Today we got more snow. I went skiing, spent 1027 kcal in 1.5 hours, and took some photographs with the LX3. This time I mostly used flash to catch some of the falling snowflakes.
I can't avoid commenting the new camera from Samsung, known either as EX1 or TL500. (It is interesting the EX1 reads LX3 upside down.)
The specification are impressive: a f/1.8...2.4 lens (24 to 72 mm equiv.), manual controls, 1/1.7 inch sensor (apparently the same as in the Canon S90), 3 inch 614k AMOLED swivel screen, and a lot of other features.
But there are also many questions. The first impressions so far have been positive, but I'm not sure those writing them are knowledgeable enough so that they know what to look for.
For example, does the camera allow manual focus in addition to automatic focus modes? Can you save custom settings as you can with the LX3? Are the control knobs robust enough so that they are not turned by mistake? What about the lens - is it sharp enough at the corners at 24 mm and f/1.8? Also handling: how fast the camera focuses, what about shutter lag, etc. Further, are the jpegs from the camera "overcooked" (as is usual), and thus is RAW necessary to get competent images. On the LX3 I haven't used RAW at all.
Well, I guess we just have to wait and see. I'm afraid that the Samsung EX1 / TL500 is more of a high-spec toy that a serious tool for photography. I hope I'm mistaken.
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4 comments:
"It is interesting the EX1 reads LX3 upside down"
That's a very amusing observation!
I think some marketing people made a bit of a joke there.
What I can't understand is those camera makes which use different naming schemes for different markets. Can you get any more confusing?
Yeah, Canon is the worst with their three different numbering schemes.
I have to say the S90 sounds like nice camera though (not that I'd get one, if I were spending big money on a camera I'd probably go for DSLR or some fancy analogue stuff), and the 1.8-2.4 lens just sounds like an excellent idea for the digital market which frequently lacks nice optics.
Yes, the sensor in the S90 seems to be competent, although at 1/1.7 inch it is slightly smaller that on the LX3 and of course much smaller that even on micro 4/3 cameras.
I don't know about Samsung optics, but I guess they should be able to match the LX3 optics.
But whether the EX1/TL500 is as durable, that is hard to say. I have currently taken more than 80,000 photographs with my LX3.
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