Articles from January 2009

Just Posted: Our full review of the Pentax K2000 (or K-m to the Europeans amongst us). Pentax's latest baby DSLR enters the ring with much of the K200D's capability slimmed down into an even smaller, lighter, more use-friendly format. But the flyweight end of the DSLR market is home to some plucky competitors, so can the K2000 do enough to fight its corner? Read our 35 page review to find out.

Just posted! Lens reviews on DPReview are one year old today, and we're celebrating this auspicious anniversary with appropriate aplomb. Our 25th review features the Canon EF 50mm F1.8 II, a bargain offering that sells for less than $100, yet features an optical design refined over decades of service as the standard lens supplied with 35mm film SLRs. So how does it measure up against F1.4 lenses costing three times as much?

Pre-PMA 2009: Panasonic has announced the release of the DMC-ZS3 (DMC-TZ7 in Europe), the first of six new digital compact cameras, and also the first camera to record AVCHD lite HD videos. The ZS3 is also packed with some impressive video and audio features such as 48kHz sample rate and Dolby Digital Stereo Creator for high quality audio, a Wind Cut function and Intelligent Auto mode for video recording. This 10MP camera (10MP output from a 12MP sensor) also comes along with a 3 inch hi-resolution LCD, 12x optical zoom (25-300mm equiv), Optical Image Stabilizer, and Advanced Face Recognition.

Adobe has released 'Release Candidates' of Photoshop Lightroom 2.3 and Camera Raw 5.3 for immediate download from Adobe Labs. Both provide additional Raw support for the Nikon D3X and Olympus E-30 DSLRs. Lightroom is also now available in 8 new languages. The 'release candidate' label means the downloads are 'well tested' but not yet final versions.

Just posted! Our latest lens review, featuring Sigma's 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM. Completing for the moment our mini-series of APS-C format image-stabilized superzooms, we see how this lens measures up against similar designs which we've also reviewed in the course of the past year. With the likes of Canon and Tamron entering this market in the past few months, how does Sigma's two-year old offering measure up against the competition?

Canon and Nikon have released firmware updates for the 40D, D3 and D700 DSLRS. All three updates correct rare errors and make minor changes to camera behavior. The 40D is updated to firmware v1.1.1. The Nikon D3 moves to v2.01 and the D700 to V1.01. Full details of all the issues resolved are made on the relevant company's websites. Click here for direct links to the downloads.

Just posted! Our in-depth review of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1, the world's first 'Micro Four Thirds' system camera. Updating the digital SLR (DSLR) for the 21st century, the mirrorless G1 replaces the tried-and-tested optical viewfinder with a new high resolution electronic version and aims to offer the quality and versatility of an SLR combined with the user-friendly ease of use of a compact camera. Does it succeed? Find out in our review after the link. Apologies for the delay on this one; the Christmas holidays, group tests and challenges launch got in the way, but full reviews are back up to speed now.

Panasonic has released a firmware update for the Lumix DMC-LX3 digital compact camera. With version 1.2, the EXIF data is correctly displayed on all JPEG files. It also improves the white balance in flash mode when connected to the DMW-FL220 flash unit. Furthermore, the shutter speed is now correctly set while the image stabilization is turned on in the Intelligent Auto and Scene mode.

Canon has introduced the PowerShot A480 digital compact camera, replacing PowerShot A470 with a more compact body and easier operation. Twenty five percent smaller than its predecessor, the A480 includes a new simplified button layout for ease of use. This entry-level compact houses a 10MP sensor, 2.5" LCD, Canon's DIGIC III processor and includes features such as Motion detection and Face Detection.

Breeze Systems has announced the availability of its NKRemote 1.0 remote capture software for Nikon DSLRs. Building on its products for the Nikon D90 and D300, the software now expands coverage to the D3, D700 and D200. It enables users to control focus from a PC, shoot time-lapse sequences and display live images.

The votes have been cast and the winners of the first five dpreview.com challenges have been announced. The response to the initial challenges has been incredible, and the standard of entries shows just how much photographic creativity and talent there is in the dpreview community. We'd like to thank everyone who enterered images and those who voted for helping us to iron out any wrinkles in this exciting new site feature. There's still plenty of challenges open and the second wave of voting starts soon, so please continue to try out the system as we prepare to move into the next phase of the Challenges Beta program, when the first user generated challenges will be announced.

CES 2009: Pretec has introduced a 32GB CFast, the smallest solid-state drive (SSD) to feature a SATA interface. The SATA interface should allow CFast cards, the next-generation devices from the CompactFlash Association, to reach speeds of up to 375MB/s. The 32GB Pretec card is capable of transfer speeds of up to 160MB/s (300% faster than the fastest CF card today), and will be available next month, with a 64GB version to follow soon. There are no cameras at present that accept the CFast format.

CES 2009: Casio has announced six new Exilim compacts with some interesting new features. The EX-FS10 and EX-FC100 offer burst shooting at 30fps and movies at 1000fps. They also feature a Slow Motion View option that lets the user watch the movement of the subject in slow motion before capture. Next up are the EX-Z400, EX-Z270 and EX-S12, which feature the Dynamic Photo function to cut-and-paste moving subjects on to new backgrounds. Last comes the EXILIM EX-S5 offering a new body design, customizable focusing frames and wide-screen video recording.

CES 2009: Lastly, Olympus has announced three new budget cameras; the FE-5000, FE3010 and FE-45. They all include the 'One button, one Function' design principle and a built-in camera guide for easy operation. The 12MP FE-3010, 10MP FE-5000 and FE-45 all incorporate features such as Dual Image Stabilization, Intelligent Auto mode, Advanced Face Detection and a number of shooting modes. Available in a choice of colors, the FE-5000 and FE-45 will become available in late January, and the FE-3010 in early March 2009.

Pentax has released the Optio E70 digital compact camera. This 10 megapixel camera features a simple to use interface with large buttons. Continuing the simplicity theme, it also includes Pentax's 'Green' shooting mode, where the camera takes control of all the key shooting settings. Although the camera promises simplicity, it is packed with features such as Triple Anti-Shake Protection, Super-Fast Face Detection and 7 shooting modes.