Photo&Cameras

A digital microscope that attaches to a computer via a USB port for viewing still and moving images captured at up to ‘200x magnification’ is due out next month.

‘Not only is the Microfix great fun, it can also be used as a great educational tool or for scientific interest,’ explained a spokesman for its UK distributor Intro 2020.

The Summit Microfix Digital Microscope plugs into a USB 2.0 port allowing the user to view the live image on computer screen.

Images can be captured by a click of the mouse or at the ‘touch of a button’.

The gadget costs £79.99 and is due for UK launch in June.

For details call Intro 2020 on 01628 674411.

Souce: www.amateurphotographer.co.uk

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Waiting for the Light is not only a collection of images by David Noton, a highly skilled and highly successful landscape photographer, it is an also insight into the mind of a professional who has won numerous awards and has been working freelance since 1985.

Waiting for the Light is a visual journey of David Noton's work to date. It is an exploration of his images and it showcases some of his very best work. It contains many items from his portfolio which include photographs from every continent around the world. It is highlighted by the accompanying text that places an emphasis on his use of light and his ability to capture the essence of a place. The book is 160 full color pages divided into an introduction and four parts.

"The Waiting Game" reflects on the fact that there is some luck to get the right kind of light, but if you haven't put in the preparation you will not get the perfect shot. Just showing up does not mean you will get great photos. In fact, if you just show up and shoot, all you will be doing is "taking" pictures, not "making" a photograph.

Part one covers "Vision." Before a camera is even touched there is a lot of work to be done. You must first pre-visualize, compose, and plan your photo. These are all things that can be done with only the eyes of a photographer. Being in the right place at the right time is essential. Being there is all about finding, visualizing, and planning an image before shooting the picture. It is about finding a starting point, imagining how it could look, and then being in the right place at the right time.

Here you will explore light; the most fundamental part of photography and a photograph made in the wrong light is worthless. You will see about composing a photograph. This is about arranging shapes in a frame. You also have to take into consideration color; here you will see the five options for color. How you use it will be somewhat dependant on the light, but it will also affect the effect your image will have on others.

Then you will see how distance will give your image scale. Will it be big and majestic, or will it tower and encompass you? Time dominates you as a photographer. If you are doing landscape photography, then you need to be in the right place at the right time. This usually means out before dawn, and out before dusk. These two times of the day are when the light is most vibrant and gives the best shows. These are considered "Happy Hour" for the photographer.

Part two "Environments" cover subjects that are different, giving a photographer their own challenges. The light in a rainforest is different than the light in a desert, and different yet again is the light in the arctic. Whether it is rock, sand, ice, water, wood, or concrete, the author takes you through these subjects and more, showing both the work he has done and the challenges he has faced when working with them.

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From: feeds.blogcritics.org

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LG KF700 multimedia phone : LG launched its LG KF700, a new multimedia phone that combines three input methods to create an amazingly intuitive user interface and provides instant access to features. The LG KF700 is the first mobile phone to integrate three separate input methods, including a 3-inch touch screen, alpha-numeric keypad and Shortcut Dial. Each of these input methods is assigned to the tasks at which it is most best suited, creating a user-optimized interface and making all of the phone’s functions and features instantly accessible. The LG KF700’s touchscreen provides access to features and widgets, an adaptive onscreen interface and a wide aspect ratio that is perfect for watching movies or browsing the internet.

LG KF700 Mobile phone
The Shortcut Dial on the back of the phone quickly scrolls through six user-selected features by controlling a virtual dial on screen, eliminating the need to dig through menus. The Shortcut Dial can also be used to zoom in on web pages, scroll through e-mails or adjust volume. The third input method on the LG KF700 is its alpha-numeric keypad, a feature that customers asked LG to retain because of its familiarity and because it simplifies the process of making phone calls and is excellent for typing text messages.

Wide touchscreen
Together, the LG-KF700’s input methods become even more powerful. When browsing the internet on the wide touchscreen, the shortcut dial zooms in and out on websites. When sending text messages, the alpha-numeric keypad provides all of the letters, while frequently used symbols are readily available on the touchscreen. These symbols change based on users text messaging habits.

LG KF700 Features
One of the LG-KF700’s powerful multimedia features is a full featured Web browser that provides full access to Google Search, Blogs, Gmail, Maps and Youtube. Support for HSDPA 3G networks makes web browsing extremely fast and makes other features like video telephony possible. Other features include an MP3 player, MPEG4 video player, 3.0-megapixel camera, Bluetooth connectivity and more. All of the phone’s multimedia features are packed into a slim and stylish package with a clean, minimalist look. The LG-KF700 multimedia phone is available in black and silver versions, as well as a black version with chrome accents. LG first announced the LG-KF700 at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where it met an enthusiastic reception. The cell phone is now available in Europe and will become available in other markets in the following months.

LG Mobile Phones
“LG has already established itself as a leader in phones with touch technology with Chocolate, the Prada Phone by LG and Viewty, and the LG-KF700 continues this legacy,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Mobile Communications Company. “We realize that touchscreens are a wonderful advancement, but they are not the solution for every problem or every user. We looked beyond just touch when designing the LG-KF700 and studied how people actually use their phones. The LG-KF700’s three separate input methods provide unmatched convenience and mean that users don’t have to give up anything to gain a touchscreen.”

Souce: www.letsgodigital.org

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“The largest cultural construction in the nation of 4.7 million people since the Nidarosdomen Cathedral in Trondheim in the 14th century. This will also be the first opera house in the world where visitors can take a walk on the roof”. Taken by RennyBA

Source: planetearthdailyphoto.blogspot.com

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Kodak ESP 5 printer : Eastman Kodak Company continues to change the way the world prints at home with its new KODAK ESP 5 All-in-One (AiO) Printer. The newest device in Kodak’s consumer inkjet printer portfolio offers the latest in design and performance, providing a high-quality, easy-to-use printing system at a significant value. It leverages Kodak’s premium, low-cost ink that allow consumers to print more photos and documents for their money. The KODAK ESP 5 AiO Printer ($169.99 U.S. MSRP) features a small, sleek design with print, scan and copy capabilities. It has a large 3” color LCD display along with memory card and USB slots to allow consumers to view, edit and print with or without a computer.
Kodak ESP 5 AiO Printer
The KODAK ESP 5 uses Kodak’s high-quality pigmented inks that come in a simple two-cartridge setup – a full black cartridge ($9.99 U.S. MSRP) and a five-ink color cartridge ($14.99 U.S. MSRP). “Kodak is delivering on its promise to end ink profiteering and to bring people affordable, premium ink with the introduction of the new KODAK ESP 5 All-in-One printer,” said Randy Brody, worldwide marketing director, Inkjet Systems at Kodak. “We are focusing on delivering easy-to-use products that provide superb-quality and save up to 50 percent on everything they print compared to similar consumer inkjet printers.”

Revolutionary inkjet printers
Kodak continues to expand its global reach. With its revolutionary inkjet business model and groundbreaking consumer value proposition, Kodak has added additional premier retail accounts to its international distribution channel including consumer electronics, office superstore, warehouse and mass merchandising outlets. New retail partnerships in existing markets include Target Retail Department Stores in the U.S., as well as London Drugs and Canadian Tire in Canada. Beginning in the second half of 2008, Kodak will broaden its current distribution network of more than 8,000 retail stores by expanding into Latin American countries.

Kodak AiO printers
A leading industry research firm, QualityLogic, Inc., recently conducted tests of ink yield of Kodak AiO printers and other leading consumer inkjet printers. The results confirm that one year after launch, KODAK AiO Printers continue to offer consumers the best ink value compared to competitors’ similar consumer inkjet printers. Kodak estimates that consumers who use KODAK AiO Printers can print up to twice as many pages for every dollar spent on ink compared to the industry average.

Independent permanence testing laboratory
Recently the printers were tested extensively by a leading independent permanence testing laboratory, Wilhelm Imaging Research (WIR). According to the results of the industry’s first five-factor print permanence test, spearheaded by WIR, the KODAK AiO Printers and premium pigment-based ink achieved the highest level of overall print permanence of any current consumer desktop printer system tested by WIR. The KODAK AiO Printers, ink, and media achieved WIR Display Permanence Ratings and Album / Dark Storage Ratings of greater than 125 years.

Souce: www.letsgodigital.org

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TrustedReviews have reviewed the new Kodak Z1085 IS Zoom Digital Camera, a high performance, 10-megapixel, 5x optical zoom camera with optical image stabilization.

“With its relatively low price and 10-megapixel resolution the EasyShare Z1085 may look like a bargain, but as usual you get what you pay for. Build quality and design are reasonably good, the image stabilisation system works well and the camera is certainly easy to use, but it has a limited range of features and its overall performance leaves a lot to be desired. Image quality too could be a lot better.”

Website: TrustedReviews - Kodak Z1085 IS Review

Via: feeds.feedburner.com

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Berlin, Potsdamer Platz. Taken by Ulf Buschmann

Source: planetearthdailyphoto.blogspot.com

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It’s always deep in the heart of the forest where the evil lurks. Hansel and Gretel come across the evil witch and her gingerbread house, Little Red Ridding Hood meets the wolf, and countless other fell and dangerous creatures are known to lurk there. Our relationship to trees and forests has a history of being adversarial; in order to establish outposts of civilization, homesteaders would clear away trees to grow the meager crops that keep them alive.

As hard as it for us to imagine, most of the world’s temperate climate land masses, North America, Europe, and parts of Asia were at one time covered with mixed growth forests. Evergreens and deciduous trees stood cheek to jowl and were home to wildlife that has long since vanished. While North America - Canada in particular - is still home to swaths of pristine forest land, Europe’s great stands have been greatly reduced. Where wolves and woodland bison once roamed, small pockets of trees remain that are but ghosts of their past glory.

The majority of us will probably go our entire lives without setting foot in anything resembling a forest, or at best visit one of the domesticated versions where neat roadways and paths lead you through ordered rows of new growth and the occasional old “veteran” tree bearing the scars of the axe that failed to fell him. Yet for those of us willing to make the effort to strike off on our own and enter into the forest world, the experience can be close to mystical. The noise of civilization has ebbed into silence, and we stand there alone with only floating pieces of light and dust, occasional bird song, and small animal life for company.

The first book of Viggo Mortensen’s poems and photographs that I acquired, Coincidence of Memory, had on its cover an image of trees rendered in slightly out of focus shades of grey. Since then I have had the good fortune to be able to view the majority of his books, and in each of them there has been at least one image that has paid homage to the splendour and mystery of trees. So it wasn’t much of a surprise that Skovbo (a Danish word that roughly translates into English as “home in the forest”), his latest book of photographs and poems published by Perceval Press, gathers together images of trees that he has photographed from around the world. Meant to be a companion for an upcoming exhibit of Mr. Mortensen’s photography at the Reykjavik Museum of Photography, Skovbo works just as well as a stand alone collection of work replete with the mystery and beauty of trees.

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From: feeds.blogcritics.org

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Olympus has launched a consumer-level wide angle lens for the Four Thirds system: the Zuiko Digital 9-18mm f/4-5.6. The lens, that offers fields of view equivalent to 18 - 36mm in 35mm terms, makes extreme wide-angle zoom more accessible to users of the Olympus E-System, Panasonic DSLRs and selected Leica Digilux cameras.

Press Release:

ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 9-18mm 1:4.0-5.6 (18-36mm)* extreme wide angle lens for a unique perspective

London, 13 May 2008 – In yet another expansion to the rapidly growing E-System lens line-up, Olympus unveils the ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 9-18mm 1:4.0-5.6 (18-36mm)* extreme wide angle lens. This affordable complement to the ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 18-180mm 1:3.5-6.3 (36-360mm)* enables stunningly original perspectives with an extra-wide field of view. And at just 280g, it weighs in at significantly less than those of the competition. The Four Thirds-based ZUIKO DIGITAL
ED 9-18mm 1:4.0-5.6 (18-36mm)* extreme wide angle lens will go on sale from September 2008 in Olympus’ ‘standard’ range of lenses.

Focus on more with the larger depth of field afforded by the ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 9-18mm 1:4.0-5.6 (18-36mm)* lens. This super-compact and light-weight addition to the E-System family is ideal for anything from sweeping desert landscapes to broad shots: emphasise the green of a cactus against burnt red cliffs, or capture the breadth of a farmer’s market in a single shot. Meanwhile, a remarkably compact design – featuring a diameter of 79.5mm, a length of 73mm and a weight of only 280g – ensures utmost mobility.

Enjoy the impeccable optical quality inherent in all ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses with this bright model: 13 lens elements in nine groups, including one aspherical ED lens and two aspherical elements award the ED 9-18mm 1:4.0-5.6 (18-36mm)* with a pronounced advantage over the competition. Coupled with the ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 18-180mm 1:3.5-6.3 (36-360mm)* lens, this affordable combination provides you with an incredible 9-180mm range (18-360mm)* for unparalleled versatility. A minimum focusing distance of 25cm round out this 2x-zoom model’s list of convenient attributes.

The ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 9-18mm 1:4.0-5.6 (18-36mm)* lens will be available from September 2008.

* Figure in brackets represents 35mm camera equivalent.

Olympus lens specifications

By: www.dpreview.com

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Recently, a picture of Miley Cyrus on the cover of Vanity Fair was released and caused a stir for parents and Miley fans alike. This didn't bother me as much as the pictures that were released of her lying across a teenaged guy with her bra showing. The reason this all surprises me? Guess which picture I hear the most trash about?

Now, I don’t want to pass judgment on Miss Cyrus. What she does in her free time, and what article of clothing is showing is certainly none of my business. I'll be honest, I think she's stupid for letting this all happen – but she's a teenager, and I know from first hand experience that teenagers do stupid things. However, wouldn't you expect more people to be mad about the pictures with her bra showing than the Vanity Fair ones? I mean, which one do you think is going to have a more negative effect on your pre-teen daughter?

I don't even really see what's wrong with the Vanity Fair one. She was covered in a revealing, yet modest way, and she wasn't showing anything big. The biggest thing I have against it was that her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, let it happen. He probably wasn't even there. It can't be easy to be a celebrity and have your daughter be one, too. I'm sure he can't be with her all the time. I don't know if that justifies what happened, but I've certainly seen worse parenting.

Then we have the picture of her and the guy, no doubt a private photo revealed to the public by so-called friends. This one bothers me the most. As a star, you take on a certain responsibility to the public. You have to keep your personality, work with others, and look good for the public, understanding that there will be a few incidents. We're all going to make mistakes, and though in our eyes celebrities are gods, they're actually only human.

Yes, the pictures were private, but, she shouldn't have taken them in the first place. This isn't the first time a picture like this has leaked through, if you all recall the Vanessa Hudgens incident. It's not as if all teenage girls take pictures of themselves in their underwear either, I wouldn't be caught dead doing it, and I know plenty of other girls who wouldn't, either. She could have gone without taking the pictures, but once again, she's a teenager. She's going to do stupid stuff.

Besides, how can she not get in trouble when she's constantly being compared to Britney Spears? People are just looking for the bad stuff about her. I know that most artists and actors hate being compared to someone no matter how true it is, and to face facts, Britney Spears is not the best person to be compared to. Sure, they're similar — they're both young, blonde, original Disney girls. However, does that automatically mean every girl that comes through is going to be like Britney? I haven't heard of anyone comparing Ashley Tisdale to her. Miley seems to be the only one cursed with that. If they keep pushing that reputation on her, eventually Miley's going to follow it.

Do I think this whole incident will ruin Miley's career? Not really. Vanessa seemed to bounce from it well, and hers was worse. However, I just have to wonder if this is the last incident. It better be — Disney is still upset about this one.

From: feeds.blogcritics.org

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