Digital Camera Technology

Most digital cameras will need a separate accessory or housing so that it can be taken on underwater photo shoots or dive expeditions.  Housing and underwater accessories can be very expensive.  So why spend so much money on buying the accessories and camera separately when you can buy already underwater digital cameras?  It was only about two years ago that manufacturers started to realize that this was a possibility.  But only a handful has really tried to put out a product that has a very small market.  Still, there are a few options out there, and the cameras aren’t that bad either.

Pentax

One of the first and few companies to take the underwater digital cameras seriously was Pentax, a global leader in various optical equipment and products.  They developed one of the first underwater digital cameras that did not need a housing accessory in order for it to be used while submerged in water.  The camera itself is packed with a 7 mega pixel sensor and can be used underwater for up to 30 minutes and as deep as five feet.  It can even take very high quality shots with a blur reduction mode built in.  The camera also has a movie mode allowing one to record underwater movie footage.  Of course, there is no microphone or speaker and the large 2.5-inch LCD is more than enough screen for a review while snorkeling.

Sealife

An unknown digital camera company, Sealife makes digital cameras for exactly that purpose: underwater photography.  So it comes to no surprise why their underwater digital cameras are probably some of the top selling ones in the market today since it is their expertise.  The Sealife DC500 is one of their underwater digital cameras.  It has a shake elimination feature conveniently called Shark Mode.  For what this camera can do at 5 mega pixels and with two flash modes (land and sea flash), this camera is a steal for just under $500.

Casio

It wasn’t long before Casio joined in to see if they could get into a fad that just hasn’t quite picked up even until now.  Nevertheless, they were more than willing to add their input and their underwater digital cameras to the market.  The problem is that although it is marketed as a good underwater digital camera, it still needs a special housing for it to be able to be submerged in water.  The Exilim Zoom EX-Z1000 was born and is probably the most powerful of marketed underwater digital cameras to date.  Underneath its compact exterior, the camera uses a powerful 10 mega pixel sensor.  It also features a much larger LCD screen at 2.8-inches and an anti-shake feature that promises even better shots while swimming around a reef.

There aren’t so many options for one looking for underwater digital cameras that don’t need extra housing accessories.  The ones out there, however, are worth every cent and you can be assured that more underwater digital cameras will make there way to the market provided there is a lot of noise coming from underwater aficionados worldwide.

Pentax Corporation has actually been working hard to regain their ground in the digital camera industry. With their new line of DSLRs set for release in the year 2008 (although no real date has been suggested officially), one must wonder about what will have to its more recent products; in particular, the Pentax K10D, which has a few elements that will inspire the release of the K100D Super in August of 2007.

The Camera

It’s almost a year since the Pentax K10D was in the market and the arrival of the K100D in August is just about right. However, there are a couple of features that will be included in the K100D such as the dust removal system found in later versions of the K10D and a full Supersonic Drive Motor lenses support. The K10D, it seems, was ahead of its time on its release. It’s Pentax’s current best selling DSLR and has garnered a few prizes of its own, including DSLR of the Year as awarded by the magazine American Photo. And this is all for good cause. The Pentax K10D packs 10.2 effective mega pixels and a Pentax –developed Shake Reduction system that is believed will become pretty much standard in the DSLR’s to follow this model.

The Technologies That Will Stick

The Shake Reduction system is designed to minimize camera shake and therefore give more advantages at taking sharp, blur-free images even under the most difficult of shooting conditions, like low light areas. Pentax also developed what is known as the Pentax Real IMage Engine (PRIME) which will only ever appear in Pentax products such as the Pentax K10D and those to follow. This helps the camera to produce true-to-life images. There is also a 22 bit converter built into the camera that will speed up the transfer of images with accurate color tones from the CCD and into the imaging engine. Talk about fresh shots. The earlier mentioned Dust Removal system is something that seems to have picked up in the Pentax K10D and we believe this is the reason why it will appear in newer Pentax DSLR models such as the K100D. What this does is incorporate a Special Protect coating to help the CCD surface be dust-free and there is a built-in shift mechanism that will help shake off any dust that does get into the CCD area.

Other Features

There are also a few other things that have made the Pentax K10D a success which will most probably find there way into upcoming models of Pentx DSLR’s. This includes the all weather body that allows for use of the camera in almost any weather condition and the ergonomics that the camera was built around. In fact, the K100D will most probably look a lot like the K10D in more ways than we originally anticipated.

For fans of Pentax products, the moment is soon to arrive when they get their hands on the new K100D. A lot more consumers who have the Pentax K10D will more than likely stay with what they have which is advisable until Pentax fixes up any glitches that may be experienced with the release of the K100D in August.