Kodak EasyShare Picture Viewer By Michael Kobrin Kodak's (www.kodak.com) latest attempt at enabling digital photographers to share their photos easily comes in the form of the Kodak EasyShare Picture Viewer. The credit card-size device has a 2.5-inch LCD and a Secure Digital card slot, letting you carry around your digital photos and show them in single, album, or slide show modes. The photo viewer will also let users print photos directly from the device via PictBridge technology, mark photos for e-mail or printing, and sync the device with their PC-based photo collections. The Picture Viewer comes with a rechargeable lithium ion battery that lasts for 3 hours of viewing time. It will be available in May 2005 for $149 (list).

Kodak EasyShare Z700, Z740 By Michael Kobrin Capitalizing on the increasing interest in digital photography as well as the success of its EasyShare DX6490 and DX7590 superzoom cameras, Kodak (www.kodak.com) is introducing a new line of consumer-oriented long-zoom cameras. The Kodak EasyShare Z740 and Z700 offer 10X (38 to 380; 35-mm equivalent) and 5X (35 to 175 mm; 35-mm equivalent) optical zoom lenses, respectively. Both cameras will have 1.8-inch LCDs, multiple scene modes, and automatic picture rotation. In addition, the Z740 will include 640-by-480 video capture, multiple burst modes, shutter and aperture priority modes, and full manual control.

Both cameras will be bundled with the new Kodak EasyShare Printer Dock Series 3 photo printer, which can produce 4- by 6-inch borderless photos (also available separately for $79 list). The printer will also be able to recharge and recondition the cameras' batteries. The Z40 bundle ($499 list) and the Z700 bundle ($399) will be available in February 2005. Olympus Camedia C-5500 Sport Zoom By Michael Kobrin Olympus America Inc.'s (www.olympusamerica.com) latest entry in its popular C-Series is the 5.1-megapixel Olympus Camedia C-5500 Sport Zoom ($350 street), designed for casual snapshooters looking for a versatile, solid camera. While not quite compact, this ergonomic model offers features like 30-fps video with sound, anti-shake technology, full manual control (including manual focus), full automatic operation, aperture and shutter priority modes, a real-time histogram, and a 2-inch LCD. The C-5500 also provides some nice extras, like a calendar function for organizing shots by date, a slide show feature complete with transitions, 15 preset scene modes, and four customizable user-defined preset modes. This PictBridge-compatible camera comes with Olympus's Master software, four AA alkaline batteries, and a 16MB xD-Pivture Card, and it will be available in February 2005. Olympus Camedia D-425 By Michael Kobrin Aimed at first-time digital camera buyers, the Olympus Camedia D-425 ($150 street) is a 4-megapixel compact model that emphasizes simplicity. Although it has no optical zoom lens, it offers a built-in lens cover and dedicated buttons on the 4.2-ounce camera body for shooting, reviewing, and deleting photos. A mode selector dial provides access to 10 preset shooting modes, and the camera can capture QuickTime video. The menu structure is designed for user-friendliness and speed, and it incorporates a help system that explains various functions. The D-425 uses xD-Picture Card media (not included), runs on two AA batteries (included), is PictBridge-compatible, and comes with Olympus Master image-editing and management software. The D-425 will be available in January 2005. Olympus C-7070 Wide Zoom By Sean Carroll Olympus America Inc. (www.olympusamerica.com) announced the addition of its new C-7070 Wide Zoom digital camera ($699 estimated street). This 7.1-MP shooter has much in common with its cousin, the C-7000 Zoom (which got 4 stars in a recent PC Magazine review) but whereas that camera is a 5x optical zoom with a 38 to 190mm, the C-7070 has only a 4x zoom, but it's capable of shooting at a much wider angle: It's got an f/2.8 to f/8.027 to 110mm lens. It's got a 1.8 inch semi-transmissive swivel LCD and can accept wide angle (down to 19mm) and telephoto (out to 187mm) converters. The camera has a variety of high end features, including a predictive AF, which helps keep moving subjects in focus, and an AF Target selection function, which gives photographers 143 AF target zones to choose from. The C-7070 adds two new underwater shooting modes to Olympus' repertoire: Underwater Wide and Underwater Macro. The camera uses lithium ion batteries and accepts xD and Compact Flash Type I memory cards.

Copyright © 2005 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in PC Magazine.