Preorder open: The new Luminar 2018 takes on Adobe Lightroom

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The preorders for the new Luminar 2018 (for Mac and Windows) are now open at Macphun.com. This is the first serious Adobe Lightroom alternative too as it includes a new DAM module. Full info here:

Short press text:

About Luminar:

Luminar 2018 offers everything a modern photographer needs for photo editing, including new filters powered by artificial intelligence, major speed improvements, a dedicated RAW develop module and a forthcoming in 2018; digital asset management platform.

Users will also benefit from the new intelligent Sun Rays filter, LUT support, and real-time noise removal. With workspaces that match different styles of editing, Luminar adapts to deliver a complete experience that avoids clutter and complexity.

Luminar 2018 has been re-built from the ground up for dramatic performance boosts. Existing filters deliver richer colors and depth in less time. A brand new streamlined user interface speeds up working with presets, filters, and masks. With full support of pro options like layers, masks, and blending modes, complex repairs and photo composites can be easily accomplished.

Offer Availability:
Luminar 2018 will be availabe for pre-order on November 1, and released on November 16 at macphun.com.

Pre-Order Pricing:

  • Current users of Aurora HDR may upgrade at a special pre-order price of $39 ($49 MSRP)
  • New users can purchase Aurora HDR 2018 at a special pre-order price of $59 ($69 MSRP)
  • A collection of bonuses will also be included with every purchase.

Pre-Order Bonuses:

  • A Pack of signature presets and textures fro pro photography Nicolesy
  • An Exclusive pack of LUTs
  • 1-year Power plan from SmugMug ($72 value). For new accounts only

Full Press text:


 

The new Luminar 2018 takes on Adobe Lightroom

New Luminar 2018 delivers a breakthrough photo editing experience for photographers on Mac & Windows with new filters, tools, non-destructive editing, major speed boosts, and a digital asset management platform that will arrive in 2018.

San Diego, CA – November 1, 2017 — Macphun, the California-based software developer today announced Luminar 2018. New users will be able to purchase Luminar 2018 for $59, and current users of Luminar may upgrade at a special price of $39. Preorders start November 1 at www.macphun.com/luminar.

Luminar 2018 offers everything a modern photographer needs for photo editing, including new filters powered by artificial intelligence, major speed improvements, a dedicated RAW develop module and a forthcoming in 2018 digital asset management platform. Users will also benefit from the new intelligent Sun Rays filter, LUT support, and real-time noise removal. With adaptive workspaces that match styles of shooting, Luminar adapts to deliver a complete experience that avoids clutter and complexity.

Luminar 2018 has been re-built from the ground up for dramatic performance boosts. Existing filters deliver richer colors and depth in less time. A brand new streamlined user interface speeds up working with presets, filters, and masks. With full support of pro options like layers, masks, and blending modes, complex repairs and photo composites can be easily accomplished.

And, importantly, Luminar works on both Mac- and Windows-based desktop computers*.

“We’ve taken the time to listen to photographers, and what they want is performance and quality. The less time photographers have to spend in front of computers, the more time they have for taking pictures,” said Alex Tsepko, CEO of Macphun. “Our mission is to get Luminar streamlined with just the tools and controls photographers need. The goal is simple: enable the best-looking images with the least amount of effort.”

Luminar offers a new RAW Engine that can handle high-quality images faster. Plus, it’s easy to solve image problems caused by camera lenses with Lens Correction features that resolve vignette, distortion, and color aberrations. If the photo has unwanted perspective problems, a new Transform tool can quickly solve them.

Instead of stuffing menus with boring effects and old technology, Luminar only puts in filters that photographers want and need. Luminar offers more than 40 filters to correct color, sharpen details, and release creativity. New filters include the ability to enhance color with Brilliance, selectively lighten or darken specific areas of an image with Dodge & Burn, as well as the ability to change the lighting in a photo with Sun Rays.

Want a whole new way to stylize images? Try the new Lookup Table adjustments, known as LUTs**. Creative color, perfect black and white conversions, and even digital films stocks are just a click away. Lightroom users who rely on custom presets created for Lightroom can also easily convert those presets into LUTs (with a free 3rd party tool) and use them inside of Luminar 2018.

Luminar 2018 will become available in November 2017, and in 2018 a free update will provide a new image browser/digital asset manager to help photographers manage their image libraries.

Photographers will be able to sort, rate, organize, and backup their photos at great speed. The new digital asset management platform in Luminar will work without subscription and will work with any storage (cloud or local). It will also bring a number of unique features, that the current Lightroom library can’t boast.

* Workspaces, Clone & Stamp, blend modes for layers, luminosity masking, flip and rotate, as well as some other tools and features will be available in the Mac version at launch, and arrive in the PC version with free updates by the end of the year.

** Look-Up Table (LUT) – is mathematically precise way of taking specific RGB image values form a source image – and modifying them to new RGB values by changing the hue, saturation and brightness values of that source image. LUTs are used creatively to impose a specific ‘Look’ on a source image.

Availability:
Pre-order for Luminar 2018 will run from November 1 until November 16.
Pre-order customers will receive a special price and value-add bonuses such as:
A pack of signature presets & textures from a Pro photographer Nicolesy.
An exclusive pack of LUTs.
1-year Power plan from SmugMug ($72 value). For new accounts only

Pricing:
Mixed-computer households can share the same product key for Mac and PC which can be activated on five devices.

Current users of Luminar may upgrade at a special pre­-order price of $39
New users can purchase Luminar at a special pre­order price of $59

The retail price for Luminar 2018 after November 16 will be:
$49 upgrade for current Luminar HDR users
$69 for new users

The digital asset management platform will arrive in 2018 as the free update for all the users of Luminar 2018.

Preorder at Macphun.com.

 

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Cutting edge sensor tech: Assessing the image quality of the new Sony 100 Megapixel monochrome medium format sensor

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Back in May Phase one announced the new IQ3 100MP Achromatic Back. This sensor is way larger than current FF sensor and still bigger than the “small” medium format sensors used by the Fuji GFX and Hasselblad X1D.

The back alone costs $50,000. but is it really making a big difference? Ted Forbes tested the new back:

So this is really a unique kind of image quality. And something 99,9% of our readers will never shoot with. But still, it is interesting to see what Sony sensor can achieve. They are really dominating the photography market with their sensors.

One more thing: This is the Sony medium format sensor roadmap for 2018:

 

1) New 100MP 44x33mm Medium format Back Illuminated sensor would be announced in 2018 (for the kind of cameras like the Fuji GFX and X1D)
2) New 150MP 55x41mm Medium format Back Illuminated sensor would be announced in 2018 (for the kind of cameras like the Phase One 100XF).
3) New 150MP 55x41mm Medium format Back Illuminated monochrome sensor would be announced in 2018

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New Sony Q2 financial reports shows “increase in sales”

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Sony released the Q2 financial report. The good news is that they reported an “increase in sales” tough the forecast remains unchanged for now.

As a whole Sony reported a record annual profit. BBC reports:

Playstation and smartphone part sales have helped the once ailing electronics firm revive its fortunes. Strong sales in its semiconductor business – which includes image sensors found in smartphone cameras – lifted earnings. 

Sony is definitely back being a healthy company. Time for Sony to launch some new innovative camera like my medium format 6×45 mirrorless :)

Thanks Joe!

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Sony Tidbits…

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The FE 16-35mm Comparison: GM f/2.8 vs Zeiss f/4 + Bonus 28mm f/2

Think Tank VS Tenba Bags (HRimages).
Go Inside A Cacophony Of Color (Alphauniverse).
Ausprobiert: Porträt-Shooting mit dem Zeiss Batis 2.8/135 (Photoscala).
Review: Canon EF 200mm 1.8 L on Sony a7rii (Phillip Reeve).
Pictures from the NY Nab show at Personal View.

Alex:Just a testing of some vintage anamorphic glass: https://youtu.be/C8a06UNBIc4

 

Join the new Sony Alpha Camera Facebook group.
To get news from our Forum subscribe that RSS feed.
I kindly invite you all to follow our RSS feed, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to not miss news and rumors

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Deal Zone: Save $120 on the Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 E-mount lens

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If you need a good quality manual focusing APS-C E-mount lens this might be for you: $279 onlyfor the Rokinon 12mm lens at BHphoto.

Sony savings:

FF cameras:
The Sony A7rII  now sells for $2,398 with lot free extras at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama and Focuscamera.
The Sony A7sII also sell for $2,398 with free extras at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama and Focuscamera.

APS-C cameras:
$70 off on the Sony 6300 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama and Focuscamera.
$100 off on the Sony 6000 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama and Focuscamera.
$100 off on the Sony 5100 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama and Focuscamera.
$200 off on the A6000 dual kit at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama and Focuscamera.

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Sony A7rIII dynamic range test by Dpreview: Impressive results!

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Dpreview tested the Dynamic Range of the new Sony A7rIII

1) The Sony a7R III retains its dynamic range even in bursts. That’s a big deal for a Sony ILC

2) The Sony A7rIII nearly matched the D850 performance. At ISO 100, the a7R III dynamic range actually exceeds that of the D850, thanks to incredibly low read noise. That’s impressive for a camera constantly running its sensor in live view.

3) The A7rIII has nearly half-stop improvement over its predecessor

4) As for Sony’s marketing, it sounds like the claim of 15 EV is believable, but only technically if you consider how your images look when shrunk to 8MP files. To be fair, there’s some benefit to comparing dynamic range figures after resizing camera outputs to 8MP, since it’s a common basis for comparison that doesn’t penalize cameras for having higher resolution (and therefore smaller pixels).

This is a good Job from Sony. But if Sony engineers could find a way to add a “real” ISO 64 to beat the Nikon…that would be lead to an even more impressive result!

Preorders:
Sony A7rIII at Amazon, Bhphoto, Adorama, BuyDig, FocusCamera, Calumet DE, Wex UK. Sony Australia. Photo-Porst.de and Sony Netherland.
Sony 24-105mm at Amazon, Bhphoto, Adorama, BuyDig, FocusCamera, Calumet DE, Wex UK.

Join the A7rIII facebook group to discuss the camera features and tests!

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Sony says they are number two on the Full Frame US and Japanese market

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Image courtesy Hugh Brownstone

At Sony A7rIII presentation in new York Sony displayed these images about the US market:

1) Between January and September of 2017 they claimed the second position on the Full Frame market. With the first position likely to be held by Canon and the third position by Nikon.
2) Sony lens sales are up 56% YoY (Year-on-Year) (Jan-Sep 2017 vs Jan-Sep 2016) by value compared to a flat market.
3) Sony Full Frame (35mm) camera sales are up 57% YoY by value, compared to the rest of the market being down 7%.

And at the Sony A7rIII event in Tokyo Sony said the samething for the Japanese market (Source DC.watch):

1) Sony owns 29% market share of the FF system camera market in Japan. That makes place two behind Canon
2) They have a market share of 18% on the overall system camera market in Japan

Join our new Sony a7rIII group if you plan to own this camera!

Preorders (Preorder start October 26 at 10am NYC time):
A7rIII at Amazon, Bhphoto, Adorama.
24-105mm at Amazon, Bhphoto, Adorama.

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