The winner of the 9th PhotographyBLOG Photo of the Week contest is medvidek with the entry “fire 1”. There are no prizes as such for this contest, but the winning photo is displayed on the PhotographyBLOG homepage for a week, and the winner can display the Photo of the Week logo on their website if they wish.

The 10th Photo of the Week contest is now open. This is a weekly photography challenge where you decide who the winner is by voting for your favourite photos. It’s an open contest with no set theme and you can enter as many photos as you like.

Professional photographer Clint Thayer has just reviewed the AF-S Zoom-Nikkor ED 12-24mm f/4G IF DX lens, which promises to give Nikon DSLR owners a true wide-angle lens, albeit at a cost of $1,000 or so.

“Performance on a wide angle zoom usually boils down to three things: sharpness, light falloff, and distortion. So without making you wait for it, I’ll just say this is one heck of a sharp lens with modest falloff and distortion.”

Website: Thom Hogan - Nikkor 12-24mm f4 AF-S DX Lens Review

The Hungarian website Index Digicam have published their review of the new X’s Drive Pro portable storage device (so new that I don’t have a picture of it yet…).

Website: Index Digicam - X’s Drive Pro Review

DPReview 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.

“The S7000 is in a fairly unique position, it is the only prosumer digital camera with a six megapixel sensor. Indeed, until the announcement of Sony’s eight megapixel DSC-F828 it was the highest resolution prosumer digital camera. Test results versus the Sony were mixed, our studio comparison shots showed better performance from the F828, however the S7000’s 12 MP mode matched the F828 on the resolution chart.”

Website: DPReview - Fuji FinePix S7000 Review

Website: Read my review of the Fuji FinePix S7000

Mike Johnston’s weekly column looks at the rather specialized topic of how photos are laid out in magazines, with part of them often being lost in the page gutter.

“Or take color film. You give a man color film, and sooner or later you will catch him out in the garden taking pictures of flowers. This seems inevitable. He just can’t resist. He’s got this colorful film, y’see, and he spies this colorful flower, and…well, not being a chimp, he does realize that there are enough flower pictures in the world already, and that the one he’s about to take isn’t going to be of any use to anybody. But he can’t help himself. It’s too great a temptation to resist. He succumbs to the weakness. (I’m partially kidding here. Flower photographers, forgive me.)”

Website: Sunday Morning Photographer: Lost in the Gutter

This must be the first time that I’ve ever linked to the website Space.com :-) They have a very interesting article that should prove once and for all that megapixels are not the be all and end all of image quality. Apparently NASA’s Spirit Rover is using a digital camera with a CCD that has a mere 1 megapixel resolution. There’s a technical explanation of how it all works if you’re interested…

“The technology used to make Spirit’s Panoramic Camera, or Pancam, is essentially the same as what goes into a Casio or Pentax digital camera.

But the Pancam’s lenses—there are two, which provides stereo imaging capability—are crafted more finely than anything you’d probably want to plunk down a Visa for. And the light-capturing chunk of silicon, called a charged coupled device, or CCD, was manufactured with no tolerance for the minor flaws that are inherent in mass-produced consumer cameras.”

Website: Space.com - Digital Secrets: How Spirit Makes Great Photos

Michael Reichmann’s latest article over at the Luminous Landscape website revisits his controversial review of the Sony DSC-F828 digital camera:

“This is where the cognitive dissonance comes in. Digicams are for snapshots, beginners and hobbyists. DSLRs are for serious photographers. Well, maybe that’s been the case till now, but the game is changing. It could be that there are other models currently available (early 2004) that might fall into the same camp as the Sony F828. I don’t know, as I haven’t tested them all. But that’s not the point. The real issue is that we are about to enter a new era where the line between interchangeable lens DSLRs and fixed lens digicams starts to blur, and where measurable parameters like pixel count and sensor size are becoming increasingly of lesser importance than how suitable the device is for its intended task. And the things that determine suitability can’t always be quantified.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Why The Sony F828 Produces Consumer Angst

The Slovenian website e-Fotografija have posted a review of the Nikkor AF-S VR 70 - 200mm f/2,8G IF-ED lens, with lots of pictures of the lens and samples showing how it performs at slow shutter speeds.

Website: e-Fotografija - Nikkor AF-S VR 70 - 200mm f/2,8G IF-ED Review

Website: Slovenian Translator

Aiwa, best known for its home stereo systems, has announced its very first digital camera. The 2.1 megapixel AZ-C7 is going after the fashionable, quirky part of the market, with a round camera body and proprietary 32MB Pavit USB flash drive as storage. It has a 42mm fixed lens and a 1.5” LCD screen. The AZ-C7 ships in May 2004 - no news yet about the price (found via Gizmodo).

Website: PCWorld - Aiwa AZ-C7

The UK-based digital photography website DP-Now have completed their interactive review of the 5-megapixel Olympus E-1 digital SLR camera.

“Regulars to dp-now may recall this article started off as an interactive preview of the Olympus E-1 based on hands-on time with late pre-production cameras provided by Olympus Europe. Since then I have been provided with a production sample and I have now updated this article to full review status.

This is a slightly unusual article in that the subject of the review is not just a new camera but a new system and system philosphy, so there are several pages that cover more general aspects of the E-system.”

Website: DP-Now - Olympus E-1 Review

ByteSector.com has posted new reviews of the Olympus C-740 Ultra-Zoom digital camera, which offers an optical 10x zoom lens.

“The 10X optical zoom works great when combined with the 3.2 Megapixels. Although 3.2 is not the best quality available on the market, it is decent and provides good pictures. Pictures printed at 12? x 18? or close to that range won?t be the best in sharpness and quality at when taken with a 3.2 megapixel camera though. Pictures taken with the c-740 come out great with and without the 10X zoom.”

Website: ByteSector.com - Olympus C-740 Ultra Zoom Review

Konica Minolta Press Release 16/01/04

Langenhagen, Germany, January 2004
In January 2003 Konica and Minolta announced their world-wide management integration. Now the Konica and Minolta European headquarters have been officially registered and are operating under Konica Minolta. The new companies have taken over all rights and obligations of the former Konica Business Machines Deutschland GmbH, Konica Europe GmbH and Minolta Europe GmbH.

The new companies are Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe GmbH, located in Langenhagen, and Konica Minolta Photo Imaging Europe GmbH, located in Hohenbrunn. The shareholders are Konica Minolta Business Technology, Inc. and Konica Minolta Photo Imaging, Inc. in Japan.

The companies are operating in four business fields: business technologies, photo imaging, cameras, and measuring. With operative bases in 23 European countries the companies have a total workforce of around 6,000 employees.

Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe places major emphasis on the business of photocopiers and printers, especially in the field of colour output, as well as on business solutions, facsimiles and related supplies. Konica Minolta Photo Imaging Europe is a leading provider of consumer and commercial photographic materials, photographic equipment such as analogue and digital cameras and measuring instruments. Building on its strong core of optical technologies developed over many years as a camera manufacturer, the Konica Minolta Group in Europe aims to be a corporation offering products and services that are essential to all areas of digital imaging.

The German-based Business Solutions sales operations of both Konica and Minolta was spun-off to a new German sales company, Konica Minolta Business Solutions Deutschland GmbH, which is also based in Langenhagen. The domestic German sales operations of photo imaging and cameras are operating under Konica Minolta Photo Imaging Europe GmbH and based in Hohenbrunn.

[The Record, Hackensack, N.J. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.]
The Record via NewsEdge Corporation : Jan. 14—Professor Frank Viggiano thinks the early years of the digital camera revolution could become known as the “lost years”—the years of the lost first birthday pictures, the lost Christmas pictures, and the lost vacation pictures.

Americans took those pictures, lots of them, on their brand new digital cameras in 2001, 2002, and 2003, but never printed them. And, says Viggiano, professor of consumer products at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, until retailers and photo processing labs do a better job of persuading consumers to make those prints, there are going to be a lot of gaps in America’s photo albums.

“What we are learning is that people are taking a whole bunch of digital pictures and not printing them,” he said. “Look at the number of digital cameras sold, and the prints made, and it’s pretty easy to figure out that people are not printing as much as they should.”

Those “lost” photographs also represent losses for traditional film processing labs.

The Photo Marketing Association International (PMAI) reported last month that consumer film processing dropped by nearly 10 percent from October 2002 to October 2003. The association blamed the decline largely on the fact that “more members of the most active consumer photographic segment—young parents—use digital cameras.”

Olympus UK Press Release 15/01/04

A bright, high performance wide zoom lens for the Olympus E-System

The ZUIKO DIGITAL 11-22mm, F2.8-3.5

With its very wide-angle capabilities, the ZUIKO DIGITAL 11-22mm, F2.8-3.5 lens (35mm camera equivalent: 22-44mm) opens up yet more creative possibilities for Olympus E-1 digital SLR users. With remarkable light gathering power (F2.8 at the wide setting), it also permits shooting within a wider range of shutter speeds in low light conditions. Through full compatibility with the TIPA Award-winning FourThirds standard, this latest addition to the Olympus E-System delivers the excellent quality that professionals demand.

Superior optical performance is further aided by two aspherical lens elements, which minimise distortion as well as spherical and coma aberration. The latter is caused by light rays entering the periphery of a lens at an angle and converging in the form of a comet instead of a point. Furthermore, to help avoid ghosting or image flare, both problems which are particularly associated with wide-angle lenses, a new multi-coating has been applied to the first two lenses. The focusing system?s floating mechanism delivers sharp, high contrast images up to a shortest range of 28cm at any zoom setting.

CNET have reviewed the 5 megapixel Minolta DiMAGE G500, which has a 3x zoom lens with a range that is equivalent to 39 - 117mm on a 35mm camera.

“Despite its point-and-shoot feature set, the G500 takes impressive photos that will look good at print sizes of 8x10 and even a bit larger. Sharpness and detail are excellent, noise at ISO 50 and ISO 100 is low, colors are vivid, there are few processing artifacts, and skin tones look natural.”

Website: CNET - Minolta DiMAGE G500 Review

Olympus Europe Press Release 14/01/04

PhotoImpact 7 SE as application software for digital cameras

Hamburg, January 2004 ? Ulead Systems, a leading developer of image and video editing, 3D animation and DVD authoring software, and Olympus Europa GmbH continue their successful cooperation in product bundling. Ulead?s multiple-award-winning digital image editing software, Ulead PhotoImpact 7 in the SE version, is now bundled in Europe with the new OLYMPUS digital camera, CAMEDIA C-5060 WIDE ZOOM.

“The requirements of customers differ greatly, not just regards cameras but also the accompanying software. To meet their needs, we present buyers of high-end cameras a first-class tool for editing images. For us, PhotoImpact 7 SE offers the best possible value. It is a tool that is easy to use, opens up many possibilities and delivers perfect results. We are therefore delighted to continue our existing partnership,” comments Ulrich Beckedorf, European Product Manager Software, Olympus Europa GmbH.

“With Olympus, we have formed a successful partnership. Digital cameras are ever increasing in popularity and we have reacted to this market development. The high end cameras from Olympus, such as the C-5060 WIDE ZOOM, together with the image editing software PhotoImpact 7 SE offer customers a solution that straight away not only enables them to take photos, but also allows processing on the home computer,” says Dieter Modner, OEM Manager, Ulead Systems GmbH.

Photographic giant Kodak is to quit making cameras that use the Advanced Photo System (APS) format, as well as reloadable cameras that use 35-millimeter film, by the end of 2004. Kodak will completely stop selling traditional film cameras in the United States, Canada and Western Europe, but will continue to sell one-time use cameras in these territories. In expanding markets such as China, India, and Latin America, Kodak will carry on selling its film-based products for the forseeable future (found via Gizmodo).

Kodak Press Release 13/01/04

Kodak to Accelerate 35mm Consumer Film Effort in Emerging Markets
ROCHESTER, Jan. 13—Eastman Kodak Company today announced that it will accelerate its 35mm consumer film efforts in growing emerging markets, one of a series of moves that represents the continued implementation of the digitally oriented growth strategy announced by the company in September.

As part of that strategy, Kodak will manage its worldwide traditional photographic business through selective investments for growth that serve customers’ needs.

“Kodak is, and will remain, committed to manufacturing and marketing the world’s highest quality film,” said Bernard Masson, President, Digital & Film Imaging Systems, and a Senior Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company. “Consistent with our strategy, we will focus our film investments on opportunities that provide faster and attractive returns, while reducing investments where we see unsatisfactory returns.”

Finnish photographer Petteri Sulonen has published a comprehensive guide to the world of digital black and white photography. It’s an excellent article that’s well worth bookmarking and printing out for future reference.

“Black and white was what first got me “seriously” into photography. While I never attained real mastery in black and white printing, I have spent a long time in various darkrooms. I still enjoy the aesthetic of black and white a great deal, and of course have tried to get the “look” I like in digital as well. Thanks to a lot of experimentation, some reading up, and tips from people who are a lot better at it than I am, I’m finally starting to see the kinds of results I wanted. In particular, thanks to Jim Fuglestad, aka Shutter at DPReview, who thought up the “dodge and soft light” technique described in this essay.”

Website: Petteri’s Pontifications: Digital Black and White

The UK-based Digital Camera Magazine has just posted a number of new reviews on its website. In no particular order they are:

- Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z1
- Olympus E1
- Kodak EasyShare DX6490
- HP Photosmart 945
- Richo Caplio G4 Wide
- Epson L300
- Microtek Takeit D1

Website: Digital Camera Magazine

The German website Photoworld.de has posted a review of the Olympus CAMEDIA C-5060 Wide Zoom camera, an updated version of the popular Olympus CAMEDIA C-5050 model, with a wider-angle lens that is equivalent to a 27-110mm lens on a 35mm camera.

Website: Photoworld.de - Olympus C-5060 Wide Zoom Review