The Spanish website Quesabesde have just reviewed Canon’s new entry-level digital camera, the PowerShot A400.

Website: Quesabesde - Canon PowerShot A400 Review

Check the Latest Prices for the Canon PowerShot A400

Write a Review of the Canon PowerShot A400

Photoxels have published an interesting interview with Greg Morrison, who is the Digital Brand Manager for Kodak Canada.

“The latest news concerning the 4/3 System is that Kodak has signed up. Just what does this mean in terms of practical digital camera offerings?

GM: The Four Thirds System standard was designed for digital SLR cameras and lenses to maximize the performance potential of digital imaging sensors. The 4/3 System enables the design of dedicated, high-performance digital camera lens systems that are more compact than 35mm film SLR camera lens systems. This results in product advantages for users such as compact size, handling ease, and enhanced functionality.”

Website: Photoxels - Kodak Canada Interview

Photo-i have just started an interactive review of the brand new Epson R1800 A3 / 13x19 inch printer. The R1800 is an A3 version of the Epson Stylus Photo R800 that I reviewed last year, featuring the same 8 colour UltraChrome Hi-Gloss inks and 1.5 picoliter droplet size. The Stylus Photo R1800 will retail in the UK for £399.99 inc Vat and $549.99 in the USA.

“The R1800 uses the same UltraChrome ink set as the R800, in fact the cartridges are the same. I would have expected larger cartridges for an A3 printer. If the inks perform as well on this printer as they have on the R800 then I think we will be in for a treat, I will hold back from saying more until I have fully tested the printer.

The advantage of UltraChrome inks lays in the longevity of the inks. The inks are pigment based, compared to dye based on most other inkjet printers. The ink droplets are encapsulated in a micro thin covering of resin, this protects the inks from atmospheric pollutants and rough handling.”

Website: Photo-i - Epson R1800 Printer Review

Fred Miranda has today released the Resize Pro Series of plugins, which upsizes and downsizes images from your specific digital SLR camera. Each Resize Pro plugin costs $29.90.

“This professional tool specializes in interpolating and downsizing your images. It runs fast (at any print size) and produces high quality prints. Resize Pro takes interpolation to a new level by focusing on pixel contrast and your individual camera files for superior results. Resize Pro maintains the integrity of your images without the common side effects like artifacts or halos around high contrast areas. You just run the plugin, and let the complex code work behind the scenes for a more detailed, natural looking image at any print size.”

Resize Pro™ runs on Photoshop 6, 7, Photoshop CS, Elements 1, 2 and 3. This plug-in will work with 8-bit and 16-bit files when using Photoshop CS. When using Photoshop 6, 7 or Elements, it will work with 8-bit files.

Website: Fred Miranda

DCResource are first off the blocks with their review of the Canon Digital IXUS 700 digital camera (also known as the Canon PowerShot SD500 Digital ELPH).

“With the PowerShot SD500 Digital ELPH, Canon has delivered an excellent ultra-compact, high resolution digital camera that’s one of the best out there. It takes excellent quality 7.1 Megapixel photos that rival those from the higher-end PowerShot G6, though purple fringing and corner softness are issue (though minor, thankfully). While it’s a bit chunkier than the other SD series cameras, the SD500 is still a very small metal camera that can go anywhere with ease. Build quality is very good, save for the usual cheap plastic door over the memory card and battery compartment. The SD500 has a nicely sized 2.0” LCD display that gains up in low light situations (finally!). I’m also glad to see that Canon has done away with the optical viewfinder on the SD cameras.”

Website: DCResource - Canon Digital IXUS 700 Review

Check the Latest Prices for the Canon Digital IXUS 700

Write a Review of the Canon Digital IXUS 700

Giottos Press Release

Giottos, manufacturer of high quality, highly innovative tripods, monopods and accessories, have appointed JP Distribution as their exclusive distributor for the UK. 

“Giottos is excited about the potential opportunities that will result from the appointment of JP Distribution as our UK distributor. Giottos have concentrated on producing products that are of an exceptional quality and design at competitive prices. JP Distribution has impressed us with their professionalism and excellence as a value added distributor of leading brands. Giottos are convinced that our brand will flourish within JP Distribution’s complementary portfolio ultimately allowing more customers to enjoy the benefits of our range of premium products”, commented Yvonne Shen, Managing Director – International Sales.

PictoColor Corporation Press Release

New on-line store features professional calibration and profiling solutions for color managed workflows

March 10, 2005-Burnsville, MN-PictoColor Corporation, a leading developer and distributor of color management products has opened PictoMarketplace.com, a new online store featuring professional color correction, calibration, and profiling solutions. PictoMarketplace is a color management product resource for digital photographers.  It is owned and operated by PictoColor Corporation and specializes in digital color control products that help the digital photographer create a color management workflow.  PictoMarketplace.com is located at www.pictomarketplace.com.

Pacific Digital PV1 Digital Photo Album is now available at eFrameCentral.com. The Pacific Digital PV1 has a 5.6 inch LCD screen to display your photos or videos and accepts most memory card formats.

eFrameCentral.com Press Release

eFrameCentral.com announces the availability of a new digital picture “eframe” which not only displays beautiful high-resolution pictures, but also plays music and video files. The PV1 Digital Photo Album by Pacific Digital features a bright, high resolution 5.6” TFT screen that displays both digital photos and video clips in vivid color. Users can set up slide show presentations with background music, or plug in headphones and take advantage of the PV1’s MP3 player capabilities.

Picojet have developed an inkjet printhead made out of stainless steel. Aimed at industrial printing applications, this isn’t likely to feature in a home inkjet printer any time soon. The new printhead can jet a wide range of liquids, including oil, water, solvent and hot melt (wax).

PicoJet Press Release

PicoJet Reaches Development Milestone With Successful Demonstration of New Stainless Steel Ink Jet Printhead

HILLSBORO, Ore., March 14 /PRNewswire/—PicoJet, Inc., a designer and manufacturer of state-of-the-art piezoelectric drop-on-demand printheads, announces it has reached a development milestone with the successful demonstration of its new stainless steel PJ-N256 drop-on-demand inkjet printhead.

The demonstration was a benchmark of the printhead’s initial printing capabilities at the completion of a five month development project. The PJ-N256 printhead successfully proved its ability to fire each of the 256 jets simultaneously at 10,000 drops per second creating a 300 dpi image. It produced full color images using UV-curable ink jetted onto foam board, poster board, canvas, textile, glass, metal and plastic media. This same technology will allow simultaneous firing at over 20,000 drops per second enabling higher print speeds and resolution in the future.

Photo-i have published their review of the new photo editing software, Paint Shop Pro 9 from Jasc Software.

“It is too easy to think that digital imaging is a one horse race, with Photoshop as the undisputed leader when it comes to professional image manipulation work. But this comes at a price, Photoshop is not by any means a cheap package and just upgrading to the latest version can cost more than other competing packages. Paint Shop Pro (PSP) has been around for a number of years, it started out as a shareware application and now in version 9 it has matured into a full featured application that can do most of the things that Photoshop can and many more as a bonus. I have written about PSP and produced many video tutorials on it, so I was particularly interested to see how this latest version compares and more importantly is it as good as Photoshop?”

Website: Photo-i - Paint Shop Pro 9 Review

Mike Johnston’s “Sunday Morning Photographer” column appears for the second time this month. In this bonus edition, Mike makes some, long-term predictions about what cameras of the future will look like…

”– First of all, I predict that DSLRs will be an evolutionary dead-end. They may last another six or seven, or even ten or twelve years, but eventually they will fizzle and go away. I’m not trying to be controversial; I really believe they will.

– Second, I think sensors will get smaller, not bigger. That is, they will get smaller than “full-frame,” APS-C, and 4/3rds size, although they may not need to be as small as the tiny 1.1/8” imagers on today’s digicams. But they will be closer to today’s 2/3 size (6.6 x 8.8mm) than to “full-frame” 24 x 36mm.”

Website: The Sunday Morning Photographer: Rash Predictions Part 1

Luminous Landscape editor Michael Reichmann then replies to Mike’s original article…
Website: The Sunday Morning Photographer: Rash Predictions Part 2

...before letting Mike have the last word…
Website: The Sunday Morning Photographer: Rash Predictions Part 3

The Hungarian website Index Digicam have posted their review of the Samsung Digimax V6 digital camera.

Website: Index Digicam - Samsung Digimax V6 Review

Imaging Resource have published their initial hands-on impressions of the new Nikon D2X digital SLR.

“If first impressions still hold value, the Nikon D2x seems likely to be a winner. Frankly, before shooting with the D2x, I was concerned about Nikon’s position in the high-end camera market. The D70 was a great camera for consumers, and a fine answer to competitors’ offerings, but in the pro arena they’ve clearly lagged somewhat in the last year or two. I think the D2x brings them right back into contention with a pro camera that’s not only rugged, good looking, and high quality, but that excels where it counts: image quality.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Nikon D2X Initial Hands-On Preview

Check the Latest Prices for the Nikon D2X

Write a Review of the Nikon D2X

DIWA member and Czech website FotoAparat.cz have reviewed the Panasonic DMC-FZ20 digital camera, which has a 12x optical zoom lens from Leica.

Website: FotoAparat.cz - Panasonic DMC-FZ20 Review

Check the Latest Prices for the Panasonic DMC-FZ20

Write a Review of the Panasonic DMC-FZ20

Digital Outback Photo have just started a diary review of the new 8 megapixel Canon EOS 350D DSLR.

“Clearly the 300D maybe attractive for people on a budget but otherwise it would be worth to spend $200 more for the new 350D. Not really because the XT has more megapixels but because the XT is a newer design and is also more reactive.

This leaves many photographers with the decision 20D or 350D. The key difference between these two cameras is the size and weight. The XT is a very small DSLR (only tiny bit larger than the Pentax *ist) and the 20D looks rather big compared to it.”

Website: Digital Outback Photo - Canon EOS 350D Experience Report

HP Press Release

HP Launches Mobile Moments – the Online Star- Studded Mobile Phone Photography Exhibition

BRACKNELL, UK, March 14, 2005.  HP (NYSE, NASDAQ: HPQ) today announced it will be unveiling Mobile Moments (www.hp.com/eur/mobilemoments), an online celebrity mobile phone photography exhibition in aid of Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres and HP digital villages. HP has asked leading photographers, artists and entertainment personalities to contribute their first mega-pixel mobile phone photograph to the exhibition. Each participant was asked to capture their own ‘mobile moment’ – a spontaneous image caught in the moment. The result is a thoughtful, imaginative and sometimes funny look at what makes celebrities tick.

BenQ DC E53+ and DC E41 digital cameras are demonstrated at CeBIT 2005. The BenQ E53+ is a 5 megapixel model with a 2.5 inch LCD screen. The BenQ E41 is a 4 megapixel model with a 2 inch touch LCD screen. Price and availability of the BenQ DC E53+ and DC E41 digital cameras to be announced.

BenQ Press Release

BenQ Showcases Two New Lifestyle-Oriented Digital Cameras at CeBIT 2005

Models Offer Stylish Design in Four, Five or Six Megapixel CCD Resolution Varieties

HANNOVER, GERMANY, March 10, 2005 – BenQ showcases two new models of digital cameras with stylish exterior designs that come equipped with advanced features such as touch screens, large-sized LCD screens, a handwriting function and more.  With a comprehensive line of digital cameras, BenQ provides camera models to fit any lifestyle.

The five (5) megapixel CCD resolution DC E53+ digital cameras are simple and elegant in design.  Equipped with a 2.5-inch LTPS-LCD screen, the DC E53+ provides a comfortable, large-sized screen for viewing pictures and images.  Consuming 50 percent less power than standard TFT-LCD screens found on other cameras, TLPS-LCD screens provide finer image representation and color saturation.  The DC E53+ digital cameras with VGA operates at 30 frames per second and provides cinema-like streaming quality.

The HP Photosmart 8450 is currently HP’s top-of-the-range colour Letter / A4 sized inkjet printer. The HP 8450 is an 8 colour inkjet printer that allows you to print colour and black and white borderless photos at up to 4800x1200-optimized dpi. It has a built-in memory card reader (supporting 7 different formats), can be connected to any PictBridge-compatible camera and has an Ethernet port for network sharing. Using the supplied HP Bluetooth Wireless Adapter, you can make prints from any Bluetooth compatible device. The HP 8450 also has a reputation for producing truly neutral black and white prints by using a dedicated Gray Photo cartridge. So can the HP Photosmart 8450 challenge the likes of Epson and Canon and take the crown as the best Letter / A4 sized inkjet printer? Read my review to find out.

Website: HP Photosmart 8450 Review

Photo.net have just reviewed the Tamron 17-35mm f/2.8-4 Di Lens. The 17-35mm lens has a fast aperture of f/2.8 at its widest angle. The lens gives an angle of view equivalent to 28-55mm on a digital SLR camera (as most digital SLRs have APS-C sized CCDs).

“The Tamron SP AF17-35/2.8-4 Di LD Aspherical (IF) is a well built lens with overall good performance. At 17mm it’s very good and can be used wide open at f2.8 without much worry about image quality. The only negative is noticeable barrel distortion which could be a problem in some circumstances. Chromatic aberration is present but fairly well controlled throughout the zoom range. At 35mm the lens is slower (f4) and a little less sharp, though distortion is low.”

Website: Photo.net - Tamron 17-35mm f/2.8 Di Lens Review

Photo.net have posted their review of the 6 megapixel Pentax *ist DS DSLR.

“The intuitive, rapid handling of the *istDS, combined with its fairly compact size has made more than one of us wonder about the possibility of street/candid photography. Although a bit noisier (audible noise, not pixel noise) than a rangefinder, this DSRL isn’t really much more intrusive. Theory aside, the camera was both capable and enjoyable to use in this context; if you can believe it, I even felt at ease leaving my Leica M6 at home during most of the trial. Given the high rate of misses when you’re chasing (and, in my case, routinely missing) decisive moments, the zero cost of digital capture is also a huge bonus.”

Website: Photo.net - Pentax *ist DS Review

Check the Latest Prices for the Pentax *ist DS

Write a Review of the Pentax *ist DS