What's New in Digital Cameras

What's New - January 2001

January 30
Casio QV-2300 review posted!
Casio was one of the earlier innovators in the digicam marketplace, and have steadily made their way from a primary consumer-electronics focus to a more solidly photographic one. They've also taken the lead in the "value" category, by bundling the 340 MB IBM MicroDrive memory cards with their cameras. One of their recent models embodying both these trends is the QV-2300, a 2.1 megapixel with swivel zoom lens, good exposure controls and picture quality, a raft of preprogrammed "scene" modes, and an included MicroDrive. Overall a very nice package! Check it out!

January 26
Olympus E-10 SLR review updated!
Finally, we've completed our long-overdue update of the Olympus E-10 "semi pro" SLR review. Back in October, we had the privilege of testing one of the first near-production prototypes of this exceptional camera, and have now revisited that review to reflect our experience with a full-production model. As it happens, no surprises were in store, since the production model displayed the same sterling operating characteristics as did the prototype. We did take time though, to perform timing and power consumption measurements on the production unit, with very salutary results. (We'd not done timing and power tests on the prototype, because we'd understood that the production units would have somewhat improved performance.) We don't know whether power and timing were improved or not, but the E-10's performance was certainly top-drawer! Check it out!

January 18
Full review of Olympus E-100RS posted!
WOW! This camera is a speed demon! As digicams mature, we expect to see more models appearing that are custom-tailored for specific application areas. The Olympus E-100RS is one of the first such, and boy, is it impressive! Olympus has combined an ultra-fast 1.5 megapixel CCD with lots of buffer memory and a 10x optically stabilized zoom lens to create what may be the ultimate digicam for sports shooting. Pros may niggle about autofocus speed compared to $5000 digital SLRs with $3000 lenses attached, and they'd be right: It clearly lacks the lightning-fast predictive autofocus of high-end film SLRs. At a suggested list price of $1599 and a street price somewhere around $1400 though, there's really nothing on the market even remotely close to the capabilities of the E-100RS within even several thousand dollars of it. The "RS" in the name stands for "Rapid Shot", and it's certainly that, able to capture 9 or 10 full-resolution maximum-quality files at 15 frames/second(!) and as many as 60 frames at that rate in lower resolution modes. Fifteen frames per second is a rate we previously only associated with low-res "movie" files, and one that reaches beyond the capabilities of even high-end film SLRs. Even more amazing is the E-100's ability to capture up to five images before you trip the shutter. By continuously cycling images through its buffer memory when the shutter is half-pressed in "precapture" mode, the E-100 actually has a negative shutter lag. Oh - and image quality is quite good also, including very good low light performance. Overall an amazing camera: If you need to shoot fast-moving action, this is definitely the digicam to have! Check it out!

January 14
Full review of Ricoh RDC-6000 posted!
This must be the week for entry-level two megapixel cameras. Today, we've posted a review of Ricoh's RDC-6000 entry-level unit. This model is designed to sell for less than the PDR-M60 we posted on the 12th, but also lacks an optical zoom lens. It does offer some interesting capabilities though, including a time-lapse photography option, and the ability to function as a web cam. (Additional third-party software needed for web cam operation though.) Check it out!

January 12
Full review of Toshiba PDR-M60 posted!
Toshiba has been making progressive inroads in the digicam field for some time now, and now have a nice entry-level 2 megapixel model (with 2.3x optical zoom lens) in the form of their PDR-M60. We finally laid hands on one of these, and found that it produced good images, with enough controls to handle normal shooting conditions. It also carries the trademark Toshiba speed into the realm of inexpensive cameras, with cycle times of just over 2 seconds at full resolution. All in all, a pretty nice package. Check it out!

January 11
FULL review of Olympus P-400 $999 dye-sub printer!
Olympus' remarkable sub-$1,000 dye-sublimation printer proved to be a worthy subject for our first in-depth printer review: It displayed excellent print quality, print speeds far exceeding photo-quality inkjets, and even has a lower media cost than most inkjets to boot. We've wanted for some time to begin covering printers, but were stymied as to how to present the sort of objective performance data for printers that has been the hallmark of our camera reviews. Photo printing is a complex process, and printer characteristics can vary in strange ways across the range of color and tonality. We think we've found at least a partial solution in some graphics technology we've uncovered, that lets us look at printer color spaces both two-dimensionally (a plot of the maximum extent of the color gamut, and also three-dimensionally, as shown above. (That's a plot of the P400's overall color gamut, or range of reproducible colors, as compared to a standardized web-offset printing press profile. Read the P-400 review for all the details.) We'll have more absurdly detailed photo printer reviews for you as the year goes on, but for now, can confidently say that the P-400 is an outstanding bargain, truly breaking the mold of what we've come to expect for dye-sub printing. (Big bucks, sluggish performance.) Check it out!

January 2
Imaging Resource Camera Finder Database in public beta!
Wow! We're pretty excited about our new camera features database and the associated Camera Finder and Compare Cameras pages! The result of months of work, we're proud to unveil what we feel is the most comprehensive database of digicam features anywhere, including not only manufacturer data, but our own test results, such as minimum macro area, cycle time, shutter lag, and power consumption numbers (these latter are currently being entered, will gradually appear over the next couple of weeks. What's more, we're continually scanning the current US "street" prices for all the current models, with the result that the entire database will have its street pricing updated at least every two weeks.

Best of all, you can search the database, to find which cameras meeting your needs for resolution, lens configuration, form factor, and computer connection fall into your price range. You can sort the results by any parameter, and you'll find links to our reviews of any cameras we've tested. Check it out!

Already know the cameras you're interested in? Visit the Compare Cameras page to see how they stack up feature by feature! (Again, including current list and street prices.)

We're calling this a "public beta" of our digicam database, because we expect to be fleshing it out a little over the next week or two, and are hoping our intrepid readers will help us hammer on it a bit before we announce it to the world at large. It all works though, and overall is one of the biggest features we've added to our site to date!