You may know what megapixels and zoom lenses are, but do you know what not to do when shopping for a digital camera? Here are, my friend arielz share about  the worst digital camera shopping mistakes.

1. Buying a Digital Camera Without Using it First

This is probably a fairly common mistake, but easily the worst. It’s so easy to get caught up in reviews and specs and features and comparisons, and forget one essential fact. You need to like the camera. That means, even if you buy the camera online, you should first hit a local camera store and handle the camera. You want to be sure it’s a powered, fully functional model (and it’s the exact same model that interests you , not a “similar” one). Also don’t be afraid to asks a salesperson to take it off the tethers if that interferes with your ability to handle it. Pretend you’re taking pictures. See how it feels in your hand. Try to do specific tasks, and see how hard the camera controls are to navigate.

2. Buying the Most Expensive Digital Camera You Can Afford

It can be tempting to get the coolest, slickest, most high-end camera you can afford. That doesn’t mean you should. For example, if you’re new to photography you won’t want an advanced digital SLR with lots of manual controls. If you’re just looking to take pictures for your blog, you don’t need 12 megapixels. There is no need to pay for features you won’t use and, in fact, it will make using the camera more confusing and less pleasant. It’s better to look within your budget, but focus on finding the best camera for your specific needs.

3. Focusing Only on Digital Camera Megapixels

Megapixels are often the first thing people wonder about when considering a digital camera. Sure, you shouldn’t ignore megapixels. It certainly shouldn’t be your only consideration, and may not even be your primary consideration. In fact, if you have an older computer or you don’t care to buy high-capacity memory cards, you will not want a 12 megapixel camera that will eat up storage space. Think beyond megapixels, because another feature (such as zoom) could be much more important for you.

4. Being Wooed by Junk Digital Camera Zoom Numbers

If you need zoom, don’t get fooled by inflated numbers based on digital zoom. Digital zoom is essentially useless. A salesman might give it a nice spin by saying something like, “You get a total zoom of 10x!” How much of that is optical? If it’s just 3x optical, that is pretty much the standard zoom on digital cameras and nothing to get excited about. You always want to ask about the optical zoom rate. If you are used to film cameras, you should also ask about the 35mm equivalent so that you understand just what 5x optical zoom really means.

5. Not Knowing What You Want in a Digital Camera

There are an awful lot of digital camera features available, but you won’t find many cameras that do everything well. It is better to understand the available features, and decide which features are the most important for you. Consider making a list of your three most important features, then rank them. That way, you can work on finding a camera that meets those needs first, and worry about extra features if they so happen to come in the camera you like.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

At this year’s PMA — the Mecca of shows for professional photographers — Olympus product manager Sally Smith Clemens pointed out that in the digital era, unlike in the olden days of film, cameras change very quickly. “In electronics, the technology is constantly evolving, and we want to bring the new innovations to our customers as soon as we can,” Smith Clemens said in an interview with USA Today.

And things indeed change quickly. No sooner did we complete a detailed review of the Olympus Evolt E-330 that the company revealed its 10-megapixel Evolt E-410 and E-510 models. Does that mean the E-330 is already obsolete because its maximum image resolution is 7.5 megapixel instead of 10? Not really. Newer is (almost) always better, but we found the E-330 to be an exemplary digital SLR, one that worked beautifully, took great shots, and, best of all, gave us a chance to test it not only for everyday shooting, but also underwater, in full scuba gear. Above you can see how substantial the waterproof housing is. Yes, we probably took more pictures in the depths of sinkholes, caverns, and rivers than we took on the surface. That’s with the extensive, professional-quality PT-E02 underwater housing, of course, and we’ll get into that.

As is, the Evolt-330 is a formidable camera. It has most of the same technologies used in the just released E-410 and E-510 models, and now that the new cameras are out, the E-330 may come down in price (it was originally more expensive than the two new dSLR offerings).

The “Four Thirds” system

What you get with the Evolt E-330 is a full-function digital single lens reflex camera that uses the Four Thirds Mount System developed by Olympus and Kodak specifically for digital SLRs and used by several other camera companies. A word about the Four Thirds system: The name “Four Thirds” comes from the 4:3 aspect ratio of the sensor. That’s different from the 1.5 ratio used in the old 35mm film, but the same as that in all conventional computer monitors and TVs (albeit not the same as the wider formats predominantly used now). The sensor used in Four Thirds systems measures 18 x 13.5 millimeters as opposed to the traditional 36 x 24mm film “sensor” area. This allows for more compact lenses suitable for digital SLRS that can also be more compact than traditional film SLRs. To learn more about the Four Thirds system, check its official website at http://www.four-thirds.org/en/index.html.

The standard kit comes with a 14-45mm Zuiko lens. In the Four Thirds system, 14-45 translates into 28-90mm in 35mm film equivalent. Ours, which we intended to use primarily underwater, came with an 11-22mm f2.8-3.5 or 22-44mm in 35mm parlance lens with superb light gathering.

Like most SLRs, even most digital ones, the Evolt-330 is large. It is a camera in the traditional sense of the word, not one of those 10-megapixel ultra-slim techno-slivers that you stick into any pocket. And the size also depends on the lens. The bare camera body, sans lens, measures 5.5 x 3.4 x 2.8 inches and weighs almost 20 ounces without battery or cards. That’s a bit larger and heavier than the new E-410/510 duo that was just announced, so technology marches on in miniaturization as well. As substantial as it is, anyone used to a standard SLR will definitely not be put off by the 330′s size.

“Live View” on a terrific LCD

Right off the bat, there is much to like about the 330. It starts with something we’ve come to expect from digital cameras, but that’s still almost a novelty with digital SLRs: a Live View LCD. Traditionally, SLRs use a through-the-lens viewfinder that presents a totally accurate view of what the picture will look like. That’s great, but it also means you need to look through it when you take a picture. Not very inconspicuous. So, in addition to the optical viewfinder, Olympus gave the E-330 what was at its introduction the world’s first live view LCD.

And it’s not a fixed one either. You can pull it out and then rotate it so that you can hold the camera at hip level and look down onto the LCD, or you can hold the 330 above your head to shoot over the heads of a crowd, and you can still see the downward-tilted LCD. Better yet, the 2.5-inch diagonal LCD is large enough to see what’s going on and its 215,000 pixel resolution means you can zoom in (up to 14X) and get a very good feel for whether the picture is sharp or not. The LCD uses Olympus’ HyperCrystal technology that makes for a vibrant display, and, perhaps best of all, the LCD has a very wide viewing angle from all sides. Olympus claims 160 degrees, but it’s really more like a full 180.

Two card slots

There are other goodies. For example, we’ve often criticized Olympus for its use of the xD-Picture card that generally costs a bit more and isn’t as easy to find as the more popular SD Card and older CF card formats. Well, the E-330 has an xD-Picture card slot as well as a CF Card slot, so you can use both. And you can even copy from one to the other, which comes in handy if your computer can read CF cards but not xD cards. With the ever-increasing storage capacity of memory cards the MicroDrive , a hard drive in CF Card format isn’t as important as it once was, but the E-330 can accommodate that also.

Dust reduction technology

Another cool technology you find in the E-330 is its Dust Reduction System. Why do you need it? Because dust and other particles have always been the bane of SLR cameras where the mirror is exposed when you exchange lenses. That can result in specks and artifacts on the picture.

Olympus combats that with a rather ingenious technology. A SuperSonic Wave Filter vibrates with a frequency of 35,000 times a second to remove any dust and other stuff that might have settled on the sensor. You’re reminded of that every time you turn the camera on via its large on/off level rotating around the mode dial: an icon shows up and then the words “Dust Reduction.”

TruePic processor

And there’s more high technology in the form of the Olympus TruePic TURBO Image Processor that speeds up image capture while also micro-smoothing pixels for bright and visually more pleasing pictures. It’s hard to quantify the benefit of all those processors and special chips in today’s cameras, but we certainly can’t argue with the results. The E-330 delivered consistently excellent pictures.

Hybrid technologies

Technology also breaks through other barriers and blurs former differentiation between camera types and styles. In the past, compacts were mostly automatic point & shooters whereas SLRs were manually operated with perhaps a couple of program modes thrown in. That is now changing. The E-330′s large mode dial has the usual Manual, Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority and Program modes, but you can also quickly select portrait, landscape, macro, sports and nighttime settings. But that’s still not all. There’s also a compact-style selection of “Scenes,” preconfigured settings for special shooting situations. There are 20 of them. Each first shows a sample picture, then a brief description.

A comment here: Compacts often have dozens of “scenes” these days. That’s nice, but what often bothers me is that I usually don’t get to know what settings the camera uses for each mode. Well, you don’t have that problem with the E-330. Push its “Info” button and the big LCD shows either basic or full settings details for each mode. In live view mode where you can also use the “Info”button to toggle between a full picture display or one with vital image data superimposed.

In playback mode you can, via that same handy Info button, view a picture in seven different ways: as is; showing the card used, quality and picture number; that plus the date, pixel size and shutter speed; a small pic with four histograms and all pertinent image information; a full pic with superimposed opaque histrogram; a pic that shows just blown out highlights; a pic that shows just blown-out shadows.

Easy to use, with some caveats

SLRs do not generally have a reputation for great ease-of-use. While today’s compacts seem to have settled on a very standardized user interface and hardware control arrangement, SLRs tend to have buttons, levers and controls all over the place. The E-330 is no exception, and so a few hours’ worth of reading, studying and practicing is a very good investment in time before the first serious photo outing.

Truth be told, Olympus could have helped out more in the menu department. There is a Menu button that brings up vertically tabbed walking menus. Those use that unfortunate mesh of text, icons and illustrations that camera makers the world over employ to befuddle users, or so it sometimes seems. Frankly, it’s just a drag to have to memorize dozens of funky icons and pictograms when the screens are now large enough and have high enough resolutions to simply spell things out. That gibberish is bad enough on menus where there is always a shortage of real estate, but it is downright inexcusable with things like exposure metering where there’s plenty of space to describe those often unintelligible icons.

That out of the way — and we do hope the camera makers will eventually take notice — the E-330 is not difficult to use once you’ve familiarized yourself with the camera and its functions. In fact, you can leave it in Program mode all day long and just shoot. Chances are you’ll get great shots. More advanced photographers will find plenty of options to set up great shots and go for special effects.

A word of caution to beginning photographers who expect a big digital SLR to be able to do it all. It’s not so. Despite their size, current dSLRS like the E-330 don’t do such presumably mundane things as taking movies or recording sound. In that sense, SLRs have stayed true to their origin. Their purpose is to shoot high quality pictures.

Assorted specs we like

In terms of specifications, here are some of the ones that matter: You can record as JPEG, TIFF or RAW. When shooting in RAW, you can also save a JPEG image in addition. Exposure compensation is not fixed, but can go in 1, ?, or 1/3 EV step increments from plus to minus 5EV. Shutter speed ranges all the way from 1/4000 of a second to a full eight minutes in bulb mode. Sequential shooting yields about three frames per second. There’s a built-in flash in addition to a hot shoe for a (recommended) external flash. The battery is a beefy 7.2 Volt, 1,500mAH Li-Ion rechargeable. You can do exposure bracketing and have great influence over color settings: color space, picture mode, sharpness, contrast, saturation, filters, toning and gradation. It all adds up to remarkable flexibility.

Underwater shooting

As mentioned above, we probably shot more pictures underwater than above with the E-330. That requires the PT-E02 Underwater Housing shown to the left (without the exernal flash housing we also used). It is a durable, very high quality, transparent polycarbonate housing specifically designed for the E-330 and allows you to take the camera down to about 200 feet. That is significantly deeper than the recreational scuba diving limit of 133 feet, and emphasizes the E-330′s professional character not only for picture taking, but also for serious diving.

Serious business

Note that unlike the fairly handy and simple underwater cases for compacts, the PT-E02 case for the E-330 is serious business. It alone costs more than the entire camera including lens, and that’s before you add the underwater housing for the almost always required external flash and the bracketry that holds it all together.If you go to the Underwater accessories page for the E-330, you’ll find that there are no fewer than 20 offerings, for the underwater setup alone. If you gear up, it’ll cost $1,219.99 for the bare underwater case, $459.99 for the lens port for our 11-22mm lens, $679 for the PFL-E01 flash housing, a rather steep $179.99 for a flash bracket, another $89.99 for the cable, and a bunch more for this and that. It adds up and it is a serious commitment.

Is it all worth it? For the serious underwater photographer, absolutely. But it is a lot of money and it is meant for professional quality marine photography. Those who just want to snap some shots will likely be much happier with an inexpensive, small and handy underwater digicam such as the Olympus Stylus 770 SW.

Rather than just admiring the fancy gear, we took the Evolt E-330 and its extensive underwater system on a genuine dive trip. We spent many hours underwater with it and gave it a good workout in a variety of very different dive sites.

We first took it to the Devil’s Den cavern/sinkhole at Williston, Florida and used it there, with relatively little priot familiarization with the camera. We planned on setting the flash to TTL-Auto mode, which works perfectly with the Evolt 330, and setting the Evolt itself to its underwater “scene” mode. So the first round of pictures would be done entirely in point & shoot mode, at depths around to about 50 feet. But before we got in the water, there were a few things to be considered.

Preparing the Olympus for a dive

If you are new to the world of SLR underwater cases, it’s very different from placing a compact camera into its handy deepwater case. There, you just insert the camera and close the case, and you’re all set. An SLR case, especially with external flash, is much more involved. Since SLRs come with different lenses, the lens ports for each lens are different. Cables are needed and brackets, and the brackets need to be assembled properly. There are numerous O-rings that must be checked for proper sealing, and there are ports that may need sealer caps if they are not used. Instead of just closing a case, you really need a checklist, if only a mental one, to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything. Even inserting and securing a big SLR into the case is a task that requires practice. There is a ring that operates the zoom lens and it needs to fit just right. There are brackets and supports and control connections that all must be installed properly or else. The rubber-cushion frame that makes it more comfortable to look through the viewfinder had to be removed to make the camera fit, and we promptly lost it. And several small parts are also still unaccounted for, though we’ll likely find it in our dive gear.

Once you’re all set up you have a large, bulky, heavy rig. Traveling with it means making triple-sure you don’t forget any part of the whole assembly or you can forget about taking underwater pictures. And it needs to be disassembled and stowed away and packed so it won’t get damaged, not an easy task with all the parts. I actually got it all into a carry-on, in addition to enough light clothing for a four-day dive trip, my dive computer and my regulator, and an assortment of cables and power supplies. Amazingly, the bag made it through the x-ray security machine without raising any questions at all. I wish my sneakers, toiletries and laptop computer were so lucky.

Testing it and impressions

All set up in our wetsuits and scuba gear we carefully lowered the Olympus rig into the water at Devil’s Den to see if there were any leaks or telltale bubbles. I must admit, the first time I dunked the big camerabelow the surface I was sweating bullets in my wetsuit. But all was well. No leaks, no bubbles.

Next we took it two feet under the surface and let go to test its buoyancy. The setup had felt rather heavy and we wondered if if it would float. After all, a scuba tank is also very heavy, and yet it floats. Unfortunately, the Olympus is no scuba tank and does not float. In fact, it turned out to be very negatively buoyant. So do not let go of this rig, ever! However, swimming around with it and handling it was surprisingly easy, at least for my co-reviewer who is an experienced NAUI scuba instructor and underwater photographer. Me, I can see that the negative buoyancy might at first be an issue for newer divers.

A sizeable case

Considering the relatively compact size of the camera, the case is bulky, but not excessively so. In all honesty, it needs to be the size it is in order to be not more negatively buoyant as it is. The dome port is large and heavy and adds perceived bulk. It is probably necessary to provide that much space for the wide angle, but there is still a good inch of space between the lens and the glass of the port. The very prominent flare is probably necessary in order not to get vignetting. We wished it’d have been even half an inch shorter as we swam around rocks and through openings. We also felt it must be a nightmare for designers to make all these housings for every new camera, given that the market is not that large.

To flash or not to flash

Here I should mention that I was very tempted to just take the camera on the first dive and leave the flash with its large and very heavy bracket behind. The flash housing itself is also rather large, and has to be. There’s simply no way around it. It is acrylic and you can see and operate all controls inside. The flash can be turned in all directions thanks to an intricate system of pivots and joints. One problem here is that if you loosen the screw or wheel of a joint even a tiny bit, the whole heavy assembly collapses instead of just giving a bit. A dampener system would be great, but would also make the setup even bulkier and more expensive.

In any case, the external flash is needed. It is the only way to get consistently good pictures underwater, so don’t even think about leaving it behind in anything but the clearest shallow tropical water. Unfortunately, that means another set of batteries (or another rechargeable powerpack) to watch, as we found out the hard way.

Handles and brackets

Olympus went to great lengths to make the setup as easy to carry and handle as possible. There is a neoprene-padded strap on the flash side of the bracket that is comfortable and helps with carrying the heavy camera assembly. We found that the strap compresses under water, at depth, and ends gets loose so perhaps a solid, contoured piece might be better. We also really liked the handstrap on the right side of the camera. It’s easy to tighten, and helps handling the camera. We spent a good deal of time speculating how the bracket assembly could be improved, and in what way. However, Olympus’ design decisions seemed sound, and the resulting freedom of movement allows for a lot of flexibility in taking pictures.

Put a moisture sensor in it?

A big plus of having a clear polycarbonate housing is that if moisture ever gets in, you can see it. Ample space inside the housing also means ample space for desiccant packs. But since the housing is clear, why not add a little place that has a sensor strip that turns color and shows (preferably not red or orange, but high visibility green) dangerous humidity levels or flooding?

Picture taking

What about pictures? The underwater environment is very different from shooting above ground. You have less time, can see less, have to deal with the bulky scuba equipment, the control buttons on the outside of the housing that go harder and do not offer the same kind of tactile feedback, and, of course, the ever popular low visibility and often unwilling subjects that simply swim away. Given all those caveats and constraints, the Evolt took good pictures right off the bat, in all-automatic mode. Devil’s Den was certainly not an ideal venue. The water was clear, but there wasn’t much light. We found that in low light conditions the camera sometimes refused to take a shot altogether. That was a bit frustrating in automatic mode, but it really was user error (not using the proper settings) and not being very used to the camera yet. Still, as the picture of the crabby crab below shows, the Olympus came through with good shots even when we struggled.

Live preview in action

One great advantage the Evolt has over many conventional underwater SLR cameras is the live preview. That’s just a LCD, like all digital cameras have, but underwater, it’s often next to impossible to use a viewfinder, what with a mask on, and having the LCD makes a HUGE difference. We never had a problem seeing what we were shooting underwater. We never had to yank the camera up to eye level in front of the mask to take a shot, and thanks to the bright wide viewing angle LCD, we also did not have to move the camera around in order to see the LCD clearly. Another huge advantage.

Diving under different conditions

We ended up taking the Evolt in its housing on several more dives. One actually wasn’t a dive at all, just snorkeling and swimming with Manatees at Crystal River, Florida. The Manatees hang out in the shallow water, generally munching on the sea grass at the bottom, sleeping, or playing. To see them you get on a Manateee tour, offered by various operators. We booked ours at Bird’s Underwater, a terrific dive shop located right on a pier in Crystal River. The flat-bottomed boat holds 10 to 15 people. You wear a wetsuit and snorkeling gear; no scuba required.

Depending on the season, the boat captain has to look out for the telltale bubbles that give away a submerged Manatee, or there are so many that finding them is not an issue. Manatees are among the most amazing, gentle creatures you’ll ever see. Last time I was on a Manatee tour they’d all been eating, munching on sea grass and other greenery non-stop. This time, they were tired and spent most of their time sleeping, resting at the bottom with their peculiar looking snouts seemingly buried in the silt. Every few minutes they’d come up for a brief breath, sticking just the tops of their noses out of the water. They often took two such breaths, then sank back down and continued their motionless sleep.

We headed up the entry into the Three Sisters spring preserve where there were more Manatees. The water wasn’t quite as clear as last time I was there and so we experimented with the Evolt whose huge glass lens port in front of the 11-22mm wide angle lens (really 22-44mm in 35mm film terminology) has a very large diameter.

We thought it might be interesting to position the camera so that part of the lens was above water and part below, for a special effect. That indeed yielded some remarkable shots and some equally interesting phenomena. For example, the width of the divider between the underwater and the above water world depended not only on the shutter speed, but also on the movement of the water. A bit of wave action made for a big “divider” whereas a still surface made for a much narrower and more interesting one. Nothing Photoshop couldn’t fix. On the left you can see two sleepy Manatees in the underwater world and then the grove above. Nothing on that picture has been doctored up.

Eventually we swam back out of the spring system and into the main arm of the river. As I exited I saw a whole congregation of Manatees and decided to take a closer look. I snorkeled over without ever looking up and took some nice shots of the magnificent creatures. No one else was around. This surprised me, but soon enough I found there was a good reason: I had inadvertently entered the Manatee Sanctuary! How embarrassing. I don’t know if it’s possible to be red-faced in the water. If it is, I certainly was. The captain later told me he’d seen someone inside the sanctuary and hoped it wasn’t one of his group.

However, I was not the only transgressor. Up in the spring system we had encountered a videographer with an IMAX camera and two very bright lights that he kept training on the Manatees. That is in strict violation of the Manatee preservation rules and caused outrage on our boat. A photographer and videographer who was there to shoot on behalf of the Manatee habitat at the Cincinnati Zoo had recorded the violation and said he was going to alert the fish and wildlife department.

Next we went on a two hour drift dive down Rainbow River at fairly strong currents, and then to the bottom of Catfish Sink at the Manatee Spring State Park near Chiefland, Florida. The 70 foot depth, of course, was not going to be a challenge for the tough Olympus housing. But we weren’t so sure about the duckweed that completely covered the sink’s surface and got into everything. As you can see in the picture to the left, the surface of this dive site definitely does not look inviting or suggest the wonders that lay beneath.

My dive buddy and I took pictures of ourselves floating in duckweed, wondered how the cameras (we were also testing a waterproof Olympus 770 SW) were going to handle THAT challenge, felt a bit guilty for taking the expensive Olympus Evolt setup into the mess, and worried about visibility with all those divers. I put my head underwater to take a look around and it indeed seemed darker and nowhere near as clear as last Fall when we had he sink totally to ourselves. I feared it’d be essentially a no-viz dive and that wasn’t a pleasant thought.

We signaled each other and went down. Despite a fatal accident a few days prior, I felt no apprehension at all. You either dive or you don’t. It became immediately clear that the water was still plenty clear enough to provide a view of the entire sink in all its majesty. I lowered myself a bit to assess the situation and adjust my buoyancy. My buddy motioned to me and pointed behind me. Ouch. Clouds of sand and silt. Apparently I had kicked up a good bunch of silt while getting buoyancy right. I mentally slapped myself. Then we headed for the deeper end and the dark outline of the cavern entrance. I approached the sloping entrance to the cavern cautiously, as usual. I clung to the bottom, always made sure I had something to hold onto, and lowered myself foot by foot beneath the dark overhang above us.

At the end of four days’ worth of pretty intense diving, the Evolt and its underwater housing passed with flying colors, and then some.

One thing you need to think about is getting the proper lens. Our 11-22mm digital-specific lens was great for underwater where a wide angle always comes in handy. Above water, you quickly want a bit more zoom. If you commit to this setup, and it is a very nice one, you’ll likely want to study Olympus’ lens offerings (and the underwater lens ports that go with it) in some detail. It’s worth it.

Quality construction

After the last dive we sat together and discussed all we had learned about the Evolt 330 and all the protective gear that lets you take this marvelous camera deep below the surface. The big housing seems complex enough for things to go wrong, but the case is very well constructed and survived without as much as a scratch. Neither the camera case nor the flash case ever allowed a single drop of water. The many controls all worked well, though a good degree of familiarization comes in handy, especially if you plan on doing more than use just the automatic mode or underwater scene modes. The only thing that went wrong with the housing was a tiny rubber bumper that popped out just before we packed the camera gear away. I found it on the table and had no idea what it was. We gave the case a careful check-over and found that the little bumper indeed belonged to the case; it was one of four that buffered the front end of the camera against the case. Good thing we found it.

Perhaps best, unlike totally dedicated underwater cameras, when we felt like shooting some Florida sunsets or nature scenes, we could simply take the Evolt out of its housing and use it as a standard SLR, which, of course, it is.

The evolving technology conundrum

One question remains, and it is a serious one. We began this review reminding how quickly digital camera technology advances, and that will not change anytime soon. Spending a lot of money on a setup thus carries a risk as all those professional photographers who spent many thousands on early one and two megapixel digital SLRs will tell.

The risk is somewhat less now as technology has advanced to a point where it yields incremental rather than dramatic changes and improvements. Yet, we’ve only had the 7.5 megapixel Evolt E-330 for a few months and it’s already been eclipsed by smaller, lighter models with 10 megapixel resolution that cost less to boot. There’s nothing that can be done about that. If you buy a computer today, it, too, will be eclipsed in a few months, but it still may do productive work for many years. I still put a Mac I bought in 1999 to good use. I see no reason why making a substantial investment in a current digital SLR like the Evolt-330 should be any different. With that we can heartily recommend this Evolt to anyone who wants a competent digital SLR for which there is also a full underwater housing system of professional quality.

We like:

• Competent digital SLR suitable for above and underwater use
• Live View via bright 2.5-inch wide viewing angle LCD
• LCD can be rotated into different positions (not with housing)
• Polycarbonate underwater housing provides view inside, seals perfectly
• Brackets and pivots allow directing the external flash just right
• Fully automatic settings for beginners yield very good pictures
• Large number of scene modes make for easy picture taking
• Dual card slots (CF and xD)
• Powerful battery

Not so much:

• Onscreen menus needlessly sparse and cryptic
• Underwater assembly with flash is large, negatively buoyant, and has many little parts that can get lost. Brackets and pivots hard to adjust

www.olympususa.com

New York, NY, July 15, 2008 – PhotoShelter Inc., the leading online destination where more than 37,000 photographers sell stock photography and access powerful solutions for e-commerce and image storage, today released the full speaker agenda for its Shoot! The Day gathering in New York City on July 20, 2008, and revealed a special treat for attendees from title sponsor Nikon, who will introduce to participants its recently announced D700 FX-format (23.9 x 36mm) digital SLR camera. The day’s event will also include an in-depth look at the creation of a national ad campaign that utilizes stock photography in a case study delivered by Rachel Rein, Art Buyer at ad agency Hill Holliday, New York.

Shoot! The Day, a worldwide event designed to revitalize the stock photography industry, will mobilize thousands of photographers across the globe to connect, take pictures and learn. Billed as a free day of demos and dialogue, the New York City gathering will take place from noon to 7:00 p.m. at Shoot Digital Studios and will include a full afternoon of keynote speakers and panels. In one studio, magazine photo editors, ad agency art directors and art buyers will share their stock photography insights with attendees. A second studio will contain speakers focusing on best practices in photographer technique, workflow management and business success. In the third studio attendees will be able to meet representatives and demo products from top equipment manufacturers, service providers and industry organizations.

Nikon D700 D-SLR Introduction

During the New York City gathering, Nikon will display its new D700 FX-format digital SLR camera. This will be one of the first public events where attendees can experience the D700′s stunning image quality, accurate color reproduction and revolutionary low light performance. In addition, the 20 PhotoShelter members selected from over 750 applicants to participate in the live, fully equipped photo shoots taking place during Shoot! The Day will be using the D700, capturing images in five major categories where stock photo buyers say they find the industry-wide selection to be lacking freshness and diversity.

“We’re thrilled to introduce the D700 for the hundreds of advanced and professional photographers attending PhotoShelter’s Shoot! The Day event.” said Edward Fasano, general manager for marketing, SLR System Products at Nikon, Inc. “As the exclusive equipment sponsor of this event, we’re excited to join PhotoShelter in driving innovation in the stock photo industry and to provide attendees with a glimpse of how the technologies incorporated into Nikon FX and DX-format digital SLRs can take their art and business to new levels.”

Event Speakers

Focused on creating success for photographers with industry, workflow and technique insights, PhotoShelter has assembled a slate of respected speakers for the Shoot! The Day New York City gathering.

“We’re pleased that so many accomplished photo editors, art buyers and art directors have joined us in support of Shoot! The Day’s mission,” said PhotoShelter CEO Allen Murabayashi. “Photographers crave new information on how to achieve sales success in stock photography. The Shoot! The Day panels will crush long-standing barriers between image buyers and photographers to deliver real, actionable insights to event attendees.”

Shoot! The Day will feature two primary keynote speakers. Rob Haggart of aphotoeditor.com, the former director of photography at Men’s Journal, will present “Editorial Bootcamp” designed to share the inside scoop on how photographers can get the attention of editorial photo editors. Rachel Rein, Art Buyer at ad agency Hill Holliday, New York will present “From Start to Finish: Finding the Perfect Stock Photos for a Major Campaign” which will highlight the creative process for an agency project that employed stock photography.

Shoot! The Day will also feature two industry panels with experts in stock photo use at respected ad agencies and leading magazine titles. The ad agency panel will be moderated by Angela Natividad of industry blog adrants.com, and panelists will include Belinda Lopez, senior art buyer at Strawberry Frog, Wanda Lau, senior art director at Greater Than One, Jen Santiago, managing art buyer at G2 Direct & Digital, and Molly Aaker, art buyer at Unit7. The magazine industry panel will feature Leslie dela Vega, photo editor at TIME magazine, Whitney Lawson, photo editor at Travel & Leisure, Michael Wichita, assistant photo editor at AARP Bulletin, and Ryan Schick, photo editor at Conde Nast Portfolio.

The Shoot! The Day technique and workflow panels will include a presentation on website best practices from PhotoShelter co-founder Grover Sanschagrin, keywording and post production advice from Jazz Mandair and Gautam Pai of JaincoTech, in depth workflow guidance using Aperture 2 from Joseph Schorr of Apple, and “Photography: One Image at a Time” from Sam Garcia of Nikon.

Event Exhibitors

In one additional large studio, the event will bring together innovative manufacturers, retailers, media, industry organizations and related service providers for a full afternoon of networking and product demo opportunities for attendees. Shoot! The Day exhibitors include title sponsor Adorama Camera, lead media sponsor JPG magazine, Apple, MAC Group, JaincoTech, Regus, the Advertising Photographers of America, and Slideluck Potshow.

For more information about Shoot! The Day activities and registration, visit www.shoottheday.com. Additional promotional partners for Shoot! The Day include altpick.com, artlog, asoboo, Blind Spot magazine, coolhunting.com, flakphoto.com, foto8, humble arts foundation, LowePro, 1prophoto.com, Soura magazine, and The Strobist.

PhotoShelter is an online photo community where 37,000 of the world’s photographers find new opportunities and liberation from the traditional model of selling their work.

The PhotoShelter Collection is a global stock photography marketplace where photographers from 130 different countries contribute over 4,000 new images daily for rights-managed and royalty-free licensing. Through PhotoShelter, photographers keep an unprecedented 70% of every sale, compared to the industry standard of 35%. The Collection provides image buyers with a freshness that results when accomplished pros and undiscovered hobbyists share their distinct perspectives in an edited collection designed to add diversity and authenticity to any project.

PhotoShelter Personal Archive is the leading online solution that enables independent photographers to succeed in selling their images directly to clients. Personal Archive provides state-of-the-art tools for image storage and protection, searchable galleries and slideshows and ecommerce capabilities for easy website integration and instant online sales of prints and licenses. A true solution designed to make the business of photography easier to manage – Personal Archive offers security, global accessibility, and advanced marketing tools so photographers can make their images work harder for them.

To join our community, visit www.photoshelter.com.

Four new Samsung cameras revealed today: the Samsung TL34HD, Samsung TL9, Samsung SL310W, and Samsung SL201. The point-and-shoots boast consumer friendly features like high-definition output to HDTVs, HD video capture, large touch screens, and even music and video playback via the iPod. Expect all cameras to be available in stores by this September.

Leading the pack is the 14.7-megapixel Samsung TL34HD. A 3.6X zoom lens also provides a 28mm wide-angle view on the other end. The camera features a big 3-inch touch screen, which serves as both a viewfinder for framing your shots and as the camera’s main control system. The Samsung TL34HD can also capture video footage in 720p HD resolution, and port this content (photos and videos) over to HDTV sets using the optional HDMI CEC cradle. Unfortunately, since the cradle connects using a proprietary connection, the device is only compatible with Samsung TVs. All the action is controlled by the cradle’s bundled remote. Expect the Samsung TL34HD to ship with a list price of $329.95

Next, the 10-megapixel Samsung Samsung TL9 is also a compact shooter. The Samsung TL9 sports a 5X optical zoom and a 2.7-inch (non-touch) display, which is rapidly becoming the industry standard. Along with face detection and image stabilization, you can flip the cam over into PMP mode, and use the device like a portable music/video player. There’s a headphone jack included–meaning you don’t always have to use the speaker. The TL9 will be available for $279.95.

If you wants a slimmer camera, the new Samsung SL310W may be for you. With a 13.6 MP powerful image sensor, the Samsung SL310 has what Samsung refers to as “Dual Image Stabilization” (both Digital Image Stabilization and Optical Image Stabilization), to cut down blur caused by shaky hands. Along with the 3.6X zoom are 11 provided scene modes, and a 2.7-inch LCD is provided to compose your pictures. A little bit more affordable than the other cams listed previously, the SL310W will be $229.95.

In addition, Samsung covers budget shutterbugs with a low-end offering, the Samsung SL201. Priced at $169.95, the 10.2-megapixel camera is surprisingly well-configured, with 11 scene modes and face detection. It has the same 2.7-inch LCD screen as the previous two announced models, too. What’s key, though, is the digital camera’s rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which is often missing in a camera this inexpensive.

Nikon, Inc. unveiled the new Micro PC-D NIKKOR 45mm f/2.8D ED-PC and Micro-D NIKKOR 85mm f/2.8D objectives, development of a series of lenses, whose photographers effectively correct perspective and / or depth – - pressure field creative boundaries. This new perspective Control (PC)-Goals correct distortions in the linear perspective of improving replicate images, such as the human eye, including Finance straight lines converge objects such as buildings, but also welcome the establishment of command Depth-of-field. Your versatility makes it the perfect complement to target a variety of applications, including architectural photography, nature, interiors and lifestyle life “especially product photography.

The introduction of wide-angle 24mm objective perspective responds to a request for photographers. Request specific disciplines fire control image, that only a specific objective of this design, “said Edward Fasano, general manager of marketing, System products Nikon, Inc. We are pleased that now the 45mm and 85mm Micro PC-D-goals photographers and proposes a number of advanced PC-focal which to choose and the solution of complex photographic challenges.

During shooting thematically, such as high-rise buildings with a conventional lens, composition are often appeals to tilt the axis of the camera. This rule causes a significant distortion of converging lines, the influence due to the optical precision of the image. A PC-D NIKKOR lens shift control provides for this type of correction of distortions. Shift control may also be a photographer can effectively move the position of the apparent camera “a new perspective on versatility, so that, for example, the ability to avoid reflections side in an image.

A PC-E Tilt Control provides objective photographers creators additional control over the depth of the zone. Known as the main Scheimpflug, Tilt-Shift-goals are able to propose a change in the focal plane of the lens, so that the extension or limitation of criticism of the sharpness of the image. The combination of passion and shift controls described in the PC-D Objectives Nikkor photographers are extraordinary control perspective control simply not possible with conventional targets.

A particular inclination working mechanism and gives the user up to + / – 11.5 prospect of transfer of control and + / – 8.5 degrees of passion for creative control. The prospects for control lenses correct the distortion and problems of vanishing point comfortable Side-mounted controls 1mm / 1 degrees apart, the adaptation of focal plane Tilt Shift and adaptations. The goal Optical rotate up to 90 degrees to the right or left to lead prospect of adaptation, while a click judgement, provided that every 30 degrees. Photographers can confirm the effectiveness of each adaptation precisely by their viewfinder Nikon.

The new Micro PC-D NIKKOR 45mm f/2.8D ED-PC and Micro-D NIKKOR 85mm f/2.8D offer a combined standard and medium distance telecommunications, with dramatically expanding the depth of field, which is well suited for a variety of tasks and exploring new levels of creativity.

All NIKKOR-E lenses with a rounded blade nine electromagnetic diaphragm membrane of automatic control at use with Nikon cameras, this feature an opening mail, including D3, D300 and D700 has recently announced the camera .* This unique property allows photographers, Easier to compose images, without the characteristic black colour part of the experience with other objectives of this type.

The Micro PC-E NIKKOR 45mm f/2.8D ED NIKKOR objective requires the legacy of the long-term high optical quality and design. It has an Extra-low Dispersion (ED) lens element higher sharpness and color effectively reduces chromatic aberration and three aspherical lenses to reduce other types of aberrations ” ; goal. While the two objectives provide a reproduction ratio of 1:2, Micro PC-DD 85mm f/2.8 Objective provides an objective means of telecommunications and an increase in camera angle distance theme of work is preferable that, in many applications. In addition, two glasses of Nikon’s Super integrated coatings, the best color reproduction and Nikon’s exclusive Nanocrystalline Coat eliminate virtually all cases, still images and Flare.

Together with the recently announced NIKKOR PC-E 24mm f/3.5 ED lens, photographers now have a comprehensive assortment of Perspective Control NIKKORs ranging from wide to medium-telephoto from which to choose.

The PC-E Micro NIKKOR 45mm f/2.8D ED and PC-E Micro NIKKOR 85mm f/2.8D lenses are scheduled to become available through Nikon authorized dealers in the U.S. beginning in August 2008 for an estimated selling price of $1,799.95 and $1,739.95, respectively.**

The Kodak EasyShare Z1012 IS is an ultrazoom camera featuring a long 12x zoom (33-396mm 35mm equivalent). Beyond the lens, the camera features an SLR-like design, with an extended grip, rear control switch, electronic viewfinder, manual shooting modes, optical image stabilization, and large 2.5-inch screen.

Kodak made the Z1012 IS versatile by including a high-power CRV3 battery, but also allowing the use of an optional rechargeable pack or even AA batteries in a pinch. The camera also has buttons on top of the grip, allowing quicker and easier access to some common features. On the firmware side, Kodak has included features like face detection and auto focus tracking.

Styling and Build Quality

PERFORMANCE

Kodak definitely styled this camera to fit the standard ultrazoom look. With the large grip and protruding lens this camera clearly looks like small SLR. The black camera with silver accents looks nice, and the plastic parts of the body are textured – much like some more expensive cameras on the market.

The camera feels solid. I am quite impressed, actually, by just how solid it is. I don’t feel any creaking or weak areas in the camera. The only slight concern I have is in the design of the pop-up flash: it can easily be accidentally popped open. When open, however, the flash feels sturdy.

The lens cap is not included in the Z1012′s sturdy build quality, however. The lens cap was prone to just falling off when I gently set the camera on the table. I also greatly disliked that the lens cap attached to the outer portion of the lens housing, meaning that it was forced off the camera when the camera was turned on. This was bothersome to me, though some users may prefer this. Overall I worry that the lens on this camera will be damaged due the lens cap falling off too easily and too often.

Ergonomics and Interface

Considering its size, the Kodak Z1012IS is very comfortable. The main controls are comfortable to access, and the rubberized grip provides a solid hand-hold.

There is also a rubber grip on the lens housing, which is nice for those looking to support the camera with a second hand under the lens.

The Z1012′s buttons clicked firmly and solidly, though they could have felt better built. The dial used to select mode has a solid feel when rotated and stays in place well. The zoom rocker is easy to physically operate.

The design of the power switch can be a bit annoying, though. Instead of using either a button or an actual two-position switch, the Z1012 features a spring-loaded slider. There are few things worse than fumbling to get your camera powered up at a critical moment, and the fact that the camera often didn’t power on or off as expected when using this switch (you have to push it all the way to the end of its travel to actuate it) left me wishing for a simple two-position design instead.

The controls on this camera are mostly straightforward and almost standard. There were few surprises, with most of the layout proving self-explanatory if you have used most any other digital camera. The one exception to this was the control dial on the back of the camera. The dial works by rolling it right or left to select the setting you want to change, then pressing and rolling to change that setting. This odd arrangement proved very difficult to use: rolling the switch is fine, but pressing and rolling was cumbersome and slow.

The interface was also oddly slow in my experience. Changing settings in the menu was quick enough. The amount of time needed to change shooting settings, however, seemed like a bad joke: you could wait quite awhile for the change you made via a dedicated button to register with the camera. Even changing shooting modes with the mode dial was slowed by firmware lag, with the Z1012 taking a moment to “catch up” with physical-control changes. Likewise, the interference showed processing screens so often that this camera felt to be the slowest of any digital camera I have ever used where settings adjustments and post-shot processing were concerned. Even with minimal shutter lag and good AF speed, a poorly implemented interface makes the Z1012 feel much slower than it actually is.

Menus were easy enough to use. Moving through them and changing settings was easy to do. The list of settings in shooting mode was simple and easy to understand, and standard control practices (press the flash button to cycle through flash settings, for instance) were implemented as expected.

Display/Viewfinder

The screen on the Z1012 is about average for modern digital cameras. It worked well outside even in bright conditions, but I have seen much better in terms of brightness, contrast, and fluidity in some comparable cameras recently. The size was good and the screen wasn’t too cluttered with shooting information (which can be removed at the press of a button).

The electronic viewfinder in this camera is a nice addition. I vastly prefer viewfinders and this one worked well, with the understanding that its resolution is much lower than that of the screen. With less resolution and less color accuracy than the screen, the viewfinder appeared to be a bit more washed out and showed grain a bit quicker, making it ill suited for image review but just fine for composition.

Timings and Shutter Lag

The Z1012 IS is a snappy camera. With a pre-focused shutter lag of less than .04 seconds, this camera is essentially capable of capture in real time. Without pre-focusing, the camera takes .6 seconds to lock focus and fire at wide-angle. All in all, this AF lag is quite acceptable for an ultrazoom, giving the camera a reasonably quick feel.

In continuous drive mode, the Z1012 is capable of 2.1 frames per second, or three shots in 1.4 seconds. Unfortunately the camera only has a three-shot buffer and can’t shoot more than three full-res frames before stopping to write to the card. The flash averages 1.1 seconds between shots, with a 3.5 second full power cycle. This is a great speed, and in most cases the flash won’t slow you down.

Lens and Zoom

The long zoom on the Kodak Z1012 IS is nice to use. Given its range, I expected it to be very slow in cycling and thus annoying to use. However, I quickly found that the zoom was quite snappy and responsive. I was able to cover the entire 12x zoom range in a matter of seconds with no perceived pick-up lag.

If anything, I honestly felt that the zoom switch was too sensitive, proving difficult to precisely frame shots due to how quickly the lens zoomed in and out. Proceeding carefully, you could step the zoom in one by one, but this proved somewhat difficult to do.

Auto Focus

General auto focus performance was good. I found that the camera focused acceptably quickly – fast enough to satisfy most photographers. The camera’s basic focusing modes – normal AF, macro, landscape mode, and manual focus – all fit well for their intended uses.

A bigger concern than speed in this case, though, was consistency: at times, the Z1012′s AF system was prone to missing plain and simple, giving up badly out-of-focus shots. In other cases, the Z1012 randomly wouldn’t focus at all. For some shots, this prevented me from getting a capture at all. More often, having to repeatedly incite the Z1012 to focus just meant that it took longer to get the shot.

Overall, focus issues were common enough to be an irritation if not a hindrance. Typical problem situations involved moving subjects, but even in the most difficult shooting situations missed focus affected less than 25 percent of all shots taken. Interestingly, the camera did alright in low-light focusing.

Flash

In spite of good recycle times, the flash on the Z1012 IS wasn’t as good as I would have liked. As noted, I found that the physical housing was prone to popping open accidentally, exposing the unit itself to damage.

On the performance side, I greatly disliked how quick the camera was to use the flash on the auto setting – providing no benefit in some cases, and potentially ruining exposures in others. Hot spots and excessive reflectivity were also evident with some frequency, though exposure was fairly accurate in typical flash shooting situations.

On the control side, I appreciate how easy it is to set flash options thanks to a dedicated flash button. The ability to easily control the flash mode without diving into the menu made concerns about the system’s performance easier to keep in check.

Image Stabilization

Differences in settings, system design, and exposure control make it difficult to compare image stabilizations across camera brands. Subjectively, while the Z1012 IS provide optical image stabilization, results from my shooting suggest that system performance may not be quite up to the standards of the best cameras in this class. Some pictures taken in bright daylight with adequate hand-held shutter speeds still showed signs of camera shake, suggesting indirectly, at least, a situation that image stabilization should have been able to correct for.

Battery Life

The Z1012 IS did really well on battery life. Kodak includes a non-rechargeable CRV3 battery pack with the Z1012 IS, and with over 300 shots taken without draining the battery, performance of these roughly $10 replaceable packs should be more than acceptable for most people.

I also liked the option of using standard AA batteries in a pinch: this is a major selling point for a lot of people (though Kodak does warn that performance and battery life will be greatly reduced with alkalines). For those interested in a rechargeable solution, Kodak sells an accessory pack and charger for just this purpose. With good performance and plenty of versatility, this is one area where Kodak did a great job.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ50 is a 9.1 megapixel compact digicam with a 10x wide-angle Leica lens. This all-in-one shooting solution is made all the more impressive thanks to the addition of Wi-Fi, allowing the camera to wirelessly connect to the internet and upload your digital photos directly to your online Google Picasa photo gallery.

The TZ50 also offers all the basics that make for an excellent consumer camera. Panasonic’s Intelligent Auto (iA) mode is a combination of settings and features designed to handle a range of shooting situations with a slightly more evaluative approach to exposure settings than a conventional auto setting.

As with several other Panasonic point-and-shoots, the TZ50 has five basic shooting modes:

* Intelligent Auto: Permits user to select stabilization mode, burst shooting, image size and LCD mode.
* Normal Picture: Permits user to select stabilization mode, burst shooting, auto focus mode, white balance, ISO, intelligent exposure, image size and LCD mode.
* Scene Mode: Permits selection of any of 22 settings for specific scenes.
* Motion Picture: Permits capture of moving images in 4:3 or 16:9 formats at 30, 15 or 10 frames per second depending on format and picture size.
* Clipboard: “Useful when taking pictures of timetables, route maps or other information instead of taking notes.”

As for TZ5 the TZ50 is capable of 1280×720 HD-video 30 fps. While the camera ‘s microphone doesn’ t offer the same sound quality as a digital video camera, video quality is really impressive. As TZ5, optical zoom is also allowed during the video recordings with TZ50 “if the zoom moves more slowly than if we still images.
As we have already mentioned, sports TZ50 Panasonic ‘auto-mode intelligent, it previously on this site in other recent reviews Panasonic. The “Intelligent Auto-system is still in its ability to correctly identify the most appropriate pre-shot” and this quickly. While experienced photographers, missed the traditional manual or automatic opening of the diaphragm modes pre Intelligent Auto is still, as perhaps the best scene automatic detection of the current system.

When building a highly specialized camera, digital technology such as this opens new doors which are not possible with film based technology.

In dentistry, an X-ray machine can be converted to a digital camera with a CCD which is sensitive to the photons that make up the X-ray spectrum. Instead of imprinting an image of X-ray on film, developing the film and finally reviewing the tiny film image, modern X-ray cameras can instantly display an X-ray image on a computer screen as the CCD processes the array of photon measurements. This not only saves time, but also produces no waste in the form of exposed film and development chemicals. So with this frequently used, specialized camera, digital technology creates improvements in a dentist’s practice and protects the environment.

Another specialized camera that benefits from digital technology is the telescope. Traditional cameras, mounted to telescopes collect points of light and expose the film. This can provide more sensitivity than the human eye to faint points of light, but brighter points of light can also obscure fainter ones by “washing out” the image. With the application of digital technology the film camera is replaced by a digital camera using a CCD. The CCD can continue to receive and measure photons indefinitely. This means the process is a continuous measurement in contrast to the more simple exposure of a piece of film. Computers can then electronically filter out brighter sources of light making possible the detection of very faint points of light in the sky and even the study of celestial objects by the detection of the shadows they cast instead of the light they give off. By comparing the light collected over time, digital technology also allows this digital camera to detect distant objects by inferring their presence.

These are just two examples of how cameras are influenced by digital technology. New applications and even new science can result from such seemingly small advances in technologies that don’t seem to be related at all. Think on this the next time you examine your own digital camera.

Description:

Continuing on the success of the wide-angle, long zoom FinePix S8000fd, the 10-megapixel FinePix S8100fd integrates a Fujinon 18x Wide Angle Optical Zoom fixed lens, which offers a 27mm-486mm equivalent and allows the user to achieve greater range than ever before. The sealed, fixed-lens system prevents dust contamination and eliminates the need for additional zoom or wide angle lenses, making it an easy-to-use, affordable alternative to the complex DSLR system.

• 10 MegaPixel CCD
• Fujinon 18x Optical Zoom (wide 27mm-486mm equivalent)
• 2.5″ LCD w/ 230k pixel resolution + electronic viewfinder
• Face Detection w/ AutoRed Eye Removal
• Dual Image Stabilization
• Higher Sensitivity ISO1600 at full resolution
• Full Manual controls for advanced photography needs
• High Speed Continuous Shooting up to 33 frames, 13.5 fps
• New Hyper-view high speed, full-frame playback @ 10fps
• New Zoom Bracketing captures 3 shots automatically at standard zoom, 1.4x and 2.0x digital zoom
• New Instant Zoom one-touch digital zoom @ 1.4x & 2.0x
• 4 x AA Battery Power for convenience
• xD / SD / SD-HC Media Compatible Slot

Face Detection with Auto Red-Eye Removal
The new S8100fd Finepix digital still camera features Face Detection to significantly improve your picture taking by identifying human subjects’ faces in the frame and in real time, determining the optimal focus and exposure settings for the absolute best results possible in any shooting conditions.

Dual Image Stabilization
The FinePix S8100fd gives you the best of both worlds where image stabilization is concerned. With industry standard optical image stabilization, the photographer’s hand is steadied for a clearer, blur free shot. Add to that Fujifilm’s high sensitivity leveraging Picture Stabilization Technology, and increased clarity and sharpness is achieved, even in low light conditions or when shooting moving subjects. The combination of the two is the ultimate in stabilization technology.

Fujinon 18x Optical Zoom (wide 27mm-486mm equivalent)
The Finepix S8100fd features an 18x Optical Zoom with a focal range equivalent of 27mm-486mm compared to 35mm. This large, high quality Fujinon lens with long zoom is perfect for family vacations, nature photography, and sporting events. Bring your subject closer and clearer with high quality Fujinon lens technology. .

High Speed Continuous Shooting up to 33 frames, 13.5 fps

Perfect for seizing the moment, the S8100fd allows up to 33 frames to be captured in quick succession, at up to 13.5 frames per second. This capability is great for catching that perfect moment in sports – catching the big pass, scoring the goal, the swing that launches a home run, or any activitiy where that memorable shot comes and goes quickly. xD / SD / SD-HC Media Compatible Slot
The Finepix S8100fd features an xD/SD/SD-HC compatible slot, allowing the use of either xD Picture Card or SD/SD-HC media to store and transfer your photos. This new capability assures compatibility with a wider variety of applications than ever before, and allows users to choose the media technology that is right for them.

Review by DPReview

The introduction of Nikon’s new D700 may been one of the worst kept secrets in an industry with more leaks than the Titanic, but it was still something of a surprise coming so hot on the heels of the D3 and D300. Essentially a D3 shrunk down and squeezed into a body roughly the same size as a D300, the D700 is Nikon’s first ‘compact’ professional SLR, and seems designed to go head-to-head with whatever Canon has up its inscrutable sleeve to replace the Canon EOS 5D.

The imaging side of the D700 is pretty much the same as the D3; it shares the acclaimed 12.1MP full frame (‘FX’) sensor and has the same processing engine, so we would presume output to be almost identical. The main differences (aside from being considerably smaller) are physical; there’s a different shutter (good for 150,000 exposures rather than 300,000 on the D3), different viewfinder prism (with 95% coverage) and a slower burst rate. You also lose the rear LCD info panel (there’s no room for it) and one of the D3′s two CF card slots, but you do get a couple of extra features to soften the blow slightly; most notably a self-cleaning sensor and a built-in flash. We’ll look a little more in-depth at the differences between the D3 and D700 in a moment.

The D700 joins the D3 as a fully-fledged ‘professional’ model; it has the same tank-like build quality (though we’re sure the pop-up flash will cause a few raised eyebrows), and gets you the full pro service from Nikon. And the pricing (around $2999) reflects this; anyone hoping for an ‘affordable’ semi-pro full frame Nikon SLR will have to wait until the cost of producing such large sensors falls considerably.

Nikon D700 Key Features

• 12.1 megapixel full-frame sensor (8.45µm pixel pitch)
• Image Sensor Cleaning (vibration) *
• ISO 200 – 6400 (with boost up to ISO 25600 and down to ISO 100)
• Also supports DX lenses, viewfinder automatically masks (5.1 megapixels with DX lens)
• 14-bit A/D conversion, 12 channel readout
• Same ultra-fast startup and shutter lag as D3
• Nikon EXPEED image processor (Capture NX processing and NR algorithms, lower power)
• New Kevlar / carbon fibre composite shutter with 150,000 exposure durability *
• Multi-CAM3500FX Auto Focus sensor (51-point, 15 cross-type, more vertical coverage)
• Auto-focus tracking by color (using information from 1005-pixel AE sensor)
• 95% coverage, 0.72x magnification viewfinder *
• Auto-focus calibration (fine-tuning), fixed body or up to 20 separate lens settings
• Scene Recognition System (uses AE sensor, AF sensor)
• Picture Control image parameter presets
• 5 frames per second continuous with auto-focus tracking*
• Optional MB-D10 Battery Pack (same as D300), increases burst rate to 8 fps *
• UDMA compatible single CF card slot *
• 3.0″ 922,000 pixel LCD monitor
• Live View with either phase detect (mirror up/down) or contrast detect Auto Focus
• Virtual horizon indicates if camera is level (like an aircraft cockpit display)
• HDMI HD video output
• ‘Active D-Lighting’ (adjusts metering as well as applying D-Lighting curve)
• Detailed ‘Control Panel’ type display on LCD monitor, changes color in darkness
• Magnesium alloy body with connections and buttons sealed against moisture
• Improved Info display on main screen *

* Different to D3

Nikon D700 vs D3: Key Differences

Although the D3 and D700 are essentially the same camera in a different form factor (the D700 being far closer to the D300 in design and control layout), there are a few important specification differences.

• Smaller, lighter body *
• Built-in iTTL flash (G.No 17 / ISO 200)
• No rear information panel (new info display on main LCD)
• D700 doesn’t have the D3′s 5:4 aspect ratio option
• 95% coverage, 0.72x viewfinder (D3: 100% / 0.7x)
• Focus screen DX mode now indicated with a rectangle rather than shaded area
• Lower burst rate (5.0 fps / 8.0 fps with optional MB-D10)
• Smaller battery (EN-EL3e)
• Optional battery grip (MB-D10, same as D300)
• Expanded Function button options (can assign any camera menu item)
• Live View can be assigned to FUNC, AE-L or Preview buttons (allowing LV + different drive modes)
• Virtual Horizon can be overlaid on Live View preview image
• Different shutter (150,000 cycle rating – same as D300)
• Image Sensor cleaning (‘sensor shake’ dust reduction)
• Single CF slot (D3 has two)
• Minor menu and control differences (control layout is almost identical to D300)

* D700 is approx 34mm (1.3 in) shorter, 13mm (0.5 in) narrower and 10mm (0.4 in) shallower.
Weight (no battery) : D3 – 1240g, D700 – 995g

Technology under the skin

FX format sensor (Nikon design)	Sensor and sensor cleaning module
RGB 1005 segment metering sensor	EXPEED processor
Weather sealing on the D700 body