Photo News Roundup, 10/15/11

El Morro, Viejo San Juan

Still feeling the pinch from the devastating earthquake and power plant meltdowns in Japan, Nikon and Sony now have further issues to deal with. The massive rainfall in Thailand — which has plagued the country since July and killed at least 250 people thus far — has now caused catastrophic flooding to an industrial complex that houses manufacturing for those companies and a multitude of others. (Adorama)

The UK treating its photographers like terrorists is nothing new, but this one’s a new high in low: a man was questioned by police for taking photos in a Glasgow shopping mall. The apparent “security risk”? He was taking snaps of his own four-year-old daughter. (BBC)

CanonRumors reports major announcements coming on October 18, with events scheduled in the Netherlands and Singapore. Their sources indicate an amalgamation of the 1D and 1Ds lines, resulting in an 18mp, 12fps full-frame camera.

Sony’s A65 and A77 get firmware updates (thus far only rolled out in Asia) as do Panasonic’s G3 and GF3. (dpreview.com)

EOSHD editorializes on the passing of film for filming, which would seem premature ’til you consider that Kodak is slowly circling the drain, and Canon is setting up a Professional Support Center in Hollywood ahead of their much-hyped November 3 announcement. Also, Panasonic’s GH2 is getting support for the 176 mbit AVCHD codec, which previously had been relegated to high-end (read: really expensive) video cameras.

LeicaRumors has news of the just-opened “You Are Here” street photography exhibit in LA, and also says that Leica will be releasing a firmware update that remedies the memory card issue that’s plagued the M9.

Speaking of Leica, MirrorlessRumors raises an interesting point: if Kodak goes under, Leica needs to find someone else to fabricate their sensors (the M9 uses a Kodak sensor).

A new game called “Warco” (that’s short for War Correspondent) puts a whole new spin on “first person shooter,” as the person playing the game does so from the POV of a videographer. (Nathaniel Chadwick)

Nikon has two more-or-less concurrent press events coming up, one in Morocco from October 24-26, and the other in Australia from October 23-26. The D800 is expected to be announced at some point during that time, but no word yet on whether the replacement for the just-discontinued SB-900 speedlight will also be replaced at that point. In unrelated news, Nikon is justifying its price increases on the grounds that it will cut unauthorized dealers out of the picture (nope, didn’t make sense to me, either). (NikonRumors)

Sigma releases a limited-edition SD-1 camera that’s encased in some rare hardwood or other; it reminds me of how everything made by Radio Shack ’til about 2004 had that simulated wood grain finish… Amazon shows the Fuji X-10 with a November 7 street date. Pentax, on the other hand, rather sheepishly admits that they won’t be releasing anything else this year, and that any indications to the contrary were typographical errors. (PhotoRumors)

Users of the Sony A65 and A77 may have noticed some AF issues if they’re using Sigma lenses. Sigma’s apparently noticed as well, and to their credit, they’ve moved quickly to address the issue (Leica, take note);  they’re offering to retrofit users’ lenses, free of charge, to work with the newer cameras, and will rectify the problem going forward. (Sony Alpha Rumors)

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