January/February 2007

HIGH-POWER ZOOM
If you want to carry just one lens for your D-SLR, consider the versatile and compact Tamron AF18-250mm ƒ/3.5-6.3 Di-II LD Aspherical (IF) Macro lens. Based on Tamron’s popular 18-200mm design, the new lens extends telephoto performance, with a 13.9x zoom ratio. The 18-250mm is designed for D-SLRs with APS-C-sized image sensors. List Price: TBA. Contact: Tamron, (631) 858-8400, www.tamron.com.



GO WIDE
Boost your printmaking capabilities with the deluxe Epson Stylus Pro 3800, a wide-format 17-inch printer. Decked out with several new technologies and Epson’s eight-color UltraChrome K3 pigment-based ink system, the Pro 3800 switches between photo and matte black ink modes to maximize image quality on a variety of media types. It also uses brand-new printing algorithms to enhance your prints. The machine prints a 16x20-inch print in about 11 minutes. Color prints are estimated to resist fading for up to 108 years and black-and-white prints for more than 200 years. Estimated Street Price: $1,295. Contact: Epson,(800) GO-EPSON, www.epson.com.


VINTAGE PHOTOS
Create a classic look and feel in your photos using the B/W Styler for Windows. This Photoshop plug-in does more than just convert images to black-and-white. It reproduces the look of films, lens filters, lab effects and photo papers popular in traditional black-and-white photography. Plus, the tool uses the whole contrast range of color photos to achieve dramatic black-and-white images. You can further enhance them by manipulating brightness and contrast, adding soft focus and using other effects. List Price: $50. Contact: The Plugin Site, www.thepluginsite.com.


SIGMA SHOOTER
Achieve ultimate color precision with the Sigma DP1, the company’s first-ever point-and-shoot camera. It’s built around the same unique 14-megapixel Foveon X3 direct image sensor used in the SD14 D-SLR for capturing full and accurate color. The sensor uses three silicon-embedded layers of photo sensors, stacked to take advantage of silicon’s ability to absorb red, green and blue light at different respective depths. The DP1 also features a 16.6mm ƒ/4 lens (35mm equivalent of 28mm) and a 2.5-inch LCD, and shoots RAW and JPEG formats. List Price: TBD. Contact: Sigma, (800) 896-6858, www.sigma-photo.com.