News Archive - February 2002 Return to: Current News Archive Index Thursday, February 28, 2002 PMA's over, but our coverage continues! 22:04 EST - Dave and Mike return to put everything through our post-show filter... The Photo Marketing Show 2002 in Orlando, Florida ended yesterday lunchtime, and doubtless all the booths have already been torn down and are being transported back to their owners around the country (or... (More) Canon announces EOS-1D firmware update! 13:38 EST - Latest version goes in further in removing noise, particularly above ISO 800... Canon Inc. has announced a new version of firmware for its EOS-1D SLR digital camera on the BeBit website. Firmware version 1.3.0 goes even further than the 1.2.0 version announced at the start of the... (More) Sunday, February 24, 2002 Nikon D100 preview online! 02:32 EST - Phil Askey posts a brief intro to Nikon's upcoming digital SLR... Some of the hottest buzz at the show this year surrounds Nikon's D100 semi-pro digital SLR. We're eagerly waiting to bring you full details on this exciting product, but Nikon US has told us that the D100... (More) Saturday, February 23, 2002 Chaney Updates Profile Prism and Qimage Pro 14:24 EST - Mike Chaney is at it again, improving ICC profile accuracy in two popular programs. Mike Chaney at Digital Domain Inc. has released Profile Prism v2.13 with new gamut mapping formulas that result in greater profile accuracy, especially in shadows and very dark colors. "Although the visible... (More) SanDisk Announces Departure of CFO Frank Calderoni 1:57 EST - SanDisk Corp. announced today that Frank A. Calderoni, Chief Financial Officer, has resigned his position with the company effective March 1 to pursue a similar position with another employer. SanDisk has begun a search for Mr. Calderoni's replacement. In the interim, Michael Gray, Vice President of Finance at SanDisk, will assume day-to-day financial management responsibilities for the company. (More) Friday, February 22, 2002 The 2002 PMA Report commences! (UPDATED) 9:24 EST - Mike's now arrived in Orlando (and Dave's due any minute) ready to commence our live annual coverage of the Photo Marketing Association trade show. Not familiar with PMA? We'll put it this way - if your company's important in the world of digital imaging, you'll be here, and you'll be unveiling your latest products in front of assembled members of the press, industry bigwigs and the folks who make... (More) Full (preliminary) review posted for Canon EOS-D60! 10:09 EST - It's new, it's hot, and we've got a full report... Who'd have known? It looks like the real fireworks at next week's PMA show will be in the "semi-pro" digital SLR arena. Nikon announced their new 6 megapixel D100 yesterday morning, today it's Canon's... (More) Dave and Mike off to PMA - hold the email! 1:55 EST - With the annual Photo Marketing Association show just about to start (you could hardly miss this fact, with the flood of camera announcements over the last few days!) Dave and Mike are both enroute to Orlando, Florida to commence our usual live coverage. This year, we'll also have Newsletter Editor Mike Pasini helping out back in the office, fielding the likely flood of press releases whilst we're... (More) Thursday, February 21, 2002 First Look review posted for Nikon Coolpix 2500! (UPDATED) 8:00 EST - I (and no doubt many others) have always thought of Nikon as a "serious" camera company, associating their name with industrial-strength hunks of black-coated titanium and optical glass. The lower end of their Coolpix digicam line has somewhat belied that image over the last year or two though, with products specifically tailored for the more mass-market picture taker. (Witness their very popular Coolpix... (More) Wednesday, February 20, 2002 Full review (with sample photos) posted for Sony CD Mavica MVC-CD400! (UPDATED) 18:03 EST - Sony's new high-spec CD-based digital camera goes on the reviewing block... Dave here: Phew, finally at the end of Sony postings! This is a real corker to end with though, a true "enthusiasts" camera using CD-Mavica technology. With a 4 megapixel sensor and Carl Zeiss lens, the... (More) Full review posted for Sony CD Mavica MVC-CD250! (UPDATED) 18:03 EST - Low-cost CD-based digital camera gets the full "Dave Treatment"... Dave here: Sony's CD Mavica concept made quite a stir when the original MVC-CD1000 appeared almost two years ago now. Last year, they updated and extended the line with the CD200 and CD300. This year,... (More) "First Look" review (with sample photos) posted for Sony DSC-P71! (UPDATED) 18:02 EST - Just-announced 3 megapixel, 3x zoom P-series camera in Dave's capable hands... Dave here: Yeesh, this is starting to sound repetitive! *This* particular new Cyber-shot sports a three megapixel sensor, a sharp 3x Zeiss lens, and a few more features. It's slated to appear at a retail... (More) "First Look" review (NO sample photos though) posted for Sony DSC-P51! (UPDATED) 18:02 EST - Hands-on with Sony's first P-series digicam with a 2x optical lens... Dave here: This one is the slightly bigger brother to the DSC-P31. It's also a two megapixel design, with very similar features, but sports a 3x optical zoom lens, and an expected street price of $300.... (More) "First Look" review (with sample photos) posted for Sony DSC-P31! (UPDATED) 18:02 EST - Dave tries out Sony's 2 mpix, fixed focal length digicam... Dave here: Well, it's a few days before spring PMA again, and Sony once again leads off the action with a flood of new product announcements - no fewer than *5* this time. The announcements cover three... (More) Epson links PIM, Exif2.2! 02:17 EST - Imaging manufacturer suggests close ties between its color management technology and the latest version of the Exif file standard... A press release from Epson America Inc. claims that PRINT Image Matching, its color management technology which numerous companies have licensed, "has been accepted throughout the digital imaging industry... (More) Tuesday, February 19, 2002 DCRP examines Caplio RR1! 12:00 EST - Ricoh's distinctive compact digicam in Jeff Keller's capable hands... Our friends over at the Digital Camera Resource Page have now posted their full review of the Ricoh Caplio RR1 digital camera - an interesting 4 megapixel camera with an impressive bundle that even includes... (More) Saturday, February 16, 2002 Sony: New 6mpix CCD imager! 19:43 EST - ICX413AQ CCD sensor looks to be aimed at digital SLRs... Sony is working on a new 6 megapixel CCD image sensor, the ICX413AQ, our friends at the Digital Photography Review website hear from a reader. According to a Sony development document we've read, the ICX413AQ... (More) Full review of Olympus C-3020 posted! 17:16 EST - Dave tries out Olympus' low-cost, feature-packed 3 megapixel digicam... I've had a lot of email asking about this one, as it took Olympus a little while to get me a unit to test. I've finished reviewing it though, and now (finally) have that review posted. The C-3020 is a... (More) More closures in online photofinishing! 14:18 EST - Yet another online photofinisher reaches the end of its days, but this one has been in the cards for some time... Online photofinisher StudioAvenue.com (a co-branded site run on behalf of imaging software company Jasc by PhotoLoft.com) is closing its doors after giving a month's notice that it would be discontinuing... (More) Friday, February 15, 2002 Bellamax offers online photo enhancement! 18:20 EST - New company founded by former Adobe staff promises to fix photos for those who don't know how to... Bellamax Inc., a new Palo Alto, CA-based business set up by ex-Adobe technology, marketing and sales staff, has launched a new site offering digital photo enhancement services online. Through the Bellamax... (More) InfoTrends sees big things for set-top imaging! 15:49 EST - Report suggests most US households will have the ability to view their photos on a TV within 4 years... A report recently released by market research firm Infotrends Research Group Inc. suggests that TV-based digital imaging is in for big things over the next few years, as consumers purchase set-top products... (More) Herald Tribune links Kodak with Foveon X3! (UPDATED) 15:01 EST - Article suggests that imaging giant may use the recently-announced sensors in some of its digicams... An article published on Tuesday by the International Herald Tribune suggests that imaging industry giant Eastman Kodak Co. may be interested in using the Foveon X3 line of image sensors in some of its... (More) Thursday, February 14, 2002 IDC releases '01 US digicam sales figures! 15:32 EST - Market grows by 1/3rd thanks to strong 4th quarter... Market research firm IDC has released its figures for US digital camera sales in 2001, according to an article on CNet.com. The report found that overall, digicam sales rose by some 30% with a healthy... (More) Appeals court rules on image search engines! 15:10 EST - Decision finds that thumbnailing of images by search engines constitutes fair use, but inline linking infringes copyright... In a court case that will likely be of interest to digital imaging enthusiasts and professionals who distribute their works over the Internet, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled on the case of... (More) PhotoPoint CEO responds... 10:17 EST - Pantellic Software's Dale Gass explains why his company closed doors without warning, answers criticisms and rumors, and discusses plans to get photos back in the hands of their owners... Dale Gass, CEO of Pantellic Software Inc. - the company behind the PhotoPoint website which we've discussed so much on the site lately, emailed us overnight to comment on the site's closing and the causes... (More) Wednesday, February 13, 2002 Add a little bounce to your pop-up flash! 16:34 EST - Imaging Resource reader creates his own bounce attachment for less than 60¢ - read on to find out how... IR reader Dean Schepis dropped us an email to tell us of his dilemma in trying to find a bounce attachment for his Olympus Camedia E10 digital camera's built-in flash - and a pretty clever solution. For... (More) DCRP reviews Sony's Mavica FD200! 00:10 EST - Jeff Keller tries Sony's dual-media (MemoryStick and floppy disk) digicam... Jeff over at the Digital Camera Resource Page has now posted the first review we've seen of Sony's Mavica MVC-FD200 digital camera. A two megapixel, 3x optical zoom camera with both a floppy-disk drive... (More) Tuesday, February 12, 2002 Signs of life at PhotoPoint! 23:48 EST - Troubled online photofinisher asks users for feedback on what happens next... IR readers Billy & Claudine Carter and Alan J. Bedenko both wrote in this evening to point out signs of life at PhotoPoint.com, the online photofinisher which has been mentioned numerous times on this... (More) Saturday, February 9, 2002 WOW! Hot deals on D1X/D1H, Microdrive! 13:34 EST - We don't usually mention our Deals items on the News page - but these two are just too interesting to miss. Hop on over to the deals page now to find out how to get $1200 off a Nikon D1X or D1H digital camera (if you're a D1 owner and are willing to trade it in), or how to get Microdrives from 18¢/MB to 30¢/MB (depending on capacity)... Full Review posted for Fuji FinePix 2800! 13:07 EST - Dave gets hands-on with Fuji's 2 megapixel, 6x optical zoom digicam... I reviewed the Fuji 2600 Zoom last year and really liked what I saw. That model offers about the best deal on the market for a two megapixel, 3x zoom-equipped camera that takes good pictures. The 2800... (More) Friday, February 8, 2002 New digicam on the way from Nikon! 12:07 EST - Imaging heavyweight launches teaser page for its latest digital camera, offers five digital cameras as prizes in launch contest... Nikon Inc. has today taken the wraps off a teaser page for its latest digital camera, to be announced on February 21st - just before the annual Photo Marketing Association trade show in Orlando, Florida.... (More) Thursday, February 7, 2002 Panasonic DMC-LC5 coming to the USA! (UPDATED) 12:50 EST - 4 megapixel collaboration with Leica should see US shores this spring... Regular readers may remember the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC5 digital camera which we introduced you to upon its Japanese announcement last September. Our friends at the LetsGoDigital.nl website have now posted... (More) Wednesday, February 6, 2002 Club Photo announces first profitable month! 15:38 EST - Online photofinisher sees significant online sales increase around Christmas season... Club Photo Inc., an online photofinisher we've mentioned frequently in the past on this news page, has this week announced that it had its first profitable month in December of last year. This is great... (More) DCRP reviews Olympus D-40Z! 14:00 EST - Jeff tries out Olympus' 4 megapixel, 2.8x optical zoom digicam... Jeff Keller, our good friend at the Digital Camera Resource Page website, emailed yesterday to let us know he's just completed his review of the Olympus D-40 Zoom digital camera. An interesting super-compact... (More) Monday, February 4, 2002 Catchup: REALLY low light shots, EOS-1D, Nikon 5000, Olympus E20! 5:13 EST - This seems to be catchup week at IR, as I'm finally clearing a lot of things from my long-term "to-do" list. Today, it meant posting the results of some *really* long time exposures I shot a little while back with several high-end digicams. The thumbnail above is the obligatory "river of lights" freeway shot, taken with the Canon EOS-1D, while the others (shot with the Nikon 5000 and Olympus E20 were... (More) More Catchup: External flash shots with Sony F707. (And connector dimensions!) (UPDATED) 5:05 EST - Another catchup item: I've finally posted a test shot taken with Sony's nice little HVL-F1000 external flash unit on the F707. While I'm generally no fan of proprietary flash connections, I have to admit that the HVL-F1000 has some things going for it, most particuarly that it apparently offers true TTL (through the lens) flash metering when used with the F707. The lack of TTL metering is one of... (More) Inkjet Paper Review: MediaStreet.com's Offerings! 15:11 EST - Dave tries out MediaStreet.com's inkjet paper range... Recently, a friend of mine who runs a well-known internet/mailorder photo products business asked me to evaluate a range of inkjet papers made by MediaStreet.com. He was interested in carrying the papers... (More) Friday, February 1, 2002 FinePix F601: First samples online! 14:17 EST - Our friends in Japan get the scoop with numerous sample-images from Fuji's just-announced 4800/6800 successor... The Japanese Miscall website have posted the first photos we've seen from a development-level model of the just-announced Fuji FinePix F601 Zoom digital camera. The site is extremely slow, but if you're... (More) "First Look" review: Minolta Dimage S404! 13:17 EST - Recently-announced 4 megapixel digicam gets the "Dave" treatment... Last year, Minolta made a lot of waves in the high-end consumer digicam arena, first with the introduction of their Dimage 7 and Dimage 5 cameras, and later with the intro of their more bargain-priced... (More) Canon EOS-1D: Fix for banding problems! (UPDATED) 04:00 EST - Japanese camera manufacturer releases firmware, tone curves to correct the much-discussed issue of horizontal banding in images... Canon Japan has today released a firmware update and two new tone-curves for its EOS-1D professional single-lens reflex digital camera. Version 1.2.0 of firmware, available from Canon's BeBit website,... (More) Return to: Current News Archive Index