Cameras & Photography

Eighteen months ago, Adobe announced the “Camera to Cloud” (C2C) feature for its Frame.io cloud collaboration platform that would allow users to upload videos and photo directly from cameras. Now, it’s unveiled the first cameras to support the feature, the RED V-Raptor cinema camera for RAW video, and Fujifilm’s new X-H2S mirrorless camera for RAW photos. 

Frame.io is a cloud service that can handle large files, giving subscribers instant access to photos and video on TVs, mobile devices and PCs. The C2C service allows users to transfer those files directly from a camera, rather than having to wait until the material is physically transferred to a computer.

Until now, you needed third-party hardware to upload content from supported cameras. Now, the C2C integration is built directly into the cameras, with “no additional hardware and no hard drives required,” Adobe said.

With the RED V-Raptor and V-Raptor XL, users can directly upload 8K RAW files to the cloud from the camera (this requires access to high-bandwidth WiFi or ethernet networks, of course). With the system in place, “[Video] files can be automatically delivered right to production offices… for immediate editing,” Adobe wrote in its blog. 

In addition, RAW video audio files can be synced, color corrected and transcoded in the cloud, allowing for “proxy” workflows. Translated to English, that you could transfer small, easy-to-send video files around the world, then link those automatically to much higher-quality RAW video for the final output. Adobe demonstrates this (above), by automatically transmitting an 8K RAW file, proxy, audio and color correction “LUT” file, all at once.

On the photo side, C2C will soon work (nearly) directly with Fujifilm’s $2,500 X-H2S camera, as well. You will need to buy Fujifilm’s $1,000 FT-XH file transmitter that supports 802.11ac wireless and 600Mbps wired connections. With that connected, photographers will be able to send high-resolution RAW files straight from the camera, letting a photographer transmit breaking news photos directly to an agency, for instance.

The new system is aimed at professionals, but it could also let YouTubers send content directly to an editor for a quick turnaround. Adobe isn’t the only company doing this, as Blackmagic Design’s DaVince Resolve 18 includes a suite of collaboration tools that allow editors, colorists, VFX artists and audio engineers to work together in real time on the same project. The new features will arrive to RED’s V-Raptor lineup by the end of 2022, and come to the Fujifilm X-H2S in spring 2023.

Google just launched its Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro smartphones, and as expected, the cameras haven’t changed much from the previous model, hardware-wise. As usual though, Google has introduced a bunch of new and useful AI software camera tricks powered by the new Tensor G2 chip, including updates to Real Tone, along with the new Super Res Zoom, Photo Unblur and Cinematic Blur features. It also unveiled the very cool “Guide Frame” feature that helps visually impaired people take selfies.

One that’s bound to be popular (and maybe overused) is Cinematic Blur. This gives you the same portrait-like blurred backgrounds for video that you get in photos, helping the subject stand out better. It’s apparently made possible by the high speed and low latency of the Tensor G2 chip, delivering a “beautifully shallow depth of field,” Google said. 

Google

Also new is Photo Unblur, essentially a version of the Pixel 6’s Face Unblur feature that works on any type of photo — and will only be available on Pixel 7 devices for now. With just a few taps, you can remove blur and other issues from older photos, potentially giving them a new life.

Next up is an update to Real Tone, first introduced last year, that improves skin tones on a diverse range of people. Google has added thousands of new sample images to its dataset to improve the feature for a wider range of skin tones. And now, it works with Google’s low-light Night Sight mode and Portrait mode as well. 

Google

The Super Res Zoom, meanwhile, doubles the optical resolution at a given zoom range, while letting you zoom up to 30x. It fixes potential noise by “remosaicing” the image to maximize sharpness. The result is a full 12.5-megapixel resolution photo at a 2x on the Pixel 7 and 10x on the Pixel 7 Pro. The aim is to provide the highest quality across the zoom range, rather than having only certain zoom levels (2x, 5x, etc.) looking good.

Zoom stabilization is another new feature that effectively upscales wide zoom photos while providing steadier shots than you’d get on. It also added 10-bit HDR capture, letting you capture brighter and more colorful photos and take best advantage of the HDR display. And finally, for the Pixel 7 Pro, Google introduced a new Macro focus that takes advantage of the wider field of view to allow for improved closeup shots. 

Finally, Guided Frame is a new accessibility feature that tells visually impaired users exactly where to move their device to take a well-composed selfie. The voice coach will ask you to go up, down, or to the side, until its AI believes you’re in the best place to shoot. Along with True Tone, it’s one of the new features Google revealed to burnish its accessibility and inclusivity.

Apart from that, both the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro still come with 50-MP main and 12-MP wide cameras, with the Pixel 7 Pro using the same 48-MP telephoto camera as before. Both the pro and regular models have the same 10.8-MP front camera, compared to the 8-megapixel camera on the Pixel 6 Pro.