I used the Olympus E-420 for a few days, but the pointy viewfinder, though a minor thing, just bothered me way too much. So I decided to finally get the Sigma DP1, one of the first things I blogged about. The DP1 has its own faults of which the speed is probably its worst. Every review I read commented about that fault making it sound “useless.” It lowered my expectations to the point that I thought the camera was going to be like a floppy drive Mavica. I’m so glad I read all those horrible reviews. While playing with the camera, I found myself saying, “wow, it’s not that bad.” Now onto the observation bullet points:
- I used SDHC Class 6 Patriot 4gb card. This made the shot to shot speed feel faster.
- It is true, the autofocus does not always work in dim light.
- The autofocus speed when it does work is tolerable.
- Shutter lag isn’t instant, but still tolerable.
- I thought menu navigation was going to be sluggish and unresponsive. It isn’t. Viewing images isn’t slow either.
- It is smaller than I expected. Smaller than the Canon G series.
- Not as conspicuous as a person carrying a DSLR.
- I actually like the included strap. I took off the suedette material because I like wearing the camera diagonally.
- It comes with a fleece pouch that I really do use since I bring the camera with me everywhere I go. I just put it in my bag. Carrying your DSLR with you everywhere you go is bit of a pain.
- Its dynamic range is nice. I don’t get as many blown highlights like I would with other point and shoots. Maybe better than my D80?
- It is the ultimate pixel peeper camera. Looking at the images at 100% magnification is incredible.
- RAW files are not compatible with Adobe Camera RAW and DNG Converter yet.
- Sigma Photo Pro is really weird probably because I’m not used to it.
- If image quality and portability is your main goal, this is the only game in town.
I broke down and bought the E-420 last night. So far, it’s a sweet little camera. Everything is smaller on it, almost 3/4 scale. The 14-42mm looks like it’s about the size of a standard 50mm. Remember in the 60s and 70s when Olympus was making those small SLRs like the OM series and Pen cameras? I like that they’re going back to that. I haven’t had a chance to play with it that much but here are a few observations:
- The kit lens is not silent like a Wave/USM/HSM motor, but it has the mechanism where the focus ring does not move when focusing, not like the Canon or Nikon 18-55mm lenses. Turns out the manual focus ring is not a mechanical one but electronic. While it turns, it sends a signal to tell the camera to start adjusting focus kind of like a point and shoot.
- The three position autofocus points seems kind of not that useful (I hate when people say “useless.” Is it really?) because they are so close together. You have to use the menu to switch positions.
- The viewfinder eyehole sticks out kind of far for my taste. This is actually driving me nuts right now.
- Does not use standard mini-USB.
I’ve wanted this camera for a while. I’m not sure why I haven’t posted about it earlier. Maybe because I thought I already have. I hate when I do that. My interest was resparked when I found it on sale at Circuit City. Of course this one does not have the 25mm pancake. Anyways, who wouldn’t want a small camera that creates quality images? I considered a Sigma DP1, but it just has too many flaws. I love the Foveon sensor, but the speed of the lens, focusing, and operations apparently is way too slow. The Olympus E-420 is not quite as small or light as a DP1, but it is still considerably smaller and 25% lighter than my current Nikon D80.
The first thing I did after charging the SD1000s battery, which actually charges pretty quickly (maybe an hour or two), was install CHDK. The instructions are available at the CHK Wiki. Also a lot of info is on the CHDK Forum. I’ll give a quick summary of what I did below. This is from a Mac’s perspective (using a lot of Parallels actually!)
Checking Firmware version
- Format the SD card in the camera.
- Put the SD card in a card reader and hook it up to your Mac.
- In TextWrangler or TextEdit, create a blank file called “ver.req” and save it onto the root of the SD card. Then reinsert the SD card back into the camera.
- Put the SD1000 in play mode and turn it on. Pressed the function set button + disp button, kind of like a ctrl+c, holding down the function set button while pressing the disp button. This will tell you what firmware version you’re using. Mine iss GM 1.02A.
Installing CHDK
- The firmware version let’s you know what CHDK build you can use. Luckily mine was available here: http://malbe.nm.ru/chdk/.
- Getting CHDK on the SD from a Mac seemed a little finicky, so I just used parallels to do it. Unzip the firmware on Parallels desktop then drop the two files, ps.fir and diskboot.bin, onto the SD card’s root.
- Reinsert the card into the camera, put the camera in play mode, and turn the camera on.
- Pressed the Menu button. Under the play tab, scroll to the bottom where the Firmware Update option is. Update the firmware, which will install the CHDK.
This update does not change the actual firmware. It just install itself into temporary memory. Once you turn it off and back on the hack is gone. But there is a way to have the hack auto boot.
Autobooting
- After following the Installing CHDK instructions above. Press the ALT button (called the print button with the led in the middle.) Then press the Menu button.
- Go to the Debug Parameters page and activate the Make Card Bootable.
- Turn off the camera and pull out the SD card.
- Move the lock switch on the SD to the lock mode.
- Reinsert the card. The SD1000 should now auto boot.
Locking the card doesn’t affect being able to record or delete pictures.
Some observations so far
- RAW is cool, but a pain for the Mac so far. I’ve been using DNG4PS-2 in parallels to convert the CRW files to Adobe DNG. The mac version doesn’t really work well in Leopard. It kept crashing on me. The converter is especially nice because it copies the exif data from the jpeg.
- Overriding shutter speeds is cool when you want to do high speed syncing.
- You can customize a User Menu with your most often used items.
- The On Screen Display is cool but annoying. You get a lot of extra information, but it doesn’t disappear in the “no information just the picture” display mode. You can also customize where overlays are displayed on the screen. Overlays also hover on top of most everything, so you have to be careful where you place them.
- You now have a battery level display all the time. Without the hack, the battery warning only pops up right before the battery dies.
- Live blended Histogram and Zebra (blinking blown highlights) displays are nice.
- Auto ISO customization doesn’t work.
- I can’t seem to get any Intervalometer scripts to work.
- The Motion Detector scripts work, but need some finessing to work reliably.
- Manual focus override works.
- There is a “hotkey” (ALT button, then the up button, then down button) that will set the camera’s focus to the hyperfocal distance and also display the range of acceptable focus (nearest distance within focus to infinity).
- There is no flash exposure compensation.
This is definitely a tinkerer’s delight. I spent way too much time trying to customize it than taking pictures with it.
On Thursday, Fry’s had a sale on the all silver Canon SD1000, so I guess I had to pick one up. It is so cool with it’s block like shape. It’s smaller than I expected. I also picked up a Lowepro Napoli 5 leather case. It fits perfectly. It was a little snug at first, but loosened up after after a few insertions. Now it feels like it was made for the camera. The only issue is the the hole for the strap is a bit off center (a little closer to the back of the case.)
Observations list:
- Battery/SD card door is flimsy like other reviews have said. I did read one review that noted that previous Canon cameras had used harder plastic, but were prone to breaking. The flimsy door of the SD1000 is more flexible so is less likely to crack.
- There is only one aperture: f2.8. F8.0 is with ND. The variable f-stops that you might see are due to the zooming lens losing light.
- The only manual controls are white balance, exposure compensation, and ISO.
- It uses Mini USB for connectivity! I hate when things use Micro USB. It will not charge the battery through the Mini USB though.
- There is no Play button like my old Fuji. There is a play slider switch that feels like will wear out.
- You can only upload your images to your computer in Play mode.
- There is no option for “Card Reader” mode for transferring.
- Battery dies rather quickly. Though it might because I spent a lot of time tinkering with it and CHDK (see below for more info on that) with the screen on. I ordered a couple more batteries and a charger off ebay for $13. I haven’t received them yet.
- The LCD has a plastic coated protective cover. I’m a little nervous about bare lcd screens.
I have a point and shoot that I love, the Fujifilm F11. It’s a great camera, especially under lowlight. I bought it off ebay a few years ago from a Japanese seller. The F11 wasn’t being sold in the US, just the F10. Anyways. I think I need a replacement. Even though I hate Canon because of the problems I’ve had with their dSLR service department, I’d still consider getting one of their P&S’s.
One day I was perusing the internet, and I found this site for CHDK. Basically it’s site dedicated to a firmware hack but not a hack that allows certain Canon cameras to do a lot more cool stuff. I say hack but not hack because it doesn’t really change your firmware. It’s just a little app that is saved on your SD card that the camera just runs. Below is a list of some of the features:
- RAW capabilities. *.CRW must be converted to Adobe DNG.
- Live Histogram
- Zebra mode (flashing highlights)
- Shutter speeds of up to 1/64,000 for freezing things like bullets through apples
- Longer video recording limited only by card size
- Longer exposures
- depth of focus
- exposure bracketing
- motion activated shutter for shooting things like lightening bolts
- ability to run scripts
Most of the Canon cameras that can use this hack are a little bit older. Check the CHDK site to find if your Canon is compatible. The Canon camera I’ve been looking at is the SD1000. I like it because it looks a lot like the old APS Canon Elph, the one I never owned. I love the super square shape. And it can be bought for about $150. So much power in such a little package!
This would be great solution for a tinkerer. It will be be especially awesome when I force people I take pictures of to wait even longer while I’m trying to figure out the best setting to use via my new hack.
I just got back from Hawaii, and it has inspired me to want a new set of stuff.
- A waterproof camera like the Olympus 1030 SW. Well not just waterproof, it is shockproof, pressure proof, and freeze proof. It also has 28mm (35mm equivalent) lens.
- A portable computer like the eee pc 701 4g or 900, so I can move the images off the camera to a hard drive and upload to a blog or flickr.
- A camera/notebook backpack like the Crumpler Sinking Barge to put all my goodies into. I have a $5 Million Home Crumpler bag that is really solid.
I don’t care which. I want a really fast lens. These are Nikon’s fastest lenses. Canon and Leica make faster at F1.0. Unfortunately, Nikon’s bayonet mount limits the fastest speed to f1.2 which is still ok way with me. Choices:
- 55mm F1.2 in AI and non-AI can be found relatively cheap.
- 50mm F1.2 in AI and AIS are more expensive (newer than the 55mm).
- 58mm F1.2-Noct is super expensive. Corrects coma.
I currently own a Nikon D80 that I love. I have a bunch of lenses but really only use two of them most of the time: 18-200mm Nikkor VR and a 10-20mm Sigma. There is one big problem with both of these lenses, well two. They’re huge and heavy! I want a lens that makes my camera a little more portable. Something like a 20mm! Granted, I already own a 35mm which is actually more like a 50mm. But I’m a little more biased towards the wider end.
There are a couple issues with these older type AF lenses. They do not have silent wave motors. Meaning a motor powered by the camera is not built into the lens. Instead a turning screwdriver like thing on the camera body turns a slot on the backside of the lens which in turn turns the focusing mechanism. It makes a zzzzzk zzzzzk sound when focusing. So not only is it noisy, the focusing ring turns as it focuses, so you have to be careful where you place your hand while holding the lens. Knowing all this, I don’t think it’s a big issue. Nikon doesn’t make any wide-angle fixed focal length lenses with silent wave motors. Hopefully they will one day.
I will probably try to find something used on E-Bay or keh.com. Feels like they’ve been making them for 20 years.
I’ve been looking for a portable camera that has the quality of a DSLR for about 25 years, I mean forever. Sure there are point and shoots that have 12 megapixels, but the quality isn’t the same. The pictures look noisy and soft. There is too much depth of field. And there just isn’t enough exposure latitude: too many blown out highlights and muddy shadows. Back in the day (I hate when people say that), when film was king you could get a point and shoot or a small rangefinder with a fantastic lens, and the images were indistinguishable from your $1500 pro-slr with equivalent focal length lens. It hasn’t gotten to that point yet with digital, I guess until now.
The Sigma DP1 is a point and shoot camera that uses the legendary (I think it’s legendary) APS-C size Foveon chip, the same one found in the Sigma SD14. What’s so great about Foveon? I’m glad I asked. It’s a type of imaging sensor that uses three layers of pixels, one for each primary color: red, green, and blue. The combination of these three primary colors then form the colors you see in the picture.This stacking results in higher resolution per pixel than a normal Bayer pattern. Ok, so what’s Bayer pattern? I’m glad I asked that too. Instead of the red, green, and blue pixels being stacked on top of each other, in a Bayer pattern they are placed beside each other and each of these subpixels count as part of the pixel count. So basically a 4 megapixel Foveon chip really is 4 megapixels. In a Bayer pattern 8 megapixel chip, it’s about 1/3 the size. Looking at an image from a Foveon chip is kind of a surreal experience. It just looks so sharp and it is just so detailed. You can literally have a strand of hair a pixel thin.
So this DSLR sized Foveon chip is built into a camera the size of a point and shoot. That is really cool! The main drawbacks that critics have pointed out is the slow non-zoomable 28mm (35mm equiv.) F4 lens and the lack of a built-in viewfinder. I don’t mind the focal length and you can use an optional auxiliary viewfinder that attaches to the hotshoe. It costs $899 retail $999 retail and $799 street which is only a couple hundred more than the Ricoh GR Digital II which uses a normal tiny sensor. The Sigma SD14 DSLR on other hand can be found for $599, but you still have to buy a lens. And of course it won’t be as pocketable.
