| PMA 2001 - February 15, 2001 | |
| ArcSoft PaintingMontage Turns Images into 3D Art! 23:55 EST - If you spent much time wandering through book stores in the 1990s, you may recall the growth of a very popular digital art form called "photo montage." Originally created piece-by-piece, with painstaking detail, by a select few digital artists, the effect was soon automated and popularized by software companies like ArcSoft, which introduced PhotoMontage software in the mid-90s. ArcSoft has introduced yet another montage software -- designed for both professional and consumer users -- that enables you to instantly create 3-D montage images on the computer. PaintingMontage appears to be an expanded version of PhotoMontage that allows you to "paint" hundreds of micro-images over a photograph with either automatic rendering commands or manual stroke-by-stroke painting. PaintingMontage includes... (More) |
A New Canon Film Scanner Priced for the Prosumer Market!
23:25 EST - Do you have hundreds, perhaps thousands, of transparencies and negatives boxed away in your basement, succumbing to who knows what species of mold? We hope not, but if you're like many of us shutterbugs whose mouths water whenever we look at the dropping prices of professional film scanners, Canon U.S.A. may have just the model you've been looking for! The CanoScan FS4000US is a high-speed, 4,000-dpi film scanner that accepts both mounted and unmounted transparencies, negatives, and Advanced Photo System (APS) cassettes for manual or automated scanning. In addition to its impressive 3,780 x 5,669-pixel resolution (for 35mm scans), the FS4000US features 42-bit color depth for extremely fine gradation and accurate color reproduction, an autofocus system that realigns the lens if your film...
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Most Interesting CAMERAS of the show!
18:53 EST - Continuing Dave's "most interesting" series, here are some further comments on the Minolta Dimage S5/7. (And a brief note on the Nikon D1X, for the pro category...)
Since we'd posted "most interesting" stories on scanners and printers earlier, we thought we should also follow up with a similar piece on the camera front. The overall "most interesting" camera award probably goes to the Nikon D1X, which looks to be pretty revolutionary (well, maybe strongly evolutionary at least) in the professional market. We reported on that prior to the show, tracking rumors,...
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Most interesting SCANNERS at the show: Canon's new flatbed units!
16:09 EST - Kim reported on this item back on Monday, but I wanted to call attention to it again and add my own two cent's worth, since I see the products involved as being so significant for many photo enthusiasts. Check out the earlier item for more specs on the units, or see the full text of Canon's press release in this posting...
At the show, Canon unveiled two new flatbed scanners with some rather unusual specs, suiting them for non-professional use as film scanners. One of the most-asked categories of questions I receive in my in-box has to do with readers wanting to scan both film and prints on the same device. HP's excellent little PhotoSmart S20 scanner does this, but only handles prints up to 5x7, and lacks the flexibility...
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Canon PowerShot S300 Digital ELPH - exclusive pics!
15:59 EST - Canon unveils diminutive 3x zoom, 2 megapixel digicam...
Canon unveiled several new digital cameras at Comdex which we did mention briefly in a previous item, but unfortunately missed posting full coverage of until now (Mike actually thought we'd posted the Canon press release earlier, but apparently we didn't!)... The first of the new cameras is the PowerShot S300, similar to the existing PowerShot S100 model but with a 3x optical zoom lens instead of...
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Jobo Introduces 10GB Portable Digital Album!
15:58 EST - Carrying around extra memory cards can get pretty pricey if you're on the road and have nowhere to store your images once your flash card is full. Jobo Fototechnic, well known for its high-end digital camera backs, has introduced a new portable storage device, the Nixvue Digital Album, which stores up to 10GB of data without the need for a computer. We don't have all the details yet, but our Jobo contact says the Nixvue will be available later this year at a price of about $600. We'll be sure to keep you updated! Jobo Fototechnic Inc. announced distribution of a new portable storage device, the Nixvue Digital Album, with 10GB storage capacity. The palm-size Nixvue is a stand-alone device that provides image storage, retrieval, and printing capabilities, as well as NTSC or Pal connection through a docking device which allows the user to view images, thumbnail folders, and slide shows on a TV. An LCD panel... (More) |
| Kodak Introduces Portable Multimedia for the Consumer! 00:00 EST - Personalized multimedia was a hot topic in Orlando this year, highlighted by the introduction of Kodak's new pocket-size multimedia recorder/player -- the mc3 Portable Multimedia Device (released simultaniously at Demo 2001 in Pheonix). Designed for active lifestyles, the Kodak mc3 provides MP3 music playback, 320x240 MOV-format video and sound recording, and 640x480 VGA still digital capture. Its extensive audio/video software package allows users to convert songs from their personal CD collections into MP3 files for playback on the mc3's CompactFlash storage media. They can also create and edit video files, capture and edit still images, and prepare files for e-mail, online photo processing, and Web-page development. In contrast to the Fuji FinePix 40i, which was introduced last year as... (More) |
