Whether you’re using a semi professional or fully professional digital SLR, it’s going to get dirty inside and out. There are some useful specialist cleaning companies who can warranty their own work for up to 6 months - Fixation are based in London (0297 5823294), and also the slightly faster and more reasonably priced service from ACS (01953 889324). Both offer rapid turnaround sensor cleaning (£35 - £50) or a full service for upwards of £100.00. Recommended if you’ve got trouble with those ’stubborn stains’! Other DIY solutions include cleaning kits from Just Limited  which are excellent if you’ve a steady hand to clean the sensor within your camera. 
David Webb from ACS says “we normally have a look at the sensor itself under powerful magnification using a strong light, take an image at f11, then clean the sensor, then take several more images to make sure everythings cleaned up.” They have seen 3 or 4 damaged coatings on Canon 5D models as well the 350D, for which the replacement sensor can cost upwards of £700. David reckons it’s possible to clean a digital SLR to better-than-new condition - so there’s hope for those owners struggling with dirt and dust particles.

Aperture 2 is Apple’s own brand solution for both keen semi-pro and pro photographers who as yet haven’t wedded themselves to either of Aperture’s rivals - Adobe Lightroom or  the excellent Phase One RAW software. All of these retain their own benefits, but Aperture has just relaunched as version 2 with a substantially reduced UK price point of £129.00.If you are yet to commit, then Aperture 2 has a lot to offer. We are currently running the software on a MacBook Pro, and it certainly seems fast and a vastly improved over our previous favourite set-up, shooting with Canon’s own processing software combined with Adobe Bridge and Photoshop.We’ll add to this post shortly with a full rundown of the benefits as we seem them including the ability to shoot directly from your Mac using the Tether function - in the meantime,  check out the Apple website.

For Apple Mac-wielding photographers, the iPhone is an attractive proposition, but it’s worth doing your research to see if it suits your needs. Certainly, for anyone with a small business reliant on answering emails on the move, there can be few phones that combine the ease of use and downright sex appeal of Apple’s iPhone. We took the plunge and signed up for an iPhone Autumn 2007, and haven’t looked back. Compared to setting up the iPhone’s baby brother, the Nano, the startup experience with the iPhone has had us checking question and answer forums more than once in the first week, trying to figure out all the little things you need to know that just aren’t obvious in the beautiful but minimalist packaging and instructions that the iPhone ships with.

Questions like: ‘Can the iPhone cut and paste?’, ‘Can I use the iPhone before o2 connect me?’, ‘What’s my SIM number on my iPhone?’, ‘Does the iPhone have a junk mail filter?’, ‘Can iCal update itself via the web connection?’, ‘Can I sync my Mac laptop to the iPhone via bluetooth?’ and ‘How do I transfer an image from my laptop, and email it from the iPhone?’ are some of the pitfalls we’ve worked our way round - to discover a simple phone with superb web connectivity which for those of us comfortable with the Mac way of doing things, will thoroughly enjoy.

Any downsides so far? Well, the iCal issue would certainly be helpful, at present you have to physically connect the iPhone to your Mac to update the diary / calendar software. There is a rumour this will be fixed in next years updated firmware expected early 2008. Aside from this, we’re struggling to knock it - OK, the keyboard will not suit those with big hands, it’s a gadget you need to try before you buy, but on the plus side, the automatic spell corrector picks up nearly all our ‘mistypes’ and fixes them without worry.

It’s the way the iPhone handles your email on the move that we’ve really come to like - it’s childs play to sync accounts using your .Mac account, check, send and delete emails, as well as adding various POP accounts based on domain names you may own. Although you can achieve this with a Blackberry, we challenge you to try one back-to-back and see which you prefer using.

Oh, and get yourself the rubber case and iPhone screen protectors from your nearest Apple Store. You won’t regret it, as this svelte little gadget slips easily from your grasp - ours has hit the tarmac whilst jumping out of the car in it’s first week, and is wearing a new ‘battle-damaged’ look.