It’s a handsome looking thing, similar in size to the Canon G12 and Nikon P7100. This means that it will easily fit in a coat pocket and has a focal range from 28-112 mm (in 35 mm terms). The Canon has a focal range to 140 mm,  the Nikon reaches to 200 mm and all three have optical viewfinders. The X10 has the brightest lens with maximum aperture from  f2 to f2.8 over its range where the other two start at f2.8. The smaller Panasonic LX5 has a focal range of 24-96 mm with a maximum aperture range of f2 to f3.3. It does not have a viewfinder other than the live view LCD but will accept the electronic viewfinder that was released with the GF1 camera.

I don’t want to compare these four cameras in detail but for the record at 7 November 2011 the just-available Fuji X10 sells for £525, the Nikon P7100 sells for £479, the Canon G12 can be bought for around £440 and although the older Panasonic LX5 can be found for £365 adding on the viewfinder brings it up to £530. The X10 therefore sells at a premium to its targeted competitors. The sensor in the X10 is 34% larger than the size of the sensors in the Canon and Nikon and 27% larger than the sensor in the Panasonic and while these comparable cameras have 10 megapixels the X10 claims a resolution of 12 megapixels.

The photo above shows that the camera has a zoom ring. This has a smooth action and also acts an the on/off switch. It also provides the zoom and focus for the optical viewfinder. The viewfinder is of the tunnel variety but very bright with a 4:3 aspect ratio and covers about 85% of the frame. There is no information shown in the viewfinder but of course the LCD provides all of this. Also on the front is a focus switch (single shot, continuous and manual), and the AF assistance light. The benefit of the zoom ring cannot be overstressed; you get the same precise placement as with a dSLR lens and none of the irritating jerking motion of those sprung levers around the shutter button.

On the top plate lives the small pop-up flash, a hot shoe, a shooting mode dial, an exposure compensation dial for –2 to +2 EV in 1/3 EV steps, a programmable Function button and the shutter button that accepts a screw-in remote release.

The back of the camera is a good deal more interesting. While the industry trend has been for larger and widescreen LCDs FujiFilm has provided a good 2.8 inch diagonal in 4:3 aspect and this allows buttons either side with dials on the right. The “command” dial at the top right is an easy-turn and click dial for setting aperture and shutter in A and S mode respectively and for shutter in M mode and to make selections from function buttons. The sub-command dial below has, as you can see, clicks for drive, flash, timer delay and macro. It also acts as a navigator to set the focus points or move a zoomed playback image. When rotated it can select menu items or effect manual focus and set the aperture in M mode. In the centre is the menu/ok button. This arrangement is now common and in nearly all cases the dial is fiddly to use. This one is no exception but the click and rotation action is well separated.

This camera is aimed at experienced amateur and pro users but it has several modes to appeal to less experienced users. The Auto mode will produce a good picture in most cases and provides a limited choice from the menu but does allow selection of film modes and image size and quality. Surprisingly it also allows a switch to RAW mode. The mode dial has a Scene mode position that provides a good selection of presets. The Adv mode lets you choose a Sweep Panorama that works well, Pro Focus that defocuses the background for portraits and Pro Low Light. I was impressed by the success of the Low Light mode which did better than my selection of manual parameters!

Then there are the EXR modes. FujiFilm has developed its own method of providing colour information and does not use the de-facto standard Bayer arrangement and has its own pixel arrangement. Originally this was to provide, with much success, better representation of skin tones but has now been developed for two specific purposes – to provide the ability at high ISO settings to limit the noise or to provide high dynamic range. These special modes are effected by using half the pixels in the image to alter the other half so that the image is a 6 megapixel one compared to the standard 12. There is also a High Resolution mode which is the default when not using EXR and an EXR Auto mode where the camera chooses what to do with the scene. There’s no doubt that the EXR modes work and I don’t mind having half the resolution (because 6 megapixels makes a reasonable sized print and can easily be increased to 12 by stair interpolation software) and the method of achieving it is exclusive to FujiFilm but I’m not really sold on it and it certainly is not the reason I would buy the camera.

The reason I did buy the camera was to give me a pocketable camera with all the control I can get from a dSLR and the benefit of FujiFilm’s film colour simulations. Good handling would be important and the ability to make high-quality video clips would be a bonus. So far I’m not disappointed.

Despite the fiddly sub-command dial the camera handles really well. The three buttons on the left of the screen produce drop-down lists that can be scrolled with the main command dial and selection is made by pressing it. AE gives a choice of multi, spot or average. AF lets you choose the size of the focus area and any one of 49 focus points. It’s only used for Area focusing otherwise the choices of Multi or Tracking are set in the menu. WB has everything you need including underwater! On the right side the north point of the sub-command dial will set the drive to single shot, best of three, continuous and, usefully, four bracketing options of AE and ISO where you have the option of one-third EV steps up to 1 EV, film simulation and dynamic range. The macro choice on the sub-command dial has a super-macro setting of a 1cm nearest distance at widest angle as well as standard macro. The RAW button action depends on the RAW setting in the menu; if it’s set to RAW pressing the button changes to jpeg and if it’s set of jpeg then a RAW image is added. The action of the AFL/AEL button is non-standard. Many cameras will force focus when the button is pressed if set to AF or AE/AF; this one won’t, it only locks the focus you have achieved with a half-press on the shutter button. However if you have set manual focus with the dial on the front of the camera the AEL/AFL button will  do a “snap focus”.

The display button will cycle through the amount of information shown on the LCD. Information is a static display of the shot settings with much enlarged shutter and aperture information. This is useful only if you use the optical viewfinder exclusively as it does not show live view. Then there is the standard display, followed by a clean display with no information, followed by a customisable display and finally the option to turn the LCD off. In the menu the customisable display can show any of a framing grid, electronic level, focus distance indicator for AF or MF, the histogram and aperture, shutter speed and ISO information. I leave all these selected.

In the custom display mode with the focus indicator selected as an option the display  not only indicates the focus distance but also the depth of field (range of distances in focus). This changes with the focal length and the aperture. In A mode this is instructive as well as useful. In manual focus mode it allows you to set a depth of field appropriate to the shots you are likely to take so that the focus gives you a “snap” range – for street photography perhaps. Combine this with AE lock for nil shutter lag.

In the menu it is possible to select one of five levels of colour, sharpness, highlight tone, shadow tone and noise reduction. You can also choose film colour simulation of Velvia, Provia, Astia or monochrome with no filter or yellow, red or green filters and sepia. You can also choose dynamic range from 100% to 400% but the choice is influenced by ISO level so that the maximum choice is equal to or less than the chosen ISO. All of these choices together with things like image size, face detection and the AF mode can be saved as one of two custom settings. The custom settings are obtained via the shooting mode dial and as the menu settings are persistent there can be three sets of settings at any one time.

I do not have any testing equipment so I rely on my eyesight for assessing the presence of distortions or falloff, flare, excessive noise or over-ambitious noise suppression. Being so new, the camera’s profile has not made it into Lightroom so I can’t speak for RAW processing (the supplied SilkyPix is I know efficient but with something to have to learn that I will not need in a few weeks when Adobe add the profile to ACR, I’m not going to) I have been shooting fine jpeg at full 4:3 aspect ratio. And it’s damn good.

The default in-camera jpeg with all settings at the camera default except for a minus 1/3 EV exposure adjustment is at least as good as that produced by my Olympus E-PL2 in good light and possibly a little sharper. The E-PL2 has the same pixel count but the sensor is 3.88 times bigger. And that is not to denigrate the E-PL2 because it’s my view that the Olympus micro 4/3 cameras currently produce the best jpegs out of the box compared to their competition. As to noise, pixel peeping on my 23 inch monitor at full resolution looks pretty clean at ISO 800 (there is a little of course), quite passable at ISO 1600 and can be tolerable at ISO 3200. Chroma noise is well controlled. It’s true that at ISO 3200 the noise suppression is losing definition. I have to say that my Sony NEX-C3 produces better results but then with a sensor 6.34 times bigger I expect it to and with its standard lens it is certainly not pocketable. As stated earlier, using the Low Noise mode achieves better results than I did at ISO 6400 but at the expense of less saturation (which is no bad thing).

I did shoot a very short video at full resolution but it wasn’t interesting enough for comment but it was certainly better than one I shot on a Panasonic GF1 with its “kit” lens last year.

I had been wondering whether a camera like the FujiFilm X10 still has a place now that it is possible to put excellent Leica, Zeiss and Cosina Voigtlander lenses on small camera bodies. Admittedly these are manual focus but the Sony NEX range is manual-focus-friendly with its “peaking” function and the Olympus E-PL range offers good in-body image stabilisation in packages not a lot bigger than the X10 and where one can obtain a 135-equivalent focal length from 18 mm to 70 mm. Moreover, really good electronic viewfinders are available for these cameras and now there is the Panasonic GX1 joining the party.

The answer to that is “yes of course”. The X10 and it’s not-too-distant cousin the Panasonic FX5 provide good quality 4 times zoom lenses and good results (where the X10 is in my opinion clearly superior but not by a large margin) for considerably less money than, say, a Sony NEX-5n with the viewfinder and perhaps two Leica M fit lenses. New this would be £3,000. There are of course people who will already have these lenses and so the new NEX cameras present an inexpensive opportunity. What is important is that the the FujiFilm X10 provides a step up in quality in a market segment that needs it at a fair price.

Update 11 November 2011

A combination adapter and lens hood has just become available. The filter screw on the lens is 40.5 mm but it isn’t the standard pitch, being narrower. This no doubt is to provide the adapter with a more substantial seating but it also means that until our Chinese friends produce a clone we have to pay FujiFilm’s price which is an amazing £60. The adapter allows the lens hood to be screwed to the outside thus letting the user put 52 mm filters and other things on the adapter itself. I tried this out with a Panasonic wide-angle converter that exhibited very bad barrel distortion.

This is the Mamiya M645 1000s that was released in 1976 and remained in production for 24 years until it was replaced by the Super version of which a variant is still available today. It is an interchangeable lens camera with interchangeable viewfinders and takes 120 or 220 film that can be pre-prepared on plastic inserts. The Super version allowed for separate film backs that could be removed before the film was finished but this model requires the use of a whole film before changing to another. The focal plane shutter is electronically driven using a 6v silver-oxide battery and the lenses are all manual focus. I used one of these in the 1980s and recently had the opportunity to buy a retiring photographer’s M645 equipment to which I have added other lenses. Although used mainly as a studio camera with a waist-level finder it is also very useful as a landscape and architectural camera. The metered prismatic finder (not the early one shown in the picture) works in shutter-priority mode and apart from metering the exposure also allows the use of the camera in portrait mode. It is a heavy and robust camera and so are the lenses.

Mamiya is a company that has always made professional equipment. It is still in business today and a majority stake is owned by Phase 1, a company that makes the digital backs and also owns the Leaf digital technology company. You can buy the latest version with auto-focus lenses and digital backs of between 22 and 65 megapixels if you can afford it!

The Mamiya Sekor lenses throughout their existence are distinguished for their simple design and great optical performance. They are very similar to the Zeiss lenses in concept. What is outstanding is the clarity of the images and their clean and natural colour and this is a function of the high quality glass and its coatings.

It is now possible to buy good used examples of the cameras and lenses inexpensively. The camera with a waist-level viewfinder and the “standard” 80 mm f2.8 lens can be found for about £200, usually in good condition. The 80 mm lens produces a field of view approximately equivalent to 52 mm on a 35 mm SLR. Prime lenses exist in 35 (23), 45 (29), 55 (36), 80 (52), 110 (72), 150 (98), 210 (137), 300 (195), 400 (260) and 500 (325) mm. There are also prime lenses with leaf shutters that enable flash sync at any shutter speed. The 55, 110 and 150 mm lenses can easily be obtained for £129 each, the 45 and 210 mm are a bit more expensive at around £170. I have just  managed to buy a 300 mm lens for £186 but they are usually more expensive. The 500 mm lens is usually offered at £400 and I have no price details for the 35 and 400 mm lenses that I expect would be around £225 each. There are two zoom lenses – 55-110 mm and 105-210 mm – that can be obtained for about £200 each. An automatic exposure prism viewfinder will cost another £75 or so. This finder is coupled to the lens and automatically sets the correct shutter speed for the selected aperture. All these prices are for cosmetically good items; cameras and lenses that have been used daily by pros for 20 years will cost considerably less.

Let’s say you get the camera with the WLF and the 55–110 mm zoom lens. This will cost about £350 and it’s a lot less than an entry level digital SLR or CSC with the not-overly-exciting “kit” lens. Then you can start using 120 colour or black and white film. There are still many labs processing this film. You can use colour negative film, which is more forgiving than colour positive film, and the lab will return the negatives and prints and can scan the negatives as positives and return these on a CD. If you shoot b&w negative film it is really quite easy to develop it yourself and scan your negatives. Naturally it is more expensive but you will achieve very high quality pictures without a huge investment in photographic hardware (think full-frame digital SLR plus a single premium lens –> £2,500).

Of course you can use the lenses on other cameras. There exist adapters to mount the lenses on Nikon and Canon cameras. I bought one for Canon for £38 from China and it works well. The lenses remain manual focus of course but with Canon digital cameras in Aperture mode the camera will  meter the exposure. Nikon cameras will mount the lenses but you will have to use an external light meter and set the exposure manually. Below is a picture of a Canon 1000D with the Mamiya 105-210 mm f4.5 mounted on it. As the camera has an optical viewfinder and the Mamiya lenses are very bright it is easy to focus accurately. Just set the shooting mode to A and set the required aperture on the lens and the camera will set the correct shutter speed. It’s a good idea with manual focus lenses to change the metering to either centre-weighted or spot depending on the type of shot. When mounted on the Mamiya 645 this lens has the field of view of 35 mm equivalent 68-137 mm but on a full-frame Canon dSLR the range will be 105-210 mm and on the 1000D and other APS-C cameras it will be 170-336 mm. If you want greater “reach” the prime lenses from 200 mm upwards will accept a 2 times converter (I paid £87.50 for mine) . With a 300 mm lens and the teleconverter the lens will effectively be 960 mm f11!

There’s a lot of photographers that have never used film before who are doing so now as an adventure. I’ve been collecting film cameras for some years and although I do from time to time use a SLR such as a Leica R4 or Nikon F2, I really don’t think that the results are any better than a good digital SLR and I’m lucky enough to have a Canon 5D Mk II the results from which surpass anything I can get from 135 film. I do use two film cameras though. This Mamiya 645 1000s and a Voigtlander Bessa R4A because I’m a great fan of their lenses and I like the rangefinder camera experience. But the Bessa has been staying in the cupboard more and more lately as its lenses get used on the Sony NEX cameras. But with the Mamiya’s film area being more than three times larger than full-frame digital SLR and 7.34 times larger than the sensor in the Nikon D300 (for example) it’s a tempting way to go.

These are, on the left the Sony NEX-C3 and on the right the Sony NEX-5. As of 1 September 2011 they are the two smallest cameras with APS-C size sensors. The C3 has 16 megapixels and the 5 has 14.2 megapixels. To put the size into context, they are each almost exactly the size of a Canon SX220 HS compact camera except in depth because they house larger batteries. The micro 4/3 sensor used by the Panasonic G and the Olympus PEN cameras is 17.3 x 12.98 mm whereas the NEX sensor is 23.4 x 15.6 mm. When lenses that could cover a whole frame of 35 mm film are placed on these cameras the amount of the image captured is cropped in relation to the full film frame. The Crop Factor for micro 4/3 lenses is 2 times and for the APS-C size sensor it is 1.5 times so that a lens with a 25 mm focal length on film would appear to be a lens with a focal length of 50 mm on micro 4/3 and 37.5 mm on APS-C. When I say “would appear to” it’s because chopping off part of the image makes it look as though it had  been zoomed into but in fact the  magnification remains the same.

To use lenses from other cameras on any other camera the lens have to have a flange focal distance (that’s the distance from the face of the camera mount to the sensor or film) larger than the flange focal distance of the receiving camera and the aperture of the lens must be capable of being altered by either an aperture ring or a mechanism in the adapter. The adapter then only has to have mounts at each end and a tube that ensures that the lens is stood off from the flange of the receiving camera by the distance  between the two flange focal distances. This latter part is not too difficult as the flange focal distance of the NEX cameras is 18 mm so any lens made for a flange focal distance greater than this length will be acceptable and that encompasses substantially all of the classic film SLR lenses. There are notable exceptions though; there are no adapters available yet for Miranda bayonet lenses, Mamiya CS and E lenses and Topcon lenses. The lenses to be used do not have to be manual focus and they can be autofocus lenses with a manual focus option. Although there are some cases where electronic contacts may exist (there are adapters for FourThirds lenses for micro 4/3 cameras and also for Sony Alpha lenses to Sony NEX cameras) in nearly all cases the receiving camera must be operated in either Aperture priority mode or Manual mode in which case the camera will do the metering and the user must focus the lens manually. Lenses without an aperture ring, which includes nearly all lenses designed for use on digital cameras, can only be used at the default widest aperture and this rather limits their usefulness.

So why use manual lenses on these cameras and why in particular use the Sony NEX range?

The answer for the second half of the question is fairly simple. The Sony NEX cameras together with the Samsung NX cameras are those with the shortest flange focal distance and they share the APS-C size sensor. Thus they have the possibility of accommodating the widest range of other lenses if adapters exist for them. The one difference is that the throat of the Samsung NX mount is too narrow in diameter to accommodate the Leica M bayonet lenses and thus the NEX is preferred. Also although the micro 4/3 cameras can handle the same range of lenses, their sensor is smaller and the “crop factor” greater. The APS-C sensor size is friendlier to all but the widest of wide-angle lenses and moreover has a better signal-to-noise ratio (megapixel for megapixel) than the micro 4/3 sensor and a slightly better dynamic range. However I must not exaggerate the differences because in prints up to A4 they are very small and it is only in larger prints and particularly when there are both deep shadows and bright highlights does any significant difference emerge. And out of the cameras that I am considering only the Olympus micro 4/3 cameras have image stabilisation via the sensor and that is important when using longer manual focus lenses. Most of the Olympus cameras will accept an optional electronic viewfinder (pricey but excellent). There’s no provision for one in the two NEX cameras shown above but the upcoming NEX 5N has an optional electronic viewfinder (more pricey and better) and the NEX 7 has one built in.

The Sony NEX system is particularly friendly to manual focus lenses. All these cameras provide a magnified view to enable more precise focusing but the NEX cameras have the sharpest screens at 921K pixels so it is sometimes not necessary to magnify the view. They also, uniquely as the time of writing but I expect it will become commonplace in other brands in due course, have a “peaking” function that illustrates by highlighting the contrasting edges of areas of the shot which are in focus. The depth of focus depends on the chosen aperture and the focal length of the lens you are using. This function is incredibly useful and considerably speeds up focusing.

As to the “why?” there are several answers. A long-term photographer may have lenses used on film cameras that could be used on digital and that of course is almost a no-cost option. Many manual focus lenses are now available at silly prices (although the best lenses are still fetching good prices) and buying a manual lens could be a much cheaper option than buying a new autofocus digital lens. Since many older lenses are fixed-focus length rather than zoom lenses, the quality can be better and in many cases the lenses outperform the bundled “kit” lens. It’s also fun to use older lenses and many of them have characteristics that are not available on their digital equivalents.

It does have to be said, though, that while lenses for digital cameras are designed for the sensors of these cameras (and in some cases the cameras apply software correction to lens distortions) these manual lenses do exactly what they did on film cameras and depending on the quality of the lens they may exhibit vignetting, chromatic fringing, ghosting, flare, colour shifts and corner softness. The better ones had coatings to control aberrations and when I shot a wedding last year for my second camera I used the entry-level Canon 1000D with a 35 year old Leica 50 mm f2 lens and the results were astounding.

I began to use manual lenses with my Canon EF digital equipment. Canon’s flange focal distance is shorter (at 44 mm) than that of many quality SLRs and I accumulated a collection of adapters for the following lens mounts: M42 screw, Nikon F, Pentax K, Olympus OM, Praktica B, Rollei QBM, Contax/Yashica, Leica R and Tamron Adaptec II. To use these lenses on Sony NEX all I need to do is to use the Canon adapter and attach that to a Canon to NEX adapter. Armed with a Canon to micro 4/3 adapter, the lenses also work on my Olympus PEN cameras. There are however lenses I want to use that have a shorter flange focal distance. These are Minolta MC/MD, Canon FD, Leica M39 screw and Leica M bayonet. I have the Leica adapters directly to both micro 4/3 and NEX but the Minolta and Canon FD adapters only to micro 4/3 but have just managed to find a micro 4/3 to NEX adapter in China.

All of these lenses have to be used in aperture-priority or manual mode. In A mode you adjust the aperture using the aperture ring and half-press the shutter button and it meters correctly. The older lenses like centre-weighted or spot metering. Obviously as you close the aperture the camera is getting less light but these NEX and micro 4/3 cameras will “gain up” to maintain a bright view. That’s an advantage over the pro DSLRs which do not do that.

Of the lens mounts mentioned above, the cheapest lenses are Praktica B, a lot of M42 and most Tamron Adaptec. The Praktica lenses were mainly designed by the Carl Zeiss branch in Jena and can give good results. M42 lenses are very mixed; there are excellent ones from Asahi (Pentax), Mamiya Sekor, and Yashica, good quality ones from Chinon, Ricoh, Cosina and Fuji and some truly awful ones as well, the Tamron Adaptec lenses are on the better side of average – especially the wider ones. Possibly the next price slot up is occupied by Pentax, Olympus and Minolta who all made average consumer lenses alongside their best glass. And then in rising order of cost come Canon FD, Nikon, Rollei and Leica. The best places to buy, in the UK, are camera fairs, from adverts in Amateur Photographer magazine and from specialist dealers wanting to unload old stock. eBay is very varied. In my view the dealers with eBay shops are over-optimistic in their pricing, a lot of lenses are the product of house clearances to you take pot luck but you will find people selling their own kit and there is quite often a bargain to be had (like the 400mm Contax-fit lens that cost me £9).

UPDATE 23/09/11

Most CSC cameras have an AE/AEL Lock button the purpose of which is to allow the user to focus from a different point that the exposure is measured from or vice-versa. Sometimes this button does not exist physically but the feature can be added to a Function button or perhaps the Movie button. Inexplicably neither of these two cameras have this facility. Of course when using manual lenses you don’t miss it because you will focus where you want to and if you want to take a meter reading from other than your chosen view you can just hold down the shutter button in half-press and recompose. But for people using automatic lenses the omission is a minus point and I hope Sony does something about it in a future firmware release.

What it does is to illustrate by highlighting contrasting edges of the scene those areas of a proposed shot that are in focus. The intensity of this highlighting may be set to Off, Low, Medium or High and the colour of the highlighting may be set to White, Yellow or Red.

Peaking allows you to see the depth of field (the range of acceptable focus) in a shot depending on the focal length of the lens, the selected aperture and the actual focus point so it is best used in aperture-priority mode. You can rotate the aperture ring of manual lenses to see the effect. It also appears to work with Sony E lenses in aperture-priority mode.

At end-June 2011 the Sony NEX series is the smallest range of cameras with an APS-C sensor that will accept Leica screw or M lenses. I use a NEX-5 with some of my Voigtländer lenses – mostly the 25 mm f4 – and it’s excellent due to the articulated hi-res screen and the new peaking function can be very helpful.

This is a Kodak Retina IIIc from about 1956. It is a folding camera with an uncoupled light meter and focusing via a rangefinder system and takes 135 cassette film. This model was produced from 1954 to 1959 and is the third generation of the Retina cameras that started in the 1930s. Folded it fits in a pocket. The 50 mm  Schneider Xenon f2 lens has a removable front element and there were adapter lenses available that would produce focal lengths of 35 and 80 mm. Not many people bought the adapter lenses because they were not rangefinder-coupled (you had to use the distance scale on the lens to set the focus) and when attached to the camera it was not possible to close the door. The aperture of the standard lens runs from F2 to F22 in full stops and the shutter is B and 1 to 1/500th second with flash synchronised from 1/60th. The camera is very easy to use. Having set the film speed in DIN or ASA you point the camera at the subject, align the red pointer using the right hand control dial with the meter needle, note the reading and then set the Light Value number on the barrel of the lens. The exposure ring can then be rotated to your choice of aperture or shutter speed. You may then rotate the focus knob so that the images coincide on your subject and press the shutter button for a correct exposure. On this model the film transport lever is on the baseplate. It inherits many of its design notes from Zeiss Ikon cameras and despite being something of a “catch-up” to Zeiss is a very satisfactory camera in its own right. In 1959 the IIIC (Big C) was introduced. This was a small improvement, having brightlines in the somewhat brighter viewfinder for the accessory lenses but essentially the same specification. It is however the model that many collectors want to have. I wonder why; these sell for the same money as an early Leica IIIf and they certainly are not worth that – say £290 for a good clean one. Consequently the price of  the IIIc (small c) has been inflated.

Canon’s history to 1959 was in producing good quality rangefinder cameras and in that year it produced its first SLR, the Canonflex, a range of which was in production to 1964. This was popular with enthusiasts and amateurs but never sold in great numbers. Following that the more conventional FP, FX and FT models (plus the unique Pellix of 1965) cemented Canon’s position in the market as very good non-professional cameras with its FL lens range. It had though lost 10 years of professional sales to Nikon and perhaps Yashica. Then in 1971 this camera the F-1 appeared together with a collection of excellent new FD lenses and motor drive, bulk film back, interchangeable finders and focusing screens and its own range of flashguns. The F-1 is built like a tank and is a purely mechanical camera (not to be confused with the F-1N that came in  ten years later that is at least partly electronic). A metal shutter rated at over 100,000 actuations has speeds of B and 1 to 1/2000 seconds with flash sync at 1/60. It’s “kit” lens was the famous 50 mm f1.4 FD with apertures fo f22 in half stops. There is a combined self-timer, lens stop-down and mirror lock-up control. Shutter preferred metering is provided by photocells located on the side of the focusing screen which means that the finder can remain a simple one. Power for the metering system is one 1.35 volt mercury cell now  no longer available but alternatives exist. A simple match-needle system is in operation; the FD lenses are metered at full aperture and the earlier FL ones can be metered stopped-down. Available only in shiny black lacquer the F-1 is designed to withstand all that a pro can throw at it. My 1974 example has had a hard-working life but is still very presentable and works very well. In 1976 a minor upgrade, the F-1n, was introduced and then in 1981 a new F-1N arrived having a hybrid shutter (mechanical 1/125 up and electronic below) and metering via choice of finders. It’s that model that carries the highest cost in the F-1 range though many prefer the original F-1 and I prefer the A-1 of 1979 to the F-1N.

This looks like a Canon-killer doesn’t it? It’s a Nikon F2 Photomic from about 1972. It is the standard F2 with the DP-1 metering prism. Nikon did not have a method of in-body metering for their flagship cameras so the important-looking prism does that job and is supplied by power in two standard alkaline LR44 cells from the camera body. The metering system not only works very well but it functions right down to an EV of 1 which is probably OK if you have an ISO 6400 film that is supported by the camera. But it isn’t really a Canon-killer. It has the same shutter mechanism as the Canon F-1 with the same speeds (but a titanium blind) and the non-AI lens I use with it is the Nikkor-S 50 mm f1.4 that came with one of my Nikkormats and has a minimum aperture of f16. The lenses are probably of equal quality and in any case I prefer the Nikkor 50 mm f2. Where the Canon needs to use stop-down metering on older FL lenses, the F2 needs to use stop-down metering on later lenses that don’t have the “rabbit ears” to engage the aperture indexing pin. Both cameras have the accessory shoe with dedicated flash contacts as part of the rewind knob. The F2′s flash sync speed is a slightly better 1/80 second. In terms of features and efficiency there’s almost nothing to say to set them apart but if it were 1975 and someone was taking my picture with either of them I would probably favour the Nikon because it looks a lot more expensive. And it was, that’s why Canon’s F1 was so successful. To be honest, though, despite Canon’s new FD lenses that were excellent the Nikkor lenses that were available for the F2 were, on balance, rather better. But if you have a Canon F-1 in your collection you have to have a Nikon F2  and vice-versa.

Until May 2010 there really was only one contender and that was the Panasonic LX3 and its Leica twin. With a zoom range of 24-60 mm, a Leica-designed f2 lens and all the controls of a dSLR or CSC it was immensely popular despite a high price. While CSCs like Panasonic GF1, Olympus Pl-1 and Sony NEX 3 or 5 are small cameras not much bigger, body only, than the LX3, when anything other than a pancake lens is attached they are much larger and certainly do not fit in a coat pocket. In May 2010 Samsung first shipped its EX1 (TL500 outside Europe) and with an f1.8 lens offering the equivalent of 24-72 mm and an articulated AMOLED  display it trumped the LX3 at a competitive price. In August 2010 Panasonic first shipped the LX5 that is a serious upgrade and it and the EX1 are head-to-head in the premium compact camera market. While Panasonic only entered the camera market in 2001, Samsung helped to develop the Minolta X-300 as far back as 1984 in which year its first Samsung film camera was produced.

I bought the EX1 to replace the Ricoh GX 100 and shortly afterwards decided to sell my Panasonic GF1 (but keep the electronic viewfinder) and replace that with a Panasonic LX5 so I’m well placed to compare them and in fact although you might think that they are too similar to have both, each of them has a separate rôle in my armoury.

The biggest difference between the two cameras is the price. The Panasonic is at  high-street retail prices £100 (36%) more at £380 than the Samsung though each can be obtained mail-order for £30 less. Some of that difference reflects the fact that the EX1 has been available for 3 months longer than the LX5.

What I’m going to do now is to run through the feature set picking up differences and commenting on some of them.

Sensor
Each camera is nominally 10 megapixels with 3648 x 2736 pixels that will print 12 x 9 inches at 300 dpi, the LX5 sensor is actually 10.8% larger than the EX1 sensor. Each camera will produce files that have aspect ratios of 4:3, 3:2, 16:9 and 1:1 in Raw, Raw + 3  jpeg sizes and various jpeg combinations. Sensitivity is from ISO 80 to ISO 3200 in 1/3 EV steps for each camera but the LX5 has an auto high ISO mode that encompasses 6400 and 12800.

Lens and shutter speeds
The Ex1 lens is from f1.8 to f2.4 at equivalent 72 mm. The LX5 is from f2 to f3.3 at equivalent 90 mm and maximum at 70 mm equivalent is f3.0. The Ex1 shutter speed range is 8 seconds to 1/1500 while the LX5 range is 60 seconds to 1/4000 though the faster speeds are limited to apertures of f6.3 and above. As it’s unlikely that you will be shooting at EV 18 and above there’s no practical advvantage in the theoretical higher speed. Neither camera has a burst rate worth talking about. Here the advantage is definitely with the LX5 although the brighter lens of the Ex1 in the 24-70 mm range is worth having.

Menus and buttons
Both cameras have “quick” menus and standard ones and each also has functions allocated to the buttons on the controller. The Ex1 has a more attractive interface with short descriptions of each choice. The LX5 has Panasonic’s workmanlike plain interface. In each case it is easy to make the changes you want. On the LX5 the selectors for aspect ratio and focus (AF, Macro AF and manual are sliders on the lens barrel which is nice. The Ex1 has a “jog dial” as part of the 4-way controller (same idea as on the Sony NEX) and this works well. Each camera has a dial for other functions. On the LX5 it’s on the back right top and you click it to select what it will do and then roll it to the selection; on the EX1 it’s a larger dial on the front of the camera that works in the same way. I prefer the way the EX1 does things. The Ex1 has a button for Exposure Lock but the LX5 has a button for AE/AF lock and a menu choice to allow AE lock, AF lock or both. Normally I would use a button for AF lock with AE on the shutter button but I can’t do that on the Ex1. Still it’s much better than some cameras that permanently link exposure to the focus point. The LX5 has a “function” button that you can allocate a function to.

Zooming and focus
Both cameras have their zoom controls around the shutter button and they are sprung. This is definitely the worst type of zoom control since to make it properly usable the manufacturer has to slow its action down. That’s what Panasonic does and it can be irritating. The EX1  zoom is nice and quick but it takes practice to position it precisely where you want it. The LX5 has a “step zoom” setting that will zoom from equivalent 24 mm to 28, 35, 50, 70 and 90. With this enabled you can just give the zoom control a nudge and it will move to the next step. It would be  nice if the EX1 had this option too, it would probably be quite easy to do in firmware. Both cameras have a “macro focus” option that allows AF at close range since the standard AF mode starts at 20 to 30 inches and they also allow manual focus. Manual focus can be very useful as it eliminates part of the time lag. It is set with the slider on the LX5 and a button on the Ex1. Magnification in manual focus is a menu option on the LX5 and on the EX1 by clicking the zoom ring. Each camera displays a graphic that allows you to use buttons (jog dial on the Ex1) to set the focus. The EX1 is faster and makes it easier to set to the hyperfocal distance. It would be nice if the cameras would display the actual distance. The 2007  Ricoh GX 100 does that; again probably a firmware upgrade could suffice.

Screen/Viewfinder
The LX5 has a fixed 3-inch 460,000-dot LCD wide-screen. Panasonic displays the files to maximise the display of the various aspect ratios rather than just trimming a basic display. The EX1 has a an articulated 3-inch 614,000-dot LED wide-screen. It is articulated from its left side so that when the screen is not aligned flat with the back of the camera it is folded outwards to the left. This is identical to the method used by Panasonic in its G1/G2 cameras. I personally prefer a screen that pulls out from the camera and is only articulated in the vertical plane (like the Sony NEX) as this gives a true  waist-level finder. The LX5 can take the Panasonic LVF1 Live View Finder. It’s low-res at 220,000 dots and costs £175 but it does help in bright light and as it tilts upwards it is very useful as a waist-level finder in places like galleries and museums.

Colour and scene modes and customisation
Each camera has a variety of special scene modes together with colour tone choices. I don’t know whether I should be ashamed to say this but I have never used a special scene mode and given the option I will go for the “natural” or “faithful” colour tone  and while I might add a little default sharpness for jpegs I will normally leave saturation and contrast alone. The LX5 has a “my color mode” option on the mode dial that provides for Expressive, Retro, Pure, Cool, Elegant, Mono,  High dynamic, Dynamic Art, Dynamic mono, Silhouette, Pin-hole, Grainy and Custom that lets you set hue, saturation and luminance. There’s no counterpart to this on the EX1. Scene modes on the LX5 are Portrait, Soft Skin, Self Portrait, Scenery, Panorama assist, Sports, Night Portrait, Night Scenery, Food, Party, Candlelight, Baby1 and Baby2, Pet, Sunset, High Sensitivity, Hi-speed burst, Flash burst, Starry Sky, Fireworks, Beach, Snow, and Aerial Photo (phew!). The EX1 has a more modest set of Landscape, White background, Night landscape, Night portrait, Backlit landscape, Backlit portrait, Portrait, Close-up objects, Text, Sunsets, Clear skies, Forested areas, Close-up vivid subjects, Macro portrait, Fireworks, Beach, Snow, a Beauty Shot mode and three “smart filters” of vignetting, fish-eye and miniaturisation. There’s also Dual Image Stabilization and Smart Range that’s a sort of HDR filter. The LX5 has “film modes” of Standard, Dynamic, Nature, Smooth, Vibrant, Nostalgic, Mono Standard, Mono Dynamic, Mono Smooth, two “my film” presets and a multi-film preset for burst shots. Contrast, sharpness, saturation and noise reduction can be specified for each of these modes. The EX1 has Normal, Sketch, Defog, Soft, Vivid, Forest, Retro, Cool, Calm, Classic mono, Negative and Custom RGB. The EX1 does not let you edit the parameters of its “film modes” and the sharpness, contrast and saturation setting is global. There’s no method of altering noise reduction on the EX1. Each has an “intelligent auto” mode that works well and each lets you catalog a number of faces. There’s all the old favourites like face detection and wink and blink shutter activation but no 3D panoramas. There’s certainly more for you to play with on the LX5.

Video
The LX5 wins this one. It will do 1280 x 720 AVCHD Lite in stereo. The EX1 does 640 x 480 in mono.

Extras
The Ex1 can record audio. With a menu item enabled it will go into record mode after each shot is taken and can record 10 seconds of sound. The menu also allows you to use it as a proper voice recorder producing WAV files of up to 10 hours. This is a very useful function, one that I have missed since my Ricoh R4 died.

Both cameras come with a copy of SilkyPix for raw conversion. SilkyPix is very competent but has a clumsy interface and the help file is not very illuminating. You will be glad to hear that both cameras are supported in Adobe Camera Raw 6 that works with Photoshop Elements 9 and is included with Lightroom 3.

There is a wide-angle converter lens available for each camera. The Panasonic one requires an adapter that screws on in place of the lens cap retaining ring and will take 52 mm filters or the wide angle converter lens. This lens is £150; Panasonic has learned to charge. Actually any 0.75 times converter with a 52 mm thread will do though the cheaper ones produce nasty distortions and flare. I already have a 52 mm 2 x tele adapter that will convert the built-in lens to a 120-180 mm range but it’s a heavy beast to attach to such a small camera.  Samsung’s wide converter comes with the adapter built-in which is a pity because if it had a separate adapter I could use the Panasonic wide angle on both cameras.

PERFORMANCE

Of course the important aspect is how each camera handles and what the results are like. If you put the two cameras next to each other the LX5 looks a lot smaller (even rather petite) which it isn’t because it is 110 mm long by 65 high by 43 deep and the EX1 is 114 x 63 x 44.5. The Ex1 is all sharp edges and not unattractively boxy where the LX5 is rounded and weighs 30% less than the EX1. I think the additional weight of the EX1 makes it easier to hold steady.

With this type of camera the user is looking for good control of the sort of deficiencies that cameras with smaller sensors used to produce and both of them do this admirably. Geometric distortions at 24 mm are minimised, coloured fringing is not a problem, there is very little flare or vignetting. Both cameras are applying software control to achieve these good results. If you open a Raw file from either of them in an unsupported converter you will see that the lenses themselves have quite considerable distortions at the short and long end. There’s absolutely nothing wrong in doing this and the software is very successful in each case.

Both cameras offer image stabilisation. I did a shot of both at 24 mm, ISO 80 and 1/4, 1/8 and 1/15 seconds of my favourite brick wall. Each camera metered about the same aperture. The Ex1 was sharp throughout but the LX5 was only as sharp as the EX1 at 1/8 and 1/15.

I’ve noticed that Panasonic sensors produced slightly “cold” images. I’m sure that this is a “house style” rather than a deficiency but it’s noticeable versus the EX1 as  Panasonics G1 and G2 and GF1 also are against Olympus E-PL1.This of course only applies to jpegs and any colour casts can be altered in Raw processing.

The lenses of both cameras are excellent. In the 3 x zoom range there is really nothing to separate them for definition, drawing and sharpness. Being half a stop faster the Schneider lens on the EX1 has a little advantage but the extra reach of the Leica lens on the LX5 is a valuable addition. There may be some differences that will show up in a stringent test but in the real world both perform very well. But no matter how good a lens is, when it comes down to small sensors – even the latest generation of them as in these cameras – the appearance of or processing out of digital noise will affect the result. Given that the cameras can record Raw files there is probably 1 EV advantage in Raw processing over in-camera processing. I think this means that ISO 800 is about the limit for in-camera jpeg processing (although black and white can be OK at ISO 1600). Start with Raw and use a good Raw developer and you can go up another ISO level. There is of course the option of printing directly your Raw images. I’ve been using QImage from ddisoftware for some years now and the latest version QImage Ultimate is a good choice.

Having said that there is little to choose between the cameras so far as noise is concerned, each handles noise in a different way. Panasonic does not apply such strong  noise processing as Samsung and the EX1 has no option for altering in-camera noise processing levels whereas the LX5 does. This means that the Panasonic images do contain more chroma (coloured) noise and the Samsung images lose definition earlier.  Personally I would rather have pixel-binning than multi-coloured spots.

Were it not for the large difference in cost I would give the LX5 two points for a richer feature set and the Ex1 one point for better handling. The both produce really good pictures, affording the user the opportunity to be creative with manual settings. These aren’t “fly-by-night” cameras and one can expect them to be in production for some time, perhaps with a refresh of the feature sets via firmware updates. But with the price difference I have to give the EX1 a point for value for money so they come out even.

I said at the beginning of this that each of these cameras would have a special role in my photographic armoury. The LX5, with the wide-angle conversion lens, directly replaces the Ricoh GX 100. I don’t honestly think I’m going to shoot Raw with it but leave it in aperture-priority mode and use the optional viewfinder quite a lot. The EX1 is for recording stories where the articulated finder means I can shoot more unobtrusively and the voice recorder means I can add words to the pictures.

Addendum 2 September 2011

USING CONVERSION LENSES

The wide conversion lens for the EX1 has an adapter attached to it. However I recently discovered that KiwiFotos produce a lens adapter for the EX1 that conveniently has a 52 mm thread which means that I can attach the Panasonic wide converter lens and a Kenko 2x teleconverter to it. Using these converters on both cameras has produced an interesting fact which is that the LX5 is correcting distortions in software whereas the EX1 is not. Each camera wants the user to set a Conversion Lens option in the menu to On. When this is set, the focal length is set to shortest and the zoom is disabled. So in this scenario only a wide angle converter can be used and this creates a camera with a fixed focal  length  (35 mm equivalent) of 18 mm.  The Panasonic wide converter works well on both cameras in this mode.

But that’s a nonsense because a converter lens should maintain the percentage decrease or increase of focal length. The Ricoh GX 100 that has a  normal zoom range of 24-72 mm tells you when the wide converter is attached and the menu item is checked that the zoom range has changed to 19-57 mm and that’s what I want a wide converter to do on these cameras. Omitting to set Conversion Lens to On has a different effect on each camera. The EX1 works as the Ricoh GX 100 did with either a wide or tele converter attached save that for the teleconverter it vignettes horribly until zoomed in to an effective 100 mm or so. With the LX5 the teleconverter acts similarly and in both cases depth of focus is narrower than one might expect. However when zooming in on the LX5 with the wide angle converter, as you zoom the periphery becomes increasingly defocused until it is only the centre that is in focus. Hence my assumption that the LX5 is compensating for known distortions and it’s certainly the case that without a converter lens the LX5 is significantly distortion-free. I’m not complaining because the LX5 manual states clearly that the wide converter is only for use at an effective 18 mm but I do enjoy the ability to gain a zoom range of 18-54 mm using the wide converter on the EX1

Back in the days when it was enough to launch a product and if it was not a smash hit in the market then release another version with a bit more pizzaz, light dawned on some of the major audio-visual manufacturers. They started to issue updates to the internal software (firmware) of the products for the first time, not only to correct things that did not work properly but to enhance the usability of the product. One wonders why this had not happened before. Not only has this extended product life but it has created brand loyalty. The prime example is in the Linux operating system where in the case of all distributions, updates are available on a daily basis to enhance the environment. The Android operating system is such an animal and the core functionality is being constantly developed by its owner Google. The Archos 70 tablet runs on Android with additional functionality provided by Archos. Archos itself has a good record of software updates and has built into its current Generation 8 systems the ability to update the firmware whenever there is a new release.

It was inevitable that the Archos 70 and 101 tablet computers should have launched without the latest version of the Android firmware. They had promised that the Android 2.2 version would be released before the end of November and that promise was fulfilled with what was a rather hasty release of the upgrade. My 5 December post reflected that situation. The A70 had a habit of locking up or apps ceasing to function. To address this, Archos released a new version on 16 December. While this new version does not solve all the issues that users may have, let’s say it is as stable as any Microsoft operating system is. With the exception of a handful of apps that do not run well on the Archos 70 (I have downloaded two emulations of HP calculators that don’t) the experience is as smooth as it should be and there is the ability to control the speed of the processor both for critical applications and to extend battery life. I’m quite happy that it is working to specification and can be compared with, say, the Samsung Galaxy Tab that is more expensive. As such I would strongly recommend it, particularly in view of Archos’s commitment to it’s customer base and it’s ability to connect directly to USB peripherals that many tablet computers do not have.

There are two A70 models. One with 8 Gb of flash memory and a socket for a micro-SDHC card and the other with the same internal memory, to micro-SDHC socket and a 250 Gb hard disk. (Actually as of 23 December the hard disk version has not yet appeared). I chose the one without the hard disk because I did not want the extra weight and assumed that I could connect an external hard disk and something to read photo files off a storage card and copy from one to the other. That has proved to be not possible. The A70 is indeed a USB host but it can accommodate only one USB connection at any time. So for me it is not ideal as a device to use to back up photo files on a shoot. It requires an intermediate transfer of the photo files to a micro-SDHC card in the A70 and then a transfer of those files to an external hard disk. Not really a problem.

As reported previously there is no problem in attaching a camera to the USB cable that’s required to turn the A70′s “USB out” socket into a “USB in” one. The A70 will recognise the camera though when using cameras that connect using the PTP protocol you have to make sure that the camera’s battery is well charged. So far I have found only one card reader that the A70 will recognise immediately. This is Transcend’s cheapest reader with sockets for SD and micro-SD only. The A70 won’t have anything to do with my multi-card readers (nor any of my USB memory sticks). It certainly would be an advantage if the A70 could read a Compact Flash card directly.

Attaching an external hard disk is simple but it requires a powered USB hub to lift the current from the maximum 100 milliamps carried by the A70 to the 500 milliamps required to handle the disk. Any recently made external 2.5″ disk will connect and be recognised. Older ones may require a “Y” cable with two connections to the powered hub and a single one to the disk. I’ve tested connections using disks ripped out of dead laptops over the last 12 years or so and there is no problem. So Bravo Archos! The 16/12/2010 firmware update allows reading (but not writing) the Windows NTFS disk format so it may not be necessary to reformat disks as FAT32 though for portability between Windows and Linux systems this is the best option.

When connecting anything to the Archos USB host cable it’s important to use equipment that’s properly wired. For example, the powered hub should not feed back to the host any of the additional power. I use a LOGIK L4THUB10 hub that is correctly wired and therefore works. This hub’s almost twin, the LP4HUB10, feeds the power back via the incoming connector and the A70 decides that it is connected to a host computer rather than acting as a host itself and so does not recognise what is connected to it. The same thing will also probably happen with any equipment that requires to be directly powered. I’m sure that Archos would be able to detect this sloppy wiring in software and ignore it.

The USP of the Archos 70 and the other tablets with the same form factor is that you can put it in your pocket. With any wifi point (and they are legion; in fact I have my own mobile one) an internet connection keeps one firmly in touch and there’s enough applications to do most of what everyone wants to do. Admittedly I haven’t found anything to match Microsoft Money and there’s no picture editing software worth using (yet) but it is much more capable than my so-called smartphone that cost twice as much and is in a cupboard somewhere.

The reason for this choice is that the lens offers two stops more light and the camera can shoot at ISO 12800 which is two stops faster than the Olympus. Although the Sony does not have a viewfinder it does have an articulated high resolution screen and this can be used as a chest-level finder. I find that I can get steady shots at 1/20 second with my arms braced on my chest and it is much easier to focus in 7x magnified view using this arrangement. It’s also easier to use the distance scale on the lens barrel if you are looking at it.

Even Henri would have to admit that the decisive  moment can sometimes slip away (unless of course it is staged) and so the Sony’s ability to fire 7 shots a second  would come in useful as would the ability to take 720p video and grab stills from it if required. And then we have a lens that has 10 elements in 8 groups with circular iris blades designed only two years ago to the highest standards. The combination is 14 mm wider than the Olympus with the 28 mm lens but it’s still small enough to put in a coat pocket or carry on a lanyard around the neck. It works well with the screw-in flash as well.

The Android system was developed by Google to give “smartphones” an operating environment that’s not dissimilar to the iPhone. It is a variant of the Linux environment core and it is precisely targeted at these small devices. Google claims that it was never intended to be used by devices with larger screens or without 3G connectivity but being released as open-source software there’s nothing to prevent its implementation elsewhere. The first larger device to use the system is the Samsung Galaxy Tab (that has the same physical format as the Archos 70) but is essentially a phone and if you are happy with talking into something nearly eight inches wide and four and a quarter inches deep in public I suppose you could be happy with anything. The Galaxy Tab is beautifully designed and at double the price of the Archos 70 only betters it by incorporating a device (a phone) that most users will have already.

The Archos is a wifi client and Bluetooth-enabled. I use it with a Huawei E585 “mifi” dongle that uses 3G Mobile Broadband and is a wifi transmitter for up to 5 clients that will automatically be networked. With Bluetooth you can tether a 3G mobile phone to provide integrated service but the email and browsing software is just as fast via wifi. Archos with its historic multimedia product range has ported its own audio-visual software and has added USB host connectivity to the Android system.

I really want to concentrate here on the connectivity of the Archos 70 and you have to believe me that it is very similar to the Samsung Galaxy Tab in operation and perhaps marginally faster. The screen is delightfully clear and responsive. Archos provides its own library of apps, games and utilities but there’s also access to Android Market and any other source of software. Web browsing is very easy; if you hold the Archos 70 in landscape orientation it’s slightly larger than half the iPad’s screen in portrait orientation and zooming and moving the screen window is very easy. (If you don’t like Android you can download and dual-boot Ångström which is another flavour of Linux but I don’t recommend that)

To implement the USB host mode it is necessary to buy a special cable that really ought to be included in the retail package but isn’t. This is a modified micro-USB to female standard USB cable that allows a standard male USB plug to connect. It costs around £8 and it is best to get the Archos one. Although that cable will connect one USB device, it is sensible to get a small USB hub and if you want to connect an external hard disk this should be a self-powered one. I have bought a Seagate 500 Gb 2.5″ hard disk plus a Logic 4-port USB 2.0 self-powered hub together for less than £50 (and this incidentally is less than the difference in cost between the 8 Gb model and the one with the built-in 250 Gb hard disk that does not have a microSD slot). The hard disk that you buy will probably be formatted NTFS for Windows. You will need to reformat it as FAT 32 which you can do using the free Mini-Tool Partition Wizard from www.partitionwizard.com or anything similar that you may have on your system.

It’s worth mentioning here that the USB port on the Archos 70 carries a current of only 100 mA and if that port is used for an USB host port the same will apply. A hard disk will normally require 500 mA to function and that is the reason for getting a self-powered hub. In principle, most USB devices attached to the Archos 70 need to be powered although there are some card readers and memory sticks that do not. The hard disk is automatically mounted by the system when it is connected and can be browsed using the Files or any similar app. Double-tapping a file name will normally start the app associated with the file type and all the usual file and folder management tasks can be undertaken. If the hard disk contains any media files the Archos 70 will refresh its catalogue; this can take some time and I have yet to find out how to stop it doing that. When you do not need the external hard disk any more it should be unmounted using the Storage option in the Settings utility.

The preferred method of downloading photo files to the Archos or to any attached storage is to attach the camera rather than put the camera’s storage medium in a card reader. This is because the camera’s battery provides the correct level of power for the connection. I have had no problem connecting Olympus, Panasonic, FujiFilm, Ricoh, Sony and Canon cameras (even the Canon 5D Mk II and 7D) but for cameras that rely on a PTP connection (point to point protocol rather than Mass Storage) you do need to ensure that the camera batteries are freshly charged. If you need to transfer photo files from camera storage to a hard disk, use a USB hub. Transferring photo files to a connected hard disk is not difficult as the file manager app has options for this but as yet there is no import application like FlashPipe. Until one of these appears, it’s best to store the photo files in folders created with a specific date.

The Archos 70 is in fact quite fussy about connecting to USB peripherals but bear in mind that being an Android device it is  not really expected to do this. While it works well with cameras and USB hard disks it is downright picky about USB sticks and flash memory cards. It will not work with any of my card readers and it does not recognise any of my USB memory sticks. It’s possible that this may have something to do with the decision by Archos to reduce the clock rate of the CPU from 1 GHz to 800 MHz on implementing Android 2.2 in order to increase battery life. I’m going to do a temporary change of the clock rate to see if this is the case but I am quite happy to have connections to cameras and the hard disk for the moment.

I think there must be something about the Bluetooth implementation that I do not understand since although I can pair various devices with the Archos 70 I have not been able to connect them though I did briefly connect a Bluetooth keyboard.

In the reverse direction it is of course possible to connect the Archos 70 to a computer via the standard (and supplied) USB cable. This shows up in Windows as two devices – one for the internal flash memory and the other for the microSD card. If you plug it into a Linux box (in my case running Ubuntu) it does much the same thing except that Ubuntu relates better to the native Archos 70 file format. When connected to a wifi server, if that server represents a Windows network then the Windows shared folders (but not printers) will be accessible. With a Ubuntu system on the network, no shared folders are available because the Archos 70 is using SMB (Samba) and not the native Linux system as well (shame!). If you have set up any media sharing on a Windows system this will be accessible too via UPnP. This allows one-way synchronisation with Windows Media Player for example.

I do think when testing the Archos 70 for connectivity that it is evident that some more work is needed. Archos has a good history of firmware updates and there’s a tribe of hackers to be found at the forums at ArchosFans so I’m confident that it will happen in due course. The device itself works very well versus the available competition. The failure to connect to USB flash memory and SD cards other than its own microSD card slot is not good enough and the necessity to reboot fairly regularly when trying other connection options is tedious. Personally the connections that I do have are good enough though I would like to learn the Bluetooth secret. But I’m not going to use my Archos 70 for backing up and cataloguing my photo files until the connectivity is as it should be and someone writes a small application to handle the catalog aspect. In the meantime I expect to have some fun exploring the world of the Android Tablet.

The first thing is that it is running Android 2.1 and not the advertised new version 2.2. This means that the screen refresh and the CPU speed are, shall we say kindly, slightly below expectations. In fact all the things that don’t require a fast processor and fast screen refreshes work fine. The problem for me is that I bought it primarily to store photo files and the software for organising and displaying the files is just not quick enough. There are people who have a beta version of the 2.2 software who say it’s really quick and I’ll have to wait to find out. The Android 2.2 upgrade is promised for mid-December but I bet it’s January. In spite of that, Archos is advertising the hard disk version of the 70 to be ready before Christmas and this one certainly can’t run on the 2.1 software. All I’m going to say now is that it is a nice machine with a pretty screen and largely responsive software. It has a good future if the Archos corporate finger is extracted.

The other thing is that although it is a USB host it is a pretty feeble one. It needs a micro USB A male to standard USB A female connector (not supplied but available for about £10) out of which will come 100 mA of USB power rather than the standard five times that. I haven’t got the cable yet but I can see that I shall need a powered USB hub to drive a cheap 250 Gb disk and other things. Hopefully I can pick up a battery-powered one but the only one of those I have located so far is (of course) in China. Even so I guess the price of the 8 Gb model with a powered hub and disk is not more than the version with the built-in disk.

I do have to say though that I think it has a good future and I’ll be reporting when I have everything together and Android 2.2 is running.