Epson America Press Release

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Nov. 28, 2006 – When it comes to reproducing the highest level of shadow detail and mid-range gray values as quantified by optical density (OD), Epson scanners outperformed competitors in a recent National Software Testing Labs (NSTL) study. “Many people don’t realize the importance of optical density when it comes to choosing a flatbed scanner,” said Phil Amato, product manager, Consumer and Photo Imaging, Epson. “Optical density is really the true measuring stick for understanding how well a scanner can reproduce varying degrees of shadow and noise detail and a big factor in overall image quality.”

Nikon Europe Press Release

Amsterdam, November 2006. Nikon and iconic bag manufacturer Crumpler have joined forces to develop two camera bags specifically designed for owners of SLR cameras. The first fruits of the partnership are the ultra cool Nikon-Crumpler the ‘This’ & the ‘That’ bags, featuring Nikon’s world-renowned black and yellow colours, which accommodate Nikon’s best-loved products. Both bags can fit one compact SLR body, two lenses such as the AF-S DX 18-55 or the AF-S DX 55-200 and an external speedlight.

BenekDesign Press Release

Flash and XML powered photo gallery offers unique map-based interface; let’s users explore photos in geographical context.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, November 29, 2006 – BenekDesign has just released software that lets users embed photos into a map, placing each image at the exact location where it was taken. Navigating the map is as simple as clicking where you want to go. You can zoom in or out, drag the map to different regions, plus get a caption with the location, photographer and date of each photo. Each photo is represented by a small thumbnail on the map, which identifies where the photo was shot. When you click on a thumbnail, the screen zooms in and displays the embedded photo. Mouse over the top left corner of a picture to see its caption.

Rocky Nook Press Release

Santa Barbara, CA, November 28, 2006—Have you ever experienced the disappointment of capturing the perfect moment with your digital camera, only to end up with an off-color print? Did your rosy-cheeked baby appear green with envy? Color management is one of the essential elements, yet major stumbling blocks in digital photography. The vast majority of digital photographers really wish they didn’t have to be concerned with color management, yet the basic process of moving images from capture to print becomes impractical without it. And the more sophisticated the photography workflow becomes, the more important it is to manage colors from capture to print. In “Color Management in Digital Photography: Ten Easy Steps to True Colors in Photoshop”, Brad Hinkel simplifies the language of color management.

Corel Press Release

Just In Time for the Holidays: Corel® Partners with Vialta to Create a Photo Enhancement and Digital Picture Frame Bundle - The Ultimate Gift for Any Digital Camera Owner Combines Photo Enhancement Tools with Digital Picture Frames that Play Slideshows of Entire Photo Collections

OTTAWA - November 29, 2006 - Corel Corporation (NASDAQ:CREL; TSX:CRE) today announced a special holiday bundle aimed at consumers with burgeoning digital photo collections: award-winning Corel® Paint Shop Pro® Photo XI digital photo enhancement software combined with new VistaFrame™ digital picture frames from Vialta, which display individual or entire collections of digital photos on a table top. The ultimate gift for any digital camera owner, this holiday bundle gives consumers all the tools they need to fix, enhance and display their digital photos. With this special holiday bundle, digital camera owners can perfect their digital photos and frame them in a unique and striking manner - either individually or in a slideshow format that showcases an entire photo collection.

Medea International Press Release

Medea International presents its most recent product in its rapidly increasing portfolio, the Infiniti 8cm Mini DVD-RW disc. Used mostly with DVD Camcorders, mini DVD-RW’s provide you with high quality video and audio playback with nearly twice the resolution of traditional video formats such as VHS.  The advantage of recording directly onto DVD means that you can effortlessly switch from recording to playback on the big screen without the hassle of messy cords or transferring files. Furthermore, when it comes to editing the video, Infiniti 8cm Mini DVD-RW allows you to use your PC’s optical drive to read the data directly from the original recording source, without having to fuss around with USB cables.

CNET have just reviewed the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FX50, a 7.2-megapixel camera with 28mm wide angle f/2.8 LEICA DC lens.

“As is typical, however, Panasonic hits the wall on photo quality. It fares reasonably well when it comes to exposure, color, and white balance, and the lens is surprisingly good, with no distortion at telephoto and little at the wide angle. But if image noise had a sound, the FX50 would make my ears bleed.”

Website: CNET - Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FX50 Review

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DigitalCameraInfo have just reviewed the 10.2 megapixel Sony A100 DSLR camera.

“Our final take on the D-R system is this: it’s a very good convenience feature, because it allows users to reap one advantage of shooting RAW, without having to shoot RAW. It’s not equivalent to the extended dynamic range available from cameras like the Fujifilm FinePix S3 or S5, however. Those cameras deliver more realistic dynamic range in their expanded modes, and the Sony alpha A100 does not.”

Website: DigitalCameraInfo - Sony A100 Review

Website: Read our Sony A100 Review

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Imaging Resource have reviewed the 10x zoom, 5 megapixel, compact Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1 digital camera.

“But unfortunately, the Panasonic TZ1’s lens flare issue starts to raise its head at about 4-5x and only gets worse, blowing contrast across the frame with a random purple haze. That’s great for adding ambience to a Hendrix revival concert, but not so great for capturing the rest of the world in its true light. The Panasonic TZ1 is a great camera to use, and will serve many folks just fine, but we wouldn’t feel right if we didn’t warn you that 50% of the focal range is tainted by what we can only call flare.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1 Review

Website: Read our Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1 Review

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The Canon Powershot A640 features a new 10 megapixel sensor, full range of creative shooting modes including Manual, a 2.5 inch vari-angle LCD screen and optical viewfinder. Running on 4 AA batteries, the Canon A640 also features a 4x zoom lens equivalent to 35-140mm, Digic II image processing and an ISO range of 80-800. Find out if this new A-series camera with the highest resolution in the Canon line-up is worth considering in our first review of the week.

Website: Canon Powershot A640 Review

DxO Labs Press Release

New DxO Analyzer version 3 strengthens its leadership as the only comprehensive, operator-independent solution to evaluate image quality from camera phones and digital cameras.

Paris, France - November 28, 2006 – DxO Labs today announces the immediate availability of DxO Analyzer version 3, adding groundbreaking innovations to the product’s image quality evaluation and analysis capabilities. DxO Analyzer now encompasses a comprehensive measurement set in a turn-key solution to qualify the image quality of any image capture device. Available measurements include color, resolution (MTF) and sharpness, dynamic range, exposure, noise, flash uniformity, distortion, chromatic aberrations, vignetting - and more.

Rocky Nook Press Release

Santa Barbara, CA, November 28, 2006—“Mastering Landscape Photography: The Luminous Landscape Essays” consists of thirteen essays on landscape photography by master photographer Alain Briot. Topics include practical, technical, and aesthetic aspects of photography to help photographers build and refine their skills. This book starts with the technical aspects of photography; how to see, compose, find the right light, and select the best lens for a specific shot. It continues by focusing on the artistic aspects of photography with chapters on how to select your best work, how to create a portfolio, and finally concludes with two chapters on how to be an artist in business.

Samsung Press Release

20” LED BLU Monitor Features Up To 114 Percent Of NTSC Color Gamut - New 20-inch monitor designed for users with demanding color needs

IRVINE, Calif. - Samsung Electronics America, Inc., a world-leading manufacturer of professional LCD and PDP display products, today introduced the SyncMaster XL20, a 20-inch Light Emitting Diode (LED) Back Light Unit (BLU) monitor that features up to 114 percent of the National Television System Committee (NTSC) color gamut. Designed for color critical applications, desktop publishers, video and photography editors and graphic designers, the XL20 supports users that demand extremely accurate color temperature, linearly color tracking, brightness uniformity and color reproduction. Traditional LCD screens typically cover only 82 percent of the NTSC standard color gamut (CRT covers 76 percent), while the new XL20 utilizes a unique light emitting diode back light unit (LED BLU), increasing the color gamut up to 114 percent of the NTSC color gamut. The LED BLU increases the ability to create significantly enhanced images producing a more natural range of color, and covering the full Adobe RGB natural color space / gamut. The LED backlight also lacks mercury or halogen.

Monokai Press Release

GRONINGEN, The Netherlands - Monokai announces today that Monoslideshow 1.1 is available. Monoslideshow is the new online Flash® image viewer. It is fully customizable, XML driven and easy to set up. Monoslideshow provides a fast, flexible and fresh way to present your photos online. A notable new feature in this version is the option to perform a Ken Burns effect, which slowly pans and/or zooms accross a photo.

Steves Digicams have reviewed the new Canon EOS 400D (Canon Digital Rebel XTi in the USA), which offers 10 megapixels, a large 2.5 inch LCD screen and new integrated dust removal system.

“The XTi’s self-cleaning image sensor is a first for Canon in any of its dSLRs. It eliminates or reduces the occurrence of dust on the image sensor. With other dSLRs (Olympus E-series and the Sony A100 notable exceptions), the risk of dust on the sensor occurs at every lens change; it’s not a matter of if, but when your images will have noticeable dark spots - especially noticeable at small apertures. The XTi’s self-cleaning process is invoked each time you power the camera off and on, causing an ultrasonic vibration to shake dust loose from the image sensor. I did not purposefully deposit any dust on the sensor during our testing, but did change lenses frequently in dusty conditions and found no evidence of dust in our samples.”

Website: Steves Digicams - Canon Digital Rebel XTi Review

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DigiCamReview have just reviewed the Olympus E-400, the world’s smallest and lightest DSLR camera.

“Image quality is very good to excellent, the images have excellent colour, with good saturation, contrast and detail, with low noise except for high iso images. Images were slightly soft straight from the camera and could benefit from sharpening - for maximum detail and colour control RAW images should be taken. Purple fringing was very low, as was red-eye. The camera did a good job focusing even in low light thanks to the flash assist. I did not notice vignetting in photos, nor did I notice barrel or pincushion distortion. There is a very good range of image sizes, and a good choice of compression options (including RAW). Auto white balance and metering seemed to be good.”

Website: DigiCamReview - Olympus E-400 Review

Website: Read our Olympus E-400 Review

Latest Prices / User Reviews

Megapixel.net have reviewed the the Fujifilm FinePix S6000fd (also known as the S6500fd), a 6 megapixel digital camera with a 10.7x zoom lens equivalent to 28-300mm.

“The S6000fd is a camera that is comfortable in both the point-and-shoot world and in the world of the more advanced user. For point-and-shooters, features such as Face Detection, the various scene modes, and the Auto shooting mode will be appreciated. And for users that demand more control, the P, S, A, and M modes, as well as the RAW format and its image quality, should prove to be very satisfying. Yet, it is also likely that both types of users will miss a true optical stabilization system to go along with the long zoom of the S6000fd.”

Website: Megapixel.net - Fujifilm FinePix S6000fd Review

Latest Prices / User Reviews

This month there is some fantastic photography software up for grabs, courtesy of DxO, who are offering 3 copies of DxO Optics Pro 4, Lasersoft Imaging, who are offering a copy of SilverFast DCPro, and Ulead Systems, who are offering 2 copies of Ulead PhotoImpact 12.

On Thursday 30th November 2006, four names will be randomly selected from the list of PhotographyBLOG Newsletter subscribers.

First, Second and Third Prizes - DxO Optics Pro v4
DxO Optics Pro v4 is a powerful tool for automatically improving the quality of the images from your Digital SLR or compact cameras.

Fourth Prize - SilverFast DCPro
SilverFast DCPro high-end Digital Camera Software addresses the specific needs of the digital photographer.

Fifth and Sixth Prizes - Ulead PhotoImpact 12
The latest version of Ulead PhotoImpact adds innovative features that allow beginners to immediately enjoy success in editing their digital photos.

All you have to do to enter is subscribe to the PhotographyBLOG Newsletter before Thursday 30th November 2006.

HP UK Press Release

Protect, share and simplify your digital life with the HP Media Vault - HP launches multifunction network storage device for the home

LONDON, November 27, 2006 – HP today announced the introduction of the HP Media Vault in the UK, a multifunction network storage device for the home. Ideal for digital entertainment enthusiasts, the sleek stylish unit allows users to easily manage, protect and share data and multimedia files across the home network. The digitasation of media has fueled an almost insatiable appetite for storage as consumers hoard digital photos, film, and music. Managing the mounting volumes of digital files is frustrating and protecting them difficult. Buying more USB external hard disk drives momentarily solves the problem, but ultimately creates more frustration. The new HP Media Vault solves the problem by centralizing the storage into a single location on the network, available to anyone, that can grow as the consumer’s needs increase.

Canon USA Press Release

Canon’s imagePROGRAF iPF9000 and iPF5000 Printers with ErgoSoft RIPs Receive Awards for Poster-Size, Presentation-Size, and Textile Printing

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., November 28, 2006 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leading provider of office imaging systems, ink-jet technology and digital photography equipment, is proud to announce that the Canon imagePROGRAF iPF9000 60” and imagePROGRAF iPF5000 17” 12-color inkjet printers have both received 2006 DPI Product-of-the-Year awards at the SGIA Digital Trade Show in Las Vegas. In the Output Device category, the Canon iPF9000 large format printer received the Product-of-the-Year Award for “Poster Size” output and another for “Textile Printing”, while the iPF5000 received the award for “Presentation Size” output device.