Digital Camera News: Casio Exilim EZ-Z5, Nikon Spring Savings, Sony PictureStation Printers Announced

Casio Exilim EX-Z5 Digital Camera Announced

Aimed squarely at being easy to use, the Casio Exilim EX-Z5 is an attractive 5 megapixel camera.  It doesn't look like Casio plans to market this one in the US, but if you're elsewhere, you get a nice 2.5 inch LCD and 3x optical zoom.

Features like Rapid Flash (take flash pictures at one second intervals), Auto Macro, Anti Shake DSP, and Quick Shutter function make shooting with the camera very easy.  Casio's Best Shot system of scene modes lets you easily pick the mode that best fits your situation.

Look for the Casio Exilim EX-Z5 towards the end of May 2006.

Nikon Spring Savings

In time for Mother's Day, Nikon has announced instant rebates on several Coolpix cameras and price cuts on the Nikon D50 ($579 MSRP for body only) and D70s.  Head to www.nikondigital.com and click the Promotions button on the navigation bar to find details on these cameras:

• $80 off Nikon Coolpix L1
• $20 off Nikon Coolpix L2
• $20 off Nikon Coolpix L3
• $50 off Nikon Coolpix S4
• Lowered price, to $399 on Coolpix S6
• Get $500 cash back from Nikon when you buy a D2x

Sony Announces Two New Photo Printers

Sony has announced two new consumer-oriented photo printers, so that you can "stay home, save gas and still get affordable, photo-lab quality prints".  The Sony PictureStation DPP-FP55 is designed for portability and easy setup to allow printing from anywhere.  The 2 inch LCD provides a way to edit pictures (zoom, crop, eliminate red-eye and adjust color contrast) without the need for a computer.  The DPP-FP55 will be available in July for about $150.

The Sony PictureStation DPP-FP35 supports the PictBridge standard so that you can print directly from a Sony Cyber-shot camera or any camera that supports the PictBridge standard.  The DPP-FP35 printer will be available in September for about $100.

Additional info from the press release:

"All Sony PictureStation photo printers use dye-sublimation technology that ensures a continuous color tone for each print. This printing process produces 256 shades for each of three dye colors -- cyan, magenta and yellow. Together, this creates 16.7 million distinct colors for each pixel. Once printed, each PictureStation print is sealed with SuperCoat 2 laminate, a durable laminate coating that protects photos from fading as well as making them resistant to water, heat and fingerprints.
 
Making prints from the PictureStation DPP-FP55 and DPP-FP35 photo printers   costs as little as $.29 per print. Sony offers several print packs of high-quality paper to fit most photo-printing needs. The SVM-F40, F80P and F120 print packs offer 4x6 high quality papers with snap off edges and SuperCoat lamination in quantities of 40, 80 and 120 sheets, respectively."