What Photo Gear

Thom Hogan’s Nikon D300 review is now online.

Thom Hogan has always been one of my favorite gear reviewers, he’s a Nikon guru, and his reviews are always clear, concise, to the point and fairly objective and he always adds great insights on the products he is reviewing. Plus his e-books are always some of the best resources for Nikon DSLR owners. I’d love to be on one of his workshops one of these days.

Despite quite a long list of issues with some of the button changes and the UI - “Overall, the D300 shows just how overextended the current Nikon UI design has gotten. You will be hit by something that slows your shooting (or makes you miss a setting) someday, which is not what we want in a camera of this caliber.”

The drawbacks are mostly over-shadowed by the positives - Excellent image quality, faster AF ; and value - “Okay, I’ll say it: yes, it’s the average person’s D2x, at a little over one-third the price. There were reasons to have a D2x, but they just went completely away.”

One thing I really like about his review are his thoughts on “Should you get a D300″ - a great read for all those looking to upgrade.

Click here to read Thom Hogan’s Extensive D300 Review

From: ByThom.com via WhatPhotoGear.com

Here’s an interesting article courtesy of the New York Times Online - entitled A Camera That Frees Your Face - the brief article is sort of a mini-review of Sony’s A300 DSLR, but what’s interesting about the article is the discussion on how Sony designed the Live View system.

Actually, a few recent S.L.R. models do, in fact, have this Live View feature, but it’s mostly a disaster. It works by flipping that mirror up out of the way, so that light from the lens hits the image sensor, which feeds the image to the screen. Trouble is, once the mirror goes up, no light hits the autofocus sensor, so the camera can’t focus.

So here’s what happens when you press the shutter button. There’s a noisy clank as the mirror drops down again; the screen goes black; the camera computes focus and exposure; the mirror lifts again; the screen comes back to life; and finally — a second or so later — the shot is recorded.

In other words, Live View on existing cameras is slow, noisy and deeply confusing. All of this silliness arises because the camera’s image sensor must do double duty: it’s responsible for supplying the screen with a live preview and for recording the shot.

Sony’s technical breakthrough on the A300, therefore, was this: “Duh! Put in another sensor!”

On this camera, turning on Live View sends light from that main mirror onto a second sensor, one that’s devoted solely to feeding the preview screen. The autofocus sensor works normally as you compose a shot, since the mirror never has to flip up.

As a result, Live View is a completely different experience. The camera focuses quickly as you aim the lens, without ever blacking out the screen. When you press the shutter, the screen doesn’t go on-off-on, there’s no loud clacking, and there’s no baffling exhibition of mirror calisthenics inside the camera.

And he does make a nice point too - while most so-called purists and other experts may dismiss the Live View features of DSLRs as mere gimmicks, I think they are extremely useful. Sure, the best way to frame a photo is still holding the viewfinder to your eye, but there are always numerous occasions where Live View on a flip-out LCD is extremely useful. Why lie down in the dirt when trying to frame a flower on the ground when you can just sit and use the LCD to frame for example?

The article is written by David Pogue, owner of Pouge Press, the publisher of the Missing Manual series of books. One of which - Photoshop Elements 6: The Missing Manual is I think one of the better books currently available for Photoshop Elements. If you haven’t already, you can click here to read the rest of the article.

Just a quick round-up of various Digital Camera’s reviewed around the web recently:

First up is a review of Sony’s current entry level DSLR - the Sony Alpha a200 courtesy of Photoreview. But that’s not all these Aussies have cooked up, they also have a review of Sony’s very competitively priced mid-range DSLR, the Sony Alpha a350.

ThinkCamera has a review of the Ricoh GR Digital II. While conceding it is not a camera for everyone, with it’s fixed 28mm lens - it does still manage to impress. “Once you get into the ‘old’ style way of working, the conversion lenses and the like, it’s an inspiring way of working that delivers great results.”

Jeff Keller over at DCResource has also been busy - he’s got a review of the Nikon Coolpix S51, a 0.8 inch thin point and shoot with a huge 3 inch LCD.

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