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benissez
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REVIEW: ALL CAMERA BRANDS BEING REVIEWED!
For the benefits of Newbie (s), Im writing this general reviews for different brands of digital cameras in the event you should need to buy one. Note that as far as possible, Im keeping my reviews unbiased and that all reviews comes from my personal experiences, professional bench tests by other reviewers and long slogging of nights playing with different cameras.
Im not doing film camera reviews yet as the subject is too diversified and much more complex than digital camera- a great irony by itself.
So here it goes:
CANON: Good quality cameras. Consistent in its image reproduction. With the DIGI technology breakthrough, images are now crisp and superbly low noise at even darkest shooting situations. But then again, the images produced by Canon cameras are not true to real images. Their cameras generate slightly more vibrant than real colours. Many will consider vibrant as a plus factor, but to me, image faithfulness is more important. Any expert camera user will let you know that you can always adjust the colour saturation levels on camera or off camera to reproduce the CANON effect. The lower ranges of Canon digital cameras are not very much up to standard- affordable doesnt have to compromise quality always, and Im referring to image quality not specifications and functions. Other than that, Canon has a slightly lower resale value especially when you going to sell it during the boom of another of its latest model. Think of the price of 60D when 10D was launched.
NIKON: Good quality cameras. Very faithful to the real motifs. True colour and motif reproduction. High resale value. The only backlash with Nikon is that its cameras are always over pricey. Sometimes when being compared to other brands of the same standards, one may consider how in the world Nikon justifies the price besides the branding factor. If you intend to sell your camera or youre the type that frequently upgrades, Nikon is a good choice.
OLYMPUS: Great all rounder cameras for general use. But then again when you want a master of all trades, you probably lose out on specialty. A good example is the C 750 UZ 10x zoom which though is impressive, but extremely unstable. The colours reproduction mimics Canons style of high colour saturation but it failed to cover the dynamic colour ranges the way Canon do, which results in sometimes strange colour effect when you shoot a technically difficult scene that is filled with diversified colour schemes. If youre not into deep professional imaging, but want a camera that does everything at an affordable rate, Olympus offers you the great option. One more thing to look out for is its use of xD media card which is the most expensive storage medium in the market. If you take a lot of pictures, put this factor into consideration.
MINOLTA: A long established name that always up to the challenge. It GT lens evolution is one to look out for. GT lenses produces high fidelity and stable images. Any Minolta camera that uses GT lenses is worth all the money. The weak aspect is that Minolta has no full DSLR type cameras- meaning you cant interchange lenses because its fixed. Usually their DSLR are accompanied by a fixed 28-200mm equiv GT lenses which is more than enough for amateur-professional applications- unless you wanna shoot a sports star in the field from the other end in full body scale: that requires an 800 1200mm lens. Images by default are rather contrasty, and you need to do some compensation. Its top notch cameras are usually complicated for use by novices who easily gets lost with technical photography. Low resale value. More than good value for money by any standard unless youre selling it away later.
PENTAX: Still lagging behind the DSLR race. Very affordable prices for its normal digital cameras. Their lenses are usually derived from third party manufacturer. No high end Pentax DSLR or equiv yet.
FUJI: Known for its consistency in image capturing. Colours are faithful to the original motifs. The fall back will only be that it has weak electronic manufacturing processes. Short-circuits, manufacturer faults are not uncommon. Frequently, some models are recalled for electronic adjustments. Picture captured are always on the softer side due to its OEM lens. If you like the softer , gentle side (romantica ?) of imaging, FUJI is for you; but if you are in for sharp imaging, then it would be otherwise.
CASIO: Very good for Web applications only.
SONY: Very good electronic and choice of lenses used. You can rely on the near perfect electronic components used that guarantees a life time use. The higher end cameras uses Carl Zeiss lens which is of very high professional imaging quality. The images produced by Sony cameras are rather contrasty and like Canon, colours are more saturated by default. Other than that, you wont find any other weakness on Sony cameras unless you wanna dig on its resale value. This is a good choice if youre considering a camera that can possibly last you a life-time. The latest F-828 allows the use of other storage media other than Sonys propriety memory sticks. Memory sticks are expensive and if you upgrade into another camera other than Sony, these sticks will be of no use.
==== End ====
To readers:
1. Please send me a thank you if you find this review useful- it brightens up my day.
2. For brand loyalist who may lose their objectivity in the review, please dont waste time arguing.
3. If you wanna post this review somewhere, seek my permission first; or youll be giving me an opportunity to pounce on you legally of course.
For the benefits of Newbie (s), Im writing this general reviews for different brands of digital cameras in the event you should need to buy one. Note that as far as possible, Im keeping my reviews unbiased and that all reviews comes from my personal experiences, professional bench tests by other reviewers and long slogging of nights playing with different cameras.
Im not doing film camera reviews yet as the subject is too diversified and much more complex than digital camera- a great irony by itself.
So here it goes:
CANON: Good quality cameras. Consistent in its image reproduction. With the DIGI technology breakthrough, images are now crisp and superbly low noise at even darkest shooting situations. But then again, the images produced by Canon cameras are not true to real images. Their cameras generate slightly more vibrant than real colours. Many will consider vibrant as a plus factor, but to me, image faithfulness is more important. Any expert camera user will let you know that you can always adjust the colour saturation levels on camera or off camera to reproduce the CANON effect. The lower ranges of Canon digital cameras are not very much up to standard- affordable doesnt have to compromise quality always, and Im referring to image quality not specifications and functions. Other than that, Canon has a slightly lower resale value especially when you going to sell it during the boom of another of its latest model. Think of the price of 60D when 10D was launched.
NIKON: Good quality cameras. Very faithful to the real motifs. True colour and motif reproduction. High resale value. The only backlash with Nikon is that its cameras are always over pricey. Sometimes when being compared to other brands of the same standards, one may consider how in the world Nikon justifies the price besides the branding factor. If you intend to sell your camera or youre the type that frequently upgrades, Nikon is a good choice.
OLYMPUS: Great all rounder cameras for general use. But then again when you want a master of all trades, you probably lose out on specialty. A good example is the C 750 UZ 10x zoom which though is impressive, but extremely unstable. The colours reproduction mimics Canons style of high colour saturation but it failed to cover the dynamic colour ranges the way Canon do, which results in sometimes strange colour effect when you shoot a technically difficult scene that is filled with diversified colour schemes. If youre not into deep professional imaging, but want a camera that does everything at an affordable rate, Olympus offers you the great option. One more thing to look out for is its use of xD media card which is the most expensive storage medium in the market. If you take a lot of pictures, put this factor into consideration.
MINOLTA: A long established name that always up to the challenge. It GT lens evolution is one to look out for. GT lenses produces high fidelity and stable images. Any Minolta camera that uses GT lenses is worth all the money. The weak aspect is that Minolta has no full DSLR type cameras- meaning you cant interchange lenses because its fixed. Usually their DSLR are accompanied by a fixed 28-200mm equiv GT lenses which is more than enough for amateur-professional applications- unless you wanna shoot a sports star in the field from the other end in full body scale: that requires an 800 1200mm lens. Images by default are rather contrasty, and you need to do some compensation. Its top notch cameras are usually complicated for use by novices who easily gets lost with technical photography. Low resale value. More than good value for money by any standard unless youre selling it away later.
PENTAX: Still lagging behind the DSLR race. Very affordable prices for its normal digital cameras. Their lenses are usually derived from third party manufacturer. No high end Pentax DSLR or equiv yet.
FUJI: Known for its consistency in image capturing. Colours are faithful to the original motifs. The fall back will only be that it has weak electronic manufacturing processes. Short-circuits, manufacturer faults are not uncommon. Frequently, some models are recalled for electronic adjustments. Picture captured are always on the softer side due to its OEM lens. If you like the softer , gentle side (romantica ?) of imaging, FUJI is for you; but if you are in for sharp imaging, then it would be otherwise.
CASIO: Very good for Web applications only.
SONY: Very good electronic and choice of lenses used. You can rely on the near perfect electronic components used that guarantees a life time use. The higher end cameras uses Carl Zeiss lens which is of very high professional imaging quality. The images produced by Sony cameras are rather contrasty and like Canon, colours are more saturated by default. Other than that, you wont find any other weakness on Sony cameras unless you wanna dig on its resale value. This is a good choice if youre considering a camera that can possibly last you a life-time. The latest F-828 allows the use of other storage media other than Sonys propriety memory sticks. Memory sticks are expensive and if you upgrade into another camera other than Sony, these sticks will be of no use.
==== End ====
To readers:
1. Please send me a thank you if you find this review useful- it brightens up my day.
2. For brand loyalist who may lose their objectivity in the review, please dont waste time arguing.
3. If you wanna post this review somewhere, seek my permission first; or youll be giving me an opportunity to pounce on you legally of course.