News
DCResource have reviewed the Casio QV-R40, a 4 megapixel digicam which has an amazing start-up time of one second and shutter-lag of 0.01 seconds. The Casio QV-R40 currently retails for around $300 / £300.
“The QV-R40 takes sharp images with accurate color and exposure. Purple fringing was not a major issue.
The biggest gripe I have with the photo quality is the noise level—it’s higher than average. The place where the noise is most obvious is in the sky, and on flat things like walls. It really eats away at the detail in your shots.”
Website: DCResource- Casio QV-R40 Review
DCResource have reviewed the Casio QV-R40, a 4 megapixel digicam which has an amazing start-up time of one second and shutter-lag of 0.01 seconds. The Casio QV-R40 currently retails for around $300 / £300.“The QV-R40 takes sharp images with accurate color and exposure. Purple fringing was not a major issue…
PMA Newsline International Press Release
European photo specialty retailer Jessops is now selling a range of cameraphones in a joint agreement with Vodafone. Jessops will offer a selection of mobile phones, each with a built-in digital camera, with customers being connected to the non-contract pay as you talk service on Vodafone live!. The choice of phones will include models from Sharp, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Sagem.
The Vodafone live! service offers a host of features including picture messaging, games, polyphonic ringtones, e-mail, and a wide range of information and entertainment services.
The company says the move reinforces Jessops’ continued commitment to remaining at the forefront of digital imaging, and is set to further expand the company’s customer base - with industry experts predicting camera phone ownership will reach 55 million handsets worldwide in 2003, rising to 130 million in 2004.
“Jessops has a proud history of digital imaging innovation - including being the first to introduce digital camera demonstration areas in stores, and the first to offer in-store digital processing, says Jessops’ chief executive Derek Hine. “By offering picture messaging mobile phones we’re again demonstrating our commitment to embracing the latest imaging technology, and maintaining our market leading position in this exciting and fast moving field.”
In other Jessops news, the retailer is working with national charity CLIC - Cancer and Leukaemia in Childhood - to raise funds for children with cancer and leukemia. The campaign entitled ‘Click for CLIC’ aims to raise at least ?50,000 by the end of 2004 and Jessops is celebrating the new partnership by presenting CLIC with a cheque for ?5,000, the company said.
Jessops launched the campaign by supporting CLIC’s ‘Win a day off work’ fund-raiser Dec. 12th - whereby companies donate extra days holiday to raffle off amongst staff to raise funds.
CLIC offers practical hands-on care and has a unique all-embracing approach to the well being of children affected by cancer and their families. CLIC fund specialist doctors, nurses, and play specialists, care grants, home from home accommodation, research and teenager support.
PMA Newsline International Press Release European photo specialty retailer Jessops is now selling a range of cameraphones in a joint agreement with Vodafone. Jessops will offer a selection of mobile phones, each with a built-in digital camera, with customers being connected to the non-contract pay as you talk service on…
LetsGoDigital 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.
“Is the FinePix S7000 a perfect camera? Well, some things can always be found, and the S7000 is not an exception. I would like to have some more choices of compression, beside the Fine and Normal mode in a 12M resolution. The other resolutions have only one compression! Also disappointing is the large range of shutter times only in M mode and not, as I would have expected in the S mode. The camera is delivered rather frugal, that is to say: a standard 16MB memory card with 4x AA Alkaline batteries won’t surprise the buyer.”
LetsGoDigital 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. “Is the FinePix S7000 a…
This week Mike Johnston’s Sunday Morning column asks if Leica has lost the plot…
“And many times over the past decade or so, I’ve had cause to wonder if the current management of Leica really gets it - “it” being the true gestalt of the Leitz Camera - or whether they’ve just lost it.”
This week Mike Johnston’s Sunday Morning column asks if Leica has lost the plot… “And many times over the past decade or so, I’ve had cause to wonder if the current management of Leica really gets it - “it” being the true gestalt of the Leitz Camera - or whether…
Digital Outback Photo have reviewed PowerRetouche Black & White Studio, a plugin for PC and Mac which works in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. As the name suggests, this pulgin allows you to convert colour images to black and white.
“Different B&W films have different spectral sensitivities. B&W studio lets you select from some presets and then even let you control the seven sliders yourself. We use TriX most of the time. But in some cases we like to show e.g. blue darken then we change the values. All settings in B&W studio can be saved and loaded back.”
Website: Digital Outback Photo - PowerRetouche Black & White Studio Review
Website: PowerRetouche
Digital Outback Photo have reviewed PowerRetouche Black & White Studio, a plugin for PC and Mac which works in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. As the name suggests, this pulgin allows you to convert colour images to black and white. “Different B&W films have different spectral sensitivities. B&W studio lets you…
The Danish website Akamera.dk have reviewed the Fuji FinePix A210 Zoom digital camera. The A210 has 3.2 million megapixels and a 3x optical zoom. It retails for $279.99.
The Danish website Akamera.dk have reviewed the Fuji FinePix A210 Zoom digital camera. The A210 has 3.2 million megapixels and a 3x optical zoom. It retails for $279.99. Website: Akamera.dk - Fujifilm FinePix A210 Review
The theme for the January 2004 Competition has been decided. The new theme is simply “Reflections” - submit one photograph that you think best interprets the theme.
This is a monthly photography competition with a specific theme and prizes for the top 3 photos. The winning entries will be decided by a panel of judges. You just have to submit one photograph to the Competition Gallery that best interprets January’s theme, which is “Reflections”.
Please make sure that you read the Monthly Competition Rules before submitting your entry. The competition is worldwide and open to everyone.
You can now start submitting entries to the January Compeitition here:
January 2004 Competition
The theme for the January 2004 Competition has been decided. The new theme is simply “Reflections” - submit one photograph that you think best interprets the theme. This is a monthly photography competition with a specific theme and prizes for the top 3 photos. The winning entries will be decided…
The December 2003 PhotographyBLOG Competition has now closed. The theme for December was “Night” - you can view all 43 entries in this gallery.
The 1st / 2nd / 3rd place winners will be announced on Saturday 10th January, and the prizes will be sent out shortly after :-)
The December 2003 PhotographyBLOG Competition has now closed. The theme for December was “Night” - you can view all 43 entries in this gallery. The 1st / 2nd / 3rd place winners will be announced on Saturday 10th January, and the prizes will be sent out shortly after :-)
Imaging Resource have reviewed the Kodak EasyShare CX6330, a 3.2 megapixel digital camera that costs around £220 in the UK.
“Kodak’s EasyShare digital cameras consistently rank among the easiest to use of any I’ve tested, and the CX6330 follows suit. Full automatic exposure control keeps things simple, with exposure decisions down to a bare minimum. A handful of preset scene modes help with special shooting conditions. This is a true “point-and-shoot” digicam, requiring little or no intervention to take nice looking photos under a wide variety of conditions.”
Imaging Resource have reviewed the Kodak EasyShare CX6330, a 3.2 megapixel digital camera that costs around £220 in the UK. “Kodak’s EasyShare digital cameras consistently rank among the easiest to use of any I’ve tested, and the CX6330 follows suit. Full automatic exposure control keeps things simple, with exposure decisions…
The Slovenian website e-Fotografija have just posted a review of the 5 megapixel Kodak EasyShare DX4530. This digicam retails for just £399 in the UK.
The Slovenian website e-Fotografija have just posted a review of the 5 megapixel Kodak EasyShare DX4530. This digicam retails for just £399 in the UK. Website: e-Fotografija - Kodak EasyShare DX4530 Review
The Danish website Akamera.dk have reviewed the 4 megapixel EasyShare DX6490 digital camera, a digital camera which features a 10x optical zoom lens (38-380mm focal length). The Kodak EasyShare DX6490 has a suggested retail price of £399.99.
The Danish website Akamera.dk have reviewed the 4 megapixel EasyShare DX6490 digital camera, a digital camera which features a 10x optical zoom lens (38-380mm focal length). The Kodak EasyShare DX6490 has a suggested retail price of £399.99. Website: Akamera.dk - Kodak EasyShare DX6490 Review
I had a bit of a scare this morning when my PC failed to boot up, for no apparent reason, with the error message “Boot Failure - Insert Boot Diskette in Drive A”. I did have a boot disk for my operating system (Windows Me) but inserting it just took me to the A:> prompt in DOS. After a bit of digging around on Google, I found the command “Sys C:” which copies the system files from the floppy onto the hard drive. Bingo! My PC now successfully boots to Windows, so I guess the system files must have become corrupted (though I have no idea how).
I was panicking for a couple of hours, as all of the photos that I took in December were on the hard-drive and not backed-up. I usually wait until the end of every month and copy that month’s photos onto 2 CDs, but I’m going to have to rethink that strategy and maybe backup after every shoot.
To everyone who has emailed me since December 24th, I will reply to you tonight. I’ve just been on holiday for the past week, that’s all :-)
I had a bit of a scare this morning when my PC failed to boot up, for no apparent reason, with the error message “Boot Failure - Insert Boot Diskette in Drive A”. I did have a boot disk for my operating system (Windows Me) but inserting it just took…
Roger Cavanagh and Paul Jaruszewski are working on an interesting set of JavaScript programmes called the Variations Suite. Apparently each script in the suite will display up to eight previews of your image with different processing treatments applied. The first component to be released will be Velvia Variations, followed by B+W Variations and Toning Variations. Variations Suite scripts will work on both 8-bit and 16-bit images, and will use the colour space of the active image when creating the previews. The scripts in the Variations Suite are compatible with Photoshop CS and will not run in other versions of Photoshop. One to keep an eye on…
Website: The Variations Suite
Roger Cavanagh and Paul Jaruszewski are working on an interesting set of JavaScript programmes called the Variations Suite. Apparently each script in the suite will display up to eight previews of your image with different processing treatments applied. The first component to be released will be Velvia Variations, followed by…
A-Digital-Eye have posted another comparison test of sample images from 5 different digital cameras, all taken within a short time of each other. The Sony DSC T1, Canon Digital Rebel, Sony F828, Minolta Dimage A1, and the Sigma SD10 are all included in the test, with the images taken standing in the same location within 10 minutes of each other, and in the cameras Auto/Program mode.
A-Digital-Eye have posted another comparison test of sample images from 5 different digital cameras, all taken within a short time of each other. The Sony DSC T1, Canon Digital Rebel, Sony F828, Minolta Dimage A1, and the Sigma SD10 are all included in the test, with the images taken standing…
Steves Digicams have published a comprehensive review of the 4 megapixel Minolta DiMAGE G400 digital camera, which is actually exactly the same model as the Konica KD-420Z.
“Perhaps the most striking feature of the G400 is its remarkable shooting performance. Minolta claims that the G400’s performance is improved over the G500, and our measurements are in agreement. From power-on until the first image was captured took only 7/10 second, so responsive that it will likely be ready to shoot before you are; you’ll rarely miss that unposed spontaneous photo opportunity.”
Steves Digicams have published a comprehensive review of the 4 megapixel Minolta DiMAGE G400 digital camera, which is actually exactly the same model as the Konica KD-420Z. “Perhaps the most striking feature of the G400 is its remarkable shooting performance. Minolta claims that the G400’s performance is improved over the…
It seems that the release of the Epson Stylus Pro 4000 17” wide desktop printer has been delayed until March 2004, according to a user on the DPReview forums. Click the link below to read the full thread:
It seems that the release of the Epson Stylus Pro 4000 17” wide desktop printer has been delayed until March 2004, according to a user on the DPReview forums. Click the link below to read the full thread: Website: DPReview Forums - Epson Stylus Pro 4000 Delayed
Steves Digicams have joined in the fun by reviewing the 8-megapixel Sony Cybershot DSC-F828 digital compact camera.
“At the end of the day, it’s not features but image quality that matters most. And in this respect, the F828 does not disappoint. Our outdoor shots were richly-saturated and well exposed. We did however notice some apparent imager “noise” in the lower contrast shadow areas. The versatility of the 7x zoom lens allows you to obtain wide landscape images, and a twist of the zoom ring will get you close to your subject. Indoors flash shots were well- exposed and nicely balanced.”
Steves Digicams have joined in the fun by reviewing the 8-megapixel Sony Cybershot DSC-F828 digital compact camera. “At the end of the day, it’s not features but image quality that matters most. And in this respect, the F828 does not disappoint. Our outdoor shots were richly-saturated and well exposed. We…
LetsGoDigital have just reviewed the 5-megapixel Olympus E-1 DSLR.
“The Olympus E-1, a professional camera… Like I said before, personally I think the camera lies in between a pro and semipro one. Although I’m not a 100% sure of that. The E-1 deserves praise; it is a fantastic digital camera with which splendid results can be obtained. When I look at the pictures made on Mallorca with Olympus and I show them to whomever, I only get very positive reactions. The camera is capable to take pictures that can equally be taken by any comparable (professional) camera.”
Website: LetsGoDigital - Olympus E-1 Review
LetsGoDigital have just reviewed the 5-megapixel Olympus E-1 DSLR. “The Olympus E-1, a professional camera… Like I said before, personally I think the camera lies in between a pro and semipro one. Although I’m not a 100% sure of that. The E-1 deserves praise; it is a fantastic digital camera…
eFrameCentral.com Press Release
eFrameCentral.com Slashes Price of PhotoPort TV 100, Enabling Anyone to Create Photo Presentations on TV Screens [Business Wire]
Business Wire via NewsEdge Corporation : WARWICK, R.I.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Dec. 30, 2003—eFrameCentral.com announces a new close-out price on Visioneer PhotoPort TV 100, a complete solution enabling anyone to create personalized photo presentations from their own digital image collections—directly on the screens of their televisions. Regularly $175.00, the PhotoPort TV 100 is now available for only $29.99.
The PhotoPort TV 100 gives users instant access to their digital pictures without waiting for a computer to boot-up, attaching cables from the camera to a PC, transferring pictures, searching through cryptic file names, or loading an image editing program. The solution comes with a viewer, remote, and wireless keyboard with dedicated keys to easily create photo albums and personalize pictures.
To turn a photo collection into a customized and beautifully designed digital presentation, users simply attach the PhotoPort to their TV’s Video-in connector, insert the memory card from their camera into the PhotoPort, and design the photo album using the wireless keyboard. Users can crop, resize and rotate pictures, then add colorful backgrounds, borders and entertaining captions. When finished, the presentation can be viewed or recorded on VHS or DVD to share with friends.
About eFrameCentral.com
eFrameCentral.com is the leading online resource for eFrame digital photo frames, providing new and better ways for digital camera owners to store and share pictures. For more information, please visit the company’s Web site at www.styluscentral.com or email [email protected].
eFrameCentral.com Press Release eFrameCentral.com Slashes Price of PhotoPort TV 100, Enabling Anyone to Create Photo Presentations on TV Screens [Business Wire] Business Wire via NewsEdge Corporation : WARWICK, R.I.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Dec. 30, 2003—eFrameCentral.com announces a new close-out price on Visioneer PhotoPort TV 100, a complete solution enabling anyone to create personalized…
Finnish photographer Olli Salonen has reviewed the inexpensive Sigma 18-50/3.5-5.6 DC lens. This is designed for digital SLR cameras and has a smaller image area than normal lenses, so it can’t be used with full-frame SLRs. It offers a usable focal length of around 28-80mm (depending on the crop factor of your particular DSLR) and costs a mere ?100 in the UK (found via digicamera.net).
“Sigma introduced this digital-only lens in the late 2003 and it resembles closely the Canon’s 18-55 EF-S kit lens, that is sold with the 300D. Sigma 18-50 however is not an EF-S lens, but it will fit all Canon EF (of course there also Sigma, Nikon and Pentax mount versions) compatible bodies. Image circle of this lens is smaller than normal, as it is intended for cameras that have a crop factor of 1.5x or higher. Therefore you cannot use this lens on a full frame camera without significant vignetting.”
Finnish photographer Olli Salonen has reviewed the inexpensive Sigma 18-50/3.5-5.6 DC lens. This is designed for digital SLR cameras and has a smaller image area than normal lenses, so it can’t be used with full-frame SLRs. It offers a usable focal length of around 28-80mm (depending on the crop factor…