Canon have released a new firmware version for the EOS 1Ds digital SLR camera.

EOS-1Ds Firmware Update Version 1.0.3 resolves the following issues:

Corrects the phenomenon of storage media with capacities greater than 2GB being recognized as having less than their full capacity after being formatted by the EOS-1Ds.

This firmware supports cameras with firmware Version 1.0.2 or earlier.  If the camera already has the Version 1.0.3 firmware, this update is unnecessary.

Website: Canon EOS-1Ds V1.0.3 Firmware

During our visit to the north of Tenerife we had a quick walk around one of the many small villages. Emilio, our guide, even got the local priest to unlock the church so that we could peek inside - now that’s what I call being helpful! This particular village sat precariously between the sea and the mountains.

Olympus have released a firmware upgrade which will add Pictbridge support for the following cameras:

- C-350 ZOOM
- D-560 ZOOM
- u[mju:] 300 Digital
- u[mju:] 400 Digital
- Stylus 300 Digital
- Stylus 400 Digital
- C-740 Ultra Zoom
- C-750 Ultra Zoom

Olympus - Pictbridge Firmware Upgrade

The Hungarian website Index Digicam have posted their review of the Panasonic DMC-FZ10 Lumix ultrazoom digital camera.

Index Digicam - Panasonic DMC-FZ10 Lumix Review

DPReview have just published a comprehensive review of the 6 megapixel Nikon D70 DSLR.

“Shortly after Canon announced the EOS 300D (Digital Rebel) and it made its way into reviewers hands it was fairly clear that Canon were offering a formidable package at an excellent price which would be the mark for affordable digital SLR’s of the future, with image quality almost identical to the EOS 10D and a sub-$1000 price it caused a significant ripple in the market. Now however it’s clear that Nikon were well aware of this and had the D70 up their sleeve, a camera which is a significant step ahead of the EOS 300D in terms of build quality and feature set and a match, and in some instances better from an image quality point of view.”

Website: DPReview - Nikon D70 Review

SanDisk Corporation Press Release 05/04/04

SANDISK INTRODUCES 4-GIGABIT MONOLITHIC NAND FLASH MEMORY CHIP BASED ON 90 NANOMETER TECHNOLOGY

8-Gigabit Flash Memory Chip Also Available By Stacking Two Of The New 4-Gigabit Memories In a Single Package

SUNNYVALE, CA, April 6, 2004 ? SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), reinforcing its leadership in the development and fabrication of high capacity NAND flash memory chips, today introduced a 4-gigabit (Gb) single-die, multi-level cell (MLC), NAND flash memory chip with double the capacity of its present largest single-die NAND flash memory chip. Advanced design concepts implemented in the new 4Gb NAND flash device and its associated next generation SanDisk controllers enable faster MLC write speeds necessary for increasingly demanding digital consumer electronic devices. SanDisk also announced a 8Gb NAND flash memory chip that stacks two of the 4Gb NAND flash memory chips in a single package.

The new generation NAND MLC memories will enable the production of flash memory cards having double the storage capacity of today?s cards, at a reduced cost per megabyte, thereby further expanding the wide-ranging adoption of NAND flash in consumer and mobile applications. For example, just one of the 8Gb flash memory chips is required in fabricating a 1 gigabyte flash card, which could accelerate the flash storage opportunity in MP3 players, solid state camcorders, and USB flash drives.

BusinessWeek Online is reporting that camera phones are taking over the lower-end of the camera market, displacing conventional digital cameras, which have been forced to move upmarket. Apparently “Last year sales of camera phones from all makers topped 84 million units worldwide—nearly twice the purchases of conventional digital cameras.”

Some digital camera manufacturers are already withdrawing their support for cheap digital cameras and concentrating on the more expensive models. “Katsumi Ihara, president of cell-phone maker Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, says Sony Corp. (SNE ) has ceded the low-end camera market to mobile phones.”

Website: BusinessWeek Online - The Camphone Revolution

One of the ideas in my most recent article, Beating the Photography Blues, was to start your very own photoblog. Completely coincidentally, the website Digital Photography Blog have just published an in-depth guide to setting up a photoblog, including a list of different services and tools.

Website: Digital Photography Blog - Introduction to Photoblogs and MoBlogs

The Czech website Digineff have reviewed the ultra-thin Minolta DiMAGE Xg, another digital camera that was first announced at PMA 2004 in February.

Website: Digineff - Minolta DiMAGE Xg Review

BenQ Press Release 05/04/04

BenQ Launches C30 and C40 3X Optical Zoom Digital Cameras
 
Europe, 5th of April, 2004 - BenQ announced the launch of the compact BenQ DC C30 and C40 Digital Cameras.  Featuring BenQ’s exclusive graphical User-Interface, “Easy-Dial”, the 3 Megapixel DC C30 and 4 Megapixel C40 gives you professional quality pictures without the hassle of complicated menus and settings. 

In addition to this, the BenQ DC C30 and C40 are also equipped with 3X optical zoom and a spacious 1.6” LCD screen with 80000-pixel resolution for comfortable screening of your pictures.  Supporting MPEG-4 format, users can also record continuous movies with sound and playback of 30 frames per second, providing a smooth viewing experience. 

Other notable features of the BenQ DC C30 and C40 include 12-language support capabilities, built-in 14 MB memory, and a convenient single setting shutter priority feature for easy professional quality pictures. 

Enjoy your new images with the new C30 and C40.

CNET have just reviewed the new flagship model of the Canon Digital IXUS fleet, the 5.0 megapixel Powershot S500 (known as the Digital IXUS 500 outside North America), which was announced at the start of February.

“With the PowerShot S500, Canon brings its time-tested Digital Elph to the ranks of 5-megapixel, 3X-zoom digital cameras. This latest model has its older siblings’ sleek, pocket-size chassis and snapshooter ease of use, both of which we still like very much, but the previous Digital Elphs offered slightly better photo quality, and the competition has pulled ahead in terms of features and performance. As a result, the PowerShot S500 ends up being a decent but not outstanding snapshot camera.”

Website: CNET - Canon Powershot S500 Review

Professional photographer Clint Thayer has today published a review of the 6 megapixel Nikon D70 DSLR.

“If you are use to shooting with a D100, you’ll immediately notice the acuity of which is revealed in your work. Almost too sharp is not an understatement. If you take your pictures in automatic mode, not only are the pictures sharp, but very contrasty and dynamic. This may be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your preference of course. In any event, Nikon seemed to be aware of the “soft image” reputation of the D100, and responded with quite the opposite in this iteration.”

Website: Clint Thayer - Nikon D70 Review

Professional photographer Stephen Voss used the Archos Gmini 220 and Apacer Disc Steno CP-200 portable storage devices during a recent trip to Thailand and Cambodia. Find out if they proved to be a reliable way to back up and store digital images in Stephen’s review.

“After spending a considerable amount of time looking at various portable hard drive devices (and reading many opinions about them on various messageboards), I decided that a combination of a CD-based backup device and a hard disk-based backup device would do a pretty good job in protecting my images. Along those lines, I decided on the Apacer Disc Steno CP-200, since it supported disk spanning (i.e. I could copy most of a 1GB compact flash card to one CD and the rest to the next CD) and seemed to have a decent battery life. Secondly, I chose the Archos Gmini 220, which I think is a fantastic, overlooked mp3 player/photo wallet.”

Website: Stephen Voss - Archos Gmini 220 / Apacer Disc Steno CP-200 Review

Leica Camera AG Press Release 05/04/04

The LEICA D-LUX of Leica Camera AG, Solms has been given the iF design award 2004 at CeBIT, the world’s largest computer fair in Hanover. With the iF Gold award in the ‘Product Design’ category, the digital compact camera has won the highest distinction in the annual design competition. “The camera with triple zoom lens designed by Achim Heine of Berlin is reminiscent of the classic Leica line but as a digital camera offers today’s high-tech and can
be controlled by setting a dial and pressing a button thanks to simple controls,” was the jury’s assessment. 1458 entries from 32 countries competed in the iF design award 2004.

Altogether, the designers of the international jury chaired by Fritz Frenkler (f/p design gmbh, Frankfurt am Main) awarded15 golds and 25 silvers for outstanding design quality in the disciplines Communication Design (Digital Media and Graphic Design), Product Design, Packaging Design, Public Design and Transportation Design.

Further information on the LEICA D-LUX:
http://www.leica-camera.com/digitalekameras/d-lux/index_e.html

After 5 weeks and over 1,800 votes, the Konica Minolta DiMAGE A2 was voted as the 8 megapixel digicam that would you buy (503 votes), narrowly pipping the Canon Powershot Pro1 (499 votes) to the post. 5 megapixels are better than 8… came third with 328 votes.

The new PhotographyBLOG Poll poses the question: “What type of monitor do you use for photography?”. An old-fashioned CRT, new-fangled LCD or a laptop? Do you use the darkroom instead? Do you even have a computer? Cast your vote now.

We were lucky enough to be given a guided tour of the North of Tenerife by somebody who lives on the island (thanks Emilio!). It’s a very mountainous region with a few small villages which feel like a world away from the bustling streets of the capital, Santa Cruz.

The winner of the 18th PhotographyBLOG Photo of the Week contest is tootsie with the entry “adult”. 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 19th 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.

The Slovenian website e-Fotografija have published their review today of the new 8-megapixel Nikon Coolpix 8700 digital camera.

Website: e-Fotografija - Nikon Coolpix 8700 Review

ColorVision, Inc. Press Release 05/04/04

ColorVision and Pantone Ship ColorPlus; Offer Consumers Easy, Reliable Monitor Calibration for Under $100
 
LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. & CARLSTADT, N.J.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—April 5, 2004—Produce Stunning Photos Using the Tools Professionals Rely on for Color Accuracy  

ColorVision, Inc., the recognized leader in affordable digital color management, and Pantone, Inc., the global authority on color, today announced ColorPlus(TM), the newest addition to the PANTONE(R) COLORVISION(R) product line. ColorPlus is an affordable monitor calibration tool for consumers and photo hobbyists that calibrates a monitor to produce stunning photos in a few easy steps.

According to Lyra Research of Massachusetts, one in four U.S. households owned a digital camera in 2003. Additionally, 73 billion digital pictures were saved to computer hard drives worldwide in 2003. That figure is expected to grow to 170 billion by 2007.

Professionals know that digital devices, including cameras, monitors and printers, reproduce color differently. The most common cause of disappointment with digital photographs, on screen and in print, comes from an uncalibrated monitor. This is because monitor performance changes over time as luminance degrades and phosphors age. Knowing this, professionals calibrate their monitors at least once a month.

“Digital camera sales have exploded over the past few years and this strong growth is expected to continue,” said Ed Lee, director, Digital Photography Advisory Service for Lyra Research. “As consumers become more comfortable with the technology, they will begin to focus on the quality and how they can create better and better prints. Interest in tools that help consumers get better results from their digital pictures is going to be one of the next growth areas in this market.”

Version 4 of Neat Image was released yesterday. Neat Image is a digital filter designed to reduce visible noise in digital photographic images. Users of previous versions of Neat Image are entitled to a free upgrade to the latest version of the same edition.

The new features and improvementes in Neat Image v4.0:

New noise reduction engine with drastically improved filtration quality
- Noise-like textures are preserved better and produce no artifacts
- New high resolution mode produces sharper results with more details retained
- Conservative sharpening mode to sharpen image without introducing halos

New noise profile format to support higher quality noise reduction
- New profiles can be directly built with the new Neat Image version
- Older profiles can be converted to new format using built-in converter

Significantly increased processing speed
- Neat Image now works 2-3 times faster than v3.x!

Two user interface modes - Standard and Advanced
.. for beginners and experienced Neat Image users

Numerous improvements
Please see the history of changes for more details

Website: Neat Image