David Honl’s Weblog: Why do you need a pro DSLR?

On Monday my new 30D backup was crushed beneath me, and became destined for the scrap heap. I was covering a heated political demonstration here in Turkey and things took a painful turn for the worse. After being attacked by a group of volatile PKK supporters, thrown to the ground, kicked, beaten, and introduced to the experience of having a 1D body slammed over my head, I was face-down on the pavement with my 30D. My pro-grade 1Ds survived, even after being used to hit me over the head (ouch). On a CF card note, I was able to rescue my nearly-filled 2gb card from the ground before running for the hills (it popped out of the camera on impact).

On top of it all, I became news in all the Turkish media this week as “American journalist attacked” and spent the rest of the week fielding phone calls and doing interviews. Ughhhh.

Technorati Tags: canon, 30d, 1d, digital, camera

Samsung announce their first digital SLR – The GX-1S

6 mega-pixels CCD

Light weight and portable – only 505g

Large bright 2.5 inch colour TFT LCD screen

Pentaprism technology provides clear, bright viewfinder

11 point auto focus

High sensitivity up to ISO 3200

Samsung is announcing its advance into the digital SLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera arena with the launch of the six mega-pixel GX-1S.

In February, the new interchangeable lens GX-1S is Samsung’s first digital SLR camera, developed in conjunction with Pentax. Samsung now provides a full offering of digital cameras to cater for the needs of everyone – from point and shooters to advanced enthusiast photographers.

Offering high portability and mobility through its compact design, the GX-1S will weigh just 505 grams and house a 23.5mm x 15.7mm CCD image sensor. The 3200 ISO equivalent allows high sensitivity shooting in indoor environments.

The GX-1S also provides a continuous shooting speed of 2.8 frames per second (up to eight frames in JPEG mode).

Lens
The GX-1S will utilize the new advanced Schneider Kreuznach D-Xenon lens system and Pentax’s lens KAF bayonet mount technology – all Pentax DSLR lens will be mountable on the GX-1S.

Viewfinder
The large TFT colour LCD screen (2.5 inch and 210K pixels) and Pentaprism technology ensure a clear and bright view. The field of view is 95% with magnification at 0.95x (50mm F1.4 lens).

Focusing, Shutter & Flash
Modes include AF Single (with focus lock) and manual focus together with continuous AF . Shutter speed is 30 ~ 1/4,000 sec. with Bulb. The flash is a built-in retractable P-TTL auto pop-up offering the following modes: Auto, Manual, Auto/Red-eye reduction, Manual/red-eye reduction. Angle of view coverage is 28mm wide-angle (equivalent to 35mm). Recharge time is 3 seconds.