Shiny at IFA 2008: Rollei X-8 Sports is the Chuck Norris of cameras

Shiny at IFA 2008: Rollei X-8 Sports is the Chuck Norris of cameras

Duncan Geere writes... No, actually, it's not. Because nothing could possibly be as rugged than Chuck Norris. What it does rival is the Ricoh G600. When I say 'rival' though, I actually mean 'spec slightly worse in every category'. There isn't any price yet, though, so maybe that's where it can win out. The Rollei X-8 Sports is lightweight (158g), resistant to moisture, dirt and cold, waterproof to 10m, and can take a 1m drop. So it's pretty hardcore. It's reasonably-specced too. 8megapixel, 3x optical zoom, and up to 1600 ISO, along with a whole host of shooting presets.

(Via Shiny Shiny.)

Sony's Cyber-shot T500 10 megapixel compact shoots HD videos

Sony's Cyber-shot T500 10 megapixel compact shoots HD videos

It's no D90, but Sony has a new compact stillcam for your snapping pleasure, the Cyber-shot T500, and it's touting an HD movie mode just like any good bandwagon hopper should. The 10.1 megapixel camera offers up a 5x optical zoom, 3.5-inch LCD and Optical SteadyShot, but most of the attention is likely to be lavished on the 1280 x 720 30 fps h.264 movie mode. You can grab 720p stills while you shoot, and you can expect to store about an hour of video on your 4GB Memory Stick... you do have a 4GB Memory Stick, right? The T500 hits this October, no word just yet on price. Oh, and she comes in colors.

(Via Engadget.)

Canon’s Latest Entry Level Cameras A2000/A1000 IS

Canon’s Latest Entry Level Cameras A2000/A1000 IS

Canon has released their latest model to the point-and-shoot camera lineup. A2000 IS is launched as a sequel to 720 IS. It features 10-megapixel capture, a 6x optical zoom with image stabilization, a 3-inch LCD screen, and an overall slimmer housing. It will allow even complete newbie to shot stunning photos. It is available in silver and gray, and retails for $250. A cheaper version comes with A1000 IS and E1 model with slightly smaller 4x zoom and 2.5″ LCD, and is available in purple, blue, silver, and brown color choices for S1 or pink, baby blue, and white for E1. The models will be available to public late September.

(Via The Digital Camera Blog.)

Canon EOS 50D briefly appears on Canon's Chinese site

Canon EOS 50D briefly appears on Canon's Chinese siteWe'd take all these rumors with a huge grain of salt given how much chatter there is ahead of Photokina, but Canon's Chinese site briefly posted an official page for an EOS 50D this afternoon. It's down now, but the listed specs are pretty solid: 15.1 megapixel sensor with a 1.6x crop and ISO 12800 sensitivity through a DIGIC 4 processor, dust reduction, VGA-res 3-inch LCD, and built-in image stabilization -- which is a little odd given Canon's great line of IS lenses. Google still has the page cached if you want to take a look -- it's thrilling, trust us.

PS.- As usual, this image has been floating around forever, so it's probably a mockup.

(Via Engadget.)

Canon’s Latest Entry Level Cameras A2000/A1000 IS

Canon’s Latest Entry Level Cameras A2000/A1000 IS

Canon has released their latest model to the point-and-shoot camera lineup. A2000 IS is launched as a sequel to 720 IS. It features 10-megapixel capture, a 6x optical zoom with image stabilization, a 3-inch LCD screen, and an overall slimmer housing. It will allow even complete newbie to shot stunning photos. It is available in silver and gray, and retails for $250. A cheaper version comes with A1000 IS and E1 model with slightly smaller 4x zoom and 2.5″ LCD, and is available in purple, blue, silver, and brown color choices for S1 or pink, baby blue, and white for E1. The models will be available to public late September.

(Via The Digital Camera Blog.)

Canon EOS 50D briefly appears on Canon's Chinese site

Canon EOS 50D briefly appears on Canon's Chinese siteWe'd take all these rumors with a huge grain of salt given how much chatter there is ahead of Photokina, but Canon's Chinese site briefly posted an official page for an EOS 50D this afternoon. It's down now, but the listed specs are pretty solid: 15.1 megapixel sensor with a 1.6x crop and ISO 12800 sensitivity through a DIGIC 4 processor, dust reduction, VGA-res 3-inch LCD, and built-in image stabilization -- which is a little odd given Canon's great line of IS lenses. Google still has the page cached if you want to take a look -- it's thrilling, trust us.

PS.- As usual, this image has been floating around forever, so it's probably a mockup.

(Via Engadget.)

Ricoh Announced The New R10

Ricoh Announced The New R10

Ricoh has announced a sequel to previous R8 model. R10 will offer 10 megapixel, 7.1x optical zoom, 28-200mm wide-angle zoom lens, 3 inch LCD, and image stabilization. The notable enhancements on the earlier R8 model include a larger LCD screen, four-person face recognition, easy presets for newbies, and auto level compensation of contrast and sharpness. It also has an acceleration sensor that lets you know when you’re tilting, so you can straighten out before you click the shutter. It will be available in black, brown and silver. Price and availability are still TBD, although the rumor has it R10 will be available around $450.

(Via The Digital Camera Blog.)

Canon's EOS Rebel XS / 1000D DSLR hits the test bench

Canon's EOS Rebel XS / 1000D DSLR hits the test bench

With all the DSLR noise going on, the EOS Rebel XS managed to sneak in without too many people noticing. The proper entry-level replacement to the XTi / 400D recently took the time to cave to Camera Labs' every request, and when all was said and done, critics didn't find too many negative points to harp on. The all-important image quality ranked very highly, and the built-in live view was obviously a boon. Granted, the fixed screen and 7-point AF system (versus the 9-pointer on the XTi) were slight bummers, but it still managed to secure an 82% (Highly Recommended) rating. Care to see how it stacked up against Nikon's D60, Sony's A200 and a Polaroid 80B Highlander? Two of the three comparisons await you in the read link.

(Via Engadget.)

Eco Digi Mode Disposable Camera

Eco Digi Mode Disposable Camera

Plaza Create Co. in Japan have launched a recyclable waterproof digital camera, called ECO Digi Mode. The camera will be able to take 3 megapixel shots, has a 2.4-inch display and also flash. The camera can be used up to a depth of 3 meters underwater and can take up to 50 pictures. Once the pictures taken by the camera are transferred to a CD for safe keeping, the pictures on the camera can be deleted, and the camera sent for recycling, which will see the LCD and flash unit reused in the next camera. The ECO Digi Mode is being sold in Japan for 1,980 yen, which is about $18.

(Via UberGizmo, the Gadgets News Blog.)

Fujifilm Finepix Budget J-Series

Fujifilm Finepix Budget J-Series

Fujifilm has recently announced four new budget Finepix J-series compact cameras. The J100, J110W, J120 and J150W, all will include 10 Megapixel CCD but each vary in LCD size and lenses. They feature face detection system that maxes out at six people in the frame, and includes automatic red-eye correction. Movie mode supports 640 x 480 and 320 x 240 resolutions at 30 frames per second with mono sound, stored in Motion JPEG format. The J100 and J110W have a 2.7’ LCD screen and the FinePix J150W and J120 offer the bigger 3’ LCD screen. The J-Series will be available with price range from $199.95 to $299.95, all of which are scheduled to ship in September.

(Via The Digital Camera Blog.)

Adobe Premiere Elements 4 Review

Quick rundown:

Pros: Simple and easy to use, but with the flexibility to create more complex videos.

Cons: No AVCHD support, yet.

Adobe makes it easy to create quick, appealing home movies with the latest installment of Adobe Premiere Elements. A slick interface, better integration with Photoshop Elements, and better support for Flash-based sites like YouTube make Adobe Premiere Elements 4 a great choice for video projects, but the current lack of AVCHD support makes it a product I cannot fully endorse for anyone wanting to edit non-HDV video.

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Fujifilm Finepix Budget J-Series

Fujifilm Finepix Budget J-Series

Fujifilm has recently announced four new budget Finepix J-series compact cameras. The J100, J110W, J120 and J150W, all will include 10 Megapixel CCD but each vary in LCD size and lenses. They feature face detection system that maxes out at six people in the frame, and includes automatic red-eye correction. Movie mode supports 640 x 480 and 320 x 240 resolutions at 30 frames per second with mono sound, stored in Motion JPEG format. The J100 and J110W have a 2.7’ LCD screen and the FinePix J150W and J120 offer the bigger 3’ LCD screen. The J-Series will be available with price range from $199.95 to $299.95, all of which are scheduled to ship in September.

(Via The Digital Camera Blog.)

The Ultra Slim Sony DSC-T77

The Ultra Slim Sony DSC-T77

The T77 is Sony’s thinnest model at only 13.9mm thickness and has a 3-inch touch panel LCD screen. The camera features 10.1-megapixel capture resolution, 3.0″ touch-screen, 4X optical zoom, Face Detection, Smile Shutter™ mode, new Anti-blink function. Coming in five different colors including black, silver, green, pink and brown, its suggested retail price is $299. Perfect elegant shooter to fit your pocket comfortably.

(Via The Digital Camera Blog.)

Canon gets official with VIXIA HD camcorders, HF11 gets reviewed

Canon gets official with VIXIA HD camcorders, HF11 gets reviewed

Thanks to an early jump in Japan, we already knew that Canon's VIXIA line was getting a refresh, but now we can rest easy knowing they'll be coming to America. The HF11 Dual Flash camcorder (32GB in addition to an SDHC slot) and HG20 (60GB) / HG21 (120GB) HDD camcorders all boast 1,920 x 1,080 capture modes, Instant AutoFocus, SuperRange Optical Image Stabilization and 24Mbps recording to the AVCHD format. The whole lot is expected to ship next month for $1,199, $949 and $1,299 in order of mention, and the increasingly intriguing HF11 has already spent some quality time on Camcorder Info's review bench. Check out the in-depth writeup below before pulling that trigger in the heat of the moment.

(Via Engadget.)

Camera and Photo Albums 2-in-1, by Sony T700

Camera and Photo Albums 2-in-1, by Sony T700

Sony DSC-T700 features 10.1 megapixel, 3.5″ touch-screen, 4GB internal memory, 4X Optical Zoom. The thin, powerful camera functions well as a photo album with easy image management to quickly sort and find the specific image you are looking for. This awesome looking camera is also equipped with In Camera Retouch enabling retouch of your pictures on the go with the in-camera editing functions. It has Smile Shutter™ technology to capture a smile the moment it happens. Its Face Detection technology is able to detect up to eight individual faces. Currently available in red, champagne gold, pink, dark gray and silver. The model retails for $400.

(Via The Digital Camera Blog.)

Busbi Idiotproof Mini Camcorder

Busbi Idiotproof Mini Camcorder

The slim battery-operated Busbi has just 4 buttons: On/Off, Delete, Playback and Record. A 2″ LCD screen to review your recent recording and playback mode allows you to view/delete the last video captured. It also comes with a 1GB SD card, giving around 60 minutes recording time (or upgrade it to 2GB for double time). If you want to watch all the videos captured, simply connect Busbi’s USB to your computer. You can even connect it to TV using AV cable comes with the package. The camera has a 2-inch LCD display and records in QVGA 320 x 240 pixel resolution in AVI format. It is ideal for internet video uploads to the likes of YouTube. It’s on sale now from Firebox for £34.99.

(Via The Digital Camera Blog.)

Toshiba Camileo H10 HD camcorder

Toshiba Camileo H10 HD camcorder

Toshiba expanded its Camileo range by launching high definition Camileo H10 HD camcorder. You can now enjoy the captured high quality video on 2.7’ LCD display.

The camcorder features a digital zoom of 4x, an optical zoom of 5x and a resolution of 1,280 x 720p. The internal memory of 64MB and 8GB of Secure Digital memory cards enables you to store as much data as you want.

Add special effects like black and white or sepia tints to captured video and images and create a niche of your own. Not only this, the night mode augments the viewing quality in dim lit environment. The 720p digital camcorder is priced at £179 and comes with ArcSoft video-editing software.

(Via Image-Acquire.com.)