Nikon Coolpix 950 Digital Supported

Looking for a great, high megapixel camera that will meet practically all of your daily photography needs? Well, look no further than the Canon PowerShot SX40 HS. This camera looks great and you could fault it for a D-SLR camera. What’s actually unbelievable regarding the SX40 HS is it is long 35x zoom range, coupled with that 12-megapixel camera resolution. Yes, you read that right – a 35x zoom range – which translates to a very powerful camera with telephoto reach. Read on and find out more in regards to it.

1. Design and Construction

What does the SX40 HS look like? Well, as you may see from the picture, the unit itself is neither compact nor light. Its dimensions are 3.6 by 4.8 by 4.2 inches (HWD) and it weighs in at 1.3 pounds. It’s competitor, the Nikon Coolpix P500 is slimmer and lighter by comparison.

The Canon PowerShot SX40 HS comes with a metal body with a few plastic elements. I like the fact that there’s a very deep handgrip which lets you hold the camera firmly. Throw in the SX40′s optical stabilization system and it means you may get a sharp photo at the extreme end of it is zoom range. I tried zooming closely 35x on the SX40 HS, without a tripod or monopod, and my pictures still came out beauteous good and sharp.

2. Optics and Resolution

When it comes to long range zoom, very few non-digital SLR type cameras may match the Canon PowerShot SX40 HS. The 35x zoom range is better than a lot of digital SLRs equipped with telephoto lenses and is surely one of the syndication points of the camera.

With it is 12 megapixel resolution, you’d suppose that photos taken with the SX40 HS to be particularly sharp. Incidentally, I got to know with regards to the Imatest software suite – which may be applied to measure cameras’ performance in terms of effigy sharpness and noise. So here’s what I did – to evaluate sharpness, I shot assorted photos of a test chart and analyzed them using a center-weighted algorithm. The SX40 HS averaged 1,836 lines per picture height, which outperforms the 1,800-line benchmark that qualifies an effigy as being acceptably sharp.

I’ve tried a great deal of cameras in the past, including the Kodak EasyShare Max Z990 which packs a 30x zoom lens, records a somewhat higher 1,946 lines. So in terms of effigy sharpness, the SX40 HS is not the best – but I think it is other features more than make up for that.

3. User Controls

Many cameras have very obscure or weird control placements. The Canon PowerShot SX40 HS doesn’t have this problem. There are plenteous control buttons on the SX40′s body – a top-mounted dial lets you alter among shooting modes, and there’s a neat rear four-way jog wheel to scroll through menus, adjust ISO, set exposure compensation, activate the self-timer, and so forth.

The Canon designers plainly got the design of the menu scheme correct. In fact, the Canon SX40 HS menu scheme is one of the best I’ve seen around – comparable even to the top end DSLR cameras. You may quickly access most of the mutual controls you’d encounter in a digital camera, without having to click all around menu after menu. I likewise like the fact that the SX40′s pop-up flash is manually operated. All I need to do is flip it up when you’d like to use it. Enthusiasts who want a better flash may fit in units like the Canon Speedlite flash, using the committed hot shoe.

4. Battery Life

The Canon PowerShot SX40 boasts a very good and long lasting battery life. I could be outdoors shooting photos like no one’s business and the battery would still be OK. This contrasts strongly to a lot of of the older Canon cameras I have, where the battery just dies on you when you’re lining up for a very primary shot.

5. Storage and Transfer

OK, the Canon PowerShot SX40 HS supports all manner of media cards – Secure Digital, Secure Digital High Capacity and Secure Digital Extended Capacity. The camera records 1080p24 QuickTime video – which in my opinion, looks rather good. To copy photos and video into your PC, you may plug the camera into your computer thru mini USB to copy the files. Alternatively, you may connect the camera to an HDTV thru mini HDMI. My family loves to do that – plug a digital camera to a big TV and get enjoyment from the photos and video.

6. Shortcomings

I feel that the Canon PowerShot SX40 HS is a great camera – but it falls short in a few areas. For one thing, the camera isn’t cheap! And altho it has a powerful 35x zoom lenses, I could tell that it’s performance in low light is not so good – specially equated to it is challengers like the Nikon Coolpix P500, which captures clean images in as little as one quarter the light as the SX40.

Conclusion

All in all, the Canon PowerShot SX40 HS is a outstanding camera with a powerful 35x zoom range. It has a host of modern features which concede you to take picture after picture with ease. The quality of the photo shots are way above intermediate and is surely one of the better digital cameras in it is class. Do check it out!

Nikon Coolpix 950 Digital Supported

Why waste a thousand words?

Photos tell stories. And the more you may do with your digital camera, the better the story you may tell. So build a remote control and sneak up on that picture that keeps eluding you. Create an adapter that lets you use SLR-type lenses on your point-and-shoot. Play with lens exposure or manufacture a pinhole lens. Beef up flash memory. And that’s just where the tale begins. The ending is up to you.

Hack any digital camera

Illustrated step-by-step directions for more than 20 hacks, including:

• Building triggers
• Accessing raw sensor data
• Making accessory lens adapters
• Eliminating the infrared blocking filter
• Extending lenses
• Making reverse macro adapters
• Building a monopod
• Creating bicycle and car mounts
• Hacking microdrives from other devices

Nikon Coolpix 950 Digital Supported Pic

Nikon Coolpix 950 Digital Supported Picture

Nikon Coolpix 950 Digital Supported Pic

Nikon Coolpix 950 Digital Supported Picture

Nikon Coolpix 950 Digital Supported Image

Nikon Coolpix 950 Digital Supported Picture

Most helpful customer reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
Scary but Fun
By Conrad J. Obregon
When I see a picture in a camera book illustrating how I can open a digital camera and get at the insides to make modifications, I get scared. The thought of taking the guts out of my camera is like the thought of major surgery to my internal organs. And yet as I read through the “hacks” proposed by the author, I found just reading about them to be fun, even if I wasn’t going to undertake any of these projects (or at least not most.)

Years ago a hacker was a person who modified software to adapt it to his or her own purposes. Over time it’s also come to mean a malicious person who deliberately attacks the functioning of computers, but the author is using this earlier meaning.

In this book, Cheng tells of a variety of simple modifications that one can make to cameras and other photographic equipment to allow them to be used to extend their capabilities. Some are quite simple like building a remote trigger for a camera, or a battery pack that can be tucked inside the user’s jacket for winter shooting. Other projects are more complex, like getting data in the RAW format from cameras that normally only deliver JPEG files. And I wondered why one would want to open up an MP3 player to remove its micro drive. (The answer is because the particular player with micro drive was at one time actually cheaper than a separate micro drive that could be inserted directly in a camera.) The projects are well explained, and illustrated with plenty of photographs. The equipment needed for the hacks is inexpensive, and the tools are readily available in most homes.

Now I have to tell you that if I wanted a camera with a tripod socket on it, I would buy one that was so equipped. But I can see that a certain kind of do-it-yourselfer might have a socketless camera on hand and regard it as a nice challenge. Ditto for a camera that shot RAW files, especially if I would have to learn how to decode the raw file after I had downloaded it. On the other hand, if I had a camera that needed a filter holder but had no provision for the device, I’d certainly consider one of the author’s hacks.

Most of the projects are aimed at the modification of specific equipment but they can easily be translated to other cameras. For the more complex hacks, the author can both provide you with an idea for a project and a site on the web where you might be able to find detailed instructions.

Because this book probably only appeals to a small audience, the publisher has probably had to keep the production costs down. The quality of the paper is not high and the photographs of the project steps are of a rudimentary, but sufficient nature.

I have to confess that what this book most reminded me of was the project books that I got for my kids’ science fairs. I loved to browse through these books, and I always wondered why my kids never tried any of the cool projects. Maybe now, I can try a project for myself.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Have soldering iron, will take pictures…
By Thomas Duff
Want to really live on the edge with your digital camera? Perhaps even void the warranty? Hacking Digital Cameras by Chieh Cheng and Auri Rahimzadeh might be to your liking if you want to build your own add-ons without spending a bundle…

Contents:
Part 1 – Hacking Cameras: Building Triggers; Adding a Tripod Socket to Your Camera; Accessing Raw Sensor Data; Hacking Power; Controlling Your Digital Camera from Afar; Improving Your Canon EOS Digital Rebel
Part 2 – Hacking Lenses: Using Accessory Lenses; Making an Accessory Lens Adapter; Changing the Lens Magnification; Making Your Own Pinhole Lens; Extending the Lens on Canon EOS Cameras; Making Reverse Macro Adapters; Modifying the Canon EF-S Lens for Use on Canon EF Mounts
Part 3 – Create Photography Hacks: Hacking with Filters; Shooting Infrared Pictures with Your Digital Camera; Eliminating the IR Blocking Filter from Your Digital Camera
Part 4 – Building Fun Camera Tools: Building a Car Camera Mount; Building a Headrest Camera Mount; Building a Spycam Mount for Your Bicycle; Building a Camera Stabilizer; Building a Flash Bracket; Building a Monopod; Making a 500-Watt Home Studio Light
Part 5 – Flash Memory Hacks: Modifying the CF Type I to PC Card Type II Adapter; Removing the 4GB Microdrive from the Creative Nomad MuVo2 MP3 Player; Removing the Microdrive from the Rio Carbon 5GB MP3 Player; Removing the 4GB Microdrive from the Apple iPod Mini
Appendixes: Soldering Basics; Circuit Symbols; Glass Cutting Basics; Photographer’s Glossary; Index

If you’re the tinkering type that loves to take things apart to see how they work, you’ll find stuff here that I haven’t seen in other photography books. I think this is the first book I’ve seen with a section on taking your camera apart… literally. Once apart, you can start adding things like shutter triggers to give you more options than a timed 10 second delay. I guess you could also just go out and buy something that already does that, but what’s the fun in that? But not everything is quite as adventurous as that. If you have a camera with no tripod mount, there’s a nice hack that shows you how to add one. You can go big time and actually build a block that you can velcro your camera to, or it can be as simple as gluing on a nut that’s the same size as your tripod screw. Something I wouldn’t have thought of…

To be honest, I’m not sure I’d have the guts to try a lot of this stuff. I’m not good with tools, and prying open my camera would cause bad things to happen. Maybe not to you, but it would to me. As such, I’m probably not the intended audience for this book. But I was surprised to see what you could do with a little ingenuity and a soldering iron. I can see where this book would offer hours of entertainment for the right type of photographer/geek…

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
tinker away
By W Boudville
Here is another benign use of the word “Hack”. Meaning to tinker with, or experiment. The authors indulge fully in this meaning of the word, as applied to digital cameras. The activities described are almost all hardware related. That is, hands on, manual tinkering.

Such as making triggers. An entire chapter is devoted to this. You can see that the issues here are not so different from building triggers for analog cameras. A trigger is a basic and important extended functionality for many camera users.

There is much other experimental functionality given. The most interesting seems to be taking infrared photographs. Many digital cameras do respond in the IR. Unlike standard photographic film, which favours the visible spectrum. So whereas with an analog camera, you would need special IR film, if you have a digital camera, it should already have a decent IR sensitivity. For some of you, this may be an unexpected bonus of using a digital camera.

Two chapters do deal mostly with software. One involves getting raw sensor data from Casio or Nikon cameras, and then using some publicly available software to decode these into a more standard graphics format. While the other chapter is about programming a remote control for the camera.

See all 8 customer reviews…