canon powershot G5 digital camera review

Big and inelegant, the Canon PowerShot G5 is a powerhouse camera with all the bells and whistles. And it takes very good shots.

Underneath its utilitarian exterior is almost every function serious photographers need, including full manual control, bracketing options, RAW file saves, numerous white balance presets, time-lapse shots, and even a wireless remote control. It's also equipped with an intelligent hot shoe, a control panel, and a fully articulated LCD viewfinder.

Canon G5 Specifications

• The 5.0 Mpixel Canon PowerShot G5 camera


• 32MB CompactFlash card


• BP-511 Li-ion rechargeable battery


• AC Adapter / battery charger


• Neck strap


• Lens cap w/strap


• Wireless remote control


• USB cable


• A/V cable


• CD-ROM featuring Canon Digital Camera Solutions, ArcSoft Camera Suite, and drivers


• 209 page camera manual + software manual (both printed)

While a 32MB card is larger than you'll get with some other 5 Megapixel cameras, it's really just a starter card. I highly recommend getting something much larger -- 256MB is my recommendation. I've long been a fan of the 1GB IBM Microdrive, and that is supported by the G5, but keep in mind that it puts extra strain on the battery. There are plenty of "regular" 1GB CompactFlash cards out there, so you may want one of those instead.

The G5 uses the same BP-511 Li-ion battery as its predecessor. The battery has a very respectable 8.1 Watt/hours of power. Here's a look at battery life on the G5 and the competition:

Nikon doesn't publish the same kind of information about battery life as Sony and Canon, so I can't put any CP5400 data in the chart, aside from the power rating. Nikon does say that you can use the camera for 110 minutes with 100% LCD use. My guess is that the 5400 lies somewhere between the V1 and the G5.

The downside of proprietary batteries like the BP-511 battery is the cost and the fact that you can't use standard batteries (as you can with AA-based cameras) if you're in a bind. That's why I personally prefer cameras that use AA batteries.

When it's time to recharge, you just plug the included AC adapter into the G5. This same AC adapter can be used to power the camera in the studio, or when you're transferring photos to your computer. It takes 80 minutes to bring the battery back to 90% capacity, and then 2 more hours to fill it to 100%.

If you like accessories, then you'll love the G5. In the lens department, you can purchase the WC-DC58N wide-angle converter to shorten the focal length to 24.5 mm, or the TC-DC58N tele converter to bring the zoom up to 245 mm. A 58 mm close-up lens is also available. Note that the LA-DC58B conversion lens adapter is required in order to use any of these.

The G5 is compatible not only with Canon's EX-series Speedlites, but also their Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX and Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX ($650).

Other accessories include a soft carrying case and dual battery charger w/car power adapter .

The G5 can also print directly to all of Canon's Card Photo Printers, as well as any of their Bubble Jet printers that support the direct print function.

Obviously G5 image quality is a critical factor. There are numerous sites on the web that offer test images, particularly useful when several cameras are compared. I find that I can get good prints at 8x10 on an Epson 2200, “good” meaning that they rival good lab or darkroom prints. I don’t get the quality from these prints that I do with a 4000dpi scan from a 6x7 negative, but that’s expected. Beyond 8x10, there can be noticeable image deterioration in the prints.

The most serious problem with the images that I have taken is a small amount of chromatic aberration, seen as purple “fringing” on some images. This takes quite a bit of time to correct in Photoshop and is annoying when it shows. It’s not an issue on very many images, it seems to happen with bright highlights. This is the one serious issue with the resulting image quality produced from the camera – otherwise, it’s sharp and has good color characteristics and contrast. Noise level is an issue at ISO 400, but can be smoothed with some of the software that’s available.

The flip-out-and-around LCD screen completely changes the way one shoots. Except for a few large and somewhat cumbersome (compared to the G5) medium-format cameras, there is nothing being made today that allows waist-level shooting. With the screen out, it is very easy to shoot at waist level. If it’s important to shoot without being noticed, the flip-out screen makes this very easy. It also simplifies shooting at ground level, something that I like to do, and which can now be done on the knees instead of prone on the ground.

The G5 hasn’t been available long, and although I bought it within a few days of its availability, this still doesn’t constitute a “long term” test that really determines how comfortable a camera is to work with and how close the results are to what the photographer wants. For my kind of shooting and what I want it to do, it works well. Despite the shutter lag and the finder, it’s excellent for street shooting because of the ability to compose with the camera at a lower level. Except for the chromatic aberration, the image quality is excellent. It’s easy to control the camera.

Do I recommend it? In its class, there are specific choices that have to be made, such as the tradeoff between lens speed and focal length. It can certainly do the job, but it definitely won't be the last camera in this class. If I had my way, I'd put a fixed 35mm (equivalent) lens on it, shorten the shutter lag, and put in a brightline finder. Then I'd have the Hexar I've used so much, but digital. Otherwise, Canon has done a good job putting together a camera that does what I want it to do.

canon powershot s60 camera review

The Canon PowerShot S60 is the replacement to last year's popular PowerShot S50 model. Just by looking at the model number, you'd think that Canon just stuffed a 6 Megapixel sensor into the same old camera, as some other manufacturers have done. That's not the case here -- the S60 is a 5 Megapixel camera, just like its predecessor. Here's a list comparing the two cameras:

The Canon PowerShot S60 is a nice camera for those looking for a high resolution camera with a wide-angle lens, full manual controls, and a fairly compact body. Most compact digicams have lenses that start at 35 - 39 mm, but the S60's lens starts at 28 mm -- great for indoor shots.

What's in the Box?

The PowerShot S60 has an excellent bundle. Inside the box, you'll find:

• The 5.0 effective Megapixel Canon PowerShot S60 camera


• 32MB CompactFlash card


• NP-2LH lithium-ion battery


• Battery charger


• Wrist strap


• USB cable


• A/V cable


• CD-ROM featuring Canon Digital Camera Solutions, ArcSoft Camera Suite, and drivers


• Camera manual + software manual (both printed)

Canon includes a 32MB CompactFlash card with the camera, which is a good starting point, but you'll want a larger card right away. I'd suggest 256MB as a good place to start. The included card is marked as "high speed", and from my own experiences I think it would be considered 8X. The S60 can use Type I or Type II cards, including the Microdrive, and it supports the FAT32 format for cards larger than 2GB.

The S60 uses a higher capacity version of the NB-2L battery that was used by the S50 -- this one's known as the NB-2LH. Where the old battery had 4.2 Wh of energy, the new battery has 5.3 Wh -- a 25% improvement. Canon estimates that you can take about 395 photos with 50% LCD use (which is up from 335 on the S50), or spend 3.5 hours in playback mode (compare with 3 hours on the S50).

My usual complaints about proprietary batteries apply here. They're expensive , and you can't put in a set of alkalines to get you through the rest of the day like you could with an AA-based camera.

When it's time to recharge, just drop the battery into the included charger. This is my favorite style of charger -- it plugs right into the wall (yes, I know some don't like this).Canon nb-2lh battery is powerful rechargerable battery.It takes about ninety minutes to fully charge the battery.

A sliding metal cover protects the S60's lens and doubles as the power switch. It is pretty easy to accidentally bump the door and shut the camera off, though. As you can see, the camera is fairly wide.

Look and Feel

The PowerShot S60 has gotten a bit of a facelift since its predecessor. Let's take a look:

On the front of the S60, things have been moved around since the S50, and there's a brand new lens too. The differences that matter more in terms of usability can be found on the back. For example, the annoying four-way controller that's been on the S-series for years is gone. More on all this below.

The S60 is a midsize camera, fitting in somewhere between the A75 and G3 in terms of size. It's not Digital ELPH size -- not even close. Still, you'll find that it fits in most of your pockets. The camera is made almost entirely of metal, and it feels very solid. The important controls are easy to reach, and the camera is easier to operate than its predecessor.

The dimensions of the S60 are 114.0 x 56.5 x 38.8 mm / 4.5 x 2.2 x 1.5 inches (W x H x D, excluding protrusions), and it weighs 230 grams / 8.1 ounces empty. The numbers for the S50 were 4.4 x 2.3 x 1.7 inches and 260 grams, respectively.

You'll find out how Canon got the S60 to "thin down" in our tour, which starts now!

The PowerShot S60 has a totally new lens design, which is what allowed Canon to make the S60 thinner while adding more zoom power. This new lens uses something called "UA", which stands for ultra-high refractive index, aspherical (say that three times fast). Regardless of the technical explanation behind the name, the bottom line is that UA allowed for a compact lens covering 28 - 100 mm, instead of 35 - 105 mm like on the S50. The focal range of the lens in digital terms is 5.8 - 20.7 mm, and the maximum aperture is F2.8 - F5.3, with the latter being a bit slow. As I mentioned in the previous section, the camera supports 37 mm filters as well as a 2X teleconverter through the use of the conversion lens adapter.

To the upper-right of the lens is the built-in flash. The flash has a working range of 0.55 - 4.2 at wide-angle and 0.55 - 2.0 m at telephoto, a little worse than on the S50. You cannot attach an external flash to this camera.

Directly below the flash is the receiver for the optional remote control, plus the microphone. To the left of the flash (next to the optical viewfinder) is the AF-assist lamp, a useful feature which has been found on nearly all Canon cameras for years.

As always, I recommend a trip down to your local reseller to try out the PowerShot S60 and its competitors before you buy!

17 inch new apple macbook pro laptop review

For people who appreciate finer laptop accoutrements such as a backlit keyboard and a slot-fed DVD drive, Apple has crafted another tasty offering in the form of the 17-inch MacBook Pro and strong power apple macbook laptop battery. Sleek, powerful, and able to run Windows as well as the Mac operating system, the MacBook Pro makes a strong case for becoming anyone's ultimate notebook.


The MacBook Pro was introduced earlier this year with Intel's Core Duo processor, and now Apple's high-end laptop gets a boost to Intel's latest-and-greatest processor, the Core 2 Duo. Other than the updated CPU, the rest of the MacBook Pro remains largely the same, with appreciated bumps to the memory and the hard drive. There are two 15-inch versions that use either a 2.16GHz or a 2.33GHz CPU, as well as a 17-inch version with the 2.33GHz chip. Apple supplied us with the 2.33GHz 15-inch model, which has a base price of $2,499. Our review unit features memory and hard drive upgrades, which bring the price to $3,174. While the performance gains aren't game-changing, anyone who recently purchased a Core Duo MacBook Pro is doubtlessly gnashing their teeth right now, but this move to Core 2 Duo removes one of the last objections some buyers felt about plunking down for a Mac laptop.


Compared to the 15-inch Core Duo MacBook Pro, which had with a 2.4-GHz Core 2 Duo T7700 processor, the maximum 4GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, and nVidia's new top-of-the-line notebook graphics card, the nVidia GeForce 8600M GT, our $2949 test unit set new speed records (through 10/25/2007). The MacBook Pro outperformed the rest of the notebooks we tested, all of which claim Windows as their primary--nay, their only--operating system. We loaded Windows Vista Home Premium on the Apple notebook, and it snagged a WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 88. In games it achieved a blazing frame rate of 141 frames per second in Far Cry (with antialiasing turned off).In addition,17 inch apple macbook pro laptop have a strong power laptop battery.6400mAh,10.80v ,li-ion battery,



The MacBook Pro supplies you with two USB 2.0 ports, both FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 ports (previous models had only FireWire 400), and a slot-loading SuperDrive DVD burner. You won't find a media card reader, however, which has become an almost ubiquitous feature on Windows laptops. The Airport Extreme 802.11a/b/g wireless card and the built-in Bluetooth keep you connected.


At 6.6 pounds and just 1 inch thick, the MacBook Pro is the lightest 17-inch notebook available. But it has no memory card slots and only three USB ports, and it comes configured with an ExpressCard/34 slot instead of the more versatile ExpressCard/54 slot. Though it has Bluetooth and 802.11n Wi-Fi, built-in cellular broadband is not an option. On the other hand, video editors will be happy to have not one but two FireWire ports. Battery life was disappointing: Apple pegs it at 5.7 hours on one charge, but in our tests we got less than 2 hours, 45 minutes.




Nevertheless, the MacBook Pro is elegantly designed and remarkably mobile for a 17-inch notebook.