Canon Explorer Johnny Haglund’s Borneo adventure goes on. Read his new blog on diamond mines

Visiting the Cempaka diamond mine here in South Kalimantan, Borneo, is my second assignment in a year to cover diamond miners. The first one was in the Democratic Republic of Congo (see my earlier blog from October 2013).

The Cempaka diamond mine and the Mbuji Mayi diamond mine in Congo, are in many ways two totally different worlds. The labour is the same, though. These men work just as hard as those I met in Congo, and the surroundings are hot, humid and mosquito infested, with rain every now and then pouring out of the sky, making the mud sticky like glue.

Read the rest at CPN –>

#Canon Explorer Johnny Haglund’s Borneo adventure goes on. Read his new blog on diamond mines! http://t.co/LmVscyHDyB pic.twitter.com/pDoEJVEARC

— Canon Pro Network (@CanonProNetwork) May 8, 2014

Fourandsix Technologies launched izitru.com (= “is it true”), a free service that claims to be able to spot whether an image has been post-processed or not.

You can upload an JPEG image file and let the algorithm run various analysis tasks to decide if the picture has been manipulated. If the image was not processed, Izitru gives the image a “trust” rating. Can be useful on social media, for business etc. About how the algorithm spots processed images:

There are a variety of ways in which an original JPEG file, as first saved by a digital camera, may be different from subsequent versions of the file. Some of these differences reflect the fact that each digital camera has distinct ways of applying JPEG settings when saving a file. Other differences result from artifacts that are introduced when images are saved multiple times. We use a combination of six distinct forensic tests to look for these differences.

There is a FAQ, some tips, and to try it out head here.

Recently I found a paper about another algorithm, this time to measure the popularity of a photo (you can try it out).

[via DPreview]

Canon New Zealand is accepting registrations for the EYECON Photography and Film Competition 2014. Registrations are accepted until 10/1/2014

Canon EYEcon is a competition created especially for New Zealand’s emerging photographers and filmmakers. It’s the ultimate opportunity to showcase your talent, gain valuable experience and pitch yourself against the best in your field.

There are some truly incredible prizes to be won too, including a range of ‘money can’t buy experience days’ with some of New Zealand’s most prominent photographers.

The EYEcon 2014 competition is open to New Zealand students or assistants studying photography or film and is split into three categories for you to submit an entry too. Each category is judged individually and has separate prize packages to be won:

• PHOTOGRAPHY: Tertiary students and assistant photographers currently studying photography.
• PHOTOGRAPHY:Year 12 & 13 High School students currently studying photography.
• FILM: Tertiary students and assistant film makers currently studying film.

Canon EYEcon is a truly fantastic opportunity for all budding photographers and filmmakers – so don’t miss out.  To enter Canon EYEcon, please click on the links below:

– EYEcon Registration Form (must be submitted by October 1, 2014)

– EYEcon Competition Guidelines

– EYEcon Terms and Conditions

– EYEcon FAQ’s

More information at Canon NZ –>

CanonUSA on YouTube posted the next video of their ongoing series Canon EF Lenses 101.

A wide-angle lens lets you capture a broader field of view than most lenses and brings in everything around you. Photographer and educator Matt Kloskowski takes you through the best uses of wide-angle lenses and gives some tips on getting great photos with them.

 

Canon press release:

Canon contributes to international standardization of HEVC range extensions

TOKYO, May 1, 2014—Canon Inc. announced today that the Company, through its technological capabilities, contributed to the standardization, completed on April 4, 2014, of range extensions for the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard by the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC).

The JCT-VC, established in 2010 by the ISO1/IEC2 Moving Picture Experts Group and ITU3 Video Coding Experts Group, completed in January 2013 the HEVC standard for video data compression, which makes possible the efficient transmission and storage of high-definition resolution video such as 4K and 8K. Following this achievement, efforts to standardize the HEVC range extensions led to the official approval of ISO/IEC FDIS (Final Draft International Standard) 23008-2 2nd Edition High Efficiency Video Coding on April 4, 2014.