Reviews related to : Digital SLR
Early digital cameras were more of a novelty than a practical replacement for a serious camera. At best suitable for holiday snaps but with quality worse than some of the cheapest film based cameras and at a price often involving an extra zero!
Despite these initial limitations, the digital camera rapidly improved - taking on good quality fim cameras and finally reaching a quality to attract professionals. In the last couple of years digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) cameras have started to take their place among serious photographers.
This looks very like a DSLR but it isn’t. In some ways it’s a poor mans DSLR accept that the lens is fixed but what a lens and it has over 14x optical zoom. The other big bonus it is a lot cheaper than a DSLR.
It is 12.5cm wide 9cm tall and between 15 and 21cm wide dependant on where the lens is. It is not light at 970grams. So the neck strap is all important, in fact it will look exactly like a DSLR but it will cost a great deal less. Anyone who has focused using the sides of the lens on a DSLR will love the fact that’s exactly what you do here. Most DSLR come with the basic 18-55mm lens and should you require more that’s another lens to carry around.
Having just reviewed the excellent EOS 450D (29-08-08) I was more than chuffed to be offered the very new EOS 1000D. At this time of year everyone wants to tell you about what they have to offer for Christmas are you listening Santa?
It is 12x8x9.5cm, add the 18-55mm lens and this adds up to another 7cm to the second figure the width. The main difference between reviewing a digital camera and a DSLR for me is that the manual is essential reading. With a multi language digital you might get a dozen pages in English and what they have to say you probably knew anyway. Here it is 196 and all in English and unless you are a professional photographer I doubt that you could claim I knew that most of the time.
This review has taken longer than usual, partly as I have had a few computer problems, but probably mainly because it is rare for me to be challenged by such a good camera as I rarely get to review a DSLR.
I think the majority of professional photographers use a Canon unit of some sort. This is quite light and a semi professional photographer friend of mine was quite envious. Of course the real professionals have umpteen lenses and numerous tripods. What I tested was with a single 18-55mm lens. I rarely start with the weight but this was only 770grams with neck strap attached, the only extra a professional would need to use would be an external flash gun.
While many digital cameras can equal or even better the 10MP image size of this FinePix S8100 I cannot think of any that come up to the 18x optical zoom that it offers.
click to enlarge It is 10.5x9x7.5cm when off in your hand or hanging round your neck however when fully zoomed you need to add another 6cm to the 9cm width. It weights a tad under 500 grams. It comes with a 68 page Basic Manual and while this does very little to explain all the 'bells and whistles' it will get even the novice going.
This looks like a small DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera while is not it does have a range of features such as a decent continuous shooting mode only normally found on DLSR units.
click to enlarge It is 10x7x7cm when switched off, the lens can jut out by another 3.5cm. It is of course black and it weights around 360grams with - shock horror - the supplied 4x 'AA' batteries inserted. It is supplied with a neck strap partly as most wrists would soon get tired with that weight and probably partly as DSLR units always come with neck straps.
Paper dresses were not the only items on display when Canon revealed its new product line-up.
Canon G9 12.1 Mega-pixel digital camera As summer draws to an end (you must remember those few hours of sunshine which were our allocation this year), you know it is time for Canon to roll out its autumn collection of new and enhanced products. To mark this occasion, Canon was involved in an exercise in creating haute courtier fashion using paper decorated by Canon printers.
The Olympus E-500 is a DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera and I was sent it with a couple of lenses, the first a macro lens great for those close ups and the send a more general 14-45mm offering.
Perhaps a camera those who come from a 35mm background would fall in love with, mainly because they are used to making decisions that the modern digital photographer either does not make or does not have to make. However the 'Auto' mode is there but it still requires some work with the lens that a standard digital camera does not. As with most SLR cameras what you normally get is just the body.
The last couple of weeks have extended me, to be precise the time spent with Samsungs latest DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera has enabled me to take some superb images.
I get to see a range of digital cameras from a variety of manufacturers but few SLR offerings. So the latest Samsung offering was eagerly anticipated. I am told that most resellers will sell this with two lenses so it was a little disappointing to receive it with only one, however should you have any Pentax lenses from whatever vintage of camera they should fit and a trawl round some boot fairs could provide a rich harvest.
This looks and feels like a very substantial camera, the zoom is good at 12x optical and the image size is 7.1 mega pixel, This is one of two cameras in the Kodak Performance range
It is 10x12x8cm and weights around 450grams, there is a 5x3.8cm TFT display that dominates the rear of it. When the lens is fully out it increases the width of the unit by 3cm to 15cm. For those who prefer to take images using the viewfinder this protrudes from the rear by a centimetre meaning your nose is not jammed on the TFT.
I think of this as a semi professional digital camera however the price seems to put it in the amateur camp. Certainly making adjustments to zoom and focus on the lens stem is a big leap from point and shoot.
The dimensions are 12x13x9cm and the 13cm depth increases by up to 4.5cm when the 28-300mm lens is fully extended. This gives 10.7 to 1 optical zoom. In the short time I have had it I have taken the opportunity to take as many images as possible and I have only scratched the surface of what this can do. There is a rather good built in flash but do not try taking images very close together when using it as it takes a while to recharge.
A great Digital Ixus Product although installing the software onto Windows 98 was a bit tricky...
I made the leap from a very capable Nikon Pronea APS SLR to digital compact about 12 months ago and after some research bought a Canon Ixus 330. this is a 2mega-pixel camera that for standard 6x4 and even 7x5 prints is great - no grain and definately of a quality that can be framed. The camera is small but feature packed. Most photo's i take use the automatic setting which is adequate for happy sdnapping of the kids etc which is mainly what i tend to do.
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