Canon EOS camera manufacturing milestone : Canon announced the achievement of a new camera manufacturing milestone as combined production of the company’s EOS series film and digital single lens reflex (SLR) cameras passed the 30-million mark. Additionally, production of EOS Digital-series SLR cameras has passed the 10-million unit threshold. The achievement coincides with Canon’s 70th anniversary and the 20th anniversary of the launch of its EOS line of SLR cameras. Shipment of EOS cameras began in 1987 from Canon Inc.’s Fukushima Plant (now Fukushima Canon Inc.), with production later moving to Canon Inc., Taiwan and the company’s current main production base at Oita Canon Inc.

Camera manufacturing milestone
In 1997, the 10th anniversary of the series, production reached 10 million units, and in 2003 it passed the 20-million mark. And now, a mere four years later, Canon reached the 30-million level. In March of 1987, Canon’s 50th anniversary, the company introduced the EOS 650 AF SLR camera, the first model of the EOS series.

Electronic mount system
The Canon EOS 650 incorporated the world’s first fully electronic mount system, achieving complete electronic control not only between the lens and body but throughout the entire camera system, representing a new generation of AF SLR cameras. Standing for “Electro Optical System” while also carrying the name of the Greek goddess of the dawn, the EOS series marked the dawn of an impressive range of innovative technologies and new heights of technological development.

Canon EOS cameras
Designed to realize Canon’s key concepts of high speed and ease-of-use, Canon EOS cameras garnered high acclaim from a wide range of users. In 1989 the company introduced the top-of-the-line EOS-1 professional model, and in 1992 the EOS 5 QD (EOS A2/EOS A2E or EOS 5 in regions outside Japan), equipped with Eye-Controlled Focus, a groundbreaking AF function that allowed users to select a desired focusing point just by looking at it.

Canon CMOS sensor
The following year, in 1993, Canon succeeded in expanding the company’s user base with the compact, lightweight EOS Kiss (EOS Rebel XS or EOS 500). In 2000, Canon formally ushered in the age of the digital SLR camera with the introduction of the EOS D30, equipped with the company’s proprietary CMOS sensor.

Canon DIGIC digital image processor
In addition to developing in-house such key components as CMOS sensors and the high-performance DIGIC digital image processor, Canon offers an extensive lineup of EF lenses and has launched cameras aiming to fulfill the company’s new key concepts of high speed, ease-of-use, and high image quality. This year, commemorating the 20th year of the EOS series, Canon has further bolstered its digital SLR camera lineup with the launch of the top-of-the-line EOS-1D Mark III and EOS-1Ds Mark III, featuring a fully revamped camera system, as well as the EOS 40D, which has won praise from a wide range of users, from first-time SLR camera owners to advanced amateurs.

Canon EOS series
Canon, through continued technological innovation with the EOS series, and by strengthening its marketing activities to deliver enhanced product quality and services, will continue its efforts to deliver all-around user satisfaction with an even more attractive lineup of products, contributing to new directions in the future of photographic expression.

Source: www.letsgodigital.org

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When he walked into the Atlantic Ocean off Rockaway Beach in Queens, despondent over the suicide of his companion a week earlier, Mr. Blake was just three months away from an exhibition of his recent video art at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington and another show at the Manhattan gallery Kinz, Tillou & Feigen. Many wondered what would become of his unfinished work and whether it would shed any light on his life, and his death at 35.

His work in progress, В“Glitterbest,В” is a video portrait of the 1970s punk-music impresario Malcolm McLaren, with whom he collaborated on the piece. Having toiled on it for a year and a half, Mr. Blake left behind a completed audio track bursting with romping punk riffs, video-game blasts of intergalactic battles and clanging church bells and an impish 11-minute voice-over by Mr. McLaren.

But most of the visual presentation was unfinished. Embedded in his computer hard drive were numerous image files evoking an enchanted world populated by pirate ships, psychedelic phalluses and neon graffiti. The still frames were virtually a mere slide show, a far cry from the rich dimensionality of his previous animated, abstract work, featured in museums throughout the world and in the film В“Punch-Drunk Love.В”

Jonathan P. Binstock, the curator of the Corcoran exhibition, and Lance Kinz, a director of Kinz, Tillou & Feigen, decided to incorporate В“GlitterbestВ” into their exhibitions in its incomplete state out of deference to Mr. Blake, who had approved inclusion of some of the images in the Corcoran exhibition catalog and advance announcements for the New York show. They hoped the unfinished work would give viewers insight into his creative process and provide a glimmer of what the video might have become.

В“It was a way to remain true to the vision of the exhibition, and it furthers our efforts in exploring his theme of portraiture,В” Mr. Binstock said of В“Wild Choir,В” the Corcoran show. Reflecting Mr. BlakeВ’s most recent career focus, the exhibition presents lushly cinematic, deeply probing digital-video studies of three artists he admired.

In addition to his paean to Mr. McLaren, Mr. Blake produced homages to Ossie Clark, an influential Swinging London British fashion designer, and David Berman, an indie-rock musician and poet. In each case he used his artist-subject as a portal to explore seminal cultural moments, draping the viewer in a nonlinear fabric of color, film and sound.

В“Given the terrible situation we were faced with, we thought it would be an interesting way to approach this challenge and wanted to share it with the museum audience,В” said Mr. Binstock, who left the Corcoran this summer and is now senior vice president of CitigroupВ’s Art Advisory Service in New York. He continued to work on the exhibition after leaving the Corcoran.

But first they had to gain permission from Mr. BlakeВ’s grieving mother and then find the correct files on his many computers, an arduous process that took weeks. Thus it was only at the end of September, less than a month before the Corcoran exhibition was to open, that they tracked down all the files.

With a deadline looming, Mr. Binstock approached a friend, David Sigal, a documentary filmmaker and videographer, to help unlock Mr. BlakeВ’s intended arrangements. В“I was concerned about the material being treated with the greatest sensitivity and the need to preserve the integrity of the artistВ’s work in process,В” Mr. Binstock said, В“and I knew I could trust David to exhaustively examine the material and do that.В”

They discovered Mr. BlakeВ’s labeled folders in Adobe Photoshop, the graphics-editing software. Each folder contained sequential picture files with titles. But within each dense file were numerous layers of the artistВ’s В“moving paintingВ” imagery, their intended direction and flow indecipherable. They also realized that Mr. Blake had tackled only the first five minutes, less than half of the workВ’s final visual component.

Armed with a copy of Mr. BlakeВ’s hard drive and Mr. McLarenВ’s poetic though fairly incomprehensible narration, Mr. Sigal, 41, spent the next few weeks tinkering with the files on his laptop in his Greenwich Village apartment. He struggled to make sense of eerie scenes of World War II carnage shimmering with stars and bubbles; imperial imagery juxtaposed with psychedelic vegetables on the Moon; and mythical creatures that morphed into a swashbuckling Sid Vicious.

But the more he listened to the voice-over and scrutinized the layered images, В“there were little clues and abstract lines that I would wind up understanding,В” Mr. Sigal said.

Source: www.nytimes.com

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Photo enthusiasts are urged to enter the 2008 Environmental Photographer of the Year competition.

Open to amateurs and professional worldwide the categories are: Changing Climates, A World of Difference, Quality of Life; and The Natural World.

Work will be judged on ‘impact, creativity, composition, originality and technical abilities’, say organisers.

A spokesman added: ‘The competition seeks to celebrate photographers who use their ability to raise awareness of environmental and social issues.’

The contest, organised by The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, also includes an under-21 category with ‘no thematic boundaries’.

The closing date is 31 July 2008.

For details visit www.ciwem.org/awards/epoty

Source: www.amateurphotographer.co.uk

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PCMag have reviewed the Sony DSC-T2, a compact camera with 4GB of internal memory that can store up to 1,000 8 megapixel images.

“What sets the T2 apart is its 4GB of onboard memory, which is seriously spacious compared with the standard-issue 32MB or so you get with most point-and-shoots, so you won’t have to spend any extra cash on memory cards. Add good looks, easy-to-use touch-screen controls, and impressive image quality, and you’ve got a camera that should please style-conscious snapshooters.”

Website: PCMag – Sony DSC-T2 Review

Source: feeds.feedburner.com

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The unanimous decision by the three-member appeals court came eight months after the Getty formally handed over the disputed funerary wreath and a week after Ms. TrueВ’s lawyer filed a motion for dismissal.

In his motion the lawyer, Yannis Yannides, cited a California state law that sets a three-year statute of limitations for prosecutions once the whereabouts of a stolen artifact have been established. (The Getty bought the wreath in 1993 for $1.15 million.)

In dismissing the charges, the appeals court appeared to accept his argument that Greek law requires its courts to defer to the statute of limitations in the country where the acquisition was made known.

Mr. Yannides said: В“The rule of law was applied. ThatВ’s all we wanted. ThatВ’s all we asked for. This may not be a legal triumph, but it brings significant closure to my client.В”

Ms. True has been on trial since late 2005 in Italy on similar charges of conspiring to acquire illicitly excavated antiquities. She has denied the charges in both cases and did not attend TuesdayВ’s hearing here.

The threat of criminal prosecution has emerged as a crucial tool for archaeologically rich countries as they press American museums for the handover of artifacts acquired in recent decades.

Prosecutors in Italy and Greece have generally asserted that the criminal cases and the drive to reclaim objects are independent of each other. Still, they concede that their strategies are interrelated. Christos Koumbis, a state prosecutor, disclosed for the first time on Tuesday that he had recommended that the charges be dropped. If В“the wreath had not been returned, then we may have decided differently,В” he said in a brief interview. Greek Culture Ministry officials declined to comment on the outcome of the case.

In August the Getty agreed to return 40 ancient treasures to Italy after long and contentious negotiations. The criminal charges against Ms. True remain in effect there, although related civil charges were dropped in August.

The wreath is believed to have been unearthed about 15 years ago. Greece first laid claim to it in the mid-1990s, although its precise site of excavation was not yet known. Last year, however, its government sent the Getty a dossier of evidence, including documents and photographs, to support its claim that the wreath had been illegally removed from northern Greece and passed on to a market through Germany and Switzerland before being sold to the Getty in 1993 for $1.1 million.

The deal to return the wreath and a fourth-century B.C. kore, or statue of a young woman, was brokered last December. In July of last year, the Getty also acceded to GreeceВ’s request that it return a large stele, or grave marker, it acquired in 1993 and a small marble relief bought by the museumВ’s founder, the oil magnate J. Paul Getty, in 1955.

Ms. True would have faced up to 10 years in prison if she had been tried and found guilty of receiving a stolen artifact. She still faces lesser charges related to at least 29 unregistered antiquities that were found in her summer villa on the Greek island of Paros during a police raid last year.

Her lawyers have said that the objects were there before she bought the property in 1996 and that the charges are a form of harassment.

Ms. True was the GettyВ’s chief antiquities curator from 1986 to 2005. She resigned the post in October 2005 over what the museum said was an impropriety related to the 1996 purchase of the villa on Paros.

The Los Angeles Times reported then that Ms. True had used a lawyer recommended by the London antiquities dealer Christo Michailidis to arrange a real estate loan for the house the previous year.

Under Getty policy, such a loan would have posed a conflict of interest, because he was a close associate of another dealer with whom the Getty did business.

Harry Stang, Ms. TrueВ’s lawyer in Los Angeles, said she was gratified by the appeals courtВ’s decision on Tuesday. В“She was pleased that the court ruled as it did on her Greek counselorВ’s motion,В” he said. В“She was fully prepared if necessary to defend the case on the merits.В”

В“While weВ’re all very pleased that the Greek law was properly applied with respect to the statute of limitations,В” he added, В“it also should be noted that at no time during these proceedings have the Greek prosecutors provided any evidence as to the existence of a crime.В”

A spokesman for the Getty, Ron Hartwig, said the museum was В“pleased that the charges against Marion True have been dismissed.В”

The wreath is now on view in an archaeological museum in Salonika, Greece.

Randy Kennedy contributed reporting from New York.

Source: www.nytimes.com

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