Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips
DP Review has posted a review of the Canon EOS 500D (aka Rebel T1i).
All the major manufacturers cram more and more new features into their ‘budget’ offerings but the EOS 500D is arguably the currently best specced camera in the segment, which lifts it some distance above pure ‘entry level’ territory.
For more news and reviews, see Photography Bay’s Canon Rebel T1i Reviews and Resources.
Let’s Go Digital has posted a review of the Nikon D5000.
The technical tests of the body also reveal that Nikon managed to maintain the quality and even improved it. The Nikon D5000 benefits from this technical progress and this makes it more than logical that we consider the Nikon D5000 an excellent performing DSLR camera if we look solely at image quality.
For more news and reviews on the D5000, visit Photography Bay’s Nikon D5000 Reviews and Resources.
Cameras.co.uk has posted a review of the Fuji Finepix F200EXR.
The Fuji Finepix F200exr is a good all round camera, offering some innovative extra features. Although it can be used as a point and shoot camera you will need to spend some time getting to know the features available if you are to get the most out of this camera.
For more news and reviews, visit Photography Bay’s Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR Reviews and Resources.
PhotographyBLOG has posted a review of the Olympus E-620.
The Olympus E-620 offers the most effective combination of features, ease-of-use and price of any Olympus DSLR camera to date, and it’s also a real contender for the Best Mid-Range DSLR crown.
For more news and reviews, check out Photography Bay’s Olympus E-620 Reviews and Resources.
The Nikon D5000 offers a very cool interval shooting mode that offers endless creative possibilities. Several other Nikon DSLRs feature an interval shooting mode as well (do all of them?). I have had the pleasure of using a variety of Nikon DSLR models; however, the interval shooting mode is one thing I had never taken the time to dig into.
Now that I have toyed with it a bit, I have to say that I really like the potential that it offers. Leave it to me to wait to use a Nikon DSLR with 720p HD video capabilities to jump into the stop-motion movie creation.
So, here’s the rundown on how I created the above movie using still images via the Nikon D5000 Interval Shooting Mode…
I set the Nikon D5000 on a tripod in the backseat/floorboard of my car. I criss-crossed the rear seatbelts through the back leg of the tripod in order to stabilize it a bit.
I then set the D5000 to capture 999 frames (the max setting) at 1 sec intervals in Shutter Priority Mode of 0.8 sec each. I used JPEG Medium file sizes to conserve card space and because I knew that I would not need the extra resolution from JPEG Large-sized files for a video. Oh, and all the images were ISO 6400.
After getting everything set up, I ended up making two stops to reset the interval mode and restart shooting. I ended up with roughly 2100 images, which I edited down to about 1500 or so for the final video.
I dropped the unaltered images into Windows Movie Maker and set the duration of each image to 0.13 seconds for a “fast” look in the final film. I then dropped in Endless Road by The Coal Men as the soundtrack (it seemed fitting). Thanks to Dave C. and the guys for allowing me to use it!
The nice thing is that the D5000 did most of the work without much real thought from me other than the initial concept. This was my first foray into the interval shooting mode, time lapse, stop-motion or whatever you want to call it. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more opportunities to use this feature in the future. Big kudos to Nikon for making it simple and straightforward. If you want to download the full-res video for personal use and closer inspection, you can get it here. (Right-click and choose Save as…)
If you’re interested in the Nikon D5000, check on prices and availability at B&H Photo.
The Canon Rebel T1i and Nikon D5000 are the two new consumer-level DSLRs from the leading brands in the business right now. Over the past month or so, I’ve shot extensively, almost exclusively, with these new DSLRs. While there are a number of features that make these cameras stand out, the one that I keep coming back to is their ability to manage noise, even at higher ISOs.
Both cameras do something new in the entry-level category by turning up the sensitivity. The Canon Rebel T1i tops out at ISO 12800, while the Nikon D5000 pushes its sensitivity one-stop lower to ISO 6400. In my day-to-day shooting, I would have no problem shooting with either camera at ISO 3200 for snapshots that will make my wife or mom happy to have in the family photo album. Truth be told, they probably wouldn’t notice the difference between ISO 3200 and ISO 6400 in either camera. The Rebel T1i’s spec of ISO 12800 may be a bit much for most applications; however, in a bind, you can likely get some decent black and whites at that level.
To see how the Canon Rebel T1i and Nikon D5000 stack up against each other, as well as the Canon 5D Mark II and Nikon D700, read on. [Read more…]
The latest rumors to surface from the never-ending stream of sources over at Canon Rumors pegs the Canon 60D as somewhat of a turbocharged version of the Canon 50D. Here’s the latest potential spec list:
Everything else, remains as-is from the current 50D. This spec-list is similar to what we’ve seen in previous Canon 60D / 7D rumors.
Granted, those specs don’t make for much of a slouch DSLR. That 15.1 megapixel sensor has served well in the 50D and the Rebel T1i. I, for one, would certainly welcome another round of it with improved noise control – particularly after seeing how well the Rebel T1i performs at ISO 3200-6400. We sure don’t need any more pixels in these crop-sensor DSLRs until we get noise under control and perhaps some better glass to fully take advantage of the resolution.
The Pentax K30D rumors still have hope after the recent release of the Pentax K-7, which many assumed would serve as a replacement for the Pentax K20D. Amateur Photographer, however, has confirmed with Pentax UK that the K-7 is not a replacement for the K20D. The K-7 and K20D are both current models, which leads to the logical question: when is the Pentax K30D going to surface?
Camera Labs has posted a review of the Nikon D5000.
The D5000 is the latest in a long line of impressive DSLRs from Nikon, delivering great image quality and a powerful feature-set that represents a significant upgrade over its predecessor, the D60.
For more news and reviews on the D5000, visit Photography Bay’s Nikon D5000 Reviews and Resources.
