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Eye-Fi for others

Eye-Fi – makers of the wireless memory card (SD) for digital cameras has announced two new online sites where users can upload their photos directly from their camera. The new sites are Adobe Photoshop Express and Nikon's myPicturetown. 

The Eye-Fi card is the world's first wireless memory card for digital cameras. Once an image is loaded onto the card from a digital camera, it will now have the abilility to upload to Adobe® Photoshop® Express and Nikon's my Picturetown (along with a a list of other previes sites including flickr, Costco.com, Kodak Gallery, shutterfly and snapfish among others). For a complete list, click here.

From the online sites, others can view your photos at those sites or even order prints.

Eye-Fi also announced expanded retail availability at Circuit City stores nationwide and on www.circuitcity.com.

The Eye-Fi cards range in price from $79-$129 and are PC and Mac compatible.

-- Gregg Ellman

New Panasonic camera lineup

Panasonic rolled out their new line of digital cameras on Monday.

Among the four models includes the 10.1 megapixel LUMIX DMC-FZ28 digital camera, which includes a 27mm wide-angle LEICA lens and an 18x optical zoom.

The camera includes a new auto focus tracking function, designed to make it easy for photographers to achieve sharply focused photos - even with subjects moving. This function will also improves Face Detection (up to 15 faces), by providing continuous adjustment of the exposure and focus on the faces, even if they are not facing the camera.

Other features include Digital Red-eye Correction, Intelligent ISO, which will  determines if the subject is moving and the changes the ISO setting and shutter speed accordingly.This will help ensure a blurry free photo with a proper exposure.

If scene modes are your thing, you'll be able to enjoy 37 scene modes to work with most any  shooting situation.

The Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FX37 will be available in September in the colors of silver, black, blue, pink, white and brown with an MSRP of $349.95. 

The new 10.1 megapixel LUMIX DMC-FX37 digital camera has a 25mm wide-angle LEICA DC lens, giving users an ultra wide view - up to double of the same distance used with a 35mm cameras.

Users who like to use digital still cameras for video as well will enjoy High Definition video recording, with a 5x optical zoom lens.

The camera is loaded with many features including Intelligent Exposure to helps to have the correct exposure by instantly analyzing the framed image and adjusting the brightness in dark areas caused by dim lighting, back lighting or the use of the flash.

Digital Red-eye Correction will fixed the hated red-eye effect of direct flash at certain times. Internally, the camera also has 50MB of internal memory, which is a nice safeguard in the event a memory card fills up. While this will only give a user a few extra photos, it will be better to have it then not.

The LUMIX DMC-FX37 will be available in silver, black, blue, pink, white and brown with a MSRP of $349.95 in September 2008.

Panasonics 14.7 megapixels DMC-FX150 has a 28mm wide-angle LEICA DC VARIO-ELMARIT lens with F2.8 brightness and 3.6x optical zoom. 

Unlike most of the digital camera's out these days, this one has manual controls to allow the users to choose the shutter speed.

The FX150 captures images in the RAW file format and comes with software (SILKYPIX Developer Studio 3.0SE) for the users to adjust the RAW files.

A new Auto Focus tracking will let the the camera to lock focus on a moving object.

Intelligent Scene Selector will senses the ambient conditions and will recognize the shooting environment and then automatically select the appropriate scene modes.

The LUMIX DMC-FX150 will be shipping in August and colors include silver and black with an MSRP  of $399.95.

Panasonic's 10.1 megapixel UMIX DMC-LX3 digital camera, is built for quality with its 1/1.63-inch CCD. By limiting the amount of megapixels (10.1 is more then enough), the camera gives more space for each pixel, which in turn helps minimize noise in the digital photos.

A great added feature is the F2.0 24mm ultra wide-angle LEICA DC VARIO-SUMMICRON lens.  This is about twice as bright as a more standard F2.8 lens, allowing users to shoot at higher shutter speeds to capture clear, blur-free images in dimly lit environments. The  24mm lens will capture about a 213% larger viewing angle than a normal 35mm camera and 136% larger compared to a 28mm wide-angle lens.

The LUMIX DMC-LX3 will be available in August in silver and black with an MSRP of $499.95.

-- Gregg Ellman

Digital safe

Summer travelors should look to take along the new Digital Foci Photo Safe II, which will allow users to store digital photos without the need of a computer.

Photo Safe II hard drives come in capacities of 80GB and 160GB and have built in card readers for direct download of digital photos and video's. Using this allows photographers to not have to have an extra supply of digital memory since the cards in hand can be cleared off whenever needed.

The pocket sized gadget runs off of a rechargeable battery and is simple to use. Just insert your digital memory into the card slot and then hit the one-touch “Auto Copy” button, to copy your images in speeds up to 5.0MB/sec, so a full 1GB card can be copied in approximately 3½ minutes.

According to Digital Foci, Photo Safe II works with all popular card formats, including CF (Extreme III, IV, UDMA), MMC, SD/HC Card, miniSD, Memory Stick, MS PRO, MS Duo, MS PRO Duo, and xD-Picture card.

A Back lit LCD screen displays operational status, active partition, remaining hard drive capacity and battery life.

Other features include the option to delete the memory cards for additional shooting and it can be hooked up to both a Mac and PC as a hard drive to download to a computer.
An auto shut-off function saves battery power for extended usage.

The Photo Safe II is available with a MSRP of $139 MSRP for 80GB and
$189 MSRP for 160GB.  and they come with a one-year warranty. 

For more information, see www.digitalfoci.com

-- Gregg Ellman

Casio's September offering

CASIO has introduced the worlds slimmest digital camera recently.

The 8.1 megapixel EXILIM Zoom EX-Z150 has a 4X optical zooms, CCD-shift anti-shake function and a very nice 3.0 inch LCD display.

Other features include a wide-angle 28 mm (35 mm film equivalent) - all in a .79” thick body.

It will be available in September, in silver and black, red, pink and green with an MSRP of $199.99.

-- Gregg Ellman

Great underwater

New from  and a taking your Olympus 10.1 megapixel pocket digital camera underwater.

Thats part of what I wrote about this week in my gadgets column.

And before you read it, I'll tell ya' this - the underwater camera performs great underwater and is a ton of fun. It was the hit of many summer parties for me so far.

-- Gregg Ellman

the best get better

Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader (I would strongly agree) in digital cameras today announced a new entry-level digital SLR - the 10.1 megapixel EOS Rebel XS. It's a a camera for those new to the digital world or just upgrading from a  pocket-sized point and shoot camera.

Canon has also introduced the latest model in the EX series of Speedlite flashes: the Canon Speedlite 430EX II.

Read the full details here.

-- Gregg Ellman

Fireworks photography

With fireworks lighting up the sky for the upcoming Forth-of-July holiday, Star-Telegram Staff Photographer Sharon Steinman (and MISD Summit High School photojournalism teacher) has offered up these tips on capturing the moments with a digital camera:

1 - Take a tripod

2 - Use the bulb setting on your SLR or the night/fireworks setting
on your point and shoot (the slowest shutter speed setting you have).

3 - Use a medium length lens (a wide angel will make the fireworks
seem very small, and a telephoto will cut most of them off - in fact you
might miss the firecrackers all together.

4 - if you are shooting digital: don't leave the shutter open too
long. Try for one or two blasts at a time. The digital sensor seems to capture
more ambient light and you lose detail in the fireworks if you leave the
shutter open really long.

5 - Take lots of shots, you can always delete what you don't want.

6 - On an SLR shoot at about 400 ISO and at f/8 or f/11, then try
leaving the shutter open for varying lengths of time. I Usually start at
1 sec then go up from there (2 seconds, 4 seconds, 8 seconds, 15
seconds, 30 seconds etc.)

7 - If you don't have a cable release try using the self timer to cut
down on camera shake.

8 -Try to put something in the foreground for visual interest. If
you turn on the flash you will be able to see all the details, if you
turn off the flash you will have a black silhouette  surrounded by your
firework blast (if you line it up right).

9 - Take a small flashlight with you so you can read the settings on
your camera.

10 - Try to stay away from the big crowd of people...running kids
will shake your tripod/camera and cause blur, ambient light doesn't make
the pictures better. The darker it is, the better.

-- Gregg Ellman

New from Nikon

Fresh out today, Nikon has announced some new digital cameras. They include the FX-format D700 Digital SLR, the SB-900 Speedlight Flash, and the new 45mm and 85mm PC-E lenses. Highlights for these products include:

The D700 D-SLR is a 12.1 megapixel, Digital SLR, which delivers all of the high image quality, in low-light performance, and speed of the Nikon D3 in a smaller, lighter camera body. Other fireatures include Live View, automatic sensor cleaning, Active D-Lighting, weather sealing against dirt and moisture and the 51 point AF system.  Expect availablity in late July,with an  estimated selling price of $2999.95

Nikon’s newest PC-E lenses, the PC-E Micro NIKKOR 45mm f/2.8D ED and PC-E Micro NIKKOR 85mm f/2.8D – give photographers control over tilt and shift to adjust perspective and adjust linear distortion.They also provide excellent depth of field control,making them ideal for shooting buildings or product photography. Expect them out in August with selling prices the new 45mm - $1,799.95 and 85mm for $1,739.95

For the SB-900 Speedlight, it has a zoom range of 17-200 feet, and includes Nikon’s wireless capabilities, the intelligent and versatile SB-900 Speedlight takes its place as the new Speedlight flagship. It will be available in August with an estimated selling price of $499.95.

-- Gregg Ellman

Tips on photoshop via video

O'Reilly Media and digital imaging master Deke McClelland has created a wild and funny music video about Photoshop. It packs in 101 Photoshop Tips in about 5 minutes.

How would of thought you could learn about photoshop watching some dude croon, buzz, leap, dance, and kick-box his way through dozens upon dozens of useful Photoshop tricks.

Well - he did it.  I watched it, I timed it and counted - they are all there.

Watch it at O'Reilly Media.

-- Gregg Ellman

Tested and tested

A job well done by Consumer Reports.

The July issue tested 56 models of digital cameras (point-and-shoot and SLRs) and the results revealed a wider range of performance than in past reports, with some models that rise to the challenges and a number that fall short.

This one sentence should make first time buyers take a look at this report: Many of the new point-and-shoots responded fairly quickly when their shutters were pressed, though none have the near instantaneous response of SLRs.

But if you're still shooting film, don't bother reading.

-- Gregg Ellman