Category Archives: Digital Cameras

Canon Ixus 1100 HS

January 25, 2012   vitya   No comments

 

The Canon Ixus 1100 HS is nice to handle because it offers both touch-screen maneuvering as well as buttons for operations. It has a good solid feel to it, the sort that gives you confidence you will get good pictures out of it. And it does—to the extent that compact cameras do. The pictures are adequately good, though you will notice colour disparities occasionally. One bug bear is the delete function. These days, erasing a picture is a matter of pressing a button or an icon on the display. With this one, you have to first access the delete icon via the Function menu and then proceed. But what goes most against the 1100 HS is its price. At almost ? 25,000, it is too highly ‘ tagged for a camera that offers neither manual exposure nor the shutter and aperture priority modes. Its big 12X optical zoom, though, can be helpful in day-light photography.

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Nikon P500

January 24, 2012   vitya   No comments

 

The Nikon P500 is one of those cameras some used to call ‘bridge’ cameras, a category which sits in between standard compacts and DSLR cameras. Of course, this was before mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras swooped onto the scene, thus becoming the new bridge cameras. Still, we think that the P500 is really a compact camera that comes with super-long zoom and manual handling.

The P500 has an impressive 36x optical zoom, which is 35mm lens focal equivalent of 22.5-8l0mm. Trying to get the same length with a DSLR would involve multiple lenses, one of which large and heavy enough to warrant its own tripod. The P500 doesn’t of course; it packs that super-long zoom into a much smaller package which you can comfortably stuff into a bag, and that’s its strongest point.

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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX78

January 23, 2012   vitya   No comments

 

While the Panasonic FX78 sports an unassuming body with clean lines, this shooter is also the slimmest and most compact of the lot, slipping into jeans pockets with ease. Of course, its flat design also made keeping a grip a little tough while snapping photos. A whopping 3.5-inch touchscreen takes almost all of the real-estate at the back, with a short row of physical buttons residing on top. While Panasonic certainly didn’t cut any corners in terms of build, the FX78′s touch-based controls took a fair bit of getting used to. The touch interface was also sluggish at times, and can be a little complicated in terms of navigation, in contrast, the physical zoom slider switch seemed overtly sensitive, making accurate zooms a matter of trial and error.

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Canon PowerShot 310 HS

January 18, 2012   vitya   No comments

 

The Canon PowerShot Elph 310 HS packs a lot of camera into a very small package. The slim 12-mega-pixel shooter manages to squeeze in an 8x zoom lens that covers a 28-224mm (35mm equivalent) field of view. Images from the camera are sharp, it performs well in lower light, and it has a bright and sharp 3-inch LCD. All of these features and its ability to capture 1080p24 HD video make it our new favorite midrange compact point-and-shoot camera.

Light and compact, the 310 HS measures just 2.2 by 3.8 by 0.9 inches (HWD) and weighs in at 4.9 ounces. Its metal body feels very sturdy. Our review unit was finished in matte black, but the camera is only available at retail in purple, green, blue, pink, and silver.

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Canon EOS 600D

December 17, 2011   vitya   No comments

 

Pound for pound, the 600D is the best SLR you can buy right now. The 18MP sensor, 9 point autofocus and 1080p video recording are all well and good, but thankfully it also takes amazing photos with bags of detail and accurate colors. It’s not hugely different from its forerunner the 550D, but the addition of a flip-out 3in screen is welcome, and the menu system is both easy to get to grips with and clever enough to make the best of every shooting situation, even if you don’t have a clue what you’re doing yet. Great for new snappers and grizzled shooters alike.

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Nikon J1

November 16, 2011   admin   No comments

 

Nikon’s J1 marks the company’s entry into the compact interchangeable lens camera market. Nikon’s J1 is not that much larger than a point-and-shoot, but manages to capture sharp images and focuses and fires faster than many D-SLRs, even though its image sensor and lenses are much smaller.

The JVs included zoom lens covers a 3x zoom range, matching the field of view of the lens included with our Editors’ Choice Sony Alpha NEX-C3. The NEX-C3′s larger sensor packs more pixels and delivers best-in-class low-light performance, but if you are put off by its larger lens—which is closer in size to that bundled with most D-SLRs— the J1 is worth a close look.

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Samsung NX11

October 07, 2011   admin   No comments

The 14.6Mp Samsung NX11 is an interchangeable-lens camera that resembles a small digital SLR (DSLR) at roughly half the depth. As with rival products, such as the Olympus PEN, Panasonic GF and Sony NEX series, the NX11 omits the standard mirror mechanism. It updates the NX10 as Samsung’s second-generation compact system camera (CSC), but the pitch is the same: DSLR-like image quality (thanks to an APS-C sized CMOS sensor), but a smaller form-factor, plus the facility to swap lenses.

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Sony Alpha NEX-C3

October 04, 2011   admin   No comments

Sony’s follow-up to the Editors’ Choice Alpha NEX-3 is the smaller and lighter, 16-megapixel NEX-C3. Boasting better resolution and low-light performance, the NEX-C3 is able to deliver D-SLR-quality images in a compact body. It’s even smaller than the Olympus PEN E-P3 or the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF2, but packs a larger sensor than any Micro Four Thirds camera.

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Sony Alpha NEX-C3

October 01, 2011   admin   No comments

 

This is the smallest and lightest APS-C interchangeable-lens digital camera in the world. It weighs just 225g, making it almost identical in weight to some of the compact cameras we’ve reviewed in this issue’s group test.

The NEX-C3 can capture 720p HD video and l6Mp stills. A 3in tillable LCD screen is used for composition. The camera has no built-in flash, but Sony offers one as an accessory. A multi-frame feature lets you take several photos at once and have the camera create a panoramic composite of them, giving the effect of 3D. Other useful effects include automatic HDR, Handheld Twilight and an Anti-Motion blur setting. Soft skin, retro, pop colour, high-contrast monochrome, pasteurization and toy effects can also be added to your snaps.

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Kodak Z990 Max

September 25, 2011   admin   No comments

 

Kodak’s Z99Q Max bridge camera’s imposing lens is emblazoned with a 30x zoom with image stabilization. The lens is motor-operated, and protrudes from the camera’s impressively solid housing. Don’t expect to fire up the camera, zoom in and shoot in short order. Distant focusing is slow, and we were disappointed by blurry results. The focus is hard to discern from the 3in LCD screen. Half-decent results can be had in auto mode, but a fistful of manual adjustments are available too. We were pleased to find a histogram.

Using burst mode, or recording HD video, there’s a lengthy wait (20 seconds for a minute-long clip) for the camera to process and save the file – even with performance SD cards. In the meantime, you can’t take any shots. Most cameras have circular navipads; Kodak has chosen a square navipad, and its options aren’t so easy to select. Thumbnail previews let you review all shots or only those containing people.

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