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Canon has finally heralded the EOS 1000D, making digital SLR photography lighter and more affordable.

The Canon EOS 1000D is designed to compete with the lowest specification DSLRs, packaged with the 18-55mm IS lens, comes in only at P31,000

Canon EOS 1000D: Modes and Features
The Canon EOS 1000D is the lowest specification DSLR in the range so, technically, it won’t be as good as the EOS 450D. The main differences are the lower 10Mp resolution of the EOS 1000D and only a 7-point AF system. There’s also a lack of spot metering, smaller 2.5in LCD screen, slower 3fps and only 12bit RAW compression compared the EOS 450D’s 14bit compression.

However, the camera still has a DIGIC III processor, sensor cleaning and live view. Not to mention that it’s smaller and lighter than the EOS 450D and EOS 400D but I think in essence the EOS 1000D is more an updated EOS 400D.

Looking around the camera and the included lens is the same 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 image stabilised model that was introduced with the EOS 450D. The plastic mount lens fits onto the dual mount lens plate. The reason for the dual mount dates back to when Canon first started making DSLRs. They didn’t want people having a nice 18mm wide angle lens for their back up film SLR so made the new lenses with a different mount to normal EF lenses. (more…)

The Olympus EVOLT E-510 is a full-featured, 10-megapixel digital SLR camera that was designed to accommodate photographers of any skill level. The E-510 features a “Live View” LCD that allows you to compose your shots using either the LCD or the optical viewfinder. The E-510’s bright 2.5-inch display, with approximately 230,000 pixels, uses “HyperCrystal” LCD technology offering many times the contrast of conventional LCD monitors. Images are displayed in vivid color - both in preview and playback. The HyperCrystal LCD also provides a wide viewing angle, which ensures images can be composed from even the most obscure angles.

The E-510 employs Mechanical Image Stabilization, which compensates for camera movement. This new technology complements Digital Image Stabilization, which compensates for a moving subject. Combined, Mechanical Image Stabilization and Digital Image Stabilization provide a powerful solution, ensuring blur-free photos even in active shooting situations where photographers may encounter camera shake or a moving subject. This powerful combination resides within the camera’s body, translating to blur-free images taken with any of the more than 30 digital-specific lenses. (more…)

The successor to last year’s successful entry-level PowerShot A460, the new 7.1 megapixel A470 model has undergone a striking external makeover, matched dramatically by a number of key internal enhancements. The PowerShot A470 is a stylish and compact model over a contoured metallic finish body that highlights the camera’s new design and reflects the camera user’s individuality, personality and taste.

Solid budget models are becoming less expensive and offering better performance every year. The Canon PowerShot A470 is one of the best examples of this trend. With a price tag of only P6,500, it produces surprisingly good pictures. It isn’t the prettiest camera available and it doesn’t have any flashy features, but for the price, it’s hard to beat.

The camera’s large body makes it easy to grip and hold, and its wide design leaves room for large, simple controls that even bigger thumbs can comfortably manipulate. (more…)

The 24-inch iMac comes in two standard configurations: a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor with 1GB of memory and 250GB hard drive and a higher-end configuration that comes with a dual-core 2.8GHz Core 2 Extreme CPU, 2GB RAM and a 320GB hard drive.

Strengths
When the 20-inch, 2.4GHz iMac was tested, what was clearly impressionable was its application performance. It held up more than its own against competing Windows-based, mainstream desktops. The same can easily be said for the 24-inch, 2.8GHz iMac.

With its faster processor, the 24-inch, 2.8GHz iMac is expectedly faster than the 20-inch, 2.4GHz iMac on all of the application benchmarks–as well as many similarly priced Windows machines. (more…)

The Canon Powershot G9 looks to all intents and purposes exactly like its predecessor, the G7, but underneath the serious matt black exterior are a veritable wealth of changes.

The G9 is an incremental upgrade in the truest sense; externally the body is almost identical, and there are only three really key changes; the raw mode, the screen and the sensor.

This is a 12.1 megapixel digital camera (up from the G7’s 10 megapixels) with a 3” LCD screen (increased from 2.5 inches) which sees the very welcome return of RAW mode. Canon caused uproar among G-series users when they decided to omit RAW mode from the G7, presumably to try and differentiate it from the budget EOS 400D DSLR camera, so it’s refreshing that they’ve listened to their customers by bringing it back. The swivelling, flip-out LCD screen of the older G6 model unfortunately hasn’t also made a come-back, but the larger 3 inch PureColor screen partly makes up for that. The 6x optical zoom lens offers an effective focal length of 35-210mm, there’s an optical image stabilizer to help combat camera-shake, plus an optical viewfinder and flash hotshoe. Under the surface the Canon G9 uses the same advanced DIGIC III processor as the company’s digital SLR cameras for faster performance and image processing. (more…)

Under the lid of this notebook, you’ll find a beautiful 15.4-inch widescreen framed by a silver bezel. The 1440 x 900-pixel glossy panel delivers vibrant colors and a sharp picture with very little reflection, and viewing angles are good from all directions.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The upper portion of the silver keyboard deck contains a set of low-powered speakers that lacked bass response, plus a power switch and a nice soft-touch media control bar for adjusting volume and controlling CD/DVD playback. However, it has a hotkey that launches Dell’s MediaDirect application, where you can access movies, music, and video clips, as well as view pictures from a central launching point. This same hotkey gives you access to your calendar and contact database via the Instant Office applet.

The keyboard is comfortable and well spaced, but the wide-aspect touchpad was a tad sensitive and jumpy at first. A quick tweak of the speed and sensitivity settings took care of that.

Plethora of Ports on the Inspiron 1525
The placement of two headphone jacks on the notebook’s front edge, which lets you share music or movie soundtracks with a friend, is a feature one could definitely love. A microphone input and an 8-in-1 card reader are also mounted on the front edge.

It’s advantageous that all connectivity ports are located on either side of the chassis instead of in the back. On the left are two USB ports, a VGA connector, a FireWire port, and modem and Ethernet jacks. There’s also an HDMI port for connecting to external audio and video components with a single cable. On the right side is an 8X dual-layer DVD burner, an ExpressCard slot, two additional USB ports, and an S-Video jack. (more…)