You may have seen the Eye-Fi, launched this week, nearly a year and a half since we first heard about it. If you’re just catching up on the news, it’s basically a WiFi-enabled SD card (and accompanying web service) used to transparently and wirelessly transfer photos from your camera to your computer and/or a variety of photo sharing sites. Sounds like a great idea in theory, it turns out that the Eye-Fi is, in its current release, an answer seeking a question.

Merely months after cranking out the P5000, Nikon apparently felt the need to up the ante rather hastily with the Coolpix P5100. Unfortunately, it seems that this unit is yet another shining example of why stuffing a 12-megapixel sensor into a compact camera isn’t exactly the greatest of ideas. Granted, the image quality here was noticeably better than that produced by the Fujifilm FinePix F50fd, but performance was sorely lacking when using any ISO greater than 400. Despite that shortcoming, reviewers were quite enthralled by the on board controls and overall ergonomics, and it was also noted that most shots could be brought “under control” with a bit of tinkering. Overall, the crew went ahead and awarded the shooter four out of five stars, suggesting that its reasonable pricetag was much to thank. If you’ve been eying this one from a distance, you owe it to yourself to check out the full review before pulling the trigger or just blowing it off.

www.jossphoto.com

“Alone” © Josephine

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It’s taken well over a year for Eye-Fi to bring its self-titled wireless SD card to market, but on the plus side, that Benjamin now gets you 2GB of storage — a welcome boost for a rumored capacity that had dipped as low as 512MB. In case the past 18 months have made the details a little fuzzy, this 802.11g card requires a one-time setup on your PC before it’s ready to automatically upload full resolution pics to one of 17 websites each time you turn on your camera. Even better, a backup copy is also sent to your PC, ensuring that your photos are safely archived when your favorite social network folds.

It looks like Canon is pulling all EOS-1D Mark IIIl units from shelves in response to the autofocusissue plaguing their professional DSLR. In what appears to be a legitimate letter sent to dealers on October 25th, Canon states that they have “decided to stop shipment of all EOS-1D Mark III. We would therefore like to collect all unsold EOS-1D Mark III units from your stock.” A shipping recommencement date is promised at a later time. That’s a bold move by Canon since the issue only affects some of the units sold so far. Still, with a customer-focused action like that Canon, you’ve got our loyalties nailed.

[Thanks, Anand]

After a two-year stint, Ricoh is finally rolling out a successor to their GR Digital — the GR digital II. No really, that’s the 10 megapixel GR II up there not their 10 megapixel GX100. The GR II boasts a 1/1.75-inch CCD, ISO 1600 max sensitivity, improved RAW and JPEG recordings, VGA video recordings, SDHC/SD card slot, and option for a Lithium-Ion power plant or pair of AAAs in a pinch. Right, just like the GX100. The GR II, however, is a tad smaller and lighter than the GX100 while offering a slightly larger, auto-rotating 2.7-inch LCD, and the same 28-mm (not 24 to 72-mm wide-angle) lens found on the original GR Digital. Expected in Japan on November 22nd for about ¥80,000 or right around 700 bucks.

[Via Amateur Photographer]

www.jossphoto.com

“Favourite tree” © Josephine

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Points of Interest

Put yourself in a car with Elvis? (via reader Mark)
The Photo Tippety Tip Tips Game
How to create ghost photos: tips from fellow Jojo readers. (on Uncut)

Lounging on a beach chair in Tipumungo, margarita in hand, the waves lap at your feet. The far-off sun wanes, painting everything in brilliant color. It’s a postcard-perfect […]

Points of Interest Put yourself in a car with Elvis? (via reader Mark) The Photo Tippety Tip Tips Game How to create ghost photos: tips from fellow Jojo readers. (on Uncut)

Lounging on a beach chair in Tipumungo, margarita in hand, the waves lap at your feet. The far-off sun wanes, painting everything in brilliant color. It’s a postcard-perfect scene that any photographer would drool over.

And then there’s Sunburnt Stan.

There’s nothing like a pesky tourist with a sunburnt nose to ruin a beautiful vacation shot. What’s a photo-loving vacationer to do? It seems like everywhere you go, Stan’s there too, wading into the sea with his arm floaties or building a sand-castle on the beach. (Stan’s a persistent chap, he is.)

Never fear! An ordinarily grim situation turns to triumph, with just a bit of techno-whoozical magic in the form of these three nifty websites/programs. Vacation photos will never be the same again.

Sorry, Stan – we love you, but you’ve got to go.

#1 - How to Remove Tourists from Your Photos - dsphotographic.com
Using layer masks (Photoshop required), photographer Darby Sawchuck shows how to combine the best of several vacation photos into one great photo, blissfully tourist-free.

#2 - SnapMania.com - Tourist Remover
It couldn’t be simpler: take a batch of imperfect photos, run them through the Remover, and voilá – not a tourist in sight.

#3 - Microsoft Research’s Group Shot
Plug a series of photos into this free program, then select your favorite parts from each photo; in an instant, you’ll have a perfect composite photo with the best of the whole series.

p.s. The holidays are almost here, and our friends at Moo are running a holiday card design contest. Submit your favorite photos for a chance at $8,000 in prize money!

Thanks to Neene and Mohamed Abdulla Shafeeg for lending us photos.

Link to this | Filed under Websites, Post-Processing.

There it is, the first spy shot of Nokia’s N82. Don’t remember this Espoo candybar? No worries, the last update was way back in May when news was first leaked. Back then, the N82 was rumored to pack quad-band GSM, 2100MHz HSDPA, a 2.4-inch 240×320 display, WiFi, GPS, FM Tuner and biggie 5 megapixel camera with Xenon flash and Carl Zeiss lens. So until we hear otherwise, that’s what we’ll assume until the supposed announcement on November 2nd. Right, that’s just 1 week from today.

[Via Unwired View]

Unfortunately, everybody’s worst fear about the FinePix F50fd seems to be true — according to a recent review over at PhotographyBLOG, anyway. Apparently, stuffing a 12-megapixel sensor into this pocket-friendly digicam wasn’t exactly the most intelligent idea, as reviewers found the picture quality to be downright disappointing. Particularly in low-light situations, the camera faltered mightily, and images captured at ISO speeds of 800 - 6,400 were deemed practically “unusable.” Granted, the crew did note that it was expecting tremendous results from the highly-regarded F31fd’s successor, but aside from the “excellent face detection system” and the included aperture / shutter priority modes, there just wasn’t much here to fall in love with. ‘Tis a shame, really, and unless pristine image quality somehow isn’t your top priority (is that crickets we hear?), you’ll probably need to look elsewhere.