Canon IXUS 870 IS photo gallery
Posted on October 14, 2008 - Filed Under Digital | Leave a Comment
Canon IXUS gallery : Just before my departure to the Photokina show, various test cameras arrived at my door. That means making product shots, charging batteries and cramming them into my already overfull suitcase with all the things I need for the Photokina show. For me as press member, Photokina means more than just visiting the many booths; I am also there to maintain contact with relations we have within the digital imaging industry. For me the day does not end when the Photokina closes its doors at the end of the day, that bit may be clear. In between, I will test the new Canon IXUS 870IS and make some sample pictures with it. The 4x wide angle zoom lens with 3 inch display is the most striking detail on the Canon IXUS 870 IS.
Canon IXUS 870 IS photo gallery
Besides that, a Canon IXUS always stands out through its design; an IXUS owes it to its name. But of course it is not all about appearance. This makes the built-in DIGIC 4 image processor one of the main features with which Canon shows that image quality is taken seriously, design or no design. The DIGIC 4 was introduced for the first time with the EOS 50D and EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR camera, and besides that can be found in cameras such as the Canon Digital IXUS 870 IS.
Motion Detection Technology
Canon’s improved Motion Detection Technology delivers fantastic, sharp results by registering camera and subject movement, then automatically adjusting ISO to prevent image blur. Blur is further guarded against by new Servo AF, which continuously adjusts focus on subjects moving towards or away from the camera. DIGIC 4 also powers Canon’s new i-Contrast feature, which brings out great, natural-looking detail in dark areas of pictures – without blowing out lighter areas.
Sample photo gallery Canon IXUS 870 IS
The Canon IXUS 870 IS digital camera is on my priority list to be reviewed soon. In addition to the test in practice at which operation and functionality of the camera are evaluated together with the captured photos, the technical camera test in our DIWA Lab is crucial to come to a balanced final conclusion. The Canon IXUS test photos were taken with a full production model which means that this camera is equal to the model that the consumer can expect to purchase. The Canon IXUS 870IS test photos were taken in Cologne, Germany. The thumbnail sized pictures have been reduced to enable correct reproduction and compressed to ensure a faster loading time. The large images are the original, unedited Canon IXUS 870 IS sample photos.
Download original : Canon IXUS 870 IS test photo (Warning: approx. 2MB file size!)
Download original : Canon IXUS 870 IS test photo (Warning: approx. 4.1MB file size!)
Download original : Canon IXUS 870 IS test picture (Warning: approx. 4.4MB file size!)
Download original : Canon 870 IS test photo (Warning: approx. 3.8MB file size!)
Download original : Canon IXUS test photo (Warning: approx. 3.5MB file size!)
Download original : Canon IXUS 870 IS sample photo (Warning: approx. 5.4MB file size!)
Download original : Canon IXUS 870 IS sample picture (Warning: approx. 5.8MB file size!)
A Small(er) Photo Sling Bag from Tenba
Posted on October 13, 2008 - Filed Under News, Photo | Leave a Comment
Tenba has expanded its Photo Sling Bag family with a smaller sling model that weighs less than 3 pounds. With YKK zippers, a 100% nylon exterior and a WeatherWrap cover, the bag is well- protected from the elements.
The bag, although it weighs less than three pounds and has outside dimensions of 8 x 15.5 x 7 (W X H X D) inches, can accommodate any DSLR body with a mid-range zoom, as well as additional bodies and lenses. When the padded dividers are removed and the top compartment opened, the bag can accommodate a camera body and up to a 300mm f/2.8 long lens.
Other features of note include a cell phone/MP3 player pocket built into the padded strap, an external bungee cord and, more importantly, two side compression straps for carrying a monopod or a tripod.
The bag, which comes in black/olive, silver/black or black/black color combinations, is available for a suggested price of $103.95. www.tenba.com
Pentax K20D review
Posted on October 13, 2008 - Filed Under Cameras, Reviews | Leave a Comment
Pentax K20D digital SLR camera : I have always had a soft spot for the Pentax K10D digital SLR. A beautiful and solid compact digital reflex camera, offering a superb quality, certainly when combined with the pancake lenses. Actually, it surprises me that I don’t see the K10D in the streets a lot more often. In general, the reviews came up with very positive end conclusions. Perhaps its successor, the Pentax K20D, will succeed this now that the path to success is cleared by the K10D.
14 Megapixel Pentax K20D SLR camera
In many aspects the Pentax K20D is similar to its predecessor, yet offers considerably more. In the first place, there are more pixels, of course; the trend continues. With a resolution of 14 million pixels the K20D is ahead of its close competitors, the Canon EOS 40D and its allies. The image sensor is now a CMOS and has been developed in close cooperation with Samsung. The latter also manufactures the CMOS sensor and integrates it into the GX20, which is the twin brother of the Pentax K20D. The quality should remain the same thanks to minimizing the circuitry around each photo site, thus keeping the light-sensitive area of each pixel to the same size as other companies manage on 12 MP sensors. The PRIME processor found in the K10D is also present inside the Pentax K20D to convert the signal. Since a DDR2 memory is used, processing the image should be carried out faster.
Live View functionality on the Pentax K20D
Although not much seems to have changed on the outside, the back of the camera features a larger LCD monitor. The K20D is the first Pentax equipped with the Live View function in addition to the convenient preview the K10D already offers. A camera without Live View is hard to imagine these days. Funny how things work sometimes. Not so long ago, Live View on a DSLR was absolutely not done and to a photographer could almost be compared to swearing in church. Another function we find more and more often is the possibility to control the dynamic range. The Pentax K20D, too, has a function that lets you increase the range, in order to enable you to deal with high contrast situations.
Pentax K20D lens with calibration function
As always, Pentax allows you to keep using your old lenses. Although you might not be able to use the 11-point SAFOX VIII auto focus motor. To correct any flaws that may occur in the lens, Pentax integrated a calibration function. This function looks like the setting possibilities on the Canon and Nikon, yet takes things further. You can actually calibrate the lens, and this is something for which you would have to go to the importer when it comes to other brands. A unique possibility proving that Pentax takes things a step further. Studio photographers will be pleased to bits to find the flash unit connection on the K20D; something on which K10D users, unfortunately, miss out.
Shaking sensor occurs dust on Pentax K20D photos
Many items remained untouched. Such as support of RAW and the PEF format of Pentax themselves, as well as the more universal DNG format. Naturally in combination with JPEG. Moreover, the unusual shooting modes also remained, thankfully. Just like the shaking sensor, not only functioning as image stabilization but also as dust remover. Who wouldn’t get annoyed finding dust on the picture? Pentax added a preview to the Pentax K20D that lets you check to see if there is dust visible somewhere on the picture. The preview is made at f/16. A good way to check if your sensor is still dust-free.
Pentax K20D review – Test in practise and technical DIWA test
At first sight not a lot seems to have changed, however, it still feels different when picking up the Pentax K20D. What exactly got changed and whether they form real changes, was tested by us over a longer period of time. Our findings can be read in the following 
Book Review: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book For Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby
Posted on October 12, 2008 - Filed Under Culture, Photo | Leave a Comment
Last August, Adobe released the second incarnation of their photography workflow product Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 to rave reviews. As is to be expected, new editions of companion Lightroom books are also coming to market to provide educational assistance to learning Lightroom. Scott Kelby's Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book For Digital Photographers, along with being one of the best, is also one of the first out of the chutes.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2, while it certainly addresses the new features of Lightroom 2, also guides you through the existing features that have not changed. This version is 456 pages in length (40 more pages of material) and contains 14 chapters (3 additional chapters)
Chapter 1, "Importing," devotes it's time to showing you how to get your photos into Lightroom. The improvement I see in this chapter is that not only are you shown how to get them in, there is more devotion to figuring out where to store your files, how to set up your folder organization, shooting tethered, as well as discussing topics like the use of the Adobe DNG file format advantage. Chapter 2, "Library," focuses on organizing your photographs. Here the author looks at using Collections, Quick Collections, adding Keywords, working with Metadata, and working with multiple catalogs. This chapter is more focused on the library and some of the content from the previous edition was reorganized and moved to the next chapter.
Chapter 3, "Customizing," looks at how to set up Lightroom 2 to fit your work style. Here you will work with setting up two monitors, adding a logo to your interface, choosing what the Filmstrip will display, and learning to work with panels in a faster and much easier method. Chapter 4, "Editing Essentials," gets into the basics of developing your photos. In this chapter you will see how to set the white balance, add more punch to the color of your images, adjust the tone, hue, and color of your photos, as well learning techniques such as vignetting, getting that gritty look, and using AutoSync to fix a bunch of photos live while editing just one.
Chapter 5, "Local Adjustments," moves beyond basics to editing specific parts of your image. This includes Dodging and Burning, working with the Adjustment Brush, retouching portraits, and learning how to fix skies. Chapter 6, "Problem Photos," will show you how to correct problems after you have taken the image. Here you will work with cropping, reducing noise, removing red-eye, fixing backlight photos, sharpening, and fixing chromatic aberrations.
Chapter 7, "Exporting Images," shows you how to save your images as JPEG's, how to email photos from Lightroom, using the export plug-ins to auto upload to sharing sites like Flicker, and how to export your original RAW photo. Chapter 8, "Jumping to Photoshop," examines how to move between Lightroom and Photoshop. This includes how to get there and back again, how to add Photoshop Automation to your workflow, stitching panoramas by using Photoshop, and working with High Dynamic Range images in Photoshop.
Chapter 9, "Gorgeous B&W," begins by showing how to determine if a photo would look good in Black and White. Then you will see how to do it yourself, how to tweak individual areas, how to add a split tone, and how to create a duo tone image. Chapter 10, "Slideshow," begins with a basic slide show and quickly moves to customizing your show, adding music, picking preferences, and finally how to email the show.
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Toil and Trouble
Posted on October 11, 2008 - Filed Under Photo | Leave a Comment
Perros-Guirec. Night waves at the seaside Promenade. Taken by Melina
Photokina Interview Series: Samsung
Posted on October 9, 2008 - Filed Under Digital, Photo, Reviews | Leave a Comment
In the first of a series of interviews with senior executives at Photokina 2008 we met up with Samsung for chat with Mr. Choong-hyun Hwang, the Vice President of the Digital Camera Business of Samsung Techwin Strategy Marketing Team. He joined Samsung in 1983 and in 2005 was promoted to Global Marketing Director. He is currently in charge of the Product Planning. During his career, Mr. Hwang successfully launched the NV Series, Samsung’s first premium digital camera. Although much of the conversation covered areas we can’t talk about yet, Mr Hwang had some interesting things to say ‘on the record’ regarding the future of compact cameras, technology and stills/video convergence.
Mr. Choong-hyun Hwang Vice President Product Planning Group Strategy Marketing Team Digital Camera Division
Obviously the big news for us this Photokina is the development by Panasonic of the mirrorless interchangeable lens camera, the G1, which for us is a very exciting development. We realize you aren’t able to talk in detail about anything you may be doing in the future, but we’d be interested to know what Samsung’s feeling is about the area of the market between compact and DSLR – high end or larger sensor compacts.
"We believe that there is a potential new segment in digital cameras, brought about because of the dissatisfaction of both DSLR users and compact users. I think this is an area that is of universal interest – even for companies such as Nikon or Canon, so we don’t want to overlook it. So we are researching and looking over the possibilities. But for now we can’t make any announcements."
We agree that it’s important – we see an ever widening gap between SLRs and compact cameras, not helped by the ‘megapixel race’, so we think Micro Four Thirds is great for the market.
"I think that customers want to have both bigger sensors and more megapixels, so I believe that Four Thirds is not the right format for this type of camera. Four Thirds has not been a successful system; the Four Thirds sensor size should mean that they can make a digital SLR that is smaller than an APS-C camera, but actually the size of the Four Thirds cameras is almost the same".
Going back to normal SLRs, are you going to do anything to create greater differentiation between Pentax and Samsung SLRs?
"Samsung and Pentax have been collaborating now for around three years and we don’t expect this to change. We will continue to develop new sensors and DSPs in better ways, and we’re going to differentiate maybe by different design, but probably not when it comes to parts/components".
Certainly in the UK our feeling is that faced with a choice between two identical DSLRs, one with a Pentax badge and one with a Samsung badge, the majority of photo enthusiasts would go for the Pentax, even if they knew they were the same.
"Even though Pentax and Samsung DSLR are almost the same, the image quality – not in a vertical way but in a horizontal way; the color rendering – is different because we use different formulas and algorithms. So although the Samsung GX and Pentax K20D are the same system, some reviews have found the Samsung to be better. Right now we have a small customer base, but we’re expecting it will grow. Samsung’s SLR business started just three years ago, whereas Pentax has a long history of more than 70 years. At this moment most of Pentax and Samsung’s customers are already into the Pentax system – it’s natural."
We didn’t actually know that there was an image processing difference – maybe that’s a message that’s been lost somewhere.
"You didn’t know that certain color renderings and image algorithms were different? Well Pentax and Samsung have their own architecture, but maybe we don’t mention the differences because Pentax and Samsung are really good partners, and we don’t want to be misunderstood or to hurt our relationship".
Are the lenses identical?
"Yes, we have the same lenses".
On your compact cameras do you use your own sensors
"No, we don’t".
Would there be any advantage to developing your own compact sensors?
"In terms of efficiency we’re better at the moment outsourcing. We currently buy sensors from a range of suppliers".
Do you make any compact camera sensors?
"No, at the moment we don’t".
Do you think that CMOS is likely to eventually take over from CCD sensors in compacts?
"Ah you are asking difficult questions! I think that many people – everyone – expects CMOS sensors to be applied to more compact cameras. Sony has a high speed CMOS sensor in development, and the speed is remarkable".
Is it less expensive to manufacture CMOS sensors?
"Oh no, it’s much more expensive. The Sony and Canon high speed CMOS sensors are very expensive to manufacture. The standard CMOS sensors used in mobile phones are very small and are inexpensive, but not those for compacts cameras. Canon has been making a lot of effort to replace CCD with CMOS, and they have not yet been successful because the performance and efficiency aren’t good enough yet".
So HD video is now appearing in more and more cameras – is this demand led or simply a case of ‘we can do it, so we will’?
"Three years ago we introduced a compact camera with HDMI, which was the first in the industry, and it didn’t sell that well. At the time HDTV had just been introduced to the market, and people didn’t really have a concept of what HDTV could offer. Right now we’re seeing the analog TV services disappearing as TVs are converted to digital, so there’s a lot more interest in all countries, and so I believe that HD is quite appealing to customers now. Right now Samsung is the number one in LCD TV panels, and we believe that HD will become more and more common in the marketplace, and that this will affect the ‘display culture’ and that more sharing will be done via TV screens".
You also manufacture HD camcorders, which must cause some positioning issues when you have products that are so rapidly converging…
"We believe that there will be convergence of digital stills and camcorders. I believe that at some point the border between digital camera and camcorder will disappear, especially with the introduction of high speed CMOS sensors. That’s the starting point".
I guess there are issues with things like form factor, continuous focusing, zoom range and so on that currently keep the two lines separate, so do you think that a future convergence product would be more like a camcorder that takes stills or a stills camera that does movie clips?
"I think both actually, but the stills cameras with camcorder function will come first".
As photography enthusiasts I guess our worry is that it’s difficult to optimize a multi function product and that if the primary function isn’t shooting stills then there will be compromises in stills quality – perhaps in terms of lens and sensor design for example.
"I don’t believe that this is the case for convergence products – customers will not feel there is much difference; users will not be able to see a difference between these future products and current stills cameras. They will have to be developed in a way that customers feel that quality is not being compromised. But if they’re really high end users who want a really great stills camera, they’ll probably still go for a dedicated stills camera, and if they want really high quality movies they’ll buy a camcorder. Those products will still exist at the high end, but most users [of compact cameras] will be buying convergence products".
Is removable media storage capacity a limiting factor in such products at the moment?
"Currently camcorders have their own [built in] memory and right now hard disk is better, but we believe that memory will develop in a way that will match hard disks.
Interview conducted by Phil Askey and Simon Joinson, report by Simon Joinson
Flying Biker
Posted on October 6, 2008 - Filed Under Photo | Leave a Comment
“A crazy kid jumping high into the Tapajos River, Santarem, Amazon. A don’t do that at home situation”. Taken by Gil Serique
Cologne alert: Photographers caught in air travel chaos Triple blow to Photokina visitors
Posted on October 6, 2008 - Filed Under Digital, Photo | Leave a Comment
Photographers travelling back from the world’s biggest photography show, Photokina, were forced to cancel their return journey from Cologne in Germany after air traffic control problems hit UK airspace.
Visitors to the biennial photographic kit fest, who were due to return yesterday, were told to make alternative travel plans because their plane had been cancelled.
And, this morning, any hopes for a return to normality at Cologne/Bonn airport were dramatically dashed when it was reported to be at the centre of a terror alert.
German commandos are understood to have stormed a KLM plane and arrested two terror suspects.
The news will come as a triple blow to Photokina visitors who had already faced road closures on their arrival in the city when tens of thousands protested in Cologne last weekend.
Three thousand extra police were drafted in after German citizens protested against
an anti-Islam congress in the city.
Sony announces Alpha firmware update
Posted on October 3, 2008 - Filed Under News, Photo | Leave a Comment
The firmware update version 4 for the Sony a700 digital SLR includes the addition of ±2.0EV, 3 shot EV Bracketing for both single and continuous modes, as well as the ability to turn off high sensitivity noise reduction. According to Sony’s announcement, this update will also improve high ISO image quality, automatic white balance accuracy, DRO (Dynamic Range Optimizer) performance, and communication consistency between the camera and the VC-C70AM vertical grip.
Updates to Sony Image Data Suite, the software application for Alpha DSLRs a100 through a700, include such enhancements as improved ease of use and DRO effectiveness as well as increased rendering speed and added functionality for remote shooting with the a700.
Updates can be accessed at http://esupport.sony.com.
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