Articles from January 2002

Pre-PMA 2002: The second camera announced by Fujifilm is the new FinePix S602 Zoom. For a while now many people on our Fuji Talk forum have complained that they have been unable to get the 6900Z, well here's the reason. The S602 Zoom replaces the 6900Z and then some. Just like the other cameras announced today the S602 uses the new third generation SuperCCD. On top of the 6900Z features is a higher resolution EVF, dual media slots (now takes CF Type I/II as well as SmartMedia), an all new body, a new user interface and several other new features.

Pre-PMA 2002: As part of three new cameras announced today based on its third generation SuperCCD technology Fujifilm has revealed the FinePix F601 Zoom. This camera, as the sucessor to the popular 6800Z also features a 3.1 megapixel SuperCCD (although this time the new 'third generation') which produces a 6 megapixel image. There are a full set of manual controls, selectable ISO sensitivity and high speed continuous shooting at five frames per second.

Pre-PMA 2002: Fujifilm has today announced a camera which will no doub turn quite a few heads. The S2 Pro has a 6.17 megapixel SuperCCD III which produces a huge 12 megapixel image (yes, twelve). The new camera also addresses two of the major issues with the S1 Pro; it is based on the Nikon F80/N80 body which means it's more robust, this also means it can now shoot with AF-D, AF-G and AF-S Nikkor lenses. Other new features include CCD-Raw files and ISO 100 support.

Sony has today announced price cuts to its Memory Stick storage (this actually took place last Friday). This is the second price cut in six months. This latest reduction brings the street price of Memory Stick more into line with other storage such as Compact Flash and SD/MMC cards. Sony are now showing the list price for a 128 MB Stick as $89 (down an amazing $60). Memory Sticks can already be ordered at this new price from Sony Style and Sony Imagestation.

According to the JCIA (Japan Camera Industry Association) Digital Camera sales totalled no less than 14.75 million units in 2001 a rise of some 42.7% over the previous year. In more detail the local Japanese (domestic) market for digital cameras has grown 63.8% and the export market (the rest of the world) has grown 34.2%. This figure is in line with results published by JCIA in August last year which were for the first half of 2001. A pretty amazing result showing just how many digital cameras were destined for the Christmas market.

Kodak lost a total of $206 million in the last quarter of 2001. This is a net loss of 71 cents per share for that period. Sales dropped 6% dragged down by a 10% drop in film sales. "Our strategy during this difficult economic year has been to strengthen our balance sheet so that the company will be in a better financial position once the recovery begins,'' said chief executive Dan Carp.

Phew! I've just posted our fully updated Olympus E-20 review. The review is now based on a full production E-20P (firmware 29-1102). Updates include a brand new gallery, re-shot resolution chart, colour patches, image quality, sharpening, white balance, chromatics test etc. And a new comparison including the Nikon Coolpix 5000. There's also a new section on the supplied software.

The long wait is now over... It seems like an eternity since I started this review, it was indeed before Christmas. At that time the camera I had for review revealed a fault and we didn't receive a replacement camera until the New Year. Since then the British weather and a host of other commitments have done all they can to delay this review. Anyway I've worked solidly to get it out, and here it is... Nikon's latest Coolpix prosumer digital camera, the 5000 under our spotlight and run through our tests. So just how well did it do?

This is a message to the fifteen to twenty people who email me every day asking when I will be posting my Nikon Coolpix 5000 review. I received my latest (working) Coolpix 5000 on 2nd January, I'm currently about 50% through the review and it should be published mid to end of next week. There will be image quality comparisons with the Olympus E20 and Sony DSC-F707. The only potential issue at the moment is the appalling weather we've been having here in London for the last week. So please guys, stop emailing me and let me get on with it :) UPDATED 18/Jan/2002: DELAYED AGAIN.

CES 2002: SanDisk has today announced the latest step forward for the MMC/SD format, a 256 MB SD card. This new card uses a 1-Gigabit NAND flash storage chip. "The SD Card is a flash memory storage device with built-in security functions designed to facilitate the secure exchange of content between devices and the card. It is 32 millimeters (mm) long, 24mm wide and 2.1mm thick. More than 100 products with slots for the card have been introduced. " It should be available "first quarter" and will be priced at a competitive $199.

Apple has opened a contest for iPhoto generated iTools HomePages. The competition has three categories: People, Creative and Nature. The competition is open until the 27th January and is available only to US residents. There are three Nikon Coolpix 775's and three Apple iPod's up for grabs.

CES 2002: SanDisk has today announced a range of new ImageMate dual-slot card readers, the readers will be available in three flavors - CompactFlash & SmartMEdia, CompactFlash & Memory Stick and CompactFlash & MMC/SD. These new readers are all USB (why no Firewire?) Mass Storage Class devices and will have an approximate street price of US$40.

Light & Motion has today announced its Titan waterproof housing for the Olympus E-10 / E-20 Digital SLR's. The housing repeats all of the camera controls on the outside of the housing as well as providing access to the viewfinder and two large handles on either side of the unit. The Titan housing is waterproof down to 300 ft and has a visual moisture alarm should a fault occur. You can also attach optional dedicated lenses. The housing alone costs $2699.

CES 2002: Nexian, better known for their GPS add-ons for Visor PDA's has announced a new NexiCam "sleeve" for the Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC which adds SVGA (800 x 600) digital camera capability to the iPAQ. "The NexiCam digital camera offers exciting new options for our iPAQ customers, such as its video conferencing and digital video capturing capabilities," said Roger Frizzell, Director of Global Communications with Compaq. "With this new product, we continue to expand the exciting capabilities iPAQ Pocket PC's." List price is $199.

CES 2002: 9 PM EST: Minolta has today announced the ultra-compact DiMAGE X digital camera. The DiMAGE X features a 2.1 megapixel CCD and an innovative new 'folded optics' 3x optical zoom lens. What's so unique about the lens is that it's mounted on its side and shoots through a prism. This enables the camera to maintain its slim dimensions but also provide a 3x optical zoom. The X comes with a Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery and takes SD/MMC cards. REVIEW ONLINE.

CES 2002: An interesting article out of CES today from the Compact Flash Assocation has confirmed that the irradiation process the U.S. Postal Service is using to sanitize mail against anthrax can not only destroy the data on flash storage (and other semiconductors) but can leave them unusable. "Testing has confirmed that these systems, which operate in the range of 55 kGy, damage not only semiconductors, but other goods as well, including pharmaceuticals, contact lenses, biological samples, and photographic film,'' the group said.

Uwe Steinmueller of Digital Outback Photo has just let me know that he's posted a review of Canon's EOS-1D digital SLR and the new EF 400mm f/4 DO IS lens. Of the EOS-1D Uwe says, "Even if the EOS-1D might have low noise compared to other cameras at ISO 400 and above we will try to stay with ISO 200 as often as possible. ISO 400 (and higher even more so) look clearly more grainy than ISO 200 photos (if seen at 100% pixel level)."