The Nikon Coolpix P80 is the digital camera I wish I could have bought five years ago, but cameras with these features did not exist, and if they did, the prices would have been out of reach for the casual photographer.

This compact digital SLR has an astounding 18x zoom lens, 10 Megapixel resolution, a large LCD screen and a bright through-the-lens viewfinder. In addition to several photo resolutions, the user can choose from several different aspect ratios–16:9 TV, 3:4 TV, different computer screen sizes, and 1:1 square, great for online auction photos.
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After owning an Olympus C-3030 for a few years and getting several comments on the excellent photo it produced, I was ready to upgrade to something with more features, zoom, resolution and compatibility.

I first purchased a Canon A650-IS bundle for Christmas and was immedaitely displeased with the graininess of indoor shots without the flash. I know Canon makes good digicams, but in the megapixel race, I felt they just crammed too many pixels onto the sensor to produce quality low-light images. So, back it want.

Now, the SP-570UZ is not the ‘be all and end all’ in prosumer-level digital cameras, but for what it is designed to do, it does, for the most part, pretty darned well. The range of the lens alone is fantastic. I can get excellent wide-angle shots and wonderful zoomed close-ups. Perfect for a typical consumer wanting decent quality shots of kid’s sports, snapshots and outdoor landscape photos. The various preset scene modes are fairly good and I’ve done well with sunset/sunrise shots. Read the rest of this entry »

Canon Digital Rebel XSI 12MP Digital SLR Camera is a nice camera. We’ll start with what this camera is NOT:

1) It’s NOT a full-frame camera. That means it’s smaller, lighter, and of course the 1.6x crop factor is important to remember if you have EF lenses already. But, because it’s smaller, it’s cheaper and offers less features. These are, for the most part, obscure features nobody will ever use anyway. These factors make it easier to use at the expense of being slightly less functional.

2) The XSi is NOT a point-and-shoot digicam. Don’t expect it to do videos, sound, or to incorporate all kinds of convenient uber-automation. While ‘cool’, this automation usually just keeps you from controlling what you want to do yourself. Most of the time, this camera will stay in “P” or “program mode” for me. There is a green setting for point-and-shoot operation, but all this does is disable most of the features that you buy the camera for.

2a) Live View is NOT the same as the LCD viewfinder on point-and-shoot digicams. Don’t expect it to focus fast or provide the same functionality. Live View is intended for a camera mounted on a tripod or held steady. It is a GREAT way to get perfect focus when you need it. You just zoom in to 10x magnification and manually focus or let the contrast detection do it for you. But, it is NOT an LCD viewfinder. As long as you don’t think it will be (I was stupid enough to think that way) then you know before you buy.

The bad: (in all fairness, these are true of most modern DSLR’s)

1) The battery is improved, yes, but it’s REALLY expensive. I bought a generic battery for a backup. Keeping the Canon battery fully charged, of course, and only using the generic when the Canon is charging. Read the rest of this entry »

Sony Cyber-shot DSCW120MDG/P 7.2 MP Digital Camera all you want in a point and shoot. I can turn it on, not even look in the screen, push the button and get good in focus-properly light pictures. Is very thin, good button lay out. Only hit of a negative with it is the port to connect to the computer is on the bottom, would prefer it on the side, still a strong five stars.

My wife and I recently upgraded from our Sony DSC-P8 to a Sony DSC-W130. So far we are extremely happy. We shopped around quite a bit before settling on the new cybershot, and spent a good deal of time trying out other brands. In the end, the Smile Shutter brought us back to Sony. It sounds like there is no way it would work, but it really does. We have two young children that are remarkably hard to catch smiling. With the new Sony, all we have to do is turn on the smile shutter and the camera does the rest. So far, we haven’t missed a smile with the 3 year (with teeth) and have caught a few of the 4 month old (no teeth). It makes a difference.

The other feature that has been great so far is the burst mode. With my old camera, the missing time between shot resulted in a lot of blurring. The new camera manages to focus each shot much better. We played around with some moving targets, and the pictures came out great. One major drawback of burst mode, however, is that you can’t use flash. I took a bunch of pictures indoors and the quality was ok, but not great. The flash just turns off when you switch to burst mode.

The video recording is great on this camera. Obviously not camcorder quality or anything, but very good for what you’d expect from a point and shoot. The sound quality still isn’t that great, but much much better from my older camera. It seems like it balances the audio in the first few seconds. If the first few seconds are loud, the whole video will be softer. If you start out soft, however, you bury the needle when it gets lounder leading to some distortion. You also can’t zoom while in video mode - something they don’t tell you. Read the rest of this entry »

The camera feels wonderfully light yet well built. I’m 6ft tall with average size hands, and the camera feels good in my hand. The battery grip, to me, defeats the purpose of having a small, light DSLR, so I opted for a Hakuba/Opteka grip (it’s a plate that screws into the tripod socket that enables you to use the excellent Canon E1 hand strap with it) and I couldn’t be happier. I’m not a fan of neck straps, so this works well for me (see the uploaded photo for the configuration).

Most of the menu buttons on the back feel different from the ones on the original Digital Rebel and the 30D; the XSi buttons feel more tactile and have a definite “click” to them when you press them. The exception are the Exposure Lock (*) and AF selector buttons, which have retained the deeper, softer feel of the older cameras. Just different, not better or worse, for me.

The LCD is now 3″ with 230K pixels. The playback images look great, and probably because of the higher resolution of the sensor, there’s a very slight delay when you zoom in to 10x while the image loads and displays properly. People coming from other cameras or brands might not even notice it–I only did so because of the difference between it and my two other Canon DSLRs (which have lower resolution sensors). The viewing angle of the LCD screen (how clearly you can see the screen from side and up and down) is excellent; you can still see the screen holding the camera almost straight up for an overhead shot (more on this later). I’d estimate the viewing angle is about 160-170 degrees both horizontally and vertically.

The Digital Rebel has a separate status screen above the main LCD screen, and the 30D had one on top of the camera, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the big LCD acting as the status screen and no top screen. I’m happy to say that this arrangement works well, at least for me. The back screen makes it really easy to take all the settings at a glance. The viewfinder is much larger and brighter than that in the Digital Rebel. A humongously welcome feature for me is the always displayed ISO value in the viewfinder.

The camera is only 1/2 of the image quality equation, the other being the lenses being used. Coupled with my favorite lens, the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L telephoto lens, the XSi turns out fantastic images. The supplied kit lens is very light and compact for being an image stabilized lens, and turns out good performance. The IS is certainly very useful. Read the rest of this entry »

The 6 Megapixel Nikon D40 is targeted for those who want a relatively compact and light camera yet having most of the important SLR features. The D40 is priced reasonably (cheaper than D50/D80 and Canon Rebel XTi). In my opinion, if you are still considering whether to get a point and shoot camera or a DSLR, the D40 will be a better choice than any point and shoot camera, by far, even those with 8MP or 10MP. But if you are already deciding to get a DSLR or you want more control of the picture taking experience, then I would recommend you to also test the D50 and/or D80 first before deciding to buy the D40. I want you to make sure that you know what you will get (and not get) with the D40. Don’t get me wrong though, the D40 is an awesome camera, and I don’t think you will regret buying one. There are some limitation with the D40 which shouldn’t bother most people, for example, the D40 doesn’t have dedicated button to change picture quality, white balance or ISO settings (which generally only professional/enthusiast will care). Once you understand (and accept) its limitation, the D40 is a potent and exciting photography machine.

Just like all its (DSLR) siblings, the D40 powers on instantly and take pictures with almost no shutter lag which are the major advantages of a DSLR over a point and shoot camera. In addition to the P,S,A,M mode, the picture quality of the auto settings (auto, child mode, landscape etc) are also very good. With 2.5 frames per second you can capture movement progress in sports like football, basketball, baseball etc. Also great to photograph your family or child (child mode). The D40 is a great all around camera.

Some notable new features:
1. Auto (no flash) mode. Without this mode the flash will pop-up (on all other pre-programmed mode) even when you don’t want to use flash (which can be annoying). The internal flash will not pop up automatically with the P,S,A,M settings.
2. In camera editing capability such as black and white, sepia and some filter effects etc. While sounds gimmicky, these features are useful especially for those who doesn’t have Adobe Photoshop (or other image editing software). Read the rest of this entry »

The best lens cleaning system I’ve come. Great tool for in the field lens, Binoc, teles, range finders and cameras. All can benefit from one of these. Light and compact, sturdy and effective. Keep the prints off the lenses.

Does exactly what it’s supposed to, and does it well.

to use:

1. with one end, extend the brush, and wipe debris away.

2. twist the cap on the other end, and take it off. with that end, wipe in a circular motion, and smudges get polished away.

Your binocular or telescope uses highly precise optics. It’s important to keep them as clean as possible to assure the best performance. Nikon makes it really easy and simple with the Lens Pen Cleaning System.