“Millions of people love using iPhoto to organize, edit and share their digital photos,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Aperture 3 is designed for both professionals who edit and manage massive libraries of photos and iPhoto users who want to take their photos further with easy-to-use tools such as Brushes and Adjustment Presets.”

“Aperture 3 gets it right,” said National Geographic photographer, Jim Richardson. “The image editing tools are exactly what I have been asking for, they’re so easy to use and give me a level of control that I never even thought possible.
“I chose Aperture because it was the most powerful archiving application around, but it’s now an unbelievable imaging tool as well,” said Bill Frakes, Sports Illustrated staff photographer. “I am beyond impressed with the massive changes made in Aperture 3.”

Aperture 3 allows you to organize large photo libraries with even more flexibility using Projects and the new Faces and Places. Faces uses face detection and recognition to find and organize your photos by the people in them. You can view faces across your entire photo library or view just the faces that appear in selected projects. In a new view that speeds up the organization process, Aperture 3 displays faces that have been detected but haven’t yet been named. Places lets you explore your photos based on where they were taken, and like in iPhoto, Places automatically reverse geocodes GPS data into user-friendly locations. In Aperture 3, you can assign locations by dragging-and-dropping photos onto a map or by using location information from GPS enabled cameras, tracking devices or your iPhone® photos.

The new Brushes feature allows you to add professional touches to your photos by simply painting effects onto the image. Aperture 3 includes 15 Quick Brushes that perform the most popular tasks like Dodge, Burn, Polarize and Blur, without the complexity of layers or masks. Brushes can automatically detect edges in your images to let you apply or remove effects exactly where you want them. Aperture 3 includes dozens of Adjustment Presets that apply a specific style or look to the entire image with just a click. You can create your own custom presets or explore the techniques of other photographers by importing theirs.

Aperture 3 makes it easy to share your work with stunning slideshows that weave together photos, audio, text and HD video. You can select one of six Apple designed themes or choose your own transitions, background, borders and titles, and even add your own soundtrack. You can export your slideshows directly to iTunes® to take with you on your iPhone or iPod touch®. You can also share photographs as beautiful prints, create custom-designed hardcover books and publish to online photo sharing sites like Facebook and Flickr, right from Aperture 3.

Pricing & Availability
Aperture 3 is available through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) and existing Aperture users can upgrade for a suggested retail price of $99 (US). A downloadable 30-day trial version is available at www.apple.com/aperture/trial. Aperture 3 runs as a 64-bit application on Mac OS® X Snow Leopard® on Macs with Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Full system requirements, online tutorials and more information on Aperture 3 can be found at www.apple.com/aperture.

cr

Anyway, there are a ton more lenses missing from Canon USA’s site. Here’s the full list. (thanks Brad)

Missing Lenses on Canon USA

Coincidence or telling us something.

If you visit Canon USA’s web site you’ll see the following lenses are  missing.

EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS
EF 70-200 f/2.8L
EF 70-200 f/4L

We’ll keep a close eye on this.

See here: http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ProductCatIndexAct&fcategoryid=150

thanks Tom

cr

*Note: You may disagree with something here, just be nice about it if you make a comment.

Best New Digital SLR
Winner: 1D Mark IV
Runner-up: 7D

This was a tough choice because I have never used a 1D Mark IV (I will be soon). I’m basing this on initial reports from various pros. The image quality, autofocus and feature set make it a winner. The only knock folks have against it is the price. Do digital SLR’s really need to cost $5000?

The 7D is a great camera for most people. After seeing and experiencing the softness of the files at small apertures, my opinion of the camera dwindled a little bit. I still think the 7D is Canon actually listening (for the most part) to consumers of prosumer level camera bodies.

As I said last year, Canon had to rethink the xxD line. The 7D addresses that, now lets see what the 60D brings us.

Worst Digital SLR
Winner: Rebel T1i

More mega pixels and a gimped movie mode. The 18-55 has no hope of resolving the 15.1mp sensor the T1i possesses, so why bother?

The 20fps 1080p movie mode is ridiculous. Lower the bitrate or some other way to gimp the movie mode to keep it below the 7D and 5D2.

The Rebel line also needs scrollwheel. It’s not a saleable feature, but it sure is a great thing to have. Ergonomics of the camera in general feel dated.

I was a big fan of the Rebel line until complacency set it. Yes, the Rebel is the best selling digital slr on earth, but that doesn’t mean it can’t push the boundaries of what a great entry level dslr should be.

Best PowerShot
Winner: S90
Runner-up: SD780

I was happy to see the return of the S line from Canon. I love the S90. I love the size, the ergonomics, the ring and the image quality the camera dishes out. It’s great to see Canon has some creative engineers.

SD780?! Yes, I love that little thing. It’s small (oh so small) and quite stylish. The HD movie mode and image quality are pretty decent. This is another creative offering from Canon.

Worst PowerShot
Winner: SX120
Runner-up: A480

Big, ugly, unreliable and boring.. that’s all I have to say about the SX120. It’s a solid value for what it costs, I’m just not a fan.

The A480 is cheap, and probably worth what it costs. I’d like to see IS put into their entry level camera. The LCD on this camera is horrendous as well.

Best New Lens
Winner: TS-E 17 f/4L
Runner-up: EF-S 15-85 f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

Oh how fun is that 17mm Tilt-Shift? Tons! Canon’s new tilt-shifts, especially the 17mm set the benchmark again for these types of lenses. Image quality, build quality and useablity are second to none. A job well done.

The 17-85 sure needed to be upgraded as a kit lens. The 15-85 is a well built and very good performer on the 7D. You immediately notice the build quality and heft of the new lens when you pick it up. I’ve used it and really think it’s worth the price.

Worst New Lens
Winner: 18-135 IS

Zzzzz….

Best New Third Party Lens
Winner: Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 VC

I was a big fan of the original, adding vibration correction to the lens just makes it an even better value.

Best New Third Party Camera
Winner: Leica M9
Runner-up: Panasonic GF1

The M9 is a fine example of a company listening to its followers and delivering a great camera to follow-up a not so great camera. I liked the M8, but it was a hassle at times to use.

It costs a lot, but who cares? I’m a big fan of the rangefinder and always will be. I currently use some film Leicas and I’m currently waiting for my M9 to arrive (possibly March!). Leica will not be able to meet demand for this camera in 2010.

The Panasonic GF1 is almost great. The problems I have with the camera is it feels like a point & shoot, the external EVF is pretty bad, I find the camera quite ugly with all those logos on the front and the jpg processing is very poor.

However, it’s a giant step in the right direction for Micro 4/3. I wish Panasonic would hire some real camera designers to really bring the system up to par with other photographic tools.

cr

Here’s one good enough for Ashton Kutcher.

Touchscreen DSLR!

"That feels good!"

Features (Snippet from Photography Bay)
Two simple and important adjustments that can be modified via the touchscreen are mentioned in the patent:

1. Sliding you finger across the panel in a vertical direction changes aperture values.

2. Sliding your finger across the panel in a horizontal direction changes shutter speed.

Other features contemplated by the patent that may be enabled by touch entry through the LCD include the following settings:

* Focus detection area
* Exposure correction value
* Flash adjustment correction value
* Photometry mode (i.e., metering mode)
* Drive mode
* ISO value
* Auto focus mode
* White balance mode
* Exposure correction value

Read More from Photography Bay: http://www.photographybay.com/….

cr

Yes, if you have this camera this is what your films will look like. (update: this sentence was a bit of sarcasm folks)

Vincent Laforet: http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/

cr

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0909/09090107tamron17mm50mm.asp#press

cr

"Good-bye cruel world"

Canon Canada repair depot has replaced a broken XS with an XSi at no charge. The XS had a broken Main PCB assy(CG2-2259-000) and it was backordered for a month or so. Canon Canada sent a new XSi as a replacement.

This is probably a very good sign production of the XS has ceased and there’s probably low stock everywhere.

2000D/T1 excitement builds!

cr

Spend the savings on your significant other.

It appears the 70-200 f/2.8L will have a $200 rebate and there will be an $80 rebate on the 24-70. I’m sure other “L” glass will be included as well. I haven’t seen the 100-400 or 35L on a rebate program in a while (in Canada), it’ll be interesting to see if it shows up now.

I would expect to see a “buy more, save more” type of rebate program in Canada as well. The current rebate scheme is pretty lame.

I have no information about rebate programs in Europe. I rarely hear about those before they happen. Feel free to let me know if you work in retail.

thanks steven

cr

T1i Goodness

A very exciting moment for some, the first unboxing of a 500D in the wild!

View the slideshow: http://www.1854.eu/2009/04/canon_500d_the_unboxing.html

thanks wallbanger

cr

It comes with an ancient 6mp APS-C CCD, they’ve added the handgrip and a 2.5″ LCD.

Very cool and something I wish Canon or Nikon would make.

Read More: http://translate.google.com/translate………..

cr