Fujifilm Finepix X100

Did anyone mention an age of austerity? Certainly not at Fuji Towers, from whence has appeared the manufacturer's most expensive and inevitably most exciting digital camera for coming up to a decade. Announced at Photokina six months ago but just hitting the shelves now for a price of £999.99, the 12.3 effective megapixel FinePix Finepix X100 has got the photographic industry seriously a-buzz.

The basics of the new high-end model are this: it's a compact camera boasting a large APS-C sized CMOS sensor (of the sort normally only found in SLRs), a fixed 35mm equivalent lens with bright f/2.0 maximum aperture, and a gorgeously classic construction. The combination of which should result in superb quality photos, with low light performance being particularly exceptional. Something that is only highlighted by the presence of a maximum ISO12800, the kind of spec found on a semi pro DSLR.

The target audience here is the monied digital SLR user looking for a more portable back up. And one who presumably isn't sufficiently tempted by a compact system camera such as the Sony NEX series, Olympus Pens, Panasonic Lumix G, Samsung NX or even the Ricoh GXR as an alternative. All retail for less money, and all, unlike the Fuji, allow the optic on the front to be swapped. Other yet more portable premium compact contenders include the Canon PowerShot G12, Nikon CoolPix P7000, Samsung EX1, Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 and Olympus XZ-1. Again they're all impressive and again considerably cheaper.

The camera the Fuji most reminds us of most though in terms of tongue-lolling luxuriousness is the Leica X1. Like the X100, that too features an APS-C sized sensor just like a DSLR proper, plus a 36mm equivalent lens (in 35mm film terms) to the Fuji's 35mm. At the time of writing the Leica X1 was retailing for £1395, having held its value since its release over a year ago; making the X100 actually good value in comparison. Whereas that model sports a bright f/2.8 aperture though, the Fuji offers up an even brighter maximum f/2.0. Set against that is the fact the Leica branding has a perceived worth of its own, with the emphasis being on perceived.

Inevitably you get Raw capture as well as JPEG, however video isn't so well catered for with just 1280x720 pixel clips at 24 frames per second on offer. Standard focus distance is 80cm to infinity, or 10cm to two metres in macro close up mode.

As we're 'stuck' with the one lens, the X100 has to satisfy as an all rounder as is, which regardless of your photographic merits is always going to be something of a struggle. It's therefore a camera on which your images benefit from a more considered, reflective approach to subject matter. With its maker describing the X100 as delivering the best image quality in its long and illustrious history, has this move towards enticing the well-heeled photo enthusiast rather than typical Argos shopper paid off?

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Panasonic DMP-B200

Design and Connectivity

High-definition content looks so good that we can barely leave our house without taking it with us. There are various ways of doing this – iPads, personal media players and laptops – but one of the more unusual ways is a portable Blu-ray player like the Panasonic DMP-B200. These haven’t really taken off in the same way as portable DVD players, probably due to stiffer competition from the HDD-based players listed above, but they do offer a great way of watching your Blu-ray discs on the move with the added bonus that they’ll play your video files too.

Surprisingly, Panasonic is still the only company making portable Blu-ray players in the UK, and the DMP-B200 is Panasonic’s third-generation model. It sports an 8.9in 16:9 screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels, and like previous Panasonic portables the ‘Free Style Viewing’ feature allows you to move the screen into a comfortable viewing position. You can flip up the screen from its closed position (like a laptop) and unclip it from the hinge, which then allows you to tilt it or bring it down to rest almost flat on the bottom section, with little wheels letting you to slide it back and forth. This flexibility will in handy in the car, when manoeuvrability is more of a problem.

The base section of the player houses the disc tray, which flips up at the touch of a button. In the corner of this are the multi-direction menu controls and an Option button, while there’s a row of playback buttons running along the front rim. The player is styled in a sexy gloss-black finish that’ll no doubt be covered in fingerprints once the kids get their hands on it. It’s fairly heavy for a portable product but compact enough to tuck into your bag.

There are just three sockets dotted around the side. Most significantly, there’s an HDMI output, which allows you to watch Blu-ray discs on your hi-def TV. So essentially you can use this as your main player in the home, then simply unplug and take it with you on your travels. You also get an SD card slot, supporting both SDHC and SDXC cards, and a single headphone jack. It’s a shame there’s no USB port, which would have made it easier to enjoy digital media, and there’s no Ethernet port or Wi-Fi for BD Live downloads either, making this a Profile 1.1 player.

The Panasonic DMP-B200 comes with a discreet battery. It slots into the bottom towards the back of the player and provides four hours of playback. For in-car viewing you get a DC adaptor and a bracket, which attaches to the back of the seat. Thankfully it’s not a strap or pouch but a sturdy plastic affair that secures firmly to the player using a screw.

The DMP-B200 doesn’t only play Blu-ray discs. It spins DVDs, recordable DVDs (RAM/-R/-RW/ R/ RW) and CDs, plus it handles DivX HD, MKV, JPEG, AVCHD and MPEG-2 from SD cards and discs. When viewed on a TV the player outputs movies at 1080/24p, and it also outputs Dolby True HD and DTS signals via HDMI if you want to hook it up to your AV receiver.

The DMP-B200 features a great-looking menu system that uses elements of the interface found on Panasonic’s standalone players. The main Function menu uses three large icons offering a choice of SD, Disc and Setup, set against a bright blue background. Access Setup and the great presentation continues, with clear lists of options demonstrating a logical structure.

There’s a separate menu for the LCD screen, which allows you to select from a range of presets, including Standard, Night, Dynamic and User. The User setting then lets you alter the levels of brightness and colour in the picture. Elsewhere there’s a Quick Start mode, only available when plugged into the mains, and a few energy saving settings. If you hit the Options button during playback a small menu appears, providing access to the most-used functions.

Also in the box is a remote, which comes in useful when watching movies on your TV. Sadly though, it’s too fiddly due to the number of small, identical buttons, unhelpfully lined up in rows. There’s no sense of intuitiveness when using it – every function requires a long look at the zapper to find the button you need. The playback keys are a different colour, which helps a little, but on the whole this is a poor zapper.

With a resolution of 1024 x 600, pictures on the built-in screen aren’t technically hi-def, but there are enough extra pixels to make them look sharper than DVD pictures. In fact images look positively resplendent, offering sumptuous, nuanced colour reproduction, solid blacks and lots of detail. The screen is also nice and bright but with good contrast levels that prevent the picture looking washed out.

With the Wall-E disc, the piles of litter during the opening scenes are crisply resolved, likewise close-up shots of our titular hero’s scuffed, battered bodywork. In fact in every scene the CG looks clean and punchy. Some of this detail looks a little less distinct than it does on a TV, but as portable player screens go this is a superb performance. Also pleasing is that the pixel structure isn’t visible, unlike some portable DVD players, which leaves edges looking smooth and stops the image looking gauzy. The screen also boasts a wide viewing angle.

We switched to The Dark Knight to check how that screen holds up with gloomy scenes, and it fares well. Night-time shots of the city skyline are punctuated by bright, piercing white lights, and it’s possible to make out objects moving among the shadows. Indeed, as Batman stands atop the police building, his black costume and the detail within it look clear and visible. One or two dimly-lit shots lose clarity but on the whole it’s a great effort. The full-screen IMAX scenes, particularly the establishing aerial shot of Hong Kong, look stunning.

The picture obviously looks even sharper when viewed on a TV. However, it contains bags of detail and rich, realistic colours, although the images aren’t quite as nuanced as Panasonic’s latest standalone decks.

The built-in speakers are weak, reducing The Dark Knight’s brutal sound design to a series of pops and hisses, but through a pair of headphones or an AV receiver the sound quality is excellent. The player didn’t have any trouble playing any of our test files, and in terms of disc loading it’s very impressive – The Dark Knight took just 21 seconds to start playing.

Verdict

If you’re after a portable Blu-ray player, then you’re not exactly spoilt for choice – Panasonic has cornered the market. It’s a good job then that its players are impressive. The DMP-B200 is a great example, offering sharp, punchy pictures (despite the non-HD screen), a pleasing set of features and a stylish gloss-black design. At £300 it’s rather expensive, but don’t forget that it also doubles as a living room Blu-ray player with its HDMI output. It’s a shame there’s no USB port and its Profile 1.1 spec may deter some buyers, but even without these the DMP-B200 has much to offer.

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Mio Spirit 685 EU

Mio Spirit 685 EU Introduction and Destination Search

We haven’t seen much from Mio recently. In fact, the last device we looked at was the decidedly mid-range Navman M400. Now the company is back with a new selection of devices, which look like more nails in the coffin of the formerly independent Navman brand. This week, we’re reviewing the keenly priced Spirit 685, which offers a sizeable 5in screen, yet is available for a touch over £100.

The 685 uses a development of the Spirit interface created in tandem with Navman. This has been moved still further from the Glide Touch of the Navman S100, which we found so frustrating. The 5in display does not support multitouch, and the interface now entirely uses button clicks to scroll lists, rather than swiping gestures. This may not be quite so fashionable, but it’s more dependably functional, which is what you want from a sat-nav most of the time. There’s also a physical button in the top left corner of the device, which will return you to the main menu no matter where you are within the interface.

 

Our favourite feature of the original Spirit system still remains, however. The keyword search spans both the addresses and points of interest (POIs). So both types of destination are returned in a single list. You also only need to know which city your destination is near, as the search is across an entire national database. Results are then listed by distance to the centre of the chosen city, or your current location if you’ve selected that option. You can still focus on addresses or POIs separately if you want, with individual searches available on both, plus the traditional options of city-street-number or drilling down through categories respectively. The postcode search doesn’t stretch to the full set of digits, though.

When you’ve found your destination, the 685 calculates journeys using IQ Routes technology. No, we haven’t accidentally forgotten which brand of device we’re reviewing here – Mio licensed IQ Routes from TomTom last year. So the 685 will take into account the time of day and day of week, and then uses the appropriate historic traffic speed information to figure out journey times, so you miss any regular jams.

You’re also given four different route options, rather like Navigon’s MyRoutes, except Mio calls it Choice of Routes, Ronseal style. In Mio’s case, the routes correspond to the four modes – fastest, shortest, easiest and most economical. This is potentially useful if you already know optimal roads for some of the route yourself, such as local shortcuts, but you can turn it off in the settings if you want. Since it’s calculating the route four times, it naturally takes four times as long to do so, although you can select any option as soon as it has been created, without having to wait for the others.

Mio has also implemented a system which can remember your favourite routes, called LearnMe Pro. It’s hard to assess the efficacy of something like this over a short test, but other devices with similar technology we’ve used for an extended period before have showed some improvement in arrival time predictions and route selection, although the effects are very subtle. You can plan a route with multiple waypoints on the 685, but also using the MioMore desktop software – a more comfortable method if you’re putting together a trip with lots of destinations. A button on the left of the screen lets you save your current position as a favourite with a single press, too.

In transit, the 685 offers a familiar Mio / Navman map. The next turning is shown at the top, with a topologically correct symbol for roundabouts and a clear indication of which lanes to be in where multiple carriageways are available, which Mio calls Lane Guidance. At major motorway interchanges, a full-screen 3D Junction View will appear, showing which lane(s) to be in and which road signs to look out for.

The top right corner shows your choice of distance to destination, time to destination, current speed, estimated time of arrival, or current time. Alternatively, you can drop down all of this information at once along the right-hand edge. The current speed limit is indicated by a large symbol translucently ghosted in the bottom left corner. Verbal instructions are clear, and include the full street name for turnings. You can click on the map during transit to call up route options, including the ability to detour around a blocked road.

When you approach your destination, Parking Assistance fires up. This is similar to Navigon’s Clever Parking, giving you direct access to nearby lots via a P icon which pops up onscreen when you are in the vicinity of your final point. Click on this, and the device will search for nearby car parks in its POI database, so you can easily reroute to a convenient one for your destination.

Amazingly, despite its low price, 5in screen and maps for 44 European countries, the Mio Spirit 685 also includes traffic updates. These are of the RDS-TMC variety, so are piped in via an FM receiver housed in the car power adapter. A premium subscription for the UK is included. Strangely, you only get a three-month trial of safety camera data, though. There’s also no USB cable in the box, which is a little miserly, but most people are likely to have one lying around from another device as the connection is regularly sized.

The 685 even has a few extras. Travel Books from Cityseekr are included for six major European cities, including Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris and Rome. These are essentially POI databases providing a bit more information than just location, extending to phone number, email address, website, opening hours, and a brief review. You can purchase guides for many more cities via the MioMore Desktop app. If you’re travelling temporarily to a country not included in your 685’s built-in package, you no longer need to buy maps you will only use once. You can allegedly now rent maps for 3, 7 or 30 days, although we couldn’t find pricing information on Mio’s website.

Verdict

The Mio Spirit 685 doesn’t feel quite so solidly built as TomTom or Garmin’s device. But it is phenomenally good value. You would normally expect a sat-nav with this range of features to set you back closer to £200, but Mio has managed to pull it off for much less. In fact, we’ve found retailers selling this model for around £110. At this price, it’s an absolute bargain, and the UK and Ireland version is available for even less. Living large no longer costs a premium.

 

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Panasonic Lumix G3

Panasonic has announced the Lumix G3, the latest addition to its Micro Four Thirds G-series. Considerably smaller and lighter than the G1 and G2, the new Lumix G3 sports an all-new 16MP sensor, a newly developed AF system that offers lightning-fast performance, responsive touch-screen controls and Full HD movie recording. Does this make it the best G-series model yet? Read on to find out.

 

We spent a morning with a production G3 earlier in the week, so we’re pleased to be able to share some preliminary thoughts on the new model based on an extended hands-on. But before we do that, let’s run through all of the main specs, features and upgrades.

The G3 will sit above the G2 in the G-series range but doesn’t actually replace it. The G2 will remain in the range for now, replacing the now-discontinued G10 as the budget Micro Four Thirds option. The new Lumix G3 is also book-ended by the existing GH2 and GF2 models.

Internally, the G3 employs an all-new 16MP LiveMOS Micro Four Thirds sensor alongside the Venus Engine FHD image processor. Panasonic claims it has made great strides in high sensitivity performance, with the G3’s sensor far less affected by intrusive image noise than previous G-series sensors. Indeed, Panasonic has even boasted of “noise levels of less than one third of a conventional sensor”.

To back this claim up, Panasonic showed us a set of A3 images shot in low light at high ISO settings that purported to highlight the practical benefits of the G3’s new sensor. From what we were shown it was pretty clear that the G3 images were less affected by noise thereby retaining more detail than the other images of the same scene (captured by a G2 and GH2).

Unfortunately, we don’t have copies of those images, although we have managed to take a few high ISO shots of our own that you can judge for yourselves on the Sample Image pages of this preview. Of course, it’ll take more thorough testing than we had time for on this occasion to be certain, but our initial thought is that the rather bold claims being made by Panasonic regarding the G3’s low-light performance hold up pretty well.

Low-light performance isn’t the only thing to have been improved on the G3. The autofocus system also sees significant advances, with Panasonic claiming the G3’s newly developed AF module is the “world’s fastest”, with lock-on speeds of just 0.1 seconds. Furthermore, the company also claims that the new contrast-detect AF system is more accurate at smaller f-stops than regular phase-detection AF methods.

While we can’t vouch for the latter claim, we’d certainly agree that the G3 is incredibly fast at achieving focus. In fact, used in good light we found the G3’s contrast-detect AF system to be even quicker than some phase-detection systems employed by major-brand DSLRs. In less than optimal light we found it held up pretty well too. If you’re looking for a camera that’s quick enough to capture the moment before it’s gone, the G3 looks to be a sound bet.

With a choice of Face Detection to keep portraits sharp, 23-area AF to achieve a good balance, Single-area AF to select a specific point of focus, and AF Tracking to keep moving subjects in focus, the G3 offers something for every situation. In addition, the G3 also offers a new Pinpoint AF mode that creates a small square on the screen or viewfinder, within which the camera zooms-in to show a close-up of the specific point the camera is focused on for. As the name implies, this is to give you pinpoint accuracy when focusing.

And of course, this being a touch-screen Lumix model, the G3 also offers Touch focus and Touch shutter. Touch focus allows you to determine focus on a specific spot simply by touching it on the LCD screen, while the latter goes one step further by recording an image once focus has been established.

 In addition the G3 continues to offer the Peripheral de-focus feature seen in previous G-series models. This allows you to select a point of focus with your finger on the touchscreen, while the camera automatically selects a shallow depth of field to throw the background and make the subject stand out more.

Continuous shooting speed has been upped to a very credible 4fps at full resolution or 20fps at 4MP. Full-resolution images and movies are recorded in the same 4:3 aspect ratio of the Micro Four Thirds sensor, although the G3 can also record in 3:2 (14MP), 16:9 (11.5MP) and 1:1 (11.5MP) aspect ratio. Lossless Raw (.RW2 format) and compressed JPEG files are both offered.

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Apple iPad 2 Laptop

Say what you like about the original iPad, you’d have to be deluded not to admit that Apple's equally lauded and derided tablet has changed a market more dramatically than we've seen in a long time. Apple may not be the only company making a good tablet any more, but it was certainly the first and it definitely takes credit for opening up the minds of the general public to the idea that, yes, a tablet just might have a place in their lives.

Think about it, and you realise that's an incredible feat. The iPad was in many ways a revolution, but it was also incredibly lacking in many ways. It lacked not just a front-facing camera for FaceTime, but any camera at all, couldn't handle multitasking and for all that its display offered a great portal to the Internet and a plethora of apps, the iPad was actually a somewhat unwieldy device to sit in bed or on the sofa with. And you definitely couldn't call it cheap.

Despite the shortcomings, the iPad was a runaway success - millions of customers wouldn't be pleased to have you describe them as wrong. Perhaps fortunately for Apple, it's taken the competition close to a year to catch up, after a couple of false starts including, most notably, the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Unlike the Tab, in their own ways the BlackBerry PlayBook and Motorola Xoom offer a genuine alternative to the iPad; they have well-designed and well-made chassis, slick operating systems, and are fairly price-competitive.

The problem for these iPad-rivals is that Apple wasn't sitting idle during the year-long head start it had over the competition. And so while the likes of the Xoom and PlayBook have been designed to best the iPad (and looked set to easily do so had they arrived earlier), now Apple has changed the goalposts again by launching it's own take on making an iPad-bester: the iPad 2. In a similar vein to the iPhone 3G, it's not entirely unfair to call the iPad 2 the iPad Apple should have launched in the first place, and it's hardly a break from the tradition of Apple upgrades; thinner, lighter and more powerful? Check, check and check. Nonetheless, like it or not, right or wrong, the iPad 2 is going to become the de facto standard against which all other tablets launched this year are measured, and it's to that standard we'll be holding it - game on, Apple.

The hardware changes are small bit significant. On stage Steve Jobs declared the iPad 2 as 'an all new design' but any fool can see that such a claim is taking liberties with the definition of 'all' and 'new' However, it is fair to say that the changes to the design of the iPad 2 over the iPad make it feel like a more up to date - and better - device. It's just enough of an improvement that owners of a first generation device will be jealously eyeing up second generation iPads when spotted.

Front-on the iPad 2 looks almost identical to its predecessor, but close inspection reveals a front-facing VGA camera above the screen. That the iPad 2 features the same 9.7in, 1,024 x 768 pixel panel as the first iPad will be a disappointment to those expecting a Retina Display in the style of the iPhone 4, but not unexpected. While we're not surprised to see quite such a sharp and high resolution display on the iPad 2, it would've been nice if Apple bumped it a little bit - we know of several people that want to wait a further year or so (before buying any form of iPad or tablet) for such a move to hopefully be made on the iPad 3.

Despite not seeing a boost in resolution, the iPad 2's display is still the best we've seen on a tablet with bright and vivid colours, impressive black levels (making videos look that much better), and of course all important superb viewing angles. Other tablets we've had brief looks at also have great displays but the iPad 2 is leading the pack so far. The resolution is low enough, though, that text on websites looks pretty pixelated at times, making it harder to read than we'd like - our eyes have been spoiled by too many super-sharp displays on all the great smartphones now available.

It's around the back that the changes to the physical form of the iPad 2 make themselves known. For a start, the aluminium now curves around to meet the bezel, losing the flat ridge of the iPad's edge. The overall thickness has also dropped to a mere 8.8mm thick - down from the 13mm of the iPad. Pedants might like to know that the width and height are down from 243mm and 190mm to 240mm and 186mm respectively, as a result of a slight reduction of the amount of aluminium at the edges of the iPad 2, but these differences are much less noticeable - the black bezel and display are still the same size.

The curved edges also mean that the dock connector doesn't feel quite as secure on the iPad 2 as on the iPad, and that the volume rocker and lock (or mute) switch is hidden from view when holding the iPad 2 face-on. There's also a large-ish speaker at the rear of the iPad 2, but frankly there might as well not be; the audio is okay for watching the odd YouTube video, but not much more - it is at least a small improvement over the original. More practically, the back of the iPad 2 is completely flat so, unlike the first iPad, when placed on a desk it won't rock about - this makes typing on the screen much easier. The rear holds another camera, this time with a 720p resolution.

Not visible, but perhaps the most important 'upgrade' to the iPad 2 is the loss of 80g of weight on the W-Fi model, and an even more noticeable 130g on the 3G model. It may not sound like much, but the weight saving of around 15 per cent really does make a difference in long-term use of the iPad 2. Even just moving it about or leaning it up against a leg when sitting down is easier, but it’s one-handed operation that really benefits - we found our wrists aching a lot less frequently with the iPad 2 than our first generation iPad. That said, it's still a rather large and heavy device that isn't exactly what we'd call comfortable to hold with one hand. What's more, compared to a laptop, where the screen is held at a comfortable angle 'hands-free', it can sometimes be a bit of a pain to use when you just want to sit back and watch a video or read an article.

The internal hardware of the iPad 2 is likely to have a more lasting impact than the changes to the chassis. Like its recent rivals, the iPad 2 features a dual-core processor, in this case codenamed the A5 and running at 1GHz - this is backed by 512MB of RAM, the same as the iPhone 4.

Despite having less RAM than many of its rivals - most of which boast at tidy gigabyte of memory - the iPad 2 never feels slow - Apple claims that the iPad 2 is "up to 2x faster" than the previous model. Although we can't say we noticed many apps running twice as fast, everything from Safari to GarageBand definitely ran faster on the newer model. This proves more of an advantage in the home than out and about; bearing in mind how many apps are effectively just pretty, stand-alone web pages, over 3G the connection tends to be the limiting factor in how fast apps run.

The graphics in the iPad 2 are also much improved over the previous model. The "9x faster" than the iPad claim may seem bold but it seems to hold water, with the PowerVR SGX 543MP2 chip embedded in the A5 making mincemeat of any game or app currently available. Epic Games' Infinity Blade is far and away the best-looking game on any currently available tablet, and on the iPad 2 it has a massive boost in fidelity over the iPad, offering much improved rendering fidelity in addition to a higher framerate. We've seen less good-looking PS3 and Xbox 360 games.

That said, its prowess only matches that of most of the other dual-core tablets that will soon be available (Motorola Xoom, BlackBerry PlayBook, Optimus Pad, HP TouchPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1) so it's not a technical tour do force. However, the sheer ubiquity of the iOS platform means that iPhones and iPads to tend to lead the way when it comes to the latest games so if that's your priority you may be better of sticking with Apple. The wide range of possible hardware configurations for Android really hurts it here - the Apple iOS ecosystem has its faults, but fragmentation isn't one of them.

Apple has managed to gain these performance improvements, and pack this faster iPad 2 into a smaller space, without impacting on battery life. The original iPad impressed on this front, and the iPad 2 runs with that. It's perfectly possible to get a few days of casual use without having to charge the system, and over 10 hours of continuous use - an improvement over the iPad, which was already the class leader, and more than we're expecting to see from the best of the new comers (though obviously we'll have to confirm this when they do finally arrive).

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Canon Legria HF R18

Canon camcorders have a great reputation for image quality and features. But the company hasn’t been quite so well known for its budget options. Most recent to challenge the value end of the market is Canon’s Legria HF R18. Is this the model that will give Canon the edge for the more price-conscious consumer?
The Legria HF R18 is actually top-of-a-range of three models that share almost all specifications. The R18 integrates 32GB of flash memory, the R16 only has 8GB of flash memory, and the R106 has none at all. All incorporate an SD card slot, so you can add more storage if you want. In the case of the camcorders with memory on board, if this runs out during shooting the camcorder can switch automatically to removable memory without a break in recording.

Apart from the R18 being black, the R106 being silver, and the R16 offering a range of colours, the memory allocation is the only difference between the three models. They are all built around a relatively small 1/5.5in CMOS sensor with just 2.39-megapixels. This should be enough for Full HD, but only 1.56-megapixels are used in movie mode, less than the 2.07-megapixels required. You can take photos at up to 1,920 x 1,080 pixels but not at the same time as shooting video.
The Canon HD video lens provides a 20x optical zoom, and there’s an automatic cover over the glass. However, the image stabiliser is electronic. It has two settings – Standard and Dynamic. The former is for general usage, whilst the latter is particularly tuned for removing camera shake when shooting whilst walking. However, it crops into the frame when enabled, which will reduce detail, so you’re better off with the Standard version if you don’t need the added smoothing of the Dynamic setting.

Four AVCHD quality modes are available, with data rates ranging from five to 17Mbits/sec, but not the top 24Mbits/sec possible with this format. All are HD, although only the highest quality one is Full HD. The remainder operate at the anamorphic 1,440 x 1,080 resolution originally used by the tape-based HDV format. Even at the best quality setting, the R18 can fit over four hours of footage on board, so you probably won’t need the extra memory slot.

 

 

Unlike the more premium-oriented Legria HF M31, the R18 doesn’t use a touchscreen for menu control. Instead, you get a more traditional joystick, which is located on the edge of the LCD. On its own, this operates a quick menu, which provides rapid access to a few of the most often-used functions, including manual exposure and focus. The latter can be a little fiddly to operate with a joystick, but at least there’s an assist function, which magnifies the frame to help you with adjustment.

The quick menu also provides a speedy way to switching on the Pre REC function and Face Detection. The former keeps three seconds of video constantly buffered, which are then added to the clip when you hit record. The latter now almost universal function picks up human faces and uses them as reference for exposure and focusing. Most amazingly, access to manual audio levels is available, despite the lack of minijacks for an external microphone or headphones. There’s no accessory shoe, either, for attaching peripherals.
The range of settings is reduced compared to many Canon camcorders, too. We’ve gotten used to seeing virtually all Canon camcorders, even the budget ones, offering aperture and shutter priority modes, with a separate exposure control providing the next best thing to fully independent configuration of both settings. But the R18 doesn’t offer these, only the exposure control on its own.

White balance options include just single indoor and outdoor presets, plus automatic and manual. A 25PF progressive shooting mode can be called upon if you want to avoid interlacing artefacts. There’s a cinema colour option to go with it, although you can’t use this at the same time as scene modes. Most impressively, Canon has kept its image effects available. So you can make colour vivid or neutral, reduce sharpening, or soften skin tones. But the user-customisable setting of higher-end Canon camcorders is not available.

If you delve into the full menu, goodies like x.v.Color can be found. There’s flicker removal for 50Hz and 60Hz sources – great for shooting when there’s a TV in the background. For those not interested in manual configuration, the Smart Auto mode detects conditions and sets the scene mode accordingly, although there aren’t quite as many different modes as, for example, Panasonic’s Intelligent Auto.

The R18 shoots decent enough footage in bright conditions. Colours are vibrant but faithful, and detail is quite sharp, although the picture is less fine than premium models, due to the effective CMOS sensor resolution being less than Full HD. Areas of high contrast are also handled commendably. 
However, the R18’s abilities in poor illumination are not so outstanding. Now that even cheap pocket Internet camcorders such as Kodak’s Playsport Zx3 have quite large sensors, the R18’s smaller one seems meagre. Although the image was quite bright with a fair amount of colour maintained in our 100W ceiling light test, it was marred by a considerable helping of seething multicolour grain, and this was echoed in our less formal low light testing. The R18’s performance implies that the company should consider back-side illumination technology if it wants to compete on quality using a CMOS sensor this small.

Doors at the rear cover a comprehensive set of video output ports, alongside the USB 2.0 connection. There’s mini HDMI, component and composite analogue. Cables are supplied for both the analogue connections, but not the mini HDMI, so you’ll have to fork out a little extra if you want to view your video digitally on your HDTV.

Verdict

You can pick up the Legria HF R18 for around £300, and it has a fair amount to offer for the money. However, it’s not the only fully featured Full HD camcorder at this price. Panasonic’s HDC-SD60 has a similar range of capabilities, better image quality in low light, and costs about the same when you add a 32GB SDHC card. So it remains our budget HD choice. But Canon has some new models just around the corner, so watch this space. The R18 may not be the one, but it successor just might be.

READ MORE - Canon Legria HF R18

Epson Stylus Office BX305FW

Not everybody uses inkjet all-in-ones for printing photos and for home and small offices, plain paper print is much more important. Epson has a range of small office inkjets, going under the brand Stylus Office. The Stylus Office BX305FW is an economically priced model, still offering print, scan, copy and fax.
The printer follows the general lines of Epson's recent releases, with its signature wave-shaped top to its fold-out, 30-sheet Automatic Document Feed (ADF) tray. The only paper feed is a near-vertical tray at the rear, which Epson rates at 120 sheets, but since that’s of 64gsm paper, you'll be lucky to get 100 sheets of 80gsm into it. The paper feeds to a two-stage, pull-out tray at the front.

The control panel, which has a textured grey surface and is fitted at a fixed angle, is quite crowded, with a large square for menu navigation, buttons to start and stop jobs, a number pad and five, fax quick-dial buttons. There's a two-line, text-only LCD display with no backlight, but good contrast, so it shows up well under overhead light.

There are no memory card slots or PictBridge socket in this machine, though, given its low price and target market, this is understandable.

At the back of the left-hand side are three sockets for USB, phone line and third-party handset. Most people will probably opt for wireless connection, though, which is standard. It can be set up through WPS setup with a couple of button presses, or you can enter a passcode, using the number pad.

Fold up the whole of the scanner section and you can get at the print head and its four ink cartridges. These clip in very easily and after the obligatory pumping are ready to print.

The Stylus Office BX305FW runs under Windows and OS X and there's a copy of Presto! PageManager 9 Standard included, to handle document management and OCR on both platforms. Other Epson software is provided, including applications for basic photo manipulation and printing Web pages.

Epson is among the most ‘optimistic’ manufacturers when it comes to print speeds. It claims speeds of 34ppm and 15ppm for black and colour print on this machine. Even assuming were talking draft mode, that’s still considerably faster than you're likely to see in real life. Our five-page black text document returned a speed of 3.6ppm and, although the draft mode speed measured 12.5ppm, that's quite a bit less than half the claimed speed.

Our five-page black text and colour graphics document was printed at 1.3ppm and this is pretty slow, even for a machine like this one, costing well under £100. A single-page colour copy took 53s and the five-page text copy from the ADF took 1:34, neither of which is particularly impressive. Finally, a 15 x 10cm photo on glossy paper took a very slow 3:24. In normal mode, it still took 1:33.

The text prints we produced are usual Epson fair, with noticeable jaggies around many characters, easily visible without magnification. Draft text is very light and looks like the output from a dot-matrix printer which hasn't seen a fresh ribbon in a while.

Colour graphics come out bright and smooth. Although there are dither patterns in evidence, these are only apparent when you look closely and black text over colour shows no signs of ink bleed. The colour copy maintains its colours well, though areas of solid fill look blotchier than in the original. Colour photos are well reproduced, with good levels of detail and colours which look as they should.

Two sets of cartridges are compatible with this printer, offering standard and high yields. Even the high-yield versions only average 400 pages, though, with the standard yield ones nearer to 180 pages. Epson doesn't price them expensively, so the cost per page comes out at 3.3p for black and 10.2p for colour, both including 0.7p for paper. While not cheap, you won't find much better costs for a printer at this price.

Verdict

Epson's Stylus Office BX305FW is a serviceable all-in-one for office use, with a bonus of full fax support and an ADF for scanning and copying multi-page documents. Print quality is only average and speeds are definitely on the slow side, but for under £70 at online prices, you get quite a bit of printer for your money.

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LG Optimus One P500

The budget Android smartphone market has really taken off in the last year with beautifully made handsets like the HTC Wildfire or models with high resolution screens like the Orange San Francisco being available for well under £200. And, one of the more recent arrivals is the LG Optimus One that we're looking at today.

Clothed mainly in soft touch black plastic, this phone is built around a 3.2in screen, which is slightly smaller than that of your average high-end smartphone and as such the whole phone is a bit smaller than the likes of the iPhone 4. Specifically it measures 113.5 x 59 x 13.3 mm, so is about 5mm shorter and narrower.

It's also immediately clear this is a budget phone from the fact that the screen is a flexible plastic rather than glass. Otherwise, it's an elegant enough device with its smart black and silver livery. The curved edges and general layout of buttons also makes it a nice device to hold and handle.

Eschewing the fashion for all touch sensitive controls, the One has a full compliment of four physical, backlit, buttons running underneath the screen, corresponding to Menu, Home, Back and Search. We rather like the way LG has separated the Search and Menu keys from the Home and Back, signifying their status as less-often used extras rather than main navigation buttons. All four have a nice noticeable click and feel securely planted. Thankfully, pressing the Home button activates the screen, allowing you to unlock the phone, without having to stretch for the power button.

Elsewhere there is a volume control on the right edge, headphone jack and power button on the top, a 3.0 megapixel camera on the back and microUSB on the bottom edge. The volume rocker again has a nice noticeable click though the thinness of the buttons means it's not the easiest control to use by feel alone. Pop the back plate off – via the thumbnail notch on the top edge – and a rather glamorous looking silver inside is revealed. Sadly it's just painted plastic, not metal. You do, however, get a sizable 1500mAh battery and microSD slot for adding up to 32GB of storage to the fairly miserly 170MB found onboard. 

Turn the phone on and its screen is presented in its full glory. The LCD panel packs in 320 x 480 pixels, which is lower than the San Francisco and high-end smartphones but is on par with or higher than most cheaper Android devices. Thanks to the smaller screen, the lower resolution isn't quite so obvious, resulting in a sharp looking image. It's no iPhone 4 but you're definitely not going to be constantly distracted by a horrible pixellated mess everytime you try and write a text message. Viewing angles are impressive with the picture not breaking up significantly no matter where you view it from. It also produces nice natural, if slightly muted colours.

It's also nice and responsive when it comes to touch sensitivity, and supports multi-touch for the all essential pinch to zoom gesture. It's just a shame LG couldn't have packed in a glass screen for the price, as no matter this model's merits, it just feels less than premium.

The LG Optimus One runs Android 2.2 with some light customisations by LG. So instead of the App Launcher, Browser, and Phone icons running along the bottom there are Phone, Contacts, App Launcher, Messages and Browser, which seems like an improvement to us. Slide the notifications bar down from the top of the screen and there are quick switches for turning on/off WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and Aeroplane mode, and there's a Mute button as well. Again, this seems like a sensible little addition.

Less welcome is the T9-style keypad that LG has replaced the standard onscreen keyboard with. While the phone is a bit narrower than some other touchscreen smartphones, so is a bit more cramped to type on, it's still wide enough to accommodate a standard QWERTY style keyboard. Thankfully, you can switch back to the very capable standard Android keyboard.

Otherwise, we're looking at a pretty standard version of Android, so you have five homescreens on which to place loads of widgets and apps. Tap the App Launcher and there's the full selection of apps to choose from. The phone uses a 600MHz processor so it's certainly not the speediest going but it generally trots along nicely with few moments of stutter.

LG has added a selection of its own widgets including a calendar and viewers for messages, weather and bookmarks. They all seem to work quite well though none particularly blew us away with any extra features over and above the norm.

Log into Gmail, Facebook and Twitter and, if you so choose, your contacts list will be populated by information from all three services, with you hardly having to lift a finger. It's a common feature on Android phones now but it's always satisfying to see.

Messaging services include a text message inbox, instant messaging client and both Gmail inbox as well as a general inbox for other email services. All work very well and are a breeze to use.

GPS is onboard and you have GoogleMaps and Google Navigation to take full advantage of it, or you can download a 3rd party sat nav app as well. The phone seemed to pick up a signal with reasonable speed so we had few complaints here. The slow processor will mean that 3rd party apps (with 3D graphics showing where you're going) are a bit sluggish, though.

Music is well catered for with an easy to use mp3 player and FM radio, though the player doesn't support fancier formats like FLAC. Video isn't so well represented with neither support for many files types nor the grunt to play higher quality clips. Of course, youtube is on hand for the majority of your video viewing.

The web browser is the usual excellent Android affair that is speedy and renders most web pages perfectly. If lacks Flash support but otherwise is more than up to the job. With Wi-Fi as well as 3G you can have fast downloads when at home or on the move.

The 3.0 megapixel camera lacks a flash so is fairly limited in its scope, but will do for the odd social snap in well lit environments. Thankfully it does have autofocus, though, so can be used for taking sharp closeup shots. It can also capture video at a perfectly adequate resolution of 640 x 480. It's not HD but there's enough detail to see what's going on, it's actually the limited 18fps that hurts the quality, making motion look jerky.

Making a few test calls on the One threw up no obvious issues, though general quality isn't anything special. There's no active noise cancelling for reducing the amount of noise transmitted from your surroundings to the person you're calling. The speaker phone is fairly weedy as well.

Finally we come to battery life and as we expected, the large battery combined with a slower processor and smaller screen meant this phone happily kept going for three days general use.

Verdict

The LG Optimus One is quite simply some phone. As a budget smartphone, it more than gets the job done and if you can find it on a good deal, there's no reason for you to avoid it. However, equally there's little to really make us recommend it. Frankly, the Orange San Francisco still stands out as the bargain choice at the moment.

READ MORE - LG Optimus One P500

Mophie Juice Pack Plus (iPhone 4)

Chances are you have heard of Mophie. The California-based company has garnered a lot of attention in recent years having become obsessed with finding a solution to that most nigglesome of tech problems: smartphone battery life. Mophie focuses solely on Apple products and the latest addition to its so-called 'Juice Pack' range, the 'Plus', is arguably its most important product to date.

What gets us excited is the technical achievement. The Plus is currently only available for the iPhone 4, but it crams a 2000 mAh battery inside. To put this in perspective the iPhone 4 has a 1420mAh battery. On its own Apple claims the iPhone 4 is good for seven hours talk time on 3G or up to 300 hours of standby, six hours of 3G web surfing (10 hours on WiFi), up to 10 hours of video playback or up to 40 hours of audio playback. In isolation these sound impressive, and they are, but when you're listening to music while surfing the web over 3G and running GPS in the background battery life goes down fast.

Consequently Mophie claims the Plus can more than double the iPhone 4's stamina. It adds eight hours of 3G talk time, seven hours of 3G web surfing (11 on WiFi), 11 hours of video playback or 44 hours of audio playback. Essentially it is like having a second iPhone in your pocket when the first runs out. Furthermore at 70g it has a bearable weight premium. The reservation? It costs £89.95.

 

So how does Mophie go about justifying something that costs as much as two iPod shuffles? Thankfully in a number of ways. The first thing you'll notice about the Plus is its construction. Mophie doesn't market it as a rugged case, but at 18mm at its thickest point it is thinner than many rugged cases and tougher too. I suspect the reasoning behind this is the Plus doesn't specifically cover the screen, instead using a bevel to protect it from falls onto flat surfaces. That said many rugged cases, including Tech 21's famed iBand with d3o, do the same.

Secondly the Plus is very well constructed. It doesn't just feel rugged, it feels good in hand. Mophie has used an injected rubber finish and the back is curved so, while bigger, it actually feels better to hold during phone calls. Obviously rubber also provides a better grip than Apple's stylish, but somewhat impractical glass front and rear.

On top of this it is the little touches that impress…

Everything is done that little bit better. The iPhone slots snugly into the case. The top third comes off and the iPhone slides in with millimetre-precision. The inside of the case has a dock connector and the top of the case slides on top of the iPhone and locks with a reassuring click. It isn't going to come apart without your help.

Around the edges of the case you'll find replacement power and volume buttons (since the existing controls are covered), and gaps for the mute switch and headphone jack. In addition you'll find slits just below the home button, these redirect the external speakers of the iPhone so sound is pushed upwards. The effect is subtle, but it does provide slightly more volume and casts audio a little wider. On the bottom right corner you'll find an on/off switch which toggles the case charging on and off and a useful battery indicator button on the bottom edge. When pressed this illuminates up to four status lights to indicate the remaining charge in the case. A simple, but invaluable feature.

 On the bottom left corner you'll see a micro USB port. This charges the Juice Pack Plus case and the iPhone, but the clever bit is it charges the iPhone fully first before the case. Consequently there is no downside to charging the phone this way as opposed to using a regular dock. Your iPhone can now be charged with any standard micro USB cable too and it charges at the same rate as with a dock connector. Since the port can handle power and data the iPhone can happily sync with iTunes through the case.

What's more the Plus lives up to its grand battery proclamations. You'll get at least two days of battery life on a single charge even with heavy use. This means over the course of 48 hours 4-5 hours of music listening, approximately two hours of video and web surfing, Spotify use and two hours of satellite navigation (we used the TomTom app). With light use the iPhone will make it through three days and if you switch off battery suckers like 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS it will see you through a working week. In short the Plus will make your iPhone last like your old dumbphone.

 The problem is this doesn't change the price. £89.95 is still a lot of money for a case. Especially since Apple changes the shape of the iPhone with such regularity meaning it isn't likely to fit the iPhone 5. With the next iPhone due in June/July you'll need to be locked into a long term contract or be a frequent long distance traveller to really justify the cost. Especially with Mophie selling the Juice Pack Air, a 1,500mAh variant (also 70g, but 1mm thinner) for £60.

Verdict

It is hard to knock a product which achieves everything it sets out to do. The Mophie Juice Pack Plus is well designed, durable, full of clever touches and delivers on its lofty claims of doubling iPhone battery life. That said we can't help but think almost £90 is a lot for an iPhone 4 case, especially when it is for a phone three quarters of the way through its life cycle. It's a cautious recommendation, but value for money will depend entirely on individual circumstance.

READ MORE - Mophie Juice Pack Plus (iPhone 4)