Will this new mirrorless camera
benefit beginners?
Will this camera help develop your skills?
The GX7 has lots of scene modes that let
beginners take great images without knowing all the settings to use, but there
are also plenty of features to grow into. There is also a wide range of lenses
you can buy depending on your shooting style.
The Panasonic LUMIX GX7 is a creative
DSLM street camera that brings an artisan's vision to life
Boasting a wide-angle lens, a 30x optical
and 60x digital zoom (giving it a huge 35mm equivalent range of 24-720mm) and a
12MP sensor, as well being only just over $330, the Canon PowerShot SX510 HS is
a nifty little camera. If you are on a budget but looking for something that
will take nice landscape shots, as well as capture sharp long distance shots,
this will certainly impress.
A small, although not pocket-sized camera,
the SX510 HS’s build is sturdy, and as all the important buttons are
intuitively placed, it feels natural to operate. With a side grip that
protrudes far out, the SX510 HS can easily be used one-handed – this is also
helpful when you are zooming into the distance, as you can keep the shot
steady. Shooting modes here include Manual, Aperture Priority, Shutter
Priority, as well as Program and Automatic, giving enough of a selection to
keep creative options open. Viewing images on the three-inch screen gives great
colour rendition, but there is no viewfinder, so using the screen can be tough
on bright days as it will reflect the sun. There is, however, built-in Wi-Fi,
GPS tagging and full HD video.
With
the Panasonic Image App, you can use a smartphone or tablet to
control zoom, set focus, and shoot remote from a distance
Importantly, image quality is great, with
bright, vivid colours and a great tonal range. However, the best results are
produced from daytime shooting or by using the flash. The ISO ranges from
100-3200 so you can shoot in low light, although at ISO 800 noise starts to
become prevalent. As mentioned before, here is a built-in flash that takes a
while to ready, but when used is powerful, even if it isn’t automatic and you
need to manually raise it. There was a presence of purple fringing too, with a
slight lean to overexposure, but the zoom managed to keep shots sharp even when
zoomed right in.
All in all, with the $595 price bracket in
mind, you get a lot for your money. From manual shooting modes to an excellent
zoom range, plus prints that can be enlarged, the Canon SX510 HS isn’t perfect
but is a solid option for those on a budget.
The LUMIX GX7 is a hybrid creative camera
featuring full-HD 1920 x 1080/60p smooth, high quality video recording in AVCHD Progressive and MP4 format with stereo
sound
With manual options and helpful features,
it’s a great budget option, but a viewfinder and better ISO performance would
improve it greatly.
Specifications:
·
Image sensor size: 17.3 x 13.0 mm
·
Camera effective pixels: 16.00 Megapixels
·
Image quality: RAW, RAW+Fine, RAW+Standard,
Fine, Standard,
MPO+Fine, MPO+Standard
·
Viewfinder: LCD Live (2,764,800 dots
equivalent)
·
Focus: Contrast AF system
·
Shutter: Focal-plane shutter
·
Monitor size: 3.0inch (7.5cm)/ 3:2 Aspect /
Wide-viewing angle
The pros & cons
·
A great camera that has a lot to offer in
terms of features
·
The 30x optical zoom lets you get in really
close to subjects
·
The aperture range of f3.4-5.8 is limiting but
will still give some blurring
·
ISO performance could be better, with noise
appearing at ISO 800
|