Go to the Photo Tidbits or to my Gallery

Back to current Photo Tidbits News

May 25, 2007

Both cameras are in my bag as I'm leaving later today for a trip to the Ocracoke Island, North Carolina (that page badly needs an update; I hope to do that soon). Using the '5060 as a backup has an advantage of small size and weight, and the camera provides results, I dare say, as good as an SLR (or very close). My E-300 stays home: I'm not going to carry two SLR bodies!

May 20, 2007

My Canon A460 User Report is finally done; it took much more time than I expected. While I dislike quite a few things about the camera's controls (first of all: no quick access to exposure compensation and the use of cursor buttons for zooming), the A460 is capable of very good images; something hard to believe at the current price of $120. You may consider buying three and leaving one in your office drawer, another at the back seat of your car, and yet another — somewhere else, for those occasions when you would like to have a camera which you left behind at home. Just in case, check the image samples.

Focus bracketing with Sigma lenses on the E-500: Responding to a couple of emails, I've added a section on Sigma lenses to the focus bracketing article. Yes, it works just fine — if you do it right. The article should be also applicable to the new E-410 and the upcoming E-510.

New Olympus SLRs: The E-410 is already available in the States, and the E-510 should show up within days or weeks. I just hope they will turn out to be as good as the E-500, which is becoming a great bargain: the two-lens combo can be found at $630. No solid news about the E-1 successor.

May 1, 2007

Yes, I am alive and OK, back in Maryland after the Easter trip to Poland. Not much time to add any new writing here, though: on weekdays I'm quite busy with my Civil Aviation stuff (they used to call that a job), and on weekends I'm occupied taking pictures at the regional wildlife sanctuaries or just on my patio. First things first.

April 5, 2007

Web surfing is often just surfing, skimming on the surface. Pages are looked at, like those in a tabloid magazine, not actually read: get quickly the main line of the story and go on. This must be why my April Fools' Day special on geeCam fooled more than a few Readers, generating at least one thread on a discussion forum and quite a handful of emails asking for details or clarification.

(The explanatory note at the bottom of the page was easy to miss; I've put it in a small font for a reason.)

I wrote that piece mostly for my own entertainment. Dropping more and more unrealistic detail in, leaving a breadcrumb trail to its real nature — enjoyed it a lot. Cardboard lens mount? Why not? George Eastman Kodak? Well, at least some people will find that funny! Parental controls on a camera? Using a blimp to hide "banned body parts"? (These must be some huge body parts!) Reading the text will reveal more of those. Surfing will not.

Maybe the article was still too believable, too close to what we might expect from corporations trying to make money by giving away (?) goods and services. But I wanted it to be almost believable: this is required of a good spoof! I might have succeeded beyond the original intent.

My employer's comment was "Instead of writing this, you should have applied for a patent". Maybe he is right?

Consider the geeCam not just a joke. It is also, more importantly, a commentary on the world we are living in. And there is not much funny about that.

"The history of progress ends here, as there is nothing more to improve."

First impressions from using the A460 for just more than a week:

1. A nice surprise: the camera is capable of producing images looking really good in prints at least up to 18×24 cm (8×11" or so); just don't do any pixel-peeping.
2. Badly-designed controls: this could be significantly improved without impacting the cost. Still, many users may not notice that, happy to just point and shoot.
3. Make and finish: better than you would expect at the price.
4. Most importantly, the A460 has a usable optical viewfinder, so I will take it over any "better" model which does not have that.

If you think you need a better camera because your pictures are not good enough, think again.

Over the past week I managed to get quite a few of sample images, so when I'm back from Poland (a week after Easter), I may think of doing a small review of the A460.

April 1, 2007

Secrets are impossible to keep in the global village we're living now in. Sooner or later the information leaks to the Web. This time I scored a scoop (with the help of the Altavista's Babelfish translation engine): the photo camera market is going to change — drastically and forever. And this is going to happen within weeks!

While the details are still sketchy, three models will be originally introduced, all sharing the same 1/4.8" sensor, a 6× hyper-optical zoom, and the SuperSteady™ image stabilization system. The differences between these models are still unclear.

Skeptical? Understandable, so was I. But with all the technical excellence which went into the concept implementation, geeCam's success seems to be unavoidable, even with as little information as we have available at the moment.

If you were planning to buy a new camera, do not make any premature decisions until you read my article revealing the whole story: Free Cameras for the Masses.

March 25, 2007

It happened: for the last two weeks the Photo Tidbits News became the most frequently visited page at wrotniak.net. Out of three thousand daily unique visitors to my site, almost five hundred drop by here.

I find it rewarding; this means that the formula introduced a year ago is proving itself. In addition to all the people directed here by Google or discussion groups (who, of course, are most welcome to visit and enjoy what I have to offer), there is also a group who drop by because they already know and like the place, and this page may be the best point to start (at least in my photography section). Thank you, feel at home, and stick around. And, yes, let me know if anything is not quite right.

(Photo © 2007 Jeremy Miracle)

This adds some extra flavor to the pixel-peeping article listed above. Strangely, most people still talk a lot about the megapixel count, bot not so many — about lens quality.

With four new articles posted within the last week, I'm afraid I may be neglecting my real life, which I still have. I wanted, however, to clear the backlog before I can spend more time taking pictures outside, and before I take a week-long Easter vacation in Poland. Now we are back to the slow (but steady) pace of adding new contents to this site...

March 24, 2007

What people do after an eight-to-five job on a remote Arctic island?

They go nuts — or grab a camera and take pictures. I'm glad Witek Kaszkin chose the latter; here is A Year in the Arctic: an interview and some photographs from his E-300.

The Olympus Master 2.0 has been released in March. Unfortunately, the Olympus U.S. site is a classic example of Web developers losing control over their creation: the information is scarce, outdated, and incomplete, with the old Version 1.41 being listed as current in most of the places. (The same is true of other Olympus sites; maybe the company should just fire everybody and start their Web presence from a clean slate?)

If you are lucky, you can get to the Version 2 page (the link works 50% of the time; probably the server does not cope with traffic), but the Free Download link to the Olympus Emporium seems to be dead or almost so. To make sure this is not some glitch of my browser settings, I've tried that on Opera, Microsoft IE, and Firefox, and on three different computers, including setups with minimum security settings, in case some brain-damaged scripts are fussy.

Simple things work best. I do not care about Flash animations, fancy menus, sound and olfactory effects; I do care about the up-to-date and factual contents, logical site structure, and working links. Am I alone in that? Come on, people, focus!

Our Hungarian friends from pixinfo.com performed, under as controlled conditions as they could, a test of dust removal systems available in various manufacturers' cameras. In particular, they've checked the Canon 400D (Digital Rebel XTi), Pentax K10D, Sony Alpha A100, and Olympus E-300 (Nikon does not offer this feature).

While I would recommending reading the full article, let me just quote the test summary on the system effectiveness, as given by the authors:

• Olympus: good;
• Canon: poor;
• Pentax and Sony: useless.

This only confirms my theory how this market works: once you add and advertise a feature, the buying public will be happy, regardless of how well it performs.

March 19, 2007

The PMA show is over, and I'm glad it is. Sometimes I'm tired with the manufacturers trying to persuade us that their last year's model (then hailed as the greatest thing since sliced bread) deserves only to be replaced with a new one, putting it to shame. The worst thing is that we often buy that story. As John Foster has put it in one of his recent emails:

"Many might argue that the digital camera already signaled the death of photography as we know it by giving its users access to all the technical detritus they argue incessantly about in the photo-forums instead of actually taking photographs."

But who am I to cast the first stone?

A Web post of my Quest article: Don't Blame Your Camera! — a quick guide to questions and complaints you may hear from friends and relatives. Yes, most often it is not the camera but the photographer...

March 11, 2007

What happened to super-compact cameras? While I was looking the other way, the decent ones just disappeared from the market. My wife's friend needs one, so I had to do some research on this, and here is what I found: zip, nilch, nada. No major camera maker cares about this segment of the market any more; they are too busy making cheap boxes overloaded with mostly useless trinkets.

Actually, I was looking for only two features (in addition to small size): (i) an optical viewfinder, as this is more usable in bright light outdoors, and (ii) an easy access to the exposure compensation function (if you have to get into the menu system to apply it, you won't). A lens wider than 35 mm EFL would be very nice, but let us not expect miracles.

Guess what: nobody makes a a super-compact meeting my two requirements. The Olympus C-60 (two and a half years old, out of production) comes closest, and the Canon S80 (also no longer available) adds a wider zoom (at the expense of a larger body size). But not a single current model!

Ironically, Canon makes some supercompacts with an optical viewfinder, and Olympus — with easy access to exposure compensation, but it would be really nice to have both features on the same camera. A hopeless issue: the popular reviewers just ignore the issue (try to find "Optical viewfinder: None" in a recent camera review), the manufacturers are happy saving $2.37 on each camera they make, and the compact camera market is ignorant enough so that most of the buyers do not even realize they are missing anything. Barefoot and pregnant, indeed.

Oh, well, at this price the A460 can be always discarded and replaced with something better, if such a model shows up. And Ken Rockwell has mostly good things to say about this camera (he is one of the few people writing on cameras who actually take pictures, so listen to the man!)

Panasonic made an announcement at the PMA show, about two Four Thirds lenses they already announced last year: "now we are going to sell them to the public". I'm expecting another disclosure at the next show: "now we really started selling them". Oh, well. The third Panasonic/Leica lens disclosure ("now we are working on...") was about the 14-150 mm Vario-Elmar with image stabilization, new ultrasonic motor and lots of low-dispersion glass. I'm more interested in the 12-60 mm ZD; the extra 2 mm at the short end is, for me at least, of more value than the extra 90 mm at the long end.

Paramétrer votre E-500, a French translation (by J-Marc Guillemaut) of Setting Up Your E-500, has been posted today.

March 5, 2007

The E-1 successor has been mentioned without any specific details, as expected to be released later this year. The only meaningful information in that statement was that it will have a live preview.

New Four Thirds lenses from Olympus have also been announced, to be available still in 2007:

1. 14-35 mm F/2.0 ZD SWD — promised quite a while ago and delayed, perhaps to wait for the new, silent and faster AF system (that's what SWD stands for).
2. 50-200 mm F/2.8-3.5 ZD SWD — looks like an upgrade to the existing (and very good) 50-200; note the 'SWD' designation here, too.
3. 12-60 mm F/2.8-4.0 ZD SWD — for me, the most exciting news on the lens front; starting from 24 mm EFL this may be a very useful all-around lens, covering 85% of my shooting. Let us hope that its image quality will be at par with that of the current 14-54 mm F/2.8-3.5. I'm only worried about the price.
4. 70-300 mm F/4.0-5.6 ZD — an economy lens, which may be quite attractive to many amateur photographers on a tighter budget.

Another addition to the system is the EC-20 Teleconverter (2×), but I expect it to be usable only with the premium, high-aperture lenses, as it will decrease the effective aperture by full two F-stops (this can't be helped).

Olympus system flashes are now referred to as FL-50R and FL-36R in some promotional materials, without any further elaboration. Like 'R' for "remote control"?

The highlight of today's presentation were, however, two young, sweet and yummy Japanese ladies in assistance. Looks like Olympus is learning how to attract the crowd's attention. Bare midriffs never hurt sales.

March 4, 2007

The 50 mm F/2.0 Macro ZD review has been updated with two more samples; have a look.

French-speaking visitors to this site will appreciate the effort by J-Marc Guillemaut who translated Using Your E-500 into that language and formatted it as a PDF: Utiliser Votre E-500. J-Marc is also working on the companion article, on customizing the E-500.

And no, I'm not going to comment on the E-410 and E-510 until we get the official word from Olympus, with more complete specifications. We are not in the ambulance-chasing business here.

Olympus and Ritz Camera making up: Now, guys, shake hands, say "I'm sorry" and be nice to each other. For the first time in years Olympus gear is sold by Ritz, at least online. They are taking pre-orders on the SP-550UZ.

March 3, 2007

The information embargo on the upcoming Olympus SLRs has been broken: the Spanish Foto-Club site shows the first images of the E-410 and E-510, with a handful of specifications, and so does the Polish Olympus Club site, with more detailed images of both the E-510 and E-410 (interestingly, these are stamped with the LetsGoDigital logo, but I wasn't able to find them anywhere at the letsgodogital.org site today).

While I am planning a more detailed comparison the next week, after having the full official information and some time to digest it, here are the highlights of the leaked information; features new in these models.

The changes in the E-510 specifications, as far as I can tell, are:

• Slightly larger body (7 mm wider, 25 g heavier) with a left-hand protrusion, but the grip is like in the E-500;
• A Live MOS sensor (not CCD!) with ten megapixels (up from eight);
• Live image preview (with mirror up only);
• Body-based image stabilizationl
• Larger memory buffer: sequential shooting of up to 7 frames at 3 FPS even in the raw mode;
• USB 2.0 High Speed interface (real USB 2 transfer rate);

The E-410 seems to share all the features listed above, except for the image stabilization, in a smaller body with fewer external controls.

For me, the most important change in the E-510 is the move from a Kodak CCD to the new Panasonic CMOS sensor. I'm still not sure how it will affect the color rendition; I'm very happy with the Kodak results, so my doubts are understandable. Still, with the CCD Olympus wouldn't be able to include the Live View feature; this might be the major reason for the change. Obviously, a new sensor requires a new image-processing engine, another unknown.

On the image stabilization, demanded by the masses, I'm still skeptical. One more thing which may go wrong. I wonder how it may affect the sensor alignment. On the other hand, I prefer the body-based IS over the lens-based one (where it introduces extra optical elements in the light path, plus a chance to misalign these).

More on the E-510: it is quite clear that the camera's body is not just a modification of the E-500 one, but an entirely new construction. The viewfinder eyepiece is more centered now, and the controls, while essentially similar to the "old" ones, have been slightly tweaked. The camera also appears to be better finished (crinkled surface, padded thumb rest) than its older sibling. The finder/flash ensemble is quite different, too. More on that next week.

Interestingly, the E-410 will become the entry-level member of the new Olympus SLR line, with the E-510 (priced about €150 higher) as a mid-line offering. According to the leak, both cameras will be bundled with the new, compact lenses, introduced with the E-400.

In general, both models include enough bells and whistles to keep the feature-counting crowd happy; let me only hope that they are also capable of delivering image quality for those who care about it.

February 28, 2007

The gossip gets hot about the two new Olympus SLR models which will be announced on March 5. Then we will have to see what new features, if any, are meaningful, and which were only included to keep the checkbox-tickers happy. On the same day we will also know how is the next Olympus pro model progressing.

A new article, Going Black and White, has been posted. It was originally published in the Quest newsletter of the Olympus Circle; I'll be happy if it gives you something to think about.

February 16, 2007

My good friend and an avid E-System user, John Foster, has just posted an early version of the E-400 User Report at his site. Generally, John likes the camera (with which I have no direct experience, as it is not available in the States). In addition to his impressions, he is also offering some comparative samples against the e-500.

We have a real winter here in Maryland; being snowed-in I've spent some quality time with these pages and strongly reworked the article on infrared photography; last updated almost two years ago. I am also thinking about having my E-300 adapted for this application by removing the antialiasing, anti-IR filter and replacing it with a piece of glass of the same thickness. No digital preview, true, but this would make the camera (which already has the highest IR sensitivity of all Olympus SLRs) much more useful for this kind of work.

I'm still not sure if I'm really going to do that; maybe modifying my old E-20 would be a better idea (live preview!); just thinking.

February 13, 2007

A new article: introduction to focal plane shutters in digital (or not) cameras. What was intended as a short note, just a few paragraphs, ended up as a heavily digressed article, including a story of a shot, missed by an 18-year old back in 1912, which later became one of the best-recognized photographs in the history of that medium. Well, I couldn't help it.

E-Series AC power adapter: for the last few days I've been in touch with Jamie Hamel-Smith, who decided to build a power adapter for his E-500. The effort was successful, and the needed components were (i) an LBH-1 battery holder from Olympus, (ii) a Radio Shack regulated power supply, and (iii) two solder-less wire connectors. The job took about 20 minutes, and you can find all details in a 4/3 Photo forum message thread.

February 6, 2007

Not much new this week, although the Using Your E-500 article has been updated, and some others cleaned up a bit. Next weekend I hope to show you some comparisons between images from the E-500, C-8080WZ, and scanned medium-format film (submitted by a fellow photographer); this may be interesting.

Translation from English into English. This is a quote from the Adobe Lightroom FAQ:

Photoshop Lightroom software is a new, exciting product built from the ground up for professional photographers. It is an efficient, powerful way to import, select, develop and present large volumes of digital photographs. It allows you to spend less time sorting and organizing images, so you have more time to actually shoot and perfect them.

If you would like to know what that means in a language not offending your intelligence, here is my humble translation attempt:

Photoshop Lightroom is a new software to import, select, develop and present large volumes of digital photographs.

Actually, I've given up reading the FAQ after the third item. Maybe the Google Content Blocker is not such a bad idea after all? (Wait, don't go on, follow that link!)

January 28, 2007

At long last, I'm done with the full review of the 50 mm F/2.0 Macro ZD lens, having used it under various conditions and in various applications. Have a look, it is an outstanding lens, a real performer.

From the computer front: I have added a second gigabyte of RAM to my Averatec notebook, see January 15 below. Frankly speaking, I do not need it, even for the advanced air traffic control system I'm often running on that computer; the only application which may actually use it is the Photo-Paint, when processing large images (and this I do mostly on my desktop machine). Still.

Speaking about Photo-Paint, the image-processing program with which I have a long-lasting love/hate relationship: the latest Version 13 (or X3) seems to have the memory manager problems fixed (at long last; they started in Version 10 if not earlier). The perspective correction tool, also hopelessly broken since times immemorial, is working now, too; Corel lists it as fixed (or "improved") in the latest Service Pack. (This would mean that nobody at Corel was trying to use this tool for the last ten years or so. When I filed a problem report last year, I've received an automated response telling me to contact their phone support, like this would have helped!)

The story of two mice: When traveling to Poland, I took along two infrared, cordless mice, both of the compact (notebook) breed: one by Logitech (V450) and one by Microsoft (Wireless 4000). The Logitech was intended for my notebook; the Microsoft, because of the extra button, for my wife. A friend who tried both liked the V450 a lot and asked me to leave it with him (and buy myself a new one in the States), so my wife tried it out, too. The result was that she claimed the Logitech mouse, and I had to take the 4000 back (no, my friend did not want it!).

Olympus SP-550 UZ: this new, electronic viewfinder camera, announced just a few days ago, boasts the widest zoom range on the market, EFL of 28-500 mm, while being almost (if not really) pocketable! What is especially interesting, the zoom starts at 28 mm EFL, not at 35 or 38 mm as most competing superzooms; for me one millimeter at the short end is worth 30 mm or so at the long one; I'll take a 28-300 mm EFL every time over 35-500 mm. Here you do not have to make such a choice. Even better, the maximum aperture changes only by 1.3 F-stops between both ends: from F/2.8 to F/4.5. How did they do it? (Yes, we know: by compromising the optical quality, but by how much?)

Other significant specs include ISO settings up to 1600 (or, with reduced resolution, even to 5000), and, yes, a body-based image stabilization system. Olympus refers to that system as "dual", but the second half of that duality is just raising the ISO setting in lower light; a marketing misrepresentation used by Olympus for some of their previous compact models, as well as by some other manufacturers (who shall remain as nameless as they are shameless).

I'm sure the new camera, aimed mostly at the beginner-enthusiast market (this sounds fairly mild, doesn't it?), will sell like hot cakes. Would I recommend it? This is, obviously, hard to say without even seeing (not to mention using) it, but I have some doubts here: there are no free lunches. Putting the electronic finder aside (with an 18× zoom this, sadly, becomes unavoidable), the 1/2.5" sensor packs seven megapixels into an area of 4.3×5.8 mm, and, to quote Tim Meadows as the Ladies' Man, that is tiny! What about noise, image blooming, purple fringing and all size issues?

(On the other hand, the '5050, '5060, and '7070 used 1/1.8" sensors, 5.3×7.1 mm, which is not much larger, while offering a very good performance, even in terms of '2007. Who knows; after all, the truth is in the images.)

If you would like to see more about this camera, check the preview at Digital Camera Resource. I will have a closer look at it, just maybe, if my wife decides that she badly wants one, and this will not happen before June, if ever.

Sigma lens availability: one of the Readers contacted Sigma UK about their Four Thirds lenses: they were announced last year, some even were available for a short time, only to disappear from all stores after a few weeks. The response said, the manufacturing facilities are overloaded lately, and they will be used to make the 4/3 versions only in the very last days of January (which means right now!). I would guess the goodies will start showing up at major retailers mid-February. Oh, well, I've already pushed my Bigma plans to May or even June...

More on ZD lenses: check out what some Hungarian photographers have to say about the Olympus "Top Pro" models. Even if you do not want to read the full reviews, see what these guys think about image stabilization and about differences between unsharpness and softness; the latter subject is nowadays being completely neglected.

January 15, 2007

I'm back from Poland, full of traditional Polish food, but with a very few images brought back; actually, I didn't even have to charge or replace the battery in the E-500. The unseasonably warm and wet weather did not entice much shooting; except for the traditional Christmas family snapshots I took only some night pictures at ISO 800 of a new shopping center, in a refurbished 19th century factory complex. Two or three of these may be worth keeping.

The bad news is that my FL-36 flash just died. Yes, just like that: it charges OK, the computer circuits seem to work just fine, but it does not fire — either triggered by the camera or manually with the test button. The warranty period ended just a month ago, and the flash was used very sparingly; did anyone experience the same problem?

Now, as I am back in Maryland, expect new articles added to the Photo Tidbits, and the first one will be on the Zuiko Digital 50 mm, F/2.0 Macro lens. Yes, what people say is true: this is one outstanding piece of optics. I was able to check it against the 14-54 mm, F2.8/3.5 ZD zoom — and, indeed, it delivers sharper images, especially in corners; the larger F/2.0 aperture also helps in portrait applications. While I wasn't able to do any portrait work (which is not really my area anyway), I've extensively checked the macro performance, and, again, the lens delivers here. In spades.

There are no new articles this week, but a number of those in the E-Series section have been updated; in particular, the ongoing Bigma review got a Who Needs This Lens section, and the article on E-500 customization — a number of small explanations and/or corrections suggested by J-Marc Guillemaut from France. (J-Marc has translated the article into French for a friend; if you are interested in seeing this version posted, let me know.)

The rest of today's writing will be about computers; skip it if you are not interested.

On my way to Poland, the security line at the Chicago O'Hara airport was longer than I've ever seen; even longer than when you change terminals at Heathrow. When I started placing my stuff on the conveyor belt to be X-rayed, a very busy and very polite security worker asked how many notebook computers am I bringing along: just three this time, all in one slim bag. Whether you want them or not, here are the details.

My wife, Agnieszka, is spending the winter in Poland this year, and she needs a computer to store her images, to use for email and for Web browsing. We decided my more than two years old Averatec 3225 will fit the bill, well-configured and set up already. When my HP died in the summer of 2004, I was a bit uneasy buying a little-known brand sold mostly in discount stores, but at $900 I paid, it was hard to refuse. Surprisingly, it turned out to be well-behaved and reliable, and served very well, heavily used for both work and personal applications. (A similar model, 3270, is available at $800 or so, but keep on reading.)

As a replacement for my own use, I needed something more advanced, but still with a 12" screen (portability, even at the cost of performance) and, obviously, inexpensive. After some research I settled down on another model by Averatec, the 2370. This one has a 5:8 screen aspect ratio (making it more compact), displaying 800×1280 pixels, a dual-core AMD Turion TL-50 processor, 1 GB of memory (expandable to 2 GB), and a whopping 100 GB of hard drive. Yes, a wireless (801.11g) functionality is also built in (but this is normal these days). At $800 or less, the 3270 is a bargain I can easily recommend for a photographer on a go.

It takes me about a month to configure a computer to my liking, including all software to install, but I had plenty of time in Poland. I can already say I really like this computer. It is better made (at least less cheap-looking) than my old Averatec, and the dual processor gives it a snappier performance, even if the clock rate remains unchanged. (This in spite of the fact that most applications I run are not really multithreaded, at least not explicitly; still, most of input/output and some Windows calls are executed as separate threads, and this shows, especially on program startup.)

The only thing I do not like in the 3270 is the screen without an anti-glare surface. The last thing I want to see when checking my email in the morning is a reflection of my own face. Take it or leave it, all other models I've recently seen are also missing this feature. A glossy screen looks better at the first glance (read: to someone casually browsing a store), and this may perhaps be the reason.

If you are tempted, be warned that this computer has a new-standard ExpressCard accessory slot, not an older PCMCIA one, so that it will not work with any of your legacy PCMCIA cards (like, for example, camera memory card adapters). On the plus side, it is not preloaded with useless shovelware (just some of it, which you can easily get rid of). End of the mini-review, if you need more, see the Averatec Web site or, better, the Laptop Magazine review.

The third computer in my bag was for a friend, who has an eyesight problem, so he needed as large a screen as possible — but without breaking a budget. He ended up with, again, an Averatec: the 7160, sporting a mobile, single-core Turion ML-32 processor, 1 GB of memory, and 100 GB of hard drive. The screen diagonal size is 17" (900×1440 pixels, or 5:8 aspect ratio). The whole thing looks rather obscene; it even has a full numeric keypad! (Don't ask me for more on this model, as I haven't used it.)

Imagine how refreshing it was to travel back with just one computer, my new, four-pound 2370!