Archive for February, 2008
Posted on February 13, 2008 - by Patrick
Apple releases Aperture 2.0
Speed!
Apple has released Aperture 2.0, and according to the developers, the slow speed of Aperture 1 has been addressed…
“Without question, our users wanted us to focus on performance,” said Paulsen. “Speed is absolutely paramount [to Aperture users].” (courtesy macworld.)
This is welcome news to me, as I never found Aperture to run “optimally” on my system, or at least it never ran as fluidly as Lightroom does.
Even more interesting is support for tethered shooting for cameras that support picture transport protocol, which lo and behold includes the iphone? (not the most popular studio phone).
I can’t wait to get some preliminary reviews (previews they call them), in the meantime you can get all the details on the 100 plus new features added to Aperture 2 here. You can get the demo here.
Posted on February 7, 2008 - by Patrick
Review: Sony A200
I’ve had major hosting troubles this week, but it looks like most of it has been resolved, at least today I’m able to post…
Anyway photo-forum.net has a nice review up of the Sony A200. There’s lots of great sample images to peep over, and I have to say, the ISO performance is pretty impressive, even at ISO 1600 the noise looks to be rather tolerable.
Also, I’ve said this before, but as a Nikon shooter I’m always a tad jealous of on camera image stabilization, and on the Sony A200 the super steady shot seems very effective if the sample pictures included in the review are any indication. This is a built-in benefit that will work with any lens attached, meanwhile I’ll be paying up the whazoo to buy select VR lenses… just slightly annoying, and definitely something first time DSLR buyers should seriously consider when making their purchase.
In the meantime, check out the review of the Sony A200 here.
Posted on February 1, 2008 - by Patrick
Sony A900 gets more official
24.8 megapixels and full frame
Gee, I go to NYC for a couple of days and all hell breaks loose. It seems like only a couple of days ago I said something about how the Sony sensor announcement might anticipate an A900 announcement at PMA, and lo and behold what do I come home to find?
As it turns out Sony says the A900 (technically not named the A900 just yet) is coming, albeit later this year, which I’ll assume means Photokina. It will be using the sensor announced just recently which will be called “Exmor”, which was checking in at 24.8 megapixels with full frame. In addition the camera will obviously be featuring Super Steady Shot, and appears to be sporting a 3 inch LCD, although it seems unclear as to whether it will have Live View (the prototype on display at PMA doesn’t look like it has the flip out LCD found on the A300 and A350), but I’d say it’s a very safe bet that it will.
No question, this is a big camera. Getting that monster sensor in there with SSS and presumably live view pretty much demanded it. It has a removable grip, so haters of the included grip found on canikons will be pleased. From what I can tell it has a programmable mode dial, and a fat top plate LCD which is, well a necessity on a flagship level camera.
There’s still a lot of questions that need to be answered, but at least we’re getting a lot closer to camera that is really going to put alot of pressure on the Canon 5d successor, which is where I think Sony intends to position the A900 in the camera market. Also as I said before, watch for the Nikon D3x announcement featuring the same sensor…I’ll bet we something before Photokina.
Later we’ll get up to date on some other exciting things, like who in their right mind is going to buy an A300 when you could get the A350? Also, we’re excited about the Sigma DP1 (please let the reviews be good!)
