Photography News - The latest digital photography hardware and software news, reviews, articles, tips, techniques and more!

“While certainly not the thinnest camera in the world, the Canon PowerShot A720 IS is compact enough to meet the portable requirements of most shutterbugs hungering for a camera they can stow on their person and keep out of mind until it’s time to capture a moment. If tight jeans are your thing, the A720 at 3.83-by-2.64-by-1.65 inches and weighing a tad over seven ounces, pocketing the camera may be challenging, but for flannel shirt types like myself, it will nestle comfortably in a breast pocket.”

The Coolpix S200 is a high quality entry-level camera. It offers a metallic body and excellent finishing, a good monitor and produces good quality images with reasonably bright lighting conditions. Moreover, the e-VR is an added bonus, even it isn’t quite as effective as an optical image stabilization system. But, more than likely, what will attract most of its purchasers will be its compact size and its simplicity of use.

From the PowerShot A620 springs the Canon PowerShot A640 and A630, both of which retain the same body design and 4X optical zoom as the A620, but with the addition of a 2.5-inch LCD monitor and an increase in resolution: the A630 to 8 megapixels, and the A640, the focus of this review, to 10 megapixels. While the exterior shape of the A640 is roughly the same as the A620, this model sports a dark-gray metallic finish with a lighter gray grip, as well as a metallic lens barrel and lens trim — the latter being removable to accept a conversion lens adapter.

The DSC-W100 offers a good value. This is a camera that offers good image quality easily, which becomes excellent when it benefits from good outdoor light, allowing it to capture perfect colours that print beautifully. Moreover, users that would like to be able to experiment with night photography will very likely appreciate the DSC-W100’s 30-second maximum exposure time, and its remarkably effective noise reduction system.

The Coolpix S10 is equipped with a 10X Nikkor optical zoom composed of 12 elements arranged in 9 groups. But the most notable feature of this particular camera is the implementation of a VR optical stabilization system. The focal length of the zoom covers from 6.3 to 63 mm, the equivalent on a 35 mm camera of a 38 to 380 mm zoom. Apertures start at a constant f3.5 for the lens, closing down to f13.6; while the shutter speed covers from 1/1000 second down to 2 seconds at the maximum.

The Pentax KD10D offers an excellent ergonomic design. The sculpted shape of the body and the generous rubber coated areas provide a solid, secure grip, and excellent stability. Unlike many of the current crop of entry-level digital SLRs, the K10D is a bit bigger, and feels heftier, imparting more of a “professional equipment” feel than the others… the Pentax K10D shines on a number of fronts, and when used with any number of other Pentax lenses, the K10D yields perfectly crisp images.