Ah finally the full review from DP on the Canon EOS 40D!

We had some first looks review a while back, Canon EOS 40D First Review from Bob Atkins & Roland Lim, but of course we were all waiting for this!

It seems to be a pretty well rounded camera, getting up to the standard of D200…but with D300 looming - that’s simply not enough! It is considerably cheaper though so perhaps it’s apples and oranges.

When I first started using the EOS 40D a simple description came to mind: that this is a ‘well sorted camera’. It feels well rounded - the result of years of evolutionary improvement, it delivers in almost every area, and it inspires confidence. From a usability point of view the viewfinder feels larger, ergonomics are good, the user interface is clear and easy to learn, there are no in-use performance issues, metering and auto-focus show good consistency and the results speak for themselves; colorful (yet accurate) detailed images with low noise even at high sensitivities.
Detail (D-SLR)

Read the full review here:

Canon EOS 40D Review, Phil Askey

Ah finally the E-1 replacement comes out! The top of the range Olympus, competing on the ground with the new Sony Alpha A-700, the Canon EOS 40D and the Nikon D300.

In June 2003 Olympus revealed the E-1, which many people touted as the best Olympus camera. It certainly had the fastest focusing. Now we have the long awaited replacement the 10 megapixel E-3.

A friend managed to get a hands on in Japan at the launch, his intial notes were that the AF was extremely fast and there was no colour or exposure shift at higher ISO.

Noise at high ISO is very monochromatic and detail is retained, much like the results from the latest crop of Olympus dSLRs with a few tweaks.

This new high-speed flagship of the Olympus E-System features the world’s fastest autofocus with 11-point-full twin cross sensoring, high-speed sequential shooting at 5 fps, and high-speed shutter up to 1/8000 second. The optional HLD-4 Power Battery Holder can hold up to two Lithium Ion BLM-1 batteries to extend the performance life, and like the E-3 body, the battery holder is splash-proof and dust-proof.

The E-3 body will be available in November for a street price of $1,699 - so that should put it at about RM6k in Malaysia.

You can read the full press release here:

Olympus E-3 at DPReview

Hasselblad launches the H3DII, retaining its full digital lens line and the choice of 22, 31 or 39 megapixel capture units using CCD image sensors up to 48×36, the new H3DII has a large, bright 3-inch display, which improves viewing of images and lowers power consumption. The new H3DII is available immediately with a retail price in Europe of 26.500€ for the H3DII-39, 21.500€ for the H3DII-31, and 17.900€ for the H3DII-22, excluding tax.

In the USA, pricing is $33,995 for the H3DII-39, $26,995 for the H3DII-31, and $24,995 for the H3DII-22…

Over here we will definitely be looking at over RM100,000 per unit.

In the H3DII, Hasselblad has addressed each of the system components above to provide an unprecedented level of image quality that outperforms any professional digital camera system on the market today, delivering outstanding pixel resolution, better colors, and improved detail rendering. When used with Hasselblad HC and HCD lenses, the camera system offers full digital lens correction through its DAC-Digital Auto Correction, which, in addition to chromatic aberration and distortion, can now correct for vignetting phenomena.

Image noise in the H3DII has been significantly reduced by improving the cooling of the sensor, achieved by attaching to the CCD a physical heatsink, which dissipates the heat generated to the entire camera body and considerably lowers the temperature of the system. As a component of Hasselblad’s revolutionary forthcoming image processing software, Phocus, the Hasselblad RAW Converter (HRC) also has an amazing anti-moiré capability which will eliminate moiré from any 3FR files, including even reprocessed images shot in 3FR on previous generations of Hasselblad cameras.

You can find out more here:

Hasselblad H3DII