Category Archives: news

Homai Vyarawalla – India’s first woman photographer passes away.

India’s first woman photojournalist, Homai Vyarawalla, breathed her last on 15 January 2012 in a private hospital in Vadodara, Gujarat. At 98, Vyarawalla slipped and collapsed in her home and fractured her left thighbone. The leg injury aggravated respiratory complications that she had developed due to old age, and lead to her sad demise.

 

Vyarawalla started her career in 1930s, moved to Mumbai and Delhi and chronicled India’s changing face and times. She photographed many political and national leaders including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi with some of her black and white images went on to become icons of India’s history.

 

She did a diploma in Arts from JJ School of Arts, Mumbai, and learnt photography from Maneckshaw Vyarawalla whom she married in 1941. After the death of her husband in 1969, she moved to Vadodara in 1973 and retired from photography sorrowful about the “bad behaviour” of the new generation of photographers.

 

Vyarawalla was awarded Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award of the Republic of India, in 2011. To lose such a dignitary is a loss for the entire nation. With her talent and passion for photography and the indelible work that she has left behind, Vyarawalla is a figure etched in Indian history.

BERG announces Little Printer

Little Printer by BERG lives in your home and brings you news, puzzles and gossip from friends. Use your smartphone to set up subscriptions and Little Printer will gather them together to create a timely, mini-newspaper.

Pre-orders for Little Printer will open in 2012, when it launches as a ‘beta’ product.

Connected to the Web, Little Printer has wide range of sources available to check on your behalf. They are called “publications”. Subscribe to your favourites and choose when you’d like them delivered. Little Printer gathers everything it needs to prepare a neat little personalised package, printed as soon as you press the button. You can get deliveries multiple times a day.

You can use Remote on your iPhone or Android smartphone to add and manage new publications.
 
The company ‘Berg’ is still working with their partners to bring publications to Little Printer right from launch.
 
Little Printer holds a compact, inkless, thermal printer. Its zero-configuration wireless connection to the Web (via the Bridge unit, included) lets you place it wherever you have a power outlet. Little Printer is constructed in high-gloss injected moulded plastic and the brushed steel faceplate holds the paper, framing each delivery as it prints.
 
Graphic design is at the heart of everything Little Printer delivers. Rendered in black and white these tactile publications take visual cues from traditional halftone lithography and modern pixel art.
 

Little Printer sits in your home, but its BERG Cloud does the heavy lifting. BERG Cloud Bridge sits by your broadband router and wirelessly connects Little Printer to the Internet.

POLAROID ANNOUNCES Z340 INSTANT DIGITAL CAMERA

Polaroid recently announced the Z340 Instant Digital Camera, the next step in the evolution of the instant camera. Featuring a full-function 14.0 megapixel and integrated ZINK® printer, the Polaroid Z340 delivers a new twist on the instant experience by allowing users to customize each photo between snap and share.
 
The Polaroid Z340 pays homage to its analogue predecessors, yet contains an advanced, easy-to-use digital feature set. The camera combines a 14.0 megapixel digital camera with a ZINK-enabled printer using the ink-free Zero Ink Printing Technology from ZINK Imaging to deliver a 3×4” print – the same size as the classic Polaroid photos. You also have more options for instant printing: the iconic Polaroid Classic Border Logo or full bleed and contemporary 3×4” photos.
 

The Z340 camera’s one pound, seven ounce, runs on rechargeable lithium-ion battery that prints up to 25 photos and 75 captures.

Snap and check images on the Z340 camera’s 2.7” LCD screen and choose photos for printing. Like a regular digital camera your images can be automatically saved to the on-board SD card.
 
On-board editing features allow review and cropping prior to printing. There are border options within the camera or you can even upload your own custom borders to it.
 

The Polaroid Z340 camera is available (US, $299.99 MSRP) at B&H, Adorama and Amazon.com, and also at Polaroid.com. Thirty sheets of Polaroid ZINK 3×4” Paper (US, $19.99 MSRP) is also available at the retailers listed above.

Little wonder, Pico Dolly launched

Everyone’s a filmmaker these days, what with the widespread availability of fairly high-quality HD video and the tools to edit and distribute it. But the camera isn’t the only thing you need to make movies. Without a tripod and some kind of motion control system, you’re limited to shaky hand-holding and standing the thing up on tables and chairs. A baby tripod and hacked-together stabilizer are easy enough, but what about a dolly?

 
The Pico Dolly addresses this need with a simple, affordable, and quite a cool little platform. Existing dolly options were too big, too expensive, or too poorly built. But this one comes with serious bearings, all-metal construction, and room for three screw-mount arms – all while taking up as little space as possible. The wheels can be adjusted so the camera describes a small circle, or straightened out to make a straight line.
 

The Pico Dolly is priced at $65 if you pre-order it. The repositionable arms are sold separately for $25 each.

FUJIFILM Launches FinePix S2950

FUJIFILM India Pvt. Ltd., recently unveiled the new FinePix S2950, which claims a powerful zoom and outstanding quality in High Definition (HD).
 
The compact body digital camera – FinePix S2950 has been aesthetically made keeping the young generation in mind. The Electronic Viewfinder (EVF) automatically switches display from the LCD to the highly EVF as you put your eyes on it. S2950 has Dual Image Stabilization and is equipped with SR AUTO, an auto 6 scene-recognition function with detection functions that detects faces, blinks and smiles.
 
FinePix S2950 has a 14 megapixel resolution which captures sharp and clear images. It is a sensitive camera with maximum sensitivity of ISO 6400 resulting in more natural looking photos in low light conditions. Fujinon 18x and Wide 28mm zoom lens has been used in this camera. The camera has a 7.62 cm large LCD screen with a high-impact 230,000-dot resolution.
 

Along with pictures you can also shoot High Quality videos with FinePix S2950. You can capture both photos and movies in high-definition 16:9 format. The camera can be yours for the price of Rs 10,999/- (MRP)

Epson launches LED printers

Epson recently launched the company’s first range of LED printers that will replace its best selling entry laser printer device range.
 
Comprising of monochrome and colour single function and all-in-one devices, the new printers feature a high performance LED technology that produces high quality, high speed prints with the space and power savings. The new series will continue to use the Epson “AcuLaser” brand for the foreseeable future.

The new range consists of:

Monochrome printer models:

  • The Epson AcuLaser M1400 single function mono printer
  • The Epson AcuLaser MX14 all-in-one mono printer

 

Colour printer models:

  • The Epson AcuLaser C1700 single function colour printer
  • The Epson AcuLaser C17NF all-in-one colour printer with networking and fax

 

The new printers are the most affordable models in Epson’s LED/laser printer range and feature toner cartridges that do not have PCUs, and which are also economically priced. The printers offer low power consumption and in fact, all models in the new printer range have been Energy Star certified. The high performance LED technology empowers the printers with high print speeds of up to 24ppm for black (AcuLaser M1400 / MX14), and up to 12ppm for colour (AcuLaser C1700 / CX17NF). The LED technology of the new printers, combined with their use of Epson AcuBrite toners, ensures rich and sharp black text, and vibrancy and colour image quality..
 
The Epson AcuLaser MX14 and CX17NF all-in-one devices offer users the convenience of scanning and copying abilities. The CX17NF feature automatic document feeder, networking and fax functionality that allows users to scan, copy or fax documents without needing to attend to the printers and share their functionality over office networks. All the models in the new range feature duty cycles of up to 20,000 pages per month.
 
A user can choose either standard, economical toner cartridges for low print volumes; or high capacity cartridges for high print volumes. The new toner cartridges are smaller compared to previous generations, allowing users to conserve storage space.
 

The Epson AcuLaser M1400, MX14, C1700 and C17NF are priced at Rs 5, 350, Rs 8,350, Rs 10, 800 and Rs 19, 500 respectively.

Sony Launches Wi-Fi enabled S-Frame

Sony recently added Wi-Fi enabled S-Frame to its S-Frame range, the DPF-WA700 and DPF-W700. Offering Wi-Fi Internet connectivity, the DPF-WA700 and DPF-W700 can automatically retrieve and display photos shared on Facebook, as well as photos sent to an existing email account.
 
Other features include home network connectivity for viewing of photos stored on a home PC, a 7” resistive touch screen, support for AccuWeather forecasts, 1GB internal memory to store up to approximate 4,000 photos, and card slots supporting MS Duo/SD/SDHC formats. WA700 also has on offer vTuner Internet radio compatibility, AVCHD video file playback, and MP3/AAC/LPCM/WMA audio playback while playing photo slideshows.
 
Like other S-Frame series models, the DPF-WA700 and DPF-W700 come with eco-friendly features, such as LED backlight technology that uses less power to display images than CCFL technology. An auto on/off timer also allows users to set their frames to turn off automatically when not in use, after an extended period of time.
 

The DPF-W700 & DPF-WA700 digital photo frames will be available in selected countries in Asia Pacific from December 2011 and January 2012 respectively.