Episodes
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Episode 219: Can a Strong Magnet Disrupt Your iPhone Camera?
We’d never heard of this before, but it’s possible that a strong magnet -- like on an accessory that takes advantage of Apple’s MagSafe feature -- could mess with your iPhone’s camera, according to Engadget. We also talk about the possibility of overriding the iPhone’s frame-blending pipeline by...
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Episode 218: iPhone 18 Pro Camera Hands On
Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro gains a variable aperture and a faster main camera, but that’s not all. In iOS 27, Apple has also revamped the Camera app somewhat. Jeff has been shooting with the iPhone 18 Pro since its release, and we talk about his hands-on experiences. Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website…
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Episode 217: iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro
Apple has announced its new iPhone lineup and for the first time it includes a foldable, the iPhone Duo. But photographers will want to check out the iPhone 18 Pro. We discuss what's new, from the variable aperture to improved maximum f-stop to (finally) manual controls in the Camera app. Hosts:...
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Episode 216: Cameras Are Everywhere
From Meta’s “pervert glasses” to rumored camera-equipped AirPods, cameras are making their way into more of our personal technology. Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website, Jeff's photos, Jeff on Instagram, Jeff on Glass, Jeff on Mastodon, Jeff on Bluesky Kirk McElhearn: website, Kirk's photos, Kirk on...
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Episode 215: "It Feels Un-Apple-y"
With new iPhones on the horizon, we discuss the new Apple Upgrade program -- and why it feels less like the Apple we knew. We then pivot to amazement about the photographers who shoot the Tour de France every year. And then Jeff shares details about the Godox iT32 flash, a flash and wireless...
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Episode 214: Dealing with Heat and a Drone Made for Water
The recent heat waves in the US and UK have us thinking about ways to keep our cameras and phones cool. We also look at a report on Apple’s new raw processing technology coming in iOS 27, and Jeff talks about the HoverAir Aqua, a camera drone designed to be used on the water. Hosts: Jeff Carlson:...
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Episode 213: Jeff Goes to the Dark Side (Sony)
We’ve mocked YouTubers who make a fuss about selling all their camera gear to switch brands and systems, only to do it all again later for clicks. Well, the universe has a sense of humor, because that’s just what Jeff has done—the first part, anyway. He sold his Fuji X-T3 and lenses in became a...
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Episode 212: Craig Grannell on Apple’s New AI Photo Announcements
Apple introduced its next OS 27 systems at its Worldwide Developers Conference, which included changes to the Camera and Photos apps that revolve around AI features. Actually, that’s almost literal: the new Spatial Reframing feature lets you rotate a scene and generative AI fills in the missing...
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Episode 211: Obsessive Isn’t a Bad Word
We often talk about framing a photo to get the best composition, but sometimes we don’t nail it. Or we realize in editing that a tighter crop would be better. Or something crept into the edge of the frame at the last second. In this episode, we talk about cropping photos, whether AI cropping is...
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Episode 210: Photo Scouting
Before you go out to do some photography, how do you determine where to go? Jeff had a portrait session booked and discovered that the location was fenced and blocked -- but scouting in advance gave him time to find a new spot. We talk about tools and techniques for finding the best photo spots…
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Episode 209: What If Apple Makes a Camera?
Our conversation in this episode started with news of John Ternus becoming the next CEO of Apple as of September 1, but that led to an intriguing concept that isn’t as far-fetched as it might seem: What if Apple makes its own camera? Imagine a fixed-lens compact mirrorless with a larger sensor,...
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Episode 208: DaVinci Resolve, Lightroom Killer?
The well regarded video editor DaVinci Resolve just introduced a Photos module inside the app, making some people wonder whether the free software could replace traditional photography tools like Lightroom. We also talk about a book of passport photos, photos that change history and film...
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Episode 207: Monochrome Sensors, DNG, and Apple 50th
We remain fascinated by monochrome cameras, and this week we discovered just how tough it is to source the sensors used by the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome. We also talk about DNG, Adobe’s universal raw format, becoming an official image standard (and why the big camera companies probably won’t adopt...
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Episode 206: You Can’t Trust Photos Anymore
So it’s come to this. Generative AI has quickly gotten so good that it’s hard to distinguish real photos from generated ones. So where do we go from here? We talk about C2PA authentication, trusting your sources, and more. (Image: Generated with Adobe Firefly) Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website, Jeff's...
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Episode 205: Spec Goblins and the MacBook Neo
Apple has announced the MacBook Neo, a $600 laptop running on the same A18 Pro processor that was used in the iPhone 16 Pro. Oh, and it has 8GB of RAM and starts at 256GB of storage. Believe it or not, lots of people on the Internet take issue with those specs, so we look at it from the point of...
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Episode 204: Storage Prices
The prices of digital storage are set to climb this year because AI is eating up all the available inventory. And modern photography is entirely dependent on storage, whether it's the SD cards that store the captured images, the internal solid-state memory that stores data on your computer, or…
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Episode 203: Do You Have $10,000 to Spare?
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…
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Episode 202: Pixelmator Pro Returns
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…
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Episode 201: What’s Real
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...
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Episode 200: All Our Cameras
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. Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website, Jeff's photos, Jeff on Instagram, Jeff on Glass, Jeff on Mastodon, Jeff on Bluesky Kirk...
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Episode 199: Vroom Vroom
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...
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Episode 198: I’m Not an Animal
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. Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website, Jeff's photos, Jeff on Instagram, Jeff on Glass, Jeff on Mastodon, Jeff on...
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Episode 197: Overenthusiastic in Your Opinion
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…
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Episode 196: Has Camera Tech Hit a Plateau?
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). Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website, Jeff's photos, Jeff on...
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Episode 195: Hands On with the iPhone 17 Pro
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…
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Episode 194: iPhone 17 and Apple’s Fall Event
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…
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Episode 193: Photography Police and Google Pro Res Zoom
Are you following the proper rules of photography, or are you at risk of being busted by the photography police? Maybe you’re shooting photos out of focus, or introducing light leaks, or using direct flash. All of these can be considered “bad” photography, but they’re also currently popular…
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Episode 192: Process, Product, and Problem Solving
Are you taking photos for yourself, or are you feeding the social media algorithms for brief dopamine hits when someone praises your images? In this episode, Kirk and Jeff ruminate on how the endless scroll of images is affecting how we enjoy and make photos. And we ask ourselves: what do we…
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Episode 191: Macro Photography
Macro Photography Don’t know what to photograph? No vacation plans? With macro photography, you can get great results literally in your back yard. What was once a style of photography that required specialized gear is now something you can do well with just your phone — though of course there’s...
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Episode 190: Fuji X-Half, AI Scaling, and Lightroom Changes
Fujifilm’s new X-Half camera is a curious hybrid: a digital camera with analog feel but a modern price. We also discuss news of OM Systems possibly using AI upscaling in future cameras to boost resolution and look at a few changes in the latest versions of Lightroom. Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website,...
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Episode 189: Traveling with a Camera
It’s the night before you leave for vacation and you need to choose which camera gear goes and stays. Do you reach for the 300mm telephoto, knowing it can get great photos but is large and bulky? Or do you take the smallest camera you can carry to ensure you have it with you at all times? And…
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Episode 188: WWDC 2025
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is always the first glimpse at what we can look forward to with new Apple software, including a peek at the photo capabilities of the next iPhones. And with iOS 26 and the Liquid Glass interface, things are going to look a lot different in the fall. Hosts:...
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Episode 187: Checking In on AI in Photography
We know, it seems like we just talked about AI in photography, but the field is moving pretty fast. Google announced improvements to their generative AI models, which are both impressive and sloppy at the same time. We also look at new AI-based landscape masking tools in Lightroom, speculate on...
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Episode 186: A Surrender: Markus Naarttijärvi and Daniel Agee
It’s another photo book! We’re joined by photographer Markus Naarttijärvi and publisher Daniel Agee to talk about Markus’s new book A Surrender. When we last talked to Daniel, he was at photo service Glass, but now he’s struck out on his own to form the publishing company Good Fight, and A...
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Episode 185: Quintin Lake’s Book The Perimeter
Quintin Lake traversed the Coast of Britain over several years, photographing and documenting the journey. Now, he’s turned his well-received project into a new photo book called The Perimeter. We welcome Quintin back to PhotoActive not just as a guest, but as an in-person guest with Kirk in his...
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Episode 184: US Tariffs and Camera Gear
The US government has begun to impose high tariffs on goods brought in from nearly every country in the world. Since most camera gear is made in Japan and China, what does this mean for the industry and, more important, for your own purchasing decisions? Since the policies are changing by the…
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Episode 183: Fujifilm GFX100RF, A Medium Format Walking Around Camera
With the bonkers success of the Fujifilm X100VI, it seemed only a matter of time before Fuji made a compact camera based around its GFX medium format line. That’s the recently-announced GFX100RF, a new compact-ish, 100 megapixel, fixed-lens, $5,000 camera. We look at the inventions and the...
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Episode 182: Photoshop on iPhone
Adobe has released Photoshop for iPhone, a bonafide version of real Photoshop, not to be confused with Photoshop Express or other earlier variations. We take a look at this new app with one main question in our minds: Who is this for? A programming note: Toward the end of the episode we talk…
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Episode 181: Leica Lux Grip and App for iPhone
Two episodes ago Jeff expressed cynicism about iPhone add-ons that try to make the phone more like a traditional camera. And yet here we are looking at Kirk’s new Leica LUX Grip accessory...and not hating it? Learn about why this could be the camera grip for the iPhone that succeeds where others...
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Episode 180: David Young’s Brief History of Photography
On this week’s episode we welcome David Young, photographer and author of the new book A Brief History of Photography: From the Very Beginning to the Age of Digital. It may feel like photography is only a little more than a hundred years old, but the principles of the art, from lens design to...
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Episode 179: iPhone Camera Accessories
Photographers love to accessorize their cameras, and the iPhone is no different. A case is one thing, but what about other photo-centric add-ons? Should you buy an extra-wide or telephoto lens that snaps in front of the built-in cameras? What about grips and shutter buttons that make the iPhone...
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Episode 178: Photographing the LA Fires
The recent devastating fires in Los Angeles have created a lot of fire photography, and some of it compelling both for its content and its artistry. We talk about the challenges of photographing such extreme situations. Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website, Jeff's photos, Jeff on Instagram, Jeff on…
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Episode 177: AI in Photography in 2025
We’ve been looking at various AI-related photography topics in recent episodes, such as using the Clean Up feature in the Photos app to remove unwanted items or the bigger question of “What is a photo?” Now it’s time to look broadly at what AI can offer photographers and where we think it’s…
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Episode 176: Cleaning Up Libraries
As we wrap up 2024, we’re realizing our photo libraries have grown quite a bit—in Jeff’s case, almost filling his cloud storage. So as we anticipate some holiday downtime, we’re turning our attention to strategies for cleaning up our photo libraries. Note that we’re taking the next episode off to...
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Episode 175: What Is a Photo?
Our recent discussions of AI and the Photos Clean Up tool have brought us full circle to the bigger question: What is a photo? Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website, Jeff's photos, Jeff on Instagram, Jeff on Glass, Jeff on Mastodon Kirk McElhearn: website, Kirk's photos, Kirk on Instagram, Kirk on Glass,...
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Episode 174: Photos Clean Up
Aimless pedestrians wandering in the background of your photo? Trash on the ground in the foreground? Apple can help. In this episode we're looking at Clean Up, the new Apple Intelligence tool in the Photos app that uses generative AI to remove areas of a photo. Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website…
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Episode 173: iPhone Photo File Formats
In our quest to better understand the often-confusing changes and additions to the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro photo situation, we’ve decided to tackle the photo file formats. HEIF, ProRAW, JPEG-XL... there are a lot of options to choose from. Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website, Jeff's photos, Jeff on...
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Episode 172: Photographic Styles on the iPhone 16
The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro introduce a new twist on an existing feature, and the result is... confusion and complexity. Photographic Styles can be very powerful, but it really requires you to dig into the details. Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website, Jeff's photos, Jeff on Instagram, Jeff on Glass,...
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Episode 171: iPhone 16 Pro Hands-On
Now that Kirk and Jeff have received their iPhone 16 Pros, it’s time to take them into the world and see how the new photographic features work. Is the Camera Control all it’s cracked up to be? Does a 48 megapixel ultra-wide camera make much difference? We talk about our first hands-on…
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Episode 170: iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro
It’s that time again: new iPhones! By which we mean, of course, new Apple Cameras That Also Do Other Stuff. Kirk and Jeff are both upgrading their phones this year, largely due to the new Camera Control button but also the 48 MP (megapixel) ultra-wide camera and the new 48 MP Fusion camera that...
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About this show
Jeff Carlson and Kirk McElhearn discuss photography and the Apple ecosystem. We cover using an iPhone or any other camera with Apple hardware and software, and we welcome photographers to discuss their work.
Hosted by
Jeff Carlson & Kirk McElhearn
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