December 2012 news and reviews

The Kata Digital Rucksack 467-DL is the flagship model in the company's new D-Lite backpack range, which is geared towards the 'on-the-go amateur' photographer. It packs in a lot of features, including space for a full DSLR kit and 17in laptop at a reasonable price. If you're in the market for a backpack that will get you through most shoots without breaking the bank, then the 467-DL might be for you. Read our review for more details. 

Well, hasn't 2012 gone by quickly? We're nearly at the end of another year, and 2012 was one of the busiest that we can remember, as camera manufacturers regained some momentum after the worst of the economic downturn and various natural disasters. This year saw a lot of innovation and movement at the top of the ranges of biggest camera manufacturers, making it a fantastic year for photo enthusiasts and reviewers alike (even if we are completely exhausted at this point). So at the end of an incredibly busy year we want to know which cameras stood out for you. Click through for a link to our end-of-year poll. 

German photographer Markus Reugels has gained quite a bit of attention over the years for his stunning and colorful high-speed photographs of the shapes and forms created when liquid is dropped into water. If you've ever been curious as to what it takes to get images like these, Reugels talks briefly about the equipment and technique he's currently using and shares an image of his actual setup.

A patent filed by Nikon in Japan appears to revive the long-held dream of adding a digital sensor to an existing film SLR. The Japanese Engineering Accomplishment blog found the recently published patent that shows a mechanism for mounting and adjusting the position of a digital sensor on a rear door that could be used to replace the conventional film door. However, the patent only covers the mounting of the sensor relative to the film guides - it doesn't address any of the hurdles that have stood in the way of anyone realizing this long-discussed idea. (via PetaPixel)

Samsung and Time Out magazine have announced the ‘Share your Now’ contest. Participants can upload images they have captured of New York or London to a dedicated portal on the Time Out website. Each week, five entrants from each city will win a Samsung Galaxy Camera. When the nine-week competition closes on 4th March, Time Out will commission three winners from London, and three from New York, 'to share their take on their own city', using their Android OS-based camera. These final images will be featured on the front cover of region-specific Time Out magazines. The winners will also receive a free trip to the other city. A grand winner will be announced after readers vote for their favorite cover photo. The competition is open until 10 February 2013.

DxOMark has introduced a new metric of lens sharpness that it's calling the 'Perceptual MegaPixel'. This is designed to give a simple, easily-understandable indication of how a lens impacts on the resolution of the camera with which it's paired. The measurement is based on standard MTF (Modulation Transfer Function) testing, but also takes into account the sensitivity of the human visual system to detail. The data can be explored over at the DxOMark website.  

DxO Labs has updated its DxO Optics Pro software to version 8.1.1 with the addition of support for the Sony SLT-A99, Canon EOS M, Pentax K-5 II and K-5 IIs. The latest update also includes over 300 additional camera/lens correction modules. The update is free for Optics Pro 8 users and is available immediately. New users can purchase the latest version with a 33% discount until December 25, 2012.

Microsoft has released an updated version of its Camera Codec Pack for Windows Vista, 7, 8 and RT. The latest update allows applications such as Windows Explorer, Windows Photo Viewer, Media Center, and Windows Photo Gallery to deal with Raw files from 34 additional cameras. The cameras include the Canon EOS M, Olympus OM-D E-M5 and Sony NEX-7.

Flickr has updated its web interface and released an updated version of its iOS app as it tries to reassert its relevance in a post-Instagram landscape. The refresh of the web interface sees the navigation bar at the top of the site get slimmer, to devote more page space to photos. The 'Explore' page has also been redesigned - taking on the full-width, large tiled design used in the 'My Contacts' page. Flickr has also updated its famously poor iOS app, adding processing filters and better discovery tools.

Carl Zeiss has announced its annual photo contest for images shot with one of its lenses. Any Zeiss lens is considered valid, from Nokia smartphones through Sony compacts, such as the RX100, to the company's high-end interchangeable lenses. This year's theme is 'The moment that knows no limits' and first prize is one of the company's manual focus SLR and rangefinder lenses, with a variety of other Zeiss-branded prizes for runners-up. The contest runs on Flickr until January 15th.

Adobe has announced CS6 updates that are exclusive to Creative Cloud subscribers. Adobe Photoshop 13.1 offers among other things, the ability to apply Liquify and Lens Blur effects as Smart Objects and use conditional statements when creating Actions. However, these changes are unavailable to those who've bought traditional versions of Photoshop CS6, and Adobe has not said when, or even if, 'perpetual users' of CS6 will have access to these features. Retina Display support for Mac, also announced today, is available for all users.

DxO Labs has announced version 1.1 of its ViewPoint distortion correction software, promising more accurate tools and faster operation. Viewpoint is designed to correct keystone distortions (converging verticals and horizontals), and restore more natural proportions to objects towards the edge of the frame when using wide-angle lenses. It is available either as a stand-alone tool or as a plugin for Adobe PhotoShop (CS3 or newer) or Lightroom (version 3 or newer), and for both Mac and PC.

Financial news service Bloomberg is reporting Apple and Google are working together to purchase some of Kodak's imaging patents. The companies are said to be working together - lending more weight to reports in the Wall Street Journal from back in August. The story suggests the two companies, along with the groups of smaller companies with whom they'd been preparing bids, will offer more than $500m for the patents. Such a figure would give Kodak access to $830m of external funding that is dependent on the value of the patent deal.

Adapter and accessory maker Fotodiox has announced two adapters to enable the use of filters with wide-angle lenses that have large convex front elements. The WonderPana Filter systems are based around adapter hoods that allow 145mm circular filters or 6.6" rectangular filters to be used, via an adapter. Each system comes with a lens cap that mounts on the hood, allowing the lens to be stored and protected without needing to repeatedly remove the adapter hood. A variety of adapter and filter kits are available for a range of Super-wide and Ultra-wide lenses.

DxO Labs has updated its Optics Pro Raw conversion software to version 8.1, adding support for five cameras: the Sony NEX-6, Olympus PEN E-PL5 and E-PM2, and Canon Powershot G15 and S110. An enhanced print module now offers colour management and sharpness adjustment for printing, and there's also an option to output JPEG or TIFF files with EXIF data removed. The software is available immediately from the DxO Labs online store, with a special end of year price through to December 25th 2012.

A New York tabloid newspaper has caused controversy by publishing an image of a man about to be killed by a subway train on its front cover, along with a dramatic headline. The image shows a subway train bearing down on a man who'd been pushed into its path. The paper's handling of the story has been widely criticized and it raises a range of issues over the actions of all the parties involved. Journalism school The Poynter Institute has an interesting summary, separating the different aspects about a controversy that brings a lot of difficult questions about photojournalism and news reporting. What do you think?

Canon has added three wireless Pixma photo printers and a CanoScan photo scanner to its imaging products range. The Pixma MG6320 (MG6350 in Europe) and MG5420 (MG5450 in Europe) are wireless photo all-in-ones (combined scanner/printers)while the Pixma iP7220 (iP7250) is a standalone wireless photo printer. The MG5420 and iP7220 are five ink printers (CMYK plus pigment black), while the MG6320 adds a grey ink. All three printers can be used to print wirelessly from Canon's latest Wi-Fi models such as the PowerShot S110 and EOS 6D. The CanonScan 9000F Mark II is a standalone scanner with film adapter, allowing film to be scanned at up to 9600 x 9600dpi.

In this guide we'll lead you step-by-step through the process of understanding the different kinds of lenses available for both DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, and choosing the right one for your needs.