Nikon 1 series gets a really fast prime

One of the hardest parts of making an interchangeable-lens camera series attractive to people who use more than just the two basic slow zooms is the process of ramping up the lens selection. It's been a year and a half since the company announced its Nikon 1 series, and Nikon is still slowly filling out its lineup with the fixed focal-length lenses that attract the more advanced users. As of now, the company only offers eight lenses, six of which are pretty slow zooms. The latest addition, a 32mm f1.2 (with an equivalent angle of view to 86mm … Read more

Olympus revisits its most retro PEN camera

Normally a two-year product cycle isn't that much for a camera targeted at advanced photographers. But in a field where technology mutates as quickly as it does for advanced interchangeable-lens cameras, that's a long time. So at 1.5 years since the E-P3, it feels like it's taken just a little too long for the PEN E-P5's debut, especially given the relatively catch-up feature set of the new model.

Not that there's anything wrong with the updates in the E-P5; there's plenty here that probably makes it a better camera. The most noticeable is … Read more

Sony joins the 50x club with the HX300

For a lot of people, the only thing that makes a point-and-shoot better than a smartphone for taking pictures is a zoom lens, and for many of those people, the more zoom range, the better.

That's how we end up with the Sony Cyber-shot HX300 and its 50x f2.8-6.3 24-1200mm lens. It's the same range found on the Canon PowerShot SX50 HS and the Fujifilm FinePix SL1000, but the Sony's apertures are wider at both ends (though just marginally more so than the SL1000's), making it a bit better in low light than the … Read more

Advanced photographers on a budget should watch the Ricoh GR

With as-good -- if not better -- specs than the Nikon Coolpix A at a significantly lower price of about $800, the Ricoh GR APS-C compact has the potential to be a really attractive buy for advanced photographers. At the very least, I think it could redefine what we expect from an enthusiast compact; those sub-1-inch sensors just aren't cutting it anymore competitively for the pixel-peeping crowd.

Ricoh's betting on that, discontinuing all its smaller-sensored GR Digital models and consolidating them into a single GR model on a two-year product cycle. As is typical for the company, the … Read more

Hands on: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF6

Editors' note: The GF6 has not yet been announced in the U.S. This hands-on preview is courtesy of our sister site CNET Asia. The camera was subsequently announced in the US at a price of $599.99 for the 14-42mm standard zoom kit, and is expected to ship in June.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF6 comes as an update to the DMC-GF5. The new camera features a chunkier build and a sleek metallic design. With this iteration, Panasonic has added a few notable improvements such as wireless connectivity, a 180-degree tilting screen and a mode dial. This 16-megapixel interchangeable lens … Read more

Fujifilm XP200, S8400W adds more Wi-Fi to FinePix line

Continuing to focus on its pockets of growth for point-and-shoots, Fujifilm announced today two new FinePix models, the XP200 and S8400W.

An update to 2012's rugged XP170, the XP200 gets better waterproofing, now able to shoot down to 50 feet, and is still shockproof to about 6.6 feet, freezeproof to 14 degrees Fahrenheit, and dustproof. It has a redesigned battery door with a dial-locking mechanism to help keep the seal tighter than simple sliding locks.

Other improvements include a 16-megapixel CMOS sensor, a 3-inch, 920K-dot-resolution LCD, and a new burst-shooting button for capturing shots at up to 10 … Read more

Canon EOS Rebel T5i: T4i redux

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you: the only significant difference between the now-discontinued Canon EOS Rebel T4i and its replacement, the T5i, is the price and the kit lens options. There are some small enhancements, including a new finish; 360-degree rotation mode dial plus the addition of scene mode; a return of digital zoom during movie recording (which had disappeared in the T4i "upgrade" from the T3i); and real-time preview of creative filters in Live View. But ultimately, it's the same camera.

The new model rolls out in conjunction with a new STM version of the … Read more

Canon PowerShot SX280 HS highlight is low-light

For the PowerShot SX280 HS, Canon's new top compact megazoom, it's all about the processor.

Compared with its predecessor, the SX260 HS, the SX280 shares the same 20x, f3.5-6.8, 25-500mm lens and 12-megapixel backside-illuminated (BSI) CMOS sensor.

Joining them, however, is an all-new Digic 6 image processor. For low-light shooters, this is an important update, as it allows for less noise in pictures taken at higher ISOs. How much less? Canon claims the noise at ISO 1600 on the SX280 is equivalent to what you'd get at ISO 400 with the SX260.

The new processor … Read more

The littlest Rebel

About 6.5 years ago, Olympus announced the E-Volt E-410, which at that point became the smallest dSLR ever. In the years since, I don't remember anybody attempting to match it for size. But given that it used a Four Thirds-size sensor -- smaller than the traditional APS-C size sensor that's used by consumer dSLRs -- that was pretty unsurprising. Now Canon's rolling out its EOS Rebel SL1, which manages to outdo the E-410 for lightness and compactness, at least in two dimensions (the E-410 was thinner), becoming the smallest dSLR available. It takes Canon's standard … Read more