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.

Rollei Press Release

Two eyes see more….

photokina 2004

Two eyes see more ...

The new Rolleiflex MiniDigi is a modern digital camera with the same design as Rollei’s classic twin-lens reflex camera.

Everyone knows the legendary Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera, which has been popular among top photographers throughout the world since 1929. There are few Hollywood stars who have never been photographed with a Rollei. And it is this tradition that Rollei is now reviving with the Rolleiflex MiniDigi, except that the familiar and well-proven design now embraces ultra-modern technology. With its slim dimensions and low weight of 100 g, it is the ideal companion for out and about. The new Rollei digital camera is available from dealers for ? 399 from October.

The Rolleiflex MiniDigi stands out refreshingly from the vast number of digital cameras currently flooding the market. Amateur enthusiasts can now also enjoy the look and feel of a professional 6x6 Rolleiflex. Just like its predecessor, the photographer looks down into the waist-level viewfinder, so the uncomfortable situation for many models of being eye to eye with the photographer is avoided.

Rollei Press Release

Rollei is zooming in!

photokina 2004

Rollei Is Zooming In

Rollei launches 4-megapixel superzoom camera Rollei dk4010 with 10x zoom lens

The new 4-megapixel digital camera by Rollei is sure to capture even very remote subjects in full detail: A 10x zoom lens and a 6x digital zoom let you zoom in on your subjects even over long distances. Other outstanding features are unlimited continuous shooting, a movie mode and the availability of filters and wide-angle or teleconverters to increase the flexibility of the Rollei dk4010 even further. The digital camera will be available at dealers from October 2004.

The new Rollei digital camera comes in a stylish silver-black body that underlines its professional leanings. But the features are equally attractive: A 10x zoom lens covers focal lengths from 5.7 to 57 mm, equivalent to 37-370 mm in 35mm photography. With f/2.8-3.1, its speed is remarkably high and optimally suited for the wide zooming range. A high-speed autofocus system guarantees consistently sharp pictures. Another remarkable feature is unlimited continuous shooting: The camera is capable of unlimited bursts of up to 3.3 frames per second with maximum resolution.

Rollei Press Release

Rollei R3 - Monochrome Film in Rollei Quality

photokina 2004

Rollei R3- Monochrome Film in Rollei Quality

Rollei present themselves as “The new Rollei” offering an impressive line of digital cameras and attractive new products all around bits and bytes. However, they have not lost sight of the company’s tradition. Proof of this are, among other things, twin-lens reflex cameras such as the Rolleiflex 4.0 FW, going back to the type of camera that made Rollei world-famous.

Not going back to Rollei’s own tradition, but to the tradition of photography is a new line of products which Rollei present at the 2004 photokina: Exclusive high-end monochrome film designed to attract attention in a world flooded with color.

The new Rollei R3 film will be available in all sizes, from 35mm to 120 roll film and 8x10” sheet film. Both professionals and discriminating amateurs will find it ideal for optimum tonal control and images with perfectly rendered, subtle tones of gray.

Film speed is variable from ISO 25 to ISO 6400, allowing the material to be used in practically any light. This is made possible by a multilayer design with cubic silver-halide crystals of different size embedded in the various layers. Spectral sensitivity also covers a wide range from orthochromatic to panchromatic right into the infrared.

The German website PhotoWorld.de have posted their review of the 5 megapixel, 10x optical zoom Kodak EASYSHARE DX7590 digital camera.

Website: PhotoWorld.de - Kodak EASYSHARE DX7590 Review

The Slovenian website eFotoGrafija have published another very interesting interview (in English) from Photokina, this time with Olympus representatives Toshifumi Nakano and Masaharu Hamada. The following info about the new E-300 DSLR is just one of the things that caught my eye:

“E-1 was released one year ago and was meant for professional market, where pentaprism is almost compulsory. From a professional camera one expects it to be made in a certain way. The new E-300 is built for a lower, consumer class and we believe that such a camera needs to be special. In the near future, Sony and Panasonic will probably launch their lower-end DSLR cameras and when that happens, we will have to respond, perhaps with an EVF and different design also.

With that in mind we developed a new technology, which makes it possible to use a new design while still keeping the optical viewfinder. Looking at the cameras to come from Sony or Panasonic we are aware that we will need a new design.”

Website: eFotoGrafija - Interview with Olympus representatives Toshifumi Nakano and Masaharu Hamada

Following on from my previous post, another new firmware update has just been released for the Canon EOS 20D DSLR, along with the following apology from Canon!

“We have discovered that the version 1.0.4 firmware released on October 4 had a bug in the program that handles the update. In cases where the update was performed with a lens attached to the camera, there were situations in which the firmware could not be updated correctly.

In cases where the firmware was not updated correctly, the camera might not power on, the camera might not communicate properly with the lens and flash, or similar malfunctions might occur.

Canon offers its sincerest apologies to customers who have been inconvenienced by this situation.”

Version 1.0.5 is exactly the same as 1.0.4. It just fixes the version 1.0.4 bug where if the update was performed with a lens attached to the camera, there were situations in which the firmware could not be updated correctly. Full details can be found at the following URL:

Website: Canon EOS 20D Firmware Version 1.0.5

After the rather stange disappearance yesterday of the new firmware update for the Canon EOS 20D DSLR, Canon USA have issued the following statement to try and explain exactly what is going on.

Canon Inc. has acknowledged the EOS 20D lock-up issue as follows:

Canon is aware of this [EOS 20D lock-up] issue; it is currently being investigated. It seems to occur very rarely, under extremely limited conditions. If it does occur, you can remove and reinsert the battery to restore your camera to its normal condition. Please note that this issue does not affect images taken with the camera. We plan to release a firmware update for download from the Web when the appropriate countermeasures are determined; we will let you know the schedule for this release when it becomes available.”

So I guess all you 20D owners will have to sit tight and wait for a new version of firmware to appear that will fix this issue once and for all.

DCResource have published their review of the new 7 megapixel Canon PowerShot S70.

“Overall photo quality on the PowerShot S70 is very good, though it’s a step down from the PowerShot G6 (which uses the same sensor) in several areas.

For one, purple fringing levels are higher on the S70 than on the G6. Beside the example above, the “purple fringing torture test” shot [S70, G6] gives you some evidence to back up that claim.

The S70 (and S60 as well) also have a problem with blurriness around the edges of the frame. These two shots are great examples of this problem. So you definitely give up some photo quality when you choose the S70. Things like the noise level, color, and exposure are quite similar between the G6 and S70, and they are all acceptable.”

Website: DCResource - Canon PowerShot S70 Review