Kodak

Kodak has filed for bankruptcy protection. From what I've read all over the internet, employees and management consultants gives similar explanation, that they brought it upon themselves. I don't deny that they have great products, but that alone won't make them successful forever. They need to take care about other things like marketing, customer relationship, etc.
Its sad to see their decline, but I really think technology will eventually fills in the gap that film left. I think the only thing that digital have to catch up is the highlight roll off. Many people talking about film color rendering, but with a good color profiling, that should be no problem. That being said, the best time to live is now, its time to move on.
Or watch a movie.. Midnight in Paris, starring Owen Wilson. :)

Exciting Year!

2012 might not be a good year for some people. Financial meltdown, job loss, and there's the 21st December.
But not so for the photographic world, even at the start of the year, we're seeing D4 from Nikon, X-Pro1 from Fuji, and Lightroom 4 beta from Adobe.
Lightroom 4 now include a book module, and reworked sliders. A little bit confusing at first. You have to decrease the black slider if you want darker tone.

X-Pro1 is a particularly exciting camera, given the promise of higher DR from Fuji EXR sensor technology. It could be that digital will be able to produce film look at last.

Well.. come to think of it, some people will get poorer this year. Man.. I'd better not make any budget related resolution this year.. LoL

After reading this article at TOP, it just occurred to me that a lot of Ansel Adam's devotee took his advice blindingly. I mean, Ansel was a landscape photographer. And quite a lot of people are using the same method for street photography. Shadow details? Zoning? Oh please!

I just pulled the trigger

For this one in the evilBay. *sigh*

Hey at least it is a good investment *excuse* $175 for a good body that comes with box and manual I'd say it is not a bad deal. Now I have to find a matching lens for it.. muahahahaha!

GAS

I want a compact camera. Preferably a rugged mechanical one. Not film though. Something Leica-ish but not as big, and definitely not as expen$$i$ve! I was thinking about the new Fuji x100 but upon reading that the focus allegedly fly-by-wire, I was put off.
Okay.. enough daydreaming. I should go out more and shoot instead of buying more gears and books.

Shopping Spree *kind of*

Today my books order just arrived, the Fine Art Printing for Photographers: Exhibition Quality Prints with Inkjet Printers, 2nd Edition. And Ctein's Digital Restoration from Start to Finish, Second Edition: How to repair old and damaged photographs. I'm quite interested in printing fine art quality photograph, which means I have to cough more money, which I already don't have. I was going to get a dye-based A4 printer, but upon reading the book, the image quality degradation for dye based ink is much faster than pigment inks. So I'll probably get pigment based A3 Epson R1900.


The photo book from my recent trip to Turkey have finally arrived. It only takes three days to finish and deliver it. Quite impressive.

I have bought a dry cabinet for all my camera gear. I guess it is a necessary investment *cough*..
Not mentioned I also bought an iPad.. I'm bleeding money, I should go to the hospital now. *cough cough*

Fuji

Today the photography community is filled with enthusiasm when Fuji announced a revolutionary camera design. The significant innovation from Fuji is dubbed the Hybrid Viewfinder, which many photographer has longed for for some time.

The good news is its priced around $1000. Quite affordable for its quality.

Along with that, there are other notable technologies. What I'm interested in is the maturing plenoptic lens from Adobe.
Truly an exciting time to be a photographer