And when it comes to the EVIL cameras we have three systems to choose from: Micro 4/3, Samsung NX and Sony NEX. Micro 4/3 is teh oldest one and despite of that fact it has the system not so rich – just the two major manufacturers: Olympus itself and Panasonic. Sony NEX is the youngest among three and has nothing but the three lenses it has announsed with the first NEX camera bodies.

Till now Samsung was all alone with their NX system. But the barely known Korean optics manufacturer Samyang has brought Samsung’s system to the whole new level with today’s announcement. From now on Samsung NX system has three not expensive fixed lenses including fish-eye, ultrawide 14mm (21mm, considering crop-factor) and the 85mm f/1.4 portrait prime.

First of all, because newly announced Olympus E-PL1 is not really affordable. Yes, it will be cheaper than any other EVIL on the market, at least till the midsummer, but there were and there are several DSLRs that are cheaper than $599 (that’s how much Olympus asking for E-PL1). Sounds good in the press release but could be considered like some kind of cheating.

The second is that Olympus E-PL1 is definitely simpler than all the previous Olympus and Panasonic Micro Four Thirds cameras but probably not the right way simpler. Take a look at E-PL1 rear side. What do you see? Exactly! A point-and-shoot.

While it seams to be a good idea to make a low-end bridge camera, which is supposed to be the link between point-and-shoot and DSLR cameras, to look like a point-and-shoot, it emerges a very important question: Is it right to treat Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens cameras as a bridge solution between amateurish point-and-shoots and pro DSLRs?

And the third, to summarize: Olympus E-PL1 is a great addition to Olympus line-up and the whole Micro 4/3 but it can’t shake EVIL market not only because it’s not the kind of product that shakes something but also because there is no real market yet. We need to wait for at least the second model in Samsung’s NX system line-up.

Thanks to Olympus, this waiting will be promising. E-PL1 makes market hotter and Samsung should consider to challenge E-PL1′s price tag or even a $500 mark.

What deserves the careful attention? First of all, the samples. There are not so much of them yet. Korean 1, 2 and 3. Next should be preview from DPreview and theirs own samples gallery. And the last but not least – Samsung NX10 vs. Panasong GF1 noise comparison here.

What’s great about Samsung NX10? Well, not much actually. This is the only APS-C EVIL camera on a horizon yet. It has a nice looking simple and sturdy body (yet not too compact and way too much DSLR-like). It has a normal pancake lens in a roadmap, and it will hit the shelves simultaneously with the first body. Colors are very “Pentaxian”. The several years of working with Pentax gave Samsung a good idea how natural colors should look like.

The rest little things are little. The picture a way too samsungish in terms of very aggressive noise reduction algorithms that are killing too much details. Also, the rumored price of $699 is a little too much for an entry-level EVIL camera, though it’s noticeably cheaper than any of Olympus and Panasonic Micro Four Thirds cameras.

The good news is that Samsung – unlike Olympus – is dropping their DSLR operations. I guess it wasn’t a hard decision since all they did was just copying Pentax cameras and rebranding Pentax lenses. So now Samsung will concentrate all digital imaging division efforts on NX system and the fruits of this efforts are promising to be really fascinating.

What I like most of the Four Thirds system is its one and only real adventage over the APS-C DSLR cameras – a little shorter minimum focusing distance. 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens of my Olympus E-410 focusing easily as close as at 25 centimeters. Pretty nice for a cheap as in ‘bundled’ walk-around lens.

I have almost prepared to spent four+ grands for my new day-to-day companion but my attention was caught by Canon A720IS 1/2.5″ 8 Megapixel point & shoot which is priced less that $300 today. It has all the same manual settings and the same zoom range as the Canon A650IS but lacks of swivel LCD and powered by two AAs – not four. Also it’s 20% smaller and just a little bit lighter.

I have downloaded a dozen of full size samples from the both cameras and found that the real difference in image quality (in terms of details and dynamic range) is not worth the almost twice price difference. It’s even hardly noticeable most of the time. So the Canon A720IS became my final choice. And here is my own quick review of this nice and cheap compact digicam.


Canon A720IS | F=35mm, F/5 1/500 sec. | ISO100

First of all, don’t wait a miracle from the tiny sensor digicam. Blown out highlights are here. And the A720IS’ tendency to overexpose even perfectly lit scenes is getting things worser.

Canon A720IS | F=75mm, F/5 1/1000 sec. | ISO100

Even if the scene is perfectly metered the brightly lit white or shiny surfaces, like a tower wall on the picture above, will be blown.

Canon A720IS | F=45mm, F/4.5 1/640 sec. -1 | ISO80

It’s a good habit to underexpose a bit. 1/3 or 2/3. I have underexposed the picture above for one full stop. Fortunately, while you are stuck with ISO80 and ISO100 you won’t get too much noise in the shadows.

Except for that Canon A720IS metering is perfect and very reliable. The same I can say about automatic white balance.

The 6x optically stabilized lens of the A720IS is quite good for its size. Chromatic abberations only visible in the areas of very high contrast and only at the wide aperture settings. Close down the diaphragm to F/5 – F/5.6 and they’re gone. 35-210mm focal range (in 35mm film terms) is enough for almost every day-to-day tasks. You will hardly miss the longer focal distance, though the wider wide angle (e.g. 28mm) would be nice.

The best word to describe Canon A720IS high sensitivity performance is “surprising”. I’ve never expected from the 1/2.5″ camera such clean and detailed ISO400 indoors pics. ISO800, being downsized to 600 pixels or less, also look good enough for blog posts or social networking.

Canon A720IS has a stunning macro mode. You can stick to you subject with the front lens and A720IS will focus on it anyway. The picture above is a 100% crop of the Creative Zen mp3 player. The actual size of the cropped fragment is 14mm * 5mm.

Canon A720IS | F=210mm, F/4.8 1/1000 -1/3 | ISO80

BTW, 8 Megapixel sensor allows to crop out a lot. The picture above is just one-quarter of original snapshot. After downsizing to 640 pixels wide it has enough details to post it on the internet or make a small print.

But the price is yet too high: $1040 in Hong Kong (March 24) and 870 Euros in Ireland (March 19). Hope it will fall below the $1k till summer.