BRIEFS: June 17

JUNE 17, 2010: Off the wall…Samsung’s palm-sized projector…Model release via iPhone!…Epson has Pantone covered…One Sinar fits all
Off the wall

Munich-based Style-Your-Garage.com is offering a truly off-the-wall service – photo tarpaulins to dress up the humble garage door. Style-Your-Garage is an offshoot (or what the PR people call ‘a logical business extension’) of Style-Your-Door, which offers a similar service for interior doors featuring rope bridges, lift doors, horse boxes and other wacky things. .

‘The new photo tarpaulins can give garage doors a whole new look,’ says Style-Your-Garage – and they are not joking. (Well, they are joking in a way, but…)

‘The printed-on 3D motifs are deceptively realistic and will cause neighbours, friends and passers-by to stop and stare! We offer more than 250 motifs, that show exactly what a car owner want to see in his garage: a spectacular racing car, wild horses, sexy go-go girls, or a batch of golden bars.’ (Or a jet fighter, as featured above right!)

The service is remarkably inexpensive, with photo tarps starting at under $100. And you can even use your own photo and have an extra special garage door made up!

Mini projector from Samsung

Samsung Electronics says its SP-H03 is a ‘self-contained personal media device’. Others might better identify it as a miniature projector.

The US $300 palm-sized projector has built-in hardware for playing videos, photos, and even Word documents.

Samsung says its LED output is ‘ideal for sharing images, videos, music, and documents on a variety on surfaces in business or personal settings’.

It has a brightness rating of 30 ANSI lumens and a 854 by 480 resolution. The projected image size ranges from nine to 80 inches, while the thingie itself is 2.5 x 1.5 x 2.5 inches and weighs 6 ounces. (For those who only think in metrics, this equates to ‘very small and very light’.

There are no release details for Australia.

Model Releases via iPhone!

Brisbane agency, Fullframe Photographics, has designed a new iPhone application that makes it easy for photographers, advertising agencies and image libraries to capture and store model consent forms.

The new iRelease application enables photographers to use their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to create and store model releases via personalised forms that can include a photograph of the subject. The subject signs the form on the touch-pad with their finger. The device creates a release form, saves it, automatically syncs to the photographer’s online account and allows them to email a PDF directly from the application.
iRelease is available now to all iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users for a free trial in a ‘lite’ version at www.ireleaseapp.com. The fully-featured version of the application sells for $17.99.

Epson has Pantone covered

Epson’s Stylus Pro 7900 and 9900 series wide-format printers have achieved 98 percent coverage of the Pantone Matching System, as evaluated and certified by Pantone itself.

Pantone is the definitive international reference for selecting, specifying, matching and controlling ink colours. With the ability to achieve virtually full coverage of Pantone colours, professional photo studios and photo retailers using Epson printers have a great deal of freedom when producing proofs and final images.

‘Epson’s Pro series large format printers have long been regarded as setting industry standards in various graphics applications, and the attainment of this exceptionally high Pantone coverage provides further proof of Epson’s leadership in this field,’ said Epson’s business solutions manager, Craig Heckenberg.

‘The ability to accurately reproduce Pantone Colours is a critical element of the design process,’ said, Andy Hatkoff, vice president of electronic licensing at Pantone.

One Sinar fits all

The camera system from Sinar Photgraphy AG has become more versatile, the company says, as all digital backs made by other manufacturers can be attached to the Sinar platform.

Simple and cost-effective adaptations for the widely used Sinar p3 view camera and the architectural camera Sinar arTec are will be available to all users of camera backs made by other manufacturers.

Sinar has developed a new rear coupling frame for the Sinar p3 camera and matching adapters for Hasselblad V, H1/H2 and Mamiya 645 AFD, designed especially for users of digital backs made by other manufacturers. The new camera is the Sinar p3 RV.

For those users who would like to apply this advantage retroactively, Sinar offers conversion packages.