Digital Shutters

Phelicitations, Phanfare phans! Your phantastic photo sharing service may now be accessed anywhere on the earth without installing its local client software.

Phanfare’s CEO Andrew Erlichson said “our customers can now upload photos and videos and manage their albums anywhere there’s an Internet-connected computer.” No more embarrassing requests to install software on somebody else’s computer when you’re out there traveling.

MyPhanfare is a paid photo and video storage service. You can have it for a $7/month, $55/year or $300 lifetime subscription fee. Why don’t I just go with free Flickr or YouTube then?

Because you get what you pay for: full service and no ads, unlimited storage, blazing uploads, customer support. Now, isn’t that phascinating? (chrismalinao)

[Via: CameraTown.com]

[Site: phanfare.com]

Southern Illinois University photojournalism student Max Bittle has won Nikon’s $10,000 prize money in this year’s Barnstorm: Eddie Adams Workshop. His winning work included these photographs of a fireman and baseball players:

Bittle bested 99 other students in the workshop which is now in its 19th year. The workshop brings together 100 select students of photography to be mentored by big name photojournalists from such institutions as Time, National Geographic, Parade, The New York Times, People, Sports Illustrated, Reuters, Miami Herald, Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post and others.

During the four-day workshop the students were exposed to various aspects of photography including photojournalism, fine art photography, studio portraiture, underwater work, long-term projects, and conflict photography. The highlight of the workshop was the “11:30 Club� during which students participated in one-on-one meetings with editors to discuss and evaluate their photos. They were asked to submit a portfolio of their own photographs to be judged by a panel of experts.

Bittle’s $10,000 prize will be spent to further his education in the art of photography. The other winners were Debra Gulbas who got a one-week internship at the White House and Sonya Hebert who won a 12-week internship at the Dallas Morning News.

Nikon USA is a leading sponsor of the annual Barnstorm: Eddie Adams Workshop. (chrismalinao)

[Visit: Eddie Adams Workshop]

The kidnappers of Kash Gabriele Torsello have informed the Italian government that they want Afghan citizen Abdul Rahman in exchange for the release of the Italian photojournalist.

Abdul Rahman is an Afghani who converted to Christianity and fled to Italy where he was granted asylum. Conversion to Christianity is an offense punishable by death in Afghanistan.

The kidnappers gave the Italian government up to October 24, the end of the fasting-month of Ramadhan, to hand over Rahman. (chrismalinao)

[See: story below]
[Via: PDNonline]

Okay, just for fun. How would you like this lamp in your studio? It comes from a very serious designer named Hironao Tsuboi over at 100per.com whose work with glasses and lamps is no laughing matter.

But we have to admit, we can’t help but laugh at the hilarity of it all. (chrismalinao)

[See: www.100per.com]
[Via: Gizmodo]

While we’re still trying to figure out how to use that mouse-mate of a controller from Logitech, here comes another pointing device from Samsung of Korea.

An 8mm super-slim mouse was spotted today at Samsung’s booth at the on-going Korea Electronic Show in Seoul. Eight millimeters? Why, that’s just this thin and tiny, how am I gonna hold that?

Well, I don’t know. But it sure looks pretty. It’s got an LED too that emits a soft glow of electric blue, maybe to help you see its tiny form when you’re computing in the dark.

Despite its Lilliputian dimensions, this tiny critter manages to sport five buttons for various purposes that you can program, and packs in a thin retractable cord with a USB head.

Strangely, its scroll wheel moves left-to-right instead of up-and-down. If you can figure that out, this one’s for you.

The KES 2006 runs from October 17-20 in Seoul, Korea. (chrismalinao)

[Via: Gizmodo]

A USB flash drive with 16GB capacity? Yes, and it has security features too.

The JetFlash USB flash drive from Japan’s Transcend is targeted for business customers who need to carry massive amounts of data. Aside from its big capacity, this USB stick offers security and protection with its advanced features like Secure Zip and PC-Lock functions.

The Secure Zip function locks down the contents of the JetFlash so unauthorized users can’t get to it, while the PC-Lock function allows you to use it as a hardware lock to your computer - without the USB stick the PC will not boot up.

And there are other quite useful features too: Automatic Login to access websites that require your username and password, Data Back-up for automatic archiving of your files, and the Email function which lets you retrieve and store your emails into the JetFlash.

But it’s not out there yet. Transcend still has to make up its mind about its price tag. Maybe they’re waiting for Kingston to come out first with the price for its Data Traveler Privacy Edition USB stick? (chrismalinao)

[Translate and read: Transcend Japan]

Italian photojournalist Kash Gabriele Torsello has been abducted by unidentified gunmen in Afghanistan. He was last seen Thursday traveling by bus between the provinces of Helmand and Khandahar, a region considered dangerous by NATO security forces. Torsello was seized together with his translator Gholam Mohammad, who was released later.

The gunmen identified themselves with the Taliban, but the Taliban strongly denied it, saying they have nothing do with criminal kidnappers. No ransom demand has been received, nor any word from the abductors.

The London-based Torsello is a convert to Islam and has been documenting life in Afghanistan through his photography, recording the daily life in a country torn between the fundamentalist Taliban and the Western-backed government in Kabul. (chrismalinao)

[Photo courtesy of Torsello’s own website]

[Via: AdelaideNow]

Canon is offering photographers mail-in rebates for selected EOS products and even offers double rebates to “help expand a growing EOS system�.

For example, if you buy a Canon EOS 5D now you’ll get back $300 dollars. Buy a 30D, you get back $100. It applies to some Canon lenses and binoculars too.

“The Cash in With Canon Rebate Program gives users of all levels the chance to build or expand an EOS system of fine photographic gear that will give users professional level results for years to come,” Canon said. (In plainspeak, “Buy more from us please, the competition scares us.â€?)

Hey, this is good news for us buyers. It’s actually the beginning of a price war; Canon is lowering their prices (Yehey!) Now we can afford that expensive DSLR.

The mail-in rebate program runs this fall. It applies to Canon purchases made at an authorized Canon USA dealer from October 15, 2006 through January 13, 2007.

See CanonUSA.com for a list of eligible products. (chrismalinao)

Two-handed computing is upon us with this newfangled navigator from mouse-maker Logitech. It’s not another mouse, it’s a secondary controller; you use it together with your mouse.

The Logitech NuLooq navigator allows you to zoom, change brush sizes and do much more in Photoshop CS2, InDesign, even in Microsoft Excel and Word. You hold it stationary in one hand while the other holds your mouse (or tablet pen).

Here are a few things you can do with it: adjust brush size in one pixel increments in Adobe Photoshop CS2 without ever moving a slider or clicking on a shortcut key, fine-tune font attributes such as leading, tracking and more in Adobe InDesign CS2 without using the option bar, scroll and zoom your documents, spreadsheets, digital pictures or more with the smallest movement of the gray ring, change volume or music tracks in iTunes quickly while it runs in the background, and many more because the Nulooq navigator is user configurable for virtually any application.

OK, this sounds fun. How much is it? $80 available now from Logitech. (chrismalinao)

The folks over at Imaging Resource have reviewed the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-N2 and came up with an approving verdict.

What’s to like with this little critter? A lot: 10 megapixels, 3-inch LCD, responsive shutter, good color accuracy, low-light shooting capabilities, very fast multi-burst mode and a few more.

One notable feature of the N2 – which it inherited from its predecessor the N1 – is its large 3-inch LCD touch screen, greatly simplifying the interface and keeping the camera body nice and clean.

The screen, because of its ample size, also functions as a very usable photo display, some kind of a photo wallet where stored photos of just the right resolution are always ready to be displayed.

And of course, it takes good pictures too. With its Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar zoom lens, which offers a 3x optical zoom, and a 1/1.7″ CCD image sensor the N2 took photos that few can complain about.

It also offers a very usable manual exposure mode where you can manually adjust the shutter speed and lens aperture.

A few quibbles: slow continuous shooting speeds, image noise high at ISO 400 and up, high chromatic aberration lens distortion, noticeable in some images at the edges, and some others but overall, the N2 is a good camera for its price ($420 street). (chrismalinao)
[Via: ImagingResource.com]