Remember Yann Arthus-Bertrand? The famous French photographer who loves taking amazing photos from the sky?

Well, if you live in NYC or nearby, you are lucky!

“Arthus-Bertrand has been photographing unique views of our planet, seen from the sky, since 1994 - and has produced an exhibit of over 150 4-ft. by 6-ft. prints which will be on display in New York City at the World Financial Center Plaza and along the Battery Park City Esplanade from May 1, 2009 to June 28, 2009.”

His Earth from Above exhibit will also come to California, but in 2010…

In the meantime, here are 38 amazing photos from his latest helicopter rides!

Nikon Rumors found a couple of new ads announcing something “BIG” (literally translating 大きい) but if this is true, what is it??

The mount looks pretty much the same, at least size wise. The only major differences you can spot is the red swoosh on the grip, the missing aperture lever and screw drive autofocus mechanism.

This could mean a move towards eliminating mechanical connections between body and lens started with the D40 (now D60) series, only allowing to work with AF-S series lenses.

I also notice a color difference on the “mirror”… or at least what is supposed to be the mirror.

Could it be that Nikon managed to get rid of the view finder mirror mechanism and replaced it with a LIVE view finder thus exposing the sensor?!?

This is getting really exciting!! But there is more…

Read more… »

I don’t know why one would sell a camera online along with the memory card.

Simply because, even if you’re not a MI-6 agent like this idiot, there is “always” a way to rescue images from a memory card… That’s the truth!!!

“A bidder, who bought the camera for £17 on the auction website, discovered photos of terror suspects, their names and fingerprints and even images of rocket launchers and missiles.

The 28-year-old from Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, only found the secret images when he downloaded his own holiday snaps from the Nikon Cool Pix device.

He told local police about the find and was shocked when Special Branch officers arrived at his home days later to seize his new purchase.

Officers have made five visits to his home in the last week to quiz him and his family, The Sun newspaper reported.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman confirmed that the police were investigating but said she could not confirm or deny the intelligence service’s involvement in the probe.

She refused to comment on reports that the camera was sold by an MI6 agent.”

Secret agents do make the world a safer place ah!

It’s fresh and it’s here!! Nikon Capture NX 1.2

Fixes and improvements (Mac OS)

• Speed improvements when opening images.
• When any of the operations listed below are performed, “Updating image” is now displayed in the image window title bar. Enhancements and other operations can still be performed while “Updating image” is displayed. (Mac OS X version 10.4 or later)
  • An image is opened
  • A different version is selected from the “Version” menu.
  • “Revert” is selected from the “File” menu.
• When “Open With…” is selected from the “File” menu for an image saved to a CD-R or non-recordable medium, the image is first copied to a separate location and then opened in the other application.
• When “Show Lost Shadows” was selected from the “View” menu, and the display ratio of the image was changed, the range of the “Lost Shadows” was changed as well. This issue has been resolved.When the size or resolution for an image was specified with selection of “Size / Resolution…” from the “Edit” menu and then the setting file saved with “Save Settings…” in the “Batch” menu, the aspect ratio of processed images was incorrect when the saved settings file was used with batch processing of images captured in different orientations. This issue has been resolved.
• An issue that caused RAW NEF images captured with the D1X at an ISO sensitivity setting of ISO 570 to appear completely black has been resolved.
• An issue that caused images to be affected when saved with a high “Radius” value in the “Gaussian Blur” palette (”Adjust ” menu > “Focus” > “Gaussian Blur”…) has been resolved.
• When the “Site Map” panel was opened from “Help > Contents…” images were sometimes not displayed, or incorrect dialogs were displayed. These issues has been resolved.
• An issue that prevented the display of the “Color Lightness, Chroma, and Hue” width sliders in the “LCH” palette has been resolved.
• When “Hue” and other settings in the “LCH” palette were saved with “Batch > Save Settings…” and these settings then applied to a different image, settings values were sometimes incorrect and points would not move. These issues have been resolved.
• An issue that sometimes prevented proper “Set Gray Point” operation from “Base Adjustments > Camera Adjustments > White Balance” has been resolved.
• When the name of a printer profile contained 2-byte characters, text displayed in the “Printer profile” pulldown menu, in the “Color Management” panel of the “Preferences” was garbled. This issue has been resolved.
• An issue that prevented accurate reflection of the monitor profile for the secondary display, when multiple displays were used, has been resolved.
• Text copied using the command + C keyboard shortcut could not be pasted into the file name field when “File > Save As…” was selected, using the Command + V keyboard shortcut. This issue has been resolved.

More info and download here…

The Leica S2 is definitely the biggest surprise at Photokina so far, literally. French reporters got the chance to actually play with the exposed models.

The five Leica S2 available were clearly hand made a were finished just a few hours before Photokina opened.

They are far from being fully functional but they are much better than just a mockup. Their feeling… massive, just like the sensor!

As you can see in the photo above, the shutter release itself, which sits at an angle on the front of the body.

This used to be a fairly common position on older SLRs and is surprisingly comfortable. It also allows you to use your forefinger and thumb to set the shutter speed and your middle finger to fire off a shot.

Quite interesting design choice actually.

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