Steves Digicams have published the first review on the web of the 7 megapixel Canon PowerShot S70.

“With an MSRP of $599, the Canon S70 presents an excellent value for families wanting a small camera that can be used by photographers of every experience level, and capable of producing large high-quality images. Its 7-megapixel images are stunning both in terms of resolution and quality, allowing you to make 8x10-inch prints of a heavily cropped image, or 13x19-inch prints of the entire shot.”

Website: Steves Digicams - Canon PowerShot S70 Review

The Hungarian website Index Digicam have published a review of the 4 megapixel Sony Cyber-shot DSC-L1 that was announced last week.

Website: Index Digicam - Sony Cyber-shot DSC-L1 Review

The Danish website Digital Magasinet have just reviewed the new 5 megapixel Sony DSC-P100 digital camera.

Website: Digital Magasinet - Sony DSC-P100 Review

DCResource have published their review of the 5 megapixel Samsung Digimax V50.

“The Samsung Digimax V50 is a great example of a camera that sounds great after reading the spec sheet that turns out to be a disappointment after start using it. With a 5 Megapixel CCD, large rotating LCD, manual controls, VGA movie mode, and dual memory card slots, it sounds like the camera to beat in the lower-cost 5MP market. In reality, its photo quality is hit-or-miss and performance is subpar.”

Website: DCResource - Samsung Digimax V50 Review

DigitalCameraInfo have published their review of the new 5 megapixel Nikon Coolpix 5200 compact digital camera.

“From the graph above, it is apparent how much the Coolpix 5200 relies on over-saturated tones to gain depth in its imagery. While most cameras exaggerate some tones a bit for richness and vibrancy, most do not to the extent of the 5200. In particular, the blue, green, red, yellow, and orange tones all have difficulty in naturalistic rendering of tones. There is some consistency in the both the degree and direction of error (moving towards the edge of the page is over-saturation, towards the center is dulled), however, many of the tones produced by the 5200 stray from the ideal. The degree of error is not extreme in any one hue, however, all-in-all color rendition is not a particular strength for the Coolpix 5200.”

Website: DigitalCameraInfo - Nikon Coolpix 5200 Review

The Norwegian website Akam.no have posted their review of the Panasonic DMC-FZ10 Lumix ultrazoom digital camera.

Website: Akam.no - Panasonic DMC-FZ10 Lumix Review

Imaging Resource have published their First look at the 7 megapixel Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V3 that was announced a few days ago.

“The new Sony V3 is still boxy and relatively compact, shaped like a familiar 35mm rangefinder models of years past, but with a decent grip. The DSC-V3’s 7-megapixel CCD captures high resolution images, and its full complement of exposure modes provides as little or as much control as you might want. Like the V1, the V3 includes Sony’s NightShot, NightFraming, and Hologram AF technologies, which greatly add to the camera’s flexibility and usefulness in low-light shooting conditions. Scene exposure mode offers nine preprogrammed exposure modes, and a choice of Sony’s “Smart Zoom” or “Precision Zoom” technologies offers better image quality with digital zoom. MPEGMovie VX format allows movie and sound recording at VGA quality, to the capacity of the memory card, without any arbitrary limits imposed by buffer memory capacity. Finally, the V3 features true Through-The-Lens (TTL) flash metering, a rare feature in the digicam marketplace.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V3 First Look

Canon have released a new version of firmware for the Canon PowerShot S1 IS digital camera.
 
Firmware specification changes (Version 1.0.2.0)

- Improvements in the communication processing with the CF card.

* This update includes the previous firmware update (version 1.0.1.0) as well as the current one.

- Specification changes for the way images are displayed in Continuous AF Mode.

- Improvements for the overexposure phenomenon that occurred during daytime synchronized shooting.

Website: http://www.canon.co.jp/Imaging/pss1is/firmware-e.html

CNET have just reviewed the PowerShot SD110 Digital ELPH, which packs 3.2 megapixels into the smallest digital ELPH camera ever made with an optical zoom. Estimated street price is $299.

“Busy snapshot photographers looking for an inexpensive, pocketable camera will appreciate the 3-megapixel Canon PowerShot SD110’s no-nonsense ease of operation. This ultracompact model has some of the same limitations as earlier Digital Elphs: a lack of manual controls and scene modes, as well as only a 2X optical zoom instead of the more typical 3X range.”

Website: CNET - Canon PowerShot SD110 Digital ELPH Review

CNET have posted their review of the Kyocera Finecam M410R, a 4.0 megapixel digital camera with a high-powered 10x optical zoom and high-speed lens.

“Kyocera’s 4-megapixel Finecam M410R, which sports a 10X zoom lens, may look like another me-too megazoom digicam, but the company says that speedy performance provided by a technology it calls RTune sets this model apart. We found that to be partly true, and when you add in the Finecam M410R’s acceptable design and feature set, you have a serviceable midrange-to-advanced snapshot camera.”

Website: CNET - Kyocera Finecam M410R Review

DPReview have just reviewed the 4-megapixel, 10x zoom Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2.

“Fast, fun, and easy to use, the Konica Minolta Z2 offers a compelling combination of features (including some pretty meaty movie capabilities) and image quality at an excellent price. The camera’s ‘hit rate’ is very high, with the only problems being the occasional exposure problem and the ever-present danger of camera shake when shooting at the long end of the zoom in all but the brightest lighting.”

Website: DPReview - Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2 Review

The technology website AnandTech has published a 12 page comparison of the new Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3 and its predecessor the Z2, which might help you to decide which model to buy (found via digicamera.net).

“Overall, we found the Z2 to perform better than the Z3 in relation to Auto WB in tungsten light. In our color reproduction test, the Z3 had a much stronger yellowish-pink cast than the Z2. Indeed, it performed worse than we could have imagined. However, both cameras did pretty well reproducing colors in tungsten light when we used the Tungsten preset or set the WB manually. That said, we noticed that the Z3 slightly underexposed all of our indoor image tests (including video).”

Website: AnandTech - Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2 & Z3: What is the difference in performance?

DigitalCameraInfo.com have published one of the more technical reviews of the new 5 megapixel Sony DSC-W1 digital compact camera that you will find on the internet, using Norman Koren’s new Imatest program for some of their testing.

“For a point and shoot camera, the DSC-W1 is not proficient in auto mode. While the camera will read extreme lighting to produce a proper exposure, many of the images recorded in automatic ISO mode are fraught with noise and distortion. As the available light is diminished, the camera struggle to compensate and it results in increased noise levels. Fortunately, the DSC-W1 does contain manual ISO control, providing the user the opportunity to control the image clarity.”

Website: DigitalCameraInfo.com - Sony DSC-W1 Review

The 4th (and I think final) preview today of the new 5 megapixel Sony Cyber-shot DSC-M1 digital camera comes from Steves Digicams:

“A new hybrid record mode makes the most of the scene being captured by automatically recording five seconds of QVGA video before and three seconds after the still image is snapped, creating a more complete record of the sights and sounds of the moment. The video and still images are stored as two separate files, but played back as one in the camera.”

Website: Steves Digicams - Sony Cyber-shot DSC-M1 Preview

The 3rd preview today of the new 5 megapixel Sony Cyber-shot DSC-M1 digital camera comes from Imaging Resource:

“The DSC-M1 is certainly an interesting concept, and while it still has some rough edges (particularly in terms of ergonomics and design, as I mentioned previously), it also has plenty of positives as well. While it isn’t designed to completely replace a camcorder, its relatively compact dimensions and light weight will make it much more likely to accompany you, than would be a separate digital camera and camcorder that would likely each be as large, or larger.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Sony Cyber-shot DSC-M1 Preview

The Slovenian website eFotoGrafija have just published their review of the 8-megapixel Nikon Coolpix 8700 digital camera.

Website: eFotoGrafija - Nikon Coolpix 8700 Review

DCResource have published their hands-on preview of the new 5 megapixel Sony Cyber-shot DSC-M1 digital camera.

“People probably won’t buy the M1 for its picture-taking abilities: they can get that elsewhere for less money. Instead, it’s for people who want to take higher quality movie clips with less of a hit on their memory cards. Since the M1 uses MPEG4, you don’t need a fast Memory Stick Pro card to record video at the highest quality—any regular Memory Stick Duo card will work. This new movie feature is called MPEGMovie4TV (versus MPEGMovie VX on other recent Sony cameras).”

Website: DCResource - Sony Cyber-shot DSC-M1 Preview

Despite being announced less than 12 hours ago, A-Digital-Eye have published a hands-on preview of the new 5 megapixel Sony Cyber-shot DSC-M1 digital camera.

“As discussed earlier we have been using the new M1 for several days now and have found it to be a very fun camera. The camera appears to take the same very high quality 5 megapixel images still images that we found in the DSC-T1 released earlier this year. What we were very pleased to find was the very quick camera operations. The M1 does have a very fast focus and shutter lag, which helps insure you get the image at the moment you want. We also noticed that flash images were looking good, and to our eye looked a bit better then we recall on the T1.”

Website: A-Digital-Eye - Sony Cyber-shot DSC-M1 Preview

Website: A-Digital-Eye - News

Sony Press Release 08/09/04

SONY’S CYBER-SHOT M1 CAMERA EXTENDS THE MEMORY TO MORE THAN JUST AN INSTANT IN TIME

New Cyber-shot Shooting Mode Sandwiches Quality Stills Between Video Clips

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 8, 2004 - A picture may say a thousand words, but with Sony’s futuristic new Cyber-shot DSC-M1 digital camera and its extraordinary video features, it’s what happens before and after the picture is taken that says the most.

“Capturing that one special moment in time is, of course, the reason why cameras exist,” said Steve Haber, senior vice president for Sony Electronics’ Personal Mobile and Imaging Division. “But what led up to that moment, and what happened just after is an important story to tell too.”

Enter, the Cyber-shot DSC-M1, a 5.1-megapixel digital still camera that also pays particular attention to the role moving images play in preserving memories, and even more attention to making it easy to use. It will be available in December for about $600.

Imaging Resource have just reviewed the 3.2 megapixel Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z10 digital camera, which features fastest-in-class startup, 8x optical “Mega-Zoom,” fast and reliable autofocusing, and energy efficient design.

“Earlier, I mentioned the unusual design of the Z10’s EVF, which uses the same LCD screen as for the rear-panel display. Despite its odd design, the scheme seems to work pretty well, as the EVF is bright and has pretty good resolution. My one complaint about it is that the eyepiece optics have a rather low eyepoint, which means that eyeglass wearers will find themselves pressing the viewfinder eyepiece tightly against the lenses of their glasses, in order to see the full frame. The EVF does have a dioptric adjustment knob with a fairly wide range of adjustment though, so you may be able touse the EVF without your eyeglasses on. (I’m quite nearsighted, at 20/180or so, and the dioptric control could just compensate for my uncorrected vision.)”

Website: Imaging Resource - Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z10 Review