News

Hoodman's new patent pending, D-3 HoodCap snaps into place using the
mounting points already built into the Nikon D-3. The D-3 HoodCap is optically
clear, comes with scratch resistant coating and is backed by the Hoodman team.
The D-3 HoodCap retails for $24.99 and protects your LCD screen and allows unobstructed
LCD viewing at all times.

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PhotoShelter Inc. has introduced an entirely new brand system to coincide
with the end of the beta period for its open-but-edited image marketplace, the
PhotoShelter Collection. Since the Collection launched in September 2007, the
Company has made a number of improvements, based on feedback from photographers
and image buyers culled during the beta period. Feature updates include more
intuitive navigation, better lightbox capabilities, batch actions, easier access
to advanced search features, and new user tutorials. With this official launch,
PhotoShelter has also unveiled a new visual identity for its company and brands,
including a redesigned logo and icon created by Cinco Design Office of Portland,
OR.



2,000 new photographers and 2,000 new image buyers are joining the PhotoShelter
Collection every month, with over 100,000 new images uploaded monthly from photographers
in 120 countries across the world.



The PhotoShelter Collection opened in beta to photographers in September of
2007 and buyers in November of 2007 during which PhotoShelter actively sought
feedback from members of the community to create the most inspirational and
productive experience possible. Photographers now enjoy greater control during
the upload and editing process and buyers will benefit from more efficient image
searches, easier lightbox creation, and an http://www.photoshelter.com/.

...

Phase One A/S and Mamiya Digital Imaging Co., Ltd. today unveiled an open medium
format digital camera platform. Known as the Phase One 645 Camera or the Mamiya
645AFDIII, the co-developed platform will be sold exclusively by Phase One and
Mamiya.



The camera platform provides a modular system that offers unprecedented feature
combinations, and most significantly the freedom to choose individual components
from an open platform to best serve their working needs.



Designed to accept all quality digital camera backs, the camera platform is
also open for traditional film operation. It offers the widest choice of high-end
lenses, including the complete Mamiya 645 lens range, the new 28mm aspherical
and D series lenses, as well as Hasselblad V-lenses and Pentacon Six lenses.
It is designed to achieve shutter speeds from 1/4000 sec. to 60 min. The camera
features an ergonomic molded grip and provides direct control of critical camera
settings using manual dials -- both of which are essential elements for the
professional photographer engaged in day-long hand-held shooting sessions.



"Phase One and Mamiya have taken the first step in delivering a unique
approach to designing camera systems," said Henrik Hakonsson, CEO of Phase
One. "We believe that equipment interoperability and personal choice are
integral values in realizing the highest quality imaging results. Furthermore
we have invested heavily in optimizing all elements of the camera systems reliability
to maximize the photographers' time for shooting extraordinary images."




"Mamiya and Phase One are consolidating our expertise and fulfilling our
ambitions to provide the products desired by our customers," said Tsuyoshi
Tsutsumi, CEO of Mamiya Digital Imaging. "We will continue to cooperate
and work hard to ensure that future camera systems are limited only by the imagination
and desires of the artists that use them."

...

Reality Training Workshop Offers Secrets From Legendary Photographer
...

The following was posted recently on the Adobe blog page site:



The Lightroom 1.4 update for Mac and Windows has been temporarily removed from
the Adobe.com web site. Those Lightroom users who have installed Lightroom 1.4
should uninstall the update and install Lightroom 1.3.1.(Mac, Win) until a further
update can be provided. For those not in immediate need of the updated camera
support available in Camera Raw 4.4 or the DNG 4.4 Converter, it's recommended
that you also continue working with the 4.3.1 versions. (Mac, Win) This decision
is based on the following errors that have been discovered with the recent update:



EXIF Time Stamp Error: There is an error in the EXIF time stamp
update technology that causes Lightroom to believe that the files are out of
sync with the correct time stamp as displayed in Lightroom. Any ensuing metadata
update will attempt to incorrectly modify the EXIF time stamp in the original
raw file itself. This is the only metadata field that Lightroom will write to
an original proprietary raw file. This error will not impact the integrity of
your image data. The Camera Raw plug-in also will incorrectly change the EXIF
time stamp in files converted by the plug-in. The information written to the
XMP sidecar files or XMP metadata in the converted files will remain correct.



DNG Conversion Error(Windows Only): With the latest version
of the Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 applications, Adobe has included technology
to verify that the image data in a DNG file is unchanged from when it was originally
converted to DNG. Unfortunately, when converting to DNG using Lightroom 1.4
on Windows, the application will write an incorrect verification tag to describe
the image data. When Lightroom attempts to work with those files in the Develop
module, the application reads that incorrect tag, believes that there is something
wrong with the raw data and will present an error. Rest assured, there is nothing
wrong with the integrity of your image data or metadata. For those that have
already converted their files to DNG using Lightroom 1.4(Windows only) we recommend
using the DNG 4.3.1 converter to convert the DNG files you've created
with Lightroom 1.4.



Olympus Conversion Error: There is an error in converting Olympus
JPEG files to other formats in Lightroom 1.4 and the Camera Raw 4.4 plug-in.




To uninstall Lightroom 1.4 please see the instructions per your platform: Mac:
Delete the Lightroom application in the Application folder(Mac) and Delete the
following file: Library/Receipts/Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.pkg Windows: Choose
the Uninstall Lightroom 1.4 menu item from the Windows start menu. The Add/Remove
Program utility on Windows will also achieve the same result.

Sekonic has announced the release of new Data Transfer Software for the L-758DR
exposure meter. The software is used to create and edit camera exposure profiles
and then transfer them to the L-758DR for extremely accurate control of exposure.
Along with the sensor's dynamic range, it records the unique variations of your
digital camera, such as the effects of shutter speed and aperture mechanisms
as well as the characteristics of the lens in use.

...

Mamiya has announced a new addition to their professional line of medium format
film/digital cameras -- the Mamiya 645AFDIII.