Photofeed Monthly Photography News Roundup by @Skiesandsports

Welcome back everyone! It is always pretty mind blowing looking through the daily @photofeed roundups, one thing that’s abundantly clear is that the photography community here on Steemit is thriving! This month we’re looking at the demise (or rise) of analogue, the increasingly competitive fight to be the number one sensor manufacturer as well as a few product announcements that caught my eye.

Photography Copyright in the Modern Era

As a photographer in 2018 it’s easy to feel that the world has completely forgotten about copyright laws when it comes to photography. How many of us see our images misappropriated, manipulated and disrespected online. Whether that’s something minor like people taking photos online to use as backgrounds or screensavers or whether that’s finding your images advertising a product or service that you have no agreement with.
Whatever the case the prevalence of copyright infringement is quite frankly insurmountable. Sure, we could all diligently check online using the various platforms available, but are we really going to check each image we post online? Even if we do find someone using our images, what can we really do other than a Cease and Desist order?
Three stories this month caught my eye that really highlighted the way so many people now find it acceptable just to grab a photo from Google and use it for whatever the hell they like. Even Google themselves apparently!

Strange Coincidences

Early in the month photographer Sean R Heavy asked the question on his facebook page – “Do you think the cloud in the top "Strange Things" image is my photograph?” to which the internet responded with a resounding YES. Given the details in the cloud formation are identical it’s clear that the image isn’t just of the same subject, it’s the exact same image used for the concept art behind Stranger Things.

Perhaps that’s a little ambiguous, I mean there must be hundreds, if not thousands of images that are used for concept art without permission. In fact given that the material is essentially a creative mood board I’d wonder how far potential lawsuits could go.

Google up the Infringement Ante

As far as this story goes Google upped the copyright infringement ante when an internal video was leaked a couple of weeks ago. I was genuinely creeped out by the video, we really are moving closer to the dystopian future of Blade Runner or Demolition Man. Just watch it and see what you think, it’s all framed in a very ‘we’ll totally save the world and not plunder your personal privacy….honest’ kind of way but yeah, gave me the heebie jeebies.

Just after the video was released Videographer Philip Bloom took to Twitter to vent his – understandable – frustration at the unauthorised use of his footage “See if you can spot the 75 seconds of unlicensed footage of mine in this internal video by Google which has just been published!” Petapixel published an article on the infringement that was met with a storm of comments directed towards Bloom and allegations regarding his personal life. So much so that they actually took the article down for a while before restoring it with comments removed and disabled. So I guess the internet doesn’t really care about questionable characters and copyright infringement. It’s ok, good old Fox News stepped in to show us all how it’s done.

Easier to ask for forgiveness

On May 27th photographer Max Robinson took to twitter to post footage of flooding in Maryland. Fox news kindly reached out to the photographer asking if they could use the images across all of their networks, in return for a credit. That’s right, that once in a lifetime paycheck – an image credit. Robinson responded in a way that many of us would have loved to, but perhaps few would have had the courage to:

Not to worry, you’re Fox News, give it 4 hours then post it anyway right? Well that’s exactly what happened! Bearing in mind that statutory damages are $150,000 per image I’d say Max might be in for one heck of a pay day.

The Battle for Sensor Supremacy is ON

I have spoken in the past about Canon’s ambitions to take on the sensor market, well this month we saw that plan start to take shape, with the announcement that three Canon sensors would be available through their distributor Phase 1 (not THAT Phase 1/one!)

The three sensors are all much hyped and comprise the 120mp sensor that was first announced in 2015, a 5mp Global Shutter sensor announced in 2016 and the ‘Full HD Ultra Sensitive’ sensor announced just last month. All three sensors target very specific niche’s but each has already garnered enough attention to take at least a little market share from leaders Sony. You may remember the video Canon posted from one of my previous Photo News reports:

But Sony’s not going down without a fight, and let’s face it, with 50% market share Sony are absolutely killing it in the sensor world right now. The announcement of a three year plan combined with an investment totalling 9 BILLION Dollars (Just let that sink in for a moment!) is a clear message from Sony that they are in no way taking their foot off the gas. Indeed it looks more like they have stepped into a 1960’s Shelby Mustang and wedged a brick on the pedal.

Got to be good news for photographers though right!?

A couple of Fuji announcements

I have to admit I do have a bit of a soft spot for Fuji. I loved my X-Pro 1 despite all of it’s flaws, it certainly wasn’t the best camera I’ve owned, or even the best mirrorless, but it was enjoyable as hell to use. So the news of Fuji’s $600 XT100 was music to my ears. I’m fairly sold on Micro 4/3rds for the moment, but the affordable XT100 is certainly a tempting little package;

24.2 Megapixels, 6fps, 100-51,200 ISO and the same 91 point Phase Detection AF found in it’s much pricier stablemates make the XT100 the likely go to camera for the savvy X series photographers or newcomers to the X ecosystem.

Fuji’s other interesting announcement this month was their SQ6 instant camera, their first using square format instant film. I always love the little Fuji Instax camera, and the SQ6 with it’s automatic flash system designed to calculate ambient light and work out the correct flash and exposure settings (something any Instax aficionados will be more than grateful for!) Ok, it’s not big or ground breaking but it’s the kind of announcement I love!

End of a Leica Era

Hot on the heels of the Fuji SQ6 announcements Leica had one of their own that was rather on the other end of the spectrum. Leica’s M series film camera’s date way back to the 50’s, in fact I have an M3 on the shelf that was a wedding present from my wonderful wife. Perhaps that’s why it was with a real sense of sadness that I read the news that Leica are discontinuing their M7 Film camera, officially making it the last in the M series film line. The M-P and M-A Film camera’s will still be available, but somehow the end of the numbered M series of old feels like a sombre occasion.

Mind you, I guess we still have the M10 to lust over now we’re all fully sold on digital and all!

That’s all for now folks!

Thanks again for taking the time to read these monthly roundups, I’ve actually changed the format a little this time and combined stories a bit so let me know what you think in the comments!