DPReview has posted the review of Nikon’s flagship full frame (FX) digital SLR camera D3. No surprises there: it compares very favorably to the Canon’s higher resolution competitor even though it is not really a fair comparison due to different targeted applications.

Nikon posted but later pulled the firmware Ver. 1.10 for D3 due to data corruption issues under certain circumstances. Some curious guys have found evidence of Nikon preparing a 24.4MP D3X model in the firmware. This has been picked up by engadget and wired.

Perhaps you have heard the horror stories that some unlucky photographers got harassed by law enforcement officers or concerned citizens when taking photos at public places. Knowing your rights and related laws can prevent you from getting into a stressful and costly legal trouble.

USA Today published an article by talk show host Kim Komando, listing some very common picture-taking scenarios photographers face and how they should be approached. Read: Think twice before taking pictures in public.

NX101 is a new site on Capture NX created by Jerry Jongerius. It has a nicely organized collection of NX tips and tricks. DPTnT is mentioned in section 8 “Other Sources of NX Information”. Check it out at http://nx101.com/.

I was forum surfing at DPReview and found a nice Capture NX tip to remove dust spot. Nikon Capture NX does not have a healing brush or clone tool like Adobe Photoshop. Typically dust spot removal in Capture NX involves selecting the dust spot using lasso tool, colorizing the selected area with color that is the same as the background, blurring the edges with some feather on the selection. This neat new technique uses distortion control (Adjustment -> Correct -> Distortion Control) instead of the Colorize tool. And it works!

PhotoME is a very powerful and free metadata editor digital photographers can use to view and manipulate the EXIF, IPTC, and ICC profile data embedded in your photos. Modern digital cameras keep extensive details in digital photos, such as image information, camera settings, camera serial numbers, copyright notes, color profile information, etc. Those information can be a great help to digital photographers but it can also be a privacy concern. It is good to know what information is in the photo and how to modify the details when you post it to the Internet. Read the rest of this entry »

It has been a while since Canon announced the 450D / Rebel XSi. DPReview editors got their hands on a production version of the new DSLR camera and posted a gallery of sample images. Nothing looks very striking from those sample photos, but the Canon 450D will be a great choice as an entry level digital SLR camera with many improvements over its predecessor and good value.

Let’s face it. The value of a digital camera drops like a rock over time. I spent $1300 on a Nikon D70 in 2004. It is now worth about $300, without factoring in the inflation. How to make the photography hobby worth the big price tag besides the pure enjoyment? Read this interesting post on the personal finance blog I will teach you to be rich. In addition to what were said there, I found selling photos is another obvious way of paying for the cost of photography hobby. I made enough on a micro stock photo site (with just a few hundred photos) to cover the cost of the D70, a D200, and half a dozen decent lenses in the past a few years.

After a long delay, DPReview has posted a very detailed review of the Nikon D300 digital SLR (DSLR) camera. Against some strong competitions, the D300 easily earned a “Highly Recommended” and the review states “… biggest problem writing this conclusion has been picking out the D300’s weak points” and “… there’s simply no better semi-professional digital SLR on the market“.

If you are still hesitant on buying the D300 for whatever reason, the review may finally help you make the decision.