Sony Global Ambassadors programme

A new global initiative sees Sony working closely with some of the world’s top photographers and industry leaders to celebrate the beauty of photography. Inaugural participants in the Global Imaging Ambassadors programme include William Klein and photographers from the leading international photo agency, Panos Pictures.

Through the Global Imaging Ambassadors programme Sony will work closely with a range of photographers with diverse styles from across the globe. The symbiotic partnership will see Sony lending its technical expertise and ground-breaking products, whilst benefiting from participating photographers’ exceptional imagery, professional feedback and brand support.

In addition Sony will work with each photographer to create a bespoke image using Sony’s high-end line of photographic equipment. These commissions will include unique shots of respected photographer William Klein’s return to New York, where this past summer – 60 years following his seminal work, Life is Good and Good for you in New York – he documented Brooklyn, a city he refers to as ‘the America of tomorrow’.

Of the programme, Klein says, “Brooklyn for me, a Manhattanite, has always been a mystery. This year, it became a photographic discovery. With the Sony a99, photography has been a pleasure. The camera has been a partner, rather than a burden. And the quality of the photos have proven to be an unexpected revelation.”

A portion of “Brooklyn, by William Klein”, along with an exclusive behind the scenes film, can be seen on the new ambassador website. Additionally, a major retrospective of Klein’s legendary work is now on display at the FOAM museum in Amsterdam. The showcase of over 200 pieces of Klein’s work spans six decades and includes ten photographs from this latest Brooklyn project.

William Klein show

Panos Pictures brings to the programme a wealth of established and award-winning photographers, including Zackary Canepari, Espen Rasmussen, Sanjit Das and George Georgiou. Over the past five months, these photographers have been using Sony’s RX1/R and a7 cameras to produce their projects in places such as Malaysia, Norway, Turkey and the USA. Adrian Evans, Director of Panos Pictures says, “Panos Pictures photographers always strive to be unique and creative in their approach to visual story telling and journalism. Our relationship with Sony gives our photographers access to Sony’s latest technological innovations, and support for photographers long term projects in an industry that is rapidly changing.” Additional photographers, including Bolivian based Karla Gachet, will be added to the programme in 2014. All current projects can be found on the ambassador website.

Yoshiyuki Nogami, Senior General Manager, Marketing Division, DI Business Group, Sony commented: “The Global Ambassadors Programme is an extremely exciting project that allows Sony to lend its technical expertise to some of the world’s leading photographers to enable them to bring their creative visions to life. From Sony’s perspective, we are able to gather valuable feedback about what photographers want from their equipment which will shape our new product development and help us move towards our goal of providing the best digital imaging products available in the market.”

Running the programme on Sony’s behalf is the World Photography Organisation (WPO), an international organisation providing various platforms and programmes for photographers of all levels and disciplines, along with educational and cultural programmes for the public. Sony has a long-standing partnership with WPO through their sponsorship of the annual World Photography Awards.

DxO for Mac and Alpha 230-380 – plus discount deal

December 2, 2009 – DxO Labs is pleased to announce the immediate availability of DxO Optics Pro v5.3.6 for Mac bringing full compatibility with Apple’s latest operating system Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard, and adding RAW support for 15 new cameras:

Canon EOS 7D and PowerShot G11;
Nikon D300s and D3000;
Olympus E3 (Elite edition only), E-30, E-410, E-420, E-450, E-510, E-520 and E-620;
Sony A230, A330 and A380.
This new version for Mac also offers support for 255 new DxO Optics Modules, covering 46 cameras.
Availability and holiday season price
DxO Optics Pro v5.3.6 for Mac, both Standard and Elite editions, are immediately available from both DxO Labs’ e-store and selected resellers at an exceptional 30% discount until December 31, 2009:
Standard edition: £ 69 instead of £ 99 (or a savings of £ 30)
Elite edition: £ 139 instead of £ 199 (or a savings of £ 60)
DxO Optics Pro 6 for Mac is scheduled for release during the first quarter of 2010 and will be available as a free upgrade to customers who purchased version 5 after June 1, 2009.
www.dxo.com

Lightroom 2 tackles all Alpha RAWs

The latest release of Adobe Lightroom, v2, handles all Sony Alpha and earlier KM digital camera raw formats including the Alpha 700, 200, 300 and 350. It is also updated, along with the final release of Adobe Camera Raw 4.5, to handle Nikon D700. Because Canon appears to have left their filetype identical to the A400, their new 1000D was recognised immediately by ACR even in 4.5 beta version. Continue reading »