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Did you know Adorama has a daily-updated News Desk? That’s right: A team of hard-working elves wakes up before dawn every day and scans the globe looking for hard-hitting photography-related news, then scribbles away and publishes news you can use by the time you get to work. We’ve published well over a thousand articles since first going live in the fall of 2005! As a way of making sure you know about the News Desk, we’ve published this list of reader favorites for the past year.
You can make sure you don’t miss any more news by subscribing to our News Desk RSS feed, called “What’s Going On In Photography”, which will let you read each day’s latest stories as soon as they’re published. All you need is an RSS reader like this one. Or, you can simply bookmark the News Desk homepage.
How did we determine which stories to include? We based that decision on stats that tell us how many people viewed each article, and highlighted the most-viewed stories. You see, those elves know how to count.
And so, in reverse order of popularity, here’s the Adorama News Desk Top Ten for 2007:
Story #10: In The Meantime, Keep Adjusting Those Curves
Fujifilm’s announcement that the company developed a new technology that would give image sensors 3x higher sensitivity and richer color depth generated a wacking lot of reader interest. The new sensor uses three layers of organic pigments, stacked on top of each other and reacting to read, green, and blue light. Light enters each pigment layer, electric current flowing between the electrodes is converted into digital signals. End result? Less digital noise, wider latitude. This sort of stuff could get a digital photography wonk all in a tizzy. Slow down: It’s still a prototype. Don’t expect these sensors to make their way into cameras for three to four years.
Story #9: Ricoh’s Petite Pocket Rocket
There’s only one place where you can buy a Ricoh Caplio R6–Adorama. So it was big news when Ricoh unveiled a feature-crammed compact, the R6, on the eve of PMA. The R6 sports a 2.7-inch LCD monitor, face detection, CCD-shift vibration reduction (that’s the good kind) and a 7.1x zoom lens that starts at 28mm. All that in a camera body measuring 20.6mm wide. The 7MP camera has a $300 pricetag—wait, this just in, it’s on sale as of this writing for $280. (Did we mention Adorama’s the exclusive U.S. distributor for Ricoh cameras?)
Story #8: Nikon On Steroids (In this case, that’s a good thing)
It’s not surprising that Nikon’s follow-up to its brisk-selling D40, the pumped-up D40x, would generate a lot of interest. Introduced in March at PMA, the camera debuted for around $800 including the kit lens and provided healthy competition for the Canon Rebel XTi and Sony Alpha A100. These days, you can grab a D40x and lens combo for around $600…or a D40 for under five C-notes.
Story #7: Surf ‘n Turf Doppleganger
A lot of you enjoyed our observation that the new Sea&Sea 1G camera, when not in its underwater housing, bore a striking resemblance to the Ricoh GX-100. Actually, we said the 1G was a “dead ringer” for the GX-100 and although neither party has confirmed it, we’d say, based on a comparison of the specs, that they are indeed the same camera. One big difference: The Sea & Sea can only be purchased as various underwater packages including an underwater housing, starting at just under a grand. The Ricoh is available for $550–but don’t even think about getting it wet.
Story #6: Taking A Ride On The Pentax Limited
Pentax’s announcement that they were producing a gold-embossed limited-edition version of the K10D DSLR was another popular news story. The special camera was to celebrate the model winning the Grand Prix 2007 Award in Japan. Inside, it’s a regular K10D; outside, in addition to the gold embossed logo, it has an attractive brown body. It’s only available in Japan so we’ll just have to console ourselves with the regular K10D, which we think is pretty special even without the gold trim.
Story #5: By Now, It’s Probably Passing Through The Van Allen Belt
For this story about a misplaced camera, we ran a snippet of conversation between Mission Control in Houston and Space Shuttle Discovery Astronaut Suny Williams while she was on a spacewalk. Let’s listen in on the fun…
Houston: “Uh, Suny, your camera is behind you. I hope it’s tethered because it looks like it’s passing underneath the arm and reflector.”
Williams: “It’s not. It came off of the bracket. The bracket came undone.”
Houston: “Okay, we see that.”
Good news: Maritans have figured out how to work the “night scene” mode!
Story #4: Power To The People
Sure, anyone could publish an article about popular DSLRs like the Nikon D40, D40x, and D80 digital SLRs. But how many web sites can boast that they ran the story about the Ansmann Battery Grip N-80 and N-40, which provide enough power for up to 5,000 shots on one charge. This article was visited more than all articles covering the above-mentioned cameras combined. Ansmann describes the grips as “power nearly without end for Nikon fans.” We (and, we presume, many Nikon fans) still eagerly await its arrival.
Story #3: Revenge of the Nerds
This news item proved that you, dear reader, are interested in the latest advances in new technology. Very interested. Or, perhaps you just hate digital noise. That would explain why so many clicked through to the Kodak Q&A concerning its new imaging sensor, which promises significantly lower noise and offers the before-and-after shots to prove it. The Q&A, which was conducted with Kodak tech-heads John Compton and John Hamilton, went into so much detail that we cautioned readers that “for the common mortal, this is probably way too much information…but if you’re nerdy enough, this is good readin’.”
Story #2: Carnac the Magnificent
The second most popular news story was actually more of an opinion piece, published January 2, wherein this writer got in touch with his inner ESPN, worked himself into a semi-hallucinagenic trance, and predicted photo industry events he thought might happen during the year. These bold prognostications included: $500 starter DSLRs becoming commonplace, a slew of 12MP compacts, widespread adoption of Adobe Photoshop CS3 as an industry standard, the pending death of a major camera company, and the end of digital noise and out-of-focus photos. How did this self-described know-it-all do trying to predict the year ahead? Check back tomorrow as we conduct an entertaining exercise in 20-20 hindsight.
Story #1: Share Through The Air
And finally, the most-read news story this year…our coverage of the world’s first Wi-Fi-capable SD memory card, made by California startup company Eye-Fi. The 2GB Eye-Fi Wireless Card, which retails for just shy of a C-note, automatically uploads new photos onto pre-selected social networking sites or online photo labs when the camera is turned on and is within range of a wireless network. It turns any camera that accepts SD memory cards into a wireless image-sharing device. It’s selling like crazy. Suddenly, hot spots have become very photogenic.
Back to 2007: By Popular Demand
© 2007 Adorama |
