A number of websites have posted previews of the Olympus Mju (?) - mini DIGITAL which was announced yesterday.

- DigiCamReview.co.uk
- Digit.no
- Digital Camera Resource
- DP-Now
- Imaging Resource

The 31st PhotographyBLOG Portfolio has been submitted by Lior Schejter.

“My name is Lior Schejter. I’m a photography hobbist. I usually take pictures on trips I make around the world and in Israel, where I live.

The photos are all from a trip to Ireland I made about a year ago. Most of them are scenery photos, trying to capture the awe of seeing it first hand.

These photographs were taken using a Minolta 505si and a Fuji Finepix 602z.”

Website: Portfolios: Lior Schejter

The Epson UK press release below mentions a new film scanner, the Epson F-3200. I’ve not heard of this model before, so a quick Google search revealed that the “I Love Epson” Japanese website have a new F-3200 section. The Epson F-3200 scanner seems to have negative holders for all film sizes, including 5x4”, a DPI of 3200 and a built-in LCD screen. There is also a memory card slot that accepts MemoryStick, Compact Flash, SD and xd-Picture memory cards. So expect to see another press release soon!

Website: I Love Epson.jp - Epson F-3200 Film Scanner

Epson Press Release 03/09/04

EPSON - Beyond Photo
photokina 2004, September 28 - October 3

Put EPSON’s latest innovations to the test
Booth No. J/050, Consumer Hall 3.1

August 2004 - At photokina 2004, visitors seeking to experience the future of digital imaging either in business or the home, should ensure the EPSON stand is at the top of their list.

As well as demonstrating its comprehensive range of digital imaging products for the home and the office, EPSON is launching the EPSON P-2000 Photo Viewer, a portable media player that stores, organises and plays back digital photos, movies and music. It is also launching the EPSON L500, a combined digital camera and image viewer.

For the professional and advanced amateur photographers there is also the opportunity to see the new EPSON F-3200, dedicated film scanner.

Steves Digicams have published their review of the 5 megapixel Ricoh Caplio GX digital camera.

“The Caplio GX did not live up to Ricoh’s claim of professional image quality; its results were more in line with consumer digicams. JPG artifacts were present, and noise was noticeable at ISO 200, and objectionable at ISO 800 and 1600. While the higher ISO settings produced poor image quality, you’ll appreciate them when it makes the difference between capturing the shot and not. Aside from image noise and artifacts, the camera produced well-exposed and richly saturated shots both indoors and out.”

Website: Steves Digicams - Ricoh Caplio GX Review

Website: Read my Review of the Ricoh Caplio GX

The 30th PhotographyBLOG Portfolio has been submitted by Alberto Turiel.

“Looking at “Salvador Moreno” August 6th, portfolio I’m remember my photo series about “Semana Santa”. This time is located on Valladolid, a city in the north-center of Spain. My personal view is slightly diferent of the typical photo of Valladolid Semana Santa, more focused on the historical “wood sculptures” that were carried by the “cofrades” along all the city.”

Website: http://perso.wanadoo.es/turi/series/index.html

Website: Portfolios: Alberto Turiel

I was at the Olympus press conference for the launch of the Olympus Mju (?) - mini DIGITAL and managed to grab a few photos of this dimunitive camera.

Click on the image to view a larger version in a new window.

DigicamReview.co.uk also have a great preview of the new camera:

Website: DigicamReview.co.uk - Olympus Mju (?) - mini DIGITAL Preview

The Olympus Mju (?) - mini DIGITAL will be called the Olympus Stylus Verve in the USA (a much catchier name in my opinion).

Olympus UK Press Release 03/09/2004 3.00pm CET

Dressed to impress

The Olympus Mju (?) - mini DIGITAL - Small and perfectly formed

The Mju (?) -mini DIGITAL from Olympus is a real showstopper.  With a futuristic design and smooth contours, it is true to the Mju philosophy, by creating a perfect balance between design and technology.  Its four million pixels deliver stunning picture quality, whilst a weather-proof* metal body is available in a choice of six striking colours (Silver, Pure White, Black, Crystal Blue, Velvet Red and Copper Orange), so you can select the one most in tune with your personality. 

The Mju1 (?) -mini DIGITAL from Olympus is planned for release in October 2004, priced £249.99 inc. VAT.  It will be supplied with the new Olympus Master 1.0 software, and incorporates a range of features:

- 4.0 million pixels
- 2x optical zoom
- A 1.8 inch, high-contrast LCD to deliver bright, vivid colours and wide viewing angles even in bright sunlight
- The TruePic TURBO image processor boosts picture quality and processing speed
- The camera includes a movie recording function with sound
- Still image editing functions include new fish-eye and soft focus modes

Olympus UK Press Release 03/09/2004 3.00pm CET

Get organised with the new Olympus Master 1.0

Small effort, big results

The new Olympus Master 1.0 software makes light work of managing multiple images and movie clips.  Features such as editing functions, multiple viewing options and online camera firmware updates are all available in a simple user-friendly format.

Olympus Master 1.0 will be included with all Olympus cameras shipped from October 2004. The updated Plus version will be available via the internet at the same time.  Features include…

- Trouble-free, direct file transfer from camera
- Easy organisation of files by keyword, album, time or icon
- Image editing (incl. RAW image development), slideshow and movie viewing functions
- Auto-panorama capability
- Attach to e-mail function
- The Olympus Master Plus 1.0 version also offers a host of innovative additional capabilities such as movie editing and CD/DVD burning facilities.

BIOS Magazine have posted their review of the recently announced Canon PIXMA iP4000 inkjet printer.

“As expected, using high-quality Canon photo paper and spending a little time tweaking the driver settings improved print results, eliminated banding and added a whole new depth to photographs. Results still aren’t the best available however, but they’re good enough for the vast majority of today’s digital camera users looking for a relatively low-cost and versatile printer for printing 4x6in. prints and the occassional A4 letter.”

Website: BIOS Magazine - Canon PIXMA iP4000 Review

Belkin Press Release 02/09/04

New Mobile Accessories from Belkin; Hi-Speed USB 2.0 15-in-1 Media Reader & Writer, TuneDok for iPod mini, and OmniDock-L

COMPTON, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Sept. 2, 2004—Belkin today announces new mobile computing and digital music accessories. The Hi-Speed USB 2.0 15-in-1 Media Reader & Writer works with 15 media cards including xD Picture Card, allowing you to drag and drop files, images, and music to your computer from your PDA or handheld, MP3 player, digital camera, or other device. The OmniDock-L(TM) for Handheld Devices holds your handheld device in your car’s cup holder so you can view your data in the vehicle. And, the TuneDok for iPod(R) mini mobile digital devices allows you to listen to the music from your iPod mini while keeping it secured in your car’s cup holder. All three devices are currently shipping in North America.

Hi-Speed USB 2.0 15-in-1 Media Reader & Writer (F5U249)—MSRP $39.95
The Media Reader & Writer lets you transfer files from one media card to another, or transfer files from all four media cards simultaneously at transfer speeds of up to 480Mbps. It features four dedicated slots to accommodate all popular types of media including: xD Picture Card, CompactFlash(R) I, CompactFlash II, SmartMedia(TM), Secure Digital, Mini Secure Digital (Mini SD), MultiMediaCard, RSMMC(b), IBM(R) Microdrive(TM), Memory Stick(R), Memory Stick Duo(TM)(b), Memory Stick Pro(TM), Memory Stick Pro Duo(TM)(a), Memory Stick MagicGate(TM)(a), and Memory Stick MagicGate Duo(TM).

Luminous Landscape and Glenn E. Mitchell have teamed up again to publish a new Photoshop tutorial on using tone-based masks:

“Ever take a photograph on a rainy, dreary day? Something like Figure 1 is typical. You end up with lots of contrast but not much information in the middle tones. The result is a flat, boring image.

One solution in this case is to use a tripod and bracket the shots. Take one photograph to hold the sky detail and another to emphasize the shadow detail. Then you can composite the shots later in Adobe Photoshop. That solution takes care of images with wide dynamic range, but there are other instances where we might want to adjust just the middle tones or just the quarter tones. What then?

Figure 2 shows the results of careful adjustments using a set of tone masks for the shadows, three-quarter tones, and middle tones. The image has a lot more ?pop? than the raw image in Figure 1. It is a much more pleasing image.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Masking by the Numbers

Olympus have released a Macromedia Flash-based teaser advert on their e-System website which hints VERY STRONGLY at a new e-System camera, to be launched at Photokina at the end of September. Billed as “The next generation of digital SLR cameras”, I would guess that Olympus have a more affordable e-System SLR body than the current professional E-1 up their corporate sleeves.

Website: Olympus e-System - Photokina Teaser

This feels very weird, linking to an article that is essentially about me and this website, but I’ll run with it anyway :-) e-FotoGrafija have published a good, great, fantastic interview with none other than yours truly. If you’ve ever wondered how PhotographyBLOG first started, what the future holds for the site and what I looked like just a couple of days ago, then head over to e-FotoGrafija and read the interview.

Website: e-FotoGrafija - PhotographyBLOG and Mark Goldstein

The latest workflow article over on Digital Outback Photo explains how to create a custom brush in Photoshop and use it to sign your photo prints.

“It used to be I’d matte, mount and frame a print for sale and then authenticate the print by signing the matte in pencil. If I was selling the print unframed, I would simply sign the lower right-hand border with a Sharpie permanent marker. Now in the digital age, we have a few more creative options…

My current preferred method is to add my signature digitally in Photoshop. To do this is relatively simple and I can control the size, color and effect tailoring the result specifically to the print I am placing it on and from the responses I’ve received, my clients like it too!”

Website: Digital Outback Photo - Making a “Signature” brush for use in Photoshop

Addonics Technologies Press Release 02/09/04

Addonics 4-Slot UDD Reads/Writes to 4 PCMCIA Hard Drives, 4 ATA Flash or 4 of any type of Flash Media with USB 2.0 or SATA Connection

SAN JOSE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Sept. 2, 2004—Addonics Technologies has combined 4 full size PCMCIA slots into a mini, stylish and high performance 4-slot external reader/writer that allows users to simultaneously transfer data between any combination of the PCMCIA hard drive, ATA Flash or flash media supported. Instead of having many card readers, graphics professionals and digital media enthusiasts can now have all their readers and PC Card hard drives consolidated in one small device with its new Addonics 4-Slot UDD.

The 4-Slot UDD adds further versatility to common flash reader/writers because it uses four independent USB connections. Users can simultaneously read/write or transfer data to as many as four PC Card hard drives or four ATA Flash, or any combination of four flash media. The transfer rate for each slot is at full USB 2.0 speeds or the latest Serial ATA (SATA) for a maximum data transfer up to 150Mbytes/sec. Users can select either a USB 2.0 or Serial ATA interface cable for the 4-slot UDD.

DigitalCameraInfo have reviewed the brand new Sony DSC-P93, a 5-megapixel digital camera with a 3x optical zoom.

“The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P93 is one of the few digital cameras we’ve tested that has a mean saturation score lower than 100%. Most digital cameras on the market today (point-and-shoot and dSLR) tend to over saturate tones to produce more vibrant colors. The Sony DSC-P93 has a mean saturation score of 97.34%, and as you can see from the graph there are quite a few colors that are under saturated particularly in the blues and into the greens. Colors 9 and 15 are consistently over saturated in all the digital cameras we have tested, which is purposefully done to create rich skin tones.”

Website: DigitalCameraInfo - Sony DSC-P93 Review

NikonNet Press Release 01/09/04

NikonNet and ‘Legends Behind The Lens’ Honor The Work Of Award-Winning Photographer Reed Hoffmann

MELVILLE, N.Y., Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/—Whether he’s shooting extreme athletes in Borneo or teaching the many facets of digital photography, Reed Hoffmann is a photographer of impact.  Known for his dynamic abilities in journalistic and commercial photography, Hoffmann is also widely considered a pioneer in bringing the digital revolution to newspapers by becoming the
leading American digital consultant in analog-to-digital transition.

This September, NikonNet’s inspiring monthly, “Legends Behind the Lens,” honors the work of esteemed photographer Reed Hoffmann.  For almost 30 years, Hoffmann, whose work has appeared in a variety of publications such as The New York Times, USA Today, Sports Illustrated, and Outside Magazine, has combined vast newspaper experience with a thirst for world travel and adventure.  For more than 20 years, Hoffmann worked for newspapers in Indiana, Alabama and New York, twice winning NPPA Photographer of the Year honors for Region 2 (Northeast).

Stamps.com Press Release 02/09/04

PhotoStamps Are Hot! Customers Order 800,000 PhotoStamps in First Three Weeks

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 2 /PRNewswire - FirstCall/ - Stamps.com (NASDAQ:STMP) today announced that customer response to its new PhotoStamps(TM) product has been overwhelmingly positive—with 40,000 sheets, or 800,000 individual PhotoStamps, ordered since the August 10th public launch.

“We’re very pleased with how well the product has been received already,” said Stamps.com president and CEO Ken McBride. “Customer feedback has been extremely positive with over 90% of surveyed customers telling us they are likely to order PhotoStamps again.”

Paraglyph Press - Press Release 01/09/04

Paraglyph Press Announces First Book on the Culture of Camera Phones: “Camera Phone Obsession”

Scottsdale AZ - September 1, 2004 - Paraglyph Press is pleased to announce the first book on the phenomenon of camera phones, “Camera Phone Obsession” (U.S. $19.99, 272 pages, ISBN 1-932111-96-4).  Today, virtually every new cell phone sold has a camera feature.  These wildly successful devices can only be described as a cultural phenomenon, and the way people
think about their camera phones can only be described as an obsession.

“Camera Phone Obsession” discusses the key aspects of why camera phones are such a phenomenon:
-Creating an image that can be instantly shared changes the way we think of our day-to-day experiences.
-Technological limitations force the camera phone user to think about the artistic aspects of the medium in new ways.
-Users are obsessed with the technology features of their phone and love to share their experiences and thoughts with other users - creating another cultural phenomenon, the moblog.