Category Archives: news

AFP launches World Cup 2014 photo exhibition in Indonesia

Agence France-Presse (AFP) and its longtime Indonesian partner, the Antara news agency, have launched a photo exhibition in Jakarta on the history and highlights of the football World Cup in time for the 2014 championship in Brazil.
The exhibition, featuring 83 pictures from the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay to the 2010 edition in South Africa, is being staged from June 9 to July 15 at the Antara Photojournalism Gallery located in the historic Pasar Baru quarter of the Indonesian capital.
In a festive ceremony featuring live samba music, Brazil’s Ambassador to Indonesia Paulo Soares shared the pride of his countrymen in hosting the 2014 World Cup as well as the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Mervin Nambiar, AFP’s sales and marketing director in the Asia-Pacific region, said the agency is sending some 180 staff – comprising reporters and photographers as well as video and multimedia journalists — to cover Rio 2014.
“Our team will report all the events in Brazil for football fans worldwide. In Indonesia, all this content will be available to our newspaper, broadcast and new media clients through Antara,” Nambiar said.
Antara’s commercial director, Hempi Prajudi, opened the exhibition together with Soares and Nambiar in the presence of local and international media, Jakarta cultural figures, photojournalists and football fans.
The photo collection shown in the exhibition is contained in a special 108-page catalogue explaining the story behind each picture.
“France and Indonesia are both great football-loving nations and we hope this exhibition will delight visitors to this historic museum and gallery during the current championships in Brazil,” Gilles Campion, AFP’s Asia-Pacific regional director, said in a preface to the booklet.
 One of the highlights of the evening was the showing of a video on the making of an AFP-backed special project on the central role of football in the daily life of Rio de Janeiro’s notorious “favelas” or slums.
Christophe Simon, AFP’s head of photography in Brazil, taught basic photography techniques to a group of 18 adolescents from the so-called “Cidade de Deus” (City of God), with amazing results.
Together, they photographed the favela residents’ passion for football, and the result was a collection of 70 pictures distributed globally by AFP to leading media clients.

Sandisk announces USB designed in partnership with Romero Britto now available across India

SanDisk Corporation today announced its special edition Cruzer Pop USB flash drive, designed by Romero Britto, is now available in India on Snapdeal.com. 
“Entering into this partnership with SanDisk is very important to me and I am very happy with this USB release and with our collaboration, which I’m certain will be a great success,” said Britto. “I was interested in making a colourful product that truly reflected Brazilian culture, as was SanDisk. It was important to design a product that would be something consumers would like to look at, and would get inspiration from.”
“Working with an international artist whose ability to bring USB drives to life with his designs is a great way for SanDisk to recognize vibrant cultures and give our customers fun and unique-looking products,” said Rajesh Gupta, Country Manager India, SanDisk Corporation. “Romero Britto edition of Cruzer Pop USB flash drive will be available in India on Snapdeal.com,” he added.  
Known for his colourful and cheerful works of art, Britto developed a unique design using soccer as an inspiration. It will be featured on the 8GB1Cruzer Pop USB flash drive. The drive also includes SanDisk SecureAccess Software, which provides secure file encryption and password protection for private files, while leaving the rest of the drive available for worry-free sharing.
Aiming to strengthen its presence across growing e-commerce platform in India, SanDisk has introduced this special edition Cruzer Pop USB flash drive in partnership with Snapdeal.com at a suggested retail price of INR 499. Customers can place an online order for the SanDisk USB flash drive.

Konica Minolta appoints Yuji Nakata as the new MD

Yuji Nakata has been appointed as the new Managing Director of Konica Minolta India. Nakata has been associated with Konica Minolta for over 25 years and previously was serving as company’s Chief Representative in Thailand.
Commenting on the appointment, V. Balakrishnan, Executive General Manager, Konica Minolta India, said, “Mr. Yuji Nakata has played a significant part through strategic and operational areas of Konica Minolta for many years now and has done an exemplary job as Chief Representative, Minolta Beijing Office (China). His visionary approach first as Managing Director, Konica Minolta Hong Kong and later as Managing Director, Konica Minolta Shenzhen, China, helped in consolidating the brand’s dominance in those markets.”
 Stating further he remarked, “As we move towards taking Konica Minolta to the next level of growth, we are privileged that a person of his calibre is there to guide us through. He is one of the original members of Konica Minolta management team and has been instrumental in driving the fastest growing areas of the company’s business.”
 Mr. Yuji Nakata has replaced Mr. Tadahiko Sumitani who has been promoted and has assumed a new role as the Global Sales Head in Japan HQ.
 Konica Minolta also launched its most promising production printer bizhub PRESS C1070 and bizhub PRESS C1060. The new series runs at 71 and 61 ppm respectively in A4, and the 4th Generation Simitri HDE toner.
 “The printer is for the customers who are looking for the ability to scale, perform and deliver On-demand across diverse needs with a faster turnaround time while maintaining superior colour reproduction. The new intuitive and intelligent bizhub PRESS C1070 / C1060 offers the perfect solution,” said Mr. Yuji Nakata, Managing Director , Konica Minolta Business Solutions India Pvt Ltd .
Speaking at the launch Mr. Kuldeep Malhotra Executive General Manager Konica Minolta India said “We are the market leader in Production Printer segment and the latest series will further strengthen our position in this segment. Konica Minolta has always provided innovative and technologically advanced products and our latest series will not only stand out in the crowd but will take the production printing market a step further.”

M.Ganges by Yoshihiko Ueda

“Occasionally I began to sense myself not gazing at somebody in the photo, but seeing myself in the photo I’d taken. In my line of sight: my memories, or rather, in fact, memories from a distant past that for some reason did not seem to be my own. Spying an old dog I discern the sorrowful scent of death, and at the same time, that dog could almost be me;sometimes it feels like the landscape that looks dim and hazy as she totters along is no longer hers, that she may be seeing far distant memories. Perhaps one can see distant memories by sniffing the stench of death; the hazy light and shadow, color and form being all that remain, an unfathomable feeling of nostalgia suffuses my heart with stunning intensity, a sudden fit of weeping assailing me. Lamentation and delight and uncertain memories become light and color without contour, embracing me. The memories of dogs, of birds, of trees, of rivers, of mountains: my chest tightens with a wistful pang at the memories of each and every thing in this world. Photographs are memories of gazes, of faraway places, of people and times that have passed,” said Yoshihiko Ueda.

M.Ganges is a collection of images taken by Japanese photographer Yoshihiko Ueda along the River Ganges. Out of focus, vivid and visceral, these visions of people don colors and play with the light. Shimmering water reflects souls, puzzling the onlooker. Ueda lingered in distant memories, dreaming colored dreams. From forest to river, sea to people… M.Ganges, the latest in his ‘M’ series tracing primeval memories, offers an irresistible variety of sixty-one carefully chosen images. Other works – M.River, M.Venus and M.Sea – depict very personal impressions of Japan and elsewhere, offering a similar experience throughout with a deep interest in tracing landscape through large-scale photography. Gallery 916 on the edge of Tokyo Bay offers it’s a unique experience. A converted factory, its vastness provides the rare opportunity of seeing photography in surroundings rarely available in the city. Gallery 916-small, as the name suggests, provides a more immediate chance to feature work by up-and-coming photographers, no-less important in subject matter or quality. On the edge of Tokyo Bay, the Gallery, like the photography within, gives a rare glimpse of a world away and beyond.

Born 1957, among Yoshihiko Ueda’s most noted series/monographs are Quinault (Kyoto Shoin, 1993), a brooding meditation on the eponymous sacred Native American rainforest; Amagatsu (Korinsha, 1995), a backstage study of Sankai Juku dancer-choreographer Ushio Amagatsu; Portrait (Littlemore, 2003), singular impressions of 39 leading Japanese figures the likes of Takaaki Yoshimoto and Shotaro Yasuoka; At Home (Littlemore, 2006), intimate snapshots of the artist’s family; Yume (Seigensha, 2010), timeless, dreamlike images from a Buddhist monastery in Mandalay; and Frank Lloyd Wright (X-Knowledge, 2003), a portfolio of the architect’s buildings documented with a Leica. Since 2008, Ueda’s work has been exhibited at Paris Photo, among other art fairs. His “QUINAULT” photographs were featured in solo exhibitions at Michael Hoppen Gallery (London) and TAI Gallery (Santa Fe) in 2010 and his “Materia” photographs of primeval forest taken on the island of Yakushima at Gallery 916 in 2012. He released his “M.River” series of out-offocus images of ancient streams in the mountains of Yakushima in March 2013, and in May, his “M.Sea” series of digital photographs taken with a single-lens reflex camera of the Sea of Japan from the Tojinbo cliffs of Fukui Prefecture, and in November, his solo exhibition were featured at Galerie taménaga France. His works are in the collections of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (Kansas City), New Mexico Arts (Santa Fe), Hermés International (Paris), Stichting Art & Theatre (Amsterdam), and Bibliothèque nationale de France.

M.Ganges by Yoshihiko Ueda at Gallery 916 (Tokyo, Japan) runs until June 21

Fujifilm India announces the new FUJIFILM X-E2 interchangeable lens camera

Fujifilm India has announced the launch of FUJIFILM X-E2, a premium interchangeable lens camera with the latest APS-C X-Trans CMOS II sensor and world’s fastest AF speed.

Rohit Pandit, EVP- Sales & Marketing, Fujifilm India said, “After the success of X-E1 in the Indian market, I am delighted to announce this new X-E2 camera which offers many advance features to become a delight of the professional photographers.”

 Building on the global success of the acclaimed FUJIFILM X-E1, awarded 2013’s Best Expert CSC by the Technical Image Press Association, the X-E2 is intended to take image quality to a dynamic new level that is comparable with full-frame cameras.

Fujifilm informed that the camera has the world’s fastest AF speed of 0.08 seconds. It features 16.3 million pixels APS-C sized X-Trans CMOS II Sensor that incorporates an original colour filter array. The hybrid AF also combines phase detection AF and contrast AF to ensure accuracy when shooting low-contrast subjects and dark scenes.

The X-E2 is available in solid black or two-tone black and silver, and is priced at Rs. 76,999 for body and Rs. 1,09,999 with XF18-55mm kit lens.

New camera, smartphone and lenses unveiled at Samsung Forum 2014

At its 2014 Samsung Forum held in Bali, Samsung Electronics announced a number of additions to its range of Digital Imaging devices. 

Samsung NX 30

Samsung introduces the NX30 CSC featuring a 20.3megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor with NX AF System II for fast and accurate focusing. The NX 30 has a fastest shutter speed of 1/8000sec. With 9 fps. 3 inch super AMOLED swivel touch display. The nx30 features NFC and WiFi which allows for sharing,  remote viewing.


Samsung 16-50 mm F2-2.8 S ED OIS lens
Samsung’s first premium ‘S’ Series lens has a wide aperture opening (F2.0 at 16mm; F2.8 at 50mm). It features a Ultra-Precise Stepping Motor (UPSM)
With optical image stabilisation. The lens is splash and dust proof.

The forum also featured Samsung 16-50 mm F3.5-5.6 Power Zoom ED OIS lens is a light weight lens weighing in at 111g with silent auto focusing.


Samsung Galaxy Camera 2
Samsung revealed their smart camera with a 16 megapixel BSI CMOS Sensor with a 21x optical zoom. The Samsung Galaxy 2 also features a 1.6 GHz Quad- Core processor with a 2GB RAM and 2000mAh battery. Its loaded with a 4.8 inch HD Super Clear Touch LCD.

All products will be launched by feb end or early march.

Nikon COOLPIX A and Nikon 1 AW1 receive Germany’s iF Product Design Award 2014

Nikon India recently announced that COOLPIX A, the first COOLPIX camera to be equipped with a Nikon DX-format CMOS image sensor, and waterproof and shockproof Nikon 1 AW1 advanced camera with interchangeable lenses, are the recipients of iF Product Design Award 2014, globally prestigious industrial product design awards sponsored by International Forum Design.

The COOLPIX A is equipped with a new wide-angle 18.5mm (equivalent to a 28mm angle of view in 35mm [135] format) fixed focal length NIKKOR lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.8 designed exclusively for the COOLPIX A for the ease and portability of a compact digital camera and the rendering capabilities of a digital-SLR camera.

The Nikon 1 AW1 offers all the characteristics of Nikon 1 advanced cameras with interchangeable lenses, and it is also the world’s first digital camera with interchangeable lenses to be waterproof to a depth of 15m and strong enough to withstand the shock of falls from up to 2m.

The iF Design Awards have been sponsored by iF Industrie Forum Design Hannover e.V. based in Hanover Germany, since 1953. This year, 4,615 products from 55 countries were evaluated in, with the various awards being presented to a total of 1,626 products. 

Canon launches South Asia’s first commercial inkjet photo printer in Bangalore

Canon India Pvt Ltd. recently announced its entry into the commercial photo printing business in India, introducing the new DreamLabo 5000 commercial inkjet printer equipment targeting the retail photo and album printing industry. 
Delivering a new standard of combined photo and text quality, the DreamLabo aims to offer the production photo printing market a viable alternative to silver halide technology, which will revitalize the photo printing market in the country. In addition, through opportunities possible from premium quality, it aims to offer both the production photo and the small batch premium print-on-demand (POD) markets substantial new revenue opportunities.
This launch makes India the first country in South Asia where the Dreamlabo 5000 machine is being installed.  The press announcement event was attended by Kensaku Konishi, President & CEO, Canon Singapore Pte Ltd.

Present at the launch ceremony in Bangalore, Mr. Kazutada Kobayashi, President & CEO, Canon India, said, “Canon has always been at the forefront of bringing innovative products to customers. With this latest business entry, we are hoping to strengthen our ability to meet the printing needs of professional and wedding photographers. With the DreamLabo 5000, we clearly want to establish innovation leadership in India. For us at Canon India, this is not just a new machine, but the technology that can revitalize the entire industry and open up substantial new business opportunities. Canon is setting a new benchmark for the production printing of high quality photos with this launch.”
GK Vale, a Canon India premium partner from Bangalore, who also operate 9 Canon Image Square stores in the city, are the first customer to purchase and install this in India.
Further elaborating on the announcement, Dr. Alok Bharadwaj, Executive Vice President, Canon India, said, “India is a 3000crore photo printing industry with lion share coming from wedding albums& travel vacation photos. While there is tremendous change in photo capturing, the printing art is still dominated with conventional technology. Conventional silver halide technology is just too old and digital alternative is not matching customer expectations. There was enormous scope of value creation in this space. Our partners call the new Dreamlabo 5000 prints as HD (high definition) prints. We plan to start with Rs. 15 crore coming out of this domain in 2014. It has a potential to create 100 crore business stream in 5 years.”
He further added “This launch has put India on a global map of Hi quality digital photo printing. To promote this business and to impact a larger ecosystem, Canon organized a meet comprising of photo labs, wedding photographers, wedding planners and event agencies in Bangalore today”.
Leveraging and extending Canon’s existing inkjet technology, which it has deployed through its PIXMA desktop printers range, the DreamLabo 5000 features a newly developed high-density print head, enabling over 300 mm wide printing output. Incorporating Canon’s FINE (Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering) technology, the print head aims to enable the printing of high-quality photos and detailed text to support a variety of high-value-added output, from photo albums, photo books, photo calendars, photo collages and other merchandise to high-quality POD items, such as bespoke brochures.
The wide print head delivers high-speed One-Pass Printing, requiring only a single pass of the printing paper while the print head remains in a fixed position. When used in combination with the automatic Double-sided Printing function, the DreamLabo 5000 is said to be capable of printing the contents of A4 size print approx.1,000 page and 4×6 single print approx. 2,300 page per hour. 

The retail price of DreamLabo 5000 in India is approximately INR 4.5 crore. Canon informed that it will be working with its sales team and channel partners to reach out to the masses with this new area of business.

Fujifilm India to conduct street photography workshop in Chennai

After conducting their workshop series in New Delhi (Chandni Chowk), Mumbai (Colaba), Kolkata (Kumortuli) and Bangalore (Koramangalam), Fujifilm India now plans to expand the series with the next one in Chennai – Marina Beach & Fisherman’s village. The street photography workshop will be conducted on 7th December 2013, Saturday by renowned photographer Mr. K.P Krishnan.

Scouring the streets of India on multiple occasions, he not only photographs the unique, eclectic characters and environment of the city, but also brings his subjects to life, exploring the real street life and personalities that few tourists get to see. His relentless passion for shooting photos has resulted in his deeply personal, striking and unapologetic work being exhibited numerous times, while appearing in a variety of print and online publications.

Through this workshop the participants would get a chance to learn various important techniques involved in street photography, framing and composition, selection of right kind of equipment and also a chance to shoot the Marina beach & Fisherman’s village along with the photographer, other participants and mentors from Fujifilm.

Fujifilm India is driving the registrations for the workshop from their Facebook page – http://on.fb.me/1c4ruLk and is inviting all the amateur photographers to attend  this workshop who are interested to learn more about tips and tricks of photography at a cost of Rs. 250 (for Fujifilm X & S Series owners) and Rs. 500 for other camera owners.

Fujifilm India launches the FUJINON XF23mmF1.4 R

Fujifilm India has announced the launch of the FUJINON XF23mmF1.4 R lens for Fujifilm Interchangeable lens cameras.

With a focal length equivalent to 35mm in the 35mm format, the FUJINON XF23mmF1.4 R is suitable for a wide range of applications including portraits and landscapes, as well as more general photography. The maximum aperture of f/1.4 allows one to shoot hand-held in low-light conditions, and it said to create beautiful bokeh for artistic images. These advanced optical engineering techniques combine to deliver full-frame sensor resolution and noise level performance in the detailed APS-C sized X-Trans CMOS sensor in Fujifilm X-mount cameras.

Rohit Pandit, EVP, Sales & Marketing said, “With an appropriate mix of wide, telephoto – block and zoom lenses, I am happy that our range is expanding to meet the demands of discerning X Series professionals.”
The new lens design is said to provide enhanced resolving power with high contrast to draw the maximum performance out of the highly descriptive X-Trans CMOS sensor. Lens distortion has been reduced to the absolute minimum using only optical rather than digital correction, thereby delivering the highest possible picture quality.

The versatile focal length equivalent to 35mm in the 35mm format is meant to enable users to enjoy both a wide-angle and telephoto approach by using one’s own feet to adjust the distance or angle with the subject matter.
The FUJINON XF23mmF1.4 R features a camera-to-subject distance indicator and a depth-of-field scale on the barrel. Both are useful when manually pre-focusing to capture a fast moving subject, or minimize the shutter lag to capture a fleeting moment.The minimum working distance of around 28cm also makes this lens ideal for close-up shots.

The lens uses an internal focusing system for high speed autofocus. The focusing lens group consists of three cemented lens elements and one aspheric lens element to keep weight down while the built-in high-torque DC coreless motor delivers ultra-fast AF performance.