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THE IMAGING RESOURCE DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY NEWSLETTER
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Volume 15, Number 28 - 20 December 2013
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Copyright 2013, The Imaging Resource. All rights reserved.
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Welcome to the 376th edition of The Imaging Resource Newsletter. In this issue, David Schloss take us through the Sony A7R, the high-res, high-performance full-frame mirrorless camera that won our Camera of the Year award. As our feature article, Steve Meltzer shares with us a fascinating story about 100-year old unprocessed photo negatives found in a block of Antarctic ice!
We also share our Sigma 24-105mm f/4 OS Art-series lens review, which showed some impressive results to handily compete with the Canon and Nikon offerings, but at a much lower price. Additionally, Dave Pardue shares some of his first experiences with the surprisingly fun Olympus Stylus 1, which is looking to very powerful, bokeh-licious camera! We've also published the Samsung Galaxy NX first shots straight from the testing lab, as well as share an interesting piece on innovative tripods. Lastly, we share some of the most popular news stories from this past week.
Happy reading!
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Camera Review: Sony A7R Shooter's Report (excerpt)
Feature: Hidden Rock Art: The Magic of Polarized Light
Quick Hits: Sigma 24-105mm lens review; Olympus Stylus 1 Shooter's Report, Part I Blog; Samsung Galaxy NX First Shots; Innovative New Tripods
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Camera Review: Sony A7R Shooter's Report (excerpt)
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Shooting with the Sony A7R
by David Schloss
The Sony A7R looks like it's made out of a single piece of carved metal -- there's a feeling to it that's not unlike grabbing the first MacBook which was CNC-milled from a slab of aluminum. The body has a reassuring solidity, despite its small size.
A comfy fit. The grip is a perfect fit for my hand, although it might not be as comfortable if you have bigger mitts. The camera is just tall enough that my pinky wraps underneath the handgrip, for added support. All controls are well within reach without adjusting my grip, with the exception of the dedicated video button, which is on the outside rear of the camera. This allows the A7R to be used one-handed for snapshots and casual use, but I still think it's best used two-handed.
Pro-friendly controls. I was happy to find that the A7R has a front and a rear control dial along with an exposure compensation dial and mode dial. These two dials, along with the on/off switch have enough resistance that I didn't accidentally move them in normal shooting or in storage in a camera bag. The dial built into the four-way controller, though, is quite easy to bump. Fortunately, its function can be changed or disabled, or you can optionally lock and unlock it with a press of the center button.
But I didn't usually keep the Sony A7R in a camera bag anyway. With our review sample Carl Zeiss 35mm f/2.8 attached, it was possible to put the A7R in my coat pocket. It constantly boggled my mind that I could walk around with 36-megapixels of tack-sharp resolution in my pocket.
The Sony A7R shoots great photos with bucket-loads of detail. Take a look at the signs towards the right of the frame, which fall within the depth of field. Even 1:1, they are tack-sharp.
Unusual card slot. The memory card slot sits behind a door in the handgrip, which I prefer to cameras that place the card slot inside the battery compartment. It makes it impossible to accidentally dislodge the battery while trying to change the card, or to get rain in the battery compartment during a flash card change. It's a bit unusual in that the card ejects backwards rather than sideways, but I got used to it quickly enough.
In-camera charging. The Sony A7R doesn't ship with a battery charger -- instead the micro USB slot on the side of the camera is used to charge the battery in-camera. While I'm always happy to see an option to charge a battery over USB, I'd also like to see a standalone battery charger in the product bundle, because it gives me the ability to charge a second battery while I'm out shooting. It's easy enough to pick up an external charger separately, but with a price tag of US$50, it's a bit of a pricey option.
Great viewfinder. I'm a big fan of the Sony A7R's electronic viewfinder, which makes EVFs of old seem like looking at video from the moon landing. It has plenty of resolution, and I think in many ways it's more useful than an optical viewfinder. Seeing a real-time histogram, for example, is impossible with a TTL optical viewfinder.
That's not to say its perfect. I felt that I had to increase the brightness in order to give me more visible detail for focus confirmation, at the expense of a slightly less accurate preview of exposure. But putting that aside, the EVF on the A7R is the most vibrant I've tried and it's a pleasure to use. It's my belief that we're now only a generation or two away from the point at which the EVF/OVF debate is settled once and for all.
Want to learn more about the Sony A7R's built-in electronic viewfinder?
Click here to see our viewfinder test results.
Tilting monitor. The rear-panel LCD screen is just as vibrant as the EVF, albeit with a lower resolution. Because the viewfinder is so good, I only used the LCD screen for playback, navigating menus, and for occasional over-the-head or waist-level shots. It's clear and bright even in outdoor, sunny-weather shooting, and isn't unusually fingerprint-prone.
The LCD monitor is articulated, but since it's not a tilt/swivel design it's useful only for landscape shots, and not those in portrait orientation. I must admit that I'd have preferred a tilt-swivel screen, but only if it could be installed without significantly increasing the depth of the camera.
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The A7R's photos aren't just tack-sharp -- they also have pleasing color, good auto white balance, and spot-on exposure with the default settings, most of the time. This scene is exactly as I remember it in person. This particular image was shot with the Zeiss 35mm f/2.8 lens. |
No touch? No problem. I've become so accustomed to testing cameras with touch-screen displays that I usually find non-touch screens a step backwards in usability, but thanks to its great (and very configurable) physical controls and mostly well-considered menu system, this isn't such an issue with the A7R.
One of reasons I typically prefer a touch-screen interface over a non-interactive panel is that many cameras force you to dig down through multiple menu levels to change settings, but the A7R negates the need for most of this with a smart user interface. For example, when in the AF Area menu, the vertical arrow buttons change focus mode, but you can also cycle through the different AF point sizes for the Flexible Spot setting with the left and right arrows. In some cameras, there would be an extra layer in the menu for the latter, or it would be accessed via a separate menu item.
High ISO shots are very usable indeed. This image at ISO 6400, shot from the street outside the dimly-lit bar through an open door, shows the effect of noise reduction at 1:1, but there's still lots of detail remaining. All but the smallest text on the signs behind the bar is clearly legible..
The physical controls help out, too. To adjust sensitivity, many cameras first require that you press an ISO button to toggle ISO control with a dial or buttons, or even send you running to the menu system. The A7R instead allows for ISO adjustment by spinning the dial on the face of the four way rocker. (Another function can, optionally, be assigned, and some modes don't allow ISO control. Hence, a small icon on the LCD or EVF indicates what the dial currently controls.)
Occasionally illogical. The menu system is fairly straightforward, but its organization isn't always the greatest. For example, I'd expect to find the Format option on the first or last page of the setup menu, but it's actually on the sixth of seven pages. And the seven options related to focusing are scattered across three different tabs of the Record menu, with 11 items completely unrelated to focusing interspersed between them.
Translations are occasionally a little clumsy, as well -- for example, the recommendation to "Shoot with fitting into the face frame" when registering a new subject for face recognition.
Thankfully, the quick menu (accessible by pressing the Fn button) has direct access to the most common shooting functions, and eliminates much of the need to jump into the menu once the camera is set up.
Loud shutter. The Sony A7R has a surprisingly loud shutter, which may be an issue if you're shooting in environments where noise is frowned on, or with a skittish subject. In fact, even for street photography -- a genre for which the A7R is otherwise extremely well suited -- you're not going to sneak up on anyone with the A7R, once you've tripped the shutter for the first time nearby.
Moderate performance. The Sony A7R is a great camera in terms of handling and the images it yields, but you shouldn't expect professional or even enthusiast-level SLR performance. Autofocus is slower than most SLRs, even consumer models, and lags the average a little among its compact system camera brethren as well. Shutter lag even when focusing manually is also rather on the slow side, as is burst shooting performance. These conspire to make the A7R a poor choice for sports and other fast-moving subjects.
Just how fast is the Sony A7R? Find out by clicking here to see our full battery
of rigorous, objective speed and operation tests conducted in the IR Lab.
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The Sony A7R can pick up some amazingly fine details. Not only is every detail of the bricks in this church captured, sharp as can be, but the A7R has also picked up the fine mesh over the windows! |
AF tracking. With that said, tracking autofocus -- or Lock-on AF, in Sony parlance -- is still available, and can function either from the first frame in a burst, or from the moment you half-press the shutter button. When Lock-on AF is active, you select the subject with a spot focus point, and the Sony A7R will both move and change the size of the focus area as it deems necessary to continue to track the subject. Unfortunately, I found it to be easily confused with changing subjects.
For example, I shot a bicycle race with the A7R, and while I had initially planted the focus point on the rider's face, Lock-on AF instead roamed onto the legs. I found this a bit surprising, as in my past testing of Sony's NEX-series cameras, I've rarely found them opting to focus on the wrong subject. For slow-moving and stationary subjects, the Sony A7R focuses well.
A few times, I also had issues with the A7R opting to focus on the background instead of foreground subjects. On the plus side, turning on face detection largely eliminated this issue for human subjects, with the A7R then nailing the focus just about every time.
Great for reasonably static subjects. If I had to sum up my opinion of autofocus with the A7R, I'd say that it's the perfect camera with which to take a portrait of a professional athlete -- it's just not the best choice to photograph them playing their sport. But then, the A7R is not designed to be a sports-capturing camera, as evidenced by its modest burst capture performance.
Burst shooting. Burst performance, as I mentioned, isn't really a strong suit of the Sony A7R. (That's really to be expected, given the huge, high-resolution images it produces.)
With autofocus, you'll get around 1.7 frames per second, which means you'll be relying on your reflexes to time the perfect moment for each shot, and the camera's burst rate won't do the heavy lifting for you. In Speed Priority Continuous mode, the A7R offers much greater speed -- exactly four frames per second, according to our testing -- but you lose autofocus. That means you either risk blurry shots if your subject strays beyond the depth of field, or you have to shoot with a narrower aperture to keep them within the depth of field.
Thankfully, the A7R's relatively low noise levels and good sensitivity make this a more feasible proposition than it would be with a crop-sensor camera.
Invest in fast flash cards. I also noticed that the Sony A7R seems to spend a long time writing images to the card. That's to be expected with a sensor with such high resolution, but it brings an issue in terms of operation. If you don't enable the auto-review function, so that images are shown immediately after capture, then you have to wait before the entire buffer is written to flash before you can review any images.
The FE 28-70mm lens -- shooting here at its 70mm focal length -- can yield some deliciously smooth, creamy bokeh.
Depending on the number and file type of images captured, and the speed of your flash card, that can be anywhere from a second or two to as long as a minute, even with a Class 10 SD card, UHS-I cards will definitely show the advantage of their speed in the Sony A7R; our speedy 95MB/second flash card took a more reasonable 15-20 second or thereabouts to clear a full buffer.
The same is true if you decide to switch from still image to video capture: You'll need the buffer to be completely clear before switching types. Fortunately, you can continue to shoot still images if there's buffer space available, even if you'd just shot a quick burst.
Still a pleasure to shoot with. Despite these operational quirks, the A7R is a pleasure to use. It's mostly well thought out, well designed, and comfortable. Buttons are in the right place, the interface works, and you're not faced with a battle to get the camera to do what's needed.
Great new lenses. I tested the A7R with the new FE-mount Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* FE 35mm F2.8 ZA lens, which costs $800. I quickly fell in love with this optic: It only projects a little less than three inches from the front of the camera, and it's one of the sharpest pieces of glass I've used. That's to be expected from Zeiss, a company with which Sony has a long partnership.
I also used the Sony-branded kit lens that's available with the lower-resolution A7, and that's also excellent, but I found it hard to tear myself away from the Zeiss glass. The large sensor in the A7R and that Zeiss optic provide a powerful one-two punch that's hard to resist.
Truly stunning photos. The A7R makes photos that, in my opinion, are better than any mirrorless system on the market. In fact, I think they rival or exceed most of the DSLRs I've ever reviewed. The high-resolution sensor makes for incredible amounts of detail, and thanks to its generous 35mm frame size, you get much greater opportunities to isolate your subject with shallow depth of field than you would with a smaller chip.
View the IR Lab's in-depth Sony A7R image quality test results by clicking here.
Mind-reading exposure metering. I've found that there are two types of camera metering systems -- those that require a lot of fiddling with exposure compensation in order to get a great image, and those that just plain work. The Sony A7R's just plain works. Despite the prominent and easy-to-access exposure compensation dial, I almost never had to tweak the camera's metering. Obviously if I was trying to achieve a certain look I could dial the exposure up or down, but even in challenging lighting situations the camera performed excellently.
For instance, I photographed my wife eating soup in an inside dining hall with backlighting. Many metering systems would have required I adjust the exposure in order to get the shot, but the Sony A7R nailed it all by itself. Perhaps it's smart use of the face-recognition system, but I continued to be impressed as images were delivered with spot-on exposure.
The Sony A7R handled this exposure of my wife quite nicely, exposing for her face rather than the dark hallway and clothing, or the bright outdoors.
Even pros are excited. The resulting shots are luscious, saturated, sharp and beautiful. Everyone I've shown the A7R's images to has been impressed, and several wedding photographer friends have started to think seriously about picking this camera up for themselves, noisy shutter or not. The fact that images this good come from a camera that fits in my coat pocket blows me away.
The A7R is capable of capturing images at sensitivities up to ISO 25,600, and while images shot at the high end of the range do lack the fine detail of lower sensitivities, even they are still surprisingly usable for small to moderately-sized prints. ISO 6400 on the Sony A7R is as usable as ISO 3200 on many Micro Four Thirds cameras, if not more so.
Want to know how the Sony A7R deals with image noise at higher sensitivities?
View the IR Lab's comprehensive A7R noise reduction series by clicking here.
Movie capture. Video shot with the Sony A7R shows good detail, and has the same combination of attractive color and good exposure / white balance as do still images. I did notice a little aliasing and false color, but that's typical of cameras which skip rows of pixels during readout in movie mode -- which is to say, almost all still cameras.
Rolling shutter looks to be fairly well controlled, too. In fact, the biggest issue is that the contrast detection autofocus system induces noticeable hunting around the point of focus. It's also a little slow to catch up when the focus distance changes suddenly. Most experienced videographers will simply disable autofocus, and focus manually or use a narrow aperture to expand the depth of field.
Audio. The built-in stereo mic does a fair job of audio capture, all things considered, and you can adjust the audio levels in 32 steps. You can also monitor levels over a 3.5mm headphone jack, either with near-live or LCD / EVF-synced timing. That's a rather nice touch, and one I haven't seen on many cameras thus far. You can of course attach external mics, and fully manual exposure control is possible too.
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Another high sensitivity sample, shot at ISO 6400. Even after noise reduction is applied, there's still lots of detail left -- you can make out the pixels on the screen in the plane of focus. |
Look for much more info on the A7R's movie capture capabilities in our video page, coming shortly.
Wireless connectivity. Sony has built Wi-Fi wireless networking connectivity including NFC for quick setup on Android devices into the A7R camera body, as well as its in-camera PlayMemories Camera Apps. I tested using two Android products: a Google Nexus 10 tablet, and an HTC One X+ smartphone. Just as with the recently-reviewed Sony RX10, the tablet worked fine, but a connection could never be established to the phone. An app for iOS devices -- the iPhone or iPad -- is also available, but you can't use NFC for easy pairing on Apple devices since they lack the necessary hardware.
Keyboard "fun". Apps must be installed on the camera and updated via a Wi-Fi hotspot or router, and if you have a long Wi-Fi password, entering it on the old-school multi-tap keyboard (similar to that from an old dumbphone) using the four-way controller is a painful experience. And once you're done with that, you have to sign up for a Sony account online, then enter your email address and password on the camera using a different on-screen keyboard more similar to that on a smartphone.
Updatable in-camera apps. On the plus side, these apps make it easier for Sony to add new features to the camera, and you can choose which of those features are important to you. As of mid-December 2013, you can choose from an updated Smart Remote Control app, a Direct Upload app, and a Flickr add-on for Direct Upload.
Remote live shooting. The Smart Remote Control app is the interesting one. It's similar to that which we saw on the Sony RX10, but allows for more features. It also leaves the physical controls on the camera active. You can shoot in Program, Priority, or Manual exposure modes, and can set exposure variables (including shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation, ISO sensitivity, and white balance) as appropriate from the smart device, be it a phone or tablet. You can also touch on the smart device screen to select a point for focus, and trigger autofocus operation.
In addition, you can enable a self-timer, change the live view feed to prioritize speed or quality, and opt for either 2-megapixel or full-size image transfer. Live view quality, while well below the resolution of a tablet like the Nexus 10, is certainly sufficient to get an approximation of focus. And unlike the RX10, images can optionally transfer to your smart device immediately after capture.
Quick transfer. Transfer speeds are also much better than those we saw with the RX10, taking only a couple of seconds to transfer a full-res image, while the live view is similarly snappy. (Perhaps a quarter of a second lag, or less.) Wi-Fi range was also better, on the order of perhaps 20-25 feet, although I still couldn't go out of line-of-sight without the live view image becoming too slow to be usable.
And of course, you can also transfer images you've already shot, handy for when you have rattled off a burst of shots with the camera and then want to review them on a larger screen. Here, you can select images either from the camera or the smart device.
Still-image only. The only area in which the Sony A7R lags the RX10's Wi-Fi feature set is that you can't transfer or shoot movies remotely at all. It's still image or nothing for the A7R. But if you're willing to overlook that, and the relatively limited Wi-Fi range -- which could perhaps be addressed with a repeater of some kind -- the feature is pretty handy, and the ability to adjust exposure from your phone or tablet, then focus on your chosen subject remotely, is cool indeed!
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Handheld shots in low light are eminently feasible when you've got a really large, sensitive image sensor at your disposal. This shot was taken in a reasonably dimly-lit restaurant, as you can tell from how much illumination the small candles provide, yet I still had plenty of scope to drop the shutter speed or raise the sensitivity, had I needed to do so. |
Closing thoughts. The Sony A7R marks a pivotal moment in the development of photography, although at first blush it might look just like a well-designed compact digital camera. It features a full-frame 36 megapixel sensor that provides similar resolution to that of the Nikon D800E, but wrapped in a body that's a fraction of the size and weight. It might not seem amazing to pair a massive full-frame sensor with a tiny body, but with the A7R I feel that Sony has fired a significant shot across the bow of the big two, Nikon and Canon.
That's because photographers have been clamoring for a truly professional-level mirrorless camera, and neither Nikon nor Canon have provided one. While the A7R doesn't have the autofocus performance or burst-shooting rates of professional DSLRs, it ushers in a new era in photographic technology thanks to its combination of stunning image quality and fast-enough-for-many-pros performance.
If I were shooting events full time I'd have already put in an order for an A7R and some FE lenses. Event photographers break their backs lugging around multiple bodies and lenses, and the A7R is capable enough to replace some of that gear -- or all, depending on the photographer -- with a much lighter and yet incredibly high-res package. (It'd be great for weddings, too, were the shutter not quite so loud.) While Nikon and Canon have so far offered only a hint of a mirrorless future, the Sony A7R is already delivering.
With such a high-resolution sensor, the burst shooting rate of the A7R is unfortunately rather slow, although that's not a big issue for me. When I'm capturing subjects at 36-megapixel resolution, I'm not really expecting to get an eight-frame-per-second rate. (Which is fortunate, because the A7R doesn't come anywhere near that -- it tops out at just 4fps even if autofocus is disabled.)
Relative to a DSLR, I think the A7R's biggest miss is its autofocus system. Its only capable of performing contrast detection AF. The simultaneously-released A7 offers fewer pixels but an array of on-sensor phase detect pixels, allowing it to provide hybrid phase / contrast detection autofocus. Canon's EOS 70D digital SLR gives a hint of where I think things are headed, with phase-detect at every pixel on its sensor, albeit with a smaller APS-C sized chip. Look at the image quality of the Sony A7R and the technological breakthrough that Canon has made with the 70D, and I think it's pretty clear that the end of the SLR is nigh.
What's our final verdict on the Sony A7R? Read our detailed A7R review online to find out! http://www.imaging-resource.com/camera-reviews/sony/a7r/
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FEATURE: On Ice: 100 year-old negatives discovered in Antarctic ice
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by Steve Meltzer
Conservators restoring an Antarctic exploration hut recently made a remarkable discovery: a small box of 22 exposed but unprocessed photographic negatives, frozen in a solid block of ice for nearly one hundred years.
These negatives were meticulously processed and restored by a Wellington photography conservator. Antarctic Heritage Trust executive director Nigel Watson said of these never-before-seen images,
"It's the first example that I'm aware of, of undeveloped negatives from a century ago from the Antarctic heroic era. There's a paucity of images from that expedition."
The team from the Antarctic Heritage Trust (NZ) discovered the box in a corner of one of the many supply depots Robert Falcon Scott established for his doomed Terre Nova Expedition to the South Pole (1910-1913). Though Scott reached the Pole, he and his party died of starvation and the extreme cold on their return trip.
The hut was used next by the Ross Sea Party of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914-1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. It is believed that this party left the undeveloped negatives.
The Ross Sea Party's expedition is one of those extraordinary efforts in an era of heroic exploration that today has been all but forgotten. In January 1915, the exploration ship Aurora dropped off Shackleton's head scientist, the team's photographer and eight other men on the shore of the McMurdo Sound in the Ross Sea with provisions and equipment to set supply depots for the rest of the team.
Shackleton's would start from the opposite side of Antarctica on the shore of the Weddell Sea, venture to the South Pole then rely on supply depots set by the Ross Sea party for their trip to McMurdo sound. The Aurora would winter offshore, providing a safe haven for the both groups upon their return. Little about the trip went according to plan.
The Aurora broke free from her moorings during a blizzard and was blown out to sea, leaving the Ross Sea Party stranded on the ice.
Despite incredibly harsh conditions and the loss of the Aurora, the marooned men continued to lay food and equipment stations for Shackleton's crossing. But in their isolation, they were unaware that he had been forced to abandon the crossing after the Endurance was crushed in pack ice, making their supply depots unnecessary.
It was not until January 1917 that the Aurora returned to rescue the Ross Sea Party. By then three men had died, including Arnold Patrick Spencer-Smith, the party's photographer. These images bear witness to the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
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QUICK HITS: The most read, most compelling articles posted on IR recently
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Sigma 24-105mm f/4 OS lens review: A hefty, but high-quality full-frame zoom that rivals the big guys
by William Brawley
We've just posted our Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM "A" lens review, and by most accounts, it's another fantastic lens from the folks over at Sigma. Things are cranking away, full-steam ahead with its "Global Vision" lenses, with the release of this highly versatile 24-105mm image-stabilized model. The Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM �A� is a high-performance, full-frame, Art-series lens with a constant f/4 aperture and Optical Stabilizer I.S. system, and competes directly against the Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS and Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR G lenses. Sigma also plans to release a Sony Alpha version of this lens, though this model will not include OS, as Sony cameras have in-body sensor shift image stabilization.
This is a new model for Sigma -- not an update to an older lens -- and joins their already extensive and quite well-regarded lens lineup. Just like Sigma's previous Global Vision lenses, this versatile, stabilized zoom lens has shown to be another great choice for users looking for an alternative to the major camera manufacturers' offerings. Optically, the Sigma 24-105 produced impressive results, with sharp images on both full- and sub-frame lenses, while other characteristics like vignetting were a bit on the strong side.
Jump on over to SLRgear to read our full Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM "A" lens review to see our test results and read our final verdict.
The Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM �A� is currently available in Canon-mount for $899 and ships with a bayonet-style, petal-shaped lens hood, front and rear caps and a soft case. The Nikon-, Sony Alpha- and Sigma-mount versions are currently available for pre-order (as of this publishing date) at the same price. The Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM �A� can be ordered from Adorama, B&H or Amazon. By purchasing this lens (or any other product) at one of our trusted affiliates, using the links we provide, you help keep these reviews
coming!
In the meantime, check out some sample photos below taken by Rob, our lens specialist, with the lens mounted on the Canon 1Ds Mark III, over at our Flickr page.
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REVIEW: Olympus Stylus 1 First Hands-on Report: Shooter's Report, Part I - Dreamy Bokeh on a Budget
by Dave Pardue
When a camera company unveils a new product it's generally accompanied with claims about all the special features embedded within, so I went to the Olympus website and read their claim that the Stylus 1 and its fixed i.Zuiko f/2.8 lens could: "...produce pro-quality stills with beautiful, defocused background..." That's quite a bold statement, but the sharp subject and gorgeous blurred background in the image below are proof that they're onto something rather good with this unique little camera. Let's take a closer look!
At a price point of US$700 we're no longer in traditional consumer camera territory, but have instead entered "enthusiast" land, that nether world between the consumer and the professional market. Enthusiasts often have particular styles or types of shooting they gravitate to... wildlife, portraiture, street shooting, etc... and as such are naturally interested in finding tools to support their particular style.
So when we at IR saw the Stylus 1 for the first time, most of us scratched our heads and asked "who is this camera for?"
While all of us at IR like cameras from a variety of manufacturers, I feel I should let you in on a little secret: Most of us have one brand that we lean towards and/or own personally, and for me that brand is Olympus. In fact, the first camera I bought with my own money after joining IR was the XZ-1, a terrific little compact that has the same sensor size as the Stylus 1, but in a smaller package and costing hundreds less (but with much less zoom range, I should add). Olympus fan that I am, though, I still wondered whether there was really a case to be made for a camera with a 1/1.7" sensor selling for $700.
I'm happy to report that after just a short time with this camera, I realized something rather interesting: It can do what few other cameras at this price point can do, and that's produce terrific portraits and nature shots that include the highly coveted "creamy bokeh" at the shallow depths of field often seen in many professional and commercial photographs.
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| 242mm eq., f/2.8, 1/800s, ISO 100 |
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| 300mm eq., f/4, 1/500s, ISO 160 |
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| 182mm eq., f/4, 1/250s, ISO 200 |
Skimming the cream. Not all background blur (aka: bokeh) is created equal. It comes in a variety of different "flavors", some of which are highly desired and others not so much. The flavor that most pros and enthusiasts strive for yields results that are often described as "buttery" or "creamy", and like a fine Bordeaux or a fabulous French soup, the achievement often takes quite some doing.
"Good" bokeh depends on quite a number of factors, not least of which is the right composition and technical execution of the shot (it's obviously best if you can keep background elements as far away as possible), but the gear is certainly important as well. The "hat-trick" for achieving creamy bokeh is a complex combination of lens quality, the aperture blade configuration, and being able to achieve your desired depth of field. This used to require high-dollar rigs that had large sensors and therefore high price tags and lots of heft. That has changed a lot over the last few years with the smaller mirrorless APS-C and Micro Four Thirds cameras, and the landscape changes even more with the introduction of the Olympus Stylus 1 (and another new competitor, the Sony RX10).
The law of physics states that the larger your sensor, the larger your optics must be in order to achieve a given field of view, which explains why a camera with a tiny (1/2.3") sensor can achieve such extraordinary zoom ranges and still remain relatively compact. It also explains why a truly "professional" rig looks gargantuan in comparison, since the pros use full-frame cameras that require a large body and an even larger lens for telephoto shots. The Stylus 1 and the Sony RX10 come in between these two extremes, both in size and in price, but the Stylus 1 is quite a bit smaller and much more affordable than the RX10 (list: $1300), although the RX10 has a sensor with roughly 2.7 times the area.
The Olympus Stylus 1 sports a constant aperture 28-300mm equivalent f/2.8 lens. As of this writing it is the only fixed lens camera other than the Panasonic FZ200 to achieve this (the FZ200 offers a much larger zoom range, though, at 25-600mm eq.), and also one of the only cameras in this price range and sensor size capable of delivering such a shallow depth of field. Sure, you can buy a lens for your ILC to do this, but you'll leave this price territory far behind in the process, and you'll also have to give up the relatively small size of the Stylus 1. After all, this little guy may not be a true compact by strict definition, but it fits quite easily into a vest or coat pocket and is quite light for what it can deliver. And Olympus has a solid track record with lens quality, having delivered some terrific offerings across the Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds lines for many years now, and even providing some of the best compact lenses to date (including the terrific lens
on the XZ-1 and XZ-2).
| The Olympus Stylus 1 - Shallow Depth of Field Potential |
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| 300mm eq., f/3.5, 1/640s, ISO 100 |
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How shallow can you go? The first shot above shows the full image, and the second a crop from it to showcase just how shallow your depth of field possibilities are with the Stylus 1. These two ducks are less than a foot apart, but the top one is nice and crisp while the lower duck is quite blurred, giving the overall image a good sense of depth and isolation of the primary subject. |
Ducks are easy targets, though, because they're slow and most don't mind being fairly close to people, so for the next test I wanted to try my hand at capturing a few faster birds. Most of the subjects out on the day I chose to shoot were very quick movers who don't like being close to people, so I felt they'd be a real test. Yes, I had the bird feeders to lure them in, but that was little help to ease their trepidation regarding my presence.
I knew the Stylus 1 had the zoom range I would need for the shots I was trying to capture, and the fast AF required to react quickly to the speed of these particular birds, but I discovered one additional benefit to this camera as compared to mirrorless and SLR cameras in its price range, and that was virtually silent operation when the sounds are switched off. I was able to position myself fairly close to the action and fire away without frightening them too badly, allowing for nice close-ups that yet again had the subject to background isolation I was hoping for. The Stylus 1 should be especially interesting to nature photographers or anyone needing a measure of stealth compared to the "clack" from a typical interchangeable-lens camera shutter.
I also grew to love the simple controls on the front of the Stylus 1. Having a zoom lever instead of worrying about manual zoom simplified certain shots, such as zeroing in on the fast birds below. I often found myself flipping the convenient toggle beside the lens that allows for jumping back and forth between manual and automatic focus. With my right forefinger on the zoom lever, my right middle finger on the focus toggle and my left middle finger on the control ring (which acts as a focus ring while in manual focus) I was able to rapidly adjust both zoom and focus while still being ready to fire away at will.
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| 300mm eq., f/2.8, 1/640s, ISO 400 |
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| 242mm eq., f/2.8, 1/160s, ISO 800 |
A fast and stealthy performer. This Titmouse and the Red-bellied Woodpecker were not particularly fond of me being close by, but the Stylus 1 had the zoom range, fast AF and quiet operation I needed to get pretty good shots of these two shy customers. |
Now let's talk about the obvious trade-off that I'm sure some of you are concerned about: that relatively small sensor housed inside the Olympus Stylus 1. To many enthusiast shooters, a 1/1.7" sensor is simply too small to be worth considering for their needs, and is in fact less than half the area of the sensor inside the compact Sony RX100 II, and less than a quarter the area of Micro Four Thirds sensors inside so many of Olympus' enthusiast lines. The smaller sensor, however, is why the Stylus 1 can be so small and yet deliver such great zoom range at a constant f/2.8 aperture. When you migrate upward to even a 1"-type sensor like the one found in the Stylus 1's closest rival, the enthusiast zoom Sony RX10, the body size and weight needed to house the lens grows substantially, even though the RX10 is only capable of 200mm equivalent at its maximum telephoto setting, compared to the Stylus 1's 300mm (the RX10 does go much wider, though, to 24mm equivalent).
The most common complaint about smaller sensors is their poor image quality at high ISOs, and typically poor performance under dim lighting, so I took the Stylus 1 indoors and out at dusk for some lower light and higher ISO tests. The results were much better than I'd anticipated given its sensor size, and while not of the caliber you can expect from much larger sensors, I was still pretty pleased with what this relatively small camera could do under these challenging conditions.
| The Olympus Stylus 1 - Low Light and ISO Testing |
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| 28mm eq., f/2.8, 1/160s, ISO 800 |
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| 182mm eq., f/2.8, 1/30s, ISO 1600 |
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| 124mm eq., f/2.8, 1/20s, ISO 2500 |
How high can you go? While smaller sensors have traditionally struggled with noise as ISO rises, the Stylus 1 packs a decent low-light punch for its modest sensor size, thanks in part to its relatively fast lens. Above are images shot at ISO 800, ISO 1600 and ISO 2500. Click on any image to see it at full resolution. |
Bokeh. When the lens is wide-open at f/2.8, it renders pleasing circular blur patterns to smaller background elements like the little holiday lights in one of our gallery shots. Below are images that show this in more detail, as well as crops of the images to allow a closer inspection of the effect.
We'll add some shots with the lens stopped-down a bit soon, as aperture blade configurations with fewer sides tend to render blur patterns that are less circular and more polygonal in nature, which is often viewed from an artistic perspective as less desirable.
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| 124mm eq., f/2.8, 1/200s, ISO 200 |
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| 300mm eq., f/2.8, 1/40s, ISO 320 |
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The above two images were taken wide-open. The first and third image are of the full shot, with a crop of the shot below each to showcase the blur patterns. You'll notice just a hint of axial chromatic aberration (the faint green ring) in the holiday light bokeh, but it's quite a bit less than we're accustomed to seeing. You'll also note the "onion-right" effect, which is generally the result of aspheric elements in the lens itself or diffraction. This is generally undesirable but doesn't occur often, and perfectly smooth circles are the ideal. (For more detailed information on bokeh please click here.) |
In summary for part 1 of my Olympus Stylus 1 Shooter's Report, the shallow depth of field and dreamy bokeh possible with this $700 fixed lens camera is astonishing. It spurred me to look for other cameras to compare it to in this price range, and I simply couldn't find any. Yes, there are plenty of fabulous interchangeable-lens cameras out there for under $700, but a high quality constant aperture lens of this caliber for any of them will take you well over the Stylus 1's price point. As mentioned, the Sony RX10 has a larger sensor and gets close in the zoom department, but stops at 200mm vs the Stylus 1's 300mm equivalent. Bottom line, there just isn't a competitor currently on the market that can do all the things that the Stylus 1 can do at anywhere near this price.
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Stay tuned for Part II of my Olympus Stylus 1 Shooter's Report, where I'll explore additional features and uses for this cool little camera including testing its mettle as a capable street shooter in a busy downtown area. In the meantime, head over to the Stylus 1 Gallery page for a closer look at this first batch of sample gallery images.
*(Special note to our readers: Many of you may already know, but it's worthwhile repeating once again, that we never apply any post-processing to our gallery images, other than a size reduction for showing them onscreen. All images you see are straight-from-the-camera JPEGs, and clicking on the images will take you to a page where you can access the full size image exactly as the camera produced it. You're welcome to download these for your own testing purposes, play with them in post-processing, etc., to help you further evaluate the cameras' potential for your own individual shooting needs. Please contact us for permission to use for commercial purposes, or on another website.)*
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Samsung Galaxy NX First Shots: Can this smart device deliver enthusiast-grade image quality?
by Dave Pardue
Samsung calls their new Galaxy NX camera "The most connected compact system camera in the world." This is certainly fitting considering it's the first interchangeable lens camera that's also a smart device. In fact, the possibilities embedded in this camera are pretty astounding, such as the camera's ability to guide you back to the exact spot where you took a recent photo.
But what about the image quality? Well, the Galaxy NX is not only an ILC but also sports an APS-C sensor, thereby merging several formerly distant worlds all at once. Add an effective resolution of 20.3 megapixels, a hybrid autofocus system and a reported burst shooting speed of 8.6 frames per second and we're certainly now in enthusiast photographer territory.
Of course, the $1,700 list price is also clearly in that territory, making image quality paramount to the equation. We therefore offer you a glimpse at our First Shots from the Galaxy NX camera. You can check out the Galaxy NX's test images on their own, or use our Comparometer� to pit its pictures against those taken with the Samsung NX300, or any other camera we've ever tested. Go check out the images, then circle back and let us know what you think about the Galaxy NX's image quality.
See First Shots taken with the Samsung Galaxy NX here. And be sure to read our Samsung Galaxy NX first impressions for a closer look at the camera's features. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for our complete Samsung Galaxy NX review!
* Use our Still Life target images to look for detail (tone-on-tone, fine, highlights, shadows), as well as noise suppression, white balance, color accuracy and color shape retention. They're shot at the full range of ISOs to show how many of these factors change as ISO rises.
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Innovative Tripods With Cool New Features: When modern ingenuity meets the greatest photographic accessory of all time
by Jason Schneider
The origins of the tripod are lost in the mists of time, but according to Homer, the Ancient Greeks gave them as gifts. Of course, photography wasn't all that popular back in 450 B.C.E. and the tripods he was referring to supported ceremonial cauldrons, not cameras. And here's a fascinating factoid: The oldest photographic standard fitting currently in use is the � x 20 tripod screw and socket. It dates to about 1880 and is still the most common way of affixing a camera to a tripod. Until the 1860s photography without a tripod or studio stand was virtually impossible due to the excruciatingly low sensitivity of Daguerreotypes and wet plates, and only when manufactured dry plates (that would be rated at around IS0 3!) came on the market did it become possible to take handheld pictures in bright sunlight. In other words, we can thank the humble tripod for (ahem) helping to get photography on its feet.
In many ways the tripod is a simple device whose basic concept of stability through triangulation has stood the test of time. However, over the last 10 years or so the quality, finish, and general design of tripods has vastly improved, and the choice of materials has expanded to include various forms of hi-tech carbon fiber as well as hybrid construction. Today, serious enthusiasts have a staggering choice of well-designed, beautifully-made tripods, and often at very attractive prices. This boon for us has created fierce competition among tripod manufacturers, and a fascinating by-product of this golden age of tripod development is serious design innovation.
While many of the features we've focused on are indeed ingenious and useful, there are no levitating tripods on this list and none of them will brew your espresso. Still, it's nice to see that there is still technological progress and innovation even in the most conservative and essential of photographic devices. The tripod is still the badge of the professional photographer, and using one is still the surest way to get shaper pictures. And remember, the best tripod is the one you take with you!
See our full article for all our suggestions of innovative tripods!
(Maybe a great use for some of that holiday cash you're about to get!)
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NEW ON THE SITE
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At http://www.imaging-resource.com/new-on-ir you can keep track of what's new on our main site. Among the highlights since the last issue:
- Rules are meant to be broken: To hell with blown highlights: the importance of experimentation and working the scene (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/12/13/to-hell-with-blown-highlights-the-importance-of-experimentation-and-working)
- 4K Fun: First official 4k footage from Blackmagic Production Camera released (VIDEO) (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/12/19/first-official-4k-footage-from-blackmagic-production-camera-released-video)
- X-Series goes Xtra-wide: Fujifilm announces the Fujinon XF 10-24mm f/4 R OIS wide-angle lens (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/12/18/fujifilm-announces-the-fujinon-xf-10-24mm-f-4-r-ois-wide-angle-lens)
- But not Xtra large: Fujifilm not coming up with full frame X-mount camera, according to manager (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/12/17/fujifilm-not-coming-up-with-full-frame-x-mount-camera-according-to-manager)
- Snapped in the blink of an eye: Google Glass gets wink activated camera, iOS app in the works (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/12/18/google-glass-gets-wink-activated-camera-ios-app-in-the-works)
- The Sony Shuffle: Management reshuffle sees new president, chairman for Sony Electronics (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/12/18/management-reshuffle-sees-new-president-chairman-for-sony-electronics)
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NEXT ISSUE
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We'll see you next on December 27, with a regularly scheduled edition (and lots more news and analysis to share)!
SIGNOFF
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That's it for now, but between issues visit our site for the latest news, reviews, or to have your questions answered in our free discussion forum. Here are the links to our most popular pages:
Newsletter Archive: http://www.imaging-resource.com/cgi-bin/dada-nltr/mail.cgi/archive/irnews
Daily News: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news
SLR Gear: http://www.slrgear.com
New on Site: http://www.imaging-resource.com/new-on-ir
Review Index: http://www.imaging-resource.com/camera-reviews
IR Photo Contest: http://www.dailydigitalphoto.com
Google + http://plus.google.com/+imagingresource
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/imagingresource
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/IR_Lab
Happy snapping!
Dave Etchells & the IR Editorial Team
editor@imaging-resource.com
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