Posted 11/19/08 at 07:47:35 PM by Mark Edward Soper

LIFE Magazine, which published classic photojournalism from Maragaret Bourke-White, Alfred Eisenstaedt, David Douglas Duncan and many others during its various incarnations as a weekly (1936-72), special issue (1972-78), monthly (1978-2000), and Sunday supplement (2004-2007), lives again, thanks to the new LIFE photo archive hosted by Google.

Ultimately, about 10 million photos (only about 3 percent of them ever published) will be available at Google. There's no need to wait to explore this rich photo heritage, though: about three million are already online.

So, what can you do with photos ranging from Marilyn Monroe to Winston Churchill, World War II to Vietnam, Muhammed Ali to the King of Siam? You can view photos in three different sizes, including high-resolution (5MP-6MP) sizes and use them for personal or research purposes.

To learn more about the collection, and for your chance to tell us about your favorite LIFE Magazine images, join us after the jump.

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Life, Google, photography, digital imaging, website, Time-Life, collection, photojournalism

Posted 10/22/08 at 03:35:05 PM by Mark Edward Soper

Microsoft has released an updated technology preview of its cool Deep Zoom Composer tool for Silverlight 2. As we reported back in July, Deep Zoom Composer gives you the ability to display multiple high-resolution thumbnails, zoom in for a closeup, and pan back again. You can use Deep Zoom Composer to create mosaics (as in our original story), or to bring a new level of interactivity to online collections (as the Hard Rock Cafe has done).

If you want to give it a try, install the latest version of Silverlight 2 beta first, then install the Deep Zoom Composer technology preview 0.9.0005. Deep Zoom Composer runs on Windows XP SP2 or SP3 and Windows Vista, and requires a 2GHz Intel or AMD processor, at least 1GB of RAM, and a Microsoft DirectX 9-capable video card with at least 256MB of video memory.

See  the Teaching Ideas and Resources blog at MSDN for more information about this and other imaging tools from Microsoft.

Join us after the jump for your comments, and don't forget to share links to your creations!

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microsoft, digital photography, digital imaging, browser-based, silverlight 2, Deep Zoom Composer, interactive

Posted 10/21/08 at 06:29:44 PM by Mark Edward Soper

Flickr's rolled out a new home page design that's intended to make it easier to see what's happening with your Flickr account and on Flickr in general.

Here's what's new:

1. The Your Photostream section now shows your five most recent uploads 
2. Your Photostream also has a toggle to show recent activity (such as comments from friends, your replies, and pictures selected as favorites). Don't want any more comments on a particular item? Click its Mute button.
3. Click More Recent Activity to see other activity and change activity settings.
4. The Your Contacts section now shows more photos.
5. The Your Groups section now shows the most recent photos from your groups.
6. Want to reduce page clutter? Click the double arrow icon next to a section title to close it, or click it again to open it.
7. There's now a new Explore module on the home page that displays the latest activities.
8. The latest entry at the Flickr Blog and the latest Flickr Tip occupy the right margin of the page, along with more ways to use your photos.

Haven't logged in for awhile? I think you'll like the changes. Join us after the jump and let us know if you agree - or not.

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flickr, Yahoo, digital photography, digital imaging, web 2.0, website, photo sharing

Posted 10/20/08 at 03:32:52 PM by Mark Edward Soper

If you're a Compact Flash user, life's not been fair to you lately. You've seen CF stalwarts like Nikon and Canon turn their backs on this longtime favorite in favor of the new kid on the block, SDHC, in their newest DSLRs. Buy a new camera, and you make your collection of CF cards obsolete. Meanwhile, you've watched SDHC and its kid brother, SD, dominate the deals in your favorite big-box electronics superstores' weekly tabloids. And, just to add a cherry on the top of your cake of frustration, you've been thinking about how cool it would be to use wireless file transfer with Eye-Fi cards, but Eye-Fi is also in the tank for SD. Oh, and did I mention that "Compact" Flash is now the bulkiest flash memory format?

For all these reasons, Synchrotech's introduction of the CFMulti CompactFlash Type II to Eye-Fi + Multi-Card Adapter has come at a very good time. While CF adapters for SD cards have been around for awhile, the CFMulti also supports newer flavors such as SDHC and MMC+ as well as SD and any old MultiMediaCards (MMC) you have floating around. Plus, it's the first adapter to support Eye-Fi cards, albeit with a reduction in range. See the CFMulti and Eye-Fi FAQ for details and a list of tested cameras.

For more thoughts on the advantages of adding CFMulti to your gadget bag, and your chance to comment, join us after the jump.

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adapter, digital photography, digital imaging, flash memory, consumer electronics, SDHC, SD, cf, CFMulti, Synchrotech, Compact Flash, MMC, MMC+

Posted 10/09/08 at 06:40:30 PM by Mark Edward Soper

The Eye-Fi line of Wi-Fi enabled SD cards just keeps getting more social. The October update of the Eye-Fi Manager, in addition to adding à la carte support for geotagging, webshare, and hotspot access service updates, also adds support Twitter and RSS integration. You can use Twitter to tell your contacts when you have new photos posted on line, and RSS support enables you to publish pictures in real-time to your preferred RSS aggregator.

Eye-Fi now offers cards through its online store as well as at an ever-growing list of retailers.

RSS logo courtesy Variawa.co.za.

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twitter, digital photography, digital imaging, web 2.0, Social Networking, SD, Eye-Fi, rss, Secure Digital

Posted 09/24/08 at 10:03:25 PM by Mark Edward Soper

At Photokina this week, Eye-Fi, makers of the first Wi-Fi-enabled SD cards, announced two improvements to its product family effective October 5th:

• First, a firmware update will double the photo transfer speed from Eye-Fi cards from the current 350KBps to 700KBps.
• Second, users of Eye-Fi cards will be able to add the photo transfer features of their choice to cards that were not bundled with these features.

Here are the new options:

• Users of the entry-level Eye-Fi Home card can add web sharing for $9.99/year, making the card equivalent in features to the Eye-Fi Share card.
• Users of the Eye-Fi Home or Share card can add geotagging for $14.99/year.
• And, users of the Eye-Fi Share card can add automatic uploading at open hotspots or at Wayport hotspots (there are over 10,000 of those) for $14.99/year.

By adding geotagging and hotspot support, users of Eye-Fi Share cards make these cards equivalent to Eye-Fi Explore cards.

The already long list of online photo sharing services Eye-Fi supports now includes Apple's MobileMe and AdoramaPix, effective immediately. Eye-Fi cards are now being bundled with digital cameras at Wal-Mart.com, and will be available at Best Buy stores starting October 5.

What do you think about the ability to add the features you want to Eye-Fi cards? Hit the jump for your chance to sound off.

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wi-fi, digital photography, digital imaging, web 2.0, consumer electronics, photo sharing, Eye-Fi, wireless Ethernet

Posted 08/28/08 at 09:28:52 PM by Mark Edward Soper

Eye-Fi, whose line of Wi-Fi-enabled SD cards caught our attention earlier this year, is back in the news: the new Nikon D90 DSLR joins its stablemate, the D60, as the second Eye-Fi-enabled camera.

What's New in the D90?

The D90, which makes its formal bow at Germany's Photokina trade show in late September, adds the ability to temporarily disable Eye-Fi transfer functions through the camera menu; a useful feature in hospitals, airplanes, or anywhere else where you want to prevent images from flying through the ether.

The D90 also features a 12.3MP image sensor, an optional geo-tagging module, Live View, face priority AF, and a 24-fps 720p movie mode, the first movie mode in any DSLR.

Other News from Eye-Fi

Users of any Eye-Fi Share or Eye-Fi card in any camera can also enjoy free geotagging and hotspot access by joining the photo-sharing site SmugMug, in a deal announced earlier this month.

How about it, DSLR fans? Does improved Eye-Fi support make you more likely to preorder a D90? Give us your take after the jump.

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nikon, wi-fi, digital photography, digital imaging, consumer electronics, Eye-Fi, wireless Ethernet, D90

Posted 08/05/08 at 05:44:45 PM by Mark Edward Soper

J.D. Power and Associates have announced the results of their 2008 Digital Camera Usage and Satisfaction Survey, and the winners include:

• Digital SLR cameras: Canon EOS Digital and Nikon D-Series (tie); Olympus, Pentax, and Sony scored way behind the leaders. Canon EOS led in picture quality, while Nikon led in performance and operation.
• Point-and-Shoot cameras: in a crowded field, the Fujifilm Finepix S series was the winner, but not far behind were the Kodak M, V, and Z series, the Olympus Stylus series, the HP Photosmart R series, the Samsung S series, and the Sony Cyber-Shot S Series.
• Premium Point-and-Shoot cameras: Another tie, between Canon PowerShot G series and Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ series. In second place, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ series.
• Ultra-Slim cameras: the Sony Cyber-Shot T series was the winner here, with a three-way tie for second place between the Sony Cyber-Shot W series, the Casio Exilim Zoom series, and the Fujifilm Finepix Z series.

Each camera in the survey was judges on five criteria: overall rating, picture quality, performance, operation, and apperance.

One frustration for serious camera shoppers is the lack of model-specific information, but given the frequent turnover in camera models, perhaps the J.D. Power and Associates method of evaluating by series is the best way.

The survey was conducted between April 2007 and March 2008, and was based on responses from more than 8,000 consumers. See the press release for more information. For more information about J.D. Power and Associates, see their  website.

What do you think about the ratings? Give us your best shot after the jump.

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digital cameras, digital photography, digital imaging, consumer electronics, survey, J.D. Power and Associates, customer satisfaction