Earlier today, several sources, citing a press release on DPReview, reported that the Adobe was going to release an updated Lightroom 3 Beta, which included a video feature, tethered shooting capabilities, and several other improved features.
A few hours later, the release on dpreview vanished. So did a release on dpnow.
According to CNET, the release appears legitimate but may been prematurely posted.
Adobe did not comment on the news, and there appear to be no new updates available on the Lightroom site.
The excitement over the rumored beta update was largely over its video capabilities: Adobe would appear to be keeping pace with advanced DSLRs, allowing users to import and organize videos from their cameras.
Additionally, it would enable tethered shooting, faster import, better noise reduction, and a Flickr sync capability.
Since the false alarm, the Lightroom forums have lit up with disappointment and anticipation, since Adobe has neither denied nor supported the rumor.
Time to dust off your old Polaroid cameras. The Impossible Project has just unveiled its new PX100 and PX600 instant films for Polaroid cameras, after a three year effort to save Polaroid photography from extinction. The $21 packs, available starting Thursday, will each provide 8 black and white images. Color film packs are also expected to be released sometime this summer.
PX100 film is for the SX-70 Polaroid camera from the 1970′s, while PX600 is for more recent cameras that take 600-series film. While the new film will not carry Polaroid branding, new Polaroid instant film cameras that use the film have been announced. The company plans to produce more than 1 million packs in the first year.
Do you love Polaroid enough to pick it up again for $2-3 a shot?
If you need a way to protect your camera gear while on the move, then this giveaway is for you.
We’re giving away a Think Tank Photo Airport Security V 2.0 rolling camera bag worth $369.
This camera bag meets USA airline carry on size requirements, and has TSA approved combination locks. The front and back of the bag each contain a security cable and lock that allows you to lock the bag to both a laptop bag and an immovable object for when you need to leave the bag unattended.
Like our previous giveaway, this one will be automated and done completely through Thawnos for transparency. All you need to do is sign into the app using your Twitter account and post a tweet through the app containing the link provided (which points to this post). That’s it!
You can enter the giveaway by clicking here or through the widget below:
The giveaway ends in 2 days on Wednesday, and the winner will be randomly and automatically selected by Thawnos. Good luck!
Update: This giveaway is open to international readers as well.
A big thanks to Think Tank Photo for providing the bag for this giveaway!
Burger King recently partnered up with marketing agency Ogilvy for a unique “Have It Your Way” campaign. In order to convey how personalized the orders are, they used a hidden camera and printer to slap a candid photograph of the customer’s face right on the burger wrapper. A separate hidden camera was used to document the reactions of the customers after seeing themselves on their food.
Some customers pulled out cameras to remember the unique wrapper, while others stated they would save the wrapper itself. I found it pretty funny how unflattering the candid portraits were.
InVisage, a California-based start up company, has announced a new image sensor technology that it claims is up to four times more sensitive than traditional sensor technologies.
Their product, QuantumFilm, is a layer of semiconductor material added on top of the traditional silicon that uses quantum dots to gather light.
According to InVisage CEO Jess Lee, quantum dots have a 90% efficiency in gathering light, compared to the 50% of traditional silicon.
What this means is that we can expect cell phone cameras to improve at a much faster pace than what we’ve been seeing, since improving the performance of traditional silicon has proved difficult. Lee predicts that in two years, mobile phones will contain cameras that are superior than current digital cameras in both megapixels and light sensitivity.
If this turns out to be true, we will likely see a dramatic decrease in the number of point-and-shoot cameras sold, as more and more consumers rely solely on their camera phones.
Lady Gaga’s most recent music video for “Telephone”, featuring Beyonce, is like most modern music videos: rife with product placement. But among the most prominent products was Gaga’s own employer, Polaroid, which gets a 10-second spot.
You may recall the buzz during CES 2010 when Polaroid announced the music artist was hired as their creative director for a specialty line.
It’s good to know that some people are getting jobs these days.
According to the Canon Japan website, the company is experiencing a shortage of the EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS II USM lens. The company says demand for the lens, which was announced in January and released recently in the US, was much higher than expected.
The lens is a staple of a pro photographer’s bag, but apparently Canon did not anticipate such a high volume of purchases, especially with its own earlier model, the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM still being sold at most retailers at a competitive price.
But there’s no need to panic; Canon assures that it knows Econ 101 and will be bumping up its production.
Photographer Jon Beard has a terrific set of photos called “Burning Bulbs” in which he breaks lightbulbs and photographs them with the filaments exposed.
The set includes the following photograph, titled “1UP Mushroom“:
This photograph recently became extremely popular on Flickr, amassing over 100,000 views. Beard tells us,
I’m a photographer and computer guy from the mountains of Virginia. My favorite kind of shot is one that gives a person a new perspective. Whether it’s a far away landscape, an unusual angle on something familiar, or a close-up of an everyday item, if it changes the way they see the things around them, it’s a success.
The idea for the 1UP came while going through shots from a broken bulb series I had shot with the intention of adding color. When I saw that one, the mushroom shape was undeniable and as a lifelong gamer all I could see was green with white spots.
DIYPhotography has a great tutorial on how to shoot this kind of photograph, but Beard also created a great behind-the-scenes video tutorial showing us his process:
If you decide to try out this idea, please be very careful – both electricity and glass can be hazardous to your health.
Our recent post showing vinyl records at 1000x magnification was pretty popular, and many of you had ideas for things you’d like seen under a scanning electron microscope.
ASPEX, a company that manufactures scanning electron microscopes (SEM), recently launched a “Send Us Your Sample!” campaign. All you need to do is fill out a form and send it into the company with the sample you’d like photographed, and the company will publish the resulting photograph online and notify you via email when it’s up.
The photographs above show the torn edges of a piece of paper. You can see previously completed requests in this gallery.
Here’s the latest innovation from Pentax: a puppet body for your lens cap! The “Cameraman” is a handmade puppet body that comes with a 52mm lens cap showing a smiley face. It costs ¥2,914, or about $32, and is only available for a limited amount of time.
There’s also about 100 different designs you can choose from, though we think it’d be cool if they offered a blank doll for you to draw your own design. It’d be like the Munny for cameras.
This is the same company that allows you to customize the colors of its entry level DSLR, the K-x.
Looks like Pentax is trying to differentiate itself from the competition with creativity and adding a “fun factor” to entry level photography.
