Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Corel Announces New 'Painter X' Application

Corel has announced the next major version of the company’s popular Painter application called ‘Painter X.’ Not to be confused with Sonic-X, my son’s favorite cartoon show, this is a premier painting and illustration application that has many added new features geared toward commercial designers, entertainment and fine artists, as well as amateur and professional photographers. Full price is $419.00 USD, while the upgrade will cost $219.00 USD.

There is also a trial version available from the Corel website. It features new composition tools including one interestingly titled tool called ‘Divine Proportion’, layer system, a new Workspace Manager, and the all-new RealBristle™ painting system that models traditional brushes, with individual bristles that blend and splay. Corel Painter X will open native Photoshop (PSD) files maintaining the layer masks, layer sets, and alpha channels. I’ve used older versions of Painter, but tend to fall back on Adobe Photoshop, but I will definitely be downloading the trial version of ‘Painter X’ to check it out, and of course it’s just cool to say ‘Painter X!’

Kodak Announces New All-In-One Inkjet Printers

Kodak announced today that they are entering the consumer inkjet market with a new product line of EasyShare All-In-One inkjet printers claiming to produce lab-quality photos. They also claim their ink cartridges will provide more economical solutions for home users. According to the official press release below, a cartridge of black ink is $9.99, and a five-ink color cartridge is only $14.99 but produces the same number of pages as other consumer inkjet printers.

Official Kodak Press Release
NEW YORK, Feb. 6, 2007 -- Live from NBC Studios in New York City, Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE: EK) today entered the consumer inkjet industry with a revolutionary new product line for the home.

Kodak EasyShare All-in-One Printers will enable consumers to affordably print crisp, sharp documents and Kodak lab-quality photos at home using premium, pigment-based inks that will save consumers up to 50 percent on everything they print. The three new printers provide ultimate levels of print quality and ease-of-use, while offering low total cost of ownership compared to other leading consumer inkjet printers on the market.

"After today, the inkjet market will never be the same," said Antonio M. Perez, chairman and chief executive officer, Eastman Kodak Company. "We are changing the rules in this industry to ensure that consumers can affordably print what they want, when they want, easily and at the high level of Kodak quality they've come to expect.

"For far too long, people have felt restrained from printing due to the high cost of ink," Perez said. "Our new system gives consumers the freedom to print documents and photos frequently, easily and affordably with exceptional quality that lasts a lifetime under typical home display conditions. Our extensive history in printing, combined with our legendary dedication to the consumer, puts us in a unique position to revolutionize inkjet printing."

Finally -- Inks for People Who Like to Print

The Kodak EasyShare AiO Printers use Kodak's premium, pigment-based ink, priced at $9.99 for a cartridge of black ink and $14.99 for a five-ink color cartridge (US MSRP). For every $15 spent on color ink and $10 spent on black ink, consumers can print the same number of pages at half the cost of other consumer inkjet printers. When the Kodak Photo Value Pack is purchased, a 4 x 6-inch photo costs as little as 10 cents per print.

According to a study by InfoTrends, the greatest obstacle to printing at home is the cost of ink and supplies.

"For years, the high price of inkjet cartridges has kept consumers from freely using their printers," said Perez. "With affordable premium inks, families can now create crisp documents and Kodak lab-quality photos at home."

All-In-One Printers Available in March -- Featuring Kodacolor Technology

The Kodak EasyShare AiO Printers feature exclusive Kodacolor Technology that enables consumers to cost-effectively print crisp documents and Kodak lab-quality photos. Kodacolor Technology is a combination of four key elements--pigment-based inks, micro-porous photo papers, color and image science, and the Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) print head--that deliver outstanding results for general-purpose printing of text and graphics and stunning color photos that are sharp and vibrant.

• The Kodak EasyShare 5100 All-in-One Printer ($149.99 US MSRP), featuring print, scan and copy capabilities, delivers high-quality documents and photos for users who enjoy printing without limitations. The device can print and copy up to 32 pages per minute in black and 22 pages per minute in color, and print photos from PICTBRIDGE-enabled cameras without involving a PC.

• The Kodak EasyShare 5300 All-in-One Printer ($199.99 US MSRP) builds on the 5100's features by offering a 3-inch color LCD display that enables photo viewing and cropping directly from the printer. Memory card slots provide an additional quick and simple way to print digital pictures without a PC.

• The Kodak EasyShare 5500 All-in-One Printer ($299.99 US MSRP) is the perfect solution for home-office users and connected families who want to do it all with no constraints. In addition to sharing the features of the 5100 and 5300 printers, the 5500 has fax functionality and includes a 2.4-inch color LCD display, an automatic document feeder and a duplexer attachment.

Beginning in March 2007, the Kodak EasyShare 5100 and 5300 AiO Printers will retail exclusively at Best Buy locations across the United States. The 5500 is expected to begin shipping in May 2007. Online shoppers will be able to purchase the printers in April 2007 at the Kodak Store (www.Kodak.com).

Kodak Spills the Ink on the High Cost of Printing

Kodak's unique marketing campaign for its inkjet solutions, which is intended to raise awareness of the high cost of printing in the consumer inkjet market, was previewed at the launch event held at NBC Studios in New York City. The company also introduced a new Web site -- www.inkisit.com -- to provide consumers with an entertaining look at issues surrounding traditionally high-cost ink.

The site includes interactive games; videos of a comedic, mock-TV show called "Ink Is It"; a print-cost calculator for consumers to determine how much they are currently spending on ink; and detailed information about the new line of products. Over the next few months, Kodak will release several new videos, introduce new prize contests and provide other interactive, consumer-oriented features on the Web site.

"For too long, consumers have complained that ink costs too much; that quality, durability and longevity is not good enough; and that printers are too hard to use," Perez said. "That stops today -- because of Kodak and our revolutionary approach to inkjet."

Monday, February 05, 2007

Macworld Weighs In On Adobe Lightroom 1.0

I’ve posted previous information regarding Adobe’s upcoming Photoshop Lightroom 1.0, a non-destructive image editor that has the potential for creating an affordable workflow solution, and I wanted to share a Macworld article from today that provides even more insight into this new product. Rick LePage from Macworld provides his hands-on experience.

Sigma Announces First Photo Contest

As a Sigma lens user I was interested to hear that the Sigma Corporation of America has announced their first photo contest titled “Faces in Nature.” Winners will be announced on April 30, 2007 and entries must be received by March 30, 2007 from U.S. residents only.

Photographs must be submitted as 8x12 or 12x18 prints. Only a maximum of two images per contestant is allowed. Each photograph must be accompanied by a completed contest entry form. Submitted material can be taken with film or digital on any camera as long as a Sigma lens was used.

It’s no surprise that entrants will compete for Sigma brand lenses. First prize is a Sigma 70-200 mm f2.8 EX DG Macro zoom lens, MSRP $1200. Second prize is a Sigma 12-24mm f4.5-5.6 EX DG zoom lens, MSRP $960. Third prize is a Sigma 70mm f2.8 EX DG Macro lens, MSRP $570. Read the original announcement at www.sigma-photo.com that includes contest rules, and entry form.

PreClick Corp. Announces Instant Photo Messenger

PreClick IPM (Internet Photo Messenger) was announced by PreClick Corporation last week and claims to turn computers into networked picture frames. Basically this application utilizes current Instant Messaging techniques to provide photo sharing between buddy lists. According to Brian Smiga, chief executive officer - "We're offering a free service to share digital photos in a new way. Users sign up family and friends, and can project sets of photos - slide shows, greeting cards or screensavers - that directly pop up on their screens," Read the original press release from PreClick Corporation. PreClick IPM, a free software download, will be release to the public in April 2007. To learn more visit www.preclick.com/demo.
Image provided by PreClick.

Friday, February 02, 2007

ReaSoft Releases New RAW Image Converter

Another option for RAW imaging is now available. ReaConverter supports over 340 image formats and processes RAW files from supported digital cameras. Below is the complete press release from ReaSoft Development.

Seattle, WA -- 02/02/2007 -- ReaConverter 4.0 is a professional image converter for designers, digital artists and photographers. The program supports virtually every known image file format, popular and obscure, a total of over 340 different kinds of image files. In addition to that, the program supports RAW files for all popular digital camera brands (CRW, CR2, DNG, DCR, NEF, RAW, RAF, X3F, ORF, SRF, MRW, BAY, PEF) and works with PostScript based files (PDF, EPS, PS, AI).

Besides converting images from one format to another, ReaConverter is capable of performing batch image editing operations - rotating or resizing images, adjusting brightness or contrast, applying various filters, stamping images with a watermark to multiple images with one button click.

ReaConverter Professional 4.0 also imports EXIF, IPTC and alpha-channel data, a very valuable feature that few image processing applications offer. Plus, the program offers several unique features, such as multitask conversion option and automatic file type detection, meaning that ReaConverter Pro recognizes a GIF file with a .BMP extension as a GIF file, not a bitmap image.

ReaConverter 4.0 can also be used to create thumbnail images as well as compress them (JPEG and LZW compression options) without compromising picture quality. Despite a number of features, the program is quite simple and very well organized, with a newly redesigned intuitive and ergonomic interface.

ReaConverter 4.0 is available for free download and evaluation at http://www.reaconverter.com./ The price of registering the program is 49.95 US Dollars. ReaConverter Professional 4.0 is available for 99 US Dollars.
If you have any questions, would like to request editor's copy, want to inquire about special prices for volume buyers/software resellers, have a business proposal or interested in publishing/distributing ReaConverter, please contact ReaSoft at info@reasoft.comSystem

Requirements: Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP, 16Mb RAM, Pentium 90Mhz processor.
Company Website: http://www.reasoft.com/
Address: 102-15 62 Avenue 2 floor, Forest Hills, NY 11375, USAFax: +1 (917) 6463650754

Adobe To Release Camera Raw 3.7

Adobe has announced the release of Camera Raw 3.7, an update to their popular RAW processor to coincide with the launch of Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 on Fedruary 19th. Camera Raw, the Photoshop CS2 plug-in for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems will include cross-application compatibility between Photoshop CS2 and the new Photoshop Lightroom 1.0. New cameras supported include the recent Pentax K10D and Nikon D40.
Image provided by Adobe.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Nikon Announces COOLPIX Service Advisory

Nikon announced today that a limited number of COOLPIX model digital point-and-shoot cameras may experience performance and operability failures. COOLPIX 3100, 3500, 4500, 5000, 5400, 5700 and SQ models may have problems including images with strong color tint, totally black images, and/or images with visible defects. Nikon has pledged to service the camera free of charge if it can be confirmed that the problem is associated with the Service Advisory. Click here to access the Nikon Service Advisory site that includes additional information and instructions to resolve any issues associated with the advisory.
Image provided by Nikon.