The Nikon Coolpix AW100 represents the company’s initial offering in the rugged compact camera market. As youd expect from a camera in this category, it’s waterproof to 33′, shockproof to 5′, freezeproof to 14 F, and it has built-in GPS, making it great for all of your adventures.

The AW100 is a solid camera. The buttons on the back are a bit small and close together, but that sacrifice was made to fit the fantastic 3″ LCDa trade-off Id take any day. There’s a large Action Control button on the left side that allows you to change settings easily, even while wearing gloves.

Inside the tough exterior, the AW100 features a 16-megapixel CMOS sensor, a 5x zoom NIKKOR lens (28140mm equivalent), lens-shift vibration reduction, and 1080p video capture. All of this makes for a tempting camera, but there’s a catch. During testing, a lot of photos were soft and exposure was off, especially in contrasty photos. Changing the scene mode helped in most cases. This is where the real problem lies. There’s no manual setting, so you have to select from one of 20 scene modes, or use the Easy Auto mode. The best scene mode isn’t necessarily what you think it should be. For example, while attending an indoor party, I set the camera to Indoor Party mode, thinking it would be perfect. Most shots came out blurry (the flash was on). I switched to Nighttime Portrait and that improved the results exponentially. The point is that to achieve good, consistent results, you must first master the scene modes, understanding that you’ll have to experiment and find what works for you, not what the camera says will work. Then, you must be diligent and change your settings as the scene changes. In many cases, auto simply won’t cut it.

The Coolpix AW100 is a good camera, but there’s definitely room for improvement.

Company: Nikon Inc.
Price: $379.95
Web: www.nikonusa.com
Rating: 3.5
Hot: Solid build; great LCD screen
Not: No manual setting; no RAW; must master scene modes

A wide-angle zoom is definitely the way to go when photographing in this type of situation, whether it’s a car show, antique show, or anywhere that’s crowded or the subject is large, such as architecture. I was able to get close enough to the cars where nobody would walk in front of me, and still get the entire car in the shot. No small feat for a show of this size. The photos were sharp with great color and no chromatic aberration. The lens is well made, the controls are nicely weighted, and the size is right. The HSM (hyper-sonic motor) is smooth and quiet, and focus is quick and accurate.

Are there drawbacks? As you might expect from a wide-angle zoom, there’s some barrel distortion, mostly between 10 and 12mm, it begins to go away at 14mm, and in the 17–20mm range it’s gone. Lens vignetting follows a similar pattern, with 10mm displaying the most vignetting regardless of aperture.

The price on Sigma’s site might seem steep, but this lens costs about $650 at major online retailers. Similar lenses from Canon and Nikon cost about $770 and $800, respectively, from these same retailers. The price difference alone makes the Sigma well worth consideration.

Company: Sigma Corporation of America
Price: $950
Web: www.sigmaphoto.com
Rating: 4.5
Hot: Quality; true cost of lens; construction
Not: Distortion at widest angles

The creative folks at Lensbaby have been busy coming up with more lenses for their innovative Optic Swap System. According to Lensbaby, the Soft Focus Optic “…creates a velvety soft image perfect for portraits, flowers, landscapes, or any subject that needs a soft touch.” So how does this offering fare? As a user of other Lensbaby products, I was eager to find out.

I mounted the Lensbaby Composer (sold separately for $270) and the Soft Focus Optic on my trusty Nikon and put it to the test. The Composer handles the pivot (to choose the selective focus area) and focusing tasks, while the Soft Focus Optic produces the effect. My test results yielded a mixed bag. For example, in most of my test shots, the highlights were blown out, which produced the soft focus effect. In a few shots where the lighting was even and the subject had some lighter areas, the soft focus effect was quite nice. If you like the blown-out look, then you’ll be happy with the Soft Focus Optic. If you’re not a fan, you can use the optic when photographing neutral colors and achieve the soft effect without the blown-out highlights. When using a flash, you’ll get a pretty cool light pattern coming off the highlights, which can be a lot of fun.

The Soft Focus Optic works well if you have complete control over lighting or if you’re capable of relinquishing control and having fun with the shoot. Either way, with some patience and experimentation, you’ll get something you like out of it.—Mike Mackenzie

Company: Lensbaby Inc.
Price: $89.95
Website: www.lensbaby.com
Rating: 3.5
Hot: Nice soft-focus effect; flash patterns in highlights
Not: Blown-out highlights and light areas are overkill

Imagenomic added Lightroom support to its portrait-retouching plug-in, appropriately called Portraiture. Installation couldn’t be easier and you can access the plug-in by Right-clicking on the photo and choosing Edit In>Imagenomic Portraiture, or in the Develop module via Photo>Edit In>Imagenomic Portraiture. So how easy is it to use and how are the results?

When you launch Portraiture, a TIFF copy of the photo opens in the plug-in and the Default preset is automatically applied. For many applications, the Default settings are very good. If they don’t work for your photo or you’re going after a certain look, you can click the Presets pop-up menu and choose from eight presets. You can also create your own presets for a signature style or for consistency in an ad campaign, catalog, or portrait series. The best thing is everything is customizable, from the portrait settings to the view options to export and batch processing.

If you’re not sure where to begin, Portraiture includes a 39-page PDF Help  le to get you started, but they don’t leave
you hanging. They also have a user forum and several excellent video tutorials on their website. The video tutorials cover everything from various work ows to creating certain looks to making Lightroom droplets. I highly recommend watching them.

Portraiture does a great job of softening skin while preserving texture, and the various presets work with all skin tones. I prefer working in the before-and-after split-screen view because you can zoom into your photo and see both versions of the image.

The Navigator panel is a nice touch and makes it easy to pinpoint your retouching. Though the interface looks fairly simple, Portraiture is powerful and the results are impressive. There’s a free 15-day demo available. For anyone who’s serious about portrait retouching, Portraiture should be considered essential.

Company: Imagenomic, LLC
Price: $199.95
Web: www.imagenomic.com
Rating: 5

When the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS arrived, I was eager to put it to work. After all, a compact camera with a 20x optically stabilized zoom lens and RAW capture is enticing.

The SX1 IS includes full HD video capture (1920×1080 at 30fps), 25 shooting modes, and a host of other features, but the obvious star of this camera is the f/2.8–5.7, 20x zoom lens (28–560mm equivalent). Zoom operation is smooth, it’s quick to focus, and photos are sharp with nice color. The not-so-obvious star (but the scene-stealer for many) is the ability to capture RAW files. More compact cameras should include RAW capture, so thank you, Canon.

This camera is easy to use thanks to the thoughtful ergonomics, straightforward menu, and flexibility of the lens. Users can compose shots on the vari-angle 230,000-dot, 2.8″ LCD, which holds up quite well in bright light, or with the electronic viewfinder. The quality of the viewfinder was so marginal that I didn’t use it.

The 10-megapixel SX1 IS is billed as a serious camera. It’s the first PowerShot to incorporate Canon’s CMOS sensor, something previously reserved for their EOS cameras. It also uses the DIGIC 4 Image Processor with Face Detection Technology, Intelligent Contrast Correction, and Red-eye Correction. Photos are well exposed and contrast is excellent. So I have to ask why is noise evident at ISO 200 and prevalent at ISO 400? I wouldn’t use this camera above ISO 200.

One other problem is that with all these high-end features, and the high-end price, Canon made the power source four AA batteries. This camera deserves better, and the price demands it. Shoot at a low ISO and pack plenty of spares.—Mike Mackenzie

Company: Canon U.S.A., Inc
Price: $599.99
Web: www.usa.canon.com
Rating: 3

Hot: RAW capture; stabilized 20x zoom lens
Not: Noise; AA batteries; price

Canon PowerShot SX1 IS images

Click on a thumbnail for a larger image. All images ©Mike Mackenzie.

If you’re a Nikon shooter and you’ve been contemplating buying a reasonably priced, professional prime lens, you should give serious consideration to the new NIKKOR AF-S DX 35mm f/1.8G. What makes this lens so special? For less than $200, you get a fast, lightweight, well-made lens that features Nikon’s Silent Wave Motor, so focusing is quick and quiet.

The 35mm proved to be a versatile lens. With a minimum focusing distance of 12″, you can get close to flowers or any other subject for detail shots. I also used this lens at a quaint wildlife attraction with good results, especially in the dark reptile exhibit and the underwater viewing area.

The 35mm is a fantastic lens for photographing family gatherings. In my experience, a 50mm lens is a bit too long for intimate spaces and sometimes it’s not possible to back up enough to fit everything or everyone in the frame. This isn’t a concern with the 35mm lens. I used it in living rooms, at a restaurant, and on a back porch and never had an issue with the focal length. It’s easier to move a bit closer to frame a shot than to move a wall.

The lens is sharp at all f-stops, in all lighting conditions. Color and detail are incredible, and the bokeh is beautiful. I didn’t encounter lens vignetting, even when shooting with the included lens hood and sunlight coming from the side. There was no distortion in the images, and chromatic aberration was reasonably well controlled but did show up in photos with high-to-extreme contrast. It was faint but present.

If a wide-angle prime lens is in your future, have a look at the NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G. You’ll be glad you did.
—Mike Mackenzie

Company: Nikon USA
Price: $199.95
Web: www.nikonusa.com
Rating: 5
Phone: 631-547-4200

NIKKOR 35mm lens examples:

Click on thumbnail for larger image. All images © Mike Mackenzie