goldengod

Nikon has finally announced the 2007 winners of their ‘Small World’ micro-photography contest! My sincere congratulations go out to First Place winner Gloria Kwon of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute.

Her entry, seen left, is titled “Double transgenic mouse embryo, 18.5 days (17x).” The image details state that she used “Brightfield, Darkfield, Fluorescence (GFP and RFP)” microscopy techniques to create the image.

My two personal favourites actually wound up being the first and second place winners of the popular vote, but were deemed an ‘image of distinction’ and 14th place, respectively. The bright colours in Christian Gautier’s photo “Cedrus Atlantica (cedar) leaf crosscut (200x)” really jumped out at me; I gave it my vote for top honors and it came 14th overall, 2nd in popular vote.

Marc Van Hove took the top honor of the popular vote with his image “Crystalized solgel chemical (50x)” and earned the ‘image of distinction’ label as well. The oil-slick rainbows and light green parts that looked (to me) like plant cellular structure really drew my eyes.

Entries are already being accepted for the 2008 Small World competition. If you missed your chance in 2007, get a jump on next year’s contest and submit your microscopy photos now.

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• Dear Scientists, Nikon Wants Your Tiny Photos
• High End Nikon D3 Digital SLR Rumors
• Nikon’s Clever Camera Ads

Orange Amber Ants by Michael Rhys

Nikon is firing up the 2008 edition of their annual micro-photography contest, Small World. The competition has prizes totaling almost $10,000 worth of Nikon camera equipment with the winner taking home $3,000 in Nikon products and an invite to the awards ceremony in NYC. The contest is accepting submission until April 10,2008.

Not familiar? Here’s a quick definition for you, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Photomicroscopy,also known as “photomicrography“, is the combined art of photography and microscopy and its name is a portmanteau of these two words. Photomicroscopy is usually performed simply by hooking up a regular camera to a microscope, thereby enabling the user to take photographs at reasonably high magnification.

You can see a ton of examples on the Small World site, including all the past winners. If you’ve ever wondered how they got those really beautiful photos of cells and microbes, now you know!

On an unrelated note, the weekend’s coming up! This week I’m determined not to lose myself so much in my hedonistic lifestyle that I forget to post. Expect useful photography tips and accept no substitute.

Down is the New Up by dro!d

It sounds like digital camera manufacturer Nikon is building up to a big DSLR announcement next week. All the major tech sites are reporting rumors about a new high end Nikon D3 digital camera.

News.com reports that things kicked off in the Digital Photography Review forums with a Nikon insider leaking some secret info about a new Nikon DSLR.

Engadget continued things with a post about Nikon D3 rumors. Nothing too concrete is covered, just “…hopes that it’ll sport 18.7-megapixels, a nearly full frame sensor, and an uncanny ability to cope with low-light conditions.” I can understand the excitement; Nikon *finally* jumping on the full frame bandwagon after years of resistance would be big news.

Returning for a second round, Engadget shared a final insider tip with us:

…a “photo editor at a major newspaper” has tipped us on a phone call he received from Nikon in which his presence was requested at a meeting where a “new professional camera that is leaps and bounds better than anything Canon is offering” would be showcased.

As expected, that’s about all the details he could pry from the caller, but since the meeting is purportedly scheduled for June 26th, at least we’ve got some sort of timeframe to get our hopes up about.

I’m pretty firmly in the Canon camp, but Nikon fans should definitely mark their calendars.

Actually, I’ve been noticing a strong trend towards Nikon low-end DSLR’s with my friends. I know, they aren’t much of an objective study group but it’s all I can afford this quarter.

I irresponsibly blew the Objective DSLR Survey Budget on a new circular polarizing filter for my Rebel XT lenses. I’ve got some time to play with it this week and I’ll have some impressions for you later on.

EDIT: I’ve noticed a lot of traffic coming here from Google: Welcome, searchers! Take five minutes and read a few other posts I’ve written about digital cameras:

• Tenant’s Insurance: Like Photographer’s Insurance for the Hobbyist
• Canon EOS 40D Digital SLR Rumor Mill
• Canon EOS 40D Announcement & Availability

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Shovel & Bucket by Carol Esther

Silicon Valley news site Valleywag is reporting that Myspace has (finally) purchased Photobucket. The News Corporation owned social network made the purchase less than a month after blocking the use of the service on their pages.

Myspace claimed the reason for the partial block was due to ‘technical difficulties’, but it’s no secret that Myspace jealously guards its userbase from plugins trying to make money off their magical goose. Myspace’s creation of it’s own video player, its own Digg clone, and now the acquisition of a photo-sharing service shows that they’re serious about keeping other companies off their turf.

There’s no word on the financial details, but Valleywag tosses a $300 million pricetag around in the article. Despite their low revenue, I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s not like Rupert Murdoch is hurting for cash.

Photobucket isn’t exactly a front-runner in terms of functionality or use by serious (or even semi-serious) hobbyist photographers. That market is dominated by Flickr, with other sites like Zooomr quickly catching up. It remains to be seen if MySpace will decide to leverage their userbase and make a strong push for the hobbyist photographer market online.