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Central Christchurch and distant Southern Alps.
Taken from hilltop looking down with 300mm lens has shown mountain heights but compressed distance.
We've been putting hot compresses on Alice's neck since her tube was installed, including after it was removed. She's very accepting of it.
Dōtonbori (道頓堀), Osaka, Japan.
Handheld shot with FE 16-35mm f2.8 GM.
Couple of the best features of mirrorless are IBIS and a dual-gain sensor, a boon to handheld night photography.
In post-processing such images, my aim is to preserve the contrast of the bright vs the dark areas. All too often night images appear flat and lifeless from overzealous pushing of highlights recovery and shadow lifting.
Got the iPhone 15 Pro Max recently as my iPhone 11 Pro Max died abruptly after successfully completing an IOS update.
Just like cameras, there’s no need to buy into every newly released iteration, IMO skipping 3 or even 4 iterations is fine these days, less waste for the planet besides.
This is the 1st time I got to play with Apple’s ProRAW and in particular 48mp ProRAW Max. New stuffs in iPhone 15 Pro Max are; 1) 24mp photo mode, 2) 48mp HEIF Max and ProRAW Max, 3) Night mode in 16-bit color space, 4) 5x camera and 5) Action button.
1) 24mp photo mode
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From dpreview;
“Using Apple’s Photonic Engine technology, the camera captures multiple versions of a scene that are optimized for different things, such as light capture, noise removal, color fidelity, subject awareness and so on. It then compresses those images into a single layer. What the iPhone 15 series adds is another computational step, combining that optimized result with a 48MP image to add detail, resulting in the default 24MP image.”
This much advertised new 24mp mode, it’s limited ONLY to the 1x Main camera (ie not on 0.5x, 2x or 5x) with further limitations when using Night mode, Macro, Flash or Portrait Lighting which can only be saved at 12mp. Tapping on the 1x icon toggles to the 1.2x (28mm) and 1.5x (35mm) cropped modes. We do get 24mp with the 1.2x and 1.5x crop mode from the main 1x camera but 2x crop yields only 12mp. The greater the crop, the smaller the file size even as resolution remains unchanged.
I’m really not happy with the 12mp limitation for Flash and Macro shots even though I can understand this helps with better noise performance (pixel-binning) for Night mode. The current Sony A7SIII is still only 12mp even though A7RV is 61mp. iPhone cameras have no physical variable aperture control hence Macro shot are not stopped down for greater DOF (like in ILC cameras) which will result in loss of light so I can’t see why Macro mode needs to default to 12mp especially if focus stacking is used without the ability/need to stop down the aperture. My old iPhone 11 Pro Max could focus at close subject distances even though it did not have a “dedicated” Macro mode, in iPhone 15 Pro Max, at similar close distances, it can’t even focus until you invoke the Macro mode, what gives? Imagine your 48mp premium camera can only take 12mp images when you attach a Macro lens, how is this acceptable!? (See postscript (1) below).
2) 48mp output
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ProRAW files are in uncompressed 12bit DNG file format. ProRAW is unlike our typical camera RAW, this is an Apple creation in collaboration with Adobe. ProRAW is a demosiaced file that stores results of computational photography right inside the RAW. Apple avoids sloppy demosaic algorithms in third-party programs or apps by doing this step themselves, which makes Apple's DNG file already different from one you'd get out of a DSLR.
Unedited 48mp ProRAW Max files seem to look a little soft almost as if lacking critical focus, the files can be pushed quite a lot and do take (in fact require) a lot of sharpening compared to the HEIF files. These 48mp ProRAW Max files are around 60+mb (apparently can go up to 100mb!) vs 5mp HEIF Max, the size difference is more than 10x. High time Apple introduces lossless compression to their ProRAW files. The 61mp Sony A7R5 lossless compressed RAW is 83.1mb vs 133.7mb uncompressed. The 42mp Sony A7R2/A7R3 has lossy compressed RAW at 43mb vs 83mb uncompressed so 48mp ProRAW at 60-100mb is just ridiculous for a smartphone. Simple editing of 60+mb ProRAW Max files on the iPhone, clicking “save” has a bit of lag.
Fortunately there is also an on-screen HEIF Max=>RAW12=>RAW Max toggle.
In summary, 48mp ProRAW Max or HEIF Max or 24mp HEIF are only available to the 1x camera because only this main 1x camera has the quad-Bayer sensor. 1.2x and 1.5x cropped from the 1x camera will also produce 24mp HEIF but ProRAW is 35mp for 1.2x and 24mp for 1.5x. The 2x cropped only produces 12mp files. Apple up-scale the 1.2x and 1.5x photos to maintain the 24mp output. Quad-Bayer sensor first appeared on iPhone 14 Pro models.
3) Night mode in 16-bit color space
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I can’t see any difference indoors, will have to try some outdoors night shots soon.
4) 5x camera
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The new 5x (120mm) camera has 3-axis sensor-shift stabilization, I believe the 1x is stabilized at 2-axis only and the 0.5x has no stabilization? Sensor-shift stabilization first appeared in the iPhone 12 Pro Max, lens-based stabilization was the previous standard, just like DSLR to Mirrorless cameras.
This new 120mm equivalent tetraprism camera is useful, the screen appeared nicely stabilized to compose the shot and the results are crisp.
[Postscript: The 5x camera’s native aperture is f2.8 but can be adjusted post shot to simulate f1.4 if “Portrait” mode is turned on.]
5) Action button
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IMO best use of the new “Action” button is to assign it to “Camera” which not only allows us to invoke camera in locked screen but also as shutter/record button, it’s a little more instantaneous then the camera icon in locked screen.
A couple of personal takeaways;
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1. Always backup your phone before updating the software and have it plugged in to a power source while updating,
2. ProRAW is great and in particular 48mp ProRaw Max enabled by the quad-Bayer sensor. This is a real step in the right direction to turn smartphones into viable cameras. Just like in cameras, RAW files will not look good compared to JPEG/HEIF. Apple ProRAW files do respond to edits well and can be pushed further than HEIF files, more importantly ProRAW can and should take a lot of sharpening to look like HEIF/JPEG from iPhones. Apple will need to upgrade its in-phone “Photos” app editor IMO to better exploit the 48mp ProRAW Max files.
Yet to try;
1. Portrait “faux-keh”,
2. Night mode with new 16-bit color space for outdoors.
Future evolution? I’m listing out important features I hope to see in future iPhone iterations, will skip each iteration until Apple makes the iPhone I desire, or until my current phone dies whichever comes first.
1. True optical telephoto zoom lens,
2. High-resolution photos in all modes including Macro and Flash modes at least on the main 1x camera,
3. High-resolution for the 0.5x ultra-wide camera,
4. Lossless compression for ProRAW Max files,
5. Manual settings allowing users control shutter speed, ISO, sensor-shift stabilization on/off. As it is, we already get EV control & AF/AE lock on iPhones,
6. 1 touch White Balance adjustment like the way Ricoh GR does it.
7. Tripod-based pixel-shift high resolution mode at Base ISO.
8. Better “Photos” app with selective post-processing capability.
9. Dual-slot backup; with external SSD, if file is large 48mp ProRAW Max, the phone should retain a 12 or 24mp HEIF file.
Postscript
=========
1) iPhone 11 Pro Max 1x main camera sensor size is 1/2.55” while the 15 Pro Max is 1/1.28” which explains for the worse minimum focus distance for the newest phone. iPhone 15 Pro Max has to switch to its 0.5x ultra-wide camera for Macro, this 0.5x camera sensor has the same size and resolution as the 1x in the iPhone 11 Pro Max at 1/2.55” 12mp hence Macro mode on iPhone 15 Pro Max drops to 12mp. IMO the so called “Macro mode” is kinda bogus!
2) Found yet another limitation to the 24mp and 48mp modes on the 1x (incl 1.2x & 1.5x) camera. If 16:9 widescreen format is selected, output resolution drops to 36mp from the original 48mp.
3) 5x camera with native f2.8 aperture can simulate f1.4 post shot when Portrait mode is turned on.
Office complete with desk, chair and fridge sitting in the corner of the compressor building of a no longer in use tire factory
Night, near full moon, 120 second exposure, protomachines flashlight set to green, orange and natural white, completely dark interior.
Click on the image, because it's best BIG on BLACK!!!
Hong Kong, 2019
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I went to go find owls, got skunked out so turned to Mount Baker at 600mm just before sunset! The mountain is probably at least a 100 miles away!
Sydney, CBD
I toyed momentarily with the idea of making this monochrome then decided I hadn't the heart for it.
Wide Pic Panoramic Lens Camera
Fomapan 100
Rodinal semi stand development
1:100, 1 hour
30 seconds of inversions every 15 minutes
Rockefeller Chapel, just as the campus as a whole, is filled with details that beg to be explored. Inspired by recent work by a friend producing massive resolution panoramas, I wanted to give it a try. This is a composite of 20 frames, stitched together ever so slowly, to yield a high resolution image that retains some beautiful details in the woodworking that can really only be appreciated in person, but that I attempt to bring forward in this image. I recommend viewing this large. in all the compressed JPG file is 78MB.
Colston Street, Bristol. Another of the city's more varied streets. Again a full 500 year time frame is depicted here stretching from the C16th, with the chapel of the three Kings of Cologne to the C20th Colston Tower beyond.
The best words to describe HK's cityscape.
Recently fall in love with the skyscrapers and cityscape, I spent few weekends on wandering around Central to Wan Chai. Look up and look for sth fun!! :)
I’m posting this page from Typographically Speaking: The Art of Matthew Carter in an attempt to correct some misinformation about Helvetica Compressed that is being spread without citation elsewhere online.
Carter’s captions in the original panel (which are just barely legible in the book’s reproduction) tell a definitive story of the origins of Helvetica Compressed:
“A set of three faces designed in 1966 for the Linofilm phototypesetter. Although they were considered part of the Helvetica family – for marketing reasons – these faces had their real origin in a pre-Helvetica sanserif that appeared in a Swiss book on lettering in 1954 [Armin Haab and Alex Stocker’s Lettera, Vol. 1: A Standard Book of Fine Lettering, published by Verlag Niggli AG]. Schmalfette Grotesk, as it was simply known, was never made as type but was pasted up as stats for headlines in the German magazine Twen. Twen, a major influence in graphic design in the ’60s, was designed by the incomparable Willy Fleckhaus. Three spreads below.
“Helvetica Compressed was an attempt to capture the strength of the Twen face (and avoid the hideous shapes of Letraset’s Compacta), add a lowercase, and expand it into a three-face series.”
Carter’s captions also do a great job explaining the quantized unit system from the old Linofilm phototypesetters, and their influence on the design of the Helvetica Compressed series:
“The Linofilm had a relatively coarse spacing system with only 15 discrete widths that characters could occupy, measured from 4 to 18 units. The three possible 1-2-3 integer progressions required by lowercase characters with one, two, and three vertical stems are shown in this diagram. Thus the mechanics of the Linofilm effectively determined the weights and widths of these three faces.”
In an email conversation with Carter (included in the comments below), he clarified that he designed the Compressed and Extra Compressed styles in 1966, and oversaw Hans-Jürg (sometimes misspelled as “Hans Jörg”) Hunziker’s design of the Ultra Compressed style in 1968. Hunziker also designed the specimen for the whole family.