Sony announces two new lenses

Sony has announced two new lenses, the 30mm F2.8 DT Macro lens (SAL30M28) and the 28-75mm F2.8 SAM lens (SAL2875) along with three new dSLRs. Providing an inexpensive entry into macro photography is the new 30mm F2.8 DT Macro lens which will sell for about US$200 when it becomes available in October 2009.

Just announced:
Sony's new Alpha A500 and A550
Sony's new full-frame dSLR goes below US$2,000

The lens is a DT series for Sony's APS-C sensor size cameras such as the new Alpha A550 and Alpha A500 announced today, as well as the Alpha A380 and Alpha A330. It features a distance scale in both feet and meters. Reflecting its economical price are a plastic lens mount and a small manual focusing ring.
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Sony's new full-frame A850 under US$2,000

News of the A850, Sony's full-frame follow-up to the Alpha DSLR-A900, surfaced on the Web weeks ago--Sony itself accidentally leaked the entire manual, for pity's sake--but the most important aspect of the product, the camera's price, remained only speculation. Without that context, one really didn't know what to make of the subtly stripped-down version of the A900. Now we know it'll cost US$1,999 for the body, making it the least expensive full-frame dSLR currently available. That makes it newsworthy, but does that automatically make it droolworthy?
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New Sony Alpha A550, A500 target burst, low-light shooters

With the announcements of the Alpha DSLR-A500 and A550, Sony brings what feels like a market microsegmentation strategy to dSLRs. These models raise the total of new Sony dSLRs under US$1,000 up to 5; if you count the older A700, which hasn't been formally discontinued, then you've got 6 Sony dSLR options squeezed into the US$400 gap between US$549 and US$999. A welcome plethora of choices, or a try-anything-and-see-what-sticks strategy? I can't answer that for Sony, but I've been staring at the specs for hours and still can't figure out why the A380, introduced only 3 months ago, exists in this family.
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Samsung unveils 24x optical zoom RAW shooter

At the launch of the Samsung ST550, ST500 and ST1000 held in Singapore, the company also unveiled a superzoom camera. The 12.5-megapixel WB5000 has a 24x optical zoom lens which is widest at 26mm, and features HD movie recording and full manual exposure control. To satisfy photo enthusiasts, the WB5000 will offer RAW format image capture, too.

We gave this superzoom a quick hands-on at the event and found its handling to be quite good. The dSLR-like grip was comfortable to hold and the scroll wheel at the back enables users to make changes to settings on the fly. There is also a dedicated video-recording button at the back, similar to what Panasonic has implemented in its recent Lumix cameras.
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Getting up close with an optical drive lens mod for camera-phones

DIY site Make.com wrote about how one reader ripped an old DVD player apart and fitted the optical drive lens onto a camera-phone for some awesome macro shots. We couldn't resist trying it out with an old CD reader that we have.

While we did get some pretty impressive closeup shots with the puny lens and our Nokia E71, here are a few things we noted.
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