The Lab | Stuff-Review

The Olympus OM-D E-M5 is here: first impressions

May 2, 2012 at 3:41 pm

We finally have the Olympus OM-D E-M5 with us, and anyone not familiar with this small Micro Four Thirds wonder camera can check out our entire coverage here. Note that we’ve opted for the $1,099 kit with the 14-42mm lens and we’ll be taking the camera through its paces over the coming weeks.

As we like to spend some time with a gadget before we review it, I thought it would be wise to bring you some first impressions of this mirrorless interchangeable lens camera after a few days of use.

There’s a lot to like with this camera, Olympus has thrown everything but the kitchen sink into it, and it’s a serious contender against even much bigger DSLRs. Still there are a couple of niggles, but read on for our first impressions.
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Display shootout: HTC One X vs. Galaxy Nexus (vs. iPad 3) screen comparison

Featured The Lab

April 18, 2012 at 6:02 pm

The two hottest Android smartphones right now are the new 4.7-inch HTC One X and the incumbent 4.65-inch Galaxy Nexus that we have reviewed in-depth here. A key hardware distinction between the two is the use of different display technologies. Both have a 720p resolution, but the Samsung Galaxy Nexus features a PenTile Matrix Super AMOLED display while the HTC One X has a standard RGB Super IPS LCD2 screen. You can read more about the differences between Samsung’s PenTile Matrix technology and standard RGB here.

Now, we can easily argue that the display is probably the single most important hardware feature of any mobile device so we’ll be taking an in-depth look between the two Android smartphones. We also have a 3rd generation iPad handy with its amazingly sharp and most importantly color accurate display, so we’ll occasionally be throwing it in our comparison for good measure.
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Olympus OM-D E-M5 size comparison to the Sony NEX-7, Panasonic GX1 and Fujifilm X-Pro1

The Lab

February 18, 2012 at 9:24 am

If you are a friend of mirrorless digital cameras it probably means that compactness is high on your priority list. Though much info has been coming in on the autofocus speed and high-ISO performance of the newly announced Olympus OM-D E-M5 Micro Four Thirds (MFT) camera, we haven’t really tackled its size compared to other mirrorless camera.
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Olympus E-M5 vs. Fujifilm X-Pro1 vs. Panasonic GX1 vs. Sony NEX-7 comparison

The Lab

February 9, 2012 at 5:36 pm

We needn’t say much on the state of the competition in the compact mirrorless interchangeable lens camera (MILCs) space. In the short period of a few months we’ve seen the release of some pretty amazing high-end mirrorless shooters with very distinct design and engineering decisions and featuring a number of innovations.

The latest entrant is the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Micro Four Thirds (MFT) digital camera that has claimed a number of firsts. It’s the first MFT rangefinder-style camera with a built-in EVF and the first with a weather-sealed body, it is also the first ever camera with 5-axis image stabilization, while Olympus is claiming that the camera has the fastest autofocus of any interchangeable lens camera.
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Fujifilm X-Pro1 vs. Panasonic GX1 vs. Sony NEX-7 vs. Olympus E-P3 comparison

The Lab

January 8, 2012 at 6:31 pm

Digital mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras (MILCs) have gone a long way since Panasonic released the first Micro Four Thirds camera over 3 years ago. During this time, we’ve seen practically all major camera manufacturers (except Canon) entering the space that was once the privilege of multi-thousand dollar Leica Rangefinders. Fujifilm showed us what they can do with a high-end compact camera in their excellent fixed-lens FinePix X100 shooter last year. Now, Fujifilm plans to release a new X-series MILC system led by their X-Pro1 camera.

Despite coming late to the party, Fujifilm intends to enter with a bang. The X-Pro1 has Leica-like controls with individual shutter speed and exposure compensation dials, while each lens has a manual aperture ring. Fujifilm has also improved on the X100’s hybrid electronic/optical viewfinder, and the second generation has found its way in the X-Pro1.

In our comparison below we have pitted the Fujifilm X-Pro1 against the best of the competition, the Panasonic GX1, the Sony NEX-7 and the Olympus E-P3. All four share the same rangefinder-style body, though not all come with a built-in viewfinder. It’s interesting to note that the X-Pro1 includes a number of technologies which are unique, including the new X-Trans CMOS sensor and hybrid viewfinder.
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Panasonic GX1 vs. Sony NEX-7 vs. Fujifilm X100 vs. Olympus E-P3 comparison

The Lab

November 7, 2011 at 10:47 am

With the successor to the GF1 finally announced, Panasonic is coming back strongly to the space it helped create. The Panasonic GX1 is the company’s new high-end rangefinder style mirorrless camera. But, as we’ve discussed in our initial in-depth coverage, unlike its predecessor it’s coming up against some very serious competition.

To put things into perspective, we’ve the GX1 against the top competitors from Sony, Fujifilm and Olympus. Our comparison includes the super-high-end NEX-7 with an APS-C sensor and the amazing OLED EVF, the excellent fixed lens APS-C Fujifilm FinePix X100 (full review here) and a fellow Micro Four Thirds camera, the Olympus E-P3. So, read on to check out how our new MILC holds up.
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Sony Alpha A65 in-camera JPEG vs. RAW high ISO image quality test

The Lab

October 28, 2011 at 1:45 pm

Having had the Sony Alpha A65 in our hands for a couple of days now, we are slowly getting to grips with what this 24-megapixel APS-C Exmor sensor SLT shooter is capable of. One of the first things we noticed, during our initial hands-on with the A65, was the level of noise in the images at ISO 800 and higher, but also the high level of in-camera noise reduction applied to JPEGs. I have to confess that using the Fujifilm X100 for the past few months has certainly spoiled me in terms of low-light high ISO performance and out of the camera JPEGs; but that’s another story.

A higher level of noise is expected at the camera’s full 6,000×4,000 output resolution, as is usually the case with packing more pixels in the same sensor area. A lot of this noise will become non-visible as you scale down images for print or screen uses. Starting with a higher level of noise at a higher resolution is not all that bad. However, because of this — the larger images and noise levels — we’ve found that the images from the camera benefit from some serious post processing. Note, our findings with the A65, will also apply to the A77.
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Sony Alpha SLT-A65 initial hands-on, OLED EVF and high ISO tests

The Lab

October 25, 2011 at 5:17 pm

Despite the ominous signs on general availability of the Sony A65, we’ve already confirmed that the camera is shipping to a few lucky individuals in the US.

Stuff-Review has managed to snatch one of the first Sony Alpha SLT-A65 DSLT cameras to ship. This is an initial hands-on with the camera, which is an actual final production unit, and we’ll be sharing some first impressions and test results. As we spend more quality time with the A65 we will update you on our finds.
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Fujifilm X100 startup time and SD card write speed tests; how to make the X100 faster

Guides The Lab

October 23, 2011 at 4:47 pm

The X100 shoots amazing photos, in general, and some of the best low-light pictures of any compact camera — it looks the part too. You can read our in-depth real world review here. Unfortunately, it’s not a speed demon; specifically, auto focus, startup time and SD card write speeds are relatively slow. This means that it’s not the ideal action shooter.

Nevertheless, there are things that you can do to get the camera to perform faster. The X100 includes a ‘Quick Start Mode’, which Fuji claims to reduce startup time to about 0.7 seconds compared to about 2.2 seconds when the mode is off. This mode is accessible on page 3 in setup. Fuji however, warns that, setting the mode to on will drain your battery, reducing the number of shots per charge.

It’s also been suggested that a fast SD card will help reduce startup times and of course file write times. So, with this suggestion we set out to test the X100’s performance with three different SD cards: a top of the range SanDisk Extreme Pro card claiming 45MB/s write speeds, a SanDisk Extreme III card with 30MB/s write speeds and finally a cheaper Transcend 16GB Class 10 card.

We measured the amount of time between switching the camera on and the camera becoming responsive, i.e. being able to focus, first, with the quick start mode off, and again with the quick start mode on for each of the three SD cards.

Then, we shot eight continuous RAW files, with each of the cards, in burst mode, and measured the time between pressing the shutter button, taking the 8 shots and the camera becoming responsive again, after writing the files to the SD card.

You can see the results, of our lengthy tests, below — note that we examined the video of our tests in slow-motion to assess the time better and avoid reaction time errors:
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Amazon Kindle Fire vs. B&N Nook Color spec showdown

The Lab

October 8, 2011 at 5:49 am

It’s no secret that the upcoming Amazon Kindle Fire tablet has B&N’s Nook Color (NC) in its sights. The two have a lot in common, both have books and magazines deeply embedded in their DNA and both run a very customized Android experience, they are also two of the cheapest 7-inch Android tablet offerings out there. It might not be completely fair to compare the two though, as the Nook Color is a year older, but until B&N comes out with a Nook Color 2, it remains the Kindle Fire’s main competitor.

The Fire wins in terms of processing power and initial reports state that the experience is very smooth, the NC can get a bit slow at times, showing its age. Amazon has a huge cloud presence and its putting it to work with the Fire, which lacks on storage options, Amazon envisions your music and videos stored in its cloud. The Fire also utilizes Amazon’s cloud with its Silk browser which will offer an accelerated browsing experience.

Neither tablet has access to the official Android Market, but the Fire wins in this regard, because the Amazon app store simply has more apps than the Nook. On the other hand the Nook Color is one of the most ‘hackable’ devices out there, so if you get bored with B&N’s customized experience you can quite easily run standard Android with the full Android Market. The Nook Color also wins on looks; the Fire is a standard all-black rounded affair.

For the full spec lowdown between the Fire and the NC head after the break. Be sure to also read our very extensive review of the Nook Color and how much we like its magazine app.
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Microsoft previews Windows 8, our quick overview; plus you can download your copy today

News The Lab

September 13, 2011 at 5:15 pm

Microsoft just showed-off the next big version of Windows, to a room packed full of developers, at the BUILD conference. Windows 8 features two interfaces, one resembling the current Windows interface and a more touch friendly Metro-style interface — which you can see in the screenshot above. This allows Windows 8 to feel at home on normal desktops, touchscreen all-in-ones, tablets, laptops, you name it.

However Windows 8 is not just a change of appearances, the new operating system features a lot of improvements, we’ve already seen how Windows 8 will speed-up your boot times, and new features compared to Windows 7. We’ve compiled below a list of features which we think are interesting, from today’s official preview.
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Sony Alpha A77 vs. A65 vs. NEX-7 vs. Fujifilm Finepix X100 comparison

The Lab

August 29, 2011 at 9:24 am

We’ve already shown you how Sony’s NEX-7 digital camera stacks up against other high-end compact shooters. However, Sony also announced a pair of incredibly specced single-lens translucent (SLT) cameras, the Alpha A65 and Alpha A77, poised to take conventional Nikon and Canon mid-range DSLRs head-on. We will soon have a look at how these compare to DSLR cameras at the same price range.

Now, we have compiled a comparison between these three higher-end Sony cameras, the Alpha A77, A65 and NEX-7. We are finding it just so damn hard to decide between them, we are sure you as well, and time has started ticking as all cameras are already available to pre-order, so hopefully this will help. We’ve also added our current favorite camera, the Fujifilm FinePix X100, to the mix. Head over after the link for a detailed spec comparison.
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Sony NEX-7 vs. Fujifilm X100 vs. Olympus E-P3 vs. Panasonic DMC-GF3

The Lab

August 24, 2011 at 7:18 pm

Sony’s just announced NEX-7 digital camera is a real contender as the new king in the compact mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera realm. We’re sure that you are itching, same as we, to see how it stacks up against the competition. We’ve pitted the NEX-7 against two Micro Four Thirds (MFT) cameras, the new Olympus E-P3 and the Panasonic GF3 — although we are sure Panasonic is secretly cooking a high end shooter, the GF3 is currently their higher end compact MFT camera. We’ve also added the excellent fixed lens Fujifilm FinePix X100 to our comparison; the NEX-7 shares some of same genes having a no-nonsense retro look, APS-C sensor and lots of controls. Head over after the link to see a spec fight-out.
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2011 MacBook Air Sandy Bridge benchmark

News The Lab

July 25, 2011 at 5:24 pm

We’ve had a feeling that the new MacBook Airs, featuring Intel second generation Core processors — a.k.a. Sandy Bridge — would be fast; we just didn’t know how fast.

Well we’ve taken our new 2011 11-inch MacBook Air running on a Core i5 1.60GHz processor, which is actually the lower spec’d of the new MBAs, and benchmarked it using 32-bit Geekbench. The results, which you can see after the break, are pretty impressive.
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