Hi-Fi-Insight News and Reviews
Choosing the right digital camera
June 25th, 2009
Only four years ago some experts were predicting a slowdown in the digital camera market, claiming that it had peaked despite a 20% growth in terms of sales in 2005. Luckily for the industry and the consumer, this proved to be a false prophecy, and 2007 saw growth continue with a doubling of the forecasted percentage to 15%. This is due to two main factors, firstly the ever falling price of digital cameras and secondly the conversely improving quality of the pictures that can be captured by digital means. The digital camera has become low in price, incorporated into mobile devices to great effect and something which most people now own and use on a regular basis. Growth has also been driven by the emerging Asian markets which account for a large portion of new digital camera sales, changing digital cameras from boutique, expensive items to a run of the mill piece of kit in just 10 years.
With the market booming and so many different manufacturers, models and prices scattered about, it can be difficult to choose between cameras. However, there are a few key specifications that you should keep an eye out for when choosing a new digital camera, regardless of the price or the manufacturer. The first thing to consider is the mega pixel count. For years now, digital cameras have been marketed on the number of pixels which they can capture in a single shot. More pixels means in practice a higher resolution image which of course means more detail and larger shots, and getting a camera with a decent mega pixel rating isn't hard. In today's market you can pick up an entry level digital camera with an 8 mega pixel or 10 mega pixel sensor without paying very much.
It's not all about mega pixels though, and as you'll notice if you shop around there can be vast price differences between digital cameras which share the same basic mega pixel rating. This is because the quality of the image and the price of the camera is also affected by other factors. The most obvious secondary thing to look out for is the type of lens and zoom that the camera comes with. Some digital cameras will have something called digital zoom. What this means in practice is that rather than using the movement and relative position of the glass lens to zoom in on whatever you're shooting (known traditionally as optical zoom), a software trick within the camera will be used to increase the zoom instead. This will keep the cost of the camera down and mean less moving parts, but will also result in poorer long range abilities. Most digital cameras come with zoom functions, and if you pay more for a mid range model you should expect both optical and digital zoom functions. In terms of lens quality, various manufacturers have allegiances to traditional photographic lens producers, for example Sony's affiliation with Carl Zeiss.
The final important consideration regardless of price bracket is the feature set of the camera. You should at very least expect to have control over things like zoom and flash, and most digital cameras offer extras like various shooting modes for night or sporting use, on top of things like timer delays for family portrait snaps. You'll also want to make sure that the camera comes with a memory card slot of some kind, which a majority will do. Check which type of memory card format is supported by a camera before you buy it as most will come with little internal memory, requiring an additional purchase by yourself to get the most use out of the camera.
Mobile devices like portable phones now almost universally come with a built in digital camera. Products like LG's Arena and Samsung's Pixon and Tocco Ultra have revolutionised the way digital cameras & digital camcorders are used, putting 8 mega pixels of snapping resolution and video capture in everyone's hands. Even the Apple iPhone 3G which has been hugely criticised for it's underpowered camera will be trying to catch up with the competition when the 3G S model is released. [...]
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Shuttle SN68G2 Home Theatre System
March 13th, 2009
Having used a Shuttle SN41GS2 based AMD 3ghz XP machine to watch DVDs and listen to mp3s with, the time had come to upgrade to something a little more powerful that was capable of Blue Ray HD playback. I have always been a big fan of the Shuttle bare-bone systems both in the work place and at home, as their compact size makes them ideal for media and basic computing and I had not intention of buying a stand alone player.
The Shuttle SN41GS2 had been an excellent machine with nforce onboard sound and graphics but also a spare AGP and PCI slot if you wanted a different graphics or sound card option. Bit perfect audio output is a must for me, so a spare PCI slot is essential as I have not come across any on-board sound cards that are capable of this, and my C-Media 8768 sound card offers bit perfect SPDIF in and out at a fraction of the cost of audiophile solutions. [...]
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Cambridge Audio DAC Magic
February 15th, 2009
Following yesterday’s post about bit perfect audio, I thought I would post details of one the best sub £200 external DAC available in the UK. The Cambridge Audio DAC Magic was launched last summer and immediately established itself as one of the very best DACs available sonically and also compatibility wise at its price point. Cambridge Audio have manufactured several external DACs in the past, but this one is possibly one of its best.
The Cambridge Audio DAC Magic has no less than three digital inputs that can either be optical or co-axial and a USB in connector as well and for output either unbalanced RCA phono sockets can be used or left and right balanced XLR connectors. Power to the Cambridge Audio DAC Magic is provided by an external regulated power supply.
The Cambridge Audio DAC Magic borrows much of its technology from the Azur 740/840 CD players and up-samples all inputs to a 24bit/192khz sample using a choice of three sophisticated filters which is licensed from a Swiss software company called Anagram Technologies. The result is a very neutral portrayal of sound which far exceeds its sub £200 price. [...]
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Bit Perfect Audio
February 14th, 2009In the last year or so, there has been a flood of standalone digital to audio converters (DACs) that are aimed at personal computer owners who want to improve the reproduction of their music collection stored on computer hard disks. Standalone DACs were all the rage in the mid nineties as they offered a reasonably priced upgrade to compact disk owners without having to replace the whole player providing it had a digital ouput socket which could then be fed to an external DAC.
The same situation now exists with PC’s as the majority of soundcards all provide digital outputs as analogue output. However the analogue output is usually of a poor standard due to widespread use of poor components such as cheap and nasty DACs, not to mention reliance on a PC’s power supply which is not designed for audio applications and is critical if any sort of true hi-fi reproduction is to be achieved.
Therefore it makes more sense to feed the digital output of a PC to a dedicated external audiophile DAC to achieve the best sound quality which leads us on to the topic of this post. One of the most least explained facts about digital audio and one that seems to escaped the various magazine reviews and manufacturers’ promotion material surrounding these new external DACs is question of bit perfect audio, that is that the digital output from the computer soundcard is the same as the digital output from the stored audio file. [...]
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JBL Control One Speakers
February 13th, 2009
If you are looking for a high quality wall mountable bookshelf speaker at a knock down price, then the JBL Control One Speakers may be just what you are looking for. Available from Richer Sounds at a ludicrous £49.99 (half price) these tiny speakers are perfect for home cinema installations where they can discretely hide in room corners.
I had been looking for a replacement pair of rear home cinema speakers as I had recently moved house and the existing budget Eltax bookshelf speakers were slightly too big and deep for wall mounting, not to mention the fact that they were rear ported so an upgrade was required. A quick browse on Richer Sound's website gave me a shortlist of three, but the JBL Control One Speakers won the day thanks to their price, reviews, front bass reflex port and the fact they were already supplied with unobtrusive mounting brackets. [...]
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