Cameracraft magazine – Taking your practical photography further
London, United Kingdom / Republic of Ireland, 22nd July 2009 — Canon Inc. announced today the development of Hybrid Image Stabilizer (IS), the world’s first* optical Image Stabilizer which compensates for both angular camera shake and shift camera shake. The technology will be incorporated in an interchangeable single lens reflex (SLR) camera lens planned for commercial release before the end of 2009.
Master Photo Digital July/August 2009 is now on-line in digital form:
Free to read, lots of expensive seminars for UK photographers provided by Aussie and NZ visiting superstars – it’s just like cricket…
DK
Fujifilm Professional is to discontinue one of its slower moving lines of film, from September 2009 production of Fujicolor Pro 800Z will cease. The company has a limited supply of the film in stock, enough to satisfy demand until approximatively November 2009.
Fujifilm’s Product Manager for Professional Film, Russ Gunn, explained the decision: “We have decided to remove all formats of Pro 800Z from our range due to low sales volume. By streamlining our selection of Professional film we can ensure our strong selling lines are protected.”
Gunn continued: “Sales of our colour negative and transparency films are doing very well and there has also been a recent upturn in sales of our instant films. We will continue to support photographers who appreciate the quality and flexibility of real film with a range of marketing activities including the Fujifilm Distinctions Awards, the Fujifilm Student Awards and our online resource for film users, Choose-film.com.”
For further details on the Fujifilm range of Professional film visit, www.fujifilm.co.uk/professional
Kenro has announced the UK release of the Tokina AT-X 124 PRO DX II, the new version of the acclaimed AT-X 124 PRO DX. The Nikon mount AT-X 124 PRO DX II features a built-in AF motor drive that operates smoothly and quietly due to a DC motor that uses a new AF control gear assembly. With the built-in motor, the lens can be used in AF mode with the Nikon D60 and D40 and other silent wave bodies. The Canon version of the lens already has a built-in AF motor.
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LONDON UK, June 22, 2009 – Eastman Kodak Company announced today that it will retire KODACHROME colour film this year, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon.
Sales of KODACHROME Film, which became the world’s first commercially successful colour film in 1935, have declined dramatically in recent years as photographers turned to other, newer KODAK films or to the digital imaging technologies that Kodak pioneered. Today, KODACHROME Film represents just a fraction of one percent of Kodak’s total sales of still-picture films.
The June 2009 edition of Master is now readable on-line:
– DK
The Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild (OWPG) has written to the Office of Fair Trading expressing concern over WH Smith Travel’s plan to make publisher Penguin the sole supplier of foreign travel guides in its airport, motorway and railway station outlets.
The deal would mean only Rough Guides, Dorling Kindersley and Sawday guides would be stocked at the 450 stores, while popular names such as Lonely Planet, AA, Berlitz, Thomas Cook, Bradt, Time Out and Michelin would disappear from the shelves.
According to industry magazine The Bookseller, Penguin is offering WH Smith Travel a 72 per cent discount on the cover price of its imprints.
“By creating a monopoly situation in a very significant section of the retail guidebook market, this deal is manifestly anti-competitive and will reduce choice for consumers,” said Jon Sparks, travel photographer and secretary of the OWPG.
“Although our members’ prime focus is on the outdoors, there are many among us who also produce travel guides, and many more who produce walking, cycling and other outdoors guides for overseas destinations. This move places other publishers at a serious disadvantage and thereby directly undermines our members’ future earnings potential.
“It also appears to be wholly at odds with WH Smith’s well-publicised corporate responsibility policies.”
His sentiments were echoed by guidebook author and editor Sue Viccars (CORR), who is also a member of the OWPG. “This unprecedented step will limit choice for the consumer,” she said. “Customers have – quite rightly – grown to expect a broad range of guidebooks at popular sales points such as airports.
“The industry owes its diverse customer base – family, trekker, independent traveller, retired couple and the rest – this opportunity. Limiting the number and range of authors used will not give a sufficiently broad view of those destinations covered, and many destinations will be excluded altogether.
“This move will severely curtail customer options, and will be highly detrimental to the potential development of the guidebook industry as a whole.’
Though autofocus is not possible with live video in any current true DSLR (the Panasonic GH1 promises this) it is possible to use pull-focus effects with a little planning. We now have a Nikon D5000 – it won the competition for best fine image detail when comparing results frame by frame with Canon’s nominally higher resolution rival. It was also a very good deal, £629 inc VAT with an 18-55mm VR kit lens and a SanDisk Ultra II 8GB SDHC card plus Crumpler Messenger Boy 2500 bag thrown in free (from Jacobs). You Tube sample –
OnOne Software has made available an entire free download including Lite versions of 14 of their PhotoTools plug-ins for Photoshop and other image editing programs. All you have to do to obtain the download is visit their website using the link below and provide a valid email address for verification. We have tested the entire OnOne software range – including the full PhotoTools 2 package – with excellent performance on CS4/MacOSX 10.5+.
Canon announced today it will release a firmware update for the EOS 5D Mark II allowing users to manually control exposure when shooting video. The new firmware will be available for download from 2 June 2009 on Canon Europe’s support web site.
