June 2003 news archive
Monday, 30 June 2003
Fujifilm
Japan has today announced that its first digital camera based on the high
dynamic range SuperCCD SR sensor has been delayed again, this time until
'October 2003'. The SuperCCD SR technology was first announced in January
this year, shortly followed by an announcement of the F700 in February.
In April Fujifilm announced the F700 would be delayed until 'Summer 2003',
this new delay adds at least four months to that. The reason give is the
same as it was in April, "A delay in material procurement".
(06:25 GMT)Thursday, 26 June 2003
Canon
has posted EOS-10D firmware 1.0.1 on its BeBit website. Copies of this
firmware have been floating around the Internet for a few days now, this
is the first official copy and installation guide. This firmware seems
fairly unremarkable with only two fixes, the first improves the reliability
of USB communication when performing a Direct Print, the second corrects
some Chinese lettering in the menu system. (08:40 GMT)Wednesday, 25 June 2003
Leica
has today announced the development of a Digital Module for the Leica
R8 & R9. This new module has a ten megapixel Kodak sensor and has
been developed in association with Imacon. The module is made up of two
parts, a digital back which cliips onto the rear of the camera and a power
unit which fits on the base. The digital back has a ten megapixel Kodak
sensor which produces a FOV crop of 1.37x and has a sensitivity of ISO
100 to 800. Image formats will include RAW (Imacon 3F), storage by SD
card. (14:05 GMT)In a very interesting story published on Nikkei BP Olympus are said to
be aiming for sales of 90,000 units of their recently announced E-1 digital
SLR this fiscal year (from now to end of March 2004). Global shipments
of digital SLRs reached approximately 250,000 units in 2002 and Canon
are apparently shipping 30,000 units of their six megapixel EOS-10D digital
SLR per month, according to Canon production is still unable to keep up. (10:30 GMT)
Tuesday, 24 June 2003
1500
CET: The embargo is over and we can finally bring you our detailed
preview of Olympus's long awaited E-1 digital SLR. We had just under 48
hours with a pre-production camera, just long enough for me to produce
a ten page preview of the camera and system. Unfortunately at this stage
we are not allowed to publish image samples or talk about image quality.
(12:55 GMT)
0700
CET: Olympus has today officially announced the Olympus E-1 digital
SLR. The E-1 is the first Olympus removable lens digital SLR, it's also
the first digital SLR with an entirely new lens mount. The E-1 conforms
to the '4/3 System' standard with a standard 4/3" type CCD (18 x
13.5 mm) from Kodak (five megapixel) and the 4/3 System lens mount. Olympus
has also confirmed five ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses and three flash units. UPDATE:
While we weren't given any pricing it looks like other sites were, see
inside... (06:00 GMT)
0700
CET: As part of their announcement of the new E-1 digital SLR Olympus
has also issued a press release covering the available lenses and accessories,
this includes a couple of new flash units, a teleconverter, extension
tube and one new ultra-wide angle zoom lens which should be available
towards the end of the year. Olympus has also now branded the lenses,
"ZUIKO DIGITAL", the name 'ZUIKO' synonymous with quality OM
lenses of the past. The new zoom lens provides a 35 mm equivalent field
of view of 21 to 44 mm with a maximum aperture of F2.8 to F3.5 (sounds
very interesting). Other items of interest include a different focusing
screen and an eyecup. Kudos to Olympus for ensuring a relatively wide
range of accessories and lenses at the time of announcement of the new
E-1 digital SLR. (06:00 GMT)Monday, 23 June 2003
Thursday, 19 June 2003
Toshiba
Imaging Systems has recently announced the new PDR-3340. It offers a 3.2
megapixel resolution, 3X optical zoom lens (34mm - 102mm) and 16Mb of
internal memory, expandable with SD cards. "The PDR-3340 is perfect
for entry-level consumers making the transition from traditional film
cameras to digital cameras," said Doug Freck, Vice President and
General Manager, Toshiba Imaging Systems. The PDR-3340 is expected to
ship in August with an MSRP of $249. (08:50 GMT)
Toshiba
Imaging Systems has recently announced its new M Series range of digital
camera, the PDR-M700 and PDR-M500. The PDR-M700 offers a 3.2 megapixel
resolution, while the PDR-M500 offers 2.0 megapixels. Both have with 10x
Canon optical zoom lenses (35mm equiv. to 35mm - 350mm) and 16Mb SD cards.
The PDR-M700 is priced at around US $449 and the PDR-M500 at around US
$349. (08:35 GMT)Tuesday, 17 June 2003
ColorVision
Inc. has today announced the latest in their line of color calibration
products. The PrintFIX hardware and software combination offer a very
affordable method for profiling your printer (at first Epson inkjets)
allowing you to produce far more accurate print color. This product is
also especially useful for users of high end Epson Stylus Photo printers
using third party papers. We have managed to arrange for a special deal
price of $299 for PrintFIX ($352 SRP) and $499 for a Spyder and PrintFIX
suite pack ($587 SRP, $704 total if bought individually). (16:35 GMT)
Sigma
Japan has today announced a new lens. The 24 - 135 mm F2.8 - F4.5 will
be available for Sigma, Canon , Nikon, Minolta and Pentax lens mounts,
it has a 77 mm filter size, 50 cm (19.7 in) minimum focus distance and
weighs 530 g (17 oz). This lens will no doubt be interesting to digital
SLR owners because of its relatively wide angle 24 mm, on the Sigma SD9
this lens would provide an equivelant field of view of approx. 41 - 230
mm, on the Canon EOS-10D approx. 38 - 216 mm and on the Nikon D100 approx.
36 - 203 mm. (12:40 GMT)Wednesday, 11 June 2003
Thanks
to forums contributor 'Andreas P' for spotting this, a Taiwanese technology
website is currently running an article about the difference between CCD
and CMOS sensors. On this page they have a copy of a Sony sensor road
map, on it is the ICX 456 sensor, it's 2/3" in size (8.8 x 6.6 mm)
and has eight megapixels (a pixel pitch of 2.7 µm). The box on the
roadmap is marked '1H03' (first half '03) which would make it available
for manufacturers looking to release some prosumer cameras before Christmas
this year (a new Sony DSC-F717 or Canon Pro 90 perhaps?). (13:00 GMT)Tuesday, 10 June 2003
Sony
Japan has today announced a range of new 'high quality' products under
the 'QUALIA' name, each product is identified simply by the QUALIA name
and a three digit product number. Inlcuded as part of this range is the
'Qualia 016' an ultra-compact two megapixel digital camera which stores
images on Memory Stick Duo and has a 0.55" LCD monitor installed.
The camera measures just 69 x 24 x 17 mm (2.7 x 0.9 x 0.7 in) and weighs
just 50 g (1.8 oz) ready to use - significantly smaller than the 'U' series.
The body is made almost completely from aluminium and is supplied in a
very neat looking black box with a range of accessories including a flash
unit, viewer unit, wide conversion lens and tele conversion lens. Yours
for just 380,000 YEN ($3,200). With no word from Sony companies elsewhere
in the world it does look as though this may be another exciting product
only available in Japan, we will try to get confirmation on this later
in the day. (06:35 GMT)Monday, 9 June 2003
Creo
has today announced the Leaf Valeo 22 digital camera back for in studio
and portable shooting. It utilizes a newly developed 22 megapixel CCD
giving 4,056 x 5,356 resolution in a sensor size of 48 x 36 mm. Raw data
files reach 126 MB in 16 bit and are stored on a removable 5 GB or 10
GB Leaf Digital Magazine. A detachable 6 x 7 cm display, based on the
HP iPAQ pocket PC, and removable Digital Magazine provides Leaf Portable
Power. Demonstration units are available from July 2003 and commercial
shipments begin September 1, 2003. (20:55 GMT)Sunday, 8 June 2003
Samsung
UK has recently announced two new additions to their Digimax range, the
420 and 360. The Digimax 420 offers a 4 megapixel resolution, while the
360 offers 3.2 megapixels. Both have with 3x optical zoom lenses (35mm
equiv. to 38mm - 114mm) and 16Mb internal memories, which can be upgraded
using SD cards. The Digimax 420 is priced at around £300 and the
Digimax 360 at around £250. (21:20 GMT)Saturday, 7 June 2003
Site
contributor Vincent Bockaert has today announced an updated version of
his excellent 'The 123 of digital imaging Interactive e-book'. This new
version has been reedited, has updated content, new technology information
as well as improved internal search engine and other more subtle improvements
such as cover design and shipping media. Upgrade to version 1.1 is free
for owners of version 1.0, an all new 2.4 MB downloadable demo is also
now available. I can thoroughly recommend this e-book to anyone, whether
you consider yourself an expert or are a complete beginner, there's something
here for everyone. (Apologies to Mac users, this product is Windows only). (10:05 GMT)Tuesday, 3 June 2003
Konica
has revealed the KD-510Z, for quite a while today I think they probably
underestimated the amount of traffic their server would have to deal with
(especially after tempting everyone with that teaser last week). After
all that the KD-510Z seems to be a fairly unremarkable five megapixel
three times optical zoom digital camera virtually identical to the black
bodied KD-500Z they announced at Photokina last year. Just like the previous
camera the KD-510Z can store images on both SD/MMC and MemoryStick, making
Konica the only manufacturer other than Sony to use the format. (12:00 GMT)Monday, 2 June 2003
0700
GMT: Canon has today (officially) announced the five megapixel PowerShot
G5. While we are often happy to respect embargo's (to get what we are
told is exclusive info) it's getting repeatedly more frustrating when
you see so called embargo information published sometimes weeks ahead
of the real announcement (it does make you wonder if such leaks aren't
planned by the manufacturers). The PowerShot G5 is a camera I feel Canon
should have announced at Photokina last year instead of the G3, it's a
essentially a black bodied, five megapixel version of that camera. Five
megapixel 1/1.8" sensor and a four times optical zoom lens, the competition
will be Sony's DSC-V1 and the recently announced Nikon Coolpix 5400. List
price €899 in Europe, $899 in the US. (06:10 GMT)


