Digital Camera News, 4/27/08

Panasonic offering two-for-one Mother's Day special on photography courses

In a special promotion in honor of the upcoming Mother's Day holiday, Panasonic is offering special two-for-one pricing on digital photography class through its Digital Photo Academy program.

Panasonic's Digital Photo Academy program offers beginner, intermediate, and advanced photography courses year-round in 20 major U.S. cities. Regular prices for the hands-on courses range from $50 for the three-hour, point-and-shoot focused beginner course to $150 for the full-day advanced "Digital Vision" class. The courses, which focus both on photographic and post-processing techniques, are open to all photographers, regardless of whether or not they shoot a Panasonic camera.

According to Panasonic, two-for-one promotion pricing, which runs through May 12, 2008, is designed to let Mother's Day gift givers share in the course experience with their moms. To learn more or go ahead and knock out Mother's Day shopping for your photographically inclined mom, head on over to www.digitalphotoacademy.com.

Eye-Fi users pass one million image upload mark

Wireless SD card maker Eye-Fi released a statement this week announcing that its users have now uploaded more than a million photos directly to the web from their cameras using the company's product.

Launched late last year, the Eye-Fi card is a conventional 2GB SD card with an integrated Wi-Fi radio that allows photographers to connect their camera directly to the internet over a wireless network and upload images to any of 25 popular photo sharing, printing, and social networking sites.

When we reviewed the Eye-Fi a few months ago, I felt that it still had some bugs to work out, but no one's debating that the company is on the forefront of what's likely to be the de facto practice for transfering images within in a few years. The one-millionth upload mark is certainly big news for Eye-Fi, a strong indication of how quickly the technology is latching on.

Rugged external drive from LaCie packs in 500GB worth of photos

LaCie has launched a new 500GB external hard drive with a scratch-resistance aluminum shell and a shockproof rubber housing that should appeal to working photographers on the go.

The high-capacity Rugged Hard Disk contains a 2.5-inch Hitachi Travelstar 5K500 drive; two versions sport either USB 2.0 connections only, or USB plus Firewire 400/800. The exterior is encased in an orange rubber bumper that protects the drive from bumps and drops. A rigid aluminum case beneath the rubber surround provides additional protection.

Also available in 160, 250, and 320GB configurations, the 500GB rugged hard disk has enough capacity to tote a pretty impressive number of images – somewhere in the neighborhood of 500,000 if you assume that the average mid-quality image from an 8 or 10 megapixel digital camera takes up about 1MB of space.

LaCie's standard two-year warranty and one-click backup software are also included with the 500GB Rugged Hard Disk, which retails for $339.99 according to the manufacturer's website.