The Flash's News Page

The latest in digital - fresh Flash notes

Through the miracle of email, newsgroups, forums, RSS feeds and assorted other methods of gathering information on the internet we bring you this page of digital camera news and comments. We will be commenting on the digital world as well reporting new advances in digital camera products. Your comments are always welcome. (see the form at the bottom of this page)

Consumer Reports Puts Digital Cameras Into Focus

Consumer Reports tested digital cameras ranging from $200 to $500. While the size is a huge appeal, you do give up some features of a regular-size digital.

"You don't have manual control and that's the ability to set color balance and exposure," said Kerry Allen, of Consumer Reports.

Also, many have a LCD screen, but no viewfinder, which makes the image hard to see in bright light. An LCD screen also drains your battery and most subcompacts only use rechargeable batteries, which means you have to carry a charger.

As for picture quality, they do a good job. Consumer Reports recommends the Canon PowerShot SD-300 for around $300. It's lightweight, delivers excellent picture quality and has a viewfinder and LCD screen.

Read the rest of this article

Digital cameras and US soldiers in Iraq - staying in touch with the homefront

Here is a sample of the news article from today's SF Chronicle:

During the November assault on Fallujah, tank platoon leader 1st Lt. Neil Prakash watched in awe as heavy U.S. artillery blew Iraqi fighters into the air. "Each explosion sent three, four or five terrorists up into the sky. K-k- r-r-BOOM. K-k-r-r-BOOM. K-k-r-r-BOOM,'' Prakash wrote in his multimedia online diary, titled "Armor Geddon.'' "You never expect to see bodies do that. So when you see it, it feels surreal.''

Prakash's unvarnished account on the Blogger Web site, which includes photographs of tanks and flares lighting up a night battle, highlights the sophisticated torrent of digital data that U.S. soldiers in Iraq are sending home via e-mail or posting on Internet hosting sites, including at least two in the Bay Area.

Read the whole article

Kodak Updates Its Brownie to Compete in a Digital Age

Ten years ago, Kodak manufactured the first digital camera aimed for sale to retail consumers, the $749 QuickTake 100, sold by Apple Computer. But by 2000, Sony had muscled in as the leading digital camera maker and Kodak was hovering near 5 percent of the market, a dire position, while the film business -which it had dominated for a decade - was starting to collapse.

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My Two Top Choices for Digital Cameras --Both Are Under $300

In the coming hour, more than 6,000 digital cameras will be sold worldwide.

Every minute, another 100 nonfilm cameras move off the shelves. Every minute of every hour of every day.

Estimated worldwide digital camera sales for this year: 53,000,000.

"Digital cameras are becoming an essential communications device for consumers," said Michelle Slaughter, director of digital photography trends at InfoTrends Research Group. "Consumers are becoming accustomed to the immediacy of digital photography and are integrating digital photos into their daily communications with friends and family and for work. As a result, digital cameras have a higher intrinsic value to consumers than film cameras."

See the full article here

Don't forget to vote!

The election is finally upon us. This photo I took at the Halloween parade the other day reminds us that we should all get out and vote no matter what our party affiliation. Be a part of the process.

Take some digital photos while you are there. Celebrate your right to vote in our election by getting it on memory...

Contest

The Digital Bus

Through the use of high tech devices such as digital cameras, microscopes, GPS devices and portable laptops studetns on the island of Maui can take their educational outing to the field and create interactive presentations on location.

The Digital Bus transports the students to various island locations where they sample, test, and explore. Then they bring their digital images and samples back to the bus where they can continue their study of water quality.

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You don't have to spend over $200 to take great digital pictures

In the past, digital cameras costing under $200 had a paltry resolution of 640x480 (VGA) or sported (oft-boasted and criticized) digital zoom. Some were toy-like, while others just plain sucked. Now you can find good two, three, and the occasional four-megapixel camera for under $200, and many include the coveted 3x optical zoom. On today's "Call for Help," I'll round up the best of the cheap. They shoot excellent images suitable for 8x10 printing, are easy to use, and make great everyday point-and-shoot cameras.

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Digital Dan's pick for digital cameras

CBS's Dan Dubno rates his favorite new cameras

Each fall, like clockwork, digital camera manufacturers release a torrent of new models to prepare for the shopping season. The monsoon of new models continues but this season is most exceptional in that our favorite cameras from the past have been reworked with exciting new features that the most optimistic imagery enthusiasts would not have expected. I have selected four of the most interesting new digital camera models below. Also, I must rhapsodize about a hot new software package from Adobe that will help normal folks transform and archive their digital images splendidly.

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New standard format for digital images?

Will there be a new standard format for digital images? Adobe is putting forward their idea of what that should be next week. The Digital Negative Specification is being introduced as the next format for raw images in digital cameras.

Currently JPG is widely used in digital imaging, but many camera makers use their own formats for raw images which then requires the user to utilize software to convert them.

The company is also launching a free software tool that lets users convert raw formats from dozens of cameras into the new DNG format.

Whether this new format will be adopted by others in the industry remains to be seen. Watch and listen for this development. Will we all be using the DNG?

Comments

Olympus Adds Two New Compact Digital Cameras

Olympus America, Inc. announced Thursday two new compact digital cameras - an entry-level point-and-shoot with an effective resolution of 3.2 megapixel and a 5x optical zoom model with an effective resolution of 7.1 megapixel.

The Camedia D-535 Zoom digital camera, combines a 3.2 megapixel (effective) CCD imager with a 3x optical zoom lens. Other features include shutter speeds from 2 to 1/2000 second, ISO ratings from 64 to 256, a 15fps QVGA movie mode, a 1.5-inch LCD display, and a selection of portrait, self-portrait, landscape, and night scene modes. The D-535 will ship in October in the U.S. for US$149.99.

The Camedia C-7000 Zoom digital camera, (see photo below) has a 7.1 megapixel CCD imager with a 5x optical zoom lens. Other features include shutter speeds from 15 to 1/2000 second, ISO ratings from 80 to 400, a selection of recording formats including RAW, TIFF and JPEG, a 30fps VGA movie mode with clip length limited only by storage and battery life, a 2.0-inch LCD display, and a selection of 10 scene modes including automatic, scene and manual modes.

The C-7000 weighs just under eight ounces and is 4 x 2.3 x 1.7 inches. It includes PictBridge technology for direct printing to any compatible printer and USB 2.0 connectivity. The camera will ship in October for US$599.99 and will come with a 32MB xD-Picture memory card, a Lithium Ion battery and charger, USB and audio/video out cables.

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