Canon EOS 550D

Canon’s new entry-level DSLR camera is quite a well-rounded package. The feature list is impressive, as is the handling, build quality and the supplied software. The improvements over the 500D are not game changing but are nonetheless significant - there’s a new 18MP sensor, improved metering and the buttons are redesigned.

Canon 550D’s main strengths are its impressive picture quality, strong body with an excellent new LCD screen, fast autofocus and reliable light metering. In practice it performs on par, if not better, than the Nikon D5000 and Pentax K-x, which are excellent cameras in their own right. To add a competitive edge to the package, however, Canon have made the 550D a capable video camera too with an external mic sockets and numerous controls for quality and frame rate settings. The 550D is great effort by Canon and an excellent introduction for enthusiasts to the world of DSLR photography.

Tags: canon, digital, eos 550d

Olympus Mju Tough 3000

Olympus has announced the latest digital camera model to join its durable Tough range - it’s the new Olympus Mju Tough 3000. It is waterproof to 3m, shockproof enough to drop from 1.5m and works happily down to temperatures of -10°C. Behind the tough exterior lie sophisticated electronics, including a 12MP CCD sensor, image stabilisation, HD movie mode and even a 1GB internal memory. The camera can also be charged through USB which is very handy. It features a 3.6x (28-102mm equiv.) zoom lens that is perfectly versatile for the outdoors.

Olympus μ TOUGH 3000 is out now and comes in four bright colours - Hot Pink, Emerald (above), Turquoise Blue, and Oxide Red. Click on the link below to check them out.

Tags: compact, digital, olympus

Ricoh GR Digital 3

Ricoh unveils the GR Digital III

Having been in love with Ricoh’s GR-range since the Film Age, I was excited to hear the company announcing its latest premium compact additiion to the range. The GR III’s top feature is its super fast f1.9 28mm equivalent prime lens. Successor to the GR Digital II, it uses a new 10MP sensor with larger pixel pitch. Sensitivity, speed and continuous shoting are also improved. The GR III continues the Ricoh tradition of high resolution screens, becoming one of the first compact to offer a 920,000 dots VGA panel. All in all, this should be one great little camera to keep in your pocket.

Tags: compact, digital, Digital Cameras, gr 3, griii, ricoh gr III

Canon PowerShot D10

Canon PowerShot D10 - Durable & Rugged

Waterproof and shockproof, this cute 12-megapixel Canon PowerShot will take a lot more punishment than your ordinary digital camera. It will also withstand temperatures down to -10C and quite a bit of dust and dirt thrown at it. Inside its rugged protective shell, the PowerShot D10 features clever technology that will help you get a better shot - including image stabilisation, and motion, scene and face detection. The Canon’s built-in lens offers 3x Zoom which is adequate, although main rival Pentax Optio W80 has the edge when it comes to optics with its 4x zoom, allowing for both wider landscapes and close-up action shots.

Buy now from Warehouse Express.

Tags: canon, canon powershot d10, compact, digital, powershot, quirky, waterproof digital cameras

Waterproof Digital Cameras

Choosing A Digital Camera For Underwater Photography

The underwater world is full of wonderful serene scenes making us wonder at nature and why species bothered evolving out of the sea. Seeing its beauty is one thing, but capturing it on camera can be tough. Well, not really. The pictures above, for example, are not fancy commercial photos, but rather amateur shots using budget Sealife gear. There are two routs really to shooting underwater - getting yourself a waterproof digital camera or waterproof casing for your current model. Pros and the unevitable cons of both are underlined below.

Waterproof Cameras

These are specifically built cameras for underwater photography. There are no fiddly casings to mess with, the camera is ready for the dive, but on the flip side it is not that great on land. The Sealife Reefmaster pictured below is a great little waterproof digital camera with a depth rating of 40m and is perfect for all those expeditions to the beach or sea.

Waterproof Camera Casings

Alternatively, if you have a digital camera that you prefer and love, you can buy a waterproof casing for it to take it diving with  you. This housing provides rubbery waterproofness typically down to 40 metres and easy to use big bright buttons. On the downside, you can always forget to pack your casing when going away, plus they’re not suited to more serious depths, but apart from that they should help you have all the fun a dedicated waterproof camera would.

Loss of Picture Quality Underwater And The Use Of Flash

A big problem that underwater photographers face, apart from unfriendly marine life and wild hairdos, is the extreme loss of colour and contrast at depth. This is due to colours such as red and orange being easily absorbed by water, which is why the sea appears so blue and green.

One way to solve this is to cut the distance to your subject, ideally to under one metre, as this will minimise the colour loss. You can even use wide angle lenses to get really close. Another way is to use flash, either your built-in one or a dedicated off-camera unit, which will fill-in the scene with a full spectrum of colour.

Tags: buying guide, camera, compact, digital, underwater, waterproof digital cameras

Digital Cameras For Women

Choosing A Digital Camera For Her

A digital camera is an essential inhabitant of a lady’s pruse and as such deserves equal consideration to its numerous roomies, the mobile phone charm, the moisturiser, and the hundred others. One advice when choosing a camera for a woman (and here I presume you’re a guy) is to step back and think about what she’d really appreciate. Yup, looks would score high. She wouldn’t care if it has the latest DIGIC4 Image Processor if the camera looks like it belongs to the secret lab of a Soviet villain. It needs colour, sparkle, sophistication.

But by no means should the digital camera lack features. To the contrary, missing a vital hen do group shot because of a fiddly camera needs to be avoided at all costs. With all these needs and musts picking a camera for our better halves may seem like a daunting task, but fear not, as we’ve picked four of the best bits of modern technology and design. Take your pick from these glamorous digital cameras for women, we’ve made sure you can’t go wrong.

Panasonic Lumix LS80 - Under £100
DMC-LS80 offers women an ultimate ease and convenience to let them enjoy shooting beautiful photographs. Available in silver, black and pink.

Canon IXUS 80 IS - Under £150

Pure aluminium bodywork enhances the smooth curves of the Digital IXUS 80 IS. Available in four distinctive colours, the camera packs an Image Stabiliser lens and other leading technologies into its slim form, for fun photography with a large dash of elegance.

Olympus MJU 1060 - Under £200
The μ 1060 combines miniaturised optics, state-of-theart design and cutting edge technology in a slim metal camera body. With a stunning 7x optical zoom there are practically no limits to the distance from your subject, and the Dual Image Stabilisation prevents blurry photographs.

Nikon Coolpix S60 - Under £300
This is one digital camera women are going to love to touch! The Coolpix S60 is the perfect marriage between technology and style. Nikon has introduced a host of features to make this camera easy to use and packed it with superb innovations derived from professional D-SLR line for optimal imaging.

Tags: buying guide, digital

Underwater Digital Camera Mask

Underwater digital cameras are a great idea and have certainly come on leaps and bounds in the last few years. However it’s always a bit of a faff to swim with them, as you tend to need your hands for the swimming bit - preferably without some buoyant snapper dangling from your wrist. Well now you can snorkel through those coral reefs with both your hands free and be able to take great underwater snaps with the brand new Camera Mask.

The 3.1 megapixel camera has been cleverly built into the mask and the cross hairs on the lenses will show you exactly where you need to look to get the perfect snap. As well as being able to take great pics, it can also shoot video. Yup you can film your deep blue explorations that are stored in the 16MB of onboard memory - which you can easily expand with a Micro SD Card if you fancy re-enacting some sub-aquatic adventure.

Now available on the market for under £100.

Tags: camera, compact, digital, underwater

Camera Memory Cards

Camera memory cards have grown incredibly large incredibly fast, allowing you to store thousands of images on one tiny piece of plastic. They’re one of the few technologies that have gone embarrassingly cheap for the amount of work they actually do, which is great. Now picking a memory card is down to how many Christmases or holidays you want stored on the thing and all for a few bob. There are two main types of camera memory cards - SD and CF - with SD being the smaller type usually found in compact cameras, while CF cards are chunkier and used in high end DSLRs. Have a look below to see the best deals on camera memory around.

SD Memory Cards

SD cards, mainly used in point-and-shoot cameras, can have huge capacity while being nice and small, although be careful not to buy Micro or Mini SD which is too small to fit in most photographic gear. There are quite a few manufacturers, but you can stick to SanDisk which is a very popular card maker producing some of the most reliable storage out there. There are various types of SanDisk SD cards, for example Ultra II and Extreme III, which refer to the speed of writing to the card. However, unless you’re going mad pressing the shutter button, any card would do a brilliant job, so buy in mind with whatever you wish to spend.

	Capacity	Photos	From
	2GB	400	under £10
	4GB	750	under £15
	8GB	1500	under £30
	16GB+	3000+	over £50

CF Memory Cards

Most modern digital SLRs use CompactFlash memory due to its superior reliability and ruggedness. They offer large capacity, anything from a 1GB up to an insanse 64GB (and even larger ones coming out), at very reasonable prices - for example, you can bag a fast 2GB SanDisk for under £20.
Again, SanDisk are a great manufacturer who pioneered the Compact Flash card and are still leaders in the field, however other brands like Lexar, Kingston and Fuji do a great job too. Click on the retailer below to see their latest offers on CF memory:

Card Readers

The digital equivalent of a Swiss army knife (well, almost), modern camera memory card readers are extremely versatile and can read almost any type of memory media that you plug in. Most can support up to a dozen different memory card types with the more expensive allowing faster (USB 2.0 or Firewire) connection to your computer.

Tags: digital, memory card

Digital Camera Guide

With more digital cameras and photographic gadgetry out on the market than CCTVs on streets of London (though Boris is working on it), choosing the best gear for one’s needs can be a daunting task. Yet here at What Camera we’ve mapped the photographic jungle to cherry-pick the best that’s on offer and bring it to you, simple and honest. Browse through our guide for digital gear we’ve devised below and choose what’s best for you.

	What Digital SLR		What Compact Camera the latest DSLRs | Compacts
	Camera Memory huge storage with SD | CF cards		Cameras Under £150 because film is not dead
	Unusual Cameras all the peculiar gear		Hot New Gear photographic shows in London

Tags: buying guide, camera, digital

Lego Digital Camera

Lego has announced its plans to introduce a line of electronic devices including its own digital camera. The compact is aimed at children, costing around £50, and likely to be of the cheap and cheerful type with simple settings and controls. The camera will not be actually made out of Lego blocks (otherwise it probably won’t be a camera for long) but it looks decevingly much like it is and maybe it will be “compatible” with bricks.

 

Tags: camera, compact, digital, lego, quirky