Brace yourselves for the news that all Olympus and Pentax film SLR owners have been waiting for (and plenty of other people too!). Both companies yesterday confirmed the prices for their new DSLRs, the Olympus E-1 and Pentax *ist D. So without any further ado, here are those prices…

Olympus E-1 Prices
- E-1 digital camera ?1,408.83 including VAT
[Including battery, charger, cable and strap]
- E-1 digital camera kit ?1,820.08 including VAT
[ Including 14-54mm F2.8-3.5 lens, battery, charger, cable and strap]

Lenses including VAT
- EZ-1454 Digital Lens 14-54mm F2.8-3.5 [including lens hood and case] ?495.85
- EM-P5020 Digital Lens ED 50mm F2 Macro [including lens hood and case] ?390.10
- EZ-5020 Digital Lens ED 50-200mm F2.8-3.5 [including lens hood and case] ?779.03
- ET-P3028 Digital Lens ED 300mm F2.8 [including lens hood and case] ?5,318.05
- EC-14 Tele Converter x 1.4 [for 14-54, 50-200 and 300mm] ?353.68
- EX-25 Extension Tube 25mm ?105.75

Pentax *ist D Prices
- Pentax *ist D camera body ?1400 including VAT
- Pentax *ist D camera body with smc 18-35mm f/4-5.6 FA AL J lens ?1529.99
- Pentax *ist D camera body with smc 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 FA AL J lens ?1499.99
- Pentax *ist D camera body with smc 20-35mm f/4 FA AL lens ?1899.99
- Pentax *ist D camera body with smc 24-90mm f/3.5-4.5 FA AL lens ?1799.99

Now in my humble opinion, these prices seem a little high when you consider that the Canon EOS 10D retails for around ?1150-300 body only. And lets not even mention the sub-?1000 EOS 300D! It will be very interesting to see how many E-1s and *ist Ds Olympus and Pentax sell at their recommend retail price; how soon will it be before prices become more competitive? This is less of a problem for the E-1, as it’s a whole new camera system aimed at the advanced amateur/professional photographer, but the Pentax *ist D is aimed at a similar market to the EOS 300D, and there’s currently a whopping ?500 price difference between the two cameras (body-only).

The second new dye-sublimation photo printer from Olympus USA is the Olympus P-440 Digital Photo Printer. This is probably the new model that most photographers will be interested in, simply because it creates borderless prints up to 8x10” in size. The dye-sublimation print process offers quality that is just like a traditional professional photo lab. It uses 4-pass printing - Yellow/Magenta/Cyan 3-color and a protective overcoat, so prints should be more fade resistant than inkjet printers.

The Olympus P-10 Digital Photo Printer will ship in October with a street price of $499.

Here’s a quote from the Olympus USA website:

“Make prints from home. Make them fast. And make them look more realistic than ever. This affordable dye-sub printer produces continuous-tone, borderless 8"x10” prints in a flash. A color LCD lets you review your images, edit them, and enhance them via a number of creative tools. Select traditional glossy or matte finish for your images. Then print with ease - no computer necessary - for professional quality results that are guaranteed to last.”

Olympus USA have announced a 2 new additions to its range of dye-sublimation photo printers. The Olympus P-10 Digital Photo Printer produces a photo-lab quality 6x4” print in less than 45 seconds. It features PictBridge technology so you don’t need to own a computer to create your prints (if your digital camera has PictBridge support, that is). It also looks stylish in an Apple MAC kind-of-way!

The Olympus P-10 Digital Photo Printer will ship in October with a street price of $199.

Here’s a quote from the Olympus USA website:

“Make vivid, borderless color prints at home with a printer that’s almost as small as the 4"x6” (approx.) output it produces. With dye-sublimation processing for professional photo lab quality results…in less than 45 seconds (per print). Including advanced PictBridge technology so enabled digital cameras can connect directly to the P-10; no computer necessary. And blessed with the conveniently compact size to be placed virtually anywhere.”

Olympus USA have announced a new stylish and affordable 5 megapixel digital camera. The Olympus CAMEDIA C-5000 Zoom relaces the older C-4000 Zoom model and features a more compact design that is almost 20% smaller than its predecessor. The C-5000 has a full range of exposure modes, including Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, full Manual control and 6 preset Creative Scene modes. It has a built-in flash with 7 different modes and also accepts an external flash via its hot shoe.

Here’s a quote from the Olympus USA website:

“Locate great picture opportunities with an advanced compact camera that makes it simple to find them. Use customizable and automatic features. Add on lenses or filters. Connect an external flash to the dedicated hot shoe. Get up close and personal with Super Macro mode. And know your efforts will be rewarded with vibrant, realistic results from a 5-megapixel CCD that’s matched to an Olympus? 3x zoom lens.”

Minolta have published 5 sample images from the DiMAGE A1 digital camera. You can click on the thumbnails to view the 2.8Mb full-sized Extra Fine JPEG images, which were all taken at an ISO setting of 100 (via digicamera.net). The DiMAGE A1 is currently lying joint-third in our Public Poll with 13 votes, way behind the 300D and F828… :-)

Website: Minolta DiMAGE A1 Samples

The multi-lingual digital photography website LetsGoDigital has just undergone a very impressive redesign. There is a live report from the IFA 2003 - World of Consumer Electronics show, currently being held in Berlin. LetsGoDigital is available in 3 languages - English, Spanish and Dutch.

Website: LetsGoDigital

Website: IFA 2003 Report

Steve’s Digicams yesterday published reviews of 2 recently introduced digital cameras from Hewlett Packard.

The HP Photosmart 735 digital camera delivers outstanding digital snapshots with 3.2 MP resolution and up to 15x zoom - 3x optical and 5x digital - from a Pentax precision lens for clear, crisp photo prints.

“Priced in the mid-range of the consumer digicam market, the Hewlett Packard Photosmart 735’s 3.2 megapixel imager, high-quality 3X Pentax optical zoom lens, movie mode with sound, and several scene modes offer alot for your money. This automatic point-n-shoot is simple enough for a novice to obtain good results, and offers enough creative control to please most intermediate users.”

Website: Steve’s Digicams - HP Photosmart 735 Review

Website: HP Photosmart 735 Specifications

The HP Photosmart 635 is an entry level digicam that has 2.1 megapixel total resolution and up to 12x total zoom - 3x optical and 4x digital.

“The Photosmart 635’s shooting performance is average. From power-on to the capture of your first image takes about five seconds. Shutter delay, the elapsed time between releasing the shutter and capturing the image, measured a respectable 2/10 second when pre-focused, or about 1 second including autofocus time. Shot-to-shot took a leisurely 5 seconds. These times are based on 1600 x 1200 images without the flash on. The 635 is not responsive enough to be considered good for sports or capturing unposed action, but it should suffice for most other shooting situations.”

Website: Steve’s Digicams - HP Photosmart 635 Review

Website: HP Photosmart 635 Specifications

DCResource have reviewed the EX-Z3 from Casio, a tiny digicam (87 x 57 x 23 millimeters) that has an RRP of $399.

“The Casio Exilim EX-Z3 ($399) is an ultra-small camera with a 3X zoom lens. The Z3 is quite similar to Pentax’s Optio S model (they share the same lens), with the main difference being the Z3’s larger LCD and thicker body. Both cameras are high performance 3 Megapixel cameras in a nicely designed metal body. For those who want more resolution, Casio recently introduced the EZ-Z4U model. It’s also priced at $399, so I expect the Z3 to drop in price soon.”

Website: DCResource - Casio Exilim EX-Z3 Review

I’ve added a brand new feature to PhotographyBLOG. There is now a “Public Poll” running in the right-hand column of the site. The current question is “Which of these new digital cameras are you most excited about?” - is it the Canon EOS 300D, the Sony DSC-F828, or one of the other cameras listed? The Poll question will be changed every now and again to keep things interesting.

Continuing the lens theme this morning, Bob Atkins has written an article aimed at new owners of the Canon EOS 300D and 10D DSLRs. The catchily-named “A review of lenses for the Canon EOS 300D and EOS 10D Digital SLRs” does exactly what it says on the tin.

“This review is for the new users. The assumption is that they don’t want to spend $7000 on an EF 600/4L IS USM, and indeed they probably don’t even want to spend $1150 on an EF 300/4L IS USM. I’ve chosen a series of lenses which the new user might be most interested in. These are mostly zooms and mostly priced in the $200-$400 range. I’ve avoided recommending most of the low end, plastic mount, inexpensive lenses normally sold with Rebel series bodies because, quite frankly, they aren’t all that good.”

Website: Photo.net: Canon EOS 300D/10D Lens Review

Luminous Landscape have published the 3rd article in a series of 9 from Alain Briot. The series as a whole is looking at the subject of “Aesthetics and Photography”. This latest article is called “How to Choose the Best Lens For a Specific Composition” and focuses on the relationship between lens choice and the depiction of a scene, specifically landscape photography.

“Choosing the right lens for a specific photograph is an important decision. This decision follows your previous decisions about how to compose the scene, and composition follows what you saw in this scene, what you want to photograph in the first place. In short, each of the steps involved in taking a photograph, from seeing to composing are related.

With lens choice we now start talking about how we can photograph the scene in front of us. We move from visualization to creation in a sense, and, for the first time, we are going to actually going to use a camera. We are almost to the point were we will actually take a photograph!”

Website: How to Choose the Best Lens For a Specific Composition

Canon is pleased to announce a new version of the free-of-charge service called ‘Your Print’. ‘Your Print’ allows customers to receive a Canon print sample of any digital image they choose to submit*.

Malcolm Hills, Head of Canon Consumer Imaging in the UK and Ireland, explains,  “Our innovative and unique ‘Your Print’ service was first launched in January 2003 and we have printed and posted thousands of print samples to users interested in trying a Canon Bubble Jet printer. The feedback to ‘Your Print’ has been fantastic and we hope to build on our
success with the new look site. Visitors can now choose from six different printer models including the award winning Bubble Jet i850 and i950.

The explosion in digital camera sales means that many more users now require a high quality printer to produce their photos at home. With such a vast array of models on the market, choosing the right printer can be a difficult and confusing decision to make. Our ‘Your Print’ service gives potential customers the opportunity to see one of their own photos printed
on a Canon Bubble Jet printer without having to buy the printer first.”

Canon has linked together 50 digital cameras in a world first to ‘freeze’ time during a cinema-photographic action sequence. Fifty EOS 300D digital SLR cameras were used in a technique known as ‘Time Slicing’ or ‘Bullet Time’, a practice which shot to prominence when used to shoot the fight sequences for the film ‘The Matrix’. The results of Time Slicing mean film and television audiences are given the impression of moving around an action sequence which is frozen in time. Until now this technique has relied on the use of analogue film cameras.

Time Slicing with the EOS 300D was first shown to the public at Canon’s European launch of the EOS 300D, held at London’s exclusive venue, Sketch. Within moments of being photographed inside the rig, celebrities and guests were able to view footage of themselves broadcast onto giant plasma screens around the venue.

Casio have announced an updated version of the EXILIM ZOOM EX-Z3 digital camera.

The new EX-Z4 packs the first high-resolution 4-megapixel CCD of the EXILIM lineup into a stylish and thin card size body. The result is a powerful 3X optical zoom camera that be taken just about anywhere. The EX-Z4 measures a mere 87mm wide, 57mm high, and 23.1mm thick (19.7mm at its thinnest point). A low-power design has extended battery life to allow approximately 540 snapshots to be taken (continuous recording).

New audio snapshot and voice recorder capabilities have been added, the movie feature has been enhanced to allow recordings of up to 60 seconds, and a 2-inch monitor screen and built-in speaker lets you enjoy playback of both images and audio. Sounds can be specified for start up, shutter release and other functions.

The EXILIM ZOOM EX-Z4 is known as the EXILIM ZOOM EX-Z4U in the USA, and will retail for $399.99 and be available in October 2003.

Website: Casio EXILIM ZOOM EX-Z4 Press Release

Casio have announced 2 updated versions of the EXILIM EX-S2 digital camera.

The Casio EXILIM EX-S20 measures 83mm wide, 53mm high, and 11.3mm thick, making it about 10% smaller than the previous EX-S2, with battery life extended by 85% due to a new low power design. It has a new lens which allows close-up photos to be taken from as little as 30cm away, making it the first fixed-focus EXILIM model to be equipped with macro capabilities. The EX-S20 features a 2-megapixel CCD combines with a new noise reduction process for outstanding image quality, especially when shooting at night.

The Casio EXILIM EX-M20U has all of the same standard features as the EX-S20U plus a built-in microphone and speaker for recording and playback of voice recordings and audio snapshots.

The EX-S20U will retail for $279.99 and the EX-M20U for $329.99. Both cameras
will be available in October 2003.

Website: Casio EXILIM EX-S20/EX-M20 Press Release

The website Petteri’s Pontifications has posted an interesting look at the subject of blown highlights, which can often be a problem for digital photographers:

“Some old curmudgeon of a photographer once said that any scene that has more contrast than slide film can handle isn’t worth photographing anyway. I think he was exaggerating a bit, but there is an important point hiding in there.”

Another recent article is called “Lens Lore for Newbies” by Forrest Croce, which offers a personal viewpoint about lenses aimed at beginners to SLR photography.

“Canon’s Digital Rebel promises to be a great camera and a fantastic bargain. It’s drawing a lot of people into the dSLR arena who have so far only been using digital point-and-shoots, or 35 mm film. Many are migrating from other lens systems, or have never had to think seriously about lens choice before. A 75+ lens catalogue and a new “format” takes a while to get a handle on. I’ve seen a lot of questions and some misconceptions about the subject… so here’s my perspective on it.”

Website: Petteri’s Pontifications

The latest issue (#29) of the monthly online photo magazine Vivid Light Photography has just been published. New reviews this month include the Canon i9100 Photo Printer, Minolta DiMAGE 7Hi digital camera and Canon MP-E 65mm Macro Lens & MT-24EX Macro Twin Lite flash units. Articles of interest include “Guidelines for Choosing a Lab”, “What is True Macro Photography?” and the intriguingly titled “Putting Film in Your Digital Camera”:

“I know, I know, you probably think I’m either a genius, or absolutely crazy! This not a totally new camera scheduled for a press release at Photokina, nor has Nikon slipped me a secret new camera to test. This is an article centered on how you can make your digital camera perform like your film camera (or better), and to show you just how easy it can be to get the kind of results you’ve come to expect from your old film and camera combination.”

Website: Vivid Light Photography

Imaging Resource have reviewed the Toshiba PDR-M700, a 3.2 megapixel digital camera with a massive 10x Canon lens (37-370mm equivalent focal length range) and 2.5 inch LCD display.

“Optical distortion on the PDR-M700 was about average at the wide-angle end, where I measured barrel distortion of roughly 0.8 percent. (While this is average among cameras I’ve tested, it’s still too much IMHO.) At the telephoto end, I found only a single pixel’s worth of pincushion distortion, a vanishingly small 0.05% distortion. Overall, a good performance, particularly for such a long-ratio zoom.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Toshiba PDR-M700 Review

Fuji have announced the new S3000 digital camera, which features 3.24 effective million pixels, 6X Fujinon optical zoom and digital movie recording. The S300 uses xD-Picture Card (16MB to 512MB) storage and its lens focal length is equivalent to 38-228mm on a 35mm camera.

The list price for the S300 is $399.95.

Website: Fuji FinePix S3000

Hitachi has announced that it is currently delivering a tiny 4GB hard drive to electronic device manufacturers for testing. Blaupunkt, Eastman Kodak, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Sigma and Sony are all evaluating the new storage device, which will also be available in a 2Gb version.

The most interesting thing about Hitachi’s announcment is the aggressive pricing. The 4Gb Microdrive is relatively cheap compared to other similar storage options. “The company expects the 4GB Microdrive to sell for $499. Lexar Media sells 2GB and 4GB flash memory cards that cost as much as $799 and $1,599, respectively, according to its online store.”

Website: Hitachi 4Gb Microdrive