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Canon S90 reborn as an Elph: The SD4000 IS

Canon's PowerShot S90 continues to be one of the most popular cameras on CNET, but it is expensive and really targeted at a prosumer user. The SD4000 IS announced Tuesday brings some of the S90's features--primarily its f2.0 lens--to the masses in a body design intended to be stylish or, in other words, less serious-looking than the S90.

The camera is also the company's first to feature a high-speed backside-illuminated CMOS sensor, though it's still the typical compact camera-size sensor, 1/2.3-inch type. This sensor means Canon is finally able to offer features that … Read more

Canon updates flatbed photo scanner lineup

Canon's CanoScan 8800F has been enduringly (and somewhat endearingly) popular on our site, despite the fact that we've never reviewed it. Though it's closing in on 3 years old, which is practically ancient in many of the other product categories we cover, there isn't a lot of technological development either, so it's refreshing not to be barraged with artificially differentiated products for a change. That said, Canon's latest CanoScan, the 9000F, follows up the veteran photo scanner at about $50 more, with a resolution boost for slide and film scans and improved power consumption.

Here's how it compares with its cheaper sibling, as well as its main competitors:… Read more

Cool hack squeezes Canon digicam into film SLR

When I first saw this Canon AE-1 Program SLR hack, I was totally blown away. A clever shutterbug gutted the film camera innards and made space for the Canon Digital Ixus 870 IS to be placed inside.

That's not all. The hacker also managed to wire the controls (presumably via hardware) so the shutter button on the SLR would trigger the shutter on the compact. If that's not enough, a "popup" flash was also made to complement the contraption. Last but not least, the start-up screen on the point-and-shoot would display "AE-1 Program Digital." … Read more

Last year's cameras, this year's bargains

Every year, compact camera manufacturers announce their latest models in January and February. Many of them are refreshes or replacements of models released in the third quarter of the previous years. That leaves a whole lot of inventory for retailers to get rid of, which translates into potentially big discounts on cameras that are less than a year old.

I've collected up a dozen of these deals worth considering in the slideshow below. Several of them have had $100 knocked off their original prices; one is even marked down $150 (though that still might not be enough to get … Read more

The PowerShot 18: Which Canon compact is right for you?

Most of the past two months for me have been spent testing and reviewing Canon's 2010 PowerShot compact and ultracompact cameras. Why? Because CNET's readers really, really like them. The last one completed was the SX210 IS, the company's 14-megapixel compact megazoom featuring a 28mm-equivalent wide-angle lens and a 14x zoom.

Like its predecessor, the SX200 IS, the design is less than perfect, which dragged its overall rating down. However, for anyone wanting semimanual and manual controls paired with a long lens jammed into a compact body, this is likely to be the best option.

I don'… Read more

Lucid Lynx paves way for Ubuntu shake-up

Canonical has published the release candidate for Ubuntu 10.04--code-named Lucid Lynx--which offers a new look, better integration with cloud infrastructure, and features designed to be more consumer-friendly.

The release on Thursday came two weeks after the beta was made available for public testing. The OS update is now more or less complete, Canonical said. "We consider this release candidate to be complete, stable and suitable for testing by any user," Ubuntu release manager Steve Langasek said in a statement.

The release leaves Canonical free to aim for more radical changes with the Ubuntu version scheduled for completion … Read more

Canon's first flash pro camcorders debut

When Canon announced its first pro MPEG-2 codec last February, it was obvious the company was finally readying solid-state products for its professional camcorder line, and, sure enough, the company followed up with a couple of models to supplement/replace its two-year-old HDV models, the XH G1S and XH A1S. The new CompactFlash-friendly XF300 and XF305 offer more compact, but heavier, redesigned bodies with some vastly improved features.

Of course, the main attraction is the move to CompactFlash--they support UDMA--with dual slots. (There's an SDHC slot on the bodies, but that's probably just for transferring settings.) The new … Read more

Adobe tests new Canon, Olympus raw support

Those eyeing Canon's newest SLR, the Rebel T2i, or Olympus's new high-end compact camera, the E-P1, now can get support for those cameras' raw images in Adobe Systems' Lightroom and Photoshop--though only as a release candidate for now.

Adobe releases occasional updates so its software can decode the proprietary raw image formats from many higher-end cameras. Raw images offer greater flexibility and quality as compared with JPEG images, but they require manual processing to convert them into a useful form.

And software companies such as Adobe and Apple must stay on top of a constant stream of new … Read more