Just posted! Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 Review

Tue, 4 Nov

Just posted! The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 is that most unusual thing, a compact digital camera that has really caught the imagination of photographers. Moving away from the quirky 16:9 sensor of its predecessors, (the LX1 and LX2), this latest offering matches a bright 24-60mm equivalent zoom to a conventionally-proportioned 11 megapixel sensor. Just to keep things interesting, the sensor is then cropped in three different ways to provide a consistent diagonal angle-of-view in three different aspect ratios. So what did we make of the LX3, competitor or curio?
(more)

From www.dpreview.com
Mirrorless Large Sensor Compacts - Perhaps the most exciting thing to happen to the digital camera market in quite some years. We have already seen the Micro Four Thirds announcement and so fully expect to see products from Panasonic and Olympus. Samsung have also stuck their oar in the water and stated that they too are working on a compact system which uses an APS-C size sensor.

Full frame sensors - Full frame sensors - This part of the picture is pretty much complete, however at this Photokina there will be more digital SLRs with full frame (36 x 24 mm) sensors than any previous show, and they will cost much less than they have at any time in the past. It’s not inconceivable to think that the future of semi-professional and professional photography will be viewed through a big viewfinder.

DSLR Lenses - Camera resolutions keep getting higher and you can’t help feeling that some of the key lenses in certain manufacturer’s systems - some of which date back to the days of film - are starting to lag behind and are in urgent need of a refresh. We expect to see more wide range (18-200mm type) lenses for crop cameras and we hope to see the major system manufacturers putting as much effort into lens development as they currently put into camera development.

Compact camera complacency - It pretty much goes without saying that we will see a cohort of slightly re-engineered compact cameras with higher pixel counts, larger screens and multiple-color options but little else to excite the market. It really is time for the manufacturers to sit up and realize that this can’t go on for very much longer, the compact market is crying out for some real innovation, and bravery (fewer megapixels, better / bigger sensors, better lenses) in the face of what they (or rather the big buyers) think they we want.

by GoldenHammer

I have been Nikon and Canon DSLR cameras users for the past 7 years from the my first DSLR body Nikon D1x to Canon 5D/ 40D/ 400D. I can’t and I won’t own all digital cameras, but, as most of you, I refresh my brain for the most wanted digital camera, prepare and get ready for that …

I rarely pop-up and do things like pre-order a newly released camera, I would make my own assessment before acquire the next camera - something versatile, reliable that produces great image - good resolution, colors, dynamic range, excellent ISO performance, features and controls like AF capabilities, metering, white-balance to ensure productivity. I also spent some time wondering the higher pixels inspiration, Nikon D700 and Canon 5D Mark II are in my final list.

I would want 21 MP 5D Mark II for additional image crop capability and possible larger prints, the video feature also looks interesting and fun, it is definitely a creative implementation for someone find it useful. Concerning higher ISO performance, I would expect both D700 and 5D Mark II will be pretty close to each other. As a trade-off, I prefer the 12 MP D700 with no video, but better AF, metering, white-balance and control features.

More thought on the video feature on DSLR - I am not surprised to see Nikon would have something similar, but that would a better approach to integrate the video feature on smaller/ consumer grade bodies like the Nikon D90 and keep the high-end DSLRs with the excellent professional configuration.

Yes, I need a versatile work horse this time and that is the Nikon D700 FX.

I got the Nikon D700 on October 6, 2008, my second Nikon DSLR body since the Nikon D1x. That is a package at reasonable price (comes with a handy Nikon brand camera bag, good for D700 plus a long lens or few tiny primes). I skipped the 24-120 kit lens and intended to use the new 50mm f/1.4 G for the D700 in additional to my existing Nikkor prime collections.

First Touch

What a robust electronic machine! The D700 comes excellent LCD display and viewfinder. It got a much taller body than others in the same class, the handing touch and feel is fine (however, I prefer the handing experience from my D1x - soft and gentle, though it built like a tank).

I don’t like some shortcuts design which makes the D700 look less secured - no lock for memory card slot cover. And the rubber covers for terminals at the right side, that is simply not in a fashionable design (the classic covers on my D1x may easy to miss, but that makes the Nikon appears more smart and professional). The green dots on the QUAL and beside the “+/-” buttons look a bit odd in my eyes … the AF assist light helps when focus in low light, it could be annoying however set to on as default, I turned it off and would make it on again when I need that.

I found the D700 image quality and size is not set default to the highest quality possible. For my style, I quickly changed the D700 setup to shoot RAW+JPEG fine, Large size, FX format, Optimal quality for JPEG compression, Lossless compressed NEF in 14-bit depth and turned on Active D-lighting. With these configuration, D700 reports 429 available shots after loaded with a 16GB CF memory card. If you care about that, make sure you check all these before go for any serious work.

I attached my beloved Nikkor 28/1.4D and 45/2.8P on D700 and managed to make some test drive shots. With some initial tests, the D700 produces very nice result at iso3200, the iso6400 image is still usable after some further noise reduction processing. At iso12800 and iso25600, details and colors are washed out substantially and may only for emergency cases, for my eyes, D700 is about one stop better in higher ISO performance over my Canon 5D.

More update and assessment to come.

This is a very first JPEG sample direct output from D700, 28mm f/5.6 1/50s at iso3200.

by ctesti

I’d like to thank GoldenHammer and all the wonderful community on Photos-of-the-Year.com. My picture “Beam of light in Antelope Canyon”, which won the second prize 2 years ago, just got sold to a german magazine. They contacted me after seeing my picture on this website!!! That was such a great surprise, see Make Money! Get Photo Sales at Photos-of-the-Year.com.

I started to work with Stock agencies in January 2006. The year went pretty well and this is a review of 9 stock place where you can sell your work.

The revenue per picture greatly depend on your portfolio content; mine was travel oriented and then I started to focus on stock images such as every day objects isolated on white background.

Also I’d like to emphasize that I believe Microstock and Regular Stock are two different markets with different customers. I would never sell my “better” (or I should say my “rarest”) pictures with micro for just a quarter.

I sell newly taken “microstock oriented” (i.e everyday object on white background) or travel shots that did not meet Alamy technical requirements (due to lower resolution).

If you check my portfolio with Alamy and with any Micro Stock you’ll see what I mean. I obviously prefer to sell a unique picture for a decent amount of money, but I also enjoy getting paid for my “not as rare” pictures.

More than 80% of my revenues came from 4 agencies:

Shutterstock - $5.30/picture/year - 22.7%
iStockPhoto - $5.20/picture/year - 22.3%
StockXpert - $4.95/picture/year - 21.4%
Alamy - $3.70/picture/year - 16%

I made actually a lot more money with Shutterstock alone because I have twice the number of pictures that I have on other sites (in part because they are the only micro accepting Editorial).

The remaining 20% came from another 5 agencies:

Fotolia - $1.43/picture/year - 6.1%
Dreamstime - $1.42/picture/year - 6.1%
123rf - $0.69/picture/year - 3%
BigStockPhoto - $0.40/picture/year - 1.7%
LuckyOliver - $0.18/picture/year - 0.7%

The great thing about the RF model and Microstock is that you can keyword and edit your image once, and then upload it with batch ftp on all servers. Then for most of them you just need to add categories et voila! So submitting the same image to 8 different places does not really take much longer than just one.

In case you’d like to sign up to give it a try I’d appreciate if you’d use one of my referal link: you would still get paid the same but I would get a small commission on each sale… which means more money for us photographers and less for the Microstock companies!

Check my blog on the details review on stock photography agents.
http://ctesti.blogspot.com

News from Amazon.comRight now, get a free memory card–up to a whopping 2 GB of photo storage–with the purchase of one of more than 25 top cameras from Canon, Nikon, Olympus, and others. Need even more memory? Apply the value of the free card to a higher-capacity card. See details here, and don’t forget about these other great Camera & Photo offers from Amazon.com

We’ll send you a free memory card (valued at $12.49), or you can apply the value of a free card to a higher-capacity memory card, when you purchase select digital cameras in our Camera & Photo Store. Just add the camera and the memory card to your Shopping Cart and use the promotional code PC32U495 for Kingston SD cards or LOK5QYCA for Olympus xD cards at checkout. (Codes are also listed on individual product pages.)

If the cost of the memory card falls below $12.49, we’ll deduct the cost of the memory card, and also credit the difference to your total purchase. Opt for a qualifying higher-capacity card, and we’ll credit your total purchase $12.49. These offers apply only to purchases of products sold by Amazon.com between February 13 and March 17, 2008, and do not apply to products sold by third-party merchants and other sellers through the Amazon.com site.