Category: News

50,000 megapixel camera

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DURHAM, N.C. — By synchronizing 98 tiny cameras in a single device, electrical engineers from Duke University and the University of Arizona have developed a prototype camera that can create images with unprecedented detail.

The camera’s resolution is five times better than 20/20 human vision over a 120 degree horizontal field.

The new camera has the potential to capture up to 50 gigapixels of data, which is 50,000 megapixels. By comparison, most consumer cameras are capable of taking photographs with sizes ranging from 8 to 40 megapixels. Pixels are individual “dots” of data – the higher the number of pixels, the better resolution of the image.

The researchers believe that within five years, as the electronic components of the cameras become miniaturized and more efficient, the next generation of gigapixel cameras should be available to the general public.

Details of the new camera were published online in the journal Nature. The team’s research was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The camera was developed by a team led by David Brady, Michael J. Fitzpatrick Professor of Electric Engineering at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, along with scientists from the University of Arizona, the University of California – San Diego, and Distant Focus Corp.

“Each one of the microcameras captures information from a specific area of the field of view,” Brady said. “A computer processor essentially stitches all this information into a single highly detailed image. In many instances, the camera can capture images of things that photographers cannot see themselves but can then detect when the image is viewed later.”

“The development of high-performance and low-cost microcamera optics and components has been the main challenge in our efforts to develop gigapixel cameras,” Brady said. “While novel multiscale lens designs are essential, the primary barrier to ubiquitous high-pixel imaging turns out to be lower power and more compact integrated circuits, not the optics.”

The software that combines the input from the microcameras was developed by an Arizona team led by Michael Gehm, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Arizona.

“Traditionally, one way of making better optics has been to add more glass elements, which increases complexity,” Gehm said. “This isn’t a problem just for imaging experts. Supercomputers face the same problem, with their ever more complicated processors, but at some point the complexity just saturates, and becomes cost-prohibitive.”

“Our current approach, instead of making increasingly complex optics, is to come up with a massively parallel array of electronic elements,” Gehm said. “A shared objective lens gathers light and routes it to the microcameras that surround it, just like a network computer hands out pieces to the individual work stations. Each gets a different view and works on their little piece of the problem. We arrange for some overlap, so we don’t miss anything.”

The prototype camera itself is two-and-half feet square and 20 inches deep. Interestingly, only about three percent of the camera is made of the optical elements, while the rest is made of the electronics and processors needed to assemble all the information gathered. Obviously, the researchers said, this is the area where additional work to miniaturize the electronics and increase their processing ability will make the camera more practical for everyday photographers.

“The camera is so large now because of the electronic control boards and the need to add components to keep it from overheating,” Brady said, “As more efficient and compact electronics are developed, the age of hand-held gigapixel photography should follow.”

Co-authors of the Nature report with Brady and Gehm include Steve Feller, Daniel Marks, and David Kittle from Duke; Dathon Golish and Estabon Vera from Arizona; and Ron Stack from Distance Focus.

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News

Mixed up market – specced up compacts, dumbed down DSLRs

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Canon has pulled off another change in the direction of DSLR development with the EOS 650D, but in the process seem to have accepted a blurring of the boundaries between consumer cameras and enthusiast gear. Sony has finally bowed to pressure and put raw image processing back into a compact, using a larger than normal sensor, doing the same in reverse.

To explain, neither of these cameras belong within Photoclubalpha – we don’t usually report on Sony Cyber-shot compacts, equally rarely on Canon’s latest competitor to the A57. But these two cameras are waymarkers. They show us where two strands of development are heading, and how they are converging.

Canon EOS 650D

650D with new 18-135mm STM lens, required stepper-motor technology for off-sensor video auto focus

The new points about the 650D (also known as the EOS Rebel T4i for that least rebellious of areas, the USA) are simple enough. It’s yet another 18 megapixel APS-C model in the series 500/550/600 rather than the more professional 50/60/7 body form. Maximum frame rate is 5fps. It has full 1080p HD, but only at 30fps maximum (720/60p) with a 5.5MB/sec data rate. Unlike previous models, this one can focus during video shooting, and may well do it better than a NEX.

It has a conventional 9-cross point phase detect AF module much improved over earlier versions, included a central double-cross f/2.8 sensitive point. When shooting video, hybrid AF combines normal wide area contrast-detection with a similar centrally located phase-detect pixel arrangement that offers much faster locking on before the CD takes over to fine tune and track moving subjects or faces.

No visible signs on the CMOS – but that sensor had a phase-detect central zone

So there are two AF systems, one of which remains live for video. To work properly it needs a new type of lens motor, called STM. This stepping motor appears to be not unlike the NEX system lenses, offering the necessary control for AF during video with silent action. Just two lenses initially have it, a pancake EF 40mm f/2.8 STM and a general purpose stabilised EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM. If you know your Canon system terminology, you’ll spot that the 40mm is compatible with full frame DSLRs it’s not just an odd 64mm equivalent for the APS-C models.

With other lenses, the implication from Canon is that AF during movie shooting will not work. That includes the cheapest kit option, the 18-55mm. No matter what type of USM or micromotor AF drive. If you want video with AF, you need the new STM lenses.

The Canon phase-detect on sensor is purely a central patch, not an overall function like Nikon’s 1 system 71-point PD. But, like consumer cameras, Canon adds touch screen functions to the 650D. This is a response to consumer demand. You can still operate the camera with the rear screen completely reversed. I have to admit that the first thing I did with the NEX-5n was to disable the touch screen function, and never use it.

For a Canon, the 650D has a surprisingly limited battery range, as low as 180 shots per charge if live view, flash and image review functions are used in their worst-case scenario.

The Sony Cyber-shot RX100

A neat metal bodied almost Samsung-like compact, the RX100 has an 8.8 x 13.2mm sensor, the 1/1 or one-inch ‘1’ format already used by Nikon. It offers a stabilised Carl Zeiss 28-100mm equivalent lens which is very fast (f/1.8 at the wide end, f/4.9 tele) and may be of enthusiast-pro quality, and a 3″ rear screen where daylight viewing brightness is enhanced using white pixels as well as RGB.

The RX100 offers full HD movies at 28M bitrate – 1080/60p equal to NEX and Alpha. It also seems to get reasonable life from a small battery, 330 shots or 165 minutes of movie, and to have a decent 2.5fps conventional fps plus the popular Sony 10fps speed piority mode.

For most of us, the really big news is that for the first time since classic bridge camera models like the F-828 Sony has decided to provide raw image capture in a pocketable compact. No doubt the success of the Fuji X10, Canon G1X and others has been observed. It is fair to say that Sony could have put raw capture into far more compacts – they all have it hidden away away, an ability carefully locked out by firmware.

To date, we have felt that Sony wanted to protect the NEX and Alpha markets at any cost by omitting raw even from the best Cyber-shot models. The RX100 changes this perception. It leaves the expensive semi-pro hybrid video and still camera, the NEX VG-10, looking a bit sad with its JPEG-only still capture. After all, if compact owners do indeed want raw, surely VG-10 owners would be expected to want no less?

And that sensor is 20 megapixels. It’s twice the pixel count of the Nikon 1. There was a time something like happened in the past. Nikon made a camera called the D1 (then D1X) which had a 5-megapixel sensor, and then a sort of firmware and processing fix to make it halfway like a 10 megapixel sensor. It was revealed that the ‘rectangular pixels’ of the D1 were actually two pixels in a strip. When a different RGB topping and readout was applied to the same exact silicon, it became the Sony 10 megapixel sensor we saw in the Alpha 100 (and the Nikon D200). Nothing like that could possibly have happened with a Sony 20 megapixel sensor to make a Nikon 10 megapixel sensor, even though they both share the same unusual 8.8 x 13.2mm size.

And even though Nikon uses a whole stack of pixels on that sensor to perform phase-detection AF without any apparent loss of those pixels to the image – spread out over 71 points across the entire frame too. There’s no way, is there, they could ever have based that 10 megapixel PD-AF capable sensor on a Sony 20 megapixel original.

– David Kilpatrick

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Cameras (DSLR), News

What the buyer wants – NEX-F3, Alpha 37 and more

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SONY is sometimes accused of not listening to the Alpha or NEX owner when it comes to what features they include in new cameras, and what modifications they offer through firmware to existing owners. There are two points of view on firmware; some criticise updates, saying the product should have been released with the right stuff inside on Day 1 while other praise those makers who issue frequent and valuable firmware revisions because they ‘supporting the product’.

My view is the latter; if I own a camera, I really don’t care much what bells and whistles are added to its successor in hardware as I know the only way to get those is to buy the new model. But I do value firmware updates and I know that far more could be done to keep the firmware of older models in top condition. I guess they would have to issue a new camera manual and don’t want to improve the user interface or add functions not included in the original!

Sony does listen, but it listens harder to new potential buyers than to existing owners. It listens to the untapped market, to the people who buy someone else’s camera instead of Sony. After all, it’s already got the existing owners. It only needs to listen to them as far as the next camera upgrade goes for the proportion who will be likely to change frequently.

The new NEX-F3 is a perfect instance of listen to the unconverted market. They want an LCD which aims forward so they can film themselves; amateurs only get one take for their home porn movies and can be very disappointed to find they’ve cut the important bits off. I am, of course, talking about guitar porn, cookery porn, motorcycle porn and not the other kind…so Sony has made the LCD flip over the top.

They have in addition made this entry-level NEX 3 model use the latest 16.1 megapixel sensor, generally agreed to be the most versatile all-round sensor on the market, and accept the accessory FDA-EV1S EVF which doubles Sony profits on any camera sold, should be buyer decide later they want an eye-level electronic finder. The battery life has been extended by 18% to 470 shots per charge, and if you buy the higher capacity 1300mAh Japanese made third party cells in place of the Sony 1080mAh ones which cost six times as much, you win twice. Except that I’ll bet the NEX-F3 adds another layer of battery compatibility protection, just like the 5N and 7 did. The third party cell makers had to update their stuff fast and warn buyers that they needed a compatible type, people owning older clone cells found they didn’t work in the new cameras.

Since this camera is the first NEX (or any Sony Alpha/NEX) to offer in-camera USB connection recharging, the odds are not just high that clone cells won’t work. It’s what bookies call a dead cert. Being able to use your iPhone charger (just a different cable) or similar USB mains-plug or in-car 5v adaptor cuts down on all the rubbish we have to carry when travelling.

To keep the distinction between entry level 3 and better 5 to 7 models clear, Sony has restrained the video to 50/60i with final 25p (European) or 24p (US) output. The better models offer full 50/60p as their top quality. But Clear Image Zoom is included, which does a pretty good job for the everyday user of providing a 2X electronic converter with acceptable full resolution sharpness. There’s no microphone input and some new software which sounds horrible is bundled – PlayMemories Home. Sony, just because you got to use words like Play, Walk, Memories, Man, Stick, Station and so on in various products does not mean they have to be repeated in child-like product names for all eternity!

Sony has added the pop-up flash from the NEX-7 to the F3. Is this a good idea? I predict some deeply disappointed flashers.

It rises just so high above the camera, and it’s not absolutely identical to the 7; the position appears comparable. The new F3 will be sold with the usual single or twin kit lenses I’m sure, and not so often with the latest 18-200mm LE (lite version E?) zoom which has been launched at the same time. This lens is a direct counterpart to the Tamron 18-200mm VC III f/3.5-6.3 which I’ve been used since early March. Though Sony has stated that the OSS (VC) is not as efficient as the more expensive Sony SEL 18-200mm, my findings using the Tamron are that it’s modified to be very smooth during video as has the AF action, which is less volatile than other SEL lenses.

Now I’m sure this lens will be very popular – the Tamron version is sharp and quite beautifully finished, with Sony’s rubberette dust attractor grip absent and a slick metal barrel skin with broad easily cleaned rubber ribs doing the zoom and focus work instead. Tamron’s £499 lens looks like £699 where Sony’s £699 will look like £299 after you have handled it with bare skin for a few minutes. Sony should issue silk gloves with all their lenses.

But here is the downside of choosing such a lens as your kit zoom for the NEX-7 and presumably for the F3. The pop-up flash just doesn’t clear the lens well enough and to use flash with the 18-200mm you must buy the accessory FVL-F20S flash which lifts the light source high enough the camera to avoid what you witness below.

You may also be unimpressed by the uncorrected complex barrel distortion of the 18-200mm Tamron at close range, demonstrated here by photographing an A2 printout of an Adobe lens correction target. Actually, the Tamron profile included in the latest Adobe Camera Raw does a nearly perfect job of straightening up this lens at average scenic distances. This profile should also work with the new Sony lens. What’s good about the Tamron is that its lens identity is recognised by ACR and the correct profile auto-selected.

What you are looking at above is the shadow of the lens, at 18mm, with the lens hood removed and the NEX-7 internal flash used. It is possible the NEX-F3 will be a very small amount better than this.

Here is what happens if you carelessly leave the lens hood on! An A2 target is much the same size as a two-face close-up wide angle portrait, or a typical pet shot or party shot; times you use flash. The shadow does not get smaller further away, but you can dispose of it by using focal lengths over 150mm. Wow!

In other words, Sony has listened to what the public wants – pop-up flash and a superzoom they can afford – but in such a compact body, with no pentaprism-shaped top to allow a good ‘lift’ when the flash is popped up the result will be more than a few unhappy beginners. That is some shadow by any standards.

The Alpha 37

And so to the second consumer-focused launch by Sony this month, the also-16-megapixel Alpha 37. You can think of it technically as a NEX-F3 in an Alpha SLT format – same ISO 16000 top but with 100 at the bottom thanks to the SLT pellicle mirror, same 5.5fps regular motordrive, similar 450/500 shots per battery charge depending on whether you use the power hungry EVF or the economical rear LCD.

You can see here how much extra height the GN10 pop-up flash gains compared to the GN6 of the F3 or NEX-7. It should clear many lenses even with hoods attached, and may well prove usable combined with the new SAM lens for the Alpha range – a slightly more compact 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 using a type of SAM motor which is claimed to be silent and which allows DMF. Remember that earlier SAM designs with the audible motor have not allowed DMF and have even been quite picky about exactly how you set MF instead of AF. The presence of DMF in the new lens indicates that the SAM internal motor focusing may be a lot closer to SSM than to some basic flavours of SAM. I like the idea of this lens, 18-135mms can be surprisingly good though the f/5.6 long end maximum may actually be slower than many 18-200mm or 18-250mms when set to 135mm (they tend to be f/5 at that point).

Is it a Tamron? Probably not. Tamron lens locks move forward to lock the zoom action. Sigma lens locks, though traditionally placed on the left side, move back towards the camera to lock the lens. Sigma has flavours of HSM which allow DMF and others, like the HSM on their 18-250mm OS, which don’t. I look forward to reports on exactly how the 18-135mm works and whether its superior SAM makes it a hidden bargain.

And also, of course, whether the pop-up flash casts interesting shadows!

There is not a lot more to say about the A37 except that it shares most limitations imposed on the F3 such as the video format and bitrates, that it has the usual bells and whistles including an auto portrait crop framing mode, and resembles an A55 body size updated to be more ergonomic. It also has an updated A55 type EVF, not to be confused with the OLED Tru-Finder of the NEX-7, A77 and A65 but identical to the A57. There is a spectacle friendly EVF mode, which as far as I can tell reduces the image area to match the A55 (which wastes loads of its screen as a blank surround). The big improvement made by the A57 was to deploy the full area of the 1440k-dot screen instead of using it as a milky luminescent border for a small image. The downside is that spectacle wearers find the full area hard to see edge to edge.

The rear screen is 2.7″ not 3″, since this is a very compact body, and uses the double hinged up/down tilt mechanism without rotation or forward facing options.

I did not expect to see GPS in this model, but after several expeditions with the Alpha 77 I am beginning to doubt whether onboard GPS as provided by Sony is much help at all. There have been far too many entire shoots where not a single frame has GPS data. It is something I find extremely useful but it’s only useful if it works most of the time. It’s odd to see USB charging introduced in the F3 but not present in this model. Lack of communication between product teams?

The pricing of the A37 will be very competitive indeed.

With all these various May launches – NEX-F3, 18-200mm LE, Alpha 37, 18-135mm SAM – there’s clear evidence that Sony listens first to mass market dealers and to potential new adopters of large sensor interchangeable lens cameras, those moving up from compacts. Everyone who has ever passed an Alpha or NEX fitted with an 18-55mm lens to a compact zoom user will know the reaction – that the zoom doesn’t even begin to zoom, by their standards. They can’t believe you can not frame a face from twenty feet away.

All Sony’s advances are geared to making these larger format cameras more satisfying to the upgrading user.

Now we just wait for them to produce 2012’s models designed to keep the upgrading Alpha and NEX user equally happy.

– David Kilpatrick

See B&H story and links for current B&H prices/order info

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Cameras (DSLR), Lenses - Alpha Mount, News, NEX System

hireacamera.com invest in Alpha and NEX gear!

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The UK’s top camera and lens hire company, hireacamera.com, has invested in a whole new stock of Sony Alpha and NEX gear right up to the 500mm G – their A77s come with 16-50mm SSMs… here, Guy Thatcher explains their enthusiasm for Sony, filmed at the PhotoVision Roadshow in Edinburgh on Tuesday March 27th.

It’s a 1080p HD video shot on the NEX-7 by David Kilpatrick with no accessories apart from the Tamron 18-200mm DiIII VC zoom, which at one point displays a preference for focusing on the better lit, more contrasty background.

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Cameras (DSLR), DK's ramblings, HD Video, Lenses - Alpha Mount, News, NEX System

Photoshop CS6 beta – download now!

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LONDON, UK. — March 22, 2012 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe® Photoshop® CS6 beta, a preview of what’s to come in the next release of the industry standard in digital imaging, is available as a free download from Adobe Labs. Customers can download the beta, try out the experience and provide feedback to the product team. Packed with groundbreaking new innovations, features and incredible performance enhancements, Photoshop CS6 beta is available for the Mac OS and Microsoft® Windows® platforms. The final release is expected in the first half of 2012.

“Photoshop CS6 will be a milestone release that pushes the boundaries of imaging innovation with incredible speed and performance,” said Winston Hendrickson, vice president products, Creative Media Solutions, Adobe. “We couldn’t wait to share this beta of Photoshop CS6 with our customers and are looking forward to hearing from them and seeing the ways they are incorporating the beta into their daily creative workflows.”

New Features in Photoshop CS6 Beta

Photoshop CS6 beta demonstrates Adobe’s focus on huge performance enhancements, imaging magic and creativity tools that offer customers a new experience in digital imaging. Key features include new additions to the Content-Aware tools: Content-Aware Patch allows greater control by letting users select and duplicate an area of an image to fill in or “patch” another, and Content-Aware Move lets users select and magically move an object to a new place in the image.

Customers will experience incredible performance, powered by the new Adobe Mercury Graphics Engine*, enabling near-instant results from popular editing tools including Liquify, Puppet Warp, Transform and Lighting Effects; and a refined, modern interface featuring dark UI options to make images pop. New and re-engineered design tools make creating designs faster and more efficient. Vector layers allow users to apply dashed lines and gradient strokes, searchable layers quickly zero in on any layer, and new type styles let designers swiftly apply type treatments to their designs.

In addition, the Photoshop CS6 beta offers all the features of Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended, such as new 3D editing features and quantitative imaging analysis capabilities. These features will be included in the shipping version of Photoshop CS6 Extended when it becomes available.

Pricing and Availability

The Photoshop CS6 beta is available immediately as a free download in English and Japanese. At installation, users will be required to provide an Adobe ID to complete a one-time login and online product activation. For information on how to install Photoshop CS6 beta, visit www.adobe.com/go/photoshopcs6. Customers can submit feedback via the Photoshop CS6 beta forum. Users can also connect with the Photoshop team via the community-powered site; on Facebook; YouTube; Photoshop.com blog; or via Twitter.

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News, Software Reviews

A57 – no GPS

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A57 announced today does what was needed and updates the A55 to have a decent EVF, plus a few bells and whistles. It’s got a 77-style microphone, and also a mic input socket for external mic moved to a better position than the A55. It has full 1080/50p video capability, 12 fps burst mode (with the usual restrictions and more*), a 15-point 3-cross AF sensor like the A65.

This camera is not an A55 body revision – it uses the NP-FM500H battery, the larger size found in the earlier A5xx-series Alphas and the A77/65. This should give it far more shots (well, OK, 550) per charge than the smaller ’50’ size battery used by the NEX and A55/33/35 etc. Sony’s new accessories include an LED video light, HVL-LE1. The rear screen is similar to the 55, reversible to the body (one of the major points missing from the NEX-7, which cries out to be configurable that way but can’t be).

Exposure bracketing remains limited to the inexplicable and disappointing 1/3 or 2/3 (0.7EV) steps and just three frames, so for HDR you are obliged to work manually or use the camera’s  JPEG-only function.

*You only get 12fps in the ‘tele-zoom’ mode which is effectively a 2X crop to a mere 4 megapixel image, optimistically interpolated up by Sony in-camera to create a redundantly oversized not quite sharp enough JPEG in ‘tele-zoom’ mode. Otherwise, you get the usual and impressive 8fps regular and 10fps ‘advance priority’ modes, plus a 3fps Lo speed.

But they have dropped GPS, unless someone has managed to miss it out from the specs. Oh well. Not that interested now. Disappointing. Potentially much improved travel camera – one I would prefer to the Alpha 77 for size, weight, and sensor – turned into a family camera with some neat joke functions like automatically cropping portraits and then blowing up the cropped area to 16 megapixels. This uses face recognition, a variation of the tele-zoom kludge, and what could be a very annoying Rule of Thirds composition adjustment – at least it also saves the original file with the face/s placed where you intended. The best thing about features like these is that you can turn then off, the worst thing is that Sony probably think this is more useful than GPS.

Available end of April, and we shall be rushing out to avoid this model and wait for the next bus to arrive. Everyone has been saying – we’d love an A77 or even an A65 with the 16 megapixel sensor. Or we’d love an A55 upgraded with the better viewfinder. So what do Sony deliver? Neither…

Hopefully I should have put ‘yet?’ after that last remark.

– DK

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Cameras (DSLR), DK's ramblings, News

Nikon to sell direct to consumer in Europe

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Following the lead of Sony Style – the direct selling mechanism which allows Sony to retail direct to on-line customers – Nikon is to roll out a brand new on-line dealing platform, with a channel for retailers ordering Nikon gear but also a direct shop for consumers.

The company has signed a deal with hybris, a supplier of multichannel vendor software, to install hybris Multichannel Commerce Suite for Nikon Europe (www.europe-nikon.com).

Nikon made the following statements through a press release issued by hybris (www.hybris.com)

Laurent Christen, Head of Direct Sales at Nikon Europe, explained, “This is our first official pan-European-driven direct sales initiative. It’s a strategic tenet of Nikon’s commercial strategy that enables our loyal dealers to purchase Nikon gear online, provides our assortment of imaging products directly to consumers across the Continent, and supports better our nationally based distributors. This is a truly multichannel scheme – not only does it underpin our online B2C and B2B businesses, it also includes sales over the phone and our internal Nikon store which provides merchandising and PoS materials to our multiple European geographies.  For a multichannel program on this scale, hybris was the ideal technology partner for us to help facilitate this.”

‘Nikon DealerNet’ provides dealers across Europe with their own personal B2B purchasing solution fully equipped with critical product and personal pricing information in real-time. In addition to the eCommerce solution, ‘Nikon DealerNet’ also offers dealers a new streamlined ordering process and enables them to see and manage orders, track shipments and invoices. The ‘Nikon Store’ is a series of online stores for consumers enabling them to purchase Nikon’s high quality imaging and sport optics equipment directly from the Company.  Working in fair alignment with Nikon’s commitment to its business partners, these stores offer a response to consumers seeking direct interaction with the Nikon brand.  It provides an additional choice for consumers to order their favorite gear, accessories, software or merchandise products.

Nikon has also confirmed, today, that the company will be at Focus on Imaging and will for the first time concentrate entirely on professional equipment, showcasing the D4 and D800 and new lenses. Focus has previously been seen as a 50/50 consumer and pro show.

 

 

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News

The end of Kodak? Shades of Minolta…

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Having written this piece tonight, I find myself deciding to put it on Photoclubalpha although it’s not Sony or Minolta related. The websites I run for professionals are seen by very few people, this is seen by 40,000 in a decent month. Therefore, you have a truly diverted article (with pictures taken on Sony and Minolta) – David Kilpatrick

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Photograph by and © Shirley Kilpatrick/Alpha 580, Sigma 18-250mm OS

Those who say ‘Kodak is dead’ are reacting a little prematurely. The US Chapter 11 filing for protection from bankruptcy has no equivalent in Britain, and allows time for revenues to be garnered which can save the core of a corporation rather than leave the corpse.

Kodak’s patent battles are not over. While most companies making digital cameras or smartphones have signed royalty agreements accepting that they needed to use patents legitimately, some including their biggest rival Fuji have resisted.

One possibility is that patents – including a portfolio which will bring in substantial earnings for several years to come – will be sold. If a major disputed patent infringer is the buyer, they become the owners of patents which otherwise put a question mark over their balance sheet. As long as a case is in court, any corporation may see its capital value reduced (with its share price) by the amount of the possible liability.

That could make Fuji, Apple or Samsung potential buyers for Kodak. Who has the money to buy Kodak? American, and therefore likely to get permission and support? Apple…

Kodak’s brand has big value worldwide. Control of corporate identity may be limited to providing tins of yellow and red paint, but it works! Karnak, Egypt ©DK

Unfortunately, it does not work the other way round. Pursuing an action for billions does not necessarily convince the market that this is a hidden asset. So while Kodak has aggressively launched several new patent infringement claims in the last few weeks, they had at best a temporary effect on the company’s value, more than matched by reversals.

However, at a time when all stocks have been artificially depressed and the entire market worth a quarter of what was once its stable value, it becomes very difficult to judge the long-term situation. Kodak has a massive theoretical value as a brand, and nearly 5,000 patents still extant from the digital era (the last quarter-century) though all patents do eventually expire. What does not expire is the backdated royalty claim which can be made against a company proven to have infringed patents over a long period.

Kodak stand, photokina 2006 – the market they chased then was the market Sony, to a large extent, owns today ©DK

That’s why Kodak buying some time in Chapter 11 (accompanied by a $950m loan to keep the business running) is significant. If the corporation can avoid being wound up or taken over for long enough to win a patent case, it may rise again. In January, suits were launched against Samsung, Apple and Fuji claiming patent infringement.

Smartphones and pads now do what the excellent little Kodak Z-series pocket video cameras offered in 2008 when the Zi-6 was launched. Ahead of its time, with YouTube connectivity branding, it doesn’t use all the patents Kodak is now defending – which cover wifi, automatic email and network address image uploading, and related photo sharing concepts. ©DK

Think back twenty years. Honeywell had filed actions against many companies for infringement of their autofocus patents, most settled and added to Honeywell’s revenue stream. Minolta, pioneers of autofocus and makers of the first AF SLR system, allowed the case to go to court instead of settling. Though the Minolta photographic division was to survive 15 more years, the huge award in Honeywell’s favour destroyed their reserves and ultimately was the root of their decline and eventual absorption by Sony. That’s what is at stake with claims like this, the patent owner having the chance to grab a huge chunk of a rival’s assets, capital or future revenues.

Kodak did manage to do things within the digital world, from their 1994 Chinon-based first consumer camera to the demise of the DCS Pro 14 megapixel full-frame Canon and Nikon bodies a little over twenty years later. On the consumer front, they made one of the best bridge cameras – the only one that really matched the Konica Minolta Dimage A2. But the P880 was slow, late, ugly and arrived just when bridge cameras were departing this life.

Look, other people’s babies ALWAYS look ugly! Someone at Kodak loved this one. ©DK

For partly sentimental reasons, I bought a few Kodak shares in late 2011 when the signs of doom could be seen. Kodak has been worth tens of thousands to me over the last 40 years, helping from my first days as a photographic journalist. It was in Kodak’s London offices we held our editorial meetings in the 1970s, and twenty years later Kodak’s Gold Awards defined the ultimate professional standard. I may win, I may lose on a handful of shares but I have been able to follow their fluctuations daily.

Abandoning the professional

My 40-year ride with Kodak has not been all good. In 1982, I still had a Kodak direct account as a professional photographer and a Kodak rep would call in monthly. From that catalogue we could buy anything from a pack of lens cleaning tissue to a complete 5 x 4″ monorail camera. All kids of studio equipment, darkroom equipment and sundries joined the vital supplies of film, chemicals and paper in the price list. We became customers for such things as Kodatrace graphic arts foil, grey cards and colour targets.

Then Kodak took the first of the great bad decisions; they closed all direct professional photographer accounts. The reasons given in private, by their executives, were that professional photographers were a huge risk – bad and late payers, takers of excessive credit, unreliable and prone to going bankrupt (hmmm…).

I will agree that the 1980s encouraged businesses to hang on each rung of the turnover ladder by their fingertips, with credit costing a fortune in interest rates, and a tax régime which punished the smaller operation. My own business, however well it did, was always struggling to pay tax bills and when you look at the advance cashflow we had to cover, it is no wonder. Our clients in turn struggled to pay us, but we were charging them a sum for one day’s photography which would pay one month’s average wages.

Back then our business was like a salmon fighting upstream through the rapids to the spawning-grounds. Now it’s like a frog sitting on a lilypad and occasionally flicking out a tongue to catch passing flies. Wonder if the same process, quietly, happened to the Big Yellow Box?

The latitude, colour and tonal quality of Fujichrome 50 exploited in the mid-1980s with a reportage shot of a great antique shop in Martin, Lincolnshire, using Hasselblad SWC. ©DK

Kodak passed their business to trade counters and labs, and took the reps off the road. The trade counters and labs promptly offered rival products alongside Kodak. Within months, we had switched entirely to using Fuji reversal film as their E6 Fujichrome – introduced by our new suppliers – had far superior colours to Ektachrome. The difference was great that in 1983 we were able to open a commercial studio in Nottingham city centre, and grab tens of thousands in business from one long-established rival just because our Fujichrome test shots outshone their Kodak output on the lightbox.

Konica offered us a direct account, and did the same for the local minilab which did much of our machine processing and printing. We bought in Konica for our hand printing, and started using Konica colour negative stock. Then we sealed a deal with the local National Trust region to supply the first film counter dispensers for their shops, and the film supplied was Konica. Ilford Limited, Kodak’s old honourable rival, sourced exactly the same Konica stock and rebranded it as new Ilfocolor and Ilfochrome 100.

Where Kodak discontinued materials, Konica wanted to have more. For many years, Icon’s magazines participated in the annual special order to get infrared film made – something we persuaded Konica to do through PHOTOpro (not the US one, or the current UK magazine, they both nicked our 1989 magazine title).

Kodachrome said fare-thee-well in June, 2009, vanquished by digital media. See that DX coding? Minolta and Kodak worked together on that and Minolta had some of the first cameras with automatically set ISO when you loaded the film. Contrary to many statements, Kodachrome was not especially permanent, undeveloped image life was minimal, processing was highly variable and it didn’t scan well… but photographers still loved it. See baby above. ©DK

From the 1980s on, almost every major Kodak decision was a contraction or a withdrawal when seen from the perspective of a UK photographic business. Kodak film manufacture in Britain ended in 2005 when the last equipment from the Annesley film plant was sold off, but long before this  so many excellent members of the professional division staff, so many activities and ambitions had been curtailed. The loss of the Kodak Gold Awards was a body-blow. The end of the Kodak Wedding and Portrait Awards, a knockout punch. Ultimately, Kodak gave up autonomous distribution even to the trade; it all goes through a distributor (Photologic) before it reaches a trade counter or lab.

A Kodak Express outlet in Leith Ocean Terminal, just on the day of opening in 2008, with shelves awaiting stock. It’s still going strong. This is the closest I get to seeing Kodak as a business now – and it is, basically, just a very good franchise operation. ©DK

Where once, every respectable pro photographic studio or small photo shop was a direct Kodak customer and talked to Kodak daily, photographers are now two or three steps removed. There is no longer a connection and it’s unlikely there will be again.

Photographers still do buy Kodak materials – photographic and inkjet papers alike – and the public buys Kodak printers for their honest approach to ink costs. Plenty of clever and excellent digital cameras are bought every day, and Kodak Express shops occupy small but good positions in busy shopping malls. User-operated printing systems turn digital snaps into Kodak prints.

Using Kodak media-card digital printing touch screen systems at photokina 2008. These dye-sublimation printers are actually very affordable for store counters, but there’s no film processing, no film sales, no chemical sales and no silver imaging paper involved. ©DK

It is not yet the time to say R.I.P., Kodak but it’s long past the time that the profession said au revoir, Kodak. It does not have to be adieu, yet. Hasta la vista!

 

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DK's ramblings, News

Last call for Sony Awards entries

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Wednesday 07 December, the World Photography Organisation, issues a last call for entries for the 2012 Sony World Photography Awards, the world’s most comprehensive photography competition.  The deadline for entries is Wednesday 04 January 2012 giving photographers from across the world just four weeks left to enter.

The Sony World Photography Awards is free to enter and open to photographers of every ability, whose work will be judged by an esteemed panel including such international experts as curator & writer Susan Bright (2012 Chair of Judges) and Jon Jones, Director of Photography for the Sunday Times Magazine. The winner of the L’Iris d’Or/ Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year Award will receive $25,000 (USD) and the overall Open Competition winner, $5,000. All category winners will also be presented with Sony’s latest digital imaging products.

All shortlisted and winning images will be exhibited at a major exhibition at London’s Somerset House, to coincide with the award ceremony in April 2012.  Furthermore, all winners will receive the invaluable support of the World Photography Organisation with their work featuring across the WPO website, in international exhibitions and inside the annual Sony World Photography Awards book, offering unparalleled exposure.

The competition has made a significant impact on the careers of many photographers around the world. 2011 L’Iris d’Or/ Sony World Photography Awards Professional Photographer of the Year, Alejandro Chaskielberg from Argentina, said:

‘The Sony World Photography Awards has had an important effect on my career, and since winning the award my work has been published worldwide. I was honoured to receive L’Iris d’Or this year and I would strongly encourage photographers everywhere -whatever their ability – to enter the competition.’

Astrid Merget, Creative Director of the World Photographer Organisation added:

‘Over the years, we have had the pleasure of watching winning photographers at various stages of their careers move forward with incredible success.  This award can truly be a spring board for photographers who claim the recognition and capitalise on all the benefits and support it comes with.’

The 2012 Sony World Photography Awards is more comprehensive than ever before – with an extensive range of awards, appealing to photographers of different levels. In addition to the Professional and Open (amateur) competitions across categories ranging from travel and current affairs, to still life and people, other competitions include the Moving Image and 3D Award, Student Focus competition – for higher education photography students aged 18-28, and new for 2012, the Youth Award.

For a second year running the hugely successful festival, World Photo, London, and Sony World Photography Awards exhibitions will be held at Somerset House in London in April – May 2012. Billed as the global photographic event of the year, World Photo, London, and the Sony World Photography Awards, celebrates the very best in photography from around the world, from the next generation of emerging photographers through to the established masters of the art.

The opening weekend of World Photo, London, will be held at Somerset House from 27 – 30 April with selected events and the Sony World Photography Awards winners exhibitions, continuing through to 20 May 2012.

The annual Sony World Photography Awards ceremony and gala dinner will take place on 26 April at the Hilton Hotel in London’s Park Lane, where 2012 L’Iris d’Or/ Sony World Photography Awards Professional Photographer of the Year and Open Photographer of the Year will be announced.

Full details about the World Photography Organisation and Sony World Photography Awards can be found at: www.worldphoto.org

 

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News

Sony Alpha 77 & 65 Firmware v1.04 download

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The download is approximately 65MB of data in a Mac .dmg mountable disk image, or some other stuff for Windows.

The process will take about seven to ten minutes overall including downloading, opening and completing the procedure. You need a battery for the camera with at least three bars showing – preferably fully charged – and your computer to camera USB cable. The actual transfer to the camera takes about four minutes follow by 30 seconds of internal processing.

During the Mac update, you may see this window when the camera is turned off for the upload from computer to camera, and at the end of the process:

Do not worry about this – it refers only to the Mass Storage connection. Do not let this distraction interrupt your process.

SLT-A65 Firmware Upgrade v 1.04

Windows

http://www.sony-asia.com/support/download/478855

Apple Macintosh
http://www.sony-asia.com/support/download/478884

SLT-A77V Firmware Upgrade v1.04

Windows
http://www.sony-asia.com/support/download/478891

Apple Macintosh
http://www.sony-asia.com/support/download/478893

Features:
Adds auto-correction of JPEGs for two lenses:
Vario-Sonnar T * DT 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 ZA (SAL1680Z)
Sony DT 16-105mm F3.5-5.6 (SAL16105)
Improved ‘usability’ – remains to be discovered what that means
Improved image quality (presumed to be JPEG quality and noise levels)
Faster command/menu/setting response (less time lag between control wheel and updated screen info)

Example: correcting the 16-80mm CZ lens wide open at 16mm – focused on an A2 target, a very close distance which exaggerates the distortion level of the lens:

Above: uncorrected image

Above: in-camera correction. For full size versions which allow you to examine the CA (very prominent at f/3.5) and the degree to which it is corrected in the Fine JPEG, click the images. As you can see the image is enlarged by correction, so not quite as much coverage is achieved. But it’s less than you imagine; a fully corrected 16mm shot ends up being similar to a 16.35mm lens on the vertical and horizonal axes, or a 16.55mm lens on the diagonal. That’s still wider than a rectilinear perfect 17mm, so it’s better to use a bendy 16mm than lay out for a Zeiss MF 18mm, if you want coverage. And even Zeiss 18mms show some curvature.

We’ve tested the 16-50mm as well and BOY does that lens distort at 16mm – far worse than the CZ – which makes it clear that the in-camera lens correction goes hand in hand with this lens. To get any kind of straight line image, it’s going to be necessary to use the correction or a profile for raw conversion in a program like Adobe Camera Raw which accepts lens profiles.

The responsiveness of control wheels changing settings is greatly improved – altering +/- EV compensation for example now responds almost in real time as you shift the control. No significant improvement can be detected so far in image quality despite the claims, at least with the 100 or so test shots we’ve taken at different ISOs using a Color Checker, and other spot checks for Low/Normal/High NR. But there are so many modes on the A77 including panoramas, multishot, DRO, that the improvement may well be specific functions which Sony will explain in more detail.

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