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I don’t usually do these short news-breaking stories, but this one actually irked me. Rob Galbraith, notable photographer and outstpoken reviewer of photographic equipment and technique, published a story in his blog, Rob Galbraith: DPI, pitting the late-2008 unibody MacBook Pro 15" display against the displays of two similar laptops, the Dell Inspiron and the IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad T60.

Conclusion? Despite Apple’s long-held position as a maker of laptops uniquely suited to field shooting, Galbraith says, “In ambient light environments which induce screen reflections, the late-2008 MacBook Pro 15 inch’s glossy screen moves deep into the not acceptable category.”

Okay, so I missed the boat on this by a little bit, but I think it bears discussion anyway. Earlier this month, an exhibition came to a close at the Yale University Art Gallery called “First Doubt: Optical Confusion in Modern Photography.” Optical confusion refers to that effect you get when you look at something and it isn’t immediately apparent what it is. The reaction is best when the subject matter is common and well-known, but portrayed in an unusual or misleading way.

!right:http://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/items/583953.jpg!

My thorough and attentive friends in the B&H affiliate department have sent word that they now have limited stocks of 5D Mark IIs!.html/BI/1816/KBID/2457

The message reads, “We’ve just received word that the Canon EOS 5D Mark II is available in limited stock. Simply “add to cart”; ignore initial “back-ordered” message.”

According to Mike’s post over at TOP their stock seems to be fluctuating in and out.

The price is $2,699 and you can buy it right here

I received another e-mail from the (former) Editor in Chief of JPG Magazine yesterday announcing that JPG isn’t quite dead. Here is the full message:

We couldn’t ask for a better community. In the week or so since our last email, the outpour of support has exceeded our wildest expectations. Your efforts, such as starting savejpg.com, writing blog posts, commenting on Twitter and Flickr, and generally making your voices heard, have provided exciting new opportunities for us.

In a previous article, Shooting Modes Explained, I went into some of the details of the major shooting modes (aperture priority, shutter priority, manual) and the program modes (what Canon calls “PictureStyles” and Nikon calls “Digital Vari-Programs”).

All of that information is still very important, but I wanted to mention that a good fellow by the name of Adam Parker posted a comment there with a useful link to an article of his where he demonstrates the major shooting modes using… Gasp… Pictures!