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Microstock Widget Retrieves Earnings, Downloads

(Seattle, WA) - Bedouin Ventures, LLC, (www.bedouinventures.com) today released MicroStock Watcher™, a widget that allows microstock photography contributors to quickly retrieve earnings for up to six microstock sites. MicroStock Watcher™ is Bedouin Ventures’ second software release.

MicroStock Watcher™ is a widget that runs on both the Mac OSX 10.4 (Tiger) and Microsoft XP Yahoo! Widget (a/k/a Konfabulator) platforms. The Mac OSX Tiger Dashboard version is available immediately, and the Yahoo! Widget version will be available soon, according to Bedouin Ventures. The widget quickly retrieves earnings, downloads and uploads for six of the largest microstock photography agencies. Using a simple and intuitive interface, the widget allows microstock photography contributors to follow their statistics in real time.

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Pavel Kudrys has started an online petition about the new 10 megapixel Panasonic DMC-LX2 and Panasonic DMC-FZ50 digital cameras;

“The main aim of this petition is to “force” the Panasonic to release a firmware update for their very recent prosumer cameras FZ50 and LX2. This new firmware should allow the users to turn the in-camera Noise Reduction (and other picture adjustments, like contrast, saturation and sharpness) completely OFF. The current option to set the picture adjustments to LOW is not enough, because the VENUS III NR is simply too strong and kills many fine details (as you already realized in your preview) and gives the JPEG output very smudgy and watercolor paint look.”

>> Sign the Panasonic FZ50/LX2 Firmware Petition

ACDSee has recently released its latest Photo Manager software, the ACDSee 9 Photo Manager. The new ACDSee 9 Photo Manager features quick view mode which allows you to see your photos onscreen instantly — whether you’re opening an image attachment to an e-mail, or double-clicking on a JPEG from Windows Explorer.

You can buy the ACDSee 9 Photo Manager + ACDSee Photo Editor for $79.99 or you might want to download and try the software first.

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Due to the minimal distortion and barely perceptible field curvature, it can be recommended for highly demanding architecture photography even at the 16 mm setting. Used on the digital M8, it produces the image effect of a 21 - 28 mm lens, still enabling extreme wide-angle views.

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DxO Optics Pro v4 Public Beta 2, available immediately, is localized for key markets, features film looks and includes the Adobe® Photoshop® plug-in.

New York, NY and Paris, France – Sept 15, 2006 – DxO Labs announces today availability of a free, Windows PC public beta 2 release of DxO Optics Pro v4 for all digital photographers to download from the DxO Labs Web site (http://www.dxo.com). DxO Optics Pro software improves the image quality of Digital Single-Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras and advanced digicams. DxO Optics Pro is the award-winning digital image enhancement tool incorporating revolutionary optics, noise and exposure corrections in an easy-to-use, feature rich application for Mac and PC users.

Beta 2 of DxO Optics Pro v4 adds exciting features not available in the first Beta:

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For better results and improved handling, lenses based on the Four Thirds Standard feature near telecentric construction, which takes into account the specific technical characteristics and requirements of digital cameras. Two new Olympus Four Thirds lenses will be introduced with the E-400 at its launch: the EZ-1442 ED 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 (equiv. to 28-84mm on a 35mm camera), which is perfect for standard applications, and, for more magnification power there is the EZ-4015-2 ED 40-150mm 1:4.0-5.6 (equiv. to 80-300mm on a 35mm camera). Both lenses are exceptionally compact, for greater mobility and speedy use. They also offer maximum image quality at an excellent price and feature a stylish design with a blue ring in the middle – the new insignia for the Olympus E-System lens line-up.

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If you happen to show up at the Photokina in Cologne, make sure to come to Hall 2.1, Booth B010 where you can see the world’s largest telephoto lens developed by Carl Zeiss.

The Super Tele Lens (STL Sonnar T* 4/1700) weighs in at 256 kg features 1700 mm focal length, a speed of f/4 with servo controlled aiming and focusing developed for long distance wildlife photography and provides 21x magnification.

Source: Zeiss.com

Last updated: Review by CNET (22.08.06)

Casio has today announced the new Casio Exilim EX-Z600, a 6.0 Megapixel point-and-shoot digital camera with 3x optical zoom plus the Anti Shake DSP (Digital Signal Processor) and a huge 2.7″ TFT LCD Screen.

Casio Exilim EX-Z600 Latest Price & User Opinions

>> REVIEWS (last update: 22.08.06)

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T9 is a very slim 6 megapixel (CCD) point-and-shoot digital camera (released on 01.11.06) with 3x optical zoom, lens-shift optical stabilizer and 2.5″ LCD screen. The camera is available from January 2006 with the retail price of around US$450

Sony CyberShot DSC-T9 Hottest Deals

>> REVIEWS (last updated: 02.08.06)

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Canon USA is hosting a photo contest for non-professional photographers who are living in the States. If you have not earned 51% or more of your annual income by taking, selling or marketing photographs, whether as an employee or a freelance photographer, during the last three (3) years, you should head for the nearest scenic National Park with your photo gears ASAP

Prizes are including a mouth-watering Canon EOS 5D DSLR with EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens, PIXMA Pro9500, and One year membership to Photoworkshop.com for the first winner; EOS 30D with EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM kit, PIXMA Pro9500, and Six month membership to Photoworkshop.com for the second winner; EOS Digital Rebel XT with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens, PIXMA Pro9000, and Six month membership to Photoworkshop.com will go to the third winner.

Contest rules and submission form are available at
http://www.photoworkshop.com/canon/nationalparks/index.htm