The Imaging Buffet Podcast 003

THE IMAGING BUFFET PODCAST 003

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After a summer break, we’re back with a new podcast! I wanted to make sure this was posted to coincide with the 2nd Annual Podcast & Portable Media Expo since my guest on the show, Scott Bourne, will be speaking at the Expo today, Friday, 9/29 and Saturday 9/30. He will be joined on Saturday by Alex Lindsay, John Foster and Kenji Kato from 2:45pm – 3:15pm on the show floor (back area). All are free to attend. I mention this particular talk because they will discuss some of of the production methods and technology that’s used for shows such as TWIT, MacBreak, MacBreak Weekly, The VFX Show, Inside The Black Box and The iLifeZone. You can find a link to all the sessions at the Podcast & Portable Media Expo website

Scott Bourne is a photographer, author, podcaster, and someone who is doing many great things in the world of podcasting. He’s also the host of the iLifeZone, which covers tips and advice all about the iLife suite of products from Apple Computer. I highly recommend subscribing if you use any of the iLife apps.
Show links: www.myphototricks.com

www.podcastingtricks.com
www.aperturetricks.com
www.bloggingtricks.com
www.ilifezone.com
photofocus.libsyn.com
www.thedigitalstory.com
www.lynda.com

For those who plan to be at the Podcast Expo, if you’d like to say hi in person just send me an e-mail at imaging (at) andrewdarlow.com.

All the best,
Andrew

News from Photokina: HP’s new Z-series printers

The photokina World of Imaging is being held at the Cologne Exhibition Center in Cologne, Germany from September 26 to October 1, 2006. From the exhibition organizers’ facts and figures sheet, “photokina is the only event in the world which offers a comprehensive presentation of all the imaging media, imaging technologies and imaging markets — for consumers and professionals alike.”

They’re not kidding! Almost every imaging-related industry is represented, from companies headquartered in cities across the globe. I’ll be highlighting a few of the photo and digital print-related products over the next few days. To start things off, HP introduced four new “Z-series” wide-format inkjet printers. I had an opportunity to see the printers in person and print my work on these printers a few months ago. The HP Designjet Z3100 is an 12-ink pigment-based inkjet printer, with 24 and 44-inch wide versions and HP Designjet Z2100 is an 8-ink pigment-based inkjet printer, also with 24 and 44-inch wide versions.

The HP Designjet Z3100 runs on 11 HP Vivera pigment color inks (four of them black or gray), plus a twelfth Gloss Enhancer “ink” that provides better gloss uniformity and helps reduce bronzing on gloss and semi-gloss papers. In the prints I saw before the printer’s final release, image quality was sharp and detailed, with vibrant color, a nice grain structure and little gloss differential or bronzing, especially when the Gloss Optimizer was used. The printer also comes with four black/grey inks, that help to make monochrome prints look more smooth and neutral.

The HP Designjet Z3100 (left-24″ model, right-44″ model)

The HP Designjet Z2100 uses 8 HP Vivera pigment color inks (the same combination of inks that are used in the HP Photosmart Pro B9180, a 13-inch printer that I’ve been testing with impressive results on both matte and gloss papers. No gloss optimizer is used with the Z2100, but color and black and white output on gloss and semi-gloss papers has very little bronzing or gloss differential. The Z2100 has one less gray ink compared with the Designjet Z3100 (three vs. four black and gray inks). A monochrome output option on both Z-series printers allow for just black and grey inks to be used, which allows users to produce prints with very even tones and longer expected longevity. For information on expected longevity on a variety of papers for the Pro B9180 (same inks as the Designjet Z2100), visit www.wilhelm-research.com.

One of the features that sets the Z-series printers apart is their embedded spectrophotometers, which use Eye-One technology from GretagMacbeth to allow for the creation of custom profiles right on the printer. I was very impressed by this technology and HP has created a step-by-step process to make it the process easy to complete. Both printers ship standard with a stand, and built-in connectivity options are Ethernet and USB 2.0.MSRP for the printers is as follows:HP Designjet Z2100: $3,395 (24″) and $5,595 (44″). HP Designjet Z3100: $4,095 (24″) and $6,295 (44″). For a good overview, with a link to the full press release on the new Z-series printers on HP’s website, visit this link.

On HP’s site, you can also order free sample prints from many different printers, including the Z-series.

Check pricing and read more about the HP Photosmart Pro B9180 at Amazon.com

Announcement: LiveBooks|EDU launched with affordable portfolio solutions for students & teachers

For the last few years, I’ve seen about 50 online portfolios from photographers who use LiveBooks software. The sites really stand out because they look very slick, contain large images (much like a printed portfolio) and have easy to navigate thumbnails.

The following information, describing the company’s subscription-based service for students and teachers, comes from a recent press release: LiveBooks recently announced it will provide a subscription based package for students and teachers of photography for its award-winning Web-based portfolio software. LiveBooks Lite provides users with the ability to create up to three individual portfolios with each portfolio capable of housing up to 64 images. LiveBooks Deluxe offers virtually unlimited portfolios. Both versions enable photographers to create multiple libraries to store and organize approximately 1,000 images waiting to be rotated into their online portfolios. LiveBooks|EDU Lite and Deluxe are available for monthly subscription rates of 29.95 and $59.95, respectively. The monthly subscription price includes Website hosting by LiveBooks Inc. and a unique method for entering metadata to bring a LiveBooks Website to the top of Web searches.

The pro-level versions of LiveBooks (not the student & teacher version) is sold for a one-time fee of $950-3900 (depending upon the package selected) on the LiveBooks.com website. For more information, visit https://www.livebooksedu.com and https://www.livebooks.com