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The Sony HVL-F58AM flash unit

Manthos Tzorbatzakis manthos@photosnews.com — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

The Sony HVL-F58AM flash unit has a rather unusual tilt / swivel mechanism called the "Quick Shift Bounce" system, which could prove rather more versatile in use than competing products. Instead of the traditional rotation around the flash's vertical axis (as adopted in, for example, Canon's current top-of-the-line Speedlite 580EX II), Sony has instead chosen a mechanism that can swing the bulk of the flash's body 90 degrees to either side. Above this is a separate mechanism which allows the head of the flash to tilt vertically upwards, but with a rather greater range of motion than is ordinarily the case. Since the lower swivel doesn't allow the flash to face behind the photographer's head, the upper mechanism makes up for this by being able to tilt anywhere from 10 degrees downward, through the fully vertical (90 degrees upward) position to a limit of 150 degrees (ie. pointing back over the photographer's head at an angle 30 degrees above the horizontal). Read the whole article here

Pentax K20D camera review

Manthos Tzorbatzakis manthos@photosnews.com — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

Review based on a production Pentax K20D using V1.01 firmware

Having risked being left behind by the speed at which the 'affordable' DSLR market developed, Pentax showed how serious its intentions were with the K10D, a semi-pro-level DSLR with a features list to humble the competition at a very attractive price. Having added so many bells and whistles to the K10D, it's not much of a surprise to find that its successor, the K20D, is essentially a refinement of the same design. But, even though it can't quite boast the same novel-feature-count as its predecessor, the K20D still finds room for some interesting changes. Read the whole review here. You can buy the camera here

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8 Digital Camera Review

Manthos Tzorbatzakis manthos@photosnews.com — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

Announced in January, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8 is an 8-megapixel, entry-level point-and-shoot with a budget-friendly $180 price tag. Besides its low price, the LZ8s key features include a 5x optical zoom lens, a well rounded selection of Scene modes, and Panasonics Intelligent Auto mode. While the camera may be made for beginners, however, the LZ8 gives new photographers the opportunity to grow with program and manual modes to give users more creative control over their photos. Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, and a full Manual mode are found here, and that cant be said for many entry-level point-and-shoots. But does the Lumix DMC-LZ8 deliver in terms of image quality? Read on to find out. You can read the whole review here. You can buy the camera here

Hasselblad H3DII-31 Kit for $17,995

Manthos Tzorbatzakis manthos@photosnews.com — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

You can purchase a Hasselblad H3DII-31 Kit at a special price of $17,995 when you register for the free online publication of Victor by Hasselblad. The Hasselblad H3DII-31 is a Medium Format DSLR camera system including a 31 megapixel sensor, and the kit is comprised of the H3DII-31 camera body, viewfinder, and 80mm lens. The offer runs from June 1st - August 31st 2008, while stocks last. Read the whole article here

Lens review : Tamron SP AF 70-200mm F2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro

Manthos Tzorbatzakis manthos@photosnews.com — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

The SP AF 70-200mm F2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro is Tamron's latest lens, announced at the end of February 2008. A fast telephoto zoom for the more budget-conscious photographer, the design features 19 elements on 16 groups, including three Low Dispersion (LD) glass elements for minimizing chromatic aberration. Tamron say the lens is 'packed with features that allow stress-free photography', and accordingly these are indicated by the plethora of initials packed into that painfully protracted lens name. 'SP' designates this to be a member of Tamron's top-line 'Special Performance' range, 'Di' indicates that it is 'Digitally Integrated' (i.e. optimized for DSLR use, but still covering the full-frame 35mm format), and IF reveals that it incorporates an internal focusing mechanism. Finally the 'Macro' description provides a clue to one of this lens's more interesting characteristics, a minimum focusing distance of 0.95m, which leads to a class-leading reproduction ratio of 0.32x; slightly ahead of the Sigma equivalent's 1m/0.28x, and significantly better than the ~1.5m more typical of this class. Read the whole article here.

Sony's Back-Illuminated CMOS Chip Promises Higher Sensitivity, Low Noise

Manthos Tzorbatzakis manthos@photosnews.com — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT


Front-illuminated sensor	Backside-illuminated sensor

Sony announced a back-illuminated CMOS sensor promising nearly double the sensitivity of its current CMOS chips along with lower noise in images. Traditionally, front-illumination technology has been used for imaging sensors. According to Sony, though, back-illuminated sensors will deliver improved performance in both digital cameras and camcorders
The back-illuminated (or backside-illuminated) technology concept isn't new, but using it to provide acceptable levels of sensitivity and noise would be. Past incarnations have led to increased noise and image degradation, but Sony claims its new model has made changes to eliminate these issues. Read the whole article here

HP: 30-bit LCD display targets color-critical uses

Manthos Tzorbatzakis manthos@photosnews.com — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

The HP DreamColor LP2480zx Professional Display is based around a 24" in-plane switching anti-glare / anti-static LCD panel with a native resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 pixels and an RGB LED backlight. With a 30-bit design throughout the video processing pipeline, the HP LP2480zx can output over one billion different colors, including the entire Adobe RGB and sRGB color spaces. The native gamut of the display is ~133% NTSC, and it ships with six preset color spaces plus one user-programmable space. A typical contrast ratio of 1000:1 is offered, with an impressive black luminance of 0.05cd/m² at minimum white level. The DreamColor LP2480zx has a 12 millisecond full-cycle (black to white to black) response time, and a viewing angle of 178 degrees at 10:1 contrast ratio or better. Read the whole article here

Canon EF 200mm f/2 L IS USM lens test

Manthos Tzorbatzakis manthos@photosnews.com — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

Introduced to replace the EF 200mm F1.8L USM which was announced in 1988, the new Canon EF 200mm F2L IS USM has a smaller aperture but is embedded with Image Stabilization (IS) which is able to give up to 4 stops of image stabilization. In this test, sharp image was achieved at the setting of 1/8s, an extra stop as compared to the 4 stop Canon announced. Common rule for minimum shutter speed is 1/focal length, 1/200s in our Canon EOS 5D test. Read the whole test & see test photos here.

Carl Zeiss 28mm f/2 Distagon T*

Manthos Tzorbatzakis manthos@photosnews.com — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

Carl Zeiss released the 28mm f/2 Distagon without fanfare in the latter part of 2007, The lens is available in the Nikon F-mount, the Pentax/Samsung K-mount and the M42 screw mount.
The 28mm f/2 is a full-frame lens, built to ''old-school'' specifications that guarantee compatibility with older camera bodies. On a sub-frame digital sensor body, the lens will have an effective field of view of about 42mm. The lens takes 58mm filters, and comes with a bowl-style metal lens hood.
At the time of writing (June 2008) North American distribution of Zeiss lenses hasn't been settled, so you are faced with buying the lens direct from Zeiss - for 799 euros, or over $1,200 USD. Read the whole review here.

Olympus Zuiko Digital 25mm lens review

Manthos Tzorbatzakis manthos@photosnews.com — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

The Olympus Zuiko Digital 25mm 1:2.8 was announced in March 2008, alongside the Olympus E-420 DSLR. Its a standard Four Thirds lens which means it will work on any Four Thirds body, including those from Olympus, Panasonic and Leica, although its physically best-matched to the smaller models like the Olympus E-4xx and E-5xx series.
Affectionately known as a pancake lens, the Zuiko Digital 25mm is very thin: indeed its just 23.5mm thick and weighs only 95g. When fitted to a smaller DSLR like the Olympus E-420, the result is a highly portable kit thatll squeeze into larger pockets and has a total operating weight including battery of 521g.
With the Four Thirds field-reduction of 2x, the Zuiko Digital 25mm offers an equivalent coverage of 50mm. In full-frame and 35mm film terms, this makes it a standard lens for general purpose use. In the past, 50mm lenses were the standard used by all 35mm film SLRs and while most modern photographers have become used to zoom lenses, its surprising how flexible a 50mm can be in practice. Its just about wide enough to grab a decent landscape or interior shot, while long enough to attempt respectable portraits. Read the whole article here. You can buy the lens here