Trust MultiCover Widescreen HD Webcam

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These two webcams are the first models to have been put through their paces using our new test procedure. They both film in 720p HD and come at an affordable price.

The HD Webcam C310 is Logitech's entry-level HD webcam. Although low down in the brand's range, it still has advanced functions such as face tracking, a digital zoom and 720p HD video recording.

Trust is a manufacturer that makes a whole load of different peripherals, often with budget price tags. The MultiCover Widescreen HD Webcam is a sleek little model that can film in 720 p HD.

>  Review: Logitech HD Webcam C310
>  Review: Trust MultiCover Widescreen HD Webcam

> Webcam Reviews

While having a quick snoop around the LG stand at this year's IFA, we spotted two new monitors that are sure to please anyone who's allergic to TN panels. Meet the IPS226V and IPS236V.


These 22-inch and 23-inch monitors are both equipped with IPS panels (wide viewing angles) and have a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.

Video connections include VGA, DVI and HDMI ports, and although there are no built-in speakers, there is a headphones socket. The headphones socket can also transmit sound input coming in via the HDMI entry to a pair of headphones or a 2.1/2.0 speaker set.

What's particularly interesting about them is that both models should be just as suitable for office computing as for gaming, as the response time is announced at 6 ms (currently the fastest possible on this type of technology).

However, two key pieces of information are still missing: price and availability. We'll let you know as soon as we know more.

Things seem to be heating up again in the expert compact market, a segment Nikon (like many others) had abandoned with the discreet discontinuation of the P6000. Nikon is now back on the scene with the new Coolpix P7000, a decidedly more expert camera that's no longer quite so compact. It does, however, look more promising than its predecessor.

The P6000 wasn't exactly Nikon's most successful model. This expert compact was a little too compact, had too many gimmicks (GPS, Ethernet port etc.) and had a pretty rubbish battery life. As a result, it just couldn't stand up to the Canon G series. So after a year on the market, the P6000 was discreetly removed from Nikon's product range with no successor announced.

In 2010, the expert compact which, it's true, is really quite important for a manufacturer's image, is back with a vengeance in the digital camera market. Samsung has released the EX1, Panasonic is back with the LX5 and Canon will almost certainly be poised to announce a G12 (a new G model has been announced each autumn since the G7 in 2006). Now Nikon is hoping to rival them all with the Coolpix P7000.

A good lens is essential for any expert compact. While Panasonic and Samsung have gone for speed and Canon has prioritised the zoom, Nikon has followed suit with a 28-200 mm zoom lens with a fairly limited aperture in telephoto mode (f/5.6) and a standard aperture in wide-angle (f/2.8). It can also focus on objects at distances as close as 2 cm. The zoom can be fixed to a pre-defined focal length (28, 35, 50, 85, 105, 135 and 200 mm) and you can save your preferred focal length in three custom modes. Plus, a 3 EV neutral filter is built directly into the lens, which is handy for taking long-exposure shots in conditions that would otherwise be too bright.

Video mode plus an external microphone socket!

Newly announced today: Nikon S80 and P7000 side by side.

The P7000 has a 10-Megapixel CCD that can film 720p HD videos (codec H.264) at 24 fps. The zoom can be used while filming and sound is recorded in stereo. The P7000 even has a stereo socket for hooking up an external microphone. This is very rare indeed, and is possibly even unique on a compact camera. In fact, none of the other journalists we hobnobbed with at the launch event could think of any other model with this feature.

Aside from video, there's a Raw format for photos and the playback mode features a function for taking three different Jpeg photos from just one Raw shot.

The new image processor should make this camera more responsive, especially since the P6000 was pretty slow. Start-up is announced at under a second and focusing at 3/10ths, but we'll obviously be keen to check these figures for ourselves.

Design: new and improved

The screen is a pleasant 3-inch LCD with 920,000 dots. Contrast is announced at 800:1 (rare on a camera screen) and it covers the entire sRGB colour space. The P7000 has an optical viewfinder with a limited coverage (approx. 80 %), but the focusing frame looked to be well centred on the prototype we handled.

Big changes have been made in the design and handling of the P7000. Settings are accessed via a thumb wheel and a click-round wheel, and all buttons have been moved to the right of the screen.

It's not the back of the camera that's surprising though, as it basically looks like one of the latest Canon models but without a swivel screen. On top of the camera, however, there are two new control dials (as well as the one for adjusting exposure).The right-hand dial looks like a carbon copy from the Canon G10 and is used for controlling exposure compensation.

The other, on the left, allows you to select the function that can be accessed when you press the button in the middle of the dial. For example, if you set the dial to ISO then press the button, it'll bring up the sensitivity settings. This function looks to have come straight from Minolta, as we've already seen it in the Dimage A1 and A2 (pictured right)! It's surprising to see Nikon digging up this dead and buried feature, however (this system was dropped by Sony, last seen on the Alpha 100 in 2006), especially since very few users really preferred this system to the now-standard 'quick menus'.

The price to pay for all this new technology is that in spite of getting rid of all the gizmos from the P6000 (GPS etc.), the P7000 is actually quite bulky. Measuring 114 x 77 x 45 mm and weighing 35 g, it's longer, wider and thicker than a Canon G11. Bigger it may be, but we'll have to wait until we get our hands on one to decide whether or not it's better.

The Nikon Coolpix P7000 is due for UK release on 23 September and will be priced at £480.

> Digital Camera Reviews: Choose the Best Compact Camera

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Our last mini-projector tests date back to January 2009. It was time for some new products. Here's our analysis of the Optoma PK301 and the Samsung SP-H03.

A year and a half later, the display brightness of these mini-projectors has increased by a factor of 5, giving a marked improvement with image visibility and projection areas.

More brightness and lower ratings

With the arrival of these products, the ratings of the other mini-projectors in our review have had to be reassessed downwards. The Optoma now heads the field, followed by the Samsung and then all the old models.

> Review: Samsung SP-H03

> Review: Optoma PK301

> Reviews: Video Projectors

The first ever 15-inch OLED TV has just been delivered to the DigitalVersus test lab!


Last year, you may remember that we tested the world's first OLED TV made by Sony. Sony's XEL1 has an 11-inch screen and launched with a price tag pushing £3,500. Thankfully, LG has arrived on the scene to push down prices with an OLED TV that's 4 inches bigger (15"), and which shouldn't cost more than £2,000.

We'll add the test results to the TV face-off as soon as we get them. A full review will follow in the coming weeks.

> TV Reviews: Compare 40'', 42'', 46'' and 47'' Full HD TVs

Nikon is updating its pocket compact, the Coolpix S70, with a new and improved version called, you guessed it, the Coolpix S80. The camera's design and interface have been completely reworked, and so too has the internal technology (even if it hasn't necessarily changed for the better).

The S80 is certainly a very, very attractive camera. It's touch-control too, and has a particularly pleasant 3.5-inch OLED screen with 820,000 dots, which is a massive improvement on the S70's 288,000 dots. Interestingly, Nikon is advertising that the screen covers 150% of the sRGB colour space, although it's pretty unlikely that the S80 can actually handle anything larger than the regular sRGB space. The likes of the Adobe RGB colour space, for example, are usually only found in professional cameras.

The S80 has been very well designed and made, with a slide-over cover that makes a reassuringly sharp 'click' noise when opened and closed. The camera's controls and interface have also been redesigned, making this new Coolpix stand out from the crowd of the run-of-the-mill compacts currently on the market. The shots we saw taken at the S80 presentation event showed the camera to handle more a smartphone than a classic compact. There's even a selection of fun filters to play around with, including a slightly strange face-slimming function.

On the inside, however, we were a bit less impressed with the spec. There's the now-standard 14-Megapixel CCD, but we're having real trouble understanding why Nikon chose to ditch the wide-angle zoom for a 35-175 mm. The official line is that it's to keep the camera as slim as possible (17 mm with the sliding cover closed), but Sony T-series cameras are only a millimetre thicker and manage to find room for a wide-angle lens (and the TX5 is even waterproof).

The Coolpix S80 will be available in October for £330.


> Digital Camera Reviews: Choose the Best Compact Camera