Here's another lens guide by CameraLabs, this time for the Sony Alpha (Minolta for us old people) mount:
 
"Anyone shooting action or working in low light will also appreciate a lens with a larger aperture, indicated by a small f-number, such as f2.8. These may make the lens bigger, heavier and more expensive than models with average apertures, but have the major advantage of gathering more light. This allows

The photographers rights topic has lately become a hot issue worldwide. Bob Atkins sheds some light on the U.S side of things:
 
"In general when dealing with the police, the best advice to minimize your problems is to be polite and cooperative (at least up to a point). If you're loud, argumentative, combative and refuse to assist in any way, you may be in the right, but you'll likely be arrested for something and have to spend a time and

I like user reviews that venture a bit away from the beaten path. Added bonus, some garneshing of engrish. How about lenses that "hunt like fanatics"?:
 
"Unfortunately, GF1's focusing speed becomes a bit sluggish in low light situations with the pancake and the kit zoom lenses alike. Moreover, although the manuals say that the two lenses afford a closest focusing distance of 0.2m and 0.3m respectively, the lenses hunt like fanatics when the subjects are around

"Comparing" is a tad harch, its more like an apples to oranges and Klingons to Jedi thing:
 
"This article compares all the affordable weather-sealed DSLR cameras in production. These DSLRs are the Canon EOS 7D, the Nikon D300S, the Olympus E-3, the Pentax K-7, the Pentax K20D and the Pentax K200D. The definition of weather-sealed varies between models but does not mean waterproof, so all DSLRs

And a 5D MkII thrown in for good comparison. Watching the 1D MkIV getting the spank of its life is a painful experience to say the least:
 
"Don’t get dismayed Canon fans, compared to most cameras, the EOS 1D Mark IV does a very respectable job at high ISOⁱ, however the Nikon D3s just takes things to a whole new level, I hate to encourage you to skip past the fine print, but check out the ISO 1600 samples from the D3s, they look a lot like ISO

Personally i don't choose lenses, they choose me :) If YOU are not so lucky, maybe this article will shine a light:
 
"Canon’s EF-S 10-22mm USMⁱ is one of the best quality ultra-wide-angle lenses in its range. As an EF-S model, it will only work on cropped-bodies, but the equivalent range of 16-35mm is ideal for capturing expansive landscapes, cramped interiors, large buildings or big group shots. The USM focusing is also

Some of these "best blahblah" writeups gets pretty trivial sometimes, except when dollars comes to play. How about, "best under $600, or even $300"?
 
"But suppose even $600 is too much to pay for a lens, what can you get for under $300 (includes some discontinued lenses at typical used prices). Note that some prices may have crept up a little since the database was last updated which is why I say under around $300"

Well, probably not, those new Polaroids seem just as bulky as the old ones. In any case, it's good to have old good old Polaroid back in the newsroom:
 
LAS VEGAS - 2010 International CES - January 5, 2010 - PLR IP Holdings, LLC, owners of the Polaroid™ brand, today announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Lady Gaga, who will serve as creative director for a specialty line of Polaroid Imaging products.  The partnership brings together one of the

What does a Photojournalist, a butcher, and a garbage collector all have in common? According to CareeerCast.com these are among the worst imaginable jobs of 2009. The criteria used was environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress.  More info about the methodology used,
here
 

(funny) story from AP:
 
"MOUNT HOLLY — A New Jersey wedding photographer who defrauded dozens of newly married couples is headed to state prison.

Jack Holton, who operated photography businesses in Medford, Cinnaminson and Palmyra at various times, usually under the names "Weddings Unlimited" or "Renaissance Photography," had pleaded guilty to a theft charge last year.

Canon has improved almost every aspect of this classic, including costruction, optical elements, and IS engine. The price has worsened though:

"Improving upon one of the most celebrated lenses in the Canon EF line is no easy feat, but Canon has done just that. The all-new EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USMⁱ increases the speed, performance and optical quality of the EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM while maintaining all of the characteristics that have made it a

This Korean company is an up and coming force among the 3rd party lens producers. While mostly obscure, some of their lenses have received some favourable attention among photographers. Their entries into the 4/3 arena are interesting choices, as oposed to their hellish beehives of websites:

"Samyang company has informed that new lenses: Samyang 8mm f3.5 fish-eye and Samyang 85mm f1.4 with a mount for Olympus 4/3, have been released to

It may not be feature-complete, or even very stable, but damn, Bibblelabs got away with it just in time.This handy Press-Release was prepared for the occasion:
 
"Blazing Fast Photographic Workflow Including Complete Selective Editing, Photo Organization Tools, and RAWⁱ support for all the latest dSLR’s

By George Schaub:
 
"The days when ultra-wide-angle lenses for APS-C (what Nikon calls DX format) digital cameras were rare or not very good are over. We have seen new options from independent and camera maker manufacturers alike, each bringing the fun and creative options of these unique angles of view to ever more

Cheapskate AND Leica in the same sentence? oh well:
 
"The underlying idea behind the Summarits: Entice more shooters, especially non-pro photo enthusiasts, into the Leica-M fold. Fair enough. But is the imaging performance and mechanical finesse of this optical quartet really up to the Leica standard? To find out, I conducted a comprehensive field test by

A very good introduction to the wonderful world of RAWⁱ, including a peek at Lightroom 3.0 beta. Nice stuff:
 
"The big drawbacks of raw images are that the files are larger and that you can't share them easily until you've edited them with some kind of software. But here are some of the first advantages I found shooting raw.

Makes you wonder who would buy this video orientated camera without the excellent 14-140 lens, but there you go:
 
"Panasonic is pleased to announce that its award winning DMC-GH1 interchangeable lens camera will be available to purchase as body only – offering Micro Four Thirds Lensⁱ owners a cost effective solution to using the DMC-GH1.

The E-P1 is practically the same as the E-P2 minus the added electronic viewfinder addon thingie:
 
"The E-P1 is chockablock with many features it has graciously stolen from E-series SLRs, including in body Image Stabilizationⁱ, a kick-butt dust reduction system, multiple exposure capability, and Olympus’ now-famous Art Filters. Rather than discuss these capabilities any more than I have in the past, pick up a

Constant studio lights, as opposed to strobes, gives you a "what you see is what you get" view through the viewfinder. And please remember to be carefull when dealing with AC current:
 
"I recently got back into the hobby of photography. With six grandkids, the need for portrait works would soon be needed. I researched a set of studio lights and found them to be either extremely poorly made or very expensive. I figured I could easily build a set myself.

"To infinity and beyond!"  Nikon Press Release:
 
Nikon Corporation (Michio Kariya, President) is pleased to announce that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has placed an order for eleven D3S digital SLRⁱ cameras and seven AF-Sⁱ NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G EDⁱ lenses to be used for photographic documentation.

Upsizing images is a science in itself. Although many photographers rely on Photoshop's built-it tool, many use a third-party software for this task. New to version 3.0:

- A new interface design.
- Added new measurement units to specify the size of the output image. In addition to pixels and per cent, it is now possible to set the size in

This is his last review for this decade, Jeff Keller says, and what better way to celebrate that, than a review of a Canon camera that will go down in Dslr history:
"Overall, the EOS-7D's image quality was very good, though there are a few areas that could be improved upon. Both of those areas happen to fall in the exposure department. While most of the time the 7D produce photos with accurate exposure, it did overexpose at times. And, like a compact camera with too

The little brother of the K7 appears to be one of the best entry-point Dslr cameras ever, and this Dpreview.com review confirms it:
 
"Shooting a video on the K-x is very similar to the K-7 and a straightforward affair. Turn the mode dial to movie mode and press the shutter button to start recording; press again to stop. Once the camera is recording it is doing everything fully automatically and does not react to a press of any button other than

Well, is IS dated January 2010, but otherwise no clues about what the new year has brought upon us so far:
 
"There is no Live View (or video) in this camera but there is something Sony dubs “intelligent preview,” which to me is a viable alternative to Live View for those who use it for making sure the right exposure and white balance, etc., are set correctly. Here’s how it works: you frame the picture and then press the

This must be the 4345th reviewer of this digicam that renarks on the lack of 720p video in this cam, and we all know it's Sony's fault. Bad Sony!:
 
"Autofocus is pretty good though again not blazingly fast. It's a little quicker at the wide end of the range (under 0.5s) than it is at the telephoto end (under 1s). Again, OK by digicam standards, slow by DSLR standards. There is a very effective and pretty bright AF assist light (which is purple/blue rather then the

Nikon and Canon have engaged themselves in an iso war that has left the other players completely in the dust. Now Ryan Brenizer presents images taken with the D3s  at iso 12.800 that appear fully usable! Of course when you shoot in almost complete darkness the focusing part of the camera must also be up to the task, and the D3s appears to be:

Photo: Rick McGinnis, from his "The End of Kodachrome and the Death of Kodak Heights" piece.
 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Eastman Kodak Co has won a preliminary fight with Samsung Electronics, which the camera giant had accused of infringing its digital camera patents.

Sigh... Juha Kauppinen at the Suomen Luonto magazine writes:
 
"Behind the scenes of the world's largest nature photo competition looms a potential scandal. A member of the panel of judges, nature journalist Rosamund Kidman Cox, admits to Suomen Luonto (Nature of Finland) magazine that this year's overall winner photo is currently being investigated

MSNBC has collected what they think are some of the most memorable pictures of the past decade. And no such collection can be complete without Obama, two squirrels fighting for dominace, a bunch of monkeys, and a fish.
Link

Both panoramas are located in Europe: One is the worlds biggest panorama, depicting the city of Dresden, totalling 26 Gigapixels ( 297.500 x 87.500 pixels) It concists of 1.655 pictures and it took the pano-robot 172 minutes to finish! The other one, a spherical panorama was taken in Prague, and it  is 192,000 pixels wide and 96,000 pixels tall giving us a total of 18.4 Gigapixels.