Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N.Y., USA, and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (MSLO), New York, N.Y., USA, announced a multi-year partnership to develop a line of branded Martha Stewart personalized photo products. The new line will be sold on the Kodak EasyShare Gallery website and at www.marthastewart.com. The line is expected to debut in late September with a large selection of holiday offerings such as cards, photo books, and more. Other products and new categories are expected to be introduced at the end of the year and in early 2007.

“The partnership supports Kodak’s goal to deliver the most creative, and innovative digital photography experience possible, inspiring people to unleash the power in their pictures that represent memories and stories of our lives, and to share them with family and friends,” said Sandra Morris, general manager of Consumer Digital Imaging Services, Eastman Kodak Co.

The new line will feature an array of personalized photo products — including cards, stationery, invitations, Photo Books, calendars, stickers and hang tags — created by the MSLO design team under Martha Stewart’s direction and supervision. MSLO will assume significant design responsibility for products in popular categories such as holidays, weddings, invitations, thank-you notes, and babies, and will be developing designs for new emerging categories, including food and gardening. This partnership is part of MSLO’s ongoing effort to extend and expand the www.marthastewart.com. In addition to finding information, ideas and inspiration, visitors to the website will be empowered to create projects of their own, and ultimately, to share those projects and personal ideas in the online space, says the company.

Website : Martha Stewart partners with Kodak EasyShare Gallery beginning this fall

The photography digital workflow market is getting more and more interesting, with Microsoft acquires iView Multimedia, it enables them to compete against Adobe Systems for the growing digital workflow market. Adobe Lightroom is a new, exciting product built from the ground up for professional photographers. It allows import, select, develop and showcase large volumes of digital images.

“With Microsoft’s purchase of iView, we are in a position to enhance our industry-leading product, whilst strengthening our customer service and support,” iView Multimedia founder Yan Calotychos said in an open letter to customers. The London-based company’s software, iView Media and iView Media Pro, is used for managing digital photos and other electronic art.

NPD analyst Chris Swenson said the deal should help Microsoft broaden its new Expression line of graphics and Web design tools by giving it a tool that is popular among photographers and other graphic artists. “Because digital photography and digital asset management is such a key aspect of Web design, I think it was a necessary strategic move that Microsoft had to make, given their investment in the Expression line,” Swenson said in an e-mail interview.

“The product that was born on the Mac will remain on the Mac as well as on the Windows operating system,” Calotychos said. “All iView products will continue to be sold on the iView Web site and through our partners and channel. Bottom line: You all can continue to use and buy iView products knowing that they will be fully supported as Microsoft evolves the products in the future on both the Windows and Mac platforms.”

According to iView’s Web site, Calotychos started the company in 1999 with his wife, Victoria.

Website : iView Multimedia founder Yan Calotychos’s open letter to customers

Website : Adobe Lightroom Public Beta 3 Released

Online photography site Shutterfly Inc., Redwood City, Calif., USA, is pursuing a sale or possible initial public offering, people familiar with the matter said, in a deal that could be worth $400 million to $500 million, reports The Wall Street Journal. Shutterfly is one of the industry’s earliest digital photo sites and was launched in 1999, funded partly by Silicon Valley investor Jim Clark, co-founder of Internet browser company Netscape Communications Corp. Shutterfly offers consumers ways to share and print digital photos, as well as provides online photo services with partner sites such as Amazon.com, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Shutterfly doesn’t disclose its net income, says the article. The company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization are estimated at around $20 million to $25 million, according to one person familiar with the company’s finances. At a sales price of 20 to 25 times Ebitda, that could create a sale of some $500 million, this person said. The company is examining a “dual track” strategy, says The Wall Street Journal, pursuing both a potential IPO while also assessing values from potential buyers.

Shutterfly officials didn’t return requests to The Wall Street Journal for comment. Shutterfly appears to have made some moves during the past 18 months to get ready for an IPO or sale. In January 2005, Jeffrey Housenbold, a former eBay Inc. executive, was named chief executive of the company. Housenbold beefed up Shutterfly’s management team, hiring new executives in finance, human resources, technology, and corporate development. Many members of the management team have experience conducting IPOs and mergers and acquisitions. The company has also made small acquisitions to bolster its technology, reports the article.

Adobe today announced it has acquired the technology assets of Pixmantec ApS, makers of digital imaging software that provides advanced workflow management and processing capabilities for digital camera raw files. The acquisition strengthens Adobe’s leadership position in raw processing. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.”With high quality digital cameras now within reach of every photographer, customers are gravitating to raw file formats that allow them to get more control over final results,” said John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions at Adobe®. “By combining Pixmantec’s raw processing technology and expertise with our own, we’re continuing to deliver on the promise that even your existing raw files can be processed with increasing quality as our software technology evolves.”

Pixmantec is a privately held company headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark and currently ships the RawShooter® line of digital photography software products.  Adobe plans to integrate Pixmantec raw processing technologies into Lightroom™ and wherever customers will be working with raw files.

In preparation for this integration, the Pixmantec RawShooter Premium product is being discontinued, though the free RawShooter Essentials product will continue to be available until the Lightroom public beta program is completed. Existing Pixmantec customers will continue to be supported by Adobe and will be provided with an upgrade path to the Adobe digital imaging product family.

Adobe believes this acquisition will not have a material financial impact on the company.

Website : Adobe acquired Raw Shooter from Pixmantec

The Tamron SP AF17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD Aspherical [IF] uses High Refractive Index glass (XR) to lower aberrations and make the lens more compact, Low Dispersion glass (LD) to minimize chromatic aberration and two Hybrid Aspherical Elements to further reduce residual aberrations and reduce the physical length of the lens. Here’s the conclusion of the review from BobAtkins:

“The Tamron SP AF17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD Aspherical [IF] is a good lens. It’s pretty sharp at all focal lengths, even wide open, but contrast does go up a notch when stopped down from f2.8 to f4. Chromatic aberration and distortion are generally well controlled, though there is noticeable barrel distortion at the wide end of the zoom range. Chromatic aberration is worst at 17mm, though you can see from the test image above that even at 17mm in the corners of the frame it’s pretty good. At longer focal lengths you’d need to look quite hard to see any problems.

As usual the decision about which lens to buy is a matter of compromise. You can have good, fast, optics, you can have IS, you can have a lens for about $500, but you can’t have all of them in a single lens! If you’re after  high optical quality, a fast lens which can blur backgrounds and stop action but you don’t want to spend more than about $500, the Tamron SP AF17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD Aspherical [IF] is a lens you could be very happy with. “

Website :  Tamron SP AF17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD Review at BobAtkins

Canon have announced their 2006 Spring rebate program. This is a simple rebate scheme with a fixed rebate on each item. Canon usually reserved their multiple rebate scheme for the fall.

The most significant rebates are $300 on the EOS 5D, and $100 on the Digital Rebel XT. Items must be purchased between April 1 and July 15, 2006 to be eligible for the “Cash In With Canon” Mail-in Rebate offer. Qualifying products must be purchased at an authorized Canon USA dealer or reseller. Claims must be postmarked by August 5, 2006.

By the way, I just got my $300 check from Canon for my 5D rebate!!!

Website : Canon $300 rebate on 5D starting April 1, 2006

Back in January this year, Canon Inc. announced the achievement of a new lens-production milestone as production of the company’s EF lenses passed the 30-million mark. Production of interchangeable EF lenses for Canon EOS-series AF (autofocus) SLR cameras began in 1987 at the company’s Utsunomiya Plant. Canon produced its 10-millionth EF lens in August 1995, its 20-millionth in February 2001 and, a mere five years later, has now reached the 30-million plateau.

To celebrate for this achievement, Canon made this mini model of the Canon EF 600mm F4 with EOS-1Ds Mark II camera. This model is not for sale and only available for lucky draw.

Website : Canon produces 30 millionth EF lens, 10 million lenses in 5 years

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Here’s the new Canon Professional Stray in RED color! Product ID in Japan is 5089A027 and it is priced at 3,500 Yen, i.e. around US$ 32. It surely look nice and wondering when I can buy one in the US…

Website :  New Canon Professional Strap

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