The Concord Eye-Q 5062AF is a stylish and compact 5 megapixel digital camera with a 1.8” TFT Color LCD display that offers a variety of exposure and focusing modes, all for around a mere $200. How have Concord Camera achieved this aggressive price-point? Well, one obvious cost-saving is the zoom lens - there isn’t one, just a fixed lens that is equivalent to 48mm on a 35mm camera. So if you want a camera with a zoom lens, stop reading now. Otherwise, on paper at least, the Concord Eye-Q 5062AF seems to offer most if not all of the features that other digicams in this class offer, with the bonus of a 5 megapixel sensor. So are there are any other major drawbacks in addition to that fixed lens? Read my review to find out.

Website: Concord Eye-Q 5062AF Review

PCMagazine have posted their review of the new HP Deskjet 6540 color inkjet printer.

“Where the 6540 truly distinguishes itself is in the level of quality you get at this speed. Text is just short of very good, with all but two of the fonts we test easily readable at 6 points, and several readable at 4 points. Graphics quality is very good, with some minor banding and minor dithering in the form of mild graininess. Photos are just short of excellent, with colors that are a touch too saturated in some output.”

Website: PCMagazine - HP Deskjet 6540 Review

Epson UK Press Release 08/10/04

Epson delivers a stylish 5 mega pixel digital camera with a 2.5 inch Photo Fine viewer

The Epson L-500V is a compact 5 mega pixel digital camera combined with a 2.5 inch Photo Fine viewer.  It is the world’s highest definition consumer display on the market with 256 pixels per inch (ppi) and enables accurate viewing and sharing of photos directly from the camera screen. 

October 2004 - The Epson L-500V, compact digital camera, will instantly capture 5 megapixel resolution photos with 3 times optical zoom.  It features a 2.5 inch Epson Photo Fine viewer with a resolution of 256 ppi.  You can share your images more easily, browse and select photos from thumnails and comfortably view your photos, not just preview them as with smaller digital camera screens.

Also included are outdoor and movie modes. The outdoor mode alternates between high brightness and high contrast so you can take high-quality photos in adverse light conditions. The movie mode offers VGA resolution at 30 frames per second ensuring producing a smooth picture. 

Epson UK Press Release 08/10/04

The Epson P-2000 Multimedia Storage Viewer allows users to store and preview digital photos, movies and music.  The 3.8 inch Photo Fine display provides outstanding definition for unsurpassed picture quality.

October 2004 - The Epson P-2000 Photo Viewer is the latest digital imaging accessory that enables you to save your photos from your digital camera memory card and view them on the 3.8 inch Photo Fine display.  The bright vivid displays found in Epson Photo Fine products make them suitable for use under most lighting conditions.  Whether you are indoors or outdoors, you?ll be able to enjoy viewing your photos from the Epson P-2000.

The key features of the Epson P-2000 include a 3.8 inch VGA (640x480) high definition Photo Fine display that offers a resolution of 212 pixels per inch (ppi).  You can store and view your photo albums, create slide shows and connect to your photo printer, computer or TV.  The Epson P-2000 is approximately twice as fast as its predecessor when viewing photos and has a battery life of up to three hours.

In addition to the quality photo viewing capabilities, the Epson P-2000 provides support for digital camera and camcorder movies and music files.  You can add music files to your slide shows for a fun and lively presentation of your images.  Also included is a 40 GB hard disk drive, so it can double up as a portable storage unit for any PC or Mac files.

Michael Reichmann over at Luminous Landscape has provided some more detailed information about the new A3 printer that Epson has just released in Japan, the PX-G5000, which will probably be released worldwide as the successor to the Stylus Photo 2100/2200.

“So, the impression I get is that this is the printer for those who want to optimize
their color prints and work faster. For black and white work, you might want to hang on
to the 4000 until we see the actual results from the new printer.  I can see people in
Canada having both printers in the house for specific jobs, but in Japan where space is a
scarcity this is going to be a tough decision to make.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Epson PX-G5000 Printer Details

Imaging Resource have just reviewed the new 7 megapixel Sony DSC-P150 digital compact camera.

“I liked the size and feature set of the P150’s lower-res sibling, the P100, but really didn’t like the amount of subject detail it traded away to keep its noise levels down. Generally, image noise becomes more of an issue as imaging chips cram more pixels into the same area, so imagine my surprise when I found that the DSC-P150 traded away almost no subject detail, yet ended up with noise levels almost as low as those of the P100. Other image characteristics were also excellent, with great color, great shooting speed, and a lens that’s sharp from corner to corner.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Sony DSC-P150 Review

ePhotoZine have reported today that the UK’s biggest photography retailer, Jessops, have decided to join the London Stock Exchange “by way of a global offer of ordinary shares in the Company to institutional investors”.

Derek Hine, Chief Executive of Jessops, commented:

“This is a very exciting time for Jessops and for everyone involved in the company. Flotation will help increase our profile and will provide us with the opportunity to access additional sources of capital, to build on the success we have achieved to date and to capitalise on the digital revolution. We believe flotation will be of benefit to customers, staff and shareholders alike.”

Website: ePhotoZine - Jessops announces their intention to float

Peter iNova and DigitalSecrets.net have released a new eBook for the popular Nikon D70 DSLR.

“The D70 eBook is for sale. 460+ pages. Astounding secrets you will find nowhere else. 1100+ images, many interactive and animated. All viewable up to 400% scale on your computer screen. This is likely the greatest accessory you could buy for your D70. Available now. Click the eBook on the right for more info. Click the one on the left for the secure order page.

You also receive 466 original iNovaFX Photoshop Actions, 142 of them are exclusive to the D70, designed for its images, its lenses and its unique needs, including the Hyper wide-angle 10.5mm fisheye flattening action seen in the story below.

Plus Photoshop and RAW instruction from Uwe Steinmueller—King of RAW image info and techniques.

InfoBites? Tons. The D70 Camera System Operations Chapter alone has well over 400.”

Website: DigitalSecrets.net - Nikon D70 eBook

Canon have just released a new firmware version for their PowerShot A75 compact digital camera. Version 1.0.1.0 contains the following:

Fixes the phenomenon of set aperture values changing when shooting in Manual Exposure mode (M-mode).

You can download the new firmware version here:

Website: Canon BeBit - Canon PowerShot A75 Firmware Update

CNET have just reviewed the 3-megapixel Nikon Coolpix 3200 compact digital camera.

“The Nikon Coolpix 3200 eases the first-time buyer’s transition to digital photography by combining lots of fun features that are easy to use with acceptable 3.2-megapixel image quality, a pocketable design, and an affordable price. There are almost no manual settings to confuse the neophyte and only a handful of buttons to worry about. If you’re looking for an inexpensive compact digital camera to give to someone who’s terrified of digital photography, this might be a good choice.”

Website: CNET - Nikon Coolpix 3200 Review

CNET have just published their review of the entry-level Nikon Coolpix 2200 digital camera.

“The Nikon Coolpix 2200 is the 2-megapixel twin of the company’s Coolpix 3200, with a virtually identical feature set but a price that’s about $100 less. It’s aimed squarely at the first-time photographer who wants a camera that’s easy to use, with lots of fun options but few manual settings to worry about. Although there’s no memory card or rechargeable batteries in the box, it’s hard to beat the functionality you get for the price.”

Website: CNET - Nikon Coolpix 2200 Review

PCWorld have just reviewed the stylish Polaroid PP46d Thermal Photo Printer.

“I tested a shipping PP46d by printing images taken with a 5-megapixel camera and stored on a CompactFlash card. The print quality was great, prompting one of my colleagues to remark that the prints looked like “real pictures.” The unit also reproduced colors accurately, with skin tones, landscapes, and even a white wedding gown looking crisp and clean.”

Website: PCWorld - Polaroid PP46d Thermal Photo Printer Review

Nikon UK Press Release 06/10/04

Wednesday October 6, 2004

Nikon UK Introduce D70 Consumer Promotion

The D70, Nikon’s first consumer digital SLR camera, is tipped to be this year’s hot Christmas purchase and to give a little extra to customers purchasing the D70 in the run up to the festive season, Nikon UK today announced the introduction of the D70 voucher booklet.

The voucher booklet allows D70 customers to claim over £300 worth of savings when they purchase a selection of top D70 accessories to support the camera.

Some of the exciting savings available to D70 customers include £15 off Nikon Capture 4.1, £20 off an SB-800 Speedlight, £50 saving on bookings of level 1 & 2 Nikon D70 training courses, £30 off a 10.5 mm F2.8G DX fisheye Nikkor lens and £70 off a 70-200 mm F2.8G AF-S VR IF-ED zoom Nikkor lens to name a few.

The voucher booklet is available to customers who purchase a D70 between October and December 2004 when they register on-line. For further information about the voucher booklet and to register your purchase please visit: http://www.nikon.co.uk/d70voucher/

D-Link Press Release 08/10/04

PREPARE TO WELCOME THE FUTURE INTO YOUR LIVING ROOM !

D-LINK LAUNCHES NEW WIRELESS MEDIA PLAYER ACROSS EUROPE

London, 8 October 2004 - D-Link, the true leading global manufacturer of broadband, wireless, and networking hardware for Home and Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) environments today announced the D-Link Wireless Media Player that distributes digital music, video and photos stored on PCs to play and view on a television and/or stereo system.

The Wireless Media Player (DSM-320) enhances the usability of both a home network and a home entertainment centre by creating a seamless connection between computers and consumer electronics. The DSM-320 is a product for the digital home; a product segment that D-Link believes is set to grow rapidly in the next few years. D-Link’s media player supports all the most widely used standards, such as MP3, JPEG, MPEG, Xvid and QuickTime, for streaming video and audio on home networks.

“The new wireless media player gives consumers access to more content than ever before in the area where they congregate the most, the living room,” said Kevin Wen, European President of D-Link. “Now a family can view a catalogued library of digital photos on their TV or listen to pre-set configured MP3s in surround sound stereo, all of which represent the next step in the evolution and convergence of the CE and PC for the digital home. The look and functionality of the media player is coherent with that of other entertainment devices such as DVD players and therefore removes technology barriers for the customer,? concludes Wen.

It seems that PhotographyBLOG had a few problems with receiving email between Friday 1st and Monday 4th October. If you sent me an email during that time, please resend it and I will respond asap.

One of my favourite photography websites has sadly decided to call it a day, with the final issue publishing work from 51 contributors to the online photo magazine. Thanks to Rachel James for running this great site!

“In two years, 28mm published fourteen issues with 107 photographers.  Fifty-one of them have put their best foot forward for this final issue of 28mm.

I believe that when you cannot give a website like this your 100%, then it’s time to stop.  It is a decision that some of you might not understand, but one that I hope you can respect.

Before we officially close the chapter on 28mm, I have decided to put my energy into creating “28MM: The Book”.  An official announcement will be made about that on Monday.

In the meantime… Enjoy.

“

Website: http://www.28mm.org

Here’s a review that I missed during the Photokina madness :-) LetsGoDigital published a world-wide exclusive review of the Ricoh Caplio R1 digital camera.

“The small size of the camera is deceiving, one doesn’t expect it to be a 4.0 Megapixel camera equipped with a 4.8x optical zoom lens. The range is 28-135mm, a range which makes this camera a practically all-round employable camera. Even telephoto images can be taken in combination with the digital zoom, however the quality will decrease considerably.

Ricoh has got a very beautiful looking camera in his hands with this Caplio R1. The camera has a nice aluminium housing and feels very solid. The design is rather perfect, let alone one small beautyspot, the cover for the battery/memory compartment. The Ricoh Caplio R1 will look great next to competing celebrities, on the shelf of the local dealer.”

Website: LetsGoDigital - Ricoh Caplio R1 Review

Thanks to Sanj for sending me the press release.

BetterJPEG Team Press Release 07/10/04

Retouch Your JPEG Photos without Recompression Loss with BetterJPEG 1.3

BetterJPEG Team announced today the release of version 1.3 (1.3.1.0) of BetterJPEG application, a graphics utility specifically designed to avoid recompression loss when editing and resaving JPEG images.

Unlike most other image editing tools that recompress JPEG images when resaving, introducing more and more JPEG artifacts and degrading the image quality with each iteration, BetterJPEG takes advantage of the fact that JPEG images consist of a number of small independently encoded blocks and does not recompress blocks that didn’t change.

BetterJPEG authors decided to go beyond such traditional lossless JPEG operations as rotation and flip, found in many contemporary image manipulation tools, and extended the number of lossless operations with crop, text insertion, red eye reduction and copy/paste to external
editor.

Digital Railroad Inc. Press Release

Technology simplifies workflow, marketing and unlocks revenue opportunities

Digital Railroad Inc. today announced the first online workflow and archive system that gives the power of a large photo agency to individual photographers.

Digital Railroad, www.digitalrailroad.net, automates repetitive workflow, and streamlines image delivery and communications. Searchable online archives unlock image revenue.

Photography legends and previous White House photographers Dirck Halstead and David Hume Kennerly believe it will change the professional photography industry.

“Digital Railroad eliminates daily technology hurdles; finally photographers have access to efficient tools for editing, archiving and simultaneously distributing their work,” said Halstead, award-winning photojournalist and Digital Journalist publisher.

Samsung Press Release 06/10/04

Samsung Heralds the Video Communication Age; Samsung Electronics In London to Showcase World-Leading Product Portfolio
 
LONDON—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Oct. 6, 2004—In the surroundings of the world famous British Museum, ‘creating the future together’ was the clear message as Samsung Electronics showcased a range of new products that will lead the ‘Video Communication Age.’

At the Global Roadshow 2004, attendees saw the breadth of Samsung’s digital offering and reviewed the company’s latest mobile handsets, digital TVs, home entertainment systems and other examples of design-led, technologically innovative products. In his speech, Mr. Jong-Yong Yun, Vice Chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics, described the advent of the Video Communication Age and how it would bring about a fundamental change in the way people connect with each other.