July 2011 news and reviews
Just Posted: Our group test of the Canon Pixma MG8150, Epson Stylus Photo PX720WD and HP Photosmart Premium C310 multifunctional printers. Although we may not be able to publish printer reviews with the same frequency as camera reviews, we will be expanding our printer coverage significantly over the coming months. This group test, which kicks off our newly expanded printing content, was produced in collaboration with Vincent Oliver of Photo-i.
A US court has delivered a pre-trial ruling that photographer David LaChapelle's copyright claims against singer Rihanna can go to court. LaChapelle brought the case over apparent similarities between his photographs and aspects of the music video for Rihanna's single 'S&M.' The ruling from a district court in New York, gives an interesting insight into which elements of an original photograph are protected under US copyright law. Due to the nature of the content, our more squeamish readers (and those with limited interest in pop culture) may wish to look away now. (via PDN)
Just Posted: our group test of travel zoom compact cameras. The travel zoom/compact super zoom category is one of the great success stories of recent years, with all the major manufacturers offering at least one small camera with at least a 10x zoom. And that success is understandable - few other camera types offer such a balance between size, price and flexibility. We've looked at fourteen of the latest models and narrowed these down to a shortlist of six for the full review treatment. Our 18-page grouptest shows how these six perform in a variety of situations, but all fourteen have both real-world samples and studio comparisons. Click here to find out what we thought and which cameras prevailed.
Just Posted: Olympus E-P3 studio Raw files and Raw conversions. We've been given access to an early beta of Adobe Camera Raw 6.5 which will include Raw support for the recently-announced Olympus PEN E-P3. We've used it to process our standard studio samples, allowing direct comparisons between the PEN and its peers. We've also included the original Raw files for download so that you can put them through your own image workflow as Raw processors become available that offer support.
Pentax has announced a special edition of its 645D 40MP medium format camera to celebrate being named 'Camera of the Year' at the Camera Grand Prix Japan 2011. The built-to-order special comes with a red lacquer finish and special camera strap, arranged in a paulownia-wood box. The company has not announced how many it will produce. Pentax previously made a special edition of its K10D DSLR when it received the equivalent award in 2007.
Just Posted: our revised Fujifilm X100 review. Amongst the changes listed in Fujifilm's 1.10 firmware update for the FinePix X100 were several that addressed issues raised in our original in-depth review. To reflect this, we have gone back into the studio and re-tested the X100 to see just how much difference the changes make. Does the update allow the X100 to achieve its obvious potential as a high-quality luxury compact camera, or is it still too quirky to earn our outright recommendation? Read our extensively updated review to find out.