I added a lot of new photos in the galleries: Dolomites, Alpe Veglia, Lakes, rivers and waterfalls, Huts and Villages, Gentiana ramosa, Leontopodium alpinum (Edelweiss), Gallinula chloropus (Moorhen), Anser indicus (Bar Headed Goose).

Canon has announced the successor of the popular 350D. The new 400D (aka Rebel XTi) sports several major improvements: a new 10 megapixel sensor, a 9-point AF (the same of the 30D), 3FPS x 10 RAW or 27 JPEG, 2.5" LCD and a whole new anti-dust system, similar to Olympus' andti dust. It will be available from September at $800 body only.

Other than that, Canon has announced to new L lenses: the 50mm f/1.2 L USM and and long-awaited 70-200 f/4 L IS USM.

The landscape photography is, in my opinion, the most challenging branch of nature photography. It is not difficult to master the technical aspects - after all, you just have to use the tripod to get the maximum sharpness and to pay attention to the exposure. So, what makes landscapes so difficult? You need an artistic eye to create great photos, images that captures a mood and transmit emotions to the viewer. While the techs can be explained, I can give only suggestions regarding the artistic side of landscape photography, then you have to develop you "vision" to capture truly unique photos...the new article is online: Landscape Photography

I added new photos in the galleries: Arda cinerea (Grey Heron), Egretta garzetta (Little Egret), Ciconia ciconia (White Stork), Myocastor coypus (Nutria), Himantopus himantopus (Black-winged Stilt), Tympetrum fonscolombei (Red Veined Darter).

I'm now offline until August 21 - I'll answer to all e-mails as soon as I'm back!

I added two photos to my portfolio : Above The Clouds and Mating Dragonfiles. These photos had been taken with two of my preferred lenses - respectively, the Canon 24-105 L IS USM and the Canon 600 f/4 L IS USM.

I'm going to post many new photos in the galleries next week!

Nikon has announced the new Nikon D80: this camera has a 10 megapixel APS-C sensor, 3 FPS x 6 RAW or 26 JPEG, 2.5" LCD and 11-areas AF; the price (body only) is US$ 1000: overall, it looks like an excellent camera! More details and preview on Dpreview.

Other than that, Nikon has announced a Nikkor 18-135 DX lens (that will be the D80 kit lens) and the Nikkor 70-300 f/4-5.6 AF-S VR tele zoom.

I've added two samples taken with the 1Ds in the Canon 24-105 review...this lens is awesome, both on FF and APS-C!

Other than that, I've updated the Canon Lenses page with my opinions about the kit lens 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 and the 28-135 f/3.5-5.6 IS USM. These two lenses might surprise you: they are not great but, considering the price, they give quite good image quality.

I've renewed the entire Landscape Gallery: many pages had been merged to improve navigation and browsing between the photos. Other than that, I added new photos in the pages Nure Valley, Aculepeira sp., Odontopodisma sp., Dryopteris filix-mas (Male Fern).

I'm going to add soon some sample photos taken with the 1Ds in the 24-105 review.

Sometimes less is more. In terms of photographic lenses, I believe that you need just few lenses, but you have to choose carefully. If you have a limited budget, it is better to buy just one excellent lens, rather than many cheap ones. Even if you have a large budget, there is not reason to buy every lens that you can get. For nature photography, you can photograph almost every subject with just five lenses...

The new article is online: Five Lenses For Nature Photography