Steves Digicams has posted an enthusiastic review of the HiTi Photo Printer 730PS, which allows you to create 4x6, 5x7 and 6x8 inch borderless prints through its Dye Sublimation technology at 300 dpi.

“HiTi has taken a good thing and made it even better with the release of their new 730PS Photo Printer. You can now make 4 x 6”, 5 x 7” and 6 x 8” size prints at home whenever you want, with a minimum of fuss and it doesn’t even require the use of your computer. You can take your digicam and HiTi printer to parties or events and make prints right there on the spot for family and friends. You can’t beat the low cost of just 40? for 4 x 6” prints, and they’re as permanent as conventional film prints.”

Website: Steves Digicams - HiTi Photo Printer 730PS Review

The German website Photoworld.de has reviewed the Olympus C-760 Ultra Zoom digital camera, which has 3.2 megapixels and a 10x zoom lens.

Website: Photoworld.de - Olympus C-760 Ultra Zoom Review

DCResource have posted their review of the 8 megapixel Canon PowerShot Pro 1, which was announced by Canon just before the start of the PMA 2004 trade show.

“Thus far, I’ve only reviewed two 8MP cameras: this one, and the Sony DSC-F828. I give the edge to the Pro1 in most areas, most importantly image quality and manual controls. The F828 does get points for a faster lens, superior AF system, and nicer movie mode. It’s also a hefty camera to carry around, compared to the relatively compact Pro1.”

Website: DCResource - Canon PowerShot Pro1 Review

CNET have just reviewed the 4 megapixel EasyShare DX6490 digital camera, a digital camera which features a 10x optical zoom lens (38-380mm focal length). The Kodak EasyShare DX6490 has a suggested retail price of £399.99.

“A 38mm-to-380mm (the 35mm-camera equivalent) 10X optical zoom lens and some manual exposure controls put the 4-megapixel EasyShare DX6490 near the top of Kodak’s consumer product line. This dSLR-style model matches its siblings in ease of use but lacks the refinements and the image quality that would nudge it up to advanced-amateur status.”

Website: CNET - Kodak EasyShare DX6490 Review

Philips Press Release 03/03/04

At this year’s CeBIT Exhibition in Hannover Germany, Philips Research is demonstrating a unique variable-focus lens system that has no mechanical moving parts. Suited to a wide range of optical imaging applications, including such things as digital cameras, camera phones, endoscopes, home security systems and optical storage drives, Philips’ FluidFocus system mimics the action of the human eye using a fluid lens that alters its focal length by changing its shape. The new lens, which lends itself to high volume manufacturing, overcomes the fixed-focus disadvantages of many of today’s low-cost imaging systems.

The Philips FluidFocus lens consists of two immiscible (non-mixing) fluids of different refractive index (optical properties), one an electrically conducting aqueous solution and the other an electrically non-conducting oil, contained in a short tube with transparent end caps. The internal surfaces of the tube wall and one of its end caps are coated with a hydrophobic (water-repellent) coating that causes the aqueous solution to form itself into a hemispherical mass at the opposite end of the tube, where it acts as a spherically curved lens.

ZiO Corporation Press Release 03/03/04

ZiO Corporation today announced the full release of its ‘Hi Speed ZiO’ family of products across the UK, selling through Dixons, PC World and Currys.

ZiO Corporations new range of media card readers, the ‘Hi speed ZiO’ family offer digital camera users, new and old, the next generation of reader form and function, using USB2.0 technology. Dazzle?s original USB reader ?ZiO!? set the standard for simple plug and play portability.

ZiO Corporation, the company behind Hi Speed ZiO?s development was born through a management buy-out of the Dazzle* Digital Media arm of electronics giant SCM Microsystems. The familiar Dazzle* logo remains across the product range, but the company shows a new and exciting willingness to let some of today?s best industrial designers take a free hand in pulling together product look and feel that shows small really is beautiful.

Sigma Press Release 03/03/04

As demand for digital SLR cameras increase, this decision is mainly aimed at developing products for the Four Thirds System, and is intended to meet the requirements of users who wish to enjoy the benefits of a wider range of product selection.

Sigma are going to enhance their advanced interchangeable lens development technology, and maximize our efforts to develop attractive products, which will be utilized by the Four Thirds System.

Production will start with the 18-50mm f3.5-5.6 and 55-200mm f/4-5.6. Pricing and availability are yet to be confirmed.

In addition to this new effort, Sigma will continue the development of their SA camera mount lens system and interchangeable lens technology overall.

Lastolite Press Release 03/03/04

The new Ezybalance is the latest collapsible from Lastolite’s award-winning range of photographic accessories. The multipurpose Ezybalance will aid a number of functions, including exposure measurement, contrast measurement, colour balancing and the setting of white balance, making it the ultimate accessory for today’s modern photographer.
The double-sided Ezybalance has been specially designed to provide better colour balancing of negative and positive materials under a range of natural and artificial light conditions. The completely neutral 18% grey side is ideal for accurate exposure measurements with handheld light meters and in-camera TTL meters, whilst the white side is designed for lighting contrast measurement and the setting of digital and video white balance.

Lensbabies, LLC Press Release 03/03/04

Lensbabies, LLC, introduce The Original Lensbaby, a flexible camera lens that creates a ‘sweet spot’ area of focus that photographers can move around the image area by bending the flexible lens tubing. The Original Lensbaby brings the imperfect Holga look to digital and film SLR photography, but with greater versatility and new effects. While Lensbabies have broad appeal, the unique imagery is particularly attractive to portrait, wedding, product, and fashion photographers.

The Original Lensbaby is available for sale now at www.lensbabies.com for $96.

An image created by a Lensbaby has a circular area of sharp focus. The photographer can move that in-focus area by bending the flexible lens tubing in any direction. The farther from this sharp area, the greater the blurring and prismatic color distortions. Photographers can control the size of the sharp area and the overall level of blur by using one of four aperture settings: f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, and f/8.

“The beauty of these lenses is in their calculated imperfection,” said Lensbabies founder and professional photographer Craig Strong. Strong invented the Lensbaby in an effort to create a digital equivalent to his Holga camera.

Epson UK Press Release 01/03/04

EPSON(r) launches advanced all-in-one home photo centre

The EPSON Stylus Photo RX600 features standalone functionality to make it easy to scan, copy and print quality photos from both digital and analogue sources. Joining the Stylus Photo RX500 in EPSON’s range of all-in-one photo centres, the Stylus Photo RX600 is a premium all-in-one photo centre designed to meet even the most advanced photographic needs.

1st March 2004: Today EPSON extended its all in one range of printers with the introduction of the photography-focussed Stylus Photo RX600. EPSON’s all-in-one photo centre offers an advanced 6-colour printing engine and high performance 2400 dpi scanner that enables users to quickly and easily scan, copy and print high resolution, durable photographs with or without the use of a PC - providing a true home photo-lab which rivals professional photo-lab results.

The Stylus Photo RX600’s 6-colour printer features up to 5760 x 1440 optimized dpi resolution and Variable Sized Droplet Technology delivers droplets as small as 3 picolitres to create intensely detailed images in natural and vibrant colours.  Users can produce BorderFree images on a variety of paper sizes. The printer creates photos and text quickly, delivering a 10” x 15” colour print in around 54 seconds when connected to a PC.  Furthermore, it supports popular digital photo printing standards from cameras that use Print Image Matching (PIM) or Exif.

Sony Japan are launching a new black version of the already very stylish 5 megapixel Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T1 digital camera. There’s no indication yet whether this model will make it outside Japan (found via the new blog Engadget).

Website: Sony Japan - Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T1 (Black)

Luminous Landscape is the first website that I know of to review the new 8-megapixel Olympus C-8080 Wide Zoom digital camera. Unfortunately it doesn’t impress Michael Reichmann…

“Like the Sony F828 the Olympus C-8080 is able to shoot in RAW mode. But as with the Sony this mode is almost unusable because the camera takes forever (actually about 20 seconds ? a bit slower than the Sony) to write a RAW file to disk. During this time the camera is unusable. Sorry Olympus and Sony ? that’s not the way I do photography. Shooting Degeurotypes is faster. Spend a few more dollars and put in a bit more buffer memory and also a microprocessor that’s able to walk and chew gum at the same time. Totally frustrating!”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Olympus C-8080 Wide Zoom Review

Website: Read my review of the Olympus C-8080 Wide Zoom

In a fairly interesting article, the website SFGate has compared the financial fortunes of the memory-maker Sandisk with the ailing giant Kodak (found via Digital Photography Blog):

“The momentum is on the Silicon Valley firm’s side. Sales of digital cameras, which use memory cards to store images, surpassed those of 35mm cameras for the first time in the United States last year. The market grew so fast that it not only outpaced one industry research firm’s 2003 forecast, but also its estimate for this year.

That’s all good news for SanDisk, the largest supplier of memory cards, which some have dubbed the “digital Kodak.”

Website: SFGate.com - “SanDisk, the leading maker of memory cards, tries to be the Kodak of the digital age”

As part of the preview of the Canon Powershot Pro 1, Steves Digicams have published the same 6 shots taken with the Nikon 8700, Sony DSC-F828 and Canon Powershot Pro 1 8-megapixel digital cameras. It’s a great way to compare the image quality of these 3 cameras, and Steve will be adding samples from the Konica Minolta DiMAGE A2 and Olympus C-8080 later.

Website: Steves Digicams - Canon Powershot Pro 1 Gallery

Photographer Carsten Rasmussen has posted a couple of sample images from the new 8 megapixel professional DSLR from Canon, the EOS 1D Mark II, taken at a Canon event in Copenhagen, Denmark (found via digicamera.net).

Website: Canon EOS 1D Mark II Sample Images

The Czech digital photography website Digineff published its review yesterday of the new Canon PowerShot S1 IS, which was announced by Canon just before the start of the PMA 2004 trade show.

Website: Digineff - Canon PowerShot S1 IS Review

Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal has reviewed 4 ultra-compact digital cameras from Casio, Sony, Konica Minolta and Pentax. Thanks to Phil Baker for letting me know about the article.

“All four cameras took good pictures, and deciding which did best is necessarily a subjective judgment. But, after comparing similar pictures from the four cameras side by side on a computer screen, Katie and I consistently found the images from the low-end $299 Konica Minolta Dimage Xg to be the best overall.”

Website: Wall Street Journal - “Honey, They Shrunk the Cameras”

HardwareZone has posted an extensive 13 page review of the Nikon D70 digital SLR. As far as I know this is the first ever completed review of Nikon’s new entry-level DSLR (please correct me if I’m wrong). Thanks to R.I. Pienaar for bringing it to my attention.

“Contrary to the silver plastic bodied Canon EOS-300D DIGITAL, the Nikon D70 looks more professional with its all black polycarbonate assemble which feels and looks almost similar to the sturdy magnesium alloy body on the Nikon D100. Its mirror slap is also much more muted as compared to the Canon EOS-300D DIGITAL though still louder than that of the Nikon D100. Towering over the Canon EOS-300D DIGITAL is the Nikon D70 with its plethora of extra functions in terms of manual control and wider range of adjustable values.”

Website: HardwareZone - Nikon D70 Review

The Spanish website Foto Imagen Digital has just posted an extensive 12-page review of the 8-megapixel Sony DSC-F828. There is a also a lengthy review of the Canon EOS 300D DSLR available. You can translate the reviews into English via the BabelFish link in the top right corner of the website.

Website: Foto Imagen Digital - Sony DSC-F828 Review

Website: Foto Imagen Digital - Canon EOS 300D Review

Amanda Gilligan has let me know about a photography project that she is running on St Patrick’s Day (Wednesday March 17th):

“I’ve started a new project just for St Patrick’s Day this year and I’d love you guys to participate in some form or another!

Check out the website info page here:
http://www.lyptonvillage.org/stpatricksdayproject.htm

and Lypton Village for more details:
http://www.lyptonvillage.org/mt/archives/000496.html”