Hitachi i.mega HDC-302SLIM is announced by Hitachi Japan. The Hitachi i.mega HDC-302SLIM is an updated version of the current HDC-301SLIM model and features a fixed focus lens equivalent to 44mm on a 35mm camera. The HDC-302SLIM has a 3.1 megapixel sensor that Hitachi claim can be interpolated up to 8 megapixels, although I would take that claim with a rather large pinch of salt. Other features on the HDC-302SLIM, which ships in Japan in May, include a 2 inch LCD screen and 16Mb internal memory. Price and availability of the Hitachi i.mega HDC-302SLIM outside Japan to be announced.

Website: Hitachi Japan - HDC-302SLIM Press Release

TIPA (Technical Image Press Association) have announced their photography awards for 2005. 30 different products have been chosen as the nest in their class. Standwout winners include the Nikon Coolpix 7900 (review coming soon), Sony Cyber-shot T7, Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 and the Canon EOS 350D. For a full list of all the winners with accompanying test, see the following website:

Website: TIPA - The Best Photo Products in Europe, 2005

Luminous Landscape have a new article by professional photographer Doug Brown that takes an in-depth look at creating stitched panoramic photographs.

“Used to be if you wanted to produce a panoramic format image you had either hardware-based choices - cameras with revolving lenses, specialised wide format cameras, removable wide angle backs etc. - or you could crop a standard image to panoramic proportions in the manner APS cameras offered. The later wasn’t a true wider panoramic image but the aspect ratio was similar. With the introduction of dedicated stitching software the possibility of adapting any lens to a wide angle role via post processing the image from multiple segments was opened up to photographers. Having used everything from 16mm to just short of 300mm to create panoramic images in software, I can attest to the usefulness of these programs that ensure you’re never caught short in a wide-angle situation.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Adventures with Panoramas

About Photography have an interesting article on using the Nikon D70 digital SLR in conjunction with the Nikon SB-800 Autofocus Speedlight flashgun.

“For several months I’ve been trying to get to grips with my new flash unit, a Nikon SB-800, used together with a Nikon D70 camera. I’m not going to pretend I’m an expert with it, but I usually manage to get it to do what I want in the end. Much of what I’ve concluded will be relevant to those using the SB-800 (or SB-600) with other Nikon cameras, and some more generally to other modern camera and flash systems.”

Website: About Photography - New Flash: Nikon D70 and Nikon SB-800 Autofocus Speedlight

Imaging Resource have posted their review of the new Olympus mju DIGITAL 500 digital camera (also known as the Olympus Stylus 500), which has 5 megapixels, a 3X optical zoom lens and large 2.5” LCD display.

“As the latest in that company’s “Stylus” line of compact digital cameras, the 5-megapixel, 3x-zoom Olympus Stylus 500 Digital is to my mind the best Stylus Digital model to date. Its body design is trim and compact, with much better-feeling controls than those found on earlier models. It offers the same water resistance that makes the rest of the Stylus line so practical for go-anywhere photography, and sports a big, beautiful 2.5-inch LCD monitor to view your photos on. While the LCD on the Stylus 500 does much better than average in bright sunlight, and offers a wider than average viewing angle, I do wish that Olympus had kept an optical viewfinder for low light shooting, as the Stylus 500’s LCD has a bit of a hard time there. That quibble aside though, the Olympus Stylus 500 is a very capable, highly portable point & shoot camera, with good image quality and a better than average lens. Its point & shoot simplicity and 20 preset Scene modes make it easy for even novice users to bring home great-looking photos.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Olympus mju DIGITAL 500 Review

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Lexmark P4350 and Lexmark X3350 are announced. The Lexmark P4350 and Lexmark X3350 are all-in-one printers and scnanners. The P4350 is the first all-in-one witha colour LCD screen to sell for under $130. The X3350 offers 48-bit color scan depth. The Lexmark P4350 has an estimated retail price of $129, while the Lexmark X3350 will be available for $79* after a $20 mail-in rebate.

Lexmark Press Release

Lexmark International, Inc. (NYSE: LXK) today introduced two All-in-One (AIO) inkjet printers that set new standards for price and performance, including the Lexmark P4350 , which is the industry’s first AIO with a color LCD screen at $129.*

Lexmark’s latest AIOs make higher-end technology more broadly available through new consumer-friendly price points. These feature-rich printers include flatbed scanners, PictBridge, borderless photo printing, LCD screens and functionality with or without a PC.  Both use Lexmark’s Evercolor™ inks to deliver brilliant photos that last longer than most traditional photos under display conditions without fading, and more than 200 years stored in photo albums**.

Lexmark Press Release

Lexmark International, Inc. (NYSE: LXK) today announced an assortment of photo papers engineered to offer customers a complete home photo printing solution. Optimized for use with Lexmark printers – including the P4350 and X3350, also announced today – and EvercolorTM inks, consumers can generate digital photo output of the highest possible quality.

“With innovative technology, Evercolor inks and now a line of high-quality photo papers, Lexmark offers the best photo printing solution for our customers on the market today,” said Najib Bahous, Lexmark vice president and president of its Consumer Printer Division. “This introduction reinforces the fact that Lexmark offers exceptional quality and value for consumers who want to transform digital images into brilliant photos at home.”

Digital Camera Review have published their review of the 4 megapixel Canon PowerShot A520 digital camera.

“The A520’s ISO 50 and 100 images were consistently superb, but ISO 200 images were a bit noisy and ISO 400 images were noticeably too noisy. Overall, the A520 produces well-exposed images with good color, balanced contrast, excellent shadow/highlight detail, and sharp resolution, but the new f2.6-f5.5/35-140mm (35mm equivalent) all glass 4X optical zoom isn’t as sharp as the A85’s 3X zoom. The A520’s images are as good (or better) than any digital camera in its class. Reds are a bit warm and blues are a little bright, but most casual/amateur photographers probably wouldn’t consider this a fault. We did notice some minor chromatic aberration (in high contrast color transition areas, especially at maximum aperture) in a couple of shots, but overall the A520’s images are excellent.”

Website: Digital Camera Review - Canon PowerShot A520 Review

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Adobe Press Release

Highly Anticipated Upgrade to Adobe Photoshop Includes New Vanishing Point Feature, Camera Raw 3.0 Workflow Improvements, Smart Objects and Customisable Menus

SAN JOSE, Calif. — April 27, 2005 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today shipped Adobe® Photoshop® CS2, a major upgrade to the professional industry standard for digital image editing and creation. Available as a stand-alone software application or as a component of the Adobe Creative Suite® 2, also shipping today (see separate press release), Photoshop CS2 software is equipped with indispensable new features and simplified workflows delivering a greater level of power, precision and control to photographers, film, video and creative professionals.

Adobe Press Release

Adobe Photoshop CS2, InDesign CS2, Illustrator CS2, GoLive CS2 and InCopy CS2 Also Available Today

SAN JOSE, Calif. — April 27, 2005 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of Adobe® Creative Suite 2 software. Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium Edition integrates new full-version upgrades of indispensable design software - Adobe Photoshop® CS2 (see separate release), Adobe InDesign® CS2, Adobe Illustrator® CS2 and Adobe GoLive® CS2 - with the all-new Version Cue® CS2. It also introduces the Adobe Stock Photos service (see separate release), Adobe Bridge and includes the recently released Adobe Acrobat® 7.0 Professional. Adobe Photoshop CS2, InDesign CS2, Illustrator CS2 and GoLive CS2 are also available today as standalone software products. In addition, Adobe InCopy® CS2, a professional writing and editing program that integrates tightly with Adobe InDesign CS2 software, is shipping today.

Babel Company Press Release

Impression automates data and asset archiving for OS X by specializing in moving large amounts of data to spanned DVD/CD sets or to mounted
drives for offline storage.  Other noteworthy features include the preservation of all HFS+/Spotlight meta-data, after-write file verification and bookmark-based management features.

New to version 2.8 comes ‘Tiger’ compatibility (a.k.a. OS X 10.4), cross-platform HFS+/ISO9660/Joliet disc burning, support for burning multiple copies of each archive disc, automatic archiving of Spotlight meta-data and a number of other enhancements.

Resco Press Release

Resco announces the release of the newest version of their popular Resco Photo Viewer, a device that allows users to view and edit digital photographs easily and quickly. The new version offers numerous improvements in terms of speed and memory.

Bratislava, Slovakia (PRWEB via Mobility Newswire) April 27, 2005—Resco , a leading provider of end-user mobile applications, today announced the availability of a new version of one of the company’s best selling applications, Resco Photo Viewer 5.30.

Resco Photo Viewer version 5.30 is an ideal enhancement product for a digital camera. It allows users to view photographs easily and quickly and to store them in the form of photo albums (which can later be edited and sent to other viewers). The slide show function allows users to present photo albums in a creative manner. Besides allowing users to organize a large number of pictures, it enables copying, cropping and resizing, and offers a plethora of other standard editing functions. Out of the box, it allows customers to add annotations in the form of text, sound or drawings.

PNY Technologies Press Release

Change the colour of your USB 2.0 flash key to suit your moods with the new Color Attaché range from PNY

Mérignac, France 27th April 2005, PNY Technologies is pleased to announce the launch of its new range of “Color AttachéTM” USB 2.0 Flash Drives.

The Color Attaché comes with interchangeable covers, allowing the user to change the colour of their flash memory drive, as often as they like to suit their professional or pleasurable frame of mind.

It is a fun accessory, which can hold vast amounts of valuable data, i.e. music, films, photos, professional files etc.

HP Photosmart M517 digital camera is quietly introduced. The Photosmart M517 is a 5 megapixel digicam with a 1.8 inch LCD screen and 3x optical zoom lens equivalent to 36-108mm on a 35mm camera. Key differences between the new HP M517 and the exisiting Photosmart M417 camera are an 8x digital zoom, 32 MB internal memory and a bigger 2 inch LCD screen. The HP Photosmart M517 also features exclusive HP technologies like adaptive lighting. Pricing and availability of the HP M517 to be announced.

Ricoh Caplio GX8 is announced today. The Ricoh Caplio GX8 is an 8.24 megapixel update of the Ricoh Caplio GX, which has a 5 megapixel sensor and which I reviewed here. The Ricoh GX8 has a 28mm wide-angle zoom lens that can be expanded to 22mm with an optional wide conversion lens. The Ricoh GX8 takes only 1.3 seconds from start up to taking the first shot and can capture 16 frames in 2 seconds. The Ricoh Caplio GX8 also features aperture priority, shutter priority and manual exposure modes plus exposure compensation and auto-bracketing. No details yet on price and availability of the Ricoh Caplio GX8.

Ricoh Press Release

Ricoh launches the Caplio GX8, 8-megapixel successor to the popular GX

Tokyo, Japan, 26th April 2005. Ricoh announces the Caplio GX8, an 8-megapixel successor to the popular Caplio GX. The GX8 Combines a 28mm wide-angle zoom digital camera with outstanding performance and expandability, all in a sleek and compact aluminum die-cast body featuring the signature rubber handgrip. In addition to offering lightning fast operation and astounding macro mode capabilities that have long distinguished Ricoh digital cameras, the Caplio GX8 boasts superb flexibility, connecting to a wide array of accessories and instruments, such as wide conversion lens, external shutter release, and even a telescope. With such a plethora of tools on board, the photographic possibilities are limitless.

Samsung Digimax Pro 815 is launched. The Samsung Digimax Pro 815 is an ultra-zoom digital camera that looks like a digital SLR (but isn’t), with a massive 15x optical zoom equivalent to a focal length of 28-420mm and an enormous 3.5 inch LCD screen. Other features on the surprising Digimax Pro 815 include a continuous shooting speed of 2.5 fps, start-up speed of less than 1 second and a hotshoe for external flashguns. No word yet on how many megapixels the Samsung Digimax Pro 815 will actually have, although the “8” in the name strongly suggests that it will use an 8 megapixel sensor.

The Samsung Digimax Pro 815 seems to be the real-life incarnation of a mystery camera that Samsung were displaying as a concept drawing at the PMA show back in February (pictured). At the time I commented “In a PMA Show of few real surprises, Samsung’s banner at the back of their stand hints at an ultra-zoom model, which would be quite a departure for a company that specialises in compact, easy to use and stylish digicams with a 3x optical zoom. Samsung obviously wouldn’t comment further on the mystery digital camera - time will tell if it actually makes it beyond the designer’s drawing board.” Well, it looks as though that camera has made it into production as the Samsung Digimax Pro 815.

More details and pictures of the Samsung Digimax Pro 815 can be found on this Chinese website:

Website: PCOnline.com.cn - Samsung Digimax Pro 815 (Chinese)

Photoxels have published their review of the 5 megapixel, 10x zoom Kodak EasyShare Z740 digital camera.

” The Kodak Z740 is what we would term a true Point & Shoot digital camera, an easy-to-use family camera for capturing all those precious moments. Then print them out using the Printer Dock Series 3 at the touch of a button—even without turning your computer on! If you do not want to post-process any images in an image editing software, the Kodak Z740’s default settings produce images that are sharp and rich in colours straight out of the camera.”

Website: Photoxels - Kodak EasyShare Z740 Review

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DPReview have reviewed the new Nikon Coolpix 7900, a 7 megapixel digital camera featuring a 2.0-inch LCD screen, new graphical user interface and a 3x Zoom-Nikkor ED lens equivalent to 38-114mm lens in 35mm format.

“In an increasingly crowded 7MP compact market, the Coolpix 7900 has much to recommend it. Design, build and ease of use are excellent, and there is a surprising amount of power hidden in the extensive menus, offering control over focus, metering, white balance and so on for those who like to tweak. The novice market the 7900 is aimed at will surely welcome the hand-holding approach of the scene and scene assist modes, and the overall responsiveness makes using the camera a real pleasure. Features such as Best Shot Selector (which takes a burst of shots as you hold down the shutter, then chooses and saves only the sharpest one), D-Lighting, Face-Piority AF and In-Camera Red-Eye Fix (which works virtually every time) add value to an already well-priced camera.”

Website: DPReview - Nikon Coolpix 7900 Review

Website: Read my Nikon Coolpix 7900 Review

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The Spanish website Quesabesde have posted their review of the new entry-level Olympus C-370 Zoom (this camera is known as the Olympus D-535 Zoom in the USA).

Website: Quesabesde - Olympus C-370 Zoom Review

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Photo-i have completed their interactive review of the Konica Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 II film scanner, the successor to the popular Scan Elite 5400 model.

“Konica Minolta along with a handful of other manufacturers still believe that there is a market for a dedicated film scanner, they are probably right, but I do think that we are seeing the tail end of this specialist piece of equipment, especially one that only caters for 35mm film. The scanner performed well above expectations by producing excellent scans time after time with hardly any user intervention. The scanner software was very good and gave sufficient control to produce superb quality scans. Scanning times were very fast, but noisy - the scanners whirrs and buzzes away. I didn’t like the film feed system, you have to juggle the holder until the scanner takes the bite and pulls it in, a bit like trying to feed a sleepy dog.”

Website: Photo-i - Konica Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 II Review

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