Canon EOS 550D – Review

Phil Hanson takes Canon’s entry-level dSLR for a spin

They must be working up a sweat in Canon’s R&D and pricing departments. The EOS 550D comes just a year after the 500D in the company’s consumer SLR range and it’s so full of good stuff it’s a wonder they did it at a recommended retail price of $1700 for the body.

You wouldn’t be far wrong thinking of the camera as a ‘lite’ version of the acclaimed $2500 EOS 7D.

By the way, the 500 hasn’t been tossed; it says in the range a couple of hundred dollars below the newcomer.

ALL THE STUFF

Hero features for many will be the 18MP APS-C CMOS sensor coupled with the DiG!C 4 image processor, and the ability to take 1080p high-definition video at up to 30fps, with manual control. Those who take their videoing a little bit seriously will also welcome the ability to fit a stereo microphone via a 3.5mm socket.

It gains the 7D’s excellent 63-point iFCL metering system, has an improved widescreen 3-inch LCD panel with 1040k dot resolution, ergonomic improvements and a long list of other stuff including 3.7fps continuous shooting.

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Canon EOS-1D Mark IV – Review

Can Canon lay the ghosts of the 1D Mark III to rest? Karim Sahai goes poltergeist hunting

Canon has a lot riding on its latest top-of-line EOS dSLR. Aside from needing to make a great camera, the company also has to retrieve the ground – and reputation – lost by the last 1D, the Mark III, following its release in 2007.

In that model, complex technical issues affected the revamped 45-point autofocus system in a large number of the cameras. Despite firmware releases and hardware service recalls, many pros felt the system remained flawed.

Canon’s problems were compounded by its main competitor, Nikon, releasing the potent and problem-free D3 just a few months later. With an effective marketing campaign and an enticing upgrade path, the D3 will be remembered as the camera that prompted many professionals to switch, and one which dealt an unexpected blow to Canon’s long-time dominance in the pro market.

Fast forward to 2010. Can the EOS-1D Mark IV restore Canon’s reputation? Will it satisfy the professionals for whom it was built?

In essence, the Mark IV is a powerful computer with a lens attached. It shares many of its predecessor’s features such as a staggering 10 still frames per second, extensive moisture and dust seals, and highly configurable function set. The Mark IV’s key improvements, meanwhile, are a 16.1 megapixel resolution (10 on the Mark III); a vastly increased 50-102,400 ISO range;  superb low-noise 1080p HD video; and a total redesign of the autofocusing system.

Visually, apart from a larger rubberised connector cover, a higher resolution LCD screen offering great clarity, and the presence the triple perforation under the EOS-1 badge (onboard microphone), it’s hard to differentiate the Mark IV from its earlier incarnation.

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Canon IXUS 210 IS Touch – Review

Ashley Kramer gets touchy-feely with Canon’s new Ixus

Touchscreens are obviously where the world is headed. Apple has made the touchscreen a critical presence on entertainment devices and, like it or not, the ubiquitous feature is coming to a camera near you. It’s a simple way for manufacturers to make cameras easier to use and to differentiate their products from the competition, especially now that the megapixel war is dying out. Canon has even looked into the idea of a touchscreen dSLR, but the stylish and well-finished Ixus 210 is its current touchy-feely compact camera.

Unlike the Nikon Coolpix S70 reviewed in the last issue of D-Photo, this Canon doesn’t attempt to do almost everything on the touchscreen – it has a few old fashioned buttons as well. The shutter release and zoom controls are conventional, as are the on/off, playback and mode selection buttons, which will make the basic operation quite familiar to most users. All other interaction is performed via the responsive 3.5-inch touchscreen, which is bright and crisp, if not quite as bright as the Nikon’s OLED screen. Don’t expect a selection of multicoloured iPhone-style icons though; the touch controls look much like the menu controls of any Canon compact, which is good because they’re as intuitive as a spoon, with no complex layers or strange options to befuddle users.

In addition to the touchscreen, the 210 IS Touch is well specified, with a 24mm optically stabilised lens that goes about as wide as any compact today. With a 5x optical zoom range, it’s got a fair amount of reach as well. There’s a very effective full-auto mode that makes its own decisions about what type of shot you’re taking, which is just what’s needed on a simple point and shoot camera.

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Canon Powershot G11 – Review – 35

Ashley Kramer falls in love with Canon’s latest PowerShot

The G11 is the latest in a long run of G series PowerShot cameras, a line that has always been pitched at more advanced photographers. They’ve never been the most compact of devices and aren’t loaded with extraneous bells and whistles, instead prioritising handling, durability and performance. The G10 (released in early 2009) in particular is a fabulous camera – Phil Hanson gave it a great review in issue 28 of D-Photo; in fact he recommended it so highly that I went out and bought one.

My G10 has been a joy to own and use but, like most compacts, its high ISO performance is feeble – keep it below 400 or, even better, 200 and the images are superb, almost dSLR quality in many ways, but above that it’s noise city. Which is where the G11 comes in. Canon has ignored the megapixel arms race and taken the unprecedented step of dramatically reducing the resolution of the G11’s sensor from 14.7MP to a seemingly meagre 10. It has proved to be a very good idea because the new sensor is a revelation.

The G11 is a far better low-light performer than the G10 or any other compact camera I’ve tried – it’s actually still very good at ISO 800 (but save 1600 or 3200 for emergencies). This is no small achievement, but what’s truly impressive is that the camera manages this while retaining most of the higher resolution sensor’s ability to capture fine detail and all of its ability to produce crisp, vivid and highly saturated images.

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Canon Pixma PRO9000 Mark II – Review – 34

Canon’s new Pixma is a prince of prints, says Gary Pearce

If you’re an avid photographer, chances are you’ll have a decent photo printer, and there are some excellent A4 devices available.

That’s fine if you want to limit yourself to that size, but if you’re like me you’ll soon be yearning for a much larger print size to show off your creative handiwork.

Of course, there are plenty of photo labs to choose from, but can you really trust their colour management, printer maintenance and general nous when it comes to printing those special pictures?

It’s perhaps best, then, to invest in your own large-format printer, and the A3+ bracket is where it all begins.

Canon has made a stir in recent times with its imagePROGRAF range of production/photo large-format printers, but luckily for me (or unluckily – take your pick) I took home the latest prosumer Pixma Pro9000 Mark II for an extended trial period.

Because of its size the Pro9000 Mark II commands a decent amount of bench-top real estate, though its bulky form is attractively styled. The FINE print head-equipped machine has a resolution of 4800 x 2400 and will eject two-picolitre droplets of ink, while the Chromalife eight-colour dye-based ink set has the promise of a 100-year life span. Dye inks aren’t as stable in terms of archivability as pigment-based inks, so this is a fairly bold claim on Canon’s behalf. I’d want to hang new photographs on my walls well before the 100 years was up.

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Canon PowerShot S90 – Review – 34

Tim Grey welcomes back Canon’s S-series

In the last round of releases under the PowerShot moniker, Canon apparently decided to buck the trend for ever-increasing megapixels and focus on the real business of taking photos: image quality.

As far as we can surmise, the rationale behind shrinking resolution was simple: extra pixels created more noise while shooting in low light, while photographers would rarely be making a print the size of a bus with a compact camera. With this in mind, Canon released two cameras that use a new 10 megapixel, 0.43cm2 sensor: the G11, whose predecessor had a 14 megapixel sensor, and the S90, the latest in the long-dormant S-series.

The G-series cameras tend to make professional photographers lusty, particularly the G10, which has found its way into the back pockets of shooters who use dSLRs. The cameras have great lenses, shoot RAW and go fully manual, but despite all their high-end functionality, the Gs aren’t really that slim. Enter the S90.

Gone are some functions, the swivel screen, and you’ll have to look at the monitor rather than through a viewfinder. Continuous shooting isn’t as quick and the zoom has been shaved. None of it matters. This is a camera that’ll fit in real-world pockets and which has guts to boot.

The first feature you’ll notice is the aperture ring on the front, which is easily assignable to a number of functions, including ISO, aperture, the (probably unnecessary) white balance, and the fantastically useful manual focus, which throws a magnified section of your shot into the centre of the screen and allows you to make fine adjustments to focus. Spin the wheel at the front and Bob’s your uncle – the experience is something like using a shrunken SLR.

While it’s a feature that belongs on more compacts, the wheel itself is a bit on the tacky side, and a small turn makes the whole camera move.

Otherwise the camera is solidly built despite its stature, with few plastic elements giving you the sense it’s going to break. It’s small but not fiddly, and its particularly well designed form means it’s not really in need of extra grip.

Although the S90 forgoes a viewfinder, given the compact’s intended usage its inclusion would have been inessential. While the 3.0-inch PureColor II LCD is big and crisp, it’s still an LCD screen and you’ll struggle to see it in bright daylight. When the going gets tough you can, however, trust your histogram, which handily pops up on the viewscreen.

Of course, what really matters when it comes to cameras is image quality, and with the S90 the quality is particularly high. The 28-105mm f/2.0 is an outstanding lens, especially for a camera of this size. It’s fast and sharp glass, and you’ll be able to create shots with shallow depth of field without hassle.

The S90 also makes good on its promise to deliver better low-light performance. While the f/2.0 lens in concert with the built-in image stabilisation goes a long way when you’re shooting in the dark, the sensor design takes it a step further. Noise is still an issue anywhere above and beyond 800, but shooting at 1600 will produce usable shots.

Make no mistake: at $899 the S90 is more than a lot of people would want to spend on a point-and-shoot. But it’s a cracking camera and it’s nearly $200 cheaper than its bigger brother, while matching it in terms of performance. Discerning photographers lusting after a compact camera, eat your heart out.

Canon PowerShot S90 – Specifications

Manufacturer: Canon
Model: PowerShot S90
RRP: $899
Effective pixels: 10.0 million
Image Sensor: 7.60 x 5.70 mm, 0.43cm²
LCD Monitor: 3-inch, 461,000-dot, PureColor II
Shutter: 1/1600 to 15 seconds
ISO: 80-3200
Exposure Metering: Evaluative, center-weighted, spot
Movies: 640 x 480 at 30fps, 320 x 240 at 30fps
Storage Media: SD, SDHC, MMC, MMCplus, HC MMCplus
Interface: USB 2.0, HDMI
Battery: Lithium-ion NB-6L and charger
Dimensions: 100 x 58 x 31mm
Weight: 195g (incl batteries)

Contact: www.canon.co.nz

PROS

• Performs well in low light
• Sharp, fast f/2.0 lens
• Very compact

CONS

• Aperture ring sticks while spinning

• Expensive for a compact camera

Design                      19
Performance             17
Features                   18
Image Quality           16
Value for money       17

TOTAL 87/100

This article is from D-Photo 34. Click here to check it out.

Canon 7D – Review – 33

Tim Grey loves Canon’s new dSLR but hankers after a full-frame sensor

You’d need about eight frames per second to capture the rate of camera development. When you’re choosing a new kit, you’ve either got to steel yourself for your new camera’s almost instantaneous obsolescence, or be prepared to fork out for the latest model as well.

With the release of the 7D, Canon hasn’t so much as updated any of its existing cameras as carved out a new niche, creating what the company describes as an “all-rounder” that ostensibly targets the prosumer sports-orientated shooter.

At first glance the 7D looks like it might be a souped-up 50D, last year’s sporty EOS, or a slightly cheaper version of the mighty 5D Mark II. In fact, the 7D actually rumbles all three models in significant ways.

Announced at the beginning of September, the 7D has received a feverish response from the photo community. D-Photo’s web story on the camera’s release was the month’s most read and retailers have been telling me they just can’t keep the things on the shelf.

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