Photography Bay

Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips

Flickr Makes Geotagging Easier

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Flickr has made it easier for photographers to geotag images uploaded to the photo-sharing site. If you take a look at your photos on Flickr, there is a new option in the Additional Information section, labeled “Add to your map.”

Click on that link and you can mark where your photo was taken on a map, direct from Yahoo! Maps. Not my first choice on mapping options, but considering Yahoo! owns both, it isn’t a surprise. It looks like there is an element of feedback from the photos folks tag on Flickr and Yahoo! Maps. According to the Flickr blog:

As the odds are you know more about your local neighborhoods than we
do, when you edit a location on the pop-up map you can also see other
nearby options and choose one. Over time if everyone continuously tells
us we’ve got somewhere wrong, we can feed it back into the system and
update it for everyone else.

 

Canon Fuel Cell DSLR Update

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As you may recall, Photography Bay previously reported on Canon’s efforts to patent a method for using fuel cells to power your DSLR. A newly published patent application (US 2008/0180565) sheds a little more light on things to come with fuel cell powered DSLRs.

Canon continues to push its fuel cell development by devising a method for powering not only the internal DSLR body electronics, but also external components such as lenses and hotshoe flashes.

The present invention relates to an electronic equipment system having fuel cells, and more particularly, to a camera system in which fuel cells are provided to a camera body and a connection device connected to the camera body. [0001]

Say Goodbye to AA Batteries

Essentially, Canon wants its fuel cell to power everything you attach to your camera. That’s right. No more AA batteries to stuff into your camera bag.

. . . dual battery control of detecting a remaining amount of the battery in each of the devices and determining the state of each of the batteries to control electric power supply, which makes the battery control complicated. [0010]

The patent is a little long winded (as patents can be); however, the gist of it is to have a single power source (i.e., the fuel cell) and that source powers everything (e.g., hotshoe flash).

. . . an electronic equipment system in which fuel cells are provided to an electronic equipment body [ed., a DLSR body] and a connection device [ed., a hotshoe flash] connected to the electronic equipment body, and in which detection of a battery remaining amount and control of electric power supply can be performed under unified management [ed., one fuel cell], thereby enabling simplification of the electronic equipment system and improvement of power generation efficiency thereof. [0011]

The blissful absence of partially charged batteries and wonder whether the four batteries you stuffed in the side pocket last week were good or bad. No more battery chargers plugged into your kitchen outlets. Basically, the best invention since sliced bread . . . ok, maybe not, but it is interesting nonetheless.

What’s It All Mean?

MTI Micro Fuel Cell Battery Pack for Canon DSLRFirst of all, Canon’s always going to push digital imaging innovation to the next level. Clearly, the competition is too stiff to try to lay low now. Canon stays at the top of the patent filings charts due to this drive.

With this changing tech comes the new gear. In this case, fuel-cell DSLRs means a lot of new gear – maybe even a new system. At the very least, it calls for the purchase of new speedlights with your camera body. I suppose, however, that Canon could allow backwards compatibility of battery-powered electronic flashes with this fuel cell power source.

Finally, it should lessen our carbon footprint as photographers in the digital age. Many of us are starting to think real hard about environmental issues in this changing world climate and economy. How many fewer AA batteries would our landfills see if the every digital camera user suddenly switched to fuel cells? It’s a start.

If you want to read the whole patent, feel free to look it up on the USPTO website (patent application # US 2008/0180565) or follow this direct link.

Samsung GX-20 Review at Buy-n-Shoot

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Buy-n-Shoot has posted a review of the Samsung GX-20.

Overall, the Samsung GX-20 is well-priced and well-put-together. It is an attractive, solid unit, both in terms of its build as well as its performance, and it is unlikely to disappoint. Highly recommended.

For more news and info on the GX-20, be sure to visit Photography Bay’s Samsung GX-20 Reviews and Resources.

Nancy Bruno’s “Genuine Men”

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Journeys in Stories and StillsIn Genuine Men: Journeys in Stories and Stills, Nancy Bruno has done more than catalog the lives of a few men in pictures. Looking through her book, you immediately get a sense of the time she spent in selecting not only the photographs that make up this book, but also the men themselves.

The photographs making up Genuine Men are black-and-white portraits. Bruno’s experience as an architectural and interior design photographer is evident throughout: where some photographers would have focused more closely on the titular men, Bruno has brought in elements of their surroundings. That addition provides a context that a stricter approach to portraiture would have reduced.

The context is particulary necessary with this project. Without Bruno’s subtle hints — and not-so-subtle text — this project would be little more than pictures of men standing around. Perhaps interesting, but not so intriguing as the idea that each man that Bruno photographed was so carefully selected. Furthermore, not every image in this book is technically perfect. Small flaws, however, juxtapose the idea that these are normal, everyday men. More refined images, whether through technical ability or computer correction, would change the nature of the characterization we find in these photos.

Bruno’s Genuine Men project grew out of a portrait project she completed in 2006, Beautiful Women. Both projects focused on everyday people — no celebrities, but instead folks of all ages and backgrounds. With Beautiful Women, Bruno worked to convery a healthier image of feminine beauty. With Genuine Men, Bruno focused on role models with an element of finding men that her young sons can look up to.

Bruno’s medium of choice is black-and-white 35mm photography. While she has done extensive architectural and interior design photography, Bruno has made a career of documentary projects, starting in 1996 with an examination of Canadian life during the long winter.

Nikon D90 Image Leak?

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Is this an image of the new Nikon D90? It’s the best one I’ve seen so far. What do you think?

UPDATE: Thom Hogan says: “The picture is accurate and appears to be real (and NOT the pictures I have).” [via]

Nikon D90

[via NR]

For the latest news and rumors on the Nikon D90, stay tuned to Photography Bay’s Nikon D90 page.

Free Copy of Portrait Professional 8

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DIYPhotography.net is hosting a contest with copies of Portrait Professional 8 as the prize. It’s almost three separate contests in one: to enter, you just have to do one of the following.

  • Submit a black and white portrait of someone meaningful to you through Flickr. You’ll have to write a brief explanation of why that person means so much to you.
  • Submit a color portrait with the same guidelines.
  • Send a portrait tip to DIYPhotography.net.

The contest closes to submission on September 4th. You can check out the submissions so far in the competition’s Flickr pool. There are already some impressive pieces up, though submissions seem heavily weighted to the black and white so far.

Sony Cyber-shot T77 and Cyber-shot T700

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Sony has unveiled two new point and shoot cameras today.  The T77 is a 10 megapixel camera with a 3″ touchscreen LCD.  The T700 is another 10 megapixel camera with 4GB of built-in memory and a 3.5″ touchscreen LCD.  See the following press release for more info on the T77 and T700.

WEYBRIDGE, UK–(Marketwire – August 7, 2008) –

Slim and Stylish: The DSC-T77

  • Super-slim, beautiful design with choice of five fashion colours
  • 10.1 effective megapixels
  • Smile Shutter automatically captures smiling faces
  • Beautiful portraits with Face Detection and Anti-blink technology
  • Carl Zeiss 4x optical zoom lens
  • Optical SteadyShot for crisper, clearer photos
  • Stunning 3″ touchscreen LCD
  • Intelligent Scene Recognition with new Portrait mode

Photo Album in your pocket: The DSC-T700

  • Slim, beautiful design with choice of five fashion colours
  • 10.1 effective megapixels
  • 4GB internal memory, stores up to 40,000 photos
  • Powerful album functions to store, organise and share your photos
  • Smile Shutter automatically captures smiling faces
  • Beautiful portraits with Face Detection and Anti-blink technology
  • Enjoy your images on the Extra-large 3.5″ touchscreen LCD
  • Easy web upload for sharing images on social networking sites

Two gorgeous new T-Series Cyber-shotTM cameras from Sony are bursting with amazing features to help you take great pictures. Slim, colourful and easy to carry, they’re the perfect partner for any occasion, from fun-filled nights out to holidays, parties and family moments. [Read more…]

Nikon’s Coolpix S60, S710, S610, S610c and S560

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Nikon Coolpix S60Five new Nikon Coolpix cameras have been announced, which highlight some new features and technologies like HDMI connections, touchscreen LCDs and high sensitivity up to ISO 12,800.

Nikon Coolpix S60 Specs

  • 16:9 touchscreen 3.5″ LCD
  • Smile and Blink Detection
  • 10 megapixels
  • 5x optical zoom
  • HDMI output

Nikon Coolpix S710 Specs

  • 14 megapixels
  • ISO 12,800 capable
  • 3″ LCD
  • 3.6x optical zoom

Nikon Coolpix S610 and S610c are additional new point and shoot models. The S610c features WiFi capabilities. At the bottom of the rung, the Nikon Coolpix S560, which is the S550 replacement, features 10 megapixels.

The full press releases for these new Nikon Coolpix cameras are found below.  Stay tuned to Photography Bay’s Photokina 2008 Report for more digital camera news and releases over the next couple months. [Read more…]