Product reviews, tips and more for photographers and Youtube producers
New-Zealand based MEGA is a cloud service that was designed to be very secure while making cryptography acceptable to its users, i.e. not interfering with ease-of-use. Recently, however, MEGA suffered an attack whereby 773 million unique email addresses and almost 22 million unique passwords were exposed, which makes one wonder whether the focus on the well-being of the service customer isn't making it too easy for the bad guys.
The GoPro HERO 7 Black looks more or less the same as a HERO 6 and a HERO 5, but the difference between the latter two and the HERO 7 is rather spectacular, in that it has a highly effective digital stabilisation system built-in. That is the new GoPro’s USP (unique selling point) from which also the smooth time-lapse video (Timewarp video in GoPro-talk) is derived. Other novelties include the ability to create HDR shots and a vastly better menu system.
Vocal sound improvement and alteration are the strengths of iZotope’s Nectar plug-in. Version 3 has a spectacular new interface design with more intuitive controls and new features. For dialogues, Nectar 3 gives your recordings more presence or lets you change spoken content by changing pitch, adding delays and reverb or turn your vocal into a horror experience.
If you record audio via an external recorder in order to replace the audio your camera captures, you’ll usually need some sort of a synchronisation tool. The simplest is using a clapper, with the second-best using Red Giant’s PluralEyes. But what if the audio your recorder captures drifts out of sync during recording? Why does that happen and how can you avoid it?
In March of 2018, the Lytro company, the makers of the first light field camera in the world, closed its doors. A large number of its employees were said to have been taken over by Google – who else? – but the company’s demise also was the end of the Lytro cameras. But why did few people buy one?
With studio condenser microphones like my favourite sE2200A usually come nice shock mounts. The only problem is that these are heavy and wear out quickly because the shock absorbers are elastic rubber bands. When I saw how well Rycote’s Softie Duo-Lyre Mount with pistol grip handle works with a Deity S-Mic 2 shotgun, I decided to give the company’s InVision Universal Studio Mount Kit a try as well.
Rogue Amoeba just released a major upgrade of Loopback, the audio routing app used by many thousands of podcasters, sound pros and screencast creators. They all use Loopback to route sounds from any sort of source on a Mac to any sort of output – from physical inputs and outputs to audio generated and/or accepted by software apps.
I have a hobby that may surprise people and simultaneously make them think I’m bonkers… I love dabbling in astrology. I know, most people will say it’s rubbish, but I’ve erected enough astrology charts to think Hamlet was right when he said: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophy.” I used to be a Kairon user, software developed by an Austrian astrologer/programmer who stopped updating the macOS application a few years ago. Then I started using iPhemeris on the iPad by Clifford Ribaudo, but that software gets updated very occasionally and you Ribaudo hides behind an alleged Apple bug in iOS that prevents users from exporting complete charts and tables. But in the week between Christmas and New Year I’ve found a macOS/iOS/Android software that might be the astrology app Mac users have been craving for a long time. It’s Astro Gold and it’s been developed by the same people who made Solar Fire the industry standard on Windows PCs. So, although it’s off-topic, here’s a review of Astro Gold.
Lumu released its new generation of Lightning-connected iOS light meter sensors just in time for Christmas. The original Lumu Power has proven to be a very accurate light meter sensor but is too slow to measure the colour temperature of a strobe or speedlight. The new Lumu Pro is fast enough.
Skylum has just released a Library-equipped version of Luminar and updated the version number in one fell swoop. After playing around with a late beta, I think it’s a decent attempt at making a photo management system and the roadmap promises improvements that will answer most of the professional photographer’s needs.
