Silva Bokis

Sony Ericsson K790 and K800 blogging Cyber-shot phones (I'm confused too)

Sony Ericsson has announced 2 new mobile phones that include 1.3 megapixel digital cameras, sport the Cyber-shot subbrand and integrate with Google's blogging application, Blogger.

Is this convergence or nonvergence? The Walkman phone has been well received so perhaps a Cyber-shot phone would also be popular.

But hang on. The phones also include a music player - so why aren't they Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot Walkman Google Blogger phones.

And why have they missed out on the most obvious development - bolt on spare parts from the soon to be discontinued Sony Aibo Robot and you'd have a phone that can walk, talk and take pictures.. ..before dropping spent batteries all over the carpet.

Sony DSC-R1 long exposure test images

I've posted some DSC-R1 long exposure images on Pbase. The shots were taken on holiday on Ortigia, Sicily. A storm was passing by one evening and I thought I'd try to get some shots with lightning flashes in them - I managed to get a couple too!

The exposures range from 1 second to 20 seconds. The camera was placed on the ledge of the roof garden of the apartment I was staying in. Unfortunately the ledge is visible in the foreground of one of the shots.

I'm pleased with the results - the long exposure has captured detail that was not visible with the naked eye and the fast moving Sicilian motorists have contributed some interesting light trails.

Second series of DSC-R1 test photos posted to Pbase

On Friday lunchtime I took the pre-production Sony DSC-R1 into London in the hope of getting some nice pictures in the glorious Indian Summer we have been experiencing. Unfortunately, Mr Sun left his hat at home so I decided to find some more sombre settings to get some moody shots.

These photos have been uploaded to Pbase in a gallery called Second series of DSC-R1 test images

Falconberg Court, W1 is round the back of the London Astoria - once a theatre and now a venue for gigs and clubbing. The cover image of David Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars' was based on this street and Falconberg Mews, just round the corner.

The series of images begins with 4 shots of a nightclub called 'Ghetto' taken at ISO 125, 200, 400 & 800. Conditions were so overcast that even at ISO 400 the shutter speed was only 1/100s.

The next 2 images (take at ISO 200 & 400) are of the Falconberg Court signpost that is attached to the black painted rear walls of The Astoria. The signpost is lit by a bright (halogen?) light.

The there's a test photo of a bag that was hanging from a market stall about half way up Tottenham Court Road. The sequins on the bag are actually some kind of shiny metallic coated plastic rather than straightforward metal. I'd have liked to have taken more photos here but the stall holder was, shall we say, less than encouraging.

The last 2 pics are of the BT Tower. You can tell by the almost white sky that the day was extremely overcast.

I've taken 2 sets of photographs with the DSC-R1 now and I think I'm beginning to get to grips with it. I'd welcome some sunlight to work in - I'm going to experiment with deeper depth of field as a lot of the handheld, low light images I have taken so far have slow exposure times and I think the images are soft as a result.

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There's more information about the DSC-R1 at the Sony UK website

Sony DSC-M2 - Is it a camera or a camcorder or a photo album?

Sony UK website has news of a new 5.3 megapixel digital camera, the DSC-M2, that has loads of features not normally in a digital camera.

• It can capture full-motion, full-screen MPEG4 video at 30fps (frames per second)
• It can be used as a digital photo album that stores 1100 640x480 pixel resolution images on internal camera memory. This leaves the Memory Stick dedicated to taking pictures and videos.
• Hybrid shooting - records 5 seconds of video then takes a full resolution photo and then records another 3 seconds of video. The idea is that you end up with a video sequence and a good quality still image.. ..I think.

More information, including a 3D product simulation at the Sony UK website.

Sony DSC-R1 test photos now uploaded

As promised, a selection of test photos taken with the Sony DSC-R1 digital camera have been uploaded.

Because the file sizes are so high on a 10.3 megapixel image I have uploaded some resized images on this website and the original resolution images on Pbase.

Overall I'm pleased with the results. I still need to get the hang of the camera but for the first hour's use I think these photos are pretty good.

----UPDATE----

I've noticed that these photos are being discussed over at Dpreview - I tried to set up a Dpreview account to contribute there but no confirmation email has been received (perhaps due to overenthusiastic spam filters) so I thought I'd try to shine a little more light on the images.

First off, I need to restate that the pictures were taken in the first hour's use of a camera that had previously been tested by other people and so a number of settings were not as I would choose. For instance, all of the pictures of greenery were shot with a 'Vivid' colour profile and I only reset this before taking the pictures of my son, Kai. Also, I had no manual and no software disc so I'm feeling my way around the settings and, unfortunately, can't experiment with RAW image capture.

There was no lens hood (it has since arrived) and so there is some lens flare - I believe that's what the purple 'bruising' is on _DSC0735.JPG.

With the exception of the pictures of the pond all of the pictures of greenery were taken in a wooded area with very low ambient light. In particular, _DSC0712.JPG and DSC00710.JPG were taken in extremely dark conditions.

One of the features Sony are pushing on the DSC-R1 is the ability to 'get down low' by looking down on the LCD screen to frame shots. I tested this with the pictures of my little boy playing - it was all very spontaneous quick shooting with no consideration for framing and just relying on the camera to autofocus. The camera was in motion as well as the subject and, all things considered, I think that the featured pictures came out pretty well. Of course, these are a selection from 20 or 30 shots - many of which were badly framed or even out of focus. That's the way I like to take pictures - keep shooting to capture the moment and then shortlist the best ones later.

There have been some questions about my credentials as a photographer. Well, I have owned a Nikon D100 for a few years now and have used it extensively for work and leisure. I enjoy taking photographs but I wouldn't call myself a professional, or even an enthusiast.

There were comments about pictures looking oversharp. I didn't post process any of the images but did find that in-camera sharpening was turned on - I have since turned it off. 

One thing I initially found offputting about the DSC-R1 is the digital preview - when you're used to an SLR it's strange to see a video version of the scene. It made me dubious about how well the photographs would correlate what I saw through the preview - in the end, I think they matched up pretty well but I'm sure this is part of the learning process.

I agree with the comments about variable quality of the photos - as I say, it was the first hour's use - and I have since become more familiar with the camera.

Anyway, hopefully I can get a dpreview account working soon to contribute over there. In the meantime, if anyone has further questions about the camera feel free to ask them here.

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There's more information about the DSC-R1 at the Sony UK website

Sony LCD panel/viewfinder problem - free repair service announced

I found this notice on the Sony UK website this morning:

"Notice to Owners of Sony Digital Still Camera, Camcorder, PDA CLIÉ and Professional Camcorders & Cameras.

It has recently come to our attention that a limited number of products that incorporate an image sensor device, CCD Chip, manufactured from October 2002 through March 2004 may exhibit the following condition:

When the product is used in camera mode, the LCD panel and/or electronic viewfinder will show either a distorted image or no image.

We have determined that this condition only occurs to a limited number of units.

In its effort to ensure customer satisfaction, Sony has elected to offer a free repair to the owners of applicable products exhibiting the above-mentioned condition if caused by the image sensor device, CCD chip."

A list of the affected products is linked to from the Sony Article.

Sony DSC-R1 test photos on the way

I took some test shots with the Sony DSC-R1 digital camera yesterday. After using a more conventional digital SLR it did take a few shots before I found my way around the camera but, considering I received the DSC-R1 without any instructions, it was pretty easy to get used to.

I'll review the photos on my home PC later and upload the best ones here.

First impressions are:

• I like the way you dial in exposure compensation and immediately see the results on the LCD.
• The ability to hold the camera down low and frame shots using the LCD screen is really useful for getting a fresh angle on your photos.
• The camera seems to cope with a wide range of brightness in the same shot - I got some good shots where the immediate foreground was in shadow, the mid-ground in bright sunlight and the distance also in shadow.
• The 10.3 megapixel resolution pushes up the quality of photos - I actually had to resize the image downwards to print out at A4 resolution. This means I can think about getting larger prints without loss of resolution.

More later..

Sony DSC-R1 digital camera

Another day another toy to play with - the 10.3 megapixel Sony DSC-R1 digital camera. 

Sony says the DSC-R1 is designed for photography enthusiasts who are used to the fine camera control offered by film or digital SLR cameras. To test this claim I'm going to set myself a photographic challenge - not sure about the specifics yet, but I want to have fun with the camera and get some high quality pictures that are suitable for printing and framing.

More later..

Sony and Konica Minolta to jointly develop digital SLRs

Sony and Konica Minolta announced this week that they will jointly develop digital SLR (single lens reflex) cameras.

Single lens reflex cameras use a mirror placed between the lens and the film or image sensor to project the image to the camera's viewfinder. They typically support interchangeable lenses and are generally much faster-responding and more capable than fixed-lens cameras.

The first jointly-developed products are expected on the market in about a year, said Daichi Yamafuji, a spokesman for Sony.