Show Notes
Greetings everyone, you’re listening to the Liam Photography Podcast, I’m your host Liam Douglas and this is Episode 439 for Thursday January 30th, 2025. Some exciting new one new film emulsions for film shooters and there will be 250 Sony cameras covering the biggest plays during Super Bowl 59 when my Philadelphia Eagles take on the Kansas City Chiefs once more.
Light Lens Lab, a Chinese optics manufacturer that reproduces classic lens formulas for modern cameras, announced that it is expanding its efforts into film development and plans to release brand new emulsions in the near future.
The company is most well known for its reproduction of lenses that are no longer actively made but are cherished for their particular “look.” For example, its 50mm f/1.2 “1966” is a modern remake of the Leica Noctilux 50mm f/1.2 that was originally made between 1966 and 1975. A true Leica version of this lens is prohibitively expensive and difficult to acquire given its relative rarity, so Light Lens Lab remade it, going so far as to do its best to replicate the manufacturing and glass production of the era so that it could be enjoyed by more photographers.
“Light Lens Lab uses a type of glass that almost exactly matches the vintage formula and even hand grinds and polishes the twin aspherical elements that made the original so famous. This means that the look of the images out of the new 50mm f/1.2 are an almost exact match to Leica’s original,” Chris Niccolls explains in his review.
While the company did not specify a timeline, development is well on its way with a newly-developed T-grain structure emulsion already nearly completed the company notes in a blog post, seen by Kosmo Foto.
Light Lens Lab says its goal with the film project is to not only produce film but to also research and develop new emulsions.
“Our initial research has yielded promising results. Our first emulsion test indicates that our black-and-white T-Grain silver halide structure research has succeeded,” Light Lens Lab writes.
“We conducted a test shot using our Seagull Upgrade Project TLR Camera. However, the antihalation layer was not applied to the film during this testing phase. A new antihalation layer will be utilized for future films.”
Along with this announcement, Light Lens Lab published examples of the grain structure of this new film emulsion as well as sample images that, as mentioned, don’t have an antihalation layer applied. There is obviously more work to be done, but Light Lens Lab has already progressed quite far in this endeavor.
The company’s goal is to produce this new black-and-white film with speeds ranging from ISO 100 through ISO 1600 in E-41, E-6, ECN-2 for cinematography, and even in an instant peel-apart film format.
“The Film Project will utilize our newly developed proprietary machine and emulsion process, allowing us to be self-sufficient in our production,” Light Lens Lab adds. “We also aim to produce films in various photographic or cinematographic formats; please stay tuned for future releases.”
Light Lens Lab will continue to manufacture lenses under its original branding but the film will be released and marketed under a different brand name. The company didn’t say what that name would be.
Super Bowl LIX on February 9 in New Orleans is among the most anticipated sporting events of the year. Sony is pulling out all the stops to ensure that every exciting play is captured in incredible detail, whether for the broadcast on FOX or through the still images photographers capture from the sidelines.
Sony, an official technology partner of the NFL, has worked alongside the major broadcasters for the Super Bowl for over a decade. Last year, CBS Sports used 165 Sony cameras for its wide-ranging Super Bowl LVIII coverage, a then-record amount. This year, that number is up to a new high watermark of more than 240 cameras.
“We’ve been partnering with the broadcasters for a very long time, and what’s consistently happening every year is they want to outdo each other, they want to expand the game, they want to make it a more interactive, engaging game,” Sony Electronics North America President and COO Neal Manowitz tells PetaPixel. “We’re continuously seeing more cameras, better cameras, new shots, new ways of capturing the game.”
“The Super Bowl is not just the biggest game of the year, it is also the biggest production,” adds Michael Davies, FOX Sports EVP Field Operations, in a press statement. “Our job is to tell the story of the game, capturing the energy within the stadium and keeping billions of viewers engaged, and Sony is a key tool in reaching that goal.”
The Sony cameras that will capture all the action at the Caesars Superdome run the gamut, ranging from Sony’s professional broadcast models to more versatile cinema cameras and interchangeable lens Alpha camera models.
FOX Sports, together with production company Game Creek Video, will have more than 100 cameras covering the usual pre-game, in-game, and post-game action and studio content. Specifically, FOX Sports is using 97 Sony HDC Series Broadcast System Cameras, one Sony FR7 Cinematic PTZ, three Sony FX6 full-frame cinema cameras, a Sony a7 III, and a Sony Venice 2. There will also be cameras at each end zone, along both sidelines and located in carefully selected positions throughout the stadium to deliver additional angles. Sony adds that there will also be 14 cameras used exclusively for streaming content.
Sony is involved with the imaging at the Super Bowl in four key ways, Manowitz explains.
“The first is the broadcast side. Sony will have over a hundred cameras broadcasting the game from virtually every angle. That’s the first big piece.”
The second component is the halftime show, which Funicular Goats will produce for the fifth consecutive year. This production, a significant component of the Super Bowl for many viewers, will rely heavily upon Sony’s Venice 2 cinema cameras. Among the 14 total cameras designated for the halftime show production are also Sony Burano cameras.
“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is a challenge unlike any other project we’ve been a part of,” says James Coker, Head of Engineering and Technical Management at Funicular Goats. “There are less than five minutes to set up and deliver a cinematic concert to millions of people, and the Sony Cinema Line cameras provide the perfect combination of full-frame sensor with broadcast compatibility to work seamlessly within the show’s structure and achieve this challenge.”
Manowitz says that the third piece is on the photography side. The Associated Press exclusively uses Sony cameras, and the AP is a major player when it comes to sports photography and the NFL. And since Sony is an NFL technology partner, the NFL’s in-house media team, photo and video included, uses Sony gear.
“We have 65 cameras we bring and about 140 of our lenses [for our professional support team],” Manowitz says. There will be 14 600mm f/4 primes, 10 400mm f/2.8 lenses, and six of Sony’s new 300mm f/2.8 GM in the mix. Of course, the AP’s photographers will also have a wide variety of Sony cameras and lenses, and Sony will be on-site to help out with gear when needed.
Manowitz tells PetaPixel that professional sports photographers are especially enamored by the a9 III thanks to its 120 frames-per-second shooting and the new a1 II and its blend of resolution and speed. When it comes to choosing one or the other, Manowitz says many photographers choose both.
The final piece of the imaging technology puzzle is Sony’s Hawk-Eye, which powers FOX Sports’ HawkREPLAY system. This remote production and instant replay system is critical to support both in-game officiating and replay services and the at-home spectator experience.
“The Super Bowl is the most watched event of the year, and delivering an authentic and immersive experience for coaches, players, and fans requires a wide array of advanced technologies,” says Gary Brantley, Chief Information Officer of the NFL.
“Sony has been instrumental in enhancing the game-day experience with its innovative solutions, and we are proud to have Sony play a key role in making Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans unforgettable.”
When considering the sideline photographers who will capture the iconic moments of the Super Bowl — and perhaps even the next all-time great sports photo — Manowitz says that many will be utilizing Sony’s PDT-FP1 transmitter on-site. This wireless transmitter ensures photographers can wirelessly send images to editors as they shoot, and photos can be published as fast as possible.
“You’ll see more of the PDT-FP1 than ever before. It’s a tool that’s really redefining what’s happening at these games, not only at the Super Bowl but throughout all the major sporting and news events,” Manowitz tells PetaPixel. He adds that being first to the wire with a great photo is more important than ever.
One thing that stands out in sports broadcasts in recent years, backed up by FOX Sports’ gear list for the upcoming Super Bowl, is that broadcasters are utilizing more full-frame cameras, whether a cinema-oriented model like the FX6 or Sony Alpha series bodies.
As for why there are more shots during broadcasts with shallow depth-of-field, Manowitz believes it’s the result of two primary trends.
“One is the advancement of camera technology. So if we think about small handheld Alpha cameras, they’re going to be used for the broadcasts. These large-sensor cameras have incredible, really fast lenses and it’s enabling producers of the game to get these shots that couldn’t have been gotten before.”
“As an example, you can have the small camera, really tight shots, really shallow depth of field with the probable auto focus. So that empowers the creativity.”
The other driving factor is that fans strongly engage with these types of shots. These cinematic views are more dynamic and immersive.
“These complementary pieces are really empowering the game to be that much more intimate and engaging,” Manowitz says.
“At the end of the day, sports is an entertainment field, and what [broadcasters and the NFL] want to do is make the best, most engaging [product] — get you as close to the field as possible. That’s our intention as well.”
Fans most acutely feel imaging technology improvements through more cinematic and dynamic broadcasts, but better technology plays a key role behind the scenes. Although Sony’s Hawk-Eye technology is used for instant replays and officiating, which impacts the fans every game, the system also has optical tracking that isn’t always visible.
Sure, it is apparent through special alternative broadcasts like Disney’s recent Simpsons-themed Sunday Funday broadcast, but the optical tracking also impacts player safety initiatives and data tracking. Hawk-Eye is utilized by nearly all of the world’s foremost sports leagues and is being integrated more all the time.
Manowitz is excited about how this data could be used to make sports broadcasts more engaging and interesting. “I’m encouraged and excited about all of the opportunities to bring the fans closer to the game,” he says.
Although the imaging technologies of tomorrow aren’t quite yet ready today, there is no doubt that Super Bowl LIX on February 9 will feature the best possible Sony imaging equipment, from the broadcast to the sidelines.
“We are proud to play a critical role in Super Bowl LIX, drawing on our decades-long record of imaging innovation and production expertise to ensure that every fan watching on-site or at home has the best seat in the house,” Neal Manowitz says.
Super Bowl LIX kicks off on Sunday, February 9 at 6:30 PM ET (3:30 PM PT). It will be broadcast on FOX and streamed on FOX Sports and other live television services.
A satellite captured a remarkable image showing the summit of Mount Vesuvius peeking through a cloud blanket.
NASA’s Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured the image back in January 2022 but it was recently spotted by Live Science which describes the volcano as playing a game of peek-a-boo.
The volcano sits at the heart of the Campanian Volcanic Arc, a tectonically active region that includes Mount Etna in Sicily and the Campi Flegrei caldera near Naples. Vesuvius is unique as a composite stratovolcano, formed by layers of pyroclastic flows, lava, and volcanic debris.
The image captured by Landsat 8 reveals the volcano’s central cone, surrounded by a prominent ridge — the remains of Mount Somma, an ancient volcano that collapsed to form a caldera. Live Science compares the eerie “eye-like” appearance of Vesuvius through the cloud hole to fallstreak holes, gaps in clouds often caused by airplanes.
Roughly 800,000 people currently live on Mount Vesuvius’s slopes, and three million in total reside within the broader potential hazard zone. Therefore it is classified as one of the world’s most dangerous volcanoes. Vesuvius last erupted in 1944, destroying the village of San Sebastiano. Since then, seismic swarms and ground deformations have kept scientists on alert.
In a 2011 study published in Nature, Vesuvius was dubbed “Europe’s ticking time bomb.” Experts continue to debate the best ways to prepare for future eruptions.
The volcano’s most infamous eruption was on August 24 and 25 in the year 79 A.D. The stratovolcano sent a towering column of ash, pumice, and toxic gases into the sky, followed by deadly pyroclastic flows that engulfed the nearby Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and surrounding settlements.
Pompeii was buried under several meters of volcanic ash and debris, preserving buildings, streets, and even the remains of around 2,000 people, many frozen in their final moments. Herculaneum, closer to the volcano, was obliterated by superheated volcanic material, which carbonized wooden structures but preserved skeletons along the shoreline.
The eruption unfolded over two days, initially marked by pumice rain and ash fall that caused roofs to collapse. The second phase unleashed the fast-moving pyroclastic surges that sealed the cities’ fates. Pliny the Younger, an eyewitness observing from a safe distance, later documented the disaster in vivid letters, describing the “umbrella pine” shape of the eruption cloud and the chaos that followed.
The catastrophic event buried Pompeii for nearly 1,500 years until rediscovery in the late 16th century, providing one of the most detailed archaeological records of ancient Roman life.
Thousands of mounds and hills scattered across the Martian landscape offer yet more evidence of the planet’s wetter past, according to recent research.
Pulling together high-resolution images and spectral composition data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiters, the European Space Agency’s Mars Express, and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, a team from the Natural History Museum in London revealed that these geological formations contain layers of clay minerals—a clear indication that liquid water once flowed across Mars’ surface nearly four billion years ago.
“This research shows us that Mars’ climate was dramatically different in the distant past,” says Dr. Joe McNeil of the Natural History Museum. “The mounds are rich in clay minerals, meaning liquid water must have been present at the surface in large quantities nearly four billion years ago.”
Space describes Mars as a planet of two halves, featuring ancient highlands to the south and expansive, eroded plains to the north. This divide, known as the Martian dichotomy, remains a geological puzzle. The new findings suggest that a significant portion of Mars’ highlands in the northern hemisphere may have been eroded by water, leaving behind these distinctive mounds.
Located in Chryse Planitia near Mawrth Vallis, the mounds range up to 1,640 feet (500 meters) in height and are composed of layered deposits. Some of these layers contain up to 1,150 feet (350 meters) of clay minerals, which formed when water interacted with rocks over millions of years.
“[This] shows that there must have been a lot of water present on the surface for a long time,” says Dr McNeil. “It’s possible that this might have come from an ancient northern ocean on Mars, but this is an idea that’s still controversial.”
On Earth, formations like buttes and mesas — such as the ones found in the deserts of Arizona and Utah — are remnants of ancient landscapes shaped by erosion. Similarly, Mars hosts its own version of these geological features. The clay-bearing Martian mounds stand as enduring evidence of a time when Mars was a vastly different world.
The researchers believe these formations are the last remnants of a highland region that receded hundreds of miles due to the combined forces of water and wind erosion. The findings bolster the theory that Mars’ northern hemisphere may have once harbored a vast ocean, though as Dr McNeil acknowledges: this idea is contentious.
Happily, humans plan to visit Mars and the mounds are considered a prime location for future missions. Notably, the European Space Agency’s Rosalind Franklin rover, set to launch in 2028, is expected to explore the nearby Oxia Planum region.
“The mounds preserve a near-complete history of water in this region within accessible, continuous rocky outcrops,” Dr McNeil adds. “The Rosalind Franklin rover will explore nearby and could allow us to answer whether Mars ever had an ocean and, if it did, whether life could have existed there.”
Understanding the formation of these Martian mounds could also shed light on early Earth. Mars lacks plate tectonics, which means its ancient geology remains largely intact. “Mars is a model for what the early Earth could have looked like,” Dr McNeil explains. “Looking at early Mars helps us to understand the early Earth, and as more missions visit the red planet, the more we’ll be able to dig into our own planet’s history.”
Nextorage announced a new series of CFexpress Type B memory cards using the 4.0 standard, allowing them to reach extremely high transfer rates of nearly 4,000 MB/s with capacities of up to 2TB but with pricing that comes in below its more expensive Pro line.
This isn’t Nextorage’s first foray into CFexpress 4.0 — that came last February with the launch of its B2 Pro series cards. Those promised maximum read and write speeds of 3,900 and 3,600 MB/s which is plenty fast, but this new series ups that even further in some cases.
Before digging too deeply into these new cards, it’s worth sifting through Nextorage’s complicated branding. The company explains that before today’s announcement, it maintained two product lines: the aforementioned, high-end Pro series and what it calls the “standard” SE series. The new NX-B3AE cards are meant to “bridge these categories” between these two lines.
On the surface, it might look like the new B3AE “Advanced” cards are actually more performant than the Pro series since the 1,000GB capacity option (written in gigabytes and not terabytes for some reason) promises 3,900 MB/s read and 3,600 MB/s write speeds while the Pro series cards cap at 3,900 MB/s read speeds and 3,400 MB/s write speeds. Those peak speeds aren’t as important to high-end professionals as sustained speeds, however, and that’s where the Pro series separates itself.
The Nextorage Pro series cards offer sustained write speeds of 3,400 MB/s for the 165GB, 330GB, and 660GB options while the 1.3TB option dips slightly to 3,200 MB/s. That is incredibly performant, especially considering the Compact Flash Association (CFA) only rates as high as VPG 400, which only promises the card will never dip below 400 MB/s write speeds. The new B3AE cards fall well short of the Pro series but are still very impressive with the promise of 1,700 MB/s and the same VPG 400 rating.
The B3AE cards are joined by the B3SE series, which are not VPG-rated but still promise the high peaks of performance found in the B3AE series as well as the promise of 1,700 MB/s sustained write speeds. Nextorage says this series should be considered for photographers more than videographers as a result but unless a camera absolutely requires the VPG firmware flag to unlock certain frame rates (like some Sony cameras do in Type A cards), there doesn’t appear to be a reason these cards couldn’t work well for video applications, too. Nextorage even says that they can handle the throughput of 8Kp60 video.
The cost difference between the two series is substantial, mostly because the photography-focused cards aren’t offered in as high capacities. The VPG-rated B3AE series is available in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB configurations which cap at $715) while the B3SE series is available in 256GB, 512GB, and 1,024GB which cap at $360. The former is available from B&H while Nexstorage is focusing on Amazon for the latter.
Aerial footage has revealed how remote-controlled drones are being used to scare bears away from human-populated areas.
For the last six years, Wesley Sarmento, a former grizzly bear management specialist with Montana’s Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Department (MFWP), has been testing different non-lethal hazing methods for keeping bears away from humans.
In a guest editorial piece for Frontiers, Sarmento — who is now a PhD researcher at the University of Montana — has demonstrated that drones are an effective tool to mitigate conflicts between grizzly bears and human populations.
Traditional hazing methods, such as using vehicles, non-lethal projectiles, and trained dogs, have limitations in effectiveness and safety.
However, Sarmento’s findings suggest that these aerial devices offer a safer and more efficient way to steer grizzly bears away from populated areas without endangering either humans or the animals themselves.
According to research data, cited in a paper published in the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science, drones are more effective, with a 91% success rate in scaring off bears, compared to 57% for trained dogs.
In Montana’s northern plains, drones have been utilized to scare grizzly bears away from ranches, grain storage facilities, and other potential conflict zones. The noise from the drone’s propellers is often enough to drive the bears away.
But in cases where additional deterrence is needed, drones can also be equipped with speakers that project human voices or loud noises, such as heavy metal tunes, to enhance the hazing effect.
Drones offer the advantage of maneuverability, allowing operators to guide bears away from human areas across various terrains and obstacles without the need for physical presence, thereby reducing risks to both humans and bears.
However, there is concern that bears may become habituated to drones over time, diminishing their effectiveness as a deterrent. To mitigate this, it is essential that wildlife managers vary their hazing techniques and combine drone use with other preventive measures, such as removing attractants like spilled grain and carcasses, to ensure long-term success in managing bear behavior.
Beyond hazing, drones can also assist wildlife managers in tracking bear movements and filming the animals.
Once roaming vast stretches of western North America, grizzly bears have seen their territory shrink dramatically due to habitat destruction, hunting, and expanding human presence. In regions where human settlements encroach on bear habitats, conflicts between people and grizzlies have become a pressing concern.
As opportunistic feeders, grizzlies are naturally drawn to easily accessible food sources such as garbage, livestock, pet food, bird feeders, crops, and improperly stored camping gear.
When bears learn to associate human areas with food, they are often classified as “problem bears” and may return repeatedly. This behavior increases the risk of property damage, livestock predation, and, in some cases, dangerous encounters with humans.
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