The Norwegain website DigIT have just reviewed the 6 megapixel Olympus CAMEDIA C-60 ZOOM.

Website: DigIT - Olympus CAMEDIA C-60 ZOOM Review

Check the Latest Prices for the Olympus C-60 Zoom

Write a Review of the Olympus C-60 Zoom

Photobird.com have posted their review of the 8-megapixel Sony CyberShot DSC-F828 digital camera.

“The 7x zoom lens on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-F828 stands out as one of the best features of this digital camera. It has a natural feel to be able to zoom in and out by turning the zoom ring around the lens. Comparatively, other digital cameras with zoom lenses require the user to press a rocker switch that must operate a motor, and the starting and stopping of the motor can introduce delays in getting the right shot.”

Website: Photobird.com - Sony CyberShot DSC-F828 Review

An article over on Rob Galbraith states that the Canon EOS 20D is due to begin shipping the week of September 13, 2004. You may be lucky to get hold of one if you haven’t pre-ordered, however, as “Canon USA is anticipating that it will take a couple of months before supply begins to catch up with demand for the 8MP, 5 fps camera.”

Website: Rob Galbraith - Canon EOS 20D on target to ship the week of September 13 in USA

Pre-order the Canon EOS 20D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera (Body only) from Amazon

Pre-order the Canon EOS 20D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens from Amazon

In this month’s Sunday Morning Photographer column Mike Johnston explains what he got up to in hospital, what he thinks of the Canon EOS 20D, and why he’s just purchased a Bronica:

“So what’d I do on my summer vacation? Well, the flip side of digital’s snowballing popularity is that film cameras are going begging, much like a used M3 in 1969. Being the astute market analyst that I am, I’ve perceived that the steepest price drops have been in professional equipment, especially second-tier professional equipment that even in good times sells without a snootiness premium. So before I left for Michigan, I bought a nearly perfect Bronica SQ-A, lens, and back for less than a few couples would spend on dinner and wine at Lutece. Old technology? To be sure. A fierce shout-out against digital? Not at all, friends, not at all. I’d take a shiny new (okay, matte black new) 20D over an old Bronica any day. It’s just that the Bronica is still a lot better than a gnarly little consumer digicam. IMHO anyway.”

Website: Sunday Morning Photographer: Bronicas and Robot Friends: What I Did Last Summer

The Polish website Fotopolis have just reviewed the Sony DSC-W12, which is exactly the same camera as the DSC-W1, but it has a Special Edition black body, black leather case and is supplied with 4 x NiMH batteries.

Website: Fotopolis - Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W12 Review

My German is a little shaky to say the least, but an article over on digitalkamera.de seems to be suggesting that the black version of the Canon EOS 300D, until now only sold in Japan, is making its way to Europe. I’d be grateful if all you German speakers out there could help me out with the translation…

Website: digitalkamera.de - Neue Canon EOS 300D-Kits bringen Abwechslung ins Spiel

DCResource are the first website to post a review of what is sure to be a popular camera, the 5 megapixel Canon PowerShot A95:

“The PowerShot A95 is a worthy follow-up to the extremely popular A80. There wasn’t much that needed improvement on the A80, and admittedly some of the changes are pretty unexciting. The most important changes are the higher resolution CCD and larger/sharper LCD display. So what I’m saying is that the A95 is even better than an already great camera.”

Website: DCResource - Canon PowerShot A95 Review

Imatest is shaping up to be an interesting development for the photographer who likes to know everything about their equipment. It is a suite of programs for testing the sharpness and image quality of lenses, digital cameras, and digitized film images using inexpensive, widely available targets. Imatest has now been released - you can now download an evaluation version that allows up to 20 runs of the individual modules (SFR, Colorcheck, or Q-13). Online purchase and registration is available. The introductory price is $59 US.

“With Imatest you can:
 
- test lens performance at different focal lengths and apertures to learn where each lens works best; 
- examine the effects of camera and post-processing settings, such as mirror lock, ISO speed, white balance, RAW converter, and sharpening; 
- compare the performance of different cameras, even if they have different amounts of built-in sharpening; 
- compare your camera and lenses with results derived from websites such as imaging-resource.com, dpreview.com and others. This is important because quality control is far from perfect. Even premium lenses from reputable manufacturers may fail to meet expectations. With Imatest you can find out fast and return them if they are substandard. “

Website: Imatest

I only bought this lens myself a couple of months ago, and it was only released by Canon last year, but rumours are cirulating that the popular 17-40mm f/4 L lens has been discontinued ahead of the Photokina show. Canon USA are apparently saying this via their 800 consumer information number, and the lens has been taken off the Canon USA website (although it is still on the German and Japanese sites.

“This is quite surprising if true. I can only guess it might be a prelude to a similar lens to be announce at Photokina at the end of the month. It was only introduced in May of 2003 and so it it really has been discontinued, it must set some sort of record as the shortest lived “L” series lens, just 16 months.”

Website: Bob Atkins - Canon EOS Rumours

Connected Home Media have reviewed the 8-colour Canon i9900 printer, which can create a 13 x 19-inch borderless photograph in under three minutes and has a maximum resolution of 4800 x 2400 dpi. The printer is available now for a suggested list price of $499.

“The first thing that strikes you about printing on the Canon i9900 is its speed. I printed a gorgeous borderless 13?x19? poster of a Colorado mountain scene, using my USB 1.1 port, in just under 5 minutes. Using the high-speed USB 2.0 port, I managed a similar print of the same size in an incredible 3 minutes. I printed a borderless 8?x10? shot from my sister?s wedding in about a minute. I cranked out a borderless 4?x6? shot of my beautiful daughter in just over 30 seconds. I found myself searching for my very best digital photographs, wanting to print out more and more gorgeous reproductions. I ended up with a plethora of large photos that I?ll now have to buy a bunch of frames for.”

Website: Connected Home Media - Canon i9900 Printer Review

Connected Home Media have reviewed the Canon EOS 300D digital SLR.

“The Canon EOS Digital Rebel ($999) is a fabulous camera for photographers who desire more than the basics. If you have the time and inclination and curiosity to explore the myriad capabilities of this striking piece of equipment, I think you?ll find that very few cameras at this price point can match the professional image quality and sheer usability of the Digital Rebel. Best of all, in my testing of the Rebel, I found that I could swap out the included 18-55mm lens and affix my old lenses, meaning this is a camera that gives me the best of SLR functionality in the digital realm.”

Website: Connected Home Media - Canon EOS 300D Review

I reported a couple of weeks ago that Ilford UK had gone into receivership, citing “the decline in the black and white photography market” as the main reason for its losses. Whilst Ilford’s inkjet digital business, which is based in Switzerland, was unaffected, it seems that Ilford UK’s demise had a knock-on effect, as Ilford Germany has also closed its doors.

Despite this news, there does seem to be some cause for hope, as Ilford Germany has released a press statement on its website, which according to the website PhotoScala says “But after a first examination at the figures for Germany and UK it is certain, says Ilford Germany, that Ilford’s products will exist further on. It is planned to carry on with the production of black-and-white films and papers as well as with ink-jet papers.” and “But customers should assume that there will be some tightening in Ilford’s product range. What will remain and what will be abandoned is unsure at the moment.”.

So mixed news for all the film-lovers out there, which I guess is better than plain old bad news.

Website: Ilford Germany

Website: PhotoScala - Ilford: It’s going on

Engadget have reviewed the tiny Philips’ Wearable Digital Camera, which retails for $117 on Amazon for the 128Mb version.

“We picked up the Philips Wearable Digital Camera mainly to take apart and make some cool hack projects with, as its strong and compact casing makes it ideal for that kind of thing. But as we used it more and more we discovered this is a handy camera to keep attached to your keyring so that you?ll always have with it you. With one hand and one motion you can take pictures in some places where whipping out that 6 megapixel monster or even a cameraphone isn?t appropriate. The camera doesn?t do that well in low light conditions and doesn?t have a flash, so the best pictures will likely be outdoors.”

Website: Engadget - Spend some time with Philips’ Wearable Digital Camera

A number of websites have posted previews of the Olympus Mju (?) - mini DIGITAL which was announced yesterday.

- DigiCamReview.co.uk
- Digit.no
- Digital Camera Resource
- DP-Now
- Imaging Resource

The 31st PhotographyBLOG Portfolio has been submitted by Lior Schejter.

“My name is Lior Schejter. I’m a photography hobbist. I usually take pictures on trips I make around the world and in Israel, where I live.

The photos are all from a trip to Ireland I made about a year ago. Most of them are scenery photos, trying to capture the awe of seeing it first hand.

These photographs were taken using a Minolta 505si and a Fuji Finepix 602z.”

Website: Portfolios: Lior Schejter

The Epson UK press release below mentions a new film scanner, the Epson F-3200. I’ve not heard of this model before, so a quick Google search revealed that the “I Love Epson” Japanese website have a new F-3200 section. The Epson F-3200 scanner seems to have negative holders for all film sizes, including 5x4”, a DPI of 3200 and a built-in LCD screen. There is also a memory card slot that accepts MemoryStick, Compact Flash, SD and xd-Picture memory cards. So expect to see another press release soon!

Website: I Love Epson.jp - Epson F-3200 Film Scanner

Epson Press Release 03/09/04

EPSON - Beyond Photo
photokina 2004, September 28 - October 3

Put EPSON’s latest innovations to the test
Booth No. J/050, Consumer Hall 3.1

August 2004 - At photokina 2004, visitors seeking to experience the future of digital imaging either in business or the home, should ensure the EPSON stand is at the top of their list.

As well as demonstrating its comprehensive range of digital imaging products for the home and the office, EPSON is launching the EPSON P-2000 Photo Viewer, a portable media player that stores, organises and plays back digital photos, movies and music. It is also launching the EPSON L500, a combined digital camera and image viewer.

For the professional and advanced amateur photographers there is also the opportunity to see the new EPSON F-3200, dedicated film scanner.

Steves Digicams have published their review of the 5 megapixel Ricoh Caplio GX digital camera.

“The Caplio GX did not live up to Ricoh’s claim of professional image quality; its results were more in line with consumer digicams. JPG artifacts were present, and noise was noticeable at ISO 200, and objectionable at ISO 800 and 1600. While the higher ISO settings produced poor image quality, you’ll appreciate them when it makes the difference between capturing the shot and not. Aside from image noise and artifacts, the camera produced well-exposed and richly saturated shots both indoors and out.”

Website: Steves Digicams - Ricoh Caplio GX Review

Website: Read my Review of the Ricoh Caplio GX

The 30th PhotographyBLOG Portfolio has been submitted by Alberto Turiel.

“Looking at “Salvador Moreno” August 6th, portfolio I’m remember my photo series about “Semana Santa”. This time is located on Valladolid, a city in the north-center of Spain. My personal view is slightly diferent of the typical photo of Valladolid Semana Santa, more focused on the historical “wood sculptures” that were carried by the “cofrades” along all the city.”

Website: http://perso.wanadoo.es/turi/series/index.html

Website: Portfolios: Alberto Turiel

I was at the Olympus press conference for the launch of the Olympus Mju (?) - mini DIGITAL and managed to grab a few photos of this dimunitive camera.

Click on the image to view a larger version in a new window.

DigicamReview.co.uk also have a great preview of the new camera:

Website: DigicamReview.co.uk - Olympus Mju (?) - mini DIGITAL Preview

The Olympus Mju (?) - mini DIGITAL will be called the Olympus Stylus Verve in the USA (a much catchier name in my opinion).