Carl Zeiss has announced its annual photo contest for images shot with one of its lenses. Any Zeiss lens is considered valid, from Nokia smartphones through Sony compacts, such as the RX100, to the company’s high-end interchangeable lenses. This year’s theme is ‘The moment that knows no limits’ and first prize is one of the company’s manual focus SLR and rangefinder lenses, with a variety of other Zeiss-branded prizes for runners-up. The contest runs on Flickr until January 15th.
Adobe has announced CS6 updates that are exclusive to Creative Cloud subscribers. Adobe Photoshop 13.1 offers among other things, the ability to apply Liquify and Lens Blur effects as Smart Objects and use conditional statements when creating Actions. However, these changes are unavailable to those who’ve bought traditional versions of Photoshop CS6, and Adobe has not said when, or even if, ‘perpetual users’ of CS6 will have access to these features. Retina Display support for Mac, also announced today, is available for all users.
Adobe has announced CS6 updates that are exclusive to Creative Cloud subscribers. Adobe Photoshop 13.1 offers among other things, the ability to apply Liquify and Lens Blur effects as Smart Objects and use conditional statements when creating Actions. However, these changes are unavailable to those who’ve bought traditional versions of Photoshop CS6, and Adobe has not said when, or even if, ‘perpetual users’ of CS6 will have access to these features. Retina Display support for Mac, also announced today, is available for all users.
DxO Labs has announced version 1.1 of its ViewPoint distortion correction software, promising more accurate tools and faster operation. Viewpoint is designed to correct keystone distortions (converging verticals and horizontals), and restore more natural proportions to objects towards the edge of the frame when using wide-angle lenses. It is available either as a stand-alone tool or as a plugin for Adobe PhotoShop (CS3 or newer) or Lightroom (version 3 or newer), and for both Mac and PC.
Adapter and accessory maker Fotodiox has announced two adapters to enable the use of filters with wide-angle lenses that have large convex front elements. The WonderPana Filter systems are based around adapter hoods that allow 145mm circular filters or 6.6″ rectangular filters to be used, via an adapter. Each system comes with a lens cap that mounts on the hood, allowing the lens to be stored and protected without needing to repeatedly remove the adapter hood. A variety of adapter and filter kits are available for a range of Super-wide and Ultra-wide lenses.
Nikon has announced two digiscoping accessories for its 1 System cameras, allowing them to be used to take pictures through telescopes. The DSA-N1 can be used to connect a Nikon 1 system camera directly to a telescope eyepiece. Meanwhile the DSB-N1 is a bracket that holds the camera behind the telescope, and includes a mechanical cable release adapter. Both will be available in December, with RRPs of £219.99 and £169.99 for the DSA-N1 and DSB-N1 respectively.
Nikon has announced two digiscoping accessories for its 1 System cameras, allowing them to be used to take pictures through telescopes. The DSA-N1 can be used to connect a Nikon 1 system camera directly to a telescope eyepiece. Meanwhile the DSB-N1 is a bracket that holds the camera behind the telescope, and includes a mechanical cable release adapter. Both will be available in December, with RRPs of £219.99 and £169.99 for the DSA-N1 and DSB-N1 respectively.
US cellphone network AT&T will sell Samsung’s Galaxy Camera from November 16th at a price of $ 499. The Android 4.1 connected camera, which essentially adds a 21x zoom compact camera to a Galaxy SIII smartphone (with the omission of phone function), will cost the same amount with or without a data contract – rather than being subsidized by the carrier, as smartphones usually are. Anyone buying a Samsung smartphone at the same time can receive up to a $ 100 discount. The AT&T version of the camera will offer a HSPA+ connection, not the faster LTE system.
US cellphone network AT&T will sell Samsung’s Galaxy Camera from November 16th at a price of $ 499. The Android 4.1 connected camera, which essentially adds a 21x zoom compact camera to a Galaxy SIII smartphone (with the omission of phone function), will cost the same amount with or without a data contract – rather than being subsidized by the carrier, as smartphones usually are. Anyone buying a Samsung smartphone at the same time can receive up to a $ 100 discount. The AT&T version of the camera will offer a HSPA+ connection, not the faster LTE system.
Carl Zeiss has said it will offer its recently-announced Apo Sonnar T* 2/135 and Distagon T* 2.8/15 in the Micro Four Thirds mount. We suspect some of the people willing to spend the $ 2000 and $ 2950 these lenses command will also have DSLR systems, and will continue to buy these lenses in Nikon (ZF.2) or Canon (ZE) mount and adapt them to Micro Four Thirds, but it’s a positive move to see the mount being natively supported.