What Photo Gear

New York Times resident tech guru David Pogue has published his hands-on with Casio’s very very interesting shooter - the Casio Exilim EX-F1.

The more I read about this camera, the more interesting it gets. Now if I could somehow cough up that $999 street price, I would definitely be in line for one. The high-speed 60 frame-per-second shooting can definitely open up a lot of opportunities that I would’ve otherwise missed with a regular superzoom.

But unfortunately it’s not all good news though, despite the fast shooting speed, the camera seems to be saddled with slow start-up times, and if the EVF is anything like most superzooms, then it can get pretty laggy at times. And David complains about the sluggish lens as well.

The 12X zoom is nice to have, but it’s slow to react. And during video capture, when you turn the lens ring to zoom, it jerks spastically through the zoom range, effectively ruining your shot. The camera has great difficulty changing focus during filming, too.

All in all, this looks to be a step in the right direction for Casio, the price might put off quite a few people, especially since image quality isn’t really anything special, but comparable to other super-zooms - but for those of us who can find value in its shooting speed, it could be worth the pretty hefty investment.

Now if Casio can drop a larger sensor on the EX-F2 with a lens worthy of the shooting speed, without upping the price.. that could be quite something.

From: The New York Times via What Photo Gear

It’s been awhile since the first pair of of Sigma DP1 hands-ons - but now, we’ve got two full length and quality reviews of what is turning out to be quite an outstanding camera.

The first review comes courtesy of Photoreview.com.au - and it’s all generally positive for the DP1, but there was also one tidbit that I found interesting:

The stand-out feature of the DP-1 is its ability to record a much wider dynamic range that any digicam we’ve reviewed - and also than many DSLRs. Although both JPEG and X3F.RAW files looked rather flat when viewed on both the camera’s LCD and our computer screen, it was possible to obtain very good results from the test camera - but only when we worked with raw files.

And some excerpts from their conclusion:

Sigma’s DP-1 is a revolutionary camera - and quite different from any other digital camera in the current marketplace. This, in part, accounts for its relatively high price tag and restricted feature set (prime lens, pared-down set of controls, limited video capabilities). It is not a camera for point-and-shoot photographers. Nor will it suit photographers who only shoot JPEGs and prefer not to become involved in subsequent editing.

Click here to read the rest of their review.

And next up..

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Photozone has just published their in-depth review of Nikon’s latest digital-only zoom - the Nikkor 16-85mm VR Lens.

Released just this year, the Nikon 16-85mm is, quite honestly, a lens that did not make much sense to me when it was first announced. Nikon had their basic 18-55mm lens, the 18-70mm, the 18-135mm and the 18-200 VR lens in it’s DX (for 1.5x sensor DSLR’s) lineup.

The Nikon 16-85mm with it’s 35mm equivalent zoom range of 24-127mm is obviously the DX version of the 24-120mm VR ; and at first glance seems to be a replacement for the 18-70mm - but with a price approaching that of the 18-200mm VR I still can’t figure out who this lens is for. The 18-135mm covers the same zoom range at half the price, granted without the very useful Vibration Reduction of course. And just a few dollars more gets you the 18-200 VR.

But the Photozone review does come as a bit of a surprise, as this lens seems to be quite the performer based on their tests. They proclaim the Nikon 16-85mm as probably “the best DX standard zoom lens in the Nikon mount to date.” Even claiming that this lens is even somewhat more desirable than the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 lens at twice the price.

Surprising results indeed (to me at least.) If it performs as well as claimed in real world shots, then perhaps this lens just might find a home in my bag. And perhaps it’s place in Nikon’s zoom lens line-up will make a lot more sense to me.

If you haven’t already, click here to read Photozone’s excellent in-depth review of the Nikon 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S VR. They also have a few high resolution images shot with the lens mounted on a Nikon D200 for your review.

From: Photozone via WhatPhotoGear

The great folks over at Camcorder Info have just published their in-depth review of the Canon Vixia HF10 ; Canon’s current top of the line hybrid HDD (Hard Disk) and Flash High Definition consumer level camcorder - and they’ve come up with some pleasantly surprising conclusions - even calling it “the first great AVCHD Camcorder.”

Almost everyone was pretty much unanimous in saying that Canon’s HV20 Camcorder was the best consumer level high definition camcorder last year - due in large part to the poor performance of AVCHD camcorders, especially with motion. But the HV20, if it had one flaw, was that it still recorded to old-fashioned tape. Which for some people, me included, felt we should have abandoned in favor of less cumbersome media like a Hard Disk Drive or flash cards.

But in terms of image quality, the HV20 was still king. It could make that video of your pet dog look like it should be on Discovery Channel’s HD Theater. But now, even with the minor update to the HV20 - the Canon HV30 ; it looks like Hard-Drive High Definition camcorders using the AVCHD codec have finally improved and are right up there in terms of image quality. Of course, editing the video is still not as easy, and it requires a lot of processing power - but it’s getting there.

The Canon HF10 gives up some controls, and is a bit more dumbed down compared to the HV20 and HV30 - but the big news here is the image quality. Personally, I can’t wait to see what Canon will have in store for the follow-up to their current top of the line HDD High Def camcorder - the Canon HG10 (which uses an ‘older’ AVCHD compression method which just doesn’t compare to the HF10’s)

The Canon Vixia HF10 can be purchased via Amazon by clicking here.

From: CamcorderInfo via WhatPhotoGear

The camera reviews website - DPReview.com have now published their full length Nikon D300 review.

If you haven’t already read the review and are even remotely interested in the D300, then hit the link now. For those not in the know, DPReview.com is the place to go online for in-depth camera reviews (although they focus mostly on DSLRs)

And I’m sure some people would also be very interested in the image comparison of the Nikon D300 vs the Canon 40D, in both JPEGs and their respective RAW output. Or perhaps a look at the high ISO performance of the D300 compared to the Canon 40D, Sony A700 and the Olympus E3.

From: DPReview.com via WhatPhotoGear.com

And perfect timing too, as I’ve been looking into getting a photo backpack capable of storing a laptop for my trip to Manila in a few months ; DigitalCameraReview.com have a review of the Lowepro Fastpack (the particular model they review is the Fastpack 250)

I’ve always been a big fan of Lowepro bags, in fact I own 4 of them. Some people dislike them because they supposedly look like camera bags - quite honestly, I don’t know about that. As far as I know the only ones who would know they were camera bags would be your fellow photographers - who would also know all the other brands like Tamrac, Crumpler etc.. What I like about the Lowepro designs are that they’re not splashy, and most of the the time they’re available in black. That’s pretty much as inconspicuous as you can get methinks. Unless you get a beat-up backpack and just wrap all your gear in old t-shirts.

Overall, based on this review, it looks like the Fastpack is definitely going to go on my list. My main concern right now is the lack of weather-proofing it seems Lowepro decided not to add their All-Weather cover to this particular line of backpacks. (it’ll be the rainy season in the Philippines during my trip)

The Lowepro Fastpack 250 for 15.4″ notebooks is available at Amazon for $89.95 ; and the Fastpack 350 for 17″ notebooks is available for $112.95.

From: DigitalCameraReview.com via WhatPhotoGear.com