The Mamiya RZ67 Pro IID digital medium format camera, which we featured a few days ago, has now appeared on the official Mamiya website.

The new camera features a MSCE (Mamiya Serial Communication for Exchange) connection to allow any MSCE compatible digital back to be used with the camera. The RZ-67 Pro IID will be available in August, costing around ?1300 / 2000 Euros.

Website: Mamiya Japan - RZ67 Pro IID

The Hungarian website Index Digicam have just published a joint review the 3 megapixel Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC50 and 4 megapixel Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC70 digital cameras.

Website: Index Digicam - Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC70/LC50 Review

The Slovenian website eFotoGrafija have published a joint review of the 5 megapixel Digital Ixus 500 (known as the Powershot S500 in North America) and the 4 megapixel Digital Ixus 430 (known as the Powershot S430 in North America) , which were both announced at the start of February.

Website: eFotoGrafija - Canon Digital Ixus 500/430 Review

Digital Outback Photo and Glenn E. Mitchell II have teamed up to write an excellent sereis of articles about how to get the best out of your shots. Part 2 looks at using Adobe Camera Raw to adjust tonal range, contrast, and brightness.

“ACR II is without question one of the very best tools available for restoring highlights. Most RAW converters treat pixels where any channel clips to 255 as a white pixel (RGB = 255, 255, 255). ACR II does not. With negative values for the Exposure slider, ACR II will try to recover highlight details for any pixels that clipped. If only one or two channels were clipped, ACR II may be able to restore the highlights.”

Website: Digital Outback Photo - Developing Photos That “Pop” Part 2

Digital Secrets have published their review of the 6 megapixel Nikon D70 DSLR.

“The D70 may attract a huge audience of photographers, but not because it’s the least expensive dSLR on the block. Nikon’s philosophy is more along the lines of “Take dSLR features, ergonomics, operation speed, image quality, flexibilities, technologies and customer satisfaction to the next level. Then deliver it at the price people can afford.”

They didn’t skimp. The in-hand feel, the weight, the control layout, the operational speed, the image quality, the core technologies and the price redefine what digital photography offers for a thousand dollars.”

Website: Digital Secrets - Nikon D70 Review

The German website PhotoWorld have reviewed the Sony DSC-P120, a Special Edition black body version of the DSC-P100 digital camera, with a black leather case and 2 InfoLITHIUM batteries supplied. Available now in the UK for £379.00.

Website: PhotoWorld - Sony DSC-P120 Review

DCViews have published their review of the new Olympus C-765 Ultra Zoom digital camera.

“With its all-glass zoom lens of 38 to 380mm as the most striking feature, the C-765 offers an enormous range of image possibilities. The wide angle is about average but the tele end is what really sets this camera apart from the competition. At 380mm sport and nature photographers can really draw distant subjects close for a full frame image. The f2.8 - f3.7 Olympus lens, which uses ED elements and is constructed with 11 elements in seven groups, delivers strikingly sharp and detailed results throughout its zoom range. There is some barrel distortion at wide angle, but this gradually disappears once you zoom in a bit and there is no vignetting to speak of.”

Website: DCViews - Olympus C-765 Ultra Zoom Review

The Spanish website quesabesde.com have just reviewed the 4-megapixel, 10x zoom Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2.

Website: quesabesde.com - Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2 Review

ByteSector have posted a review of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC1, a rangefinder-like digital camera which is exactly the same as the Leica Digilux 2 in terms of camera design.

“Unfortunately I am not too impressed by the image quality of this camera. When Panasonic sent me their Lumix FZ10 4 megapixel camera, the image quality impressed me. But this camera produces too much noticeable noise in the image, especially if you are taking pictures in macro mode. I have not seen a 5 megapixel camera produce this much noise before; not to the extent that it is easily noticeable.”

Website: ByteSector - Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC1 Review

Press Release 29/07/04

EventCam(TM) to Use Ten Canon PowerShot S60 Digital Cameras to Capture High Resolution Interactive Panoramic Convention Images at One Point in Time

NEW YORK, Jul 29, 2004 (BUSINESS WIRE)—NYTimes.com, Canon U.S.A., Inc. and Kaidan, Inc. today announced that they are using Kaidan’s EventCam(TM) and Immersive Imaging solutions to capture and publish 360-degree interactive panoramic images from this week’s Democratic National Convention in Boston and the upcoming Republican National Convention in New York City. EventCam(TM) uses ten Canon PowerShot S60 digital cameras to simultaneously capture a panoramic image. The PowerShot S60 is outfitted with Canon’s high-quality optics and comes equipped with a wide-angle focal length of 28mm, a useful feature for this environment. The images are available at NYTimes.com/conventions and require QuickTime Player for viewing (available for free at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/).

Wacom Press Release 28/07/04

Industry-leading imaging companies partner to educate and inspire digital photographers

Nationwide “Just Show Me How” seminar tour will showcase some of the best digital photography tools and techniques for advanced amateurs and professionals

Vancouver, WA, July 28—Leading digital imaging companies, including Extensis, GretagMacbeth, Lexar Media, Mirra, Nik Multimedia, and Wacom, are coming together to address a critical market need to educate digital photographers on the best tools and techniques for managing, enhancing and processing digital photographs. The Just Show Me How seminar tour, for advanced amateur photographers, is scheduled to begin in September 2004 and will visit 20 cities through December 2004. The Just Show Me How - Professional tour, for professional photographers, will visit 10 cities beginning in January 2005.
Digital photography has evolved over the past few years to the point where it provides photographers with more control and flexibility than ever before. However, it is also now more complex. While a well-informed photographer is empowered by the new possibilities, others face frustration, poor results, and lost images. Most photography seminars focus only on the traditional topics of capturing, printing, and editing images, but miss other important steps in the digital photography process. The Just Show Me How tour fills this major gap.

Epson Press Release 30/07/04

Epson Introduces PRINT Image Matching III for Improved Digital Images

- TOKYO, Japan, July 30, 2004 -

Seiko Epson Corporation (“Epson”) today announced that it has developed PRINT Image Matching III, advanced technology that provides users of digital cameras an easy way to consistently produce the best quality prints, prints that accurately reflect the photographer’s intent.

In 2001, Epson developed the introduction of PRINT Image Matching, a technology to help ensure faithful output of the colors captured by digital cameras. Many digital camera manufacturers agreed to support the new technology, and Epson succeeded in driving further expansion of the digital photography market. Over one hundred models of cameras equipped with PRINT Image Matching have arrived on the market, including digital still cameras, digital video cameras, and camera-equipped mobile phones. On the printer side, this technology is supported by all Epson inkjet printers currently on the market (as of July 30, 2004). As digital cameras and camera-equipped mobile phones deliver ever-increasing image quality and resolution, user requirements such as the desire to create attractive, faithful reproductions and prints of their photographs, are growing, as well. To respond to this demand, Epson has developed PRINT Image Matching III, with improved color-correction functionality.

PC Magazine have reviewed the Panasonic DMC-FX5, which features a 1/2.5” CCD with a total of 4.23 mega pixels and interestingly a stabilized 3X zoom lens.

“Our simulated-daylight shot showed adequate detail and good exposure, though colors were decidedly warm. When we invoked the flash, it blew out foreground whites and yellows slightly, giving them a posterized look, and we detected some noise in darker areas of the image. So while the DMC-FX5 has some notable features, it doesn’t match the best in the 4MP point-and-shoot field.”

Website: PC Magazine - Panasonic DMC-FX5 Review

PC Magazine have just reviewed the Kodak Easyshare Printer Dock that was first announced back in April.

“Although the printer is obviously of most interest if you have a Kodak camera that’s designed to fit into the docking area on top of the unit, like the EasyShare LS600/700 series, you can also print from a PictBridge camera, a memory card (with an external adapter), or a computer. The instructions for printing from a PictBridge camera lack important details, but we managed to figure it out on our own. We also successfully printed from a computer and from a SanDisk memory card reader, even though the printer officially supports only Kodak memory card readers.”

Website: PCMagazine - Kodak Easyshare Printer Dock Review

The Hungarian website Index Digicam have reviewed the 3 megapixel, entry-level Pentax Optio S30 digital camera.

Website: Index Digicam - Pentax Optio S30 Review

Coincidentally, the Slovenian website eFotoGrafija have also published a comparative review of high-speed memory cards, this time Compact Flash, testing them in conjunction with the Canon EOS 1D Mk II digital SLR. The 100x speed Apacer Photo STENO ProII card is one of the 5 cards in the test.

“Manufacturers mark speed with X values, which indicates the speed 150KB/s. The larger the number in front of X, the faster the transfer rate should be. Few years old memory cards have 4x or 8x transfer rates and many new cards still maintain this speed. This is perfectly acceptable for average users shooting family or travel photos, where read and write speed are not so crucial. However when using cameras with more million pixels, more frames per second and longer video clips, we encounter first troubles. This is the moment when we need to consider faster memory cards.”

Website: eFotoGrafija - Compact Flash cards and transfer rates

The website Digital Media Thoughts have published a comparative review of 4 different high-speed SD memory cards, testing which one is the quickest and how that relates to its overall value.

“In the realm of flash memory cards, most vendors offer two or more types of cards: the regular version, and a professional version that’s said to be much faster than the normal version of the card. I always thought that those “high speed” memory cards were something you could only take advantage of if you had a high-end professional camera, and that the extra top-end speed was wasted when used in a PDA, phone, or consumer-level device. Imagine my surprise when performing a test on a Pocket PC and I saw different numbers when using a high speed Sandisk memory card! This prompted me to do some further investigating, so I created a simple test to see how several cards from top vendors measure up against each other.”

Website: Digital Media Thoughts - Memory Card Shoot-Out: Four 512 MB Secure Digital Cards Compared

A forum user over on Photohobby.net has got hold of a production Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3 and posted some pictures of the camera and sample photos.

Website: Photohobby.net -  Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3 Preview

Josh Waller has just reviewed the 5 megapixel BenQ DC C50 digital camera.

“Everything else (the camera as a whole): Everyone I handed the camera to reacted positively to the camera - they were able to use the camera within minutes. They often would remark that the screen is very clear and the pictures viewed in playback mode have good colour. The battery life is a bit dissapointing, as it may be necessary for you to purchase another battery depending on your usage (and unfortunately you can’t just put in some AA batteries from the local corner shop).”

Website: Josh Waller - BenQ DC C50 Review

Website: BenQ Europe -  DC C50 Camera