nx100

Samsung flexes young photo muscles with NX100

COLOGNE, Germany--Samsung, showing off its new higher-end compact NX100 camera, declared its ambition Monday to become a power in the camera industry.

"I believe the NX100 will be the catalyst for photo innovations in the digital camera industry and will propel Samsung forward to become one of the world's leading manufacturers," said Sangjin Park, president of Samsung's digital imaging division, speaking at press event at the Photokina show here.

Compact ILC (interchangeable lens camera) models are all the rage as the industry seeks to build new demand in a somewhat saturated market. Olympus and Panasonic led the way with their compatible Micro Four Thirds models, and Samsung and Sony have now arrived with models of their own featuring a larger sensor and their own proprietary lens mounts. These higher-end models aren't cheap: Samsung's costs $599 with a 20-50mm lens and $649 with a 20mm lens.

The ILC trend is still in its early days, though, and InfoTrends analyst Ed Lee believes it'll take the arrival of the industry's high-end camera powerhouses, Canon and Nikon, to truly legitimize the market.

But Samsung isn't waiting. Front and center in the effort to make more usable cameras is a new feature called i-Function to control camera settings that the company hopes will attain that holy grail, a camera that's easy to use but that offers a wealth of creative possibilities. Control over details such as shutter speed and aperture has never been simple, but Samsung promises i-Function will be different.

It works through a button on the side of an i-Function-compatible lens, of which Samsung plans a range that begins with a 20mm f2.8 pancake and a 20-50mm f3.5-5.6 zoom. Pushing the button cycles through various parameters that can be set--shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and exposure compensation--while turning the lens' focus ring changes the setting. … Read more

Television ad shows supposed Samsung NX100

Rumors of Samsung's next mirrorless system camera, the NX100, have been floating around the Web for some time. But now, it seems there's more concrete evidence of the shooter. The blog Photo Rumors spotted a TV advertisement from National Geographic that featured the Samsung NX10, but at the end of the clip, there were three other cameras that aren't in the NX lineup.

The white camera looks similar to what was leaked online last week, and other sites such as PetaPixel have reported that it is likely the NX100. The design bears a striking resemblance to the … Read more

Epson announces three new sub-$100 printers

Color lasers, black and white multifunctions, color inkjets, compact photo printers--with a handful of options available to shoppers, the all-in-one (AIO) color inkjet printer is arguably the most functional. The ability to perform multiple functions within the same machine is a useful and convenient feature for the home-office entrepreneur, poor college student, or the everyday home user. Prices for these high-performance machines are affordable across the board. Today, Epson introduced three new AIO printers under $100. Let's take a closer look at the new offerings:

Epson Stylus NX100 Printer, scanner, and fax machine Two ink-cartridge bays with four total … Read more

Panasonic expands the Strada navigation range with two new in-dash systems

Following the release of its in-dash CN-NVD905U and its portable CN-GP50U last November, Panasonic has added two new in-dash navigation devices to its Strada lineup. The Strada CN-NW100U and CN-NX100U follow the CN-NVD905U as all-in-one in-car navigation and multimedia systems. Both come with an identical features set: a 7-inch touch-screen display, turn-by-turn GPS navigation with text-to-speech technology, and as-standard RDS traffic service; built-in Bluetooth handsfree calling; a USB 2.0 connection for playing audio from iPods and flash drives; video support for DVD and DivX formats; and the capacity for XM and Sirius Satellite Radio via an add-on module.

The … Read more