UK Digital Cameras Blog

The hugely popular hardback PhotoBook produced by PhotoBox has been updated and is now quicker and smoother than ever before.

Boasting increased capacity - with the £19.99 version now encompassing between 26 and 70 pages - the modern-day photo albums are an ideal way for digital photographers to showcase their favourite snaps.

By offering a larger number of templates and increasing the range of available designs, customers can now personalise their albums more than ever before.

Also newly added is PhotoBook’s online studio software, which incorporates features such as zoom and text formatting as well as allowing users to preview how their printed Photobook will appear, even down to mimicking the actual turning of the pages on-screen.

Once ready, the A4 PhotoBooks are bound and printed in high-quality, modern-day photo albums.

PhotoBox styles itself as the UK’s number one provider of online photo storing, sharing and printing.

Technology developer CPC has released new software that allows iPod users to embed subtitles and captions in their videos at the flick of a button.

While the ubiquitous music players have long been able to handle multiple video formats, there has until now been no software capable of instantly embedding closed captions into the devices’ favoured QuickTime movie format.

With CPC’s new software package, however, small reference files linked to the MacCaption-coded video files are stored in your iPod’s memory, enabling it to call up subtitles and captions whenever prompted.

Previous captioning solutions have required time-consuming re-compression, but with MacCaption - which also works on the iPhone - the process is almost instantaneous. It even has the ability to retrieve and convert captions encoded by traditional Line 21 captioning method.

CPC is the world’s first simultaneous closed captioning/teleprompting software provider.

Apple has managed to impress more reviewers with the latest addition to the iPod empire, the iPod Touch.

The device, which boasts a touch-sensitive screen and offers users either eight or 16 gigabytes of storage, has been hugely successful for the brand, scoring points with its sleek black finish and ease-of-use.

However, Murray Hill, a technology writer with Canadian newspaper the StarPhoenix, highlighted “the many cool things you can do with photos” as one of the device’s greatest features.

Users can browse their photos, enlarge images and view landscapes easily by simply rotating the iPod Touch 90 degrees to a landscape view, with the device built to detect the movement and adjust the picture view accordingly.

Mr Hill also described it as “beautiful” but Marie Boran, of technology website siliconrepublic.com was even more complimentary, saying the device was satisfying to use and “impressive”.

In her review of the device, she concluded: “It is the first thing I would rescue if my house caught fire. Then I could stand outside emailing friends telling them of my misfortune – assuming there was a WiFi signal nearby.”

British gadget fans are now spending more on snapping up the latest technology than people from any other European country, it has been reported.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the latest report from research group European Information Technology Observatory claims that consumers in the UK are set to spend £11 billion on devices, such as digital cameras, before the end of the year, spending far more on technology than people from Germany, France and UK.

MP3 players are among the most popular gadgets, with 11 million expected to be sold this year.

Simon Osborne-Walker, the deputy editor of the gadget magazine Stuff, told the Daily Telegraph: “People are no longer ashamed to tell people they want the latest gadget on the market.

He added that gadgets and fashion are “intrinsically linked”, commenting: “Apple’s iPod started that trend with people wanting to be seen wearing the white earphones.”

Recent research commissioned by banking firm First Direct revealed that people in the UK have around 418 gadgets altogether, with each person having an average of 16 pieces of kit to their name.

Sony has long been a respected name in electronics and the Alpha A700 DSLR appears to set to cement the firm’s reputation after it garnered yet another enthusiastic review.

Unveiled in September, Sony says the device is aimed at “photo enthusiasts or serious photo hobbyists”, coming equipped with a 12.2 megapixel sensor and built in image stabilisation designed to give snappers the ultimate blur-free images.

Dennis Hissink, from technology website letsgodigital. org, said that the three inch screen on the Alpha 700 helps ensure that the camera “does not let the photographer down but offers him access to important information in different ways and on many areas in order to capture a perfect picture”.

He highlighted the “perfectly finished housing” and the “ideal hand-fit” as two of the camera’s standout features but emphasised that its versatility was the key attraction.”

“Sony’s Alpha 700 is a beautiful DSLR and offers the demanding photographer as well as the amateur a perfect tool to practice photography on a high level,” Mr Hissink added.

“If you are looking for a new DSLR or ready to get acquainted with an advanced camera system you definitely ought to put the Sony Alpha 700 on your wish list.”

Gadget fans are splashing out more money on equipping their car with the latest technology, a new report has claimed.

According to GfK Retail and Technology, part of the market research firm GfK Group, consumers in Europe spent 25 per cent more on in-car electronic devices in the first six months of 2007 than they did during the same period in 2006.

The firm said that portable navigations devices are the most popular items, recording an 107 per cent increase in sales in the first half of the year.

“With a demand of approx. 5.8 million units and a turnover of approximately €1.2 billion (£839 million), satellite navigation devices are no longer a niche, but today one of the strongest consumer electronic markets,” it said.

In order to attract people to their device, manufacturers are closely tailoring their products to the desires of their customers.

Last week, Garmin unveiled the limited edition Nuvi 250 in pink, with the firm saying the device is “perfect for women who value style as much as high performance”.

Camera giant Canon has this week announced the development of two new lenses - the EF200mm f/2L IS USM and EF800mm f/5.6L IS USM - which will be available for its SLR cameras.

Although the development of the lenses is not yet complete, Canon says they will include “special optical materials such as fluorite to correct chromatic aberrations and offer the highest levels of resolution and contrast when using these lenses”.

The EF200mm f/2L IS USM is said to be aimed at both indoor sports and portrait photographers who would benefit from a brighter lens.

While Canon’s EF800mm f/5.6L IS USM has been developed after news and sports photographers voiced concerns over the lack of high-performance lenses that offer longer focal distance.

More information about the availability and price of the ‘professional L-lenses’ will be released by the firm in 2008.

Earlier this week, Olympus also announced the launch of three new lenses to go with its E-3 DSLR camera.

Digital camera owners could soon be getting a memory boost after it was revealed that US scientists are developing a new device for consumer electronics.

Researchers from Arizona State University’s Centre for Applied Nanoionics (CANi) say they have used old materials to develop the ‘new memory’ which will improve the performance, battery life and capacity of laptops, mp3s, cameras and mobile phones.

Using nanoionics, a method of moving tiny matter around a chip, the team has developed a memory which is less limited than current storage techniques.

“What it means is we could replace all of the memory in all sorts of applications - from laptops to iPods to cell phones to whatever - with this one type of memory,” said Michael Kozicki, director of CANi.

“Because it is so low energy, we can pack a lot of memory and not drain battery power; and it’s not volatile - you can switch everything off and retain information.”

The new memory will be available to consumers within the next few years, according to the team.

The Kodak Easyshare Z812 IS digital camera has been given the thumbs up by reviewers after making a powerful impression with its high quality photographs and compact size. Unveiled in August, the device has a 12 x optical zoom lens and a 8.2 megapixel sensor that Kodak says will help users “get in touch with [their] inner photographer”.

As well as taking high-definition stills, owners of the Kodak Z812 IS will also benefit from a 30 frames per second video capture facility.

Howard Creech, of digitalcamerareview. com, was broadly positive about the device, despite the fierce competition from other similar cameras.

“The Z812 IS offers users impressive responsiveness, super images with very accurate colour, a nice selection of useful features, loads of creative flexibility, direct access to the most commonly changed/adjusted camera settings, and a lower price than most of its competition.”

He added: “The very compact Z812 IS delivers SLR-like features and performance, a nice balance of tweakability and flexibility, and P&S (point and shoot) ease of use at a much lower price than a comparable dSLR.”

News junkies have one more reason to purchase an iPod after ITN announced it has signed a deal with Apple to provide iTunes users with free video news content.

People will be able to view a range of programming, including UK, world, showbiz, business and sports news items as well as film show Movie Buff and Sports Fix.

Although the service is free, viewers will have to watch a “pre-roll” advertisement provided by marketing firm Ad Infuse before their content begins to play.

Nicholas Wheeler, managing director of ITN’s multimedia division, said: “For us at ITN this partnership will engage more users with our content and extend our brand’s reputation as a provider of high quality video journalism on new media platforms.”

Apple currently has three iPod products which allow users to view video content, starting with the neat iPod Nano, which comes with a two-inch screen and can hold four hours of video on the four gigabyte version and eight on the eight gigabyte device.

The iPod Touch, which offers either ten or 20 hours of video storage depending on the model and the iPod Classic, capable of holding 100 hours of video on the 80 gigabyte version and 200 hours on the 160 gigabyte device.