So, it appears of Sony’s DSC-W170, one of their popular ultra-slim point-and-shoots, may sometimes experience an issue with the plating on the bezel around the lens peeling off and splintering. Details on the recall can be found over at Sony, so if you’re thinking your camera is among those affected you might want to check it out so they can get you fixed up.
› archive for August, 2009
Mommy, Where Does Kingston Memory Come From?
Ever wanted to see USB drives like the Data Travelers being made? Do you now that I’ve mentioned the possibility? If you answered yes to either of those, check out the video below (found via Wired) and watch a nice tour of the factory.
Walk This Waaaaaay!
We’re walking around pointing glass again this Wednesday, call it 6:00, in the parking lot for the abandoned Target on US 31 just south of Indianapolis. We’re working on getting a fashionably strapping young lad out to pose for us, and we’re thinking of getting a 1-light location system out with some Pocket Wizards and anyone who wants can get some hands-on experience with using a pack-and-head to overbalance the ambient daylight for some of those edgy, popular urban look photos.
As always, this is a free event, just show up with whatever camera you use and shoot away, or pin Nick and I down and we’ll give you any advice you’re seeking. Tell any photo students you might know, these are always good hands on experiences and if we can get an idea what they want to try we have a greater access to resources and such than they might. Come one, come all!
Canon’s PowerShot G11 Bows Out Of Megapixel War
Canon’s PowerShot G11, the long-awaited and much desired replacement to the no-longer available G10, appears to have politely taken a step back and removed itself from the megapixel wars. Down to 10 megapixels now, versus the 14.7 of its immediate predecessor, the G11 is a self-proclaimed effort on Canon’s behalf to appease the G series fans and to get back to the series’ roots. So, they’ve traded more pixels for better. Good for them, I say. There’s a lot of market pressure these days (especially from Sony, who hand out megapixels like a digital Santa in a beneficent mood), and I’ve never quite seen a new model go backwards in the megapixel count like this. Good show.
Also back is the tilt-swivel LCD of yesteryear, a feature which I’ve weighed in repeatedly in favor of. Admittedly, 99% of the time I never use it. But, it’s nice to know it’s there for when I do need it. The E-P1 would’ve benefited from one, for example.
So, cease any mumblings about people not listening, ye disheartened fans, the G11 seems to be a pretty solid show of faith and effort to accommodate the actual market and not the imaginary one that drives marketing departments sometimes. It is, in short, a camera for photographers, and we all love that.
The Voice of Raw Episode 5
0:00 – Intro
0:18 – New Canons powerShots
1:03 – PowerShot G11
2:46 – PowerShot S90
3:35 – PowerShot SX Series
5:13 – Canon Vixia HF S11
6:37 – Gitzo 5 Star Summer Tour
7:31 – Website Apologies
Canon Announces Powershot G11, Powershot S90, Powershot SX20 IS, Powershot SX120 IS, SD890 IS, SD940
So, finally appearing on Canon’s site today is the long-awaited Powershot G11, the top-of-the-line digital camera replacing the long-hard-to-find G10. It trots out with a 10 megapixel sensor, DIGIC IV processor, 2.8″ tilt-swivel LCD (man I love those things), and a 28-140mm f2.8-4.5 equivalency zoom lens. Of course it also does RAW, and has a small optical viewfinder, as well you’d expect from the G range.
The S range is also back with the S90, the two SX series get upgrades, and there are two new ELPHs. More details to come, right now Nick and I are off to frantically get those up for you to read in full over on the site.
The Digital Negative Petition
OK, so, I don’t actually believe online petitions have ever fixed anything (I notice Firefly remains canceled, for example), but, gorram it, I found a petition I believe in enough that I signed it anyway, and you should too.
The petition is to the major camera manufacturers to try and convince them to add native support for DNG, the “Digital Negative” format introduced by Adobe in 2004 as an attempt to make a universal, archival format for digital photography.
In a world with a different format basically for every camera, the use of one consolidated Raw format (much as JPEG has become the clear winner in the raster arena) would simplify life greatly for any one using multiple systems (I actually tell Lightroom to import all my photos as DNGs already, I hate being beholden to a different format for every camera.) DNG, being supported by the digital imaging giant that is Adobe, also stands a good chance of surviving as long as digital imaging does (look at how long PSD has been around, for example). And, with Adobe’s editing software by and large the most popular solution for tweaking photos, it smooths things a bit more there as well.
In short, I think DNG is a freaking great idea, and more people need to follow in Pentax’s shoes and add it alongside their proprietary formats (or even replace them with DNG).
That petition I mentioned is here: http://www.ishootinraw.com/dng/
Canon’s Rebel XTi Soon To Lose Status As Flickr’s Favorite Son
Flickr is basically the best baseline for what our market is you could ask for: completely voluntary, community-driven. It has only a couple biases, and they fortunately happen to be the same biases our online store operates by: consumer- (versus professional-) centric, and of course skewed towards the opinions of consumers who are also web-savvy.
Sounds like online shoppers to me.
Anyway, it’s been a big deal around the tech blogs that the long-time top camera on Flickr– the venerable Canon Rebel XTi–is soon to be displaced by a new most-popular camera– the iPhone. No, seriously. Mock them as many of us might, the camera phone is clearly arising as the new snapshooter of preference in the internet crowd. Interesting to note, and it means I’ll pay a bit more attention to Sony’s continual efforts in that arena (boy they love putting megapixels into anything that’ll sit still long enough for them to).
Rounding out the top 5 cameras on Flickr are two more Canon’s and the legendary Nikon D80. Flickr also breaks down statistics by point-and-shoot (Canon owns the top 5), DSLR, brand, camera hone, etc.. So, if you’re looking to see what’s popular in the Web 2.0 crowd, here’s your new bookmark: http://www.flickr.com/cameras/
Raw Footage and the Nikon D300s
Nick and Derek take a moment in the Bag Jungle ™ to demo the new Nikon D300s, and play around with it’s shiny new HD movie recording and how it works with AF, especially.
The Voice of Raw Episode 4
0:00 – Intro
0:17 – Nikon’s Photowalk
1:17 – Future Photowalks
2:07 – Nikon D300s
2:47 – Website Issues / Upgrades
3:33 – Gitzo 5-Star Summer Tour
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