Design Ricoh Caplio GX100

LIke the GR-D the GX100 has a refeshingly austere design that is obviously intended to echo the materials and finishes of a high end SLR and to convey the impression that this is a serious photographic tool - a world apart from the ditzy world of 'pet modes', face detection and other such shiny fripperies. It's also very slim indeed - around 25mm thick (just over an inch) when powered down (the lens extends by around 27mm when you turn it on), though handling isn't totally compromised thanks to a non-slip surface on the slender grip. And although it doesn't have the indestructible feel of the flagship GR-D it does seem very solid and the fit and finish is pretty slick.

Body&design Sony Alpha DSLR-A700

The A700 is a pretty successful combination of the old and the new, with the control layout showing heavy Konica Minolta influence (as mentioned earlier, the spirit of the original Maxxum 7D lives on in this camera) but the styling taking a considerable step forward. 7D users will immediately notice the lack of a second dial on top of the camera, though we can happily report that we don't miss it, thanks to the A700's new GUI and control system. As with the 7D the camera positively bristles with buttons, switches, levers and dials, which can seem a little daunting at first. The advantage of retaining the Konica Minolta ethos of putting as many dedicated controls on the body as possible becomes more and more apparent the more you use the camera, and having so much control (quite literally) at your fingertips pays real dividends in situations where you need to react quickly to changing conditions.
Build quality is very solid; a real step up from the A100 and certainly a match for the Canon 40D, though if we're being brutally honest the plastics used still feel a little insubstantial, especially when compared to a true 'semi pro' model like the Nikon D300. The grip has a fine-grained rubber coating that could do with a little more 'grip', but overall the impression - in the hand - is very positive.

Review based on a pre-production DSLR-A700

It's been almost two years since Konica Minolta pulled out of the photo business and transferred its entire camera division to Sony, and well over a year since the first Sony DSLR (the DSLR-A100) was announced. Two years is a long time in the digital SLR market, but the three years Minolta (latterly Konica Minolta, now Sony) SLR users have been waiting for a high end model to replace the innovative Maxxum (Dynax) 7D must have felt like a lifetime. But, finally, it's here, and it looks very much like the mockup shown earlier in the year.
Like the A100, the new camera still wears its Konica Minolta heritage very much on its sleeve, and when you start to look a little more closely at the specification it's obvious that there's still an awful lot of Konica Minolta DNA in the A700. This is hardly surprising given that the circumstances behind its development.
And, just as the A100 was obviously based on - and designed to be a successor to - the KM 5D, the A700 follows on from the 7D, and - despite lots of Sony touches and an attractive new design - 7D users are likely to find using the new model reassuringly familiar.
But of course Sony doesn't only have existing system users in its cross hairs; the A700 is designed to go head to head with the latest 'prosumer' models from Nikon, Canon and Pentax. Whether the A700 offers enough to really put Sony on the DSLR map will be decided when we get to look properly at the image quality, but on specification, features and handling it certainly seems to have what it takes to play with the big boys.
Interestingly the one thing the A700 doesn't have is any form of live view; when we spoke to Sony about this the answer was simple; they believe that the compromises involved in current systems are unsatisfactory, and they won't implement live view until they can 'get it right'. Whether the lack of live view has any real relevance in a camera at this level remains to be seen; we doubt it.
The A700 shares many technologies with earlier Konica Minolta models (including, naturally, the lens mount), plus all those introduced in the A100 - though virtually all have been uprated or upgraded in one way or another (we've been told the A100 and A700 share virtually no components). From the sensor to the construction of the body to the GUI to the extensive feature set, this is a very different camera to the entry-level A100

Body & Design NiKon D3

The D3 marks a whole new model series for Nikon but as we would expect the changes are subtle and evolutionary rather than a revolutionary switch. Photographers familiar with the D2 series will feel immediately at home with the D3, button layout is almost identical and the control changes made are sensible improvements rather than completely new concepts. The D3's proportions make it almost square and thanks to a magnesium shell it is literally as solid as a brick. Robust surfaces, soft rubber on the grips, oversized buttons, locked controls and environmental seals add up to a purposeful camera which has been designed with the requirements of the professional photographer in any situation.

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Nikon D3 hands-on preview

Nikon D3 hands-on preview

The professional Nikon D 'single digit' series of digital SLR's started life back in June 1999 with the groundbreaking D1. Groundbreaking because it was the digital SLR which broke Kodak's stranglehold on the digital SLR market and fundamentally brought prices down to a level which most professionals could afford (around the US$5,500 mark). Since then we have seen a steady progression of this line of cameras, while the core values of a high quality full size body with integrated grip have remained the line split into two halves, one targeted at high resolution photography the other high speed sports type photography (lower resolution but faster continuous shooting); the X and H suffixes. It's been almost three years since Nikon introduced a completely new digital SLR with a new sensor (the D2X) and there has been much anticipation that Nikon's next move would be a full-frame chip.
This predictions have come true with the introduction of the 'FX format' (new moniker created by Nikon) D3 which features a 36 x 23.9 mm 12.1 megapixel CMOS sensor as well as a vast array of new features which absolutely raise it another notch above previous single digit Nikon DSLRs. Important headline improvements include high sensitivity support by default, up to ISO 6400 with 25600 available as a boost option, 14-bit A/D conversion, a new standard image processor, a new shutter, new auto focus sensor, focus tracking by color, nine frames per second continuous, dual compact flash support, DX lens support (albeit at lower resolution) and a 3.0" 922,000 pixel LCD monitor (which it has to be said is lovely).
Some will undoubtedly question Nikon for 'only' delivering twelve megapixels on their first full frame digital SLR, all we can presume by looking at past model line history is that this camera is designed for speed (both in sensitivity, auto-focus and continuous shooting).