Those with photographic fathers are spoilt for choice: there are superb choices available no matter what you’re looking for, whether it’s a compact, DLSR or video camera.

Take the Canon Digital Ixus 95 IS, for instance. It may cost £172, but for that money you’re getting Labs-winning quality that is, according to photography expert David Fearon, “the best compact camera for under £200″ and includes unbeatable picture quality alongside a broad range of features. If you’ve got the cash, then you evidently can’t go wrong with the Canon.

If your budget is a bit tighter, though, the A List alternative is almost as good. The Nikon Coolpix S220 was a runner-up in the same Labs test, winning praise for its flawless outdoor quality and  impressive detail. It’s also only £122 so, if you’re looking for a bargain camera that doesn’t skimp on quality, this is worth investigating.

If you’ve got more cash to splash, though, a DLSR could be the perfect gift for the serious snapper. Our favourite is the Nikon D90, which packs in fantastic image quality, a huge range of features and a stunning lens; it’s so good that it makes the £730 asking price feel like a bargain.

If you’d like to buy your favourite parent a DLSR on a budget, though, the Olympus E-420 is a capable camera that costs relatively little – £260, to be exact. It’s got excellent image quality and an impressive range of features but, if you’re buying on a budget, won’t break the bank.

Should your father be into the moving rather than static image, our favourite pair of digital video cameras will delight your dad. The HDC-SD100 is Panasonic’s first CMOS camera and the results are superb, with exemplary image quality and a wide range of features costing just £443, and the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2000 is a pocket-sized package that crams high-quality video capture into a 311g package.

Satnav systems are sure to be popular choices for Father’s Day, so it pays to get the best one – and you can’t get better than the PC Pro recommended TomTom Go 730 or the new 740, which includes updated maps and features. This £199 GPS includes European maps and the IQ Routes system, which calculates routes from traffic speed rather than speed limits. It’s the best navigator around and, if your father is is a frequent traveller, indispensable.

Those buying on a budget, meanwhile, should try the TomTom One, which costs only £87 but offers clear, straightforward guidance at a knock-down price – ideal if your father doesn’t need the myriad extra features included with more expensive models.

Netbooks have proved hugely popular over the last 18 months, so one of these mini-laptops could be the perfect gift this Sunday. If you’re looking to splash out, Samsung models are the ones to pick: the smaller NC10 is the ideal mixture of value for money and fantastic build quality, while the NC20 is more expensive but closer to a real laptop thanks to its 12in screen and superb keyboard.

Musical parents are sure to be pleased with a new mp3 player, but make sure your gift is on-song rather than off-key. Our favourite is the £147 Cowon S9, which offers a sharp, vivid OLED screen and fantastic sound quality, turning a dull commute into a multimedia extravaganza. And, if your dad is an Apple fan, the iPod Nano is your best bet: a gorgeous and intelligent product that, at £123 for 16GB, won’t break the bank.

Audiophiles may also want some top-quality headphones to go with their new kit. If that’s the case, then your dad’ll be pleased with anything from Sennheiser, who normally provide fantastic aural experiences. If we had to pick one pair, though, we’d go for the IE8s: at £157, they cost more than the average mp3 player, but they provide the ultimate in sound quality – it doesn’t get any better than these.

And, finally, those who are a little more flush with cash may want to buy something a little more extravagant. Take a look at the Dell XPS One 24, which is one of the most stylish all-in-one PCs on the market today, or the stunning Sony VAIO VGN-Z31VN/X, which is simply the best ultraportable around, even if it does cost £1,781. And, if you’ve got a dad into gaming, the Chillblast Fusion Spitfire is our favourite pixel-pushing monster – and it’ll set you back £1,029.

No matter what technology your dad’s into, then, there’s sure to be something he’ll love: whether it’s a digital camera, satnav system, netbook or mp3 player, these products are the best in their respective classes – so, if you haven’t already, get buying while you still have time to spare.

]]> http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/06/18/the-pc-pro-fathers-day-gift-guide/feed/ 2 http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/01/09/all-the-weeks-reviews-6/ http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/01/09/all-the-weeks-reviews-6/#comments Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:05:10 +0000 David Bayon http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/?p=4975 Christmas came and went, New Year flew past with a bang but PC Pro’s reviews kept on coming. We’ve much catching up to do with this week’s round-up, so we’ll keep the focus on the most notable of the twenty-plus reviews since the festive period.

New Year’s entertainment

We got unfeasibly possessive over a little media player in the Labs, thanks to the fabulous AMOLED screen on Cowon’s S9. It shared so many strengths with the iPod Touch, but with its individually lit pixels – no backlight required – it breathed new life into those iPlayer programmes we’d saved over Christmas. A truly stunning screen and a very nice little device.

On the subject of screens, the oddly named Village Tronic ViBook arrived to extend the life of our old office TFTs. It attaches to the back and converts any display to work over DisplayLink – essentially USB – to run multiple monitors without the need for multiple video outputs. Will 2009 be the year of DisplayLink?

Nvidia continued its strategy of releasing superpowered graphics cards with the mighty GeForce GTX 295. With two chips on one board it’s lighting fast at the latest games, but are there really enough people out there willing to pay £400 for a graphics card?

Reviews editor Jon Bray is adamant that pocket “YouTube video cameras” will storm the market in 2009, and Kodak launched its entry, the Zi6. It didn’t exactly blow us away though, with poor colour accuracy and a bulk that puts it in significantly larger pockets than others we’ve previously been impressed by.

Systems for 2009

If the news of Sony’s not-a-netbook netbook didn’t excite you this week, we had Lenovo’s ThinkPad SL500 and IdeaPad S10e as more usable alternatives. The former is a supremely solid 15.4in small-business laptop with more than enough going for it to earn a Recommended award; the latter is Lenovo’s belated entry into the netbook market – with mixed results.

In the PC realm, Chillblast’s Fusion Gemini continued the manufacturer’s good run of success with gaming PCs, while Logitech’s G13 Advanced Gameboard might make a good companion for those serious enough to spend nearly £50 in the pursuit of gaming excellence.

Christmas business

On the more serious side of the industry, the most interesting arrival was the Imation Pro 7000 64GB, an SSD costing nearly £600 – we reckon it’s only a matter of time before they become the norm in servers, which will pave the way for consumer take-up too. 

Elsewhere we saw the Thecus N4100PRO business NAS device, with support for RAID-6 dual redundant arrays plus mirrored stripes, and the D-Link DNS-34Li3 RAID5 alternative. Servers from NEC and Lenovo completed a busy week.

Laptop frenzy

We were intrigued by the Packard Bell EasyNote BG45-U-300, a portable laptop to take on the netbooks at less than £300 exc VAT – just £50 more than our A-Listed Samsung NC10. Matt reckons it’s perfect “if you’re after a little more oomph and a higher-resolution screen” than a netbook.

If your budget is significantly higher the UK’s first review of Toshiba’s brand new Portégé R600 ultraportable may be more your bag. Tim reckons it can trounce the Macbook Air on most specs – and he’s the editor so we can’t argue. It’s not the prettiest but “its price, integrated 3G modem and low weight all work in its favour.”

Completing our portable trio is the big, shiny and bold Pavilion dv5-1000ea, HP’s latest budget entertainment laptop. “While the HP is more gaudy haute-couture than timeless style,” mused Matt on its ergonomics, “it’s certainly a refreshing change.” Not quite refreshing enough for an award, but a “perfectly viable alternative” to our A List incumbents nonetheless.

Hard as nails

Ruggedised phones are always great to chuck around the office, and Getac’s PS535E didn’t disappoint. Dave Mitchell stopped playing MacGuyver just long enough to tell us about its “bulletproof feel” – so tough that he reckons it will even “work happily in our delightful British weather”.

He also tested the LaCie 4big quaddra, a huge 4TB DAS appliance with exemplary build quality, silent running, “a classy design and a good range of fault-tolerant features”. Which all adds up to another award-winning business product.

Two for the money

If one GPU isn’t enough, trust ATI to cater for your needs. This time the Radeon HD 4850 X2 isn’t the top-end part, but one which still offers hefty performance at a hefty price. “Is this high-end improvement worth two-and-a-half times the cost of the HD 4850, and just £50 less than a HD 4870 X2?” we asked? Short answer… no.

The Slingbox was a great device for watching your TV over the internet, but the SlingCatcher takes it a step further by allowing you to watch the streamed content on another TV, rather than just a computer screen. It’s a great idea, but the ever-skeptical Jon had his reservations.

Cowon’s O2 is the latest media player to take on Apple, and Jon was impressed by its broad file format support, memory expandability and built in speaker and TV output. Not a luxurious device, by any stretch, but one that’s well worth considering.

Last but not least, Iiyama – recently excelling at offering decent quality TFTs for ever lower prices – released its first 1080p 22in monitor. Whether we really need 1080p on desktop monitors is debatable, but if it appeals to your inner entertainment junkie you may be a little disappointed by the ProLite PLE2208HDS.