Photography Bay

Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips

Archives for January 2011

GIMP 2.6 for Photographers – New Book

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GIMP 2.6 for Photographers is a new book from Klaus Goelker that guides beginning GIMP users through the open-source image editing software.  GIMP 2.6 is free, open-source software compatible with Windows, OS X and Linux.

GIMP is considered a rather powerful alternative to Photoshop; however, educational info on GIMP has sometimes been difficult to find.  This book “has evolved from classroom materials that the author developed and taught in courses and workshops on image editing with the GIMP.”  Conveniently, the book includes a software DVD that contains a full version of GIMP and other open-source photo programs for those with slower Internet connections.

GIMP 2.6 for Photographers carries a retail price of $39.95; however, it is currently available for $26.37 on Amazon.com.

 

Golla Camera Bags

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One of the things about CES is that you always see a brand that you’ve never seen before.  At this year’s CES, I came across Golla Bags, which makes dozens of different camera, laptop, iPad and general electronic accessory bags.

Golla Bags also come in a wide variety of bright colors and feature several different designs.  By orders of my wife, I’m always on the lookout for pink camera bags.  Golla Bags has plenty of those, including the three above.  The two on the left are more for poing and shoot cameras, while the larger bag on the right could accomodate a mirrorless camera, superzoom camera or small DSLR.

You can see the complete selection of Golla Bags gear on Golla.com.  Additionally, you can purchase some of the Golla Bags on Amazon.com and Adorama – although neither retailer currently appears to carry the entire line.

More photos below. [Read more…]

SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC UHS-I Card Announced

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SanDisk has announced a new line of Extreme Pro SDHC UHS-I cards. The UHS-I speed boost can be taken advantage with new UHS devices like the Nikon D7000.

The new Extreme Pro cards provide read/write speeds up to 45MB/sec.  When used with non-UHS devices, the Extreme Pro cards provide a max read/write speed of 25MB/sec.

SanDisk’s Extreme Pro SDHC UHS-I card is available in 8GB to 32GB capacities and retails from $109.99 to $349.99.  Check availability on Amazon.com.

In addition to the new Extreme Pro cards, SanDisk also announced a new Extreme Pro ExpressCard adapter for use with SDHC and SDXC UHS-I cards.  The Extreme Pro ExpressCard adapter retails for $49.99.  Check availability on Amazon.com.

More details in the press release below. [Read more…]

272 Gigapixel Image Made Using 12,000 Photos from a Canon 7D

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Photographer Alfred Zhao captured this 272 gigapixel image of the Shanghai skyline using the GigaPan EPIC Pro and a Canon 7D with a 400mm f/5.6 lens and 2x teleconverter attached.  He was setup and started shooting at around 8:30am and after 12,000 images were in the bag, it was just before dusk.  It took months to complete image and get the final 1.09TB file uploaded.

Just how big is a 272 gigapixel image?  1 gigapixel = 1000 megapixels = 1 billion pixels.  That’s 272 BILLION pixels.  Printed at standard resolution, this image would cover over 7000 billboards.

But now it’s done and Zhao holds a world record for the largest digital photo.  There’s no time to rest though, as Zhao says, “This is not the end of my panorama journey, it is a new start, challenging the limit is an infinite process. New records will appear in the future, it is only a matter of time.”

Full details in the press release below. [Read more…]