Sony announced the New Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar T* 24-70 f/2.8 lens for Alpha DSLR cameras.

Technical Specifications and Price:

Sony has announced two new DSLRs: Alpha A300 and A350. The new cameras stand somewhere between the enty level A200 and semi-pro A700, and differs from these two with their Live View feature which has shortly become a new standart in DSLR world.

Sony A300 and A350 Comparison:

The rumours of a new DSLR from Nikon has been on the web for a long time, and frankly what we as photolectic have been expecting to be announced was a D90 or a D80 as a replacement for the current D80. But Nikon surprised many by announcing (Not released officially though) the D60, a replacement for D40/D40x.

We will include the press release of the new D60 in this post leave the comparison of D40/D40x and the new D60 for our next post.

Press release: The New Nikon D60 DSLR

The third new lens from Nikkon is the Nikkor AF-S DX 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, a dream kit lens which is a 35mm equivalent of 24-128mm focal length, and is the first Nikkor 16mm wide-angle lens to be equipped with VR II technology.

The price is estimated to be €599 at Nikon Europe which is a little to much if it is considered as a kit lens, but the street price will surely be cheaper then this, especially outside of Europe.

Technical Specs and yet unofficial announcement of Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR:

The second lens from Nikon to be announced very soon is the AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8G ED. Estimated retail price for the Nikon AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8G ED is €519 at Nikon Europe.

Technical Specifications and yet unofficial announcement:

Nikon is expected to announce 3 new and exciting lenses very soon, although none of them are official yet.

Biggest surprise would be the new Nikon PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED Tilt/Shift lens in my opinion. Lack of modern tilt and shift lenses has long been one of the weakest point od Nikon camera system, especially compared to Canon system. Many pro photographers are known to switch to Canon just because of this rissue. With this move, Nikon wants to show how serious they are in competing Pro segment against Canon.

In Summer 2008, two more T/S lenses Nikon PC-E Micro Nikkor 45mm f/2.8D ED and PC-E Micro Nikkor 85mm f/2.8D ED are expected to be launched to market.

Price and Specifications:

Almost 16 months after the launch of K10D, Pentax announced the new K20D, its mid-level DSLR (top of the Pentax DSLR line) with some new features. Physically the new K20D is almost identical to its predecessor. The biggest improvement over the K10D is the new 14.6 MP CMOS image sensor, which offers the highest resolution in an APS-C sized sensor and known to be co-designed with Samsung and used also in Samsung GX-20.

What is new in K20D?

With the new sensor, K20D presents ISO 6400 sensitivity which doesn't exist for K10D. The question is, with the increased pixel density of the new 14.6 MP sensor, how will the K20D cope with the high noise levels associated with the decreased pixel size. There are some other improvements like the addition of an X-sync socket that will really benefit studio shooters, dust alert system that identifies the location of dust building up on the sensor, and the ability to calibrate the colors on the screen to more accurately reflect the output and make better judgement while shooting.

While these changes may be important for some users, the weakest points of K10D for most the users like the poor JPEG output, slow AF performance especially under low-light conditions and relatively slow continious shooting speed of 3fps unfortunately seems to be unchanged. on the new K20D Well it is hard to tell before seeing the first real life reviews of the camera, but until then they will stay as a question mark in potential buyers minds.

We prepared a technical comparison table for the K10D and K20D to at least give an idea for the potential buyers of K20D, inorder to better decide if the technical improvements are worth the price difference.

Comparison Table: Pentax K20D vs K10D:

Canon placed the new EOS 450D (Digital Rebel Xsi) right between the EOS 40D and EOS 400D both in feature and price wise. 450D sports a 12 MP CMOS sensor, 2 MP more compared to the 10 MP sensor of the 40D, and an extra contrast-detect AF mode with live view that makes the implementation much more usable. 40D is surely superior in most of the other areas but is it worth the almost $400 price difference? We prepared a comparison table for these two cameras and also added the 400D which will apparently continue to be produced and sold by Canon.

Canon 450D, 40D and 400D Comparison Table:

Canon has announced a new 12 Megapixel DSLR: EOS 450D with Live View feature and a 3" LCD screen.

The new EOS 450D features significant improvements over its predecessor 400D (Digital Rebel Xti), like a new 12 MP CMOS sensor, 3.0" LCD monitor, Live View with contrast-detect AF mode, spot metering, 14-bit processing, 3.5 fps continuous shooting, improved AF, a larger viewfinder. Some of the features like spot metering and larger viewfinder have been expected in Rebel series for a long time, and finally Canon decided to satisfy the entry level users with the new 450D in these matters. EOS 450D is surely a feature-rich entry level DSLR camera, even it outmatches its prosumer class brother EOS 40D in some areas like sensor resolution (12 MP vs. 10MP), and Live View implementation (Contrast Detect AF Mode)

Canon also claims improved ergonomics -mainly the hand grip- over the existing Digital Rebel series cameras, which have been one of the most frequently mentioned diasadvantages of the series, especially for the users with big hands. We have to admit that the new 450D has better looks then the 400D, even looks more like a baby 1D series camera in shape.

More photos and Price of Canon EOS 450D:

Olympus announced the new 10 MP Olympus SP-570 UZ with an incredible zoom range of 26-520mm (35mm equivalent)

As you remember SP-500 was the first digicam with 18x zoom and been followed by similar products from other manufacturers. Now SP-570 UZ gets even wider and longer, featuring the first 20x optical zoom and the capability to double the focal range to 1040mm with the help of optional TCON-17 Teleconverter and CLA-10 Adapter Ring, sets the ultra zoom standarts once again.