MINOX Press Release

The New MINOX DC 5222 digital camera with 5.2 Megapixels and an oversized 2.5 inch monitor.

With their new DC 5222 digital camera, MINOX once again incorporates the latest compact digital camera technology and features while still retaining the company ethos of combining modern technology with the smallest functional design. An oversized 2.5” LCD monitor features prominently on the back of the camera and all controls sit comfortably on the camera and are easy to use.

The camera has a 5.2 Megapixel CCD sensor and fast multi-coated MINOCTAR autofocus lens with macro feature. The 3x optical and 4x digital zoom offers the user plenty of freedom for everyday photography.

DCResource have posted their review of the new, competitively priced Olympus E-300/Evolt DSLR.

“It takes about 2 seconds for the E-300 to “warm up” before you can start taking pictures. While that’s comparable to the Digital Rebel, the Nikon D70 is ready to go instantly. While I wasn’t wowed by its autofocus speeds, the E-300 focuses fairly quickly, and faster than most fixed-lens cameras out there. In low light, the EVOLT’s flash-based AF illuminator allows it to focus in almost total darkness—very nice. As for shutter lag, there really isn’t any. That’s why you’re interested in a digital SLR, right?”

Website: DCResource - Olympus E-300/Evolt Review

Check the Latest Prices for the Olympus E-300 / Evolt

Write a Review of the Olympus E-300 / Evolt

The Danish website Digital Magasinet have just reviewed the 8 megapixel Konica Minolta DiMAGE A200 digital camera, which incorporates anti-shake technology and a swivelling LCD monitor.

Website: Digital Magasinet - Konica Minolta DiMAGE A200 Review

Check the Latest Prices for the Konica Minolta DiMAGE A200

DigitalCameraInfo have posted their first impressions of the 7.2 megapixel Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P200 digicam that was first announced at the CES show a week ago.

“The ease of use and comfortable handling make this Cyber-shot model an attractive digital camera for the right type of user. The high megapixel count and larger 2-inch LCD make this camera an even better bargain at $399. The 7.2-megapixel Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P200 was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January and will be released to the consumer market in February 2005. The compact point-and-shoot has a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 3x optical zoom lens that extends from the camera body when powered up. The P200 is easy to use for the style-driven beginner and only gets better with increased photographic knowledge and utilization of manual functions.”

Website: DigitalCameraInfo - Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P200 First Impressions

DigiCamReview have published their review of the Konica Minolta DiMAGE E40 digital camera.

“The images have okay colour, saturation and contrast. Images appear to have fairly low noise, with good detail, but show signs of corner softness and vignetting. Purple fringing was slightly evident in some of the photos but isn’t a major concern. There is a good range of image sizes and compression options. The macro mode is very good, although the flash did cause problems when the subject was close. Auto white balance and metering seemed to be quite poor, often producing green colours indoors, or the wrong skin tones, as well as loosing highlight detail inside and outside. The movie mode is average, at 320x240/15fps with sound. When inside, the camera does a good job of focusing, due to the AF-assist lamp, and the flash is fairly decent.”

Website: DigiCamReview - Konica Minolta Dimage E40 Review

The largest UK photography retailer, Jessops, released its latest trading figures this week, and The Independent reports that “Nine out of 10 cameras that Jessops sold over Christmas in cash terms was digital”.

“While other retailers of digital products have struggled against deflation, Mr Hine said the average price of a camera had fallen only 5 per cent. That compared with a 20 per cent annual fall in the cost of a computer. Mr Hine said the introduction of digital single lens reflex cameras, which have changeable lenses, was boosting revenues because they retail at about £650.”

Website: The Independent - Jessops buoyed by surprise demand for digital cameras

Fujifilm Press Release

Fujifilm Professional will use Focus-on-Imaging to showcase their two new medium-speed colour negative films - Fujicolor Pro 160S and Pro 160C. This is the first chance for UK photographers to see sample images taken on the new films.

Both films feature smoother skin tone rendition, unprecedented neutral grey balance, exceptionally fine grain, and wide exposure latitude. They represent the leading edge of Fujifilm’s colour negative film technology. Both have been optimised for digital scanning, and give excellent performance when used for digitally printed portraiture.

Fujifilm Press Release
 
Fujifilm Professional is to host three free mini-marketing seminars at the Focus-on-Imaging exhibition on Monday 28 February.

The seminars will be run by marketing expert Darron Hartas and they will be aimed at helping every professional photographer market their services better.

Whether you shoot weddings, portraits or commercial work, there is something for everyone in each half-hour presentation. Darron and his team at WPS Media help run the Envisage marketing programme on behalf of Fujifilm Professional.

Taking place opposite the main Focus exhibition halls in Concourse Suite 1, the presentations are aimed specifically at those who want to know more about Fujifilm Envisage and how the marketing initiative can help their businesses. There’s no need to book and entrance is free of charge. Plus, those who would like to enroll on the Envisage programme may do so at a special Focus discounted rate.

Thomson Press Release

5GB of Color Photos and Music All in an Attractive Micro Jukebox Package

January 14th, 2005 - Designed to expand the customer base for the emerging digital audio category beyond the mp3 enthusiast, Thomson has introduced a new line of full-featured RCA LYRA digital audio products at the recent Consumer Electronics Show.

Digital music fans looking for a compact, affordable way to transport volumes of their favorite music and JPEG digital photos will find what they’re looking for with the 5GB RCA LYRA Micro Jukebox (Model RD2765).

Thomson Press Release

RCA Announces Next Generation Audio/Video Jukebox with Advanced Features

January 14th, 2005 - Designed to expand the customer base for the emerging digital audio category beyond the mp3 enthusiast, Thomson has introduced a new line of full-featured RCA LYRA digital audio products at the recent Consumer Electronics Show.

The RCA LYRA Audio/Video Jukebox is targeted at consumers who want all their audio, video, photo, and computer files in one small device that fits in the palm of their hands. Building on the success of the pioneering, award-winning RCA LYRA Audio/Video Jukebox, the second-generation model packs more features into an even slimmer package. The RD2782 only measures 4.9"x 3.1” x .8” but still stores 20 GB of digital music, JPEG images and video content. Like the original model, the RD2782 can hold up to 80 hours of video content transferred from the PC or can record directly from a TV, cable or satellite set-top receiver using standard video and audio connections. A virtual VCR in your pocket, the RD2782 adds a programmable timer function that can be set to record different channels at specific times.

The Vosonic IC Drive IP3610 is both a portable storage device and MP3 music player, featuring an integrated 1.8-inch 20Gb Toshiba laptop hard disk drive and several memory card slots which support 8 different types of memory cards. Although memory card prices are falling quickly, a device like the IC Drive still offers a cheap and convenient way to store 1,000s of photos. 18 months ago I reviewed the original Vosonic X’S-Drive, which I still use today. So does the IC Drive offer anything extra to tempt me to upgrade, and you to buy it?

Website: Vosonic IC Drive VP3610 Review

Colorplaza Ltd. Press Release

Imaging Software that Relieves the Frustrations of that Digital Camera Christmas Present

•    All-in-one programme to manage your photos
•    Shareware download with free 30 day trial

London, 14 January 2005 - Colorplaza Ltd., a leading independent European provider of online digital photo finishing today launches a new generation of end-user digital photo management software, Colormailer Photo Manager, that finally dispenses with the problems of imaging software incompatibility and locating your photos on your PC, and gives a single view of all images held on your hard disk.

shutterbug Magazine takes a timely look at the Photoblog phenomenon, with links to some great sites, ermm, I mean blogs, that are pretty much all worth a lengthy visit.

“In my exploration I was quite amazed at how much support for photoblogging is already available, even though photoblog popularity has grown substantially over a rather short span of time. For instance, websites like buzznet.com and fotolog.net both offer easy means to get started with full support to create your own photoblog. However, with these easy full-support options you are pretty locked into a limited format. So if you want some individuality and independence there are other ways to go.”

Website: shutterbug - Blog, Blog, Blog, Blog, Photoblog

AKVIS LLC Press Release

AKVIS LLC announces the release of AKVIS Retoucher V.1.5 for the Macintosh operating system.
 
AKVIS LLC Releases AKVIS Retoucher For Macintosh
Few things in life stir our memories and emotions the way photographs do. As durable a record of the past as they can be, time, improper storage and tragic events like house fires take their toll on these irreplaceable keepsakes. The AKVIS Retoucher image processing plug-in restores damaged photographs to optimal condition with minimal effort and amazing results. Surface defects such as scratches, water spots, flakes and stains can be removed automatically, just select and click, without the time-consuming aspects of manual editing. Even torn photos can be repaired using AKVIS Retoucher’s digital technology. The wide variety of capabilities are demonstrated at akvis.com/en/retoucher-tutorial/index.php.

The Polish website Fotopolis have published their review of the 8 megapixel Canon EOS 20D DSLR.

Website: Fotopolis - Canon EOS 20D Review

Check the Latest Prices for the Canon EOS 20D

Imaging Resource have reviewed the Konica Minolta DiMAGE X50, a new compact and stylish 5.0 megapixel camera which features a large 2.0-inch LCD screen, enhanced speed and other design improvements.

“I printed out some of our test shots from it on the Canon i9900 printer we have in our studio. (An excellent printer, with great color and high resolution.) Looking at prints from the X50, I found its output looked great when printed as large as 13x19 inches. While I found the X50’s image noise levels at ISO 400 very objectionable when I viewed its images onscreen, 4x6 prints of my ISO 400 shots by and large looked entirely acceptable, and even 5x7 prints of some subjects looked OK. (The exception would be subjects with large areas of relatively flat tints, such as skies, solid-color walls, etc. In such instances, the colored noise speckles were still quite visible, even in 4x6 prints.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Konica Minolta DiMAGE X50 Review

Website: Read my Review of the Konica Minolta DiMAGE X50

Check the Latest Prices for the Konica Minolta DiMAGE X50

The Slovenian website e-fotografija have just posted their review of the long-delayed DSLR, the Fuji FinePix S3 Pro.

Website: e-fotografija - FujiFilm FinePix S3 Pro Review

Check the Latest Prices for the FujiFilm FinePix S3 Pro

DPReview 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.

“When we reviewed the S5500/5100’s predecessor a year ago, Phil commented ‘Throughout my time with the S5000 I was left wondering what would have been like had Fujifilm used a standard four or five megapixel CCD’. Well now we know; a lot better. All the positive attributes of the S5000, from the good design and handling to the impressive zoom range and wealth of photographic controls are now married to a sensor capable of doing them justice. And the result is a camera that offers an compelling option for those wanting a big-zoom camera on a tight budget.”

Website: DPReview - FujiFilm FinePix S5500 Zoom Review

Check the Latest Prices for the FujiFilm FinePix S5500 Zoom

CNET have just reviewed the 4 megapixel Kodak Easyshare LS743 digital camera.

“Snapshooters who want good image quality and ease of operation and won’t miss manual controls will love the Kodak EasyShare LS743, a slim and totable 4-megapixel model. While its zoom range is limited to 2.8X, close focusing, a good burst mode, and extralong battery life make this a versatile camera, especially for photographers whose enthusiasm for picture-taking exceeds their technical skills.”

Website: CNET - Kodak Easyshare LS743 Review

Check the Latest Prices for the Kodak Easyshare LS743

Peachpit and Pearson Technology Group Press Release

SCOTT KELBY, BEST-SELLING PHOTOSHOP AUTHOR, NAMED 2004 TOP-SELLING COMPUTER BOOK AUTHOR IN THE U.S.

Announced by Peachpit and Pearson Technology Group

TAMPA, FL ­ Jan. 13, 2005 ­ Peachpit and Pearson Technology Group today announced the results of research based on Nielsen Bookscan data for the calendar year 2004 indicating Scott Kelby is the number one, top-selling computer book author in the U.S. exceeding Microsoft Press, Andy Rathbone, and David Pogue in Bookscan units and dollars sold in 2004. Kelby is widely recognized as the world¹s best-selling Photoshop how-to book author, a digital imaging guru, and president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals.