Hasta La Gadget!

In every geek’s life, the time must come when he or she steps away from the pocket-friendly compact point-and-shooter and straps up with a hefty DSLR to do real photography with. Or such was the received wisdom until not too long ago. It’s still the case that lenses, bound by the laws of physics, will protrude more than most of us want them to, but mirrorless Micro Four Thirds shooters from Olympus and Panasonic, along with Samsung’s NX series, have shown that prosumer camera bodies don’t always have to be that bulky. This is the stage upon which the NEX-5 enters, with Sony predictably aiming to outdo everyone using an ultraslim magnesium alloy body that delivers 1080p video and 14 megapixel stills. Join us after the break to see what we thought of the Japanese giant’s latest product.

Continue reading Sony NEX-5 preview

Sony NEX-5 preview originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So you like Samsung’s NX10 pseudo-DSLR camera, but can’t quite reach up to its price point? Good old uncle Sammy is looking out for you with this here budget-friendly model — the NX5 replaces the AMOLED display with a standard 3-inch LCD, but looks to be keeping all the other important features. That means you’re still getting an electronic viewfinder and that 14.6 megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor — which collected plenty of review approbation — inside a compact body, plus the same selection of NX-mount lenses to choose from. A €699 ($855) launch price might not seem like a great deal, but we’ve found its elder brother retailing for $619 on Amazon.de together with a kit lens, so expect prices to tumble downwards shortly after this shooter’s release in late June.

Continue reading Samsung NX5 becomes official little brother to NX10 hybrid DSLR

Samsung NX5 becomes official little brother to NX10 hybrid DSLR originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 08:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s kinda hard trying to keep up with the litany of models in Panasonic’s Lumix family, though placing this one near the top of the point-and-shoot pile shouldn’t be so difficult. It’s equipped with a 14.1 megapixel sensor, a wide-angle F2.2 lens with 5x optical zoom, and the now obligatory HD video (we presume 720p) recording and intelligent picture processing options. A 3-inch touchscreen hogs the majority of controls on the back, including a neat touch-to-focus function that we think all these little shooters should have, which is augmented by the camera’s AF tracking a subject once selected. Slick. We’re still no big fans of the AVCHD Lite format used here, but Motion JPEG recording is on offer as well, which is kind of nice. No price or availability just yet, but we know it’ll be at least a month before you can slather the FX75 with loving fingerprints.

Continue reading Panasonic Lumix FX75 takes evolutionary step forward

Panasonic Lumix FX75 takes evolutionary step forward originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 06:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh sure, Nikon‘s got its own solution for adding native geotagging to your existing DSLR, but the GP-1 dongle definitely has its drawbacks. Aside from sucking down around 4x more power than Gisteq’s new PhotoTrackr Plus, it also eliminates the ability to use a dedicated flash in the hotshoe while capturing GPS data. Moreover, it has to warm up every time you turn the camera on / off, and there’s just 18 tracking channels compared to the Gisteq’s 44. Regardless of the back and forth, we do appreciate the PhotoTrackr Plus’ ability to plug directly into the 10-pin terminal that few amateurs even think to recognize, though we do fear that the reliance on Bluetooth could cause issues if you stray too far from the transceiver. Still, this newfangled dongle is far superior to its past iterations, both of which simply logged data as you went and then added metadata after you synced the information with your images via PC; this dongle, however, embeds the data right away into every image. Better still, there’s even a price advantage to going third party — Nikon’s aging GP-1 is pushing $200 on many webstores, while the Gisteq apparatus can be procured right now for $179. Take your pic, as they say.

Continue reading PhotoTrackr Plus brings geotagging to Nikon DSLRs, leaves your hotshoe open

PhotoTrackr Plus brings geotagging to Nikon DSLRs, leaves your hotshoe open originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 May 2010 04:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Canon just recently sold its 20 millionth digital EOS camera, so there’s a better-than-average chance that the company’s EOS Rebel T2i made up a bulk of those final sales leading up to the milestone. If you’ve been shooting (and shooting… and shooting) with your new T2i over the past few months, we’re interested in hearing how exactly you’d like to tweak things. Is the 1080p movie mode living up to the hype? Would you change the body design in any way? Happy with the kit lens? Wishing you would’ve sprung for a full-frame cam instead? Would you have preferred the option to get a Harlequin edition? Go on and speak out below — we’ve heard that these things have been hard to come by, so we’re sure a few of you are cradling one in your left arm right now.

How would you change Canon’s EOS Rebel T2i? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 May 2010 22:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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