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Summer means Blockbusters, and not just that Hollywood drivel. If you want memories worthy of the big screen, here’s the gear you need. – Christopher Null
Apple MacBook Pro
Great cinema comes to life in the editing room. Apple’s powerful portable has enough zip to handle giant hi-def video files and comes with iMovie HD software, which makes assembling your masterpiece a snap.
$1,999 www.apple.com
Sony HDR-HC3 HDV Handycam Camcorder
Hi-def is where it’s at, and this model shoots beautiful 1,080i video so vivid you’ll swear the party never ended. You can even grab decent 2.3-megapixel stills while you’re filming.
$1,500 www.sony.com
Steadicam Merlin
The only thing worse than banal home movies is footage that makes the audience nauseous. Keep the focus on your subject, not your camera work, with this device that reduces handheld jitters to a minimum.
$849 www.steadicam.com
Summer is all about the right mix of sun and surf. It’s the perfect time – and light – for fun pics but can be brutal on a typical camera’s innards. That’s why you need a waterproof shooter. Unlike standard models that are often accessorized with a cumbersome dive case, these cams come ready to get wet. Some are even compact enough to stow in your swim trunks. Nice package! — Dylan Tweney
How We Tested
Speed: Using a stopwatch, we clocked how long each camera took to power up and take a shot. We also measured shot-to-shot time – the delay between one shot and the next (with the flash off).
Image quality: We photographed the same indoor and outdoor scenes with each camera, then compared color saturation, detail, sharpness, and presence of artifacts such as purple fringing.
Water resistance: As each camera was immersed in a bathtub for 10 minutes, we turned it on and off and took photos underwater.
Low-light shots: If you’re taking photos in the rain or underwater, you’re not going to have much light – so we looked for sharpness and color quality with low-light, no-flash shots.
Olympus Stylus 720 SW
The Stylus was built from the ground up as a waterproof point-and-shoot. The shock-resistant case protects a 7.1-megapixel sensor, so you can drop it 5 feet or dunk it down to 10 and it will still produce big, beautiful shots with rich color and lots of detail. If you’re not the outdoors type, the pocketable shape and bright display make it a fine everyday camera, too. Easy-to-use onscreen menus offer a variety of preset scene modes, both terrestrial and aquatic. And like James Bond, the Stylus goes from undersea adventure to black-tie elegance without missing a beat. Now that’s style.
WIRED: Gorgeous, compact design. Fast 2.8-second shot-to-shot time. Bright 2.5-inch LCD easy to see in sunlight or darkness. Digital image stabilization counteracts your shaky grip. 3X optical zoom. Simple onscreen menus.
TIRED: Uses xD media cards, which are less common and more expensive than SD. Internal memory holds only six images at top quality.
$400 www.olympusamerica.com
Pentax Optio W10
WIRED: Waterproof to 5 feet. 2.5-inch LCD is bright and crisp. Overall image quality is quite good. Uses common SD cards.
TIRED: Murky, noisy low-light images. Easy to leave battery compartment unlocked, which lets water in. By default, screen goes dim after about four seconds, and it’s hard to find the menu setting to tweak it.
$300 www.h2ocamera.com
SeaLife DC500
WIRED: Waterproof to 200 feet. “Shark” mode reduces shutter lag to 0.3 second. Compatible with a wide range of underwater accessories, including powerful external flashes that are perfect for deep dives.
TIRED: Requires bulky enclosure (included) to be waterproof. Only 5 megapixels. Sluggish 4.7-second shot-to-shot time. Craptastic low-light pics. Cryptic menus.
$550 www.sealife-cameras.com
FujiFilm QuickSnap Marine
WIRED: Tough plastic housing resists knocking about and is waterproof to 35 feet. Floats. Dirt cheap. Handy rubber-band strap doubles as an excellent anti-sibling weapon.
TIRED: Not digital – requires film processing. Single-use: 27 exposures and that’s it. Absence of flash limits you to well-lit scenes. Bulky. Manual film advance means you can’t shoot faster than about once every six seconds.
$15 www.fujifilm.com
To many shutterbugs, a photo isn’t really a photo until you can get fingerprints all over it. These printers output lab-quality 4 x 6s and pack up nice and small for the road. – Cathy Lu
Epson PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition
WIRED: Easiest to use. Realistic color and solid detail. Editing and adding borders is a breeze. Each print costs just 24 cents. 2.4-inch LCD.
TIRED: No red-eye correction. Images are a bit soft, with noticeable grain. 93-second print time a drag.
$200 www.epson.com
HP Photosmart 475 Compact Photo Printer
WIRED: 1.5-Gbyte hard drive for onboard storage. Pics sortable by keywords you can assign. Remote control. 5 x 7 and panoramic printing capabilities. Crop, brightness, and other editing functions. Auto red-eye correction. Vibrant colors. Sharp LCD.
TIRED: Expensive, especially given fuzzy prints. Painful 1 minute, 48 seconds for a 4 x 6. Border options buried deep in menus. Slow image preview.
$250 www.hp.com
Olympus P-11 Digital Photo Printer
WIRED: Superfast 44-second prints. Pictures feature lively colors and no grain. Paper tray holds 50 sheets (others in test fit 25 or less). Great all-in-one cube design.
TIRED: No LCD or memory-card slots, so you’re limited to computer or PictBridge-camera printing. Most expensive prints – about 39 cents each.
$150 www.olympusamerica.com
Canon Selphy CP710
WIRED: Retractable USB cord for linking to most digicams. Easy to apply borders. Superfast picture previews. Crisp prints with natural colors. 28 cents per print.
TIRED: No editing functions. Tiny 1.5-inch LCD. Uses perforated paper, requiring you to tear off the ends. Paper has to pass through printer four times per pic.
$150 www.canonusa.com
Plenty of pocket cams match this Canon’s 8.2-megapixel resolution, but they won’t keep up when things get fast and furious. This semipro DSLR offers blazing performance, including shutter speeds as high as 1/8000 second to freeze the quickest athletes. And a light-sensitivity of ISO 3200 borders on night vision, making for grainless photos even under dim streetlights. Too bad the kit packs a chintzy, unsharp 18- to 55-mm zoom. We suggest pairing this excellent cam with a top-drawer lens like the image-stabilizing EF 24- to 105-mm f/4L IS USM ($1,249). – Seán Captain
Canon EOS 30D
WIRED: Gorgeous color with spot-on white balance. Jaw-dropping low-light performance. Comfortable grip and good access to critical settings (shutter speed, aperture, ISO). 2.5-inch LCD.
TIRED: Making less-critical adjustments (like color space and white balance) requires considerable scrolling and digging through menus. Built-in flash rather “hot” and requires a lot of button pushing to tweak.
$1,499 (body and lens kit) www.canonusa.com
Body
The magnesium alloy body can survive hard knocks and drops, and the shutter is built by Canon to last for 100,000 clicks.
Sensor
The 0.9 x 0.6-inch CMOS sensor is about 14 times bigger than the CCD on one of Canon’s 8-megapixel compacts.
Processor
Canon’s blistering Digic II chip lets the 30D shoot five frames per second in bursts of up to 30 JPEG or 11 RAW shots.
credit Toby Burditt, styled by Shannon Amos/Artist Untied
Apple MacBook Pro, Sony HDR-HC3 HDV Handycam Camcorder and Steadicam Merlin
credit Toby Burditt, styled by Shannon Amos/Artist Untied
Apple MacBook Pro, Sony HDR-HC3 HDV Handycam Camcorder and Steadicam Merlin
credit Corbis
Olympus Stylus 720 SW
credit Corbis
Olympus Stylus 720 SW
credit Peter Samuels
Pentax Optio W10
credit Peter Samuels
Pentax Optio W10
SeaLife DC500
SeaLife DC500
FujiFilm QuickSnap Marine
FujiFilm QuickSnap Marine
Epson PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition
Epson PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition
HP Photosmart 475 Compact Photo Printer
HP Photosmart 475 Compact Photo Printer
Olympus P-11 Digital Photo Printer
Olympus P-11 Digital Photo Printer
Canon Selphy CP710
Canon Selphy CP710
Canon EOS 30D
Canon EOS 30D
Wired Test:
