The great thing about digital cameras is the fact that you can plug them into your telly and see the photo of your loved one you just photographed barely 30 seconds ago (don't know why people do that, they just do!) The drawback in all this is that while the SLR may have several squillion megapixels the output is normally composite and therefore rubbish! Sony is about to change all that with an HDMI output on its new Alpha 700 D-SLR so you can see the pictures in the way they are meant to be seen - in glorious high definition.

The Alpha 700 sports a built-in HDMI output for connection to any HD-ready TV or display. Images are optimised for subtler, more natural colour and textures on the latest generation of Full HD BRAVIA televisions that support ‘PhotoTV HD' - the Full HD TV photo viewing style recently announced by Sony. This technology is said to offer a significant improvement over viewing still images on conventional TV sets that are optimised for moving video. It also controls image browsing, zoom, HD slideshows and other functions when the a700 is linked to an HD television.