Fujifilm UK Press Release

A polar first, and maybe a last. Captured on Fujifilm - Fujifilm memory cards to document a historic journey to the North Pole and beyond

Fujifilm is proud to announce that its CompactFlash cards have been selected for Adventure Ecology’s epic expedition across the ice of the Arctic ocean, from Russia to Canada via the North Pole. Due to the rise in global temperatures, this transcontinental ice route may soon be inaccessible by man, and the images documenting the team’s journey will become our last record of this path. The four-person team, including Britons David de Rothschild and photographer Martin Hartley, departed early March from Cape Arctichesky in Russia and are travelling across the ice towards the North Pole, then on to Canada. The trip will cover 1,240 miles, and, if completed, will be the first time that Britons have made the surface polar crossing from Canada to Russia. Images and reports detailing the expedition’s day-by-day progress can be viewed at: www.adventureecology.com/mission1

Sony Europe Press Release

Paris, 7 March 2006 - Sony Europe’s Recording Media & Energy (RME) division today announced that its first Blu-ray Disc media will ship in Europe in March 2006. Single-layer BD-RE (Blu-ray Disc Rewritable) media will be available in store from mid March and single-layer write-once BD-R (Blu-ray Disc Recordable) media will be available from April. Sony is also set to launch dual layer discs later this year. The single-layer Blu-ray Disc Recordable (BNR25A) and Blu-ray Disc Rewritable (BNE25A) media offer a storage capacity of 25GB, more than five times that of a normal DVD and enough for approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes of video at a bit rate of 24Mbps, or 10 hours and 30 minutes at 5Mbps.1 The new generation media support 2X speed which equates to a data transfer rate of 72 Mbps (9 MB/s), making the discs suitable for video recording as well as data storage and file backup. In addition, Sony’s Blu-ray Disc media will feature its unique AccuCORE™ technology as standard, ensuring reliable data recording, increased disc protection and enhanced durability.

Lastolite Press Release

RayD8 – An affordable lighting system that provides quality results! Award winning manufacturer Lastolite has launched RayD8, an entry-level studio lighting system for product and portrait photography.

The kit contains:
• 2 x light heads
• 2 x reflectors
• 2 x 500w P2/l lamps
• 2 x 4 section stands (min height 86cm (34in), max height 297cm (117in)
• 2 x 80cm white Lastolite reflective professional PVC umbrellas

Gitzo Press Release

Gitzo Introduces Traveler Monopod Featuring Breakthrough 6X Carbon Fiber Technology - Light and compact tripod composed of new, 30% lighter 6X carbon fiber and offers strength, stability and high performance.

February 28, 2006—When it comes to traveling with photographic equipment, one thing is true for all photographers on the move – size matters. Gitzo, revered throughout the world for its precision, quality and innovation in bringing new products to market for both the professional photo and video markets, is proud to announce the Traveler GM2560T 6X Monopod. The lightest and most compact carbon fiber monopod Gitzo has on the market, the Traveler, when completely folded, stands at a diminutive 14.3 inches, weighs less than one pound and fits in any case. At 56.1 inches when fully extended, the Traveler rises as tall as most standard Gitzo monopods. This Traveler monopod also incorporates Gitzo’s revolutionary 6X technology tube, which reduces overall monopods weight up to 25% percent without sacrificing strength or stability.

Gitzo Press Release

Gitzo Introduces Mountaineer Tripod Featuring Breakthrough 6X Carbon Fiber Technology - New 6X carbon fiber is 30% lighter without sacrificing strength or stability.

February 28, 2006—Gitzo, revered throughout the world for its precision, quality and innovation in bringing new products to market for both the professional photo and video markets, is proud to announce the Mountaineer GT2540L 2 Series 6X Long Tripod. The new tripod is an extension of the popular Mountaineer line as well as part of a new line of carbon fiber tripods incorporating a revolutionary design process that reduces overall weight up to 17 percent without sacrificing strength or stability. Available in a four leg section configuration and with a maximum capacity of 17.65 lbs, the new Mountaineer rapid column tripod introduces a new concept of “Eye Level” height tripods. According to this concept, tripods can hold the equipment up to eye level without extending the center column. Photographers and birders no longer need to compromise between tripod performance and use comfort. The taller GT2540L reaches maximum heights of 58.85 and 67.7 in (with fully extended central column) and folds to 24 in for travel.

PMA 2006: The Sandisk 8GB Extreme 3 card will cost £320 in the UK.

Sandisk Press Release

SanDisk Doubles Capacity Of Its SanDisk Extreme III Cards - Its Fastest Digital Film Cards For Professional Photographers - 8-Gigabyte Extreme III Cards Offer Speed, Performance and Capacities That Are Ideal For Digital SLRs

ORLANDO, FL, Feb. 26, 2006 - SanDisk® Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) today announced the addition of new card capacities to its Extreme III line of flash cards for professional digital cameras that are double the highest capacity points currently available. The new cards include the 8-gigabyte (GB)1 CompactFlash®, 2GB SD™ and 2GB Memory Stick PRO Duo™ digital film cards. The announcement was made at the Photo Marketing Association trade show where SanDisk is demonstrating products in booth #2741. SanDisk Extreme III CompactFlash and SD cards have minimum write and read speeds of 20 megabytes per second (MB/sec.) Memory Stick PRO Duo cards have minimum write and read speeds of 18 MB/sec. 2 The SanDisk Extreme III cards, which range in capacity between 1- and 8GB are among the world’s fastest working cards in many of today’s leading digital single lens reflex (SLR) cameras. 3

PMA 2006: The SD Plus Ultra II 2GB card will cost £75 in the UK.

Sandisk Press Release

SanDisk Doubles Capacity of Innovative USB-Flash Memory Combo Card - Folding SD Plus Card Eliminates Need For Separate USB Card Reader

ORLANDO, FL, Feb. 26, 2006 – SanDisk ® Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) today introduced a 2-gigabyte (GB) SanDisk Ultra ® II SD ™ Plus card, thus doubling the capacity of its award-winning storage card that combines USB connectivity and flash memory storage. The card looks and functions like a typical SD card and its high speed makes it ideal for digital cameras, camera phones and digital video cameras. Folding the unique card in half reveals a high-speed USB 2.0 connector that plugs into any USB port to easily and quickly transfer photos or other data to a computer without the need for a separate card reader. The announcement was made at the annual Photo Marketing Association (PMA) Show at the Orange County Convention Center where SanDisk is demonstrating products in Booth #2741.

PMA 2006: The MS Pro Duo Ultra II 4GB card will cost £140 in the UK.

Sandisk Press Release

SanDisk Announces 4-Gigabyte Memory Stick Pro Duo Cards For Digital Photographers - Ability To Take Thousands Of High-Resolution Images Lets Photographers Concentrate On Their Subject

ORLANDO, FL, Feb. 26, 2006 - With increasing sales of high-resolution digital cameras, video camcorders and other electronics devices that require more memory capacity and speed, SanDisk ® Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) today announced the 4-gigabyte (GB) SanDisk Ultra ® II Memory Stick PRO Duo ™ card. The addition of this card to its high-speed SanDisk Ultra II line of flash memory cards represents a doubling of its highest capacity card in this card format. The announcement was made at the Photo Marketing Association trade show where SanDisk is demonstrating products in booth #2741. The Ultra II cards are primarily targeted to advanced digital photographers with high-resolution digital cameras that require fast, large-capacity digital film cards to quickly shoot many high resolution images. Each SanDisk Ultra II card features a minimum write speed of 9 megabytes per second (MB/sec.) and a minimum read speed of 10MB/sec. These fast write speeds are designed to take advantage of advanced digital camera features such as rapid fire, continuous-shooting modes or to capture digital video clips.

PMA 2006: Pretec Press Release

ORLANDO, Fla.—Feb. 26, 2006—Pretec Electronics Corp., the 2nd company in the world offering CompactFlash memory card (CF) since 1995, is exhibiting the ultra high speed CF card at CFA booth #3076, here in PMA at the Orange County Convention Center. PRETEC 133X CF Card is capable of running at up to 20MB/sec and 14MB/sec of access speed in read & write, enabling users to enjoy the exciting multimedia experience in applications such as high-resolution and high-speed digital cameras where faster write speed means lower set-up time between pictures. PRETEC 133X CF card is more than 50% faster than its predecessor, PRETEC 80X CF card, the fastest CF card in the world two years ago, and is fully ATA/True IDE compatible and operational in both 5V and 3.3V platforms. The introduction of the high performance CF card addresses the growing need for higher density and faster speed data storage in leading-edge products and systems.

PMA Show 2006: PhotoVu™ Announces Compatibility with Leading Photo Sharing Portals Apple® iPhoto® 6 Photocasts, flickr™, MSN® Spaces, and SmugMug™

Orlando, FL—February 24, 2006—Today PhotoVu™, the leading wireless digital picture frame company, announced a major new software release enabling PhotoVu owners to download public content from four popular photo sharing services. Using RSS technology available from these select services, the PhotoVu can automatically download and synchronize an unbelievably diverse variety of photo content which is freely available in the public domain. “Whether it’s downloading beautiful nature and travel photos from a “public group feed,” or having a friend or family’s PhotoVu automatically retrieve a special album of pictures you’ve uploaded for them to see, this new software adds a whole new and very powerful capability to the PhotoVu line of digital picture frames,” said Robert Jordan, Partner, PhotoVu. “The response from our early beta customers has been extremely positive and we look forward to making this new software available to all of our existing and new customers in the coming weeks.”

Lastolite Press Release

Direct the light with one hand whilst operating the camera with the other! Following the success of the TriGrip and the Ezybalance, Lastolite have now released the TriBalance. A double-sided Trigrip, same shape and size as the original, with the same technicality as the Ezybalance! A reflector on one side for filling in those shadows and on the other is one black/white/grey side and is therefore an ideal location tool which can be used pre-capture to white balance your camera or to accurately set your exposure and post capture for colour correction.

Lastolite Press Release

Spend more time capturing the moment and less worrying about exposure and calibration! The new XpoBalance is the perfect location tool which can be used pre capture to white balance your camera or to set your exposure more accurately and in post capture for colour correction and bracketing. The XpoBalance is double sided and collapses into a handy 15cm (6in) pocket size bag making it a must have. It is perfect for the photographer working under pressure. Weddings, catwalks etc. It’s simple. Take a photo in each different lighting situation and adjust exposure and calibration post capture in your image editing software. You only need to do this to one photo taken in each lighting situation, save the settings and apply to all of your other photos and batch them!

PMA 2006: PNY Technologies announce their new lineup for PMA 2006. Highlights include a 4Gb SD card, SD card with USB connectivity and 512MB and 1GB xD-Picture cards.

PNY Technologies Press Release

PNY Technologies 4GB SD
New higher capacity 4GB Secure Digital™ (SD) flash media cards by PNY Technologies®, Inc. can store 788 images for photo enthusiasts with a 3 mega pixel digital camera, and even more images with higher mega pixel cameras.* Available in Q1 2006, PNY’s 4GB SD memory card comes with a lifetime warranty.

PNY Technologies SD USB
Eliminate the need for card readers with PNY Technologies’ new SD Card with built in USB connectivity. The new dual-function device works seamlessly in any SD card slot of digital cameras, PDAs, camcorders and camera phones. The device can be plugged directly into a USB port allowing users to easily transfer and store files. Available in Q2 2006, PNY’s SD Card with USB Connector will come in 256MB and 512MB capacities.

Delkin Devices Press Release

Poway, CA. February 22, 2006- Delkin Devices, makers of high quality digital photography products and accessories, announced the addition of Scratch Armor to their Archival Gold line. They are available in both CD-R and DVD-R formats. Scratch Armor’s protective layer prevents scratches, scuffs, dirt, chemicals, and fingerprints; making it the best way to protect your precious memories, music, and important documents. The clear scratch resistant coating that comes on the Archival Gold media prevents damage from the daily grind that CD’s and DVD’s are faced with. Combined with Archival Gold’s established reliability, Archival Gold with Scratch Armor also increases the quality and lifespan of your recordable media.

PMA 2006: The Logitech NuLOOQ Professional Series offers a new method of control for Adobe Creative Suite. The NuLOOQ Professional Series costs $149.99 and will be available in March. The NuLOOQ tooldial can be purchased separately online for $49.99 at www.logitech.com/nulooq.

Logitech Press Release

Logitech Brings New Levels of Control to Adobe Creative Suite 2; NuLOOQ Navigator Device Places Controls at the Fingertips; NuLOOQ Tooldial Software Centralizes Tools under the Cursor

ORLANDO, Fla.—Feb. 23, 2006—Logitech (SWX:LOGN)(NASDAQ:LOGI) and Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) today announced the results of a collaboration to provide creative professionals and design enthusiasts new levels of control when using Adobe(R) Creative Suite 2 (CS2) and standalone CS2 applications: the NuLOOQ(TM) Professional Series. The new Logitech product line comprises the NuLOOQ navigator(TM), an innovative device used in conjunction with a mouse and a keyboard to manipulate images and documents, and the NuLOOQ tooldial(TM), customizable on-demand interface software that provides quick access to design tools. Both are designed for use with the Mac(R) versions of Adobe Creative Suite 2, Adobe Illustrator(R) CS2, Adobe InDesign(R) CS2, and Adobe Photoshop(R) CS2. The NuLOOQ Professional Series places the frequently used tools and options in the Adobe Creative Suite right at creative professionals’ fingertips, saving them time and giving them the ability to shift their focus to the most important aspect of design - imagery and layout.

Sigma Press Release

Notice to customers using Sigma’s NA- i TTL type flashguns

The Sigma Corporation is pleased to announce firmware updates that bring refined performance to the EF-500 DG SUPER NA-iTTL and EF-500 DG ST NA-iTTL flashguns. This free firmware update service will be given to customers from February 20, 2006 onwards. This firmware update service will ensure compatibility of the above-mentioned flashguns with the i-TTL system of the D2X, D2H, D2Hs and D200 digital SLR cameras. This update service is only possible if the above flashguns’ back panel shows NA-iTTL marking. (This update service is not available if only “NA” is marked on the back of the flashgun). Concerning the EM-140 DG NA-iTTL, we will post further information regarding service procedure and time-scales in due course.

Photo-i have taken a look at the new affordable Pantone huey monitor calibration device.

“The first thing that strikes me is its small size, its about the same size as a Wacom pen. The huey has eight tiny suckers which hold it in place on the screen and it can be used for both LCD and CRT screens (and laptops). I was reluctant to use this on the delicate surface of a LCD screen. The suckers need a slight amount of moistening, I resisted the temptation to lick the suckers and used a damp cloth. A small amount of pressure is required to make the huey stick to a LCD screen, but not enough to cause any damage. For CRT screens there isn’t a problem, just whack it on.”

Website: Photo-i - Pantone huey Review

Ferrania Press Release

Ferrania claims clear lead in inkjet photo paper market with exclusive PerDura™ Technology - Photos printed on PermaPix™ Advanced Archival inkjet photo paper will last a lifetime

Orlando, Fla. — February 26, 2006 — Ferrania Technologies today is exhibiting its revolutionary DIMA and TIPA award-winning inkjet photo paper that offers consumers lifetime protection for their color photos.  PermaPix™ Advanced Archival inkjet photo paper from Ferrania features the company’s exclusive PerDura™ Technology, which protects color images from ozone, water and other environmental elements that typically degrade photo quality. Ferrania demonstrated the paper and exhibited packaging for the PermaPix™ brand at the Photo Marketing Association International (PMAI) Annual Conference in Orlando today, Booth #3364. The PermaPix™ Advanced Archival inkjet photo paper — which is available in 15-sheet 8.5” x 11” and 50-sheet 4” x 6” retail packages — allows consumers to print highly durable, archival photos with any ordinary inkjet printer, whether it uses dye-based or pigmented inks.  Ferrania, which began shipping the PermaPix™ paper last year, claims that the paper is a perfect solution for a widespread consumer need.

Ferrania Press Release

Ferrania Technologies continues expansion of OptiJet™ family of inkjet cartridges and paper - Company adds new cartridges and papers for use in new Epson, Canon, HP and Lexmark printers

Orlando, Fla. — February 26, 2006 — Ferrania Technologies unveiled an expanded family of OptiJet™ inkjet cartridges and inkjet media today at the Photo Marketing Association International (PMAI) Annual Convention in Orlando (booth #3364).  The new cartridges are designed to provide cost-effective alternatives for consumers who have purchased one of the many new inkjet printers and multi-function machines that have hit the market in the past several months.  New media give consumers a wide range of sizes and stocks from which to choose, all with National Brand quality at a fraction of the cost. “The cost of inkjet cartridges makes them the single largest expense over the life of a desktop printer. The ultimate costs dwarf the initial purchase price of the printer,” said Tom Zohn, Inkjet Director of Growth for Ferrania.  “Bringing these new, value-priced cartridges to market gives consumers more choices when they shop and it gives retailers flexibility and depth in their product lines.  Best of all, it helps reduce the total cost of ownership for many inkjet printers.”

ExpoImaging Press Release

ExpoImaging to Exhibit ExpoDisc Digital White Balance Filters at PMA—A Fast and Easy Custom White Balance Solution for Professional Photographers

ExpoImaging Booth 5132 and at Sneak Peek 2/26 at Westcott Table

ORLANDO, FL (Feb. 26, 2006) – ExpoImaging Inc., the pioneer in diffusion filters that allow professional photographers and videographers to accurately color balance at capture, will exhibit its ExpoDisc Digital White Balance Filters here at PMA. The ExpoDisc is a custom white balance filter that allows digital photographers to set a custom white balance without having to carry, hold, position, or fumble with any of the numerous gray cards, white cards and targets available today. The snap-on white balance filter is, in effect, a gray card in filter form, without all the hassles and inconsistencies of a gray card.  The ExpoDisc is suitable for use with any digital still and video camera with a custom white balance function, including digital SLR and fixed lens prosumer cameras.