A digest of last week’s news is a selection of some of the news from week 50 related to the worlds of photography and video, covering multiple topics, always rounded up with a reading suggestion.
RED introduces Scarlet-W
RED introduced the newest addition to the RED DRAGON family, SCARLET-W. According to the information available, SCARLET-W combines RED’s intuitive camera design—including integrated mounting points, interchangeable lens mounts, simultaneous REDCODE RAW and Apple ProRes recording formats, intelligent OLPF system, and in-camera 3D LUT outputs—with a RED DRAGON sensor to provide a solution that blends flexibility and accessibility with high-end performance.
SCARLET-W comes on the heels of the recent 4.5K RED RAVEN announcement, and is, says the company, “the latest example of RED’s ongoing commitment to the belief that cinema-quality creative tools should not be in the hands of a few—they should be available to a wide spectrum of content creators”.
SCARLET-W is estimated to begin shipping in February 2016. Customers will be given a choice of purchasing the BRAIN only – priced at – $9,950 – to build a kit that best fits their needs or choosing the SCARLET-W Base I/O V-Lock Package – $14,500 -, available March 2016, which offers everything content creators need to start taking their productions to the next level.
GoPro’s drone got a name: Karma
The GoPro drone will enter the market in 2016, but the company already named it: Karma! A test video that does not show much besides the fact that it is indeed an aerial shoot, and the announcement of a contest which will distribute 100 drones are all GoPro has to show at the moment. Those interested can sign up at http://gopro.com/karma to get the latest news about Karma and the chance to win 1 of the 100 Karma drones GoPro is giving away at launch.
While there is not much information available, yet, about GoPro’s drone, the company’s founder and CEO, Nicholas Woodman officially revealed, this Summer, the company is working on a quadcopter drone, confirming rumours that go back to 2013.
New from Synology: DiskStation DS216
A feature-rich 2-bay NAS server conceived to be a perfect match for workgroups and office environment, and specially designed for sharing and protecting data, the DS216 is built to deliver optimal multi-tasking experience at best price/performance ratio. Powered by a dual-core 1.3 GHz CPU and 512 MB DDR3 memory, DS216 outperforms its predecessor and delivers an exceeding read and write speed at over 111 MB/s under RAID 1 configuration in a Windows environment.
The built-in floating-point unit enhances the overall capability of the main CPU of the DiskStation DS216, and is particularly advantageous in speeding up thumbnail creation when uploading large amounts of photos or videos, besides enhancing photo viewing at different resolutions.
Panasonic is looking at 8K sensors
Panasonic will once again develop image sensors after freezing such operations for the last few years, aiming for applications including 8K ultrahigh-definition technology, according to a report publish in Nikkei.
Panasonic will spend around 10 billion yen ($80.8 million) to develop next-generation image sensors, with plans to release them in fiscal 2018. The Japanese company aims to develop sensors that support 8K technology, which provides 16 times the resolution of conventional high-definition video, and feature fast image-processing speeds. Eliminating the boundary between videos and photos, the sensors will be able to capture fast-moving objects such as a child or animal in clear still images. For some this will mean more people will get video than stills.
With Sony, Canon and others already developing 8K-compatible sensors, the arrival of Panasonic will contribute to accelerate development in the area. Now we just need to have the space to keep all that data…
One eBook about Astrophotography
Today’s photographic equipment allows amateurs to take pictures of the stars that far surpass images taken just a few decades ago by even the largest observatories — and this book will teach you how. At a special price, this week.
Author and world-renowned astrophotographer Thierry Legault teaches the art and techniques of astrophotography in this eBook. From simple camera-on-tripod night-scene imaging of constellations, star trails, eclipses, artificial satellites, and polar auroras to more intensive astrophotography using specialized equipment for lunar, planetary, solar, and deep-sky imaging. Legault shares advice on equipment and guides you through techniques to capture and process your images to achieve spectacular results.
Astrophotography provides the most thorough treatment of the topic available. This large-format, richly illustrated book is intended for all sky enthusiasts — newcomers and veterans alike. Astrophotography, with 240 pages of information is the Rocky Nook eBook deal of the week, with a special price of $9.99 if you use the code ASTROP. The offer ends 20/12/15.