News Archive - June 2004 Return to: Current News Archive Index Wednesday, June 30, 2004 64-bit XP panorama app enters beta 15:30 EDT - A press release from Pittsburgh, PA-based Smoky City Design LLC announces that a 64-bit version of its Panorama Factory application has entered beta testing. Designed to work on the Windows XP 64-Bit Edition, which is currently available for preview from Microsoft, Panorama Factory 64-Bit Edition removes the 2GB address space limitation of 32-bit software,... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Scalado Licenses Imaging Technology to Sony Ericsson 11:13 EDT - Mobile imaging application technology from Scalado enables new features in the Sony Ericsson K700 camera phone Scalado AB http://www.scalado.com, a Swedish software technology company specializing in digital imaging for the Mobile industry, has signed a license agreement with Sony Ericsson. Scalado will license parts of its mobile imaging application platform CAPS, including a camera application enabling... (More) PRESS RELEASE: FlashFixers Launches the PhotoSaver Service, A Professional Digital Photo Recovery Program for Photo Retailers 02:52 EDT - The program will enable retail labs to offer customers the piece-of-mind that their digital photos can be saved with ImageRecall software and professional support. Exeter, NH -June 29, 2004- FlashFixers, today, announces the launch of the PhotoSaver Service, a professional digital photo recovery program for camera stores, photo retail outlets and computer stores. PhotoSaver benefits include an ImageRecall... (More) Software Review: Paint Shop Pro 8.1 00:52 EDT - As we worked with Paint Shop Pro, we couldn't help but recall Space Cowboys, the 2000 film whose tagline was "Boys will be boys." A bunch of old test pilots who never got to be astronauts finally get to fly into space led by Clint Eastwood, who is on a mission to save the world. PSP strikes us as the Clint Eastwood of image editors. It got the job done in 1991 and it does now. Of course, PSP is no Tom Cruise (or Leonardo di Caprio, for that matter). And, yes, there's at least one fatal diagnosis. Still, you want to root for the old bugger and if you don't shed a tear by the end of our review, why, you just ain't paying attention, pardner. Monday, June 28, 2004 Dot Software Releases Site Studio 13:54 EDT - Build an image gallery or a Weblog based on one of the supplied themes, sync your new site to your server with a click and do it all in one window. Dot Software has released Site Studio 1.0 for Web site design under Mac OS X. Plug-ins are included to include image galleries or a weblog using one of the supplied design themes. Server uploads are streamlined.... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Canto Releases Internet Client Pro 2.0 13:31 EDT - The upgraded Cumulus Option Internet Client Pro 2.0 offers a host of new features and extensive customizability to catalog assets, edit metadata and market assets online. June 28, 2004 - San Francisco, Berlin. Canto, a global leader in Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions, today announced the immediate availability of Internet Client Pro 2.0. Designed for users who do not merely publish their... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Preclick Ships Photo Organizer With Albums, CD-Burning 13:25 EDT - Editing Features Now Free in Preclick Silver Photo Organizer Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, June 28, 2004�-- Preclick Corporation last week began shipping two new versions of its award-winning Preclick Photo Organizer 2.5, Gold for $19.95 and Silver for free. The all-new Preclick Silver 2.5, available at www.preclick.com, www.download.com, www.pcworld.com and other download sites, includes a free... (More) Harbortronics: D70 remote, time-lapse by IR 08:32 EDT - The folks at Harbortronics, the company behind the ingenious DigiSnap line of remote shutter release / intervalometer products for various digital cameras, has come up with a clever way to offer their product for Nikon's D70 digital SLR without needing to modify the camera itself in any way. Back in March, Harbortronics began modifying D70s to add a 2.5mm jack with which their DigiSnap devices could be interfaced, but obviously this modification wasn't endorsed by Nikon. The new development... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Olympus delivers firmware update for E-System 08:28 EDT - Version 1.2 Improves Shutter Release Button and Adds Display of Focus Points to E-1 LCD Melville, New York, June 24, 2004 - Olympus formally announces the second firmware update for the E-1 digital SLR. With version 1.2, it is now possible to shoot photos by fully pressing the shutter button repeatedly with a "pumping" action, while keeping the shutter release button half-pressed down. This improvement... (More) Thursday, June 24, 2004 Power to the people: Maha's updates their already-excellent MH-C204F AA charger 15:50 EDT - Anyone who's read one of my reviews of an AA battery-based digicam will know that the Maha MH-C204F has been my favorite battery charger for a long time now. My reasons for liking it so much are that it does a good job of quickly and completely charging NiMH AA batteries while keeping the maximum temperature within acceptable limits, and also incorporates discharge-conditioning... (More) Wednesday, June 23, 2004 Sigma announces new digicam lenses 15:53 EDT - Japanese optics manufacturer Sigma Corporation has today announced two new prime lenses designed for use with single-lens reflex digital cameras. The Sigma MACRO 50mm F2.8 EX DG consists of 10 elements in 9 groups, 55mm filter thread and a minimum focusing distance of 18.9cm. The Sigma MACRO 105mm F2.8 EX DG lens, meanwhile, has 11 elements in... (More) DxO Optics Pro updated for new cameras 12:38 EDT - French software company DO Labs has today announced that its DxO Optics Pro software has been updated to support the Nikon D2H and Canon EOS 1D Mark II digital cameras. If you're not familiar with DxO Optics Pro, you might want to read our in-depth coverage from shortly after it was announced at this year's PMA show in Las Vegas. Imaging Resource Publisher Dave Etchells... (More) PC Watch: First Epson R-D1 samples 03:06 EDT - The Japanese PC Watch website has posted the first sample images we've seen from Epson's R-D1 range finder digital camera. First shown at this year's PMA show and later officially announced in mid-March 2004, the R-D1 features a 6.1 megapixel APS-C sized CCD image sensor, offers both RAW (.ERF) and JPEG file formats, stores... (More) Tuesday, June 22, 2004 PRESS RELEASE: Alien Skin Software Releases Eye Candy 5: Textures 21:22 EDT - Raleigh, NC -- Alien Skin Software today announced the immediate availability of Eye Candy 5: Textures (Textures), a plug-in collection of 10 texture generators for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Jasc Paint Shop Pro and Macromedia Fireworks. The first of a three-part upgrade to Eye Candy 4000, Textures produces a variety of surfaces, including photo-realistic snake and lizard skin, fur,... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Alera Introduces DVD/CD Shredder Plus 21:14 EDT - Prevents Theft or Unauthorized Use of Discarded DVDs, CDs, Floppy Disks, Credit Cards Chatsworth, CA -- Alera Technologies, developer and manufacturer of Advanced DVD and CD Recording Solutions has introduced its DVD/CD Shredder Plus, the ultimate media destruction device to cut DVDs, CDs, Floppy Disks and Credit Cards into small unusable strips, permanently preventing unauthorized use and it is HIPAA... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Foveon Introduces Small Format Full-Color Image Sensor 21:08 EDT - 4.5 Megapixel Direct Image Sensor Captures Color Like Film in 3 Layers Santa Clara, CA -- Foveon Inc., a technology leader of award-winning high-quality digital camera image sensors, announced today the availability of the Foveon F19 sensor (FO18-50-F19), a 1/1.8-inch 4.5 Megapixel CMOS direct image sensor that incorporates Foveon's breakthrough X3 technology to directly capture color in three layers,... (More) PRESS RELEASE: NTI Rolls Out Dragon Burn 4.0 with Promotion Upgrade 20:56 EDT - Offer for Owners of Any Mac CD/DVD Burning Software New Video Mastering Features and DVD+R DL Support Added IRVINE, CA -- NewTech Infosystems, Inc. (NTI), announced today Version 4.0 of Dragon Burn® with major new features and a $9.99 promotion upgrade offer that Mac® users currently using other products will find hard to resist. Dragon Burn offers a more robust alternative to the basic CD-... (More) Friday, June 18, 2004 PRESS RELEASE: Fujifilm Announces Two New Mini Digital Cameras 10:23 EDT - Stunning 4.1 and 5.2 megapixel models combine small size with trusted image quality to equal highly portable and reliable cameras perfect for parties and everyday events VALHALLA, NY, June 17, 2004 - Fuji Photo Film U.S.A., Inc., a pioneer in digital imaging technology, today announced the addition of two ultra-compact new models to its award-winning line of consumer digital cameras. The new FinePix... (More) Thursday, June 17, 2004 PRESS RELEASE: Digi Album Release Improves Usability, Styling 14:26 EDT - WELLINGTON, NZ -- 18 June 2004 -- Xequte announced the release of Diji Album v5.0 today, a major upgrade to their digital photo album creation software. Diji Album allows users to build realistically styled albums from their image and multimedia files and distribute them via e-mail, CD-ROM or the Internet. Version 5 development has focused on improving the styling of created albums, adding fun new... (More) Fujifilm: Two new FinePix digicams (samples inside) 01:17 EDT - A press release today from Fuji Photo Film U.S.A. Inc. announces two new digital camera models for its FinePix line that feature retracting lenses that can shrink down to just 0.8" deep. The Fujifilm FinePix F440 and F450 share the same slim, almost square body which includes a 3.4x optical zoom lens, 154,000 pixel 2.0" LCD display, xD-Picture card storage, and power from a rechargeable... (More) Wednesday, June 16, 2004 Nikon boosts DSLR production, mulls film exit strategy 05:12 EDT - An interesting article from Reuters based on an interview with Nikon Corp. managing director Makoto Kimura describes the company's plans for digital SLR and compact film cameras. According to Reuters' Nathan Layne and Kunihiko Kichise, Nikon is increasing production of its popular D70 digital SLR from an initial 70,000 units monthly to a whopping 90,000 (almost a 30% increase).... (More) Tuesday, June 15, 2004 Konica Minolta announces DiMAGE X31 08:00 EDT - A press release today from Konica Minolta Photo Imaging U.S.A. Inc. announces the upcoming DiMAGE X31 digital camera, an update to a camera first shown at this year's PMA show in February. The DiMAGE X31 is near identical to its predecessor, the DiMAGE X21, with a few notable exceptions. The imager has been upgraded from a 1/3.2"-type 2.1 megapixel CCD sensor to a 1/3.2"-type 3.3 megapixel... (More) Monday, June 14, 2004 PRESS RELEASE: Zonic Releases Chameleon Painterly Effects 11:18 EDT - Zonic, the UK-based Macintosh developer, has released Chameleon 1.0 for Mac OS X 10.3 to give digital images painterly effects. Chameleon is a $19.95 shareware application for processing digital photographs, which allows you to quickly and easily transform your images using amazing special effects. Since Chameleon allows multiple effects to be combined, a wide range of results are possible. Chameleon... (More) Thursday, June 10, 2004 Full review posted for Olympus C-60 Zoom 16:07 EDT - Olympus found a winning formula in last year's C-50 Zoom model, and repeats it with some additional refinements this year, in the form of the subcompact C-60 Zoom. Usually, going with a compact digicam means having to give up lots of features, or settling for low resolution and/or poor image quality. The Olympus C-60 Zoom avoids these pitfalls, delivering great color... (More) Review posted for Sony DSC-W1 09:10 EDT - A near twin to the DSC-P100 in many respects, Sony's DSC-W1 is another good and surprisingly capable subcompact point-and-shoot digicam. Housed in its tiny, all-metal shell are a 5.0-megapixel CCD, a sharp, high-quality 3x optical zoom lens, six preset Scene modes and a host of other options. Its pictures show excellent color and sharpness,... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Ahead Software announces launch of Nero PhotoShow Elite, the easy and complete photo experience 09:05 EDT - Glendale, CA - June 8, 2004 - Ahead Software, leaders in digital media technology, are pleased to announce the latest addition to their Nero product family, Nero PhotoShow Elite. This exciting photo management application provides digital camera users with a comprehensive set of photo editing and creation tools combined with unprecedented ease of use. Worldwide digital cameras sales are widely expected... (More) Wednesday, June 9, 2004 Pixingo PhotoFirst updated to v1.1 17:29 EDT - A press release from Groton, MA-based Pixingo LLC today alerted us to a new version of the company's PhotoFirst software. Initially released last October, PhotoFirst is a Mac OS X-only imaging utility aimed at professional photographers. Among many other features, the program offers RAW conversion for images captured with... (More) PRESS RELEASE: New PocketWizard Upgrade Available for KODAK PROFESSIONAL Digital SLRs Supports DCS Pro 14n, DCS Pro 14nx and DCS SLR/n in U.S., Canada 16:57 EDT - ROCHESTER, N.Y., June 9-Eastman Kodak Company today announced a PocketWizard upgrade for several of its digital SLR cameras. The upgrade, available only as a service upgrade in the US and Canada, direct from Kodak, is compatible with the KODAK PROFESSIONAL DCS Pro 14n, DCS 14nx and DCS Pro SLR/n digital cameras. The PocketWizard is a digital radio triggering system that fires the flash and camera... (More) Kodak: Times Square display features award-winning photographers 03:22 EDT - A press release from Eastman Kodak Co. announces that the company is running a series of photographs captured by award winning photographers on its massive display in Times Square, New York. Dubbed "Kodarama", the display has dimensions of a whopping 40 by 50 feet. Throughout July, it will run photographs captured by Steve McCurry, Chris Rainier, Eric Meola, Liz Gilbert, Jonathan Torgovnik,... (More) Monday, June 7, 2004 PRESS RELEASE: Cronkhite Releases ZeboPhoto 1.5 11:45 EDT - SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Bobby Cronkhite Software is pleased to announce the release of ZeboPhoto 1.5, an update to its versatile image viewing and editing solution for the Mac. ZeboPhoto is made with REALbasic from REAL Software, Inc. Featured in the 1.5 release: - A Quick Capture menu item has been added to the Edit menu which uses the settings from your last capture, allowing you to bypass Screen... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Put Words in Their Mouths With Foto Balloon 11:39 EDT - eSoft Imaging has released Foto Balloon 1.0, an innovative Windows application that lets you add distinctive cartoon-style information balloons to your photographs and images. Once included invisibly in each image, you can easily display your comments in a variety of ways. Foto Balloon adds information to images without degrading the quality of the original image, and without attaching outside files... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Express Digital Presents 'Express Digital Days 2004' 11:35 EDT - 40 Event Summer Tour Demonstrates the Importance of Software an a Digital Workflow ENGLEWOOD, CO -- June 7, 2004 -- Express Digital, the leading provider of digital imaging software, e-commerce and lab solutions to professional photography businesses, announced today that it is kicking off the Summer of 2004 with an educational and promotional event demonstrating the power of a complete digital workflow... (More) PRESS RELEASE: ClearHeart Releases PhotoGiá Photoshop Actions 11:32 EDT - Brings professional quality results to digital photographers by simplifying Adobe Photoshop®, image processing tasks. Austin, TX -- Many people have found the convenience of digital cameras offset by the complexity of learning to use digital imaging software. Large learning curves and time spent manipulating the images meant more time in front of a computer and less time taking pictures. People... (More) Friday, June 4, 2004 PRESS RELEASE: Photoflex Unveils Consumer-Friendly Web Site 17:56 EDT - Watsonville, Calif., USA-Photoflex has just overhauled its Web site (www.photoflex.com) to provide an industry-leading amount of customer-friendly information on its lighting products for the photography, digital-imaging, video, and film industries, President Sharon Reeves announced today. With 10 times more information than its printed catalog, the revitalized Web site displays Photoflex's entire... (More) PRESS RELEASE: The Plugin Site Releases Version 2.0 of ColorWasher 17:52 EDT - June 4, 2004 - The Plugin Site (www.thepluginsite.com) released Version 2.0 of ColorWasher, a Photoshop-compatible plugin for correcting the colors, contrast, exposure and saturation of 8bit and 16bit photos. ColorWasher takes photo correction to a new level of accuracy and speed. With its help even beginners are capable of doing photo corrections within seconds that only experts were able to produce... (More) Thursday, June 3, 2004 Review posted for Sony DSC-P100 16:35 EDT - With its small size and well-rounded feature set, the Sony P100 is a good and unusually capable subcompact point-and-shoot digicam. Housed in a very small package is a 5.0-megapixel CCD, a sharp, high-quality 3x optical zoom lens, nine preset Scene modes and a host of other creative options. Its pictures show excellent color and sharpness... (More) Review posted for Kyocera FineCam L4v 16:33 EDT - Kyocera's L4v is one of several models brought to market toward the end of last year (and another on my "catch-up" list of camera reviews, now put to bed.) It's a fairly basic four-megapixel, 3x-zoom-equipped digicam, most distinguished by its large, 2.5" LCD screen. Although it carries a high list price, the L4v is generally available at low enough "street"... (More) Review posted for Canon PowerShot S1IS 16:27 EDT - Long-zoom digicams have become increasingly popular, thanks to the undeniable attraction of being able to reach waaay out to zoom in on distant subjects. What a lot of users don't realize about really long telephoto shots though, is just how hard it is to hold the camera steady enough to get a sharp shot. (Even in what you might think is fairly bright lighting.)... (More) Review posted for Kyocera SL300R 16:24 EDT - The SL300R is one of Kyocera's more recent digicam models, with a very slick, thin, swivel-body design and chic all-metal case. It has good color and take generally pleasing photos under unchallenging conditions, but I had a hard time getting past its sluggish shutter response and cycle time, overly high image contrast, and very... (More) HP Announces $499 color laser printer, camera that eliminates red-eye 16:15 EDT - Hewlett Packard today announced a number of initiatives designed to make color printing easier for businesses and consumers alike. Among the more significant announcements was the HP Color LaserJet 2550, a 600 dpi laser printer that can be purchased in three standard configurations: standalone, with a network adapter, and with a network... (More) Printer Review: Epson R800 -- Master Printer in a Box 11:40 EDT - When some desperate soul grabs our lapels as we're trying to cross the street and demands to know which photo printer to buy, we shrug our shoulders and confide, "You really can't go wrong these days." But there's a lot of ways you can go right with the Epson R800. Pros will like the roll-fed panoramas, printable CD/DVD discs, a range of color and black and white papers that recall darkroom debates over Seagull, Ilford and Kodak sheets. And all printed with archival... (More) Adobe Releases Adjusted Refresh Plug-In 11:38 EDT - The free plug-in for Photoshop CS on OS X "addresses the time it takes to visually preview some filter updates," according to the company. By reducing the size of the Photoshop image tiles, the Adjusted Refresh plug-in optimizes preview redraws for some filters in Photoshop CS. Updating smaller tiles reduces the time required to redraw a... (More) Wednesday, June 2, 2004 PRESS RELEASE: Kodak Introduces New DIGITAL GEM Airbrush Professional Plug-In 18:05 EDT - Free Trial version of the DIGITAL GEM Airbrush Professional Plug-In is now available at www.asf.com Rochester, NY (June 2, 2004) - Eastman Kodak Company today introduced the new DIGITAL GEM Airbrush Professional Plug-In, which gives users a quick and powerful way of smoothing skin and other surfaces without blurring or affecting the detail of important facial features. This new plug-in enables users... (More) PRESS RELEASE: ATP Introduces World's First 512MB RS-MMC (Reduced-Sized MultiMediaCard) at Computex. 17:48 EDT - Providing Highest Density Small Form Factor Flash Cards Enable Mobile Revolution Sunnyvale, CA (PRWEB) June 2, 2004 -- ATP Electronics Inc., a leading manufacturer of memory products, announced today that it will introduce world's first 512MB RS-MMC at Computex 2004 where ATP is demonstrating products in Hall 1, Booth #B626, 628, 725, and 727. ATP RS-MMC cards mainly target at the next-generation... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Extensis Announces Immediate Availability of Portfolio 7 for Mac OS X 16:43 EDT - Cross-platform Digital Asset Management solution offers instant deployment, ease of use and affordability for workgroups and individuals. Portland, Ore. -- Extensis Inc. has announced immediate availability of its leading Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution, Portfolio 7 and Portfolio Server 7 for Macintosh. Portfolio enables photographers, graphic artists and other individuals and workgroups -... (More) PRESS RELEASE: PixelGenius Releases PhotoKit-EL 11:59 EDT - PhotoKit-EL 1.0 is an Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 plug-in that creates digital replications of traditional darkroom effects such as tone adjustment, color balance adjustment, and conversion to grayscale, along with other effects such as sharpening and graduated tone adjustment. All effects take place on a new layer and leave the underlying image untouched. PhotoKit-EL is $39.95 for Mac OS X, Mac OS... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Carsten Blum Updates Exif Untrasher 11:53 EDT - Cartsten Blum has released version 1.3.6 of Exif Untrasher, a Mac OS X application to unerase files from flash storage media. The new version fixes a bug which caused the list of volume names to hide the vertical scrollbar, making it appear as if some volumes were missing. Resizing the window made them visible. The release also incorporates earlier interface improvements released today. Instead of... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Hamrick Releases VueScan 8.0.2 11:45 EDT - Hamrick Software today released version 8.0.2 of Vuescan, its scanner software for Macintosh, Windows and Linux operating systems compatible with a wide variety of hardware. New in this release: � Fixed problem with memory leak when calibrating � Fixed problem if Epson Scanner Monitor running on Mac OS X � Fixed problem if Canon Button Manager running on Mac OS X � Changed background color of image... (More) Tuesday, June 1, 2004 Pentax plans to focus on digital 19:59 EDT - An email from IR reader Denis Klimovich alerted us to news from Russia that suggests Pentax is preparing to stop manufacturing compact and single-lens reflex film cameras later this year. Denis, the man behind the Russian-language PENTA club website, spotted two items posted on the news page of Pentar Corp., the official Russian distributor of Pentax products (and hence, one would presume,... (More) PRESS RELEASE: dotPhoto Announces 'Click & Deliver' Camera Phone Printing 18:31 EDT - Prints Directly from Any Camera Phone -- No Special Software Needed June 1, 2004, West Trenton, NJ - dotPhoto, Inc. http://www.dotphoto.com, a global leader in state-of-the-art online digital image handling and the first company to enable camera phone photo uploads, announced today one-button Click & Deliver patent-pending technology that transforms the way camera phones print photos.� All camera... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Take Control of Your Actions with ActionDex, the Action Manager for Adobe Photoshop 17:52 EDT - Mason, Ohio -- May 27, 2004 -- PicsToBits (http://www.picstobits.com) announces the release of ActionDex 1.0, a powerful new tool to organize and manage Photoshop actions. ActionDex solves a frequent problem for Photoshop users- organizing and managing hundreds or thousands of actions so they are easy to find. By using a hierarchy of user-defined categories (much like folders in Windows Explorer),... (More) Konica Minolta Europe promotes Dynax 7 Digital 14:57 EDT - An email from IR reader Aaron Ku tells us that Konica Minolta Europe has now started promoting the upcoming Dynax 7 Digital on its website. Regular readers will remember we've mentioned the Dynax 7 Digital under its proposed US name, the Maxxum 7 digital, a few times on this site. The camera is currently slated to be available this fall,... (More) Pretec: Speedy 2GB MMC card 14:35 EDT - Taiwanese peripherals manufacturer Pretec Electronics Corp. has announced a new flash memory card at the COMPUTEX TAIPEI trade show that it says offers the world's fastest read and write speeds. The new Pretec 2GB MMC 4.0 card has a claimed read speed of 22.5MB/second, and a claimed write speed of 18MB/second, which if true would make the card significantly faster than any other we're aware of.... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Pretec MMC 4.0 USB Card Reader 14:07 EDT - The First and Fastest in the World Taipei, Taiwan, June 1, 2004 - Pretec Electronics Corp., the 2nd company in the world offering CompactFlash memory card (CF) card since 1995, is demonstrating the world's first USB card reader supporting MMC 4.0 4-bit mode, which can possibly reach the access speed of up to 26MB/s, the highest speed flash memory card reader in the world today, at COMPUTEX TAIPEI... (More) Return to: Current News Archive Index