Kodak announce a new 5MP CMOS sensor jointly developed with IBM but in the very same press conference announce that they are pulling out of the low profit/saturated market lower end ‘EasyShare’ camera business and focusing instead on high end solutions. Either they consider a 5MP CMOS sensor high end (unlikely) or this will find its way licensed into other manufacturers budget offerings and into the upcoming Motorola/Kodak mobile phone ventures (much more likely).

After a seemingly endless will they won’t they tussle, Hoya finally appear to have taken control of Pentax with virtually all of the Pentax board subsequently committing corporate seppuku in response.

Sony publically gives the nod to Nikon to use their new 18+MP non full frame sensor for 12 months before they license its use to anyone else – presumably this will find a home in the much rumoured D2 replacement model – simultaneously confirming the D3’s main specification and scotching the many rumour mills that had been chattering about a full frame 22MP jobbie to try and see off the equally much hyped but unseen Canon replacement for the next 1DS incarnation.

Fujifilms professional division does a strange u-turn and recommits to conventional film production with the re-launch of their previously axed high end Velvia 50 products. They had previously abandoned production due to poor sales and lack of availability of the required raw materials. They have, however, been working feverishly in the shadows developing new synthetic substitutes for these materials that have allowed them to breathe new life into the ailing film market.

Hey .. you could rename this .. "PHILzine .. and make it a weekly thing

(*subscribes*)

(*waits by mailbox*)

:o)

or anyone else with news to tell could add it - the emphasis being on news there and not wishlists/guesstimates & rumours :-)

I think these could have some relevance in this thread:

Microsoft: Make our HD Photo format a standard

Microsoft works with Adobe on HD Photo ‘Photoshop’ plugin

(*dejectedly*) .. Oh! ..

(*unsubscribes*)

im guessing the world needs another image format like it needs another storage media format. not. now where did i put that remote for the betamax recorder.

On reflection I should have copy and pasted the fujifilms news again immediately after to counterbalance the feelings of despair created by those articles!

LOL .. no, I type slow .. it was Phil selling out to the cut-rate news wires for the quick score

I mean .. just anybody can post news???

:o)

Flash back to April 17th 2007

Adobe has released an update of its Camera Raw 4.0 plugin and DNG Converter application. They now support the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8 camera. The Camera Raw 4.0 update only works with Photoshop CS3, Elements 4.01 for Mac and Elements 5.0 for Windows.


Windows

Macintosh

and the Windows one being on top is NOT some kind of subliminal trickery


iz knot

Seems that infamous Nikon luddite (but recently converted Canon fan) Ken Rockwell is in the know as to the specs of the replacement for his beloved Canon 5D – the 7D, even down to its retail price and release date – August 22nd, a week before the IFA show.

‘The 7D is the 16MP replacement to the 5D. It will use the sensor from the Canon 1Ds Mk II in the 5D's body. It's a full-frame 24x36mm sensor. If you have something to shoot today, get the 5D since the rebates make it cheap - about $2200 if you get a lens and take full advantage of Canon double rebates. See obsolescence for more. The 7D will come in at $3,099.
It has a greatly improved 3.0" LCD. It creeps up to 3.1 FPS.
It adds Auto ISO and many of the little ergonomic necessities it's lacked compared to Nikons.’

All sounds fine and dandy except for the fact that Canon axed manufacturing that sensor more than a year ago as they already had enough produced to see out the rest of the 1DS’s production lifespan. They may have geared up for mass production again and if they have – it would certainly make for a great update to an already great camera.

50 megapixel crop sensor

Canon have developed a 50 megapixel 19 x 28mm sensor. It is apparently aimed at the surveillance market.

50 megapixel CMOS

The fact that it is a 1.6 crop makes me wonder if they are being a little cagey about it’s use.

You know what, it would be really, really funny if this is what Canon have been so cagey about for the 1DS MK III. It’s not going to happen. It’s not for surveillance – otherwise they never would tell you about it and they have better sensors than that already. If it did appear, soon, in a pro 1 series cam – it would destroy Nikon’s entire business plan for the next decade. Personally, i’d wet myself, repeatedly, laughing at that.

could somebody, in five words or less, explain "crop factors" (or circles)

and why a certain lens would do better on a "crop" sensor or full frame (or vica versa)

I've seen this mentioned many times


also, while I've got you here, explain why a digital camera spits out shutter speeds, like, 10\300ths, etc

and "because it can" is NOT an answer

i'd love to oblige but half a litre of Absolut prohibits. where the hell is Noah when you (occasionally) need him?

i can explain...kinda.
with a "full frame" processor, like the 5D, a wider more evenly distributed, but less magnified image is produced.

a "crop factor, as I understand it, is like digital zoom. it uses a tighter space (processor with less real estate)which "crops" the edges of the image, and simultaneously magnifies it. so a crop factor,kinda sorta measures how much the image is magnified, not just "cropped"

howzat?

...third eye basically said everything...here's what i wrote b4 i pressed the 'submit' button when i didn't mean to:

"Crop factor basically produce a narrower FOV, usually higher noise/grain image (since the photosites [the 'buckets' that collect light] are smaller which require a more electricity/area ratio = noise). The advantages of having a smaller sensor are price to manufacture, and the lenses that are used with them are also (in my mind) cheaper to make since they use less glass b/c the light only has to 'shine' on a DX size sensor vs a full 35mm frame.

A higher 'crop factor' (which is rather lame termonology if you ask me) basically means your sensor size is smaller.

1.6x crop factor means you have a Nikon DX size sensor which means your sensor size is 1/1.6 the size of a full 35mm frame which also means that your image is 'zoomed in' or 'cropped' 1.6 times the 35mm focal length equivelent. "

I wrote this before Noah pressed his button and I don’t want to waste the effort :-)

The crop factor is simply the size of the sensor in relation to 35mm film. So a sensor 18mm x 12mm has a 1.5 crop and so on.

The circle of light or more accurately the cone of light is the spread of light as it leaves the lens on its journey towards the sensor (or film). The lens has to be wide enough for the cone of light to cover the target sensor. If you have a small sensor the lens doesn’t need to be as big to produce a cone or circle of light big enough to cover that sensor.

but uh, this 50 mp sensor delio - sounds cool. I'm just confused for why they would make it so relativly small.

And i have no idea why the exif sometimes shows 10/300ths of a sec shutter speed.

Also, i honestly think i hopped onto the wrong side of the fence...i'm always on the losing side. I haven't seen anything 'impressive' from Nikon in a while - and here canon comes out with a 50mp sensor in DX format (say hello to noise), a MkIII which shoots 12mp @ 10fps [it's 5 fps short of a movie camera], and now they are soon replacing the 5D with something even better!? EVEN BETTER!? Is that possible? I'm disappointed in you Nikon. But i must say, your company name sounds much better and I own some of your equipment so........

...the D200 still rules. It's worth the extra over the 30D just because ... it can't be explained.

oh, and trisbert - much better explanation than mine. I'm getting really good at going on and on and on and on...


...like the energizer bunny, but not in a good way.

you guys don't get paid enough

We know that Keith, our wives tell us all the time :-)

Canon ponders new camera file format


they give no hard facts .. it is little more than a "Hey, remember us? We're movers and shakers in the industry" news post


so .. let's speculate .. I say in order to use the new format you have to hardwire cables from your bellybutton .. this ensures you won't be switching to NIKON when they announce their next big thing .. since the cables won't fit another product

they never do

well it is just a blog rant I guess - there are plenty of new formats jostling for position in the market but I wouldnt count on Mcrosofts product getting much of a hold unless they go down the anti trust route - again - and make it awkward to use anything else on their OS. JPEG2000 seams a more likely proposition.

Kodak color-filter technology could redefine low-light shooting

Kodak has developed a "color-filter technology that at least doubles the sensitivity to light of the image sensor in every digital camera. Read about it here.