Category Archives: news

Fujifilm India launches its first ‘WONDER PHOTO SHOP’ in Hyderabad

Following the launch of three ‘WONDER PHOTO SHOPS’ in India’s metropolitan cities, Fujifilm India is all set to unveil its exclusive experiential store in Hyderabad – ‘Wonder Photo Shop’, making it the fourth concept store of its kind in India.

Located at Gachibowli, Miyapur Road, Hyderabad, the store will showcase Fujifilm’s latest gear and also serve as a hub for photographic education and inspiration. According to the company the store embodies a holistic vision of photography, from picture taking to printing, sharing and social networking. With the theme ‘Photo Renaissance’, the store reportedly offers an opportunity to experience an immersive and interactive retail space with Fujifilm’s products and services to meet the aesthetic taste of discerning customers especially the youth.


Today, with the growth of passion among consumers to explore their creativity to print photos and organize them in a fun and imaginative manner, Fujifilm claims that the Wonder Photo Shop allows these customers to discover the wonder of photography and learn how they can bring their favorite photos from smartphones and cameras to life by printing, personalizing, decorating and framing their image creations based on their personal preferences and artistic palate along with unique DIY photo creations.


The Wonder Photo Shop also reportedly features a DIY corner where customers can create their personalized photo products including photo books, wall decor and printed keepsakes like mugs or tumblers. The company wishes to offer a one-stop creative haven for customers by bringing photography, digital tools and handicraft together under one roof. It additionally presents photo booth and photo studio services that are exclusive to this new concept store to further encourage photographic discoveries.


Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Haruto Iwata, Managing Director, Fujifilm India said, “After the success of our Wonder Photo Shop stores in Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore we are delighted to take another step towards our goal of bolstering our imaging business with this fourth store launch in Hyderabad. With this expansion, we are looking forward to creating the same aesthetic world to cater to the needs of Camera enthusiasts, like we did successfully in the other 3 metropolitan cities.”


The company also claims that Wonder Photo Shop will be a learning center, giving customers an opportunity to experience the various product features thus enhancing the ultimate customer experience. The full range of Fujifilm’s instax instant print cameras and Share Printer SP-2, the line of X Series digital cameras and high-quality lenses will also be on display to touch and try.


According to Fujifilm, the store has been shaped in line with the brand’s philosophy of “Value from Innovation” to create a warm, welcoming environment for guests to spend their time and discover new ways of enjoying photos.


Digitek launches Flash Bot – A True Flash Photography companion

Digitek – a market leader in Photographic and smartphone accessories in India, today announced the launch of Flash Bot – a true flash photography companion for budding and professional photographers. Digitek is highly celebrated for its high-end and innovative professional photographic equipment and camera accessories.


The Flash Bot kit (Model No. DFB-001) is a remarkable package of various quintessential attachments for flash photography enthusiasts using flash guns of any available type, the kit includes Grip, Gel, Grid, Sphere, Bounce and different colored Creative gels. The kit delivers an awesome experience for the photography enthusiasts and takes away the hassle of carrying redundant flash kits. The easy to carry kit with instant universal fit, modular strong and sleek design comes in a box size of 14.5x13x18 cm.


The Digitek Flash Bot Kit includes Grip, Gel Mount, Grid, Sphere, Bounce, Creative Polycarbonate Gels. Commenting on the launch, Mr. Amit Saraf, Managing Director, IMS Mercantiles Pvt Ltd said, “We only address to what market is lacking and what our consumers want, with this focus we are being able to maintain the leading position in the market. The good responses and reviews of our products motivate us to bring even better products with time.” The Flash Bot kit is affordably priced at an MRP of INR 9995 and is available at All leading Photographic Stores and E-Commerce Portals such as Amazon & Flipkart.



Polaroid Originals Turns Upside Down for Netflix’s Stranger Things Season 3

This summer the widely anticipated third season of American sci-fi TV series, Stranger Things, lands on Netflix. To mark the occasion, Polaroid Originals have joined forces with the series creators to make a new analog instant camera and special edition film that, as the company claims, will turn your world ‘Upside Down’.
Available in stores and online from the 6th May 2019, fans can now brave the Stranger Things alternative dimension. Transformed into the TV shows’ red and blue colors, the special edition camera sees the classic Polaroid design flipped ‘Upside Down’.
Polaroid Originals is also releasing a collectable special edition film, perfect for super fans to capture their stranger moments. As a further ode to the Stranger Things universe, each pack of 8 will include 16 graphic design prints.
Stranger Things is renowned for re-imagining the early 80s, and is infused with popular culture from the period, from walkie-talkies and Fabergé Organic big hair to Dungeons and Dragons. Retro Polaroid cameras pop up throughout the series, capturing moments from the Hawkins middle school’s Snow Ball to the gang’s iconic Ghostbuster Halloween costumes. After all what would the 80s be without a Polaroid snap?
The new camera is reportedly optimised for today with a fixed-focus lens, a powerful built-in flash, easy USB charging and a self-timer. Taccording to Polaroid, the battery lasts up to 60 days, and the high-quality lens guarantees a sharp image from as close as 2 feet to infinity – perfect for selfies. The camera also reportedly works with a new generation of Polaroid Originals i-Type and 600 instant films.
The new season of Stranger Things premieres on the 4th July 2019, and will see the story continue in Hawkins in the summer of 1985 where things are heating up. The Stranger Things Polaroid OneStep 2 analog instant camera and special edition Stranger Things film will be available from May 6th, at polaroidoriginals.com for $109.99 and $17.99 respectively.

BENQ launches a Monitor for Professionals

BenQ disclosed a new 4K UHD 27” professional monitor for photographers–Photovue SW271 which has HDR10. It covers 99% of Adobe RGB, 93% DCI-P3, and 100% of both sRGB and Rec. 709. The monitor delivers the colour accuracy of Delta E2 with its 10-bit IPS panel and 14-bit 3D lookup table (LUT). Equipped with USB Type-C, it features customisable colour characteristics with X-Rite or Datacolor calibrators and BenQ Palette Master Element software.


“We want to make professional tools accessible to everyone, whether you’re just starting out or you’re a pro upgrading an old monitor, the SW240 is the perfect choice,” says BenQ Product Manager Jason Lee. “It fits in our professional lineup with pristine color accuracy and without the hefty price tag of similar professional monitors.”


The Adobe RGB, sRGB, as well as Black and White modes can be switched between using the addition of SW271’s Hotkey Puck. The GamutDuo mode feature enables users to simultaneously work on picture-by-picture in the two different colour spaces. The monitor has adjustable height, an SD card reader, USB 3.1 (Gen 1), HDMI 2.0, and DisplayPort 1.4 ports. The most important feature for this “value monitor” is its price, and that’s where BenQ may have missed the mark. The SW240 monitor is available now for $400 by itself and the optional shading hood will cost you an additional $100, or you can purchase the monitor and hood in a bundle for $450.

DJI ACTION CAMERA REPORTEDLY LEAKED TO COMPETE WITH GOPRO

GoPro is an American technology company founded in 2002 by Nick Woodman. Founded as Woodman Labs, Inc, the company eventually focused on the connected sports genre, developing its line of action cameras and, later, video editing software. It developed a quadcopter drone, Karma, released in October 2016. In January 2018, Karma was discontinued and the company hired JPMorgan Chase to pursue options of selling the company. However around February 2018, CEO denied to sell the company and continue its business in action cameras. Karma was discontinued because of DJI Drones, as they were a tough competitor to fight. Since Dji had many variations in Drones and features, people automatically moved on to it.


GoPro launched its new action camera GoPro Hero7 on October, 2018 with some amazing features for a great comeback in market and it performed pretty well. DJI is planning to keep a hand small camera section as well. After releasing the Dji Osmo Pocket, which was a great success and lot of customers moved from GoPro Hero 7 to DJI Osmo Pocket, and according to rumors soon DJI is moving into action camera as well. It’s interesting that DJI now may be encroaching into GoPro’s market after GoPro failed miserably to break into DJI’s. Since the current level of GoPro is down, DJI’s attempts to cross into a new market will be much more successful. Well this will have a new and tough competitor for GoPro in market and can lead a great loss for them.

                 


According to the rumors DJI will transform its Osmo Pocket into a new action camera with a wide angle lens, it may also include a dual LCD screen (front and back), that it will shoot 4k upto 60 fps and 1080p at 120fps and will have a rectilinear wide angle to produce a more pleasing look. Still there’s no news when DJI might announce its action camera because they haven’t confirmed they are working on it or no. Though GoPro is the first name whicch strikes the mind when you hear action camera, they’re still struggling, and who knows how longer they’ll survive in the market?

Sony announces new feature upgrades in α9, α7R III and α7III cameras

Sony India recently announced a major upgrade to its α9 mirrorless camera that will be available to the users through a firmware updates. Sony’s α9 camera will receive several major enhancements to its autofocus (AF) performance and image quality, as well as a variety of new features that are designed to improve the overall workflow for professional photographers. In addition, new firmware updates for α7R III and α7 III will be available that update these cameras with the latest enhancements including Real-time Eye AF performance and add interval recording capacities.

 

Hiroyuki Tokuno, Head of Digital Imaging Division, Sony India said, “The new firmware upgrades to Sony’s acclaimed α9 to enhance its key features is an outcome of our commitment to the fact that we strive to offer nothing less than a premium experience to our customers. Their voice is critical to everything we do and being able to provide our customers with new capabilities is a source of great pride for Sony.”

The upgrades include Evolved Eye AF with half press activation and right and left selection; Real Time Tracking to capture subject with extreme precision; Real-time Eye AF for Animals for Wildlife photography; Interval Record Functionality for time-lapse movies; Improved Features and Imaging Edge Mobile applications support for professional photographers

 

In addition to the several new capabilities, the firmware also adds compatibility with Sony’s new ‘Imaging Edge Mobile’[iv] application – the successor to the PlayMemories Mobile application. The new Imaging Edge Mobile application features a ‘Transfer & Tagging add-on’[v] to assist professional workflow. This allows photographers to transfer images from their camera to their smartphone simultaneously using the FTP transfer functionality[vi],and adds support for including IPTC metadata[vii] on transferred images.

 

The new system firmware update version 5.0 and version 3.0 is already available. A variety of exclusive stories and exciting new content related to all of Sony’s exciting announcements can be found at alphacommunity.sony.co.in. The new content will also be posted directly at the Sony Photo Gallery and the Sony India Channel on YouTube.

Panasonic unveils the S1 and S1R mirrorless full-frame cameras in India

Panasonic unveiled their much awaited S1 and S1R mirrorless full-frame cameras in India recently under the banner of ‘Futurography’. The S1R features a 47-megapixel sensor whereas the S1 features a 26-megapixel. The cameras are priced at 2.99 lac (body only) and 1.99 lac (body only) are the company’s foray into the full frame mirrorless market, aimed at the professional photographers looking to push the boundaries in the full frame segment. The 3 biggest plays that the manufacturer is banking on is the ‘Pixel Shift’ technology, 4K with 60p and also new M mount, which with the help of the Sigma adapter allows users to use any lens on the cameras. ‘We’ve been waiting to launch a product like this’ said Manish Sharma, President and CEO, Panasonic India & South Asia. The S1R is aimed at the professional with a 47-megapixel camera while the S1 is aimed at the more affordable range. In terms of video both cameras shoot 4K and offer frame rates of up to 60 FPS. And that seems good considering that both offer Dual Stabilization, in-body as well as lens. And also the camera features the highest resolution EVF in the industry currently, giving a resolution of 5.7 million dots at the refresh rate of 120 FPS. The new cameras also come along with the new M mount lenses that are jointly developed with Leica and Sigma. Along with the cameras Panasonic debuted the 50 mm F/1.4, the 70-200mm F4 with OIS and also the 24-105 mm F4 Macro with OIS. Over time the M mount is expected to universally allow users to use other manufactures lenses on the Panasonic bodies. 

Sony announces new RX0 II

Sony has announced the RX0 II, what they are billing as the “smallest and lightest premium ultra-compact camera.” A waterproof, dustproof, shockproof, crushproof and extremely small “premium” camera, the RX0 II is capable of internal 4K recording and now includes a flip-up screen that tilts upwards 180 degrees and downward 90 degrees (for selfies, as you could guess).



The main featured specifications actually look really good on paper:

  • Superb image quality delivered by 1.0-type stacked 15.3MP image sensor condensed into waterproof, rugged, highly compact body
  • Features a ZEISS Tessar T* 24mm f/4 fixed wide-angle lens
  • Movie shooting with 4K internal recording and new image stabilization solutions
  • Advanced functionality for stills photography, including up to 1/32000 sec. anti-distortion shutter and up to 16fps continuous shooting
  • Diverse range of shooting scenes enabled by waterproof 180-degree tiltable LCD panel and Clear Image Zoom
  • Multi-camera solution that enables creative video expression from various viewpoints



The RX0 II offers 4Kp30 internal movie recording with full pixel readout and no pixel binning to collect approximately 1.7x the amount of data required for 4K video. By oversampling this data, the moire and jaggies is reduced to deliver clean, high-quality 4K footage with exceptional detail and depth. The RX0 II introduces in-body electronic stabilization for steady footage, even when shot handheld. This can be enhanced even further when footage is exported to a smartphone or tablet running Sony’s “Movie Edit add-on” application, where the additional information captured during filming can be processed to produce a video with gimbal-like smoothness. Additional movie features of the RX0 II include Super Slow Motion recording at up to 1,000 fps, uncompressed 4K HDMI output and simultaneous proxy movie recording. But more than video, the RX0 II promises a high-quality photo taking experience. It boasts an anti-distortion shutter of up to 1/32,000 sec. and can shoot at up to 16 fps. Rating and Protect functions can also be applied in-camera and a grouped display of continuously shot images can be viewed on the camera. Sony’s Eye AF, which is proving hugely popular with portrait photographers across the world, has been upgraded on the RX0 II. The speed, accuracy and operation of the Eye AF are improved to make it even easier to capture a stunning portrait; a simple half-press of the shutter button will lock-on to the eye of the subject.

adidas and Real Kashmir FC showcase Jammu & Kashmir

adidas in partnership with Real Kashmir FC organised a unique photo exhibition in Bengaluru titled ‘The Real Kashmir’ to reveal the real side of Jammu & Kashmir. The photo exhibit celebrated the beauty of the state through the lens of football. 

The photo exhibit is a celebration of the wave of positive change brought about by Football in Jammu & Kashmir. The pictures captured not only show the magnificence of the valley but also portray how young kids in Jammu & Kashmir are taking to football on the streets and following their passion for the game.

The pictures have been shot through the lens of Prashant Godbole. His proficiency reveals an untold story which is bound to catch the eye of the public at large, thereby showcasing the unseen and fascinating side of Jammu & Kashmir.

The exhibition witnessed a display of pictures bringing to life the “real” Kashmir. From youngsters honing their football skills in the streets of Downtown, Srinagar to the youth academy prospects of Real Kashmir FC taking a leap of faith with the beautiful game on the snow-capped peaks of Gulmarg – the pictures reinforce the wave of positivity that football has brought to Jammu & Kashmir. The photo was held from January 24th to 27th at Rangoli Metro Art Centre, Bengaluru. 


Fujifilm launches GFX 50R Medium Format Mirrorless Camera along with new XF lens

  • GFX 50R features a large 51.4MP image sensor in a compact and lightweight body reminiscent of renowned medium format film cameras widely used in street and documentary photography

  • First in the GFX system to feature Bluetooth compatibility, with a rangefinder-style design


Fujifilm announced the launch of its rangefinder-style GFX 50R medium format mirrorless camera which features the FUJIFILM G Format (medium format, 43.8×32.9mm) image sensor, which is approx. 1.7 times the size of a full frame 35mm image sensor which is in use commonly.

The GFX 50R continues the compact, lightweight and superior image quality characteristics of Fujifilm’s GFX medium format mirrorless digital camera system, while weighing approx. 145g less and 25mm thinner than the FUJIFILM GFX 50S (GFX 50S). The GFX 50S had attracted high praise from professional photographers since its launch in January 2017. Yet, many field photographers who specialize in weddings, portraits and street photography have sought after an even more compact and lightweight camera, along the line of Fujifilm’s traditional medium format film cameras. With this in mind, FUJIFILM added the new “GFX 50R” to the lineup which is also the world’s smallest and most affordable medium format mirrorless camera. GFX 50R is also the first camera in the GFX system to feature Bluetooth compatibility. In India, the camera is available at a price of Rs 369,999 (Body Only).

Along with this, Fujifilm also added two new XF lenses namely XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR Lens and XF 200mm f/2 OIS WR Lens to the lens lineup for its X Series range of Mirrorless cameras. The XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR is a 12-24mm-equivalent lens featuring a constant f/2.8 maximum aperture for consistent performance throughout the zoom range. The XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR is available at Rs 159,999/-.

The XF 200mm f/2 OIS WR Lens, on the other hand, is the first super-fast telephoto lens in the XF lens lineup, offering a fast maximum f-stop of 2.0 and a focal length equivalent to 305mm in 35mm film format. Taking advantage of technologies synonymous with FUJINON lenses, this new telephoto lens boasts exceptional image clarity with the ability to produce beautiful bokeh, making it the perfect choice for shooting sports and wildlife. It is available at a price of Rs 479,999/-.