In a press release today, Kodak announced three new products to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the EASYSHARE line. The EASYSHARE V610 is the successor to the V570. It features the same two lens, two sensor setup to offer a combined 10x optical zoom at 6MP. Presumably it has the same zoom issues as its predecessor: a sudden jump from one lens to the other, but we'll see when people start getting their hands on them. You can't beat it for looks, though, and with dual Kodak sensors, it should produce class-leading images at any focal lengthand bluetooth transfer sweetens the pot. The V610 will be available worldwide in May with an MSRP of $499. Also announced today was the EASYSHARE-ONE 6MP, the next generation of the 4MP EASYSHARE-ONE, available this summer starting at $299. No specs yet, but it will probably feature the same 3x zoom as the original ES-ONE, as well as Kodak's new WISPr (Wireless ISP recommendation) service to access an increased range of hotspots. Even with the optional $99 wireless card, ...

Kodak announced today that it has begun shipping the Wi-Fi enabled EASYSHARE-ONE. If you're looking for a wireless point and shoot, head on over to one of the following: Circuit City, CompUSA, and Ritz Camera (U.S.), Dixons (U.K.), FNAC (France), Saturn and Media Markt (Germany) and Harvey Norman (Australia). along with the camera, purchasers will get a free trial to access T-Mobile, T-Mobile international (U.K. & Germany), or Telstra (Australia) hotspots. ...

I'm the first to admit it: I was caught off guard yesterday. The International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas doesn't even officially kick off until tomorrow, but the press releases have already started flying. Normally, CES isn't a terribly interesting time of year for us here at The Digital Photography Weblog. The camera companies have been slow to see digicams--even commodity ones--as "consumer electronics," and tend to save their big announcements for PMA (the Photo Marketing Association Trade Show) in February. Not this year. It's difficult to make predictions based on a sample size of one, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the flurry of pre-CES activity marks a shift in the thinking of at least some industry players, a belated realization that digicams are as much about electronics as about photography, although I think we can expect that pro and prosumer announcements will wait until next month. Some of the highlights so far: Kodak V570: The world's first dual-lens ...

Looks like Kodak is off to a great start with the Easyshare One - the one with the Wifi card that you can use to email/share right off the camera. First, it won the "Next Big Thing Award" from Cnet and the "Best of CES" from G4Techtv. Meanwhile, PC Mag looks at the Easyshare a little closer  - amazing 3inch LCD in the back .. and lists some of the shortcomings - i.e. you have to use oFoto to share. ...

Today Kodak announced thier "Go for the Gold" photo contest through the EasyShare Gallery. Four winners will receive a 5-day trip for two to Torino for the 2006 Winter Games in February and an unspecified Kodak camera. To enter, submit a photograph of a "personal victory" (doesn't have to be sports related) along with a short description. Entries will be judged according to appropriateness to the theme and the poorly defined catagories of "creativity" and "quality." Just don't get too creative: no postprocessing allowed except for cropping, red eye removal, and brightness and contrast adjustment. ...

Kodak has won a clutch of awards at the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show - even though the show hasn't occurred yet there was a Press Preview. The company's digital products won four awards in the Innovations, Design and Engineering section. Kodak Easyshare digital camera and the accompanying Easyshare Photo Printer 500 were named the Best of Innovations 2006. Design and Engineering honours went to the Easyshare Gallery Premier Service and the Easyshare V550 zoom digital camera.   The show takes place over January 5th to the 8th in Las Vegas and covers everything from audio accessories to biometrics, computer components and telephones.   ...

To complement yesterday's EASYSHARE One announcement, Kodak today announced three new consumer printers, available in October. the EASYSHARE Photo Printer 500 features built-in bluetooth, optional 802-11b Wi-Fi, PICTBRIDGE compatibility for use with non-Kodak cameras, built-in card reader, 3.5" LCD, Perfect Touch and red eye reduction, and 1ppm 4x6 prints.  The EASYSHARE Printer Dock Plus Series 3 offers the same features with a printer dock for EASYSHARE cameras instead of the LCD. finally, the EASYSHARE Photo Printer 300 is Kodak's first stab at a low-end general purpose print maker. It's essentially a the current Printer Dock Series 3 without the dock: PICTBRIDGE compatible 4 x 6 prints at 90sec/print, with an otptional 8-in-1 reader. Not exactly impressive, but a $119 it should be an interesting solution for people who want dye prints for non-Kodak cameras, but don't need the PP500's frills and $249 price tag. ...

CES is here.. first of all, make sure you check own Engadget on the floor at CES. Meanwhile, the future is already here…. Kodak announced the EASYSHARE-ONE which can directly email from any T-Mobile HotSpot and post images at Ofoto(now Kodak Gallery). They say they can use Bluetooth, infrared, Wifi and cellular networks to view, share and even print pictures… very very cool stuff. ...

A small free tool to find who offers the cheapest prints - Photocalc has just launched. Calling on five digital printing services you enter the number of prints across three sizes (4x6/5x7/8x10) select the delivery method and Photocalc displays the cheapest price. The five companies looked at are PhotoWorks Snapfish Shutterfly Kodak Easyshare Ritzpix An easy and handy one-stop comparison site for those in the US. ...

For that second camera, look no further than these cool offerings from Kodak and Nikon. Kodak recently introduced he Easyshare V series - with built in Image  Stabilization and a 2.5 inch LCD in the back, 5 megapixel and 80 minutes of video. A very complete package.. Over at Nikon, they are playing catch up to Sony's T3 - so now you can have the fancy looking camera without selling your soul to the memory stick. Same recipe, 5 megapixel, 2.5 inch LCD, Nikkor ED lenses.. ...

Kodak has launched the first Skype-linked photo sharing 'experience'. Kodak Photo Voice combines live voice and online photo sharing and is available as a freedownload from www.kodakgallery.com/photovoice  It allows two users to view a customised slideshow and of course using the telephone aspect to react to the images. One person plays as host and select pictures from a Kodak Easyshare gallery album or from their computer, compiles them into a presentation and then calls a Skype to watch the slildeshow. Orders for prints and other merchandise can also be ordered. ...

According to an article in Newsweek digital photographers in the US will spend $300 million ordering prints and other paraphernalia (mugs, mousemats, calendars etc) online in 2006. This is a 50% increase over 2004. They look at four of the main competitors in this busy sector. The pros and cons for Shutterfly, Kodak Easyshare, HP's Snapfish and Apple Iphoto are compared. It would seem you pays yer money and takes your choice as all have advantages and disadvantages. If comparing on price alone Snapfish comes out on top at just 12c a picture but its editing features are the worst of the set. ...

The Register tells us about a cool Easyshare DX7590 feature called BLILO… press the shutter and the camera takes 2fps shots until they fill up the internal buffer. After about 30 shots, it starts dropping the last of the bunch .. FIFO (for all you geeks). If you release the shutter button, the camera saves the last four shots. Perfect for trying to capture your baby's first steps - just hold the shutter till your baby actually gets moving. Deja View has a wearable video camera that does the same for video, sort of like a "blackbox" you see in planes. Turn it on and walk around, if something interesting happens to you, you are rest assured that the camera has captured the last 30 seconds! ...

Pocket-lint.co.uk has released the nominations for the Fluffies - Best Compact Digital Camera 2005. The Fluffies 'endeavour to reward companies for innovative, groovy and great products that have been launched in the last year'. The line-up is : Panasonic DMC-FX7 Nikon S1 Fujifilm F10 Kodak EasyShare One Pentax Optio 50 Nominations for the Best Prosumer Digital Camera are : Nikon F6 Canon 350D Nikon D50 Epson R-D1 Rangefinder Konica Minolta Dynax 5D  The awards will be announced on the 1st December. ...

SnapJot, a new photo site launched by former Hotmail VP Steve Douty and former Ofoto (now Kodak Easyshare Gallery) VP Steve Zagerman announced it's official launch today. The new service is focused on collaboration, rather than allowing individual photographers to showcase their work, and the goal is for users to create a single, coherent, end product rather than simply a collection of online albums. Pictures are uploaded to specific projects, and participants collaboratively edit pages called "Jots" that contain text, images and video and are collected into "Stories" that can be published as paper albums or DVDs.  According to CEO Douty, he came up with the idea when trying to get parents from his son's Little League team to share pictures became frustrating: Everybody uses a different method for sharing photos. Instead of individuals broadcasting their photos through photo printing services or email, I wanted to create a single, private place for groups to collect ...