Canon has a new "entry level" camera

15 megapixels. It can shoot 1080 HD movies. It can go up to ISO 12800. It's the Canon HD Rebel T1i / EOS 500D.

Another way to share pics and other files (Mac only)

Free RAW Editor For You Lucky Mac Owners

I came across a thread in dpreview which pointed out that there is a free and very capable RAW editor for Mac users, called RPP (RAW Photo Processor).

Now this is just ridiculous

Coming soon? A 2 terabyte SDXC card? Are they serious?!?

A Beautiful High Def Video Shot on a Canon 5D Mark II

According to ProPhoto Magazine, this slick looking video short was conceived and shot in 14 straight hours, and edited in 3. Reverie, by Vincent LaForet.

PhotoAnswers, a good new link added

Here's a worthy addition to our already great selection of links, PhotoAnswers. Be sure to check out the video section, there are reviews and tutorials there.

Extract embedded jpeg images from RAW files

You've probably opened a RAW file and then saved it as a jpeg, or even done this as a batch process. Did you know that jpeg images are already embedded in every RAW file? Yep, it's true. And did you know that there is a free piece of software that you can download to extract those jpegs? Well, you do now. You can read about it here, and you can download it here. I tried it, and it works.

Hitler Rants about the cost of the new Nikon D3x

Interesting shots I came across

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10 Last Photos

Interesting.

RED's Camera System is Now Official

In an earlier post, I posted a link to information on a new high end camera system by RED. Well, the system is now official!

Esoteric article on Noise, Dynamic Range and Bit Depth

Here is a good article for the freakishly intelligent. In it, you'll find everything you'd ever want to know about noise, dynamic range, and bit depth, complete with bewildering charts and inscrutable diagrams. Here's hoping one of us will be able to absorb and digest this, and be willing to regurgitate it in an understandable form for us at a future meeting.

BBC Series "The Genius of Photography"

Warning: some of these contain pictorial nudity.

Program 1
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Program 2
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

Program 3
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Program 4
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Program 5
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Program 6
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

GIMP's Big Improvement

I tried out GIMP many years ago, but the one thing that kept me from sticking with it was its 8 bit limitation. Well, that limitation is no more. GIMP's latest version (2.6) has a major improvement in that department. It now has something called GEGL, which processes the images in 32 bits.

Excerpt link

"Important progress towards high bit-depth and non-destructive editing in GIMP has been made. Most color operations in GIMP are now ported to the powerful graph based image processing framework GEGL, meaning that the internal processing is being done in 32bit floating point linear light RGBA. By default the legacy 8 bit code paths are still used, but a curious user can turn on the use of GEGL for the color operations with Colors / Use GEGL."

The good news: it's a free download.
The bad news: as of 9-5-08, there is no ver. 2.6 for Windows or Mac. At this point, it's Linux only.

No Sherpa Included

In keeping with my (thus far) tendency to have very practical links and very impractical posts, here's a nice video of a lens you may never see, much less buy - Sigma's 200-500mm f/2.8 telephoto, also known as "Sigzilla".

New technique uses flash to create 3D shots

Now you can use your flash to create 3d modeled images. This new technique is as effective as an older more tedious method using laser scanners. The basic idea is to take two shots - one with flash, the other without. Read about it here.

New super video camera called "The Red One"

Below is a link to an incredibly high resolution video clip shot by a new 120 frames-per-second (at least) super video camera called "The Red One", developed by billionaire Jim Jannard. According to the article, the camera's resolution matches film! Its sensor is 4096 x 2304 pixels, which I calculated to be 9.2 megapixels.

Click here to see this incredible video. Keep in mind that his videos are 5 to 6 times the resolution that your monitor is capable of displaying. The small window you're seeing it in is not doing it justice.

It's currently available for the low, low price of $17,000. I'm getting a couple - one to keep and the other as a door prize for the next meeting.

Real photographers do this

If you're truly dedicated to the art of photography, sooner or later you'll find yourself doing this.