Minolta Introduces the New DiMAGE
Xt Biz Digital Camera (07/30/01)
Digital Camera and Software Package Delivers Excellent Images
for Business Applications
RAMSEY, N.J. - July 30, 2003--Minolta
Corporation introduces the new Minolta DiMAGE Xt Biz - a digital
camera and software package specifically designed for modern
business use and personal communication. The Minolta DiMAGE Xt
Biz, based on the popular DiMAGE Xt digital camera, is the first
Minolta digital camera to produce high quality images, image
annotation, audio annotation, image validation and text capture
for effective business communications. Among the value-added
benefits to business users, the DiMAGE Xt Biz is designed to
capture images used for effective documentation. It is ideal
for use in law enforcement, real estate, insurance, recording
conference room white board meeting notes and documenting trade
show displays via multiple image and/or audio links.
The DiMAGE Xt Biz digital camera comes bundled with the new Minolta
DiMAGE Biz Software. DiMAGE Biz Software for PC users allows
text annotation, image annotation and audio annotation to be
linked to any image file. DiMAGE Biz Software, when used in conjunction
with the DiMAGE Xt Biz digital camera, also allows users such
as law enforcement agents or insurance agents to validate an
image file, allowing them to be able to prove that an image has
not been altered or tampered with. If even one pixel has been
changed a warning will appear. In addition, when a picture of
text on a whiteboard or white paper flipchart is taken with the
DiMAGE Xt Biz camera, the DiMAGE Biz software processes that
image for clear viewing, allows the user to crop out unwanted
frame and chalk rails and adjust perspective for off-axis shots.
"The new DiMAGE Xt Biz digital camera is an ideal business communications tool as well as an easy to use and fun camera for the weekends," said Jon Sienkiewicz, vice president of marketing, Minolta Corporation's Consumer Products Group. "By easily linking images with text and audio notes, an ordinary business meeting or trade show turns into an extraordinarily well-documented event. Or users can slip this digital camera into their pockets to photograph their vacation."
The new Minolta DiMAGE Xt Biz digital camera allows users to highlight specific details on a recorded image and then link subsequent images or voice memos as references or comments. Up to ten separate images or audio files can be linked to the original image. When the original image is opened into the DiMAGE Biz Software application on a PC, the related images and voice memos are loaded into the software's comment area and are linked to the area marquees in the original image.
DiMAGE Biz Software makes it simple to transfer data from the DiMAGE Xt Biz digital camera to a PC. Image and audio files recorded with the camera are automatically converted from JPEG and WAVE to the .mdm annotation file format. Annotation files can also be saved in HTML and emf formats allowing them to be shared in common office applications. Images of text or line art can be corrected with DiMAGE Biz Software's advanced image-processing tools. Contrast and color can be improved and perspective control can straighten images that were taken at an angle. The DiMAGE Biz Software's security tag can show if the original image data was changed or not providing even greater flexibility by ensuring there was no fraudulent tampering of data in the digital image files.
About the DiMAGE Xt Biz Digital Camera
Minolta Corporation's new extremely thin and compact DiMAGE Xt Biz is a 3.2 megapixel digital camera. Similar to the stylish and award-winning Minolta DiMAGE Xi, the DiMAGE Xt Biz features the world's fastest start-up time of any digital camera with an optical zoom lens, Minolta's image-processing technology, CxProcess, a 3x optical zoom lens, 4x digital zoom and an even smaller and thinner camera body than the DiMAGE Xi.
The contoured new vertically oriented design of the DiMAGE Xt Biz eliminates more than 5% from the size, nearly 8% from the weight and offers nearly a half-second reduction in start-up time compared to its predecessor DiMAGE Xi. At 3.4 x 2.6 x 0.8 in. and 4.2 oz., the DiMAGE Xt Biz can be placed as easily as a wallet into a pocket or briefcase. The exclusive folded optical zoom system allowed Minolta to recreate the world's thinnest(a), compact, planar digital camera with a 3x optical zoom. An optional Marine Case is available when the camera needs to be used in harsh environments or withstand abuse at construction sites or industrial locations. The case is water tight down to a depth of 100 feet.
(a) As of February 15, 2003
Ritz Camera Centers First to Nationally
Launch Fully Digital Single-Use Camera (07/29/03)
Partnership with Pure Digital Technologies Delivers High-Quality,
100% Digital Photography at a Single-Use Price
BELTSVILLE, Md., July 29 - Ritz Camera Centers, the largest retail camera and photo chain in the United States, today announced the nationwide launch of the Dakota Digital Single-Use Camera at select Ritz Camera and Wolf Camera locations. The cameras, a first to offer consumers a high-quality, fully digital experience at a single-use price, will sell for $10.99 under the company's Dakota Digital brand.
The Dakota Digital Single-Use Camera, built on the Pure Digital(TM) Imaging Platform, gives consumers the exciting benefits of digital photography without the associated cost and complexity. The easy-to-use camera offers functions normally associated with sophisticated digital cameras, including the ability to delete unwanted pictures, a fully automatic flash, metered exposure control, and a self-timer feature. Processing is made simple by returning the camera to any of the Ritz Camera or Wolf Camera locations for film-quality 4 x 6 DigiPrints "in minutes" and a photo CD. Now with a click of the mouse, even the novice computer users can email pictures, create photo greetings, or send multiple photos as a slideshow. Each camera is fully recycled after processing.
"The Dakota Digital Single-Use Camera is the easy and affordable answer to digital photography without giving up prints," noted David Ritz, Chairman of Ritz Camera Centers. "This worry-free digital camera is a perfect choice to capture the moments of summer or for anyone interested in trying digital for the first time."
"This new digital single-use camera addresses the two fastest growing segments of the consumer photography market," said Michelle Slaughter, director of InfoTrends Research Group's digital photography trends service. "In addition, the digital single-use camera provides Ritz's customers with the experience of in-store digital photo printing, which will contribute to establishing a behavior for printing digital photos at retail."
According to the Photo Marketing Association, single-use cameras sales have grown over 15% annually for the last five years, even as film sales have declined. Single-use cameras now represent over 19% of film rolls processed. Digital cameras sales have grown 23% over the past year and are expected to be present in almost 30% of US homes by year's end. Despite the increasing popularity of digital, less than 19% of digital pictures are printed, primarily due to the complexity, cost, and time requirements of home printing.
The Dakota Digital Single-Use Camera is available beginning July 28th at Ritz Camera and Wolf Camera locations in more than 14 cities, including Washington, Baltimore, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Dallas.
Microsoft Transforms Everyday Photos
Into the Extraordinary (7/29/03)
New Digital Image Suite 9 Makes Professional-Quality Results
Easy With an All-New Photo Organization and Advanced Image-Editing
Software Suite
REDMOND, Wash., July 29 - Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - News) today launched Microsoft® Digital Image Suite 9, the first digital imaging software package on the market to combine all the tools consumers want and need to organize, archive, edit and share the soaring number of digital photos accumulating on their PCs.
Digital cameras captured roughly 25 billion photos worldwide in 2002. That number is expected to jump to 56 billion in 2005. (1) A projected 28.1 million digital cameras will be sold worldwide in 2003, (2) and many consumers will find themselves juggling thousands of images without an easy way to manage them. In response, Microsoft combined the power of two digital imaging software titles, Microsoft Digital Image Library 9 and Microsoft Digital Image Pro 9, into one comprehensive and flexible photo solution. The result is the new Microsoft Digital Image Suite 9, the only product available today that gives consumers everything they need in digital imaging software, including advanced organizational and photo-editing tools, new levels of creativity with professional-quality photo projects, and unparalleled ease of use.
"Beyond simply taking digital photos, customers are becoming more sophisticated in how they want to edit, store and share their images," said Michelle Richardson, product manager for home imaging at Microsoft. "They want advanced yet easy-to-use photo software that can do it all, and that's exactly what they're going to get with Digital Image Suite."
Digital Image Suite 9 incorporates the following new organizational and advanced photo-editing tools:
Organization With Digital Image Library
9
-- New! Import Pictures Wizard. This feature automatically detects
import
devices and renames and deletes photos on acquisition. Users
can access
photos from digital cameras as well as on CD-ROM or removable
media.
-- New! Advanced organizational system. Users can locate and
organize
their photos with intuitive tools such as the 5 Star Rating System,
Find Similar Photos and Keyword Painter.
-- New! Virtual Views. Quickly find and sort images by View,
Date and
Keyword, and then subsort by image size, file size, year, month,
keyword, event, file type, folder and rating.
-- New! Photo Story Lite. (3) Users can combine edited images,
motion,
text and even their own voice into a unique and personal photo
story or
video that can be burned onto CD-ROM and viewed in most consumer
DVD
players or sent via e-mail.
-- New! Archive. Protect and preserve precious photos and hard
drive space
with Digital Image Library's new state-of-the-art archival technology.
Users can customize automatic backup reminders, choose among
archiving
options, burn CDs of favorite photos, archive to multiple devices
and
find archived images easily.
Advanced Photo-Editing With Digital
Image Pro 9
-- New! Smart Erase. Cutting-edge technology helps automatically
remove
unwanted objects with a click of the mouse.
-- New! Blending Brush. Users can smooth away photo blemishes
by copying
the texture of part of an image and pasting it elsewhere.
-- New! Straighten Picture. Users can align crooked pictures
by shifting
their image to a desired angle. They simply select the horizon
line,
and then use Straighten Picture to rotate and crop the area to
a
perfect line.
-- New! Multiple selection tools. Users can choose from multiple
selection
tools, such as Marquee, Freehand, Edge Finder and Magic Wand,
to select
a specific photo area for editing.
-- New! Gaussian Blur. This feature provides a sophisticated
way to blur
pictures to achieve a special effect or reduce emphasis on selected
photo areas.
-- New! Unsharp Mask. Users can sharpen a picture that is slightly
out of
focus. The Unsharp Mask uses noise-reduction threshold, contrast
and
edge width to determine which pixels to sharpen and by what degree.
-- New! Rule of Thirds. Users can enhance objects by applying
visually
pleasing proportions and get a well-balanced photo that is appealing
to
the eye.
-- New! Save for a Mobile Device. Users can instantly resize
digital
photos to the correct display size for a mobile device. Photos
can be
resized to fit on most popular mobile phones, Pocket PC or Palm
devices.
Unmatched Help and Startup Tools
Digital Image Suite 9 continues Microsoft's tradition of powerful yet easy-to-use digital imaging products by including an enhanced startup window, new instructional videos and an improved user interface, making photo capture and enhancement easier than ever.
New Levels of Creativity and More Ways to Share
Digital Image Suite 9 offers new levels of creativity, with more than 5,000 images, 3,000 designer project templates, 200 filters (50 of which are new in Digital Image Suite 9) and a variety of mats, frames and templates for creating professional photo projects such as scrapbooks, photo albums, calendars and postcards. Filters with effects such as Antique, Impressionism and Watercolor add instant style to photos. Users can find professionally designed photo project templates for a variety of occasions, seasons and needs, including kids' crafts and business, community and home projects. In addition, with MSN® Photos, (4) users can seamlessly order photo reprints and gifts directly from within Digital Image Suite 9.
Availability
Microsoft Digital Image Suite 9 is available for an estimated retail price of $129 (U.S.).(5) Microsoft offers $60 in rebates -- a $30 version upgrade and competitive upgrade mail-in rebate, as well as an additional $30 digital camera mail-in rebate (if consumers purchase any digital camera within 30 days of acquiring the application). In addition, the product ships with $80 worth of coupons for Fuji products, Avery paper samples and Alien Skin plug-ins. Digital Image Suite 9 also is available at academic pricing and for business licensing. (Certain offer restrictions apply to each offer.)
In addition to the high-end features and functionality offered by Digital Image Suite 9, Microsoft provides product options for all levels of digital photography users. Picture It!® Photo Premium 9 offers a popular collection of midlevel photo-editing, drawing and painting options. Microsoft also is shipping Plus! Digital Media Edition, which includes a full version of Plus! Photo Story, Plus! Party Mode, Plus! Effects & Transitions for Windows® Movie Maker 2, and Plus! Sync & Go for Pocket PC, all for $19.95 (U.S.).(5)
FUJIFILM UNVEILS FIRST DIGITAL CAMERA WITH SECOND SUPER CCD HR SENSOR (07/29/03)
Fuji Photo Film U.S.A. has announced today the FinePix S7000, a new 6.3 megapixel 1/1.7 inch Super CCD HR digital camera with a f/2.8, 6X (35 - 210 mm) optical zoom Super EBC (Electron Beam Coating) lens. The camera contains what is essentially the 4th generation of the Super CCD sensor chip by Fuji, and the second generation of what they call their HR or High Resolution sensors. The new chip uses 6.3 million "effective" or actual pixels but produces images with 12.3 million "recorded" pixels for image files with a resolution size of 4048 by 3040. The camera has many high end features which include, a 3.2X digital zoom in addition to a high quality 6X optical zoom lens, improved color saturation from the newly designed HR sensor chip, SLR styling yet light weight at 17.2 ounces, full manual exposure controls, manual focus with lens barrel focus ringCCD-RAW image capture mode and TIFF conversion using Fuji Software, 5 frame burst mode of 12 megapixel images and up to 40 frames continuous shooting of 1, 2 and 3 megapixel sized images, custom white balance setting, dual media slots accepting both xD picture cards and Compact Flash Type II cards, movie recording with sound including at 640 by 480 resolution at 30 fps up to the capacity of the memory cards, use of 4 AA batteries, 235,000 pixel electronic viewfinder, Auto ISO from 160 to 800 with manual settings from 200 to 800, shutter speeds from 15 seconds to 1/10,000, pop-up flash with a range up to aprox. 28 feet, Auto flash using flash control sensor, 14.4X zoom playback of images, USB 2.0 connectivity, 10 step aperture and high speed focusing, and the FinePix S7000 can accept accessory add-on telephoto and wide angel lenses (however pop-up flash is disabled) for additional range of coverage in addition to working with many other existing accessories. The FinePix S7000 is expected to ship in October at a price of $799.95. Here is the full Fuji press release for further details and a link to their FinePix S7000 Web Page.
FUJIFILM UNVEILS NEW CONSUMER DIGITAL SLR MODEL WITH 10X ZOOM (07/29/03)
Fuji Photo Film U.S.A., Inc. has also announced today the new FinePix S5000, a 3.1 (1/2.7 inch) Megapixel SuperCCD HR (4th Generation Sensor Chip) consumer level digital SLR style camera with a 10X (37 to 370 mm) optical zoom lens. The FinePix S5000 produces 6 million recorded pixel images at a resolution of 2,816 by 2,120. The new FinePix S5000 features, full manual exposure controls, improved saturation from the new SuperCCD sensor, CCD-RAW image capture mode, a 2.2X digital zoom at 1280 by 960 pixels in addition to the 10X optical zoom, SLR styling at a weight of 11.9 ounces, full manual focus, 5 fps continuous shooting of 6 megapixel images up to 5 frames and 40 frames at 1.8 fps of 1 megapixel images, Auto Focus assist illuminator, movie with sound at QVGA quality (320 by 240 resolution) and 30 fps, uses 4 AA batteries, xD Picture Cards media storage, 110,000 pixel electronic viewfinder, and has a pop-up flash with a range up to 19.7 feet, however this is disabled when camera is using the optional telephoto and wide angle accessory lenses. The FinePix S5000 will be available in August at a price of 499.95. For further details see the Fuji press release and the Fuji S5000 Web Page.
FUJI ANNOUNCES 3 NEW POINT AND SHOOT STYLE CAMERAS (07/29/03)
Fuji has also announced 3 new smaller point and shoot style cameras today.
The FujiFilm FinePix A310 has a 3X optical zoom lens and uses the new 4th generation 3.1 megapixel SuperCCD sensor chip which produces recorded image files with a resolution of 6 megapixels. The camera uses xD picture cards for memory storage and works off of 2AA batteries. The A310 also functions as a PC Web cam and works with the new universal Picture Cradle also announced today (see link below). The FinePix A310 will be available in August at a price of 299.95. For more details see the Fuji FinePix A310 Press Release or the Fuji FinePix A310 Web Page.
The FujiFilm FinePix A210 has a 3X optical zoom lens with a sliding lens cover, and has a 3.2 megapixel conventional CCD image sensor. The camera can also operate as a PC cam and works with the new optional universal cradle system discussed below. The A210 uses 2 AA batteries and records images on xD picture cards. The FinePix A210 camera will ship in August at a price of 279.95.
The FinePix A205 is a 2.0 megapixel conventional CCD camera with a 3X optical zoom lens. It also works as a PC camera and interacts with the new cradle system. The camera weighs in at just 6.2 ounces and has a sliding lens cover. It uses 2AA batteries and has USB connectivity. The FinePix A205 will also ship in August at a price of 199.95.
For more details regarding the FinePix A210 and A205 cameras see the Fuji Press Release and the FinePix A210 Web Page, or the FinePix A205 Web Page.
Fianlly, Fuji has announced a new universal cradle system for the new A series cameras which acts as a battery recharger when optional rechargeable power packs are used as well as providing for easy file transfers and connection for use as a PC CAM. The new Picture Cradle will be available in August for 74.95. Please see the Fuji Press Release for full details.
NIKON COOLPIX 5400 CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE SAMPLES POSTED (07/27/03)
Today we are posting sample pictures from the Nikon Coolpix 5400 taken last weekend out at Disney's California Adventure. Once again we are quite pleased with the outdoor Auto white balance, and the pictures appear very bright, well exposed, well focused and colorful. We do not see any lack of sharpness in these images and like the default sharpness level Nikon has chosen to use, although the default setting may be slightly less aggressive than other cameras, which can be seen on occasion to be slightly over-sharpened. Overall, we find the image results to be consistently very good to excellent in outdoor settings, and we like the colorful results the Coolpix 5400 provides. We will have one final set from Disneyland later this week, shot the same day, but for now check out the results we obtained from the Coolpix 5400, in these unaltered shots from California Adventure.
