The Panasonic Lumix LZ40

Key Features: 42x optical zoom; 20-megapixel sensor; 3-inch 360k dot screen

Manufacturer: Panasonic

Panasonic Lumix LZ40 review: Hands-on

What is the Panasonic Lumix LZ40?

The Panasonic Lumix LZ40 is a bridge camera for people who want mammoth zoom length without having to pay the earth or carry around a humungous lens. Panasonic reckons it’ll be the perfect fit for “bird watchers” and “national trust members”. It's clearly not meant for enthusiasts, but anyone who wants a flexible travel camera should consider it. The camera is set to sell for £229.

Panasonic Lumix LZ40 – Design and Features

The Panasonic Lumix LZ40 is a chunky camera. Its oversized hand grip gives it SLR-like handling, and at 126mm deep, this is no way a pocket-friendly camera.

It’s made of plastic and doesn’t feel particularly flash, with a slight hollow feel – probably because a good deal of the grip is empty. As you’d expect from Panasonic, though, build quality is perfectly good. It’s just not high-end. 

While the bridge camera style may cause some to confuse it with an SLR, this is anything but. There’s no viewfinder or EVF on the Lumix LZ40, so you only have the 3-inch LCD with which to compose your shots. It’s a 360k-dot screen, a pretty basic affair compared with the 920k-dot screens used in higher-end cameras.

The level of control you are given is limited too. There’s a mode dial up top, but there are no aperture or shutter priority modes on it – the closest ‘manual’ mode is the exposure control mode. The interface is also a lot more rudimentary than more expensive Lumix cameras. This is a camera for people whose hobbies benefit from a camera, not for people whose hobby is photography.

One of the key changes over the last model, the Lumix LZ30, is that the Lumia LZ40 uses a rechargeable lithium battery rather than 4x AA batteries. Whether or not this is a real upgrade is a personal point, but we much prefer the lithium type. It supports charging over microUSB too, which will be very handy for people with mobiles that already use phones that charge using the socket.

Panasonic Lumix LZ40 – Lens and sensor

The Panasonic Lumix LZ40’s top feature is its gigantic zoom lens. Its 42x optical zoom equates to a focal length of 22-924mm. Both ends of this are pretty notable – it’s very wide when fully open, and 924mm

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Canon Powershot G16 review

Pros

-Full manual control

-Raw format shooting

-Built-in Wi-Fi

Cons

-No touchscreen

-Limited flexibility with digital filters

-Can't use Wi-Fi for remote shooting

1. Overview

The Canon GXX series has long been considered the natural back-up camera for DSLR users, especially those already familiar with the Canon brand.

As such, the outward design of this range has changed little from its first incarnation. The Canon PowerShot G16 is no different, looking outwardly almost identical to the year-old Canon PowerShot G15 it replaces. But of course, inside there have been a few notable changes.

First up is the sensor. While it remains the same pixel count, at 12.1MP, and physical size, at 1/1.7-inch, Canon says that the CMOS sensor is a completely new design, featuring back illumination.

The Canon G16 now includes inbuilt Wi-Fi, something which Canon's David Parry says is "pretty much essential" for new compacts.

What Canon is most keen to shout about, and perhaps the most exciting new feature, however, is the Digic 6 processor. This is Canon's latest generation of processor which enables some pretty special things, most notably an impressively fast 9.3fps (JPEG, without continuous autofocus), which doesn't have a buffer - in real terms that means you can, in theory, keep on shooting until your card runs out. It also means you can shoot a sequence, stop shooting and be ready to shoot again.

It should also mean that low light performance is once again improved. The Canon G16 is capable of shooting at up to ISO 12800. Canon also claims that AF speed has been significantly improved - apparently it is 41% quicker than its predecessor, the Canon G15.

Two new creative modes have been created for this camera. Background Defocus shoots two photos, one completely in focus, one out of focus, then combines the two images to produce DSLR-style background defocus effects. This is done in-camera automatically.

The second is Star Mode, which has been designed with night time photographers in mind. Canon says that it is so confident of the camera's low light capabilities that it actively wants to encourage photographers to use it in pitch black conditions.

Star Mode is a fully automatic mode that triggers the best settings for capturing night time skies. It's also capable of recording star trials and creating time-lapse movies - again, all captured and created within the camera without the need for post-processing. HDR mode

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Nikon Df review

Pros

-Full-frame sensor

-Small body

-Traditional controls

-Weatherproof

Cons

-'Only' 16MP

-No video recording

-Expensive

1. Overview

After the shock that Nikon treated us to a few teaser videos in the run-up to its announcement, perhaps the biggest surprise with the Df is that Nikon has gone for a 16.2 million-pixel FX (full-frame) CMOS sensor.

Some might have been hoping for a 24.3MP sensor like the Nikon D610 or a 36.3MP sensor like the Nikon D800, but Nikon has opted to use the same sensor as in the Nikon D4.

However, the benefit of opting for a 16MP sensor is that the photosites themselves are bigger and this means that they receive more light and generate a stronger signal which requires less amplification. As a result, less noise is generated so images are cleaner.

Data from the sensor is processed by the EXPEED 3 processing engine, the same engine as is found in the Nikon D610, D800 and D4. It seems odd that Nikon hasn't gone for the EXPEED 4 engine found in the D5300, but nevertheless the processor allows the sensitivity to be set in the native range ISO 100-12,800, with expansion settings pushing it to ISO 50-204,800. That's a match for the D4.

Meanwhile there's a maximum continuous shooting rate of 5.5fps for up to 100 images and images are stored on an SD/SDHC/SDXC card. Unlike Nikon's other FX format cameras, there's only one card port in the Df.

While the Df's body may be new (well retro really), the majority of its components are familiar.

The AF system is the for example, uses the same Multi-CAM 4800 module as the D610 and has 39 AF points, 9 of which are cross-type. The 2,016-pixel RGB sensor that gathers information for the Automatic Scene Recognition System and informs the white balance, focusing and metering systems is also familiar.

On the back of the camera there's a 3.2-inch 921,000-dot LCD screen just like the D610's. In live view mode this can display a nine-cell grid that conforms to the rule of thirds and the scene can be cropped to give 1:1 or 16:9 format.

As it's an SLR rather than a compact system camera, the Df has an optical viewfinder which shows the image seen through the lens. This provides a 100% field of view and has 0.7x magnification as well as DX crop markings for when DX lenses are

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10 Best Tech Gadgets 2013

Each year we celebrate the very best products in each category in our TrustedReviews awards. If you've not checked out this year's results, do so now.

However, this 'best of' round-up is a little different. We're going to look at the products that are important in another sense.

These gadgets mark a change, either for the market, or for the company making them. And some of them will be product remembered for years and years to come.

There are no real winners here, but if you want to know which products are the sign of things to come then you've come to the right place.

And if you think we've missed any, feel free to let us know (politely) in the comments.

Sony Alpha A7

Perhaps the most exciting photographic announcement of the year came only recently – the Sony Alpha A7 and A7R. They are the first compact system cameras to have full-frame sensors. Using such a sensor makes these cameras pretty cheap for their £1,200 starting price.  DSLRs with such sensors are normally a good deal more expensive.

They look good, feel good and produce excellent photos. To really get the most out of the camera, though, you’ll need to invest in one of the prime lenses rather than the kit lens. It’s no cheap solution to pro-quality pictures, but it is a game-changing camera that arguably heralds the beginning of the end for the DSLR.

Asus PQ321Q

Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of the Asus PQ321Q. Most people haven’t. However, it is a fairly important gadget of 2013 to note.

It was the first 4K-compatible monitor to surface, with 3,840 x 2,160 pixel native resolution. And it costs a mere three and a half grand in US dollars. Very few of you will end up buying one of these, but it’ll be a good fact to impress your geeky mates in five years when 4K monitors are the norm.

Motorola Moto G

There’s nothing technologically impressive about the Moto G as an abstracted piece of hardware. What makes it truly interesting is that Motorola has managed to make a phone of this calibre for under £100 (it has sold for as little as £89.99).

At this price there’s simply nothing that can come close to this. Look at Samsung’s line-up and you’ll need to spend three times the money to get something as good. Motorola has set

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Canon PowerShot SX510 HS review

For

-30x optical zoom

-Built in Wi-Fi

-Full manual control

Against

-No raw shooting

-Can't set AF point

-No touchscreen

 1. Overview

Last year's Canon PowerShot SX500 IS was hailed as the smallest 30x optical zoom camera on the market, and it was certainly impossible to deny that it packed a whopping lens and the pixels to support it. While it was generally well received, there were a few areas where quality fell foul of quantity. That being the case, we were excited to get our hands on the Canon SX510 HS, contender to the tiny-but-mighty crown.

The two cameras are outwardly similar and share the same great 30x optical zoom, with a maximum effective focal length of 720mm. Further expandable to 60x with Canon's ZoomPlus digital zoom technology, the equivalent of 1440mm, you shouldn't find any problems snapping long range subjects. While it can't boast the same 50x reach as the range-leading Canon SX50 HS, it offers more than enough reach for most situations in a package almost half the size.

There are a number of major improvements under the SX510's hood, and the foremost of these is the new 12.1 million pixel CMOS sensor. The Canon SX500 IS featured a 16 million pixel CCD sensor and this change hopefully reveals a major shift towards better image quality. The new sensor has Canon's HS (short for High Sensitivity) system, which should make it far better at handling low light photography. Although the included DIGIC 4 processor is now two generations old, we know it to be a good performer in other cameras.

The SX510 also features the same three-inch, 461k-dot LCD screen as its forebear, which is starting to lag behind the competition in terms of resolution, with many compacts now packing 920k-dot or higher displays.

Intelligent IS

As with its predecessor, the Canon SX510 features Canon's Intelligent IS technology, which has proven itself to be equal to the task of keeping images stable, even with the long focal length offered by this lens. As well as a powerful IS system, the camera also features a raft of autofocus options including full manual focusing. Tracking options including automatic face detection allow you to keep moving subjects in focus while continuous and servo options help save time spent refocusing.

A wide range of imaging modes are included, with aperture and shutter priority modes as well as full manual control. Scene

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Best photo editing app to download 2014

Getting the best photo editing app can turn your phone snaps into works of art, and help you get more from your smartphone or tablet. Whether you're looking for the best apps for Android, iOS, Windows or Mac, we've scoured the web for the best free and paid for photo editing apps money out there.

Apps for photo editing are more and more powerful, whether they're for your phone, browser or PC, you now no longer have to depend on pricey software like Adobe Photoshop to touch up your snaps and make them look fantastic.

With all the apps on the market, across of load of different stores, it can often be tricky to find the one that fits your needs the most. We've made things a whole lot easier by rounding up ten of our favourite apps for making your photos all nice and shiny. From iOS exlcusives, to multi-platform stars and even ones that only require a browser - these are best photo editing app to download right now.

Oh, and one more thing, we all know Instagram and Hipstamatic are good - but everyone already knows about them, so that's why you won't find them on our list.

1. Pro Camera 7 (iOS)

A replacement for the stock iOS camera app, but one that combines a great quality snapper with a whole host of editing tech. You have much more control over your options here, from exposure altering to choosing a specific point of focus, overall you’ll end up with much better shots. There’s also rapid firing, live data and a self timer, basically every photo option you could want. After you've snapped you can apply of host of after effects, from unique filters to the ones Apple added in iOS 7. A fantastic step up from the in-built app.

69p | Pro Camera 7

2. Photo Editor by Aviary (iOS, Android, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 )

A great multiplatform app that performs really well on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 - if you’ve recently picked up a Nokia Lumia 1520, this is a must download. With one tap you can auto-enhance your snaps, the continue to add to the effects with loads of filters and even some stickers to add that extra bit of charm. All the cropping, resizing and blur/sharpening tools are here, completing a pretty fully featured app.

Free | Aviary

3.

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Sony RX10 review

 Pros

-Large one-inch sensor

-f/2.8 constant aperture

-Tilting screen

-Excellent viewfinder

Cons

-No touchscreen

-High price

1. Introduction 

It's no secret that the compact camera market is declining, but one area which seems to continue to perform reasonably well is the bridge camera market.

Sony has already taken hold of another lucrative area of the market with its RX100 and follow up, the RX100 II, topping the sales charts of the premium compact area.

Now, the company has put that same sensor inside a bridge camera in the shape of the RX10. Not only does it have that excellent sensor, Sony has also designed a new processor, the Bionz X, which promises to deliver processing speeds which are three times faster than the equivalent found in its predecessor.

Other bridge cameras on the market generally feature a standard compact-camera sized sensor at 1/1.7 inches. This should make the RX10 a much better performer, both in terms of low-light shooting and also in helping to create attractive shallow depth of field effects.

Although the 8.3x zoom (24-200mm equivalent) lens doesn't have the mammoth zoom range of cameras such as the Canon PowerShot SX50, it does offer something which most don't; a constant fixed aperture of f/2.8. The only other bridge camera to currently offer that is the Panasonic Lumix FZ200, which includes a 24x optical zoom (25-600mm equivalent), but of course it's worth noting that the sensor size inside the Panasonic is considerably smaller.

On the back of the camera is a screen, which, although isn't touchscreen, is tiltable for those awkward angled shots. Though it's not fully articulated or 180-degree tiltable, making it less useful for self portraits or video work.

There's also a 1.4 million dot EVF. Many will groan at the thought of an electronic viewfinder, but Sony's devices generally are very good, and with a resolution that high, it seems likely that the RX10's device will not disappoint.

As is starting to become standard with cameras now, the RX10 features inbuilt Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity.

This means you can share shots you've taken instantly with your smartphone or tablet, or use one of those devices to control the camera remotely - something which will probably appeal to nature and wildlife photographers.

NFC is still a bit of a technology buzzword and basically means that if you have another device with the technology, you'll get a one-touch connection.

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Canon LEGRIA mini review

Pros

 -Good image quality

 -WiFi functions

 -Wide angle of view

Cons  
                                       
                                                                                     -No live Internet streaming 
                                                           
                                                                                     -No optical zoom 
                                                         
                                                                                     -No microphone input

Key Features: 1/2.3-inch CMOS with 12.8Mpixels; 160-degree field of view in video mode; Close-up zoom-in mode; MP4 recording at up to Full HD at 24Mbits/sec; WiFi remote control functions

Manufacturer: Canon

Canon LEGRIA mini Review

What is the Canon LEGRIA mini?

The LEGRIA mini is an innovative new camcorder from Canon. Since the demise of the Flip, action cameras have been the main focus of development in the camcorder market. But Canon hasn't paid a lot of attention to this trend. Instead, we have the LEGRIA mini, which heads off in such an original direction it's hard at first to describe what kind of camcorder it is.

Probably the best way to get a handle on what the LEGRIA mini is would be to acknowledge that the word "selfie" is now in the Oxford English Dictionary. That's not the only kind of video recording the LEGRIA mini is aimed at, but it is the primary role. So the camcorder format has been completely rethought, to produce a design that is unlike any we have seen before.

Canon LEGRIA mini: Design & Features

The LEGRIA mini actually looks like

a tiny portable projector. The lens is on one edge, protected by a manual lens cover, with the 2.7-inch LCD panel on the top. This seems like an odd arrangement until you realise that the screen folds up and can be angled to face the rear or the front, as required. There's a built-in stand on the bottom next to the screw mount.

The stand lets you angle the lens upwards, so you can get yourself perfectly into the picture. The lens itself is the equivalent of a 16.8mm wide angle, providing a 160-degree field of view. There's no optical zoom available, but there is a close-up option, which equates approximately to a 4x zoom, and reduces the field of view to 71 degrees.

Inside the LEGRIA mini is a relatively sizeable 1/2.3-inch backside illuminated high-sensitivity CMOS with 12.8Mpixels. However, Canon doesn't go beyond Full HD for the LEGRIA mini's recording modes. Unlike the GoPro HERO3 Black Edition, there's no 4K option here. The top quality setting is 1,920 x 1,080 at 25 progressive frames per second, with a 24Mbits/sec data rate. The MP4 video format is used for recording.

You

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Sony Alpha A7R review

For

-High resolution sensor
-No AA filter
-Full frame
-Inbuilt Wi-Fi

Against

                                                                          -No touchscreen

 

Introduction

Sony is well known for innovating in the camera sphere, basically because it can. Not content to launch the world's first compact system camera to feature a full-frame sensor, the company has launched two versions of the A7.

The A7R features a full frame sensor with a whopping 36.4 million-pixels, but it has had the anti-aliasing filter removed. For, you see, the R in the A7R's name stands for resolution, so the emphasis here is on getting the highest possible picture quality. Removing the AA filter can lead to an increase in moire patterning, but it also means that the highest amount of detail possible is resolved.

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Playstation 4 camera review

Pros

-Works as advertised
-The Playroom is amusing
-Voice commands work well
-Compact and attractive

Cons

-Few games use it
-No gesture controls
-Minimal voice commands
                                                                                    -Face recognition more trouble than it's worth

 

Sony put its adoring PlayStation fans in a tough spot when it chose to make the PlayStation Camera an optional accessory for the PS4.

Sure, it kept the cost of the console $100 cheaper than the Xbox One. That entices buyers and has earned the PS4 plenty of positive buzz from the media and players alike.

But now that the new Sony console is finally out, you're faced with a dilemma: to buy the PlayStation Camera or not?

No matter which way you look at it, that's not an easy question to answer, even for the most hardcore PlayStation fan.

The PlayStation Camera is $59.99 - that's not chump change. In fact, it's the cost of an extra controller, which can be the difference between having fun with a friend or playing by yourself.

And PS3 owners probably remember how little they used their PlayStation Eye cameras.

But if no one buys the PlayStation Camera now, then developers won't bother to implement it in their games, and the accessory will stagnate on store shelves until the next gimmick arrives.

No, it's not an easy decision. So after playing with the PlayStation Camera over the weekend, we decided to break it down for you.

Design

Luckily for those who decide they just can't live without it, the PlayStation Camera is

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Best DSLR cameras 2013

Best DSLR cameras 2013: The best interchangeable lens cameras available to buy today

You want to buy a DSLR camera but don't know what to go for? Then you've come to the right place, as this is where we round-up the best DSLR cameras of 2013. We'll guide you through the hottest cameras available - and only models that we've reviewed in full - to save you time when it comes to working out what the best options are.

DSLR - which stands for digital single lens reflex - cameras have removable lenses so that different optics can be attached in order to give a different view on the world. This variety allows you to start small and build-up to the more varied, sharper and desirable featured lenses as you go along. It also adds hands-on control for zoom and focus precision unlike that of most compact cameras.

DSLRs aren't to be confused with the newer compact system cameras that are also infiltrating camera shops up and down the land. They are the ones that typically look like point-and-shoot cameras but also have interchangeable lenses. We'll be covering the best of the best of those in another feature due shortly. 

Whether you're new to the DSLR concept, looking to upgrade, know plenty about cameras already and are weighing up the options, or are considering a more pro-spec option, we've broken down our list of great DSLR cameras into sub-headed categories to make things that bit easier to digest. You name it, we've got you covered.

We’ll be regularly updating this feature with the latest and greatest DSLR cameras as and when we review them, so you can see where your money is best spent as the best models float to the surface.

A quick lesson in lenses

Lens mount

First thing's first: cameras don't work in a one-size-fits-all way. Brands like to keep their own heritage and, as such, each manufacturer has its own lens mount.

For Canon it's EF, for Nikon it's F-mount, for Pentax it's K-mount, and Sony has A-mount. There are some additions and exceptions, but those are the current four to focus on. Don't fall into the trap by buying the wrong lenses just because the brand names match up.

Sensor size

Second to the equation is sensor size. Entry and mid-level cameras typically have what's called an APS-C size sensor. Some pro-spec cameras have full-frame sensors that, because they're physically larger, need specific - typically pricier and more advanced - lenses that are capable of covering the larger dimensions. In each case the mount size remains the same, irrelevant of the sensor size. If you are looking at a top-of-the-range lens for a top-of-the-range camera, you'll know all this already. For those starting out, don't worry: it may seem a bit of a minefield out there, but a fairly easy one to understand once you get into the lingo of the manufacturer you've chosen. 

Focal length equivalent

There are plenty of things to consider with lenses and this all depends on the type of photography you are planning on doing. If it is all about portraits you'll want something like around the 50mm or 75mm mark. If you are trying to snap that lion on the Savanna and don't want to get eaten then you'll want something with a long zoom closer to 300mm.

Best entry-level DSLR

Nikon D3200

You've decided that a DSLR is the one for you, but you don't want to fork out masses of cash and don't want overbearing or complex controls to get in your way. The Nikon D3200 is a well-balanced choice to introduce you to the world of DSLR.

Complete with a Guide mode on its main mode dial, the camera can

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