It’s one we find ourselves using everyday. And it’s an energy savor. Looks cool, too.
From Visible G, it’s cable to charge your iPhone, iPad, etc.
It’s a simple, great, product. What more could you ask for?
Charges your iPad showing you visually the charging process, the shut off the current when it’s charged.

ummm…get one. For $20. it’s a darn good deal.
the Dexim Visible Green Smart Charge & Sync Cable for iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad (White/Blue)

It was tethered to its perch at the Fuji booth, just waiting for the eager hands to explore it.
The rumor mills had been heating up for months, as photographers clamored for a professional digital viewfinder with interchangeable lenses.
The Fuji X-Pro1.
Perhaps as an alternative to the Leica M9, which ,while at the top of the food chain in cost, seemed to disappoint many of the users.

Is this camera that a lot of people have been searching for?
To be able to street shoot with the discretion of a rangefinder, and the lens quality you want, is a tall order.

The choice between using the optical viewfinder or the electronic, is a huge one as the, um, seasoned photographers will love the looser framing of the optical choice. We have tried electronic viewfinders with mixed emotions. Depending on the focus systems, the electronics may do a slight contrast seeking shift while finding the focus.
We did not have the opportunity to work hard with this camera yet.
Coming to market at the end of February at about $1700, it will launch with 3 lenses, mimicing a 27-, 53-, and 91-mm field of view.
Coming later than that will be adaptors for other lenses, such as Leica. Shocker.
16MP sensor APS-C sensor, should give you the files size you are looking for

In addition, one of the digital features is the ability to process the files internally to simulate 10 film stocks from the Fuji line. 5 of them are for the Fuji line of Black and White film stocks. And you can change your mind after you have done it.

In the new mirrorless competition, this comes in as one of the larger, heavier, cameras but with that weight (15.9 ounces w/o lens) comes high quality and the most asked for features.
The Fuji X100 had the promise and seemed retro, but the price point for a fixed lens camera didn’t make sense.

This Fuji X-Pro1 does.

(some images in this article are presented in 3D. If you have Red/Blue anaglyph glasses, please have them ready)

Since the beginning, the human condition has been the focus of the Annenberg Space for Photography.

And whether you knew it or not, even if the images exhibited were shot on film or not, there was digital photographic technology at work in some step of the process.
But you knew that, right?
In their latest offering, “The Digital Darkroom” they have fully embraced the detailed technical side of the art, and present some of the current and classic photographic artists who explore the human condition using many of the tools available in the digital realm.

Digital Darkroom – at The Annenberg Space for Photography from Annenberg Space for Photography on Vimeo.

Like any tool, in the heavy handed artisan the results are often obvious, clunky, and show off technique more than emotional impact.
The artists chosen here, have stories to tell and experiences to share, which may challenge your general perception of the still image.

From photographers like Jerry Uelsmann, who has for decades before photoshop, been compositing black and white photographs in a wet darkroom and is probably the acknowledged master,

©Jerry Uelsmann

to the hyperphotos of Jean-Fancois Rauzier, bringing thousands of images into a single hyper real frame, the show has a broad range of appeal.

©Jean-Fancois Rauzier

We happen to have a particular interest in 3D, and there is a 15 min. video playing continually, in 3D, that speaks to the history and present day uses of the technique.
get ready to use your 3D glasses now:

Read the rest of this entry »

“You spin me right round, baby Right round, like a record, baby Right round, round, round”
and so on.
We are now seeing some pretty cool panoramic tools come into the marketplace, where, instead of shooting multiple images, and stitching, you take one and done.
Those are mainly video though, like the Dot by Kogeto, and the GoPano Micro, both fit on an iPhone and create 360º videos.

While quite cool, the quality still has a way to go in that simplified format.

Coming soon into the marketplace is the Tamaggo.
This is one product we couldn’t wait to see at CES 2012.

The egg shaped design fits beautifully in the hand, and the feature set is fairly robust in a small package.
Have a look at this video walkthrough:

With 14 MP, blue tooth uploads to Facebook, and many pro features on the drawing board, I can’t imagine every photographer NOT having one in their bag.

The expected price point is right, the sharing capabilities are exactly what everyone is looking for.
As camera manufacturers scramble to get their sharing technology ahead of the smart phone shooting and sharing features, we feel that this unique product will have a special niche in not only social media sharing, but in working pros repertoires.
With a high MP count, imagine a group photo with everyone tagged and made in one shot?
Plus a print can be pulled from the same file, either full or in part, in a cool panoramic format.
They will have apps available for iPhone and Android, of course, so you can upload easily.

The team behind this camera have many more products in the pipe including some incredible business communication tools, using video 360º technology. Smart folks.

We look forward to putting the production unit through it’s paces, and reporting back to you.

After days of walking the multiple football field sized halls of the Vegas Convention Center, we were amazed, bored, schmoozed, and honestly delighted at the enormity of it all.
Seems we walked about 4-5 miles a day, (yep, all tracked with a FitBit tracker) and along with scheduled meetings, stopped at what caught our eyes.
The big news overall?
Thinner 2K-4K TVs, health tech, a 16 MP camera in an HTC Windows phone, and Wi-FI Enabled cameras, vid and still, and sound-earbuds, airplay speakers, and blue tooth headsets
So…..
The TV’s were great but not here yet, and very expensive. For now.

Let’s get to the cameras first:

From Nikon, Inc.:
Toshiaki Akagi, General Manager, 1st Designing Dept., Development Headquarters, Imaging Company
Kenji Suzuki, Technical and Engineering Liason

There were stars of the show – The Nikon D4, just announced as the new flagship of the line, was in high demand at their booth, as folks got their first hands on with this beauty,
Their is a video coming with a walk through of the features. It was also our honor to interview the team from Nikon Japan responsible for this gem.

Canon moved forward in the G-series, with the new GX-bigger sensor, Digic 5, and more MP to go with that bigger sensor. One thing we found a little off though was the viewfinder. Sure, most folks prefer to look at the beautiful, big LCD screen, but many old school shooters prefer a viewfinder. Like the big boy DSLRS, or rangefinders.
This unit has a strange lens blockage when lens is at widest. I was told that the full view is available when you zoom out. Really? About $800.

On the other side of the Canon coin, was their series of wi-fi enabled hd vid cams, which worked like magic.
the HF-M series of Vixia video cams:

“Share: When connected to a Wi-Fi network, videos can be uploaded directly to YouTube or Facebook. When on the go, use an iPhone or iPad and free Movie Uploader app to connect a VIXIA camcorder to a cellular network to enable video uploads.

Watch and Store: Select 2012 VIXIA camcorders allow users to wirelessly transmit videos to a PC for storage, an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch through a free Movie Uploader app enabling quick storage on these mobile devices, or on-the-spot playback for friends and family. Users can also enjoy wirelessly viewing on a DLNA-compatible HDTV or through other DLNA-compatible devices such a game console.

We saw first hand the full operation and can’t wait to put it to use. Better than any iPhone.

You see, many companies have been trying to do wi-fi well, and there wasn’t enough of a demand, or the technology wasn’t wasn’t there or some other reason.
Then Facebook happened and Youtube before that. Smart phones took over as the tool of Choice to share your life with the world.
Look like we’re about to see a change with higher quality the outcome.

Even Sony upgraded their Flip Video competitor, Bloggie, to wi-fi with LIVE STREAMING capabilities. Cost about $199.

Samsung had their entries as well, and we can’t wait to test them all.

One thing you should know, is that the way they all do it is to first upload to a proprietary website, then you can access the files, and post wherever.

Is there a downside? Hmmm… you may want to make sure you have an excellent wi-fi connection, and edit as you shoot. Once we get one of these in our hands, we think we have a workflow that will work, that we’ll share.

Then the camera that had all of the fanboys crazed, was the Fuji Pro-X1 (wow, everyone likes “X” in the name these days).

Rangefinder, 16MP, APS-C sensor, and a handful. Meaning, it’s not lightweight, but fits great in the hands. MSRP at about $1800.

We saw some great products for one of our fave new interests: panoramic VR’s.
This camera, called the Tamaggo may change the way you see things. Could be introduced for between $150-$200.

Ok, that’s top line, just on cameras.
More to come, and detailed video walkthroughs on the Nikon D4, Fuji Prox-1, and the Tamaggo.

Remember to check out our Facebook page and Twitter feed, as we were posting as we went along.

Let’s call this post Part 1.
next up: sound, special lenses, and general tools to make you image making life better.

Oh, yes, we know that it was called PMA@CES, but unfortunately, with the massive amounts of gear to see at the main convention halls, getting crosstown to another hotel just wasn’t going to happen.
We felt bad not seeing a lot of our manufacturer friends in the photo biz, but the venue wasn’t right in our opinion. PMA having it’s own time in past years, made sense. With the economic conditions, everyone is looking to cut down the trips. This made sense on paper or the PMA combo with CES, however in practice, the physical logistics were a nightmare.

We use this program every day. It is a part of our photographic life. Almost the first stop.

So what’s coming?
Well……..

*Map tab: Drag and drop geotaggging with maps
and privacy settings when you want to keep the location deet secure

*New Video workflow: it won’t just file it, you can now work with the files in the system many of you are used to. Edit trimming feature AND Color correction in video

*For the bookmakers:Book tab is new with Auto layout,Drag and drop simple, great layouts and it all goes into Blurb.

*Stronger develop module :Clarity without haloing

*improved and selective local noise reduction

*You can correct for mixed lighting ( Daylight in shot, with fluorescents by desk, for instance)

*Better lens correction tools with more lenses in the database.

*For printing :soft proofing and gamma proofing

Lot’s more and the Beta version will now be available for download.
The great thing about the Adobe folks is that they put programs out to the public, and crowd source the testing and debugging before the final package product hits the market.

Here’s the free beta download link

And if you do download the beta program, let them know what you think. We will.