Unibind announced that it is now shipping their award-winning PhotoBook Creator, the first low-cost do-it-yourself complete photo binding system for consumers. PhotoBook Creator is said to make it easy to create instant hard-cover 8½ x 11-inch personalized photo albums in only a few seconds.

Winner of the PMA 2006 DIMA Innovation Award, Photobook Creator makes photo albums for weddings, birthdays, graduations, vacations, baby showers, gifts, party mementos, and scrapbooking. PhotoBook Creator features a sturdy steel spine that creates a perfectly bound hardcover of up to 220 pages in a variety of colors and finishes. Albums are available with a window allowing the first photo to be viewed through the cover.

Unibind PhotoBook Creator is available immediately at retail location with a suggest list price of $99. It includes the PhotoBook Creator binding machine, 1 hardcover PhotoBook, and software to layout pages. Additional covers will also be available for purchase.

Website : Unbind’s website at www.unibind.com

Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan, the world’s largest digital camera maker, expects its 2006 Chinese sales to rise 30 percent from a year earlier, despite fierce rivalry from other companies, reports Reuters. Yasuhide Tamegai, the company’s China vice president, said he expected the momentum to continue in 2006 afterits Chinese sales expanded by about a third in 2005, far outpacing the 8 percent rise in its global group sales.

“We expect 30 percent growth (in China) this year,” Tamegai told Reuters on the sidelines of a business forum in Shanghai at the weekend. He declined to give an absolute figure for the Chinese sales, but said they still accounted for under 10 percent of the company’s 2005 global sales, which were ¥3.75 trillion (US$33.41 billion) on a group basis. The Japanese photography giant, which competes with Sony Corp., Tokyo, and Nikon Corp., Tokyo, among others, operates 11 wholly-owned companies and three joint ventures making digital cameras, digital copiers, bubble jet and laser beam printers.

Digital cameras have been the major growth driver in recent years for Canon in China, where the country’s expanding middle class is increasingly switching to those products even though they can cost three times as much as traditional cameras. Canon, which entered the mainland market two decades ago, still offers some traditional cameras here, but the number is decreasing, Tamegai said without giving details. Canon also ships a large portion of its Chinese-made products overseas, but so far it has felt little impact from the Chinese yuan, which has climbed 1.1 percent against the dollar since Beijing revalued it by 2.1 percent last July, Tamegai said.

“If the appreciation is within a 3 percent range annually, I think we can manage it,” he added. Canon has invested $1 billion in China so far, including a $100 million manufacturing plant near Shanghai — its largest in the world. Shares in Canon fell 0.98 percent to close at ¥8,050 on Monday in Tokyo, compared with the broader market down 0.34 percent, reports Reuters.

The Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens, with a fast, fixed f/2.8 aperture, very high image quality, 3-stop Image Stabilization and a very popular focal length range, is one of the best general/multi-purpose lenses available. Here’s the conclusion from TheDigitalPicture:

“With Ring USM (Ultrasonic Motor), the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens focuses very quietly and very fast. Focus accuracy has been very good for me (an equally or even more important fact). FTM (Full Time Manual) focusing is a very nice feature of this lens. The focus ring is rather small, but turns easily. Likely to get far more use is the zoom ring - it is very nicely sized and turns smoothly with little effort. The AF and IS switches are recessed to prevent accidental changes.

This lens is sharp! Wide open and from edge to edge. The ISO 12233 chart (closer distance) was not as kind to the corner results (likely a curved focus plane at close distance). The Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens shows slight sharpness improvement at f/4, but performance at f/2.8 is stellar.  

Weddings, events, parties, family activities, portraits, landscapes, stage shows, car shows, night sky … there are far more uses for this lens than I am going to think of. Unless there is an upgrade to a 1.3x or full frame body in your future, the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens is an ideal lens to include in your kit.

With the introduction of the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens, Canon displays its commitment to the EF-S line of lenses. With the huge base of Canon EF-S Digital SLR users, the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens, with its excellent features, specs and image quality, will find a home in many professional and amateur photographers’ kits. This is the lens I keep mounted on my 1.6x body (currently a 30D) - I highly recommend it.”

Website :  Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens Review at TheDigitalPicture

Amazon.com:  Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens priced at $1194.00

Ritz Interactive Inc., Irvine, Calif.,USA, reported first-quarter revenues climbed 15.7 percent to $20.1 million, compared to $17.3 million for the same period last year. “Ritz Interactive’s continued growth reflects an ever-increasing demand for the high quality lifestyle products and incredible convenience we offer,” noted Fred H. Lerner, president and CEO. “Online shoppers flock to our sites for the unparalleled selection, ease-of-use and money-saving opportunities,” Lerner said. “We make sure they are not disappointed.”

Lerner credits the increase primarily to strong corporate account sales and consumer demand for high-end single lens reflex digital cameras at the online retailer’s photo-specialty sites. In addition to its flagship Web properties RitzCamera.com, WolfCamera.com and BoatersWorld.com, the Ritz Interactive network includes such popular sites as CameraWorld.com, PhotoAlley.com, eAngler.com, OuterBanksOutfitters.com, and ShopAtShark.com. According to an Associated Press report, the company withdrew its initial public offering with Securities and Exchange Commission. The company originally filed its IPO in September 2005 and had sought to raise as much as $34.5 million. WR Hambrecht & Co. and Roth Capital Partners had been listed as underwriters for the offering.

Website :  Ritz Interactive , Inc.

Windows Media Photo is a new file format for continuous-tone still images that surpasses the limitations of existing image formats. Windows Media Photo supports a wide range of features including:

• Multiple color formats for display or print
• Fixed or floating point high dynamic range image encoding
• Lossless or high quality lossy compression
• Extremely efficient decoding for multiple resolutions and sub-regions
• Minimal overhead for format conversion or transformations during decode

Windows Media Photo delivers a lightweight, high performance algorithm with a small memory footprint that enables practical, in-device encoding and decoding. This version of the specification is based on the implementation of the Windows Media Photo codec that is currently shipping with Windows Vista Beta 2 and the WinFX Runtime Components Beta 2. Future updates to the specification will be posted here when they become available.

According to EE Times, “WMP is based on a symmetrical algorithm that supports both lossless and lossy compression. It requires no complex math or special hardware support, and is based primarily on add and shift operations with few multiplies in its inner loops. Memory requirements are also minimal, in part because the algorithm supports encoding and decoding imagines in stripes that only need small buffers.

To preserve compatibility with existing systems, the WMP format uses the existing TIFF container including its approach to metadata. The choice of TIFF however limits file sizes to 4 gigabytes, a limit Microsoft will address for high-end users in the future. Microsoft will also release tools to support WMP on existing Windows XP systems.

Website : Windows Media Photo Specification Version 1.0

Download : Windows Media Photo Specification Version 1.0 (Word document)

Website :  EE Times article - Microsoft beats JPEG with new photo format for Vista

The Microsoft Pro Photo Summit is a gathering of the thought-leaders in the professional digital photography industry. Held on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington, it will provide an opportunity to engage in dialog about the latest trends and future direction of digital photography at the professional level, network with the key people in the industry, and see demonstrations of the latest technology.

Microsoft executives will talk about the Microsoft roadmap for the future and role in the digital imaging industry. Top photographers will address their evolving needs and how technology has affected their work. Industry leaders will talk about the latest trends and direction for the industry.

Event Details:

Microsoft Pro Photo Summit

June 28 – 29, 2006
9:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.
Microsoft Conference Center
Redmond, Washington

Website :  2006 Microsoft Pro Photo Summit

According to Reuters news, Japan’s Canon Inc. said on Thursday that it would consider halting development of new film cameras as it focuses resources on digital models, the latest sign of the rapidly fading role of film in photography. A spokesman at Canon, the world’s largest digital camera maker, said it would consider whether it needs to continue developing both compact and single lens reflex (SLR) film models because the markets for both are shrinking.Canon said it would continue to produce and sell existing models and make a final judgment on the business in the future while monitoring market demand.

Canon’s statement follows an announcement earlier this year by rival Nikon Corp. that it would stop producing most of its film cameras, expect for a few professional products. Konica Minolta Holdings Inc., meanwhile, has said it would exit the camera and photo film markets, where it has been losing money amid stiff competition and weak demand.

The photographic film and film camera markets have been shrinking rapidly in the past few years due to the rising popularity of digital cameras, which can take and store photos without the need for film.

Website :  Canon considers halt to film camera

Canon - To Customers Who Use the EF 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens:

Thank you very much for your patronage of our products. We have recently become aware of a phenomenon in which some images captured by the EF 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS USM lens appear in insufficient resolution. This phenomenon may be seen at the edge of the frame at the 300mm setting when the camera is held vertically. We have been studying the symptoms of this phenomenon in order to determine its precise cause and to develop an appropriate remedy. We will inform you on this Web site as soon as this remedy has been decided, which, at this point should be by the end of June 2006. We are very sorry for the inconvenience this phenomenon represents for customers who use this lens and appreciate your patience as we work to resolve it.

Contact Information for inquiries: Call Center
1-800-828-4040 (toll free)
8AM to Midnight - Monday to Friday
10AM to 8PM - Saturdays
Email: carecenter@cits.canon.com

Website : Canon confirmed problems with EF 70-300mm F4-5.6 IS USM lens (in Japanese)