News archive for March 2000
Mar30
Nikon, happy with the sucess of Altamira's Genuine Fractals
with their Coolscan 2000 (LS2000) and Coolscan III (LS30) have decided
to bundle the product with their upcoming Coolpix 990 digital camera.
The press release states:
Mar28
Mar27
Mike
Rubin (AKA "Nikon Mike"), Coolpix product manager at Nikon will
be making an appearance on DPReview's Nikon Talk forum next Tuesday
4th April. From now until 3rd April you'll be able to direct questions
to Mike by prefixing your message subject with "NIKON - " and
posting on Nikon Talk. On 4th April Mike will try to answer as many of
those questions as possible.
Mar23
This
story popped up on Reuters earlier, and reports that Kodak are aiming at
digital cameras that are easy-to-use and can deliver 4x6 and 5x7 prints
(2.1+ megapixel surely). To my eyes it's about time Kodak did something
and came out with some new product. We've seen nothing new from them for
over six months and even their top of the range consumer digicam the DC290
was just a spruced up version of the old DC260...
Sharp
and Sony have jointly developed a new MO (Magneto-Optical) storage disk
which is just 50.8mm in diameter (2"), 0.5mm thick and has a storage
capacity of 1GB using a red laser (655nm wave length) and 2GB or more using
a blue laser (405nm wave length). Up to 4GB could be stored on larger disks.
It'd be interesting to see Sony implement this small disk in a digital camera...
Mar22
Mar21
Spotted
this new product announcement on BusinessWire. Viking Components, one of
the world's largest and fastest-growing manufacturers of component technology,
Tuesday announced its new IntelliFlash(TM) USB flash memory reader/writer
for high-speed, image and data transfer between a flash memory card and
a PC. The reader supports SmartMedia cards (up to 64MB), CompactFlash and
PCMCIA ATA Type I & II. Ships April 2000.
Mar17
An
interesting new photo sharing website / software combination has recently
shown up. FotoAlbum is an electronic image browser and organiser, it links
directly to FotoTime's other product FotoTime.Com which allows you to share
your images directly on the web. What struck me about FotoAlbum is just
how easy it is to use and share images.
The
Impress PC Watch webzine has posted an image comparison test of the leading
(and upcoming) 3+ megpixel digital cameras: Olympus C-3030Z, Nikon Coolpix
990, FujiFilm FinePix 4700Z, Sony DSC-S70, Canon PowerShot S20, Epson CP-900Z,
Casio QV-3000EX and a Beta Casio QV-3. So here are yet more samples for
prospective buyers to analyze.
Mar16
By
Popular Demand we've created a new discussion forum especially for talk
about Casio digital cameras. I've received several requests over the course
of the last month to setup such a forum and so the decision was made.
Casio have long established themselves in the digital camera market, recently
generating more interested with the introduction of the QV-3000EX.
Mar15
Mar14
Those
lucky guys over at Imaging-Resource have posted a review of the Nikon Coolpix
990, this must be a pre-release model as my contacts at Nikon claim there
aren't any production cameras around yet.. "The Coolpix 990 is an exceptional
follow-on to the already excellent Coolpix 950. The list of added features,
options, and capabilities is too long to include in a brief conclusion,
but suffice to say they're both extensive and eminently useful. Virtually
every aspect of the camera's performance has been enhanced or extended,
and the result is a true 3 megapixel powerhouse."
Mar13
The
Japanese webzine D# Sharp post a big digital camera comparison page with
Wide & Tele shots from: Fuji FinePix 4700Z, Casio QV-3000EX, Canon
PowerShot S20, Epson CP-900Z (beta), Olympus C-3030Z (beta), Sony DSC-S70
(beta), Nikon Coolpix 990 (beta), Nikon D1, Olympus C-2500L, Olympus
C-2020Z, Nikon Coolpix 950, Canon PowerShot S10, Leica Digilux Zoom and
Olympus C-960Z.
Mar9
Kodak
publicy market their own CCDs to other manufacturers. "Eastman Kodak
Company today announced it is now selling its award-winning Kodak Blue Plus
Color charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensors to manufacturers of digital
cameras and other imaging devices. The decision to sell these devices as
individual components underscores the company's commitment to grow the overall
picture business and create a broader presence for Kodak imaging technologies
in that industry."
SmartDisk
today announced something we'd been aware of since the release of specifications
for the upcoming Mavica FD-95. Emerging Mavicas will support MemoryStick
storage through a SmartDisk FlashPath floppy disk adapter enabling larger
storage capacity but maintaining the convenience of a floppy drive. (Note:
this won't work on older Mavicas)
Mar8
Mar7
Steve
Sanders posts a review of Casio's QV-3000EX, he says "The QV-3000EX
proves that Casio is not just satisfied to be a minor player in the digital
camera business. Their QV-2000UX became the first digicam to be bundled
with an IBM Microdrive and now they've done it again with the QV-3000EX
Plus. The big news is the price -- $999 for the camera and the Microdrive
or $799 for the camera with a 16MB CF card. "
REPOST:
Received an interesting news release (early) from an anonymous
poster which describes a little better how the SuperCCD technology differs
from standard CCD's. "The number of sensors
in conventional half-inch CCDs has increased dramatically in recent years,
but it is generally believed the apex has been reached at around three
million sensors. "
Mar6
Ofoto,
one of our sponsors is now giving away one Nikon Coolpix 800 a day, here's
the press release "Ofoto, Inc. (www.ofoto.com), the Internet photo
company, will be giving away a digital camera-a-day to Ofoto members throughout
the month of March. Every day of the sweepstakes, one winner will receive
a Nikon Coolpix 800 digital camera, an approximate retail value of $599.
The sweepstakes is available to anyone who signs up for the Ofoto service
in March, as well as current members who click on the sweepstakes entry
button at sign in."
The
excellent Impress PC Watch magazine summarise the digital photography offerings
at CeBIT 2000, these include the cut down Olympus C-3000Z, Casio had the
QV-3000EX/Ir a model which supports IrDA data transfer and a Bluetooth prototype
based on the QV-3000EX which would allow transfer of images wirelessly over
short distances. Fuji also cooperated with Nokia to demonstrate an S1 Pro
with a Nokia Bluetooth wireless CF card.
Jeff
over at DCResource has finished his Canon PowerShot S20 review, here's what
he says "One of my favorite cameras of 1999 was the Canon PowerShot
S10. Why? Well, it was light, easy to use, fast, and took great photos too!
When the S20 was announced, I was excited -- it took everything that made
the S10 so great, and added a 3.3 megapixel CCD!"
Mar5
Mar3
We're proud to announce the full availability of the Discussion
Forums search engine. You can now access the largest online digicam knowledge
base here on DPReview. Searching the Discussion Forums gives you access
to over 50,000 messages posted since February 1999, got a question about
the Kodak DC290? Just search the discussion forums first and you're bound
to find some answers...
Sony Recalls NP-F550 and NP-F570 InfoLithium batteries
bought after March 1999 due to evidence of a very small percentage (3 out
of 415,000) overheating and smoking during recharge, these batteries are
used on a variety of devices including the Sony Mavicas and D700 / D770.
If you've bought either of these InfoLithium batteries since March 1999
should check the dedicated Sony website or call a toll free number (U.S.)
to check their battery.
Mar2
I've been busy coding a forums full text search feature,
it's ready for testing now (which means it's not linked or apparent from
the main forums pages) but brave beta testers are more than welcome to
test it out before it goes fully public.
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