The Spanish website Quesabesde is the first that I know of to review the Olympus Mju 410 Digital camera. The Mju 410 is encased in a full metal body with a silver finish, offers 4 megapixels and a 3x optical zoom. The Mju 410 is the first Mju Digital model to feature TruePic Turbo, a new image processor which sharpens image clarity, contrast and colour for life-like results. Available now for ?299.99 (inc VAT).

Website: Quesabesde - Olympus Mju 410 Digital Review

Website: Read my review of the Olympus Mju 410 Digital

Luminous Landscape have reviewed the 8 megapixel Canon PowerShot Pro1, which was announced by Canon just before the start of the PMA 2004 trade show. Find out what Michael Reichmann thinks now that he has reviewed all the 8 megapixel competitors.

“The first thing that you notice when picking up the Pro1 is how small it is. If you’ve only seen it in pictures it appears much larger than it does in the “flesh”. But Canon has done a fine job on the ergonomics, and with only a few exceptions the controls are very well placed.

The body is of an all-new design, and it’s apparent - to me at least - that a lot of thought has gone into the human factors engineering.

As but one example, the button for switching between the EVF and the rear LCD is placed by itself on the left side of the camera, where the left hand can reach it. Most cameras place it somewhere on the rear panel close to a myriad of other buttons. “

Website: Luminous Landscape - Canon PowerShot Pro1 Review

DP-Now have reviewed the Sony DSC-V1 compact digital camera, which features 5 megapixel resolution, 4x optical zoom, flexible exposure control and an infrared laser hologram. The Sony DSC-V1 retails for £399 in the UK.

“Once you get used to it, the V1 is a fairly easy camera to use. However, the small viewscreen and scattered status information could be improved on. Creative control is very comprehensive and many controls are easily accessed without wading through menus. When you do need the menus, navigation can be tricky and that zoom lever is certainly unusual. The ease with which the flash pop-up mechanism can be prevented from deploying is a serious design flaw.”

Website: DP-Now - Sony DSC-V1 Review

Fujifilm UK Press Release 07/04/04

The panic and frustration of losing a treasured memory or a one-off moment, such as a child’s first birthday or a special holiday, can be a distressing experience.  With this in mind, Fujifilm has developed a Digital Image Recovery Service that aims to provide a possible way of retrieving images or movies that have been lost, accidentally deleted, or damaged due to incorrect formatting.

Sophisticated image recovery tools and software are used to recover files safely, and ensure that there is no risk or damage to the customer’s digital media and no further loss of files.

A straightforward service that is quick and easy to use, customers can simply send their media card by post, and within five working days, Fujifilm will burn the recovered files onto a CD before returning them with the media card correctly formatted.  In the event that the images cannot be recovered, they will be returned to the customer in the original condition, at no charge.

Nikon Corporation Press Release 04/04

MPV (Music-Photo-Video) Technology—Nikon enhances the digital photography experience - incorporating MPV technology into the innovative PictureProject software.

TOKYO - Nikon Corporation is proud to announce the signing of a new agreement with Software Architects Inc. - one which will allow Nikon to be one of the first digital camera manufacturers to incorporate MPV technology into its photo management software, PictureProject, which was designed for use with Nikon’s COOLPIX and digital SLR cameras.

The incorporation of MPV into PictureProject will add a further element of enjoyment to the entire digital photography experience. Standing for “Music-Photo-Video,” MPV is a new specification for the organization of images and music on PCs and various other electronic products.

Through the integration of MPV technology into version 1.0.1 of PictureProject, users will be able to record MPV-compliant digital imaging slideshows featuring still images, movies and audio clips to CDs and DVDs for playback on MPV-compliant DVD players. Future versions of PictureProject will also enable the addition of music files.

Roxio, Inc. Press Release 06/04/04

“Simply Picture Perfect: Comprehensive, Powerful Photo Editing Software”

SANTA CLARA, Calif - April 6, 2004 - Roxio, Inc. (NASDAQ: ROXI), The Digital Media Company, provider of the best selling digital media software in the world, began shipping its new PhotoSuite 7 Platinum software today. Building on the award-winning capabilities of its predecessor, the latest release of Roxio’s photo software extends its appeal with powerful multimedia slide show capabilities, professional level editing tools, and advanced Video CD authoring, components which are leveraged from Roxio Easy Media Creator 7, Roxio’s market-leading digital media suite. Some photo applications focus strictly on editing, while others concentrate on organizing. PhotoSuite 7 Platinum offers tremendous value by including all the tools needed to capture, edit, create, organize, share, and preserve digital photos on CD or DVD in one package, while maintaining the user-friendly interface for which PhotoSuite has been praised.

“Like all applications in our digital media software line, PhotoSuite 7 Platinum offers a clean user interface, intuitive workflow and rich, seamlessly integrated components that deliver a complete solution at a competitive price,” said Vito Salvaggio , VP Product Management, Roxio. “It is no longer necessary for users to learn multiple applications and workflows to experience all that digital photography has to offer.”

Transcend Information, Inc. Press Release 02/04/04

Taipei, Taiwan, April 2, 2004 /Various Agencies—- Taipei, Taiwan, March 30, 2004 /Various Agencies—- Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend), a world leader in flash memory devices, has improved the data transfer rate of their Secure Digital (SD) cards to an astonishing 45X speed, three to four times faster than standard Secure Digital cards.

These Ultra Performance 45X Secure Digital cards can achieve a read speed of up to 7.7 MB/sec and a write speed of up to 6.8MB/sec. Transcend insists on using only original SLC (Single-Level-Cell) NAND Flash chips that have a higher write speed, lower power consumption, and superior durability compared with Secure Digital cards made with MLC (Multi-Level-Cell) chips. It’s the ideal companion for high-performance electronic devices that use SD memory cards, such as digital cameras. Ultra Performance 45X SD cards are available in capacities of 128MB, 256MB, 512MB and 1GB.

http://www.transcendusa.com/

Matsushita Press Release 06/04/04

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., (MEI), best known for its Panasonic brand of consumer electronics and digital communication products, has announced that it will introduce 1GB SD Memory Card. The product launch is scheduled for April in the Japanese market, followed by distribution elsewhere in the world starting in May. The expected price in the market is about Euro 499 in Germany and $499.99 in North America.

About the SD Memory Card
The SD Memory Card is a semiconductor memory card developed based on the four product concepts: large memory capacity, high-speed data transfer rate, postage stamp-size compactness, and copyright protection. The SD Memory Card has proved to match the needs of digital electronic devices, thus becoming the format with the largest share2 in the semiconductor memory card market. At present (as of the end of January 2004), over 2,000 SD Card application products have been introduced globally by more than 150 brands - a figure which is expected to increase even further in the future.

Canon have released a new firmware version for the EOS 1Ds digital SLR camera.

EOS-1Ds Firmware Update Version 1.0.3 resolves the following issues:

Corrects the phenomenon of storage media with capacities greater than 2GB being recognized as having less than their full capacity after being formatted by the EOS-1Ds.

This firmware supports cameras with firmware Version 1.0.2 or earlier.  If the camera already has the Version 1.0.3 firmware, this update is unnecessary.

Website: Canon EOS-1Ds V1.0.3 Firmware

During our visit to the north of Tenerife we had a quick walk around one of the many small villages. Emilio, our guide, even got the local priest to unlock the church so that we could peek inside - now that’s what I call being helpful! This particular village sat precariously between the sea and the mountains.

Olympus have released a firmware upgrade which will add Pictbridge support for the following cameras:

- C-350 ZOOM
- D-560 ZOOM
- u[mju:] 300 Digital
- u[mju:] 400 Digital
- Stylus 300 Digital
- Stylus 400 Digital
- C-740 Ultra Zoom
- C-750 Ultra Zoom

Olympus - Pictbridge Firmware Upgrade

The Hungarian website Index Digicam have posted their review of the Panasonic DMC-FZ10 Lumix ultrazoom digital camera.

Index Digicam - Panasonic DMC-FZ10 Lumix Review

DPReview have just published a comprehensive review of the 6 megapixel Nikon D70 DSLR.

“Shortly after Canon announced the EOS 300D (Digital Rebel) and it made its way into reviewers hands it was fairly clear that Canon were offering a formidable package at an excellent price which would be the mark for affordable digital SLR’s of the future, with image quality almost identical to the EOS 10D and a sub-$1000 price it caused a significant ripple in the market. Now however it’s clear that Nikon were well aware of this and had the D70 up their sleeve, a camera which is a significant step ahead of the EOS 300D in terms of build quality and feature set and a match, and in some instances better from an image quality point of view.”

Website: DPReview - Nikon D70 Review

SanDisk Corporation Press Release 05/04/04

SANDISK INTRODUCES 4-GIGABIT MONOLITHIC NAND FLASH MEMORY CHIP BASED ON 90 NANOMETER TECHNOLOGY

8-Gigabit Flash Memory Chip Also Available By Stacking Two Of The New 4-Gigabit Memories In a Single Package

SUNNYVALE, CA, April 6, 2004 ? SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), reinforcing its leadership in the development and fabrication of high capacity NAND flash memory chips, today introduced a 4-gigabit (Gb) single-die, multi-level cell (MLC), NAND flash memory chip with double the capacity of its present largest single-die NAND flash memory chip. Advanced design concepts implemented in the new 4Gb NAND flash device and its associated next generation SanDisk controllers enable faster MLC write speeds necessary for increasingly demanding digital consumer electronic devices. SanDisk also announced a 8Gb NAND flash memory chip that stacks two of the 4Gb NAND flash memory chips in a single package.

The new generation NAND MLC memories will enable the production of flash memory cards having double the storage capacity of today?s cards, at a reduced cost per megabyte, thereby further expanding the wide-ranging adoption of NAND flash in consumer and mobile applications. For example, just one of the 8Gb flash memory chips is required in fabricating a 1 gigabyte flash card, which could accelerate the flash storage opportunity in MP3 players, solid state camcorders, and USB flash drives.

BusinessWeek Online is reporting that camera phones are taking over the lower-end of the camera market, displacing conventional digital cameras, which have been forced to move upmarket. Apparently “Last year sales of camera phones from all makers topped 84 million units worldwide—nearly twice the purchases of conventional digital cameras.”

Some digital camera manufacturers are already withdrawing their support for cheap digital cameras and concentrating on the more expensive models. “Katsumi Ihara, president of cell-phone maker Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, says Sony Corp. (SNE ) has ceded the low-end camera market to mobile phones.”

Website: BusinessWeek Online - The Camphone Revolution

One of the ideas in my most recent article, Beating the Photography Blues, was to start your very own photoblog. Completely coincidentally, the website Digital Photography Blog have just published an in-depth guide to setting up a photoblog, including a list of different services and tools.

Website: Digital Photography Blog - Introduction to Photoblogs and MoBlogs

The Czech website Digineff have reviewed the ultra-thin Minolta DiMAGE Xg, another digital camera that was first announced at PMA 2004 in February.

Website: Digineff - Minolta DiMAGE Xg Review

BenQ Press Release 05/04/04

BenQ Launches C30 and C40 3X Optical Zoom Digital Cameras
 
Europe, 5th of April, 2004 - BenQ announced the launch of the compact BenQ DC C30 and C40 Digital Cameras.  Featuring BenQ’s exclusive graphical User-Interface, “Easy-Dial”, the 3 Megapixel DC C30 and 4 Megapixel C40 gives you professional quality pictures without the hassle of complicated menus and settings. 

In addition to this, the BenQ DC C30 and C40 are also equipped with 3X optical zoom and a spacious 1.6” LCD screen with 80000-pixel resolution for comfortable screening of your pictures.  Supporting MPEG-4 format, users can also record continuous movies with sound and playback of 30 frames per second, providing a smooth viewing experience. 

Other notable features of the BenQ DC C30 and C40 include 12-language support capabilities, built-in 14 MB memory, and a convenient single setting shutter priority feature for easy professional quality pictures. 

Enjoy your new images with the new C30 and C40.

CNET have just reviewed the new flagship model of the Canon Digital IXUS fleet, the 5.0 megapixel Powershot S500 (known as the Digital IXUS 500 outside North America), which was announced at the start of February.

“With the PowerShot S500, Canon brings its time-tested Digital Elph to the ranks of 5-megapixel, 3X-zoom digital cameras. This latest model has its older siblings’ sleek, pocket-size chassis and snapshooter ease of use, both of which we still like very much, but the previous Digital Elphs offered slightly better photo quality, and the competition has pulled ahead in terms of features and performance. As a result, the PowerShot S500 ends up being a decent but not outstanding snapshot camera.”

Website: CNET - Canon Powershot S500 Review

Professional photographer Clint Thayer has today published a review of the 6 megapixel Nikon D70 DSLR.

“If you are use to shooting with a D100, you’ll immediately notice the acuity of which is revealed in your work. Almost too sharp is not an understatement. If you take your pictures in automatic mode, not only are the pictures sharp, but very contrasty and dynamic. This may be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your preference of course. In any event, Nikon seemed to be aware of the “soft image” reputation of the D100, and responded with quite the opposite in this iteration.”

Website: Clint Thayer - Nikon D70 Review