Lyson Introduces Daylight Darkroom™ for Windows XP and Extends Usage for Wider Range of Epson Printers

Revolutionary Black & White Imaging System Now Available on Both Major Operating Systems Used by Photographers

ELK GROVE, IL (April 27, 2005) — Lyson, Inc., a leading provider of inks, media, and related products to the printing, photography, graphic arts, and other allied industries, has introduced a Windows XP version of its revolutionary Daylight Darkroom digital black & white printing system. This new imaging system provides photographers what they have long desired— the ability to accurately mirror traditional darkroom techniques, including silver halide printing, with digital images and an inkjet printer.

The Windows XP version of Daylight Darkroom is being introduced—and the Mac OSX version extended— for use with the Epson Photo 1280, 2000, and 2200 printers, as well as the Stylus Pro 2200, 4000, and 7600/9600 printers. Plans are to extend the system, on both operating systems, for use with the most recent Canon printers during the balance of 2005.

Fujifilm UK Press Release

Award win sees Fujifilm in TIPA top condition

FinePix S3 Pro and PASS Group commended by Technical Image Press Association

The Fujifilm FinePix S3 Pro and PASS Group (of which Fujifilm is a member) have been awarded ‘Camera of the Year’ and ‘Best Technology in Europe’ accolades at the 2005 TIPA European Photo & Imaging Awards.

In the highly competitive Mid-Range Digital SLR category, Fujifilm’s FinePix S3 Pro secured the sought-after ‘Camera of the Year’ award.  The TIPA jury stated, “This third entry from Fujifilm in the domain of the digital SLR is certainly the best yet. The FinePix S3 Pro offers a new Super CCD SR II sensor, with a total of 12.34 million pixels. This is made up of 6.17 million ‘S’ pixels and 6.17 million ‘R’ pixels, which combine uniquely to produce images with an extended dynamic range offering outstanding highlight detail. Being half the weight of high-end professional digital SLRs, the FinePix S3 Pro is a very competitive option for studio, location or still-life shooting.”

Creative Press Release

New WebCams for desktop and notebooks feature advanced technologies including ultra-wide-angle lenses and fast USB 2.0 connectivity. Ideal for broadband users.

London; Wednesday 27th April 2005: Creative (Nasdaq: CREAF) the worldwide leader in digital entertainment products for the personal computer and the Internet, announces two WebCam products that top the company’s current WebCam product range – the Creative WebCam Live! Ultra for desktop users and the Creative WebCam Live! Ultra for Notebooks. They both combine the most advanced technology in hardware with comprehensive software suites to deliver outstanding image quality, flexibility and functionality.  Both products are available now.  The Creative WebCam Live! Ultra has a suggested retail price of £79.99, and the Creative WebCam Live! Ultra for Notebooks is available for £69.99.

“These two products address the needs of the most demanding of users,” comments Eoin Leyden, European Business Manager with Creative. “They deliver the high-end image quality and functionality customers demand for the broadband era.”

Konica Minolta USA Press Release

KONICA MINOLTA’S DiMAGE SCAN ELITE 5400 II FILM SCANNER RECEIVES TOP 2005 HONOR

Mahwah, NJ (April 27, 2005) – Konica Minolta Photo Imaging U.S.A., Inc. announces that the new Konica Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 II film scanner has won the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) Award for “Best Film Scanner” in Europe for the year 2005.

“This award is especially significant because it recognizes Konica Minolta’s commitment to producing the highest quality photography products for consumers and professionals,” said Todd Schrader, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Konica Minolta Photo Imaging U.S.A., Inc. “We are honored that TIPA has selected the affordable new DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 II as a superior imaging product throughout Europe.”

Nokia Press Release

Nokia and Carl Zeiss Join Forces to Offer Enhanced Imaging for Camera Phone Users

Cooperation to Set a New Benchmark for Picture Quality in Camera Phones

AMSTERDAM, CANCUN, HONG KONG and KUALA LUMPUR, April 27/PRNewswire-FirstCall/—Nokia, the global leader in mobility, and Carl Zeiss, the world’s leading optics company, today announced a collaboration to incorporate Carl Zeiss optics to Nokia’s camera phones. The two companies will bring the design expertise and stringent quality requirements of Carl Zeiss to Nokia’s product creation process for high-end camera devices. As a result of the collaboration, consumers will be able to capture, share, store and print better quality images with Nokia’s flagship imaging devices.

The outstanding scientific expertise from Carl Zeiss in camera optics and the industry-leading position of Nokia in the mobile phone market offers a solid foundation for the cooperation. Both parties regard this agreement as the beginning of a long-term relationship. The first Nokia product to incorporate Carl Zeiss optics and carry the ZEISS brand is the Nokia N90 Multimedia, also launched today.

Nokia Press Release

Twist and Shoot: Nokia N90 Makes its Premiere

Part of the Nokia Nseries High Performance Multimedia Range, the Nokia N90 Brings Carl Zeiss Optics Into the Mobile Arena

AMSTERDAM, CANCUN, HONG KONG and KUALA LUMPUR, April 27/PRNewswire-FirstCall/—Nokia (NYSE: NOK) today proudly presented the Nokia N90 multimedia, an advanced and inspirational multimedia device. Starring Carl Zeiss optics and a full set of advanced digital camera features, the Nokia N90 is targeted at high-technology enthusiasts who value the ultimate in connected mobile photography. The Nokia N90 boasts a 2 megapixel camera with autofocus and 20x digital zoom, integrated flash, macro mode for sharp close-ups, and high quality video capture with on-phone editing capabilities.

Nokia Press Release

Slide and Shoot With the Nokia N70: the Smallest 3G Series 60 Smartphone With 2 Megapixel Camera

Nokia N70 is Part of the Nokia Nseries High Performance Multimedia Range

AMSTERDAM, CANCUN, HONG KONG and KUALA LUMPUR, April 27/PRNewswire-FirstCall/—Nokia today introduced the Nokia N70 multimedia, a beautifully designed, compact and easy-to-use 3G smartphone with versatile mobile photography, personal productivity and entertainment features. Incorporating a complete smartphone feature set, as well as a 2 megapixel camera, flash and front camera for video calling, the Nokia N70 comes fully equipped with stereo FM radio, a digital music player and new 3D games.

“The Nokia N70 perfectly illustrates our commitment to offer powerful, all-inclusive handsets that aid people in their daily lives. In addition to advanced smartphone and entertainment features, mobile photography is extremely easy and enjoyable with the elegant Nokia N70,” said Joe Coles, Director of imaging product marketing at Nokia. “The number one reason why people today purchase new handsets is the camera. Indeed, we foresee that by the end of 2005, over half a billion people worldwide will own a camera phone.”

The Sanyo Xacti C4 is quite unlike any other digital camera available today, looking more like a tiny version of a digital camcorder than a conventional digicam. The Sanyo C4 has been designed like this principally because it allows you to record both 4 megapixel still images and 640x480, 30fps MPEG-4 movies, with a separate shutter button available for each function and a flip-out, rotating LCD screen to frame your images and movies. Other notable features on the Sanyo Xacti C4 include a macro mode that allows you to get as close as 2cms away from the subject, and a 5.8 optical zoom lens that is equivalent to 38–220mm on a 35mm format camera. Sanyo have improved on the older Sanyo Xacti C1 by adding the 4 megapixel sensor, image stabilisation and a larger 1.8 inch LCD screen. So is the Sanyo C4 the perfect fusion of still and moving images, or just a compromise between the two? Read on to discover the answer.

Website: Sanyo Xacti C4 Review

Samsung SPP-2040 printer is announced. The Samsung SPP-2040 is a compact and portable printer that accepts a wide range of memory cards and doesn’t need to be connected to a computer. The Samsung SPP-2040 uses a printing technology called D2T2 - “Dye Diffusion Thermal Transfer” and produces a print in as little as 15 seconds. From the picture on the UberGizmo website, it also looks as if the SPP-2040 has a colour LCD screen.

Website: UberGizmo - Samsung SPP-2040 Pocket Thermal Transfer Printer

Hitachi i.mega HDC-302SLIM is announced by Hitachi Japan. The Hitachi i.mega HDC-302SLIM is an updated version of the current HDC-301SLIM model and features a fixed focus lens equivalent to 44mm on a 35mm camera. The HDC-302SLIM has a 3.1 megapixel sensor that Hitachi claim can be interpolated up to 8 megapixels, although I would take that claim with a rather large pinch of salt. Other features on the HDC-302SLIM, which ships in Japan in May, include a 2 inch LCD screen and 16Mb internal memory. Price and availability of the Hitachi i.mega HDC-302SLIM outside Japan to be announced.

Website: Hitachi Japan - HDC-302SLIM Press Release

TIPA (Technical Image Press Association) have announced their photography awards for 2005. 30 different products have been chosen as the nest in their class. Standwout winners include the Nikon Coolpix 7900 (review coming soon), Sony Cyber-shot T7, Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 and the Canon EOS 350D. For a full list of all the winners with accompanying test, see the following website:

Website: TIPA - The Best Photo Products in Europe, 2005

Luminous Landscape have a new article by professional photographer Doug Brown that takes an in-depth look at creating stitched panoramic photographs.

“Used to be if you wanted to produce a panoramic format image you had either hardware-based choices - cameras with revolving lenses, specialised wide format cameras, removable wide angle backs etc. - or you could crop a standard image to panoramic proportions in the manner APS cameras offered. The later wasn’t a true wider panoramic image but the aspect ratio was similar. With the introduction of dedicated stitching software the possibility of adapting any lens to a wide angle role via post processing the image from multiple segments was opened up to photographers. Having used everything from 16mm to just short of 300mm to create panoramic images in software, I can attest to the usefulness of these programs that ensure you’re never caught short in a wide-angle situation.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Adventures with Panoramas

About Photography have an interesting article on using the Nikon D70 digital SLR in conjunction with the Nikon SB-800 Autofocus Speedlight flashgun.

“For several months I’ve been trying to get to grips with my new flash unit, a Nikon SB-800, used together with a Nikon D70 camera. I’m not going to pretend I’m an expert with it, but I usually manage to get it to do what I want in the end. Much of what I’ve concluded will be relevant to those using the SB-800 (or SB-600) with other Nikon cameras, and some more generally to other modern camera and flash systems.”

Website: About Photography - New Flash: Nikon D70 and Nikon SB-800 Autofocus Speedlight

Imaging Resource have posted their review of the new Olympus mju DIGITAL 500 digital camera (also known as the Olympus Stylus 500), which has 5 megapixels, a 3X optical zoom lens and large 2.5” LCD display.

“As the latest in that company’s “Stylus” line of compact digital cameras, the 5-megapixel, 3x-zoom Olympus Stylus 500 Digital is to my mind the best Stylus Digital model to date. Its body design is trim and compact, with much better-feeling controls than those found on earlier models. It offers the same water resistance that makes the rest of the Stylus line so practical for go-anywhere photography, and sports a big, beautiful 2.5-inch LCD monitor to view your photos on. While the LCD on the Stylus 500 does much better than average in bright sunlight, and offers a wider than average viewing angle, I do wish that Olympus had kept an optical viewfinder for low light shooting, as the Stylus 500’s LCD has a bit of a hard time there. That quibble aside though, the Olympus Stylus 500 is a very capable, highly portable point & shoot camera, with good image quality and a better than average lens. Its point & shoot simplicity and 20 preset Scene modes make it easy for even novice users to bring home great-looking photos.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Olympus mju DIGITAL 500 Review

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Lexmark P4350 and Lexmark X3350 are announced. The Lexmark P4350 and Lexmark X3350 are all-in-one printers and scnanners. The P4350 is the first all-in-one witha colour LCD screen to sell for under $130. The X3350 offers 48-bit color scan depth. The Lexmark P4350 has an estimated retail price of $129, while the Lexmark X3350 will be available for $79* after a $20 mail-in rebate.

Lexmark Press Release

Lexmark International, Inc. (NYSE: LXK) today introduced two All-in-One (AIO) inkjet printers that set new standards for price and performance, including the Lexmark P4350 , which is the industry’s first AIO with a color LCD screen at $129.*

Lexmark’s latest AIOs make higher-end technology more broadly available through new consumer-friendly price points. These feature-rich printers include flatbed scanners, PictBridge, borderless photo printing, LCD screens and functionality with or without a PC.  Both use Lexmark’s Evercolor™ inks to deliver brilliant photos that last longer than most traditional photos under display conditions without fading, and more than 200 years stored in photo albums**.

Lexmark Press Release

Lexmark International, Inc. (NYSE: LXK) today announced an assortment of photo papers engineered to offer customers a complete home photo printing solution. Optimized for use with Lexmark printers – including the P4350 and X3350, also announced today – and EvercolorTM inks, consumers can generate digital photo output of the highest possible quality.

“With innovative technology, Evercolor inks and now a line of high-quality photo papers, Lexmark offers the best photo printing solution for our customers on the market today,” said Najib Bahous, Lexmark vice president and president of its Consumer Printer Division. “This introduction reinforces the fact that Lexmark offers exceptional quality and value for consumers who want to transform digital images into brilliant photos at home.”

Digital Camera Review have published their review of the 4 megapixel Canon PowerShot A520 digital camera.

“The A520’s ISO 50 and 100 images were consistently superb, but ISO 200 images were a bit noisy and ISO 400 images were noticeably too noisy. Overall, the A520 produces well-exposed images with good color, balanced contrast, excellent shadow/highlight detail, and sharp resolution, but the new f2.6-f5.5/35-140mm (35mm equivalent) all glass 4X optical zoom isn’t as sharp as the A85’s 3X zoom. The A520’s images are as good (or better) than any digital camera in its class. Reds are a bit warm and blues are a little bright, but most casual/amateur photographers probably wouldn’t consider this a fault. We did notice some minor chromatic aberration (in high contrast color transition areas, especially at maximum aperture) in a couple of shots, but overall the A520’s images are excellent.”

Website: Digital Camera Review - Canon PowerShot A520 Review

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Adobe Press Release

Highly Anticipated Upgrade to Adobe Photoshop Includes New Vanishing Point Feature, Camera Raw 3.0 Workflow Improvements, Smart Objects and Customisable Menus

SAN JOSE, Calif. — April 27, 2005 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today shipped Adobe® Photoshop® CS2, a major upgrade to the professional industry standard for digital image editing and creation. Available as a stand-alone software application or as a component of the Adobe Creative Suite® 2, also shipping today (see separate press release), Photoshop CS2 software is equipped with indispensable new features and simplified workflows delivering a greater level of power, precision and control to photographers, film, video and creative professionals.

Adobe Press Release

Adobe Photoshop CS2, InDesign CS2, Illustrator CS2, GoLive CS2 and InCopy CS2 Also Available Today

SAN JOSE, Calif. — April 27, 2005 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of Adobe® Creative Suite 2 software. Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium Edition integrates new full-version upgrades of indispensable design software - Adobe Photoshop® CS2 (see separate release), Adobe InDesign® CS2, Adobe Illustrator® CS2 and Adobe GoLive® CS2 - with the all-new Version Cue® CS2. It also introduces the Adobe Stock Photos service (see separate release), Adobe Bridge and includes the recently released Adobe Acrobat® 7.0 Professional. Adobe Photoshop CS2, InDesign CS2, Illustrator CS2 and GoLive CS2 are also available today as standalone software products. In addition, Adobe InCopy® CS2, a professional writing and editing program that integrates tightly with Adobe InDesign CS2 software, is shipping today.

Babel Company Press Release

Impression automates data and asset archiving for OS X by specializing in moving large amounts of data to spanned DVD/CD sets or to mounted
drives for offline storage.  Other noteworthy features include the preservation of all HFS+/Spotlight meta-data, after-write file verification and bookmark-based management features.

New to version 2.8 comes ‘Tiger’ compatibility (a.k.a. OS X 10.4), cross-platform HFS+/ISO9660/Joliet disc burning, support for burning multiple copies of each archive disc, automatic archiving of Spotlight meta-data and a number of other enhancements.