Picture
Picture  

News archives
(Go down to August Archive)

Wednesday, September 30th

  • Here's an interesting item: the FoneCam is a portable digital camera with a built-in modem. You simply hook it up into a phone line, and away you go. You use the Windows-based client software to view the photos. It's a 320x240 pixel camera, with a 14.4 modem, and it costs $399. You can even hook up some $299 ExtensionCams for multiple angles.

  • Kodak's PictureCD is sort of an update to the PhotoCD of several users ago. For around $10, you'll be able to put a roll of 35MM or APS film onto a CD-ROM. National rollout is expected next year.

  • eMediaWeekly has a review of several megapixel cameras, including those from Casio, Epson, Fuji, HP, Konica, Olympus, and Toshiba. And it was the Epson PhotoPC 700 that came out the winner, just edging out the Olympus D-340L.

  • Did you know that advertising on the DCRP is a great value? We're doing better than ever! We expect over 60,000 page views of our home page this month. You can get an ad at the top of this page for as little as $200/month! If you want more information, ask Jeff!

Monday, September 28th

  • Another DCRP exclusive! Olympus will be releasing two new cameras on November 4th. One is the D-600XL (pictured here), which is the same as the current D-600L (1.4Mpixel, 3x optical zoom, SLR body), but it adds rapid fire (10 frames in 5 seconds), 16MB SmartMedia capability, and external flash support. The D-400Z (pictured here) has a new body style that is derived from Olympus' consumer 35mm cameras. It has the same 1.3Mpixel CCD as the D-340L but adds 3x Optical Zoom and rapid fire capability. The D-600XL will cost around $1000, and the D-400Z will cost somewhat less. Stay tuned for more details! (Thanks again Rhyder for your help!)

  • PC Magazine has a first look at the $20,000 Leica S1 professional camera. Fpr the more budget conscious, Computer Shopper reviewed the Toshiba PDR-5 camera, which costs only $399.

Friday, September 25th

  • Fuji announced that they are now shipping the $499 MX-500, a 1.5Mpixel camera, very similar to the very nice MX-700 (lacks zoom).

  • We've updated our Reviews section with the latest prices on the most popular cameras. Look for some new enhancements to our database in the next few days!

Tuesday, September 22nd

  • I noticed that Office Depot has the Casio QV-5000SX megapixel camera for only $399. That's a lot cheaper than any mail order places.

  • Videolabs is a new site "focused on online commerce of various proprietary and sourced Digital Still, Digital Video, Security/Surveillance, Sports and Leisure camera products."

  • The PhotoLoft Internet photo album service has now gone live. You can store your digital images on their site, and you can order gift items with your photo on it.

Thursday, September 17th

  • We have a exclusive report from Germany's Photokina convention, complete with photos of some hot, upcoming digiital cameras, from Sony, Casio, Rollei, and two cameras you just HAVE to see from Fuji.

  • Other news from Photokina: Polaroid introduced a parallel port version of their ColorShot digital photo printer. It takes only 25 seconds to "print" onto Polaroid ColorShot film or Polaroid Image film.

  • Here is the press release for the new Ricoh RDC-4200, which we mentioned yesterday. We hope to get one of these cameras soon from Ricoh to review for you all!

  • Kodak recently posted a firmware upgrade for the DC-220 and DC-260, which fixes a number of minor bugs. (Thanks D. Elliot Sheldon.)

Tuesday, September 15th

  • You heard it here first! Ricoh today will announce the RDC-4200, a low cost megapixel camera with some pretty impressive features:
    • 1280x960 resolution from a 1.3Mpixel CCD
    • 3x optical + 2x digital zoom
    • rotating lens
    • 1.8" LCD screen
    • 16MB SmartMedia support
    • macro and time lapse modes
    • ability to save photos in uncompressed TIFF format
    • ability to manually change auto focus, white balance, and flash settings
    • weighs only 10 ounces
    • available now for $499 (!)

Monday, September 14th

  • Casio last week introduced the QV-7000SX camera, priced at $699. It features a 1.32Mpixel CCD, 2X optical zoom + 4x digital zoom, 13 second video recording, 2.5" LCD, CompactFlash support, and of course, the famous swiveling lens that the old Casio cameras used to have. It also has IrDA support, so you can beam those photos to your computer, and video out for viewing on television sets.

  • The CameraConnect Pro from ActionTec can read ATA Flash Memory, CompactFlash, and SmartMedia cards (even the new 16MB versions.) It connects to the parallel port of your PC (sorry, no Macs, yet) and promises a 50x improvement over serial connections. Pricing and ship dates were not available.

  • There are two tempting deals at CompUSA right now on Kodak cameras. First time buyers take note!
    • Kodak DC-50 (756x504, 3X zoom) for $249.99
    • Kodak DC-200 (1152x864, removable storage, free lens kit) for $399.97

  • Finally, for you cameras pros out there: the new Kodak DC-560 has a 6 million pixel CCD, 36-bit color, LCD preview, ISO ratings of 80-200, dual PC card slots, and rechargable battery. Oh, and it's all on a Canon EOS body. Each image takes up 18MB to boot! No word on how much this will set you back, but it's certainly above our cutoff for inclusion here.

  • PhotoPoint is a free, web-based photo sharing service that you can use with your web browser (as opposed to client software.)

  • Our Reviews section remains down, but it should return in the next day or so.

Thursday, September 10th

  • The new IBM MicroDrive is an invention which could really give digital cameras a big boost. The MicroDrive weights only 20 grams and fits right into a CompactFlash slot. But the best is this: Each disk holds 340 megabytes! It's actually a 4500rpm hard disk--it's NOT flash memory. It should be out in mid-1999... cost is uncertain at this point.

  • John Cowley pits the Agfa ePhoto 1680 against the Nikon Coolpix 900. John says that the similarity in quality between the two is "uncanny".

  • Less than a week after they cut the price to $699, Ricoh again cut the RDC-4300's price-- this time to $599!

Friday, September 4th

  • Current Kodak DC-210 owners can upgrade their firmware to the equivalent of the DC-210 Plus camera. This upgrade adds much faster shutter response time, 20% more battery life, faster, multi-language interface, date stamp, exposure lock, and a video-out slide show.

  • Ricoh cut the price of their RDC-4300 to $699. This impressive camera (to me at least) has 1280x960 resolution, rotating lens, sound recording, rechargable NiMH battery, and lots of software included.

  • A number of users wrote in about Sony removing the stats on their new MVC-FD91 camera "until October." It makes you wonder if they're going to bump up the pixels a bit on this overpriced (IMHO) camera.

  • Many people also wrote in about a new camera from Leica. While I have more info on it, which will enter our database this weekend, it's basically a repackaged Fuji MX-700.

Tuesday, September 1st

  • Olympus today announced their 16MB SmartMedia cards, which are currently only compatible with the D-340L camera. Not only do you get more storage on this card, but the panoramic mode is enabled with the use of this card. Those with D-320L, D-500L, and D-600L cameras need not worry anymore about compatibility--Olympus is proving an upgrade program ($49.95-$69.95) where you send your camera into Olympus, and they upgrade it and send it back a week later. They'll clean your lens too (ooohhh!) and if you buy a 16MB card at that time you'l get a $20 discount.

  • Now I'm not sure if I'm going to due to this myself.. $70 seems pretty steep, and I can always keep buying 8MB cards. I'd like to hear if you'll be upgrading your Olympus camera.

  • Agfa cut the price of the ePhoto 1280 to $599 yesterday.

Tuesday, September 1st

  • Olympus officially dropped the price of the D-600L to $899 today.

  • Our friends at PC Zone have several good deals on cameras and photo printers (ending Sept. 4), which are the lowest we've seen, or darn close to it:
  • Our Reviews database is down once again due to technical problems. It should be back up later in the day.

All content is ©1998 Jeff Keller and Delane Barrus.
All trademarks are property of their respective owners.