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The common wisdom has finally been turned on its head. For long, digital SLRs and prosumer super-zooms stopped shy of crossing price swords, but not any more with the launch of the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS and the EOS 1000D. On the one hand, the premium full-featured prosumer SX1 IS, and on the other, the ultra budget 1000D dSLR — how does each measure up? Let’s find out.
The SX1 IS is the first real worthy successor to the ultra-popular superzoom Canon S3 IS, with the S5 IS being more of an evolutionary upgrade. This time, the specs have been bumped up, and how! A massive 20x optical zoom — all the way from a wide-angle-friendly 28mm to a whopping 560mm — is clearly the headline news, with the Full HD 1920x1080 video far outclassing peers in its segment. And another first — it’s the first Canon to employ a faster CMOS sensor, giving it a faster continuous shooting speed and start-up time, among other benefits.
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Naturally these extra features push the price up somewhat. At a retail price of Rs 36,995, the SX1 IS is one of the most expensive non-SLR cameras on the market, and more importantly, more expensive than most entry-level digital SLRs. You’d well ask, is it worth the money?
For starters, it’s built like an SLR, a solid one at that. The net result is that it’s rather large and surprisingly heavy, measuring in 127.5 x 88.3 x 87.7 mm and weighing approximately 585gm. Amateurs looking to improve their photography will enjoy the full selection of manual exposure options, complemented by a capable shutter speed and aperture setting range. The placement of the buttons and dials is very friendly, and I was ready and using the camera rather comfortably within an hour of starting it up. My only complaint is with the scroll wheel around the D-pad, which is slow and fiddly, making things like changing the scene mode a hit-and-miss and rather arduous task.
Rounding out the back is a fully articulating 2.8-inch 230k-dot resolution LCD, which allows you to compose and shoot at the weirdest of angles — really handy for shooting above the head at crowded temples and public performances. It’s also useful when you’re using the camera for its much-bandied Full HD video which, for the record, is really very good. It can shoot in full 1920 x 1080 resolution at 30fps, with clip length limited to a little less than half an hour or 4GB file size. The movie and sound quality is excellent, certainly good enough for all your home movie needs. In many ways, it’s probably the closest that any still camera has come to matching the performance of a camcorder.
The camera itself performs well at low sensitivity settings, and focuses well in low light situations. It’s only when you take it beyond 400 ISO do you start facing major problems with image noise. For a camera at this price, this one point may well be the deciding factor for your purchase.
Then again, at 2 grand lighter, you could pick up Canon’s latest ultra-budget dSLR — the EOS 1000D, which makes me question the premium the SX1 IS is commanding. A 10.1 MP dSLR with a larger sensor and live LCD shooting vs the convenience of HD video capture? Certainly worth the thought if photography is your main aim, right?
Even for an ultra-budget model, the 1000D does more than justice to its lineage — it starts up almost instantly, and while its shooting performance is a shade slower than its slightly more expensive dSLR siblings, its continuous shooting speed of three frames a second is more than a match for other entry-level models such as the Nikon D60. Autofocus is also fast and accurate if you’re using the viewfinder to compose, but in live view mode, slows down considerably. Word to the wise — use the LCD to compose only when you have to. Where the EOS 1000D scores highly is in final image quality, and more so on image noise levels. Unlike the SX1 IS, high-ISO performance cannot be faulted, and even at the maximum 1600 ISO image quality is superb, with a high level of detail and only a little visible noise.
And while some may call it a stunted version of more capable entry-level dSLRs, I’ve found the 1000D to be surprisingly good for its price, and if photography is your chi, you could do no wrong with this one as your first SLR.
Quick Specs:
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Canon PowerShot SX1 IS
Imaging Processor: DIGIC 4 processor
Sensor: 10.0 megapixel CMOS sensor
Lens range: 0cm Macro, 28mm wide-angle, 20x super telephoto optical zoom lens with Optical Image Stabilizer
Hot shoe for Canon’s Speedlite EX series of flashes
Video: Full HD 1920 x 1080 recording with built-in HDMI connection
LCD: 2.8” widescreen vari-angle LCD with wide viewing angle
Rating: 7/10
Price: Rs 36,995
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Canon EOS 1000D
Sensor/Processor: 10.1 megapixel APS-C size CMOS sensor with DIGIC III imaging processor
Focusing/Metering: 7-point autofocus (AF), with 3 metering modes: Evaluative, Partial, Centre-weighted average
Burst shooting: 3 fps
LCD: 2.5” Live View with contrast based AF
Rating: 8/10
Price: Rs 34,995 for EOS 1000D Kit (includes EFS 18-55mm kit lens)
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URL:http://www.canon.co.in/productdisplay.asp?cat_id=33
Power fix
Forget the recent iPhone OS upgrade, this third party add-on fixes three flaws with your iPhone in one shot. And all with Apple’s blessings, no less! FastMac’s iV is an extended battery for the iPhone, claimed to give 24 hours of talk time, 72/21 hours of audio/video playback, and a incredible 750 hours of standby time. If that’s not enough, FastMac threw in a standard USB socket to charge any of your other gadgets, and added an LED lamp for the times you wish the iPhone had a flash (or a a flashlight, for that matter)! It even fits into a standard Apple Dock!
URL: http://fastmac.com/iv.php lPrice: $79.95
Magic touch
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Looking for a multi-format card reader with a difference? Try the Magic Cube All-in-One reader, which behaves a little like a Rubik’s cube, and supports upto 56 different card formats — microSD, SDHC, SD, xD, you name it, it covers it! Also included is the USB-to-mini-USB cable to allow fast transfers (upto 480Mb per second) of your photos!
URL: http://www.gizfever.com/product_info.php?products_id=708 lPrice: $9.99
