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Photo FOMO: Leica Elpro turns plain lenses into macro, Fujifilm Fest returns

Sample image shot with the Leica Elpro 52 Leica

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 a new PaintShop Pro, Epson’s fastest personal photo scanner, and Lensbaby’s new Sol 45 lens, find briefs on the latest in accessories and photo industry news from this week with Photo FOMO.

The Leica Elpro turns regular lenses into macro bokeh masters

Leica

Leica M and TL shooters may no longer need to invest in a macro lens to capture close-ups. On Thursday, August 9, Leica announced the Elpro 52, a close-up attachment that turns more than 20 different M and TL lenses into a macro lens. Leica says the Elpro allows lenses to shoot closer to the subject, while also creating a shallow depth of field. The company says the accessory still maintains the usual focus and aperture settings of the lens.

The Leica Elpro retails for $395 from Leica dealers and includes stepping rings for 46mm and 49mm lenses.

Artificial intelligence can now pair photos with articles

Panels by Getty Images

A.I. can tag photos and recognize landmarks — and now determine photos to pair with an article. This week, Getty Images launched Panels, a tool that helps publishers quickly find an image to accompany an article. Powered with a partnership from Vizual.AI, the tool improves over time to learn the type of images each editor tends to select. Custom filters can also be used to narrow down the search results.

The tool, Panels by Getty, is part of Getty Images Premium Access. A similar partnership earlier this year with Cortex helps find images for social media campaigns.

Fujifilm Festival returns to California for workshops, classes and photo walks

After a successful first year, the Fujifilm Festival is slated to return to Venice, California on October 5-7. The festival includes full-day workshops, classes, and a free photo walk. Workshops will be led by professionals across multiple industries, including street, travel, and wedding photography and names like Elia Locardi, Xyza Cruz Bacani, and Michelle Turner. Andrew Primavera and Tehillah De Castro will also lead a workshop on industrializing video.

After the full workshops on the first day, the festival includes elective courses on the second day, and opens up to a free photo walk along the Venice Beach Boardwalk on Sunday. The event isn’t exclusive to Fujifilm shooters, though attendees will have the chance to borrow some of the latest Fujifilm gear. The event is limited to 150 participants; registration is $449 on or before August 31 and goes up to $499 on September 1. Additional information is available at the Fujifilm Festival website.

Shutterstock images go VR with Magic Leap Integration

Virtual reality developers working on the Magic Leap platform now have easier access to Shutterstock images. This week, Shutterstock announced a partnership with Magic Leap that brings Shutterstock images and video into the Magic Leap One Creator Edition. With the new partnership, developers can place images or videos inside the VR experience, including hanging a virtual picture frame.

“It is really exciting to be working with a company as innovative and forward thinking as Magic Leap,” Jon Oringer, Founder and CEO of Shutterstock, said in a press release. “To know that assets from Shutterstock will help provide some of the digital building blocks for developers to create new environments and entirely new worlds is the kind of thing Shutterstock is built for. Opening up our contributors’ work to be used in a completely new way is thrilling. As a technology company first, Shutterstock is well placed to help feed the imaginations of these creative pioneers. I can’t wait to see what they build.”

Adobe expands TypeKit fonts — and makes them easier to find

Adobe TypeKit now has 665 fonts from the Monotype collection available for download — along with new tools coming to make finding specific fonts easier. The 41 font families come from Monotype, which Adobe says is one of the largest and most influential type companies. The collection includes options like ITC Benguiat (like the Stranger Things title) and popular options like Gills Sans and Rockwell Nova.

With the TypeKit collection included with Creative Cloud now numbering over 9,000, Adobe is also making changes to make finding the right font simpler. An upcoming InDesign and Illustrator update will allow the fonts to be accessed without leaving the application. The font user interface is also getting improvements.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 uses camera A.I. to scan documents

Galaxy Note 9 camera app
Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

The new Samsung Galaxy Note 9’s built-in cameras use artificial intelligence for boosted quality and features — and that A.I. can also recognize when you want a scan and not a snapshot. On Thursday, August 9, Adobe shared a new feature that connects Adobe Scan with the Note 9’s Bixby Vision smart assistant.

The Note 9 camera will auto-recognize when there’s a document or receipt in front of the camera, then convert the file into a PDF using Adobe Scan. The feature skips the process of switching from the camera over to the Adobe Scan app, while still incorporating Adobe Sensei to detect edges, auto crop, and enhance text.

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Astronauts test new moon camera for upcoming Artemis mission
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Astronaut Thomas Pesquet tests the moon camera in Lanzarote, Spain. ESA

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Sony camera Black Friday deals: Save on camera body and lenses
sony-a9-best-mirrorless-camera

The deals season has officially started and Black Friday deals are coming out of the woodwork to get us items that we might normally pass on. And if there is one company that has been dominating again and again this year, it is Sony. We've seen flush rosters of Sony Black Friday deals, such as Sony headphones and earbuds deals where you can get a pair of headphones for as low as $10. Meanwhile, Black Friday Sony TV deals are getting us up to a thousand dollars off on an 8K TV. So, the big question becomes, what are photographers getting from Sony this year?

We've already seen the Sony brand pop up in the mirrorless and point and shoot categories for our investigation of the best Black Friday camera deals. Now, we wish to go more in depth and see what else we can snag from the brand, including lenses. If you're not set on a Sony, there are great GoPro Black Friday deals, Nikon Black Friday deals, and Canon Black Friday deals available as well.
Best Sony body Black Friday deals

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Sony Alpha 7R V mirrorless camera is $400 off for Black Friday
sony alpha 7r v mirrorless camera deal best buy november 2023 release render

If you're thinking about getting a new mirrorless camera from this year's Black Friday deals, here's an offer that you shouldn't pass up -- the Sony Alpha 7R V for $3,500, following a $400 discount from Best Buy on its sticker price of $3,900. It's still not affordable with the savings, but this mirrorless camera will quickly prove that it's worth every single penny. We're not sure how much time remains before its price goes back to normal though, so if you don't want to miss out on what we think will turn out to be one of the most popular Sony camera Black Friday deals, you know what to do -- add it to your cart and check out immediately.

Why you should buy the Sony Alpha 7R V mirrorless camera
Among the benefits of a mirrorless camera is they're less bulky because of the absence of the mirror found in a DSLR, so instead of an optical viewfinder, you'll compose your shots on an electronic viewfinder or an LCD screen, according to our digital camera buying guide. You'll get these with the Sony Alpha 7R V and more, as it's capable of recording 8K 24p/25p and 4K 60p/50p video, and taking 61MP photos. It's powered by the Bionz XR image processor, which can process massive amounts of image data while reducing latency.

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