Canon EOS 5D Mark II: firmware development

Canon today announces that it is currently developing a firmware update to the EOS 5D Mark II to enable the recording of high definition 1080p video at 24 and 25fps. The decision to develop new firmware to support these features has been taken following feedback received from cinematographers and photographers.

Canon currently expects the firmware update to be made available during the first half of 2010. An announcement regarding details of the update and its availability will be made closer to the release date.

Press release

Fotolia Add-in for Microsoft Office 2007

Fotolia releasing a new add-in ribbon for Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 that gives customers easy access to an enormous library of easy-to-search, high-resolution images and vectors. The Fotolia ribbon provides instant image solutions to complement personal and professional projects.

N-400 application timeline - continued

07/10/2009: N-400 sent
07/13/2009: N-400 application received
07/16/2009: N-400 application check cashed
07/20/2009: Receipt received
07/29/2009: Fingerprint Notification received
08/14/2009: Fingerprint appoitment 2:00PM
09/11/2000: Interview Notice received
10/01/2009: Passed Test and Interview!!!!!
10/13/2009: N-445, Nitice of Naturalization Oath Ceremony received
10/29/2009: Oath Ceremony -

N-400 application timeline

07/10/2009: N-400 Sent
07/13/2009: N-400 Application Received
07/16/2009: N-400 Application Check Cashed
07/20/2009: Receipt Received
07/29/2009: Fingerprint Notification Received
08/14/2009: Finger print appointment
09/11/2000: Interview Notice Received
10/01/2009: Passed Test and Interview!!!!!
--: Oath Ceremony Letter Received
--: Oath Ceremony -

September 2009 earnings breakdown

Overall I got exactly same result as in previous month but breakdown is completely different. SS gained back from terrible results and it is not almost at normal level. Other did worse than last time. Most visible looser is DT while 123RF got only slightly worse. FT continues to build up rising trend but it is still very slow. Big surprise was a sale on MSP. SXP and IS keep the same level.


Sep Sep/Aug
SS 55.12% 121.74%
123RF 11.23% 67.58%
SXP 7.72% 78.09%
MSP 6.94%
FT 6.51% 131.69%
DT 5.91% 37.38%
IS 2.80% 98.25%
FP 1.67%
CSP 1.69% 234.62%
BS 0.28% 12.50%
CS 0.14% 8.33%
Total 100.01%


Crestock WordPress plug-in

I am Crestock contributor and WordPress blogger so I got interested in announcement I received in email this morning. It looks like Crestock developed plugin that allow bloggers access to search for, and add, any Crestock image to their blog - free of charge. Obviously I applaud any marketing initiatives that will help my photos to sell better but I got couple questions.

1. Why I as a blogger need high quality commercial photos for my blog? I am not making any money on my blog so why would I want to pay for images? I can get whatever I want for free under Creative Commons license. Lets say I want image of carrot on my blog. If I search for "carrot vegetable" on Crestock I got very few results.If I go to Google Image Search and search the same terms with CC license I got hundreds if images.


2. How do know that this plug-in exists?  Where is a press release? How do I install it? Why do I care about it? What are benefits for blogger? I would rather want a paid banner from Crestock on my site than ability to display watermarked images.  The answer is Google Search. It will lead you to WordPress page for this plugin. Nothing more. What kind of marketing effort is that? 24 overall downloads, it is not going to bring any sales I think

Picasa 3.5 available for download

Basically it's about name tags that have been available in web version for a while. It  scans all the photos in your collection, identifies the ones with faces, and groups photos with similar faces together.  It will also sync back and forth with online albums so if you already got name tags there all will be imported to your local collection.

Other features include geotags and integration with Goggle Maps. You can easily set album or photo geographic  locations.  Tag management has been improved which makes it more interesting alternative to commercial photo management software. last but not least is simplification of import, upload and sharing. You can actually do this in one step.