Canon Announce New Scanners

Canon have followed Epsons recent scanner announcement with 4 new releases of their own. The new models include the CanoScan 8600F, the LiDE 600F , the CanoScan 4400F and the LiDE 70. The new scanners offer new features and ease of use. The CanoScan 8600F and CanoScan 4400F feature built-in Film Adapter Unit and 3 of the scanner are pdf creation friendly.

Adobe updates digital photography documents

Adobe has updated several of its publicly available white papers and primers relating to digital photography. CS2 centric primers include: Digital Image Integrity, Black and White Conversion Tutorial, About Metadata, A Color Managed Raw Workflow, Making the Transition from Film to Digital, and Highlight Recovery in Adobe Camera Raw. Visit the following pages on Adobe Digital Imaging Solutions and Adobe digital photography white papers and primers to access the downloadable PDFs.

DPReview post Sony Alpha A100 Review

DPReview have just posted their 30 page review of Sony's New Alpha DSLR. As usual they've provided comprehensive coverage of what looks to be an excellent new entry to the DSLR world from Sony. Read the full review starting here.

Extensis Release Universal Binaries for Portfolio.

Extensis have released Universal Binaries of Portfolio, Portfolio Server , Portfolio Server and SQL Connect and Portfolio NetPublish that will run natively on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs. Version 8.1 of each Portfolio variant is available for download as a free update to v8.0. For those of you who aren't familiar with portfolio visit http://www.extensis.com/ to familiarise yourself with this excellent asset management solution.

BreezeBrowser Pro 1.5.1 for Windows Released

Breeze Systems has released an updated version of BreezeBrowser Pro for Windows. According to Breeze Systems, new features include:
Adobe XMP metadata support for JPEG, TIFF, PSD, DNG, PNG, JPEG 2000 and RAW files. The program creates a Photoshop-compatible XMP sidecar file to store the XMP information.
New IPTC scene and subject code editors which use the NewsCode XML topicsets.
A new keyword editor.
Improved colour in Nikon D200 RAW conversions.
An option to output either 8 bit or 16 bit Photoshop (PSD) format files when creating proofs or converting RAW files.
Updated lens distortion correction.
The ability to display a frame around a picture in proofs and slideshows. The frame and matte can be chosen from a selection of included ones, or you can create your own.
For more information, pricing and to download the update, visit Breeze Systems.

Epson Announce 2 New Slimline Scanners

Epson have announced the new Perfection V350 Photo and Epson Perfection V100 Photo scanners, both of which are aimed at consumers and feature a new slimline design suited for either portrait or landscape orientation. The lid on these models can be opened up to 180 degrees and is well suited to facilitating the scanning of three-dimensional objects, as well as oversized objects, photos and documents. These scanners offer hardware resolutions up to 4800 x 9600 dpi on the Perfection V350 Photo and up to 3200x 9600 dpi on the Perfection V100 Photo. Both units support 48-bit color scanning and feature a 3.2 dynamic range for high quality scans. The bundled Epson Easy Photo Fix software allows for automatic color restoration and dust removal, providing a complete solution for the consumer. I look forward to reading the reviews. For more information, please visit Epson.

Adobe Release Lightroom Public Beta 3 for Windows

I, like many of you no doubt, have just received a notification from Adobe, indicating that they have released a public Beta of Lightroom for Windows. Visit the Adobe® Lightroom™ beta* Site to download the beta today.

Nikon Release Trial Version of Capture NX

Nikon announced the immediate availability of a trial version of its new image workflow, editing and conversion application, Capture NX. Capture NX is the result of a collaboration between Nik software and Nikon, and should be welcome news for many Nikon owners who have wanted better Nikon raw, NEF, conversion software. Capture NX will available for $149.95 for the full package or $89.95 as an upgrade to registered owners of Nikon capture 4. There is a 30-day trial available for download at http://www.nikonusa.com. An online demo of how Capture NX works is available at http://www.capturenx.com/ or http://www.nikondigital.com/.

Fujifilm unveil new cameras and Logo.

Fujifilm debuts its Face Detection technology in the FinePix S6500fd. The Camera should be available here in the Uk from October onwards and will feature a 10.7x optical zoom lens, TV-quality VGA movie recording at 30 frames per second with sound, Jpeg and RAW file formats, Super CCD HR VI sensor delivering 6 megapixel images and PictBridge™ support.

The second camera which Fujifilm annnounced is the FinePix F20 which shares many of the features the FinePix F30. Its compact design features a 6.3 MegaPixel Super CCD HR sensor and a 2.5-inch LCD display. Another excellent feature a Picture Stabilization feature in the form of a button that boosts ISO sensitivity to as high as 2000 at full resolution. For more info on these cameras visit these FinePix S6500fd, and FinePix F20 pages on the Fujifilm website.


They also unveiled a new Logo which can be seen just above, and which should come into use sometime in October.

Catherine Leroy Dies

French Born Catherine Leroy, has passed away from Cancer at the age of 60. As a photojournalist she is famous for her work during the Vietnam War. Her work often appearing in the pages of Life magazine and other publications.

At the age of 21 she bought a one-way ticket to Saigon and began to record the life of American troops in Vietnam, becoming the only accredited journalist to actually participate in a combat parachute jump when she joined the 173rd Airborne in Operation Junction City.

Leroy was even captured by the NVA during the Tet Offensive, after talking her way out, she left with images of the NVA in action that were used for a Life magazine cover. Jonathan Randal, a longtime Washington Post correspondent who met Leroy in late 1965 said "She was tiny and totally fearless," To see examples of Catherine Leroys work visit Piece Unique Gallery.

Tabblo - Photos, Stories and Printing

I came across a new photo sharing community today - Tabblo, which is no doubt derived from Tableau, which means; "A vivid or graphic description". It looks pretty cool and is definitely aimed at the consumer who wants to tell a story with their pictures. In their own words "What is Tabblo? Your photos. Your words. Put them together with Tabblo and tell your story." It is based a round a template driven interface which allows you to upload your photos, add your own text and then select a tempate for your personal portal, which by the way you can share and even customize. There is even a facility for creating prints and posters of your photos. Visit Tabblo and take a tour.

Nikon Exceeds dSLR Sales Estimates

Nikon's digital SLR sales have exceeded what they projected for April and May 2006. Nikon has said that production is running at full capacity to meet demand for the D50, D70s and D200. With new models expected from Sony and Pentax it should be interesting to see how the dSLR market progresses.

Nikon post trial version of Camera Control Pro

Nikon Europe and USA have posted 30-day trial versions of Camera Control Pro for Windows and Mac OS. Camera Control Pro is Nikon's new standalone application for both tethered and wireless remote operation of Nikon cameras. Visit the Nikon USA site for the Windows and Mac versions and these pages on the European site for the Windows and Mac versions.

Nikon posts notice of lack of D2Xs NEF support

The Nikon Europe tech support website has posted a notice which explains that NEF (RAW) files from the D2Xs, which has just hit the market, are not supported by any Nikon software except PictureProject. Even Nikon Capture 4.4 does not support NEF files from the D2Xs and it appears from the statement that it will not be updated to do so. Capture NX, will support D2Xs NEF files, but the release of NX is delayed. It begs to wonder, how the hell do Nikon think they can appease current users of the D2Xs ... get it together guys.

Canon Firmware updates for 5D and 1D MKII N

Canon have released two firmware upgrades for their EOS digital SLR cameras. The updates are the EOS 1D Mk II N firmware 1.1.0 which enhances the direct printing function in combination with the PIXMA Pro 9000 or PIXMA Pro 9500 professional photo printers.
The EOS 5D firmware 1.1.0 includes the enhancement of direct printing with specific printers and corrects communication errors which occurred when shooting with EOS 5D and EOS Capture software after shooting about 138 shots. It also corrects an error in which the flash mode settings are changed from E-TTL to Manual when the EOS 5D is used in combination with the Speedlite Transmitter ST-E2 and the Speedlite 580EX.

Samsung announce NV10 and NV7 Digital Cameras

Both the NV10 and NV7 offer slimline styling with advanced features. The NV10 offers a 10-megapixel sensor with anti shake technology and features an innovative touch pad GUI. It has a sleek, brushed black aluminum body and compact design. Measuring under an inch in thickness, it includes a Schneider 3x optical zoom lens (35-105mm equivalent), a 5x digital zoom and a large, 2.5-inch color LCD display. It is also video capable and can record in VGA (640x480) at 30fps.

The NV7 is a seven-megapixel slimline model which uses Optical Picture Stabilisation "which physically adjusts the CCD to combat handshake and Samsung's Advanced Shake Reduction (ASR)" and it also features a 7x Optical zoom. It too, can record in VGA (640x480) at 30fps. Both cameras will be available to the consumer market in the autumn of 2006.

Canto Releases Cumulus 7

Canto have announced the release of Cumulus 7, an upgrade to their powerful Digital Asset Management solution. Canto has promised that the new features offer "increased asset control, faster production, and more efficient collaboration, improving the business of organizations that have made asset management an integral part of their marketing and communication processes."

Updates also include improvements to the database engine and include server enhancements such as the introduction of mirroring and permanent cacheing. Cumulus 7 Server and Client software are also available as Universal Binary applications on Mactel computers. Having worked with Cumulus Solutions in the past I look forward to seeing how they've improved it's performance and functionality. For more information on Cumulus 7 please visit Canto.

Intuos3 A5 Wide / 6x11 Graphics Tablet

Reviewed by: Mario Georgiou, July 2006
Manufactured by: Wacom Europe, Wacom USA
Requires: For PC—Windows 98SE/ME/2000 and XP; for Apple—MacOS X 10.2.6 or later; all platforms require a CD-ROM drive and available active USB port
MSRP: US$369.95, UK £297.00, EUR429,00

(Ed. Note: Digital Imaging & Graphics Products Editor Mario Georgiou is based in London, England, so from time to time we review the UK/European versions of some products. This Wacom tablet is marketed in North America as the Intuos3 6x11 model).
For many designers and artists, the advent of the graphics tablet provided an almost natural way for them to work with computers. Tablets were wonderful until recently, when wide aspect/wide screen monitors came along. Using a wide screen monitors with any of the standard tablets has proven to be a real pain and seeing that more and more designers are using wide aspect monitors or even multiple monitors for work, it seems that it would be only natural for someone to address the problem.

Along comes Wacom, who have been in the graphics tablet business for a long time, and who are wonderfully innovative in their product design. The announcement of the Intuos A5 Wide met with a lot of interest amongst my creative colleagues. I heard "Wow", "Cool" and "It's about time" repeated quite often. Before I tell you about my experiences, let me first state that I've never really been comfortable with graphics tablets. I'm still not entirely convinced that they're as intuitive as drawing on paper. The basic idea of looking at a vertically oriented monitor and drawing on a separate horizontally oriented graphics tablet surface annoys me (although not as much as trying to do the same thing with a mouse).

So how does the Intuos3 A5 Wide stack up? First, it is big—about twice the size I expected—so having one of those wide aspect monitors with space under it is going to be a necessity. Next, it's really well designed and put together. I love the new stylus design too. Last but not least, it’s really easy to set up and use. My installation took less than a couple of minutes as all the drivers were provided on CD and the USB interface made it a painless exercise.

The Intuos3 A5 Wide is bundled with Corel Painter Essentials, which is a super-light version of Painter. I didn't bother installing it as I have Photoshop CS2 and Painter IX.5 which both work extremely well with the unit.

It took a few sessions to get to grips with the tablet and familiar with its usage and learning how to work with the Custom ExpressKeys and Touch Strip. I decided that using the tablet would have been even better had I also received the excellent Intuos3 Mouse for review. The mouse is in fact included with the standard A5 model and I strongly suggest to Wacom that future A5 Wide packages should also include a mouse.

The working area of the tablet is approximately 6" x 11" (15cm x 28cm), which makes it the perfect size for drawing and mousing around. The whole experience of using this tablet and the pen is something that any creative will appreciate. It is as close as you can get to a natural interface without spending thousands on one of its bigger brothers such as a Cintiq. Support for this excellent product is also good, with updated drivers, FAQs and help available via phone, email and online forums.

The Use It section on the Wacom web site features some great online demos, tips, techniques (which are well worth investigating) and downloads which cover usage and ergonomics. Apropos of nothing at all, I wonder if Wacom is going to partner its technology with one of the Tablet PC makers?

In the UK and the rest of Europe, Wacom has doubled the product support period via the commercial Intuos3 CarePack. This means you can obtain a total of four years of support and warranty coverage if you purchase the Intuos3 CarePack. The additional two years of coverage costs a total of UK£64.99/€499,99 and it's well worth the investment if you are a professional user. Unfortunately, the CarePack does not appear to be available in North America.

Cons: Still not as natural as using a sketchbook. No mouse provided.

Pros: Easy to set up and use. Excellent Custom ExpressKeys feature. Support for multiple operating systems. Superb design and finish. As any good creative will tell you, the tool is only as good as the talent. This tablet more than fills a hole in the market which needed to be addressed. The attention to detail which Wacom has put into this product is evident in every part and in the smooth and effortless functionality. I really enjoyed using the A5 Wide. Experiencing the Intuos3 A5 Wide has been exciting and now I can't wait to get my hands on a Wacom Cintiq interactive pen display for review. I highly recommend the Wacom Intuos3 6x11/A5 Wide for any creative who prefers a pen to a mouse.

This review has been reproduced in its entirety from Kickstartnews.com