Digital Camera Reviews

Olympus was one of the first manufacturers to realize that building digicams around small sensors allows much longer zooms to be offered without the bulk of the camera becoming unmanageable. With its “Ultra zoom” range, starting back in 2000 with the 2.1MP C-2100UZ, Olympus almost single-handedly created a niche for digicams offering 10X optical zooms in relatively compact formats. Over the years, that niche has developed into a popular and fiercely fought market segment.Realizing that the utility of a 10X zoom was great enough to make many users overlook the compromises that such a large zoom range entails, Olympus decided to investigate whether customers would put up with still more compromises if the zoom range was even greater. The result was the SP-550UZ with its astonishing 18X zoom range.
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Panasonic comes along and decides to add that very feature to its G-series competitor, the Lumix DMC-LX2. It’s just packed with other amateur-oriented features as well, including a variety of focus modes, all of the essential metering and semi-manual exposure options, a wide-angle lens, and an overstuffed information display. [Read the rest of this entry…]

Sony is introducing its 8-megapixel DSC- H7 and DSC-H9 models. Designed to appeal to families with budding athletes in their broods, the cameras debut Sony’s new Advanced Sports shooting mode.This mode combines high shutter speed shooting and intelligent continuous auto-focusing. The cameras can quickly focus on fast-moving subjects by predicting where those subjects will be in the frame. This predictive technology also helps to reduce shutter lag, the time it takes for the camera to focus and shoot.
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Sony announces the new 10.1-megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-T300, featuring a stylish, ultra-compact design and intelligent functionality to help reduce the risk of taking a bad photo. The unit integrates a wide (16:9), 3.5-inch touch screen LCD monitor for easy navigation and framing; a Carl Zeiss 5x optical zoom lens; Super SteadyShot image stabilization and high sensitivity settings up to ISO3200; and a powerful Bionz processing engine. The DSC-T300 replaces the DSC-T200, and will be available in red, black and silver in March for about $400..
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The 7.2-megapixel Sony DSC-W120 features an f/2.8-5.8, 32mm-128mm (35mm equivalent) 4x Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar zoom lens and a 115,000- dot, 2.5-inch LCD. In addition to its LCD, the camera incorporates an optical viewfinder, optical image stabilization, and Sony’s Bionz image processing engine. Notable features include face detection that can now be set to detect only children or only adults; a new version of Sony’s Smile Shutter, which automatically takes a shot when someone smiles and can now be set for child or adult priority; an Easy Shooting mode that enlarges menu text and makes only basic controls available; and a semi-manual focus mode that lets the photographer select the approximate distance to the subject then uses autofocus to finish the job.
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The Ricoh GR Digital II is the second compact digital camera that we’ve reviewed recently which has a 28mm fixed focal length lens, putting it it direct competition with the Sigma DP1. The lens on the GR Digital II is a stop faster, offering a maximum aperture of f/2.4, but unlike the DP1 which uses a large APS-C sized sensor, Ricoh’s camera is based upon a much smaller 1/1.75-inch CCD sensor with 10 megapixels. Improvements from the original GR Digital model include the new GR ENGINE II image processing engine which promises better noise performance, a neat electronic level function that indicates if the camera is level, and a retro 1:1 aspect ratio for square format photos. Images can be recorded either as JPEGs or in the Adobe DNG RAW format, there’s a pop-up flash and an external hotshoe which can accept a flashgun or the optional electronic viewfinder, and full creative control over exposure is available.
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The Alpha DSLR-A300 and Alpha DSLR-A350 are Sony’s fourth and fifth DSLRs, launched together at the annual PMA show in late January 2008. Since the original A100 was replaced by the A200 in early January, Sony now has four models in the Alpha range: the entry-level A200, the semi-pro A700, and positioned in-between, the new A300 and A350 models.
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PENTAX Corporation is pleased to introduce the PENTAX K200D lens-interchangeable digital SLR camera. Designed mainly for family users and digital camera beginners, this popular-class model offers a host of user-friendly features and sophisticated functions like higher-class models. As a result, even digital camera beginners can enjoy advanced digital SLR photography with great ease. Pursuing image quality, user-friendliness, operability and cost performance, the K200D is expected to be a new standard-setter in the popular-class market.
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Cyber-shot DSC-H10 budget megazoom camera, Sony didn’t change much from its predecessor, the Cyber-shot DSC-H3. Only its 230,000-pixel 3-inch LCD is new, compared with the 115,000-pixel, 2.5-inch version on the H3. Given the lack of an electronic viewfinder, that’s a nontrivial enhancement, but pretty much the only one.
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Panasonic announce a new addition to the Lumix family of high-performance digital cameras. The new Lumix DMC-FX100 combines 1/1.72-inch large 12.2-megapixel image recording with a superb, 28mm wide-angle Leica DC lens that features a 3.6x optical zoom (equivalent to 28-100mm on a 35mm film camera) and f/2.8 brightness. This Leica DC lens has been newly developed specifically for the Lumix FX100, whose 12.2-megapixel recording gives users the creative power to capture stunningly true-to-life high-resolution images with extraordinary resolution, detail and clarity. Panasonic managed to pack the advanced 28mm wide-angle lens and large CCD into a sleek, slim body.
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