PMA 2010

Fujifilm's megazoom leaves twentysomething behind

Fujifilm tosses in a boatload of this-year's-buzz technologies into its new FinePix HS10. The upside of this is that it includes a 10-megapixel backside-illuminated (BSI) sensor, which promises an improvement in low-light photographs; manual zoom ring on the lens; a 7-frame, full-resolution 10fps burst mode; 3-inch tilting LCD (albeit at the common but low resolution of 230,000 pixels); and 1080p HD movie capture with stereo sound. It also has a full set of manual and semimanual exposure modes, and supports simultaneous raw+JPEG capture. On the downside, Fujifilm's first out of the gate to announce a 30x … Read more

GPS, manual controls added to Panasonic 12x megazoom

Replacing the very popular Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3, the company's top-of-the-line compact 12x megazoom, is the DMC-ZS7. The 12x f3.3-4.9 25-300mm-equivalent lens stays the same as in the prior model, but gets a bunch of new extras including built-in GPS.

The GPS will add latitude and longitude to the EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) data and display real-time location information during shooting and playback. Stored in the internal memory are more than 500,000 landmarks, covering 73 countries, that will be displayed on the 3-inch, 460K-dot LCD while taking a picture of the landmark and tagged in the … Read more

Panasonic 8x zoom compact gets a little fresh

Before you get all broken up and angry 'cause you just bought a ZR1, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZR3 is a fairly minor update to that camera. The key ingredient--the 8x f3.3-5.9 25-200mm-equivalent lens--is unchanged from the ZR1, as is the compact body, advanced Power O.I.S. image stabilization, and fast AF system.

What's added is the ability to record video in AVCHD Lite format as well as Motion JPEG HD-quality video and a couple of new image-processing options. One, Intelligent Resolution, is designed to improve the results from using the digital zoom (aka Intelligent Zoom) or … Read more

Enhanced toughness: Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS2

So I really liked the Panasonic Lumix TS1, the company's first foray into rugged compact cameras, but it wasn't as indestructible as some of its competition. Round two, the TS2, corrects that as it's waterproof down to 33 feet, shockproof from drops up to 10 feet 6.6 feet, and freezeproof to 14 degrees Fahrenheit putting it in line with models from Olympus, Canon, and Pentax.

Panasonic didn't skimp on other features, either, basically making it a full-featured ultracompact in a tougher shell. It has a 14-megapixel resolution, a 2.7-inch LCD, 28mm-equivalent wide-angle lens with … Read more

Pentax goes old timey with new I-10 compact cam

With the Pentax Optio I-10, it's definitely more about the design than the features (not that there's anything wrong with its shooting abilities). The look was inspired by classic film SLR cameras and really helps it stand out from the myriad look-alike compacts coming in 2010. It would have been nice to find an optical viewfinder and manual shooting options to round out the retro styling, but here's hoping Pentax will add one to a future model. Instead you get a flash above the lens and opposite it in back, a speaker.

The core features are in … Read more

Optio H90, E90 build out Pentax's 2010 point-and-shoots

Pentax makes only a handful of compact digital cameras, but the models it has continue to be competitive with offerings from other manufacturers. For example, there's the newly launched H series, starting with the H90, a stylish 12-megapixel ultracompact with a 2.7-inch LCD, a wide-angle 28-140mm-equivalent lens with a 5x zoom, and 720p HD-quality movie capture at 30fps.

You also get all the auto features expected for its class, Eye-Fi wireless SD card support, digital filters such as Toy Camera and Retro to apply to your photos, and an Image Recovery function to recover pictures that you've … Read more

Megazoom with GPS star of five Samsung camera announcements

Out from the avalanche of CES announcements and way before any PMA 2010 releases, Samsung drops five new models. None of them is all that exciting, though, which could explain the odd timing.

Whatever the reason, the most interesting is probably the HZ35W, a compact 15x megazoom with an ultrawide-angle lens, full manual controls, and built-in GPS for instant geotagging. A partner model, the HZ30W, is almost identical except the GPS is jettisoned and the screen is an LCD instead of an AMOLED. They're follow-ups to the HZ15W/HZ10W that had pretty mediocre photo quality and some design issues; hopefully those have been ironed out in this round.

Also announced were three ultracompacts: the Samsung TL110, the TL104, and the SL630. The two TL-series models are particularly thin at less than 0.7 inch, and the SL630 is just normal thin. All three feature wide-angle lenses, but are otherwise unremarkable.

They will all be out in February/March and, in true Samsung fashion, no prices were released.

Samsung HZ35W: 12 megapixels 24mm-equivalent wide-angle lens with 15x zoom 3-inch AMOLED screen GPS (geotagging, visual map, real-time location display) 4.2 x 2.4 x 1.1 inches 720p video (HDMI out) Full manual controls March 2010 Samsung HZ30W: 12 megapixels 24mm-equivalent wide-angle lens with 15x zoom 3-inch LCD 4.2 x 2.4 x 1.1 inches 720p video (HDMI out) Full manual controls March 2010… Read more

PMA 2009's photo finish

For what it's worth, the consensus about the 2009 Photo Marketing Association show seems to be that it wasn't as bad as everyone expected. The mood was low-key, many of the booths were half empty, and several manufacturers were notably absent--like Adobe and Epson--while others only had meeting rooms.

Nonetheless, several announcements managed to generate some buzz, and most of the manufacturers I spoke with agreed that their business-to-business business at the show was quite productive. Despite the economy, tons of new products debuted, partly because planning takes place 6 to 12 months out. So it's likely that the first real signs of contraction will appear with the fall product lines. And, in fact, at least one manufacturer has already changed its dSLR release plans in preparation for tough times.

The biggest hits of the show seemed to be Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-HX1, a CMOS-based megazoom with a novel shooting mode that creates panoramas on the fly as you pan across the scene, and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1, a video-capture enabled version of its interchangeable-lens G1. What has everyone excited about the camera is how much control you have over depth of field when shooting video, a capability you usually only get with relatively expensive pro camcorders. And unlike the dSLR video implementations in cameras like the Nikon D90 and Canon EOS 5D Mark II, because the GH1 lacks a mirror it supports AF while shooting; in conjunction with the camera the company introduced a new Lumix G Vario HD f4-5.8 14-140mm lens which by design has a quieter focus motor so that the microphone doesn't pick up the noise.… Read more

Olympus: 12 megapixels is enough for most folks

A correction has been made to this story. See below for details.

LAS VEGAS--Olympus has declared an end to the megapixel race.

"Twelve megapixels is, I think, enough for covering most applications most customers need," said Akira Watanabe, manager of Olympus Imaging's SLR planning department, in an interview here at the Photo Marketing Association (PMA). "We have no intention to compete in the megapixel wars for E-System," Olympus' line of SLR cameras, he said.

Instead, Olympus will focus on other characteristics such as dynamic range, color reproduction, and a better ISO range for low-light shooting, he said.

Increasing the number of megapixels on cameras is an easy selling point for camera makers, in part because it's a simple concept for people to understand. Even though having more megapixels can enable larger prints and enlargement of subject matter through cropping, adding megapixels comes with some drawbacks.

For one thing, smaller pixels can mean more noisy speckles at the pixel level and can reduce the dynamic range, so brighter areas wash out and darker areas become swaths of black. For another, images take more room on memory cards, hard drives, and Web servers, and cameras need more powerful image processors to handle them. And yesteryear's cameras already had plenty of pixels for making 8x10-inch prints, a size few people exceed. … Read more