The Slovenian website e-Fotografija have reviewed the Sony DSC-V1 compact digital camera, which features 5 megapixel resolution, 4x optical zoom, flexible exposure control and an infrared laser hologram.

Website: e-Fotografija - Sony DSC V1 Review

Website: Slovenian Translator

Famous fashion photographer Helmut Newton has died in a car crash in Los Angeles. Aged 83, Newton apparently lost control of his car whilst leaving the car park of a hotel in Hollywood and crashed into a wall. Click below for the full story.

Website: BBC News

Website: About.com - Directory of Notable Photographers: Helmut Newton

3 images have appeared on the Nikon forum over at DPReview which look as though they might be the genuine article. There’s a shot of the camera from the top, the rear and an isometric view. The pictures seem to have originally been posted on a Chinese photography forum. Also 29th January has been rumoured to be the date for the official unveiling of the D70, with cameras in stores by the end of February.

Website: DPReview - Nikon Forum

LetsGoDigital are reporting that HP have silently added a new digicam to their lineup ahead of PMA 2004. The HP Photosmart 733 is an entry-level 3.2 megapixel camera with a 3x optical zoom. It can be used with the optional HP Photosmart 8886 camera dock for easy image transfer to a PC or Mac.

Website: LetsGoDigital - HP Photosmart 733

The Hungarian website Index Digicam have just posted their full review of the Sanyo Xacti VPC-C1, a new hybrid digital still/video camera that certainly looks very stylish.

Website: Index Digicam - Sanyo Xacti VPC-C1 Review

Digital Photography Now have posted a 10-page review of a budget printer from Epson, the Stylus C84, which is priced at £99 (exc. VAT). The C84 printer uses DURABrite ink, rather than the more conventional dye-based ink. Epson claims that their new new DURABrite inks “ensure laser sharp blacks and vivid, life-like colours that are waterproof, smudge proof and fade resistant for up to 80 years.

“The harsh reality is that if you handed anyone two photo prints, one from the C84 and one from Epson’s cheapest dye-based photo ink-jet printer and I’d lay odds that they would choose the dye-based print over the C84 print. Colour accuracy and range, black density and overall sparkle are all superior in a dye-based print, especially on glossy paper.”

Website: DP-Now - Epson Stylus C84 Printer Review

ByteSector.com have reviewed the 5 megapixel Olympus CAMEDIA C-5000 Zoom, which relaces the older 4 megapixel C-4000 Zoom model.

“As far as the noise level is concerned for the camera again high amounts of noise could be found. The camera comes equipped with a standard tight grain pattern to reduce noise level but it appears that the system is not up to mark to accomplish its job. The reason behind high noise level is that as CCD resolution has increased and pixel dimensions on average have shrunk, image noise has increased to a great amount. Due to this 5 megapixel cameras have higher image noise than 2-3 megapixel cameras. Image noise is the ?film grain? effect one may notice in an image, especially in night shots.”

Website: ByteSector.com - Olympus CAMEDIA C-5000 Zoom Review

Funtigo LLC Press Release 22/01/03

San Francisco, CA—01/22/2004—Today, Funtigo LLC launched a significant upgrade to its photosharing site, Funtigo.com. With integrated PayPal e-commerce functionality, 10 free email addresses and search engine optimization support, Funtigo now also targets small to medium-sized businesses.

These new features supplement the existing features of Funtigo’s Deluxe membership program, which includes a free domain name and storage for up to 1,000 photos. According to Hans Hartman, partner at Funtigo, now small businesses can save themselves the costs of domain name registrars, hosting companies, and e-commerce service providers, because these services are all included in Funtigo Deluxe.

Why add e-commerce capabilities to a photo site? According to Hartman, this decision was a natural extension of how his customers create Funtigo sites.

“Many of our customers run small businesses that rely heavily on the display of photos to sell their products. They chose Funtigo because it is the easiest to use and the most flexible in how photos can be displayed, resized, and arranged on their Web pages. Now they can add “Buy Now” and “Add to Shopping Cart” buttons to photos that display items for sale. For these customers Funtigo has turned into a full-blown catalog site - an incredibly flexible and, at $5.95 per month, an inexpensive one as well.”

Following on from the earlier story today about Kodak offering a $1,000 instant discount on the purchase of the Kodak Professional DCS Pro 14n Digital Camera, it looks like job losses may be the reason. Kodak have today announced the loss of 15,000 jobs worldwide over the next 3 years, following a sharp fall in profits for the last three months of 2003. Apparently less popular product lines will be dropped, with a lot more emphasis placed on digital products. Click the link below for the ful story.

Website: BBC Business

Finnish photographer Petteri Sulonen has published an eloquently written article called “Sermon From A Raw Convert”, which takes a look at the advantages and disadvantages of the RAW file format, and explains why Petteri has opted to shoot in RAW mode rather than JPEG. It’s also a direct response to a similar article by Ken Rockwell, who argues that JPEG is the way to go. I’ll let you read both articles and make up your own minds…

Website: Petteri Sulonen - “Sermon From A Raw Convert”

Website: Ken Rockwell - “JPG vs RAW vs TIFF: Get it Right the First Time”

Kodak have just announced that they are offering a $1,000 instant discount when you purchase the Kodak Professional DCS Pro 14n Digital Camera before 31st March 2004. You just need to print out and fill in the form that you download from the Kodak website (link below) and hand it over to one of Kodak’s authorised dealers. At the moment this offer seems to be restricted to the USA, but if anyone has heard of a similar discount in their part of the world, let me know.

So does this sudden substantial drop in price indicate that a brand new Kodak digital SLR camera will be unveiled at PMA?

Website: Kodak DSC Pro 14n Discount Form

The Slovenian website e-Fotografija have reviewed the Fuji FinePix F700. Fuji claims the the F700 sensor improves image quality by widening the dynamic range, rather than just increasing the number of pixels. This should mean more detail in the shadow and highlight areas of an image than Fuji cameras have previously captured.

Website: e-Fotografija - Fuji FinePix F700 Review

Website: Read my review of the Fuji FinePix F700

DCResource have just reviewed the 5-megapixel Olympus E-1 DSLR.

“The E-1 excels in all areas: photo quality, performance, build quality, and expandability. The camera takes sharp images with low noise and no purple fringing. I did notice that photos tended to be underexposed a bit. In terms of performance, the camera keeps up with the competition in all areas, except for continuous shooting, where it blows past them. You can take up to 12 shots at 3 frames/sec, even in RAW or TIFF mode.”

Website: DCResource - Olympus E-1 Review

DP-Now have published their review of the A4 HP Photosmart 7960 printer. Can this new printer compete with the likes of the Canon i950 and the Epson Stylus Photo 950? Read DP-Now’s review to find out.

“Colours, dot grain and print sharpness are all excellent. The only imperfection that has been noted is a tendency towards over-sharpening and this can make some prints look over-contrasty. Black and white prints from the 7960, when printed using the No.59 ink cartridge, set a new standard for monochrome ink-jet photos. Blacks and greys are slightly warm but prints look great, free from distracting colour casts and metamerism issues when viewed under different light sources.”

Website: DP-Now - HP Photosmart 7960 Printer Review

Photo.net have published a basic and easily understandable guide to the often confusing subject of image size:

“The confusion seems to arise because people aren’t sure of how these are related. They wonder if ppi affects the size of the image you see on a monitor screen. We know that displays are measured in pixels (e.g. a 1024x1280 display), and that screens are a given with (e.g. 15”), it seems logical that the pixels/inch setting should affect the size of the displayed image. Logical maybe, but wrong. Although monitors do have a measurable figure for ppi (pixels per inch), the ppi information in an image is NOT used for monitor display in web browsers.”

Website: Photo.net - Display, Printing, DPI and PPI

Following the news last week that Kodak is stopping the production of APS film cameras is another announcement from the company about the discontinuation of its professional medium format digital camera backs. Apparently a memo to Kodak Professional retailers states that “Kodak will focus its digital camera development resources on the growing segment of professional digital SLR users”. The current models will continue to be available until current stocks are depleted. No more units will be manufactured and no more new models will be developed by the company.

Website: Rob Galbraith - Kodak Discontinues DCS Pro Backs

Professional photographer Alain Briot is certainly in demand today, as another of his articles has been published on the Luminous Landscape website. “How to Select the Best “film” for a Specific Image with both Film and Digital Capture” is the fifth part of Alain’s Aesthetics and Photography series:

“Which “film” to use is as relevant today as it was when film was the only choice. This is because film meant, and still means, which kind of photographic images we want to create. We make choices regarding “film” unconsciously, whether we know it or not. We make these choices when we convert an image from Raw to Photoshop. We make these choices when we adjust scanner settings, and we make these choices when we fine tune an image for printing. Knowing why we make these choices, and how to make the appropriate choices to achieve a specific result, will no doubt result in better images. It will also result in images whose final appearance is under our control rather than under the control of the film, the camera or the software we use.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Aesthetics and Photography Part 5

Imaging Resource have reviewed the Fuji FinePix S7000, which is the successor to the popular FinePix S602 model. The S7000 uses Fuji’s 4th Generation Super CCD HR with 6.3 Million Effective Pixels output and 12.3 million recorded pixels. It costs around $799.99 and is available now.

“Considerably higher than average image noise. For all its other excellent attributes, image noise is the Achilles’ heel of the S7000. Image noise may not be all that much higher than other cameras at ISO 200, but that’s the lowest ISO that the S7000 offers, and when held up against results from competing cameras shot at their lowest ISO settings (typically ISO 100 or even 50), the S7000’s images do poorly in comparison.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Fuji FinePix S7000 Review

Website: Read my review of the Fuji FinePix S7000

Fujifilm UK Press Release 20/01/04

Company boosts film camera range with four new models, and more to come in 2004

In preparation for PMA 2004 (Photo Marketing Association exhibition*) Fujifilm has today made a worldwide announcement confirming its commitment to the film market, and introducing several new 35mm and APS film cameras to its product portfolio. To read the worldwide press release, please visit: http://www.fujifilm.com/

Information and statements for the UK market
Fujifilm is defying current trends in the photography industry by announcing significant investment in film camera technology in 2004, and by adding a raft of new models to its compact film camera range ? both APS and 35mm.

Despite pressure on the conventional camera market, and with some manufacturers consolidating their R&D functions or exiting the market altogether, Fujifilm affirms that certain product categories are, in fact, exhibiting steady demand, with products such as 35mm zoom compacts, entry-level, easy-to-use fun cameras ? and certain APS models such as the Fujifilm Q1 ? showing notable resilience. On top of this, single use cameras are demonstrating remarkable growth, with sales increasing by almost 30% year on year in the UK. Consequently, Fujifilm is continuing to support the industry with the introduction of both film and digital products, with developments in film, compact cameras and single use cameras projected throughout 2004 and beyond.

Canon have released a new version of firmware for the Canon EOS 10D DSLR.

This Firmware update (Version 2.0.1) incorporates the following change:

- Correction of the LCD monitor display in firmware version 2.0.0

This firmware update applies to cameras with firmware versions 1.0.0, 1.0.1, or 2.0.0. It is not necessary to perform this update on cameras that already have version 2.0.1 firmware.

Website: Canon EOS 10D Version 2.01 Firmware