Photo Accessory News

Covering The Photo Beat; FlashBenders, PhotoBooks, And A Fisheye Lens

C.A. Boylan | Sep 1, 2010

Nikon’s S-Series COOLPIX
There are three new S-series COOLPIX cameras from Nikon. The S8000 features a 10x optical zoom ED glass lens, a four-way Vibration Reduction (VR) Image Stabilization System, ISO settings to 3200, and a 3” LCD screen. It can record HD movies with stereo sound and has a Sport Continuous mode. Colors for the S8000 include black, red, bronze, and champagne silver. The MSRP is $299.95.

The S6000 is 1” thick and offers a 7x optical zoom ED glass lens, a 2.7” LCD display, Sport Continuous mode, and Advanced Flash Control. It also has a four-way VR Image Stabilization System, Subject Tracking, and Scene Auto Selector mode. The S6000 is available in champagne silver, black, red, and bronze. The MSRP is $249.95.

The S3000 offers a 2.7” LCD screen, a 4x wide-angle zoom lens, ISO 3200, a four-way VR Image Stabilization System, Subject Tracking, Scene Auto Selector mode, and Nikon’s Smart Portrait system. The S3000 is available in plum, champagne silver, black, orange, green, and blue. The MSRP is $149.95.

Contact: Nikon Inc., 1300 Walt Whitman Rd., Melville, NY 11747; (800) 645-6689; www.nikonusa.com.

Panasonic’s LUMIX G-Series Fisheye Lens
Panasonic recently introduced the LUMIX G Fisheye 8mm F/3.5 lens (35mm equivalent: 16mm) for use with LUMIX G-series DSL Micro cameras. It features a 180? diagonal angle of view which offers a distinctive perspective and deformation effect for both photos and video. The extra-low dispersion glass minimizes chromatic aberration and distortion. The seven blades give the aperture a rounded shape to create attractive out-of-focus areas when shooting with wider aperture settings.

Contact: Panasonic Corporation of North America, One Panasonic Way, Secaucus, NJ 07094; (800) 211-7262; www.panasonic.com/lumix.

The ARCA-SWISS L-Bracket
The L-Bracket from ARCA-SWISS was designed to make switching from landscape to portrait configuration quick and easy. It allows you to capture the image in either format without having to recompose the shot. The durable L-Bracket is adjustable and universal so it can be used with a wide variety of cameras. The MSRP is $249.

Contact: ARCA-SWISS, Inc.; (773) 248-2513; e-mail: arcaswiss@aol.com.

Digital Foci’s Wedding Photo Book
This pearl white version of Digital Foci’s popular Photo Book, a portable digital photo album, features an 8” color LCD screen, 4GB of internal memory, 2.5 hours of internal battery life, and a stylish soft faux leather case. Images can be loaded directly into the device from a memory card (CF, SD/SDHC, MMC, xD-Picture Card, and MS/MS PRO), USB flash drive, or use the USB cable to download images from your computer. It supports JPEG, BMP, TIFF, GIF, and Raw format image files along with MP3, AAC, and WMA audio files.