Jessops Press Release

Jessops, the UK’s leading photographic retailer, has launched Britain’s first ‘order online, collect in-store’ photo printing service.

Customers using the company’s new look online photo centre – www.jessopsphotoexpress.com – can choose to have their prints delivered through the post, or to collect them from any of Jessops’ 270 stores nationwide.

Those using the collect in-store service simply select their preferred store from a drop down list, and benefit by saving on the usual postal delivery charge of £1.50, and getting a faster delivery time of only two days. Delivery using the postal service takes up to five days.

World Photo Day 2005 is here. On June 01 2005, photographers from across the planet will submit one photo each depicting people and everyday life where they live, and as seen through the lense of the camera.

Registration is still possible and the photos will be available for viewing as they are recieved.

Website: World Photo Day 2005

Gomma and JPG are two very new photography magazines that focus on photos rather than equipment and are both sold online - auspiciousdragon.net takes a quick look at both titles.

“Neither contains any advertising. JPG contains very little writing and Gomma almost none. Both are filled with pictures from photographers from (in JPG’s words) “....the great in between: not quite amateur, not quite professional. Some do it for art, some as a kind of visual journal, some because they want to become professional one day, and some just because we have to. It’s just what we do.”

Website: auspiciousdragon.net - Gomma & JPG Magazines Review

In this month’s Sunday Morning Photographer column Mike Johnston considers all things lens-related.

“Well, this is possibly the silliest and potentially least useful thing I’ve ever done in my life as a photo-writer, but I’ve decided to publish my personal list of BOKEH RATINGS. I’ve simply assigned a numerical ranking on a scale of 1-10 to some of the many of the camera lenses I’m familiar with, rating the subjective visual quality of the out-of-d.o.f. areas or bokeh.”

Website: Sunday Morning Photographer: Fun Stuff: Bokeh Ratings and Lens Awards

The latest edition of fotoespresso has just been released. Brought to you by Digital Outback Photo, fotoespresso is a newsletter that reports news, trends, new techniques and tools for digital photography. Its focus is on digital photography workflow and making the life of digital photographers easier. The latest edition includes articles about:

  * Using Histograms
  * HP Designjet 30/130
  * Using the Nikon 10.4mm fisheye lens
  * Understanding DNG and how to use it
  * Book reviews

Website: fotoespresso.com

HP Press Release

HP’s Snapfish Resets the Online Photography Landscape: Digital Prints Now as Low as 10 Cents Each; Snapfish Welcomes Vacationers into Summer with Prints for Pennies

PALO ALTO, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—May 26, 2005—HP (NYSE:HPQ) (Nasdaq:HPQ) today significantly reduced the pricing on its Snapfish online photo service by offering 4 x 6-inch prints for as low as 10 cents each. Snapfish prints are now priced up to 60 percent lower than those of its major online competitors.

Consumers can now go to www.snapfish.com to order 4 x 6-inch digital camera and camera phone prints for as low as 10 cents with a pre-paid plan and 12 cents with Snapfish’s everyday low pricing—a 7 cent reduction from Snapfish’s previous industry-leading price.

Yahoo! Inc. Press Release

Yahoo! Mail Announces PhotoMail Beta, Providing an Easier Way to Share Photos by E-mail; Additional Yahoo! Mail Updates Include Availability of More Languages, Integrated Top News Feed, and DomainKeys Indicator

SUNNYVALE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—May 26, 2005—Yahoo! Inc., (Nasdaq:YHOO) today announced the beta release of an innovative e-mail photo sharing feature called PhotoMail, available for free from Yahoo! Mail (http://mail.yahoo.com), a global leader in e-mail and the No. 1 e-mail service in the United States. PhotoMail greatly simplifies the e-mail photo sharing experience by allowing people to insert up to 300 photos into the body of an e-mail, minimizing the worry of exceeding message or attachment size limits. The new PhotoMail feature tightly integrates Yahoo! Mail with both Yahoo! Photos and Yahoo! Image Search.

Imagestate Press Release

Imagestate launches new website and services in line with customer feedback

Imagestate, a leading provider of rights-managed and royalty-free photography, has today announced the launch of a new website, together with new services to help customers manage their workflow efficiently.

www.imagestate.com , designed by Lyon and Associates, illustrates that the company has acted on customer needs for a quicker, more intuitive online service, complemented by strong offline customer service and free picture research.

DPNow have started a survey about digital cameras; there’s a 1 gigabyte high performance Panasonic SD pro memory card up for grabs for one lucky winner in the random draw.

“Here’s a unique opportunity to help shape future Panasonic Lumix digital cameras and you could even win a valuable prize for your efforts! Panasonic UK has given Digital Photography Now a unique opportunity to provide you, the reader, with a voice that will be heard by the key digital camera designers and engineers of Panasonic Lumix cameras in Japan. Your views will help shape the design and features of future Panasonic Lumix cameras.”

Website: DPNow - Have your say with Panasonic Lumix

Project World Photo Day 2005 is rapidly approaching. On June 01, 2005 photographers from across the planet will submit one photo each depicting people and every day life where they live, and as seen through the lense of the camera.

WPD founder Drew Rossman says, “My hope is that we all gain a better, more positive insight into the circumstances that dictate our daily lives, the difficulties, the triumphs, the beauty, the pain, the good and the bad, all of this in just one 24-hour period”.

Pre-registration is still possible and the photos will be available for viewing as they are recieved beginning June 1st.

Website: World Photo Day 2005

Pixel Outpost Press Release

WALNUT CREEK, Calif., May 16 /PRNewswire/—Pixel Outpost, a company with its roots in color management and digital print innovation, today announced the launch of a new Internet print service that focuses solely on large format prints.  Designed for both novice and expert digital photographers, Pixel Outpost creates new options beyond the 20-inch x 30-inch photo paper enlargements that are readily available.  The service makes it very simple for consumers to get affordable, high-quality, poster-size digital prints on canvas or paper up to 60 inches wide.

“The increase in the average resolution of digital cameras sold today enables consumers to finally get affordable large format digital prints that look great,” said Stephen Kozel, President of Pixel Outpost.  “We are dedicated to making it easy for all digital camera users to create big memories.”

Mike Johnson explains why 40mm is his favourite focal length in the latest Sunday Morning Photographer column.

“40mm has long been my favorite focal length for 35mm cameras. I got “turned on” to the focal length when I interviewed Sally Mann for Camera & Darkroom magazine in the 1980s. She told me she had supported her artwork by doing lots of small freelance jobs, including many for the local military academy. She said she used Olympus OM cameras, and that, if she were going to do any artwork in 35mm, she would use the 40mm Zuiko. We talked about the focal length for a while, but all I remember now is Sally saying that 40mm is “about right.” That’s what started my interest in 40mms.”

Website: Sunday Morning Photographer - Why 40mm?

ExposureManager Press Release

ExposureManager: The Internet leader in Event Photography Services and Fulfillment

Visit us at www.exposuremanager.com.

ExposureManager announces recent major improvements to our popular online portfolio and sales management service. Responding to feedback from our users, we have recently added the following features:

- Our drag & drop uploader can now resize images prior to upload, therefore dramatically reduce upload time
- Set up color correcting, sharpening and watermark settings prior to uploading (note: this only affects the files used for display, not the files that will be send to the printer)
- Upload color-corrected, cropped print ready, files only after an order has been placed for those particular photos

Sony Press Release

SONY ELECTRONICS’ IMAGESTATION.COM AND RITZ CAMERA CENTERS OFFER IN-STORE PHOTO PICK-UP SERVICE BEGINNING TODAY

Offers Convenience of One-Hour Pick-Up Option

SAN DIEGO, May 9, 2005- As part of an effort to offer consumers multiple avenues to print their digital images, Sony Electronics’ ImageStation® online has teamed up with Ritz Camera Centers to provide faster fulfillment of digital print orders.

Beginning today, consumers can upload their digital images from their home/personal computers to ImageStation.com. There, consumers can configure their print orders, pay online and pick up their photos at their local Ritz or Wolf Camera store in as little as one hour. A store locator allows customers to easily locate their nearby Ritz or Wolf Camera store.

“Ritz Camera Centers is known for bringing creative offerings to consumers online and this relationship provides ImageStation customers with an easy-to-use benefit,” said Bob Nell, vice president of network solutions for Sony Electronics eSolutions Company. “Whether customers want to take advantage of this quick pick-up option or order by mail, we are able to provide them with printing options.”

SendPhotos Press Release

New Version 4.0 Delivers New Ways to Easily Share Digital Photos

BOULDER, Colo., May 3 /PRNewswire/—SendPhotos, Inc., formerly Novatix Corporation, today announced the release of a new version of its award-winning photo utility, SendPhotos(TM) Gold.  The new version 4.0 now delivers a comprehensive solution for sharing digital photos, allowing consumers to create exciting photo emails, publish personalized professional-looking online photo albums, order prints of their photos or easily print at home.

SendPhotos Gold is currently recognized for its inventive approach to emailing photos.  It automatically inserts pictures into the body of custom-designed emails and thus eliminates the need for large attachments, and makes delivery up to 25 times faster.  The newest version builds upon this innovative email functionality and recognizes the many other ways that consumers enjoy sharing photos.

PhotoBox Limited Press Release

PhotoBox Limited, today announced it has signed a deal with Littlewoods brand, LX Direct, that will offer new services to users of the Littlewoods site www.lxdirect.com.

With the PhotoBox digital photography service integrated into www.lxdirect.com, Littlewoods is building the services available to their community online and encouraging loyalty in a highly competitive market. This partnership will provide their customers with the chance to share memories with loved ones instantly. Their favourite photographs can be seen online by family and friends through private photo albums, they can even share them with the rest of the world if they choose to make the album public.

Printing is also easy with the PhotoBox service, customers simply select their favourite photographs online, order them and they’re delivered the next day. LX Direct online customers can choose from a huge variety of shapes and sizes, from traditional 6x4 to 20x8 panoramic posters. For special occasions and celebrations there’s a range of beautiful personalised gifts like mugs, calendars and canvas prints, to name but a few.

TIPA (Technical Image Press Association) have announced their photography awards for 2005. 30 different products have been chosen as the nest in their class. Standwout winners include the Nikon Coolpix 7900 (review coming soon), Sony Cyber-shot T7, Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 and the Canon EOS 350D. For a full list of all the winners with accompanying test, see the following website:

Website: TIPA - The Best Photo Products in Europe, 2005

With the recent controversy over the encryption of white balance data in Nikon D2x digital SLR RAW files still raging, the launch today of OpenRAW, “a group of photographers and other interested people advocating the open documentation of digital camera RAW files” is very timely indeed.

“Most camera manufacturers use a proprietary file format to store the raw data from their digital cameras. In the short history of digital photography, manufacturers have dropped support for asset management applications, abandoned settings from older RAW processor versions and changed the methods of storing basic camera settings without documentation. The undocumented changes in RAW file formats have already cost users of RAW images time and money.”

Website: OpenRAW

OpenRAW Press Release

4/25/2005 - For Immediate Release: OpenRAW Web Site Launched;Confronts Issues Crucial to Quality Digital Photography and Archiving of Photographic Images

The OpenRAW Working Group launched a website today at http://www.OpenRAW.org designed to solve issues crucial to the future of photography.

Digital technology is revolutionizing the photography industry, and an emerging part of that technology is the set of RAW camera file formats. Most professional photographers prefer using RAW image capture because it offers the highest quality and the greatest creative control.

The grass roots OpenRAW group arose out of photographers’ frustration with camera manufacturers’ refusal to openly document their proprietary RAW file formats. That lack of file format information inhibits innovation, limits image processing choices, and endangers the long-term accessibility of millions of photographs. The goal of the new website is to obtain complete documentation by manufacturers of their RAW file formats.

Photoxels have published an interesting interview with Sally Smith-Clemens, who is Olympus America’s spokesperson.

“The digital camera market is crowded with many players and models, and consumers have a hard time comparing and distinguishing between the many models. What do you want the consumer to think of when they think “OLYMPUS”?

SSC: Superior optical quality from an optical company who has been around since the early 1900’s. Products that are designed to do more by addressing the needs/applications of the end user such as: all weather digital cameras that can withstand moisture; built in dust reduction systems in dSLR’s to help reduce the problems of dust on the image sensor when changing lenses; ease of use by way of direct connection of cameras to printers; and easy selection modes on the individual cameras that will allow end users to effortlessly take photos in a variety of situations like candle light or fireworks.”

Website: Photoxels - Olympus America Interview

Target and Yahoo! Press Release

Target and Yahoo! Debut a Full-Featured Digital Photo Resource; Consumers Can Easily Store, Share, Print Digital Photos with Co-Branded Target Yahoo! Photos Site

MINNEAPOLIS & SUNNYVALE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—April 21, 2005—Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) have come together to introduce a complete digital photo destination that allows photo enthusiasts an easy and affordable way to store, share and print photos. The co-branded digital photo resource, Target Yahoo! Photos (www.target.com/yahoophotos), provides a simple solution for consumers to manage their digital or camera phone photos. In fall 2005, Target Yahoo! Photos will offer consumers the choice of ordering their prints online and picking them up within a few hours at their local Target store.