The following press release by the CEA claims that camera phones are unlikely to replace digital cameras as the device that you primarily use to take a photograph. What do you think? Do you reach for your camera phone first, or are they the work of the devil (well, relatively speaking!)?

Consumer Electronics Association Press Release

CEA Research Finds Digital Cameras Remain Primary Picture Taking Device

Survey Underscores Need for Industry Involvement in Consumer Archiving Awareness

Arlington, Virginia 8/12/2005 - Even as they increase in popularity, camera phones are not likely to replace digital cameras and camcorders as consumers’ primary picture taking device, according to a study recently released by the Consumer Electronics Association(r) (CEA), which found that some 91 percent of digital camera owners consider their digital camera to be their main photography device. CEA’s “Digital Imaging Study: Sharing and Storing Pictures and Video,” also revealed that consumers are unaware of the need to archive their digital photos and video - an issue of increasing importance as the penetration rate for digital cameras nears 50 percent with those camera owners snapping billions of pictures each year.

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

DCResource have just reviewed the new HP Photosmart R817, which offers 5 megapixels and a 5x optical zoom lens.

“With the exception of the night shots I showed above, I was very pleased with the image quality on the Photosmart R817. Images were generally well exposed, with accurate colors and reasonable noise levels. Images are very sharp—perhaps too much so—which leads to some “jaggies” along edges and some funny looking trees. If this bothers you, try turning the in-camera sharpening down a notch. Purple fringing was not a problem.”

Website: DCResource - HP Photosmart R817 Review

Website: Read my HP Photosmart R817 Review

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DIWA member andDanish website DigitalMagasinet have just published their review of the Canon Digital IXUS 700 digital camera (also known as the Canon PowerShot SD500 Digital ELPH).

Website: DigitalMagasinet - Canon Digital IXUS 700 Review

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LetsGoDigital Press Release

LetsGoDigital goes Asia with Turkish edition : AMSTERDAM, August 4th 2005 : LetsGoDigital, known as the multilingual online magazine about digital imaging, is proud to announce a Turkish edition of its website. Within one year after launching the successful French edition LetsGoDigital again expands its publicity capacity by reaching out to millions of Turkish readers spread all over the world. The Turkish speaking readers and Turkish natives will now be able to get the latest digital imaging on at www.letsgodigital.com.tr. According to Dennis Hissink, LetsGoDigital’s editor: “We are opening the gateway to Asia by welcoming Turkey and will reach an important market of a large group of Turkish consumers.”

The Italian website Fotocamere Digitali have just reviewed the new Casio EX-Z750 Exilim Zoom, which has a 7.2 megapixel CCD sensor, large 2.5-inch LCD screen and offers a battery life of 325 shots.

Website: Fotocamere Digitali - Casio EX-Z750 Exilim Zoom Review

Check the Latest Prices for the Casio EX-Z750 Exilim Zoom

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In the second of two lens reviews, Thom Hogan casts his critical eye over the new Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm lens which ships as a kit with the D50 DSLR. Can you really get a decent lens for £199.99 / €299.00 / $180?

“Sharpness is good but not great throughout the range, with f/8 being the point of maximum sharpness on my sample pretty much across the entire focal length range. Even at f/3.5 (or 5.6 at the tele end) in the corners this lens remains a fair performer—slightly better than you’d expect for the price. I’d be more comfortable about using this lens wide open if it weren’t for the visible vignetting, but if you’re a Capture user and shoot NEF, you can safely ignore that comment, as Capture’s Vignette control handles this lens well. Otherwise be forewarned that you’ll need to get to about f/8 to lose the vignetting effects.”

Website: Thom Hogan - Nikon 18-55mm Lens Review

Thom Hogan takes a look at the new Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 55-200mm lens, designed specifically for digital SLR cameras like the D50, and doesn’t really like what he sees.

“Handling is not a strong point of this lens. Indeed, it’s a very weak point. The zoom ring is stiff, but good. The barrel extends about an inch-and-a-half at maximum, with the minimum point being at 55mm. The barrel doesn’t rotate during zoom or focus. The focus ring is terrible, being only a slight ring near the front of the lens. Worse still, even though this is an AF-S lens, you cannot manually override focus without flipping either the camera or the lens to the manual focus position. Coupled with only five autofocus sensors on a D50 or D70s, not being to override focus makes this not really much of a wildlife or sports friendly lens.”

Website: Thom Hogan - Nikon 55-200mm Lens 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”.

Canon have published the latest issue of their monthly CPS (Canon Professional Services) Newsletter, which has some interesting articles about Arko Datta, winner of this year’s World Press Photo Contest, a comprehensive overview of getting the best end result by optimizing image quality, and a look at how Yves Ullens de Schooten paints with light using the camera like a brush.

Website: Canon CPS Issue#13

DPReview have reviewed the Canon Digital IXUS 50, a 5 megapixel digital camera with stainless steel finish that is Canon’s smallest ever 5.0 Megapixel optical zoom camera (also known as the SD400).

“Of course there are limits to what you can expect, but I was pleasantly surprised by the sharpness of the images produced by the SD400, even with the fringing and occasional soft corner. At the end of the day, where it matters to the target market; exposure, color, focus, speed and noise, the SD400 exceeds expectations. If you can live without manual control over exposure (or any indication of shutter speeds or apertures) this is the perfect pocket camera and an ideal alternative for the days you don’t want to take a bigger camera out with you.”

Website: DPReview - Canon Digital IXUS 50 Review

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DIWA member and Slovenian website e-fotografija have just reviewed the new HP Photosmart R817, which offers 5 megapixels and a 5x optical zoom lens.

Website: e-fotografija - HP Photosmart R817 Review

Website: Read my HP Photosmart R817 Review

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Webshots Press Release

Webshots Surpasses 250 Million Photos Mark; Size of User Generated Content Triples in One Year

SAN FRANCISCO—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Aug. 12, 2005—Webshots (www.webshots.com), a leading online photo sharing Web site(1) and a property of CNET Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq:CNET), today announced that on Sunday, August 7th, 2005, the 250 millionth digital photo was uploaded to its site, making Webshots the largest public photo library available online. With this milestone, Webshots, which attracts a vast community of people from around the world to help them express and entertain themselves as well as connect with others to share their common interests and passions, has seen its photo library triple in size over the last year.

Bloomberg are reporting that the sales of digital cameras in Japan have not been as high as predicted. Shipments will increase by 8.4% this year, according to the the Camera & Imaging Products Association, which is lower than the previous estimate of 21%. A saturated Japanese market is largely to blame: “Sales aren’t rising as much as the association had expected in part because about half the Japanese households already have digital cameras, the report said. “ It’s not all bad news, however, as shipments still increased by 37.7% last year.

Website: Bloomberg - Japan’s Digital Camera Shipments May Miss Forecast

Casio have released a new firmware version (v1.01) for the Casio EX-S500, a 5 megapixel digital camera with a 3x optical zoom and a 2.2 inch LCD screen.

Improvements Provided by This Update
V1.00-V1.01
• Fixed a problem that caused the wrong white balance setting to be registered when saving a user setup.
• Fixes a problem that caused occasional distortion in the upper part of a snapshot recorded during movie recording.

Website: Download the Casio EX-S500 Firmware Update

Check the Latest Prices for the Casio EX-S500

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Bibble Labs Press Release

Bibble Labs releases version 4.3 Update with support for D50 - Includes support for new plug-in interface to support BPTLens lens distortion plug-in.

Austin Texas (August 11th, 2005) - Bibble Labs today announced the availability of version 4.3 of its popular Raw Workflow software. In addition to adding support for the new Nikon D50, D70s and Espon R-D1 cameras, this version adds a powerful plug-in interface to the program. Simultaneous to the release of Bibble 4.3, Bibble Labs has also released its first free plug-in. Released under the GPL, The BPTLens plugin is designed to quickly and easily remove common types of lens distortion from raw images. By performing its corrections on linear data at the earliest phase of the image pipeline, BPTLens and Bibble are able to deliver the highest quality images possible.

Shutterfly Press Release

PUT YOUR PICTURES ON THE BIG SCREEN WITH SHUTTERFLY’S PHOTOSHOW DVD

Shutterfly Brings Memories to Life with Customized Multimedia DVD

REDWOOD CITY, CALIF. - (August 10, 2005) — Responding to customers’ requests for more options to preserve and share memories, Shutterfly®, Inc., the leading independent e-commerce company specializing in digital photo products and services, today introduced PhotoShow DVD, a product that enables customers to transform their favorite photos into an entertainment experience.

With PhotoShow DVD, Shutterfly enables customers to be the producer of their own multimedia slideshow by helping them pair their pictures with music, visual transitions and special effects. Slideshows are easy to design directly on the Shutterfly website and customers are not required to download special software as part of the order process. Customers and their families can enjoy their DVD slideshow on their televisions in the comfort of their living room or on their personal computers.

Manfrotto Press Release

Manfrotto Introduces the New and Improved NeoTec Monopod - New 685B deluxe monopod offers new features

Bassano del Grappa, Italia (August 10, 2005) – Manfrotto, the world’s leading manufacturer of photographic support products, is introducing the new and improved 685B NeoTec Deluxe Monopod with four new features including a safety lever, foot pedal, leg warmer and suction cup foot. From the NeoTec line of Pro Photo Supports, the 685B is built around an innovative self-regulating mechanism inside the leg that delivers unmatched speed, stability and ease-of-use.

This revolutionary new mechanism allows the user to quickly and easily extend each leg to the desired height by simply pulling downwards. There are no locks, knobs or levers of any kind to contend with. Once the leg is extended into position, NeoTec’s patented internal mechanism automatically locks it there by pushing outwards on the tubing, exerting more locking power and further stabilizing the tripod as additional weight is added.

iView Multimedia Press Release

New research identifies file management as most pressing concern of professional photographers

Half (51 per cent) of professional photographers say file management is the greatest challenge associated with digital photography

• Over a third (35 per cent) of photographers feel the biggest advantage of digital photography is greater control
• One in four (25 per cent) said digital photography’s biggest advantage is that it enables greater creativity

Half (51 per cent) of professional photographers say file management is the greatest challenge associated with digital photography, according to new research from iView Multimedia, makers of the award-winning digital asset management (DAM) application iView MediaPro.

ABI Research Press Release

Camera Phones to Steal Low-End Digital Camera Market within Two Years, Says ABI Research

OYSTER BAY, N.Y - Aug. 10, 2005—Within two years, low-end camera phones will take much of the market share now held by low-end standalone digital cameras. ABI Research principal analyst of global wireless operator research Kenneth Hyers says, “We believe that within the next two years, the quality of a mobile phone camera will be such that people won’t need low-end standalone digital cameras. This will dramatically impact camera sales.”

ABI Research’s new study “Mobile Phone Imaging: Opportunities for Driving Usage of Camera Phones through Click/Send/Print” identifies the drivers for camera phone growth, explains how mobile imaging will evolve, and discusses why camera phones will eventually displace portions of the standalone digital camera market.