March 2010 Archives

Today Adobe has released the second beta version of the forthcoming Photoshop Lightroom 3, their digital darkroom and workflow software. The beta software features a complete new "RAW engine" for improved image quality and a number of new features and optimizations compared to previous versions of Lightroom. The beta are available to the public as a free download in a version that will expire on June 30, 2010. New in beta 2 compared to first beta are improved performance, native tethered shooting for a select of Nikon and Canon cameras (including Canon EOS 7D), luminance noise reduction, import and managing of video files, and more.

The new "RAW engine" in the Lightroom Beta is also a preview of what to be found in the next big update of Camera Raw for Photoshop CS, since they use the same engine for Raw processing.

Update 24/3 2010:: ... and Adobe Creative Suite 5, including Photoshop CS5, is also coming soon.

It has been pointed out by Philip Bloom and others, that the movie "Tiny Furniture" that won the Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at South by Southwest Film Festival, is actually shot entirely with the Canon EOS 7D. The movie is by the 23 year old Lena Dunham, and you can watch the trailer here or on Vimeo:

22-year-old Aura returns home after college to her artist mother's loft with the following: a useless film theory degree, 357 hits on her YouTube page, and no shoulders to cry on. Starring Dunham and her real-life family, Tiny Furniture is tragicomedy about what does and does not happen when you graduate with no skills, no love life, and a lot of free time.

I have been traveling the last two weeks, and returning this weekend I was somehow disappointed that no big Canon news had occurred while I was gone. I mean, at least rumor sites had expected a new camera (1Ds Mark IV) announced together with a new lens or two. But no such thing happened. All we got in this round was announcements of a few new printers and compacts, a firmware upgrade for the 5D Mark II and a small update of DPP and other Canon EOS software. The new 5D firmware is a bit interesting for 7D owners though. Through the firmware update Canon adds manual sound level control, increased audio sampling frequency and other improvements to the video part of 5D Mark II. If Canon can do it on 5DII, they can probably do it on 7D too. But do they want to?...

While I was gone Benoit Millot also sent Planet 7D the above nice video combining 7D footage with 3D animation. It is not completely new, so some might have seen it already. But if not, check it out in HD on Vimeo...