imaging

New Zooomr to permit photo sales--once debugged

The Zooomr photo-sharing site plans major changes, including the ability to let members sell their photos, but the upgrade process has been rocky.

Photo-sharing sites have added features such as tagging, commentary, ranking and printing. But adding the ability to sell photos injects a little profit motive in the business as well. It also puts the site in more direct competition with stock-photo sales sites such as Getty Images subsidiary iStockphoto.

Zooomr will keep 10 percent of revenue from photo sales, the company said on its blog, letting users keep 90 percent. For comparison, iStockphoto keeps 80 percent, unless users … Read more

Getty scoops up Scoopt photo site

Getty Images said Monday it acquired Scoopt, a site that sells amateur photographs to the news media.

"We are now owned and operated by Getty Images, the world's leading creator and distributor of visual content," a note on the site said. "The Scoopt site and our team remain in place, but we now have the scale to better market your content to a global media audience."

The move spotlights the transformation of the traditional photo business with modern photography trends, which permit easy uploading and centralized distribution of digital photos. A year ago, Getty acquired … Read more

Pentax's Primo Lenses

Pentax has been really busy this last year. First they celebrated the legacy of their K-series cameras with the K100 and K110 dSLRs, then they unleashed the powerful K10D, now they have unveiled a new line of high performance lenses called the smc Pentax-DA* series. The line debuts with two lenses: the DA* 16-50mm f/2.8 ED AL[IF]SDM and the DA* 50-135mm f/2.8 ED[IF]SDM. Pentax won't say what the SDM stands for, but the press release does say that the lenses include a supersonic motor. The samples we saw at the PMA … Read more

DxO revamps photo editing tools for Vista

LAS VEGAS--DxO has updated two photography programs, releasing DxO Optics Pro 4.2 with Windows Vista support and adding new options to its FilmPack 1.1.

DxO Optics Pro is a stand-alone application or Adobe Photoshop plug-in that lets users adjust color, correct lens geometry problems, reduce noise. The new version 4.2 is compatible with Windows Vista and adds a feature called SmartVibrancy that increases color vividness without throwing skin tones out of whack. The company announced the moves at the Photo Marketing Association trade show here on Thursday.

The company also is working on a DxO plug-in to … Read more

Photoshelter's $1,000 terabyte

Photoshelter has announced that it will now offer its standard- ($29.99 per month) and professional-level ($49.99 per month) members one terabyte of redundant storage for $1,000 per year. If that's too much storage for you, you can also opt for 500GB for $600 per year. Obviously this won't appeal to snapshooters, but it is among the most affordable Web-based bulk storage options for professional photographers at the moment. Photoshelter's standard members already get 35GB of storage with their monthly membership, while professional members get 100GB. The site also offers a basic membership with 10GB … Read more

Nikon's 10.2-megapixel D40x

Just in case the D40's 6-megapixel sensor was keeping you from making the plunge into the world of digital SLRs, Nikon has just announced the D40x, which sports a 10.2-megapixel sensor. Despite the larger pixel count, Nikon still manages to bump the new camera's continuous shooting speed up to three frames per second for up to 100 shots, compared to the D40's 2.5fps. If you often shoot in very bright conditions, you'll appreciate the D40x's wider range of ISOs, which stretches from ISO 100 to ISO 3200 (Nikon calls it H-1). The D40 … Read more

Adobe CS3 coming this spring

Adobe has learned that it's hard to keep a secret these days. It seems that the announcement date for the third version of Creative Suite (aka CS3) has been leaked.

The company has now officially said that it will announce the details of the product on March 27, at a press event in New York City. The event will be Webcast at 3:30 p.m. EST. Details on the Webcast will be posted on the Adobe Web site later this week.

Adobe doesn't plan to ship the new version of Creative Suite until this spring. Previous versions … Read more

Radio telescope technology reveals hot bodies on Earth

A new imaging system promises to pinpoint the location of a weapon concealed on a person without using a metal detector, a pat-down or the slightest dose of radiation, all thanks to some heavenly technology.

The BIS-WDS Prime combines "millimeter wave sensor" technology, video cameras and algorithm software to detect "objects made of metal, plastic, ceramic and composite hidden beneath a subject's clothing" from up to 45 feet away, according to manufacturer Brijot Imaging Systems. The subject doesn't have to stand still or even know he's being scanned.

The technology, which is used … Read more

New Sony Superzooms

Sony's latest pair of superzooms, called the DSC-H7 and DSC-H9, add longer zoom lenses, higher resolutions, face detection, and a handful of other nifty features, including high-definition output. This last feature has found its way into all the company's new Cyber-shots, as was mentioned in our post about the new W- and T-series cameras.

Both of the new models include 8-megapixel CCD sensors and 15x optical, 31mm to 465mm-eqivalent, zoom lenses with optical image stabilization. Just in case that stabilization isn't enough for you, Sony also upped the top sensitivity rating on this year's models to … Read more