
NIKON GOES D2XS Modifying its flagship D-SLR, Nikon unveils the new D2xs with a refined High-Speed Crop Mode, a 2.5-inch LCD with a wider 170-degree viewing angle and a variety of other changes from its predecessor, the D2x. The camera keeps many of the performance features of the D2x, including capturing 12.4-megapixel images at up to 5 fps, a fast startup time and a 37-millisecond shutter release time lag. When using the High-Speed Crop Mode, which is capable of taking 6.8-megapixel images at up to 8 fps, the newly developed viewfinder superimposes a mask over the cropped area for easier and more accurate composition. Other new features include a faster and more precise autofocus system, a Black-And-White Mode, a higher-capacity battery and an ISO capability that allows you to maintain a specific shutter speed while the camera automatically selects an appropriate ISO setting based on existing lighting conditions. The Nikon D2xs has the same look, size and weight of the previous model. Estimated Street Price: $4,649. Contact: Nikon, (800) NIKON-UX, www.nikonusa.com. MACRO POWER The Tamron SP AF90mm ƒ/2.8 Di 1:1 Macro lens has been retooled to optimize it for digital photography. The lightweight, compact lens has 1:1 macro capability and features improved coating technology that reduces internal reflections, which can cause unwanted flare or ghosting in an image. The 90mm lens offers a medium telephoto focal length that, when used with a small-format D-SLR, equals 140mm on a 35mm camera. The filter size is 55mm. The lens weighs 14.3 ounces and measures 2.8x3.8 inches. List Price: $850. Contact: Tamron, (631) 858-8400, www.tamron.com. HI-DEF SOFTWARE VideoStudio from Intervideo/Ulead now supports high-definition capture, editing, authoring, output and playback. VideoStudio 10 gives entry-level users simple tools for creating home movies. VideoStudio 10 Plus offers more advanced features, including allowing users to create discs in HD DVD format. Upgrades also include enhanced trimming and scanning tools, along with light and anti-shake filters. List Price: $69 (10); $99 (10 Plus); $59 (upgrade). Contact: Intervideo, (510) 651-0888, www.intervideo.com; Ulead, www.ulead.com. WEIGHT-LIFTER Secure your photo gear with a strap tested to handle it all. Upstrap has released a non-slip shoulder strap strong enough to support 300 pounds of equipment, which can be used as a camera neck strap or on camera, laptop or messenger bags, too. A double-locking adjustment system is attached to the shoulder pad. Additionally, a quick-release wrist and tripod safety loop are also available. List Price: $50. Contact: Upstrap, (877) 872-7639, www.upstrap.com. HARD DRIVE CAMCORDER A 3-CCD imaging device will have the video you record on the JVC Everio GZ-MG505 looking sharp and ready to share. Thanks to an internal 30 GB hard drive, you can shoot up to seven hours of MPEG-2 video or more than 10 hours of standard video footage and download it directly to your computer. This is JVC’s latest offering in its G-series hard disk drive camcorder line that eliminates the need for tapes or discs. Weighing just more than a pound, the high-capacity cam is easy to add to your bag. List Price: $1,300. Contact: JVC, (800) 882-2345, www.jvc.com. COLOR FIX Whip your monitor’s color display into shape using a calibration tool that works quickly. Pantone’s Eye-One Display LT has a push-button feature that automatically senses ambient light and interacts with monitors to adjust brightness and contrast settings for optimal color clarity. You can create profiles for any ambient light condition for the best possible viewing of color-critical work. Eye-One Display 2 is the Pro version. List Price: $169 (LT); $249 (Pro). Contact: Pantone, (201) 935-5500, www.pantone.com. SHARPER IMAGE Find your focus with the latest version of DxO Optics Pro software. Pro v4 includes a new color engine, offering a color rendition feature with multiple possibilities for images and a multi-point color balance tool. Among other new features, the Optics Engine is now capable of bringing three-dimensional objects that appear distorted by ultra-wide angles back to the correct proportions. The software is faster, too, and it will be available as a Photoshop plug-in. The Pro v4 Windows public beta is available online now. List Price: TBD. Contact: DxO Labs, www.dxo.com.

Hard Copy

National Geographic Photography Field Guide: Digital Black and White by Richard Olsenius (National Geographic, 2006; ISBN: 0-7922-4196-7). From using light to make black-and-white photos more dramatic to equipment and printing, learn how National Geographic photographers make their images stand out.

Perfect Digital Photography by Jay Kinghorn and Jay Dickman (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2005; ISBN: 0-07-225921-3). Edit, enhance and optimize your photos with these technical and artistic techniques from the pros. The authors explain image conceptualization through shooting, editing and image correction to finished print.

The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 4 by Richard Lynch (Wiley, 2006; ISBN: 0-7821-4456-X). Learn about the more advanced features of Elements, such as adding shadows, highlights and contrast with new Curves Presets. A CD-ROM comes with the book, showing more than 100 hidden tools for enhancing images.

Quick Snap Guide to Digital SLR Photography: An Instant Start-Up Manual for New D-SLR Owners by David D. Busch (Thomson Course Technology, 2006; ISBN: 1-59863-187-X). Get the lowdown on your D-SLR’s most important features, including choosing proper exposure and focus modes, adjusting ISO and selecting the right lens.


SMART SENSOR Thanks to a sensor-based system that reduces unwanted unsharpness from camera movement, no special anti-shake lenses are necessary with the Pentax K100D. The system works by adjusting the speed of sensor movement/oscillation in proportion to the amount of camera shake it detects. This affordable D-SLR is compatible with any Pentax lens. An entry-level version, the K110D, has all of the same features minus the shake-reduction system. List Price: $699 (K100D); $599 (K110D). Contact: Pentax, (800) 877-0155, www.pentaximaging.com. GO WIDE Print 16x9-format images from a small, compact printer that produces high-quality images quickly. The Panasonic KX-PX10 printer takes 65 seconds to print a postcard-sized image. It’s touted as the first small-format printer capable of producing 16x9-format prints in addition to standard postcard-sized images; the printer weighs two pounds. Features include color-correction and noise-reduction technology, plus a faster print engine. List Price: $199. Contact: Panasonic, (800) 211-PANA, www.panasonic.com. LOCK UP Keep your photo gear secure when left in the car or when waiting at the airport. Made of slash-proof stainless-steel mesh material, the DuffelSafe 100 from PacSafe features a 4mm high-tensile stainless-steel cable for locking the bag closed with a padlock and the manufacturer’s patented locking device. Side carry straps and a detachable shoulder strap and backpack harness give you some carrying options for the 20x12x11-inch bag. List Price: $229. Contact: PacSafe, (800) 873-9415, www.pac-safe.com. STORE EVERYTHING With the Seagate 750 GB Pushbutton Back-Up hard drive, you have a convenient place to back up files and store valuable images, with tons of space. The company touts the sleek drive as the first three-quarter terabyte external hard drive. List Price: $559. Contact: Seagate, (831) 438-6550, www.seagate.com. CANON CLOSE-UP Take your shot with a versatile, simple camera that’s loaded with features and extra-long on zoom. The Canon PowerShot S3 IS has a 12X zoom lens equivalent to a 35mm focal length of 36-432mm. The 6-megapixel camera’s newly designed DIGIC II image processor reduces noise for enhanced image quality and achieves ISO equivalent speed ratings from 80 to 800. A MovieSnap feature lets you take high-resolution stills while recording movies. List Price: $499. Contact: Canon,(800) OK-CANON, www.usa.canon.com. TINY TOOL Back up and transfer your files quickly and easily using a compact, portable device. The MaxFile Attache from PNY Technologies has 8 GB of space and weighs two ounces. The lightweight Attache measures 2x1.75x0.75 inches with an integrated USB connector. List Price: $149. Contact: PNY Technologies, (973) 515-9700, www.pny.com. A FITTING VIEW Find the best angle, high or low, with Zigview. The device attaches to the eyepiece of your digital or film SLR and displays the image in real time on a two-inch TFT color LCD display for easy viewing at any angle. There are two models: Zigview-B makes low- and high-angle photography easier with a rotating LCD monitor; Zigview-R adds remote, intervalometer and motion-detection shutter-release capabilities. List Price: $249 (Zigview-B); $299 (Zigview-R). Contact: Argraph, (201) 939-7722, www.argraph.com. CUSTOM PHOTOS Get your creative juices flowing with image-enhancing tools by Kubota. Sloppy Borders, Volume 1 offers a package of more than 100 ready-to-use sloppy border variations. The borders can be applied individually or run in a batch for adding to multiple images. Artistic Tools, Volume 2 features an all-new set of more than 50 Photoshop actions, including color popping, toning and converting to black-and-white. List Price: $125 (Sloppy Borders); $99 (Artistic Tools). Contact: Kubota Image Tools, (877) 330-4330, www.kubotaimagetools.com. ENERGY BOOST Rev up on power with the PowerEx AA 2700 mAh rechargeable batteries from Maha. The company touts that the batteries last twice as long as “ordinary rechargeables” and can be charged up to 1,000 times. Plus, the ecofriendly batteries are free of mercury, cadmium and lead. List Price: $14 (with plastic carrying case). Contact: Maha, (800) 376-9992, www.mahaenergy.com. MULTI-CARD READER Move images from your memory card to your computer with the help of Digital Foci’s Memory Card Gateway. The new high-speed USB 2.0 card reader/writer works on almost all card formats, including CompactFlash, MicroDrive, SmartMedia and SD. List Price: $29. Contact: Digital Foci, (310) 763-9100, www.digitalfoci.com. PHOTO FILER Organize, find and edit your photos with Photo Finale Premium Version 4, an all-in-one software package that helps bring order to your growing photo collection. The software organizes photos chronologically, letting you view them in calendar format by day, date or month. Other features include free Web sharing and versatile batch-editing, with 16 different options. Using drag-and-drop, you can easily select your favorite images and, with a template, create a calendar, collage or a scrapbook page. List Price: $39 (download); $49 (boxed). Contact: Trevoli, www.photofinale.com. SLIM CAM The Casio EX-Z1000 packs a powerful punch, capturing 10.1-megapixel images, weighing just 4.9 ounces and costing less than $400. The camera takes crystal-clear stills powered by a large 1/1.8-inch format, high-resolution CCD. The 2.8-inch, wide-format LCD makes it possible to view wide-angle and telephoto shots simultaneously along with a set of icon controls. The latest offering in Casio’s series of EXILIM Zoom digital cameras, this model measures 3.6x2.3x0.9 inches. List Price: $399. Contact: Casio, (800) 283-6925, www.casio.com. SMALL WONDER The Kanguru Flash Drive Max is about the size of a stick of gum and holds up to 64 GB, making it the largest thumb drive on the market (at press time). The high-speed USB 2.0 flash drive reads data quickly, and a rugged, aluminum housing helps keep valuable files safe when you’re traveling. The drive weighs 0.6 ounces and measures 1.0x3.6x0.6 inches. Estimated Street Price: $799 (16 GB); $1,499 (32 GB); $2,799 (64 GB). Contact: Kanguru, (888) 526-4878, www.kanguru.com. LEARN FROM EXPERIENCE Every year, the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) offers scholarships to 10 high-school students to attend its annual summit. The scholarship winners have the opportunity to learn about nature photography, meet professional photographers and writers, and participate in classroom and field instruction for three days prior to the summit. If you know any aspiring photographers between ages 14 and 18, encourage them to apply to the High School Scholarship program by Sept. 30. The next program is January 14-21, 2007 in Palm Springs, Calif. Contact: NANPA, (303) 422-8527, www.nanpa.org/scholarships.html. FOLDING TABLE Kaiser’s portable folding product table unfolds into a 15x15x15-inch square shooting table. The translucent white sides and top produce even lighting and eliminate glare on reflective originals. When you’re done shooting, the table’s sides and top fold up into a one-inch thick, 17x17-inch case with carrying handle. List Price: $75. Contact: HP Marketing Corp., (800) 735-4373, www.hpmarketingcorp.com.

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