Just arrived in today’s mail: the brand-new Canon EOS 7D digital SLR (being held by Jennifer to the left). It’s best thought of as the little brother of the Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR–the primary differences are that the 7D has a smaller image sensor with fewer megapixels, and the 7D also includes a 720p shooting mode (unlike the 5D Mark II, which only shoots 1080p as far as HD video goes.) The 7D is also a grand less, with an MSRP of $1699.

Tom saw a pre-production 7D at a Canon line show a few months back and had liked what he saw. We are eager to put this production unit through its paces, and we’ll share what we find out with you in a timely manner.

Speaking of which, a Canon EOS 5D Mark II firmware upgrade that adds 25fps and 23.976fps modes is slated to be released sometime during the first half of next year.

Adobe announces its latest additions to the Adobe Elements and Photoshop family today with it release of its consumer video editing program – Premiere Elements 8 and Photoshop 8. Adobe created Elements with the intent of reaching the consumer and hobbyist market with it’s low priced video editing software, but has moved the editing program along into a robust application that can keep pace with the big boys.

Rather than throwing in more effects you don’t need, this latest update has a lot more under the hood and has added some better tools to organize your video and photos.

What’s new? There’s an auto analyzer that you can use to tag your images for fast and easy searches. You can also sync your video and photos across several computers and the program has face recognition, helping to zone in on just the images you want from, say, “Carsen’s Birthday,” and it will learn who your subjects are and can find all images of them across the files.
Here’s some advance copy from our First Look review, to be uploaded Wednesday morning:
Premiere Elements 8 adds additional automated tools: Smart Trim removes the least interesting, lowest quality footage; SmartFix corrects shaky footage and color and lighting problems; and SmartMix balances music and sound effects without overpowering dialog or background audio. Plus, the new Motion Tracking feature finds moving subjects in your footage so that you can add graphics, text, and even video effects that automatically move with them.

Read the rest of our advance review of Adobe Elements 8.0 online here  http://www.videomaker.com/article/14751/

More From Adobe’s Press Release:
Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 & Adobe Premiere Elements 8 software gives you power and ease of use so you can create extraordinary photos and incredible movies, easily manage and protect your photos and video clips with automatic online backup, and access them anywhere you are. And now, Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 & Adobe Premiere Elements 8 Plus includes everything in the award-winning software and more:
• 20GB of online storage—enough for up to 15,000 photos or four hours of DVD-quality video
• Ongoing delivery of new, easy-to-use tutorials
• Ongoing delivery of fresh seasonal artwork, inspiring templates, movie themes, video effects, and all-new Online Albums

It’s all accessible with your Adobe ID. For more details, visit www.adobe.com/go/membership_elements. Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 & Adobe Premiere Elements 8 Plus, $179.99 (Available on Adobe.com, U.S. only) A savings of $20 off the first year of Plus, if purchased with the software bundle.
Already have Photoshop Elements 8 & Adobe Premiere Elements 8? Upgrade to Plus via the product for $49.99 a year.

Over the last year alone, posting on this very blog has been quite eye opening. One of my favorite experiences has been all of the various new types of technologies that have come out recently. Some of them made me scratch my head, some of them made me think, some of them solved my problems and some of them created new ones. One of the most intriguing of all of these posts, was the story of the “eyeborg.” This was basically a tiny camcorder, that was inserted into somebody’s eye! The long term hope being that it would become attached to a blind person’s brain to see. While the short term plan? Yup, to create a reality tv show.

Another interesting blog came with an editing system called “Tamper” being created by Oblong Industries, a software company that’s is trying to create an entirely new editing work flow and interface…. That is just well, remarkable to say the least. It involves users editing in a fashion more representative of something out of the movie Minority Report rather than a standard NLE. The company is the creator of what they have deemed “g-speak” which is a spatial operating environment, used for a computer program.

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It only took them $4B. And now Disney, owns more superheroes than Stan Lee. What does this mean for video enthusiasts? Well you can all probably expect a ton more superhero movies, as if there weren’t enough already. Except this time Wolverine is going to be wearing those cute little Mickey Mouse ears! With access to over 5,000 characters Disney is hoping to make even more profit off television and merchandise sales. Or as Disney President and Chief Executive Robert A. Iger put it, “We believe that adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation.” Disney’s big success has came with the young pre-teen demographic due to shows featuring the Jonas Brothers and “Hannah Montana.” They are hoping to bring in Marvel’s stranglehold on teen males as it has struggled to bring them in.  “It helps Disney add exposure to a young male demographic it had sort of lost some balance with,” Disney said. One thing is for sure, Marvel has definitely lost it’s edge for me. Sure, the Fantastic 4 movies didn’t help but this is really the end. Good bye cruel comic book world, hello Disneyland!

Reprinted from a Canon press release
LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., August 19, 2009 – Canon U.SA., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, has introduced a new flagship model to its 2009 VIXIA high-definition camcorder line, the VIXIA HF S11 Dual Flash Memory camcorder. For those video enthusiasts looking to capture the moment in breathtaking HD quality, the VIXIA HF S11 provides advanced HD features and professional-level manual controls. Additionally, Canon announced a new camcorder accessory, the RA-V1 Remote Control Adapter for professional-level functionality when shooting from a tripod.
The VIXIA HF S11 retains Canon’s core imaging technologies, but adds several new features that enhance operability and deliver unsurpassed image quality. The VIXIA HF S11 offers the ability to record up to 24 hours of crisp high-definition video to a 64GB internal flash drive and the option of recording video directly to removable SDHC memory cards for fast and easy sharing of memories. Two new features that help enhance the video capture and viewing experience are Canon’s new Dynamic SuperRange OIS system, which delivers the ultimate in shake correction by providing continuous adjustment throughout the entire zoom range, and an Advanced Video Snapshot Mode which allows you to create the perfect highlight movie to share with family and friends by recording a series of four second clips when in shooting mode as well as in playback mode.
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