dSLR Dad

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Photography Blog has a digital SLR review of the Canon EOS 50D camera:

Released just one year after the 40D, the new EOS 50D DSLR is Canon’s answer to its main rival, the Nikon D300. The EOS 50D is both a worthy upgrade for current 40D owners and a real challenger to the D300, mainly thanks to the larger 15 megapixel sensor, new Digic 4 processor and expanded ISO range, which thankfully haven’t compromised image quality in any way. Despite the 50% increase in resolution, the EOS 50D offers the best image quality of any Canon APS-C DSLR camera to date, with very similar performance to the 40D at comparative ISO speeds, and the added bonus of ISO 6400 and 12800 modes. Admittedly the fastest setting is only really usable as a last resort and doesn’t quite match up to the low-light performance of the Nikon D3 and D700, but they are much more expensive cameras than the 50D. We’d happily use this camera on a daily basis up to ISO 3200 with 6400 as a back-up. All other image quality aspects are up to Canon’s usual high standards, although we’d swap the 18-55mm kit lens for the more expensive 17-85mm optic in order to get the most out of the 15 megapixel sensor. If you’re looking for the highest resolution for your money, the Canon EOS certainly doesn’t disappoint.

You can read the entire review at Photography Blog.

Flickr has now integrated Flickr2Twitter support. You can now share your Flickr content either via “upload by email” or by Twittering your content directly from your Flickr page. The following are the how-to instructions for dSLR Dads to Twitter their photographs directly from your Flickr page: Read the rest of this entry »

Photographer Ben Long has published his digital SLR review of the Canon EOS Rebel T1i / 500D:

If you’re looking for an SLR under $1,000 that takes great images and movies, then the Rebel T1i is an excellent choice.
PROS
Excellent image quality; very good design; full feature set; great high-ISO performance.
CONS
No external mic jack or manual exposure controls when shooting video.

You can read his entire review at Macworld Magazine. As always, dSLR Dads can find more information about the Canon EOS Rebel T1i 500D here.

You can find more comics at What the Duck.net.

Camera Labs has published their review of the Nikon D5000 dSLR Camera:

By inheriting the D90’s sensor and processing pipeline, the D5000 boasts two major benefits over its predecessor which bring it bang up-to-date: Live View and HD video recording. Making Live View more useful than any Nikon DSLR to date though is the inclusion of a fully-articulated monitor on the rear. Interestingly, this is hinged not at the side, but the bottom, but still allows for a great deal of flexibility when composing in Live View and filming movies.

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Imaging Resource has published their review of the SIGMA 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM lens:

Like most ”vacation” zooms, the trick is to know the parameters where they function best. Sigma’s latest iteration of this lens offers a bit more telephoto performance, for which the integrated optical image stabilization is crucially useful. Unfortunately the lens’ maximum aperture decreases quickly as the lens is zoomed out, to the point where at 80mm, you’re using a ƒ/5.6 lens. This design allows the lens to be kept as small as it is, but at that point you’re needing either a sunny day, an external flash, or a steady hand (even with the image stabilization) to get reasonably sharp photos.

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Neutral Day has published their review of the Nikon D90 dSLR Camera:

The Nikon D90 is the successor to the very popular and very capable D80, and currently occupies the prosumer niche for Nikon. At about $1000 for the camera body only, the Nikon D90 offers consumers a 12.3 megapixel sensor, an ISO range of 100-6400 (including boost), a 3 inch display with 920k resolution, and a frame rate of 4.5 fps. Additionally, as most of you will remember, the Nikon D90 was the first DSLR to start the now pervasive trend of high definition video in a DSLR camera. For the D90, this meant 720p HD video at 24 fps with mono sound in up to 5 minute clips (for HD). In short, the Nikon D90 offers quite a bit of the performance of the professional level Nikon D300, plus HD video, but in smaller size and with less impact on the wallet. As a previous owner of the Nikon D80, I was more than curious how far things had come with the D90. As it turns out, Nikon sent a D90 kit for me to test, bundled with the AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm lens, and after nearly a month of frequent use (make that non-stop use), I’m ready to share my thoughts in our review of the Nikon D90 digital SLR camera.

You can read the entire D90 review over at Neutral Day.

by Chris Mampe

Today is the Day for dSLR Dads everywhere. How did you celebrate?

Let’s face it, we can’t all have one room devoted to an entire photo studio. However, you can make a bedroom, office, or other spare room serve up as double duty for your photographic interests.  Photographer James Burger does just that in the following video:

Some key points that came to me while watching this: Read the rest of this entry »