
Tuesday, October 31, 2023
Monday, October 30, 2023
Apple announces refreshed 14-inch, 16-inch MacBook Pros and iMac with next-generation M3 chips
| Apple unveiled its latest M3 family of system-on-a-chip (SoC) and system-in-a-package (SiP) processors. |
Today, Apple announced several updates to its Mac lineup, including refreshed 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops and updated the 24-inch iMac all-in-one desktop. The product updates centered around the all-new M3 family of chips, the company’s latest generation of Apple Silicon.
The refreshed Apple MacBook Pros maintain the same physical appearance and design as the previous generation 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook. However, the models featuring the more powerful M3 Pro and M3 Max chips will be available in a new 'Space Black' anodized aluminum finish. The updated MacBook Pros also have a lower starting price than the prior version, with the 14-inch M3-powered MacBook Pro starting at $1,599.
Although Apple describes the screens as "the World's best laptop display," they don't appear to have changed compared with the M2 generation MacBook Pros. The 'Liquid Retina XDR' displays maintain the same peak brightness of 1600 nits and sustained brightness of up to 1000 nits. The only difference is a boost in the maximum brightness at which SDR content is shown: rising from 500 to 600 nits, bringing it into line with the behavior of the company's Studio Display external monitor.
The new M3-powered MacBook Pros are said to offer improvements in both CPU and GPU performance while at the same time maintaining the impressive power efficiency that Apple Silicon-powered computers have been known for. According to Apple, the base 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 is up to 60% faster than the original M1-powered MacBook Pro, while maintaining up to 22 hours of battery life. Apple also claims that these new MacBook Pros are up to 11x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pros.
As with previous generations, the M3 family of chips comes in three flavors: the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max. The M3 chip features 8 CPU cores and a 10-core GPU while the M3 Pro comes in 11-core CPU/14-core GPU and 12 CPU/18 GPU core versions. The M3 Max comes in 14/30 core and 16/40 core versions. The M3 chip has a maximum memory bandwidth of 100GB/s, while the M3 Pros can reach 150GB/s. The lesser of the two M3 Max chips promises up to 300GB/s bandwidth, while the top-end 16/40 core version tops out at 400BG/s.
| CPU/GPU cores | Memory bandwidth | Unified memory options | |
|---|---|---|---|
| M3 | 8/10 | 100GB/s | 8GB, 16GB, 24GB |
| M3 Pro | 11/14 | 150GB/s | 18GB, 36GB |
| 12/18 | 150GB/s | 18GB, 36GB | |
| M3 Max | 14/30 | 300GB/s | 36GB, 96GB |
| 16/40 | 400GB/s | 36GB, 48GB, 64GB, 128GB |
The base model 14-inch MacBook with M3 chip comes with up to 24GB of unified memory and up to 2TB of internal storage.
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Bumping up to the M3 Pro, these 14-inch models start with 11/14 core chips and 18GB of unified memory, while the lowliest 16-inch MacBook Pro features a 12-core CPU/18-core GPU and 18GB of unified memory. Both the M3 Pro and M3 Max varieties can be upgraded all the way up to the 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU Max chips and up to 128GB of unified memory: the first time a MacBook Pro has been offered with this amount of memory. SSD Storage can be up-specced to a maximum of 4TB for the M3 Pro and 8TB for the M3 Max varieties.
In addition to updates to the MacBook Pros Apple has, finally, also announced updates to the 24-inch iMac desktop computer to the M3 chip. Skipping the M2 generation of chips entirely, the Apple Silicon-based 24-inch iMac hadn’t been updated since it debuted in 2021 with the original M1 chip.
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The new iMac's physical design is unchanged from the previous version model, including coming in just a single screen size. Still, the boost in performance from the new M3 chips should be significant, with Apple claiming up to 2x faster performance than the M1 version and up to 2.5x than 'the most popular 27-inch Intel-based iMac models' (3.3GHz 6-core Intel Core i5-based 27-inch iMac.)
The new M3-based MacBook Pros are available for ordering today, with availability starting on Tuesday, November 7. The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 starts at $1,599, the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro starts at $1,999, and the 16-inch MacBook Pro starts at $2,499.
The updated 24-inch iMac with M3 is available for ordering today, with availability starting on Tuesday, November 7. The iMac with an 8-core GPU starts at $1,299, while the 10-core GPU model starts at $1,499.
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Ricoh GR III: the Perfect Compact Camera for Street and Travel Photography

Sunday, October 29, 2023
Rising Above the Noise: Why Ignoring Social Media Trolls Is the Best Strategy
A Review of the Incredible Nikon NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Lens

How To Get the Most Out of Lightroom's and Photoshop's Masking Capabilities

Saturday, October 28, 2023
Friday, October 27, 2023
Win an $18,000 Iceland Voyage and an OM-5 During OM SYSTEM Week

Slideshow: Winners of the 2023 Nikon Small World photomicroscopy competition
Nikon Small World 2023 Photomicrography Competition
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Photographic subjects can be all shapes and sizes, from vast landscapes to tiny animals and everything in between. But what's often overlooked – and understandably so – is the teeny, tiny and beautifully detailed microscopic world. Beyond the reach of the naked eye (most of the time) and your traditional macro lens, the world of microscopy, or photomicrography, is a specialized style of photography that bridges scientific imaging technology with visual creativity.
Now in its 49th year, Nikon just announced the winners of this year's Small World photo contest, with the top prize being awarded to Hassanain Qambari, assisted by Jayden Dickson of the Lions Eye Institute, for his image of a rodent optic nerve head.
DPReview has highlighted the Top 20 recognized images from this year's competition, including artist information and details about the magnification and imaging techniques used. For the full gallery of this year's top images, please head over to the Nikon Small World photo gallery.
1st Place: Rodent optic nerve head showing astrocytes (yellow), contractile proteins (red) and retinal vasculature (green)
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Artist(s): Hassanain Qambari, Jayden Dickson (Lions Eye Institute, Department of Physiology & Pharmacology: Perth, Western Australia, Australia)
Technique: Confocal, Fluorescence, Image Stacking
Magnification: 20X (Objective Lens Magnification)
2nd Place: Matchstick igniting by the friction surface of the box
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Artist(s): Ole Bielfeldt (Macrofying: Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany)
Technique: Brightfield, Image Stacking
Magnification: 2.5X (Objective Lens Magnification)
3rd Place: Breast cancer cells
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Artist(s): Malgorzata Lisowska (Independent Value Based Healthcare Consultant: Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland)
Technique: Brightfield, Image Stacking
Magnification: 40X (Objective Lens Magnification)
4th Place: Venomous fangs of a small tarantula
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Artist(s): John-Oliver Dum (Medienbunker Produktion: Bendorf, Rheinland Pfalz, Germany)
Technique: Image Stacking
Magnification: 10X (Objective Lens Magnification)
5th Place: Auto-fluorescing defensive hairs covering the leaf surface of Eleagnus angustifolia exposed to UV light
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Artist(s): Dr. David Maitland (www.davidmaitland.com: Feltwell, Norfolk, United Kingdom)
Technique: Fluorescence, Image Stacking
Magnification: 10X (Objective Lens Magnification)
6th Place: Slime mold (Comatricha nigra) showing capillitial fibers through its translucent peridium
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Artist(s): Timothy Boomer (WildMacro: Vacaville, California, USA)
Magnification: 10X (Objective Lens Magnification)
7th Place: Mouse embryo
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Artist(s): Dr. Grigorii Timin, Dr. Michel Milinkovitch (University of Geneva, Department of Genetics and Evolution: Geneva, Switzerland)
Technique: Light Sheet
Magnification: 4X (Objective Lens Magnification)
8th Place: Caffeine crystals
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Artist(s): Stefan Eberhard (The University of Georgia: Athens, Georgia, USA)
Technique: Polarized Light
Magnification: 25X (Objective Lens Magnification)
9th Place: Cytoskeleton of a dividing myoblast; tubulin (cyan), F-actin (orange) and nucleus (magenta)
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Artist(s): Vaibhav Deshmukh (Baylor College of Medicine, Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics: Houston, Texas, USA)
Technique: Fluorescence, Structured Illumination Microscopy (SIM)
Magnification: 63X (Objective Lens Magnification)
10th Place: Motor neurons grown in microfluidic device for separation of cell bodies (top) and axons (bottom). Green - microtubules; Red - growth cones (actin)
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Artist(s): Melinda Beccari, Dr. Don W. Cleveland (University of California, San Diego, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine: La Jolla, California, USA)
Technique: Confocal, Fluorescence
Magnification: 20X (Objective Lens Magnification)
11th Place: Crystallized sugar syrup
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Artist(s): Dr. Diego García (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Real Sociedad Española de Física: Madrid, Spain)
Technique: Polarized Light
Magnification: 25X (Objective Lens Magnification)
12th Place: Cuckoo wasp standing on a flower
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Artist(s): Sherif Abdallah Ahmed (Tanta University, Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology: Tanta, Egypt)
Technique: Image Stacking
Magnification: 4X (Objective Lens Magnification)
13th Place: Blood and lymphatic vasculatures in the ear skin of an adult mouse
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Artist(s): Satu Paavonsalo, Dr. Sinem Karaman (University of Helsinki, Individualized Drug Therapy Research Program, Faculty of Medicine: Helsinki, Finland)
Technique: Confocal
Magnification: 10X (Objective Lens Magnification)
14th Place: Sunflower pollen on an acupuncture needle
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Artist(s): John-Oliver Dum (Medienbunker Produktion: Bendorf, Rheinland Pfalz, Germany)
Technique: Image Stacking
Magnification: 40X (Objective Lens Magnification)
15th Place: Fluorescent image of an Acropora sp. showing individual polyps with symbiotic zooxanthellae
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Artist(s): Dr. Pichaya Lertvilai (University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography: La Jolla, California, USA)
Technique: Darkfield, Fluorescence, Image Stacking
Magnification: 5X (Objective Lens Magnification)
16th Place: Carbon nanotubes
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Artist(s): Dr. Diego García (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Real Sociedad Española de Física: Madrid, Spain)
Technique: Stereomicroscopy
Magnification: 30X (Objective Lens Magnification)
17th Place: Chinese moon moth (Actias ningpoana) wing scales
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Artist(s): Yuan Ji (World Expo Museum, Shanghai, China)
Technique: Image Stacking
Magnification: 20X (Objective Lens Magnification)
18th Place: A cryptocrystalline micrometeorite resting on a #80 testing sieve
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Artist(s): Scott Peterson (New Hope, Minnesota, USA)
Technique: Image Stacking
Magnification: 20X (Objective Lens Magnification)
19th Place: Stomata in peace lily (Spathiphyllum sp.) leaf epidermis
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Artist(s): Marek Miś (Marek Mis Photography, Suwalki, Podlaskie, Poland)
Technique: Polarized Light
Magnification: 40X (Objective Lens Magnification)
20th Place: Adult transgenic zebrafish head showing blood vessels (blue), lymphatic vessels (yellow), and the skin and scales (magenta)
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Artist(s): Daniel Castranova, Dr. Brant M. Weinstein (National Institutes of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: Bethesda, Maryland, USA)
Technique: Confocal
Magnification: 4X (Objective Lens Magnification)
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Thursday, October 26, 2023
Some of Photoshop's Most Useful Newer Features for Landscape Photographers









































