Camera Labs

Hello there, welcome to Cameralabs, where you'll find unbiased and in-depth reviews of the latest digital cameras.

Please use the forum to let us know what you'd like to see more (or less) of on this site, and if you have any questions about what we've done or how we do it, feel free to ask.

Thanks for visiting the site and we hope to see you back again soon,

Gordon

hey

just wanted to say great site loads of infomation and sweet design ill defintely be coming here a lot

oh and took me ages to register only jkust realised that the confimation code has to be enter in capital lettrs

wondered why it was a little quiet around here!

all the best

jerryk

Congratulations and good luck with the new site Gordon!

Is it just me or are these not just like cut-down versions of the reviews over at dpreview.com? Or Imaging resource or dcresource for that matter? What's new here?
zippy

Hello cameraman / zippy, thanks for your message.

First of all, I think there's always room for a second, third, fourth or umpteenth opinion on a product. As you know there's plenty of camera magazines and websites available - I'm just offering an additional opinion.

As you also know from visiting other sites and reading the magazines, there are many standard charts and analysis tools we use for testing, so there are often similarities in our approaches and final presentations. I do however feel Camera Labs has a different overall approach and presentation to the other sites out there.

For instance our galleries have comments on how the photos were taken and why that particular product was good or bad for that kind of shot.

We're also testing lenses which many of the sites don't bother with.

And we're using a blog-style front-end approach to presenting news and gossip on the front page.

Yes, they're shorter reviews than those on some sites, but equally they're longer than some on others. I also have a different background from many of the sites, as a professional journalist who's been writing about cameras in the printed press for over a decade.

Ultimately though the reviews here are just another opinion which I hope you'll find useful. I know I always like to read the reviews from several different sources before making my own choices and I'm sure you're the same. I hope we end up being one of the sites you visit for those opinions.

If there's anything you'd like to see us cover on the site, just let me know.

Thanks,

Gordon

Congratulation with your site.

best regards
Kjetil S.
Tromsø, Norway

Hi Gordon, i "know" you from PCW, its good to know that you also share the Photo passion like the rest of us!

Just one wish, i liked your camera reviews and liked also the lens one, personally would like to see your tests always following the same pattern and methodology, as this way is easy to compare different products.

I am missing a lot a good lens review site, Photodo was a very good one because of the huge database and the precise MTF data. But thats over, and i think we need some alternative that can give us more precise reviews than just an biased opinion from the editor like so much magazines out there does. I like it a lot your lens data and the samples on corner, center, aberration, etc, very nice!!

Please review all brands too! personaly i am always trying to find Minolta, Tamron, sigma and tokina reviews

Good luck,
Luis

Hello Kjetil, thanks for your message - you've got some wonderful Northern Light shots on your website... I see you're using the Canon 5D for this - how's it working out?

Hi Luis, good to hear from you. I remember discussing your software project and also the news of Apple's switch to Intel processors. I still write my Inside Information and Hands On Hardware columns in Personal Computer World magazine every month.

I'm glad you liked the lens review - I agree, Photodo was an extremely impressive resource and it's a shame it no longer seems to be around. I hope you find the tests we're doing on lenses are useful - I have also been doing tests with sinusoidal-based MTF charts which I hope to include in future lens reviews at some point.

I'll definitely be doing more lens tests very soon though, so if there's any specific models you'd like to see tested or compared, please let me know and I'll see what I can do! I was thinking about comparing some of the 18-200mm class lenses, but if lots of people request the same models, I can prioritise them.

Thanks,

Gordon

Hi there,

Yes, this indeed looks like a promising site. Nice going so far,
I am just done with the wide zoom comparison article.
Its surprising how much people bash the kit lens sometimes.

Would you consider reviewing teleconverters?
i.e. the canon, tamron, kenko 1.4x and 2x
I am sure many would like to know if the canons are indeed
worth the price, or if the cheaper 3rd party ones would do.
And of cause there's are the perennial questions of
200mm + 2x tc better than 400mm prime?
300mm + 1.4x tc better than 400mm prime?
and so on...

Best Regards

Hi Gordon!

Like the concept (and the design Nik). Good to see that someone has taken a serious approach to lens reviews too. Not enough of those about in my opinion, with far too much focus on new bodies and megapixel numbers.

Don’t lose sight of the reasonably priced compact market either. Always a big traffic puller as many (the majority of?) consumers want something slim and small to carry about. Any website that demonstrates which digital compact can capture the best images is onto a winner.

As the site grows, I would love to see a user selectable, side-by-side lens comparison table that just carries a selection of the test shots (or crops taken at 100% from a standardised scene). You’ve already done this statically with the EF-S 17-85mm 4~5.6 IS USM lens, but if the reader can do it dynamically that would be very appealing.

As for reviews, the teleconverter roundup suggested above would be very interesting. I’d also like to see comparisons between the lens specialists and those made by Nikon and Canon. For example:

Canon EF300mm f2.8L IS USM
vs
Sigma 300mm f2.8 APO EX DG
vs
Tokina ATX Pro 300mm f2.8

Big price difference, but is it justified?

Good luck with the new venture!

Hi Scenar, thanks for your message.

I'm glad you liked the Canon zoom mini group test - yep, the kit lens certainly has its faults, but it really is surprisingly good for the price. We'll also soon publish a detailed review of the 17-40L which expands on these results with additional ones for the full-frame 5D body, along with those for the cropped 350D / Digital Rebel XT.

That's a great idea to do teleconverters, and I'll definitely schedule it for the near future. I also like your idea of combining it with a test comparing, as you suggest, a 200mm with 2x with a 400mm prime.

Hi Jalal, good to hear from you, and glad you also like the concept and design of the site. Don't worry, we definitely won't lose site of the compact end of the market, and are in fact planning a mini roundup of compacts as we speak.

As the site grows we'll also make the results available in a database so it'll be possible to choose your own products to compare side by side. I also like your idea of comparing premium fast primes from different manufacturers, as you're right, there can be a very large difference in price.

So more lens reviews coming very soon! This week though, look out for full reviews of the Fujifilm S9500 / S9000, Panasonic DMC-FZ30, Canon EOS 5D and Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-R1.

Cheers,

Gordon

Hi Gordon

Congratulations on the new site! Lens lesting is particularly useful and something the other review sites (although very worthy in many respects) seem to take less seriously. Your idea of a 18-200mm lens comparitive review is good, especially now that Nikon have launched their version (with vibration reduction). I would also not ignore the better digicompacts since some of us still prefer slide film and slide shows but are looking for the extra flexibility that a digital compact can offer. (Even a 35mm slide when projected to 60 x 40 inches knocks spots off any digi slide show or print!).

Best regards
Simon

hi Gordon!
congratulations for the new site!
I'm proud of being the first Italian user!

Good luck, I'll visit your site very often.
best regards
Guido

Hello Gordon.
Thank you.
I'm very satisfied with my 5D, but I see that my ordinary EF lenses eg. EF28/f1.8 is not good enough with aperture < f3.2 when I'm working with nightshots. The corners of the pictures is not sharp enough. So I have to spend some extra money and upgrade to EF24 or EF35/f1.4. When photographing Northern Lights you need lenses with spec. like this.
But the span of the contrast and the quality of the shots are great and if you perfer quality for your shots, its worth the price.

Have a nice day.
Best regards
Kjetil S.

Just found you via a link from Photography Blog. I am sure we will all find this an excellent resource.