Rangefinder Magazine
February 2005

Click Here for printable version of this article.

Focus

Industry News…

Rainier Visits Rangefinder Offices
Chris Rainier, author of Ancient Marks, recently signed copies of his new book at Rangefinder Publishing’s offices in Santa Monica, CA. Chris, who was on his way to New Zealand, hand-delivered copies of the book, published by Media 27. Ancient Marks documents tribal tattooing and scarification around the globe. The book blends the tradition of marking the body within ancient cultures, with similar practices in contemporary Western culture. Images range from ritualized facial tattooing of the Maori culture in New Zealand, to street gang tattooing in America and Europe. Ancient Marks is available from the Rangefinder marketplace.

3M Contributes $1.5 Million for Tsunami Relief Efforts
3M announced it will donate $1.5 million to help with the relief efforts in the southern Asian countries devastated by the earthquake and tsunamis. The donation includes a $500,000 grant to match employee contributions to the American Red Cross, CARE, and UNICEF. 3M will also donate $1 million in products needed by relief organizations. To date, product donations have included, medical tapes, bandages, monitoring electrodes, surgical masks, respirators and packaging tape.

3M Community Giving is made up of cash and in-kind gifts made by 3M and the 3M Foundation and bolstered by employee and retiree volunteerism. 3M grants and product donations work together to improve communities around the world. In 2003, more than $50 million in cash, products and services were donated to charitable institutions.

Pixel Magic Featured on National Television
Pixel Magic (San Marcos, TX, 800/467-4935, www.pixelmagic. com), a leader in digital imaging solutions and photo kiosks, was among a small group of companies featured in “Terry Bradshaw’s Pick of the Week” show, which aired nationally on December 29, 2004, on The Discovery Channel.

Broadcast News Corp., which produces the show, selected Pixel Magic to participate because of the company’s history of providing unique solutions and award-winning technology to retailers and consumers. The Pixel Magic broadcast is available by request by contacting Pixel Magic Imaging’s offices.

Fujifilm’s Commitment to Copyright Protection
Fujifilm’s Digital Minilab Frontier 370 and Frontier 350 and the Fujifilm Aladdin Picture Centers have an upfront message about copyright. It’s a window that automatically comes up that serves as a warning to the operator about copyright infringement. It says, “In compliance with federal law, [this facility] will not copy a photograph that is signed, stamped, or otherwise identified by any professional photographer or studio without a release.

“In addition, we will not copy a photograph that appears to have been taken by a professional photographer or portrait studio without a release, even if it is not marked with any sort of copyright indication. An acknowledgement form must be completed for each order containing a copyrighted photo or a photo that appears to have been taken by a professional photographer or portrait studio. The form must be signed by the customer and retained on file at the store for five years.”

LustreColor and Capri Album Form Alliance
LustreColor Inc., Canton, MA, a professional wedding, portrait, and online hosting and imaging lab, has formed a marketing alliance with Capri Album of Mt. Vernon, NY. Part of the alliance includes the new www.CapriDesignAndBind.com web services. The new partnership allows Capri Album to offer a one-source solution for the design and delivery of Capri albums. Photographers can post their event images online, order traditional or magazine-style proofs, and design and receive a finished Capri Album from their computer terminal. The web site also allows photographers to email the bride an album slide show so she can preview and approve her album.

Adobe Calls for Entries
Adobe Systems, Inc. (San Jose, CA, www.adobe.com/education) is asking for entries to its Fifth Annual Adobe Design Achievement Awards. Expanded to 10 countries and nine competition categories, this year’s awards honor the most talented and promising student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers and computer artists who use Adobe’s design platforms, such as Creative Suite and Adobe Video Collection software. For the first time students from Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and Switzerland are invited to participate.

Projects will be judged by an independent panel of six judges, including Matthew Richmond from Chopping Block, Gail Anderson from Spot Design, Kathy Fredrickson from Studio Blue, Dean Velez from Gannett Production Services, Dava Guthmiller from Noise 13, and Frank Gladstone from Dreamworks SKG. Judges will select winners based on overall impact, design execution and technical capabilities.

Finalists will receive a trip to New York City to participate in the awards event, and an opportunity to showcase their work. First place entries will receive $5000 and a selection of Adobe products. Submissions will be accepted from March 14, 2005, to April 29, 2005. The entries will be judged in May. Awards ceremonies are scheduled to take place July 21, 2005, at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

ICS Announces Certified Consultant Program
Integrated Color Solutions (ICS), www.ics color.com/, a leader in monitor color proofing solutions, is offering a certified consultant program, which provides trained assistance to users of the Remote Director systems. To become ICS certified, each consultant must demonstrate expertise in software/hardware installations, application training, color management, profiling and the other color science tools that are specific to Remote Director and contract monitor proofing.

Consultants can provide on-site training, assist clients with hardware installation and calibration, build ICC profiles, and leverage Remote Director’s features and functionality to guarantee a seamless transition to monitor proofing.

ICS-certified consultants include Chromaticity Inc., Integrated Color Corporation, Plus Consultants, Enovation’s Professional Services Group, Progressive Color Media LLC and Ron Ellis Consulting LLC. In addition, all five ICS-authorized dealers—the Pitman Company, Enovation Graphic Systems, H.A. Metzger Inc., Mueller Graphic Supply, Tripp Co. and Cascades Resources—qualify as consultants. Certified consultants are all available for support on site or via telephone and email.

GIA and GretagMacbeth “Color Without Limits” Seminars
The Graphic Intelligence Agency (GIA) is offering “Color Without Limits” seminars to help digital print shops, designers and photo professionals simplify and understand color management. Produced in cooperation with GretagMacbeth, the one-day seminars will visit 34 North American cities, from January through April 2005.

Included with the seminars are demonstrations on how to achieve the best possible color for the entire workflow, including capture, display, editing, proofing and final output. Each attendee will receive a GIA Color Toolkit, which includes a GretagMacbeth Eye-One Display 2 colorimeter ($249 value), the Eye-One Match 3 software, the GIA Guide to Color and GIA’s CD-based color tools.

Seminar dates and cities include (2/1/05) Chicago, (2/15) Los Angeles, (3/8) Kansas City, (3/23) New York and (3/29) Orlando. Additional dates and online registration are available at www.giastore.com or by calling (888) 439-4403. The full-day seminar costs $349 per attendee, including lunch. Complete seminar information is available at www.graphintel.com/cwl/.

Noritsu America Expands Online Store
Noritsu America Corporation (Buena Park, CA, 800/521-3686, www.noritsu.com) a worldwide leader in photo processing and digital imaging technology, recently announced the expansion of the company’s online store to include an additional 4500 products.

Located at http://store.noritsu.com, the web site offers customers a convenient way to order consumable and replacement parts for their QSS and dDP minilab systems direct from Noritsu. Since its launch in August 2004, the site has proved popular with customers, who cite the acceptance of most major credit cards and no minimum order size as key benefits. Due to the success of the site, Noritsu has increased the size of the online catalog with frequently purchased products.

George Eastman House Hosts NYC Collectors Club
The George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film (Rochester, NY) will host the third meeting of its New York City Collectors Club, 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 3, at the Howard Greenberg Gallery, 41 East 57th St. The meeting will include a panel discussion with photography experts from Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Swann, Berlin’s Bassenge Auction Galleries, and Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg. The roundtable discussion will be moderated by Jori Finkel, senior editor of Art and Auction magazine.

Annual dues for the New York City-based George Eastman House Collectors Club are $400, with 90 percent of that fee applied to an acquisition fund. Contact Alan L. Paris at (914) 523-0633 or alan-paris@mindspring. com for additional details.

Digital Workflow Seminars for Professional Photographers
Digital photography veteran Rob Galbraith will conduct digital workflow seminars for professional photographers who want to construct a workflow that pushes the boundaries of both quality and efficiency. The 10-city, “Just Show Me How” seminar tour, which runs from Feb. 6 to May 15, focuses in on using the right tools to gain maximum benefit.

Seminar topics include how to transfer hundreds of images from memory cards to a computer—automatically; how to view, sort, copy, rename, and perform other photo selection tasks quickly; how to color manage an entire imaging workflow, from camera to output; and how to select and optimize, using the best Photoshop plug-ins and filters.

Additional topics include how to produce professional quality prints through correct application of sharpening and toning, and understanding print drivers; how to make client access to photos simple through efficient distribution on the Web, CD/DVD or portable hard drive; and how to implement goof-proof storing and cataloging, for easy retrieval the next day or year. Registration and seminar locations are found at www. justshowmehowpro.com/.

DiMinno Named BEF Senior VP of Sales and Marketing
BEF Corp. (Allentown, PA) has named Bill DiMinno, a 38-year veteran of the photo imaging industry, as senior vice president of sales and marketing. DiMinno will be responsible for maintaining and strengthening sales. His has previous experience working for Photo Imaging Group, Fuji Photo Film USA, Moto Photo East and Konica.

Product News...


Delkin Portable DVD Burner
Delkin Devices, Inc. (Poway, CA, www. delkin.com) recently introduced a new version of the BurnAway portable combo media player that burns DVDs. With recordable DVDs able to store up to 4.7 Gigabytes (GB) of data, the new DVD BurnAway is an ideal solution for digital photographers wanting to take advantage of the new crop of high-resolution DSLR cameras.

The DVD BurnAway, which features a Slim Type Recordable Disc Drive, works as a memory card reader, a digital slideshow player that shows photographs on TV, and a DVD/MP3/CD player. It burns both CDs and DVDs, and it has two built-in memory card slots that support CompactFlash (I&II), Microdrive, SD, MMC, SmartMedia, Memory Stick and MS PRO memory cards. It supports XD cards with an adapter.

It also functions as an external DVD/CD Burner and card reader and supports computer transfer using the USB 2.0 port. The DVD BurnAway has a suggested price of $399.99.

Nikon Coolpix 8800 Offers 10X Optical Zoom and Vibration Reduction
Nikon (Melville, NY, www.nikondigital usa.com) is marketing a compact, 8-megapixel (3264x2448 pixels) consumer camera that features a 10X optical Zoom-Nikkor ED glass lens (35–350mm zoom range, 35mm equivalent) and a version of the Vibration Reduction (VR) System used in Nikkor professional SLR lenses. Dedicated lens accessories widen the lens coverage from a 7mm fisheye to a 600mm telephoto.

The Coolpix 8800 and its counterpart, the Coolpix 8400, are the first digital cameras to offer Nikon’s D-lighting option.

While in playback, D-lighting technology compensates for an underexposed area of an image while maintaining the properly exposed area of the same image. It emulates a “digital fill flash” and salvages dark silhouettes into well-balanced images. The camera also has an in-camera red-eye fix, which can, in most instances, automatically correct red-eye inside the camera.

Among its other features are a high-resolution (238,000 pixel) electronic viewfinder (EVF) for extremely sharp, through-the-lens viewing and a 1.8-inch vari-angle LCD panel. Shooting modes include Programmed Auto (P), Shutter-Priority Auto (S), Aperture-Priority Auto (A) and Manual (M). An automatic mode is also included. The Nikon Coolpix 8800 has a MSRP of $999.95.

Mamiya Markets First Integrated Medium-format Digital Camera
The Mamiya (Elmsford, NY, www. mamiya.com) ZD SLR medium-format digital camera is designed to meet the requirements for a high-quality, portable, yet affordable medium-format digital camera. Its built-in 22-megapixel 36x48mm Dalsa CCD imaging sensor is nearly 3X the size of a full-size 35mm DSLR sensor. Its 14-bit A/D (Analogue to Digital) converter records information as 12-bit per color channel for exceptional true to life color accuracy.

Data transfers from the Dalsa CCD sensor are processed in real-time with Mamiya’s Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), which has a frame capture rate of 1.5 frames per second (FPS). It supports Secure Data and CompactFlash memory card and can be used on location or in the studio, tethered or completely wireless. On-board software lets users fill both media cards automatically, for long uninterrupted shooting. A cartridge type, removable low-pass filter is also included.

The Mamiya ZD has the 645AF interchangeable lens mount design and the sensor size is almost equal to a 6x4.5 film format. That lets photographers use the full range of wide-angle to telephoto lenses as they were designed to perform. All Mamiya 645AF lenses are fully compatible with the Mamiya ZD.

Lyson Bulk Feed Delivery System
Lyson, Inc. (Elk Grove Village, IL, www. lysonusa.com), a leading provider of inks, media, and related products, markets the first bulk-feed ink delivery system, with complete pigment and dye-based inksets, for the Epson Stylus Pro 4000. Bulk-enabled inksets include Fotonic dye-based inks and pigment-based Cave Paint. Cave Paint provides unparalleled life; Fotonic inks deliver bright colors with a life expectancy of 25–30 years.

Lyson’s bulk-enabled inksets save upwards of 70 percent on ink costs versus cartridges and significantly speed workflow processing, while eliminating the time involved in changing cartridges. The Lyson bulk feed system for the Epson Stylus Pro 4000 includes eight half-liter bottles of Cave Paint and has a suggested retail price of $1199.

New Small, Economical Minilab From Noritsu
Noritsu America Corporation (Buena Park, CA, 800/521-3686, www.noritsu.com) recently announced it’s shipping the new QSS-3300 Digital. Extremely compact (takes up only 13.78 square feet), the QSS-3300 produces up to 750 3.5x5-inch prints an hour from both film and digital media. Although competitively priced for lower volume environments or entry-level photofinishers, it provides high-quality prints and excellent reliability.