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 Lumix Panasonic ReviewLooking for a nice camera to give it a gift this Christmas season you might want to consider the 7.2-Megapixel Panasonic DMC-FX12 or its little brother the 6.0-Megapixel DMC-FX10. Due to some internal tricks it’s able to fit an optical three times zoom (equals 35-105mm on a 35mm film camera) in a compact frame measuring approximately 94.1 x 51.4 x 24.2 mm ( 3.70 x 2.02 x 0.95 inch). Like many newer Lumix cameras these feature Mega O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer), an optical image stabilisation system that reduces blurring by compensating for any movement or shaking in the hands which is the leading cause of blurry images. The Panasonic DMC-FX12 also features Panasonic’s Intelligent ISO Control to help compensate for movement in the subject itself. With so many features there are some things the camera had to do without, one of which was an optical viewfinder. You’ll have to look at the LCD and in those cases where you’re not able to look at it directly there is a High Angle mode which brightens the LCD screen making it more easily viewable from an angle as in overhead shots.
As for the speed its shutter lag has been reduced to a nice 0.005 seconds and you can take a photo from start to finish in around 1.5 seconds. Continues the shooting mode operates at 1.5 frames per second.
Basically the FX12, for the price, comes with some great features that will help you take better photos. The camera itself is stylish, pocket-friendly, and feels well-built despite being plastic. It retails for $199 plus some Internet sites are selling it for as low as $169 right now. It’s a good camera at that price.
November 19th, 2007
ReviewThough most digital cameras produced today have sufficient resolution to make the spec itself almost a nonissue, the same can’t be said about camcorders.
May 29th, 2007
Digital Camera Olympus Review
Olympus E-400 digital reflex camera
It was surprising to find out that a compact digital SLR camera like the Olympus E-400, which finally shows the compact possibilities offers by the FourThirds system is not available world wide, but at first only on the European market. (more…)
April 6th, 2007
Nokia Review
The 3250 XpressMusic is a music orientated smartphone which has been designed by Nokia. The phone has a twist style opening mechanism which allows the user to simply twist the bottom end of the Nokia 3250 XpressMusic into different positions depending on the mode they wish to use. (more…)
April 5th, 2007
