Equipment Reviews
CES Photo Tech Notes
In an attempt to connect everything electronic, this year’s CES/PMA show in Las Vegas was awash in “smart” TVs, tablets, and various and sundry devices that can link to your device—be it phone, tablet, or camera—and allow you to access “image content” anywhere, anytime. There was also a rash of rough cameras, a 3D lens for still and video, new ways to customize your camera, and a major boost in USB storage and memory card speed.
Film & Film Cameras
Here’s another in our series of reports from photokina 2012. As you will have noticed we do not attempt to create a laundry list of new products and companies from the show, but prefer to report on what struck our eye and thought might be of special interest to Shutterbug readers.
SIGMA DP3 Merrill
The Sigma DP3 Merrill is the latest Sigma camera with the new Foveonsensor.
With this sensor, the camera can capture complete RGB information for every single pixel and doesn’t need to interpolate colors like all other digital cameras with Bayer pattern sensors.
Accessories, Albums & Presentation Products
While photokina could be considered a distant memory, we have a number of reports yet to run that deal with products that were new to market and caught our reporter’s eye, and that in many cases are just becoming available now. Here’s a report on useful items filed by Roger Hicks that covers interesting accessories and other products he found at the show.
Techniques
Photo History
In the annals of American photography the images made by Farm Security Administration photographers in the 1930s and 1940s are famous.
Web Profiles
Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, reports that a study of online retailing in 2006 found...
Personal Project
Actor Richard Gere is best known for his roles in over 40 films, but few may be aware he is also an avid photographer and collector.
Pro's Choice
Mark Katzman has been shooting professionally for over 25 years. Originally, he studied filmmaking at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
News
“From Fleeting to Forever” E-Book
Most of us spend endless hours snapping pictures and recording video in an effort to preserve and recall the best moments in life. While smartphones and digital cameras have made it easier than ever to capture every fleeting moment, they’ve also created some unique challenges.
Pelican ProGear
Pelican Products, Inc. has introduced the Pelican ProGear™ S130 Sport Elite Laptop/Camera Divider Pack, the newest addition to its consumer products line, Pelican ProGear.
Hensel International Photo Contest
The prize is a special Hensel Expert D anniversary lighting kit including all accessories. This has a value of $5000.
Shutterbug Reader Wins TIPA Prize
TIPA would like to thank all the readers who took part in the TIPA Readers’ Survey for 2013 that was published in the members’ magazines.
Latest Additions

News
Press Release Dec 14, 2012 1 comments
Produced in Switzerland by Swiss Engineers, the Sinar lanTec camera features controls for image management that are integrated into the camera. The camera movements can be used with the entire range of dedicated Sinaron Digital CEF lenses. The shift range is set effortlessly up to 20mm left and right – and this effectively increases the virtual area of your CCD making new image aspect ratios in the process for larger, more detailed files.
Accessories
Jack Neubart Dec 13, 2012 1 comments
For those who travel far and wide there’s nothing to beat the convenience and comfort of a roller camera case. With a roller in tow, instead of a heavy pack on your back or a bag hanging off your shoulder, you’re likely to arrive feeling less fatigued. In this roundup we’ll take a look at a good sampling of roller bags that are especially constructed for photographers.
News
Press Release Dec 13, 2012 1 comments
Portrait Professional 11 is said to now incorporates the industry’s most accurate face and feature detector making the software incredibly fast and easy to use while giving the photographer unparalleled creative control.
Paper & Ink
George Schaub Dec 12, 2012 0 comments
While weight is just one measure of a paper’s resilience and usefulness for fine art printing, it can also have an effect on how that paper is handled, depending on the printer. In the case of Red River’s Polar Matte Magna, which is a 96 lb (320 gsm) stock, it means working with individual sheet feeding rather than with a stack loader in almost every printer you might have. This feed-through also limits the printers that can make use of this nice surface—those without a single feed option need not apply, as well as, according to Red River’s notes, HP printers with front feed paper trays (which have also proven problematic with other heavyweight surfaces).
News
Press Release Dec 12, 2012 1 comments
Olympus adds to the Micro Four Thirds family of lenses with the release of the M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 17mm f1.8 lens (34mm in 35mm equivalent), a bright, wide-angle, single-focal-length lens ideal for snapshot street shooting, landscape photography or capturing subjects in challenging low-light environments. This high quality, compact lens features a stunning metal body and a Snapshot Focus mechanism for pan focusing with a distance indicator.
George Schaub Blog
George Schaub Dec 11, 2012 1 comments
When a photographer deals with the emotions generated by black-and-white prints, and the methodology of creating and defining those emotions and how they are generated, he or she begins to deal with developing a sense of the aesthetics of the monochrome image.
Pro Techniques
Joel Beemer Dec 11, 2012 0 comments
t was when my knees began creaking that I came to realize it was time to stop hauling around a monorail 4x5” camera system in the field. Something smaller and lighter was needed.
News
Press Release Dec 11, 2012 1 comments
These easy-to-use RFi Softboxes are available in 12 different sizes and four models: rectangular, square, octagonal and strip. In addition, users will not need to worry about what strobes they are using as the new speedring adaptors make the RFi Softboxes compatible with no less than 26 different flash brands.
Picture This
Shutterbug Staff Dec 10, 2012 14 comments
Our Picture This! assignment this month was “Panoramics,” and we asked readers to send us a wide view unattainable by using a single lens, or to crop a wide shot so it had an aspect ratio that mimicked the format. The eye cannot possibly see all that a panoramic photo offers in one glimpse, whether it be in looking at the print or especially in the field.
News
Press Release Dec 10, 2012 2 comments
Canon U.S.A., Inc.announced two new additions to the Company’s EF lens family, the new EF 24-70mm f/4L IS USM and EF 35mm f/2 IS USM lenses. Each of these two lenses features unique optical attributes for a variety of situations. The new EF 24-70mm f/4L IS USM has macro shooting capabilities at the telephoto end and the EF 35mm f/2 IS USM adds Canon’s proprietary Image Stabilization (IS) to this popular prime lens focal length.