Crave

Bibble Labs has released the long-awaited version 5 of its software for editing and managing the raw photos higher-end cameras can take.

Bibble 5 adds a number of new features for editing, cataloging, and performance. The company had hoped to release Bibble 5 in 2008 but ran into delays.

Also new is the price. The Pro version of Bibble 5 costs $199.95, up from $129.95 for Bibble 4 Pro; those who bought Bibble 4 Pro after September 1, 2006, however, get a free upgrade. Bibble 5 Lite hasn't been released yet, but the company said Bibble 4 Lite customers may use Bibble 5 Pro until it is.

One feature of Bibble 5 is selective editing, which lets photographers change only a portion of an image. The editing is nondestructive, which means the changes don't alter the underlying raw file. Another is cataloging features to more easily manage files and sift through libraries.

Performance is a major issue for raw processing, a computationally demanding chore, and Bibble appears particularly pleased with its performance improvements. The software is able to take advantage of all the processing cores on a 32-core system, according to the company. Although the incremental benefits of more cores diminish, Bibble boasts that its software can scale even as unnamed competitors' performance doesn't get any better beyond eight cores.

Bibble's main competitors include Adobe Systems' Photoshop Lightroom, Apple's Aperture, Phase One's Capture One, DxO Labs' DxO Optics Pro, several smaller rivals, and utilities that often ship with SLRs and other cameras that can shoot raw. Raw photographs offer more flexibility and quality but take time and effort to process.

Update 2:12 p.m. PST: Bibble 5 Pro was released via the company's forums Tuesday, but the formal announcement of the software will come Monday, the company said in a statement.

Via Digital Photography Review

Framed for iPhone turns snapshots into album covers, framed art, yearbook photos, and more.

The iPhone may not have the world's best camera, but when it comes to having fun with photos, there's no better device.

The App Store offers countless apps devoted to tweaking, morphing, framing, sharing, or just generally improving your snapshots. I've rounded up five I think any iPhone owner will enjoy.

1. Framed You know those novelty "Wanted" posters you can have made up at state fairs and carnivals? Framed (99 cents) lets you paste photos onto posters, milk cartons, album covers, and about 30 other nifty scenes. You can then share the results via e-mail or post them straight to Facebook. Try the free Lite version before you buy, and check out the similar freebie Photofunia as well.

2. Gorillacam This isn't so much about photo fun as it is photo convenience. Gorillacam serves up a self-timer, a time-lapse option, 3-shot burst mode, a bubble level, and a full-screen shutter--same as many other apps, but this one's free and refreshingly easy to use.

After a plunge of about 3,000 feet during a parachuting trip, the Canon Rebel XT still worked, if not flawlessly.

(Credit: Calin Leucuta)

Camera makers tout the ruggedness of their higher-end products, but apparently even an entry-level SLR can withstand a 3,000-foot drop under the right circumstances.

The camcorder didn't fare as well as the SLR.

(Credit: Calin Leucuta)

So discovered Marius Ivascu, a parachuting instructor in Florida whose Canon Rebel XT detached from his helmet mount and took the fast way back to Earth on a skydiving trip. The camera mount detached when Ivascu deployed his parachute, recounted Calin Leucuta, a photographer and friend of Ivascu who earlier had sold him the camera.

After searching for less than a half hour after he landed, Ivascu found the camera and a video camera that had been mounted next to it.

"The video camera cracked open, dead, done deal. The Rebel took the fall a little better, just a crack in the left side of the plastic body," Leucuta said on his blog. "With a glimmer of hope, Marius presses the playback button: Quelle surprise! The camera turns on, displays the last image taken, like nothing happened."

(Credit: Flickr user dark orange)

If you're still shooting pictures with film, you'll know how difficult it can be to find your favorite these days. But what if you can make your own film?

Flickr user dark orange has posted a set of images documenting and teaching interested readers how to make their own film-making machine ("plastic and goop go in one end, and camera film comes out the other end"). Being a film user myself, one advantage I can think of for having such a piece of hardware is the ability to create the type of negatives I like. This is especially important as I'm not sure when Kodak will stop producing its Tri-X black-and-white negatives, considering it halted Kodachrome earlier this year.

Instead of making this a solo project, why not gather a few friends to make this machine? Who knows, you may even be able to sell a couple of rolls for a decent profit.

(Source: Crave Asia via CrunchGear)

The camera industry is in the throes of a digital photography revolution. But a new version of Nikon's 300mm telephoto lens announced this week, a $5,900 model intended for professionals, shows at least some parts of the photography market are constant even as the rest is overhauled.

Nikon's new 300mm f2.8 lens

(Credit: Nikon USA)

Digital photography is profoundly different from the film era for many reasons. Here are some: new image sensors can enable photography in conditions too dark for film. The same camera can shoot video and still shots. Cameras can record not just when you took a photo, but where you took it. It's easy to publish photos globally on the Internet or to alter them significantly with software. And steadily increasing computing power lets cameras do everything from detect smiling faces to correct lens shortcomings.

And yet islands of stability remain. The high-end lens, with its complex optical engineering and premium pricing, is one of them.

Many SLR users don't venture beyond the kit lens that comes with their camera--an 18-55mm zoom that's reasonable for indoor shooting and basic tourist photography. Those who want to photograph the kids' soccer matches can step up with a telephoto zoom--usually one reaching to 200mm or 250mm and costing a few hundred dollars.

So why all the extra price for a bit more focal length to reach 300mm?

(Credit: Ole Jorgen Liodden)

Canon touted the EOS 7D as a weatherproof dSLR with seals at strategic locations that can survive harsh environments. This makes it suitable for photographers who work in extreme conditions like the desert or sub-zero regions.

Photographer Ole Jorgen Liodden recently brought his EOS 7D to the Antarctica for an assignment, and is glad to report that the camera emerged unscathed. He has the pictures to prove it.

Considering that in his write-up that on a previous expedition whereby his EOS 50D went under the sun after a day, the EOS 7D's hardy specs are quite impressive. But do note that you would have to maintain the camera well in order for the seals to function properly.

For more of the Liodden and the EOS 7D's adventure in Antarctica, click here.

(Source: Crave Asia via Canon Rumors)

An orangutan in the Vienna Zoo takes pictures that are uploaded to Facebook. No, she didn't take the self-portrait.

(Credit: Nonja's Facebook page)

She's like the Ashton Kutcher of the ape world: an orangutan in the Vienna Zoo now has a Facebook fan page to showcase the photos she takes with a digital camera. The orangutan, named Nonja, uses a Samsung ST 1000 point-and-shoot that automatically uploads the photos.

When this post was published, Nonja had over 9,000 "fans" subscribed to her page.

But there's a catch: coverage of the camera-toting ape in the U.K.'s Daily Mail explains that the camera has been modified to dispense a raisin whenever the shutter button is pushed. So Nonja is evidently more interested in tasty treats than in artistic endeavors.

The non-orangutan version of the Samsung ST 1000 was released this summer (though not in the U.S.) and is equipped with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS.

If you enjoy photography, don't make the mistake I did.

Using my then-new SLR in 2005 and 2006, I photographed everything from my new son to otherworldly canyons we visited in Utah. The only problem: the photos were taken only in JPEG format.

JPEG is fine as far as it goes, and indeed for most folks it will suffice. But having rediscovered my enjoyment of photography in the digital era, I wish I'd used the raw image format that comes with SLRs and higher-end compact cameras.

This illustration shows the checkerboard Bayer pattern of a typical digital camera's image sensor. Each pixel captures either red, green, or blue.

(Credit: DxO Labs)

My initial regret was from the realization that raw photos, although taking up about three times the storage space as a JPEG and requiring manual processing, offer higher quality and more flexibility. But what I've come to understand since then is a second advantage of raw: because processing software improves over time, raw photos in effect can get better with age.

For that reason, I've begun recommending friends who show some enthusiasm for photography that they should think about shooting important events in raw format alongside JPEG. You don't have to mess with the raw files today, but if it's an important event like a wedding, you might want them for later.

I've included below some samples of a noisy image shot in near-darkness at ISO 25,600 from my SLR. They may not convince you that shooting raw is a miracle cure for photo quality, but they do illustrate some differences with the camera's JPEG and that the raw-processing software isn't standing still.

iFotoGuide interactive iPhone photography guide

iFotoGuide has released its digital guide to on-location nature photography, a nature guide to select national parks. The first in a planned series to be released is iFotoGuide: Arches, about Arches National Park.

The iFotoGuide app allows you to look up travel information like hotels and weather, and park information like wildflower blooms and entrance fees. It enables you to find places to shoot; you can look for prime shooting locations to photograph a sunrise or a sunset. There are instructions for getting to the locations, as well as information on how to best shoot from them. It has a photo gallery of images from the park. You can just select the photo and the app provides the information to get there, and to photograph there.

"iFotoGuide: Arches" sells for $4.99 on the iTunes app store. It can be updated for free to allow new content such as additional locations in the park.