Thom Hogan has a prescient blog entry dated from December where he mulls the future of the digital camera industry. So far, one month later, his predictions seem remarkably on the mark: http://www.bythom.com/2006predictions.htm
This link is making the blog rounds: http://www.scannerphotography.com/
Fascinating experiments with a large format camera and a Canon LIDE scanner grafted onto each other. The relatively slow movement of the inexpensive scanner (110 second scans) produces wonderful temporal and motion distortion. His site has gotten hammered because of its popularity, so visit one of the links given on his page.
When it rains, it pours.... Konica-Minolta has just announced its withdrawal from the camera and photography business -- including digital photography. They are transferring most of their camera assets (including their digital Maxxum SLR series) to Sony. It's not surprising given that they lost JPY7,300 million on revenue of JPY117,000 million in FY2005 in their camera business.
Cameras: In camera business, we have reached an agreement with Sony Corporation(Sony), having numerous image sensor technologies such as CCD and CMOS, to jointly develop digital SLR cameras in July 2005. In order to continue to have our customers use Maxxum/Dynax lenses, and to maximize possibilities of the optical, mechanical and electronics technologies accumulated through development of SLR cameras in the years to come, we came to the conclusion that it was best to transfer assets concerning camera business to Sony. Since then, we have been negotiating with Sony, and as a result, we have reached an agreement with Sony to transfer a portion of assets regarding digital SLR camera system to Sony*1. In this relation, we have decided to withdraw from camera business*2, such as film cameras and digital cameras, within Konica Minolta Group as of March 31, 2006.Sony is planning to develop digital SLR cameras compatible with Maxxum/Dynax lens mount system, so that the current Maxxum/Dynax users will be able to continue to use them with Sony’s digital SLR cameras. In addition, we will consign camera service operations for Konica Minolta, Konica,Minolta brand cameras and related equipment to Sony.
Photography: In today’s shrinking photographic market represented by color film and color paper, we have been considering to scale back and to continue photo business at an appropriate size; however, when we foresee the photographic market, it is quite difficult to maintain profitability in this field, and we have decided to withdraw from photo business. As schemed below, we will, as much as possible, avoid causing any inconvenience in providing products to our worldwide customers in the course of withdrawal.
Konica was Japan's oldest camera and photographic supply company. Minolta was one of the stars of the postwar camera boom. It will be sad to see both leave the market.
In other news, Pentax is merging with Samsung.
It looks like Fuji isn't the only one who is optimistic about the future of film. Carl Zeiss released a very upbeat article about this topic:
... And so does "Hollywood". Carl Zeiss, as a leading supplier of lenses for the motion picture industry, can see day-in day-out, that the vast majority of feature films is still originated on silver halide film. Film is the medium of choice for long-term archiving, and is expected to remain so for the foreseeable future. This is why we are so confident about the future of film.
and Zeiss has backed up their words with action, recently announcing a new series of manual focus lenses for the Nikon mount -- just as Nikon announces they are getting out of the film camera business. Of course there's nothing that says you can't put these lenses on Nikon digital SLRs:
Carl Zeiss AG of Oberkochen, Germany is about to introduce ZF, a new range of interchangeable lenses for Nikon SLR cameras, both analog and digital. ZF lenses bring the highly acclaimed Carl Zeiss image quality to the Nikon SLR camera system, which has been the preferred equipment of millions of professional and ambitious amateur photographers for decades. ZF lenses can also be used on the Sinar m professional digital camera and a multitude of industrial video cameras.The first ZF lens will be the Planar T* 1,4/50 ZF, which, in its Contax RTS version, was rated the world's best fast standard lens by "Popular Photography" in 1999. It will be followed by the Planar T* 1,4/85 ZF, which in its Contax RTS version became known as a great portrait lens and story-teller.
Photoscala is starting a rumour about the Canon EOS 30D, the successor to the wildly popular 20D:
Fuji Film UK announces a film-only professional photography competition:
Jeanette Beattie, Marketing Manager for Fujifilm Professional Film Products explained the reasons behind the move to film only submissions: "Fujifilm Professional is dedicated to the continued production and promotion of professional film and the Distinctions Awards now reflects this commitment. All initiatives and promotions run by the Professional division must promote Fujifilm professional film products and users of these products."
Meanwhile, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle News announces that Kodak has a ..... new logo?
The new mark, based on a customized typeface, is designed to give the company a contemporary look but be flexible enough to apply in new ways and new venues across Kodak's varied businesses --everything from tiny handheld digital cameras to computer software to the letters on Kodak buildings around the world.
Notice the absence of any mention of film?....
Subject: [AnthropologyDisabilityResearch] Ed Roberts Postdoctoral Fellowship in Disability Studies, CALL FOR APPLICATIONS -- Due: February 15. 2006
To: Recipient list suppressed
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE
Ed Roberts Postdoctoral Fellowship in Disability Studies
University of California, Berkeley
Institute of Urban and Regional Development
316 Wurster Hall #1870
University of California
Berkeley CA 94720-1870
Fax: 510-643-9576
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS -- Due: February 15. 2006
Professors Susan Schweik and Fred Collignon (Co-Directors)
Fellowship Period: September 2006- May 2007
We are pleased to announce open applications for our postdoctoral program funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (H133P020009). The goal of this program is to train postdoctoral and professional scholars, in any discipline, to be leaders in disability studies and rehabilitation research and mentorship. Based at the University of California, Berkeley, a San Francisco Bay Area Consortium of universities, research institutes, and disability agencies will recruit people with advanced professional degrees who want to broaden their theoretical outlook and their disability research methodological skills.
Rob Galbraith breaks a news release from Nikon stating that they are stopping production of most of their film camera sales:
Nikon U.K. has published a press release announcing that Nikon Corporation (Japan) has decided to cease manufacturing most 35mm film SLR bodies, all large-format lenses and enlarging lenses, most manual focus 35mm lenses, and related accessories. more
In more positive news, the web is buzzing about Adobe's new Lightroom. I've downloaded it and it seems like it fixes the most serious of my peeves about Apple's Aperture -- namely the use of a proprietary database into which all images had to be copied. Lightroom is happy to leave your files where you want them. Michael Reichmann has a good review of both Aperture and Lightroom on his website.
It's official: I have severe jet-lag. I woke up at 1:30 am and haven't been able to get back to sleep.... I've never had it this bad before, I wonder what's up with that. Maybe because I returned in the dead of winter, and there isn't enough sunlight to kick my melatonin cycle back into gear.
In any case, in my insomniac wanderings, I came across this article on the BBC website (of all places), titled: From Asperger geek to Aspie Chic - definitely a must-read and check out the links on the bottom of it too.
