10 Things to Know Before You Buy
EasyDigitalCameras.com has a nice summary of ten things to think about and know before you buy a Digital Camera. The most important one in my opinion is the first one:
Do your research. Before you head to the camera store, make sure you have an idea of what you want. Otherwise, the salespeople will sell you whatever is overstocked that day. Be sure to know roughly how many megapixels you want, how long of a zoom lens you want, and what price range you’re delving in.
Read the rest at EasyDigitalCameras.com
Panasonic FZ5 Review
Photoxels has a review up for the FZ5 is a 5 megapixel offering from Panasonic that is for the beginner to the serious amateur photographer. With its nice 12x optical zoom, and image stabilization, this camera is sure to win over those that want something a bit bigger and more powerful than those little pocket sized cameras.
While the new Panasonic FZ30 is currently generating the most excitement among enthusiasts, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5 remains the ultra zoom digital camera with the best bang for the money. It has pretty much everything a beginner to serious amateur photographer could wish for: very good image quality, superb 12x optical zoom with an effective optical image stabilization, fexible exposure control, and very fast operations.
The Panasonic FZ5 has a quality Leica DC Vario-Elmarit 12x optical zoom lens with a maximum aperture of F2.8 at wide-angle and F3.3 at telephoto. Usually you need to use a tripod with such a long telephoto, but thanks to the optical image stabilization, camera shake is reduced enough for hand holding shots at the long focal lengths and slower shutter speeds.
Olympus E-500 (EVOLT)
Digital Camera Review has a great overview of the Olympus E-500, and links to other previews and sample imagaes.
Olympus has today announced a new Four Thirds System digital SLR, the E-500 (to be know in North America as the ‘Olympus EVOLT E-500′). The E-500 has a much more traditional SLR appearance than the E-300, it features the same eight megapixel 4/3 size CCD but has a range of improvements and new features including a new metering sensor, new high ISO noise filter, a 2.5″ LCD monitor and better control system. From a features and flexibility point of view the E-500 is clearly a step above the competition. Better news still is that the E-500 appears to breaks new ground in terms of value, the E-500 + 14-45 mm lens kit has an estimated street price of just US$799.
It looks like a pretty good entry level digital SLR, and seems like it will pack a pretty good punch when it comes to value versus features. I look forward to hearing more about this camera.
Kodak EasyShare C360
The Kodak EasyShare C360 offers point-and-shoot users a fully automatic camera without the confusion or hassle of complicated menu structures, printing set-ups, and manual controls.
The EasyShare C360 is a 5 megapixel camera that comes with a 3x optical zoom lens. The camera has an average sized 2.0 inch LCD screen, though 2.5 inch is becoming preferred by most.
Images are stored on an internal memory of 32MB or via removable SD/MMC cards.
The C360 can be purchased for $279.95 USD or bundled with the ImageLink compliant Kodak EasyShare Printer Dock for an additional hundred dollars.
Elements versions of Photoshop, Premiere updated
Adobe has released a press release going over the updates of some of its products. Some new features on each product are only going to help the Elements and Premiere lines.
From Imaging-Resource:
The facial recognition technology is also used to aid tagging of images, in what looked to be one of the most impressive new features of the program. According to Adobe, somewhere in the region of 80% of photos taken by their customers are people photos. The facial recognition function can be used to scan images for people’s faces, and then shows thumbnails of only the faces, allowing you to very quickly identify photos containing the same person and select them for tagging.
Press Release:
Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced two new products for digital photo and digital video enthusiasts. Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 4.0 for Windows®, a new version of Adobe’s No. 1 selling consumer photo editing software*, adds powerful and intuitive ways to organize, edit and share photos. For video hobbyists, the award-winning Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 software for Windows brings unparalleled control, ease of use and more options for creative digital video editing with a self-adjusting workspace, support for all video types and DVD customization.
Pentax Optio S45 and S55
The Pentax Optio S45 and S55 feature a 3x optical zoom lens, a 4 megapixel sensor in the S45, and a 5 megapixel sensor in the S55, and a large 2.5″ screen.
The cameras also feature 11mb of built-in memory, and infra-red support for optional remote control.
The Pentax Optio S45 and S55 are both good all round digital cameras and easily fit into pockets. The cameras take AA batteries, and have a metal body so would make a great travel camera.
If you were to choose between the two, my preference would be towards the 4 megapixel Optio S45 which will produce photos capable of being printed at up to 8×10 and offers excellent value for money but for slightly more detail then I would recommend the Optio S55 as it has that extre megapixel of resolution.
(source: DigiCamReview.co.uk)
Nikon: SLR Service Advisories
Imaging-Resource has some startling news on what seems to be mechanical failures in some D2H and D70 Digital SLR’s from Nikon.
Nikon Inc. has today published service advisories for three of its SLR camera products, all related to failure of certain electrical components.
Of the three advisories, two are for digital SLRs, while the remaining advisory covers the N55 film camera.
The Nikon D2H digital SLR advisory notes that the camera’s electronic analog exposure display may freeze, and the camera may become unable to change exposure settings. It is also possible that the camera’s autofocus system may stop working.
The Nikon D70 digital SLR advisory describes potential problems as being camera lockup accompanied by a blinking access lamp when a flash card is inserted, or the camera failing to turn on at all when the battery is fully charged, and there is no memory card in the camera.
In both cases, Nikon is offering complimentary service to correct the issue. Procedures for the service can be found in the advisory document below. If your camera isn’t exhibiting the problems, Nikon advises that you should continue to use it as normal. Cameras sent for service will apparently be repaired in five business days from receipt, and customers who’ve already had the repairs performed out of warranty at their own cost should contact Nikon as per the instructions below.
To obtain complimentary service for cameras affected by this advisory, please click the link below to download and print the Service Return Form. The Service Return Form provides instructions.
For additional information about this advisory, please call Nikon Service Relations toll-free at 800-645-6678. To email inquires about this advisory follow these steps:
- Use this link to navigate to the Nikon Service Information web page http://www.nikonusa.com/service
- Click the link on the left side of the page labeled for information on service for photographic products.
- Click the link labeled SEND AN EMAIL TO THE SERVICE DEPARTMENT located at the bottom of the page.
- Click the tab labeled Ask Nikon a Question
- In the Subject field please be sure to type D2H Service Advisory or D70 Service Advisory
Digital Camera Resolution versus Film Scanner Resolution
A tip from Earthbound Light coming at you with information which can provide you with a better digital picture, a scanned in photo, or a digital camera image?
Digital cameras create digital images composed of lots of tiny pixels. So do film scanners by digitizing your existing slides or negatives. A good digital camera will create images between 6 and 12 megapixels while a good scanner can easily produce files with more than 20 megapixels. So does this difference have any bearing on which is better?
The answer may not be quite what it seems at first glance.
(hat tip: Digital Photography Blog)
Konica Minolta Announces New Vice President
Konica Minolta Photo Imaging U.S.A., Inc. announces the appointment of Peter Mador as vice president of sales and marketing for Konica Minolta’s commercial products. In this new position, Peter is responsible for digital minilabs, Photo Link kiosks and related on-site photofinishing sales and marketing efforts.
“The addition of Peter Mador to our Commercial Products team signals an important move for Konica Minolta,” said Todd Schrader, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Konica Minolta Photo Imaging U.S.A., Inc. “Peter’s extensive experience in the imaging business ensures that Konica Minolta is best prepared to take advantage of all growth opportunities and that our customers’ needs will be satisfied in today’s fast-changing commercial photo finishing market.”
Peter Mador, a Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) graduate, brings more than 20 years of sales and marketing experience in the wholesale and retail photofinishing business. Most recently Peter served as vice president of sales at Noritsu America Corporation where he managed the Photo Specialty, Professional, Government, New Business Development and Remarketing Sales Divisions.
Canon PowerShot SD550
Digital Camera resource page has an overview of the Canon PowerShot SD550, and their main complaint is that it is just a slightly changed PowerShot SD500.
They changed the LCD, making it 2.5″ instead of 2.0″ which of course reduced the battery life to around 150 shots rather than the previously attainable 160 shots per charge. The changed the body color to “champagne” instead of silver, and moved the controls a bit. They also hadded a 3×3 grid overlay for photo composition, and there are some fancy new tricks in playback mode.
Most of those aren’t very exciting, and to be honest I don’t know why Canon couldn’t put the larger screen on the thing in the first place. Anyhow, other features on the SD550 that haven’t changed include its 7.1 Megapixel CCD, 3X optical zoom lens, VGA movie mode, and unlimited burst mode.
Before we go on, two notes about this review. First, the SD550 is also known as the IXUS 750 in some countries. Second, since the camera is so similar to the SD500, I’ll be reusing most of that review here to save time.
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