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Pentax Optio W90 looks its rugged role

There are a lot of rugged point-and-shoot digital camera options this year. But while most manufacturers are new to the market, Pentax is on its 11th generation with the Optio W90. The 12-megapixel camera is waterproof down to 20 feet, shockproof to 4 feet, and freezeproof to 14 degrees Fahrenheit.

Built from reinforced polycarbonate plastic, the W90 has a 5x f3.5-5.5 28-140mm-equivalent lens in front and a 2.7-inch display on back. If you look closely at the lens surround, you can see there are three LEDs to help brighten your scenes. They're also designed to work … Read more

Pentax megazoom gets minor updates

Pentax's X70 24x zoom camera was one of the better extreme megazooms we tested last year. The 2010 version of it--the 12-megapixel X90--features a slightly longer 26x f2.8-5 26-676mm-equivalent lens in a compact body measuring 4.4 inches wide by 3.3 inches deep by 4.3 inches deep with a weight of 15 ounces. Other than the lens, the X90 doesn't change much from 2009.

The X90 has full manual and semimanual controls, sensor-shift image stabilization, 2.7-inch LCD and electronic viewfinder, and support for Eye-Fi wireless SD memory cards.

It isn't overflowing with shooting … Read more

SanDisk goes conservative with first SDXC card

While some people are clamoring for higher-capacity SD cards, few need--or want to pay for--the extra video-recording speed. Panasonic, for example, will be issuing its first 64GB SDXC as a Class 10, 22-megabyte-per-second version card for almost $600; however, SanDisk announced its first 64GB card at a slower Class 4, 15MBps for the more attractive price of $349.99.

True, only products announced since January--and only some of those--support the new SDXC standard, but even in a lot of the newer cameras and camcorders, Class 4 is sufficient for video recording. However, that 15MBps speed might slow you down when … Read more

Samsung's NX lens lineup for 2010

Joining Sony in the fantasy-road-map department, Samsung finally, sort of, announced availability and dates for the first lenses for its as-yet-to-ship NX10 camera. However, of course, Samsung hasn't released pricing information for its NX lenses.

Lens Availability 30mm f2 pancake January 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 OIS January 50-200mm f5-5.6 OIS January 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 (no OIS) Spring 20-50mm f3.5-5.6 compact zoom Second half 2010 20mm f2.8 pancake Second half 2010 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 OIS tbd 50mm f2.8 macro tbd

I find it very interesting that Samsung is planning to ship a non-OIS … Read more

Sony's magical mystery cameras

Ah, the concept display. It's a way for companies lagging behind competitors to promise wonderful and amazing things, throwing potential purchasers of seemingly less marvelous products into a paralytic tailspin, without actually have to deliver. They inspire media paeans and page-turning slideshows--guilty as charged, for the latter at least--creating buzz. Most often, the final product turns out to be drastically different (remember the Olympus Micro Four Thirds concept?) or at best is just a parity-match for the competition (Samsung NX10, anyone?).

Sony is this year's concept master, showcasing an entire line of fictional products--plus a couple prototypes, one … Read more

Samsung announces zooming mini camcorder

Its first foray into the Flip-dominated mini camcorder market, the HMX-U10, didn't seem to make serious inroads. But at least one of Samsung's follow-up model in its U series, the HMX-U20, makes some necessary updates and adds a unique new feature for the category: a 3X zoom lens.

While zoom lenses are common on traditional horizontal and pistol-grip design models, to date the candy-bar design favored by Flip Video, the Kodak z series, Creative's Vados, and so on has been limited to fixed focal-length lenses.

The U20 also adds a captive USB cable, one of the missing … Read more

Samsung takes on Canon S90 with prosumer compact cam

Two years ago it was difficult to see Samsung as a serious digital camera competitor in the U.S. But that was two years ago. The company has since released a handful of models that have helped it standout, and its newly announced TL500 looks like another standout to add to that list.

Judging by it specs alone, the TL500 looks like it can take down Canon's PowerShot S90, one of the most popular cameras on CNET. In front is a f1.8, 24mm-equivalent lens with a 3x zoom. In back is a 3-inch swivel-mounted rotating AMOLED screen. Inside … Read more

After 2 years, HP's back in camera game--sort of

A little more than 2 years ago, HP announced that it was ceasing whatever little original work it had been doing for its digital camera business and searching for an original equipment manufacturer to do the work for it. After a year of silence from the company, we thought that it had realized that the world could live without its cheap offerings, which we always found generic at best.

Silly us.

Out of the blue, and oddly with no acknowledgment that it had been out of the business for two years, HP announced its spring 2010 camera lineup--now with cheap … Read more

Sony guts HX5V 10x megazoom, results in H55

Yay. Another compact megazoom on the market. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V impressed us at CES 2010 with its 10x zoom, wide-angle Sony G lens, backside-illuminated Exmor R CMOS sensor, built-in GPS, and 1080p movie capture with a stereo mic--all inside a compact, pocketable body. The H55 is its less capable linemate.

Basically, most of the good stuff has been taken out except for the lens and its body with 3-inch LCD. The H55 features a 14-megapixel CCD, a 720p movie mode with mono sound, optical image stabilization with Sony's Active Mode for smoother video while walking, and a version … Read more