Name: Epson Photo Fine Player P-7000
Category: photo viewer
Price: About JPY80,000
Release date in Japan: September 4, 2008

Here's a gadget category that isn't too well known outside professional photographers. But it's an interesting item that even hobbyist fotogs could find really handy on those longer shooting excursions.

Photo viewers are compact little combinations of hard drive and display. Their simple purpose is displaying photos, though in a photographer's work environment (as opposed to recently-popular digital photo frames that show pics as decorations). It's a tool that lets the photographer transfer shots to a hard drive to free up storage on the camera (or as a backup), and then study those shots on a larger screen than the camera's.

A good example is the new Epson P-7000 Photo Fine Player. The 433-gram device combines a 160-GB hard drive with a wide-angle 4-inch LCD. The screen displays over JPEG and RAW format images in 16.7 million colors, encompassing 94% of the Adobe RGB color space, so you can expect detailed color reproduction (advance reviewers have raved about its brightness and sharpness). Although it's a compact screen, zoom functions let you confirm details up close. Basic editing tools let you play with brightness, contrast cropping, etc., or add text; organization tools allow photo rating and creation of collections and slideshows. A new jog wheel makes it all easy too, says Epson.

There's support for audio (MP3, AAC) and video (MPEG4, Motion JPEG, H.264); video and audio outputs let you also display things on a big screen. (These additions are the reason Epson adds "Multimedia" to the product line's name overseas. Yes, you can use it as an expensive iPod if you like.)

The new model boasts data transfer (via CF or SD memory card) up to 35% faster than its predecessors: transferring 1GB of data from CF card to the hard drive takes 100 seconds. A full battery charge allows around 75 such 1GB transfers. All in all, the drive will hold about 9000 10-megapixel RAW photos (almost 4 times as many if JPEG), or 166 hours of 2Mbps MPEG4 video.

Also included is a battery charger and car adapter for travel, plus software to transfer Fine Player data to a PC.

A good photo viewer isn't an inexpensive addition to a weekend shooter's collection. (If the JPY80,000 tag is a tad more than you can afford, there's also a new P-6000 model with 80GB hard drive for JPY70,000.) But for anyone taking and reviewing lots of shots on the go, it's a more refined tool than a clumsy, expensive laptop with iffy battery life and disk space largely eaten up by data and software.

More info: http://www.epson.jp/products/colorio/photoviewer_digitalcamera/p7000_p60... (Japanese)

One feature you won't find on a Macintosh computer is a television tuner. The fairly recent Apple TV peripheral, for all its capabilities, still doesn't bring in actual television. Hence a variety of third-party peripherals for TV-loving Mac users, including the upcoming GV-MACTV from Kanazawa-based I-O DATA. An update of the earlier GV-MVP/H for Windows, the small, slim white box will connect to a Mac's USB port to pull in Hi-Vision-quality terrestrial digital TV for viewing and recording to hard drive or DVD. The unit will hold the B-CAS cards used in Japan to decode digital broadcasts, and will ship with TV management software that will work with an Apple Remote. Available by the end of the year; no price yet. (The Windows device is JPY15,700.)

Press release: http://www.iodata.jp/news/2008/08/08_pr014.htm (Japanese)
GV-MVP/H for Windows: http://www.tekronomicon.com/gadget/2008/07/io_data_tuner_s_record_multip... (English)

Optics maker TAMRON says it's developed an interchangeable lens for digital SLR cameras that sets the record for zoom: 15x, ranging from 18mm to 270mm. That's ultra-wide-angle to powerful telephoto capability, in one lens. The "AF18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 DiII VC LD Aspherical [IF] MACRO (Model B003)" (possibly a record-holder for product name length) is 101mm long, weighs 550g, and incorporates auto-focus and "VC (Vibration Compensation)" image stabilization. Alas, TAMRON hasn't announced a release date or price yet.
http://www.tamron.co.jp/news/release_2008/0730.html (Japanese)

Tokyo-based PLANEX Communications offers a new model of USB-to-Gigabit Ethernet adapter, the GU-1000Air. Plug it into a USB 2.0 port to add an Ethernet port to those little sub-notebooks (like the MacBook Air, PLANEX suggests) that lack one. JPY4880.
http://www.planex.co.jp/company/release/pdf/20080812_gu-1000air.pdf (Japanese)

GREEN HOUSE introduces two tiny lenses for the serious mobile phone photographer. The DN-MCL30 (JPY1799) is a 2x telephoto lens that weighs a scant 6.6 grams. The DN-MCL40 (JPY1999) is a 170-degree fish-eye lens weighing 10.8 grams. Both lenses make use of a steel ring that you attach around your camera's pinhole lens with double-sided tape; the lenses then attach to the ring magnetically.
http://www.donya.jp/item/6409.html
http://www.donya.jp/item/6410.html

Name: TASCAM GT-R1
Category: portable digital recorder
Price: about JPY35,000
Release date in Japan: August 26, 2008

Here's one for the musicians. TEAC, the Tama city-based maker of recording gear, offers the new 208-gram GT-R1 IC recorder and effects box for music makers on the go.

While aimed primarily at recording guitar and bass via direct line input, the GT-R1's stereo microphones will capture acoustic guitar - or your whole band - at better-than-CD 48kHz/24bit quality. (Or capture your sales meeting instead, should you want to request such mundane tasks of the device.) Record your riffs for later output to another device, or lay a new track on top of a saved recording. Also built in are a 55-effect multi effector, which you can add either during recording or during playback; rhythm presets to give your session a beat; and a chromatic tuner. Playback options include such niceties as speed control and interval looping.

The GT-R1 saves to WAV or MP3 format on SD/SDHC external memory. The included 1GB SD card will record about 100 minutes of audio in WAV format, or over 18 hours in MP3 format.  

Look for the device at music and electronic shops throughout Japan from late August.

More info: http://www.tascam.jp/list.php?mode=99&mm=9&c2code=01&c3code=02&scode=091... (Japanese)

Okayama-based Sanwa Supply offers a wireless 10-key-pad mouse, the NT-WLMA2. A selector offers the option to make only the mouse or 10-key functions active, so you don't accidentally punch numbers while mousing around. JPY7329.
http://www.sanwa.co.jp/news/200807/nt-wlma2/index.html (Japanese)