Digital Cameras
Video: Hands-on with the Olympus Pen E-P1 
Good day, and welcome to today's Crave Live, from your humble Interwebitude compendium CNET UK, gathering gadget news and reviews for your delight and edification. Today we hopped on an omnibus and headed for swinging London Town, where skirts are short and the future is now: no, it's not a prop from Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future -- it's the new Olympus Pen E-P1. This 'retro-styled' technological marvel, known as a 'digital' camera, dispenses entirely with film -- whatever will they think of next? Watch video...
Pentax Optio W80 wades into waterproof camera market 
Glastonbury weekend is approaching. Roughly 170,000 people are in a state of feverish excitement, while about six times that number wish they were going, and are cackling with glee because it's probably going to piss it down. With holidays and festivals on the horizon, it's a good time for Pentax to announce the Optio W80, another camera that can go anywhere, whether it be a tropical sea, an azure swimming pool or a flooded dance tent.
The 12.1-megapixel W80 boasts an above-average 5x zoom, with a decent 28mm wideangle to 140mm telephoto focal length, equivalent to a 35mm camera. It'll spot a whopping 32 faces in less than half a second, and also includes smile and blink detection. Continue reading...
Are Micro Four Thirds cameras EVIL?
Olympus unveiled its first Micro Four Thirds camera in Berlin this week, and while we're excited about this milestone, we're troubled by one nagging doubt. What do we call it? Oh, we know it's called the E-P1. But what is it?
The E-P1 joins the Panasonic Lumix G1 and GH1 in a new market segment: compact cameras with interchangeable lenses and feature sets closer to dSLRs. The true distinguishing feature of these cameras, and the E-P1, is that they do away with the optical viewfinder and mirror mechanism that puts the single lens reflex into SLR. This means they're potentially smaller, and to us are true digital cameras, rather than digitally recording a film-era light-capturing system. Continue reading...
Photos: Hands-on with the Olympus E-P1
The Micro Four Thirds camera system has been a tough sell to some, so the designers of the Olympus E-P1 have looked to the past to explain things: a simpler time, happier time, perhaps? But under the retro surface the E-P1 is looking to the future.
We took the E-P1 out on a shooting tour of Berlin to get a feel for the company's first entry to the Micro Four Thirds range. It's a very different beast to Panasonic's Lumix G1 and GH1 -- the GH1 especially is a bleeding-edge behemoth packing everything in, while the E-P1 is a stripped-down, simple-to-use snapper aimed at the family market. Continue reading...
Olympus E-P1: You youngsters don't know you're born
Looking only slightly like the original Micro Four Thirds concept design Olympus floated last September at Photokina, the company's retro E-P1 debuts this year to ride the coattails of the 50th anniversary of the company's classic Pen film camera. From the name, to the design, to the tagline etched on its top -- 'Olympus Pen since 1959' -- it feels like a cross between an homage and a desperate reminder that Olympus was in the camera business long before most digital photographers were born.
That said, we think the design works, and if Olympus can pull off decent performance and photo quality, it will probably carve itself a niche among style-, but not budget-conscious, enthusiasts. Continue reading...
Casio Exilim EX-H10: Hang 10 with a 10x zoom and 1,000 snaps
Casio has waded into the compact superzoom scrap with the Exilim EX-H10, a pocketable camera with, you guessed it, a 10x zoom.
Panasonic used to have the market to itself with its outstanding TZ series, among which the Lumix DMC-TZ6 and Lumix DMC-TZ7 blew the roof off our review scoring system. But the 12-megapixel EX-H10 is the latest in a recent spate of undersized superzooms, such as the Samsung WB500 and Canon PowerShot SX200 IS, attempting to muscle in on TZ territory. Continue reading...
Olympus Micro Four Thirds debutant picture leaks: It's the E-P1
Olympus has been promising its first Micro Four Thirds model for ages, but with a 'mysterious' launch event in exactly one week's time and the Internet abuzz with rumour, it seems the wait is over. The new camera even has a name: the E-P1.
We've been salivating over the gloriously louche concept since last September's Photokina -- has it really been that long? In the meantime, Panasonic has reached its second Micro Four Thirds milestone, following the Lumix G1 with the video-shooting GH1. It's high time for a little competition in this new -- and still somewhat overpriced -- market sector. Now all we need is a name for this new type of interchangeable lens, non-dSLR cameras. Are they hybrids? dSLR-alikes? dSLaren'ts? Continue reading...
Sony Alpha 330: Jessops snags the exclusive
Jessops has announced another exclusive camera, the friendly Sony Alpha 330 dSLR. We recently revealed the 330 alongside the 230 and 380, and it's now been confirmed that the 330 with 18-55mm lens will be available only in Jessops stores and at Jessops.com.
We're quite taken with the 330's subtle two-tone retro looks and its chequered body texture. Around the back there's the usual Alpha fold-out screen, measuring a respectable 69mm (2.7 inches). Continue reading...
Zero ink, Zero Boundaries: Zink challenges designers
Zink, the company that prints digital photos without ink -- zero ink, geddit? -- has launched a competition for designers, students and the bored to imagine what the future holds for instant printing.
Zink products work by baking specially treated paper, creating the print-out from crystals impregnating the paper. The result is a printed photo, dry-to-touch in under two minutes. Zink first appeared a couple of years ago, and after a no-brainer tie-up with Polaroid is now the technology behind the Polaroid Two digital instant printer. The company is looking for creative types like you -- yes you, you with the arms -- to come up with an instant printing system that will "re-imagine printing and its role in the digital world using the Zink technology to fuel the future possibilities of this unique technology platform." And make Zink lots of money, obv. Continue reading...
Photos: Hands-on with the Pentax K-7 dSLR
First it was leaked, then it was launched, and now we've nabbed the Pentax K-7 camera for a hands-on first impression.
And that first impression is good. It's a sturdy beast and no mistake, yet it's small for its class. In fact, Pentax has done some maths and tells us it's 33 per cent smaller than the Nikon D300. It's also weatherproof, thanks to 77 seals. Being as it's a glorious day on London's South Bank today, we couldn't test that in the rain, so we did the next best thing and took some shots of holidaying kids frolicking in a fountain. Continue reading...
