Wondering what the new 10 megapixel Leica Digital-Modul-R digital back is capable of? Find out what Digital Outback Photo thinks in their latest Experience Report.

“In the end we don’t think that this camera is a real competion to a Nikon D2x or the Canon 1Ds Mk. II because the the Nikon and Canon systems are more modern and sophisticated (autofocus, image stabilized lenses, flash systems, highly integrated digital systems developed over quite a few generations). On the other side we also understand that some may fall in love with the Leica optics. We ourselves wait for the Leica M Digital. If that camera delivers as much as the DMR shows today the Leica M Digital will be on our shortlist for a top class street camera.”

Website: Digital Outback Photo - Leica Digital-Modul-R Experience Report

Creative Press Release

Creative Introduces the Zen Vision - 30GB MP3 Player With 3.7-Inch SharpPix High-Resolution 262,144-Color Screen for Photo and Video Viewing

Gorgeous Magnesium-Encased Player Delivers Eight Times the Image Resolution and more than Three Times the Screen Size of the Apple iPod Photo*

MILPITAS, Calif. - August 3, 2005 - Creative Technology Ltd. (NASDAQ: CREAF), a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products, today announced the Zen Vision™ MP3 player with a 3.7-inch SharpPix™ high-resolution 640x480 262,144-color screen for photo viewing and digital video playback. Featuring a transflective screen that provides excellent image and video quality even in bright sunlit conditions, the 30GB Zen Vision carries up to 15,000 songs, tens of thousands of photos, or up to 120 hours of video. Available in either pearl white or black, the Zen Vision measures 4.9 by 2.9 by .8 inches and weighs only 8.4 ounces. It is available today for pre-order at us.creative.com for only US$399.99.

Kingston Press Release

Fountain Valley, CA—August 9, 2005 - Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the further expansion of its Secure Digital (SD) Ultimate Card product line with the release of a new ultra-performing 2-GB capacity card.

With super-fast 120X transfer rates, Kingston SD Ultimate cards offer significant performance benefits over current Standard and Elite Pro lines of SD cards. The greater storage capacity of the 2-GB SD Ultimate card meets the rigorous demands of professional digital photographers.

Sandisk Press Release

SanDisk’s Extreme III and Ultra II Cards Win Three Editor’s Choice Awards from American PHOTO Magazine; SanDisk Cards Recognized for Speed, Performance and Versatility

SUNNYVALE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Aug. 4, 2005—SanDisk(R) Corporation (Nasdaq:SNDK) today announced that its SanDisk Extreme(TM) III card family, 8-gigabyte (GB) (1) SanDisk Ultra(R) II CompactFlash(R) and new SanDisk Ultra II PLUS SD(TM) card line have won three Editor’s Choice Awards by American PHOTO Magazine. The American PHOTO Editor’s Choice Award is one of the most authoritative awards issued in the photography publishing industry and symbolizes the high levels of quality and performance.

“Each year, the editors of American PHOTO select from hundreds of new products for photographers,” said Richard Rabinowitz, vice president/group publisher of American PHOTO. “Only a handful of products pass the key selection requirement that it make a significant improvement in the lives and workflow of photographers who will use these products.”

EDGE Tech Press Release

EDGE Tech Corp Doubles Capacity and Increases Speed of Professional ProShot(TM) Series

EDGE SD Memory Cards Now Available in 2GB Size and 130X Speed

DALLAS, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/—EDGE Tech Corp, a leading supplier of DRAM and Flash memory upgrades, portable computing products, storage devices, and other experience-enhancing technology solutions announced today that it has added a 130X 2GB SD Memory Card(TM) to its ProShot(TM) line flash memory cards designed for advanced, professional users.

“In June, we launched the ProShot(TM) professional series of flash memory cards to reach the advanced photographer market. This is an exciting new target customer base for EDGE, and we’ll continue to expand the ProShot(TM) line to deliver faster, higher capacity cards,” stated Jeff Thompson, President and CEO of EDGE Tech Corp. We know speed and size are necessary essentials to wining over this customer,” he added.

X-Rite

Grandville, MI — August 4, 2005 — X-Rite (NASDAQ: XRIT) today announced that its award-winning DTP94 colorimeter is now available with EIZO’s new ColorNavigator Version 4 calibration software. EIZO customers who purchase ColorEdge® LCD monitors will now have access to the industry’s most accurate and dependable colorimeter, designed for creating high quality ICC profiles and color proofs. The DTP94 is available immediately at www.eizo.com as an option with EIZO’s ColorNavigator Version 4 software.

“EIZO is known worldwide as one the industry’s leading manufacturers of superior displays,” said Jim Weaver, Vice President of Marketing and Product Development at X-Rite. “We are delighted EIZO has selected X-Rite’s award-winning DTP94 as a color measurement option for its new ColorNavigator software. Graphic arts professionals worldwide will appreciate the DTP94’s 4-channel color filter technology, delivering the widest, most dynamic range of color data precision for LCD displays.”

Transcend Press Release

Transcend Releases the latest Advancement in SD™ Memory Card Technology, the SuperFast 150X SD™ Memory Card

The growing popularity of high-resolution digital cameras and multimedia devices has increased the demand for faster and better performing Flash Memory Cards. Transcend Information Inc., a world leader in flash memory devices, continues its role as an innovative developer with the release of its 150X Ultra-Performance High-speed Secure Digital (SD™) Cards (up to 2GB), the highest performing SD™ Memory Cards in the world.

X-Rite Press Release

Grandville, MI – August 1, 2005 –X-Rite (NASDAQ: XRIT) today announced that its Pulse™ ColorElite System has received the 2005 PIA/GATF Intertech Technology Award, one of the most coveted awards in the graphic arts industry. The Pulse ColorElite System was selected by a panel of independent judges from a record 52 nominations. This is the second major award garnered by Pulse in the past two months. The award-winning color management solution received the Five Star Award from Photoshop User Magazine in June.

Commenting on the award, James Weaver, Vice President of Marketing and Product Development said, “We are honored to receive the highest recognition for innovation in the Graphic Arts market. We thank all of the judges who evaluated Pulse and will proudly display this award at Print 2005 in September.”

Leica have released a firmware update for the Leica Digital-Modul-R digital back.

The following technical features are optimized by the Firmware Release 1.1:

- Automatic White Balance
- Ensuring SD card compatibility
- Correction of language errors in menu display
- Optimizing of internal data processing

Website: Download Leica Digital-Modul-R Firmware v1.1

LaCie / Hitachi Press Release

LaCie and Hitachi Collaborate to Deliver Industry’s Largest Capacity External Storage Solutions

500GB Hitachi Deskstar Hard Drives Provide Advanced Features and Renowned Quality

PORTLAND, OR (July 2005) – LaCie and Hitachi, two pioneers of innovative hard drive technology and design, today announce a collaboration to deliver three external hard drives with record capacities for both consumer and enterprise users. LaCie selected 500GB Hitachi Deskstar 7K500 hard drives for its 2TB Biggest F800, 500GB Ethernet Disk mini and 2TB Bigger Disk Extreme storage solutions. Hitachi has incorporated a number of unique design features that make its 500GB hard drive well-suited for use in digital video editing, multi-drive RAID storage and numerous other high-bandwidth applications.

Pretec Press Release

Pretec Introduces 4GB SD Card, e-Disk II, and Reduces Price for 12GB CF Card

FREMONT, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—July 27, 2005—Pretec Electronics Corp., the inventor of iDisk Tiny and CU-Flash, the smallest USB flash Drive in the world since 2003, has released 4GB SD card today, the largest capacity of SD card in the world.

Pretec 4GB SD card is the newest addition of its high speed line of 133X SD card, from 256MB to 4GB, with access speed up to 20MB/s, the fastest SD card in the world so far conform to SD 1.1 specification. Constructed with 65 nano-meter 16Gb SLC NAND technology, which is typically one order of magnitude better reliability and 200%-500% faster than MLC NAND. Pretec 133X 4GB SD card is available now for customer sampling with unit price of $699 each; mass production is scheduled by next month.

EDGE Tech Corp Press Release

EDGE Tech Corp Announces New Multifunctional Portable Storage Product Just in Time for Back to School

Dallas, TX - July 22, 2005 EDGE Tech Corp, a leading supplier of DRAM and Flash memory upgrades, portable computing products, storage devices, and other experience-enhancing technology solutions announced today an addition to its portable storage category - the DiskGO!™ 3.5” Portable Hard Drive with Multi Card Reader & USB 2.0 Hub.

“We are committed to expanding our storage category to include an extensive offering of multi-use devices,” stated Jeff Thompson, CEO & President of EDGE. “We are very excited to release this product in time for students headed back to school. They can certainly take advantage of the extra work space the 3-in-1 product provides as well as its extreme portability,” Thompson added.

Epson have released a new firmware update for thier P-2000 Multimedia Storage Viewer, which I enthusiastically reviewed a couple of months ago.

The v2.04 firmware provides the following enhancements:

- Additional RAW file support for the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT.
- Fixed error with Konica Minolta Dynax 7D files.
- Processing time to identify SD cards has been increased.

Website: Epson America - P-2000 Updates (Windows)

Website: Epson America - P-2000 Updates (Mac)

X’S-Drive 2 XL VP2260 is announced today. The XS Drive 2 XL VP2260 is a simple to use portable storage device which supports all types of memory card. The price of the X’S-Drive 2 XL VP2260 30GB model is £140 incl VAT. Higher capacities up to 80GB are available.

Cardmedia Press Release

Cardmedia (Europe) Ltd, the official UK distributor for the XS Drive Portable Storage devices, has announced the availability of the X’S-Drive 2 XL VP2260, a new Portable Storage Device with blue backlight LCD display, replacing the popular XS Drive II Plus VP2160.

The X’S-Drive 2 XL VP2260 remains a 2 button operation unit; “Power on / off” and “Copy” with a blue backlight LCD display for file transfer status, battery power level and capacity left on the HD.

The X’S-Drive 2 XL VP2260 allows the transfer of pictures and any other file from any memory card including xD picture cards via the 2 multi-memory card slots to its internal 2.5 inch hard drive.

Phase One Press Release

New “world records” in professional digital imaging.

Phase One A/S, Copenhagen, July 18th, 2005: Phase One, the world leader in digital imaging solutions, has yet again lifted the standards in professional digital photography.

Important benefits for Pros
The new opportunities for professional shooters are huge, now they can:
- Much better evaluate and protect the value of their digital camera investment. This is ensured with the new ability to upgrade existing digital solutions, and by having full insight into the product roadmap from top suppliers of digital solutions. This is especially important since the digital development is much faster than for camera bodies and lenses.
- Deliver higher image quality than ever before in advertising, fashion and portrait
- Dramatically increase the productivity of their workflow, this includes better teamwork with art directors, models and clients.
- Completely rely on the digital storage media for the data integrity, as they now guarantee that any captured image data can be retrieved.

Luminous Landscape have an exclusive report on 3 new digital backs from Phase One, including the 39 megapixel P45. The report is so exclusive that Phase One haven’t actually published the news themselves yet… Price is a mere US $29,995.

“No, it doesn’t have a 45 Megapixel chip, just like the current P25 doesn’t have a 25 Megapixel chip, rather being 22MP. The P45 does though have a 39 Megapixel (usable) chip, making it the highest resolution single-shot imaging device ever made. This produces a 112 Megabyte file in 8 bit mode, and a 224 megapixel file in 16 bit mode. Yes – almost a quarter Gigabyte file from a single one-shot frame. Using Phase One’s IIQ Large lossless file format each image will occupy approximately 47MB in the CF card.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Phase One Takes the High Ground

SD Card Association Press Release

SD Card Association Announces Final Approval of the microSD Specification—World’s Smallest Removable Storage Card

SAN RAMON, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—July 13, 2005—The SD Card Association (SDA) today announced the final approval of the microSD specification that is now available for immediate use. The microSD card, the world’s smallest removable storage card provides full compatibility and interoperability with current SD devices. The card is fully compatible with SanDisk’s TransFlash(TM) cards, over 5 million of which have shipped to date and is supported in 40+ handsets announced by manufacturers such as Motorola, Samsung, LG, Kyocera, and Sagem.

SanDisk Press Release

SanDisk First to Offer 512-Megabyte microSD Card—Now Officially Adopted by SD Card Association

SUNNYVALE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—July 13, 2005—SanDisk(R) Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) today announced that the microSD specification, which is based on SanDisk’s TransFlash(TM) card, has been officially adopted by the SD Card Association (SDA). The new microSD card is fully compatible with the TransFlash card and is designed as a small, flash memory storage card for mobile phones and devices. SanDisk also announced a 512-megabyte (MB) SanDisk microSD card, the largest capacity available in this form factor. The company expects to have a 1-gigabyte (GB) microSD card by the end of the year and a 2GB card in 2006.(a)

Photoxels have just interviewed Gregory Flasch, National Manager Advertising & Communications for Nikon Canada:

“The new NIKON D2Hs dSLR features only 4.1 megapixel resolution. How do you explain a 4.1 MP image sensor in a professional grade dSLR?

GF: The 4.1 MP LBCAST sensor in the Nikon D2Hs was designed to meet the needs of the target audience, action and sports photographers, while delivering the speed and performance control required by these working professionals. Focusing on the D2Hs primary ability to offer a blazingly fast 8fps continuous shooting for up to 50 images, our designers realized that the most effective sensor resolution would be 4.1 MP, which would properly meet the file size requirements of the target user while still maintaining the ultimate speed and performance critical to capturing the right shot.”

Website: Photoxels: Interview with Gregory Flasch, Nikon

Addonics Press Release

Addonics Announces Serial ATA to CompactFlash Adapter—High-Speed Reader/Writer is Bootable and Hot Swappable

SAN JOSE, CA (July 12, 2005)—Addonics Technologies has announced a SATA to CompactFlash adapter board, which allows a CompactFlash device to be used in any system that has a SATA port.

The Addonics SATA to CF Adapter is one of the fastest CF Readers/Writers available. It is compliant with Serial ATA 1.0a specifications and is capable of high transfer rates of up to 1.5Gbps, depending on the type of media used.