Konica Minolta withdraws from camera, photo business

Konica Minolta has made public its intention to withdraw completely from the photo and camera industries. Despite much success as one of the leading names in the international photographic landscape, Konica Minolta has been unable to keep up in a rapidly expanding digital industry.

According to Digital Media Thoughts the announcement comes as a surprise, given the presence of Konica Minolta representatives at the recent Consumer Electronics Show conference. In addition to its withdrawal, the company further noted that Sony will be buying its assets.

Sony Japan has released a new CMOS sensor. The chip boasts a 45 degree rotated pixel structure, a feature it shares with the Fujifilm SuperCCD. According to Digital Photography Review, the development background to this sensor was the need to fit more pixels into an increasingly smaller package. It is claimed that resolution, as well as the sensitivity of the individual picture, are improved by the structure.

The ClearVid sensor will currently be used only in the new DCR-DVD505 camcorder. It remains to be seen whether or not this CMOS chip will eventually make its way to digital still photography.

Following in the footsteps of the popular the popular 12x zoom lensed Lumix FZ5 is the newly released DMC FZ7. According to Digital Camera Info, this camera shares many of its predecessor`s attractive features. In addition, however, it offers an added megapixel (from 5 to 6), a manual focus option, and longer battery life.

The DMC-FZ7 also features the full manual functionality of its older sibling, but now offers an ISO of up to 1600. This will allow photographers more flexibility in low light conditions. Enhanced by image stabilising technology, Panasonic describes this camera as its most "anti-blur camera ever". The DMC- FZ7 also features a larger screen than the FZ5.