Fighting DRONES with EAGLES: RAWtalk #169
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First things first, the police in the Netherlands are now training EAGLES to take down rouge drones, get the full news story at 15:10 of this weeks show. This is crazy, but it’s kind of cool to see to be honest.
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This week I had a very special guest by the name of Cook E DoeFace. She is a hard working woman who knows how to hustle. Not only does she work two jobs but she has found time to build a youtube following of 10k+ subscribers. Now I know 10k in the grand scheme doesn’t sound like much but it’s a lot more than most people. I asked Cookie to come on to talk about her life, business and YouTube channel to see how she did it and is going to continue to do it.
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Stephen hits us with Photo News, Ministry of Supply hits us with Gear of the Week and the Wheel of Fro gets spun for a singing spinning song.
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00:00:16 – Show Intro
00:00:30 – Todd’s New T-Shirt
00:03:08 – Live Philly RAWtalk Announcement
00:05:10 – Mailtime Reminder
00:10:05 – AdoramaPix 25% Off Metal Code
00:10:34 – Photo News
00:47:00 – Jared’s Text of the Week
00:49:14 – Cook E doeFace Interview
01:19:40 – Gear of the Week: Ministry of Supply
01:25:43 – Wheel of Fro
01:29:57 – Wheel of Fro Submissions
Here’s all of Stephen’s photo news stories in detail:
GoPro to Cut Down Camera Line to Just 3 Models
GoPro is cutting down their camera lineup to just three models. CEO Nick Woodman says the camera company will cease sales of their entry level cameras: the original Hero, Hero+ and Hero+ LCD in April. The remaining lineup will include the Hero 4 Black, Silver and Session. Woodman also confirmed that there will be a new flagship model coming this year, the Hero 5, along with their new Karma drone. The decision to discontinue these products comes after GoPro reported a 31% drop from last year’s overall sales; ouch. GoPro also released new footage from their Karma drone which features American freestyle skier Bobby Brown skiing around in Colorado. The main difference about this video is that it’s in 4K, so clearly the drone will record in 4K. There’s also an interesting clip which features him skiing, holding on to the drone, and releasing it as he goes off a jump. The drone continues to fly so it seems like its going to have some sort of “fly away” feature similar to the crowd-funded Lily drone. Check out the video below where GoPro was even clever enough to edit out the drone from the skier’s reflective goggles. (via TV)
Dutch Police Training Eagles To Take Down Drones
Speaking of drones, eagles are now being trained by the police to take down drones over in the Netherlands. The Dutch National Police announced that it’s the first police force to employ eagles to help combat rogue drones. They partnered with a raptor training company in The Hague to train the birds. Not only will the birds snag them from mid-air, but the eagles have also been trained to fly the drone to an area away from people. National Unit Innovation Manager Mark Wiebe says, “The bird sees the drone as prey and takes it to a safe area, a place where he does not suffer from other birds or humans. We use in this project.” Regarding safety, authorities say they’re looking into protective measures for the birds so they don’t get clipped from the drone’s props. Dutch police says they’ll be testing out the system for the next few months before making a final decision whether the eagles will be an appropriate means to prevent unwanted drone use. Check out a video of the eagles in action taking down drones below: (via Gizmodo)
Sony Announces a6000 Successor: Introducing the a6300
Sony has announced the successor to the a6000 with their new a6300. Sony claims the mirrorless interchangeable lens camera has the “world’s fastest autofocus speed” and the “world’s highest number of autofocus points.” The new 4D Focus system can acquire focus in as little as 0.05 seconds too. As far as focus points go, its has 425 Phase Detection AF points which stretch the entire frame. The new autofocus will work with A-mount lenses with an adapter as well which is a first for Sony cropped sensor cameras. Other main specs include a 24.2MP APS-C sensor with an ISO range of 100-51200. Sony says the new sensor “employs copper wiring in its structure which improves light collection efficiently and significantly accelerates readout speed.” It also shoots 11fps, has a tilting LCD screen, shoots 4K with full pixel readout and no pixel binning in Super 35—another first for a Sony APS-C camera. It will also shoot 1080P at 120fps with all the pro video features you can expect from Sony. It’ll be available in March for $1000 for the body only. Click here for the full list of features and check out a preview video below:
Sony Introduces New High-End Lenses: The G Master Line
To coincide with the new camera, Sony has introduced a new lineup of lenses called the G Master line which will serve as their new high-end lenses. It’ll launch with three e-mount lenses to begin with: a 24-70mm f/2.8, 85mm f/1.4 and 70-200mm f/2.8. Sony VP Neal Manowitz says, “The new G Master brand represents the finest and most impressive group of lenses that Sony has ever brought to market. With our knowledge of what the future will bring for digital imaging, we have designed these lenses and can ensure that the G Master brand will inspire and ‘wow’ photographers and videographers for years to come.” They say the new lenses will be able to resolve their high megapixel cameras as well. To go along with the 70-200mm lens, Sony has announced two new teleconverters: a 1.4x and 2x. The new lineup will be available next month with pricing for the 24-70mm being $2,200, $1,800 for the 85mm and pricing for the 70-200 and the teleconverters has not been announced yet at the time of writing this article. Check out a preview video of the lens being used along with a video featuring the new technology inside the lenses below:
Canon Unleashes the 1DX Mark II
Canon has unleashed its new flagship DSLR, the 1DX Mark II. Main specs include a 20.2MP full frame sensor with an ISO range of 100-51200, expandable to 409600. The native ISO remains the same as the original 1DX but Canon says the new sensor has been improved to be cleaner at higher ISOs. Other changes include the sensitivity of the center AF point now going down to -3EV from -2. The AF points are also all compatible down to f/8 which is huge for wildlife photographers and sports shooters. It boasts dual Digic 6+ processors which allow it to shoot 14fps, or 16 in live view. The pro body also features a new battery, the LP-E19, which allows it to shoot those two extra frames per second, however, it is backward compatible with the old 1D batteries, but it will drop you down to 12fps. It now has dual card slots, this time being one CFast 2.0 slot and 1 CompactFlash. The big winner here is the video capability: it can shoot full DCI 4K at 60P in a Motion JPEG codec at 800 mbps at up to 29:59 of record time, along with 1080P at 120fps. The camera has dual pixel AF for autofocus for video too. Other changes include a touchscreen LCD, AF points that will light up in the dark (even in AI Servo mode), new Digital Lens Optimizer tech in-camera, 4K frame grab, built-in GPS and much more. It’ll be available this April for $5,999. Check out the preview videos below along with our comparison with the Nikon D5. Head over to Canon’s website for the full list of specs.
3-Yr-Old Wins Photo Contest with Photobombing Horse, Horse Owner Now Wants a Cut
A 3-yr-old boy named Jacob Bellis won a £2000 holiday in Thomson Holidays’ “Made Me Smile” photo contest, after submitting a photo of himself, his father and a smiling horse photobombing them. Well, the horse owner, Nicola Mitchell, is now demanding a cut for the horse’s contribution to the photo. She argued that the boy and his father should have asked for permission before including her horse in their selfie, and that her family trained the horse to stick out its tongue. She says, “I was really annoyed to hear [Bellis] had won a £2,000 holiday and had used a picture of our horse without our permission. He should have asked for our consent. There should be some token gesture as it is our horse that has really won them the holiday. I didn’t even know that this competition was on. If I had known about it we would have entered and could have won as Betty is always sticking out her tongue.” The kid’s father says they had the right to take the photo: “I don’t understand why Nicola is so annoyed. I was on a public path that everyone uses to go to the local school and everyone sees the horse there.” Despite the argument, the travel company will be awarding the kid the full prize. Wayne Beynon, an intellectual property lawyer, says, “The horse owner’s complaint doesn’t really hold up in law. The father and child were on a public footpath, so there is no issue of trespass. As the photographer, Jacob automatically owns copyright in the image and didn’t require permission of the horse’s owner to take the photo – similar to the way that photographers don’t require permission to take pictures of politicians, sports stars, or celebrities when they are out in public.” Who’s in the wrong here? (via TG)
Photo by Jacob Bellis
These Ford Cars Are Specifically build with Photographers in Mind
Ford has created special “Camera Tracking Unit” cars over in Europe that are specifically built for photographers to shoot out of. The cars are standard Ford cars, one being a Ford Focus ST wagon and the other being a Ford Fiesta ST, that have had the back trunk part cut in half and transformed into a rear-facing seat for photographers. Along with the seat, there is a swiveling tripod mount along with various mounting points built in around the edge. Sweet, right?! (via Jalopnik)
Photos by Máté Petrány
B&H Superstore Retail Workers Protesting for Better Working Conditions
B&H retail workers are joining the fight with their warehouse buddies by protesting and seeking better working conditions, launching what they’re calling Phase 2 of #BHExposed. More than 50 workers teamed up at their flagship superstore in NYC to protest last week, demanding an end to alleged dangerous and discriminatory working conditions inside the store. They are reporting racial discrimination, verbal and physical abuse, and injuries due to insufficient training. Will they win like the warehouse workers did?
Nikon Singapore Awards Photographer for Poorly Photoshopped Image
Nikon Singapore awarded a prize to a photographer on their Facebook page for taking “a great photo with a Nikon camera,” only realizing later that it was a poorly photoshopped image. The image in question features a ladder leading up to a roof where a plane is perfectly composed in the middle. The photographer, Chay Yu Wei, was set to be awarded a Nikon trolley bag for the photo. However, one commenter took the image into Photoshop and with a simple levels adjustment, revealed a box around the airplane, showing that the image was clearly a composite. The contest followed by commenters flooding their feed with parody images, replacing the airplane with things like a star wars TIE fighter, Godzilla, and more. People are now requesting that Nikon only accept Raw NEF files in the future. The photographer says, ”I crossed the line by submitting the photo for a competition. I meant it as a joke and I’m really sorry to Nikon for disrespecting the competition. It is a mistake and I shouldn’t have done that.” Nikon Singapore later deleted the post and issued an apology saying, “We have made an honest mistake and the rousing response from the community today is a reminder to us that the true spirit of photography is very much alive. Moving forward, we will tighten our image review process to avoid similar situations in the future.” The best part? Canon Canada took a hit at the whole controversy and uploaded a plane photo to Facebook, seeking photographers to share their best airplane photos with them, saying “extra points for creative use of photo editing software to put planes in surprising places.” BURN. (via PP)
Photographer Uproar: Burberry Hire 16-Yr-Old Brooklyn Beckham to Photograph Ad Campaign
David Beckham’s son Brooklyn has riled up the photography community, making many photographers angry, after accepting to shoot a Burberry campaign. Burberry hired the young 16-yr-old for its next fragrance ad campaign, utilizing his social media reach to broadcast the photoshoot live on his Instagram and Snapchat accounts and hashtag #THISISBRIT. Claiming Nepotism, photographers and fashion industry professionals are angered over Burberry’s choice to recruit the in-experienced Brooklyn for the job. High-end Fashion Photographer Chris Floyd says Brooklyn’s shoot is a “devaluation of photography.” He goes on to say, “David and Victoria Beckham represent sheer willpower and graft… They represent hard work and then their 16-year-old year son comes along and it’s sheer nepotism.” Floyd adds that, “He hasn’t done it from hard work, which is counter-intuitive to what his parents represent. Part of me takes my hat off to Burberry and says that’s clever, but the photographer side of me says for god’s sake.” He continues: “Brooklyn Beckham’s got however many million Instagram followers, that’s what’s attracted Burberry. The people his age are Burberry’s target market or the future target market.” Other photographers, like Esquire photographer Jon Gorrigan, claim that he wouldn’t need any knowledge of executing the shoot either, as Burberry probably had everything ready for him on set, from lighting—to cameras—to makeup artists—to locations. He says, “It’s going to be so well managed – he’ll have the best hair and makeup, the best models, the very best equipment, so that the chance of any risk is greatly reduced. It infuriates me because I learned my trade and other photographers learn their trade but he’s not learning his trade.” Check out some of his final portraits from the shoot over on Burberry’s Instagram account along with a behind-the-scenes video and Jared’s rant below: (via TG)
Seagate Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Over Alleged Faulty Drives
Seagate is getting hit with a class action lawsuit over bad hard drives. The suit, represented by the firm Hagens Berman, claims that their hard drives “failed to live up to the advertised promises” by failing and causing the loss of data. It specifically notes that Seagate’s 3TB drives, mainly their Barracuda and Backup Plus external drives, “failed at exceptionally high rates, leaving consumers with broken hardware and significant loss of data.” To reaffirm this accusation, cloud backup company Backblaze has tested over 49,000 drives, and their results confirm that Seagate’s 3TB drives are among the least reliable. They posted a chart to coincide with their findings too which you can view below. The lawsuit accuses Seagate of sending out replacement drives to consumers which were also faulty and unreliable too, violating consumer law and Seagate’s drive warranties. Click here if you’ve had a Seagate drive go bad on you and want to join the class action lawsuit yourself. (via TS)
