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Electronic Viewfinder Mirrorless DSLR and Eectronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens digital cameras has became quite popular in the past year and many think that EVF would replace optical viewfinder very soon.
When they (Panasonic G1 then Olympas Pen E-L1 and and then Panasonic GF)1 first came out people thought they are the greatest for being small and compact and therefore much more portable than conventional DSLR. Judging by the film era cameras such as Pentax’s ME Super/ LX1 and Olympus’ OM series, I didn’t think those EVF Mirrorless DSLR and EVIL cameras were all that small, and I tried to explain to many that it could have been even smaller even in fullframe 135 format but no one would listen. Then came Nikon D5000 and other brands counterparts which is even smaller than Nikon’s earlier small DSLR – the D40, and got really closed to EVF DSLR size; and then Samsung’s N10 and Sony’s NEX series that are much smaller proved me right. At APS sensor size, both the Samsung N10 and the Sony NEX are noticeably smaller than the Panasonic’s G1/2/10 and GF1 and Oly’s Pen series.
I was hoping if Nikon were to make an EVIL camera, it would be in fullframe 135 sensor size but it doesn’t look like they would make it in that size.
Sensor size and physical size is not the main problem with EVF.
When you shoot with conventional DSLRs, the only time you can’t see what you are shooting would be when the mirror flips up to allow light travel through the opened shutter to the sensor. This blocked time is only a fraction of a second and you would be able to see the live view right after and ready for the next shot and continuous shooting. Whereas with EVF, you get a much longer blank view during exposure, sometimes close to 2 seconds, and then default to displaying the shot on the EVF or LCD rather than the live view. Even with the live view option, if available at all, the image is so slow that any moving objects would be delayed and choppy on the EVF or LCD.
The second problem is more with the work flow but unfortunately no one gets this right and no one has any options to set their cameras right either. With optical finder DSLR, when you finish shooting with the optical viewfinder and press play to display the images shot, the display would show on the LCD screen. With EVF DSLR, like many Prosumer P&S cameras, one has to switch back to LCD display mode first by pressing a toggle button or else pressing play would only display the shot images on the EVF! Why in the world would I want to watch my shots on the EVF when there is a much bigger LCD display?!
While the newer EVF DSLRs have a proximity sensor to auto switch the display between the EVF and the LCD display, this creates yet another problem for there is no option to turn off the LCD display while leaving the camera on and ready to shoot. The LCD display is on constantly even when you are just walking around waiting for the next shot. This is not just battery eating, it is also very distracting for bystanders. Why would anyone want to leave the LCD display on during idle time anyway; and why don’t these manufacturers get it?
A small funny instant happened when one of the nice feature with EVF and EVIL cameras brought up the possibility to use almost any SLR lenses from any manufacturers ever made via extension tube adapters. Specifically this allow EVF and EVIL camera owners use some of the legendary lenses made by Leica. Despite the much smaller sensor size making these images being a cropped part of the much bigger 135 image size possible, people love the idea and marvel the image quality over standard lenses. The funny thing was, one of my friends was in a group of these people and one of them was so excited to see the image quality and sharpness of an image taken with a Leica lens attached, he was trying to show my friend just that…..
…..in the EVF! @_@
Get a life, you people.
HTC Desire – too plasticy
Motorola Droid X – NA in HK, nicest looking, but no frontal camera
Motorola ST720 – NA in HK, Xenon flash, ugly
Samsung Galaxy S – ugly as iPhone, no flash of anykind
iPhone 4 – outrageously expensive, lousy as a phone
I have been told that Windows 7 is a lot better than it’s predecessors.
When a friend of mine recently needed to buy a computer for his insurance field application, I told him to ask the tech support specifically if their application would work on 64-bit Window 7 OS so he could get 4GB RAM right off the bat. The tech support assured him it would, so he went ahead on the purchase of a nice notebook with numeric keypad built-in and have 64-bit Windows 7 installed with 4GB of RAM. When his friend went over to his house to help him install the insurance field application, it didn’t work. It says it requires 32-bit OS!
So what is a guy supposed to do anyway since modern day applications and computing only runs smoothly with over 3GB RAM and 32-bit Windows OS doesn’t support more than 3GB and 64-bit Windows OS which does support over 3GB of RAM yet it can’t run some of the 32-bit applications?!
Mobile Review has a review on Symbian ^3 here.
While Mobile Review has pointed out the shortcomings and remaining problems from Symbian S60 brought on to Symbian ^3, which will make its debut in the Q4 this year with the Nokia N8 phone, they have neglected a few N8 functions which make it stands out above all other phones including the iPhone 4 with the latest iOS4. Namely USB which can be used with an external storage device for file transfer, and BT3.0 which supports not only BT keyboard but also BT mouse through out its entire system.
Some may argue that the USB and BT ports are N8 hardware specific, not a part of Symbian ^3, they did however mentioned the HDMI on the N8 on their report which is even more of a hardware specific port then the earlier two.
Also, while mentioning other either not Nokia new or market new functions, they say so in a way that they are of no thrills and seemly down right ho hum boring. Yet when reporting on Apple’s iPhone, to this date even with the latest iPhone 4, no one would say that their new found ability to open new folders and or Wi-Fi video calling are nothing but 1st gen 3G phone should have functions that should have been on the 1st gen iPhone to begin with.
Neither the Nokia N8 nor the iPhone 4 are perfect. I simply think that reviewers need to be fair on each devices during their reports especially when they are directly comparing 2 or more of them.
A person got stranded in a desert with nothing but a few cans of beer and his latest WhyPhone.
He has in growing fingernails on all of his fingers and could not open the beer cans. Luckily he has the latest WhyPhone with him that doubles as a Swiss Army knife. Wow! Swiss Army knife in a smartphone, how smart is that?! A game changing phone that no one else has ever dreamt of in the 150 year history of portable phones! That is something that every portable phone user just got to have!
He was so thirsty he quickly opened the knife and jabbed the WhyPhone through the can and “URGH”…… he cut himself in the hand and was bleeding!
Instead of having the knife side to the can of beer he was too busy and eager to finish this video game on the WhyPhone and forgot that he had the screen side out and the knife side in his hand while smashing the WhyPhone into pieces on the can of beer!
2G. Bluetooth Stereo, MMS, video, front cam, multitasking, video calls, Flash, flash
3G. video, front cam, multitasking, video calls, Flash, flash
3Gs. front cam, multitasking, video calls, Flash, flash
4G. 3G video calls, Flash, flash
Now that the iPhone 4G and Froyo (Android 2.2) specs are out, I think my next phone will probably be the Nokia N8 if not the E73. As a phone in general, I would prefer the E73. The E71/E72/E73, along with its tactile qwerty keyboard, treats the phone function as the main feature. When you unlock the keypad, you make the call or type to search for the contact info immediately. It doesn’t treat the phone as just another application where you would have to find it in the app folder or press any other button before you can start dialing or yet another app to find your contact.
Just as I had my N82 with me for a while along with my E71, the N8 would be a nice compromise for having a great camera and more importantly a xenon flash, and adding a nice big screen. It does video calling as it should with anyone who has a regular 3G phone on a 3G line as oppose to the iPhone 4G on WiFi only. What good is a perfect video quality call without anyone to call with? The virtual qwerty keyboard would be an added bonus to the aging N82.
Some ask why need a good camera on a phone when there are many nice cameras available. I have had many P&S cameras and unfortunately, none can standup to the N82 image quality when combine used with the Xenon flash as a fill-in flash. Not many people knows how to use a flash properly and less as fill-in. So far only Sony TX1/5/7 and perhaps their W1 as well are the only ones that can take good photos in dark areas without a flash; however, they too lack the fill-in flash adjustments needed for a proper balance of ambient light with a touch of flash. The N82 does this perfectly. Hopefully, the N8 does so as well with its 28mm equivalent lens. And the great thing would be, you don’t need to carry another P&S camera.
Did I mention no drop calls or phantom SMS messages since we are not bounded by the pathetic 3HK network? Oh, perhaps one could switch over to WiFi and make video calls instead to avoid drop call if one can find the contact having a 4G as well just happens to be near a preset WiFi network.
There is one good thing about the 4G though – a nice HKD$6000 3.5″ digital photo display frame. Yet after 3 years and 4 gens, no matter how cool it was, it looks so geeky now, really. Makes you realize just what wonders a marketing well done can make, eh?
There is a group on Facebook hates its shady privacy settings so much they vowed to quit Facebook entirely for good today. The result could be devastating to FB.
However, the truth is, there were never really this many FB members to begin with. Many FB members has several FB accounts. They are being used as game support as most game on FB requires game player to have their friends invited to play together in order to advance in the game. This prompted many game players to open several accounts for themselves and invite themselves in their games. I know one of my FB friends has over 80 FB accounts just for gaming. I am sure FB’s own admin knows this fact well but no one really care to admit this openly. Much like the money borrowing real world of finance.
I find it difficult to quit a real FB account entirely after invested so much time in building up a network of new friends. It is true that many FB members don’t take many unknown new friends if any at all but unless one has been complete shut out from anyone else on FB it would be difficult to quit without any remorse. Yet it is quite easly done to quit any or all of those fake accounts which were made up for games. If everyone were to quit only half of their fake accounts, I estimate there could be at least 1/4 of all FB accounts gone. This could in effect put FB behind Twitter in this Social Networking business.
Due to the nature of the network, most Twitter members don’t have several Twitter accounts. If they did, they are for different groups of network and therefore genuinely being used to some extend so they could not have been easily closed by anyone.
This FB fact is like a giant financial bubble that is about to be burst anytime. Fortunately for us, the bubble does to affect our finance much except maybe those FB investors.
I am sorry, Li, I am afraid you would have to take this one yourself….
Ok, well… I don’t really feel sorry him actually. It’s about time.
This week, I have finally been able to make the change from a 100MB data cellphone plan to an unlimited data one. My usual monthly spending for the line came to an average of about HKD$220, sometimes up to HKD$250. So this HKD$232 unlimited data + 3000min talk time adding a couple of other extra feature should not be any noticeable change in monthly spending to me. With this, I’ll have carefree online experience and I’ll be able to use Google Maps more frequently.
Although Nokia had make Ovi maps navigation free for “everyone” last month, my Nokia E71 is still not listed as a supported device. I could try the E72 version but I don’t feel like debugging for manufacturer again here as I usually ended up doing for most other new features new gadgets. That’s because I have a 5″ Chinese GPS navigation device for my car now which is a very nice upgrade from my older 4″ device since dad don’t want to bother with it after I had given him the 5″ one for his birthday last Dec.
Nokia Maps has been a love hate feature over these years for me. The nice feature is of course the handiness of having GPS navigation readily available at all times. However, the installation of maps is a logic (or the lack of it) course in itself. The single most important feature in worldwide map is having the local language available. Google Maps does this brilliantly. The reason being so is that when one is traveling abroad, all signs and people speak their own local language. Asking for direction or simply checking the street signs to match the location on the map with the local language is the only way. Even in my local town Hong Kong, official street names can sometimes be translated in it’s literal meaning or by the sound of the pronunciation, making it difficult to decipher the names between the 2 official languages here – Chinese and English.
I use my phones in English, Nokia or otherwise. It is because I find English much more easily recognized at a glance than Chinese. Sorting in alphabetical order alone is enough to make me use English as I still don’t know how a Chinese list is being sorting when not in the number of strokes for the first word. Like those names in a country list in any M$ products; I could be staring at it for weeks and I still have to search for it one by one or switch over to Chinese input and type in the full Chinese character to let the system search for (or miss) it. When one downloads a Nokia Map and subsequently upload it to the phone, Nokia sends the map in the language which is currently set as one’s own phone operation language set. In my case, English. I am sorry this could be my fault but, what good is an Hong Kong map to any Chinese in English anyway? If you had further downloaded any maps for the rest of China, you are bound to redo all your map downloading chores. In order to have maps in the local language, I think one might need to switch the operating language before each and every country. I doubt that my phone has all the languages in the world.
Having an unlimited data line and Google Maps only solves half the problem. There is no free roaming for data.
I just fired up Ovi maps online with my computer and saw this…
The above screen shot shows the widest view on Ovi Maps where it no longer shows “Hong Kong” on it. Yet, Macau is still promptly being showed on the map. Way to go HK.
Another thing that shows on the screen shot picture is the local languages available for Ovi Maps. Chinese (Traditional or Simplified) is not on the list.
Creating a worldwide map for everyone in the world is no easy task. Google is by far the only one that has what it takes to be on the leading edge.
WhaUSay?!