Afraid of missing out on the latest photo industry news while you’re out, well, actually taking pictures? Photo FOMO is all the news you might have missed this week, published on the weekends. Alongside the biggest stories of the week, like the new Pentax K-1 Mark II, Sony’s flash that can keep up with 10 fps bursts, and Tamron’s first Sony FE mount lens, find briefs on the latest in accessories and photo industry news from this week with Photo FOMO.
VSCO X gets advanced color tools
Photo editor VSCO now allows mobile photographers to play with color — earlier this week, VSCO launched an HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness tool) inside the mobile app. True to the company’s promise, that new feature is coming first to VSCO X subscribers, so the app’s free users don’t have access yet.
The HSL tool allows photographers to adjust six different color families individually — a similar tool has long been a part of desktop apps like Lightroom, but the tool is less common on smartphone-based apps. The hue control will adjust the color’s shade while saturation adjusts the amount of that color, and lightness (also called luminance) changes how light or dark the color is.
Photographers can use the HSL tool to draw more attention to a specific part of the photo, to correct color errors or simply to create stylistic adjustments.
Samyang launches 50mm designed for 50 megapixels — without autofocus
High-end lenses help high-resolution cameras reach their full potential, and lens company Samyang is unveiling another option for 50-plus megapixel Canon shooters. On Tuesday, January 20, Samyang announced the XP 50mm f/1.2 in a Canon mount. As part of the company’s high-end XP series that now has three lens options, the new glass is designed for 50 megapixels or higher and 8K.
The manual focus lens, Samyang says, is optimized particularly for portraits, and paired with a high-resolution camera will capture details down to strands of hair. The bright f/1.2 aperture is adjusted with nine blades for smooth bokeh.
Constructed from 11 lens pieces in eight groups, Samyang says the lens’ design is tailored for high-resolution cameras while working to minimize distortion and aberrations. Multiple lens coatings reduce glare and ghosting. All those pieces make the lens tip the scales at 2.65 pounds.
The company hasn’t yet announced U.S. availability, but the lens retails for 800 British pounds (roughly $1,170) and ships in March 2018 in Europe.
Smartphones could be going square — for filters anyways
Square filters tend to have several advantages over circular filters — they can be stacked, and for graduated filters, photographers can place the start of that graduation anywhere in the image. And those same perks could be coming to smartphone photography. Earlier this week, accessory company NiSi shared an unboxing of an upcoming square filter system for smartphones.
The system uses a filter holder that screws onto a clip that keeps the filters in place over the phone. The mini-square filters can then be used similar to a filter system on a DSLR, stacking filters or adjusting the placement. Nisi hasn’t yet shared pricing or availability on the upcoming smartphone accessory.
