PMA 2007: GE have announced aggressive plans to enter the digital camera market. Entry-level GE digital cameras will start with 7 megapixels of resolution and 2.5-inch LCD screens. Higher-end GE cameras will offer up to 12 megapixels of resolution and 3-inch LCD screens. A photo printer will also be included in the line-up. The new products will be distributd by General Imaging, a new, privately held company that serves as the exclusive worldwide licensee for the GE line of digital cameras and printers. Cameras will be available in North America from mid-April, whilst shipments to Europe and Asia are scheduled for later this year. The GE digital cameras will make their debut at the PMA show in early March.

Kingston 2GB microSD Flash memory cards give you more room to store and share music, video and data files between mobile phones and other digital devices. The new 2GB microSD card is priced at $59.99 and supplied with a standard-size SD card adapter.

Imagenomic plugins, which include Noiseware Standard and Pro, Portraiture and RealGrain, have been updated to support the latest software applications, hardware platforms and O/S releases from Adobe, Apple and Microsoft. Imagenomic’s latest plug-in releases are available as free upgrades to existing customers.

Micron’s new camera phone CMOS sensors have been developed using a tiny 1.75-micron pixel design and range in resolution from 5, 3 and 1.3 megapixels. The new sensors join Micron’s previously announced 8-megapixel image sensor, also developed on the 1.75-micron pixel. Mass production of all three sensors is expected in Summer 2007.

Lexar has today introduced a 133x speed-rated Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) flash memory card designed for professional and high-end amateur photographers. The Lexar Professional 133x 4GB SDHC card delivers a minimum sustained write speed capability of 20MB per second. Lexar Professional SDHC cards will be available in March, price to be announced.

CNET have reviewed the 7.1 megapixel Canon PowerShot A550, which has a 2 inch LCD screen, and 4x zoom lens.

“Canon’s PowerShot A550 is a simple, inexpensive 7-megapixel camera, and that’s all it wants to be. While it has some nice features, it doesn’t offer any outstanding, unique aspects that put it above any other camera in the field, and that’s just fine. Good performance and solid images are all a camera needs to succeed, and the A550 delivers just that.”

Website: CNET - Canon PowerShot A550 Review

DIWA member LetsGoDigital have reviewed the new Canon A640, which has 10 megapixels, a 2.5 inch LCD screen and 4x optical zoom lens.

“There are still some things that could be improved upon. Take the noise ratio at 400 ISO and higher ISO settings. They are good for a ten Megapixel camera, but not totally clean. The competition (aka Fujifilm) has shown that they can achieve great results in regard to reducing noise at high ISO settings with the Super CCD sensor. Not only Canon could learn a thing or two from them but most manufacturers should chuck a considerable portion of their research budget in this direction.”

Website: LetsGoDigital - Canon PowerShot A640 Review

Website: Read our Canon Powershot A640 Review

Canon A640 - Latest Prices / User Reviews

TrustedReviews have reviewed the new Canon EOS 400D (Canon Digital Rebel XTi in the USA), which offers 10 megapixels, a large 2.5 inch LCD screen and new integrated dust removal system.

“In terms of performance, the EOS 400D is everything we’ve come to expect from a Canon DSLR. It starts up virtually instantly, and in continuous shooting in fine JPEG quality mode it can rattle off 21 shots at an impressive 2.5 frames per second before it has to pause to write data to the memory card. Even then, the progressive buffer means you don’t have to wait until it’s finished processing every frame before you can shoot again. Even in RAW plus fine JPEG it can shoot at the same speed, although this time the buffer can hold only eight shots, and you have to wait a little longer before shooting again.”

Website: TrustedReviews - Canon EOS 400D Review

Website: Read our Canon EOS 400D Review

Latest Prices / User Reviews

It seems that all is not well with Windows Vista and metadata produced by digital cameras. CNET are reporting that if you edit a photo’s metadata through Vista or Microsoft Photo Info, then your digicam’s software may no longer recognise the metadata, or even worse, the photo itself. So far, Nikon, Sony and Olympus have issued Vista RAW codecs to solve this issue. I’m still using good old Windows XP, so have you installed Vista and ran across this problem?

Website: CNET - Metadata mangling in Windows Vista

Website: Microsoft Photoblog

PMA 2007: The Samsung L77 digital camera is just 21.mm wide, yet still offers a 7x internal optical zoom lens equivalent to 38-266mm, a 7 megapixel sensor and 2.5 inch LCD screen. Other features include 30fps MPEG-4 movies for TV-quality film clips and in-built editing capabilities. The Samsung L77 will be available from April 2007 for $399.99.

PMA 2007:The Samsung S1030 digital camera offers 10 megapixels, 3x zoom lens and a 2.5 inch LCD screen. Other features include MPEG-4 movies clips, ISO 1600, and Aperture priority, shutter priority and full manual exposure modes. The Samsung S1030 will be available in the spring of 2007, price to be confirmed.

PMA 2007:The Samsung S830 digital camera offers an 8 megapixel sensor, 3x zoom lens equivalent to 35-105mm and a 2.5 inch LCD screen. Other features include ISO 1600, aperture priority, shutter priority and full manual exposure modes, and an Auto Macro function that automatically adjusts shooting distance and focus. The Samsung S830 will be available in the spring of 2007, price to be confirmed.

The Samsung F700 is a new mobile phone with a 5 megapixel camera with Auto-Focus. There’s also a 2.78 inch touch-screen LCD, full QWERTY keypad, HTML browser and support for Bluetooth. Price and availability of the Samsung F700 to be announced.

SanDisk have today introduced a 4Gb microSDHC card - the largest capacity of the world’s smallest removable flash memory card. The SanDisk 4GB microSDHC card can store more than 1,000 digital songs, 2,000 high-resolution pictures or up to 8 hours of MPEG 4 video. Retail release of the card is planned for later in 2007.

PMA 2007: Athentech Perfectly Clear Pro is a new 16-bit image correction software package specifically aimed at professional photographers. The pro photographer version of Perfectly Clear is based on the same algorithms previously available only under license to digital imaging manufacturers and software firms. Support for more than 80 raw file formats, a unique “soft” portrait setting, a vivid color setting and powerful noise reduction controls are included. Athentech have spent the last year working closely with some of the leading pro photographers in North America.

Longridge has a number of new mount cutters and accessories planned for 2007, to be unveiled at Focus on Imaging 2007 in the UK. A new multilingual DVD is now included with every Longridge Mount Cutting System, whilst the Longridge SprintMat is a section of laminated board that encourages the blade to continue in the straightest line possible. Longridge has also introduced its own bespoke blade. More new products will be announced at the show.

Manchester International Festival has together with the Imperial War Museum co-commissioned Official War Artist Steve McQueen to create a response to the second Iraq War. ‘For Queen and Country’ will be exhibited in the Great Hall, Central Library, Manchester, from 28 February – 15 July 2007. The project consists of a set of postage stamps featuring a photographic portrait of the individual men and women who have lost their lives in Iraq.

A new range of translucent, reverse print, vinyl and pop-up film products from ILFORD is aimed at professional photographers. The new professional range will go on sale in April 2007 and will be available in 17” - 44” rolls with a single roll minimum order quantity. The new product range is also compatible with the ILFORD STUDIO software.

Ricoh have released a new firmware update, 1.60, for the Ricoh R5 camera, which adds the following:

- Supports an SDHC memory card (upto 4 GB).
- Improved the stability at writing data on an SD card.

Website: Ricoh R5 v1.60 Firmware Update

Steves Digicams have just reviewed the Fujifilm FinePix F20, a 6 megapixel digital camera with a 3x zoom lens, ISO 2000 and 2.5-inch LCD screen.

“Our portrait results also turned out good. The F20 boasts a maximum flash range of 21.3 feet! (ISO Auto, at wide angle.) This is almost double that of your typical 6-megapixel model. I found the flash worked very well when shooting indoor portraits from about 6 or 7 feet away, using the telephoto end of the zoom range. I found the unit also worked well as a fill-in flash outdoors, producing good flash exposure and pleasing skin tones.”

Website: Steves Digicams - Fujifilm FinePix F20 Review

Website: Read our Fujifilm Finepix F20 Review

Latest Prices / User Reviews