Photography News - The latest digital photography hardware and software news, reviews, articles, tips, techniques and more!

TextureWarehouse is back! After several months under reconstruction, Texturewarehouse.com is back online. Featuring hundreds of free, high-resolution texture images distributed under a creative commons license, the folks at TextureWarehouse have worked hard to get the textures you need for your design needs. Whether you’re designing websites, 3D models, or graphics featuring highly textured elements, you can find what you need at TextureWarehouse. Have something they don’t? Feel free to submit your texture images for the greater use of other designers.

“There’s very little to criticise in the overall specification and performance of the E-420. I like it’s size - it’s ideal for travelling and is reminiscent of my old OM4 in some aspects of its handling. Images are generally good too, with excellent sharpness and detail. Colour is crisp and while exposures are slightly underexposed to my taste, they do maintain good tonality throughout the range. The Four-Thirds system is somewhat contentious amongst the more vocal geeks on the forums, but it has many benefits and is definitely worthy of consideration to anyone coming to a DSLR for the first time. The Olympus E-420 is a pleasure to use and it’s simplicity combined with the more advanced features allows the newbie to learn and grow as well as just enjoying taking good images.”

“The J50’s biggest let-down is its image quality, which I can only describe as terrible. It’s a pity, because the lens actually performs very well, with virtually no distortion at either end of the zoom range, and good edge-to-edge sharpness, but it is let down by the lousy sensor. Even at the lowest ISO setting there are problems with image noise, and despite only having a maximum setting of 800 ISO, images at this setting are unusable. The combination of image noise and massive over-compression robs the images of any fine detail. File sizes at the highest quality setting average under 2MB, which is very small for an 8MP camera. Adding to these problems is very poor dynamic range, with shadow and highlight detail lost from high contrast shots. About the only good thing I can say about it is that colour rendition is fairly accurate, at least in good light and low ISO.”

“It’s fair to say this camera is designed for the user moving up from compacts and wants more creative control but doesn’t want too much fuss. The manual controls will allow just that and the large zoom in the compact body ensures you have more diversity at your fingertips without lugging a load of gear around. It’s still a bit basic compared to what some other cameras offer but the user friendliness of the camera is something that Fuji have excelled at for years and the S8100fd doesn’t disappoint.”

Nikon, Inc. has introduced the new D700 digital SLR camera featuring a 12.1-effective megapixel Nikon FX-format sensor that measures 23.9 x 36mm, which is nearly identical to the size of 35mm film. Benefiting from Nikon’s legacy of imaging technology innovation, the D700 offers both advanced and professional photographers stunning image quality, accurate color reproduction and revolutionary low light performance.

Building on the immense success of the Nikon D3 professional D-SLR camera, the D700 offers pro-level performance and an extensive array of features and innovations in a comfortably nimble platform. In addition to the Nikon-original FX-format CMOS sensor, the D700 incorporates Nikon’s EXPEED Image Processing System, Nikon’s renowned 51-point auto focus system with 3D Focus Tracking and two Live View shooting modes that allow photographers to frame a shot using the camera’s three-inch high-resolution LCD monitor. The D700 also features Nikon’s sophisticated Scene Recognition System and a new active dust reduction system.