Westcott has recently made a new addition to its line of Soft Box Light Modifiers
by introducing the New Masters Brush. The New Masters allows users to create more
defined shadowing, which enhances depth and adds contour.



Westcott worked directly on the design with Master Photographer Ken Cook, a third
generation family studio owner with over 50 years of experience. The specially
designed multi layer front panel along with the Barn Door and internal baffle
creates a 2 f-Stop differential between the center or the heart of the light and
the outer edges. This allows users to achieve the lighting patterns created by
the old Masters of Photography using split, broad and short lighting, including
all the variations of Rembrandt and Butterfly Lighting.
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For those who have been working with the latest digital cameras--both
integral and interchangeable lens types--you've probably seen an
option called Raw among your file formats. Unlike JPEG and TIFF, Raw is not
an acronym and therefore we don't capitalize it, and is just what it states--the
"raw" image date received by the sensor and digitized within the
microprocessor of the camera. It is not "raw" in the sense that
it is unfettered or unrecognizable, but it does take image processing software
other than what's in the plain version of some image processing programs
to see it. That Raw software converts the Raw image file format to an image
on the screen and allows you to save it to a format other than Raw--such
as TIFF or JPEG.

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One look at the specs of this new Tamron zoom and you'll understand why
it's immediately attractive to anyone carrying around a digital SLR in
their day bag. Weighing in at around 15 oz and measuring just under 3x3.2",
the lens is quite the marvel of size for what it delivers in focal length and
aperture options. Indeed, if someone told me that a constant aperture, 17mm
wide lens would be this size a few years back I'd have thought they had
lost their optical marbles. To be fair, however, that 17mm is not really a 17mm
in 35mm equivalent, thus practical terms, and I wonder why lenses like this
are still labeled that way. This lens is only for APS-C sensors, which means
it has the "35mm equivalent" of a 27mm wide angle view and 80mm
tele.

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The Panasonic DMC-L1 DSLR is Panasonic's first digital single lens reflex
camera. Priced at just under $2000 with a Leica D Vario Elmarit f/2.8-3.5 14-50mm
zoom lens (equivalent to 28-100mm in 35mm format) and 7+ megapixel sensor, it
is a member of the Four/Thirds family. That allows you to use any lens from
the Olympus and Sigma 4/3 mount offerings on the camera as well. It uses SD
cards, and takes the newest SDHC cards with greater storage capacity. And the
Leica lens uses Panasonic's OIS (optical image stabilization) that helps
you get steady shots in two to three less stops of light than usual when shooting
handheld. The body also has a Live View mode similar to the feature found in
Olympus' recent DSLRs.

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