Category: Technology

computational photography example – iphone 7 plus vs olympus e-m5 + 12-40mm pro zoom

whbeebe

Computational photography or computational imaging refers to digital image capture and processing techniques that use digital computation instead of optical processes.

Wikipedia

You’re looking at two versions of a photograph taken with an iPhone 7 Plus using the Portrait mode of the built-in camera app. The iPhone 7 camera app creates two versions of the same image, one without the effect, and one with. The one with is obviously the one on the right. These are straight out of the phone, with no other post processing. The iPhone photo was taken using the second 56mm equivalent lens and sensor that comes with the iPhone 7 Plus. The bokeh background blur in the second image was achieved with the iPhone 7 Plus’ computational photographic capabilities.

This bottom photo was taken with my Olympus OM-D E-M5 and the M.Zuiko 12-40mm PRO zoom lens at 32 mm, giving an equivalent focal length of 64mm, at an aperture of f/3.2. Not exact, but close enough.

My biggest take away from this comparison is how well the iPhone Portrait effect computes bokeh compared to my Olympus. If I stick my nose in close enough and really pixel-peep I’m sure I could find issues with the iPhone’s Portrait effect. But then, I’d be ignoring the real point of this, and that’s how a Version 1.0 release of this software is creating an effect that up to this point was achievable only with an optical system. Whether it’s good or not is irrelevant at this point. That fact that a smart phone can achieve an out-of-focus effect very equivalent, if not identical, to what my Olympus can achieve is astounding to me. And here’s the important point to remember; the iPhone’s effect will only get better over time as new releases of the software, with better algorithms, are released. With the Olympus system, I’m “stuck” with what the lens can deliver (which, frankly, I’m quite happy with). And what the iPhone is currently achieving bodes both good and bad for standard photography cameras. This will only ramp up the competition by smart phones against cameras, especially the fixed lens cameras. Perhaps it’s time for general camera makers to wake up and add an equivalent capability to their existing camera lines, especially when using the lower-cost kit zooms.

And while we’re on the subject of computational photography, let’s also mention that micro four thirds has used a very limited version of this since its inception, primarily in distortion (pincushion and barrel) correction. It’s the iPhone which has stepped up the game a few notches with this Portrait effect.

Does this mean the iPhone can replace a camera such as the OM-D? That depends on a case-by-case analysis. It can certainly complement the use of such a camera in overall terms. In an environment with reasonable lighting there’s no reason why you can’t reach for an iPhone 7 Plus as much as you might the E-M5. But when it comes to shooting fast action, or needing low-light capabilities, or faster focusing (and the E-M5 with the 12-40mm is quite fast), or a more fluid shooting situation, then I’d probably reach for my E-M5, assuming it’s within reach at the time.

My iPhone 7 Plus has reached a level of quality and sophistication that I can consider it my backup camera to my Olympus. When I think of a total camera package that allows for immediate post processing as well as immediate sharing, the iPhone 7 Plus with all its integrated capabilities is a better solution than my E-M5. While I do have an SDHC adapter that allows me to read my E-M5 files directly onto my iPhone and iPad, that’s an extra step that can get tiresome, especially if a lot of images are involved. And that adapter is just one more item to loose track of.

I like what I can achieve with the iPhone 7, just like I like what I can achieve with the Olympus E-M5 and the 12-40mm zoom. The iPhone 7 Plus has greatly expanded my technical choices. Now if only my artistic capabilities would grow to match.

living the american dystopian dream, part 2

whbeebe
Robot Goes To Jersey City – David Rodriguez – Blender 2.77a

Recently I’ve been driven to high dudgeon by what I’ve perceived Silicon Valley has morphed into over the last ten to fifteen years, a destroyer of the American dream.

As I was growing up and on into my thirties, Silicon Valley was about silicon-based hardware. Everything from the transistor on up to multi-core processors and uncountable peripheral chips flowed from the labs and companies that called Silicon Valley home. Software helped drive the sale of hardware; assemblers, language compilers (C, FORTRAN, PL/M, Pascal, etc), embedded operating systems like iRMX, and complete full-up development systems like the HP 64000. All these tools helped build practical products, from computers to network to medical to radio gear, on up to electronics launched into space on satellites and human qualified spacecraft. It attracted people from all over and was a powerful creator of quality, high-paying jobs.

The Valley occupants during this time made money like crazy, and it made them crazy for more money in turn.

Now a jaded decadence has descended on the valley. Companies like Google (starting out doing search alone) and Facebook (which started out as The Facebook, a place for college students to gather around an electronic watering hole) have grown ever more complicated as more and more people have congregated to these services, like matter around a black hole. Technologies like artificial intelligence (which is perpetually “just ten years away,” and looks like it always will be) and virtual reality (which we’ve been trying to make work since at least 1995) have now become préféré Valley-wide, leading to such wild predictions as self-driving cars and VR-driven revolutions in gaming and movies, and the ever-perpetual prediction of the Singularity that will lead to the world-stradling AI overlords and make humanity obsolete.

Right

Here’s a Venn Diagram I came across on Twitter of all places (via @davidjbland), that succinctly sums up the problems with current Silicon Valley occupants:

Substitute “bots” (which are being driven by the New New AI) with just about any other current favorite for the same effect. Or as Matt Assay wrote in “Dear Silicon Valley: Stop saying stupid stuff“:

Are you still reading? Why aren’t you out building a bot? Or building apps for self-driving cars? Or doing Something That Matters™?

I suspect it’s because you have a job — one that pays you in real dollars, not the venture money that can subsidize a dream long enough to turn it into reality, but is equally as likely to obscure the hard steps necessary to getting companies to pay for your product.

Those “real dollars,” as noted, require real customers paying real money. It’s not surprising, therefore, that people like Red Hat’s Gordon Haff grow frustrated with the Valley’s preoccupation with myths: “Will people just stop talking as if the fully autonomous vehicle thing is going to be here in a few years?”

The mundane is here to stay. It’s what’s affordable. It’s what successful companies do to Make Money. Customers want to purchase affordable goods and services that actually make sense to them and their needs and fit within their ever shrinking budget. The current group of Silicon Valley mavens believe they can sell you silicon snake-oil, and you, the general public, will be gullible enough to buy it regardless of cost (considering the rise of Trump, they may not be that far off the mark).

Here’s another important aspect of the New World Silicon Valley Order: today’s all-software Valley companies are doing everything they can to put you out of a job. David R. Wheeler (@David_R_Wheeler) has been writing for some number of years the incredibly negative impact that the latest advances coming out of Silicon Valley will have on current job holders. This is a deliberate drive on the part of Silicon Valley. The Valley has gone from being a job creator to a job destroyer, something they’re increasingly proud of. And that raises the interesting question for the Valley: if everyone is out of a job, who’s going to buy your goods and services? You’re already in the process of sucking all the money out of the rest of the economy, now you’re destroying the ability of people to earn more, and thus, spend part of it with you.

I have no idea what the peaceful solution to this problem is. But I do know from plenty of history that such gross inequalities have ended in bloody revolution. It will be interesting to see if such a revolution could take place in this day and time, what with the blanket domestic surveillance system in use primarily by the NSA that was originally created for tracking you and your Web viewing habits to help target ads at you to pay for your free Internet, another product of Silicon Valley.

We do indeed live in interesting times.