CES 2008: Last but not least from Samsung is the i8 - a blend of camera and media player with a 2.7" touch-sensitive screen and a ‘World Tour Guide’ covering 30 countries. 195 MB internal memory stores the 8.1 megapixel images or you can slot in an SD card for more space. ISO 1600 and Digital Image Stabilization help to keep things steady and Intelligent Face Recognition ensures faces are correctly focused and exposed. Interested? You’ll find it in the shops from February for £149.

CES 2008: More from Samsung with three new L series compacts - all taking advantage of Digital Image Stabilization and Intelligent Face Recognition. They also share a 3x optical zoom - the L210 taking the resolution lead with 10.1 million to the L100 and L110s 8.2 megapixels. The L100 will be available from February for £99 with the L110 (£129) and L210 (£149) following in March.

CES 2008: Alongside the NV24HD, Samsung also launched three new NV cameras without the high definition recording capability but featuring the latest processing technology for improved image quality and faster operation. First up is the NV40 - 10 megapixels and a 3x zoom are backed up with dual image stabilization. The display is a generous 2.5" and adapts to changing light conditions whilst the controls take the grid form known as ‘Smart Touch’. The NV30 drops the pixel count to 8 million and omits the optical stabilization in favor of an all-electronic system. The ‘baby’ NV4 has a non-protruding 3x zoom lens and 8 megapixels and also uses a more conventional button arrangement. All three will be available from February 2008 priced at £149, £179 and £199 for the NV4, NV30 and NV40 respectively.

Herbert Keppler, one of the most influential and respected figures in the post-war photographic industry, died on Friday night after a short illness at the age of 82. Keppler, known as Burt to friends and associates, was the former publisher of two of the biggest photography magazines in the world; Modern Photography and Popular Photography, and continued to work until just before his death. In a career spanning more than 50 years Herbert Keppler was instrumental in the success of the Japanese camera industry and in establishing objective laboratory testing for cameras and lenses. Photo: Popular Photography

CES 2008: Samsung has announced its first camera capable of recording 720p HD video at 30 fps. The 10 megapixel NV24HD is happy to display images via HDMI or on its 2.5" OLED display and incorporates a combination of electronic and optical stabilization systems. ISO 3200 also makes an appearance as does local contrast control which aims to balance shadow and highlight detail. The Samsung NV24HD should be available from March for £249.

CES 2008: Sony has today revealed it latest Alpha digital SLR, the A200. This new entry-level digital SLR has a ten megapixel APS size CCD (note the switch back from CMOS), Super SteadyShot (sensor-shift image stabilization), three frames per second continuous shooting, Sony’s Dynamic Range Optimizer (DRO) and a 2.7" 230,000 pixel LCD monitor. The A200 is set to ship in February for $700 with the 18-70 mm lens or $200 more for a dual-lens kit which adds the 75-300 mm. This model appears to be very similar to the A100 apart from higher sensitivity, faster AF, a slightly larger LCD, a new Fn button and other subtle control changes.

Sony’s α700 DSLR recently received its second firmware update, version 3. This release fixes a couple of bugs - the camera was occasionally prone to locking up when shooting a burst of images and would sometimes carry over settings made in Memory Recall (MR) mode when shutting down the camera. Any users who missed firmware 2 may install this update directly as it includes the earlier fixes. Download link after the jump.

Sony has announced the imminent availability of its Cyber-Shot DSC-S730, a 7.2 MP entry-level digicam with 3x optical zoom and 2.4″ LCD. The emphasis here is firmly on value and ease of use though, in the best Sony tradition, style and quality of construction also play a major part. This particular model looks to be a europe-only release although it is entirely possible it will be launched in other markets under a different model designation. The DSC-S730 will be available from January 2008 for the altogether reasonable sum of €139/£99.

Just Posted! Our review of the Olympus SP-560UZ, update to the SP-550UZ (the world’s first 18x zoom digital compact camera). The SP-560 UZ ups the pixel count and adds a few new features, but is a fairly minor upgrade to what was a promising, but ultimately rather disappointing ‘ultra zoom’. As we polish off the last of the mince pies and prepare to pack up for the festive season, was the SP-560UZ enough of an improvement to bring out our festive cheer or not? Find out after the link…

Ricoh’s firmware development team has been busy as ever fettling its GR Digital II premium compact and has today released the fruits of its labor - v1.12. This update improves image quality at lower resolutions in addition to fixing a couple of issues regarding the ADJ lever. Also, the lens will now initialize when exiting macro mode to improve focus accuracy. Download link coming up after the click.