October 2002 news and reviews

Sony has posted a short note that some 'initial production' DSC-F717's will produce images which are out of focus when used with the Hologram AF (Laser light illumination) at certain focal lengths and certain light conditions. "Although these circumstances are limited, Sony will offer a parameter adjustment to the Hologram AF system for end users in accordance with its limited warranty, through Sony Service Centers and Sony's Authorized Service Centers." A list of serial numbers can be found within. UPDATE 31/Oct: Sony US have contacted us and have also posted update procedure.

Thanks to several of our readers who have sent emails of concern about the fact that there have been no news updates for over a week. There have been no news articles because at the moment we are in the typical quiet news period after a large show (Photokina). From a personal level I also moved house last weekend which meant that the currently active reviews had to be put on hold, I started working on them again yesterday. Please bear with me on this, the move is over but the 'moving in' isn't. Thanks again!

Thanks to forums poster 'Andreas P.' for noting that seven new Sigma SD9 samples have been posted on the German website Foto Erhardt. These samples were taken during Photokina under studio conditions (on the stand probably) and are Copyright Sigma. Several of these images show the huge potential of the X3 sensor and its ability to deliver very fine single pixel resolution. Kudos also to the Photographer who I assume is the same as was doing the demo on the Sigma stand.

Respected Professional Photographer Rob Galbraith has today posted an article titled "Canon EOS-1Ds delivers detail, and lots of it". The article is an examiniation of the image quality of a pre-production EOS-1Ds, Rob notes "Summing up EOS-1Ds image quality is difficult. On the one hand, the camera delivers crisp, detailed photos which are effectively noise-free at ISO 100, and surprisingly clean at ISO 1250. On the other hand, certain 16-35mm photos contain heaps of chromatic aberration, while portrait colour can be too vivid and contrasty."

Dave over at Imaging Resource has just posted a side-by-side comparison of the eleven megapixel EOS-1Ds and the six megapixel EOS-D60 posing the question "How much difference does it make?" (the additional five megapixels). Dave is lucky to have already received a production EOS-1Ds (we're expecting ours sometime next week). "The short answer to the "how much difference" question is "a lot" - Check out the photos below for comparison crops from each camera's images, including some in which the D60's image has been upsampled in Photoshop to match the scale of the one from the 1Ds, as well as some experiments with unsharp masking."

Pre-Photokina 2002, 0600 GMT: Canon has today announced the PowerShot S45. This new camera is essentially a refresh of the S40, it adds newly announced technologies such as the DIGIC processor, FlexiZone AF/AE, 9-point AiAF, Custom exposure mode, two manual white balance presets, focus bracketing, orientation sensor and up to 3 minute movie clips (using a high speed CF card). The PowerShot S45 has a four megapixel sensor and three times optical zoom lens.

Yesterday we noted a short article posted on the Japan Industrial Journal website (in Japanese) about a new Pentax D-SLR to be announced next 'Spring' (PMA). I've waited until now to get this news verified by our Japanese contact, and it does appear to be accurate and official as it was based on an interview with Pentax. The camera will be based around an APS sized sensor and will have a price around 200,000 YEN (US$1,600). It's not really surprising to find out Pentax have something in the works especially considering the announced and cancelled full-frame D-SLR of two years ago. Good news for increased competition in the D-SLR market, although I'm sure this won't be the only new D-SLR at PMA next year.

Jeff Keller over at DCResource has today posted his review of the four megapixel Nikon Coolpix 4300, "The Nikon Coolpix 4300 is a worthy follow up to its predecessor, the 885. It offers most of the features found on the more expensive Coolpix 4500, including the use of conversion lenses and the macro ring flash! Most importantly, the 4300 has the excellent photo quality that is found on the more expensive Coolpix". In addition Jeff has also posted a small gallery of side-by-side comparison shots from the Coolpix 4300 and Kodak's LS443.

Pentax has today announced a firmware update for the recently introduced 330GS digital camera. This update improves "the compatibility of the Optio330GS with various new CF cards being introduced in the market". Current 330GS digital cameras will have firmware version 1.0 loaded, this new firmware is version 1.1. The update is carried out by copying the new firmware (.bin) file onto a Compact Flash card and inserting it into the camera. The updater is available for Windows and Mac OS.

Nikon has today announced new firmware for the Coolpix 885 digital camera. Firmware v1.2, which is slightly less radical than the new firmware announced for the Coolpix 5000, simply adds EXIF 2.2 (ExifPrint) support and PTP USB connection mode. Interestingly (and I hadn't noticed this with other similar firmware upgrades) Nikon specifically notes that Epson's PRINT Image Matching is no longer supported. Looks like PIM is dead.

Panasonic Japan has today confirmed the details of the Lumix DMC-FZ1 which was quietly introduced at Photokina (and reported in detail here), they have also announced the Lumix DMC-F1 which seems to be based on the existing DMC-F7. In addition to this there are also two new interesting SD products. The SV-PT1 is a portable storage device based around a 5 GB hard disk PCMCIA card, you can use it to store images from your SD card while out in the field and print directly to the new SV-P20 portable printer. The SV-P20 is a portable printer which can be connected to the SV-PT1 or can support an SD card directly. UPDATE: Yamada posts samples from DMC-FZ1.

Just posted! Our full in-depth review of Minolta's compact four megapixel, three times optical zoom, DiMAGE F100. This slim digital camera offers a wide and flexible feature set, small dimensions, SD/MMC storage and just double AA battery requirements (which also keeps weight down). The DiMAGE F100 enters the higher end of the compact market where image quality and features can sometimes win over price. See how the F100 did in our tests.

Olympus Europe has this morning become the first Olympus website to publish information on the new C-5050 Zoom. This new prosumer level digital camera has a F1.8 - F2.6 3x optical zoom lens (35 - 105 mm equiv.), a tilting 1.8" LCD display and a 5 megapixel 1/1.8" CCD sensor. The last detail being the most interesting, with a 5 megapixel 1/1.8" CCD around we're likely to see many more new 5 megapixel cameras hitting the market utilizing the same lenses seen in previous 3 and 4 megapixel digital cameras. UPDATE: Detailed specifications.

Just posted! Our updated Photokina 2002 Show Report covers twenty two manufacturers over five pages of images and product detail, links back to news articles and manufacturers websites. Photokina 2002 was another huge show, but this time had a much stronger digital influence. New products were around although at the consumer end we saw more product refresh than innovation. Photokina 2002 however will be remembered on one side as the beginning of a new age of digital SLR's with high pixel count full image frame sensors and on the other the first time the general public got the opportunity to examine Foveon X3 images.

As of this morning ACD Systems has made available ACDSee 5.0 for download. Existing ACDSee users can upgrade to 5.0 for $34.95, a full non-upgrade license is $49.95. The ACDSee 5.0 PowerPack includes ACD FotoCanvas (basic photo editting) and ACD FotoAngelo (slideshow / screensaver builder) for $79.95. ACDSee 5.0 includes several new features including calendar based browsing, image grouping and interface customization. ACDSee 5.0 also performs lossless JPEG rotation by default (yipee!)