The Norwegian website Akam.no have published their review of the A4 Epson Stylus Photo R800 printer.

Website: Akam.no - Epson Stylus Photo R800 Review

Website: Read my review of the Epson Stylus Photo R800

PhotographyBLOG was hacked by a malicious user early this morning, forcing me to roll back the site to the most recent backup. Therefore all comments, photo uploads and user registrations etc. made in the last 12 hours have been lost. Please accept my apologies for this temporary problem, and let me know if you find anything that doesn’t seem quite right.

The 40th 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 13th September. The Poll will then be closed and the overall winner announced.

Vote now for your favourite image from the Photo Of The Week 30th August - 5th September 2004 contest

The 41st Photo of the Week contest is now open. This is a weekly photography contest with no set theme and you can enter as many photos as you like.

Click here to read the Photo of the Week Rules.

The voting for the 39th Photo of the Week contest has now finished.

The winners are “Another world” by gav_davies and “Perrons Tree Frog” by tootsie.

Congratulations to the winners!

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

It’s not all good news for the digital camera boom, as a report by RBC Capital Markets Inc. has indicated that digital camera shipments from Japan dropped by 6% in July. Japanese vendors make up an estimated 80 percent of the market. The biggest geographic slowdown was in Europe and North America, down 9 percent and 8 percent respectively.

“The majority of the weakness is attributable to lower-end cameras [below 4-megapixals], with year-to-date shipments down 10 percent to 13 million. “We are not wholly surprised by the continued softness as we believe the industry continues to rationalize excess inventory exiting Q2, as noted by both Sony and Canon,” according to the report.”

Website: EE Times UK - Digital camera shipments down 6% in July

Digital Outback Photo contributor Paul Caldwell has taken a look at the BH-55 Ball Head from Really Right Stuff. Don’t know what a ball head is? Let Paul explain:

“With a ballhead, you have a very versatile shooting platform. The basic layout is to have a ball which has a shaft that is attached to your quick release platform, and a case around the ball. The case provides both a method to capture the ball and apply friction to the ball. You need to be able to have a friction mechanism that is variable. This will allow you to free up the ball to allow movement so you can position it for the next shot, but also then tighten down on the ball after the correct position is achieved.”

Website: Digital Outback Photo - Really Right Stuff BH-55 Ball Head Review

The Norwegain website DigIT have just reviewed the 6 megapixel Olympus CAMEDIA C-60 ZOOM.

Website: DigIT - Olympus CAMEDIA C-60 ZOOM Review

Check the Latest Prices for the Olympus C-60 Zoom

Write a Review of the Olympus C-60 Zoom

Photobird.com have posted their review of the 8-megapixel Sony CyberShot DSC-F828 digital camera.

“The 7x zoom lens on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-F828 stands out as one of the best features of this digital camera. It has a natural feel to be able to zoom in and out by turning the zoom ring around the lens. Comparatively, other digital cameras with zoom lenses require the user to press a rocker switch that must operate a motor, and the starting and stopping of the motor can introduce delays in getting the right shot.”

Website: Photobird.com - Sony CyberShot DSC-F828 Review

An article over on Rob Galbraith states that the Canon EOS 20D is due to begin shipping the week of September 13, 2004. You may be lucky to get hold of one if you haven’t pre-ordered, however, as “Canon USA is anticipating that it will take a couple of months before supply begins to catch up with demand for the 8MP, 5 fps camera.”

Website: Rob Galbraith - Canon EOS 20D on target to ship the week of September 13 in USA

Pre-order the Canon EOS 20D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera (Body only) from Amazon

Pre-order the Canon EOS 20D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens from Amazon

In this month’s Sunday Morning Photographer column Mike Johnston explains what he got up to in hospital, what he thinks of the Canon EOS 20D, and why he’s just purchased a Bronica:

“So what’d I do on my summer vacation? Well, the flip side of digital’s snowballing popularity is that film cameras are going begging, much like a used M3 in 1969. Being the astute market analyst that I am, I’ve perceived that the steepest price drops have been in professional equipment, especially second-tier professional equipment that even in good times sells without a snootiness premium. So before I left for Michigan, I bought a nearly perfect Bronica SQ-A, lens, and back for less than a few couples would spend on dinner and wine at Lutece. Old technology? To be sure. A fierce shout-out against digital? Not at all, friends, not at all. I’d take a shiny new (okay, matte black new) 20D over an old Bronica any day. It’s just that the Bronica is still a lot better than a gnarly little consumer digicam. IMHO anyway.”

Website: Sunday Morning Photographer: Bronicas and Robot Friends: What I Did Last Summer

The Polish website Fotopolis have just reviewed the Sony DSC-W12, which is exactly the same camera as the DSC-W1, but it has a Special Edition black body, black leather case and is supplied with 4 x NiMH batteries.

Website: Fotopolis - Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W12 Review

My German is a little shaky to say the least, but an article over on digitalkamera.de seems to be suggesting that the black version of the Canon EOS 300D, until now only sold in Japan, is making its way to Europe. I’d be grateful if all you German speakers out there could help me out with the translation…

Website: digitalkamera.de - Neue Canon EOS 300D-Kits bringen Abwechslung ins Spiel

DCResource are the first website to post a review of what is sure to be a popular camera, the 5 megapixel Canon PowerShot A95:

“The PowerShot A95 is a worthy follow-up to the extremely popular A80. There wasn’t much that needed improvement on the A80, and admittedly some of the changes are pretty unexciting. The most important changes are the higher resolution CCD and larger/sharper LCD display. So what I’m saying is that the A95 is even better than an already great camera.”

Website: DCResource - Canon PowerShot A95 Review

Imatest is shaping up to be an interesting development for the photographer who likes to know everything about their equipment. It is a suite of programs for testing the sharpness and image quality of lenses, digital cameras, and digitized film images using inexpensive, widely available targets. Imatest has now been released - you can now download an evaluation version that allows up to 20 runs of the individual modules (SFR, Colorcheck, or Q-13). Online purchase and registration is available. The introductory price is $59 US.

“With Imatest you can:
 
- test lens performance at different focal lengths and apertures to learn where each lens works best; 
- examine the effects of camera and post-processing settings, such as mirror lock, ISO speed, white balance, RAW converter, and sharpening; 
- compare the performance of different cameras, even if they have different amounts of built-in sharpening; 
- compare your camera and lenses with results derived from websites such as imaging-resource.com, dpreview.com and others. This is important because quality control is far from perfect. Even premium lenses from reputable manufacturers may fail to meet expectations. With Imatest you can find out fast and return them if they are substandard. “

Website: Imatest

I only bought this lens myself a couple of months ago, and it was only released by Canon last year, but rumours are cirulating that the popular 17-40mm f/4 L lens has been discontinued ahead of the Photokina show. Canon USA are apparently saying this via their 800 consumer information number, and the lens has been taken off the Canon USA website (although it is still on the German and Japanese sites.

“This is quite surprising if true. I can only guess it might be a prelude to a similar lens to be announce at Photokina at the end of the month. It was only introduced in May of 2003 and so it it really has been discontinued, it must set some sort of record as the shortest lived “L” series lens, just 16 months.”

Website: Bob Atkins - Canon EOS Rumours

Connected Home Media have reviewed the 8-colour Canon i9900 printer, which can create a 13 x 19-inch borderless photograph in under three minutes and has a maximum resolution of 4800 x 2400 dpi. The printer is available now for a suggested list price of $499.

“The first thing that strikes you about printing on the Canon i9900 is its speed. I printed a gorgeous borderless 13?x19? poster of a Colorado mountain scene, using my USB 1.1 port, in just under 5 minutes. Using the high-speed USB 2.0 port, I managed a similar print of the same size in an incredible 3 minutes. I printed a borderless 8?x10? shot from my sister?s wedding in about a minute. I cranked out a borderless 4?x6? shot of my beautiful daughter in just over 30 seconds. I found myself searching for my very best digital photographs, wanting to print out more and more gorgeous reproductions. I ended up with a plethora of large photos that I?ll now have to buy a bunch of frames for.”

Website: Connected Home Media - Canon i9900 Printer Review

Connected Home Media have reviewed the Canon EOS 300D digital SLR.

“The Canon EOS Digital Rebel ($999) is a fabulous camera for photographers who desire more than the basics. If you have the time and inclination and curiosity to explore the myriad capabilities of this striking piece of equipment, I think you?ll find that very few cameras at this price point can match the professional image quality and sheer usability of the Digital Rebel. Best of all, in my testing of the Rebel, I found that I could swap out the included 18-55mm lens and affix my old lenses, meaning this is a camera that gives me the best of SLR functionality in the digital realm.”

Website: Connected Home Media - Canon EOS 300D Review

I reported a couple of weeks ago that Ilford UK had gone into receivership, citing “the decline in the black and white photography market” as the main reason for its losses. Whilst Ilford’s inkjet digital business, which is based in Switzerland, was unaffected, it seems that Ilford UK’s demise had a knock-on effect, as Ilford Germany has also closed its doors.

Despite this news, there does seem to be some cause for hope, as Ilford Germany has released a press statement on its website, which according to the website PhotoScala says “But after a first examination at the figures for Germany and UK it is certain, says Ilford Germany, that Ilford’s products will exist further on. It is planned to carry on with the production of black-and-white films and papers as well as with ink-jet papers.” and “But customers should assume that there will be some tightening in Ilford’s product range. What will remain and what will be abandoned is unsure at the moment.”.

So mixed news for all the film-lovers out there, which I guess is better than plain old bad news.

Website: Ilford Germany

Website: PhotoScala - Ilford: It’s going on

Engadget have reviewed the tiny Philips’ Wearable Digital Camera, which retails for $117 on Amazon for the 128Mb version.

“We picked up the Philips Wearable Digital Camera mainly to take apart and make some cool hack projects with, as its strong and compact casing makes it ideal for that kind of thing. But as we used it more and more we discovered this is a handy camera to keep attached to your keyring so that you?ll always have with it you. With one hand and one motion you can take pictures in some places where whipping out that 6 megapixel monster or even a cameraphone isn?t appropriate. The camera doesn?t do that well in low light conditions and doesn?t have a flash, so the best pictures will likely be outdoors.”

Website: Engadget - Spend some time with Philips’ Wearable Digital Camera