ilcs

Sony's small Alpha NEX-C3 (hands-on)

In August, Sony plans to replace its Alpha NEX-3 interchangeable-lens camera with the smaller, but not tremendously different, NEX-C3. Now in its second generation, the NEX line has proven to be popular; I generally liked the NEX-5 (we never reviewed the NEX-3) thanks to excellent photo quality and an attractive, compact design, though I still think the line is a bit expensive for people seeking to upgrade from a point and shoot. Sony also announced a replacement model in its SLT lineup, the Alpha SLT-A35.

Overall, I enjoy shooting with the NEX-C3. It's thinner than its predecessor, with the same width and height, but because anything other than a small prime lens tends to overwhelm the tiny body, you generally have to hold the camera in your left hand under the lens. Because it's so narrow, it's a bit difficult to hold and shoot single handed, despite the small grip.

Sony didn't, um, overwhelm the C3 with new features. There's a new Photo Creativity interface in its intelligent auto mode, which provides friendlier ways of accessing advanced settings, such as background defocus, color vividness, and brightness, that we've seen in a lot of cameras. Sony also adds Picture Effects, with the same sort of filters we're used to seeing from other cameras, including selective-color R, Y, G or B; toy camera (vignetting); and posterizing, pop art (vivid color), and retro (faded). You can layer the effects together before shooting, which is nice, but you can't adjust the quality or intensity of the effects like you can with Olympus' models, and I found the results rather ho-hum. It also pulls in the Soft Skin effect from the Cybershots. … Read more

Panasonic's Lumix DMC-G3 is a step in the right direction

Succeeding the G2, the long-rumored Lumix DMC-G3 is Panasonic's reaction to finally getting the fact that most of the people buying these interchangeable-lens cameras (ILCs) are stepping up from a point-and-shoot rather than sideways from a dSLR. That's partly what's driving Panasonic--and therefore Best Buy--to dub these "compact system cameras"; they want people to mentally associate them with the compact cameras they're replacing.

But calling them compact doesn't necessarily make them so. While the G3 is substantially smaller than the G2, it's still pretty large to be considered compact. (I even trip over calling smaller enthusiast models like the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 "compact.") Only Sony's NEX models, which are about as small as you can make them while still fitting a mount for a decent-size lens, really qualify, and they do so by jettisoning both a viewfinder and a flash.

And in Panasonic's product line the Lumix DMC-G3 is not considered the compact model: it's the step up from the GF2 with a built-in electronic viewfinder and a physical mode dial, as well with as a deeper (and I think more comfortable) grip. It retains the same flip-and-twist LCD and relatively well thought-out interface, too.

Here's Panasonic's current ILC lineup:… Read more

Samsung's 2011 NX lens lineup

In the face of early February's partner announcements for Micro Four Thirds and Sony E-mount lenses, Samsung must be feeling the squeeze for its proprietary NX-mount interchangeable-lens camera (ILC) family. That may explain why Samsung's announcement of its entire 2011 NX lens roadmap now strikes me as a somewhat too-little-too-late-ish. Samsung offers an NX adapter for Pentax K-mount lenses, and Novoflex offers a variety of "dumb" adapters (which can't take advantage of the cameras' features), but these are hardly substitutes for real third-party lenses designed for the system.

More annoyingly, the company has, once again, refused to provide pricing, even for the products it expects to ship the soonest. The point of the announcements is to keep you from buying into a competing system, but witholding prices undercuts the warm-and-fuzzy feeling of future certainty the announcement is supposed to generate. But I'll view this as Samsung kindly providing us with the opportunity to use our imaginations. So let's play "The Price is Right." … Read more

43rumors: Nikon will announce mirrorless ILC in April

The good folks over at rumor blog 43rumors are quite certain that come April, Nikon will unveil a professional mirrorless interchangeable lens camera (ILC). The article has been stamped "FT5," a label the site uses to indicate that its sources are almost certainly correct.

While there have been plenty of rumors about Nikon entering the mirrorless ILC segment to compete with Olympus, Panasonic, Sony, and Samsung, it seems those speculations have so far remained, well, speculations.

43rumors has a good track record when it comes to accuracy. Rumors deemed FT5 on the blog site always turn out to … Read more

Trends in digital photography: The not so good

There's a lot to like about how digital photography is evolving. But that doesn't mean every trend is positive. At a minimum, some technologies are taking longer to mature than some of us might wish.

Interchangeable Lens Compacts (ILCs) are a case in point. Significantly smaller than today's dSLRs, they're also referred to as micro-4/3 (after the mirrorless interchangeable lens standard used by many of these cameras) or the somewhat tongue in cheek EVIL which alludes to the Electronic Viewfinder that's an option for most models in this class.

ILCs are certainly an exciting concept. … Read more

Hands-on with the Olympus E-PL2

For its latest addition to the PEN ILC line, Olympus makes a few design and feature enhancements to its E-PL1 Micro Four Thirds camera, resulting in the subtly--but not significantly improved, E-PL2.

The most obvious functional differences include a larger LCD, multiple variations for come of the Art Filters, support for the new accessory connector and redesign of the buttons. It also supports an extra stop of sensitivity, up to ISO 6,400.

Olympus E-PL1 Olympus E-PL2 Panasonic Lumix DMC-G10 Samsung NX100 Sony Alpha NEX-3 Sensor (effective resolution) 12.3-megapixel Live MOS 12.3-megapixel Live MOS 12.1-megapixel Live … Read more

Samsung announces minor update to NX10 ILC

Jumping the CES gun by a little bit, Samsung decided on an early announcement for a couple of its 2011 cameras. In addition to the WB700, the company is adding the NX11 to its interchangeable-lens camera line. Ostensibly a follow-on, rather than replacement for the NX10, the NX11 seems to offer minor tweaks and a different kit for a slightly lower price.

The main change over the NX10 is support for the i-Function lens system that was introduced with the NX100. i-Function allows you to use one of the lens rings to adjust shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation, white balance, … Read more

Nikon interchangeable-lens camera for 2011?

Sitting somewhere between point-and-shoot bridge cameras and digital SLRs are mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras (ILC). Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, and Olympus are the manufacturers leading the way, while Canon and Nikon are seemingly waiting it out. However, according to Taiwan's DigiTimes, Nikon is ready to move forward.

Of course, there are no specifics about the cameras, but a comment sourced to Nikon says its new mirrorless camera will help expand its ILC market share in Asia Pacific to 40 percent in 2011 and 50 percent in 2012.

Not that Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, and Olympus aren't big names, but it's … Read more

Panasonic woos prosumer videographers with the GH2

Owners of the video-optimized Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 have been hacking away at it for months, trying to get higher bit rates out of the poor thing--the latest hack claims 86 megabits per second. (To recap, the higher the data bit rate is at a given resolution and frame rate, the better the video quality; it's a measure of compression.) Now they get to start all over again for the GH2, which doesn't offer astronomical bit rates, a limitation of its AVCHD format, but does offer video and still shooters a few other sought-after enhancements.

Most important, the GH2 incorporates a new sensor, which drives at a higher frame rate--it can natively output 60p vs. 24p. That, and a bump to the AVCHD maximum bit rate of 24 megabits per second, are almost guaranteed to deliver improved results over the GH1; that's equivalent to current AVCHD-based prosumer camcorders. While the GH1 had a flip-and-twist LCD, the GH2's is a touch screen, which has the potential to make rack focus doable for the nonvideographer, and theoretically offers improved color rendering, especially in the reds and blues. The camera now provides a microphone levels meter and a much-demanded HDMI connector. Panasonic also claims to have improved wobble suppression during full-time autofocus, and added the capability to record specifically for slower or faster playback. And for the consumer, Intelligent Auto mode now works in video capture.

For still shooters, Panasonic claims it has the best image quality of the G series; it uses the new noise reduction algorithms as the LX5. The company has also worked on speed, saying its autofocus is twice as fast as its predecessor, beating out some of the fast phase-detection systems in some popular dSLRs (it uses three image processors compared to 2 in the GH1). The EVF is slightly higher resolution, but the image-processing engine performs some aberration correction in the viewfinder; because of the faster sensor, the viewfinder should refresh faster as well.

Here's the current field:… Read more

Samsung flexes young photo muscles with NX100

COLOGNE, Germany--Samsung, showing off its new higher-end compact NX100 camera, declared its ambition Monday to become a power in the camera industry.

"I believe the NX100 will be the catalyst for photo innovations in the digital camera industry and will propel Samsung forward to become one of the world's leading manufacturers," said Sangjin Park, president of Samsung's digital imaging division, speaking at press event at the Photokina show here.

Compact ILC (interchangeable lens camera) models are all the rage as the industry seeks to build new demand in a somewhat saturated market. Olympus and Panasonic led the way with their compatible Micro Four Thirds models, and Samsung and Sony have now arrived with models of their own featuring a larger sensor and their own proprietary lens mounts. These higher-end models aren't cheap: Samsung's costs $599 with a 20-50mm lens and $649 with a 20mm lens.

The ILC trend is still in its early days, though, and InfoTrends analyst Ed Lee believes it'll take the arrival of the industry's high-end camera powerhouses, Canon and Nikon, to truly legitimize the market.

But Samsung isn't waiting. Front and center in the effort to make more usable cameras is a new feature called i-Function to control camera settings that the company hopes will attain that holy grail, a camera that's easy to use but that offers a wealth of creative possibilities. Control over details such as shutter speed and aperture has never been simple, but Samsung promises i-Function will be different.

It works through a button on the side of an i-Function-compatible lens, of which Samsung plans a range that begins with a 20mm f2.8 pancake and a 20-50mm f3.5-5.6 zoom. Pushing the button cycles through various parameters that can be set--shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and exposure compensation--while turning the lens' focus ring changes the setting. … Read more