dSLR Dad

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You can find more comics by Aaron Johnson at What the Duck.net.

You can find more comics by Aaron Johnson at What the Duck.net.

It has been a long time coming, and it happened with very little fanfare, but JPEG XR has officially become a standard:

JPEG XR (ISO/IEC 29199-2) is now an International Standard and also an ITU-T Recommendation (T.832). New work has been started to enable the use of JPEG XR image coding within the JPIP protocol, which allows interactive browsing of networked images. The Motion JPEG XR specification for support of video sequences is currently approaching the Final Committee Draft phase of the ISO/IEC approval process. WG 1 is pleased to note the successful completion of JPEG XR verification testing experiments for low dynamic range images.

Now I’m sure most of you are wondering: “What the heck is JPEG XR and why should I care?”  Well, to answer that question, you need a little bit of history…

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Episode 100 of the This Week in Photography podcast is now available for download at Pixelcorps.TV. Host’s Frederick Van Johnson, Ron Brinkmann, and Aaron Mahler discuss the following topics on this week’s show:

NEWS & DISCUSSION

• Thieves make off with Nikon traffic cameras
• Ricoh unveils GR Digital III digital compact
• Civetta challenges the Spheron Camera
• AstroScope 9350EOS-FF adds night vision to your Canon DSLR
• Panasonic releases Lumix cams with HDR
• TTG Highslide Pro announced

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The Photofocus podcast, Episode 10, is now available for download at Photofocus.com.  This week, hosts Scott Bourne and Rick Sammon answer the following questions:

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You can find find more comics at What the Duck.net.

Pentax has released a firmware update for the K-7. According to Pentax, this firmware update, Version 1.01,incorporates the following fixes:

• Added [Operate at AF point “SEL”] on [Custom] menu and it can be selected either [1 Calling Function Preference] or [2 Select AF point Preference].
  When selected [2 Select AF point Preference] and AF point switching dial is set at [SEL], selection of AF point can be operated priority by the four-way controller.
  How to operate additional function, Click Here.
• Improved stability for general performance
  For example: when left- end focus point is selected, function of auto focus may rarely become unstable in particular shooting condition.

You can download firmware version 1.01 from Pentax here.

Nikonian dSLR Dads have a little extra spring in their step today. Nikon has introduced the D300s dSLR Camera. Taking what was already a great camera:

• 12.3-Megapixel APS DX-format (23.6 x 15.8 mm) CMOS image sensor. Photo resolution will be 4288 x 2848 pixels.
• 3-inch, 920,000 pixel LCD monitor
• 51-point MultiCAM3500FX Autofocus System (same as Nikon D3, D3x, and D700).
• 16-bit EXPEED image processing with 12 or 14 bit A/D conversion.
• extended ISO range of 100-6400.
• Active D-Lighting for complete control over highlight and shadow detail.
• HDMI video output. Although it’s now a smaller Type C port.

Nikon went ahead and added some additional features to make it better:

• 720p High-Definition video recording at a cinema-friendly 24 frames-per-second. Maximum recording length of 5-minutes.
• Motion JPEG encoding – which is a shame. Nikon really should have upgrade their processing engine to handle h.264.
• Built-in 16 bit/11.025kHz mono mic.
• External stereo sound input will capture 16 bit/44.100kHz stereo audio. A must for any dSLR Dad who also shoots with a AF-S VR lens. Even those silent waves come up loud and clear on an onboard microphone. It will capture 16 bit/44.100kHz stereo audio.
• Dual Memory Card slots – Compact Flash and SD/SDHC, living in harmony. Configuration logic is similar to the D3.
• Continuous shooting of a fantastic Seven images-per-second or Eight with the optional Multi-Power Battery Pack MB-D10. Unfortunately, 14-bit RAW frames are still limited to a slow 2.5 fps. At this price, a dSLR Dad shouldn’t have to choose.

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