The Phoblographer

Canon sure took their sweet time updating their D10. However, they’ve finally announced the D20 and changed the looks up to resemble something between a fish with a large mouth and a futuristic wallet. But that’s not all, there are more point and shoot cameras that were also added to the line. They outed their ELPH 530 HS, ELPH 320 HS, and  SX260 HS. The ELPH 530 and 320 feature wifi connectivity and if you wait a couple of months, Canon’s new Image Gateway server cloud will be accessible via an iOS app.

Eric over at Photography Bay has lots more on the new cameras if you’re interested. None of them shoot RAW, which means that you may be a sad panda that may get eaten by the futuristic large mouthed fish that the D20 looks like.

The Canon PowerShot S95is a rare specimen of a no-nonsense compact camera. It isn’t streamlined. It isn’t full of cutesey features like a front-facing screen for portraits. It isn’t super-thin or super-light. Instead, it packs a ton of useful features and controls into its chunky matte black body. Read the rest of this entry »

The Canon S95review continues by analyzing the results of medium to high ISO images. The results will perhaps surprise you. If you remember correctly, images were a bit problematic at low ISO settings.

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One of the S95‘s most heavily publicized features is its in-camera high-dynamic-range (HDR) mode. It’s tucked into the scene modes, under the SCN position on the mode dial. It takes 3 bracketed shots, then compiles them into a single HDR picture. The resulting image can be quite striking, but it takes some effort to get right. You absolutely need a tripod or some other stabilizing device for HDR shots to be usable; if there’s the slightest shake in the camera during the second it takes to capture the three exposures, the entire photo will become a blurry, shadowed mess. If you can set up a tripod and put the camera on a short timer to avoid any jostling from pushing the button, you can take some great-looking, vibrant photos in otherwise unusable lighting. Read the rest of this entry »

An overcast day in midtown let me put the S95‘s mid-level sensitivity and high-speed shooting through its paces. The camera performs much better under clouds than under the sun. The less intense and more neutral lighting lets the S95 metering produce a more accurate exposure. These shots were taken in JPEG, with no post-processing done.

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After an afternoon of shooting the Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market, Times Square, and Bryant Park, I discovered some of the most notable issues with the S95‘s picture quality: extensive halos and noise. If you do any shooting outside or near fluorescent light sources, you’ll see purple and green fringes along contrasting lines between light and dark objects. If you shoot above ISO 100, you’ll notice significant grain, especially in darker, gray objects. Read the rest of this entry »