Cameras

If you like to live life a little dangerously, the folks over at DIY Photography have just published an article that might be of interest to you and your digital camera. If, on the other hand, you find yourself altering your path to avoid walking under ladders and crossing paths with black cats, you may just want to don your peril-sensitive sunglasses and sit this one out. Today, we're talking firmware -- and not the kind you nonchalantly download from your camera manufacturer's website. These are firmware hacks, and while that word is often bandied... (read more)

Yesterday, Flickr announced new changes that included a free, ad-supported terabyte of storage for all Flickr users. When I heard the news, I believed that Flickr Pro account users would be given an opportunity to stay Pro going forward. I thought this because this, in fact, was my understanding of what was told to me by a Flickr Senior Manager in a briefing earlier in the morning before the announcement. Unfortunately, I found out the hard way yesterday that this is not the case. In actuality, only some of Flickr’s Pro accounts are eligible to retain Pro status. More specifically, users had to be paid Pro accounts in January of 2013 and be set up for auto renewal at that time. If you were not specifically a paid, recurring Pro account user in January of 2013, set up on renewal, you will now be screwed out of your Flickr Pro account. In my case, in August of 2011, I complained to Flickr about an error in their stats reporting. I had to send in several complaints about the same problem, but finally Flickr customer service acknowledged the error in their stats reporting. They said that they’d fix this error and that to make up for my inconvenience they would “gift” me 6 months of Flickr Pro. My Pro account was set to expire in 2012 but I used another “gift” certificate from Flickr. This time it was a gift certificate that they handed out to all photowalkers on a big Flickr San Francisco photowalk. The April 2012 Flickr photo walk I attended Because I applied this 6 months of free pro that Flickr gave to every photowalker at the SF photowalk, my account was not set up to recurring Pro in January of 2013. So, after paying consistently for two years at a time of Pro on Flickr for years, my Flickr Pro account is now not eligible for renewal, and I’m not grandfathered into the Pro Flickr service. This blows. I wish I’d never accepted the Flickr trojan horse “gift” of 6 months of free Pro at the San Francisco Photowalk. If I’d not accepted it then, I could be grandfathered as a paid Pro account along with everyone else. As it stands now, my Pro account will expire in July of this year with no way to renew it. Now I’ll be forced to pay Flickr twice as much ($49.99 instead of $24.99) to remove my ads — and since I probably use more than a terabyte of storage, my Flickr fees will probably increase from $24.95/year to $499.99/year. Yesterday, I thought Flickr was doing a very fair thing by allowing Pro accounts to continue on as Pros by paying $24.95 per year. I’ve invested thousands of hours uploading over 80,000 photos to Flickr with the understanding that I was purchasing unlimited photo storage. Now, today, I’ve been screwed out of my deal because I made the mistake of attending Flickr’s San Francisco photowalk and redeeming a 6 months certificate for free Pro that they handed out. This is just wrong and also contrary to what I was told earlier today. Flickr should allow all Pro account users the ability to keep their Pro status, and not discriminate against those of us who happened to attend their San Francisco Photowalk last year. There is a post on Flickr’s help forum about this here, where a Flickr staffer confirms that only some of Flickr Pro accounts are eligible for renewal. I’m assuming that Flickr will sort some of this out before my Pro account expires in July, but I’m certainly concerned that Flickr would so easily take away Pro accounts from long time members who have supported the site with paid Pro accounts over the years. To offer someone unlimited uploads only to renege on that promise later for attending one of their photowalks feels wrong to me. I’m still a big fan of today’s design changes and the 1 terabyte free account that Flickr unveiled today, but disappointed that long time Pro account users may now lose their Pro account status. You can check to see if you are eligible to renew your Flickr Pro account here. If it doesn’t specifically say your Flickr Pro account will renew automatically on this page, you ma

For a limited time, DigitalRev has the Nikon D7000 DSLR Camera available for $779.00. Compare at $896.95.

Adorama has announced a new portable monolight kit under its in-house Flashpoint brand. The Flashpoint 180 monolight and battery kit includes a 180w/s monolight and two readily available NP-F960 batteries to power the light for up to 700 pops at full power. To keep the light from draining the batteries, the Flashpoint 180 is equipped with an efficient LED daylight balanced modeling light. Additionally, the kit includes a reflector for the monolight, a detachable handle, a battery charger and a small umbrella, as well as a carry bag designed to hold the entire kit. The Flashpoint 180 monolight and battery kit retails for $249.95; however, it is available for $199.95 at launch with free shipping. Check it out here at Adorama. Related posts: Adorama Unveils Flashpoint DG600 300w/s AC/DC Blue Monolight with LED Modeling Lamp Flashpoint DG600 300w/s Monolight Review Flashpoint II Model 320M w/ DC Battery Pack Review

Thoughts from a long-time Flickr user: I [Sean] have been a Flickr user since December 2007. For most of that time I have had a Pro membership. I believed the Pro membership was a valuable tool for backing up my best images. If I wanted to keep an image safe, as well as show it off to the world, I uploaded it to Flickr. It's been great for that purpose. I was on Flickr a couple of times yesterday. I uploaded several images from recent photography sessions in the morning. At that time, Flickr was normal. When I went to the site to check the recent activity later that day, the "new and improved" Flickr hit me over the head like an iron skillet. The changes were anything but subtle. Instead of the clean-looking interface of the past, my Flickr photostream page had a larger profile picture, a banner, and a new photostream layout. At first glance, it's actually kind of eye-pleasing. But now a lot of the information I wanted to be presented to people visiting my page has been buried. Things I'm not fond of:Titles and captions of your images do not show up on your photostream; the title only presents itself if you hover over an image in the new layout. One you click on an image, the title is placed at the far left underneath the image, and only a line or two of the captions visible. I spent a significant amount of time on the captions of many of my images - I want the caption (and title) to have a more prominent position on the image page.Sets are no longer visible on your photostream page unless the viewer clicks "Sets." In order for a viewer to see a subset of my photostream (Portraits, Bridal, Senior, etc.), they have to know to click on "Sets." Before, the sets were displayed on the right-hand side allowing the categories to be much more obvious to the user.You have to change your profile picture because the previous version was saved at a lower resolution. As the image I used for my profile picture is still in my photostream, why didn't Flickr simply use the same area of the image I had already chosen to automate the process of updating the profile picture? Instead, I had to wade through my images and create the profile picture all over again.The process for creating a banner is less than ideal.First, you either have to use an existing image from your photostream or you have to upload an image to your stream if you want to use it for the banner (or be stuck with whatever default banner Flickr gives you). But what if I don't want my custom-made banner to be on my photostream? To do that, I'd have to upload an image and change its property to "Private." At that point, I can still make it my banner, but it won't show up to other people viewing my profile. That said, the image is still viewable to me and it clutters up my own personal view of the photostream.Second, if I did want to create an image specifically for my banner, where is the information on sizing requirements?Third, apparently, you can only select one of your "Recent" photos to serve as your banner. I originally tried to create a banner using an image I had uploaded in 2009 – no can do. In order for me to use that image, I would have to upload the image to Flickr again (placing it in my photostream), set it as the banner, and then delete the duplicate image. Why can I not navigate to an image in my stream and set it as the profile or banner picture from within the image's page?If you were logged into Flickr, the home page used to display recent activity. Now, the homepage shows you huge images uploaded by your contacts. To get to the recent activities page, you have to go to different link (http://www.flickr.com/activity). Can Flickr give me the option to bring up the "Recent Activities" page when I go to flickr.com?Flickr has changed its pricing structure and the benefits of each level. I liked the older, simpler structure better - Free or Pro.Things I like:Flickr released an updated Android app at the same time it rolled out major changes t

Nikon has announced a firmware update for three of its DSLRs with added support for the 800mm lens.

Adorama has the Sony 64GB UHS1 Class 10 High Speed SDHC/SDXC Memory Card available for $36.95 with free shipping. Compare at $49.99.

Nikon has published firmware updates for the D700, D300 & D300s DSLR cameras. The updates add support for the AF-S NIKKOR 800mm f/5.6E FL ED VR lens. From Nikon: Modifications enabled with this upgrade of firmware, release date May 21, 2013Support for the AF-S NIKKOR 800mm f/5.6E FL ED VR has been added.Installation Instructions Nikon D700 - Windows | MacintoshNikon D300* - Windows | MacintoshNikon D300s - Windows | Macintosh * NOTE: Installation instructions for the D300 are identical to the instructions for the D300s. Firmware Downloads Nikon D700 Firmware A:1.04 / B:1.03 - Windows | MacintoshNikon D300 Firmware: A/B 1.11* - Windows | MacintoshNikon D300s Firmware: A/B 1.02** - Windows | Macintosh * NOTE: This update is for the D300 model only, and not the D300s. Do not attempt to upgrade the D300 with this firmware.** NOTE: This update is for the D300S model only, and not the D300. Do not attempt to upgrade the D300 with this firmware. B&H carries the Nikon D300s DSLR camera.

Amazon Web Services has finally received certification under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, which the company said will lower the cost of implementing its cloud services among government organizations and agencies in the U.S.FedRAMP is a mandatory government-wide program that standardizes security assessment, authorization, and monitoring for cloud products and services. As part of the program, Amazon has been granted two so-called Agency Authorities to Operate (ATOs) by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, it said.One ATO covers the GovCloud "region" of AWS infrastructure, and the other the U.S. East/West regions of its cloud infrastructure. Within those boundaries, agencies can use Amazon's EC2 compute cloud, Simple Storage Service (S3) and Elastic Block Store (EBS). They can also use its Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), which allows IT staff to create an isolated section of Amazon's cloud where they can launch resources in a virtual network defined by themselves, including public subnets, private subnets, and hardware VPN access.In a recent interview, Stephen Schmidt, chief information security officer at Amazon Web Services, talked about how he looked forward to getting a FedRAMP certification.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A boutique system builder has bucked the industry trend of slumping PC sales by continuing to focus on selling Windows 7 machines. Auburn, Wash.-based Puget Systems grew sales 20% in 2012, said Jon Bach, president of the independent PC seller, by specializing in high-performance, buit-to-order PCs—primarily desktops. Puget’s performance is in stark contrast to the global PC market, which contracted 6% in the fourth quarter of last year, and plummeted 14% in the first quarter of 2013, according to research firm IDC. Puget also went against the grain by selling significantly more Windows 7 PCs than ones equipped with the new Windows 8. That was not a strategy of its own choosing, however, as customers select the operating system for their custom-built machines. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here