One can tell that Photokina, the CES of camera shows, is upcoming in Cologne Germany in mid-September. There is a proliferation of new camera announcements – particularly in the ultra competitive digital SLR business. Early this Spring, this site featured a story on the new digital SLRs. Yet already there are new cameras coming out from the major vendors. See the Nikon D90 story here.
Well here are two more cameras that should be of interest to digital camera buffs. First, there is the
new Canon 50D which continues the vintage camera line starting with the breakthrough Canon D30 of early 2000 (at $1700, it brought digital SLRs well under the $5-9000 barrier)that I bought and still have in working order over 50,000 photo later. The new 50D, like
Nikon’s D90, replaces a good camera about 2 years old. And the improvements are substantial for the 50D – from 10 to 15Mpixels, from 250Kpixel view finder to 900K mpixel and capable of live view picture-taking, from 3fps to 6.3 fps multiple exposures plus a gaggle of features which will enthrall Canon still camera users.
But the camera is missing the ace in the hole that the Nikon D90 has, video recording capabilities. Now the question is will the price and release date of the Canon(April of 2009) be too much and too late to match the fighting features of the Nikon. To say the least, the SLR battles are on.
Sony, which has filled out its SLR is not unaware of the competitive pressures. So out comes the
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T500 which is a point and shoot 5x optical zoom camera that has video recording capabilities like the new Nikon D90. Well let me correct that – video recording capabilities better than the Nikon D90. First it records in MPEG4 at about 1/8 the size of the NIkon’s whopping AVI videos. Second, the Sony matches the Nikon’s 720P but at 30fps versus 24fps for the Nikon. Finally, the Sony’s zoom lens is image stabilized and sits right in the sweet area of 33mm to 165mm – wide angle to early telephoto. It will be available in late September for $400.
And Photokina has not started yet – there will be more surprise announcements to come. But it should be no surprise that the convergence of video and still cameras is now in full swing.
