DRONES BANNED, KODAK’s stupid phone and Costumes: FroKnowsPhoto RAWtalk 202

DRONES BANNED, KODAK’s stupid phone and Costumes: FroKnowsPhoto RAWtalk 202

Welcome to the 2016 FroKnowsPhoto Halloween Episode. I think this years costume are pretty darn good, I hope you enjoy the show.

Sweden decided to BAN ALL unlicensed fling of DRONES. This means you can’t simply take your drone out to fly unless you have approval. This sounds a little overreaching, what do you think? Story starts at 30:42

We have a TON of photos news, Flying Solo video questions, Gear of the week, Wheel of FRO and finally MEMES.

Thank you all for your connoted support of the show. Don’t forget you can subscribe on iTunes to have each new episode automatically download.

00:00:00 Special Halloween Intro
00:00:40 This Years Costumes
00:03:45 And The Show Starts
00:06:03 Photo Plus
00:07:25 Hoya!!!!!
00:11:30 Meredith’s New Toy
00:12:32 I got yelled at on stage!
00:16:08 Photo News
00:16:15 One Shot VR Lens
00:17:25 New Nikon 19mm Tilt/Shift Lens
00:18:04 The New Nikon 70-200, Priced not to…
00:20:58 Photographer Suing Trump
00:22:42 What’s Kodak Precious?
00:25:37 The Apple “Bokeh”
00:28:39 CFexpress, 8Gb’s a second!!!
00:29:52 The Oldest Production Nikon Camera Up For Sale
00:30:42 Sweden agrees with Meredith
00:32:35 World’s Brightest Flash Mounted to a Drone
00:33:28 Our Buddy Mike Kelley
00:34:47 Gear of the Week
00:38:35 Flying Solo
01:04:51 Wheel of Fro
01:08:59 Memes of the Week

Here’s all of Stephen’s photo news stories in detail:

This New Fisheye Lens Can Literally See Behind Itself

A new fisheye lens in development can literally see behind itself. Called the Entaniya 250 Fisheye MFT—aka the “one-shot VR” lens—the 250-degree bulbous lens is being made specifically for Micro Four Thirds cameras, hence the MFT slapped on the end of its name. It will come in three different versions: a 2.3mm f/2.8, a 3mm f/2.8 and a 3.6mm f/4. Seeing behind itself isn’t easy to pull off they say, which is why the lens comes with 18 lens elements in 12 groups. It also won’t be cheap, it will come in at about $3,500 once it starts shipping later this year. Will you be picking up this specialty lens? (via PP)

Nikon Unveils Pricey New 70-200 & Tilt Shift Lens

On the topic of new lenses, Nikon also unveiled two of their own: introducing their new ultra wide 19mm f/4E ED tilt-shift lens which has a 97-degree field of view. This is Nikon’s first tilt-shift lens that finally lets you adjust tilt and shift separately instead of having to constantly lock and unlock both for minor adjustments. This specialty lens will cost you about $3,400.

Then we have their 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR lens which comes complete with 22 lens elements which are all “optimized for high-speed shooting” according to Nikon. The VR now has 4 stops of vibration reduction, up from 3.5, which is always a plus. Also expected in November, this lens will come in at $2,800. And the question everyone has been wondering: apparently the focus breathing issue has been solved. We shall see when we get our hands on one.

Skittles Photographer Suing the Trump Campaign for Copyright Infringement

The photographer who had his Skittles photo used by the Trump campaign on social media has filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump, accusing him of copyright infringement. David Kittos, the photographer behind the Skittles image, originally uploaded it to Flickr six years ago with an “All Rights Reserved” Creative Commons tag. Kittos, a refugee himself, says he never gave the campaign his permission to use the image so now he’s taking legal action. The lawsuit states that the now “iconic” image was first created as a lighting experiment, and couldn’t have been easily replicated “given the challenge of replicating the exact lighting and exposure of the image, as well as assembling the arrangement of the candies.” It goes on to say, “The unauthorized use of the Photograph is reprehensibly offensive to Plaintiff as he is a refugee of the Republic of Cyprus who was forced to flee his home at the age of six years old.” The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and an injunction to prevent further copyright infringement. Check out the full legal document below for all of the details: (via CNET)

Kodak Reveals New Smartphone Made For Photographers

Kodak, not a name you hear much about these days, has released their own smartphone which they say is specifically designed for photographers. Coined the Ektra, the new phone was named after the original Ektra that was released back in 1941. The phone is produced by a UK company called Bullitt group which basically slapped the iconic Kodak name on it. Spec wise, the smartphone has a 21 Megapixel sensor on its main back camera with an f/2 aperture. On the front, it has a 13MP camera with phase detection AF and an f/2.2 aperture. The outside of the camera phone mimics the look of a physical camera, with an edged grip on the right side and a dedicated shutter button, along with the rubbery grip material that you find on most cameras. It will come with a 5-inch touchscreen as well, which is always welcoming. Inside, it will shoot full manual, RAW, on an Android OS. it will come with Snapseed editing software and a dedicated photo printing app. This all happens thanks to its 2.3ghz processor, 3GB of ram and 32GB of storage. Video wise, it will shoot 4K and even have a Super 8 app that recreates classic Super 8 film stocks. The new phone will initially launch in the UK for about 449£, and later spread throughout Europe. Kodak has also went back to their original iconic logo (sort of) that dates back to 1971, except now the lettering is vertical. (via PP)

Apple Unveils it’s Fake Bokeh in iOS 10.1 to the Public

Speaking of smartphones, Apple has officially released their fake bokeh effect to the public. Coming with iOS 10.1, the new “Portrait” mode is still technically in beta, which is what it notes when you first swipe to the new mode. The “depth effect” can only be used on iPhone 7 Plus smartphones, utilizing their 2x lens. Similar to their HDR mode, once the photo is taken, it saves the original, and new shallow depth of field image. Here’s how it works: once the camera app is opened and turned to portrait mode, it gives you a live DoF preview and notes that you should be about 8 feet away from your subject for optimal performance. Some issues we saw while testing it were haloing, and it was way noisier than a standard image. It would also blur out parts of the picture that shouldn’t be blurred. Will you use this over your “real” camera?

The New CFexpress Memory Card Will Max Out at 8GB/s

The CompactFlash Association has announced the development of a brand new type of memory card called CFexpress. The new card will be faster than anything currently on the market, blazing fast at an unheard of 8GB/second. To fully grasp that, even the fast CFast 2.0 cards only max out at 540mb/s. The CFA does note that the first generation cards will most likely be around 2-4GB/s—but still, that’s crazy fast. They do this by using the same technology as XQD cards, PCIE. Resource Magazine points that out because they may actually be backwards compatible with XQD cards. One thing we do know though is that it’ll be some time before we see these on the market. (via RM)

Oldest Known Production Nikon Camera Up For Sale

The oldest known production Nikon camera in the world is being auctioned off. The Nikon 1 Rangefinder camera from 1948 is currently up for auction by Westlicht, where it’s expected to sell for $200,000. It is the 3rd production camera ever made by Nikon, according to its serial number. The bottom of the camera even reads off “made in occupied Japan.” The camera is currently owned by Japanese collector Tad Sato and comes with everything, from the original camera case down to the lens cap and even the original shutter mechanism. The auction will start here at €90,000. (via NR)

Sweden “Bans” Drones After Privacy Concerns

Sweden has officially “banned” flying camera drones in public places, unless you have a surveillance permit. The Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden has ruled that the drones with cameras qualify as surveillance cameras and therefore will require a permit under surveillance laws, so basically without a permit, you’re screwed. If you wish to use a camera drone in a public place now, you’ll need to pay a fee to apply for a permit. County administrators will then decide whether your use of the “surveillance camera” provides a legitimate benefit that outweighs public privacy, so most likely you will get shot down by someone like Merideth. Fun fact: over 20,000 drones were sold in 2014, and over 1,000 permits have been issued by the government for using camera drones for commercial purposes. (via PP)

The Brightest Drone You’ve Ever Seen

Filmmaker Daniel Riley has attached “the world’s brightest flashlight”—his own 1000W LED strip, onto a drone. He attached his powerful light strip onto a Freefly Alta drone, and filmed the whole experience. Flying over everything from abandoned houses, to natural landscapes, the pitch black scene was fully illuminated from above every time. Check out the full video in 4K below: (via PP)

Photographer Travels Around The World to Photograph “Airportraits”

Mike Kelley has taken on another aerial project in his new series Airportraits. This time, he went on to mimic his original viral Wake Turbulence photo, but at airports around the world. 74,000 air miles and 25 flights later, totaling up to 93 days of travel, he completed stage one of the project. Finding unique vantage points at each airport including locations in Dubai, Sydney, and Tokyo, he would wait while hundreds of planes took off, capture each one, and then composite them together in post. Check out a behind-the-scenes video of his whole trip below: