Digital Camera News and Reviews

Microsoft and Nokia has announced that they are partnering up. Nokia will now release phones with Windows Phone 7 and share several types of platforms and services. See press release below for more information.

I find this interesting as Nokia has reputation of making good camera phones. With Windows Phone 7 they should be able to making some killer phones with both great cameras and great photo software. I welcome this move from Nokia!

Press release:
Nokia and Microsoft Announce Plans for a Broad Strategic Partnership to Build a New Global Mobile Ecosystem

Companies plan to combine assets and develop innovative mobile products on an unprecedented scale.

LONDON – Feb. 11, 2011 – Nokia and Microsoft today announced plans to form a broad strategic partnership that would use their complementary strengths and expertise to create a new global mobile ecosystem.

Nokia and Microsoft intend to jointly create market-leading mobile products and services designed to offer consumers, operators and developers unrivalled choice and opportunity. As each company would focus on its core competencies, the partnership would create the opportunity for rapid time to market execution. Additionally, Nokia and Microsoft plan to work together to integrate key assets and create completely new service offerings, while extending established products and services to new markets.

Under the proposed partnership:

• Nokia would adopt Windows Phone as its principal smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.

• Nokia would help drive the future of Windows Phone. Nokia would contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.

• Nokia and Microsoft would closely collaborate on joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.

• Bing would power Nokia’s search services across Nokia devices and services, giving customers access to Bing’s next generation search capabilities. Microsoft adCenter would provide search advertising services on Nokia’s line of devices and services.

• Nokia Maps would be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services. For example, Maps would be integrated with Microsoft’s Bing search engine and adCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience

• Nokia’s extensive operator billing agreements would make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low.

• Microsoft development tools would be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem’s global reach.

• Nokia’s content and application store would be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience.

“Today, developers, operators and consumers want compelling mobile products, which include not only the device, but the software, services, applications and customer support that make a great experience,” Stephen Elop, Nokia President and CEO, said at a joint news conference in London. “Nokia and Microsoft will combine our strengths to deliver an ecosystem with unrivalled global reach and scale. It’s now a three-horse race.”

“I am excited about this partnership with Nokia,” said Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. “Ecosystems thrive when fueled by speed, innovation and scale.The partnership announced today provides incredible scale, vast expertise in hardware and software innovation and a proven ability to execute.”

Please visit www.nokia.com/press for press materials.

Artensoft Photo Collage Maker 1.0

Artensoft has released a piece of collage photo software called Artensoft Photo Collage Maker 1.0. Tho program is able to automatically generate mosaic pictures of smaller pictures.

The Artensoft Photo Collage Maker 1.0 is available from December 2010 and costs about $80.

Press release:
Software Generates Photo Collage à la Steve Jobs Mosaic Portrait

New computer program makes impressive photo collages in the manner of a famous photomosaic of Steve Jobs from Apple icons, products and logos

December 20, 2010 – Artensoft today announces Artensoft Photo Collage Maker 1.0, the first and only Windows application that can automatically generate high-resolution photographic collages in the manner of a mosaic portrait of Steve Jobs composed of small pictures of Apple’s gadgets. To create a photo collage, there is no need to have any knowledge of design and mosaic techniques.

“A while back I saw an article in Forbes, which had a portrait of Steve Jobs made out of hundreds of tiny Apple icons and gadgets and decided to write a mathematical algorithm that could allow ordinary Windows users to create a photo collage like that automatically,” says Eugene Baryshnikov, the program’s chief developer, Artensoft. “As a result, we have developed a unique technology that was derived from the analysis of the Steve Jobs photomosaic. Now anyone with Windows PC can create an exclusive photomosaic with a push of a button”.

The program offers a wizard that makes it a matter of a few minutes to create a photo collage. The first thing is to choose a source photograph to make into a mosaic, and then add a collection of pictures that will be used as source material for the collage. For producing good results, it is recommended to have between 500 and 1500 images (picture sets are supplied with the program). Similar to a human artist, the program examines a source image and then recreates it as a hand-made mosaic automatically. The output can be saved to JPEG, BMP, TIFF or PNG.

Artensoft Photo Collage Maker gives a full range of options to produce a coherent collage. For example, the user can specify types of tiles to be used for generating a mosaic (mirrored images, 90 degree image rotation to the left or right, or 180 degree rotation). Besides, it is possible to set a radius for eliminating neighboring duplicate tiles, increase or decrease the number of large pictures, and select areas to be filled. When the first mosaic is generated, the user can manipulate a collage to individual preferences by replacing some tiles.

With Artensoft Photo Collage Maker, home users can create a one-of-a-kind mosaic portrait of relatives and friends and present it as a gift. The program can also be used by professional designers and advertisers, who can, for instance, create a mosaic ad banner from the products of a company or photos of happy employees.

Read more about the program at: http://www.artensoft.com/ArtensoftPhotoCollageMaker/
Screenshots of the interface: http://www.artensoft.com/ArtensoftPhotoCollageMaker/screenshots.php
Photo mosaic gallery: http://www.artensoft.com/ArtensoftPhotoCollageMaker/gallery.php
Demo: http://www.artensoft.com/ArtensoftPhotoCollageMaker/download/ArtensoftPhotoCollageMaker-Setup.exe

Pricing and Availability
Artensoft Photo Collage Maker 1.0 is available immediately from Artensoft, its online shop, and through a network of authorized resellers worldwide. For new customers the program is available for $79.95 (US). Upgrades are available for free. More information on the product can be found at http://www.artensoft.com

About Artensoft
Founded in 2007, Artensoft develops software tools for editing images and creating photo collages. The company has launched two popular programs: Artensoft Photo Mosaic Wizard, a software tool for creating photo mosaics, and Artensoft Photo Editor, a photo editor. For more information, visit http://www.artensoft.com

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.0

Adobe has announced the release of two new release candidates of their products. The release candiditates are Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.2 and Adobe Camera Raw 6.2. The updates adds support for Raw files from 12 new models, improved lens correction profiles and over 50 new lens profiles.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.2 and Adobe Camera Raw 6.2 can be downloaded for free for Lightroom customers and Photoshop CS5 customers.

Press release:
Adobe Posts Lightroom 3.2 and Camera Raw 6.2 Release Candidates on Adobe Labs

Adobe today announced the Lightroom 3.2 and Camera Raw 6.2 Release Candidates, available for immediate download on Adobe Labs. The updates extend raw file support to 12 new popular camera models, improve on several of the lens correction profiles introduced as part of the Lightroom 3 and Camera Raw 6.1 releases, and add over 50 new lens profiles to help photographers automatically correct for undesirable distortion and aberration effects.

In addition, the Lightroom 3.2 Release Candidate now allows Lightroom 3 customers the ability to publish their photos directly to Facebook from within the application, and addresses issues reported by customers on the Lightroom 3.0 release. Adobe continues to encourage the community to provide feedback on the updates so it can ensure the highest quality experience for customers working on a variety of hardware and software configurations.

Lightroom is the essential digital photography workflow solution, helping serious amateur and professional photographers quickly import, manage, enhance and showcase all their images from one application. The Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in provides fast and easy access within Photoshop to the raw image formats produced by many leading digital cameras.

Pricing and Availability
The Lightroom 3.2 Release Candidate is available as a free download for Lightroom 3 customers, and the Photoshop Camera Raw 6.2 Release Candidate is available as a free download for Photoshop CS5 customers. For more information and to test out the updates visit http://labs.adobe.com/uk. Feedback can be provided on the Adobe User to User forum at http://forums.adobe.com.

*Please visit the Lightroom Journal for more information on these Release Candidates and a full list of the improved and newly added lens profiles: http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal

Newly Supported Camera Models
Panasonic DMC-FZ100, Panasonic DMC-FZ40 (FZ45), Panasonic DMC-LX5, Pentax 645D, Samsung NX10, Samsung TL500 (EX1), Sony A290, Sony A390, Sony Alpha NEX-3, Sony Alpha NEX-5

Also, this update improves the colour and noise profiles for the following cameras that utilise the DNG raw file format already supported in previous versions of Lightroom and Camera Raw: Casio EXILIM EX-FH100 (DNG) and Leica S2 (DNG).

Adobe Photoshop CS5

Adobe has updated their famous image-editing software Photoshop to version CS5 (Creative Suite 5). It seems like Adobe releases a new version of Photoshop quite frequently so it can be expensive for us photographers to follow track. The big question is if it is worth the money to upgrade from earlier versions of Photoshop since the price tag is pretty high. Among the updates in CS5 we find 64-bit support for Mac, new HDR tools, Content-Aware fill and improved masking. Let us hear what the reviewer over at Photography Blog finds out.

Photography Blog ends up giving the Adobe Photoshop CS5 image-editing software a “Recommended” overall rating with a score of 4 out of 5 stars. The software scores highest on features, a bit lower on value for your money and lowest on ease of use. Compared to CS4 CS5 contains lots of useful features and upgrades, but if you are happy with CS4 (or earlier versions) you might want to download a trial version before spending a good amount of money on the newest Adobe Photoshop.
Read the full review of Adobe Photoshop CS5 image-editing software here.