The Norwegian website Akamera.no has published a review of the 5 megapixel Epson L-500V digital camera.

Website: Akamera.no - Epson L-500V Review

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PCMagazine have taken a look at the Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox, and they generally like what they see:

“The Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox combines a 4GB digital audio player with a color screen and a photo viewer, and includes the ability to upload images from your camera. It has an interesting blend of features at an attractive price, and digital camera owners will appreciate the ability to upload and view their pictures while on the go.”

Website: PCMagazine - Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox Review

Imaging Resource have posted their review of the Canon EOS-1D Mark II DSLR.

“The Canon EOS-1D was a groundbreaking digicam when it was first announced in late 2001, and held its ground amazingly well against the competition in all the time since then. In January of 2004, Canon announced the EOS-1D Mark II, a radical update of the original 1D, doubling its resolution, while simultaneously increasing its continuous shooting speed slightly to a blazing 8.5 frames/second, and cutting image noise in the process.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Canon EOS-1D Mark II Review

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DIWA member and Polish website Fotopolis have published the first online review of the new 7 megapixel Olympus C-7070 Wide Zoom digital camera.

Website: Fotopolis - Olympus C-7070 Wide Zoom Review

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DIWA member and Slovenian website e-fotografija have reviewed the Pentax Optio SV, a compact digicam with 5 Megapixels and 5x zoom lens.

Website: e-fotografija - Pentax Optio SV Review

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After yesterday’s news that Sony and Sanyo were cutting their sales predictions for the current year, Canon have announced that they expect to see sales rise in 2005, despite warnings of slowing growth and falling prices in the digital camera market.

“Canon said it sold 14.0 million digital cameras in 2004, falling short of its forecast of 14.7 million. It forecast sales to rise about 20 percent to 16.8 million this year, including 1.8 million digital single lens reflex (SLR) models.

Tanaka said prices of compact digital cameras would likely fall about 10 percent in 2005 after dropping 15 percent last year. But he said Canon would work to maintain margins and avoid the troubles faced by Olympus Corp. and some other makers whose camera divisions have fallen into the red.

Canon’s camera division boasts an operating profit margin of about 15 percent.”

Website: Reuters - Canon Q4 profit up 17 pct, sees record for 5th year

Taking a photograph is only half the battle; presentation is also a key element of any successful photograph. Framing and matting prints is one of the best ways of showing off your work. QuickMats is a new software program that simulates actual physical mats, either onscreen or in a print. Digital Outback Photo have published a review of QuickMats, which retails for $239.

“There is now a matting solution which will not require you to either go to a frame shop or have contact with any matting materials or matting tools whatsoever. This solution is called QuickMats, a program created by John Hartman. QuickMats relies on an arsenal of Photoshop files, actions, textures, etc. to create professional looking mats which, visually, are undistinguishable from the “real” thing.”

Website: Digital Outback Photo - 
QuickMats: Virtual Matting has arrived

Professional photographer and Nikon user Moose Peterson has published a detailed review of the new Nikon F6 film SLR camera (found via digicamera.net).

“The F6 has a whole lot more to offer the wildlife photographer. This user report is from just one month of shooting with the F6. It was long enough and the results beautiful enough to impress the heck out of me. It makes me wish that the F6 was around when I was shooting film because it would have made capturing images possible that otherwise I missed. That’s really the true mark of an excellent piece of gear.”

Website: Moose Peterson - Nikon F6 Review

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Professional photographer and Nikon user Moose Peterson has posted a review of the Nikon Coolwalker MSV-01, a 30GB portable image storage device for the organisation of digital images.

“The display on the MSV-01 is a 2.5”, TFT color LCD 117,600 pixels (490x240). What does that translate to? The D1 has a 114,000 2” display and the D2H has 2.5-in., 211,200 display. The MSV-01 falls somewhere in between and is a pretty good display but not killer. I found by raising the display brightness to 10 (default is 8) that a slight improvement could be made. The display is such you can see images in daylight. In a darken area and with fresh eyes, I think the display will be good enough for a short term means of uploading images and learning from them.”

Website: Moose Peterson - Nikon Coolwalker MSV-01 Review

CNET have published their review of the new 8 megapixel Nikon Coolpix 8800.

“The Nikon Coolpix 8800’s vibration-reduction (VR) system dynamically shifts lens elements to compensate for camera shake when shooting stills and movies. This effectively lets you use shutter speeds three stops slower—1/30 second instead of 1/250 second, for example—than you would otherwise need. (By contrast, Nikon’s chief competition in the vibration-resistant, 8-megapixel EVF arena, the Minolta A200, builds its antishake technology into a floating CCD.)”

Website: CNET - Nikon Coolpix 8800 Review

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A-Digital-Eye have reviewed the 8 megapixel Konica Minolta DiMAGE A200 digital camera, which incorporates anti-shake technology and a swivelling LCD monitor.

“Image quality of A200 is extremely high. In extra fine Jpeg mode, A200 delivers extremely high resolution and therefore is able to captured very detailed images while RAW mode capture gives demanding photographers full control to tweak images. Most images show very accurate color under outdoor conditions, though under default natural color mode, color sometime can be a little muted, especially under overcast sky. In that case, I prefer shooting under vivid mode. Like most digicams, noise is a problem at higher ISO’s. ISO 800 images show lots of noise, but they are still very usable when resized. ISO 400 images are much less noisy and are capable of very large prints. No noise is apparent at ISO 200 and below.”

Website: A-Digital-Eye - Konica Minolta DiMAGE A200 Review

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Sony Europe Press Release

Berlin, 26th January - Sony Recording Media and Energy Europe today announced at PaperWorld 2005 a 4GB Memory Stick PRO (High Speed) media along with the introduction of its Memory Stick Data Rescue Service, providing additional peace of mind for those worried about losing personal information.

With increased durability, higher data transfer speeds, and compatibility with a wide selection of Memory Stick PRO devices*1 currently available, the new 4GB Memory Stick PRO (High Speed) media will be a valuable tool for users needing to store and transfer large quantities of digital content, including high-resolution digital photos and video clips.

JPG Magazine Press Release

Photobloggers Derek Powazek, founder of www.fray.com, and Heather Champ, founder of www.mirrorproject.com, have launched JPG Magazine (www.jpgmag.com) using the full color print on demand technology of Lulu (www.lulu.com). JPG Magazine is for people who love imagemaking without attitude. It’s about the kind of photography you get when you love the moment more than the camera. It’s for photographers who share their work online, but would like to see that work in print.

Raleigh, NC (PRWEB) January 31, 2005—In a sea of blogs, photobloggers offer some of the most beautiful and provocative content on the Internet. Photoblogging —- the posting of digital photographs on a web site, or blog —- provides an ideal way for photographers to share images, receive feedback, and form communities with common interests. But as any photographer will tell you, photoblogging can never replace the satisfaction of seeing and holding a picture in your hands. To marry the worlds of photobloggers and print photography, an innovative San Francisco couple hatched JPG Magazine (www.jpgmag.com), a full-color publication devoted entirely to photography.

The 48th PhotographyBLOG Portfolio has been submitted by Keith Goldstein.

“My tools have always been simple - one camera and a couple of lenses. Lately I have begun to utilize the computer and video to bring out more of what I see within the image making process, and my feelings towards my place within the world.”

Website: Portfolios: Keith Goldstein

The 47th PhotographyBLOG Portfolio has been submitted by Black Box Photo.

”“These photos are taken with all four, pretty much in random order, because making photographs that say something to - at least - the photographer is only incidentally related to the sophistication of the equipment that s/he uses, and it’s often usefully less obtrusive to be seen as a tourist or a snapshotter than it is to pose as A Photographer.

http://blackboxphoto.servepics.com/”

Website: Portfolios: Black Box Photo

In an earlier article, Luminous Landscape’s Michael Reichmann shared the contents of his camera bag with us as he prepared for a 2 week trip to Bangladesh. Now he looks back at what worked and what didn’t:

“I shot about 5,000 frames over 13 days. Because the 1Ds MKII produces roughly 15 MB raw files, this means that I ended up with around 75 GB of files by the end of the trip. And, since I always back everything up in the field, this means that I needed to have some 150 GB of storage with me. (The idea of having just one copy of once-in-a-lifetime shots is too scary. I always make field backups. After the card has been downloaded to a hard drive, I then make sure that it’s copied to a second hard drive before I go to bed at night, and that this second drive is stored and transported separately the whole time).”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Bangladesh: What Worked – What Didn’t

The German website Digitalkamera have just posted their review of the Fuji FinePix S3 Pro digital SLR.

Website: Digitalkamera- FujiFilm FinePix S3 Pro Review

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DigitalCameraInfo have published their first impressions of the Kodak EasyShare Z700, a 4 megapixel digital camera with 5x optical zoom lens, which was first unveiled at the CES show a few weeks ago.

“With its 5x optical zoom and 4 megapixels, the Kodak EasyShare Z700 has some great features for its $399 price tag. The camera is compatible with both PictBridge and ImageLink printing systems, and its trademark Share button further streamlines the process. 17 scene modes allow point-and-shoot users to quickly and easily set the Z700 for any lighting situation, and 16 MB of internal memory comes in handy. This camera approaches the shape of an SLR, but is not as big. It does have a strange shape with its 3.8 x 2.85 x 2.2-inch measurements. The drawbacks to the Z700 are its tiny optical viewfinder, tiny 1.6-inch LCD screen, and its limited white balance options. However, sacrificing a little white balance for a little more optical zoom just might be a worthy trade-off for the right user.”

Website: DigitalCameraInfo - Kodak EasyShare Z700 Preview

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DCResource have posted the first online review of the new Olympus mju DIGITAL 500 digital camera (also known as the Olympus Stylus 500), which has 5 megapixels, a 3X optical zoom lens and large 2.5” LCD display.

“The image quality on the Stylus 500 was a little disappointing. Color and exposure were both fine, and purple fringing level were low. However, images were soft and details were really fuzzy, as illustrated in images like these. I also saw some strange artifacts on edges, such as in this shot. Despite these flaws, you’ll get nice 4 x 6 and 5 x 7 inch prints—any larger and I’d look at other cameras.”

Website: DCResource - Olympus mju DIGITAL 500 Review

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The German website Photoworld have published their review of the 8 megapixel Canon EOS 20D DSLR.

Website: Photoworld - Canon EOS 20D Review

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