How could London Underground mess up their sign so? No DSLR was allowed in their Aldwych Underground Station “due to their combination of high-quality sensor and high resolution” — then they backtracked and said it was for safety, since heavy cameras and tripods could pose a safety hazard as visitors negotiated spiral staircase with over 160 steps; and again now a third time saying that excessive photography (apparently people using DSLRs tend to take excessive pictures) would cause delays because people were held up by visitors taking pictures. So, which one of the three reasons is it? And if any one of those was deemed valid, why remove the ban now?

Let’s examine the 3 reasons given one by one.

1. Compact mirrorless cameras now take high quality and high resolution pictures, so banning DSLRs won’t help one bit.
2. Put a sign that says no one is supposed to take pictures on the staircase. No one is stupid enough to anyway.
3. I believe advanced photographers take less pictures than happy go-lucky snapshooters.

The reasons do not hold water and London Underground has still not come out and tell us the real reason for the original ban. Probably some company wanted to gain exclusive rights to take and sell pictures and postcards there. A perfectly good reason and one that every photographer would accept. But, please no bull.

via pdn

There is no name more famous in film than Kodak. Nor in cameras… a decade or more ago. In fact, in some developing countries, the very name Kodak became synonymous with cameras, as in, “Don’t forget to bring your Kodak” — meaning don’t forget to bring your camera, whatever brand it may happened to be.

As Eastman Kodak Co. faces the threat of delisting from the New York Stock Exchange, its stock trading at less than $1.00, it is only a matter of time before someone buys its good name and slaps it onto generic digital cameras (which Kodak itself does today).

It is good to pause and ponder that things change. Some of us are still clinging to film, optical viewfinder, the traditional mirrored DSLR, brick-and-mortar businesses, … whatever it is you cut your teeth on, came to grips with, learned, became very good at… it will change and be left behind as new ways and technologies take its place.

Today’s kids grow up on digital, the iPod, iPhone, iPad, USB flash drive. What’s a cassette tape, CD player, VHS player, CRT screen, floppy disk? This year 2012, set yourself a new resolution to embrace change. It’s the only constant.

Related Link:

• Kodak faces bankruptcy.

We wish our readers a Happy and Safe New Year 2012! It’s been a momentous year, both in photography and non-photography news. In photography news, we saw the compact mirrorless DSLR take its rightful — dare we say, destined — place, first alongside the traditional mirrored DSLRs, then increasingly becoming the DSLR camera of choice for both beginners and enthusiasts.

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The addition of video features to the DSLR has without doubt started somewhat of a revolution, so much so that even movie directors are happily using these relatively compact and cheap videocameras (compact and cheap compared to their professional video equipment) as potential throwaways — attached to crashing and exploding cars and such.

It is interesting to read about all the excitement and this article by Phil Holland over at Luminous Landscape seems to summarize all that is good and bad about this phenomenon. One look at the rig and I was floored. How can anyone accept to work with such throw-together and unwieldy contraptions? It’s just so painful to see.

Perhaps it’s high time that the DSLR/DVideo be split into their own stream and timelines? By all means keep the good: use the same lens mount, use the same full-frame sensor, but give the DVideo its own form factor and specialized accesories, perhaps include a built-in steadycam, hi-def stereo mic, etc. Keep it compact, keep it cheap.

Amateur photographers will continue to desire good video shooting capability in their DSLR and that’s fine. But the challenges faced by the DSLR and DVideo sometimes [often?] require independent solutions that may be at odds with the one or the other, and no one want to see one compromised for the other. For pros, once you rig up a DSLR for video shooting, you don’t suddenly switch to still shooting during the same take, do you? Most probably, you purchase and dedicate a DSLR for video shooting exclusively. Plus, you have a couple of or more DSLRs, each fitted with its own lens of a particular focal length. So, doesn’t it also make sense to have a dedicated DVideo with its own specialized capabilities? Camera manufacturers, a whole new category awaits.

Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

Steve Jobs passed away peacefully today at the young age of 56. He is the co-founder of Apple, which he started with Steve Wozniak in a garage in 1976. Besides Apple, Jobs also founded NeXT Computer and Pixar. His trademark black mock turtleneck and blue jeans made dressing comfortable acceptable as a business casual attire — and countless others followed his example of starting their technology revolution in their garage. He will probably be remembered by this generation as the CEO behind the Mac, iMac, MacBook, iPod, iPhone and iPad. Key words: “It’s magic.”

via The Star

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In the excitement over the introduction of the Nikon 1 System, many have debated over what they believe is a game-changing technology: the focal plane phase detection autofocus with phase detection AF sensors embedded right onto the image sensor itself. With this new configuration, the need for a separate Phase-detection AF sensor is not necessary anymore, which also means that the mirror to reflect the light to that sensor is not necessary anymore.

If this new focal plane phase detection AF returns AF speed as lightning fast as that currently obtained in DLSRs (and there’s no reason to doubt otherwise), then the use of a mirror would be relegated to reflecting light to an optical viewfinder. Even Sony’s SLT translucent mirror would be redundant.

Can the use of the mirror in a DSLR be nearing its end as the electronic viewfinder gets so much better with every new introduction? Nikon must know that, with its introduction of the focal plane phase detection AF sensors, its own DSLRs would eventually need to be retooled: without the mirror, DSLRs can be smaller, lighter, faster. Nikon claims that it had been working on the Nikon 1 System even before Olympus and Panasonic introduced their compact mirrorless cameras. Is it then beyond the realm of possibility that they are even now working on the next generation of Nikon mirrorless DSLRs?

That leaves one major camera manufacturer with still no mirrorless offering, but we are told that November 3 is the day Canon will introduce something BIG to blow away our socks. Nikon flew journalists to New York to announce the Nikon 1 System; Canon is doing it in LA. As far as we know, the embedded phase detection sensors technology is not a Nikon exclusivity; as soon as that technology became available (in some research paper probably), every camera and sensor manufacturer must have been hard at work on their version. I simply cannot believe Canon engineers have not been hard at work on their mirrorless. And I cannot think of anything bigger than a huge chunk of its DSLRs (say, the APS-C DSLRs) going mirrorless, suddenly leaving all competitors in the dust. I mean, if Leica can do it and Sony can do it and even Samsung can do it using an APS-C sensor, there’s no reason Canon cannot also accomplish this.

These are all speculations and guesses of course but some have debated that even the top of the line full frame pro DSLRs would eventually be mirrorless? What do you think? Does it seem to you that the direction is becoming clearer and clearer for DSLRs that “The Future Is Mirrorless?”

The wait seems to be finally over and anyone can now sign up to Google+. I am sure everyone with a Gmail account will give it a try (in fact, you may soon have no choice but to join). As to whether, they will actually use it is another matter. I signed up and to tell you the truth, I’m stuck. Friends, what friends? I mean, seriously (because Google wants us to be serious with our identity, etc.), how many “friends” do you really have? Acquaintances, maybe. Colleagues, sure. Coworkers, business contacts, people you know, but real, actual, friends?

To make it easy to start out with circles, Google has already created the following circles: Friends, Family, Acquaintances and Following.

With the Internet being what it is, privacy takes on an added and urgent dimension. Anything and everything you type (whether public or private) is available to Google for its use and for said friends to copy and paste for the whole world to read and see. In other words, there ain’t no privacy on the Net and anyone who takes his or her circles too seriously will be disappointed. So, as you venture forth into Google+, be careful who you invite and what private info you share. Don’t put anything online that you are not ready and willing for the whole world to read.

I think I am going to avoid the mistakes I made with Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter: too many people I don’t really know tagged as friends. I’m going to let my circles build up organically, one person at a time. I think.

Courtesy and © Jackman Chiu

It is a memorial drawn with colored chalks all over the public space at Nathan Philips Square in front of the Toronto City Hall. Jackman Chiu has captured a beautiful picture that shows the enormous outpouring of love for Jack Layton, who passed away Monday Aug 22, 2011 at the age of 61. He left a letter to Canadians [and I would believe the rest of the world can also benefit from it] for a gentler world of love, hope and optimism.

Come the rain, and the impromptu memorial will be washed away from the concrete. But not from our hearts.

via boingboing