The original Pro Camera app was widely regarded as one of the best alternatives to Apple’s native camera app, even reaching the #1 rated camera app spot for several years. But it had begun to show its age with slower startup times and occasional crashes. Pro Camera II aims to fix that with a faster, more stable foundation and an overhauled user experience.

Rebuilt for Performance and Creative Control

Pro Camera II introduces a streamlined, configurable interface and expands access to manual photography tools. Users can shoot in Shutter Priority, ISO Priority, Manual, or Auto exposure modes, including the ability to define a custom Auto ISO range for more consistent exposures.

White balance controls have also been upgraded. Photographers can adjust temperature and tint, choose presets, or calibrate using a gray card. The app even allows fine-tuning of image processing and HDR intensity for more precise results.

Introducing Natural Processing – our new photography processing mode that preserves your iPhone’s natural grain and doesn’t add additional sharpness or clarity so you can get authentic photos. pic.twitter.com/gMumFFiUUb

— Moment Pro Camera (@MomentProCamera) November 6, 2025

Professional Video Tools on the iPhone

Moment has packed the new version with a robust set of video features normally found in dedicated cinema apps. Pro Camera II supports Apple Log, Open Gate, ProRes, and 10-bit recording. Users can configure resolution, frame rate, codec, color space, bitrate, and chroma subsampling.

Video monitoring tools include Waveform, RGB Histogram, and audio metering—important additions for shooters who need accurate exposure and color control.

LUT support is also built in. LUTs can be imported, applied to photo and video, and toggled between preview mode or baked-in output with adjustable intensity.

Customizable Interface and Workflow

Pro Camera II’s interface can be tailored to the user’s shooting style. A left-hand layout option and customizable quick-access tools make it easier to reach frequently used settings such as flash, stabilization, zebras, grids, and focus peaking. Zen Mode simplifies the interface for distraction-free shooting, removing everything except essential tools.

The updated app integrates seamlessly with Moment’s iPhone lens and case ecosystem. Moment says future updates will add slow shutter and timelapse modes, advanced profile sharing, and expanded support for third-party hardware.

Pricing and Availability

Moment’s Pro Camera II app is available now on the Apple App Store for $9.99.

The post Moment Launches Pro Camera II for iOS With New Manual and Video Features appeared first on Imaging Resource.

Panasonic has announced a new firmware version for its flagship GH6 Micro Four Thirds camera. Firmware version 2.0 was developed in partnership with Atomos, a global company that creates technologies for filmmakers. The update promises significantly improved video recording options. Firmware 2.0 will allow users to output up to 5.8K/59.94p and C4K/119.88p raw video data over HDMI as Apple ProRes RAW video on Atomos Ninja V and Ninja V+ devices.

Panasonic said, “First introduced in February 2022, the highly-regarded LUMIX GH6 has been recognized for its exceptional video performance and handling among existing and new GH users worldwide. Over time, the GH6 will evolve with firmware updates to further enhance its performance and usability to meet the changing needs of creators.”

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Looking closer at the raw video data output over HDMI, Apple ProRes RAW can be recorded in regular Micro Four Thirds format (17:9 ratio) at 5.7K at up to 59.94p on the Atomos Ninja V+. On the standard Ninja V, the frame rate is capped at 29.97p. For Cinema 4K (4096 x 2160) video, the Ninja V+ can record up to 119.98p and the Ninja V records at up to 59.94p. In Micro Four Thirds Anamorphic format (4:3 ratio), 5.8K-A footage can be recorded at up to 29.97p using the Ninja V+ and 25p on the Ninja V. 4.4K-A footage is recordable up to 59.94p on the Ninja V+.

Alongside the new performance benchmarks with Atomos Ninja V recorders, Panasonic offers a LUT (lookup table) designed exclusively for the raw video on the Ninja V/V+. The LUT provides the same color grading as V-Log/V-Gamut. Users can easily match colors between footage recorded on the GH6, Varicam and EVA1 cameras using the LUT. The LUT is available here.

Panasonic GH6

In addition to improved video output recording options, Panasonic is improving the GH6’s internal recording options. There are a lot of specs to consider, so we’ll be discussing just the highlights. With firmware 2.0, you can internally record C4K 60p/FHD 60p in ProRes 422 HQ/ProRes 422. The update allows users to load low compression and high-quality data directly to the PC without transcoding for smooth non-linear editing (NLE). The new internal C4K 59.94p recording requires a CFexpress card. If you’re limited to just an SD card, you can only record FHD ProRes 422 video.

Firmware version 2.0 for the Panasonic GH6 will be available on July 5. When released, the download will be available on Panasonic’s global support site.

The post Panasonic announces firmware 2.0 for the GH6, adding impressive Atomos Ninja V/V+ support and better ProRes video recording appeared first on Imaging Resource.

It’s that time again, folks. The weekend is here, and with it, your weekly firmware update roundup. For this week’s Firmware Friday, we have updates for four cameras and one camera accessory from Blackmagic and Nikon. The latter also has software updates for two apps which, although not technically firmware, we’ll still cover.

We’ll start with Blackmagic Design, though. We covered their recent version 1.8 updates for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera and Blackmagic Production Camera 4K at the end of June, and now they’ve followed up with v1.8.2 updates for the same three cameras. An interim v1.8.1 update that we didn’t spot last week also brought improvements for the Blackmagic Studio Camera.

While these are obviously niche products aimed at video specialists, at least one is a niche product you can easily afford. As you may have seen in yesterday’s Camera Deals of the Day post, the Pocket Cinema Camera is currently selling at a 50% discount, priced under US$500. (Now you see why our Deals posts are worth following — that’s a pretty spectacular discount, and one you’d have kicked yourself for missing!)

So what’s new in Blackmagic’s v1.8.2 firmware? They’ve added support for three new Apple ProRes file formats with the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera and Blackmagic Production Camera 4K: ProRes 422, ProRes 422 LT and ProRes 422 Proxy. The previous v1.8.1 update, meanwhile, added Line, Mic Low and Mic High gain settings for the audio level input, along with Remote Camera Control support when the Blackmagic Studio Camera is used with ATEM live production switchers. These changes carry through to today’s v1.8.2 update.

Get the updates at the links below:

• Blackmagic Camera v1.8.2 for Windows

• Blackmagic Camera v1.8.2 for Mac OS X

​Nikon, meanwhile, has updated firmware for its UT-1 communications unit, a wired Ethernet accessory for the D7000, D7100, D800, D800E, D810, D4 and D4S DSLRs. The Nikon UT-1 v2.1 update adds support for the Nikon D810 DSLR, and the update can only be applied using the D810, D800, D800E or D7100.

No other changes are made in this update, so there’s really no reason to install it anyway, if you’re only using one of the other cameras. (Even if you have a D810 on the way, you can apply the update from the new camera when it arrives.) With that said, Nikon service centers can also apply the update for you. If you’re doing it yourself, get the update file from Nikon USA here.

And finally, we come to the software updates. Nikon’s Camera Control Pro 2.18.0 update drops support for Microsoft’s twilighted Windows XP operating system, and adds support for the D810 DSLR and the recently-launched Capture NX-D app. As part of supporting the D810, it adds four new functions available only with that camera: highlight-weighed metering, flat picture control, a clarity option under image processing, and metering options for movies.

The Wireless Transmitter Utility 1.5.1 update, meanwhile, also drops support for Windows XP, and adds compatibility with the Nikon D810 DSLR, as well as Nikon’s UT-1 communications unit when running the latest firmware.

(Camera parts image courtesy of Kelly Hofer / Flickr; used under a Creative Commons CC-BY-2.0 license. Image has been modified from the original.)

The post Firmware Friday: Blackmagic cameras get new ProRes file formats; Nikon expands D810 support appeared first on Imaging Resource.

The annual CP+ photography tradeshow is now well underway in Japan, and Imaging Resource publisher and editor-in-chief Dave Etchells is right in the thick of it, meeting and interviewing some of the most influential figures in the imaging industry. Kicking off his interviews, Dave met with Tetsuya Yamamoto, General Manager, Development Headquarters at Nikon Corp. Yamamoto-san is the individual within Nikon charged with overall management of their development efforts. As such, he’s the “buck stops here” person with regard to Nikon product planning and development — and this gives great weight to his answers below.

Dave Etchells/Imaging Resource: I’ll start with a bit of a strategy and positioning question — while the D3300 is an incredible package for its retail price of US$650, there are a lot of entry-level interchangeable-lens cameras priced below it, mainly in the mirrorless space. The Nikon 1 line gets down into that price range, but with a smaller sensor than many of its competitors. How do you position the 1-series against its competitors with larger sensors?

Tetsuya Yamamoto/Nikon Corp. (via translator): Compared to other players, mirrorless is different for us in terms of concept. Although the Nikon 1 is the same mirrorless structure, the intent of launching Nikon 1 is that it’s a total system for the current way that people popularly use the camera, which is to — in a very convenient way — carry the camera out with them, take beautiful photos in a casual and convenient way, and share it with other people through social media, like smart phones or smart devices.

We think that since that kind of usage is expanding, Nikon 1 will address that kind of usage especially well. We’d like to continue to launch the Nikon 1 into the market. It’s unfortunate that people like to compare our camera with just the spec of sensor size, because that’s not the only point; we’re talking about the whole system, again, that people can take along with them very casually and in a very convenient way take pictures and share them — and on top of that, it has an interchangeable lens.

Of course, when you look at the stats regarding mirrorless for the whole industry, the numbers are not growing so much in some, it’s a fact. But in particular sectors, like North American females, Nikon 1 is very popular. So in that sense, some of our intent has really addressed the market needs.

DE: We noticed when you launched the Nikon 1 in the U.S., you ran a very extensive marketing campaign. It was interesting — the Nikon 1 itself was very popular, but it seemed like everybody became more aware of mirrorless cameras through that campaign. It wasn’t your intent, maybe, but I think it was very well received.

When we spoke once before, you mentioned yourself that image sharing is going to be a particular focus of Nikon’s going forward, and you’ve had a very robust solution through your WU-1a dongle and also your built-in Wi-Fi in various cameras. We’re still a ways from the ideal scenario, though — the ultimate solution will be for images just to appear on a user’s smart device as soon as they’ve been snapped by the camera, without having to set up a connection or launch an application.

I expect we’ll eventually reach that point, but what do you think the timeframe for that might be, and what do you see as the key obstacles to achieving it?

TY: We cannot talk about the timeframe specifically, unfortunately, but we continue to believe that image sharing is a very important need to address. Of course, under the key concept of “always connect to the internet,” really, are the needs of the target that we’re talking about. It’s for us to design our cameras to allow them to do that easily.

Nikon clearly sees Wi-Fi as an important feature, calling attention to it in its product listings.

DE: So you can’t speak to specifics or even sort of “crystal ball”?

TY: No, we cannot be so specific to that question. Again, we believe that “always connect” is really the point, and that point is already established in the world of smart phones. So it’s for us to really find a way to co-work with that, or collaborate with those companies.

DE: Although we’re talking about it as an extremely important feature, what do you know about how consumers are actually using Wi-Fi in your cameras to connect to smart devices and online services? Is it one of the features that everyone thinks they have to have, but don’t actually use very much; or do you see evidence that it’s actually used a great deal? What I’m wondering is, sometimes consumers have a checkbox that they have to have, you know, “sensor size” or “Wi-Fi,” but do they actually use it frequently?

TY: It really depends on the users, whether they “check the box” and then use it, or not use it. As Nikon, we’re trying to continue to fulfill the features around this theme; for example, automatic discovery of other devices, which is not something that the users can do themselves. So there are various things we can do to improve the operability. [Note: Not every camera or user needs Wi-Fi, though.]

The retro-styled Nikon Df intentionally forgoes features like video and Wi-Fi.

Especially for the Df, for an example, we added in some specs, but also took them out, for example. We took out the Wi-Fi and video, too, from the Df; that was one of our intents, and also strengthened by comments from the pre-launch interviews of consumers.

Having said that, for all of our cameras, we need to continue to think of the fact that people are looking at the final output not on paper, but in digitized formats — in other words, on screens.

[Note: This was very interesting to me; It’s definitely true, but it’s very interesting to hear the person largely guiding development for a camera company with Nikon’s long history explicitly recognize and articulate the change.]

DE: This is switching topics a little bit. We’ve seen a very sudden shift away from low-pass filters over the last year or two. Nikon was the first company to delve into this area with the D800E. How popular has the D800E been compared to the standard D800, and did that influence your decision to move away from low-pass filters across the board?

TY: The original purpose was not to walk away from low-pass filters. For each camera that we launch, we think about how we can most beautifully show the outcome of the photos, and for that purpose, it just so happens that the decision regarding the low-pass filter was to take it out for the D800E and also the D3300. For example, the D3300 has an EXPEED 4 engine, which means that it can help to render the pictures more beautifully, and combined with the image sensor and also the lens performance, we believe that we have the best quality without the low-pass filter. That’s the thinking process.

The Nikon D800E — a variant of the more mainstream Nikon D800 with the resolution-robbing low-pass filter removed — started a trend that’s quickly swept across the industry.

DE: That’s interesting! Because the D3300 has the EXPEED 4, it can do more processing to better eliminate moiré artifacts, is that correct?

TY: That’s right, moiré reduction has been improved, too, so yes.

DE: This is an area that we at Imaging Resource view with a little bit of dismay — that the consumers are demanding cameras with no low-pass filter. Really, even with the best efforts at anti-moiré processing, we’ve seen moiré and aliasing from cameras made by every manufacturer. Does Nikon think that that’s becoming less of a problem these days? Perhaps due to the very high resolution of sensors, compared to the lenses?

[Note: I’d heard someone say once that the lenses were effectively acting as LPFs in many cases. That was the direction of my question here.]

TY: The lens perspective says that low-pass filters are unnecessary. The root cause of the moiré is not the lens. It’s really about the sensor’s performance, and how finely it can dice up the image. Depending on how you do that, in some locations you can get moiré. As the pixel count goes up, the moiré occurs more in places where we are less disturbed by it, or it’s less eye-catching.

Finding that we can actually improve the total quality of the image because the moiré is in less distracting locations, we’ve decided that we can do without the low-pass filter. As you know, preventing moiré with low-pass filter reduces the tone characteristics around it. The tone characteristics and the lens performance have been improved enough for us to take off the low-pass filter.

[Note: An interesting answer, that areas where moiré will occur shift as sensor resolution rises, and that the places you’re most likely to see it currently are less obtrusive than where it occurred previously. This is certainly true to some extent, but we’ve been surprised to see very large-area swathes of color artifacts in some cases (brick walls at a distance, for instance), and also some very strong luminance aliasing in architectural shots.

Yamamoto san’s point is supported, though, by the strong preference enthusiast users seem to be expressing for cameras without LPFs. The other subtle point here is that an LPF will necessarily reduce the micro-contrast of images; I believe that’s what was meant by “reduces the tone characteristics around it.”]

DE: Switching to a particular camera — while we haven’t completed our analysis of it yet, the D5300 received some very worthwhile improvements in image quality — particularly for video imagery. What can you tell us about what led to those improvements, the nature of them, and how they were accomplished?

TY: The point here, really, in creating this camera, was [effectively] to create a sensor that is small enough to create a video, when we have a huge sensor that can sense a much higher-resolution picture as a still. It’s not a camcorder or a movie camera, so it’s different in that sense — the purpose is for still capture, and the sensor is there to be able to do that.

For example, if you’re talking about a camcorder, 10 megapixels is enough even for 4K, but the D5300 already has 24 megapixels for still images. We have to work on the image processing engine — that’s the part we worked on most of all, to satisfy both movie and still requirements on the D5300. Also, we improved the part where we extract data from the image sensor as well.

DE: I’m curious, then — most DSLRs do video by line skipping. Does the D5300 read out all the lines, and then perform sub-sampling in the processor?

TY: Not to that extent, although the Nikon 1 does.

DE: The Nikon 1 reads out all of the sensor pixels?

TY: Yes.

DE: Ahh… That’s why Nikon 1’s video is very good.

[Note: This was a surprise to me personally; I had thought that the Sony RX10 was the first camera to read out every sensor pixel and then subsample in the processor, but apparently the Nikon 1-series has been doing that from the beginning. The 1-series cameras do in fact produce very nice-looking video, and this full-readout capability is clearly part of that. By way of background, most cameras reduce the resolution of their sensor data to video levels by simply skipping rows of pixels during readout. This is much easier to do, but is why moiré problems are so common in ILC video footage.]

TY: It is a high hurdle to achieve when you’re trying to extract all the data at high speed from a large sensor. Maybe that’s one of the emphases that we should put on Nikon 1.

DE: Yes, probably so, I don’t think people are generally aware of that. It seems like the threshold for that full-resolution video download is one inch, and that APS-C can’t quite get it out. Is the main limitation to reading all the data off an APS-C sensor at video rates just heat generation? Or is it that the circuitry can’t transfer fast enough?

TY: Heat and readout speed, both. Although we haven’t worked on it yet, we believe that with the proper technology, we’ll be able to resolve this issue.

DE: So you believe APS-C full readout is coming at some point? That’s good news!

Again, this next question is a little bit about positioning and the competition. Nikon was the first company to announce video from a DSLR with the D90 nearly six years ago, at Photokina 2008. Since then, there’s obviously been a lot of competition in that area, notably from archrival Canon, but recently we’re seeing more activity from other players, including Sony and Panasonic — and there’s the just-announced GH4 from Panasonic.

What’s your strategy for competing and positioning Nikon in the video space going forward? (I guess I’m speaking more of the higher-end video market here.)

TY: One of our advantages is the cropping mode, which makes it look as if the focal length is very long. It’s one of our strengths that we have such a multi-pixel canvas — a lot of pixels already, so if you crop it, it doesn’t matter, we still have a lot of pixels left — and that’s good for still and video. Currently, one way to address the line skipping issue, is to change the viewing angle (effective focal length multiplier), and reduce the line skipping with the crop mode. That’s one way to work around it today.

Launched way back at the Photokina tradeshow in 2008, the Nikon D90 — shown here on a third-party Chrosziel Studio Rig — was the first video-capable DSLR.

DE: Oh, I see. And when you’re not skipping pixels, then — well, we’re getting rid of the anti-alias filters in a lot of cases, but then the anti-alias filter would work for video, also.

TY: That’s correct.

[Note: Again, a very interesting point. In crop mode, the video pixels can be the same as the still-image pixels, so the same LPF that would deal with anti-aliasing for still images would work for video imagery as well.]

DE: It seems like video was an area of particular focus for you in developing the D5300. The addition of 1080p60 video, built-in stereo mics, a jack for an external microphone, and I believe it produces clean HDMI output for use with external recorders, is that correct?

TY: Yes.

DE: So all of those things really bring its video capabilities very much into the enthusiast category. Do you see enthusiast videographers as being a particular market that would buy the D5300? Was that part of your intent?

TY: Yes, it’s really what we aimed for, although we’re never (at this point) going to decide to launch a purely video camera. You can see our intent from the fact that, for example, in the recording format we only have ‘pro’ and nothing else is really decided. So the focus right now is on the clean HDMI output for use [in professional-level applications]. We’re not thinking of supporting the pro resolution that the Hollywood users would like, though, or the true, professional enthusiasts would like, because that would be making a video camera.

DE: And when you say pro resolution, you mean the ProRes codec standard?

TY: Yes.

DE: I think all the way back at CES 2013, you mentioned in an interview with another publication that you had plans for 4K video in the Nikon 1-series. Is that something that might happen in the near term, or is that still some ways off in the future?

TY: We still have a plan, but the timing can’t be disclosed for now. We believe the Nikon 1 is very suited for this kind of usage, though. One of the key points is that we’re waiting for the user infrastructure to be established, to be able to accept that output. If — or when — we launch this, this camera has the necessary performance, because it is reading in full resolution already. When do you think the infrastructure will be ready in the United States, for example?

DE: [chuckles] A long time, yeah. That was actually one of my next questions — stepping back from any specific model, what can you say about where 4K video fits in Nikon’s plans? It looks like the consumer electronics industry is hoping that 4K will be what 3D failed to be; which is, namely, a reason for people to upgrade their home TVs. At Imaging Resource, we’re thinking this is unlikely to occur, unless 4K TVs get very cheap. To us, 4K looks more like a pro level product, used by filmmakers rather than consumers. Where do you see 4K capability fitting into your line?

TY: I personally agree with your opinion.

DE: That it’s more pro-oriented.

TY: I wasn’t really a fan of 3D anyway. I think the commonality between 3D and 4K/8K is the [rendering of] reality, although the meaning of reality is completely different between 3D and 4K and 8K. It has a sense of reality in a totally different way that probably professionals can use. I agree with you that, you know, the question of whether we’re going to have 4K or 8Ks in homes, is really an issue.

DE: Yes, my feeling is, our eyes only have so much resolution, and if you’re sitting across the living room —

TY: Yes, the distance.

DE: Yes. In our house, we have a medium-large living room, so we just upgraded to a 55″ HD, but we needed that because the 45″ or whatever we had before, our eyes weren’t able to see everything on the screen, even at 1080. So, with 4K — you’d have to have a 100 or 150 inch screen to see all the detail at that viewing distance.

TY: My house is not that big, so we don’t need that.

DE: Ha-ha! Well, your eyes are better than mine, too, perhaps!

We talked about this once in the past, but I wanted to revisit it or elaborate slightly. Many people are trying on-chip phase detect auto-focus, but that’s an area where your 1-series cameras have done very, very well. As I understand it, the reason that the 1-series is so fast-focusing is because it uses phase detect for all of the focusing, not just to approximate and get close. But other manufacturers have told us, well, it’s not accurate enough — on-chip PDAF is not accurate enough to focus all the way — so they switch and do contrast detect for the last little bit. What is it about your auto-focus system that lets you feel you can get the accuracy from phase detect, such that you don’t need to switch to contrast detect?

TY: That’s because we have a hybrid AF — it’s both PDAF and contrast AF.

DE: Oh, so you use both.

TY: Yes, contrast AF, especially for low light situations. [Note: In previous conversations, I learned that the 1 Series cameras switch to contrast AF at low light levels, but use PDAF to do all the focusing under brighter conditions. In that earlier conversation, Nikon said that some competitors don’t make this distinction based on light levels, so always include a contrast detect cycle in their AF process, slowing the focusing speed even when they’re plenty of light available.] And by the way, we believe that PDAF is actually enough, really, to meet the need in most cases, which makes us very confident in the speed of focus tracking.

The real reason why we still keep contrast AF is for video use, because when it comes to movies, it’s not like you need very fast focusing – “faster is better” isn’t really true in movies. It’s not like you focus first, and then you snap the photo — you’re on already on and checking focus, so sometimes, if it’s too fast, it’s actually not optimal.

DE: But with movies and contrast detect, though, if it hunts, you can see that very visibly. Do you also still use phase-detect some in movies?

TY: Yes, you’re right.

DE: You do use phase detect as well.

TY: Yes.

DE: I want to ask about PDAF on large sensors, and as I see it, there are maybe two issues. One is being able to clock the PDAF data off fast enough; but then when we talked once before, you mentioned an obstacle of bringing PDAF to your large sensor cameras is adapting it to work with different lenses that have significantly different focal lengths. I’ll separate those questions back out again. Is there an issue with clocking the data off quickly enough for large sensors with PDAF?

TY: It is a challenge, clocking the data off, compared to the small size format — the CX format — on Nikon 1.

DE: And you had mentioned once before, I think, that it’s an issue adapting the PDAF to work with different focal lengths of lenses? Can you explain that simply? That’s a point I don’t understand.

TY: First of all, for our DSLR with interchangeable lens, with large size sensors, they accept the light coming in from various angles with different lenses. It’s very difficult to detect the phase differential when the angle of the arrays are all different.

[Note: This is very interesting, and maybe a hint at something deeper within on-chip PDAF technology. The translator in this session was exceptionally good, so I think her translation as “angle of the arrays” is accurate. If so, it sounds to me like Yamamoto-san is talking about how the individual phase-detect pixels are structured on the chip’s surface. They’re created to only see light coming from one side of the frame or the other, but there’s a question of how *much* of the light cone they should accept. I believe that a typical wide-angle lens at large aperture is going to have a very wide light cone, while the light exiting telephoto lenses will have a much narrower range of angles of incidence. So a PD array optimized for use with a wide angle lens would perform poorly with a telephoto one, and vice versa.]

DE: I think I understand. So with the small-sensor Nikon 1 and a very short back focus distance (or flange distance), you have a wide angle of incidence, but in a conventional SLR and at a long focal length, you have a very narrow angle, so it’s harder to detect the phase difference. Thank you, I understand — that’s a good answer.

TY: We can correct some for that with our image processing engine. So it’s not impossible..

DE: Ah, not impossible, but difficult.

For my last question, I’ll ask you to look into your crystal ball — Nikon makes very good glass, so you should have a good crystal ball, perhaps. [laughter] After holding up very well for many years while compact camera sales have fallen, sales of interchangeable-lens cameras dropped significantly just this last year. Do you view that as a longer-term trend, or do you think it’s a temporary blip caused by the global economy?

TY: The story answer will be different for compact and ILC. For compact camera, all the other companies say as well that the market is shrinking, because there are alternatives like smart phones.

DE: Yes.

TY: For ILC, we believe it’s more like a blip or a temporary problem, mainly because of China — where we felt we’d have more growth — isn’t growing because of its macro economy issues. This means it still has potential in the market. ILC, including Nikon 1, will improve later on after this temporary situation.

DE: That’s very interesting. So in China, you were projecting growth there, but in their macro economy, growth has slowed down, and there are other problems. Very interesting.

TY: I believe the same, too — the answer is different for the two. Technically, I’d like to answer for compact cameras, there are the advantages to smart phones, because they’re connected to social media, and that’s the way people use them. So when it comes to that, smart phones can be a very good alternative. But the SLRs are different, because even smart phone users buy ILCs to step up their photo creativity and options.

If Nikon successfully makes the case that we have cameras that will allow you to do that well, then people will step up to our cameras. We don’t believe that the ILC market will shrink at all, because the shift that is happening right now in regards to the smart phones is that people who love watching or enjoying photos are now starting to take photos; when they want to take better photos, they will get something other than their smart phones.

DE: Yes, the smart phones are drawing more people into photography than ever before.

TY: Yes.

DE: Well, I see we’re out of time, I want to thank you for taking this much time out of your busy schedule to meet with me. (Our readers thank you, too.)

TY: Thank you very much.

[Note: We ended up having a bit less time than anticipated, due to an NDA product briefing taking up part of the meeting time. As a result, I ended up skipping around in my list of questions quite a bit, and by the time I realized we were about out of time, I didn’t have an opportunity to go back to our reader questions. Profuse apologies for that — I’ll perhaps move reader questions up to the head of the queue when I’m faced with tight interview schedules in the future.]

The post Nikon Q&A: Head of development sees interchangeable-lens slowdown as an aberration, not a red flag appeared first on Imaging Resource.

Last year, Australian video tech company Blackmagic Design scored one of the surprises at the 2012 National Association of Broadcasters show, launching a relatively compact 2.5K ultra-high definition video camera with a Canon EF-compatible lens mount. A year later, and the company shows it still has some tricks up its sleeve, announcing not only a followup to that camera, but also a second camera based on a Micro Four Thirds lens mount.

You didn’t have to look too closely at your crystal ball to predict the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K, which its creator describes as the “world’s most portable 4K digital film camera”. It’s clearly an evolution of the existing camera, and it’s a product Blackmagic needed to make if it wanted to compete at the top level of ultra high-def video.

The Blackmagic Production Camera 4K has a global shutter that prevents rolling shutter “jello”.

The Production Camera 4K sports a 16:9-aspect sensor that’s nearly 80% larger than that in the earlier camera, and boasts about 2.5 times as many pixels. (Blackmagic refers to it as a Super 35 sensor, although it’s rather smaller than a Super 35 frame.) A very important difference from its predecessor for fast-paced movies is the use of a global shutter that prevents rolling shutter “jello”. Effective resolution is 3,840 x 2,160 pixels, and frame rates from 23.98p to 30p are available at full resolution. By dropping the resolution to Full HD (1080p) and interlacing, you can increase the frame rate to a maximum of 59.94i. Dynamic range falls slightly from the 13 stops claimed on the previous camera to a 12-stop range in the new model.

On its rear panel is a large five-inch touchscreen display.

Other options are largely similar to the earlier model. The Production Camera 4K is compatible with EF and ZE-mount lenses, and has automatic, electronic aperture control via a dedicated iris button, as well as a focus peaking function. On the rear panel, a large five-inch display with 800 x 480 pixels caters to framing and reviewing of movies, and also serves as an input device courtesy of a capacitive touchscreen overlay. Sound is captured via an integrated, monaural microphone, or via two 1/4-inch balanced jacks that can accept microphones or line inputs. There’s also a 3.5mm stereo headphone output, and a new 6G-SDI audio/video output in place of the previous HD-SDI output. This last allows for 10-bit 4:2:2 video with two-channel, 48kHz, 24-bit audio. Blackmagic has also retained the Thunderbolt and USB 2.0 Mini-B ports from the earlier camera, as well as a 2.5mm LANC remote terminal that can control recording, iris, and focus remotely.

Connectivity includes remote control, balanced audio inputs, a 6G-SDI output, headphone jack, and a DC power input; data is stored on removable solid-state drives.

The Blackmagic Production Camera 4K still stores data on a removable 2.5-inch solid state drive formatted with an exFAT or Mac OS Extended file system. The Avid DNxHD codec is no longer supported, and you’re given a choice of either losslessly-compressed CinemaDNG Raw or lossy Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) output at either 4K or Full HD resolution.Power comes from a built-in lithium polymer battery rated as good for 90 minutes of capture, or an 11-30V DC input. The software bundle includes Blackmagic Media Express and DaVinci Resolve Lite.

Pricing for the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K is set at around US$4,000, with availability expected at the end of July 2013.

The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera accepts Micro Four Thirds lenses, but has a much smaller sensor than other MFT cameras, accompanied by a 3x focal length crop.

And then there’s the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, an announcement that comes from a little further out in left field. It’s an affordably-priced Micro Four Thirds camera, and offers lossless high-definition video capture, but with one doozy of a catch — a sensor smaller than that used in Nokia’s 808 PureView smartphone. In fact, it’s just slightly smaller than a Super 16mm film frame, and one-quarter the size of that in a typical Micro Four Thirds camera, which means a 3x focal length crop. When mounted on the Pocket Cinema Camera, even the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 7-14mm f/4.0 Asph. lens will have a 21mm-equivalent wide angle.

On the rear of the Pocket Cinema Camera is a large 3.5-inch LCD panel.

If you’re willing to live with that, though, you get a Full HD video camera that’s coat-pocket friendly, offers the same choice of lossy Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) or losslessly-compressed CinemaDNG Raw footage at 1,080p30 or below, and has a manufacturer-claimed 13 stops of dynamic range. It also includes a 3.5-inch, 800 x 480 pixel LCD panel, although it lacks the touch-sensitivity of the Production Camera 4K. Video is stored on exFAT or HFS+ formatted SDHC or SDXC cards, sound comes from a built-in stereo mic or a 3.5mm mic jack, and power is courtesy of a proprietary EN-EL20 lithium-ion battery pack with one-hour battery life or a 12-20V DC input. Other connectivity includes a Type-D Micro HDMI output, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a USB 2.0 data port, and a 2.5mm LANC remote terminal.

Priced at just US$1,000, the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera ships from late July 2013.

DaVinci Resolve 10, says Blackmagic, is “the world’s highest performance on set, editing and color correction solution for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux”.

Not surprisingly, Blackmagic has a raft of other announcements for the NAB show, as well. These include DaVinci Resolve 10 grading / color-correction software, a new mini monitor and recorder in the Decklink series, support for upcoming releases of Adobe’s Premiere Pro and After Effects, ultra high-def recording support in HyperDeck Studio Pro, availability of products supporting the 6G-SDI video interface, and more.

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