Three unknown Pentax Optio cameras appeared on the internet yesterday, and then quickly disappeared. But not before the intrepid Photo Rumors managed to grab some pictures from the Google cache of the pages. Behold, the Pentax L-10 and H-90.

As always with Photo Rumors, there is nary a detail to be had, let alone an actual link to the now-defunct pages from which these pictures came. But as these pictures are in keeping with Pentax’s retro-styling of the Optio line, and its love of oddly hideous color schemes in general, we’ll bite. Add in an expected announcement from Pentax tomorrow for rumor-checking purposes and we’re all over this.

In the absence of more concrete specs (and because we want to), we shall instead wonder at the inspiration for these “designs”. I’m saying they’re based on movies, and for the boxy orange and silver H-90, I’m going with Silent Running, Douglas Trumbull’s 1972 low-key sci-Fi masterpiece. And for the white and weird L-10, which has a pale, irritating lack of real substance, what better than Breakfast at Tiffany’s?

Pentax Optio H90 and Optio L10 cameras [Photo Rumors]

See Also:

• Pentax Optio W60

If you have $200 you were thinking of tossing in the trash, you could instead send it to me. I promise to waste it on booze and Cuban cigars. Or you could waste it yourself, and buy the Aputure Gigtube Instant Digital Screen Remote Viewfinder, a tiny, low-resolution screen on a short cable that duplicates the functionality of your camera’s current screen, only with lower quality.

The Gigtube is a 2.5 inch, 230,000 pixel LCD with three hours of battery life. It hooks into your camera (just how depends on the camera you have) and displays the live-view feed from a “distance”. Some cameras will not output a live-view, so you’re limited to reviewing the shot after it has been taken, a rather useless feature on its own. The Gigtube has one neat trick: it can be used to trigger the camera’s shutter remotely (and here “remotely” means up to 2 meters, or just over six feet).

For what might you use the Gigtube? The pictures on the site appear to suggest narcissistic self-portraits and up-skirt-shots. In fact, anything that “bring photography in a new visual angle”. The unit will work with most Canon, Nikon and Olympus DSLRs, along with the Olympus Pen v1 and v2. Sure, you could buy one, but you should really do the sensible thing and let me send your cash up in wonderful, tasty smoke.

Gigtube Instant Digital Screen Remote Viewfinder [Aputure via Oh Gizmo!]

Brando’s LED ring-light for SLR cameras is a genuinely clever take on the ring flash. And at just $58, it is also just about the cheapest solution we have ever seen.

The Circular Macro Half/Full LED Light Source fits onto the front of most lenses (adapters for common filter-thread sized are supplied) and offers the on-axis, shadowless lighting of a ring flash. But because it uses LEDs, the lighting is continuos instead of coming in a split-second burst. This has a few advantages: You can use the camera in full auto without any fancy iTTL hookups, as the camera’s meter can see the light and work out exposure normally.

It is also small, with the light itself barely larger than the front of the lens, and requires just a couple of AA batteries to power the 48 LEDs (or 24 LEDs, should you decide to use just one side or the other). The unit also comes with a mains power adapter (which doesn’t charge the batteries).

There are some disadvantages, too. The effective maximum distance is given as just 1 meter (3.3 feet), a pathetic number even when compared to the weakest flash found in a cheap point’n’shoot. For macro shooting, though, that should be all you’ll need. And did we mention that it’s cheap?

Circular Macro Half/Full LED Light Source [Brando via the Giz]

Digital cameras are fantastic for letting us experiment, take tons of photos, and search for the perfect shot. Digital picture frames and at-home prints are often poor substitutes for real photos. Get a great print at one of these five photo-printing sites.

Photo by Shermeee.

Once upon a time people took photos and dutifully carted their film down to the photo shop to get developed, waiting to see how the photos turned out. Now people immediately check whether or not the shot was good on the display of their digital camera, and more often than not stuff the photos onto their hard drives or upload them to their Flickr accounts, but never get around to actually printing them and preserving them in a physical form. If you’ve been meaning to get around to printing more photos and saving them from their fate of digital obscurity, the following five Lifehacker reader-selected sites can help you.

For the sake of consistency among the pricing notes, each site’s price will be listed as the current price (as of 1/17/2010) for one 4×6 and one 8×10, two of the most common U.S. photographic print sizes and good indicators of the overall pricing scheme at the site. Pricing is only one element of photo printing, however, and we would strongly suggest reading our notes here and checking out the individual sites before selecting one over the other based on a few cent price difference.

It’s also worth noting that reviewing photo-printing services is very similar to reviewing, say, netbook computers. The end products are so similar to each other that the real test of whether or not you like one photo service over another photo service is to upload a couple photos and see if the little things—like the bulk uploader, the built-in editing tools, and the ordering interface—are features you are comfortable with—just like something as small as the keyboard spacing can make or break a netbook purchase.

Snapfish ($0.09/$2.99)

Snapfish is the most generous of the photo printing sites in the Hive Five. They offer 50 free 4×6 photos to first time customers—and have done so for years—so it’s a great place to start when trying out different photo sites. They also have some of the lowest pricing on basic prints, like glossy 4x6s, you’ll find anywhere. Snapfish also offers a happy medium between storing and ordering prints online and sometimes wanting or needing them immediately. Snapfish allows you to order your prints for delivery through the mail or for in-store pickup at stores like Walgreen’s, Walmart, or Meijer. Snapfish has an upload tool called PictureMover that will auto-detect when your camera or camera card is inserted into your computer and optionally upload the photos to a new album. Snapfish has—rather confusing—tiered pricing for every product they offer. Rather than even attempt to decode their shipping tables, you should always stop by RetailMeNot and grab a “free shipping” coupon code—Snapfish is almost perpetually running free shipping deals.

Shutterfly ($0.15/$3.99)

Shutterfly doesn’t offer rock bottom prices compared to other online outfits—although for small prints they are certainly reasonable—but it does shine with the most polished organizing and sharing system of the sites featured here today. It’s obvious a lot of time and thought was put into making it really easy to share photos and prints with friends and family. Although Shutterfly doesn’t offer a variety of pickup locations like Snapfish, you can order prints through Shutterfly for pickup at Target stores that have in-house photo processing. Shutterfly also has tiered—albeit less confusing—shipping rates which start at $1.79 for basic shipping and rise accordingly. You can view them here.

Mpix ($0.29/$1.99)

MPix offers a wide variety of print sizes (25+) and a diverse portfolio of additional services like mounting on standouts and canvas printing. They also, unlike some of the cheaper outfits, offer silver-based black and white printing to help digital photographers really show off their black and white prints in a more authentic way. MPix, unlike many other online photo services, also deals in film, but the price per exposure for development, scanning, and uploading to your MPix albums is $0.19 per exposure—we cringe to think what an 8GB SD card would cost to process at the film-rate. Shipping starts at $3.00 per order, additional rates are available here.

AdoramaPix ($0.19/$1.28)

AdoramaPix is the photo processing division of the enormous Adorama photography store—offering photo development services for photographers was a natural extension of their retail business. They offer the largest selection of photo paper of any contender in the Hive Five. You can select from seven different papers including those from the Kodak Endura line, Kodak Metallic, and True B&W for better black and white photos. Adorama offers 25 free 4×6 prints with every new account. Shipping is $2.95 for 50 prints of 5×7 size and under, $4.99 for any size prints of any quantity. Additional shipping rates detailed here.

Costco Photocenter ($0.13/$1.49)

Many people use Costco for printing because of the convenience of uploading their prints and then picking them up later that day at Costco while doing their shopping. The strong point of Costco’s printing services is definitely a combination of reasonable pricing and in-store pickup. The mail-order side of things isn’t a strong point with longer-than-average shipping times and lack-luster support. That said, if you’re already a Costco customer and you’re looking for convenient pickup without a heavy emphasis on print or paper variety, it’s an easy sell. Shipping is free for 4×6 prints, variable pricing for larger prints.

Now that you’ve had a chance to look over the contenders in today’s Hive Five it’s time to cast your vote.

Have an experience with one of the above vendors—or bummed your favorite didn’t make the list? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

There’s a new camera category in town. It’s EVIL, and it’s going to kick your DSLR’s ass. EVIL stands for Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens, and is our favorite acronym for cameras like the Olympus Pen, the Lumix GF1 and the Samsung NX10. These small, mirrorless, finderless cameras can fit in a pocket and outperform bulky DSLRs. Here’s why your next camera will probably be EVIL.

They’re Small

DSLRs are bulky. Their design comes from the film days when the only way to see the exact image that would hit the film was to divert the light coming through the lens with a mirror and send it to a viewfinder. This mirror meant the body needed to be deep, and the lenses — further away from the film than those in a mirrorless rangefinder — were also bigger.

Now we can see what the sensor sees either on a screen, or through an electronic finder. With the mirror gone, the body can be a lot smaller, just like a compact digicam. This means you can carry it with you everywhere, fit it in a jacket pocket and be ready for *that* picture, wherever you are.

They Take Great Pictures

The trick with the new EVIL cams is that they have large sensors. In the case of the Samsung NX10, this sensor is the same size as you’d find in a DSLR, and the others use the Micro Four Thirds format, a sensor which is half the size of a 35mm frame, but a lot bigger than the pinkie-nail-sized sensor in a typical compact. This gives the high image quality and low-light sensitivity of a DSLR. And because they have large sensors, the depth of field is shallower, and you can throw a distracting background out of focus.

For most people, that is more than good enough.

You Can Change Lenses

Let’s be honest. If you’re not a pro, you probably bought your fancy DSLR, fixed on the kit zoom lens, and that was it. You probably spend 90 percent, if not all of your time, shooting with this on your camera.

With an EVIL camera, you can do this too. It’s more likely though, given the tiny pocket-sized lenses for these cameras, that you will actually carry them with you. Better still, with an adapter you can use all your current DSLR lenses on the newer, smaller body.

They’re Fast

Compacts have lost out to DSLRs by being slow. Slow to power up, slow to zoom and slow to actually respond to your trigger finger. EVIL cameras have fixed this, and are as responsive as any entry-level DSLR. Watch out which model you go for, though. The current generation still has some trouble focusing as fast as a bigger camera, although some models, like the Panasonic GF1, have this nailed.

They Don’t Scream “Look at Me”

With a smaller camera, you can blend in. With an EVIL camera, you can blend in and still get great shots. This combination of size and quality was the reason the Leica M series was the camera of choice for both street shooters and war reporters, from Henri Cartier Bresson to Sebastião Salgado. And because there is no mirror to flip, they’re quiet, too.

The Con

As a new category, the EVIL is still relatively expensive, and you’ll pay as much for a body and lens as you would for a prosumer level DSLR. For many, even pros, the size difference alone is enough to justify this. For everyone else, you could wait until the likes of Canon and Nikon inevitably enter this sector. Then prices will start to fall, and things will get really interesting.

Unless you have a specific use that these cameras can’t meet, or you need the very highest level of performance only a Canon 1D or Nikon D3 can bring, you have no reason to buy a DSLR. Instead, consider being EVIL. You might like it.

Photo: Jon Snyder

See Also:

• Panasonic Micro Four Thirds 'Rangefinder' With Leica Lenses
• Digital Pen
• CES 2010: Samsung Joins Rangefinder Fray With Large-Sensor NX10
• Hands-On With Panasonic's Leica-Lite GF1