Ajaxnetphoto.com site news & information.

Within a few hours of the official release of news of Leica's M8, the camera was being billed by many as 2006 photokina's show stealer; the digital gizmo which will send the company on a fiscal lunar trajectory. Shareholders will no doubt be wetting themselves in anticipation of this possibility after the recent years of Leica Camera Ag's dire straits experience.

There is another company which might have enjoyed a similar success, if only it had re-invented itself in the digital world. more .....

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Six-bit lens coding, customised CCD sensor micro lens configuration and camera image processing software combine to produce a high level of image quality delivered by the Leica M8, according to the manufacturer. I have not had an opportunity to test this claim yet, but I have seen cartloads of images shot in real life indoor and outdoor situations (see Briish Journal of Photography next week 20/09/06 issue) using a prototype M8.more .....

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The new digital capture Leica rangefinder M8 camera is officially announced to-day and will be a main attraction at the Leica Camera AG stand later this month at photokina in Cologne.  more .....

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From a press release dated 11th September 2006.

As 16:9 ratio (see previous Ajaxnetphoto post 6.9.06 'Coming to a Wide screen near you'.) has become the international standard of HDTV, a new photo culture is emerging, raising the demand for true 16:9 format cameras, printers and photo paper. At the forefront are Epson and Panasonic with new products to meet the needs of photographers who want to shoot, view and print in 16:9 format which brings wider breadth and deeper perspective into the picture. Panasonic has introduced its LUMIX LX2 digital camera to feature a 16:9 CCD sensor and LCD screen. Epson is launching Premium Glossy Photo Paper 16:9 (101.60mm x 180.60mm). It features a smooth, bright white resin-coated layer for a vibrant high-gloss finish and is compatible with a range of Epson printers including the new Epson Stylus Photo R360 and Stylus Photo RX560.

As an introductory offer Epson and Panasonic are joining together to provide a trial sample of the new 16:9 Premium Glossy Photo Paper with every purchase of the Panasonic DMC-LX2.  more .....

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If you've never had the pleasure of shooting with a 6X6cm Hasselblad SWC - Super Wide Camera (now 905CF) - on the street and hand held, the simple joy of using the new Zeiss Ikon SW in the same way may seem odd.

Neither camera has a built-in viewfinder or a rangefinder measuring device. The user must estimate the camera to object distance and manually set this on the lens focus ring, using depth-of-field or hyperfocal distance ranges to cover anomalies of the guessing game. However, aside from the advantage of the SWC's larger frame size, that camera's objective is fixed. The SW can be fitted with whatever ZM or Leica M bayonet (as well as screw thread types with appropriate bayonet adapter.) is needed along with accessory slip-in the-hot-shoe viewfinder. It endows this new model with a great deal of versatility. Using wide angle lenses in the focal length range 15mm - 28mm in normal outdoor daylight situations, apertures in the range of f/5.6 - f/8 (or smaller), marginal errors of distance estimating when the desired object is in the 2-4m range will be covered. More accuracy is required for closer objects, especially in low light situations when maximum apertures are the only choices.

But this kind of extreme visual liberation is not to everyone's liking. more .....

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As well as being an active photographer endowed with all the day-to-day logistical nightmares of safely storing and archiving my own work, I have acquired over the years, some large photo collections from other sources. There is no possible way, mathematically, I will ever have enough time to scan and digitally archive it. I don't have enough time to manage my own output.

However, come the day I am no longer around to point people who might want to see any of this stuff in the right direction, they will (hopefully) not find access to the material too difficult. It's labelled and stored in a sort of orderly fashion. At least, this is the scenario for 90% of the analogue material, the negatives, prints and transparencies.

The same is not true of the digital analogue archives or of the more recently acquired digitally captured material. This is stored on a variety of recordable media, including metal oxide and optical.

Assuming all the hardware necessary to access these files is frequently upgraded and the files themselves are frequently transferred to new recording media, anyone so inclined will be able to access the images.

A lot of time, far too much in fact, is already devoted to duplicating master CDs, Zip and MO discs and backing up hard drives, but I see nothing looming on the horizon of this year's photokina in the way of hardware or media which is going to make this task less demanding or less frustrating. What happened to Hitachi's 3d recording technology? What happened to Maxell's impending launch a year ago of their new holographic based technology? What happened to the self propogating crystal flourite technology I wrote about almost four years ago that would save archivists from an early death? more .....

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In less than a decade, Cosina has launched several classicly styled 35mm film products, doing stuff some would argue, Leica should have done long ago. There is more mileage yet in the format but it would not surprise me to see something distinctly more retro coming from this corner. My experiences with the Super Baldax ( see post - Super Baldax 2.5.06) set me thinking it would not be difficult to modify the basic concept and fit a modern rangefinder viewing system with an integral ttl meter. It would not be the first time in recent years this has been done but I think Mr Kobayashi could probably do it better. I suspect however, that if this idea is on his agenda at all, it will not be the Super Baldax at which he is looking for inspiration but a Zeiss Super Ikonta IV. Pity, the Baldax is more compact. more .....

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From a recently issued press release.

Having long established its reputation for the production of market-leading black-and-white photographic paper, ILFORD Photo has now taken the whole genre onto a new level of archival and presentational excellence with the fusion of modern digital technology and true silver gelatine printing.

ILFORD Photo has announced the addition of a new paper to its range of specialist black-and-white photo products, which not only represents a major step forward in the production of high quality images, but also utilises the latest advances in digital processing. more.......

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Yet more speculation surrounds the 'will they won't they' debate fuelling Nikon user demands for a full frame Dslr. Will photokina 2006 become the historic dateline when every Nikon owner has the opportiununity to get well again?
more ........

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I am becoming ever more firmly entrenched in my appreciation of the reproduced digitally captured image lacking a certain aesthetic appeal. What is missing in the digitally captured image isn't easy to describe, but a colleague recently suggested to me that perhaps it can be summed up thus.
more ........

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