Daily Photography Industry News
Mobile photo sharing application provider Exclaim Mobility says its new Snap TV enables users to view and share mobile photos easily and in high quality through Internet-connected televisions.
“By leveraging connected TVs as the next step for viewing and sharing user-generated content, we have created an exciting new service for today’s connected user,” the company says.
muvee’s Device Solutions Group released a suite of core technology stacks that enable basic editing of HD video on Android mobile phones. Muvee says its technology uses “novel software techniques to accomplish all the basic video editing functions in a fraction of the time usually needed,” as muvee’s solution is able to make changes to a compressed file.
The company says in the six years since video recording has been available on mobile devices, mobile video recording resolution has increased 150 times — yet the CPU has only increased by less than 10 fold. In 2004, the Nokia 7610 was able to capture video at sub-QCIF resolution (128 by 96 pixels at 15 frames per second) and it ran on a 123MHz chip. Today, HTC’s Desire HD captures video at 720P (1280 by 720 at 30 frames per second) on a CPU just 9 times faster. The computational power now required of today’s mobile phones to manipulate such huge and highly compressed video files have outpaced the advancement of CPUs multiple times over. Even with dual core CPU and GPUs for mobile phones, computational advancement is still expected to lag that of video resolution needs as 3D dual HD streams are enabled on mobile devices, muvee says.
Consumers share videos on social media networks, but many clips need basic editing, such as trimming, reducing background noise, adding a music track, or a personal message as a voice over. “Such simple and basic operations would take too long to process on a mobile phone using traditional methods,” the company concludes. “We don’t believe the majority of consumers will necessarily want to make a Hollywood blockbuster on their phones, but they will demand simple useful editing functions.”
The company’s suite of tools is available for license.
muvee says it established its Device Solutions Group in 2004, and released the first video editing application on Symbian mobile phones for Nokia.
NEC says its new noise suppression technologies record the sound of a zoom motor in a digital camera, and then subtract that noise from video as it is captured. The tech is now in Casio’s EX-ZR10.
NEC says expensive motors with limited speed and filters that prevent the passage of noise frequencies were adopted in conventional digital cameras to minimize noise levels while shooting video. This gave rise to a number of problems that include a camera’s lack of ability to take fast-moving sports footage, and sound distortion due to filters that suppress ambient sound. NEC says its new technologies resolve these problems.
“Conventionally, the sound generated by lens drivers for digital cameras in movie mode is recorded as noise by microphones,” the company says. “These new technologies suppress noise through a method that records and saves the core characteristics of sounds created by a camera lens’ driving mechanisms, then subtracts this information from signals that are recorded by microphones. Furthermore, these technologies automatically adapt to lens and microphone characteristics among different products, which eliminates the need for customized product adjustment.”
It also preserves ambient environmental sound, while only suppressing the noise generated by a camera’s motor, NEC claims.
onOne Software has redesigned its application for remotely controlling select Canon and Nikon SLRs with Apple iOS devices.
The $50 DSLR Camera Remote HD is made for the iPad, and includes a new interface with image thumbnails and larger previews, in addition to faster access to options like the intervalometer and auto bracketing, the company says.
Also new is a Video mode in which the user can start and stop video recording on supported cameras, and remotely monitor video on the iPad.
The original $20 DSLR Camera Remote runs on the iPhone or iPod Touch; it now adds support for the Canon 60D and the Nikon D7000.
A free version allows photographers to remotely fire their camera.
Both iOS apps require another application run on a WiFi enabled Mac or Windows computer, to communicate between the iOS device and the supported SLRs, connected via USB or Firewire to a computer.
Mobile imaging technologies provider Scalado says “there is no difference between a digital still camera, a mobile phone, or any other image capturing device. Ultimately, the end user is the most important player here, and therefore has the right to have the same user experience on any device.”
That extends to even formerly high-end features such as instant high dynamic range imaging, the company says, which can “create stunning images” by automatically taking multiple photos at different exposure settings and then processing all of the best elements of each shot into a single image with perfectly balanced lighting.
The mobile HDR imaging will run on OMAP 4 processors from Texas Instruments. With TI, Scalado says it will “make it simple for handset manufacturers to easily integrate advanced, fully-optimized imaging applications such as instant full-resolution image handling, zero shutter lag, burst-mode image capturing, HDR imaging, 3D capturing, and instant zoom/pan at the moment the image is captured.”
Scalado also announced a new camera framework for Qualcomm’s MSM8x60 dual-core processor, saying it will enable on a mobile device such next-generation image capture techniques the “Rewind” application which picks and chooses the best faces from different versions of a group photo to create a single perfect shot.
More than 600 million mobile phone handsets now feature Scalado software, the company says. Scalado is headquartered in Lund, Sweden.
An S lens firmware update and a new Image Shuttle software version have been announced by Leica Camera, Inc., Allendale, N.J. Both can be downloaded from the Leica Owners Area on the Leica website.
Available for the 35mm f/2.5 ASPH Leica Summarit-S , the 70mm f/2.5 ASPH Summarit-S, the 120mm f/2.5 APO-Macro-Summarit-S, and the 180mm f/3.5 APO-Elmar-S, the new S lens firmware update optimizes the lens’ performance due to an initializing sequence when turning on the camera and attaching the lens. The instruction manual is also available for downloading.
The new Image Shuttle software update optimizes the compatibility with the current S2 firmware, in addition to improving stability. Also, it allows Quick View to display images in a separate, scalable window immediately after capture when shooting tethered.
Canadian-based iStockphoto, Calgary, Alberta, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Getty Images, has added a new collection of “editorial use only” stock images to www.istockphoto.com. These images are intended for use by news outlets, publishers, magazines, bloggers and presenters as a descriptive visual reference to a product, place, event or concept.
Editorial use only images are covered by a licensing agreement that limits the manner in which they can be used. They are subject to a different, more restrictive set of content guidelines than images used commercially.
“By offering more editorial images,” says Kelly Thompson, COO, “we are now able to provide a treasure trove of new content that provides real-world representation of the topics a large number of our customers cover. Editorial images also represent a tremendous new opportunity for our contributors.”
While any of iStockphoto’s more than eight million images may be used for editorial purposes, editorial use only images may not be used for commercial purposes. For this reason, editorial use only images will be distinctly watermarked and visible on the search results page.
Henry William “Hank” Louis, 79, died Feb. 12, 2011. His grandfather, Norwood C. Louis, started a drugstore in the 1800s, which later became Henry Louis Inc. The business was in continuous oepration for nearly 120 years, until it closed in 2003. Hank Louis joined the family business after a long and illustrious career in the Army, and eventually became president of the company.
Louis is survived by his wife of 34 years, Sherry; and four daughters and their families.
Services celebrating his life will be held on his birthday, Feb. 23, 2011, at 2:00 p.m. at the Gay & Ciha Funeral and Cremation Service. A time of visitation will take place one hour prior to the services. Military Honors will be provided at the conclusion of the services.
Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N.Y., introduced a family of Kodak Professional Endura Electrophotographic Printing (EP)
Kodak EP paper has photo paper-like qualities
Papers, suing proprietary E-surface technology to create high-quality, photo-grade media for EP presses, offering the look, feel and surface of photographic paper, the company claims. With these papers, customers can intermix media output from silver-halide printers and digital presses to expand the potential portfolio of photo offerings, as well as enhance productivity. Specifically, the new paper is optimized for both dry ink and liquid ink technologies, and offer tw0-sides lustre surface for duplex printing. The paper has the look and feel of traditional photo paper, and has the same white, non-yellowing paper base used on Kodak Professional Endura Color Negative Photographic paper.
“Our new Endure EP Papers continue Kodak’s history of working to find new business opportunities for our professional lab, studio, central lab operations customers and print operators interested in photo-realistic quality,” says Dennis Olbrich, general manager, Film Capture, Paper and Output Systems, and Vice President, Film, Photofinishing and Entertainment Group, Kodak. “As more labs complement their silver-halide printers with digital presses, our media enables them to offer new and differentiated products, such as greeting cards, business cards, companion wedding albums and posters, without compromising quality or productivity.”
Kodak will initially offer the new Kodak Professional Endura EP Papers in the most popular size, 18-by-12 in (45.7-by-30.5 cm) double-sided sheets. Kodak will continue to certify these papers on a majority of EP printing presses. Kodak Professional Endura EP-L Paper is available worldwide immediately. Kodak Professional Endura EP-D Paper will be available in April.
Portra 160 family of film
Kodak also introduced the new Kodak Professional Portra 160 Film, featuring a significantly finer grain structure in a 160-speed color-negative film, the company said. The new Kodak Professional Portra160 Film incorporates Kodak’s Advanced Cubic Emulsions to achieve this finer grain. Like the new Kodak Professional Portra400 Film, Kodak Professional Portra160 Film also employs Kodak Vision Film technology and Antenna Dye Sensitization in the magenta emulsion layers.
The new Kodak Professional Portra160 Film will be available in 35 mm, 120/220, 4×5 and 8×10 sheet format, beginning March 2011. It replaces the existing Kodak Professional Portra160NC and 160VC Film offerings on a stock turnover basis.
Lucidiom Inc., Vienna, Va., is once again directly providing all support for the company’s product line – APM, Lab 50, Photo Finale and the EQ printer. We take pride in providing the best resources to assist our customers 24/7.
Direct support is available via email or online, or through the automated call center at (703) 564-3400. Representative are online Monday through Friday, from 9:00am till 6:00pm Eastern time.
The company also offers an Online Knowledgebase & Documentation that provides information about setup, features, releases and tips, as well as answers and instructions to the questions customers call about most.
In addition, the Users’ Group Forum allows Lucidiom customers to interact with Lucidiom staff and the rest of the Lucidiom community. You can ask questions, help answers other users’ questions, and get an early scoop on the latest Lucidiom announcements.
Wondering what The Big Photo Show was really like? Here’s your chance to find out. I had the very fun opportunity to interview a handful of the exhibitors at the show, and we have just posted a video of those interviews on Youtube. Taped during the event, held May 4-5 at the Los Angeles Convention [...]
