“Black-and-white photography is more popular than ever before. Even today, it has lost none of its fascination as an expressive medium, not even for younger generations of photographers. This is confirmed by the numerous monochrome images shown by members of the M-Community, who we are in constant contact with,” said Jesko von Oeynhausen, Product Manager for the M-System at Leica Camera AG. “For the first time ever, we are offering an opportunity to consistently and authentically explore black-and-white photography with the M Monochrom, a tool that is unique in the digital world. The camera’s exclusively black-and-white sensor brings an enormous technical benefit that is reflected in the amazing imaging quality it delivers.”

To allow precise control of tonal values, the Leica M Monochrom offers a raw data histogram display to exhibit original, unprocessed and unmodified raw data. This, combined with a configurable clipping display, allows precise correction or optimization of exposures, Leica says. The rangefinder system camera features a traditional 230,000 dot 2.5 inch color TFT display and can save images in 14-bit uncompressed RAW format that yields 36 megabyte DNG images. The maximum ISO setting is 10,000 – a big step up from the maximum ISO setting of 2,500 offered by the Leica M9.

Because the new black-and-white sensor is capable of outputting one pixel of data for each pixel captured, Leica says that the resulting images are incredibly sharp. They can be toned using sepia, cold or selenium settings. The Leica M Monochrom will be bundled with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and a full-version of Silver Efex Pro 2.

The camera will ship in the U.S. in late July 2012 for $7,970 (body only). For the price, photographers get the classic, iconic design of the Leica M-cameras without the Leica logo. A new APO-Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 ASPH prime lens will be available at the same time for $7,195. Photo: Leica

"For the past 15 years, ecologists have built a rich understanding of the consequences of humans driving species extinct. What we didn't know before this paper is whether those impacts of species loss rank up there with those from the major drivers of environmental change," said Jarrett Byrnes, a postdoctoral fellow with NCEAS.

Scientists from the U.S., Canada, and Sweden examined the effects of various environmental stressors on plant growth and decomposition, two crucial processes in any ecosystem. With data synthesized from almost 200 published studies, they measured the rate of species loss in different ecosystems, and found that the greater the plant species loss, the higher the negative impact on plant growth. The effects of biodiversity loss on biomass were similar to the effects from other environmental stressors, including global warming and pollution.

"Our work shows that, indeed, the impacts of species loss look to be on par with many kinds of human-driven environmental change," said Byrnes. "And more intriguingly, it suggests that if environmental change also causes loss of species, ecosystem functions like productivity could get hit with a 1-2 punch."

In the bigger picture, other ecosystem functions that provide clean food, air and water could eventually suffer. At the current rate of biodiversity loss, Earth may face another mass extinction within 240 years, some projections suggesting that. To combat this scenario, species loss has to be considered alongside the more prominent forms of environmental change, according to Byrnes.

For the researchers, there is more to be studied, as they plan to dig deeper into the effects of species loss on multiple functions and explicitly link loss of species to changes in ecosystem services.

"One thing this study opens up is the need to better understand the interactions between environmental change and species loss. They're not independent, and may interact in some particularly unexpected ways," said Byrnes.

The international team was led by Western Washington University biologist David Hooper.

Photo: www.imagine-your-world.com

"With the Distagon T* 2.8/15, Carl Zeiss sets the standard in super wide angle photography," says Dr. Michael Pollmann, Consumer Lenses Program Manager in the Camera Lens Division of Carl Zeiss AG. "Even at full aperture it achieves outstanding detail rendition and opens up room for extremely imaginative design."

A nine-blade aperture affords a nearly circular opening, yielding more natural looking out-of-focus details. The new lens features 15 lens elements within 12 groups. All components including the integrated lens shade are made of metal – the only plastic part is the rear lens cap. This ultimately adds substance – without the lens cap, the Distagon weighs between 1.61 and 1.81 pounds (730 and 820 grams), depending on the mount required.

The anti-reflective coating controls stray light and reflections very well. All standard 95mm screw-on filters can be attached via a 95mm filter thread.

The manual focus lens comes in either a ZE version for Canon’s EF mount or a ZF.2 version for Nikon’s F bayonet mount and can be used with full-frame DSLR’s. The Canon EF mount supports existing exposure programs (P, AV, TV, M) and the AF confirmation function; lens information (focal length and speed) is passed on to the camera. However, various scene modes that require the use of AF lenses are unavailable. The Nikon F mount supports all key modes including aperture priority, shutter priority, program AE and manual exposure settings.

The Distagon T 2.8/15mm will be available on May 10, 2012. The recommended retail price is $2,948. Photo: Carl Zeiss

Traffic between Asia and Europe, and between Asia and North America, grew by 9 percent. Traffic between Asia and the Middle East grew six percent, reaching 38 million travelers in the year. Compared with the previous year, two percent fewer passengers traveled between Africa and Europe in 2011; making it the only region pair with a significant traffic flow decrease over the period.

Traffic between North America and Europe remains the busiest inter-regional flow with over 60 million passengers in 2011, followed by Asia and Europe with over 53 million, and Latin America and North America with 47 million passengers.

In terms of connecting traffic, over 50 percent of all passengers in the triangle between Asia, Europe and North America change aircraft at least once. On the other hand, only 7 percent of all passengers traveling within Asia travel with a connecting flight, compared to 10 percent in Europe and 31 percent in North America. The largest airports in Asia have a lower percentage of connecting traffic than the North American and European hubs. The average connecting rate of the ten busiest airports in Asia is 19 percent compared with 32 percent for the top ten hubs in Europe and 45 percent in North America.

The 2011 country statistics reveal that the strongest growth in absolute passengers is led by the BRIC countries. China registered an additional 19 million passengers in 2011, compared to 2010. Brazil’s numbers increased by 12 million, India’s by 8 million and Russia’s by 6 million passengers. Indonesia was the fifth strongest growth market with an additional 5 million passengers in 2011.

Brazil (plus 17 percent), India (plus 13 percent) and Russia (plus 15 percent) are also among the top ten fastest-growing countries by percentage growth. Chile (21 percent), the Philippines (15 percent) and Indonesia (11 percent) reserve top spots for themselves as well, while Egypt and Japan are among the fastest shrinking markets, probably due to the Arab Spring and the Tsunami.

From the world’s top ten inter-city routes, seven are within the domestic borders of Asian countries, out of which three are in Japan. In terms of volume, the route between Jeju and Seoul is the most important (almost 10 million passengers), followed by Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo (circa 8 million passengers).

The picture shows a reproduction of a Sopwith Camel biplane. Photo: United States Government/Public Domain

"Creatives get a ton of innovation across CS6, with milestone releases of all our flagship products," said David Wadhwani, senior vice president, Digital Media Business at Adobe. "With CS6 and Creative Cloud, we’re also introducing new products, new mobile workflows and advanced publishing capabilities that show we are laser-focused on ensuring design, Web and video pros have everything they need for the delivery of high-impact content and apps."

Adobe says that performance and workflow enhancements in Adobe Photoshop CS6, Adobe Illustrator CS6 and Adobe InDesign CS6 will result in significant time savings. The latest version of Photoshop, for example, takes advantage of the graphics processing unit (GPU) to speed up imaging and editing tasks, and process large images faster. Content-aware moving and patching tools have been tweaked, and the ability to edit video has been added. Adobe has tweaked the user interface on most programs.

Creative Cloud is a subscription based service offering access to the latest software versions and 20 GB of cloud storage with the option to sync files. Working in the clouds and gaining access to Photoshop CS6 Extended has its price: Adobe says the service will cost $50 per month if users sign up for a full year, or $75 per month for a two-month option.

Photoshop CS6, Photoshop CS6 Extended, all Creative Suite 6 editions and the Creative Cloud are scheduled to be available within 30 days. Photoshop CS6 will carry a price tag of $699, and Photoshop CS6 Extended will be available for $999. The CS6 Master Collection will sell for $2,600; upgrade pricing has not been released yet.

With the introduction of Creative Suite 6, Adobe announced to move into the clouds. Creative Cloud is a subscription based feature allowing design professionals and photographers to access the latest versions of Photoshop and 20 GB of storage per account. Photo: www.imagine-your-world.com