Microsoft adapts Outlook for photographers

Microsoft Pro Photo Shoot lets photographers create gear lists for appointments.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft has released a free Outlook plug-in to help photographers remember which equipment to bring to photo shoots they've scheduled with the calendar and contacts software.

The free plug-in, called Pro Photo Shoot, lets photographers create a list of their photographic equipment and then use a check-box list to pick what's needed for a particular appointment. Outlook produces a sorted list.

The software can be downloaded for Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007.

The software is part of Microsoft's gradual effort to appeal more to photography enthusiasts, an audience that historically has been one of Apple's most loyal and lucrative. Another part of that effort is Microsoft's work to standardize HD Photo as JPEG XR, an alternative to conventional JPEG that can store higher-fidelity images.

And another part is support in Windows Vista for viewing, tagging, printing, and otherwise handling "raw" photos, the unprocessed sensor data from higher-end cameras that can yield higher-quality photos than ordinary JPEG. Where Apple creates its own raw image codecs--software for encoding and decoding digital files--Microsoft relies on camera manufacturers to supply them. (The codecs also work with Windows Live Photo Gallery installed on Windows XP.)

I've found it difficult to locate the codecs in the past, since it often requires navigating various camera makers' support site, but Microsoft has just set up a new site with links to download the Vista raw image codecs. So far, support is included for the main digital SLR manufacturers: Nikon, Canon, Sony, Pentax, and Olympus. In addition, Ardfry Imaging offers a codec for $30, or a free trial version, to handle raw images encoded with Adobe Systems' Digital Negative (DNG) format.

[Penguinisto]

Cute, but...

...aren't Outlook's media-handling flaws among the biggest sources of malware headaches in the first place?

Sorry; just seems weird that someone would add that kind of functionality to an email client.

/P

[KTLA_knew]

"Media handling"

If you mean, the process of packing and bringing along the correct lens for your photo shoot (which is what this is about), then no, those aren't "among the biggest sources of malware headaches in the first place."

Oh, wait. Pro-MS troll alert. No one believes that ABM crowd is as stupid as you try and paint them to be, and you're no Mike Cox. Just missing on both counts.

[kojacked]

And more "wise" comments from trolls

Just take every opportunity to dis freebies from Microsoft...

Lets see...Outlook helps people manage tasks. Why wouldn't adding additional task tracking capabilities make sense? I hope they open this up so that other types of occupations can build their own inventory or punch list into calendar items. Makes sense to me!

What doesn't make sense is some troll lamblasting Outlook's rendering engine on an article that has nothing to do with it. I might as well say "Linux sucks" in talkback on artcles that deal with Linux. Grow up Pengiun.

[Master Mage]

Mis-Informed you are...

Outlook isn't "just" an e-mail client. It manages calendars and tasks as well. So no it isn't weird at all.

"Biggest sources of malware?" Outlook as an e-mail client is not a source of malware. Malware comes from the internet. And any e-mail client would receive the same as well.

Finally most of Outlook's ills happened loooong ago... in and about 2003.