General and News

Nikon Working on Preset Focus Pulls for Future Cameras

lenuisible — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 18:40:55 +0000

Interesting patent :

http://www.photographybay.com/2011/06/17/nikon-working-on-preset-focus-pulls-for-future-cameras/?awt_l=Gfcpl&awt_m=K2Z8JzH2Uv62xu

Concept camera

Vitaliy_Kiselev — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 18:13:14 +0000

More info - http://www.artefactgroup.com/wvil/index.htm

One year anniversary!

Vitaliy_Kiselev — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 06:56:37 +0000

Exactly one year ago first message considering Panasonic GH1 appeared on other forum.

This year we are starting our own forum.

With focus on content and usability. And, of course, new hack projects.

Interesting post about SSD

Vitaliy_Kiselev — Thu, 26 May 2011 11:09:21 +0000

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/05/the-hot-crazy-solid-state-drive-scale.html

General point that they are hardly reliable due to cheap MLC chips (especially if you have small space left and XP or Vista without TRIM).
I also can't go back to HDD as main sytem drive.
Author also thinks that it'll be more reliable techology in the future. It won't be, at least in near future. 25nm flash is much much worse :-) But cheaper.
Moral is pretty simple, buy few 2Tb drives and backup all on them (or even use dedicated home server for this).

Thom Hogan's GH2 mini review

stefanos — Mon, 09 May 2011 17:05:36 +0000

"Panasonic GH-2. So much different, so much the same. I'm still trying to get my head around the GH2. While we've got a new sensor, touch control, and a host of other "changes," what I'm getting out of it in images and video looks a lot like a GH1. (Of course, I hacked my GH1 to get better video out of it.) Given the low clearance prices of the GH-1 these days, I'm very tempted to say "just buy the GH-1." In short, the GH-2 doesn't feel like a "2" to me. More like a " 1.1" or "1.2." But that's okay, because Panasonic's distribution and sales in the US is so screwed up you're not going to find one on your dealer's shelves anyway. And if you do, something else you want with it will be missing (hey Panasonic, where's my AC adapter?). As much as I like the GH-1/GH-2, especially for video, I can't recommend it to anyone here in the US. Maybe it's different overseas somewhere, but here Panasonic has moved from shooting themselves in the foot to something of a gut shot. Skip."

I think he's got some valid points and it's a bit more from a photographic standpoint, but I disagree about the GH2 video mode looking a lot like GH1. There are significant improvements in GH2 video in quality as well as features(ETC, hdmi etc) making it a very good (but not amazing step-up). But.... we all know about a little something that will make it an amazing step-up....:)

Thom strikes again

Vitaliy_Kiselev — Wed, 11 May 2011 18:18:36 +0000

This will be my thoughts about his highly provocative piece titled "Message Sent Versus Received".

Generally, from my pov it can be concluded to three simple facts.
1. Companies must add more special advanced analytics who'll interpret sales differently to actual numbers (because supply problems, wrong showcase design, etc)
2. Companies must introduce special weighting techniques. As real ppofessionals must count about 25x times compared to simple lemming who just bought this mirrorless camera and clearly do not have any photography skills.
3. Video must be removed from cameras, as it prevents camera to be pure professional tool to take stills (less clear, so you must read previous notes to get it)

My opinion about all of them - here companies are right and Thoms is wrong.
Btw, usually photo professionals are wrong in any relatively long term thing and managers learned it badly.

Future of SD card controller

Mihuel — Mon, 09 May 2011 04:47:48 +0000

I'm not computer guy so maybe my question will be ridiculous for somebody, but who cares ?
I found this : http://uk.eye.fi/products/prox2 , so can I use this with wifi connected hard disk ? Of course in the future there will be gear with USB3 or thunderbolt but I'm thinking of improvement of existing hardware. Can We use sd port to send data from camera to hard disk or computer by p.e. Ethernet ? http://www.sdcard.org/developers/tech/sdio/

Panasonic planning to cut 17,000 jobs

Vitaliy_Kiselev — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 08:15:54 +0000

Analysts said cutbacks were needed to ensure the company would be able to compete successfully against South Korean and Chinese rivals.

See more at - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/13218920

My comment.
We'll see more cuts in the future. 15.3% March sales slump in Japan also do not help.
Panasonic life will be tougher and tougher. I expect especially big hits in pro department.