Focus acquisition performance in both the dynamic AF and contrast detect AF has been improved as well as an increased range of options are available for selection in the Auto-ISO mode.

Full details of the improvements contained in the firmware are available on the Nikon website.

In his blog he writes that members of the Police Forward Intelligence Team (FIT) filmed him and a collegue as they sat in their car waiting for the protest to begin and continued to do so despite identifying themselves as members of the press.

A quote from his blog highlights his feelings:

After I used up all the room on my Sandisk Extreme IV 8GB card, I switched over to the backup Extreme III 4GB cards. The speed in writing images to the cards was painfully slow compared the faster Extreme IV. It made me want to do a little research into which cards have the best write times. After a bit of digging I found this handy Compact Flash card speed database by Rob Galbraith - it shows the write times for a selection of cards being used by different cameras.

Nikon is offering a memory upgrade on it‘s D3 camera. The upgrade will increase the number of photos that can be stored in the cameras buffer from a burst of shots before having to write to the memory card. The upgrade expands the number of shots taken in continuous shooting in some circumstances by up to almost 60%.

Nikon says that the upgrade will take up to 10 days to perform, will cost £300 + VAT and requires that the camera be sent to a Nikon repair centre.

More details on the buffer upgrade service are available from the Nikon website.

The Polaroid PoGo is a digital photo printer roughly the same size as a mobile phone which is capable of printing a 2"x 3" sticky-backed, high quality fade resistant photographs wirelessly straight from a compatible mobile phone using bluetooth or from a pict-bridge enabled digital camera using a usb cable.

In February, Polaroid said that it intended to close it‘s factories which were dedicated to the manufactuer of it‘s instant film but would continue to licence the technology for the production to third parties to ensure that existing customers would still be able to purchase the film.

Buy a Polaroid PoGo - £99.99

The D700 shares much of the technology found in the fantastic D3, including it‘s 12.1 megapixel full frame ‘FX‘ sensor.

Nikon‘s press release states that the D700 has an RRP of £1999.99 and that sales will start at some point in July 2008.

dpreview.com have been lucky enough to get their hands on a sample and have published their D700 preview article which lists all of the features of the new camera.

As well as the new camera, Nikon are also releasing a new Speedlight to their range of flashes, the SB900.

In some ways I wish I hadn’t and in others I’m glad that my experience confirmed to me just how poor they really are.

I started off by ringing my local branch of Jessops in Sutton, after letting the phone ring for three and a half minutes; I gave up and called the next closest branch in Colliers Wood. A salesman answered in good time and after hearing about my request for a D3 he confirmed that his branch didn’t have any in stock but the Kingston-upon-Thames branch did.

I phoned the branch in Kingston and asked about the availability of a D3 “No, we don’t stock the D3 but we can order them in” was the answer. I pressed the salesman as I’d been told that they did have one available by the Colliers Wood branch, he went off and looked and came back and apologised and told me that he did have one in stock. I asked him to put it by for me and I drove over to Kingston to pick it up.

I got into the store, asked for the camera and a member of staff who turned out to be the manager went off to find it whilst I took a look around the other Nikon bits. I noticed that in one of the glass display cases, there was a price label for a D3, but no D3. Not fancying paying £3000 for an ex display model that had been handled by all and sundry and a potentially higher actuation count higher than one of my existing cameras I asked the manager on his return whether or not the one he was selling me was indeed the one from the cabinet. He confirmed that it was.

Not overly happy with the prospect of getting a potentially ex-demo camera, I asked the manager if he would give me a discount off the camera.

"No, we sell ex display as new” was his response. I then asked whether if I bought the camera, and took it home to check the actuation count, I could return it if it was too high.

“Our returns policy is for 30 days, but the item still has to be sealed” – note this is difficult when the camera is in a box already unsealed. I pointed this out to him and asked whether or not he’d put a note on the receipt to confirm the box was already opened when I bought it.

“No, because it might not be me who takes the return back” – I didn’t understand this response and asked him to clarify it. “If you’re that concerned about it, I suggest you don’t buy the camera”.

It was at this point I walked out.

Jessops have had plenty of mentions in the press over the past few months, from financial restructures to laying off staff and closing branches you would have thought that they’d do all they could to secure the business of someone willing to buy one of the most expensive digital SLRs on the market.

I’ve now got my D3 on order from warehouse express who also offer a year’s 0% finance and I look forward to receiving it next week.

As expected from dpreview, the article gives a thorough breakdown of the D3‘s features and specifications and compares the D3 to it‘s main competitior, the Canon EOS 1DS Mark III as well as Canon‘s lower spec full frame DSLR the EOS 5D, and the D3‘s stablemate, the Nikon D300.

The review notes the D3‘s leading ISO handling and goes on to say "at ISO 1600 and over the D3 really starts to shine, leaving the competition behind and producing perfectly usable results at ISO 6400".

Whilst the article is largely positive about the D3, it does mention that the Canon 1DS does have the advantage when it comes to resolution, prompting the author to suggest that Nikon might be hiding something up their sleaves to be announced at photokina trade show later in the year.

The motion can be read on the UK Parliament website and also shows a list of the other MPs that are backing the motion. If your local MP isn‘t in the list, why not petition them to put their name down - you can use this form to find out who your local MP is.

The poster in question is part of the Mets anti-terrorism campaign which advertises an anti-terror hotline for members of the public to call if they see anyone acting suspiciously, the particular act to be concerned about is people taking photos.

This in conjunction with the apparent growing number of police in London stopping and searching photographers under the terrorism act has meant that some photographers are becoming increasingly frustraited with the current situation.

The mets anti-terrorism poster (click for larger view)

The frustration has led to a group has beening set up on the photosharing site Flickr which contains some rather more satirical versions of the red poster.

The beta version of the software can be downloaded for free from the Adobe website over here and can be run alongside your existing install of Lightroom.

One of the more interesting developments in the new version is the addition of a new edit tool which allows the user to make changes to their photographs using a ‘paintbrush‘ - much like in Photoshop.

Advanced users should take note that there is currently no infrastructure for using your existing plugins.