Nikon have announced a number of money-off rebates on their SLR range of cameras, including $100 off the Nikon D70 digital SLR with 18-70mm DX lens. This follows the news that Nikon are set to introduce 2 new DSLRs soon, the Nikon D50 and Nikon D70s. Other rebates include $100 off the F100 film SLR camera and up to $150 off a wide range of lenses.

Website: Nikon USA - SLR Rebate Form

Adobe Press Release

Adobe Collaborates with IPTC and AdsML To Extend Metadata Standards

XMP ensures metadata content is preserved throughout advertising and creative publishing workflows

SAN JOSE, Calif. — March 31, 2005 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced results of its collaboration with the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) and IDEAlliance with development of a new public specification, IPTC Core Schema for XMP. Exposed through Adobe® Creative Suite software, “custom panels” are now available at www.iptc.org , giving photographers and news services immediate access and compliance with a standard that aims to streamline data capture for images used in news outlets. Additionally, Adobe announced that it is working with the AdsML™ Consortium (Advertising Mark-up Language) and IDEAlliance to implement advertising standards using XMP within advertising workflows.

Back in January 2005 Olympus and Panasonic signed a joint development agreement for DSLR cameras. Now Matsushita (who own the Panasonic brand) and Olympus have announced plans to jointly-develop new DSLRs based on the Four Thirds System, which was established back in 2002 by Olympus and Kodak, and present them at the PMA Show in February 2006. Olympus already have two Four-Thirds DLSRs, the E-1 and new E-300 (look out for my review soon…), but this would be the first digital SLR for Panasonic, and more good news for the Four-Thirds standard.

“Matsushita said it planned to develop a digital SLR and sell it under its own brands, which include Panasonic, expanding its product lineup beyond compact models and helping it achieve its goal of having 10 percent of the global digital camera market in two years.  “Launching a digital SLR will do much to strengthen our brand in the digital camera market,” Fumio Ohtsubo, senior managing director at Matsushita, told a news conference.”

Website: MSNBC - Matsushita, Olympus to develop digital SLRs

Charging $30 for something that should have been in the original design seems more than a little unreasonable to me, but if you own an iPOD Photo then you’ll naturally be interested in finding out if the new iPod Camera Connector actually works. Playlist have a review for you…

“A question on the minds of many of those with more expensive digital cameras is whether the iPod Camera Connector supports RAW images. The answer is “not exactly.” Although the device will download RAW images to the iPod, those images can’t be displayed on the iPod. In the thumbnail display you’ll see RAW images represented by the word RAW surrounded by a gray circle. When you select one of these images and press the Select button, you see this message: “This photo format cannot be viewed on iPod. Transfer imported photos to your computer and synchronize through iTunes to display them on iPod.” For professional photographers, this limitation may queer the deal.”

Website: Playlist - iPod Camera Connector Review

Epson have released a new firmware update for thier P-2000 Multimedia Storage Viewer, which I enthusiastically reviewed earlier this week.

The firmware provides the following enhancements:

1) Supports JPEG images from digital SLR cameras with an image-capture sensor of up to 17.8 megapixels.
2) Added Histogram information that shows the photo’s distribution of highlights, shadows, and mid-tones.
3) Additional RAW file support. The P-2000 now supports images in RAW format with the following digital SLR cameras..
EPSON R-D1, Nikon D100, D1H, D2H, D70, D1X, D2X, Canon EOS D30, EOS D60, EOS 10D, Kiss Digital, EOS 1D Mark II, EOS-1Ds Mark II, EOS Digital Rebel, EOS 20D, Konica Minolta Maxxum-7D, Pentax *istD and*istDS

Website: Epson America

DPReview have just posted their review of the 6 megapixel Pentax *ist DS DSLR.

“The *ist DS is one of those cameras which grows on you, it’s certainly compact and well put together but when you first pick it up you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a bit basic. In actual fact it packs more features and controls than most other budget SLR’s and has some impressive performance to back that up. In use we found the *ist DS a very nice ‘photographic tool’, it always does the job, auto focus is reliable, that big viewfinder is a welcome change from some of the ‘tunnel like’ viewfinders found on other digital SLR’s. Put it this way you’re never left thinking you bought the second-best Pentax digital SLR.”

Website: DPReview - Pentax *ist DS Review

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Digital Outback Photo have reviewed BreezeBrowser Pro, a software application that allows you to present and organise digital images, convert raw images, generate web pages, produce proofs and contact sheets.

“With Breezebrowser Pro, you can quickly view the thumbnails of all the files on a particular DVD. What is so outstanding is how fast Breezebrowser Pro will load the individual thumbnails. When you compare it to the older Breezebrowser software you will really see an impressive difference in that Pro will load the files about 10x faster. I often will have many files saved in the Photoshop “psd” format since the particular file has layering involved. Many browser software tools have problems with these type of files especially if they are 16 bit. I have noted that Breezebrowser Pro loaded a 16 bit “psd” file just a tad slower than a 16 bit tif, but the difference is minimal. So after I have burned a backup of a folder of files, I will quickly review them in Breezebrowser Pro.”

Website: Digital Outback Photo - BreezeBrowser Pro Review

DIWA member and German website digitalkamera.de have published their review of the new 8 megapixel Canon EOS 350D / Digital Rebel XT DSLR.

Website: digitalkamera.de - Canon EOS 350D Review

Check the Latest Prices for the Canon EOS 350D / Digital Rebel XT

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DCResource have published a joint review of the 4 megapixel Nikon Coolpix 4600 and the 5 megapixel Nikon Coolpix 5600.

“Overall the image quality on both cameras was very good. The images from the Coolpix 4600 seemed slightly sharper, though that’s probably just an effect of the lower resolution. On the whole I would’ve liked the images to be a little sharper, but that’s just my opinion. Color accuracy and noise levels both look good, and purple fringing was not a major problem.”

Website: DCResource - Nikon Coolpix 4600 / 5600 Review

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Check the Latest Prices for the Nikon Coolpix 4600

Write a Review of the Nikon Coolpix 4600

DigitalCameraInfo have posted their review of the new 5 megapixel Olympus C-5500 Sport Zoom digital camera (called the C-55 Sports Zoom in the rest of the world).

“The Olympus C-5500 received an overall color score of 9.2, which is quite good. Most colors were slightly off of the ideal, but did not stray very far. The only tones that are considerably off are the warm, reddish hues (#15, 9, 17). So perhaps this might not be the ideal camera to capture gorgeous sunset landscapes in the Grand Canyon, but it does quite well otherwise. The oversaturation of warm tones will translate favorably when shooting portraits, embellishing skin tones and minimizing minor blemishes and imperfections. The mean saturation score for the C-5500 is about 105 percent, which is average for digital cameras.”

DigitalCameraInfo - Olympus C-5500 Sport Zoom Review

CNET have published their review of the 5 megapixel Epson L-500V digital camera.

“Epson’s L-500V has many of the usual specs for a $400 model: a 5-megapixel sensor, a 3X zoom, an SD card slot, a continuous-shooting mode, and a small collection of scene modes. It also has one stand-out feature: the best LCD screen we’ve seen on a digital camera. The big, bright, high-resolution display should make the Epson a hit with families and friends who want to immediately share the fun. While the LCD will wow even the most hardened of professionals, the L-500V’s performance and photo quality don’t follow through on the promise.”

Website: CNET - Epson L-500V Review

O’Reilley Digital Media have published a great guide to getting the best performance out of Photoshop Elements 3.

“Nobody is neutral about Adobe’s decision to include the Organizer as part of Elements 3. It has some wonderful features, but if you already use another program for organizing your photos, or if you just want to be disorganized, you may find it vexing as all getout to have to use the Organizer. The good news is that while you can’t install Elements without the Organizer, you can hide it from Elements if you really want to, and run an Editor-only version of Elements.”

Website: O’Reilley Digital Media - Revving Up Photoshop Elements 3 for Windows

Create-A-Gift Press ReleaseCrumpler announces Bens Glamour Digi-photobag, a new limited edition range of bags in the typically bright Crumpler colours.

Crumpler Press Release

Snap stack and pack your Bens Glamour Digi-photobag from Crumpler

It’s time to grab attention, time to be the mirror ball, time to snap your way out of the monochrome mould with the new Ben’s Glamour bags from Crumpler.

These bags are the lip-gloss coated, booty assed, fully optioned digi-photobag. And without Ben – your bum will look big!

Ben’s Glamour bags are made of flexy lusious material (1000d Chicken Tex™), and feature easy adjusting compartments, waterproof ripstop lining, a mesh lined accessory pocket and an adjustable strap. Best of all, Ben’s Glamour bags are unique – in limited edition colours – once they are gone, they’re gone! Remember, black is for darkrooms – express yourself, be unique with CRUMPLER!

Create-A-Gift Press ReleaseCreate-A-Gift, the largest supplier of personalised print in Europe, is launching an exciting new feature on its website which will enable amateur photographers to sell their work from its online library for the first time.

Photographers can upload their images at the Create-A-Gift website and will earn a commission if customers select one of their pictures for use in a gift. The copyright of the image will remain the property of the photographer and images can be added to or withdrawn at any time.

Phill Rodgers, Director of Create-A-Gift; “This is a really exciting opportunity for any photographer to get a presence on the web and exposure for their work. It’s also a great way to make money from their creativity without any risk since there is no cost involved.”

FolioLink Press Release

Artists and Photographers Get Flashy Web Sites

FALLS CHURCH, Va., March 30 /PRNewswire/—FolioLink’s new FLASH movie web sites take advantage of the visual richness of FLASH technology while allowing search engines to index metadata and text content. This technological feat makes FolioLink the first service of its kind that can offer FLASH movie web sites with search engine visibility.

Lonna Tucker, professional photographer since 1978 and former Arizona Chapter President of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) collaborated with FolioLink on the development of its first FLASH movie template. Within the first three weeks of her new site launch she was listed on the first page of Google (TM) for the search term Golfscapes Photography. She also received sales requests from around the world. Her site can be visited at http://www.lonnatucker.com/ . “We solved the FLASH movie search engine riddle and now we can offer FLASH templates that are visible to Google and other crawler-based search engines. This is a terrific advance in technology for art-based web sites,” said Raul Jarquin, FolioLink developer.

Nikon D50 and D70s are confirmed by Nikon Japan. After an earlier story here on PhotographyBLOG about Nikon targeting the DSLR market, it seems that the Japanese manufacturer has decided to be more specific by releasing details about 2 new DSLRs, the D50 and D70s. Rumours have been circulating about the new D50 and D70s on the usual digital photography forums for the past couple of days after Nikon Germany and Nikon Japan “accidentally” posted the user manuals for a few hours. Now a story over on Macworld, which quotes Susumu Enomoto, a spokesman for Nikon, has confirmed the new Nikon D50.

”“The user manual was uploaded in error and we can’t tell you when the official announcement about the D50 will be made,” said Susumu Enomoto, a spokesman for Nikon. However, he noted that the existence of a user manual for the D50 suggests the camera will go on sale in the not-too-distant future.”

Website: Macworld - Nikon to release new range of digital SLR cameras

And a report over on the pro photography site Rob Galbraith sort of confirms the existence of the D70s (well, a D70s manual anyway).

“Nikon has not confirmed the existence of another new digital SLR called the D70s, but a PDF copy of a user manual for this camera is also apparently loose on the Internet. It, too, appears genuine. We can’t decide whether it’s amusing, mystifying, or both, but this manual is available on a fan web site for the Asian pop singer Buachompoo Ford.”

Website: Rob Galbraith - Nikon confirms D50 coming soon; D70s may also be on the way

Olympus PT-E01 underwater case for the Olympus E-300 DSLR is announced by Olympus Japan. The The PT-E01 will be available in Japan in June.

Olympus Japan Press Release

This news release is only for the Japanese Market.

Olympus Imaging Corporation is pleased to announce the PT-E01 underwater case for the E-300 interchangeable lens single-lens reflex camera. The PT-E01 is a genuine Olympus accessory for use with the E-300 and can be combined with Olympus brand underwater lens ports for various ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses to create a system suitable for professional underwater photography. The PT-E01 will go on sale in June 2005, together with the PPO-E01, PPO-E02 and PPO-E03 underwater lens ports for use with ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses and the PFL-E01 underwater case for the FL-36 external flash unit.

These underwater cases for the E-300 and the FL-36 and underwater lens ports for ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses together form an underwater digital SLR camera system capable of withstanding the water pressure at a depth of 60m. The professional-class specifications of these products make them ideal for professional underwater photography.

DPReview have published their review of the 4 megapixel Canon PowerShot A520 digital camera.

“It would be hard to find a more suitable first digital camera for the novice digital photographer than the PowerShot A520. No matter what the situation, the A520 turns out perfectly exposed and focused results shot after shot. And the fact that as well as idiot-proof ‘point and shoot’ modes and scene modes you get a full array of manual options means it’s a camera that you can grow with as your skills develop.”

Website: DPReview - Canon PowerShot A520 Review

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Pentax UK Press Release

Pentax to Offer its Highly Acclaimed Entry Level Digital SLR, the *istDS, With Up To £100 Cashback

Bringing High-End Digital Photography Another Step Closer For Photographers of All Abilities

31st March 2005 - Pentax is delighted to announce that its latest digital SLR, the *istDS, is, for a limited time only, available with up to £100 cashback. One of the markets smallest and lightest digital SLRs, the *istDS has won many plaudits since being introduced in November 2004. 

Lightweight, stylish, compact and yet packing all the functionality and optical excellence that you would expect from a Pentax, the sales promotion will see £100 cashback being offered on *ist DS with smc Pentax DA 18-55mm AL Lens and £50 cashback on *ist DS body only.  The promotion runs from the 4th April 2005 through to the 31st May 2005 and can be redeemed at all participating retailers.

Canon UK Press Release

Canon offers over £600 cash back on selected lenses and accessories

Canon, leader in photographic and imaging technology, is pleased to announce the Canon Extra Promotion; a cash back offer exclusive to purchasers of the Canon EOS 20D or the new EOS 350D Digital. For a limited time, cash back offers between the value of £35 and £100 are available on a selection of products from Canon’s EF and EF-S lenses, extenders, EX Speedlite flash system and an Ink Jet printer.