HAPPY
NEW YEAR MESSAGE (12/31/03)
We would
truly like to thank all the many tens if not hundreds of thousands
of readers who visited our web site this past year! We hope you
have learned a little more about digital cameras and photography
in the time you have spent here. We also hope you will come back
often in 2004 as we continue to grow and improve!
We are
very pleased to report that we nearly doubled the hit counter
here in 2003 compared to the previous 2 1/2 years since our start
in May of 2000. Our statistics show we have had approximately
750 thousand visitors the past 12 months with over 2 million
page views. This past month of December 2003 alone we have had
over 250,000 hits on our main counter thanks largely to the huge
popularity of our coverage of the Sony F828 and our comparison
of it to other major cameras such as the Canon Digital Rebel.
We also have seen a tremendous number of visitors to our new
Discussion Forums and Photo Galleries which just opened in Mid-November,
demonstrating to us the huge numbers of consumers who are looking
for information.
There are
many out there who are trying to downplay the importance of the
main digital camera web sites by using self-serving data/rumour/speculation
and unsupported arguments that we web sites ONLY attract early
adopters of digital cameras. Our statistics show a much different
picture, and knowing the other web sites as we do, its becoming
a time where the truth needs to be presented. We know from our
referral statistics just how incredibly popular the other main
digital web sites truly are to all consumers out there (its not
like only a handful of hobbyist have access to computers) and
if anyone thinks its time to move back to older ways, let me
just say you could not be any more mistaken. Mark my words on
this, 2004 will see a HUGE increase in the popularity of the
digital camera web sites in helping match ALL types of buyers
to sellers of digital cameras, and those who disregard this message
of ours, will not be around in 2005!
We would
like to offer our special thanks for the coverage we have been
given at the other main digital camera web sites by Jeff Keller,
Phil Askey, Steve Sanders, Dave Etchells and Michael Tomkins,
the folks at Let's Go Digital and all of the other fine Digital
Camera related web sites and forums out there. We don't make
a lot of money doing this (well that may just change this next
year), and yet we spend thousands, and I mean thousands of hours
each year to run this web site. We just hope that we can help
people find good digital camera news, reviews and information,
whether at this site or at the other major sites.
Thanks
to all who have helped us, we will not forget our friends!
Well, it
is time to look forward to the new year! Things are going to
start off rather quickly as there will be some early news coming
from the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show which begins with our
attendance and coverage of the Digital Focus Press Event on Wednesday
January 07, 2004 and our live coverage of the CES show which
officially opens Thursday January 08, 2004 in Las Vegas. We will
also have a brief visit to MacWorld in San Francisco the same
week, and then after that its just 4 weeks more until PMA 2004,
also in Las Vegas. Look for all kinds of MAJOR developments in
Digital Cameras being announced throughout January and early
February leading up to the 2004 Photo Marketing Association (PMA)
Tradeshow. Once again we will be attending the largest USA PhotoShow,
PMA 2004 and along with our friends at the other major digital
camera web sites, you will find outstanding PMA 2004 coverage,
press releases, photos and information right here on the Internet!
And later this year we will be venturing to Germany to cover
Photokina, where the folks at Let's Go Digital have promised
to buy us a beer! We are going to take them up on their offer
this time and cover the largest Photo show in the world! And
in between there will be a lot of news, reviews and information,
so we hope you will join us often as we cover a whole new year,
one that is shaping up to be a very optimistic one, with many
fine new digital cameras waiting to be announced and then delivered
to all of you!!!
Here's
to a wonderful, prosperous, picture perfect, and most of all
Happy 2004!!!!
Steve
McLaughlin & Dave Kamanski - Webmasters A-Digital-Eye.Com
SIX CAMERA SHOOTOFF
POSTED (12/27/03 & 12/29/30)
UPDATED 12/29/03 - Shootoff
2 Gallery Page Posted (see link below) & Links are now directly
to Gallery Pages. Gallery 3 coming Tuesday, including a Production
Sony T1.
We have posted two sets of images from six
different digital cameras which consist of the following:
1. Nikon D100
2. Canon Digital Rebel
3. Sigma SD10
4. Minolta A1
5. Fuji S7000
6. Sony F828
The images were all taken within about 10
mins of each other standing at the same location, and shooting
towards the same center point, with the zoom adjusted to be about
as close as we could get them under all the circumstances. The
images were shot in each camera's Program mode, and at the lowest
set ISO for each camera.
There are 8 images as we shot the Digital
Rebel in Parameters 1 & 2 and the F828 in real and standard
modes, each at 3 different resolution sizes, including the full
sized original shots, then a full screen size set at 1024 width,
and then smaller shots for those with slow connections at 512
width (the height changes slightly as the DSLRs use a different
aspect ratio).
Please keep in mind we had a few more cameras
on us and there were 2 of us with 8 cameras out a Downtown Disney,
so we did the best we could to give you some comparisons here,
even if many of you can point out how the tests are not perfect.
We have a few more sets like this, so stay tuned!
Each image at any size has the full EXIF data
in it telling you the camera, the exposure settings and more.
For now, we are not going to ID for you which images come from
which camera, although you can find this out easily by checking
the images EXIF data. We will be posting the smallest sized images
on a Gallery Page with links and key info. ASAP. We did these
tests Friday, and the weekend provided another nice two days,
so we putting these up now with an index page only so you can
start to download or viewing them, while in the meantime we take
advantage to go shoot some more daytime shots while the shooting
is good!
We have a 3rd set going up Monday morning
with 5 cameras aimed at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California,
this time we lose the Fuji and Nikon cameras but add the Sony
T1. We will have all of these in normal gallery pages with links
hopefully within 24 hours (by Monday night).
OK, here is the link below. If you have any
questions on how we did the tests or why we did it a certain
way, post those in our forums.
SIX CAMERA SHOOTOFF NO. 1 POSTED
(12/27/03)
SIX CAMERA SHOOTOFF NO. 2 POSTED
(12/29/03)
MERRY
CHRISTMAS! (12/25/03)
OK, you got a new Digital
Camera and you took some great Holiday shots. Now you want to
share them with family and friends. Check out these software
titles you can download from the Internet right now, even on
Christmas Day and start sharing today! Try them, you'll like
them! Also check out our new Forums, we have News, Digital Camera
Discussions, Help on using your new camera, Accessories to get,
and lots of new pictures have been uploaded for the holidays
including many new Sony F828 samples in the Sony Forum added
just last night. Come check out our forums and those of you with
new Digicams or those with great Holiday shots, please post some
of them in our different Forums for each brand and Sample Photo
galleries, and tell us the camera, and something about the picture.
You can even send your friends and family an e-mail using the
e-mail feature in our forums and let them know about your pictures
and to let them see them up on the Internet. Share your holiday
joy, check out our forums picture uploading, display and notification
now! OK and try some of these software titles, and if you like
them, tell us and others about it in our Forums!
NEW DIGITAL CAMERA TALK FORUMS
AND PICTURE GALLERIES - INDEX PAGE
MORE SONY F828
SAMPLES POSTED - STANDARD vs REAL COLOR MODES (12/18/03)
REPORT INDICATES CANON TO ROLL
OUT 20 NEW DIGICAMS IN 2004 (12/18/03)
MISSION3-D
PHOTO3-D 303 KIT REVIEW POSTED (12/18/03)
SONY DSC-F828 PRODUCTION CAMERA DISNEYLAND
SAMPLES POSTED (12/16/03)
We are posting tonight our first gallery of
pictures from a final Production 8 Megapixel Sony DSC-F828 Digital
Camera. These first shots were taken earlier today in a quick
trip out to Disneyland after the camera arrived this morning
and was charged. It was a very bright/sunny, clear and somewhat
windy day during our noon hour shooting period, so we shot all
of these pictures at ISO 64 so we could test initial performance
such as exposure/metering, focus, sharpness, noise levels of
the sky, colors, including standard vs. real color modes, and
general camera operations. We took nearly 140 shots in about
one hour, which is a bit faster then normal but we had prior
commitments this afternoon, and the camera came when it came.
In addition, we were able to take a greater number of shots because
the camera is FAST!
The Sony F828 is a very well built camera
and it has a high quality look and feel to it. We found all the
movements of the camera parts to be nice and smooth such as the
zoom, the rotation of the camera body in relation to the lens
as well as the dials. The set-up screen and menus were very quick
and easy to use and thus within minutes of putting in the battery
we were ready to shoot. We found the camera to focus extremely
fast and shutter lag is almost non-existent. The EVF was used
due to the very bright sun, and it does fairly well, it did allow
us to frame shots, although it is easier to do so with the Digital
Rebel's viewfinder, which we also had with us today. We found
no major issues with operations of the camera so far, it works
fast and is easy to use. The zoom is really nice to use as you
can quickly frame a shot and with the fast shutter still get
the scene before the subject moves away. Camera performance is
about the best we have seen on any fixed lens prosumer camera.
With respect to the image quality we will
let you see some of the shots without giving away too much here.
However, we will say that the F828 does appear from all the shots
we have now gone through to do a very impressive job with noise
levels, including some very good sky shots with low noise all
things considered. We did see some Purple fringing or Chromatic
Aberrations in a few shots, but at this point it would be too
early to say if the levels are anything unusual. We have many
shots where there is no issue except the usual ones such as trying
to get the perfect exposure or framing it just right. We did
test the Real vs. Standard color modes, and so far things are
looking fine in both, with it just being the users preference
as to which one is preferred. Overall, we think you will see
that these are nice, sharp, colorful and generally very pleasing
results from Sony's new Flagship 8 megapixel model. We will have
a lot more to say after further use, and we have lots of shots
to compare, but for now we wanted to share just a few of our
shots from Disneyland, with many more coming later tonight and
over the next few days!
And for even more Sony F828 samples check
out the Gallery Jeff Keller has just posted tonight at Digital
Camera Resource Page.
Here you go!
SONY
DSC-F828 PRODUCTION CAMERA DISNEYLAND SAMPLES
MORE
SONY F828 SAMPLES POSTED - STANDARD vs REAL COLOR MODES
MAGIX SHIPS PHOTOSTORY ON CD &
DVD 2004 (12/14/03)
Magix has sent us the following Press Release
regarding their new Photoshory on CD & DVD 2004 software
Program. We have been evaluating this software for a review for
over a week now, and so far we are very impressed! The software
has powerful special effects and editing tools, and it allows
you to make slideshows in many formats for web viewing or burning
to CDs and DVDs. It sells for just $39.99 and can be purchased
at most major Retail stores or on the web at their site using
the link below. With Christmas coming up, we think this would
make a great gift to get for someone you know who is into digital
cameras, or is getting one this year as this will provide them
with a fun and creative way to share their photos.
I have been testing out this new software
in some detail now, and before any more shopping time runs out
here before I can get a better review posted, I want to quickly
state that it really is a very well done program. It offers many
transitions as well as powerful special effects such as panning
from side to side and up and down, plus zooming in or out of
a photo, and to a specific cropped point, and a lot more! It
has storyboard or time line methods of putting together your
slideshow, and it worked great. It can make Windows Media for
web viewing or burn high quality CDs, SVCDs or DVDs if you have
a DVD burner, which I do. It also has very powerful Audio mixing
capabilities with noise filters, easy addition of narration per
image or per slideshow, soundtrack mixing with effects and more.
Like I stated earlier, I will post a more complete review soon,
but this program is really a great deal for digital camera owners,
as it is designed specifically for those with photo albums and
sharing them in several great ways. It also has a very feature
rich picture editor for touch-up of images. It really would make
a fairly affordable gift for the Holidays and it is not that
expensive for what you are getting. Check it out, its really
an easy to use and very neat way to share pictures on your computer,
CDs, VCDs, SVCDs or DVDs. I really like all the features it has
compared to other programs that provide for this type of making
Disks out of your digicam photos, so give it a try. See the link
in the Press Release to go to their site and learn more!
For those who would like to see a brief 320
by 240 medium quality Windows Media sample which shows a few
of the effects I put together with just 4 pictures lasting about
30 seconds click on the link below. Please note slideshows can
be in much higher quality and larger sizes, I just used this
sample as it is for easier downloading just to give some of you
a very quick idea of how it can work. Slideshows on Big Screen
TVs using high quality DVD look just Awesome! You will need Broadband
or be patient, it is almost 2MB coming down the pipe. Here ya
go!
MAGIX
PHOTOSTORY ON CD & DVD 2004 SAMPLE SLIDESHOW
Here is the full Magix Press Release!
Creates Professional Slideshows on CD
& DVD
December 12, 2003, Miami Beach, FL –
MAGIX, the international technology leader in Personal Rich Media,
today announced that it has begun shipping PhotoStory on CD &
DVD 2004, which creates entertaining CD and DVD slideshows that
the whole family can watch on TV. With a simple mouse click,
MAGIX PhotoStory on CD & DVD 2004 works with personal photos
from digital cameras and scanners and a wide variety of image,
video and sound files. It captures photos directly from digital
cameras and scanners and automatically restores picture and sound
quality. Precious memories, such as wedding, parties, and vacations
can be preserved on CD and DVD as a movie-like experience that
you can play again and again on a home DVD player or PC.
MAGIX PhotoStory on CD & DVD 2004
is easy to use. Consumers can simply select photos, drag and
drop to arrange; then click to burn CDs and DVDs, create streaming
videos for the Internet, or save as an .AVI movie for use in
other projects. If desired, impressive transitions, effects,
music and recorded narration can be added. A huge library of
creative touches, such as virtual camera movements, images, music,
text styles, special FX, cross fades, zooms, subtitles, video
clips, close-ups and panorama movements are included to make
the slideshow project into a theatrical masterpiece.
MAGIX is known for the powerful professional-quality
features found in its consumer software and PhotoStory on CD
& DVD 2004 follows in that tradition. The 4-track timeline
mode makes precision design a snap. The bonus MAGIX Photo Clinic
2.0, a sophisticated 24-bit image editor, fixes photos for the
perfect image. It adjusts brightness, sharpness, color, focus,
red-eye, and adds fun photo effects, such as fish-eye, mosaic,
painting and cartoon-style. Images are instantly resized and
restored for a uniform set of pictures with professional color,
focus and brightness. Since the software edits non-destructively,
consumers can be as creative as they like without worrying about
losing their original work.
MAGIX PhotoStory on CD & DVD enables
users to quickly burn photo albums and re-editable project archives
on disc and designs professional DVD menus that include intros,
sounds and animated backgrounds. It supports a wide variety of
disc formats, from VCD to DVD and ships with the top-quality
Ligos GoMotion MPEG-2 encoder. Since PhotoStory also burns autoplay
CD-ROMs, consumers can be sure anyone can play their wedding,
party or special event slideshows.
MAGIX PhotoStory is available immediately
for Windows through major retailers for $39.99 SRP. For more
information, visit http://www.magix.com
or call 888-866-2449.
SIMPLE STAR, INC. ANNOUNCES NEW PHOTOSHOW
DELUXE 2.5 IN TIME FOR A GREAT HOLIDAY GIFT! (12/11/03)
Simple Star
has provided us with the following Press Release about their
newest version of PhotoShow Deluxe 2.5 which is being
released in time for the holidays at a price of $49.99. The program
can be downloaded from their web site at the link at the bottom
of the page. They offer a free demo download also. The program
is great for digital camera owners as it helps you organize your
photos into various slideshows and other creative ways to share
your images with others! We have used this program and liked
it A LOT and see below for a link to our online DEMO!
We have a brief news story with a mini-review
at this link: http://www.a-digital-eye.com/indexv23p2.html#simplestar
You can also see our demonstration of how
PhotoShow works with a Photo Gallery we shot in the Ghost Town
of Bodie, California here at the link below! You can see a manual
slideshow with larger views, click on each thumbnail individually,
or you can run an automated slideshow of smaller images with
fades and credits etc... Try it out and see why we found it to
be a very fun program to own if you are now a digital camera
user! Here is the link: http://www.a-digital-eye.com/Bodie/data/index.html
Here is the press release just issued.
Simple Star Announces the Release
of PhotoShow Deluxe 2.5
Award Winning Photo Software and New Animated Clip Art Packs
Available in Time for the Holidays
San Francisco, CA (December 10, 2003)
Simple Star, Inc., the creators of easy to use consumer software,
announced today the release of PhotoShow Deluxe 2.5. With PhotoShow
Deluxe 2.5, powerful new features enable users to get more enjoyment
from their digital photos than ever before. PhotoShow Deluxe
2.5 allows users to quickly organize their photos and then edit
and print with ease. In addition, PhotoShow Deluxe 2.5 enables
even new users to easily create and share musical shows with
their digital photos and music.
“PhotoShow Deluxe 2.5 offers the
best way for consumers to get the most out of their digital photos
whether they are novice photographers or experienced users,”
said Chad Richard, chief executive officer of Simple Star. “With
the popularity of digital cameras exploding, it’s never
been more important to make powerful yet easy to use photo software
available to consumers. Simple Star believes that the joys of
digital photography should be accessible to everyone.”
In addition to the release of PhotoShow
Deluxe 2.5, Simple Star has also released two new animated clip
art theme packs that can be used to enhance photos and musical
slide shows. The “Holiday Pack” and “Kids Pack”
are both available as downloads and are seamlessly integrated
into PhotoShow 2.5 upon completion of the download. Clip art
theme packs are available for immediate download at www.simplestar.com
for $9.99 each or both for $14.99.
Software Features:
Manage: Organize photos into albums, edit, print, rate, search,
and add text, captions and clip art. Editing functions include
red-eye removal, cropping, contrast, brightness and saturation
adjustments, rotate, creative effects, touch up tools and the
ability to add frames around images designed with themes such
as Holiday, Parties, Patterns and more. Users can return to their
original images at any time during the editing process with the
simple click of a button.
The more a user does with an individual photo (such as, print,
share, e-mail, etc.) the better rating that photo automatically
receives allowing for easy searches of popular photos. Advanced
searches can also be conducted, allowing users to search based
on a period of time as well as comments and key words.
Make: Create Video CDs for playback
in DVD players, musical slideshows enhanced with transitions,
effects and animated clip art, screen savers, photo gifts, CD-ROM’s
and desktop backgrounds.
Share: Send friends and family photo
albums and musical slideshows online or use PhotoShow Deluxe
to upload to Snapfish or Shutterfly for ordering prints and long
term storage and sharing.
PhotoShow Deluxe 2.5 is available for
$49.99 and can be downloaded at www.simplestar.com.
About Simple Star, Inc.
Simple Star, "The Personal Media Company", develops
software products that enable consumers to manage, make and share
media in unique and creative ways. Simple Star sells software
directly to consumers and also licenses its software to computer
hardware manufacturers, digital imaging companies, education
institutions, online media companies and retail publishers.
Simple Star products have been licensed
to companies including: Eastman Kodak Company, Broderbund, Intel,
Gateway, Vivendi Universal, MTV, Shockwave.com, RealNetworks,
TDK, MusicMatch, Vivitar, HSN, The WB, ADS Technologies, Microtek
and Mustek. To learn more about Simple Star, visit www.simplestar.com.
NEW
2003 HOLIDAY SHOPPING GUIDE - PART 3 POSTED (12/06/03)
We have
posted Part 3 of our 2003 Holiday Guide, this time featuring
the category of cameras that have 5 megapixel CCDs and advanced
prosumer type controls at a price range of $599 to $699. We also
have put links to Parts 1 & 2 below, which cover 3 to 5 megapixel
point and shoot style cameras. We hope these guides will help
you narrow down your shopping lists this year. We have some good
summaries of the features of each of our choices and some of
the pros and cons of each camera for different key consideration
such as price, size, feature choices and image results. These
Guides discuss cameras we have used extensively and so we do
try and add in some of our key observations to assist with what
we know is often a very tough decision process. Check them out,
we think they will help you out, at least that's the goal! Two
more camera categories coming ASAP, and some accessory suggestions
will be posted before Christmas!
2003
Holiday Guide Part 1 (3 Megapixel Cameras Under $300)
2003
Holiday Guide Part 2 (4 & 5 Megapixel Point & Shoot Cameras)
NEW 2003 HOLIDAY SHOPPING GUIDE - PART 3
(5 Megapixel Prosumer Cameras)
NIKON ANNOUNCES NEW $999 DSLR COMING
SPRING 2004!
Nikon has announced today that they are developing
a new Digital SLR type camera which will be able to use the wide
variety of Nikon interchangeable lenses called the Nikon D70
which will go on sale in the Spring of 2004 at a price of $999
for the camera body only. A new DX lens designed to match &
work specifically with the D70 camera is also being developed
for delivery at the same time.
Designed for a wide range of customers,
from novices to serious and experienced photo enthusiasts, the
D70 will enable photographers to easily adopt digital technology
into their existing camera system. The new model will offer an
exclusive selection of new features and exciting Nikon SLR technology
that will surpass products within the evolving digital SLR market,
and provide exceptional value at an estimated retail price of
$999.00 for the camera body.
The D70 joins Nikon's current selection
of digital SLR models and employs the popular Nikon DX format
sensor and Nikon F lens mount. This design will allow photographers
to use high quality DX Nikkor lenses, and also maintain seamless
compatibility with all AF Nikkor lenses and the D70.
No other details are provided in the released
information here in the USA, Europe or in Japan and thus we do
not know for sure how many Megapixels, if it will be the same
CCD used in the D100 or other features. However, the information
in the press release does hint that the camera will be at least
a 6 megapixel camera and will use some of the newer technology,
some of which has been announced for the Nikon D2H. Nikon indicates
that additional details will be provided in the future, which
we expect to be at the PMA show in February of 2004 in Las Vegas.
It will be interesting to see if Nikon will offer more features
then Canon provided in the Digital Rebel, which had many items
disabled (such as AI-Servo only works in Sports mode with Auto
WB and ISO 400 and no Flash Exposure Compensation) compared to
the more expensive Canon 10D. If that happens, will Canon allow
upgrades to the Digital Rebel via Firmware or some other method
for free or a small fee? Overall this is great news for the consumers
and we will be following this story very carefully with any new
info to be posted both here and in our new Forums!
For more details on today's very big announcement,
here is a link to the full Nikon USA, Inc. press release.
NIKON ANNOUNCES NEW $999 DSLR COMING SPRING 2004!
SONY DSC-T1 PRODUCT FIRST LOOK REVIEW
POSTED (11/30/03)
We have posted a First Look Review page including
many product pictures, some of which should help to demonstrate
just how small and tiny this new 5 megapixel 3X Optical Zoom
camera is. The Sony DSC-T1 uses a special thin battery and the
newer Sony Duo Memory Sticks, and Memory Stick Pros. It comes
with a base unit for re-charging the camera and uploading images
using a USB connection. The camera is going to sell at a suggested
price of around $550.00, and should be available by January 2004
in the USA. We have posted comments on our initial use of the
camera and there are links to our earlier Sony DSC-T1 news coverage,
including the Sony Press Release with product details and features.
SONY DSC-T1 PRODUCT FIRST LOOK REVIEW
FUJI ANNOUNCES NEW
6 MEGAPIXEL COMPACT CAMERA (11/26/03)
Fuji has announced a new
camera today although it does not appear it is heading for the
USA at this time. Click here to get more details.
NEW 2003 HOLIDAY
SHOPPING GUIDE - PART 2 (11/23/03)
The 2003 Holiday Shopping
Season is here. The time has come for a record number of digital
camera sales, as they remain one of the hottest items at the
top of many shoppers this year! It is likely that you or someone
who you know is in the market for a new digital camera to fit
specific needs, as well as perhaps a fairly tight budget, and
yet finding something just right is a high priority in your busy
schedule. As one of the major Digital Camera web sites, we of
course have been looking at cameras all year and we now have
an opportunity to provide you with some of our thoughts regarding
your potential holiday purchases. We posted Part 1 of the guide
last Monday November 17, 2003 and today we add Part 2 covering
4 and 5 megapixel point and shoot cameras, all under $500, with
many at around $400 dollars or less. Check out our 2003 Shoppers
Guide. Keep in mind that all purchases through our links to Ritz
help support this site, so please use the links by clicking from
our site if you are going to buy online, don't phone it in, so
we get a small contribution to our site! Happy Holidays!
2003
Holiday Guide Part 1 (3 Megapixel Cameras Under $300)
2003
Holiday Guide Part 2 (4 & 5 Megapixel Point & Shoot Cameras)
2003 HOLIDAY SHOPPING GUIDE - PART 3 (5 Megapixel
Prosumer Cameras)
ADDITIONAL BREAKING
NEWS & CAMERA ANNOUNCEMENTS NOW IN NEW NEWS SECTION WITH
AUTO E-MAIL NOTIFICATION!
We are now posting additional
BREAKING news items in a special News Section which you can link
to below. Major stories will still appear in this location, and
often in both sections. In addition, you can sign up to receive
auto-notification by e-mail immediately after news items in the
News section are posted. We will soon be adding to this our main
page a summary of news postings so that as soon as they are added
in the News section, this main page is also updated with the
Topic Heading and a link. For now, check it out and sign up to
get the news, camera announcement and more immediately!
ADDITIONAL BREAKING NEWS
DIGITAL CAMERA
SALES TO REACH NEARLY 53 MILLION UNITS IN 2004 (11/19/03)
InfoTrends has released
a new study today which indicated that Digital Camera sales world
wide are expected to reach almost 53 million units sold in the
year 2004. In addition, they are predicting a 15% increase each
year over the next 4 years, bringing sales to an all time high
of 82 Million units sold in 2008. InfoTrends indicates that their
market research shows that most consumers are now becoming accustomed
to the immediacy of digital photography and are now sharing pictures
with friends and family as a primary way of communications. "The
top five worldwide market leaders in 2003 are expected to be
Canon, Sony, Olympus, Fuji, and Kodak." Some interesting
findings from InfoTrends and yet we are a bit surprised that
Kodak is in the top 5, and Canon is a head of Sony. We shall
see what develops but we wouldn't count Nikon, Konica/Minolta
and Pentax out of reaching the top 5 at times just yet and Panasonic
is really going to make a run for the money too in order to get
within the top 5 or 6 positions over the next 5 years. For the
full press release and information on how to buy the full study
see the InfoTrends
Press Release here.
ANNOUNCING LENSPEN DIGI-KLEAR (11/18/03)
Parkside Optical Inc. launches Digi-Klear
Digital Display Cleaning System.
Parkside Optical Inc.,
the manufacturer of the highly popular mini-Pro and Lenspen lens
cleaning systems has come out with a new Lenspen device for cleaning
digital displays called 'Digi-Klear'. With a triangle-sized
tip about the size of Franklin Roosevelt's face on a dime, it
can easily get into the tight corners of a digital camera's lcd
screen. We have had an opportunity to use the Digi-Klear and
have posted some additional information for those who are looking
for a way to clean your digital displays. We understand this
item will soon be available at Ritz online, so check it out.
Click here for more information regarding the Lenspen
Digi-Klear.
HOLIDAY
SHOPPING GUIDE - PART 1
The 2003 Holiday Shopping
Season is here. The time has come for a record number of digital
camera sales, as they remain one of the hottest items at the
top of many shoppers this year! It is likely that you or someone
who you know is in the market for a new digital camera to fit
specific needs, as well as perhaps a fairly tight budget, and
yet finding something just right is a high priority in your busy
schedule. As one of the major Digital Camera web sites, we of
course have been looking at cameras all year and we now have
an opportunity to provide you with some of our thoughts regarding
your potential holiday purchases.
Click
here for the full Part 1 Holiday Guide
COMDEX TRADESHOW
STARTS MONDAY 11-17-03
For the past 4 years in
a row we have attended the Comdex Computer Tradeshow in Las Vegas
as often many of the digital imaging companies did attend or
offer private meetings to update us on what is new and/or coming
soon. We usually did get to see some of the brand new cameras
just being released for the holiday season and it was once a
show that had over 200,000 visitors, almost twice the attendance
of CES and 6 times PMA. However, many of those attending the
show were scaling back, and the focus of the show was moving
away from computers and even digital cameras and thus there was
less coverage to provide our readers. This year the show is much
smaller and many companies important in the digital imaging field
notified us they were not attending. Tonight there is a Digital
Focus event which has often provided a better way to meet our
contacts in just 3 hours, and tomorrow the main Tradeshow floor
opens to attendees. We regret that we have made the decision
that we will not be there this year despite it being only 4 hours
by car from LA, however we will keep you updated on any major
news announcements coming from the show. The Comdex show is held
at the Las Vegas Convention center and it runs from Monday 11/17/03
through Thursday 11/20/03. For more information here is the Comdex Web Site.
New RoadStor Portable Media Player
Allows Viewing and Sharing of Digital Photos, Audio and Video,
With or Without a Computer - Press Release
Recently Micro Solutions announced a portable
DVD Player with a built-in CD-R unit that can read most digital
camera memory cards and make CD-R backups on the road allowing
you to reuse your memory cards, but it can also play back the
images as well as DVDs on a TV. The RoadStor is also very portable
as it can operate on a detachable rechargeable battery, and it
can connect to a PC or Mac via a USB 2.0 connection. On the positive
side the RoadStor has the DVD and CD-R playback, however it cannot
apparently at this time read Memory Stick Pro cards which the
new Alera "Cruiser" can (see story below) and yet neither
can read the x-Card directly (they both may be able to do so
using a CF card adapter. The RoadStor is priced at $249. For
more details see the RoadStor press
release, or see the review
at Imaging Resource.
Exciting New Digital
Photo Copy Cruiser(tm) from Alera Technologies - Press Release
(11/15/03)
This is a product we really
want to try out, as it sounds very interesting. It is only $229,
and may just solve the problem of all who travel a lot and need
to reuse their memory cards while away from their PC or Laptops!
The Cruiser accepts most memory formats (8 in 1) and can directly
copy the contents to a CD-R in a portable setting and without
need of a PC. You can also connect it to a PC or Laptop via USB
2.0 for additional CD-R applications. Check this out!
A Compact and Transportable 8-in-1 Digital Photo Card to CD Copier
CHATSWORTH, Calif.,
Nov. 10, 2003 - Alera Technologies, developer and manufacturer
of Advanced DVD and CD Recording Solutions proudly debuts its
new Digital Photo Copy Cruiser that copies digital photos directly
from camera memory cards to CD without a computer. The Digital
Photo Copy Cruiser is compact and transportable, so you can copy
your digital photos to CD instantly wherever you are, for quick
distribution and your memory cards can be easily cleared for
reuse.
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) reports 10.1 million
digital cameras will ship this year, which is $2.9 billion in
value and Gartner Group projections show sales of digital cameras
will most likely surpass 26.5 million units by 2007, with household
penetration of 65 percent.
``This equates to
a large number of users looking for an easy way to both store
their pictures on low cost media and easily share their pictures.
The Digital Photo Copy Cruiser is another Prosumers' Choice and
exactly what customers are looking for'' stated Perry Solomon,
President and CEO. ``With its distinctive appearance and streamlined
design that maintains our 'Professional Black' look, we are confident
the Digital Photo Copy Cruiser will successfully appeal to a
very broad range of users.''
The new Digital Photo
Copy Cruiser (Alera Technologies Part # 310101, Ingram Micro
SKU # C57017) has a low Estimated Street Price (ESP) of only
$229 so that Prosumer, Corporate, Government and Education users,
all can enjoy the most convenient way to store and share digital
photos.
The Digital Photo
Copy Cruiser is equipped with a USB 2.0 port and can be connected
to a computer and used as a 36x CD Recorder. An Award Winning
Software Suite is included FREE! with purchase featuring Ahead
Nero with a new user friendly wizard that simplifies the CD recording
process with the use of mouse over direction and Ulead Photo
Explorer providing an efficient way to transfer, browse, modify
and distribute digital media. Photo Explorer is the all in one
tool for owners of digital cameras, Web Cams, DV camcorders,
scanners or anyone that wants a more effective way to manage
digital media.
When copying flash
memory cards, you can copy up to twenty-one 32MB flash memory
cards to a 700MB CD. Photos from each card can be added to the
CD in multi-session format so the entire 700MB storage capacity
of the CD can be used. The Digital Photo Copy Cruiser supports
the following Digital Memory Card formats: CF Type I and II,
SD, MMC, SM, MS, MS Pro, and Micro Drive. Each package contains
the Software Suite, a USB cable, a 100-240v, 50-60Hz power adapter,
a Quick Start Guide and Users Guide.
Complete information
is available at http://www.aleratec.com
GATEWAY ANNOUNCES
TWO NEW BUDGET CAMERAS (11/15/03)
Gateway has announced two
new low cost cameras, including a 4 megapixel, 3X optical zoom
DC-M42 camera for just $249. The camera is a compact point and
shoot style and it offers users a very affordable option for
new camera buyers. The DC-M42 comes with 11MB of internal memory,
an SD/MMC expansion slot, two AA alkaline batteries, photo editing
software, USB and A/V cables and a wrist strap. Note it does
not come with an memory card but it does have the 11MB of built-in
memory.
The second camera is an
even smaller ultra-compact two megapixel camera for just $129.
Gateway claims that the DC-T23 is only slightly larger then a
pack of gum! The Gateway DC-T23 camera
has 16MB of built-in memory and it also comes with a SD/MMC expansion
slot, two AAA alkaline batteries, a wrist strap and PC software
for editing, cropping, enlarging and adding effects to photos.
Both cameras are available now. For further
details, see the Gateway Press Release.
NEW PICTURE OF THE
DAY CONTEST ADDED (11/15/03)
Beginning today we are
offering a new opportunity for you to have your best photos seen
by the thousands of daily visitors to this site. Each day we
will post as a special feature at the top of our main page the
winning sample image from among all of the sample images submitted
to our site during the past calendar date, pacific standard time.
Images submitted should be between 480 to 512 pixels in width
and under approximately 100 KB in file size. Currently, the images
can be posted in any category and we will choose the winner daily,
however eventually we will add a specific area for contest submissions
only, and the winner will be chosen by a reader vote from a list
of top ten semi-finalist. We further plan to post all winning
images in a monthly gallery, and initially a link to the winners
will be available from this main page and in the forums. We later
hope to evolve this into a contest for monthly prizes (1st, 2nd
& 3rd place) donated from sponsoring digital image companies,
so get started now, as once that happens we will allow resubmission
and have a new voting method in place. OK, now let's see some
of you proud photographers submit some really good shots, just
make sure they are digital, and you let us know the date taken,
the camera, and the place along with any other details you care
to share with us and the world! You do not need to register
or log-on at this time to enter. To get started, and for all
the details click
here!
NEWS BRIEFS AND WEBSITE
UPDATES (11/15/03)
Due to recent demands by
our server for immediate large reductions of the volume of content
we maintain for this web site, we have had to quickly (temporarily)
prune many of our sample galleries, or face huge cost increases.
We will either work it out with the very good server we have
(www.addr.com), move to another server or most likely have larger
image folders hosted elsewhere. We apologize for any problems
this may cause and we hope to have it corrected soon. This has
contributed to a considerable delay in posting the many really
great sample images we have from several cameras, including some
large galleries we plan to post from the fine Minolta Dimage
A1 along with some detailed evaluations and comments.
We have also been delayed
in posting with our usual frequency the recent news updates,
however we are now able to resume regular news posts again, especially
now that the new forums are finished. Please understand, it took
6 weeks of beta testing before we got the forums in place as
we wanted, so many hours were diverted to that project in October
and the first half of November. We hope you will visit the new
forums and give them a try. We'd like to see many more of you
help out and post some of your sample images or comments/questions
for the visitors to see, so give it a try! The forums really
do have some neat features such as the image posting for free,
as well as an easy one click way to see only new posts since
your last visit and topic tracking where you get an e-mail if
someone replies to your post or one you are following. We are
seeing hundreds of viewers, but we'd like to see more of you
take just a minute and post a message and/or some of your great
images for us to all see. In just 4 days there have been 100
new posts and over 1500 views, so if you want people to see some
of your photography samples, or get feedback, give our new forums
a spin! You will find them very fun and easy and currently
no registration is required! You can also post a link
to your other picture galleries on the web or your personal web
sites to get the word out and gain additional exposure. If you
have questions just ask, I am around in the forums quite a bit.
If you'd like to help out visit the forums, post some of your
thoughts and images, and check out the banner ads, as your purchases
do help support this site.
For those who have not
bookmarked our forums here is the link.
* A-DIGITAL-EYE.COM
NEW PUBLIC FORUMS WITH EASY PICTURE UPLOAD/DISPLAY *
NEW A-DIGITAL-EYE.COM
FULL FEATURED FORUMS WITH DIRECT UPLOADING & DISPLAYING OF
SAMPLE IMAGES & USER POLLING ADDED (11/12/03)
We are very pleased to
announce the addition of our first web site based full featured
interactive public forums, which include the somewhat unique
ability allowing the direct uploading of resized sample images
to topic posts for display and discussion. Over the past several
years we have looked for the right software and scripts to allow
us to operate a forum on this site which would give the weekly
thousands of visitors a way of both interacting with each other
and more specifically, a way of sharing sample digital camera
images. While many programs will allow the ability to display
images that you store at other website locations by inserting
the photo's URL, this presents a problem for many digital camera
owners who have not set up accounts and who do not want to do
so just to post an occasional image in a forum for feedback or
discussion. The new forums we are now opening allow for both
methods of displaying images in topic posts, and the process
for both is extremely simple. For more details see our full article here.
UPDATE: 11/15/03 - We have fixed a limitation in
new Forums which had prevented Guests or non-registered viewers
from Posting and/or Voting in Polls. You do not need to
be registered to post messages, vote in polls, or upload pictures
that others can view. I did not realize I would have
to learn how to "Hack" software programs but in a way,
its quite interesting. As of today the forums have been up and
viewable by the public for just over 4 days now and already we
have had over 100 new posts which have been viewed over 1500
times (you can see the stats to tell which ones have been viewed
most). If you have a question, try posting it in our Forum, there
is a "Topic Tracker" feature which allows you
to be notified if someone replies to your or anyone else's Topic
Post, and each time you visit the Forums you can just select
the "New Posts" feature near the top, and it
will list for you only those new posts since your last visit!
We have noted that many
hundreds of readers have checked out our new forums and viewed
quite a few of the many threads already posted, however we would
really like to ask that when doing so you drop us a quick feedback
and post us a message or two so we can learn more about what
tweaks and changes we can make to serve everyone better and resolve
any remaining minor bugs. As far as we can tell, the Forums are
working great, and we plan to integrate them even more in the
future. Finally, let's see more pictures in the sample galleries,
come on now there are some great ones finally appearing, but
I bet you who are reading this have some good ones to share and
its so easy to do! Try posting a picture right now! It takes
seconds!
A-DIGITAL-EYE.COM PUBLIC FORUMS
Announcing the Release of the Ricoh
Caplio RR211 (Press Release 11/05/03)
Ricoh has announced a new 2 megapixel camera,
here is a link to the full press release and details.
Ricoh
Caplio RR211 (Press Release 11/05/03)
Webshots Launches Its Popular Desktop
2.0 Software for Organizing and Sharing Digital Photos; Free
Application Combines Photo Albums, Photo Sharing, Screensaver
/ Wallpaper Utilities and Web Interactivity (11/05/03)
Webshots (http://www.webshots.com)
has announced the release of Webshots Desktop 2.0, it photo management
software application with improved photo album and photo sharing
features for enhanced Web interaction. Webshots is one of the
larger photo sharing web sites and offers Webshots Desktop 2.0
to help users organise/manage their photos on their PCs and create
web pages and online photo albums for uploading to their web
site. The new software includes the ability to help users quickly
upload pictures directly from their Digital Cameras to a web
album for sharing with family and friends. Webshots photo albums
also have a somewhat unique feature allowing you to be notified
when selected favorite users have uploaded new photos. The new
software is aimed at helping digital camera users to simplify
how photos are organized, viewed and shared both online and on
users desktops. For more details and the Webshots
Press Release click here.
SmartDisk Adds New Models of Award-Winning
FlashTrax (11/03/03)
SmartDisk Corporation has announced today
two new models of its portable FlashTrax storage device for use
by digital camera owners and MP3 fans. The original unit which
came out months ago has a 30GB hard drive and these new models
now increase that size with one model offering 40GB and the other
a HUGE 80GB of storage. The FlashTrax unit is a very small handheld
unit that is easy to take along with you on extended travel or
business trips away from your computers, where you may be taking
a lot of digital camera pictures and there is a need to reuse
your memory cards. The unit has a 3.5 inch color LCD monitor
that does in our opinion greatly outperform the small LCD screens
of most digital cameras and you can zoom, rotate and more in
the playback mode. You can easily insert your memory cards in
the built in Compact Flash Type II slot and transfer the images,
where you can then view them on the unit's screen or plug the
unit into a TV set and watch a slideshow which can be controlled
by an included remote control unit. You can eventually download
them to your computer and at a fairly fast transfer rate of 480
Mbps, as the hard drives are USB 2.0 compatible. There are accessory
adapters so that virtually all types of memory cards are compatible.
The FlashTrax unit is also very up to date as there are easy
to install firmware upgrades frequently offered by SmartDisk
at their website, and most of the current RAW image formats are
supported (and this is just the type of unit for those who shoot
a lot of RAW images). In addition, the FlashTrax unit can store
and playback MPEG movies and MP3 audio. With these new models
there will now be even more space to take a along hundred if
not thousands of your favourite music titles for playback on
the road, and store many more GB of digital images at the same
time! The models apparently are shipping now and should be available
online and at retail stores although we did not see the suggested
prices listed. We have reviewed the original FlashTrax model
and found it to deliver as promised. Here is a link to the FlashTrax
Press Release and for those who want to read our recent review
of the FlashTrax here is the link below.
FlashTrax
Press Release (11/03/03)
FLASHTRAX
PORTABLE PICTURE STORAGE UNIT REVIEW
