Last week review 13-2022

Weekly review 13-2022 and the warm early spring seems to be over again, but still too little rain comes 🙁 This week was all about my jump back to full frame with the Lumix S5. My local photo dealer had besides the cash back that is currently offered by Panasonic, a set with the camera, the 20-60mm/3.5-5.6 kit, the 70-300/4.5-5.6 zoom and a 50mm/1.8 fixed focal length on offer that I could not resist. The Lumix S5 is at least on par with the Lumix G9 in terms of both photo and video features, but it packs that into a body that’s barely bigger. Of course, the lenses are larger, but that is in the nature of things when they have to illuminate a larger sensor. If I ahbae there the 70-300mm at the camera, that would have been before the 100-300mm at the Lumix G9, which corresponds then after all 200-600mm with the full format. I also find the kit lens fascinating, which covers an unusual focal length range of 20-60mm. However, in combination with the 70-300mm, this means that you can only cover the 20-300mm range with 2 lenses.

Then this week the folks at Skylum got back to us and released an update to Lumina AI. Luminar AI comes with it on the version 1.5.2. It is according to own statement only a smaller update that supports further and newer cameras. Also noted is that you can now open Luminar AI Tiff files. I find it remarkable how one can even think of programming in light of the situation in Ukraine. 

And then to top it off, the Skylum team has also released an update for Luminar NEO. We are now at version 1.0.4. This new version mainly fixes bugs, of course. 

However, Luminar NEO now also works under Photoshop CC as Smartobject. This allows settings to be changed later if you want to tone down or boost an effect or development. I tried this out briefly with Photoshop CC and at least under Windows it works wonderfully. 

The connection to Luminar Share has also been improved and the mask color has been changed to make the masks more visible. 

But what we spoke of the strongest competitor of Luminar NEO, currently there is the cloud subscription at Amazon for 89.49 € probably in the Easter offer. As known, the photography subscription consists of Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC and 20GB cloud storage. With the offer you are then at just under 7.50 € / month instead of 11.49 €. I used such an offer last Balc Friday to extend my cloud subscription cheaply. Axch so extend you can also a running subscription, the 12 months are simply booked on top. So if you have a subscription or maybe you’re thinking about getting one, then you should take advantage of it. It hardly gets any cheaper. 

Twitter has now included the camera in its app and now allows you to record GIF files, which of course you can/should then share directly.

Unfortunately, there are no options for the different cameras and switching to near mode, as the iPhone 13 Pro models can do, does not work either. I had to find that out in this example. So I don’t know now if this option to create GIF with the Twitter app is really that much easier.

All in all, again very eventful weeks. I hope you like the articles and I’m looking forward to your questions and comments.  

ciao tuxoche

Unfortunately, there are no options for the different cameras and switching to near mode, as the iPhone 13 Pro models can do, does not work either. I had to find that out in this example. So I don’t know now if this option to create GIF with the Twitter app is really that much easier.

All in all, again very eventful weeks. I hope you like the articles and I’m looking forward to your questions and comments.  

ciao tuxoche