Digital Camera Fiend - A Camera Review

Darkfield, originally uploaded by Strobe2go.

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I decided to look into the new Nikon P5000 after seeing that it won a TIPA award for best compact digital camera. (TIPA is a European association of photography and imaging professionals).

It seems the acclaim for the P5000 is not universal. Reviewers from dpreview.com gave it a tepid recommendation and stated that the Canon Powershot G7 is a better camera in this field.

Among the writer’s criticisms, the P5000 has a very slow focus and slightly sluggish performance overall. Say no more! Nobody wants a sluggish digital camera. The writer also noted that anything above ISO 400 is noisy and the ISO 3200 function is “totally pointless,” and that the sound cuts out before the end of movie clips in video mode.

“The P5000 is a product that…has an achilles heel that we feel is important enough to reduce its rating,” the reviewer stated, referring to its sluggish performance. “[This] has a serious effect on the overall usability of an otherwise excellent camera.”

On the other hand, if you plan to use this camera for landscape shots, it will perform beautifully. Just stay away from fast action or point and shoot social snapping in low light.

Sounds like a dud of a camera, not an award-winner, to me. I thought TIPA’s other picks (the Nikon D40x and the Nikon 55-200mm VR lens) were brilliant. But if the reviewer from dpreview.com is right, they missed the boat on the P5000.

Nikon has put a lot of great products on the market in the past year, and its efforts have not gone unnoticed.

The Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) has tapped three recent Nikon products for best photographic and imaging awards: the Nikon 55-200mm VR lens, the D40x Digital SLR camera, and the COOLPIX P5000 compact camera.

TIPA, a non-profit European organization, is composed of professionals from the photo and imaging publishing industry. We were very happy to see that two of the items they selected for awards happened to be products that digital camera fiend also highly recommended.

We raved about the D40X as did the TIPA judges in their official comments calling it “an excellent DSLR for those entering the world of digital photography. [It has] superb image quality and a very fast shutter response.”

The 55-200mm VR telephoto zoom lens has been called the best lens of the year by photographer Ken Rockwell. TIPA judges praised its VR (vibration reduction) technology, which helps cancel out camera shake.
“Thanks to the VR mode, it is possible to shoot sharp images with up to three stops less light,” judges said, calling it the “perfect complement for the standard 18-55mm lens.”

And last we have the COOLPIX P5000, a product I admit I am not too familiar with. The TIPA judges liked the amount of manual control in this point and shoot camera.

[The P5000] brings the creative controls of a DSLR into the body of a compact camera,” one judge said.

This high-end compact camera is crammed with a 10-megapixel sensor, a 2.5 LCD screen as well as an optical viewer for traditionalists, and fast access to manual modes.

All in all, a stellar year for Nikon.

Digital Photo Review, the web’s authoritative source for information on digital cameras, was just acquired by Amazon.com, according to officials from both companies.

DPReview.com was founded in 1998 as a hobby site and has morphed into a comprehensive camera review site that attracts seven million visitors a month.

The site has tremendous search engine clout: type in any digital camera model into Google and odds are a dpreview.com page will be among the first search results.
The visitor growth, while phenomenal, has posed challenges.
“One of the difficulties of operating dpreview independently has been the balance between producing content and delivering new site features,” said Phil Askey, founder of dpreview.com. “Now, with the support of Amazon, I’ll be able to devote more of my time to expanding and improving our features–such as product reviews and discussion forums, while still delivering the high-quality content that our readers have come to expect.”

Amazon, no doubt, is hoping dpreview will drive traffic to its site where it sells everything from digital cameras and lenses to photo printers and paper.

Said Amazon CEO and Founder Jeff Bezos: “DPreview.com is by far the most authoritative source anywhere for straight talk about new digital cameras. We at Amazon.com have been their fans for a long time…”

This sounds like a win for both entities. I’m excited to see how dpreview.com will be able to expand its site features and product reviews with resources from Amazon. I just hope they remain editorially objective and don’t become the pawns of a large corporate entity. Time will tell.

don’t shoot, originally uploaded by Tatiana Cardeal.

Talk about an interesting juxtaposition. This photo, taken by Brazilian photographer Tatiana Cardeal, is part of a brilliant set which chronicles a youth outreach program called Afroreggae. Members of the program are performing at a meeting inside the headquarters of the Rio de Janeiro military police.

The slums or favelas of Rio de Janeiro are some of the most dangerous, crime-ridden neighborhoods in the world. This particular Afroreggae event was an attempt to bridge policemen and the favela people. I think the picture says it all.

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The Megapixel Myth is one of the great marketing ploys of our time. Many consumers are convinced that the more megapixels a camera has, the better the pictures.

In the words of NY Times tech writer David Pogue: “It’s a big fat lie.”

Digital camera manufacturers know that the general public believes this myth. They propogate it because it sells more cameras. They can get away with upgrading their point-and-shoot cameras to a higher megapixel count and charging the consumer more.

It’s nothing more than “a profit-driven hype to make you pay to much,” according to professional photographer Ken Rockwell.

A megapixel is one million tiny colored dots in a photo. A few years ago, 3.2 megapixels was standard for an average compact camera. Now, anything less than 7 seems obsolete. But is it?

Pogue tested the Megapixel Myth on a Discovery Channel TV Series called, “It’s all Geek to Me.” He created three versions of the same photo: one was 5 megapixels, one was 8 megapixels, and one was 13 megapixels.

He then asked a marquis New York graphic imaging company to print each one at postersize: 16 by 24 inches.

The photos were mounted on a wall in Union Square in Manhatten and Pogue set to work, asking passers-by if they could see any difference. More than 200 people were polled, and only ONE person correctly guessed which was the low resolution picture.

Pogue’s conclusion: “For the non-professional, five or six megapixels is plenty, even if you intend to make postersize prints.”

It’s a disappointing conclusion for many who rely on the megapixel number as a sort of letter grade for a camera. The best bet is to pay more attention to a camera’s lens, circuitry, and sensor.

Asking someone what the best camera is, is like asking what the best food or best movie is: totally subjective and based on personal preference.

David Pogue, tech writer extraordinaire for the New York Times, can’t tell you how many times readers pose the ‘best camera’ question to him.

“That’s a crazy question,” Pogue says on his blog. “There are so many models and so many people with different priorities.”

That said, he decided to humor his legions of readers and posted a Best electronics list that includes two cameras: the Canon SD800IS and the Nikon D40.

Canon’s SD800 IS (the IS stands for Image Stabilizer) is a 7.1 megapixel compact digital camera with a 3.8x zoom. It’s the best camera that fits in your pocket, according to Pogue.

He especially praised the SD800’s image stablizer which, “saves about 90 percent of the low-light photos that would otherwise have been ruined by blur.”

The camera also has face recognition technology, ISO capabilities of up to 1600 and an easy-to-use interface. DP Review.com also recommended the Canon SD800 IS, but complained that the ISO 800 and 1600 were of limited use and that there is very little manual control. The older version, the SD700, is better, DP Review said.

The Nikon D40 has received heaps of praise from reviewers, and is Pogue’s pick for ‘Best Amateur SLR camera’. This entry-level DSLR camera is great for SLR beginners.

The Nikon D40 takes features from the more advanced Nikon D50 but is more lightweight and significantly lower priced. It’s a solid, well-built camera with an insanely low price.

“The price is amazing ($530) considering everything you get: fast startup, zero shutter lag, fast autofocus, big sensor, spacious and bright viewfinder, big screen,” Pogue wrote in his blog.

He says it’s a better buy than Canon’s Digital Rebel, which he finds awkward to hold and handle compared to the Nikon.

Although the D40 is barely six months old, Nikon has already updated it with the D40x, which has 10.2 megapixels compared to the D40’s 6.1 megapixels.

But seriously, unless you are going to be doing professional poster-size prints, you don’t need more than six megapixels. The D40 gets the job done and image quality differences are negligible.

Don’t forget to take a look at the best lens for the Nikon D40 and D40x. This one is also a bargain and would be a great addition to your lens kit.