Lensbaby 2 is announced by Lensbabies. Lensbaby 2 is a lens for SLR cameras that brings one area into sharp focus whilst creatively blurring the rest of the photograph. Lensbaby 2 features an f2.0 aperture setting, plus f2.8, f4.0, f5.6 and f8.0. Lensbaby 2 is available for sale now at www.lensbabies.com for $150.

Lensbabies Press Release

Lensbabies Launches Lensbaby 2.0 for Brighter, Sharper, Faster Selective Focus Photography

March 21, 2005, Las Vegas, NV.  Today at the WPPI trade show, Lensbabies launched Lensbaby 2.0, a second-generation selective focus SLR camera lens, bringing brighter, sharper, and faster selective focus photography to professional and avid amateur photographers. 

“Lensbaby 2.0 has proven to be a wonderful creative tool for demanding photographic assignments.  Compared to The Original Lensbaby, Lensbaby 2.0 has a greater range of aperture settings, a much sharper ‘sweet spot’ of focus, and a new levitating magnetic aperture system, which makes it a snap to change apertures,” said Craig Strong, the inventor of the Lensbaby and Co-CEO of Lensbabies, LLC.

Lensbaby 2.0 and The Original Lensbaby bring one area of a photo into sharp focus, with that ‘sweet spot’ surrounded by graduated blur, glowing highlights, and subtle prismatic color distortions.  Photographers can fluidly move the sharp area around the photo by bending the flexible lens tubing.

DIWA member and Polish website Fotopolis have published their review of the 7 megapixel Olympus C-70 Zoom (called the Olympus C-7000 Zoom in the USA).

Website: Fotopolis - Olympus C-70 Zoom Review

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DCResource have just reviewed the new 7 megapixel Olympus C-7070 Wide Zoom, which was announced at the CES show back in January.

” There’s a whole lot to like about the Olympus C-7070 Wide Zoom, and only a few things that you won’t care for. The C-7070WZ isn’t just another 7 Megapixel camera; this one features an ultra wide-angle lens starting at 27 mm. Unlike the Coolpix 8400 (which starts a little wider, at 24 mm), the C-7070 has some decent telephoto power, with a top end of 110 mm. If that’s not enough for you, Olympus offers your choice of conversion lenses, which can reduce the focal length to 18.9, or increase it to a whopping 330 mm. The expandability doesn’t stop there, though. The camera also supports 40.5 mm filters (without the need for a conversion lens adapter), an external flash, a power battery grip, and an underwater case.”

Website: DCResource - Olympus C-7070 Wide Zoom Review

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The UK’s biggest photographer retailer, Jessops, saw its share price fall by 30% this week as it announced a profit warning. Market analysts slashed 25 to 30% off their profit forecasts, causing Jessops share price to fall 47½p to 107p.

“The company said sales of digital cameras had collapsed in February as shoppers stayed away from the high street. Chief executive Derek Hine said: “It was like a tap was turned off. This is new territory for us. I’ve been in this business for seven years and I’ve experienced nothing like this. This is off the Richter scale.’’”

Telegraph - Jessops hurt as camera sales go out of focus

Yahoo have announced that they have bought Flickr, one of the most popular ways to store, organise and share your photos online. Flickr’s own announcement via their blog is the best way to find out what the acquisition means for the future of the Flickr service:

“Holy smokes, SOMEBODY out there is bad at keeping secrets!!  Yes! We can finally confirm that Yahoo has made a definitive agreement to acquire Flickr and us, Ludicorp. Smack the tattlers and pop the champagne corks! Woohoo! What does this mean? It means that we’ll no longer have to draw straws to see who gets paid, schedule conjugal visits between trips to the colo….wait! That’s not what you want to know.”

Flickr Blog - Yahoo actually does acquire Flickr

Thanks to Sanj for the link.

Following Kodak’s recent acquisition of Ofoto, HP have followed in their footsteps by announcing that they have bought the popular online photo service Snapfish.

HP Press Release

Acquisition enables HP to provide consumers with more choice for sharing, storing, printing photos; broadens HP’s position in the digital photography market

PALO ALTO, Calif., March 21, 2005
HP today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Snapfish, a leading online photo service.

Snapfish’s expertise in online photo services, coupled with HP’s worldwide customer reach, will rapidly enhance HP’s ability to capitalize on the growing market for online photo printing.

Snapfish offers high-quality photo products and services. These include free online photo sharing, photo storage and management, free editing tools and software, online print ordering, wireless imaging services for camera phone and color handset users, and more than 70 personalized photo products, such as calendars, mousepads and the like.

Wacom Volito2 is announced. The Wacom Volito 2 is a new entry level A6 size pen tablet from Wacom. The Volito 2 includes a textured grip area for added comfort and optimal grip, and a hand rest on the tablet itself. The Wacom Volito2 will be available from the end of March 2005 from all PC stores such as PC World and will be priced at £35.99 in the UK.

Wacom Europe Press Release

The Pen for your PC – The new Wacom Volito2

Pen tablet specialist launches new consumer tablet to enrich a PCs capabilities

Wacom Europe today launches its new consumer pen tablet, Volito2. Expanding and enriching the capabilities of a PC, the stylish, entry-level Volito2 is targeted at a wide range of consumers. With added enhancements including improved ergonomics, an updated, modern design, and an interactive tutorial, Volito2 is perfect for painting, writing and editing photos.

The Volito2 now comes in a dark grey, metallic colour that will look stylish in any home. The surface of the active area on the tablet has been specially treated to enhance the feeling of pen on paper and it also indicates in which area the pen can be activated.

CNET have posted their review of the new 8 megapixel Olympus E-300 / Evolt DSLR.

“As with the more pro-oriented Olympus E-1, the E-300 conforms to the Four-Thirds standard for interchangeable-lens dSLRs, which in theory guarantees interoperability between cameras and lenses from any manufacturer that adopts it in the future. With the E-300 kit, Olympus starts you out with a 14mm-to-45mm, f/3.5-to-f/5.6 zoom lens (28mm-to-90mm in 35mm-equivalent terms), and the camera offers a satisfactory feature set, crisp performance, and good build quality for the price.”

Website: CNET - Olympus E-300 / Evolt Review

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Alera Technologies Press Release

PC Magazine Editors’ Choice Award Goes to Aleratec Digital Photo Copy Cruiser Plus

Digital Photo Copy Cruiser Plus Earns Best of Breed

CHATSWORTH, Calif., March 21, 2005—Alera Technologies, developer and manufacturer of Advanced Optical Recording Solutions, proudly announces that its advanced new Aleratec Digital Photo Copy Cruiser Plus(tm), that copies digital photos directly to CD from camera memory cards of any capacity, without a computer, has been selected by a panel of PC Magazine editors and leading industry experts for PC Magazine’s coveted Editors’ Choice Award.

“It is a double honor for the Aleratec Digital Photo Copy Cruiser Plus to be selected by PC Magazine’s distinguished editors and industry experts as Editors’ Choice,” stated Perry Solomon, President and CEO. “This is the second PC Magazine distinction for this product in less than 6 months. We believe these back to back awards demonstrate our success in exceeding the expectations of the toughest industry critics and our customers. By designing the Digital Photo Copy Cruiser Plus to copy photo memory cards directly to CD and bring your video, photo and music creations directly to your home or mobile entertainment center, we continue to be the Prosumers’ Choice with professional level solutions at consumer prices. It is particularly gratifying to receive the PC Magazine’s most sought after award for excellence.”

Zoran Press Release

SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/—Zoran Corporation (NASDAQ:ZRAN) announced that its COACH 7 digital camera processor is powering Samsung’s new Digimax V700 and Digimax U-CA 5 high quality, high performance digital camera models displayed recently at the Photo Marketing Association tradeshow in Orlando, Florida.

The new Digimax V700 delivers 7.1 megapixel high resolution images with enough high quality detail to print poster size. It comes with a 30x (3x optical, 10x digital) zoom with world renowned Schneider lens, high-speed shot capture and is equipped with a 2.0-inch LCD screen. The V700 supports MPEG-4 video recording of movie clips in VGA at 30 frames per second that can be played back on a television or PC. The movie capture feature supports Zoran’s proprietary jitter stabilization technology, suppressing unwanted camera jitters. Additional features include manual shooting, scene selection, special effects, and a voice recording function among others.

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

“The Epson L-500V is great easy to use compact model that boasts enough resolution and image quality for prints up to A4 and over. The large screen is not unique on such digital cameras, but the high-resolution Photo Fine technology is a standout feature and helps make the camera joy to use. Basic control options take some of the gloss off, but anyone looking for a neat point-and-shoot digital camera would do far worse than having a closer look at this little beauty.”

Website: Pocket Lint - Epson L-500V Review

Serif MoviePlus 4 is announced today. Serif MoviePlus 4 is the fastest video editing software program currently available. All adjustment made in MoviePlus 4 can be viewed in realtime without interrupting the preview. Serif MoviePlus 4 costs £59.99.

Serif (Europe) Ltd Press Release

Serif (Europe) Ltd – the UK’s leading independent desktop publishing, design and graphics software developer – today announced the launch of MoviePlus 4, the intuitive new version of their package, offering everyone unbelievable digital video-editing power at an affordable price.

Serif MoviePlus 4 (List Price £59.99; Upgrade Price £39.99*) is the outstanding new digital video-editing application, with a brand new rendering engine that Serif believes makes it the fastest digital video-editor on the market, at any price point. Combining advanced technology with Serif’s trademark ease-of-use and value for money, MoviePlus 4 is a formidable program that should be taken
seriously by everyone with an interest in exploring the creative limits of their PC.

Praktica Luxmedia 6003 is announced. The Praktica 6003 is a 6 megapixel digital camera with a 3x optical zoom and 1.5” TFT color monitor. The Luxmedia 6003 has 16 MB of built-in memory and supports the SD Card format. The Praktica Luxmedia 6003 offers a full range of manual shooting modes and 4 ISO settings from 50-400.

Luminous Landscape publish an article by Pete Myers titled “Making Images – Not Taking Images”, which I suspect you will either completely agree or disagree with…

“Taking an image and making an image are two completely different animals. What I often see in landscape photography are photographers taking beautiful pictures, and performing minimal work on the image in postproduction before printing the image. For these photographers, they believe that their work relies on mastering the tools at hand – the camera and lens – and using them to best advantage in the field – not working on the image in postproduction.

While many of these images are beautiful and compelling in their own right, I would suggest to these photographers that they have not availed themselves of the true magic of photography in the digital photographic era. We need not take beautiful pictures, we can make beautiful pictures – and the computer is the tool that lets us perform the magic.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Making Images – Not Taking Images

Reuters has an interesting interview with Canon’s European chief of Consumer Imaging, Mogens Jensen, about Canon’s short-term strategy.

“Surging demand for digital compact cameras in Europe is slowing, and Japan’s Canon Inc. said on Friday it was focusing on more expensive cameras, printers, and even flat screen televisions. Last year saw digital camera sales in Western Europe increase 58 percent to just over 25 million units, but while that growth may slow to 25 to 30 percent amid continued price pressure, the market for more advanced digital Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras will double by the end of 2006.”

Website: Reuters - Canon refocuses as digital camera growth slows

Slovenian website Slo-Foto.net have just posted their review of the 4 megapixel, 8.3x optical zoom Nikon Coolpix 4800.

Website: Slo-Foto.net - Nikon Coolpix 4800 Review

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DIWA member and Czech website FotoAparat have reviewed the 8 megapixel Konica Minolta DiMAGE A200 digital camera, which incorporates anti-shake technology and a swivelling LCD monitor.

Website: FotoAparat - Konica Minolta DiMAGE A200 Review

Website: Read my Konica Minolta DiMAGE A200 Review

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DIWA member and Norwegian website DiGIT.no have just reviewed the 8 megapixel Nikon Coolpix 8400.

Website: DiGIT.no - Nikon Coolpix 8400 Review

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Trusted Reviews have just posted their review of the new Konica Minolta Z5 digital camera.

“In terms of performance, the Z5 matches up to the best. It starts up in just under two seconds, and in single-shot mode at the highest resolution and quality setting, shot-to-shot time is approximately 2.5 seconds, which while not exceptional is far from slow. If that’s not fast enough, the Z5 has a special ‘Progressive’ mode for capturing fast-moving action. Press the shutter button down and hold it, and the camera starts shooting at a machine-gun like 10 frames per second, and keeps this up until you release the button. At that point, the last 20 shots in the sequence are recorded. This way you are almost certain to get a good action shot.”

Website: Trusted Reviews - Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z5 Review

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Konica Minolta USA have announced a $200 cashback promotion on the purchase of the Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D DSLR (known as the Konica Minolta Dynax 7D in the rest of the world). To qualify, you must purchase a Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D between March 14th and June 30th 2005 and then fill-in and post the coupon back to Konica Minolta no later than August 15th. Please note that this offer only applies to the Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D DSLR camera in the USA.

Download the Cashback Coupon (PDF format)