The official Top 12 must-have toys for Christmas 2008 from the Toy Retail Association.
The toys predicted to dominate children’s Christmas lists this year are set to ignite dreams of stage and screen fame , says the Toy Retailers Association (TRA).
The TRA’s annual ‘Dream Toys’ list, the only official prediction of Christmas bestsellers, reveals a trend [...]
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Exciting news for all you budding photographers out there. How many of you want the full features of an DSLR but would rather not have to lug something around the size of a traditional DSLR? Hopefully there are at least a few hands in the air.
Over the past few months manufacturers have been busy working on a new breed of cameras - The Micro Four Thirds, the standards of which were originally defined by Olympus and Panasonic. The idea was to create a camera that maintained DSLR-like abilities - including interchangeable lenses but make it small enough to fit in a pocket. Weighing in at 385 grams and at a 27% reduction in size (when compared to the Panasonic DMC-L10) is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1.
In a traditional DSLR (though this technically isn’t an DSLR) the body size needs to be relatively generous to accommodate a mirror and allow space between the lens and the film plane, Panasonic have managed to create this weight-watcher version by doing away with the need for a mirror altogether - hence why it’s not a true DSLR.
Nevertheless, this little package is packing a 12MP N-MOS sensor, an electronic viewfinder, a 3” LCD screen and has an operational ISO range of 100 – 3200.
In the world of Micro Four Thirds cameras, Panasonic have beaten Olympus to the punch and are looking set to launch the Lumix DMC-G1 on October 31st in Japan for a price of $840, though rest-of-world release dates and pricing are yet to be confirmed. Whether the concept will take the photography world by storm this is another question altogether; the market that they seem to be looking at is at best, niche – for amateurs that want large sensors and small cameras with interchangeable lenses.
“With the Lumix G1, we are filling a void that has existed for a long time in the digital camera market, because consumers wanted the power of an SLR, but previous models were bulky and inconvenient” - David Briganti, National Marketing Manager, Imaging, Panasonic CEC.
The problem for those investing in the Micro Four Thirds system is that many of the point and shoot cameras (like the Pentax E60) already on the market provide amateurs and enthusiasts alike with high quality images without the hassle of lugging a case full of lenses around in the first place but professionals and more serious hobbyists who do enjoy the manual aspect of DSLR photography will likely want more from the specs than the DMC G1 can offer.
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Sep 17, 2008 at 14:50:10
I really like the idea of a smaller DSLR camera- our current one is often a pain to lug around when traveling, but we do anyway for the photo quality.
It’s a good point you made though that with the great spec point-and-shoot cameras being developed, this doesn’t really seem to be filling a gap in the market.
Sep 17, 2008 at 15:17:22
Yes, that’s the main problem I think. I mean, there will be some consumers that want the flexibility and quality of a dslr with changeable lenses but there are already cameras out there that are filling a similar market in my opinion. The Canon S3IS is already a halfway house between a point and shoot and a dslr,letting you manually control aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance etc etc, plus you can get adaptors and lens kits. I’m sure there are other cameras on sale today that are designed to fill a similar requirement, though I have no doubts that if the M4/3 concept takes off other manufacturers will quickly get onboard.