EOS 40D shows up on Canon's Web site?

If you're one who follows Canon's EOS lineup faithfully, you'll know the company is not due for an EOS 40D soon. But its Hong Kong site is showing something different.

Although there was no information on the Web site revealing any sort of technical specifications, save for a product named EOS 40D, convention says that Canon is not due for a new release yet.

Typically, the Japanese company announces its digital imaging products in the February/March and August/September period and each product line has an approximate 18-month cycle. The EOS 5D and 1D Mark II N were announced in August '05, followed by the 30D in March '06, and the 400D in September '06. Following the 18-month cycle, we should be seeing upgrades to the 5D and the 1D-series perhaps during PMA this year, while the successor to the 30D wouldn't see light of day until September.

Still, anything can happen, especially if Canon chooses to break with tradition. There has been much speculation on the Web about whether Canon will include a built-in CCD shift-type image stabilizer on its next EOS, which would no doubt cannibalize the company's staple of IS lenses. But until Canon makes an official move, it's still anyone's guess.

Image sensors 2,000 times more sensitive to light

If you're wondering like us what's next in line for image sensors, well, we think Planet82 has the answer with a chip that's supposedly 2,000 times more sensitive to light, and 50 percent smaller than current CMOS and CCD sensors.

Shooting at high sensitivity settings with current image sensors usually results in pictures plagued with an obscene amount of noise. In worst cases, this can make your snaps look like they are covered with a layer of sand. So if Planet 82's new Single carrier Modulation Photo Detector (SMPD) technology can get rid of those issues, we're more than glad to see it in our cameras.

Planet82 is showcasing black-and-white, full-color VGA, and 2-megapixel color sensors at CES this year, capable of taking "clearer and crisper images in low-light situations without the distortion or energy drain of a flash". Sounds like a mouthful, but if it's going to allow us to snap some reconnaissance pictures in the dark, hey, we're all for it.

Samsung adds face recognition and gems to new i70

First was Fujifilm, then Canon. Now Samsung is also offering face recognition features on some of its new cameras, with the premium i70 taking the cake with onboard PMP functions and five jewels studded around the lens.

Samsung's new i70 sports a unique sliding mechanism that hides the camera's lens when not in use. The rest of the technical details are pretty humdrum with a 7.2-megapixel CCD, 3x optical zoom and wide 3-inch LCD screen. There's also an Advanced Shake Reduction (ASR) mode, not to be confused with optical image stabilization that uses mechanical compensation for shaky hands, which boosts the shooter's ISO to 1,600 to reduce blur.

At CES, the Korean chaebol also announced six other digital cameras, mostly megapixel upgrades and design enhancements to the current lineup. The 10-megapixel S1050 and 8-megapixel S850 are reminiscent of the previous NV-series NV10/NV7 sans the Smart Touch user interface. Of the seven, only the L73 sports the array of touch-sensitive buttons which we're familiar with.

For the full list of Samsung cameras announced, click here.

Click here for more CES related stories.

Fujifilm's FinePixes now accept SD memory cards

Fujifilm has recently beefed up its consumer entry-level lineup prior to the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, including also a midrange model with face detection technology. Three new shooters have been announced--the FinePix A610, FinePix A800 and the FinePix F40fd--and they'll all come with a dual slot that accommodates SD cards besides the proprietary xD-Picture Cards that are used by Fujifilm and Olympus.

For more information, click here.

Click here for more CES related stories.

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