Fujifilm FinePix Z1 Zoom is launched: the Z1 Zoom is a 5 megapixel compact digital camera with a large 2.5inch LCD screen and 3 optical zoom. Inside the FinePix Z1 Zoom is a fifth generation version of Fujifilm’s Super CCD HR sensor, outside Z1 is small enough to fit in your pocket.

Fujifilm UK Press Release

Fujifilm FinePix Z1 Zoom: a body for the catwalk with a spec for the studio

Announcement Date: 08 February 2005

Five megapixel power in a pocketable, ultra-cool body

Fujifilm today announced the launch of its new FinePix Z1 Zoom, a super-slim compact digital camera that boasts 5.1 megapixels, 3x optical zoom and a mammoth 2.5 inch LCD monitor, inside an aluminium body barely bigger than a credit card.

The FinePix Z1 Zoom showcases a variety of Fujifilm’s inventive construction techniques that help the camera achieve its sleek, seamless casing and miniature dimensions. The zoom lens has a special refractive, non-extending design that delivers 3x optical reach without any visible movement on the Z1 Zoom’s flat exterior.

Fujifilm FinePix A345 Zoom and FinePix A350 Zoom announced. The A345 and A350 are two new entry-level 4 and 5 megapixel cameras from Fujifilm, both with 3x optical zoom and 1.7inch LCD screens. The FinePix A345 Zoom and FinePix A350 Zoom are aimed at beginners and designed to be easy to operate.

Fujifilm UK Press Release

Fujifilm’s FinePix A345 Zoom and FinePix A350 Zoom: an ‘A’ in entry level excellence

Announcement Date: 08 February 2005

Four and five megapixel digital cameras that are high on performance and low in complexity

Fujifilm today announced the FinePix A345 Zoom and A350 Zoom: two simple-to-operate four and five megapixel resolution cameras, with a neat, compact design, high quality 1.7 inch LCD screen and 3x optical zoom lens.

Following in the footsteps of their predecessors – the hugely popular FinePix A330 and A340 Zoom – these models offer exceptional power and value in a new and improved design. Whilst the entry-level category can often mean that corners are cut on build quality and feel, anyone who handles these cameras will be pleasantly surprised by their compact solidity.

Spanish website Quesabesde have reviewed the 5 megapixel Pentax Optio S5i. With 5.0 effective megapixels and a 3X optical zoom lens, the Optio S5i features a stylish design in an ultra-compact, lightweight digital camera

Website: Quesabesde - Pentax Optio S5i Review

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Photo-i have started an interactive review of the Epson Perfection 4990 Photo flatbed scanner, which has the ability to scan medium and large format film. The Perfection 4990 Photo scanner features, 4800 x 9600 dpi resolution, a high optical density of up to 4.0 Dmax and is aimed at photo enthusiasts and professionals.

“It seems like this is becoming an annual habit, one year ago I reviewed the Epson 4870 scanner, the year before it was the 3200. Both scanners produced high quality scans that were close if not better than most dedicated film scanners. Although having said that, good quality film scanners are thin on the ground. This is mainly due to the fact that most people are now shooting digitally. Film scanning is rapidly becoming passe’, but is often the only option for film based photographers and there are still many people who want to convert slides and negatives into digital files.”

Website: Photo-i - Epson Perfection 4990 Photo Scanner Review

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Successor to the popular Caplio R1, the Ricoh Caplio R1V is a powerful 5.0 megapixel digital camera with a 28mm wide-angle, 4.8x optical zoom in an exceptionally slim 25mm body. DigiCamReview have published their review of the Ricoh Caplio R1V.

“The Ricoh Caplio R1v is a compact 5 megapixel digital camera with an impressive 4.8x wide optical zoom lens and a good 1.8” screen. The camera records unlimited length 30fps videos with sound. It is easy to use, and produces good images with very good colour and detail. It is very quick, with a quick switch on time, focus time and shutter response time. For around £186 (UK) this fast, compact and feature packed camera offers excellent value for money. It’s quite stylish, fits very easily into pockets, produces very good images, and has an excellent macro mode. The only things that let this camera down are the zoom control, occassional corner darkness, and high noise.”

Website: DigiCamReview - Ricoh Caplio R1V Review

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CNET have just posted their review of the 7 megapixel Canon PowerShot G6.

” A modest update to the G5, the 7-megapixel PowerShot G6 faithfully follows in the footsteps of previous Canon G-series models. With a powerful, enthusiast-oriented feature set and very solid photo quality, it gets most of the same high marks as its predecessors. But its good-but-not-great performance lags behind the competition’s, keeping the G6 from garnering the Editors’ Choice-level ratings of its ancestors.”

Website: CNET - Canon PowerShot G6 Review

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DarkVision Hardware have just reviewed the Pentax Optio SV, a compact digicam with 5 Megapixels and 5x zoom lens.

“It’s not just the dimensions of the Optio SV that remind me of the Ixus 500, the specs are very similar too, with a five megapixel CCD - although the maximum image resolution is slightly lower at 2,560 x 1,920. But where the Optio SV does have the edge over its rival is in the optical zoom department. Whereas the Ixus 500 has a 3x optical zoom, Pentax has managed to squeeze a 5x optical zoom into the Optio SV - that’s equivalent to 36-180mm in 35mm language. Pentax attributes this feat to its newly designed “Sliding-Lens Technology”, but marketing babble aside, having a 5x optical zoom in a camera this small is definitely a bonus.”

Website: DarkVision Hardware - Pentax Optio SV Review

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Strong demand for the 6 megapixel Nikon D70 DSLR (pictured) saw Nikon post a profit of £30.2 million in the three months to December 31, reports the Scottish newspaper Edinburgh Evening News (found via CameraTown).

“Last year, managing director Makoto Kimura said Nikon was increasing production capacity for the D70, with a view to eventually halting production of film-dependent compact cameras for which demand is sliding. He said Nikon aimed to sell one million digital SLRs in the business year to March 2005, compared to about 300,000 in 2003/4.”

Website: Edinburgh Evening News - Nikon snap happy as profits hit £30m

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Noise Ninja plugin for Photoshop released. Noise Ninja is a noise reduction software program from Picturecode, available either as a stand-alone program or now as a plugin for Photoshop (Winodws and MAC versions).

PictureCode Press Release

February 7, 2005—Plug-in version of Noise Ninja released

PictureCode today officially released a Photoshop plug-in version of its top-rated Noise Ninja software, which removes high-ISO noise and grain from digital images. The plug-in has been in a public beta test for the last few months, and license keys have been on sale since December, allowing the general public early access to the technology while the product remained under development.

“Response to the Noise Ninja plug-in beta test was extremely positive,” remarks Jim Christian, founder of PictureCode. “The software was downloaded approximately 20,000 times, and we already have thousands of paying customers for it. We’re also seeing rapid adoption by first-tier newspapers, and it was used at the Superbowl yesterday. Now that the product is officially released, we expect accelerated adoption in all of our key market segments.”

Corel Press Release

COREL NOW DELIVERING PAINT SHOP™ PRODUCTS TO THE MARKET!

Paint Shop Family of Products Shipped by Corel

London, UK - 8th February 2005 - Corel Corporation, a leading provider of easy-to-use personal productivity software, today announced that it is now shipping the award-winning Paint Shop family of products, as of January 2005.

Following the acquisition of Jasc Software in October 2004, the Paint Shop products (including Paint Shop Pro® 9) are now being supplied and distributed by Corel. The products can be obtained from the online Corel store (www.corel.co.uk) as well as a number of leading resellers and distributors across the UK including:
- GEM Distribution
- Ingram Micro
- Computers Unlimited.

Kodak UK Press Release

Kodak To Sponsor Young Photographer Category in 2005 Visions of Science Awards

HEMEL HEMPSTEAD, February 9th 2005 - Kodak has once again agreed to sponsor the Young Photographer Category in the 2005 Novartis and The Daily Telegraph Visions of Science Photographic Awards.

This category is aimed specifically at students in full time education and caters for age ranges 16 Years and Under and 17-18 Years. Submitted images can show any aspect of science or the natural world and can be taken by any standard or specialist photographic technique, scientific technique or can be computer generated. Kodak’s sponsorship includes a financial contribution towards promotion of the Visions of Science Photographic Awards across UK schools plus photographic equipment for the winners. Each will receive a KODAK EASYSHARE DX7590 Digital Camera and Printer Dock for themselves and their school.

Kodak UK Press Release

February 7th 2005 - Young people visiting the Tower of London during Local Schools Weeks 2005 will be given further opportunities to bring history to life thanks to a $50,000 donation to the Royal Armouries from Kodak’s Corporate Charitable Contributions Programme. Kodak’s support will finance the three annual Schools Weeks events held at the Tower’s award-winning Education Centre by way of teacher packs, pupil worksheets, information sheets, single-use cameras, film processing and Picture CD vouchers.

“Recording their experiences in pictures will not only help our young visitors to bring history to life - thus enhancing the value and quality of their studies - they’ll also be learning about photography at the same time,” said Head of Fundraising for the Royal Armouries, David Williams. “Donations from external sources are vital if we are to continue to fund the centre’s growing popularity.”

Mike Johnston’s “Sunday Morning Photographer” column this week urges you to remove all those UV and Skylight filters from your lenses which you use to protect the front element - they could be causing flare in your photos…

“Here’s the news flash, though, although it’s not exactly news, since it’s been true for a good long while now: good modern lenses have very hard glass objectives, and/or scratch-resistant coatings. They make it difficult to scratch or mar a lens. With reasonable care, and perhaps a decent lens hood for physical protection if the objective is not recessed, there is almost no chance you will scratch the objective of your lens. Empirically, this is confirmed when you survey used lenses for sale. How many do you find that are scratched? How many eBay auctions for lenses don’t say “glass mint” or “glass perfect”? Don’t overestimate lens owners: if it were so easy to scratch up a lens, there would be a lot more scratched lenses out there than there are.”

Website: Sunday Morning Photographer: The Filter Flare Factor

DPReview have today published their review of the 4 megapixel Sony Cyber-shot DSC-L1.

“The price is good, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the DSC-L1 as a second camera - in the couple of months I’ve been testing it, this is the one camera that I’ve had with me virtually every waking minute. It is cameras like this that help maintain the significant advantage a dedicated camera has over a camera phone - and it’s a lot smaller than most cell phones too. It doesn’t do much more than point and shoot, but it does that very well (Canon et al could learn a lot about fast focus from Sony), and my only serious complaint is that I’d like a slightly more powerful flash - everything else is fairly minor.”

Website: DPReview - Sony Cyber-shot DSC-L1 Review

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DIWA member and Danish website DigitalMagasinet has posted a review of Picasa 2, a software program that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC.

Website: DigitalMagasinet - Picasa 2 Review

Sigma 55-200mm F4-5.6 DC Lens announced, designed specifically for digital SLR cameras. Supports Sigma, Nikon, Canon and Pentax lens mounts.

Sigma Press Release

Compact and lightweight, high-performance telephoto Zoom Lens
This compact telephoto zoom lens was exclusively designed for use with digital SLR cameras. The image circle was designed to match the size of the image sensors of digital SLR cameras that also allows compact body and lightweight. Characteristics of digital cameras were taken into consideration when designing the lens power layout, making high-quality images reality through the entire zoom range.

Sigma 18-50mm F3.5-5.6 DC Lens announced, designed specifically for digital SLR cameras. Supports Sigma, Nikon, Canon and Pentax lens mounts.

Sigma Press Release

Zoom lens that designed to suit the characteristics of digital cameras.
Exclusively designed to suit the characteristics of digital SLR cameras. The image circle was designed to match the size of the image sensors of most digital SLR cameras and this has resulted in a compact lightweight lens. The use of aspherical lenses provides correction for various aberrations and makes high quality images a reality throughout the entire zoom range. Corresponding AF Mounts: SIGMA SA mount, NIKON mount, CANON mount, PENTAX mount.

Apogee Photo Magazine has posted a brief review of the photo-management application ACDSee 7 (found via CameraTown).

“Have you noticed that you can’t see thumbnail previews of the RAW files from your camera in the Windows file browser or in many other asset management programs? ACDSee supports RAW files from all of the major brands of digital cameras. Has the need to have an expensive editing program to manipulate your RAW files kept you from using this powerful file system? You don’t need to go to another program.  You can do all of your adjustments to RAW files within this program. And I think you’ll be surprised, because it has features we’ve all wished for in Photoshop.”

Website: Apogee Photo Magazine - ACDSee 7 Review

AnandTech have just reviewed the 5 megapixel, twistable Pentax Optio X (found via CameraTown).

“In our review of this camera, we discovered several strengths and weaknesses. For starters, it isn’t the fastest camera available, but in most cases, it puts in a decent performance. For example, it has respectable startup and write speeds. Unfortunately, the auto focus can be somewhat slow. In our test, the camera took nearly a full second to focus and take a picture. With respect to image quality, the Optio X generally does a good job taking even exposures with accurate color. However, we found clipped shadows and highlights in some of our samples in addition to jaggies along diagonal lines.”

Website: AnandTech - Pentax Optio X Review

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Presenting the Olympus Mju Mini Digital: on paper, a compact digital camera with 4 megapixels, 2x optical zoom lens that’s equivalent to 35-70mm on a 35mm camera, 1.8 inch LCD monitor, all housed in a weather-proof metal body. So far, so run-of-the-mill. Lots of other digital cameras offer a similar if not better specification at the same pricepoint, so why should you consider the Olympus Mju Mini Digital? Take it out of the box and you soon see why - Olympus have designed one of the most stylish compact digicams on the market today. Your friends will definitely be impressed, but in the long-run will you? Carry on reading to discover the answer.

Website: Olympus Mju Mini Digital Review