News / Other Product News

Adobe's decision to move to a subscription-based model for its professional creative software has prompted probably  the most impassioned response we've ever seen to a news story on dpreview.com. There's a risk that the sheer volume of comments might prevent a clear message being heard, so we've prepared a poll of the most common complaints, to help establish what your biggest concerns are.

Yesterday's announcement by Adobe that it will cease 'perpetual license' sales of Photoshop and its Creative Suite counterparts has generated considerable backlash here on dpreview and across the web. With such a significant change in store, we spoke today with Adobe VP of Creative Solutions, Winston Hendrickson for his response to the uproar.

Adobe has said it will no longer be developing its Creative Suite range of software, leaving its subscription and cloud-based Creative Cloud as the only way of accessing the latest version of Photoshop. Adobe has been trying to encourage users away from the traditional one-off payment licenses and on to a monthly payment model, with features such as online storage and syncing between devices. This latest move ups the ante by making it the only option for future versions of the software.

Adobe has updated its suite of Creative Cloud software, with the latest versions rebranded with the appendage 'CC'. Adobe Photoshop CC highlights include the Camera Shake Reduction tool that Adobe demoed earlier this year, and the ability to apply Camera Raw as a filter to any raster, vector or video layer. Creative Cloud members can now sync their Photoshop preferences across multiple devices. Click to read about these and other Photoshop CC features.

Wacom Europe has released the Cintiq 22HD Touch, an interactive pen display graphics tablet that features a 1920 x 1080 LED monitor and offers 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. The Photoshop-compatible display comes with a tilting, rotating stand and customizable menu options. Priced at £1899.99, the Cintiq 22HD will be available at the end of this month.

Sony Japan has launched the AKA-DM1 camera harness to mount the company's latest line of action cams on man's best friend. Priced at ¥5,250 (approximately $50), this harness fits bigger-framed dogs that weigh at least 15 kgs and have a belly circumference of 50cms - 80cms. The company's line-up of action cameras, including the Wi-Fi enabled HDR-AS15 full HD rugged action cam that was released in August 2012, are tiny and weigh around 90 gms each, making sure you wont have the RSPCA hunting you down.

Apple has added Raw support to its OS-X operating system for Fujifilm's X-Trans sensors. The latest update adds support for the four X-Trans cameras - the X20, X100S, X-E1 and X-Pro1. To install the Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update v4.05, users require Aperture v3.4 or later and iPhoto version 9.4 or later. Click through for the download link.

Benro has announced a new 'Cool Walker' line of camera bags through its UK distributor, Kenro. According to the press release, the Cool Walker line is aimed at travel and sports photographers, and includes thirteen variants of backpacks, shoulder and zoom bags. The smallest bag in the line can carry one SLR and a lens, while the largest is designed to carry two SLRs, eight lenses, two flashguns and a 15" laptop. Click through for the press release from Kenro.

Metabones has announced the schedule for the Micro Four Thirds version of its innovative 'Speed Booster' lens adapter has slipped to the second half of 2013. Like the existing version for mounting Canon EF lenses on Sony NEX cameras, the forthcoming version will allow the use of full-frame lenses, reducing the focal length by a factor of 0.71x and increases the maximum aperture by 1 stop. The Micro Four Thirds version will give a 1.4x overall 'crop' - giving a similar field of view to APS-C stills cameras and the Super35mm video format.(via 43rumors)

Manfrotto has launched the StilePlus line of camera bags aimed at fashion-conscious photographers. Intended to appeal to shutterbugs who want a practical but stylish camera bag, the company offers this range in three varieties: the  Diva 15 Tote Bag, Bravo 50 Backpack and Amica 10 shoulder bag. The bags are available in a variety of colors and sizes. UK prices start from £39.95, £69.95, £19.95, respectively. U.S. prices have yet to be confirmed.

DxO Labs has released version 8.1.5 of its DxO Optics Pro software. Both the Elite and Standard versions gain Nikon D7100 support. The update also adds 131 lens and cameras combinations for Nikon, Panasonic, Sigma, Tamron, and Tokina users. These modules join the existing list of over 11,000 combinations. Click through for the download link.

High speed camera maker Vision Research has put together its first footage with the forthcoming Phantom Flex4K video camera. Capable of capturing up to 1000 fps at 4K resolution, the Flex4K features a 10MP Super-35 sensor, records either RAW or compressed footage and will come in PL, Canon EF and Nikon F/G mounts. For this video, NYC-based cinematographer Greg Wilson and director Brendan Bellomo captured the Hebron and Glastonbury Connecticut Fire Departments in action, highlighting the camera's slow motion capabilities. Click through to watch the video.

Digital video site www.newsshooter.com is at this year's NAB show in Las Vegas, and has been taking a look at the Pocket Cinema Camera from Blackmagic. The Pocket Cinema Camera is a small, 1080 video camera with a Micro Four Thirds lensmount and an eye-opening MSRP of $995. Click through to see newsshooter's video, straight from the floor at NAB. 

Blackmagic Design has announced a pocket-sized 1080p movie camera capable of 422 ProRes capture with promises of lossless CinemaDNG to be added via firmware. The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera uses a Super 16 imaging area (around 12.5 x 7.4mm - slightly smaller than a 1" sensor), and an 'active' Micro Four Thirds lens mount, giving full aperture control of native lenses. The camera can capture footage in Apple's 10-bit 4:2:2 ProRes format Blackmagic promising to add the open, lossless CinemaDNG Raw standard later. The company has said this will cost just $995 and be available from July.

Blackmagic Design has announced the Production Camera 4K, a Super-35 format, 4K-capable camera with global shutter for smooth panning and image motion. The company says it will cost $3995. It can capture footage in Apple ProRes 422 HQ or losslessly compressed CinemaDNG Raw - promising 12-stops of dynamic range. The camera is built around a Canon EF mount and an internal SSD recorder to cope with the data rates. Blackmagic says it will be available from July 2013.

Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 4.4 and Adobe Camera Raw 7.4. These are final versions of updates that were originally posted as 'release candidates'. Both versions add Raw support for 25 additional cameras, including the Nikon D7100, Canon EOS 100D, Fujifilm X100s and Sony SLT-A58. Corrections to the demosaicing algorithms for previously supported Fujifilm X-Trans and EXR sensor cameras are also included along with several new lens profiles. Click through for a full list of supported cameras, lenses and bug fixes.

Lenovo Japan has announced the ThinkVision LT3053p Wide, a 30" WQXGA (2560 x 1600) resolution AH-IPS LCD monitor designed for color-critical applications like photo editing. The latest flagship model promises 99% coverage of the AdobeRGB color space and 100% of sRGB. It includes features such as Picture In Picture (PIP) allowing input from multiple devices and an adjustable stand for ergonomic viewing. The monitor will start shipping from April 11, 2013 at a retail price of $1599 in the US.

Action sports video production company Teton Gravity Research (TGR) has posted the first video shot with the GSS C520, a five-axis gyro-stabilized 4K cinema system by GSS (Gyro-Stabilized Systems). The C520 is compatible with the RED Epic, Arri Alexa M and Sony F55/HDC-2500 video cameras. For this video, the system was fitted with a RED Epic video camera and mounted on a helicopter to capture 4K stabilized footage of San Francisco, California. (via FStoppers)

Studio Lighting accessories maker Phottix has announced the 16-inch Multi Boom, with a tiltable bracket for umbrella softboxes. Priced at $69.99, it can hold up to two flashguns, and allows compatible softboxes to be tilted up to 180 degrees. According to the company, umbrella softboxes from Phottix and other manufacturers are easy to set-up, but almost impossible to tilt on traditional light stands. This can be resolved by attaching the Multi Boom bracket.

Transcend has released a 64GB microSDXC Ultra-High Speed Class 1 (UHS-I) memory card. The card offers data transfer speeds of up to 45MB/s (300x), and an ability to store more than 10,000 hi-res JPEG images (6MB file size) or 16 hours of 1080p HD videos. It also includes a free copy of the company's RecoveRx software to recover deleted or lost files. The memory card is available for $109. Click through for the press release.