Digital Photography Review Newsletter: Wed, 26 Jan 2011

	Digital Photography Review Newsletter Wed, 26 Jan 2011
Welcome to the 437th Digital Photography Review newsletter The most popular weekly photography newsletter with over 140,000 subscribers Reviews start rolling Well we've all recovered from our CES colds and are back in Sunny Seattle and hard at work reviewing cameras again. The first fruits of that work are already live, in the form of our reviews of the Canon G12, the Olympus XZ-1 and our preview of the delicious-looking Fujifilm X100. The Olympus XZ-1 marks the company's return to making high-end compacts (itself a market that has seen an unexpected resurgence over the past year or so). And the company has really done its homework, producing a camera that appears to combine most of the best features of the cameras it lines up against. However, it's not unheard of for a promising looking spec sheet to flatter what turns out to be an awkward photographic tool, so how does the XZ-1 stand up to real-world use? Click here to read our review. We've also had a chance to subject Canon's G12 to a quick review. It shares a lot in common with its predecessor but gains a few refinements, including an extra control dial. Having essentially single-handedly carried the torch for the enthusiast photographer for a few years, how does Canon's flagship G-series compact compare to these upstarts? Read our quick review to find out. It's been a pretty strong week for Enthusiast Compacts here at dpreview. But there are Enthusiast Compacts and there are Enthusiast Compacts - and twinkling on the other side of that galaxy is the far-off promise of the Fujifilm X100. We've been playing with an early pre-production unit to get a clearer idea of what all that retro-futurism really adds up to. The example we had wasn't near enough to completion to allow images to be taken but we've done our best to sum up the progress so far on what remains one of the most keenly anticipated cameras of the year. Click here to read more. Richard
Samsung announces ST30 10MP ultra-compact Wed, 19 Jan Samsung has announced the ST30 ultra-compact digital camera. The 10.1MP camera has a 3x zoom starting at a usefully wide 28mm equivalent focal length. The camera is, the company says, around the size of an average mobile phone, giving a good idea of who the camera is aimed at. It has all the standard features such as Smart Auto mode and Perfect Portrait mode you'd expect in the budget sector and comes with a list price of $99.95. (more) Samsung launches ST95, ST90 and ST65 mid-range compacts Wed, 19 Jan Samsung has announced a trio of style compacts in the form of the ST95, ST90 and ST65. The ST95 offers 16MP while the other make do with 14. The top two models offer 5x zooms starting at 26mm equivalent while the ST65 has 5x zoom starting at 27mm equiv. The ST95 features a 3.0" touch-screen interface, rather than the more conventional button-based interfaces of its sister models. The cameras will reach the US market in February, at respective target prices of $199, $149 and $129 the company says. (more) Samsung targets the style crowd with ST6500 Wed, 19 Jan Samsung tops off its day of announcements with the ST6500, a high-end style compact with touch-screen control. The 16MP camera features a 5x zoom starting at a very respectable 26mm equivalent (extending out to 130mm equiv). Beyond the inclusion of 720p HD movie recording and the fact that the body tilts at 7 degrees, specification for the camera, available in March, is rather thin-on-the-ground. Its recommended selling price will be $229. (more) International Street Photography Awards opens for entries Wed, 19 Jan Promotions company Shoot Experience has announced the International Street Photography Awards. Launched in connection with the London Street Photography festival to be held for the first time between 7-17th July 2011, the competition is now open for entries. To participate, photographers need to submit 5-8 of their best street photography photos from past five years along with a £30 entry fee. The winner will receive an Olympus Pen camera, an all-expenses paid trip to London and £1000 cash. There is also a UK-only student award category open to students aged 18 and older. Submissions are open until 30 March 2011. (more) Scientists develop flexible sensor to allow simple zoom Wed, 19 Jan Scientists have successfully constructed a digital camera that can be flexed to focus an image, allowing its use with simple single-element lenses. Researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Illinois created a 16 x 16 pixel array on an elastomeric backing that can be distorted to correctly focus the image from a simple lens. In a paper to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they combine this with a single-element, tunable lens to provide a camera with very simple optics capable of zooming. The technology could eventually provide 'studio quality' images from cellphone cameras, one of the lead researchers says. (more) Just posted: Canon PowerShot G12 Quick Review Wed, 19 Jan Just Posted: Our quick review of the Canon PowerShot G12 enthusiast compact. As the G12 didn't arrive in time to be included in the high-end compact camera group test, we've now had a chance to put together in our quick review format that looks at the differences between its predecessor as well as competitors. Inheriting most of the core features of the G11, The G12 sees the addition of an EOS-style front control dial, Hybrid IS, multi-aspect ratio shooting and 720p HD video recording. (more) onOne Software offers free album templates & layouts Thu, 20 Jan onOne Software is offering more than 300 free album templates and layouts aimed at portrait and wedding photographers. After registering in the company's website, the templates can be downloaded and used in Adobe Photoshop, and do not require the use or ownership of any onOne product. (more) Nikon delays launch of my Picturetown 3D service Thu, 20 Jan Nikon has announced a delay in the launch of 'my Picturetown 3D', its Japan-only 3D imaging service. The service that was supposed to launch this month is now rescheduled for March 2011 due to production issues with the NF-300i 3D digital photo frame. The service allows online conversion of 2D and 3D images to the 3D format compatible with the NF-300i. (more) Bibble Labs releases Bibble 5.2 Thu, 20 Jan Bibble Labs has announced version 5.2 of its RAW workflow software. This is the final version of the update posted as a 'release candidate' in December, and is now available for immediate download. The latest version provides RAW support to fourteen additional cameras including the Nikon D7000/D3100, Panasonic DMC-GF2, Pentax K-5 and Olympus E-PL2. Both the Pro and Lite versions of Bibble 5.2 also include improvements and bug fixes. (more) Just posted: Update to 2010 Enthusiast Compact Group Test Thu, 20 Jan Just Posted: An update to our recent group test of the the Canon Powershot S95, Panasonic Lumix LX5 and Nikon Coolpix P7000. Following the release of firmware V1.1 for the Nikon P7000, claimed to reduce RAW write times, we have retested the P7000 and updated the review accordingly. Is the increase in operational speed enough to make the P7000 score higher against the Canon Powershot S95 and Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5? Read our updated review to find out. (more) Phase One unveils IQ series digital backs Mon, 24 Jan Phase One has released the IQ180, IQ160 and IQ140 medium format digital camera backs with 80, 60.5 and 40 megapixel CCD sensors respectively. All three backs feature 3.2" multi-touch rear screen the company describes as having 1.15 megapixel resolution (though it sounds more like what would usually be called 1.15 million dots). The IQ180 also features a USB 3.0 port for quicker image transfer and a FireWire 800 connection for faster tethered shooting. All three will be available from April 2011 at suggested retail prices starting from €16,990 /$21,990. (more) Panasonic launches Lumix DMC-FX78 compact camera Tue, 25 Jan Panasonic has released the Lumix DMC-FX78 ultra-compact with an F2.5-5.9 5x zoom lens starting at 24mm. The 12.1MP camera features a large 3.5" touch screen LCD with Touch zoom, AF tracking, shutter and playback capabilities. It also offers full 1080 HD recording in AVCHD format and a 3D Mode that produces a 3D photo in .MPO format by taking 20 consecutive photos and overlaying the two best into a 3D image. This can be played back on MPO-compatible equipment such as a televisions, digital photo frames and printers.  (more) Panasonic announces Lumix DMC-TS3 rugged compact Tue, 25 Jan Panasonic has announced the Lumix DMC-TS3 rugged compact camera (known as the FT3 in Europe), with built-in GPS, altimeter, barometer and a compass. It sports a new body design and and better waterproofing upto depths of 12m as against 10m of its predecessor the TS2. Like the TS2 it is also dustproof, shockproof against a drop of up to 2m, and freezeproof down to -10°C. The 12MP CCD-based camera with a 2.7 inch LCD and 28-128mm equiv. lens features 1080i60 HD movies (from 30p sensor output) and comes with the company's latest 3D photo mode. (more) Panasonic debuts Lumix DMC-ZS10 and DMC-ZS8 Tue, 25 Jan Panasonic has launched the DMC-ZS10 and DMC-ZS8 compact superzooms. The latest travel-zoom cameras increase their zoom ranges to 16x, still starting at a very useful 24mm equivalent. The ZS10 (TZ20 in Europe) incorporates a 14.1MP MOS sensor and GPS, and can record Full 1080i AVCHD format movies, generate 3D images and shoot full resolution images at 10fps. The simpler ZS8 (TZ18) comes with a 14.1 MP CCD sensor, shoots 720p HD movies in Motion JPEG format and misses out on both GPS and 3D capability. (more) Nikon releases firmware update for D3100 Tue, 25 Jan Nikon has released a firmware update for the D3100 digital SLR that addresses a significant list of bugs and errors. Firmware v1.01 rectifies errors relating to autofocus, playback and noise reduction. This includes the reduction of a magenta cast at the bottom of still images captured at high ISO settings after using live view or movie shooting for a long period. The firmware is available for immediate download from Nikon's website. (more) Fujifilm FinePix X100 First Look Preview Tue, 25 Jan Just Posted: Fujifilm X100 first look. In amongst a flurry of of major camera announcements at Photokina 2010, one model stole the show - Fujifilm's retro-looking, large sensor, fixed lens compact: the X100. With its APS-C CMOS sensor and fast 23mm F2 lens giving a classic 35mm equivalent moderate wideangle view, this rangefinder-styled camera has traditional control dials plus an innovative 'hybrid' viewfinder that combines a large, bright optical finder with a high-resolution electronic display. We've been itching to get our hands on the X100 ever since it was announced, and Fujifilm has kindly lent us a prototype model for a first look. Click through to read more. (more)
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