Canon Powershot A620 Review

Specifications :

Manufacturers specifications :

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&tabact=ModelFeaturesTabAct&fcategoryid=145&modelid=12072&pageno=6

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Features

High-performance, feature-rich 7.1 Megapixel digital camera with a long 4x Optical Zoom

Large 2.0 inch Vari-Angle LCD screen and optical viewfinder for easy on-camera viewing

Steady grip for better handling and Mode Dial for easy access to 20 Shooting Modes, including 8 Special Scene Modes

DIGIC II Image Processor for even faster processing speed, crisp vibrant colors and excellent image quality

Fully loaded with Movie Mode recording up to 60 fps (320 x 240) and a USB 2.0 Hi-Speed interface for fast downloads

Compatible with a complete range of optional accessories, including supplementary lenses and an auxiliary flash unit

Print/Share Button for easy direct printing and downloading plus ID Photo Print and Movie Print with Canon CP and SELPHY Photo Printers

This is the product released in the thrid quarter of 2005.

The Canon PowerShot A620 has it all: full manual exposure controls; auto, program, and scene modes for snapshooting; and a high-quality video mode--there's something for every photographer and every shooting situation. You can even choose a shooting mode that fits your mood. After all, some days you might just want to point and shoot; other days, you might feel more enthused about manual controls.While you won't find as many advanced features as on some more sophisticated cameras, the Canon PowerShot A620 provides enough to keep most control-happy photographers satisfied. They include manual white balance, low sharpening, sepia and black-and-white effects, three metering options, and settings for vivid and neutral color.We particularly like two features: the camera's Flexizone focusing option and the ability to layer a grid over the LCD to line up horizons and other straight edges. The Flexizone option lets you manually move the focus point so that your off-center subjects come out sharp. Another helpful feature is Safety Shift, which functions in aperture-priority or shutter mode and selects the proper aperture or shutter-speed setting if your choice doesn't quite work out. For instance, if your selected shutter speed requires an aperture wider than the PowerShot A620 can produce, the camera compensates to prevent an underexposed shot. You can also save your settings so that you don't have to dig around the setup menu to prevent the camera from resetting everything when it powers down.On the easy-to-use side, the camera offers a point-and-shoot automatic mode, as well as a program mode that allows you to adjust pretty much everything except the aperture and shutter speed. Of course, the scene modes make shooting easy by automatically choosing the best settings for a particular type of subject. To use them, you select standard modes such as Portrait and Landscape via the mode dial; a special scene-mode setting then makes other options available via the menu system. These include Kids And Pets, Foliage, Fireworks, Snow, Beach, and even an Underwater setting for use with Canon's underwater housing, which is good to a depth of 130 feet. Other optional accessories include wide, telephoto, and macro add-on lenses as well as a higher-powered flash.Canon has upped the video ante with this camera: you can now shoot 30fps VGA movies with sound up to 1GB.

Conclusion - Pros

Good resolution, very clean results
Very natural color
Good edge-to-edge sharpness
Useful 35-140mm equiv. 4x zoom lens with decent F2.8-4.1 max aperture range
Reliable - and much faster - focus
Sophisticated and comprehensive range of features and controls
Excellent build quality for a budget camera
Very little purple fringing
Excellent flash exposures and color
Bright, clear vari-angle screen
Excellent battery life from 4x NiMH batteries
Very smooth ISO 50 & 100 results
Good balance of noise reduction and detail retention at ISO 400
Excellent macro mode
Optional add-on lenses, filters and slave flash
Excellent value for money

Cons

Clipped highlights and occasional exposure problems in bright, contrasty conditions
Focusing at tele end in low light can hunt
Zoom is not very smooth - only 7 steps from wide to tele
No ISO button
Images slightly soft, but they sharpen up well in post-processing

Size of the camera

Not a rechargable battery

Panasonic PV-GS320 Review

Panasonic PV-GS320 Review

Panasonic PV-GS320 Review || Panaosnic NV-GS320 Review

The difference between PV and NV is PV series belongs to US and NV to Europe.

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I bought this camcorder a month back and very happy with my purchase....Before buying it i did research for almost a month on whether to go for Hard Disk or Mini DV. I didn’t even think of DVD camcorders bcoz of less time recording and need to replace DVD's frequently.

Along with that i have budget constraints.....where I need to get everything below 500$.

Keeping all these in mind i need to choose a good camcorder which will fulfill my purpose with out losing image quality.

I looked at many models of mini dv camcorder which my friends have and i was not satisfied with the quality of the movie they provided with 1CCD.
So i decided to go for a 3CCD but very few models are having that option. One of them is Panasonic PV-GS 320.
I researched a lot more on the on the net about the reviews and i got a clear review at the following site....

Almost 50% of my knowledge came from this blog
http://typethinker.blogspot.com/2007/04/panasonic-nv-gs320-review.html
You have sections which will explain very clear about each and every topic about the camcorder.

I want to go with some more details about the camcorder which were not explained in the above blog and my experience about the camcorder.

Detail Specs of Panasonic PV-GS320
http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/vModelDetail?surfModel=PV-GS320&catalogId=13401&cachePartner=7000000000000005702&modelNo=PV-GS320&itemId=105042&catGroupId=25002&surfCategory=Digital+Camcorders&cacheProgram=11002&storeId=15001&displayTab=S

PROS : Very good quality of video, OIS, Manual Iris

CONS : No Microphone input, not impressed in low light (Magicpix), All interfaces behind the battery

I bought the camcorder from Amazon at 407$ along with 5 pack mini dv and 1 head cleaning cassette. The total cost of my purchase is around 430$.

Since i read on the reviews regarding the battery backup ( Its only around 30 mins) i ordered another battery from http://www.fatgadgets.com/ for 20$ including shipping. Name of the battery is DU21 (Panasonic). I ordered on Monday and received on Friday. Luckily i received the battery before my trip as i was planning to start on Saturday morning.

Along with that i bought a camcorder bag for 30$(including shipping) from http://www.provantage.com/ and the name of the bag is Case LogicSLRC-2. I ordered it on Sunday and received by Thursday. It bought this bcoz i want a single bag where i can carry my digital camera and camcorder and lenses. This bag completely fulfills my purpose.

Don’t forget to buy IEEE 4pin-4pin connector - 3 Ft. I bought it from http://www.firefold.com/ for 5$ including shipping.

Iam mentioning all these things in this blog bcoz i searched a lot for the good accessories at low cost and i want to make it easy for you guys.

Performance of the Camcorder:

Very impressed by the PV-GS320's optical image stabilization. The image was steady when zoomed at 10x. As the specs mentioned about 10X optical zoom you can zoom till 25X by losing minimum video clarity. The Digital zoom 700x upto me is not useful bcoz when you zoom at half of its digital zoom capacity its looks grainy. Auto focus was good at this level of camera but not best.

Panasonic does include a useful built-in wind filter and the built-in stereo mic does have an audio-zoom feature.

Bcoz of 3 CCD you the image quality look great and you can see all the colors in the video which you can see by eye.

All the colors produced are bright, crisp, clear and sharp.

Iam not impressed for the quality of the video it produced in low light. The Magicpix mode is supposed to work in very low light mode which helps a bit but it also yields a choppy look. In the manual focus when you select the Night mode, it will record the video as you see with your eye. Even if you use the Magicpix in nigh mode it will not help to provide good videos.

Still images can be captured in both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios in sizes as large as 2,048x1,512 pixels. While certainly not as sharp as you'd get from a dedicated still camera, we were impressed with the shots we captured, which were suitable for uncropped 4x6-inch snapshots, though close inspection will reveal noise and plentiful image artifacts. However, given that there's no built-in flash, don't expect to get decent still images if you don't have plenty of light.

All the controls are on the right hand side and navigated thru a single Joy stick. It needs a learning curve and after that it will be very easy to navigate.

I have taken videos in the aquarium and the colors and clarity it produced was amazing. All my friends who were not impressed by my decision of Panasonic camcorder are now asking copy of the video i have taken.

After converting the video from Mini DV to DVD..even in my 27 inch TV the clarity was amazing.

I haven’t tested on Wide Screen and High Def TV. Once i check on them then i will edit the post again with comments. I will upload some of the sample videos for you guys to have a look at the videos its produced.

As i said earlier the battery is very weak and you need an extra battery for the for backup. The battery which i bought came for 1 complete cassette. Means i started using my camcorder from Morning by turning on and off, zooming in and out, trying different options. After doing all that the battery lasted for almost 3 hrs.


Now coming to the main part.. i.e converting the video from Mini DV to DVD. Many people says that its very difficult to convert..Yes it is..if you don’t use good s/w. I have checked the s/w that Panasonic has provided..it first converts the Mini DV into AVI which is a huge file. Upto my knowledge one 60mins cassette needs 20GB. And then after that you need to convert into MPEG using conversion option.


This is a huge process..I agree but if you have good s/w like Cyberlink Power Director and Ulead s/w this process is very easy. Attach your camcorder to laptop and the s/w recognizes the device..click the record button. That’s it... In 60 mins your high quality mpeg video is ready for burning directly.

To complete the video conversion in 60 mins your recording should not be stopped at any place. I.e if you record from starting to ending with out breaks then the conversion will be done in 60 mins (i.e length of recording) . But if you break your recording then the conversion s/w also makes the video into parts, means you need to click on record button every time it stops. It makes you to recording in parts.

I used Cyber link Power Director Trail version for sample conversion...You can also try it and highly recommendable.

If you don't like bothering with fancy controls but can appreciate the value of good image quality, then the Panasonic PV-GS320 may be just the camcorder for you. It does a great job of capturing high-quality video in auto mode and provides just enough manual control to satisfy the needs of beginners and some advanced amateurs.

Some sample videos....

You can download the sample high quality videos from the following link...

http://rapidshare.com/files/52684156/Panasonic_Video_Clips.zip

You migh see some quality loss due to conversion....

HP Pavilion dv6436nr Review

I bought this laptop for $799 at best buy on July 4Th.



Specs of Laptop :

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01061069&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3439474&os=2093%E2%8C%A9=en

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I searched all over Internet for the reviews but found none...So i wanted to write a detail review after using it for almost 2 months.

1) Its AMD Turion with 1.8 GHz which is equal to Intel Dual Core2 1.66 GHz. You can get the stats from AMD website or from this website

http://technology.domain4fun.info/IntelCore2DuoVsAMDX2.html

2)It has 2 GB ram with 533MHz speed and as far as i tested the Graphic Card is of 32MB dedicated and it uses 559MB of RAM for graphics when needed. So it’s not for Good Graphic Game players...But i played older games like NFS-II and it worked perfectly.

Pros :
Best Design in the laptops, Good Display, Touch Buttons, Best sound clarity, Inbuilt webcam and mic, Almost all the ports and Interfaces are available, Has remote which will work with Windows Media Center using Infrared.

Cons:
Laptop heats faster, you can listen to the inbuilt fan sound little bit load when it runs, No Blue tooth.

Performance:
Windows vista with this laptop is good but still long way to go since most of the applications and devices are not compatible.If you want windows XP you need to format and load windows XP for which, it’s very hard to find the drivers for the laptop hardware. HP does not support for Windows XP drivers since it came with Vista.To experience a real dual core performance you need to stick to Windows Vista. Up to me Windows XP didn’t provide good performance of dual core after installing some patches from Microsoft and AMD. So better stick to Vista.

Hard drive comes with 160GB. Don’t expect all the 160 GB space for you. ;-) . Around 9 GB is used for HP backup, Vista occupies around 20 GB and some of the space is occupied by HP system files. So when you open the laptop you will have a SOLID 120 GB free space.

Sound clarity is one of the best in its class. This comes with Altec Lansing speakers and you will have loud and clarity sound. Don’t expect BASS from the small speakers. Overall great for laptops.

Battery comes with this is not powerful and it withholds the batter for 1hr30mins when i watched the movie.Battery time depends on the type of applications and the load on laptop.

I have tested the laptop for dual core performance...
I Burned DVD, Converted a sample video from one format to other and watched movie on laptop at same time. DVD burning took a couple of minutes more than expected.
t passed the dual core test with out any problems...Iam overall satisfied with the purchase for price i bought…

Only problem is it gets heat fast. Heat doesn’t create any problem until you start playing games. You can always over come the heat by using laptop cooling pads.

Overall this laptop is good for Home users and College Students.
Not for Graphic Game players.

P.S.: Don’t forget to create to backup discs when you open the laptop for first time.It takes 2 DVD’s to take backup but it will be useful when some thing goes wrong to restore the laptop to factory settings.