If you’re a professional photographer and need really high resolution digital cameras, Kodak Professional, a division of Eastman Kodak Company, has two new products you may want to check out — if you’ve got the money.
| <?php virtual(“/includes/boxad.inc”); ?> |
The Kodak Professional DCS Pro Back 645H digital camera back is compatible with the new Hasselblad H1 camera system. It features 16-megapixel resolution, an on-board power source, fully featured LCD display and all of the other attributes of the company’s 645-format digital camera backs. It’s targeted to fashion, portrait and wedding photographers.
The Pro Back 645H back’s overall design offers photographers all the advantages of Kodak digital imaging science while using Hasselblad’s camera body, which is specifically designed to host either a digital back or a film magazine, said Stephen Noble, Worldwide Product Manager, Digital Capture, Kodak Professional. Hasselblad’s new H1 645-format camera body’s design is specially designed for both digital backs and film magazines. It features an all-electronic user interface that communicates with lenses, film magazines, and the viewfinder.
The Pro Back 645H is supported by Kodak Professional DCS Capture Studio, Photo Desk, and Camera Manager software, and the innovative DCS Custom Looks profiles. It processes Kodak’s DCR RAW and ERI-JPEG file formats. The ERI-JPEG file format combines the ease-of-use of JPEG files with the image quality and color/exposure control of Kodak’s DCR format raw camera files, Noble said. In addition, these files are compatible with the Kodak ProShots system software in a complete digital workflow, linking photographer, lab and customer.
The Kodak Professional DCS Pro Back 645H digital camera back will be available in November, to coincide with availability of the Hasselbald H1 camera system, through dealers of Kodak Professional digital photography products. It will have a suggested list price of US$11,995.00.
Kodak Professional will also bring its Kodak Professional DCS Pro 14n digital SLR camera to the U.S. market in December. It features the industry’s first 35mm-size CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) sensor in an SLR model, boasts 13.89 million total pixels, and provides variable resolution raw files. The suggested list price is $4,995.
Targeted mainly to professional portrait, wedding, event and commercial photographers, the DCS Pro 14n is built on a Nikon lens mount and offers FireWire connectivity. The camera’s 4536 x 3024 pixel (effective), 12-bit CMOS imager covers the full 24mm-by-36mm image area of 35mm film. And photographers can select the image size (14MP, 6MP or 3MP) that suits their shooting environment. Images can be saved as DCR raw files or Kodak Professional Extended Range Imaging (ERI) JPEG files.
Images are stored in a CompactFlash memory card and an MMC memory card interface. The camera can write to both storage media, and the image can be sent to each card simultaneously in any of the available formats. The DCS Pro 14n’s body includes a vertical trigger that works in conjunction with the camera’s auto orientation sensor. The sensor detects the camera’s orientation +/- 90 degrees from the horizontal position, which enables automatic rotation of the image as it moves to a computer for manipulation.
The camera can capture images at two frames per second, for a full burst of up to eight frames in full-resolution mode. Because the features of the DCS Pro 14n camera are based on Kodak Professional firmware and not hard-wired within the camera, they can be enhanced and upgraded with free firmware downloads from Kodak Professional.
The DCS Pro 14n includes the latest versions of Kodak Professional DCS Photo Desk and Camera Manager software and is compatible with Kodak ProShots Studio Software Suite, an online image management and display tool that links the photographer to both client and lab in an digital workflow for film-based and digital camera images. The camera also is digital camera format (DCF) compatible, a first for a Kodak Professional digital camera. The standardized DCF format gives photographers more access to printing services because most printing systems are calibrated to work with DCF files.
The DCS Pro 14n camera is powered by a single rechargeable Li-Ion battery pack or an accessory AC adapter. Photographers may select NTSC or PAL video formats for image review.
Both pro cameras can take advantage of the newest version (3.0) of Kodak’s DCS Photo Desk image-management software. The software is compatible with Mac OS X. Photo Desk 3.0 software can export images directly to Photoshop 7.0 on both Mac and Windows platforms.
Due in December, Photo Desk 3.0 includes features that speed up photographer workflows, sharpen images and access customizable image profiles to improve many critical aspects of image management, said Madhav Mehra, General Manager, Digital Cameras, Kodak Professional.
“This upgrade gives photographers greater noise reduction and sharpening control with their images, and makes the image management process simpler than it has been before,” he added. “More than ever, photographers need less time and effort to produce images that reflect their creativity and can set them apart.”
Photo Desk 3.0 lets photographers manipulate Kodak Professional’s DCR image files, as well as finished JPEG and TIFF files. That means photographers can view and work with files from Kodak Professional DCS digital cameras as well as standard JPEG images from other sources.
The software supports International Color Consortium (ICC) destination profiles, which allow users to select their output color space, including sRGB, Adobe RGB and Pro Photo RGB. Photo Desk 3.0 also offers Auto-Exposure Compensation, which automatically changes exposure using Kodak’s advanced image science without changing the white balance.
Kodak Professional DCS Photo Desk 3.0 software will be available for free download.