November 2000 news and reviews

As a concequence of our upcoming D1 review and conversations we've had with Nikon Europe they have now posted a tech support item explaining the D1's out-of-camera colour and what can be done to bring the cameras colours closer to the intention. "An increasing awareness of Colour Management issues, possibly provoked by the changes in Photoshop version 5.0 has led to many customers asking about the colour space that the D-1 produces when images are processed in-camera."

News today came by email, Kodak Professional (US) are selling off their discontinued models, ever fancied a 6 megapixel professional SLR for $2500? Well, if you're lucky and they still have stock you could pick up the DCS 460c (first introduced in 1995 when it had a list price of $35,600) for a mere $2500. "Users of our earlier digital cameras - and film shooters who have been waiting to 'go digital' - can now purchase brand new merchandise at very favorable prices to enhance or start their digital camera systems."

UPDATE: After our article on Dynamic Range yesterday we received several requests to perform the tests in RAW mode on cameras which support it. We'd deliberately stayed away from RAW mode because it throws up lots of variables, however we have now re-shot the test chart and re-calculated the results for the Nikon D1 and Canon EOS-D30 in RAW mode. (Burnt four hours of my day ;)

Thanks to an anonymous contact who sent us a datasheet on Sony's newest consumer grade CCD for digital still cameras. The ICX282 is the latest in a series of CCD sensors and is the direct progression from the ICX252 seen in many of this years 3 megapixel digital cameras. A leap in resolution and more interestingly the sensor's size has increased to 2/3" (11 mm diagonally), thus unit size (pixel size) is almost the same (3.4µm vs. 3.45µm).

Jeff Keller over at DC Resource has just posted his review of Olympus's 2 megapixel 10x zoom digital camera, "It's hard to compare the C-2100 Ultra Zoom, since there aren't too many cameras out there with a zoom like this. As a 2.1 Megapixel camera, it's a great one -- it's basically the C-2020Z with a large zoom lens. It's also got all the necessary manual features (with the exception of white balance), movies with sound, and a great bundle. If you want to break out of the 3X optical zoom mode, the C-2100 is a great way to do it!"

Uwe Steinmueller from outbackphoto.com is running a competition where you can try to do your best with a Nikon D1 NEF and a Canon EOS-D30 CRW. "The contest has two goals: Provide sample NEF and CRW files for all users to play with and get into the RAW experience Share with other users how to make the best out your raw files. As said raw files are diamonds in the rough. They have great potential but one has to work for it and know the tools (I am still learning myself)."

Y Media certainly hope so, "This company was developed around building a technology that will obsolete CCDs; that's a lofty goal". We've reported on Y Media's 3.17 megapixel CMOS sensor previously, this time there's a new article in Electronic Buyers' News charting some of the companies history, its goals and the technology behind CCD and CMOS sensors.

Rob Galbraith has published his appraisal of Canon's EOS-D30 from a photojournalists point of view, Rob introduces the article, "D30 image quality is top-notch and 550EX flash photography is a breeze. But the camera may not be the best choice for peak action sports. This article looks at some of the Canon EOS D30's main strengths and weaknesses, and includes 14 full-resolution photos."

Swedish Telecoms equipment maker Ericsson said it had signed an agreement with Canon Inc on the transfer of digital images from camera to mobile devices. "The technology will enable simple, fast and reliable transfer of images from digital cameras to wireless devices as well as to other consumers or the Internet,'' Ericsson said in a statement.

Jeff over at DCResource has just posted his own Canon EOS-D30 user review. Here's what Jeff had to say about the D30 "I don't feel that I can answer the above question, since this is the first Pro SLR digital camera I've used. Is the D30 a great camera? Yes, absolutely -- it continually amazed me every time I used it. If you've got a collection of Canon lenses and want to go digital in a big way, the D30 is for you. Even if you don't, and can afford the D30, it's definitely something to consider. Most of our readers will just daydream about the D30, but if it's in your price range, you should definitely check it out!"

Dave over at Imaging-Resource has been busy with Canon's latest prosumer digital camera, the PowerShot G1. "...the Canon PowerShot G1 a great option for novice consumers who want a camera with room to grow, and the RAW data file format and RemoteCapture computer-control capabilities should also entice more advanced digicam consumers..."