Indonesia is a country that has a lot of cultures, flora, fauna and exotic natural environment etc. So it is reasonable if this country called Indonesia Java International Destination. At this time the Indonesian government’s campaign to promote tourism with the slogan Indonesia Java International destination .
The image and accompanying speculation purportedly confirms that the Blackberry 8900, long since comfortable on T-Mobile’s network, is heading to AT&T this June. (Which we figured, since we’ve held one that looks just like this.)
And June is basically all the news has to say about this phone right now. Early indications hint that there will be no discernible difference from the t-Mobile version aside from that little branding sticker you see there in the pic.
We’re guessing price and exact release date won’t be known until RIM’s Wireless Enterprise Symposium event later this week.
A cable modem in your pocket. Rockin’ down the highway with video on demand. Real wireless broadband. I tested an unthrottled Clearwire WiMax connection all over Portland, and that’s (mostly) what I got.
It’s hard to conceive of harnessing that much bandwidth wirelessly while sitting outside a shopping center, enjoying an unseasonably warm March day. It’s almost a joke, being able to watch Jon Stewart ream Jim Cramer—streamed via Hulu—while sitting in the backseat of a Lincoln Navigator doing 60 on the freeway. Having reviewed gadgets for almost a decade, I sometimes have to fake excitement that I may not truly feel in my loins. But this is different—real, honest-to-God wireless broadband made me freakin’ giddy, even if it didn’t deliver peak speeds at every spot where I parked.
If most of what we review is a chunk of the present, WiMax is from the future. Thankfully, it’s the near future.
The Test
Clearwire is a wireless data service now majority owned by Sprint (but with Comcast and others holding stakes). Currently it’s got the Clear WiMax service in both Portland and Baltimore. In Portland, it sells mobile and home modems that can pull down up to 4Mbps, but you know from reading Giz Explains that WiMax is already capable of a lot more: It’s the first 4G network that’s actually up and running in the US.
Clearwire gave me a chance to see what WiMax was like without any throttling: I got a USB dongle that could pull down whatever was out there. That turned out to be, in some places, nearly 13Mbps downstream—the current speed of your typical cable modem, and about 10 times what wired broadband delivered just a few years back.
I trekked around Portland, OR for a couple of days, testing the boundaries of the WiMax network, and spot testing in different locations around town to see what I got. I used the Motorola USBw25100 WiMax dongle, connected directly to a very sweet, very pimped-out HP Pavilion dv4 notebook that I borrowed for the occasion. (At the moment, there’s no Mac driver for the WiMax modem, but as you can imagine that’s in the works.)
As a helpful comparison, I used a 3G dongle from Verizon Wireless. I want to be clear that this isn’t to be read as a test of Verizon’s Portland network. However, that little USB modem held its own amazingly well, 3G beating 4G on a few occasions—at one point reaching a top speed of 3.3Mbps—so good on you, Verizon!
The tests were fairly simple, and resembled the ones we used for our Coast-to-Coast 3G Test last fall. I ran the Speakeasy Speed Test a minimum of five times in each location with each connection, then averaged those results. I loaded a very heavy page—the Wikimedia Commons Hubble Images page—at least five times, timing the pageload with the YSlow plug-in for Firefox. And I pinged local servers in three sets of 10 to determine latency. I chose locations based on their overall geographic variety, throwing in some locations that just made sense for me to visit, like my in-laws, and the family of my buddy Tom.
Here are the locations, neatly marked on the map, followed by a chart of test results:
View Larger Map
Hot Spots and Cold Spots
As you can see, though I got the kind of awesomeness that blisters during three of my stops, I saw some mediocrity in three more, and in one location, smack in the center of town, I got nothing at all. When I checked with Clearwire, they not surprisingly told me I had accidentally chosen four locations that were slated for improved coverage, the two downtown locations set to get lit up in the coming months.
The up side of the experience was exciting enough that the downside didn’t bash my spirits. You’ll notice in the chart that even when the connection wasn’t that great, latency tended to stay low, and even when the connection was shabby, the download speeds tended to stay at or above 3G levels. I mean, before now, when was 1.2Mbps wireless considered a bad thing? Uploads were consistently just below 2Mbps—a far cry from the 10Mbps I can get with hard-wired cable, but pretty much on par with 3G.
Clearwire has to lease all of its cell towers just like any other wireless carrier, and not having a legacy network in place does keep it from automatically having a tower everywhere it’s needed. Also, the fact that WiMax runs in the 2.5GHz band points to a need for more towers. 3G is in the 1.8 to 2.1GHz, and the proposed LTE operates in the 700MHz spectrum. Though WiMax’s higher frequency may guarantee a more stronger signal closer in, it also has shorter range with the same power. WiMax doesn’t feel like Wi-Fi—it can handle smooth handoffs from tower to tower at high speeds—but the Clearwire coverage map of Portland does look a bit like a tightly packed collection of hotspots.
This can be good news: Clearwire knows every inch of the city, and can look up any customer’s home, workplace or favorite hangout to see if getting the service even makes sense. But it also means that if you’re not covered—depending on how a school board votes about what happens on their rooftops, or what the local port authority has to say about radio antennas—it may be a while before that changes.
Rockin’ Down the Highway
Like most carriers, Clearwire takes advantage the many tall cell towers that line the highway, meaning you get WiMax’s sick bandwidth pretty much unbroken as you fly down the road at 60 or 70 miles per hour. In the following video—in 90 quick seconds—you’ll see the following:
• Speakeasy speedtest showing roughly 13Mbps at 60 miles per hour
• Skype voice call (sorry we didn’t do a video conference)
• Slingbox video that’s being uploaded via WiMax at Clearwire’s office, and downloaded via WiMax in the car
• Hulu, where we load up and begin watching a full-screen episode of The Daily Show, at 70 miles per hour
In Summary:
It’s easy to reach download speeds that are four times the peak of today’s best 3G networks
Power demand does not seem to be any greater than other wireless connections
Most available Clear services now are capped at 4Mbps, though uncapped plans may be available sometime this year
Only a handful of cities will have this service in 2009, with more to come in 2010
Wide fluctuations in bandwidth feel weird: 12Mbps upside makes 3Mbps feel like a disappointing trickle
Within Portland’s city limits, there were plenty of dead zones that will hopefully be filled in soon
Apple’s updated its Wi-Fi router and backup drive combo, Time Capsule, with a guest mode and simultaneous dual-band wireless. I was pretty surprised at how wireless performance has increased, too.
Before I start explaining little things like speed, it’s important to understand that the main reason why Time Capsule is cool is that it’s the most easy to use device lazy Mactards like myself can back up their machine to. To do so, you just run a OS X Leopard program called Time Machine, which finds your Time Capsule—or any locally connected hard drive—and uses it as a backup HDD. Every day, more or less, by wireless or wired network, Time Machine (the software) and Time Capsule (the Wi-Fi router with a HDD in it) will continue to log changes you’ve made to your data. The physical drive inside comes in 1TB or 500GB capacities, and is a server drive rated for continous 24/7 use for quite awhile. [UPDATE: Jason just reminded me that last year, some people found the drives in the old Time Capsule to be rated for as a network server drive, but also, for consumer machines. So it's not as robust as some drives you'd find in, say, a data center.] Last fall, the Time Capsule saved my butt when my laptop’s drive died overnight. Miraculously, after dropping in a new HDD, the OS X install discs asked me if I wanted to restore from a previous Time Capsule/Machine backup, and ended up losing only 2 hours of data. Two hours!
There’s more on the Time Machine and Capsule relationship in our intial walkthrough review.
So, if you want Mac backup in one simple unit, there is no better solution than a Time Capsule. And this one is slightly improved over the last. But unlike a year ago when the first generation drive came out, there are other options that are slightly cheaper. More on these later, after the TC performance tests.
First, let’s look at the improvements Apple has made in this hardware and to the previous generation’s via firmware.
• Dual Band: Two radios instead of one so you can run in 802.11n on both the 5GHz frequency (very fast, although not as interference or wall/door resistant as 2.4GHz) and on 2.4GHz, while older devices with 802.11b or g simply run on the 2.4 band. The last generation of Time Capsule had both band options, but you had to choose one, and that meant almost always choosing 2.4GHz for max compatibility. Having dual channels—which show up as separate Wi-Fi access points but are on the same network—gives you another lane to drive in while the one is saturated with media streaming, a backup or giant file transfers. Somehow, the new antennas are 6DB stronger than the previous antennas, according to the AP Grapher program.
This resulted in an outdoor walking test of about 100 feet of usable range vs 70 for the old unit, about 30% in a sparse area with few other Wi-Fi signals around. (I tested using the 5GHz N mode on both Time Capsules, and 2.4GHz mode on the second band on the new Time Capsule. In the above chart, you can see the DB ratings, with closer to zero being stronger. In the chart, the SSID “APL-N” is the old Time Cap, and “Network” is the old WRT54AG Linksys router.)
The computers connected to the Time Capsule’s N network at between 300 and 270mbits per second. I sent some a file—a 150MB 1080p quicktime trailer to JJ Abram’s new Star Trek movie—over the network to a computer on the same type of wi-fi connection and found the new Time Capsule to be slightly faster than the old one and even faster than a top-line Linksys router.
*Shorter times are better.
*One caveat on the newer Linksys WRT610N results—Jason Chen helped me test the new Linksys which he has at his house: The wi-fi congestion in his area is undoubtedly greater in his urban living space, compared to the cabin in the woods where I tested. I’d expect the score to be closer if not on par with the Time Capsule in the woods.
• Remote Disk: If you’ve got Apple’s useful $100 per year Mobile Me service, you can access the data on your Time Capsule’s drive from anywhere you’ve got an internet connection, without knowing your IP address.
Mobile Me’s service keeps track of the Time Capsule’s address and passes it onto your machines that are registered with the service. It shows up as a drive on your Finder’s side bar. Handy! But testing showed that the drive did not always show up on remote machines, and there’s no clear way to force the remote drive to mount.
• Guest Mode: Guest mode is extremely simple, creating a different network SSID and security key (optional) on the 2.4GHz band, while keeping the other two access points for your personal use. It separates the network from all your private network’s disks, computers, and shared resources by using a different subnet. Guest mode does not include things we’d like to see, like a way to throttle guest bandwidth. It’s not an important or useful feature, unless you’re making a habit of letting people you don’t trust use your internet. Unlike the Mobile Me remote disk function, guest mode is not a feature available to the old Time Machine by software update.
As before, the Time Capsule also has a USB port which can be used to plug in a second disk or printer, which can be shared on the network. I did not test the USB port with a printer, but our previous tests showed this function to be buggy at times. Using Time Capsule with a secondary storage device is not a bad idea, because Time Machine backups cannot be size limited; they’ll use whatever disk space you have available to store the incremental changes in case you want to restore a file’s version from a specific date in history. Time Machine backup software can also bog down the network when doing a backup, saturating the airwaves. Other machines in the house can now use the second SSID in such a case, but we also recommend Time Machine Editor, a third-party program that allows you to schedule backups whenever you want them. I use it to schedule backups at 1am when I’m usually not working. (These are annoying shortcomings of Time Machine software, and so not something we can blame the Time Capsule hardware entirely for. Not entirely.)
As before, Time Capsule has one ethernet port for your internet connection, and three gigabit ethernet jacks. That’s one too few, in my book.
The unit runs very quietly, and sometimes you can hear the disks spinning up or seeking data, but its quiet enough for the notoriously anti-cooling-fan Steve Jobs. The unit’s top runs, according to my heat sensor gun, between 100 and 120 degrees. It’s warm, so I wouldn’t rest anything on it, which would exasperate the heat build up.
Time Capsule is $500 for a 1TB and $300 for 500GB of storage. That’s not a ton of storage for high-end machines these days, and multiple machines will almost certainly require the 1TB setup if you want to keep a moderately detailed history of your computers’ data changes. As you’d expect from Apple, that’s more than the cost of a 1TB external drive and a nice Wi-Fi router. Unlike when Time Capsule’s first-generation box was released, you have options now.
If you have an AirPort Extreme, you can plug in a USB disk to the port on it for Time Capsule backups. If you want a NAS that can do Time Machine backups but also act as an iTunes music server, this HP media box will do the trick (although won’t act as a Wi-Fi router). Since the new Time Capsule gets a bit more speed and distance out of it radios, and gets the useless guest mode, a refurbished Time Capsule could be a smart budget buy if those things aren’t on your “must have” list. If you’re a PC user, there’s no Windows equivalent of Time Machine back up software included, nor is there a way to use Time Capsule as a remote disk from across the internet, so this product is not for you.
Regardless of my caveats, I just prefer the Time Capsule to these options as it fits a lot of back up functionality and network performance in one box.
Top wireless performance
Server grade hard drive…maybe
Quiet
Easiest backup hardware ever for lazy mac users
Mobile Me remote disk function
Costs a bit more than separate Wi-Fi routers with a USB drive plugged in
Guest mode can’t throttle down bandwidth
Remote disk doesn’t always mount
PC Support is non existent for back up and remote disk
UPDATE: After a month of use, the Time Capsule unit I received has died. I’ve also had the radios seize up and stop working entirely, twice. It’s less stable than the first generation unit. I also would like to see a quality of service feature for prioritizing bandwidth to apps, as well as a way to decide which machines/ports get higher priority traffic on the network. These things are standard on Linksys routers
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The rumors were true. Canon has crammed the $1500 50D’s sensor and 5D-Mark-II-like 1080p video capture into an $899 entry-level Rebel. We ran it through its paces for a few hours, and it’s awesome.
So what we have here is almost the exact sensor from the 50D—a 15.1 megapixel CMOS with sensitivities up to ISO 12,800 at its top-end H2 boost setting. And almost the exact same HD capture from the 5D Mark II—the only change is that 1080p video is captured at 20fps, down from the 5D Mark II’s 30fps. You can step down to 720p video at 30fps, though, for the same buttery smoothness we’ve seen on the 5D Mark II. Other aspects of the video capture mode have actually been improved over the 5D Mark II, which we’ll get to in a second.
But as far as the specs go, it’s almost a pure hybrid of the 50D and 5D Mark II, two cameras that are decidedly more pro-leaning, positioned into the top-end of their entry-level Rebels (above the XS and XSi). Crazy stuff:
• H.264 video capture @ 1080p/20fps and 720p/30fps with mono sound
• DIGIC 4 processor
• Nine-point autofocusing
• 3.4fps burst shooting for 170 JPEGs or 9 RAW files
• The 50D’s lens peripheral illumination correction
• Three-inch, 920,000-dot LCD (same as the 5D Mark II’s)
• Built-in sensor dust removal system
• Live view
• Canon’s “Creative Auto” mode for light exposure tweaks on full-auto
• Saves to SD/SDHC cards (class 6 or higher recommended)
• $899 with kit lens, $799 body only, available early May
We had a few hours to shoot photos and video with a pre-production unit of the EOS Rebel T1i in Manhattan, and here’s our impressions:
Image Quality
I’ve never shot with the 50D, but from what I’ve read, the 50D’s sensor is about as big as Canon can and should push an APS-C sensor, megapixels wise, while still preserving image quality and high-ISO performance. When it came out just seven months or so ago, it was found to be a good performer but not significantly better than the 10-megapixel 40D at high-ISO.
Here, you’re getting effectively the same sensor (Canon says there are a few minor differences that shouldn’t effect output in any significant way) for almost half the cost. So while you still won’t be on the noise-busting level of the full-frame 5D Mark II, you’re going to come mighty close, especially at 1600 and below. Here’s a quick unscientific comparision @ ISO 6400:
And, shots moving through the full ISO range of the T1i, starting at ISO 12,800 (H2) and moving on down to ISO 400:
Video Capture Mode
And here’s where things get crazy—the T1i’s video capture mode is almost exactly the same as the 5D Mark II, short of 10 extra frames per second at 1080p made possible by the 5D’s beefier processing power. But still, shooting at 720p will serve most people just fine (and it’s as high as you can go on Nikon’s D90, keep in mind). You do notice the lower framerate at 1080p, especially if you’re panning a shot, but for slow-moving subjects, it’s not significantly jerky. Some people may even prefer the ability to switch-up frame rates.
But aside from that, everything else from the 5D Mark II is there: the ability to capture stills while video is rolling, the same slow AF system, etc. In fact, the T1i actually makes some improvements over the Mark II—a quick menu summoned via the SET button can change resolution and video settings easily while you’re shooting, and the movie capture mode has conveniently been moved to its own spot on the mode dial, rather than only being accessible via live view.
Here’s our test footage so you can see for yourself (the file below was compressed into a 30fps Flash movie, but you can still see the slight difference in the 20fps 1080p shots):
Buying Decision
You can’t imagine Canon moving a lot of 50Ds once this puppy is out—and that camera was just announced at the end of last summer. So you have to expect Canon is up to something in their mid-range line. But with the T1i, Canon has taken a big lead in the HD capture arms race over Nikon, whose only video-capable camera is the mid-range D90 which costs a couple hundred bucks more. The resolution advantage is somewhat moot, as most people will opt for 720p @ 30fps over 1080p @ the jerkier 20fps. But here’s how everything stacks up, money-wise:
Rebel T1i: $899 MSRP with kit EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS zoom lens, $799 MSRP body only
Nikon D90: $1,149 (street) with kit lens, $889 (street) body only
Canon 50D: $1,389 (street) with kit lens, $1,199 (street) body only
So with the T1i, you get a sizable chunk of the more expensive 50D’s imaging performance plus an arguably better spec-wise video capture mode than the D90—a pretty sweet deal here at an entry-level price where even the MSRP beats the street price of the 50D and D90 both.
We don’t want to get too gushy without giving this camera a serious real-world run-through, but as of now, the only major negative we can see is the ridiculous name. T1i? What? Why Canon USA doesn’t use its handy three-digit designation for the entry-level Rebels like it does in Europe (where the T1i is known as the 500D, matching with two-digits for the mid-range and single-digits for the pros) I will never know. I think Andre Agassi is to blame.
Look for more on this puppy when we’ve had a chance to really sink our teeth in.
CANON U.S.A. INTRODUCES THE EOS REBEL T1i DIGITAL SLR CAMERA, THE FIRST REBEL DSLR TO FEATURE HD VIDEO CAPTURE
Canon Breaks the $1,000 Mark Again with the First EOS Rebel Camera to Feature
HD Movie Recording Capabilities, DIGIC 4 Imaging Processor and 15.1 Megapixel Resolution
LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., March 25, 2009 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, today introduced a new addition to its Rebel lineup, the EOS Rebel T1i Digital SLR camera, the first in the Rebel line to feature Full HD video capture. The new Canon Rebel T1i SLR incorporates some of the best technologies from the EOS 50D and EOS 5D Mark II models into an entry-level juggernaut. With a 15.1 megapixel CMOS sensor and HD video capture, along with the DIGIC 4 Imaging Processor, the Rebel T1i gives aspiring photographers plenty of reason to step-up to the latest and greatest model in the Rebel lineup.
The new Canon EOS Rebel T1i raises the entry-level bar with a host of enhanced Canon technologies now available in an entry-level DSLR. Along with the boost in megapixels and Canon’s most advanced imaging processor to-date, this latest Rebel camera has also been enhanced with HD video capture, a 3.0-inch Clear View LCD (920,000 dots/VGA) monitor and user-friendly functions such as Auto Lighting Optimizer, Creative Auto Mode and Canon’s Live View modes, all the right tools to open new doors for imaging enthusiasts. From high-resolution to high-definition, the new EOS Rebel T1i Digital SLR camera helps to give creative consumers a jumpstart on the next evolution in digital imaging.
“We are witnessing the emergence of a new phase in digital imaging history, as high-resolution still images and HD video can now both be produced in a hand-held device, for under $1,000. This is truly a great time to be involved in digital imaging as the advent of online communities are helping usher in this next great era in imaging,” stated Yuichi Ishizuka, senior vice president and general manager, Consumer Imaging Group, Canon U.S.A.
The muscle behind Canon’s new EOS Rebel T1i camera is the DIGIC 4 Imaging Processor with 14-bit analog-to-digital conversion and the ability to process full HD video. The Canon EOS Rebel T1i Digital SLR offers continuous shooting at 3.4 fps for up to 170 large/fine JPEG images or up to nine RAW images in a single burst when using a class 6 or higher SD or SDHC memory card. Whether capturing wildlife on the run or a child mid-stride on the soccer field, users will appreciate the fast shooting capabilities of the Rebel T1i Digital SLR camera.
With the combination of its 15.1-megapixel APS-C size CMOS image sensor and the powerful new DIGIC 4 image processor, the Canon EOS Rebel T1i camera provides ISO speeds from ISO 100 up to ISO 3200 in whole stop increments, along with two additional high-speed ISO settings – H1: 6400 and H2: 12800.
The EOS Rebel T1i Digital SLR utilizes a precise nine-point Autofocus (AF) system and AF sensor for enhanced subject detection. The new EOS Rebel T1i DSLR provides a cross-type AF measurement at the center that is effective with all EF and EF-S lenses, while providing enhanced precision with lenses having maximum apertures of f/2.8 or faster. The cross-type AF measurement reads a wider variety of subject matter than conventional single-axis AF sensors and thus increases the new camera’s ability to autofocus quickly and accurately when shooting still images.
The EOS Rebel T1i camera is compatible with Canon’s complete line of over 60 Canon EF and EF-S lenses, to help provide an incredible variety of visual effects to both still and video imaging capture, including ultra-wide-angle and fish-eye to macro and super-telephoto. This includes all of Canon’s large-aperture EF L-series professional lenses.
HD and SD Video Capture
After the introduction of the EOS 5D Mark II in September 2008, the Company’s first HD video DSLR, Canon has integrated this must-have feature into the new entry-level flagship EOS Rebel T1i camera. The camera features 16:9 720p HD video capture at 30 fps as well as a Full HD 1080p video capture at 20 fps, and a third option to record 4:3 standard TV quality (SD) video capture at 640 x 480 pixels and 30 fps. The video capture mode is part of the camera’s Live View function, using the Picture Style that has been set for Live View still image shooting. The camera allows skilled photographers and enthusiasts to adjust image sharpness, contrast, color saturation and white balance, and have those settings apply to the movie image as well. When recording video, the camera’s rear LCD screen is letter-boxed by a semi-transparent border to match the aspect ratio of the movie recording size.
Like the EOS 5D Mark II model, the EOS Rebel T1i camera will record video up to 4GB per clip equaling approximately 12 minutes of Full HD video, 18 minutes of 720p HD video, or 24 minutes of SD video depending on the level of detail in the scene. Video clips are recorded in .MOV format using an MPEG-4 video compression and sound is recorded using linear PCM without compression. The camera features a built-in monaural microphone to record sound. To help show off those fantastic movies as well as still photos, the EOS Rebel T1i camera includes an HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) output to display crisp, clear images on a High-Definition TV.
Live View Shooting
Much like the EOS 5D Mark II, the Canon EOS Rebel T1i camera features Live View for both still images as well as video. The Rebel T1i features the Company’s three Live View AF modes – Quick, Live and Face Detection Live mode – which can be used to capture still photos or video images. Quick mode automatically sets One-Shot AF using the camera’s phase detection AF system. It also allows users to select the AF point, even while the Live View image is displayed. Although the camera’s reflex mirror must be lowered briefly to take an AF measurement in Quick mode, it is the fastest way to set focus automatically when the Rebel T1i camera is set for Live View.
Live mode uses contrast-detection AF with the image sensor and here, as with Quick mode, users can change the location of the active AF point using the Multi-controller. Face Detection Live mode uses contrast AF to recognize human faces. When multiple faces are detected, the largest face closest to the center of the frame is targeted as the AF point. While Live View is engaged, users can still change settings including the AF mode (Quick, Live, Face Detection Live mode), drive mode, ISO speed, Picture style, White Balance and more.
Auto Lighting Optimizer
Canon’s Auto Lighting Optimizer technology helps ensure that the subject of each picture is clearly visible by analyzing image brightness and automatically adjusting dark areas in images so they appear brighter. This is ideal when shooting high-contrast situations that include harsh shadow areas, such as landscape images where the foreground is brightly lit and the background detail blanketed in dark shadow. In a scene such as this, the EOS Rebel T1i camera’s Auto Lighting Optimizer technology maintains exposure of the highlight areas while lightening shadow areas for a more enjoyable and evenly illuminated image. The EOS Rebel T1i also supports Peripheral Illumination Correction for up to 40 Canon EF and EF-S lenses.
Canon’s Creative Auto Mode
Canon’s “CA” Creative Full Auto setting available on the EOS Rebel T1i, EOS 50D and EOS 5D Mark II cameras allows users to make image adjustments such as exposure compensation, aperture or shutter speed through a simple navigation screen on the camera’s LCD screen, allowing them to “blur the background” or “lighten or darken the image” with ease. These easy-to-understand image options allow learning-photographers to experiment with image options while still shooting in an automatic mode.
EOS Integrated Cleaning System
With the introduction of the EOS Rebel T1i camera, the entire Canon EOS system is now equipped with the highly acclaimed EOS Integrated Cleaning System. The Self-Cleaning Sensor Unit for the Canon EOS Rebel T1i has been upgraded with a fluorine coating on the low-pass filter for better dust resistance.
Pricing and Availability
The Canon EOS Rebel T1i Digital SLR Camera is scheduled for delivery by early May and will be sold in a body-only configuration which includes a rechargeable battery pack and charger, USB and video cables, a neckstrap, an EOS Solutions Disk CD and a 1-year Canon U.S.A., Inc. limited warranty at an estimated retail price of $799.99 . It will additionally be offered in a kit version with Canon’s EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS zoom lens at an estimated retail price of $899.99 .
Shure’s SE110 earbuds emerged victorious in last summer’s in-ear headphone battlemodo, delivering great sound quality and value. Now the new, improved SE115s have arrived, promising superior bass handling over its predecessor. Do they meet expectations?
Yes. The SE115’s bass driver is so improved, I actually don’t want to go back to my SE110s. The SE115s provide a clean resonance in your ears that was previously missing, but not at the cost of overall clarity. Shure says the magic lies in their second-gen Dynamic Microspeaker, previously found in the larger-bodied E2c model, finally shrunken down to fit in earbuds this small.
To test, I went with two songs: Charles Mingus’ “Solo Dancer,” because it makes use of a subtle, melodic bass in the background and The Bug’s “Poison Dart,” because it’s one of the more in-your-face, bass-heavy tracks to come out in the last five years.
The SE115s outperformed the SE110s in both instances, able to put that extra rumble in your head without losing the nimbleness and the dexterity of the music. Mingus’ beefy double bass, in particular, took on new life with the SE115s stuck in my ears—going from a complementary noise, to an instrument demanding to be heard. For the upper register, there’s really not much distinction at all, on those tracks and on others with less basso profundo, such as The Beach Boys’ “Caroline No.” Whether or not you want more low-end will may come down to personal preference, but this is a natural augmentation. Think of it this way: The fuller sounding SE115 simply does a good job demonstrating what’s missing from the SE110.
On the technical side, the SE115 has a slightly better frequency response range. I used 20-20000 Hz and 20-200 Hz WAV files to listen for differences between the two sets. I noticed the SE115s rumbled longer on the low end and even squealed at a little higher pitch than the SE110s, but in that upper register, it’s probably nitpicking to draw any significant difference.
Externally, these new SE115s share the exact same body and ear cushion options as the SE110s so the comfort factor is identical. The black pair has gold logos instead of silver, and if you’re more daring, they also come in red, blue and pink. They both have the same breakaway cable, so you can add the original cellphone-mic extension if you so choose. The lightweight and foam-covered, in-canal drivers have never been a problem for me, but again, it all comes down to personal preference. In any case, at $100, I can’t help but champion the SE115s as the best relatively affordable headphones at the moment. [Shure's Product Page with MSRP—shop around for the $100 price]
