The new Godox Lux Master Retro Camera Flash is now already in Stock at Amazon, BHphoto and Adorama.

Key Features:

• Color Touchscreen
  Simply swipe or tap to switch between modes or adjust settings swiftly.
• One-Tap Wireless Sync with X3
  Lux Master can work seamlessly with triggers like X3, XproII and X2T. Pairing with the X3 is a breeze like never before-just tap the wireless sync on the X3 and tap the sync icon on Lux Master, and they’ll synchronize wirelessly in an instant.
• Supports TTL
  While maintaining its retro-styled appearance, Lux Master offers modern convenience with TTL auto flash, ensuring effortless and accurate flash exposure. Moreover, Lux Master also supports stroboscopic flash, front curtain sync and rear curtain sync, as well as High-Speed Sync.
• Tiltable Flash Head for Bounce Flash
  Lux Master features a tiltable flash head adjustable from 0 to 90 degrees.
  Valuable replaceable reflectors
  In auto flash mode, simply tap the reflector icon to switch among four reflector types and adjust corresponding parameters such as aperture and ISO.
• 460 Full Power Flashes
  With its built-in 7.2V 2980mAh lithium battery, Lux Master delivers strong power output, offering up to 460 full-power flashes.
• Built-in Lithium Battery, Type-C Charging
  Recharging is quick and easy with the USB-C port, with a charging time of approximately 2 hours.

A newly published Tamron patent confirms the Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5,6-6,3 VR lens is actually a Tamron design. The following image shows the optical design from the patent compared with the official design of the Nikon:

Pretty obvious. The question now is what other Z mount lenses are actual Tamron designs?

–

Thanks Alex B!

Mapcamera shared the list of the most sold 20 cameras during their fiscal year 2023 (April 1 2023 to March 31 2024):

1. Nikon Z8
2. Nikon Z f
3. Sony α7C II
4. Canon EOS R6 Mark II
5. Sony α7RV
6. Sony α7IV
7. Fujifilm X-T5
8. Ricoh GR IIIx
9. Sony α6700
10. Canon EOS R8
11. OM system OM-1
12. Fujifilm X-H2
13. Fujifilm X-T30 II
14. Ricoh GR III
15. Nikon Z fc
16. Fujifilm X-S10
17. Sony ZV-E10
18. Leica Q3
19. Canon EOS R10
20. Sony ZV-E1

With six camera Sony has the most products that made it into the top 20. Followed by Fujifilm with four and Canon and Nikon with three each. Ricoh has two cameras and Leica and OM one only.

Download and info here: downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/download/fw/527.html

• • Changed the default values for the following settings displayed when connecting wirelessly:
  • – Encryption keys
  • – The password displayed after the camera’s default settings are restored
• • Fixed the following issues:
  • – Green color casting occurred with some pictures taken.
  • – The date and time set in camera sometimes would not be correctly applied.
  • – Using [Picture review] to view an image in a “tall” (portrait) orientation and zooming in the image prevented the display from being scrolled to the intended direction with multi selector or sub-selector.
  • – After a firmware update, the eye sensor sometimes would not function and the viewfinder would not turn on.
  • – The “i” menu would sometimes remain in the viewfinder when it was looked through after the shutter-release button was pressed halfway to exit the “i” menu viewed in the monitor.

Hiroyuki Ikegami, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Imaging Business Unit at Nikon told PetaPixel.:

“Due to the lawsuit, we had an opportunity to understand and learn more about RED itself and RED’s history, and we had the opportunity to speak with the founder, Jim. We also recognized that the professional digital cinema market is huge and covers many areas, and since the Z 8 and Z 9 launches we see a growing market in the creator area, ”

We all had the idea that this was the main reason for the acquisition…but it’s nice to get the official confirmation of this story.

Nikon also told Petapixel that they begun considering the development of Nikkor cine lenses. Moreover:

“We will maintain the RF mount. A Z-mount RED camera will not be available for a while. So you can buy the present lineup comfortably,”

Topaz just released the brand new Photo Ai 3.0 (Click here). I use this software a lot and I think it does an impressive job. The updates are really big too!

Press text:

Photo AI’s creative potential has been unlocked in this version, allowing the creation of your own workflows for the first time with presets, flexible ordering of enhancements, panel docking & collapsing, enabling RAW color and lighting adjustments, and a standardized Topaz UI across all of our applications.

Presets

Save your commonly used filter combinations into a single stack, including the filter settings and selections. Presets will then appear in the enhancement menu so that you can reuse your favorite settings and selections across any of your photos with a single click. This will speed up the process of editing large batches of hundreds or thousands of photos at a time. You can also delete old presets by hovering over them in the enhancement menu.

Docking & Collapsing

You can now dock the floating control panel on the right side of the viewport for easy access, or undock it and move it to where you need on top of your working preview area.

The right panel is also now collapsible, making more space for viewing your image while editing. For maximum space, try undocking the control panel while in collapsible mode.

Reordering

You can now re-order and combine your enhancements in any order on the right panel, allowing you to more dynamically chain effects together. For example, you can now sharpen the entire image first before denoising the background and then sharpening again with just the subject. Changing the order of the filters will affect the way the output is processed, and this freedom will allow you to achieve results that otherwise were not possible within Photo AI.

RAW Balance Color & Adjust Lighting

On top of RAW Denoise, you are now able to adjust the color balance and lighting for RAW files inside Topaz Photo AI using our AI-based filters. This allows you to get the best quality possible out of your image straight from the camera and inside the application without having to make these adjustments in an external application even for RAW files.

Other Updates

On top of these exciting updates, both Face Recovery and Preserve Text can now be applied to the image multiple times, allowing you to control the strength of the effect on different subjects and areas of the image independently. We have also added other performance improvements and fixes under the hood. Take a look at the full changelog for more.

UI Refresh

Topaz Photo AI has been updated with a standardized Topaz UI framework, with new colors and icons coming to Topaz Labs apps for a unified, streamlined look.

Changelog

• Refreshed user interface with Topaz UI style
• Implemented drag and reorder enhancements
• Implemented basic preset functionality
• Implemented docking and undocking feature
• Enabled Text Recovery to be added multiple times
• Enabled Face Recovery to be added multiple times
• Enabled Adjust lighting for RAW images
• Enabled Balance color for RAW images
• Fixed Adjust lighting crash on M3 with macOS 14.4 and above
• Fixed switching models on Denoise not updating the preview
• Fixed export output suffix not matching enhancements order
• Added preference for RAW Adjust lighting strength
• Added camera profile for Panasonic G9M2
• Added noise profile for Sony ILCE-6700

One of the largest Japanese retailers shared the top 10 selling cameras in March:

Top 10:

1. Fujifilm X100VI
2. Nikon ZF
3. Sony α7R V
4. Fujifilm X-T5
5. Sony α7C II
6. Sony α7 IV
7. Nikon Z 8
8. Canon EOS R6 Mark II
9. OM OM-1II
10. Ricoh GR IIIx

Two Nikon cameras made it into the top 10. Same number of Fuji while Sony leads the pack with three cameras.