Samsung has launched two new DSLR lenses, the D-XENON 18-250mm F3.5-F6.3 and 18-55mm II F3.5-F5.6, compatible with the new GX-20 and Samsung’s popular GX-10 DSLR cameras. The GX-20 and lenses are expected to be available from March 2008, price for the GX-20 with 18-55mm lens – £699 RRP (price for the 18-250mm lens is TBC).
I don’t have any specifications yet, but further informations can be found on the official website.

Pentax have introduced 5 new lenses for their DSLR cameras, including 300mm and 200mm Supersonic Motor lenses. Built-in ultrasonic motors (Supersonic Motors) in the lenses provide for extremely quiet and fast autofocusing. Both lenses are also weatherproofed and protected from penetrating dust by appropriate seals. The front lens elements of the lenses use the special Pentax SP – “Super Protect” – fluoride coating technology. This nano-technology protects the front lens against dust, finger marks or smearing, making the lenses exceptionally easy to clean. The Pentax “Quick Shift Focus System” allows the photographer to manually alter the focus point at will without having to take the camera out of the autofocus mode. Prices range from £99 for the 18-55mm to £899 for the 300mm lens.

- PENTAX-DA 300mm F4.0 ED [IF] SDM
- PENTAX-DA 200mm F2.8 ED [IF] SDM
- PENTAX-DA 35mm F2.8 Macro Limited
- PENTAX-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED
- PENTAX-DA 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 AL II

Tamron is releasing a new version of their popular 70-300mm telephoto lens that’s compatible with the Nikon D40/D40x DSLRs. The revamped AF 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro 1:2 lens will have a built-in motor AF system. Filter Diameter is Ø 62mm and it weights 458g (16.2oz). The start price of the new Tamron 70-300mm for Nikon is $189.00.
The new Sigma APO 70-200mm F2.8 II EX DG MACRO HSM lens for full-frame cameras offers improved optical performance with a minimum focusing distance of 100cm.
This lens is suitable for taking all type of subjects such as portraits, landscape, and close-up pictures. This lens incorporates HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor), which ensures a quiet and high-speed AF as well as full-time manual focusing capability. The Sigma APO 70-200mm F2.8 II EX DG MACRO HSM will cost £799.99. On the other hand, Sigma APO 50-150mm F2.8 II EX DC HSM is a large aperture telephoto zoom lens designed for digital SLR cameras with APS-C size sensors, featuring a maximum aperture of F2.8. The Sigma APO 50-150mm F2.8 II EX DC HSM will cost £549.99.

I’ve been having some hard times lately with lot of work at the office, exams and a cold I got.
Besides from that, take a look at this video-portfolio of Daniel W. Coburn. This artist creates impressive black and white photographs (using a Canon 30D), some of them heavily manipulated (but still amazing and with powerful messages). It kind of remembers me of Ansel Adams. Yes, he’s a Ansel Adams of the new era I could say.
If you want to see his work on paper, there’s an opened exhibition right now:
BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY: PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIEL W. COBURN
Solo Exhibit @ Whittier Gallery – Riney Fine Arts Center/Friends University Campus
January 14th – February 9th.

Through his early work as a nature and wildlife photographer, Dan Coburn developed a great appreciation for our natural places. Over the last few years his work has evolved into a study of mans relationship with the environment. Many of his photographs depict man-made structures and objects existing in visual harmony with the landscape.

Coburn has garnered regional, national and international attention for his photographic works. He was chosen as one of a handful of artists for the Artist in Residence program at Rocky Mountain National Park for the summer of 2007. His photographs are included in many corporate and private collections accross the united states.

His images have been published in Camera Arts magazine as well as several local publications. Dan is currently president of the Lawrence Photo Alliance.

I’ve just been informed that the search for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008 has begun.
If you have broadband you can enter the competition online. Alternatively enter by post.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition
The Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
London
SW7 5BD
UK

However, it costs £20 to enter online and £27 to enter by post, due to the increased administration this involves.
Deadlines:
Monday 31 March 2008 for online submission.
Monday 24 March 2008 for postal submission.

New award for 2008: Photographer’s Award for Lifetime Commitment to Wildlife Photography
This award will be given to the photographer whose work and commitment to wildlife photography is considered worthy of commendation. This can either be through the sheer power and beauty of their imagery or the positive impact the imagery has made. All entrants can nominate candidates for this award.

Your nomination must be based on the criteria above, you must include a valid reason.

Online entrants can nominate from within the upload area.
Postal entrants can email a nomination or alternatively enclose the nomination with their package.

The title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008 will be given to the photographer whose single image is judged to be the most striking and memorable of all the entries. The winning photographer will receive a cheque for £10,000, which will be presented at an awards ceremony at the Natural History Museum, London, in October 2008.
Other awards are: Eric Hosking Award (Prize: £1,000), Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Wildlife(Prize: £1,000), One Earth Award(Prize: £1,000), Photographer’s Award for Lifetime Commitment to Wildlife Photography New for 2008.

The categories are:

1. Animals in Their Environment
2. Animal Behaviour: Birds
3. Animal Behaviour: Mammals
4. Animal Behaviour: All Other Animals
5. The Underwater World
6. Animal Portraits
7. In Praise of Plants
8. Urban and Garden Wildlife
9. Nature in Black and White
10. Creative Visions of Nature
11. Wild Places

For more details about this and how young photographers under 17 can participate, click here.

Starting from today, I’m 23 years old and Photoaxe is 1 year old. Yes, both in the same day. Should I have 2 cakes? Or just one but special one?
I woke up and went into to chicken to drink my coffe and there it was: a cake and a note from my parents.
I put candles on the cake and wanted to blow them up, but….






Finaly! These candles just won’t stop burning there!
And yes, it was delicios.
I hope you enjoyed these pictures, and, most of all, I hope you enjoyed this one year of photoaxe. It has been a great year, with permanent updates and improvements. And further more, it becomes closer and closer to you and your needs, my dear friend and reader.

Photos selected from flickriver.

Here’s a photography story I made today.
I gave life to a book. First, the book tries to open. The book cannot get open to easy: it falls down. But then it tries again. After a long long, it finally gets opened and begins to tell the story written inside. The hands will give the impression of a story-telling book in most of the pictures. Then, the story ends, and the book closes. The last picture shows the book is asleep until another reader will bother it wishing to find out the story inside.
If you like the idea, you can try making such a story yourself and post it to your blog. Then, give me a link to your story.

Functions:
• Shooting Modes: Auto, Scene, Text, Movie, My Settings 1 and 2
• Scene Modes: Portrait, Face Recognition, Sports, Landscape, Nightscape, High-sensitivity, Zoom Macro, B&W, Sepia, Skew Correction
• Movie Mode: 36 seconds (640 x 480: 15 frames/sec.), 70 seconds (320 x 240: 15 frames/sec.), 18 seconds (640 x 480: 30 frames/sec.), 36 seconds (320 x 240: 30 frames/sec.), AVI format
• Flash Modes: Flash Off /Auto / Red-eye Flash / Flash On / Flash Synchro / Sof t Flash
• Focus Modes: Multi AF, Spot AF, Manual Focus, Fixed Focus (Snap), infinity (AF auxiliary light)
• White Balance: Auto/Fixed (Outdoors, Cloudy, Incandescent Lamp, Incandescent Lamp2, Fluorescent Lamp, manual settings) / White Balance Bracket
• Metering: TTL-CCD metering method: Mult i (256 segments), Center Weight, Spot
Technical Data:
• 2.7 inch LCD
• 8.15 megapixels
• 7.1x optical zoom + 4.8x digital zoom
• Focal Length: f4.6-33mm (equivalent to 28-200mm for 35mm cameras)
• Aperture: F 3.3 (Wide-angle)-5.2 (Telephoto)
• ISO Range: AUTO, AUTO-HI, ISO64 / ISO100 / ISO200 / ISO400 / ISO800 / ISO1600
• Flash Range: Approx. 20cm-3.0m (W), 25cm-2.0m (T) ( ISO auto )
• Focus Range:
Normal: approx. 30cm – infinity (Wide), approx. 1.0m – infinity (Telephoto)
Macro: approx. 1cm – infinity (Wide), approx. 25cm – infinity (Telephoto)
• Exposure Compensation: +2.0 – -2.0 EV in 1/3 EV steps
• Bracketing: -0.5 EV, ±0,+0.5 EV
• Continuos Shooting: Shooting interval: 5 sec. – 3 hours (5 sec. steps)
• Shutter Speed: 8, 4, 2, 1-1/2000 sec.
• Self Timer: 10sec., 2 sec.
• File Format: JPEG (Exif ver. 2.21)
• SD/SDHC – Secure Digital memory + 24MB internal memory
• Rechargeable bat tery (DB-70) x 1 – 300 pics
• Dimensions: 99.6 (W) x 55.0 (H) x 23.3mm
• Weight: Approx. 135g (without battery, SD memory card, hand strap)

Ricoh Caplio R7 digital camera offers 8.1 megapixels and a 7.1x wide zoom lens (28-200mm), meaning that it will bring you more optical zoom than any other camera in this range. On the first view, I can say it has a very solid build. Around the back are a selection of well-positioned control buttons, which prove to be responsive. One of these buttons is particularly useful: the ‘adj’ button (abbreviation for adjustments), which allows easy access to a host of useful control options such as exposure compensation, white balance control and ISO settings: the main ingredients for a technically good photo. The on-screen menu system is a doodle to navigate.
The most interesting features of this model are vibration control and face recognition technology. There’s no optical viewfinder, but the 2.7inch LCD screen is one of biggest out there and performs very well even in bright sun. On the other hand, event if Ricoh raised the ISO sensitivity up to 1600, this level is total useless. Usually Caplio R7 is capable of some very fine shots, with a particularly good grasp of colour reproduction, but if used fully extended, some barrel distortion and less detail towards the edges will be present in the image. The rapid start up and response times of this camera are certainly the strongest plus of it next to the white balance performance. What is not so good is the flash: it is either too strong or missing.
So, if you want a strong camera with big zoom that still fits even the pockets (unlike big ultrazoom cameras which have a bigger size), Ricoh Caplio R7 is an interesting choice.
Ricoh Caplio R7 Specifications
Ricoh Caplio R7 Firmware

Ricoh have released the first firmware update, v1.12, for the GR Digital II, a new 10 megapixel compact digital camera with a 28mm, f/2.4 fixed focal length lens. Version 1.12 adds the following improvements:

- Improved an image quality in a small size (VGA etc.)
- Modified the following phenomena.
If you operate the ADJ lever in the macro mode, display switching speed may change.
If you operate the ADJ lever while compensating exposure, any keys will not work.
- When you exit a macro mode, the lens unit operating will become initialized in order to improve a focus accuracy.

Ricoh GR Digital II Firmware Update v1.12

Sony has released a new firmware update, version 3, for the 12 megapixel Sony A700 DSLR camera. Version 3 provides the following benefits:

Benefits over firmware version 2:
Resolves an issue where the Access Lamp remains lit and the camera stops responding when several pictures are taken in rapid succession.
Resolves an issue where powering the camera off while in “MR” mode may cause some registered settings to carry over to other shooting modes.

Additional benefits over other firmware versions:
Sharper images for pictures taken under low contrast conditions
Reduced noise for pictures taken at ISO 3200
Improved flash control for objects closer than 1 meter with non ADI controlled lenses

Sony A700 Firmware Update v3 (Europe)
Sony A700 Firmware Update v3 (USA)

OLYMPUS RAW CODEC is the program to import and display the RAW data file (file extension is .orf) into Windows Vista. This can be used if your computer’s OS is Windows Vista. Please check in the operation manual for your digital camera if this RAW data file works on your digital camera. If you cannot select RAW data file on the camera MENU, you cannot capture RAW data images.

Target Models:

E-1, E-3*, E-300, E-330, E-400, E-410, E-500 , E-510 , E-10, E-20, C-70 ZOOM, C-5050ZOOM, C-5060 Wide Zoom, C-7070 Wide Zoom, C-8080 Wide Zoom, SP-310, SP-320, SP-350, SP-500UZ, SP-510UZ, SP-550UZ, SP-560UZ
*A part of the parameter does not apply to RAW developing of images.

Olympus RAW codec for Windows Vista