Phase One offers investment protection plan

Phase One has announced a guaranteed trade-in scheme for customers wishing to upgrade to newer products. Within 6 months of a new product being launched, existing customers can receive up to 90% of their original purchase price against digital backs and up to 50% against camera bodies and lenses.

Press Release:

Helps Customers Secure their Investments

COPENHAGEN, September 29, 2010  – Phase One, a leading provider of medium format digital camera systems, today announced an unprecedented new-product investment protection plan.

Effective immediately, Phase One is offering customers security when they buy a Phase One product. Now customers are guaranteed first class investment protection should they wish to upgrade to future Phase One innovations as new products are launched over the coming years.

Eligible customers who have purchased their products from an authorized Phase One partner and wish to upgrade to a new product within 6 months of its official launch, are guaranteed to receive:

90 percent of their original purchase price against any new Phase One digital back launched at a higher price within 18 months of the original purchase date.   50 percent of their original purchase price against any new Phase One camera body launched at a higher price within 24 months of the original purchase date. 50 percent of their original purchase price against any new Phase One or Schneider Kreuznach lens for the Phase One 645 camera platform launched at a higher price within 24 months of the original purchase date.

 “Engineering and development is Phase One’s biggest investment,” said Henrik O. Håkonsson, CEO and President of Phase One.  “And we are eager to reward customers who have faith in us and invest in our products. Through this Loyalty & Investment Program, we are inviting them to share the benefits of our passion for driving technical breakthroughs and delivering the best possible products to market.”

Phase One professional camera equipment is available only through authorized Phase One partners worldwide. For further details, including how the protection plan works for the purchase of fully-configured camera systems, please see the partner closest to you: http://www.phaseone.com/en/Try-and-buy/Partner-Locator.aspx.

Email Print Post comment News Discussion Share: Facebook Twitter Digg del.icio.us

View the original article here

How to Take Good Pictures With Your Digital Camera - 3 Digital Photography Tips

Read lots of articles and tutorials, then try out what you learn with your digital camera. What follows are a few very good digital photography tips that can set you apart from the photography crowd. These tips are very simple, yet they are extremely effective in getting that "WOW" factor into your images.

Of all the advice given on photography websites as photographers critique each others' images, this probably ranks number one in digital photography tips. Move the main subject out of the center of the photo frame. Our tendency is to center the subject, but it is much more interesting if the main subject is not dead center in the photo. This works really well if you have a person or a pet that is looking toward an imaginary object that is to the side of the camera. Try to take your photo while they are NOT looking at the camera. Place them so they are looking through the picture. That is to say, they are looking across the picture. Do not have them looking to the short side of the picture.

If you are taking pictures of nature, the same rule applies. Move your camera so that the flower or butterfly is not in the center of the picture. Of course, you can break this rule if you want to. After all, you are in control, but be aware of where your subject is in the picture before you snap the shutter.

Another of the top three digital photography tips is to use depth of field to highlight your subject. Depth of field refers to how much of the picture is in focus outside of the subject. For instance, if you take a picture of a beautiful flower in a garden, try to set your camera's focus so that only the flower is in focus. This can be accomplished with a feature in some of the newer cameras in the "creative mode". It is a great idea to read the camera instructions, because they are adding more and more of these kind of creative features to each new release. Depth of Field will definitely get you the "WOW" factor.

The third of the "how to take good pictures" tips is to use a tripod. A tripod can do several things for you. Of course it will steady your camera and give you the best possible opportunity to get your camera in focus. But a tripod will also make you take your time in setting up your shot. You have to think about where you want to place the tripod as you compose the shot in your mind. The process of thinking through your shots is one of the best ways to improve your overall outcome. A tripod is also handy when you want a group shot with yourself included. Just set your camera's timer and jump in.

You definitely need to practice in order to take better pictures. Cameras are getting more intuitive all the time, but if you don't know what you want before you press the shutter, what you get will be ... a surprise. Sometimes it's a good surprise, but if you decide to take control of the setup, before you press the shutter button, you will get consistently better output.

Continue to study and learn about how to take good pictures, and you will reap the benefits. There are more digital photography tips all over the Internet. One really good way to learn to take better pictures is to join a photography club in your area. For more tips and hints about taking better pictures visit http://www.betterphotos123.com.

Digital Photography Tips - How to Raise and Train Your Camera - Part 1

Trust me on this. You got to look after your digital camera. No matter what type of camera it is! In my case, it's a digital thing that's as heavy as a small log, and keeps making pictures when I press the button. Do I know how to use it? Not really. I just know how to make it take photos. The rest of the details are in the manual for the technical experts to read. Me, I got work to do. Anyway, as this article is about photography tips I thought you'd like to know how to raise and train your camera.

The first thing, like all new cameras, is that you've got to feed it regularly. Now don't skip this step! It's important. You'll know when it needs to be fed. It'll calmly blink at you and eventually shut down. That means you won't be able to take any more photos. But don't worry when this happens. It's just telling you it's hungry. So, make sure you plug her in and give her a good feed. Preferably overnight.

Here's another 'training your camera' photography tip. Most new cameras will know what to do straight out of the bag, but you'll have to show them a few extra tricks as you go. Stuff like how to hang on the end of a tripod, or stay steady in an unsteady person's hands. Or how to get the red eye thing down, or stay waterproof. You get the idea, right?  

Like I almost said, digital cameras usually know all this intuitively anyway. And if they don't, it's possible they're playing silly, so do be careful. Usually though they just want you to be gentle with them. A few calm words of wisdom whispered in their ear does wonders by the way. A digital camera will always listen to you...

And, oh yeah. Sometimes these digital cameras come with little guide books (also called camera manuals) about how you can teach them new digital tricks and so forth. You'd do well to read that. That'll give you more 'training your camera' photography tips than you can shake a stick at. In the meanwhile, keep training!

Get more photography tips and photo marketing advice from my signature below...

Martin Hurley's http://photomarketeers.com site will show you how to sell your photos online, how to set up a profitable photo website and how to easily get marketing your photography. Download a free guide to creating a stunning WordPress blog and uncover amazing marketing photography tips while you're at it!

(c) Martin Hurley 2008

Best Travel Photography Tips For Beginners on Vacation

How often do you return from a long-awaited vacation with bags of photos, only to never look at those snapshots again once you're home? This doesn't have to happen. In fact, by following some basic travel photography tips, you'll make sure that you return home with photos that you'll want to look at again and again, even if you are a beginner on vacation.

Most vacations offer plenty of stunning scenes to shoot. The first tip in capturing these images is to follow the rule of thirds. This rule basically states that you shouldn't place the subjects of your photos directly in the middle of the frame. By placing them off-center, you create a more visually appealing photo.

The rule of thirds also states that when shooting landscapes you should place the landscape slightly closer to the top or bottom of a photo. Photos are simply more interesting when they are asymmetrical. This is an essential tip that all photography beginners should learn!

All you budding photographers should also scan the scenes you want to photograph for interesting angles. Don't settle for a straight-on shot. You might snap a more arresting shot if you take it from your knees or if you look down from the top of a parking garage roof.

It's important, too, to be mindful of the position of the sun. Never have people line up for your photos so that they are staring straight into the sun. They'll surely be squinting when you snap your shot. Don't place your subjects directly in front of a light source, either. That will merely result in a silhouette when you snap your shot. This is a beginners error that you need to avoid. Through knowledge you will take better photographs and on vacation is a great place to practice.

Where should your subjects stand, then? Place them so that sunlight or any other light source falls on their side. Not only will this prevent both silhouettes and squinting, it will create a series of visually interesting shadows.

Today's digital cameras come with plenty of technology. Take advantage of it. This means using your camera's scene mode facility. This mode automatically sets your camera's settings depending on the time of day you are shooting, the amount of sunlight available and the type of shot, landscape or portrait, you are taking. The scene mode can help you snap some incredibly professional shots. As a beginner learning how your camera works will pay big benefits.

By following just a few travel photography tips, you can be sure that you'll bring home a photo album's worth of stunning shots of friends, family members, ocean views or mountain scenery. It just takes some practice with your camera, a few new shooting techniques and a willingness to use all the tech tools that come with your photography equipment.

Before long you will longer be in the beginners bracket for photographers and once you learn more travel photography tips you will soon be able to take some great shots when on vacation or anywhere else. Just mastering the rule of thirds to get the best beach photos will bring instant improvements to your travel photographs. Photography is great fun and the more photos you take the more enthusiastic and proficient you will become.

Digital Photography Tips That Work Fast and Easily

So you want some digital photography tips that work quick and are easy? Well, photography is not that hard to start getting good at. It's like playing an instrument. Anybody can get to a decent level but those that are very dedicated and with some talent are the ones that become great. I will try to show you how to become great.

The key for a beginner to start taking better shots is actually divided into two different keys...

1. Ultimate Control Over Your Camera and Equipment

2. Compositional Expertise

Experts have these two down pat and you as a beginner must try to develop these as best as you can. When expert photographers take photos they spend very little time composing a shot. Instead, they focus their attentions more on the message, the style, and what they want the photo to do to the viewer. That's art!

Until you get to that level, master these two aspects of photography.

Technical Expertise.

This may be the easiest part to photography. It's kind of like math. You must understand what exposures to use, what aperture, shutter speed, etc for proper exposure and such. If you don't know what those terms mean then you need to learn!

Basically, shutter speed is the device in the camera that controls the amount of time light that is let in. Aperture controls how much light is let in. So, when you take a photo the camera lets light in a certain amount of time from a certain size of an opening.

Compositional Techniques:

There are lots of compositional techniques, and honestly, a lot of these tips conflict with one another. The key is to use the compositional tip that works with the situation your in. For a sample, I'll give you three powerful and easy to implement techniques:

1. Isolate. Beginners make the mistake of trying to photography everything in a single shot. Don't. Take a simple picture with a definite subject that anybody will understand as the main object of interest. If a viewer has to ask what to look at, you have a cluttered shot.

2. Avoid the Middle. People that take photos for "memories" take shots dead center. You want photos that look nice and thus, are going to want to use the rule of thirds. Simply stated, it says to avoid the middle. Place the subject to the left or the right, top or bottom.

3. Use Lines. Many different tips come into this category of tips. Use lines to lead to the subject of interest. This can add more impact to the subject. For example, have lines on a road lead to a car far head. Also, you can use lines to set the mood. Vertical lines make shots look fast paced whereas horizontal lines make relaxing shots like the beach.

This was just a brief touch to the tips and techniques out there for taking awesome shots. The ultimate tip towards success, however, is one you are going to hate hearing: practice! Overstated but true.

Al Sanez has a Free Photo course that teaches beginners digital photography tips. He also has a Digital Photography Guide

Digital Photography Tips - What's Wrong With This Picture? Part I

What's wrong with this picture? Hey, what's wrong with your pictures? Look, I've got news for you if you're a photographer trying to sell your photos online. There's some things you really NEED to do in order to sell more photos. So read this article. It's about to give you a few digital photography tips on how to tweak your photos just right so that buyers absolutely love them...

Firstly, if you've already been shooting some pictures, I want you to take a good hard look at them. Then I want you to visit some of the top stock photo websites and see what type of images are popular. Keep your mind open to ideas here. The stock photo world is HUGE... And there's always a need for good 'art photography' as there is for travel, close up, people, animal photography, etc.

Now as you observe some of the more popular stock photographs, you'll see that the photographer not only captures a stunning image, but often there's a lot of 'use-able space' in the image. What I mean is that, more often than not, a good stock photo is composed of not only a beautiful image, but also enough space so that a photo buyer, or art director, can add some specific text or a headline to the image.

In fact, try this. Go to Cnn.com or Time.com and look at the photo based advertisements that run on these sites. See how a lot of the photo advertising uses words (headline or text, inside the photo) to explain the story further? The photo gets your attention... and the words 'pull' you in. So, when you go to shoot stock photos, not only do you want to capture a great image, but you want to leave some 'space' in there so your photo is attractive for advertisers too!

Thus you discover that many of the good stock photos have a careful composition to them. Think about the photo buyer for a minute. Think about how your photo can help 'sell' or promote their product. Are you creating photos with enough space or room to move? Study this stuff. It's one photography tip you can take to the bank, believe me!

Martin Hurley's http://photomarketeers.com site will show you how to sell your photos online, how to set up a profitable photo website and how to easily get marketing your photography. Download a free guide to creating a stunning WordPress blog and uncover amazing digital photography tips while you're at it!

(c) Martin Hurley 2008

Canon PowerShot SD1300IS 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 4x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-Inch LCD (Blue)

Its all about the power of contrast.Color that defies convention.Sleek gentle curves that merge art and technology into a camera designed to inspire.The PowerShot SD1300 IS Digital ELPH camera captures your world as much as it expresses your originality with bold innovations that include remarkable low light performance.Everything looks right.Hold it and everything feels right too.

Price: $179.99

Click here to buy from Amazon