CES - Digital photo and video

It's pretty safe to say that people like to share their photos either in person or online. The Slice is designed to improve the sharing experience with several features, including 2GB of internal memory.

The 14-megapixel camera is pure point-and-shoot, and is designed around a 3.5-inch touch-screen display and an internal 5x zoom lens with stabilization. It can record 720p HD-quality movies at 30fps, too.

Kodak has beefed up in-camera tagging options and paired it with a search system that lets you quickly sort by person, place, event, or date. Plus, the Share button that's a staple … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Sony's already overcrowded dSLR product line--the company offers six dSLRs under $1,000 if you include the now fire-sale-priced A700--gets another middle sibling in the Alpha DSLR-A450. This model won't be available in the US, however. Also, Sony didn't announce pricing, but there's not a lot of room to squeeze between the $699 A380 and the $749 A500.

The A450 seems to be a stripped-down version of the A550, mostly with the same everything except a smaller 2.7-inch, nontilting LCD and possibly no Fast AF in Live View.

Kodak has done very well with its Zi8 pocket camcorder, which features 1080p video capture and electronic image stabilization. Now the company is bringing those same features to a rugged, waterproof pocket camcorder called the PlaySport Zx3.

Available in April, the Zx3 will carry a retail price of $149.99 but will ship with virtually no memory (you have to supply an SD card). Like the Zi8, you'll be able capture "HD" video in 1080p or 720p, shoot 5-megapixel still images, and easily share your creations on YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook. However, what's interesting about the … Read more

Canon today announced the EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS II USM lens, a successor to its EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM lens that was launched in 2008. The pro-grade 70-200mm f2.8 lens has long been a go-to lens for professional shooters. This newest version offers improvements on an already solid design including a redesigned optical system and a closer minimum focusing distance.

It is fully weatherproof. The mount, focus mode switch, and focusing ring are completely dust-proof and drip-proof. The lens is designed and built to withstand the rigors of everyday use by professional photographers.

The Canon 70-200mm … Read more

Lexar said Tuesday it's increased the capacity of its midrange professional CompactFlash memory cards with a 300X transfer speed to 32GB.

Lexar, which competes chiefly with Sandisk for the attentions of photographers who need both high capacity and high transfer speeds, has been fleshing out its CF cards that can transfer data faster by virtue of the UDMA (Ultra Direct Memory Access) interface technology. Lexar already announced in October a 32GB card and a transfer speed of 600X (90MBps), but the 300X (45MBps) card should do fine for those who don't need quite that data transfer speed.

Lexar … Read more

How do you force consumers to adopt high-definition camcorders? Make the standard-def models as weak and pointless as possible. At least that's what Canon's strategy seems to be and that's fine by me.

Having effectively killed off hard-drive-based standard-def models in 2009, Canon is now down to only two flash-based camcorders--the FS300 and FS31. The FS300 has no internal memory, just an SDHC (XC compatible) card slot while the FS31 has the slot and 16GB of onboard flash memory.

Features are for the most part the same as the lowest end FS model from 2009, the FS200, … Read more

At barely more than $100, the 2009 Canon PowerShot A480 actually took good photos--a rarity at that low price. I'm sure the company sold a ton of them, which would help explain why its updated the model for 2010 and popped out a sibling.

The A495 and A490 are 10-megapixel cameras with 3.3x zoom lenses, 2.5-inch LCDs, and are powered by AA-size batteries. And that's about where the good times end.

The cameras are incredibly basic, made for first-time users or those with very limited needs. However, Canon did include a couple new shooting modes on … Read more

Canon's A-series PowerShots have a lot of fans because, along with good photo quality, they're reasonably priced, run on AA-size batteries, and occasionally have optical viewfinders. The A3100 IS and A3000 IS won't please these fans.

The lack of optical viewfinders isn't shocking; they're all but extinct. And the price, well, I'll get to that later on. But Canon scrapped AA batteries on these two, opting for lithium-ion rechargeable batteries to keep the size down. I'm not sure why you wouldn't just go with one of its Digital Elphs.

The cameras are … Read more

Though I really liked Canon's prosumer Vixia HF S series, I couldn't fully endorse the HF S10/S11 because it lacked an electronic viewfinder, a feature that higher-end users appreciate--it's easier to hold the camcorder stably while using one, and it tends to be easier to use than an LCD in bright sunlight. So I was quite happy to hear that Canon had opted to put one on its highest-end model for 2010.

This year's HF S series of AVCHD camcorders consists of three models which, as usual, differ by memory configuration; in an interesting move, … Read more