Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder Released

December 14, 2013 by

avf2iconI have been silent for the last weeks for a reason: we were working hard to bring the Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder out.

And now I can proudly announce that a few minutes ago it went online on the App Store, so you can go and grab it. :)

The usual announcement stuff will come next week, but you can find most of the info on the app’s microsite right now.

One more thing…

Courtesy of ALPA of Switzerland, the eFinder Tools are now part of the Mark II – no additional in-app purchase necessary. Although the parallax/shift tool is still supports ALPA cameras only, you can freely use the super precise (1/10 of a degree) 3D level with any camera. I might be biased, but for me it leaves the 5D Mark III’s two-axis level in the dust.

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Wide Converters in Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder

November 20, 2013 by

Today we announced the beta of Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder. With the Mark II we took a new direction on how we handle wide converter lenses. In the past we just multiplied frame line positions with the wide conversion factor, not doing anything about the optical aberrations of the converter lenses. And believe me, they have many. Distortion, chromatic aberration, centering errors, you name it, the converter has it.

Most of these aberrations can be safely ignored as nobody takes real images with a viewfinder. One of them however, distortion to be exact, is a huge problem. It enlarges the center portion of the image and compresses the edges, making the effort of precise frame line positioning futile.

Given the immense power of today’s iPhone GPUs, we set out to get rid of wide converter distortion forever. And I’m pleased to tell you that we succeeded: the Mark II sports real-time distortion correction! Following is an example of its power.

Before and after distortion correction

Before and after distortion correction

ALPA’s ACAM Super Wide Converter exhibits about 11% barrel distortion (on the left). Which is completely eliminated in the Mark II (on the right). Yes, resolution suffers, but it is pretty much enough for viewfinder use. There’s also some darkening on the lower left corner (the converter vignettes heavily and asymmetrically on the iPhone 5s – which isn’t a big issue after the correction).

With the corrected view we can simulate super-wide lenses, which is a blessing for landscape and architecture photography. But I also regularly use the ALPA’s iPhone Holder together with the ACAM SWC as a viewfinder for my Canon TS-E 24 pano stitches. Here’s a screenshot I took on my old iPhone 4 while composing The Circle.

IMG_1631

Composing a stitched pano

Note that the iPhone 4 isn’t fast enough to do the correction at full Retina resolution – all other supported iPhones (4S/5/5S) are.

At launch we’ll support ALPA’s ACAM SWC, but the lab and the measurement technology is ready, and we’ll add adapter/device combinations as we measure them. On the device front, iPhone 4/4S/5/5S are supported.

So if you regularly shoot wide, or want to get a tool that allows you to visualize tilt/shift stitches, then head to the Mark II’s site and sign up for a beta. Seating is limited, so hurry! Then it’s time to order an ACAM SWC from ALPA.

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Composing Stitched Images Made Easy

October 14, 2013 by

As you probably noticed from my posts, I’m a huge fan of Canon’s TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II lens. One of the reasons is that I can make pixel-perfectly stitch-able 2.4:1 wide panoramic shots – like the one below – with it. The only difficulty in making those images was composition: it isn’t easy to visualize a shot when you only see half of it.

This image is a stitch of two frames: one taken with the lens shifted all the way to the left, while the other with the lens shifted to the right. Extreme edges cropped.

This image is a stitch of two frames: one taken with the lens shifted all the way to the left,
while the other with the lens shifted to the right. Extreme edges cropped.

But that difficulty is past now.

A couple of weeks ago I received a package from ALPA, containing their brand new ACAM Super Wide Converter. They sent it for certification with our upcoming Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder app, and also for my personal use. It was like Christmas for me. Quick first tests showed that the adapter has a conversion factor around 0.5x, which number was later confirmed with formal measurement in our lab. In other words, you can simulate a 17mm lens attached to a full frame 35mm using that. Or you can view almost the whole wide frame that will result from the TS-E stitch!

This is no small feat: you can walk around carrying a finder and checking lots of stitched composition without actually setting up the camera. And the actual capture needs less than half of the time it used to require.

The whole setup

The following image shows the setup I use for taking the images for pano stitches.

My stitched pano setup

My stitched pano setup

The camera and lens is nothing special, however the thing on top is. Attached to my iPhone is the ACAM wide adapter. The phone is held in position (note that the lenses are centered to avoid horizontal parallax) by an ALPA iPhone Holder. This is the Mark I, they now sell the Mark II complete with the wide angle adapter. As the holder was designed to be used on ALPA cameras, thus I also use an ALPA hot shoe mount adapter.

How much? – you might ask. You should log in to ALPA’s site to see their current prices, but as a guide: this whole viewfinder setup will set you back around $1150 (including the holder, hot shoe adapter, ACAM wide adapter and our Viewfinder iPhone app). If you think that’s a lot for a viewfinder, I recommend you to check out prices on a Linhof 45 Multifocus Viewfinder, for example (hint: it is around $2000 for way less functionality).

The ACAM wide adapter itself selling for less than $60 is extremely affordable considering what you get in exchange. I recommend every serious landscape and architecture photographer to check out this solution. Paired with our upcoming Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder it offers unprecedented value and functionality.

Update 11/20/2013

Today we announced the beta of Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder that sports real-time distortion correction for the ACAM SWC, making the above rig much more valuable. Read my post about it.

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Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder Announced

September 20, 2013 by

The worst thing in developing cutting edge software is that you can’t share your excitement the moment you achieved something great. And by the time you can publicly talk about it the excitement is long gone. So this is a special moment for me: talking about an app that’s still in the works, although the major pillars are already in place. And this app is the successor of our Viewfinder family, the Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder.

vf2header2

There isn’t a single piece of code that we haven’t touched during the making of the Mark II. Everything is modernized, made simpler, faster, and better – and have its design updated.

The flat, simple design iOS 7 brought resonates with me deeply. So my goal was to create something that looks every bit as great as it works. I can go on for hours telling stories, and probably will during the coming weeks (just keep in mind that finishing the app is my top priority right now).

For now I’d like to present you a list of what’s new (from the announcement press release):

  • By utilizing the Retina display, frame lines are now 1/3 of their former width. This, along with their increased opacity and contrast, results in drastically improved visibility and reduced interference with the composed shot.
  • The main screen now handles like a camera, complete with auto-exposure lock, auto-focus lock, AF confirmation beep and single shot/continuous AF support. A new Quick Control Screen for accessing frequently needed functions and a customizable Fn Key make the new app more productive.
  • The Mark II can save clean full-resolution photos with location and simulation metadata, so it can be also used as a regular camera.
  • The number of simulated equipment setups (now named “virtual cameras”) was increased from 4 to 20. The number of custom cameras and backs was increased from 5 to 20 each. The number of custom focal lengths per virtual camera was increased from 3 to 20.
  • A new menu system is provided for configuring non-simulation parameters of the app.
  • Track logs can be managed from within the app, with no need to connect to a computer via iTunes File Sharing.
  • Quick Lens Change for quickly modifying the lens list of the active virtual camera.
  • Automatic, configurable length image review (can be also turned off).
  • All features and cameras of the former Pro and Cine editions are now available in a single app, no additional in-app purchases needed

And were are already working on cool things that aren’t even on the list ;)

So make sure to visit and keep an eye on the app’s new microsite, available at: http://www.artistsviewfinder.com.

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