While LG’s 32LH7000 is remarkably cheap for an unusually well-equipped 32-inch TV, it doesn’t really make the best first impression.

First off, when you first take it out of the box, a large sticky tag on one side of the TV proudly proclaims in big letters that the TV is ‘Perfect Slim 39.7mm’. Oh that’s pretty cool I thought.

It was only then that I noticed, in small letters underneath, an apologetic explanation that the Perfect Slim design is only for the 42-inch LH7000 set. The 32LH7000 is actually almost twice as deep as 39.7mm. uh oh

After moving on from this disappointment, I quickly picked up another one. Because while the 32LH7000’s design is typically (for LG) a high-concept and stylish affair, it’s also quite large by today’s 32-inch standards. The bezel extends further on all sides than most TVs, a design decision taken to the extreme with the bottom edge lifting the screen a good five to six inches off the glossy desktop stand.

It’s important to stress that this clunky approach is no clumsy accident by LG. The 32LH7000’s clean, minimalist finish on the bezel, the dramatically large and illuminated power indicator “circle” below the screen, and a bottom edge that’s curved, transparent, and infused with a sort of orange hue show that the TV’s aesthetics are fully conscious .

But while similar chassis-heavy designs have worked reasonably well on larger-screen LG TVs, it all looks too cumbersome for my liking when wrapped around a mere 32-inch screen.

The last bad first impression comes shockingly from the pictures of the 32LH7000. For using the out-of-the-box Vivid picture preset, which LG has chosen as its preferred shipping option, the pictures look depressingly bad. I hope I can salvage them later when I get around to properly calibrating the TV.

Thankfully, things start looking up from here. First of all, the connectivity of the 32LH7000 is really excellent for such an affordable model. Four HDMIs catch the eye first, as does a USB port hidden directly above. This USB is also unusually talented in that it can play DivX videos alongside MP3 and JPEG files – including DivX HD. In other words, it’s every internet geek’s dream come true.

More geek love is likely inspired by another connection you can’t actually see: Bluetooth. This allows you to a) wirelessly transfer pictures and music files from a Bluetooth phone to the TV or b) listen to the TV sound via Bluetooth headphones.

A final jack of note is an RS-232C port, allowing the TV to be controlled over a remote AV network.

When you call up the 32LH7000’s on-screen menus to improve picture quality, the now-familiar LG on-screen menu system becomes visible, with its attractive combination of large icons and clear text.

The menus are also impressively crammed with tweaks and options – so much so that the Imaging Science Foundation endorsed the TV, resulting in two ISF setting modes under the TV’s presets. If you feel like it – which you probably won’t do with a 32-inch TV, to be honest – you can pay an ISF technician to come out and professionally calibrate the TV to match your specific living room environment.

Among the most interesting of the tweaks found in the menus are separate backlight and brightness settings, a multi-level dynamic contrast system, a dynamic color enhancer, a multi-level noise reduction system, a multi-level gamma setting, a wide color space setting, and perhaps most important of all, a 100Hz system .

Given that 100Hz systems can sometimes produce processing side effects, it’s nice to see that LG has provided low or high settings for its 100Hz feature – as well as the option to turn it off entirely if you are really dissatisfied with the way it works with any particular source.

Of course I chose to calibrate the 32LH7000 with my own set of test signals and discs. But it’s worth adding here that LG has carefully outfitted the TV with a Picture Wizard tool that allows even the most tech-savvy user to improve the picture quality of the device by following a few simple built-in test signals and accompanying explanations.

And that brings me to the big question: did I manage to turn the sow’s ear, which is the factory Vivid image of the 32LH7000 by default, into the imaging equivalent of a silk handbag?

Sort of. But man, was that hard work. And boy, was I frustrated when my probably slightly buggy review unit inexplicably automatically switched back to the awful Vivid preset every few minutes…

Anyhow, the main things I had to do to get images on track were to choose a different, more comfortable starting point for the image preset – I ended up choosing Natural mode – and then backlighting , sharply reducing the device’s contrast and brightness and sharpness settings, while also gently toning down the color saturation levels.

I would also strongly recommend the following: the noise reduction circuitry is never set higher than ‘Low’ and is completely disabled for HD and even DVD playback. the gamma setting is never set higher than medium; and the TruMotion 100Hz system is never set higher than Low.

Once you’ve completed your calibration work, you’re suddenly free to appreciate the very personable hues of the set. These remain extremely vibrant through even the worst excesses of Vivid mode, but also look extremely natural 90 to 95 per cent of the time.

The recalibrated 32LH7000 also gets a chance to show how well the 100Hz system reduces stuttering, even when it’s only set to ‘Low’. A combination of high brightness performance and respectable, if not exactly stunning, black levels allows images to look winningly dynamic even in mostly dark scenes that give LCD screens such a headache.

Initially, I didn’t feel that the 32LH7000 delivered HD sources with as much “snap” as I would ideally have liked. But when you think about it, there’s something endearingly natural about the set’s medium-sharp approach to HD’s added detail and clarity – especially as the 100Hz system ensures HD scenes are rarely subject to LCD’s motion blur and judder problems.

However, despite its low price, exceptional number of features and occasionally superb images, I can’t count on giving the 32LH7000 a TrustedReviews award.

Part of the reason is that the 100Hz system isn’t quite as “transparent” as I’d like. In other words, even when using the Low setting, the extra fluidity and clarity that comes with motion is accompanied by some noticeable processing artifacts, such as: B. twitchy edges on fast camera pans and a slightly stuttering approach on some action-packed shots.

The 32LH7000’s rescaling of standard definition footage isn’t quite as clever as we’ve seen from some competing brands either, with tones losing a bit of accuracy from really inferior sources and a hint of motion blur creeping into the process.

The 32LH7000’s audio, meanwhile, is a bit hit and miss. On the downside, the speakers can get loud and are great for bringing out subtle details in a good movie or drama mix. However, the set also pushes the high end of the audio spectrum too aggressively, causing loud scenes to sometimes sound harsh and many voices – male and female – sound slightly hissing.

“‘Verdict”‘

While not quite worthy of an unqualified TrustedReviews recommendation, the 32LH7000’s healthy spec sheet and aggressive price point certainly make it impossible to ignore.

How we test televisions

We test every TV we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to properly compare features. We will always tell you what we find. We never accept money to rate a product.

Learn more about how we test in our Ethics Policy.

Used as the main TV during the period

Tested over a week

Tested with industry calibrated tools, discs and real world use

Tested with broadcast content (HD/SD), video streams and demo discs

points in detail

• functions 9

• value 9

• picture quality 8

• design 8

• sound quality 7

characteristics

Today I have to admit that I feel a bit girly. In touch with my feminine side. Or at least not quite as butch and muscle-pumping macho as usual (stop laughing, Riyad!).

The reason behind this oddly feminine turn of events is LG’s 22LU5000: a small “designer” LCD TV that perfectly complements the Lady of the house is matched stand-up collar and last but not least rear and outer paneling in bold orange.

To your average grumpy man, with his penchant for black metallic finishes and sharp angular lines, this description of the 22LU5000 probably sounds as sympathetic as a Tupperware party. But that’s what they (probably) said about the Apple iPod when it first came out. And I’m not ashamed – just a little worried – to say that I actually enjoy looking at the 22LU5000, despite being happily married and even managing to conceive a child. Imagine that.

But what makes the 22LU5000 special is that it thoughtfully offers a man a high-tech excuse to like him in the form of a full HD resolution. Yes, despite LG only having a 22-inch screen, LG has managed to squeeze 1,920 x 1,080 pixels into the 22LU5000, giving it a head start over the 22LU4000 I was looking at a few weeks ago and making it the smallest Full HD screen I’ve seen. wowza

While that sounds great on paper, I think there’s a pretty good argument that a Full HD resolution on a 22-inch screen is just an almighty waste of time. I mean, some 26″ TVs have a hard time convincingly showing the relatively simple difference between HD and standard definition, so it’s hard to believe that a 22″ TV can show the much finer difference between an HD Ready and a Full – HD picture can show.

But hey – I’m meant to test this TV, not prejudge it, so I’ll shut up on this topic for now and hope I’ll be proven wrong later.

Less controversial is the 22LU5000’s connectivity, which is decent enough with two HDMI ports, a component video input and a PC connection. I was also initially pleased to see a USB port, but like the 22LU4000, this port is for system update data only. In other words, you cannot view your photos with it.

In addition to the Full HD resolution, the TV’s Picture Wizard function offers us more than most 22-inch TVs. This conveniently presents you with a set of well-designed test signals, along with explanations of how you should use them to optimize the TV’s picture quality.

Again, I guess you could argue that this is a bit “overkill” for a 22″ TV, but personally, I always appreciate someone helping me get the most out of ANY TV, no matter how small it may be .

Even more good early news notes that the 22LU5000 boasts an astonishingly high (for the sub-26in market) contrast ratio of 20,000:1, suggesting this TV might actually have a decent black level response.

Other notable little things include: a power saving mode that lets you adjust the TV’s operating power or even turn off the screen entirely when you’re watching something you only need the sound for; a dynamic adjustment of the backlight; and even an Advanced Control picture menu with such subtleties as a dynamic contrast system, a dynamic color enhancer, a multi-level noise reduction circuit, a gamma adjustment, a black level enhancer, an edge enhancement circuit and an eye protection mode that compresses the dynamic range of the picture and reduces retinal stress.

And so to the moment of truth. Does the 22LU5000’s Full HD resolution really take its performance to a different level than the significantly (£100 at least) cheaper 22LU4000?

Actually, it’s pretty hard to say. Because although the 22LU5000’s images look better than the 22LU4000’s, I’m not entirely convinced that this is due to the extra pixels.

The 22LU5000 certainly looks sympathetically sharp with HD, but I didn’t feel that it was obviously sharper and more detailed than the ‘just’ HD Ready 22LU4000 – at least from any reasonable viewing distance.

Put your face right up to the screen and set the TV’s aspect ratio to “Only” pixel by pixel, no overscanning mode, and I think it’s possible that Blu-rays will look marginally cleaner. But even then, it’s a very small thing.

Much more impressive is how much brighter and more dynamic the images from the 22LU5000 appear. The 22LU4000 did indeed impress on both counts compared to the typically boring, flat pictures of most small LCD TVs we see, but the 22LU5000 takes it a step further.

Light fare, such as you’d find watching daytime TV – probably the most common source this “second room” TV will entertain – looks strikingly vibrant and punchy, with a relatively high light output and some rich but also natural colors to make up for it ensuring that the image is present easily compete with the sun-drenched surroundings of a sun lounge or conservatory.

I was also mostly impressed with the 22LU5000’s black level response. This key part of any picture performance is all but ignored by many 35mm TVs, but dark scenes on the 22LU5000 look surprisingly believable, with impressively little of the usual gray haze hanging over everything.

There is a price to pay for this black level performance in the form of lacking enough shadow detail to make really dark parts of the image look a bit blank. And there are also subtle and mercifully thin strips of inconsistent backlighting along the left and right edges of the screen. But none of these issues are really serious, and so it’s the positive aspects of the screen’s black levels that you end up taking with you.

The 22LU5000 also surprised me by handling standard definition images really well for a Full HD TV and upscaling them to the screen’s native resolution without introducing the smoothness and noise that we still often find in affordable Full HD – Watch TV.

Overall, the 22LU5000’s pictures are tremendous for a 22-inch LCD TV. But inevitably, the TV isn’t really perfect.

That’s because, alongside the minor black level issues already mentioned, the TV predictably suffers from motion blur and judder, and even more predictably delivers slightly unassuming audio. There is virtually no bass at all, making the highs at times overpowering and wincingly harsh and tinny, while the vocals tend to sound “breathy” and therefore unconvincing.

“‘Verdict”‘

While I can’t bring myself to fully recommend a second room TV with stunning sound, the 22LU5000 certainly deserves praise for its amazingly decent pictures and eye-catching – as long as you like that kind of thing! – Design.

The extra brightness and dynamism of the set makes the less expensive 22LU4000 a superior option for use in a conservatory or possibly a kitchen. However, given that the benefits of the 22LU5000’s extra resolution aren’t particularly pronounced over the HD Ready 22LU4000, if you’re looking for a TV for a reasonably dark study or bedroom you might want to save up a few bobs as well and go for it instead the cheaper model.

How we test televisions

We test every TV we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to properly compare features. We will always tell you what we find. We never accept money to rate a product.

Learn more about how we test in our Ethics Policy.

Used as the main TV during the period

Tested over a week

Tested with industry calibrated tools, discs and real world use

Tested with broadcast content (HD/SD), video streams and demo discs

points in detail

• functions 8

• value 8

• picture quality 8

• draft 9

• sound quality 5

characteristics

All-in-ones for small offices and home offices are becoming more sophisticated and better suited to the needs of remote workers. This latest HP offering includes photo printing, full faxing, duplex printing and wireless connectivity. HP has also taken a step to lower printing costs, a long-term bugbear for many inkjet customers, claiming that prints from the OfficeJet 6500 wireless can cost up to 40 percent less than from an equivalent color laser printer. Given that there aren’t many color lasers that cost under £180, least of all multifunction devices like this, it probably makes sense.

Featuring HP’s new black and white business inkjet finish, the OfficeJet 6500 Wireless certainly looks functional. Its nearly flat 30-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) has a sweeping quill at the end of the input tray, and a mix of textured and high-gloss black gives the machine character.

The comparably small and therefore all the busier control panel still includes separate functional areas for scan, photo, copy and fax and there’s a full number pad for fax dialing as well as 100 speed dials, which should be enough for most SOHO customers.

Although there is no color LCD display, the two-line, backlit, mono LCD provides sufficient feedback for most applications. HP scrolls a variety of different status and instructional messages through the screen to provide feedback. Below the control panel is the machine’s single input tray, which can hold up to 250 sheets of plain paper or, alternatively, glossy paper for photo prints.

As usual with HP devices, the output tray fits directly over the input tray and, when fully extended, protrudes far forward from the front of the device, as it must be when printing. There are two memory card slots on the lower left of the front, but these are no longer suitable for CompactFlash cards, only for MemoryCard, SD and xD. There’s also no USB socket on the front, which is a shame as they can now often be used to print from and scan directly to USB drives.

The rear has ports for USB, Ethernet, and a fax cord and optional handset, but many customers will opt for the wireless connection, and the OfficeJet 6500 Wireless is remarkably easy to set up. Although you’ll need to temporarily connect the device to a PC via USB – there’s a cable in the box – once you’ve selected wireless connection, the whole setup is completed automatically. You won’t even be asked for your WEP key. We are still considering whether this is an advantage for usability or a disadvantage for network security.

The device uses a plug-in printhead with four ink cartridges that plug into the head itself. This arrangement and the appearance of the cartridges themselves suggest that either HP took a good look at Canon’s cartridge design or that Canon is making the supplies for this device. It’s obvious that Canon has been making HP laser machines for years, so perhaps the collaboration will now extend to inkjet printers as well.

The standard software package you would expect from a modern HP all-in-one, including basic OCR and management of scanning and printing, is provided and the device can be connected to versions of Windows 2000 or later, or OS X 10.4 and higher will . Using Linux is supported by HPLIP and is known to work with versions of SuSE, Fedora, Ubuntu and Debian.

The ISO standard for speed tests seems to have made some impression on the silly numbers often given for print speeds. HP specifies a much more rational 8.2 ppm for black and white printing and 5.4 ppm for color in normal printing mode. Our five-page text print delivered a real speed of 4.17ppm, but when we increased the document length to 20ppm, it was 8.96ppm, more than half appm faster than the rated speed.

Our black text and color graphics print returned 3.90ppm, a bit slower than claimed but not bad overall. However, it has to be said that the device fiddles around a lot with its ink cartridges before printing. This wasted 15 to 38 seconds per job during testing, presumably depending on what needed charging.

Photo print speeds, on the other hand, are pretty amazing for a machine that doesn’t specialize in image printing. A 15 x 10 cm photo print from the PC onto A4 paper took just 51 seconds, and when we were printing from an SD card onto a 15 x 10 cm blank the time reduced to 41 seconds.

You might expect quality to suffer when printing at these speeds, but our results were up to HP’s usual high standards. Color transitions are smooth and while there is some loss of shadow detail, it should be relatively easy to compensate.

The print quality on plain paper is also fine. While it doesn’t match HP’s claimed laser quality, it’s still very clean, with minimal ink bleed. The only place this isn’t true is when copying black text. Printing, while still adequate, is a little blurrier, and bold headings look particularly overcolored. Color printing on plain paper is good, with vibrant colors and accurate registration.

One set of color cartridges is available for this device, although two black cartridges are available. The higher yield XL set offers 700 color pages and 1,200 black and white pages, putting it at the lower end of the laser printer world. Cartridge prices are pretty reasonable too, giving a cost per page of 2.28p for black and white and 5.41p for color, both including 0.7p for paper, as we always do.

This cost is more than comparable to entry-level color laser printers. In fact, HP’s claim of a 40 percent saving, especially when you factor in color printing costs, looks conservative.

verdict

The OfficeJet 6500 Wireless is a well-equipped SOHO all-in-one, and HP has obviously gone to great lengths to reduce the cost of ownership. Print speeds are actually close to what the manufacturer claims, and unexpectedly fast in the case of photo prints. The only missing feature we could wish for is that USB socket on the front, but maybe that’s unkind.

points in detail

• print speed 8

• functions 9

• value 9

• print quality 8

characteristics

To press

to scan

As vendors find new ways to outdo each other with their desktop NAS devices, we’ve watched their products get bigger, faster, and heavier with more and more disk bays. Synology’s latest DS409slim shows that size isn’t everything, as this new four-drive device fits in the palm of your hand and is probably the smallest of its kind in the world.

Measuring a tiny 106 x 120 x 142 mm (W x H x D), the DS409slim takes advantage of 2.5-inch small form factor (SFF) hard drives and accommodates a quartet of them in hot-swappable Straps located at the back. The smaller drives consume less power than their 3.5-inch counterparts and in turn generate less heat, so cooling requirements can be reduced.

It is worth noting that there is a 6 cm fan under the device, which is thermally controlled. We ran tests on a pair of WD Scorpio Blue 250GB SATA drives and over a two week period we didn’t notice the fan ever turning on. In fact, the device always felt cool to the touch, so it’s fair to say that the DS409slim is virtually silent.

Although the device’s control board is tiny, it still offers decent specs and features a 1.2GHz Marvell 6281 processor combined with 128MB of DDR2 memory. Networking looks good, as you’ll find a Gigabit Ethernet port on the back and eSATA and USB 2.0 ports on top, as well as another USB 2.0 port on the front.

The power button is on the left side and it has a light blue status LED. Below that is a copy button and pressing it sends the contents of a storage device plugged into the front USB port to a pre-defined folder on the appliance.

Installation is handled smoothly by the included wizard utility, which locates the appliance on the network and offers to set up a system partition on the drives and download the Linux kernel from the CD-ROM. You then switch to browser management, where you’re greeted by the nifty Ajax-based Disk Station Manager, which we think is one of the best-designed NAS interfaces — in fact, it’s even better than that of Netgear’s ReadyNAS appliances.

Your first task is to create a RAID array, and you can choose from JBODs, Mirrors, Stripes, RAID5 with or without a hot spare, and even redundant RAID6 with two drives. For performance testing, we chose a high-speed RAID0 stripe that took only a few minutes to create.

Where you go from here is entirely up to you, and there’s a huge range of options, as the DS409slim is packed with all the features that Synology’s larger devices offer. Windows, Linux and Mac clients are on the guest list and access can be secured via a local user and group database or AD authentication. You can limit the storage space they can use by applying quotas, and for FTP services you can use encrypted transfers and set bandwidth usage limits for uploads and downloads.

The Surveillance Station looks useful as the appliance is licensed out of the box to record feeds from up to five IP cameras such as those from Axis, Panasonic and Vivotek. We tested this with an Axis 216FD and were able to view its live feed via the separate web interface, record continuously or on a schedule to the default monitor directory on the appliance and also apply motion detection.

For multimedia, you have the ubiquitous iTunes server and you can password protect your music folder and create smart playlists on the device. Add Synology’s optional remote receiver plus a pair of certified USB speakers, and Audio Station can be used to play music straight from the device. You can use Photo Station 3 to store your images on the device and publish them on the web, and the interface for this includes a blog function that can be accessed securely over HTTPS.

You can run your own website from the appliance as it comes with an Apache web server along with PHP and the latest MySQL. Backup capabilities are plentiful as the appliance can manage jobs that back up data from one local folder to another or to an external USB storage device.

Data can also be backed up to another Synology appliance or another rsync-compatible appliance over the network. For workstation backup, you get a copy of Synology’s Data Replicator 3, and after a full backup is complete, it monitors selected sources and backs up new or changed files in real time.

The DS409slim may be small, but it’s capable, with copies of a 2.52GB video clip to and from a dual 2.8GHz Xeon X5560 Broadberry CyberServe capable of respectable read and write speeds of 43MB/s and 36 MB/s delivers. FTP speeds were in the same range, with the FileZilla client reporting speeds of 48MB/s and 36MB/s, respectively.

“‘Verdict”‘

The Synology DS409slim is one of the most impressive desktop NAS appliances we’ve seen so far this year. You pay a small premium for this miniaturization, but this device is small, quiet, fairly fast, and packed to the brim with features.

(middle)””Synology Assistant will find the appliance for you and provide a quick link to the Smart Disk Station Manager interface””(/middle)

(middle)”‘Surveillance Station allows viewing and recording feeds from multiple IP cameras on the appliance”‘(/middle)

(middle)”‘Two separate utilities are provided to automate the process of downloading FTP, HTTP and BitTorrent files to the appliance.”‘(/middle)

(middle)”‘The included Data Replicator 3 provides workstation backup and real-time protection for selected files and folders”‘(/middle)

(middle)””FTP services are different and you can use the DS409slim to host your own website.””(/middle)

It’s a testament to the sheer size of Panasonic’s 2009 TV range that, despite testing what feels like dozens of the brand’s models over the past few months, we still managed to get our hands on a range today get that we haven’t dealt with before. This series is the G15 range, with two models: the 46-inch TX-P46G15 and the 42-inch TX-P42G15, which is now on my test bench.

Probably the most helpful way to start this review is to describe the key differences between the P42G15 and the stripped down Viera P42G10, which we looked at about a month ago.

One obvious difference is immediately apparent, as the P42G15’s desktop stand sports an attractive glossy silver finish, as opposed to the black of the P42G10. Otherwise, the TVs appear to be aesthetically identical, with glossy black bezels saved from monotony by a small arch and a splash of silvery white at the bottom edge. For my money, the P42G15’s silver stand definitely gives it a style edge over its cheaper sibling.

The P42G15 also outperforms the P42G10 in terms of connections, providing four HDMIs instead of three – one on the side and three on the back. In addition, the P42G15’s SD card slot can play MPEG2 and DivX files, as well as AVCHD and JPEG still images supported by the P42G10.

It also turns out that the LAN port hidden on the back of the P42G15 isn’t just there for future Freesat functionality like the P42G10’s corresponding socket is. Because the LAN socket of the P42G15 can also be used to access files stored on a connected, DLNA-capable PC or Panasonic’s online service VieraCast.

VieraCast, as discussed at length in our recent Panasonic P46Z1B review, is actually a pretty decent performance. Early demonstrations of the system had led me to expect precious little interesting British content, but actually the three main providers currently on offer – Eurosport, YouTube and Picasa – make for a fairly satisfactory package. The presentation is top notch too, and there’s always the potential – even the likelihood – that other service providers will show up on VieraCast at some point in the future.

Having covered the key differences between the P42G15 and P42G10, I can put the comparisons behind and remain isolated to just the P42G15.

If you’re not reading, you probably noticed I mentioned Freesat back there. As with all models in the top half of Panasonic’s range, the plasma-based P42G15 comes with a built-in Freesat tuner, including the ability to receive the digital satellite platform’s HD services. Panasonic is still one of only two brands to offer Freesat TVs so far – the other being LG. The TV also carries Freeview and analogue tuners and supports separate electronic program guides for its two digital broadcast providers.

Another potential key feature of the P42G15 is its 600Hz sub-field system, in which the TV calculates and inserts enough additional, new frames of image data to match the 200Hz systems now appearing on some LCD TVs. to blush with obvious inferiority. However, the reality is that all this talk about different Hz numbers needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, as once you get past 100Hz the different systems tend to operate in different ways and even to some extent achieve different goals.

The one thing we can certainly look forward to from the 600Hz system is significantly less judder on pans – particularly on HD cameras – than lower-Hz Panasonic screens.

Other key specs to know about the P42G15 are that it has Full HD resolution – still a rarity in the 42-inch plasma world – and enjoys one of those “infinite” dynamic contrast ratios, of which Panasonic likes to talk. Although just below the infinity logo used to advertise this fact, a slightly more prosaic – albeit still huge – odds of 2,000,000:1 is displayed.

Rounding out the P42G15’s rich feature set are a handful of helpful user tweaks in the on-screen menus, including a simple on/off color management system; an Eco mode that adjusts picture settings based on the lighting conditions in your room; a no-fuss noise reduction system; and last but not least, the option to toggle the set’s Intelligent Frame Creation technology on or off – the system that creates the extra image frames that lead to the 600Hz claims.

In fact, in evaluating the images of the P42G15, I came back to the P42G10 model I was referring to at the beginning of this review. Because as far as my eyes can tell, the pictures of P42G15 and P42G10 are peas from the same pod.

Of course, that’s not a bad thing considering the P42G10 received a 9 for image quality. And it’s pretty much as we’d expect, as the P42G15 uses one of Panasonic’s new NeoPDP plasma panels, rather than ‘just’ the latest version of Panasonic’s previous plasma technology.

What’s particularly striking, as with all Panasonic’s NeoPDP screens to date, is how bright the images can look compared to the brand’s non-NeoPDP designs. Using the set’s dynamic preset – with contrast curbed a little to tame the noise – gives you an image that looks almost as aggressively bright as a typical LCD screen.

It’s also worth noting that the NeoPDP panels allow you to sacrifice much of that new brightness in favor of greatly reduced power consumption if your room is fairly dark and/or you’re into green themes. However, I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve been too busy trying to get the thrill out of the extra brightness to really bother with the screen’s eco-potential. We’re sorry…

But what’s most important about the P42G15’s brightness is the way it achieves it without – at all – sacrificing the black level capabilities that have long been associated with Panasonic plasma TVs. This means your average dark movie scene can enjoy a truly spectacular level of dynamics, as bright whites and rich colors can sit side-by-side in the same frame as deep, rich blacks seen only on the best LED competitor or Pioneer’s last KURO plasma.

Again, I’d like to point out that since the P42G15 is a plasma screen, when viewed from the side it doesn’t drop in contrast nearly as much as the vast majority of LCD TVs.

The P42G15 also gets a lot out of its 600 Hz system. Whether you’re watching Wimbledon in HD or standard definition, or watching a Blu-ray or DVD action movie, the images combine excellent motion sharpness with much less judder than we normally see from Panasonic. The difference between the P42G15 and Panasonic’s 400Hz S10 models is also clear in this crucial respect.

I was initially surprised to see Panasonic’s latest TV ad campaign focusing so heavily on the motion clarity of its 600Hz sets, but while I believe there’s room for further improvement in terms of motion fluidity, there isn’t Doubt you have a much better chance of catching a Federer forehand on a Panasonic 600Hz plasma TV than on any regular LCD TV we can think of.

It’s also worth noting that the P42G15’s 600Hz engine does an impressive job with little or no unwanted side effects such as flickering or edge flicker. I was also impressed with the HD detail and texture the P42G15 can pull up from favorite Blu-rays, and the lack of noise in the set’s rescaled Standard Def sources.

However, once that standard def point has been reached, there are TVs that manage to make standard definition look a bit sharper. And it must also be said that the dynamic picture preset, which I love so much in HD, can make some standard definition colors look far too exaggerated, resulting in much more contrast reduction than is required in HD pictures. For this reason, I would strongly advise anyone buying a P42G15 to spend some time calibrating the TV’s settings using a simple setup aid such as the Digital Video Essentials HD Basics Blu-ray Disc.

Other negatives find a shade or two of green that looks a bit off-balance and unsubtle compared to other colors in the TV’s palette, and a little more color banding than some other Full HD TVs.

But the P42G15’s pictures, once well calibrated, are still significantly better than most 42-inch TVs. And as they’re accompanied by a mostly clear, clean, reasonably strong, and well-distributed soundstage that’s just a little bass shy of being truly impressive, the P42G15 no doubt adds even more ammunition to our belief that the NeoPDP Panasonic screens are better than the brand’s budget models.

“‘Verdict”‘

While it takes a bit of initial work to get the most out of the P42G15, we wish Panasonic had put a little more effort into its picture presets, but it’s still quite capable of being an excellent TV.

Given that its picture quality doesn’t seem to differ from that of the cheaper (by a couple hundred pounds or so) P42G10, I have to say that this might be the model that’s ahead of the P42G15 if you’re bothered not at the latter model’s additional HDMI and multimedia/online talents. But this is a personal decision to be made by yourself, and no reason for me to downgrade the set’s grades.

How we test televisions

We test every TV we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to properly compare features. We will always tell you what we find. We never accept money to rate a product.

Learn more about how we test in our Ethics Policy.

Used as the main TV during the period

Tested over a week

Tested with industry calibrated tools, discs and real world use

Tested with broadcast content (HD/SD), video streams and demo discs

points in detail

• functions 9

• value 8

• picture quality 9

• draft 6

• sound quality 8

characteristics

No brand embodies the phrase “hit and miss” more than Sony right now. Recent Sony televisions have ranged wildly from insanely good to disturbingly flawed. So when we receive the new KDL-40V5500, we really have no idea what to expect. We can only hope that Sony has solved the various problems that have let some of its recent TVs down and that the 40V5500 will therefore sit at the ‘insanely good’ end of the Sony TV spectrum.

The 40-inch set gets off to a solid if uninspiring start thanks to its design. Because while the basic styling isn’t exactly innovative, the bezel is at least slim and glossy enough to be appealing. The set also has the nifty transparent stripe at the bottom that is now a Sony trademark.

However, where the 40V5500 really gets interesting is in its connections. First off, there are four HDMIs, although previous Sony experiences would have led us to expect only three. Another highlight is a USB port that lets you play MP3, JPEG, and even movie files. But what’s really intriguing is the discovery of an Ethernet port.

We’ve seen such sockets on previous Sony devices to stream files from a connected PC. But crucially, the 40V5500’s DLNA Ethernet socket goes a crucial step further by allowing you to bring the TV online.

Exploring the features available through this online system – dubbed the Applicast – it’s immediately clear that Sony has opted for a “purpose-bound” approach to online functionality. In other words, instead of giving you unlimited access to the delights of the World Wide Web, the TV ‘only’ lets you access material prepared specifically for presentation on a TV, not a PC, via a Sony portal.

This approach to online access is by far the most widespread in the TV world to date, with only Philips so far announcing its intention to give you access to the internet as a whole. But I have to say that Sony’s desire to control your online experience seems particularly extreme. Because while other manufacturers tend to partner with other third-party content providers like Yahoo, YouTube, Flickr, etc., Sony is providing all the content itself, at least for now.

So it’s not particularly surprising to find that the scope of the service is fairly limited. The highlight is probably an RSS newsfeed “widget” that lets you subscribe to newsletters from your favorite sites. Also of note is Photo Frame online, which provides a selection of downloadable photos and artwork for use as screensavers. Only a handful of images were available in the Nature, Architecture, and Art categories during our review, but I suspect/hope that number will increase significantly over time.

Beyond that, however, you’re limited to a world clock, an on-screen calculator and, well, that’s it really. Everything works well and is beautifully presented, but it’s really hard to ignore the amount of extra stuff that other online TV brands – notably Samsung – can currently offer.

You may also have noticed that I haven’t mentioned the wireless functionality of the 40V5500. The reason is simply that the set doesn’t support it! There’s no wireless receiver/transmitter built into the TV, and unlike Samsung’s Online TVs, you can’t add wireless functionality via an optional dongle that plugs into the USB port.

Having to hardwire the TV to your broadband connection — not always an easy task, depending on the location of your router/phone line — is a potential aggravation that, frankly, in today’s Wi-Fi age, is hard to digest and quite a bit “unfinished” feel of the 40V5500’s internet functionality.

Moving on to other key features of the 40V5500, I quickly found a couple of interesting “eco” tricks: a two-stage power saving system that dials back the power of the backlight, and the ability to actually turn off the picture when you’re “watching” something. where the only thing that really matters is the audio track.

A more common Eco element of the 40V5500 is a light sensor that can automatically adjust image brightness based on the ambient light in your room.

In terms of picture quality, I was intrigued that the 40V5500 features Sony’s latest generation of Bravia Engine video processing, cleverly dubbed Bravia Engine 3. And while we weren’t provided with full details of all of its improvements and refinements, we were reassured that Bravia Engine 3 isn’t just a minor upgrade. In fact, the chipset that powers it has been more or less redesigned from the ground up.

Not that Bravia Engine 3 is the only processing trick worth mentioning. An expanded image adjustment submenu also gives you control over a variety of other processing tweaks, such as: B. Sony’s vivid live color system and a black correction tool. Blu-ray fans will be pleased to know that the 40V5500 features Sony’s 24p True Cinema mode for enhanced 1080p/24 playback.

All in all, while you won’t find 100Hz processing (you’ll need to step up to Sony’s new W5500 range for that), there’s enough going on behind the scenes of the 40V5500’s pictures to give real hope as to how good they might be. And for a while at least, it seems like the 40V5500’s picture performance will more than live up to our expectations.

Take his colors for example. They are amazingly good, look sensationally full and bright, but above all they are strikingly natural and believable, especially in high-definition tariffs.

Such definitive color performance can only be achieved when a TV has a credible black level response and this is certainly true of the 40V5500. Dark scenes suffer from less telltale gray than the vast majority of competing LCD TVs, producing the deepest black levels Sony has yet achieved outside of its 55X4500 LED TV.

Concerns I had about the 40V5500’s lack of 100Hz processing also turn out to be largely unfounded. Because it actually handles movement very well, for example football players rushing around the screen, without losing huge amounts of detail and clarity. Pan shots can look a little stuttered and fuzzy when they’re really fast, but given the 40V5500’s affordable price point, there’s mostly nothing to complain about here.

The KDL-40V5500’s solid clarity in motion also helps it superbly reproduce the gorgeous sharpness and texture of HD sources. The unit’s Full HD resolution also undoubtedly plays a role, but the 40V5500’s HD pictures are so exceptionally clean and sharp that the new Bravia Engine 3 circuitry must also be heavily involved, which bodes well for the others to come Sony TVs for this year.

In fact, the new Bravia Engine update does a great job even with standard definition, making it look sharper but also cleaner than previous Sony LCD TVs.

As you can probably imagine from all this positive talk, the 40V5500 is capable of producing some truly outstanding images. In fact, it does so for the vast majority of its runtime. But you’ll surely have noticed that it still only scores an 8 for images.

There’s really only one reason for this, and it couldn’t be more frustrating: backlight inconsistency. In other words, in very dark scenes, there can be light clustering, making some areas of the image appear brighter than others. This is clearly distracting and made all the more annoying by the fact that I’ve had cause to moan about the same issue on some previous Sony TVs I’ve tested.

However, to put this in perspective, I should stress that the problem is much, much less pronounced than, say, on Sony’s W4500 TVs. You won’t see it at all except in very evenly dark scenes, and provided you’ve got the backlight, brightness and contrast settings sensibly curbed, the effect is very subtle.

But while it’s possible to calibrate away the problem almost entirely, the resulting image won’t be as bright as many people would like, especially if their living room is regularly filled with ambient light. And since many other brands of TVs exist without the sort of backlight inconsistencies discovered on this Sony, I really don’t see why an inherent panel flaw should force anyone to impose their picture settings on themselves.

The 40V5500’s excellent but flawed pictures are complemented by fairly satisfactory audio. Vocals sound believable and clear even under pressure, and there’s an amazing amount of harshness-free high-frequency detail to hear, too. I was also impressed with how well the midrange extends during action scenes, although my only complaint is that there isn’t as much bass as I’d like to hear.

“‘Verdict”‘

In many ways the 40V5500 really is a great TV. After all, for most of the time you sit there and look at it, the images could have your jaw dropping open in admiration. It’s just a real shame that all that quality should be wiped out by the return of Sony’s inconsistent backlighting issue.

To be fair, the subtlety of the problem here is such that it very rarely bothers your display, so it’s possible that some, maybe even many, people who take a 40V5500 for a test run will end up buying one anyway. But such a lack of my money makes it impossible to give this set an unqualified recommendation.

How we test televisions

We test every TV we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to properly compare features. We will always tell you what we find. We never accept money to rate a product.

Learn more about how we test in our Ethics Policy.

Used as the main TV during the period

Tested over a week

Tested with industry calibrated tools, discs and real world use

Tested with broadcast content (HD/SD), video streams and demo discs

points in detail

• functions 8

• value 8

• picture quality 8

• design 7

• sound quality 8

characteristics

Physical Specifications

A color laser printer for under €150 is still a pretty rare beast, and Konica Minolta’s Magiccolour 1600W is aimed at the student and home office markets, according to the company. This makes it a direct competitor for some higher specification inkjet printers, so why go down the color laser route?

The answers are usually print cost and speed, and we’ll look at those two aspects a little later. This is a fairly small printer for a color laser, but a tad larger than a typical single-function inkjet printer – more the size of an all-in-one.

Finished in black and cream, the printer looks very neat when closed, but to print from it you have to open the top cover, which becomes the output tray, and the front cover, which then doubles as the paper input tray, holding up to 250 sheets – there is no multi-purpose feed. There’s also no cover for the paper when the tray is open, so you should probably tuck the paper away and close the device when you’re not printing to avoid dust settling on the paper.

The control panel consists of Ready, Error, and Low Toner lights for each of the four colors. There’s a button to cancel jobs and another one that says “Rotate Toner,” which is the first clue that this device uses a carousel-based laser engine.

The carousel mechanism means there is only one imaging drum and each of the four colors is applied to it by rotating its toner cartridge into position. These mechanisms tend to be cheaper to produce, but the technique means each color image has to be built up in four steps, which takes about four times as long as printing a single color.

The back of the printer is where the power outlet is, but the single USB 2.0 data port is awkwardly located at the back on the right side panel, so the cable is more intrusive.

The Magicolor 1600W comes with all components pre-installed, so you can almost plug it in and go. In fact, of course, you need to install the drivers that come with it, but that’s the work of a few moments. Drivers for Windows 2000 and later are provided, but there is no support for OSX or Linux.

The Windows driver is well specified and includes support for poster printing and up to 16 pages per sheet, as well as overlays, watermarks and reasonable color adjustment controls. There are also fields in the driver for duplex printing and alternate tray options, although none of these features are mentioned as options.

Customers considering this device will likely look to alternatives such as the Samsung CLP-315, which is very similarly priced, but the Konica Minolta device beats it on all of our speed tests. Our five-page black text document took 27 seconds to complete, a speed of 11.1 pages per minute, and when we increased the page run to 20 pages, the speed also increased to 16.7 pages per minute. This is in contrast to a claimed speed of 20ppm for black, so not far from spec.

The five-page text and color graphics document took 1:09, which is 4.35ppm, and the company claims 5ppm, so again pretty close. If you compare these speeds to a typical inkjet printer, such as B. the top-of-the-line Canon PIXMA iP4600, £90, the Konica Minolta machine takes about a third of the Canon’s time to print our five-page text and color graphics document, so even with the (for a laser) slow carousel mechanism you’re at it gain speed.

The output quality of the Magiccolour 1600W is what you would expect from a laser printer. Black text is generally clean, although there is very slight fuzz at character edges. For most purposes, you won’t notice this, and colored business graphics are bright and solid. The vivid colors produced are ideal for popping color highlights, although the colors would have benefited from a slight softening when printing our sample photo. There are good controls in the driver for this.

As well as the toner cartridges, which are available in 1,500 or 2,500 page capacities – only 2,500 pages for black and white – you’ll need to replace the imaging unit after 45,000 black and white pages or 11,250 color pages and the fuser unit after 50,000, no matter how high the color content. It’s entirely possible that a color laser printer aimed at this market will never reach 50,000 pages in its lifetime, but we’ve factored in the cost of these consumables to come up with a page cost of 3.71p for black and 13.4p for colour. The color cost is a bit high, but the black cost is comparable to similar machines.

verdict

This is a solid entry-level color laser printer that produces high-quality prints faster than many of its competitors in both the laser and inkjet sectors. It’s easy to use and maintain, and not too big if space is at a premium.

However, you shouldn’t think of a color laser as a particularly cheap option when it comes to printing color pages. Although you may need to change supplies more frequently, inkjet printers can actually be cheaper. If you are a student or a sole proprietor, such cost differences may be particularly important to you.

points in detail

• print speed 7

• functions 7

• value 8

• print quality 8

To press

Der Markt für Digitalkameras trotzt weiterhin dem Untergang und der Dunkelheit, die den Rest der Wirtschaft umgeben. Die Leute kaufen immer noch neue Kameras, und immer mehr von ihnen entscheiden sich für digitale Spiegelreflexkameras.

Die meisten Hersteller auf dem Consumer-DSLR-Markt (Pentax, Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Sony, Olympus und Samsung) stellen Einstiegsmodelle her, die speziell auf Einsteiger und Umsteiger von digitalen Kompaktkameras ausgerichtet sind.

Das Modell von Pentax in dieser Kategorie ist die neue Km (in einigen Gebieten als K2000 bekannt), eine anfängerfreundliche 10,2-Megapixel-APS-C-Kamera, die derzeit für rund 360 £ verkauft wird, komplett mit einem 18-55-mm-Kit-Objektiv.

Der Wettbewerb auf dem DSLR-Einstiegsmarkt ist hart, und die Km wird es mit einigen beeindruckenden, beliebten und preisgünstigen Konkurrenten aufnehmen. Dazu gehören die Canon EOS 1000D (430 £ Kit), die Nikon D60 (380 £ Kit), die Olympus E-420 (300 £ Kit) und die Sony Alpha A200 (290 £ Kit).

Die Pentax Km hat im Vergleich zu diesen anderen Modellen einen recht guten Preis, insbesondere wenn man bedenkt, dass sie über eine integrierte Bildstabilisierung mit Sensorverschiebung verfügt. Von den anderen Einstiegsmodellen kann nur die Sony A200 den gleichen Anspruch erheben, obwohl der Kit-Preis der Nikon D60 ein einfaches VR-Objektiv enthält.

Die Km ist im Vergleich zu anderen APS-C-Modellen eine sehr kleine Kamera. Es misst nur 122,5 x 91,5 x 67,5 mm. Von den anderen Einsteigermodellen ist nur die Olympus E-420 kleiner, aber die hat natürlich einen Four-Thirds-Sensor und Objektivanschluss. Mit einem Gewicht von 525 g ist der Km für seine Größe überraschend schwer, tatsächlich ist er von den oben aufgeführten Einstiegsmodellen das schwerste, aber dieses Gewicht wirkt sich direkt auf die Verarbeitungsqualität aus; Nachdem ich alle anderen aktuellen DSLRs der Einstiegsklasse verwendet habe, fühlt sich die Km sicherlich am solidesten an.

Es ist eine gut aussehende Kamera mit klaren Linien und attraktivem Design. Die Karosserie besteht aus Kunststoff über einem Metallchassis, das in mattem Schwarz mit einer Chromzierleiste ausgeführt ist, obwohl auch eine ziemlich wunderschöne weiße Version in limitierter Auflage erhältlich ist.

Trotz der geringen Größe lässt sich die Km gut handhaben und macht den Eindruck, eine „richtige Kamera“ zu sein. Es hat das meiste überschüssige Fett von der linken Seite des Körpers verloren und lässt auf der rechten Seite viel Platz für einen anständigen Handgriff, und das Gewicht der vier AA-Batterien im Griff hilft, die Kamera auszugleichen. Wie bei den meisten anderen DSLRs der Einstiegsklasse sind die Bedienelemente relativ einfach, näher an einer High-End-Kompaktkamera als an einer anspruchsvolleren DSLR wie der K20D oder K200D. Es verfügt über eine Menütaste und ein Steuerkreuz mit sekundären Funktionen auf den Steuerkreuztasten für Weißabgleich, ISO-Einstellung, Blitzmodus und Selbstauslöser/Antriebsmodus. Es gibt separate Tasten für Belichtungskorrektur und Autofokus sowie ein hilfreiches „?“ Schaltfläche, die Erklärungen und Tipps zu vielen Funktionen der Kamera bietet.

Die Km hat auch einen nützlichen grafischen Informationsbildschirm und ein Menü, ähnlich dem Typ, der zuerst von Olympus verwendet wurde und jetzt von den meisten anderen DSLR-Herstellern übernommen wird. Es bietet eine schnelle und intuitive Möglichkeit, die wichtigsten Aufnahmefunktionen der Kamera einzustellen, aber es gibt auch ein umfassendes konventionelles Menü.

Für eine Einsteigerkamera bietet die Km viele Optionen, einschließlich einer langen Liste benutzerdefinierter Setup-Optionen, mehr als die meisten ihrer unmittelbaren Konkurrenten, würde ich sagen. Dinge wie ein grafisches Farbanpassungssystem, vierstufig einstellbare Rauschunterdrückung bei hohem ISO-Wert, optionale Rauschunterdrückung bei langsamer Verschlusszeit, Optionen zur Verwendung älterer Objektive, einstellbarer automatischer ISO-Bereich, Spiegeln während des Selbstauslöser-Countdowns, sogar die Helligkeit von Die Power-LED kann eingestellt werden. Die Km verwenden entweder das proprietäre PEF Raw-Format von Pentax oder das beliebte Adobe DNG-Format.

Ein interessantes Feature ist die digitale Filteroption, die in der einen oder anderen Form bei vielen Pentax-Kameras zu finden ist. Es umfasst eine einfarbige Maske, Starburst, Weichzeichner und mehrere Optionen zum Ändern des Bildtons, darunter Hochkontrast, Retro und „Spielzeugkamera“. Alle Filter sind einstellbar, und Sie können viel Spaß beim Spielen mit ihnen haben, obwohl einige der Effekte im endgültigen Bild etwas grob aussehen.

Es gibt jedoch ein oder zwei Merkmale, die durch ihre Abwesenheit bemerkenswert sind. Die rätselhafteste Auslassung ist das Fehlen eines beleuchteten AF-Zielpunkts im Sucher, etwas, das bei so ziemlich jeder anderen existierenden Digitalkamera zu finden ist. Der Km verfügt über ein ziemlich gutes Fünfpunkt-AF-System mit einer Auswahl zwischen Weitbereichs- oder Mittelpunktfokussierung und fokussiert bei den meisten Lichtverhältnissen schnell und genau, jedoch für Aufnahmen, bei denen sich das Hauptmotiv nicht in der Bildmitte befindet , oder wenn ein präziser Fokuspunkt erwünscht ist, wie z. B. bei der Makrofotografie, wäre es von Vorteil, genau zu wissen, worauf die Kamera fokussiert. Es ist möglich, auf bestimmte Punkte zu fokussieren, indem Sie den Center-Spot-AF und die Neueinstellung des Bildausschnitts verwenden, aber andere Spiegelreflexkameras der Einstiegsklasse haben wählbare AF-Punkte mit beleuchteten Sucherzielen. Ein weiterer bemerkenswerter Mangel ist eine Blendenstopp-Vorschaufunktion, aber um fair zu sein, gibt es eine Reihe von DSLRs, denen diese nützliche Funktion fehlt.

Wie die meisten DSLRs startet die Km sehr schnell und ist in weniger als einer Sekunde aufnahmebereit. Wie ich bereits erwähnt habe, ist das AF-System vielleicht etwas uninformativ, aber es ist schnell und genau. Die Leistung bei schlechten Lichtverhältnissen ist ebenfalls ziemlich gut, aber es muss der aufklappbare Blitz angehoben werden, damit die AF-Assist-Blitzfunktion funktioniert, was bedeutet, dass es schwierig ist, Aufnahmen bei schlechten Lichtverhältnissen zu machen, ohne dass der Blitz ausgelöst wird.

Die Aufnahmegeschwindigkeit der Kamera ist variabel, je nachdem, ob der Raw-Modus verwendet wird oder nicht. Wenn Sie nur JPEG aufnehmen, kann es im Einzelbildmodus mit konstant zwei Aufnahmen pro Sekunde aufnehmen, während es im Hochgeschwindigkeits-Serienmodus mit bis zu drei Bildern pro Sekunde für etwa sechs oder sieben Bilder aufnehmen kann, bevor es etwas langsamer wird wenn sich der Puffer füllt. Es hat auch einen kontinuierlichen Modus mit niedriger Geschwindigkeit, der konstante 1,3 fps beibehält.

Bei Einzelaufnahmen im Raw-Modus kann die Km im Durchschnitt etwa ein Bild pro Sekunde aufnehmen, obwohl sie nach fünf Bildern merklich langsamer wird, während sie in High-Speed-Serienaufnahme eine Reihe von vier Schüssen mit 2 fps abfeuern kann, sich dann aber verlangsamt etwa ein Bild pro Sekunde. Im Raw+JPEG-Modus ist der Hochgeschwindigkeits-Burst auf nur drei Frames begrenzt. Die meisten DSLRs der Einstiegsklasse haben eine ziemlich begrenzte Leistung, und es gibt nicht viele Gelegenheiten, in denen der kleine Puffer ein Problem darstellt, aber er ist ein begrenzender Faktor für die Leistung der K-M.

Kommen wir schließlich zur Bildqualität, und hier gibt es gute Neuigkeiten. Beim Fotografieren im Raw-Modus erzeugt die Km scharfe, perfekt belichtete Bilder mit hervorragender natürlicher Farbwiedergabe und kann es problemlos mit jedem ihrer unmittelbaren Konkurrenten und sogar mit einigen teureren Modellen aufnehmen. Das SMC Pentax 18-55mm f/3.5 – 5.6 DAL Objektiv ist vielleicht ein bisschen in die Jahre gekommen, aber es ist immer noch eines der besten Standard-Zoom-Kit-Objektive auf dem Markt, mit ausgezeichneter Schärfe von Ecke zu Ecke und minimaler chromatischer Aberration die es erzeugt, lässt sich leicht in der Software korrigieren.

In der Standardeinstellung „Hell“ ist der JPEG-Modus ziemlich übersättigt, vermutlich um Bilder zu erzeugen, die eher denen einer Kompaktkamera ähneln. Glücklicherweise enthält das Menü ein sehr gutes Farbanpassungssystem, und das einfache Umschalten auf den zweiten voreingestellten Farbmodus „Natürlich“ führt zu viel besseren Ergebnissen.

Auch das Bildrauschen wird sehr gut gehandhabt, mit guter Bildqualität bis 800 ISO und brauchbaren Bildern bei 1600 ISO. Selbst 3200 ISO sind keine komplette Katastrophe, solange man die Bilder nicht zu sehr in die Luft jagen möchte.

“‘Urteil”‘

Die Pentax Km ist eine gute Einsteigerkamera. Es hat eine bessere Verarbeitungsqualität als die meisten seiner Konkurrenten, es handhabt und funktioniert gut und ist in der Lage, selbst in den Händen eines Anfängers hervorragende Ergebnisse zu erzielen, während es dennoch genügend Funktionen und benutzerdefinierte Optionen bietet, um erfahrenere Fotografen zufrieden zu stellen. Das einzige wirkliche Problem ist das ärgerliche Fehlen von AF-Messfeldern im Sucher, was sowohl verwirrend als auch unbequem ist.

„Auf den nächsten Seiten zeigen wir eine Reihe von Testaufnahmen. Auf dieser Seite wurde das Bild in voller Größe bei den minimalen und maximalen ISO-Einstellungen verkleinert, damit Sie das vollständige Bild sehen können, und eine Reihe von Zuschnitten in voller Auflösung wurde von Originalbildern bei einer Reihe von ISO-Einstellungen vorgenommen, um die Gesamtbildqualität zu zeigen. Diese ISO-Testbilder werden in Innenräumen mit reflektiertem natürlichem Licht für maximale Konsistenz aufgenommen. ”

—-

Dies ist das Vollbild bei 100 ISO, der Mindesteinstellung. Der Km kann auf 1/3 EV ISO-Einstellungen eingestellt werden, aber wir zeigen hier nur der Kürze halber die ganzen Stopp-Einstellungen.

—-

Die Bildqualität ist bei 100 ISO ausgezeichnet, obwohl die standardmäßige JPEG-Einstellung etwas übersättigt ist.

—-

Bei 200 ISO immer noch sehr gut.

—-

Bei 400 ISO immer noch sehr gut.

—-

Bei 800 ISO gibt es ein kleines Schattenrauschen, aber das Bild ist gut druckbar.

—-

Einige Schattendetails sind bei 1600 ISO verloren gegangen, aber Farbbalance und Belichtung sind immer noch gut.

—-

Definitiv ein bisschen laut bei 3200 ISO, aber selbst das wäre für kleine Ausdrucke oder Webbilder in Ordnung.

—-

Dies ist das Vollbild bei 3200 ISO.

—-

„Auf den nächsten beiden Seiten finden Sie eine Reihe allgemeiner Testaufnahmen. In einigen Fällen wurde das Bild in voller Größe aus Bandbreitengründen verkleinert und ein Ausschnitt aus dem Originalbild in voller Auflösung wurde darunter platziert, um die Gesamtbildqualität zu zeigen. Einige andere Bilder können angeklickt werden, um das Originalbild in voller Größe anzuzeigen. ”

—-

Hier ist meine übliche DSLR-Testaufnahme der Strandpromenade von Sidmouth, obwohl, wie Sie sehen können, die Ferienzeit noch nicht wirklich begonnen hat.

—-

Vergleichen Sie dies mit der Sony A200 und anderen 10-Megapixel-DSLRs.

—-

Das Wetter war nicht gerade ideal zum Fotografieren, aber die Km macht trotzdem Spaß.

—-

Das Pentax 18-55 mm DAL-Kit-Objektiv erzeugt einige chromatische Aberrationen….

—-

…aber es ist ziemlich einfach, es entweder in der mitgelieferten Silkypix-Software oder in Adobe Camera Raw zu bereinigen.

—-

„Hier sind einige allgemeine Testaufnahmen, die dabei helfen sollen, die Gesamtbildqualität der Kamera zu beurteilen, einschließlich des Dynamikbereichs, der Farbwiedergabe und des Zoombereichs des Objektivs. Einige Bilder können angeklickt werden, um das Originalbild in voller Größe herunterzuladen. ”

—-

Die Farbwiedergabe ist im Standard-JPEG-Modus etwas übersättigt…

—-

…aber das Einstellen der Voreinstellung „Natural“ ist weniger grell.

—-

Das Herumspielen mit der Raw-Konvertierung führt zu qualitativ hochwertigen Ergebnissen.

—-

Kontrast, Schärfe und Details sind hervorragend.

—-

Einige der eingebauten Filter und Effekte sind ein bisschen Hit-or-Miss.

—-

Punkte im Detail

• Wert 8

• Bildqualität 9

• Verarbeitungsqualität 9

Merkmale