DigiCamReview have just reviewed the Olympus E-400, the world’s smallest and lightest DSLR camera.

“Image quality is very good to excellent, the images have excellent colour, with good saturation, contrast and detail, with low noise except for high iso images. Images were slightly soft straight from the camera and could benefit from sharpening - for maximum detail and colour control RAW images should be taken. Purple fringing was very low, as was red-eye. The camera did a good job focusing even in low light thanks to the flash assist. I did not notice vignetting in photos, nor did I notice barrel or pincushion distortion. There is a very good range of image sizes, and a good choice of compression options (including RAW). Auto white balance and metering seemed to be good.”

Website: DigiCamReview - Olympus E-400 Review

Website: Read our Olympus E-400 Review

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Megapixel.net have reviewed the the Fujifilm FinePix S6000fd (also known as the S6500fd), a 6 megapixel digital camera with a 10.7x zoom lens equivalent to 28-300mm.

“The S6000fd is a camera that is comfortable in both the point-and-shoot world and in the world of the more advanced user. For point-and-shooters, features such as Face Detection, the various scene modes, and the Auto shooting mode will be appreciated. And for users that demand more control, the P, S, A, and M modes, as well as the RAW format and its image quality, should prove to be very satisfying. Yet, it is also likely that both types of users will miss a true optical stabilization system to go along with the long zoom of the S6000fd.”

Website: Megapixel.net - Fujifilm FinePix S6000fd Review

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This month there is some fantastic photography software up for grabs, courtesy of DxO, who are offering 3 copies of DxO Optics Pro 4, Lasersoft Imaging, who are offering a copy of SilverFast DCPro, and Ulead Systems, who are offering 2 copies of Ulead PhotoImpact 12.

On Thursday 30th November 2006, four names will be randomly selected from the list of PhotographyBLOG Newsletter subscribers.

First, Second and Third Prizes - DxO Optics Pro v4
DxO Optics Pro v4 is a powerful tool for automatically improving the quality of the images from your Digital SLR or compact cameras.

Fourth Prize - SilverFast DCPro
SilverFast DCPro high-end Digital Camera Software addresses the specific needs of the digital photographer.

Fifth and Sixth Prizes - Ulead PhotoImpact 12
The latest version of Ulead PhotoImpact adds innovative features that allow beginners to immediately enjoy success in editing their digital photos.

All you have to do to enter is subscribe to the PhotographyBLOG Newsletter before Thursday 30th November 2006.

HP UK Press Release

Protect, share and simplify your digital life with the HP Media Vault - HP launches multifunction network storage device for the home

LONDON, November 27, 2006 – HP today announced the introduction of the HP Media Vault in the UK, a multifunction network storage device for the home. Ideal for digital entertainment enthusiasts, the sleek stylish unit allows users to easily manage, protect and share data and multimedia files across the home network. The digitasation of media has fueled an almost insatiable appetite for storage as consumers hoard digital photos, film, and music. Managing the mounting volumes of digital files is frustrating and protecting them difficult. Buying more USB external hard disk drives momentarily solves the problem, but ultimately creates more frustration. The new HP Media Vault solves the problem by centralizing the storage into a single location on the network, available to anyone, that can grow as the consumer’s needs increase.

Canon USA Press Release

Canon’s imagePROGRAF iPF9000 and iPF5000 Printers with ErgoSoft RIPs Receive Awards for Poster-Size, Presentation-Size, and Textile Printing

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., November 28, 2006 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leading provider of office imaging systems, ink-jet technology and digital photography equipment, is proud to announce that the Canon imagePROGRAF iPF9000 60” and imagePROGRAF iPF5000 17” 12-color inkjet printers have both received 2006 DPI Product-of-the-Year awards at the SGIA Digital Trade Show in Las Vegas. In the Output Device category, the Canon iPF9000 large format printer received the Product-of-the-Year Award for “Poster Size” output and another for “Textile Printing”, while the iPF5000 received the award for “Presentation Size” output device.

Colour Confidence Press Release

Birmingham, UK, 28th November 2006 - Colour Confidence, the leading independent colour management specialist, has today announced details of its presence at Nikon Solutions Expo. Visitors to Colour Confidence’s stand (22) will be able to see the widest range of colour management solutions available, with products from all the leading manufacturers including ColorVision, GretagMacbeth, Pantone and X-Rite as well as a selection of Colour Confidence’s own innovative solutions. Additionally, Colour Confidence will be partnering with LaCie at the show, showcasing the updated 300 series monitors and a selection of their popular storage drives. This all takes place on the 5th and 6th of December at the Olympia conference centre, London.

Nikon USA Press Release

Nikon and Kate Moss Partner Once Again ... This Time to Benefit The Sam and Ruby Charity - World-Renowned Photographers and Supporters Come Together for December 1st Event to Support Worthy Cause

MELVILLE, N.Y., Nov. 27 /PRNewswire/—Nikon and Kate Moss will together host a charity auction event to benefit The Sam & Ruby Charity at Milk Gallery on Friday, December 1, 2006 from 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm. The event will showcase the amazing works of more than 40 of the world’s most influential photographers, including Bruce Weber, Peter Lindbergh and Steven Klein. These original signed prints will be auctioned off during the evening to those in attendance to raise money and awareness for The Sam & Ruby Charity. For the finale, Amy Sacco will host a live auction which will include select pieces.

The Online Photographer Press Release

The Online Photographer (T.O.P.) is one year old today. T.O.P. is a photography news and opinion website in blog format that is updated daily. To celebrate, T.O.P. is today posting its (first annual?) TEN BEST LIVING PHOTOGRAPHERS list. There’s also an interview with proprietor and principal author Mike Johnston about T.O.P. today on The Luminous Landscape

Lucidiom Press Release

New Acquisition Positions Lucidiom with a Complete Portfolio for Digital Photo Printing

Vienna, Va., USA, November 27, 2006 – Lucidiom Inc. purchased Trevoli Ltd., including its Photo Finale product family. This new suite of products rounds out Lucidiom’s existing line of photo kiosks and kiosk software, creating a complete solution for the photofinishing retailer for printing via retail, home, Web, remote kiosks and in-store kiosks while providing in-depth data collection and analysis tools. Founded in 2002 in Dallas, Tex., Trevoli Ltd. is an innovative digital software company specializing in digital media. Photo Finale allows consumers to organize, enhance, create, share, print, protect, edit and order digital photos easily. Photo Finale desktop software products are the flagship of Trevoli Ltd. and have been recognized consistently by Photo Trade News as product of the year in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Trevoli Ltd. has been a pioneer in commercial imaging software technology with complete end-to-end solutions such as Photo Finale LAB, Album and Web. In the American retail photo printing market specifically, Trevoli’s software serves as the beyond-the-store revenue stream, connecting home users to a retailer for printing or community-sharing features.

Ilford Press Release

Print your festive season photos with a little help from ILFORD - Easy to use, high quality results and compatible with all inkjet printers, ILFORD shows you how to capture those special moments with the right photo media

Marly, Switzerland, 28 November, 2006 – With Christmas and New Year just around the corner, have you thought of the best way to capture those special moments in print? All too often we face disappointment when we print our photographs, or simply stock the images on our computer or in our mobile phone and forget they’re even there. ILFORD, a major player in the development and manufacture of photo quality media for inkjet printing and photographic processes, has just the solution.

Shutterbug have reviewed the new Epson 3800 A2 printer with UltraChrome K3 ink and the smallest footprint on the market.

“Would I trade in a 4800 for a 3800, or buy the 3800 instead? Having worked with both extensively it’s a hard call. On the one hand the 3800 certainly takes up less real estate and does as good as or in some cases a better job at printing in terms of speed and efficiency. On the other hand the 4800 does have the roll paper feed, a print tray for more sheets than the back, vertical feed 3800 and greater ink capacity, which means less changing of carts. However, as mentioned, with the 4800 you do have to swap carts when going from photo to matte black, a decided pain in the neck. But there are workarounds for that, such as batching jobs for one type of black ink or another.”

Website: Shutterbug - Epson 3800 Review

Website: Read our Epson Stylus Pro 3800 Review

CameraLabs have just reviewed the Olympus E-400, the world’s smallest and lightest DSLR camera.

“Despite being pitched as an entry-level camera, the new Kodak 10 Megapixel sensor makes the E-400 the highest resolution Four Thirds body to date. The resolvable detail is certainly up there with rival 10 Megapixel DSLRs, although as our results show, the noise levels are more obvious especially at higher sensitivities. It is however important to look beyond the speckles, as the E-400 retains a high degree of detail which other cameras often smear-out when attempting to reduce the noise. We prefer the E-400’s approach because at least the detail’s there if you want it, and you can always apply noise reduction with third party software later if preferred.”

Website: CameraLabs - Olympus E-400 Review

Website: Read our Olympus E-400 Review

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DCResource have just reviewed the slim 6 megapixel Olympus FE-190 camera.

“Photo quality on the FE-190 was not great. The good news is that photos were well-exposed, with minimal purple fringing. If you’re in “normal light” that the camera’s auto white balance system can figure out, then colors should be very nice as well. However, I took quite a few shots in what I’d call standard indoor lighting and ended up with a strong color cast. Since there’s no way to adjust white balance on the camera, you’re out of luck when this happens. You can’t control the ISO either, and noise levels can be pretty high when the camera cranks it up automatically. The FE-190’s lens creates quite a bit of blurring around the corners of the frame, as well. Last but not least, redeye appears to be a significant (but unsurprising) problem on this ultra-compact camera.”

Website: DCResource - Olympus FE-190 Review

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TrustedReviews have reviewed the 7 megapixel, dual-lens Kodak Easyshare V705 camera.

“Picture quality is perhaps not a primary concern with a camera like this, but it’s actually not at all bad. The image files are very compressed at around 1.5MB each, but at least that means you can get well over 500 pictures on a 1GB card. Unfortunately it also means there are visible compression artefacts on many images. Image noise handling is not as good as some cameras that I’ve seen recently, and at the 1000 ISO maximum they are really very noisy.”

Website: TrustedReviews - Kodak Easyshare V705 Review

Website: Read our Kodak Easyshare V705 Review

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In the latest installment of this regular series, we cast the spotlight on members of the PhotographyBLOG Gallery and ask them about their photography. The 21st member to sit in the interview chair is stewart.

“I was an utter novice when I joined in April 2006. Without the PhotographyBLOG Gallery, my interest in the art could easily have waned. Instead, with the expert advice and encouragement of my fellow members, I have become enthralled by this marvellous passetemps [and rather better at it] and am now determined to make it my career.”

Website: Gallery Member Spotlight - stewart

Sony Japan have issued an advisory notice announcing that a problem has been discovered with eight Sony Cyber-shot cameras which were sold from 2003 - 2005. The LCD screen may not work in warm and humid areas, or the camera may simply cease to function. The eight cameras are: DSC-F88, DSC-M1, DSC-T1, DSC-T11, DSC-T3, DSC-T33, DSC-U40, DSC-U50

Website: Sony Japan Advisory Notice

AKVIS LLC Press Release

AKVIS LLC announces the release of AKVIS Sketch plug-in v.2.1 for Windows and Macintosh. The revolutionary algorithm allows converting a photo into a pencil sketch in a few mouse clicks. The batch mode conversion (Adobe Photoshop and Corel Paint Shop Pro) allows you to automatically convert a series of images, thus even creating comics from videos! If you’ve always wanted to draw but didn’t know how, AKVIS Sketch 2.0 is the right software for you. This smart plug-in for photo-to-sketch conversion will help you to embody your creative ideas. You can make any photo look like B&W or color drawing, imitate the technique of graphite or color pencil, charcoal or watercolor painting.

liveBooks, Inc. Press Release

New Features and Functions Transform liveBooks 5.0 Into Powerful Online Marketing Tools by Putting Creative Control in the Hands of Photographers

San Francisco, CA, November 27, 2006 – Following the overwhelming success of its version 4.0 website management software, released in January 2004, liveBooks, Inc. is proud to announce the release of its new version, liveBooks 5.0. Thousands of professional photographers worldwide have benefited from the company’s web-based software application. It gives users the freedom and flexibility to manage all the content on their website themselves. More importantly, it allows for detailed management of their image portfolios using an intuitive drag-and-drop interface called the EditSuite lightBox. The new liveBooks 5.0 software builds on the intuitive navigation and professional aesthetic of its predecessor by adding new navigation options, website styling options, and features such as: slideshow movies, HTML gallery presentations, music upload, integration with other web services, and a robust shopping cart for selling prints. Additionally, Client Access, the feature that enables users to create a password-protected area of their site with customized content, and the website’s search engine compatibility have been enhanced.

TrustedReviews have just reviewed the Olympus E-400, the world’s smallest and lightest DSLR camera.

“It looks even smaller because it lacks the large handgrip found on most other SLR cameras. Its slim body shape is more reminiscent of an early 1980’s-vintage film SLR such as the Nikon FG or Canon A-1. It does have a handgrip of sorts; the body shape is slightly sculpted on the right hand side both front and back with a textured rubber panel on the front and on the thumbgrip, but anyone who is used to the shape of most modern SLRs will find that the E-400 feels very skinny and possibly a little awkward. Personally I quite liked the feel of it, although I did find that the position of the right-hand strap lug was too low and pressed into the side of my middle finger.”

Website: TrustedReviews - Olympus E-400 Review

Website: Read our Olympus E-400 Review

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This week’s Gary’s Parries topics are:

1. ON VACATION – BE BACK NEXT WEEK

Introducing this week’s Gary’s Parries column. Everything you always wanted to know about digital cameras, but were afraid to ask. No question too difficult, or too easy. As a Senior Principal Software Engineer, and a former Assistant Professor of Computer Information Systems, as well as a recording studio owner/operator, inventor, and now, a digital camera enthusiast, GARY has more digital camera knowledge in his entire brain than most people have in their little finger. In the unlikely event that GARY would not know the answer to your question, he will answer it anyway, true to the spirit of the word “Parries”, a fencing term which, in this context, implies “cleverly evasive answers”. So let your imagination run wild. Email all your nagging digital camera questions to: [email protected] , and then, En Garde!

You may also attach to your email an ORIGINAL PHOTO of your choosing. A preview of the photo will be displayed with your question, and a full-sized version will be just a click away. No personal information will be published with your question unless you specifically include it in the text or attached photo of your email, which may be further edited for grammar, content, or other reasons.

[Column photo “The Photographer” by Brenda LaFleur of Brenda LaFleur Photography.]