Digital Cameras

September 3, 2005 The forthcoming launch of DeathToHollywood.com represents an inevitable twist in the distribution of low-cost independent movies that cannot hope to achieve widespread distribution through conventional cinemas. DeathToHollywood.com is a free website which functions as an online movie theatre providing free, high quality, independent feature films with the express permission of the producers. It serves to highlight the works of independent film makers by providing easy access to their work. DeathToHollywood’s Pam Paton explains the rationale behind the new service, why the company believes the time is right for the new service to propser thanks to a new era of low cost digital video productionand high speed internet access combined with increasing public media literacy.  Read More

September 3, 2005 The world’s digital camera compnies are certainly pushing the edge of the envelope with their innovative new designs to enable cameras to become better, and smaller at the same time, and there’s no better example of this than Nikon’s newly announced Coolpix S4. The camera features an incredible 10x optical zoom, six megapixels of resolution, a 2.5" LCD and an innovative design allowing the camera to fit into a shirt pocket. The powerful optical zoom combined with the innovative body design of the camera gives digital photographers unprecedented freedom and creativity with the ability to take pictures from a wide range of angles such as from the hip, self portraits and even from overhead.  Read More

September 2, 2005 Nikon is redefining the digital camera shooting experience with the announcement of two new revolutionary Wi-Fi enabled models. The Coolpix P1 and P2 are the world's first built-in Wi-Fi-enabled digital cameras to hit the marketplace. These groundbreaking cameras allow consumers to immediately transmit images wirelessly directly to a computer or to any PictBridge-enabled printer equipped with the optional Nikon Wireless Printer Adapter (PD-10), for wireless printing.  Read More

August 31, 2005 We like ruggedised electronics, and we like this one in particular as it’ll help the world to participate more fully in X-sports adventure. Samsung's new ruggedised Sports Miniket VP-X110L is a new variant in the range combining a camcorder, digital camera and MP3 player. Most importantly, the Sports Miniket has been developed with an external camera and a set of mountings, specifically so it would be ideal for recording all manner of outdoor activities from adrenaline-charged action sports through, well … almost anything. The Sports Miniket’s external camera module can be mounted on a helmet, on an arm via the arm-band or any stable surface. If there’s a drawback, it’s that the digital still image camera is a hopelessly inadequate 800 x 600 pixels – incredibly lame from a company that produces 7 mpx camera phones.  Read More

August 30, 2005 Hasselblad’s large format cameras have been synonymous with the highest calibre of professional photography for many decades in the silver halide world of photography, but has set a firm course towards excellence in the digital world. A year after the launch of the Hasselblad H1, the Swedish company is building on the success of the H1 with the newly developed H2 cross platform camera and the H2D fully-integrated digital camera. Both the cameras include a series of brand new features, and are fully compatible with Hasselblad’s existing H system lenses. New products in the Ixpress digital back line include the Ixpress CF and Ixpress CFH, bringing new levels of flexibility to specialist professional photographers. All four new Hasselblad products offer photographic professionals the quality of medium format image capture, combined with the ‘point-and-shoot’ ease of use, portability and flexibility more often associated with smaller format DSLR technology. The H2 and H2D cameras deliver improved mobility, quality, and workflow. Brand new camera features include a highly advanced image approval and selection tool, called Instant Approval Architecture providing a swift and easy way to select and classify images.  Read More

August 26, 2005 We’re not sure what the current product lifecycle is for digital cameras but our guess is that a lot of people must have had the same idea about waterproofing digital cameras about 18 months to two years ago because we keep seeing new ideas around the basic concept. Pentax announced today the limited availability of a protective, silicone Skin for the OptioWP digital camera which looks good, costs just US$20 and deserves to be available for all digital cameras. Custom-made to protect the popular waterproof camera, the PENTAX OptioWP Skin helps prevent surface scratches and dents, offers a non-slip surface and retains the compact, elegant shape of the camera. The translucent, non-toxic, versatile Skin material will stretch and give to fit snugly around the camera and offer an anti-static finish to further repel moisture and dust. We’ve recently written about the Ricoh Caplio 400G ruggedised camera, underwater cases for most common cameras and the WaveCase, a shockproof and waterproof casing that fits 95% of all cell phones enabling them to be used underwater, turning the average camera-phone into an underwater camera.  Read More

August 23, 2005 - Canon today announced two new digital SLR models in a move to provide dedicated cameras for both serious enthusiast and professional photographers. To support its extensive EOS system Canon also announced two new EF zoom lenses, and a powerful new Speedlite. Canon's EOS 5D answers many photographers' requests for a digital SLR camera with a Canon-developed full frame CMOS sensor. Measuring 36 x 24mm, the new CMOS sensor offers the holy grail of 1:1 lens conversion. Capturing 12.8 megapixel images, the EOS 5D offers three frames-per-second (fps) continuous shooting for up to 60 frames in a single burst. Equally as impressive, Canon's EOS-1D Mark II N offers blistering speed combined with super-high resolution. Capturing 8.2 megapixel images with its Canon-developed CMOS sensor, the EOS-1D Mark II N shoots a super-fast 8.5 fps for up to 48 frames in a single burst.  Read More

August 20, 2005 There is no question that the capabilities of the upper end Pro-sumer digital camera market is filtering down to the compact camera range and no more compelling evidence of this could be found than Panasonic’s new LX1 – the first of the new LUMIX 16:9 wide LX series – look at the specs: 8.4-Megapixel, 4x optical zoom (equivalent to 28 mm to 112 mm on a 35mm film camera) with full manual controls, all on a compact camera. The LX1 incorporates an 8.4-Megapixel CCD and a high resolution 2.5-inch LCD creen in its undersized body. The aspect ratio is easily selectable between 16:9 wide, 3:2 and conventional 4:3 with a switch located on the lens barrel to shoot in the framing aspect that best suits the subjects' composition or image's purpose of use.  Read More

August 19, 2005 Taking a leaf from Mother Nature, scientists at A*STAR’s Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) in Singapore have developed tiny lenses made of liquid, which mimics the action of the human eye. The liquid lens system has optical zooming abilities and uses only a fraction of the space of most conventional lenses. It alters its focal length by changing its shape. The lens promises optical zoom functionality for the next generation of camera phones and other compact hand-held devices. We have reported previously on similar functionality shown by Philips at CEBIT 2004.  Read More