Imaging Resource have published a review of Qurio, photosharing software that allows you to instantly share thousands of full resolution photos over the Internet, directly from your own PC.

What if you could just email your friends and family to let them know you’ve just copied some new pictures to your hard drive. To enjoy them, they’d just have to click on some link in your email. Their browser would launch and in a second or two they’d be watching a nice slide show of your images.

Qurio (http://www.Qurio.com) turns that imaginary scenario into reality. And to their credit, they do it in a safe, secure way.

Website: Imaging Resource - Qurio Reinvents Photosharing

Back in August the UK’s biggest photography retailer, Jessops, announced that they were planning to join the London Stock Exchange. Now they have officially launched their offer and made public the details, including how much the company will actually be worth:

Indicative price range of 185p to 220p per share, which will give Jessops a market capitalisation of between £173 million to £189 million…At the price range, the total number of shares in the Company at admission will be between 93.5 million shares and 85.7 million shares.

Website: ePhotoZine - Jessops initial public offering price range

Corel Press Release 19/10/04

Painter IX Offers Creative Professionals Unmatched Speed and Incredible Possibilities

Ottawa, Canada - October 18, 2004 Corel today announced that Corel Painter IX, the world’s most powerful Natural-Media painting and illustration software, is now available across North America and the United Kingdom, and Australia.

Corel Painter IX enables commercial designers, photographers, and professional artists to use their natural talents and techniques to create breathtaking works of art. This highly sophisticated painting and illustration application captures the intricate nuances of traditional art tools while taking advantage of the incredible power of digital media. It is the must-have software for creative professionals, whether they’re in film making, game development, commercial design, illustration, photography, or fine arts.

“Corel Painter IX takes creativity to new heights by empowering creative professionals to use the skills and techniques they’ve developed in the traditional world, while enjoying the incredible benefits of digital media. Whether they are designing commercial illustrations, painting portraits, or developing concept art for feature films and video games, professional artists turn to Painter to create stunning masterpieces,” said Nick Davies, General Manager Graphics for Corel.

DCResource have reviewed the 5 megapixel Canon PowerShot SD20 Digital ELPH.

“The Canon PowerShot SD20 Digital ELPH is what I call a “secondary camera”. It’s the go-anywhere camera that’s always on hand to capture the moment. For more serious endeavors, that’s where you bring out your primary camera—the PowerShot G6, Coolpix 8700, whatever. With that in mind, the SD20 is a very nice ultra-compact camera that can fit in your pocket, ready for action at any time. It takes very good 5 Megapixel photos without major delays like shutter lag. The camera is mostly point-and-shoot, though I appreciate the manual white balance and long shutter speed controls. The camera has an AF-assist lamp for focusing in low light, though I found it hard to see anything on the LCD in those conditions.”

Website: DCResource - Canon PowerShot SD20 Digital ELPH Review

Nikon Press Release 19/10/04

Nikon introduces the Digiscoping System - Fieldscope Digital SLR Camera Attachment FSA-L1, Fieldscope Digital Camera Bracket FSB-1, and Wide DS Fieldscope Eyepieces

Nikon Vision Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Nikon Corporation, is proud to announce the release of several new Nikon Fieldscope accessories - Fieldscope Digital SLR Camera Attachment FSA-L1, Fieldscope Digital Camera Bracket FSB-1, and Wide DS Fieldscope Eyepieces.
With the spread of digital cameras in recent years, super-telephoto shooting using a combination of Nikon Fieldscope with digital camera has become increasingly popular among birdwatchers.

So popular, in fact, that it has led to many requests to Nikon for a Fieldscope accessory that enables shooting with digital SLR cameras. The newly released Digital SLR Camera Attachment FSA-L1 is our response. By using it to attach a Nikon D70 or D100 digital SLR camera to your Fieldscope, you can perform super-telephoto shooting with a focal length of 1,500mm (35mm-format equivalent, with Fieldscope ED82 series).

Pentax have released a new firmware version for the *ist D DSLR, which includes the following changes:

Version 1.11 of the *istD firmware will fully prepare your camera for use with the Pentax Remote Assistant software (available as a separate download). The Remote Assistant software will allow you to control various *istD functions from your computer.

Website: Pentax *istD Firmware Update v1.11

PhotographyBLOG was unfortunately offline from approximately 4am-10am BST today.

If you sent me an email during this time period, please resend it.

DigiCamReview.co.uk have today reviewed the new HP Photosmart R707, a stylish 5 megapixel digital camera.

“Image quality is good - the images have really good pleasing colour, good detail although images could do with a sharpen and suffer from corner softness. Images have fairly low noise depending on how much adaptive lighting changes the image, and there is very little purple fringing. Image compression doesn’t seem to cause jpeg artifacts, and there is an additional high quality (4 star) mode for even higher quality images. The macro mode is fairly poor, although for the odd macro photo will probably be fine.”

Website: DigiCamReview.co.uk - HP Photosmart R707 Review

?2002 Kristen Ashburn, Canon Female Photojournalist Award 2004, Agency: Contact Press Images

Canon UK Press Release 18/10/04

US photographer Kristen Ashburn has become the fourth woman to win the Canon Female Photojournalist Award, for her images depicting HIV in Zimbabwe and its impact on daily life, and the country’s culture and economy. The award was granted by the French Association of Women Journalists (AFJ) at the 16th International Festival of Photojournalism Visa pour l’Image in Perpignan, France, on 3 September 2004.

The Canon Female Photojournalist Award, was initiated in 2001 by Guy Bourreau, Marketing Director of Canon Communication & Image in France and AFJ. It aims to support and highlight the work of female photographers around the world. “Women make up only 11% of the world’s photojournalists,” explains Bourreau. “Through its support and its technology, Canon is committed to meeting the needs of all photographers - male and female. With this award we are aiming to address the under-representation of women in this field and draw attention to the diverse work female photojournalists produce.”

Epson UK Press Release

Epson introduces the most competitively priced multi-format film scanner

Epson’s new F-3200 dedicated film scanner offers a cost-effective, high quality film scanning solution.  It enables professionals and experienced amateur photographers to achieve professional lab-quality results.

November 2004 - The Epson F-3200 is the most competitively priced multi-format dedicated film scanner on the market. Priced at £549 (inc VAT) the scanner is aimed at professionals and experienced amateur photographers who want to scan their film quickly without sacrificing quality.  It is also ideal for photographers who want to digitise their film archive or who still shoot in film but wish to create digital images for manipulation and printing.

The Epson F-3200 is a versatile product which allows professionals and experienced amateurs to quickly scan reflective prints of up to 4” x 6” in addition to 35mm film through to 5” x 4” sheet film. Compatible with either a PC or Mac, the Epson F-3200 features advanced software that enables photographers to scan 35mm and medium format film in batches and at the same time remove dust and scratches from images. The built-in LCD screen allows photographers to preview scanned images quickly and easily.

BIOS have just reviewed the Lexmark P6520 All-in-One printer/scanner/copier, which is aimed at digital photographers rather than business users.

“Lexmark’s P6250 all-in-one printer has consumer-friendly features and all of the components you need to start a home photo lab. Unfortunately, its print quality is disappointing and it takes forever to print large documents. The unit makes it a snap to start making your own albums and digitising your existing photos, but you’ll be disappointed by its ‘photo quality’ prints. In fact, its output can be bettered by much cheaper alternatives, such as Epson’s Stylus CX3600.”

Website: BIOS - Lexmark P6520 Review

The Spanish website quesabesde.com have posted their review of the 4 megapixel Canon PowerShot A85.

Website: quesabesde.com - Canon PowerShot A85 Review

Imaging Resource have just reviewed what is sure to be a popular digital camera, the 5 megapixel Canon PowerShot A95:

“The PowerShot A95 is one of the few digital cameras that just seem to get everything right, with very few weaknesses. In virtually all respects (color, resolution, image noise), its images are good to excellent, and its range of features and capabilities is hard to beat for the price.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Canon PowerShot A95 Review

Digital Outback Photo have reviewed a plugin for Photoshop CS and PhotoShop Elements 3(Windows-only I’m afraid) that aims to brighten up the shadows in your images without causing too many unwanted side-effects.

“Improving the tonality of images is one of the most difficult tasks. Especially the shows are either to flat or even more often to dark. There are quite a few tools on the market that address this issue. The most well known is “Shadow Highlight” in Photoshop CS. In our opinion, “Shadow Highlight” has two major shortcomings:

- It can produce halos
- With its many sliders the use is not really easy

Here we think the Shadow Illuminator plugin offers a great alternative.”

Website: Digital Outback Photo - Shadow Illuminator Plugin Review

Not much has been heard about the Polaroid x530 digital camera that was announced back in February, which was interesting because it uses a variant of the Foveon X3 sensor that is also used in the Sigma DSLR range. Well, a Japanese first look/review of the Polaroid x530 has turned up, although I obviously can’t give you any more details than pointing you to the website (found via DigiCamReview.co.uk).

Website: Polaroid x530

Lexmark Press Release 18/10/04

Lexmark makes it easy to print photos on the go
 
- The P315 Snapshot photo printer is like having your own portable photo lab -
 
LEXINGTON, Ky. - 10/18/2004
 
For the second time in two months, Lexmark International, Inc. (NYSE: LXK) has unveiled a breakthrough in photo printing with today’s introduction of the Lexmark P315 Snapshot photo printer, which offers the latest in photo printing ease-of-use features designed to uncomplicate the process of producing high-quality, 4” x 6” images.

This is a truly portable photo studio that does not connect to a computer. Consumers can print borderless, 35mm-quality images directly from most digital cameras or memory cards in any room of the home or in their office. The Lexmark P315 also allows easy editing for customized prints that can be produced as fast as 38 seconds*.

“The Lexmark P315 offers some of the great ease of use features that we introduced with our Lexmark P6250 Home Photo Center All-in-One and the Lexmark P915 Home Photo Printer in September in a portable, smaller size,” said Najib Bahous, Lexmark vice president and president of its Consumer Printer Division. “It doesn?t make sense that consumers can take their digital cameras anywhere, but they have to wait until they get to their home to enjoy the prints.  We changed that experience with the Lexmark P315 by creating a portable, photo lab that can be used anywhere there?s an outlet.”

Breeze Systems Press Release 18/10/04

Breeze Systems’ Downloader Pro 1.5 simplifies workflow for Canon EOS 20D and 1D Mk II Users

18 October 2004: Breeze Systems today released Downloader Pro 1.5, the company’s powerful yet simple tool to transfer digital photos from camera to PC.

Canon EOS 20D and Canon EOS-1D Mark II users can now use Downloader Pro to download directly from the camera while automatically renaming and organizing images, losslessly rotating JPEGs and storing copyright and other IPTC data in each image.

Further time saving features include dpi adjustment and color profile tagging of JPEGs and the automatic creation of sets of related directories for each download directory.

Downloader Pro 1.5 also adds support for the downloading of Panasonic DMC-LC1 and Leica Digilux 2 raw images.

Ever fancied testing your camera using a professional test target? Well, DPNow are reporting that you can download an accurate replica of a resolution target for free:

“Have you ever wished you could test your own camera like the professionals? Here at dpnow when we test digital cameras we use a variety of test targets, including the standard ISO 12233 resolution target for testing electronic cameras. It’s a pretty standard test used by a lot of reviewers. Our target cost us over ?100 (approx US$180 or EU?150) but is vital to our battery of camera tests.

Stephen H. Westin, a research project leader at the Cornell University’s Light Measurement laboratory, appears to have created a replica ISO 12233 test target using ISO specifications and made a pdf version of it available for free download.”

Website: DPNow - Make your own ISO camera test target?

The 46th Photo of the Week contest is now closed.

I have choosen what I think are the best photographs in my opinion. Now it’s your turn to vote for the overall winner of the contest. A Public Poll has been setup on the PhotographyBLOG Forums and you have 7 days during which you can vote for your favourite photo from the ones that I have chosen. Voting will end on Monday 25th October. The Poll will then be closed and the overall winner announced.

Vote now for your favourite image from the Photo Of The Week 11th-17th October 2004 contest

A new article from The New York Times called “Tunnel Visions” is a brief but nevertheless interesting look back at subway/tube/metro photography.

“This year, in the 100th year of New York’s subway, the city is celebrating in two ways: with lots of exhibitions and books of subway photography and, perversely enough, by thinking about reinstating the ban on subway photography for security reasons. (The old one was rescinded 10 years ago.) If the rule, proposed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, goes into effect, anyone shooting a photo, film or video in the subway without a pass will face a $25 fine.”

Website: New York Times - Tunnel Visions