Agenda

Lightroom 1.3 and Camera Raw 4.3 free updates now available

Adobe has released updates to Photoshop Lightroom and the Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in, both available immediately as free upgrades for existing users. The Lightroom 1.3 update provides added support for Apple Leopard Mac OS X 10.5 and includes a technology preview of the Lightroom Export SDK, available as a separate download on the Adobe Labs site. The Lightroom 1.3 and Camera Raw 4.3 updates also include raw file support for seven additional digital cameras including the Nikon D3, Nikon D300 and Canon 1Ds Mark III.
The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.3 update is available as a free download for existing customers. The Photoshop Lightroom Export SDK technology preview is available as a separate download on the Adobe Labs site.

18:1 ratio zoom from Olympus

Among a whole clutch of new digital cameras Olympus has introduced a model with a remarkable 18:1 optical zoom. The 7.1-megapixel SP-550 UZ’s lens offers the equivalent range of a 28-500mm zoom in the 35mm format so it’s no surprise the camera comes with gyro-sensor image stabilisation. High ISO values are also used to minimise shutter speed. The camera should be out in March at around £375. Among other Olympus releases is an 8-megapixel model at £200, the FE-250, due February.

Who needs a camera? ...

... when you've got a phone. Check out this Samsung prototype.

Another snip from Leica

To mark 50 years of the Leica M-series rangefinder cameras the company has announced a limited edition titanium version of the M7. Very limited, in fact, with only 50 sets (body plus three lenses) available worldwide. For UK customers it is probably already too late as only one set has been allocated to our shores. So you'll have to go and spend your £13,550 elsewhere. Instead, why not have a bit of fun designing your own personalised M7 or MP at the Leica website - among the 4000 (yes, four thousand) options/combinations available is a choice of 12 different leather finishes, although highly fashionable leopardskin does not appear to be one of them. Trick missed there one feels.

Barry Thornton's chemicals back online

As an update to a notice in the current issue of Ag, we learn that the late Barry Thornton's monochrome processing chemicals will once again be available for purchase online. They are to added to the range available at Monochrome Photography, the website of Peter Hogan, within the next few days. Also available from there is Hogan's own staining developer Prescysol, which he claims is superior to Pyro in a number of ways which he explains on the site. Among other products available from Monochrome Photography will be Thornton's book 'Elements of Transition', based on a four-part series first published in Ag (Ag30-33); previously produced 'on-demand' by Thornton, the book will now be available in CD format.

Freelance Photographer's Handbook 2005

The UK's Bureau of Freelance Photographers has just published the 21st edition of its annual 'Freelance Photographer's Market Handbook'. The 272-page paperback is a comprehensive directory of the magazine market in particular, and also includes information and contacts in newspapers, agencies, card and calendar publishers, and a section on services that the freelance photographer will need to call on from time to time. In all it's a very useful publication, particularly for less experienced photographers' whose contact books might not be over-full. BFP members receive the book free (as part of their membership), the rest of you can find it in bookshops (ISBN 0-907297-55-2, £14.95), or you can order it direct from the BFP for £16.45 including p&p on its 24-hour credit card line 020 8882 3315. Annual membership of the BFP costs £49 (UK) and £65 (oversaes). Call the same number for details.

Leica digital back for R8/R9

Even if you're wealthy enough to own a Leica R8 or R9 SLR, you might have to save a while to complete your outfit with the digital back the company is launching at photokina later this month. The 10-megapixel unit will have a suggested selling price of £3298 in the UK; it carries a CCD covering 54% of the standard 35mm frame, which effectively narrows the lens' angle of view by a factor of 1.37. As the Leica Digital-Modul-R is expected to become available in December, it could pay to start writing a nice letter to Santa Claus right now.