Digital Photography Review Newsletter: Wednesday, 7 January 2015

	Digital Photography Review Newsletter Wednesday, 7 January 2015 The most popular weekly photography newsletter, with over 300,000 subscribers
Welcome to the 542nd Digital Photography Review newsletter. We're back! After a much-too-short break, it's time to start 2015. As you're reading this I'm in (inevitably) sunny Las Vegas, attending the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show. You can already read about some of the show's announcements and see some of my pictures of them, over on the site. And almost as soon as we get back from that, it's time to pack up again for the CP+ show in Japan in February. This too should see some new products announced, and you'll be able to read all about them on our homepage when the time comes. CES Highlights The CES 2015 show is underway in Las Vegas and has already seen the launch of a handful of products, including high-end lenses from Fujifilm, some compacts from Canon and Panasonic and the news that the latter's CM1 smartphone is coming to the USA. The biggest launch, though, was Nikon's D5500: the latest in its mid-range DSLR series, along with some interesting lenses. We got our hands on a D5500 right at the start of the show - click here to see what we found. Editorial: 2014's Homepage Highlights A lot happened in 2014, both in the camera industry as a whole, and on DPReview. 2014 was the year of 180-degree 'selfie screens', 4K video, affordable (almost) full-frame, and also the year when - perhaps - mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras first started to seriously compete against DSLRs in terms of autofocus. In this article, I took a look back at our year, and at some of the major themes and highlights of 2014. Read our editorial highlights of 2014 Have your say in our 2014 Readers' Polls 2014 was an impressive year for camera and lens launches. We've shared our thoughts on many of them, from high-quality high-end DSLRs to some very enticing enthusiast compacts. Now it's your turn - our 2014 Readers' Polls are open! Cast your vote in four categories: Best High-end ILC, Best Lens, Best Consumer ILC and Best High-end Compact Camera. Voting will run through Jan 20th so cast your vote now! Have your say about the standout products of 2014 in our end of year readers' polls Give us your best shot: Readers' pictures of the year The change of the calendar is a time for retrospection. It's also a great time to take a look back at your photo library and revisit the images you created over the past year. Whether it included a personal project, a memorable trip or snapshots from the year's activities, chances are there's a photo in your collection that you're particularly proud of. Share it in a DPReview gallery with the tag 'my-best-shot-2014' and it may be featured on our homepage. Click here submit your best shot of 2014 What else is coming up? As well as covering the hot new CES and CP+ products we're finishing up our reviews of a couple of last year's biggest cameras, including the Nikon D810 and Samsung NX1. We're also working on the Sony A77 II and Panasonic's tiny Lumix DMC-GM5, so keep an eye on our homepage. Barney
News updates Hands-on with Fujifilm's new XF 16-55mm F2.8 R LM WR lens Published on Tuesday, January 6, 2015 7:09:00 PM GMT It's been on Fujifilm's X-series roadmap for a while, but now it's real - the XF 16-55mm F2.8 R LM WR is a 24-83mm equivalent, weather-sealed standard zoom for Fujifilm's high-end X-series interchangeable lens cameras, which offers a fast maximum aperture of F2.8 throughout its zoom range. As CES gets started in Las Vegas, we grabbed a few minutes with the new zoom. Click through for some images Read full story → Asus announces Zenfone Zoom smartphone with 3x optical zoom Published on Tuesday, January 6, 2015 4:08:00 PM GMT At its CES press conference in Las Vegas Asus has announced the ZenFone Zoom, a smartphone with 3x optical zoom lens that is only 12mm thin. The ZenFone Zoom runs Android 5.0 and features a 5.5-inch 1080p IPS screen and up to 128GB of built-in storage. Read more Read full story → Fujifilm announces XF 16-55mm F2.8 R LM WR lens Published on Tuesday, January 6, 2015 5:00:00 AM GMT Fujifilm has officially released its XF 16-55mm F2.8 R LM WR lens, which the company teased on last year's lens roadmap. The 16-55mm is equivalent to 24-84mm when mounted on an X-series body and offers an internal focusing system and 'twin linear motor' which Fujifilm says will allow for fast and silent AF. The lens is sealed in fourteen places and has three aspherical and three ED elements and a Nano-GI coating to reduce flare. Read more Read full story → Hands-on with Nikon's new D5500 Published on Tuesday, January 6, 2015 2:00:00 AM GMT Nikon's D5500 is, on the face of it a pretty minor update to the D5300, but with the key addition of a touch-sensitive rear LCD screen and slightly altered ergonomics. In almost every other respect the D5500 is a compact, lightweight 24MP entry-level DSLR cut from almost exactly the same cloth as its predecessor. We're at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where we got our hands on a pre-production camera. Click through for some pictures Read full story → Nikon D5500 adds touchscreen and flat picture profile, loses GPS Published on Tuesday, January 6, 2015 2:00:00 AM GMT Nikon has announced the D5500, an upper-entry-level DSLR and successor to its D5300. It provides a 24.2MP DX-format sensor with no optical low pass filter. Improvements over the previous model include the addition of a touchscreen, which is a fully articulated 3.2-inch 1.37M-dot affair, as in the D5300. A flat picture profile is added as a video mode option, which offers 1080/60p recording like its predecessor. Meanwhile, the D5300's built-in GPS has been lost. Read more Read full story → Nikon introduces lightweight FX 300mm f/4 and updated DX 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 ED zoom Published on Tuesday, January 6, 2015 2:00:00 AM GMT Nikon has taken the wraps off of two new versions of existing lenses in its NIKKOR lineup. The AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II and AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/4E PF ED VR are introduced for CES 2015, underway tomorrow in Las Vegas. Read more Read full story → Panasonic Lumix CM1 coming to the US Published on Tuesday, January 6, 2015 12:59:00 AM GMT Introduced at Photokina 2014, the Panasonic Lumix CM1 Android smartphone boasts a 20MP 1-inch type sensor with an f/2.8 lens. Originally only available in France and Germany, it has been announced at CES 2015 that Panasonic's smartphone creation will be making it to American shores later this year. Read more Read full story → Nikon acknowledges 'issue' with flare in some D750 bodies Published on Monday, January 5, 2015 11:54:00 PM GMT Nikon has released a statement to reassure users of the D750 that it is 'working on measures to address' an issue some models have with unusual flare patterns that can occur when bright light sources are just outside the frame. Although the effect seems to occur only in certain units, and comes about only when the light source is at a particular angle, it appears as flare at the top of the image with a darker band closer to the top of the frame. Learn more Read full story → Panasonic releases trio of compact superzooms Published on Monday, January 5, 2015 6:45:00 PM GMT Panasonic also announced a trio of compact superzoom cameras, covering all price ranges. The base model is the Lumix DMC-SZ10, which has a 16MP CCD, 24-228 mm equiv. lens, and flip-up 2.7" LCD. Stepping up to the DMC-ZS45 (TZ57 outside of US) gives you a 16MP CMOS sensor, 24-480mm lens, 1080p video, Wi-Fi with NFC, and a larger/sharper LCD. The top model is the ZS50 (TZ70) that has a 12MP sensor, 24-720mm lens, 60p video, and a 1.2M dot EVF. More details Read full story → Panasonic offers up pair of slightly updated rugged cameras Published on Monday, January 5, 2015 6:45:00 PM GMT Panasonic has released a pair of rugged cameras that have very small changes compared to their predecessors. The top-end model is the Lumix DMC-TS6 (FT6 outside of the US), which offers minor cosmetic changes versus the TS5. The budget-friendly DMC-TS30 (FT30) can dive a meter deeper than the TS20 that came before it and also has more onboard memory. Dive in for more Read full story → Ricoh announces it will launch Pentax DSLR in spring and lenses later Published on Monday, January 5, 2015 6:09:00 PM GMT Pentax owner Ricoh has released very limited details of a DSLR and a collection of three lenses that it says it will launch in the future. Reference images that accompany the announcement appear to show a mid-range APS-C DSLR that the company says will feature a CMOS sensor. This may arrive in stores in spring this year. The camera is shown with a new 18-50mm f/4-5.6 collapsible zoom lens attached - which will be available at about the same time. Read more Read full story → Canon wants to make Connect Station your photo and video hub Published on Monday, January 5, 2015 2:00:00 PM GMT While it's been quietly shown behind glass on several occasions, Canon has made its Connect Station CS100 official. This compact box houses a 1TB hard drive which can store thousands of photos and videos. Photos can be transferred by tapping an NFC-equipped 2015 Canon camera to its top plate, or via USB or memory card. Users can then view their media on their HDTV using an included remote control. The CS100 can also share photos to social networking services via Canon's Image Gateway service. If you still have a spare HDMI port on your TV, you can pick up the CS100 in April for $299. Read full story → Canon announces five PowerShot compacts Published on Monday, January 5, 2015 2:00:00 PM GMT Canon has introduced five PowerShot models, ranging from budget to midrange. The SX610 HS has a 25-450mm equiv. lens, 20.2MP BSI-CMOS sensor, 3" LCD, Wi-Fi with NFC, 1080/30p video. Stepping up to the SX710 HS adds a 25-750mm lens, DIGIC 6 processor (the only model with this), and 60p video. The SX530 HS pairs a 16MP BSI-CMOS sensor with a whopping 24-1200mm lens. On the budget end there's the ELPH 170 that has a 20MP CCD, 25-300mm lens, and 720p video. A cheaper ELPH 160 has a 28-224mm lens and no image stabilization. More details Read full story → Beautiful Dreamer: Garret Suhrie's moonlit landscapes Published on Sunday, January 4, 2015 1:00:00 PM GMT Concentrating on landscapes, waterways and exotic locations, Garret Suhrie's fascination with nighttime photography was sparked as a creative outlet for a demanding day job. Now as a full-time photographer, Suhrie has been traveling the world to capture nature-by-night for more than ten years now. Take a look at his work and find out more about his process. See gallery Read full story → Show us your best shot of 2014 Published on Friday, January 2, 2015 8:27:55 PM GMT The end of the year is a time for retrospection. It's also a great time to take a look back at your photo library and revisit the images you created over the past year. Whether it included a personal project, a memorable trip or snapshots from the year's activities, chances are there's a photo in your collection that you're particularly proud of. Share it in a DPReview gallery with the tag 'my-best-shot-2014' and it may be featured on our homepage. Learn more Read full story → Video Product Overviews Published on Wednesday, December 31, 2014 10:44:00 PM GMT Over the past few months we've been busily updating various areas of DPReview - not least our portfolio of product roundups and buying guides. But we've also been adding to our catalog of video product overviews. These short pieces are intended to offer a high-level introduction to the key features and performance of several current cameras and lenses. Click through to check them out Read full story → Editorial: 2014's Homepage Highlights Published on Wednesday, December 31, 2014 4:53:00 AM GMT A lot happened in 2014, both in the camera industry as a whole, and on DPReview. 2014 was the year of 180-degree 'selfie screens', 4K video, affordable (almost) full-frame, and also the year when - perhaps - mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras first started to seriously compete against DSLRs in terms of autofocus. In this article, Editor Barnaby Britton takes a look back at the year, and at some of the major themes and highlights of 2014. Click through for a look back into the recent past... Read full story →
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