Photocritic photography blog

You know it’s a special day when Canon drag me out to attend a press launch.

This time around, it was more than worth it - as a long-time Canon user, I’m rather excited about the new top-of-the-shelf from the Nipponese photography powerhouse!

The Canon 1Ds mark III has been a long time coming, but hell, this time, they’ve really outdone themselves. Read the rest of the article »

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered that my trusty Canon Digital Elph S500 had gone walkies. “What?” I hear you ask, “Isn’t this guy supposed to be a proper photographer? What the hell is he doing with a compact camera?”. The answer to that, really, is quite simple: I often find myself in situations where carrying a full-size camera around would be uncomfortable, unnecessary, or even downright dangerous. As such, I decided to buy the then-top-of-the-line Canon compact camera.

Interestingly enough, in this round of research, I discovered that yes, if I wanted a shit-hot digital compact, I needed to shell out some serious dosh. I ended up paying (Yes! Paying! Obviously, the camera manufacturers haven’t noticed Photocritic well enough to send me free cameras yet. The scoundrels!) £300 for what is undoubtedly the best compact camera I’ve ever used: the 10 megapixel Canon Digital Ixus 900 Ti. It’s got lots of pixels, a battery that lasts and lasts, an amazing screen, and a body of titanium, so it can take the next few years of abuse.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered on the T3 website that digital SLR packages have dropped to under £300! Read the rest of the article »

I’m a bit of a Canon kid. I admit it. So when Canon launched their new flagship camera, the Canon 1D mk3, I decided I had to do a bit of a news coverage round-up.

Canon tonight launched what it calls — and really is — the world’s fastest digital SLR (D-SLR) camera, the 1D Mark III. Based upon the current 1D Mark II and the 1D before it, the new Mark III brings a host of new features. The camera will be Canon’s flagship high-speed D-SLR, suitable for sports and types of photography that requires fast shooting speeds. Read the rest of the article »

Mobile telephones start having better and better phones - most of them are currently between two and three megapixels, and the vast bulk of them even have digital zooms on them. But what about optical zoom? Well, not a lot of that, yet…

At first, I shunned cell phone cameras, but after I bought a decent-quality Sony Ericsson with a 2mpx camera, I’ve actually used it quite a few times. Quality still leaves something to be desired, but some times it’s better to have a bad photo than not to have a photo at all.

Now, it seeems as if the accessory companies are warming up to the idea of camera phones, with a series of telephoto lens attachments for cell phones. Tele-Phone, meet Tele-Photo… Read the rest of the article »

Blah-blah-Photocritic doesn’t write about products-blah-blah-whatever. I’m excited about the launch of the new Nikon D40, and I’m a self-professed Canon man, so god knows you should be excited too!

The D40 is the newest, most inexpensive member of Nikon’s entry-level digital SRL range, announced only a few days ago. To reduce cost, some features of the D50 have been simplified to give a suggested retail price of only US$600 with the 18-55mm G-II kit lens. Read the rest of the article »

Pentax seem to have been relegated to ‘the kid who keeps trying’ behind the furious innovation and stone-hard competition between Canon and Nikon. You can’t really blame them for keeping at it, though: The market is huge, and added variety is always welcome.

Time will show if they can make a dent in the vast domination by the Big Two, but with 10 megapixels, built-in optical image stabiliser, automatic dust remover, and high build-quality, it seems as if they might have a shot.

Video and more info below… Read the rest of the article »