Friday 1st February 2008

This weeks highlights include:

  • New camera Nikon D60 announced as well as more lenses.

  • Article on  restrictions on wildlife photography

  • New March calendar page, so many photographic opportunities

  • Information on the largest UK annual photographic show

  • We introduce Hannah one of our models

  • A study of the prices on Nikon lens in the UK across suppliers

  • The codes on Nikon lenses demystified

  • Introducing the photography challenge for you

  • More, more,  more ........

Don't hold that frog so tight!

We have squeezed a lot in this week, as you can see from the picture that we thought would go with our article on restrictions on wildlife photography, as a part of our series on legal restrictions on photographers, last week it was access and property generally, and next week wild plants.  Just in case any animal rights activists see this, perhaps we should point out that no frogs were harmed in the taking of this picture, put your mouse over the picture to see how it was done.

As the month has changed, the calendar has rolled forward, and we have a new page showing you much of what is happening in March that you may like to photograph. It does however highlight a problem, how can I be in more than one part of the UK on a single day, and would it be great to go and photograph loads of these items.  February items are of course also shown on the February page.

Later this month the largest annual UK photography show, Focus On Imaging, takes place at the NEC Birmingham , click here for our information on the show, and links both to get a floor plan and also to register now for free tickets.

We are going to show you some of the models we have available that you may work with here, and we will be introducing one every few weeks and this week we have the first of these. This article introduces Hannah and also explains a little more on how we use the models.

We have been taking a closer look at Nikon lenses, and have two reports for you, the first of these is a study of the prices of lenses across a range of UK suppliers, and you may be surprised to see that there is no overall pattern, and different lenses are cheaper with different suppliers. Even some that we may think of as being more pricey have one or more where they came out cheapest. The second page is one that explains what all the letter codes mean on Nikon lenses, and means that you can now look at the price comparison study and see what each of the lenses name codes actually mean.

You can of course get your Nikon lens at half of the lowest of these prices, or any cheaper one you can find - two weeks ago we introduced the Nikon lens deal  - Nikon Lenses at half the lowest UK price you can find or less, or even Free. This lens  promotion is connected to training vouchers, has the smallest requirement yet, minimum of 21 training vouchers required, this is equivalent to 3 days training, and you have up to 18 months to use them. Take a look here.....

We have also added a reference page that we hope you will never need to use, this identifies all the Nikon authorised repairers in the UK where you can get your Nikon equipment repaired.

NEW NIKON CAMERA ANNOUNCED on Tuesday and on show Thursday in the USA. Nikon have introduced the D60, the same dimensions and similar look as the D40X, making it small and compact. It offers some of the facilities of the D40x such as 10.2 megapixel, 2.5" LCD viewing panel, shooting mode dial, retouch menu for in-camera editing with far more as well as incorporating some of the technology that can be found in the D300 such as Active D-Lighting, the Integrated Dust Reduction System has the vibration system like the D300, but also has moving air to direct any dust away from the sensor. Over the last few days more information has been coming available and a few minutes ago we got a copy of the 16 page brochure on the camera, and we will try to get a better description in next weeks newsletter, together with a comparison with other models.

The D60 is initially being launched as body only at £449.99 (RRP), and in two kits:

  • D60 kit with the AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR: £529.99 (RRP)
  • D60 kit with the AF-S DX  Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II £499.99 (RRP)

They have also brought out a number of new lenses:

  • AF-S DX Nikkor 16-85mm f3.5-5.6G ED VR - Due out Feb 2008  £429.99 (RRP)
  • AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm f2.8G ED - Due out March 2008  £379.99 (RRP) - a silent wave version of the popular 60mm lens used for Macro
  • PC-E Nikkor 24mm f3.5D ED (Perspective control/tilt & shift) - due out March 2008 - £1099.99 (RRP)
  • PC-E Micro Nikkor 45mm f2.8D (Perspective control tilt & shift) - due out Summer 2008
  • PC-E Micro Nikkor 85mm f2.8D (Perspective control tilt & shift) - due out Summer 2008

Next week we hope to have an article on making buildings stand up straight, and this explains the use of a perspective control lens and looks at the PC-E Nikkor 24mm f3.5D ED.

We are shortly adding a new section that you can become involved in, the monthly photography challenge.

The course we are looking at this week is our second most popular the one day course that can get you confident and competent editing. The CNX course is also unique in that you get a reference book to take away as well as a laminated guide we have produced. Normally we are not great fans of handouts, but with this we felt the colour illustrated guide would help you a lot. Read more .....

And finally don’t forget this newsletter is not like any other, in that we index everything we have covered into the website so its growing, growing, growing into a useful reference site. We have loads more we are working on,  and you will see the UK wildlife parks page added this week, we are working on one showing the places you can see birds, and more to come. Would you like to write an article, put a page together, or have another idea that you would like to make happen, if so we would love to hear from you.


Other pages in this newsletter

Technical Tip: Photographing sunsets Many find they take a glorious sunset and it does not come out as good, we explain why and how to get over it.

Diary:  March has been added this week, but remember to also look in the Wildlife and Nature Calendar.

Featured Location Nunney Castle, Somerset. Situated in the village of Nunney, a small village in Somerset, three and a half miles south west of Frome. It can be accessed at any reasonable time all year round and you access it through a small gate from the road. It is a pretty village and as well as the moated castle you can also photograph a stream, church and other village buildings.

Location Guides:     UK Wildlife Parks - A long list of the many UK parks with links to find out more.

     Crome Castle, Northern Ireland

     Angle Tower House, Pembrokeshire

We will be adding more location guides each week.

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