Lisa describes here blog as a “window into her personal and professional life”. It will also take you on a visual journey through her images and portfolio where you may find yourself being inspired to try something new or just see a scene in a different way.

We hope you enjoy her site and look out for her technique features in upcoming issues of PhotoComment Magazine.

This weeks Photo Friday image was a tough one to pick, and we only have some 20 odd photographs to choose from. That said, our Photo Friday image is “After a long day” by Cas Pretorius. Congratulations!

As mentioned earlier, it was not an easy decision to make, and photography is very much a subjective thing in my books, but after a week like this has been, there were just emotions that Cas’ image evoked which I found hard to ignore.

Photo Friday – Theme Assignment for September 2010

Okay, with Spring officially upon us here in South Africa it seems appropriate for thing Spring as the topic. There is however going to be a twist to this theme. We want your interpretation of the word ‘Spring’, which means it can be your vision for this season or any other way you visualize the WORD – Spring.

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Be sure to catch our first tip tomorrow. You will need to register on the site to get the full details of each tip, which will also open you up to enjoying all the features of PhotoComment like the new Forums where you can also post your tips or tutorials and ideas.

NILMDTS – or Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep is a foundation that works to bring healing to parents who know that their children will have life threatening illnesses or wont live long after birth. Rather than follow many doctors advice to not get attached to the yet unborn child, parents can go to NILMDTS where over 7000 volunteer photographers can be dispatched to the hospital etc, and take intimate portraits with family and child to show that while their life may have been short, that child was still here.

This is the very first image to kick off Photo Friday here on PhotoComment. Remember the aim of this feature is for you as readers to submit your images to the User Gallery from which we will pick a favourite each week. Those picks will be added to a Photo Friday gallery and make up the finalists for our prize give aways. Please remember to include information in the description block when you upload so we can included your caption, name etc.

Please feel free to comment on the image below. Thanks to Werner and Rikki for being the first to upload into the gallery. This image from Werner just really tugged at me. Childhood memories of going to the Roadhouse as a family treat.

Also announced earlier this wee was the successful development of an APS-H sized CMOS sensor with 120 megapixels – that is right 120mp. Read on for more details.

Canon EOS 60D

After the release of the EOS 7 D and the EOS 550D Canon were always going to be under some pressure to reposition the EOS 50D replacement, the new EOS 60D. They could not put less of a sensor in the camera but at the same time 7D sales would suffer if it was too similar to that. So it is sad to see in some ways the end of an era of a well built middle range camera. With the EOS 60D it is goodbye Compact Flash cards and magnesium body, hello SD, smaller and lighter plastic while retaining the old 50D AF system and adding an articulated screen (like on some of the PowerShot G series cameras) and SD Card slot.

Lenses

Following the launch of the EOS 5D mk II some time back, Canon committed to improving their lenses to meet the requirements of the new higher resolution sensors. So we wont spend much time on their continuation of that in the new 300mm& 400mm f/2.8 or the development of lighter 500mm & 600mm f/4 lenses. The real interest is in the actual new lenses announced.

The EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 L IS USM seems to be Canon’s answer to Nikons 70-300mm VR and Sony’s 70-300mm G-series lens both of which were better than the standard Canon lens in this range and cheaper than the (somewhat puzzling) 70-300mm DO lens Canon has previously been punting as their ‘pro version’ of a 70-300mm. It will be interesting to see what the price is.

Even more fascinating – and my hands are itching to give it a try – is the EF 8-15mm f/4L USM fisheye zoom lens. When I try to imagine the potential picture opportunities with this I can’t help but get excited.

120mp APS-H CMOS Sensor

This should come as no surprise when you think of what Canon demonstrated with their Wonder Camera concept, but at the same time it is still hard to believe that it is possible to squash so much onto something so small. Time will only tell when we will see it in production and how well it will actually perform, particularly with noise levels.

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With the introduction of the new A33 and A55 comes new technology and terms that will require a brief explanation. These two new cameras use what Sony is calling Translucent Mirror Technology™ which basically means that unlike traditional DSLR cameras where the reflex mirror moves out of the way during exposure, the SLT (Single Lens Translucent) cameras mirror is fixed and light passes through it during exposure. This will allow for fast, accurate autofocus during video shooting.

Read on for a summary on the individual cameras and lenses.

SLT-A55

Featuring a 16.2MP APS-C sized EXMOR HD CMOS Sensor, the A55 offers up to ISO12800 with a new multi-shot Noise Reduction mode offering ISO 25600. Not only does the camera offer 1080 AVCHD format video, but it offers autofocus that is said to be second to none thus far.

When the action picks up you can shoot at 10 framers per second. Quick AF Live View is still available and feeds through to a 3-inch LCD that tilts and flips – a criticism we have had for some time, that with such excellent live view you were limited by the screens movements too often.

Also of interest is the built in GPS, normal and 3d Sweep Panorama modes and 15 autofocus points compared to the 9 that was only available previously.

SLT-A33

Much the same camera as the bigger A55. The main differences are the lack of GPS and a drop in resolution to 14mp. All other things remain equal.

DSLR-A580

In many ways the A580 is a standard reflex version of the A55. It shares the same sensor and perhaps the best thing to do is share what it lacks rather than what it has when compared to the A55. So where the A55 gives 10fps the A580 give 7fps, does not have the GPS or claim the autofocus in video.

DSLR-A560

One more, much the same camera as the A580 with the only real difference being that the A560 has the 14mp sensor found in the A33.

SAL24F20Z

The Carl Zeiss® Distagon T* 24mm F2 ZA SSM has been a long time coming and rounds off quite nicely the range of Zeiss lenses available for Sony. Cant wait to get our hands on this.

SAL35F18

This new DT 35mm f/1.8 SAM lens is aimed squarely at the cameras with APS-C sized senors as a replacement for the old faithful 50mm on a full frame camera. Should the price be right it would be a good to have in almost any camera bag.

SAL85F28

Now this is an interesting announcement, an 85mm f/2.8 SAM lens, the lack of the DT means it will work full frame and make for an affordable mid portrait lens, particularly next to the only other 85mm being the Zeiss f/1.4 offering. It will be interesting to see how this lens performs optically.

The Vodacom Fan Cam Image is a 360 degree HD image of the entire stadium and all the people in it. The image takes roughly 4 minutes to capture the stadium in its entirety with 800,000 individual images being taken, the 800,000 images will then be “stitched together” to create a seamless image of the entire stadium and all the people inside it. The images were captured by Virtual Africa the company which also did the 360 degree views of all the World Cup stadiums. For more information on how they capture these great images and for more images head over to http://virtualafrica.co.za/

Nikon

Nikon have announced the new D3100. Taking the chance to raise the bar, this new entry level will come out with a 14.2mp CMOS sensor (taking their whole range to CMOS) and it will offer – as a first for Nikon – full 1080p HD video. Add to this a 3-inch LCD Screen with Live View and the ability to take the ISO up to 12800 and this quickly become the most exciting entry level camera to date.

In addition to this new body, Nikon have announced the following lenses: 85mm F/1.4 G for fantastic portraits, a new 24-120mm F/4 G ED VR – that is right a fixed F/4 aperture throughout the zoom range. There is a new 55-300mm F/4.5-5.6 G ED VR which is sure to be a hit here in South Africa and for those full frame travel shooters, a new 28-300mm F/3.5-5.6 G ED VR rounds things off.

In terms of new compact cameras, Nikon have released the Coolpix S5100 (12.2mp CCD, 5x Optical Zoom and HD video) as well as the Coolpix S1100pj which in addition to having 14mp and a zoom going from 28-140mm also features a projector for showing of your images on something a bit bigger than the back screen.

Canon

Introducing the PowerShot S95, the successor of their ‘popular with enthusiasts and pros’ S90. The S95 still utilises a CCD sensor with 10 megapixels, offers full manual control and RAW files. The greatest improvement then seems to be in the offering of 720p HD video.

Also announced was the PowerShot SD4500 / IXUS 1000HS which claims to be the slimmest super zoom (as Jerry Clarkson would say “In [pause for effect] the world”). The camera has a 10x optical zoom with a 10mp back-illuminated CMOS sensor and full HD video with a Super Slow Motion mode. Adding to the range of super zooms is the PowerShot SX130 IS with 12mp, 12x optical zoom starting at 28mm and HD video.

Olympus

Three new cameras coming from Olympus which are the mju-7050 with a 14mp CCS and 7x optical zoom, HD video, 3-inch LCD. The FE-5050 with 14mp CCD, 5x optical zoom and a lower resolution FE-4050 version which sports only 12mp and a 4x optical zoom.

Fujifilm

The FinePix Real 3D W3 is Fujifilm’s second 3D camera and unlike the Sony cameras out there, the Fuji offerings use two lenses set at each end of the camera as traditional 3D cameras do. What is exciting about the new W3 is that is shoots movies in HD.

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