Shutter Happens – Issue #001

Hey guys. Welcome along to the first edition of Shutter Happens, my newsletter covering everything that’s happening in the world of photography or at least everything I think is interesting in the world of photography.

When I started myYouTube channel, I used to do a weekly photography news video, but it wasn’t really suited to the platform or maybe I just tried to run with it before the channel was properly established. Either way, I think it makes more sense to share it as a weekly release on my Substack, where you can all read it at your leisure.

DxO Prepare for PureRAW5 Launch

The market leading pre-processing app is about to get a substantial update with the impending launch of DxO PureRAW5 and the promise of a new denoising algorithm and (excitingly for this Fujifilm X-T4 owner) out-of-the-box support for X-Trans sensors.

DeepPrime has been the leading AI denoising tool for several years now, beating out competition from Topaz Labs and Adobe.

It will be interesting to see what DxO have improved in DeepPrime 3, but the press release makes reference to images being ‘rich in detail’, so it’s a safe bet that they’ve been working to improve detail retention.

Previously the launch versions of PureRAW did not support Fujifilm RAW files so it’s a mark of how popular the Fuji brand is now that this latest version will include a beta version of their X-Trans demosaicing/denoising and lens correction code.

The beta version should be in my inbox in the next couple of days and I’ll have a full review up on my YouTube channel as soon as the embargo lifts in April.

‘Beautiful Foolishness’ – Sigma Launch the BF – Full Frame Aluminium Unibody Camera

Imagine if Jony Ive had stuck around at Apple long enough to design them a camera – the odds are that it would probably have ended up looking a lot like Sigma’s gorgeous new full frame camera – the BF.

The inspiration for the camera, apart from that cool industrial chic design, is simplicity. Instead of a deck of knobs and buttons on the top of the camera there is just one – the shutter button. And on the back there’s a single large screen and the sort of haptic buttons that look like someone like Dieter Rams would have dreamt up.

The body has been CNC machined from a single block of aluminium and there’s a 35mm full frame 24.6mp sensor lurking inside. Look though you might, you’ll find no SD-card slot – instead it has 230Gb of built-in memory.

It’s not entirely sure who the target audience is, but the BF’s 6K HEVC video capabilities (with L-log support and 120fps capture) is likely to appeal to content creators.

DJI Pivoting Into ‘Proper’ Cameras?

Time will tell how much air is in the tyres of this particular rumour, but word on the street is that DJI, known for drones and gimbals, is rumoured to be developing a full-frame mirrorless camera expected in 2025.

The Shenzhen based company famous bought the renowned Hasselblad camera brand in 2017 and now there are claims that they’ll leverage their intellectual property to launch (here’s the twist) a camera that cannot fly.

Of course DJI have diversified considerably since they conquered the drone market, with all-in-one vlogging cameras, camera gimbals, smartphone gimbals, action cameras, microphones and cinema cameras – but thus far they have stayed out of the world of ‘proper’ cameras.

If they did launch this product they would be directly competing with Sony, Canon, Fujifilm, Panasonic and Nikon – in a very different market to the one they’re used to.

Potential features of the alleged camera include superior in-camera stabilisation, modular components and multiple lens mount compatibility. While DJI faces challenges in breaking into this well-established market, massive existing fan-base of DJI die-hards, their outsider perspective and experience innovating with drones could disrupt the camera industry.

Fujifilm Cameras Being Used to Digitise the World Famous Magnum Photo Archive

Magnum Photos is one of the most respected names in photography – a renowned cooperative founded by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, George Rodger, and David Seymour. Over the years the Magnum photographers captured all the major historical events, social movements, and cultural shifts unfolding around the world.

The problem was that the vast majority of the Magnum archive was film negatives and huge numbers of incredible photographs remained unseen in the vaults because they hadn’t been digitised.

Now Magnum have teamed up with Fujifilm to bring that archive out into the light and they are doing so not with scanners, but with GFX 100 II medium-format cameras. The massive project is slowly but surely turning those film negatives into very high quality digital files so that they can be used “to preserve vital photographic archives, provide a modern audience with a chance to see the old archived photos and provide cultural, historical, and educational resources to a broader audience.”

Peakto the AI Media Manager for Mac Gets Networked Anytime Access

French developer Cyme have rolled out a new version of Peakto (full review coming soon) which now includes a share tool that enables you to view anything you’ve indexed in Peakto via a web browser either on the local network or online.

The app might have started life as a photo-only tool, but Cyme have continued to evolve Peakto and it now supports video files and other image formats such as .PSDs. The central idea is that you have one comprehensive archive for all of your digital material whether it’s RAW files, JPEGs, TIFFs, MP4s, MOVs, AIs or PNGs.

The new Share mode enables you to launch a built-in server which you can either restrict to your local network or make available online behind a secure login.

This gives you all the flexibility of access to your media without having to utilise expensive (and potentially compromised) cloud space.

This used to be one of the central differences between the app and its main competitor Mylio. Combined with features such as the highly effective conversational search tool, AI video transcripts and native support for a range of app-specific catalogs such as Lightroom and Capture One – it now offers a compelling alternative for photographers and content creators looking for a seamless, AI-enhanced media management solution.