Staples Press Release 17/11/04

Staples makes imaging easy for the many consumers purchasing digital cameras this holiday season. Already a trusted source for photo paper, ink and printers, Staples will launch a new holiday advertising campaign on Sunday, November 21 that highlights the retailer as a destination for digital cameras for the whole family

The holiday campaign is the first creative by Staples’ recently selected agency of record McCann Erickson, and includes television and radio spots leveraging Staples signature empathetic humor to demonstrate that there is a digital camera for everyone on your holiday shopping list. The 30-second television commercial features a family preparing for the holidays and decorating the tree. Grandma gathers the family around for a photo and - click - snaps a stapler just like a camera. Grandma shakes her head as the announcer says, “Come on, take the hint. Staples has the digital cameras everyone wants this year.” The spot also features Staples’ expanded digital camera selection, camera accessories and trained associates.

Epson America Press Release 17/11/04

PictureMate, The No. 1-Selling 4’’ X 6’’ Ink Jet Photo Printer, Now in Full Distribution across United States

LONG BEACH, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Nov. 17, 2004—The PictureMate(TM) personal photo lab, the No. 1-selling(a) 4"x6” dedicated ink jet photo printer in the United States, has gone into full distribution—making the popular personal photo lab available to even more of the estimated 33 million-plus digital camera owners(b) across the country just in time for the holiday season, according to Epson officials.

The PictureMate personal photo lab and PictureMate Print Pack, the affordable ink and paper combo pack, are now available nationwide at consumer electronics retailers, computer superstores, mass merchandisers, office superstores and photo specialty stores. Consumers also can purchase PictureMate online, via catalogs and through television shopping.

PictureMate, which launched in limited distribution earlier this year, is the first and only dedicated photo printer to address all the barriers digital camera owners have had with printing their photos at home.

Check the Latest Prices for the Epson PictureMate

MAC DVD Pro have published a review of the Power Mac G5 and 23-inch Cinema HD Display from a digital photographer’s point of view.

“The Power Mac G5 and Adobe Photoshop is an awesome combination for editing high resolution images. Couple these two tools with an Apple Cinema Display and you’ve got one heck of a digital darkroom. Anyone who is even considering setting up a digital imaging workstation to run Photoshop must seriously check out the Power Mac dual G5 combined with the Cinema Display. Bring your high resolution digital images down to an Apple store and check out how your images look on a Cinema Display powered by a 2GHz Power Mac. You won’t be disappointed.”

Website: MAC DVD Pro - Power Mac G5 + 23-inch Cinema HD Display

Kodak has announced that it is cutting 500 conventional film-related jobs in the UK. A total of 5 photo-finishing labs, a head office and a call center in the U.K will all be closed by October 2005. Kodak shares rose following the announcement.

Website: Bloomberg.com - Eastman Kodak to Cut 500 Film-Processing Jobs in U.K.

Cut and Deal Press Release 18/11/04

Cut and Deal (http://www.cutanddeal.com), the new source for sports betting and gambling image library, had won three major contracts in its first three months of operation:

Thomson Gale, Michigan, USA
www.gale.com
Thomson Gale is one of the largest US publishers and is a wholly owned division of the Thomson Corporation. The Thomson Gale family of publishing imprints includes such noted brands as Macmillan and Thorndike Press.  With operational headquarters in Connecticut, USA, Thomson has approximately 39,000 employees and provides services in approximately 130 countries. 2003 revenues were $7.6 billion.

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MAGPIX Press Release 16/11/04

MAGPIX Introduces Ultra Portable, Digital Pocket Photo Album

First-of-its-kind mini-sized digital photo album allows consumers to share pictures with friends and family anywhere, anytime

AMESBURY, Massachusetts, Nov. 16, 2004—MAGPIX Inc., creators of lifestyle enhancing digital products, today announced its Pocket Photo Album, redefining how we carry and share our digital pictures and allowing users to share hundreds of digital pictures in an ultra-portable design. The Pocket Photo Album is available today in Titanium Silver and Pink Thistle for only $99 MSRP.

Weighing only 2.2 ounces, the MAGPIX Pocket Photo Album features a stylish, lightweight anodized aluminum design.  It offers a super bright 1.5-inch TFT LCD screen, which makes viewing photos easy and fun.  It can also connect directly to a television to easily share photos on a larger screen without the need for a PC or projector.

The Pocket Photo Album has 16MB of built-in internal memory, which can hold upwards of 200 pictures and also includes an SD/MMC memory card slot for additional image capacity.  It offers viewers the ability to zoom, scroll, view thumbnails, and perform slideshows.

Bonusprint Press Release 17/11/04

Effortlessly upload photos to Bonusprint with a single key-press

November 17, 2004, UK - From today, camera-phone owners can print, store and share high-quality images taken on their mobile phone, thanks to Bonusprint Mobile. In addition Bonusprint is offering its customers a 30-day free trial of this new service.

The Bonusprint Mobile service, powered by Cognima’s photo upload solution, Cognima Snap, is designed to upload photos from consumers’ camera-phones with just a single key-press. After the 30-day free trial, the service will cost only £1.99 per month and is available on supported Symbian OS-based handsets that are connected to any of the major four networks in the UK (O2, Orange, T-Mobile, and Vodafone).

At launch the following handsets will be supported: Nokia 7610, 6600, 3660, 3650, 7650 and the Siemens SX1, with more handsets to be added shortly.

PCMagazine have published a review of DXO Optics Pro, a software package that is designed to enable digital camera owners to correct images which suffer from distortion, vignetting, blur and chromatic aberrations.

“After processing, you can see before-and-after comparisons, because Optics Pro is nondestructive: It automatically corrects and saves images without disturbing the original files. Every test image we shot displayed slight to significant improvements, such as more even corner illumination, greater delineation of detail, straightening of bulging or bowed lines, and elimination of purple fringing.”

Website: PCMagazine - DXO Optics Pro Review

HP are set to support the Blu-ray Disc format in some desktops and notebooks in late 2005. Blu-ray Discs technology enables storage of up to 50GB on a dual-layer disc, 10x the capacity of DVDs.

“Our decision to back Blu-ray was largely because of its capacity advantage (over HD DVD), as well as the interactive features being built into the specification,” said Maureen Weber, general manager of optical storage at HP. “We will help with economies of scale….We’ll drive down prices as we push volumes.”

Website: CNET News - HP strikes Blu note for DVDs, talks of fat storage

PCWorld have just reviewed one of the more unusual digital/video cameras that you will ever see, the Camwear 100, which attaches to your sungalsses and automatically records everything that it sees (found via Engadget).

“A company called Deja View has introduced a tiny $400 wearable video camera called the Camwear 100 that clips to the bill of a baseball cap or the side of a pair of eyeglasses and captures everything in its line of sight.

The camera is about the size of a pair of dice with a cord coming out its back that attaches to a paperback-book-size base unit that clips to a belt. The system records constantly, but caches only about 30 seconds worth of video and audio. Deja View designed the Camwear 100 to act as a kind of replay device that lets you capture the previous 30 seconds of what the camera records.”

Website: PCWorld - Wearable Camera Debuts

Imaging Resource have just posted their review of the diminutive and stylish 4 megapixel Olympus Mju Mini digicam (called the Stylus Verve in the USA).

“The Verve’s image noise performance is a little unusual. Noise is visible in some shots even at the lowest ISO setting of 64, but as you go to higher ISOs, the noise is more or less held in check. At ISO 400, the noise is definitely obtrusive, but it isn’t as outright ugly as that from a lot of competing models at that ISO level. Overall, a good balance between maintaining subject detail and minimizing image noise.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Olympus Mju Mini Review

Check the Latest Prices for the Olympus Mju Mini

DCResource have just published their 2004 Holiday Buyers Guide, which includes the Canon EOS 20D DSLR (pictured).

“The best digital SLR for under $3000 in my opinion. It takes excellent 8 Megapixel photos, the burst modes are superb, and build quality is top-notch. Like the Digital Rebel, the 20D can use Canon EF or EF-S lenses.”

Website: DCResource - 2004 Holiday Buyers Guide

Check the Latest Prices for the Canon EOS 20D

DigitalCameraInfo.com have reviewed the Panasonic DMC-FX5, which features a 1/2.5” CCD with a total of 4.23 mega pixels and interestingly a stabilized 3X zoom lens.

“With complicated menu settings and features that are more accessible to the seasoned digital camera user, the camera misses its point-and-shoot market. However, with fewer manual controls than many similarly priced models, and with its small size and compact layout, it still appeals to a specific point-and-shoot user. This slightly perplexing situation aside, it does have a small sleek design, a comfortable grip, easy access and control of even the smaller buttons, plus the portability that many consumers demand in a digital camera.”

Website: DigitalCameraInfo.com - Panasonic DMC-FX5 Review

Check the Latest Prices for the Panasonic DMC-FX5

Have you made the switch to digital, sellling all your film equipment including your trust slide projector? Still interested in projecting slideshows of your images digitally? Then Popular Photograph’s round-up of digital projectors is just for you.

“For years, traveling sales people have been putting their clients to sleep by digitally projecting their PowerPoint presentations. Along the way, some of them realized that they could just as easily show off their digital photos on the same machines. Now that digital projectors have come down to below $1,000, they’re catching the eyes of photographers who want to create and project slide shows at home. So, is it time to toss your old Carousel projector? We thought we’d find out by taking a look at some of the least expensive (sub-$1,000) digital projectors on the market.”

Website: Popular Photography - The New Digital Slide Show

“Digital Directions: To Tell The Truth” is an interesting article from Popular Phootgraphy that considers the issue of photo manipulation and what can be done to combat it.

“Even if you are an upstanding photographer who never manipulates an image, you still have to worry about what happens to your digital file after you submit it. For example: you shoot a great celebrity portrait and e-mail the original JPEG file to the National Inkliar. It turns up in print showing that celebrity in a compromising position. How do you prove that your original was altered after you submitted it? Hint: Do high lawyer fees, FBI crime lab analysis, and months of damage control sound reasonable?”

Website: Popular Photography - Digital Directions: To Tell The Truth

Tom’s Hardware Guide have taken a look into their crystal ball to look at the possible successors to flash memory, which apparently is something of a dying technology (found via DigiCamera.net).

“The opinion is spreading that Flash will be “just good enough” in the near future, but in the medium term will have to be replaced. At least, that is the industry line. Possible weak points of Flash memory are a natural limitation of scalability (where any further reduction of cell size would no longer pay off); write speeds that are too low; and a limited number of write cycles.

Let’s take a look at the state of development of the hottest new technologies - magneto-resistive RAM (MRAM), ovonics unified memory (OUM) and nanocrystals - and make a forecast for the future of memory from now until the end of the decade.”

Website: Tom’s Hardware Guide - Is Flash Heading for Retirement?

Captiva Software Corporation Press Release 16/11/04

QuickScan Pro Demo Bundle to Enable Users to Easily Capture Documents

SAN DIEGO, CA, NOVEMBER 16, 2004 - Captiva Software Corporation, (NASDAQ: CPTV) a leading provider of input management solutions, today announced an agreement with Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE: EK) to bundle its ISIS scanner driver and a demonstration version of its QuickScan Pro entry-level document capture application with all new Kodak i30 and i40 desktop scanners. Captiva’s Image and Scanner Interface Specification (ISIS) driver will be included with each new i30 and i40 scanner, empowering users to immediately use the scanner with the universe of ISIS-compatible document capture applications. Such applications include more than 300 commercial, custom and privately developed scanning packages.

QuickScan Pro is a full-featured, single-workstation document capture solution with advanced batch scanning capabilities that enables users to better manage paper documents by transforming them into digital content.

Olympus UK Press Release 16/11/04

Dressed to impress

The Olympus Mju - mini DIGITAL receives inaugural DIWA Design Award

The Mju - mini DIGITAL’s fresh and revolutionary look exudes attitude.  It’s sleekly curved profile, coupled with a choice of six stunning coloured designs makes the Mju - mini both chic and individual. 

The uniquely moulded design has lead to The Digital Imaging Websites Association (DIWA), a recently established website association that seeks out the best in imaging products, bestowing its inaugural Design Award on the camera in recognition of its unique construction.

In announcing the award the DIWA jury described the Mju - mini as “a radical diversion from traditional camera designs which unlike many other design products is not an overpriced collector’s item for the few, but a useful imaging tool for any design conscious lifestyle enthusiast.”

HP UK Press Release 16/11/04

HP Introduces Two Top of the Range New Photosmart All-in-Ones for Best-in-Class Printing
 
HP Photosmart 2710 and HP Photosmart 2610 All-in-Ones offer a stylish answer to print, fax, scan and copy demands

LONDON, UK, 16 November, 2004. HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) announced the launch of two new All-in-Ones, the HP Photosmart 2710 and HP Photosmart 2610. Designed for creative home or home office users, these two All-in-Ones offer a range of high quality print, flatbed fax, scan and copy functions in a compact and sophisticated device.

Both new models offer users integrated home networking with easy set up, enabling fast, multi-user printing, scanning and sharing of photos. The HP Photosmart 2610 and HP Photosmart 2710 All-in-Ones connect to the network using the quick, reliable, built-in 802.3 Ethernet. Additionally, the HP Photosmart 2710 All-in-One connects simply by using the embedded wireless1 (802.11g) LAN technology for secure, wireless sharing.

The HP Photosmart 2710 and HP Photosmart 2610 enable users to preview, select, edit and print their photos directly from a digital camera without having to connect to a computer. This can be achieved by using the built-in memory card slot2 or by connecting a PictBridge-enabled digital camera to the All-in-One via the front USB port. By using the memory card slots on these All-in-Ones, users can preview images on the 8.8 cm colour LCD screen on the HP PSC 2710 or the 6.4cm colour LCD screen on the HP Photosmart 2610, and crop, zoom, edit or rotate photos.