PhotoActive
A podcast about photography and the Apple ecosystem.
Displaying items 1-10 of 180 in total of PhotoActive with the tag "photography".
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Episode 203: Do You Have $10,000 to Spare?
February 14th, 2026 | 31 mins 53 secs
apple, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, leica, lenses, lightroom, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast
The best-selling compact camera in Japan is from... Kodak? We’ve talked about compact cameras in the past, but it remains a fascinating part of the photo marketplace as people look for something different than mirrorless and DSLR cameras. By the way, do you have $10,000 to spare on a new 35mm lens? Leica’s Noctilux-M 35mm f/1.2 ASPH was just announced at that eye-watering price. Lastly, Jeff covers some new Lightroom features in the latest versions.
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Episode 202: Pixelmator Pro Returns
February 3rd, 2026 | 30 mins 17 secs
apple, apple creator studio, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, pixelmator pro, podcast, ricoh gr iv monochrome, sally mann
Now we know what Apple is doing with Pixelmator Pro after its acquisition of Pixelmator: it’s part of the new Apple Creator Studio bundle. Also, we celebrate the latest black and white camera to hit the market, the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome, and ponder large-format photographer Sally Mann’s discovery of digital photography.
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Episode 201: What’s Real
January 3rd, 2026 | 33 mins 22 secs
apple, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast
Is your phone not accurately capturing the world around you? An article in the Guardian questions whether image processing in smartphones is making photos that aren’t genuine. Also, Leica released a firmware update that radically changes the entire interface, leading to a discussion of how important the UI in our cameras is when making photos.
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Episode 200: All Our Cameras
December 23rd, 2025 | 39 mins 39 secs
apple, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, martin parr, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast
Two Hundred episodes! To celebrate roughly seven and a half years of the PhotoActive podcast, Kirk and Jeff picked some favorite photos from the digital cameras they’ve owned.
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Episode 199: Vroom Vroom
December 8th, 2025 | 33 mins 38 secs
apple, cameras, dye transfer, eggleston, f1, formula 1, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast
We get views into two very different types of photography in this episode. Jeff travels to Nevada for the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix where the cars’ speed is a challenge to photograph... but not as difficult as the rules set by the Formula 1 organization. Then we look at the fascinating dye-transfer process and how this dying art is being used to print William Eggleston’s prints.
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Episode 198: I’m Not an Animal
November 29th, 2025 | 36 mins 32 secs
apple, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast
We’ve got several things to discuss in this episode, from little-known settings in the iPhone Camera app, to shooting panoramas, to the Leica M EV1 and to Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein.
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Episode 197: Overenthusiastic in Your Opinion
November 3rd, 2025 | 36 mins 56 secs
apple, camera app, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, liquid glass, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, user interface
What started with a couple of new settings related to the iPhone Camera app quickly devolves into a discussion of Apple’s Liquid Glass effect in iOS 26, changes and consistency in the Camera app’s interface, and whether all of this is too confusing for most people taking photos with their iPhones.
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Episode 196: Has Camera Tech Hit a Plateau?
October 20th, 2025 | 34 mins 47 secs
apple, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast
Has camera technology plateaued? We’re seeing technical advancements in image processing and autofocus, but what about the core parts like sensors? Also, we spend three hours talking about the Apple Watch Ultra 3 (not actually 3 hours).
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Episode 195: Hands On with the iPhone 17 Pro
October 3rd, 2025 | 36 mins 30 secs
apple, cameras, iphone, iphone 17 pro, iphone air, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast
Fifty percent of the PhotoActive podcast got a new iPhone 17 Pro, which means one of us has been testing the new cameras and can report back with first impressions. Who could it be? However, fifty percent of the podcast also got hands-on time with the other new phones, the iPhone 17 and iPhone Air. Listen to find out who got what, who’s seen what, and what we think after the first weeks with Apple’s new cameras... we mean phones.
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Episode 194: iPhone 17 and Apple’s Fall Event
September 12th, 2025 | 41 mins 39 secs
apple, apple event, cameras, iphone, iphone 17, iphone 17 pro, iphone air, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast
The new iPhone models are here, a yearly event that we look forward to mostly to see what Apple has done with the iPhone cameras. Does a 48 megapixel telephoto camera capable of 8x zoom appeal to you enough to buy a new iPhone Pro? Is the svelte shape of the new iPhone Air compelling enough to pay more for, despite it having just one camera and less battery life? Or did you see the Cosmic Orange color of the iPhone 17 Pro and made your decision immediately based on that? We look at what Apple announced and what we’re looking forward to.