Compact digicams don’t normally set my bells a-ringing but this one intrigued me, big time.

What on earth is Nikon doing with the Nikon Coolpix S8000? A pocketable picture taker that is just 27mm thin and extends only another 41mm when the stabilised 10x optical zoom pokes its nose into the world. 10x in a compact? Yup.

Then there’s the high megapixel count: 14.2 million of the things, packed into a tiny 11mm CCD. This means its maximum image is 4320×3240 pixels — or, as a print, 37x27cm in size.

While we all know that these mouth-watering specs are driven by the experts in the marketing department and look great in the ads, it doesn’t mean a camera like this can shoot level pegging with a $2000 DSLR.

Despite this, the attractions of a 10x zoom …

Canon describes this DSLR as ‘entry level’. If this is the entry where’s the exit? Boy is it well equipped!

At last look, Canon’s Web site showed nine DSLR models in its range, ranging from entry level to pro: a camera for everyone.

Without even a glance at the 260 page manual, I jumped in at the deep end and shot the ISO tests you see in this posting. Within five minutes I was sailing quite happily through settings to adjust ISO figures, aperture and shutter speed and auto focus. It is an easy camera to settle with and shoot any subject. Easy that is, if you are already a photographer, able to stroll around a DSLR, kick the tyres, jab on the gas and twirl a few …

My friend Sybren A. Stüvel has purchased himself the Sigma 4.5mm f/2.8 EX DC HSM Circular Fisheye Lens and has kindly penned us his thoughts! You can see more of Sybren’s work here, or you can ask me about the time he put bread crumbs on his 10-22mm lens and let birds land on it and eat! Many thanks Sybren for taking the time out to write this and send it to us! –Sime

This lens is insane. It’s the world’s first circular fisheye lens for APS-C sized sensors, and the first fisheye lens that I own. Looking through the viewfinder for the first time was a strange sensation. The view was both very restricted due to the circularness of the lens, and …

This is a press release from the guys at ImageRights International, via our friends at Matternow… It’s fair to say that you guys don’t often like press release posts like this one, but I think this one may be something very useful to a lot of us!

**update** I can confirm this service works, as advertised, I did a sneaky test involving “borrowing” one of the co-founder’s photographs from his website and posting it on my blog, he had emailed me in no time to tell me I was “sprung” — I’ve signed up! –Sime

Press Release

ImageRights International offers free service to help professional photographers identify digital image theft

Powerful visual search technology detects photo copyright violations, stock photo piracy

CAMBRIDGE, …

They keep getting smaller and, in the process, more and more intriguing: Canon’s latest Canon PowerShot SD3500IS (Canon IXUS 210 in some parts of the world) takes the story even further and adopts a touch screen interface.

Optically, the camera is a winner: the lens is a stabilised 5x optical zoom, equivalent to a range of 24-120mm in 35 SLR-talk. Its maximum aperture of f2.8 is useful and will appeal to low light users. The only catch is that, once you zoom out to the 120mm tele setting the aperture drops to f5.9.

The Powershot/IXUS range has many fans: the cameras look stylish, are easy to operate and — all of a sudden — have mighty good specs.

Take the capacity of the …