|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| . | |||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rangefinder
Magazine New Products Specifications in these listings are condensed from information provided by manufacturers and suppliers. For more information about these new products or processes, see our new feature, “Where To Find It,” on pages 94 and 95. When contacting the companies direct, please mention Rangefinder. Flash… The Most Available Light by Quest Couch is an easy reference for creating natural light with flash for digital and film photography. You will learn how to work with a variety of lighting situations on location to obtain natural results and you will begin to understand the factors that affect your flash photography and how to use them to your advantage. This book will also dispel myths and teach you how to avoid common flash mistakes. The new book contains over 90 photographs, charts and illustrations. This book is the result of decades of flash photography experience, designing the LumiQuest line of photo accessories, and thousands of conversations with photographers. The suggested U.S. retail is $19.95. LumiQuest, 28540 Durango Dr., New Braunfels, TX 78132; (830) 438-4646, Fax (830) 438-4667; www.lumiquest.com/. Multi Visual Products, a full-service digital and photographic laboratory tailored for youth sports, school and special events photography, is introducing MVP Trading Card Express, according to James Clark, President of MVP. MVP Trading Card Express offers labs a hassle-free alternative to producing their own cards. Lab jobs are submitted through a fast, automated Internet ordering system. Finished trading cards, on the lab’s own designs, are then shipped back to the lab the next day. According to Clark, “Trading card orders are printed on our state-of-the-art digital offset printers, on heavy gloss card stock, fully cut with each set individually wrapped. The completed trading cards are shipped back to the lab the next day, whether the job is for 10 trading card sets or 300 trading card sets.” Information: Multi Visual Products, 41831 McAlby Court, Suite A, Murrieta, CA 92562; (800) 293-9055 or (909) 698-7684; www.mvpcards.com/. Fred Miranda, who offers a variety of digital photography resources through his web site, recently released the BW Workflow Pro plug-in, which offers a wide variety of options for working with black-and-white images in Photoshop. The plug-in features eight preset filter selections, 32 duotone presets, 18 tritone presets, six quadtone presets, three film grain presets and four dynamic range presets, with the ability to preview changes before you commit to them. BW Workflow Pro retails for $29.90. It’s compatible with Photoshop 5.5, 6, 7, and CS. Adobe Elements is not currently supported. www.fredmiranda.com/.
ACI’s third ordering service, E-Special Events, allows photographers the choice of doing their own color correction or having ACI complete the task for an additional fee. Other ordering options include proofing, digital products, senior volume (for photographers who contract seniors); there is even an option for ordering images on metallic paper. Information: American Color Imaging, Inc., www.acilab.com/, (319) 277-3655.
Canon has added two amazing zoom lenses to its arsenal of professional lenses. The wide-angle-to-telephoto zoom, the EF28–300mm f/3.5–5.6L IS USM lens and the compact EF70–300mm f/4.5–5.6 DO IS USM zoom provide faster autofocusing and enhanced image stabilization.
The new EF28–300mm f/3.5–5.6L IS USM is an entirely new L-series design lens (and a significantly enhanced successor to Canon’s EF35–350mm f/3.5–5.6L USM zoom, introduced 11 years ago). Though it offers 11X zoom capabilities (compared with the 10X capability of its predecessor), this newly designed, 22-element L-series lens combines Canon’s newest optical glass advances, faster autofocus and a groundbreaking Image Stabilization system, now effective for correction of up to three shutter speed steps for handheld photography—50 percent better than the original EF75–300mm IS lens. Significantly smaller and lighter than conventional 70–300mm lenses, the new Canon EF70–300mm f/4.5–5.6 DO IS USM zoom is approximately the length and diameter of the Canon 28–135mm IS lens. It also provides superior image quality and chromatic aberration correction compared to previous conventional 75–300mm designs. The EF70–300mm f/4.5–5.6 DO IS USM lens also provides up to three stops of effective shake reduction capability, equivalent to shooting handheld at 1/30 with the stability found on conventional lenses at 1/250. The lens is also equipped with a switch that offers a choice of general stabilization (Mode 1) and deliberate panning (Mode 2). The IS system remains functional when the lens is used on a solid tripod, although handheld usage is the norm thanks to its compact size. Information: www.canonusa.com/.
Phase One has announced a brand new generation of high-end portable digital camera backs: the Phase One P 25 and P 20. The new digital backs, designed primarily for the commercial photographer, may be used completely untethered. Phase One’s two new P backs: The P 25 (22 megapixels) and especially the very fast P 20 (16 megapixels) feature a capture rate of up to 50 captures per minute, making them an ideal solution for portrait, fashion and all-round commercial shooters. To meet the demands of these photographers, the backs will be available for autofocus cameras including the Hasselblad H1, Mamiya 645 AFD and Contax 645 AF. Phase One
will be coming out with new workflow software, Capture One SE (special
edition), which is optimized
for on-location
shooting, and
it is also extremely simple to work with. Information:
www. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
American
Color Imaging (ACI) in Cedar Falls, Iowa, recently announced the
latest evolution and rapid market
success of its popular
Web Ordering Tools, the web-based program successfully serving
digital
and film
portrait studios. The latest version of Web Ordering Tools
is designed to appeal
to a broader group of studios and provide an even more user-friendly
interface. One popular component of ACI’s online ordering
service is Certified Print Partners (CPP). Designed for experienced
digital photographers
who possess working knowledge of color correction techniques,
CPP rewards photographers with greater creative freedom, reduced
costs, and faster
turn-around times. Files are sent directly to ACI’s server
and processing begins immediately. As soon as an order is submitted,
printers
immediately locate and access the appropriate image and automatically
print the order. ACI also offers FTP Image Transfer in its
Web Ordering Tools software.
