Here is our regularly updated round-up of October news snippets from near and far:

Do you have a snippet of interesting news for us? Contact us via news@dpnow.com. Thursday, 30thth October: Nikon's elusive new Coolpix 3700 Nikon has been busy announcing new products this week, including a new line in film scanners. Other sites, like LetsGoDigital in the Netherlands and Digit in Norway have also carried detailed information about a new addition to the Nikon CoolPix family called the 3700. This 3.2MP compact point and shoot model, with its angular and sleek wide brushed alloy body, represents a bit of a positive design departure from other recent CoolPix models. However, Nikon UK hasn't issued a press release on the 3700. Enquiries soon revealed that the 3700 is to be sold exclusively in the UK through Dixons Group stores rather than through usual retail channels.

Tuesday, 28th October: PhotographyBlog expands
PhotographyBlog, the excellent BLOG (weB LOG) site run by Mark Goldstein in his spare time, has been enhanced with the addition of a new discussion forum and readers' photo gallery. He's also started running regular competitions, a photo of the day feature and user-reviews... goodness, his boss clearly doesn't give him enough work to do!

Wednesday, 22nd October: Three compact digicam reviews from LetsGoDigital
The multi-lingual LetGoDigital site in the Netherlands has published three reviews of compact digicams from Casio, Olympus and Fujifilm. These diminutive offerings include the Olympus Camedia C150, Casio QV-R40 and
Fuji FinePix F410z.

Tuesday, 14th October: Minolta Japan reveals new slimline G400
Update: Minolta Europe has posted its press release on the Dimage G400. It is the first Minolta branded camera to feature both SD and Sony Memory Stick card compatibility, a combination pioneered by Konica, which recently merged with Minolta.

The Norwegian site, www.digit.no, has posted some news from Minolta Japan about a new slimline 4 megapixel digicam with a 3x optical zoom lens. It's called the Dimage G400. With its slim profile and sliding lens cover the G400 is quite distinctive. There is more information, in Norwegian, at www.digit.no, but don't be put off by the language difference as the site's information is not too difficult to follow and Webmaster Kai Thon's camera reviews are among the best on the Web.

Monday, 13th October: Nikon UK reduces D100 and CP5400 SRPs
Nikon UK has reduced the suggested retail prices (SRPs) of two of its top models; the D100 is now £1499.99 down from £1699.99 and the Coolpix 5400 price has been lowered by £50 to £599.99. But these prices bear little relation to street prices. Our affiliate partner, Internet Cameras Direct sells the Nikon CP5400 for £499 inc.VAT and the Nikon D100, including a f/3.5- 4.5 AFS 24-85mm zoom nikkor G lens for £1549 inc.VAT.

Sunday, 12th October: BBC Countryfile photo contest - be one of the judges!
Today's BBC countryside issues magazine programme, Countryfile, has broadcast the 12 finalists for its annual photo contest. Among the panel of judges who drew up the short list was Lord Lichfield, the Queen's cousin and famed fashion and society photographer.

The judges commented on the large number of digitally shot entries and remarked that the digital medium had enabled many to edit and crop their own pictures for better effect. A 13 year old from Scotland has already won the under-18 category. The public will be able to vote for the overall winner and details will be on the Countryfile Web site from tomorrow (Monday). Don't forget you can enter our very own photo contest which has monthly prizes until next summer - click here for full details.

Friday, 10th October: 1GB MMC cards have arrived

According to a story on LetsGoDigital, ATP Electronics has introduced a 1GB Multimedia Memory Card (MMC). This makes ATP one of the first to introduce a MMC card of this size. Many cameras that are Secure Digital (SD) compatible are also compatible with MMC cards. These are usually cheaper than a comparable capacity SD card, though they do tend to be slower. However, this shouldn't be a problem for many cheaper digital cameras that can't exploit the speed of faster and more expensive SD cards anyway. MMC cards were originally developed for mobile phones and are now popular in digital cameras, camcorders and MP3 music players.

Thursday, 9th October: Super high definition TV?
Spotted on the E4 Engineering Web site by a dpnow.com reader, there is fascinating news from Japan about a new super high definition TV system that its inventors suggest is so sharp that the human eye finds it difficult to distinguish from reality.

Wednesday, 8th October: Olympus Digital Mju family to to get PictBridge as well
Photographyblog has been keeping an eye on the Olympus Japan site and there is more news today. Digital versions of the Olympus Mju family with added PictBridge cabled direct printing capability are now in the pipeline.

LetsGoDigital have also spotted the latest Olympus Japan news.

Tuesday, 7th October: New Ultrazooms from Olympus?
Olympus Japan announces updated versions of its ultra-zoom C-740UZ and C-750UZ models, according to sharpe-eyed Photographyblog. The C-740UZ and C-750UZ were only announced back in March. Our ropey cyber-translated Japanese indicates that the 10x zoom lens shared by the new C-745UZ and C-755UZ models now incorporates ED (extra low dispersion) glass to reduce chromatic aberration and support for direct-to-printer wired PictBridge printing has been added to the specifications of each model. The Japanese market will get the new cameras before Christmas.

Thursday, 2nd October: Canon UK reduces film scanner SRP
To quote Canon UK directly: "CanoScan FS4000US film scanner reduced from £549 to £499 RRP inc VAT with immediate effect." This likeable film scanner can cope with both 35mm and APS film (APS adapter is included as standard) and features FARE hardware-assisted dust and scratch removal.
www.canon.co.uk