Photoclub Alpha

The introduction of a £399 (street price, RRP £449) DSLR with 14.2 megapixels – with or without a useful type of Live View – should have been applauded by reviewers. It’s the single most important point about the camera. No other DSLR approaches this image size and resolution at such a low price.

On January 5th, Photoworld was lucky enough to be able to attend the dress rehearsal and official photo-call for the new Cirque du Soleil production at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and to put the Alpha 700 through its paces for high ISO fast action stage show capture. This article with large reproductions of the images appears in our Photoworld issue due out later in January.

To save a few dollars, whoever assembled a double page advert for Sony-sponsored photo workshops which (I gather) has just appeared in the US magazine Popular Photography went to cheap online stock library iStockphoto and downloaded this image:

We have a Photoworld day in Edinburgh on February 10th 2008, to which all Photoclubalpha registered members are welcome (it is strictly by prior arrangement, so please do not turn up on the day). It starts at 10.30am and ends around 4.30pm, and will be held at Edinburgh Photographic Society. Please email david@photoclubalpha.com for a copy of the programme and information on how to contact Duncan McEwan, the organiser, to arrange admission. There is a small fee for refreshments.

Icon Publications Ltd sponsors Colin Westgate’s QUEST series of photographic workshops, photo shoots, and photo holidays in the UK. A full year’s program is available by contacting Colin directly. He is a long-term Minolta system user and one of the UK’s best tuition organisers, recruiting the help of top names including Les McLean, John Blakemore, Clive Tanner, George McCarthy and others. Many of Colin’s chosen course leaders are Fellows of the Royal Photographic Society which he has been actively involved with for a long time.

Photoworld Club Scottish Regional Organiser Duncan McEwan - himself one of the UK’s most highly regarded experts - runs a series of courses in Scotland which are open to photographers from all round the world. He works in conjunction with Charlie Waite’s Light and Land programme, and with the Inversnaid Photographic Centre on Loch Lomond. Duncan is a stock photographer, author, lecturer and exhibition judge. He has used Minolta throughout his career. Each year in early March he organises an open day for Club members at the Edinburgh Photographic Society which is attended by 40-50 photographers and with guest talks and discussion of submitted images.