Focoro beta

The new upper-entry level—i.e. Canon Rebel competitor—from Pentax is the K-x, replacing the K200D in a line renaming process that has seen the lower K2000D become the K-m. The $550 K-x has a 12.4M APS-C CMOS chip and shares the newer Prime II engine with its bigger brother, the K-7. The K-x also includes in-camera lens correction, HDR and multiple exposure modes which—along with an orientation sensor—are absent in the lower-spec K-m. While the K-x marks a lot of checkboxes, reviews have criticised its auto-white balance for being unreliable, shake reduction for being ineffective, and raw format for minimal headroom for saving highlights.

While Leica has a line of point-and-shoot digitals that it cross-sells with Panasonic (and usually at small premium), the Leica X1 is the first point-and-shoot that feels like a Leica in many way. It is small, discrete, and is optimized for manual control. Rather than be concerned with such un-Lei…

When Leica introduced its first digital rangefinder in its venerable history, it came with an APS-C sized sensor. At the time, Leica (and others) said that a full-frame sensor in a rangefinder would not provide reasonable quality with wider lenses as the sensor's distance from the lens was too clos…

The latest Panasonic Micro Four Thirds camera is the DMC-GF1. Unlike its mini-SLR inspired predecessor, the DMC-G1, the DMC-GF1 shares a rangefinder-inspired appearance like the Olympus PEN E-P1. The DMC-GF1 is lighter (285g) than the PEN E-P1 and has an optional electronic viewfinder attachment which provides more accurate composing. The DMC-GF1 also has an excellent 20mm f/1.7 lens as a kit option which makes an excellent compact street system out of the box. The $900, 12MP DMC-GF1 maxes out at ISO 3200 (the PEN E-P1 has better low-light performance and goes to ISO 6400) and lacks the Olympus in-camera stabilization, instead relying on Panasonic image-stabilized lenses.

Canon's mid-market cameras have been feeling a little down. By packing so much of their D3 into the D300's smaller body, the gap between the EOS 50D and EOS 1D has been frustrating Canon users. The EOS 7D is Canon's answer, creating a new tier in the digital EOS hierarchy, and in doing so, a spiritual successor to the 10D-20D-30D. The EOS 7D is an 18MP APS-C that can shoot 8fps. It is environmentally sealed, and has dual Digic4 processors allowing Canon users on a budget to consider this as their poor-man's version of the EOS-1D. ISO values are calibrated to 6400 (pushed another stop), and raw images are recorded in 14-bit. Unlike the other single-digit EOS lines, but like the 50D, the 7D has an in-built flash—the EOS 7D does this however by also including a Speedlite transmitter for controlling up to three groups of four flashes (a definite nod to a more professional set-up). The 7D also has a dual-axis electronic level which can display on either the rear LCD or in the viewfinder by using the 19 auto-focus points.