Archive for 2008

Canon EOS-5D review

Canon are synonymous with high end professional cameras and the slightly Modified Canon EOS 5D is no exception. Yes, this beast has been around for a couple of years now but with a few cosmetic tweaks Canon have once again extended the life a little bit more.

Now, this camera is not your modern flashy electronics, multiple scenery mode, point and click camera – It is a serious high end professional camera built like a tank to take plent of scrapes and knocks I know it may not meet the needs of many of our readers. However, take a look at the paps on the streets and a vast majority of them will have this very camera in their hand.

Introduction

When we examined the Panasonic I commented that many purists may not like all the scenery options and shooting assists – Well, The Canon EOS 5D is as far away from this as you could possibly get. It’s a body only purchase as well (Although many suppliers are doing “Kit” deals with a number of lense choices) so don’t forget the lenses!

I hooked the 5D up to a pretty standard Sigma 500mm EF lens for the review.

What’s in the Box?

Very little! The camera body comes complete with battery, lens covers, leads and battery charger. The supplied software allows easy transfer of images via USB if required (To be honest I always use a CF Card reader as I feel this is faster).

Canon EOS 5D specification:

12.8 MP full frame CMOS sensor

3 fps 60 JPEG image burst

9-point AF with 6 Assist AF points

2.5″ LCD

Picture Style image processing

DIGIC II

Records RAW/JPEG images

Digital Photo Professional software

Compact magnesium alloy body

Connectivity options

General

Built like a Tank with a Magnesium alloy body, you instantly feel this is a serious piece of kit with an extremely good build level and judging by the review unit can take a few knocks along the way. Never seen a camera so bashed!

Oh, and for Canon EOS users the controls are pretty much the same too…

One of the big additions the 5D provides is a full-frame sensor. Most consumer focused D-SLR’s are 2/3rds frame and use a much smaller sensor.

The biggest advantage of a full frame sensor are much higher picture quality, this is backed up in low light situations as well – However, you do loose the magnifying effect found on smaller sensor cameras.

Taking the classical EOS look and feel, with a much more solid body than say the 350D, the EOS 5D is one beast of a camera to hold and feel but I’m really interested in is how it works.

Looking at the now de facto Canon EOS controls top left shows the mode dial button.

Auto Mode – Fully automatic mode – The camera sets aperture and shutter speed depending on the conditions

Program Mode – Fully automatic, however you can change shutter speed and aperture using the main dials – Useful to change depth of field.

Shutter Priority Mode – Allows you to change the shutter speed from 30 Seconds to 1/8000th second

Aperture Priority Mode – Allows manual changes to the aperture settings

Full Manual Mode – All settings can be changed manually with no assistance from the camera.

Bulb Mode – Allows you to keep the shutter open for as long as you need.

Custom Mode – This allows quick access to custom settings you may have on your camera

The top right hand side of the camera houses the main camera setting display

This shows many of the camera settings such as shutter speed and aperture this can also be used when changing many settings. A handy back light can be switched on for those darker nights!

Other settings such as ISO, White balance and focus modes are changed with the collection of buttons encircling this LCD screen.

Backlight – Enables the orange glow on the LCD display

ISO – Changes the ISO settings, standard settings range from 100 through to 1600. These can be extended by enabling ISO expansion but the image quality does suffer a little.

Metering – This allows changes to the camera metering for exposure compensation

The camera has a few AF modes, from the standard One Shot mode to the AI Focus modes that keeps the camera focusing at all times. Useful for moving objects.

Of course, the shutter release is just to the front of these buttons.

In the centre of the camera is a pretty standard hotshoe. The camera uses E-TTL II Flash Metering. It’s important to note this camera does not have any integral flash (Or an AF assist lamp for focusing) but it will use any of these features on a compatible flash unit.

The left hand side of the camera has a small lift up flap allow access to the connections of the camera.

Connections are provided for external flash synchronisation, Remote Shutter release, Video out and a USB 2.0 connector for linking with your PC.

The back of the camera looks almost like a 20D (or most other EOS cameras for that matter…)

The immediate benefit however is the 2.5” LCD screen, somewhat larger than previous models. This screen is crystal clear and provides excellent reviewing of images and access to menu items.

The camera does not have Live View though, I didn’t think I’d miss this but for close up work I certainly did. I have to say the view finder was excellent though – The Full Screen CCD allows far more light, and with a larger mirror in the camera the view is really good.

To the left of the LCD screen are the common control buttons,

Menu – Takes you into the 5D’s simple to use menu system

Info – This displays your current settings or displays information on the current viewed picture.

Jump – Allows you to “Jump” through displayed menus

Play – Switches the camera to image playback mode

Just below the screen is the delete images button.

Above the power switch (incidentally the 5D is ready within a second after switching on) is the main jog wheel. This is used to move through menu items and controlling some of the camera settings.

On the right hand side of the camera is the CF Card slot. (Type II)

Highlights and Lowlights

Using the camera on a day to day basis has shown a number of highlights and low lights:

Highlights

Extremely fast switch on, making the camera available for that unexpected shot within a second

Exceptional Image Quality – The full size CCD gives superb results and with a very good viewfinder those shots are there for the taking

Very good battery life with around 800 shots per charge

Large 2.5” Display gives clear results even in bright sunlight

Extremely well built – You almost feel you want to drop it just to see how it gets on…

Approximately 3 shots per second giving very fast response times

Lowlights

Noisy Shutter Action from the larger than normal mirror. Doesn’t cause issues but could imagine in some circumstances noise may distract.

No built in flash will have users reaching for possibly expensive flash guns. The canon can use other makes of flash guns but generally at fixed shutter speeds.

No AF assist lamp reduces focusing capability in low light situations

REVIEW

I think I mentioned before, I do own one of the original Canon 10D’s so, again I have tried to remain unbiased during this revue. Bolting on some of my existing lenses was a great benefit and the EOS 5D made full use of all the standard AF features. I did miss the extra magnification that you loose with the full screen CCD so I guess I’d need to get a better lens if I was going to use this more.

It did make my wide angle lens behave exactly as it should though – 16mm was a true 16mm lens for once.

The camera is very well built, and in normal Canon style shows signs of being a stong resilient camera capable of taking many a knock. The image quality is quite breathtaking and using the RAW mode allowed minute changes to be made to colour balance directly on my PC.

I have to admit, I didn’t miss any of the scene selectors or automated imagery wizards that are now started to be found on some of the newer D-SLR’s. Give me the automatic mode for day to day shooting and happy with the ability to change my aperture and shutter settings for changing depth of field and such other trickery.

The fast switch on and warm up time of the camera means its almost ready the moment you take it out of the bag which gives very fast access to all features and taking shots. A must for those moments you least expect (or, to be honest ever see…)Can’t remember the last time I was walking through London and bumped into Madonna.)

I tried using some really high ISO settings on a few shots and was very surprised at the low levels of noise on the image, again, I think this is down to the full screen CCD reducing distortion etc.

I didn’t really do too much testing with a flash gun but the brief shots I took showed a reasonable response but I wasn’t using a canon flash, just a clone cheapo unit. I’d really advise going for a proper flash unit from Canon as they just seem to match the camera a lot closer.

The lack of an AF assist light does cause issues though, there are times you want a sharp picture taken in low light without the flash and I had to use manual focus to get the images correct.

Conclusion

The Canon 5D is an excellent camera with superb quality shots and ease of use. The full screen CCD puts this camera in between high end consumer based D-SLR’s and full blown professional D-SLR’s such as the EOS 1D. You will however find many of the features and a reasonably close picture quality from some of the lower prices cameras in the EOS range such as the 400D or the upcoming 450D – The 450D for example has the same 12MP resolution and throws live view into the bundle for quite a lot less money.

You do however get what you pay for and the EOS 5d is no exception. The full screen CCD and build quality wins for me but, I’m not a professional so I may just be tempted to move down the range slight to say the 450D and spend the extra money on that special lens.

Review by: John

[Post tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, canon, EOS 5D, DSLR, Tracy & Matt]

Living with the HTC Shift (Part 3)

The HTC shift a week in:

I’ve been using the shift in anger for a week now and I am staying happy with the device overall, there are a few reservations which take the shine of the device but I have to say I don’t think if I had parted with my hard earned cash that I’d be suffering any of the technology disenchantment which is always a risk after a significant purchase.

I’ve got used to the keyboard, I’m not up to my usual speed with a full size keyboard but It’s perfectly functional for extended use even on longer documents, no more accidental screen swipes and if I wasn’t going back and forth between a full size and shift keyboard I’m sure my speed would improve.

In any case with the on board USB port and D-SUB out you’ve got the ability to connect to an LCD and full size USB keyboard when clattering away in Vista. The only hiccough is that this stays connected whilst using the Windows Mobile chipset so if you forget and tap away on the attached keyboard you can get some interesting additions to documents.

In Windows mobile the Wi-Fi components of the main chipset are not available which means you are left with cellular only for your connectivity, not so bad however there are still areas I regularly visit (like my mother’s house) that HSDPA or 3g just isn’t available and GPRS is patchy at best here the ability to use the built in Wi-Fi would be perfect but is denied.

The Wi-Fi and 3G interaction in Vista is also interesting, the only way I have been able to make the device connect via 3G under Vista is to disable the Wi-Fi connection manually, until you do this the cellular modem doesn’t even appear in the network connections list and the device won’t connect via cellular until this process if completed.

The touch screen I moaned about early last week has actually turned out to be a real benefit as I can easily navigate around the screen without resorting to the mouse pad and buttons on the Shift itself, so much so that I find myself prodding LCDs when using none touch enabled screens at Home.

The key I have been using a lot is the screen resolution changer, this give you the ability to flick back and forth between 1024 x 600 and 800 x 400 screen resolutions. Again a little anomaly is that when switching resolutions the keyboard input is suspended rather than buffered.

Battery life has been OK windows mobile is great for this, the shift managed to go all over the weekend with windows mobile usage, however without Paul’s liberate Windows mobile would be so crippled as to be useless and I’m sure I would have to resort to Vista far more frequently as it is I can get by in Word, excel and internet explorer without too much difficulty now they have been restored.

The biggest problem I have is the interaction between the windows mobile and Vista, to say the shift ‘does’ both Vista and Windows Mobile is a bit misleading, it’s really more like two distinct devices within the same packaging certainly in default settings.

With liberate this is improved a little in that at least you can see the windows mobile device from Vista ( I know we are cheating by having pocket Office installed but to be honest this is really the Shift’s USP and HTC have somewhat compromised their main differentiator out of the box)

Overall I’m happy the Shift is very man portable, reasonably good looking, although in windows mobile mode it does look all the world like some shocking great PDA, and sufficient for most of my daily needs. I’m travelling a lot more this week so I am hoping that the shift will really come into its own, watch this space.

Go back to Part 1or Part 2

Posted by: Alasdair

[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, Orange, HTC, HTC Shift, Microsoft Communicator]

i-mate JAMA 101 review

The i-mate JAMA 101 – it’s a mini JAMin!

10 second review:
Device: i-mate JAMA 101
Cost: SIM free only: £199.95
Available from: Devicewire
Summary: a mini version of the popular JAMin but needs a little work to be a as much of a star as its predecessor
Best of: size and looks
Worst of: can be slow at times

The Full Review

Hot on the heels of the x150 reviews we featured a few weeks ago we’ve had a hands on with the consumer equivalent the i-mate JAMA 101 the JAMA range is i-mates first foray into the consumer marketplace after the dissolution of their relationship with HTC so it’s quite key to their brand image, we’re going to look at how the JAMA measures up. The 101 is an upgraded version specs wise and styling wise over the original JAMA.

I-mates HTC devices have stood them in good stead, the JAMA looks just like a mini version of i-mates HTC JAMin which was a massive favourite of mine. The JAMA certainly turned heads the styling and size are fantastic, the screen is a little smaller than is ideal but you’re getting a really compact PDA here with Windows Mobile 6 professional on board.

What’s in the box?

The usual bits and pieces come with in the box with the JAMA and you can see more in Matt’s JAMA unboxing video but the basics are:

i-mate JAMA 101

Mains charger

Battery

USB Sync/charge cable

User guide

Screen protector

Wired stereo headset

Spare stylus

Application CD rom

i-mate JAMA 101 specification:

Microsoft® Windows Mobile® 6 Professional

Samsung 300 MHz processor

128Mbytes ROM 64 Mbytes RAM

2.4″ 240 x 320 touch screen

GSM/GPRS (class 10) Tri-band 900/1800/1900 MHz

128MB ROM, 64MB RAM

Micro-SD card slot Memory Expansion (up to 2GB)

Nominal Talk time 4 hours, up to 150 Hours Standby

2.0 Mega Pixel-Effect camera with 5x digital zoom

Bluetooth® v1.2

USB1.1

Environment
My usual enterprise environment exchange 2003 server using exchange activesync

Highlights:

Size: it’s tiny, really compact

Looks: I’m a fan of the matt black finish of the JAMin and the JAMA has the same styling

No Lights:

No sign of life: the JAMA has no visual indication that it’s on, no LEDs no lightsn no nothing. After my experiences with the ATOM this was disconcerting, I like a flashing LED at least to let me know the device is still alive.

Battery life: I got a day’s use of the JAMA but that was it, I’d hope for a bit better, I know it’s small but you need more juice than this

No WiFi, 3G and only USB 1.1: I suppose this is down to the size of the JAMA but I can’t help feeling it’s a retrograde step.

Lowlights:

Flaky software: the JAMA hung far too often and refused to come back from the dead after I cleared the memory of my data prior to sending the JAMA back.

Erratic Bluetooth: possibly another symptom pf the same problem however the JAMA’s Bluetooth just kept shutting down and a reboot was necessary to get it back sometimes.

REVIEW

The JAMA 101 is a really really good looking device, a great size, great finish and a real tactile feel; it looks the entire world like a smaller version of the JAMin.

The JAMA is a real eye catcher and elicited a great deal of comment, it’s a very compact and attractive device, the matt black finish is traditional i-mate and the JAMA sits nicely in the palm.

Form Factor – The design cues
Physically, notwithstanding the keypad and the slight difference in screen size the two devices are identical the arrangement of ports and buttons follows the same scheme on both the x150s:

Simple LED notification at the top – strangely inactive on the review device

MicroSD card slot cover and external antenna on the left hand side

Stylus, camera button and volume rocker to the right

Headset and USB sockets covered by plastic flaps, Mic and reset buttons to the bottom

The keypad is set out logically

And the expected camera and self portrait mirror with handsfree / audio speakers to the rear

The JAMA has the nice high impact matt black plastic finish no fingerprint problems here.

Connectivity

The JAMA is a bit light on connectivity options, GSM and GPRS not 3G and HSDPA and no WiFi USB 1.1 not 2.0, I suppose this is the price you pay for the compact form factor but I think the omission of WiFi in a non operator device is a disappointment.

Operation

Frankly the JAMA was a bit flaky in operation, the processor and memory are a bit under specced the device came close to a reset a couple of times, but never actually needed one.

Configuration

Despite its compact side the JAMA is well laid out the only criticism I have is that the camera button is a bit too central and you obscure a fair bit of the screen with your hand when using the camera. The screen is small and the onboard keyboards need the stylus for successful operation.

Look and Feel

The interface is pretty much vanilla Windows Mobile 6 Professional, there’s an i-mate themed today background but nothing fancy, if you are used to the WM6 interface then there are no surprises here either.

Applications

There’s nothing unusual in the loaded applications on the JAMA the only surprise is the profile controller which allows the user to assign profiles much as in windows mobile 6 standard phone devices.

Profile controller is pretty self explanatory

Stability

Stability was a little disappointing, the JAMA locked up a few times but came back), when handling documents the device grinds a little, never actually needing a reset but very nearly getting the stylus treatment a couple of times. The biggest problem for was Bluetooth which kept turning itself off for no apparent reason a real pain when driving and using a headset.

Overall Assessment

The JAMA was a real pleaser initially and the styling certainly gained a positive reaction, however the lack of 3G and WiFi were a bit of a disappointment and with continued use the lack of visual notification and the fiddly on screen keyboards were a bit of pain. I wouldn’t replace my current devices with the JAMA at the moment but with an update to iron out the stability issues the JAMA could be a real winner.

Review by: Alasdair

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, i-mate JAMA 101, i-mate]

Garmin XT review

Devicewire have kindly sent us a review copy of Garmin Mobile XT. Since the biggest player in sat nav no longer bother with our industry, it’s left to the others to put together decent sat nav solutions for phones and PDAs.

Garmin is one of the bigger names, and the latest release has plenty of nice features. Installation is nice and easy providing you use the original microSD card, or the supplied card-size adaptors. I have been using the Garmin software with the memory card installed in my Nokia N95 8GB. We’ve since found out that Garmin wont allow you to transfer the software to another memory card, in case you need a larger one, which means you’ll have to card swap if you have stuff saved on another card. Garmin – you need to sort this out!

The install size is on the large side – so there really isn’t much room on the supplied card for much more.

Installation and setup is a breeze, when you insert the memory card the software automatically starts up and installs. After that I simply enabled “Integrated GPS” and off it went. Similar options are available for Garmin Bluetooth, and Other bluetooth gps devices.

Down to business then. The startup time is not particularly quick – in fact it’s quite slow on the N95 but I’m told that it’s much quicker on Windows Mobile devices. However once running, things seem quite fluid. The main menu, and most of the menu area is pretty simple. However I would say that the Garmin boys really need to do more design work as, compared to other sat nav products out there, the UI isn’t very pretty.

The GPS signal is shown, with options for tools and settings and a quick link to the main map screen.

The “Where to?” screen looks somehow worse than the main menu – horrible white backgrounds, incomplete titles for buttons, and changing font sizes. However, despite the bad looks, it is quick and easy to understand.

The software really falls down on inputting an address – it’s just too long-winded. Firstly, despite being the “GB and Ireland” version of the software – the country selection screen has “England” or “Spell”.

City selection is similar, and combined with Postcode search – and seems to be fairly quick. You can either type in a postcode, or search for a city and then find the street.

The built in POI seems to be fairly well researched, and in plentiful supply. Weirdly, they are helpfully located within the “Food and Hotels” section(!) – I have no idea what was wrong with “POIs” like everyone else uses!

I easily managed to set up a route, and proceeded to mess around and go the wrong way. It copes admirably and recalculates routes quite quickly.

One nice feature I found in Garmin – Free traffic information! – via GPRS, so required a nice data package and compatible phone – but free all the same. It’s a bit more limited than other sat nav packages, and won’t update mid-journey.

However, it’s a nice free service – but perhaps this could be improved in future versions. I’m not sure where the traffic information is sourced from in the UK.

As with many sat navs, the 3D interface looks pretty cool, and is a decent representation of the road ahead. The view will zoom in and out, depending on both speed, and whether there are any turns required ahead. Although this sounds similar to TomTom, Garmin really zooms out – big style. It seems that it will zoom out until the next turn is visible on screen.

Routing options are available, but again seem to be hidden away, with no way of forcing it to ask me every time whether I prefer a short, or fast route. It does have extra routing functions for different types of vehicles – an area where it easily beats TomTom software.

Another cool Garmin feature is “Track logs” which as you might guess, tracks your every move to the SD card, allowing input into Google Earth and other mapping tools. It will also allow you to replay a route. This single feature could be a winner for a lot of people – since TomTom have never bothered with it.

Simulate route is Garmin’s carbon copy version of TomTom’s fantastic “View Route Demo” function. However, although it works well, is very annoying having to turn off GPS whenever I wish to use it. I’m not sure why.

The Garmin XT software has a couple of key selling points:

Free Speed Camera updates forever! – TomTom charge about £50 a year for this feature and with the Mobile XT it’s free. With TomTom’s version as well it’s not that accurate when driving down a road with a camera near by. Garmin can work out what road you are on and if there is a camera on a road close by it ignores it.

Another thing that could be useful that’s included is the ability to SMS your location to anyone – those with Garmin Mobile XT installed will see the option to navigate direct to the person who sent the message – those without the software will get the lat/lon position that can be put in to Google Maps or similar.

Conclusion

Garmin Mobile XT is a good piece of software. It works on all sorts of devices from a single card. Granted there are some differences between versions but it does mean that changing your phone or PDA probably wont mean having to buy new sat nav software.

My criticism is sadly due to the lack of thought put into some of the design work, and default settings. The navigation screen also updates far too slow – sometimes, but not always, to the point of being useless. This does depend on the device though – and you will need a decent CPU on board to get the most out of it.

However, what makes Garmin get a positive conclusion from me, is purely and simply the price. £50 is cheap, and makes Garmin XT very much a bargain purchase. It’s no TomTom, but since that company has all but ditched mobiles and PDAs, it’s good to see Garmin have stuck around, and are improving their software with each release. If you are buying your first GPS enabled device then adding Garmin XT to your purchase is an inexpensive way to get started with proper sat nav software.

When you consider the cost of the Garmin XT software and the fact that weather and travel features are included free of charge then it’s well worth considering!

Review by: Mark

[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, Garmin, SAT NAV, GPS]