BIOS have just reviewed the Lexmark P6520 All-in-One printer/scanner/copier, which is aimed at digital photographers rather than business users.

“Lexmark’s P6250 all-in-one printer has consumer-friendly features and all of the components you need to start a home photo lab. Unfortunately, its print quality is disappointing and it takes forever to print large documents. The unit makes it a snap to start making your own albums and digitising your existing photos, but you’ll be disappointed by its ‘photo quality’ prints. In fact, its output can be bettered by much cheaper alternatives, such as Epson’s Stylus CX3600.”

Website: BIOS - Lexmark P6520 Review

The Spanish website quesabesde.com have posted their review of the 4 megapixel Canon PowerShot A85.

Website: quesabesde.com - Canon PowerShot A85 Review

Imaging Resource have just reviewed what is sure to be a popular digital camera, the 5 megapixel Canon PowerShot A95:

“The PowerShot A95 is one of the few digital cameras that just seem to get everything right, with very few weaknesses. In virtually all respects (color, resolution, image noise), its images are good to excellent, and its range of features and capabilities is hard to beat for the price.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Canon PowerShot A95 Review

Digital Outback Photo have reviewed a plugin for Photoshop CS and PhotoShop Elements 3(Windows-only I’m afraid) that aims to brighten up the shadows in your images without causing too many unwanted side-effects.

“Improving the tonality of images is one of the most difficult tasks. Especially the shows are either to flat or even more often to dark. There are quite a few tools on the market that address this issue. The most well known is “Shadow Highlight” in Photoshop CS. In our opinion, “Shadow Highlight” has two major shortcomings:

- It can produce halos
- With its many sliders the use is not really easy

Here we think the Shadow Illuminator plugin offers a great alternative.”

Website: Digital Outback Photo - Shadow Illuminator Plugin Review

Not much has been heard about the Polaroid x530 digital camera that was announced back in February, which was interesting because it uses a variant of the Foveon X3 sensor that is also used in the Sigma DSLR range. Well, a Japanese first look/review of the Polaroid x530 has turned up, although I obviously can’t give you any more details than pointing you to the website (found via DigiCamReview.co.uk).

Website: Polaroid x530

Lexmark Press Release 18/10/04

Lexmark makes it easy to print photos on the go
 
- The P315 Snapshot photo printer is like having your own portable photo lab -
 
LEXINGTON, Ky. - 10/18/2004
 
For the second time in two months, Lexmark International, Inc. (NYSE: LXK) has unveiled a breakthrough in photo printing with today’s introduction of the Lexmark P315 Snapshot photo printer, which offers the latest in photo printing ease-of-use features designed to uncomplicate the process of producing high-quality, 4” x 6” images.

This is a truly portable photo studio that does not connect to a computer. Consumers can print borderless, 35mm-quality images directly from most digital cameras or memory cards in any room of the home or in their office. The Lexmark P315 also allows easy editing for customized prints that can be produced as fast as 38 seconds*.

“The Lexmark P315 offers some of the great ease of use features that we introduced with our Lexmark P6250 Home Photo Center All-in-One and the Lexmark P915 Home Photo Printer in September in a portable, smaller size,” said Najib Bahous, Lexmark vice president and president of its Consumer Printer Division. “It doesn?t make sense that consumers can take their digital cameras anywhere, but they have to wait until they get to their home to enjoy the prints.  We changed that experience with the Lexmark P315 by creating a portable, photo lab that can be used anywhere there?s an outlet.”

Breeze Systems Press Release 18/10/04

Breeze Systems’ Downloader Pro 1.5 simplifies workflow for Canon EOS 20D and 1D Mk II Users

18 October 2004: Breeze Systems today released Downloader Pro 1.5, the company’s powerful yet simple tool to transfer digital photos from camera to PC.

Canon EOS 20D and Canon EOS-1D Mark II users can now use Downloader Pro to download directly from the camera while automatically renaming and organizing images, losslessly rotating JPEGs and storing copyright and other IPTC data in each image.

Further time saving features include dpi adjustment and color profile tagging of JPEGs and the automatic creation of sets of related directories for each download directory.

Downloader Pro 1.5 also adds support for the downloading of Panasonic DMC-LC1 and Leica Digilux 2 raw images.

Ever fancied testing your camera using a professional test target? Well, DPNow are reporting that you can download an accurate replica of a resolution target for free:

“Have you ever wished you could test your own camera like the professionals? Here at dpnow when we test digital cameras we use a variety of test targets, including the standard ISO 12233 resolution target for testing electronic cameras. It’s a pretty standard test used by a lot of reviewers. Our target cost us over ?100 (approx US$180 or EU?150) but is vital to our battery of camera tests.

Stephen H. Westin, a research project leader at the Cornell University’s Light Measurement laboratory, appears to have created a replica ISO 12233 test target using ISO specifications and made a pdf version of it available for free download.”

Website: DPNow - Make your own ISO camera test target?

The 46th Photo of the Week contest is now closed.

I have choosen what I think are the best photographs in my opinion. Now it’s your turn to vote for the overall winner of the contest. A Public Poll has been setup on the PhotographyBLOG Forums and you have 7 days during which you can vote for your favourite photo from the ones that I have chosen. Voting will end on Monday 25th October. The Poll will then be closed and the overall winner announced.

Vote now for your favourite image from the Photo Of The Week 11th-17th October 2004 contest

A new article from The New York Times called “Tunnel Visions” is a brief but nevertheless interesting look back at subway/tube/metro photography.

“This year, in the 100th year of New York’s subway, the city is celebrating in two ways: with lots of exhibitions and books of subway photography and, perversely enough, by thinking about reinstating the ban on subway photography for security reasons. (The old one was rescinded 10 years ago.) If the rule, proposed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, goes into effect, anyone shooting a photo, film or video in the subway without a pass will face a $25 fine.”

Website: New York Times - Tunnel Visions

The 47th Photo of the Week contest is now open. This is a weekly photography contest with no set theme and you can enter any photograph that you like.

Please note that there has been an important change to the Photo of the Week rules:

“2. You can enter up to a maximum of 5 images.”

Click here to read the Photo of the Week rules.

The voting for the 45th Photo of the Week contest has now finished.

The winner is “Ahh - aww !” by fdinaro.

Congratulations to the winner!

You can view all of the entries that were submitted in this gallery.

The latest issue of Nature Photographers Online Magazine has recently been posted and features some new articles that will appeal to nature and non-nature photographers alike.

Expect the Unexpected by Christopher Jordan and Ron Leonetti
“Learn your local landscape. It may not be Half Dome or slot canyons, but with patience and repeated exposure it will surely yield subject matter of interest. I firmly believe that getting to know a place in great detail, in all seasons and all weather is much more likely to yield high quality photographic results than trophy hunting at the photographic hot spots that attract hordes of photographers. In most cases my favorite images have come from repeated visits to the same place.”

Sossusvlei by Balloon by Peter Madeley

Landscape Photography Composition - Part 2 by Guy Tal

Website: Nature Photographers Online Magazine - October 2004 Issue

Amateur photographer David Fong has posted a very comprehensive rough guide to the Panasonic DMC-FZ10 Lumix ultrazoom digital camera (found via Digicamera.net).

“If you half-press the shutter button and wait until you get a solid green light, the shutter lag when you press the button the rest of the way is 0.15 seconds. If the camera is in Auto-focus and you just press the shutter button without half-pressing it first, the shutter lag can be between 0.7 seconds and several seconds, depending on how long it takes to get focus lock. If the camera is in Manual Focus and you just press the shutter button without half-pressing it first, the shutter lag is about 0.35 seconds. If you’re in Manual Focus and have turned off the Review feature, the delay time AFTER taking a picture is about one second.

I’ve taken 8-9 separate frames in ten seconds just to test the camera. That didn’t give me time to compose the scene, so the pictures were artistically terrible, but the camera easily kept up, and can keep going at that rate until you fill the card. Other than true ‘Pro’ cameras, this is by far the fastest digicam around.”

Website: David Fong - Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10 Rough Guide

Photo-i have posted a very enthusiastic review of the new HP Photosmart 8450 printer.

“When it comes to print quality, then this printer is in a league of its own. I have seen plenty of printers in my time, but this one produces excellent results time after time. The only losers here are going to be the Colour management vendors. HP have got it spot on with the 8450, you can safely forget about creating a custom profile. If you do want to tweak the settings then this is an easy job via the excellent controls on the print dialogue palette.”

Website: Photo-i - HP Photosmart 8450 Printer Review

Hungarian website Index Digicam have published the first review that I have seen of the 4 megapixel Sanyo Xacti DSC-S4 digital camera.

Website: Index Digicam - Sanyo Xacti DSC-S4 Review

DPNow have posted a great preview of the new Konica Minolta Dynax 7D DSLR, using it at this weekend’s Rugby Super League Play Off Grand Final between the Leeds Rhinos and Bradford Bulls.

“One thing I was definitely impressed by was the 7D’s continuous shooting capability. It can shoot three frames per second, which is not spectacular, but more importantly you can keep this up for nine frames in Extra Fine JPEG mode, 15 frames in Fine JPEG high resolution mode and up to 43 frames in low resolution. Overall shutter responsiveness was pretty good.”

Website: DPNow - Konica Minolta Dynax 7D Hands-on First Look

Danish website Digital Magasinet have posted a short review of the 4 megapixel HP Photosmart R507 digital camera.

Website: Digital Magasinet - HP Photosmart R507 Review

Casio Europe Press Release 18/10/04

Fiery photo technology for hot winter nights: The new EXILIM Zoom EX-Z50 “Red Star”
 
Norderstedt, October 2004 - The days are getting shorter and the dark season is setting in. The EXILIM Zoom EX-Z50 “Red Star” Special Edition with its loud colour shade and lots of power gets everyone out of hibernation. The little one is power-packed! In its shiny metallic red it records the big party celebration in no time at all.

The EXILIM Zoom EX-Z50 “Red Star” is not only a hot candidate for fantastic pictures when it comes to design; the lifestyle camera is also a shining example for photo fun as regards the subject of technology. 5.0 Megapixel and 3x optical zoom provide outstanding sharpness, and it’s easy to watch for the right moment with the Direct On function. The shiny red one is ready for all kinds of snapshots in around 1.6 seconds1). With a shutter release time lag of around 0.01 seconds2), you can take a photo of the good-looking guy next door before he notices. And if the unnoticed approach is successful, even the smallest tattoo can still be shot in large format. Namely, the Auto Macro function automatically switches from Autofocus to the Macro mode and back again as required. In the heat of the night the “Red Star” is a faithful companion: the SUPER LIFE battery gives it power for up to 390 pictures3). One charge of the powerful Lithium-Ion storage battery is enough. For poorly-lit pictures there is the useful Flash Assist function available, which most automatically brightens up pictures that have turned out too dark if need be. And when you’ve found Mr. Perfect at last, the movie function is activated. It records a film with sound recording without any time limit4). For flaming moments by candlelight, the “Red Star” offers a further highlight: in the BESTSHOT function there are 23 preset motif programs for all kinds of different situations, as well as for the scenario. For easy operation and a technically top-class performance, the Icon Help function explains the symbol of the respective mode that the photo-lover is currently using.

eDigitalPhoto have posted their review of the Kyocera Finecam M410R, a 4.0 megapixel digital camera with a high-powered 10x optical zoom and high-speed lens.

“Of course, image quality is where it’s at, and the Kyocera M410R delivers some of the most pleasing colors and sharpest images we’ve seen in the 4-megapixel class. Kyocera rightly and modestly claims that you can get great 8x10 prints out of this camera (at full res, Fine) and our tests verify that. Frankly, we?ve grown weary of other 4-megapixel camera makers claiming you can get 16x20 prints, or bigger, from their models.”

Website: eDigitalPhoto - Kyocera Finecam M410R Review