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 »

Independent lens make Sigma has launched a 18-200mm lens exclusively designed to be used on all Nikon digital SLRs with an APS-C size imaging sensor.

Billed as ‘compact and lightweight’ - and boasting a built-in AF motor – the 395g newcomer measures 75.6mm in length.

Features include two Special Low Dispersion (SLD) elements and aspherical lenses designed to minimise aberrations. Read the rest of this entry »

The Fujifilm FinePix S8000fd is Fujifilm’s first ultra zoom digital camera with image stabilization. It has many of the features beginner to serious amateur photographers could wish for: very good to excellent image quality, a 18x optical wide-angle zoom with an effective sensor-shift image stabilization, and flexible exposure control.

The new sensor-shift image stabilizer allows hand holding shots at the long focal lengths and slower shutter speeds. The wide-angle makes this a great camera for landscape and large group shots.

There is full exposure flexibility, so if you are a beginner, you can start with Auto, Scene and Program AE exposure modes, then move on to Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, and full Manual modes when you are ready to learn and explore. Switching from mode to mode, and using the different options available is intuitive.

The Fujifilm S8000fd has good performance for an ultra zoom. A large 2.5 in. LCD monitor makes focusing and composition easy. Both the high-resolution EVF and LCD gain up very well in low-light situations. An AF-assist Lamp helps achieve focus in low-light. The on-board flash is quite good with a 8.8 m reach. Read the rest of this entry »

The Nikon Coolpix P5100 is identical to the Coolpix P5000 with a slight increase to 12.1MP resolution. Many of you will like this relatively compact digital camera that offers total exposure flexibility in an attractive and durable body. The design is clean with lots of controls that make the camera intuitive to use. The P5100 has one of the best grip on a compact digital camera. The textured and almost all-black finish give the camera a professional look.Nikon P5100 User Profile

• Desire a 12.1MP resolution digital camera with very good image quality at ISO 64.
• Want Image Stabilization to prevent blurred pictures due to camera shake.
• Want an easy-to-use point-and-shoot with manual controls.
• Want full exposure flexibility, plus advanced features.
• Want a digital camera for learning and growing in digital photography.

Like on the P5000, advanced functions include Manual AF area frame and corresponding Spot AF area metering, auto exposure bracketing, manual WB and Best Shot Selector. An effective Vibration Reduction (VR) technology (”Image Stabilization”) allows handholding the camera at slow shutter speeds. Read the rest of this entry »

For a long time, if you wanted a “big zoom” camera, you had to buy a bulky ultra zoom model. Things have started to change though, with ultra-compact, high zoom cameras from Canon, Casio, Pentax, and Sharp now available.

What’s in the Box?

The Exilim EX-V8 has an average bundle. Inside the box you’ll find:

* The 8.1 effective Megapixel Exilim EX-V8 digital camera
* NP-50 lithium-ion rechargeable battery
* AC adapter
* Camera dock
* Wrist strap
* USB cable
* A/V cable
* CD-ROM featuring Casio Photo Loader with Hot Album, Photo Transport, and YouTube Uploader
* Fold-out quick start guide, 26 page basic manual, plus full manual on CD-ROM
Read the rest of this entry »

The Pentax T30 is an ultra-compact digital camera that has a touchscreen for menu navigation and image manipulation instead of buttons. From the front it looks like any other modern, elegant camera, but turn it around and you quickly see that this is a totally different animal.

The Pentax T-Series is unique insofar as virtually the entire interface is touch instead of using the conventional hardware buttons and controls. There is a huge 3-inch LCD with a touchscreen (see picture below) but all other controls are gone except for a menu button and a record/playback toggle. Now why would Pentax do that just when the industry has finally settled on a more or less standard button and control arrangement? And how difficult is it to figure it all out? Those are good questions. But keep in mind that the T30 is already the third touchscreen model Pentax offers. The T10 and T20 were very similar, so there must be enough demand for something bold and different to rapidly evolve the T-Series.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Olympus SP-560UZ
As stated, this camera is all about getting very close with a massive zoom lens, and this dictates the camera’s shape and size. The SP-560UZ is definitely not one of those little slivers that you can stick into any pocket. When you look at the pictures, it looks like a digital SLR, which it is not. Due to this visual association it also looks a lot larger than it actually is. In fact, it measures 4.6 x 3.1 by 3.1 inches and weighs less than a pound.

Special features
You might wonder why with the SP-560UZ Olympus introduced a camera with the same resolution and the same zoom length as one that is already in its lineup, the SP-550UZ. The reason is that the company wanted to include a variety of new features. These are:
* Face Detection Technology tracks faces within the frame. It automatically focuses with Face Detection Auto Foucs, then optimizes exposure with Face Detection Auto Exposure for sharp portraits. Face detection even works if subjects are moving. The camera then continuously tracks the subjects’ faces.
* Shadow Adjustment Technology compensates for difficult lighting situations with subjects in front of bright backgrounds where the shadows on a subject may render the picture unusuable. Shadow adjustment lets you preview and then capture images the way you see them with the naked eye, increasing the detail in highlights and shadows to produce more balanced picture.
* The TruePic III Image Processor reduces graininess in images for sharper, more vivid photos even at high ISO sensitivity settings. It also enhances color and generally improves speed.
* Perfect Shot Preview lets you preview and select various photographic effects on the LCD screen before taking the picture.
* Dual Image Stabilization — this is a big one! The 560 combines the benefits of sensor-shift image stabilization and digital image stabilization for blur-free pictures. In a camera with such a long zoom, this is invaluable.
* A in-camera panorama mode automatically captures three images and stitches them together to create one panoramic picture.
* High Speed Sequential Shooting captures images at 15 frames per second. The number of images varies with image size. Pre-Capture technology works in conjunction with High-Speed Sequential Shooting and lets you capture the action before and after fully pressing the shutter button. Pre-Capture begins working as soon as the focus is locked, automatically archiving five frames in the camera’s buffer memory prior to the shutter release.
Read the rest of this entry »