On paper at least the Ricoh Caplio GX8 looks like a very tempting prospect. The Ricoh GX8 is an 8 megapixel compact digital camera with a wide-angle 28-85mm lens, full creative control with Aperture Priority and Manual Exposure modes, minimal shutter lag and quick power-on, and an amazing macro mode that lets you get as close as 1cm from your subject. Other desirable features on the Ricoh Caplio GX8 include manual focus, a movable AF point, hotshoe for an external flashgun, bracketing of both white balance and exposure, and a full range of optional accessories. The good news doesn’t stop there - all of this is available for less than £300. However, Ricoh cameras that I have reviewed in the past have always suffered from one fundamental problem - their image quality, which has mostly been on the poor side. So have Ricoh provided a level of image quality that matches the impressive feature list of the Caplio GX8? Read on to find out.

Website: Ricoh Caplio GX8 Review

The Olympus Mju Digital 800 (also called the Olympus Stylus 800) is an 8 megapixel compact digital camera with a weatherproof body that is resistant to water spray. Standout features on the Olympus Mju 800 include a large 2.5 inch LCD screen (although there is no room for an optical viewfinder), manual control in the form of shutter priority and aperture priority modes, 19 different scene modes for the novice user, and a Super Macro mode that focuses as close as 3cm from your subject. Olympus have also incorporated some completely new ideas. BrightCapture Technology, which automatically brightens the LCD screen in dark conditions, Image Blur Reduction mode, which reduces blur created by a moving subject or camera movement, and an Album function which sorts and displays your photos. So does all of this add up to make the Olympus Mju Digital 800 the perfect compact digicam for you? Find out in my extensive review.

Website: Olympus Mju Digital 800 Review

The winners of the September 2005 PhotographyBLOG Competition have now been decided. The theme for September was “Churches” - you can view all of the entries in this gallery. Here are the 5 winners:

1st Place
“Protect us from Evil” by potto
View this entry

1 x 36x24” Artist Canvas Print of a Photo of Your Choice
Kindly donated by Pixel Outpost.
http://www.pixeloutpost.com

2nd Place
“Peace through stormy skies” by spookygonk
View this entry

Prize: Photobird.com one-year subscription with 100 megabytes of storage space
Kindly donated by Photobird.com.
http://www.photobird.com

3rd Place
“Stands the Test of Time” by helsinki
View this entry

Prize: 1 copy of Powerretouche Full Pro Pack
Kindly donated by Powerretouche.
http://powerretouche.com

4th Place
“Night Mass” by goswell
View this entry

ShutterPoint.com one-year subscription with 100 megabytes of storage space
Kindly donated by ShutterPoint.
http://www.shutterpoint.com

5th Place
“Brentor-Sky-Added” by alfiebasher
View this entry

1 x 24x24” or 24x18” Canvas Print of a Photo of Your Choice
Kindly donated by Photo Artistry.
http://www.photoartistry.co.uk

Congratulations to the 5 winners and thanks to everyone who took part!

The October 2005 Competition is now open for entries. This is a monthly photography competition with a specific theme and prizes for the top 5 photos. The winning entries will be decided by a panel of judges. You just have to submit one photograph to the Competition Gallery that best interprets October’s theme, which is “Long Exposures”.

The HP Photosmart R817 is HP’s latest digital camera and it attempts to emulate the success of the well-received R707 and R717 models. Despite the higher model number, the HP R817 actually has less megapixels (5 rather than 6) and a smaller image sensor than its predecessors. So what new features does it have to offer? The main one is a 5x optical lens, equivalent to 36-180mm, which instantly sets it apart from most of the competition, which typically have 3x zoom lenses. The R817 is also quite a lot smaller than the older models, although this does come at the expense of a smaller CCD sensor and the omission of an optical viewfinder. So is the HP R817 better than its predecessors, and how does it match up against the dozens of other 5 megapixel digital cameras?

Website: HP Photosmart R817 Review

Digital is better than the naked eye”, proclaimed celebrated documentary and Magnum photographer Donovan Wylie at a recent demonstration of how he has embraced digital technology. Organised by Hewlett Packard at their central London office, Wylie explained how a recent switch to both digital printing and digital cameras had made him more productive and more profitable than ever before in his 15 year career.

Website: Read the Full Article

The winners of the August 2005 PhotographyBLOG Competition have now been decided. The theme for August was “Landscapes” - you can view all of the entries in this gallery. Here are the 5 winners:

1st Place
“Wild Lupins” by pauljm
View this entry

1 x 24x24” or 24x18” Canvas Print of a Photo of Your Choice
Kindly donated by Photo Artistry.
http://www.photoartistry.co.uk

2nd Place
“Time and Tide” by Maculatus
View this entry

1 x 36x24” Artist Canvas Print of a Photo of Your Choice
Kindly donated by Pixel Outpost.
http://www.pixeloutpost.com

3rd Place
“SELAMAT PAGI BROMO” by mario andi supria
View this entry

Prize: Photobird.com one-year subscription with 100 megabytes of storage space
Kindly donated by Photobird.com.
http://www.photobird.com

4th Place
“Saltburn” by Onion Club
View this entry

Prize: 1 copy of Powerretouche Full Pro Pack
Kindly donated by Powerretouche.
http://powerretouche.com

5th Place
“Scottish Borders” by NCD
View this entry

ShutterPoint.com one-year subscription with 100 megabytes of storage space
Kindly donated by ShutterPoint.
http://www.shutterpoint.com

Congratulations to the 5 winners and thanks to everyone who took part!

The September 2005 Competition is now open for entries. This is a monthly photography competition with a specific theme and prizes for the top 5 photos. The winning entries will be decided by a panel of judges. You just have to submit one photograph to the Competition Gallery that best interprets September’s theme, which is “Churches”.

2 winning names have been randomly selected from the list of PhotographyBLOG Newsletter subscribers. If you are one of the winners, you will already have received an email from me ([email protected]). In order to protect the winners’ email addresses, I’m not going to publish them here.

- One person has won ColorVision Spyder2 (worth €189.00 + VAT).
- One person has won ColorVision ColorPlus (worth €109.00 + VAT).

Both kindly donated by ColorVision Europe.
http://www.colorvision.ch/index.php

If you haven’t won anything, then don’t worry, as a brand new contest will start soon!

To have any chance of winning, you must subscribe to the PhotographyBLOG Newsletter.

The 62nd PhotographyBLOG Portfolio has been submitted by Roger Johnson.

“I’ve recently retired and am enjoying the pleasure of being able to go on leisurely walks most mornings, and, when I walk through the nearby Corte Madera Marsh on the edge of San Francisco Bay, I always take my camera with me. All of the attached images were taken in the marsh with either a Nikon Coolpix 5700, or, more recently, a Nikon D70. Included among my lenses, mostly left over from my film days, is an 80-200 f2.8 lens, which reaches 300mm on the D70, and that extra reach has made a world of difference in capturing the various birds and animals that abound in the marsh.”

Website: Roger Johnson

The 61st PhotographyBLOG Portfolio has been submitted by Wick Beavers.

Website: Wick Beavers

The 60th PhotographyBLOG Portfolio has been submitted by HD Connelly.

“I’m a digital photographer who is fascinated by the light/shadowplay and textures. I shoot a wide scope of subjects, but which all share a common vision of using texture and light to bring new life to things we see each day, but perhaps miss if not looking towards our toes or perhaps just spending a moment to enjoy the exciting things that await our eyes. I find solace from a complicated world in my viewfinder and each time I shoot, am in awe of all of the quiet beauty to be found right outside my own doorstep.”

Website: HD Connelly

Subscribe to the PhotographyBLOG Newsletter now to have a chance of winning one of two prizes in our August Contest. There are only 3 days left, so sign up quick!

- One person will win ColorVision Spyder2  (worth €189.00 + VAT).
- One person will win ColorVision ColorPlus (worth €109.00 + VAT).

Both prizes kindly donated by ColorVision Europe.
http://www.colorvision.ch/index.php

If you are already a Newsletter subscriber, you do not have to do anything to enter this competition. Your name will automatically be entered in the prize draw. If you are not currently a subscriber, then what are you waiting for? Enter your email address to subscribe now.

The 59th PhotographyBLOG Portfolio has been submitted by Rolf Hicker.

Website: Rolf Hicker

The Nikon D50 is currently the cheapest digital SLR camera that you can buy, costing £550 / $750 at the time of writing. The D50 is Nikon’s attempt to capture a large slice of the entry-level DSLR market, tempting both those people who have held off buying a DSLR because they are too expensive, and those who are upgrading from a compact digital camera. Nikon have simplified the controls somewhat and the D50 uses SD memory cards rather than Compact Flash cards to provide an easier upgrade path. The Nikon D50 also has a much lighter plastic body than the more expensive D70s that I reviewed a couple of weeks ago. Having said all that, Nikon haven’t tried to cripple the D50 by removing lots of features - indeed, it’s pretty hard to spot where the D50 has less functionality than the D70s. So should the Nikon D50 be on your shopping list, and is it a viable alternative to the pricier D70s?

Website: Nikon D50 Review

Due to some database issues, the PhotographyBLOG Forums have been offline for the last couple of weeks. Also, if you registered as a new user yesterday (23rd August), you will have to register again. If you posted a photo in the Gallery yesterday, it has been lost and you will have to upload it again. Please accept my sincerest apologies for any inconvenience caused.

The upside is that the Forums have been upgraded to a more advanced version with lots of new features.

Please let me know if you encounter any unusual behaviour by emailing [email protected]

No, I wasn’t asleep yesterday or under a rock. Instead I was at the Canon press launch in London and have only just returned to Paris, hence the slight pause in publishing news about the 5D and the 39 other new products. The upside is that I did get to have a nice meal, learn some circus tricks courtesy of the Cirque Bijou (!) and perhaps more importantly get to try some of the new cameras for myself, albeit rather briefly. The new 12.8 megapixel Canon EOS 5D digital SLR is much more compact than the 10D that I own and a little more than the 20D on which it is based. I preferred using it in conjunction with the new battery grip - without this the camera felt a bit short in terms of its height and I struggled to grip it with all the fingers of my right hand. The 5D felt very nicely balanced with the new 24-105mm f/4 L lens, which is itself very impressive, and the viewfinder is also a lot brighter than those found on the APS sensor cameras, even in the dim indoor conditions of Syon House. Will I buy one? I think I’ll wait and see until I’ve done a proper review :)

The winners of the July 2005 PhotographyBLOG Competition have now been decided. The theme for July was “Portraits” - you can view all of the entries in this gallery. Here are the 3 winners:

1st Place
“Bathed in Light” by RichAdams
View this entry

ShutterPoint.com one-year subscription with 100 megabytes of storage space
Kindly donated by ShutterPoint.
http://www.shutterpoint.com

2nd Place
“Thinking” by avan
View this entry

Prize: Photobird.com one-year subscription with 100 megabytes of storage space
Kindly donated by Photobird.com.
http://www.photobird.com

3rd Place
“Trapper John” by Maculatus
View this entry

Prize: 1 copy of Powerretouche Full Pro Pack
Kindly donated by Powerretouche.
http://powerretouche.com

Congratulations to the 3 winners and thanks to everyone who took part!

The August 2005 Competition is now open for entries. This is a monthly photography competition with a specific theme and prizes for the top 3 photos. The winning entries will be decided by a panel of judges. You just have to submit one photograph to the Competition Gallery that best interprets August’s theme, which is “Landscapes”.

The Nikon D70s is an updated version of the extremely popular D70 digital SLR camera. The 6 megapixel D70s offers a number of improvements when compared to its predecessor. The autofocus system has been refined, there is a larger 2 inch LCD monitor, a remote cable port has been added, the built-in flash offers a wider angle of coverage and there is an all-new graphical user interface. Nikon are continuing to sell the older D70, so the new D70s currently sits above the cheaper and simpler D50 and the D70 in the Nikon DSLR pecking order in terms of features and price. This is the first Nikon digital SLR that I have reviewed (regular readers will know that I use a Canon DSLR), so what did I make of the new Nikon D70s? Read my review to find out.

Website: Nikon D70s Review

The PhotographyBLOG August 2005 Competition is now open for entries. This is a monthly photography competition with a specific theme and prizes. This month we have 5 great prizes to give away to the best entries:

- 1 x 24x24” or 24x18” Canvas Print of a Photo of Your Choice
Kindly donated by Photo Artistry - http://www.photoartistry.co.uk

- 1 x 36x24” Artist Canvas Print of a Photo of Your Choice
Kindly donated by Pixel Outpost - http://www.pixeloutpost.com

- Photobird.com one-year subscription with 100 megabytes of storage space
Kindly donated by Photobird.com - http://www.photobird.com

- 1 copy of Powerretouche Full Pro Pack
Kindly donated by Powerretouche - http://powerretouche.com

- ShutterPoint.com one-year subscription with 100 megabytes of storage space
Kindly donated by ShutterPoint - http://www.shutterpoint.com

The 5 winning entries will be decided by a panel of judges. You just have to upload one photograph to the Competition Gallery that best interprets August’s theme, which is “Landscapes”.

The 57th PhotographyBLOG Portfolio has been submitted by Nick Stubbs.

“The theme here is people. I love photographing people and getting the best from them, getting them to show their true character and not that which they think the camera “wants”! Some of these images are from a wedding, some from portraits sessions and some from commissioned lifestyle shoots which I have to admit is my current favourite style. I have been into photography in a big way since 1979 when I got my first SLR and set up my own darkroom at a tender 13 years old. Digital has radically changed the way I photograph anything now as I am constantly thinking (what could I so to this later on?) as I am shooting. More work but a whole lot more fun. I now photograph for a living and cannot see that changing…ever. I am 38, married with a 2 year old son (who already knows how to scroll through images on our digicams) and a girl on the way.”

Website: Nick Stubbs

PhotographyBLOG has teamed up with ExposureManager to bring you a special deal of 25% discount on either their Art or Event accounts. Just enter “photographyblog” in the Discount coupon box when you signup to claim the discount. If you have been looking for a better way to show and sell your photography online, look no further. ExposureManager offers you the most advanced gallery and sales system currently available for any type of commercial photography. ExposureManager is free to try for 15 days with no obligations and no strings attached.

Website: ExposureManager