Nikon has again upped the ante in its compact digicam lineup and the Nikon Coolpix p330 is an excellent example of the movement.

A biggish 15mm CMOS sensor, moderate pixel count plus a fast f1.8 lens leads to a surprisingly high performance in such a moderately-priced camera.

Coupled with this is the camera’s small size, easy pocketability and light weight.

Nikon Coolpix P330 Features

After months of wading through high end DSLRs, MILCs and other complex babies it was a relief to handle this easy to use camera from the well known house of Nikon!

It was indeed a surprise and confirmation in one sense that, in the pursuit of taking images, flashier is not always finer! And, as …

For whatever reason it was a long wait for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH3 — I counted about six months. Worth waiting for?

Yes, for a number of reasons, not all directly to do with image making either.

As a MILC (mirrorless interchangeable lens camera) this is as fully featured as you can get and then offers more in the rugged department: it has a magnesium alloy, full diecast body, coupled with splash and dustproof construction, achieved by tightly sealing sections of the camera body.

Test lens was the Lumix G Vario Power OIS f2.8/12-35mm, equating to a 24-70mm lens in a 35 SLR.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH3 Controls

There’s a ton of external controls planted on the GH3′s body.

Top …

You may have heard the term “Nifty Fifty“ before.  If you haven’t, it is usually a reference to the Canon 50mm f1.8 lens. But for the purpose of this article I’m going to use it synonymously with any prime 50mm lens.

What’s the best “next” lens to buy?

I get asked all the time by my students about what lens they should buy next after the basic kit lens that came with the camera. I almost always recommend picking up a simple 50mm prime lens. Let’s look at some reasons . . .

Reasons why this lens should be in your bag

•  GREAT FOR LOW LOW PHOTOGRAPHY - with the wide aperture of f1.8, especially going from your typical kit lens which is usually f5.6,

…

After unpacking this long-awaited camera – the Pentax X-5 – my first impression was that it looked startingly like a DSLR! Prominent speed grip, big lens, eyepiece, same feel.

But it is of course a bridge camera, with a magnificent 26x zoom lens reach, operable from the top zoom lever.

Pentax X-5 Features

Those who prefer external controls will be in delight: the top deck houses the zoom lever and shutter button, on/off switch, exposure correction button and mode dial. The latter provides access to the various exposure modes (auto, manual), a user setting, movie, special subjects (such as night snap, sports, landscapes, portrait), scene modes (15 in all).

The rear surface has a button to switch screen to turret finder viewing, display options, …

This article is written by Andrew S. Gibson, the author of Understanding EOS, on sale now at Snap N Deals for a limited time.

Note: This article is about Canon’s semi-professional and professional EOS cameras. You can read about its entry level models in my previous article.

Semi-professional cameras

This group of EOS cameras is aimed at semi-professional photographers and serious hobbyists. Don’t let that put you off if your budget stretches to one of these models and you’re looking to buy your first EOS camera. There is nothing intrinsically more complicated about these models. In some ways they are even simpler to use as most of them don’t have the automatic exposure modes (portrait, landscape etc) that come on entry-level models.

The main differences between these cameras and entry level …