Get Gear: Digital Cameras

Review by Savvy shopper:

I recently purchase the Nikon Coolpix L20 after lots of shopping.

I have used only Olympus cameras only up to now.

This time I wanted a smaller pocket sized camera, that still took the AA batteries, and that still gave great photos with all the features I was used to.

This camera fit the bill!

It takes 2 AA batteries, inexpensive SD memory cards and yet still delivers fantastic photos.

I have already tried all the features, and was completly happy.

I love using the different scene settings, and could not live without the video feature.

Both still and video capture worked well in both bright light and low light.

The sound playback via the camera is hard to distinquish (live music), but fine once uploaded.

I didn’t really require the smile feature, but tried it out on my 3 year old, and was blown away….it really works!

The blink feature is also quite ingenious. The camera actually asks you if your subject blinked when they do, but not when they don’t. This is particularly handy when taking photos of children. I would have loved this feature when I was still my daughter’s yearbook photographer.

What can I say, fabulous price and awesome quality!!!

Definately worth the money.

Comparibly priced camera’s that we have used, produce grainy shots…..but have not found this with this camera at all.

I would recommend this camera to anyone!

Review by C. Scanlon:

This is a professional camera capable of crystal clear prints worthy of publication or gallery display, up to 16×20.

And it is incredibly inexpensive for a camera of such value.

Ok, so its 3.6 optical zoom won’t pick sand off an eagle’s beak at a thousand yards. Okay, so it won’t blow up to billboard size without loss of definition. In the real world however and everyday use this is a fine and professional level camera that will do a far better job than you expected. Better than a cell-phone.

Disguised as a point and shoot. That’s what makes it very effective; people are not intimidated by it. You can get right up to them, and it looks like any other camera. Yet, it is more.

In fact, the generous three inch LCD screen means you do not have to hold it to your face. There is no optical viewfinder in any case. So you can hold it at your hip and glance down at it to compose, and snap shots while engaging the subject in small talk comfortably. I have done this effectively with Tarahumara Indian children in northern Chihuahua who normally run quickly from any camera. It works, and came out great. And that large LCD screen has a high-contrast, anti-reflection coating which keeps it clear even in strong sunlight.

This camera is an improvement over the earlier, wonderful Coolpix, such as the great 8 megapix Nikon Coolpix L18 8MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Ruby Red) mainly because it has ten megapix capability. The earlier accessories such as the AC adapter, the Nikon EH-65A AC Adapter, are transferable if you have a long shoot to do in one place (like a schoolful of children, which I have done) or other reason to go off-battery. Nevertheless, a pair of Energizer® e2® “AA” Lithium Batteries For digital cameras, portable audio players, and more last in here last forever.

Your old Coolpix camera pouch also still fits; use it and protect your investment. I like the Rokinon Compact Digital Camera Padded Carrying Case for Canon Powershot, Casio Exilim, Fuji Finepix, (GE) General Electric, Kodak EasyShare, Nikon Coolpix, Olympus FE Stylus, Panasonic Lumix, Pentax Optio, Sony CyberShot and Samsung Digital Cameras.

Also new here, aside from the greater megapixels, is the new Expeed image processing system specially fine-tuned for the Coolpix series “to render natural-looking pictures of incredible quality and quick response” as if the earlier system of digital processing was not fine enough! Amateur enthusiasts will find their photos reaching a new magnitude of quality; even the professional will leave his camera bag and lenses at home (okay, so she might miss her long lens, but macro here gets in to two inches).

The ISO settings are phenomenal, stretching from 64 ISO all the way out to 1600. Over twenty years ago when I was doing photo-journalism in Nicaragua, we used 64 for our slide film and 1600 was just coming on the horizon, very grainy but with a special charm for low light situations, like oil lamp, etc. Here you can do very low light and candlelight (if you do not mind some grain effect), and in fact there are special pre-sets which employ the faster ISO’s effectively.

This is another expansion over the prior Coolpix L series. You can choose instead of Auto (with own its user-selected options) to use the pre-set “Scene” selections quickly and efficiently. The Scene modes now include: Portrait, Night Portrait, Sports, Landscape, Party, Beach/Snow, Sunset, Dusk/Dawn, Night Landscape, Museum, Fireworks Show, Close Up, Copy, Back Light, Panorama Assist, Food. Food is one of the new ones, and you food photo-journalists might want to try it very inexpensively yet quite well here. The rest of the modes you can figure how they are set from the title and how you might apply their settings to similar situations; know that the Nikon impression of party might be much more sedate and candle-lit than the Animal House idea. This is not cheating, to use pre-sets; this is using the tool that you have in the way it was designed. Cheating would be setting this to its auto-scene setting in which it selects the Scene mode according to

prevailing conditions, automatically. Yes, this can do it.

The panorama assist is great. You can take a series of photos in a row in either of four directions (left to right, up and down, etc.) overlapping by one third (I really appreciate the rule of thirds grid which you can bring up on the LCD, keeping the camera straight and well composed), and then unite them with the included software into one long (or tall) file. I had reason to do this the other day at a long new school. Things do not build vertical out here in the desert, but there is plenty of room for horizontal, and a special Cinerama style long photo framing. In fact you could line up your whole town along the sidewalk standing and take one long photo of everyone in town. Just find printer and paper!

With the built in macro mode you can jump right into that cactus blossom from two inches away and have perfect focus. Take a photo of that baby’s toes and blow them up to 16×20. Come in close to that ant stealing cracker crumbs on your picnic. This strength of macro was recently unimaginable, and yet here you have this power within a humble, tiny and inexpensive package.

What I really love and appreciate is the SDHC compliancy. I can use as standard memory card a regular Sandisk 4GB Secure Digital SD HC Memory Card (SDSDB-4096, BULK, No Reader) and have room for 500 shots at maximum resolution. You can truly, as we used to say a quarter century ago “shoot a roll; keep a shot.” Take all of the shots you can, and then pick one out to use and delete the rest. For someone who used to burn through boxes of film (at 36 shots each max) and then do the darkroom processing all night, and then find a free way to get more, this is like living in another, finer dimension. Of course, you can put even larger SD HC memory cards in here and if you ever do fill one up and have nothing more to put in there and no time to delete, this camera comes with a generous 20MB internal memory on hand.

You can hook it up to the USB port of a computer directly and use the included software, or simply pop out the SD card and plug it into a reader and into the computer. Whatever works for you, although I do not like opening and closing the battery/card hatch too much. It is very strong and durable, but in the olden days I had a habit of snapping such things and putting them back together with duct tape. This one looks remarkably resilient nevertheless and has stood up to me.

Speaking of shooting a roll to get the one picture, have you ever taken a shot to discover your subject blinked? This camera lets you know. Yes, this camera sees when your subject blinks, and lets you know, using the Smart Portrait system. It also automatically fixes your red-eye special. You’ll never see red eye again. It finds faces, and automatically focuses on them, up to a dozen at a time. It can also snap the shutter automatically when someone finally dares to smile. And the D-lighting will save those details otherwise lost in darkness.

As you can see, this camera does everything for you but serve as photo agency selling your work to Vogue or GQ. A great camera at a small price. What can go wrong?

The most amazing thing for me, of course, an old still shooter, is that this tiny camera is also a video camera, with built in mike, and a built in speaker for playback. You can make movies with this at two different resolutions, either for television playback at 640×480 or laptop at 320×240 (good for e-mailing). These home movies are truly sharp, with the same excellent back to front focus as the photos, and surprisingly high quality sound. The length of the movie is limited only to the size of your SDHC card; you could easily go for feature length! Using .AVI files, it can easily be edited as well.

Of course, this camera comes with the standard sized screw input for mounting on a tripod. I have used it on my Targus 66-inch heavy-duty tripod. Looks a little small up there, but it works great. You will really appreciate the steadiness a tripod always brings, and the freedom, no less with this great camera, which so thoughtfully has a tripod screw-in.

Hey, for the same price, this is way better than a cell phone!

Too bad this one is so, well, red!

Review by amazonaddict:

This camera is incredibly easy to use, but offers enough advanced features for the average point-and-shoot user. I bought the camera for my older parents who needed a simple camera. I was choosing between the Kodak M1033 and this camera, but decided to go with this camera because it is slightly easier to use. Kodak describes the C series as a line of easy entry-level cameras, and that’s definitely true.

PROS:

- Easy for first-time digital camera users

- Large LCD screen

- Large amount of megapixels

- Many “scene” settings pre-programmed for different types of shots

- Very low price

- Compact size

- Plug and play sharing via EasyShare

CONS:

- No viewfinder

- M1033 has a couple extra features (i.e., panoramic stitching)

- Uses AA batteries vs. charger (although this is mitigated by a good set of rechargeable batteries

Buy this camera if you’re looking for an affordable, compact, easy to use camera. It will meet the needs of most point-and-shoot users. Do not buy this camera if you’re looking to customize your shots beyond pre-programmed settings (i.e., adjustments in ISO, f-stop, shutter speed, etc.), but that should be self-evident, as this is a point-and-shoot.

Review by E. Josephs:

Bought this one for my 12yo niece. I try every piece of electronic equipment before I give it. I was surprised. It took me only 2-3 minutes to get familiar with the camera’s operation out of the box (no instruction reading). I found it’s set-up to be very intuitive without the massive confusing menu system of – oh – lets say the CANNON POWERSHOT A560.

Set up the camera mode on a dial switch.

turn flash on/off/auto at a single button.

point-click-picture. And nice ones too.

small problem – the picture stabilization mode only seems to work when the fash is used. When the flash is on, you can violently shake this camera all over the place and it will capture the crispest image when it goes off, even your shoes or ceiling if you’re shaking it that violently.

Using a 4GB sandisk sdhc card, on maximum 10mp, the camera says it will hold just under 2000 pictures on the counter. On minimum 1.2mp setting, the counter stops at 9999. Yes, nine thousand nine hundred ninety nine. The numbers don’t add up to me for MP size and # of photos, but if upscaling is used ( as I’ve read from others) , then these picture quantities do start to make sense.

Between the Cannon power shot and another hard to use upscale Sony camera, both wanted this one for ease of use. What they actually want.

My neice looooooooooooves this camera.

Takes about 45min of video too.

If you want wall sized pictures – this is not for you.

Full page picture – It can handle pretty well.

4×6 memories – I don’t think anyone can go wrong.

Review by BOGY.:

This camera does take great pictures. These days the cameras are very easy to operate with all of the auto settings and advanced face detection and scene recognition – it’s hard to mess up a shot. This camera is no exception and makes the user feel like a pro when taking pictures. However, here are some things to think about when buying this camera:

1) The controls are on the right rear side of the camera. In particular the W/T buttons and the directional pad/button – the W button is hard to press and the left side of the dpad as well. For some reason they are right up against the right side of the 3″ screen which causes a problem and you have to either reposition your finger or use your nail to press the buttons I mentioned. No, I don’t have large fingers – it is just a design flaw. The buttons are set below the screen – if they were raised there would not be a problem. If you really want to see what I mean look at the pictures here on Amazon and zoom in on the back panel picture. Something I never noticed before but the directional button even has a part of the 3″ LCD frame cut out because it is so close to the button. See for yourself….

2) The video is crisp and clear (720p) but you CAN NOT ZOOM while shooting video. Compared to the T500, T700, T900, T90 ect where you can zoom when recording video. Very disappointing and if someone here mentioned that in their review I wouldn’t have bought the camera – I bet people here don’t even own the damn thing. The steady shot works well too by the way.

3) There is a rattle when you shake the camera. This is apparent only when the camera is turned on so I think it is the lens cover(s) which retract and automatically opens and closes when you turn the camera on. The lens protector is very fragile and when closed you can push it open with your finger unlike the DSC-N1 that I had which was like solid doors covering the lens.

4) This thing is BIG! OK it’s not huge but compared to the W300 It’s thick. I know, it has a 3.0″ screen compared to a 2.7″ screen but it is heavier and thicker than the W300 and the T series but I want to compare apples to apples.

5) Switching from menus and functions is a bit slow. There is definitely a processing delay with video and some pictures that I took too. I wouldn’t begin to throw a number out there (seconds) but it is definitely slower than the W300 for good comparison. Turning the camera on – slight lag – lens pops out – it’s just a lot slower than the N1 and W300.

6) There is NO docking cradle, memory or a case provided with the camera. I like the new battery charger which does not have a power cord but has plugs that flip out so you just plug it into an outlet and walk away – when the indicator light is off you are done charging – really good idea!

7) You need two hands to operate this camera. With the W300 you can work the zoom and shutter button with your right had with ease. Not so with the W290. Watch that left hand too! The RF illumination is located right where you might put your left forefinger. Careful.

The shutter button is on top of the camera along with the power button and a new SMILE button. The smile button will automatically engage the smile detector and will snap a shot automatically when activated. Very cool. However, the button, along with the power button is so small and inset that you really have to wonder if you are pressing it or not. You do feel a click I should say so it isn’t that bad I guess.

Canon – who’s that? I don’t use their products – Sony only baby. This is a great camera but could be better. Like the T700 the T900 came out and fixed a lot of issues. The W300 is a better camera than the W290. I am sure they will come out with a W400? It will be great I am sure! Get this W290 camera for the price and basic functions as a starter camera.

Review by R Lovan:

+This camera takes amazing pictures. Sharp, vivid, crisp, (insert synonyms here).

+Having such a high resolution is nice and the wide angle lens is great. It also has a little extra zoom than other point-and-shoots, which is another great feature. The smile detection feature is fun for about 30 minutes, but ultimately useless. (At least to me….)

+It has tons of little features and settings and even allows for some “editing” on the camera like red-eye removal and such.

-I do wish i could mess with the settings a bit more though. I like to be able to manually set the exposure time and mess with other things as well. These are unaccessible to the user. Regardless, it takes great pictures without me fiddling with things, so perhaps it is best. Though I do wish it had a long exposure setting to take some cool lightning shots or mess with light graffiti, but I think I’ll live.

-Also, you can’t zoom while shooting video. This is a bit of a frustration as well.

+The camera itself is amazingly small for it’s high resolution and hi-def video capabilities.

+Its construction is solid and the black looks pretty slick.

+Great “bang for the buck” camera. Simple enough for the family or girlfriend to use, and enough features and good enough quality for some more creative shots of my own. (and I don’t feel girlie carrying it, though there are other colors if that’s your thing…)

Review by B. Massey:

Let me start off by saying that I’m not a professional photographer. My decision to purchase the SX20 IS was based on a desire to get an excellent still shot camera, with high capacity zoom, that also had HD Video (720p) capabilities. So, I began my research and spent many hours scouring the web to make an informed decision. I had narrowed my choice to the Canon SX20 IS and the Panasonic DMC-FZ35.

Here are some of the key specs of each camera:

Optical Zoom (Canon: 20, Pana: 18)

Still image files (Canon: Not Raw, Pana: Raw)

Articulating LCD (Canon: Yes, Pana: No)

720p HD video per 2 GB (Canon: 10 min 33 sec, Pana: 15 min)

Video file format (Canon: .mov, Pana: AVCHD Lite)

Battery Type: (Canon: 4 AA, Pana: Li-ion rechargeable)

Stereo Audio (Both)

SD Card Storage (Both)

[...].

In the end I decided to go with Canon for a few key reasons:

#1. The articulating LCD (pull out, tilt/move) was a key factor, as I wanted to be able to shoot from many different angles. It came in handy very soon–the second time I used the camera–I was able to whip out the LCD and get some decent shots at a football game when I had to raise the camera high over my head to shoot over the folks standing in front of me.

#2. The ability to easily share video files. The .mov file format is a more widely accepted format, which can easily be shared (without processing/conversion). The files are accepted on sites such as You Tube. The files can be played with Quicktime and other media players (e.g. VLC). Although the Panasonic camera uses a format which is more compressed and allows more data to be stored on an SD card, the file format is not as wide spread and not as easy to share with others, without converting the file.

#3. Consumer Reports rankings for last year’s model: Canon #1, Pana #5 (SX10 IS & Pana DMC-FZ28). I suspect the SX20 IS will follow the same trend this year when Consumer Reports releases their test results for 2009.

#4. Canon takes AA batteries. This makes the camera slightly heavier, but you’ll always be able to get economical batteries in a pinch, without the need for buying a proprietary lithium ion battery. May I recommend Sanyo Eneloop rechargeable batteries. I bought some new on Amazon. They are excellent. I haven’t charged them yet and I’ve taken 120 pictures and 40 minutes plus of 720p video. I’ve also played back the pictures and movies on my TV/Projector and transferred all files to my computer, using the same batteries, without charging them. And they are “..still going…”

Here are some sample pictures taken with the SX20 IS. Keep in mind that Flickr doesn’t display the full, original picture which was taken in maximum resolution (in auto mode). [...].

I’ve taken some great up-close family shots and macro shots. They look great and are very detailed. I took some night/action pics (with the flash) and adjusted the shutter speed and ISO settings and the pictures looked great, given the conditions.

[...].

I apologize for the camera jitter in advance as I didn’t have a tri-pod and I was in a tight area in the Stadium when I took the shots.

I must admit that I am thoroughly impressed with the video quality/resolution. I shot sample video from my 1 year old camcorder (Panasonic SDR-H40, a standard definition hard drive camcorder) and shot the same footage with the SX20 IS. The difference in quality was amazing. Not only was the Canon much sharper, but the richness and vibrance of the colors was so much better. I sold my SDR-H40 on Ebay within two days. I now will have only one camera to shoot stills and 720p HD video–the Canon SX20 IS. The videos from the SX20 IS looked awesome–on both my 32 inch 720p LCD and my 100+ inch screen via a 720p DLP projector. I connected the camera with an HDMI cable and bam, I was ready to watch great video and view still shots “on the big screen.” See the above referenced links for video footage yourself. If I were given the opportunity to watch a football game shot in standard definition by ESPN or an HD version of the same game, shot with the SX20 IS (on a tripod, without my hand jitter), I’d pick the latter in a heart beat.

No buyer’s remorse here! If you are looking for an SLR type camera, that does awesome stills and great 720p HD video (both zoomable at 20x optical), you’d be hard pressed to get more bang for your buck then the SX20 IS on Amazon.

One minor issue I’ve noticed is that when zooming in/out while shooting video, you can here a slight “click” when you initiate the zoom and when you stop the zoom. There is NO noise heard while the lens is zooming/telescoping in/out; the “click” is only heard when the zoom is initiated and when the zoom is stopped. The “click” is not that noticeable. I had to shoot footage in silence, after the kids had gone to bed, in order to distinguish the “click.” In most shooting environments I don’t expect it to be much of an issue.

Best of luck with your purchase decision.

P.S. By the way, the owner manual states that you must use the Canon software to transfer images/movies from the camera to a PC, else movies will not transfer (frames will be dropped) correctly and images shot vertically may be transferred in the horizontal orientation. So, don’t just do a copy/paste of the files them self from the SD card. Keep this in mind as you view sample video on the web.

Review by Kirk Tuck:

I shoot all kinds of stuff with all kinds of cameras. I am a working photographer who shoots for advertising and corporate client as well as to make images for my own books about photography. Over the last two years I’ve been using small cameras like the Canon G10 and the SX10 for more and more of my work. In the studio, shooting set up shots or small products these cameras shine by dint of their easy to use Live View and increased depth of field. When I bought the SX 10 it was for the long range of the zoom lens which meant I could shoot anything from a construction site to tight shots of the cabins at the top of the construction cranes. I’ve done some portraits with studio lights and an SX10 and they were also very usable. I wish the SX 10 and SX 20 had raw file capability but they don’t. That just means I have to be a bit more careful about WB and exposure. I’ve used the SX10 at outdoor swim meets and found that the lens performs better than expected right out to the end.

So, why the SX 20? Recently I’ve been asked to do more and more little video snippets for clients and for my publisher and while I like the results from the SX10 I wanted real HD video for the times that a medical practice has asked for video clips for both their website AND for power point and other uses. I wanted the extra detail for the times that they use the clips in projected presentations. The price point works.

I’ve spent a couple days testing the SX 10 and the results are very, very good. The front mounted microphones are of very high quality and the sound for most applications is very acceptable. Would I like a mike input? You bet! Does that sour the deal? Not in the least.

The image quality of the stills is just as good as the SX 10 at low ISO’s and about 1/2 a stop better at 200 and 400. I’ll chalk that up to the new digic processor.

All in all the build quality and the easy operation make the camera a winner for me. These days clients are more interested in using images and video in a wide range of multimedia and the SX 20 is a great tool for anything that’s headed to the web. I still own traditional DLSR cameras and use them but left to my own devices I find the smaller sensor cameras to be highly competent and very usable.

With an SX20 and a G10 I feel like I can handle just about anything except shots that call for narrow depth of field. Traditional photographers may not want to hear that video is becoming a required skill but that won’t make it go away. This camera is a cost effective way to get your feet wet, find your way around and get your feet wet. I like it.