Latest Posts in From the Lab

Review: Canon Selphy CP790 snapshot printer

At first glance, Canon’s Selphy CP790 snapshot printer looks more like a lime-green lunch pail. With its convenient handle, it begs you to take it to your next children’s party or family get-together. The trade-offs are a high purchase price and oddly designed, wasteful consumables.

The 3.2-pound printer acts as the top-heavy lid of an oval bucket. Plastic latches secure the printer to the bucket. The bucket is divided into two compartments for storing the AC adapter, paper caddies, and supplies. To make the Selphy CP790 truly portable, you’ll need to buy the rechargeable lithium ion battery pack ($80). A Bluetooth adapter costs $50.

The Selphy CP790’s top control panel consists of compass-style navigation controls and five logically labeled and intuitive control buttons. Menu items display on a 3-inch color LCD above the buttons. You can print directly from one of three media card readers or from a PictBridge-connected device. You can also transfer images via an infrared port on the front panel. You can connect the printer to a Mac via USB, but Canon does not include a USB cable. Once you install the printer driver on your Mac and select the Selphy in the Print & Fax system preference, it is ready to go and can print from various sources like Preview, Photoshop, and iPhoto.

The Selphy CP790 needed about a minute to print one 4-by-6-inch photo in our tests, which is similar to Canon's Selphy CP770 (). If you get antsy, you can be mildly entertained by seeing a yellow, cyan, and magenta version of your photo as it prints. Be careful though—the uninitiated would be tempted to grab the photo as it peeks through the back of the printer before it’s actually finished. Print quality was mostly good: Grayscale photos and portraits with various skin tones looked natural, but landscape shots were excessively yellow and lacked detail.

The dye-sublimation technology of the Selphy CP790 is distinctive—but not in good ways. The paper-tray design is clumsy, for one. The printer’s two cassettes hold postcard- or credit card-size paper (18 sheets maximum). The cassettes’ double-layered, clear plastic lids require juggling: To load paper, you lift both lids; to insert the cassette into the printer, you replace just the inner lid, while the exterior lid acts as the output tray. The printer’s ink cartridge only has an estimated capacity of 36 printouts, making it a pain to switch out ink so frequently.

The design of the dye used for printing is wasteful, too. It comes in rolls of film, containing successive sections of cyan, magenta, and yellow, plus a clear finishing coat to protect the photo’s longevity from normal wear and tear likes spills and heat. During printing, each section of color passes over the paper and then rolls up for disposal, regardless of how much might be left. Also, you need dedicated rolls for each paper size. Canon doesn’t have a recycling program for these plastic-encased dye supplies, though curiously you can recycle the printer itself by sending it back to Canon with a check for $12.

At least the consumables costs are tolerable. A five-print starter kit with postcard-size photo paper comes with the printer. A 108-sheet replacement kit costs $35, or a respectable 32 cents per print. A 36-print kit is only $15, but its 41.6-cent per-print cost makes me wince.

Macworld’s buying advice

The Selphy CP790 succeeds in being portable, capable, and even amusing. Still, the awkward paper handling and plastic-intensive ink cartridges are design drawbacks. Given that there are better printers in terms of photo quality, ease of use, and convenience, the Selphy CP790 just barely makes par.

[Susan Silvius is a freelancer writer. Macworld Lab's Lynn La contributed to this review.]

Review: Synology Disk Station DS409slim network-attached storage device

The extensive features offered by network-attached storage (NAS) devices are garnering more interest from consumers, but the difficulty in setting up the devices have kept them out of the mainstream. Synology’s Disk Station DS409slim DS409slim is a uniquely-designed NAS device that has four bays for laptop-size hard drives, numerous RAID configurations, multiple features that advanced users will enjoy, and—a welcome improvement over other NAS systems—a simple setup system.

The compact, black DS409slim is smaller than your average NAS device, due to the unit’s use of 2.5-inch laptop hard drives as opposed to the bulkier 3.5-inch drives normally associated with NAS units. According to the press materials, the 2.5-inch drives and the Disk Station’s unique design allow it to consume less energy than competing NAS units, thereby reducing your carbon footprint.

On the front of the DS409slim, six LED lights denote the status of various features; the bottom four lights indicate the activity of the four hard drives, while the top light denotes the overall unit’s status and the second light shows the LAN’s status. A USB port under the lights provides the ability to augment your storage capacity. On the side of the DS409slim, a blue LED light displays activity for the entire unit.

The back of the device has an Ethernet port and the four drive bays for the hard drives. The back also has a USB and eSATA port for expanding your storage capacity or for backing up the DS409slim with an external hard drive.

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Review: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290 digital camera

If you’re looking for fun in-camera extras and editing tools in a point-and-shoot digital camera, Sony’s Cyber-shot DSC-W290 is a great option. A wide-angle lens, a sharp 3-inch LCD screen, and a 720p HD movie mode also add to its overall appeal, but we have seen better image quality from similarly priced cameras in 2009.

The 12-megapixel DSC-W290 has a 5X optical-zoom Carl Zeiss lens, starting at 28mm on the wide-angle end to 140mm on the telephoto end. It’s a bit thicker than many competing point-and-shoots, but still pocketable: about 4 inches wide, 2.5 inches high, and an inch deep.

Overall image quality was rated as Good, according to our lab’s jury evaluations. The DSC-W290 fared well in terms of overall exposure in our tests, but image sharpness and distortion were shortcomings.

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Review: Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR digital camera

Fujifilm’s FinePix F200 EXR is an good pocket camera for relatively advanced photographers, either as a more-portable backup to a digital SLR camera or as a versatile primary point-and-shoot. The basic specs are nice: You get a 5X optical zoom lens with wide-angle chops (28mm to 140mm), optical image stabilization, a bigger-than-most 12-megapixel sensor (1/1.6 inches), and ISO levels of up to 12800 at reduced resolution. But the biggest draw for photographers is the sensor itself.

The first Fujifilm camera equipped with the Super CCD EXR sensor (the second wave is coming soon), the FinePix F200 EXR offers some unique sensor-tweaking settings: You can shoot in resolution-priority mode for full detail; a high-ISO/low-light mode knocks down the resolution for less-noisy low-light images; and a dynamic-range mode is optimized for capturing even detail in shots containing both shadowy zones and well-lit areas.

The FinePix F200 EXR definitely takes nice, colorful shots; but in my hands-on tests, there was no dramatic difference in the look of images taken in various EXR modes. Across the board, the camera errs on the side of vibrance: Macro shots of flowers or glowing neon signs are dramatically colorful, which makes for stunning shots in most conditions but may displease photographers who prefer a more natural look. I also noticed distortion to vertical lines in wide-angle shots--a subtle but visible fish-eye effect.

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Review: LaCie Starck Desktop Hard Drive

Open an application by using a button from your desktop...hard drive. That’s the promise of the new LaCie Starck Desktop Hard Drive, a creatively-designed USB drive that features an unconventional aluminum case design and some equally distinct features.

Over the years, LaCie has worked with a number of high-profile designers to make drives that range from simple and modern F.A. Porsche designs to more whimsical designs of Ora Ito. This latest collaboration with Philippe Starck and the Starck Desktop continues that trend.

When I first connected the Starck Desktop, the LaCie Setup Assistant software started up on the Mac and asked how I would like to format the drive. I clicked on Mac and in seconds it was reformatted to Mac Journaled HFS  (which also makes the Starck Desktop compatible with Time Machine). Both the Desktop and Mobile versions of the drive come with Intego Backup Assistant for Mac.

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Review: Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS digital camera

Canon’s PowerShot SD1200 IS is pocketable, has an interesting variety of shooting modes, produces very good image quality, and comes equipped with optical image stabilization. I found a few design flaws, however, and image quality did suffer with certain manual settings.

The SD1200 IS received a Very Good rating in our lab’s jury tests for imaging quality, earning particularly high marks in terms of lack of distortion, color accuracy, and overall exposure quality.

The SD1200 IS doesn’t have much in terms of wide-angle capabilities or optical zoom range, as its bare-bones 3X optical zoom reaches from 35mm on the wide-angle end to 105mm telephoto.

The button layout is typical of Canon point-and-shoots, with a switch for toggling between three shooting modes (automatic, program/scene, and video) and, to the left of it, a play button for reviewing photos. Beneath those buttons is a four-way directional pad with a center button, as well as dedicated buttons for the display (for controlling text that appears on the LCD) and the menu.

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Review: Dell ST2310 display

Dell’s ST2310 is a solid display that performs well. It’s not splashy or feature-rich, but it does deliver nice image quality.

In our lab’s image quality tests, the 23-inch ST2310 showed sharp text and good color accuracy. In a portrait, skin tones looked realistic and nuanced. The ST2310 also did well in our motion tests, showing no visible fluttering or jarring of the image.

The display offers a full complement of controls, all of which are easy to access via buttons that sit on the side of the right bezel. You can adjust brightness, color, and color temperature, and you can select any of six preset modes (standard, multimedia, game, warm, cool, and custom). In addition, the ST2310 includes two programmable presets that allow you to save changes—useful if, for example, you share the display with another user.

The ST2310 comes with DVI, HDMI, and VGA connections on the back, as well as audio-in and audio-out ports. The screen’s 1920-by-1080-pixel resolution is suitable for viewing high-definition video and games. Though the display tilts easily, it does not swivel.

Macworld’s buying advice

The ST2310 certainly is a no-frills model, but it does offer good image quality for a very reasonable price. The included HDMI port increases its usefulness for entertainment-minded buyers. Nevertheless, if you’re looking for a display that has lots of extras, you’ll have to find it elsewhere.

Review: Panasonic HDC-TM300 HD camcorder

Panasonic’s excellent HDC-TM300 delivers some of the best still and video images we’ve seen from a small standard-sized HD camcorder. The HDC-TM300, which stores video on both an internal flash drive and an SDHC card, provides robust and innovative features that justify the camera’s relatively high price.

Three 1/4.1-inch CMOS chips capture images that the camera encodes as 1080i (at 60 interlaced frames per second) or 1080p (at 24 progressive frames per second) AVCHD files with a maximum data rate of 17 mbps. The camera has 32GB of built-in flash memory, and it supports SDHC cards (you need to supply one yourself).

In our lab’s subjective evaluations, the HDC-TM300’s image quality slightly trailed that of the category-leading Canon Vixia HF S10 (). The narrow image-quality gap is impressive considering that Panasonic caps the HDC-TM300’s maximum data rate far below the AVCHD format’s (and the HF S10’s) 24-mbps limit.

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Review: Sanyo VPC-WH1 HD camcorder

There are only two reasons to buy Sanyo’s Xacti VPC-WH1 high-definition (HD) camcorder, but they’re good reasons: It’s inexpensive, and it’s waterproof. For some, those two factors will offset the camera’s mediocre image quality.

Compared with footage from the best 1080p HD camcorders, the VPC-WH1’s 720p HD video (at 30 frames per second) exhibits noticeably (but not disastrously) reduced resolution, sharpness, color accuracy, and motion. The VPC-WH1’s overall video image quality is middling. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the camera’s 1.1-megapixel still images, which suffer from low resolution, inaccurate exposure, and noticeable image distortion.

Results from lab’s jury evaluations confirmed the VPC-WH1’s video and still-image shortcomings in comparison with more-expensive, higher-resolution camcorders. Among our test group of six camcorder models, its video quality under both bright light and low light trailed the rest of pack, earning an overall video-quality score of Fair. Still images didn’t fare even as well as that, showing distortion and a lack of sharpness; for stills, as a result, the VPC-WH1 received an image-quality score of Poor.

That’s the kind of image quality you might expect from a camcorder with a single, tiny 1/6-inch CMOS sensor, though. And the sensor isn’t the only compromise in the VPC-WH1. The electronic image-stabilization system doesn’t remove user-induced shake as effectively as the optical or dual-stabilized systems in more-expensive camcorders do. The 2.5-inch LCD panel is also nowhere near as bright or sharp as the screens of better camcorders. Costlier camcorders provide more automatic and manual control, as well, and offer broader frame-rate and data-rate options.

On the upside, the camcorder is easy to use, the 30X-optical-zoom lens works well, video is recorded to inexpensive SDHC cards, and the battery runs significantly longer than those in many other small HD camcorders. In our lab’s battery evaluations, the VPC-WH1 lasted more than 3 hours on a single charge of its battery, more than twice as long as some competitors.

Although the VPC-WH1 does not record video to AVCHD format, the camera’s MPEG-4 video files use the same codecs (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 for video, and AAC for audio) as standard AVCHD does. The bundled TotalMedia Extreme for Sanyo software is for Windows only. But you can easily import the VPC-WH1’s video into iMovie ‘09 and Final Cut Pro.

Sanyo says that beneath 10 feet of water, the VPC-WH1 will remain waterproof and functional for 1 hour. My informal tests in a pool, under sprinklers, and at an ocean beach confirmed Sanyo’s claims. Macworld editor Roman Loyola also tested the VPC-WH1’s underwater chops in a swimming pool, and found the camcorder’s shallow-water performance to be very good, with a couple of caveats: The LCD is hard to see underwater, and during playback the footage shot underwater doesn’t look much better than standard-definition video.

Macworld’s buying advice

While waterproof housings are available for other small camcorders, they typically cost at least as much as the Xacti VPC-WH1 does. The VPC-WH1 (available in blue or yellow) is a good choice for use in and around water, including under rain and snow, and for situations where you don’t want to risk recording with a more-expensive camera.

[Jim Feely is a freelance contributor.]

Speedmark 6: Macworld Lab's new benchmark suite

Back in August, Apple entered the era of Snow Leopard. Today, Macworld’s Speedmark test suite enters the Snow Leopard's den.

Speedmark is Macworld Lab’s standard test tool for benchmarking new and upgraded systems running Mac OS X. It uses real-world applications and everyday tasks. It is a general-purpose suite that includes tasks everyone from a high-end user to a new user performs every day.

Macworld Lab follows a detailed script to perform the 17 tasks. Each task is performed three times. We compare the results to a 2.13GHz MacBook with 2GB RAM (Mid 2009), which is assigned a score of 100. We then take the geometric mean of the normalized scores.

Apple’s latest Mac OS X operating system, 10.6, focuses more on refinements rather than features. But the new OS does boast some new technologies meant to help your Intel Mac take better advantage of its central and graphics processing units. Unfortunately, in order to make these refinements and improvements, Apple made the decision to pull the plug on Power-PC equipped Macs, offering no support for any pre-Intel hardware.

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