Canon PowerShot SX230 HS

The Canon PowerShot SX230 HS is the latest incarnation of Canon's highly popular pocket super-zoom. Announced in February 2011 to replace the year-old PowerShot SX210 IS, it's the first SX model to carry the HS suffix. A step-down in resolution from the 14 Megapixel SX210, the SX230's 12.1 Megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor and Digic 4 processor provide excellent low light performance combined with 1080p HD video recording
The SX230 HS sticks with the 14x optical zoom of its predecessor and the 3in screen, though the display resolution has been increased to 460k dots. Crucially, it adds a GPS receiver, the lack of which put its predecessor at a disadvantage compared with the earlier Sony Cyber-shot HX5 and Panasonic Lumix TZ10 / ZS7. Note: the PowerShot SX220 HS, released alongside the SX230 HS (in Europe only) lacks the GPS but is otherwise identical.
The competition has moved on too, though, and the PowerShot SX230 HS is now up against new models from Sony, Nikon and, of course, Panasonic with the Cyber-shot HX9V, the COOLPIX S9100 and the market-leading Lumix TZ20 / ZS10 respectively. Read our full review to find out how it measures up.

Canon PowerShot SX230 HS Design and controls
The PowerShot SX230 HS looks similar to to its predecessor and is almost exactly the same size and weight. It's available in pink, blue or black and the soap bar shape with a cupped silver edge both looks stylish and provides a secure and stable grip. The tell-tale difference between the SX230 HS and its predecessor is the bulge on the top edge just to the left of the shutter release labelled GPS. There's one other important difference: the earlier SX210's zoom 'nipple' experiment has been abandoned with the return of a conventional zoom collar surround on the shutter release.

Nikon Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.8G lens

The Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.8G is an affordable prime lens for Nikon's range of FX and DX format DSLRs, and as an AF-S model, it'll autofocus on any Nikon body.
Announced in April 2011, the AF-S 50mm f1.8G is the successor to the ageing, but still popular AF 50mm f/1.8D. It's the first renovated f/1.8 prime lens for FX bodies sporting AF-S in Nikon's current range, with the 85/1.8D and 35/2.0D still awaiting an update. And that is sorely needed as the top-of-the-line f/1.4 primes that Nikon updated last year are pretty expensive - the only exception being the 50mm f/1.4G. So it will be interesting to see how the new 1.8G lens performs against it's bigger and pricier cousin.
The 50mm focal length has long been considered 'normal' on full-frame / FX format bodies, delivering a reproduction that is akin to the perception of the naked eye. Mounted on a cropped-frame / DX-format body, 50mm becomes equivalent to 75mm and thus becomes a prime candidate for portrait-photography as it gives you some distance from your subject which leads to a flattering perspective. It might even be more fit for portraiture in small studios on a DX-body than a 85mm prime as it renders a larger frame from any given distance. In this review I'll have a look at Nikon's latest 50mm prime, and find out whether it delivers a good price / performance ratio.
Optics: 7 elements in 6 groups vs. 6 elements in 5 groups on the 50/1.8D and 8 elements in 7 groups on the 50/1.4G. Designs of 50mm lenses tend to be quite simple with the only distinguishing factors being exotic glass, aspherical elements or special coating. The new 50/1.8G is the only current 50mm lens from Nikon that has an aspherical element. And none of the three has Nano-coating. [+]

Nikkor 50mm f/1.x cross-section
The new Nikkor AF-S 50/1.8G		The old Nikkor AF 50/1.8D		The Nikkor AF-S 50/1.4G

Closest focus distance/max. magnification: 0.45m / 1:6.7. This is standard with 50mm primes. [0]

Filter-thread: 58mm = same as 50/1.4G but other than that 58mm is not widely used: the 50/1.8D and the DX 35/1.8G use 52mm. [0]

IS: No = a pity! The Nikon 16-35/4.0 zoom has VRII, so why not a 50mm prime? You can only hope that with a 2.3 stops larger aperture you could crank up the shutter speed to where shake is less likely. But what if you need to stop down to get enough dof? On a 16MP DX-body like the D5100 or D7000 it is recommended to shoot at least 1/125 sec freehand if you want to avoid blur. [-]

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V

The Sony Cyber-shot HX9V is a 16.2 Megapixel pocket super-zoom with a 16x stabilised optical zoom lens, 24mm wide angle coverage and a 3in LCD screen. With a new 16.2 Megapixel back-illuminated Exmor-R CMOS sensor, which it shares with the jointly-announced HX100V 30x super-zoom, the Cyber-shot HX9V is capable of full resolution fast burst shooting and full HD 1080p60 video.
Like the earlier HX5, the Cyber-shot HX9V has a built-in GPS receiver which appends lat, long, and altitude information to the image EXIF data. Sony has introduced some new panoramic and 3D shooting modes in addition to the composite modes - Hand-held Twilight and Anti motion Blur - for which its Exmor-based models are now well-known. The Backlight Correction HDR mode has been upgraded to use three rather than just two shots and, like the earlier HX5, the HX9V provides full manual control (albeit still with only two apertures) in addition to Program, two intelligent Auto and a variety of scene exposure modes.
While there's a lot of new stuff to talk about the two things that will occupy most people's attention are the new 16x zoom range and the performance of the new 16.2 megapixel CMOS sensor. For existing Sony compact super-zoom owners and those new to the market the question will be how does the Cyber-shot HX9V improve on the HX5 and how does it compare with this year's models from Panasonic, Canon and Nikon: the Lumix TZ20 / ZS10, PowerShot SX230 HS and COOLPIX S9100 respectively. For the answers to those questions all you need do is read our full review.

Budding Photographers Can Win a Travel Photography Scholarship in South Africa

The folks at National Geographic and WorldNomads.com have an amazing prize set aside for one lucky photographer.

You'll start by being flown to Johannesburg to meet photographer Jason Edwards and a small travel group that will join you on your eight day trip through South Africa. You'll get mentoring from Edwards, hands-on experience and plenty of time in the field.  At the end of the trip, you'll sort through your best photographs, color balance and prepare them for their final destination - The National Geographic Channel.

Only aspiring pros need apply - this is an opportunity for amateurs wanting to take their craft to a higher level.  The application process is rigorous and requires not only a set of great photos, but a 300 word essay explaining why you're the candidate that should be chosen for the tour.

Apple iPhone 4 Camera review

As pocket cameras are increasingly getting pushed out of people's pockets by smartphones, we decided to run the Apple iPhone 4 Camera through our lab and see how well one of the more popular models fares when faced with our test suite.

The iPhone 4's backlit 5-megapixel sensor does surprisingly well in good light, and its 29mm-equivalent lens even includes a focusing mechanism. It doesn't quite outdo good quality pocket cameras currently on the market, but clearly for many it stands in as a good substitute, one that's always with you when you think, "If only I had a camera!" Click here to see how the Apple iPhone 4 Camera fared.

Sony Alpha SLT-A77 preview

The Alpha A77 is Sony's flagship SLT camera, boasting a new 24.3 Megapixel sensor, 12fps continuous shooting, Full HD 1080p video and composition with either a 3in articulated screen or a high resolution OLED electronic viewfinder.

Announced in August 2011 alongside the simpler A65, the new A77 becomes Sony's latest camera to employ a fixed semi-transparent mirror instead of the usual moving reflex mirror in a traditional DSLR. This fixed mirror allows most of the light to pass through to the sensor, but reflects a smaller portion to a traditional phase-change AF sensor. This allows the Sony SLT cameras to offer quick and continuous autofocusing even during burst shooting and movie recording, something which eludes traditional DSLRs.
Meanwhile, the fixed position of the mirror, along with some clever sensor electronics, has allowed Sony to deliver fast response times and shooting speeds up to 12fps with continuous autofocus, which (caveats aside) is a quicker rate than Canon's fastest pro sports body, the EOS 1D Mark IV. Couple this with a new 19-point AF system with 11 cross-type sensors, 1080p movies captured at up to 60fps with full manual control over exposures, built-in GPS and tough magnesium alloy build with sealed controls, and you've got one of the most impressively-featured semi-pro bodies on the market and a worthy successor to Sony's popular Alpha A700 DSLR.
In true Sony style, there's so much new technology going on with the A77 that it's easy to be over-whelmed by the numbers and gadgetry, so it's important to take a look at each aspect in turn to see what it means in practice.
Let's start with the headlining 24.3 Megapixel resolution which, shared by the NEX-7, is the highest pixel count offered by an APS-C sized sensor to date; the previous highest resolution APS-C sensor was an 18 Megapixel model belonging to Canon which found itself deployed on the company's most recent DSLRs including the EOS 600D / T3i and EOS 7D.
The SLT-A77 delivers images with 6000x4000 pixels, compared to 5184x3456 pixels on the 18 Megapixel Canons, and the relatively modest-sounding 4912x3264 pixels of the earlier 16 Megapixel SLT-A55. Numerically it's certainly impressive, but of course the question remains whether image quality, in particular dynamic range and noise levels at high sensitivities, is compromised as a result. The NEX-7 may share the same worries with the same sensor, but with the SLT-A77 there's the additional concern of losing around 30% of the incoming light to the semi-reflective mirror - see later.
The sensitivity runs between 100 and 16000 ISO with a 50 ISO expanded option. Sony also includes its innovative and effective Multi Frame Noise Reduction options which stack a burst of images to reduce noise and extend the maximum sensitivity to 25600 ISO. Ultimately I can't comment on image quality until I test a final production sample, but at least Sony has various image stacking modes at its disposal which can reduce noise on static compositions should single exposure prove to be noisy.
Like earlier Alpha bodies (excluding the NEX range), the SLT-A77 features built-in sensor-shift stabilisation which works with any lens you attach - a key advantage it has over rivals which require optically stabilised lenses to eliminate the wobbles.
The new sensor delivers more than just very high resolution images though: it can capture Full HD video at progressive frame rates of 50 or 60fps depending on region. That's double the progressive frame rate of Full HD modes on any video-equipped DSLR to date. This is important for slow motion work, where 60fps footage can be slowed down by 2.5 times for use in a 24fps project, but until now, all video equipped DSLRs could only offer 60fps for 720p video; now Sony offers it for 1080p too. I'm confirming whether SLT-A77's sold in PAL and NTSC regions can offer all the frame rates, or whether PAL models only support 25 and 50fps compared to 24 and 60fps for NTSC.
To support 1080p encoding at 50 or 60fps, the SLT-A77 employs AVCHD version 2, with the additional benefit of higher data rates: 28Mbit/s for the 1080p / 50 / 60 modes, and 24Mbit/s for the 1080p / 24 / 25 modes. Sony's also equipped the SLT-A77 with full manual control over movie exposures, in addition to built-in stereo mics in the head and a standard jack to connect an external microphone. It's nice to find the standard microphone jack on the A77, although with Sony's proprietary Alpha accessory shoe, you'll need an adapter before being able to mount most third-party models, such as those from Rode.
An additional benefit of the new sensor is support for an electronic first shutter curtain, which improves response times as the shutter no longer needs to close before opening again to start the exposure; indeed Sony quotes a shutter lag of just 0.05 seconds.
While the sensor resolution and support for 1080p at high frame rates is impressive, it's the semi-pro aspirations of the A77 which will really turn heads, starting with the fast continuous shooting. Sony's really carving a niche for itself in this respect and has raised the bar with the A77 by exploiting the fact its fixed mirror doesn't need to lift and close between every frame. Indeed with a top speed of 12fps with autofocus, it's quicker than the 10fps of Canon EOS 1D Mark IV which costs over four times more. Sony's cheaper SLT-A65 may be slower than the A77, but even it manages to squeeze out a top speed of 10fps. Sony really is continuing to redefine what we can expect from bodies at these price points in terms of speed.

Redrock Micro Introduces microTies for Cable Management

If you've dealt with camera rigs, you've probably had trouble with wire management. Your camera rig ends up looking like the spaghetti behind your TV - not a good setup at all. You can rig up some solutions using zip ties that you have to cut off at the end of each use or you can use tape that leaves sticky residue, but Redrock has a better option in mind.

The company's new microTies are lightweight and simply clamp on to any 15mm rod. They won't scratch the surface and they're simple to attach and detach. They'll secure any cable you've got and even offer a channel for grease pencils for follow focuses.

Redrock Micro microTies are available now at a price of $24.50 for a three pack. You can pick them up directly from Redrock Micro or from any of their authorized dealers.