Gadget geek Janice Chen delivers real-world buying advice of the best digital photography gear to get.
Janice got her hands on a Nikon Coolpix 900 back in 1998 and has been a digital camera enthusiast ever since.
Apparently announcing 10 cameras at PMA wasn't enough for Sony. Today the electronics company announced two more cameras to top off its Cyber-Shot W and H series: the Cyber-Shot DSC-W300, a 13.6 megapixel compact point-and-shoot and the Cyber-shot H50, a 9.1 megapixel megazoom model.
I'm a big fan of extra-wide point-and-shoot cameras so I'm looking forward to getting a closer look at the new Ricoh R8, announced yesterday. Like its predecessor the R7 (which wasn't released in the U.S.), the R8 sports a fairly wide f/3.3-5.2 28mm-200mm-equivalent 7.5x zoom lens.
Between the flurry of new camera announcements at CES and PMA and year-end holiday purchases, chances are pretty good that you or someone you know has a new digital camera. The question is what to do with the old camera. If it's in working order, you could pass it along to someone less fortunate than yourself (in my case, my 9-year-old niece who love, love, loves the old 4 megapixel snapshooter that was festering in my defunct electronics drawer). But if your old camera is beyond repair and not worth foisting on some poor unsuspecting Luddite, then seeking out an option to recycle the product will win you some karmic points with the environment.
With so many recently announced entry-level DSLRs hitting the market (besides the Canon Rebel XSi and Nikon D60, there's the Pentax K200D and Sony's sub $900 trifecta, the A200, A300, and A350), this new backpack from LowePro is going to come in handy with a lot of folk.
I apparently caught a "flu-like virus" according to the doctor (despite having had a flu shot this year) and have been sick as a dog since shortly after returning from Vegas, so apologies for the dirth of posts this week. In the meantime, check out this great News.com Q&A with Chuck Westfall, camera tech guru and the technical adviser for Canon USA's professional products marketing division. Lots of great info, including his take on the competition, geotagging, battery technology developments, and more.
Eye-Fi, maker of one of my favorite camera accessories (a Wi-Fi enabled SD card), was at PMA announcing a couple of key partnerships and a new Smart Boost upgrade. I
So what else was there to be found on the show floor today? In addition to the slew of previously announced cameras, I also got a quick hands-on look at Kodak's latest megazoom, the EasyShare Z1012 IS, which was announced on the 29th.
It's the first official day at PMA 2008 and it seems as though all the major cameras have already been announced. The only real excitement today was at Sony's press event.
There wasn't much exciting at the PMA 08 Sneak Peek press event this afternoon (Fujifilm, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Samsung, and Pentax all had tables showing the same cameras we already know all about). But Sony has sparked some excitement with two sub-$900 DSLR announcements today.
I'm headed off to PMA in Vegas tomorrow morning, but it's obvious that what happens at PMA doesn't stay at PMA...it often comes before PMA. So here's a rundown of the pre-PMA camera announcements so far. Check back tomorrow evening for an update after I attend the PMA 08 Sneak Peek press briefing.