News Archive - July 2003 Return to: Current News Archive Index Thursday, July 31, 2003 Fuji FinePix S5000 samples online 07:07 EDT - Fuji Japan and USA have both placed sample photos from the just-announced FinePix S5000 digital camera on their websites. If you've not heard of the FinePix S5000, you may want to read our earlier news item covering the launch before continuing any further. To recap very briefly, the camera has an SLR-like form factor with... (More) Ritz prepares to sell single-use digicams 03:35 EDT - A press release from Ritz Camera Centers Inc. announces that it has partnered with Pure Digital Technologies Inc. to market a single-use digital camera. Ritz isn't the first to do so - Pentax and Sanyo were first to announce a trial run of a single-use digicam in Japan almost two years ago - but to the best of our knowledge this would be the first such... (More) Wednesday, July 30, 2003 PRESS RELEASE: Smile! You're using TI signal processing technology 04:34 EDT - Top 10 Digital Camera Manufacturers Integrate TI's Signal Processing Technology to Meet the Demands of an Explosive Market DALLAS (July 28, 2003) - Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE:TXN) today announced that it has secured the majority of the industry's top 10 digital consumer point-and-shoot camera manufacturers as customers for its signal processing products. Of these OEMs, over 70 percent... (More) Qimage update released: v2003.243 04:24 EDT - Mike Chaney of DDI Software, the man behind popular imaging utility Qimage, dropped us an email with news of new updates to the program. Perhaps most noticeable is that the name has been changed for simplicity. Formerly "Qimage Pro", the latter word has now been dropped since it could potentially confuse users into thinking that there... (More) Tuesday, July 29, 2003 PRESS RELEASE: FocalBlade - Sharpen your Photos Perfectly Without the Usual Side Effects 17:30 EDT - July 29, 2003 - The Plugin Site (http://www.thepluginsite.com) is proud to announce the release of FocalBlade, a Photoshop-compatible plugin for sharpening your photos for screen display and printing as well as for producing great looking blur, soft focus and glow effects on 8bit and 16bit RGB images. FocalBlade lets you sharpen photos without amplifying noise or artifacts and produces impressive sharpening... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Pictographics Releases Stand-Alone Version of iCorrect(r) EditLab Color Correction Software 17:14 EDT - Stand-alone version of award-winning color correction software features AutoQueue(tm) for rapid-fire color correction of digital pictures. July 28, 2003-Burnsville, MN-Pictographics International Corporation, a leading developer of color technology software, announces the release of a stand-alone version of its award-winning color correction software, iCorrect(r) EditLab. iCorrect(r) EditLab makes... (More) Monday, July 28, 2003 Fuji announces S602Z successor, FinePix S7000 22:00 EDT - Fuji Photo Film U.S.A., Inc. has today announced a successor for its S602 Zoom digital camera in the form of the FinePix S7000. The S602Z, first announced in January 2002, was a 3 megapixel camera with a 6x optical zoom - and the new S7000 updates that model with a 6 megapixel 4th-gen SuperCCD HR sensor. The form factor of the... (More) Fuji announces new S-series digicam, FinePix S5000 22:00 EDT - Regular Imaging Resource readers have known for a week that it was on the way, and now Fuji has made the S5000 digital camera official Unusually, when the camera was first leaked by Fuji Israel last week, Mike hadn't heard anything from Fuji - and hence wasn't under a non-disclosure agreement and could comment. The leaked info was removed... (More) Fuji USA announces FinePix A205, A210 22:00 EDT - Fujifilm USA has today announced two new digital cameras for the US market - one of which is newly announced worldwide today, and the other of which was announced in Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom and more last May. The two cameras are closely related, and along with the newly announced A310 are designed to fit a shared camera dock courtesy of inserts that ship with each camera (the dock is an optional extra). Sound... (More) Review posted for Sony DSC-U60! 15:25 EDT - The DSC-U60 is something of a departure for Sony. It extends their "ultra cute" U-series line, but this time adds a flash, two megapixels of resolution, and a completely waterproof case. The result is an extremely easy-to-use camera that snaps surprisingly... (More) Rollei announces 3.1mpix, 3x zoom digicam 14:50 EDT - We hear today that a new digital camera will shortly be coming from a classic name in the world of photography - German manufacturer Rollei. Our friends at Dutch website LetsGoDigital.nl have picked up news of the Rollei dc3100, a model featuring a 1/2.7" 3.1 megapixel image sensor, resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels, and a 3x optical zoom which... (More) SMaL takes Autobrite on the road 00:01 EDT - Perhaps not quite directly related to digital imaging, but we thought this story interesting nonetheless: SMaL Camera Technologies will announce today that its CMOS imaging sensors featuring the proprietary "Autobrite" technology will be making the move from digital cameras to an altogether different field. Several digital camera models based on a reference design from SMaL and commercialised by manufacturers Fujifilm, Logitech, Radio Shack and Oregon Scientific already feature Autobrite, which the company... (More) Sunday, July 27, 2003 Iomega DCT: "Clik!" disk gets a major capacity boost 15:36 EDT - Iomega Corp. has announced a new removeable storage technology based around a tiny stainless-steel cartridge that offers an extremely useful 1.5GB of rewriteable storage in a package about the same size as a matchbook.. The new DCT ("Digital Capture Technology") cartridge is being developed by Iomega in cooperation with Fuji Photo Film Co. Ltd., Citizen Watch Co. Ltd. and Texas Instruments. Each DCT cartridge weighs... (More) Friday, July 25, 2003 Battery Shootout page updated! (UPDATED) 18:03 EDT - After way too long an interval, I've once again updated my "Battery Shootout" page, this time adding new or updated results for no less than 9 different manufacturer/capacity combinations. The new champs are Maha's PowerEx 2200s, but as noted in the article, I'm a little hesitant to proclaim that particular result too strongly as it's based on results from a single set of cells. I'm hoping... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Largest-Ever PhotoshopWorld Conference & Expo To Bring New Techniques, Technology to Creative Industry 00:24 EDT - TAMPA, Fla. -- July 23, 2003 -- Creativity, productivity, and profitability will be the training focus of this year's PhotoshopWorld Conference & Expo, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals announced today. Billed as "The Largest Adobe Photoshop Event In The World" and sponsored by corporate giant Adobe Systems, Inc., PhotoshopWorld will offer attendees more than 60 educational sessions... (More) Oregon Scientific announces 1.3mpix credit-card digicam 00:00 EDT - Oregon Scientific Inc. has today announced a new digital camera based on a design from SMaL Camera Technologies, the 'flash thincam' DS 6628. The new model follows the "thincam" DS 6618 which was based on SMaL's original credit-card camera. As with the recently-announced FUJIFILM AXIA "eyeplate mega", which is based on the same new SMaL design,... (More) Thursday, July 24, 2003 PRESS RELEASE: PRECLICK SHIPS LIFETIME™ PHOTO ORGANIZER 15:22 EDT - First Software with SmartPhoto™ Feature Which Enables Fast Photo Searches At $19.95 This Fastest, Easiest Photo Organizer Navigates Through Hundreds of Photos Instantly July 24, 2003, Atlantic Highlands, NJ -- Preclick Corporation announced today that it has begun shipping the award-winning Preclick Lifetime™ Photo Organizer. Winner of Shutterbug Magazine's Best of PMA 2003 Award,... (More) Review posted for Sony DSC-P32! 15:06 EDT - I've consistently been a fan of Sony's Cyber-shot line of digicams, and the P32's combination of price, features, and generally good color would make it a good choice for many users, were it not for the very inconsistent exposure I experienced when working with it. While I could always manage to compensate for the exposure manually, using the exposure-compensation adjustment, any digicam should do better than this, and especially an entry-level model aimed at novice... (More) Review posted for the Kodak EasyShare Print Dock 6000! 14:57 EDT - Standalone digital photo printers can be very convenient for quickly and easily getting prints out of your digital camera. Kodak has come up with one that's also a "dock" for their 6000-series EasyShare cameras, providing battery recharging and computer access for the camera in the same unit as the printer. The Kodak EasyShare... (More) Tuesday, July 22, 2003 Another interesting D2H preview 04:59 EDT - We just spotted another interesting preview of the Nikon D2H. If you visit DigitalReview.ca, you'll find an interesting 6-page preview with numerous exclusive pictures of the camera, its menu system, etc. There's also plenty of text to describe the new camera. Definitely... (More) More Fuji digicams coming? 04:50 EDT - An anonymous tipoff sent us to a Fujifilm website that suggests that at least two more digital camera models are on the way to accompany the Finepix S5000 we told you about yesterday. If you visit FujifilmMall.com, and search for "S5000" you'll find two accessories listed as compatible with the as-yet unannounced camera. Both the WL-FX9 Wide Angle Lens Attachment Kit (Silver Lens) and... (More) LetsGoDigital posts Nikon D2H preview 04:35 EDT - Our friends at Dutch website have posted a great preview of the Nikon D2H digital camera. They were apparently fortunate to get some hands-on time with the D2H recently, and have posted an extremely stylish presentation in English, Dutch and Spanish. There are numerous exclusive photographs... (More) Nikon USA announces the long-rumored D2H digital SLR 01:00 EDT - 01:00ET - Nikon last announced a professional-level digital SLR camera in February 2001; today that changes with the introduction of a new model aimed squarely at matching or beating Canon's EOS-1D. Canon announced the EOS-1D on September 25th 2001, a little over six months after Nikon's D1X and D1H cameras were unveiled. The '1D raised the bar - with an effective resolution of 4.15 megapixels, a burst-rate of 8 frames per second up to 21 JPEG or 16 RAW frames, 45-point TTL-AREA-SIR focusing and a body with weather seals to keep out dust and moisture, Nikon's closest model was noticeably lagging... (More) Nikon announces Speedlight SB-800 01:00 EDT - Nikon Inc. has today announced a new Speedlight flash unit alongside its new digital SLR announcement. The Nikon Speedlight SB-800, which will be available in the fourth quarter of 2003 at an as-yet undecided price, is compatible with a new i-TTL flash control system that allows balanced fill and wireless... (More) Nikon announces two new DX lenses 01:00 EDT - Nikon Inc. has today announced two new lenses designed specifically for its DX-sensor format digital SLRs. The Nikon AF DX Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED lens definitely answers critics of digital SLRs with smaller sensors than a full 35mm film frame. Conventional wisdom is that really wide-angle photography... (More) Nikon announces AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED lens 01:00 EDT - Nikon Inc. has today announced a new super-telephoto zoom lens that has an effective focal range of 300 - 600mm on the company's digital SLRs. The Nikon AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED lens uses Vibration Reduction (VR) technology to reduce camera shake - important at such long focal lengths. A Silent Wave Motor keeps noise to a minimum,... (More) Nikon Capture software updated to v4.0 01:00 EDT - Nikon Inc. has announced a new version of its Nikon Capture software alongside the launch of its new D2H digital camera. The new version will be available later this year, with pricing and upgrade plans not yet detailed in the press release. Nikon Capture V4.0 has a number of new features of interest... Supports .NEF RAW... (More) Monday, July 21, 2003 Fuji: 10x zoom, SuperCCD HR update to S602Z? (UPDATED) 16:34 EDT - An email from Max Penson, Editor and Owner of the Israeli digital imaging website D-Spot.co.il, alerted us to some interesting news published by Fuji Israel. According to a page on the Fuji Israel website, the company will be introducing an SLR-style camera called the FinePix S5000. The encoding of that web page seems to be incorrect as the text won't display... (More) Sunday, July 20, 2003 Sony releases Cyber-shot DSC-V1 firmware 18:49 EDT - Sony USA has posted a new version of firmware on its website for the Cyber-shot DSC-V1 digital camera. The company says that v2.0 of the DSC-V1 firmware has only one change - the addition of four languages to the menu system on top of the current English and French. German / Spanish / Italian / Portuguese... (More) Sony announces two digicam-equipped Clies 18:42 EDT - Sony Japan has announced two new additions to its Clie lineup of Palm OS PDAs, both featuring built-in digital cameras. The Sony Clie PEG-UX40 and UX50's cameras are only VGA (640 x 480 pixel) resolution, much lower than the 2 megapixel camera in the Clie PEG-NZ90. That said, though, they more than make up for this with... (More) Review posted for Pentax Optio 550! 16:43 EDT - Pentax has carved out a nice niche for themselves, with their Optio line of compact, solidly-constructed cameras Several previous models have made it to my Dave's Picks list, and now the Pentax Optio 550 has landed there in decisive fashion as well. Besides the boost to a 5 megapixel sensor and a sharp 5x optical... (More) Review posted for Contax TVS Digital! 16:40 EDT - In the photo industry, the Contax name carries a certain cachet, as it's long been associated with premium build quality and the excellence of Zeiss optics. With the 5 megapixel / 3x zoom TVS Digital, Contax is extending their popular "T" series of film-based cameras into the digital realm. Physically, the TVS Digital is clearly worthy of its heritage, with... (More) JEITA publishes drafts for EXIF v2.21, DCF 2.0 02:14 EDT - An email from an anonymous IR reader tells us that JEITA - the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association - has published drafts of two new proposed standards for digital cameras and related products. Both drafts are open to comment from July 11th to September 10th 2003, and both update existing standards. The proposed update to the DCF standard (DCF stands for "Design rule for Camera File system")... (More) Friday, July 18, 2003 Sony RGB+E CCD: Higher-res samples! 14:16 EDT - We just received two sample images from Sony demonstrating the capabilities of its just-announced RGB+E CCD image sensor alongside an unspecified conventional image sensor. If you've not already read our coverage of Wednesday's announcement of the new sensors, we'd suggest reading that first. Once you're familiar with what the RGB+E CCD is supposed to achieve, take a look... (More) ACD updates FotoSlate printing app 10:27 EDT - British Columbia-based ACD Systems Int'l Inc. has released an update of its FotoSlate printing application. New features in version 3.0 include: Calendar and Greeting Card Wizards - Create calendars and greeting cards from digital photos. Contact Sheet Wizard - Make contact sheets from groups of photos. Frames... (More) Thursday, July 17, 2003 Epson announces two new flatbed scanners 17:40 EDT - Epson America Inc. has this week announced two new flatbed scanner models - the $129 Epson Perfection 1670 PHOTO (which replaces the existing 1660 PHOTO model) and a new addition to the line - the $199 Perfection 3170 PHOTO. Both models are capable of scanning both reflective documents and slides / negatives - the 1670 courtesy of an included 35mm slide adapter, and the 3170 via a built-in backlight on the document cover.... (More) Wednesday, July 16, 2003 Minolta announces new X-series digicam 22:00 EDT - Minolta Corp. will tomorrow announce a new digital camera joining its lineup of ultra-compact models that use a prism to "fold" the lens path, allowing the entire lens to be contained inside the camera body. Minolta was the first to use this unusual lens design (which has subsequently been mimicked in a Sanyo camera announced in Japan) - and it allows the camera body to be kept remarkably small and slender.... (More) Sony Japan announces new RGB+E image sensors 00:27 EDT - An announcement on the Sony Japan website reveals that the company has come up with a new sensor which it says reduces color reproduction errors by a factor of 50% compared to its conventional sensors. Sony's announcement suggests that the company is moving away from chasing megapixels, instead calling consumers' attention to the fact that other characteristics can have just as much - if not more -... (More) Tuesday, July 15, 2003 UMAX announces PowerLook 1000 flatbed scanner 18:43 EDT - In its second new scanner announcement of the week, UMAX Technologies Inc. has unveiled what it is calling "the first 2400 dpi scanner for professionals and semi-professionals". The PowerLook 1000 is sold in two bundles - either with MagicScan software for $399, or with RGB software and a transparency adapter for $599. The scanner itself has a hardware resolution of 2400 x 2400... (More) UMAX announces PowerLook 1120 flatbed scanner 18:19 EDT - UMAX Technologies Inc. is this week announcing a new flatbed scanner it says is targetted at "Macintosh and PC graphics and imaging professionals". The PowerLook 1120 is sold in two bundles with either MagicScan or RGB software, costing $699 and $899 respectively. The PowerLook 1120 is an update to the existing PowerLook 1100 model, with improved... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Lexar Media Wins Prestigious TIPA Award for 2GB 40X-Speed Professional Series CompactFlash 16:25 EDT - Fremont, CA, July 15, 2003 - Lexar Media, Inc. (Nasdaq: LEXR), a leading designer, developer and marketer of award-winning high-performance digital media and accessories, announced today that Lexar Media's 2GB 40X-speed Professional Series CompactFlash has been recognized by the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) as the "Best Digital Accessory" introduced in Europe within the past twelve months.... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Create high-quality greeting cards online using your digital photos at new RitzCards.com site 16:21 EDT - IRVINE, Calif., July 15, 2003 - Leading photo-specialty e-commerce leader Ritz Interactive has launched a new Web site that allows customers to easily create unique, professionally printed greeting cards using their own digital photos. The new, user-friendly site, www.RitzCards.com, is the latest addition to the Ritz Interactive Web network, which includes such popular online shopping destinations... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Three Digital Imaging Legends to be Inducted Into Photoshop Hall of Fame 12:27 EDT - TAMPA, Fla. -- July 15, 2003 -- Digital imaging veterans Mark Hamburg, Jack Davis, and Stephen Johnson have been named as the 2003 inductees into the prestigious Photoshop Hall of Fame, recognized for their achievements in Photoshop Business Development, Education, and Art, respectively. The induction ceremony, which takes place as part of the 2003 PhotoshopWorld Conference and Expo (sponsored by Adobe... (More) Olympus C-740 UltraZoom review updated! 00:45 EDT - Digging out from under my digicam review backlog, I've just updated my review of the Olympus C-740 Ultra Zoom (3 megapixel, 10x optical zoom lens) to include results from a full-production model. Stay tuned, we'll be posting a "gallery" of random images from it hopefully by the end of the week, to supplement the standardized test shots. All in all, the C-740 UltraZoom is a nice camera, one of... (More) Monday, July 14, 2003 Olympus clarifies E-1 pricing 18:04 EDT - The New York Times apparently ran an article on Olympus' recently-announced E-1 SLR camera system on July 7th, but mistakenly published a price for the camera that was more than 60% too low. Olympus has now issued a statement correcting this error, stating: "On July 7th, the New York Times ran an article erroneously quoting the price for the new Olympus E-1 at 'less than 100,000 yen ($847.17)'.... (More) Full review posted for Nikon Coolpix 5400! 17:13 EDT - Nikon's Coolpix line have long been favorites with the "enthusiast" crowd, and with good reason - they offer a wide range of features that cater to the serious photographer, providing all the exposure flexibility you could ask for, and helping them integrate with external strobe systems and Nikon's wide range of digicam accessory lenses. The latest in the lineup is the Nikon Coolpix 5400, a 5-megapixel, 4x zoom-equipped model that extends both the zoom range and feature set of the earlier 5000. The 5400 is an interesting camera too, in... (More) PRESS RELEASE: Kodak Introduces New Macintosh Version of the Award-Winning Digital GEM Plug-in 08:00 EDT - Free trial version Digital GEM plug-in, Macintosh version, for noise/grain reduction is now available at www.asf.com Rochester, NY (July 14, 2003) - Eastman Kodak Company today introduced the Mac version of the Digital GEM plug-in for automatic noise and grain reduction. The Digital GEM plug-in is the newest addition to the software suite of image correction and enhancement plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop... (More) Friday, July 11, 2003 PRESS RELEASE: SanDisk promotes LeVerne Kelley to Vice President of Human Resources and Environmental Health and Safety 14:20 EDT - SUNNYVALE, CA, July 9, 2003 - SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) announced today the promotion of LeVerne Kelley to the position of vice president of human resources and environmental health and safety. In her new position Kelley will report to Michael Gray, SanDisk's chief financial officer. As the vice president of human resources and environmental health and safety, Kelley has direct responsibility... (More) PRESS RELEASE: InterVideo Announces WinDVD Creator Platinum 2 14:15 EDT - Combines Impressive Roster of Advanced Features for Capturing, Editing, Authoring and Burning in a Single, Integrated Solution NEW YORK CITY - July 9, 2003 --InterVideo, Inc. announced today the release of WinDVD™ Creator Platinum 2, an integrated software solution that eliminates the need to switch between video editing, authoring and burning software programs, reduces wait times and addresses... (More) PRESS RELEASE: JPEG2000/Part6 - LuraDocument.jpm: Beta program has begun! 13:40 EDT - Algo Vision LuraTech introduces LuraDocument.jpm, the first worldwide implementation of the new ISO standard JPEG2000/Part6. JPEG2000/Part6 is the standard for compressing real documents in color. That's because the scanned documents are first segmented, i.e., the image components are separated from the text components and the text is divided up again into pure black & white text and the text color.... (More) Thursday, July 10, 2003 Fuji Japan announces IR card photo printer 16:18 EDT - A press release on Fuji Japan's website yesterday announced a new card photo printer that can receive images wirelessly from a camera-equipped cellphone over an infrared link. The product is likely still some way from reaching the market in Japan, let alone overseas. Fuji notes that the product name, price and availability date for that country haven't yet been decided. Brief... (More) Pentax releases a new digicam binocular 00:04 EDT - A press release on Pentax Japan's website today announces an update to its DIGIBINO DB100, which combines a digital still camera with a pair of binoculars. The new DIGIBINO DB200 overhauls its predecessor with a higher resolution imager, newly added SD card storage and microphone for sound recording, EXIF 2.2 support and a stronger digital zoom. The 16MB... (More) Tuesday, July 8, 2003 SMaL's 1.3 megapixel credit card digicam now available 14:17 EDT - Regular readers may remember that we told you last year of plans from SMaL Camera Technologies to update its credit card camera design with several new or improved features. Our prediction has now become reality with the announcement by FUJIFILM AXIA Co. Ltd. of a new camera based on SMaL's updated design. Fuji's AXIA subsidiary was the first to commercialise the original... (More) Monday, July 7, 2003 Arizona conference for Digital Fine Art Photographers 12:54 EDT - Our good friend Uwe Steinmueller of the Digital Outback Photo website emailed over the weekend to let us know that he'll be participating in a conference for digital photographers this November in Arizona. The Fall 2003 Digital Fine Art Photographer's Summit, hosted by Uwe and Alain Briot, with a Keynote Presentation by Michael Reichmann, will be taking place from November 15th to 17th in Phoenix. As well... (More) PRESS RELEASE: WiebeTech Announces 7200RPM MicroGB+TM Pocket Drive Offering Desktop Performance 12:43 EDT - WICHITA, KS - July 7, 2003 - WiebeTech announces a 7200RPM version of the popular MicroGB+ pocket drives. "This is our first pocket drive offering that supports audio and digital video editing at a desktop performance level," said James Wiebe, CEO of WiebeTech. "Simply put, the performance envelope of MicroGB+ has been expanded by approximately 30 percent." Using Hitachi's latest notebook drive,... (More) Friday, July 4, 2003 July 4th: Have your cameras at the ready! 00:31 EDT - With our American readers celebrating Independence Day today, we felt it might be useful to pull out an old news item from our files... We first published this article in July 2000, but the techniques remain unchanged, and with modern digital cameras being a great improvement on just a few years ago, chances are you'll be able to achieve... (More) Thursday, July 3, 2003 Ricoh Europe announces Caplio G3 Model S 17:44 EDT - A press release recently from Ricoh Europe has reannounced the Caplio G3 Model S digital camera, a model that has been available in Japan since shortly after it was announced in mid-February. The camera - called the "Caplio G3 S" for short - will go on sale in Europe from the middle of this month. It is extremely similar to the existing Caplio G3 model, but with a number of changes: Shutter... (More) Wednesday, July 2, 2003 PRESS RELEASE: X-Rite Acquires Monaco Systems Color Management Software Company 19:17 EDT - - Acquisition part of Company's strategic growth initiative - Grandville, Mich., - July 2, 2003 -X-Rite , Incorporated (NASDAQ:XRIT) announced that it has acquired the assets of Monaco Systems, a Massachusetts-based company that develops and distributes color management software to the graphic arts and photo markets. This $10.6 million asset purchase funded by a combination of cash and stock, some... (More) Review posted for Ricoh Caplio RR30 14:33 EDT - One of the biggest bugaboos for users of digicams (and the one I probably get the most complaints over from readers) is shutter lag - the delay between when you push the shutter button and when the camera actually takes the picture. There hasn't seemed to be much hope for improvement, as none of the major camera makers have managed to get full-autofocus shutter lag much below three-quarters of a second. Now comes Ricoh, with their... (More) Sony DSC-V1 review updated! 14:27 EDT - I've *finally* gotten around to uploading my test shots from a production model of Sony's new DSC-V1 digicam, along with my findings on its image quality. Bottom line? This is a heckuva a digicam, with some amazing capabilities, but I felt that the earlier F717 edged it in image quality. Of course, there's a big difference in bulk between the two, not to mention a significant difference in price. Look at the sample photos, your pocketbook, and your camera bag, and decide which is the right one for you. Despite the F717 "winning," both are great digicams... Review posted for Kodak EasyShare DX6340! 14:24 EDT - Kodak's EasyShare digital cameras have consistently proved to be among the easiest to use of any I've tested, and the DX6340 follows suit. Its fully automatic exposure control performs surprisingly well in a wide variety of conditions, and the partial manual exposure control is a welcome bonus for extending the camera's capabilities. A handful... (More) MASSIVE "galleries" update posted! (More to come) 14:15 EDT - I've generally focused (no pun intended) on standardized test photos on this site, as that's the only way you can really get valid comparisons of image quality between cameras. A lot of readers have asked for more samples of random photos taken with each camera though, to show how they perform with more "natural" subjects. I've been working on this, assisted by my friend... (More) Review Posted for Fujifilm F410! 14:09 EDT - Fuji's cameras are characterized by bright, appealing "Fuji Color," and the F410 is one of their latest. With a three megapixel SuperCCD making files as large as 6 megapixels and a 3x zoom lens, the F410 is a solid "point and shoot" model. I hadn't previously been a big fan of Fuji's rectangular 400-series... (More) PRESS RELEASE: SanDisk Names Richard Chernicoff Vice President, Business Development 13:24 EDT - SUNNYVALE, CA, July 2, 2003 - SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) announced today the appointment of Richard S.O. Chernicoff to the newly created position of vice president, business development. Chernicoff will be based in Sunnyvale and report to Eli Harari, SanDisk CEO and president. "Rich's appointment reflects our commitment to pursue growth opportunities within existing and emerging new markets.... (More) Tuesday, July 1, 2003 PRESS RELEASE: CANON'S POWERSHOT SD100 DIGITAL ELPH, CP-200/CP-300 CARD PHOTO PRINTERS COMBINE QUALITY, FLEXIBILITY AND STYLE WITH SMALL SIZES 11:02 EDT - LAKE SUCCESS, N. Y., June 27, 2003 - Canon U.S.A., Inc., a subsidiary of Canon Inc. (NYSE: CAJ), today announced that its smallest and lightest Digital ELPH® camera thus far - the new PowerShot® SD100 as well as the company's latest Pictbridge™ direct printing technology- compatible CP-200 and CP-300 Card Photo Printers will be available this summer for suggested retail pricing of $499,... (More) PRESS RELEASE: HP Expands Personal Printing Solutions with Rich Photo Quality for Home or Office 10:33 EDT - PALO ALTO, CALIF., JULY 1, 2003 HP (NYSE:HPQ) today announced a new line of photo-quality printing solutions for home and office users. The products include thicker, glossier and heavier HP Premium Plus Photo paper, an expanded paper line and four new HP Deskjet printers. "As the industry leader, HP is committed to providing customers with the broadest portfolio of digital imaging printing systems... (More) Firewire Depot Introduces 6-in-1 USB 2.0 Card Reader 10:30 EDT - The $30 reader supports CompactFlash, SmartMedia ,IBM Microdrive, MemoryStick, MultiMedia-Card and Secure Digital cards. FireWire Depot has introduced the DB-35U6in1, a USB to 6-in-1 card reader for CompactFlash, SmartMedia, IBM Microdrive, MemoryStick , MultiMedia-Card and Secure Digital cards. The $29.95 reader supports... (More) Return to: Current News Archive Index