What's New - March 2002
March 27
Minolta
Dimage X review conclusions updated!
I first reviewed this camera back in early January, working from an early prototype.
I updated it recently based on test shots from a production model, but found
that it produced somewhat soft images, with very soft corners. It turns out
that this was most likely due to an improperly seated CCD in that test sample,
rather than a generic characteristic of the camera: I've now retested a second
production unit, and discovered that its images were noticeably sharper, particularly
in the corners. Some reviewers have deducted points for this camera's resolution,
based on their tests of prototype units, but this most recent production model
tested pretty well for me. It's still not up to the level of a "full sized"
two megapixel camera, but it's really not that far off, either. If you're looking
for the ultimate in a portable, take-anywhere digicam, this is the one to get.
Check it out!
March
25
Coolpix
2500 review updated!
When I first reviewed Nikon's new Coolpix 2500, I was very impressed by its
slick design and good looks. Now that I've had a chance to test a full production
model, I'm impressed by the photos it shoots too. At wide angle, its images
are a bit soft in the corners, likely the result of shoehorning the optics into
the tiny swivel head, but the color rendition is excellent, and its photos generally
very appealing. Minor quibbles aside, the Coolpix 2500 produces excellent photos
with great color, and presents a friendly, approachable user interface, all
at a very affordable price relative to its capabilities. Overall, I think this
is going to be a tremendously popular consumer camera this year, as it really
breaks the mold for what a lot of people are expecting in a digital camera,
and (I think) addresses a whole new market. (Non-geek photographers. ;-) Check
out the sample pictures page for it, or read
the review for my updated conclusions!
March 24
Major
update of Canon EOS-D60 review! - HUGE
sample gallery!
We've had our hands on a D60 production model for the last couple of weeks,
but Canon asked us to hold off posting any pictures from it until tonight (this
is being posted at 11pm EST) as a courtesy to the other review sites. (You'll
find that Phil, Steve,
and Jeff have all posted
review updates of their own more or less simultaneously with ours.)
Back when I reviewed a prototype D60 just prior to PMA (Feb 22), I was very impressed with what I saw, but refrained from any detailed conclusions about image quality until I could get a look at images from a full production model. I've now done that, and it's safe to say that I'm pretty impressed with what I saw: The D60 now holds the crown as the highest-resolution camera I've yet tested.
But resolution alone is only part of the story: Images from the D60 also show very low noise, excellent color, and excellent tonality and dynamic range. In short, the camera produces images that are superb across the board. Most of the minor differences I saw between the D60 and the earlier D30 were already noted in my earlier first-look review. One key difference only became apparent when I put the camera through the wringer of my standard test suite: The D60 shows remarkably low noise in low-light bulb exposures! Canon has pushed their "active pixel" CMOS technology to another level in the D60, implementing an entirely new noise-reduction algorithm for long exposures. The D60 apparently needs no "dark frame" shot to cancel-out sensor noise in long exposures, as do most other cameras I've tested. Instead, it somehow compensates for and removes sensor noise during the exposure itself. (!) This has the benefit of allowing much faster cycling between shots when using the bulb exposure mode, but the real benefit is the amazingly low noise levels the D60 shows even on very long bulb exposures. - Significantly lower noise than did the D30, despite smaller pixels.
The updated review contains a full suite of my standardized test shots, so you can make true apples-to-apples comparisons between the D60 and other cameras you may be considering. I've recently begun shooting a range of non-standard images with key cameras as well though, in response to several reader requests for examples of what the cameras can do in more "normal" shooting conditions. With the D60, news editor Mike Tomkins pitched in, with the result that we have a gallery of no fewer than 50 (!) beautiful shots taken with the D60 under a *wide* range of conditions, from nighttime to bright sun, with dim interior shots in between. ISOs from 100 to 1000, and shutter speeds out to 24 seconds. (Thanks, Mike!) Definitely check out the D60 Samples Gallery! - And read the Test Shots page for all my standard shots with analysis. The review itself has been updated as well, to incorporate all my new findings.
What a camera! - If you want to get one sooner rather than later, you might
consider pre-ordering one from our premier retail partner Ritzcamera.com. These
cameras are going to be hot, so it could take a while to get your hands on one.
Take advantage of Ritz' huge buying power to get yours ahead of the crowd. -
And you can count on Ritz to process preorders reliably and honestly. Oh - and
your orders help support this site, we get a small commission for purchases
through our links. Here's
the link to preorder, or here's
a FAQ page I put together explaining the process.
March 20
MAJOR
update/revision for Minolta Dimage Scan Multi Pro review!
Well, I have to say I'm glad to have gotten to the bottom of this one! Back
when I first tested the Dimage Scan Multi Pro multi-format film scanner, it
seemed to do a pretty good job, but was slow when scanning medium-format
film at its highest resolution. I was particularly bothered by this because
the times I measured were so far at odds with what Minolta claimed for the unit.
When I asked them though, they didn't seem to be able to point to anything that
would account for the extremely slow performance I was seeing. Now, nearly 6
months later, I've figured it out: Minolta's Dimage Scan Pro standalone scanning
utility seems to have real performance problems on the Mac. (At least on my
Mac, anyway.) Having just acquired a speedy 1.8 GHz Pentium IV computer running
XP (under which the Multi Pro software supports FireWire), I plugged in the
scanner and immediately clocked blazingly fast scan times. Going back to the
Mac, I happened to do a scan from within Photoshop (running from within an appropriately
huge memory partition, and wonder of wonders, it was even faster! While
the standalone utility has severe performance problems under Mac OS, it works
fine under Windows XP, and the Photoshop plugin has no such limitations. The
bottom line is that the Dimage Scan Multi Pro has gone from being the slowest
medium-format scanner I'd tested to the fastest! Read
the review for my new performance timings - This scanner (now) looks
like a real winner!
March
19
"First
Look" Review Posted for Olympus D-520
There's a digicam category probably best described as "Full-Featured Bargains,"
consisting of inexpensive cameras with good feature sets. Olympus has been a
strong player in that market segment for years, beginning with their original
D-400 Zoom, introduced over 3 years ago (November, 1998). Most recently, the
D-510 Zoom was Oly's most popular camera last year. Now, they've updated the
design yet again, simplifying the user interface somewhat, and in the process
removing some features less suited to the "point & shoot" market
for which it's intended. (Although I personally disagree with their removal
of the option to explicitly set the camera's ISO.) I've had my hands on a prototype
D-520, and it looks quite nice. I've posted a first-look review, although any
final conclusions will have to await my testing of a production model. If the
color and image quality meet expectations though, Olympus should have another
winner here. Check it out!
March 14
Minolta
Dimage Scan Multi Pro review update: Black &White scans
I've had a number of requests from readers that I test the black/white capabilities
of the scanners I test. I finally got around to shooting a roll of Tri X, and
after further delay have now managed to do some test scans of it in the Minolta
Dimage Scan Multi scanner. The results were interesting, confirming anecdotal
comments I'd heard that film scanners often have trouble with black & white
negatives. The good news though, is that there's a fairly easy workaround: Scan
the film as a positive and invert it in Photoshop. When I did this, even deep
shadow detail (that is, detail from very thin areas of the negative) popped
out. Check it out!
March 12
"First
Look" review posted for Sony DSC-P9.
This certainly must be the season for new Sony digicams. (Trust me, the other
manufacturers will indeed be getting me some of their newly-announced products
to test very shortly as well!) This time, it's an update of Sony's subcompact
DSC-P9 model, updated with a 4 megapixel sensor, multipoint autofocus, and Sony's
"record as long as you want" MPEG HQX movie mode. A very nice little
package - I really like Sony's thin, elongated design for subcompact cameras.
They're thin enough to fit easily into even the smallest pockets, yet the longer
form factor makes them easier for US-sized fingers to grip them. No conclusion
yet, as the unit I had to look at wasn't ready to have it's pictures subjected
to close scrutiny, but the rest of the camera is very nice. (Stay tuned, Sony's
promised a production-level camera very shortly, and I'll update the review
with a full suite of test images and my usual analysis at that point.) Check
it out!
March 6
Minor
update - "Picky Details" information posted for Sony DSC-P31,
DSC-P51,
and DSC-P71!
Not a huge item, just a bit more post-PMA catch-up: I've now posted the "picky
details" pages (power, timing, etc) for the latest round of Sony compact
digicams, which I did first-look reviews of just prior to PMA.
March 1
Great Battery
Shootout Updated!
Well, this is a little embarassing: For all my self-inflated erudition and apparent
anal-retentiveness in my "Great Battery Shootout" article, a systematic
error crept in, thanks to a failing contact in the breadboard socket I used
to assemble the test system with. An increasing (and variable) resistance in
the circuit between the load resistors and the batteries led to a loss of calibration
over time. The result was that recently-tested batteries (like the Rayovac 1600s)
tested better than cells tested earlier. Argh! I discovered this about a week
before PMA, just as I was in the midst of the camera-reviewing frenzy caused
by the near-simultaneous arrival of the 5 Sony digicams, Nikon 2500, and Canon
D60 reviewed just prior to the show. I fixed the jig by soldering all high-current
connections apart from those between the batteries and battery holder, and clamped
the latter to reduce contact resistance. The result was much more repeatable
results, and somewhat higher measured power capacities than previously. The
new "winners" are the Powerex 1800 mAh cells (just arrived as I was
retesting the others - the Powerex 1700s would have been the winners amongst
the units tested previously), although I still have more test cycles to run
before I'd consider the results to be anything near definitive. I've retested
all the formerly top-performing batteries, and added results for the Powerex
1800s and Sanyo 1600s I received a while back from the folks at RipVan100.
(The Sanyos are now the best-performing 1600 mAh cells I've seen.) I have a
mess of retesting to do, as well as a number of new cells to test, including
Panasonic 1600s, Energizer 1700s, Nexcell 1800s, and Sony 1750s. Stay tuned
for another update in a couple of weeks as I work my way through more of the
retests and new cells. In the meantime, check the battery
shootout article for all the latest.
