LetsGoDigital’s coverage of the IFA 2003 - World of Consumer Electronics show has been updated with new reports on the Datafab FP2 (plus) portable storage device, Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ2 , and the Sanyo DVP-P1 EX printer.

I haven’t seen the Sanyo printer mentioned anywhere before; it uses the dye-sublimation process to create prints up to a maximum size of 10x15cm. The DVP-P1 EX supports the PictBridge standard, so you don’t need a PC to use it. The new printer will be available in September 2003 with a suggested retail price of ?349.

Website: LetsGoDigital

Digital Outback Photo have taken a look Photokit Sharpener, yet another sharpening software program competing for your cash ($99 to be exact). Find out what Digital Outback Photo thought of it and whether it warrants a place in your digital toolkit.

“We reviewed the PhotoKit toolset some time ago and still find it very, very useful. The same group of people (e.g. Jeff Schewe and Bruce Fraser) has now released PhotoKit SHARPENER. We still find the easy to read articles written about sharpening by Bruce Fraser the best we have seen so far. This makes one thing crystal clear: These guys understand sharpening.

Photokit SHARPENER is implemented as a Photoshop automation plug-in and once you understand the use of this tool you will wrap many operations into Photoshop actions.”

Website: Digital Outback Photo - Photokit Sharpener Review

DCResource have reviewed the DiMAGE X20, which Minolta claims “is the world?s smallest and lightest 2 megapixel camera with a 3x optical zoom.”

“The engineering behind the DiMAGE X series is very impressive. Minolta has managed put a 3X optical zoom lens into a camera less than an inch thick. What they’ve done is put a prism at the back of the lens, and then put all the moving parts and additional optics down the camera body. The CCD sensor is actually on the bottom of the camera.”

Website: DCResource - Minolta DiMAGE X20 Review

It’s September 2nd today and I’ve just received the first Christmas themed Press Release, courtesy of Kyocera :-) This is the most interesting part:

35mm SLR For Die-Hards That Love Film: The Contax NX 35mm SLR with a 28-80mm lens is just for them. The NX stands out with inclusion of an extraordinary Carl Zeiss T* Vario-Sonnar 28-80mm zoom lens for the ultimate in image quality and contrast. The camera can be customized with 20 different function modes and users can select the best focusing points through the 5-point wide array, auto focus feature. In addition, it comes with a built-in flash with red-eye reduction, second curtain sync and power down feature. Best of all, the camera is now being sold for $699.00, a reduction of $300.00 off its’ original price. This stylish Contax camera and Carl Zeiss T* zoom lens outfit is aimed at both the serious amateurs and professionals alike.

The weblog PhotoDude has recently published a very interesting look at the case of a photojournalist, Patrick Schneider, who was kicked out of a competition for over-manipulating his images.

My first thought was that the photographer in question must have cloned out or added an important element in the image. He actually just used dodging and burning, two very traditional photographic techniques, to enhance his photographs. There is a Flash movie that clearly shows the changes that the photographer made; after viewing the movie, I can’t believe that the N.C. Press Photographers Association rescinded the three awards given to the Observer photographer.

DP-Now’s editor Ian Burley has just returned from a trip to Majorca to test out the new Olympus E-1 DSLR (what a great life journalists lead!). Ian has added a hands-on report of the E-1 on the DP-Now forums, with a full preview due later this week.

Here’s an interesting snippet of information to whet your appetite:

“The Four Thirds standard, around which the E-System is based, relates to the old Videcon picture tube sizing standard and the key dimension to note is the sensor diagonal of 22.3mm. We were told that this means that cameras could be developed with sensors of any aspect ratio a manufacturer desired, including square format, as long as the sensor diagonal remained 22.3mm. So the Four Thirds standard name is not tied to the 4:3 aspect ratio that the E-1 has adopted.”

Website: DP-Now Forums

Canon UK Press Release - 01/09/03

Canon, leader in photographic and imaging technology, is pleased to announce the launch of the fastest flatbed scanner in its class, the film-capable 1200x2400 dpi, 48 bit colour depth CanoScan 3200F. The new model’s film adaptor unit (FAU) facilitates negative and transparency scanning. With a chic design, sleek lines and a stylish finish, the scanner has looks to match its unrivalled speed.

The CanoScan 3200F can scan an A4 page in just 17 seconds*, making it twice as fast as its predecessor, the CanoScan 3000F, and several times faster than its nearest competitor. Speed increases have been achieved with a new ASIC controller chip, which maximises data throughput to the USB 2.0 hi-speed connection. Fast Multi-Photo mode creates separate de-skewed files from a single pass scan of multiple photographs. Canon’s QARE Level 2 technology automatically removes dust and scratches from scans of reflective originals while also correcting colour fading and excessive graininess.

“Our research shows scanning is generally perceived as frustratingly slow,” explains Malcolm Hills, Head of Canon Consumer Imaging in the UK and Ireland. “With that in mind, our engineers set about redesigning every aspect of the CanoScan 3200F to produce a scanner that leaves other brands in its wake.”

The CanoScan 3200F will be available from October 2003 for around ?69 inc VAT.

* Based on 600dpi, USB 2.0 Hi-Speed connection, Pentium 4 1.7GHz, 256MB RAM, Windows XP

Luminous Landscape have reviewed the new RAW conversion software program on the block, SilverFast DC-Pro, which has an introductory price of $299.

According to Michael Reichmann, you should steer well clear of it:

“Is SilverFast DC-Pro a contender? In a word ? No. Unfortunately not. While SilverFast may be one of the market leaders in scanning software, when it comes to RAW conversion they’re not on the right page, at least not with this first release. Therefore I won’t be providing the usual overview of how the program goes about its task. In fact the rest of this brief review will simply be to address the areas in which I find the program to be lacking.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - SilverFast DC-Pro Review

Website: SilverFast

LetsGoDigital’s coverage of the IFA 2003 - World of Consumer Electronics show has continued with reports on the Canon EOS 300D, Canon i560 and i350 printers, and the Hitachi 4Gb microdrive that I reported last week. There’s a great photo that shows the internal workings of a 1Gb microdrive, which is a mere 1 inch in size. Interestingly Hitachi have taken steps to improve the protection of the microdrive if it is dropped:

“The housing of the Microdrive now has a rubber fender all around, something that the first generation was lacking all around. This fender makes it possible for the Microdrive to survive a fall of 75cm on a concrete floor. When falling on carpet of a minimum of 1cm it may be 1m.”

Website: LetsGoDigital

The popular online photography magazine 28mm has temporarily closed its virtual doors.

“Due to the recent rise in traffic, 28MM has exceeded it’s bandwidth allowance for the current cycle.

Our hosting bill increases with every visit and we need your help.”

You can help to get 28mm back up and running by making a donation directly to its webhost.

Like 28mm, PhotographyBLOG is run by an enthusiastic individual who’s keen to see the site remain advert and sponsor free. Like 28mm, PhotographyBLOG recently had some bandwidth issues of its own - it exceeded the allocation and the hosting account had to be upgraded, doubling the costs. Like 28mm, you can help to maintain this site by making a donation or buying a print.

In the absence of anything notable happening today, I’ve decided to bore you all with the news that I’ve signed-up for the next level of the City and Guilds Photography course. Visitors with long memories will remember that I completed Level 2 of the C&G course back in June (I was moaning a lot about how much work there was to do). Being a sucker for punishment, I’ve enrolled at Westminster Kingsway college in London to do the third and final level. There’s a bit of a twist in the tale in that Level 3 takes 2 years to complete, not the single year that I was expecting. Expect to see numerous posts during the next 9 months, most of them moaning about how much work there is to do.

After taking over 2 hours to enrol and pay, I’m hoping that the standard of teaching is better than the administration department…

Website: Westminster Kingsway College

Website: City and Guilds

If you’re even remotely interested in the new 8-colour HP Photosmart 7960 photo printer, which is rumoured to produce amazing colour and black and white prints, then you will want to check out Photo-i’s interactive review, which starts tomorrow. Basically Vincent Oliver tests the printer over the course of several days and regularly posts his findings. Previous printer reviews looked at some other models that are of interest to photographers, including the Epson 2100, Canon i950 and Epson 925.

Website: Photo-i

In this week’s Sunday Morning Photographer, Mike Johnston responds to the somewhat predictable attack on him after last week’s column, in which Mike dared to declare that he preferred the Sony F-828 to the Canon EOS 300D.

“And let me just make one wee small observation here ? I think we might all profitably remind ourselves from time to time that this stuff is neither a jihad nor a crusade. Even when we?re talking about digital ones, we?re still talking about cameras. You remember, photography? Something we all have in common as a fun hobby, creative art, or way to earn a living?”

Website: Sunday Morning Photographer: Rogues

Some news from LetsGoDigitals coverage of the IFA consumer electronics show currently being held in Berlin. Sandisk have announced the SanDisk Ultra II CompactFlash and SD flash memory cards, which they claim are “the fastest performing flash memory cards in the world”. Available in 256Mb, 512Mb and 1Gb capactities, the Ultra II range is 50% quicker than the current Ultra compact flash cards, and will eventually replace the older Ultra range.

Prices are are $104.99 (about ?95, excluding VAT), $209.99 (about ?191, excluding VAT) and $429.99 (about ?391, excluding VAT) respectively for the compact flash cards, and $129.99 (about ?118 excluding VAT) and $289.99 (about ?264 excluding VAT) for the 256Mb and 512Mb SD flash cards.

“Cor Vos, an internationally-famed photographer and an official photographer at the recent Tour de France bike race, used a new SanDisk Ultra II CF card to shoot the race. ?With this new SanDisk Ultra II card, ? said Vos, ?I was able to take pictures so rapidly that I captured every fast-moving scene that I wanted. Previously when I shot the race, I sometimes missed key pictures because my slower performing flash card was still downloading images from the buffer and I couldn?t use my camera. I see a huge performance difference with these new Ultra II CompactFlash cards, and I think that every professional and serious photographer will want to have them in their equipment bag.”

Website: SanDisk ULTRA II Press Release

Website: LetsGoDigital - SanDisk ULTRA II CompactFlash card

Quite a few people who use Safari on the Macintosh operating system have reported a problem with my photographs. When they click on the thumbnail image to view the enlarged photo, the pop-up window opens instantly as expected, but the image never loads. Suffice to say that wasn’t quite what I intended.

The javascript that I’ve been using on my blog was written before Safari was a twinkle in Apple’s eye. Unfortunately it wasn’t written by me, so I’m not sure how to fix it. And it hasn’t been updated recently.

I’ve just decided (this afternoon in fact) to stop using that script and use a more friendly way of linking to my photos. In the post below this one, I’ve added some photos from the Notting Hill Carnival. Clicking on the thumbnail opens the larger version in a new window. The large version is now stored on my personal photography website, http://www.markgoldstein.co.uk.

I’ve found that I’ve been posting a lot of the images in 2 places - PhotographyBLOG and markgoldstein.co.uk - so this will prevent replication and stop filling-up my web server :-)

This change will affect all future entries - I don’t have the time to go through all of the existing photos on PhotographyBLOG and change them (not at the moment anyway…).

After a busy week I’ve finally found a couple of hours free time to sort through the 1000+ photos that I shot at last weekend’s Notting Hill Carnival. Sunday was Children’s Day, with 100’s of cute kids in the parade that winds its way over the course of several hours through the streets of, well, Notting Hill. This year the organisers implemented a barrier system along the parade route, so virtually all of my photos were taken with a 70-200mm lens (112mm-320mm on the Canon EOS 10D). Sunday was a very bright day, with shutter speeds in excess of 1/1000th second at ISO 100.



Here are the first 6 photographs that I’m posting; expect to see lots more during the course of the next week :-)

Notting Hill Carnival Children #1	Notting Hill Carnival Children #2	Notting Hill Carnival Children #3
Notting Hill Carnival Children #4	Notting Hill Carnival Children #5	Notting Hill Carnival Children #6

It’s all happening this morning! Not content with giving you the UK prices for the Olympus E-1 and Pentax *ist D (which I still have trouble typing), there is now the very first user review of the Canon EOS 300D to report! It’s brought to you by Vic Icasas, a photographer from the Philippines, who has had access to the 300D for the last week. He’s written a pretty thorough review, together will sample photos, and posted it on the MAC community site PhilMUG (I’m not sure why he posted it there…). You will have to register with PhilMUG to read the review - to be honest I was quite surprised to find the whole site still up and running! :-) (via Luminous Landscape).

“I usually look to Phil Askey (aka “God” for many digital photographers) at dpreview when it comes to the ultimate, definitive last word on digital cameras, but in this case I seem to be in the enviable position of having had unrestricted access to Canon’s latest digital SLR in the last week or so while Phil has yet to release his impressions. In fact, as of this writing, I believe I may just be the first person in the world to release an online review of this camera, right here on PhilMUG!”

Website: Canon EOS 300D User Review

Website: Canon EOS 300D - Sample Gallery

Brace yourselves for the news that all Olympus and Pentax film SLR owners have been waiting for (and plenty of other people too!). Both companies yesterday confirmed the prices for their new DSLRs, the Olympus E-1 and Pentax *ist D. So without any further ado, here are those prices…

Olympus E-1 Prices
- E-1 digital camera ?1,408.83 including VAT
[Including battery, charger, cable and strap]
- E-1 digital camera kit ?1,820.08 including VAT
[ Including 14-54mm F2.8-3.5 lens, battery, charger, cable and strap]

Lenses including VAT
- EZ-1454 Digital Lens 14-54mm F2.8-3.5 [including lens hood and case] ?495.85
- EM-P5020 Digital Lens ED 50mm F2 Macro [including lens hood and case] ?390.10
- EZ-5020 Digital Lens ED 50-200mm F2.8-3.5 [including lens hood and case] ?779.03
- ET-P3028 Digital Lens ED 300mm F2.8 [including lens hood and case] ?5,318.05
- EC-14 Tele Converter x 1.4 [for 14-54, 50-200 and 300mm] ?353.68
- EX-25 Extension Tube 25mm ?105.75

Pentax *ist D Prices
- Pentax *ist D camera body ?1400 including VAT
- Pentax *ist D camera body with smc 18-35mm f/4-5.6 FA AL J lens ?1529.99
- Pentax *ist D camera body with smc 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 FA AL J lens ?1499.99
- Pentax *ist D camera body with smc 20-35mm f/4 FA AL lens ?1899.99
- Pentax *ist D camera body with smc 24-90mm f/3.5-4.5 FA AL lens ?1799.99

Now in my humble opinion, these prices seem a little high when you consider that the Canon EOS 10D retails for around ?1150-300 body only. And lets not even mention the sub-?1000 EOS 300D! It will be very interesting to see how many E-1s and *ist Ds Olympus and Pentax sell at their recommend retail price; how soon will it be before prices become more competitive? This is less of a problem for the E-1, as it’s a whole new camera system aimed at the advanced amateur/professional photographer, but the Pentax *ist D is aimed at a similar market to the EOS 300D, and there’s currently a whopping ?500 price difference between the two cameras (body-only).

The second new dye-sublimation photo printer from Olympus USA is the Olympus P-440 Digital Photo Printer. This is probably the new model that most photographers will be interested in, simply because it creates borderless prints up to 8x10” in size. The dye-sublimation print process offers quality that is just like a traditional professional photo lab. It uses 4-pass printing - Yellow/Magenta/Cyan 3-color and a protective overcoat, so prints should be more fade resistant than inkjet printers.

The Olympus P-10 Digital Photo Printer will ship in October with a street price of $499.

Here’s a quote from the Olympus USA website:

“Make prints from home. Make them fast. And make them look more realistic than ever. This affordable dye-sub printer produces continuous-tone, borderless 8"x10” prints in a flash. A color LCD lets you review your images, edit them, and enhance them via a number of creative tools. Select traditional glossy or matte finish for your images. Then print with ease - no computer necessary - for professional quality results that are guaranteed to last.”

Olympus USA have announced a 2 new additions to its range of dye-sublimation photo printers. The Olympus P-10 Digital Photo Printer produces a photo-lab quality 6x4” print in less than 45 seconds. It features PictBridge technology so you don’t need to own a computer to create your prints (if your digital camera has PictBridge support, that is). It also looks stylish in an Apple MAC kind-of-way!

The Olympus P-10 Digital Photo Printer will ship in October with a street price of $199.

Here’s a quote from the Olympus USA website:

“Make vivid, borderless color prints at home with a printer that’s almost as small as the 4"x6” (approx.) output it produces. With dye-sublimation processing for professional photo lab quality results…in less than 45 seconds (per print). Including advanced PictBridge technology so enabled digital cameras can connect directly to the P-10; no computer necessary. And blessed with the conveniently compact size to be placed virtually anywhere.”