Photography Bay

Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips

Archives for 2008

Olympus E-420 Review at Photexels

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Photexels has posted a review of the new Olympus E-420.

The Olympus EVOLT E-420 is a good choice if you are thinking of upgrading from your point-and-shoot digicam. It is compact and light and comes closest to working like a P&S: its Live View pretty much works like on your P&S digicam; and, it has AUTO mode, plus easy-to-use Scene Modes, that make it point-and-shoot easy to capture great photos.

For the latest news and reviews, check out Photography Bay’s Olympus E-420 Reviews and Resources page.

 

Canon Powershot A580 Review at PhotographyBLOG

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PhotographyBLOG has published a full review of the new 8 megapixel Canon Powershot A580. The A580 is the little brother to the Image Stabilized A590 IS. The A580 features a 4x optical zoom, the option of fully automatic or semi-automatic settings and 16 selectable shooting modes.

Image quality has also exceeded my expectations in terms of detail, colour accuracy, AWB consistency and centre sharpness. A well-exposed and properly focused ISO 80 shot will produce an excellent 30x40cm print, with ISO 800 still enjoyable at the common 10x15cm size.

Canon Working on Fuel Cell Powered DSLRs

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A patent application, filed by Canon, reveals technology that would effectively incorporate fuel cell technology in DSLRs and other small consumer electronic devices.  The United States Patent Application Publication Pub. No. 20080081236 can be found here.

As Canon points out it the patent claims, fuel cell technology is a bit of a tough cookie for small electronic devices due to uneven gas densities and variances in load currents, among other things.  For example, the mirror operation in a DSLR can cause sudden fluctuations in the load current, which is problematic for fuel cells.  However, Canon claims to have overcome this barrier in its fuel cell power system, “which is capable of counteracting the instantaneous fluctuation of a load current and [is] designed as a smaller lightweight system.”

The patent doesn’t reveal the what the fuel cell system will look like when integrated into a DSLR.  Maybe we’ll see some sort of battery grip integration in the first iteration, like in the MTI Micro image above.

On a (perhaps) related note, MTI Micro recently announced a partnership with an unnamed Japanese digital camera manufacturer to evaluate the use of fuel cells in digital cameras.  (See this report on Engadget for more.)  I’m just reading between the lines here, but maybe Canon is that “someone special” for MTI Micro.

Canon Rebel XSi Sample Images

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I’ve been testing the new Canon Rebel XSi.  The image quality thus far is impressive.  Below are a few in-camera JPEG samples taken throughout the range of ISOs available.  You may click on each photo to view the original image at 100%.  Additionally, you can see more sample images in this Flickr set (Full EXIF is available).  More news and reviews are available on the Canon Rebel XSi Reviews and Resources page. [Read more…]

Nikon Coolpix P80 Review at ePhotozine

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ePhotozine has posted a full review of the Nikon Coolpix P80.  The new P80 boasts a 10.1 megapixel image sensor, Nikon’s EXPEED processing and vibration reduction on a whopping 18x optical zoom lens.  The P80’s 18x Zoom-NIKKOR lens covers focal lengths from 27-486mm (35mm format equivalent).

Nikon are really coming up trumps with processor capability. The landscape image has good definition all-round with nice detail in the grass. No fringing is evident on the white steps or on the roof of the building, which I’m really impressed with.

SmugMug Adds Embedded Video

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A few months ago, SmugMug added video capabilities to its repertoire of sharing features.  SmugMug has now followed up with embedding capabilities for a variety of video sizes including HD.  Don MacAskill gives the rundown on the new H.264 embedded format here. 

I’m a big SmugMug advocate. I’ve been nothing but thrilled with their photo hosting and sharing services. You can read more of my thoughts on an earlier Photography Bay post – 7 Alternatives to Flickr.

While SmugMug “demands video to be awesome”, I ran into a little bit of a lag issue on my aging iMac G5.  I have to say though, that the video quality looks great for a flash-based video. How’s the above video working for you (for both streaming and quality)?

If you decide to give SmugMug a try, you can use this code ( 7jCtURK05RxCQ ) in the ‘Referred by’ field on the signup form to save $5 from whatever account you sign up for. (Disclosure: I get a credit as well.)