Dphoto.us

Paul Buff, founder of lighting maker Paul C. Buff, indicates in a forum post this week that his company will soon reveal the Vagabond Mini Lithium, a compact 3.5lb/1.6kg portable power pack capable of driving AlienBees and presumably other studio flash. The unit is comprised of a user-detachable 8.8AH/14.8V Lithium battery and pure sine wave inverter in a "molded housing design" that is promised to be capable of powering an AB1600 monolight for 500 pops at 640ws.

Just posted! Our Sony SLT-A33 preview samples gallery. We've already treated the A33's bigger brother, the SLT-A55, to an in-depth review. No we've had a chance to get out and shoot with the slightly lower-spec A33 as well. It lacks the GPS module of the A55 and comes with a slightly lower sensor resolution but is otherwise almost identical to Sony's top-of-the-range translucent mirror model. Have a look through our gallery and see for yourself what the Sony SLT-A33 has to offer in terms of image quality.

Toshiba has announced what it claims will be the world's fastest SDHC UHS-I and the world's first microSDHC UHS-I compliant memory cards. To be available in 32GB, 16GB and 8GB capacities, the SDHC cards will offer read and write speeds of up to 95MB/s and 80MB/s respectively. The microSDHC cards will be available in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities with read and write speeds of up to 45MB/s and 20MB/s. The company says mass production of the SDHC UHS-I cards and sample shipments of the new microSDHC UHS-I cards will begin from November 2010.

With promised write speeds of up to 80MB/s and read speeds up to 95MB/s, the new Toshiba SDHC UHS-I memory cards, to be available in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB capacities, have been proclaimed by the company as the world's fastest.

Panasonic has announced 8GB and 16GB SDHC cards that are promised to deliver 60MB/s read speeds (no specific write speed data has been given). The new memory cards utilize the faster UHS-I bus interface in achieving quicker throughput. As of this writing, no shipping or announced Canon or Nikon digital SLR supports UHS-I. This means Panasonic's new cards will operate within a bus interface maximum of 25MB/s in today's SD slot-equipped cameras from each manufacturer.

Tamron has announced that it has cooperated with Adobe in the creation of profiles for the Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3's Lens Correction feature. The latest version of the image-editing software will automatically fix distortion, chromatic aberration and vignetting for all currently available Tamron lenses (no word yet on the latest 70-300mm F4-5.6 VC USD though).

The Denver Post's photo blog features Captured: The Last Days of Summer, a fine gallery of the best images showing the final days of summer.

Reuters features Pictures of the Month: August, a collection of the best images from the news agency's photographers from across the globe.

Datacolor has announced the SpyderLensCal focus calibrator. The device allows photographers to measure the AF performance of their camera/lens combinations. On DSLRs with a micro-adjustment feature, this tool can be used to help determine the best values to set in the camera's custom settings menu to correct front or back focus. SpyderLensCal will be available from September 6, 2010 at a suggested retail price of $59.

Canon Expo 2010 New York, a showcase for Canon products and emerging Canon technology, kicked off today in The Big Apple. Held every five years, the event travels from here to Paris, Tokyo and, for the first time, Shanghai. Among the items of interest to photographers are the new EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye and other recently-announced lenses, the EOS 60D, the barcode-reading EOS 7D solution and an elaborate remote camera management demonstration that, if commercialized, would streamline the setup of potentially thousands of Canon digital SLRs deployed at locations across the country. Plus, a 30 inch computer display that is the sharpest desktop screen we've ever seen.

Panasonic has released 8GB and 16GB SDHC cards adhering to the SD association's latest UHS-I specification. Both memory cards have maximum read speeds of up to 60MB/s and Class 10 speed specification complementing 3D and full HD video recording features of recently released cameras. Like the company's 'Gold' line of memory cards, it features protection against power failures and a Super Intelligent Controller that cleans up errors preventing data damage. The memory cards will be available from November 2010.

Kodak has announced the ESP 9250 Wi-fi-enabled all-in-one inkjet printer with print, copy, scan and fax capability. It includes the company's proprietary fade-resistant inks with what it claims the lowest total ink replacement cost in the industry. The printer features a 2.4-inch LCD, built-in templates and supports various memory card formats. The printer is now available at $249.99.

Sony has introduced the S-Frame range of digital photo frames. Top of the line are the XR100 and VR100 that offer 10.2 inch screens and AVCHD video playback with stereo sound. The XR100 also includes TruBlack technology for better playback quality. The rest of the models come with screen sizes ranging from 7" up to 10.2" and offer a number of slideshow modes, clock and calendar views plus smart orientation sensors that flip images for correct viewing of portrait or landscape images.

Sony has announced the Bloggie Touch MHS-TS20K pocket camcorder. It is built around the company's 1/2.5" Exmor CMOS sensor, records Full HD video in MP4 format and captures 12.8Mp still images. It offers a 3 inch touchscreen LCD, 32mm F2.8 lens and a flip-out USB connecter that also charges the camera’s battery. It includes a 360 degree panorama lens adapter. Priced at $199.99, it will be available in pink, silver and black.

Carl Zeiss has introduced the Distagon T* 1,4/35 wide-angle lens in Canon EF (ZE) and Nikon F (ZF.2) mounts. This manual focus lens, with its large f/1.4 aperture, is made up of 11 elements in 9 groups. With an equivalent focal length of 50mm on APS-C cameras, it can be used on both digital and analog SLRs. Priced at €1385.71, the lens will be available in the first quarter of 2011.

PC Magazine - The Epson Stylus NX625 features automatic duplexing, a 2.5-inch tilt-screen LCD, and memory-card slots for printing photos without a computer.

Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 3.2 and Camera Raw 6.2. The new versions, which were initially made available as release candidates earlier this month, extend RAW conversion support to 16 new camera models including the Canon EOS 60D and Sony Alpha NEX-5. Lens correction profiles have been improved, while 120 new profiles have been added. In addition, Lightroom 3.2 includes a number of bug fixes, plus photos can now be uploaded direct to Facebook and SmugMug from within the application.

Canon has announced it has developed the world's largest CMOS sensor measuring 202 x 205mm. Approximately 40 times the size of Canon's largest commercial CMOS sensor, it captures images with 1/100th the amount of light required by an SLR camera. Its advanced circuitry allows video recording at 60 frames per second with 0.3 lux illumination that according to the company is roughly one-half the brightness of a moonlit night. There is currently no information about the sensor's resolution. This follows last week's development announcement of Canon's 120 megapixel 29.2 x 20.2mm APS-H CMOS sensor.

Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 3.2, Camera Raw 6.2 and DNG Converter 6.2. These are final versions of updates that were originally posted as 'release candidates' on the Adobe Labs site, and are now available for immediate download. The latest versions provide final RAW support for sixteen recent cameras, including the Canon EOS 60D and Sony Alpha NEX-5. The updates also add more than 120 lens profiles and fix a number of bugs.

Olympus has announced two special edition all-black kits for its E-P2 Micro Four Thirds camera. Both kits come with a black version of the M.Zuiko Digital 17mm 1:2.8 pancake lens and either the VF-2 electronic viewfinder or FL-14 external flash. The kits also include a retro-styled lens cap imprinted with the company's Pen F series logo which can also be purchased separately. The black EVF edition will be available for €1,079 while the black flash edition will be available for €1,049 from October 2010.