photography

COLOGNE, Germany -- Leica may not have the mass-manufacturing clout of Samsung or the retail footprint of Canon or the electronics know-how of Sony. But the German camera maker has got one thing in spades: a brand.

And nowhere is that brand more obvious than at Photokina, the camera show that takes place every two years here in Germany, Leica's home turf. Canon and Nikon had bigger crowds, but the Leica had the better ratio of booth visitors to customers as it introduced a new top-end rangefinder camera with new electronic abilities, a lower-end rangefinder that's not quite … Read more

The Autographer is an upcoming wearable ultracompact that aims to enable users to "see the unseen" by automatically capturing images based on its five built-in sensors. These sensors -- color sensor, accelerometer, magnetometer, infrared motion detector, and thermometer -- work together to tell the camera when to capture an image.

A GPS module works in tandem with the cam, tagging location information to every image captured.

"The user can live the experience while Autographer spontaneously captures the stories that unfold," says maker OMG (Oxford Metric Group). "This is not just a new camera but a whole new photographic approach." … Read more

ACDSee and its publisher, ACD Systems, have been on the scene for several years now, so it's not surprising to see how polished their flagship product is at this point. Getting started with the software is simple, yet the extensive feature set--particularly in regard to management of a large photo catalog--should provide users plenty of opportunities for learning how to master the application. With ACDSee 15, every step of the photo process--importing photos from cameras or other devices; cataloging photos in your library, applying corrections or creative edits to photos; viewing photo slideshows; publishing, printing, and sharing photos--is mostly … Read more

I came across this tutorial last week that showed how you can turn an ordinary phone camera into something capable of capturing extreme close-up macro photos. You know, the ones where you can see the hairs on a fly's head.

After the dust settled on the iOS 6 release, over the weekend I dug through the junk drawer in my kitchen and found an old laser pointer. I then located a bobby pin in the bathroom and some painter's tape in the basement. I now had the three necessary ingredients and the time to see if this thing … Read more

COLOGNE, Germany--We met up with the folks from Rudiger Maerz GmbH here at Photokina 2012 to find out more about the special dSLR customization service they recently started offering to consumers.

Using the same airbrush technique employed by the automotive industry, the company completely disassembles your camera and coats each part individually. Inscriptions and buttons, however, are usually left intact, so you still know your way around when adjusting camera settings.

Beyond cosmetic enhancements, the biggest draw of the dSLR customization service has got to be the ability to choose between different lens mounts. You can even opt to remove your dSLR's entire shutter mechanism. … Read more

When it comes to freebie photo software, savvy users typically look to favorites like GIMP and Paint.net.

Those are great tools, no doubt about it, but why not score a commercial product if you can? Especially if you have the chance to get it for free?

For a limited time (the site says 98 days are left, but I suspect that's a mistake), Download Crew has CyberLink PhotoDirector 2011 (Win) free of charge. This program has a list price of $99.95.

PhotoDirector 2011 comes from the company behind PowerDirector, a top-rated video-editing tool. It's an all-in-one … Read more

COLOGNE, Germany -- Every 99 years or so, a company has to shake things up a little bit.

Thus it is that Schneider Kreuznach, a high-end lens brand founded in 1913 that's been focused on cinema, medium-format, and large-format markets, unveiled four lenses for more ordinary 35mm SLRs, three for Micro Four Thirds cameras, and even a polarizing filter for iPhones. The lensmaker, part of the Jos. Schneider Optische Werke, unveiled the lenses at the Photokina show here.

Its earlier lenses for conventional SLRs were the company's relatively exotic Super Angulon line, tilt-shift models that can enable perspective … Read more

COLOGNE, Germany -- There's room for a higher-end flash card format that's faster and more capacious than SD Card, and for years, CompactFlash has occupied that market niche.

But CompactFlash is running out of steam, and finding a successor to CompactFlash just got a lot messier courtesy of a new standard that arrived this week at the Photokina trade show here.

Last year, Nikon and Sony carried the XQD format to market as the would-be CompactFlash successor, with Nikon's flagship D4 camera accepting the cards and Sony making the cards. But Canon and professional camera maker Phase … Read more

Good news for all you Nikon D800 owners who have a third-generation iPad or are about to buy an iPhone 5: the new iPhoto 1.1 iOS app now can handle your 36.3-megapixel images.

iPhoto 1.0 for iOS, or version 1.1 on earlier iPhones and iPods, could handle only 19-megapixel images, which ruled out its use on photos from higher-end cameras such as Canon's 5D Mark II and Mark III and Sony's NEX-7.

The support for images up to 36.5 megapixels is one of a slew of features and fixes in the iPhoto 1.1 update … Read more