Photography

If there's any doubt about the accelerating shift from traditional SLRs to more compact interchangeable-lens cameras, let the newly released Mac OS X 10.7.3 update put them to rest.

Of the eleven cameras whose raw image formats Lion now supports, six of them are compact mirrorless models. They are the Nikon 1 J1 and V1, the Olympus Pen E-PL1s, E-PM1, and E-PM1; and the Sony Alpha NEX-5N. All these models forsake SLR's flip-up mirror and optical viewfinder, enabling a more compact design.

Raw photo formats, available on SLRs and high-end compact cameras, leave the processing to … Read more

Adobe Systems has published a glimpse of the forthcoming Photoshop CS6, an update that brings the dark workspace and raw-image editing tools from the new beta of its sister program, Lightroom 4.

Bryan O'Neil Hughes, an Adobe senior product manager, showed off a bit of the new software in a YouTube video published yesterday. Photoshop CS6 is set to debut along with the sixth version of Adobe's Creative Suite in the first half of 2012.

Darker photo backgrounds are all the rage for photo software since they make photos stand out nicely; the darker interface used in Lightroom … Read more

Google has released Google Earth 6.2 to smooth over earlier versions' unsightly patchwork caused by stitching together widely varying satellite photographs.

The result is a more realistic and less distracting (though still optimistically cloudless) view of the planet. Update: It turns out that by turning on the weather layer, you can dispel Google Earth's sunny optimism and see if it's really cloudy by showing live weather data.

Google Earth offers a terrific interactive view of the planet, complete with 3D buildings in some parts of the world. But I have to say, though, that I was more … Read more

Yahoo has changed its Flickr Pro premium service into a subscription plan, a modest but reasonable change that I hope presages bigger adjustments to compete better against new photo-sharing rivals.

Flickr, a fixture in online photography, has lost luster as alternatives such as Facebook, Google+, Instagram, and 500px have advanced the state of the art and attracted millions of users. Flickr is shucking old baggage as part of a promise of new vitality in 2012, though. And although the new Flickr Pro pricing scheme is hardly a dramatic new course, at least it shows somebody's at the tiller.

With … Read more

With the latest smart phones and cameras, I'm constantly taking photos, everywhere I go! Having all of these photos at my fingertips is great, but I'm the worst at organizing these thousands of photos, which makes it even worse to share with friends and family. The thought of going through thousands of photos and trying to figure out which photos to edit, resize and share, all seem like a nightmare. Then I discovered pcPhotos. I haven't had much time to play around with it just yet, but I'm intrigued and at 92 percent off, I'm … Read more

Tamron and Kenko Tokina, two third-party lens manufacturers, have thrown their weight behind the Micro Four Thirds alliance, helping Olympus and Panasonic during a major shift in the camera industry.

Olympus and Panasonic were the early entrants to a new class of interchangeable-lens cameras much more compact than traditional SLRs. They're both members of the Micro Four Thirds partnership that governs image sensors and lenses, meaning that Micro Four Thirds lenses can be used on either company's camera bodies.

The new membership, like that of third-party lensmaker Sigma before, means photographers can expect more variety for Micro Four … Read more

Photographer Stephen Oachs didn't go to Kenya to take product photos, but he might have gotten a doozy anyway--shots of an unreleased but highly anticipated Canon SLR.

It's not clear what exactly Oachs found, but he posted photos of the apparent Canon SLR on his blog for those who want to take a guess. The usual caveats about prototypes and other uncertainties apply, of course, but it's definitely possible that he stumbled across a prototype of the Canon 5D Mark III.

The design looks in many ways similar to a Canon 7D, a 2009-era SLR released after … Read more

Olympus looks set to debut a new compact, high-end camera model whose OM-D name capitalizes on the company's old camera brand.

Olympus teased about an "OMG" camera in recent ads, emphasizing the O and M letters, 43 Rumors reported. And it more recently trademarked OM-D, the site said, adding a February 8 launch, a $1,100 price tag, and a March date for worldwide shipping.

In the film days, Olympus' OM line was one of the majors in the SLR (single-lens reflex) world--indeed, I learned photography with my first camera, an OM-10 I used for many years. … Read more

Mamiya Digital Imaging and Leaf Imaging, two Phase One-controlled brands in the medium-format photography market, have become one.

With the new Mamiya Leaf brand, the two camera specialists will join product development and support activities, the companies said today.

Medium-format photography has been reshaped dramatically through the transition from film to digital. Using larger frames of film let photographers capture higher-quality imagery, but correspondingly large image sensors come at a much higher price.

Medium-format cameras traditionally came with removable camera backs, and Copenhagen-based Phase One and Tel Aviv-based Leaf make digital versions that would attach to camera bodies. Tokyo-based Mamiya … Read more