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

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.

While in the mind of many, the traditional mirrored DSLR is still “better” than the mirrorless DSLR, many are also waking up to the undeniable fact that a mirror today is wasteful of space, loud, relatively slow and simply unnecessary. The mirror once served its purpose to direct light coming thru the lens into the viewfinder, thus allowing the photographer to see what would be exposing the film.

Today, the mirrorless DSLR allows the photographer to not only do the same thing, but also see exactly what is exposing the sensor and what changes the processing unit would be applying to come up with the final digital image. It’s a more exact image, pending any post-processing you might choose to apply to it. And you can see that image on a high resolution LCD or EVF (electronic viewfinder). Is there still compelling reasons to keep the mirror? Not many, if you ask me.

We believe 2011 was the Year of the Compact Mirrorless DSLR. It is interesting to note that the best compact mirrorless DSLR, according to the majority of the reviewers, comes from Sony (Sony NEX-7) which seems to have regained some of its boldness to innovate fearlessly. We don’t know how much influence the old gang from Minolta may have contributed to that innovation, but we’d like to believe they played an important role.

Is Sony just one step away from repeating the same feat using a full frame sensor? Once again, we’ll hear that Sony itself makes DSLRs which use a translucent mirror, that it’s hard to do, etc. but technically there are really no stumbling blocks anymore to using a full frame sensor, so it’s just a matter of time.

We may be on the brink of a new revolution in camera development, continuing right where we left off when we veered away from film to embrace digital imaging. At that time, digital imaging was still in its infancy and we had to take baby steps to bring us back to the point where film was at its zenith. Digital imaging can now confidently claim to be able to replace film imaging completely.

Other camera manufacturers are right behind Sony: The Olympus (now with the E-P3) and Panasonic (now with the GX1) have of course started and led that revolution all along. The Samsung NX200 shows that a relative newcomer can make an excellent compact mirrorless DSLR — and we expect more good and surprising things from Olympus, Panasonic and Samsung in 2012.

Of course, the News of the Year was the Fujifilm X100 with its beautiful retro look and outstanding image quality. Fujifilm [isn't it time to drop the "film" part and go back to the beloved "Fuji" name?] is now promising a compact mirrorless DSLR (i.e., an interchangeable lens camera) and that gets all enthusiasts’ heart skipping a beat. As good the Sony NEX-7 is, one thing it lacks is charm. The NEX-7 is a tool, period. The X100 is a beautiful tool.

Of the two camera greats, only Nikon ventured into the compact mirrorless DSLR category, though timidly, taking great care not to intrude into its traditional mirrored DSLR sales. The Nikon 1 System (1 V1 and 1 J1) has the potential of being a great system but time will tell if consumers will settle for a small sensor.

Canon has resisted the lure of the compact mirrorless DSLR so far, though dangling the promise that it is working on a killer model for who knows when. When it does finally introduce its compact mirrorless, will it follow Nikon’s example? Or, will it introduce a large sensor mirrorless? We believe Canon is too vested into its traditional mirrored DSLRs to be that bold. But we fervently hope Canon will prove us wrong.

What’s next for 2012? Besides the rumored Nikon D4 and D800 — two traditional mirrored DSLRs which will apparently set new standards in performance and image quality — all the exciting news will continue to come from the compact mirrorless DSLR category. Which camera manufacturer will be the first to throw caution — and the mirror — to the wind and make all its DSLRs mirrorless? This is really the obvious, common sense way to go. You read it here first.

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

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

From peestandingup

Apple Logo, Then and Now

The evolution of the Mac: from Mac, iMac to MacBook Air

Steve Jobs Photos

Timeline: Steve Jobs

Tributes to Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs: From high school dropout to cult hero

Apple’s Arab Spring

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

Our DCViews website will remain operational until the end of this year to service as a historic reference for digital cameras and the associated reviews.

We thank you all for your continued support over all these years and wish you all the best in your digital photography endeavors.

Sebastian Pennings

We’ve enjoyed DCVIEWS reviews and have featured them here. We hope they will reconsider and maybe reinvent themselves into a new site, perhaps dedicated to a narrower section of the photography community. So, Good Luck to Sabastian Pennings and his team and here’s our best wishes to their future Web pursuits!

Read the article at: DCVIEWS.

Could Nikon build a wickedly innovative and top end “compact” with that format? You bet they could. [...] A Coolpix P300 on steroids isn’t a product that most of you reading this Web site would be interested in, is it?

That got me to thinking. If Nikon sees the target market for its compact mirrorless to be those desiring something better than the Coolpix P300, then perhaps it does make sense.

There is also the sense from traditional DSLR camera manufacturers that they need to offer their own version of compact mirrorless to compete directly with the increasingly successful micro 4/3 compact mirrorless DSLRs.

However, I can’t help wondering if there may be a flaw in this reasoning: see, from the impressive improvements we have seen the micro 4/3 compact mirrorless gain in recent years, it seems to me they do NOT see themselves as below the APS-C DSLRs. Though they certainly are competing with the compact digicams, they also see themselves (with their high-end models) as on the same level — and competing — to dethrone the traditional DSLRs. In other words, in an ideal 4/3 world, there are no more mirrored APS-C DSLRs, for the mirror is redundant (didn’t you get the memo?). And if the 4/3 mirrorless don’t succeed, then I guess other camera manufacturers with an APS-C mirrorless probably will. Obviously, anything smaller than 4/3 won’t ever be able to compete with the APS-C DSLRs.

I am also wondering if some of the camera manufacturers planning a compact mirrorless offering may not be making a mistake with their target market. I may be totally out of left field on this issue, but it seems to me that the compact mirrorless target market is not simply another rung for the consumer to climb on the way to DSLR heaven. Rather, it’s made up of serious and even pro photographers who have (re) discovered the joy of a small, compact and fast camera with superb handling and exceptional DSLR-level image quality. They will not be satisfied with anything less. Is that a wrong understanding on my part?

Message to any camera manufacturer concerning a potential compact mirrorless offering: do you see yourself swimming with the fishes? Like the Old Spice commercial might say: Look again, they are not fishes — they are sharks.

Apple’s announcement of its iCloud offering is game-changing. Public cloud computing has been available for a while now but has never taken off in a big way; it was primarily relegated to corporate uses and never meant to be so broad reaching as the iCloud proposes to be.

Since users of Apple devices have no choice but to use iCloud, the latter is immediately upon arrival a runaway success. Every music bought on iTune, every picture taken with the iPhone (which by the way will sport a “shutter release button” in the guise of the volume control), and presumably more (I can’t believe Apple will stop at these; what about books, software, etc.) will automatically reside in iCloud.

The advantage of a cloud is, of course, the availability of whatever you store in the cloud at your fingertips everywhere, anywhere and on any smart device. If you can connect, that is.

And herein lies the first major hurdle that Apple iCloud has to overcome. Will users 1) pay to store stuff in iCloud, and 2) pay for the upload and download? Unless you have a reasonably affordable unlimited bandwidth plan from your Internet Service Provider (ISP), you’d be most probably very quickly paying through your nose. [Take Internet TV as an example. You quickly run out of your monthly allocated bandwidth and have to pay for extra download. I can barely keep under my allocated Internet use limits, and that is why that all those ads and encouragements that Rogers (my ISP) sends me to watch TV online continue to fall on deaf ears.]

Keep uploading and downloading music, pictures and books and it’ll cost you lots in extra bandwidth. And, 3) you still have to factor the extra $25/year you need to pay Apple to host all your stuff on iCloud. Oh, iCloud starts out as “free” but 5GB is not much (though the iTune music you buy do not count toward that space — since it’s already there and Apple keeps one copy for all users). And $25 does not buy you unlimited storage space either folks, so once you hit the unspecified limit (my guesstimate is 25GB at $0.99/GB), expect to fork out more mullah.

The good thing with the iCloud is that it will be a success in the consumer space because Apple users are so enamored with their devices that they will pay for it. Plus, did I mention that they have no choice? Which will force other competitors to follow suit: Google, Amazon, Microsoft.

In the corporate space, companies such as VMWare will probably also benefit as CIOs start to divest their infrastructure to move to the cloud. They will really have no choice since it will be cheaper and they’ll have to justify a higher infrastructure cost versus using the cloud. Amazon is already in that game and will no doubt benefit. Google is synonymous with cloud, but it better jump into this specific consumer space or get left behind while they continue to pursue incredibly interesting but commercial-wise hopelessly unrealistic side projects. They could offer us free unlimited storage space in the cloud, plus affordable, fast and unlimited Internet access. They would own this space! But will they? Another player is Microsoft. Will it jump into this particular fray or miss it altogether, collective heads buried into bringing us a Windows 8 that nobody asked for or wants? Because the other players talk about it while Apple does it, Apple will rule the consumer cloud space (at least for Apple devices and services) for now; there is still a gap in the corporate space. Is RIM up to it? Its co-CEO is unfortunately more interested in owning an NHL franchise than work on the next generation RIM. The future is cloudy (pun intended) indeed.

As the current issue of CIO.com predicts, jobs will be at risk because once companies move en masse to the cloud, all that corporate infrastructure — and the jobs that accompany it — will become redundant. And don’t think you’ll also get outsourced: the skills required at the oursourcing company has more to do with designing infrastructure than running it.

So, yes, this cloud is about to rain on so many people and companies. It’s where technology is inexorably taking us and so where we must go. If there’s anyone who can make it work, it’s Apple and its courageous (if you’ve watched the keynote address) CEO, Jobs. So rain away!

As these events occur before our eyes, day by day, it certainly puts things in perspective and we are poignantly reminded that there are more important things in life than photography, cameras, iPads and other gadgets. Namely, family, relationships, and making time for those you love and care about.

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