Rangefinder Magazine
Archives

April 2000

NEW PRODUCTS

Off The Wall Productions has in-troduced the “Here and There” set. “Here and There”, ideal for a loca-tion or child photographer, or a pho-tographer who needs a new look that is three-dimensional, elegant and timeless, is easy to store, very lightweight and can go on location in most cards and vans. The set starts as low as $122. Information: Off the Wall Productions, 493 Henderson Dr., Regina, SK, Canada S4N 5X1; (800) 792-5568, fax: (306) 352-5610; e-mail: of-fwall@offwallprod.com; web site: [www.offwallprod.com].

Pentax has introduced two new lenses to its medium-format lineup: the SMCP-M 67 300mm f/4 ED [IF] and the SMCP-FA 645 150mm f/2.8 [IF]. The SMCP-M lens features a 300mm focal length and is designed for use with Pentax’s 67II medium-format SLR camera. The SMCP-FA lens features a 150mm focal length, large f/2.8 maximum aperture, min-imum focusing distance of 4 ft. and a large lens hood with a polarizing filter adjustment window. Information: Pentax, 35 Inverness Dr., PO Box 6509, Englewood, CO 80155-6509, (303) 799-8000; web site: [www.pentax.com].

Photogenic Professional Lighting has introduced two versatile lights. The Focusing Continuous Light gives photographers flexibility in-studio or on location, and features a focusing adjustment that allow freedom and versatility and a quick change feature that enables the user to lock on over 30 Photogenic Powerlight accessories. The PowerLight 300DR was designed specifically for low power ranges with flash power settings of 4WS to 125WS, 125 Joules and 300 effective watt seconds. It features a back panel with touch control for both flash modeling lighting, and quick change clamp to receive all Photogenic reflectors and acces-sories. Information: Photogenic Professional Lighting, 525 McClurg Rd., Youngstown, OH, 44512, (330) 758-6658, fax: (330) 758-3667; web site: [www.photogenicpro.com].

Pentax has introduced the SMCP-FA 77mm f/1.8 Limited Edition lens for 35mm autofocus SLRs. This ver-satile, high resolution medium-tele-photo lens is specifically designed with portrait and snapshot applica-tions in mind, and accurately repro-duces the tones, colors and texture of the subject’s skin, clothes and accessories as well as assuring an excellent rendering of highlight and out of focus areas. Information: Pentax, 35 Iverness Dr., P.O. Box 6509, Englewood, CO 80155-6509, (303) 799-8000; web site: [www.pentax.com].

Kodak has introduced a new member of the Kodak Professional Portra Film family. Portra 800 film is the first high-speed film that can be mixed with slower speed films and provide negatives that all print on the same channel in the lab. The film, which features superior sharp-ness and color saturation, combined with excellent flesh tone reproduc-tion and tight grain, is perfect for low light wedding, portrait and commercial photography applica-tions. Information: Eastman Kodak Company, 343 State St., Rochester, NY 14650-0412, (800) 242-2424, ext. 19.

MegaVision has introduced the new T32 professional digital camera, a three-pass digital camera back for high resolution image capture. Featuring an internal shutter, the T32 easily mounts in the same manner as a conventional film back to any 4x5 view camera, and can also operate as a standalone camera when used with Nikon, Canon and Hasselblad lenses. MegaVision fea-tures AutoStop electronic aperture control, a user-selected “developer” which controls density range, expo-sure index, color adjustment and gamma, and a reliable anti-bloom-ing control. Information: MegaVision, P.O. Box 60158, Santa Barbara, Calif., 93160, (888) 324-2580; web site: [www.mega-vi-sion.com].

Epson America has introduced three new printers: Stylus Photo 1270, Stylus Photo 875DC, and Stylus 870, the a line of printers that delivers real photo lab quality for consumers and advanced imag-ing professionals. For the first time, fade resistance (lightfastness) is made possible in a complete solu-tion that combines new printers, papers and inks. The new Epson photo inks come standard with the printers. Photo 1270 features a complete printing solution with lightfastness comparable to color silver halide photographs, water-fastness and true photographic color gamuts and tones; Photo 875DC features a built-in PCMCIA card reader for digital camera own-ers; and Stylus 870, for home and business digital imaging users, is flexible and easy to use. Information: Epson America, Inc., 3840 Kilroy Airport Way, Long Beach, Calif., 90806-2469, (562) 290-5173, e-mail: [john_jatinen@ea.epson.com].

Nikon has introduced the AF VR Zoom-Nikkor 80–400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED telephoto lens, the first AF Nikkor lens with Nikon’s new ad-vanced advanced vibration reduction (VR) technology. Ideal for users who demand high quality Nikon optical performance for shooting fast-paced action at long distances, the new lens will be available this summer. The company has also introduced the new N80 35mm single lens re-flex camera. Available this spring, the N80 features a razor-sharp auto-focus system, wide range of expo-sure modes, complete selection of light metering performance and ac-cess to the world of Nikkor optics and Nikon accessories. Information: Nikon Inc., 1300 Walt Whitman Rd., Melville, NY 11747-3064l, (516) 547-4200, web site: [www.nikonusa.com].

Photogenic Professional Lighting has introduced the Pattern Maker, a tool that puts different lighting im-ages in the background of a photo-graph. This product is similar to the Focusing Snoot, but is scaled down to specifically fit the PG4001 and PG3001 MetalLights. The 1-1/4 lb. Pattern Maker comes with two re-movable holders, one for gels and one for patterns, and has a focusing tightening knob to vary the intensity of the pattern. The Pattern Maker fits onto the PG4001 and PG3001 MetalLights and houses 3-1/2-inch Rosco Patterns that slide easily into the maker. Information: Photogenic Professional Lighting, 525 McClurg Rd., Youngstown, OH 44512, (330) 758-6658, fax (330) 758-3667.

Backdrop Outlet has introduced a new line of alternative backgrounds: Glimmer Theatre drape; Disco mir-ror backdrop; Metallic eyelash and many Metallic colors. The metallic backgrounds come in 10 colors in-cluding gold, red, blue, copper, black, white, pink, green, purple and silver. They are 5x9 feet and are priced at three backgrounds for $34.95 or all 10 colors for $89. Information: Backdrop Outlet, 2215 Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60616, (312) 842-6550, fax (312) 842-6546, web site: [www.backdropoutlet.com].

Kodak Professional announced that the DCS 330 digital camera is now shipping just five weeks after the product was announced. The DCS 330 is a 3-megapixel digital camera that provides portrait, com-mercial and professional applied photographers a cost-effective alter-native to medium-format and 35mm SLR cameras. The DCS 330, well-suited to commercial and por-trait photography, is the latest addi-tion to Kodak’s line-up of digital cameras and features a resolution of 3 million pixels and a 9 MB file, along with benchmarking technol-ogy found in the DCS 660 digital camera. Information: Kodak Professional, Eastman Kodak Company, 343 State St., Rochester, NY 14650-0412, (800) 235-6325, web site: [www.kodak.com/go/professional].

Chimera has introduced a new Speed Ring for the new Norman M600 and M1200 monolights. With these rings, it’s now possible to mount Chimera Video Pro or Daylite Jr. Lightbanks to these lights to create broad soft light. The Speed Ring retails for $50.00. Chimera Lighting, 1812 Valtec Lane, Boulder, CO 80301, (303) 444-8000, fax (303) 444-8303, email: [sales@chimeralighting.com].

Canon has introduced the new Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX, an ad-vanced and versatile flash unit that features full E-TTL flash capabil-ity—when used with any EOS System camera that supports E-TTL metering—and supports TTL auto flash manual flash exposure control on all EOS System cameras. The MR-14EX incorporates a host of new flash and metering features, including flash exposure lock, high-speed sync, variable power manual flash, wireless remote functions, two independent flash heads and seven custom functions for flexibil-ity. Canon U.S.A., (516) 328-4770, web site: [www.usa.canon.com].

Canon has introduced the EOS-1v 35mm SLR camera, a new addition to the Canon EOS system incorpo-rating several innovations in dura-bility, performance and customiza-tion. Featuring a weather-resistant, all-metal body, the Canon EOS-1v offers the fastest continuous shooting speed in its class at 10 frames per second (fps) in One Shot AF and 9 fps with AI Servo AF. Canon, (516) 328-4770, web site: [www.usa.canon.com].