CES 2009 Digital Cameras Situation Room

CES is happening right now, so let's check the latest updates here in the CES 2009 Situation Room, a lightweight version of our Photokina 2008 Situation Room. We have reformatted this to make it more reader-friendly. To revisit this page, here is the permalink.

WRAP-UP: Digital Camera Review wraps up their CES 2009 coverage.

TRADE SHOW: Digital Camera Review has posted their second day daily round-up of all the action, visiting the booths of the hot cameras and the newly announced cameras.

VHS hearts BluRay: We'll leave all the tech-updates to Engadget et al, but this caught our attention and it is spotlighted by the J&R blog: Panasonic has announced a combo VHS/BluRay video player. I can has BetaMax next year?

MACWORLD: Imaging Resource has posted a MacWorld slide-show.

NO NEW NEWS: It looks like Friday is quiet hours so far. No new news or leaks yet.

PR FAIL: Nikon announces the Nikon S60 VR. The problem? This camera was already announced in August 2008 and it's been on the market for months.

POLAROID: Gone is the instant film camera, but in comes the instant digital. Details of the Polaroid PoGo via digicamreview.

NEW CAMERA: Sony has their second 2009 announcement in the new Wifi-enabled Cybershot G3 with a shocking starting price of $500.

NEW CAMERAS: Three more Samsung cameras have been announced in different parts of Europe. They are megapixel-variations of the already announced cameras. Check out the brand new PL65, ST10 and ES50. There you will also find a "nap" (we need one) MAP that matches up the different model numbers in different markets. This is starting to get annoying. With so many P&S models with unnecessarily different model names, we may have to "crop" the number of brands and cameras we cover. Especially the ones with stupid marketing departments (Which means we'll be left with NONE) :-)

SENSORS: Image Sensors World opines on fast CMOS sensors as evidenced by the two new Casio speed-demons.

TRADE SHOW: Digital Camera Review has posted their trade show report for the 1st day of CES 2009, with pictures, videos and text, including the mega-zooms and super-zooms, Pentax Storm Troopers, and more.

SENSORS: Photo Club Alpha talks about the "Exmor R" sensor found in the new Sony HandyCam camcorders which allegedly provides 2X the sensitivity.

MEMORY CARDS: SDHC is not the only one going to 2TB. Sony and Sandisk combined to develop the new Sony MS EHC, EHC for extended high capacity. Oh doesn't this remind you of the "extended vs expanded"? ;-)

SPEED DEMONS: Casio has introduced two new compact speed-demons that shoot six-megapixel stills at 30 fps, the Casio EX-FC100 and FS10. The EX-FC100 has a traditional retractable lens, while the FS10 has folded optics. Both use nine megapixel sensors.

NEW CAMERAS: Four "traditional" P&S digital cameras have been shown by Casio at CES 2009 and captured by those participating at the trade show. More details.

VIDEO: One Some of the Panasonic camcorders introduced have a 70X optical zoom lens. See them at DVice. Will that translate to a mega-zoom digital camera as well?

LAPTOPS: Gizmodo had a brief hands-on with the dual-screen Lenovo W700ds.

Picture-friendly HDTV: JVC has introduced a new HDTV that features expanded "color space". Details via Camera Town.

RECAP: In just three days, we have accumulated 31 new cameras in 2009 from the major manufacturers. The most intriguing so far are two mega-zooms, two fun-zooms and two Casio speed-demons.

NEW CAMERAS: Sony joins the 12mp 1/2.33" party with the Cybershot W220. Also new the W210 (without OIS), and the entry-level S970.

NEW CAMERA: Samsung attacks the fun-zoom segment with the HZ10w featuring a 10X lens that starts at 24mm wide and has manual exposure control.

NEW CAMERA: Stylish and thin is the new Samsung TL100, not to be confused with the TL34hd/NV100hd of 2008.

NEW CAMERAS: Two new entry-level cameras from Samsung resist 12mp tempation and "stay" at 10mp. They are the SL420 and SL102.

NEW CAMERAS: Two more from Olympus, making the total of this burst mode 12. Meet the FE-45 and FE-25 via DigiCamReview.com

NEW CARD FORMAT: SD? SDHC? How about SDXC? This new specification can go up to 2 terabytes (2TB) of storage and reach a theoretically-practical writing speed of 300MB/s. Details via Imaging Insider, Imaging Resource et al.

MEGAPIXEL WARS: The insanity of the 12mp 1/2.33" sensor in basic auto-mode P&S cameras in 2009 does not bode well for what will happen to 1/1.7" and APS-C sensors :-(

RECAP: Olympus has just announced ten new cameras. Here is the executive summary.

NEW CAMERAS: Olympus closes their 10-pack announcement with a trio of FE-series entry-level cameras, two of which have 12mp 1/2.33" sensors. More details.

NEW CAMERA: Olympus grabs the superzoom-ratio crown from Kodak with the new Olympus SP590uz, with a 12-megapixel sensor and 26X (!!!) lens.

NEW CAMERAS: A trio of Stylus models with a 12-mp sensor but versatile lenses are launched. Meet the Stylus 9000, 7000 and 5000.

NEW CAMERA: More Olympus, the waterproof Stylus 550WP.

NEW CAMERAS: The first two Olympus TOUGH cameras are being revealed, the Tough 6000 and 8000, both using a 28-102mm lens but sadly still stubbornly sticking to xD/microSD, without SD/SDHC/MMC support.

MACWORLD: Apple launched a new 17" MacBook Pro laptop with a built-in battery that can last an impressive 7 to 8 hours. Prices start at $2800, and ships in 3-4 weeks. The Apple Store is taking pre-orders.

LIST: All the digital cameras announced so far in 2009 in the Digital Cameras of 2009 list. You can also catch-up or cross-reference 2008 with the Cameras of 2008 nude calendar list.

LEICA: A special edition black and red Leica M8.2 is coming to Japanese store Isetan according to HypeBeast.com. No price or availability is given.

NEW CAMERA: Cold on the heels of the mostly ignored HZ1, Samsung is launching the similar HZ10w which also starts at 24mm wide and tries to compete in the "fun zoom" segment. Details at Photography Blog.

SOFT RUMORS: Canon Rumors rumorizes Digital Rebel TSi (aka 500D), while Nikon Rumors rumorizes D90s and D65. Please note that these are soft rumors at this point in time.

VIDEO: Samsung announced new line of HD-camcorders, the H-Series, details at Engadget and elsewhere.

SOFTWARE: Google "Macasa" is coming. Okay, Picasa for Mac, but you can see why we gave it this lovely nickname. Details via C|Net UnderExposed.

NEW CAMERAS: Pentax launches two new Optios, the P70 (starts at 28mm wide) and E70 (corrected url).

SOFTWARE: Version 4.6 of Capture One is out. Details via Capture Integration et al.

VIDEO: Eleven new camcorders by Canon. Details via Cameta Town and elsewhere.

TRADE SHOW: The Kodak Chief blogger is inviting tech-bloggers who plan to attend the CES trade show to test drive a Kodak Zi6 - details in 140 words or less via Twitter.

NEWS: Samsung is opening an imaging sensor R&D center in Silicon Valley as part of their Californication expansion. Details at Image Sensors World

R&D: University researchers in Glasgow have received half a million UK pounds to work on improving CMOS sensor sensitivity. Details at Amateur Photographer UK

DATA: New CIPA numbers, computer-translated at digitalcamera.jp

OFFICIAL: The Kodak leaks are now officially announced. See dpreview et al. Also three M-series models.

NEWS: Sakar, the new owner of Vivitar, has announced a new series of affordable (D)SLR lenses, including an 85mm f1.4, two f8 mirror lenses (500mm, 800mm) and a 650-1300mm T-mount lens(e). Details at DCViews.com

LEAK: DigiCamReview notices that a new model has leaked, meet the Sony S950, a 10mp S-series model. This is available in three colors, black, silver and pink.

LEAK: More megapixels for compacts and DSLRs by Sony, Panasonic and Samsung according to CNet Asia and Smart House. OUCH! This corroborates the Kodak and Canon rumors below, 12mp 1/2.3". YIKES?

LEAK: Kodak Z980 (12mp, 24X) super-zoom, plus M380 P&S and ZX1 HD-video-gadget. Press release info emerges, see Engadget - the camera has a ... detachable vertical grip!

RUMORS: Rumors of CMOS-based Canon SD-series Elph (Ixus, Ixy) via Canon Rumors and rumors of three more SD-series models, also via Canon Rumors.

NEWS: GE will release four of its current cameras in Japan, details via digitalcamera.jp (computer-translated) - perhaps a symbolic and strategic move.