Popular Photography have reviewed the latest crop of 8 megapixel digital cameras, including the Canon PowerShot Pro1 (pictured).

“So what’s not to like? A number of things, actually. The major two are lens limitation and viewfinder clarity. As good as it may be, the lens you get is all the lens you get, save for a few front-mounting auxiliary optics (see chart for details). And even the best EVFs show some grain and jumpiness, particularly compared with the crystal-clear, real-world view through an optical prism finder. (We compare the pluses and minuses of EVFs and SLRs on the next page).”

Website: Popular Photography - Great 8-megapixel Shootout!

The latest issue (July) of the online magazine Rangefinder is stuffed to the gills with photography goodness. Or to put it another way, there’s lots of new photography articles in the new issue of Rangefinder magazine :-) Here are some handy links to my picks of the bunch…

- Digital Quality Not Questioned
“I believe this claim indicates that image quality is no longer an issue with digital imaging. There are now enough digital cameras on the market that supply high enough image quality for all the different facets of the marketplace. From here on out, features and pricing will determine one?s choice in digital cameras, as much as anything. The quality of pixels will become more important than the number.”

- First Exposure: Canon EOS 1D Mark II
“There are virtually no tradeoffs with the Mark II. That?s why you?ll find Canon promoting the camera as the solution for wedding and portrait photographers as well as sports photographers. Priced at $4500, it is hitting the marketplace at $1000 less than its predecessor did when it first appeared. However, it is three times the cost of the very capable 6.0-megapixel EOS-10D camera.”

- Images That Speak
“Have you ever been in the company of someone that just “hung around”? These people are just there - generally with nothing to say or contribute, no opinions. They would be the equivalent of the color beige. In other words - they are very boring! Eight years ago, when searching my soul for where I wanted to be in the future as an imagemaker, I made a decision - a simple decision in theory, but a challenging one in practice. I no longer wanted my images to merely “hang around.” I wanted my images to speak!”

Website: Rangefinder Magazine - July 2004

London-based photographer Henry Reichhold has been comissioned by Nokia to use its 7600 and 7610 camera phones, according to an article over on the Reiter’s Camera Phone Report website and the BBC. Reichold has previously created huge panoramic images of events and places in London, both during the day and night. Now he will be using the Nokia phones to produce similar panoramic collages of several music festivals this summer, which will then be displayed at the Photokina exhibition to be held in Cologne in October. “I’ve always liked to be able to see pixels,” said Mr Reichhold, “I’m very interested in low resolution images because they look very different to traditional images. They have softer, rounded edges,” he said, “and a quality all their own.”

Website: Reiter’s Camera Phone Report - U.K. photographer commissioned by Nokia for camera phone collages

Website: BBC - Phonecam photos aspire to art

Steves Digicams have reviewed the Olympus Mju 410 Digital camera. The Mju 410 is encased in a full metal body with a silver finish, offers 4 megapixels and a 3x optical zoom. The Mju 410 is the first Mju Digital model to feature TruePic Turbo, a new image processor which sharpens image clarity, contrast and colour for life-like results.

“The latest Stylus Digital from Olympus, the 410 combines stylish design, a durable all-metal body, and the ability to take pictures no matter what the weather conditions are. It offers users 4.0 megapixels of resolution and a high quality 3x optical zoom lens. Its “P"rogram (Auto) mode allows any level user to capture great images without any fuss, and if you want to explore your creative side, simply select one of the eight pre-programmed scene modes (Portrait, Indoor, Beach/Snow, Cuisine, Landscape + Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene, Self Portrait) from the virtual mode dial.”

Website: Steves Digicams - Olympus Mju 410 Digital Review

Website: Read my review of the Olympus Mju 410 Digital

Steves Digicams have published their review of the 4-megapixel Olympus C-770 Ultra Zoom digital camera.

“Building on the success of the popular Olympus C-750UZ, the Olympus CAMEDIA C-770 Ultra Zoom is a compact, yet highly durable camera that can fit easily into any size handbag. It shares most of its features with the sibling, the Olympus C-765UZ, including the 4-megapixel imager and TruePic TURBO image processor, which improves image quality and delivers faster overall processing speeds. The C-770UZ improves on the C-765UZ with its all metal body, larger image buffer, hot shoe for external flash equipment, a built-in speaker for audio playback, and the ability to record MPEG4 movies at 640 x 480 and 30 frames per second.”

Website: Steves Digicams - Olympus C-770 Ultra Zoom Review

The Hungarian website Index Digicam have published their review of the FujiFilm FinePix F610, a 6-megapixel digital camera that was first announced back in November 2003.

Website: Index Digicam - FujiFilm FinePix F610 Review

Website: Read my review of the Fujifilm FinePix F610

The Polish website FotoPolis have just reviewed the Trust 1490 PowerC@m, an affordable 5 megapixel digital camera with 3x optical zoom lens.

Website: FotoPolis - Trust 1490 PowerC@m Review

Website: Trust 1490 PowerC@m

Digital Outback Photo have reviewed Panorama Factory v3.3, a software tool for, you guessed it, creating panoramic images from digital photos.

“There are several tools on the market to create panoramic images. The granddaddy of them all is of course the free Pano Tools (created by Helmut Dersch), usually complemented by any one of a slew of (shareware) front-end interfaces. Adobe Photoshop CS also includes its own Photomerge tool. I find these tools difficult to use, often producing results that are far from perfect, and limited to 8-bit images. Interested in finding a good, easy-to-use, pano tool I came across Panorama Factory (available for Windows) and find it very easy to use, capable of producing automatically excellent results.”

Website: Digital Outback Photo - Panorama Factory Review

LaCie Introduces Largest and Fastest External Hard Drive: The 1.6 Terabyte Bigger Disk Extreme

Professional choice for video/audio editing and imaging
Largest storage with up to 1.6 terabyte capacity
Fastest throughput for optimal editing
No setup required with build-in RAID 0 array

PORTLAND, OR (July 2004) - LaCie expands its Extreme line of external hard drives with the Bigger Disk Extreme: up to 1.6 terabytes of storage with the fastest speeds on the market, available worldwide summer 2004. The Bigger Disk Extreme performs up to 50 percent faster than first-generation FireWire 800 drives*, pairing ultimate capacity and throughput to accommodate the editing needs of video and audio professionals.

“The Bigger Disk Extreme truly breaks barriers of both size and speed,” says LaCie Senior Product Manager Olivier Mirloup. “With burst transfer rates reaching up to 85 megabytes per second and unrivaled 1.6 terabyte capacity, this drive is designed to support multi-stream audio and video editing in a variety of formats.”

Do Labs Press Release 12/07/04

NEW DXO OPTICS PRO VERSION 1.1 ADDS VIGNETTING CORRECTION, MULTILINGUAL INTERFACE AND WORKFLOW ENHANCEMENTS

Version 1.1 available as a free upgrade for all current users of version 1.0.

Paris, France, July 12th, 2004 - Do Labs, a software company focused on research in image processing to enhance image quality, announces the immediate availability of DxO Optics Pro version 1.1 for both Macintosh and Windows.

DxO Optics Pro version 1.1 adds several key features that greatly benefit demanding photographers shooting with Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras (D-SLRs). These new features reinforce DxO Optics Pro’s strength as a pivotal tool for digital photographers worldwide concerned with image quality and productivity.

DxO Optics Pro 1.1 enhancements fall into three categories:
- Correction of Image Vignetting, or unwanted light fall-off from the center to the edges of an image, is now supported in the application.
- Multilingual user-interface: English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish.
- Productivity enhancement and fixes.

Canon USA Press Release 12/07/04

Canon’s Three New Scanners Deliver Quality, Ease-of-Use and Simplicity at Affordable Prices
 
LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—July 12, 2004—The need for creating digital libraries of everything from household bills and documents to old family photographs has drawn new customers to digital scanning. Canon’s new CanoScan(R) 3000 ex, CanoScan 8400F and CanoScan LiDE 35 Color Image Scanners provide consumers with quality, ease-of-use and simplicity at entry-level price points.

“Canon’s leadership in the digital imaging category has grown as a result of continued research of existing and potential customers,” said Yukiaki Hashimoto, senior vice president and general manager of the consumer imaging group at Canon U.S.A., Inc., a subsidiary of Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ). “With features including the Z-Lid(TM) Expansion Top, simple push-button design and automatic multiple-scan driver mode, Canon delivers the scanning solutions consumers are demanding.”

Editor’s Note: Epson UK have let me know that the PhotoPC L-410 is specific to Epson America and will not be released in the United Kingdom.

Epson America Press Release 12/07/04

Epson Introduces the EPSON PhotoPC L-410—A Four Megapixel Digital Camera That Makes Taking and Printing Photos Fun and Easy

LONG BEACH, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—July 12, 2004—New Compact Digital Camera Features High-Speed Continuous Shooting in Addition to Unique PRINT Image Framer(R) Feature

Epson America, Inc. is once again focusing its efforts on capturing important memories with the introduction of the EPSON PhotoPC(R) L-410. The EPSON PhotoPC L-410 is a compact, four megapixel digital camera that incorporates high-speed continuous shooting, records video clips and offers a new creative feature called PRINT Image Framer, which adds fun frames to any photo with a touch of a button.

The EPSON PhotoPC L-410 is ideal for anyone that wants to capture important memories easily and quickly, without having to compromise quality. In addition to its 4.0 megapixel CCD sensor, this compact and sleek camera includes a 3x optical zoom and a 3x digital zoom, a 1.5 inch high-quality LCD screen and PRINT Image Matching(R) II technology for simply producing the best possible prints on PRINT Image Matching-enabled photo printers.

“Capturing and preserving memories is becoming more and more important to today’s digital camera customer and the EPSON PhotoPC L-410 makes it simple and fun to take photos anytime and anywhere,” said Daniel Oey, senior product manager, digital cameras, Epson. “With the many Epson photo printing solutions available today, customers can confidently print these precious memories knowing that they will look amazing for years to come.”

Extensis Press Release 12/07/04

Specialist photography bundle now with added DAM features

Northampton, UK. - Monday 12th July, 2004 - Extensis has today announced that’s its popular photography bundle, the Photo Imaging Suite, has now been updated to include the latest version of digital asset management solution Portfolio. The bundle now consists of Portfolio 7, Mask Pro 3, SmartScale 1, Intellihance 4.1 and PhotoFrame 2.5, and is still priced at just ?299.99 - offering customers a saving of over ?450 from the recommended retail price of buying all the products separately.

The Photo Imaging Bundle is a combination of a number of award winning creativity tools from the Extensis stable aimed at any individual or business wishing to master photo imaging.  The recently launched Portfolio 7 is an invaluable cross platform tool for anyone generating digital assets including images, photographs and brochures. It creates a visual database of your images to help you organise, find and distribute your files with ease as well as offering support for raw image files from the most popular high-end digital cameras.

FujiFilm Japan have just announced a new transparency film that is even more saturated than the immensely popular Velvia emulsion! The webpage linked to below is in Japanese, but there are a few example shots that clearly show how saturated the new ISO 50 Fortia is compared to Velvia 100.

Website: FujiFilm Fortia

jthurber’s weblog has posted a quick and dirty review of Canon’s new EOS Viewer Utility, which is their replacement for the pretty terrible File Viewer Utility (FVU). jthurber is pleasantly surprised by how good the new software actually is at converting your RAW files, when compared with Capture One and Adobe Photoshop CS RAW (found via alexking.org):

“Personally I’m planning to get C1 (the workflow piece is really slick), but that purchase will come sometime after a 1D Mark II (priorities ya’ know). For the present I’m planning to use EOS Viewer for most of RAW conversions. I’m as surprised by this as anyone, as the original File Viewer Utility was pretty bad! “

Website: jthurber’s weblog - Quick test of Canon’s new EOS View Utility

Samsung has introduced a new 3 megapixel cameraphone, complete with optical zoom lens and flash, into the South Korean market. The SPH-2300 will sell for 800,000 won ($687) (found via Reiter’s Camera Phone Report.

Website: The Chosen Ilbo - Samsung SPH-2300

The 32nd 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 19th July. The Poll will then be closed and the overall winner announced.

Vote now for your favourite image from the Photo Of The Week 5th-11th July 2004 contest

The voting for the 31st Photo of the Week contest has now finished.

The winner of the contest is “Clingmans Dome” by ericablu. Congratulations!

You can view all of the entries that were submitted in this gallery.

The 33rd Photo of the Week contest is now open. This is a weekly photography contest with no set theme and you can enter as many photos as you like.

Vincent Oliver over at Photo-i has just completed his joint interactive review of the 7-colour Canon i990 and 8-colour Canon i9950 printers.

“When I started this review I wasn’t over convinced by the ChromaPlus inks, after all it was only two extra colours. The i990 with the extra red didn’t do much for me at all, although it was as good as any of the other printers (i965 & i950) in Canon’s range. The i9950 proved itself by producing excellent colour pictures time after time. Looking at the prints under daylight, the i9950 has shown itself to be one of the finest dye based colour printers currently available. Now if Canon can produce an A4 version of this, then I am sure they will give other manufacturers some very stiff competition.”

Website: Photo-i - Canon i990 / i9950 Printer Interactive Review