Greg Ward, one of the most visionary imaging scientists, has published an excellent paper on the future of HDRI.


He gives all the reason why Digital Imaging is destined to evolve towards HDRI, and he outlines the plan how this transition will actually happen. Given the fact, that Ward developed half of the available HDR image formats, built the world's first HDR display, and is currently on Dolby Lab's salary list, this man certainly knows what he is talking about!

Give yourself the treat of total enlightenment and read his fascinating paper.

This month I have quite a bunch of updates to the site:

Panorama Calculator

How many images do you need for a panorama? Can you streamline the process with a different lens? What if you'd choose less overlap than the "safe" standard 25% ? How does fisheye lens compare to a regular lens?
All these questions are easy to answer with the new Panorama Calculator in the tools section.

Picturenaut FAQ

Documentation is key for every software. Well, Picturenaut doesn't really have a manual, but this FAQ should answer most of your questions. None of the boring bloat stuff - only what you really want to know.

...and the regular monthlies

Back with a brand-new SmartIBL preset, nice and high-res. The Hot-on-Flickr gallery has been reset for February. And the Software Link Directory has been cleaned up to look a bit nicer in your browser.

Have fun,
Christian Bloch
Author/Webmaster/CG-Artist

The word is out from Kevin Connor, top manager at Adobe (so high that even John Nack calls him "boss"). He is The Man behind Photoshop, Lightroom, and the DNG format, and he was questioned about the future roadmap by Steven Shankland at Macworld. Of HDR, Connor said,
"It's definitely a natural thing to do. I don't know when. At some point, cameras will be capturing HDR. At some point, Lightroom will have support for that."

Good to know the chief knows where Digital Imaging is heading.
Read the full article at CNET News...

Now, while we're talking about camera shopping, I just stumbled upon the Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1. A whopping 60 frames per second at 6 Megapixel resolution - that's what I call a real burst mode! That is six times faster than the Canon 1Ds Mark III, for a fraction of the price-tag ($999). Very impressive, Casio!

Rumor on the street is, that this camera is driven by Sony's new CMOS sensor. So let's hope this sensor line will make it into a true DSLR with interchangeable lenses - let it be Nikon, Pentax/Samsung, or Sony themselves.

The EXILIM Pro EX-F1 spec sheet doesn't say anything specific about Exposure Bracketing, only that it has an AEB mode. Let's hope it spans far enough - would be a shame to have it limited to 3 frames +- 1 EV. Heck, why doesn't this camera have a Direct-to-OpenEXR capture mode anyway? The hardware is certainly capable, and given the fact that it has a YouTube mode and face detection, it certainly has the processing power as well...

Hitting the shelves in March 2008.
Read more about it on the official EX-F1 homepage and dpreview.

Edit: As our friends from DOP scooped up, Sony has even developed a 24 Megapixel chip featuring the same high-speed readout capabilities. THAT is what we would like to see in a future DSLR! While you're at it, can you please add an optional grid of ND filters, so we get 4 exposures from each single shot (at half the resolution)? Thank you.

Jack Howard, the HDR buff at PopPhoto.com, has put together an excellent article about the best cameras for HDR photography. I agree 100% to Jack's recommendations, which are:

• Pentax K20D
• Canon EOS 1D Mark III
• Nikon D3

I'd like to add the new Samsung GX-20, which is the "separated birth" twin of the Pentax K20D - just a little cheaper and with a different menu and buttons. Check out the spec sheet and a brief hands-on review on dpreview.com.

Also an interesting read is our very own forum thread on this topic.