A number of vendors have rolled out new products in time for the holidays and the New Year, presenting a good opportunity to offer up some new tools for online journalists to consider.

Online-specific devices and applications are hardly new, and many innovations come in updates to existing products -- and this round-up follows that trend.

From Olympus, a new breed of ?prosumer? digital cameras are worth checking out for reporters and editors. For the site production team, new versions of graphic apps offer options for creating and editing site graphics. And for the development team, the new version of Macromedia?s high-end Web visual studio is an impressive all-in-one site development solution.

New Olympus digital camera series

In the nether regions between consumer and high-end professional digital photography lie the strange hybrids known as ?prosumer? cameras. These generally feature some of the manual control and options of professional digital and traditional SLR cameras, while offering resolutions below those of professional models (which cost thousands of dollars more).

Olympus has long been one of the leading manufacturers of prosumer digital cameras. Models such as the 600, 620L and 2500L offered digital SLR experiences, each one bumping the resolution higher and adding more features.

This fall, Olympus re-focused its prosumer digital line into two distinct directions: the high-resolution Camedia E-10 ($2,000) and the multi-purpose Camedia E-100RS ($1,500).

The E-100RS (for rapid shot) is Olympus? new multipurpose camera. It can shoot at 15 frames-per-second, can capture 28fps, 640x480 Quicktime video, and features an impressive 10x optical zoom.

The E-100RS does not set any resolution records at 1368x1024, but for photography destined for the Web that is plenty of pixels. One change is that it uses a small LCD as a viewfinder, which was disorienting in the camera I demoed.

One advantage is that unlike the E-10, with its larger lenses, you can extend is usability with existing Olympus digital camera accessories (like macro and telephoto lenses). But unless you already have lenses for the 600, 620 or 2500, this may not be an issue.

Beefing up to keep in step with its competitors, Olympus bumped the E-10 to 4-megapixel resolution (2240x1680). It also features a solid aluminum body, a hinged LCD screen for top-down viewing of images, and a 4x optical zoom.

To take advantage of the higher resolutions, Olympus put new, larger lenses on the E-10 (the largest in diameter I?ve seen on a non-professional digital camera). This should give the E-10?s optics a boost over its competitors. Olympus also has new telephoto and macro lenses available in the new size.

Both the E-10 and the E-100 continue to feature slots for BOTH CompactFlash and SmartCard memory, adding versatility and twice the storage.

With these new models, Olympus is offering two clearly different approaches to digital photography: The E-10 boasts higher quality optics and resolutions, and operates like a traditional SLR. While the E-100RS is an all-purpose digital camera with an impressive 10x optical zoom, video capabilities and a spiffy 15-pictures-per-second shooting speed..

With a true optical view-finder and an impressive array of manual controls and buttons, I was more comfortable with the E-10. But those looking for more of an all-in-one camera may prefer the E-100 with its 10x zoom and (limited) video capabilities.

Dreamweaver Ultradev 4

Macromedia?s Dreamweaver has long reigned over the field of visual Web editors with its combination of high-quality page code, cross-platform, technology-independent approach to Web development, and solid Web authoring toolkit.

With Ultradev, Macromedia created a high-end version of Dreamweaver that added tools for creating database-driven Web sites using any of three different Web technologies -- Active Server Pages (ASP), Cold Fusion (CF) and Java Server Pages (JSP).

But Ultradev 1 was a little rough around the edges.

With the upcoming release of Dreamweaver Ultradev 4, editors of small and large media sites should be taking a closer look at this all-in-one Web development tool.

The first version of Ultradev was good, but the second release (numbered 4.0 to coincide with the standard Dreamweaver versions) matures all of the database development tools, such as remote database connectivity (for real-time previewing of database content) and an expanded and easier to use filtering logic and server-behaviors.

While no media operation is going to want to build dynamic, database-driven Web sites without a staff of programmers and database specialists, Ultradev allows non-technical editors and designers to put together pages with content pulled directly from databases.

There are also significant improvements to the underlying Dreamweaver product: Flash Support: You can build (limited) Flash graphics directly in Dreamweaver (without needing the Flash authoring software). Split-screen editing: A new split-screen mode displays page code and the real-time page preview simultaneous New table generation interface: Rather than typing in rows and column numbers to create new tables, you can draw and trace tables directly on the screen like in other visual editors.

Dreamweaver has many times proven itself to be the best visual Web editor on the market. And with Ultradev 4.0, Macromedia has put together the best all-in-one visual Web development tool around.

(Dreamweaver also comes in three other flavors: the standard Dreamweaver 4.0, the graphics bundle Dreamweaver 4 FireWorks 4 Studio, and the full suite Dreamweaver Ultradev 4 Fireworks 4 Studio.)

Photoshop 6 versus Fireworks 4

These two graphic applications fight it out every year, with the nod in sales always going to the design industry staple by Adobe.

With each new version, Fireworks and Photoshop add new features and duplicate those of the competitor. This year is no exception, with some catch-up by Photoshop and some new features on both sides.

As always, Fireworks? strength is its focus on Web graphics. Macromedia continues to fine-tune and add features to a program (and interface) that is tailored to creating online content.

Fireworks has traditionally edged out Photoshop in its Web development options, and this version continues that trend.

Borrowing some Javascript from Dreamweaver, and boasting better integration with that tool, you can edit HTML tables in Fireworks (central to building sliced graphics for the Web), create multi-level navigation menus and drag-and-drop graphics to create rollovers.

Some of the major new features to Fireworks 4 include: Pop-up menu creator Drag-and-drop rollovers Better control of animation effects Batch processing wizard Easier file-naming for complex exports (like sliced graphics) Selective JPG compression

In the past, one of Photoshop?s biggest features was its install base ? the majority of graphics professionals are most productive and comfortable with the familiar Adobe interface.

But with version 6.0 Adobe finally caved and included vector graphics in the program, nullifying one of Fireworks? biggest advantages over PSD. It also expands the traditional graphic production tools.

Like Fireworks 4, the new version of Photoshop allows for varying rates of compression of Web graphics in different areas.

The highlights of Photoshop 6?s new features include: Tool-sensitive options bar Vector-based graphics Fill layers Grouping of layers and ability to apply effects to layer sets Layer-based image slicing Variable optimization of GIFs and JPGs

Unfortunately, Adobe still stubbornly keeps the best Web-specific graphics tools in Photoshop?s sister program ImageReady (included with PSD6). So when you want to create animations or add some Javascript effects like rollovers, it runs the second program and transfers the graphics in memory to it.

Both programs get the job done, and both will work fine for any Web outfit.

When comparing the two, Photoshop always gets a nod for versatility in graphic production -- it can create hi-res graphics for print as easily as lower-resolution images for the Web.

But Fireworks, developed specifically to create graphics for the Web, still appears to have the edge as a more powerful, all-in-one application for developing interactive Web graphics.

For many, it comes down to familiarity with Macromedia or Adobe products, and their organization and design of tools, windows and other GUIs.

New features are nice, but ease of use is often king, and it often takes a while to test the measure of new programs. Look for an in-depth, knockdown, drag-out, head-to-head battle between these two graphic apps in a future Tools article.