DxO ONE - DSLR QUALITY IN YOUR POCKET

Recently, I've been thinking more and more about downsizing. This goes for many aspects of my life. I started with my gear bag, but I didn't want to sacrifice quality. More and more I'm on the go and really hate lugging around a ton of gear and extras. Let's be honest, who really likes do that anyway?

Smartphone photography is incredibly popular, and with advancements in tech over the last few years, the quality output of these devices is only getting better. They pretty much render the small point and shoot cameras, well, pointless. DxO has released the DxO ONE, a 20 megapixel camera that attaches to your iPhone and allows you to capture impressive quality images from a device that fits in your pocket.

I saw this little doodad floating around on the web a few days ago and disregarded it. This morning, however, I decided to take a closer look. The DxO ONE is probably one of the first smartphone camera accessories that I would really like to own. I suppose it could be considered an accessory. It's actually a camera itself. It plugs into your iPhone via the lightning connector and uses your phone's display to view the images you're snapping. The camera itself is a 20 megapixel 1" sensor with a lens that is roughly 32mm . It has a maximum aperture of f/1.8. A nifty little extra is that the camera captures images in the DNG format. Those images are ready to imported and edited right away in Lightroom.

Introducing the DxO ONE Connected Camera from DxO on Vimeo.

The accompanying iOS app gives you full control of the image taking process. You can choose from a number of different shooting modes or switch to fully manual for precision and creative control. The sample images look great! It's hard to believe you get all of this from something that fits right in your pocket.

The DxO ONE isn't a cheap accessory though. It's $599. It's a little on the pricy side for a mobile phone accessory.

ADOBE'S NEW MOBILE PHOTOSHOP

Photo manipulation and Photoshop are synonymous. The word Photoshop has even transformed into a verb in our modern, daily vernacular, sort of like Google. We say things like, "Photoshop that..." or "It's been photoshopped...". Interestingly enough, as common as the word has become, those that use it are confined to mostly technologically, artistically, and photographically inclined individuals. Makes sense though. It's pricy, it takes a ton of man hours to learn and use it well, and generally speaking, you're tied to a desk when you use it.

For the common user that's always on the go, that just doesn't work. In order to keep an audience, one has to find a way to keep it mobile, or at least offer something that's actually usable while on the go with less fuss. There are so many options out there for mobile image editing and Adobe is trying to be the top choice. In October, during the Adobe MAX conference, Adobe will be announcing it's latest version of Adobe Photoshop for mobile. If you've used the current version, you've probably come to the same conclusion that I have. It's crap. There's nothing special about it, and it sure doesn't appeal to the professional. But before you go getting too excited, it seems that the latest version will be set to bridge the gab between the amateur/casual user and the pro.

A preview video was released not too long ago and it looks pretty nifty-neat. Things like spot healing, cloning, smoothing, painting, and even liquify have been added to the lineup. No word on layers, yet, that I'm aware, but it would makes sense that there was some kind layer functionality. We'll see.

Personally, I'm excited to see what Adobe brings about. I've discovered that more and more that I want and need some kind of workflow option for "on-the-go". If I can get something that keeps my travel load light and easy to lug around, then I'm a happy camper. The idea of having something powerful on a tablet is so very appealing. Let's hope that's on the way.

LENSBABY MOBILE MAGIC

If you're a fan of mobile photography and also like getting creative, LENSBABY has just released mobile lens attachment that will add a few more creative options to bag of tricks. Personally, I think this is great! Currently there are only three lenses options for the kit, but I'm sure LENSBABY will be releasing more as time goes on.

The first gives you a small sweet spot with gradual falloff to blur. The next has a larger sweet spot with the same gradual falloff to blur. The last lens has a strong, sharp focus in the center with a kind of kaleidoscope reflection around it. Looks pretty nifty, honestly. The creative kit even comes with a little kickstand so that you can prop your phone up. It looks like this is all you need to make some mobile magic.

The cost of the kit is $89.95. Not terrible, but not great either. I might have to give this a try as it looks easy to travel. Not a lot of components and such, which means it's something you could easily stuff in your pocket or camera bag. Most importantly, this looks incredibly fun, and that's what we need in our work. If it's not fun, then why the heck are we doing it?