PMA 2009

Sony showed concept models of six new SLR lenses at the PMA show.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News)

LAS VEGAS--Sony showed off models of a forthcoming supertelephoto and five other lenses Monday at the Photo Marketing Association trade show, a new sign the electronics giant is holding tight to its ambition to be a major player in the digital SLR market

"Sony is passionate in proving better lens development," said Shigeki Ishizuka, president of Sony's digital imaging business group, at a news conference held here in conjunction with PMA. He said Sony now ranks third in the SLR market.

(Credit: Sony)

Camera manufacturers seem to have chosen megazooms as their latest battlefield--and thankfully, the fight isn't just about who's got the biggest lens. In this case, the latest player comes from Sony, whose new Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 incorporates several technologies from its Alpha DSLR products, including a 1/2.4-inch 10-megapixel Exmor CMOS sensor (for 9-megapixel images) and 20X f2.8-5.2 28-560mm-equivalent optically stabilized lens based on the company's higher-quality G series lenses.

In theory, the combination should deliver better photo quality than we're used to seeing in this class. (We haven't yet had a chance to review its primary--and also CMOS-based--competitor the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS, but it's been shipping overseas for a little while, so you can read CNET Australia's take on it).

In addition, Sony introduces several interesting continuous shooting modes: an intriguing Dynamic Ultrawide panorama mode that captures sequential images as you slowly pan across a scene and automatically stitches them into a 7,152x1,080 photo; a 10 frame-per-second 10-shot continuous shooting mode that uses a mechanical rather than electronic shutter for, the company claims, less distortion; and Handheld Twilight mode, which combines multiple exposures for a theoretically lower noise, higher detail low-light photo.

The Sigma 10-20mm F3.5 EX DC HSM

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News)

LAS VEGAS--Offering some higher-end alternatives and expanding image stabilization more broadly, Sigma announced a trio of lenses for digital SLRs Monday at the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) trade show.

The three new models, which will work on Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony, and Sigma cameras, are a higher-end 10-20mm ultrawide-angle zoom, and 18-50mm and 50-200mm zooms that unlike earlier models come with optical stabilization. The lenses are due to ship this spring, but pricing isn't yet announced, said Christine Moossmann of the company's marketing department.

Although it looks like something you'd hang from your rearview mirror next to the fuzzy dice, Datacolor's SpyderCube is actually an ingenious tool for maximizing the dynamic range and obtaining neutral white balance for your digital photographs. Datacolor describes the SpyderCube as "the first all-in-one raw calibration device for fast and accurate whitepoint correction as well as bracketed adjustments for highlights and blacks," which I find a bit misleading, but it nonetheless seems as if it has the potential to aid those of us who batch process large numbers of images shot under consistent but uncontrolled lighting.

The term I take issue with is "calibration device," because it makes it sound as if you're somehow optimizing the camera's behavior by using it. You're not; you're optimizing your processing of the resulting image files. You photograph it to define a reference white point, black point, and various other characteristic points that you then use to more accurately and consistently retouch photos--or create a profile based on it for batch processing of the photos--shot under those lighting conditions. In fact, I suspect if you tried to use the entire cube for setting manual white balance in the camera, the closest a camera offers to calibration, it would send too much data and confuse the system (I haven't yet tried it; this is based on my discussion with the company when the product was just a spec.)

That said, it seems far more useful than a simple white/gray reference point. Since it's three dimensional, it picks up illumination characteristics of the scene that a flat card can't; the addition of a black point gives you the ends of the range over which to set your levels adjustments and the various gray chips provide midtone points.

For $59, it might be a useful little device to toss in your camera bag. It's scheduled to enter our dimension in March.

Pentax X70

View the full gallery

Better late than never? Pentax makes a surprisingly belated entry into the megazoom digital camera market with the $399.99 X70, a competitively spec'd camera. In fact, its lens and sensor specifications look amazingly similar to that of the Nikon P90: a 1/2.33-inch 12.7-megapixel CCD and 24x f2.8-5 26-624mm-equivalent zoom lens.

Unfortunately, there's not much here to differentiate it from the crowd, at least on the surface. The X70 incorporates a 2.7-inch LCD, but it's fixed--many competitors offer tilting or fully articulated displays. It doesn't support HD movie capture, instead maxing out at a 1,280x720-pixel resolutions at 15 frames per second using the rather inefficient Motion JPEG codec. While it offers sensor-shift image stabilization--every camera in this class has either mechanical or optical stabilization--the Movie SR (Shake Reduction) mode sounds like it's probably electronic. There's a high-speed burst mode, 11fps for 21 frames but at a reduced 5-megapixel resolution. And while it offers a full complement of manual and semimanual exposure modes, it lacks raw format support.

The weakest aspect of megazooms tends to be the lens: they're usually not terribly sharp across much of the zoom range, and prone to distortion and aberration. Nor are these models usually particularly speedy. So if Pentax's lens is a bit better or it's a faster shot than its competitors, then it's got a chance. I guess we'll find out when it ships in April.

Casio Exilim EX-Z250 photos

If there is such a thing as a camera with too many automatic features, the 9-megapixel Casio Exilim EX-Z250 might be it. This ultracompact--with an MSRP of $250, but sells for less than $200--is brimming with detection, recognition, and preset shooting options to the point where the camera's Auto mode ironically provides you the most control.

Luckily it also produces very good photos, as long as you don't mind some softness. It's not all that fast, but that still doesn't stop it from being a respectable pocket camera.

Read the full review of the Casio Z250 .

Samsung's hybrid camera concept photos

Last September, Samsung sort of announced its intent to create a standard for non-SLR cameras with interchangeable lenses, dubbed "hybrids," and while there's no talk of standards in the latest announcement, Samsung has announced a prototype for a hybrid model that the company plans to ship in the latter half of this year.

Samsung's annoucement provided few details--I'll try to get more when I meet with the company this week, so stay tuned. As indicated previously, the first NX series camera will be based around an APS-C size sensor, though it's not yet clear which size APS-C that means; it's likely that it will be one that results in an effective 1.5X focal-length multiplier like that used in all consumer dSLRs save Canon's. The concept photos seem to include a fixed-focal-length lens that I guess would be about 33mm or 35mm for a resulting 50mm-equivalent angle of view.

This is a pretty smart step for Samsung's newly formed Samsung Digital Imaging Company, though it's risky planning the camera for six months or more out. Right now there's currently only a single competing hybrid on the market, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1; we're still waiting to see a real product from Olympus' concept announcement. Still, a lot can change over that amount of time.

(Credit: Olympus America)

Update: Now with preview video after the jump.

Filling another hole in its dSLR product line, Olympus takes on the Canon EOS Rebel XSi and Sony Alpha DSLR-A350 with the new E-620 (Nikon's D80 and D90 are cheaper and more expensive than these models, respectively.)

Let's take a look at the basic specs:

Samung TL320 and HZ15W photos

View the full gallery

Samsung announced two 12-megapixel cameras this Monday morning--the TL320 and HZ15W. I've come to expect innovation from Samsung when it comes to its digital cameras (though sadly, I don't expect great photo quality), and these look promising.

The TL320:

• 12.2 megapixels
• 24mm wide-angle lens with 5x optical zoom
• 3.0-inch hVGA AMOLED (460K dots) with a contrast ratio of 10,000:1
• Dual image stabilization
• 720P HD video With HDMI connectivity via optional dock
• Dual analog gauges for memory and battery (like last year's TL9)
• Aperture priority, shutter priority, and manual modes
• Advanced Picture Mode for adjusting the color temperature from 2,800-10,000K or manual control of color space shift
• May 2009 at an MSRP of $379.99

The HZ15W:

• 12.0 megapixels
• 24mm wide-angle lens with 10x optical zoom
• 3.0-inch LCD (230K dots)
• Dual image stabilization
• 720P HD video With HDMI connectivity
• Manual mode (aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and exposure controls)
• March 2009 at an MSRP of $329.99

Full announcement with more details on the various features after the break.