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Camren Photographic Resources
March 2007

Click here for a listing of our used equipment.

For technical data and articles regarding lenses and cameras click here

click here to download our Rental Catalog as a pdf

Camren offers Senor Cleaning for APS-C sized and full frame sensors of Digital SLR's. Click here for more data

Nikon introduces D40x, a 10.2 megapixel version of the D40

Nikon Corp., Melville, N.Y., updated its D40 SLR with the 10.2-megapixel D40x, featuring faster continuous shooting capability and wider ISO sensitivity than the earlier version.

"The D40 and the new D40x eliminate common annoyances such as shutter lag and inaccurate viewfinders, while answering our customers' needs for superb image quality, fast handling, compactness and, most important of all, simplicity. Now with the D40x, anyone has the choice of higher resolution so they can do even more with their pictures,"

The D40x comes packaged with the new 3X 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor lens, and is compatible with all of Nikon's AF-S and AF-I Nikkor lenses. The D40x will be available throughout the United States beginning April 2007 for an estimated selling price of $729.95 for body only or $799.95, packaged with the 3X zoom 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor lens. Click here for the full press release

Besides the announcement of Canon's 1Ds Mk III and a showing of Hasselblad's H3D-31, the majority of news from PMA was about consumer cameras and what can you do to your images after capture. PMA has over 100 new products from over 20 different companies either announced at or demonstrated at the expo.

The winners of the DIMA 2007 Digital Printer Shootout were announced at PMA 07 in Las Vegas, Nev. Winning entries, displayed during PMA 07, were chosen from 114 prints entered by 30 companies. There were many different classes in this competition from large format digital inkjet to LED printing. Check the link above to see the different classes.

Just when you thought it was safe to stand up and say, without any hesitation or doubt, that film is dead and nothing will ever bring it back, the ghosts of Fuji, Ilford and Agfa return.

Fujifilm has made it official and stated that they will be making Fujifilm Velvia 50 again. In Feb. 2005, Fujifilm announce that they had ceased production of the original Velvia 50 (RVP) due to material and manufacturing concerns and attempted to satisfy their customers with a 100 ISO version. RVP had such a distinctive look that Fujifilm was unable to replicate it. Fujifilm says it has found new materials and manufacturing technologies, and can now restart production of the high color saturation, high contrast transparency film. The characteristics of new Velvia 50 will mirror that of the previous Velvia, with initial shipments scheduled for early summer 2007.

A little over a year ago, we reported here that AgfaPhoto GmbH went into receivership and their film business closed the doors as of 12/31/05. AGFA Photo here in the USA had a positive cash flow business if not a large share of the market. The various product brands are now being licensed to various companies by a holding firm known as AgfaPhoto Holding GmbH. Mini lab service and chemicals are now sold by A&O Imaging Solutions, and AgfaPhoto Vista Brand Film is sold by Lupus Imaging & Media. Lupus imaging announced at PMA that they are offering Agfa 35mm films in ISO 100, 200 and 400 speeds.

Books for Digital Photography - reviewed*

Everywhere you turn it seems there is a new book claiming that they have everything you need to be a better digital photographer by using their book. Here are a few books that back up their claims by explaining the "why", not just the "how" of digital photography. These books are just a sample of what is available.

Ben Willmore Adobe Photoshop Studio Techniques CS2 "If you're ready to go from blindly following step-by-step instructions to "Aha, I finally GET Photoshop!" this is the place to start. In these pages, world renowned Photoshop instructor and best-selling author Ben Willmore writes in his signature style intuitive, crystal clear, and in-depth helping you gain the deep understanding needed to master Photoshop's most essential features."¹

Photoshop Hall of Fame inductee Ben Willmore is author of Up to Speed: Photoshop CS2, and co-author of How to Wow: Photoshop for Photographers. Ben, former resident of Nederland, CO, now spends many of his days as a " digital nomad" in his 40' motorcoach giving seminars and conferences around the world.

Jay Dickman & Jay Kinghorn are the co-authors of Perfect Digital Photography - "The creation of a great photograph is a marriage of two important elements; the creation of the photograph in the camera and the refining and printing of the photograph in the digital darkroom. Both aspects of photography have renewed power and flexibility with new digital tools and techniques. Perfect Digital Photography combines both disciplines into a thorough, easy to understand book helping you improve your digital photography from camera selection, lens choice and composition to establishing your digital workflow, optimizing your images and creating stunning prints."²

Jay & Jay are both the local talent on this list. Jay Dickman is a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer and contributor to National Geographic magazine and is based in Denver and Jay Kinghorn is an Adobe Photoshop Certified Expert and Olympus Visionary. Jay draws on his background as an assignment and fine-art photographer to develop training programs that fulfill the essential needs of photographers, graphic designers and imaging professionals.

Scott Kelby - The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers "...This major update to the award-winning, record-breaking book does something for digital photographers that's never been done before-it cuts through the bull and shows you exactly "how to do it." It's not a bunch of theory; it doesn't challenge you to come up with your own settings or figure it out on your own. Instead, Scott shows you step-by-step the exact techniques used by today's cutting-edge digital photographers, and best of all, he shows you flat-out exactly which settings to use, when to use them, and why."

Scott is president and founder of NAPP (National Association Photoshop Professionals), Editor-in-Chief of Photoshop User magazine, Editor-in-Chief of Nikon Digital Pro magazine, the magazine for Nikon Professional Shooters and co-founded and was Editor-in-Chief of Mac Design Magazine.³

Peter Krogh - "In The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers, Peter Krogh brings clarity to the often overwhelming task of managing digital photographs, with a solid plan and practical advice for fellow photographers on how to file, find, protect and re-use photographs."

Peter Krogh is a commercial photographer in the Washington DC area. He is an Alpha Tester for Adobe, helping with the development of workflow and asset management tools for Photoshop and Adobe Bridge.⁴

* These choice of these books was a based on personal experience and were purchased for personal use.

Adobe Creative Suite 3.0 will be announced on March 27th, 2007. That sentence looks weird but Adobe has had a beta of Photoshop CS3 available for download on their site since December 2006 and will be announcing full details at an event in New York City on the 27th!

Over the next ninety days CompUSA will be closing 128 of it's stores nationwide. Roman Ross, CompUSA’s CEO states “Based on changing conditions in the consumer retail electronics markets, the company identified the need to close and sell stores with low performance or nonstrategic, old store layouts and locations faced with market saturation.” You can find more on this topic at David Pogue's blog on the New York Times website.

^{1 http://www.digitalmastery.com/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,83/}

^{2 http://www.perfectdigitalphotography.com/book.html}

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2285c53b6d0d46dde4144b5d56d2c211}

^{4 http://www.thedambook.com/pages/about.html}

^{5 http://press.nikonusa.com/2007/03/nikon_introduces_the_d40x_a_ne.php}