Live Show Floor Coverage
PhotoPlus EXPO 2005 - Part 2

First Look at Aperture by Apple

On the eve of PhotoPlus Expo 2005, Apple announced a software package named "Aperture", designed exclusively for professional photographers. Aperture is compatible with the Power Mac G5 with a 1.8 GHz or faster PowerPC G5 processor. Apple demonstrated Aperture in its booth using beautiful 30" LCD displays. Apple also had continuous presentations, demonstrating the ease-of-use and capabilities of Aperture.

From watching multiple presentations and demonstrations, it appears that Aperture was not designed (as previously mentioned in Part 1) to compete with Adobe Photoshop, rather it was designed to offer features and simplicity that extend and ease the workflow process for photographers. The software actually has a Photoshop connector for those times when you need the layering power of Photoshop.

The most important function of Aperture is that it makes working with RAW files as simple as it to work with JPEG images. Most Photo software packages allow you to open RAW images into a pre-load window, where you proceed to make adjustments to color, sharpness, distortion, etc., then fully open the file with those settings into your application. At this point the file is no longer in RAW format, so your ability to further work with or make adjustments to the original RAW pixels are gone - unless you want to start over.

Aperture allows you to work with the RAW pixels throughout the entire "session." So all adjustments made can be undone at any time - even after you have moved on to a new project. With Aperture, you can even have multiple instances of the same image in a project, each with different adjustments, without using up additional hard drive space. The RAW file never gets altered, and the changes you make seem to be saved only as an attachment file - which internally are mapped to that particular instance of the image.

Apple has also built into Aperture the ability for anyone to make professional quality books and has included editable templates that make this process incredibly simple. Once the book pages are designed, you then have the option to upload the packaged file to Apple to have them professionally print your book at 300dpi. Alternatively, you can instantly make a 300dpi PDF file that can be sent to a lab or you can print the book pages on your own printer. Aperture also has a great feature that puts a number on top of each thumbnail used in the book so you can easily see if you've duplicated an image by accident.

Epson's New P-4000 Multimedia Photo Viewer / Storage

Epson attracted crowds to their booth using the Epson Stylus 2400 and Stylus 1800, two wide-format photo printers that are favored by professional photographers. Consumers and hobbyists also hovered around the newly announced Photo R220 and R340 Photo Printers, as well as the new RX700 multifunction photo printer, all of which can print directly onto blank (inkjet compatible) CD's and DVD's. The print quality on CD's is indistinguishable from professionally printed CDs as I have attempted to show in the example photo (the photo doesn't really do justice to the actual quality).

Epson also showed their newly announced P-4000 Multimedia Photo Viewer and Storage device. Despite its high $699 price tag, the P-4000 attracted a lot of interest, especially from photographers who felt that the 40GB drive of the previous version (P-2000) just wasn't large enough. Raw files, after all, take up a ton of space. The P-4000 is a paperback-book sized photo/media viewer with a beautiful 3.8" TFT LCD display - similar in quality to the Sony PSP (Playstation Portable), 80GB hard drive, and inter grated compactflash and Secure Digital media slots. As a multimedia device, the P-4000 also supports video and MP3 audio playback.

New Olympus EVOLT E-500

The newly announced Olympus Evolt E-500 is the lightest Digital SLR on the market, yet feels very solid and offers features and resolution that will allow it to compete very favorably in the under $1000 DSLR market. The previous E-300 model, with its non-standard design and only average ratings, did very little to convince consumers that the four-thirds (4/3rd) system was the way to go. The E-500 will definitely make many consumers give it another look.

Olympus and Kodak announced the launch of the four-thirds system back in 2002 as a new common standard for digital cameras. The system was designed to be a new standard for next-generation digital SLR camera systems that ensures interchangeable lens mount compatibility. The major benefit of Four Thirds System is that it will allow the design of dedicated, high-performance digital camera lens systems that are more compact than their 35 mm film SLR camera lens counterparts. The impact of the more compact lens size will be especially marked on telephoto lenses, making it possible to produce a Four Thirds System 300 mm telephoto lens, for example, that offers performance equivalent to a 600 mm lens on a 35 mm film SLR camera.

To spotlight the lens size advantage, Olympus showed a new 18-180mm lens, not due until spring of 2006, at PhotoPlus Expo 2005. This 10x optical zoom is only 3.33" long, yet features a 36-360mm (35mm equivalent) zoom ratio. Small, light, and powerful. When added to the new Olympus EVOLT E-500 Digital SLR, you'll have a top-notch Digital SLR in a very compact package.

Lowel EGO Light Studio

Lowel, a company that manufacturers lights, controls, mounts, and kits for the professional photography market had on display their recently introduces EGO portable light studio. Designed for home users who want great looking results, the Lowel™ EGO™ is as simple to setup as an ordinary lamp. While the results were very respectable, especially when used with the included reflector to help light the opposite side of your object, I can't help but think that the price is about $50 too high. While the U.S. list price is $125.00, you can purchase the Lowel™ EGO™ from retailers like Amazon.com at a price of $99.95

LumiQuest Soft Screen

LumiQuest was showing their complete line of on-flash soft boxes. Lumiquest products attach to external flash units to provide soft and even lighting without the need to carry larger lights or awkward bounce cards.

New this year was the new, inexpensive, LumiQuest soft screen for use with built-in pop-up flash units of many digital cameras. Place the soft screen over the pop-up flash and your images will look evenly lit and very professional. The soft screen will soften harsh shadows, as well as reduce hot spots and glare. It attaches to most popular cameras in seconds.

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LumiQuest Soft Screen- © LumiQuest

Mamiya ZD Medium Format Digital Camera

Mamiya was giving hands-on demonstrations of their soon-to-be-released ZD SLR medium format digital camera. The Mamiya ZD is the first integrated medium format digital camera and features a 22-megapixel CCD image sensor, 14-bit A/D converter, 12-bit images, fairly fast (for medium format) 1.5 frame-per-second capture rate, 1.8-inch LCD preview screen, and full compatibility with all Mamiya 645AF lenses. The expected price of this beautiful camera is $12,500 (U.S.).