar to stock Android.

The design of the exterior is touted as inheriting "Leica's DNA," which the company says means that it only incorporates elements that it thought were "really necessary." That basically translates to a minimalistic, all-metal exterior and a circular camera array that allows for the attachment of a metal lens cap that mimics an actual Leica camera experience. The camera's body is 9.5 millimeters thick and weighs 212 grams.

On the inside, the phone is identical to the Sharp Aquos R6. It features the same large 1-inch 20-megapixel sensor equipped with a 19mm f/1.9 ASPH. Summicron, seven-element ultrawide lens. Along with the original Sharp smartphone, it is the largest sensor available on any smartphone. It is a prime lens however, so any other focal lengths are performed entirely with digital zoom. It also has the same 6.6-inch IGZO OLED display that also houses a 3D ultrasonic fingerprint sensor underneath it that can read up to two fingerprints simultaneously for increased security.

Just like the Aquos R6, the Leitz Phone 1 is equipped with a Snapdragon 888 processor, 12-gigabytes of RAM. It does, however, provide 256-gigabytes of storage space which is double what was offered on the Sharp smartphone.

The Leitz Phone 1 is available exclusively through Softbank Japan and will retail for 187,920 yen, or about $1,700 when it hits the market in July. Pre-orders start on June 18. No mention of international availability was revealed at the time of publication.

#mobile #news #1inchsensor #japan #leica #leicaleitzphone1 #leitzphone1 #sharp #sharpaquosr6 #smartphone #smartphonecamera #softbank #softbankjapan

Leica switches teams with 1″ sensor branded camera on Sharp’s new Aquos R6 flagship smartphone

#news #1inchsensor #aquosr6 #sharp #smartphonephotography #smartphones

DJI Unveils the Air 2S: 1-Inch Sensor, 20MP Photos, 5.4K Video Capture

DJI has announced the Air 2S drone, a small and portable flying camera that the company says should offer an "all-in-one" solution of robust flight performance, a top-of-the-line camera, and a set of preprogrammed content creation tools.

The Air 2S may not be the first DJI drone to offer 20-megapixel photos captured with a 1-inch sensor (the DJI Mavic 2 Pro gets that honor), but it is the company's smallest. The one-inch sensor is larger than the sensor on the original Mavic Air 2 and offers a larger pixel size of 2.4μm, which DJI says allows it to capture more information and detail which results in better photos and videos.

In addition to standard photo options like Timed Photo, AEB, and Panoramas, DJI says that the Air 2S’s SmartPhoto mode records 20-megapixel photos using advanced scene analysis and deep learning to automatically choose the best of three options that will create the most visually appealing image, including HDR, Hyperlight and Scene Recognition. HDR modes merge several images together for a vibrant scene while Hyperlight is designed for low-light scenarios and Scene Recognition can identify several common settings and apply camera adjustments to capture photos that pop.

While it isn't the first to offer a 1-inch sensor, it is, however, the first of its drones to offer 5.4K video at up to 30 frames per second. It can also capture 4K video at up to 60 frames per second (FPS) at 150Mbps. Video can be recorded in H.264 or H.265, depending on preferences for image detail and storage capacity. DJI also has pre-loaded three video color profiles: Normal (8 bit), D-Log (10 bit), or HLG (10 bit).

While the DJI Zoom is the go-to for optical zooming prowess, the Air 2S has a few options that bring a similar look using digital zoom. It supports 4x zoom at 4K 30fps, 6x at 2.7K 30fps, 4x at 2.7K 60fps, 6x at 1080P 60fps, and 8x at 1080P 30fps.

Digital zoom usually results in shaky, lower quality footage but DJI says that because of its three-axis mechanical gimbal, zoomed footage with the Air 2S should still look high-quality. Additionally, if you forget to put an SD card into the drone before takeoff, DJI added 8GB of internal onboard storage.

The DJI Air 2S has what the company says is the most preprogrammed flight modes and image capture modes of any DJI drone of its size. Some of the more notable ones include:

MasterShots: DJI says that this mode makes "professional-level" aerial footage easier like never before. After activating MasterShots, the drone will autonomously plan a flight path, choose from three different image capture modes, including Proximity, Portrait, or Landscape, and start recording classic aerial footage. Pilots can choose different themes and the DJI Fly app will generate a unique video that’s ready to be shared with the world.

FocusTrack: DJI says that this mode allows the pilot to focus on the scene and "let DJI Air 2S do the hard work." Select your subject by drawing a square around it on your mobile device, then choose from Point of Interest 3.0, an autonomous flight path around the subject; ActiveTrack 4.0, a tool that seamlessly tracks the subject and keeps it in the frame; or Spotlight 2.0, where the drone movement is controlled by the pilot while it locks the subject into the frame.

QuickShots: Quickshots have become somewhat of a stable for DJI products, and the modes for the Air 2S include Rocket, Circle, Dronie, Helix, Boomerang, and Asteroid.

Hyperlapse: The popular moving timelapse feature, also known as a hyperlapse, is back. The Air 2S captures footage in up to 4K and automatically can apply digital stabilization should that be necessary.

The DJI Air 2S offers 31 minutes of maximum flight time and has four-way directional obstacle sensors that help keep the drone from colliding with objects. DJI says that APAS 4.0 is the company's latest and most advanced autopilot system and it allows the Air 2S to maneuver around objects autonomously when activated.

The DJI Air 2S is available immediately for $999 which includes the drone, controller, and one battery as well as all the cables and parts needed to get the drone into the air. The Fly More Combo will retail for $1299 and adds two batteries for a total of three, ND filters, a charging hub, and a shoulder bag.

#equipment #news #1inchsensor #20megapixel #54kvideo #air2s #dji #djiair2s #djidrone #djimavic2pro

DJI Air 2S Review: Solid Performance Where It Counts Most

DJI is labeling the newly announced Air 2S its “all in one” drone. When something is claimed to do it all, I always wonder where the sacrifices are being made.

One year ago, DJI released the Mavic Air 2 to favorable reviews. Now, the company has discarded the “Mavic” and added an “S,” yet the Air 2S is just as much of a retooling as it is a revision. The camera switches from having a smaller sensor with a lot of megapixels to a larger sensor with not a lot of megapixels. This is a big leap that splits apart what some may have valued in the Mavic Air 2. However, the Air 2S holds onto the same design elements and adds various improvements to sensors and flight technology.

It’s an Air, but it’s now a different kind of Air.

Design and Ease of Use

At 1.31 pounds (595 grams), the larger 1-inch sensor of the Air 2S adds a touch more weight over the 1.26 pounds (570 grams) of the Mavic Air 2. Clearly, the difference with that is going to be imperceptible as far as carrying it around goes. The new drone also has the same size and look as the Mavic Air 2. The gray plastic housing and moveable parts in the form of propeller arms and the three-axis camera gimbal do make the drone seem fragile, but that feeling dissipated the more I used it and witnessed its abilities in flight.

With the propeller arms folded in, the Air 2S can slide into most spots of a photo bag given there are the 7 inches of length or depth needed to fit. In all, it’s not asking for a lot. Likewise, the included remote controller has removable joysticks (and slots to store them) that make it even more compact for storing in any tight spaces. During the review period, I did not have to modify my decently full camera backpack at all to add the new drone and controller to the mix.

Talking more about the controller, it features a straightforward layout that was simple to learn on my own. It’s constructed with the same feeling material as the Air 2S with the addition of rubber grips on the backside for hand comfort. It comes with a few different plug-in adapters to fit different models of smartphones, and everything tucks in neatly when not in use. One part I found confusing was where the over-the-top loud operational beeps and fake shutter noises were coming from on the controller and how to disable them. Turns out most of them come from the plugged-in smartphone even though the controller has its own speaker, and I’d prefer if things were consolidated for simple muting of non-critical warnings.

The controller has an internal battery that can be charged via a USB-C port. Throughout testing, I never saw the battery level dip after a day’s shooting. I’d top it almost off every night simply as part of a system charging of all the drone’s batteries, but if I forgot there was no problem either the next day.

Getting up in the air for the first time was dead simple. The most time-consuming part for me was probably just attaching the propellers. Not that it’s difficult, but as you can imagine the propellers are kind of a major point in the flying process and I was cautious not to somehow mess it up. Even here, though, DJI makes it so easy by color-coding what propeller goes where and stamping on each individual blade which way to turn to lock it in place so there’s never anything to actually remember (a theme that seems to cut through everything while using the Air 2S).

Once up in the air, the Air 2S does have a new advantage in that it now features a topside obstacle sensor in addition to the three other sensors found on the front, back, and bottom. Besides sensing objects while elevating, the topside sensor also benefits the drone as it is flying at higher speed with the nose pitched downward where in effect the topside becomes a frontside sensor. Testing the sensors by flying toward opaque objects without being too reckless, I never saw any hesitation for the drone to reduce speed with enough distance to come to a stop. This can become a little bit of an annoyance when attempting to land the drone near an object as it won’t move as expected by the controls you are inputting, until realizing what’s happening.

Now up to four sensors, 3D mapping of objects for avoidance, APAS 4.0 to intelligently navigate around obstructions, and binocular zoom technology to sense obstacles further away, can you still crash the Air 2S into something? As me and an innocent tree can attest to: yes, you can still find your way into something by doing an automated sideways-flying hyperlapse shot and not creating enough waypoints to avoid obstacles. Line of sight still matters, and as I learned, the perspective from which you are observing matters in ensuring safe flights.

Image Quality

The DJI Air 2S has a 22mm lens (full-frame equivalent) with a f/2.8 fixed aperture that fronts the 1-inch, 20-megapixel imaging sensor. Small sensors shine in good light, and at ISO 100 the fine details and resolving power were impressive. These images are able to step beyond the mobile screens that smartphone photography seems to live and die on, and can withstand scrutiny on larger monitors.

ISO 100 100% crop, ISO 100 100% crop, ISO 200

Stepping up from the 1/2-inch sensor of the Mavic Air 2, the Air 2S and its 1-inch sensor has even larger pixel photosites of 2.4µm. This should give the Air 2S a little more breathing room in image quality above its most optimal settings. As we see above in a 100 percent crop of ISO 200, one stop up from base ISO and the image still look good.

100% crop, ISO 400 100% crop, ISO 800 100% crop, ISO 1600 100% crop, ISO 3200

Stepping into the higher ISOs, finer details quickly deteriorate into puddles of pixels. Even by ISO 800, the resolution just isn’t on the same level as ISO 100 or ISO 200 and begins looking like low-grade phone photography. For some shooting, it might be passable, but moving beyond that is not something I see myself repeating after these tests.

One other area of weakness is the corner sharpness. Usually, strong corner sharpness is not necessarily something I hold in high regard if compromises must be made in a lens, but the nature of drone photography does lead to it being more important.

Showing corner sharpness of bottom left. 100% crop.

Many people love shooting aerials in the “lay flat” top-down style where everything can look so orderly and interesting from the new perspective, and it’s something where poor corner sharpness can negatively affect the flow of attention toward the center when it’s the relation of all the pieces that matter. Likewise, if you’re incorporating a drone into commercial photography work like real estate or architecture, smudging the edges is not a good look. With 20 megapixels to work with, there is some leeway to shoot further back and crop in past the extremes edges, but not much.

With 12.6 stops of dynamic range when shooting RAW, the Air 2S does play nicely in post-processing. It’s nothing magical when compared to dedicated full-frame cameras that we may also be shooting with of course, but there’s definitely room for pushing and pulling when you need to capture a high contrast scene in one image.

Unedited photo. Full highlight recovery and shadow recovery with Capture One.

Video Quality

What’s true for stills in the Air 2S can be expanded upon for recording video as the stakes are higher when it’s not just one split second that needs things to come together, but many seconds and beyond. For that, stability is key and the Air 2S delivers. I’m blown away that this small drone can perform such smooth maneuvers where it looks like a camera on rails, even in moderately strong winds. Better yet, it’s nearly effortless to accomplish on the controller once the sensitivity settings are customized in the menu. The “Cine” mode settings out the box are still too jarring, but luckily everything can be fine-tuned in the app to anyone’s liking.

DJI utilizes the 20-megapixel sensor inside the Air 2S to expand its recording resolution up to 5.4K. To my eye, 5.4K on a 4K timeline fits right in with the 4K footage. The advantage with 5.4K, however, is being able to add zoom effects for a more dynamic clip or simply cropping down into a 4K picture to effectively enlarge a subject in the frame without any loss in quality. If slow motion is not necessary, shooting in 5.4K offers a lot of leverage for post work and is my go-to for 24 fps.

Still frame from 5.4K clip. D-log picture profile. 100% crop. Still frame from 4K clip. D-log picture profile. 100% crop.

For shooting faster frame rates, 4K at 60 fps is clearly the winner in image quality over 1080p at 120 fps. Obviously, there’s a great difference in the amount of slow motion capability between them, but it’s also a difference between one being good looking and one not so much.

Still frame from 1080p clip. D-log picture profile. 100% crop. Still frame from 1080p clip. D-log picture profile. 100% crop. Moire effect seen near center.

Using the slow-motion mode which records Full HD is noisy regardless of settings, and I’ve seen heavy moire artifacts over rippling water and grass fields. In the second Full HD frame above, this is happening near the center. The flashing effect is extremely noticeable in playback. Neither appears to plague 5.4K or 4K footage.

One of the firmware updates that came to the Mavic Air 2 after release was the ability to digitally zoom, and here with the Air 2S we see it at launch. You may scoff, but digital zoom in moderation has the potential to be indistinguishable and I use Sony’s Clear Image Zoom quite a bit on their cameras. In testing the Air 2S digital zoom capabilities, however, it’s not looking great. Any level of zoom unfortunately does not hold up on a computer screen. That said, if you’re recording to post to Instagram, then it may be of use. As you can see from the comparison below, scaling any of them to a small size hides the monster that is the 100 percent crop under that.

Stills from 4K 1x, 2x, 3x, and 4x digital zoom. Still from 4K with 4x digital zoom. 100% crop.

As for video editing, the Air 2S can record 10-bit H.265 files when the color profile is set to D-log or HLG. D-log is the same profile used to get a flatter, low contrast image that would require color correction anyway, and is what I shot with. It honestly surprised me how well the footage held up to grading without getting crunchy. In situations where the dynamic range was too much for the sensor, such as shooting backlit with the sun reflecting off the water (watch the video above), it never got to the point where it was so blotchy that figures moving through it lacked definition. The Air 2S is a very strong performer when it comes to consumer drone videography.

A Drone That Knows Its Priorities

Looking at the most sought-after specs of the Air 2S also reveals its strengths. Thanks in part to the 1-inch sensor, the image quality looks good even when viewed on bigger screens. The 5.4K footage matches quality with 4K, both of which look great and can be pushed and pulled in post-production with help from the 10-bit D-log picture profile.

Its main weaknesses I found are in high ISOs and Full HD footage. For the Full HD 1080p video, it’s fine. They can keep that as it’s not exactly high on my list when 5.4K and 4K are there. While being able to use higher ISOs is never a bad thing, I’d wager most people will be getting away with ISO 100 to 400 no problem for everything they do. Between the added distance a drone requires and the 22mm lens, if freezing motion is the issue it can do so with less shutter speed. Otherwise, I’ve seen no problem in dropping the ISO down and letting the shutter fall where it may. If anything, it’s been a constant fight for me with the Air 2S to knock out more light with neutral density filters.

Are There Alternatives?

The DJI Mavic Air 2 released last year is probably the best to compare to because of how alike and different they are, and there are tradeoffs where the older model might be a better fit. While the Air 2S gets a larger 1-inch sensor with 20 megapixels to work with, the Mavic Air 2 has a smaller 1/2-inch sensor but a big bump of 48 megapixels. More megapixels on the Mavic Air 2 also means it can record 8K hyperlapse videos, but as for standard video recording the new Air 2S beats it with up to 5.4K resolution.

If it’s purely a megapixel war for capturing stills in good light, the Mavic Air 2 has merit to win. But again, the Air 2S also brings the latest safety improvements such as the added topside sensor and APAS 4.0 obstacle avoidance, plus the third-generation OcuSync — now called O3 — for better remote transmission.

Should You Buy It?

Yes. The DJI Air 2S impressed me in all the ways I would actually put the drone to use in my own shooting. Getting up in the air has been made so simple, and the joy of floating around with a new perspective never ceased to amaze me. Seemingly complex filming maneuvers can either be automated with the DJI Fly app or done on my own without much learning curve. Better yet, getting home with what I captured lived up to be worthwhile for the time spent out getting it.

#equipment #reviews #1inchsensor #20mp #5k #aerialphotography #aerialvideography #air2s #djiair2s #djidrone #drone #dronereview #review

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