QuickLinks For 2006-05-26

• New RF collection:
  Paris based PHOTONONSTOP, formed in 2000 by the merger of the agencies La Photothèque SDP and DIAF, is currently running an archive of 3 million photos and has over 150 photographers under contract.
  PHOTONONSTOP will introduce a new RF collection during the upcoming CEPIC congress.
  The first series of CDs will cover the topics Family and Beauty.
  Tag: PHOTONONSTOP

• Microsoft shows off JPEG rival:
  If it is up to Microsoft, the omnipresent JPEG image format will be replaced by Windows Media Photo. The software maker detailed the new image format Wednesday at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference here. Windows Media Photo will be supported in Windows Vista and also be made available for Windows XP. [...]
  Bill Crow, program manager for Windows Media Photo, showed in his presentation an image with 24:1 compression that visibly contained more detail in the Windows Media Photo format than the JPEG and JPEG 2000 formats compressed at the same level. [...]
  Steven Wells, a part-time professional photographer, said he sees promise in the new file format. "The JPEG artifacts make it almost unusable for professional photographers," he said. "Windows Media Photo is possibly the first viable compression format."
  CNET News.com.
  Tags: Windows Media Photo JPEG

• Canon to stop making single-lens camera:
  Japan's top camera maker, Canon Inc., will stop developing new single-lens reflex film cameras as more people abandon film for digital, company officials said Thursday.
  The Tokyo-based Canon's move followed a similar move by its closest Japanese rival, Nikon Corp., which announced earlier this year it would stop making seven of its nine film cameras and concentrate on digital models. [...]
  Japanese camera makers sold a combined total 64.77 million digital cameras last year globally, compared with 5.38 million film cameras, according to industry figures.
  Yahoo News.
  Related: Canon Stops New SLR Development (WSJ).
  Tag: Canon

• Stock Photo Girls:
  Forget the Da Vinci Code. I want to find more investigative stories on these models that keep showing up everywhere!
  Stock Photo Girl #1 a.k.a. Jenna (more)
  Stock Photo Girl #2 a.k.a. Alicia
  Bonus challenge: Who will be the first "Microstock Girl"?
  LuckyPix.blog.
  Tag: Micropayment Stock Photo Girls

• Digital Media Project Releases Second Spec:
  The Digital Media Project (DMP) has released its second major spec. Interoperable DRM Platform 2, or IDP-2, was published last month after having been ratified at the DMP General Assembly in Torino, Italy in February. DMP is a DRM standards initiative led by Dr. Leonardo Chiariglione, the founder of MPEG.
  With IDP-2, DMP has finally revealed details of its approach to DRM interoperability.  It is a genuinely new approach that builds on the IDP-1 spec that DMP released a year ago, as well as other sources such as MPEG-21, the TV Anytime Forum, and the influential 2003 whitepaper Self Protecting Digital Content by Paul Kocher of Cryptography Research Inc.
  Related: Navio: The DRM start-up in Apple's backyard (SiliconBeat).
  DRM Watch/Bill Rosenblatt.
  Tag: Digital Media Project