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Posts Tagged ‘officially’

Calumet UK and Wex Photographic will officially merge tomorrow

26 Sep

Two of the biggest photography retailers in the UK are going to officially merge tomorrow. This marks the culmination of a process that was set in motion way back in March when Calumet owner (and former Bowens owner) Aurelius bought Wex Photographic and announced that the Calumet competitor would merge with its former adversary.

If you visit the Calumet UK website today, you’re greeted by the following message:

“From 26 September, Calumet Photographic Limited UK will be merging with Wex Photographic, offering an improved experience and wider range of products to photographers across the UK,” reads the statement. “Later this week, this website will be closed and moved to www.wexphotographic.com.”

The statement goes on to assure Calumet customers that there will be “minimal disruption” to service, and any outstanding pre-orders, back-orders, or vouchers will be honored under the new brand.

For more information about the merger and how it will (or won’t) affect customers, you can visit this FAQ page on the Wex Photographic website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Godox A1 smartphone flash trigger officially released, costs $70

17 Aug

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The Godox A1 smartphone flash trigger is finally official. After being announced unofficially over Facebook and teased further with some studio portrait samples, the phone flash and 2.4GHz flash trigger is now available for pre-order.

Chinese company Godox is a rising star in the lighting world thanks to a growing repertoire of affordable, surprisingly versatile and often innovative speedlight and monolight options. The Godox A1 arguably falls into that last “innovative” category: a trigger and flash designed specifically for use with smartphones.

The unit itself features a 1W ‘modeling lamp’ and a daylight-balanced 8W flash with 5 different power settings between 1/1 and 1/16, but chances are good photographers won’t be using those two options much. What’s more interesting is the 2.4GHz trigger built into the unit, which allows you to control Godox’ own X system gear wirelessly using an iPhone app.

Capturing professional-looking, artificial light portraits with a smartphone seems a bit more feasible now.

The flash trigger costs $ 70 and is available for pre-order starting today. Out of the box, the Godox A1 will be compatible with iPhone 6s and newer Apple phones, but Android support is coming soon, starting with Huawei and Samsung phones in September (which might be before the flash arrives on anybody’s doorstep anyhow).

To learn more about the Godox A1, or if you want to pre-order your own, head over to the Godox website by clicking here. And be sure to keep an eye out for a review of the Godox A1 in the coming month: a test unit is winging its way to the DPReview offices as I type this.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Adobe officially admits speeding up Lightroom is ‘top priority’

12 Jul

Spend any time chatting with fellow photographers about Adobe Lightroom and you’re bound to hear about performance issues. It’s one of the most common and widespread complaints: even with tons of RAM, a great graphics card, and a powerful CPU, many computers still struggle to keep Lightroom running smoothly.

Until now, Adobe itself has stayed pretty much silent on the matter, but in a post on the company’s Lightroom Journal blog, they finally fessed up and are asking for your help.

“I would like to address concerns recently voiced by our community of customers around Lightroom performance,” writes Tom Hogarty, photo product management at Adobe, “as improving performance is our current top priority.”

The post goes on by stating that Adobe already understands many of the worst “pain points” and are “investing heavily” in improving those areas. “Over the past year we’ve added numerous enhancements to address your performance concerns,” says Hogarty, “but we understand we will have a lot of work to do to meet your expectations.”

And speaking of expectations, this is where you come in. Adobe wants to work with customers to identify the most important and bothersome workflow and performance issues that need fixing. So if you’re frustrated by the slow plodding pace of Lightroom and you want to be part of the solution, you can gripe about issues general and specific by filling out this survey.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Verizon officially acquires Yahoo including Flickr

15 Jun

It’s been written on the wall for a while, but now US network operator Verizon has confirmed its acquisition of Yahoo in a deal worth $ 4.48 billion. This also means that Yahoo’s online image sharing platform Flickr is now in the hands of Verizon. With both AOL and Yahoo now owned by Verizon it seems the network giant is planning to combine the two companies and a few of its other subsidiaries into a new service called Oath.

“We’re putting together one of the largest companies on the planet that’s focused on brands,” says Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL. “Oath is our house of 50+ media and technology brands. We reach over 1 billion consumers around the world.”

In the process of merging Yahoo and AOL 2,100 employees will be made redundant but Flickr users should, at least in the short term, not expect any major changes to the service as Verizon says it has no immediate plans to change Flickr pricing.

It appears the Oath service has been structured to compete with other major ad platforms, such as Facebook or Google but it remains to be seen what the move will mean for Flickr. Under Yahoo ownership the service has not necessarily been developed in a way that users and photographers would have liked. We’ll have to wait and see if Verizon and Oath can increase the rate of innovation at Flickr and bring the site back to its former glory.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Seoul Skygarden: Elevated Park on an Abandoned Highway Officially Opens

23 May

[ By SA Rogers in Drawing & Digital. ]

A formerly abandoned 1970s highway in South Korea’s capital city now hosts 24,000 plants as the Seoullo Skygarden, an elevated public park open to all citizens 24 hours a day. That’s a big deal in a city where so much architecture and infrastructure tends to be corporate-sponsored, with special perks for paying customers of companies like Hyundai. Mayor Park Won-soon, a former human rights and anti-corruption activist, wanted to balance all those logos with public spaces that are more accessible to all.

Dutch architecture firm MVRDV was tasked with designing the park back in 2015, and in just two years, they’ve created a successful public space revitalizing and connecting public spaces near the main railway station that were previously fragmented by roads and rail tracks. Its base, a 1970 motorway flyover, sat empty for a long time after being deemed unsafe for its original purpose.

The Skygarden is packed with 645 potted trees and around 228 species and sub-species of plants, adding a significant amount of greenery to a highly paved area of the city – not to mention encouraging foot traffic, recreation, interaction and physical activity. The route is set up to create a network of hotels, shops, gardens and other attractions, enlivening the center of the city. It’s not just a walkway – it’s an educational experience.

“The linear park was designed as a collection of small gardens, each one with its very own composition, perfume, color and identity,” says MVRDV. “The landscape will change according to the seasons: the bright colors of leaves in autumn of the Aceraceae family (maples), the blossom of cherry trees and rhododendron in spring, the evergreen conifer trees ink inter and shrubs and trees bearing fruit in summer.”

“In the future, the overpass will evolve with new plants and new activators so as to become an ‘urban nursery,’ rearing trees for the surrounding districts. Additional structures of stairs, lifts and escalators as well as new ‘satellite’ gardens can connect to the Skygarden, sprouting like branches from the existing structural piers. These extensions can inspire further additions to the area’s greenery and public spaces, and will connect the Skygarden to its surroundings both physicallyl and visually through plant species related to each of the neighborhoods.”

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[ By SA Rogers in Drawing & Digital. ]

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Adobe Creative Suite 6 has been officially retired

31 Jan

Adobe has officially put Creative Suite out to pasture, making Creative Cloud the exclusive means by which consumers can acquire Photoshop, Illustrator, and other Adobe creative applications. The move was inevitable, but not without its controversy. Confirmation of the transition comes from Adobe itself, which updated the CS6 Web page to announce that the product has been retired.

The Web page now states that, ‘Adobe creative apps are available exclusively through Creative Cloud.’ The page also reveals this change officially took place on January 9. Adobe announced its transition to a subscription-based model in 2013, and in 2015 provided the last CS6 Camera Raw update. 

For the moment, Lightroom 6 is still available for purchase as a standalone application. It’s priced at $ 149 for a full license.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Samsung officially pulls the plug on its Note 7 smartphone

12 Oct

Samsung Electronics has officially pulled the plug on its troubled Note 7 smartphone after repeated issues with the devices catching fire, including one incident in which a burning phone required the evacuation of a Southwest Airlines jet.

The company initially recalled the Note 7 in September, offering other Samsung phones as loaners until a ‘replacement’ model arrived. Unfortunately, those too started to burn, and after several days of bad press, Samsung once again recommended that users power down their phones and exchange them for another device. Today, what many had been predicting finally happened: Samsung pulled the plug on the Note 7 entirely, stopping all production and marketing of the device.

The Galaxy Note 7 was considered by many to be one of the top Android smartphones and, with a DxO Mobile score of 88, has one of the best cameras, as well.

With the Note 7 now pulled from the market, many owners (this one included) are wondering what to replace it with. (The Google Pixel, LG V20 and, yes, the iPhone 7 Plus are the devices mostly commonly mentioned in online forums.) If you’re in the same boat, we’d love to hear what device you’re considering in the comments below.

Via: NY Times, WSJ

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Instagram officially launches ‘save draft’ feature

23 Sep

Instagram has finally launched a ‘save draft’ feature following months of testing. With the feature, a post-in-progress can be saved as a draft when the user hits the back button, making it available for continued edits and eventual posting later on. Such functionality is common on many platforms, including Twitter, and has been requested by Instagram users for years.

Saving a draft is simple. Once the post creation process has started (a filter has been added to a photo, for example), hitting the back arrow in the upper left corner of the screen will pull up a “Save Draft” prompt. Tapping that prompt saves the draft, which can then be reopened later on within ‘Library’ under the ‘Drafts’ designation.

Via: Twitter (1), (2)

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Leica Sofort instant camera officially announced ahead of Photokina debut

16 Sep

Following speculation that such an announcement was imminent, Leica has taken the wraps off its new Sofort instant camera, something photographers can use to ‘create small, haptic works of art and lasting memories,’ according to the company. The Leica Sofort features a fixed 60mm (34mm equivalent) lens with an F12.7 aperture, an integrated flash, eight operation modes, 1/8 to 1/400s mechanical shutter and a rear optical 0.37x viewfinder. In other words, it’s more than likely to be a re-badged Fujifilm Instax Mini 90.

The Sofort, which is set to make its first public debut at Photokina, will be available in mint, white, and orange colors. Users have eight operation modes to choose from: Automatic, Selfie, People & Party, Action & Sport, Bulb, Macro, Self-Timer, and Double Exposure. The integrated electronic flash includes the following four modes: Auto, Forced On, Forced Off, and Forced On w/Red-Eye Reduction.

The Sofort will launch this upcoming November alongside three different instant film pack options: a color film pack with 10 exposures, a color film double pack with 20 exposures, and a monochrome film pack with 10 exposures. The camera will also accept Fujifilm’s Instax mini film.

Several accessories will also be offered, including a range of carrying straps in black & white, mint, and orange colors; soft carrying cases in brown or black; the Sofort Photo Presenter for presenting photographs; Sofort Postcards 3-packs with support for attaching pictures; the Sofort Photo Album; and, finally, the Sofort Storage Boxes, which will be offered in sets of three with the following color combinations: white & black, orange & black, and mint & black.

Pricing information hasn’t yet been revealed.

Source: Leica

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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FAA officially launches drone registration system

17 Dec

The Federal Aviation Administration has officially launched the drone registration program first reported in October. Drone operators are required to register their UAVs with the Unmanned Aircraft System registry starting December 21. Failure to register could result in criminal and civil penalties.

Under the new system, all aircraft must be registered with the FAA including those ‘operated by modelers and hobbyists.’ Once registered, drone operators must carry the registration certificate during operation. This new system only applies to drones weighing more than 0.55lbs/250g and less than 55lbs/25kg. The only exception to the registration requirement is indoor drone flights.

Required registration information includes a mailing address and physical address, email address, and full names; however, no information on the drone’s make, model, or serial number is required from recreational users. Non-recreational users will need to provide drone information, including serial number, when that particular registration system goes live. 

Failure to register could result in civil penalties up to $ 27,500, or criminal penalties up to 3 years in prison and $ 250,000. A $ 5 registration charge is applied, but will be refunded to those who register before January 20. The registration certificate is sent in an email to be printed at home.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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