Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips
PhotographyBLOG has posted a review of the all new Ricoh GX200.
At first glance the GX200 seems very similar to it predecessor, but after a week’s shooting it quickly becomes evident that this camera is much more refined, both in terms of speed and features – the only thing lacking is any improvement in image quality.
PhotographyBLOG has posted a review of the Nikon Coolpix P60. The P60 is an 8 megapixel point & shoot camera with a 5x optical zoom (equivalent to 36mm-180mm on a 35mm format camera). The P60 also features image shift Vibration Reduction (VR) and sensitivity range of ISO 80-2000.
The Nikon Coolpix P60 is a well-built (especially solid with two AA batteries inserted) and reasonably priced option for digital beginners or casual snappers, if slightly boringly bringing nothing new to the party.
PhotographyBLOG has published a review of the entry-level Pentax K200D.
Just like the Pentax K100D Super, the K200D ticks very nearly all of the boxes for those wanting an easy to use DSLR that delivers images you’ll want to keep straight out of the camera, and with the minimum of user input and effort to boot.
Click here for more info on the Pentax K200D.
Steve’s Digicams has posted a review of the Casio EX-Z200.
Casio has added some great features to the Exilim series with EX-Z200. The 4x wide zoom lens and face recognition and auto shutter features are great additions to the camera.
To celebrate their 40th anniversary, the North Face is sponsoring a photography contest in partnership with Brickfish. The deadline is only three days away — July 7.
To enter, all you need to do is submit a photograph of yourself “posing triumphantly” — standing on a mountain’s summit, completing a trail run, pulling an extreme stunt or setting out your next big expedition. The winning photographer receives a complete gear package from The North Face. Other prizes include North Face gift cards.
To enter, submit a photo through the Brickfish website. To have a good shot at winning, you’ll need to ask a few friends to visit Brickfish and vote for your entry.
Nikon just released the D700, but they seem to want to keep their name in the headlines. They just released new firmware for the D3 DSLR . The biggest improvements were made to the autofocus and the white balance. The D300 also received a firmware update — this one fixes incorrect battery indicators.
If you want to update your Nikon, firmware updates are available for download on Nikon’s website. While it would be nice to get your hands on one of those nice shiny new D700s, these firmware updates will enable your older D3s and D300s to keep up with those young whippersnappers.
The folks at the Complete Idiot’s Guides picked the right guy to cover Photography Essentials. Mark Jenkinson is a photographer of the first order, routinely shooting for big name magazines like Maxim, Time and Vogue.
You might think that Jenkinson would jump to advanced concepts based on his own work, but he’s done a wonderful job of putting together a beginner-to-intermediate manual for photographers. Even if you have a certain level of photography experience, this book will still have plenty to offer.
The table of contents reads like an exceptionally user-friendly textbook:
The writing style mirrors that approach, without suffering from the condescension many photography textbooks seem to ooze. Instead, this guide is a friendly manual. An added bonus is that Jenkinson does not assume that every beginning photographer will have a bag full of expensive equipment. He offers practical advice that does not require spending a fortune.
Take light meters, for example: Jenkinson gives a great overview of the average metering options on an SLR. He also makes mention of handheld light meters, but doesn’t make them an integral part of his discussion of the subject.
There’s an added bonus with Photography Essentials. The book is full of beautiful color photography, illustrating Jenkinson’s points. It’s always easier to learn a photographic technique when you know the end result you’re aiming for. The photos in this book making it an excellent teaching tool.
Despite my own photography experience, I feel like I learned plenty from his tips on shooting in different types of light. I have a feeling I’ll be dragging this book out as an essential reference for quite a while to come. I’m also asking my photography professor from back in the day to replace his textbook with Jenkinson’s book — it’s a much better introduction overall.
A number of vendors are now accepting pre-orders accepting pre-orders for the new Nikon D700 Full Frame DSLR. See the following links for their respective pre-order pages:
For the latest Nikon D700 news and reviews, be sure to visit Photography Bay’s Nikon D700 Reviews and Resources.
The Sony A900 has been officially unveiled. See Photography Bay’s Sony A900 Announcement and Sony A900 Reviews and Resources for more info.
We all know that Sony’s flagship, the A900, will be announced at or around Photokina in August. Other than the announcement time frame, info has been hard to come by. Sony has been short on further details about the A900 since it announced the 24 megapixel sensor at PMA in January of this year. A big question that photographers seem to have surrounding the announcement of new, cutting edge cameras relates to their actual release date. Sometimes it can take quite a while for the camera to actually hit store shelves, which can be quite frustrating.
With that in mind, I recently received some info from a source, who wishes to remain anonymous, regarding the availability of the upcoming A900 and new Zeiss lenses.
First, the A900 will be available for purchase around the end of September or first of October.
In addition to the A900, we can expect at least 2 new Zeiss lenses:
Many Sony Alpha users have been begging for more high quality primes, so the Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 should fit the bill just fine. Additionally, it’s nice to see the 16-35mm zoom in Zeiss glass for those wide angles on the new full frame 24 MP sensor. At 24 megapixels, the A900 is going to need some high quality glass to make full use of all those pixels.
Finally, the price should be very competitive compared to the other DSLRs in the range of the A900. This adds a little more credibility to the previous rumors regarding the A900’s sub-$2000 price point.
For more on the Sony A900 flagship DSLR, stay tuned to Photography Bay’s Sony A900 page.
Adobe Labs made the Camera Raw 4.5 plugin for Photoshop available at the end of last week. This plugin gives Photoshoppers easy access to raw image formats, the format in which most professional and prosumer digital cameras shoot.
This version is only a release candidate. The plugin is well tested but needs more community testing to put it through its paces on multiple platforms and various hardware. Eventually Camera Raw will be distributed to all Photoshop users, according to the Adobe site.
You can download the plugin for either Macintosh or Windows through the Adobe Labs site. You must already have Adobe Creative Suite 3 or Photoshop CS3 installed on your computer to use Camera Raw.