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This camera's ability to capture images in wide-screen format is unique and useful, but the DMC-LX2 is a tad bulky for a point-and-shoot.
The 10-megapixel Lumix DMC-LX2 ($410 as of February 15, 2007), the most recent Panasonic model we've tested, has the same image stabilization feature found on many other Lumix cameras, but it dispenses with those cameras' long zoom in favor of a smaller, more compact body. Even so, the lens protrudes from the camera body by 0.75 inch when the camera is turned off, giving it a total depth of 1.75 inch and making it a little too clunky to fit comfortably in most pockets. The lens cap isn't integrated into the camera body, either; instead, it dangles from a tether while you shoot. If you switch on the camera with the lens cap still attached, you'll get an on-screen warning to remove it.
The DMC-LX2 replaces the DMC-LX1, which we tested last year. The main update involves resolution: The new model takes 4224-by-2376-pixel stills with a wide-screen (16:9) aspect ratio--a format unique to this camera. The HD format is nice for snapping wide-angle shots of, say, landscapes, but pictures that have a distinct foreground subject showed too much extraneous background (though this might be good for capturing unique effects). You can use the three-position switch on the lens to jump to the camera's 3:2 (DVD dimensions) mode, or to its traditional 4:3 mode. In 3:2 format, however, you get only 8.5 megapixels; and in 4:3 mode, 7.5 megapixels. The zoom lens extends to 6.2X if you ratchet the resolution down to 2 megapixels, but at the camera's highest-resolution setting you can only zoom to 4X.
If you choose the right format, the DMC-LX2's unusual, 2.8-inch wide-screen LCD (located on the back of the camera) crops the image just the way an HDTV does. The HD mode takes some getting used to, though. Unless you hold the camera at arm's length, you have to move your eyes to see the entire display. One nifty feature: You can set the display to "high angle" mode, making shots easier to view when you hold the camera over your head--say, in a crowd. The camera has no optical viewfinder.
The camera and the manual say that you can capture movies in either 16:9 or 4:3 mode, but the camera we received for testing allowed movie capture only in 4:3 mode. When I tried to select the 16:9 mode, the camera insisted that I was still in the unsupported 3:2 mode.
Like the DMC-LX1, the newer model has several buttons on its small, well-constructed aluminum body. In addition to the usual mode dial and menu navigation buttons, it has an exposure lock button conveniently situated on the back, and a button on the top of the camera for turning on image stabilization. This feature uses software to reduce blur, and you can use it in multiple scene modes. The tiny joystick on the back controls things like aperture and shutter speed when you use a mode that supports these manual adjustments, but I would rather have used the four menu buttons to adjust these settings. The joystick adjusts the manual focus, too--a function that it does make a bit easier.
Two buttons control the flash. Unfortunately, you must use a button on the top of the camera to pop up the flash manually. One of the four directional buttons lets you select the flash mode, but pressing it doesn't cycle through the modes; instead, it launches an on-screen menu, so you have to use the directional buttons or the joystick to select the mode, and then press the Menu button to enter the mode. That's far more complicated than it should be.
The DMC-LX2 earned excellent scores in nearly all of our image-quality tests. Most shots--even magnified enlargements--looked sharp, and the camera earned our top score for exposure quality. In our lab tests, cameras capture images while mounted on a tripod, but outside the lab, I tried the Lumix's two image-stabilization modes (one works continuously, and the other works only when the shutter release it held down, ostensibly to save battery life). Neither mode can prevent blurry pictures in extremely shaky settings (on a roller coaster, for example), but they will gain you an f-stop or two, which is enough to save some pictures, particularly in low light.
In addition to aperture-priority, shutter-priority, and full-manual shooting modes, the DMC-LX2 offers 18 scene modes, including one for 'Food' and two for taking shots of babies ('Baby1' and 'Baby2'). The latter two modes prompt you to identify your child's birthday; subsequently they refer to that date in stamping photos with your baby's age--for example, "2 years, 1 month, 19 days." (The two Baby modes are identical; there are two of them s you can track the progress of two children.) The camera's menus explain what the scene modes do, but they don't do a very good job of it--the description of Food mode reads, "For taking pictures of food. Take a picture without flash for the best result."
The camera's warranty is a bit unusual, and not in a good way: Most parts are warranted for a year, but the CCD is covered for only six months, and the labor warranty lasts just 90 days. Most camera warranties back their product for a full year on both parts and labor.
The D70s offers a good selection of features and fast autofocus, but image quality was a little disappointing.
Compared to some other digital SLRs--such as the bulky Fujifilm Finepix S2 Pro or the heavy Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D--the Nikon D70s feels small and lightweight. The D70s fits comfortably in the hand, measuring just 5.5 by 4.4 by 3.1 inches, and weighs only 1 pound, 9 ounces without the lens. Although the camera offers a profusion of buttons, the most commonly used ones fall under the fingers, such as the buttons to change metering modes, exposure, and focus lock. The two control dials--one on the front and one on the rear--fall naturally under your index finger and thumb. Having two dials makes controlling the camera in full manual mode much easier than with cameras that have only one dial. On the D70s, one dial controls the shutter and the other changes the aperture. In contrast, the Digital Rebel XT, which has just one dial, makes you hold down a button so the dial changes the aperture instead of the shutter speed.
Also, you can also control most of the settings on the D70s using a combination of a button and one of the control dials, instead of having to navigate an on-screen menu. For example, to change the ISO setting on the D70s, you hold down the ISO button and turn the control dial. This method can be a little awkward because you need to use both hands: one to hold down the button and one to rotate the dial. The settings can also be accessed through the menu, which is navigated with a 4-way thumbpad. A single rechargeable battery powers the camera; it lasted for 500 shots, the cutoff point in our tests, and easily enough for a weekend trip.
One curious omission is the ability to store custom settings; most digital SLRs allow them. However, the mode dial on the D70s does have seven scene modes (for portraits, sports, night shots, and so on), plus the usual manual exposure modes: shutter-priority, aperture-priority, program, and full manual.
Although the 2-inch LCD is a slight improvement on the 1.8-inch screen on the D70, it still looks small compared with the 2.5-inch screen on the Maxxum 7D. The Nikon screen is clear and bright, however, and is easily viewable in anything but direct sunlight.
We found the autofocus of the D70s to be very responsive, focusing quickly in most lighting situations. The D70s was very quick to start up: It was ready to take photos less than a second after we turned it on, so you aren't likely to miss a shot while waiting for the camera.
Serious photographers are more likely to manually adjust settings rather than be content with automatic settings. That's why our SLR testing now includes some shots taken using manual adjustments, in addition to shots using automatic settings. All of the SLRs we tested improved their color accuracy scores under manual settings, but none more dramatically than the D70s: It earned the lowest score under fully automatic mode, but scored higher than most of the other SLRs after we set a custom white balance and adjusted its exposure settings.
We found that the automatic metering of the D70s consistently underexposed our test images, leading to weak colors. To be fair, most digital cameras underexpose because it is easier to recover details in an underexposed picture than in an overexposed one. The images I shot were underexposed only by around half a stop, so they were easy to fix in my image editing application of choice, Adobe Photoshop.
Outdoor images looked more impressive, though the shots I took on a sunny afternoon did have a slightly bluish cast to them. Exposure was more accurate in daylight, although some images were still underexposed using automatic metering. As expected, we were less impressed with the images when we increased the ISO setting (as when shooting in lower light): We noticed noise in our test images beginning at ISO 800; noise was very noticeable in images shot at ISO 1600. However, the D70s did earn one of the highest scores for its noise reduction (only the Canon EOS 20D scored higher); the pattern of noise was less obvious than with other cameras--none of the annoying white dots that we saw in the Finepix S2 Pro's images, for example. For exposures longer than a second, the D70s includes an additional noise reduction mode, whereby it takes a second exposure with the shutter closed in order to gauge how much digital noise the image sensor's electronics are introducing, and then uses the reading to subtract noise from the first shot.
On the other hand, the D70s did not score well in our sharpness and distortion tests. Though it did an impressive job in rendering fine lines distinctly, the sharpening process that the D70s uses to bring out these details also introduced some moir?? artifacts, with unsightly color fringing in some areas.
At $1299 for the kit we reviewed, the D70s costs a few hundred dollars more than some other SLRs we've tested. But it is a good value for the money if you don't own any lenses: the 18-70mm Nikkor lens that comes with the kit is excellent. But if you already have Nikon lenses, you can save a bit of cash by buying the body only, which goes for $899. You can use the D70s with most lenses that use the Nikon F mount; only a few older lenses won't work with it.
Upshot: The small, lightweight Nikon D70s offers conveniences you won't find on other models, though its image quality lags behind many other SLRs.
Compact advanced digicam offers a slew of features, but mediocre battery life.
The sophisticated $600 Canon PowerShot G7 boasts a 10-megapixel sensor, face-detection autofocus, optical image stabilization, and a maximum light sensitivity of ISO 1600. In contrast, the PowerShot G6 had a 7.1-megapixel rating, lacked image stabilization, and reached ISO 400.
The compact G7's rugged, bricklike metal body feels as though it could weather a few knocks. Its black exterior gives the camera a serious look.
The large, high-resolution 2.5-inch LCD doesn't swivel (the G6's did), lacks a wireless remote, and offers just a strip of rubberized material to grasp onto--a poor substitute for a true hand grip.
The mode dial atop the camera offers typical assortment of shooting modes, plus two positions you can assign customized settings to. Working with the camera's dedicated ISO dial is far more convenient than using an LCD menu.
Unfortunately, the top panel lacks a status display LCD.
On the back, the G7's four-way selector button is surrounded by a thin thumb wheel that lets you make menu selections without a lot of button pressing. When you select a scene mode using the thumb wheel, a virtual dial spins on the LCD screen--a nice touch.
The G7 delivered very sharp shots in our tests, earning the best score on this measure among recently tested advanced cameras. Overall, the G7 earned a Very Good rating for image quality. We were disappointed, however, by the indifferent accuracy of its exposures on indoor shots (at automatic settings), especially on shots where we used the built-in flash. On outdoor shots the G7 usually supplied accurate exposures. The slow autofocus proved frustrating: The lens tended to swim in and out for several seconds before locking onto my subject; and in dim lighting, it sometimes produced out-of-focus shots anyway.
The G7's 6X optical zoom is modest in comparison to the 10X or 12X zooms we've seen on most advanced cameras recently. Photo enthusiasts may be disappointed that the G7 shoots only JPEGs (no RAW images). And if you like to use a tripod, be forewarned that the SD card slot is located next to the battery compartment on the underside of the camera; before you can swap cards, you'll have to remove the camera from the tripod. It's just as likely that you'll have to replace the battery, however: The G7's battery lasted just 275 shots on a full charge, in a category where the average is over 400 shots.
The G7's shortcomings aside, its generous controls and easy navigation may prove an ideal combination for photographers who frequently adjust manual settings in pursuit of the perfect shot. But photo enthusiasts looking for a backup camera to supplement their digital SLR may be turned off by the G7's high price, lack of RAW support, and mediocre battery life.
Average Megapixels For an SLR
This digital SLR has an average megapixel count for its class. You can print images from an 8- to 10-megapixel camera at sizes up to 8 by 10 inches with no loss in quality; at 13 by 19 inches, however, prints will exhibit a slight loss of detail. Images from a 13-megapixel camera look good at 13 by 19 inches and can be pushed to 16 by 24 inches. Though prints at these larger sizes will lose some sharpness, they'll be superior to what you'd get from 35mm film printed at the same dimensions. You’ll also have plenty of latitude to crop and resize images. As the pixel count on an image sensor increases, so does its propensity to produce images plagued by noise--ugly speckling patterns. To avoid noise, look for a camera with the lowest pixel count that still serves your output needs.
High Continuous Shooting Speed
When a camera is in burst (or drive) mode, it will continue to shoot as long as you hold down the shutter button. How quickly a particular model takes pictures in this mode depends on its continuous shooting speed, measured in number of frames per second (fps). This SLR has a high continuous shooting speed. With a burst speed of 5 fps or greater, a camera can record a very subtle range of expressions in series shots of people. These slight variations can often make the difference between a good portrait or candid photo and an unusable one. You'll also be able to capture decisive sports and entertainment moments.
RAW Image Format
RAW is an uncompressed format for preserving graphics files. Smaller than TIFF files, RAW files often permit restoration of images that have overexposed highlight areas; also, you can ensure that your camera will store the full range of color it captures. You'll need special software on your computer to deal with RAW files, and shooting in RAW format can slow down your SLR. Some cameras with RAW capabilities let you choose from among several resolutions, so you can shoot RAW files at smaller pixel dimensions. That way, if you don’t need the full resolution of your camera, you can shoot RAW photos while saving space on your card.
JPEG Image Format
All digital cameras can capture JPEG images. The JPEG compression process greatly reduces the amount of storage an image requires, and JPEG images transfer quickly from your camera to your computer. JPEG compression is a lossy algorithm, however, which means that saving an image in JPEG format degrades its quality. The high-quality JPEG settings on most cameras are quite good, and it's difficult to spot differences between a JPEG compressed image and a noncompressed image. Still, if you like to edit your images, you may want to upgrade to a camera that also supports a noncompressed (lossless) format, such as TIFF or RAW.
Supports Center-Weight Metering
The light meter controls how long the shutter stays open and how large the aperture is--two variables that are critical to image quality. The default meter on most cameras is a matrix meter, which divides your scene into a grid, gauges the light in each cell of the grid, and then averages the results to come up with a final metering value for the shot. This SLR, however, uses a center-weight meter, which works like a matrix meter but pays more attention to the cells at the center of the viewfinder. This approach to metering can help greatly with backlighting complications.
Supports Spot Metering
A camera's light meter controls how long the shutter stays open and how large the aperture is--two variables that are critical to image quality. This SLR features spot metering. A spot meter gauges the necessary aperture and exposure time for a shot by measuring one spot in the scene you are photographing--usually a very small one. A spot meter is useful for dealing with backlighting complications and scenes that have a very wide dynamic range (a big variation in brightness or darkness) because it ensures that the exposure will be appropriate for certain specific details in the scene.
Fast Shutter Speed
A camera has two mechanisms for controlling how much light hits the sensor: the aperture, which opens and closes like the iris in your eye; and the shutter, which determines how long the sensor will be exposed to light. Depending on how fast the camera can open and close its shutter, you’ll be able to freeze fast-moving motion more precisely or less precisely. This model's fast shutter speed makes it ideal for capturing pictures at sporting events, in nature, and in moving water. You still have the option of shooting at slower shutter speeds to create blurred motion, if you wish.
This 6-megapixel SLR is a fine choice for beginning and intermediate shooters.
The K100D's $700 price tag (as of November 6, 2006) puts it at the low end of the entry-level digital SLR market, and its 6.1-megapixel resolution lags behind the current state-of-the-art. Nevertheless, this camera offers a feature set ideally suited to beginning shooters plus enough room to grow that intermediate photographers won't sniff at it either.
The K100D is small but well balanced, with a large hand grip that maximizes its stability during shooting and makes it comfortable to hold. In addition, the K100D incorporates Pentax's sensor-based image stabilization technology, which tries to minimize the effect of camera shake by moving the sensor to compensate for jittery hand vibrations.
For an entry-level camera, the K100D doesn't skimp on interface features. You get a bright, 2.5-inch rear-mounted LCD, plus a top-mounted LCD status display. The camera provides a full complement of readily accessible and easy-to-understand controls.
Unfortunately, the model's battery life is not up to par. The Pentax ships with four alkaline AA batteries, rather than with a rechargeable battery. In our battery life testing, the Pentax took only took 265 pictures before running out of juice.
Pentax claims that the K100D has two stops worth of stabilization; but in my shooting, the camera's stabilization fell somewhere between one and one-and-a-half stops. In contrast, lens-based systems consistently offer three to four stops. The K100D uses its sensor-shaking technology as a dust removal mechanism--handy for any camera that works with removable lenses.
The K100D is well designed and comfortable to shoot with, and its essential features are easy to access. Shooting modes include program, shutter- and aperture-priority, full manual, and bulb. The camera adds flexibility to the 13 scene modes by letting you adjust ISO, white balance, and exposure compensation. In Auto Picture mode, the camera analyzes your subject and selects one of these custom program modes. The K100D provides a full complement of manual modes, too, though it lacks a program shift feature for automatically cycling through different aperture/shutter speed combinations that deliver the same exposure.
The 11-point autofocus system works well, and metering on the camera is very good, though the K100D isn't particularly speedy. Powering up takes about a second, as does waking from sleep. The camera's burst speed maxes out at 1.5 frames per second for JPEG images.
The K100D takes very good pictures for a 6.1-megapixel camera. If you don't plan to enlarge pictures beyond 8 by 10 inches or to use zooming or cropping very often, 6.1 megapixels is plenty.
The K100D shoots Raw images and three levels of JPEG images. By default, the camera's JPEG output is a bit soft, so you might want to adjust the sharpening parameter within the camera. Though the K100D offers ISO levels up to 3200, images show substantial noise at ISO 800 and above.
The K100D is a great entry-level SLR camera, with an unmatched price. Pentax offers an extensive array of lenses to buy separately, and the camera's interface and design make for a comfortable shoot. If you want a full-featured SLR with fairly advanced features, it's hard to beat the price and performance of the K100D.
This 6.1-megapixel model brings interchangeable-lens photography to an affordable level.
Nikon's 6.1-megapixel D50 digital SLR model is no photographic marvel, but it does fit nicely into the latest digital camera trend: making interchangeable-lens photography accessible to shooters who don't have deep pockets.
If you already have Nikon lenses from a film camera, you can use them with a D50 body, which sells for $750. Nikon also sells the D50 with an 18mm-55mm zoom lens for $900, a price a bit less than that of the D50's direct rival, Canon's 8-megapixel Digital Rebel XT, and about $400 less than the Nikon D70s.
The choice between the D50 and the 6.1-megapixel D70s is an interesting dilemma. (For more info on the Digital Rebel XT, the D70s, and other digital SLRs, see "Powerful Cameras, Lower Prices.") The two Nikons are near twins in look (both have 2-inch LCDs), function, and megapixel count. The D50 is a bit smaller and lighter, though, and it accepts SD (Secure Digital) media cards exclusively (the D70s accepts CompactFlash).
The D50 also lacks some controls as compared with the D70s. You'll still get most of what a hobbyist photographer might look for, though, and intermediate photographers should find the D50 easier to use than the D70s.
A surprising difference between the two models: Shooting in automatic mode, our shipping D50's images were brighter and had livelier color. According to Nikon, this is by design: The D70s is biased toward underexposure by default, while the D50 is tuned for those photographers who want to minimize the time they spend tweaking their shots on a computer.
The D50 is a fine entry-level digital SLR--particularly if you own some Nikon lenses. Some may even prefer it to Canon's popular Rebel XT.
The Maxxum 5D has features that will appeal to point-and-shooters, as well as to some budget-minding advanced photographers.
At $899 including an 18mm-to-70mm lens, the Maxxum 5D competes with other consumer digital single-lens reflex models such as Nikon's D50, Canon's EOS Digital Rebel XT, and Olympus's EVolt E-300. The 6.1-megapixel Maxxum 5D has the requisite manual exposure modes, but it also has five scene modes located on a top-mounted dial. Advanced users will appreciate that the camera has a dedicated ISO button located prominently just beside the mode dial, and that it has a dedicated white-balance dial on the top just to the left of the flash--an unusual but welcome feature. You can set a custom white balance, or you can use a notch on the dial to change the color temperature in 100-degree increments. The camera has white-balance bracketing, too.
As with all SLRs, the Maxxum 5D won't let you frame your shots with its LCD, but at least the display is a big one--2.5 inches, one of the largest on an SLR. The information on the display rotates automatically if you rotate the camera, and you can magnify the information with the press of a button. But images look grainy on the LCD; sometimes it made me think that I had botched shots when I actually hadn't.
An antishake mechanism is built into the camera body rather than the lens (as with other cameras offering antishake mechanisms), so optional lenses should be less expensive. The mechanism won't compensate for shaky hands in all settings, but it can give you a little more leeway--for example, if you're forced to use a 1/30-second shutter speed rather than the 1/60 or 1/125 second you're usually confident in.
In our image-quality tests, the Maxxum 5D earned an overall score of Very Good, thanks to above-average scores in tests for exposure and color quality. However, its score for image sharpness was below the group average, beating only the mark of the Pentax *ist DS. Its battery fared well, as did those of all the SLRs we've tested, reaching our 500-shot testing cutoff.
The Maxxum 5D can shoot at 3 frames per second when capturing JPEG images at its best setting, for up to 30 frames--that's fast, and pretty lengthy for a consumer model. (You can shoot a maximum of only 5 frames when capturing RAW files.)
However, firing away at that clip can get pretty noisy, as the camera clacks loudly when taking a shot. The lens is fairly loud when focusing, too. That and the camera's blocky plastic body contribute to an impression that the Maxxum 5D is a bit less polished than some other models. It looks and feels better than the original Canon Digital Rebel, but it doesn't compare quite as well to the best consumer SLRs.
Upshot: Its uncommon antishake mechanism, large LCD panel, and well-arranged controls make the Maxxum 5D a good choice for someone seeking a consumer-friendly SLR.
This lightweight model has a zoom lens that plays well at both wide-angle and telephoto extremes.
The Fujifilm FinePix S8100fd offers a host of advanced features at an affordable $400 price, but its biggest strength is the versatile 18X zoom lens. It covers a 35mm film camera's range--specifically, the equivalent of 27mm to 486mm--providing true wide-angle and extreme telephoto capability in a single compact unit. (However, in our roundup of megazooms, the Olympus SP-570 UZ had the greatest range: 26mm to 520mm.)
On a spring trip to Lake Tahoe, I found the wide angle to be excellent for sweeping mountain backdrops, while the long telephoto let me pick out details in the distance and get up close to wildlife. The camera's dual image stabilization was effective at reducing the chance of blur in zoom shots and at capturing moving targets, such as birds in flight. It works by shifting the sensor to compensate for unsteady hands and by raising the sensitivity to allow for shorter exposure times.
The S8100fd's automatic face detection optimized the focus and exposure in my portraits well, even when I was zooming from a distance. And its automatic red-eye removal took the guesswork out of flash photography. For users who want maximum control, the camera also provides exposure compensation, aperture- and shutter-priority settings, and full manual focus and exposure controls.
Despite the relatively low exposure range of F2.8 to F8.0, the camera tended towards large apertures for my scenic shots. I liked being able to reduce this myself, to achieve a longer depth of focus in pictures with foreground subjects against the lake and mountains.
The color fidelity of my photos sometimes disappointed me. Images with large areas of green trees and grass often looked unnatural. However, the S8100fd performed well in our lab tests, where our judges saw good color reproduction. Exposure accuracy was exceptional in natural light, but could have been better using the built-in flash. Images weren't as sharp as you might expect from the camera's 10-megapixel sensor.
The S8100fd offers several continuous shooting modes, including two high-speed settings that record at a lower resolution. You can record up to 33 frames at either 7 frames per second for 5-megapixel images or 13.5 fps for 3 megapixels, which might be useful for stopping the action in sports and wildlife shots. The camera records only standard-definition video at up to 30 fps.
Rubber surfaces on the front and rear of the handgrip make the lightweight S8100fd comfortable to hold and operate. The conveniently arranged controls generally work well, although it's sometimes easy to forget to select the image stabilization and face detection buttons on top of the camera. The 2.5-inch LCD is sufficiently clear and bright for composing most shots, but its colors didn't seem very natural. Because I wore the camera by its neck strap, I tended to use the electronic viewfinder often--it's hard to shoot with arms outstretched while you have it tethered to your neck. Bumping up the refresh rate from 30 fps to the optional 60 fps improved the viewfinder's stability, but it still felt like trying to focus on a fuzzy TV.
A set of batteries lasted for a good 459 shots in our lab tests, but they drained more quickly than I expected during my everyday use. Fortunately, the camera runs off regular AA alkaline batteries, so it was easy to find replacements during my trip.
The Fujifilm FinePix S8100fd is a good all-rounder at a reasonable price. It offers plenty of automated assistance, but lets you tweak settings manually when necessary. It makes a good choice for anyone seeking a single camera for all occasions.
The nicely priced S700 has good features and SLR styling but an awkward electronic viewfinder.
Fujifilm's FinePix S700 adds an SLR-style frame to the solid functionality of an advanced point-and-shoot. Its best traits are its long battery life, manual controls, 10X optical zoom, and image stabilization--not a bad combo in a $250 model.
The camera powers up in less than 2 seconds, and the shutter button responds fairly quickly. It handled close-up shots nicely; I photographed a quarter at a distance of about 2 inches, and the resulting shot looked crisp and clear.
In our lab tests, the 7.1-megapixel S700 earned a high score for color accuracy and an average score for sharpness. Its scores for distortion, however, were subpar. In our battery-life tests, the camera's four AA alkaline batteries supported 475 shots--much better than the average score.
I liked the camera's 'Natural Light and Flash' mode shooting option, where the camera captures a pair of consecutive shots--one without flash and another with flash--so you can compare which lighting captured the better image. A continuous-shooting mode snaps shots at a resolution of either 7 megapixels (the unit's maximum) or 4 megapixels. This feature worked fine, but it was a bit slow to record.
The S700 has the chops to perform well in most shooting scenarios. You may find the body a bit bulky, though.
A complex, well-made camera with tons of controls, the A700 takes exceptionally sharp, well-exposed shots.
First impressions of the Alpha DSLR-A700, Sony's $1900 (as of 12/14/2007), 12-megapixel digital single-lens reflex camera, brings to mind terms like "massive," "brick-like," and "complex." With its deep right-hand grip and 2.75-pound weight (which includes the zoom lens in the kit we tested), it feels big and heavy.
That impression is, however, a bit deceiving. The A700's body is comparable in size to the Canon EOS 30D I use, and most of the Sony's weight is in the lens--the body, without a battery, is 24 ounces, less than the 30D or the Samsung Digimax GX-10 I reviewed at the same time as the Sony. Some of that savings in weight comes from the Sony's magnesium body, which should also add to its overall durability.
Unlike some other digital SLR brands, Sony did not go cheap on the kit lens bundled with its camera: The $1900 price includes a zoom lens with an appealing 24mm to 158mm (35mm equivalent) focal length. Purchasing the body alone reduces the price by $500. Apart from this lens, however, the number of other lenses and accessories available for this model is limited.
Complex the A700 certainly is--it probably has more exposure controls than any other DSLR I've seen to date. That said, the camera's ease of use is still exceptionally good: Like most current DSLRs, it has fore and aft selector dials for quickly changing shutter speeds, aperture values, and exposure compensation. But it also has a healthy number of nicely placed, well-labeled, dedicated buttons for key controls such as white balance, drive mode, ISO setting, and metering modes.
My favorite feature, however, is the Function button on the back of the camera. In shooting mode, the A700 displays a comprehensive summary of your exposure settings on its 3-inch LCD. By pressing the Function button, then working the mini-joystick and the selector dials, you can directly select and change any of the displayed settings right on the screen. It's extremely quick and intuitive.
Other high points for the A700 include slots for both Memory Stick Pro Duo and Compact Flash media; built-in optical image stabilization that works with all of Sony's Alpha lenses; five-frames-per-second burst shooting; three memory registers for custom user settings; plus a wireless remote and an HDMI port for viewing your images on a high-definition display.
Image bracketing options in the A700 are extensive: In addition to the usual automatic exposure bracketing, it has white balance, flash bracketing with one shot, and two levels of dynamic-range bracketing. This latter feature is useful in scenes with extremely high contrast. In a test shot that included the interior of a room and a window with a bright outdoor scene, turning up the dynamic range greatly improved shadow detail, though with a slight overexposure of the highlights.
My informal test shots with the A700 were mostly up to expectations. I was impressed with their overall sharpness, especially in macro (close-up) images. In photos with deep shadow and bright highlights, the A700 delivered significantly more shadow detail than did the Panasonic Lumix DMC-L10K, the Samsung GX-10, or my Canon 30D reference camera. Color balance seemed a bit erratic, though: A scene taken in late afternoon sun with automatic white balance had a distinct blue/magenta cast. However, switching to daylight white balance produced accurate colors. In other shots, auto white balance produced perfectly acceptable colors. In our lab tests, the A700 earned high marks for exposure accuracy and for image sharpness, but it scored a bit below average for color accuracy.
Disappointingly, the image editing and image management software package Sony has bundled does a disservice to its camera. The three apps are poorly integrated, and are a mishmash of the overly simple and overly complex. The Image Data Converter SR application, for example, has a plethora of tools for editing and processing RAW format images--but almost nothing for editing JPEG-based shots. For that, you have to go to the relatively low-end Sony Picture Motion Browser app, which is obviously more suitable for the company's point-and-shoot models. And while the RAW application comes in both Mac and Windows versions, Picture Motion Browser is Windows only. (That's not a big concern, though, because Apple's free iPhoto is a far better application.) The third application is the Image Data Lightbox SR, another simple app for viewing and organizing your photos.
With its sharp, 12-megapixel imaging and with more exposure controls than most photographers--amateur or professional--will likely use, the beefy and finely designed A700 rises to nearly pro-level photography, making it well worth its $1900 price tag. It is limited mostly by its relatively narrow range of available lenses and accessories.
This digital SLR camera has high resolution, a very fast burst-shooting capability, and exceptional flexibility, but it's quite complex.
My first impressions of the Nikon D300 digital SLR camera may rekindle my fondness for Nikon SLRs. It's not a perfect 10, but it's interesting and nicely built, and it performed better than I expected.
The D300 is not for the casual photographer. It's big, it's heavy--the body is just over 2 pounds with the battery--and it costs $1800 (as of 03/18/08) without a lens. It's also a complex camera that offers 12.3-megapixel imaging and straddles the line between professional and consumer.
When you pull the D300 out of the box, one of the first features to catch your eye is the 3-inch color LCD. More than just a way to review your photos, the LCD has a Live View mode that lets you compose shots while viewing the screen; the setup is ideal for those times when it's difficult to use the eye-level viewfinder, such as in studio work and tripod-based macro shooting. (The D300 and the top-of-the-line D3 are the only two cameras in the Nikon digital SLR lineup that have Live View.)
Nikon's implementation of Live View, however, is a bit more complicated than that of the Olympus E3, which I reviewed at the same time. You switch a mode dial on the D300 to 'LV', press the shutter release once to lock the mirror up and turn the LCD on, and press the release again to focus the lens and trip the shutter. Setting Live View on the Olympus, on the other hand, requires a simple press of a dedicated button on the back of the camera and flipping another lever to close off the eye-level viewfinder so that light entering through it won't affect the exposure. More important, the Olympus E3's LCD panel is hinged, so you can tilt it toward you when you're holding the camera very low or high overhead.
One of the D300's strong suits is its array of options for tailoring its controls to your liking; the 421-page paper manual gives you an immediate clue to its complexity. That said, the documentation is excellent--readable, well organized, and without the squint-print found in the manuals of too many other brands.
You can program many of the buttons, as well as the dual front and back selector dials, to handle other functions; by default, for example, the FN button near the lens mount sets bracketing options, but you can reassign it to control depth-of-preview, to enable or disable the flash, to select metering modes, or to enable auto-focus or auto-exposure lock. Fine-tuning is a common theme throughout the D300's controls. Take bracketing, for example: Instead of the usual three to five bracketed shots, the D300 is capable of taking up to nine frames with different exposure settings, or nine frames with varying white-balance values. The only drawback is that you cannot use exposure bracketing and white-balance bracketing as the same time. (I had to cruise through the manual just to locate the camera's bracketing control, which lives under the somewhat hidden FN button.) Like many other digital SLRs, the Nikon D300 has picture styles (Standard, Neutral, Vivid, and Monochrome) that let you quickly change the timbre of your images. In addition, the D300 allows you to fine-tune each of those styles with custom saturation, contrast, brightness, and hue settings. You can store up to nine custom configurations and give each its own descriptive label--an outstanding feature, and a real help to those of us with poor memories. One other interesting capability: If you have more than one D300 body, you can copy your custom setting from one camera to another.
The ability to tweak the camera becomes essential when you dive into the menu system. Dense and complicated, the D300's menus are, at first, a nightmare. Fortunately, you can arrange the menus in the order you prefer to see them, though the task is somewhat laborious.
The images this camera produced surprised me. Past Nikons have had a strong tendency to underexpose images, requiring fixes later in software. But of the three cameras I tested together--the D300, the Olympus E3, and my Canon 30D--the Nikon did by far the best job of capturing difficult, high-contrast landscapes. In scenes with vast amounts of snow, sky, and water, the Nikon was the only camera that came close to capturing accurate color and brightness. Both the Canon and Olympus produced shots that were substantially underexposed and far too blue. When I tried shooting less-complex subjects such as structures, objets d'art, and more-balanced landscapes, the image quality among the three models was a wash. The only knock on the D300 is its images' sharpness: Many of the landscapes seemed soft when I viewed them in Photoshop at 100 percent magnification. On the other hand, in our lab tests, where depth of field isn't as much of an issue, the D300 earned very high scores--in all likelihood due to the camera's exceedingly high resolution.
The D300 is quite fast: It can capture an impressive 6 frames per second in burst mode, and 7.5 fps with the addition of an external battery pack. My test unit came with Nikon's capable image editing and RAW-format processing application, Capture NX. However, having Capture NX bundled with the camera is a limited-time offer that expires in spring 2008; when you buy, look for a box adorned with a sticker mentioning the inclusion of Capture NX. Finally, if you add Nikon's MC-35 adapter cable (around $100) and a handheld Garmin GPS device, you can log location data with your images, too. As a landscape photographer, I regretted that I was unable to try that function.
The Nikon D300 is not a camera that you can simply pick up and run with. Its high resolution, exceptional flexibility, excellent exposure accuracy, and useful Live View function make it worth the effort of working through a longish learning stage. It should fare well against its two strongest competitors, Sony's Alpha 700 and Olympus' E3.
This bargain-priced model is well designed, takes attractive shots, and is easy to use.
The Fujifilm S5200 is fast in a number of ways. For one thing, it starts up quickly: It was ready to shoot in about a second after we turned the power on, and shutter lag was less than half a second. That's quick enough to ensure that you wouldn't miss many shots.
The autofocus is very snappy, finding the right focus point in under a second in most situations. A couple of unconventional modes make it flexible. The AF Multi mode focuses on a high-contrast object located near the center of the screen. This works well when you take a shot of two people: Though the faces are off-center, the camera usually finds them and focuses on them. The AF Area mode lets you pick a spot anywhere on the screen as the focusing target, which is useful if you want to focus on an off-center object to create a depth-of-field effect. We found this tool is a lot easier to use than the manual focus, which required us to hold down the exposure compensation button while using the zoom buttons to focus.
The S5200's design enhances its ease of use: The handgrip is comfortable, and its textured rubber coating helps you keep holding on even if your hands get sweaty. The shutter button falls under the index finger, and the zoom controls are under the thumb. You can work the mode dial with your thumb, too, but using the other buttons (such as the menu button and the directional control) requires your other hand. The on-screen menus are pretty straightforward, though somewhat oddly worded: The camera refers to "photometry" instead of metering modes, which may confuse some users. The LCD screen is a little small (at 1.8 inches), but the viewfinder is excellent. It's one of the few I've seen that didn't require me to jam my eye right up to it to see the whole image--that's a big plus for spectacles wearers.
We were very impressed with the image quality of the S5200: In our tests with studio and natural lights, images displayed bright, vivid colors and lots of detail. Flesh tones looked great, with natural colors and plenty of shadow detail. Though the camera shoots only at a resolution of 5.1 megapixels, the results were noticeably sharper than from many higher-resolution cameras (such as the 8-megapixel Panasonic DMC-FZ30 and the 6-megapixel Konica Minolta DiMage 6Z). The sharpening that the camera applies didn't cause much color interference: We saw very little evidence of color fringing.
The exposure we took using the built-in flash was slightly off, yielding images that were a bit underexposed. In low light, however, the camera struggled: Though the ISO setting can be pushed up to 1600, images taken at high settings showed a lot of noticeable noise. You can push the shutter speed up to an impressive 15 seconds, but there's no dark field subtraction or other noise reduction mode, so noise becomes a big problem at longer exposures.
The S5200's battery life was superior: The camera reached our test maximum of 500 shots on four AA batteries. You can use rechargeable NiMH batteries if you like, but Fujifilm doesn't include them (or a charger) in its package. We encountered one annoyance involving the power management. Most cameras go into standby mode after a certain period of inactivity, and you can get out of it by pressing the shutter button. But the S5200 simply turns the power off; to start shooting again, you have to turn the power dial to off and then back to shooting mode. You can alter how long it waits before turning itself off, however.
The lens's styling gives the impression that you can zoom by twisting it, but unfortunately you can't do this. And it's sometimes a little difficult to tell whether your photos are in focus or not, since the LCD screen is rather small. But these are relatively minor issues.
Upshot: The easy-to-use S5200 takes great pictures and offers a good range of advanced features for a low price.
This big, heavy, rugged SLR camera has extensive advanced controls and fast burst-shooting speed, and can autofocus very quickly.
The 10.1-megapixel E3, the top dog in Olympus's line of digital single-lens-reflex (DSLR) cameras, is an attractive package for both pros and serious amateurs. You have to be serious about your photography--and have plenty of arm strength--though, because the bulky E3 body alone costs $1700 and weighs just under 2 pounds. Adding the lenses increases both the cost and the heft: The 12mm-to-60mm (24mm-to-120mm, 35mm equivalent) zoom I received with the E3 is around $900, by itself, and together the body and lens tip the scales at an arm-fatiguing 3.25 pounds.
Like most new DSLRs, though, the E3 provides speed and flexibility, and this camera offers them in spades. Tested against my now aging Canon 30D and the new Nikon D300, the E3 delivered lightning-quick auto-focusing, noticeably faster than either of the other cameras did. The E3 will capture up to five frames per second--not quite up to the Nikon's six-frames-per-second burst-shooting speed, but still quite fast.
The E3's flexibility starts with its bright, 2.5-inch color LCD, which swings away from the camera body and swivels. I loved this feature in my old Olympus C-5060, and the company had a good reason to add it to the E3: Pressing the live view button, you can compose your shot on the LCD screen. (A simple thing that every digital point-and-shoot does already.) The design makes shooting still lifes with a tripod, paparazzi pics over crowds, or macros of low-lying wildflowers much easier on the back. The LCD has one other extremely useful trick: Like most DSLRs, it displays a concise summary of current camera settings. Unlike with most of the competition, though, you can also use the four-way navigation buttons to highlight a specific setting and change it on screen, or you can use them to create a custom group setting--especially useful when you want to make several changes at the same time.
The E3 has highly customizable controls. Dual selector dials--one on the back, one on the front--are now commonplace on DSLRs. But you can reassign the E3's dials in a number of useful ways; you can, for example, set one to adjust the f-stop and the other to change the shutter speed. The same is true for the camera's many other controls; for example, the AE/AL button can lock the exposure value, or the focus, or both. All of that means less adapting to the camera and more adapting the camera to your way of shooting.
The theme extends to many of the creative controls in the E3's menu system. Some examples include the E3's implementation of automatic bracketing, which includes options for exposure, white balance, flash, and (new to me) ISO or image sensitivity bracketing. The E3 offers extensive control over color balance, as well: You can fine-tune all of the presets and color temperature settings along the red-green axis.
That level of control is a good thing, because the E3's color balance was off in some shooting situations. When I first started shooting with the E3 I was, to put it mildly, disappointed in the photos. For shots taken under difficult conditions--landscapes with lots of snow, water, and sky--all of my images were a stop-and-a-half underexposed and looked as if I had forgotten to remove a dark-blue filter. Correcting these shots (taken in RAW format) on my computer soaked up a lot of time. Extensive use of bracketing helped only a little. Fortunately, subsequent sessions with more mundane subjects, such as cars, homes, small still lifes, and dogs, produced far better results--accurate colors, outstanding details, and only the slight underexposures that are common in DSLRs.
Among the more interesting controls found in the E3 is an antishock mode, which trips the shutter from 1 to 30 seconds after you press the shutter release and the mirror snaps up--useful for macro work where you remembered to bring your tripod but forgot the (optional) wireless remote. Image stabilization is controlled within the camera, so the function works with all Olympus Zuiko lenses.
The Master 2 image editing application included with the E3 is a capable product, with a good selection of editing tools. If you want batch-processing capabilities, you'll have to upgrade to the $100 Studio 2, available from Olympus as an online download. (A 30-day trial version of Studio 2 is included on the Master 2 CD.) If you are an Adobe Photoshop CS3 jockey, the latest version of Camera Raw reportedly supports the Olympus RAW format. If you're on Photoshop CS2, you're probably facing an expensive upgrade, because the older version of Camera Raw that's compatible with CS2 won't recognize the E3's files.
Overall, I enjoyed using the E3. It feels comfortable in the hand, its magnesium body looks and feels durable--ready for extensive time in the field--and operating the controls is quick and efficient. And unlike my experience with many cameras, I could read the color LCD, even with my dark, polarized sunglasses on. As someone who shoots extensively in the mountains, my only concern is the color balance issue.
It would be easy to classify the Olympus C-7070 Wide Zoom as a simple case of keeping up with the Joneses. A near twin to the older C-5060 that it replaces, the C-7070's bump in resolution from the now pedestrian 5 megapixels up to a more desirable 7.1 megapixels keeps it competitive with the slew of recently released 7- and 8-megapixel cameras. But Olympus has also added numerous refinements to the C-5060's prodigious collection of creative controls and made the C-7070 noticeably easier to use.
I will confess at this point that I own the C-5060, having purchased it based on our own Best Buy recommendation. Smaller and lighter than an SLR, the C-5060 made a good choice for the back-country and travel photography I do. The new C-7070 has all of the qualities that made its predecessor attractive, including a well-thought-out selection of control buttons and menus, plus extras like dual-media support (XD-Picture Card and CompactFlash) and a swiveling LCD--the latter being especially useful for shooting low-lying wildflowers.
The C-7070's refinements include the capability to capture RAW and JPEG images at the same time--useful if you want to display your work immediately, then go back and process the RAW files at a later time. The scene mode function is improved somewhat--though there are no longer individual settings on the mode dial, they are still easily selected by picking from a list on the LCD. Each scene mode choice now displays a sample image, helpful for less-experienced photographers.
Two completely new features are the in-camera red-eye fix and the so-called oracle auto focus, a function that might help sports photographers. It works like this: After you set the exposure lock on a moving subject, oracle AF tries to predict the correct distance to the subject at the time you actually press the trigger. To test this, I shot cars moving down a city street using either traditional autofocus or the oracle AF setting. I can't say that oracle AF was more successful in freezing my desired subject.
The focal length of the camera remains unchanged. The 4X optical zoom starts at the 35mm equivalent of 27mm--ideal for interior and landscape shooting. The f-stop range, however, is a little better on the newer model: f2.8 to f11 versus f2.8 to f8. That's helpful for a little more depth of field, but it would have been more useful if Olympus had made the lens faster--the now ancient C-5050 started at f1.8, and there were complaints from users when the C-5060 went to f2.8.
My expectations for the C-7070's image quality were not matched by the results of PC World's lab tests and my less-formal shots. Though it received an overall score of Very Good, the C-7070's image sharpness was only marginally better than that of the C-5060's images. Like a number of 7-megapixel models I've seen recently, there was a distinct falloff in sharpness when I viewed the C-7070's shots at 100 percent in Photoshop. Test images also had somewhat more noise than I expect to see in this level of camera. It's not objectionable in a standard 8 by 10 print, but will likely be pronounced if you crop and enlarge much.
Upshot: Though image quality is not quite what you'd expect, the C-7070 is still one of the most powerful and flexible advanced digital cameras available.
Olympus C-7070 Wide Zoom
7.1 megapixels, 3072 by 2304 maximum resolution, 27mm to 110mm focal range (35mm equivalent), f2.6 to f11 maximum aperture range, shutter speeds from 16 seconds to 1/4000 second, optical and LCD viewfinders, USB connection, XD-Picture Card and CompactFlash slots, rechargeable lithium ion battery, 13.5 ounces with battery, Olympus Master software.
This rugged SLR is fast and can shoot in long bursts, but it requires specific lenses.
The Olympus EVolt E-300 digital SLR ($900 with lens, $800 otherwise) comes with a slew of creative features. Once you master them--particularly the exposure controls--you can take some truly dazzling photos. Digital photographers looking to move beyond a simple point-and-shoot model likely won't be disappointed by the EVolt E-300's strengths, though it does have some distinct weaknesses.
The EVolt's design is eye-catching. There's no hump on the top of the camera--the signature mark of all SLRs for the past 45 years. Olympus moved the viewfinder's optical path to the left side of the body, which makes the camera slightly shorter than most other digital SLRs. Though it isn't a significant savings in size, the flat-top design does seem to help the EVolt slide in and out of an overstuffed camera bag more easily. Our shipping Olympus has a polished look and feel. Its solid, bricklike body feels as if you could pound nails with it. The dials turn smoothly and easily, and the body fits firmly in two hands.
The E-300 will easily serve photographers of any skill level--convenient for those times when you have to hand your camera to someone who's comfortable with only point-and-shoot models. In addition to full automatic exposure mode, the E-300 has a selection of preset scene modes that quickly adjust your settings to specific situations. The E-300 provides a total of 15 scene modes in its menus; five of them also are located on its dial.
In the past we've praised Olympus cameras for their intuitive menus, but the E-300 takes a slight step backward. The submenus are not as well labeled as those of the Olympus C-8080 we tested previously, and working out the location of the camera's many settings takes some time. For example, the camera's white-balance controls are spread across three of the five menu sublevels. And you can't customize the menus as extensively as you can the Nikon D70's, for example, or even those of some earlier Olympus models.
On the plus side, the Olympus responds more quickly as you use it. Many of the key exposure controls change rapidly with the press of a dedicated button and a spin of the camera's selector dial. Also, I especially like the Olympus's status screen on its 1.8-inch LCD. It's easy to read, with blue letters on a black background, and it tied in nicely to the camera's controls.
For our formal image-quality tests, we took some shots in the camera's default fully automatic mode. It's a good test of a camera's ability to capture details and accurate color, before you add your exposure-correction preferences. The E-300's images looked similar to those from Canon's semiprofessional EOS 20D: a bit underexposed, with colors that were slightly less saturated than the hues of the original subject.
(Some digital photographers prefer default settings that produce slightly underexposed images that allow them to make adjustments on a PC without losing details, as would happen in overexposed areas.) In tests with automatic mode, the E-300 earned very high image quality scores--significantly higher than those of the Nikon D70s--and scored well for color accuracy when we used a custom white balance and manually adjusted the exposure settings (though here the D70s earned similarly high scores).
The EVolt E-300 has an 8.2-megapixel CCD--higher than on a few other affordably priced SLRs, such as the Nikon D70s and the Pentax *ist DS, which have a 6.1-megapixel CCD. In our test photo, the Olympus reproduced better fine-line details than the Nikon D70s--in fact, its output was comparable to that of the much more expensive, semiprofessional 8.2-megapixel Canon EOS 20D. The Olympus's high-resolution CCD will come in handy if you often crop and enlarge pictures to the practical limits of the images.
One innovative feature of the E-300 is a dust filter that sits between the shutter and the sensor and that vibrates to release dust particles. Dust specks in images shot by digital SLRs are a common problem, partly because changing lenses on an SLR exposes the camera's interior to dust.
On the downside, in our new test that evaluates how much digital noise cameras introduce to images, the EVolt E-300 produced noisier images at ISO 1600 than the other SLRs we tested.
In burst mode, the Olympus proved almost indefatigable. Capturing images in its second-best JPEG setting, the Olympus consistently fired off at about 2.5 frames per second, stopping only when I ran out of space on my CompactFlash card. At the highest JPEG setting, the camera is rated to take 12 consecutive frames. By contrast, burst mode on the SD Card-based Pentax *ist DS was less consistent, with the frames-per-second speed revving up and down, but averaging roughly 1.5 fps.
Unfortunately, the E-300 requires specific lenses. Unlike the digital SLRs from Canon, Nikon, and Pentax, there is no massive base of existing 35mm film camera lenses to choose from. If you're starting from scratch, buying clean used lenses for these cameras could save you a significant amount of money, but you don't have this option with the E-300. And while Olympus's selection of Zuiko Digital lenses is pretty good, it's still a fairly new line and doesn't have nearly the breadth of the competition. The Zuiko lens we received has a focal ring that is connected by wire to an electronic motor. By comparison, the focal rings on the other tested SLR lenses move glass inside the lens mechanically. The E-300's method lacks the tactile feedback the other lenses provide when focusing manually, though we did find the E-300's mechanism helpful for fine-tuning the autofocus.
Upshot: Though the lenses available are limited, the E-300 delivers high image quality, and its features are well suited to photographers of all skill levels.
This camera's ability to capture images in wide-screen format is unique and useful, but the DMC-LX2 is a tad bulky for a point-and-shoot.
