Björn Utpott has done a very nice, controlled comparison between the Panasonic GH1 and Panasonic G1 in capturing a night scene. He has also made the RAW files available for those of us who like to play with the files.

Link: GH1 - G1 ISO Comparison, RAW + JPEG Night Scene by Björn Utpott

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While skimming the early reactions to the new Powershot announcements, one of the first I came across remarked that Canon had completely failed to meet the large sensor compact challenge being issued by Micro Four Thirds and the upcoming Samsung hybrid system. Why put a small sensor in there when Sigma, Olympus, and Panasonic have shown that one can simply stick a large sensor in there?

As readers of this site already know, camera design is a matter of picking a set of compromises.

If you have held an E-P1 with the kit zoom lens mounted, you know that it is functionally closer to a small DSLR in size and feel than it is to a compact like the Panasonic LX3 or the upcoming S90. Zoom range, lens speed, and sensor size each come with increasing camera size.

In fact on the surface, Canon has chosen to sacrifice very little with the S90.

Let's start with the sensor. Canon claims that "Canon’s new Dual Anti-Noise System combines a high sensitivity 10.0 Megapixel image sensor with Canon’s enhanced DIGIC 4 image processing technology to increase image quality and greatly improve noise performance by up to 2 stops (compared to PowerShot G10)". If true, that will be quite a feat, as the G10 had excellent performance in the signal to noise department. My own tests put the G10 just barely behind the LX3 in this respect. Two stops of improvement would bring the sensor noise performance within a stop or so of the best Four Thirds performance.

Yet Canon has a poor track record in this area, having made a similar claim with the EOS 50D compared to the EOS 40D. After all, it's easy to improve JPEG noise performance without improving sensor signal to noise at all. Even one stop of real progress is very unlikely. That said, the S90 is most likely using Sony's new ICX685CQZ sensor, regarding which Sony has written "In the luminance signal, it features a signal-to-noise ratio improved by about one f stop over current devices."

Camera sensor technology surely has progressed more quickly than lens optical design. How does the S90 lens compare to other recent cameras?

With the S90, Canon matched the lens speed of the LX3 at the wide end, albeit with less wide angle range (28mm vs 24mm equivalent), and offers more telephoto range than the LX3 (105mm vs 60mm equivalent) at the expense of telephoto lens speed. Overall, the Canon has a 3.75x zoom with a physical aperture range of 3mm (wide) - 4.6mm (tele), and the Panasonic has a 2.5x zoom with an aperture range of 2.6mm (wide) - 4.6mm (tele). Compared to the GRD III lens, the S90 lens offers similar speed at the wide end plus a zoom range the Ricoh lacks. Compared to the GX200, the Canon doesn't go as wide but offers both more speed and a greater zoom range.

Given those basic parameters of zoom range and physical aperture range, I'd expect the S90 lens to be roughly the same size as the LX3 lens. The LX3 lens itself seemed to be a marvel of engineering when one compared its size to fast zooms of Powershot G6 era. No miracle, Panasonic shrank the fast LX3 lens by taking advantage of software to fix pronounced barrel distortion. Now Canon has created a similarly specified lens with a slimmer profile, dropping the great majority of the LX3 lens "hump". At what price?

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G11, S90, and the rest of the new Canon compacts are now available for pre-order at Amazon.

Link: New Canon Powershots at Amazon

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Canon’s PowerShot series of cameras gets a new update with a total of six new models. After a year Canon replaces their top compact camera the G10 for the G11. They also reintroduce their older S-series again with the new S90. Two SX superzoom cameras are updated, the SX20is and the SX120is. And finally two SD-cameras, the SD980is and SD940is, are introduced.

The Canon PowerShot G11 gets two distinctive new features. Returned from the ashes is the swivel LCD (2.8”). And they dropped the 14,7 megapixel sensor from the G10 for a 10 megapixel, indicating that the run for more pixels seems ended (or at least with serious compact cameras). They followed the move from Panasonic with their LX3 and Ricoh with the GR Digital III.

Maybe more interesting is the reintroduction of the S90. This camera will also get a 1/1.7” CCD 10 megapixel sensor, like the G11, with the DIGIC 4 image processor.

It will also do RAW and RAW+jpeg, and even full manual mode. Two features on this camera makes this camera probably a more interesting package than the G11. The lens will be a 28-105mm lens starting at f/2.0 at the wide angle (faster than the G11 lens) and their will a control ring attached to the camera body that lets you adjust some camera functions like zoom, ISO, exposure compensation, focus, and white balance.

For more and extensive coverage about these new cameras and the four other cameras, the SX20is, SX120is, SD980is, and the SD940is, make sure to check 1001noisycameras or dpreview.

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The Nikon D5000 and AF 35mm f/1.8 lens have proven to be a great fit for my needs, but I've been on the lookout for a nice autofocus portrait lens. At 75mm equivalent, the AF 50/1.4G is a touch shorter than I would like. Also, as is the case with the 35/1.8, the 50/1.4G shows noticeable color fringing on out-of-focus background elements (longitudinal chromatic aberration). There's also the Sigma 50/1.4, but in addition to being too short, that lens has too much heft.

I looked at the Nikon 60mm f/2.8 micro (macro), which is just about my ideal length, but that lens is just a bit too slow. The manual focus Voigtlander 58/1.4 SL II was another option, but I'd like to have autofocus.

Along comes the Tamron 60mm f/2 macro, a lens which isn't much larger or heavier than the Canon and Nikon equivalents, yet offers an additional stop of speed plus internal focusing and full-time manual focus override. Being familiar with Tamron lenses (and macro lenses in general), the early reports of slow autofocus with this lens were expected and aren't a deal breaker for me.

I've been holding out for image samples to see if this could serve as both my portrait lens and a nice 1:1 macro, and today I found a second set of samples. Having not seen much discussion of this lens or its samples in the various forums, I thought to share the links here.

Here are the samples:
Canon-board.info (translation)
Fengniao.com (translation)

Although this lens is somewhat off-topic for Serious Compacts, I know I'm not the only one here using a compact DSLR kit. The Tamron 60 macro has the potential to replace two other lenses, such as a 50/1.4 and 60/2.8 macro.

Having reviewed those image samples, I'm pretty much set on buying the Nikon mount version of the Tamron 60 macro as soon as it becomes available. Lucky Canon users out there can pick one up now at Amazon:

Link:Tamron 60mm f/2 macro at Amazon

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By Mayank Bhatnagar

The (point and shoot) camera with which I began digital photography way back in August 2005 was Canon PowerShot A95. It wasn’t my choice, but recommended by someone dear to me and after reading reviews on the internet, fell for it! With PSAM modes, a custom mode, optical viewfinder, swing-out LCD display, custom white balance, spot metering, use of handy AA batteries, manual focus, room for conversion lens adaptors (and therefore UV and polarizing filters), good image quality, efficient response and very decent build quality in a pocketable form factor, the A95 seemed to have more than I had asked for.

As someone graduating from fully-manual film SLRs, I was often surprised at A95s comprehensive feature-set which enabled me to ‘enjoy’ (yes, enjoy) digital photography and approach subjects with freedom and ease. The features (in particular PSAM modes, manual focus, flip-out LCD and ability to use polarising filter) also allowed for healthy experimentation and exploration, which IMHO, is necessary for developing photography skills and better understanding of subjects.

My A95 purchase was luckily followed by a few trips to wildlife reserves around Rajasthan, where the camera was used more than generously! After shooting about a thousand images with it in a span of four months, I thought I deserved better and sold it to buy a digital SLR :-(

Four years later, when I look back at the A95, my respect for it seems very much intact (even after having used subsequent and much improved PowerShot models like A620 and A640) and I get struck by a wave of nostalgia for I shared with the camera some truly memorable and beautiful moments, a few of which got frozen in time! I am pleased to share with you some of my favourite images taken with the A95 between August and November 2005, as a small tribute to what I feel was a ‘classic’, serious digital compact camera:

Lovely skies above Tal Chhapar Wildlife Sanctuary, Rajasthan, India


Statue Circle, Jaipur, at Dusk (10 sec. exposure)


Blackbucks at Tal Chhapar Wildlife Sanctuary, Rajasthan


Barren landscape at Tal Chhapar Wildlife Sanctuary, Rajasthan


'The Ripple', Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, India


Dusk-scape at Tal Chhapar Wildlife Sanctuary, Rajasthan, India


Datura Abla wildflower. Jaipur, India


Indian Skimmers at Chambal River, India


Painted Storks at Chambal River, India


Standing Together! At Tal Chhapar Wildlife Sanctuary, Rajasthan, India


Sculpturesque trees in lake at dusk. New Delhi, India

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1. Word on the street is that there is going to be a Leica version. Leica versions may not be any better than Panasonic versions, but Leica tends to rebrand some of the best Panasonic cameras (FZ50, LC1, LX3, etc). Also, the Leica versions are usually better looking :-p.

2. Early reports suggest that the GH1 has the best sensor performance in a Micro Four Thirds camera to date. Seems likely that the GF1 will share this performance.

3. The rumored GF1 was pictured with two lenses and not a zoom in sight. A 40mm equivalent fast pancake and a reasonably small 90mm equivalent macro/portrait lens is a sweet combination.

4. Panasonic has gotten things right with autofocus in the G1/GH1. I'm hopeful that the GF1 will share this performance.

5. The GF1 is likely to have a multi-aspect ratio sensor like the GH1. This alone is reason enough for me to buy the GF1 over an E-P1 if they are otherwise comparable. I prefer 3:2 aspect ratio for most photography, and multi-aspect ratio gives me that without lost angle of view and lost pixels. Also, that 7-14mm Panasonic lens at native 16:9 is going to be wide.

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Now this is exciting!

Look closely.  See that 45mm (90mm equivalent) Leica macro lens behind the long-awaited Panasonic 20/1.7?

More info at 1001 Noisy Cameras and Engadget.

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By Sam N at Lensist.com:

Recently, I went on a trip to Australia with two great Canons: the much-discussed EOS 5D Mark II , and the often-overlooked PowerShot SD880IS... What the SD series cameras do have, is TRUE pocketability. I've seen forum posters saying they can fit an E-P1 with 17mm pancake lens in their pants pocket. I don't know what kind of MC Hammer pants these people wear, but that sounds silly.

READ ON at Lensist.com

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