DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY NEWS

by Ron Risman

More Video Highlights From PhotoPlus Expo 2008

In Part 1 of this article I included 6 video clips from PhotoPlus Expo. In Part 2 included here I have included an additional 6 video clips. I hope you enjoy them! After watching any or all of these clips I would love your feedback. Please feel free to send your comments to me.

• Everything You Wanted To Know About the DROBO
• X-Rite Color Munki Demonstration - Calibrate Your Monitor and Printer
• Sony Alpha DSLR-A900 - 24 Megapixel Digital SLR
• Think Tank Photo's New Shape Shifter Backpack
• Metz 15MS-1 digital macro ring flash overview
• Olympus Micro Four-Thirds Prototype

Everything You Wanted to Know About the DROBO Storage System

The DROBO has become a very popular storage system for photographers. Unlike any other drive storage system or raid system, the DROBO allows you to slide in any size 3.5" eSATA drive and the system will automatically create redundancy on all drives. What this means is that if a drive fails you can pull the drive out and replace it - without downtime or data loss. Users can install 2 to 4 drives of any size, mix and match, or pull out the smallest drive when its time to add more storage capacity and DROBO takes care of all the setup. Truly Plug and play!

• Shop for an original DROBO
  
• Shop for the new FireWire 800 DROBO

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X-Rite Color Munki Demonstration - Calibrate Your Monitor and Printer

X-Rite announced the ColorMunki about six weeks ago, just ahead of the Photokina trade show in Germany. The ColorMunki is a puck-sized all-in-one spectrophotometer that will calibrate virtually any LCD, CRT, and Projector as well as create profiles for your printer. The software allows for RGB and CMYK printer profiling. Simply scan one test chart of only 50 patches and ColorMunki calculates an interim profile having learned how your printer behaves with these colors. It then produces a second chart of 50 patches that perfects your profile once you scan it using ColorMunki.

• Get additional information on ColorMunki
  
• Buy the ColorMunki

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Sony Alpha DSLR-A900 - 24 Megapixel Digital SLR

Sony provided us a brief overview of their new 24.6-megapixel Sony Alpha DSLR-A900 along with two new lenses, the 70-400mm G Lens ($1499) and the new Carl Zeiss 16-35mm lens ($1799). Both lenses will ship in January 2009.

• Check Prices on the Sony Alpha DSLR-A900

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Think Tank Photo's New Shape Shifter Backpack

The new Shape Shifter backpack from Think Tank Photo was designed for the photographer on the go. It's the first and only backpack on the market that holds all your gear (2 pro bodies, 2 or 3 lenses, and an external flash unit) when traveling, but will compress to a thin 3-4" thin when your gear is out of the bag. The design of this bag was based on photojournalists who need a backpack to carry their gear to a specific location, but once there they typically put the camera / lens around their neck and additional lenses on a belt system. By compressing down to 3-4", the backpack can now be worn and still allow you to comfortably fit in a crowd or in other tight spaces.

• Additional Product Information

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Metz 15MS-1 digital macro ring flash overview

Bogen-Imaging Product Manager, David Fisher, provides an overview of the world's first wireless macro ring flash from Metz. The mecablitz 15 MS-1 digital is a completely redesigned, wireless Metz macro-flash, equipped with two individually-controllable, swivelling reflectors integrated in the housing. The new ring-form macro-flash thus ensures balanced and precise lighting and also maximises the scope for customising light arrays in the macro area. The remote TTL flash operation of the mecablitz 15 MS-1 digital can be used for digital cameras of the following makes: Canon, Nikon, Olympus/Panasonic, Pentax/Samsung and Sony-Alpha. In this case, the camera must either have an integrated flash unit acting as master, or be equipped with add-on flash (e.g. Metz 58 AF-1 digital).

• Get More Information on the Metz 15 MS-1

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Quick Glimpse (Under Glass) of the Olympus Micro Four-Thirds Digital Camera Prototype

The Micro Four-Thirds system was officially launched at Photokina in Germany in mid September. At launch, Panasonic showed the world's first Micro Four-Thirds camera, dubbed the LUMIX DMC-G1. What makes the Micro Four-Thirds system different from digital SLR's is that by removing the reflex shutter and pentaprism, the cameras can be reduced in size, almost to the size of a standard point & shoot - while retaining access to interchangeable lenses. Because this new format does away with the mirror they are not true SLR's, which is why both Olympus and Panasonic are calling these "interchangeable lens camera's." In this video we give you a quick 30 second glimpse of the Olympus Micro Four-Thirds prototype that should ship sometime early next year - most likely altered a bit from this early prototype.

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