Holidays '08 Compact Camera Group TestGroup 4: Enthusiast digital compacts
Since the introduction of the affordable digital SLR a few years back industry observers have been predicting the demise of what used to be called the 'prosumer camera'; the highly specified compact with features aimed at the more serious photographer. A few years ago you could easily pay $700 for a top end compact; today that will buy you a decent SLR with a kit zoom, and it became obvious that the serious compact sector had to adapt or die - fortunately the manufacturers chose the former option.
Thanks to to falling prices and a significant diversification (giving us the option of models which are very compact, or have more exotic zooms, or SLR-like controls) the enthusiast compact market is in surprisingly rude health. These cameras are designed to appeal to the SLR user wanting something more portable for those days they don't want to lug their main camera around, or for anyone who simply can't justify the expense of an SLR kit but can't accept the compromises demanded by a standard point and shoot compact.
The biggest challenge faced by the manufacturers of this kind of product is that, whilst adding a few more controls or a more serious body - or even a bigger zoom - isn't too difficult, there's only so much they can do to improve image quality over models considerably further down the line, some of which will have very similar electronics (including the sensor) inside. We're all still waiting for larger sensors in compacts (Sigma's DP1 being the first, and only attempt so far) - until they arrive, if ever, the cameras in this group are the nearest you're going to get to a genuinely compact SLR alternative.
The test cameras
The very top end of the compact market is very sparsely populated; there are very few cameras that can claim to be genuine 'SLR replacements'. We therefore decided to add a few of the new breed of 'compact super zoom' cameras to the mix; not all of these cameras offer full photographic control, but all offer a considerably more versatile zoom range, something that might actually prove to be more useful to the creative photographer.
Canon Powershot G10
Kodak Easyshare Z8612 IS
Nikon Coolpix P6000
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3
Ricoh Caplio R10
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5
Canon Powershot SX110 IS
Note: there are several cameras in this group that have already had full reviews - you'll find the links in the relevant sections of this article, and several will be reviewed in full in early 2009. There are a couple of cameras that could have been included but which weren't due to constraints of time (getting the product before the testing started) and to keep the number manageable. These have also been previously reviewed (links below):
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-H10
Sigma DP-1
Key Spec compared
As we've discovered over the years the bare specification of a camera tells us precious little about how good it is, but it does at least give us a starting point for our comparison. Obviously this is a pretty varied bunch and which spec matters to you will depend on your own needs and priorities; zoom range, photographic controls, viewfinder type and so on.
สรุป เป็นเรื่องของกล้องที่มีคุณภาพในการถ่ายรูปสูงมากลักษณะพิเศษ exotic zooms, or SLR-like controls
ทดสอบกล้อง Canon Powershot G10
Kodak Easyshare Z8612 IS
Nikon Coolpix P6000
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3
Ricoh Caplio R10
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5
Canon Powershot SX110 IS
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น