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Mark your calendars! Nokia has scheduled a July 11 2013 event and one of the teasers for the event is "Zoom Reinvented". Just a couple of days ago Samsung announced the Galaxy S4 Zoom smartphone+camera with a stabilized 10x optical zoom lens. With this Nokia teaser, are we going to get another zoom smartphone+camera or has Nokia developed something else that would justify the "Zoom Reinvented" teaser? One way or another, we will find out by July 11!
And if that's not enough, press release pictures of the Galaxy NX creature have leaked on the internets via Engadget and Camera.Tinhte.Vn and /Gear and The Verge.
dpreview announced a new series of updates and upgrades for their classic forums editor. New additions include a handy tabbed browsing filter feature, and a "Photo Post" format for forum-posts that post pictures.
These limited time offers for the time period leading up to Father's Day 2013 expired... For future specials, stay tuned to the Camera Deals blog with the easy to remember url noisydeals.com... Expired items after the jump...
This limited time discount expired... For future specials, stay tuned to the Camera Deals blog with the easy to remember url noisydeals.com... Expired items after the jump...
Pentax has not forgotten their DSLR system. They have announced two new DSLRs today, the K-50 and the K-500. The K-50 turns the K-30 into a more conventional DSLR, while the K-500 is a more affordable variation, no weather sealing. A lot of the main systems remain, 16mp APS-C sensor, SAFOX IX+, pentaprism in both of them, etc.
The K-50 with the 18-55mm DA L WR lens is going for $780 in one trillion different color combinations and they are available for pre-order at Adorama and B&H Photo. Body only goes for $700. Two lens kit with 18-55 and 50-200 goes for $880. Kit with 18-135mm goes for $1100.
The K-500 with the 18-55mm DA L lens is going to be available for $600 or $700 with a two lens kit (18-55, 50-200 DA L). Only available in black which may suggest that this might perhaps be strategically planned for high-volume retailers (eg Costco, Walmart, etc) - pure speculation on my part. Pre-orders are accepted at Adorama and B&H Photo.
The availability of so many different color combinations raises some interesting questions. If Pentax went through the trouble of producing all these colors, are they also going to go through the trouble of promoting these a lot more effectively and widely than they used to before the Ricoh era?
From a thrifty bargain hunter perspective, all these different colors are very likely to eventually generate some really good bargains when this model starts reaching the replacement/discontinued stage.
Pentax K-50 and K-500 Hands-On Reports
+ K-50 first impressions and pre-production gallery at The dpreview
+ full size JPEG samples for both DSLRs at The Pop Photo - click on "(Click For Full-Res) in their right sidebar of the slideshow to get the full resolution images
+ K-50 first impressions at the ThePhoblographer
+ lots of camera body pictures (black) at The Photography Blog
We have an answer. The Pentax Q system will continue after the Ricoh merger/purchase. And the sensor will grow a little bit. Pentax has officially announced the new Q7 mirrorless camera with a 1/1.7x" sensor instead of the 1/2.x" sensor of the previous Q system cameras (Q and Q10). This is a 12mp backlit CMOS sensor so some "megapixel restraint" as well. Needless to say, it has RAW. Whoever makes the first DSLR/iLC that does not have RAW will have to answer to the digital camera history and historians!
As the leaks suggested, this looks like a photography-bait type of a camera, a photographer's camera of sorts.
The new Q7 is going to be available in a maddening number of variations, body only, with 5-15mm zoom and two-lens kit (5-15, 15-45) in a variety of body colors. They are already available for pre-order at Adorama and B&H Photo with the standard zoom kit (5-15mm) going for $500 and the two-lens kit going for $700. The body only is just $24 less than the standard zoom kit.
Also new: Q Mount Shield Lens for $80
Also coming along for the ride is the "07 Mount Shield Lens", continuing the new trend of body-cap-lenses. This will go for $80, have a fixed aperture of f9, with a "35mm equivalent" focal length of 53mm and a focusing range of 70cm to 2m. This critter weighs just 8 grams and the press release promises: "still life shots and macro photography are given a beautiful dream-like look and feel". Ha!
The Cameraholics Debate club will spend many sessions debating whether this is a camera with phone internals or a phone with a telescopic zoom lens attached to it, but regardless, Samsung has officially announced the new Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom smartphone which has a 10x telescopic optical zoom lens! One side looks like a smartphone, the other side looks like a P&S camera!
Samsung has been selling Galaxy products like hotcakes, but they have a hard time breaking out in digital cameras. So this is a smart idea, try to sell digital cameras under the Galaxy brand that people scoop up like crazy :) It is perhaps no coincidence that this is done as part of the "Galaxy S4" flagship. Although at this rate, they'll call every phone they make an "S4 something something" :)
It has a 24-240mm equivalent f3.1-6.3 10x optical zoom lens with built-in optical image stabilization, a 16mp backlit CMOS sensor, 4.3-inch qHD (960x540) display, Android 4.2, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, LTE potential, and the usual smartphone features (Bluetooth, NFC, Wifi, etc), etc, etc, etc.
The schools have barely closed for the summer but the back to school announcement season is already underway in the world of consumer electronics. Samsung joined the announcement party this week with a new tiny 10mm f3.5 fisheye lens for their NX mirrorless system. Price not revealed yet.
The teasers are over, the new Leica Vario X is now officially announced as a 16mp APS-C digital camera with a glued-in 28-70mm f3.5-6.4 "equivalent" zoom lens. In an era where APS-C primes are the norm, it is perhaps a bit ironic for Leica to be releasing a camera with a zoom lens. The times they are kinda a-changing.
An interesting new alliance has been announced. Fuji and Panasonic has developed together organic CMOS imaging sensor technology using organic photoelectric conversion layer. Press release at Fuji News.
Here are a couple of the key diagrams from the above press release...
If you were not convinced that the Digital Rebel T5i/700D is very similar to the Digital Rebel T4i/650D, perhaps this new dpreview review of the camera will convince you. The cameras are so similar that dpreview is mostly reposting the T4i/650D review. Quote: " Our tests have found the image quality and performance of both cameras to be identical and they use the same batteries and accessories as well".
If you are in a hurry or running out of battery, you can jump to the conclusions page. Did it get an Olympic medal or was it referred to the alchemists or was it referred to the scrap metal shop? (just kidding!)
Have The Digital Rebels Jumped The Shark?
It is bad enough for DSLRs that the excitement and intensity of interest among early adapter and first waves photographers is with mirrorless cameras. Canon added to that by releasing a new D-Rebel that is more or less identical to the previous model, just one year after.
So this triggers the obvious question, have the Digital Rebels jumped the shark? Vote in the poll below or opine in the comments if you have a longer answer...
The previously mentioned Samyang 16mm f2 APS-C lens is going to start shipping next month (see B&H Photo, but Samyang is not done. They have also revealed that coming this year is a new 300mm f6.3 mirror lens for mirror less camera systems. For the speed-readers of the previously intentionally crafted sentence, it is a mirror lens for mirrorless camera systems :)
A leakage at Digicame.info (computer-translated) reveals that the Pentax Q system will continue in the new Pentax-Ricoh era. Continue and slightly grow. The sensor will "grow up" to 1/1.7" instead of the 1/2.x" sensor of the previous Pentax Q cameras. New lenses are coming as well. It will go on sale in Japan on the 5th of July which likely means it will be announced at or before that time.
The camera will also have a more photographer-bait look as you can see at the leaked picture below...
