Steves Digicams have also 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.

“The camera’s auto focus system is as robust as its image processing and is enhanced by a focus assist lamp that insures proper focus lock even in total darkness. The auto focus employs a very accurate 9-point AF system that does its job quickly, even when the subject is not in the center of the frame.  If the LCD is on you’ll see which of the nine AF points were used for the focus lock. The Macro mode has excellent coverage from six inches to about two and a half feet and controls the flash perfectly even at the closest range.”

Website: Steves Digicams - Canon Powershot S500 Review

Steves Digicams have also taken a look at the 4.0 megapixel Canon Powershot S410 (known as the Digital IXUS 430 outside North America).

“The 3x zoom lens exhibits moderate barrel distortion in full wide angle and a little pin cushioning at full telephoto but no more than most zoom lenses and better than some. The zoom mechanism is smooth and fairly quiet and the control is conveniently located around the shutter button. The optical viewfinder although a bit small has a good eye point and covers about 90% of the captured image, it lacks any dioptric adjustment.”

Website: Steves Digicams - Canon Powershot S410 Review

Steves Digicams are first off the blocks with a review of the ultra-thin Minolta DiMAGE Xg, another digital camera that was first announced at PMA 2004.

“The DiMAGE Xg seems to be a downgrade of the popular DiMAGE Xt and features the same 3.2-megapixel imager and f/2.8 “folded” 3X zoom lens, but is missing the Audio/Video output capabilities. Also, the Xg can not be used with a charging cradle. The only upgrade found was the ability to record movies at 30fps with the XR (Extended Recording) movie mode that captures 320x240 or 160x120 size motion video with audio.”

Website: Steves Digicams - Minolta DiMAGE Xg Review

Imaging Resource have reviewed the FinePix A205 Zoom digital camera, which has 2 megapixels and costs around $199.95.

“With a 2.0-megapixel CCD and 3x optical zoom lens, the A205 offers the same great point-and-shoot convenience as its “big brother” the A210, but with a little less resolution. There’s still plenty of image here to make good-looking 8x10 prints though, so the A205 is great for people looking to really pinch their pennies yet still get good picture quality.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Fujifilm FinePix A205 Review

Website: Read my review of the Fujifilm FinePix A205

DCResource have published a quick comparative test of the Nikon Coolpix 8700, Canon PowerShot Pro1, and Olympus C-8080 Wide Zoom, using the highest JPEG quality and lowest ISO value for each camera. All of the images are available as full-sized originals.

Website: DCResource - 8 Megapixel Shootout

The Danish website Digitalmagsinet.dk are the first to review the new flagship model of the Canon Digital IXUS fleet, the 5.0 Megapixel Digital IXUS 500, which was announced at the start of February.

Website: Digitalmagasinet.dk - Canon Digital IXUS 500 Review

Kodak Press Release 09/03/04

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Eastman Kodak Co., the No. 1 maker of photographic film, said on Tuesday it has filed suit against Japan’s Sony Corp. alleging that the consumer electronics company infringed 10 of Kodak’s patents related to digital photography.

In a suit filed in a New York Federal Court, Rochester, New York-based Kodak alleged that Sony’s products use technology invented by Kodak, including an “electronic camera utilizing image compression and digital storage.”

Kodak, which is undergoing a tough transition toward digital products amid the decline of its film business, and Sony are among the leaders in sales of digital cameras, which do not use film and record images on computer chips and built-in memory cards.

Kodak’s oldest patent in the matter was granted in 1991. The most recent, awarded in 2003, was for a device and method for capturing and selecting digital images to be printed.

Kodak spokesman Gerard Meuchner said the lawsuit follows the failure of talks between the companies that Kodak hoped would produce a licensing pact.

“We have attempted to resolve the matter with Sony for almost three years, and the discussion between us have not led to a suitable licensing agreement,” he said.

A Sony spokesman said he had just become aware of the suit and had no comment.

Dirck Halstead over on The Digital Journalist website has taken a look back at this year’s PMA show in Las Vegas and assessed what it means for photography.

“Digital Photography is no longer special. It now is photography.

This year’s convention of the Photographic Marketing Association in Las Vegas, the annual industry rollout of new products firmly established that digital has now crossed over to become the dominant factor. For all effects and purposes, film is dead. “

Website: The Digital Journalist - The Cameras of PMA

The Digital Journalist contributor Chick Harrity has posted his review of the Nikon D2H digital SLR.

“Realistically it is not a perfect camera for everyone because some feel a need for more than 4.1 mega-pixels and others want to make pictures at 1600 ASA that look like they were shot with Kodachrome 25 rather than Kodachrome 200 pushed a couple of stops. However for serious news and sports shooters it is hard to beat right now.”

Website: The Digital Journalist - Nikon D2H Review

The Hungarian website Index Digicam have just reviewed the Fuji FinePix F700. Fuji claims the the F700 sensor improves image quality by widening the dynamic range, rather than just increasing the number of pixels. This should mean more detail in the shadow and highlight areas of an image than Fuji cameras have previously captured.

Website: Index Digicam - Fuji FinePix F700 Review

Website: Read my review of the Fuji FinePix F700

The Norwegian website Digit.no have reviewed the Fuji FinePix S7000, which is the successor to the popular FinePix S602 model. The S7000 uses Fuji’s 4th Generation Super CCD HR with 6.3 Million Effective Pixels output and 12.3 million recorded pixels. It costs around $799.99 and is available now.

Website: Digit.no - Fuji FinePix S7000 Review

Website: Read my review of the Fuji FinePix S7000

PENTAX INTRODUCES SECOND GENERATION DUNKABLE DIGICAM

OPTIO43WR FEATURES 4 MEGAPIXELS, ZOOM LENS, FASTER MOVIE AND A QUICK START MODE FOR ACTION SHOTS

GOLDEN, Colorado (March 8, 2004)  PENTAX U.S.A., Inc. has announced a second generation fully-immersable* digital camera—the new Optio43WR.  Featuring 4.0 effective megapixels, a powerful 2.8X zoom lens, and a JIS Class 7 waterproof rating that keeps the Optio43WR watertight even when the camera is rinsed, splashed or submersed in water.*  So, go ahead and dunk the Optio43WR!  The latest PENTAX Optio digital camera is the perfect companion for outdoor photography in rain, snow or a day at the beach. 

*The Optio43WR may be immersed up to three feet for less than 30 minutes but should not be operated underwater.

I’ve just completed updating the User Reviews section of PhotographyBLOG with all of the new products that have been announced since the start of 2004 (let me tell you, there have been a LOT of announcements). There are now 537 products available for you to review, covering digital cameras, film cameras, scanners and printers. If there is a product that you would like to review which isn’t currently in the database, just email me and I’ll add it as quickly as possible.

The winner of the 14th PhotographyBLOG Photo of the Week contest is blurbfly with the entry “Reflection”. There are no prizes as such for this contest, but the winning photo is displayed on the PhotographyBLOG homepage for a week, and the winner can display the Photo of the Week logo on their website if they wish.

The 15th Photo of the Week contest is now open. This is a weekly photography challenge where you decide who the winner is by voting for your favourite photos. It’s an open contest with no set theme and you can enter as many photos as you like.

Luminous Landscape have published the first in a 3-part review of the Leica Digilux 2, written by contributor Sean Reid and photographer Ben Lifson.

“For reasons I’ll describe in more detail in the full review, the camera gives its best performance when capturing in RAW mode. In JPEG mode, at higher ISO settings, the camera uses smoothing to clean up noise at the expense of detail a process that partially defeats the sharpness its excellent lens provides. Noise reduction, if desired at all, could more effectively be done by the photographer using a good tool like Neat Image or Noise Ninja. Based on what I see in prints from an Epson 2200, I think that I would rarely use any luminance noise reduction on files from the Digilux 2, even at ISO 400.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Leica Digilux 2 Review

The Fred Miranda website has punblished a brief look at the new DSLR from Kodak, the 14 megapixel DCS Pro SLR/n, courtesy of Jon Canfield.

“The SLR/n now uses ISO 6 to 1600. The base setting is ISO 160. In my work with a pre-release version of the 14nx, I found that this new base setting provided exceptionally clean files, certainly on par with the earlier model at ISO 80. I have very good results with all exposure settings up to 1250. ISO 1600 is certainly usable, but will require a fairly high level of noise reduction.”

Website: Fred Miranda - Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n Brief Look

The Czech website Digineff have posted their review of the ever-popular Canon EOS 300D DSLR today.

Website: Digineff - Canon EOS 300D Review

The Norwegian website Akamera.no has today reviewed the 5 megapixel Canon Powershot G5, which features a rotating LCD monitor and 4x optical lens.

Website: Akamera.no - Canon G5 Review

Digital Photography Captured (Volume 1) from KnowledgeTrek is the first in a series of DVDs that aim to help you understand digital photography and imaging. It is aimed at anyone who is considering buying a digital camera, whether they are just getting started in photography or switching from a film camera. Find out whether this software is for you in my latest review.

Website: Digital Photography Captured (Volume 1) Review

I’ve just finished downloading the 5,014 photos that I took during my recent trip to Tenerife. A quick calculation reveals that’s an average of 500 photos a day, equivalent to 140 rolls of 36-exposure film, which at ?5 per roll to process would have cost me £700. Thank God I’m using a digital camera!

Anyway, enough about the financial side of things, are the photos any good?! Well, here are a few to kick off what may turn out to be an extensive series. I’ve decided to try and make sense of all those photos by breaking them down into geographical location. So here is the Iglesia de la Concepci?n, a church that was just round the corner from my hotel (the Anaga).