Chase Jarvis Does the Nikon D7000

I have no idea who Chase Jarvis is, but this is a pretty cool video made with (and featuring) the recently announced Nikon D7000.

What's Hot at Photokina 2010!

Photokina, in case you're new to the world of photo trade shows, is the granddaddy of all photo trade shows and is held every other year in the lovely city of Cologne, Germany. It's a massive show that goes on for a week and even at the end of the week, after walking for (no joke) miles of aisles, you feel like you've only scratched the surface of the show. I didn't go to this year's show, but there's a lot of product news starting to come out and so I'll post some of the highlights here and add more in the days to come. By the way, I've been to the show in the past and have to say I had a blast.

One of Nikon's big announcements is the new Nikon D7000 DSLR. The camera represents a brand new DSLR camera generation and falls between the Nikon D5000 and the D90.  It is aimed at the serious amateur photographer and offers a full package of camera-settings for creative photography as well as videography.

The Olympus E5 is a 12.3 megapixel camera and the newest Olympus Four Thirds DSLR camera and is the successor to their very popular E3 camera and is designed for semi-pro and professional photographers (or, obviously, anyone else that can afford it). I have always loved Olympus cameras and I think that their grace and beauty gets lost sometimes in the Nikon/Canon wars. One of the coolest features of this camera is a 3" rotating LCD--and until you've used an articulated LCD, you can't imagine how useful they really become (allowing you to hold the camera over your head in a crowd, for example, and still see the LCD clearly).

And lest you should think that there has been any abatement in the ever-blossoming megapixel ascent, there hasn't. Sony has introduced the 16.2 megapixel Sony a580. One of the really interesting features here is Auto HDR! HDR (high-dynamic-range imaging) is the process of recording multiple exposures of a single subject in order to capture an image that handles the full dynamic range of the subject (in other words, a very contrasty subject) without losing either highlights or shadow detail. Normally this is a slow procedure where you set each exposure manually--but Sony has now automated it. Neat! The camera can also fire at a very speedy 7 frames-per-second. The Sony A580 is also able to record Full HD video in 1920x1080i resolution and AVCHD format.

OK, enough equipment talk for now.

Oh, by the way, when you're at the newsstand, pick up a copy of the October issue of Popular Photography, my "Traveling Photographer" column this month is about the monarch butterfly migration. Wow, did I even tell you I'm now writing a monthly column for Pop? I better blog that!

Nikon International Photo Contest Almost Here!

The very prestigious Nikon International Photo Contest is about to begin accepting entries--check out my Winning Picture blog for full details! The contest is open to amateurs and pros and there are lots of Nikon cameras as prizes!

Nikon Introducing P100 with 26X Zoom Lens

 

Normally I don't talk about new equipment much on this blog, but I love zoom cameras and Nikon is about to introduce one that sounds like great fun--the Nikon Coolpix P100. I've had a thing for Nikon Coolpix cameras since I illustrated most of my book The Joy of Digital Photography (Lark Photography Book) using a Coolpix 5700. (Amazing isn't it that I illustrated that book almost entirely with 5mp cameras!). One of the most interesting features of this new camera is its built-in zoom--a whopping 26x zoom that is the 35mm equivalent of 26 to 678mm! Wow, talk about a great sports and wildlife lens. Can't wait! I'm a bit surprised that it's only a 10.3 megapixel camera, I would have thought Nikon might go for a 12mp camera at this point--but megapixel counts are not that important, it's the size and quality of those pixels that really matters. Interestingly though, the camera will have a CMOS and not a CCD sensor. Another thing I really like is that it's going to have a 3" articulated LCD screen, which means you can lift the LCD away from the body for more flexible viewing angles.

A few other nice features:

• High-speed 10 fps enables high-speed continuous shooting for full 10MP images, ideal for sports and action
• Sports Continuous shooting with pre-shooting cache option enables high-speed shooting at approximately 120 fps for images up to 1.1MP
• Advanced Night Landscape mode combines a series of consecutive shots taken at a fast shutter speed into a single, clearer image when taking handheld shots at night
• Backlit Scene HDR (High Dynamic Range) merges different exposures of the same scene to create an image with a range of tonal detail that could not be captured in a single photo 
• New Full HD movie with stereo sound and HDMI output 

The camera is supposed to ship in March and has a suggested retail price of $399 (my guess is that it will sell for about $50 less than that). You can read more about the Coolpix P100 on the Nikon site.