Tycho Jones, an 18-year-old musical artist from Hackney, East London, has released a music video for his song, ‘Don’t Be Afraid.’ Typically, a music video wouldn’t be covered here on DPReview, but Jones’ video is unique. Jones’ record company, Globe Town Records, hired artist Edd Carr to make the video. Carr did something we’ve never seen before; he printed every single frame of video as cyanotype prints and then created the final music video by photographing the more than 5,000 cyanotype prints that he handmade.
Carr reached out to us to let us know about his video for Tycho Jones. Carr thinks it’s the first video ever made entirely from cyanotype prints. Edd Carr directed, edited, printed and animated the entire video himself. Carr’s video work, which you can see more of on his website and his Vimeo page, utilizes numerous analog and alternative methods and techniques.
As a bit of background on the cyanotype photographic printing process, it was first discovered by English scientist and astronomer Sir John Herschel in 1842. In the decades following Herschel’s work, the cyanotype printing process was primarily used by engineers to produce copies of drawings, known as ‘blueprints.’ Blueprints get their name from the cyan-blue print that results from the cyanotype process.
While the light-sensitive solution, which comprises potassium ferricyanide and ferric ammonium citrate, starts as a sort of yellowish-green liquid, it turns dark blue when exposed to sufficient ultraviolet light. It’s not a highly light-sensitive solution, so exposure times range from a few seconds up to 10-20 minutes on an overcast day.
A simple kind of cyanotype print is referred to as a photogram. You arrange objects, like pressed plants and flowers, on top of the paper that’s been coated with light sensitivity solution and then expose it to light. After washing off the liquid, you’ve got a cyanotype print. You can learn more about this method in the video below from Ekaterina Smirnova.
As you can see, the cyanotype process reverses light and dark, so to create cyanotype prints like the ones used by Edd Carr in the Tycho Jones music video, you must work with a negative original to create a final positive image. You can see some of these positive image cyanotype prints that Carr made for the video in the Instagram post below.
The cyanotype process is quite flexible, and it can be scaled up to incredible sizes. For example, in 2017, Stefanos Tsakiris created a 276.64 square meter cyanotype in Thessaloniki, Greece. The print, which holds the world record for the largest cyanotype print, was made to help teach people about cyanotype photography and increase environmental awareness.
Last year, we covered a video from French photographer Mathieu Stern. In the video, seen below, Stern developed 120-year-old glass negatives that were found in a time capsule using the cyanotype process. It’s a very cool look into the past and fitting use of the cyanotype process.
If you’d like to learn more about Edd Carr’s work, you can visit his website and follow him on Instagram. Carr is also the project lead for Northern Sustainable Darkroom.
Today, TTArtisan has officially released its new AF 56mm F1.8 autofocus lens for X and E-mount cameras. The APS-C portrait lens is another budget offering from the China-based company.
The 56mm F1.8 lens has ten elements in nine groups and has nine aperture blades. The lens is built with a stepper motor, which TTArtisan claims delivers fast and quiet autofocus. It has a minimum focusing distance of 0.5m (19.6″) and a minimum aperture of F16.
TTArtisan says the lens has a full aluminum build, weighs between 233-245g (8.2-8.8oz), and includes ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass. This should help reduce the amount of color fringing that may occur in an image.
This is only the company’s fourth autofocus lens, but it’s the second one it has announced in recent weeks, following the TTArtisans AF 35mm F1.8, released early this month for Sony E-mount cameras.
Pricing and availability
The TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 ships globally and is available immediately. It has a suggested retail price of $158.
Buy now:
The Panasonic Lumix S5II launched the second generation of Panasonic’s full-frame mirrorless camera system and was the first Panasonic to feature phase detect autofocus. As our review reveals, it’s a heck of an all-around camera for both still and video shooters.
The latest Lumix puts a Four Thirds sensor in a full-frame body with boosted AF and a wealth of stills and video capabilities to create a Swiss Army Knife of a Micro Four Thirds camera.
The fourth camera in Leica’s SL series of full-frame mirrorless cameras sees the 60MP BSI sensor from the Q3 and M11 models arrive with a significant interface redesign.
The Fujifilm X100VI is the sixth iteration of Fujifilm’s classically-styled large sensor compact. A 40MP X-Trans sensor, in-body stabilization and 6.2K video are among the updates.
The Nikon Zf is a 24MP full-frame mirrorless camera with classic looks that brings significant improvements to Nikon’s mid-price cameras. We just shot a sample reel to get a better feel for its video features and have added our impressions to the review.
What’s the best camera for around $2000? This price point gives you access to some of the most all-round capable cameras available. Excellent image quality, powerful autofocus and great looking video are the least you can expect. We’ve picked the models that really stand out.
What’s the best camera for travel? Good travel cameras should be small, versatile, and offer good image quality. In this buying guide we’ve rounded-up several great cameras for travel and recommended the best.
If you want a compact camera that produces great quality photos without the hassle of changing lenses, there are plenty of choices available for every budget. Read on to find out which portable enthusiast compacts are our favorites.
‘What’s the best mirrorless camera?’ We’re glad you asked.
Above $2500 cameras tend to become increasingly specialized, making it difficult to select a ‘best’ option. We case our eye over the options costing more than $2500 but less than $4000, to find the best all-rounder.
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Photo: Shaminder Dulai
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If you haven’t signed up for the free DPReview newsletter, you’re missing out. It’s more than a recap of the website; we regularly share behind-the-scenes information, reader questions of the week, photo challenges and exclusive stories that can only be found in the newsletter.
In the last three months, we have given newsletter readers early sneak peeks at our testing and talked about our studio scene, product studio and what’s going on in the DPReview mail room (you never know what might be dropping by). We also give newsletter readers an exclusive heads-up on what’s happening around our office, complete with candid sharing of what the DPReview editors are thinking about and debating. Sometimes, we even let slip which camera review we’re working on and if it is coming out the following week.
Last month, the newsletter also hosted DPReview Camera Debate Madness of March (and part of April). Readers and editors weighed the choices between primes and zooms, lens-focusing design, viewfinder- or touchscreen-only cameras, and more. After four rounds of debates and voting, we crowned a champion and experience trumped gear lust. Relive every play-by-play to discover who won and how. Join our next event by signing up for the newsletter.
There’s also our ongoing ‘Question of the Week’ segment, where we turn the microphone toward you. Last week, we asked: What’s the perfect portrait lens, and why? Nearly 100 readers wrote in to share their takes, and every week, we share some of our favorite responses in the following newsletter. What did people have to say? Sign up to find out. Join us by answering our next question every week. This week, we’re asking you: If you could update one camera from the past and bring it back to the market, what would it be? Have a hot take to share? Sign up and join the community by sending in your response.
It’s the best photography, camera and gear news, delivered right to your inbox.
And we don’t just stop at the news. Newsletter subscriber benefits include behind-the-scenes articles, letters to the editor, exclusive contests, sneak peeks on what we’re working on, ways to share feedback directly with DPReview editors to help us shape future stories and more! There is no AI here, only real people writing the newsletters and reading your feedback (me!).