digital-imaging

Six Samsung still cameras

Over the last couple of years, Samsung has made a real effort to step up its still camera offerings. This year's CES introductions continue that trend with more stylish designs and smattering of convenient features. You won't find any new dSLRs here, but there are six new compact cameras with pixel counts ranging from 6 megapixels to 10 megapixels. Two of the cameras fall into Samsung's L-series, which is aimed at advanced shooters, while the other four belong to the S-series, targeted at the point-and-shoot crowd. All of Samsung's new still cameras include in-camera editing, so … Read more

HP's six-channel scanner hits North American shores

Although it was released overseas last fall, the Scanjet G4050 photo scanner--with its industry-first six-channel scanning technology--will make its North American debut this week at CES 2007. I got a chance to test one before I headed off to the show in Las Vegas, so check out my review of this newly released model, complete with image samples.

Hoya to assimilate Pentax

Just before Christmas, Hoya and Pentax quietly announced plans to merge their companies into a new entity to be called Hoya Pentax HD Corporation. The deal--which the official announcement is calling "a management integration of the two companies"--is expected to be completed on October 1, 2007. Fumio Urano, currently president and CEO of Pentax, will become chairman of the board of Hoya Pentax HD, while Hiroshi Suzuki, currently president and CEO of Hoya, will be the new company's president and CEO.

In the USA, Hoya is best known for its filters for SLR and video camera … Read more

Photoshop free for all

The rumors about Photoshop CS3 started way back in August 2005, mere months after Adobe Photoshop CS2 shipped. One twist that none of the speculators foresaw, however, was Adobe choosing to test run its first public beta program using a major product. (Lightroom, the "beta" cycle for which is almost a year old, doesn't count.) It turns out that CS2 runs so slowly on Intel-based Macs that Adobe decided to throw those users an early bone.

I suspect Adobe is also using the opportunity to test its activation technology: CS3 will be available only to users with … Read more

PhotoPlus favorites

PhotoPlus Expo is probably my favorite trade show. Yeah, CES and PMA have more new products, but PhotoPlus is the only one where I can wander around and check out all the cool stuff from accessories companies that can help me out with shooting issues I run into.

For instance, I loathe on-camera flash. Unless there's some way to diffuse it or bounce it--or use it for special effect--flash produces a stark, deer-in-the-headlights look I abhor. As I was passing by LumiQuest's booth today, the company's Soft Screen caught my eye. This ingenious little add-on snaps into … Read more

Will Samsung have photographers feeling BLU?

And no, that's not "Blu" as in "Blu-ray"--it's "BLU" as in LED BLU, for the "light-emitting diode backlight unit" that illumines Samsung's new 20-inch SyncMaster XL20 display. Claiming it covers 114 percent of the NTSC color gamut and 100 percent of the AdobeRGB gamut, Samsung takes on Eizo's $2,700 ColorEdge CG210 for a mere $1,999. If it works as advertised--specs include a 1000:1 contrast ratio and 8ms response time--it will be on every photo and video editor's wish list this holiday season. Okay, … Read more