photography

An array of companies have finished work on video compression technology called HEVC or H.265 that promises better video to start with and that paves the way for higher-end extensions next year, they announced today.

The High Efficiency Video Codec supports 4K "UltraHD" video -- and perhaps 8K as well if the video industry can convince buyers that so many pixels are worthwhile. Perhaps more important, given how many people watch video online these days, it doubles video quality for a given network data capacity.

HEVC has the potential to spread very widely indeed. It's the … Read more

Welcome to today's show, where we're finally analyzing the food photography trend for what it is, with the help of this article in the New York Times that profiles restaurateur David Bouley and the creative tactics he's come up with to stop the dining room distractions.

The way we see it, the problem with food photography is that we've collectively lost our shame and sense of subtlety when it comes time to dine. Instead of snapping a quick 3-second iPhone pic, we've seen folks stand on chairs, use tripods with a giant dSLR, and even ask the restaurant to adjust the ceiling lights to suit the mood of the picture.

The fact is that there's really no better way to prove you're eating above your budget than to take a picture of it. Argue all you want, it's just a tacky move and plenty of restaurants agree. Check out today's show to hear some places are doing to avoid the awkwardness.… Read more

Sony adds to its E-mount lens line for the Alpha NEX series of cameras with a 20mm f2.8 pancake (30mm equivalent) that will ship in April for $349.99. Sony currently only offers one other pancake lens, a 16mm f2.8 (24mm equivalent). From a size standpoint, the pancakes are a nice complement to the skinny NEX bodies, but you'll usually get better image quality --and faster apertures -- out of their not-so-slim counterparts.

Sony also took the opportunity to announce standalone pricing and availability for the 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 power zoom E-mount lens that it unveiled … Read more

The good: Your iPhone has a pretty decent camera. Better than decent, in fact, if it's an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5.

The bad: Not everybody likes using the iPhone's screen to frame their shots, especially outdoors, where the ambient light can wash out the display. What's more, anyone accustomed to old-school, SLR-style photography no doubt misses their old-school, SLR-style viewfinder.

To the rescue comes the Photojojo iPhone Viewfinder, which combines hardware and software to give you a more traditional camera experience.

The kit consists of a round, black eyepiece that uses a suction cup to affix … Read more

Good news for shutterbug travelers with limited luggage space: Popular tripod maker Giottos has just released a new range of "YTL" tripods that utilize a new Y-shaped center column design that's 30 percent smaller than the cylindrical columns found in typical tripods. This allows the tripod legs to be tucked into the center column closer, making the tripod more compact and allowing it to be easily stowed.

While the center column sees a reduction in size, the company claims the new design does not compromise the tripod's stability and strength. The new tripod range can support … Read more

Two days ago, I griped that the new photo zoom feature in Google+ didn't work with high-resolution images. But today, it does.

"The blurriness issue you mention has already been fixed," said Dave Cohen, a photographer and Google+ team leader, in response to my experiments posting images ranging from 22 to 80 megapixels.

If you want to take advantage of the full-immersion view that's now available, I uploaded a batch of high-resolution photos from a trip to New Mexico and some even higher-resolution 60- and 80-megapixel shots taken with medium-format Phase One cameras of San Francisco … Read more

The vanilla camera app on the iPhone and iPad does a decent job at capturing those special moments but sometime the occasion may calls for more. With Camera+ you can turn that little camera into something that will give most dedicated point-and-shoot a run for their money.

Packed with a ton of features, Camera+ will bring that dinky phone/tablet camera to the next level. With burst mode those fast-paced sports shots are now within your reach. Timer function will set free you from another self-portrait with the lower quality front-facing cam. Finally, the featured Stabilizer mode is available for … Read more

Worried the photos you share on your various social networks are being used without your permission? For iPhone photographers, Marksta is easily worth the $1.99. The app lets you add a watermark to your photos and provides a wealth of formatting options to protect your photos without ruining them.

To get started, tap the camera button in the upper-left corner to snap a photo or select one from your phone. Marksta will load your photo, below which are seven buttons to create a watermark.

From left to right, the seven buttons let you:

1. Add a border.

2. Change … Read more

Google, which found early success for Google+ among photographers and has been working to keep them happily sharing on its social network, has added the ability to zoom into pictures.

Flickr, Facebook, and other photo-sharing sites offer a larger view of photos, but it's usually at least one click away from the smaller photo that shows by default. Google offers that ability, and last night went one step further by letting people use the mouse scroll wheel to dive further into a photo.

Once zoomed in, clicking and dragging lets people pan around to explore the photo at the … Read more