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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

December 2011

New Tools Of The Trade

This Article Features Photo Zoom

Lens Collaboration
Medium-format camera maker Phase One and lens manufacturer Schneider-Kreuznach have teamed up to produce a new series of lenses for Phase One 645DF and Mamiya 645DF camera bodies. The four new leaf shutter models include the 75-150mm LS and 240mm LS, and they all will feature flash sync speeds as fast as 1⁄1600 sec. The partnership has already created the available 55mm LS, 80mm LS, 110mm LS, 150mm LS and 120mm tilt-shift lenses. Estimated Street Price: Starts at $2,490. Contact: Phase One, www.phaseone.com/schneider-kreuznach.

Digital Filter Suite
Adding 10 new filter presets to the already comprehensive collection of more than 2,000 filters, and effects and correction tools, the latest version of Tiffen's popular Dfx software is fast, powerful and easy to use. New features of Dfx 3 include: Match Filter to match lighting and color of a different image, Rays for changing points of light into stunning rays, DeNoise for reducing grain and noise, Key Light for adding directional or point light to a scene, and Film Stocks for simulating the look of more than 100 color and black-and-white film types. The program is available as a standalone or as a plug-in for most popular photo or video/film editing software. Estimated Street Price: $169 (Standalone); $199 (Photo plug-in); $599 (Video/Film plug-in). Contact: Tiffen, (631) 273-2500, www.tiffen.com.

Portable Dish
The Chimera Octa 2 Beauty Dish is a collapsible modifier that can be used with either studio strobes or camera flash units. The body is 24 inches in diameter and looks like an OctaPlus Lightbank, but the support poles are on the outside of the body. A fabric bounce-back disc is suspended in the center to reflect the raw light from your flash into the soft white interior of the reflector. Using the included front diffusion screen, the Octa 2 can be converted into a 2-foot OctaPlus Lightbank, which produces soft light with round catchlights for shooting portraits. Estimated Street Price: $299. Contact: Chimera, (888) 444-1812, www.chimeralighting.com.

LED Light
Whether you're on the move or in the studio, the Interfit Seculine LED lighting panel delivers a portable way of lighting up whatever you're shooting. Each panel is fully controllable in 1 to 30 steps with fan cooling to keep the electronics and lamps cool. Two modules are available to suit your shooting style whether it's Tungsten, daylight-balanced, or both, with a dual-control option. Each unit has an LCD control panel and comes with a battery, charger, ball and socket, and honeycomb grid. Estimated Street Price: Starts at $429. Contact: Interfit Photographic Ltd., (866) 947-9796, www.interfitphotographic.com

Pro Printer
The Canon PIXMA PRO-1 uses a 12-ink system, five of which are monochrome, and a tubular ink delivery system designed to improve print speed. The ink tanks, which are 2.5 times larger than those used in previous models, are located on the side of the printer and the ink is delivered through a new FINE Print Head for improved consistency. According to Canon, the PRO-1 can produce a 13x19-inch print in about four minutes and 20 seconds. The 12 inks include Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Red, Photo Cyan, Photo Magenta, Photo Black, Matte Black, Gray, Dark Gray, Light Gray and Chroma Optimizer. The monochrome inks deliver black-and-white prints with smoother gradations and less graininess. Estimated Street Price: $999. Contact: Canon, (800) OK-CANON, www.usa.canon.com.

Software Bundle
With seven applications to choose from, onOne Software Perfect Photo Suite 6 puts a bunch of photographic tricks and tools right at your fingertips. The program includes Perfect Portrait 1 for retouching portraits, Perfect Layers 2 for creating layered files outside of Photoshop, Perfect Effects 3 for adding more punch or creating customized looks with more than 300 effects, Perfect Mask 5 for replacing backgrounds quickly, Perfect Resize 7 for enlarging images up to 1000%, FocalPoint 2 for creating realistic selective-focus effects, and PhotoFrame 4 for adding borders and edges. Estimated Street Price: $299. Contact: onOne Software, (888) 968-1468, www.ononesoftware.com.