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Nikon have confirmed the existence of a banding issue in some D200 digital SLRs, which have been the subject of much discussion in Nikon forums for the last few weeks.

According to their knowledge-base article, the banding “can become visible only in specific shooting conditions that include particular combinations of high contrast scene content, lighting, camera settings, substantial enlargement and the shooting environment.” Nikon claims that the problem is limited to early-production D200 cameras.

Basically, if you think your D200 has a problem you can send a sample image to Nikon, who will advise you on what to do next (usually the camera needs to be sent in for adjustment).

Ken Rockwell has written a page about the Nikon D200 Striping, Vertical Stripe, Banding and Corduroy Effect (all different terms for the same thing), with notes on how to reproduce it, how to avoid it, and why not to worry about it. Ken claims that the problems only really occur with badly-exposed images that should be deleted anyway, but that doesn’t account for photographers deliberately over-exposing an image in a bracketed series of exposure for later reconstruction in a high dynamic range image.

Digital Artform has a pretty comprehensive page about D200 banding, with links to many forum discussions and other resources.

Filed under: Nikon
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Olympus has made a lot of new product announcements this week, including their new Olympus Evolt E-330 digital SLR.

The E-330 is a ’4/3 System’ 7.5 megapixel DSLR, basically refining the previous model E-300′s feature set with improvements seen in the later E-500. The most striking new feature, though, is its ability to do full-time live preview on the rear LCD, something not available on any other digital SLR. There are two live-preview modes: A-Mode (full-time live view) allows for full use of the optical viewfinder as well as the rear LCD; B-Mode (macro live view) locks the mirror up preventing use of the optical viewfinder, is manual-focus only, but gives very accurate depth of field and framing with a 10x magnification option.

Obviously A-Mode will be useful for general photography and for handing the camera to bystanders to take a shot, while B-Mode is designed for more technical tripod-based photography such as macro and still life work.

DPReview has posted an Evolt E-330 Preview examining the features of this interesting new camera, including a very good look at how live view works.

Edit: fixed the link to DPReview. Thanks to those who emailed to let me know it was wrong!

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If you own a Fuji S3 Pro digital SLR and live in the United States, good news! For USD$379.95 + tax (return shipping is included), you can double the S3′s internal buffer from 128MB to 256MB. This will boost your continuous frame shooting ability – for example, instead of 3 RAW frames in a burst, you’ll now get 8 before the buffer is full.

This is the same upgrade that was initially launched in Japan in September 2005.

It’s unclear whether overseas S3 owners can send their cameras to Fujifilm USA for upgrade.

Full details are available at the Fuji FinePix S3 Pro web site.

Filed under: Fujifilm
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The Luminous Landscape has just posted an insightful article by Charles Cramer, a highly-regarded American large-format landscape photographer with 30 years of experience: Phase One P45 Digital Back vs 4×5″ Drum Scanned Film.

Charles reports on the results of a three-way shootout between Jim Taskett with a Phase One P45 digital back (39 megapixel) on a Hasselblad body, Bill Atkinson with a Phase One P25 digital back (22 megapixel) on a Hasselblad H1 body, and himself with a Linhof camera loaded with Fuji Velvia 4×5″ film.

Filed under: Hasselblad,Phase One
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Samsung has announced the release of their first digital SLR camera, the GX-1S. It’s a fairly compact 6 megapixel camera with a Pentax AF lens mount – reportedly little more than a rebadged Pentax *ist DS2.

You can read the press release, study the specifications, and see photos of the GX-1S at DPReview.

Filed under: Pentax,Samsung
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Sigma has announced a new 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 zoom lens designed for APS-C reduced-size sensor digital SLRs.

Features include:

• Minimum focusing distance of 20cm,with an impressive maximum magnification of 1:2.3. at all focal lengths.
• New design and multi layer lens coating reduce flare and ghosting.
• Aspherical and SLD lenses offer excellent correction for various aberrations.
• Large aperture of F2.8 at the wide angle setting.

You can read all about it at the Sigma web site.

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Carl Zeiss has announced they will be releasing a new line of ZF lenses in the Nikon F mount.

The first lenses to be made available will be the Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 and the Planar T* 85mm f/1.4, with more to follow throughout 2006. These are manual focus lenses.

They will also be making a ZS range of lenses, with the same optics as the ZF lineup, but using a 42mm screw mount. There are already M-42 adapters for a variety of lens mounts, so they will be able to be used on Canon EOS and FD cameras as well as many others.

More information is available at the Zeiss web site.

Filed under: Canon,Equipment,Nikon
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Konica Minolta has announced that it is withdrawing from the camera and photo business. They will be transferring photographic assets to Sony, who are planning to continue supporting Maxxum/Dynax lenses on new cameras.

You can read both Konica Minolta’s and Sony’s press releases at DPReview.

Filed under: Business,Konica Minolta,Sony
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It looks like the rumor mills are running hot again, this time speculating about Canon’s next DSLR. Camera-News.com has posted an alleged photo of the new EOS 30D, which is thought by some to be designed to compete head-to-head with the Nikon D200.

The same site has previously posted speculation about the Canon EOS 30D, as well as the cheaper consumer-level Canon EOS 3000D.

Other sources of speculation include:

• Digital Photography Blog
• DPReview Forums
• DCHome

Filed under: Canon
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Nikon has announced that they’re now going to “focus management resources on digital cameras in place of film cameras”.

While there will surely be film buffs lamenting this decision, I think it makes good business sense for Nikon. That press release states that 95% of Nikon UK’s business comes from the digital area.

As a result of the new strategy Nikon will discontinue production of all lenses for large format cameras and enlarging lenses with sales of these products ceasing as soon as they run out of stock. This also applies to most of our film camera bodies, interchangeable manual focus lenses and related accessories. Although Nikon anticipates that the products will still be in retail distribution up to Summer 2006.

In recognition of Nikon’s commitment to professional photographers we will continue to manufacturer and sell the F6, our flagship film model, as well as a number of manual interchangeable lenses. Sales of the manual FM10 will also continue outside Europe.

The manual lenses Nikon will still continue manufacturing include:

• Nikkor 20mm f/2.8
• Nikkor 24mm f/2.8
• Nikkor 28mm f/2.8
• Nikkor 35mm f/1.4
• Nikkor 50mm f/1.2
• Nikkor 50mm f/1.4
• Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/2.8
• Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8
• PC Micro-Nikkor 85mm f/2.8D

What are your thoughts? Is this a good move on Nikon’s part? Which discontinued Nikon products will you miss the most?

Filed under: Business,Nikon
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