He’s back… Watch the Print Fanatic and his team passionately express the power of printing. Printing’s alive! Printing saves lives! We can’t live without printing!

Safety Tip: STOP THE PRESS before trying to remove a jammed sheet…

• Press Release
• Specifications

Have fun shooting Full HD video and 360 Videos with new-generation Bloggie™ Touch by Sony

‘All-in-one’ web sharing solution with camera, software and Personal Space online service

• Beautifully styled snap camera shoots Full HD 1920×1080 video and 360 Videos plus 12.8 megapixel stills
• Large, easy to use 7.6cm (3”) touch-screen and new interface
• Built-in USB and Bloggie™ software for easy uploads
• Quick, secure, private sharing of videos and photos with new Personal Space by Sony*

It’s brilliantly easy to grab great-looking Full HD video clips and still photos with new Bloggie™ Touch by Sony. A radical evolution from first-generation Bloggie™ models, the all-new HD snap camera boasts gorgeous new looks with its slim, rounded body and finely brushed aluminium finish. It’s also the perfect ‘all-in-one’ solution for shooting and sharing life’s special moments, wherever you are.

Available in a choice of vibrant pink, silver and black finishes, the Bloggie Touch is a stylish partner for day-trips, weekend breaks or fun-filled nights out.

The camera’s cool, clean lines are dominated by a big, bright 7.6cm (3”) LCD touchscreen that gives a brilliant view of your photos and video clips. A sleek new user interface simplifies intuitive ‘touch and flick’ enjoyment of your clips and pictures.

Operation is equally straightforward. Just point and shoot to catch the moment: you can even grab still images while video recording continues uninterrupted.

The sensitive Exmor™ CMOS Sensor captures sparkling Full HD videos and crisply-detailed still photos. Picture quality is enhanced further by the bright, high quality lens with F2.8 maximum aperture for clear, low noise images – even when you’re shooting indoors or on overcast days.

Bloggie™ Touch features a versatile autofocus lens with wide angle function. There’s also a new auto macro mode to focus sharply on objects as close as 10cm away. It’s ideal for snapping the menu of that unforgettable restaurant meal or a beautiful flower discovered on holiday.

Bloggie™ Touch also records amazing 360-degree panoramic videos and photos to capture everything that’s happening around you – just clip on the supplied lens adaptor. 360 Videos are now twice the resolution of previous-generation Bloggie™, and low-light video quality is also improved thanks to the Exmor™ CMOS sensor. In addition to fun 360 Video, Bloggie Touch features “free-style shooting” which allows you to capture movie both in landscape and portrait.

Despite its slim, compact size, Bloggie Touch allows nearly 4 hours HD movie shooting time (1280 x 720/30p mode) on its 8GB internal memory. (Continuous maximum shooting time: approx. 29 mins).

After shooting, it’s never been easier to share your favourite photos and clips on the web. Bloggie™ Touch connects instantly to any PC via its flip-out USB arm that also charges the camera’s battery. There are no fiddly cables or software CDs to worry about: hook up Bloggie™ Touch and built-in sharing software launches automatically.

Just drag and drop to upload your favourite moments without fuss to social networks and popular sites like YouTube, Facebook and Flickr. While you’re on the move, it’s easy to tag content with a new ‘Share-it-Later’ function for simple uploads when you’re next online.

Built-in Bloggie software also allows easy uploads to Personal Space, the brand-new online service by Sony for sharing content safely and securely. Once you’ve uploaded your pictures and clips from Bloggie™, just email invited members of your own Sharing Group with a link to your Personal Space. It’s easier and quicker than sending big file attachments via email. Viewing options are widened further by an HDMI port that connects Bloggie™ Touch to any HD television.

The new Bloggie™ Touch MHS-TS20K mobile HD snap camera by Sony is available from the beginning of November 2010.

* Personal Space service has already launched in the UK, with France and Germany scheduled to follow in October 2010.

Sony Bloggie MHS-TS20K specifications

Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 3.2, Camera Raw 6.2 and DNG Converter 6.2. These are final versions of updates that were originally posted as ‘release candidates’ on the Adobe Labs site, and are now available for immediate download. The latest versions provide final RAW support for sixteen recent cameras, including the Canon EOS 60D and Sony Alpha NEX-5. The updates also add more than 120 lens profiles and fix a number of bugs.

Click here to download Adobe Photoshop Lightroom v3.2 (Windows)

Click here to download Adobe Photoshop Lightroom v3.2 (Mac)

Click here to download Adobe Camera Raw and DNG Converter v6.2 (Windows)

Click here to download Adobe Camera Raw and DNG Converter v6.2 (Mac)

In case you’ve been waiting by your computer for Pantone‘s fall fashion colour prediction palette, here it is. The company says: “This season’s offerings include innovative takes on fundamental basics, as well as transporting, lively colours that conjure images of travel and adventure.”

Continues Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Colour Institute: “Mindful of consumers’ need for practicality, plus their desire for newness, designers offer many options for women to extend and embellish their wardrobes this fall.”

For more information, and how you can download the Fall 2010 Fashion Colour Library for free, click here.

From the report:

Inspired by the ongoing phenomena of film animation, vivid colours are often juxtaposed in inventive ways, creating arresting and extraordinary colour combinations.

Exotic Purple Orchid, a purple leaning to fuchsia, is an unexpected choice for fall, imbuing a bit of magic and vibrancy to the season. Elegant Chocolate Truffle, evocative of delicious treats, is a rich brown with piquant plum undertones, that pairs tastefully with Purple Orchid. Not your mother’s avocado green, Woodbine takes last season’s neutral greens to a whole new level, and when mixed with Purple Orchid and Chocolate Truffle, results in a stunning combination.

Lagoon, this season’s turquoise – Pantone’s 2010 color of the year – is guaranteed to add a tropical splash. A great color for fall and winter escapes, Lagoon is a popular hue, especially in accessories, pairing dynamically with all shades of red. Lipstick Red, a deeper, more dramatic sensual red, makes its imprint on fall, particularly in cosmetics.

Reminiscent of a radiant sunset on a brisk autumn evening, Golden Glow, an earthy, deepened shade of yellow, creates a retro look with Purple Orchid or Woodbine. A softer, more inviting orange with a hint of pink undertone, Living Coral is the perfect complement to Lagoon, whether heading for a tropical destination or just fantasizing about it. Crisp Endive, a revitalizing yellow-green, adds freshness to this season’s top ten, and will enliven any wardrobe. Add it to Lagoon, Chocolate Truffle and Purple Orchid for an invigorating fall look.

Oyster Gray, a classic neutral that grounds the palette, is a lighter take on the traditional fall gray, as designers heed consumers’ concern about the economy and deliver investment pieces that carry through to spring 2011. Rose Dust, a flattering beige, offers an ethereal, romantic, wispy option to span the seasons.

Related articles

• Pantone reveals colourful predictions for 2010 (eyeondesigns.com)
• Pantone Mugs Bring Home a Blast of Color (apartmenttherapy.com)
• Finding Online Pantone Color Charts (brighthub.com)

Pantone, a well-known provider of professional colour standards for the graphics and design industry, has announced its prediction for what will be the colour of the year in 2010: Pantone 15-5519. Otherwise known as Turquoise, Pantone says the inviting, luminous hue combines the serene qualities of blue and the invigorating aspects of green, containing both warm and cool undertones.

“In many cultures, Turquoise occupies a very special position in the world of colour,” says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director, Pantone Colour Institute. “It is believed to be a protective talisman, a colour of deep compassion and healing, and a colour of faith and truth, inspired by water and sky. Through years of colour word-association studies, we also find that Turquoise represents an escape to many – taking them on a tropical paradise that is pleasant and inviting, even if only a fantasy.”

This time last year, Pantone predicted the colour of 2009 was to be Mimosa, a warm yellow. The year before saw Blue Iris as its choice, a deep blue with tones of purple. 2007′s colour was Chilli Pepper, a spicy red.

Related articles

• Pantone reveals report on fall fashion colours (eyeondesigns.com)
• Pantone Mugs Bring Home a Blast of Color (apartmenttherapy.com)
• Finding Online Pantone Color Charts (brighthub.com)

I read a lot of industry produced articles and papers on branding, all have one thing in common, the message is confusing, they use a plethora of “tech talk” and what I can only describe as gibberish, so let’s start a new, first off a logo is not a brand; a logo is a symbol or mark used to represent a company or person usually simple in design and flat in colour, although this generally does not hold fast in our day and age, the word logo derives from the Greek word Logo-gram, ‘logos’ meaning ‘word’ and ‘gram’ meaning ‘what is written’. The word ‘Logotype’ is its proper form, but through time and the nature of language it has been shortened to ‘Logo’.

But the important thing is a logo is part of an identity system, so when you hear the term Logo banded around, what people really mean is trademark. Your trademark lets the consumer know through consistency and familiarity, who the service or product is from and if they can trust it, because as humans, we are intuitive and emotionally driven, trust is the foundation for any brand; think about Coca-Cola, what do you think about? maybe it’s the trademark we all know and love, maybe the iconic bottle, most probably it’s that great taste, but the important thing is that when you pick up a bottle of Coke you know that you can trust it, you trust that it’s going to taste like coke, you trust it’s going to make you feel good and quench your thirst, why? Because you know the brand, it’s been a part of all our lives for so long, you know what to expect and it always meets your expectations, and as long as the guys at Coca-Cola keep meeting those expectations they will remain the premium in their market.

Secondly, packaging does not make a brand, packaging much like the trademark is there as an identifying system used to bring harmony and conformity, and it also offers additional information on products and services. This brings us to products, which also is not the brand,  rather, it is your offering to the world, what will bring differentiation to your company, because unless you have a new invention, most products already exist, but you will set your product apart from another by carefully considering the things that make it unique. This of course is a very brief overview of different systems within a company but demonstrates that the things you probably first think of are not the brand itself. There are a multitude of other systems we could discuss, but it’s not the purpose of this article, so let’s cut to the chase… what is a brand?

A brand is a person’s emotional response, Marty Neumeier, a well known brand collaboration expert, said it’s the individuals “gut feeling” about your company, product or service.

And it really is about individuals, you may have a demographic or target market, but individuals make up the masses, and when a multitude of individuals come to the same conclusion about your company, product or service then you have yourself a brand and “Brand Management” is about controlling this non tangible human feeling/emotion. This is what builds all of the strongest brands we know today. Take Apple for instance, they captured peoples imagination’s and hearts with not only their great products, but with the advertising and packaging, look at their iconic silhouette dancers advertisement that adorned not only printed materials but television ads as well, for the release of their original iPod, before Apple came along advertising technology was about technicalities and specifications but Apple threw that out the window and created a product you wanted, not one you needed. Getting individuals to ‘Want’ your products is a feat that all brand managers should be aiming for, because when you ‘Want’ something it’s an emotional response, it’s a purchase out of emotion or an impulse, not one made on necessity.

So a brand is about controlling the emotions and feelings of your consumer’s or the people you want to be your consumers, being able to come up with a campaign that’s going to capture the heart, or the imagination of people, and one of the only ways to manage brand is by expert use of not only the strategy behind a clever or intelligent campaign but the execution of design within the campaign, basically the concept has to be just as great as the execution. This is what will be discussed in the next article…

WHATS A BRAND? is a post from: GoMediaZine

Go Media is a creative agency based in Cleveland, Ohio. Besides the GoMediaZine, we also work for clients and sell stock artwork and design files on the Arsenal.

*** Watch the Promotional Video ***

HIGH ISO DIGITAL SLR

Veteran Canon EOS-1D and 1Ds shooters will feel right at home with the new Canon EOS-1D Mark IV camera, built on a dust- and weather-resistant magnesium alloy body. Upgraded features include increased sensor resolution and ISO, reduced noise, an increased frame rate, a new medium-sized RAW file, and if that’s not enough, HD video capture.

The Mark IV has an APS-H 27.9×18.6mm sensor that packs 16.1 megapixels (4896×3264 in RAW) of capture resolution. The new M-RAW format (3672×2448—9 megapixels) joins the S-RAW (2448×1632—4 megapixels) format introduced in the Mark III.

The ISO range of the sensor gets a major boost. The standard range is 100–12,800. The L setting remains at 50 while H1 moves to ISO 25,600, H2 is 51,200, and H3 has an amazing 102,400. That’s four stops higher than the Mark III. The dual DIGIC 4 Image Processors handle image quality at high speeds. I made several captures at the top of the standard range (12,800) and the results—especially when processed with the Camera Raw 6 Process Version 2010 (PV2010) using the Luminance Noise Reduction slider—provided truly wonderful results. At the risk of showing my age, photographs made at this ISO are much better than ISO 800 film I used to shoot.

Speaking of speed, the Mark IV shoots at a continuous 10 frames per second (fps) for 28 RAW files or 121 JPEGs using a high data rate UDMA CompactFlash memory card. The shutter is rated up to 300,000 exposures.

Autofocus in the Mark IV gets attention, too. Canon’s new AI Servo II AF 45-point system has the ability to manually select 39 cross-type points for fast, precise focusing. Custom functions allow the photographer to set a custom focus point that automatically switches when the camera is moved from horizontal to vertical positions. Adjacent sensors can be added to the primary when working with moving subjects.

One of my favorite features is the Mark IV’s 100% accuracy in the viewfinder. Another thing that’s easy to love is the ClearView II 3″ LCD monitor that has a multicoated screen to reduce glare and a 160º angle of view, so photos can be easily seen by the photographer and onlookers.

The Mark IV’s sensor size is close to the aspect ratio in professional motion picture cameras shooting super 35mm movies. The APS-H sensor uses a shorter normal focal length lens, allowing increased depth-of-field especially with wide-angle lenses. Automatic Exposure (AE) control sets the meter to center-weighted average metering. Manual exposure is also available. The 1920×1080 HD video may be captured at 29.97, 25, or 23.976 fps—which are the rates for television and motion picture, respectively. It has 1280×720 HD or 640×480 SD (standard definition) at 59.94 fps. All video is recorded in the MOV format and will record a single clip up to 4 GB (about 12 minutes in length), and the quality is good. The built-in microphone has mono recording and stereo sound is possible with an accessory microphone.

The Mark IV captures stills and video using CompactFlash or SD cards, or both, automatically switching from full to empty cards. The desired file’s size can be set for either card. Photographs may also be recorded to both cards at the same time to make a backup. Movies, however, can’t use this function.

Some photographers who are used to a lighter camera might have an initial adverse reaction to the Mark IV’s heft. I believe that after giving it a chance they’ll overcome size issues and fall in love with this machine. This is a professional’s small-format hoice for extraordinary options in one digital camera body.

Company: Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Price: $4,999
Website: www.usa.canon.com
Rating: 5
Hot: 16 megapixels; insanely high ISOs; low noise
Not:

Lightroom is a pretty diverse program, which is simple to start learning, but contain hidden depths. Here’s some shortcut tricks that use modifier keys to access hidden features.

1. Straighten your Photo: Press ‘R’ to go to the crop mode in Develop. Press the Control key on PC, Command key on Mac. Then click on a point and drag to a second to let Lightroom rotate to make that line straight.

2. Quick Develop. You can access hidden settings in Quick Develop by holding down the Alt Key on PC, or the Option Key on Mac. This will change the Vibrance and Clarity controls into Saturation and Sharpening.

3. Print. In Custom or Print Package, hold down the Alt Key on PC, Option key on Mac, and drag a cell to make a duplicate copy of the cell, image included.

4. Catalogs. Hold down the Control Key on PC, Option key on Mac, when starting Lightroom to bring up the Select Catalog dialog box. From here you can choose between recent Catalogs, pick an alternative, unlisted, Catalog, or even create a new one.

5. Web. In the Web Module, you can cheat to access settings not available to you via the normal UI. Use the shortcut ‘Shift Control Alt /’ on PC, ‘Shift Command Option /’ on Mac, to turn the Appearance panel into a list of internal CSS tag items. To go back to normal, simply use the same shortcut again.

6. Color Picker. When you’re using the Color Picker in Slideshow, Print, or Web, sometimes you’d like to keep consistent colours between the work you’re doing, for example, using your brand colours. Find the colours via the Hex (or click on the word HEX to change to RGB) settings, then Alt/Option click on the swatches to save the colour for reuse elsewhere.

7. Setting your clipping points. Hold down the Alt/Option key and go to the Basic Panel in Develop. Drag Exposure, Blacks and Highlights in turn to see the points that are currently clipping. For example, clicking Exposure with Alt/Option held down will make the central area black. As you drag the slider, you can start to see the areas that are clipping. The colour represents the which channels are clipping, so red means the red channel is clipping etc. Recovery also makes the screen black, whereas Blacks will make the screen white.

8. Reset. Holding down Alt/Option will turn titles into Reset buttons. For example Presence becomes Reset Presence. Clicking this will reset all the Presence sliders.

9. Delete. Delete brings up a Remove/Delete box, or removes from a Collection. What if you want to get right of it no matter where it is? Here’s a dangerous shortcut to learn. ‘Shift Control Alt Delete Shift’ on PC, ‘Shift Command Option Delete’ on Mac. This is the ‘terminate with extreme predjudice’ command. It even deletes from within a collection. Use with care. Undo does not work with this command.

10. Change Import and Export. Holding down Alt/Option in Library will change the Import to Import Catalog, and Export will change to Export Catalog.

Related articles

• Review: Adobe Lightroom 3 (geek.com)
• The Best Plugins for Lightroom (brighthub.com)
• Lightroom 3: Sharpening Tool Tutorial (brighthub.com)
• Round Tripping with Lightroom (digital-photography-school.com)