This week Olympus announced the world’s first digital SLR camera with live preview on the LCD screen. This innovation enables framing of shots without the need to look through the viewfinder, and will prove an attractive proposition to anyone who is used to compact digicams. The E-330 is based on the previous E-300 design, however, which didn’t prove too popular with consumers, and the new model will set you back £900, which is more than a Canon EOS 20D. So does the new E-300 get your blood racing, or do you think it will go down in history as the first, but not the best? Would you pay £900 for it? And do you think all the other manufactuers will quickly follow suit and release their own live-view SLR cameras? Shout out now…

After Nikon’s decision last week to end sales of it’s film-based camera products, Konica Minolta have gone one better (or worse, depending on how you look at it) by announcing that they are quitting the photography market completely with almost immediate effect. This surprising announcement came from a company with a lot of heritage, and perhaps even more importantly, some truly innovative products, including a pair of great digital SLR cameras in the Dynax/Maxxum 7D and 5D. So where did Konica Minolta go wrong? Was it entirely attibutable to the recent merger between the two companies? Is Konica Minolta’s decision the right one, at a time when DSLRs are becoming ever more popular? And more importantly, do you the consumer really care? Shout out now…

Nikon announced earlier this week that they are ending production of virtually all of their film-based cameras and lenses, with the exception of the new F6, the manual FM10 and a few manual lenses. More than 95% of Nikon’s UK business now comes from digital, with digital SLRs like the D50 and D70 helping to increase the Japanese giant’s recent profit levels. Do you think Nikon’s decision is just an inevitable sign of the times, with announcements from other companies on the way soon? Are you saddened by this announcement, or is it just more water under the bridge? Shout out now…

This week’s Saturday Shout looks back at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) show in Las Vegas. A surprising number of new photography products were announced, with more than 25 new cameras from the likes of Kodak, Samsung, Fujifilm, Panasonic and Pentax. But did anything really set your pulse racing, or was it a case of “same old, same old”? Shout out now…

This week’s Saturday Shout looks forward to 2006. With the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in early January, Photo Marketing Association (PMA) show in late February, and Photokina in October, there are lots of opportunities for exciting new photography announcements. PhotographyBLOG will be at PMA and Photokina to bring you the breaking news live from the show floor, but in the meantime what do you think will be announced? More budget DSLRs, cheaper and better-featured compact digicams Photoshop CS3 and are all obvious contenders. Perhaps even more importantly, what would you like to see announced? (be realistic here!). Shout out now…

This week’s Saturday Shout is a plea for help from PhotographyBLOG reader Alan, who’s looking for the perfect pocket digital camera that offers full manual controls. Alan wants a camera that he can carry at all times without noticing, and which offers advanced shooting modes like Aperture and Shutter Priority. It should also produce images with negligible amounts of noise, and be quick enough to capture those treasured family moments. Things like a big zoom range, RAW mode and good movie options are nice-to-have features, but not essential. So what would you recommend to Alan as the best camera for the job? Shout out now…

This week’s Saturday Shout considers the recent addition of Wi-Fi technology to digital cameras. Would you buy a 4 megapixel camera for £400? Probably not. Would you buy a 4 megapixel camera with WiFi capability for £400? Hmmmm. That’s exactly what Kodak are selling in the form of the new (and much-delayed) EasyShare One digital camera. The EasyShare One does have some other impressive features, including a 3 inch touch-screen LCD, but Kodak are mainly promoting the Wi-Fi aspect to help justify the high price. Nikon and more recently Canon have also launched Wi-Fi cameras, so it seems to be something of a growing trend. But is it a feature that consumers really want, or merely a marketing tool to help differentiate a camera in what is an incredibly crowded market-place?

So what do you think? Is Wi-Fi in a camera just a gimmick, or a must-have feature? Have you bought one, and how often do you use the Wi-Fi? Will Wi-Fi become the defacto standard for transferring files from cameras to computers? Shout out now…

This week’s Saturday Shout considers the hidden costs of buying a digital camera. Digital Cameras are getting ever cheaper. So cheap, in fact, that you can now buy a 5 megapixel model for £100, a 7 megapixel model for £200, and a DSLR with a lens for £450. But are those prices misleading the consumer? What do you actually get in return for your money? It’s long been an accepted fact in the digital camera industry that you don’t necessarily get everything that you need in the box. You almost always get a memory card that’s far too small, or in the case of digital SLRs, no memory card at all. Often the camera is supplied with completely inadequate batteries (non-rechargeable AA’s that last for a couple of hours spring to mind). And sometimes, a camera manufactuer will even talk about certain functionality in the user guide, but not actually supply the required part in the standard camera kit. An analogy to this situation is buying a car - you wouldn’t expect your new Ford Golf Megane to have no engine or petrol tank, but that’s exactly what a lot of digital cameras are supplied like when you buy one (although it’s obviously a lot easier to fit those parts yourself in a digicam!).

Does this make you hot under the collar, or do you actually prefer to have the choice of buying your own accessories? Which camera manufacturers are the worst offenders? How much is the real cost of buying a digital camera? Shout out now…

The Saturday Shout gives you the opportunity to voice your opinion and vent your spleen about a hot photography topic. This week focuses on the digital SLR vs advanced compact camera debate. Some digital camera companies are increasingly focusing on DSLRs and moving away from compact digicams. Digital SLR cameras are quickly becoming cheaper, with more features at a lower price than ever before. On the other hand, advanced compact cameras offer an all-in-one solution, sometimes with huge zoom lenses, and they are often promoted as a genuine alternative to a digital SLR.

So which one would you buy, why would you buy it, and which specific models would you recommend? Shout out now…