Review: RAW processing with Oloneo PhotoEngine

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image courtesy: thistonybridge.com

I’ve found this interesting review made by Tony Bridge (read here) about the Oloneo PhotoEngine (click here). Antoine Clappier, the principal developer, said to Tony Bridge that

“Our goal is to set Oloneo as a recognized provider of professional software products for photographers. Looking at our customers today, we see that we have a large proportion of professional photographers. This is rather unusual for HDR and Tone Mapping products! Our competitors’ focus is to deliver images with a heavily processed “HDR look”. This can please the hobbyist but certainly not the pros. Our goal is exactly the reverse: creating natural images with invisible processing. The fact that many pros have added HDR/Tone Mapping to their workflow thanks to PhotoEngine shows that we are heading in the right direction!”

Click here to read the whole, comprehensive review. From the conclusions:

“If you are Fuji film X series owner, then you are going to want to have a hard look at this application. It seems to exhibit none of the bad habits prone to its competitors, yielding smooth tonal transitions, remarkable rendition of micro-detail, and superbly natural sharpness and edge detail. You can create a file which is both true and natural, or take its HDR abilities to the max. Files I made with the X-Pro1 show a level of quality so far unmatched by the Big Two (Adobe and Capture One).”

You can purchase the Oloneo PhotoEngine (website) for $149 / €125 or download the free trial version here. (no Mac version available. :-( d’oh!)

(thanks Paul for telling me of Oloneo via facebook)

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Brilliant! riflessifotografici XF14mm review (Donato Chirulli)

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Fuji X-E1 & Fujinon XF 14mm f/2,8 R – Iso  400(Auto) f/11 1/550 sec.

image courtesy: riflessifotografici

The long expected 14mm is finally in the hands of the talented photographer Donato Chirulli of riflessifotografici who immediately put it on his X-E1 and began shooting with it in the streets of Rome.

This lens is of course perfect for architecture and landscape photography. But the 14mm is also important in some particular aspects of street photography. You’ll have to face some challenges, (as the light that a wide angle like this can capture from different sources)… but Donato will tell you how to deal with it.

And, once you tamed this lens, be creative! Sometimes you should forget all the good “composing rules”. This focal length allows you to play for example with perspective, stretching and distorting the image and add new “forms of expression” in the “language” of photography! And that is what Donato did, turning imperfection into beauty!

It’s a review, it’s a photography lesson, it’s art… brilliant work!

Ah, I forgot, you want to know about chromatic aberration, distortion, aperture ring, backlight performance, see 100% crops and more… so just read the whole review here (translated version)… and enjoy the pictures. (If you want, tell us your favorite shot in the comments)!

[ XF14mm in stock status check: AmazonUS/ B&H / Adorama / Amazon GERMANY / Amazon ITALY / or on ebay worldwide via slidoo ]

Fuji X-E1 & Fujinon XF 14mm f/2,8 R – Iso 320 (Auto) f/4,0 – 1/30 sec. -0,3EV

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 Fuji X-E1 & Fujinon XF 14mm f/2,8 R – Iso  400 (Auto) f/8,0 1/30 sec.
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Review: Billingham Hadley Small

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bag

image courtesy: composinghands (image of Billingham Hadley Small (AmazonUS) taken with X-E1, 18-55 lens: File OOC JPG)

Now that David from composinghands got his X-E1, he looked for the right bag to put in this little great cam. He decided to buy a Billingham Pro… if you use a DSLR, you’ll surely grab the Billingham Hadley Pro but for the small X-E1 the Hadley Small is enough.

It’s everything I hoped for, material and construction are all top grade, you can see it’s built by craftsman. Design is retro like… so doesn’t shout I’m a camera bag. Take out the removable sleeve and you have yourself a beautiful everyday bag, plus the canvas has been treated to be waterproof which is good to know your gear is well protected… it’s made to last a lifetime and it’s going to protect my gear, I can rely on its build quality not to fail.” 

Read the whole review and see more images here at composinghands.com.

Billingham Hadley Small: AmazonUS / B&H / Adorama / AmazonUK / AmazonGER / AmazonITA / AmazonFRA

… and thanks Andy for linking this video in the comments. How much you can fit in a Bilingham Hadley Small?

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X100s: First Look, test shots and shutter sound at Brandon Remler

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X100s menu photo FujifilmX100sComparison4_zps4c903a64.jpg

image courtesy: brandonremler

“Here are some quick shots to illustrate how the Menu/OK button is now raised and feels better, and is easier to control.  It’s amazing how much difference just this extra height makes.”

Fuji put into this camera a lot of improvements. You know about PDAF, split image, focus peaking and more. But there are some more changes that you may like. So, compared to the X100, the X100s has a raised Menu/Ok and a new and improved Auto ISO menu. “The X100s also has a couple new features like the Shutter Count and 0.5 second image review for faster shooting with image playback.” You can see the comparison pics (X100/X100s) in Brandon’s first look here.

In this post here he published his shots with the X-E1 (14, 35 & 18-55 lenses) as well as some snaps with an early pre-production X100s. And for more shots, like the Salad below, click here.

And in Brandon’s youtube video at the bottom of this post you can hear how quite the shutter sound of the new  X100s (with adapter lens) is.

X100s preordersBHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama / AmazonUK (should be released on March, 1).

image courtesy: brandonremler

Fujfiilm X100s at ISO 2000 – F/2.0 @ 1/45th

100s salad photo GumSalad_zps6ce3f8aa.jpg

X20 preorders: AmazonUS (black / silver) / BHphoto (black / silver) / Adorama (black / silver) / AmazonUK (black / silver) (should be released on March 10) / ebayITA (March 7)

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