A group of independent researchers at AlgorithmWatch recently had to shut down an Instagram research after a backlash from Facebook. The group had been studying Instagram’s algorithm and how it works. However, they claim that Facebook threatened with a lawsuit, so they were forced to bring the research to a halt. AlgorithmWatch published a post revealing their side of the story. It reads that the research was voluntary-based. Volunteers were asked to install a browser add-on that scraped their Instagram newsfeeds....

An update to Instagram in August allowed users to create their own “virtual effects”, like animations and custom filters that could be applied to their images and videos. Some popular filters simulated the effects of plastic surgery. Effects such as lip injections, facelifts and complete facial structural changes. Research has shown that such effects make people feel worse about the way they look. The company that creates the filters, Spark AR Creators, released a statement saying that they are “removing all effects associated with plastic surgery from the Instagram Effect Gallery“....

You know those TikTok reposts you see all over Instagram? Well, it looks like the latest tweaks in Instagram’s algorithm is going to push them further down and reduce their reach. Other than product tags announced a few days ago, Instagram has introduced a few more changes. One of them is “ranking on originality,” which should push original content rather than reposts from other social networks. Or as I see it – reposts from TikTok that Instagram’s flooded with....

Well, that was a surprise. We knew Irix had a fast medium format lens on the way because they released a teaser a couple of days ago. But it turned out to be faster than the teaser suggested – only hinting at an aperture of at least f/2.8. We thought it was going to be something new and shiny, but it seems that all they’ve done is stick a GFX mount on their existing 45mm f/1....

The difference between 4:2:2 and 4:2:0 along with 8-bit vs 10-bit was a hot discussion back when the Panasonic GH5 was announced. It was the first small form factor camera to offer 10-bit 4:2:2 internal, and it confused a lot of people. It still seems to confuse a lot of people, but even if you do understand it, can you even really see a difference between 4:2:2 and 4:2:0? While only offering 8-bit colour, not 10-bit, Gerald Undone decided to compare 4:2:0 recorded internally on his Sony A7III with external 4:2:2 recorded using the Atomos Ninja V to see if you can really see a difference in the footage....