Fotoviva Art Prints

Nearly two years after the introduction of the D80, Nikon has announced its successor, the D90. This new DSLR camera inherits its older brother’s outer dimensions, power source, 11-point AF module and most of its external controls, but adds a newly developed 12 megapixel CMOS sensor, EXPEED image processor, and a bigger, much higher-resolution rear LCD screen. The D90 also features a slightly improved viewfinder coverage, 3D focus tracking, ultrasonic sensor cleaning, 50% faster burst shooting, a larger buffer, Active D-lighting, in-camera raw development, an expanded ISO sensitivity range, HDMI connectivity, geotagging and Live View with Face Priority AF. On top of all that, it’s the first DSLR ever produced to offer an HD movie mode.

The control layout of the D90 is also very similar to the D80, with only the dedicated Live View button and an info button to the bottom right of the screen being completely new. The OK button has moved to the centre of the four-way pad, and the focus selector lock has been changed from a slider to a switch, but that’s it really – the other changes are cosmetic only, affecting the shape of buttons well known from the D80, and the colour of their labels. The similarities extend to the power source and the recording medium as well. The D90 runs on the same proprietary EN-EL3e Lithium-ion battery as the D80, and records images on SD/SDHC cards.

So, what’s new then? Quite a lot, actually. For starters, the D80’s ten megapixel CCD has been superseded by a 12 megapixel CMOS chip capable of providing a Live View feed, recording video and capturing full-resolution stills at 4.5 frames per second, up from 3fps in the D80. Even more importantly, the sensor can now clean itself, by way of high-frequency vibrations that will, at least in theory, shake off any non-adhesive dust particles that may have settled on the low-pass filter during a lens change. You can specify, via an option in the Setup menu, whether you want sensor cleaning to take place at shutdown, startup, both or neither, with the default being ‘both’. The cleaning process had no practical impact on startup times, which were near instant. The new image sensor is complemented by a more powerful processing engine and a larger buffer as well.

While the above changes remain invisible until you put the camera to actual use, there is one development that will be very hard to overlook for anyone taking even a casual look at a D90: the rear screen. The D80 already had a nice, big 2.5” TFT LCD with a resolution of 230,000 dots, but it pales in comparison with the D90’s three-inch, 920,000-dot monitor. On the new camera, the screen is used not only to navigate menus and to review pictures, but can also act as a secondary status display, facilitating the transition for former D50/D40/D60 owners who are not yet used to having a top-mounted status LCD on their cameras. And of course it’s also the rear screen that provides live view for capturing both stills and movies.

One of the extras the D90 offers over the D80 is Live View off the main sensor. While other manufacturers have been implementing this feature across their entire DSLR line, Nikon has, until now, reserved it for their higher-priced models, including the D300, the D3 and the D700. With the D90, Live View has arrived to less well-heeled Nikon fans as well. And while on their other cameras, LV was one of the drive mode options, it now has its own dedicated button. Live View is either delivered on the high-resolution rear monitor or on any LCD panel or plasma screen connected to the camera via an HDMI cable. There is a red rectangle in the middle, which you can move practically anywhere in the frame. When in manual focus mode, you can magnify into this rectangle in five steps simply by repeatedly pressing the button marked with a loupe icon, but this magnification seems to be interpolated rather than real.

Live View is also what’s used for the feature that has arguably generated the most interest in the Nikon D90: its movie mode. The camera records high-definition, wide-screen video in 1280×720 pixel resolution, at a frame rate of 24fps, in AVI format using the motion JPEG codec. The maximum size of a single video clip is 2 gigabytes which, given that movies occupy about 100 megabytes of storage space per minute, would theoretically translate into about 20 minutes of continuous recording, but – apparently because of certain legal regulations in the EU –, Nikon decided to limit the clip length to 5 minutes for high-definition movies. By offering video capture in a DSLR, Nikon has made it possible for filmmakers to play with depth of field the way they never could, taking advantage of the relatively big sensor and the wide assortment of Nikkor lenses.

Nikon D90, with its self-cleaning sensor, excellent meter, sophisticated multi-point AF system, large viewfinder, 4.5fps continuous shooting speed, wireless flash options and great degree of cusomisability is hard to beat, especially at its price point of around £679 for body only.

Read the full review over at PhotographyBlog.com

Whether you are a professional photographer who wants to offer your clients a new print solution or you just have some great photos that you want to hang on your walls, our new Photos on Canvas service is going to be very handy indeed.

This new feature to the Fotoviva site is so simple - just a few clicks is all it takes to have your own image printed onto canvas. You can upload the digital file, choose your preferred size, finish and details, then we will do the rest.

Everyone has holiday snaps, lovable pet photos or family pictures - so why not show them off in style by letting us print your photos to canvas so you can hang them on your walls in all their glory! And with Christmas coming up they make unique presents for friends and family.

Yes you can save a few pounds getting them printed onto canvas elsewhere, but why risk having sub-standard frames and print quality? We use professional materials, our wooden frames are from sustainable forests, all our canvases are made in the UK and they are still great value for money.

As with the main art collection, we can also print your digital photos on non-standard sizes or as triptych canvases so if you would prefer this please contact us and we will provide you with our best quote.

The new Nikon D700 is the second full-frame, FX-series DSLR camera from Nikon. Using the same 36×24mm, full frame, 12.1 megapixel CMOS sensor as the more expensive D3 model, the D700 also offers exactly the same incredible ISO range of 100 - 25,600.

The high-speed, 12-channel readout enables the D700 to achieve a fast continuous shooting speed of 5fps, or 8 fps with the Multi-Power Battery Pack MB-D10 fitted. The Nikon D700 has a more compact design than the D3, and also features the same integrated dust reduction system as the D300 model. The Nikon D700 will cost £1999.99 and be available from July 2008.

”The Nikon D3 has taken the action photography industry by storm, motivating many pros to change their brand of choice, and we expect the D700 to continue that trend,” said Robert Cristina, Manager Professional Products and NPS at Nikon Europe. He added: “The D700 excels in the extreme low-light and high-contrast conditions under which today’s cameras are judged and affirms Nikon’s ongoing commitment to meeting tomorrow’s imaging needs.”

The D700 inherits the superior image quality of the D3 and uses the same core technologies such as the highly-sensitive 12.1 effective megapixel CMOS image sensor. The D700 also features the same innovative EXPEED high-speed image-processing system, 14-bit A/D conversion and 16-bit processing pipeline to provide the detail and smooth gradation necessary for outstanding print enlargement and reproduction. The D700 is ideal for those seeking a perfectly-balanced DSLR on the move, without compromising durability or environmental resistance to moisture and dust.

The D700 incorporates an image sensor cleaning system that uses high frequency vibrations to reduce the accumulation of dust on the image sensor surface. A responsive 5fps is possible with the compact 1500mAh EN-EL3e lithium-ion battery, with up to 8 fps possible by attaching the optional MB-D10 battery pack using the powerful 2500mAh EN-EL4a battery if desired. The practical i-TTL built-in pop up flash with 24mm lens coverage is ideal for discrete flash lighting when a full size Speedlight might be too cumbersome. Despite its attractive price tag, the D700 boasts a comprehensive range of features that include a highly responsive shutter release time lag of just 40ms, the acclaimed accuracy of the 51-point MultiCAM3500 AF system, DX Crop Mode and Live View with contrast-detect AF displayed on the same high-definition 3-inch TFT monitor used on the D3 and D300.

One of the most significant advantages of FX format cameras is the viewfinder experience which offers outstanding solid glass pentaprism, 95% coverage and adjustable AF point LED illumination for a bright, uninterrupted view. The D700 also has the ability to display the Virtual Horizon level indicator during Live View mode.

System Improvements to the 1,005-pixel RGB sensor have allowed information from the sensor to be utilised for auto exposure, auto white balance and autofocus. 3D-Tracking in AF, for example, achieved by using the Scene Recognition System, tracks subject colour position and automatically shifts the AF points used to match the subject’s movement within the frame. This system also contributes to higher accuracy of auto exposure and auto white balance.

The ultrahigh-definition [920,000-dot VGA (640 x 480)], 3-inch LCD monitor with tempered glass provides a 170° viewing angle. The large monitor is remarkably effective when confirming the focus with enlarged playback images. The wide viewing angle enables easy recomposing of the frame in Handheld mode with Live View. Image Sensor Cleaning Vibrations at four different resonant frequencies steer dust away from the optical low-pass filter in front of the image sensor. This function is automatically activated each time the camera is turned on and off, and can also be activated via the menu.

Ok so that’s some of the technical jargon for you pros out there, but when was the last time Nikon released a bad camera eh? If you have the money and some compatible lenses then you can’t go wrong with this beast of a DSLR.

A bit late for this but I have only just got some file copies from those nice people at Nikon. My ‘Rising Swan’ photograph was entered into a Nikon competition last year and although it didn’t win, they have featured it on the February month of the official Nikon Calendar for 2008 Must admit I’m quite gobsmacked by this but very happy, and to make it even sweeter they paid me to feature it! The print is proving very popular on the Fotoviva site and has had some great reviews by fellow photographers. You can find it in the Wildlife Art Prints section where it can be bought on gallery wrapped canvas or as a poster art print.

A Francis Bacon triptych painting has sold for more than £26m, just £160,000 short of breaking the artist’s auction record. Entitled ‘Triptych 1974-77′ and painted in response to the suicide of Bacon’s lover George Dyer, it made a whopping £26,340,500 at Christie’s Auction House in London.

It set a European record for a post-war British or Irish artist, but failed to beat the £26.4m paid for Bacon’s Study from Innocent X in New York last year. Francis was a Dublin-born figurative painter who died in 1992.

Triptych 1974-77 was the last of Bacon’s paintings created in response to his gay lover’s death and shows sequential images of dark, ominous umbrellas and his lover struggling on a near-deserted beach.

The amount of money some art goes for is criminal really - I mean imagine what good you could do in the world and help charities, rather than having a £26m picture hanging on your wall! Kinda selfish if you ask me. Now if you are in the market for some exquisite triptych art we have a much better range - at more manageble prices at the Fotoviva Art Store, as most of our images can be purchased in 3 section triptych canvases. We also offer bespoke sizes to suit your lounge walls. See the Triptych Canvas page for more information.

A 16 billion pixel image of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper has been posted on the internet, giving art lovers a detailed view of the 15th Century work. The image is 1,600 times more detailed than those taken with a typical 10 million pixel digital camera. Experts will be able to see segments as though just centimetres away and examine otherwise unavailable details.

The posting comes amid claims a new system aimed at protecting the piece from Milan’s pollution is not working. The original work is displayed in the Italian city’s Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Art curator Alberto Artioli told Associated Press news agency the new resolution avoided the graininess when zooming in to regular photographs.

You can see this work of art in all its 16bn pixel glory at www.haltadefinizione.com

“You can see how Leonardo made the cups transparent, something you can’t ordinarily see,” he said. “You can also note the state of degradation the painting is in.” That degradation has been the subject of controversy this week. An Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, reported that a sophisticated monitoring and filtration system introduced during a restoration of the chapel in the late 1990s was not preventing particles or substances that could damage the work being brought in by visitors.

The Last Supper was painted by Leonardo da Vinci at the end of the 15th Century and, because of the experimental techniques he used, parts of the masterpiece subsequently peeled off and were badly damaged. The BBC’s Frances Kennedy says the paper reported that equipment monitoring air quality inside the refectory showed that levels of fine particle pollution had tripled in the past two years. It quoted experts suggesting these particles could settle on the work, eventually creating a dark misty layer.

More than 350,000 people visit the painting each year, and together with pollution levels rising year by year, this monster of an image may well be recorded now forever thanks to digital imaging.

On the Apple site there is a great feature on Richard Walch, snowboarder and professional photographer. In the article he talks about his new found love, Aperture on the Mac. For those that don’t know, Aperture is similar to Adobe Lightroom and is one of the prefered choices for professional photographers who handle, process and organise large collections of RAW shots.

Apple’s Aperture software running on a 15-inch MacBook Pro is the foundation of the mobile digital darkroom that he carries in his backback — rain, shine or snowstorm — when he goes on a shoot. Aperture’s RAW-focused workflow is particularly important to Walch, who shoots RAW at up to eight frames per second in a bid to capture his fast-moving subjects. He explains: “When I get down the mountain after a full day’s shooting, I normally have around 10 gigabytes of data. Aperture handles it so quickly and so easily”.

Because of these remote locations, and because Walch is himself a rider as well as a photographer, it’s important to travel light. Walch can fit everything he needs — cameras, lenses, laptop, supplies — into his backpack, so that he can begin importing shots into his MacBook Pro while he’s still on the mountain. He explains the advantage: “We normally break for food at some point, and I take that opportunity to import and organise my shots in Aperture. This is great for me, because I can isolate any shots I’ve missed during the morning session, and get them in the afternoon”.

By the end of the day, Walch is frequently exhausted, which is where Aperture’s backup facilities come into their own. Walch says: “During a shoot, I usually hike for many miles, often just to get a single shot, so the last thing I want to do when I get home is spend an extra two hours backing up my work.

“Aperture is smart enough to know which photos haven’t been backed up to my external drive. With one click I can start the process and Aperture does the rest. For me, it’s one less thing to worry about”. Apple have a short movie with Richard’s voiceover here.

Some photographers prefer Aperture, some Lightroom - it depends on your own workflow preference. They both have trial versions so why not download them and see which fits your own style best - it might be that missing part of your photography kit. If you have a preference let us know why…

Are you off on your travels over the summer, or have you been and come back with a collection of pictures you feel the world should see? Well Travel Photographer of the Year has announced that the overall winner of TPOTY 2007 will have the unique opportunity to spend up to two days photographing His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, the Tibetan settlement in Northern India.

This opportunity to photograph the daily life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama is part of an unforgettable visit to India, much of which will be spent in and around Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan Government in exile, allowing the winner time to capture a superb photo essay. But it doesn’t stop there! In addition, the Travel Photographer of the Year 2007 will receive an Apple MacBook with Aperture 1.5 software, Adobe CS3 Web Premium software, a £2,500 TPOTY bursary, and a Plastic Sandwich leather portfolio book. Hows that for a top prize?!

TPOTY organiser, Chris Coe, said, “We are honoured to be able to offer such a magnificent prize for the overall winner of this year’s competition. The High & Wild trip to Dharamsala offers everything a serious travel photographer could wish for; incredible mountain and forest scenery, historical architecture, fascinating Tibetan, Buddhist and Indian cultures, the Tibetan Children’s Village, amazing people photography and, of course, a priceless opportunity – the chance to document a day in the life of the Dalai Lama.”

“This trip, together with the other elements of the prize, provide a once in a lifetime experience and one that travel photographers across the world would want to win. We very much look forward to seeing the entries submitted for this year’s competition. In order to give people as much time as possible, we are extending our closing date to October 3rd.”

TPOTY 2007 also offers splendid prizes for the winners of the three Portfolio categories and the One Shot category, including trips to Tanzania, the Swiss and French Alps and China, the latest professional-level photographic equipment and software, TPOTY cash bursaries and an exhibition at a central London gallery. In addition, TPOTY 2007 has a New Talent category, designed to kick-start or to give a major boost to a new career in photography, and a Young Travel Photographer of the Year category, for those aged 16 and under.

Entries for TPOTY 2007 are now open and close on October 3rd. The competition is open to amateur and professional photographers, and full information and entry forms can be obtained from the website.

We recently came across a website that offers an online course for bringing out the better photographer in you at Proud Photography. The 13 segment interactive course has been developed by prize-winning professionals who will give you personal feedback as they help you develop at your own pace.

Once enrolled you can expect comprehensive and thorough lessons loaded with information designed carefully to teach you how to take over your camera. Online quizzes will refresh your memory from every lesson and homework assignments will give you the confidence you need to put your skills to the test. You will also receive a personal 500MB online gallery that will give you more than enough storage to organize, share, send e-cards and even order your selected prints online.

And if that isn’t enought to get you excited, they are so confident about the quality of the course that they offer a full one year money back guarantee. What’s more right now they have 35% off the enrollment fee so there really is no better time to sign up.

Peter Timko, the CEO of Proud Photography, sums it up perfectly when he says “Unlike other online photography courses, we don’t just gloss over the basics, take your money and run. We cover everything, from the most important basic techniques to how to take the best photos in very specific situations.”

Researchers in Germany have developed the first liquid camera lens. The lens has no moving parts and is capable of switching between two levels of magnification and is considered an important step on the development of liquid zoom lenses. It works by bending light using the curved boundary between watery and oily liquids, and focuses by the application of a voltage.

Although this sounds like something out of Star Trek, it is potentially smaller and cheaper to build than conventional optics and could have a major impact on camera technology in the near future. Samsung have already begun using liquid lenses by building them into some cellphones.

“The creation of a liquid zoom lens would remove the need for mechanical parts, which would be a major advantage,” says Peter Schreiber, a researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute. Changing a zoom lens’s magnification also affects its focus, and causes problems such as pincushion distortion and chromatic aberration. In order to preserve image quality across a range of magnification, zooms require 20 or more lenses. So far nobody has come up with a liquid lens design that can do that. A first step, however, is to design a lens that offers different levels of magnification rather than a continuous range.

Schreiber and colleagues worked with Varioptic, French pioneers of liquid lenses, to come up with a design that switches from a normal view to 2.5-times magnification. The design consists of four liquid lenses and three fixed plastic lenses and offers a magnification of 2.5 times, while when all four lenses are at their flattest there is no magnification.
“The complete length of the system from outer lens to image sensor is 29mm, but it should be possible to reduce that,” says Schreiber. Varioptic is now considering how to take the design on to the prototype stage.
“The lenses are arranged to prevent image distortion while minimising colour distortion. Red, green and blue images must be recorded in sequence and then combined digitally, a process that would increase exposure times,” says Schreiber, “finding less distorting liquids to build the lenses out of is the answer to that problem.”

So although it potentially sounds like great news, this is probably another new technology which won’t find its way into  DSLR cameras for a few years yet. For smaller lenses such as camera phones it could find a market, but we’ll have to see how this one pans out.