Archive for December, 2008
Panasonic Lumix DMC LS85 Review
December 30th, 2008 | 
Author: 
The Panasonic Lumix DMC LS85 is one of the cheaper digital cameras available from one of the leading brands. In terms of features and design it falls into line with a number of other cameras in this price bracket. It is a little large for fitting into a pocket, has a body made of plastic and runs on two AA batteries. Compared to some of the more stylish, pocket sized cameras the Lumix DMC LS85 could be said to have a slightly old fashioned look. One advantage of its larger size is that it can make the camera easier to get a hold of. This is especially true for someone with larger hands. Another aid to holding the camera steady is the raised, grip area on the front of the camera. A steadier hold leads to sharper photos.
The Lumix DMC LS85 proves you do not need to pack as many megapixels as possible onto a sensor to take a decent photo. Maybe its my imagination, but I have been noticing that I have been seeing just as good, if not better picture quality from digital cameras with fewer megapixels of late. The Lumix DMC LS85 has 8 megapixels. This is enough for some pretty large prints if you so choose.
In general I found this camera was able to produce a decent photo in most situations. It did not seem to matter a great deal if the zoom was fully extended, was not being used at all or was somewhere in the middle. As I have noticed with other Panasonic digital cameras the colours were strong, providing plenty of punch to blue skies and green foliage.
The 4x zoom lens is inline with most of the current crop of entry level digital cameras. Panasonic has also included a feature called extra zoom. This allows you to boost the amount of zoom available to you when shooting at lower resolutions. In this case the maximum amount of zoom available is 6.4x if you reduce the number of megapixels down to below 3 megapixels.
Compared with other similar digital cameras Panasonic has packed in a fair number or features even if it is short or bells and whistles. The 2.5 inch LCD screen is more or less as small as they come these days. It is worth noting though that the Lumix DMC LS85 includes image stabilisation. This is one of the cheapest cameras I am aware of to offer this feature. Panasonic has included an intelligent auto mode. By switching to this mode the number of menu options available is reduced and the camera becomes even easier to use.
Blu-ray vs HD-DVD – The Lowdown on the Warring Formats
The current aim of blu-ray and HD-DVD is to get as much public support quickly as ultimately it is the consumer who will decide which format comes out on top. With the unification talks failing it is up to you to make the decision of which format to adopt. To help you with this tough decision is the lowdown on how each format matches below.
History
The blu-ray format’s head companies are Sony and Philips with Toshiba and Hitachi heading up the HD-DVD format. This situation isn’t the first time where these two sides have gone at each other with opposing formats. The DVD format was born from the co-operation of the Multimedia Compact Disc from Sony/Philips (MMCD) and the Super Density Disc (SD) from Toshiba. Though it ended well for the consumer with the DVD format being widely adopted and becoming the new standard, it was Toshiba’s camp who came out on top in regards to royalties.
This led to the work on new formats by both sides with Sony aiming to regain some of its lost market. The two projects though had been in production but not really going anywhere at the time. Sony’s Professional Disc for Data (PDD) became the blu-ray format while Toshiba’s Advanced Optical Disc becoming HD-DVD. This leads us back to the original situation where there are two competing formats with a unification looking a lot less likely.
Technical
Both blu-ray and HD-DVD use a wavelength of 405nm however the smaller track pitch on blu-ray (see Blu-ray Disc) allows more information to be squeezed on and so gives the larger capacity. However it is the differing track pitch that makes these two formats incompatible. The surface layer of the two is different also as HD-DVD uses a 0.6mm layer similar to DVD whereas blu-ray uses a 0.1mm clear plastic layer.
This difference is the main reason why costs are higher with blu-ray. Costly production methods are needed to be able to make the discs and a hard coating must be applied to make the discs suitably resilient to dust and fingerprints.
Capacity
Blu-ray currently offers discs in 25gb for single layer and 50gb for dual layer. However TDK has started work on a 200gb disc which is 6×33gb layers.
HD-DVD comes in 15gb for the single layer and 30gb for the dual layer. Best tests so far have achieved 45gb but 60gb is the theoretical limit. This shows that the maximum for HD-DVD is only 10gb more than what blu-ray can already offer.
Codecs
Both formats use the same codecs to play video as they are both able to play standard and high-definition. This means that MPEG-2, Microsoft Video Codec 1 (aka VC1, WMV HD, etc.) and H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC are all supported on both formats.
Security
Both blu-ray and HD-DVD have to make use of HDCP encrypted output and the Advanced Access Content System (AACS). Both HDCP and AACS are mandatory for any discs with HD video.
Blu-ray also incorporates ROM-Mark watermarking technology and BD dynamic crypto which generates special keys for batches of discs.
HD-DVD uses a similar system in the Volume Identifying technology.
Support
Both formats are heavily supported in both the Consumer Electronics (CE) and Information Technology (IT) industries. However blu-ray has a better portion of the big name movie and game studios supporting it which is essential for there to be a ready amount of content at launch. See below for the list of Supporting studios:
Blu-ray
20th Century Fox
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Electronic Arts
MGM Studios
Paramount Pictures
Sony Pictures Entertainment
The Walt Disney Company
Vivendi Universal Games
Warner Bros.
HD-DVD
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
New Line Cinema
Paramount Pictures
The Walt Disney Company
Universal Studios
Warner Bros.
By: Josh Biggs
Posted in Computers And Technology | 
Tags: 6mm, Aim, Blu Ray Vs Hd Dvd, Costly Production, Mmcd, Multimedia Compact Disc, Optical Disc, Pdd, Unification Talks, Wavelength | 
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