Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips
Apple has released an updated version of Aperture, which features open plug-in compatibility. This means that you can expect to see third-party plug-ins like Nik’s Viveza and PictureCode’s Noise Ninja in Aperture soon. It’s great to see a streamlined RAW-processing program like Aperture opened up. Hopefully, Adobe will do the same with Lightroom soon. [Read more…]
Below are some of the best photography links from other sites that I came across this week. Enjoy!
Photo Industry Braces for Another Revolution – Steven Shankland over at Cnet’s Underexposed reports in an insightful article about the next wave of technological breakthroughs in photography and post-processing.
Lose the Smile for More Versatile Headshots – David Hobby of Strobist digs deep into Platon‘s portrait of Eliot Spitzer, which appeared in this week’s issue of Time, and includes some very specific and educational reverse engineering of the lighting used.
Photography 101 – Lenses, Light and Magnification – Digital Photography School continues its Photography 101 series with an examination the basics of lenses, how they interact with light and magnify images.
You Suck at Photoshop #9 – Donnie over at My Damn Channel gives us some more weird and insulting instructions on how to use Photoshop. This episode’s lesson: Curves.
Building Your Wedding Business Series (Part 1 of 4) – Professional photographer David Ziser gives his insights to budding wedding photographers with 11 ways to better portfolio development and presentation.
Important Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 Update – Adobe recalls the updates to Lightroom and Camera Raw due to some bugs, and they’re sorry for the mishap.
Adobe has released Photoshop Express in beta to the public. The above video that Scott Kelby placed on YouTube does a good job of explaining what it does and doesn’t do. Additionally, here’s a brief description from Adobe:
During the public beta period, Adobe will solicit Photoshop Express user feedback on product features and functionality, which will continue to evolve over time. As the newest addition to the Photoshop family line, Photoshop Express has taken much of Adobe’s best image editing technology and made it simple and accessible to a new online audience. Photoshop Express allows users to store up to 2 gigabytes of images online for free, make edits to their photos, and share them online in creative ways, including downloading and uploading photos from popular social networking sites like Facebook.
Adobe Photoshop Express beta is available now for free via any Web browser at http://www.photoshop.com/express.
Photography BLOG has posted a review of the new Sony A200.
If you have no investment in a DSLR system and you’re looking for an entry-level model, the Sony A200 is a real alternative to the likes of the Nikon D60, Canon EOS 450D and Olympus E-510. It may not be the most exciting camera on paper, with no Live View and “only” a 10 megapixel sensor, but in practice it’s an easy-to-use, solid proposition from which you can confidently upgrade in the future to a more feature-rich model.
For the latest news and reviews, be sure to visit Photography Bay’s Sony A200 Reviews and Resources.
Last weekend, my wife asked me if I wanted to shoot her brother’s yearbook pictures. I said, “Sure,” without really knowing what to expect. She told me they would be less formal than a traditional high school’s yearbook photos because, in his home school group, it’s up to the parents to get the photos done and to the yearbook editors. “Something nice in the backyard,” she said. Upon my arrival, however, the in-laws wanted a more traditional/formal shot for the yearbook.
I don’t really have a great portrait setup, so my next question was, “Do you have a couple of shoeboxes?” [Read more…]
I enjoy seeing how camera makers choose market their products, even more so after Sony’s Foam City. To that end, enjoy Nikon’s new commercial above and check out the full details on the ad campaign from Nikon in the below press release.
If you want to get your hands on the Nikon COOLPIX cameras featured in the Ashton Kutcher commercial, you can go to the best-selling Nikon COOLPIX cameras at Amazon.com by clicking here: Nikon COOLPIX Digital Cameras
NEW YORK (March 25, 2008) – Hollywood’s A-list actor and producer, Ashton Kutcher, is lending his photogenic qualities to Nikon to promote the manufacturer’s new COOLPIX Style series cameras. The campaign will debut nationally on March 25th with a television commercial, which precedes the print advertisements and an interactive online component. Nikon selected Kutcher for the campaign to bring brand relevance to a broader and more youthful audience. Taking place in trendy locales such as boutique hotels and upscale shopping destinations, the campaign highlights the exquisite styling, fashionable colors, simplicity and great performance of Nikon’s Style series compact digital cameras.
“Ashton is the perfect choice for this campaign as he embodies both the stylish and fun attributes of Nikon’s COOLPIX Style series cameras,” said Lisa Baxt, senior communications manager for Nikon Inc. “Ashton’s collaborative spirit, creativity and approachable personality enhanced our campaign which showcases the great style, sleek colorful design and ease of use of Nikon’s newest COOLPIX Style series cameras.”
“I am thrilled to work with Nikon on this campaign,” said Kutcher. “I think technology today represents so much more than just function – it represents personal style and sophistication. I’m enjoying the opportunity to work with such a well respected brand and a group of highly creative individuals on a campaign that showcases the style, design and simplicity of the new COOLPIX cameras.”
The television campaign spots, directed by Emmy award winner Brian Buckley, have Kutcher’s COOLPIX camera being discretely taken and passed around by numerous adoring fans who take several pictures with it before slipping it back into Ashton’s pocket. Ashton then notices some surprising pictures when he reviews the photos on his camera’s LCD screen. The print campaign, shot by legendary photographer Norman Jean Roy, truly captures the sophisticated yet playful essence of Ashton and the aesthetics of the camera. Following the television and print advertisements, the campaign will come full circle with a uniquely engaging internet component, details of which will be revealed shortly.
Corel has announced the launch of the Painter Essentials Café (www.essentialscafe.com), a new online community open to all Corel Painter Essentials users. This global community site is the newest in a series that Corel is launching to support its many user communities. [Read more…]
Ruggedly crafted yet lightweight, the dark silver body of the 8.0 megapixel PowerShot A590 IS camera fits firmly and comfortably into a user’s hand. Featuring an impressive 4x (35mm-140mm equivalent) zoom lens, the PowerShot A590 IS model offers a richer feature set than other entry-level PowerShot cameras. [Read more…]
The camera you own has one main lens and produces a flat, two-dimensional photograph, whether you hold it in your hand or view it on your computer screen. On the other hand, a camera with two lenses (or two cameras placed apart from each other) can take more interesting 3-D photos.
But what if your digital camera saw the world through thousands of tiny lenses, each a miniature camera unto itself” You’d get a 2-D photo, but you’d also get something potentially more valuable: an electronic “depth map” containing the distance from the camera to every object in the picture, a kind of super 3-D.
Stanford electronics researchers, lead by electrical engineering Professor Abbas El Gamal, are developing such a camera, built around their “multi-aperture image sensor.” They’ve shrunk the pixels on the sensor to 0.7 microns, several times smaller than pixels in standard digital cameras. They’ve grouped the pixels in arrays of 256 pixels each, and they’re preparing to place a tiny lens atop each array.
I was killing some time in Best Buy tonight and decided to snap a few images on the Sony A200. I took a CF card with me (it’s always a good idea to keep one handy). I certainly wouldn’t recommend overspending on a new DSLR at Best Buy (and never buy accessories there); however, it’s great to get your hands on a new camera before you make your purchase.
The Sony A200 basically handles like the A350, except for the display panel, which doesn’t articulate or feature a Live View function. Otherwise, the A200 has the same dedicated ISO button, which makes switching ISOs a breeze. The A200 has an sensitivity range of ISO 100-3200. Below, I’ve included several samples that cover the entire ISO range. You may download these images at 100% for you personal use and inspection. EXIF is embedded within. If you would prefer a gallery view, which also has an EXIF viewer, go here.
100% Crop
