Samsung GX-20 Digital SLR Camera Coming Soon to UK
TechGadgets.in (press release), India
Samsung has announced to launch its new digital SLR camera called GX-20. This new camera has been developed in co-operation with Pentax and is said to be Samsung’s version of Pentax’s K20D DSLR camera.
The GX-20 features 14.6-megapixel CMOS sensor and 2.7-inch TFT display. Also, it boasts a live view feature.
A water resistant body, anti-dust mechanism and moving-sensor image stabilization are some of the similar features between Samsung GX20 and Pentax K20D.
Furthermore, the GX20 incorporates built-in Optical Picture Stabilisation (OPS) technology.
Some of the key features of the Samsung GX-20 are:
14.6-megapixel CMOS sensor
2.7-inch TFT display
Built-in Optical Picture Stabilisation
Water resistant body
One-touch RAW mode
ISO settings of 100 – 6,400
Built-in High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging
The difference between Pentax’s and Samsung’s cameras is said to be the different menu systems and the GX-20 uses Adobe Digital Negaitve RAW format.
The GX-20 is expected to be available in the British market by March 2008 for £699 (around Rs. 54,591).
January 29th, 2008
Frequently Asked Photo Questions for January
Avoid annoying shutter lag, use spray-on print protection, take better flash photos, and more.
Dave Johnson
Monday, January 28, 2008 9:45 AM PST
PC World
It’s a new year, and a new set of questions have found their way to my inbox. Send me your questions about digital photography. I reply to as many as I can, and I round up the most interesting ones about once a month here in the newsletter.
You can also read more frequently asked questions online: check out reader questions from September, October, and November.
Beware of Shutter Lag
I’m an old SLR 35mm shooter from way back. I used to shoot action shots at our local car race track. I would hit the button, and the camera took the shot right away. I’ve hesitated going to digital photography because every digital camera I’ve seen has a terribly long delay between when you hit the shutter button and when the picture is actually taken. What cameras have a quick shutter response?
–Dickie Sanders, Lapeer, Michigan
That’s a valid concern, Dickie. The effect is called “shutter lag,” and it can be anywhere from a few dozen milliseconds to more than a second.
Shutter lag is most pronounced among inexpensive point-and-shoot cameras; pricier cameras tend to exhibit significantly less lag. In general, you’ll find no discernible lag at all in digital SLRs, but you pay for the privilege, since these cameras start at several hundred dollars.
I highly recommend reading PC World’s reviews; when shutter lag is a significant issue for a camera, we mention it. And there’s no substitute for trying a camera yourself. Many camera stores let you handle various cameras and take sample photos before making the purchase decision. That’s a smart way to assess shutter lag.
Protecting Inkjet Prints
There are companies that make spray-on protective coatings that are supposed to help protect and preserve artwork such as pencil and chalk drawings and paintings. Do you think that these sprays would help inkjet photos?
–John Ebmeyer, Warrenton, Virginia
If you’ve spend much time in the world of 35mm photography, you may be familiar with acrylic UV-blocking sprays that you can apply to prints. These sprays “fix” the print and give it a longer life before fading.
I’d avoid using products designed for traditional film-based prints on inkjet printouts. They seem to work, but I haven’t been able to test a wide variety of ink and paper combinations–nor have I observed the prints for a long period of time. I’ve asked printer companies their opinion of these sprays, and for the most part, they were all a bit wary.
The Epson rep said, “We recommend avoiding UV sprays since the effect on lightfastness of one color ink could be different than another ink, and may actually lead to the visual acceleration of fading or color shifting.”
However, a few companies make a special spray just for inkjet printers; these “inkjet fix” sprays are probably safer for your digital prints. Check out, for instance, Gepe Ink Jet Fix Spray.
Undoing Sepia Effects
I converted my digital photos to sepia and negative-effect images. How can I convert them back?
–Edgar Gratia, Philippines
I have some bad news, Edgar. If you convert a color digital photo to a black-and-white or sepia image and save it over the original file, you’ve replaced the color information with something new. End of story. That’s why it’s a good idea to always use your photo editor’s Save As option to create a new file, preserving the original.
Resizing Photos for Digital Picture Frames
What is the best resolution and size to save photos for an 8-inch digital photo frame?
–Christina Kramer, Garland, Texas
It’s okay to leave the photos at their original size, Christina–they’ll display just fine in a digital photo frame. But if you’re trying to resize photos to maximize the number of images you can fit on your frame’s memory card, then the answer is pretty easy: Resize them to the frame’s native resolution. You can find that information in your frame’s user guide or on the manufacturer’s Web site.
For example, the 8-inch Kodak Easyshare EX-811 has a resolution of 800 by 480 pixels. Sharper Image sells the Pure eMotion 7-Inch Digital Photo Frame, which has a resolution of 480 by 234 pixels.
One other thing: Be sure to save the resized photos as new files, so you don’t replace the originals with low-resolution images.
Tweaking the Effect of Your Flash
I use an older digital camera to capture my kids’ everyday antics, and I find myself spending copious amounts of time afterwards trying to compensate for the camera’s tendency to overexpose every shot, regardless of the flash setting. The night setting won’t freeze kid-motion; holding a finger over the flash results in a weird orange hue; and more flamboyant methods tend to distract the subjects. I’m no Victor Skrebneski, just trying to grab Kodak moments. Any thoughts?
–Jill Murtagh, Orange, New Jersey
Flash photography can be really tricky, Jill. But if your camera is consistently overexposing your photos, then there’s an easy way to compensate.
Check your camera’s user guide to see if there is a flash compensation control. If so, lower the flash’s power setting by about one stop and take some test photos. If it’s still overexposing, reduce the flash power a little more. Vary the flash’s power until it seems to expose your photos properly. If there’s no flash compensation control, then you can try doing the same thing with the camera’s main exposure compensation control.
Hot Pic of the Week
Get published, get famous! Each week, we select our favorite reader-submitted photo based on creativity, originality, and technique. Every month, the best of the weekly winners gets a prize valued at between $15 and $50.
Here’s how to enter: Send us your photograph in JPEG format, at a resolution no higher than 640 by 480 pixels. Entries at higher resolutions will be immediately disqualified. If necessary, use an image editing program to reduce the file size of your image before e-mailing it to us. Include the title of your photo along with a short description and how you photographed it. Don’t forget to send your name, e-mail address, and postal address. Before entering, please read the full description of the contest rules and regulations.
This week’s Hot Pic: “North Light,” by Mark Davis, Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Mark writes: “I took this photo with my Canon Digital Rebel XT on a recent trip to Block Island, which is a small island 14 miles off of the Rhode Island coast. It’s quite a popular summer tourist spot. This is North Light, one of two lighthouses on the island. Located on the northern tip of the island, you can reach this lighthouse by walking along the beach and it is nestled at the end. There was a great sky that day!”
This Week’s Runner-Up: “Desert Sunset,” by Scott Cassio, Stationed in Kuwait
Scott writes: “We were in a flight of Blackhawk helicopters after a long day of transporting soldiers to Iraq. We were heading back to Kuwait for the night and to prepare for the next day’s missions. I took this picture from the front seat of the chase aircraft. I had brought along a Canon SD750 because it’s small, takes good pictures and fits in a flight suit pocket. A hobbyist photographer, I enjoy taking pictures that are less ordinary.”
See all the Hot Pic of the Week photos online.
Have a digital photo question? Send me your comments, questions, and suggestions about the newsletter itself. And be sure to sign up to have the Digital Focus Newsletter e-mailed to you each week.
January 29th, 2008
Digital sleuths solve missing camera mystery
Stephen Hutcheon
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
January 29, 2008 – 8:16AM
Moments after Alan Murphy alighted from a cab at his New York hotel on New Year’s Eve, he was hit with that awful, gut-churning feeling you get when you realise something’s amiss.
In the back seat of the taxi that had taken off down 48th Street into the Manhattan sunset was his $600 Canon Ixus digital camera.
“As soon as I walked into the lobby, I realised it was missing,” the Irish-born Sydney insurance underwriter recalled.
“And that’s when the panic set in.”
Worse still, it contained a memory card holding 350 images and two videos – most of them taken during a family reunion that began in Florida over Christmas.
And, as if that wasn’t painful enough, he was about to head out for a New Year’s Eve in the Big Apple camera-less.
Here was a Murphy copping the full force of Murphy’s Law, the principle that says if anything can go wrong, it will.
“I was totally kicking myself,” said Mr Murphy, who claims it is his older brother who is generally regarded as the family scatterbrain.
“When I told my family about it, they said I’d ‘done a Peter’,” he said, referring to his sibling.
Luckily for Mr Murphy, the cab’s next passenger was Erika Gunderson, a young New York investment banker.
After the cab driver showed no interest in the lost property she discovered, she brought the camera home and showed it to her fiance, Brian Ascher.
The couple resolved to try to track down the owner. So began 10 days of digital sleuthing that included a bunch of dead ends and, finally, a stroke of luck.
Mr Ascher, a 26-year-old law student, pored over the camera’s images, looking for clues as to the identity of the several adults and three children who featured in many of the shots. And to make sure he wasn’t missing anything, he enlisted the help of his mother and sister.
The photos were mainly of familiar landmarks in New York and Florida, and in one, the subjects were wearing name tags. There was an Alan, Eileen, Noel, Noelle and a Cairnan. And under each name was written “IRE”.
The accents in the videos made it clear to Mr Ascher that the camera’s owner was almost certainly an Irish tourist.
The breakthrough came after going through a series of images taken on December 30 in New York’s East Village district on what looked to be a pub crawl.
Mr Ascher, displaying a great eye for detail, spotted an awning in the background of one photo that read “Standings” – the name of a bar.
He phoned the bar and spoke to the bartender who remembered a group of Irish patrons, recalling that one of them – a big tipper – was a woman who worked in another Manhattan bar.
It was Friday, January 11 – Alan Murphy’s 34th birthday – when he got the unexpected news about the camera.
He was on his morning commute on a ferry from Rose Bay to Circular Quay when he received an email on his BlackBerry from Sarah Casey, a friend he had visited in New York whose sister, Jeanette, was the big tipper.
The camera, with memories intact, is now wending its way back to its owner via registered mail and Mr Murphy is full of praise for the tenacity and honesty of the American finders.
“You and your family are good people,” he told Mr Ascher in a thank-you email. “It’s good to know there are some honest people left in the world.”
- with AP
January 29th, 2008