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Nikon and Canon have both released firmware updates for some of their new DSLRs (for Nikon, it’s for cameras that haven’t even been officially released yet, although a few stores seem to have started shipping them early).

Canon 1D Mark III

Canon has released firmware version 1.1.3 for the EOS-1D Mark III digital SLR. This update increases the transfer speed when using high speed SD cards, a “rare” case of the shutter not working if you got some bad timing just right, and improved autofocus tracking of low-contrast subjects.

Don’t forget that the AF improvements for bright environments were added in firmware 1.1.1. Canon just keeps seeming to find more AF issues to fix in the 1DMkIII. I don’t know if that means it had a lot of problem to begin with, or it just has picky customers who expect a lot, and who are alert for auto focus issues with the camera ever since they were first discovered a few months ago.

Nikon D3 and D300

The new firmware for the brand new Nikon D300 and equally brand new (and top-of-the line) Nikon D3 adds three optional Picture Controls, one for each of the three Nikon D2X/D2XS Color mode settings. Nikon says:

When these optional Picture Controls are registered with the D3, color reproduction simulating that of images captured with the D2X and D2XS is possible, and custom Picture Controls can also be created based on these optional Picture Controls. For black-and-white images, use the standard Monochrome Nikon Picture Control.

D2XMODE1
This optional Picture Control simulates color reproduction at a D2X/D2XS Color mode setting of I.
Skin tones and gradations are reproduced naturally with rich reproduction of tones.

D2XMODE2
This optional Picture Control simulates color reproduction at a D2X/D2XS Color mode setting of II.
This optional Picture Control is suited to images that will be extensively processed or retouched.

D2XMODE3
This optional Picture Control simulates color reproduction at a D2X/D2XS Color mode setting of III.
Choose for nature or landscape shots. Greens and blues are vividly reproduced.

“Look, D2X and D2XS owners!” Nikon says. “Easy upgrade path because of matching picture control modes! No reason not to buy a D3 now! Buy a D3 now!” Actually, buy two and send me one. That was me talking, not Nikon, but I’m sure Nikon supports that message.

Good old DPReview has come through for us yet again, this time with a review of the Olympus EVOLT E-510. Let’s see what they have to say about it.

First off, the reviewer loves the ergonomics. It’s a small camera (larger than the E-410, very similar in size to the Digital Rebel XTi) but the review says it feels balanced, comfortable, and “right.” As with the Panasonic L10, the E-510 uses the “Supersonic Wave Filter” (SSWF) dust removal system, which still seems to be the best one out there. The review points out that this triggers every time you turn on the camera, and can’t be disabled, meaning you have a delay when you turn the camera on that you can’t get around.

The ISO noise test images in the review are a little confusing. The Canon images look more detailed than the E-510 images, even at 100 ISO. At higher ISOs the difference is very pronounced, and the review points it out as noise reduction. My first time reading the review I was baffled by the blurred ISO 100 images and didn’t understand why the review wasn’t discussing them. Luckily they get to that on the following pages. Here’s what the review has to say about the noise performance:

From a noise point of view there’s little difference between these three ten megapixel digital SLRs up to ISO 400. At ISO 800 and 1600 the E-510 has the cleanest looking gray and black patches although this is clearly at the expense of detail lost to noise reduction, especially at ISO 1600. The noisiest ‘flat area’ patches come from the Nikon D40X although it doesn’t ‘smear’ as much detail at ISO 1600. From an overall performance point of view the Canon EOS 400D (Rebel XTi) with its CMOS sensor once more delivers the best compromise between noise and detail.

Apparently at ISO 100 the E-510 is still trying to do noise reduction, when there isn’t really any need for it. If you turn off the “Noise Filter” (and turn down sharpening, since it’s still trying to sharpen the blurry noise-reduced image) you get far more detail than with the standard settings. That’s a little strange, you’d think Olympus could set everything up right to give you good detail at ISO 100. In a way the camera seems to be optimized for higher ISO shooting (although, as the review points out, you’re still getting a lot of noise reduction at those levels.)

In fact, you can’t even turn off the noise filter all the way at ISO 1600; you can turn it to a lower level, but you’re still getting significant noise reduction and smearing of details. I’d always prefer that camera manufacturers leave settings like that up to the photographer and not try to second guess them (after all, you can always do better NR in Photoshop afterwards than in the camera.)

DPReview points out the noise reduction further in their discussion on image quality, which they’re not too excited about:

Our overall impressions of the E-510′s image quality are, unsurprisingly, pretty much exactly the same as they were when we tested the E-410; rather mixed. This is mainly due to the default settings, which produce very smooth (noise free) images, but images that lack critical detail. For many users the rather contrasty tone curve and bright, cheerful colors might produce images that are a little too ‘punchy’, but they always have the option to shoot RAW (the in-camera JPEG image parameters don’t offer enough range to really customize the output sufficiently).

Turning the noise filter off (and turning the sharpening down) produces superb results at lower ISO settings, but noise starts to rear its ugly head at ISO 400, something that — along with the limited dynamic range (and resultant highlight clipping) is almost certainly a direct consequence of the smaller sensor surface area.

The reviewer says that the limited dynamic range (0.7 EV less than the 400D or D40X, although similar to the Pentax K10D) is his biggest issue with the camera. He also calls the metering “erratic,” pointing out that that’s not really want you want to see when your dynamic range is limited to begin with:

The consequences are clipped highlights, particularly on bright, contrasty days when the only way to ensure you don’t lose highlight detail is through very careful exposure/metering (the metering tends to over exposure when faced with too much dynamic range). Shooting RAW with a -0.7 EV compensation significantly increases your chances of capturing the full range of tones in the scene, but you’ll eventually hit the dynamic range wall — and you can’t put back what was never captured.

Be sure to check out their samples comparing noise reduction settings. The difference is pretty amazing. It was big enough that they did their sample photo comparison between the E-510′s defaults, the E-510 with their improved settings, and then with other cameras, something I’ve never noticed them do before.

With all that said, the review concludes stating that the overall impression of the E-510 was “very positive.” On the good side, the image stabilization is good, handling is excellent, the kit lens is good, the SSWF dust reduction system is good. For all the negatives, the camera still comes out highly recommended:

If it had a better sensor (less noise and better dynamic range) the E-510 would be a strong candidate for category winner; as it is you’ll need to decide if the slight compromises the sensor demands are going to affect the type of pictures you take.

As always with DPReview, there’s a lot more detail in the full review, as well as full resolution sample photos, and is well worth checking out.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I hope you had deliciously gigantic servings of turkey, stuffing, and the ground-up guts of sub-par digital cameras. Let’s get back to hopefully better cameras with Camera Labs’ review of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-L10.

The L10 has an interesting Intelligent ISO feature which, according to the review, “detects subjects in motion and increases the ISO if necessary to allow a sufficiently fast shutter speed to freeze the action.”

It also has what the review calls the “now-legendary Super Sonic Wave Filter” which was also available on Olympus DSLRs:

In our tests with Olympus DSLRs on which the SSWF made its debut, we found it was the most effective at hiding dust marks, even if the particles weren’t always physically shaken free.

Sounds good to me. It sounds like the theory is that the filter is far enough away from the sensor that any dust particles that accumulate on it will be sufficiently blurred so that they don’t interfere with the image. Plus it’ll do the usual dust shake to try to shake them off. They left the lens off of the camera inside and outside for 20 minutes, and saw only two faint, blurry dust blobs at f/22.

The review turns up excellent results for the Panasonic’s lens-based image stabilization system, coming up with three stops of improvement in their 100mm test:

Interestingly our best results were with OIS Mode 1, where we managed to grab an almost 100% sharp result at just 1/6. To achieve a similar result without stabilisation required a shutter of 1/50, which gives the OIS system a decent three-stop benefit in practice, or four stops over traditional wisdom.

They’re reasonably happy with the build quality, saying that it’s a step up from the Canon Digital Rebel XTi build:

In terms of build quality, we’d say the L10 is a small step-up from the 400D / XTi and has a classier, less plasticky feel to it. The L10’s grip is also taller and deeper, which with the textured rubber coating, gives it a more serious look while also being more comfortable to hold. Overall its build quality and finish looks and feels closer to models like the Nikon D80. The Leica 14-50mm is also a big step-up in build quality over most kit lenses.

The review points out that the L10 is the only DSLR on the market with a fully articulated LCD display, which is pretty amazing:

…it’s almost unbelievable to think the L10 is the only DSLR on sale at the time of writing to offer it –– since the Olympus E-330 is long-discontinued and the flagship E-3 is yet to arrive. It gives the L10 a unique advantage over its rivals.

Indeed. It’s interesting that the L10 gives you two dials for spinning between options, which isn’t very common on introductory-level DSLRs, but still doesn’t give you a dedicated LCD screen to display camera settings. If I had to choose only one of those two things, I don’t know which it would be, but right now I might be leaning towards the LCD screen (if only because I’m more used to having that, with my current Digital Rebel XT.)

Speaking of the Canons, the review compares the high ISO noise performance between the L10 and the Digital Rebel XTi, and finds that the Canon comes out ahead at high ISOs:

The Lumix L10 delivers detailed images from 100 to 400 ISO which look similar to those from the Canon EOS 400D / XTi. At 800 ISO though, the L10′s image quality drops noticeably, and again at 1600 ISO. The Canon’s quality also falls at these settings, but less so than the L10. As such the L10 exhibits similar noise performance to the Olympus E-510 — which is what we’d expect given the same sensor. Like the E-510, the Lumix L10 offers a variety of noise reduction settings and we have examples of each at the bottom of the page.

The review’s main negative points about the L10 are:

• Smaller optical viewfinder than in other DSLRs
• Slow continuous shooting speed, which slows even more at higher sensitivities
• Price.

Maybe price should be listed a few times. As the review states — and as so many L10 reviews have already stated — the L10 is an improvement over the cheapest DSLRs out there, but is the improvement worth the huge difference in price? I’d say no, because that’s really a huge price difference. The Camera Labs review leaves it more undecided:

The biggest problem facing the L10 though is price. Perhaps Panasonic has wisely chosen not to compete at the cut-throat level of models like the Canon 400D / XTi, Nikon D40x and Sony A100. And by equipping it with a superior, stabilised kit lens and features like Live View and a flip-out screen, it’s certainly a step-up from these budget models.

But how big a step? Is it really worth double the price of the 400D / XTi kit, or around $500 USD more than the Olympus E-510 twin lens bundle? In fact, for a little less than the L10 kit, you could buy a Canon EOS 40D, albeit without a lens.

In fact, the high price of the L10 was able to knock the review verdict down a level:

Had the L10 been available in a cheaper kit without too many optical compromises as a result, it would have easily earned our Highly Recommended rating, but as it stands at the current asking price against the competition, we’ll have to go with our Recommended award. If you’re after a cheaper DSLR kit or a traditional semi-pro model, then there’s simply better options out there. But if you value the L10’s unique features and want to buy into a system with a decent kit lens from day-one, then Panasonic’s second DSLR definitely comes Recommended.

Honestly, I think Panasonic might have shot themselves in the foot with this one. Canon and Nikon are the big guns of DSLRs, and consumers know that. Olympus, a less prominent player, can complete with their E-510 because it has a great combination of features and low price. The L10, however, gives you a very nice lens and some good features, but at a price that means it’s begging to be compared to better cameras (as the review says, it’s a similar price to a Canon 40D without a lens.) That’s going to be a tough sell.

Go now to Rob Galbraith’s site to see the best collection of pre-release Nikon D3 sample photos anywhere on the Interwebs.

He has full resolution images ranging from ISO 200 to ISO 25600, from three different photographers. These are real-world images, some with post-processing done, some with no processing done (some have been sharpened, noise-reduced with Noise Ninja, or otherwise adjusted.)

Interestingly, one of the cameras shows a number of defects:

Photos from this preproduction D3 body show quite a few dead pixels and/or minor sensor defects, which may be visible in this photo as brightly-coloured dots or short lines.

Unfortunately, that camera is the only one from which samples above 3200 ISO are available, and there’s only one image each for 12800 and 25600 ISO.

Also note that these are probably not sRGB profile images, so unless your web browser supports color profiles, the colors won’t look right in your browser, and you should open the images in something like Photoshop. Thanks, Rob and the photographers involved, for giving us mere mortals a slightly better glimpse at this fabled new Nikon D3. Everyone seems to love it so much, I’m hoping it’ll turn out to also cure cancer and bring peace to the Middle East. I hope my expectations aren’t too high.

Happy pixel peeping!