Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 - wow that was quick

It was just last month that the Micro Four Thirds format was announced, and today a new camera in this format is already previewed at DPreview. I'm sure this has seriously disrupted business planning at Canon and Nikon. This new camera is the Panasonic G1.

The G1 is basically a prosumer camera with interchangable lenses. It sounds bad to the DSLR lovers but it's a blessing to anyone who want quality without the bulk. It replaced the viewfinder with a huge live view screen. The artificially small and dark viewfinder has always been the marketing tool to get people to buy a more expensive SLR, now the market is turned upside down for sure. The one thing that might bother people is that the normal phase-detection autofocus is replaced by contrast autofocus, so AF speed might slow down. I do have to say the entry-level cameras from all manufacturers all seem to have AF problems, so maybe contrast AF is not such a bad thing (and it's really what-you-see-is-what-you-get since you can see much more clearly what is in focus using the big screen). One striking is that this camera will come in 3 colors: black, blue and red. I think a red camera is so cool. A camera with color might make people less nervous too, which is never a bad thing.

Ricoh Caplio GX100 brings 24mm back to compact digital cameras

If you like the Ricoh GR Digital, the GX100 is going to blow your mind. Featuring a 24-72mm (35mm equivalent) F2.5-4.4 lens, it covers the most useful zoom range of any compact digital camera to date. The lens contains 11 elements in 7 groups! The GX 100 uses a 7 blade diaphragm that will certainly bring nice bokeh.
This camera must be designed to steal the thunder from right underneth the Sigma DP1. It's sensor is "only" 1/1.75", but it's already larger than most compacts. The sensor is 10 megapixels, with support for JPG or RAW. Max shutter speed is 1/2000(same as the GR Digital), which is quite nice for a compact.

On top of all that, the GX100 will feature the first ever detachable LCD viewfinder! This camera is like the DP1 on steroids... If you look right under the hot shoe, you can see a little port for the viewfinder connection. This is truely exciting times we're living in. The camera is estimated to be around $750, quite reasonable for what you're getting, and a really strong alternative to the DP1 if it were to go above $1000.

UPDATE: The detachable viewfinder sits on the hotshoe and can be rotated up 90 degrees! The camera also contains CCD-shift image stabilization. At the announcement event, the GX100 is called the Mini Cooper of cameras. I think they're right :)

UPDATE2: Ricoh corrected its news release that claimed the detachable LCD viewfinder is the first in digital history. Actually, the 1998 Fuji DS-330 1.3 megapixel digital camera is the first ever digital camera with this feature. For more details of that camera, visit Steve's Digicams for the DS-330.

Sigma DP1 - the future is here

It's always the small players who rock the boat. Sigma did it today with the announcement of the Sigma DP1, featuring a APS size sensor, the same ones used on entry-level DSLRs, that is 12 times bigger than a 1/2.5" sensor. This is a 14 megapixel Foveon X3 sensor with the TRUE image engine that was co-developed with Fujitsu. Image quality is going to be good! And it output RAW files too. Shame on you Canon G7.
The DP1 features a 28mm (35mm equiv) f4 lens with 6 elements in 5 groups. Most people will not even consider anything less than a 3x zoom these days, but a fixed lens often means better quality because it's optimized with less moving parts. On a SLR, even cheap primes (fixed focal length lens) perform better than much more expensive zooms. I expect this lens to perform well; afterall, Sigma is really a lens maker and making cameras is just a part-time job :)
The DP1 looks like a rangefinder. There are even optional accessories to make it look even more like one. There is a optical viewfinder that can be put in the hotshoe, and a rectangular hood! I suspect this camera will create waves in the rangefinder community who might find the Leica M8 and Epson R-D1 too expensive.

There has long been talks about why we don't have something like this yet, and finally Sigma brought it to us. Thank you very much. Visit their special site for more details of the Sigma DP1.

Nikon Coolpix P5000

Nikon announced the Coolpix P5000. It is very interesting as it is Nikon's first prosumer camera to compete directly with Canon's G7.

The P5000 has a 3.5x optical zoom 36mm-126mm f/2.7-5.3 lens. The f5.3 at the wide end is not too impressive, but the lens contains the same Vibration Reduction (VR) technology as inside the Nikon DSLR lens. Like the Canon G7, the Coolpix P5000 has a 10 megapixel, 1/1.8" sensor. Image quality should be very good. Additionally, the P5000 has a hotshoe for external flash and adaptor lens to extend its capabilities.

The most interesting feature is the Best Shot Selector, which automatically selects the sharpest image from a sequence of 10 shots. This would make it easy to capture sharp photos in challenging low light conditions. Unfortunately, like the Canon G7, the P5000 does not support RAW.