DIWA member website LetsGoDigital have just posted their review of the new 8 megapixel Nikon Coolpix 8800.

“In general the image quality is perfect, visible is the rich detail rendition due to the high resolution. The quality of the 10x optical zoom lens is undisputable and is in spite of its minor beauty spots like chromatic aberration at wide angle, a valuable tool on this camera. Working with an electronic viewfinder can differ from camera to camera and ones experiences with it can differ completely. Sometimes it is utterly annoying, in fact diminishing the ease of use, and sometimes it’s incredibly satisfying, like we experienced when working with the Coolpix 8800.”

Website: LetsGoDigital - Nikon Coolpix 8800 Review

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The Tech Zone have just reviewed the Canon Powershot S1 IS digital camera, which offers 10x image stablised zoom, 3 megapixels and high-quality 640 x 480 video at 30 frames/second with sound.

“The Canon S1 IS is the perfect trade show camera. Not only does it take fantastic photos but it can double as a camcorder. The video quality of the S1 is so good, I had a hard time telling it apart from video made with my JVC camcorder . Add in 10X optical zoom with image stabilizer and you have the perfect camera for getting up close and personal with the booth babes.”

Website: The Tech Zone - Canon PowerShot S1 IS Review

Following my enthusiastic review of the Lensbaby a few months ago, Photofocus Magazine have posted their review of this unique product.

“The lens works like a bellows camera. You don’t twist a focusing knob; you simply move the focusing collar out by compressing the lens tubing until you get the image you want. You can bend the lens in any direction. Yes that’s right, you can BEND the lens. You can bend it up, down, left and right or any twisted combination that you can contort your fingers to make.”

Website: Photofocus Magazine - Lensbaby Review

Website: Read my review of the Lensbaby

After yesterday’s review of the HP Designjet 30 and HP Designjet 130 printers by Digital Outback Photo, there’s another new review today by Photofocus Magazine of the Designjet 130 (found via Digicamera.net).

“HP’s DesignJet 130 is a direct competitor to the Epson 4000. But because it is priced between the Epson 2200 and the 4000, it can actually steal sales from Epson in both markets. Normally, I would assume it has no chance against giant Epson. But in this case, I’d be wrong. Photographers who want to make large prints should strongly consider this sleek and impressive printer.”

Website: Photofocus Magazine - HP Designjet 130 Review

Leica Press Release

Leica Camera AG, Solms, will establish a new Japanese subsidiary on March 1, 2005. The subsidiary, to be named Leica Camera Japan Co., Ltd., will take care of the promotion and distribution of Leica products in the important Japanese market. To date, these tasks have been performed by the independent distributor Nihon SiberHegner K.K. Leica products are already held in high esteem by Japanese customers for their quality, precision, and solidity. The Company’s creation of its own Japanese sales organisation will reinforce its service to the customers and will also stimulate sales increases.

Adesso Press Release

Adesso Opens the Door to Creativity with New Line of Pen-based PC Tablets

Adesso’s new tablets offer USB and wireless connectivity and control with an active tablet space of up to 12 x 9-inches

WALNUT, CALIF., Jan. 24, 2005 - Adesso Inc., a leading manufacturer and distributor of innovative and stylish keyboards, digital cameras, mice, touchpads, and input peripherals, today introduced a brand new family of pen-based tablets for PCs running Windows 2000 and XP. The new CyberTablet series feature a powerful, yet easy-to-use combination of a pressure-sensitive pen, tablet, and software that enables PC users to naturally draw and write freehand graphics and text as comfortably as they would on real paper. The Cyber-series will be available mid-February.

Pantone Press Release

Color Just Got Bigger for 2005 with the New PANTONE Color Guides

Redesigned Guides Boast 25 Percent Larger Swatches for Greater Visualization; New State-of-the-Art Printing Press Improves Color Quality

CARLSTADT, N.J.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Jan. 24, 2005—Pantone, Inc., the leading provider of professional color standards for the graphic communications industry worldwide, today announced the most substantial redesign of its flagship product, the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM(R) formula guide, in more than 30 years. The reproduction of color to exact standards is vitally important to designers, printers and their clients. The 2005 formula guide sets a new benchmark for color and includes color swatches that are nearly 25 percent larger for increased accuracy and visual reference when specifying and matching colors. The PANTONE solid chips book, also published in this new format, provides designers with larger tear-out chips.

Photoshop World Conference & Expo

LAS VEGAS IS CITY CHOSEN FOR PHOTOSHOP WORLD CONFERENCE & EXPO 2005 – WEST

March 8-10, 2005 – Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, NV

TAMPA, FL – Monday, Jan. 24, 2005 – Photoshop World Conference & Expo, the largest Photoshop educational event in the world, is heading to the world-famous Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on March 8-10, 2005. Photoshop World Conference & Expo is sponsored Adobe Systems and produced bi-annually (once each on the east and west coasts) by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP).

Thousands of NAPP members, Photoshop users, and digital imaging professionals and novices worldwide are expected to descend on Vegas to learn from Photoshop World’s all-star instructor team. Each instructor, 28 in total, are considered an industry heavyweight either in Photoshop, digital photography, or motion graphics.

SearchEngineWatch editor Danny Sullivan has posted his review of Picasa 2, a software program that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Sullivan compares it to the the program that he has been using for the last year, Adobe Photoshop Album 2.

“Outside of photo management, Picasa seems to shine much better when compared to the free version of Adobe Photoshop Album. The range of photo fixes available in Picasa is better—and you’ve got to love the one-touch “fix it” feature being renamed “I’m Feeling Lucky.” That’s even more suitable with automatic photo adjusting than searching the web with Google!

I also love—absolutely love—how Picasa doesn’t touch your original photo. Photoshop Album doesn’t as well, but not in as slick a fashion. With Album, if you make an edit, crop, etc—it duplicates your photo and creates a link. You see the edited version, but the original is not touched and always available so you can revert.”

Thanks to Sanj for the link.

Website: PCMagazine - Google Picasa 2 Vs. Adobe Photoshop Album 2

ProFotoSoftware Press Release

January 23rd 2005

ProFotoSoftware have today released V1.5 of PFS Image Darkroom, the Canon EOS Raw Processing system for Windows.

This release adds Post Processing operations, which enhance the image after the initial Raw Development. The added operations include Histogram Levels Adjustment, Unsharp Masking, Borders and Frames, image resize and a unique save for web feature that calculates the required JPEG compression level to achieve a specified image file size.

Pocket-Lint have reviewed the ultra-thin Minolta DiMAGE Xg, another digital camera that was first announced at PMA 2004.

“If you want a small, easily pocketed, yet stylish digicam the Konica Minolta DiMAGE Xg might be the one for you. Opening the box and hefting this little beauty for the first time makes a real impact. The wife has the original ‘X’ version of this. The Xg is the latest update and at 20mm thin and weighing in at only 120g, it’s remarkably small and stylish. It betters the original for sheer exuberance in its red livery.”

Website: Pocket-Lint - Minolta DiMAGE Xg Review

Slovenian website Slo-Foto have just posted their review of the competitively priced 8 megapixel Olympus E-300/Evolt DSLR.

Website: Slo-Foto - Olympus E-300/Evolt Review

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The DIWA member and Slovenian website e-fotografija have published their review of the FujiFilm FinePix S5500 Zoom digital camera (also known as the S5100 in the USA), which has a 10x optical zoom and 4 megapixel resolution and is the successor to the popular FinePix S5000 Zoom.

Website: e-fotografija - FujiFilm FinePix S5500 Zoom Review

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Photoxels have published their review of the 7 megapixel Olympus C-70 Zoom (called the Olympus C-7000 Zoom in the USA).

“The Olympus C-7000 is capable of producing very good image quality with very low noise and great detail. It is certainly a perfect outdoors landscape camera where you take your time to compose, focus and fiddle with the controls to get a really superb image..”

Website: Photoxels - Olympus C-70 Zoom Review

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UMAX, better known for their flatbed scanner range, have unveiled 4 new digital cameras; the UMAX AstraCam DV350, UMAX AstraPix 680, UMAX PowerCam Z530, UMAX PowerCam Z432 and UMAX AstraPix 620. They range from a 2 megapixel up to a 5 megapixel model, with an MPEG4 digital camcorder thrown in for good measure.

Adesso Press Release

New sleek, affordable UMAX cameras allow professional, prosumer and everyday photographers to take high-resolution video and pictures in a snap

Walnut, CA (PRWEB) January 19, 2005—Adesso Inc., a leading manufacturer and distributor of innovative and stylish keyboards, digital cameras, mice, touchpads, and input peripherals, today introduced it will distribute new digital video and still cameras from UMAX. In July 2004, Adesso and UMAX announced a strategic distribution alliance, whereas Adesso would utilize its nationwide network of retail, catalog and online sales partners to sell new UMAX digital cameras. Adesso also services and supports the UMAX cameras.

Digital Outback Photo have started to review the large format HP Designjet 30 and HP Designjet 130 printers.

“So far we don’t have a lot of experience. But what we see looks very good so far. Including the prints we have seen at Charlie Cramer’s studio we think that the HP DJ 30/130 is a strong solution for glossy media.

We like the gloss and satin surface quite a bit
Blacks are excellent and deeper than the Epson UltraChrome inks can produce
Some gloss differential (also called bronzing) but a lot less than on the Epson printers with gloss media”

Website: Digital Outback Photo - HP Designjet 30/130 Experience Report

DCResource have posted their review of the new 6 megapixel Konica Minolta Dynax 7D digital SLR camera.

“Speaking of taking pictures, the photo quality was a bit of a weak point at first, but I quickly found a workaround for that issue. While some will disagree with my assessment that the 7D’s images were too soft, I found that bumping up the in-camera sharpening by one stop made things a lot more tolerable. Otherwise image quality was just as you’d expect from a digital SLR: smooth and noise-free, even at high ISOs. And, as expected, camera performance is excellent in all areas, including in burst mode. The one exception is the speed at which the 7D reads and writes to the memory card—it takes quite a while. Along those lines, real USB 2.0 High Speed support would’ve been nice.”

Website: DCResource - Konica Minolta Dynax 7D Review

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Shutterbug magazine have predicted what will happen in the world of photography in the year 2005 and beyond. Amongst other things, they tell us that the megapixel wars will finally end (at last!).

“It’s no secret that digital cameras are already selling like hotcakes at the expense of conventional 35mm and medium format equipment, and this trend will certainly continue. Almost overnight, 7- and 8-megapixel models have become the norm in “prosumer” digicams, but will the megapixel wars continue? In other words, will we see 10- and 12-megapixel compact cameras in the near future? While that may sound like a logical prediction, it’s unlikely, at least based on current technology.”

Website: Shutterbug - A Look At What’s Ahead For Photography In 2005…And Beyond

Last week Canon announced a new entry-level digital camera, the compact 3 megapixel PowerShot A510, available from early Febuary 2004 for £ 199.00 RRP inc. VAT / € 289.99 RRP inc. VAT. They have now released five full-sized sample JPEG images for you to judge the image-quality by (although they were all taken at ISO 50).

Website: Canon PowerShot A510 Sample Images

The Danish website Akamera.dk have just reviewed the 4 megapixel FujiFilm FinePix E500 Zoom digital camera.

Website: Akamera.dk - FujiFilm FinePix E500/E510 Zoom Review

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