The Slovenian website eFotoGrafija have published a great interview (in English) with Mr. Takaya Iwasaki, who is the Canon representative for Central East and North East Europe, Sub-Sahara Africa and Middle East. Essential reading if you’re at all interested in the Canon product line.

“Jernej: Are you planing to introduce some high end EF-S lenses in the near future?

TAKAYA: Definitely. We are always planing 5 year spans so within the next 5 years we will develop high and mid end or even some completely unique EF-S lenses. But those are based on requests of professional photographers, however at the same time DSLRS are getting more popular with non professionals, therefore we have to develop lenses for both markets. It is not a question of timing, but as a leader of professional photography industry we are always thinking of high end products and new technology.”

Website: eFotoGrafija - Interview with Mr. Takaya Iwasaki

Mike Johnston’s latest Sunday Morning Photographer column, “Mo’ Betta”, considers what the camera manufacturers can do to improve their digital SLRs. Not that much, from Mike’s point of view:

“Personally, with the major exception of dynamic range, I think they’re already there in the Mo’ Bettah department. I.e., for me, cameras have enough megapixels, cameras are responsive enough, cameras are light enough, successive exposures are fast enough, files are big enough, ISOs are high enough. Progress will consist of putting more of these features into the same camera ( and of course making them less expensive).”

Website: Sunday Morning Photographer: Mo’ Betta

October 4, 2004 - The Plugin Site (www.thepluginsite.com) is proud to announce the PhotoWiz Contest 2004, which is running from October 1 to December 31, 2004. This contest is dedicated to all creatively minded photographers. It offers them the possibility to present the best samples of their work to the public and win a lot of exciting prizes. Everyone is invited to submit his or her photos to this contest.

Time Schedule
The PhotoWiz Contest is conducted in three steps. Every month there will be a new topic for which people can post their photos. In October 2004 participants are allowed to send in their “Best Photo”, in November 2004 we will be looking for the “Best Photo Composition” and in December 2004 the “Best Photo Correction” will be reward. At the end of each month a jury will select the best contributions.

The Prizes
A total of 66 prizes worth more than $6400 are offered to the winners. The 16 best images of each of the three contest topics will receive a prize. Additionally the 16 best participants across all contest topics will get an extra prize. The three best participants will even get a PhotoWiz Gold, Silver and Bronze certificate. Additionally the two images that receive the least points from the jury will get a consolation prize.

Kodak UK Press Release 28/09/04

September 2004 - Thanks to the completion of a major project to update the consumer pages of its UK website, visitors to Kodak at www.kodak.co.uk/will now benefit from a number of improved features including easier navigation and up-to-date content.

Key features of the new design include:
- New content on KODAK Kiosks, mobile phone photography, printing and sharing
- New pages for the KODAK EXPRESS network
- Dealer locator with access maps
- New product fly-out menu on main page for easier access
- Easier search functions

Brought to you by Digital Outback Photo, fotoespresso is a brand new, hot off the virtual press, 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. There’s not much content there at the moment, but it’s definitely worth signing up for and keeping an eye on.

Website: fotoespresso.com

Canon UK Press Release 21/09/04

Canon, leader in photographic and imaging technology, is pleased to announce the launch of My Canon: an online customer relationship management (eCRM) portal at http://my.canon-europe.com. My Canon consolidates a range of existing and new online services, including the CANON iMAGE GATEWAY and Your Print.

Launched in 2003, Canon’s online CANON iMAGE GATEWAY offers owners of selected Canon digital imaging products the facility to upload images and video clips to create and share their own personal online photo galleries. The launch of the My Canon portal adds new options such as an online digital imaging desktop and an information centre, where users can obtain latest Canon product information, plus tips and tools designed to help realise their visual expression.

Brought you to by husband and wife team Heather Powazek Champ and Derek Powazek, JPG Magazine looks like a promising excursion into the world of print. The theme for the 1st issue is ORIGIN, the submission due date is 4 October 2004, and the publish date is November 2004.

“JPG Magazine is for people who love imagemaking without attitude. It’s about the kind of photography you get when you love the moment more than the camera. It’s for photographers who, like us, have found themselves online, sharing their work, and would like to see that work in print.

JPG Magazine will be published 6 times a year, every other month. Issues will be published as full color, perfect bound books, as high quality as possible.”

Website: JPG Magazine

PhotoFocus bills itself as “the online magazine for serious photographers”. Despite having been online for 3 years and publishing 195 articles, I’ve never actually visited this site! (found via digicamera.net). There are no less than 12 new articles this month:

- David Middleton’s Photofocus Column
- Print To An Epson 2200 With Photoshop And Windows
- Big Folio Is An Inexpensive Way To Build A Web Site
- Choosing An Aperture
- Learning How To Be A Storyteller
- Guest Columnist Nate Nerdly Tells Us Why He Fixes Everything In Photoshop
- Noise Reduction
- Adobe’s Raw Plug In
- Tool Presets In Photoshop
- Flash On The Go
- Ten Tips For Photographing People
- Sigma’s New 300-800 Zoom

Website: PhotoFocus Magazine

The latest issue of the monthly online photo magazine, Vivid Light Photography, has just been published. Should Photography be Illegal? is the lead article:

“There is a delicate balance to be struck between diligence and harassment. Law enforcement would be horribly irresponsible if they didn’t take notice of photographers and videographers around potential terrorist targets. If an attack occurs and it was found that terrorists had scouted the location unmolested there would be an outcry at law enforcement’s lack of diligence. Given the current, real threat from terrorists an officer approaching you and asking a few questions or asking for ID is not harassment - provided they are professional and courteous in their approach.”

Website: Vivid Light Photography - Issue #38

Yesterday’s new digital camera announcements by Nikon were accompanied by the usual flood of previews, first looks and reviews from the various websites who receive the kit in advance. To help you make sense of the avalanche of new articles, here’s a handy guide to which sites have published what:

DCResource
Nikon Coolpix 8800 Preview
Nikon Coolpix 8400 Preview

DPReview
Nikon Coolpix 8800 Preview
Nikon Coolpix 8400 Preview

Imaging Resource
Nikon Coolpix 8800 Preview
Nikon Coolpix 8400 Preview
Nikon Coolpix 4800 Preview

Index Digicam
Nikon Coolpix 8800 Preview
Nikon Coolpix 8400 Preview
Nikon Coolpix 4800 Preview

LetsGoDigital
Nikon D2x First Look
Nikon Coolpix 8800 First Look
Nikon Coolpix 8400 First Look
Nikon Coolpix 4800 First Look

Steves Digicams
Nikon Coolpix 8800 First Look
Nikon Coolpix 8400 First Look
Nikon Coolpix 4800 First Look

That should be enough reading to be getting on with!

The Photokina 2004 show hasn’t actually started yet, but several websites already have pages dedicated to giving you the lowdown on all the new products that have been announced, both before and during the show. PhotographyBLOG will also be starting its own round-up soon…

- DPReview
- LetsGoDigital
- Steves Digicams

DP-Now have published a must-read article for anyone interested in the new Nikon cameras that were announced yesterday. Editor Ian Burley attended Nikon UK’s pre-Photokina press launch and shares his thoughts about Nikon’s new lineup with us:

“Although looking outwardly like the existing CoolPix 8700, which was itself an updated 8MP version of the 5MP CoolPix 5700, the new 8800 is practically a brand new design, with an all-new 10x (35-350mm equiv) f/2.8-5.2 zoom lens. Every one of its competitors offers a greater (28mm equivalent) coverage at the wide end of the zoom range, but none can match the 8800 at the telephoto end and the sheer 10x zoom range.”

Website: DP-Now - Nikon UK pre-Photokina press launch report

dpnow.com Press Release 15/09/04

Digital Photography Now (dpnow), the UK-based digital photography Web site magazine, has revealed a brand new look and feel today. “We have achieved our aims of improving site navigation and making better use of our visitors’ high resolution monitor displays as well as providing a fresh and professional new look to the site,” explains Ian Burley, dpnow’s editor who founded the site over three years ago.

Today’s news coincides with the one thousandth article published since dpnow moved to new publishing technology in February last year.

“But this is just the start. Over the next few months a number of substantial under-the-skin enhancements can now be made to the content management system that underpins dpnow,” says Burley, adding: “and this will enable us to improve the content to our visitors and opportunities and service quality to our commercial partners.” Since the site was launched in August 2001, this is the third major revamp of the site’s technology and the first major visual redesign.

Digital Photography Blog have published a handy guide to online photo processing and printing sites, which coincidentally includes a link to my own online print services review.

“Along with the rise of the digital camera, the past year or so has seen a large number of Online Photo Processing and Printing services appear one the web. Its difficult to sort through the different options - especially when many of them seem to have a very similar online presence and special offers.

We’ve found a few sights that have tested many of them and have collated them below for your convenience. Feel free to add your own experiences of online photo processing and printing services below in our comments section.”

Website: Digital Photography Blog - Online Photo Printing

O’Reilly Press Release 13/09/04

A New Community for Digital Media Enthusiasts O’Reilly Launches Digital Media Web Site

Sebastopol, CA—If there’s been one particularly bright spot in the rebounding tech economy, it would have to be the adoption of digital media tools by just about everyone, especially digital photography and music. Sales of digital cameras rival their film counterparts, and downloading music has become as almost as simple as turning on the radio. Fine artists and graphic designers are also benefiting from the growing array of new gear and software now available.

To inspire digital media users to new heights of creativity and expertise, O’Reilly has unveiled its Digital Media web site: http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/. “We built this site to bring digital media influencers and enthusiasts together to share and learn,” explained Bill Takacs, Product Marketing Manager for O’Reilly. “Our intent is to deliver the best of all things digital media: what’s new, what’s cool, what’s fun, and what matters.”

Milwaukee,  Sept. 1 2004—- Mike Johnston’s The 37th Frame newsletter, formerly published on white paper with no illustrations, is in the process of switching over to .PDF format and e-mail delivery.

Adobe .PDF (Portable Document Format), an international, cross-platform standard for document transmission,  offers many advantages for newsletter publishing. With no printing costs, there are no longer any restrictions on length: the longest print version of the newsletter was 16 pages long, whereas the first electronic issue is 33 pages long. Printing costs make illustrations prohibitively expensive for a small-circulation newsletter, but can easily be added to a .PDF. 

There’s a bonus this month in the form of an extra Sunday Morning Photographer column from Mike Johnston:

“The future is here in that respect. Handling the truly nifty Nikon D70, I was struck hard by the extent to which it offers almost exactly what we all were saying we wanted six or eight years ago. That’s a short time for those of us of a certain age (I had weekends in college that seemed longer than whole seasons do now). Not being one to find any delight in lists of features and specifications, I would say that my overriding, if simplistic, conclusion about the N70 is this: it’s a good camera.”

Website: Sunday Morning Photographer: Extra, Extra, Read All About It!

New stock photography site launches for the sports, betting and gaming market

LONDON, UK, SEPTEMBER 2004: Cut and Deal (www.cutanddeal.com), which provides both royalty-free and exclusive use images to the sports, betting, gaming and gambling markets, launched today.  The company was founded by internet entrepreneurs Glen Conybeare and Alex Kelleher, and was set up to answer the demand for a single destination for gaming and betting design content.  The company expects to benefit from the fast growth of the betting and gaming market, now worth some $1 trillion globally.

The business plan was born from the frustrations of Glen and Alex while working within the design industry, looking for quality sports betting and gambling content.  “Almost everything was out there somewhere but no-one had brought the content together in one place” says Cut and Deal co-founder Glen Conybeare. 

Nikon School Announces New Schedule For Popular Nikon School Photography Seminars

Three Digital Photography Courses Teach the Essentials to Photography Enthusiasts at All Skill Levels

MELVILLE, N.Y., Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/—Nikon Inc. (http://www.nikonschool.com/), the world leader in photography, has released the new schedule for its popular Nikon School, one of the most comprehensive photography education and training programs in the industry. Nikon School seminars are taught throughout the country by renowned imaging experts. The three separate, one-day courses are designed to help digital photographers and business users of all skill levels better understand and improve the digital photography experience, including capturing, editing and sharing digital images. Whether the camera is simple or complex, new or old, digital or film, Nikon School has an appropriate course. The next Nikon School series will launch on October 2, 2004 in New York City, and visit more than 20 cities in the U.S. through June 2005.

“For more than 30 years, Nikon School has educated thousands of photographers in the creative picture taking process,” said Jerry Grossman, Vice President of Marketing for Nikon Inc. “With the expansion of digital imaging into America’s homes and offices, we recognize the need to educate photographers at all skill levels on how to get the most out their digital experience. Nikon School helps to make picture-taking come alive for more photographers, and brings enthusiasts together to explore new digital techniques and applications.”

Rangefinder Magazine is a photo magazine that unusally seems to publish most of it’s hard-copy content online. Consequently there are a whole range of articles that are too numerous to simply list here. Instead I’ll pick out one or two of my favourites and leave you to explore the rest. Profile: Andreas Gursky is a great look at a photography that I have admired ever since seeing a few of his large-scale photographs at Tate Modern, London, a couple of years ago - “Paris, Montparnasse” is one of the photos in the article. The Magic Hour is Larry Brownstein’s take on one of my favourite times of the day for photography - just after the sunset (he also likes just before the sunrise, but I’m not so keen on that!).

Website: Rangefinder Magazine