Archive for August, 2008

OK! I don’t really know what it will be but one of the web sites I regularly check (Photoshop Insider) announced a bizarre event: WorldWide PhotoWalk. The idea is just to have photographers going to a place to walk together in a town they know in order to shoot a few pictures and… share.

This afternoon, I decided to go to the Photowalk in Paris tomorrow morning (if I wake up early enough to be there by 10am).

I known this is a last-minute decision, but if you’re in Paris, why not join? It’s free.

Sony Alpha 900 at Photo Image exhibition in Brazil [1].

Even knowing that those are machines created to kill people, you will not be able to keep yourself from laughing or smiling at some of absurdly extreme designs generated by the brains of some military engineers.

Source: Dark Roasted Blend.

The Canon web site in China just made a big error probably very revealing since it has been leaking the detailled cahracteristics of the a new Digital SLR camera named Canon EOS 50D (so, this is the long-awaited successor to the beautiful Canon EOS 40D).

The level of details is extraordinary (for leaked data), which certainly means that the camera is fully ready and will be announced at the next Photokina fair (in less than a month) or on August 26th, 2008 (as I was told previously).

• 15.1 megapixel CMOS sensor
• DIGIC 4
• 1.6x crop
• Dust Reduction
• Automatic correction of brightness/vignetting
• 95% viewfinder, 0.97 magnification
• 9 point AF(All Cross Type)
• 35 meter area equipped with high-precision sensors
• AF Fine Tuning
• ISO 100-12800
• 6.3 fps (high speed) 3fps (low speed)
• Buffer: 16 RAW – 60 JPG – 10 RAW+JPG
• 920,000 points VGA 3.0-inch LCD monitor
• 100,000 cycle shutter
• Rugged magnesium alloy body

Full Specification for Canon EOS 50D (in English partly translated from Chinese)

(more…)

The next camera from Nikon is upon us. Nobody has officially seen it, but prices start to appear here and there. Nikon D90 with an 18-105mm VR lens will be at $1299.99.

Official announcement forecasted for August 27th, 2008.

According to German photo magazine, Foto Magazin, the future Nikon D3x pro SLR camera will be fitted with the Sony image sensor that was presented a few months ago and that is expected to appear on the Sony Alpha 900 camera (high-end D-SLR from Sony). If this is confirmed, it would mean that the Nikon D3 will have a successor under the name of Nikon D3X (or D4) and that the Sony sensor is really of the utmost quality.

We knew that it was coming with 25 million pixels, but it could have been short on quality compared to the D3 (or D700) sensor because of its small (but many) pixels. For Nikon to accept to use this Sony sensor (and not a better one) at this level of products, they must be sure to have the best possible silicon piece: Pros want wonderful images, not only big figures (a big bunch of pixels).

I was thinking differently, but this could tilt the scale toward a very high price for the Sony Alpha 900 camera (I had hoped to see less than 2500€ or even less than 2000€, but -now- I would not be surprised if the label looked like 3000€).

However, it would leave some space left in the Sony camera range for an Alpha 800, with an intermediate price. This could be quite neat if it allowed to have a super-featured Full Frame camera around 3000€ (the Sony Alpha 900) and another Full Frame under 2500€ (the hypothetical Sony Alpha 800).

With such arguments, nobody would be surprised in seeing a brother to the recent Nikon D700: The ruored Nikon D800?

Let’s see at Koln Photokina opening next month.

RSS feeds attract a very specific readership (if you don’t understand what I’m speaking about, you’re probably not part of this group): They like to fast read information, they want to avoid being disturbed by clutter from the original web site, they are ready to use different tools (more technical tools: Feed readers) to support their reading.

If you are one of the RSS feed readers of Roumazeilles.net, I’d like to have your comments about the possible addition of some ads in our RSS feeds. As usual, I’d try to limit it to a very reasonable level. Additionally, I’d probably still provide an ads-free solution to connect to the RSS feed for those really annoyed at it. But I think it should be fair to give you a chance to comment before I make any decision about it.

This is nearly confirmed, the successor to the very nice Nikon D3 will be named Nikon D4 (and not D3x as was imagined before). The (negative) information comes directly from Chasseurs d’Image and seems very reliable.

I guess it means that Nikon feels this will be a major step forward and not only an upgrade to the existing Nikon D3. Clearly, Nikon is the leading brand in terms of technology leaps this year.

I have to apologize for a rather lengthy stop of the database services at our server. Unfortunately, this left Roumazeilles.net as a dead web site during a few hours.

This is corrected now, but we still have to find exactly what happened (in order to avoid this to hit us again)…

All the details about a simple optical illusion and what we can learn from it about the inner workings of the human brain.

The new full Frame SLR camera from Nikon is just out and there is already a little hack appearing to give it additional features. The Nikon D700 has the capacity to shoot continuously at 8fps if you use the additonal grip. Nikon Watch found a way to allow this very high frame rate without the booster grip.

It may even be working on some other models from Nikon.

Two articles written exactly for photographers willing to improve their flash expertise. I found them on the Internet and wanted to share them with you, photo friends.

• Natural looking flash. Right! It may be very difficult to get a nice looking lighting without burning everything with lights that cry “flash”.
• White Seamless Tutorial. A 5-part article of an exceptionnal quality/expertise but perfectly understandable by anybody willing to get a good studio lighting with a limited budget to have white backgrounds as well as black ones, grey ones, colored ones, with perfect mastering of the result. Really brillant!

For sure, we can find information of the highest quality on the Internet.

Tomorrow, Sony will present to a tighly selected audience a few new photo products among which everybody expects to find the flagship camera taht was announced already more than a year ago. This camera will be the first Sony camera using a Full Frame sensor with 24 millions of pixels.

Most people think that the camera will be christened Sony Alpha 900 (the 9 figure has been used by Minolta for its pro lines). But, well, uhm, the rumor is running free. In Chasseur d’Image, we read that there could be a declination of the camera. Is Sony going to play to the same tune as for the Alpha 300 and Alpha 350?

Why not? It’s only a matter of launching simultaneously a Sony Alpha 900 and an Alpha 950. Both would share the same nice robust body seen previously here and there. But the digital sensor would be different. Imagine:

• Sony Alpha 900 with a 14MP Full Frame sensor
• Sony Alpha 950 with a 24MP Full Frame sensor

or even:

• Sony Alpha 800 with a 14MP APS-C sensor
• Sony Alpha 900 with a 24MP Full Frame sensor

Check here later.

Where are the shadows? Where is the sun? This simple optical illusion could let you think that MC Escher did not survived to 2008.

Source: Dump Trumpet.

Unknown author.