DIWA has unveiled the winners of the annual DIWA Platinum Awards for 2006. The Nikon D200 won “Best Digital System Camera”, Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ7 “Best Advanced Digital Camera” and Fujifilm FinePix F30 “Best Digital Amateur Camera”. DIWA product test awards are exclusively decided through the analysis of multiple test scores from different DIWA testers, testing different samples of the same product.

You can now get your images critiqued for free by pro photographers Harry Benson, Colin Finlay, Gerd Ludwig and Peter Read Miller at Kingston Technology’s ‘Icons of Photography’ website. “Commenting on these submissions was a great exercise for me personally and I was genuinely impressed with the overall quality of the images. It’s great to be a part of a program that encourages interaction and learning among those who share a genuine love of photography,” said Harry Benson, world-renowned photojournalist.

BreezeBrowser Pro v1.7 now includes the option to link photographs and galleries to online maps. A new GPS template enables the generation of online galleries displaying both thumbnails and an online map. Raw conversion for the Canon EOS-1D Mark III, Nikon D40 and Nikon D40X and full Windows Vista support are the other main additions to this release. BreezeBrowser Pro v1.7 is available for US $69.95 or for US $89.90 bundled with Downloader Pro.

The LaCie d2 SAFE Hard Drive is now available in 1TB capacity. The hard drive is equipped with a biometric sensor, 128-bit AES hardware encryption technology, and chain lock port for maximum protection against unauthorized use. “It is ideal for guarding top secret files or intellectual property, giving complete control to anyone working with original creations over who sees projects and when. It’s the only secure storage solution with professional performance thanks to three security levels and three interfaces.” said Marie Renouard, LaCie Product Manager. The LaCie d2 SAFE Hard Drive 1TB is available end of June at the suggested retail price of $579.

SYNNEX Corporation will distribute General Imaging’s GE-branded digital still cameras in the USA and Canada. “SYNNEX is a major player in the supply chain, and reaching this agreement with SYNNEX is critical to our visibility in the U.S.,” said Rene Buhay, General Imaging Vice President of Sales, North America. Cameras should be available to resellers by next week.

In the latest Inside Digital Photo radio show, photographer Vincent Versace shares tips and discusses Nikon’s Capture NX digital image processing and editing program. Vincent explains in detail how Capture NX can quickly process your images to get you back to taking pictures. Vincent also shares some unique insight into Nikon technologies, being an avid Nikon user, advocate, and beta tester for most of his photographic career.

Website: Inside Digital Photo - Nikon Capture NX

The Vauxhall Art Car Boot Fair sees famous artists selling their wares for car boot prices. “This year’s art car boot fair line-up is the best yet with stacks of witty and original artwares on offer and lots of surprises in store” commented Karen Ashton and Helen Hayward, sisters and co-curators. The Vauxhall Art Car Boot Fair takes place at the The Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London on July 8th.

Always-On is a new a line of protective cases and tripods for compact cameras. There are initially three new products - Millipod Micro Tripod, Wrap-Up Compact Camera Wrap, and the Wrap-Up & Millipod Combo. We have designed each product to be compact and minimalist, so that you hardly notice them after you put them on. But when you need to take a picture, there they are.” commented Graeme Esarey, CEO of Made Products.

Ilford has joined forces with JP Distribution to distribute its ILFOCOLOR and ILFOCHROME products in the the UK and Ireland.  “It was essential for ILFORD to establish the right distribution partner for the UK considering the importance of the product,” explained Andrew Stewart, Sales and Marketing Director, ILFORD Imaging Switzerland GmbH. ILFORD ILFOCHROME is renowned for its colour saturation and archival properties, and is valued by curators, gallery owners and collectors alike.

DPNow have reviewed the Kodak Image Enhancement Plugins for Adobe Photoshop, which cover noise reduction, airbrush effect, colour casts and exposure problems.

“One of the things I don’t like about these noise reduction programs is that unless you control things they have a tendency to make your images rather ‘plasticky’ looking, smoothing over texture and detail. The default setting on the Gem plug-in did just this. However, with a few minutes sorting out the controls it was relatively easy to ‘tone’ things down and the clarity sliders helped in this, sharpening things up somewhat.”

Website: DPNow - Kodak Image Enhancement Plugins Review

The Fujifilm FinePix Big Job HD-3W is a heavy-duty digital camera designed for the construction, engineering, health and safety and manufacturing industries. Originally only released in Japan, this new version features a 28-84mm lens, scratch resistant 3” LCD screen, 6 megapixels and ISO sensitivity of up to 1600. The Fujifilm Big Job is waterproof, dust proof and shockproof, and has withstood a drop test to 70cm. The curiously named Fujifilm FinePix Big Job HD-3W will be available from August 2007 in the UK, price to be confirmed.

A professional gang of thieves have broken into the offices and warehouse of Sigma UK. A large quantity of Sigma products were stolen on Friday 15th June, temporarily disrupting supply to customers. If you are suspicious of a Sigma product you have seen for sale, please telephone Sigma immediately on 01707 329 999.

The new EDGE SDHC Card and All-In-One Reader are available now as a two-product combo. All EDGE SDHC cards carry a Class 6 speed rating, the fastest currently available for the SDHC format, and are available in capacities of 4GB and 8GB. The EDGE All-In-One Reader supports most popular digital media card formats, including multimedia, memory sticks, CompactFlash, SD Memory Card, and Mini SD.

Rob Galbraith has highlighted a serious problem with the auto-focusing system used in the new Canon EOS-1D Mark III DSLR camera. Apparently both pre- and production cameras “can’t hold focus on static subjects very well and it can’t track moving subjects very well.” Worth reading before splashing out $5,000.

“Q. Is the autofocus better in the production EOS-1D Mark III than it was in the preproduction unit?
No. The autofocus problems of the preproduction unit are mirrored in production EOS-1D Mark IIIs.”

Website: Rob Galbraith - An analysis of EOS-1D Mark III autofocus performance

ProPhoto Home have reviewed the new Canon EOS-1D Mark III DSLR camera.

“Having read the reports of a few people indicating problems with the autofocus system the first thing I did was conduct some of my own tests. My tests did not indicate any significant issues in this area. I did think I noted a few instances of a delay in locking focus on a still subject. But, upon reviewing the actual image files I saw nothing consistent worth reporting. It all seemed well within the norms of the standard digital autofocus systems we all use.”

Website: ProPhoto Home - Canon EOS-1D Mark III Review

DIWA member Digit.no have just reviewed the new Sigma SD14 DSLR camera.

“Both in terms of features, performance and user friendliness, the SD14 falls way down on my ranking list. Foveon have without question made an interesting concept with their X3 sensor solution and the SD14 defines 4,6 MP with excellence, particularly in RAW. Therefore, it’s a shame to see the SD14 being promoted as a 14 MP camera, as the interpolation ruins much of the qualities delivered by the image sensor. If Sigma were honest, they would have said that the SD14 is a 4.6 MP camera that delivering excellent images. Because that’s the truth.”

Website: Digit.no - Sigma SD14 Review

SLRgear have reviewed the Tamron 18-250mm F/3.5-6.3 Di-II LD Aspherical (IF) Macro lens.

“Sharpness was the area where we observed the most dramatic improvement over its 18-200mm predecessor. It shows noticeable corner softness across its focal length range when shot wide open, but center sharpness is always surprisingly good, vastly better than that of the 18-200mm.”

Website: SLRgear - Tamron 18-250mm Lens Review

CNET have just reviewed the 15x zoom Sony Cyber Shot DSC-H9 digital camera.

“Under the right circumstances, the photos look very good. Those include shooting at sensitivity settings of ISO 200 or lower, in bright sunlight. Thanks to the fast continuous shooting, solid stabilization and reliable center-point focus, the H9 delivered the best results I’ve had so far shooting dogs in the park. The EVF updates quickly enough to make it possible. The automatic white balance does a solid job, if a bit cool, and colors look bright and saturated.”

CNET - Sony Cyber Shot DSC-H9 Review

Adobe Digital Editions 1.0 is a new software program for managing and reading eBooks, digital newspapers, and other digital publications. Adobe Digital Editions already works seamlessly with more than 150,000 commercially published titles. Digital Editions is available now as a free download for Windows and Macintosh systems.

The Online Photographer has interviewed Kodak scientist John Hamilton about the new image sensor technology that Kodak announced last week, which claims to improve performance in low light conditions.

“T.O.P.: The human eye puts an emphasis on luminance information for the sake of image detail. Is the new sensor likely to increase the level of real detail in digital images?
John Hamilton: Not really. The panchromatic pixels function just like the green pixels of the Bayer pattern except that they are photographically faster. However, under low light conditions, the new patterns will outperform Bayer because of improved signal-to-noise.”

Website: The Online Photographer - A Brief Interview With John Hamilton