Canon Cyber shot Digital Camera FujiFilm GE PowerShot SonyComparison between the GE A830, Sony CyberShot DSC-S700, Fujifilm Finepix Z10, and the Canon PowerShot A560:
These four entry-level, affordable, point-and-shoot cameras all have 3x zoom except for the Canon A560 which has 4x optical zoom and we will ignore digital zoom. They all have approximately 7 megapixels except for the GE A830 which has eight megapixels. They all have a 2.5 inch LCD screen except for the Sony S700 which is slightly smaller. And they all go for $149 except for the GE A830 which is currently on sale “exclusively” at Kmart for $129 although you can pick it up from a few other places for the same price such as Dell.
So first let’s talk about the cheapest of the lot, the GE A830. In this case it’s not necessarily a good deal unless you desperately need to spend slightly less even though if you shop around you can probably find one of the other three for the same price. The Washington Post’s hired lab found many problems with the quality of the output of the camera: “Our lab tests show the GE A830 has trouble with colors: yellows, greens, and blues look dull and sometimes half the picture is tinted a different shade than the other half.” They also found that performance was unreliable and inconsistent throughout. The resolution of the images and even of the LCD screen, the flash, and its face detection system.
Sony CyberShot DSC-S700 on the other hand has good build quality of full metal and design and images do come out well. An improvement on the S600. However, video recording is not one of its stronger points. And of course like all Sony products you’re stuck using Memory Stick which would raise the price of this entry-level camera if you don’t already have other Sony products. There is no manual exposure mode.
Fujifilm Finepix Z10 is another good camera in a long line of good Finepix cameras But like the Sony CyberShot it performs less well in over ISO 200 conditions with highly noticeable noise in low light may be worse overall than the Sony S700. The camera does have some good features and its face detection system can detect up to 10 faces. But it’s image stabilization is lacking. On the other hand it comes in colors like “wasabi green” and hot pink. Below is the camera in midnight black.
The Canon PowerShot A560 is a welcome step up from others in the A series like the A460, the A540, and the A550. It lacks the image stabilization of the A570 IS but it does have the Digic III processor, a face detection system, ISO 1600, and decent redeye removal.
“Although the line’s “A” designation stands for the convenient AA batteries it accepts, it could easily stand for “affordable” or simply reflect the consistently high marks that these feature-packed PowerShot digital cameras earn from camera users and digital camera advocates alike. These two newest A-Series digital cameras continue to deliver on Canon’s long-standing commitment to produce the highest quality cameras at the highest possible value to consumers. Indeed, Canon’s A-series of cameras have long been heralded as a top-featured, entry-level line of digital cameras and rewarded with considerable consumer loyalty.”
Overall a good camera and highly recommended especially if you can get it for much less than the estimated selling price of $229. You should be able to find it for $149.
December 10th, 2007
Digital SLR Camera NikonThe new Nikon D300 is a nice successor to the D200, a 12.3 megapixel single-lens reflex digital camera with a 3 inch LCD screen similar to the Canon PowerShot G9 the new D300 shares much in common with the Nikon D3 professional digital SLR camera which was also just released. The camera is fast, powering up in a 10th of a second with shutter time release lag of less than half of that and with Nikon’s exclusive Scene Recognition System (SRS), with an improved 1,005-Pixel 3D Color Matrix Metering II and a self-cleaning dust reduction system, letting you to shake off the dust and also reducing the static that attracts dust in the first place. A few differences between the D300 and the D3 are the full frame sensor found in the D3 and its second CompactFlash slot.
Approximate dimensions of 5.8 x 4.5 x 2.9 in. (147 x 114 x 74 mm) weighing approximately 1.82 lbs. (825 g) without battery, memory card, body cap, or monitor cover
Nikon D300 test images
The camera starts at $1799 for the body only and that’s how much it’s going for at the major stores right now.
Nikon Japan also has simple test images from this camera using the Nikon AF-S DX VR Zoom Nikkor ED 18-200mm F3.5-5.6G, the prime AF Nikkor 50mm F1.4D and the AF-S VR Nikkor ED 300mm F2.8 IF telephoto lens.
Nikon D300 sample images
December 6th, 2007
Canon Digital Camera PowerShotWired Magazine put it on their Christmas wish list at number four calling it a “pocket paparazzo”. The Canon PowerShot G9 is a serious camera without being a huge DSLR, and if you’re familiar with the other cameras in the PowerShot series (such as the PowerShot G7 from last year which this camera is but a slight improvement upon) you know about how small it is. Somehow it still has a 12.1 Megapixel sensor which should be much more than enough no matter how serious you are. Also comes with the face-detection, improved focus and handling, and the ability to shoot in RAW mode.
The PowerShot G9’s RAW mode lets you shoot images without JPEG compression. It gives you clearer images and complete creative control in editing. RAW images are transferred directly to the computer where they can then be edited using image adjustment software or a processing application to adjust your images as you please. The camera can also be set to allow the simultaneous recording of both RAW and JPEG images while shooting.
Also features 6x image-stabilized optical zoom; 3.0-inch LCD display (some accuracy issues); optical viewfinder.
Suggested that $500 you can get it for as little as $329.
December 6th, 2007
Laptops Lenovo ThinkPadThinking about getting a Lenovo/IBM ThinkPad? Think carefully and read this story to be sure you really want one. Back in October I ordered a ThinkPad Z61t directly from Lenovo from their website at a great deal of $599 plus tax (they charge tax everywhere in the United States that your state charges taxes). The order went through after I selected a couple options like getting the one gig of ram as a single chip instead of two and getting the regular screen without the camera. A few days later Lenovo’s website said that my laptop will be shipped by the end of October about two weeks. Longer than I wanted away but I was willing to wait that long. It was a pretty good price competitive with the Dell laptop I was looking at. Then November came and I hadn’t received a laptop nor any notification of shipment. Checking the status online I would come to find out that my ThinkPad order had been canceled by Lenovo. They sent me an e-mail saying that apart was out of stock and that they would upgrade my laptop for free to one with a camera in the screen. I didn’t really want to camera but it didn’t look like I had much choice if I still wanted the ThinkPad from Lenovo. In the e-mail they said they were going to automatically process this upgrade for me. So a week later I checked again and still no update to the status. No change to my original order. That’s what I called Lenovo to find out what was going on and was told that my order had been canceled. But that it had not been reordered. I no longer had an order. If I wanted to place an order I could. Even though they were supposed to do that for me. Their explanation was that they must have been busy, too busy to do what they said. Frustrated, I still have them go with that order. And a few days later around the middle of November Lenovo’s website told me the laptop would ship on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Well, Black Friday rolls around and there are some crazy deals out there for laptops. I go online and check the order of my status and guess what. It has not been shipped. It will not be shipped until the middle of December. I have had my ship date pushed back several times now. Never with an explanation or even a notification. So at this point I realize it could be more than three months before I ever get that laptop and I order a Dell Vostro 1500 for the same price. I received that within a week. I then call Lenovo in the beginning of December to find out what was up with that Z61t and was told they probably would go out until the end of December now. I ordered the laptop in the middle of October and they still weren’t sure when they could ship it. Or they did know and they just didn’t want to tell me. I’ve owned ThinkPads before in the past and love them but this is the first time I’ve ever dealt with Lenovo directly in sales. The experience was frustrating and I would have to give them a failing grade on communications, what little of it there was. They either don’t know or won’t tell you what they have in inventory and this is why they can give you an accurate ship date. So keep this in mind if you’re ever ordering a laptop from Lenovo. How important is it that you actually get what you ordered within a reasonable timeframe and how important is it that the company you’re giving money to communicates reasonable expectations to you?
December 6th, 2007
Olympus Voice RecorderLooking for a small device to record lectures or business meetings, yourself, and other important stuff like maybe a concert? For $150 the Olympus WS-321M Voice Recorder digital recorder with music player comes highly recommended. Coming with modern amenities this little device can also play MP3s so it’s got all of your audio needs covered (it records and also plays back WMA). And great for transcriptionists, detail-oriented students, and people who wish others would just talk little bit slower or maybe a bit faster is the feature to playback recordings pitched up or down up to 50% and you can also speed up to the important parts. A gig of memory allows for the storage of up to 250 songs for 277 hours of recording. Other features: stereo, USB, LCD screen, built-in speaker, weighs 1.7 ounces including battery, 3.7″L x 1.5″W x 0.4″D.
December 6th, 2007
Digital Camera Olympus ReviewOlympus SP-560UZ Digital Camera comes with great components; 18x optical zoom lens; 8.1 megapixels, optical image stabilization; TruePic Turbo III image processor with face detection technology; can photograph large group portraits, faraway football goals, and everything in between; feature-laden; $499 price tag, about $100 more than its competitors; two other models have come out with nearly identical specs, but cost much less: the Fujifilm FinePix S8000fd and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 ; pricey SP-560 didn’t fare well; doesn’t have much to offer compared to the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18, the Canon S5, and the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H7; suffers from inaccurate and undersaturated colors, disappointing resolution performance that shows obvious barrel distortion, very ugly blue noise that makes ISO speeds of 1600 and 3200 essentially unusable, and malfunctioning long exposures that make the right corners of the photos glow; has very low noise at ISO 50 and 100, as well as excellent dynamic range at those ISO speeds. Most telling, however, is the 560UZ didn’t even perform better than its predecessor, the Olympus SP-550UZ, in most image quality categories; high-quality components; 2.5-inch LCD screen with 230,000 pixels and very wide viewing angles, an electronic viewfinder with a smooth view, and a pop-up flash that hardly ever catches a red eye; long lens [unable] to function in Movie mode when the audio is turned on, only when the audio recording is off; recognized three faces at a time but didn’t track as well as similar technology on the Canon S5 and Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18.
The Olympus SP-560UZ has a lot of great features, exposure modes, and components packed into a comfortable body, but its pictures don’t turn out as well as they should. The autofocus system is slow, so fleeting moments are missed. Many captured images are plagued with noise and have horrifically inaccurate colors. It’s not worth the $499 price, especially considering the less expensive competition outperforms it.
Washington Post
November 23rd, 2007
Digital Camera Digital SLR Camera Fuji FujiFilmBasic specifications: 8-megapixel 1/2.35-inch CCD (not SuperCCD), Fujinon 18x Optical zoom lens, F2.8 - F4.5, f=4.7mm - 84.2 mm, Equivalent to 27 - 486mm on a 35mm camera, AUTO / AUTO (ISO1600) / AUTO (ISO800) / AUTO (ISO400) / Equivalent to ISO64 / 100 / 200 / 400 / 800 / 1600 / 3200 / 6400, 4sec. to 1/2000 sec. shutter speed. List price of £299.99
The Finepix S8000fd represents Fujifilm’s best attempt yet to fuse the advantages of compact and DSLR cameras together, rivaling the latest entry-level DSLRs. The likes of the Nikon D40x, Pentax K100D and Canon EOS 400D all offer faster performance and better image quality than the Fujifilm Finepix S8000fd, plus the advantage of RAW mode which is notably missing on the S8000fd. Crucially, slightly wider-angle than its main competitor, the excellent Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18. The difference in JPEG image quality at slower ISO speeds isn’t that pronounced, but the S8000fd suffers by comparison with its noisy ISO 800 and 1600 ISO settings. The electronic viewfinder is greatly improved, with better resolution and refresh rate, but it’s still ultimately less comfortable and accurate than a traditional optical viewfinder, especially for action photography. So the advantages of the compact digicam format (movie mode, live preview on the LCD screen, dust-free fixed lens) don’t quite out-weigh the disadvantages of this camera, until you factor in the 18x zoom lens. For the majority of photographers the Fujifilm Finepix S8000fd has almost every situation covered in terms of focal length, from wide-angle landscapes to close-up nature shots, all in a light and compact body. You would have to purchase and carry at least a couple of lenses to cover the same distance with a DSLR camera. Thankfully Fujifilm have at last seen sense and included an image stabilization system, an essential feature given the massive zoom range on offer, and one that works very well in practice. This also means that Fujifilm can finally compete on a level playing field with their main super-zoom competitors, most notably the 18x models from Panasonic and Olympus. We haven’t reviewed the Panasonic FZ18 yet, but we much preferred the S8000fd to the Olympus SP-550 UZ, which offers a less usable interface and much poorer image quality. The Fujifilm Finepix S8000fd is therefore both our current ultra-zoom camera of choice, and a viable alternative to a DSLR camera.
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November 23rd, 2007
Canon Digital Camera Digital SLR Camera PowerShotThe latest model in Canon’s popular line of image-stabilized superzoom cameras, the 8-megapixel Canon PowerShot S5 IS is similar to its predecessor, the 6-megapixel PowerShot S3 IS (there’s no S4). The Canon PowerShot S5 IS is more of an evolutionary update than a major upgrade in Canon’s megazoom PowerShot line. That’s okay, since the camera has been updated enough to keep it current but still maintains the attributes that made the S3 IS so popular. Of course I, and probably many other photographers, would welcome the ability to shoot RAW with the Canon S5 IS, but the camera has more than enough features to keep both control-obsessed enthusiasts and point-and-shooters happy. Like most superzooms, the solidly built Canon PowerShot S5 IS has the look and feel of a digital SLR. Thanks to its increased size (2.5-inch vs. the S3’s 2-inch monitor) and higher resolution (207,000 pixels vs. the S3’s 115,000 pixels), the Canon S5 IS’s LCD is a pleasure to use regardless of lighting conditions.Thanks to its increased size (2.5-inch vs. the S3’s 2-inch monitor) and higher resolution (207,000 pixels vs. the S3’s 115,000 pixels), the Canon S5 IS’s LCD is a pleasure to use regardless of lighting conditions. Overall, the Canon PowerShot S5 IS is fast enough for most shooting conditions. Canon’s Face Detection technology seems to be one of the better ones on the market and it works pretty well on the Canon S5 IS. Canon’s Face Detection technology seems to be one of the better ones on the market and it works pretty well on the Canon S5 IS. Despite some corner softness at both extremes (wide angle and full telephoto) and an average amount of barrel distortion at wide angle, the Canon S5 IS’s 12x zoom lens did a good job of producing sharp and nicely-detailed images in well-lit areas. Details became softer in shadows due to noise suppression, though. The Canon S5’s other major shortcoming is an unexpectedly high level of chromatic aberration.The Canon S5’s other major shortcoming is an unexpectedly high level of chromatic aberration.
The Canon PowerShot S5 IS has a lot to offer with its image-stabilized 12x optical zoom lens and well-rounded feature set that provides more than enough sophistication and manual options for advanced amateurs and prosumers, while providing less experienced photographers a solid set of familiar options like Auto, Program AE, and Scene modes. Image noise issues and the appearance of chromatic aberration mar the otherwise pleasing image quality and although the S5 IS benefits in many ways from the latest DIGIC III processor from Canon, its performance could be taken up a notch. The Canon PowerShot S5 IS, however, has so much to offer in terms of features and design that these attributes may be enough to compensate for the camera’s shortcomings. The S5 IS is one of the many megazoom cameras I’ve tested, the S5 IS is one of my favorites.
The latest model in Canon’s popular line of image-stabilized superzoom cameras, the 8-megapixel Canon PowerShot S5 IS is similar to its predecessor, the 6-megapixel PowerShot S3 IS (there’s no S4). The Canon PowerShot S5 IS is more of an evolutionary update than a major upgrade in Canon’s megazoom PowerShot line. That’s okay, since the camera has been updated enough to keep it current but still maintains the attributes that made the S3 IS so popular. Of course I, and probably many other photographers, would welcome the ability to shoot RAW with the Canon S5 IS, but the camera has more than enough features to keep both control-obsessed enthusiasts and point-and-shooters happy. Like most superzooms, the solidly built Canon PowerShot S5 IS has the look and feel of a digital SLR. Thanks to its increased size (2.5-inch vs. the S3’s 2-inch monitor) and higher resolution (207,000 pixels vs. the S3’s 115,000 pixels), the Canon S5 IS’s LCD is a pleasure to use regardless of lighting conditions.Thanks to its increased size (2.5-inch vs. the S3’s 2-inch monitor) and higher resolution (207,000 pixels vs. the S3’s 115,000 pixels), the Canon S5 IS’s LCD is a pleasure to use regardless of lighting conditions. Overall, the Canon PowerShot S5 IS is fast enough for most shooting conditions. Canon’s Face Detection technology seems to be one of the better ones on the market and it works pretty well on the Canon S5 IS. Canon’s Face Detection technology seems to be one of the better ones on the market and it works pretty well on the Canon S5 IS. Despite some corner softness at both extremes (wide angle and full telephoto) and an average amount of barrel distortion at wide angle, the Canon S5 IS’s 12x zoom lens did a good job of producing sharp and nicely-detailed images in well-lit areas. Details became softer in shadows due to noise suppression, though. The Canon S5’s other major shortcoming is an unexpectedly high level of chromatic aberration.The Canon S5’s other major shortcoming is an unexpectedly high level of chromatic aberration.
The Canon PowerShot S5 IS has a lot to offer with its image-stabilized 12x optical zoom lens and well-rounded feature set that provides more than enough sophistication and manual options for advanced amateurs and prosumers, while providing less experienced photographers a solid set of familiar options like Auto, Program AE, and Scene modes. Image noise issues and the appearance of chromatic aberration mar the otherwise pleasing image quality and although the S5 IS benefits in many ways from the latest DIGIC III processor from Canon, its performance could be taken up a notch. The Canon PowerShot S5 IS, however, has so much to offer in terms of features and design that these attributes may be enough to compensate for the camera’s shortcomings. The S5 IS is one of the many megazoom cameras I’ve tested, the S5 IS is one of my favorites.
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November 23rd, 2007
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