Digital Photography News Archive!
December 2000

Back to current news

Back to Archive Index

Saturday, December 30, 2000

Thursday, December 28, 2000

"With the SR-1 upgrade we’re adding exciting new features to the best, most popular image viewer and browser on the market," said Doug Vandekerkhove, President and CEO of ACD Systems. "And we’re making this upgrade free for anyone who has purchased ACDSee 3.1 already."

Wednesday, December 27, 2000

Sunday, December 24, 2000

"Thanks to its picture quality and extensive accessories the Sony DSC-S70 belongs in the top league of digital cameras. This camera does not offer as many options for manual adjustment (mainly when it comes to exposure control) as its direct competitors from Nikon or Olympus. For example, there is no manual exposure control, only two predefined white balance settings (indoor, outdoor) and no adjustable light sensitivity (at least not as far as the ISO values are concerned). On the other hand the DSC-S70 is often available for a few hundred EUR less than the top-models made by Nikon or Olympus."

"It is difficult to categorise the Sony Cybershot DSC-F505V. Due to its lack of a continuous shooting function and relatively high release delay, the camera is not well suited for sport or action photography, whilst arranging the motif using only the colour LCD screen is too difficult for travel and documentary photography; The DSC-F505V is not suitable for studio photography as well, since it does not come with manual exposure control. Essentially, the DSC-F505V is a digital camera for the more demanding amateur photographer, who places a lot of emphasis on a large zoom range (5x), extendibility (converters, filters, external flash) and the swivel casing concept. The DSC-F505V has a good picture quality, numerous functions, as well as various possibilities for manually adjusting the automatic settings; all of these plus points lift the DSC-F505V above the level of a mere point -and-shoot camera. Thanks to its conspicuous and interesting design it will surely find countless friends. The DSC-F505V's 2.6 Megapixel resolution can still be called up-to-date, though the relatively high price of around 1,100 EUR seems difficult to justify in the age of 3.34 Megapixel digital cameras."

Thursday, December 21, 2000

• Browse DCS images in folders on hard disks, CD-ROM, PC Cards and network servers using an efficiently laid out contact sheet interface that displays image settings in iconic form.
• Automatically monitor folders and add thumbnails to their display as new images arrive.
• Open multiple images in windows with variable view scaling from 10 to 200 percent.
• Control cropping, rotation, balance, lighting, exposure compensation, look, sharpening and noise reduction.
• Save DCS image files as standard JPEG and TIFF files, with optional naming and sequence numbering.
• Optionally imprint GPS information into images saved in standard TIFF format.
• Automatically open converted files in any application.
• Copy and paste image settings.
• Drag and drop images between folders.
• Add image information, including IPTC-NAA record 2.

Wednesday, December 20, 2000

• Real-Time Correction
• Auto-adjust with Artificial Intelligence
• Unsharp Masking
• Color Cast Removal Slider
• Selective Color Correction
• RGB-TIFF and JPEG output formats

"Currently, the possibilities for digital camera applications are exploding, and we're proud to be leading the race with the true single-chip cameras," stated Jim Li, Executive Vice President, IC Media Corporation. "The biggest challenges in integrating all of these functions onto a single chip have been reducing the noise and improving the yield. We developed proprietary techniques to overcome these obstacles."

"Our partnership with America Online and its 'You've Got Pictures' services was created to help effectively educate consumers of the benefits of online digital imaging, and convey that the Kinko's brand has expanded into the digital photography market with its array of photographic services. Working with AOL is an example of highly integrated 'clicks and bricks' marketing that gives both brands the opportunity to interact with and educate their own and each other's customers," explained Laura Kurzu, vice president of marketing, Kinko's Inc.

"America Online is pleased to expand on our existing relationship with Kinko's. Like Kinko's, we're always seeking ways to offer our members new and exciting products and services. This promotion is a great example of how we are utilizing the alliance that we announced earlier this year to serve our customers both online and offline, and market our respective brands through new channels," said Sheila Leverone, vice president of strategic businesses, America Online, Inc.

"With the exploding growth of digital camera sales, consumers will be looking for new and creative ways to share their digital pictures -- both online and offline," said Jinee Tao, CEO and co-founder of CardStore.com. "We are delighted to be working with Kodak to provide a photo card service for Print@Kodak."

"Our goal is to give consumers easy and innovative ways to take, make and share better pictures," said Nancy Carr, vice president, Digital and Applied Imaging, Eastman Kodak Company. "CardStore.com lets us add an easy-to-use application for people to create and share real cards using their personal digital pictures."

Tuesday, December 19, 2000

• Sharper prints: Improved interpolation algorithms result in even sharper prints with better contrast than ever.
• Startup validation: Qimage Pro can now detect corrupted startup settings and reset to default values. Now if you get an error starting Qimage Pro and are unable to run the software, just run Qimage Pro a second time and it will detect where the failure occurred and will allow you to reset program settings for only the affected group of parameters. This eliminates the need to manually delete corrupted parameter files (like qimage.ini and qimage.prn) and puts an end to unrecoverable startup errors due to invalid settings.
• Bug fix: Fixed a bug that was causing "divide by zero" errors under certain printing conditions.

Monday, December 18, 2000

• *NEW* Ability to load D1 Jpegs in Photoshop using Bibble's options Just like .nefs
• *NEW* Ability to load D30 .crw's in Photoshop using Bibble's options.
• *NEW* Improved interpolation method for better quality (less fringing, better color)
• *NEW* D30 .crw files can be read and browsed even without the .thm files.
• Added Cropping to resample dialog. (Will add to batches later)
• Fixed problem with Tethered Numbering.
  Fixed problem with Tethered File overwriting.
• Fixed Colorspace problem with saving 8-bit tiffs.
• Fixed crash with invalid monitor profiles.
• Fixed problems leading to occasional inconsistent options.
• Fixed Crash with Monitor mode. Disallow monitor entry by typing. Enable selection anytime.
• Fixed a variety of small memory leaks that could add up to a crash with big batches.
• Fixed a few crashes related to the noise options.
• Fixed crash loading .crw if .thm was not present.
• D30: Instant previews for crw Files.
• Fixed problem with D30 batches being black with preview off.
• Fixed File operations on .crw files (Copy, Move, etc) also effect .thm files

Saturday, December 16, 2000

Friday, December 15, 2000

"The Internet provides a powerful viewing medium for the marketing and promotion of real estate, especially with the availability of virtual tours," said Richard Huff, CEO of Access Technology Services and ImageMaker360. "Our decision to work with RemoteReality’s OneShot360 was primarily driven by customer demand for both high quality images and excellent services. By combining RemoteReality’s high-quality virtual tour technology with ImageMaker360’s customer-centric service model, we can offer a solution that goes beyond what was available in the market until now – a simple, low-cost and fast alternative for immersive images."

• Email capabilities: The OneShot360 now offers the ability to email immersive images. Customers, friends, family and colleagues can view the 360-degree immersive images without any plug-ins.
  
• Additional viewer support: The addition of IBM HotMedia and Apple QuickTime image viewers give customers additional options for viewing immersive imagery.
  
• Interactive effects: Through a partnership with IBM’s HotMedia Group, RemoteReality content can be enhanced with the addition of hot spots, offering Web designers an end-to-end solution for adding images and links to other Web sites
  
• Image enhancements: The new OneShot360 provides users the ability to adjust contrast and brightness. Additionally, users have the ability to adjust both the quality and resolution of images.

"Today’s Web is populated with visual content that was not designed to take advantage of what the Internet has to offer. RemoteReality enables businesses to develop visual content more suited to the interactive character of the Web, and the OneShot360 is a critical part of this plan,” said Jeb Hurley, president and CEO of RemoteReality. “The latest version of the OneShot360 is proof of our commitment to offering customers and partners simple and easy-to-use technologies that can quickly create immersive content that will enhance the value of their visual information and differentiate their site and their offerings.”

"While most 360� applications are easily addressed with our patented OneShot360 technology, there are some applications, such as architectural photography and commercial real estate, that will benefit from occasional use of a full 360� x 360� image. For these applications, we are enhancing our OneShot360 system to capture full spherical images," says Jeb Hurley, president and CEO of RemoteReality. "With this new capability, the OneShot360 product family meets all of our customers’ immersive imaging needs, including fast images requiring only a single shot and full spherical images when needed. No other company provides this application breadth in their product line."

• Epson plans to have USB 2.0 in some products from summer/fall 2001
  
• Minolta is considering offering a digital camera with USB 2.0 connectivity in Spring 2002 at the earliest. The company is considering adding high-speed connectivity to its Dimage Scan Dual II film scanner, but is likely to go for FireWire here, adding USB 2.0 options once the standard catches on...
  
• Kodak doesn't currently see a need for USB 2.0, noting that it is waiting to see what Apple does before making a decision. The company currently sells 10-12% of its digital cameras to Mac users, and doesn't want to alienate this market. One option the company is considering is to put both FireWire and USB 2.0 connectivity into its cameras...
  
• Canon USA's Chuck Westfall is not currently aware of any products planned to be available before Summer 2001 with USB 2.0 support. Beyond that timescale, Canon Japan will most likely be making the decisions...

"If you can afford the upfront and continuing costs of owning a dye sublimation printer, then the Olympus P-400 printer. The output is truly amazing and it will (supposedly) last a very long time. The main downsides here is the cost -- oh, and I sure wish that LCD was color.

The Epson printers are very nice as well -- and once they get their act together with their paper, you can be confident that your prints will last for many years to come. If you don't care about having a standalone printer, I'd strongly recommend any of the Epson Stylus Photo printers.

The Kodak PM200 surprised me -- I wasn't expecting much, but I really liked using it in standalone mode. The photo quality is the worst of the bunch, but it's still very good. The ability to use it without a computer is handy for many folks, and it's easy to use -- and how about that color LCD. The downside here is that it's not (yet) Mac or Windows ME compatible, and it's pretty slow too.

Thursday, December 14, 2000

"The RFS 3600 has been an extremely popular product right from its introduction this fall," said Donald Pillittere, Worldwide Product Manager, Scanner Products, Kodak Professional. "Now - just a few months after bringing it to market and based on input from our customers - we've made it even better and easier to use."

"Putting UseYourHead with Dolphin's iCAM USB digital camera creates an all-in-one PC gaming enhancement package that's convenient for the customer," noted Anthony Comazzi, vice president of business development at Cybernet Systems. "Many PC game players may not already own a USB PC camera, which is required -- along with UseYourHead software -- to use your head as an additional game command device. UseYourHead Plus provides users with all of the components in one retail box to start having more fun playing a variety of PC games."

"The iCAM camera is a perfect match for Cybernet's innovative software," said Dolphin Peripheral's chairman Todd Waldman. "Packaging UseYourHead with one of our web cams provides us with a unique opportunity to be a part of an exciting new technology."

"Anyone looking to buy a DV camcorder, everyone who already owns one, or any photographer who has a digital camera with built-in movie capability will find useful information about this burgeoning market in MOVINGPictures," states Nikki Echler, digitalFOTO's editor-in-chief.

"It is a natural progression for us to begin reporting on digital video because of the increasing popularity of DV cameras and their ability to produce digital still photographs," states Kevin White, digitalFOTO's publisher. "MOVINGPictures is designed to satisfy our readers' interest in this new technology, and to offer new marketing opportunities for the digital video market."

Kris Fong, digitalFOTO's associate editor adds, "In addition to the MOVINGPictures section, we will support up-and-coming digital video producers by including their video clips on the CD-ROM that we regularly distribute with the magazine."

• Very limited storage capacity in-camera
• The need to either purchase multiple (e)film cartridges or potentially miss photos whilst you're offloading images
• The inability to see your images immediately you've taken them, or to delete them without removing the cartridge from the camera
• A fixed ISO rating
• A focal length multiplier that is high even when compared to other available SLR digicams, and will make truly wide-angle photos difficult or impossible, as well as making accurate framing of photos in the viewfinder harder
• Low resolution when compared to current consumer digicams
• High price when compared to current 1.3 megapixel digicams
• Design constraints that make the (e)film cartridge likely easier to break and harder to manufacture than an all-in-one digicam
• Compatibility only with a small choice of SLR film cameras
• No 'frills' like video, sound, histograms, and other features that are available in some consumer cameras
• The need to carry around bulky equipment additional to the camera if you want to be able to shoot more than 24 images, whether it is by offloading images or by using multiple (e)film cartridges

Wednesday, December 13, 2000

"The concept of today's conventional flash memory cell is very similar to a bathtub," said Agere Systems researcher Jan De Blauwe. "The electrical charge that represents the bit of data typically remains in the tub, but if the tub springs a leak, that charge is lost. And as we try to shrink the size of these conventional tublike cells to make the memory chip smaller, the chance that they'll develop leaks increases. Solutions to this problem exist, but these solutions are increasingly expensive to fabricate, especially since they require the memory cells to operate at higher voltages than today's mainstream chip technology."

"As compared to conventional flash memories, these silicon nanocrystal memories are easier to fabricate and intrinsically more leak-proof, which could result in lower fabrication costs and lower operating voltages," said De Blauwe.

"We created a hailstorm of silicon nanocrystals, but in this case, the hail was 5 to 10 billionths of a meter, or nanometers, in diameter," said Caltech graduate researcher Michele Ostraat. "The real challenge was getting an even distribution of silicon nanocrystals."

"As the insulating layer on these electrical devices become thinner and thinner, they always are more vulnerable to leaks," said Agere Systems researcher Martin Green.

Tuesday, December 12, 2000

"I've recently released Thumber 3.24, which is now available for download. In addition to some bug fixes, the latest version adds a couple of useful features:

• Bad/stuck Pixel Removal. 'Bad' pixels show up as bright points in images and are caused by defects in the CCD chips used in digital cameras. Thumber can eliminate these bad pixels from images using an 'intelligent' interpolation method.
• Batch Image Processing. This provides the ability to apply one or more image transformation functions (e.g. brighten, resize, increase color saturation, remove bad pixels, etc.) to one or more images in 'batches'. The desired transformations are listed in a text file which Thumber processes for each image to be transformed.

As with all of Thumber's image editing features, any EXIF data and/or comments contained are untouched by these transformations. Detailed instructions on using both new features are included in Thumber's help file."

• Vertical noise banding in images taken at ISO400 and camera set to either
  • Shutter speeds of 1/1000 second or faster
  • Burst mode of 5, 7.5 or 15 frames per second
  • Precapture mode
  • Exposure bracketing mode
  • White balance bracketing mode
• If the first image of a series taken in:
  • Burst mode with or without autofocus (?)
  • Exposure bracketing mode
  • White balance bracketing mode
  • Precapture mode
  ...is deleted with another camera or computer, other images in the series cannot be displayed by the E-100RS in playback mode
• If an E-100RS movie clip is edited in a C-990 Zoom, C-2100 Ultra, C-2040 Zoom, C-3000 Zoom, C-3030-Zoom or C-3040 Zoom digital camera (we presume this would also include the US-equivalent models) using the video editing functionality of those cameras, the movie clip is destroyed.

"With this special holiday promotion there's no reason for our customers to end the year without one of Kodak Professional's state-of-the-art digital cameras," said Mike DeWoody, Marketing Manager, Digital Capture, U.S. and Canada, Kodak Professional. "And, with the bonus coupon, photographers have an opportunity to upgrade their digital cameras, improving upon their capabilities even more. Best of all, they can do all this knowing they are not sacrificing quality
for price."

"Spherical Video is a rich medium with applications in entertainment, security, and corporate visual documentation," says Kermit Yensen, CEO of iMove. "This camera was designed around demanding military and security requirements but is now available for commercial use."

"The most important contribution photo kiosks will make to digital photographers will be to deliver an attractive combination for digital photo printing: high-quality prints at a low cost and within a familiar, convenient environment," said Andrew Johnson, vice president for Gartner Dataquest's worldwide digital document and imaging group. "We believe digital photographers will flock to digital photo kiosks in the near term as an attractive alternative to home printing."

"As kiosk vendors provide easier, more accessible, less expensive ways to print photos, kiosk use will explode," said Andrew Johnson, vice president for Gartner Dataquest's worldwide digital document and imaging group. "Kiosk vendors and their partners will find new profits from on-screen advertising, e-commerce partnerships and breakage from prepaid, stored-value cards."

"Snap-happy consumers can unload their photos and clear their memory cards in a matter of minutes. All financial transactions could happen at the photo Web site, so credit card readers may not be necessary," Mr. Johnson said. "Watch the photo web sites who are partnering with digital camera vendors, especially camera vendors that do not currently have a piece of the photofinishing pie, to be the first out with these units."

"I want to say up front that I very much like the Sony Mavica MVC-CD1000 for its 'camera features'. It's got a great 10X optical zoom, nice manual controls, good photo quality, and it's easy to use. What I'm not sold on is the CD-R technology itself, as you've probably noticed throughout the review. While it's the cheapest storage out there per megabyte, you lose a lot of the 'digital camera features' such as the ability to truly delete photos, as well as to reuse the storage media. Isn't that why you bought a digicam in the first place? Plus, based on my own problems with the CD-R mechanism, I wonder how long these will last before they really start to have problems. If you're absolutely sold on the CD-R technology, then my concerns probably don't bother you. But it was me shopping for a camera, I'd choose a more traditional camera -- and save some money while I'm at it."

Monday, December 11, 2000

"Genuine Fractals 2.0 LE is the ultimate digital camera accessory," said Bob Goldstein, Altamira's president. "The growing number of consumer-level digital camera owners desire the ability to make high-quality enlargements of their favorite images at home. Our new product provides the solution they demand."

"At EVG I have emphasized revenue and cash flow and will apply the same focus at Brightcube in order to rapidly achieve cash flow breakeven and profitability," comments Al Marco founder and President of EVG.

"The Internet is changing the digital imaging environment at light speed, with the change being led by the rapid growth in digital camera use and the technological advances in inkjet printing. While the greatest growth to date has been in the consumer arena, the professional photographic and art markets are the next frontier. On-demand delivery and printing of images will be a natural result of this," said Terren S. Peizer, Chairman of PhotoLoft. "PhotoLoft was a early participant in the digital imaging infrastructure market, and EVG revolutionized the art world through the creation of an offline brick and mortar network tied together by the Internet. Now, Brightcube - for the first time - will bring together archival quality inks and papers by EVG, extensive photography and art image banks, color/quality management and delivery infrastructure required for Print On Demand to become an industry-preferred method of conducting real-world business."

Friday, December 8, 2000

"One of the most difficult aspects of many online photo sites is the process of transferring pictures from a home computer to the site. Unfortunately this is also one of the most critical features of the site," said Tom Moore, President and CEO of Pixami. "Photos are the primary revenue source for a photo site -- if a user can't easily upload their photos, they will give up or go elsewhere. This can obviously be very detrimental."

"Pixami's Photo Uploader provides more features, better performance, and is easier to use than any other solution," he added. "We are proud to have been selected by PhotoLoft, and we hope Pixami's technology will add significant value to their already excellent offering."

Thursday, December 7, 2000

"PhotoAlley's Digital Resource Center is the perfect Internet stop to make before diving into a digital camera, scanner or printer purchase this holiday season," said Skip Cohen, president of PhotoAlley, Inc. "Getting into digital photography can seem a little overwhelming at times. We created the Digital Resource Center as a complete guide to digital photography by answering the most frequently asked consumer questions about digital photography and by providing a community in which to grow."

"For Kodak the DC4800 was a radical departure from the DC260/265/290 series which used to be their flagship consumer digital cameras. Its design is far more traditional, yet we still see elements of Kodak innovation in the ergonomics and layout of the camera. There's a lot to like about the DC4800, the wide 28 mm equiv. bottom end, the exposure compensation dial, apertures on the mode dial, the innovative new white balance controls. When it first arrived in the office I really wanted to like the camera.

Certainly there's nothing wrong with the physical layout, nothing too much wrong with the onboard software or processing speed but there are enough factors I wasn't happy with for me to end up with a disappointing feeling about the DC4800."

Wednesday, December 6, 2000

Said Fumihiro Dasai, General Manager of the System LSI Department for Sanyo's Semiconductor Company. "Enhancing a digital camera with Bluetooth connectivity provides significantly increased flexibility for communicating with a large range of storage, display and communication devices. Adoption of this technology promises to keep Sanyo at the leading edge of digital camera IC design. Licensing Tality's IP gives us a fast-track to Bluetooth connectivity."

Said Brent Hudson, vice president and general manager of Tality's Wireless and Multimedia design group "Licensing Tality's Bluetooth IP gives Sanyo access to a solution used by over a dozen leading companies in competitive consumer and communications markets. Sanyo's skills in high-volume high-technology semiconductor product design and manufacture, coupled with Tality's Bluetooth IP, are a potent combination."

Tuesday, December 5, 2000

"In the consumer market, time-to-market is everything," said Jim Triggs, president and chief technology officer of KB Gear. "We wanted JAM CAM 3.0 in stores for the 2000 Christmas season Xilinx FPGAs provided us with a cost effective alternative to an ASIC while cutting months off the development window."

"KB Gear's JamCam is a prime example of Xilinx at work in consumer applications," said Xilinx vice-president of marketing Sandeep Vij. "Our devices are already proving the time-saving advantages that FPGAs bring to the design cycle at price points competitive to an ASIC."

Commenting on the news, Ira B. Lampert, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Concord said, "The alliance with IXLA not only confirms Concord's standing and success as a world class original equipment developer, designer and manufacturer of digital image capture and transmission devices, but also the recognition that our retail sales and distribution business can provide opportunities to strengthen our partners retail presence. This is another step in implementing our strategy to partner with leading electronic, Internet, and photography software companies for digital photography, and presents new opportunities for Concord in the Internet arena."

"We see a true synergy partnering IXLA's award winning software products and Concord Cameras leading edge digital image capture devices," said Dr. Soon Teh, IXLA's Chief Executive Officer. "With Concords long history and success in the camera business, this alliance agreement to provide still digital cameras for IXLA's upcoming software product launches, will further support IXLA's decision to focus its core business on software technology development and marketing IXLA software products -- worldwide."

"I have total confidence in Dave as the next leader of Kodak Professional," said Daniel A. Carp, Kodak's President and CEO. "He has demonstrated an ability to drive growth in China, and his team-building skills have put Kodak in position to expand business in Asia for many years to come."

"For 26 years, Pat Siewert has given his very best to Kodak," Carp said. "He has served this company with grace and integrity. I thank him for all he has done to help Kodak, and for his friendship. I wish him well."

"In my career, I expect China to become Kodak's largest market for photographic film and equipment," Carp said. "We will continue to invest there because of the exceptional growth potential that exists throughout Asia. The appointment of Henri Petit, a talented executive with broad business and international credentials, to succeed Dave Swift reflects our commitment to increase our customer base in the region."

"While running Greater Asia, Dave was responsible for all of Kodak's businesses in that region," Coyne said. "His experience and knowledge, especially of digital imaging, will help me spread the best practices of each commercial business across the entire group."

"I leave China with our factories up and running, with our market share rising and our investments there paying off as we had hoped," Swift said. "In this new assignment, I look forward to working with the customers and employees of Kodak Professional in our effort to help the business prosper in the digital age."

"I am excited by the opportunity to extend Kodak's presence throughout Asia," Petit said. "Kodak is just beginning to reap the benefit of our investment in the region, and it is my good fortune to be assigned the responsibility of building on our success."

• Higher resolution prints: Qimage Pro v10.3 now offers a new "maximum quality" option that uses the high quality interpolation methods offered by Qimage Pro to send prints to your printer at your printer's native resolution (DPI). The new "maximum quality" option take a bit longer to print, but will result in higher quality prints. The default resolution is "High" but can be changed to the new "Maximum" level when micro detail is important and your prints must withstand scrutiny under very close examination.
  
• New interpolation options: The new print interpolation options are less confusing, but offer a bit less control than previous versions. Since Qimage Pro now takes direct control of all your prints by using higher quality interpolation methods, there is no longer any need to set print interpolation thresholds. Now, you need only set the print quality level using "Options", "Print Interpolation". Prior versions needed a threshold because the image first needed to be interpolated before it was "stretched" by the print driver to the appropriate size on the printed page. Qimage Pro v10.3 now performs only one internal "stretch" operation using higher quality interpolation methods, rather than allowing the print driver to do the final sizing. This "single stretch" offers higher quality output than the older "two stretch" operations since data only needs to be manipulated once. The new "single stretch" method therefore requires no selection of an interpolation threhold since all data goes through the interpolator up front.
  
• Numerous additions to color management to make life easier: Realizing that some of the new options regarding color management can be confusing, we have added many new features that will assist you in always knowing how your color is being managed. For example, if you have set up some ICM files for your camera(s) under "Options", "Color Management" and you found yourself wondering if the associations were really working prior to print time, you need wonder no more. Just add the image(s) to the queue and the ICC profile that is "tagged" to each image will be displayed next to the image names in the queue. Further verification of printer and monitor settings is displayed in the "Queue Actions" tab so that you can confirm these important settings prior to print/display.
  
• Bug fixes: We also corrected some minor bugs such as the monitor ICC profile not always being applied while in the batch filter, NEF Options not working from the image examiner, etc.

Bertrand Meis, President and CEO of King Products said: "This is a major breakthrough for KING technology. Our solution is now powerful enough to attract other kiosk companies. I am very pleased to team up with Sandisk and PMI in this very innovative technology which will bring high value to the public. By hosting the system at KING, we are moving successfully to the service market."

"This alliance represents a key step in executing the Polaroid digital strategy. It combines the resources of both companies to realize the tremendous potential of advanced area array technology for new digital imaging platforms that will allow picture taking and printing anytime, anywhere," said Gary T. DiCamillo, Polaroid chairman and chief executive officer.

"CMD and Polaroid will be jointly developing creative ways to bring customers digital imaging products with easy-to-view LCDs and extended battery life," Roberts said.

"CMD microdisplays produce larger, brighter and higher resolution images than standard LCDs found on today's digital cameras. They deliver a 14-inch image versus a 1.8-inch image, three times the resolution, and eliminate the pixelation normally associated with camera monitors. Microdisplay-based viewfinders are not impacted by sunlight and, because they require less power, they extend the life of the camera's batteries," Roberts said.

"Polaroid recently took an equity position in CMD joining several other prominent companies in the most recent round of financing. And John L. Puckett, Polaroid's vice president and general manager - wireless and internet technologies, serves as an advisor to CMD's board of directors," she said.

"We saw more than 30 percent growth in digital camera sales behind a nearly four-fold increase in digital camera unit sales in the third quarter of this year compared to the same quarter last year," she said.

"With these designs, Agilent and FlashPoint will help manufacturers to deliver high-performance, cost-effective still cameras to market in less time," said Stephen Saylor, president of FlashPoint. "Camera manufacturers face increasing pressures to deliver new models to the market. We can help them meet their goals by providing a modular, high-performance solution that cuts down on engineering and development costs."

"We're providing pre-engineered software drivers and interfaces, backed by a world-class design support team," said Jason Hartlove, business unit manager of Agilent's Imaging Electronics Division. "Our customers will be able to beat their competition in rapid deployment of a series of high-perfo rmance cameras into the market, reducing their development time significantly."

Monday, December 4, 2000

"If you need a long zoom and aren't bothered by the 2 megapixel sensor then the C-2100UZ is a very logical camera to have near (if not at the) top of your buying list. If you consider what you'd have to do to get 380mm of zoom out of any other digital camera or a digital SLR it's amazing to consider how compact and light the C-2100UZ really is, the lens works well, a hint of chromatics at long zooms is to be expected but on the whole doesn't detract. The image stabilisation works well and definitely gives you a stop or two over what you'd normally be able to handhold."

"With what is clearly a very good and larger than normal 6X optical zoom lens, full manual controls, compact lightweight design and excellent color results, we feel the Fujifilm FinePix 4900 Zoom has a lot going for it at a price range under $1,000 dollars. It compares favorably with the top 3 megapixel camera, with resolution just slightly lower, but with a better optical zoom making it a good choice for those who prefer a greater zoom range."

"The Fuji FinePix 4900 Zoom is a full-featured, capable camera that can be enjoyed by beginners and pros alike. The 6X optical zoom really comes in handy sometimes (see the tiger picture in the gallery for a good example) -- it really overpowers the standard 3X zoom of most cameras. The camera is also one of the fastest out there, with minimal processing times. The build quality is very good, and the camera includes an attractive bundle."

"[Regardless] of its limitations, it's a fun module. The eyemodule is definitely worth the price for the quick snapshots you can shoot on the go at a fraction of the size and weight of a normal digital camera."

Saturday, December 2, 2000

• Improved Auto Focus (AF) in dim lighting situations
• Alarms if not in AF range
• Displaying Landscape/Closeup icon and Exposure Compensation icon on color LCD screen
PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) improvements (For future compatibility)
• Minor bug fixes (unspecified)

Friday, December 1, 2000

AOL Alert: Several readers connecting via AOL have complained of poor image quality when using the AOL web browser. This is caused by a setting called "compress images" in the browser that causes it to completely mangle images in the interest of faster transmission. You should turn this setting OFF before viewing any of the comparison images on this site.

• FLASH: Thanks to reader Lynn Mannan, here's an explanation of how to make the correct settings adjustments (at least in AOL 4.0 for PCs):
  • I opened the "My AOL" preferences screen in the toolbar across the top. Then I clicked on WWW icon and selected the "web graphics" tab where I unchecked the "compressed graphics" choice and clicked on the Apply button at the bottom. Now the scanner test pictures are gorgeous. The pictures take a long time to load. But they are worth waiting for. Thank you, Lynn!