Grant McWilliams

The annual PMA show just finished up so I'm here to give you my thoughts on the announcements. Canon released some new point and shoots none of which are really any different than what they've been shoveling out for the last few years. Video has gotten better on the SX series and the model numbers have grown on the SD series but overall not very exciting. The one theme that seemed to be consistant was manufacturors releasing water-proof cameras. There seems to be a trend that every manufacturor wants at least one waterproof point-and-shoot in their lineup. I bought my Sanyo E-1 for that purpose but have only taken it underwater once. The nice thing about waterproof cameras is you don't have to worry about rain, sand and dirt as they are sealed. This I've enjoyed.

I think the real surprises for the show were from Samsung and Ricoh, two manufacturors that hang out on the fringe. Recently there was a comment thread on one of the photo sites about Panasonics GH-1 micro-four/thirds camera and people got a bit testy about these new mirror-less large sensor cameras. It was interesting to see the DSLR crowd take the defensive position that the SLR folks took when things started going digital. The DSLR crowd said a mirrorless camera will never replace one with a mirror because and as such the micro four thirds cameras were nothing more than point and shoots. If engineers can get contrast detect focus as fast as DSLRs and they create an "optical" viewfinder with a really high-res screen and by "zooming" in on a small section of what the sensor sees to create penta-prism focusing functionality I don't think DSLRs have a prayer. The advantages of getting rid of the mirror is one less mechanical piece, the camera body can be flatter and the lenses can be smaller all around. In the future (and I predict) large sensor point and shoots will replace DSLRs. I give DSLRs 5 years.

In that vein the two cameras I'm going to talk about are the Ricoh GXR system and the Samsung TS500. Neither of these cameras compete with the micro four thirds (after that long introduction) but occupy the space of the Canon s90, G11 and Panasonic LX3 which all of you know I've been considering as my new point and shoot.

The Ricoh GXR system is a very interesting concept where the sensor and lens are one piece. That sort of makes sense because you'd be able to have a lens/sensor combo optimized for certain functions. Say a small cmos sensor and lens aimed at doing video or a large sensor and fast lens designed for action and or low light shots. This is exactly what the GXR is. There are two options at this point - a backlit cmos sensor with 28-300 mm zoom lens (model P10). The back illuminated sensor should help in low light situations as more light hits the sensor if it's reversed. The zoom isn't particularily fast but thats not really it's purpose. The other choice is a 28mm fixed lens with a APS-C (gag, cough) sensor (model A12). The APS-C size of sensor is what's used in most all DSLRs except for a couple of high end Canons which use the full frame sensor. The lens on the Ricoh is fairly fast so in combination with the sensor you should be able to take photos in the same level of light as any DSLR. It also does full speed HD video.   Both lens/sensors take photos in raw and have anti-vibration control. I'm sure that in time there will be a bunch of lens/sensor combos coming out.  In addition they have the S10 which has a small CCD sensor with a 28-75 zoom. I'm going to wage a guess that these cameras will be expensive and we're also back to "Now I have to buy my lenses from one company" which we see a lot in the SLR/DSLR realm. Interesting concept.

The other camera of interest is the Samsung TL-500 which you can think of as the result of  Panasonic and the Canon getting waisted and spending the night in the back seat of a 64 Chevy Impala. Look at the specs and you'll see what I'm talking about.

 

	Canon S90	Canon G11	Panasonic LX3	Samsung TL-500
Lens size	28-105	28-140	24-60	24-75
Lens speed	f/2.0-4.9	f/2.8-4.5	f/2.0-2.8	f/1.8-?
LCD	Fixed	Articulated	Fixed	Articulated
Sensor	1/1.7	1/1.7	1/1.63	1/1.7
Sensor MP	10mp	10mp	10mp	10mp?
Video res	640x480	640x480	1280x720	640x480
Image format	raw	raw	raw	raw

It looks as if Samsung just looked at the Canon and Panasonic cameras and did a mashup. Anyway I'm curious about the Samsung because it looks like an S90 (currently my favorite) with a slightly faster lens and an articulated screen. It's a smaller G11 is what it is. Since Samsung rarely tops the quality charts though I'll be waiting for reviews first before rushing to Amazon.

 

 

 

 

There's a new trend in the air - camera tossing! It goes a little something like this. You face some brightly colored lights and give your camera a toss up in the air with a long shutter speed (1 second) and see what happens. Camera Tossing has become so popular that there are whole web galleries of camera tossed photos.

The photo to the right was the front of my duaghter's Shuttle PC with a USB memory card reader inserted and my nokia n800 with a new email (led blinking). I'm going to be playing more with this in the future because some of the photos others have taken have been amazing.

Check out the Camera Tossing Flickr page.

Watching the compact high quality camera market is like watching a boxing match. It used to be Canon and Nikon in the ring until Nikon tucked it's tail in and ran. Panasonic promised to take the crown but after releasing the Lumix LX1 and Lumix LX2 people almost stopped listening to them because the photo quality was so poor. They came back with a knockout with the LX3 and turned out a camera with absolutely wonderful photos and low light performance in addition to it being very compact (more so than the Canon G10). A bit of history is probably in order. Canon had the G series which slotted nicely between the point and shoots and the DSLRs with full manual control, articulated screens and a bunch of other goodies. They also had a camera that slotted between the G-series and the point and shoots again - the S series. The S series had the G series' large sensor, a wide angle lens, manual controls and came in a much smaller body. It wasn't as nice to hold or use because it was compact but the quality of the photos were great. Canon canceled the S series when the G7 came out thinking that the market was getting pretty crowded and Nikon had been K.O.ed in the 5th round anyway. The one thing I like about competition is it makes companies get off their collective arses and do something. The Panasonic LX3 takes photos as nice as the G10, has all the controls of the G10, has a faster lens (but less zoom) and is about half the size of the G10. Smaller is better in my book since I like to keep my camera in my pocket so Canon as turned the way-back machine to 2003 and reintroduced the S series and at the same time the G11 is a bit bigger and has the articulated screen again. The S90 will duke it out with the LX3 and the G11 will be for a different customer, one that wants more physical controls, an articulated screen and more zoom.

 

About the time I've decided on Panasonics GH1 micro four-thirds camera Canon pulls a rabbit out of it's hat. As I've written before the GH1 is a DSLR like camera (no mirror so technically not a DSLR) that shoots equal stills to a DSLR but also shoots HD video which is a first for an under $1000 camera in this form factor.The next best thing was to spend a couple grand on a Canon 5d Mk II but that's outside my budget and committment level. Now Canon introduces the T1i which has the 50d's 15 MP sensor and can shoot HD video like the 5d Mk II! Thanks Canon for giving me yet another thing to have to consider. I think the only thing the Panasonic has over it is size.The press release

From a company that has for a long time believed in photographs having that certain Impressionist look to them they've been pulling off some amazing things. First they come out with the DMC-LX3 which outside of not having much of a zoom is THE perfect small camera then they come out with the micro four-thirds format which allows you to have everything a DSLR has in a much smaller body because it doesn't have a mirror (thus it's not a DSLR). The lenses can be smaller, the body can be smaller and theoretically (although not yet realized) they can be cheaper than DSLRs. The Panasonic DMC-G1 at this juncture is a great camera but has no advantage over the competitions DSLRs, can't be bought without a lens and isn't cheaper so even though I think it's a monumental first step I won't be standing in line. I've been considering a Canon SX-1 superzoom to go with my Panasonic LX-3 (which I don't yet own) because it does awesome video, has decent stills and a monster zoom. Problem is the price is somewhere in the $600 range which is a lot for a Point and Shoot even if it is awesome. The Panasonic G1 is closer to a grand with a decent zoom lens and doesn't do video. Up until today I've decided to sit on my money (that I don't have) and wait. Today I think I made up my mind though... Introducing the HD version of the Panasonic G1...

 

I'm not sure the name is written in stone but for now they're calling it the GH1 and for all practical purposes it's a G1 with HD video. The cool thing is that it can maintain focus while recording video and it records stereo audio with built in speakers as well as a mic jack. The second feature is missing on just about every point and shoot camera out there. I end up taking video with the camera and recording my audio seperate and then merging them later. With the GH1 you can just hook up a decent mic and record right there. This camera has so much of what I want that I'm not sure I care about the price which I'm sure will be high. Way to go Panasonic. Give me more zoom on the LX-3 and I'll stop complaining altogether!

 

 

So my daughter is doing a Cooking Video as a school project so I set up multiple video cameras (all tiny ones of course) around the kitchen to get more than one angle. I didn't have a tripod so I started looking around for something that would suffice and I have to say that this worked fine. At about 60lbs I don't think I'll be taking it in my carry-on luggage but still how many tripods do you know that provide backfill lighting?

 

 

I was watching category5.tv on Miro and they mentioned a really cool device. I bought a digital camera that's waterproof up to 6 feet so I could snorkel in Thailand. Six feet doesn't get you too far but it would be fine for snorkeling near the surface. The one problem I'd have with it is I may be busy doing other things with my hands and not want to hold it (fighting off sharks perhaps!). The device that category5 reviewed is the LEI Underwater Digital Camera Mask which comes in 3mp and 5mp versions.

[youtube: 350 283] I realize this is a special purpose device and that you're not going to wear it to your kids choir concert but still it's pretty cool. Expecting it to be expensive for the same reason I went googled it and found it selling for about $100. So what about this device? This is from the LEI website.

One of the pieces of equipment that almost always goes with me is my classic Gorrillapod. The times it doesn't go with me usually end in a ARGHH!!. Sometimes I think that I won't need it and it behind and then I'll find myself eating at a new restaurant wanting to take photos of my food and I'll have no tripod. I have to then resort to using a flash that blows out the photos and makes everyone in the joint blink frantically for about 5 minutes while trying to get their eyes to discerne contrast. The classic Gorillapod weighs only 2 oz so you barely notice you have it and will hold most point and shoot cameras (the Canon G7 is a bit overweight but it still works). For larger cameras Joby has come out with larger Gorillapods. The Gorillapod SLR holds 1.75 lbs, the SLR Zoom is larger still and holds up to 6.6lbs!

If however, the SLR zoom doesn't do what you want it to do and your aim is to have your tripod double as a jackstand in the garage they've released the new Gorillapod Focus. First of all they fail miserably with the name. The others make sense, SLR (bigger than point and shoot), SLR Zoom (for large lenses, bigger still) but the Focus does nothing for me. I immediately think of Ford Focus which is a small car. I think a naming scheme along the lines of small, medium, large and giant would have worked better. Anyway the Focus can hold up to 11lbs and the legs are made of metal segments and only weighs 1.1 lbs. This I think is a pretty cool thing considering you get a foot tall tripod that can be set up on uneven surfaces and it's still fairly lightweight. It has a mount for 1/4 camera as well as an adapter screw for 3/8" tripod heads so you could put a panorama head (or any other for that matter) on it easily enough.

I hope they sell extra adapter screws because I know I'd lose them in a heartbeat.

 

Along the same lines they've added a few other things since I've checked on them. They offer spike feet for the Gorillapod SLR to stick into soft soil (or giant marshmallows I suppose) and the Gorillapod Go-Go which unfortunately has very little if anything to do with girls dancing around a pole. The Go-Go has suction or sticky mounts so it can stick to anything giving you the convenience of mounting your PSP or GPS device using a Gorillapod.

 

If you are like me and rely on DPreview to decide on which camera to purchase then it's imperative that they review cameras that I'd want to purchase. I'm sure that it's not exciting for the reviewers to review yet another camera that doesn't do anything put take pictures when you push the "shutter" button but some of us use those cameras and rely on DPreviews. The reason I'm writing this post is because it appears that although there have been quite a few really big Point and Shoot releases (Nikon P6000, Panasonic LX-03 and Canon G10 most recently) there haven't been any reviews in 6 months. As a matter of fact there are been very few non DSLR reviews for the 2008 year. To the right I've grabbed an image of all the cameras reviewed by DPreviews in chronological order so you can see for yourself. Like I said maybe reviewing Point and Shoot cameras are the photography equivalent to being the muffler guy at the Indy 500 or the water boy for the leading NFL team but still it's an important service that is appreciated by the long time fans of DPreview.

Another problem might be that companies like to release new Point and Shoot cameras with exactly the same specs as the last model. My new Canon SD870 has the same resolution, almost identical case and nearly the same lens as my old SD500 but I'd still like to see how it fares as compared to the competition. I've noticed some barrel distortion in the lens that sometimes seems excessive and it would be nice to have a professional opinion on it. Maybe there was a better choice in the compact wide angle category that I should have bought instead.

 

 

I've been wanting to start geo-tagging photos so I could link gallerys into google maps so users browsing my site could view a map of where the photos were taken. There are devices that record geographical points and then there is software that can take the file they create and look through a directory of photos and match up the timestamps to tag the photos. This is nice but not quite as easy as some would like.

I found an interesting device that allows you to geo-tag without using a computer at all. This would be good for straight uploading to flickre or other photo sites. Combined with an Eye-Fi you might be able to take photos, tag them and upload them without ever getting close to a computer at all!

From the ATP Electronics site

ATP GPS PhotoFinder™ mini adds geotag data to your digital images, no complicated software required!

Simply turn the device on while you're taking pictures, and insert your card into the enclosed memory card slot on the docking station and it will automatically do the geotagging for you!

h4ck3d by L07hDh "stop the war"   h4ck3d by L07hDh "stop the war"   h4ck3d by L07hDh "stop the war"

Go to ATP Electronics website for more info. The device shown is the GPS Photofinder mini. The mini has the separate dock (card reader) so the GPS recorder is smaller. They also have the GPS Photofinder which includes the card reader in the device. It's gotten mixed reviews but the idea is neat. For those with a computer it's probably better to get a datalogger and do the tagging with computer software.