iView Multimedia Press Release 11/05/04

Cross-Platform Media Manager Speeds Workflow for Digital Pros

LONDON, May 11, 2004 - iView Multimedia (iView) today announced that its awardwinning rofessional media management software iView MediaPro is available for the Windows platform. iView MediaPro 2.5 now offers the same robust, highly flexible media management for both Windows and Mac users. Designed for creative professionals in film, video, photography, broadcast, education and scientific fields, iView MediaPro helps streamline workflows. Professionals can quickly and easily import, sort, organize and manage very large volumes and types of digital files?helping cut costs and speed project delivery.

iView MediaPro 2.5 features an improved user interface, enhanced folder and file management, and Adobe XMP support. Windows users can now enjoy all iView MediaPro?s competitive advantages. Unlike other applications, iView MediaPro is supremely flexible. It integrates seamlessly into a user?s worfklow, letting them capture, annotate, organize, search, repurpose and present their digital files in the manner that best works for them.

“I depend on iView MediaPro - it does everything I need and more. Most important, I can configure it to work the way I want it to, because it’s so highly configurable, logical and easy to use and at the same time, powerful,” said Elliott Landy, photographer, known for his photographs of Woodstock generation music legends. (See www.landyvision.com).

It’s only just been announced, but Luminous Landscape already have a review online of DXO Optics Pro.

“DxO Optics Pro is an impressive product, and given what it does the price / performance ratio is attractive. For anyone using a consumer-grade lenses, an extra one or two hundred dollars spent on Optics Pro will elevate the image quality produced to close to that of a much more expensive lens. Of course anyone with one of these expensive lenses can also buy Optics Pro and move their image quality up to an even higher level, so it’s a mugs game to think that this is the holy grail of photography. But it works, it works well, and its not unreasonably priced for what it does.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - DXO Optics Pro Review

DO Labs Press Release 11/05/04

DO LABS RELEASES DXO OPTICS PRO SOFTWARE THROUGH E-STORE OPENING MAY 24TH

Breakthrough software application for serious photographers boosts image quality of digital cameras and lenses

Paris, France (May 11, 2004) - DO Labs, a software company focused on applied mathematics for image enhancement, announces the availability of DxO Optics Pro - its revolutionary software solution for dramatically improving digital image quality.

Designed for use by professional and discerning amateur photographers, DxO Optics Pro software delivers genuine and perceptible quality improvements by automatically correcting images for the following major optical faults:
- Distortion
- Vignetting*
- Blur (lack of sharpness)
- Lateral chromatic aberration

The modular design of DxO Optics Pro allows photographers to maximize performance of their existing and future equipment. In particular, DxO Optics Pro optimizes image quality when shooting conditions are difficult: wide aperture, extreme focal lengths on zooms, lowlight, image edges, wide format sensors, etc? Traditional compromises no longer apply with DxO Optics Pro, photographers can now take full advantage of the possibilities their expensive digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras and lenses offer.

Picasa, Inc. Press Release 10/05/04

Blogger Users Can Add Pictures to Their Blogs With Picasa’s Hello Software

Pasadena, Calif. - May 10, 2004 - Picasa, Inc., the leading developer of software which enables photographers to effortlessly organize, manage and share digital photos, announced today a product integration with Blogger, the free, fast and easy-to-use service for publishing and sharing information online. Through Picasa’s Hello photosharing application, Blogger users can now post photos and captions directly to their personal weblogs, or blogs.

Hello enables users to instantly share images securely over a peer-to-peer network and chat about them. The new Hello “BloggerBot” enables Hello users to post photos and captions to their Blogger blogs. The BloggerBot resizes the photo, uploads and publishes it to the web in seconds.

Shortcut Press Release 06/05/04

NEW RELEASE: Shortcut(R) PhotoArtist(TM) - Turn your Photos into Art.

ARNHEM, May 6, 2004—The official release of Shortcut PhotoArtist is now a fact. Following to its successful showcase introduction at CeBIT 2004, Shortcut just put the finishing touch to their PhotoArtist software.

Shortcut PhotoArtist is a unique, creative tool that lets you make fantastic artwork based on digital photos. For example, you can create a watercolour painting, or give your photo an oil paint effect. Maybe you would like to add contour with fine sketches, and have your work on a
canvas background; by combining different effects and blending modes, artistic possibilities are endless.

Characteristic for PhotoArtist is the focus at fun and creativity. That makes it such a valuable addition to the Shortcut Photo Series. Like the rest of the Series, PhotoArtist offers typical high quality and ease-of-use standards.

PhotoArtist is available for both Macintosh and Windows platforms. The software can be downloaded at http://www.trulyphotomagic.com/downloads

Express Digital Press Release 05/05/04

EXPRESS DIGITAL SHIPS EXPRESS DIGITAL DARKROOM IMAGING WORKFLOW SOFTWARE

Integrates with Labtricity.com Network of Photo Labs & PhotoReflect.com Internet Storefront to Sell Photos

Protects Photo Libraries with USB Darkroom Key for Secures Images

Englewood, CO - May 5, 2004 - Express Digital, the leading provider of professional digital imaging workflow, e-commerce and lab connectivity solutions for the digital photographer, announced today at the Photo Imaging & Design Expo in San Diego shipment of Express Digital Darkroom integrated imaging workflow software for the emerging professional, advanced amateur, digital enthusiast, and professional digital photographer looking to maximize the functionality and investment in their digital camera purchase. 

Express Digital Darkroom provides everything a digital photographer needs for complete photo management, printing and promotion, including wide-ranging image capture; proofing and editing; comprehensive photo storage and management; extensive image enhancement tools and connectivity to Adobe PhotoShop; print fulfillment with Express Digital?s Labtricity network of labs; tracking packages and orders; and Internet publishing and storefront integration to sell photos online with Express Digital’s PhotoReflect Internet storefront. 

PictoColor Corporation Press Release 30/04/04

An easy-to-use tool kit for managing, correcting, preserving and sharing digital photos featuring award-winning iCorrect point-and-click color correction technology

April 30, 2004-Burnsville, MN, USA, PictoColor Corporation has released CorrectPhoto, an easy to use digital photo tool kit for managing, correcting, preserving and sharing digital photos.  With its built-in Windows Explorer, CorrectPhoto provides direct access to Windows XP file management and digital media tools enabling users to transfer their photos to their computer in a snap, find and view their photos as well as copy, rename, or move to new working folders for a truly organized workflow.

With CorrectPhoto’s complete set of photo correction tools, photo enthusiasts can do amazing things like improve a photos composition by zeroing in on the heart of the subject and cropping to standard print sizes, correct for red-eye, and sharpen out-of-focus photos.  And with CorrectPhoto?s award winning iCorrect “point-and-click” color correction technology, users can give every photo the color of life by increasing vibrancy, removing unwanted color cast, correcting exposure and beautifying skin tones and other reference colors.

Breeze Systems Press Release 30/04/04

BreezeBrowser v2.9 adds support for the new Canon EOS-1D Mark II and Sony DSC-F828

30 April 2004: Breeze Systems today released BreezeBrowser v2.9. Canon EOS-1D Mark II, Canon PowerShot Pro1, Sony DSC-F828 and Nikon D70 owners can use this popular workflow tool to view both raw and JPEG images. BreezeBrowser v2.9 now displays Paint Shop Pro files and introduces raw conversion for the Nikon D70, Pentax *ist D, Minolta DiMAGE 7i, A1 and A2 and Olympus E-1, C5050WZ, C5060WZ, C8080WZ cameras.

In the latest part of their The Art of Digital B/W series, Digital Outback Photo have reviewed Roy Harrington’s Quad Tone RIP. This is currently a Mac/Linux only quad tone driver for the Epson 2200/7500/7600/9600 printers. Digital Outback Photo seem to love it, concluding “Excellent! We think you are mainly limited by your own B/W photos and style you like. Wonderful tool for all Mac users (we did not test the Linux version) at a bargain price.”

Website: Digital Outback Photo - Quad Tone RIP Review

Digital Outback Photo have tested an early beta version of Noise Ninja 2.0 for Windows.

“Already version 1.0 was one of the strongest noise removal tools in the market (in the league of Neat Image). The new version 2.0 implements now quality noise removal in a much better to use application. This and the new Mac support will make Noise Ninja a leader in the market of noise removal tools.”

Website: Digital Outback Photo - Noise Ninja 2.0 Preview

Website: Noise Ninja

Nabocorp 25/04/04

cam2pc, the digital imaging solution gets a “video update”!

Nice, France (April 25, 2004) - Bringing on the successful cam2pc 4 series, nabocorp. softwares brings video capabilities to cam2pc, its award winning digital imaging solution.

Most of today’s digital cameras feature the possibility to shoot small videos. This terrific added value makes video files a new key element of digital imaging although no easy-to-use tools are available to users. But with cam2pc 4.3, nabocorp. softwares has the answer!

In May Phase One will launch three new versions of C1 RAW workflow software for Mac and PC: PRO, SE and LE. In addition to a series of new features (described in C1 NEWS no. 15) new camera support has now been included:

PRO
Canon 1D Mark II
Nikon D2H
Nikon D1H
Nikon D1X (New: Mac)
Nikon D100 (New: Mac)
Nikon D70
Fuji S2
Olympus E1
Olympus E10
Olympus E20
Pentax *istD

SE
Canon 1D Mark II
Nikon D2H
Nikon D1H
Nikon D1X (New: Mac)
Nikon D100 (New: Mac)
Nikon D70
Fuji S2
Olympus E1
Olympus E10
Olympus E20
Pentax *istD

LE
Nikon D70
Olympus E1
Olympus E10
Olympus E20
Pentax *istD

From May C1 Rebel will be discontinued as a stand-alone product. The PRO, SE and LE versions all support the Canon 300D and existing Rebel users can upgrade to any of these versions.

Registered C1 Rebel v 1.0 users who were expecting a free upgrade to C1 Rebel v. 2.0 will receive an email about future upgrade opportunities in connection with the May launch.

http://www.c1dslr.com

Adobe has just released an updated version of Camera Raw for Photoshop CS (for both the Windows and Mac platforms). Version 2.2 now includes support for the following cameras:

- Canon PowerShot Pro1
- Canon EOS-1D MARK II

- Kodak DCS Pro 14nx
- Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n

- Konica Minolta DiMAGE A2

- Nikon D70
- Nikon Coolpix 8700

- Olympus C-8080 Wide Zoom

- Sigma SD9
- Sigma SD10

Website: Adobe - Camera Raw 2.2 Update (Windows)

Website: Adobe - Camera Raw 2.2 Update (Mac)

Forgent Networks Press Release 22/04/04

AUSTIN, Texas—(BUSINESS WIRE)—April 22, 2004—Forgent(TM) Networks (Nasdaq:FORG) announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Compression Labs Inc., has initiated litigation against 31 companies for infringement of United States Patent No. 4,698,672 (the ‘672 Patent) in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division. Over the last two years, Forgent’s intellectual property business has generated approximately $90 million from licensing the ‘672 Patent to 30 different companies in Asia, Europe and the United States. Forgent has sought to reach agreements on numerous occasions with all these companies, but as of today, none of the defendants have chosen to license. Forgent has retained Jenkens & Gilchrist, a national law firm, and The Roth Law Firm, of Marshall Texas, to represent it in the litigation.

Breeze Systems Press Release 22/04/04

Downloader Pro 1.3 adds support for Canon EOS-1D Mark II and Sony DSC-F828 cameras

22nd April 2004: Breeze Systems today released Downloader Pro 1.3. This simple but powerful tool enables photographers to transfer images to a PC at the touch of a button, renaming and storing them with file and directories names chosen by the user. It includes sophisticated handling of IPTC data, automatic lossless rotation of JPEGs and support for downloading from card readers and portable hard drives.

The new release allows users to :
- View thumbnails of images to be downloaded
- Gain even greater control when automatically sorting images as they are downloaded
- Use the camera model name mapping function to give meaningful names identifying the camera used to take pictures e.g. when different members of the family have their own camera this function can be used to download images to separate directories e.g. D:PhotosJohnsPro1, D:PhotosSuesD70
- Simplify workflow by automating the creation of sets of related directories for each download directory e.g. Vacation2004originals, Vacation2004working, Vacation2004final (using the new Directory Maker plug-in)
- Download raw images from Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Minolta, Fuji, Pentax and Sony cameras and use shooting data for directory and image naming. Supported cameras include the new Canon EOS-1D Mark II, Canon PowerShot Pro1, Nikon D70, Minolta DiMAGE A2, Olympus C8080WZ and Sony DSC-F828
- Play WAV or AVI files

Downloader Pro has been developed by Breeze Systems whose products include BreezeBrowser, DSLR Remote Pro and PSRemote. Downloader Pro runs on Windows and costs US $29.95. It is available on a 30 day free trial from Breeze Systems’ website www.breezesys.com.

Serif (Europe) Ltd Press Release 22/04/04

Software to suit all home and business publishing needs

Serif (Europe) Ltd - the world’s leading independent publisher of desktop publishing, design and graphics software - is delighted to announce the forthcoming release of three packages into their Productivity Range:

- Business Publishing Suite PDF Edition with PagePlus 8 PDF Edition, PhotoPlus 8 and MediaPlus
- Home Creativity Suite with PagePlus 8, PhotoPlus 7 and DrawPlus 5
- Desktop Publishing Suite with PagePlus 8, DrawPlus 6 and 3DPlus 3

Offering high functionality, ease of use and great value for money, these Suites have been put together with Serif’s core values in mind to offer complete software solutions to all computer users, whether for home or business projects.

Popular Photography have reviewed the latest version of the popular alternative to Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro from Jasc Software. Version 8 includes several features aimed squarely at photographers, including the Perspective Correction, Straighten, One Step Photo Fix and Scratch Remover tools.

Website: Popular Photography - Paint Shop Pro 8 Review

The Czech website Digineff have published a short review of Version 4 of Neat Image. Neat Image is a digital filter designed to reduce visible noise in digital photographic images. Users of previous versions of Neat Image are entitled to a free upgrade to the latest version of the same edition.

Website: Digineff - Neat Image 4 Review

Rob Galbraith has just reviewed Noise Ninja 2.0 from PictureCode Software. This software package claims to effectively remove noise from digital camera and scanned images, and Rob seems to agree with that claim…

“We really liked the results from v1.x of PictureCode’s Noise Ninja noise reduction application for scanned and digital camera images, but despaired the lack of a Mac version while we also hoped it could be made somewhat simpler to use. Version 2.0 of the software, which is nearing release, addresses these two concerns while improving the program in several other areas as well. After working with a not-quite-finished copy of v2.0 of Noise Ninja over the last week, our verdict is in: Wow!”

Website: Rob Galbraith - Noise Ninja 2.0 Review

Website: Noise Ninja

Digital Outback Photo have just reviewed Canon Digital Photo Professional (v1.0.0.5), a new RAW conversion program that ships with the Canon EOS 1D Mark II DSLR.

“With all digital SLRs before the Canon EOS 1D Mark II Canon delivered a software called “File Viewer Utility” to convert Canon raw files. The output results of this software was actually not bad at all. But the lack of real time processing made it’s workflow pretty slow…Now Canon released for the first time with the EOS 1D Mark II a new raw converter called “Digital Photo Professional”. Canon’s clear goal is to to provide a software that is in the league of C1 and ACR.”

Website: Digital Outback Photo - Canon Digital Photo Professional Review