News Archive - May 2003 Return to: Current News Archive Index Friday, May 30, 2003 Konica preparing new 5mpix compact digicam 15:23 EDT - Japanese camera manufacturer Konica Corp is preparing to launch a new digital camera next Tuesday, according to a teaser posted on the company's website. The teaser, uncovered by our good friend Yamada Kumio of the digitalcamera.jp website, begins by showing a history of some of Konica's photographic highlights. The "Cherry", Konica's first ever camera... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Panasonic e-wear(TM) gear to have starring role in Paramount's new mega-action film: "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life" 10:32 EDT - Tiny, Wearable 4-In-1 SD A/V Recorder Helps Heroine Save The Day SECAUCUS, NJ (May 29, 2003) -- It used to be that those super-small, ultra-hip spy tools seen in the movies existed only in the imagination of screenwriters. But the heroine in the new Paramount Pictures "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life" uses a real-life super gadget that anyone can own: Panasonic's palm-sized e-wear(Tm)... (More) Thursday, May 29, 2003 Ricoh Japan announces Caplio Pro G3 17:34 EDT - Regular readers may well remember Ricoh's Caplio G3, a three megapixel camera announced earlier this year in Japan. At that time, three variants of the camera were announced - the stock Caplio G3, the magnesium-coated Model M, and the Model S with ability to tag images with text and audio clips. Now, our friend Yamada... (More) Wednesday, May 28, 2003 Fuji announces FinePix A210 Zoom 20:55 EDT - Fujifilm yesterday announced the FinePix A210 Zoom digital camera in numerous countries around the world - including Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom and more, but noteably not in the USA. The FinePix A210 Zoom is aimed at ease of use, with the camera's styling being strongly reminiscent of the FinePix 2600 and 2650 Zoom with their built-in sliding lens covers, but with the viewfinder lower... (More) Review posted for Olympus D-390 12:17 EDT - Olympus is clearly one of the leading digicam manufacturers, with many excellent models across a wide range of price points. (In my mind, led by their outstanding C-5050, introduced at the very end of last year.) Given its exceptional pedigree then, my testing of their D-390 model was a significant disappointment. In a marked departure from the rest of their line, I found its color disappointing and garish and... (More) Sony announces two new Cyber-shot U digicams (UPDATED) 00:00 EDT - Sony Electronics has today announced two new digital cameras in its Cyber-shot U series. Cyber-shot U cameras are traditionally very small and easy on the eye, and today's announcements are no exceptions. The DSC-U30 follows closely in the footsteps of the previous DSC-U10 and DSC-U20 models... (More) Nikon announces Coolpix 5400 digital camera (UPDATED) 00:00 EDT - Nikon Inc. has today announced its new Coolpix 5400 digital camera, a 5.1 megapixel camera similar in form factor to the Coolpix 5000 and 5700, but with a 4x optical zoom lens instead of the 3x or 8x zooms of those cameras. New features for the Coolpix 5400 on top of the lens include rear-curtain flash sync, user-controllable repeating flash, 64MB buffer for 3fps continuous shooting up to 7 frames, top shutter speed of 1/4000,... (More) Tuesday, May 27, 2003 Take a survey, win 20 prints up to 8" x 10" 18:50 EDT - Future Image, the digital imaging research body, has begun a survey into the printing habits of digital camera owners (or regular digital camera users who don't actually own a digicam). So long as you meet the above criteria, you're eligible to enter the survey, which consists of 46 questions - mostly multiple choice or asking you to rate the options in order of preference. One lucky... (More) Review posted for Minolta DiMAGE F300! 18:08 EDT - Minolta has updated last year's innovative F100 with a five megapixel sensor, calling the new model the DiMAGE F300. Like the F100 before it, the Minolta DiMAGE F300 is an excellent performer in almost every category, delivering excellent color with good white balance under a wide range of lighting. Its five megapixels... (More) PRESS RELEASE: New video editing software built with ACD's Software Development Kit (SDK) 15:21 EDT - Victoria, British Columbia, May 27, 2003 -- ACD Systems International Inc. (TSX: ASA), the digital imaging company, today announced the release of VideoGenesis, a fast video editing and video rotation software program developed by Magic Kite Software Ltd. with ACD's Software Development Kit (SDK). VideoGenesis operates as a plug-in to ACD's award winning digital imaging software, ACDSee™, and... (More) Saturday, May 24, 2003 HP digicam sales jump 46% 13:50 EDT - Hewlett-Packard Co. has announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2003. Of particular interest to our readership, HP says that its digital camera sales for the quarter jumped some 46% over the previous year, whilst total inkjet shipments climbed 22%, and all-in-one printer... (More) Friday, May 23, 2003 PRESS RELEASE: Delkin's new eFilm digital camera batteries are now available 06:10 EDT - Poway CA, May 20, 2003 Delkin Devices Inc., maker of high quality eFilm memory cards and other innovative products for camera stores worldwide, today announced their new line of eFilm digital camera back-up and replacement batteries is in full production and shipping. Previously announced at the PMA 2003 convention, the eFilm digital camera rechargeable batteries are designed specifically for today's... (More) Nikon D1x / D1h users: Important firmware for your flash cards 06:04 EDT - We have received an email from Lexar Media alerting us to a problem that has been discovered when using certain Lexar flash cards with the Nikon D1x and D1h digital cameras. Owners of these cameras will want to check their flash cards immediately, to confirm whether they own any of the following Lexar flash cards: 40x 256 MB 40x 512 MB 32x 1 GB If you do own one or more of... (More) Kopin announces new cyberdisplays, EVFs 05:46 EDT - Taunton, MA-based Kopin Corp., a manufacturer of displays used in electronic viewfinders for digital cameras, camcorders and other products, has announced a number of additions to its offerings. Kopin has added two new 0.16" micro-displays, the CyberDisplay 113K (521 x 218 pixels with a color filter; 113,578 total pixels) and the CyberDisplay 300M (300 x 225 pixels in monochrome; 67,500 total... (More) Thursday, May 22, 2003 PRESS RELEASE: Displaytech Announces Asia-Pacific Subsidiary Focused on Regional Customer Sales and Technical Support Initiatives 13:28 EDT - LONGMONT, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 20, 2003--Displaytech Inc., the leader in ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) microdisplays, today announced the start of operations of Displaytech Asia-Pacific K.K (DTAP). The establishment of DTAP highlights Displaytech's continued focus on the most important region for the design and development of digital still cameras and camcorders, Displaytech's core markets... (More) Wednesday, May 21, 2003 New website lets your pictures speak for themselves (UPDATED) 16:36 EDT - Something users of current online photo-sharing websites may be familiar with is the problem of your prized pictures being drowned out by banner ads of all sizes, shouting out for your visitors to purchase prints, visit personals websites, buy a new car - anything but look at that photo they came to see. Now, a new website from a father-and-son team with a long history on the 'web promises to change that, letting your photos take pride of place on advert- and popup-free pages that you can customise to... (More) Tuesday, May 20, 2003 Kodak gives you a new view on your images 15:42 EDT - Eastman Kodak Co. has today announced that it has launched a new brand name for its Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) display technology, which made its first appearance in a digital camera with the announcement of the Kodak EasyShare LS633 zoom back at the PMA 2003 show last March. The announcement, that OLED displays will henceforth be referred to by the Kodak NuVue brandname, was made at the Society for Information Display conference in Baltimore. The press release quotes research... (More) Monday, May 19, 2003 PRESS RELEASE: More than megapixels... Canon's new advertising campaign coaches consumers on advantages of DIGIC technology 14:43 EDT - May 2003 (Newstream) -- Canon U.S.A., Inc., a subsidiary of Canon Inc. (NYSE: CAJ), today kicked-off an estimated $42 million nationwide print and television advertising campaign to promote Canon's DIGIC image processing technology. Exclusive to Canon, DIGIC technology optimizes digital camera and camcorder results to seamlessly produce beautiful high-quality digital images. "We launched this campaign... (More) PRESS RELEASE: SanDisk expands sales of flash memory cards and accessories into Dubai - second largest state in the United Arab Emirates 14:30 EDT - Signs Premier Retailer Grand Stores As Direct Distribution Partner In The Desert's Most Exciting City DUBAI, U.A.E, May 19, 2003 - SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) announced today it has signed Grand Stores LLC as a direct distribution partner for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Grand Stores is an up-scale retail chain that carries SanDisk's complete line of flash memory cards and accessories.... (More) Review posted for Canon PowerShot A300! 13:56 EDT - Like the PowerShot A100 and A200, the A300 model combines Canon's great user interface and a nice sampling of exposure controls with a low price. As a very user-friendly point-and-shoot style digicam, the Canon PowerShot A300 is simple to operate and takes good quality pictures. The 3.2-megapixel CCD is suitable for printing full-resolution images... (More) Friday, May 16, 2003 Pentax *ist D delayed to August 10:37 EDT - Pentax Japan has today announced that its *ist D single-lens reflex digital camera, originally planned to ship in June 2003, has now been delayed by about a month to August. First hinted at in October 2002, and later announced at the end of February 2003, the *ist D will feature a 6.1 megapixel, 23.5 x 15.7mm CCD image sensor, an 11-point autofocus sensor, shutter speeds to... (More) Thursday, May 15, 2003 Lunar Eclipse for America, West Europe, Africa 11:15 EDT - Tonight promises to yield some great photo opportunities for Imaging Resource readers in the continental USA, Canada, South America, Western Europe and Africa - weather permitting, that is. The first lunar eclipse of 2003 occurs this evening (or, if you're in Europe and Africa, in the early hours of tomorrow morning). Extremely in-depth details can be found on the NASA website - so check... (More) Wednesday, May 14, 2003 NuCORE shows new image processors 12:07 EDT - NuCORE Technology Inc. has today introduced two new image processors for digital still and video cameras at an event in Tokyo. The CleanCapture SiP 1270 and NDX 1260 Image Processors are designed to work together to reduce noise, with a range of attendant benefits. The NDX 1260 is an analog image processor that takes the analog... (More) Nikon Europe: CP2100 firmware update 11:20 EDT - Nikon Europe has posted a firmware update for its Coolpix 2100 digital camera which appears to mirror the changes in a recent firmware update for the Coolpix 3100. As with the firmware update for that camera which was released in Europe on April 23rd, and by Nikon USA shortly afterward, v1.1 of firmware for the Nikon Coolpix 2100 corrects a problem whereby the camera... (More) Review posted for Pentax Optio S!! 00:56 EDT - This is definitely one of the most interesting cameras to hit the market this year. The eye-grabbing part of it is that it's small enough to fit into an empty Altoids tin. The bigger news though, is the surprisingly good image quality and exceptional range of features the Pentax engineers... (More) Monday, May 12, 2003 Minolta USA announces DiMAGE Xt digicam 15:28 EDT - Minolta USA has today announced the upcoming DiMAGE Xt digital camera, a model which was first shown at the "Sneak Peek" press event accompanying the Photo Marketing Association show in Florida last March. For a direct visual comparison with the existing DiMAGE Xi model, read our old item - but in brief, the new model is somewhat smaller and lighter than its predecessor, and features an updated look. A new... (More) Minolta announces DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 film scanner 13:11 EDT - Minolta USA has today announced the new DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 film scanner, a model which was unveiled in Europe just over a month ago. We first told readers about the Scan Elite 5400 on April 9th after IR reader Daniel Sidenbladh alerted us to the European announcement, but weren't immediately able to say anything about US plans for... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Minolta announces new CompactFlash adapter for SD memory cards 11:34 EDT - New Minolta SD-CF1 CompactFlash Adapter provides the ultimate in flexibility, compatibility and convenience Ramsey, NJ (May 12, 2003) - Minolta Corporation announces the new Minolta SD-CF1 CompactFlash Adapter, enabling SD (Secure Digital) Memory Cards to be used with most CompactFlash compatible cameras, printers, PDAs or other imaging equipment. Use of an SD Memory Card with the new Minolta adapter... (More) DiMAGE Messenger goes to retail 11:24 EDT - A press release today from Minolta Corp. announces that a boxed retail version of its DiMAGE Messenger software is now available. DiMAGE Messenger was first announced back at the Photo Marketing Association Show in March, when a downloadable version of the software was made available for $30. Users can mark areas of photos, and... (More) Kodak acquires ASF's Digital PIC 10:14 EDT - A press release this morning from Eastman Kodak Co. announces that the company has agreed to acquire certain technologies from Applied Science Fiction (ASF), including Digital PIC - which allows traditional film to be developed using a non-toxic agent with no by-products, then scanned and digital prints or files provided to the customer. The press release says that "other key assets" have also been acquired by Kodak, but does not specify exactly what these are. ASF is probably best known for its Digital ICE, ROC and GEM technologies -... (More) Saturday, May 10, 2003 Sigma: New SD9 firmware, software on the way 18:28 EDT - A press release from Sigma Corp. announces that a new version of firmware for its SD9 digital SLR and an update to the SIGMA Photo Pro application will soon be released. From Wednesday May 14th, owners of the SD9 will be able to download the updates from the Sigma America or Sigma Japan websites. The most significant change in SIGMA Photo Pro v1.1 is the use of 4:4:4 downsampling... (More) Friday, May 9, 2003 HiTi updates its 630PS dye-sub to be faster, higher-res 15:33 EDT - Hi-Touch Imaging Technologies has announced an update to its existing 630PS dye-sublimation printer, in the form of the new 640PS. The 640PS is 6mm wider than its predecessor, and is both higher resolution and faster. The 630PS was 300 x 300 dots per inch (dpi) - which HiTi says is equivalent to a 4800 dpi inkjet - where the new... (More) HiTi Transphotable portable dye-sub ships 15:08 EDT - A press release from Hi-Touch Imaging Technologies announces that its Transphotable dye-sublimation printer is now in the USA. The Transphotable is a portable 4" x 6" dye-sub, and can be plugged into a car cigarette lighter with the included DC car power converter. No computer is needed, as the printer has a 1.6-inch color LCD... (More) Review posted for Sony DSC-P72! 10:28 EDT - I've consistently been a fan of Sony's Cyber-shot line of digicams, and regarded the previous DSC-P71 a good midrange" option for point-and-shoot digital photography. The DSC-P72 proves just as capable, if not more so with its extended preset Scene options. The camera's light weight and portable size are perfect for travel, and the range of automatic exposure modes... (More) Review posted for Olympus D-560 Zoom! 10:25 EDT - I've lost count of how many generations there have been now of Olympus' midrange "clamshell" design cameras, but it's been quite a few, and they only keep getting better. The latest in this line is the D-560 Zoom, a 3.2 megapixel model with a 3x optical zoom lens and healthy assortment of features. This is very much a middle of the road digicam design, neither overly stripped... (More) Short form review posted for Sony DSC-P8! 09:56 EDT - Sony's made something of a specialty of crafting full-featured cameras aimed at the solid "middle ground" of the consumer market. Scoring high on image quality, ease of use, and features/flexibility, their Cyber-Shot line has something for everyone. Their "Compact P-series" of cameras have done particularly well in the compact-camera... (More) Friday, May 2, 2003 Maha announces 2200mAh AA batteries 08:00 EDT - Maha Energy Corp., the company behind the PowerEx brandname, has this morning announced its new 2200mAh batteries. The new batteries are available as a set of four with carrying case for $18.95, or in a kit with the MH-C204F battery charger and eight of the batteries for $49.95 from Maha's website. Resident 'battery... (More) Canon's new Card Photo Printers: More details 03:55 EDT - As we told you earlier today, Canon Inc.has announced two new card photo printers, the CP-200 and CP-300. As with the PowerShot SD100 digital camera, these printers have been announced worldwide, but with limited information available in the USA. We now have further details courtesy of Canon Japan, including... (More) Canon's PowerShot SD100: More details 03:02 EDT - We told you earlier today about Canon's new PowerShot SD100 - a camera which has been announced worldwide, but with limited information available in the USA. We now have further details courtesy of Canon Japan (specifications, sample images), and our friends at the Digital Photography Review (who have European pricing and a full review). If you've not read... (More) Canon announces new PowerShot digicam, two printers 02:00 EDT - Canon Inc. has today announced a new digital camera for its PowerShot lineup, along with two new card photo printers - with announcements coinciding in Japan, the USA and Europe. Unfortunately, Canon U.S.A. Inc. has only issued a press release and three product photos at this time, and has yet to decide on pricing or availability for any of these products. Hence, we will update... (More) Thursday, May 1, 2003 Canon digicams help double profits 03:28 EDT - An article from the Associated Press says that camera manufacturer Canon has doubled its profits in the first quarter of this year as compared to 2002. The article goes on to say that Canon is attributing the profits largely to digital camera sales, and that it expects profits for the full year to rise some 26% to US$2 billion, with total sales increasing... (More) Fuji Japan sees SARS hurting digicam output 03:19 EDT - Unless you've been living under a rock recently, you've doubtless heard of SARS - "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome" - an illness which is transmitted by respiratory droplets and seems to be fatal in around 10% of cases. SARS has mostly affected Asia (and in particular China) at this point, as well as some cases in Canada. We've been hearing suggestions for a couple of weeks now that SARS might negatively impact businesses... (More) I/O Magic announces the iDrive Digital Photo Library (UPDATED) 02:24 EDT - Santa Ana, California-based peripherals company I/O Magic has announced another addition to the increasingly competitive portable storage market, with the introduction of its new iDrive Digital Photo Library. Available in a capacity of 20GB at an MSRP of $229.99, the iDrive may look familiar - it is actually a rebadged version of Taiwanese manufacturer Vosonic's X's-Drive, which was first announced in November... (More) Return to: Current News Archive Index