News

Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE:EK) enhances its black-and-white professional film
portfolio with the introduction of an improved Kodak Professional T-MAX 400 Film.
The new film, utilizing Kodak's patented T-GRAIN emulsions, delivers finer
grain and higher sharpness. T-MAX 400 is said by the company to be the world's
finest grained and the world's sharpest 400-speed black-and-white film,
offering photographers a level of clarity normally only available from a 100-speed
film.



The new T-MAX 400 complements Kodak's full range of black-and-white films.
In addition to T-MAX 400, the portfolio includes:
...

IJ Technologies has introduced Premium Edition Artist Texture Canvas, a new
water resistant matte canvas for OEM pigment and UltraChrome inks which provides
artists, publishers and photographers a more textured option for canvas prints.
In addition, Premium Edition Artist Texture canvas maintains a solid white point
without the use of optical brighteners.

...

Pentax Imaging Company has announced the Pentax Optio A40, the latest model
in the Optio A series of advanced compact digital cameras with superior image
quality and performance. Featuring 12 megapixels, this latest Optio features
three types of Shake Reduction including mechanical, digital and movie. Each
version helps deliver sharp, blur-free shots where camera shake is an issue
such as action photography or in low light conditions at dawn, dusk or at night.
The Optio A model also features the newest Face Recognition technology including
a Natural Skin Tone mode and a Half-length Portrait mode, which automatically
takes a head and shoulder photograph of subjects.

...

DxO Labs has announced DxO Optics Pro v5, the latest version of its flagship software
application for automatic image quality enhancement for Digital SLR camera users.
Due to be released later in the fall, DxO Optics Pro v5 is said to set a new standard
for image quality with its new RAW conversion engine. All purchasers of DxO Optics
Pro v4.5 on or after August 1st, 2007 are eligible for a free upgrade to DxO Optics
Pro v5.



DxO Optics Pro v5's RAW conversion engine includes a completely new demosaicing
algorithm which produces images with much more detail and fewer artifacts. Demosaicing
is the crucial step of RAW conversion during which the camera's image sensor
pattern is reconstructed as a visible image for the human eye. Inherently, demosaicing
involves trade-offs between image sharpness, details, noise, processing time and
conversion artifacts. The quality of demosaicing determines the amount of detail
and artifacts in the final image. These artifacts, particularly visible and unsightly,
are compounded at high ISO settings and are in large part responsible for what
is deemed the unnatural look of digital images.



The other key characteristic of DxO Optics Pro's new RAW Engine is that
instead of applying noise reduction techniques after demosaicing, a newly-developed
noise reduction is performed upfront, before noise has a chance to be amplified
by the RAW conversion process and absorb important fine details.



Combined with other proprietary techniques, DxO Optics Pro v5's new RAW
Engine is said by the maker to produce both the most detailed and most natural
looking images yet -- its very fine and homogenous grain translating into
subtle shades and textures. DxO Optics Pro v5's new RAW conversion engine
has been fine-tuned and optimized with the rest of the software's automated
image enhancement features (optical corrections, color rendering, exposure optimization,
highlight recovery, etc.) to produce best-in class results.
...

AsukaBook USA, a division of Kubota Photo Design, Inc., has introduced three new
products -- the new Book Bound LX, Book Bound FLX and a new Varnish choice
in the Book Bound EX line.

Pelican Products' Memory Card Cases come in four different configurations.
The case is designed to protect all known flash memory card sizes and can accommodate
as many as 32 cards at a time.

...

Notes On Our Tests
This month-long test was not intended as a scientific experiment for drawing definitive conclusions about all of the technical aspects involved. That would require testing numerous cameras--of all brands--under strictly controlled conditions and using high-tech equipment for image-quality analyses.

Because we were...