A big draw at CP+ this year has been Sigma's DP2 Merrill 30mm (45mm equivalent) f/2.8 fixed focal length compact. As we noted in our announcement post, the DP2 features a three layer, 15.3-megapixel Foveon X3 sensor. It produces 4,704 x 3,136 x 3 (the number of layers) RAW images at its highest setting, generating file sizes of about 45MB - or roughly 10MB larger than the 14-bit uncompressed RAW images coming off Nikon's new professional D4 DSLR. Sigma had a couple of (very) pre-production DP2s at CP+ and we got to take a few quick shots with it on the show floor.

The exterior design of the new DP2 is generally unchanged from the version rele …

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Kenko Tokina is showing off its 400mm f/8 mirror lens for Micro Four Thirds and Sony NEX here at CP+. Both versions of the lens are identical in size, though they have different finishes: silver for Micro Four Thirds, and a shinier chrome for NEX. As expected, handheld shooting a super-telephoto lens with a fixed, small aperture inside a dimly-lit convention center proved to be quite the challenge, but we did manage to get some sample shots off. The first shot below was taken with a NEX-5N and displays the lens' characteristic ring-shaped bokeh, and the second shot is about as sharp as we were able to get it to focus. This is a strictly manua …

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Canon's ELPH 530, announced earlier this week, is an ultracompact with two interesting features: its tiny, 90s-retro form factor, and its accompanying app for iOS. CameraWindow works with the ELPH 530 and 320, and lets you wirelessly transfer photos between the camera and iPhone or iPad in either direction. It uses Wi-Fi, either in an ad-hoc connection or through the same connected network. We found getting the devices to talk to each other was pretty straightforward - after a few seconds to establish a connection, transferring individual photos was almost instant. The app's iPad interface is very similar to the stock Photos app, and you sel …

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There's only so much you can tell from a prototype lens mounted to a tripod at a trade show, but Sony's 500mm f/4 G SSM isn't just any lens. It's as huge as the $16,000+ hole it'll make in your bank balance, and even in the unfinished form shown off at CP+ looks to be quite the performer. The autofocus was impressively fast when mounted to an A77, and the lens should make an even better partner for the full-frame A900 successor that Sony confirmed today.

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Back in 2009, Ricoh had the bright idea to release a body with not only interchangeable lenses, but entire interchangeable camera modules - sensor, electronics, and all (as seen below with the A12 50mm F2.5 macro module). While the company's already released some modules with APS-C-sized sensors and fixed focal lengths, as well as zoom modules with smaller sensors, today we got a first look at its new A16 24-85-millimeter APS-C zoom module.

The lens features 11 elements in 9 groups, with a variable aperture of F3.5-5.5, and takes 16-megapixel images. The long, 114-millimeter barrel looks and feels a little odd without a manual zoom ring, bu …

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The tiny Pentax Q is getting a limited run of 1,600 silver units in Japan next month, and, never to pass up a photo opportunity, we got our hands on one of them right here at CP+. There aren't any differences beyond the new lick of paint, but if you're buying a Pentax Q in the first place, you're unlikely to be concerned with the specs. Pentax was also showing two new lenses for the Q: a medium telephoto prime, and a "mount cap lens" that effectively turns your Q into a digital pinhole camera. Finally, we saw a prototype K mount to Q mount adapter, which is one of the less practical mirrorless solutions we've seen - the Q's miniscule sensor w …

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Ruggedized cameras have been around for a while, and there are a lot of models on the market, but Pentax thinks its new Optio WG-2 GPS is the ideal partner for your next mountain climbing or cave diving trip. In addition to improvements in still resolution (16 versus 14 megapixels) and video quality (1080p versus 720p), the new model's LCD features double the resolution of last year's - 4.6 compared to 2.3 million dots - and its screen has grown as well, from 2.7 to 3.0 inches. Autofocus is reasonably fast for a point and shoot, and the six LED lamps surrounding the lens provide a poor man's ring light when shooting close up, combining nicely …

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Olympus announced its TG-820 iHS rugged compact camera just yesterday, and brought it along to show off at CP+ in Yokohama. The main reason we wanted to check it out was for its super-high resolution 1,030,000-pixel LCD, and indeed it was pretty amazingly sharp in person… as long as you were looking at a photo or viewfinder image. Unfortunately, the company doesn't seem to have optimized text and other UI elements for the screen, with icons looking quite blurry and poorly-scaled. So, this isn't exactly the Retina Display of rugged cameras. Otherwise, there's not a lot to report - it's a pretty standard entry in its class, and as you'll see f …

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We just got our first look at the Pentax K-01 in person, here at CP+ 2012 in Yokohama, Japan. The company has taken a pretty different approach with its first "serious" mirrorless camera - it's decided to leverage its extensive K-mount lens line-up that already works well with APS-C sensors. The result is a camera that doesn't save much in thickness over a DSLR, due to having the same flange focal distance between sensor and lens, and it looks decidedly bulky when placed next to a Sony NEX-5n. The loss of a full grip and mirror / pentaprism mechanism does offer space savings over a DSLR, though there's still a slight hump for a non-existent …

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