hdr

SAN FRANCISCO-- Panasonic showed technology on Monday that could shift the digital photography trend of high-dynamic range photos off the computer and directly into a camera image sensor.

And it works through a variation of a familiar photographic technique called exposure bracketing. For years, photographers challenged by tough lighting conditions have taken multiple pictures of the same scene at different brightness levels--bracketing--to help ensure one photo has a good balance shadow and highlight details.

More recently, with the advent of computers, these bracketed exposures can be combined into a single high-dynamic range (HDR) image that captures both bright and dark … Read more

Good news for photo enthusiasts who wish they could they could use Photoshop Lightroom for high dynamic range photography and panorama stitching: support is on Adobe Systems' radar screen, if not necessarily its roadmap.

That's the word from Kevin Connor, Adobe's senior director of professional digital imaging product management and the executive who oversees Lightroom, Photoshop, and the Digital Negative (DNG) format. I spoke with him Wednesday during the Macworld trade show here in San Francisco.

Connor is intimately familiar with these two fast-changing domains in digital photography. High dynamic range (HDR) photography combines multiple exposures of a … Read more

It seems like Sony's saved the zing in its camcorder announcements for its AVCHD products, which generally offer significant enhancements over last year's. For one, all the models (like their DVD equivalents) finally support true 1,920x1,080 recording, albeit at the same bit rates as the previous 1,440x1,080 capture. They also mark the addition of Memory Stick Duo support for video--a feature of lesser importance for the hard-disk models than others--which Sony dubs "Hybrid" recording.

The two top-of-the-line models, the SR11 and SR12, both incorporate Sony's highest-resolution 1/3.15-inch 5-megapixel ClearVid … Read more

Don't look for any great leaps in consumer HDV technology from Sony, at least during the first quarter of 2008. The company's lone new HDV product, the Handycam HDR-HC9, replaces two older models, the HDR-HC5 and HDR-HC7, with nothing but a few nice-to-have manual settings.

The HC9 adds spot metering and focus, color bars, a center marker, peaking display, and infinity focus in manual focus mode; that's it. Otherwise it's pretty much the same as the HC7--the same 10x zoom lens and 3.2-megapixel ClearVid CMOS--and will cost the same $1,099 when it ships in … Read more

As carmakers continue to integrate HD Radio into their models at the factory level, an increasing number of car-stereo makers including JVC, Sony, Dual, and Alpine have brought out HD-compatible aftermarket products over the past few months. Check out our roundup of the latest options for getting HD Radio while on the road.

Alpine's CDA-9885 joins Sony's CDX-520 and JVC's KD-HDR1 in the category of HD Radio-compatible car stereos. The in-dash system combines attractive styling and a easy-to-use music search interface with great-sounding output and a host of expandability options, but those upgrading to HD Radio will have to deal with a clunky module and a hefty price tag.

Click on the image to read our full review.

Following the release of HD Radio-compatible products from Sony and Dual this week, JVC today released details of what it calls the industry's first plug-and-play HD Radio receiver. The KT-HDP1 is an transportable AM/FM/HD Radio multicast tuner that can be used as portable device or can be permanently installed in a car. The KT-HDP1 is the second HD Radio-capable device from JVC, following its in-dash KDR-HD1 car stereo that we saw earlier this year. The portable tuner is on its way to Best Buy stores now, where it will be on sale for around $130 excluding installation … Read more

In a Guardian column earlier this year, Andrew Brown lamented the hard times that have befallen professional photographers. What caused the "death of an honorable profession," he argues, is an army of mostly mediocre shooters posting millions of shots at Flickr and selling to advertising agencies via "microstock" sites. Few make a living at the latter, but their gravy is "bread taken from the mouths of professionals," Brown said.

I think he has a point. But I think he misses another, less gloom-and-doom aspect of the digital photography revolution: the innumerable amateurs who are … Read more