Hasselblad have announced their latest medium format imaging monster – the 40 megapixel H4D-40. Built around a 33 x 44mm CCD sensor it has 70 percent larger imaging area than a regular full-frame DSLR.
Don’t you just love the pre-PMA weeks? I sure as hell do with all those new digital cameras being announced daily. It now came Nikon’s turn to show what it will be offering to compact digcam fans in the following months. They announced no less than seven additions to their Coolpix lineup including two ultrazoom cameras, a compact superzoom and four more affordable compacts.
The Micro Four Thirds system is all about delivering DSLR quality in a package that you can easily slip in your pocket. And that certainly makes the Olympus E-PL1 that just leaked its best member that the world has seen. Smaller and cheaper than both the E-P1 and E-P2, the E-PL1 will also pack a built-in flash, unlike its predecessors lacked.
Update: It has just been officially announced
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After their detailed specs and official photos leaked last week, seeing the three new FujiFilm superzooms (or bridge cameras as they like to call them), announced today isn’t really a great surprise. The S-series trio is built around identical 12 MP stabilized sensors and is capable of recording 720p video.
If you are a fan of the superzoom cameras you are surely going to love this one. The Fujifilm FinePix HS10 seems to be everything the format is about and adds a few nice extras on top of that. The immense 30x zoom range goes from 24 to 720mm in 35mm terms which seems to me as a better solution than the 28-840mm range of the Olympus SP-800UZ I wrote about earlier. The four extra millimeters at the wide end are much more valuable to 99% of the users than the 120mm at the long end.
Today Olympus announced to new additions to its superzoom digital camera range. The Olympus SP-800UZ and SP-600UZ are built around 1/2.33” CDD sensors and are capable of recording 720p video. The most impressive part of this announcement however is the fast (f/2.8-f/5.6) 30x zoom lens of the Olympus SP-800UZ, which stretch all the way from 28mm to 840mm in 35mm equivalent. Its little brother lens cover the more modest 28-420mm range and are two-thirds of a stop slower at f/3.5 – f/5.4.
Canon have shown in the past that they know how to take care of their best paying customers. Firmware updates have always been released promptly when an issue arises so we are hardly surprised that the EOS 1D Mark IV gets yet another of them, only several weeks after hitting the shelves.
The new firmware version 1.0.6. enhances the AF tracking performance for receding subjects and for subjects that are approaching the camera at a low speed. Read more »
The guys over at LetsGoDigital have got some pretty detailed info (not to mention some downright official looking footage) on four upcoming FujiFilm digital cameras. The company will reinforce its superzoom portforlio with three new offerings and will throw in an affordable ultra-compact in the mix.
The FujiFilm FinexPix S2500HD, as the name suggests will record 720p HD video and will come with 18x zoom lens, covering the range from 28 to 504mm in 35mm equivalent. Read more »
Panasonic have just introduced five new additions to their compact digicam portfolio. The GPS-enabled TZ10 (or ZS7 in the US) and the TZ8 (ZS5) are the most interesting of the bunch but we also have the rugged FT2 and the budget-minded ZX3 and FX66.
Panasonic TZ10 and Panasonic TZ8
The flagships Panasonic TZ10 and TZ8 are near identical with their 12x zoom (25 – 300mm in 35mm equiv.) LEICA DC VARIO-ELMAR lens and 1/2.33” 12 megapixel sensors. Read more »
Waterproof digital cameras have always been great fun to use – you don’t have to worry about damaging them so much and you can focus on taking photos instead. Unluckily most of them are so ugly that you’d rather not be seen carrying them in public.
Luckily here comes Sony to the rescue with its TX5 Cyber-shot waterproof compact. It is not officially announced yet but the leaked press materials are of pretty high quality so it shouldn’t take too long to appear.
This round of the annual Wildlife photographer of the Year competition, organized by BBC and the Natural History Museum ended with a scandal as the winner was stripped of his award. The judges ruled that Jose Luis Rodriguez used a trained animal to take his winning shot, without declaring it, which is against the contest rules.
A brief look at the rulebook of the contest informs us that “Images of captive animals must be declared. The judges will take preference to images taken in free and wild conditions.” What’s more interesting is how did the judges find out that the wolf in the shot was tame.
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In yet another shootout the Nikon D3S proved that there’s no better DSLR as far as high-ISO performance is concerned. Tested against the closest to direct competitor that it will ever have, the Canon EOS 1D Mark IV and the last full-frame camera that Canon released, the EOS 5D mark II, the Nikon D3S left no one wondering who is the real Lord of the Darkness.
What’s interesting to note is that despite being more than a year old and considerably cheaper, the full-frame Canon 5D mark II still performs better than the APS-H 1D Mark IV at both higher and lower ISO. Of course it’s actually making the photo that matters to 1D Mark IV potential owners and things like sturdy weather-sealed body, continues rate shooting speed and focus accuracy are enough to justify its price tag.
ISO 1600 • ISO 6400 • ISO 25600 (from left to right: Nikon D3S, Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 5D Mark II)
ISO 1600 • ISO 6400 • ISO 25600 (from left to right: Nikon D3S, Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 5D Mark II)
Back to the original topic I have to say that the Nikon D3S once again shows that its photos, shot at ISO lower than 51200 are perfectly usable for virtually anything. It gets a little messy at ISO 51200 but if you don’t pixel-peek or make too large prints it’s still pretty fine. ISO 102400 is of pretty limited use of course, but it isn’t much worse than what the 1D mark IV has at ISO 25600. So that’s almost a good two stop advantage in favor of the Nikon, which is light years ahead (in photography terms at least).
ISO 51200 • ISO 102400 (left: Nikon D3S, right: Canon 1D mark IV)
ISO 51200 • ISO 102400 (left: Nikon D3S, right: Canon 1D mark IV)
On the other hand the far better video recording of the Canon 1D Mark IV and the higher pixel count will be more than enough to earn it quite a lot of customers. The reporter’s camera segment was dominated by Canon a few years ago and people (usually) stay where their lenses are in this business so the 1D is safe for now. But maybe, just maybe, the next time Canon announce a sensor with insanely high ISO settings they should also deliver a performance that can justify its existence.
The TransferJet technology was introduced by Sony two years ago, but it’s finally picking up speed. It’s a wire-free data transfer technology, kind of like Bluetooth but going at the speed of 802.11n Wi-Fi – 530Mbps. However it only works over a distance of 3cm range.
After we saw the mcroSDHC standard reaching its theoretical maximum last week it now came turn for the CF to fulfill its potential. Silicon Power released a 128GB 400x card that promises the amazing 90 MB/s read and write speeds, which is basically as fast as they get.
So if you hate how fast the new DSLR video mode consumes free space, this is certainly a happy day. And with a write speed like that you won’t have to worry about your buffer filling up either.
Samsung have just announced 5 new compact digital cameras. The new offerings include something for everyone with the two high-end superzooms Samsung HZ35W and Samsung HZ30W, the mid-range Samsung TL110 and Samsung TL105 and the entry-level Samsung SL630.
Samsung HZ35W and Samsung HZ30W
The 12 megapixel Samsung HZ30W and HZ35W feature really cool sounding 24-360mm (in 35mm equivalent) Schneider KREUZNACH lenses with 15x optical zoom. Read more »
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