Eye-fi (spy)

Now for sometihing a bit light-hearted.
Thieves in an american restaurant stole a woman's camera. Little did they realise it was loaded with one of the new Eye-fi SD cards. These cards are enabled to wirelessly transmit pictures to your computer or via a web based storage server.
The thieves were walking past a wi-fi hotspot with the camera switched on. The camera automatically uploaded the pictures one of which featureed the clueless trio. At home the woman turned on her file manager on the computer and recognised one of the restaurant staff in one of the beamed in photos.
The staff were sacked but the woman decided that was punishment enough and did not press charges.

SB900 Flash

Yesterday Nikon announced a new top-of-the-range flash the SB900.

Now setting the gun to master or remote firing is simple with a switch on the body instead of the SB800s complicated menu driven control.

It has three illumination patterns: - Centre-weighted, Even and Standard and it covers a auto zoom range of 17-200mm. Advanced features include a booster circuit that enables high-speed recycling using four AA-type batteries and a built-in thermal protection system to warn of excessive heat build up. It automatically detects the presence of a fluorescent or incandescent color filter and transmit this information to the attached camera’s white balance setting.

Nikon D700

Nikon's second full frame FX format camera will be the D700 which is
expected in Calumet on July 25th. It will use the same 12.1 mega-pixel
sensor as the D3 but cost about a grand less at £1999.00 when it is
launched.
Full Specs below:
12.1 megapixel FX (full-frame) CMOS sensor with high signal-to-noise ratio, wide dynamic range, and built-in self-cleaning sensor unit that minimizes dust.
ISO 200 – 6400: extendable up to 25600 (equivalent) and down to ISO 100 (equivalent).
5fps continuous shooting (8fps with optional MB-D10 battery pack with lithium-ion battery EN-EL4a or 8 AA batteries).
EXPEED image processing engine with 14-bit A/D conversion and 16-bit image processing for superb detail and tonal gradation.
Advanced Scene Recognition System combines the camera’s metering and AF sensors for precise exposures and sharply defined images.
Multi-CAM3500FX 51-point AF system. Individually selectable or configurable in 9-point, 21-point and 51-point coverage settings.
Picture Controls streamline in-camera image processing by enabling the pre-set customization of image parameters such as sharpening, contrast, brightness, hue and saturation in various color modes.
920,000 dot 3-inch VGA LCD monitor with wide, 170-degree viewing angle.
Live View with Autofocus enables composition of images by use of the LCD monitor. Two modes are supported: Handheld or Tripod.
DX Crop Mode can be automatically enabled when a DX format lens is attached.
Quick response: approx. 40 ms shutter-lag.
Active D-Lighting enables superior high-contrast images by automatically applying tone compensation at the moment of capture.
Intuitive ergonomics with optimized button placement for fast and comfortable handling.
Durable Magnesium alloy body: moisture and dust resistant.

Adobe Photoshop Elements

Having a bit of a play with remove colour in Adobe Photoshop Elements following a session of Black and White with my Thursday evening class. So here is Belinda Swift on the Isle of Skye with her ordnance survey map.
If you have not tried this feature, first using the lasso tool create a selection around the part of your photo which is to remain in colour. Go to select>inverse to select the rest of the image and then enhance>adjust colour>remove colour - hey presto it is done.

Skye 3

Glamaig with a capping cloud - the only cloud visible for
miles!

Skye 2

Cooling my feet after a hard day's walking on the Isle of Skye, May 2008.

Skye

Ruth Beach of the Austrian Alpine Club taking picture near the summit of Bruach Na Frith, Black Cuillins, Skye, on May 29th 2008.

Sealion at Edinburgh Zoo

Playing with the Nikon D3 at the zoo at the end of May. Went to sealion feeding and got some great pictures with the animal's whiskers.

Nikon Capture NX2

Loaded Nikon's latest version of Capture NX2 this evening and had a bit of a play with it. Tried out "Batch Process" to resize a whole folder of images.
Discovered that with NX2 you have to create a settings file first and save that to a specific location and then apply that to the folder.
Whoops this seems very complicated compared to Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0.
With Elements 6.0 I can simply Batch process a folder to say resize for the web in a matter of minutes without anything complicated.
As usual there are some features you like and others you wish the designers had spent some more time over to simplify. Elements 6.0 is £50 and NX2 is £129.99.

Nikon Capture NX2

Capture NX2 announced at the Nikon Business Conference 2008 yesterday (June 3rd 2008). So that's why Capture NX is being taken out of the D300 and D3 which will no longer ship with the software.
Everyone was trying to get Nikon managers to talk about the D3X but they remained tight-lipped even after quite a few drinks.