Nikon L77 manual SLR cameras

fairly heavy. The Fujifilm (40) has excel­ lent picture quality, very good shutte r lag, and excellent next-shot delay. If high reso­ luti on t rump s speed, tr y the newer Fuji­ film (42), which has very good picture quality and very good next-shot delay but only fair shutte r lag.

For an easy-to-use SLR:

47Nikon (10 MP) $800

48Olympus (10 MP) $800

51 Nikon (6 MP) $600, CR Best Buy

All three are compact and lightweight for

an SLR and are very easy to use, with very

good image quality and excellent batt ery

life. Both Nikons include in-camera image

correction, such as cropping and filter

effects, plus software-based dust removal.

They also feature a 2.5 percent spot meter

and use the same metering system as their

pricier sibling, the Nikon (44), a fine and

rugged 10-megapixel model that accepts a

wide variety of lenses. The main advan­

tages of the Nikon (47) over the Nikon (51)

are greater resolution; the ability to shoot 3

frames per second, instead of 2.5, contin u­

SLR cameras										.'::'
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										Features
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43 Canon EOS-30DDigital[jJ		$1.000		8	28	12.1	0	0	0
44 Nikon 080[jJ		1,000		10	24	12.1	e	0	0
45	Sony alphaOSLR-Al00K 800			10	22	11.2	e	0	0
46 Nikon 0200!D		1,700		10	33	11.2	0	0	0
47 Nikon D40X		800		10	19	14	e	0	0
48 Olympus Evolt E-410		800	I	10	16	11.2	e	0	0
49 Canon DigitalRebel Xti		800	I	10	20	12.1	e	0	0
50 Pentax Kl0D		800	I	10	28	10.2	e	0	0
!;llj 51	Nikon 040	600	I	6	18	14	e	0	0
52	Pentax K100D	600	..	6	23	14.8	e	0	0
53	Sigma SO 14 m	1,200	,	4.65	28	10	0	0	e

IIPriceisfor bodyonly.

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100-3200

100-3200

100-1600

100-1600

100-3200

100-1600

100-1600

. 200100--16003200 200-3200100-1600

ously for up to 100 JPEG images;and a low

ISO setting of 100 instead of 200. The

Olympus includes through-the-Iens live

view with autofocus, with up to lOx magni­

fication with manual focus. It also features

hardware-based dust removal, fully cus­

tomizable RAW+JPEG, spot metering with

a shadow- and highlight-based spot, and

unlimited continuous shooting on a fast

card with HQ-quality JPEG.

Guide to the Ratings

Overall score is for th e body only and is based on imag e qua lity, versatility, weight. ease of use, zooming capa­ bility, battery life, and useful features. Displayed scores are roun ded; model s are listed in order of precise overall score. Megapixels is in milli on s of eleme nts. Weight is for th e body only, includino battery. Flash range is th e maximum claimed for a well-light ed SUbject. SLR im age quality is based on expert judgments using images ta ken at the best resolut ion and comp ression and viewed on a reference monitor, and on objective analytical test data. Battery life reflects the number of high-resol ut ion photos taken with the batteries supplied, if the cam era uses a proprietary size, or with rec hargeable nicke l-meta l hydride AA s; 250 or more was judged excellent. Image stabilizer shows mod els wit h th at steadying feature. AA batteries denotes mode ls using those. Charger is for t he batt eries. ISO settings indicates the sensit ivity range . Price is approximate reta il (with lens). Model s were te sted with a high-quality, 50 -mm same-brand lens. Kit lenses commonly bundled are: Canon 18-55 mm EF-S, (Nikon D80) AF Zoom-Nikkor 18-135 mm, Sony 18-70 mm DT,(Nikon D200) AF Zoo m-Nikko r ED 18-55 mm, (Nikon D40x, D4 0) AF-S OX Zo om- Nikkor 18 -55 rnrn, Olympus 14-42 mm, Pentax DA Zoom 18-55 rnrn, and Sigma 18-50 mm.

42 CO N S U M .ER R E P O RTS 0 NO VEMB ER 2007 • Exper t · In d ependent · Nonpro fi t