The Canon SD990 IS is the only pocket camera with an optical viewfinder and manual shooting control worth buying. Or, really, available at all.
(Credit: Canon)Read through the user reviews of point-and-shoot cameras on CNET and you'll come across a common question: where's the optical viewfinder? The answer is there aren't any. Well, almost any. Canon is basically the lone major manufacturer of compact cameras with optical viewfinders. And even its numbers are dwindling.
In Canon's current lineup of PowerShot Digital Elph and A-series models, there are just five models featuring the company's real image optical zoom viewfinder. If you want manual control over shutter speed and aperture, the only option is the 14.7-megapixel SD990 IS (and it's nearing the end of its life). (On the upside the SD990 can now be found for more than $100 less than its original $399.99 price, making it a much better purchase than when I originally reviewed it.)
Below is a listing of the five models that are still readily available at retail with links to their reviews. Generally, they're all very good cameras and at current prices I wouldn't hesitate to recommend any of them if you must have a viewfinder. If you want it to be powered by AA-size batteries, too, you're limited to the A-series models. Also, if you don't mind a larger, more advanced camera, Canon's PowerShot G11 and Nikon's Coolpix P6000 models both feature optical viewfinders.
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SanDisk)
Despite its being out of vogue at the moment, I'm still a big believer in the faster-is-better philosophy. That said, I also recognize that it's not always worth the extra cost for some people, and that not everyone can or will always take advantage of it. So that's why I always take announcements about new, high-performance media cards, like SanDisk's 90 megabyte-per-second Extreme Pro line (along with Transcend's similar 600X CF), with a grain of salt. And after running some casual tests on the new card, I've concluded that for now, even only a limited number of pros will see worthwhile advantages to the faster model given the price premium you'll pay.
The point of using a faster card is to free up bottlenecks that constrain performance. In a camera, those occur when shooting in burst mode, when the camera needs to quickly offload data from the buffer to the card. So a card's speedy usefulness is a function of buffer size, file size, controller (interface) speed, and card write speed. On the downloading end, the bottlenecks occur when copying files from the card to the hard disk, where it's determined by the interface speed (USB or FireWire), media read speed, and operating system overhead. A faster card only helps if the card speed is, or contributes to, the bottleneck. So, for instance, if you're shooting burst but the buffer is sufficiently large and the files are sufficiently small, then a fast controller and write speed on the card don't matter. Same goes if the controller technology bandwidth is sufficiently lower than the card's.
What does that mean in real life? Comparing the UDMA 6 90MB/sec Extreme Pro and the UDMA 5 60MB/sec Extreme shooting a burst of 20 raw+JPEG shots in the Nikon D300s--a combined file size of about 19MB--yielded identical burst performance: 2.9 frames per second (fps). There was a difference in the time it took the camera to be ready to shoot again after the burst completed: 13.1 seconds for the Pro versus 14.4 seconds for the Extreme, or a small savings of 1.3 seconds.
With the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, a significantly higher resolution camera with combined JPEG+raw file sizes of 26.3MB, a frame rate differential of 0.2fps did occur--1.8fps with the Extreme versus 2.0fps with the Pro. But that's on average, because the 5D Mark II's buffer only holds 8 shots (the Nikon D300s' holds 12), so the speed difference only shows up after that. It then took 5.9 seconds before the buffer was ready again, compared with 7.8 seconds with the Extreme card. Similarly, with the 15-megapixel 50D, performance diverged by about 0.2fps once you passed the 10-shot buffer limit.
So you really won't see much of a gain unless you shoot relatively long bursts of raw+JPEG files with very high resolution cameras. And keep in mind that it doesn't necessarily apply to all high-resolution cameras. For instance, Sony's A900 and A850 only support up to UDMA 5.
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SanDisk)
On the download end, the real problem is readers and operating systems. Even SanDisk admits that it's only been able to attain close to 90MB/second speeds with its new ExpressCard reader, shipping in October, and only under OS X. (SanDisk couldn't get me one in time to test its performance.) Even the company's FireWire Extreme reader, currently one of the fastest on the market, only provided a significant performance advantage--39MB/second versus 37MB/second--running at FireWire 800 under Snow Leopard. Oddly, using the reader with a FireWire 400 interface, the Pro card was actually a lot slower, both on the Mac and the PC; And the fastest performance I saw was the older Extreme card, with a rate of 40MB/second on Vista 64 running FW400 (I don't have a FW800 interface for that system). I'm guessing there are some operating system optimization issues here.
The thing is, most pro cameras today are optimized for whatever the highest speed cards available were at the time they were developed, which makes it pretty hard to eke substantial performance gains out of them now, and it'll take a new controller technology, such as USB 3.0, before we'll see significantly better performance for people who aren't working on a 17-inch MacBook Pro. (Perfect time for Apple to remove the ExpressCard slot from the smaller notebooks. Argh.)
With the new card, SanDisk also improves the error correction capabilities for improved reliability--it uses 42-bit ECC up from 10-bit--which is always a plus.
Finally, for many people the price premium may not be worth the small gains. The Extreme Pro cards cost $811.99 (64GB), $507.99 (32GB), and $304.00 (16GB) compared with $375.99 (32GB) and $223.99 (16GB) for the plain old 60MB/second Extreme, which has all the same durability technologies that well, make it extreme. Of course, for a few, every microsecond of performance counts and the time may be worth the money. And if you need that 64GB capacity, well, you're stuck, since there's no 64GB version of the cheaper card, at least from SanDisk. But give it 9 months: once the price comes down a bit, more people have cameras that can benefit from the speed, and we've got the computer interfaces to handle the faster downloads and then I think it'll be a great deal.
Canon Selphy ES40
(Credit: Canon USA)Canon just added three new Pixma-branded printers and one Selphy standalone printer to its line of business and family-friendly devices. This debut also sees the materialization of Canon's new Auto Fix II technology that takes one-click touch-ups to the next level of clarity, correcting many common photos including underexposed pictures or low-light backdrops.
Canon PIXMA MP990
(Credit: Canon USA)Only the Pixma MP990 ($300) and MP640 ($220) printers will include this new feature, but both are also set up to print wireless (the MP640 has a built-in print server), vibrant photos thanks to Canon's ChromaLife 100 ink system and the additional gray ink tank to enhance black and white snapshots.
Finally, the two Pixmas also include large LCD screens as well as Canon's Easy-Scroll Wheel, which we first enjoyed on the Canon PIXMA MP980.
The Pixma iX7000 business inkjet rounds out the Pixma offering and contains auto duplexing, three paper feed trays, an extra large paper input, and Ethernet connectivity--all of which could help small business increase their printing productivity. The iX7000 will retail at $400.
... Read moreThe new SDXC specification for faster, higher-capacity flash cards emerged in January, and Toshiba now promises the cards themselves will begin arriving about a year afterward.
Toshiba plans to sell its first SDXC cards in the spring of 2010, with a starting capacity of 64GB.
(Credit: Toshiba)Toshiba said Monday it expects to be the first to bring SDXC cards to market, with testing samples of a 64GB version shipping in November and the real thing shipping in the spring of 2010. Those dates will be key moments in what doubtless will be a gradual transition away from the prevailing SDHC standard.
SDXC backers promise higher capacities and data transfer speeds for SDXC, which is important for devices such as video cameras that can produce lots of data at a sustained rate. But initially, a new generation of Toshiba's SDHC line will match the SDXC's maximum 60MBps data-reading speed, and maximum 35MBps data-writing speed, the company announced, using a new high-speed interface called UHS104.
The fast new SDHC cards, though, will only be available in 16GB and 32GB models. SDHC tops out at 32GB, but the SDXC specification extends to 2TB. In addition, through use of Microsoft's exFAT files system on SDXC cards, individual files can exceed 4GB, which is important for longer videos.
Capacity is undeniably important when it comes to carrying your video camera around for extended periods of time. But do you really need all that transfer speed? Leaving aside the confusing muddle of minimum vs. maximum transfer speeds and certification, even high-definition video only pushes the envelope so hard.
For example, Canon's high-end 5D Mark II SLR, which can record 1080p video at 30 frames per second, requires only a relatively modest 8MBps write speed for its CompactFlash card; high-end CompactFlash today can handle 45MBps.
Of course, there's also the matter of transferring photos and videos to computers, a tedious task at best that benefits from maximum speed. But that's often constrained, though, by the card reader and its interface to the computer.
No doubt those pipes will widen as time marches on, with SDXC and higher-speed SDHC helping to nudge things along on one end and higher-speed interfaces such as USB 3.0 and Firewire S1600 and S3200 on the other end. The SDXC specification calls for 104MBps speeds in 2009 and eventual speeds of 300MBps.
One interesting issue is whether SDXC will displace CompactFlash in high-end SLRs. SDHC is used in lower-end SLRs now, displacing CompactFlash, and is making its way into higher-end models including Nikon's D300s and Canon's 1D Mark III alongside CompactFlash.
SD and its successors have relegated rivals such as xD card from FujiFilm and Olympus and Memory Stick from Sony to product niches, new MacBook Pro laptops from Apple have built-in SD card slots, and Canon USA technical adviser Chuck Westfall had encouraging words for SDXC.
So SD has plenty of momentum, and the SDXC generation certainly has the potential to continue to outpace CompactFlash in price while also becoming competitive in capacity and data transfer speeds.
The diminutive size of SD compared to CompactFlash is an asset when trying to squeeze a slot into a computer or camera. But some serious and professional photographers have griped that the small cards are hard to handle and easy to lose.
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Panasonic)
Every round of releases from Panasonic's digital camera division gets more interesting. Case in point, the very compact 12-megapixel Lumix ZR1 features a 25-200mm-equivalent lens with an 8x zoom. The extended zoom is courtesy of a new aspherical lens design for digital cameras that makes the elements just 0.3-millimeter thick. This allows for a 1-inch body depth and a weight of 5.6 ounces with battery and SD/SDHC card.
According to Panasonic, the camera is very fast because of a revamped high-speed auto focus system and a start-up time of only 1.1 seconds (very good for a longzoom camera).
The ZR1 also features a 2.7-inch LCD, a battery life lasting up to 330 pictures on a single charge, and Panasonic's latest Power Optical Image Stabilizer (O.I.S.) that doubles the repression power of its MEGA O.I.S. system.
A couple of newer shooting options are thrown in as well, including its face recognition system, High Dynamic mode for evening exposure of scenes that are bright and dark, and a Travel mode that lets you organize photos with destination, time, and date. This seems like a good snapshot camera for traveling, so that last feature makes a lot of sense.
The Lumix DMC-ZR1 has a suggested retail price of $279.95 and will be available in September 2009 in black, red, blue, and silver.
The funny thing about the Canon PowerShot A2100 IS is that I like it more than its barely different predecessor, the A2000 IS for basically one reason: it's black instead of a boring two-tone gray.
The size and shape are the same. They both run on AA batteries. They both have bright 3-inch LCDs on back and a 6x zoom lens on front with optical image stabilization. Yet, the change from gray to black makes the camera look like it performs better. (Sadly, they both have fairly mixed performance.)
So if you don't care about the body color, why go with the A2100 for $50 more? Well it has Canon's Digic 4 processor for better face detection among other things, a 12-megapixel resolution compared to the A2000's 10 megapixels, and the A2100 has Canon's Smart Auto scene recognition.
However, both cameras take excellent photos regardless. (At least below ISO 200, that is.) It's just that you can do a little more cropping with the extra resolution on the A2100.
And it is black.
On Sale Now: $336.99
View the latest prices for Canon PowerShot A2100 IS
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PhotoFast)
Admittedly, CompactFlash cards are no longer as popular as they were when digital photography first started. These days, most digicams use SD/SDHC media, while mobile phones mainly accept the physically smaller microSD format for storing data.
This is why I'm puzzled as to the reason PhotoFast has conceived the CR-7200, a CompactFlash card adapter capable of holding four microSD cards and combining their storage space. Given that the maximum a microSD card can now hold is 16GB, the CR-7200's capacity would be capped at 64GB.
Although manufacturers such as Pretec and Transcend have announced 64GB CompactFlash cards, they have yet to retail them. Hence, the PhotoFast adapter may be the only higher-capacity alternative for now. But these days, only higher-end dSLRs accept such flash media format so there are only limited uses for the CR-7200.
Though the PhotoFast adapter sports an "extremely high speed" label, it's not immediately clear how fast the card can read and write data. Often with flash memory, there's a tradeoff between high capacity and high speed.
According to Gizmodo, this adapter will be available for $30 in July.
(Source: Crave Asia)
The Iriver S10 was too dated to make the list this time, but it's truly impressive at 0.8-inch.
(Credit: CBS Interactive/Corinne Schulze)Flash-based MP3 players are taking over the marketplace. Unlike their hard-drive-based counterparts, flash MP3 players have no moving parts, affording them entirely skip-free playback and, in most cases, a long battery life. Also, flash chips are tiny, meaning the players that use them can be small to the point of ridiculousness.
Luckily, most (but perhaps not all) manufacturers realize that there is such a thing as too small. We had no trouble finding a collection of manageable MP3 players that won't take up valuable space in a briefcase, a backpack, a purse, or a pocket. And although each measures less than 2 cubic inches, all of them offer at least 2GB of memory, which is enough to hold about 500 songs or 32 hours' worth of music.
Readily available for less than $170 is the Canon PowerShot A2000 IS. Released late in 2008, it's a 10-megapixel camera with a 6x optical zoom and a 3-inch LCD (sorry, no viewfinder).
It's small enough to fit in a jacket pocket or small bag, but because it runs on two AA batteries, it's a little on the heavy side. The A2000 is also not all that exciting to look at or loaded with features.
It's a basic point-and-shoot, so if you're looking to set shutter speed and aperture, you'll need a different camera. The closest it comes is a Program mode giving you control over ISO, white balance, exposure compensation, and color. But if you just want to take a good picture without worrying about settings, that's what the A2000 IS does best.
Read the full review of the Canon PowerShot A2000 IS or check out reviews of other pocketable megazoom cameras.
The camera industry and photographers, having just gotten accustomed to the arrival of video in point-and-shoot cameras, just now are beginning to grapple with its arrival in the more serious SLR realm.
Chuck Westfall, technical adviser for Canon's professional products marketing division and a 26-year veteran at the Japanese company, is in the thick of it. Nikon was the first to market with a single-lens reflex camera equipped with video, the D90, but Canon offers video in two SLRs: the high-end EOS 5D Mark II, with a large sensor the size of a full frame of 35mm film, and the Rebel T1i, a more affordable, mainstream model.
Chuck Westfall
(Credit: Canon USA)These cameras combine high-definition video--1900x1080 pixels at 30 frames per second in the case of the 5D Mark II--with SLRs' advantages when shooting in dim conditions and with a broad variety of lenses. But even though today's video SLR features offers hold some appeal to enthusiasts and professionals, they're something of an awkward afterthought. SLRs and those who use them that haven't yet had much time to adapt.
Welcome to the world of digital photography, where change is incessant. In an interview with CNET News, Westfall talked about not just video, but also OLED displays, the arrival of rival full-frame SLRs from Sony and Nikon, changing flash card and file format standards, wireless networking, and more.
Question: The age of the video SLR has begun. A lot of people in the high-end camera market are set in their ways, and video is a radical difference for a lot of them. How does that change the camera design, the marketing, and everything you have to do to sell a camera? ... Read more
