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December 15, 2006

[ THAT WAS THE DIGITAL YEAR THAT WAS ]

2006 HAS BEEN THE YEAR THAT has seen steady, evolutionary developments in digital photography. There have been no radical breakthroughs in either cameras or peripherals. By and large the equipment on offer has been an improvement on what has gone before, but not always.

Most camera companies appear to be in the grip of pixel madness and this year we have seen compact cameras that have had too many pixels for their own good. If there is one piece of advice that we can give from testing the 2006 crop it is this: 7 megapixels is enough for any compact camera. Above the pixel density image quality deteriorates.

 The best compacts we tested this year were the Canon Ixus 800is ($650) and the Sony DSC W100 ($580). The Canon has a 6mp sensor, 4x zoom and in-lens image stabilisation. It is in a gorgeous body and it takes consistently well exposed, focussed and processed pictures.

 

The Sony W100 has 8mp on a larger sensor area so that pixel density is comparable with the Canon. It has a 3x zoom in an attractive body and produces excellent results. Its performance at higher ISO speeds is good.

Canon and Sony have also taken the prize in the all-in-one superzoom pseudo SLR category. The Canon S3IS ($700) and the Sony H5 ($750) both have 12x zoom lenses and 6mp sensors. They both have effective image stabilisation which is essential with lenses of such extreme focal length. Canon has a useful articulated LCD screen.

In true single lens reflex cameras there have been a number of new entries this year. The Sony Alpha 100 (a reincarnated Konica Minolta) impressed, as did the Canon EOS400D. They are both 10mp cameras -- an acceptable pixel density on the much larger sensors in DSLRs. Nikon added the D80 and D40 to their range but we haven’t yet tried them.

The stand-out DSLR this year was the Pentax K100D. This is just about the cheapest such camera with an RRP of $1000 in the form that we tested it, with a Sigma 18-125mm lens. We were bowled over by the image quality produced by the Pentax, helped by the in-body image stabilisation. This camera has features such as mirror lock-up not found on more expensive cameras from other makers. The 6mp sensor may seem under-nourished by comparison with other offerings but be assured -- a 6mp image that is well processed in-camera is enough to make A3+ prints. Do you really need any more?

Phone cameras came of age in 2006 with the first models appearing with a true auto-focus lens. Up until this year the lenses in phones were extreme wide angle, fixed focus affairs but this year the Nokia N73 and the Sony Ericsson K800i arrived with auto-focus glass lenses and sensors with approximately 3 million sensors. The Sony Ericsson K800i seems to be built around Sony camera technology and it is very good indeed.

The perfect partner for a phone camera is a multi-function printer unit with an infrared receptor built in. We tried units from Canon and Epson and with both of them it was simply a matter of enabling the infrared send mode on the mobile phone, point it at the printer, press the “send” button on the phone and a 10 by 15cm print popped out of the printer. These multi-function units, combining printer with scanner, copier and sometimes faxes, are now capable of producing excellent photographic prints. It is hard to recommend a particular model because they change so frequently but we can say with certainty that you get what you pay for. There are no surprising bargains to be had.

For the digi snapper who wants to replace the local developing and printing service with in-home processing we would recommend the Epson Picturemate 250 printer ($330). This tiny printer produces consistently good results on 10cm by 15cm paper with or without a computer. Memory cards plug straight in and a camera can be connected via Pictbridge. We found that it worked best with a computer. Paper and ink are sold together in a package of 150 sheets and one cartridge.

In software we are impressed with Photoshop Elements v5 which came on the market just one month ago. In the past we had reservations about Photoshop Elements because it seemed to work on the assumption that the user is an idiot. With version 5 the idiot factor has been removed. This makes it a bit harder to use at first, but once mastered it is intuitive in its own perplexing way. Compared with Photoshop CS, which costs $1100 more, the only thing we missed were Actions -- the macros that users compile themselves. Elements 5 can be bought alone or bundled with the video editing program, Premiere Elements 3.

Last month we tested the new, simpler, cheaper monitor calibrator from Pantone with the wacky name of Huey. Anyone who is serious about standardising image colours for printing or display on the Internet needs to take the trouble to adjust the monitor. Huey is a small measuring sensor that plugs into a USB port and sticks on the screen to read colour patches generated by the software. The colour rendition is automatically adjusted and a profile generated for the monitor which, once saved, is reloaded every time the computer is turned on. Huey sells for around $200, which is a bit daunting. Presumably there is no law against sharing the outlay with friends. Everyone needs to be Hueyed, preferably once a month.

Imaging still meets people paralysed by the fear that whatever they buy this year will be replaced with something better and cheaper next year. Well, it will. But so what? Digital camera technology is now mature enough for us to be able to take the plunge without suffering the regrets of early adopters. Just do it!

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Posted by terry at December 15, 2006 05:07 AM

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Posted by: Edgy at December 18, 2006 01:47 PM

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