07/31/2000: Toshiba Offers Mail-In Rebate on PDR-M70
IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 31, 2000--Photo enthusiasts, business professionals who use digital imaging technology and consumers now have an opportunity to save on the award-winning Toshiba PDR-M70 three-megapixel USB camera. Toshiba is offering a mail-in rebate that reduces the price of the camera to , effective immediately. For all the specs and samples photos see our Toshiba PDR-M70 user review....[read more]
07/31/2000: Survey Says: 12.7 Million U.S. Households To Have a Digital Camera by End of 2000
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 31, 2000-- One of the more popular consumer products this year will be digital cameras, as 12.7 million U.S. households plan on having a digital camera by the end of 2000, according to a new survey by Gartner Group, Inc. Gartner surveyed 40,000 U.S. households in January 2000, and this survey revealed 5.4 million of the 103 million households in the United States currently have a digital camera. The rapid growth in the market will provide all digital camera vendors with an opportunity to succeed. "Ninety-eight percent of digital camera sales in 2000 will be to consumers buying their first digital camera, indicating the market is wide open to new vendors that have a better product and bigger advertising budget," said Andrew Johnson, vice president of Dataquest's e-Digital Imaging Devices and Services U.S. program. "New buyers most likely do not have enough personal, hands-on experiences with...[read more]
07/29/2000: cPicture for Windows - Another Shareware Gem
Be sure to check out cPicture 1.3 for Windows 98, WinMe, Windows2000 w/IE 5. It views image fast, run slideshows, performs lossless JPEG rotation and mirroring, transfer from memory card readers, view panoramas and wide-print them by splitting them into individual images, generates HTML preview pages with thumbs and links, create contact sheets, one-button send as mail or print. EXIF 2.1 information is interpreted. Can be used as your automated file viewer on a CD full of pictures. Installs by simply placing one EXE file in any folder of your choice and just executing it....[read more]
07/29/2000: ShortCourses' Digital Camera Books
Good friend Dennis Curtin has an excellent line of how-to books that go way beyond what you'll ever find in your camera's user manual. I have recv'd tons of "thank you" emails from people that I have told about these books. The Nikon 950 book is the all-time best seller and the new Nikon 990 book is proving to be just as popular. Dennis tells me that he is working on a Canon S-100 "Digital ELPH" book that should be ready soon and future plans include a book for the upcoming Canon EOS D30. All books are priced between -25 and worth many times that for the wealth of information they contain. Dennis' current offerings are: Choosing & Using a Digital Camera Book Canon A5 Zoom Photography Canon PowerShot S20 Photography Epson PhotoPC 850Z Photography Nikon Coolpix 950 Photography Nikon Coolpix 990 Photography Olympus C-2000 Zoom Photography Olympus C-2020...[read more]
07/29/2000: NikonView 3 Fix for Windows 9x and 2000
A bug was found in a file called nkdusb.dll (USB driver) which caused a process called "Event Listener" (used to detect the connection / disconnection of the camera) to give an error message and close the Windows explorer. The solution is to replace this file with the new one that will you find at Nikon's Tech Site. This fix is not applicable for Windows NT users and should not be used if you are currently NOT experiencing any problems with NikonView 3. For more info visit the Nikon Tech Site at the link above. Note that Nikon Tech USA is moving to a new (and faster) server on July 31 so you may experience problems connecting until all of the routers have the new location for their IP address updated....[read more]
07/28/2000: Computer Darkroom Post Epson 2000P Review
Ian Lyons over at the Computer Darkroom has posted an Epson 2000P review. You'll also find an Epson 870/1270 review as well as PhotoShop tutorials and lots of other great stuff for digi-photographers. Here's what he said about the Epson 2000P: "The really distinguishing feature of 2000P is not the use of the Intellidge chip, but of a new ink set based on 'Pigment Inks'. It has long been known that 'dye' based inks are much more susceptible to light induced fading than pigment inks, but achieving an acceptable colour gamut has up till now proved exceptionally difficult. With these new inks Epson have succeeded in gaining a very long life (theoretical 100 years plus), whilst still retaining the wide and well renowned colour gamut of previous Photo models."...[read more]
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 26, 2000--The industry's first chipset that delivers 3-CCD color quality to 1-CCD cameras at 50 megapixels per second has been introduced by NuCORE Technology, Inc. The two chips are the NDX-1250(TM) analog front-end and the SiP1250(TM) Smart Image Processor (SiP(TM)). No other combination of chips comes close to NuCORE's 50 megapixel-per-second image processing with 12-bit resolution. Both chips employ sophisticated, proprietary algorithms to deliver visually superior image quality, high resolution and wide dynamic range with just a single CMOS sensor or CCD (charged coupled device -- the sensor that captures the picture). NuCORE's chipset is ideal for high-end consumer applications as well as professional applications, which typically require three separate signal processing chains for Red (R), Green (G) and Blue (B) to attain this level of image quality. Through its patented NDX(TM) process, it amplifies R, G and B separately even though the three signal processing...[read more]
07/27/2000: Fujifilm Seeks America's "Nuttiest Family" for Web Photo Contest
ELMSFORD, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 27, 2000-- To help celebrate the release of Universal Pitures' and Imagine Entertainment's Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, starring Eddie Murphy, Fuji Photo Film U.S.A., Inc. is announcing a search for the nation's "nuttiest family" via an on-line photo contest. Beginning tomorrow, July 28, 2000, individuals may submit their "Nuttiest Family Photo Contest" entries by uploading digital images to the promotional Picture Gallery on the Fujifilm U.S.A. Web site. Soon after the contest ends on August 25, 2000, one family will be deemed America's "nuttiest" and receive a grand prize of a Fujifilm FinePix 4700 ZOOM digital camera and a gift check for a family of four to see the movie. First prize is a Fujifilm MX-2900 digital camera and second prize is Fujifilm Discovery 312 35mm camera. A full list of contest rules can be found on the Fujifilm U.S.A. Web site....[read more]
07/27/2000: Rob Galbraith Examines the Canon D30
This just in from Rob: 27 July 8:30 AM MT - It's not a direct competitor to the D1 or Kodak's pro cameras. But if the image quality is as good as Canon promises, then its feature set and software, combined with a street price of well below US, will make the D30 an appealing option for newspapers with smaller budgets and lots of Canon gear, as well as the thousands of Canon-toting freelance news shooters eager to make the jump to digital. Canon has built just enough pro features into the D30 to make many a photojournalist sit up and take notice. Read my 5500 word report on the Canon D30, in which the camera's suitability for news photography is examined....[read more]
07/26/2000: Agfa Announces The Snapscan E20; Newest "E" Generation Scanner
WILMINGTON, MA - July 26, 2000 - Agfa Corporation's Consumer Digital Imaging Group (USA-CDI), a leading provider of award-winning digital cameras and desktop scanners, today introduced the SnapScan e20, the newest member of the "e" series scanners. The SnapScan e20 combines the award-winning SnapScan technology with advanced software to make it easy for new users to communicate with pictures. Agfa's unique ScanWise scanning software automatically formats scanned images for email, word processing, text conversion (OCR), Web pages, or image-manipulation programs. For those who want to turn their digital images into high-quality traditional photographs, Agfa includes AGFAnet software. The dual-platform scanner (Macintosh(tm) and Windows(tm), including Windows 2000) offers USB (Universal Serial Bus) connectivity for fast, on-the-fly data transfer. It offers 36-bit color depth at a resolution of 600 x 1200 pixels per inch (ppi). Maximum scanning area is (216 x 297 mm, 8.5 x 11.7 inches). With the SnapScan e20, Agfa...[read more]
Tokyo, Japan, July 26, 2000 -- Sony Corporation today announced the development of a prototype digital still camera realized through a combination of Sony's latest miniaturization technologies. The prototype weighs a mere 26 grams, making it the world's smallest digital camera with a built-in LCD display. This miniaturization is made possible by Sony's latest IC bare-chip mounting technology (67æm electrode pitch) that integrates a "Memory Stick Duo" recording medium, a high-temperature poly-silicon LCD and a Lithium Ion Polymer battery into a single compact package. Portable devices are increasing in importance with the emergence of the digital network era. Technologies utilized in the prototype digital still camera can be applied to various applications to realize a wide spectrum of portable devices in the future. For example, the technologies will facilitate the development of products such as wearable AV/IT devices and "Memory Stick Expansion Modules" which add AV and telecommunication capabilities to...[read more]
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07/24/2000: Kodak Posts Updated DCS Professional Host Software and Firmware
From the digital photojournalist's site www.robgalbraith.com comes word of the latest software and firmware updates for Kodak Professional DCS series cameras. Changes in v5.9.3 DCS Host/Acquire include: FireWire support for Windows 98 SE and 2000. OHCI-compliant IEEE 1394 (FireWire) host adapter cards from Orange Micro and AdvanSys. FireWire support for G3 PowerBooks, including the built-in FireWire ports on the G3/400 and G3/500. See Kodak's IEEE 1394 Read Me for more information.Allows the setting of the image resolution for photos saved as JPEGs. The default is 300 dpi.Either all images being previewed, or just the one selected, may be acquired.Double-click selection for selecting a camera folder (Mac version only).Pre-selection of the active folder in the Camera Control window (Mac version only).Cancel option for copying images to folder on the computer.On/Off selection for displaying GPS data in the photo.Reduced saturation preference for photos taken with the DCS 620X.The v3.2.3 firmware update is...[read more]
07/24/2000: Digital Cameras To Feature 8cm Optical Disks For Large Capacity
Optical disks measuring 8 centimeters in diameter will enter the digital camera scene next month as large-capacity bridge media to PCs, the Electronic Engineering Times reported. Hitachi Ltd. will introduce a DVD video camera that uses the 8-cm version of the latest DVD-RAM Version 2.0 format, packing 1.4 Gb per side. And using mature, recordable-CD technology, Sony Corp. will roll out an 8-cm version of CD-R with a 156-Mb capacity. The disk format makes it possible for cameras to store a mixture of still and video images on one medium. Once those disks are recorded by the cameras, they can be read by ROM drives. DVD-RAM disks still have to wait, however, until compatible DVD-ROM drives more widely penetrate the market. Hitachi's DVD video camera DZ-MV100, can capture and store MPEG-2 video and still JPEG images in one disk. The camera is said to achieve video-picture quality of more than...[read more]
07/24/2000: Canon EOS D30 To Arrive in September
Good friend John Cowley over at LoneStarDigital.com has posted news about Canon's upcoming EOS digital D30. The Canon reps have been busy, they were in Texas last week and this week they're here in St Petersburg for the Visual Edge 2000 conference. John's sponsor the Imaging Spectrum got a hands-on with the D30 but weren't allowed to take any test pictures. The Canon folks said they'd be back in a few weeks with a full working D30 for a shooting session and they are now quoting delivery in September. This is great news for all those out there with a bag full of Canon lenses that have been waiting for their "D1" to arrive. John has also been busy lately with his new Sigma 50-500mm lens and the Nikon D1. Check out the fantastic surfing shots posted on his Sigma 50-500mm lens page. This lens is a little large for...[read more]
07/22/2000: Casio QV-2300UX First Look Posted
I just posted the Casio QV-2300UX First Look report. The weather wasn't really good for optimal outdoor shots today but I got some indoor shots and some fairly amazing night shots tonight, more photos to come....[read more]
07/21/2000: Red River Paper Now Has New 'E-Surface' InkJet Papers
Looking for E-surface ink jet paper? Introducing Red River Paper UltraPro Satin! Works great with all Epson inks and we anticipate great results with the new Epson 2000p. UltraPro Satin features a resin coated, micro-porus surface that looks just like traditional E-surface photo paper! Your images will look stunning and will have the appearance of portrait photography. Also available in gloss finish. Until the end of the month, mention that you saw this offer on Steve's Digicams and receive 10% off your order of UltraPro Satin. Call 888-248-8774 or go to www.redrivercatalog.com Don't forget their great sample kit offer. Two 8.5x11 sheets of all 34 Red River ink jet papers for .99 plus shipping!...[read more]
07/20/2000: Ricoh RDC-7 First Look Posted
The Ricoh RDC-7 First Look report with 360-degree QTVR tour and sample pictures has been posted. This is quite an interesting "Digital Capture Device" and is capable of still photos, photos with sound clips, movies with sound or sound by itself. I'm currently investigating the "Pro modes" that use the pixel-shift technology....[read more]
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07/19/2000: Microtech Introduces FireSCSI Xpress for External Peripheral Connectivity
NORTH BRANFORD, CT - July 19, 2000 -- Microtech International, Inc., a leading manufacturer of connectivity solutions for digital devices, today introduced its fastest connectivity solution to date, the FireSCSI Xpress[tm]. The FireSCSI Xpress adapter enables legacy, and new high-speed SCSI peripherals to be attached to the FireWire (IEEE-1394) port of a Macintosh or Windows PC. The FireSCSI Xpress adapter uniquely blends the high speed data transfer rate and the plug -and -play capabilities of FireWire technology with the versatility of the SCSI interface to provide an easy to use, high performance, external peripheral connectivity solution. Installation is simple. No add-in cards and no need to open the system. Just connect the FireSCSI adapter to your digital camera, scanner, or other SCSI equipped device and plug the FireWire connector into the FireWire port of a Mac or PC. Providing a data transfer rate of up to 5MB/sec in asynchronous mode...[read more]
07/18/2000: Kaidan MacWorld Product Announcements
Kaidan Introduces Affordable Motorized Panoramic VR Tripod HeadNEW YORK CITY, New York Macworld Expo - July 19, 2000 - Kaidan Incorporated, the leading manufacturer of Photographic VR hardware, announced and publicly demonstrated today AutoPan, a motorized, computer-controlled panoramic tripod head. Kaidan AutoPan is a modular system that will eventually support a wide-range of cameras and image-capture solutions. The first member of the AutoPan family, that Kaidan is announcing, supports the Kodak DC290 digital camera. This camera uses the Digita operating system from Flashpoint, and when used with the AutoPan, the camera controls the movement of the motorized head and the capture of the images. Kaidan is actively working with other digital camera manufacturers to provide AutoPan support for their cameras. The Kaidan AutoPan consists of a motorized indexing head, motor control unit, rechargeable battery, AC adapter/charger, DC290 camera bracket, DC290 wide-angle lens and adapter, Digita camera control script software,...[read more]
07/18/2000: DigiSnap 1000 v2.0 Coming, Free v1.3 Firmware Upgrade
I received the following announcement from the DigiSnap 1000 folks at Harbortronics:...[read more]
ELMSFORD, NY, July 18, 2000 - Fuji Photo Film U.S.A., Inc. has announced that the Fujifilm FinePix 40i Digital Camera, an ultra-compact portable device that combines three of today's most popular mobile platforms -- digital imaging, MP3 audio and digital video -- into one product, will be available to the U.S. market late August 2000 at an estimated street price of . Fujifilm is the first manufacturer to pair MP3 audio technology with a high-resolution digital camera. Featuring the same Super CCD image sensor found in Fujifilm's popular FinePix 4700 ZOOM digital camera, the super-small (3.4" W x 2.8" H x 1.1" D) FinePix 40i captures sharp and colorful pictures. It has an equivalent ISO sensitivity of 200, built-in flash, five programmed exposure modes, a USB port for the quick and easy transfer of images and a generously sized 1.8-inch LCD, considering the size of the camera. Compatible with wafer-thin...[read more]
07/18/2000: Kyocera's New Digicams, 6MPixel Pro and 3.3MPixel Consumer
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07/17/2000: Canon Unveils Pocket-Sized Elura 2MC FireWire DV Camcorder
Canon debuts the new Elura 2MC, a pocket-size hybrid digital video camcorder which measures 1 7/8 x 4 1/8 x 3 3/8 inches, about the size of a wallet. It weighs slightly more than one pound with a battery and tape. It records video and still images to the universal MiniDV digital videocassette. To manage, retrieve and download still images, the Elura 2MC accepts the MultiMediaCard (MMC) format. Elura 2MC features: 10x optical/40x digital zoom Image stabilization High-resolution rotating 2.5" view screen and viewfinder; 16-bit Digital stereo sound Seven programmed modes for auto exposure Progressive scan CCD image sensor Manual control over focus, exposure, white balance and shutter speed FireWire connectivity Analog Line-In Lithium ion battery packs RGB primary color filter 3-element stereo microphone Three shooting modes: Normal movie mode: Captures smooth, full motion video for playback on the television. Digital photo mode: Captures VGA-quality still images to videotape for...[read more]
07/17/2000: UMAX Introduces First Consumer Priced FireWire Scanners
New York, MACWORLD Expo (Booth #770 ), July 17, 2000 - UMAX Technologies, Inc. today announced the first scanner to utilize fast FireWire/IEEE-1394 connectivity for the general consumer and small office/home office (SOHO) markets. The new Astra 6400 with its FireWire interface provides blazing fast scans at up to twice the speed of comparable SCSI scanners. UMAX also released today the Astra 6450, a companion to the 6400 that, in addition to the speedy FireWire connection, includes a built-in universal transparency cover (UTC) for scanning slides and positives and negatives of up to 4"x5" in size. The Astra 6400 and 6450 scan images at 600x1200 dpi (dots per inch) and provide more than four trillion sharp, vibrant colors with true 42-bit internal color. They also provide image scalability, allowing the user to scan and enlarge a wide variety of media. The Astra 6400 and 6450 scanners are compatible with both...[read more]
07/17/2000: "The Rollbar" Flash Bracket for Nikon 990
I just received word about an upcoming flash bracket for the Coolpix 990 and other Coolpix 9xx series cameras. Modular One Displays, Inc. of Richfield, Utah is going to be producing and marketing The Rollbar flash bracket. There is also an auxilliary attachment (see it at their web site) that works with the main bracket when the camera and flash is used on a tripod. It also allows for the use a cable release to trip the shutter. The company expects to have The Rollbar ready for shipment later this summer with the price to be announced at that time. We should have one of these in for review within the next couple of weeks so watch for that news....[read more]
07/17/2000: Epson Reduces Price of Four of Its Perfection Scanners
LONG BEACH, Calif.--July 17, 2000--Epson America Inc., leader in high quality, award-winning imaging products, announced today that it has reduced the price of four of its award-winning Perfection scanners. The estimated street price of the EPSON Perfection 610, which is designed for novice customers in work, home or school environments, is now . The estimated street price of the EPSON Perfection 636U, which is geared toward home and SOHO consumers using dedicated USB devices such as the iMac, is now . The estimated street price of the EPSON Perfection 1200U is , and the EPSON Perfection 1200U PHOTO is now . The Epson Perfection 1200 series products are geared toward photo enthusiasts and entry-level graphic artists....[read more]
07/17/2000: Ricoh RDC-7 Pros & Cons From Günther
Reader Günther Bindl emailed me (and the Imaging-Resource as well) to let us know that he had posted a quick review of the Ricoh RDC-7 listing its pros and cons. He also has some nice sample photos online as the camera has been for sale over in Germany for a couple of weeks now. The RDC-7 will be available here in the U.S. in the next couple of weeks and yes, we will be reviewing it as soon as we get one from Ricoh's PR company. Günther also noted that the Swiss foto magazine FOTOintern posted a comparison of the most popular 3.3MP cameras including the new Ricoh RDC-7....[read more]
07/15/2000: Happenstance Close-up Stand Review Posted
Looks as if it's time to post a bunch of new accessory reviews. We just got another nifty gadget from the Happenstance folks for Coolpix 950 users. Check out my Happenstance Close-up Stand review, this is the easy way to do super-macro of small objects with the Nikon 950....[read more]
07/14/2000: VideoChip's Wallet Review Posted
We have received one of VideoChip Technologies' new pocket-size digital picture players and have posted our Wallet user review. I really like this little, high-tech gizmo. It's the same basic principal as the DigiFrame but in a pocket-sized and highly portable form....[read more]
07/06/2000: Take a Survey and Possibly Win a Free 2MP Digicam
Future Image has announced that Greg O'Rear of Raleigh, NC is the winner of a Nikon CoolPix 800 for responding to its survey on sharing photos and ordering prints on the Web. When asked what he'd do with the camera if he won, Mr. O'Rear (chosen at random from nearly 1,000 respondents) said, "I'd compare it to the Canon S10 I already own and see which performs better... which was easier to use for a novice user." Future Image is conducting another survey, this time about what folks expect and want for wireless imaging. They'd like to get your input, and will award a 2MP digital camera to one lucky respondent. The questions are at the Future Image Web site -- click on the following link: Wireless Camera Survey...[read more]
07/01/2000: robgalbraith.com is back!
If you're a working pro digi-photographer or anyone who is interested in the latest high-end pro digicams and software -- be sure to check out www.robgalbraith.com. Rob just put his newly redesigned site back online and it's full of valuable information as usual, includes a new site search engine and now loads much quicker. He covers the latest pro-related diginews and has a list of pro digicam software and updates links....[read more]
