DPReview have reviewed the Sony DSC-H3, the smallest ever Cyber-shot camera featuring a Carl Zeiss 10x zoom lens.

“The H3 is essentially a long-zoom point and shoot camera that performs well as long as you let it do its thing in Auto mode. Once you develop an ambition to set your own shooting parameters things get a bit more tricky. This is partly because some manual settings are simply not available, but also due to the fact that changing the settings that are actually there can be a fairly time-consuming process.”

Website: DPReview - Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H3 Review

CNET have reviewed the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H7, which offers 8 megapixels, 15x optical stabilized zoom lens, ISO 3200, face-detection and HDTV output.

“Under the right circumstances, the photos look very good. Those include shooting at sensitivity settings of ISO 200 or lower, in bright sunlight. Thanks to the fast continuous shooting, solid stabilization and reliable center-point focus, the H7’s sibling the H9 delivered the best results I’ve had so far shooting dogs in the park. The EVF updates quickly enough to make it possible. The automatic white balance does a solid job, if a bit cool, and colors look bright and saturated.”

Website: CNET- Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H7 Review

Steves Digicams have reviewed the Sony DSC-T200, the first digital camera to automatically react to a person’s smile.

“Just like with the other T-series cameras that we have seen, the image quality is very good. The 5x optical zoom lens did very well taking pictures outdoors, with only slight chromatic aberrations (purple fringing), and very slight edge softness. Neither of these would be noticeable when having prints made unless they were larger than an 8x10. The 35mm to 175mm (35mm equivalent) zoom lens makes this camera a little more versatile than most compact digital cameras that you will find.”

Website: Steves Digicams - Sony DSC-T200 Review

The Sony A700 is a new DSLR camera with a wealth of features that are clearly targeted at the advanced amateur photographer. Clearly based on the design of the Konica Minolta Maxxum / Dynax 7D camera (Sony bought Konica Minolta’s camera assets in 2006), the A700 inherits the same lens mount, eye-start auto-focus system, and in-body anti-shake system. Building on that solid foundation, Sony have brought the A700 bang up-to-date with a 12.24 megapixel CMOS sensor, large 3 inch LCD screen, 11 point autofocus system and 5fps continuous shooting. At this price point (around £999 / $1400) the Sony A700 faces some stiff competition, with rival models from Nikon, Canon, Olympus and Panasonic all making a strong claim for your money. Mark Goldstein took the new Sony A700 to the deserts of Dubai to find out if this new pretender to the prosumer crown has what it takes…

Website: Sony A700 Review

PMA Newsline International are reporting that stocks of the 10 mgapixel Nikon D40x DSLR camera have run out in Japan. Could this mean that a new replacement model is on the way? The 6 megapixel Nikon D40 model is still available. In the same article, Nikon is raising production of its new D3 and D300 DSLR cameras by between 16-25 percent, to 10,000 and 70,000 monthly units respectively. All good news for the leading DSLR manufacturer in Japan.

Website: PMA Newsline International

Corel PhotoImpact X3 digital photo editing software is aimed at the family memory keeper and the graphic arts hobbyist. “Project-oriented users will find that PhotoImpact X3 has the perfect mix of easy-to-use editing capabilities, creative project templates and digital art - all at an affordable price.” said Denise MacDonell, Director, Product Management, Digital Imaging at Corel. With a suggested retail price of $69.99 (US and Canada), PhotoImpact X3 is available now.

The Plustek OpticFilm 7500i AI / SE are Plustek’s first Mac compatible film scanners and offer a high optical 7,200dpi resolution and 48-bit colour. Both the AI and SE models feature multi-exposure function for negative film as well as a multi-sampling feature that reduces noise. The OpticFilm 7500i AI additionally comes with a SilverFast 35mm IT8 Target calibration, which can generate ICC profiles. The OpticFilm 7500i AI and 7500i SE are priced at £395 and £223 excluding VAT respectively and are available now.

Bling! It from Vertus is now available for Mac OS. Bling! It is a simple to use image editing tool which gets you amazing results in minutes. It lets you prepare professional-looking images of products for publishing on the Web or on an online auction site. Vertus Bling! It costs $49.95, and there’s a free 15 day fully functional trial version.

Available in 30GB or 40GB versions, LaCie will be offering its smallest Little Disk yet in the 1.3-inch hard disk format. Lacie are also using the Samsung drive for the new credit-card sized USB Key Max. “The development of these small products was enabled due to Samsung’s new 1.3-inch technology that offers a small footprint with vast capacity improvement,” said Nolwenn Rozen, LaCie Mobile Product Manager.  “By using this technology in these new mobile offerings, LaCie was able to see an increase in maximum capacity from 12GB to 40GB.” The 1.3-inch Lacie Little Disk and Lacie USB Key Max are available now starting at $119.99 and $109.99 respectively.

FaceTime from FotoNation is a new technology that makes it easier to take a self-portrait when using digital camera or camera phones. FotoNation FaceTime is a new type of shutter trigger technology that is invoked when the photographer’s face is detected in a scene. The camera waits to fire the shutter until it recognizes face of the photographer. “Sooner or later, every photographer wants to be part of a photo they are composing; and until now, it has always been a cumbersome effort. We believe that FaceTime is the first new technology that brings a pragmatic solution to self-portraits,” said Eran Steinberg, CEO of FotoNation, Inc.

Printroom has released new plug-ins for Apple Aperture and Apple iPhoto that enable photographers to upload images into their Printroom online storefronts. The next generation of Printroom’s own complete photo management application, Printroom Studio Manager (PSM) 3.1, has also been unveiled at MacWorld. “Now Mac users can choose the studio workflow that best fits their needs, whether it is with Aperture, iPhoto or PSM, and quickly publish online galleries that meet the expectations of the most demanding clientele. As soon as the shoot is over, no matter where they are, the pro can quickly update their dynamic Flash home page and post galleries. said Printroom vice president of marketing Andrew Baum. All three software tools are free to Printroom customers.

PicMarkr is a new web application lets users add custom watermarks to their photos for free. You can either upload images from your computer or grab them from a Flickr account. Users can then download the watermarked images or upload them to their Flickr account. There is also an optional feature for resizing images to some of the most popular sizes by width. You can try out the watermarking service for free at http://picmarkr.com .

The G-DRIVE mini Triple 500 is the world’s first 500GB portable hard drive. With a FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 interface, the G-DRIVE mini Triple 500 is bus-powered and doesn’t require an AC adaptor. It fits into a computer, camera or camcorder bag and can store 200,000 5 megapixel JPEG photos. Available in March 2008, the G-DRIVE mini Triple 500 comes complete with cables, a protective leather carrying case and 3 year warranty. Price is to be confirmed.

PicWash is a new photo-enhancement web service that delivers professional retouching to the masses. From as little as $7 per photo, you and your pictures will look better than ever, with photos returned in 48 hours via e-mail. The first product, PicWash, is $7 and focuses on the most requested touch ups. The second product, PicWash with Note, is $10 and gives the user more control over the touch-up.

Ovolab Geophoto 2 is an all-in-one application for easily organizing and browsing photos by location on your Mac. You can pan, zoom and fly through the photos via a three-dimensional representation of the Earth. Ovolab Geophoto 2 now supports importing track data from GPS devices, including GPS-equipped cameras. Ovolab Geophoto 2.0 will be released in the second half of February 2007 as an electronic download, and will cost $19.95.

TrustedReviews have reviewed the Olympus Stylus 830, a weatherproof digital camera offers a 5x optical zoom lens (36-180mm) and 8 megapixel resolution.

“When it comes to picture quality, the results are surprising, but not in a good way. As I’ve mentioned, the 830 is an update of the 780, so you’d expect that it would have accordingly superior image quality. However in every respect except that of image size the performance of the two cameras is all but identical, in fact I found more corner blurring in the images from the 830. The level of detail, degree of barrel distortion, and centre sharpness are virtually identical, and it even suffers from the same mid-tone image noise at all ISO settings from 200 upward.”

Website: TrustedReviews - Olympus mju 830 Review

The new G-RAID mini is the world’s first 1TB portable hard drive. G-RAID mini features a triple FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 interface for universal connectivity. “The G-RAID mini is a perfect addition to our family, as it supports our strong following of creative professionals who need reliable, high capacity, high-performance storage.” said Roger Mabon, vice president of sales and marketing for Fabrik’s G-Technology product group. Available in March 2008, the G-RAID mini has a standard 3-Year factory warranty, price to be announced.

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 is now available for £59, a £20 saving off the full retail price. Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 provides users with the widest selection of photo editing features ranging from automatic tools for quick fixes to precision controls for fine-tuning. This special one week only offer expires at Midnight on January 22nd.

Website: Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2

Matsushita Electric is changing its name to ‘Panasonic Corporation’ from October 1st, 2008. All worldwide corporate brands will also be unified to the Panasonic brand. The timing to change the company name and unify its global brand coincides with its 90th anniversary this year. The company name change and brand unification aims to make the Panasonic Corporation a truly global organisation.

Panasonic is spending 94 billion yen to expand its semiconductor production facility at the Tonami plant in Toyama Prefecture, Japan. The plant will produce image sensors for various digital appliances starting in September 2008. After commencing production in August 2009, Panasonic plans to gradually increase its production capacity up to 30,000 wafers per month. The new plant will strengthen Panasonic’s image sensor business in digital cameras, in-vehicle devices, camcorders, broadcasting and medical equipment.