Polaroid lives! (in the sense its not quite dead yet)

Good news for film fans:

News link here.

The year in pictures 2008

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/the_year_2008_in_photographs_p.html

Apple quietly announces anti glare screens on MBP

When the new 15" MBP came out, I wondered if Apple actually consulted any professional photographers before setting out the road map for this stuff. The omission of a FW400 port also seems to confirm in my mind some sort of contempt for the medium format crowd.

The glass trackpad is annoying. I HATE trackpads which use the pad as a button. Why? Because it looks nice. Rubbish. Try using it when under pressure or like me you have less than delicate touch, everything ends up in the bin or stuff opens when you dont want it to.

Sigularly though the glass screen was the single biggest turn off for buying one, as using it on location was impossible. I talked to head of business development about "how good it was" for photographers and apparently my feedback was noted. Whatever.

Not all the innovations were bad (the mono shell is genius), but others are unfocused and limited and not, in my mind, improvements. Could we not at least have an option of a matte screen? I could forgive everything else.

The new 17" macbook pro looks pretty nifty. Massivly spec'd though the lack of FW400 and stupid glass screen persist. But whats this??? Buried in the options list there is FINALLY an option for an anti glare screen, huzzar!

So now I can shoot tethered and see the photo instead of my face (!)

All I need to do now is convince accounts I need one.

Nikon D3X now official

The world's worst kept secret the D3X from Nikon is now official. The Nikon Pro magazine has just crossed my desk with full feature on the 24.5 MP, full frame beastie.

5fps and ISO from 100-1600 (with inevitable Lo and Hi settings offering 50 and 6400), DX lens compatibility A-LA D3, but no video option.

Price to be confirmed.

J

Phaseone Forum is re-launched!

Well it feels like aeons, but the Phaseone forum is now up and running again. If you haven't used it already it's a fabulous user to user resource for all those random bugs and day to day problems.

Chances are there is always a bod in the world who knows the answer; from Script kiddies and Unix programmers to Pro shooters and amature enthusiasts.

New forum can be found here.

J

5d MK II Announcement!

The new 5D MK II was just announced!



- 21.1 Megapixel Full Frame Sensor
- ISO Range of 50 - 25600 with new high ISO noise reduction
- 14 Bit processing via DIGIC 4
- 3.9 Frames per second, up to approx. 78 large/fine JPEGS & approx. 13 RAW
- 3.0" LCD screen with 930,000 pixels and dual anti-reflective coating with 170 degree viewing angle
- Lens peripheral illumination correction, 26 lenses are preloaded on the camera with a total of 40 lenses available to be stored via EOS Utility
- Auto light optimizer with the aid of Face Detection Technology automatically lightens and corrects dark areas of the image
- Copyright information can now be added to the camera with EOS Utility
- Full HD (1920x1080) and SD (640x480) video recording at 30fps
- HDMI Output
- Enhanced "Live View" with Quick Mode phase detection, Contrast AF and Face Detect
- Improved menu screens
- External light sensor to automatically adjust LCD brightness
- AF microadjustment, up to 20 lenses can be registered
- Improved environmental protective seals
- Highlight tone priority
- Compatible with UDMA Mode 6 CF cards
- Self cleaning sensor unit with dust delete data acquisition and fluorine coating on low pass filter for easier cleaning with blower

Link to the Japanese site here with HD video samples.

We are taking pre-orders now. See our front page for the link.

J

"New 5D" teaser

(Drumroll) Looks like the hype machine starts here:

Canon have just posted this teaser trailer for the forthcoming 5D replacement.

Also a silhouette snap shot:



2 weeks to Photokina and counting....

J