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| Click photo to see images of all the Editor's Choice 2007 products. |
When Sigma showed us a prototype of this monster zoom -- a telephoto optic that promised the fastest 500mm focal length in photography -- we thought to ourselves that there was no way it would ever be a commercial reality. We were wrong: Manufacturing starts this fall. Sigma's remarkable 200-500mm f/2.8 is almost 26 inches long, and, at 28 pounds, weighs nearly three times more than a 600mm f/4 Nikkor. That's without its seven-pound lens hood.
But enough about its scale. In other respects it's very much a modern zoom. It features a rotating lens mount that easily flips the camera between horizontal and vertical orientations. It has a rear-barrel, drop-in filter holder that accepts standard 72mm circular filters, and rotates for accurate positioning of polarizing, split, and graduated filters. It even comes with a matched 2X teleconverter that turns it into a 400-1000mm f/5.6 zoom. More unusual is that both focusing AND zooming are motorized -- neither can be manually adjusted -- and that focused distance and focal length settings are displayed on an LCD panel built into the barrel, rather than with the usual scale of hash marks.
If its built-in motors are responsive enough, the new zoom could make for some amazing sports photography, allowing faster, action-stopping shutter speeds in lower light and throwing background clutter into deeper defocus. On the other hand, sports shooters will have to deal not only with the lens's backbreaking weight, but also with its power demands -- keeping more batteries on the sidelines. About $10,000.
SmartParts Digital Picture Frame
Digital picture frames are the consumer photo product du jour, purchased not just for home display of digital images but, increasingly, for business point-of-purchase displays. Most such frames can show still and video files, as well as all the standard audio formats, but the SmartParts frame is especially capable. The line is distinguished by the variety of its available colors and sizes (screens run 5.6, 8, 10.5, and 11 inches diagonally) and by its valuable SyncPix software. Unlike most digital picture frames, which for smooth function require you to downsize your camera's full-res files separately in image-editing software, SyncPix automatically downsizes and compresses image files transferred from memory cards (the frame has slots for most formats) to make the most of the frame's 256MB of internal memory, and to produce smooth and rapid image turnover in slide shows.
In addition to a remote control and built-in speakers for video, the solid-birch, XGA-resolution SmartParts frame offers other unusual features. These include a built-in motion detector that automatically turns the frame on and off; built-in slide show resequencing; and an in-frame albuming feature that permits multiple individual slide shows. It even supports 24-bit color files, rendering 16.7 million colors!
American PHOTO Editor's Choice 2007
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