August 2000 news archive
Thursday, 31 August 2000
Ever
wanted to go for a swim with your S100/IXUS? Now you can, Canon's AW-PS
200 waterproof case will allow you to go down to three metres, it also
protects the camera from the odd knock and is also dust proof. It's available
now (in Europe at least) for 225 EUR (£ 140, US$ 200). Thanks to
Digitalkamera.de for this article. (04:00 GMT)Wednesday, 30 August 2000
Browsing
over the Olympus Talk forum I noticed some interest in a partially translation
of the E-10 Q & A from the Olympus Japan website. Taking this a bit
further (and making it accessible to more people) I've spent about 2 hours
or so translating, sifting and sorting that Q & A page to bring it
to you in English (all 130+ questions & answers). There's also an
intersesting comparison to the C-2500L. So if you're really interested
in the E-10, you need to see this.UPDATE: Now complete. (04:00 GMT)
Adobe,
Agfa, Canon, Kodak, Fujifilm, HP, Microsoft, PhotoChannel Networks, PhotoWorks,
PictureIQ, Polarid and Workstation.Com. Some big names in there and in
total there are around 80 companies involved in DIG. DIG35 Metadata Specification
is a method for recording information about a digital image, exposure,
ownership, copyright, location etc. (taking EXIF headers to a whole new
level). DIG35 has just been completed and is now available for downloaded. (04:00 GMT)
Over
the last two days there have been a few press releases covering the products
included with the Nikon Coolpix 880 (at least the package sold in the
US). First off there's Altamira's GenuineFractals 2.0 LE perfect for resizing
your Coolpix 880 images for BIG prints. Secondly Lexar announce the 8MB
CF card bundled with the 880 will be an 8 x USB-enabled CF. (04:00 GMT)
Actually,
these lenses were announced (in the US) a week or so ago but we didn't
cover them, as lenses are a new subject area for us we thought it'd be
useful to highlight these new lenses from Canon: EF 28-90mm f/4.0-5.6
USM, EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM, and EF 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 USM. We've
got the full press release and converted focal lengths when used on an
EOS-D30. (04:00 GMT)Tuesday, 29 August 2000
We've
seen hints / heard of this for quite a few weeks, and it's clear that
Kodak Pro representative offices in different countries are handling this
in different ways, but today Kodak US announced clear price cuts for their
560 & 660 DCS cameras in addition to previous price drops in the DCS
range. They note "This new pricing is possible due to ongoing manufacturing
efficiencies", but we know that competition is the real reason...
The heat is on for Kodak and they're getting sweaty. (04:00 GMT)
Jeff
Keller over at DC Resource has just posted a review of Kodak's 3 megapixel
DC4800. This all new camera from Kodak goes up against the Nikon Coolpix
990 and Olympus C-3030Z.. So what did Jeff think of it ? "I can't
say that I've been a huge fan of Kodak cameras in the past, but boy how
times have changed. The DC4800 is an exceptional camera, with a full suite
of features, great photo quality, and a nice bundle, all at the attractive
price of $799. I'd put this camera right at the top of the 3 Megapixel
class, along with the Olympus C-3000 series and the Nikon Coolpix 990." (04:00 GMT)Monday, 28 August 2000
Ever
wondered why when you convert full colour digital camera images to black
and white they just don't look the same as 35mm black and white film?
Because black and white film reacts differently to differet parts of the
colour spectrum, and most photo packages don't take this into account.
But help is at hand! SilverOxide have a set of Photoshop plugins which
can reproduce the look of various brands of B&W film from existing
colour digital images. And it really works! (04:00 GMT)As Digital SLR's become more prominent in the digital photography market
place it looks as though we will also have to keep an eye on SLR accessories.
Lenses in particular are so important to a Digital SLR, and especially
ones with smaller focal lengths. Today Nikon have announced:
AF Zoom-Nikkor 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5D IF Lens
AF Zoom-Nikkor 24-85mm f/2.8-4D I Lens
AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G Lens
AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Lens
Nikon N65 35mm camera (04:00 GMT)
AF Zoom-Nikkor 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5D IF Lens
AF Zoom-Nikkor 24-85mm f/2.8-4D I Lens
AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G Lens
AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF Lens
Nikon N65 35mm camera (04:00 GMT)
Today
Nikon will announce the Coolpix 880, what appears a logical upgrade to
the Coolpix 800 announced about the same time last year. And at first
appearance it certainly looks that way. But this is no cut-down 990, rather
it uses the same engine and flexibility and adds a whole range of user
friendly features which makes the 880 a seriously good digital camera.
Best of all we have a full in-depth review for you (even before the press
releases get out!) (04:00 GMT)
Kodak
Japan announce the tiny DC3800, aimed squarly at Canon's Digital IXUS
(S100 ELPH) this compact 2.1 megapixel digicam produces 1792 x 1184 images
has a fixed 33mm lens (vs. Canon's sweet little 2x zoom lens). It's now
confirmed that this will be a worldwide product, not just domestic. (04:00 GMT)
Our
good friends Dave and Mike over at Imaging Resource have had a busy few
days recently, first off is their "almost full review" of a
pre-production Canon D30. Then comes a review of Fujifilm's S1 Pro, a
comparison of the S1 Pro, D30 and Nikon's D1 and finally a full review
of Toshiba's PDR M70.. Just when I thought I was working hard ;) (11:30 GMT)Sunday, 27 August 2000
Wow, I was so busy working I missed the fact that we've now steamed through
10,000,000 unique visitors since we started the site in January 1999.
Just a personal note from me to all the people who've supported us over
the last 20 months, manufacturers, sponsors and most importantly you,
our visitors. Keep coming back, we've got so much to come over the next
few months... Digital Photography is just coming of age. (04:00 GMT)
Thursday, 24 August 2000
If
you live in a European country (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland
etc. etc.) and you'd like the chance to win a Canon BJC-50 (there are
a total of six being given away) then spend a few minutes completing this
joint digital camera survey produced in association with digitalkamera.de,
GFK marketing services and Canon. The survey itself pretty straight forward
and will go to help manufacturers produce better cameras for you in the
future! (Plus you might win a printer... can't be bad) (04:00 GMT)
It's
been a confusing couple of days, according to what we've seen on the Japanese
sites and read on the Olympus Japan website no mention has been made of
the LCD on the E-10 being usable as a viewfinder. However, today Olympus
Europe posted their information on the E-10 and E-100RS. Of the E-10's
viewfinder they say "By tilting the LCD monitor down 20 or up 90
degrees, a greater viewing angle can be achieved. This is particularly
useful when shooting from difficult positions where the SLR viewfinder
would be too impractical." (04:00 GMT)Wednesday, 23 August 2000
Having
had some more time with a newer EOS-D30 we've updated our (now very detailed)
preview article and posted our first gallery of sample images (26) - including
some samples shot in RAW mode. Important points in this update: Improved
/ more detailed menu captures, Software module (including TWAIN drivers
and RAW acquisition module), Image quality analysis and Conclusion. (04:00 GMT)
Thanks
to Olympus Japan we can now we can bring you the full details and specifications
of Olympus's new Digital SLR the E-10. An interesting combination of a
big 4 megapixel CCD, high quality glass, traditional ergonomics (zoom
ring and manual focus ring) a solid high quality case and flip-out display
and enough manual features to keep you quiet at least until Olympus annonce
the E-20 ;) (04:00 GMT)
Yesterday,
along with the E-10 mention was made of the E-100RS a very interesting
new digital camera from Olympus with the same 10 x optical stablised zoom
lens announced in the C-2100UZ, however the E-100RS is built with a different
tactic in mind, it's main aim is speed. It has a 1/2" 1.5 megapixel
CCD and is capable of capturing bursts of full size images at 15 frames
per second (that's faster than we've ever seen in a digital camera.. and
considerably faster than all but the most expensive 35mm SLR's). Looking
at the body it appears to be based around the C-3030Z with a 0.55"
LCD viewfinder. (04:00 GMT)
We
heard a little time back that Kodak would be selling their professionally
developed, large size CCD's to other manufacturers. This article over
on EE Times confirms this with a tighter definition of the range of CCD's
available including a new 16.6 megapixel device which is now sampling
to manufacturers. They also include some CMOS sensors in their available
range. "We won't have the cheapest parts out in the market,"
said McNiffe. "We're not targeting the Barbie-cam market, but we
will have the best parts available." (04:00 GMT)Tuesday, 22 August 2000
And
$200 rebate off the following lenses: Tamron's SP AF14mm F/2.8 Aspherical
(IF) Rectilinear, SP AF20-40mm F2.7-3.5 Aspherical (IF) or SP AF28-105mm
F/2.8 LD Aspherical (IF) lenses. There will be a $100 rebate for the purchase
of the SP AF90mm F/2.8 1:1 macro lens. We'd actually heard of several
people receiving their pre-ordered S1 Pro's before this announcement but
this kind of puts an official slant on proceedings. (04:00 GMT)
Olympus will announce the 4 megapixel Camedia E-10 Digital SLR, with a
big 2/3" CCD (designed by Olympus), a 4x optical zoom (35 - 140 mm)
F2.0 - F2.4, manual focus ring, RAW mode shooting (Photoshop plugin included),
optical TTL viewfinder, histogram mode, flip-out and rotate LCD. Expected
price 198,000 YEN (~$1,826) expected to be on sale in mid October in Japan.
This scoop straight from our friend Yamada Kumio over at digitalcamera.gr.jp.
Olympus's upgraded C-2500L.UPDATED: Impress PC Watch now have
an article on the E-10. (04:00 GMT)
Monday, 21 August 2000
Jeff
over at DCResource has just posted his review of Olympus's D-490Z. Here's
what he had to say "I can say with confidence that Olympus has another
hit on their hands. They've taken the already popular D-400 series and
added a much needed 2.1 Megapixel CCD, plus some nice features usually
not found on midrange cameras, like an uncompressed TIFF mode. My main
gripe is the lack of USB support, which can be resolved by purchasing
a card reader. If you're looking for a great $500 digital camera, look
no more - the D-490Z is a great choice." (04:00 GMT)A study from InfoTrends shows that the Japan Low End Digital market (less
than 200,000 YEN; $1,800) is growing at a compound annual growth rate
of 46% through 2005.. Unit sales will grow from over 2.6 million to 17.7
million in 2005. Revenues from digital camera sales will grow at a compound
annual rate of 24% to reach 450 billion yen (~US$4.1 billion) in 2005. (04:00 GMT)
Sunday, 20 August 2000
Steve
Sanders over at Steves-Digicams has just posted a first look at Fujifilm's
S1 Pro Digital SLR. So far he seems fairly happy with the camera and notes
"...had a fun day shooting sample photos and getting used to this
camera. The image quality is excellent, there's no fear of "interpolated"
resolution not living up to the claims -- it does!" (04:00 GMT)Thursday, 17 August 2000
This
from Rob Galbraith's site: "USA Today staffer Bert Hanashiro, a veteran
digital photojournalist and daily DCS 520 shooter, spent some quality
time earlier this week with a pre-production Canon EOS D30 at the Democratic
National Convention in Los Angeles. Hanashiro cautions that this is a
preliminary look at the camera, but that he liked what he saw overall"
and "To me, however, the reason I loved the camera is that it is
VERY responsive and displayed no obvious shutter lag. It's hard to say
for sure not having shot football or basketball with the D30, but I felt
very sure that when I pressed the shutter release, the image I saw was
what was captured." (04:00 GMT)Wednesday, 16 August 2000
Just
to prove my point about the "best market" for the Fujifilm Finepix
40i it's come in as the top selling digital camera at Yodobashi Camera
in Japan. Thanks to digitalcamera.gr.jp for publishing these sales figures
which are a total of all sales from all Yodobashi Camera shops in Japan
from August 7 - August 13. (04:00 GMT)Tuesday, 15 August 2000
We've
just posted a full review of Fujifilm's upcoming FinePix 40i multifunction
digital camera, not only can it take pictures (fixed lens - no optical
zoom) but it can also playback MP3 audio (cool). Add to that it's size,
weight and gadget / cool factor and it's bound to turn a few heads.. And
empty a few wallets. (04:00 GMT)
If
you've been reading dpreview over the last few months you can't help but
to have heard of Olympus's C-2100UZ, a 2 megapixel digital camera with
a 10x optical stablised lens. Today Olympus US made the camera official
bundling it with 4 NiMH batteries and a charger and an 8MB SmartMedia
card, priced at US$999. One note of interested to the techie-shutterbugs
will be Olympus's use of a CMY CFA (colour filter array) over the CCD...
Very Canon. (04:00 GMT)Monday, 14 August 2000
WIA
(Windows Image Acquisition) is an API developed by Microsoft and first
implemented in Windows Me. It allows seemless communication between image
acquisition applications and digital imaging devices (such as digital
still cameras, scanners and DV camcorders). Similar to TWAIN but without
the hassle of particular drivers, best of all there's a TWAIN DSM which
enables any WIA device to appear as a TWAIN device to TWAIN compatible
software. WIA as it will ship in Windows ME already supports over 100
devices. (04:00 GMT)
Thanks
to TJ for spotting these samples now up on Fujifilms "finepix.com"
website. There are four samples available on the site at around 1,500
KB each. So if you're interested in Fujifilm's new "prosumer"
SLR-look-alike, 6 x optical zoom, 2.4 megapixel SuperCCD digital camera
I recommend you download some of the first sample images... Remember,
this one supports a lower ISO of 125. (04:00 GMT)
Jeff
Keller over at DCResource just posted a review of Casio's QV-2300UX Plus,
a 2.11 megapixel (1.92 effective) 3 x optical zoom digital camera with
a rotating lens portion and IBM Microdrive (340MB) bundled with the camera
(so that should be your storage worries sorted then). Jeff said "There
are two ways to look at the QV-2300UX Plus: As a $800 camera, and as a
$400 camera with a $400 memory card. I tend to choose the latter option,
though the camera is really packed with features for a $400 camera. The
downside here is that the body quality is sub-par, and the lack of the
optical viewfinder would immediately remove it from my list if I was in
the market." (04:00 GMT)Sunday, 13 August 2000
Thanks
to forums poster Paul Van Dragt for spotting that Kodak have just released
new firmware (3.2.3) for the DCS330. The new firmware includes better
storage card compatibility, external GPS support, multiple custom white
balances and better IEEE 1394 support. The DCS330 is an interesting camera,
3 megapixels, supports Nikon F-mount, priced similarly to the S1 Pro &
EOS-D30 with quality Kodak software and support behind it, downside...
1.9 x focal length multiplier. (04:00 GMT)
John
Cowley over at Lonestardigital.com has just put up a simple but effective
technique for correcting the magenta / cyan casts on Nikon D1 images.
There have been many programs created for fixing this common complaint
with Nikon's Digital SLR, but this (at least for Photoshop users) seems
to be the most straightforward yet effective. My understanding is the
problem revolves around the fact that the D1's images are in the NTSC
colourspace.UPDATE: Thanks to Timo Autiokrai for noting that
Photoshop Profile-to-Profile seems to work quite well to. The battle hots
up... Mike Chaney gets involved!! (04:00 GMT)
Saturday, 12 August 2000
Last week we introduced two new forums, since then we've been working
on new features and functionality for the discussion forums. First of
which (implemented today) is recording your last visit date on a per forum
basis. In the past there was always a possibility of missing messages
posted on other forums if you didn't visit them all in one session, now
last visit is recorded invidually for each forum. (04:00 GMT)
Friday, 11 August 2000
In
conjunction with his previous report, Yamada has now published another
Canon EOS-D30 report for the Japanese technology webzine Impress PC Watch.
This time he's posted yet more samples from the camera along with some
comparisons of night shots with noise reduction enabled and disabled.
(04:00 GMT)Tuesday, 8 August 2000
We're
proud to bring you a world exclusive. The first full review of FujiFilm's
S1 Pro digital SLR. The first affordable digital SLR to market certainly
grabbed the headlines when it was announced, since then there's been no
end of talk about digital SLR's. With high resolution output, quality
processing algorithms and Nikon lens compatibility the S1 Pro certainly
looks like an interesting package (especially considering its $3,500 street
price). But how does it measure up?We'll try to tell you.. In our 16 page, 10,000 word review with over
150 images in the review body and 50 photographs (including originals)
in the associated samples galleries. (04:00 GMT)
Saturday, 5 August 2000
I
think it's world EOS-D30 day today... This time it's the turn of Rio Enzo
Fuzuki over at DCEX (Digital Camera Express) has posted samples from the
Canon EOS-D30 (Beta) and FujiFilm S1 Pro side by side. More impressive
shots from the EOS-D30 and some nice ones from the S1 Pro too... Looks
like the digital SLR market is about to explode... (04:00 GMT)
Professional
Photographer Yamada Kumio has just posted a page (in Japanese) giving
a brief report of his experience with a beta EOS-D30 along with several
sample images and some head-to-head samples comparing the Canon EOS-D30
with Nikon's D1 (the results may interest you). DPR has exclusive permission
from Yamada to bring you this article translated in its entirety. (04:00 GMT)
Since
announcing the EOS-D30 back on 17th May our Canon Talk forum has been
buzzing with anticipation of Canon's first all Canon digital SLR
(3.1 Megapixel CMOS Sensor). Today we can bring you just five sample shots
from the Canon EOS-D30. Although these samples weren't shot by myself
they are exclusive to Digital Photography Review (shot in Japan) and available
for download. Keep your eyes peeled for more samples today... (04:00 GMT)Friday, 4 August 2000
Keeping
the flow of new reviews going, here's a full in-depth review of Epson's
impressive PhotoPC 3000Z. Epson, not known for their photography background
have produce the goods, a quality digital camera with some innovative
features and good range of manual control. "Good image quality only
let down by slightly pale colours puts Epson up there as a serious digital
camera manufacturer... " (04:00 GMT)
After
several requests from Mac users we have just introduced a dedicated discussion
forum just for Mac users, called "Mac Tools" it's an area where
Mac owning digital photography enthusiasts can discuss digital imaging
software, hardware, drivers etc. Not to leave PC users behind we've renamed
our Software forum "PC Tools" designed to serve the same purpose
as Mac Tools but for PC / Windows users. (04:00 GMT)Thursday, 3 August 2000
Dave's
been busy over on Imaging-Resource, he's just posted reviews of Sony's
MVC-CD1000 (the FD-95 which writes to CDR - we have one in house) and
the Kodak DC4800 (3.1 megapixels, 3x zoom) which has some interesting
abilities including multiple image "looks" and some excellent
low light performance... (04:00 GMT)
Jeff
over at DC Resource has just posted a review of Ricoh's unusual "flat
pack" RDC-7, a 3 megapixel digicam which features a pixel shifting
mode for generating 7 megapixel images (although it takes over a minute
a shot). Jeff wasn't that impressed "The Ricoh RDC-7 finds itself
in the most competitive field in digital photography right now - 3 Megapixel
cameras. It is indeed loaded with many of the useful features for both
enthusiasts as well as consumers, but these features just aren't implemented
well. I honestly feel that your $900 could be much better spent on another
camera." (04:00 GMT)Wednesday, 2 August 2000
Professional
Photographer Kazuhisa Nishikawa puts his expert hands on FujiFilm's S1
Pro in what is a fairly typical gallery, this time his model is Ayu Okakura.
Taken with a variety of lenses (Ai AF Nikkor 50mm 1.4D, Ai AF Nikkor 35mm
F2D, AF Nikkor ED80-200mm F2.8D) the shots were taken at ISO 320 with
Daylight White Balance. Note: original images are not available, all images
have been reduced to "web size" (513 x 770). (04:00 GMT)Tuesday, 1 August 2000
Mike
Chaney (a regular contributor on our forums) yesterday released QImage
Pro 8.54. This multitalented image printing / viewer / editor application
has a unique colour profiling feature, designed to correct colours directly
out of the digital camera. Their are plugins currently available for the
Nikon D1, Coolpix 950 and Coolpix 990, Canon's S100 Digital ELPH/IXUS
and the Olympus D-600L. We decided to take a closer look at the results
of using it for colour correction... (04:00 GMT)
Less
than $500 for a 2.1 megapixel, 3x zoom compact digital camera with QuickTime
movie support and an 8MB SmartMedia Card... Not bad. Based on the popular
D-460 Zoom, the D-490 also supports variable ISO (100, 200, 400) and the
distinctive Olympus Clam Sheel design. (This camera is known as the 990Z
in Europe & Asia). (04:00 GMT)
Last
week we published a sneak view of this cameras skeleton, today FujiFilm
have made the 4900Z the newest edition to their 4000 series of digital
cameras (you can look upon it as a replacement for the now tiring 2900Z).
This time featuring a 6x optical zoom lens (yep, lenses are becoming more
important) with the same SuperCCD sensor seen in the 4700Z but interesting
to note a newly offered sensitivty of ISO 125, perhaps for improved image
quality and lowered noise.Vitals: FujiFilm 4900 Zoom, 2.4 megapixel Super
CCD (up to 2400 x 1800 image size), 6 x optical zoom lens (35 - 210 mm
as 35 mm equiv.), ISO 125/ 200/ 400/ 800, LCD TTL viewfinder, 1/4s (3s
in manual) - 1/2000s shutter speeds, F2.8 - F11 apertures, horizontal
and vertical shutter release buttons, SmartMedia, expected September 2000,
<US$1000.
UPDATED: Sample Images
From 4900Z Now Online (04:00 GMT)
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