Olympus Digital Camera

One of the oldest companies, Olympus has had a long and historical journey. Olympus digital cameras are being used all over the world today. Let us take a look at the glorious history of Olympus here.

Olympus was started way back in the year 1919 under the name of Takachiho Seisakusho. In fact, the first optical product made by the company was not a camera, but a microscope! The name 'Olympus' was introduced in 1921 as a trade name for the company's optical products.

There is an interesting story attached to the name of Olympus. It has a deep, deep meaning attached to it as well. According to Greek mythology, Olympus is the mountain where the Gods live. And, Takachiho is the mountain where the Gods live according to the Japanese texts. In fact, all the names associated with Olympus cameras have a hidden meaning to themselves. For example, the first product made by Olympus for photographic purposes was the Zuiko 75mm/F4.5 lens in 1936. This is an abbreviation coined from the name of Olympus optical plant (Mizuho Kogaku-kenkyujo) and also has a hidden Chinese meaning.

In the '30s, Olympus introduced many different types of cameras. Due to the world wars, production suffered from time to time till the '40s. The Twins Reflex camera was introduced in 1950s and became instantly popular. In fact, hundreds of models based on this technology were developed by several manufacturers. But it was the Olympus Rolleiflex which set the standard for these cameras in the industry.

However, it was the Olympus PEN which was launched in 1959-60, which established Olympus as the manufacturer of small cameras in the market. The PEN was light, small, innovatively designed and could take 72 shots in one roll! It became increasingly popular and helped Olympus to gain hold of the market. After this, there was no looking back for Olympus and it went from strength to strength.

As far as digital cameras are concerned, by the 80's and '90s, the video camera and the consumer digital cameras were already present in the market. However, they were not of very high quality and could only used for web publishing or low-res prints. But, by the late '90s, technology had advanced greatly and prices had also dropped, hence consumers were now going in for digital cameras more and more. It was at this time, in the year 1996, that Olympus introduced its P&S style cameras which had a resolution of 810.000 pixels. Slowly and steadily, Olympus came up with a 2 mega pixel and then a 3 mega pixel camera by the year 2000. At this time, one of the significant launches of Olympus was the 2.11 mega pixel model C-211 which also had an in-built Polaroid printer.

In the '30s, Olympus introduced many different types of cameras. Due to the world wars, production suffered from time to time till the '40s. The Twins Reflex camera was introduced in 1950s and became instantly popular. In fact, hundreds of models based on this technology were developed by several manufacturers. But it was the Olympus Rolleiflex which set the standard for these cameras in the industry.

However, it was the Olympus PEN which was launched in 1959-60, which established Olympus as the manufacturer of small cameras in the market. The PEN was light, small, innovatively designed and could take 72 shots in one roll! It became increasingly popular and helped Olympus to gain hold of the market. After this, there was no looking back for Olympus and it went from strength to strength.

As far as digital cameras are concerned, by the 80's and '90s, the video camera and the consumer digital cameras were already present in the market. However, they were not of very high quality and could only used for web publishing or low-res prints. But, by the late '90s, technology had advanced greatly and prices had also dropped, hence consumers were now going in for digital cameras more and more. It was at this time, in the year 1996, that Olympus introduced its P&S style cameras which had a resolution of 810.000 pixels. Slowly and steadily, Olympus came up with a 2 mega pixel and then a 3 mega pixel camera by the year 2000. At this time, one of the significant launches of Olympus was the 2.11 mega pixel model C-211 which also had an in-built Polaroid printer.

Today, Olympus is considered to be one of the well-known digital camera manufacturers in the industry. The latest digital cameras by Olympus are :

• D-Series : Simple point-and-shoot cameras for beginners.
• C-Series : Digital cameras for advanced photographers.
• Stylus : Stylish cameras in attractive colors and designs.
• E-System Digital SLR's : Professional SLR's for digital cameras.

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Panasonic Digital Camera

Panasonic is a world-renowned consumer electronics company today. Today it builds Panasonic digital cameras. Its digital cameras have recently entered the market. In this article, we will view the story of Panasonic and some of the latest cameras which have been launched by the company in the market.

The inception of Panasonic took place in the year 1918 on a small work table in the house of Konosuke Matsushita. At that time, Matsushita invented the two-socket light fixture. This product became a success and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. was established.

Panasonic is the largest manufacturer of consumer electronics in the world today. The firm produces a wide array of products which cater to several needs of consumers. Its policy of achieving hundred percent customer satisfaction and providing optimal quality goods, has led Panasonic from strength to strength. In fact, the name Panasonic is synonymous with innovation, quality, performance and ease of use.

As far as digital cameras are concerned, Panasonic has got several types of Panasonic digital cameras which can cater to various audiences depending on their budget and needs. In fact, Panasonic has also entered into an alliance with German camera maker, Leica to develop still digital cameras. The reason for this alliance is the fact that Panasonic is a small player in the digital market today. This alliance will help both Leica and Panasonic to take over an estimated ten percent of the digital camera market share.

Panasonic's latest line of digital cameras consists of mainly three series. One of these is the Lumix digital camera series. The Lumix camera makes use of lenses provided by Leica. This helps in getting images which are extremely clear and bright. The Lumix is a highly advanced camera and also comes with manual control options. Its shutter interval is also less than 0.04 seconds, hence allowing the photographer to take shots quickly.

Another series of digital cameras are cheaper and smaller, known as the D-Snap digital camera series. These cameras are trendy and small. They are super-slim and come in different colors. These cameras can also record videos and play music. The D-Snap digital camera is aimed at teenagers and youngsters who are looking for something smart and trendy and which also fit into their budget.

Slowly and steadily, Panasonic is establishing a name for itself in the digital camera world. This company, which has always believed in putting the customer's needs first, is sure to make a mark in this arena as well.

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Sony Digital Camera

Sony was the first company to introduce digital cameras into the market. Today, Sony is one of the leaders in the digital revolution. Its historical journey began in 1946 in a small room. Let us see the rise of this company in this article.

Did you know that the first product manufactured by Sony was a rice-cooker! Yes, that is true. Started in 1946 by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita in a small room, Sony entered the market by making a rice cooker. It was in 1950, after the war had ended in Japan, did Sony create a tape recorder called the G-TYPE recorder. But it was not until the year 1957 that Sony was able to gain market leadership when it launched the world's first pocket transistor radio.

Up till this time, Sony was operating under the company name of Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo. However, when Morita planned to take the firm to the USA, he thought that the name should be much simpler so that people could easily pronounce it. Hence, the term 'Sony' was coined -derived from the combination of the Latin word "sonus" which means sound and "sonny" which means little son.

It was not easy for a Japanese firm to establish base in the USA. And, Sony being the first to do so, the company had to overcome quite a few challenges. However, despite all odds, Sony came up with several new products such as the Trinitron colored television in 1968 which became a landmark in design and technology at that time. In fact it was with the Trinitron that Sony entered the USA.

After this, one of the biggest hits of Sony, the Walkman was launched in the market. It was not very well received in the market by retailers since it did not have any recording capabilities. But after its lukewarm reception, the Walkman slowly picked up… and the rest as they say is history. Then, another revolution in audio technology was brought about in 1982 with the introduction of the Compact Disc (CD).

As far as digital cameras are concerned, Sony was again the first company to introduce a digital camera in the market. Way back in the year 1989, the Sony ProMavica MVC-5000 was launched. The camera provided a 720,000 pixel image which was considered to be the leader in image quality at that time.

Today, Sony is one of market leaders in the digital revolution. Always striving to be different from other players, Sony has led the market in terms of innovative technologies and high quality items. Not only has Sony surpassed others several times by being the first company to make several new products, but it has continuously strived to provide maximum services to its consumers. The company has launched several new services such as the ImageStation.com. This helps consumers to create, share and enjoy digital pictures and video. Also included as a part of this deal are free online albums and eCards, wherein members can share their favorite pictures as gifts, keepsakes and high-quality prints in a variety of sizes.

The latest digital cameras from Sony are :

• Cyber Shot Enthusiast Series : These are powerful cameras with advanced optics and controls.
• Cyber Shot Point and Shoot : Great cameras for snapshot photography.
• Cyber Shot M : Full featured digital cameras with high quality video capture.
• Mavica : Cameras which can record directly onto CDs and floppy disks.

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Top 10 digital cameras

There are a large number of top 10 digital cameras lists available on the Internet today. Each one of them is different and they all have different sets of criteria, on the basis of which these lists are compiled.

However, it is not necessary that a top 10 list by a particular site is the top 10 list for you. Since every camera user has his/her own preferences, it is not really correct to assume that one top 10 list works for everyone.

So, the best thing that you can do is to develop a set of top 10 criteria for yourself. Once you do this, then you will be able to develop your own top 10 digital camera list. So, now the question arises that how do you develop your criteria list.

The first and foremost thing to do is to determine the reason why you want to buy a digital camera. What are you going to use the camera for? How do you plan to use the photographs? And the most critical question of all, what is your budget?

Let us assume that you answer the above questions in the following manner :
You want a digital camera to take pictures of your family and during holidays.
You plan to use the photographs by printing them out to put into family albums, calendars and to post them on your web site.

Your budget for the camera is $200-300.

The above statements are enough to narrow down your choices quite a bit.

• You specifically need to look at the battery life of the camera - since on vacation you will not be able to charge your digital camera at all times.
• You also need to see the storage space available on the camera as it will not be possible for you to keep on transferring images at all times.
• You need a camera with zoom options but whether you go for an optical zoom or digital zoom will get decided by your budgetary constraints.
• You need flash since family photographs are normally taken indoors.
• Your camera should be user-friendly, since it is likely that other/younger family members will be using the camera as well.
• The camera should be sturdy as well, especially if you are on vacation with young children.
• The camera should be compact and light-weight as it is not possible to carry big, bulky cameras while traveling.
• A digital camera which can shoot good images to be put on a web site and in calendars needs to have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. So this is another factor to be considered.
• If you visit the beach while vacationing, then you might want to consider a water-proof camera. However, to fit this into your budget might be a bit difficult. Hence, there are digital cameras which come with water-proof cases and are cheaper. So, this might be the next best option for you.
• You can also go for a digital camera which supports MPG files, so you can click mini-videos. This is a great option for those people who do not possess digital video cameras.

All in all you should examine top 10 digital cameras and find the one that fits your budget and style the best. We have found three cameras that work for us. A nice small compact Canon camera, a larger and more flexible Olympus camera, and a Nikon digital SLR camera we use for professional projects. A well rounded kit of digital cameras gleaned from the top 10 digital cameras on the market.

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Digital video camera - using and owning one is now not an option

The age of the digital video camera is here. Out with the VHS or SVHS camera you have stored away in the box. Those things are old school now. It is time to join the new reality. DV has come along and pushed it off the shelf. DV has been on the market for a few years now and has been sticking its toes in the waters of the video world to see if it was ready to make a splash. Well as a digital video producer let me tell you it is time. There are so many cool digital video camera products out on the market now, the technology is booming and pretty soon we are all going to be shooting in this format.

What can you do with DV that you can't with old tape formats? Well let me tell you there is so much to that question. Let's start with size. Everything is smaller and more compact which is a good thing. Then you have better quality, the ability to transfer the video into your computer for editing via high speed Firewire connections (also called IEEE ), and the quality stays with the video throughout the entire editing process unlike tape. Wow if your video is gorgeous going in it is gorgeous coming out and that is a wonderful thing.

I have taken the Sony PD 150 digital video camera on a variety of shoots that you would never take a larger more cumbersome camera. However that does not mean that I compromised the video in any fashion.

Take for instance the story I shot on a a female skier from Lebanon who was in Salt Lake City for the Olympics a few years back. We wanted to go on the mountain and interview her, see her being coached, and then see her training on the slalom runs. The PD 150 was small enough to take along in my backpack (padded of course in case of a fall) and yet powerful enough to take some wonderful video. I raced alongside of her as she zoomed through the slalom course, then ran the course myself with the camera down at snow level to give the ultimate feeling of speed. You could almost feel the chatter of the snow as my skis carved the hill. I had full control over my audio, exposure, and color balance so that the video came out looking terrific.

That story ended up having a great sense of the mountain, of the energy of the skier we were profiling, and all becasue the DV cam allowed us to go where we wanted without limitations.

You can even make money from your Digital Video camera if you play your cards right. Sure any fool with a camera could make money in the past taping events or graduations. But now with the quality of DV you can really make an impression. Those guys taping events with VHS in the past may have gotten the job one time, but with DV you may be able to win the client for many jobs and referals down the road. Let's keep this quiet though. We don't want everyone to know.

If you fill out the form below, it takes just two seconds, I will send you a Free Report we have written on just how you can make money with your DV camera. Using real life examples we will walk you through the process and how you can create great video and make money at the same time.


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