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SAN DIEGO, May 16, 2012 – Sony’s α NEX-F3 digital camera delivers professional quality photos with a compact, pocket-sized body, allowing consumers to explore the creative world of high-quality, interchangeable lens photography in a refreshingly fun and entertaining way.

The new NEX-F3 camera features the same space-saving mirrorless design as other models in Sony’s E-mount family as well as an advanced, 16.1 effective megapixel Exmor™ APS HD CMOS sensor, identical in size to sensors found in traditional DSLR cameras. The large sensor takes in more light during image capture, resulting in flawless, low-noise photographs and crisply detailed Full HD videos (60i/24p). Photographers can also easily create images with beautiful defocus effects, where the subject is focused sharply against a smoothly blurred background.

“Sony continues to redefine digital photography with our E-mount series, packing a large APS-C size sensor into a small, lightweight camera body to produce professional-quality images with ease,” said Mike Kahn, director of the Alpha business at Sony.

“Featuring a diverse set of imaging technologies and offered at a great price, the new NEX-F3 model reinforces our commitment to this rapidly growing compact system camera market.”

The NEX-F3 camera adds a whole new perspective to self-portraits with a 180° Tiltable LCD screen, a first for Sony’s E-mount camera line. By simply holding the camera at arm’s length and flipping the LCD screen vertically, users can adjust the on-screen preview image and properly frame photos.

Additionally, the new model features a useful built-in flash to broaden shooting options indoors or in low light situations. Already introduced on Sony’s acclaimed NEX-7 camera, this pop-up flash handily brightens portraits and other shots without the need to carry an additional flash accessory.

The new NEX-F3 camera also includes the new Auto Portrait Framing feature for creating top-quality portraits quickly and easily. This innovative feature identifies a subject’s position in a composed image, and follows the “rule of thirds” to trim the scene appropriately around the subject’s face, creating a beautifully composed portrait. The cropped portrait is then boosted to full resolution using Sony’s unique By Pixel Super Resolution technology, which uses pattern matching to maintain superb image detail, tones and textures in the photo. Both the original and cropped image files are saved for review.

By Pixel Super Resolution Technology is also used for the “Clear Image Zoom” feature, which digitally doubles the effective magnification of any lens attached to the camera. Ideal for travel and everyday shooting, it’s a great way to boost maximum focal length without carrying extra hardware.

Other convenient essentials added to the new NEX-F3 camera include the Superior Auto mode, which intelligently recognizes a wide range of scenes and subjects and adjusts settings automatically. Battery stamina has been boosted to an industry-leading 470 shots (approx.) on a single charge – an approximate 18% improvement over its predecessor, the NEX-C3 model.

The camera is compatible with the FDA-EV1S viewfinder accessory (sold separately), which offers a high-contrast, high-resolution OLED viewfinder display and a wide viewing angle. The NEX-F3 model also features a high-quality, premium-feel grip for more comfortable handling and can be charged via either USB or a standard AC outlet.

An ideal travel partner for the NEX-F3 camera, the new SEL18200LE E18-200mm F3.5-6.3 OSS LE telezoom lens offers a powerful 11x zoom range and superb resolution in an easy-to-carry package. Smaller and 12% lighter than the SEL18200 lens, the new E-mount model features Optical SteadyShot to compensate for the effects of hand-shake. It also features Direct Manual Focus to give users precise control over focus settings, resulting in crisp, beautiful images.

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SAN DIEGO, May 16, 2012 – Lightweight, easy to use and packed with a variety of useful features, the new Sony SLT-A37 camera is an ideal choice for consumers eager to explore the world of interchangeable lens DSLR photography.

The new α37 camera is the latest to feature Sony’s acclaimed Translucent Mirror Technology, which delivers a potent combination of fast shooting, non-stop phase detection autofocus and continuous live image preview during still and full HD video (60i/24p) shooting. This innovative technology also allows the new α37 camera to grab split-second action with a burst of sharply focused images. Shots can be captured at up to seven frames per second in Tele-Zoom High Speed Shooting Mode, where the central portion of the sensor’s image is magnified by approximately 1.4x.

The camera has a precision 3-cross 15-point AF system with tracking autofocus that keeps faces and fast-moving subjects in sharp focus. From action-packed sports to spontaneous family portraits, it will ensure that all the drama and beauty of that special moment is captured.

“Delivering lightning-fast shooting speeds and autofocus plus advanced full HD video capture, our innovative Translucent Mirror Technology continues to serve as the backbone of our A-mount line of cameras,” said Mike Kahn, director of the Alpha business at Sony. “Featuring this unique technology plus a host of exciting new features and an attractive price tag, our new α37 camera brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘entry level DSLR’.”
Framing and focusing is easy with the camera’s high-resolution Tru-Finder™ electronic viewfinder. With a high 1440k dot resolution, excellent contrast and 100% field of view, it matches or exceeds the abilities of many optical viewfinders. Adjustments to exposure and other creative picture settings can be previewed in real time, either via the Tru-Finder™ EVF or the tilt-angle 6.7 cm (2.7″) Clear Photo™ LCD screen, making it easy to create shots with a customized, professional finish.

Additionally, the Sony α37 camera helps inexperienced photographers create top-quality portraits with ease. The new Auto Portrait Framing mode identifies the subject’s position in a composed image and follows the “rule of thirds” to trim the scene and create a beautifully framed portrait. The cropped photo is then boosted to full resolution using Sony’s unique By Pixel Super Resolution technology, which uses pattern matching to maintain superb image detail, tones and textures in the photo. Both the original and cropped image files are saved for review.

By Pixel Super Resolution Technology is also used for the “Clear Image Zoom” feature, which digitally doubles the effective magnification of any lens attached to the camera. Ideal for travel and everyday shooting, it’s a great way to boost maximum focal length without carrying extra hardware.

The 16.1 effective megapixel Exmor® APS HD CMOS sensor inside the α37 camera captures finely detailed, low noise stills and Full HD video. It’s teamed with the latest BIONZ® image processor that extends sensitivity to an ISO 100-16000 range, broadening options for low-light shooting without flash. Shared with all α A-mount cameras, SteadyShot INSIDE™ stabilization cuts the effects of camera shake by up to 4.0 stops for clearer handheld images with any A-mount lens.

The new α37 camera also features Superior Auto Mode, which intelligently recognizes a wide range of scenes and subjects and adjusts settings automatically.

A versatile match for the α37 and other Sony A-mount camera bodies, the new SAL18135 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 telephoto zoom offers a generous 8x (approx.) zoom range in a compact, go-anywhere lens that’s great for travel, street photography and everyday shooting. The lens features a SAM design that assures smooth, rapid, whisper-quiet autofocus operation and Direct Manual Focus for accurate fine-tuning of focus. This sharp telephoto zoom lens will also be offered as a kit lens with the α37 and other Sony A-mount camera bodies.

Compatible accessories include the new PCK-LM11 semi-hard screen protector sheet, exclusively designed for a perfect fit with the LCD screen on the α37 camera, as well as the HVL-F43AM flash, LCS-BP2 backpack and a variety of other exciting products that complete the Alpha ecosystem.

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Valhalla, N.Y., May 15, 2012 – FUJIFILM North America Corporation today announced an exciting new premium accessory for the award winning FUJIFILM X100 – a Wide Conversion Lens (WCL-X100) that will further enhance the exceptional photographic experience of using the FUJIFILM X100 digital camera. The new Wide Conversion Lens will not only maximize the FUJIFILM X100’s shooting versatility and performance, but it will also add to the stunning look and feel of the camera with its exacting design similarities.

“We are extremely pleased to offer this new Wide Conversion Lens for the FUJIFILM X100, which has been enthusiastically received from the professional and advanced amateur photographic communities for its beautiful design and outstanding image quality,” said Go Miyazaki, division president, Imaging and Electronic Imaging Divisions, FUJIFILM North America Corporation. “Fujifilm is committed to giving photographers the premium tools that they need to achieve the best imaging results imaginable, and this new lens will allow the FUJIFILM X100 to exceed users’ expectations by opening up countless new shooting opportunities.”

FUJIFILM Wide Conversion lens (WCL-X100)

The FUJIFILM WCL-X100, a wide conversion lens made in Japan and designed specifically for the award winning FUJIFILM X100, attaches directly onto the camera and increases picture taking versatility by multiplying the fixed focal length by 0.8x, converting it from 23mm (35mm equivalent) fixed focal length to a 19mm wide angle (28mm equivalent). The WCL-X100 delivers superb optical quality and maximizes versatility of the FUJIFILM X100 by ensuring comparable image quality even at the f/2 wide aperture setting, all while retaining all the original optical characteristics, including the attractive bokeh effect.

The FUJIFILM WCL-X100’s optical construction uses four premium glass elements in three groups to keep aberrations minimal, and also employs the unique FUJINON Super EBC (Electron Beam Coating) for outstanding results.

Achieving the very best results from the WCL-X100 is simple: select the ‘Wide Conversion Lens’ option in the FUJIFILM X100’s menu system (camera must be updated to firmware version 1.30 or later) or select the function via the Function (Fn) or RAW buttons.

After selecting the ‘Wide Conversion Lens’ option, the FUJIFILM X100 automatically applies image processing to shots taken using the WCL-X100 to reduce image distortion, ensuring balanced illumination across the frame and reduced chromatic aberration which can be commonly found in wide conversion lenses.

The WCL-X100 maintains the full functionality of the FUJIFILM X100, including auto focusing speeds, the 10cm macro capability and of course, the extraordinary hybrid viewfinder. With the optical viewfinder (OVF) selected, icons showing the edge of the frame are displayed instead of the frame rim (equivalent to 80% of the frame field of view), while selecting the electronic viewfinder (EVF) gives users a 100% field of view.

The perfect match for the FUJIFILM X100
The design of the WCL-X100 has been carefully considered to ensure a seamless blend with the FUJIFILM X100. It uses the same materials, textures and colors as the existing X100, plus the optional LH-X100 lens hood and PRF-49S protective filter can be used on the conversion lens. Furthermore, the clip-on lens cap for the WCL-X100 can be attached with both the lens hood and filter in place.

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Have you ever taken that PERFECT family photo only to bring it up in Photoshop and discover a blinker? A tongue-sticker-outer? (Is that even an adjective?) Or you’ve taken roughly a hundred photos and there is at least ONE blinker in every photo? In the beginning, I would normally just banged my head harshly on the desk and wondered why in the world I’m a family photographer.

Oh….but now…..Oh I have a wonderful secret.

I swap heads.

Oh it’s a LOVELY trick to know and has saved many a-photo for me! And my oversized noggin. HA! Let me show you what I’m talking about. I had this amazing photo session in Washington State with the funniest lady and her family. It was a LARGE family….one that normally makes me break out in a cold sweat knowing I’m going to rake in the blinkers. LOL And of course, I never had a totally clean image to work with, either eyes were closed or a tongue was out in every one. I had to find the best one I could find, and then work from there.

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Bela Borsodi, 1966, Austria, studied graphic design and fine art before moving to New York in 1992. His work often incorporated photography but it wasn’t until 1999 that he started to fully focus on still life photography, which is still the main direction of his work. He concentrates on editorial and advertising photography and is strongly influenced by his graphic background. He combines ordinary objects and puts them in an unusual context. In his much acclaimed series Foot Fetish for V Magazine he put images of naked bodies of women in awkward positions inside women shoes. For Yalook he created a series of photographs and videos in which clothing was folded to resemble a face that spoke. Amongst his advertising clients are Galeries Lafayette, Hermes, Nike and Puma. He has also created images for editorial clients and magazines as The New York Times Magazine, Another Magazine and Stern. The following images come from the editorial series Livraison #2: Hidden Objects, Tatler #19: Seperation and Stern #36: Aus dem Schatten Getreten.

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Julio Bittencourt, 1980, Brazil, started his photographic career in 2000 as a photographer and assistant photo editor for the newspaper Valor Economico in Sao Paulo. Since 2006 he has been working as an independant photographer. In his series In a Window of Prestes Maia 911 Building he documented the residents of possibly the largest squat in the world. The building had been vacant for over a decade. In 2003 the ‘Movement of the Homeless’ had moved in hundreds of homeless families. They created a new community who drove out the vermin and drug dealers and created workshops and a library. In 2006 the new residents were told that they would be evicted. The project was released as a book in 2008. For his project Citizen X he focused on the housing problem in Brazil again. He shows abandoned spaces that represent “both a testament to the magnitude of the problemas well as a source of potential hope for change.” His personal project Ramos focuses on an artificial salt water lake surrounded by 15 favelas run by drug-trafficking gangs. Even though violence plagues the favelas, the park has been mostly free of problems. It is a crowded and polluted place where people enjoy the beach, sun and Brazilian rum. His work has been exhibited on numerous occasions worldwide and published in prestigious magazines as Time, Stern and GEO. The following images come from the series Ramos, Citizen X and In a Window of Prestes Maia 911 Building.

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One of the unfortunate consequences of today’s noisy age of communication is the deflation of “great.” It seems that to grab any attention in the daily cacophony anything passable, or even momentarily competent, must now be called not “fair” or “good” but immediately declaimed as “great.”

IrvingPenn-ArchiveBut genuine greatness can neither be achieved nor assessed so casually. Within the worlds of art and photography, greatness lands slowly and is gradually acknowledged through the lens of time. Irving Penn was indisputably one of the greatest photographers and artists of the 20th century, with a career that spanned nearly seventy percent of that century and a body of work that’s astonishing for its variety and quality. Although best known for his fashion and portrait photography, Penn’s artistic interests and accomplishments meandered to other genres of photography and even occasionally into non-photographic art forms.

In 1995 Irving Penn donated his archives to the Art Institute of Chicago. His transparencies, contact sheets, prints, drawings, notes, correspondence, even some of his cameras are all housed at the Museum. It’s an enormous body of material which, although well-organized upon intake, has occupied man-years of work by a devoted research team, with the support of the Irving Penn Foundation, to sculpt into the recently-opened Irving Penn Archives site.

I really think that most TOP readers will love this. A warning, though: don’t expect to casually jump in if you only have a few minutes to spare. Grab a beverage, sit down at a cozy spot and just enjoy immersing yourself in all things Penn.

If you’re not very familiar with Irving Penn, I envy you: you’re in for quite a new treat. I also envy you if you are familiar with Penn: I can virtually guarantee that you’ll delight in learning something new about him or his work.

Regardless of your Penn-savviness, spending study time in the Penn Archives may, at the very least, recalibrate your working concept of what qualifies as a “great photographer.”

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David Shankbone (real name David Miller) has been called “arguably the most influential new media photojournalist in the world.” And if you’ve never heard of him you may wonder: How did he achieve such a status? How did he get his work published by The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Forbest all while his actual day job isn’t even as a photographer? He did it all by giving away his photography for free.

Manager of a legal department on Wall Street by day, David Shankbone is perhaps the most prolific Creative Commons photographer out there today. And if you want poof of it all you have to do is browse through one of the five thousand plus Wikipedia articles that feature one of his photos. Tailor Swift? His. Betty White? His. The President of Rwanda? You guessed it, his.

His quest to fill Wikipedia with photos began in 2006 as a cheap hobby using only a point-and-shoot camera he got as a present from his sister. And from the beginning his belief — one that’s bound to stir up some controversy amongst photographers who make their living with their art — has been that “small publishers, artists, authors and educators can’t afford the time or money to hunt down and negotiate with unknown people for affordable images.” So his solution was “to create an extensive body of high resolution stock photography licensed Creative Commons.”

Whether or not you agree with his methods, many blogs and major publications alike owe the man a debt of gratitude for the amount of quality stock photography he’s released into the world, and all for free (we even used one of his photos last July).

But if you’re still confused as to why a man who could be making boatloads of cash with his photography gives it away for free, his answer to a similar question in an interview with GOOD might clear it up:

I care more about experience than money. I was at a party once where someone asked me about my work and she said I must make a lot of cash. When I said I give my photos away to the public, she looked at me like I was a fool. She derisively asked, “Why would anybody do that?” and I replied “What did you do last Tuesday?” She said that she came home from work late and watched Law & Order on her DVR. I said, “Last Tuesday I had a four-hour dinner with Augusten Burroughs, and then I photographed him. I didn’t make any money off of it, but it was a hell of a Tuesday night.” Then she smiled and got what I was about.

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A Virginia family will have a lot of moms to fuss over this Mother’s Day.

The family has an astonishing six generations of daughters still living. The matriarch of the family, Mollie Wood, was born in 1901 and just marked her 111th birthday. The youngest addition to the family, Braylin Marie Higgins, was born in March to Wood’s great, great granddaughter.

The secret to the family’s longevity?

“We’re ornery,” laughed 39-year-old Marlo Shifflett. “I think that’s a lot of it. We’re too ornery to stop!”

But there might be another magic ingredient as well – resilience.

Mollie Wood was a young married woman with two toddlers in diapers and another baby on the way when her husband was stricken by polio. It took him three years to recover enough to go back to work.

Wood’s granddaughter, Bette Goodson, said Wood “had to raise all the food, wash clothes by hand, cook everything from scratch. She has worked hard all her life.”

That work ethic was certainly passed down through the generations. Three nights a week, you can find the 70-year old Goodson leading a combination yoga and Pilates class.

“It’s an important part of my life,” said Goodson, who is so limber she can sit on the floor with her legs out to the side and touch her nose to the ground.

Wood’s daughter, Goodson’s mother, is still going strong at age 88, as well. Octogenarian Louise Minter cleans houses. She’s been doing so for nearly three decades, since retiring from General Electric.

“It gives me a little extra money,” she said. “I don’t have to watch a dollar so careful.”

Minter lives just five minutes from her mother, and visits the family matriarch a few times a week.

She has tried to preserve family history for the younger generations.

“I wrote a book for my grandchildren,” Minter said. It details her life “from the time I was born until I was 16.”

Why stop at that age? Minter, still mischievous, laughed.

“After 16, I am not telling them nothing I did!” she said.

In the book, Minter wrote about how her mother “would have to wash the clothes on a board and cook on a hot cook stove and no fans or air conditioner. And when you ironed, you have to put those irons on a stove. She would wash on Monday and iron all day long on Tuesday,” said Minter.

She bemoaned the fact that children today are obsessed with video, computers and games.

“When they write a book about their young life, what are they going to say,” she wondered. “I have some wonderful memories of my childhood.”

Wood raised her family in Charlottesville, Va., where she and her daughter, Minter, still live.

Granddaughter Bette Goodson admitted that as an adult she did move away from her “close-knit family.” How far? Some 35 miles up the road to Elkton, Va., in the Shenandoah Valley.

“It took me three years to get used to being this far away,” said Goodson in her southern drawl.

Despite the strong family ties, “We are very independent. We definitely are not one to expect people to take care of us,” said Goodson’s daughter, Marlo Shifflett, who owns a beauty shop and day spa in Elkton.

Goodson agrees.

“We have all managed to stay out of each other’s business,” she said. “You would think there would be a lot of meddling, but there really isn’t.”

That suits Goodson’s husband of 50 years, Dan. He laughs when asked what it has been like to have a have a mother-in-law around for half a century. “I get along with her better than my wife does,” he says. “She’s always been nice to me; it’s not been an issue.”

Dan Goodson agrees that he married into a string of self-sufficient women. “They’re just all tough old birds,” he says. “I’m not talking about being mean, but they can take on a challenge, and surprise you.”

Bette had to do just that, Dan says, when he was diagnosed with cancer three years ago. She had to take care of him, and the maintenance on their house and some rental properties.

Such fierce independence extends to 16-year-old Savannah Shifflett, the mother of baby Braylin.

“My daughter has not asked for help,” Marlo Shifflett said. “And I thought, ‘Where does she get that from?’ And I realized we’re all that way.”

The family admitted they were devastated when they found out that Savannah was expecting, but the women said the baby has made them even closer.

Savannah is engaged to the Braylin’s dad, and said of her infant, “She definitely wasn’t planned, but she’s my world.”

All six generations got together for Mollie Wood’s 111th birthday in April. Wood, who was still sharp until age 109, is less so now, according to family members.

But she certainly took notice of her great, great, great granddaughter. When Braylin was brought into her room, Wood revealed that spirit that has kept her going for so long.

“I don’t want to babysit,” she said, according to her granddaughter, Goodson, “I want to do what I want to do!”

As for the now-extended family tree, Savannah laughed.

“We’re pretty normal,” she said. “It’s just a bunch of grandmas.”

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