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Nikon Updates Coolpix Line-up

Nikon decided to grace us with some announcements last night, although those of you waiting for word on if something will replace the D700 are going to just have to wait a bit longer. Instead, we got the annual fresher for the Coolpix line-up, with 2 L-series entries, 5 S-series ones, and two P-series revamps. But because that’s too easy, one of the S series is being lumped in with the L series at the bottom. Confused yet? Good. We don’t like being the only ones.

From the bottom up, we find ourselves starting with the L “Lifestyle” series of entry-level compacts. And one S. But we’ll let that slide for now. These are the cheaper, budget-conscious models,and they are also the ones that still use AAs for power, if you’re into that sort of thing. As usual, the marketing speak in these releases is just amazing, so, far be it for us to deprive you of the joy, we’ll introduce each model with Nikon’s promo line. Starting with:

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Tokina, Tamron, and Freaking ASTRODESIGN Hop On Board The Micro Four Thirds Train

So, while the Interchangeable Lens Compact market has since exploded, with entries now from Nikon, Fuji, and Sony joining Olympus and Panasonic’s sorta-shared sorta-competitor Micro Four Thirds platform, Micro Four Thirds is still the most established name in the game. And if you had any doubts about that left, the announcement of popular lens makers Tamron and Tokina, as well as specialty lens maker ASTRODESIGN, hopping on board with Sigma, Olympus, Panasonic, and Leica to support the going-on-four-year-old system ought to help remove those. There’s not a lot else to announce at this point, as no one has mentioned any coming lenses, but fans of Tamron’s travel superzooms and Tokina’s incredibly popular wide-angle zooms should rejoice in this move. Press release after the jump.

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Kodak Announces Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

 

After a rough battle for nearly the past decade with declining marketshare, Eastman Kodak has today filed in the US for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Founded back in 1892, Kodak is one of those companies that really needs no introduction, it’s such a household name. Among many products and services, Kodak has been perhaps the most successful manufacturer of photographic films, with such popular lines as  Ektar, Portra, T-max, and Kodachrome (which even got a song). Their films were so popular that to this day particularly sentimental moments are still called “Kodak moments.”

Also of particular note, both to our current field and to Kodak’s own filing, in 1975 Kodak’s research labs created the first digital camera, with a 100x100pixel sensor, and in the 1990′s Kodak produced the first commercially available digital camera bodies by retrofitting existing Nikon and Canon ones. The modern photographic landscape owes so much to work from Kodak that it’s hard to even comprehend. Even the Bayer filter, the common means of interweaving red, greed, and blue pixels on a sensor to create accurate colors, is due to Kodak.

Those interested can read the surprisingly hopeful press release after the jump, for further details on how this will affect Kodak’s operations.

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Panasonic Expands Lumix Line 5 Models, One All-New

More CES love? Aw, shucks, well, sure. This time, it’s Panasonic on the block, with a total of five entries to its Lumix line of compacts. Two are updaes to the SZ series, 2 are updates to the FH series, and one is the new DMC-S2. What’s all that mean, exactly? Well, why not hop on over to Engadget, who not only nabbed the press releases, but some pretty pictures too?



Sony Announces Two New Bloggies, Encourages You To Get Your Splash On

Sony’s Bloggie line of camcorders may have had a rough start back as the Webbie HD series, a duo of compact cameras aimed squarely at the social generation… and the now-defunct but then-popular Flip pocket camcorders. Since then, the line has evolved into the Bloggie series, moving away from Sony’s… less than popular memory stick cards to integrated memory, and adding increasingly elegant design with touchscreens and metal bodies. And now we have not only your annual refresh, but the addition of a ruggedized waterproof sports Bloggie, too.

Up first is the Bloggie Live HD (also known by it’s technical name of MHS-TS55/S, for those of you who are more fluent in cyborg than I am). Starting with the hardware, you’re looking at a metal body, in which is housed a fixed 37mm equiv lens, a backlit Exmor sensor that does 1080p video or 12.3 megapixels for still, a 3″ touchscreen, 8GB of internal memory, a flip-out USB dongle, built-in interfacing software for Mac and PC, and a wi-fi card.

Using that wi-fi, you can do more things, like upload direct to social sites (YouTube, Facebook, etc). And going even further, it can now do live streaming (something a lot of the press could probably use out at CES this week). Honestly, this is probably the best spiritual successor to the Flip I’ve seen announced, and anyone who’s been looking to fill that hole in their life should gaze long and hard at this beauty. It might just be the way to go. Especially for the relatively painless retail of @249.97.

 

But, if you need something a bit more… durable, don’t worry, the Bloggie line now has you covered there, too, via the Bloggie Sport HD (MHS-TS22/L in the cyborgese). If you’re willing to trade down to a 2.7″ screen, a 5 megapixel still function, and the wi-fi, you can add on waterproofing down to 16 feet, and drop protection up to 5 feet. Which ought to make this a gem for adventuring types. For some reason I’m still thinking kayaks. I think I have a fixation, here.

And, because there’s apparently a law that waterproof things need to look sporty, the Bloggie Sport HD does indeed sport it up, though not without a certain sleekness. And it’ll do so for you in your choice of blue, red, or black (all adorned with black rubber trim). You also get to shave some scratch off the price, dipping down to $179.97 for this one.

It’s worth noting before we leave that both models also feature Sony’s sensor-shift IS, LED lights, and auto-focus with face detection. Which pretty much rounds out what you’d expect from a pocket cam.

 

 



Sony’s Cybershot W610, W620, W650 Update Line-Up, Skip Numbers.

Not wanting to miss out on the CES lovage, Sony has thrown 3 new models into its Cybershot line-up.

The W610 starts us off with some pretty typical entry specs: 14megapixel sensor, 4x optical zoom (28-114mm equiv), 2.7″ LCD, face detection, smile detection, blink detection, sweep panorama, dynamic range optimizer, and a rather curious “Natural Flash.” And five colors: green, black, blue, red, silver. No HD video, though. VGA only. Price will be $109.99 for this one.

The W620 is up next, and features the return of pretty much all of the above, except the lens moves up to a 5x zoom (28-140mm equiv), and the video mode goes up to 720p. You do lose some color choices here, though, with only black, red, and silver being offered. Still, if that’s fine by you, you can pick up that better lens and movie mode for a mere $10 over the W 610, or $119.99.

Lastly, we skip a few numbers ahead to the W650. And, as you might assume from such a jump, the features leap forward a bit as well. You get to keep the 5x 28-140mm zoom, but you upgrade to 16.1 megapixels. The movie mode remains stuck at 720p, but optical image stabilization makes an appearance finally. You also get a 3″ LCD. Firmware-wise, all the usual and previously mentioned Sony technologies stick around, so you can detect blinks and sweep panoramas to your heart’s content.  at least, you can if you don’t mind black, silver, or red and a $139.99 price tag, that is.



Olympus Announces New Tough TG-320 All-Weather Compact

With the all-weather (waterproof, freezeproof, crushproof) market being one of the fastest growing ones right now, it’d be easy to forget that Olympus is really the oldest player in the game. At least, until you look at yet another entry for them, where their many years of refinement to the style and design become a bit more apparent. Such is the case with the TG-320, a mere “mid-grade” entry into their famous Tough series.

As a cost-conscious model, it features a mere 14 megapixels, a 3.6x optical zoom (28-102mm equiv, f3.5-5), a 2.7″ LCD, waterproofiness (what? that should totally be a word) to 10 ft, shockproof to 5 ft, and freezeproof to 14 degrees F. In other words, about everything you need to survive every day life, be that bars, kids, or kayaking. All for a street price of  $179.99. And, if you’ve been waiting for just such a refresh to the Tough line, you can preorder it on our site now in red or blue. Or read the press release after the jump, if you like.

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Olympus VR-340 Is Compact and Zoomy, Has Cheesy Press Line

“NEW OLYMPUS VR-340 PROVES BEAUTY IS MORE THAN SKIN DEEP.” Thus starts Olympus’ press release for the new VR-340, a stylish upgrade to the also stylish VR-320 of yester-year. Key specs are a 16 megapixel sensor (up two megapixels from the 320) and a 10x superwide 24-240mm equiv zoom (down 2.5x from the 320). Otherwise, you’ve got a metal body, a 3″ rear LCD, nine art filters, the usual compliment of auto scene modes and auto-focus trickery, sensor shift image stabilization, and ISOs up to 1600. In your choice of black, white, silver, red, or purple. All for a very pocket-friendly anticipated cost of $149.99. If you’re in the market for just such a camera, you can put in for what ought to be a very short preorder wait here.

You can also read the press release after the jump.

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You’ve needed a 180mm f/2.8 Macro lens, and Sigma’s bringing it to you.

1:1 reproduction ratio at 18.5″ and even greater when using a Sigma teleconverter.

The full name of this beastie is Sigma APO Macro 180mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM, which tells us it’ll be equally suited for full-frame and APS-C sensors and auto-focus on Nikon’s budget-line D-SLRs. Oh and it’s a 180mm f/2.8 with optical stabilization.

Check out the full specs on Sigma’s site here and read the press release here.



Sigma’s “Digital Neo” series – small, fast primes for Micro Four Thirds and NEX

Looking for a fast prime for your Micro Four Thirds or NEX camera? Sigma’s got two in the works, designed specifically for the smaller formats.

Coming are the 30mm f/2.8 EX DN and 19mm f/2.8 EX DN. One to two stops faster than the kit zooms that typically come with either system, it’ll be exciting to see them in action. And we’re pretty sure that Sigma can make a prime -just recently our Website Manager, Derek, picked up an older Sigma AF 28mm f/2.8 for Nikon and has been pretty much besotted with it.

As for the alphabet soup, the new DN designation stands for “Digital Neo.”

You can read the offical press release here, and the post from Sigma’s blog here.




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