A digest of last week’s news is a selection of some of the news from week 19 from 2016 related to the worlds of photography and video, covering multiple topics, always rounded up with a reading suggestion.

DS916+, Synology’s new NAS

Synology Inc. launched a new  4-bay scalable NAS designed for professionals and growing businesses, the DS916+. Powered by a quad-core CPU,  the unit performs high-speed computing and data encryption tasks. With flexible scalability up to 9 drives, DS916+ is able to handle rapidly growing storage capacity needs. Equipped with DiskStation Manager (DSM) 6.0 and versatile add-on packages, users are able to perform seamless file syncing and sharing, productive collaboration, and smooth disaster recovery on DS916+.  Powered by a hardware-accelerated transcoding engine, DS916+ allows you to transcode and stream H.264 4K / 1080p videos to high-definition TV, digital media players, mobile handsets, and computers in the required format, making it easy to watch videos without having to install a 3rd party player. 4K transcoding is available only through Synology’s Video Station, DS video, Media Server.

VR rhymes with GeForce 1080

Nvidia’s new flagship GeForce GTX 1080 is, according to the company, the most advanced graphics card ever created. Discover unprecedented performance, power efficiency, and visual experiences… and be one of the first to try it, buying the world’s first GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card. Colorful announced it recently and will have the unit available for sale by the end of May. The GeForce GTX 1080 is based on the GP104 GPU armed with 2560 CUDA cores and will have a base engine clock of 1607Mhz and can boost up 1733Mhz. Complementing it will be 8GB of GDDR5X video memory running at an effective clock rate of 10Ghz on a 256-bit bus.

The GeForce GTX 1080 is designed to deliver 3x more performance than previous-generation graphics card and its breakthrough innovations give users new possibilities to enjoy VR experiences. Colorful looks forward to bring their GeForce GTX 1080 on May 27th and the card will also be presented at Computex 2016 this June. Expect to pay around $500 for one.

Nikon’s patent for a 100x optical lens

Apparently, Nikon is not happy with the reach of their Coolpix P900 model, launched in 2015, which features a 83x optical zoom (24-2000mm at f/2.8 – 6.5, associated with a 16 megapixel CMOS sensor) because they’ve a new patent for a 100x optical zoom lens (4.4-440mm f/2.8-8.3 or 24-2400mm equivalent) designed for a 1/2.3″ sensor. The website Egami has the details for the new lens, which will probably be part of a new compact super zoom camera. The Coolpix P1000?

Three Trioplan lenses

Restoring the Trioplan lens line means that all good things come in threes. Our major 2017 lens announcement will be the third and final Trioplan in our line-up. With this note on their Kickstarter campaign page for the Trioplan f2.9/50, the German company Meyer-Optik Görlitz confirms that there is a third lens to come from them. The lens will be available for different mirrorless systems, including Canon EOS-M, Fuji X, Micro Four thirds cameras and Sony E.

Essence of Photography and Composition

Rocky Nook’s eBook deal, valid until May 23, lets you have the eBook The Essence of Photography for $9.99, meaning you save $22.00. Use the coupon ESSENCE to fuel your inspiration with this eBook, a compendium about seeing and creativity, written by Bruce Barnbaum. The paperback deal of the week is Photographic Composition, by Albrecht Rissler, available for $15.99 (you save $24). It’s a 192 page eBook on the principles of image design.  Use coupon COMP to get the book at this special price.