Pandigital has announced the European launch of its PanTouch Clear line of digital photo frames, Measuring just a third of an inch in terms of width, these frames are allegedly the thinnest on the market. To create the perception of floating photos, the new PanTouch Clear frames feature an 800x600 display that appears to be floating in the surrounding glass. Customers can select and view their photos and control the frame’s functions with easy-to-understand icons that can be touched directly across the entire glass surface of the frame. The PanTouch Clear frames come in two sizes – 8 inch and 10.4 inch. The 8 inch model includes 1GB of storage and has an RRP £109, the 10.4 inch model offers 2GB and sets you back £149.

Rob Fergus, Associate Professor at NewYork University, and Dilip Krishnan, a first-year student at the same institution, have developed a flashgun that emits invisible light. According to a report by the New Scientist, the “dark flash” actually works over a wider range of wavelengths than normal flashes, but visible light is filtered out. In order to use it with a digital camera, the camera’s IR cut filter has to be removed. The resulting image is, unsurprisingly, monochromatic, and resembles the view through a night-vision system. To address this issue, Fergus and Krishnan have come up with the idea of taking two exposures - one with the “dark flash” and one without it, by ambient light. The second one is captured at a fairly high shutter speed, and is underexposed for it, but contains valuable colour information. In other words, the shot with the “dark flash” delivers the necessary luminance information, whereas colour is derived from the exposure captured by ambient light. The main benefit over regular flash shots? Well, the “dark flash” does not disturb or dazzle the models, Krishnan claims. The technique also makes for glare-free photos that do not suffer from the annoying reflections you see in many photos taken with “normal” flash.

Website: Dilip Krishnan’s Dark Flash Page

The Centre for Railroad Photography & Art has just released an illustrated guide to North American railroad history, featuring 50 images, including copies of daguerrotypes. Each image is accompanied by a description that explains the photograph’s importance and how it relates to railroad history. The guide traces the history of railroads in North America from its beginnings, illustrated by a copy of a daguerreotype of the locomotive “Tioga,” to today’s preservation movement, illustrated by one of noted photographer David Plowden’s early photographs, a Canadian steam engine that now pulls excursion trains. Copies are available for $19.95 plus shipping and handling.

Website: Centre for Railroad Photography & Art Publications

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing, whose historic moments were captured with Hasselblad medium-format cameras. The first Hasselblads used by NASA in space were modified Hasselblad 500C models, whereas the ones used during lunar missions were called Hasselblad Electric Data Cameras. They had a glass plate with reference crosses that recorded on the film during exposure. These crosses can be seen on all pictures taken on the moon from 1969 to 1972. The most interesting photographs can be downloaded from NASA’s website. NASA has also made available the Apollo 11 onboard voice transcription, which is where our title quote comes from.

Website: Great Images in NASA

World famous architectural photographer Julius Shulman passed away on Wednesday. He is noted for documenting the works of leading Modernist architects throughout most of the 20th century and his mission of building the reputation of these architects through his excellently composed photographs. His career as an architectural photographer started at the age of 26, when he met architect Richard Neutra, and he continued taking assignments into his 90s until his declining health prevented him from carrying on.

Website: Obituary in The Los Angeles Times

Rollei Redbird is a new “redscale” colour negative film offered in 135 format. In the Rollei Redbird emulsion, the red layer is on top of the others, whereas with other C-41 print films, it is usually the bottom layer. This results in the reds being accentuated much more than usual - hence the name. The Rollei Redbird film has a nominal sensitivity of ISO 400/27° and the manufacturer says it is equally well suited to Lomography and creative use in “serious” cameras. Shutter speed is apparently a major factor in how the film renders colours - with relatively slow speeds such as 1/30 second, essentially the whole scene is rendered in different shades of red, whereas with shutter speeds faster than 1/125 second, white objects take on a strong yellow cast, while greens are accentuated. This opens up great possibilities for those involved in hybrid analogue/digital photography, the manufacturer claims. The Rollei Redbird film is available now from Spürsinn and Ars-imago at €5 per roll.

Fujifilm has announced a firmware update for the FinePix F200EXR digital compact camera. Version 1.10 improves the performance of the Super Intelligent Flash and adds Finnish, Norwegian, Danish and Slovak as selectable languages for On Screen Display.

Website: Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR Firmware Update
Review: Read our in-depth review of the Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR

Today (17 July 2009) at TeeFury.com, they are selling a T-shirt for photographers. The scene shows a man with a camera who becomes a part of the moment he is capturing on film. Titled Another Point of View, this design was created by artist Willy Piva. Like all shirts at Teefury.com, this design will only be sold for 24 hours.

Website: TeeFury.Com

Pentax have released a new version of their raw codec for Windows Vista. The update adds support to the new Pentax K-7 digital SLR, which we reviewed recently.

Website: Pentax Raw Codec Software for Windows Vista

Via The Imaging Resource

Olympus has announced the Olympus mju TOUGH-6010, a twelve-megapixel shockproof, waterproof and freezeproof digital compact camera. The µ TOUGH-6010 has a 3.6x wide zoom whose angle-of-view range is equivalent to that of a 28-102mm lens in 35mm format. The camera is freezeproof to -10 degrees Celsius, waterproof to 3m and provides shockproof protection against drops of up to 1.5m. As a new addition, the µ TOUGH-6010 now features a number of “Magic Filters”. Some of these - including ‘Pinhole’ and ‘Pop Art’ are apparently the same “Art Filters” we have seen in some of the manufacturer’s newer DSLRs as well as the Olympus E-P1 (review), but others seem new. The latest µ TOUGH will be available from July 2009 for a retail price of £299.99

Nikon has issued an important service notice to owners of the Nikon D5000 digital SLR camera. Apparently, an electronic component related to power control in some Nikon D5000 units does not meet factory specifications and may, in certain circumstances, prevent the camera from turning on. Service related to this issue, including the cost of shipping affected D5000 cameras to Nikon, as well as their return to customers, will be free of charge. On 23 July Nikon will post the serial numbers of affected cameras at the website below.

Website: Nikon D5000 Service Advisory
Review: Read our in-depth review of the Nikon D5000

PhotoShelter has enhanced its Virtual Agency feature, which gives like-minded photographers a platform to band together and create niche agencies and collectively market their photos online. The recent updates enable photographers to brand their Virtual Agency with a custom name or logo, and introduces a simple navigation and background template. This provides a more consistent user experience for Virtual Agency visitors while maintaining the agency’s branding. PhotoShelter also welcomed WILD Photography, a new Virtual Agency which combines the work of legendary outdoor photographers Art Wolfe, Thomas Mangelsen, and David Doubilet. Each has embraced direct-to-client sales of stock photos instead of the traditional agency model, says PhotoShelter.

Architectural Photography by Adrian Schulz is a new book from Rocky Nook. It is a step-by-step guide to architectural photography both for the aspiring amateur photographer interested in architectural photography and for the professional photographer wanting to expand his skills in this domain. Adrian Schulz, both an architect and a photographer by training, uses real world projects to teach and illustrate how to capture outstanding images of buildings, inside and out, choose the right equipment and use it effectively, compose architectural shots, work with ambient and artificial light, and process images in an efficient workflow. The book is available for $44.95/£34.50.

PocketWizard has released the latest ControlTL firmware update; version 4.300. This update addresses several performance issues, especially with the Canon 5D Mark II camera and is recommended for all MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 owners. To install this update, simply connect your product to the PocketWizard Utility and click “check for updates” under the “maintenance” tab. If you do not have the Utility installed on your computer, it can be downloaded for free at www.PocketWizard.com/support/downloads.

Ricoh has issued a firmware update for its GX200 digital compact camera. Version 1.25 addresses minor issues related to the display of images in playback mode and the recording of orientation information when using long exposure times.

Website: Ricoh GX200 Firmware Update Service
Review: Read our in-depth review of the Ricoh GX200

This Saturday, 18 July 2009, over 900 photo walks will be held worldwide. Out of these, 33 will take place in the UK and Ireland. The event is organised by the National Association of Photoshop Pros (NAPP), and co-sponsored by Adobe. Participating photographers can post their images, provided they are processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, to the NAPP site for a chance to win a grand prize.

Website: Worldwide Photo Walk

Along the Water’s Edge, published by the Gallery of the American Landscape, is a volume of exceptional photographs made over the past twenty years by medium/large format photographer Timothy Wolcott. The author is a fine art landscape photographer and pioneer in pigment photography, who has captured images of rivers, streams, waterfalls and oceans like you have never seen them. Many of the original photographs comprising the book’s 79 images have been exhibited in museums, private corporations and fine art galleries worldwide. Along the Water’s Edge is available now in three versions via the web site at: http://www.galleryoftheamericanlandscape.com/book.html.

Verbatim has announced its new SureFire line of portable combo FW800/USB2 hard disk drives. Available now with capacities of 250GB, 320GB and 500GB, the rugged palm-sized drives combine power, convenience and the reliability of the Verbatim brand with a compact, sleek design, says the company. The bus-powered drives are equipped with one USB 2.0 port, and one FireWire® 800 port to deliver high-speed transfer rates of up to 800MB/s for FireWire 800 connections and 480MB/s when connected with USB 2.0—without requiring an AC power adapter.  Ready to use right out of the box, all cables are included. Verbatim SureFire Portable FW800/USB HDDs are ready to use with Mac OS X Leopard’s Time Machine™ backup application and can be easily reformatted for PCs. The suggested retail pricing is US$109.99 for the 250GB version, US$139.99 for the 320GB version and US$179.99 for the 500GB drive.

Ohanaware, specialists in photo editing software, announced the immediate availability of an update to their flagship product “Funtastic Photos”.  Funtastic Photos is allegedly a user-friendly photo editor for the Macintosh platform, with advanced effects engine and sharing capabilities. This update, which is free to existing customers, features a multitude of bug fixes and more built-in creativity, Ohanaware claims. Funtastic Photos, which requires requires a Power Macintosh G5 or Intel based Macintosh computer, running Mac OS X v 10.4 or later, is available today for the price of $34.99 USD before taxes.