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Well, our Super Week here in the Tampa Bay area
is over. Millions watched Bryant Gumble shiver from the stadium
on the Early Show while chamber of commerce types gnashed their
teeth. Bryant's a wimp since it was only 48 degrees.
Ravens fans have returned to Balmer, clutching
their trophy and still claiming that their crab cakes are better
than hours. No NFL stars got arrested for lap dancing.
The blimps have been deflated, I guess. The
hundreds of stretch limos have left for wherever they live
between proms and Super Bowls... stretch everythings abounded
for a week. A stretch SUV about 35 feet long. A stretch PT
cruiser, several stretch HumVees and even a stretch riding mower
adorned our streets.
Clearwater Beach got into the act with... are
your ready for this?... the World's Largest Sand Sculpture
Shaped Like A Football Helmet. Actually, it was a big pile of
sand surrounded by smaller piles with NFL team logos. Makes me
proud to be a taxpayer.
I caught this happy Superfan posing with the NFL
sandpile using the Canon G1's swiveling LCD monitor from a very
low angle.
While Britney Spears and NSynch were cavorting
in Ybor City, I was finishing testing eight digital cameras.
The Canon G1
Canon shipped in a G1 just before deadline and
it was love at first sight. It performed beautifully at Mt.
Football Helmet.
With support for IBM Microdrive in its Type II
CF slot, the G1 is the machine for long-term location work.
Let's see... $899 for the G1, about $800 for a 1gig microdrive,
a couple hundred more for batteries and a remote recharger.
Comes to about two grand in my book.
With in-camera charging of its lithium-ion
battery, the G1 can be out of service for a couple hours. Spare
batteries and a charger housing are necessary. Battery life was
super. About 300 photos on a full charge with lots of LCD use.
A very bright LCD monitor and big buffer mean
nearly instant review of images in Play mode, even in bright
sunlight. The LCD swivels and turns, making the G1 an ideal
machine for the self-portraitist. Further, it has a protective
back to prevent scratches when the monitor is not used and
stored against the camera back.
Only one lug but a pretty sturdy neck strap. It
could double as a wrist strap for the foolhardy.
The G1 came with two auxiliary lenses and their
adapter for a really screwy system... literally. To change
lenses, first unscrew the protective chrome ring on the front of
the lens (and find someplace to put it. Perhaps next to the lost
lens cap?). Then screw the adapter on where the ring used to be.
Finally screw on the auxiliary lens. Total extreme wide to
extreme tele changing time? About two minutes without stripping
the threads.
Canon has provided a sensitivity range from ISO
70 to 400. I was amazed at the low noise at ISO 400. With a
maximum aperture of f:2.0, this is an available light shooter's
tool. It also has a very good looking B&W mode but of course,
opened in Photoshop, the image mode is still RGB. Here's wishing
to a true grayscale shooting mode with concomitant file size for
B&W shooters.
The Canon G1 isn't quite enough to want me to
trade in my Nikon 990 but it's a great indication of where
future digital cameras are heading.
And The Future Is... Sony DCS-P1
I got to play with a friend's brand new Sony P1
and fell in love with this minuscule 3.3mp wonder. With its
f:2.8 39-117mm (equiv.) zoom lens tucked into its closed
position behind a guillotine lens cap, the P1 is truly a pocket
camera.
Like nearly all Sony products, the P1 uses a
Memory Stick card with an 8mb capacity provided. Fortunately,
Sony is producing Memory Sticks in higher capacities every
month.
An advantage of Sony products is the company's
excellent rechargeable InfoLithium batteries. Recharging
in-camera takes nearly three hours and a full charge provides
about 90 minutes of operating time. Downloading without a Memory
Stick reader is by USB connection only.
The P1's front and top panels are fairly smooth
with a control LED panel occupying the gunmetal blue body strip
that gives the camera gripping texture. One thing I disliked
about the LED panel is the P1's indications of how many photos
have been made rather than how many exposures are left.
On the back panel is a surprisingly bright LCD
with on/off controls, flash toggle controls and controls for
Autoexposure Program modes, and a rocker button for menu
navigation.
Prints show image quality is as good as you'd
expect with a 3mp camera, actually surprising considering the
P1's tiny size. The wee machine is packed with features that
rival the bigger guys and a $250 optional underwater housing
(100 feet depth rating) makes it a versa |