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Posts Tagged ‘Chinese’

Report: Kodak Alaris has sold off its paper and chemical division to its largest Chinese distributor

13 Jul

According to Australian photo industry publication Inside Imaging, Kodak has sold its ‘Paper, Photochemicals, Display and Software’ business unit to its largest Chinese distributor, Sino Promise Group (Sino also distributes Canon, Epson and Noritsu photo printers and scanners) and transferred its film business to its Kodak Moments business unit.

The confirmation from Inside Imaging comes on the heels of a report that an announcement of the proposed sale was distributed internally within the company.

Sino has been manufacturing Kodak photochemicals as well as silver halide photo paper and dye-sub paper destined for the Asia Pacific market in its Xiamen factory since 2015 and has been manufacturing Kodak medical X-ray film, industrial film, photographic film, photographic paper and photochemicals at its Wuxi factory since 2016.

A screenshot from the ‘About’ section on Sino Promise Group’s website.

We reported back in February 2019 Kodak Alaris was looking to offload its paper and film division, estimated to be worth roughly $ 34 million at the time. Kodak Alaris went so far as to say in its 2019 financial report (page 16) that it expected ‘the successful completion of the sale of [its] PPF business in the next year.’

According to Inside Imaging’s report, there were multiple entities interested in the division, including Sino, Eastman Kodak (separate entity from Kodak Alaris) and even Chinese film company Lucky Film. In the end, it was Sino Promise Group that sealed the deal. Sino Promise Group was originally planning to purchase more of Kodak Alaris than just the paper and chemistry business, says Inside Imaging, but ‘withdrew at the last minute […] due to concerns with the accounts of the document scanning business unit.’ There’s no information on exactly how much the final deal was worth.

We have contacted Kodak Alaris ourselves to independently confirm this information and will update accordingly if we receive a response.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Chinese government rules in favour of Alpa in counterfeit cameras case

18 Apr

Swiss camera manufacturer Alpa has won a case in the Chinese courts against a company that was making and distributing cameras and accessories copied from its own models. Chinese brand GuoZh has been told to pay damages to Alpa over its FY-2015 camera which is a direct copy of Alpa’s A12 series models. The company had copied the camera, backs and accessories and was selling under its own name, and had even started camera clubs for users of its copied products.

Copied Alpa camera and accessories shown on the GuoZh website

Some of the products produced by GuoZh were branded Alpa and sold as convincing counterfeits to Alpa users, while others were branded with the GouZh name and sold in China to potential Alpa users at a much lower price.

It looked at one stage as though Alpa would not win its case as it hadn’t applied for protection under China’s complicated copyright law, but in the end the company was able to file a claim that Alpa cameras come under China’s ‘applied art’ rules that state that everyday objects can be seen as art.

Genuine (left) and fake (right) Mamiya roll film backs

According to an article on the case by Swiss newspaper NZZ GuoZh owner Guo Zhonggen was nonchalant during the final hearing and tried to give the impression that he owned the intellectual property, which helped move the judge to rule against him. At the end of the final of three hearings he was ordered to pay ‘six-figure damages’ and to apologise on his website, as well as to cease producing Alpa cameras and copies of them. At the time of writing though GouZh is planning an appeal and is still adverting it’s products on its website.

Andre OIdani, Head of Products at Alpa, is quoted as saying “It’s a good feeling that you’re not powerless in the giant system of China after all,” according to NZZ.

The case will give some hope to other photographic manufacturers that feel their products are being copied and sold cheaply by Chinese companies. The report in NZZ says that the Chinese courts are becoming more interested in copyright claims as China’s own products improve and become subject to copies themselves. Journalist Matthias Kamp also says that judges now have better training and are being paid better salaries, but none of the judges is independent as a communist party committee can always step in to have the last word in any case.

For more information on Alpa cameras see the Alpa website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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US government warns of potential spying by Chinese drone companies

23 May

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (USDHS) sent out an alert that was first obtained by CNN. It states that drones manufactured in China are a ‘potential risk to an organization’s information.’ The products ‘contain components that can compromise your data and share your information on a server accessed beyond the company itself.’

‘The United States government has strong concerns about any technology product that takes American data into the territory of an authoritarian state that permits its intelligence services to have unfettered access to that data or otherwise abuses that access,’ the alert continues.

‘Those concerns apply with equal force to certain Chinese-made (unmanned aircraft systems)-connected devices capable of collecting and transferring potentially revealing data about their operations and the individuals and entities operating them, as China imposes unusually stringent obligations on its citizens to support national intelligence activities,’ the alert adds.

While the report doesn’t name a specific company, Shenzen-based DJI, which dominates the U.S. and Canadian drone markets with close to an 80% share, according to a market sector report from Skylogic Research, is of utmost interest.

While the report doesn’t name a specific company, Shenzen-based DJI, which dominates the U.S. and Canadian drone markets with close to an 80% share, according to a market sector report from Skylogic Research, is of utmost interest. The manufacturer’s drones were recently banned in the US Army several years back, despite no clear evidence of spying or data transfer from the aircraft being presented.

Still, concerns about hacking or the siphoning of data remain at the forefront. The USDHS alert follows an executive order, signed by President Donald Trump, prohibiting U.S. companies from using any telecommunications equipment from Chinese company Huawei. An escalating trade war between the two countries doesn’t help matters and also raises suspicion on the timing of this latest USDHS alert on drones.

The United States leads the world in the number of drone platforms being developed. China comes in a close second place. If the trade war continues to escalate, many upstarts and manufacturers in the U.S. are going to face unexpected challenges with their supply chain if they built their platforms around any Chinese components, as sUAS News points out.

DJI responded to the USDHS’ alert, the full statement is below:

‘At DJI, safety is at the core of everything we do, and the security of our technology has been independently verified by the U.S. government and leading U.S. businesses. DJI is leading the industry on this topic and our technology platform has enabled businesses and government agencies to establish best practices for managing their drone data. We give all customers full and complete control over how their data is collected, stored, and transmitted. For government and critical infrastructure customers that require additional assurances, we provide drones that do not transfer data to DJI or via the internet, and our customers can enable all the precautions DHS recommends. Every day, American businesses, first responders, and U.S. government agencies trust DJI drones to help save lives, promote worker safety, and support vital operations, and we take that responsibility very seriously. We are committed to continuously working with our customers and industry and government stakeholders to ensure our technology adheres to all of their requirements.’

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Chinese camera cuts through smog to record details almost 30 miles away

15 May
In this illustration (a) shows the distance between the camera and the target on a map of Shanghai, and (b) shows what the target building actually looks like. Image (c) is the view of the target through the smog of the city, while (d), (e) and (f) show earlier technologies attempting to record the target. Image (g) is the result of the researcher’s improvements

Researchers in China have created a camera that can record through the atmospheric pollutants of Shanghai to pick out objects just 60cm (2ft) high at a distance of 45 kilometers (28 miles). The ‘camera’ uses laser technology to fire light of a specific wavelength at a distant object and then uses a sensor to record the light when it returns so it can produce a picture that shows shapes with some distance information.

The project is being carried out by scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China in Shanghai, who have so far been able to record the form of a distant building with enough resolution to show the windows. The picture is technically a photograph, but not quite as we would expect to record with a normal visible light camera. The idea of the research is to produce an instrument that can ‘see’ further than is possible using visible light, and to be able to see in conditions visible light can’t get through.

At top left you can see the actual set-up of the LiDAR camera mounted inside the telescope, while the diagram top right shows what’s going on inside.

The scientists mounted a LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) camera inside a Cassegrain mirrored telescope and fired a near-infared (1550nm) beam from the top of a building on Chongming Island in Shanghai towards the K11 skyscraper 45km away in the centre of the city. As the scientists knew the distance and the speed of the light they were using they were able to calculate when it would return and thus isolate the image forming light from any other stray light in the scene.

An illustration showing how different methods of image extraction can be used to yield a more detailed image.

The quality of the image recorded is hardly going to serve for holiday pictures, but outlines, shapes and forms can easily be seen even when the atmosphere was too thick for visible light. The technology will be useful for seeing when we can’t see – through clouds, atmospheric haze and smog and for security surveillance.

This shows how the researchers are using distance information from the LiDAR to create depth maps of scenes that can hardly be seen with the naked eye

The researchers say they can improve the resolution and the range of their invention, and that they will be able to create 3D images in the future. Already with the range defining abilities of the LiDAR system they can incorporate depth and distance information into their images.

You can read the research paper as a PDF online.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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The word ‘Leica’ is now banned on Chinese social media after controversial ‘Tank Man’ video

20 Apr

Leica is facing backlash in China following the publication of a video called ‘The Hunt’ set in 1989 during, among other things, the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests. In response to the video, Chinese social media website Weibo has banned the use of the word ‘Leica’ — attempts to search for content in English and Chinese using that keyword returns zero results.

‘The Hunt’ is a fictionalized video that primarily follows a Western photojournalist who attempts to capture the Tiananmen Square protests using a Leica camera1. Though the video never explicitly mentions the protests, it features the text ‘Beijing, 1989,’ and concludes with the iconic ‘Tank Man’ image as a reflection in a Leica camera’s lens.

The video went viral on social media in China, where a number of users have lambasted the dramatic reenactment. Soon after, Weibo banned posts containing the word ‘Leica’ due to the video’s ‘violation of relevant laws and regulations or the Weibo Community Convention,’ according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

SCMP claims Leica didn’t commission and does not sanction the video, which was reportedly produced by Brazillian marketing company F/Nazca Saatchi Saatchi. The news source published a statement from Leica, which expressed regret over ‘any misunderstandings or false conclusions that may have been drawn’ regarding the video.

The controversy hits Leica amid its partnership with Chinese company Huawei and its plan to launch 20 to 30 new stores in China. Likewise, the video arrives during a particularly tense time for the Chinese government — June 4 is the 30th anniversary of the government’s deadly suppression of the pro-democracy protests.

For its part, Leica has been criticized for distancing itself from the video, which has been praised by some as a poignant reminder of the pro-democracy movement and the Chinese government’s bloody response. The Communist Party of China censors the Tiananmen Square Massacre and related protests and as such is not expected to make a public statement on the video.

The video has also drawn criticism across social media for its ‘stereotypical, aggrandizing depiction of the white saviour vs the dangerous, dark, unintellegible “other,”‘ as seen in the above tweet from photographer and filmmaker David Jazay.

1It’s worth noting the iconic ‘Tank Man’ image was captured on a Nikon FE2 camera through a Nikkor 400mm 5.6 ED-IF lens and TC-301 teleconverter with a roll of Fuji 100 ASA color negative film, not any Leica camera.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Meyer Optik Görlitz confirms rumor that Nocturnus was a rebranded Chinese lens

12 Mar

Meyer Optik Görlitz, the German brand that offered lenses through Kickstarter before its parent company filed for insolvency last year, has confirmed speculation that the Nocturnus lenses were slightly modified versions of a Chinese lens, and the Somnium lenses were modified versions of a Russian lens.

The brand’s new owner OPC Optics revealed its finding in a press release, stating that it had spent time analyzing the Meyer Optik products and planning how it would move forward with the brand. According to OPC Optics Managing Director Timo Heinze, ‘It’s fair to say that the previous organization and processes shocked us on occasions.’

Among other things, the company said it discovered that past speculation about the Somnium and Nocturnus lenses proved true, and as such it will discontinue both ranges ‘for the time being.’ The company didn’t say which lenses were used, but online speculation over the years had pegged the $ 3,000 Nocturnus as a modified $ 849 Mitakon Zhongyi Speedmaster 50mm F0.95 lens.

Heinze explained, ‘That is an absolute no go. As a German manufacturer using the ‘Made in Germany’ quality seal, this is a shameful indictment. These lenses may be perfectly good in their own right, but their production methods and marketing goes against all our principles.’

Heinze acknowledged that Meyer Optik may relaunch lenses ‘with similar characteristics’ under its ownership in the future, but they would not be rebranded, modified Russian and Chinese lenses. The potential future lenses ‘would, of course, be our own designs
and produced by us, in order to genuinely earn the ‘Made in Germany’ label,’ according to Heinze.

Via: PetaPixel

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Chinese satellite captures image showing both Earth and the Moon’s far side

07 Feb

China’s Longjiang-2 satellite has captured an incredible image featuring both the far side of the Moon and Earth in the background. The data was received by the Netherlands’ Dwingeloo Radio Telescope from an amateur radio transceiver built by a team at China’s Harbin University of Technology.

The satellite first provided the team with partial images of the Moon and Earth back in October, but then was inactive to avoid interfering with China’s Chang’e 4 Lunar mission. The satellite resumed activity on January 19 and captured a time-lapse, including one featuring the Moon’s far side and Earth, on February 3.

According to the team’s initial report, the images have been color corrected by radio amateurs. A team shared an uncorrected version of the image on Twitter, seen above.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Report: Chinese company Xiaomi may purchase GoPro

13 Apr

Chinese electronics company Xiaomi is considering an offer to buy action-cam makers GoPro, according to a report in The Information. This news follows GoPro’s January announcement that it would be exiting the market for drones in order to streamline business and become more profitable. At the same time, CEO Nick Woodman said in an interview with CNBC the company was open to a buy-out:

If there are opportunities for us to unite with a bigger parent company to scale GoPro even bigger, that is something that we would look at.

Details on the potential offer are sparse at this point in time, but the deal could be worth as much as $ 1 billion. Once valued at more than $ 10 billion, in its heyday GoPro was a success story in consumer electronics, but the company’s market capitalization has since fallen to about $ 761 million, mainly due to aggressive competition from China.

According to analysts, a buyer could leverage GoPro’s brand and make profits through device sales. Xiaomi in particular could also use some of GoPro’s camera IP in the development of camera modules for its smartphones. That said, if the Chinese company does end up buying GoPro, we hope they won’t just use the brand name and patents, and will let GoPro action-cams live on.

GoPro’s stock price has spiked 8.8 percent on the news.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Famed Chinese rooftopper falls to his death from 62-story skyscraper

15 Dec
Photo: Weibo

Editor’s Note: We have decided not to post the video of the tragedy, or even link to it. Please, if you value your life, do not engage in ‘rooftopping’ or other risky activities for the sake of a ‘cool’ photo. There are legal and safe ways to capture great photos from tall places.

Performing dangerous stunts to capture exciting photos has long been hotly debated, but that hasn’t stopped some people from continuing to do incredibly dangerous things for the sake of a few Instagram likes. “Rooftopping,” the act of climbing a very high structure to take images showing the distance to the ground, is one of the most popular of these activities, and it recently claimed the life of 26-year-old Chinese rooftopper Wu Yongning.

Yongning regularly engaged in risky photo shoots. Hanging off of tall buildings earned him more than 60,000 followers on Weibo and a portfolio of unique, if vertigo-inducing and deeply unsettling, images. In the end, it also claimed his life.

Photo: Weibo

According to Channel NewsAsia, Yongning fell from the 62-story Huayuan Hua Centre while filming an attempted stunt to win 100,000 CNY (about $ 15k USD / €13k EUR) from an unnamed sponsor. Yongning reportedly planned to use the money to fund his wedding and help pay his mother’s medical bills.

A camera that had been set up to record the stunt captured Yongning’s final moments, showing him performing a couple of pull-ups while hanging off the edge of the skyscraper. Tragically, Yongning didn’t have the strength to pull himself back onto the rooftop afterward, and without anyone there to help him back up, he eventually lost his grip and fell.

The incidence happened on November 8th.

Recent public awareness of the tragedy has prompted Chinese state media to warn against performing unsafe social media stunts for money and/or attention.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Lexar acquired by Chinese flash storage maker Longsys

03 Sep

Lexar will live on. Two months and a few days after parent company Micron announced that they would be discontinuing the Lexar band, Chinese flash memory giant Longsys has acquired the Lexar trademark and branding rights. The new owner promises that “the solutions and support they have come to expect from Lexar branded products will continue to be available.”

News of the acquisition broke yesterday on the Longsys website, and according to tech site Tom’s Hardware it’s a boon for both brands. Longsys has told the site “on a number of occasions about its desire to enter the U.S. market,” and Lexar was in need of a savior.

“We are very honored to acquire the Lexar brand,” Longsys CEO of Electronics Limited, Huabo Cai, said in a statement. “Lexar has built a great brand name and our vision is to make it even greater. Existing customers can rest assured that the innovative solutions and excellent support that they have experienced from Lexar will continue.

According to Cai, Longsys’ mission in acquiring the Lexar brand is to make it “the go-to brand for high-performance removable storage,” expanding on the brand’s offering with “even more compelling solutions as the age of wireless an big-data impact the consumer storage markets.”

Neither Micron nor Lonsys have shared any financial details about the acquisition, but for now, it sounds like Lexar will not only continue to exist… it’s about to start growing in a big way.

Press Release

Longsys Acquires Lexar Brand, a Leading Brand for High-Performance Removable Storage Solutions

Strength of Lexar Brand Combined with Longsys’ Consumer Storage Dedication Enables Continued Support to Existing Lexar Customers as well as Exciting New Growth Opportunities

SHENZHEN, China and SAN JOSE, Calif (Aug. 31, 2017) – Longsys, a world leader in consumer flash storage, today announced that it has acquired the Lexar trademark and branding rights from Micron Technology, Inc. The Lexar brand has long been recognized as a leading brand for high-performance, high-reliability removable storage solutions for a wide variety of applications, such as the professional photography market. This acquisition provides assurance to existing Lexar customers that the solutions and support they have come to expect from Lexar branded products will continue to be available. Additionally, the market reach and product breadth provided by Longsys promises to expand the Lexar customer experience into new market segments and geographies.

“We are very honored to acquire the Lexar brand,” said Huabo Cai, CEO of Longsys Electronics Limited. “Lexar has built a great brand name and our vision is to make it even greater. Existing customers can rest assured that the innovative solutions and excellent support that they have experienced from Lexar will continue. The mission to make Lexar the go-to brand for high-performance removable storage continues, and we will expand upon it to offer even more compelling solutions as the age of wireless and big-data impact the consumer storage markets.”

Longsys has been focused on flash storage for over 18 years and provides a broad portfolio of solutions. Its embedded storage brand FORESEE® is leading in the market in China and growing rapidly on a worldwide basis. The company develops complete solutions, including software and hardware, which is key to innovation and deploying leading-edge flash technologies, such as 3D NAND. Longsys currently sells over 100 million flash-based products to the market on an annual basis. Lexar customers will benefit from the strategy and company culture of Longsys, including innovation, stability, strict quality control, localized and customized support and services, and a consumer storage focus.

Longsys envisions continued growth in the removable storage market, as many industry trends impact the consumer, including big data, wireless, and Quality of Service (QoS). Virtual reality, 8K video, automotive infotainment, video surveillance and drones are all examples of emerging applications expected to drive demand for high-performance, high-reliability removable storage. Longsys, with its focus on consumer storage, innovation, quality and reliability, is uniquely positioned to offer Lexar products and services to help solve these complex problems and provide solutions the market will demand.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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