photography

Fourandsix Technologies, a startup founded by a former Photoshop bigwig and a image-analysis guru, has released its first product, the FourMatch software to detect changes to an image.

The most obvious use for the $890 Photoshop plug-in: ensuring that digital photos used as legal evidence are authentic.

The company lists other possibilities, too, though, such as checking that nobody's fiddled with digital images of insurance claims or contest entries, or ensuring the legitimacy of photos that might be published as the truth.

Company executives have good street cred in the area: the software came from Chief Technology Officer Hany … Read more

COLOGNE, Germany -- Pining for camera with a hand-stitched Italian leather grip and jeweled control dials? You're in luck.

The digital photography revolution exiled Hasselblad's medium-format cameras to an expensive niche inhabited almost solely by professionals. But today, the company announced Lunar, the first camera in an effort that Chief Executive Larry Hansen hopes will bring the storied photography brand back to a wider -- if not mainstream -- market.

Through a partnership with Sony, Hasselblad unveiled its 24-megapixel mirrorless interchangeable-lens model built on the bones and brains of Sony's high-end NEX-7. It's due to ship … Read more

COLOGNE, Germany -- Three words describe the Lexar Professional 400x SDXC UHS-I memory card: big, fast, and expensive.

The company is pitching the $900 card at those who need to shoot lots of 1080p or 3D video, a market noted for its capacity-gobbling files, intolerance for hiccups in data transfer, and deep pockets.

The card can transfer data at a sustained speed of 60MBps, and it will ship in October, the Micron subsidiary said. The company does offer faster cards with a 600x rating, but they top out at 64GB capacities.

As usual, ordinary photographers shouldn't bother getting excited … Read more

COLOGNE, Germany -- Phase One and Mamiya Leaf, the medium-format camera maker it controls, announced its new 645DF+ medium-format camera with new mechanics and improved focusing abilities.

The companies also announced at the Photokina camera show here the new Schneider Kreuznach 28 LS f/4.5 Aspherical, a very wide-angle 28mm leaf-shutter lens built by Schneider Kreuznach for the Mamiya Leaf-Phase One cameras. The camera and the lens are priced the same; each costs $5,990 or 4,290 euros, and each will ship in October.

Compared with the earlier 645DF, all moving parts of the 645DF+ have been completely … Read more

Tamron announced today it's brought vibration compensation to two full-frame lenses, the 70-200mm F/2.8 Di VC USD telephoto and the SP 90mm F/2.8 Di VC USD macro.

Both of the lenses will ship by the end of the year for Canon, Nikon, and Sony cameras, Tamron said just ahead of the Photokina 2012 show, a major camera event held every two years in Germany. The company didn't disclose prices.

Vibration compensation -- known as vibration reduction at Nikon and image stabilization at Canon -- shifts a lens element to counteract camera shake. It can … Read more

Hasselblad, which so far has survived the culling of the medium-format herd, announced a new high-end camera, the H5D.

Members of the H5D series will come in 40-, 50- and 60-megapixel models, and Hasselblad will show them off next week at the Photokina trade show in Cologne, Germany.

As before, it'll also have a 50-megapixel Multi-Shot version that can take 200-megapixel images of stationary subjects using Hasselblad's sensor-shifting multiple exposure technique. The new line will start shipping in December, the company said.

The new model generally resembles Hasselblad's earlier H4D but adds a number of new features, … Read more

Adobe Systems released version 6.0.2 of Premiere Pro CS6 today, bringing support for Apple's high-resolution Retina display and for Microsoft's Windows 8.

On the Mac side of the industry, the update catches Adobe up to its top rival for video editing, Apple's Final Cut Pro X, which has had high-resolution display support since the debut of the new Retina-equipped MacBook Pro laptops in June.

I just installed the update and can confirm it looks much better. Small timecode text is much more readable, thumbnail images are clearer, and most important, video playing in a smaller … Read more

Say goodbye to burned cookies with the f/60 Lens Kitchen Timer. Resembling a typical kit zoom lens, this nifty contraption can keep time for up to 60 minutes.

Operation is easy. Simply twist on the knurled "zoom ring" of the lens and the ring of a bell will alert you when the countdown is complete. The device is fully mechanical and does not require batteries to run. … Read more

Back when I discussed the seven things every photographer should have in his arsenal, I mentioned replacing the neckache-inducing camera strap with one of the many alternatives that can be found online. From necktie-inspired straps to the geeky-but-awesome Spider Holster, superior options are abundant.

Originally made popular by Custom SLR, the gliding camera strap is my favorite of these alternatives. Using the tripod mount as an anchor, the gliding camera strap gives you the comfort of an over-the-shoulder hang with the convenience of grabbing your camera and hitting the shutter button at a moment's notice.

The unexpected genius of … Read more