Bestselling Cameras

Smartparts Sp800b 8-Inch Digital Picture

Jesse Ray — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:21:26 +0000

Smartparts Sp800b 8 Inch Digital Picture

Show your pictures and portion your memories with Smartparts SP800 8-inch digital picture frame. The frame features sharp and vibrant pictures with the 800×600 pixel LCD screen. The SP800 makes it easy to take pleasure in your bestloved photos and videos with three easy steps used to upload pictures. Simply remove memory card from camera, insert card into frame and view your photos. No need to edit and print your pictures on a computer. Slideshow mechanically begins once frame is turned on and will scroll through each picture on your memory card. Control speed of slideshow with included remote control or choose to display one picture at a time. Frame features built-in music player and speakers which allows you to get enjoyment from your bestloved music in the background of slideshow. Optimize your pictures by downloading OptiPix software on your computer for free. OptiPix helps you modify the orientation of you photos and sharpen images. Use OptiPix to find pictures, formulate copies, and transfer hundreds of your favored photos from your computer to your frame. Frame has real wood framing, with a rich espresso color, and habit designed matting which may compliment any room or office.

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103 of 105 people found the following review helpful.
nice picture, poor features
By Rick’s Fork
PROS – When I bought this frame, it was the lowest-priced 800×600 resolution frame. Other frames had lower resolutions and really made pictures look blocky. The resolution on this frame is pretty sharp and there are brightness and color controls to make the pictures look very nice.

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful.
Caution!
By A4Q96
I had issues with getting this frame to work – it was DOA out of the box, but not from Amazon. I returned it. That was six months ago or so.

Upon further investigation recently, I learned that Smartparts Products is out of business – they ceased operations last April or so. This is a total surprise to me since the frames are still quite common on Amazon. If you can pick up a working one at a great price on Amazon, and Amazon will replace defective items, you are probably ok. But beware that there is no one (from anything I can find) to honor your warranty. The Smartparts Products website is still up and running and there is no indication of the fact that they are not in business. I’m leery given what happened – there are more than a few other reviews referencing defective frames for Smartparts Products.

I’d suggest you look elsewhere. I am considering the Pandigital 7″. Good luck!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
nice gift for my mom
By Norma E. Mackenzie
bought this for a gift for my mom. took it out of the box to load pictures of her grandkids on it. Easy to use (after figuring out the software is actually ON the frame, just had to open the software that showed up as an external drive. the nice part about this is that ANY computer you attach it to will be able to load the software. nice… Holds lots of pictures, easy to use and an excellent picture on the frame. I am in tech, but have not purchased a digital frame before and found this easy to use so good for any user, very nice looking and am happy with the purchase.

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Smartparts Sp800b 8 Inch Digital Picture Picture

Smartparts Sp800b 8 Inch Digital Picture Photo

Lasonic Electronics – 7 Digital Photo

Korey Berry — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:21:26 +0000

The Canon G11 is a great device for buyers looking for a camera that allows for ease of effigy storage and equivalent ease of effigy capture. This 10.0 megapixel camera offers effigy capturing properties in high resolution, and it has a 2.8 inch LCD display screen with zoom view finding features. The Canon G11 has various dissimilar zoom features too; users get a 100x finish zoom, a 5x optical zoom feature and a digital zoom of 20x. Like a number of dissimilar Canon cameras, this device is equipped with a nine point automati focusing feature ensuring effigy crispness and clarity.

For a camera that is simple the use, Canon has integrated an embedded, automated flash in the Canon G11. This makes the camera suitable for respective environments and an further and added flash may be added, but will have to be purchased separately. This camera is lasting and has been crafted with shock proof and cold proof properties too. What’s more, like other Canon models, the Canon G11 comes outfitted with an splendid Digic 4 processing unit.

For buyers that own a PictBridge compatible printer, the Canon Powershot G11 offers up direct printing features. A camera that has face detection technologies, a highly sensible ISO setting, effigy stabilization, and a big selection of scene modes, this camera proves superior over other digital cameras on offer today. The Canon Powershot G11 is equipped with a movie mode, a panorama mode, smart automated technologies, special effects, and it supports a assortment of media.

The Canon G11 is compatible with Microsoft® Vista operating systems, it has a 35 mm lens, and automated, slow synchro and on- off flash functions. The Canon Powershot G11 has stabilization features that helps to prevent picture blur and improves handheld picture captures. The Canon Powershot G11 has an integrated orientation sensor, a vast focus range, a self timer, a USB interface, and PAL and NTSC video outputs. File formats supported by the Canon G11 include DPOF, RAW, MOV and JPEG. Several exposure control options, a 1/7 inch CCD imaging sensor, and a smile mode make this camera highly desirable. The Canon Powershot G11 is absent of touch screen features, it lacks a high definition movie mode, and it is not waterproof. However, the Canon Powershot G11 is superior in terms of ergonomic design; it is light, easy to tote, and the menu button, and function setting access is simplistic to control.

An investment in the Canon G11 digital camera gets the buyer all that’s necessitated to begin capturing fantastic images. The Canon G11 is sold with the black camera body, the NBL7 lithium battery, the CB2LZ battery charger, the necessary neck strap, the IFC400PCU USB interface cabling, the AVCDC400 AV cable, and the Digital Camera Solution software application on CD-ROM.

Lasonic Electronics 7 Digital Photo

- Lasonic 8.4″ digital photo frame- 8.4″ TFT LCD display- Card Slot: 1 CompactFlash, 1 Memory Stick, Secure Digital(SD)/MMC- Playback file format: JPEG (non-progressive), AVI (motion jpeg AVI)- Display mode: 16:9 / 4:3- Full compatible USB version: 1.1 / 2.0- Plug and play installation device- OS support to Windows 2000/XP/Vista and MAC 10.3 or above- Picture preview: 9×9 thumbnail image- Image playing function: slideshow, zoom, rotation- Folder preview- Video out: composite video (CVBS)- BlackLASJS035

Most helpful customer reviews

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Lasonic Electronics 7 Digital Photo Image

Lasonic Electronics 7 Digital Photo Pic

Lasonic Electronics 7 Digital Photo Photo

Lasonic Electronics 7 Digital Photo Pic

7 Classic Digital Photo Frame

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:21:26 +0000

You may not be conscious but your digital photo frame is likely to be capable to play video. Have you ever walked by a product with a little TV screen explaining all in regards to the product. This is improbable to be a TV screen but genuinely a digital photo frame housed in a point of sale display.

If you wish to get your digital picture frame to play video then in the first place you will need to find out what video types it will accept. Check the box if you wish, but I would suggest your primary contact is with the retailer or manufacturer. They will recognise precisely what format your video needs to be in. If you have no luck here, in our experience an AVI file with DIVX codes is the most standard for digital frames.

Transfer any videos you have on your memory cards or memory sticks onto your computer, ready to be converted.

Next download a free video converter from Google. There are lots out there, our favourite is Any Video Converter. If you are looking to convert a whole film you may need to pay for a converter, nevertheless a free version will let you convert a good few minutes of video.

Follow the onscreen instructions for the video converter, entering the required codes into the settings then transfer the converted video back onto a memory card and fit it into your digital photo frame. If the film plays on your frame, but is jerky, undertake letting down the bit rate in order to construct a smoother experience.

7 Classic Digital Photo Frame

The world’s initial 7″ frame displays in 4:3 aspect ratio for no stretching, cropping or distortion. Digital screen displays up to 6400 images on 1GB of internal memory. Transfer images, audio and video from a memory card thru 5-in-1 card reader or from PC with a USB cable (Not included). Customize the look of your frame with the interchangeable white and charcoal mats. WiFi/Bluetooth compatible.

USBThe Pandigital PAN7000DW is an impressive fellow member of the Pandigital family of digital picture frames.The 7-inch LCD screen with stunning 800 x 600 solution gives magnificent clarity and definition to your favored photos, while the 4:3 observing aspect ensures that your images will not be distorted from their original aspect ratio. Up to 6400 compressed images may be stored on 1 GB of internal memory. The black wood frame mixes with any décor and your choice of charcoal gray or white mats add a professional finished presentation. Founded in 1998, Pandigital recognized the need to bridge new and established technologies like a digital camera and an graceful picture frame. Photography captures the special moments in our lives, moments that cannot be the right way displayed or cherished on the back of a digital camera. Pandigital has shipped more that 4 million digital picture frames and is one of the top 50 most immediate growing companies in the US. In 2008, they were the #1 provider of digital photo frames in North America. Their digital picture frames are of substantial quality, graceful and intuitive designs, they are versatile and affordable. They have helped millions of humans move images out of their camera and back into their lives.

The perfective associate for your digital camera
We capture our most precious, and our most common, moments because they are not to be forgotten or taken for granted. The moment when we take a picture we are making a decision to be conscious, to be in the moment and to be thankful for it. But a photo in a camera or on a flash card is only an unfulfilled intention. Let your images free. Give them the power they is worthy of in your life to make you smile, to remember, or to pause for a moment and consider the past. Take vantage of customizable features like rotate and resize, programmable on and off, and your formally presenting something will be seamless

The gift of a digital photo frame to a friend or loved one is each bit as significant as the gift of one to yourself. Who doesn’t need a pick-me-up right with regards to now? It is said that the gift of experience is so much more significant than a mere material object. If that is the case, then the gift of re-experiencing those special moments ought to be priceless. The PAN7000DW includes 4 free digital greeting cards, which you may personalize with any message to your lucky giftee. The message will be displayed when the frame is turned on. Imagine the happy surprise of your recipient.

Share yourself with a slideshow
Framed pictures are such outstanding speech starters, and we get to recognise each other a little better when we part ourselves by displaying photos of friends, family, and favored occasions. How much better we get to recognise each other through the use of slide shows, which concede us to showcase a good deal of particular moments. We have seen our photo frames set in slide show mode at parties, family reunions, and gatherings to aid establish a theme, at wedding anniversaries and bridal showers to spotlight particular moments in a couple’s past. A slideshow on this Pandigital frame is as easy as inserting your memory card. You may also add digital music, voices, or sound, to be played by way of the built-in speakers or audio out port. Transition effects amid images may add to the entertainment. The built-in card reader accepts SD, xD, MS, MSPro, MMC, MicroSD (MicroSD to SD adaptor not included) and USB flash drives.

A little known feature is the built-in calendar and alarm clock. If space on your bedside table is tight, there’s no reason to not have a digital picture frame, just consolidate. The panel may be turned off at night so that the light won’t interfere with your sleep and a handy remote allows you to control major functions without crossing the room.

The Pandigital PAN7000DW may play digital audio and video, as well as images, straight from your memory card by way of the 5 in 1 card reader.JPEG, AVI and MP3 files are all accepted, no PC is needed. Alternatively, if you have files on your computer or camera, you may transfer them to the frame with a USB cable (Not included). Don’t forget the images on your cell phone, those may be transposed too. Drop and drag engineering science makes selecting images from your computer and transferring them to the frame’s internal memory fast and easy, with no software needed. The PAN7000DW is Wi/Fi Bluetooth compatible when paired with the PANWF01 WiFi dongle and will concede wireless transfer with other Bluetooth devices.

The Pandigital PAN7000DW effortlessly moving images out of your camera and into your life

7-inch Digital Photo Frame in black domed wood
4:3 aspect ratio
800 x 600 resolution
Stores up to 6400 images on 1 GB of internal memory
Interchangeable white and gray mats
Built in 5 in 1 card reader
USB 2.0 port and Mini USB port
JPEG, AVI and MP3 digital video and audio
WiFi/Bluetooth compatible (with PANWF01 WiFi dongle)
Brightness control dial
This comes with one speaker

What‘s in the Box:

Panimage PAN7000DW digital photo frame in domed black wood
White and charcoal gray mats
AC adaptor
Remote control
Owners manual
Quick start out guide

Most helpful customer reviews

418 of 424 people found the following review helpful.
Good frame, good value, works as expected
By Timothy Oey
The Pandigital PAN7000DW 7″ digital photo frame is the best digital photo frame I’ve found yet. I’ve purchased 4 other models in different sizes from Axion, Phillps, Smartparts, and Opteka. All of these others had various issues (16×9 when I wanted 4×3, didn’t always start picture show automatically, buggy software).

317 of 323 people found the following review helpful.
Great for pictures, has shortcomings
By R. Lin
I bought the Pandigital PAN7000DW so that I could load it up with pictures and videos of my new son and send it to my grandmother. After a few hours dealing with it (I’m very experienced with computers and electronic gadgets), here’s my take:

- I like the look of the frame (classic looking) and the screen is bright and crisp.
- I could not get any video files to work. The documentation says it plays motion jpeg AVIs, and I tried many conversion options on my Mac using MPEG Streamclip and could not get it to work.
- Navigating the menus is a pain using the built-in buttons, so at first glance you’re glad they included a remote…except the remote only registers about every 3rd button click, so you’re constantly over clicking.
- The UI is pretty slow and lags your button presses.

All that said, it’ll do what I want it to do. I’ve loaded it with 223 pictures at 1280×720 resolution, and it only takes up 34MB of the 1GB internal memory.

235 of 247 people found the following review helpful.
Meh. The user interface of these digital picture frames is annoying.
By Esther Schindler
Right after I purchased a digital picture frame (about to become my Mom’s 90th birthday present), the Pandigital PAN7000DW 7-Inch Digital Picture Frame (Black), I found an offer from Amazon Vine for a similar item, Smartparts SP72 7-Inch Digital Picture Wood Frame with Beige Matting (Espresso). Oh well — it gave me the opportunity to compare-and-contrast the two frames (which are similarly priced). *I* didn’t know which of these gizmos was best for the purpose, and I dare say you’re just as unsure, so maybe my experience can help you.

The short summary: both these frames do what they claim to: They display your photos. But neither of them will give you a heartwarming feeling. The ideas are sound; the implementation kind of stinks. Perhaps more-expensive units have a better user interface, but these two frames are somewhat disappointing.

Let’s start with the positives. The picture frames both have a 7″ display, which is big enough for sitting on a desk or coffee table, and the displays are bright and clear. You do need a power cable, which might limit where you set up the frame; I can’t see hanging them on a wall. The wood frame on the Smartparts is slightly nicer than the Pandigital, but both are reasonably attractive. The basic setup is extremely simple: stuff an SD memory card into the frame and turn it on.

A 2GB card holds 1000+ photos, depending on image resolution. That’s a LOT of pictures, even when putting together a huge “this is your life” collection as we did for Mom. I bought a 4GB card along with the Pandigital, which would hold about 5,000 photos, and I could have saved a few bucks.

One thing that isn’t clear from the documentation is that you don’t HAVE to use an SD card. Both units have their own on-board memory that lets you add a decent number of pictures. You’ll need to use the USB connection to get to that memory (and I never DID figure out how to delete their sample photos, grrr); more on that USB connection in a moment.

The Pandigital frame will also play MP3s, if you like. I didn’t explore that feature because (a) my Mom’s almost deaf and would never use it and (b) there are probably better options for playing music. The Pandigital can also be used as a clock and calendar, though I’m “eh” on that option myself; perhaps you care.

Other options are more important, I think. The Smartparts frame has an option for showing multiple pictures at a time (photo of mom on the left, then Pop’s picture on the right, then fade to a third picture to replace Mom’s photo). It really does look good, except that a 7″ frame is too small to show most photos in enough detail to bother with this. Depending on how you use the frame, though, this feature could be useful. (Maybe for advertising purposes, such as in a realtor’s front window, where the detail is a bit less important?)

Both frames have a USB connection, so you can plug them into your computer (mine’s a Mac) and easily transfer JPG files to the frame or to the SD card you already stuffed into it. (That’s a good thing, in the case of the Smartparts frame, since the card is a real pain to remove.) On the plus side, it means that I could choose a photo in iPhoto and export directly to the unit. On the downside, the Smartparts USB connection was very flaky; it would disconnect itself randomly — usually in the middle of a file transfer. I used colorful curse words. You’re probably best off to use whichever SD-card reader you already use to connect with your PC.

But truly the worst thing about these frames is a terrible, awful user interface for adjusting settings and for interacting with the unit. Both let you control the slideshow from buttons on the top or back of the unit. The Pandigital’s are on top, which is slightly more convenient, but both are hard to read without a bright light nearby. The Pandigital also has a remote which (nicely) has a magnetic spot to hold it to the back of the unit. However, I give Mom about 20 minutes before she manages to lose it; it has the right dimensions to be a dandy cat toy, so I’m not upset that the Smartparts unit (which I’m keeping for myself, in case that’s not obvious) doesn’t have one. Plus, the remote’s controls are sticky enough that it takes a few button-whacks to get the frame’s attention.

Anyway, they both work with “OK” and “MENU” sort of buttons, and then up/down/right/left arrows to make selections. But the menu design is so poor that it’s never clear when you want a right-arrow or a down one. (I never did get the clock set correctly on the Pandigital. Perhaps more detail was in its documentation, but I can’t tell you. Other than a “getting started” flyer, the doc is on one of those tiny mini-discs which I feared would disappear into the maw of my iMac’s drive. The Smartparts printed documentation is a little more extensive, but not much; a missing CD promised a Windows app, but I wasn’t going to use it anyhow.)

Please note that you WILL need to mess with the settings. For one thing, the Smartparts frame seems to need to be told EVERY TIME to show pictures from the SD Card rather than from its own memory. The default time selection to show each photo (5 seconds) is probably too fast for what you prefer, one both units. (The Smartparts has slow/regular/fast; the Pandigital unit has specific time measurements, ranging from 5 seconds to one day.) Most irritatingly, both frames assume you want to choose the “optimal” display setting (well it does SOUND like what you want, right?). However, that actually means, “Make sure the photo touches the right-and-left edges of the frame, even if it means I chop off the heads of the people in the picture.” The Pandigital unit automatically shifts the photo display based on whether you arrange it narrow side up or wide side up, but I can’t see moving it around that much.

Despite our trained expectation of 5×7 photos, I came to the conclusion that these gizmos ought to be square to accommodate both horizontal and vertical photos. In reality, if I were to get serious about displaying the photos, I’d crop the images to make them get along with the gizmos’ formatting; I wasn’t about to do that with the 850 images I set up for Mom.

Bottom line: Both of these digital picture frames will get the job done. One isn’t significantly better than the other, so I can’t tell you to choose the Pandigital over the Smartparts or vice versa. No matter which you choose, though, expect to spend some time cussing before you finish with the setup.

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7 Classic Digital Photo Frame Image

7 Classic Digital Photo Frame Pic

7 Classic Digital Photo Frame Image

7 Classic Digital Photo Frame Picture

7 Classic Digital Photo Frame Photo

Pandigital Digital Picture Frame – 9.2

Steve Coleman — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:21:26 +0000

Most magazines now receive digital images. The question is will they receive mine!

I won’t answer that question I’ll leave that to you to answer once you have finished reading this article.

It’s only just lately that magazines have decisive to receive digital images this is due to the effigy quality of early digital camera were not man sufficient for the occupation i.e. did not fabricate images with sufficient solution and level of detail to reproduce well in magazines. Most Picture Editors on magazines prefer either slides or prints as this is principally at present habit but is presently altering due to more professional photographers using digital cameras. A good reason your images may not be accepted is if you supply your images already printed, it’s OK to do this for your Granny, family or friends it’s a no no when submitting to a publication. Why, have a close look at your printed effigy the picture is made up of tiny dots and lines. When scanned by the repro section they have to blur your effigy to try to get rid of these dots and lines other than as supposed or expected your effigy has a moiré effect so you end up with an effigy that looks bad. Your best option is to supply your images to the magazine on CD-ROMs again don’t use cheap ones they go wrong! You may get approx. 31 images onto a CD of 700mbs if each effigy is 22mbs in size.

Increase the resolution.

Digital photography and getting your pictures into print is providing an effigy to the rectify pixel size and solution in a format that may be effortlessly opened by another computers operating systems. What does that mean, well not everyone uses Microsoft Windows a heap of publishers use Apple Macs galore even use Linux if your effigy can’t be viewed IT WILL NOT BE USED!

Many magazines now included brief data on submitting digital photographs in the content section. Have a look at http://www.photographymonthly.com/reqs_details.cfm. To see how to submit images to Photography Monthly. If in doubt, ask. Did you detect they want your effigy solution at 300dpi, your camera only takes a picture at 72dpi, how do I recognise what size my effigy needs to be at 300dpi. Help is at hand here’s a link to a little tool, which will support with effigy sizes, pixels, colour depth and file size.

http://www.searchhuts.co.uk/portal/version/cpi.asp it free. Its called Commercial Printing Information, there does not seem to be anything thing like this software anyplace else on the internet! Using this software to see what size your effigy may go to and then you may resize your effigy accordingly in your normal photo editing software.

Size matters!

The pictures pixel dimensions may be read with the above tool so dimensions of say 3200x2400pixels we would be looking for a file size of regarding 21mbs this would be OK for a full page. The above program may support you determine what size your effigy will be OK up to.

Why JPG?

Another problem magazine picture editors come up versus is images supplied in a strange format. To save difficultnesses later ALWAYS save images in JPG format. JPG format is optimised for compressing full-colour or grey-scale photographic-type digital images. The reason for using this format is that any computer scheme may open JPG images. Remember, not every one uses Microsoft’s Windows, some magazine publishers’ use Apple Macs and a good deal of people are using Linux systems. Regardless of the system employed all will read JPEG files.

Submitting work.

When submitting work do not forget to include your name & address with a brief synopsis of what is on the CD together with a high quality printout of your images and the file names of the images, this may be without apparent effort done in PhotoShop by going to File > Automate > contact sheet. Find the folder your images are in pick your paper size and number of images on each sheet of paper. Please do not forget somebody has to look at these images so little images get a thumbs down as does too many. Don’t forget to stick a DO NOT BEND label on the envelope as CDs don’t like being bent.

New words we have learnt

Moiré effect – A moiré pattern is the combining of two or more patterns viewed at the same time.

DPI stands for dots per inch and is employed with resolution

JPG or JPEG – Joint Photographic Experts Group is the name of the committee that designed the photographic image-compression standard.

Do’s and Don’ts of submitting your Digital Pictures

Do’s

Do Make sure your images are to the rectify pixel size and resolution.

Do Make sure you send a contact sheet of the images on the CD together with file names.

Do save in JPG format.

Do without doubt or question name effigy files on CD-ROM.

Do use high quality ink and photo paper for contact sheets.

Do turn off time/date stamp, as it’s difficult to remove and takes time.

Do enclose return postage if you require your bits back

Do e-mail if you are unsure of what is required or how files will have to be submitted

Don’t

Don’t e-mail huge unsolicited images

Don’t over sharpen images

Don’t send hundreds of images – be selective, send only pictures to do with that publication (*see below).

Don’t send pictures of dissimilar subject matter unless requested

Don’t use cheap blank CD-ROM’s, paper or ink.

Don’t send costly storage media i.e. the card from your camera

Don’t use long file names remember, not every one uses Microsoft’s Windows.

Don’t use 3rd party software on your CD’s to try to display your images when viewed.

*If the magazine is say an aircraft magazine don’t send not relevant images of an say landscapes, animals etc… Stick to the magazine subject.

Pandigital Digital Picture Frame 9 2

The Panimage PI1003DW 10.1′ Digital Photo Frame is plug and play for fast, easy transfer and display of your digital photos. No software is needed, just use a USB cable (not included) to connect the frame to your pc and get started dropping and dragging directly to the frame’s internal memory. Alternatively, you may transfer photos and video from your memory card or digital camera. Store up to 2500 compressed images on the 256MB of internal memory. The built in 5 in 1 card reader recognizes xD/MMC/SD/MSPro/MS formats. To get started a slideshow, plainly insert your memory card, and enjoy. The looking at aspect symmetry is a generous 15:9, and the stunning 800×480 solution LCD panel within a black wooden frame mixes with any decor. Additional features include interchangeable charcoal gray and white paper mats, a clock and calendar, slide show function, effigy rotate, and programmable on/off.

The Panimage PI1003DW is an impressive fellow member of the Pandigital family of digital picture frames. This 10.1-inch LCD screen with 800 x 480 solution and 250:1 contrast symmetry gives magnificent clarity and definition to your favored photos. The 15:9 widescreen watching aspect ratio provides an beautiful presentment for all your images. Up to 1,250 images may be stored on 256 MB of internal memory. A black wood frame mixes with any décor and interchangeable charcoal gray and white mats add a professional finished presentation. Founded in 1998, Pandigital recognized the need to bridge new and established technologies like a digital camera and an refined and tasteful picture frame. Photography captures the particular moments in our lives, moments that can not be in the right manner displayed or cherished on the back of a digital camera. Pandigital has shipped more that 4 million digital picture frames and is one of the top 50 most immediate growing companies in the US. In 2008, they were the #1 provider of digital photo frames in North America. Their digital picture frames are of substantial quality, refined and tasteful and intuitive designs, they are versatile and affordable. They have helped millions of humans move images out of their camera and back into their lives.

Your happiest moments displayed on a vibrant 10.1-inch full color LCD screen

Most helpful customer reviews

196 of 198 people found the following review helpful.
Very nice Digital Picture Frame
By A~
Got this as a Christmas present for my mom. Loaded some test pictures on there just to ensure picture quality was good and that it worked reasonably well. Have read some reviews (while researching DPFs) that some DPFs are not worth buying. Issues with picture quality and ease of use.

There are two ways you can put pictures on this frame. There is a memory card slot in the back and you can also connect this unit to your computer with the supplied USB cable.

I had no problem connecting and uploading 20 mb of pictures. Display quality is excellent. It does auto crop pictures so that they don’t looked stretched or distorted.

I read another review about how to adjust picture sizes so that this unit does not have to auto crop.

Although I haven’t used the ap to auto crop yet, basically you have to download Microsoft Photo Story from microsoft to do so. I’m sure there are other apps, free or otherwise that do so.

Very happy with this unit. Now wife wants one. I would say, anything less that 10 inches is a waste of money. I do not see how a 7 inch frame would provide a nice veiwable screen.

You can change how frequently the images change, whether or not it crops them. Lots of features. The only con I have is its a little hard to use menu. Read the manual…

98 of 104 people found the following review helpful.
Not perfect, but a good product
By LeeLeeRT
I got this photo frame for my father for Christmas and filled it with some pictures before I wrapped it. My parents divorced when I was 7, and somehow my father didn’t seem to receive any of the pictures of my me and my twin sister after my folks had split. When I graduated college my mother made me a scrapbook and my father, looking through it, mentioned that he didn’t have any of these pictures and “that’s where they all went”. So I took my Canon scanner and took some pages out of my scrapbook, and scanned some of the photos to put in this frame, which gave me a pretty good indication of how this product works.

Pros:

It’s a nice looking frame. It can hang on the wall, which is a must for my dad and stepmom, who have a two year-old at home. It also has a plastic fold-out leg to sit on a table. The leg actually comes out and extends, which was not glaringly obvious at first. I only figured it out after the frame slid over several times.

The picture quality is good. The pixels present on the frame are very minimal, and not present at all when viewing the frame from several feet away.

It comes with a remote which is pretty handy if you’ve ever seen anyone trying to change things by pressing all over the frame.

It is versatile as far as input goes: You can put pictures on the frame with a USB cord to the internal memory, or use an array of memory cards, or even a memory stick (although I’m not sure that you would want to).

Features: You can change the duration of the slides, the effects from one picture to another (fade, roll, etc), the randomness of the photos, etc. You can edit the photos so that they appear a certain way in the frame only, although this only works for photos saved to the hard drive.

Cons:

It comes with two mattes for the frame. One is black, the color of the frame, and the other is white. I cannot see any reason you would want to use the white one. I think its a waste of materials and a pointless inclusion.

Ease of use: When I first opened the frame, I inserted an 8 gb memory card into the slot and plugged it into my computer. Two devices appeared on my Macbook Pro’s desktop: One that said Panimage (okay, obviously the frame), and the other that said “No Name”. It took me a few minutes to realize that the panimage icon was for the hard drive in the frame, and the other was the memory card. I dragged and dropped the images, but was unsure of where I was supposed to put them. Also, I dragged and dropped images I had exported from Aperature, a photo editing program. I always shoot photos in RAW + large, and when examining the frame, I realized it had also imported the Raw format as well. All of these images were in the frame as “unsupported format” taking up space. I feel that there should be something that rejects the unsupported formats, so I wouldn’t have to erase them all manually afterwards.

Another thing that was a bit of a bummer is that you cannot play the slideshow from the internal memory as well as the memory card. Its one or the other.

I read another review that stated the remote did not work. Mine did, but barely. Its nice that it came with a remote, but it felt cheap and was tiny. The buttons did not have much of a tactile response and it sometimes took two or three presses of a button, pointed directly at the screen for it to register.

The crop aspect ratio is off, as I’ve seen others mention. If you choose to fit the images to the frame, it chops off the top inch or so for any photos that are shoot in the vertical orientation. It worked great for photos in the 4×3 aspect. Unfortunately, because many heads were chopped off with this setting, I took it off, forcing all photos to be seen with a slight black border around them. This essentially made the photos smaller.

Conclusion:

Its a good frame for the money. I’ve seen many other frames go for a lot more. This has some customizable features which you may choose to use or not, but you aren’t paying a ridiculous price for them. Once you get past figuring out how to use it and make it look the way you want, it does have a nice, sleek design. To me, that was one of the most important things.

71 of 78 people found the following review helpful.
Ok, but not impressed
By Blue Eagle
I received the 10″ Pandigital Picture Frame for Christmas. It works okay, but its memory is bad. I was only able to load 45MB onto the 512MB internal memory. Anything after that, it says there is no space on the device even though it says there is 430MB of free space. I would not buy this brand myself and if I was to buy a digital picture screen I probably would go for the HP DreamScreen though it costs quite a bit more. Once I had my pictures installed though it seems to work okay though I will probably buy a SD card and use that instead of its internal memory.

See all 77 customer reviews…

Pandigital Digital Picture Frame 9 2 Pic

Pandigital Digital Picture Frame 9 2 Image

Pandigital Digital Picture Frame 9 2 Picture

Pandigital Digital Picture Frame 9 2 Pic

Coby Dp700blk 7-Inch Digital Picture Frame

Jesse Kelly — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:21:25 +0000

Coby Dp700blk 7 Inch Digital Picture Frame Image

Coby Dp700blk 7 Inch Digital Picture Frame Picture

Coby Dp700blk 7 Inch Digital Picture Frame Image

Coby Dp700blk 7 Inch Digital Picture Frame Picture

Coby Dp700blk 7 Inch Digital Picture Frame Image

Coby Dp700blk 7 Inch Digital Picture Frame Pic

Sony Alpha Nex Nex5a/s Digital Camera With

Mariana Terry — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:21:59 +0000

The Sony NEX 5KB is a very versatile Digital, aimed at the more severe photographer who is looking for quality linked to spontaneity. The new Sony is a revolutionary piece of instrumentation for a compact, and comes with interchangeable lenses which increments your photographic choices and maintains originative flexibility. This camera is the world’s lightest and most compact interchangeable and includes a lot of distinguishable features which combines with some new engineering science to take it to the forefront when comparing it to other cameras in it is class; or so the Sony Publicity section says. Let’s take a look for ourselves shall we. The camera comes equipped with the following.

Kit Lens E 18-55mm

Lens Hood

Lens Cap.

Flash.

Case for Flash

Battery Charger

Power Cord

Rechargeable Battery

Shoulder Strap.

USB Cable.

CD-Rom

Users of the Sony Cybershot who want to take the plunge and step up in class will feel at home with the overall feel and controls, and will unquestionably see the divergence in delivered quality. For the rest who don’t already own a Sony, you will be amazed at just how little this camera is; the body is hardly 24 mm thick and inside there is so much technology. The interchangeable lens compact type cameras is a whole new world isolated and on the surface it looks like Sony have surpassed their rivals. But is it as good as it looks?

I must confess I liked and found very useful, the “sweep Panorama” mode, which is a bit noisy but enables you to take snap shots of a Panoramic view, and seamlessly stitch them together. The handheld twilight feature is another outstanding mode that combines a series of pictures into one sharp image.

The movie mode is a vast betterment on the Cybershot, but for the divergence in price will have to be. One drawback even though is that it doesn’t have any manual exposure controls so there are still difficultnesses for Sony here. My opinion on using this type of camera for taking videos altho is a definitive no. Get yourself a video camera and keep this one for stills.

For me the interface of the camera is a bit little and complicated, and takes time to get applied to; If you want to make a large total of adjustments then it could turn out to be a bit tedious.

My conclusion? This camera is for an individual who want to step up from the intermediate low-cost digital, and commence to take professional quality pictures. The picture quality genuinely is in a dissimilar league to other compacts. The more experienced photographer will probable give this one a miss for no other reason than it is a Sony. Marks out of 10. A sublime 9.5.

Sony Alpha Nex Nex5a S Digital Camera With

The performance of a DSLR, in regarding half the size and weight.5 The NEX-5 is the interchangeable lens camera that goes wherever you do. Enjoy Full HD 1080/60i movies,2 awful low-light pictures, ceaseless shooting up to 7 fps, unbelievable panorama shots, and Live View on a tilting 3.0-inch6 LCD.

The NEX-5 has all picture quality of a DSLR, yet it’s in regards to half the size, half the weight and far less complex. Pulling off this minor miracle took a lot of clever inventions in glass, silicon and software code.

Sony Alpha NEX-5 Overview

Bigger Sensor, Better Pictures

Some cameras bristle with knobs, buttons and dials. The NEX-5 replaces them with a simple turn-and-click Control Wheel and a pair of Soft Keys. These give you easy access to the full power of digital photography. To make learning even easier, Sony includes an On-Screen Help Guide and On-Screen Tips.

Automatically apply exposure values and Scene Selection modes that are optimized to suit each scene. What’s more, they combine this full-auto comfortableness with a Background Defocus Control function that lets you take delight in one of the greatest originative vantages of interchangeable lens photography–the capacity to defocus the background to make your main subject stand out from the scene. Just press and rotate the control wheel to set the level of background defocusing you want–it’s easy and intuitive because you may affirm the level of defocusing on the LCD monitor in real-time.

The main menu features six without doubt or question labeled icons that may be chosen merely by rotating and pressing the control wheel. Inside, frequent scrolling menus provide quick access to settings for shooting and playback functions, as well as a host of other user predilections and camera settings. The wide-screen format of the LCD monitor also contributes to intensified menu legibility, so text and icons are always easy to see and select.

Most helpful customer reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful.
Unique mix of quality and convenience
By Busy Executive
I purchased the Sony Alpha NEX 5 as a gift for someone with lots of artistic ability, but who is intimidated by the typical DSLR. So far, it seems like a good choice.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful.
the NEX-5 is the NEXT great camera
By T. W. Grimes
OK – I just love new gadgets and technology. I had been using a D90 for nearly 2 years but upgraded to a D700 and use it for all of my heavy lifting photo shoots. (what a great camera). However, I wasn’t using my D90 except on the rare occasion that I wanted to use two bodies on a shoot and used the D90 for my 70-300 lens for telephoto shots, giving me up to 450mm. OK, I digress.

I sold my D90 and bought the Sony NEX-5 (silver because I couldn’t wait for the black one). I just bought the 16mm lens and will wait until later this fall when I hear they are coming out with a 18-300 E-type.

This is a really cool camera. I basically keep it in my pocket almost all the time. It is pretty bulky in my pocket ever with the smaller 16mm lens (and protective lens & cap). I know I have read some bad reviews about the menu system but it really only took me about 20 minutes to get used to it.

The focus ring kind of reminded me of my Blackberry when I had one.

It was a little slow to get used to not having a view finder but there is a great feature that you can use to help fine tune your focus (it only works with E type lends and not the A with adapter. You basically can get it to auto focus and then lightly touch the focus ring and it ZOOMS in to help you FINE TUNE the focus. If I knew how to upload some sample pics I would but trust me, the picture quality is great. There are just too many other features for me to comment on but I highly recommend this camera form not just a step up for an amature but a pro wold use it just like I try to do. I get a lot of great shots just because I have this camera buldging out of my pocket.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Amazing camera at a great price!
By Karmacomposer
I bought the Nex5 hoping to do video and still photography, but needed the quality compareable to my Canon XH A1 pro video camera. I was NOT disappointed with the Sony Nex5! The image quality is superb. It is fantastic in outside light and indoor light. The fact that you can interchange lenses is a massive plus because my broadcast quality camera cannot do that.

Funny thing is, I went to a photography store to look at lenses and they scoffed at the size of the camera not knowing it was a new product with very high specs. After looking it up, they found out that almost every lens in the place could fit it with the adapter I bought – and they said the sensor was MASSIVE for a camera that small.

The quality of video is unreal. You have to see it to believe it. I bought a 500MM lens, a zoom lens 60-300MM, a 135MM lens and the wide angle lens that came with the camera. With those lenses, I have a pretty amazing video camera. I also purchased the mic attachment and will be buying the viewfinder attachment.

I took all kinds of video in daylight, at night and in various situations. Because the camera can be fully manual, it allowed me to set my ISO small and make adjustments so low light looked clear and crisp – dark, but clear and crisp. Don’t set the ISO to high or you will get a lot of digital noise (gain) in your video. Because it shoots in 1080p 60i, the quality is on par, if not better, than my broadcast quality video camera. In fact, I could swear it is actually more clear and higher quality. Simply astounding.

The picture quality is superb – 14MP is pretty big, so your images look great and can be used for full page spreads in magazines! At the same time, the lenses allow me to achieve everything from up close macro shots to shooting a player’s face from the stands at a ball game.

The screen is gorgeous and tilts. It IS hard to see in direct sunlight, so the option viewfinder is nice for photography. For video, it’s a bit tough, but doable. I wish there was a sun shade for it. The focus feature is great – the camera will zoom way in on a subject so you can properly focus. It works very well, though I am used to focusing using a viewfinder, so once I have the optional one, my shots and video will be perfect.

In a nutshell, you get Sony quality in a small package, but with big results. I have no regrets buying this camera and know I will get great images and video from it. This tiny camera packs one massive wallup!

Mike

See all 16 customer reviews…

Sony Alpha Nex Nex5a S Digital Camera With Photo

Sony Alpha Nex Nex5a S Digital Camera With Pic

Sony Alpha Nex Nex5a S Digital Camera With Photo

Canon Eos 60D – Digital Camera – Slr -

Keegan Hull — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:21:59 +0000

Congratulations! You have the very best DSLR the Canon EOS 60D in your hands. If you have just met your camera let me introduce you a bit with regards to it. The 60D replaces the frequent 50D and boasts an 18 MegaPixel CMOS sensor with a DIGIC 4 engine, Full HD Video recording, wireless flash, and a very new vari-angle LCD screen. Also on board is a 3.5mm stereo microphone jack. All in all a great camera with evenly great looks.

Now moving on to the Top Accessories your Backpack will have to hold are listed below.

5 Most Needed Accessories For Canon EOS 60D

1. EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens

2. LP-E6 Battery Pack

3. SanDisk 16GB Extreme – SDHC Class 10 High Performance memory card

4. Tiffen 67mm UV Protection Filter Canon 2400 SLR Gadget Bag

5. SquareTrade 3-Year Camera/Camcorder Warranty Plus Accident Protection

5 Upgrades to 60D Kit Lens

1. EF 50mm f/1.8 II

2. EF 50mm f1.4 USM Standard & Medium Telephoto Lens

3. EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS Telephoto Zoom Lens

4. EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III Telephoto Zoom Lens

5. EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

5 Best Tripods for your 60D

1. Dolica AX620B100 62-Inch Proline Tripod and Ball Head

2. Vista Explorer 60″ Lightweight Tripod with Tripod Bag

3. Joby GP2-D1EN Gorillapod Flexible Tripod with Bubble Level

4. Manfrotto 7302YB M-Y Tripod with Ball – Replaces 725B

5. Digital Concepts TR-60N Camera Tripod with Carrying Case

5 Essential Flashes for the 60D

1. Speedlite 430EX II Flash

2. Speedlite 580EX II Flash

3. Speedlite 270EX Flash

4. Sigma EM-140 DG Macro Ring Flash

5. Canon MR-14EX Macro Ring Lite

5 Best Books for Canon 60D

1. Your World 60D – The Still Photographer’s Guide to Operation And Image Creation by Douglas Klostermann

2. Canon EOS 60D (The Expanded Guide) by Tracy Hallett

3. Canon EOS 60D: From Snapshots to Great Shots by Nicole S. Young

4. Canon EOS 60D Digital Field Guide by Charlotte K. Lowrie

5. Canon EOS 60D For D by Julie Adair King, Robert Correll

Canon Eos 60d Digital Camera Slr

With the new EOS 60D DSLR, Canon gives the photo enthusiasti a powerful tool fostering creativity, with better effigy quality, more modern features and automatic and in-camera technologies for ease-of-use. It features an bettered APS-C sized 18.0-megapixel CMOS sensor for vast images, a new DIGIC 4 Image Processor for finer detail and magnificent color reproduction, and bettered ISO capablenesses from 100-6400 (expandable to 12800) for uncompromised shooting even in the dimmest situations. The new Multi-control Dial enables users to conveniently operate menus and enter settings with a simple touch.

With the new EOS 60D DSLR, Canon gives the photo enthusiasti a powerful tool fostering creativity, with better effigy quality, more innovative features and automatic and in-camera technologies for ease-of-use. It features an bettered APS-C sized 18.0-megapixel CMOS sensor for immense images, a new DIGIC 4 Image Processor for finer detail and magnificent color reproduction, and bettered ISO capablenesses from 100-6400 (expandable to 12800) for uncompromised shooting even in the dimmest situations. The new Multi-control Dial enables users to conveniently operate menus and enter settings with a simple touch.

Flash Photography
With a flash sync speed of 1/250 of a second, the EOS 60D likewise features the acclaimed E-TTL II flash metering system. With any of the flashes in the EX Speedlite line (sold separately), E-TTL II provides authenti flash output whether shooting fill-in flash pictures in sunlight, or using flash in total darkness. With E-TTL II, the precise same 35-zone metering sensor employed for measuring ambient light is also employed for flash metering–giving even finer metering command of the effigy area. If you prefer a broader area for flash metering, there’s a menu setting to alter to “Average” flash metering–where the entire 35-zone area is measured evenly for flash exposure. Additionally, the EOS 60D has a Speedlite transmitter built-in for convenient, full-featured wireless control of EX-series Speedlite flashes set as slave units.

The Canon Speedlite 430EX II is the idealisti step-up accessory for powerful flash shooting with the EOS 60D. It has splendid flash power (maximum guide number of 141 ft./43m at ISO 100), and is the perfective way to get great flash pictures when you can’t get right up to the subject. The 430EX II is also great for bounce flash, with it is tilting and swiveling flash head. It mechanically zooms the flash head to cover lenses ranging from 16mm up to 105mm or longer with the EOS 60D. Of course, it works with the camera to provide full E-TTL II automatic flash exposure. And the 430EX II has a powerful AF-assist beam, which allows the camera to autofocus even in total darkness on subjects as far as 32 ft. from the camera.

Included Software

Canon EOS Digital Solution Disk (Version 23.0) The EOS 60D comes bundled with an modified Canon EOS Digital Solution Disk, which features powerful software programs designed to extend the EOS experience to the computer. These include Canon’s EOS Utility (Version 2.9.0), Digital Photo Professional (Version 3.9.1), ZoomBrowser EX for Windows® (Version 6.6.0), ImageBrowser for Macintosh® OS X (Version 6.6.0), the Picture Style Editor (Version 1.8.0), PhotoStitch (Version W: 3.1.22/M: 3.4.4), WFT Utility (version 3.5.1), Memory Card Utility (Version 1.4), WFT Utility (Version 3.5.1), Original Data Security Tools (Version 1.9.0). Each application is designed to perfective the captured images and streamline the digital workflow.

EOS Utility (Version 2.9.0) for Macintosh or Windows handles the connection amidst the camera and computer, whenever they’re connected thru USB. It allows remote controlled shooting from the computer, handles downloading of images from the camera to the computer, and allows seamless linking to either Canon’s ZoomBrowser/ImageBrowser or Digital Photo Professional software once images have been copied to the hard drive. Furthermore, it’s applied to upload settings back into a USB-connected camera.

Digital Photo Professional (Version 3.9.1) is an effigy processing program that enables high-speed RAW effigy processing, high-speed previewing for real-time effigy adjustment and support for sRGB, Adobe RGB and Wide Gamut RGB color spaces. Because it’s CMS (Color Management System) compatible, Digital Photo Professional allows for easy effigy layout and printing in Adobe RGB in conjunction with Easy-PhotoPrint and PictBridge printers. It likewise features the Dust Delete Data Detection tool for cleaner images.

ZoomBrowser EX (Version 6.6.0) for Windows and ImageBrowser (Version 6.6.0) for Mac OS X are the easy, user-friendly choices for watching and editing of JPEG and even RAW effigy files. Both concede watching of a heap of types of images including finished TIFF and BMP files. Both also have a potpourri of search choices for finding images, grant re-naming of single images or batches of files, and offer a assortment of choices for printing without using a discerned image-editing program.

Picture Style Editor (Version 1.8.0) Canon’s Picture Style Editor enables photographers to manufacture habit Picture Style profiles that may be employed to custommake the aspect of JPEG and RAW images captured with EOS Digital SLR cameras. Picture Style files developed with Picture Style Editor may be loaded into the EOS cameras that aid Picture Style and may likewise be applied when processing RAW images in Canon software apps Digital Photo Professional, ZoomBrowser EX (for Windows) and ImageBrowser (for Mac).

What’s in the Box

EOS 60D Body
Eyecup Eb
Wide Strap EW-EOS 60D
USB Interface Cable IFC-130U
Stereo AV cable AVC-DC400ST
Battery Pack LP-E6
Battery Charger LC-E6
EOS Digital Solution Disk and Instruction Manuals “Great Photography is Easy” Booklet and “Do More with Macro” Booklet

Most helpful customer reviews

904 of 924 people found the following review helpful.
A nice camera – fits right in between the T2i and 7D
By C. Vincent
Simply put: Chances are good that your expectations and what you are looking for will determine whether or not you like this camera.

See all 294 customer reviews…

Canon Eos 60d Digital Camera Slr Picture

Canon Eos 60d Digital Camera Slr Photo

Canon Eos 60d Digital Camera Slr Image

Canon Eos 60d Digital Camera Slr Photo

Canon Eos 60d Digital Camera Slr Image

Canon Eos 60d Digital Camera Slr Photo

Canon Eos 5D Mark Ii 21.1 Megapixel

Oswaldo Barker — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:21:59 +0000

Canon Eos 5d Mark Ii 21 1 Megapixel

Compact, lightweight with environmental protection, EOS 5D successor boasts a newly-designed Canon CMOS sensor, with ISO sensitivity up to 25,600 for shooting in near dark conditions. The new DIGIC 4 processor combines with the bettered CMOS sensor to deliver medium format territory effigy quality at 3.9 frames per second, for up to 310 frames. Triggered from Live View Mode, HD video capture allows users to shoot ceaseless at full 1080 solution at 30fps — for astounding quality footage with outstanding levels of detail and realism. The integration of HD movie capability into a high-end 21.1-megapixel camera opens a multitude of new possiblenesses for photojournalists and news photographers. With it is full frame CMOS sensor and outstanding ISO performance, the EOS 5D Mark II will appeal to any photographer in search of the finest camera instrumentation available — from studio and wedding to nature and travel photographers.

Compact, lightweight with environmental protection, EOS 5D successor boasts a newly designed Canon CMOS sensor, with ISO sensitivity up to 25,600 for shooting in near dark conditions. The new DIGIC 4 processor combines with the bettered CMOS sensor to deliver medium format territory effigy quality at 3.9 frames per second, for up to 310 frames.

Triggered from Live View Mode, HD video capture allows users to shoot uninterrupted at full 1080 solution at 30fps — for amazing quality footage with great levels of detail and realism.

The integration of HD movie capability into a high-end 21.1-megapixel camera opens a multitude of new future prospects or potentials for photojournalists and news photographers. With it is full-frame CMOS sensor and outstanding ISO performance, the EOS 5D Mark II will appeal to any photographer in search of the finest camera instrumentation available — from studio and wedding to nature and travel photographers.

Other improvements to the EOS 5D include:

Addition of Canon’s EOS Integrated Cleaning System, with a new Fluorine coating on the low-pass filter
Larger 3.0-inch Clear View LCD with VGA resolution, a 170-degree angle of view and anti-reflective coatings
Improved menu system including Quick Control Screen for more direct access to mutual settings
Automatic peripheral illumination correction, utilizing elaborated EF lens data to optimize JPEG images straight out of the camera
Magnesium alloy construction with further and added environmental shelter
UDMA memory card compatibility

EOS 5D Mark II Highlights

New CMOS sensor
The EOS 5D Mark II’s newly designed full-frame 21.1-megapixel CMOS sensor features ISO sensitivity from 100-6400, expandable to 50, 12,800 and 25,600. Large 6.4µm2 pixels have been redesigned to capture more light and yield a better signal to noise symmetry to ascertain lower noise images allround the ISO range. The full frame sensor has the same dimensions as a frame of 35mm film. This means that wide-angle lenses stay wide, without the change in angle of view related with littler sensor cameras. As well as benefiting from finer control over depth of field, photographers moving up to the EOS 5D Mark II’s full frame format will find the newly designed wide, bright 98 percent coverage viewfinder on a joy to work with.

New DIGIC 4 processor
A new DIGIC 4 processor combined with 14-bit analogue to digital conversion provides smooth gradations in mono-tonal areas such as skies, and highly precise color rendition. As well as HD movie shooting, DIGIC 4’s high speed provides for long continuous uninterrupted bursts of huge JPEGs, near-instant start-up times and prompt and fast review after shooting. DIGIC 4 likewise provides for bettered noise reduction algorithms, complementing the already low-noise images from the EOS 5D Mark II’s CMOS sensor.

HD video capture
The EOS 5D Mark II is Canon’s introductory DSLR to incorporate full HD 1920×1080 video capture. Once filming is started from Live View mode, photographers may fire off either single of ceaseless stills, with video capture continuing after the final frame is captured.

See everything
A new 3.0-inch VGA solution LCD provides a wide 170 degree angle-of-view, providing a great deal of clarity for exact focus checks in playback. The screen luminance may mechanically adjust to suit observing conditions, extending battery life in low light and bettering observing in bright conditions. A new committed Live View button switches modes to display a real-time effigy on the LCD. This allows EOS 5D Mark II photographers to take delight in simplified shooting from awkward angles. Simple connection to a PC provides easy remote shooting.

Precision focus and metering
A 9-point automati focus scheme is supported by 6 further and added invisible Assist AF points, located inside the spot-metering circle to optimise subject tracking performance in AI SERVO AF mode. For precise exposure readings in tricky lighting conditions, the spot metering circle covers just 3.5 percent of the frame.

Control
The EOS 5D Mark II’s redesigned menu scheme includes a new Quick Control screen, for instant access to the most commonly changed settings. A new Creative Auto mode allows photographers to cede control of key settings to the camera, while holding back control over originative variables such background blur, drive mode and effigy brightness. Custom user settings concede photographers to switch amidst two exclusively dissimilar camera setups. This is idealisti for altering quickly amid two dissimilar environments, such as switching from working inside a church without flash to outdoors with fill-flash at a wedding.

Optional Accessories
Shooting flexibleness is intensified with a range of new accessories. Shooting capacity may be extended with either the high-capacity 1800mAh lithium-ion Battery Pack LP-E6, or Battery Grip BG-E6.

A new optional Wireless File Transmitter
The WFT-E4 offers external HDD and GPS compatibility along with capacity to transmit images direct to computer or FTP server, or operate the camera wirelessly. Both the BG-E6 and WFT-E4 feature a vertical orientation shutter release and other key controls for comfortable portraiture work, with a substantial grip to aid remainder the camera when applied with long lenses.

What’s in the Box

EOS 5D Mark II Body
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens
Eyecup Eb
Wide Neck Strap EW-EOS5DMKII
Stereo Video Cable STV-250N
USB Interface Cable IFC-200U
Battery Charger LC-E6
Battery Pack LP-E6
EOS Digital Solution Disk
Software Instruction Manual

Review from dpreview.com

Learn more with regards to this camera
at DPReview.com

Most helpful customer reviews

786 of 833 people found the following review helpful.
Never Ever: Rent, borrow or use this Camera, if you do, you will have to own it!
By Grant Brummett
Canon 5D Mark II

Never Ever: Rent, borrow or use the Canon 5D Mark II, if you do, you will have to own it. It’s that good!

Pros:

Crazy high ISO performance
Fantastic amazing image quality you have to see to believe!
Great menus, sharper, brighter, easier to read then 40D
Video, did someone say video? I love it! You will need a tripod!
Fantastic rear LCD that you can check actual photo sharpness
Super low light high ISO photographic tool with 25,600 ISO!!!
Feels great in your hands, the grip texture is easy to hold and is well balanced
Low 50 ISO allows photos at F/1.2 aperture out in bright sunlight for shallow DOF

Cons:
No Built in popup Flash
A little slower shooting then the 40D
Very demanding of lenses, high end L lenses are a must have
Huge files: you will need larger memory cards and a larger hard drive
Ultra large bright sharp viewfinder makes my 40D finder seem dim and tiny
Hum… I’m thinking..

Intro:

I have had my Canon 5D Mark II for a little over two weeks now. And I’m having a hard time putting it down.

I tried switching back to my Canon 40D and the very first thing you notice is how small, dim and fuzzy the viewfinder on the 40D is compared to the 5D Mark II. Especially if you are older you will really appreciate being able to easy see and read information in the viewfinder not to mention you can actually manually focus with it. It reminds me of my switch from the Canon Rebel XTi to the 40D. It’s that big a difference.

The Images are huge and quite simply stunning. Plus I find that I can get away with very low noise all the way up to 3200 ISO on the 5D Mark II where the 40D was very noisy. In fact I would not hesitate to say the 5D Mark II photos has less noise at 9,600 ISO then the 40D does at 1600 ISO.

Lenses:

I have never had the pleasure of owning a Camera that is this demanding of the lens you use. It’s like an instant lens test. I haven’t seen much in-depth lens as used on 5D Mark II information on the other reviews and decided this would be good to be included in my review.

All of these lenses are brighter in the viewfinder and focus much better on my 5D Mark II then on my 40D.

So, with that said after several hundred photos I can give you a rundown of my most used, most favorite, best performing and least used lenses that I have used on the 5D Mark II and a few un-expected surprises along the way.

1. Canon 200mm F/2 IS L lens. This lens is my new master of resolving power. Even wide open at F/2 it is sharper then any other lens I have ever used. I could go on and on but here’s a few highlights: Lightening fast auto focus, F/2 speed at 200mm, unbelievable perfect 10 Images, public attention hog, otherworldly image stabilization, great build quality, weather sealed, fantastic perfect buttery smooth Bokeh and what a lens case! If you crave attention and demand the absolute best there is the do what ever it takes to get this lens on your Canon 5D Mark II. If you do not like public attention you may want to skip to number 2 in this list as I have never been asked so many questions about a lens as this one. But it’s all worth it as the clarity, sharpness, Bokeh and colors are: otherworldly, insane, impossible, rare, perfect, out of sight, crazy!!

2. Canon 85mm F/1.2 II L lens. Without a doubt at F/4 (after the Canon 200mm F/2 of course) this lens delivers the clearest sharpest and most resolving power onto any photograph you care to take with the Canon 5D Mark II. The clarity has to be seen to be believed. At F/1.2 the Depth of Field (DOF) is scary thin and the edges are super soft which is great for female portraiture. The super soft creamy dreamy Bokeh at F/1.2 is much smoother on the 5D Mark II over my 40D. But stop this lens down to F/1.8 and it gets scary sharp and clear. Step it down to F/4.0 and it’s at its sharpest and the only lens I have that gives you 100% pixel peeping razor blade edge to edge top to bottom perfect clarity in every single area of the photo. For some reason this lens is even sharper on my 5D Mark II then my 40D or Rebel, don’t know why but it is. Guess it’s getting the full resolving power to the 21 megapixel sensor.

Looking at a photo on my iMac taken with a 5D Mark II with this lens stopped down to F/4 is like standing there looking through an open window at the actual scene! You feel like you could actually open up the computer screen like opening a window and climb in!!!

The 85mm F/1.2 is your low light monster on the 5D Mark II, I don’t have to harp too much on what an F/1.2 aperture and an ISO 25,600 can do for you at night. Let’s just say you can go out into what appears to be a dark night and do hand held photos.

Not all is perfect as it’s: expensive, heavy, and hard to focus wide open, focus lock does not work and it eats camera batteries at twice the rate of my other lenses. Also it doesn’t focus as close on the 5D Mark II as it did on my 40D so you can’t get head filling close ups. This isn’t really a problem, as with 21 Mega Pixels I can crop no problem. However, all this is forgiven when I get back to my iMac and view the results. This is the very first lens I will reach for when using the 5D Mark II and the one that’s on it 90% of the time. If I could have just one lens for a Canon 5D Mark II this would be the one! [...]

2. Tie! Canon 135mm F/2 L. It’s small light and stealthy and has fastest and best auto-focus of any lens I have ever owned (after the Canon 200mm F/2 IS L). It even focuses pretty close on the 5D Mark II. This lens is amazing, the Bokeh looks like sweet candy and it’s sharper wide open then the Canon 85mm F/1.2 II L lens is wide open and stop it down to F/2.2 and it’s as sharp as any lens I have. It’s not a zoom so it’s not as versatile but it’s a great waist up portrait lens out in public and in larger studios. It’s one of my most used lens at outdoor public events along with the 85mm F/1.2 II L (renaissance festivals etc.) where I’m photographing people. For some reason this lens is a little sharper on my Canon Rebel and 40D I guess because I’m using the center of the lens and it’s sharper on these cropped sensor cameras.

3. Canon 100-400 F/4.5 – F/5.6 IS L lens. This is the second most used lens in my 5D Mark II arsenal. This lens was my biggest surprise of the group. Its Ok wide open but it’s a monster of clarity at F/7.1 like it never was on my Canon 40D. It also becomes useable on the 5D Mark II in wider shot situations where on the 40D it was only usable as a longer lens. Sporting the longest zoom range of any Canon zoom this lens has to be without doubt the finest Zoo lens ever made, [...] You can frame almost any animal in almost any exhibit perfectly. This is also my lens of choice for taking photos of people at events with the 5D Mark II and is the King of versatility on a full-framed sensor camera. This is my sharpest and clearest zoom lens by a long shot (no pun intended. It’s as close to the you are there feeling of the 85mm F/1.2 lI lens as any zoom lens I have. It’s only drawbacks are it’s a little heavy, is slow aperture wise (that’s Ok with the 5D Mark II high ISO capability) and it gets a huge amount of attention out in public. I don’t care it’s all worth it this is a must have lens with the 5D Mark II. Again, for some reason this lens is even sharper on my 5D Mark II then my 40D or Rebel, don’t know why but it is.

5-26-2009 100-400 update: So I came back from the Riparian Bird Preserve yesterday where it was rather dusty and I noticed that my sensor and mirror box were full of dust. I decided to do a test on my 100-400 lens and sure enough it does pump dust into the camera body.

If you turn the zoom friction ring all the way loose and zoom in and out with the bottom end cap off there is no resistance. If you put the bottom end cap on tightly and zoom you can feel resistance. Then if you loosen the end cap just a little you can actually feel air being sucked in and out around the end cap as you zoom in and out.

Thank God for my FIrefly digital sensor cleaning system! And be forewarned if you own this lens.

4. Canon 17-40 F/4 L lens. This is my sleeper lens. A so so walk around lens on my 40D becomes a wide angle monster on my Canon 5D Mark II. This lens is soft wide open at F/4 but sharpens up noticeably at F/4.5 and becomes a super wide angle take it all in landscape and interior monster when stopped down to F/9 on a Canon 5D Mark II. This is a lens I always carry with me now since I never know when I might see a wide angle opportunity. Doesn’t have the you are there feeling when viewing the photos on my iMac as much as the above three lenses but it’s closer to perfection then you will ever see on a cropped sensor camera. I keep hoping that Canon will make a wide angle zoom that matches the performance of my Canon 100-400 IS L zoom lens. This lens has a similar sharpness on both the Canon 5D Mark II and cropped sensor cameras like my 40D.

5. Canon 70-200 F/2.8 L lens. This lens is actually about even with my Canon 100-400 IS L Lens in the zoom sharpness and clarity department but it’s no where near as versatile on my 5D Mark II as the 100-400. Still it’s a must have lens when shooting weddings when you need the super Bokeh background melting power of an F/2.8 aperture and lower light power of an F/2.8 aperture. The sharpness and clarity at F/2.8 that was Ok on the 40D is much improved for some strange reason on the 5D Mark II. And the Bokeh is much smoother creamier and richer on the 5D Mark II.

Just have to mention a great alternative lens the Canon 70-200 F/4 I/S L lens which I think is a sharper and better lens then the 70-200 F/2.8 as not only does it have a fluorite element but I did some back to back testing with my friends F/4 and my F/2.8 and the 70-200 F/4 was indeed better and at a great price. Additionally it’s much lighter in weight and smaller physically. However keep in mind at F/4 it is a slower lens.

6. Canon 24-70 F/2.8 L lens. This is the lens I reach for when I’m shooting closer photos at a wedding and I need the versatility of a zoom. It’s also the lens I reach for when shooting videos with the 5D Mark II. If I could shoot all day with the Canon 85mm F/1.2 II L I would. But at a wedding where you can’t always zoom with your feet I reach for the Canon 24-70 F/2.8 L. Its good on the 5D Mark II but not as good as the 17-40 L but has better reach then the 17-40. But it does not have that uncanny you are there feel of the first three lenses on my list. The Canon 5D Mark II clearly out resolves this lens and that is very disappointing for an L lens that costs over a thousand dollars. Thank GOD for the auto peripheral as this lens is a Vignetting monster when shot wide open on a 5D Mark II, it was not on the 40D. With the Vignetting control built into Digital Photo Professional (DPP) and the on-board 5D Mark II auto control it’s perfect and Vignetting is not a problem. This lens is also very fragile and has required sending back to Canon for recalibration but is a must have in my arsenal only because I do weddings. I’m hoping Canon will come out with an Image Stabilized improved version that has that you are there feel of the 100-400 zoom. Once again it seems like this lens may be losing it’s calibration and I am starting to lose my patience. If you need this lens then get it just beware of possible maintenance problems.

7. Canon 50mm F/1.8 II lens. This lens which was pretty decent on the 40D and Rebel XTi comes completely apart on the 5D Mark II. No surprise since it’s only $89. I guess the surprise was how well it had worked on a Canon 40D and Rebel XTi. If you own a 5D Mark II then don’t bother. If you own a cropped sensor camera its a great little lens.

8. Canon 17-50mm F/2.8 EF-S L lens. Why am I mentioning this lens here? It’s a shame this cropped sensor only lens can’t be used on the 5D Mark II. It’s one of my most used and sharpest lenses on my Canon 40D and Canon Rebel XTi. In fact it’s my daughter’s favorite lens on those two cameras. Because it’s such a great sharp low light monster because of the Image Stabilization (IS) it would be fantastic on the 5D Mark II. Canon please make us a wide angle L lens with IS. It’s been very reliable un-like my 24-70, I highly recommend if you have a cropped sensor camera!

9. Canon 15mm Fisheye! This lens is a hoot on the 5D Mark II. A full 180 degrees of wide angle fun! Put it on and shoot the inside of a small car, or airplane, or take it to your local baseball diamond or anywhere you would love to see a 180 degree shot. And the curved effect on a full frame camera makes everyone who sees one of these photos go oooohhhhhh yeah cool shot. I listed this lens last because its one of those lenses you don’t want to over use but one that you just have to just have to have. It’s pretty sharp wide open but gets sharper at F/4 and reaches maximum sharpness at F/8. It has the old style focus system that’s a little noisy and slow but it really doesn’t matter as there isn’t much focus range anyway everything is close to infocus at 15mm.

Three old 5D complaints answered:

1. Vignetting or peripheral lighting issue
2. Dust on the sensor
3. The rear LCD

1. Vignetting:

You can either have the 5D Mark II auto-correct peripheral illumination on board for JPEGs or adjust images using Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DPP) software that came with your Mark II. I have noticed on the full framed 5D Mark II my Canon 24-70 F/2.8 L lens with the peripheral illumination correction turned OFF the 5D Mark II images will severely vignette or be dark in the corners when shot wide open (F/2.8). It’s almost like looking through a dark tunnel. It’s especially noticeable shot wide open with the sky as a background. Auto-correct to the rescue!! With the peripheral illumination correction turned ON it’s almost magical the darkening in the corners is gone! If you want you can even shoot in Raw mode and adjust the amount of Vignetting or darkness in the corners for effects such as when shooting portraits and you want to emphasis the person in the middle of the photo. Just open the Raw photo in DPP and click on the NR/Lens / ALO tab and select Lens Aberration Correction Tune and adjust the peripheral illumination to suite by dragging the slider or entering and amount. Or select all the photos in a directory and you can correct all your photos at once.

2. Dust on the Sensor:

The old 5D was a dust hog, no-one ever said it was not. The new one though now as a new fluorite coating and ant-dust shake. I did get some dust on my sensor after going out and switching lens in the field shooting birds but un-like my 40D I successfully blew off all the dust using my Firefly Digital Dust sensor cleaner. This new fluorite coating must make it much harder for the dust to stick to the 5D Mark II sensor then the sensor on my 40D.

3. Rear LCD

This has to be seen to be believed. The rear LCD is so sharp and so bright its shocking. The one on the 40D is now just OK. And I could never be sure if I got the shot or not. On the 5D Mark II you can zoom in an check fine focus. The only thing you may want to turn off is the auto light level adjuster so when walking in and out of shaded areas the brightness level does not change when the ambient light levels change. Some people may like it some may hate it. I like it myself as I can now see the image out in the sunlight unlike on the 40D where it’s totally washed out. Thing is Canon lets you decide and you can turn it on or off. When off it stays the same no matter the ambient light.

LOW ISO:

Holy cow 6400 ISO I can shoot at F/4.5 in a dark room!!!! Took some night shots in and outside of the house and downloaded. Booted up DPP and WOW!

Photos are great at 3200 ISO even in Raw mode with standard noise reduction. Once you apply the correct amount of noise reduction and converted to 17inch JPEG’s the 3200 ISO photos are AWESOME!!! The night shots of my Christmas tree at 3200 ISO on my 40D are almost unusable. But with the 5D Mark II they are fantastic. But my 24inch iMac seems a little slower looking through the photos… In fact it seems to be crawling! I ended up having to upgrade to a Firewire 800 external hard drive to fix the problem.

Black Dots:

I finally got a single photo with black dots by shooting at 25,600 ISO at night around some Christmas lights. You have to zoom in to 200% and pixel peep to see them. That’s one shot out of several hundred night shots! Still haven’t found any dots in day time photos.

Memory Storage:

I’m going to have to buy larger Compact Flash Cards my 8GB card only holds about 267 shots when the 5D Mark II is set to Raw only. But it’s worth it especially for high ISO shots. At times I’m hard pressed on-screen to tell 1600 ISO from the 5D Mark II to the 100 ISO out of my 40D. It’s that GOOD!

Video:
I for one never thought I would be in this love for video. But this camera is awesome, low natural light great Bokeh low depth of field video. Just in time for the holidays. The only thing is after viewing the videos back on my iMac computer no matter how steady you hands are you will need a tripod. The tiniest movements when playing back on a computer or TV seem to be magnified no matter how steady I try and hand hold the camera.

40D to 5D Mark II transition:

Well, it looks a lot like my Canon 40D but the controls on the back are on the left instead of the bottom.

Has a similar feel and weight to me at least maybe just a touch bigger and heavier then a 40D. Focus is better in low light for sure. Looks great with a Canon 17-40 F/4 L lens mounted. Maybe a little more rubbery grip on the grip.

This will be a much easier transition coming from the Canon 40D to the Canon 5D Mark II then my transition from the Rebel XTi to the 40D as the control placement and use are very similar unlike when I switched from the Rebel to the 40D and everything was in a different location.

Setup:

Put the strap on while I’m waiting for the dead battery to charge.

Ok battery is charged now, put it in, turn it on and set the time and date.

Then plug into the Mac and set my preferences under the styles and choose my lenses under the peripheral illumination correction. Very nice and very easy.

Put in the owners Information and copyright info. Gotta love that it’s automatically on every photo now!

Menus:

Menus are a little different, but hey they are much sharper, this LCD is really sharp and bright!!!

Who the heck put 10 images as the default for skipping on review!!! That’s another one of the first changes to go!

Bottom line:

Bottom line is if you own a big L lens collection and do any shooting at all in the dark without flash and don’t have a full framed camera the 5D Mark II is a must have addition!

1-11-2009 Update:

I installed firmware update 1.0.7 which is supposed to correct the black dot problem and now I can’t get it to make a black dot photo at all. So hopefully this was the fix we were all seeking.

This full framed sensor camera continues to impress me and the sensor continues to be dust free!

4-1-2009 Update:

This full framed sensor camera continues to impress. Just got back from shooting the 2009 Arizona Renaissance festival where I shot both the 40D and 5D Mark II and looking at the photos the 5D Mark II just walks all over the 40D in image quality. So much so that I don’t reach for the 40D much any more the 5D Mark II is that much better. Got one spec of dust from lens changing at the Renaissance but it was easily blow off with my FireFly sensor cleaner.

4-27-2009 I just got back from photographing the World Premiere of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and once again the 5D Mark II was awesome. I ended up mainly using two lenses the Canon 24-70 F/2.8 L zoom and Canon 100-400 IS L zoom lens. When you have only one chance to get Hugh Jackman riding by on his Harley you want to make sure you have reliable quick focusing equipment.

6-25-2009

Still very in love with my Canon 5D Mark II. See photos and videos I have taken with this camera at http://www.flickr.com/photos/grantbrummett/sets/72157621665984915/

200 of 210 people found the following review helpful.
Great Camera for my First Full Frame
By Catherine Rodery
This was my first full frame camera. Prior to it I had owned and operated a 40D, 30D and Rebel XTi. I am a wedding and sports photographer primarily, so I have been able to test the 5D Mark II out under both of these conditions.

For basketball I used it with AI Servo, Center Point focus, but went into custom settings and enabled the AF assist dots. It worked like a dream, focusing faster and more accurately than my 40D ever had. While no, the FPS aren’t ideal for sports, if you can lock on focus like this from the start, you can still achieve amazing sports photographs. Plus the fact that I was able to shoot at ISO 4,000 and not have noticeable noise was just incredible. The shots auto-white balanced correctly too which normally in the arena I shoot at is not what happens on my 40D.

My first wedding all I could say all day was wow. I was getting available light photographs I never would have dreamed of before. The new screen also made it incredibly easy to determine if something was in focus or not. When I would switch between my 40D and 5D2 I found out just how spoiled that screen had made me, since the 40D screen looked terrible to me now when previously I thought that had a great screen. I sure was wrong! 920,000 pixels is definitely the way to go on this LCD. I primarily shot with center point (one shot) for my focus and it nailed focus every time. I did a mix up of manual, aperture priority and some program (Program mostly for the formals)

What else do I love about it? The 98% view finder is awesome. I like being able to use UDMA cards in it…

Video! Although I’m not a video / motion person by nature, I prefer stills, I’ve been testing out the video quite a bit. At Christmas I took a few short clips of my nephew and was really happy with how they look. It’s very neat to be able to take high definition video of a little kid and have that awesome affect of a wide aperture blurring out the background. The only downside is that the files are huge. My 1 minute clip was over 300MB, but that’s what I get for shooting in 1080!

The batteries this camera use really do hold a charge for a while. I used mine with the battery grip at the wedding, and the two batteries after going for over 500 shots (maybe close to 600 shots that day?) still had about 72% charge each left on them. I could easily have shot 3 times that much and still have had left over charge on the batteries. Also the new battery info screen is really nifty since you can see what serial number battery has what charge, making it a lot easier to keep track of.

So far I’ve used a 35 1.4/L, 135 2/L, 70-200 f2.8/L, 50 1.4, and 100 2.8 Macro on this camera body and all have performed wonderfully. I don’t miss the pop up flash that my 40D has since I never used it anyway, I always throw my 580 EX II on top when I need flash.

This camera really is a gem and I highly recommend it if it fits in your budget!

495 of 559 people found the following review helpful.
Mostly positive, but mixed feelings
By Glenn Przyborski
First the good…

If you’re looking for an excellent, full-frame DSLR, the 5D Mk2 is very, very good. It’s at least 1 full F-stop more sensitive to light than my Canon 1DS Mk2. A setting of ASA 800 or 1000 yields about the same noise level as my older camera at ASA 400. It’s autofocus system is very fast and accurate on single shot mode. (I don’t think EF-L series lenses are capable of faster focus action.)

The new LCD screen is gorgeous. 3″ diagonal with 900,000+ pixels. It’s possibly the best quality LCD screen ever put on a DSLR. The menus are easier to understand and navigate than the 1DS Mk2′s menus. “Live View” is an excellent way to do critical focusing. If you’ve never used a DSLR with live view, you’ll love it. The only negative of live-view is that it really drains your battery and it can only be used for a certain length of time before the CMOS imager circuitry heats up, adding noise to the image. (In real-life typical shooting, overheating is not a problem and besides the camera will auto cancel live-view if it senses an over temperature condition.)

The huge 21 mega-pixel RAW images are excellent. The camera uses an updated variant on Canon’s .CR2 RAW format so if you use an older version of Adobe’s Lightroom or Photoshop for image processing, you’ll need the latest Lightroom 2.2 or Photoshop CS4 to get the proper RAW converter. I’ve personally never liked the included software for RAW image processing, but many people are happy with it.

The auto-exposure system seems very accurate… more accurate than my 1DS Mk2.

I never experienced any “black dot” phenomenon. But I’ve only shot RAW images at less than 1200 ASA. The “black dot” sample images that I’ve seen on the internet look like simple, in-camera, over-enhancement of highlights. Besides, unless you’re shooting sports at night or are part of a CSI team, who shoots at 3200+ ASA anyway? If you’re doing a night shot of a city use a tripod, a longer exposure, and a lower ASA. This will yield rich, clean blacks and much higher detail in highlights. Also, although JPEG’s are much smaller, every professional photographer that I know shoots only RAW images.

I ordered the camera with the optional BG-E6 battery grip. This grip makes the camera taller and easier to hold. It allows simultaneous use of 2 Canon lithium batteries or 6- AA alkaline or rechargeables. It’s a very valuable accessory to consider.

Now the bad…

I primarily purchased the camera for its ability to shoot great looking 1080P HD video for commercial TV projects. I thought it would be a great source for “B-Roll” cutaways and inserts.

The biggest single problem in the video mode is that you have no control over iris, ISO setting, or shutter speed. There’s an exposure lock button that will lock the exposure variables to whatever the LCD displays at the time you press the button. There are no on-screen indicators that show the settings that the camera has chosen for you. The only control you have is the color temperature setting. Basically, you pan the camera around in the scene and let the brightness float up and down. When you see what you think is a good exposure on the rear LCD screen, you press the lock button. Since the exposure lock resets after each scene or take, chances are you won’t have consistent exposures over multiple takes of a particular scene.

Working with the auto exposure system can sometimes be difficult. I was shooting with my 85mm F1.2 lens. By looking at the iris, it appeared the camera had decided to only open the lens to about an F2.8 and use a much higher ISO setting than necessary to achieve proper exposure. By pointing the camera to some very dark shadows, the iris fully opened. I then panned back to my original scene which appeared to be much cleaner and free of noise. You really need to be able to manually set the ISO & F-stop when shooting video.

I adjusted the camera’s custom settings to lower the detail enhancement and contrast. These controls effect the quality of jpeg stills but seem to have no effect on a video recording.

The camera only records at 30.00fps, not 29.97fps. This tiny .03fps difference means that you have to alter each file’s header, using a program such as Apple Cinema Tools, before you can edit 5D footage into a normal, broadcast 1080P/1080i, 29.97fps timeline. Failure to do this header alteration requires setting up a 30.00fps timeline or rendering every 5D scene on your 29.97fps timeline which yields periodic skipped frames.

There is no 24P (23.98) setting. As far as I’m concerned, there is no logical reason that Canon chose 30.00fps instead of 29.97fps. No broadcast TV or film standard operates at 30.00fps. Maybe Canon will correct this with a future firmware update. Please note that if you’re only shooting high quality videos for web release, the 30.00fps speed won’t present a problem.

To simulate the film-like cadence of a movie camera’s 180 degree shutter at 30.00fps, the 5D Mk2′s shutter should be set to 1/60 of a second exposure time. There is no way to tell what shutter setting the camera is using during a scene. My gut feeling from looking at camera video is that the 5D Mk2 often uses 1/30 of a second.

The camera’s LCD screen is blanked whenever an HDMI monitor is plugged in. If you’re doing a commercial shoot with clients, this means that either the cameraman or the clients can see what’s being shot, but not both at the same time… You could add an external HDMI active splitter, but this would also require adding and using an external monitor at the camera. If you only plan to shoot by yourself, this shouldn’t present a problem.

To do manual follow-focusing using the rear LCD screen, consider purchasing Hoodman’s 3″ LCD viewer. It’s available from B&H and other retailers and it works very well. Of course, you’ll have to figure a custom way to attach it to the back of the 5D Mk2 using rubber bands or Velcro.

The 5D Mk2 records what I would call “memo quality” audio with it’s internal, mono microphone. You really notice the AGC raising and lowering the recording volume. If someone claps their hands, coughs, or makes a loud sound, the audio level and background sound dives down, then very noticeably fades back up. There is no headphone output or on-screen audio display so there’s no way to confirm the level of your audio. If you plug an external mic into the camera, there is no indication to confirm even the presence of an audio signal. The only thing you can do is record a scene, then playback and carefully listen to the recorded file. If you plan to use this camera on a professional sync-sound project, you’d really have to consider double system sound recording. Recoding the audio on a separate recorder adds a major level of increased hassle but it’s the only way to insure excellent audio. The audio from the camera’s recording can be used as a post-production sync reference.

Another audio question is why Canon chose to record audio at a sample rate of 44.1kz instead of the industry standard 48kz. Apple’s Final Cut Pro can handle almost any sample rate but other NLE’s can’t. Once again, if you’re only shooting video for web release, the CD sample rate of 44.1kz shouldn’t present a problem.

In certain low light or low contrast scenes, the H.264 encoding block artifacts are noticeable. In my opinion, the 5D Mk2 artifacts are more noticeable than the H.264 encoding used in Canon’s own HF10, 1080 video camera even though the 5D’s recorded bit rate is higher.

The camera’s signal-to-noise ratio is very good and very clean. It’s a more noise-free video picture than my $80,000 Sony F900R HDCam… except for the color red. Red objects are noisy. Most colors in a scene seem noise free, except red. This is especially true with low brightness red objects such as those in shadow areas.

The 5D Mk2 exhibits no “rolling shutter” characteristics that are associated with Nikon’s D90.

The 5D Mk2 has the characteristic of clipping to “flat-line” black very low-light or shadow details in an image. This yields a “gutsy” rich, excellent, “film-like” quality for many scenes, but you can’t do any post-production recovery of lost low-light details. The camera does a pretty good job of rolling scene highlights off to a hard clip at 100 units of video.

Possibly, some of the problems I’ve detailed here are related to the specific 5D Mk2 that I purchased (serial#0320105XXX) but I don’t think this is the case. Hopefully, Canon will issue a firmware update to address the camera’s video problems. New firmware could possibly add manual control to the video capture functions and slightly lower the frame rate to the standard 29.97fps.

All cameras at any price level have positives and negatives. I’ve never found or used the “perfect” camera. The Canon 5d Mk2 is an excellent still camera and in my opinion, “a not quite ready for prime time” HDTV video camera. Possibly the camera was rushed to market to compete (or cancel out) the much hyped video features of Nikon’s “rolling shutter” D90. It is an excellent glimpse into the future of “hybrid” still & video DSLR cameras.

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Sony Alpha Nex-3 Silver 14.2Mp Hd Digital

Layne Ryan — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:21:59 +0000

Sony Alpha Nex 3 Silver 14 2mp Hd Digital

The performance of Alpha DSLR without the size and weight. The Sony Alpha NEX-3 stands apart as the world’s smallest interchangeable lens camera (as of April 2010). Experience pretty HD movies, aweinspiring low-light pictures, uninterrupted shooting up to 7 fps, unbelievable panorama shots and Live View on a tilting 3.0″ LCD (measured diagonally). Additionally, this ? NEX-3 camera comes with an E-mount 16mm lens.

KIT INCLUDES:
* SONY SD 8GB CARD.
* SONY 18-55MM E-LENS.
* Hoya SKY FILTER.
* REPLACEMENT NP-FW50 BATTERY PACK.
* LENS PEN.
* SCREEN PROTECTORS.

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Reed Joseph — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:21:59 +0000

Getting the most out of your digital video camera may mean being capable to formulate numerous actually cool stuff. You just have to step outside the manual a bit and find the cool things you may do with your digital video camera and your editing software.

We have all seen them in a movie or a TV show, those very cool shots where they speed up time and capture a long segment of time and condense it into a very short amount of video. An example is a heap of of the TV news stations these days have a camera that captures the day’s weather and then they procedure it down to a 20 second clip to show the clouds and weather racing by on screen.

Well this technique is not just a tool in the hands of the movie makers or the huge TV stations. You may do this with your digital video camera gear too. I will go into two ways that you may accomplish this effect and get a good deal of cool results for your next video project. This one is worth playing around with in order to find the right settings to get the most dramatic effect.

Technique number one is to use the camera itself to do the time lapse recording for you. Almost all digital video cameras have the capacity to do an interval recording. What this means in a nutshell is that you tell the camera how long you want to record for and how long in among recordings and it will go on autopilot for you for as long as the battery lasts or the tape runs out. This is what those cameras at the comfortableness store do, they record a few seconds of motion each 30-60 seconds giving the overall view of the traffic in the store over time.

Now if you want to capture a good deal of time lapse in your digital video camera you will need to get into your cameras menu and find Interval Recording (or in my case Int Rec, as I use a Sony PD 150 for my camera) When you select this option you will determine how long of an interval among shots you want and how long to record each time. If you are attempting to capture something that takes a long time to occur and in which not much happens quickly you will want to set the interval at around a minute and the record time as short as possible on your camera. An example would be if you wanted to record a day in the life of a flower or the clouds rolling by in the sky. Suppose nevertheless that you want to capture an event that has a large total of action and occurs over a much shorter time frame. Then you would want to shorten the interval among recordings and increase the time of each recording. So in this case you might record each 15-30 seconds and record up to 2-3 seconds of video each time.

I employed this technique to capture an afternoon of work being done by a team of carpenters on my house rebuilding project. The result was a flurry of action as workers raced hither and yon nailing boards, carrying instrumentation and building walls. I have added it to my photo collection of the project. (Hey I had to live through the project so I might as well have a great record of it for posterity!)

Now suppose you have one of the outstanding software video editing packages on your computer to work with your digital video camera. Now you may do it in post as they say in the business. You may record any length of video you want (subject to the limitations of your tape length) and then import it into your editing program.

Sidebar:

I use Adobe Premiere Pro for my editing jobs, but I have also used Avid DV Express, Final Cut Pro, and others in the non linear editing world. These are all outstanding programs and are very powerful merchandise that may create a great deal of very professional looking videos. You don’t have to have these merchandise to develop your own videos but if you are severe regarding digital video editing it might be a good idea to take a look at these options.

I digitize my raw video of the scene I am doing time lapse on into my computer (big hard drive, video eats up GB’s of space) and then import the clip into my time line. From the timeline you may then select the clip with a right click. From there you will be given a menu with choices depending on the software you use. Select the option that says “duration”, “speed” or something similar. Change the speed of the clip so that time will speed up considerably. If you have an hour of video in the clip and want to shorten it to 2 -5 minutes then you need to increase the speed of the clip to 3 or 4 thousand percent of normal. This will require your software to render the clip at the higher speed and may take a heap of time top procedure depending on the speed of your computer.

Once you have rendered the video clip at the new speed you will want to play it to see if the movie flows evenly or if you will want to readjust the speed setting to make it better. Sometimes you may want to shorten your raw video and adjust the speed down more or less in order to get a smooth flow of action. Once you have rendered the clip at the new speed you may now cut and splice it as you see fit with the speeded up action intact. There are a lot of things you will record that might only need a slight speed change, take for instance galore digital video of your kids playing sports. Double or triple the speed of the clip and show it to them and you might have them rolling on the floor.

You may also use these proficiencies to capture the growth of a flower or plant over the course of days or weeks. Simply set you camera in precisely the same place at the same time each day and record an interval that works each day fro nonetheless long you want to document. May be you get the seedling just breaking soil and follow it all the way through turning into a full grown plant.

Another interesting idea is to capture the path of the moon all over the night sky. Set up your camera on a tripod in a spot that may see the path of the moon for assorted hours. Set the camera to interval record and put the moon on one side of the frame so that it will pass all over the frame as the night passes. This one may require some testing in order to get the exposure and framing right as well as the right interval to record at. Most likely you would want to set the interval as long as you may and the record time as short as you may but do a test run original to see what works.

Pentax K R Digital Slr Camera With 18 55mm

Brains, meet beauty. The Pentax K-r has it all. On the brain side, it’s a powerful DSLR with modern features like 12.4 Megapixels, HD video, a 2.7-inch LCD display and habit modes and functions. On the beauty side, taking photos has never looked this good. There’s basic black of course. But the K-r also comes in classy white and PENTAX red, with even more body colors to come. The PENTAX K-r competes with higher-end DSLRs and looks great doing it. Now, that’s brilliantly colorful.

The compact, lightweight Pentax K-r is easy to use with Auto Picture, Scene, and Custom Image Processing modes that take the guesswork out of shooting stunning images while still providing a high degree of manual and priority control. The K-r offers a potpourri of new and bettered features including a fast framerate, high ISO sensitivity, responsive autofocus, an bettered 12.4-megapixel low-noise sensor and widescreen HD video capture that take it a step above an entry-level DSLR camera.

Key features of the Pentax K-r that are new or have been bettered upon from the most recent entry to mid-level Pentax DSLR models include:

Large 3-inch LCD with 921,000 dots of solution
Faster high speed 6 FPS framerate that captures 25 images in a single sequence
A greatest or most complete or best possible 1/6000 second shutter speed
Viewfinder focus point indicator
Improved in-camera HDR effigy capture including a Night Scene HDR mode
High sensitivity 100-25600 ISO range with bettered noise performance from the new 12.4 megapixel CMOS sensor
Versatile dual-power-source design, which offers the choice of either a rechargeable lithium-ion battery or four AA-size battery power (using optional AA Battery Holder D-BH109)
Infrared selective information transfer compatible with the IrSimple high-speed infrared info transmission scheme for wireless selective information transfer to the web or other IrSimple-compatible appliances (includes a match-game amongst two Pentax K-r’s).

Other primary features of the new K-r models include: widescreen 720p HD video at 25 FPS; Pentax-original Shake Reduction mechanism for sharp, blur-free images that works with each Pentax lens ever made; Dust Removal mechanism, to shake dust off the CMOS effigy sensor; Highly responsive and precise 11 point SAFOX IX autofocus system with consecrated AF help lamp; and wide range of in-camera effigy processing and particular effects filters.

With a highly portable, compact and lightweight body in a choice of colors, the K-r holds appeal for busy parents, family memory-keepers, travelers and anybody who reflects personal style in all their pursuits including their traveling into photography or videography as a skill or hobby.

Pentax K-r Highlights

High-quality, true-to-life effigy reproduction
The K-r incorporates a new generation CMOS effigy sensor with 12 megapixels and the high-performance PRIME (Pentax Real Image Engine) II imaging engine for exact and high-speed info processing equivalent to that of upper-level Pentax digital SLR models for high-quality images. The camera likewise offers a wide sensitivity range amid ISO 200 and ISO 12800 that may be expanded from ISO 100 to ISO 25600 by way of a habit function.

Compact, lightweight body
Even with the 23.6mm x 15.8mm effigy sensor, the K-r features a compact, lightweight, stainless-steel chassis with in-body Shake Reduction in a space-efficient design.

High-speed continuous shooting at approximately six images per second
The K-r’s high-speed continuous shooting mode records as numerous as 25 images (in JPEG recording format) in a single sequence at a greatest or most complete or best possible speed of approximately six images per second (fastest of all entry-class models) for sharp, crisp images of fast-moving subjects.

High-precision AF system
The K-r’s high-precision, wide-frame SAFOX IX autofocus system features 11 sensor points (with nine cross-type sensors positioned in the middle) for pinpoint focus on the subject. The K-r is also equipped with a spotbeam projector to help the AF scheme in poorly lit locations. Accuracy and speed of contrast AF operation for the duration of Live View shooting is intensified with a new-generation effigy sensor and drastic upgrading of AF algorithms.

Bright, clear optical viewfinder
The Pentax-original finder optics and the famous Natural-Bright-Matte focusing screen see to it the K-r’s viewfinder offers a bright, clear subject effigy at 0.85X exposure and with a 96% field of view. The viewfinder offers splendid visibility even in bright outdoor emplacements and provides delay-free, real-time display of the subject’s image. This is helpful when shutter release timing is critical such as in sports photography. The in-focus point is indicated as a red point in the viewfinder for at-a-glance confirmation.

Large, easy-to-view 3-inch LCD monitor with wide-view design
The K-r features a large, high-resolution color LCD monitor with approximately 921,000 dots and it is wide-view design assures a clear view of the monitor effigy from approximately 170 degrees horizontally and vertically, making it peculiarly utile in low- and high-angle apps for the duration of Live View shooting.

Versatile dual-power-source design
In addition to the rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which allows the photographer to capture approximately 560 images with a single recharge,* the K-r may likewise be powered by four AA-size batteries using optional AA Battery Holder D-BH109.
_{* Based on the Pentax in-house testing conditions conforming to the CIPA standards, using a rechargeable D-LI109 Lithium-Ion Battery.}

Pentax-original Shake Reduction mechanism for sharp, blur-free images
The K-r features the Pentax-developed SR (Shake Reduction) mechanism, which efficaciously compensates the averse effect of camera shake by up to approximately four shutter steps. This innovative mechanism extends it is gains to almost all Pentax interchangeable lenses–even those designed for film-format cameras.* The K-r formulates sharp, blur-free images even beneath demanding conditions prone to camera shake, such as when using a telephoto lens, shooting in the dark without flash illumination, and shooting sunsets.
_{* Lenses compatible with this mechanism: Pentax K-, KA-, KAF-, KAF2- and KAF3-mount lenses; screw-mounted lenses (with an adapter); and 645- and 67-system lenses (with an adapter). Some functions may not be available with sure lenses.}

Innovative image-processing functions to invent distinctive photographic expressions
(1) Custom Image function for distinctive finishing touches The K-r features the Custom Image function to concede users to select a desired finishing touch for a queer effigy with a choice of nine habit effigy modes including Bleach Bypass, which is designed to give rise to a dramatic visual effect used in motion pictures.
(2) Versatile Digital Filter function The K-r’s Digital Filter function allows users to procedure recorded images in a assortment of originative ways and fabricate highly originative visual expressions–without a computer. Users may choose from 18 filters, including a new Starburst, Sketch and Posterization and may now employ filter upon filter, one after another, to an effigy for more originative results.
(3) Cross Process mode with three options The K-r features the distinguishable Cross Process mode that mechanically shifts photographic parameters for each exposure to develop eye-catching images with dramatic colors (as with photographs treated with the cross process* in film photography). In addition to “Random”, where the results are unpredictable until the effigy has been processed, users now have two new options: “Preset” with three dissimilar sets of preset parameters; and “Favorite” with user-input parameters.
_{*A film development technique that uses unconventional film development to construct a distinctive finish with dramatic, stylized colors.}
(4) Improved High Dynamic Range function The K-r features the High Dynamic Range function to construct one composite effigy with an extra-wide gradation range from three images with dissimilar exposures without a computer. Users may choose from Auto, Standard and Expanded (at three levels) modes to accommodate dissimilar originative intentions.

Auto Align function
Allows use even with handheld shooting.

High-speed infrared data transmission system
The K-r is the original Pentax digital SLR camera equipped with the IrSimple high-speed infrared selective information transmission system, which allows users to transfer effigy selective information to IrSimple-compatible digital appliances and post their K-r images on the web thru a cellular phone. This likewise allows users to interchange effigy selective information among two K-r cameras and play a simple match game using effigy Exif selective information (such as aperture or shutter-speed values) to judge images and offer proficiencies and suggestions for better images.

High-quality, HDTV-proportion movie recording at 1280 x 720 pixels and at 25 frames per second
The K-r provides a movie-recording function,* which captures beautiful, true-to-life movie clips in 16:9 high-definition TV proportions (1280 x 720 pixels) at a frame rate of 25 frames per second. This extends galore gains of high-quality SLR photography to the world of movie shooting: For example, users may reduce the depth of field to make a subject stand out, or use dissimilar interchangeable lenses to develop distinctive visual effects. The K-r also assures a dandier possibleness of visual making something publicly available in movies–either through the application of digital filters, such as Toy Camera and Retro, to add specific visual effects for the duration of shooting, or through the use of respective movie-editing functions after shooting.
_{*When the Pentax K-r’s AV output terminal is used, movie clips are output at normal resolution. The data will have to be transposed to a PC for the playback of movie clips at high-definition TV proportions (1280 x 720 pixels).}

Additional Features

User-friendly layout of necessary control buttons and levers, all positioned on the camera’s grip side for quick, effortless access by the photographer’s right hand.
Auto Picture mode, for effortless, automatic selection of the most suitable shooting mode, even for the duration of Live View shooting.
Versatile white remainder control, featuring a new CTE mode designed to emphasize the dominant color constituents of the captured images which works best with scenes such as sunset.
Automatic compensation of distortion and lateral chromatic aberration (available only with DA-,DFA- and FA Limited-series lenses).
Pentax Digital Camera Utility 4 software package, with RAW-data processing and browser applications.

Most helpful customer reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful.
Great camera
By goaliefight
After extensive research, I bought this camera as my first DSLR. This camera is great. I could go on and on, but I’ll just say that I am very happy with this purchase. It takes great pictures and is easy to use.

I would also like to point out that Pentax technical support is amazing. They are not just a bunch of yahoos in a call center reading off of the screen. They employ their own call center staff and have offices in North America so you won’t run into the language barrier that many other electronics manufacturers have.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
I love this camera!
By Kevin B. Tripp
I bought this camera about three weeks ago and it has blown past my expectations! Out of the box, it just feels good in my hand. The pictures taken with the 18-55mm and older 80-320mm were sharp and well exposed. Even an old Sima soft-focus lens that I’ve had for 30 years works perfectly. It’s too bad that Pentax doesn’t advertise it’s cameras because this is a gem!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Great DSLR at a great price!!
By Shelley Johnson
I’ve had this camera for about a year and I have no complaints. I am able to take professional looking pictures without knowing much about SLR Cameras. This camera is also very well made, heavy and expensive looking. Everywhere I go I get compliments on this camera and people with more expensive cameras want to look at it and compare the features. Most of the time they walk away knowing that they spent way too much for their camera. I had a film Pentax SLR for years and loved it, so this digital SLR was a perfect upgrade for me and I was able to use my lenses from my film camera with no problems. This camera will even take video which is a nice feature to have on a DSLR. I take thousands of pictures and do not baby my camera at all and this one has held up nicely with no problems. My 8 year old and 15 year old use this camera often and without any problems. I love the white body on the camera and get many compliments on it, not to mention that I can spot my camera easily when it is left on a table with other cameras at karate class or in my child’s classroom. The high speed continuous mode is wonderful for sporting events and I have been able to capture a lot of perfect shots with this camera because it is so dependable and easy to use!

See all 9 customer reviews…

Pentax K R Digital Slr Camera With 18 55mm Photo

Pentax K R Digital Slr Camera With 18 55mm Picture

Pentax K R Digital Slr Camera With 18 55mm Photo

Pentax K R Digital Slr Camera With 18 55mm Image

Pentax K R Digital Slr Camera With 18 55mm Picture

Pentax K R Digital Slr Camera With 18 55mm Pic