The HP Photosmart 8750 is HP’s new top-of-the-range A3+ / 19x13 inch sized inkjet printer. The HP 8750 is a 9 colour inkjet printer that allows you to print colour and black and white borderless photos at up to 4800x1200-optimized dpi. When used with the HP Photosmart 8750, the new HP 101 Blue Photo Inkjet Print Cartridge is claimed to deliver noticeable improvements in images with intense blues, including landscapes, seascapes and sports photos. The HP 8750 also promises to produce truly neutral black and white prints by using a dedicated Grey Photo cartridge. Can the new kid on the block challenge the likes of Epson and Canon and become the A3 printer of choice? Read my review to find out.

Website: HP Photosmart 8750 Review

PhotographyBLOG has teamed up with FotoTech to offer you a great deal on the new Pacific Digital PV1 digital photo frame.

Launched in January 2005, Pacific Digital’s latest digital photo frame, the PV1, is a Digital Photo Album, MP3 music player and Video Player.  The PV1 sports a high resolution, bright 5.6” TFT screen that displays digital photos and video clips in vivid colour.  Slideshows of your favourite photos can be played directly from a memory card.  The number of photos that can be displayed is limited only by the capacity of the memory card being used.

As a special deal to PhotographyBlog Readers, FotoTech are offering the Pacific Digital PV1 Digital Media Player at the unbeatable price of just £189.99 with Free Shipping – that’s a saving of £55 off the MRSP!!.  To take advantage of this offer, simply ring FotoTech on 0845 226 2077 and quote “PhotographyBlog”.

The 49th PhotographyBLOG Portfolio has been submitted by Antonio M. Rosario.

“All of these photographs were taken exclusively for my photo blog which I try to maintain on a regular basis. I love street shooting here in New York City and using digital cameras has made the experience even more fulfilling. I like shooting discreetly because I believe that doing so helps to capture a person’s true self. Once someone becomes aware of the camera, there is a subtle but noticeable shift in their being; they begin to pose, even if they are not conscious about it. One of the great things about being a city dweller is the anonymity we have and the ability to be one amongst millions. I like to try to focus on the one person in a million; it’s like having the city all to oneself. This is what I try to accomplish with my street shooting and with my photo blog.”

Website: Portfolios: Antonio M. Rosario

The Fujifilm FinePix F440 is the 4 megapixel version of the Finepix F450 that I recently reviewed. The Finepix F440 also replaces the 3 megapixel Finepix F420 that I reviewed back in August 2004. The F440 adds a number of extra features, the most obvious being a new larger 4 megapixel sensor. In addition, the F440 is even smaller and lighter than its predecessor, yet can still squeeze in a bigger 2 inch LCD screen. Fujifilm have also extended the range of the optical zoom lens on the F440 to 3.4x, equivalent to 38 - 130mm on a 35mm camera, and added a low sensitivity setting of ISO 80. I really liked the older Finepix F420, so have the improvements to the Fujifilm FinePix F440 resulted in an even better camera? Read my extensive review to find out.

Website: Fujifilm Finepix F440 Review

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

1st Place
“on the Gange” by 21nico
View this entry

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

2nd Place
“winter web” by nordic
View this entry

Prize: 1 copy of Digital Photography Expert Techniques by Ken Milburn
Kindly donated by O’Reilly.
http://www.oreilly.com

3rd Place
“Wibbly-Wobbly-Boy” by Photofillers
View this entry

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

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

The April 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 April’s theme, which is “Black and White”.

The Epson PictureMate allows you to print 10x15 cms borderless photos at up to 5760 x 1440dpi-optimized dpi in the comfort of your own home. The Epson PictureMate uses a 6-colour high gloss pigment ink printing system and print life is claimed to be 104 years. The PictureMate has a built-in memory card reader supporting 9 different formats and can also be directly connected to any PictBridge or USB DIRECT-PRINT compatible device. The Epson PictureMate has a monochrome LCD screen that allows you to select which photos you want to print. A few weeks ago I reviewed the similar HP Photosmart 375 printer, awarding it 4.5 out of 5 stars - can the Epson PictureMate compete? Read my review to find out.

Website: Epson PictureMate Review

The Fujifilm FinePix F810 is a stylishly designed compact digital camera that uses a refined version of Fujifilm’s Super CCD HR sensor. The HR sensor on the Fujifilm FinePix F810 supposedly allows you to make larger prints than conventional CCD sensors, as well as reproducing colour more accurately and improving the camera’s ability in low-light situations. Fujifilm have added another defining feature to the FinePix F810 in the shape of a widescreen (16:9) feature that allows images and movies to be easily viewed on a widescreen television. On paper at least the Fujifilm FinePix F810 is no run-of-the-mill digital camera, but can it live up to its full potential? Carry on reading to find out.

Website: Fujifilm Finepix F810 Review

The Epson P-2000 Multimedia Storage Viewer allows you to download digital photos and movies onto its 40Gb hard-drive and then view them on its 3.8 inch colour LCD screen. The Epson P-2000 has built-in card slots for Compact Flash and SD memory cards. The Epson P2000 will be of particular interest to digital SLR camera users as it can show a preview of some RAW file formats as well as JPEGs. You can connect the P-2000 directly to a PC or TV and it will even print directly onto compatible Epson printers. In addition the Epson P2000 can play digital music in the form of MP3 and AAC files. So can the Epson P-2000 do all of the things that it claims and do them well? Carry on reading to discover the answer.

Website: Epson P-2000 Multimedia Storage Viewer Review

PhotographyBLOG was offline from approx 6pm last night to 12 midday today (GMT) due to a server error. Please accept my apologies for this temporary loss of service - everything is up and running again now.

The Fujifilm FinePix F450 is the top of the range square-styled digital camera in the Fujifilm range. The Finepix F450 replaces the 3 megapixel Finepix F420 that I reviewed in August 2004. The F450 adds a number of extra features, the most obvious being a new larger 5.2 megapixel sensor. In addition, the F450 is even smaller and lighter than its predecessor, yet can still squeeze in a bigger 2 inch LCD screen. Fujifilm have also extended the range of the optical zoom lens on the F450 to 3.4x, equivalent to 38 - 130mm on a 35mm camera, and added a low sensitivity setting of ISO 80. I really liked the older Finepix F420, so have the improvements to the Fujifilm FinePix F450 resulted in an even better camera? Read my extensive review to find out.

Website: Fujifilm Finepix F450 Review

The Fujifilm FinePix S5500 Zoom is the successor to the 3 megapixel Fujifilm FinePix S5000 Zoom that I reviewed back in June 2004. The Fujifilm S5500 looks very much like a traditional SLR camera in terms of styling and has a massive 10x optical zoom which is equivalent to 37-370mm on a 35mm camera. The Fujifilm S5500 has a number of improvements when compared to its predecessor, including a 4 megapixel sensor, histogram playback, custom white balance control, 100% frame coverage and higher quality video mode. Have Fujifilm added enough improvements to the S5500 Zoom so that it can still remain competitive today? Find out in my review.

Website: Fujifilm Finepix S5500 Review

Designer Print is a UK-based photofinishing service that allows you to turn your favourite images into a work of art by having them printed onto canvas, block mounted, or made into a poster print. Using the latest digital printing technology Designer Print offers a large format printing service, creating canvas prints that will look stunning in your home or office. Or so they claim! I ordered a Stretched Canvas product from the Designer Print website. Find out what I thought of Designer Print’s service and the final product in this brief review.

Website: Designer Print Review

The Fujifilm Finepix S3500 is a 4 megapixel digital camera with a 6x optical zoom lens that is equivalent to 39 - 234 mm on a 35mm camera. First announced in August 2004, the S3500 is now available at a street price of under £200 / $250. Almost one year ago I reviewed the 3 megapixel successor to the S3500, the S3000, which was intuitive to use but suffered badly from only having one slow ISO speed (100) and slightly muted images. Have Fujifilm added enough extra features to make the S3500 a more capable camera and also still remain competitive in the fast-moving digital camera market? Read my review to find out.

Website: Fujifilm Finepix S3500 Review

The HP Photosmart 8450 is currently HP’s top-of-the-range colour Letter / A4 sized inkjet printer. The HP 8450 is an 8 colour inkjet printer that allows you to print colour and black and white borderless photos at up to 4800x1200-optimized dpi. It has a built-in memory card reader (supporting 7 different formats), can be connected to any PictBridge-compatible camera and has an Ethernet port for network sharing. Using the supplied HP Bluetooth Wireless Adapter, you can make prints from any Bluetooth compatible device. The HP 8450 also has a reputation for producing truly neutral black and white prints by using a dedicated Gray Photo cartridge. So can the HP Photosmart 8450 challenge the likes of Epson and Canon and take the crown as the best Letter / A4 sized inkjet printer? Read my review to find out.

Website: HP Photosmart 8450 Review

The HP Photosmart 375 allows you to print 6x4 inch colour and black and white borderless photos at up to 4800x1200-optimized dpi in the comfort of your own home. The HP Photosmart 375 is a thermal inkjet printer that can be used without a computer. It has a built-in memory card reader (supporting 7 different formats) and can also be connected to any PictBridge-compatible camera. Using the supplied HP Bluetooth Wireless Adapter, you can make prints from any Bluetooth compatible device. So is the HP Photosmart 375 the ultimate portable 6x4 inch printer? Read my review to find out.

Website: HP Photosmart 375 Review

Today 7 names were 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.

- Two people each won 1000 A5 colour postcards (worth £175 each), printed with an image of their choice from ColourCards
- Two people each won 1000 A6 colour postcards (worth £95 each), printed with an image of their choice from ColourCards
- Three people each won a copy of “Adobe Photoshop CS One-on-One” by Deke McCelland (worth £26.95 each) from O’Reilly

If you haven’t won anything, then don’t worry, as a brand new contest for March has just started!

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

The winners of the February 2004 PhotographyBLOG Competition have now been decided. The theme for February was “The Countryside” - you can view all of the entries in this gallery. Here are the 3 winners:

1st Place
“Making Tracks” by dapa_group
View this entry

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

2nd Place
“Civilization” by Zenonas
View this entry

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

3rd Place
“Lincolnshire Winter” by pstubbs50
View this entry

Prize: 1 copy of Digital Photography Expert Techniques by Ken Milburn
Kindly donated by O’Reilly.
http://www.oreilly.com

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

The March 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 March’s theme, which is “Water”.

The Casio Exilim Card EX-S100 is a 3 megapixel digital camera with a 2.8x optical zoom lens that offers a focal length of 36-102mm and a large 2-inch LCD screen. On paper at least. In reality it is a super-compact, super-thin digicam that really has to be seen to be believed. Casio’s Exilim Card range of digital cameras has long been known for delivering incredibly small and slim models that are little bigger than a credit card. The Casio Exilim Card EX-S100 is no different. All of this is housed in a stylish and hard-wearing metal casing. But is the Casio Exilim Card EX-S100 just too small for its own good? Carry on reading my extensive review to find out if it’s actually a good camera or not.

Website: Casio Exilim Card EX-S100 Review

I am still alive…just! After flying 4,000 miles to Orlanda and then 4,000 miles back to the UK last week, I am now in Birmingham at another photography show - Focus On Imaging in the UK. Internet access is scarce, so this is the first update in a few days. More normal service will resume on Thursday.

The PMA Show is over for another year, closing its doors yesterday. The concensus amongst journalists was that this was a year of consolidation on the part of the manufacturers, with less revolutionary products on show than at previous shows. Having said that, there were still some interesting cameras, printers, and other products, some of which I have already covered in my PMA Show Report. PhotographyBLOG’s PMA coverage will continue for the next couple of weeks, as I have interesting interviews with the likes of Nokia, Sigma and Casio to publish, plus some more Booth by Booth reports, articles on more of the stand-out products, and finally a roundup of the show.

I am actually still in Orlando and won’t be returning to the UK until tomorrow morning. My coverage of the latest photography kit isn’t over yet though. On Sunday the Focus on Imaging photo show starts in Birmingham, UK, and I will be there to cover the show and report back on anything new that hasn’t already been unveiled at PMA. News reached me this morning that the long-delayed Mamiya ZD digital SLR will actually be at Focus - I will do my best to try out this £8,000 DSLR.

Not forgetting that my 30th birthday is sandwiched between PMA and Focus - it’s definitely been (and still will be) a busy 2 weeks!