L"iI.~
Recommendations
All models produced excellent or very good
images. Image quality scores for SLRs and
picture quality scoresfo r SLR-likemodels
are not direct ly comparable because they
are based on different test met hods. All
the SLRsin the
Ra
tings except the Canon
(49) were tested in part nership with Inter-
national Consumer Research& Testing,an oe 0
~ •
association of 37 consumer organizations •
Availability
Most
model
s at sto res th ro ugh February
2008
. [xcellent
Very
Good
Fair
Po
or
good
including Consumers Union.
Reliability. Based on subscriber-

SLR-like

cameras

survey data,Olympus, Canon, Fujifilm, and In
performance
order. Blue key number sindi cate Quick Picks.
Nikon havebeen reliable SLR brands.
Specifications
. .-
--
QUICK PICKS
>-
Q;
'"
ru
~
~
Q) .'::'
~
DC
Among SLR -Iike models, capable
Q;
Y2N ~:§g;
'iii
0-
:0
.
'"
~
~
::J 0
.0
CY
~
~
0-
U
a
;;;
performance at a mod est price: E
~
gN
~

e

~
s: 2 C
::J 'a' z
ro
'Vi
l':'
c:
2 (])
n:i
ro 'iii
::J
C ::J
0-
.0
(])
.:c
100
~
.
~ ~
0
~
C
X
40
Fujifilm (6 MP) $300 >-
~
:J ru
:<::>
(])
<u
s:
(])
U<u
<{
P
F'GV
G
E
~
$
g
~ ~
0::
CD V> Z .§
<{
S
::<
42
Fujifilm (9 MP) $430 '" For thosewhoneed
SLR-stylefeaturesbutabuilt-inlens.
These offer lo nger flash range and more
precise cont rol over zoom and focusing o e
eo
· · · •
40
FujifilmFin
eP
ixS6000fd
$3
00 6 24 10
.7
x
2.4
27
.2
than a compact. at lower cost th an many 41
Leica
V-
LUX
1
850
10
26
12x 1.9
24.3
ee
oo
SLRs. Both have very good batter y life,
42
Fujifilm
FinePix
S9100
430
9
26
10
.7x
2
18.4
e e
~
e
..
· ·
10.7x opt ical zoom, image stabilizer, wide- Overall
score
includest hesame fa ctorsused in rating smallc ameras( page
40
).
angle zoom, and manual cont rols, and can
zoom while recor ding video, but t hey are
fairly heavy. The Fujifilm ( 40) has excel- SLR

cameras

lent picture quality,very good shutter lag, In
performance
order.Blue key numbers indi cate Quick
Picks
.
and excellent next-shot delay. If high reso-
Features
lution trumps speed, try the newer Fuji- .
-----
film (42), which has very good picture
Q;
.'::'
quality and very good next-shot delay but
~
~
(])
(])
(])
~
:0 '" '"
0-
N
0-
ro
~
.<:
only fair shutte r lag.
.0
Q)
'" S C ::J
~
::J
;;;
C
::J
E 'c,
X
:c
~
CY c- a
~
Q;
(])
(])
ro
C
100
ro 2'
~
0- 0- 0-
.0
For an
easy-to
-use SLR: >-
0-
-5i
ro
~
ro ru
(]) P F G VG E (]) 'w eo .§ 2
n:i
ro
<{
s: 0
::<
s l;:: CD W E
<{
U ~
47
Nikon (10 MP) $
800
'"
48
Olympus (10 MP) $800
43
Canon
EOS-30D
Di
gital[jJ $1
.000
8
28
12
.1
00 0
100-
3200
51
Nikon (6 MP) $600, CR Best Buy
44
Nikon
080[jJ 1,000 10
24
12.1
e0 0 100-
32
00
All three ar e compact and lightweight for
an SLRand are veryeasy to use,wi thvery
45
Sony
alphaO
SL
R-Al00K
800
10
22
11.
2 e0 0
100
-
1600
good image qualit y and excellent batt ery
46
Nikon
0200
!D
1,700
10
33
11
.2 0 0 0 100
-1
600
life. Both Nikons include in-camera image
47
Nikon
D40X 800
10
19 14 e0 0 100-3200
correction, such as cro pping and filt er
48
Olympus
Evolt E
-410
800 I 10 16
11
.2 e0 0 100
-1
600
effects, plus software-based dust removal.
Theyalso featurea 2.5 percent spot meter
49
Canon
Di
gitalR
eb
elXti 800 I 10
20
12
.1
e0 0 100
-1
600
anduse the samemetering systemas their
50
Pentax
K
l0D
800 I 10
28
10
.2 e0 0
100
-1
600
pricier sibling, the Nikon (44), a fine and
!;llj
51
Nikon
040
600
I 6 18 14 e 0 0 . 20
0-32
00
rugged 10-megapixel model that accepts a
wide variet y of lenses. The main advan-
52
Pentax
K10
0D
600
..
6 23 14
.8
e0 0 200-
32
00
tages of the Nikon (47) over the Nikon (51) ,
53
Sigma
SO
14
m 1,200 4.65 28
10
0 0e 1
00-1600
aregreater resolution; theability to shoot 3
II
Priceisfor
bod
yonl
y.
framesper second, insteadof 2.5, continu- Guide
to the Ratings
ouslyfor up to100 JPEGimages;and alow
Overall
score
isfor the body onlya ndis based onimag equality, versat ility,weight. ease of use, zooming capa-
ISO setting of 100 instead of 20 0. The bility,
battery
life,and useful
featur
es.Displayed scores arer ounded;model sare listed in
order
of preciseoverall
Olympus includes through-the-Iens live score.
Megapixels
is in million s of eleme nts.
Weight
is for th e body o nly, includino battery.
Flash
range
is the
view with autofocus, with up to l Ox magni-
maximum
claimed
for
a well-light ed SUbject. SLR im age
quality
is based on expert
judgments
using im ages
fication with manualfocus. Italso features takenat the best re soluti on and co mpression and vi ewed on a referen ce monitor, and on objective analytical test
hardware-based dust removal, fu lly cus- data.
Battery
life
reflects the
numb
er of high -resolution pho tos taken
with
the batteries supplied, if the camera
tomizable
RAW+
JP
EG
,spot meter ingwith usesa p roprietary size,or
with
rechargeable nickel-metal hydride AAs;
250
orm ore wasjudged excellent.
Image
a shadow-and highlight-basedspot, and
stabilizer
showsmod els w ith th at steadying fea ture.
AA
batter
iesde notesmode lsusing those.
Charger
isfor the
batterie s.ISO
settings
indicates
the
sensitivity range.
Price
isapproxima tereta il(with lens).Model swere tested
unlimited continuous shoot ing on a fast witha high -qualit y,50 -m m same-brand lens. Kitlenses commonly bundled are:Canon 18-55mm EF-S,(Nikon D
80
)
card with HQ-quality JP
EG
. AF Zoom-Nikkor 18-135mm, Sony18-70 mm DT,(Nikon
D200)
AFZoo m-Nikkor ED18-55 mm,(Nikon
D40
x,D40 )
AF-SOX Zoom- Nikko r 18-55 rnrn, Olympus 14-42 mm, Penta xDA Zoom18-55 rnrn, and Sigma18
-50
mm.
42
CO
NS UM.ER R EPO R
TS
0 NO
VEMB
ER
2007
• Ex
pe
rt · I nde
pend
e
nt
· N
on
pr
o
fi
t