News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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Pentax releases Optio E70
Pentax has released the Optio E70 digital compact camera. This 10 megapixel camera features a simple to use interface with large buttons. Continuing the simplicity theme, it also includes Pentax's 'Green' shooting mode, where the camera tales control of all the key shooting settings. Although the camera promises simplicity, it is packed with features such as Triple Anti-Shake Protection, Super-Fast Face Detection and 7 shooting modes.
Pentax launches Optio P70
Pentax has also launched the Optio P70 digital compact camera. Sporting a 12 megapixel image sensor, 2.7" LCD and 4x optical zoom that starts at 28mm equivalent. It also features Triple Anti-Shake protection (digital image stabalization), advanced face detection of up to 32 faces and HD video recording. There's also an interesting Vertical Snap Mode whereby all icons on the LCD automatically rotate vertically for easier operation of the camera in a portrait mode.
Phase One releases Capture One 4.6
Phase One has announced an updated service release of its Capture One 4, PRO and DB RAW workflow software. Version 4.6 of Capture One and Capture One PRO extends RAW support to the Canon G10, Nikon D3X, Olympus E-30 and Phase One P 65+ cameras. It also provides improved camera support for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and EOS 50D. Capture One 4.6 PRO also supports tethered shooting using most of the current Nikon DSLRs.
Kodak unveils Z980 with 24x zoom
Kodak has announced the Z980 mega-zoom digital camera. This 12 MP camera sports a 26mm wide angle lens with 24x zoom, a detachable vertical grip with shutter release and is capable of HD recording. Kodak has also announced the addition of three new models to its EasyShare M series. The M380 features a 10 megapixel sensor, a 2.7" LCD and 5x optical zoom. The 10MP M340 and the 9MP M320 feature 2.7" LCDs and 3x optical zoom.
Challenges Beta - now available
Labs beta: As revealed last Thursday (our tenth anniversary) today we are flicking the switch on our latest (and potentially biggest) new site feature. Our Challenges system provides a mechanism by which photographic challenges can be both created and entered by any member of our community. The initial beta has a few limitations (see inside for details). That said we're excited to make this new feature available today and hope you will enjoy testing it, we would actively encourage feedback using the special link available at the bottom of all challenges pages.
Happy Holidays, dpreview turns ten
The entire team at dpreview would like to wish all our readers a very Happy Holidays (whichever you're observing). As always Christmas Day marks another anniversary for the site, this time it's a big one, ten years. To celebrate we have opened our new labs section as well as revealing our first public beta feature; Challenges. As a bit of a retrospective on the last ten years we've also produced two short blog entries looking back and taking stock. Whatever you're doing today, enjoy yourselves and thank you for being a part of dpreview.com!
Labs beta: Challenges
Labs beta: As part of our ten years celebration we've been working hard to bring you a beta of our next big site feature; Challenges. Anyone who has been on the dpreview forums will be more than aware of the popularity of photographic challenges. Until now these have been created primarily by a single challenge host creating a new thread in the forums to promote their challenge idea and others following up with entries. We decided to take this concept and develop a fully integrated challenge system for dpreview which will allow series of challenges to run, with a flexible range of rule sets, voting options and winner concepts. The public beta of our Challenges system will begin this coming Monday 29th December with the opening of five initial challenges created by ourselves which any registered dpreview member can enter. After this we'll be looking for challenge hosts to continue the next phase of the beta.
Enthusiast Compact Camera Group Test
Just posted! The fourth (and penultimate) installment of our compact camera roundup looks at the top-end cameras aimed at the experienced photographer. These enthusiast cameras offer a bit more flexibility than the cameras we've looked at so far, whether that's the inclusion of a large zoom range or a greater degree of manual control. Follow the link to find what we made of them.
Canon responds to black dot and banding concerns
Canon has published a statement in response to concerns raised about the EOS 5D Mk II. The announcement addresses the widely discussed 'Black Dot' and 'Vertical Banding' issues being reported by owners and potential owners who have been scrutinizing the camera's output. The company says it is investigating both issues and will work on 'measures to reduce or eliminate these phenomena.'