Crutchfield Staff Reviews : camera

Travel light with Canon's 18-200mm lens

ZakB — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:55:00 GMT

Canon shooters have been clamoring for an 18-200mm lens for years now. Nikon's 18-200mm VR lens is one of the most popular choices among Nikon shooters, and it's in the nature of every Canonite to want what the other guy's got. Canon jockeys, your wait...(read more)

Joby Gorillapod: this tripod helps you get a grip

Chris E — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:11:00 GMT

What if a camera tripod were as flexible as an extra hand? That's the idea behind the Joby® Original Gorillapod™ . You don't have to place this tripod on a flat surface. Instead, you can wrap its legs around pretty much anything — a fence, a tree limb...(read more)

Olympus 850 SW: camera ready

Chris E — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:20:00 GMT

I’m no photographer, but like everyone else, I take lots of snapshots so we’ll have reminders of trips, recitals, and birthdays. We always put together an annual photo collage, showing where we went and what we did that year. It’s good enough for me that we have it recorded — the photos don’t have to be works of art.

My family loves to travel. We ski, and camp, and go to the beach as often as we can. This past winter we went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We borrowed a good camera and took tons of pictures, but I was worried the whole time that we’d drop it in the snow.

Last month, we took the girls to Toronto to see Niagara Falls. Again, we had a loaner camera. Spray from the falls kicked up like crazy. The wetter we got, the more I worried about that camera.

I recently had the chance to try out a new waterproof camera: the Olympus 850 SW. I wrote about the camera for our catalog, and then my friend Dave and I filmed a short video, calling out its features.

To introduce this little camera to my family, I held it under the faucet and freaked them out. It’s also airtight, so we could take it camping or to the beach without stressing about sand or dirt getting inside. And it works in below-freezing temps, so we could confidently take it on the slopes.

I took this picture in the pouring rain:

Here’s a shot of one of our peonies, taken with the camera's macro (close-up) mode:

The 850 SW also takes panoramic pictures. It snaps three simultaneous shots, and then stitches them together inside the camera to create one seamless photo, like this one:

I took advantage of this panorama mode to take pictures of the whole gang at our family reunion a couple weeks back.

All in all, the Olympus 850 SW seemed like an excellent camera to take along on outdoor adventures. My family's a little rough on electronic gear, but this camera was rugged enough to keep up with us.

Image-stabilized lenses stop the shake

ZakB — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:14:00 GMT

I shot a wedding recently with my Canon 40D and the Canon 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens. I was hoping to be able to use the zoom lens rather than my faster prime lens (meaning a fixed focal length with a wider max aperture) for versatility's sake, but I was worried because it's a pretty slow (smaller max aperture, so less light gets to the sensor) for indoor work.

But while it is slow indoors, the 28-135mm zoom has an ace up its sleeve — image stabilization. The concept is hardly new, and this particular lens is one of the oldest in Canon's IS line, but it's the first time I've used image stabilization extensively. Let's just say I was "cautiously optimistic" how it would perform. Seemed almost too good to be true.

The very first thing I did when I got to the wedding site was go straight into the sanctuary for some test shots. Luckily for me, I was able to shoot at 1/30 to 1/80 second at ISO 800 — plenty fast enough for the image stabilizer, and at ISO 800 the 40D shows very little noise. Normally, shutter speeds as slow as 1/30 second are tough when you're shooting handheld; I have a very steady hand, but I only get well-focused shots about 50% of the time at 1/30 second. I was excited because I would now be able to shoot the ceremony, without a flash, using my zoom lens.

Now, one thing to remember here is that even though the image stabilization does its job and lets you get crisp shots at slow shutter speeds, it doesn't freeze time. The lens is still — but the world is still moving. It was something I kept in my mind as I snapped away. And later, I noticed I got some lucky "motion blur" shots of bodies moving around, thanks to the slow shutter speeds I was able to use. And the critical shots all came out the way I wanted.

Here's an example of what image stabilization can do for you — this is a shot that would require a tripod with a non-image-stabilized lens due to the slow shutter speed. With the stabilizer engaged, however, I was able to hold just still enough at 1/6 of a second.

Normally you'd need a tripod to take a "silky water" shot like this — but I was able to hold the camera still enough to hand-hold this shot at a slow 1/6 of a second, thanks to the image stabilizer on my lens.

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 gets you up close and personal with your subject

ZakB — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:10:00 GMT

I got in a little time recently with the Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 super-wide zoom lens. The "EF-S" in its name tells you that it's designed for Canon's 1.6x crop factor cameras (also called "APS-C" in yet another nod to the film days). Therefore, it works on the Rebels and my 40D, but not on a full-frame camera like the 5D or one of Canon's 1.3x cameras they make for journalists and serious hobbyists. On those cameras, the image would look like a circle in the middle of a black frame. On the Rebels and the 40D, the lens is meant to behave like a 16-35mm lens would on a full-frame camera.

The Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 super-wide zoom lens.

With a lens this wide, you can expect some distortion at the edges. It's particularly noticeable with vertical elements; they'll look like they're being drawn to the center by an unseen force. The picture below illustrates this — just look at the buildings on the sides.

Taken at 10mm, f/8, 1/60 at ISO 200. The buildings look almost
like they're coming toward us.

What's fun about a lens like this is that you can be right smack in front of your subject and get the entire scene in frame. I'm lucky my toes weren't showing!

This lens worked like a dream. It uses Canon's Ultrasonic (USM) focusing, so it's silent and lightning-fast. Movement while zooming is internal, and the front element does not rotate while focusing or zooming, helpful when you're using a polarizer. It's a fun lens, and it'll help you get some unique shots.

The Bellevue arch in Richmond, VA. 10mm at f/5.6, 1/200, ISO 400.

The Canon 40D - cool under fire

ZakB — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:55:00 GMT

The Canon 40D (shown with the 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 image-
stabilized lens) is the latest in Canon's mid-level line of DSLRs.

I shot a wedding recently using my new Canon 40D digital SLR. Working in tandem with a friend of mine, I snapped away for 8 straight hours, amassing almost 9GB of RAW files (probably 850-900 pictures). It proved to be a true test of the camera's performance. The 40D was almost constantly in use, in varying conditions ranging from a well-lit church sanctuary, through bright outdoor sunlight and shade, to a dimly-lit reception hall.

Indoor lighting varies — good thing the 40D let me save settings
right on the dial, so I can just give it a twist when I change locations.

Working quickly was mandatory. The 40D's dial had three programmable settings that allowed me to program my camera for the three different areas. For example, outside I used ISO 200 and f/8 in aperture-priority mode (meaning I choose the aperture, and the camera chooses a shutter speed appropriate to my choice of ISO and aperture). In the sanctuary, I was at ISO 800, f/3.5-5.6 (a limitation of my lens) with a custom white balance. In the reception hall, I had to fine-tune even further because I was using a flash. Without the programmable settings on the dial, I'd have been fumbling around with the settings constantly. Instead, I simply turned the dial each time I switched locations.

The camera's 3" LCD screen was easily viewable in the sunlight. I primarily use the LCD screen to confirm I have the exposure right, and it did this very well. I left on the "highlight alert" (I call 'em "blinkies," because when the highlights are blown out, the white areas will blink to warn you) to help with this.

I always set my cameras to turn themselves off after a minute of idle time, so I don't have to think about flipping the on/off switch. When the moment arises, I can tap the shutter button, wake it up, and be ready to shoot. In a wedding, this is important. The moments you anticipate, and those you don't, happen in an instant.

The 40D was fast and smooth. It went from "sleep mode" to "ready to shoot" almost instantly. Navigating from screen to screen, flipping through shots I'd taken, and general operation of the camera was pretty quick, too. Critical controls were generally accessible with one hand, and I could easily find them — without looking at the camera, another feature that comes in handy when a unique photo opportunity arises. After all, they weren't about to pause the wedding to wait for me to get my camera settings right.

Shooting in available light is usually preferable. Your shots will
benefit from the shallow depth of field of the wide aperture.

At the wedding, the 40D did for me what any good camera would do — it stayed out of my way, did what I told it to, and never let me down. It's a real workhorse that is plenty capable in a tough setting, like a wedding day, that can push your equipment to the brink.