Edited by Georg...
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Nov 07, 2012
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Published: Oct 01, 2012
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12 comments
The Canon SX40 HS is a compact bridge camera with an extreme zoom lens. It offers focal length settings between 24mm and 840mm (35mm film camera equivalent), which allows users to shoot nice wide-angle shots to extreme telephoto images. Adjusting the zoom lens between 24mm and 300mm is easy and allows a nearly continuous setup of the desired field of view. However, zooming between 500mm and 840mm requires more work.
The Einstein monobloc strobe is listed at 640 watt seconds (ws) of power, has a bright 250-watt modeling light that can vary proportionally with the flash output, a 12 flash per second (fps) claimed capability, and a constant 5600˚K color temperature, no matter what the power level. Also, a claimed nine f/stop range, from 2.5 to 640 ws, and Paul C. Buff’s proprietary IGBT technology fill out the bill. It’s solidly built, using a Lexan housing instead of metal. It’s not very big, but is bigger and about a pound heavier than the company’s AlienBees units that many photographers, including myself, use.
There are those who make prints often, and there are those who make prints occasionally. The split, you might think, is between amateur and pro, but that’s not always the case. Some “amateurs” print as much if not more than some pros, and some pros make their own prints only when they have time, usually for their personal portfolio, but certainly not on every job. That’s why pigeonholing the Epson R3000 in terms of intended audience, amateur or pro, is not so easy. It certainly delivers the quality you might expect from a higher-end Epson model, given its attributes, ink set, fine nozzles, and highly evolved print head, etc., but it’s by no means a volume/production printer, given its single sheet feed for “art” paper, albeit with larger capacity ink carts than some past 13x19” printers, and roll feed capability.
There are two general classifications of lenses that define how you use them in the field—zooms and single focal length, the former being a variable focal length lens that has many convenient advantages, and the latter being a single focal length that, in the group we’re covering here, is what’s known as a “fast” lens. Fast doesn’t mean that it focuses quicker than its zoom cousins, though it might—it usually means that it offers a wide maximum aperture, anywhere from f/1.2 to f/2.8, and that aperture stays put, unlike some zooms where the aperture varies by going narrower as you zoom into longer focal lengths. And to help refine the group we’re covering here we’re also topping out the focal length at 50mm, which makes these lenses prime for street and low-light photography, candid and photojournalism work.
The Leica X1 ($1,995) is a fixed focal length, non-interchangeable lens compact with a fast f/2.8 lens and 12.9MP CMOS APS-C sensor. Introduced over a year ago in silver and recently in black, it keeps apace with firmware upgrades, the most recent of which is claimed improvement of JPEG quality and enhanced AF speed in low light.
Just when you thought the megapixel wars were over—or at least subsided—along comes the Nikon D800 with a whopping 36.3-megapixel (7360x4912) full-frame CMOS sensor. It’s wrapped up in a pro-quality magnesium alloy body that’s sealed and gasketed for dirt and moisture resistance. That rugged body weighs almost 2 lbs and when attached to the 24-120mm f/4G ED-IF AF-S VR II Nikkor lens (23.6 oz) that I tested, the package tips the scales at 3.46 lbs. It’s big.
The Nikon D800E contains a 36MP full-format FX sensor, a resolution normally associated with digital backs. This makes the D800E a competitor with medium format cameras made by Hasselblad or Phase One. The “E” version of this camera is contsructed without a low pass filter, used in many digital cameras to avoid color moiré but that can create a certain softening of image details. To avoid this soft look, many medium format cameras or digital backs do not utilize this filter. In cameras that use the filter, moiré effects are filtered in their raw converter software.
Edited by Georg...
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Jun 13, 2012
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Published: May 01, 2012
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4 comments
The Fuji X10 offers a 4x zoom lens with manual zoom control. The zoom lens ring is also used as the On/Off switch. The photographer has to turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens and to start the camera, which we found to be a very handy feature. We also feel that manual zoom control allows for a more precise and fast adjustment of the focal length compared to the servo zooms of some other compact cameras.
The Fujifilm Finepix X100 is designed like a classic viewfinder camera yet it offers state-of-the-art digital technology and some brand new and innovative systems. The Hybrid viewfinder, for example, is an example of a sophisticated enhancement of a classic concept. First of all, there’s a very bright and large optical viewfinder onto which the camera will overlay exposure information (aperture, shutter speed) and a parallax marker. Instead of using an optical system to create these overlay elements, as done in classic viewfinders of analog cameras, it uses a high resolution LCD. This results in detailed information and a very crisp look.
Edited by Georg...
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Sep 07, 2012
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Published: Aug 01, 2012
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15 comments
The HS30EXR has a surprisingly heavy and massive body and is nearly the size of an entry-level SLR system combined with a superzoom lens. The grip on the right-hand side fits perfectly into the photographer’s hand, while the left hand supports the lens system and is used to change focus and focal length manually with two large lens rings. The focal length ring has a nice rubber coating and is easy to handle, while the focus ring is very thin and is located near the body of the camera, which makes it a bit less easy to handle. Focal length adjustment is done via a mechanical regulation of the lens system, while the focusing ring adjusts via a servo system.
Edited by Georg...
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Oct 09, 2012
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Published: Sep 01, 2012
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13 comments
The new Fujifilm X-Pro1 has a stylish, retro design with many interesting features. It is Fujifilm’s first compact system camera with Fujifilm’s new lens mount system. Fujifilm currently offers three lenses for the “X mount”: the XF18mm f/2 R, the XF35mm f/1.4 R, and the XF60mm f/2.4 R Macro. We used the 35mm lens for all our test images and the 60mm lens for the portrait test shot.
The X-S1 is Fujifilm’s newest bridge camera based on the same large EXR sensor (2/3 in) used in the company’s X-10 camera. The camera offers an extreme zoom lens (26x) for a (35mm equivalent) range of 24mm-624mm. An optical image stabilizer aids in preventing motion blur when using the extreme tele setting or shooting under low light conditions.
Fujifilm’s X100s follows the X100 and offers enhanced imaging features and functions. The most important difference is the new sensor--the X-Trans CMOS sensor uses aspecial RGB mosaic pattern and offers higher resolution compared to the sensor in the X100. The new sensor has special mirco lenses that result in a very sharp and brilliant image, which is then enhanced further with the camera’s new EXR II image processor.
The X20 uses an X-Trans sensor just like all new Fujifilm X cameras. Instead of an APS-C-sized system it’s a 2/3 inch sensor, which is slightly smaller than APS-C, but still very large for a compact camera. In combination with the moderate resolution of 12MP the camera offers very clean and noise-free images.
The Fujifilm XF1 has a compact body with a retro design that is emphasized by the optional black, brown or red artificial leather and the matte metal finish. The camera doesn’t have an on/off switch but is activated by turning the lens ring on the camera front. This then opens the lens cover and extends the lens system.
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