General Interest

Adobe is submitting its DNG 'universal RAW' format to the International Standard's Organization (ISO), in a move aimed at increasing acceptance and usage. The format is being proposed as part of ISO's TIFF/EP (electronic photography), standard. We spoke to Adobe about the move.

As well as adding motors to its existing lenses, Tamron has also started building motors into its new Nikon-compatible lenses. The 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 VC lens offers a 10.7x zoom range with the company's proprietary optical stabilization system. DX-format users get fields of view equivalent to 43-465mm (in FX terms).

Tamron has continued its process of adding in-lens motors to its Nikon-mount lenses, with its 28-75mm f/2.8 being the latest recipient. This makes the lens fully compatible with the Nikon D40, D40x and D60, offering their owners fields of view equivalent to a 42-112.5mm lens (in FX/35mm terms). The magnificently named 'SP AF28-75mm F/2.8 XR Di LD Aspherical (IF) MACRO' can focus as close as 33cm throughout its zoom range.

Olympus has launched a consumer-level wide angle lens for the Four Thirds system: the Zuiko Digital 9-18mm f/4-5.6. The lens, that offers fields of view equivalent to 18 - 36mm in 35mm terms, makes extreme wide-angle zoom more accessible to users of the Olympus E-System, Panasonic DSLRs and selected Leica Digilux cameras.

Olympus has launched the E-520, an update of its E-510 DSLR. The E-520 represents continuity, rather than revolution within the E-System camp. This process of orderly transistion sees the arrival of contrast detection AF at the E-5XX level of camera. This feature does not represent all the camera's new talents, however, with a larger LCD and Face Detection doing their utmost to add buyer appeal.

Adobe has delayed an update that will add support for Flickr users to its Photoshop Express online image editing and storage service. The service, currently at the Beta stage, allows images to be stored or pulled from the users' other websites and edited without over-writing the original. The latest update, which also adds a 'Save As...' feature and the ability to embed slideshows in other websites, has been postponed to allow bugs found late in the development process to be fixed.

FujiFilm has released a firmware update for its F100fd compact camera. The update is a response the 'pink banding' issue that has been the subject of heated discussion on the FujiFilm Talk forum. FujiFilm says the modification will "reduce" the pinkish colored banding reported by some users.

Just posted! Our new lens review of Nikon's top-end fast telezoom, the AF-S VR-Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8G ED-IF. This is the first in a series of reviews in which we'll be comparing it with similar lenses from Canon, Sigma and Tamron, using both APS-C and 35mm full frame cameras. The 70-200mm F2.8 VR has long been a favourite of Nikon DX format shooters, but how well does it stand up on the new full-frame D3? Read on to find out.