Digital Camera News: Kodak Discontinues Digital SLR Bodies, Canon Star Camera, Olympus Cost Cutting

[Ben Stafford]

Kodak Discontinuing the SLR/n and SLR/c Digital SLR Bodies

From Imaging Resource, word from Kodak to dealers is that they will be discontinuting the SLR/n and SLR/c digital SLR bodies that they manufacture as of June 30, 2005.  They will continue supporting the cameras until 2008.

When asked if Kodak was getting out of the digital SLR market completely, Kodak representatives responded that we shouldn't "draw that conclusion".

Canon Announces Camera for the Stars

Canon has announced that in July, for an estimated street price of $2199, they will start selling the Canon EOS 20Da.  The new cameras is a version of the Canon EOS 20D specifically configured for those who do astrophotography.  The camera will have a live-preview LCD and a modified low-pass filter.

From the press release:

"The low-pass filter positioned in front of the EOS 20Da's 8.2-megapixel CMOS sensor has been modified from the EOS 20D to yield sharper and higher contrast images of various astronomical phenomena such as diffuse reddish nebulae. The modification increases the transmission of light at the specific wavelength of 656nm, known as the Hydrogen Alpha line, or Ha wavelength, by a factor of 2.5x compared to the standard EOS 20D digital SLR. Although optimized for astrophotography, the EOS 20Da can also be used for most conventional photography by mounting an optional filter on the lens in use."

Full Press Release

Cost Cutting Measures At Olympus

From Bloomberg.com, Olympus is going to attempt to cut production costs for their digital cameras by 30 percent.  The cost cutting is an attempt to stay ahead of the falling price of digital cameras.  Olympus President  Tsuyoshi Kikukawa stated that prices will decline 15-20% this year.

Last month, Olympus cut about a third of the jobs in its camera unit, mostly in China as part of $121 million plan to save costs.

Full Article

[Eliwood]

To be more precise, the 20Da doesn't have a "live LCD preview" per se. It's live focusing which is quite a bit different from what we'd expect from a point and shoot.