October 2000 news and reviews

Canon are currently showing this small digital camera / printer combination device at the Canon Expo 2000 which is currently open in Paris. The little camera takes proprietary Ink/Paper Packs and produces credit-card sized prints. Thanks to Steves-Digicams for putting us on the trail of this news article.

Today Simple Technology introduced a 512 MB CompactFlash Type II Flash Memory card, featuring up to 3MB/s write speeds and the robustness of flash memory they certainly look like an attractive proposition. Until you consider the price, entering the market at a cool $1,599 that prices the Simple Technology 512 MB CF Type II card at $3.12/MB, compare this to IBM's 1 GB CF Type II Microdrive at $0.48/MB. Hmmm.. think I'll stick to the Microdrive.

According to an article in EETimes the race is on to merge image processing and CMOS sensor into one device, "Some companies are going for an extremely high-quality, high-price CMOS sensor market, while others are going for lower-priced products. Vendors need to differentiate, but it's getting more difficult for them to define their own niche," In-Stat's O'Rourke said.

Following Michael Reichmann's recent comparison of JPEG and RAW I decided that this issue needed properly exploring in our EOS-D30 review. So, I've now evaluated JPEG vs. RAW for the EOS-D30 at all ISO sensitivities. My findings? That up to ISO 400 there's little to choose between the two (other than the added flexibility of RAW), however at ISO 800 and 1600 the noise appears to cause some JPEG hue errors and thus it's better to shoot RAW at these high sensitivities.

According to an IDC report the increasing use of digital cameras, MP3 players, portable digital assistants and the Internet continue to fuel the Flash Memory Card Market. "IDC says CompactFlash (CF) and SmartMedia (SM) will continue to dominate the digital camera market, while other smaller form factors will benefit most from the explosion of mobile applications."

Or to be more precise a Canon EOS-D30 vs. a Canon EOS 1V with Fuji Provia 100F film using the same (excellent) Canon 100-400mm f/4.5L lens. This test prepared by Michael Reichmann compares the image quality of scanned film (Imacon FlexTight Photo @ 3200 DPI) and a D30 RAW image. The results will surprise, please and no doubt spark a huge debate on our forums.

The guys over at Imaging-Resource have just posted a first look at a pre-production prototype Olympus E-10 Digital SLR. They've gone into quite a bit of detail (something I didn't with my pre-production unit as I didn't feel it was ready for full testing). "Overall, we were very impressed with the performance of our prototype model of the Olympus E-10 SLR. Color balance was surprisingly good for a model this early in its development cycle, and the camera's white balance system does a good job with most light sources."

As Canon EOS-D30's gently trickle out into the retail channels (it appears Canada have been the luckiest country so far) I took a break from the hustle of the site for a day and snapped a few more shots with the D30, some autumnal scenes along with a couple of higher ISO shots (as requested). This brings the total number of samples available (with originals) to 82.

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 ;)

Nikon today announced two new instructional videotapes "The Nikon Guide to Coolpix Digital Photography" and "The Nikon Guide to Film Scanning". Of interest to readers of this site will probably be the Guide to Coolpix Digital Photography, "This video covers everything from the fundamentals of digital photography to basic image management, manipulation and printing techniques.". $29.95 a piece.

Jeff over at DC Resource as posted a review of Sony's tiny DSC-P1, here's what he had to say "it's aimed squarely at people who were looking at Canon's PowerShot line. In terms of size, the PowerShot Digital ELPH is the winner. For storage capacity, I'd give the nod to the PowerShot S10/S20. For overall features, the DSC-P1 is the winner -- there's a few things that I don't like, but I really enjoyed using it, and would recommend it to anyone who wants a compact point-and-shoot camera."

In what we hope will become a regular feature of (some of) our reviews Neil Turner (pro photographer) has taken a brief look at Canon's G1 from a different point of view and offered his "second opinion" on this little prosumer digital camera. "Ahead were four days to shoot as much as I could with it and write a personal review. I shoot every day with Kodak DCS520s, and I was treating the G1 as a serious "third camera". I'd had a quick tour of the G1s features and I was off."

Slightly pre-empting a second look at the G1 by our new contributing editor Neil Turner, one of the images he shot during his short loan of the G1 will be in print in tomorrows "The Times Higher Education Supplement" (UK). Neil, a pro photographer for 13 years, currently shoots Kodak DCS 520's for THES. We've invited him to provide a pro photographers "second opinion" in several of our reviews, the first of which, his look at the G1 will be published tomorrow. We certainly weren't expecting to see a G1 photograph in print, but it just goes to show that it's often not the camera but the photographer.

Kodak have launched a new kit aimed at dentists. The kit contains a Kodak DC290 Zoom, Close-up Lens Kit, Ring Flash, PM100 printer, Paper and NiMH batteries & charger. "Digital photography has dentists excited, and for good reason," said Jack Retzlaff, digital product line manager, Kodak's dental business. "Today's cameras and inkjet printers promise a fast and easy way for dentists to produce professional patient images."

Another DPReview.Com first! We're proud to bring you the first ever review of a full production Canon EOS-D30 Digital SLR. Probably one of the most important reviews I've ever written, and further more it's of one of the (if not the) most important digital camera this year. Certainly one of the most anticipated digital cameras for a long time. So just how good is it? Come in and take a look...

UPDATED: Six new night shots (1- 15 sec exposures) added to galleries.

Both Imaging-Resource and Digital-Eye have posted Kodak DC3800 reviews, Dave E said "About the only thing we really felt was missing was an exposure-compensation adjustment. While many prospective users of the DC3800 could probably care less about exposure compensation, we feel it's a near-necessity on a digicam", and David K, "Overall, the DC3800 at $499 and with everything you need to easily get into digital photography, is a very practical choice which we certainly can highly recommend."

DPReview and State Street Direct (our approved affiliate) are proud to bring you yet another 64MB for $99.99 offer, to add to the offer of 64MB of SmartMedia for $99.99 which is running until Sunday we have a very limited time offer (until tomorrow!) of a Viking 64MB CompactFlash card for just $99.99 (no rebate required), this offer is open only to customers clicking through from this site.

So now you can buy 64MB of either SmartMedia or CompactFlash for just $99.99.

Thanks to Juergen Specht who attended Ceatec 2000 in Tokyo and caught a glimpse of some interesting digital camera technology, some of it real, some prototype / mock-up. Sony had no less than three prototype ultra compact digital cameras on display, one of which we've reported on before, the other two are new even to us. Also at the same show a 448MB CF card from Hitachi.

UPDATED: For owners of digital cameras that use SmartMedia our approved affiliate State Streeet Direct is offering DPreview customers the ability to purchase a two-pack of Viking 32MB Smartmedia Memory cards (64MB Total) for only $99.99 (No Rebate required). This is a limited time offer and will end on Sunday evening. Regular price for two 32MB Smartmedia memory cards is $170.00.

Offer now clarified! Open to anyone (you don't have to buy a camera to be eligible), offer extended until Sunday.

For owners of digital cameras that use SmartMedia our approved affiliate State Streeet Direct is offering DPreview customers the ability to purchase a two-pack of Viking 32MB Smartmedia Memory cards (64MB Total) for only $99.99 (No Rebate required). This is a limited time offer and will end on Friday evening. Regular price for two 32MB Smartmedia memory cards is $170.00.

Sounds too good to be true, but Kingston Technology (one of our sponsors) have a special $25 mail-in rebate on their 64MB CompactFlash cards, buy from one of their participating "e-tailers" (Buy.com, Egghead.com and 4sure.com) from now until December 31st 2000 and you'll get a $25 rebate off the price of a 64MB Kingston CF card!

Another web exclusive! It never rains, it pours... Along with the E-10 Olympus loaned us a prototype E-100RS, an interesting camera to say the least, it's only fitted out with a 1.5 megapixel CCD, but has that huge 10 x stablised optical zoom first seen on the C-2100UZ along with the ability to shoot at some 15 frames per second (and even pre-capture frames). Read on...