News for the week of November 26

Lord Lichfiled Dies Photographer and Royal Cousin Dies at the age of 66 from a stroke. Lord Lichfield was the Queen's first cousin, once removed and was official photographer at the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Diana. His Illustrious career includes working for Vogue and photographing many stars and personalities, including Michael Caine, Colin Farrell, model Jerry Hall, the late Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and the Royal Family. Plenoptic Imaging This was one of the most interesting pieces in the last while. DP Review featured an article covering the development of a new type of digital image recording. Ren Ng, who is a graduate student at Stanford University has developed a hand-held plenoptic camera. The camera works by taking the shot first and then allows you to make the decision about the focus point in software afterwards. According to the article "The prototype camera is actually a Contax 645 with a modified Megavision FB4040 back (sixteen megapixel). The back has had an array of 90,000 microlenses mounted in front of the sensor (with a gap between the array and the sensor). These microlenses create a unique image on the sensor surface which includes not only the amount of light deposited at that location, but how much light arrives along each ray. The image is then reconstructed in software and a focus point can be chosen. Note that the final resolution is the same as the number of microlenses." for more info visit dpreview which has plenty of links to more info. Sigma Lenses and EOS 5D Review Other news includes new lenses from Sigma, a 135 - 400mm F4.5-5.6 DG lens, a 170-500mm F5-6.3 APO DG Lens. A full Review of the Canon EOS 5D at dpreview which makes interesting reading and makes me even more interested in get my hands on one. Solar Bags from Eclipse Eclipse Solar Gear are a Manufacturer who have released a line of bags aimed at gadgeteers. innovative solar charging carrying cases for all your mobile personal electronics. The bags are in eclipses own words: "a patented line of backpacks, messenger bags, soft coolers, and other quality cases designed to charge the batteries of common handheld electronics including: cell phones, PDA’s, iPods, and GPS units in a convenient and effortless manner."

Forgent JPEG Compression Patent under Challenge

I was perusing Slashdot, one of my favourite tech information and news sites when this bit of news posted by CowboyNeal caught my eye: "ChocLinux writes "The Public Patent Foundation has filed a request at the US Patent Office to revoke Compression Labs' data compression patent, which it is reportedly using to harrass anyone that implements the JPEG format. 'CLI's aggressive assertion of the '672 patent is causing substantial public harm by threatening this international standard on which the public relies,' says Pubpat in its filing." I'm pleased by this development as I see Forgent and their ilk as prime examples of this kind of practice at its worst... Roll on the public's interest... View the article and associated comments here.

Imaging News for the Week of November 8

Canon Eos 20D/Da Firmware Update Canon Have Updated their firmware for the Canon Eos 20D/Da. The update fixes a colour temperature information problem when using Speedlite 430EX and it also improves communication when using CF cards. Visit Canon's BeBit for the Updates. Nikon Announce Remote Speedlight Commander Nikon announced their new remote Speedlight SB-R200 and Command Unit SU-800. This wireless flash system is intended for close-up and macro photography. The SU-800 commander unit is also compatible with other speedlights and can be used in up to three groups. Nikon is selling these components separately but also a Macro kit which includes a command unit and two SB-R200 Speedlights. As always DPReview have excellent coverage. Nikon Announce D200 Prosumer DSLR DPreview have yet again produced another great preview of a new DSLR from Nikon. The Nikon D200, is a 10.2 MP digital SLR with professional features and build quality. Features include a magnesium-alloy body, an 11-area AF sensor, 3D Color Matrix Metering II, 5 frames per second continuous shooting at up to 37 JPEG (Fine-Large) images or up to 22 NEF (RAW) images when using a SanDisk SDCFH (Ultra II) or SDCFX (Extreme III) 1GB CF card. It also features shutter speeds ranging from 1/8,000 of a second to 30 seconds, a 2.5" LCD monitor, USB 2.0, 1/250 sec X-sync plus WiFi and GPS support. The D200 should retail for $1,849 in the US. Click here for DPReviews coverage. Wacom Announce Wide-Format Tablet. Wacom have announced the Intuos3 6x11 tablet. It is the world's first wide-format pen tablet designed for use with widescreen displays and dual monitors. The tablet features Wacoms programmable ExpressKeys and Touch Strips, and the cordless battery-free Grip Pen offers 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity. The Tablets will ship in the US with Adobe Photoshop Elements 3, Corel Painter Essentials 2, nik Color Efex Pro 2 IE and Wacom Brushes 2. It is expected to retail for US $369.95 Visit Wacom for more info. Nikon Release D2X and D2Hs Firmware Update Nikon have updated their firmware for the has today released new firmware for the D2X and D2Hs digital SLRs. Firmware version 1.01 improves autofocus performance and preset white balance and resolves issues with the AF-assist illuminator on certain Speedlights and a flash sync issue with the SB-800 Speedlight. The Update also corrects errors in menus when Dutch language is selected. Visit Nikon Asia's website for the updates. Digital Film Tools announce 55mm Version 6 Digital Film Tools have announced the release of 55mm Version 6. This update film filter effect set includes updated and improved filters and several new and useful addition to the already extensive filter kit. New filters include; Relight, Strip Grad, Vari-Star, Rack Focus and Color Spot. DFT are very good at what they do and they continue to impress me with their Plug-in work. Visit the 55mm product site for more info.