In a detailed technical blog I compare six AI-based noise reduction programs for the demands of astrophotography. Some can work wonders. Others can ruin your image. Over the last two years, we have seen a spate of specialized programs introduced for removing digital noise from photos. The new generation of programs use artificial intelligence (AI), aka machine learning, trained on thousands of images to better distinguish unwanted noise from desirable image content....

Quite a few photographers, particularly Pentax shooters, have been getting very excited about the new Cactus RQ250 battery powered strobe. Announced earlier in the year, and shown off in person during The Photography Show, the RQ250 is a pretty nice and compact little unit. The benefit for Pentax users being that they finally have a strobe that supports TTL and high-speed sync. Until now, though, a price and release date has not been announced....

If there’s one thing that’s definitely not going away, it’s 360 VR cameras. And they’ve come a very long way in the last few years. It was only 2016, two short years ago, when the Ricoh Theta S was being lauded as one of the best on the consumer market – with 1080p video. But as the technology has become a little more established, demands have evolved. Detu is answering these demands with the new Detu MAX....

When I first stumbled across this, I thought it was a pretty neat idea. Of course, it’s not an entirely new idea. Agfa used to make a similar device. The Rondinax. Of course, you needed completely separate units for 35mm and 120 format film. The LAB-BOX works on a similar principle, but is a little more modular, allowing you to develop both with the same unit. With the Kickstarter campaign launched only a couple of days ago, it’s already smashed its €70,000 goal....

The Rode VideoMic Pro has been the staple of vloggers and YouTubers the world over since its initial release. It’s also extremely handy as an on-camera mic to get a good track in camera to let you more easily sync footage to a master audio track in post. But the VideoMic Pro is not perfect. Rode listened to feedback from its customers about the VideoMic Pro and last year announced the VideoMic Pro Plus....