Showing posts with label Camera Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Camera Review. Show all posts

Panasonic FX520: let you do "auto-focused" manually

No doubt that Panasonic is getting better and better in terms of Digital camera. They are using good lens, wide angles, and now, they are the first introduce some very exciting and yet useful feature. Look at this manual auto-focus function on FX520.

Panasonic introduce this manual "auto-focus" function. That means you touch the screen and tell the camera which object to be focused, and the camera and lock it down and focused even the object moves. Always when you use compact digital camera, do you have the experience that they are focusing on something that is not you want. Even though they got face detection, but doesn't mean that I will be taking human all the time. And I may have other objects to be focused rather than face. But now, you can focus to everywhere you like.


Other things I like about this camera are:
1) Large LCD screen, as large as the Canon SD870.
2) Manual function, you can adjsut the aperture, shuttle speed etc.
3) Very compact and small in size.

Some drawbacks:
1) Use joystick rather than button. Joystick get spoilted easily.
2) Some functions only available at touchscreen, some functions can be controlled by both touchscreen and the joystick.

Unknown:
1) Image quality.... not ure the "over processed" problem in earlier Panasonic cameras being solved in this series. Maybe someone can let me know.

Other than above, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX500/520 is a 10.1 megapixel point-and-shoot digital camera features 5x Optical Zoom (35mm Equivalent: 25 - 125 mm) with image stabilization, Intelligent Auto Mode, ISO 100-1600, and a 3.0″ Intelligent LCD screen. The camera measures 94.9 x 57.1 x 22.9 mm (3.74 x 2.25 x 0.90 inch) and it weighs 155 g (0.3417 lb).


Click here for more Panasonic review

Nokia Carl Zeiss lens camera versus Canon camera

As the camera of the handphone getting more and more powerful, it is always curious to many of us, how good is the quality of camera of a handphone. As these camera phone can be quite expensive. Here I make a comparisons of the image quality of Nokia 6220 Classic, compared with Canon SD870 or Ixus 860 digital camera. In this and previous post, I will show the image quality under brigh sun light conditions.

Canon SD870 / Ixus 860:
Nokia 6220 Classic: Darker
Canon SD870 / Ixus 860: Zoom in 100% crop, the details of the leaves are clear
Nokia 6220 Classic: Darker and blurer, kind of muddy
So basically if you no zoom in or corp the images, the quality of the Nokia Classic 6220 is still acceptable. Except that it is darker. I will present the indoor image quality, video quality, comparisons wit other normal handphone camera is the upcoming posts.


Click here for more Nokia 6220 Classic review

Nokia 6220 Classic vs Canon SD870 or Ixus 860

The the growing power of handphone camera, such as the Cybershot series by Sony Ericsson, and Carl Zeiss series by Nokia. It is always curious how is the quality of those handphone camera compared with those compact digital camera.

Here I will give a series of comparisons between the latest Nokia 6220 Classic (5Mege pixel, with powerful xeon flash, Carl Zeiss) with Canon SD870 / Ixus 860 (28mm wide).

Today will be the outdoor sunny day, the images are 100% crop, both taken at 5 mega pixels.

Camera (Canon SD870 / Ixus 860)
Phone (Nokia 6220 Classic): Image appears to be darker


Camera (Canon SD870 / Ixus 860): 100% crop
Phone (Nokia 6220 Classic): More noise at the roof top and the floor texture is not so clear


Camera (Canon SD870 / Ixus 860): not in focus region
Phone (Nokia 6220 Classic): equally blur

On overall, it appears that Nokia 6220 Classic phone camera appears to be darker and more noise. More comparisons will be coming up in the following posts. However, the image quality appears to good compared with maany other phones. Other outdoor comparisons at my later post http://hightechwebs.blogspot.com/2008/07/nokia-carl-zeiss-lens-camera-versus.html.

Click here for more comparisons btw Handphone Camera vs Digital Camera

Distortion measurement from 1meter and 1.5meter

Comparing the distortion for two canon models: Canon A510 and Canon SD870.

The first set is measurement from a distant of 108cm.

Some slight distortion can still be seen for the two models.


Next, we compare from a distant of 168cm.

In this case, no distortion can be seen.

The images appear to be darker, as the contrast and brightness have been adjusted to see the edge clearer.


A measurement with shorter distant is reported in http://hightechwebs.blogspot.com/2008/05/canon-sd870-distortion-measurement.html

Click here for more Distortion measurement

Prices of all 28mm wide angle compact digital camera - and the chapest is........

Here is a list of market available compact size 28mm wide lens digital cameras and their price in USD. Their special features is in the (blanket).


Canon Powershot SD870IS / Ixus 860 (3" LCD) $259.99

Panasonic Tz5 (10x optical zoom) $285.02
Panasonic Fx35 (25mm) $294.15

Nikon Coolpix S600 (ISO 3200) $248.27
Casio EX-Z100 $230.00
Ricoh Caplio R7 $246.95

Fujifilm Finepix F480 $126.99 <------------- cheapest
Samsung Digimax L74 $169.95


Very surprise to see the Fujifilm prices is the loweset among all, even lower than Samsung!
* the price is based on Amazon.com

Click here for more Wide Angle review

How to take night shot

Depending you are taking human or the night scene:

  • If you are taking human: use the flash, or use the night portrait or night scene functions provided by the camera.
  • If you are taking the scene: NEVER use flash, and possible with a tripod unless you have a steady hand.

Below is a trial with all different ISO setting (manually) with a automatic setting (the night scene mode) on a Canon SD870 or Ixus 860 wide angle camera. The pictures is crop in 100%.

ISO 100 to 400, the top 3 images, very low noise, but as the exposure speed is too long, so the image is blur.

ISO 800 and 1600, the bottom left 2 images, very high noise, but fast exposure speed, so the image is clear without blur.

The final one ISO 250 (seems like when you choose automatic setting on the night scene mode, the ISO is always fixed to 250), the shutter speed is just nice that all the lights are captured with very clean (no noise) image.

Compare to my previous post, http://hightechwebs.blogspot.com/2008/05/night-shot-with-canon-870-or-ixus-860.html, you got to decide to use manual or auto setting when you are going to take night images. As in cases, like in this building, the auto setting is just nice. Whereas in my previous post, http://hightechwebs.blogspot.com/2008/05/night-shot-with-canon-870-or-ixus-860.html, the auto setting gives a poorer performance.

Click here for more Night Shot tips

Night shot with Canon 870 or Ixus 860


This is the night shot with Canon 870 or Ixus 860.


The first image with ISO 800, exposure time 0.3333 sec. The second image with ISO 1600, exposure time 0.167 sec.


It can be seen that ISO 800 (the first image) has limited noise, enough detials (the human siting at the revier side). And no hand shaking, blur image or out of focus.


While the first two took with manual ISO setting. The last image is taken with the "night scene" functions. I find that it always fix the ISO to be 250.


Unfortunately, in this case, only light can be seen, and many details information are lost.


I will show more night shots in the upcoming post.


If you like to see the video taking at night, look at this post:http://hightechwebs.blogspot.com/2008/05/taking-time-lapse-movie-with-your-canon.html

Click here for more Night Shot tips

Canon SD870 or Panasonic Fx35 - Poll Results

After a month of poll, I obtain 22 votes so far.

14 favour Canon SD 870 or Ixus 860
8 favour Panasonic Fx35 or Fx36

So the winner is Canon SD 870 or Ixus 860!

This is my personal choice as well.................

Click here for more Camera review

Nikon Coolpix S600

In the past, I only focus on Canon, Sony and Panasonic. Recently, I find that Nikon and Fuji improve a lot, and they manage to come out with great cameras that are small in size, and impressive image quality.

Today I would like to talk about Nikon Coolpix S600 http://www.nikon-coolpix.com/e/s600.html.
I need to highlight this:

- Wide angle lens 28mm
- Small in size
- ISO 3200 (this is very sensitive to light)
- Internal 45MB memory.. this is more than the 32MB SD card given by Canon..

Will talk about more at a later time...

Zooming capability of Canon SD870 in Video Recording

This video shows the zooming capability of Canon SD870 digital camera during video recording mode. It only allows digital zoom during the recording, as you can see from this video, it zooms from 1x to 4x (digital). Unfortunately, it doesn't auto-focus during the zooming process. If you start the video recording from optical 3.8x, then you can achieve 15x zoom in total, which I will show you some video later on.




Click here for more Video Recording tips

Wide angle digital camera 28mm vs 35mm

Here we compare the Canon A510 versus Canon SD870.

Canon SD870 is a wide angle lens camera, it is 28mm wide compared with the other standard 35mm camera.

The figure on the above is shot with A510, and the same scene is shot with SD870 as shown below. The yellow box indicates the range that A510 seen.

So it is pretty obvious that SD870 has a wider range. And wide angle is a MUST............

Click here for more Wide Angle review

Canon SD870 Distortion Measurement

We present a distortion measurement of two Canon cameras.

One is the Canon Powershot A51 and another is the Canon SD870.

Both cameras are about 78cm from the photo frame. Since SD870 is a wide angle camera, it has a wider range than A510. And that is the reason on why the image of A510 appears to be larger than SD870.

We didn't process or crop the image, the only processing is to adjust the contrast, so that the shadow are removed, and the border of the photo frame can be clearly seen.

We add in yellow straight line so as to compare it with the photo frame (which should also be a straight line if no distortion).

The red arrow will point out those portions with distorion seen. If you click to enlarge the image, it can be seen that both cameras give you similar level of distortion.

The distortion measure with different standing distance will be added later on.

If any one know how to remove the distortion with some software, do let me know. Thanks

Click here for more Distortion measurement

Canon SD870 or Ixus 860 Noise Level (ISO) testing at low night condition


We have an indoor night yellow light - low light - condition.

We test ISO 200, 800 and 1600.

It is obvious that 800 and 1600 generate too many noise.

We will test the anti-shake function in the coming review.









Canon SD 870 or Ixus 860 ISO Test, Noise Comparisons (Outdoor)

Outdoor sunlight 100% crop (pay attention to the sharpness of the leaves at the lower left hand corner)

Canon SD870 or Ixus 860 ISO Test, Noise Comparisons (Indoor)

Indoor - natural light, 100% crop

From the slide show, you can find that:
ISO 400 (the details on the wall start to blur)
ISO 800 (noise appear)
ISO 1600 (noisy)

Slide show:

Panasonic Fx35 or Fx36 versus Canon SD870 or Ixus 860 IS

Panasonic Fx35 or Fx36 has greate wide angle, 25mm (for 35mm camera standard), and with its Leica lens, it has less or nearly no distortion. Small in size and weight. Unfortunately, the new Venus IV engine from Panasonic Lumix still have the noise issue.

Canon SD870 or Canon Ixus 860 IS has large LCD bright screen of 3", the lens is 28mm wide, so is higher than 35mm, but still not wide enough compare to Panasonic Fx35. Distortion is more servere than Panasonic Fx35. Also larger in size (still small) and heavier (you can really feel it in your pocket). Provide ISO 80 very clean image.

These two comparable models, if you search online, you can find a lot of comparisons. Here I summarized my search results:

Price: Canon 870 cheaper.
Lens: Panasonic Fx35 wider and less distortion.
Zoom: Both around 4x optical zoom, but Panasonic Fx35 offers extended zoom up to 7x if you shot image at a smaller resolution.
Size: Panasonic Fx35 smaller and lighter.
User interface: Canon 870 with great review function, and a programmable button.
LCD screen: Canon 870 larger, brigther LCD.
Noise Control: Canon 870 has a better noise control over Panasonic Fx35.

After all the searching, I go for Canon SD870, and I like it very much. I like the wide angle lengths from Panasonic Lumix, and I will go for Panasonic Lumix if the noisy problem can be improved in the new generation.

There is quite a good discussion on this forum:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1033&message=27070012&changemode=1

Click here for more Panasonic review

NEW Canon EOS-1D Mark III DSLR Camera

Canon has released the new EOS-1D Mark III Digital SLR camera in celebration of its 20th anniversary of their EOS SLR camera system. what it says is the world's fastest digital SLR camera. t 10 frames per second, the 10.1 megapixel EOS-1D Mark III digital SLR can fire huge motor-driven bursts. New digital SLR cameras for professional photographers will be shown at the PMA07 show in Las Vegas next month. It can shoot images at a rate of ten frames per second, faster than any. new 10.1 megapixel EOS-1D Mark III Digital SLR.

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