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Viltrox 135mm f/1.8 LAB lens is also coming for Nikon Z-mount, but not for Fuji X-mount


Given the conflicting and wrong information circulating online, I contacted Viltrox directly and asked them about their 135mm f/1.8 LAB lens coming for other mounts. This is the response I got:

“Fuji X mount? I haven’t heard anything about Fujifilm X mount, but Nikon Z mount will be launched in the future, though the timeline is uncertain.”

The E-mount version of the lens is currently available at Amazon, B&H Photo, Pergear, and Viltrox store.

The Viltrox AF 135mm f/1.8 LAB FE lens for Sony E-mount is now available for pre-order

Viltrox AF 135mm f/1.8 LAB and 35mm f/1.7 lenses coming to Nikon Z-mount

BLACK FRIDAY

The post Viltrox 135mm f/1.8 LAB lens is also coming for Nikon Z-mount, but not for Fuji X-mount appeared first on Photo Rumors.

Linux Kernel 6.12 Has Been Released

Slashdot unixbhaskar writes: Linus has released a fresh Linux kernel for public consumption. Please give it a try and report any glitches to the maintainers for improvement. Also, please do not forget to express your appreciation to those tireless folks who did all the hard work for you. The blog OMG Ubuntu calls it "one of the most biggest kernel releases for a while," joking that it's a "really real-time kernel." The headline feature in Linux 6.12 is mainline support for PREEMPT_RT. This patch set dramatically improves the performance of real-time applications by making kernel processes pre-emptible — effectively enabled proper real-time computing... Meanwhile, Linus Torvalds himself contributes a new method for user-space address masking designed to claw back some of the performance lost due to Spectre-v1 mitigations. You might have heard that kernel devs have been working to add QR error codes to Linux's kernel panic BSOD screen (as a waterfall of error text is often cut off and not easily copied for ad-hoc debugging). Well, Linux 6.12 adds support for those during Direct Rendering Manager panics... A slew of new RISC-V CPU ISA extensions are supported in Linux 6.12; hybrid CPU scaling in the Intel P-State driver lands ahead of upcoming Intel Core Ultra 2000 chips; and AMD P-State driver improves AMD Boost and AMD Preferred Core features. More coverage from the blog 9to5Linux highlights a new scheduler called sched_ext, Clang support (including LTO) for nolibc, support for NVIDIA's virtual command queue implementation for SMMUv3, and "an updated cpuidle tool that now displays the residency value of cpuidle states for a clearer and more detailed view of idle state information when using cpuidle-info." Linux kernel 6.12 also introduces SWIG bindings for libcpupower to make it easier for developers to write scripts that use and extend the functionality of libcpupower, support for translating normalized error addresses reported by an AMD memory controller into system physical addresses using a UEFI mechanism called platform runtime mechanism (PRM), as well as simplified loading of microcode patches on AMD Zen and newer CPUs by using the family, model, and stepping encoded in the patch revision number... Moreover, Linux 6.12 adds support for running as a protected guest on Android as well as perf and support for a bunch of new interconnect PMUs. It also adds the final conversions to the new Intel VFM CPU model matching macros, rewrites the PCM buffer allocation handling and locking optimizations, and improves the USB audio driver...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Firefox Gets More Investment in New Features, Prioritizing People (and Privacy) Over Profit

On its 20th anniversary, Firefox "is still going strong, and it is a better browser today than it ever was," according to TechCrunch. In an interview, Mozilla's interim CEO says one of the first things they did when was to "unlock a bunch of money towards Firefox product development... I've been in enough places where people tend to forget about the core business, and they stop investing in it, because they get distracted by shiny things — and then they regret it." "Firefox is incredibly important, and it is our core. We've actually put more investment into it this year and into connecting with our communities, into bringing out and testing features that are positive and creating good experiences for folks. That's been a huge priority for me and for the company this year, and it's showing up in the results." She acknowledged that Mozilla doesn't have the device distribution that benefits many of Firefox's competitors, especially on mobile, but she did note that the Digital Marks Act (DMA) in Europe — which means Apple, for example, has to provide a browser choice screen on iOS — is working. "With the DMA, even though the implementation hasn't been outstanding, we're seeing a real shift. When people have the choice to choose Firefox, they're choosing Firefox," she said... To kick-start some of this growth, Mozilla is looking at reaching new, and younger, users. Chambers noted that Mozilla is running a number of marketing campaigns to make people aware of Firefox, especially those who are only now starting to make their first browser choices. With them, she believes, Mozilla's messaging around privacy lands especially well. In a future where browsers include AI agents that take actions on behalf of users, there might be more confidence in a browser designed for privacy and transparency, the interim CEO points out — as part of their larger mission. "What I love about Firefox is that it really provides users with an alternative choice of a browser that is just genuinely designed for them. "We have, from its very inception and throughout, really wanted to create a browser that prioritizes people over profit, prioritizes privacy over anything else, and to have that option, the choice."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Intel Sees a 3888.9% Performance Improvement in the Linux Kernel - From One Line of Code

An anonymous reader shared this report from Phoronix: Intel's Linux kernel test robot has reported a 3888.9% performance improvement in the mainline Linux kernel as of this past week... Intel thankfully has the resources to maintain this automated service for per-kernel commit/patch testing and has been maintaining their public kernel test robot for years now to help catch performance changes both positive and negative to the Linux kernel code. The commit in question causing this massive uplift to performance is mm, mmap: limit THP alignment of anonymous mappings to PMD-aligned sizes. The patch message confirms it will fix some prior performance regressions and deliver some major uplift in specialized cases... That mmap patch merged last week affects just one line of code. This week the Register also reported that Linus Torvalds revised a previously-submitted security tweak that addressed Spectre and Meltdown security holes, writing in his commit message that "The kernel test robot reports a 2.6 percent improvement in the per_thread_ops benchmark."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

20 Years Ago Today: 'Firefox Browser Takes on Microsoft'

A 2002 Slashdot post informed the world that "Recently Blake Ross, a developer of the Phoenix web browser, has made a post on the Mozillazine forums looking for a new name for the project. Apparently the people over at Phoenix Technologies decided that the name interferes with their trademark since they make an 'internet access device'..." And then, on November 9 of 2004, the BBC reported that "Microsoft's Internet Explorer has a serious rival in the long-awaited Firefox 1.0 web browser, which has just been released." Their headline? "Firefox Browser Takes on Microsoft." Fans of the software have banded together to raise cash to pay for an advert in the New York Times announcing that version 1.0 of the browser is available. ["Are you fed up with your browser? You're not alone...."] The release of Firefox 1.0 on 9 November might even cause a few heads to turn at Microsoft because the program is steadily winning people away from the software giant's Internet Explorer browser. Firefox has been created by the Mozilla Foundation which was started by former browser maker Netscape back in 1998... Earlier incarnations, but which had the same core technology, were called Phoenix and Firebird. Since then the software has been gaining praise and converts, not least because of the large number of security problems that have come to light in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Rivals to IE got a boost in late June when two US computer security organisations warned people to avoid the Microsoft program to avoid falling victim to a serious vulnerability. Internet monitoring firm WebSideStory has charted the growing population of people using the Firefox browser and says it is responsible for slowly eroding the stranglehold of IE. Before July this year, according to WebSideStory, Internet Explorer was used by about 95% of web surfers. That figure had remained static for years. In July the IE using population dropped to 94.7% and by the end of October stood at 92.9%. The Mozilla Foundation claims that Firefox has been downloaded almost eight million times and has publicly said it would be happy to garner 10% of the Windows- using, net-browsing population. Firefox is proving popular because, at the moment, it has far fewer security holes than Internet Explorer and has some innovations lacking in Microsoft's program. For instance, Firefox allows the pages of different websites to be arranged as tabs so users can switch easily between them. It blocks pop-ups, has a neat way of finding text on a page and lets you search through the pages you have browsed... Firefox celebrated its 20th anniversary with a special video touting new and upcoming features like tab previews, marking up PDFs, and tab grouping. And upgrading to the latest version of Firefox now displays this message on a "What's New" page. "Whether you just downloaded Firefox or have been with us since the beginning, you are a vital part of helping us make the internet a better place. "We can't wait to show you what's coming next." ("Check out our special edition wallpapers — open a new tab and click the gear icon at the top right corner...")

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo 90th anniversary limited edition hybrid instant camera is now in stock


The new Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo 90th anniversary limited edition hybrid instant camera is now in stock at B&H Photo and Amazon. Additional information on the limited edition can be found here:

"The mini Evo is a hybrid instant camera incorporating digital technology, and supporting the card-size mini format film released in 2021. It comes with ten lens effects including Soft Focus and Light Leak as well as ten film effects including Monochrome and Retro. These two types of effects can be combined freely to create 100 different shooting effects so that users can express their emotions through instax™ prints. The camera body sports a premium and classical look and is characterized by analog-like operability using the lens dial, film dial and print lever, designed with attention to detail such as operation noise. In June 2023, Fujifilm added Brown as a new color to Black."

Fujifilm announced new Instax Mini Link 3 and Instax Mini EVO Limited Edition cameras


Via FujiAddict

The post The Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo 90th anniversary limited edition hybrid instant camera is now in stock appeared first on Photo Rumors.

The Viltrox AF 135mm f/1.8 LAB FE lens for Sony E-mount is now available for pre-order at B&H Photo


The Viltrox AF 135mm f/1.8 LAB FE lens for Sony E-mount is now available for pre-order at B&H Photo for $899 (additional information). For comparison, here are the prices of other 135mm lenses:

The lens will be listed soon on the official Viltrox website. The Z-mount version will be released later.

Additional information on the new lens:

  • Full-Frame | f/1.8 to f/16
  • Fast Medium-Length Prime
  • VCM Focusing Mechanism
  • Autofocus Design
  • Multilayer Nano Coating
  • Dust and Moisture-Proof Design
  • Technical specifications:
Focal Length
135mm
Maximum Aperture
f/1.8
Lens Mount
Sony E
Lens Format Coverage
Full-Frame
Focus Type
Autofocus
Filter Size
82 mm (Front)
Maximum Aperture
f/1.8
Minimum Aperture
f/16
Lens Mount
Sony E
Lens Format Coverage
Full-Frame
Angle of View
19.04°
Minimum Focus Distance
0.2' / 72 mm
Maximum Magnification
0.25x
Optical Design
9 Elements in 14 Groups
Diaphragm Blades
11
Focus Type
Autofocus
Filter Size
82 mm (Front)
Dimensions (ø x L)
3.7 x 5.7" / 93 x 145.7 mm
Weight
2.7 lb / 1235 g

Viltrox lenses are sold at Adorama, AmazonB&H, and the Viltrox online store, where you can get 8% off with coupon code NIKONRUMORS.


The post The Viltrox AF 135mm f/1.8 LAB FE lens for Sony E-mount is now available for pre-order at B&H Photo appeared first on Photo Rumors.

Updates on the upcoming Sirui Aurora 85mm f/1.4 and Viltrox 135mm f/1.8 full-frame autofocus lenses


Sirui will announce a new Aurora 85mm f/1.4 full-frame autofocus lens for Sony E and Nikon Z on October 25, 2024 (see teaser). The lens is already listed for sale on a German website for €545.



The upcoming Viltrox AF 135mm f/1.8 lens was also briefly listed for sale on a German website for €999. The official announcement should be coming soon. More leaked pictures can be found here.


The Brightin Star 50mm f/0.95 lens was also released for EF-M and MFT mounts.

The post Updates on the upcoming Sirui Aurora 85mm f/1.4 and Viltrox 135mm f/1.8 full-frame autofocus lenses appeared first on Photo Rumors.

Linus Torvalds Comments On The Russian Linux Maintainers Being Delisted

Ancient Slashdot reader szo shares a report from Phoronix: Quietly merged into this week's Linux 6.12-rc4 kernel was a patch that removes a number of kernel maintainers from being noted in the official MAINTAINERS file that recognizes all of the driver and subsystem maintainers. [...] [Greg Kroah-Hartman who authored the patch] simply commented in there: "Remove some entries due to various compliance requirements. They can come back in the future if sufficient documentation is provided." [...] The commonality of all these maintainers being dropped? They appear to all be Russian or associated with Russia. Most of them with .ru email addresses. Linux creator Linus Torvalds has since commented on the situation: Ok, lots of Russian trolls out and about. It's entirely clear why the change was done, it's not getting reverted, and using multiple random anonymous accounts to try to "grass root" it by Russian troll factories isn't going to change anything. And FYI for the actual innocent bystanders who aren't troll farm accounts - the "various compliance requirements" are not just a US thing. If you haven't heard of Russian sanctions yet, you should try to read the news some day. And by "news," I don't mean Russian state-sponsored spam. As to sending me a revert patch - please use whatever mush you call brains. I'm Finnish. Did you think I'd be *supporting* Russian aggression? Apparently it's not just lack of real news, it's lack of history knowledge too.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Linus Torvalds Growing Frustrated By Buggy Hardware, Theoretical CPU Attacks

jd writes: Linus Torvalds is not a happy camper and is condemning hardware vendors for poor security and the plethora of actual and theoretical attacks, especially as some of the new features being added impact the workarounds. These workarounds are now getting very expensive, CPU-wise. TFA quotes Linus Torvalds: "Honestly, I'm pretty damn fed up with buggy hardware and completely theoretical attacks that have never actually shown themselves to be used in practice. "So I think this time we push back on the hardware people and tell them it's *THEIR* damn problem, and if they can't even be bothered to say yay-or-nay, we just sit tight. Because dammit, let's put the onus on where the blame lies, and not just take any random shit from bad hardware and say 'oh, but it *might* be a problem.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

New releases from Topaz, Luminar, DxO, ON1, and Adobe


→ Topaz Labs released several new updates:

  • Photo AI 3.3: includes new improvements like Super Focus and Recover Faces Gen 2.
  • Gigapixel 8: with new Redefine Model (Creative Upscaler), Recovery Model, and Gen2 Face Recovery.
  • New Gigapixel Cloud Service: a credit-based server processing option that allows you to offload processing tasks for faster and more efficient image enhancement.


→ DxO ViewPoint 5 released.


→ The Skylum Luminar "Big Fall Upgrade" is now available (additional information).


→ The beta version of Luminar Mobile is also now available.


→ Check out the new Luminar NEO Autumn Bundle.


→ The new ON1 Photo RAW 2025 will be announced on October 21st.


DxO also released new Optics Modules for the latest cameras and lenses.


The latest Adobe releases.


→ Photography tutorial eBook Autumn sale - here is the table of contents:


The post New releases from Topaz, Luminar, DxO, ON1, and Adobe appeared first on Photo Rumors.

Elon Musk met fin aux vrais blocages sur X (Twitter) : Apple et Google vont-ils bannir l’app ?

Voilà des mois qu'Elon Musk dit qu’il va mettre fin aux blocages qui permettent aux internautes de cacher leurs tweets aux utilisateurs malveillants. Ce changement sera bientôt proposé sur X, qui affichera vos tweets dans la timeline de personnes que vous avez bloquées. Il enfreint, au moins théoriquement, les règles de l’App Store et du Play Store.

Viltrox AF 28mm f/4.5 FE pancake lens now available for sale (under $100)

After a successful Indiegogo campaign, the new Viltrox AF 28mm f/4.5 FE pancake lens is now available for sale everywhere for under $100:

Here are some key features of the Viltrox 28mm f4.5 lens (for additional information, check also the official website):

  • Weighing just 60g and measuring 15.3mm thick
  • Full frame, autofocus
  • 6 elements in 6 groups with 2 ED and 2 aspherical lenses
  • Innovative slide cap design, the slide lever transforms the cap into a lens

The post Viltrox AF 28mm f/4.5 FE pancake lens now available for sale (under $100) appeared first on Photo Rumors.

Microsoft To Sell Xbox Games Directly Through Android App

Microsoft will offer direct game purchases through its Xbox app for Android starting November, following a U.S. court ruling against Google's app store monopoly. The move allows Microsoft to circumvent Google's revenue cut on in-app purchases and signals renewed focus on mobile gaming, bolstered by its recent $75.4 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Linus Torvalds Asks Kernel Devs To Write Better Git Merge Commit Messages

Phoronix's Michael Larabel reports: Yesterday when announcing the Linux 6.12-rc2 kernel, Linus Torvalds asked that the kernel maintainers do a better job moving forward with their commit messages. In particular, Torvalds is hoping that kernel maintainers will do a better job using an active, imperative voice when describing the changes within their pull requests. The Linux creator explained in the 6.12-rc2 announcement: "Anyway, on a completely different note: I try to make my merge commit messages be somewhat "cohesive", and so I often edit the pull request language to match a more standard layout and language. It's not a big deal, and often it's literally just about whitespace so that we don't have fifteen different indentation models and bullet syntaxes. I generally do it as I read through the text anyway, so it's not like it makes extra work for me. But what *does* make extra work is when some maintainers use passive voice, and then I try to actively rewrite the explanation (or, admittedly, sometimes I just decide I don't care quite enough about trying to make the messages sound the same). So I would ask maintainers to please use active voice, and preferably just imperative. [...]"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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