PMA Show: Phase One Press Release

Phase One Capture One PRO and New iView MediaPro Bundled to Streamline Digital Photographers’ RAW Workflow

Photo Marketers Association (PMA) Convention, Florida, USA (26/02/06) - Phase One, the world leader in digital imaging solutions, and digital asset management pioneer iView Multimedia Ltd.™ (iView) today announce a chance for photographers to take advantage of a software bundling offer that combines two professional-grade tools designed to streamline RAW workflows. The pairing of Capture One PRO and the new version of iView MediaPro empowers photographers to work the way they want to. For a limited time only, iView MediaPro and Capture One PRO will be available for purchase together for $499 – this is $199 off the total price if each application were purchased separately. The offer will run until April 15th, 2006, and will be available as a download from each of the companies’ respective sites: www.iview-multimedia.com and www.phaseone.com. An accompanying RAW workflow guide detailing how the two programs can be used together is also available for download.

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.”

PMA 2006: Epson, HP, IDS, Olympus, PortalPlayer and Samsung Electronics Announce PictSync Guidelines for Easy Photo Sharing Between Cameras, Phones and Portable Media Players

PictSync(TM) Enables Easy Transfer of Digital Photos Between Camera Phones, Digital Cameras, and Portable Media Players; Industry Leaders Announce Pre-Release Interoperability Guidelines for Industry Comment

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 23 /PRNewswire/—Epson, HP, IDS, Olympus, PortalPlayer and Samsung Electronics, working together as the PictSync Promoters Group, announced today that they have jointly developed guidelines to increase interoperability between digital cameras, camera phones and portable media players. The guidelines, dubbed PictSync(TM), will enable the easy transfer of digital photos between two portable devices that are able to capture or store images, without requiring a personal computer. A licensing program is under development to allow for broad industry adoption of the PictSync guidelines.

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.

PMA 2006: The Samsung GX-1L DSLR is announced. 6-megapixels, five-point wide-area Auto Focus system, three-mode metering system, 8 scene modes. Available in March.

Samsung UK Press Release

Samsung is introducing a second digital SLR model for 2006 - the GX-1L - developed jointly with Pentax. The Samsung GX-1L is a 6-megapixel model is an interchangeable lens D-SLR that features world-renowned Schneider optics in a compact, lightweight, easy-to-hold body. Set to launch in March, the GX1L will be available with an 18-55mm lens and has been designed to offer fantastic ease-of-use with entry-level DSLR users in mind. The Samsung GX1L features a host of automatic functions including Auto Sensitivity, Auto Picture Mode and a newly designed operation system. This, combined with its full range of advanced manual functions, makes the GX-1L perfect for the beginner through to the more advanced DSLR user.

PMA 2006: The Samsung Digimax L85 is unveiled. 8-megapixels, 5x optical zoom (38-190mm - 35mm equivalent), 2.5-inch LCD display (230K pixels), full manual control, 11 preset scene modes. Available in March.

Samsung UK Press Release

Samsung Unveils the New High-Performance Samsung Digimax L85 with the World’s First High Definition Multimedia Interface. The new Digimax L85 is the latest addition to Samsung’s prestigious line of digital cameras.  It is the world’s first digital still camera to feature High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) - a revolutionary new feature allowing users to view their photos on a high definition television with outstanding quality. Set to launch in April, the eight-mega-pixel Digimax L85 also includes a top-class Schneider Kreuznach lens with 5x optical zoom and a 2.5-inch LCD display (approximately 230K pixels), which provides the photographer with a greater zoom options and a vivid display.

PMA 2006: The Samsung Digimax L60 is introduced today. 6 megapixels, 3x optical zoom lens, MPEG4 video recording, 2.4-inch LCD screen. Available in March.

Samsung UK Press Release

Samsung is announcing the new Digimax L60. Part of the L series featuring sleek designs and user-friendly advanced features, the L60 features a 3x optical zoom SHD lens, a 5x digital zoom and a large 2.4-inch color LCD display. Set to hit the shelves in March the Samsung L60 is perfect for those who demand easy to use features and high quality optics. The Samsung L60 packs advanced features such as MPEG4 into a sleek, stylish body. MPEG-4 is a high-compression, high-quality video format, which can record up to 4 times longer than traditional video formats commonly used in other digital cameras. This means the user can record in VGA (640x480) at 30fps, for smoother video and a bigger view of the movie on LCD and TV screens.

PMA 2006: The Ricoh Caplio R4 is announced today. 6 megapixels, 7x zoom lens, 2.5 inch LCD screen, Vibration Correction function. The Ricoh R4 will be available from March for £249.99.

Ricoh UK Press Release

London –UK February 23rd 2006. – Ricoh has announced the release of the new Caplio R4 compact digital camera featuring a 7.1x optical wide zoom, (28–200 mm in 35 mm camera format), the largest in the compact class* and vibration correction function. With a smaller body, the new Ricoh R4, has a 7.1x (28—200 mm) wide-angle, high-powered zoom lens, the biggest in its class. Building on the highly successful R3, the new Ricoh R4 boasts 6 megapixels, longer battery life and a high resolution LCD. The R4 will be available in both Black and Silver.

PMA 2006: The Ricoh Caplio RR630 is announced today. 6.1 megapixels, 3x zoom lens, 2 inch LCD screen. The Ricoh RR630 will be available from March for £129.99.

Ricoh UK Press Release

London – UK February 23rd 2006. – Ricoh is delighted to announce the release of the Caplio RR630 - a compact 6.1-megapixel digital camera that brings the joy of digital photography within reach of even first time users. The Ricoh RR630 is the latest addition to Ricoh’s popular, award-winning range of digital cameras, whose outstanding performance, value for money and stylish designs have won favour with photographers around the world. The Ricoh RR630 consistently produces vivid, crystal-clear images that place it a touch above other cameras in its class. Equipped with a 3x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom, for a combined 12x zoom, the Caplio RR630 is ready to take on any photographic challenge.

PMA Show: The Ricoh GR Digital Creative Set is introduced today. This consists of the Ricoh GR Digital camera, wide conversion lens, external viewfinder, hood and adapter, camera case and neck strap. The GR Digital Creative Set Package will be available from March for £699.

Ricoh UK Press Release

London – UK February 23rd 2006, RICOH EUROPE B.V. have announced the launch of the “GR DIGITAL Creative Set” including the award winning GR DIGITAL combined with an exciting package of accessories (consisting of wide conversion lens GW-1, external viewfinder GV-1, hood and adapter GH-1, and camera case and neck strap) designed to maximise the camera’s already superb performance. The new GR Digital inherits the superb image quality that made the award winning GR Series (first launched in 1996) of 35mm compact film cameras so popular, as well as the depictive performance to satisfy professional photographers, distilled into a compact 25-mm thin body. With a high-quality feel and superb expandability, this is the perfect tool for both professional photographers and advanced amateurs.

PMA 2006: The Ricoh Caplio GX8 Creative Set is announced. It includes the Caplio GX8 digital camera, wide conversion lens, hood and adapter, rechargeable battery, charger, camera case and neck strap. The Caplio GX8 Creative Set Package will be available from March for £349.99.

Ricoh UK Press Release

London – UK February 23rd 2006, RICOH EUROPE B.V. announced the launch of the “Caplio GX8 Creative Set” including the Caplio GX8 digital camera, featuring high image quality with 8.24 effective megapixels, combined with an exciting package of accessories designed to enhance the enjoyment of photography. The accessory bundle includes a wide conversion lens DW-4, hood and adapter HA-1, rechargeable battery DB-43, charger BJ-2, and camera case and neck strap. The Caplio GX8 faithfully carries on the Caplio GX concept. Attaining even higher performance standards in a compact format, it meets the needs even most demanding users. Its CCD with 8.24 effective megapixels ranks it among the best compact digital performers, enabling the Caplio GX8 to accurately render details in stunningly vivid, high-quality images.

PMA 2006: The Epson Perfection V700 Photo and Epson Perfection V750-M Pro scanners are announced today. The Epson Perfection 750-M Pro will be available in May for $799. The Epson Perfection V700 Photo will be available in March for $549.

Epson America Press Release

Epson Perfection V700 Photo and Epson Perfection V750-M Pro Scanners include innovative 6400 dpi optical resolution and a Dual Lens™ System, along with a fluid mount accessory for the Pro model

LONG BEACH, Calif., Feb. 22, 2006 – The Epson Perfection V700 Photo and Epson Perfection V750-M Pro scanners are making their debut as the first scanners for photo studio applications that offer capabilities typically found in high-end commercial lab scanners, at a much more affordable price.  These two scanners were created with the professional and amateur photographer in mind and provide groundbreaking resolution that is achieved using a new Dual Lens System. In addition, a new fluid mount accessory (offered on the Pro model), allows photographers to perform wet scans on a flatbed scanner, which is especially valuable for enhanced scratch removal and grain reduction from black and white film.  The Epson Perfection V700 Photo and Epson Perfection V750-M Pro both incorporate the Epson Dual Lens System, which is a new double lens scanning system that enables super resolution (6400 dpi) scanning of 35mm, 2 ¼”, and 4”x 5” medium format film.  High resolution (4800 dpi) scanning is also available for transparency and reflective scanning. Depending on the resolution selected, the lens carriage will switch and the appropriate lens will be set in place.

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.

Kodak Press Release

Nikon, Olympus, Pentax Debut IMAGELINK System-Enabled Cameras at PMA - Acceptance of Printing Standard Will Benefit Millions of Consumers Worldwide

ROCHESTER, NY, February 22—Nikon, Olympus and Pentax introduced five digital cameras designed to connect to Kodak’s EASYSHARE printer dock via the IMAGELINK system standard at the Photo Marketing Association International Convention and Trade Show this week. The IMAGELINK print system, introduced by Kodak and a consortium of leading digital camera manufacturers at Photokina in September 2004, is a standard that allows pictures taken with a digital camera to be printed directly on the KODAK EASYSHARE printer dock. The dock enables consumers to print outstanding quality snapshots at the press of a button without connecting to a computer—a task that many consumers find complicated and time consuming.

FujiFilm, Kodak and Konica Minolta Press Release

Orlando, February 22 - Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., Konica Minolta Photo Imaging Inc. and Eastman Kodak Company, founding members of the former Picture Archiving and Sharing Standard (PASS), today announced the EVERPLAY standard designed to ensure compatibility of digital photos and motion images across a broad range of consumer products for future generations. Methods to organize and preserve digital images have evolved independently by many different companies and have lost interoperability among the different systems. There are also potential problems as time passes, systems evolve and formats change. The new EVERPLAY standard aims to resolve these issues and respond to consumers’ needs to protect images and enjoy widespread interoperability. The standard is designed to make it easy to implement and uses XML next-generation language in its specification.

PMA 2006: A Windows version of Lightzone is released today. LightZone is available for Windows and Mac OS X for $249.95.

Light Crafts Press Release

Award-Winning Photo Editing and Image Processing Software Now Available for Microsoft Windows - LightZone Delivers the Most Significant Advance in Windows-Based Photo Editing in More Than a Decade

Palo Alto, CA – February 23, 2006—Light Crafts, Inc. today announced that the Microsoft Windows version of its award-winning photo editing software – LightZone™ – is now available. Designed and built from the ground up for professionals and other serious photographers, LightZone for Windows is available as a free 30-day trial at www.lightcrafts.com . Light Crafts also announced its Charter Customer Program. Customers who purchase and register any version of LightZone by March 31, 2006, will receive lifetime upgrades at no charge. LightZone, which recently received a “Best of Show” award at the 2006 Macworld Expo, provides a better way to edit and correct digital photographs and create stunning photographic and fine art prints. With LightZone, a digital photograph can be developed and edited using light values and shapes in a true non-destructive editing environment. LightZone’s breakthrough patent-pending technology helps serious photographers achieve professional results and is easy and intuitive to use.

muvee Press Release

Photo and video-sharing portals benefit from being able to offer end users a more compelling, emotive way of displaying and sharing their digital media

Singapore and New York, NY - February 22, 2006 - muvee, the pioneer and leader in Instant Personal Video, launches its new muveeOnline web service at the 2006 Photo Marketing Association (PMA) Convention in Orlando, Florida.  The first and only of its kind, muveeOnline is a back-end Web service that brings muvee’s award-winning automatic video production capabilities to photo-/video-sharing portals, as well as a host of other online web communities where digital media content is uploaded and shared. When integrated with these portals, muveeOnline enables end users to automatically create polished, edited video productions using their personal photos and video clips that are hosted on the portal, without having to download and install any software.  Users have over 100 unique production styles to choose from and the finished productions, called muvees, are intelligently cut to the beat of the music with synchronized style effects and transitions.

SeeFile Press Release

ORLANDO—February 22, 2005—At the Photo Marketing Association’s (PMA) annual conference, SeeFile will be showing a major upgrade to their software package, fulfilling on a promise to improve often and well a product that was deemed best of show last year by, among others Joe Farace of Shutterbug and Liz Cunningham of Cygnus Publications.

The Macintosh-based software is aimed at photographers, designers, and smaller graphic arts shops looking for a way to promote their work and interact with customers on the Internet. Traditional solutions to this problem have cost as much as $50,000. The SeeFile 2.0 system is being shown in booth 3280 at PMA at a complete price of only $995, including hardware that puts a Web server on an affordable platform. Once plugged in, it provides instant Web access for any images stored on the system.

PMA 2006: Canon announced no less than 39 new products today, including a new DSLR, new still and video digital cameras, professional, consumer, laser and multi-function printers, and projectors. PhotographyBLOG attended the UK press launch at the Worx Studios in South West London to try to make sense of it all. Here are some real-life product shots from the event that you won’t find anywhere else…

PMA 2006: The Canon EOS 30D is announced today. Improvements over the 20D include a 2.5 inch LCD, spot metering, Picture Style pre-sets and a few other minor tweaks. The Canon 30D will be available from March 2006, priced at body only £1099.99 / €1599.99, plus EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 (non USM) lens £1179.99 / €1749.99.

Canon UK Press Release

Canon upgrades best selling EOS 20D

Canon is pleased to announce the new EOS 30D, replacing the award winning EOS 20D. Retaining the 5fps, 8.2 Megapixel performance of its predecessor, the upgraded camera enjoys a larger, wider viewing angle 2.5” LCD, extended 100,000 shutter cycle durability, spot metering, and a variety of refinements designed to enhance the photographic experience. Targeted at an increasingly discerning population of serious creative photographers, the Canon 30D replaces a camera that already claims a significant share of the Western Europe D-SLR market, which grew by 120% in the past 12 months. “A rapidly expanding population of serious and semi-commercial creative photographers is helping drive EOS growth,” said Mogens Jensen, Head of Canon Consumer Imaging Europe. “As well as putting many high-end pro features into their hands, the EOS 30D becomes a launching pad into the world’s most comprehensive interchangeable lens system and huge range of flash units and accessories.”