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

Panasonic has created a really nice ultra zoom camera in the FZ18, though once again, image quality needs improvement. It’s clear from shooting in RAW mode that the camera is capable of capturing a lot of detail, but unfortunately the Venus III engine removes a lot of it in the name of noise reduction. If you’re a typical point-and-shoot user who will be sticking to smaller-sized prints, then this really isn’t an issue, and you’ll be very satisfied with the FZ18. If you’re making large prints, viewing them at 100% on your computer screen, or shooting at high ISOs, then you can still love the camera, but be prepared to post-process to get the best results. While it’s not the ultra zoom image quality champion, the FZ18 has so much to offer that it easily earns my recommendation.

So then, the W80 is a camera that is capable of producing surprisingly good results in good light at ISO 100 and is perfectly usable at ISO 400-800 in low light if you don’t want big prints (the church interiors in the samples gallery, for example, are better than I expected), but a camera that falls down in what I consider to be one of the most important areas for a camera such as this; pictures of people indoors in low light - with or without flash. If you’re after a ‘walk around’ camera for scenery then it’s not a bad buy for $200-ish, but if you actually have friends and family, and are still awake taking pictures after sunset it’s hard to wholeheartedly recommend it when there are so many better alternatives out there.

Sponsored Links

• Photostore by KTools

  Professional, user friendly, web based software package that enables you to publish and sell your photographs, images, artwork, prints and products online.

• Dreamstime

  Immediately download from our huge collection of royalty free images. Thousands of stock photos added weekly!

• LightboxPhoto

  PHP Software for digital image hosting and asset management. Provides photographers, artists and artisans an affordable solution to displaying and selling their work online.

This predictions have come true with the introduction of the ‘FX format’ (new moniker created by Nikon) D3 which features a 36 x 23.9 mm 12.1 megapixel CMOS sensor as well as a vast array of new features which absolutely raise it another notch above previous single digit Nikon DSLRs. Important headline improvements include high sensitivity support by default, up to ISO 6400 with 25600 available as a boost option, 14-bit A/D conversion, a new standard image processor, a new shutter, new auto focus sensor, focus tracking by color, nine frames per second continuous, dual compact flash support, DX lens support (albeit at lower resolution) and a 3.0” 922,000 pixel LCD monitor (which it has to be said is lovely).

The Alpha A700 is the highly anticipated second DSLR from Sony and the first to be entirely designed by Sony itself. Announced in September 2007 it fills a gap above the original A100 body, targeting serious enthusiasts and semi-pro photographers with higher resolution and more powerful features.

If the attractive compact design doesn’t win you right over, the large, gorgeous LCD will. And you won’t regret it because the T100 is a very capable camera, making it easy to get great shots without too much contrast or saturation. A couple of editing tricks just add to the fun. And the payoff is a glorious slide show in high definition.