sensitivity
Latest
Smartphones for audiophiles: is the iPhone 5 more musical than its rivals?
Related reviews Apple iPhone 5 Samsung Galaxy S III HTC Sensation XE (first phone with Beats Audio) The love of audio. It's a dangerous condition, because every minute spent obsessing over headphones or specs or conflicting opinions is a minute not spent enjoying your favorite tracks or discovering new ones. That's why a review like this, which compares the iPhone 5 with rival phones based largely on acoustic qualities, runs a high risk of time-wastage -- no one really needs a cacophony of flowery words with no concrete conclusions. How to steer clear of the technological equivalent of a wine-tasting? By trying our damnedest to focus only on the more practical pros and cons of these top handsets, specifically from the POV of someone who listens to a lot of music on their phone. We're talking about someone who likely prefers high-bitrate recordings and who is ready to spend money on something better than the earbuds (or EarPods) that come in the box. In addition to testing Apple's new flagship we'll also look at the iPhone 4S, which is now a ton cheaper than it was a few weeks ago, as well as the Galaxy S III (both the global and the Sprint US version) plus the HTC One X (global and AT&T), and run them all through an audiophile obstacle course that goes right from purely subjective observations through to slightly more scientific tests as well as storage, OS and battery comparisons. There'll also be some consideration of the iPhone 4, Nokia Lumia 800 and PureView 808, although it'll be more condensed. And yes, we'll end up with an overall winner, but the research here is about more than that. Different phones may suit different people, depending on their priorities. Moreover, new handsets are just around the corner -- the Lumia 920, the Note II, the LG Optimus G and whatever other goodies the future undoubtedly holds -- and so it makes sense to have a bed of knowledge against which new entrants can be judged. Interested? Then let's get started.
Canon EOS 5D Mark III field review
Shoot in the dark. That's essentially what you can do with the Canon 5D Mark III -- with a top sensitivity of ISO 102,400, what was once unfathomable could soon become an acceptable standard. While point-and-shoot manufacturers are adding WiFi and GPS, and tweaking algorithms in an effort to boost sensitivity beyond the 6400 mark, Canon and Nikon are making clear cases for a DSLR upgrade, by drastically improving image quality. The 5D Mark II had an excellent three-year run, but with its 22.3-megapixel sensor, 1.04M-dot 3.2-inch LCD, improved autofocus and high-performance video capabilities, Canon's latest full-frame DSLR is an entirely different beast, and a very compelling successor. We spent two glorious weeks with a pre-production 5D Mark III before reluctantly shipping it back to Canon. The biggest benefit (for us, at least) has been high-ISO shooting. While the former 5D could theoretically handle ISO 25,600 captures as well, its native range topped out at 6400 -- venturing beyond that territory meant taking a hit on image quality, making it a seldom-used feature that benefited the camera's spec sheet far more than our low-light snap collection. With this latest iteration, we were able to capture sharp images in environments where there was far too little light to make out details with the naked eye, just as we have with the larger (and pricier) Nikon D3S. Our resulting scenes look like they were lit with sophisticated rigs, or in an environment that allotted far more natural light than was actually available. Low-light shooting is but one benefit of the Mark III, however, so join us past the break for a closer look in our field review.
Canon EOS 5D Mark III high-ISO sample images (hands-on)
Canon unveiled its highly-anticipated EOS 5D Mark III just 10 days ago, but we already have a pre-production sample in-hand, and will be putting it through its paces over the next week. Today's installment focuses on high-sensitivity still image shooting, which we conducted at Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul, South Korea. We chose a dimly lit temple as our test subject, shooting a handful of images at ISO settings ranging from 800 to the camera's top native sensitivity of 25,600, and extended modes of ISO 51,200 and ISO 102,400. All images were captured at f/8 with a 24-105mm L lens.As expected, the camera offered excellent performance at all of the native settings -- as you can see from the image above, there's some noise noticeable when viewing an image at full size, though considering the camera's top resolution of 22.3 megapixels, we hardly see ISO 25,600 being an issue. Jumping beyond the top native range did yield significant noise, but assuming you're shooting for the web, even these settings are usable. Chances are, you won't often be examining images at a 1:1 pixel view, so jump past the break to see how each of the four frames represented above will look when scaled to a web-friendly 600-pixels-wide resolution, then hit up our source link to grab full-res JPEGs of each image captured during the shoot.
Robo-nurse gives gentle bed baths, keeps its laser eye on you (video)
When they're not too busy building creepy little humanoids or lizard-like sand swimmers, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology like to concern themselves with helping make healthcare easier. To that end, they've constructed the Cody robot you see above, which has recently been demonstrated successfully wiping away "debris" from a human subject. The goal is simple enough to understand -- aiding the elderly and infirm in keeping up their personal hygiene -- but we'd still struggle to hand over responsibility for granny's care to an autonomous machine equipped with a camera and laser in the place where a head might, or ought to, be. See Cody cleaning up its designer's extremities after the break.
Engadget's back to school guide: Laptop bags
Welcome to Engadget's Back to School guide! We know that this time of year can be pretty annoying and stressful for everyone, so we're here to help out with the heartbreaking process of gadget buying for the school-aged crowd. Today, we have laptop bags in our sights -- and you can head to the Back to School hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the month. By now you should have had enough time to decide what on our laptop buying guide takes your fancy, but, as Apple will tell you, the protective case is sometimes as important as the precious hardware itself. You'll notice that this year we have a good number of bags that include padded camera sections as well -- to the point of perhaps being described as camera bags with laptop compartments -- but we feel that's justified by the massive proliferation of DSLRs into the mainstream market. Entry-level interchangeable lens shooters have grown cheap enough even for non-photography students to consider owning one, but we can think of no good reason why they should require a separate bag of their own. So, on with the recommendations.
Kodak color-filter technology could redefine low-light shooting
We already knew that Kodak was up to something good when it began to phase out low-end digicams and refocus on developing new technologies, and now it seems like we've got one more innovation from its laboratory to look forward to. Reportedly, Kodak has developed a "color-filter technology that at least doubles the sensitivity to light of the image sensor in every digital camera." Bold words, we know, but even Chris McNiffe, general manager of the photography company's image sensor business, went so far as to say that this very invention would enable a "2x-4x improvement in light sensitivity." The company also suggested that a variety of camera manufacturers could expect samples of said technology during the first quarter of next year, and while consumer rollouts weren't detailed, we do know that this magical concoction will hit P&S cameras first with cameraphones to get equipped shortly thereafter.
Current crop of HD radios worse than analog models?
We noted last week that the FCC's official approval of HD radio was good news for embattled terrestrial broadcasters, but Richard Menta of MP3 newswire clues us in to a dirty little secret on the consumer side of things: most of the hardware on the market today sucks. Specifically, Menta put three current models (Boston Acoustics' Recepter Radio HD, Polk Audio's I-Sonic Entertainment System, and the Accurian HD Radio from Radio Shack) up against three analog units he had lying around the house (his car stereo, a cheap Sony shower radio, and just for fun, a 1940 Zenith tube radio), and much to his surprise, even the crappiest of the latter group was able to pick up analog stations better than the most expensive HD device. Furthermore, the HD models did a terrible job picking up the digital stations they're meant to highlight in signal-rich central Jersey, as they were only able lock in one of the 13 channels promoted by the HD Radio Alliance with any regularity. Luckily this poor performance seems due to the lack of sensitivity in the tuners these radios are built with -- an issue that's easily solved -- so the real question is whether manufacturers have the will to start tossing better parts in. If not, things don't look very good for HD Radio, so all that NAB can really do is hope that its anti-merger smear campaign is gaining some ground
Ten minute run-through with the Wii interface
Matt must have slept with Perrin or something, because IGN got their grubby mitts on a Wii debugging unit and a few games, to boot. On the latest IGN Weekly, Matt spends around ten minutes going through the Wii interface (mainly, the options menu) in detail. The menu seems to confirm the existence of one Wii code per system, as opposed to per game, which should make matchmaking at least slightly more convenient. He goes through Sound, Screen, Parental Controls, Sensitivity Options, and pretty much everything you'll see come November 19th. It's worth a watch, so check it out.
