How is it that you can put an infrared filter on the front of effectively all digital cameras and get an IR image? In this article we set out to examine how this happens and how to interpret the results. All digital image sensors are sensitive to more than visible light. They have extended sensitivity in both the UV and IR bands. Because of the IR sensitivity, all modern digital cameras have some sort of IR blocking filter (hot filter) mounted in front of the CCD/CMOS sensor. This will block, to varying degrees depending on how aggressive the camera maker wants to be, some of the IR getting to the sensor. This filter sits in front of the sensor with its integrated Bayer filter of red, green and blue (usually) dyes. … Read entire article »

How much difference does 10MP vs. 8MP really make. This very informal test is the start of a deeper look at resolution issues. There was a lot of disappointment that the 20D replacement, the 30D wasn’t a 10 or 12MP camera. But just how significant is 10MP compared to 8MP? Well, while I have a D200 here for review, I thought I would do a first, informal test. So what I did was take my 350D fitted with the Canon 24-85 USM lens out on location with the D200 fitted with the Nikon AF-S 18-70 ED lens and adjusted the focal lengths to give me roughly the same effective shooting focal length, and shot a scene with a mix of high and low contrast edges and detail. The original shots are below:350D D200 Below are … Read entire article »

In response to questions, we get some answers from Canon about ink going stale Following on from the earlier article about Epson ink use by dates and ink going stale, we contacted Canon for their angle. Their response is below: From Canon’s experience, they have not encountered issues with useby dates on cartridges. Cartridges are a fast moving item and the turnover rate is really high, eliminating any need for useby dates. Most people are interested in the life of the print. So basically, there is no useby date for unopened cartridges. For installed cartridges, we recommend users to use it within 6 months. Again, the probability of someone not using a printer for more than 6 months is extremely low. Even after 6 months, the ink may still work because it … Read entire article »

Questions have been asked about ink going stale. I asked Epson about this. In response to some questions floating around on the internet about whether inkjet ink can go stale, I put the following questions to Epson: Does Epson’s inkjet ink have a ‘useby date’ before it goes stale, both for unopened cartridges and for opened ones once in the printer? If so, what is the cause? Is it oxidation or some other process? Do the cartridges have printed use by dates on them or advice to use within a certain time of opening? This is for a story I am doing. Epson’s official response was:Epson’s inkjet cartridges have an install-by date shown on the packaging and, included on the cartridge management chip is the cartridge production date.  Depending on the type of … Read entire article »

WatchMouse research shows that 71% of IBEX websites availability is below industry standards Press Release Of the top 35 funds listed on the Bolsa de Madrid (IBEX), 25 havewebsites with poor to dramatically poor availability. Many of the sitesare badly accessible or unavailable for more than an hour per month. The worst site, that of Antena 3 TV, is even unavailable for an equivalent of more than 8 days per month. This was the conclusion drawn from the first Spanish Site AvailabilityIndex created by WatchMouse, a company supplying monitoring servicesfor websites and e-commerce applications worldwide. In order todetermine the extent to which the sites of IBEX funds achieve asatisfactory uptime, WatchMouse ran its monitored the sitescontinuously between October 23 and November 11, 2005. Every fiveminutes, one of WatchMouse’s test stations tried to access the … Read entire article »

Epson has released new lightfastness ratings from testing done for them by the Wilhelm Instutute. Below are the latest figures from Epson on expected display life oftheir inks and papers. All the new R series printers with the HQ inkssit in the second column.  Media 6 color Photo 825, 925, 960, 1280  6 color HQ inks – R and RX series DURABrite Ink  PictureMate Ink   UltraChrome Ink UltraChrome Hi-Gloss Inks   Premium Photo Papers          Premium Glossy Photo Paper     23 years       85 years  104 years  Premium Luster Photo Paper – Cut Sheet    22 years      71 years  64 years  Premium Semigloss Photo Paper   22 years       77 years  In progress  Matte Papers              Double-Sided Matte Paper  15 years            Enhanced Matte Paper    71 years    76 years  110 years  Matte Paper heavyweight  18 years   30 years  105 years      Over 150 years  Photo Quality Ink Jet Paper    8 years        In progress  PremierArt Matte Scrapbook Photo Paper for Epson      94 years    108 years  In progress  Premium Bright White Paper   5 years  74 years      In progress  Fine Art Papers              Ultrasmooth Fine Art … Read entire article »

E Ink Corporation makes electronic paper display devices Photos and the press releases later in this article supplied by E Ink Corporation. E Ink is the company probably furthest along in the alternativedisplay/print technology area, in terms of getting real products intothe marketplace, at least. Electronic Ink is a clever use of existingtechnology rather than using exotic, and thus expensive, materials.This is probably why E Ink has been successful getting productsshipping where other companies have floundered around for much longerat the development stage. The basic concept of E Ink is quite simple. One version uses particlessuspended in a clear fluid. Two particles are used, positively chargedwhite particles and negatively charged black particles. The ink isprinted onto a plastic film and another sheet containing the electrodesis sandwiched with it. When a charge is applied … Read entire article »

Third quarter financial results are not positive for Kodak In the third quarter Kodak sales went up by 5%. However, it getsinteresting when you examine the breakdown. Digital products andservices rose by 47%, which is a great result. However traditionalproduct revenue fell by 20% in the quarter. In total, Kodak lostUS$1.029 Billion in the quarter. The figures give hope for Kodak in the great sales result in theirdigital products and services, but their is undoubtedly more pain to goas Kodak restructures into a digital company. The full financial press release is given below. Kodak’s 3rd-Quarter Sales Rise 5% to $3.553 Billion Digital Sales Surge 47%, Led by Graphic Communications and ConsumerPortfolio; 3rd-Qtr GAAP Net Loss Totals $1.029 Billion ($3.58 PerShare), Largely Reflecting Tax Valuation Allowances and AcceleratedRestructuring Charges;  Company Reaffirms Three Key Metrics fromSeptember Investor … Read entire article »

Siemens shows color display technology that can be printed onto various surfaces and can display a moving image. At the Plastics Electronics trade fair in Frankfurt this month, Siemensdemonstrated small color displays that can be printed using commercialprinting processes onto paper and plastics. These very low costdisplays will come to market in 2007. The material consists of an electrochromic material which absorbsdifferent frequencies of light when an electric voltage is applied tothe molecules. This means that they change color when electricity isapplied. A conductive plastic foil serves as the other electrode and asa clear window that protects the chemical layer in the process. Thecurrent process embeds a small silicon chip to control the system butwork is progressing on using a fully printable circuit, so that thewhole device can be printed onto the … Read entire article »

A change is coming in user interface design. In Jakob Nielsen’s latest alertbox he discusses the end of the WYSIWYGusere interface design and the development of a new one. He argues thatthe upcoming Microsoft Office 12 demonstrates this new mode of workingand does so effectively. It is an interesting article and well worth reading. Go there by clicking here. … Read entire article »

In a move that might help out those celebrities who get caught with their pants down (or doing something else embarrassing), researchers are working on a way to stop a digital camera getting a picture. G.I.T. researchers are developing a technology that can block a digital camera from taking a useable picture. The technology works in three stages: First an infrared emitting array beams out IR light; Second a sensor looks for the reflection of the IR light off of the digital camera’s sensor; Lastly when a digital camera is detected a light projector isused to blast the camera with an animated and constantly changingpattern of light and color, which confuses the autoexposure system andrenders a mostly black picture. But digital camera toting paparazzi have little to fear at present.Firstly it is only … Read entire article »

The new Apple/Motorola mobile/cell phone does not impress The new Motorola ROKR cell phone with iTunes really fails to impressme. It only handles 100 songs and also it is based on a fairlyuninspiring phone. All a bit of a yawn. My new cell phone, the SonyEricsson K750i plays music and takes a Sony Memory Stick of up to 1GB(currently) and 4GB when available. This is a much more serious player,just that it doesn’t play nicely with iTunes and I have to manuallydrag files over to it. Ther eis also the issue of whether Apple fansreally want a Motorola phone design, or want that Apple flair. So what does it mean? Well it does show Apple’s intention to milk theiTunes/iPod for as much as it can and a willingness to go into newproduct … Read entire article »

Jakob Nielsen has new advice for web site developers Jacob Nielsen’s excellent useit.com web site has an new alert on how todisplay non-web documents, like PDFs, on your web sites. He advisesthat non-web documents should not display in a web browser, but ratherin another application to make it clear to users about what they arelooking at. Worth a read. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/open_new_windows.html … Read entire article »

Canon’s Point and Shoot Cameras In the point and shoot digital area, Canon have many more competitorsthan in dSLRs. Many of these are highly effective companies producinggreat products. The latest releases from Canon build on an already strong range. TheElph (IXUS) models have always been a favorite and the new releasesexpand the offerings in this range for more pixels and also moreconvenience with the dock of the lower-end model. In the new A-seriesreleases Canon has brought bigger camera features down to a smallerpackage size, with the two A 600 series models, in particular, bringingserious photographic control to a small form factor. Meanwhile the S80brings 8Mpixel capability to an excellent package. All these releasesstrengthen Canon’s position. However Canon does not seem quite so dominant in this market. Whilstthey have been in the number one … Read entire article »

Canon has just launched a huge number of new imaging products. What does it all mean? Well, Canon have just done their usual half yearly product blitz. Nowthat we have all read the press releases it is time to consider theconsequences. One of those consequences is that Canon is continuing to lead the fieldin digital SLR camera developments. They have consistently, in recentyears, effectively lead the field in the introduction of new featuresand new price points. While everyone else is still releasing low end6MP dSLRs, Canon do 8MPs. While everyone else is standardizing on smallsensors, Canon is pushing full frame. Now you can quibble over whether 6 or 8MP really makes that muchdifference, but in reality more pixels give you more options, all otherthings being equal. More pixels let you do bigger prints, … Read entire article »

Many MP3 players lack certain features that make then useable for listening to podcasts, seminars and other long material The shift to MP3 players as replacements or additions to CD players,either portable or in cars and homes, offers many real advantages.However many of these devices are quite unsuitable when it comes tolistening to podcasts, seminar recordings, business and marketingpractice tapes and recordings of college/university lectures. MP3 players evolved with a heavy focus on listening to music. In themain original market, this meant collections to fairly short tracks. Sothe controls evolved along these lines, easy controls to skip tracksforwards or backwards, menues of tracks and playlists, rememberingwhich track you were on when the unit switches off, etc. For popularmusic, this all works very well. Podcasts, lecture recordings and motivational works or talking books,on the … Read entire article »

With the European rejection of changes to their patent law to cover software patents, perhaps it is time for a re-think worldwide The massive vote against a proposedchange to patent law in Europe to create a single approach to patentingsoftware means that perhaps all countries should reconsider theirpatent law on software, at the very least. The European Parliament rejected the law 648 to 14, with 18 abstentions. Patenting of software in the US has reached absurd levels. The USpatent office has basically dropped all assessment, or so it appears,and is granting patents unless someone objects. This forces much morelitigation than should be happening and this is very bad for innovationfrom small companies who can not afford to defend themselves against anattack from a large company with deep pockets and retained lawyers whoneed … Read entire article »

In an effort to open up Internet usage and ease of use in countries like China and India, SGNIC, the Singapore domain name manager, has begun a trial of internationalised domain names in Chinese and Tamil. SGNIC has started a trial of non-English language character domainnames in Chinese and Tamil. The rationale is that non-English speakersin the huge emerging Chinese and Indian economies are encounteringdifficulties in Internet use because of having to remember and useunfamiliar characters in their domain names. The six-month trial isbeing used to gauge consumer reaction to the system. Singapore Telecom(SingTel) is also conducting their own, but private, trial withexisting customers. SGNIC have a good explanation of how the trial will work on their web site at http://www.idn.sg/howdoesIDNwork.html.Some browsers, like Firefox, already support it whilst other browsers,like Internet Explorer, … Read entire article »

In this interview we talk to several people with a deep knowledge of digital camera design. While the interview is now two years old, the information in it is still highly relevant. As professional photography moves from being predominantly film basedto predominantly digital, many of us are struggling to come to termswith the key issues of digital sensors. For those of us raised on filmdensitometry curves and Ansel Adams’ ‘The Negative’ there is a wholenew world out there and many of the parameters we took for granted havechanged radically. When you move from an emulsion to a silicon chip sensor, whether CCD orCMOS, things change. Major issues with film, like reciprocity failure,do not exist with digital. CCD sensors come in two major design types, Full frame and Interline.Full frame CCDs attempt to use … Read entire article »