What's New - March 2005

 

March 28
Full review posted for Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z5
The Konica Minolta Z-series of long zoom digital cameras have consistently led the market in features and value in the long-zoom category. While the market has become more crowded, Konica Minolta has maintained their place, and the DiMAGE Z5's only real competitors currently are Panasonic's FZ5 and FZ20 models. (They being the only long-zoom cameras equipped with anti-shake technology anywhere near the Konica Minolta Z5's price point.) The Z5 handles well, its anti-shake greatly extends the utility of its long zoom lens, and it's just plain fun to use. (Surely a critical factor in any camera purchase decision.) It produces good-looking prints up to about 11x14 in size, and you can extract a fair bit more detail from its images if you're willing to shoot with the in-camera sharpening set to "low" and then do some unsharp masking in Adobe Photoshop(tm) or a similar image-processing application. As noted in the review, the Z5's color saturation is lower than that of many consumer cameras. While technically more accurate than consumer cams with pumped-up color, and therefore perhaps more pleasing to advanced shooters, some consumers may find its images a little dull in comparison. Image noise is also an issue, with the camera trading away significant subject detail at ISOs of 200 and above. It's important to take into consideration how you intend to enjoy your pictures: While the image noise is glaringly obvious when viewed on a CRT pixel-for-pixel, at print sizes of 5x7 and below, the noise is quite acceptable, and at 4x6 print sizes, it entirely ceases to be an issue. All in all, the Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z5 offers a tremendous amount of "bang for the buck," packing a long zoom lens, fast shutter response, anti-shake technology, and a host of "enthusiast" features into a compact package at an affordable price point. If you're in the market for a long-zoom digital camera with a wealth of features, the Konica Minolta Z5 should be on your short list of candidates. Read our Konica Minolta Z5 review for all the details!

 

 

 

 

March 24
Canon PowerShot A510 review posted.
The Canon PowerShot A510 is the 3-megapixel "little brother" of the 4-megapixel A520 model we just reviewed a few days ago. Functions and features are essentially identical to those of the A520, and image quality is fairly similar as well. As you'd expect, the A510 has a tad less resolution (but still more than enough for good-looking 8x10 prints), but it's also a bit faster from shot to shot, and has lower image noise levels at ISO 400 as well. Perhaps the most important difference is its price, as it carries a suggested retail price fully $100 lower than that of the A520. The reduced price make this a particularly good bargain for anyone shopping for a solid, "all around" camera on a budget. Another Dave's Pick for Canon, read our Canon PowerShot A510 review for all the details!

 

 

 

 

March 23
Analysis and Sample Images from Full Production Canon Digital Rebel XT!
We've finally received our full production sample of the Canon Digital Rebel XT, have shot a goodly batch of photos with it, written up our experience, and done some preliminary image analysis. The bottom line? This is a great camera, with excellent image quality, great performance, and great features, but Dave really disliked using it. Shawn found it OK, with relatively minor annoyances. Both loved the image quality and performance though. Read our Canon Digital Rebel XT preview for all the details!

 

 

 

 

March 22
Canon PowerShot A520 review posted.
The new Canon PowerShot A520 is the 2005 replacement for last years popular A85 PowerShot model. It boosts the zoom ratio to 4x over the A85's 3x lens, while simultaneously trimming the package size, aided by a move to SD media vs the CF cards used in the A85. Like the A85 before it, its combination of automatic and manual features make it approachable for novices, but interesting for experienced users, the net result being a camera that will satisfy a broad range of interests and provide a good path for novice users to expand their photographic horizons as their experience grows. I'd like to see it equipped with a more accurate optical viewfinder, and its image noise at ISO 400 was on the high side, but the bottom line is that this is a camera that will meet the needs of the average consumer very well. Overall, a solid replacement for last year's A85 model, claiming its own place as a Dave's Pick. Read our review of the Canon PowerShot A520 for all the details.

 

 

 

 

March 16
Sony DSC-P200 review posted.
Taken as a package, the Sony DSC-P200 is hard to beat in the subcompact point-and-shoot digital camera market. It packs a 7.2-megapixel CCD, a sharp, high-quality 3x optical zoom lens, nine preset Scene modes and a host of other creative options in to a very small, well-built package. While the DSC-P200 is very similar to its predecessor, the P150, it does offer a few new features, including a larger 2.0-inch LCD monitor, and options for Center-Weighted metering, manual white balance, and spot autofocus. Like the P150, the DSC-P200 is a very responsive camera, with excellent shutter lag and shot to shot cycle time numbers, excellent battery life, and surprisingly good low-light capability. Its color is also bright and vibrant, but natural-looking. On the downside, it does trade away a bit more subtle subject detail than did the P150 to achieve its low noise levels. The detail loss is fairly apparent when viewed onscreen at 1:1 pixel size, but high-quality inkjet prints made from the cameras images don't show the softness nearly as much, and our evaluation is that the vast majority of consumers will have no complaints whatever with its image quality. All in all, if you're looking for a great "take anywhere" camera with excellent resolution, great versatility, and excellent color and tonality, the Sony DSC-P200 should be an easy choice. Definitely a Dave's Pick. Read the Sony DSC-P200 review for all the details!

 

 

 

 

March 15
Review posted for Olympus Stylus 410.
The Olympus Stylus film cameras are currently among the best selling point-and-shoot models available, widely popular across a range of consumer experience levels. Besides its user-friendly interface, compact design and good picture quality, its excellent (and unusual) water sealing makes the Stylus 410 an appealing choice for a "take anywhere" camera. Battery life is excellent as well, and its color is very appealing. We'd be fairly enthusiastic about this camera were it not for what appears to be very aggressive anti-noise processing that drastically cuts image detail in areas of low subject contrast. Even in 4x6 prints, the effect is quite noticeable, and really makes it hard for us to recommend this model To our minds, a much better choice for the money is the excellent little Olympus Stylus Verve. The Verve shares the Stylus 410's water-resistance, to our eye has better build quality (and a very stylish case), and snaps very sharp, colorful pictures, all for only a few dollars more than the Stylus 410 model at retail.

 

 

Software Review: Phanfare
When it comes to sharing images, we're impatient. We want the event's story told online as quickly and as easily as possible. We've used a variety of online photofinishers and even uploaded application-built (MediaPro, Photoshop) Web pages to our own server space. Nothing quite won us over. But recently we've been using Phanfare, yet another innovation to online sharing. It isn't a free service, but its amenities are not without value. We gave it a whirl when we had a family of five visit recently -- and it kept up with all the action. Read the review for the whole story.

 

 

 

 

March 12
Nikon D2x SLR - A Hands-On Preview, with pictures!
It may not absolutely be "news," as a fair number of D2x bodies have apparently made it out into the worldwide retail channel, but we were pretty excited to get our hands on an apparently near-production sample. Shawn spent an afternoon shooting with it yesterday, and Studio Walla Luke shot a few of our standard test images. I looked at the resulting images, and was mightily impressed. Shawn jotted a few notes on his impressions from shooting with the camera, and I've picked apart a few of its images to show you what I found. The best part is, we have a gallery with no less than 35 photos in it for all of you to pick apart to your hearts' content. (With the full-resolution original camera files available in all cases.) Stay tuned, we'll have more "gallery" photos for you later next week, but in the meantime, check out our brief preview of the Nikon D2x!

 

 

Olympus E-300 EVOLT SLR review updated to full production status!
At long last picking up the pieces after PMA, here's an update of our EVOLT review, based on a full production sample, with all timing figures updated, and a full image analysis. We found a lot to like here, when the lighting is right (more on that in a bit), the Olympus E-300's images have a beautiful tonality and very pleasing color. Shawn shot a lot of beautiful family portraits with it, and it produced gorgeous skin tones and very subtle shading. The camera also seems to have a very wide color gamut, which means that the base color is a tad less saturated than some amateurs will be accustomed to, but that it handles even pretty extreme saturation with aplomb. The one issue that bothered us during the testing was that the camera's evaluatlve metering system ("ESP" metering) tended to over-react to strong highlights near the center of the frame. This led to some highly variable exposures on Shawn's personal portrait work, and a severe underexposure on our "far-field" test shot of the house with the bright bay window in front. Other than situations of this type though, the camera generally produced accurate exposures and good-looking images, with plenty of resolution. If you're in the market for a d-SLR and don't already own a bagful of Canon or Nikon lenses, the Olympus E-300 EVOLT deserves a look.

 

 

 

 

March 1
Olympus C-7070 First Look preview posted.
Now that the PMA onslaught is over, I'm finally getting back on track with the review work here. First up is a First Look preview of the new Olympus C-7070 digital camera. Very similar to last year's C-8080, although with a cool tilt/swivel LCD and some minor interface tweaks, the C-7070 looks like a real winner. It really has all the features an "enthusiast" shooter could ask for, has a pretty fast shutter response, and a few nifty features you'll only find on Olympus cameras. (The "Direct" histogram mode is one of my personal favorites.) Since this preview is based on a prototype camera, we don't have any sample images to share yet, and so can't comment on image quality. Given how well most of the current crop of 7-megapixel cameras are doing (most of which use the same chip, as far as we can tell), I have high hopes for the C-7070. Overall, a promising-looking camera. Stay tuned for the full review whenever production samples become available to test, and read our Olympus C-7070 preview in the meantime for all the details!

 

 

Review posted for Canon PowerShot SD20
Good image quality and user-friendly design are synonymous with the ELPH name, and are the reasons why the line is so popular with a wide range of consumers. Extending the brand name's excellent reputation in the film world, members of the digital ELPH series have always impressed me with their quality and versatility. The Canon SD20 updates last year's SD10 model, with higher resolution and a minor revamp of the feature set. It retains the SD10's ultra-sleek styling and subcompact size, but there are tradeoffs, such as a fixed focal length lens (no zoom), shorter battery life, and no optical viewfinder. If you don't mind the lack of a zoom lens though (and can live with an LCD-only viewfinder), the SD20 makes an excellent traveling companion, one that'll let you bring back big, sharp, good-looking photos. In fact, the SD20 is particularly notable in that it makes almost no sacrifices in image quality to achieve its small size. Compact cameras often force users to accept sub-par optical and image performance, but the SD20's shots are clear, sharp, and colorful. Overall, the SD20 strikes me as one of the better subcompact digicam models on the market. Highly recommended, and an easy Dave's Pick. Read our Canon SD20 review for all the details!