Sigma Corporation is pleased to announce the availability of four pieces of compact-lightweight DC lenses (18-50mm F2.8 EX DC, 18-50mm F3.5-5.6 DC, 18-125mm F3.5-5.6 DC, 55-200mmF4-5.6 DC) for Konica Minolta digital SLR camera. These lenses are exclusively designed for digital SLR cameras. The image circle that DC lenses create is large enough to cover these smaller

Jan. 19, 2005 Pepcom Inc., the country's leading technology showcase producer, announced today that Best Magazine will co-sponsor the annual DigitalFocus Awards at Pepcom's DigitalFocus media event in Orlando, on February 19th. Now in their eighth year, the highly coveted awards honor the best in digital imaging technologies.

What is new/Content Description?
Issues addressed with firmware version 1.2
When trying to print multiple images using PictBridge after specific operations, only one image was printed. This problem has been corrected.
Errors in time zone (city) names and French and Dutch menus have been corrected.
Compatible OS platform
Windows 98 SE
Windows 2000
Windows ME
Windows XP
What's included in the download?
firmware.bin: Camera firmware
release.txt: change description text

Visit Nikon Download Page

Jan. 19, 2005 According to a new consumer survey from InfoTrends/CAP Ventures, 37% of digital camera owners who print photos said they had tried retail services in 2004. Retail services include ordering prints at a photo kiosk, ordering over-the-counter at a retail store, or ordering through a retailer's online site for pickup in the store. This percentage is up from 14% in 2003, demonstrating the growing popularity of printing digital photos in retail stores.

While more digital camera owners are trying retail services, the home continues to be the leading location for producing prints. During 2004, 94% of digital camera owners who print photos made at least some of their prints at home, up from 90% in 2003. Digital camera owners who print at home create "throwaway" prints on plain paper as well as archival prints on special photo paper.

TOKYO, Jan 19 Japan's Fuji Photo Film Co. said on Wednesday it expects its global digital camera sales to grow 21 percent in the next business year, and unveiled plans to cut production costs by 10-15 percent by using more common parts. Fuji Photo, the world's fifth-largest vendor of digital cameras, is struggling to maintain profit margins along with other players in the industry due to sharp price falls and slowing growth rates in more mature markets like Japan.

January 18, 2005 - Ricoh Corporation a leader in specialized digital imaging devices today launched the Pro G3. The Pro G3 is a high-resolution digital camera that embeds captured images with GPS coordinate information received from either its on-board GPS unit or from external GPS devices.

Once these captured ‘geo-images’ are transferred to a PC, they are automatically converted to shape files or merged to geo-databases for instant integration into Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Points representing each image’s position may be hovered over to display a thumbnail, or clicked on to access the full-size image.

Jan. 18, 2005 The magicolor(R) 2400W the newest personal color laser printer from KONICA MINOLTA has been named as PC Magazine's "Editors' Choice". In a January 5th on-line review, PC Magazine said of the magicolor 2400W, ". . . what you get for the price is one of the faster four-pass color lasers we've seen, combined with output quality that ranges from good to excellent. And the 2400W's particular mix of speed, quality, and price makes it an impressive package indeed." PC Magazine also gave the magicolor 2400W high praise for ease of set-up.

Priced at just $399, the Windows(R)-compatible magicolor 2400W has a USB 2.0 port and prints 2400 dpi at 20 ppm in b&w and 5 ppm in color. In PC Magazine's business application print speed tests, the magicolor 2400W outperformed the similarly-equipped but more expensive HP Color Laser Jet 2550L and Dell Laser Printer 3100cn.

KONICA MINOLTA's magicolor 2430 DL the first color laser printer equipped with PictBridge-compatible camera direct photo printing has received the CNET "Next Big Thing" award in the "Peripherals" category. CNET editor-in-chief Patrick Houston announced the winners of CNET's "Next Big Thing" awards on Friday, January 7th at the 2005 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

The "Next Big Thing" winners were chosen from hundreds of submissions in 12 categories, and judged on criteria that included: their promise to delight customers with their usefulness, design, and/or capacity to entertain; their ability to endow the owner with a certain cachet; breaking new ground in ease of use; working easily and readily with other products; pioneering a new category; setting a new standard for excellence in an existing category or innovation; selling in substantial numbers; and capturing the "wow" factor. In addition to "Peripherals", other award categories included: Digital Photo and Video; Home Theater; Portable Audio and Video; and Computers.

Jan. 18, 2005 Lyra Research forecasts ink jet photo paper shipments will double, increasing from 2.6 billion sheets in 2003 to 5.2 billion sheets in 2008, a compound annual growth rate of 15 percent. Growth in the ink jet photo paper market will be driven primarily by worldwide increases in digital camera ownership

Jan. 18, 2005 Unique On-Demand Program Enables Photo Enthusiasts and Advanced Amateurs to Learn Digital Printing Secrets of the Pros at Home at Their Own Pace

In response to the ongoing demand for high-quality education in digital photography, Epson America Inc. has begun offering its Online Experience digital photography and printing program via authorized photo dealers, making it even easier for photo enthusiasts and advanced amateurs to participate in the valuable on-demand program. This unique program offers participants expert techniques, valuable tips and insider secrets the pros use to create spectacular digital prints.

January 17, 2005 - Nikon Canada Inc. today announced lower MSRP’s* for selected top-selling Nikon Coolpix digital cameras.

New lower MSRP’s*:
Coolpix 4100, was $339.95, now $299.95
Coolpix 5100, was $369.95, now $339.95
Coolpix 4200, was $399.95, now $369.95
Coolpix 5400, was $679.95, now $599.95

January 17th 2005 - Konica Minolta proudly introduces the DiMAGE E50, a digital camera that boasts an amazing combination of 2.5 inch type LCD monitor, thin and stylish design, and intuitive operation in an affordable, 5 Megapixel, entry-level model.

DiMAGE E50 is a user-friendly, compact digital camera equipped 3x optical zoom lens whilst achieving thin, pocketable dimensions.

DiMAGE E50 has a compact, 27.5mm thick body, weighing as little as 130 grams, easily fitting into a handbag, even trouser or shirt pocket to accompany you wherever you go. You can also use the 4x digital zoom in combination with the 3x optical zoom to take shots at up to 12x total zoom.

The DiMAGE E50 for even greater creativity, movie recording lets you record movie clips in 640x480 resolution at 15fps, up to the duration of your card’s remaining storage capacity.

The DiMAGE E50 delivers dependable basic performance, and the ability to take photos as close as 6 cm to the subject using macro mode.