Bob Atkins has published his review of the 12.8 megapixel Canon EOS 5D digital SLR.

“The EOS 5D will likely be regarded as something of a landmark camera and shows how much digital technology has advanced in only a few years. The first “affordable” DSLR was the Canon EOS D30, a 3MP APS-C sensor camera which sold for $3000+ in October 2000 (Original price 380,000 yen). In only 5 years (October 2005) we now have a 12.7 MP full frame camera selling for about the same price ($3000). In another 5 years I would not be surprised to see a 15MP full frame camera selling for under $1500. However the 5D will be seen as the “full frame” breakthrough camera, just as the D30 is seen as the first really practical and affordable DSLR.”

Website: Bob Atkins - Canon EOS 5D Review

Latest Prices / User Reviews

StorVision Press Release

StorVision has announced the availability of the StorVision PSC-100, the cheapest Portable Storage Device on the market (starting at £95 for a 40GB RRP), with capacities up to 100GB. The PSC-100 has slots for all the most popular memory cards to enable straight forward, easy to use backup of all your data from memory cards to its internal 2.5 inch Hard disk. The StorVision PSC-100 takes all memory cards available on the market.  It operates simply using 2 buttons (power on/off and copy) thus allowing it to be used by everyone. The supported memory cards which do not need an adapter are: Compactflash (type I and II), Microdrive, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, and XD picture cards. Alternative memory cards such as Memory Duo, MiniSD and RS MMC will require an adapter to use with the PSC-100.

Digital Foci Press Release

Digital Photo Album with Large 3.6” LCD Securely Saves Photos on the Road in its 40GB & 80GB Portable Hard Drives - Compatible to Print Photos without a Computer - Records Voice & Video

February 7, 2006 – Orlando, Florida – Digital Foci announced today that it will be introducing at the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) Conference Picture Porter Elite portable digital photo album with 40GB and 80GB hard drives and a memory card reader.  Featuring a large 3.6” LCD for easy viewing, Picture Porter Elite lets you instantly and securely save and view digital photos and video on its hard drive wherever you go, so you can keep snapping away and stop worrying about limited memory card space on your digital camera.

Lyson Press Release

High Market Demand for Renowned Ink Set Drives Development

ELK GROVE VILLAGE, IL (February 6, 2006) — Lyson, Inc., a leading provider of inks, media, and related products to the printing, photography, graphic arts, and other allied industries, has introduced a version of its Quad Black ink set for the popular Canon i9900 Photo Printer. The new ink set, which incorporates 8 different inks, is available in cartridges or as bulk ink for a bulk feed delivery system designed for the printer.

Nik Software Press Release

Nik Multimedia, Inc. Changes Name to Nik Software, Inc. and Unveils New Corporate Identity - Company puts “Photography first™” as it reaffirms its commitment to develop software for the digital imaging market

San Diego, CA – February 7, 2006 – Nik Multimedia, Inc. announces today that the company has changed its name to Nik Software, Inc. effective immediately and has unveiled its new corporate identity keeping the familiar “Nik” and replacing “Multimedia” with “Software” to better represent the company’s focus on software development for the digital imaging market. “Nik Software’s new name and corporate identity marks a significant milestone for the company following the 10 year anniversary of its establishment,” said Michael J. Slater, Nik Software, Inc.’s President & CEO. “These changes have been made to underscore the company’s dedication to developing software products and technologies for serious amateur and professional photographers involved in the fast-growing digital photography market.”

Wiley Press Release

Just what Visual learners have been looking for – an illustrated, comprehensive, A to Z reference for their favorite applications.  The Visual Encyclopedia series, from Wiley’s bestselling Visual brand, does more than define tools and techniques used in a particular technology; it shows visual learners what the tools look like and illustrates how to use them.  This series is perfect for the visual learner who wants a color compendium of terminology, features, and concepts for a software program or technology – one that reader can refer to again and again.  The books are divided into two, alphabetically arranged sections: the first part is a comprehensive reference of tools, part two illustrates techniques.  True to the Visual brand promise of Read Less, Learn More, the Visual Encyclopedia uses the maximum number of illustrations and the minimum amount of text to help visual learners at all levels get the information they need.

Colour Confidence Press Release

Birmingham UK, 8th February, 2006 - Colour Confidence, the leading independent colour management specialists, are announcing the UK launch of the ColorVision PrintFIX PRO on stand E40 of Focus on Imaging, NEC, Bimingham, 26th February – 1st March. The introduction of PrintFIX PRO brings spectro-based printer profiling below £400 for the first time and reflects the continued trend in colour management of falling price and increased emphasis on ease-of-use. Details of PrintFIX PRO can be found at www.colourconfidence.com

Intro 2020 Press Release

From 13th February 2006, the distribution of Metz flashguns and accessories will be handed over to Intro 2020 Limited. Hasselblad (UK) Limited has successfully distributed Metz products for over twenty years in the UK.  However, as the Metz range continues to develop within a broader marketplace than before, Hasselblad’s own development remains firmly rooted in the professional market.  Distribution and service of the Metz product line has therefore been passed to Intro 2020 Limited who is well equipped to service Metz customers in the UK.

CITA Press Release

Digital camera sales reach all-time high in Canada; consumers embrace digital picture-making

Toronto, Ontario (February 7, 2006) — The revolution in picture-taking has reached its zenith, matching predictions made several years ago. Canada’s switchover from film-based picture-taking to digital picture-taking is close to being complete. This statement is based on data released today by the Canadian Imaging Trade Association (CITA). The revolution has been a short one, lasting a handful of years, and its effects will continue to be felt for decades to come. What we have seen is digital camera prices declining while their capabilities and performance have increased, delivering picture quality that is all but indistinguishable from a photographic print. What was slow to launch but now picking up speed is having prints made from these digital pictures, not just storing them on a computer. Increasingly, digital camera users are returning to stores to have photo-quality prints made from their electronic images, or are using retailers’ do-it-yourself kiosks or online print-making services. Regardless of the method used, the results are the same: the number of prints made at retail from electronic images is increasing.

Imaging Resource have reviewed the Nikon Coolpix S3, a 6 megapixel update of the S1 and S2. The Nikon S3 has a 3x 35-105mm zoom lens and 2.5 inch monitor.

“The new Nikon Coolpix S3 is the company’s third digital camera in a small, slim package, following the S1 and S2. The S3 has a larger 2.5 inch LCD and a slightly larger sensor, too. Feature-wise, both the Nikon Coolpix S3 and S1 fall somewhere between the recent Coolpix 5600 and 5900. Physically, however, the Nikon S3 is compact and extremely pocketable. It has no protruding lens parts, and as a result is unlikely to get snagged anywhere. Its 6.0-megapixel sensor can capture relatively high resolution images, and its 3x zoom lens gives you the focal length flexibility you need to frame your subjects well. All tolled, it’s an excellent “take-with-you-everywhere” digital camera. With its range of user-friendly, point & shoot exposure modes, the Nikon Coolpix S3 can handle just about any photo opportunity you’re likely to throw at it.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Nikon Coolpix S3 Review

Latest Prices / User Reviews

DCResource have the first online review of the Sony Cyber-shot M2 digital hybrid camera, a 5 megapixel diigtal camera which also offers MPEG-4 movies in a stylish upright design.

“The Cyber-shot DSC-M2 has the same high quality movie mode as the M1 before it. That means unlimited recording at 640 x 480, 30 frames/second, with stereo sound. While the resolution is the same as on Sony’s other cameras, the quality is noticeably better. And, since the camera uses the MPEG-4 codec you’ll be able to take longer movies than you can on a camera that uses something like M-JPEG. On a 1GB MS Duo card you can fit a whopping 45 minutes of video—wow! For longer movies you can cut the resolution down to 320 x 240, at your choice of 30 or 15 frames/second. If that’s not enough, you can even use the zoom lens during filming.”

Website: DCResource - Sony Cyber-shot M2 Review

Latest Prices / User Reviews

PMA 2006 is just 1 month away, and the product announcements have already started to arrive, so it’s time to start our PMA 2006 Report. PMA is the place where all of the major products for 2006 will be unveiled, and this year’s show is shaping up to be a very interesting one. PhotographyBLOG will be reporting live from the show floor, bringing you all of the news as it happens. You can also sign up for a completely free email service that will keep you up to date with all the major product announcements.

Website: PMA 2006 Report

Sharpcast Press Release

PHOENIX, Ariz. (February 6, 2006) – Sharpcast, an innovator in digital media and information management, today introduced the first in a suite of services that will dramatically simplify the way individuals manage digital media and information across their desktop computers, mobile devices and the web. This spring, Sharpcast will introduce Sharpcast Photos, a digital photo organization and access service that will give consumers an ultimately simple and powerful user experience. The company demonstrated Sharpcast Photos for the first time today at DEMO, the industry’s premier event for launching innovative products and companies.

Pentax Press Release

PENTAX Corporation is pleased to announce that it will expand the production capacity of PENTAX VN Co., Ltd., the company’s overseas subsidiary based in Vietnam, with the construction of a second plant. PENTAX VN specializes in the manufacture of optical instruments and components. This move is made to prepare for the expected increase in demand for interchangeable lenses for digital SLR cameras, as well as to respond to intensifying price competition in both the domestic and international markets.

Lyson Press Release

Saves Users Up to 70% on Ink Costs - Features new version of renowned Lyson Cave Paint™ pigment ink set - Simple to use— Installs in 30 minutes

ELK GROVE VILLAGE, IL (February 6, 2006) — Lyson, Inc., a leading provider of inks, media, and related products to the printing, photography, graphic arts, and other allied industries, has introduced a bulk ink feed system and bulk ink for Epson’s popular Stylus Photo R2400 inkjet printer. Unlike most bulk feed systems, which use modified generic bottles and foam-filled standard ink cartridges, the Lyson bulk feed system for the Epson R2400 uses components specifically designed for use in continuous ink supply systems.

Babel Company Press Release

Impression automates asset archiving for Mac OS X by moving large amounts of data to spanned DVD/CD sets or to mounted drives for offline storage.  Other noteworthy features include an automatic scheduling system, incremental/differential archiving operations, the preservation of all HFS+/Spotlight metadata, after-write file verification and bookmark-based management features. New to version 3.0 comes an automatic scheduler that works in conjunction with Apple’s iCal, performance increases under Mac OS X 10.4, a few bug fixes and a number of other requested enhancements.  Additionally Impression now offers a full manual offering a full compliment of step-by-step how-to information, answers to popular questions and workarounds for the occasional odd issue.

National Photo Awards Press Release

The 2005 National Photo Awards Annual Photo Contest Winners Announced

The National Photo Awards announced this week that the winners of their annual photo competition have been posted. The contest is juried by a panel of national level judges and is now into it’s third year. The judging took place on January 30th, 2006. This year’s winning photographs are posted on the website at www.nationalphotoawards.com. The 2005 Amateur Photographer of the Year and the Annual Photo Contest Overall Winner is Mara Zaslove fromSanta Monica, California with her entry titled “Disney Hall”.

PHOENIX, Feb. 6 /PRNewswire/—Riya, the first photo search engine, today announced from the stage of the DEMO Conference that it will go into public beta this calendar quarter. Riya uses proprietary face and text recognition technology to let users search for photos of themselves, people and places at http://www.riya.com. As Munjal Shah, Riya CEO and co-founder told the audience, “I have 37,343 digital photos in my personal collection.  Each is labeled DSC009.jpg. I can’t find anyone unless I go through the tedious process of manually labeling—or tagging—each of my photos.”  According to Shah, Riya was formed to solve this problem. You can use the service in one of three ways. First, you can search the public collection for a wide variety of photos. Shah believes that as the peer-to-peer recommendation trend grows, more people will be using real photos by real people to research future purchases. As one example, Shah pointed out that seeing shots that real people took on their vacations reveals much more than the brochures let on—good, bad and ugly.

Micron Technology Press Release

The World’s First Image Sensor to Incorporate MIPI CSI-2 Standard; Micron to Showcase Complete Sensor Portfolio at 2006 3GSM World Congress

BOISE, Idaho, February 6, 2006—Micron Technology, Inc., (NYSE: MU) a worldwide provider of advanced memory and image sensor solutions, today introduced a new, one-quarter inch, 2-megapixel image sensor for design into mainstream camera phones, enabling these phones to capture richer, higher-quality digital pictures. Additionally, with this product’s introduction, Micron further demonstrates its industry leadership by being the first company to incorporate Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) standards into an image sensor, allowing cameras to be more easily designed into mobile phones.

Photo.net compare the image quality of the new full-frame, 12.8 megapixel Canon EOS 5D digital SLR with the cheaper, APS-C sixed Canon EOS 20D.

“It’s a win, but not a total “slam dunk” for the full frame sensor, at least as far as the EOS 5D vs. EOS 20D goes. With good lenses the results from the EOS 5D are better, though with noticeably higher vignetting when lenses are used wide open. Of course you can mostly compensate for vignetting in software, but still you may lose something. With low cost lenses shot wide open, the full frame advantage disappears, and in situations where you have your longest lens in use on an APS-C camera, switching to a lower pixel density full frame camera and cropping will lead to lower resolution images.”

Website: Photo.net - Fullframe vs. APS-C sensors