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» Wednesday Newsflash Goodies

Here’s some goodies for today, Wednesday.

• As y’all know, the big photo convention Photokina is going on in Cologne (Köln), Germany. WIth my hectic schedule right now, I can’t possibly follow up on all (I will on some stuff) new releases from home here so I’m going to link you to a sum-up of the news so far, from 1001 Noisy Cameras.
   
• It can be really hard to find good quality free fonts sometimes especially as the font databases like DaFont is getting so large. Thus, I really like the releases Smashing Magazine are doing a little now and then. They’ve gone ahead and posted some free fonts of the month over at their site. They’re really good and really useful. I’ve played around with some and I do find them super.
   
• I’ve been digging the LumniQuest Softbox III for a while on and off and been pondering if I should get one. I was really happy to see a review of it by David Hobby at the Strobist. David really knows what he is talking about so it’s really good to be able to hear what he thinks!
   
• Finally, with the CS4 announcement yesterday there were a bunch of learning centers published (I wish I would have the software to be able to create one myself, but I’m just not an adobe partnert there). If you wish to learn the new Photoshop CS4, there is no better place than from the Photoshop Guys over at NAPP, at their learning center. If you wish to learn about all the new suite, Layers Magazine has put together a great learning center online as well. Both are free!

» CS4 is unveiled by Adobe!

The time has come. Later today starts the webcasts and dropping in through the day should be the different learning centers from all training providers blessed with a prerelease copy of the CS4 apps. Just now however, Adobe has updated their site with the new features of the apps and the suite packages. You can also find out the pricing scheme (which to my eyes looks untouched from CS3) in all commercial and education stores. What we can’t find out is when they plan to ship these new products, hopefully we’ll get a mention of that later today.

I’m going to be updating more later today with links to various places where you can read and look at the new features, again from those lucky enough to have a prerelease version in their hands.

• Adobe.com
• Press Release
• Creative Suite Page

» Late Monday News

 

It’s another late Monday news post here but the days are certainly filled. Working on a bunch of web design and development projects right now as well as some media stuff for here. Don’t forget that tomorrow is the big CS4 announcement, when you’ll be getting to see some of the new things in CS4 and we’ll all get to know about the shipment plans!

• As I was just starting to say, tomorrow is the big CS4 announcement day. If you haven’t signed up, you still have the time to do so. You can sign up right here. There are a lot of sites who will post learning centers tomorrow. I’ll be posting about that when the news hits.
   
• I’m going to be doing a portrait shoot this weekend with studio strobe equipment and a friend as a model. Really looking forward to it as it’s a field I rarely do. I’m also doing some product shots next Monday that ties up with a new client project (website) I’m working on. I’ll be sharing my experiences after the shot, as well as my preparations beforehand.
   
• If you are working a lot with WordPress and doing WordPress sites you should take a look at this post, "Automating My WordPress Workflow" that was posted on WP-Candy today. There are a lot of good suggestions and resources there that could really help you speed up your things.
   
• I’ve been asked lately to do some more photography related stuff here on the site as well. I’ll be starting to post some photography thoughts and other goodies coming up this week again, which ties in a little bit with above point about the studio experiences. I’m also hoping to be able to post a lot of announcements from PhotoKina.
   
• If you’re in the US and are a photographer that would like to go on a really brilliant landscape workshop, I must recommend the DLWS (Digital Landscape Workshop Series). They have some of the best photographers in their field, like Moose Peterson, Laurie Excell, Joe McNally and Kevin Dobbler. They are just announcing their workshops coming up 2009 and believe it or not, they are already beginning to sell out!

That’s it for today. Don’t forget the CS4 announcement time tomorrow!

» Lightroom 2.1 Release Candidate is out!

Adobe has just released Lightroom 2.1 Release Candidate to everyone. The release candidate label indicates that they want more community testing on it before calling it final although it is stable. Lightroom 2.1 includes support for the following cameras:

• Fuji Finepix IS Pro

• Nikon D700

• Nikon D90

• Nikon Coolpix P6000

It also adds preliminary support for the following models:

• Canon Rebel XS

• Canon 50D

• Olympus SP-565 UZ

• Sony A900

• Sigma DP1

You can download Lightroom 2.1 from the Adobe Labs site.

» Long awaited Friday News

 

Skipping the pirate talk for this post. I call these long awaited for several reasons. Firstly, I haven’t had time to post much news the past days and secondly, it’s Friday which means it’s soon time for a nice weekend!

• A couple of days ago now Apple updated its Remote app for the iPhone/iPod Touch with the functionality of now letting you create Genius playlists and create/edit playlists in iTunes. It’s a free download from the iTunes App Store.
   
• Adobe has released Camera Raw 4.6 RC (Release Candidate) and the DNG Converter 4.6. It adds support for the Fuji Finepix IS Pro, Nikon D700, Nikon D90 and Nikon Coolpix P6000. Also in is preliminary support for Canon Rebel XS, Canon 50D, Olympus SP-565, Sony A900 and the Sigma DP1. The reason that it is a release candidate is that they want some more community testing before they consider it a final product. Note: Release Candidate is a step beyond beta.
   
• Marketcircle has updated their Billings application for the Mac to version 3. Billings is a time tracking and invoice software. News in Billings 3 is a much more streamlined interface, client groups, chronological accounts view, instant overdue invoice notifications, recurring invoices and some general reports and tracking updates. Of course it’s gotten its share of bug fixes. The application costs $59 for a new license. An upgrade from a 2.x version will run for $35. A full working 21-day trial is available at their website.
• I’m working on some new reviews, tutorials and other goodies that will be coming soon. Keep looking for them all!

That’s it for now, have a great Friday!

» Canon announces the 5D Mark II

 

Canon has now announced the EOS 5D Mark II, which is a truly spectacular camera, at least from what we can see this far. It features a full frame 21 megapixel CMOS sensor with DICIC IV processor. It has an ISO range from a low 50 to a remarkable 25600 (extended range). The maxium shooting speed though is 3.9 frames per second, making it pretty useless for any type of sports photography. Naturally it’s got a 3" screen with live view and three types of autofocus, including face detection. Now perhaps the most remarkable thing about this is that it can shoot in full HD video quality, 1080p, H.264 in up to 12 minutes per clip (VGA, H.264, 24 minutes per clip). That’s just an outstanding feature.

The Canon EOS 5D Mark II will be available at the end of November for $2700, body only, or with the 24-105 L lens for $3500.

For more information and goodness about this one, check out the first preview of the camera on DP Review. Also check out my buddy Jason’s overview of the new release.

» Operation Photo Rescue

With all hurricanes that are hitting right now this is perfect time to tell you, and ask you to spread the word, about this non-profit organization called Operation Photo Rescue. Basically what they are is a group of voluntees artists that come together and help to restore photos from vicims of unforseen disasters, for free.Anyone can join as a volunteer to help doing this which is really something important. As they say on their site, furniture and the material things can be replaced but photos (which is a big history archive) cannot. Therefore they help all people who are victims of any unforseen disasters, such as house fires and natural disasters, at no cost. Just think about how much it would cost for all vitims of these disasters if they would want professional help to fix their images aftewards. It’s really a great cause! If you want to sign up as a volunteer, and you really should, you can do that on the register page!

• Visit Operation Photo Rescue
• Sign up as a volunteer!

» Monday News Wrap-Up Post

It’s the start of another week and here are quite a few happenings today:

• The makers of the VLC media player has released a new version of it today. News include a reworked interface, new features and a lot of bugfixes. You can read a wiki entry on what’s new as well if you’d like to read it all as well as see a video on the news. Of course it is still free!
   
• While in the process of doing my blog series about screencasting here, I thought I’d link you to a post by Chris Coyier of CSS-Tricks who goes into detail what he uses to do his screencasts. It’s a really in-depth post that you can always pick up some great tips from, even if you think you have your way set in stone (what’s up with that? always be open for improvements)!
   
• If you want to sync your iTunes library with your Sony Ericson mobile phone then try out this great little app, EasyListening from Divine Robot. The app has gotten an update in the past days to version 1.1, adding support for more phones. The app runs for $10 and is available only for the Mac.
   
• PhotographyBB, the free online photo magazine has just released their eigth edition. This edition includes tips and techniques for using camera flash, workflow techniques for Lightroom 2, a tour of St. Petersburg as well as the conclusion of the four-part series on HDR Photography.

That’s it for now on the news, stay tuned for a lot more coming this week here on the blog!

» Friday News Quickies

 

Here are the news of today:

• Apple has released software update 2.1 for the iPhone. It fixed a lot of bugs and is a bug and performance release, not adding new features. I downloaded it earlier today and I really must say it’s a lot speedier and faster in both app launches and backups. Download it through the Download Update button while syncing the phone with iTunes 8.
   
• If you are developing themes for WordPress it can be great to get some posts set up to be able to make sure you have all possible formatting styles included. WP-Candy has made a great post xml that you can import and use as a sample post to demo your styles and see that you have every bit in there.
   
• A big shoutout congratulations to great guy R.C and his wife Jenn who at Thursday morning had a adorable baby – Sabine Annabel Concepcion. Talk about being born to some community eh All kidding aside, all well wishes and congrats to RC and Jenn! 

» Following: Apple Let’s Rock event” (Metaliveblog)

It’s soon time for the Apple special event, "Let’s Rock", that will start at 10a.m Pacific time (6p.m London time). I’m going to try to do a new thing for the blog here which is going to be semi-liveblogging. Because I’m not there in person, I’m not doing a liveblog but I will be following a number of different sites and blog the updates here in this post for you all to see! It’s gonna be a first so I’m hoping it’ll all go as planned. I’m also going to post the major announcements up to Twitter. So follow the event after the jump!