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Richard Murdey
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Opinion: For what it is, a zoom telephoto, the image quality is pretty much faultless hence 5 stars. Yes, the Nikkor AF 85mm F1.8D is sharper, cheaper, faster, and more compact, but is doesn't go from 50 mm to 135 mm either. The point is the Tokina plays in the same league, delivering excellent contrast, color rendition, and bokeh.
It is optimized for the middle of its zoom range, and falls off towards either extreme. This I think is the right design choice for this class of lens. Consider it variable framing portrait lens. It's also a great event lens. Either way you can't go wrong so long as your needs fall within it's zoom range.
Build quality is very high. Feels solid and very dense. All controls are exceptionally smooth and well damped. Focus and zoom are internal, external dimensions remain unchanged and relatively compact.
The tripod mount and collar is exceptionally sturdy, and nicely designed. It is non-removable, though it's small enough that this is not a great concern.
Problems: The rubber of the zoom ring is becoming loose. Not to beat a dead horse, but I've never had a Nikkor do that on me...
The MF-AF focus clutch mechanism nice in some ways, but may not be everyone's cup of tea. The problem is that only Tokina lenses feature it, so you have to retrain yourself if you interchange Nikkor and Tokina lenses a lot.
Opinion: The crown jewel of Pentax lenses. This is as good as it gets folks.
First, the 31mm focal length on APS-C works out to 46mm, just wide of normal, and, coupled with f/1.8 maximum aperture, it's about as useful a lens as you can imagine for general shooting. Plus it's relatively compact, has a built in hood, and is one of the few autofocus lenses than can be enjoyably focused manually.
Build quality and handling are beyond reproach.
The image quality has to be taken in respect to it's design as a ultra-fast wide-angle full frame lens. Yes, wide open there is some softness, and you can find some purple fringing if you hunt... I won't deny this. Everything is extremely well controlled and corrected for, however, and stopped down it can pull in phenomenal frame-to-frame detail.
The FA31 is about several things that you will either "get" or you won't, and it's not really things that are measurable. First is the bokeh, quite simply amazing for a wide angle lens. Second the is the colors and contrast. The rendering of skin tones is exceptional. The brightness of bright light is vividly lifelike.
Not everyone can afford it. Not everyone will appreciate it. However, this is without doubt Pentax' finest.
Problems: There is a feeling of something being wasted on APS-C. It's a pity Pentax has no full frame digital SLR to allow the FA31 to be seen in it's full glory.
Opinion: Underrated, overpriced little camera. How do you figure that? Well, the way the cameras are reviewed does not play to the strengths of the GR Digital. These strengths are a superlative little wide angle lens, the perfect size and weight, and a versatile control system designed for the experienced photographer rather than for amateurs.
Most importantly the sample images I saw on the web, at Ricoh and elsewhere, simply do not do this camera justice. With only the smallest attention to setting the white balance, ISO, aperture and exposure off the Auto settings this camera is capable of stunning output.
It is not a point and shoot, at least not a very good one, but it transforms into something much more capable once you start telling it what to do.
For colour, its best to force the ISO down to 100 or 64 and use a tripod if need be. Night shots are particularely good, as is any use of the macro mode.
The higher ISO settings up to 1600 are perhaps best reserved for B&W where the graininess doesnt seem out of place.
I think thats a fair compromise, but if you insist on low noise at high ISO the GRD isnt for you.
Problems: Full disclosure: I bought this used, mint, in Japan for the equivalent of $350 US. Going against what I could get for the same money (Lumix LX2, FZ30, TZ3, Canon G7) its a lot easier to overlook the high ISO limitations and highlight the superb output at low ISO. At $650 however I could get a used LC1 and be within spitting distance of any number of entry level dSLR kits. Placed in that company the GRD is obviously much tougher to recommend.
Opinion: This little camera grows on you. I compared both the FX8 and FX9 before finally choosing the FX8. Although the FX9 has a high rez LCD, the screen on the FX8 has a wider viewing angle and overall it seems a better match for the image electronics. I felt compression artifacts and the low resolution of the menu graphics to be painfully obvious with the better LCD. I didnt see any advantage to having the extra megapixels in the CCD, either. And while the enamel finish of the black FX8 has a great look and feel, I didnt care much for the rubber matt finish of the FX9.
The FX8 like all the Lumix cameras I've used has an intuitive menu system that allows quick access to the usual parameters. It dumbs down in simple mode, if you really need it to. The image presets (fireworks, portrait, night scenery) are generally useful and produce good results.
The image quality is good. Noise reduction does lead to flat, dull images sometimes, while ISO 400 is too noisy to be of much value. Generally recommended as an outdoor camera more than an indoor one. Battery life is excellent, especially with the econo mode enabled that swiches off the LCD automatically after a short delay. Build quality is very high.
Lastly, size matters. The FX8 is not significantly bigger than a mobile phone. This is what finally sealed the deal over the functionally more capable FZ series. It can be taken anywhere, anytime, and just forgotten about untill its needed.
Problems: With the gloss finish and small size, the camera can become hard to hold if your hands get sweaty. As with all compact cameras, the max aperture of the tele end of the lens is slow at only F5. Also, the aperture has only two stops: the exposure is mostly controlled through changing the iso (CCD gain). No manual control. No viewfinder. I never found the last two points to be a problem in practice. The slow lens, on the other hand, did present limitations from time to time.
Opinion: I’m very pleased with this camera. The design brief was apparently for both a compact auto-everything point-and-shoot and a real photographer's camera with all the advanced features. They did very well meeting both goals.
The compromise? No optical zoom. If you personally don’t mind taking all your photographs in wide angle, this is not a problem. More importantly, if most of the time the image is for web/email/on-screen viewing, then by cropping a 800x600 or 640x480 section from the full image the exact effect of an optical zoom is achieved.
The interrelation between cropping a larger image and image focal length doesn’t seem to be properly appreciated. Basically, cropping allows you to trade in unwanted pixels to mimic the effect of an optical zoom. So an 800x600 crop of a 1600x1200 image taken with a 33mm lens will be the exact same picture as an 800x600 image taken with a 66mm lens.
Note this isn’t quite the same as the “digital zoom” on the camera, which is, as has been often pointed out, useless.
If you need the pixels because you want to print the picture, then I recommend an optical zoom lens. If, like me, you typically work at screen resolution, consider the P31 a lighter, smaller, sharper, faster and cheaper alternative to the zoom-enabled competition.
My other favourite things about the P31:
The auto-focus lens is a fast F2.8 and has a wide range of aperture and shutter settings. It performs very well in low light situations, helped by the auto-focus illuminator, noise reduction, and twilight modes.
The viewfinder is at the extreme left of the camera, so the LCD screen is away from your nose. Overall the controls and ergonomics are well thought out.
Battery life is a solid 2h, even with the LCD on.
USB data transfer rate is over 3mb/s on my computer.
PS: The P-31 doesn't have macro mode because it is auto-focus. The lens will focus cleanly down to about 10cm.
Problems: While the plastic case is much more elegant and serious looking that the toy-like DSC-P20, it does feel more fragile in your hands than a metal-cased camera.
The size is for me small enough, but it would be perfect had it been 8 mm thinner. It is a bit on the chubby side.
The tendency for the auto-white balance to give a blue tint to outdoor shots is well-documented and in my experience true. In my opinion, any auto-WB is going to have problems at somepoint or other. Selecting from the manual WB modes - something I think you should be doing anyway - gives excellent results.
Kyoto , Japan
