Show Notes
Greetings everyone, you’re listening to the Liam Photography Podcast, I’m your host Liam Douglas and this is Episode 429 for Thursday November 21, 2024. In today’s Episode, Sony’s A1MKII and a rare all black penguin and other stories for this week.
The Sony a1 series has been in a slightly awkward position since the a7R V and a9 III landed, each sporting a new dedicated artificial intelligence processor and improved autofocus features. The a9 III especially brought a lot to the table, including an excellent new design and user experience. Finally, Sony’s flagship camera has these new features, bringing much-needed modernization.
At its core, the a1 Mark II is an awful lot like its predecessor. It has the same 50.1-megapixel stacked image sensor and the same image processor. Sure, there is a new dedicated AI processor that powers autofocus and some image processing — for JPEGs, at least — but the overall imaging pipeline is unchanged. Whatever photographers got in terms of image quality from the original a1 is what they can expect with the a1 II.
However, numerous upgrades on offer aim to make the a1 II a more powerful, enjoyable camera to use and, ultimately, capture high-quality photos more reliably. One of the more meaningful improvements on offer is the new in-body image stabilization, which now offers 8.5 stops of stabilization.
While the new IBIS helps keep photographers and videographers stable, the improved autofocus system aims to increase the rate of keepers, especially during high-paced action shooting. The a1 II still shoots at up to 30 frames per second, the same as its predecessor, but the autofocus system promises improved speed and accuracy thanks to the additional AI processing power and the implementation of more robust subject detection. Sony promises a 50% improvement in eye detection for birds, 30% for animals, and 30% for humans compared to the original a1. There is also a new automatic subject detection mode, so photographers no longer need to pick people, animals, or vehicles separately.
The core autofocus system is the same — 759 points covering about 92% of the full-frame image area. It is accurate to -4 EV and phase-detect AF works down to f/22. The components surrounding the system have changed, and Sony argues that the impact is meaningful.
Unsurprisingly, sheer shooting speed hasn’t changed given the use of the same imaging pipeline, but there are also performance tweaks. The a1 II offers pre-capture shooting, a boon for sports and wildlife photographers. This mode has an up to one-second buffer, enabling up to 30 frames to be shot before the shutter is fully depressed.
While the a1 II requires its swift electronic shutter for its fastest shooting speeds, the camera still has a mechanical shutter option. While this may seem odd in the age of fast electronic shutters, the a1 II has the same impressive 1/400 second flash sync speed as its predecessor, although only when using the mechanical shutter. The electronic shutter syncs at 1/200 second.
There are significant changes to displays with the a1 II. Whereas the a1 had a tilting screen, the a1 II gets the four-axis multi-angle LCD of the a9 III. This 3.2-inch panel has 2.1 million dots. The EVF has been upgraded and is the same 9.44-million dot OLED as the a9 III’s EVF. It has a 120Hz refresh rate with no noticeable drop in quality and a faster 240Hz option, which comes with a resolution dip.
Other interface features haven’t changed. Like its predecessor, the a1 II features dual CFexpress (3.0) Type A card slots, which double as UHS-II SD card slots. It also has a full-size HDMI port, USB-C, and an Ethernet port, which actually is upgraded to 2.5Gbps, two and a half times faster than the a1’s port. The a1 II uses the same FZ-1000 battery, although the camera ships with Sony’s new dual battery charger.
The Sony a1 II will ship in mid-December and retail for $6,499, the same launch price as the original a1 brought in January 2021.
Stolen Churchill Photo Worth Millions
New details have emerged in the saga of the iconic portrait of Winston Churchill that was stolen from a Canadian hotel and replaced with a fake before being recovered in Italy over two years later. It turns out an Italian lawyer paid £4,200 (~$5,300) for it at an auction, believing it to be a cheap copy.
The international mystery first began back in August 2022 after the Château Laurier Hotel in Ottawa, Canada, discovered that its famous “Roaring Lion” portrait of Winston Churchill (possibly worth millions) had been removed from the hotel’s Reading Lounge and replaced with a counterfeit.
Little did the hotel know that a few months earlier, in May 2022, 34-year-old Italian lawyer Nicola Cassinelli had been browsing Sotheby’s online catalog to purchase some fine art for his Genoa, Italy, apartment when he came across a signed “Roaring Lion” print.
Thinking the print was just a signed but cheap copy of the famous photo, Cassinelli placed a bid of £4,200. To his astonishment, that turned out to be the winning bid, and two weeks later the print was hanging on the wall of his home.
“It immediately grabbed my attention, not just for its beauty but because I am fascinated with the figure of Winston Churchill,” Cassinelli tells The Telegraph. “This was the emblematic photo that captured his anger, the strength of the free world – good that triumphs over evil. It’s historic.”
“I showed it to all my guests and was really happy with it.”
A few months after the auction, Cassinelli was contacted by Sotheby’s and informed that his prized photo was at the center of a law enforcement investigation. He was subsequently put in touch with Canadian police, and his unwitting role in an international art heist soon became clear. Although his purchase from Sotheby’s was in good faith and therefore he was not legally obligated to return the artwork, Cassinelli made the decision to return the print to the Canadian hotel.
The hotel had originally received the signed print as a gift directly from its renowned photographer, Yousuf Karsh, who lived at the hotel with his wife for 18 years.
“I promised myself to one day go to Ottawa to see my photograph in the place where I know it should stay, because it had been gifted to the hotel by Yousuf Karsh, it is only right that it remains there,” Cassinelli tells The Telegraph. “[…] I like art and I like to collect. I am not in it to be speculative. Had I decided not to return it perhaps there would have been a big compensation worth its actual value, but there was an entire nation searching for it. I just felt it was right to return it.
“Being Italian, we have had many pieces of art stolen from us, the Mona Lisa in fact has never been given back by France and I know how painful this can be for a populace.”
After being officially recovered in Italy in September, the photo’s return to the hotel was announced at a press conference last Friday.
“After more than two years, I stand before you to celebrate the return of our iconic portrait,” says hotel general manager Geneviève Dumas. “We extend our gratitude to Ottawa police services, international law enforcement, Mr Nicola Cassinelli, and all who are contributing to its return.”
Canadian and Italian law enforcement were also able to identify and arrest a subject based on public tips and forensic analysis.
43-year-old Jeffrey Iain James Wood of Powassan, Ontario, was arrested and charged with forgery, theft, and trafficking. He is expected to appear in court later this month defended by Lawrence Greenspon, a well-known criminal defense lawyer.
Cassinelli, who is still out of thousands of dollars in fees even after being reimbursed for his purchase and legal expenses, has replaced the print on his wall with a cheap $100 poster of the same photograph mounted in the exact same spot.
Photographer Captures Ultra Rare Black Penguin
A wildlife photographer has captured an ultra-rare photograph of an all-black penguin.
Belgian photographer Yves Adams had just landed ashore at St Andrews Bay on South Georgia Island this month when a fellow photographer pointed out the unusual-looking bird. Adams, who was leading an expedition as a tour guide, then rushed onto the beach to capture photos of the king penguin in isolation before it was surrounded by other members of its large colony.
The penguin was covered with black feathers and lacked the distinctive white belly and yellow patches that the species is known for.
“It’s one out of a colony of hundreds of thousands of penguins that has this color morph,” Adams says. “I tried to follow the bird as it had just come up from the surf onto the beach. I knew I had little time to actually photograph that bird as it was heading towards the colony and you don’t want to disturb them when they’re all together.
“I was really lucky to get some photos of this penguin isolated before it got swamped by the other normal-colored penguins.”
The penguin’s rare coloration is due to something called melanism. It’s when an animal produces too much melanin, which causes the skin or feathers to be darker than normal.
“Melanism is something that occurs very rarely within birds and mammals,” Adams says. “I’ve heard about it before in other species of penguins so I’ve wanted to see it for a really long time.”
The all-black plumage is actually a disadvantage for the penguin, as the white belly is part of a camouflage technique called countershading — when a penguin is swimming, the dark back helps it blend in from above with the dark waters below, and the white belly helps it blend in from below with the bright sky above.
“I don’t believe anyone has seen this all-black penguin before,” Adams says. “The season has only just started on South Georgia, we were only the third boat to land there.
“I hope other people get to see it too. I was super excited to see a pure melanistic penguin as there are spotted or partly melanistic birds. From a distance the black is super black but when you get closer some of the markings on its neck and belly are like a metallic green.
“It was completely accepted by the other birds and his size wasn’t different in any way.”
This is actually Adams’s second time stumbling across a strange-looking penguin. Back in 2021, the photographer went viral online after capturing photographs of a never-before-seen yellow penguin in the same region.
A woman has sued her U.S. employer, alleging that the company aimed a hidden camera at her office desk to monitor her work.
Amanda Glenn, a former supervisor for the New Jersey Board of Tree Experts, has filed a lawsuit against the agency based in Jackson Township, New Jersey — accusing it of unlawful surveillance and privacy violations after she discovered a concealed Ring camera aimed at her desk.
According to a report by local news outlet NJ.com, Glenn discovered the hidden surveillance camera at her desk in October 2023 after a colleague informed her about the device.
According to court documents viewed by the news publication, Glenn alleges that the Ring camera had been camouflaged with tape and positioned in the shared office space to monitor her work.
In her lawsuit filed in state court on September 27, Glenn claims that the camera was first secretly placed behind a computer before being moved to a higher position on a cabinet, where it was directed at her desk and that of a colleague.
Glenn claims that she had no prior knowledge of the device and never consented to being surveilled by her employer, asserting the intrusion violated her right to privacy.
According to Glenn’s lawsuit, upper managers at the New Jersey Board of Tree Experts allegedly justified the camera’s installation as a security measure to monitor individuals attending Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings in the office. However, the court documents say that video recording of AA members at a meeting is illegal.
Glenn says that placing the camera in her workspace — where she managed both sensitive work-related and personal tasks — was both intrusive and inappropriate.
Although the court documents do not specify who installed the device, Glenn alleges it was deliberately positioned to monitor her and her actions, violating New Jersey’s laws against illegal surveillance.
Certain members of the New Jersey Board of Tree Experts “secretly installed a hidden and disguised camera to monitor (Glenn), another staff member, and a third party,” the lawsuit claims.
According to NJ.com, when Glenn complained about the camera and other concerns regarding workplace behavior, the board restricted her remote work privileges, reduced her hours, and publicly criticized her in emails to staff.
Glenn’s lawsuit seeks damages for emotional distress, lost wages, and punitive compensation, claiming that the tree board’s actions and the hidden surveillance camera created a hostile work environment and ultimately forced her to resign in December 2023.
NJ.com reports that no one was available at the New Jersey Board of Tree Experts to comment on the lawsuit. A spokesperson for the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office also tells the news outlet that the state has no comment on the matter.
In 2022, PetaPixel reported on a Dutch court which ruled that a U.S.-based software company had violated an employee’s human rights after it forced him to keep his webcam on while working.
Nikon Ends Space in Camera Names
When Nikon launched is mirrorless Z-series cameras, the company-approved way to write the camera names was Nikon Z 7 and Nikon Z 6 — with a space. PetaPixel, and most of the industry, ignored this but as of the Z6 III, Nikon’s official style also finally changed.
A couple of weeks ago during the launch of the Z50 II, Nikon mentioned that the space between the “Z” and the model number had been officially removed according to its internal style guide — a fact that was noticed by several websites and blogs. However, the Z50 II was not the origin of this shift — it actually started with the Z6 III.
While some of the company’s localized websites have shifted to removing the space, it isn’t consistent yet. Nikon USA will probably slowly update its online store to reflect the new internal style guide, but at the time of publication it has only removed the space on new camera models. While a bit odd to look at when browsing the company’s camera offerings, it does serve as an excellent timetable for when the internal policy of how to write the product name changed over and the Z6 III is the first camera on the list that appears without the space.
Nikon confirmed to PetaPixel that the Z6 III was the first time it stopped using a space. This practice continued with the Z50 II.
Of note, Nikon never had a space between the model number and the version number (Nikon always wrote it Z 6II before and now will write it Z6II, for example) and that remains the case. That means that the industry-accepted way of writing the camera name is still different from how Nikon prefers it be written.
It’s good to know that Nikon is not only capable but willing to change how it writes its product names if what it has been doing makes less sense than how the rest of the industry does it. That said, its new “correct” method is still not in line with how media and dealers write it.
PetaPixel (and B&H, for example) will continue to write the product name as it always has (Nikon Z8, Nikon Z6 III, Nikon Z50 II) even though Nikon would probably prefer that everyone follow its written conventions (Nikon Z8, Nikon Z6III, Nikon Z50II).
A mysterious “wolf-coyote-dog” creature, that is yet to be identified, was filmed staring into a trail camera in incredible footage.
The enigmatic canine — which has characteristics of a coyote, wolf, and a dog — was captured by trail cameras set up by the Voyageurs Wolf Project in the woodlands of northern Minnesota.
The project, which is run through the University of Minnesota, covers wolves across the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem, which includes Voyageurs National Park.
The striking footage shows the canine leap toward the trail camera. The peculiar animal then glares at the camera and darts out of the shot.
Experts at the University of Minnesota research group have been left baffled by the footage of the strange canine caught on its camera. They have now asked for suggestions from social media users.
“To us, the animal looks ‘coyote-esque’ but has some dog-like aspects to its appearance (especially its ears), and possibly some wolf-like characteristics (e.g., robust snout, a bit bigger body than coyotes in our area…but these are attributes from some dogs as well),” the Voyageurs Wolf Project writes in a Facebook post.
The research group adds: “In many respects, the animal looks more like eastern coyotes that live in eastern North America but still the ears just look real funny to us.”
The video was filmed “last winter” but was only shared by the Voyageurs Wolf Project this month.
In a follow-up post on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), the Voyageurs Wolf Project went into more depth about the distinctions between wolves and coyotes in northern Minnesota. Sharing a video of coyotes in the areas, the research group explained that the local wolves are much larger than coyotes.
“The coyotes in this video are typical of what coyotes look like in our area—which is why the video of that mysterious sort-of-coyote-looking-but-not-entirely-coyote-looking canine we shared yesterday caught our attention,” the Voyageurs Wolf Project writes on X.
In an interview with Forbes, project lead Thomas Gable says that one thing is for sure about the mysterious canine in the footage: it isn’t pure wolf.
However, researchers will likely never know what species the unfathomable canine actually is.
“Ultimately, we won’t ever know for sure one way or another because the animal just passed through our area in winter and we haven’t seen it on any trail camera since then so we cannot get a genetic sample or anything like that to tell one way or another,” Gable tells Forbes.
Since its release alongside the EOS R camera in 2018, Canon’s RF 28-70mm f/2 L USM has earned a sterling reputation for being a unique constant f/2 standard zoom lens. It is no longer one-of-a-kind thanks to Sony’s new FE 28-70mm f/2 G Master lens, Sony’s 77th E-mount lens and 56th full-frame optic.
The inspiration is obvious, but Sony’s attempt at the unusual focal length and aperture combination significantly differs from Canon’s. The contrasts begin with the size and weight. The Sony 28-70mm f/2 GM is 139.8 millimeters (5.5 inches) long and weighs 918 grams (32.4 ounces). The Canon RF 28-70mm f/2, on the other hand, is the same length but weighs 1,430 grams (50.4 ounces). The Sony lens is 92.9 millimeters (3.7 inches) at its widest and accepts 86mm filters, while the Canon zoom is 103.8 millimeters (4.1 inches) at its widest and takes monstrous 95mm filters.
Sony has focused extensively on its new zoom’s optical design, not only to keep the weight down, but to extract as much image quality as possible. To that end, the lens features 20 elements arranged across 14 groups. The lens features extensive exotic elements, including three extreme aspherical (XA), three Super ED, three aspherical, and one ED glass element. It also includes Sony’s latest Nano AR Coating II to minimize ghosting and flare.
Since it’s a G Master lens and features XA elements alongside an 11-bladed circular aperture diaphragm, the lens promises consistent, clean bokeh. Given its fast f/2 aperture, bokeh will be a crucial focus for photographers and videographers and must live up to the G Master family’s high expectations.
As for autofocus, the FE 28-70mm f/2 GM borrows heavily from Sony’s other recent G Master lenses. The lens includes a whopping four of Sony’s most powerful Linear XD motors, ensuring the lens can keep pace with the a9 III’s 120 frames-per-second shooting speeds and work well during 4K/120p recording. Sony claims its new lens is fast enough for sports and action, even though the lens may be better suited for portraits and low-light event photography.
The lens also utilizes a floating focus mechanism to deliver impressive close-focusing performance. The lens offers a max magnification of 0.23 times at 70mm thanks to a 0.38-meter (15-inch) minimum focusing distance throughout the entire focal length range. For reference, Canon’s offering tops out at a still-solid 0.18 times magnification.
Keeping pace with other recent GM lenses, the 28-70mm f/2 has a dedicated de-clickable aperture control ring, linear focus ring, and robust weather sealing.
While the Sony 28-70mm f/2 has an obvious competitor in Canon’s lineup, it charts a new course within Sony’s expansive E-mount lineup. Given how many E-mount lenses there are, many of Sony’s recent announcements have focused on “Mark II” versions of existing lenses. It is always nice to get something new, even if some photographers may prefer the 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II thanks to its much smaller size and weight, wider focal length, and significantly lower price point. However, those who want a faster max aperture without sacrificing the versatility of a zoom lens now have an exciting option within the E-mount ecosystem.
The Sony FE 28-70mm F/2 G Master will arrive at retailers in mid-December with a suggested retail price of $2,899.99.
NFL Cameraman Filmed Self Being Knocked Out
An NFL cameraman filmed himself getting taken out by a Buffalo Bills tight end during this weekend’s game.
On Sunday, the Buffalo Bills defeated the Kansas City Chiefs at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York.
However, during an intense moment in the NFL game, a CBS cameraman found himself a little too close to the action.
During the game, Buffalo Bills tight end Dawson Knox completely decked the CBS cameraman filming from the sidelines — sending him and his camera flying.
And the CBS cameraman, who was knocked down, managed to capture his run-in with Knox from an incredible POV angle.
The on-camera incident, which was spotted by sports news outlet Awful Announcing, occurred in the second quarter of the game when Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen completed a 24-yard pass to tight end Knox near the Kansas City Chiefs sideline.
As Knox tried to stay inbounds, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Leo Chenal delivered a hit that forced him toward the sideline. Knox managed to stay on his feet but stumbled and crashed into a group of broadcast technicians, knocking over three of them, including a CBS cameraman.
In the aired footage, the CBS cameraman is seen falling over backward as Knox runs straight into him. As he is knocked over by the NFL player, his camera is seen flying into the air.
However, the Buffalo Bills quarterback immediately helps the broadcast technicians and CBS cameraman back to their feet. He is seen picking his camera off the floor and returning to filming the game.
“Here is the deep pass, it’s open, and it’s Knox with the reception,” CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz is heard saying during the play. “And wipes out about three technicians. But there to help them get up.”
CBS replayed multiple angles of the dramatic moment of Knock’s run-in with the cameraman and three broadcast technicians. However, the most striking footage was the CBS cameraman’s own POV angle of the unexpected collision with the tight end. His angle showed Knox catching the ball and knocking him over from the sidelines,
As Awful Announcing points out, Knox is no lightweight — standing at 6 feet 4 inches and weighing about 250 pounds. So the cameraman is due plenty of credit for holding his ground as Knox unintentionally collided with him, all while managing to capture one of the game’s most memorable moments.
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