PCWorld have just published a comparitive roundup of what they consider to be the top-10 advanced digital cameras. There are a few strange choices in the list…

“The 8-megapixel race is on: Canon, Nikon, and Olympus join Sony in offering high-end consumer models with 8-megapixel CCDs. So far the Olympus C-8080 is our pick of the group (we’ve yet to test the Canon PowerShot Pro1), with top-notch image-quality scores and easy-to-use controls. Nikon’s Coolpix 8700 produced photos as fine as the C-8080’s and has a longer zoom range, but it’s harder to use. In the “If you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it” category, Leica’s classic-looking Digilux 2 is designed for the purist photographer. Its unique feature: a built-in bounce flash.”

Website: PCWorld - Top 10 Advanced Digital Cameras

Kodak have today announced that Lexar Media will be their exclusive source for digital memory cards, and that they will sell Lexar cards rebranded with the Kodak name. The types of memory card include Secure Digital (SD), Mini-SD, CompactFlash and other digital recording formats.

“In a statement, the companies said they had joined forces in order to “gain a larger share of the market for removable digital memory products” and noted surging demand for digital cameras, cameraphones, music players and other consumer electronics that use removable memory cards to store data.”

Website: Yahoo News - Kodak Names Lexar Memory Card Provider

The winner of the 24th PhotographyBLOG Photo of the Week contest is gav_davies with the entry “Who’s the Daddy!!!”. There are no prizes as such for this contest, but the winning photo is displayed on the PhotographyBLOG homepage for a week, and the winner can display the Photo of the Week logo on their website if they wish.

The 25th Photo of the Week contest is now open. This is a weekly photography challenge where you decide who the winner is by voting for your favourite photos. It’s an open 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.

Please note that this is the final round of the Photo of the Week contest in its current format. I will be changing the rules for next week’s contest - more news later this week.

The 10th PhotographyBLOG Portfolio has been submitted by Pete Nicholls.

“Originally from England, Pete Nicholls emigrated to America in 1961. Combining a life-long interest in photography and nature, he began photographing the natural world in 2001. Much of his photography has been done without leaving home, in fact, this series of images were all captured without leaving home.

Back in his younger years as a member of the armed forces while stationed in the far east, he purchased his first 35mm camera, a Petri 7s. During his tour in the far east, he studied photography and shot several thousand slides, developing many of them himself in a photo lab on the base. After his tour was over, photography faded and was overtaken by other life events and interests until receiving a 3 megapixel camera from his wife in 2001. This re-kindled his interest in photography and has resulted in over 10,000 images being taken with Olympus, Minolta, and Canon cameras. He continues to study the art and looks forward to spending his retirement years with camera in hand.

He maintains an internet presence at http://vividprints.com”

Website: Portfolios: Pete Nicholls

Steves Digicams have published a preview of the Canon PowerShot S60, a 5 megapixel digital camera with a wide-angle 28mm-100mm lens and a new thin body.

“The 5-Megapixel PowerShot S60 camera is equipped with a redesigned 3.6x zoom lens that goes from a wide-angle focal length of 28mm to a telephoto of 100mm (35mm film equivalent). This new lens features an Ultra high refractive index, which makes it thin and compact. The Ultra high refractive index Aspherical (UA) lens allows for a 28mm wide angle zoom while increasing image quality and slimming the body of the camera for a sleek design.”

Website: Steves Digicams - Canon PowerShot S60 Preview

Luminous Landscape have published a new article by Dutch photographer Stefan Heijdendael called “From Digital to Analog, and Back”, which explores a minimalist approach to developing your photographic skills.

“So here’s some free advice from a novice in the digital arena to novices in the field of photography. And of course it is Hans who brought me to this advice. Restrict yourself. Forget about tweaking, and try to get the most perfect frozen moment in time, which will serve as a good base for a print. How? If you don?t want to spend a lot of money, go to a second hand photo store and go look for a basic single lens reflex. There are thousands for sale, and they cost little.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - From Digital to Analog, and Back

Imaging Resource have just reviewed the new 3.2 megapixel Canon PowerShot A75.

“As I mentioned at the outset, Canon’s PowerShot A70 topped the charts in Canon’s sales last year, outstripping all other camera models. - And for good reason: The A70 offered a rich set of features and excellent image quality at an attractive price. This year, the PowerShot A75 appears poised to follow in the A70’s and A40’s footsteps.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Canon PowerShot A75 Review

Imaging Resource have reviewed the 8 megapixel Canon PowerShot Pro1, which was announced by Canon just before the start of the PMA 2004 trade show.

“Very good image noise at ISO 50, increases steadily at higher ISOs, but very little flattening of subject detail at high ISOs. The PowerShot Pro1 delivers very clean-looking images at its minimum ISO of 50, but the noise levels increase quite steadily beyond that point. (Its noise levels more or less track those of the Sony DSC-F828 and Nikon Coolpix 8700.) For most users, noise will be negligible at ISO 50 and 100, noticeable but acceptable at ISO 200, and objectionable at ISO 400. On a positive note though, there’s relatively little loss of subtle subject detail caused by anti-noise processing, at any ISO setting.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Canon PowerShot Pro1 Review

The Slovenian website e-FotoGrafija have just reviewed the 4-megapixel, 10x zoom Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2.

Website: e-FotoGrafija - Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2 Review

Digital Outback Photo have been busy over the weekend publishing no less than 6 new articles:

- “RAW FAQ” started
- Advanced Dust Healing Technique
- Almost halo free sharpening with Simple Sharpening
- Canon 1D Mark II Noise Check
- Note on DxO Optics Pro
- Kodak SLR/c, Canon 1Ds & Canon 1D Mk II Comparison Photos

Website: Digital Outback Photo

DCResource have published a dual-review of the new Olympus C-765 and C-770 Ultra Zoom digital cameras.

“The Olympus C-765 and C-770 Ultra Zooms remain at the top of my list for big zoom cameras, along with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10. I must admit, though, that the FZ10 and Canon S1 and their stabilized lenses make the Olympus twins a little less desirable than before. Even so, the “UZIs” take excellent, sharp photos that will be great for websites or large prints.”

Website: DCResource - Olympus C-765/C-770 Ultra Zoom Review

The Norwegian website DigIT have posted their review of the Samsung Digimax U-CA 3, a 3 megapixel digital camera aimed at the young photographer or the budding photo enthusiast.

Website: DigIT - Samsung Digimax U-CA 3 Review

DCViews have just reviewed the 5-megapixel Olympus E-1 DSLR.

“The E-1, which is the central part of the new system, is a very good camera indeed. Although it does not offer the resolution of other professional cameras, or the AF speed required for professional sports photography, it is designed and built extremely well and certainly has that professional feel to it. In use it feels solid and reliable and is responsive enough for most shooting situations.”

Website: DCViews - Olympus E-1 Review

A-Digital-Eye have just reviewed the 4-megapixel, 10x zoom Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2.

“The DiMAGE Z2 is an impressive little camera featuring a new GT lens that uses AD (anomalous dispersion) glass (APO lens). It corrects a large portion of the color aberration on the telephoto end and delivers sharp images of high contrast across the entire display from the center to the edges. Moreover, it employs two aspherical lenses (one of which is aspherical on both sides), which effectively corrects spherical aberration and distortion aberration.”

Website: A-Digital-Eye - Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2 Review

The 9th PhotographyBLOG Portfolio has been submitted by Greg Taylor.

“My theme is ‘contrasts of light and dark’.

My name is Greg Taylor. I am 16, live in one of the suburbs of London and am a student in the first year of college, but due to lack of funds, my school is unable to run any kind of photography class, so I do it in my own time.

I usually have sudden urges to take photos of a certain location, often at a ridiculous time of day (5:30 am for the London sunrise shots!). At the moment I use a fuji S7000 and a range of wideangle and other lenses. This will be the first time I will have shown my photos to anybody and certainly the first time to be possibly displayed on the net!

I like to take emotional style pictures, often including some form of heavy light and dark contrast, and a focal point on the picture (where the eyes are drawn to). I also like to take action photography of anything that moves, really! Objects such as running, greyhound racing, mountain biking etc.”

Website: Portfolios: Greg Taylor

The 8th PhotographyBLOG Portfolio has been submitted by Elie Dinur.

“This portfolio is drawn from a large body of work done along the Mediterranean shore of the Western Galilee, Israel which may be viewed at http://www.imageevent.com/elied/coastofgalilee.”

“I began photographing fully forty years ago while living in New York and studied photography at NYU and The Visual Studies Workshop. After immigrating to Israel I was for many years the resident photographer of my kibbutz - doing everything from advertising brochures to documentation of kibbutz life to my own “art” photographs - but eventually drifted away from it and left the cameras to gather dust. Now, however, excited by the possibilities for creative control offered by the “digital revolution” and the level of quality of affordable digital cameras, I have returned. I started a year and a half ago with a Minolta 7i and have recently traded it for a Minolta A1.”

Website: Portfolios: Elie Dinur

The 7th PhotographyBLOG Portfolio has been submitted by David Leafe.

“I am a very amateur photographer (as you can see) just starting out on a new hobby but very excited by images I saw on a recent holiday in Morocco. Tried to capture some of the flavour of the people of the country in relaxed and un-posed shots as well as a few other interesting details e.g. the urns and the flags attached to the mooring buoys in the beach town of Essouria.”

Website: Portfolios: David Leafe

The Discovery Channel have shared the details of a trip out to the zoo, armed with 4 compact digital cameras:

“There are so many great animals to see at the zoo. It’s a picture perfect setting. In fact, it’s a great place to test out some new digital cameras.

I took 4 digicams to the zoo with me: two high-end models - the Sony Cyber-shot and the Nikon Coolpix, as well two funky new cams from a Japanese company called Che-ez! Che-ez makes the world’s smallest digital camera, called Snap, and the VU - a pocket-sized video camera!”

Website: Discovery Channel - Digital Cameras: A Trip to the Zoo

A new article over on Luminous Landscape will be of interest to all Nikon DSLR owners:

“Nikon uses the autofocus sensing mechanism from their film cameras (except for the D2h), and hasn’t scaled it to the smaller sensor size. The net result is that the autofocus sensors, which on the film cameras are bunched inside the 1/3 lines of the full frame, are stretched towards the edges on the digital bodies. This has two consequences:

1. Autofocus occurs with objects closer to the edge of the frame on a Nikon DSLR than it does with 35mm bodies.

2. The “spread” between autofocus sensors is larger, leaving a gap where autofocus doesn’t occur.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Focus Sensor Locations on the Nikon DSLRs

PCMagazine have published a short article which wonders how long digital photos will last for…

“I should be happy. I’m a proponent of digital photography and digital video. I use it and write about it. But I’m also plagued by little panic attacks. I haven’t taken a 35mm photo of my kids in months. What if my computer hard drive dies? I have all my photos backed up on a CD, but what if I lose that or it somehow becomes corrupted?”

Website: PCMagazine - Will Digital Images Last?