Panasonic SDR-H250

I have been using the Panasonic SDR-H250 camcorder for 2 years. This is a great small size camcorder for family use. Sometimes I use it to shoot Dr Lee health seminar for 2 to 6 hours in a day. This HDD camcorder is an upgrade from my previous Panasonic NV-DS65 camcorder with DV tape. I would say the difference in video quality and feature are very significant.

Here’s my review of this camcorder.

I bought this camcorder 2 years ago immediately after its release in Malaysia. The price was RM 2799 at Senheng electrical store for 3 years warranty. Actually, I just finished its 2 year interest free installment, at last!

Panasonic SDR-H250 special features are:

• 3CCD 1/6″ sensor
• Leica Dicomar lens
• 30 Gb Hard Disk Drive (HDD) camcorder
• 10x variable speed optical zoom
• Optical Image Stabilization (OIS)
• Crystal Engine image processing

3CCD sensor for superior image

Leica lens, stero microphone and mini light

Superior video

The 3CCD definitely produces superior color compare single CCD. In 3CCD system, there are 3 separate sensors for red, blue and green respectively. This results in more vibrant and true color, closer to what our eye sees. Red is red. Blue is blue. Green is green. When I first saw the video produced by this 3CCD camcorder, my response was “Wow!”

Combining 3CCD, Leica lens and Cyrstal Engine image processing, the produced video looks superior compared to the usual camcorder. Its video is even better than the newer Sony HD Handycam, HDR-SR11. The Sony HDR-SR11 has more features such as High Definition video, touch screen, 12x zoom, 60 Gb HDD and various ports. However, video from its single CMOS sensor cannot match Panasonic SDR-H250 3CCD sensor.

With better looking video, I thought this Panasonic SDR-H250 camcorder captures great photo too. Well, I was wrong! It produces only average quality photo with lots of picture noise even with adequate lightning. So, I don’t use it to capture photo.

The Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) system works also well in reducing video blurring due to hand shake. This optical stabilization system is far more superior than the previous digital stabilization system in Panasonic NV-DS65. Of course, using a video tripod is a better choice.

HDD system for convenient media operation

Storage convenience

For normal home use, Hard disk drive (HDD) video storage is the best choice compared to DV tape and mini DVD.

Firstly, the 30 Gb HDD in SDR-H250 can record video up to:

• 27 hours in LP mode (lowest quality)
• 14 hours in SP mode (normal quality)
• and 7 hours in XP mode (highest quality)

Therefore, you don’t have to buy many DV tape or mini DVD disk for long hour shooting. For taking seminar video, you can shoot non-stop for several hours with exernal power supply. But for DV tape or mini DVD, you have to change the media every 1 hour, resulting in unwanted video breaks. Then you have to label each media to mark its content and sequence.

For Youtube video, using LP mode is more than enough. For creating 2 hours video in a 4.7 Gb DVD, you can use SP mode. And XP mode is for creating 1 hour video in a 4.7 Gb DVD. I mostly use the SP mode.

Secondly, you can playback, delete and transfer your video clip easily thanks to HDD random access capability. You cannot do that with DV tape.

Thirdly, transfering video file from camcorder HDD to your computer is lightning fast with USB 2.0.  It takes less than 5 minutes to transfer 2 hour SP video (4 Gb) to my notebook. But for DV tape, 2 hour video takes 2 hours to transfer. Yawn…

Finally, the head for DV tape may get dirty, resulting in incomplete overwriting of previous video data. You may see both new and old videos exist in alternate horizontal lines. In this case, you lose what you shoot. I have experienced this several times with my old DV camcorder.

For HDD camcorder, you just need to be careful not to drop it and damage the hard disk. However, Panasonic SDR-H250 has Drop Detect function that automatically park the drive head safely when you accidentally drop it while recording. This minimizes chance of data loss. Well, I never dropped it in 2 years.

Before buying, I thought the hard disk drive can be taken out and replaced like JVC camcorder. But later I realized the hard drive is fixed inside the camcorder. Anyway, 30 Gb capacity is good enough for me. And whenever I accidentally cut of the power supply while recording, data fragment is automatically fixed when I turn it on again. Neat!

Easy to use control

Auto, manual and focus control, SD card slot and other function buttons

Precise zoom / volume stick, photo capture button and nice recording light

Ergonomic controls

The controls are ergonomically placed and easy to use. Delete button is placed at the lower part to prevent user from accidentally pressing it. I find the joystick control precise and fast to use. It is not too soft and not too stiff. I can easily operate the camcorder with only one hand.

The zoom stick responds softly and accurately to your command. You can even zoom in or out at different speed. In video playback mode, this control stick acts as volume control. The rectangle light turns orange color in video shooting mode and turns blue color in video playback mode. I like the way it dims in and out.

Flipping the LCD screen open exposes other less used control such as:

• Auto, manual and focus slidder – Use manual to set brightness, white balance or focus manually
• Reset button (never use it)
• SD card slot
• DVD copy button – Activates installed DVD program in your computer (never use it)
• PowerLCD plus botton – Toggle LCD brightness (hardly use it)
• Light – Cycles between light on, light on with extra sensor sensitivity (for very low light condition but with jerking video) and light off
• Speaker – Don’t be fooled by this tiny speaker. For many times, I thought there’s a bird in my house or my phone rings when the sound is actually from this speaker.

Setting interface

Recording interface

Playback list

Playback interface

Intuitive user interface 

This Panasonic camcorder has intuitive and easy to use interface. The joystick acts as the main control. You can perform most function by moving the joystick up, down, left, right and press it. You only need one hand to perform most task.

The simple and useful guide at the bottom lets you know what action you can do with the joystick and other function buttons. I can easily use it without reading the guide book.

It is worth mentioning that the joystick is quite precise. Direction and pressing action are differentiated nicely. It clicks when I wanted to press it. And it moves to the side when I wanted to use its directional function. I seldom get it wrong, unlike certain joystick in mobile phone.

Panasonic SDR-H250 - highly recommended compact camcorder

Ergonomic and precise controls

Clean design and simple to use

Improvement area

Panasonic could have make this camcorder even better with several improvements. Firstly, I find is very troublesome to transfer video files to computer. Since its USB port is blocked by battery, I must switch to external power supply in order to set up the connection. Here is what it looks like.

Messy wire for computer connection

The Sony HDR-SR11 handycam can do this with battery power. So this shouldn’t be too difficult.

Secondly, this Panasonic camcorder uses hexadecimal folder system. Determining which folder is newer can be quite confusing. However, you can solve this by sorting the folder by date with your computer.

Overall, Panasonic SDR-H250 is a solid, neat and functional HDD camcorder that produces good video quality for home use. If your budget allows, you won’t regret buying it.

I bought it for RM 820 at Mee Too Plaza Angsana, the shop where I previously bought the Nikon D60 camera. Let’s see how it compares to the original D60 kit lens.

Here are some advantages of this new lens compared to the kit lens.

• better picture sharpness and contrast
• more backgroud blur effect at larger aperture
• faster shutter speed at larger aperture
• more compact in size

Overall, this 35mm lens is great for shooting photo in low light condition and also shooting moving object like baby. We can set the aperture to maximum f/1.8 to get faster shutter speed. The overall picture also looks better. The only drawback is the inablity to zoom.

Here are 2 different photos taken at the same aperture f/5.6 with shutter speed 0.77s for comparison.

Kit lens 18-55 mm

Single-focal-length 35 mm lens

We can see the 35 mm lens produces sharper image. Compare the bear’s mouth and hand. The fur is more detailed with the 35 mm lens.

Notice also the kit lens produces more background blur (depth of field) although both photos were taken at the same aperture. Of course, the 35 mm lens will give more background blur at bigger aperture opening such as f/1.8.

After several shots using this new lens, I am very satisfied with the improved clarity and speed. In the future, I would definitely use it more instead of the kit lens. This AF-S Nikkor 35mm 1.8G lens is highly recommended for taking picture in dimly lit environment or moving object without using flash.

My 1-year-old laptop

This is my 1-year-old HP Compaq 6520s laptop. I must say I’m very lucky to have this laptop with me. It was also a coincidence for me to have bought it. Previously, I used an Acer laptop. But since my younger brother furthered his study to China, I borrowed it to him.

After that I spent a lot of time online searching for the laptop I like. My budget was below RM 3000. I needed a reliable laptop but not a high spec one. Acer and Compaq laptop didn’t came to my consideration because of their lack of quality feel. Then I looked at Dell, Toshiba, Fujitsu, NEC, Lenovo and HP laptop.

I looked a lot at Dell Inspiron and Vostro laptop. HP laptop was too expensive at that time.  Average spec Toshiba and NEC laptop were also expensive. Levono was solid and durable but ugly. Finally, my last choice was either Dell or Fujitsu. I almost bought the Fujitsu S7211 laptop at RM 3200+. Although the spec was much lower compared to Dell, Fujitsu laptop was more solid and I liked its design.

One day, I went to a PC shop at Skudai, Johor. I knew the boss for several years. He supplied PC parts to me when I was selling PC while studying. I wanted to look at Dell laptop on his display. Then I chit chat with him and told him I prefer laptop with magnesium alloy casing for durability. He said the Dell Inspiron came with plastic casing only. And he didn’t have the Dell Vostro with magnesium alloy casing on display.

Suddenly, the boss took out a HP business laptop and said, “Here, this one has magnesium alloy casing.  The list price is RM 4999. But now I sell it for RM 3999.”

I looked at this boxy laptop. It felt solid with fingerprint recognition feature and 3D HP drive guard to protect hard disk drive from physical shock. However it was too expensive for me and the design looked dull.

“Do you have any other laptop?” I asked.

“Yes, I have another one!” he replied and took out a HP Compaq 6520s notebook. At first sight, I liked its design simplicity. It felt solid too. The discounted price was RM 2699. And here is the specification I couldn’t resist.

HP Compaq 6520s business notebook PC

• Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7250 (2.0GHz, 2Mb L2 cache, 800MHz bus speed)
• Intel GM965 Mobile Express Chipset
• Intel GMA X3100 graphic chipset
• 1 Gb DDR2 RAM
• 120 Gb Toshiba Hardisk Drive with HP Driveguard
• DVD+/- RW SuperMulti DL LightScribe Drive
• 14.1″ BriteView Wide TFT display
• 56k Modem, 10/100 LAN, Bluetooth
• Broadcom 802.11a/b/g WLAN
• Windows XP Professional preinstalled
• 3 years warranty by HP

Look at the spec! At that time and even today, Intel T7250 is a high spec CPU. Most laptop I looked at only gave Intel T5000 series CPU. It came with Windows XP Pro preinstalled, which was what I wanted because I heard Windows Vista was slower and used lots of resources. And look at the warranty – 3 years by HP!

Further checking at HP website showed the similar laptop with Intel T5000 series CPU and 1 year warranty was selling at RM 4500+ So how could I resist this offer? That was the last unit left. It was specially configured from HP factory in China for a bulk order. So you’ll never find this high spec HP laptop at such a low price at other retail shop.

Therefore, I purchased that laptop immediately. After adding another 1Gb RAM, the total was RM 2799. And I opted to pay by 12-month installment through Maybank credit card. No additional service charge required, which was great.

Here is a simple review of my HP 6520s laptop which is about to celebrate its 1 year birthday.

Simple and nice

Battery at back

I prefer this keyboard layout

The plastic casing catches no finger print. But it catches dirt easily which is hard to clean. I haven’t figured out how to clean up the dirt. The touch pad mouse buttons are not so sensitive. I need to press hard to make a valid click. However, I mostly use external mouse.

These are the 2 disadvantages of this laptop. Other than that it’s a great laptop.

The keyboard is one of the best keyboard I’ve ever typed. It is not too stiff and not too soft. My typing speed is more than 60 words per minute. And this keyboard responds accurately to each of my key press. It definitely lets me type faster.

56k Modem, Ventilation holes, VGA out, power, LAN and 3 USB ports

Sometimes, I need the 56k modem when broadband connection is down. So this is a convenient backup for urgent internet use.

DVD writer and Kensington lock

There is no USB port at the right side. So I have to connect my Logitech external mouse to the left USB port. This is a slight inconvenience but not a big problem for me.

WIFI and Power button / indicator

This HP laptop design is simple and clean. It even omits the Hardisk Drive indicator. I cannot know whether my hardisk is working or my program has crashed. However, I’ve get used to life without HDD indicator.

The sound quality is also above average. However, there is only one speaker. This is okay for me since I don’t use this laptop to watch movie or listen to music.

Earphone and Mic port, SD/MMC slot

3 connections are what I need

The power indicator has a nice touch. Orange indicates charging. When the battery is 90% charged, the indicator light turns to blue. And when the battery is fully charged, the light goes off. So you will know the battery status even with the laptop closed.

The “Caps lock” blue indicator light also looks great. There is no “Num lock” indicator light though.

Overall, I love this HP laptop. I use it everyday. And I’m confident I can continue using it for several years to come. I just need to find out how to clean up the plastic casing. Any idea?

A hot laptop usually means a short life span laptop. You should always keep your laptop temperature low to prolong its life span. Using a cool laptop feels better too. You won’t feel as if your laptop just came out from the oven.

So what should you do if your laptop gets hotter than before? Here is a simple tip to lower your laptop temperature in one minute.

It started with my younger brother having some software problem on my old Acer laptop. He was in China. So the computer technician helped to format and reinstall the operating system. But after that, he found the laptop was quite hot. Even the keyboard and touch pad was hot. So he used a laptop cooler with fans.

When he came back, my another younger brother found out the real culprit for this heat problem. It was caused by Windows Power Management setting! The power scheme was set to “Home/Office Desk”. Setting it back to “Portable/Laptop” solved the problem immediately.

Before this, I thought the Power scheme is only a preset of timeout setting for turning off monitor, turning off hard disk, system standby and hibernate. Apparently, it does more than that. Choosing “Portable/Laptop” power scheme lets Windows know this is a laptop. So Windows will adjust its operating environment to save power and therefore, reduce temperature.

How to set the power scheme for your laptop?

For Windows XP, go to Start -> Control Panel and double click on “Power Options”. Under “Power schemes” section, select “Portable/Laptop” and click “OK”. Another simpler method is to left click on the Power taskbar icon and select the required setting.

Windows XP Power scheme

For Windows Vista, go to Start -> Control Panel and double click on “Power Options”. You can select the recommended power plan or the “Balanced” power plan. For more power saving, choose “Power saver” plan. The performance will be reduced though.

Windows Vista power plan

Just today, one of my relative with Acer laptop also experiences hot laptop. Hot air keep blowing out from her laptop fan. And she placed a laptop cooler at the bottom too. At first I thought it was the problem with Acer laptop. But then I remember the Power scheme setting. So I checked her power setting and it was set to “Always On”. After I changed the setting to “Portable/Laptop”, her laptop fan stopped blowing hot air after a few seconds.

So if you have similar problem, you may want to check your power scheme setting. Remember to set it to “Portable/Laptop”.

You can also check the program running on background. If possible, reduce your background program to minimum to reduce CPU work load. If a program crashed, CPU work load may be increased by 50% to 100% too.

It's a HP

Recently, my relative asked me which laptop to buy. He is a beginner in using computer. So he will mainly use it for browsing internet and watch movie.

Initially I recommended Compaq CQ40-338 with Intel Core Duo T4200 2.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 250Gb HDD and 14 inch display. I chose Compaq over Acer and Dell because it looks more solid with chromed body finish which won’t get stained. Good experience with my current HP 6520s laptop also influenced my choice for Compaq since both are from the same company. And this new Compaq laptop is much better built compared to the previous generation Compaq laptop.

We almost bought it. But later we ended up buying another laptop instead…

At first, we went to SenQ electrical store in Kluang Mall, placed our deposit of RM 50 and waited for our Compaq CQ40-338 laptop to arrive the next day. The total amount is RM 2029 after RM 70 member discount. And with my RHB PlusOne credit card, I can get a total of 3 years warranty on this laptop. Compaq covers the first year warranty while SenQ covers the 2nd and 3rd year warranty.

The next day, I went to Johor Bahru to attend a group DLC communication session. And my younger brother, Richard followed my car to visit the PC Fair at PESADA. Later, Richard called me and said he wants to buy a 17″ HP Pavillion laptop at a real bargain price, only RM 3999 after RM 2000 discount!

So in the evening, I joined Richard at the PC Fair booth selling the HP laptop. To my surprise, I saw another bargain HP laptop! It is the HP Pavilion dv6933 with Intel Core Duo T4200 2.0Ghz, 2Gb RAM, 320Gb HDD and 15 inch display with 3 years warranty.

The price? Only RM 2299 after RM 500 discount!  No wonder their brochure headline was:

“HP Pavilion at Compaq’s price”

Immediately I called SenQ to ask whether I can cancel the Compaq laptop order and use the RM 50 deposit to buy other electrical appliance. They said okay. Then I called my relative to tell him about the great deal. Add RM 270 to upgrade from 1Gb to 2Gb RAM, 250Gb HDD to 320Gb HDD, 14 inch to 15 inch screen and most importantly, from Compaq to HP! And he agreed.

So I bought the 15 inch HP laptop while my brother bought the 17 inch HP laptop. HP Pavilion is a great laptop. Here is my simple review on the HP Pavilion dv6933 laptop we just bought.

HP Pavilion dv6933us

• Intel Centrino Duo Mobile Technology
  Intel Core Duo Processor T4200
  (2.0Ghz, 1Mb L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
  Intel 965GM Mobile Express Chipset
  Intel Pro Wireless 3945 a/b/g WLAN
• MS Windows Vista Home Premium
• 2Gb DDR2 RAM, 320Gb SATA HDD
• DVD +/- RW SuperMulti Dual layer Writer with Lightsribe
• 15.4″ BrightView WXGA Wide TFT screen
• Built in Intel x3100 video chipset with 128Mb shared memory (up to 896Mb)
• 56k Modem, 10/100 LAN, 3x USB 2.0, Bluetooth
• 5 in 1 card reader, 1394 IEEE Firewire, TV-out
• Multimedia remote control
• Integrated Altec Lansing Speaker
• WebCam with Integrated Microphone
• 1 + 2 years extended warranty
• Free Targus laptop carrying bag
• Free security lock, optical mouse and 2 x RM 120 service vouchers

Simple and nice

The keyboard looks exactly like my HP 6520s keyboard in term of layout and color. I personally prefer this type of keyboard layout. Overall, the key arrangement is neat. The arrow keys are big (normal size). This is important since arrow keys are often used. I don’t like the smaller arrow keys in some laptop.

It also has dedicated “Home”, “End”, “Page up” and “Page down” keys. This is preferable to having to press “Fn” function key for these often used keys.

The “Caps lock” key on left is accompanied by an indicator light to show the caps lock status. And the “Num lock” key on top right is accompanied by a num lock indicator light. This is of course an improvement over the old design where caps lock and num lock indicator light are grouped together on top. My older HP 65s0s laptop only has caps lock indicator and no num lock indicator.

This new design saves your time to look for the indicators since they are placed at the most obvious location, besides the toggle key itself. It also saves your time when you want to toggle the indicator. Let say you want to make sure the caps lock is off. So you look at the indicator besides the caps lock key. If it lights up, you just press the caps lock key without even moving your eye balls. Then you can check whether you have successfully turn off the caps lock by looking at the indicator , again without moving your eye balls.

If the caps lock indicator is at the top, maybe you will waste 1 second on the same task. First, look at the top indicator. If the indicator shows caps lock is on, move your eye balls from the top to the caps lock key at the left. Press the caps lock key. Then move your eye balls again to the top to check the caps lock indicator. (Pardon me for using 2 paragraphs to explain this minor difference on indicator placement. With Industrial Engineering background, I’m trained on good usability and time saving design.)

For keyboard typing experience, the HP Pavilion dv6933 has responsive keys which is already quite good. However, the key is slightly stiffer than my HP 6520s keyboard. But for average user with low typing speed, this difference is insignificant. There is also some keyboard flexing where a few surrounding keys move downward when you press a key harder. Again, this won’t affect your typing experience much.

Nice surface finish

At first look, you will notice the high quality chromed surface with some simple design imprint. It may attract some fingerprint but you can easily wipe it away. Most importantly, it won’t attract permanent black dirt which is very hard to clean. This is the case with my HP Compaq 6520s laptop which is getting dirty after a few months. Therefore, using this chromed surface finish ensures the laptop looks new always.

It also has some subtle but beautiful lines imprinted on the surface.

Elegant touchpad design

HP Pavilion dv6933 has an elegant touchpad with chromed surface. The scrolling zone is at the right where you can scroll up and down using your finger. The touchpad button is big and responsive. It is nice to press. And every click counts no matter how to press it.

For my HP 6520s, I must press the button harder to make the click counts, especially the right button. If I press it lightly, it won’t produce the clicking action. So not every click counts, which can be quite frustrating.

Below the touchpad are 1 microphone jack, 2 speaker jacks and a remote control receiver. Yes, this laptop comes with a remote control to control normal functions for watching movie and listening music. All these music jacks are logically placed in the front. This prevents the earphone or microphone wire from interfering your hand movement.

Great stereo speaker

The Altec Lansing stereo speaker produces good sound quality, better than Dell and Acer laptops within the same price range. It also has dedicated touch sensitive multimedia control including volume control.

Good sound system coupled with convenient multimedia control and a remote control make it an ideal laptop for movie or music fan.

Webcam with stereo microphone

Here is the web cam with indicator light. It lets you know when the web cam is capturing your video. Therefore, you will know when a virus or spyware is secretly activating your web cam and infringing your privacy.

It also comes with 2 microphones which is a step better than single microphone.

Useful indicator lights

The indicator light for power, external power source and hard disk drive are placed at lower left. Well, there is one advantage for this placement. If you are easily distracted by the blinking hard disk indicator light, you can always block it with your left hand while typing.

You can also see the wireless control slid at the bottom. When wireless function is on, a tiny blue light will light up. When wireless function is off, the light will change to orange color. I prefer having this manual slid rather than the toggle button. With manual slid, we can set the wireless function even when the laptop is turned off or when it starts to boot.

Neat ports

On the left side, you can see the S-Video port, display port, Expansion Port 3, LAN network port, modem port, 2 USB ports, Firewire port and a 5-in-1 memory card slot. The memory card slot can accommodate SD, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, MMC and XD card. However, you won’t get the click sound after inserting the memory card.

My HP 6520s only supports SD and MMC card. But  it has the clicking sound which secures the card in the slot. To take out the card, I need to press in inward again for another click. This is similar to the mechanism found in digital camera card slot.

However, this is only a minor trade off to support another 3 types of memory card. With the common use of memory card in digital camera and mobile phone, this 5-in-1 card slot comes in handy. You don’t need an extra cable to connect your digital device. Just take out the memory card from the device and slot it in your laptop to access it.

The tiny black USB device shown in above picture is the Bluetooth emitter. If you always use Bluetooth, having a built in Bluetooth is preferable. It frees up the USB port for your other device. But if you seldom use Bluetooth, just unplug and keep the tiny emitter in your drawer.

You may also notice the imprint of Expansion Port 3 logo, USB logos, memory card name on the top chromed surface. This lets you see the exact location of this commonly used port, without bending your head over the left side. A simple and nice touch!

Neat on the right side too

On the right side, you will see a Express Card slot, DVD writer, another USB port and the power socket.

The extra USB port on the right side is obviously intended for the mouse. My current HP 6520s has all 3 USB ports on the left side. So the mouse wire has to run from the right side to the left USB port, if you’re right handed of course.

HP also pushes this USB port to the back, near the power socket. Some laptop has this USB port at the front, near the Express Card slot position. But when you plug in a USB mouse, the extruded USB plug may interfere with the mouse movement. HP definitely thought of this when designing the USB port position.

The ring around the power socket will also light up in blue when external power is used. Oh yes! You can insert the supplied multimedia remote control into the Express Card slot so that you can use it anytime you want.

Nice exterior

The exterior cover comes with glossy black with some simple line design. Once again, this is dirt prove.

Cover hinge lets you open and close this laptop smoothly and confidently. As with many new laptop design, this HP laptop uses latchless design. So you don’t have to press any button to open up the cover.

The bottom part

At the bottom, you will see a simple and clean layout with separate cover for hard disk drive and RAM. The top right air vent houses the fan. So now, the air blows to the bottom instead of sideway. With this, you won’t suddenly feel your left hand blasted with hot air when the CPU works hard.

There is also a wording that says, “Lam contains Mercury. Dispose of Properly.” As with others, this laptop is still not that environment friendly. Of course, you have to pay more for environment friendly laptop.

I also notice the white laptop model sticker is imposed on another older sticker. So this laptop specification may have been changed, by the manufacturer perhaps. Apart from that, everything looks brand new.

Conclusion

The HP Pavilion dv6933 laptop is indeed a value buy for your usual day to day computing needs. It may be slightly more expensive than Compaq, Acer and Dell with similar specification. However, you can truly rely on the quality of HP laptop. It may serve you many years in the future without much problem. My 3-year-old Acer laptop already has plastic squeaking sound when I press down the wrist rest area. I’m sure this HP laptop will last longer.

7 years ago, she used her Olympus C-50 point and shoot digital camera for all her flower shooting. 1 year ago, she used her Panasonic FX36 camera. And now, she used my Nikon D60 SLR camera. How does this 3 different cameras compare? Let’s check out.

Olympus C-50: ISO160 F/2.8 1/4s

Panasonic FX36: ISO100 F/2.8 1/2s

Nikon D60: ISO100 F/5 1/1.6s

The lightning was quite poor. I have resized and adjusted the brightness level of these photos using Photoshop for easy comparison. As you can see from this photo comparison, the image quality difference is very significant. Nikon D60 SLR camera produces sharper image with more details and more accurate color.

To capture the better quality image, investing in digital SLR camera is well worth it. Here are the cropped images showing the actual size.

Olympus C-50

Panasonic FX36

Nikon D60

In photography, ISO stands for light sensitivity for the camera sensor. Lower ISO means lower light sensitivity. For low ISO, the camera sensor needs more time to receive enough light to frame a picture. At high ISO, the sensor needs a much shorter time. Therefore, lower ISO needs longer exposure time (slower shutter speed). And higher ISO needs shorter exposure time (faster shutter speed).

But if the subject is moving or your hand is not steady, low ISO (longer exposure time) tends to produce blurry photo. So you need to use higher ISO with shorter exposure time. But if higher ISO has the advantage of producing blur free photo, why don’t you just use high ISO all the time? Why bother with lower ISO?

Well, here’s the catch.

High ISO produces noisy image. That means the image details are not complete. Instead, some details are replaced with other scattered dots, or noise. On the other hand, lower ISO produces clearer image. For a simple analogy, a 20 minute car wash is much cleaner than a 2 minute car wash.

Here are some photos taken with my Nikon D60 at different ISO setting for comparison. All photos are taken at 2.5 Megapixel. Noise Reduction (NR) is turned on. Active D-Lightning is turned off.

The following bear photos are taken in a bright room and cropped at actual size. This is our baby’s first toy.

ISO100 F5.3 1/3s - the best image

ISO200 F5.3 1/6s - still looks good

ISO400 F5.3 1/13s - still acceptable with slight noise

ISO 800 F5.3 1/25s - some details are washed out due to Noise Reduction processing

ISO 1600 F5.3 1/50s - washed out details and apparent noise

ISO HI1 F5.3 1/100s - lesser detail and very noisy

The following photos are taken in my toilet which is not very bright. It is also cropped at actual size.

ISO 100 F5 1/2s - best image quality

ISO 200 F5 1/5s - still looks good but slight noise starts to surface

ISO 400 F5 1/10s - noise is apparent at darker area

ISO 800 - NR controls the noise with some detail lost and color change

ISO 1600 - unacceptable noise level

ISO HI1 - this is too much

As you can see, the Nikon D60 produces satisfactory image up to ISO 400. However, photo taken at low light condition has more noise. At ISO 800, the noise reduction (NR) function helps to control noise at the cost of some detail lost. You can turn off the NR function to preserve the details but you will have higher noise level.

I always switch on the NR since I prefer having less noisy image. Some minor detail lost is acceptable. Usually we don’t bother much whether a fur or two is lost. But we will notice high picture noise quickly.

All above photos are cropped at its actual size. So you can notice the picture noise easily. However, we don’t usually need a big image. For my notebook, a wallpaper is 1280 x 800 pixels, which is only 1 Megapixel. Photo for this blog is 600 x 400 pixels, which is only 0.2 Megapixel. That’s why I always use the minimum image size for my Nikon D60, which is 2.5 Megapixel, although it’s capable of 10 Megapixel.

So what if we resize the image to a smaller size? Can we still notice the noise level? Here are the same toilet pictures resized from 1936 x 1296 (2.5MP) to 600 x 400 (0.2MP).

ISO 100 - looks good

ISO 200 - looks good too

ISO400 - still okay

ISO800 - still looks okay but the color becomes lighter

ISO1600 - some noise and color fade

ISO HI1 - too noisy with more faded color

Here you can see the Nikon D60 produces virtually noise free image up to ISO800, if you resize the image. However, the color begins to fade at ISO 800 (compare the blue toothbrush container).

Therefore, I will set the ISO to 400 if I shoot photo in my dimly lit room. If necessary, I’ll set it to ISO 800.

In my living room, I’ll turn on all light bulbs for shooting. For static object, I’ll use a tripod and use ISO100. For moving object like baby, I’ll still use ISO 400 without flash. Since I mostly shoot baby photo, I haven’t started to use flash.

For clear and crisp image, you should always use lower ISO if possible. Only change to higher ISO if you have no other choice. To use low ISO, you need to:

• have adequate lightning
• have still object
• have steady hand or use Vibration Reduction (VR) lens to reduce camera shake
• use tripod if possible