Winners of BEST Magazine Digital Focus Awards

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The winners/finalists for the 7th Annual BEST Magazine Awards @ DigitalFocus are:

CONSUMER DIGITAL CAMERA

Winner (tie): Nikon Coolpix 4300; Gateway DC-T50

Nikon Coolpix 4300
The Nikon Coolpix 4300 packs a serious punch with a 4.0 effective Megapixel CCD and a 3x Optical Zoom-Nikkor lens with a zoom range of 38-114mm (35mm equivalent), all in a sleek, stylish and compact package. The Coolpix 4300 houses Nikon's legendary enhanced image-processing technology for incredibly sharp, vivid images with no hassle. Weighing in at only 7.9 ounces without battery and CompactFlash card, the camera is pocket-sized and ready to go. www.nikonusa.com

Gateway DC-T50
The DC-T50 is Gateway's 5-megapixel camera and is about the same size as a 2-megapixel camera of just a couple of years ago and about the same price –a bargain at $350. Features include: 3X Optical Zoom, 7.2 to 21.6mm, Auto Focus, f/2.8-4.8 maximum aperture lens, Red-Eye Reduction, Movie mode, USB connection, Li-Ion Rechargeable Battery, MGI Photo Suite III SE software and weighs only 6.3 oz (without battery). www.gateway.com

Finalists:

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P10
Olympus Stylus 400
Kodak Easy Share DX 6340
Minolta DiMAGE Xt
Fujifilm FinePix 410
HP Photosmart 935
Pentax Optio S
Samsung Digimax V4

PROSUMER DIGITAL CAMERA

Winner: Canon Digital Rebel

Canon has had a phenomenal success with their well-known series of Rebel film SLR cameras. They have been inexpensive, easy to use, well made, and produce excellent photos. Now Canon has moved the Rebel series a step forward with the new EOS Digital Rebel. The new digital camera sells for under $1,000 complete with a newly designed 18 to 55mm Canon zoom lens. It is also available as body only for those who already have Canon lenses. www.canoneos.com

Finalists:

Nikon Coolpix 5700
Fujifilm FinePix S602Z
Olympus C0-50 Zoom
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-F828
Casio QV-5700

PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL CAMERA

Winner: Canon EOS-1Ds

Designed for the studio photographer, Canon’s new EOS-1Ds 11.1 megapixel digital SLR camera features a magnesium alloy body, 45-point autofocus, 21-point evaluative metering, simultaneous RAW + JPEG recording, 10-mode White Balance and 5-mode Color Matrix selection. www.usa.canon.com

Finalists:

Nikon D2H
Fujifilm FinePix S2 Pro
Canon SD-10

DIGITAL VIDEO CAMERA

Winner: (tie) Sony DCR-PC330; Panasonic VDR-M30

Sony DCR-PC330
Featuring an amazing 3.3 MegaPixel still image capture capability along with an Advanced HAD CCD imager, a Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* lens and a new advanced primary color filter, the DCR-PC330 creates outstanding video and digital photographs. In addition to Super NightShot infrared system for shooting video in total darkness and Super SteadyShot system for image stabilization, the PC330 has a new smooth interval record feature, enabling smooth time-lapse recording. www.sonystyle.com

Panasonic VDR-M30 DVD Camcorder
Panasonic’s VDR-M30 DVD camcorder records high-quality digital video and still images onto removable 8cm DVD-RAM and DVD-R1 discs, for non-linear editing of home videos right in the camcorder. The VDR-M30 also features an SD Memory Card slot, combines all the technological benefits of the re-writable DVD RAM format with the compatibility of write-once DVD-R media. www.panasonic.com

Finalists:

JVC GR-HD1
Canon Optura 300
Sharp Viewcam VL-Z7U

CONSUMER COLOR PRINTER

Winner: Epson Stylus Photo 2200

With 7-color UltraChrome inks, 2880 x 1440 dpi resolution, and ultra-fine 4-picoliter ink droplets, the large-format Epson Stylus® Photo 2200 delivers remarkable archival photos. It even offers true borderless photo printing on glossy media in six popular sizes, plus PRINT Image Matching technology for the best quality photos from PRINT Image Matching-enabled digital cameras.

The first desktop photo printer to use seven pigment inks, the Epson Stylus Photo 2200 provides the highest quality output available from any pigment-based ink jet. And, with its innovative ink system design with individual ink cartridges, it ensures the deepest, darkest blacks for prints and enlargements on both glossy and matte paper. By exchanging the Photo Black ink and optional Matte Black ink cartridges, users can optimize their black ink coverage based on the corresponding paper. www.epson.com

Finalists:

Canon i960
HP Deskjet 5550
Lexmark P3150

BUSINESS COLOR PRINTER

Winner: HP Photosmart 7960

Get professional-quality color - up to 4800 dpi (up to 4800 x 1200-optmized dpi color printing when printing from a computer and 1200-input dpi) and exquisite black-and-white photos with HP's exclusive 8-ink color printing. The included HP gray photo inkjet print cartridge delivers true black-and-white photos, plus impressive fine detail and shadows to digital color photos. A 2.5-inch image LCD, card slots and one-touch buttons offer photo-printing simplicity. The HP Photosmart 7960 provides fast print speeds, up to 21 pages per minute laser-quality black and up to 15 pages per minute rich color for everyday documents, letters and presentations. Photo features also include HP Photo & Imaging software, dedicated photo paper tray, up to letter-size borderless printing on standard size photo papers and smart features like the HP Photo Proof sheet and video action print. www.hp.com

Finalists:

Samsung CLP-500
Olympus P-400

IMAGE SCANNER

Winner: HP ScanJet 4670

It looks like a picture frame, but HP's Scanjet 4670 is the quintessence of handy scanning. Scan-head miniaturization has shrunk the guts wafer-thin, so only the polycarbonate body is visible. It sits vertically in a holder for a slim 16.3 x 7.1-inch footprint, and the 2,400-dpi resolution and 48-bit color depth mean professional-quality image capture. Photos, books, slides, and negatives - this baby scans whatever you lay it on, or on it. Pranksters, don't limit yourself to butt scans; new body parts are now accessible. $199. www.hp.com

Finalists:

Epson Perfection 3170
HP ScanJet 8200
CanoScan 9900

IMAGING SOFTWARE

Winner: Adobe Photoshop CS

Adobe’s new Photoshop CS is a dramatic full-version upgrade to the professional standard in desktop digital imaging. Available as a standalone software application, or as a key component of the Adobe Creative Suite, Photoshop CS is loaded with new features that help creative professionals craft the highest quality images more quickly and efficiently than ever.

Photoshop CS increases user control, with a redesigned File Browser enhancing search, sorting and sharing capabilities and a new Histogram Palette monitoring changes in the image as they are made. The product also integrates second generation Camera Raw functionality, enabling direct manipulation of raw data in an expanded set of professional-grade digital cameras. www.adobe.com

Finalists:

Microsoft Digital Image Suite 9
Pinnacle Studio 9
Roxio PhotoSuite 5
Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0
Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0

STORAGE SOLUTIONS

Winner (tie): tie: Lexar JumpDrive 2.0 Pro USB flash drive; Fujitsu DynaMO1300U2

Lexar JumpDrive 2.0 Pro
Lexar Media's hi-speed JumpDrive 2.0 Pro is one of the fastest ways to transfer large data files via the USB port on your computer. Compatible with the USB 2.0 specification, it supports read speeds up to 6MB/sec and write speeds up to 4.5MB/sec. JumpDrive 2.0 is available in capacities of 256MB, 512MB and 1GB. www.lexarmedia.com

Fujitsu DynaMO 1300U2
The DynaMOU2 stores up to 2.3GB of data on convenient floppy-sized rewritable disks. Choose from internal or external drive configurations (SCSI, IDE, Hi-Speed USB). Also offers full compatibility with older 3.5 inch MO disks (640MB, 540MB, 230MB and 128MB). www.fujitsu.com

Finalists:

Panasonic DMR-E50S
Lexar 4GB CF card
Maxtor 5000XT
SanDisk 1GB SD Card

DIGITAL IMAGING SITE OR SERVICE

Winner: Ofoto

Ofoto is a photo-sharing web site that stores and develops your digital images. The Ofoto experience is painless, easy to use and has plenty of photo options. Instead of e-mailing individual pictures out to everyone, post them in an album online and let them choose one, or all. www.ofoto.com