Polycolor, a professional photo lab in Essen, Germany has developed a unique
CRT based digital enlarger, the Variochromat. This machine is capable of exposing
onto all photographic materials, including traditional fiber-based paper for
black and white prints.
The Variochromat is based on a high resolution cathode ray tube (CRT) which
has a resolution of over 30 mega pixels with an 8-bit grayscale. The Variochromat
software is said to provide optimal tonal reproduction of grayscale digital
images, creating a profile for each size and material. Before actual production
starts, a stepwedge is processed and measured to guarantee consistent reproduction
of tonal values.
Alien Skin Software has released Macintosh Universal updates for all their
Photoshop plug-ins: Snap Art, BlowUp, Exposure, Eye Candy 5: Textures, Eye Candy
5: Nature, Eye Candy 5: Impact, Xenofex 2, Image Doctor, and Splat!. These updates
are compatible with the upcoming Photoshop CS3 release from Adobe Systems, Inc.
Alien Skin's Universal plug-ins provide a significant performance increase
on Intel-based Macintosh computers.
Jobo AG announces today the immediate availability of a firmware update to
its award-winning GIGA Vu PRO evolution digital image storage and viewing device.
This firmware 2.0.4 update includes the new JD Loupe, Incremental Back-up and
increased RAW Format compatibility and is available for free download at http://www.jobo.com/jobo_service/digital/index.html.
In addition, all GIGA Vu PRO evolution units shipped from now on will feature
this latest firmware.
The new JD Loupe (the brain child of National Geographic photographer and loyal
GIGA Vu PRO evolution user Jay Dickman) provides users of this mobile image
storage device with a button in the unit's zoom menu that causes a magnified
rectangular loupe to appear on the LCD screen so photographers can closely examine
important details of their pictures.
In addition there is a new easy-to-use one-touch-software-update called Incremental
Back-up (the brain child of wildlife photographer and loyal GIGA Vu PRO evolution
user Andy Rouse). This update allows users who transfer the data stored on their
GIGA Vu PRO evolution via Incremental Back-up to an external storage device
such as the Jobo GIGA one, to automatically synchronize the data on both devices
with just one touch. The new data will be added to the external device without
deleting any already existing data on the device.
With this new update, the GIGA Vu PRO evolution now features RAW compatibility
with even more camera models from manufacturers including Canon, Casio, Contax,
Fuji, Hasselblad, Kodak, Konica Minolta, Leica (the GIGA Vu PRO evolution can
decode the Leica M8 RAW), Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, Samsung, Sigma,
and Sony. And Jobo continues to test more camera models for compatibility on
a regular basis at the request of their customers. A full list of currently
compatible camera models is available on the Jobo AG Web site (www.jobo.com).
Visatec is now offering two affordable lighting kits in a car bag package.
The complete sets are fit into one convenient bag measuring about 21 x 9.4 x
10 inches. The kits hold two Solo 400 B or two Solo 800 B units plus two umbrella
reflectors, one white umbrella, one silver umbrella and 16.4 ft sync cable.
In each set the flash power can be variable over a three stop range.
Both fiber-based and RC photographic prints have been around for many years, and the materials and processes to mount and frame them are well understood.
Have you always been intrigued by panoramic photography but couldn’t bring yourself to pony up for a dedicated panorama camera? Well, today you don’t have to.
In digital photography, exposure control is sometimes considered irrelevant. “You can easily fix any problems in your computer,” some friends will suggest.