TWiP #232 – There’s A Yak For That

This week on TWiP: dSLRs banned from a UK tube station, iPhone photos find their way into stock photography, Kodak burning through $70 million a month, and CF cards to be replaced by smaller XQD format.

Hosts: Frederick Van Johnson, Ron Brinkmann, and Nicole Young

NEWS & DISCUSSION

dSLRs Banned from UK Tube Station
From Petapixel: Photographer Tim Allen spotted a sign outside the Aldwych tube station, an abandoned London Underground station that recently opened up for tours. While photography bans are pretty common, the station has decided to only ban DSLRs due to “their combination of high quality sensor and high resolution”.

Other cameras are allowed in, as long as they don't look “big” enough to shoot amazing photos. Since the story broke, the museum has revealed that the real reason for the ban is because dSLR shooters take longer to shoot photos and they don't want them to delay the tours. Ron and Nicole can see banning tripods but thinks that this is just a case of people making dumb decisions and not understanding the technology.

Nicole suggests checking out a website where Carlos Miller writes about situations where photographers were harassed by police or security guards.

iPhone Photos Have Arrived in Stock Photography
Proving that you don't need a high-end dSLR camera to get into the world of stock photography, Aurora Photos launched a website where you can sell Stock Photos taken using your iPhone.

Ron wonders what the point of this site is and if people will be specifically looking for photos taken with iPhones. He thinks that something smells a bit fishy about the site. Coming from the stock photography world,

Nicole brings up the fact that they aren't requiring model releases and thinks it could turn into a big mess for contributors.

Kodak Burning Through $70 Million Every Month
Could the end of the road for Kodak be near? The LA Times is reporting that Kodak is burning through and estimated $70 million per month and could be close to filing for bankruptcy.

From their story: The Rochester, N.Y., company said it had $862 million in cash on hand as of Sept. 30, but at the rate it's losing money from operations (more than $70 million a month), that hoard would barely last a year.

As for future revenue, it's banking heavily on winning patent lawsuits against Apple and the maker of BlackBerry phones.

While the news doesn't look good for Kodak, things seem to be looking up for Olympus. Last week, the entire Board of Directors for Olympus said they would step down and investors responded in kind, bumping the stock price back up to over ¥1,100 – up from its 52 week low of ¥424 back in early November.

This week, ex-CEO Michael Woodford is in Tokyo to try and get reinstated as the CEO of Olympus. Bloomberg is also reporting that Fuji may be interested in buying Olympus.

CF Cards to be Replaced by Smaller XQD Format
From Petapixel: Perhaps in response to the growing capacities and falling prices of SD cards, the CompactFlash Association has announced a new format to replace CF cards for professional photographers.

It's called XQD, and has a size that falls between CF and SD cards (it's thicker than SD cards, but smaller than CF cards). The interface used is PCI Express, which has a theoretical max write speed of roughly 600MB/s, though the target for real-world write speeds at first will be 125MB/s.

It'll start making public appearances at trade shows early next year, and will be licenced out to card makers around the same time. In related news, specs on the Nikon D4 were leaked last week and it is rumoured to support this new XQD format.

LISTENER QUESTIONS

Question 1:Nicholas Mazur on our Facebook page writes: I was just noticing that in Lightroom 3 my shots with my Canon 50d, shot in raw, are posterized in the blue and red areas.

When the files are opened in Canon's digital photo pro software, the images look fine. What's Lightroom doing to my images and what can I do to fix them? They print posterized as well so it doesn't appear to be an issue with the jpeg preview that Lightroom is creating.

Nicole: All Raw processors render the files differently. Try changing the “Camera Calibration” profile settings to see if that helps the posterized areas. You can use one of the settings, or manually adjust the color calibration in that panel and then set it as an import preset when you import your images in the future.

Question 2: Gavin Beckford on our Facebook page writes: Would love to hear your perspectives on non-Nikon and non-Canon gear.

For example, if you woke up one morning and there was no more Canon or Nikon gear to shoot with (perhaps caused by a Pentax/Sony/Olympus WMD?), what system most inspires you and would be your ongoing choice for photography, considering glass range, support, bodies, etc.?

Ron: I really like the micro 4/3rds that are out there and now they are even better with the range of lenses that are available. The other one that is a strong contender is Sony.

PICKS OF THE WEEK

Ron – 3D fireworks glasses

Nicole – Stuck on Earth iPad app by Trey Ratcliff

Frederick – Email Marketing for Photographers

WRAP UP

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Ron Brinkmann – www.digitalcomposting.com or www.twitter.com/ronbrinkmann

Nicole Young – www.twitter.com/nicolesy or www.nicolesyblog.com or www.nicolesyplus.com

Frederick Van Johnson – www.frederickvan.com or www.twitter.com/frederickvan or Google Plus

CREDITS