I am sure coming year will be better for each and every member here.

Wish you small, light, 14 bit raw video camera with 8K 120fps, with $100 price and $5 batteries!

Simply put it is the 2.5K sensor from the BMCC 2.5K put in the URSA Mini body, and using the MFT mount of course.

Don't need to touch or change a thing, and if it sells for the same price as the URSA Mini 4K EF already does, then I'm sure the URSA Mini 4K 2.5K MFT will be a hit!!

But yes, if they can make it be a little cheaper than US$3K (as after all the BMCC is cheaper than the BMPC4K, so I assume the sensor is cheaper), and give it 60fps like the BMMCC (and internal ND filters?? ha, now I really am dreaming!!), then that would be even better.

Japan's Casio Computer expects its first record group operating profit in nine years for fiscal 2015, and it has selfies to thank.

The roaring popularity of its compact digital cameras designed to help people take better self-portraits is the main reason the company expects profit to hit 50 billion yen ($403 million) for the year ending March.

Even with their hefty price tag of over 100,000 yen, cameras in Casio's TR series are strong-sellers in an economically decelerating China.

http://asia.nikkei.com/Japan-Update/Selfies-save-Casio-s-digital-camera-business

Changes to UK copyright law will soon mean that you may need to take out a license to photograph classic designer objects even if you own them. That's the result of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, which extends the copyright of artistic objects like designer chairs from 25 years after they were first marketed to 70 years after the creator's death. In most cases, that will be well over a hundred years after the object was designed. During that period, taking a photo of the item will often require a license from the copyright owner regardless of who owns the particular object in question.

http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2015/12/you-may-soon-need-a-licence-to-take-photos-of-that-classic-designer-chair-you-bought/

It is already law in UK, they just discuss the day it will start working.

ASMedia Technology has started developing 10Gbps USB 3.5 host and device controller chips with availability scheduled for 2014, according to company president Chewei Lin.

With transmission speeds comparable to those of Thunderbolt, but available at more affordable prices, USB 3.5 controller chips will have more opportunities in the market, especially for SSD applications, Lin stated.

Via: http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20130607PD207.html

Just to remind:

This new specification aims to double the data through-put performance of USB 3.0 to 10 Gb/s and incorporate the new USB Power Delivery specification that is capable of delivering up to 100 W of power through a single cable.

First use seems to be in Leica SL.

http://www.epson.jp/osirase/2015/151209_2.htm?fwlink=jptop_news_151209_2

• 45mm
• 12-32mm
• 35-100mm
• 45-150mm
• 42.5mm

http://av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/support/global/cs/dsc/download/fts/index2.html

Toshiba Corp is set to sell its image sensor business to Sony Corp for around 20 billion yen ($164.68 million) as part of a restructuring plan laid out earlier this year, sources with knowledge of the deal said on Saturday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/24/us-toshiba-divestiture-sony-idUSKCN0SH2N320151024

I’d like to pass on a note of request to our freelance contributors due to a worldwide policy change.. In future, please don’t send photos to Reuters that were processed from RAW or CR2 files. If you want to shoot raw images that’s fine, just take JPEGs at the same time. Only send us the photos that were originally JPEGs, with minimal processing (cropping, correcting levels, etc).

http://petapixel.com/2015/11/18/reuters-issues-a-worldwide-ban-on-raw-photos/

On dpreview found amazing comment on this

Ken Rockwell is a prophet.

Will this scale to larger sensor sizes? Will it allow a higher Iso?

I'm looking forward to seeing some ungraded shots.

Source: http://www.dpreview.com/articles/1365289912/invisage-brings-long-promised-quantum-film-smartphone-sensor-to-market

Lithium batteries present a risk of both igniting and fueling fires in aircraft cargo/baggage compartments. To reduce the risk of lithium battery fires, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR), and equivalent International Civil Aviation Organization’s Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods (ICAO TI), prohibit spare lithium batteries from checked baggage (including baggage checked at the gate or on-board the aircraft). The HMR and ICAO TI provide limited exceptions for passengers/crewmembers who carry-on spare lithium batteries intended for personal use.

For spare lithium batteries in carry-on baggage, ensure personnel understand the following:

• Each spare lithium battery must be individually protected so as to prevent short circuits (e.g., by placement in original retail packaging, by otherwise insulating terminals by taping over exposed terminals, or placing each battery in a separate plastic bag or protective pouch).
• Spare batteries must not come in contact with metal objects, such as coins, keys, or jewelry and take steps to prevent crushing, puncturing, or pressure on the battery.
• Batteries must not exceed the allowable quantity and size limitations

https://www.faa.gov/other_visit/aviation_industry/airline_operators/airline_safety/safo/all_safos/media/2015/SAFO15010.pdf

The federal government will announce a new plan requiring anyone buying a drone to register the device with the U.S. Department of Transportation, NBC news has learned.

The government has been concerned about the rise in close calls between unmanned drones and aircraft flying into and out of some of the nation's biggest airports. The plan is expected to be announced Monday.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-will-require-drones-be-registered-n446266

Given that those sensors are said to cost only cents in production, I wonder whether one could combine a large amount of them to gain more than just a low-resolution image.

Kenko Tokina, the world’s largest manufacturer of photographic filters, announced that it has acquired 100% of the share capital of Formatt Hitech Limited (Formatt-Hitech), the world’s leading producer of ND filters for photo and cinema.

Kenko Tokina President Mr. Toru Yamanaka stated, “I am thrilled to welcome Formatt-Hitech to the Kenko Tokina family of brands. Formatt-Hitech’s technical knowledge in the development of advanced ND filters and their excellent reputation in both photo and cinema make them the perfect fit for our portfolio of world leading brands.”

David Stamp of Formatt Hitech stated, “We are very proud to have joined the Kenko Tokina family and to become part of the world’s leading filter group. The undoubted manufacturing expertise and financial strength of Kenko Tokina will enable us to maximize the potential of our exciting Firecrest product line in both the photo and broadcast / cinema production markets”.

The new Snowball appliance is purpose-built for efficient data storage and transfer. It is rugged enough to withstand a 6 G jolt, and (at 50 lbs) light enough for one person to carry. It is entirely self-contained, with 110 Volt power and a 10 GB network connection on the back and an E Ink display/control panel on the front. It is weather-resistant and serves as its own shipping container; it can go from your mail room to your data center and back again with no packing or unpacking hassle to slow things down. In addition to being physically rugged and tamper-resistant, AWS Snowball detects tampering attempts.

There is a usage charge of $200 per job, plus shipping charges that are based on your destination and the selected shipment method. As part of this charge, you have up to 10 days (starting the day after delivery) to copy your data to the appliance and ship it out. Extra days are $15 each.

https://aws.amazon.com/ru/blogs/aws/aws-importexport-snowball-transfer-1-petabyte-per-week-using-amazon-owned-storage-appliances/

Sony Corporation has been implementing a series of measures to reinforce its Devices segment, a key growth driver for the Sony Group. As part of these measures, Sony will adopt a new operational structure for its Devices segment. The aim of this new structure is to enable each of the three main businesses within this segment, namely the semiconductor, battery and storage media businesses, to more rapidly adapt to their respective changing market environments and generate sustained growth. The Devices segment will continue to be overseen by Tomoyuki Suzuki, Executive Deputy President and Corporate Executive Officer, Sony Corporation.

In the semiconductor business, where image sensors are a primary area of focus, Sony will establish Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation ("Sony Semiconductor Solutions") to further reinforce this business, and concentrate on sustained growth. R&D, business control, sales and other operations related to the semiconductor business, which are currently overseen by business groups and R&D units within Sony Corporation, will be transferred to Sony Semiconductor Solutions. The new company will aim to commence operations on April 1, 2016. As part of its mid-term corporate strategy announced in February 2015, Sony outlined its intention to sequentially split out the business units currently within Sony Corporation and operate them alongside existing Sony Group companies. The aim of these measures is to ensure clearly attributable accountability and responsibility from the perspective of shareholders, management policies with an emphasis on sustainable profit generation, and the acceleration of decision-making processes and reinforcement of business competitiveness. The decision to establish Sony Semiconductor Solutions forms part of this strategy.

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/201510/15-082E/

• 26% smaller than brute-force crushed PNG files,
• 35% smaller than typical PNG files,
• 37% smaller than lossless JPEG 2000 compression,
• 15% smaller than lossless WebP,
• 22% smaller than lossless BPG.

Specs

• Lossless compression
• Greyscale, RGB, RGBA
• Color depth: up to 16 bits per channel (high dynamic range)
• Interlaced or non-interlaced
• Interlaced files can be decoded quickly at lower quality/resolution (“Responsive By Design”)
• Progressive decoding of partially downloaded files
• Animation support
• Encoding and decoding speeds are not blazingly fast, but they are in the right ballpark

Site - http://flif.info/

Source - https://github.com/jonsneyers/FLIF

ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/camera/warranty/panasonic_lumix_extended_warranty_offer_Q2_2015-07-29b.pdf

Recent subjective studies showed that current tone mapping operators either produce disturbing temporal artifacts, or are limited in their local contrast reproduction capability. We address both of these issues and present an HDR video tone mapping operator that can greatly reduce the input dynamic range, while at the same time preserving scene details without causing significant visual artifacts. To achieve this, we revisit the commonly used spatial base-detail layer decomposition and extend it to the temporal domain. We achieve high quality spatiotemporal edge-aware filtering efficiently by using a mathematically justified iterative approach that approximates a global solution. Comparison with the state-of-the-art, both qualitatively, and quantitatively through a controlled subjective experiment, clearly shows our method’s advantages over previous work.

http://www.disneyresearch.com/publication/temporally-coherent-local-tone-mapping-of-hdr-video/

1. An impressing, fast rendering planar and 2D / 3D tracker for a good price for adobe after effects: http://www.fayteq.com/fayin/

2. A great portable LED-Light with an CRI of 95: http://brothers-sons.dk/products/pipeline-reporter/

3. Sony TVs with HDR: http://presscentre.sony.eu/pressreleases/sony-confirms-hdr-is-coming-to-bravia-tvs-1145385

4. Adobe Audition news: Remix to make a song fit the perfect length, Loudness updates (EBU R128 and other inc. loudness match function), speech generator with speech synthesis: http://blogs.adobe.com/audition/#.VfgT-_ntlHw

5. iZotope RX 5: I know the RX4 for audio repairs, but the RX5 improves sound quality and clarity and smoothes out volume inconsistencies. https://www.izotope.com/en/products/post-production/rx-5-audio-editor/

So to all the others in this forum: which products on the IBC impressed you most?

Sony CEO spoke about the company's super successful digital sensor business and he mentioned that most of the images you see today on social networks and broader use Sony image sensors. Yes iPhone 6 uses one too.

Mr Hirai said that this fiscal year Sony is investing 1.5 billion Euro, five times what they invested last year. They want to meet the increasing demand for high end image sensors in the smartphone market. We heard that there was shortage of the high end sensors this year, as most vendors want to get their hands on them. They make phone photos rather great in the nice lighting environment. Good sensor helps you create great photos with your phone.

http://www.fudzilla.com/news/mobile/38666-sony-ceo-says-company-invest-1-5b-to-sensor-business

Canon Europe, a leader in imaging solutions, today announces that its parent company, Canon Inc., is developing an APS-H-size (approx. 29.2 x 20.2 mm) CMOS sensor incorporating approximately 250 million pixels (19,580 x 12,600 pixels), the world’s highest number of pixels[1] for a CMOS sensor smaller than the size of a 35 mm full-frame sensor.

When installed in a camera, the newly developed sensor was able to capture images enabling the distinguishing of lettering on the side of an airplane flying at a distance of approximately 18 km from the shooting location[2]. With CMOS sensors, increases in pixel counts result in increased signal volume, which can cause such problems as signal delays and slight discrepancies in timing. The new Canon-developed CMOS sensor, however, despite its exceptionally high pixel count, achieves an ultra-high signal readout speed of 1.25 billion pixels per second, made possible through such advancements as circuit miniaturisation and enhanced signal-processing technology. Accordingly, the sensor enables the capture of ultra-high-pixel-count video at a speed of five frames per second. Additionally, despite the exceptionally high pixel count, Canon applied its sensor technologies cultivated over many years to realise an architecture adapted for miniaturised pixels that delivers high-sensitivity, low-noise imaging performance.

Video footage captured by the camera outfitted with the approximately 250-megapixel CMOS sensor achieved a level of resolution that was approximately 125 times that of Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) video and approximately 30 times that of 4K (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) video. The exceptionally high definition made possible by the sensor lets users crop and magnify video images without sacrificing image resolution and clarity.

Canon is considering the application of this technology in specialized surveillance and crime prevention tools, ultra-high-resolution measuring instruments and other industrial equipment, and the field of visual expression.

There will be no GH5. It will be called GH6 and it will have all the full sensor redout, and 10bit internal but only on 1080p they said.

Then the other new camera will be a new GH series of camera with super 35mm sensor the varicam one. It will be expensive, but will be video orientend machine. The price of both cameras where not dislosed.

I have and idea that GH6 will be arround $1500. And the varicam GH camera arround $4500 to $5000.

From my point of view, i think ill pay arround 5k for such compact camera with the varicam sensor. And about GH6 it sounds like a winner, bummer its not 4k 10 bit internal, but sounds like a progress.

Seven leading Internet companies today announced formation of the Alliance for Open Media – an open-source project that will develop next-generation media formats, codecs and technologies in the public interest. The Alliance’s founding members are Amazon, Cisco, Google, Intel Corporation, Microsoft, Mozilla and Netflix. The new Alliance is committing its collective technology and expertise to meet growing Internet demand for top-quality video, audio, imagery and streaming across devices of all kinds and for users worldwide.

The Alliance’s initial focus is to deliver a next-generation video format that is:

• Interoperable and open;
• Optimized for the web;
• Scalable to any modern device at any bandwidth;
• Designed with a low computational footprint and optimized for hardware;
• Capable of consistent, highest-quality, real-time video delivery; and
• Flexible for both commercial and non-commercial content, including user-generated content.

This initial project will create a new, open royalty-free video codec specification based on the contributions of members, along with binding specifications for media format, content encryption and adaptive streaming, thereby creating opportunities for next-generation media experiences.

“Customer expectations for media delivery continue to grow, and fulfilling their expectations requires the concerted energy of the entire ecosystem,” said Gabe Frost, the Alliance for Open Media’s Executive Director. “The Alliance for Open Media brings together the leading experts in the entire video stack to work together in pursuit of open, royalty-free and interoperable solutions for the next generation of video delivery.”

http://aomedia.org/press-release/alliance-to-deliver-next-generation-open-media-formats/

http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/01/amazon-netflix-google-microsoft-mozilla-and-others-partner-to-create-next-gen-video-format/#.5xk91r:kJKP

http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/global/file/insight/2015/08/SolutionBrief_Consumer_DCSDSLR-0.pdf

https://www.eisa.eu/awards/photography.html

Blackmagic Design today announced it will make the optical fiber connection on its Blackmagic Studio Camera models a user installed option allowing the company to reduce the retail price of the camera. The HD model will reduce in price by $300 and the Ultra HD model will reduce in price by $500.

Based on user feedback, many customers are not using the optical fiber connection and had asked if a model without this premium and costly option could be released. With the optical fiber now excluded from the camera, the camera can be sold for a lower price. This suits the many customers who simply want to use the camera via its regular BNC SDI connections. The SDI connections on the Blackmagic Studio Cameras feature cutting edge technology and are 12G-SDI for up to 2160p60 on the Ultra HD model.

When a customer decides they want to add optical fiber, they simply purchase any SMPTE standard optical fiber SFP module and plug it into the camera. This then allows extremely long cable lengths which means that cameras can get close to the action and be located as far away from the switcher as required. The HD Blackmagic Studio Camera model is now $1,695 and the Ultra HD Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K model is now $2,495. Both models are available now.

When you read the comments on their announcement, you can see that this has already sparked interest in the developers of the Daala video codec. Both groups have already exchanged some source code with each other, and they seem to assume that they will one day come up with a joint (rather than competing) proposals for the NetVC standard. (Historically, a similar joint effort of the Vorbis and Silk developers was successful in turning Opus into the InterNet audio codec of IETF choice.)

And while traditional broadcasters and hardware vendors are still deeply invested in H.264 and H.265, the ever increasing popularity of streamed video content on the InterNet might one day push the scales of relevance in favor of IETF codec standards.

From Alan Kohler, ABC News Australia

Google has been trouncing Apple in smartphones and its share price has gone up 60% in 12 months. and it's now valued at 300 billion dollars. Apple is still a bit bigger at 394 billion but Google is catching up fast.