It started off a little gimmicky, but Adobe has now released an updated version of its Apple iPad, and smart phone Photoshop Express image-editing and preview application.  Photoshop Express 2.0 is available as a free download from Apple’s App Store for new users and as an update for existing users.  Version 2.0 introduces a much more serious feature in the optional Adobe Camera Pack available via an ‘in-app’ upgrade purchase that adds noise reduction, self-timer and Auto-Review functions.

Adobe are now opening their Lightroom 3.4 and Adobe Camera Raw 6.4 raw processing software to seven additional cameras and ten new lens profiles through its latest ‘Release Candidate’ update. This new release was guided by customer feedback about previous releases and updates. Adobe has labelled it a ‘Release Candidate’ update as it is not yet the finished product. Let’s watch this space…..

A Leica MP2 on the 4th December at the Westlicht gallery in Vienna, sold for an astonishing £339,671.00.

Made in 1958, this Leica was one of only 6 MP2’s ever built, and the most sought after of the brand. It was sold to an Asian collector, and makes it the most expensive Leica ever sold at auction. Along with this, several other cameras broke the £100,000.00 mark, with a Nikon F3 from NASA joining the star lots.

Tokyo, Japan,– Sekonic Corporation today announced the launch of the DigiCineMate L-308DC, the simple and easy-to-use light meter that can be customized to display only specific functions used by today’s DSLR videographers, cinematographers, and still photographers.

“The versatility of today’s cameras is expanding at an amazing rate. Digital SLR cameras are being used to record moving images and digital video cameras used to capture still frames for printing,” Mr. Hiroshi Arai, President of Sekonic Corporation stated in a recent interview. “Sekonic is a recognized leader in light control for the motion picture industry.

We have applied this experience to create the perfect entry-level light meter for this new and growing group of electronic cinematographers,” he added.

The scheduled release is January 2011, with an expected price of £239.99

Three Ways to Meter
Display only the specific functions you need for fast, easy operation.

•HD Cine Mode: Perfect for today’s DSLR videographers. Make exposure readings and control light using shutter speeds and frame rates and get aperture settings with one-tenth stop accuracy.
•Cine Mode: Designed for digital cinematography. Select from the most useful frame rates and shutter angles for exposure control with one-tenth stop accuracy. Lux and foot-candle readout enables quick set up of lights.
•Photo Mode: Full control for traditional still-image photographers. Shutter-priority display of a full range of ambient and flash functions including Cord and Cordless flash measurement as well as ambient EV measurement.
Three Ways to Measure Light

•The Lumisphere provides incident light readings for nearly foolproof exposure readings and enables lighting that scene before the talent arrives.
•The Lumidisc is perfect for lighting green screens, adjusting ratios and taking lux and foot-candle measurements.
•Reflected light readings enable measuring the brightness of subject tones, gray cards, light sources or window light.
Calibration Compensation
Adjust the L-308DC to film or digital camera sensors or matching the L-308DC to other handheld meters.

Custom Setting
Three custom settings tune meter operations and displays to fit your camera and metering requirements.

Illuminance Measurement
Lux (lx) and foot-candle (fc) display is especially useful for cinematography, theatrical and other applications that require precise control of light source brightness. Use custom settings to select lux, foot-candle or no display.

Canon has issued a service notice for the EOS 5D Mark II and EOS 7D that might be beneficial to some of you with these cameras.

It’s now offering a paid-for option to replace the cameras’ mode dial with a redesiged lockable version. It is very similar to the one seen the company’s latest EOS 60D DSLR, with the mode dial featuring a centre button which has to be pressed to allow a change of exposure mode. This option will be available from December 2010.

Read the noitice for the 5D Mark II here.

Read the noitice for the 7D here.

SanDisk, Nikon and Sony have been busy working their magic and jointly developed the specifications for a faster type of CF memory card. The specifications have been submitted to the Compact Flash Association with the aim of them being adopted as a future standard.

The proposal uses the PCI Express interface to offer transfer rates of up to 500MB/s, rather than the 167MB/s limit of the most recent Compact Flash 6.0 standard. The joint effort should give users of DSLR’s enough throughput to cope with future requirements for bursts of RAW images and large quantities of HD footage. The Compact Flash Association has established a working group that will evaluate the proposal by the end of 2010.

For those of you keen on the amount of pixels manufacturers are stuffing into sensors, Canon Inc. have recently announced that they have produced a working prototype of an APS-H (1.25x magnification) CMOS sensor with 120 megapixels. This would produce images at 13,280 x 9,184 pixels, far greater than any current digital SLR.

The new sensor is also able to output 1080P HD video footage, using only a 16th of it’s sensor area, and shoot at 9.5 frames per second. Astonishing figures.

The pixel density would equate to a 202MP Full Frame sensor and around an 80MP APS-C (1.6x crop) sensor.

All we hope for is that Intel processors and our Broadband service catch up!!

Fujifilm has announced that it will be ending production of it’s Sensia slide film, quoting spiralling production cost and lack of demand. I know many of you still dabble with film, for both nostalgic and professional reasons, and we wander how long it will be before the other big names such as Velvia and Provia go the same way…

We’ve been asked by many of you the best way of sending your files to us. It’s a very good question!

It all depends on how many you have and also the turnaround time you want. The processing times we offer don’t include postage times (that would make us miracle makers!), so you have to buget for that when sending us your files by post.

We suggest that if you’re sending us less than 20 RAW files or 100 Jpegs, you can use our simple uploader to get the files to us. It’s safe, secure and easy to use. If however you have more, and many of you do, then the best way is to use a portable hard drive, something like these are ideal. With prices under £50.00 now for drives in excess of 320Gb, there’s more than enough space to fit 1000’s of images.

We package the drives in shockproof packaging and return them to you by Special Delivery so you can benefit from our service the very next day. How’s that for service!