Just released: New Topaz Photo AI v1.3

The new Topaz Photo AI v1.3 has been released. Here are the updates:

New Sharpen Strong model

Topaz Photo AI v1.3 introduced a new Sharpen Strong model that recovers more detail and generates fewer artifacts than before. Autopilot now selects Sharpen Strong instead of the older Motion Blur / Lens Blur options.
Here is a comparison of the results between Sharpen Strong and the old Lens Blur model for a misfocused subject at 200% zoom:

As you can see above, Sharpen Strong helps generate more natural and detailed results for images with severe motion or lens blur. Unlike previous models Sharpen Strong does not handle noise, so you may now need to enable Remove Noise if you notice noisy output.
We will be improving Sharpen Standard and Strong in the coming months. In the meantime, if you still want access to Motion Blur and Lens Blur, you can re-enable them by switching on Preferences → General → Legacy Models. Read the docs 21 for more information and a test sample image.

Allow selecting non-detected faces

You can now manually select faces that weren’t previously detected by Autopilot:

Internally we assign a “confidence score” to the likelihood that each image feature is a face. Autopilot only recovers faces with a high confidence score, otherwise we would end up attempting Face Recovery on many non-face objects.
You can now manually select low-confidence faces to be included by Face Recovery, which should cover many cases that Autopilot previously detected incorrectly. To do this, click the Select button next to the Face item in Autopilot. You can learn more in the docs 12.

10x faster in-app updater downloads (Win)

We’ve introduced patch updates that make in-app updates significantly faster on Windows. Updating from v1.3.0 → v1.3.x using the in-app updater now requires a 10x smaller installer download than before. A few caveats:
This only currently affects patch updates (v1.3.1 → v1.3.2). Major (v1 → v2) and minor (v1.3 → v1.4) upgrades will still use the full download.
For Mac users: we currently only support patch updates on Windows, but Mac installers are already ~70% smaller than their Windows equivalents.
This is a big step towards reducing friction around our weekly product updates. Our long-term goal is to create an update process that you don’t need to think about or work around.

Other improvements and fixes

We’ve also fixed several important issues and made many smaller improvements within the past month:

Refined the Enhance Resolution Standard model: fix blurriness in highlights, better handle strong compression, more natural faces.
Fixed half-face recovery issue
Fixed distorted or rotated masks in Lightroom Classic
Fixed issue where Autopilot RAW output would be different than preview
Fixed exporting a large number of images
Added image thumbnails for all file types
Improved preview performance by reusing already-processed tiles
Improved various Autopilot mapping issues
Added support for HIF extension
Allowed preserving bit depth on PNG and TIFF output
Allowed double clicking slider to reset to Autopilot value
Improved logic for showing the “close image” warning
Fixed file size estimate issues
Fixed several crash on exit cases
Fixed various minor UI issues and bugs
CLI: allowed access via tpai on Mac, added the -verbose flag, and added better error handling

Competition news: First reviews of the Lumix S5 IIX that does it all for $2,198 only!

Panasonic officially released the S5 IIX (listed here at BHphoto and Amazon). A press text is available on Explora.

This is a filmmakers focused camera with RAW video output and All-Intra and internal ProRes recording to an external SSD via USB. I see this as a competitor of the A7sIII which is priced at $1,300 more than the Lumix. Panasonic is really throwing in all their best tech at a stunningly affordable price. Probably an extreme attempt to save their L-mount future. Because from what I heard from large store owners their cameras didn’t really sell well compared to the big guys.

What do you think about this new camera?

Another one bites the dust: Imaging Resource now offline

Imaging Resource is now gone for good. Ironically the news has been reported by Dpreview which is going to close soon too:

After narrowly avoiding closure in 2019, Imaging Resource unceremoniously ceased publication on May 6, 2023. No statement or additional information was made available for the reason behind the closure. Many readers and the photo community at large first learned of the end of publication only after visits to the website returned an error message.

Launched in 1998, the same year as DPReview, Imaging Resource became a longstanding rival and friend in the chronicling of digital photography news, reviews and, ultimately, the history of photography over the past 25-ish years.

Like DPReview, Imaging Resource was based in the US and earned a reputation for in-depth reviews and industry news coverage that was rooted in technical knowledge and expertise rather than hype for everything new and shiny. Many of our editors came to know Imaging Resource’s team, and the two sites had a mutual respect for each other.

‘From the early days of digital photography, Imaging Resource has been one of the most authoritative sources for information about digital cameras,’ said DPReview editor Dale Baskin upon learning of the closure. ‘Long before joining the team at DPReview, Imaging Resource was one of my go-to sites for camera advice, and I bought more than a few cameras based on Dave Etchell’s informative analysis. This is a big hit for camera enthusiasts as well as the camera industry.’

As of Monday, May 8, 2023, Imaging Resource’s website had been offline for over two days with no explanation for why the site had been taken down after nearly 25 years.

In 2019 founder Dave Etchells shared the news the site would be coming to an end, but by March 2020 it had found a new home with Mavador Media. The new owner also operated Outdoor Photographer, Digital Photo Pro, and Digital Photo Magazine, and Etchells was hopeful that his site had found a new long-term home.

In March 2023, ownership of Imaging Resource was transferred once again when Mavador Media was acquired by BeBop Channel.

We reached out to Imaging Resource’s parent companies, Madavor Media and BeBop Channel for comment on the closure. After several hours, and as of press time, we have not received a response. We will update this story should this change.

Happening this week: Three announcements from Nikon (Z8), Canon (V10) and Sony (Xperia 1V with world’s first dual layer sensor)

I was three days offline but now I am back right in time for the triple announcement: The Nikon Z8 (May 10), the Canon V10 (May 11) and the very important Sony announcement for the Xperia 1V with the world’s first dual layer sensor.

There is still no leak about the camera sensor performance but the phone will apparently cost less than the predecessor. Definitely a step Sony should have done a long time ago because they are still struggling to make meaningful sales in their Xperia lineup.