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The 5D rumor mill rumble on…and on….and on…. (click the pic to link to full story on Photography Bay)

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As many a small business owner will tell you keeping on top of ‘the books’ takes up a great deal of effort and time - in fact time that could be spent finding work and following up leads - Photographers are by no means any different.

If you are anything like me then you will probably have an Excel spreadsheet with a worksheet for generating invoices, another worksheet for some kind of balance sheet, and worksheets for all your expenses and tax. You occasionally find yourself having to add functionality to the worksheets and/or finding problems.

Imagine being able to free yourself from this spreadsheet hell. This is where a web-based service called FreeAgentCentral comes in. FreeAgentCentral is a simple, versatile, and user friendly tool for Freelancers, Sole Traders and Small Limited companies that easily achieves financial organisation and management. You can either use the data from FreeAgentCentral to help you complete your own tax returns, payroll, profit/loss accounts or give your professional accountant his/her own separate login.

FreeAgentCentral has a powerful Invoice design and layout tool. It tracks money in / money out from your uploaded QIF, OFX and CSV bank statement file. There is also VAT, Dividend and Payroll management. Other features include auto-allocation of monies you draw between expenses, salary and company dividend.

All accounts start with a free 30-day trial. Costs are: sole traders £15 per month, UK Partnerships/LLPs £20 and Ltd companies £25. However clicking the link below will get you a 10% discount. FreeAgentCentral has recently gone universal too so it can be used outside the UK. Highly recommended.

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Hands up who knows what a Ninja is?

Well by rights most of you should new have some rough image of a martial arts expert dressed in black pyjamas (or a turtle shell) jumping about with throwing stars. Cool, huh.

So hands up now who knows what a Nodal Ninja is?

Nope it’s not a IT proficient warrior who fixes networks. For those who have a passing interest in using their camera gear to produce panoramas or QTVR presentations there will a nodding recognition of the word Nodal being the correct pivot point for panoramic photography. So here it is the Nodal Ninja Professional Spherical Panoramic Tripod head by Fanotec (NN5 for short).

Previous incarnations of the NN were lighter, smaller but slightly less stable than the current NN5. The new beefed up version has addressed the shortcomings of those earlier models and is now quite a performer.

The price of panoramic heads in general is a hot topic of discussion - try looking up the price of a Manfrotto pano head for instance. Whilst previous versions of the NN were pitched at a budget market for around £60-£120 the newer beefier NN5 is around £200.

Like the previous Nodal Ninja heads, the NN5 is beautifully made and presented. It rotates very precisely on engraved increments. It also has the ability to accommodate large cameras and lenses. It also packs flat in three sections in it’s own foam lined case.

Photographers serious about their panoramic photography who are considering purchase of a panoramic tripod head should have Nodal Ninja 5 on the short list. Click banner below for more details and full reviews of NN5 and also the smaller NN3.

See the Nodal Ninja group on Flickr for some exciting panos by Nodal Ninja customers.

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There’s lots of tasty treats cooking in the Calumet oven this bank holiday weekend. Click the links in the list below to see what I mean…. Enjoy the holiday!

1. Nikon Coolpix with Free Nikon Cases

Buy a Coolpix from our selected range and get a FREE Nikon case worth up to £24. Whilst stocks last.

Further Details Here »

2. Sony HDR SR12E High Def Camcorder

Record stunning, incredibly detailed video footage in the clarity of 1920 x 1080 full HD resolution at our new price. Was £899, now £815, save over £80.

Further Details Here »

3. Canon Summer Bundles

Get yourself into one of our fantastic Canon Summer bundles with a FREE Domke PhoTOGS Vest worth over £100. We’re also bundling in a SanDisk Extreme III 2GB CF Card to make this an exceptional offer not to be missed.

Further Details Here »

4. Epson P-5000

Transform the way you view, store and manage digital photos and movies while saving over £50. Was £449.99, now only £399.99.

Further Details Here »

5. Metz 58 AF-1 Flashgun (Nikon and Canon Fits)

A powerful and resourceful flashgun and an absolute bargain at only £150. Save nearly £90 but only whilst stocks last.

Further Details Here »

6. Bowens 200/200 Events Photographers Kit

Gear up to capture the new season event days with this specially created kit for only £699 and save over £50.

Further Details Here »

7. Calumet Web Shooter Special Offer

Everything you need to capture perfect product images. Only £69.99, saving you over 20%.

Further Details Here »

8. Sony DPF V900B 9” Digital Photo Frame

Only £149 and in limited stock so act quickly on Sony’s fantastic new digital photo frame.

Further Details Here »

9. Brilliant Paper 3 for 2

Brilliant Supreme Gloss A4 25 sheet packs. Get 75 sheets for the price of 50.

Further Details Here »

10. Sony CD-RW 80min 700MB 10 Pack

Stock up on essential storage at a fantastic price.

Further Details Here »

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Some News I picked up on a forum trawl:

Fuji have announced that they are increasing the cost of all fujicolour photographic papers by 10%. In addition Epson have also come out in sympathy with similar rises.

Epson 4000/7600/9600/10000/10600 Price Increase of 8% (this is separate and in addition to the recent price increase for these machines)
Epson 4800/4880/7800/7880/9800/9880 Price Increase of 18%
Epson 11880 Price Increase of 9.6%

See my previous post as you may be able to get in there before the rises.

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OK as we now know life isn’t so rosey on the high street - so when I hear about PCWorld doing great bank holiday deals on ink I think it might be worth a look. So what is the deal? Best value ink cartridges (all the popular brands) with price match +10% guarantee. Cool! Here’s the link:

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Think of Doug and Chenin Boutwell and your mind probably conjours up bright, colourful, contemporary, energetic wedding images drenched in lovely California sunshine - in fact everyone in their images is having a great time.

Now, thanks to the Boutwell Totally Rad Action Mix, it is possible for us photographers to have an equally great time editing all our own lovely wedding shots in Photoshop. In fact these brilliant layer based actions are going to save you masses of time in post production.

Boutwell Totally Rad Action Mix is a packaged set of 46 funkily named actions designed to take the ‘Grind’ out of your edit sessions. The actions are incredibly easy to use, most with just a single click whilst others require the use of layer mask before they have an effect. No need to get stuck either, Doug has even produced a series of highly entertaining tutorial videos to accompany the actions.

The Boutwell Totally Rad website has tons of information and also a forum - you can feel safe in the knowledge that your hard earned money is going into a well tested and well supported product that will really make your photos ‘pop’. The complete Mix costs $149.00 which, if you’re buying in GBP works out at around £77.00 before your bank takes a nice tip. Click below to go to Doug’s very cool site to read more, see samples, video tutorials, and to shop.

Technorati Tags: doug boutwell, totally rad, photoshop, actions, boutwellstudio

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Do you have piles of unsorted business on your desk or stuck in your keyboard from the last time you went to SWPP Convention or Focus?

I have found that CardScan (link below), a small desktop USB device costing £199, can quickly and accurately read the printed information from business cards into a powerfull searchable contact database.

If like me you keep all your contact information in Outlook you’ll know that means having to read the small print on business cards and the type in the information accurately.

With the CardScan unit you just feed cards in at about a rate of one a second. The device takes a copy of the scanned image and uses OCR software to populate the fields in its own contact manager software.

The Cardscan software will open as soon as you start to scan a card. You can also scan and process batches of cards in up to five different languages and automatically categorise the results. The latest Cardscan 8 program is a self-contained contact management application that can be used to organise all sorts of data beyond what’s scanned in from business cards.

Once the image is captured you can review and edit the fields on the card entry. Underneath the captured content fields is the original image of the card, with one click you can zoom into the image to check the details.

There is also a synchronise feature so that the CardScan database can be automatically synced with the Outlook contact database.

The great thing about the CardScan database is that you end up with the original images of the card plus anything that you may have written on it.

Then of course there’s a cherry on top of every cake, with CardScan this means you get the ability to access your card database over the internet from anywhere using Cardscan’s free service.

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I was recently contacted (via the SWPP) by Sarah from Tocco who produce canvases from photographic and digital images, which are printed then professionally stretched around deep solid wood frames. I have received a lot of good feedback on Tocco so have offered to add their product details to PhotoSavings - in return they have offered their product at trade price when you quote the following code 144502 Simply email your images to Tocco or send them on a CD in the post to the address below. On receipt, you will be advised on all of the options available to you. Once decided upon, you will be sent confirmation of your order along with a Paypal invoice which will enable you to pay online using a credit/debit card. Alternatively, you can order via Tocco’s website at www.toccoinside.co.uk. SUPPLYING YOUR IMAGES Digital images can be emailed to info@toccoinside.co.uk. If you are sending large files, you may want to use Pando which is free, easy to use software that lets you send high definition and large files via email. Alternatively, you can send your images on disc in the post to Tocco, PO Box 67, Stillington, York, YO61 1WU - Tel: 08456 426 526. Delivery: Standard Delivery (within 5-10 working days) = £9.50 or Fastrak Delivery (within 4 working days) = £19.50.

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A brand new, bigger and better PhotoBox has just arrived! It’s packed with fantastic new products plus lots of interesting ways to have more fun with your photos than ever before

PhotoBox is the UK’s market leading online photo service where customers benefit from award winning service, the quickest turnaround times around and plenty of regular special offers and discounts. For instance standard size orders made by 4pm are posted same-day by 1st. class post.

What’s more when you sign-up using the link below, for free, on Photobox’s newly redesigned wesbite, you will also get:

* 30 free prints
* Free unlimited photo storage
* Free Photo Sharing
* Free photo eCard service
* Free Photo-to-Mobile service
* Real time customer support from our team (no call centre!)
* Great personalised gifts and quality prints at low prices

Click the banner below in order to receive the freebees when you signup:

For those of a technical disposition Photobox recently installed HP Indigo press 5500 technology to deliver unmatched printing quality at high-speed to maximise their productivity and ensure that the products reach the customers within a short turnaround time.

Photobox also have a Kodak Nexpress 2100 digital production press. The Nexpress 2100 press with a Nexglosser glossing unit enables Photobox to deliver superior added value to its customers’ range of products.

The Nexglosser glossing unit gives perfect, durable high gloss for posters and high quality photographs and is also environmentally friendly. Whilst the Nexpress proves cost effective on short run full colour jobs.