X-bit labs

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Choosing Your Digital Camera Wisely. Digital Cameras Described and Tested in Reviews

With a wide range of digital cameras available on the market it is quite difficult to decide which one will serve you the best way. The Tech Zone has posted an article about different digital cameras’ specifications. The author takes an in-depth investigation on such parameters as megapixels, memory, battery life-time, aperture size and others. In a separate review, AnandTech takes a look at four compact cameras, including Canon PowerShot SD400, Nikon Coolpix S1, Olympus IR-300 and Sony DSC-T33.

“In a traditional camera, the lens was king. If the lens delivered a decent image, exactly that image would be recorded on the film. As the original image size was limited by the film size (35mm having become the standard), you would then have to enlarge it to get any size of print. If the original was at all blurred this would be exaggerated by the enlarging process. The more light the lens let in, the ‘quicker’ it could take an image - hence expensive traditional cameras had wide lenses. What electronic cameras have done is to downgrade the importance of the lens. Computer software can supply the missing light, and sharpen the image. What you need instead is memory. A 1 megapixel image enlarged to 6x4, is barely acceptable. Above that size, it is a waste of print, but, funnily enough, can be viewed at larger sizes on a computer screen with little loss of quality. A 4 megapixel image can be enlarged to A4,” the article at The Tech Zone states.

“If possible try not to buy sight unseen before parting with your money, you should be able to “play” with a demonstration model, failing that you should consider taking your business elsewhere! If that is not possible, consider asking friends or neighbors that have similar (or even the one you are thinking about) and ask to play with it,” advises the author at The Tech Zone.

“Throughout our time with these 4 cameras, it became very clear that the strongest performers were the Canon SD400, Nikon S1, and Sony T33 (we'll get to the Olympus IR-300 in a bit). These 3 cameras were very competitive with each other in numerous aspects. In terms of speed and responsiveness, the Canon SD400 and Sony T33 were incredibly impressive. Both had very fast startup and cycle times. In addition, both cameras proved to have outstanding battery life. With respect to image quality, both the SD400 and T33 had the highest resolution capability,” AnandTech web-site informs.

• The Tech Zone: Things You Should Know Before Buying A Digital Camera.

• AnandTech: An In-Depth Look at 4 Ultra-compact Digicams.

Review of AMD Turion 64 Laptop Hits the Web. MSI S270 Laptop Under Investigation

HardwareZone has posted an article about AMD Turion 64 mobile processors. The first part of the article describes and compares AMD Turion 64 to Intel Centrino mobile platform, while the second part of the article contains a review of MSI S270 mobile PC powered by AMD Turion 64 MT-32 (1.80GHz with 512KB L2 cache) processor.

“One has to remember that the AMD Turion 64 Mobile Technology was also made to capture the thin and light notebook segment and when paired with the right implementation from a vendor, a Turion 64 based notebook is just as portable if not better than some Intel Centrino notebooks we’ve come across. Case in point is MSI’s S270 notebook. While its standard battery pack wasn’t much of a stunner due to the higher power consumption of the platform and the fact that the standard battery wasn’t really catered for the AMD’s mobile platform, the extended battery pack that comes with the notebook really shined. The MSI S270 may not have the best in class performance due to the processor’s small Level 2 cache disadvantage, which places it slower than the Pentium M “Dothan”, but it does have a good portability ratio and fares far better than similarly priced Celeron M notebooks. In a way, a Turion 64 notebook is almost like a go-between that’s faster than a Celeron M powered notebook but not quite the “David” to challenge the Centrino “Goliath” dynasty in a 32-bit environment,” writes the web-site.

The MSI notebook, which the web-site has tested, also boasts with 512MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM, 12.1” WXGA Glare Type LCD with native resolution of 1280x800 pixels and ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 (RS480) core-logic with built-in graphics core. The total weight of this mobile PC is around 2 kilograms.

“Save for the disappointing lack of Infrared and Bluetooth wireless connectivity options, the MSI S270 was a respectable notebook with a brilliantly vivid, high contrast and wide viewing angle screen, making it an excellent platform for enjoying rich multimedia content. Users will also appreciate its lightweight yet sturdy chassis that exudes good build quality and projects an impression that it would stand up well to the rigors of daily handling. The only annoying gripe we had was not so much the performance of the Turion 64 processor, but more of the noisy hard disk drive. We wished MSI had done a better job in this area to deliver a better user experience either by choosing a quieter hard drive or beef up the soundproofing on the chassis. For those of you intending to upgrade the default hard drive of the S270, this issue might be moot since quieter and larger hard drive alternatives are easy available,” concludes HardwareZone.

• HardwareZone: MSI S270 AMD Turion 64 Mobile Technology.