April 30, 2005
A CAMERA WITH A VIEW
dpexpert is frequently asked for advice on buying a digital camera. The intending digital Ansel Adams goes into the camera shop and finds that there is a camera at almost every price point between $199 and $13,000 in one dollar increments. In such a bewildering situation the salesman looks like a dangerous predator who has you at his mercy simply because he has the advantage of knowledge -- specifically the knowledge of which camera at any price gives him the biggest mark-up.
So, how to decide? Do megapixels matter? Is the camera to be a serious photographic instrument or a fashion accessory? Is it more important that it fit in the pocket than that it take photographic masterpieces? Will it be used to take photos of moving subjects or static objects?
Most cameras, even the entry level 3.2 megapixel point-and-squirt cameras, take pictures that range from acceptable to excellent. However, there is one fundamental feature that separates the good from the bad in digital cameras and that is the viewfinder.
It is wrong to assume that if the camera has a Liquid Crystal Display screen on the back then that is all that is needed. There are a number of cameras that have no other method of framing and composing pictures -- the Canon Ixus i , the Olympus AZ-1, Pentax Optio MX and the Nikon Coolpix SQ are cameras recently tested by dpexpert that have only LCD screens and no optical viewfinder.
LCD screen images become invisible in bright daylight, so framing and composing with these cameras is sheer guess work. These little cameras are all fashion accessories intended for use at parties. Any camera that has only an LCD screen and no optical or electronic eye-level viewfinder cannot be taken seriously as a general purpose camera.
In the expensive 8 megapixel range of cameras from Canon, Olympus, Sony, Minolta and Nikon the viewfinders are all electronic devices, much the same as those used in video cameras. The view is displayed on a tiny video screen with low resolution and poor brightness and contrast rendition. At least they are useable in bright light, but the resolution of the viewfinder screen is so crude that they cannot show much more than the general framing of the shot.
There is another problem with the current crop of electronic viewfinders -- they appear to be related to intolerable shutter lag. The image is read from the camera sensor, converted into a video image, sent to the viewfinder and rendered on the screen. When the picture is composed and the shutter release half depressed to set focus and exposure the image that is seen in the viewfinder is a fraction of a second behind the picture that the camera takes. dpexpert finds these camera types to be frustrating, particularly when following a fast moving subject.
The best viewfinders are in single lens reflex cameras, using an arrangment of prism and mirror in the better SLRs and all-mirror systems in the lesser models. SLRs don’t even display the image on the LCD screen before taking it. They eschew gadgetry.
For those not wanting to pay the high price of a SLR or preferring the portability of the all-in-one zoom camera there are alternatives in good optical viewfinder cameras from Canon, Sony and Pentax.
These cameras have LCD screens and the Canon G6 has a swivelling screen which can be useful. Canon’s cheaper Powershot A95 also has a swivelling LCD, but the Powershot S70 is fixed. All three cameras have excellent optical viewfinders, as does the Olympus 5060 which is in the same price/quality range as the Canons.The Sony DSC-V3 is a particularly fine, if somewhat expensive, camera that we recommend highly. The Pentax Optio 750Z is also an excellent viewfinder camera.
The G6, Sony and the Olympus 5060 have the added refinement of dioptre adjustment to fit the viewfinder to people who are long or short-sighted.
Optical viewfinders generally have one small drawback -- they don’t show the entire image that will be captured by the sensor. Typically they show between 70 and 85 per cent of the picture. It means that there is some guesswork in framing a picture to fill the entire image area.
Cameras with optical viewfinders tend to have shorter shutter lag times. Note the qualifying “tend to”.
A single lens reflex gives the best, most accurate view of the image. Next best is a good optical viewfinder with dioptre adjustment. After that any camera with a good, bright, straight-through viewfinder is better than any camera with no optical viewfinder at all. Electronic viewfinders are, as one wag has decribed them, “designed by video game players for other video game players”.
So, our advice to buyers is hold the camera, check the viewfinder and give it high priority in the criteria of choice. A 4 megapixel camera with an optical viewfinder is almost always better than a 5 megapixel camera without one.
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Posted by terry at 06:26 PM | Comments (1)
[ REVIEW—Olympus C 770 ]
Olympus C 770 Ultra Zoom
Price: $799
Rating: 3.5
The low-down: As the “ultra zoom” tag on the Olympus C770 name suggests it is the lens that is the distinguishing feature of this camera. It is a whopping 10 times zoom, from 38mm (film equivalent) to 380mm. This is definitely the camera to take to the zoo. No animal is beyond its reach,
The lens is not only long, it is also fast with a maximum aperture of 2.8, dropping to a respectable f3.7 at its longest extension. To cap off its qualities the lens is also sharp and reasonably quick focussing, and as if that were not enough has a super macro function that will focus down to about 30mm.
The sensor is a 4 megapixel receptor delivering good detail and the potential for image enlargement to at least A4.
Colour balance is good but the camera tends to overexpose. As the default brightness of the LCD screen is set too high the images look washed out on review, but the screen brightness can be lowered in the menu settings and the exposure compensation method is easy, once you stumble across it by accident. You won’t find it in the totally inadequate instruction manual.
Used properly this camera is capable of delivering exemplary images, as good as any 4 mp camera, but with such an unsatisfactory manual most users, unfamiliar with digital cameras, will never fathom its hidden virtues. Any novice who can work out how to stop the camera resetting to defaults every time it is restarted should get a Nobel prize. It can be done, but it’s not in the book.
Tactile feedback from controls is squishy which is uncharacteristic for Olympus.
The Olympus has one feature that is rare, if not unique, in cameras of this price -- it has an external flash shoe, as well as a good inbuilt flash. All cameras should have this and then the dreaded red-eye might be a thing of the past.
Like this: The external flash shoe; the good manual controls; the “quick view” button and the excellent image quality.
Dislike that: We’ve said it before and we will go on saying it – electronic viewfinders are an abomination.
Parting shot: This is a good camera and some retailers are selling it bundled with Adobe Photoshop Elements -- a bargain worth shopping for.
DPReview looks at the Olympus C770 Pro Movie
DCRP review: Olympus C765/C700
Imaging Resource review of the Olympus C770
DPForums Olympus user forum
Posted by terry at 06:10 PM | Comments (4)
[ REVIEW—KODAK LS743 and LS753 ]
KODAK LS743 and LS753 digital cameras
Price: LS 743 $699 LS 753 $799
Rating: 3.5 stars
The low-down: Kodak tell us that 30 per cent of all digital cameras sold in Australia last year carried their brand. It could be because they have covered every price point between $200 and $1000, sometimes with two different cameras at the same price or two similar cameras with different pixel density.
The LS743 (4 megapixels) and LS753 (5 megapixels) are lookalikes designed to appeal to women. They are small, look like fashion accessories and are as simple to operate as a box camera. Working on the assumption that manual control of aperture or shutter speed is secret boys’ business Kodak have reduced manual over ride to selecting from preset modes for close-up, portrait, sport, landscape, children or movie.
These cameras match with Kodak’s printer dock and produce 10 by 15cm prints without having to futz around in Photoshop on a computer. Kodak assume that women prefer it this way.
The LS743/753 are ideal for the photographer in charge of the family record. If kids, barbies, parties and the annual sojourn at the beach are the intended subject matter then the Kodaks will do the job, but if you see yourself as the next Ansel Adams then you had best look elsewhere. (Although Ansel Adams did once say that the photographer has not yet been born who has fully exploited the Box Brownie.)
Like this: The essentials of white balance, focus and exposure are almost always spot on. Flash is excellent.
Dislike that: The only true manual selection on the cameras is for ISO speed and once you select it it doesn’t stay selected. When the camera is turned off and on again it reverts to the “auto” default.
Parting shot: Small may be beautiful, but there is a point at which miniaturisation starts to defeat useability. These two cameras are on the borderline. The optical viewfinder is too small and awkwardly placed on the very end of the camera body.
Steve's Digicam review Kodak Easy Share LS743
Imaging Resource quick review Kodak Easy Share LS743
PC Magazine review Kodak Easy Share LS743
CNet review Kodak Easy Share LS743
Megapixel.net review Kodak Easy Share LS743
Posted by terry at 06:00 PM | Comments (0)
[ REVIEW — NIKON COOLPIX 8800 ]
Price: $1899
Rating: 3 stars
The low-down: The Nikon Coolpix 8800 is the latest incarnation of the all-in-one pseudo digital SLR that began with the Coolpix 5700 in 2002. That camera caused a sensation at the time with its attractive design and appealing concept -- one fixed long range zoom attached to a compact body with a 5 megapixel sensor. Demand exceeded supply, even though it cost over $2000. These days its 7mp successor, the 8700, can be bought for $1000.
Now the new 8800 has all the features that made the 5700 and 8700 desirable, plus an 8 mp sensor and a zoom range of 10x compared with 8 and the camera is fitted with Nikon’s vibration reduction mechanism to reduce effects of camera shake.
dpexpert found the 5700 to be a disappointment in a few areas -- soft focus, poor white balance and slow operation. The 8800 is an improvement, with pin-sharp focus and outstanding auto white balance but it is still painfully slow in operation. The 8800 is not really an alternative to a fast acting single lens reflex.
Like this: The Nikkor lens is superb and combined with the 8 mp sensor delivers crisp, high resolution, nicely coloured and exposed pictures. Even in tricky late afternoon light the camera manages to adjust the white balance and exposure precisely. The subjective quality of portrait shots is excellent. The vibration reduction is impressive in low light.[The picture on the right was taken at 1922 on 1 Jan 2005, strongly backlit, at 1/71 sec, f5.9, ISO 200 at 71mm focal length.]
Dislike that: The camera is slow and unresponsive in all its operations. The electronic zoom is slow and noisy. Focus is sluggish and the camera hunts for sharp focus. Image write to the memory card takes a long time. The low resolution, high contrast electronic viewfinder acts like a veil between the photographer and subject.
Parting shot: The Nikon Coolpix 8800 is pitched against the lower priced digital SLRs. It has obvious appeal to those who have an aversion to the apparent (more than real) complexity and bulk (real enough) of Nikon’s own outstanding D70 SLR. The D70 is $100 cheaper than the 8800. The look and feel of the 8800 are seductive, and for many would-be digital snappers that will be enough.
Posted by terry at 04:38 PM | Comments (0)
COLOUR TO BLACK & WHITE
SOME DIGITAL CAMERAS have a black and white option in the image settings and this usually does a fair job of producing a monochrome image. However, a better way to do it is in Photoshop.
By doing the conversion in the computer the original colour image is saved for other uses and there is greater control over the black and white image. What's more there are times when a blah! colour image can be turned into an excellent B & W.
So, do this ...
1. Open the colour image in Photoshop.
2. Go Image/Mode/Lab Color
3. Open Channels on the Channels palette and click on Lightness
4. Go Image/Mode/Grayscale and click OK for "discard color information"
5. Go Layer/Duplicate layer
6. In the Layers palette change the mode from Normal to Multiply
7. You now have a very dark monochrome image. Click on the Opacity slider in the Layers palette and reduce the opacity. As you move the slider up and down the scale the intensity of the image will change. At the zero end the top layer will be totally transparent and the image washed out. At the 100% end the image will be too dark. Somewhere in between will be just right.
8. Go Layer/Flatten image
9. Make fine adjustments in Curves [Ctrl M]
There is another way to convert colour images to black and white — use Fred Miranda's BW Workflow Pro, downloadable for U$29.90. This plugin automates the conversion process and has the added facility of a filter set to simulate red, orange, yellow, green etc filters as well as various duotone conversions, including good old sepia.
Happy monochroming!
Posted by terry at 02:22 PM | Comments (3)
SOMETHING [good!] for nothing
SOME OF THE BEST THINGS IN DIGITAL LIFE ARE FREE…
BUYING THE DIGITAL CAMERA is just the first shock to the wallet for those who get serious about the new medium. After the camera comes the bigger memory card – no camera is supplied with an adequate card. Then the possibilities of the bundled software are quickly exhausted and Photoshop, either the full version or Photoshop Elements 2, become irresistible. And as these programs, although expensive, come without instruction books we must add another $60 for the Dummies third party manual.
But not every essential tool for the digital photographer is expensive. Some cost nothing at all.
No system should be without Irfanview, the universal image viewer. Irfanview is a clever little program that opens pictures in any format in a snap. There is no need to wait around for the application in which the picture was last edited to open, which in the case of Photoshop takes considerably longer than the wet weekend. Irfanview can be configured to open jpg, gif, bmp, psd, jpg2, png, plus some movie and sound files.
The program includes some rough photo processing functions -- cropping, changing colour balance, brightness, contrast, gamma and so on -- but these adjustments are best addressed in a dedicated photo editing program. Irfanview’s genius is that it saves time. Photos in any file format open instantly. And it is a free download.
Picasa is the indispensable image cataloguing program. When dpexpert reviewed Picasa in March and gave it 4.5 stars it cost U$29. Since that time the application has been acquired by Google, and for reasons best known to themselves, is now available for free download. Picasa does only one thing – it scours the hard drives in a system for all image files and it catalogues them into folders. It will auto-launch at start-up and do its job constantly in the background. It was a must-have bargain at U$29, so at zero pennies what more can be said?
Photoshop and Photoshop Elements utilise a form of macro that any user can create called an Action. Actions are portable, so routines made by one user can be given to another for installation in the Photoshop Actions folder. All over the world Photoshop users are beavering away creating routines to apply to pictures, text or any other element of an image. Adobe maintains an exchange web site for creators of Actions, Plugins, Filters and Templates to display and offer their macros. There are hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of automated functions available here. Most of them are at no cost. There are a few commercial operators offering samples on the site. Most of the routines are useless, but in amongst the dross there are some gems.
One of the best, albeit limited, collections of Photoshop Actions is at atncentral.com The Frame and Matte actions offered here are well-designed to add a nice finishing touch to pictures for emailing or posting to web sites. The three dimensional framing effects achieved by the authors are realistic and elegant, better than those on offer on the Adobe Studio Exchange site. The on-screen demonstrations of the effects are particularly helpful.
Atncentral has one particular action which is so useful that it should be in every Photoshop Actions folder. It is called Glamor Blur and it is an electronic equivalent of petroleum jelly on the lens. It softens images as effectively as an expensive soft-focus lens. Digital cameras tend to produce sharp images that are hard and unflattering, particularly in portraits of women and children and more so when the on-camera flash is used. Every wrinkle and skin blemish stands out in gruesome high fidelity. Few faces can stand that sort of photographic scrutiny, which is why professional photographers have a kit full of devices, from makeup and soft-focus lenses to soft-box flash units, to blur the skin texture of even the loveliest model.
Glamor Blur does electronically what the professionals’ devices do physically. It creates a second layer on the image with an overall romantic softening effect, the opacity of which can be controlled in the layers palette. Then the Eraser tool is used to remove the softening over the eyes, resulting in a glowing portrait with luminous, sharply focussed eyes.
For those interested in tarting up text there is a good collection of effects available at Action Addiction. Most of these actions are free, but regrettably the green slimy offering called Snot Nose Punk costs U$10.89 Ah well, we must expect to pay for quality.
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Posted by terry at 01:48 PM | Comments (2)
[ SIGMA 70~200mm f2.8 APO EX lens ]
SIGMA 70~200mm f2.8 APO EX zoom lens
Price: $1789
Rating: 4.5 stars
The goods: One of the reasons for buying a single lens reflex digital camera is that it can be fitted with a choice of lenses. Which is all very well, but which lenses? The lenses made by the camera manufacturer or those from third party makers, which are usually cheaper?
Sigma is a well-known maker of third party lenses (the company also makes a digital SLR camera) with a reputation for quality in optics and mechanics of their products. The 70~200 f2.8 APO EX zoom is an example of their better, and therefore more expensive, lenses. Seeing that the company sells a competent 55~200 zoom for $289 why would anyone spend 6 times as much for a lens with a lesser range?
The answer is that for the higher price you get a constant maximum aperture of f2.8 – a fast lens for this range – and internal focus and zoom mechanisms, so the overall length of the lens is constant. You get a high speed focussing motor and superior glass. You also get a very heavy lens, which is not necessarily what anyone wants, but it is the price to be paid for the extra glass and machinery. The $289 lens is good but the $1789 lens is stunning. Sadly, camera lenses obey the fundamental law of capitalism – you get what you pay for.
Like this: This lens focusses quickly and is pin sharp, even at the maximum aperture. Resolution and contrast are excellent.
Dislike that: The tripod mount collar – which can be removed – obstructs the zoom ring and the zoom mechanism is stiff and not as smooth as the price leads us to expect.
Parting shot: This is a brilliant lens for portraiture, but its size means that you will never be able to sneak up on your subject unnoticed, even from a distance. Keep in mind that a 200mm focal length is the equivalent of 300mm when fitted to a digital camera, so it’s a good lens for getting close ups of the lions without being eaten.
Posted by terry at 12:46 PM | Comments (2)
Photography for the semi depressed
YOU'VE GOT THE NEW DIGITAL CAMERA. And you've taken the first photos and they are not the dazzling works of art that you expected from this cutting edge photographic technology.
Something is wrong? If you are a disappointed digital tyro you are not alone. Pictures blurred? Moments missed? The subject blinked? The cat ran away? Out of focus? Over or under exposed?
Blame the camera?
Well, yes and no. It is the camera's fault, in the sense that a digital camera does not work like a film camera. Like it or not you have to learn a new method for taking photos. The old point-and-shoot technique will almost certainly lead to disappointing results. And the cause of the disappointment can be summed up in two words -- shutter lag.
All digital cameras suffer to a greater or lesser extent from shutter lag, and camera companies are spending research and development dollars (or yen) on eliminating this phenomenon from the system.
Here's what happens when you frame the picture in the viewfinder and press the shutter release. The camera samples a spot in the frame and calculates the exposure. It samples the colour of the light and sets the white balance. At the same time the auto-focus lens is hunting for a sharp focus point. The digital sensor captures the picture and sends it to the processor and memory card. If your camera has an electronic viewfinder -- a small lcd screen in the eye-level viewfinder -- this may add to the time delay between what you see and what you end up capturing.
If you simply point and shoot the chances are that the focus/exposure point will be on either the background or the foreground and not on the subject you are photographing. The picture will be out of focus and incorrectly exposed. The subject will have moved.
To reduce the shutter lag effect all good digital cameras operate on the "half depressed" principle. You put the focus/exposure spot over the most important highlight in the picture area, even if it means moving the camera away from your intended framing, and then you press the shutter release half way down until a beep tells you that focus and exposure are locked. Then, continuing to hold the shutter release half-depressed you move the camera back to the intended framing position and then press the shutter release all the way down.
It sounds complicated and cumbersome, but it quickly becomes intuitive. And once the focus/exposure is locked you can wait for the decisive moment, to use Henri Cartier-Bresson's famous phrase. The great French photographer uses a rangefinder Leica which, to all intents and purposes, has no shutter lag. What you see in the viewfinder is what you get.
With a single lens reflex camera there is a slight lag as the mirror swings up before the shutter opens. It is near enough to instantaneous to be acceptable. But the auto-focus, auto-exposure digital camera takes time to prepare itself for the shot and you must adapt your technique to its idiosyncrasies.
Look at this photograph. The focus/exposure spot of the camera was centred over the subject's right eye. The button was half depressed and then the camera was moved to the photographer's right to reframe the head centrally. It takes much less time to do than to describe.
In any portrait the eyes are the important focus point and it is usually best to expose for the highlights so that they are not blown out in the photograph, as they will be if you put the exposure spot over a shadow area. If your camera permits in-camera adjustment of contrast it helps to lower it to preserve as much detail as possible at both ends of the grey scale.
Posted by terry at 12:30 PM | Comments (2)
[ REVIEW — KODAK DX7630 ]
Price: $799
Rating: 4.5 stars
The low-down: Kodak’s new 6.1 megapixel DX7630 camera is further evidence of the company’s determination to cover every permutation of camera and price under $1000. And they are doing it with a bewildering range of digicams of varying degrees of sophistication and user control.
The DX7630 conforms to the company’s apparent philosophy of producing images straight from the camera that are sharp, saturated and correctly exposed. This output is achieved by setting default sharpening and saturation at higher levels than is done in pro-sumer cameras. Colour saturation and sharpening can be over-ridden in the setup menu and dpexpert found that Low is the preferred setting if post-camera editing is planned.
The DX7630 has both an optical and LCD viewfinder and the shutter lag, the bane of so many cameras in this price range, is negligible. Focus is fast and spot on. White balance is excellent.
There are 16 scene modes for macro, self-portrait, landscape, snow etc. They are accessible but probably not very useful. This camera has outstanding macro performance and very good flash. Skin tone is realistic.
Like this: The lens is a 39~117mm (film equivalent) Schneider-Kreuznach zoom. Historically Schneider lenses have been to Kodak what Leitz and Zeiss are to Leica and Contax. This Kodak camera is made in China, so we assume that this is not the same Jos. Schneider of Kreuznach who made lenses for Kodak plate and Retina cameras. Still the Asian Schneider does an excellent job.
Dislike that: Users must print out their own manual from a PDF file. That is real cheap-skatery. And the menu is still cartoonish.
Parting shot: This is the best Kodak digital camera we have used. Kodaks generally look and feel different from the Japanese cameras and some models lagged in things like appearance and smoothness of operation. The DX7630 is still different, but in a nicer way. For its price and intended purpose this camera is highly recommended.
Steve's Digicam reviews the Kodak EasyShare DX7630
Posted by terry at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)
[ KONICA MINOLTA DiMAGE G600 ]
Price: $899
Rating: 3.5 stars
The goods: The Konica Minolta is a 6 megapixel camera that fits in between the simple point and shoot consumer cameras and the digicams that offer greater manual control of functions.
The G600 is an attractive, rugged little camera that will fit in a pocket and feels as though it will withstand careless handling.
All the important automatic functions – focus, exposure and white balance – are spot on. Images straight from the camera are good without any post-camera processing. Both the optical viewfinder and the LCD are bright and clear.
The lens covers a 39mm to 117mm range (in 35 mm film equivalents), which gives an ideal focal length at the long end for portraits.
The camera is supplied with a 16meg SD memory card, which is inadequate, so factor into the cost the additional expense of a 128meg card. The G600 also takes the Memory Stick and MultiMedia cards.
Like this: The macro mode on the G600 is very good, delivering well exposed and pin sharp close-ups. If photographing flowers is a priority then the Minolta is the camera for the job.
The software supplied with the G600 is outstanding. For most people it will be all they need to do post-camera tweaking.
Dislike that: The manual controls, which are limited, are not immediately accessible by external buttons and knobs. Making manual selections of ISO speed or shutter speed must be done by plunging into non-intuitive menu settings. Most people will find that manual control is so complicated that it can only be done with the camera in one hand and the instruction book in the other. This means that the G600 will almost always be used in automatic mode. So it is best thought of as a point and shoot camera with some pretensions.
Parting shot: The natural competitors of the Konica Minolta G600 are the Canon Powershot S60 and the Olympus C-60. The Canon is a 5mp camera and the Olympus is 6. The Canon and Olympus have more easily accessible manual controls which will appeal to some customers and deter others.
Posted by terry at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
Sony demystifies digital
We would have thought that it would take more than four television spots to make the intricacies of digital video and still photography a matter of child's play for the average bloke and sheila, but according to AdWeek, Sony's hired copywriters have done the trick. According to a statement by John Hambrick, whose position of senior vice-president of Bagby and Co automatically makes him an oracle:
The campaign uses inspirational storytelling to humanise and demystify digital technology for a non-technical audience.
Judging from the story, it wasn't all that difficult. One spot shows a father shooting footage of his children hunting for fireflies with his Sony Handycam, for example.
What could put it more simply than that? Hmmn? Forgot all that jargon. Just watch 30 seconds of your average model Dad and a couple of average model kids, plus a handful of fireflies, and [boing!], you can toss the manual in the bin.
We suspect the secret ingredient though, is the fact that actor Alec Baldwin provides the voiceover. We think he's been studying hypnosis.
Posted by cw at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)
[ REVIEW – CANON EOS 20D digital slr ]
Price: $2699 body only
Rating: 4.5 stars
The low-down: The Canon EOS 20D single lens reflex is an evolutionary development of the popular 10D. Pixel count is increased by 2 million (to 8.2 megapixels) and weight and bulk have been reduced slightly.
Straight from the box the camera sits perfectly in the hand. All controls are easy to access and intuitive in action, at least for anyone familiar with digital cameras.
Image quality is film-like and smooth with excellent exposure, focus, white balance and colour. Huge enlargement from Canon images is a doddle.
Once again Canon has produced a camera with such low inherent image noise that it can realistically be used at ISO1600, eliminating the need for flash in just about all situations. The low light capability of this camera has to be seen to be believed.
Like this: The things like mirror slap, shutter motion and button function are all smooth and well-damped. All the physical characteristics of the 20D speak quality. It is a thing of beauty and a joy forever -- more or less.
Dislike that: The 20D does not have spot metering. This is inexplicable in a camera of this quality and price. Serious photographers take it for granted that their cameras will have the ability to read exposure from a small spot in the centre of the viewfinder. Canon’s lesser cameras, such as the S70 and G6 have spot metering, so why not the top of the range consumer camera?
Also, by default, the Canon uses some sort of weird matrix for auto focussing. This is the first thing to be turned off by a new owner and the focussing set to centre spot. At least it does have spot focussing, even if you do have to consult the manual to find out how to turn it on.
Parting shot: EOS 20D supplied for testing came with a cheap kit lens which did not impress. It has a plastic bayonet mount, a wobbly zooming mechanism and a miserable little ring for manual focus. While the price is attractive ($200 when bought as a kit) the fact is that anyone spending $2699 on a camera body is not going to quibble at an extra $1100 for a good Canon USM lens. This, after all, is equipment for the well-heeled.
DPReview looks at the Canon EOS 20D
Bob Atkins compares the Canon EOS 20D to the 10D
Ken Rockwell compares the 20D to the Nikon D70
Posted by terry at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)
[ REVIEW—CANON A520 ]
DPExpert hasn't had time [PANT!! PUFF!!] to look at the Canon A520 [pictured] yet, but we saw one in Ted's Camera Store the other day at $A500, and there's a review of it in Digital Camera Review which describes it as a "a super choice for advanced amateur photographers".
The review mentions that the A520 replaces the A85, which is correct, but the sequence of numbers raises the difficulty that the consumer faces in trying to keep up with model changes.
You might have thought, for instance, that the A85 would have replaced the A80, which CW discovered last year was much loved even by professional users for its quality and utility, which included the ability to attach different lenses. In fact, however, the A85 replaced the A70.
The replacement for the 4-megapixel A80 was the 5-megapixel A95, and that probably won't be updated until about October this year.
So what's the difference between the A520 and the A95? Well, the A520 doesn't have the vari-screen - the fold-out, swivelling LCD screen which can be awfully handy for shooting in a lot of situations. And like the A85 (and the A80 for that matter), it's only a 4-megapixel model. This is the interesting point: the A95 costs just $49 more than the A520. For that you get better resolution and that handy screen. Judging from the review of the A520, you also get better optics, although the new flash capabilities look interesting.
That's the sort of thing that you unfortunately don't get from a lot of reviews - a sense of comparative value.
Posted by cw at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)
dpexpert.com.au is up and running...
We – that is Charles Wright and Terry Lane – have been writing about digital imaging and reviewing cameras, printers and software for the Livewire section of the Age Green Guide for the past eighteen months. The time has come to create an easily accessible archive of this material and to add reviews and other information that never make it into the newspaper.
There is a lot going on in the world of digital imaging – new products, new techniques, new displays of photographic art – and dpexpert.com.au is the place to keep up with developments as they happen.
Our review philosophy is more subjective than scientifically objective. We assess equipment on its feel and output quality.
We have prejudices. No matter how many lines per inch a camera's lens will resolve if it suffers from shutter lag it will get a low rating. Any camera that has only an LCD screen for a viewfinder will not be highly regarded, simply because such cameras are all but useless in the afternoon sun. We do not like electronic viewfinders because they put a veil between photographer and subject. We like large optical viewfinders. We like cameras with rugged bodies. We prefer the option of manual selection of shooting parameters. You will figure out our biases soon enough.
In the end it is the picture that matters. And photographers take pictures, not cameras or computers. As one famous photographer has said: "The photographer has not yet been born who has fully exploited the potential of the Box Brownie."
Welcome to dpexpert.com.au Come back often!
Posted by terry at 09:46 AM | Comments (22)
April 29, 2005
[ CANON PIXMA iP8500 printer ]
Price: $599
Rating: 4.5 stars
The goods: Canon’s newest printer range glories in the name of PIXMA, which possibly has something to do with maximum pixels.
The iP8500 is a high resolution printer that uses 8 ink cartridges. Red and green inks have been added to the CYMK plus photo magenta and photo cyan in the previous premium Canons.
dpexpert has sent images to the printer from Photoshop as well as direct from Canon cameras via Pictbridge and from scanned slides and black and white negatives and in every case the results are outstanding. The camera-to-printer results are so good that most people will only need to use photo editing programs to recover badly exposed pictures. We printed an A4 photograph on Canon’s best paper, Photo Paper Pro, direct from the camera and it would be hard to better the results with Photoshop fiddling. The pictures are sharp and accurately coloured.
The iP8500 also prints directly onto CD/DVD labels, using a supplementary disc tray. The Canon software is intuitive and we did not need to refer to the manual except for the action of putting the tray into the printer. Results were good, printing onto the sample TDK CD provided with the printer.
Like this: The iP8500 produces borderless prints that match photolab quality. We are still amazed at what a $600 printer can do. But …
Dislike that: Eight ink cartridges produce excellent picture quality, but at what a cost! Each cartridge costs $25 to replace and their ink capacity is miniscule. We didn’t run a page per cartidge test, but assuming that it is not different from the Canon i9100 the ink will run out faster than most people would like. There is no excuse for printer manufacturers to use such small cartridges in a moving print head. There are other, more economical, ways of storing and distributing ink.
Parting shot: The PIXMA comes with software for duplex (double-sided) printing, photo album creation, photo improvement (removing red eye and smoothing skin) and panorama stitching as well as for creating CD/DVD labels. Highly recommended.
*
Posted by terry at 09:59 PM | Comments (2)
[ PANTONE Monitor calibrator ]
PANTONE COLORPLUS Monitor calibrator
Price: $240
Rating: 3 stars
The goods: There is one big drawback with digital photography and that is the number of variables in the process that the serious photographer must get under control.
The camera sees one thing, the monitor shows another and the printer produces something else altogether. It can be a nightmare trying to get all devises agreeing on what the picture should look like.
Most monitors, straight out of the box, are not properly adjusted for photographic editing. Adobe Photoshop automatically installs an application for adjusting the monitor -- it is called Adobe Gamma and once it is installed runs in the background. Adjusting Adobe Gamma to optimise a monitor requires making several subjective judgements about what is black, what is mid grey and which colour blocks match. It is a process that leaves most people uneasy.
Pantone promises to take some of the guesswork out of monitor adjustment with a range of devices that read generated colours and greys directly from the screen and adjust the monitor profile automatically. The most economical of these devices (relatively speaking) is the Pantone Colorvision Colorplus.
The user sets the black and white levels of the monitor, attaches the sensor to the screen with three suction cups, runs the software and the device cycles through red, green, blue, black, white and grey patches on-screen, reads them, analyses them and creates a monitor profile. The sensor connects to the computer via a USB connection and takes its power through that link.
Like this: Having a machine measure light and colour rather than making difficult, subjective choices on-screen gives a user more confidence in the outcome.
Dislike that: Getting the black level right requires some fiddling with contrast and brightness and making subjective judgements about the results. dpexpert found it hard to get a black black without cheating on the adjustments.
Parting shot: The high cost of the Pantone calibration device will be a deterrent for most people. It may be possible for a group to buy a unit jointly as there is no activation required but the registration of the essential software may prove a problem.
*
Posted by terry at 09:50 PM | Comments (0)
[ REVIEW — Pentax *istDS ]
PENTAX *istDS Digital single lens reflex camera
PENTAX DA 16~45mm f4 lens
Price: Camera $1330 Lens $640
Rating: 4.5 stars
The low-down: The Pentax *istDS is, in theory, a cut down version of the *istD. In fact it is hard to see any omissions from the specifications of the new camera compared with the more expensive D.
Pentax has stuck with a small form and volume camera that sits well in the hand and is less cumbersome than its overweight competitors. The ergonomics of the camera are excellent and the viewfinder is large and bright. This is a pleasant camera to use.
One difference between the *istDS and its more expensive sibling is in image quality. Images are sharper from the new camera. Perhaps the softness inherent in the *istD images was a focussing problem that has been overcome. Whatever the reason the new camera produces pin-sharp photos straight from the camera. Auto focus is quick and accurate.
Exposure, white balance and dynamic range are all acceptable, although we encountered some exposure problems with high contrast subjects. There is spot metering, but even centring the spot on bright areas didn’t control blown-out highlights. This is not a major problem but it is as well to be aware of it.
Most of the sample photos were taken in RAW mode and came up well using the Photoshop RAW conversion plug in (free from Adobe). The RAW software supplied with the camera was not as good as the Adobe software which avoids double handling. Image quality is excellent
Like this: The Pentax has two rare features -- an easily accessible depth of field preview lever and a lock-up mirror. It is obvious that real photographers have had a part in the design.
Dislike that: The camera is supplied with single use batteries. Factor in the price of a set of four rechargeables and a charger. It also comes without a memory card.
Parting shot: Ted's is advertising the Pentax *istDS with Sigma 18–50mm and a set of batteries and charger for $1000. This is a good kit at an attractive price. Shop around.
Posted by terry at 09:36 PM | Comments (0)
A nice night's digital entertainment
WE SEEM TO HAVE MISPLACED the slide projector at dpexpert. But never mind. These days we have new technology to bore the pants off friends and family -- the automated slideshow on CD or DVD for showing on television.
Memories on TV and Nero VisionExpress2 create self-running slide shows and both work by assembling the digital images in a folder, adding a sound file in MP3 for the background music or effects, and dragging and dropping the pictures and sound into the authoring programs.
Once the pictures are added and sorted you choose the duration for them to stay on screen and a transition to get from one slide to the next, such as cross fade, zoom, dissolve and so on. All very simple, so why are the results so frequently disappointing?
The first thing to understand is the difference between slideshows on VCD (bad), SuperVCD (just all right) and DVD (brilliant). To make SVCD or DVD slideshows the authoring program must re-encode the images as MPEG2, the compression format used for DVD. Memories on TV comes in two versions, one with and one without an MPEG2 encoder. Buy the bundle.
The second thing to know is that letting the authoring program resize images will produce dreadful results. The pictures need to be resized in an image editing program to fit television dimensions. Our PAL system has screen dimensions of 576 pixels (lines) high and 720 pixels wide. Images should fit within those dimensions. A widescreen TV is 576 lines by 1024 pixels. These numbers set the maximum size for the image, but it is best to leave a margin for overscanning.
Next, there is a useful little-used feature in Photoshop. When a File/New is opened the dialogue box contains a drop down section labelled Preset. Click on the drop-down arrow and there are presets for both standard and widescreen PAL television format. Click on one and it brings up a new file template in the right dimensions, pixel shape, resolution and colour space for the TV system. Fill that New image with a background colour, pattern or image and then copy and paste the edited picture into that space and a slide has been created. Flatten the layers and save as a JPEG, PNG or TIFF file.
Because monitors and PCs have different pixel shapes Photoshop has a facility for displaying the correct aspect ratio but the image will look degraded with jagged edges. Don’t worry, it won’t look that way on the TV.
The TV is brighter and has a higher contrast than the computer monitor. When an image has been edited in a program like Photoshop so that it looks right on the monitor it will be too bright and contrasty for television. The gamma of a Mac monitor is closer to TV and the adjustment will not need to be so drastic, but for a PC the image needs major adjustment.
It saves money to use re-writable blank discs for the trial and error part of the process. As a starting point in Photoshop, (including Elements), open the Levels dialogue and adjust the slider under the histogram to the right until the centre Input level reads 0.8. This adjusts the image gamma closer to TV standards. It will look too dark on the monitor but it will look different on the telly. Apply this gamma correction to a few images, load them into the authoring program, create a show on a re-writable disc and check it on the TV.
Finally, a circle on the PC will not necessarily be a circle on the TV. It is likely to be an ellipse. To correct this the image needs to be stretched horizontally or subjects will look long and thin. dpexpert has found on two different TVs that about 10 per cent horizontal stretch results in a true circle. (In Photoshop go Edit/Transform/Scale and add 10 per cent in the horizontal insert box).
When the image is resized, gamma is reset and circles are corrected it is ready to drop into Nero or Memories on TV. These applications then step through menu creation, set slide transitions and durations and generate the MPEG2 file. Let the digital slide show begin.
Posted by terry at 07:08 PM | Comments (2)
[ REVIEW — Sony DSC-V3 ]
Price: $1099
Rating: 4.9 stars
The low-down: Sony’s Cyber-shot DSC-V3 is a 7.2 megapixel camera with a 4x optical Carl Zeiss zoom lens. It is Sony’s top-of-the-range viewfinder camera, competing with the similar Canon Powershot G6 and the slightly cheaper Olympus C7070.
The first impression of the Sony is of a rugged, well-designed and purposeful camera. Black is the proper colour for real cameras!
The V3 sits well in the hand, with a grip on the right hand side that helps in holding the camera. There is one small problem: the viewfinder is placed right alongside the grip and it is hard to keep a finger out of the view.
Controls are generally logical and well laid out, except for the image review which has to be activated by turning the mode dial on top of the camera. Most makers these days assign a discrete button to the review function.
Focus, white balance, resolution and colour are all excellent, with a tendency to saturate reds, which seems to be characteristic of Sony cameras. This renders complexions a tad ruddy, which might not be to everyone’s liking. Saturation can be turned down in the menu and it would be worth experimenting to see what richness of colour looks natural.
Shutter response is very fast. In fact there is little to distinguish this digital camera from a film camera in this respect. Auto focus is quick and there is practically no shutter lag.
Like this: This is an excellent camera for the serious photographer. The build quality and lens are outstanding. There is a flash shoe, which might be needed because the on-board flash is not powerful. The V3 takes both Sony Memory Stick and the cheaper Compact Flash memory.
Dislike that: Images at ISO400 are noticeably noisy (grainy). This seems to be the price to be paid for having 7 million photo receptors on a small area. It means that the ISO setting should normally be kept at 100/200.
Parting shot: The price of the Sony V3 has been reduced to match that of the Canon G6 and to be $100 more than the excellent Olympus C7070. So all three cameras are now competitive on price and the Sony is excellent value for money. Very highly recommended.
Posted by terry at 06:48 PM | Comments (2)
[ REVIEW — Canon S70 & G6 ]
CANON POWERSHOT S70 and G6 digital cameras
Price: S70 $999 G6 $1099
Rating: 4.5 stars
The low-down: The Canon Powershot S70 and G6 cameras are the 7 megapixel evolutions of the company’s top optical viewfinder cameras. Think of it as the already excellent S60 and G5 getting better.
There are improvements in the sensors (now 7mp), the ergonomics and lenses, which have been further refined for the special requirements of digital imaging.
The two cameras share internal processing components and their differences are external. The S70 is a compact camera that can just about fit in a pocket. The G6 is a bulkier unit with a faster lens (f2 compared with f2.8) and a longer zoom range. For some users the fact that the S70 lens is 28mm equivalent at its widest will be a deciding factor -- the G6 is 35mm. But at the other end of the range the S70 is 100mm and the G6 140mm.
Both of these cameras can produce pin-sharp prints up to A3+ from images captured at maximum resolution. They both use the cheaper Compact Flash memory cards, but Canon only supply 32mb cards with them which is more of a futile gesture than a useful feature. Factor in the cost of a 256mb card when considering the purchase. Big dicounts are being offered around town, so use the difference between RRP and discount to justify a bigger memory card.
The added features on the G6 are worth more than the $100 difference in price: external flash shoe, swivelling LCD monitor, remote control and viewfinder diopter adjustment.
Like this: Canon’s Digic in-camera processing renders images that are almost invariably sharp, well exposed and colour balanced. But if you don’t trust the automation there is complete manual override on both cameras. Canon says these are “enthusiast” cameras.
Dislike that: Picture noise is surprisingly noticeable at ISO 400. This, presumably, is the trade-off for the extra resolution of the 7 megapixel sensor.
Parting shot: The S70 and G6 provide top image quality for this type of camera. The next logical step up in Canon’s range is the EOS300D digital SLR. Both the S70 and G6 are highly recommended.
Posted by terry at 06:21 PM | Comments (0)
[ REVIEW — Pentax Optio 750Z ]
PENTAX Optio 750Z digital camera
Price: $995
Rating: 4.5 stars
The low-down: The Pentax Optio 750Z is a serious camera for the serious photographer. Not only does it have all the desirable features of good optical viewfinder and complete manual over-ride of all settings, it actually looks like a camera.
The retro styling of the 750Z will immediately appeal to any persons old enough to have cut their picture-taking teeth on classic German cameras. The front body even sports a faux leather insert around the lens and that in turn is surrounded by a thin chrome strip. It looks superb and signals that this is a real camera and not a gadget.
The control layout is exceptionally good with every important function (except ISO settings) accessible without going into menus. The “front lever” on the mode knob is really clever -- in capture mode it gives immediate control over exposure compensation.
The 7 megapixel sensor and the 37~187mm (film equivalent) zoom lens combine with good auto white balance to give photos that are sharp, detailed, accurately coloured and beautifully exposed.
Macro mode is particularly good on the 750Z.
Like this: The optical viewfinder has dioptre adjustment for spectacle wearers. Metering and focussing modes are user-selectable. The camera has a bulk and heft that make it feel just right in the hand. It also has a swivelling LCD screen.
Dislike that: It is quibbling, but a camera of this quality should come with RAW capture mode. Still, the TIFF format gives outstanding image quality.
Parting shot: The Optio 750Z takes 3D photos -- sort of. The subject has to be static. It’s a bit of fun but not terribly useful. However, this is a highly recommended camera. It is comparable with the excellent Canon G6 which costs $200 more. And the Pentax wins the beauty competition hands down.
*
Posted by terry at 06:15 PM | Comments (0)
[ REVIEW — Nikon Coolpix 5900 ]
Nikon Coolpix 5900
Price: $600
Rating: 4.5
The low-down: Nikon has just released a pair of cameras in the superior point-and-shoot category, the Coolpix 5900 and the Coolpix 7900. The two cameras are identical except for the pixel count -- the 7900 has a 7 megapixel sensor and the 5900 has 5. The extra pixels cost another $200.
The Chinese-made Coolpix 5900 as tested came with a silver body (blue is an option), a 38–114mm film equivalent optical zoom lens, a 50mm LCD screen and a tiny, but useable, optical viewfinder.
There are no user controls over shutter speed and aperture, although the scene selector provides a pseudo control. ISO speeds are set through the menu and picture review, exposure compensation, flash mode and macro are all easily accessible from buttons on the back of the camera.
The Coolpix 5900 is pretty and small, just on the edge of being too small to be useable. This is not a camera for people with pudgy fingers.
In use the camera is exceptionally capable. Focus is quick and accurate. Colour is always spot on using automatic white balance. There is a tendency to over-exposure, which is easily corrected using the exposure compensation button. Macro mode is especially good. All in all this is one of the best point and shoot cameras to come dpexpert's way.
The 5900 has Nikon’s new Face Priority Auto-focus function, which involves a complicated set of steps through the menu to choose the placement of the subject, by which time it has disappeared over the horizon. Face Priority Auto-focus is a gimmick which adds nothing to a basically fine camera.
Like this: The Coolpix 5900 comes with a tiny rechargeable battery that has a capacity for 270 shots -- that is according to Nikon. Imaging didn’t take that many test pictures.
Dislike that: The lack of control over shutter speed and aperture.
Parting shot: Why pay the extra $200 for the Coolpix 7900, just to get the extra two megapixels on the sensor? Up to A4 size the 5900 will do the job. At the standard 10 cm by 15 cm print size there will be no discernible difference between the two cameras. The 7900 will produce bigger prints but will show more picture noise at higher ISO speeds.
*
Posted by terry at 04:47 PM | Comments (0)
[ REVIEW — Fujifilm Finepix F810 ]
Fujifilm Finepix F810
Price: $800
Rating: 5 stars
The low-down: The Fujifilm FinePix F810 was a love at first sight experience for dpexpert. It sports an all-metal body of sensible dimensions, full manual over-ride if Auto insults the photographic intelligence, a reasonable optical viewfinder and a superb LCD screen. The essentials -- white balance, exposure and focus -- are exemplary. And, in addition to all that the F810 has a trick up its sleeve.
The F810 has been designed for a specific purpose -- to take photos for display on television screens. It has two selectable picture formats, 4:3 for standard TVs and 16:9 for widescreen. The aspect ratio for each type is set precisely by the camera -- 1024 pixels by 576 and multiples for widescreen and 756 by 576 for standard.
It is immediately obvious that this is not going to suit the photographer whose primary display intention is the print. Images will have to be severely cropped to fit standard paper sizes. But for those, like dpexpert, who turn a lot of images into TV slide shows on DVD using either Memories on TV or Nero, this camera is an excellent purpose-built tool.
Like this: The stunning resolution from the 6.3 megapixel (12 mp interpolated) sensor means that even with cropping big prints are still possible.
Dislike that: This is a quibble, but it wouldn’t be too hard for Fuji to incorporate a third picture format in its selection to match the aspect ratio of A4 and A3 paper. And the bundled 16mb XD memory card is a joke.
Parting shot: The F810 is the ideal camera for the traveller. Think of it as a sort of still equivalent of the digital video camera. The camera can, of course, be held vertically but that defeats the intention of the design. If the F810 were to be carried as a supplementary camera to a digital SLR, for instance, it would be a boon. The neighbours may not care for the endless hours of gorgeous widescreen slides on the telly, but Marco Polo would have been tickled pink.
Why 5 stars? Because as the realisation of a design concept the F810 is as near perfect as can reasonably be expected.
Posted by terry at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)
[ REVIEW — Canon EOS 350D/Digital Rebel XT ]
CANON EOS 350D digital single lens reflex camera
CANON EFS 17-85 IS USM zoom lens f4-5.6
Price: Camera [with 18-55 kit lens] $1900
EFS 17-85 lens: $1100
Rating: Camera 4.5 stars Lens 5 stars
The low-down: The Canon EOS 350D is the successor to the 300D, the first digital single lens reflex to break the $2000 barrier. The 350D has an 8 megapixel sensor compared with 6 on the 300D. The new camera is also lighter and smaller.
The EOS 350D has the Canon characteristic of being useable at ISO1600 without being troubled by the picture noise. It is possible to take photos in low light without using a flash
The reduction in size and weight is commendable and results in a camera that fits well in the hand and still has all controls sensibly sized and spaced around the body. Operation of the Canon is as near to intuitive as a complex piece of equipment is likely to be.
The lens that Canon supplied for testing is not the usual kit lens but one of their superb image stabilised USM lenses. This lens focuses quickly and silently and the image stabiliser makes hand holding an acceptable option even at relatively slow shutter speeds. Contrast and colour are exemplary. The bad news is that it is so much better than the kit lens but will add $1100 to the price of entry.
Canon’s Digic processing, as always, delivers well exposed, correctly coloured images and the extra pixels add just a whisker to the image resolution -- but not 33 per cent more as you might think.
Like this: The Canon EOS350D has a lock-up mirror, a boon for long exposures and a facility that the competing Nikon D70 doesn’t have.
Dislike that: There are two small issues with the 350D. Canon has retained the plastic body material [in silver or black] from the 300D and it looks and feels flimsy. And there is still no spot metering.
Parting shot: For anyone with a collection of Canon lenses the issue is pretty clear cut -- this is a perfect reason to cross from film to digital. Those contemplating digital without any lenses in the bag still have to choose between a number of cameras and in particular between the Canon 350D and the Nikon D70. Nikon has a replacement for the D70 due for release in the next few weeks. No doubt it will raise the bar even higher.
MacWorld reviews the Canon EOS350D/Canon Digital Rebel XT
Let'sGoDigital reviews the Canon EOS 350D
Steve's Digicams reviews the Canon Digital Rebel XT
DP Review gives it 4.5 stars.
CNET has a brief video of the Canon Digital Rebel XT.
Posted by terry at 04:28 PM | Comments (3)
[ THE ULTIMATE PHOTO ALBUM ]
Create your own coffee table book
WITH EVERY NEW TECHNOLOGY comes a new business opportunity, and Geoff Hunt, onetime content manager for Ozemail broadband, has grasped the opportunity presented by digital photography.
With digital camera in hand the country is now awash with wannabe Max Dupains with hard drives full of pictorial masterpieces just begging to be turned into a lavish coffee table book. But where to find a publisher?
Enter Momento, the company that turns you into the layout artist and takes over the printing for you. If you want a one-off book in either A4 or A5, of any number of pages from 10 to 50 then Geoff’s your man.
The key to Momento is its free software. The digital images are loaded into the Momento application and then dragged onto the page where they are laid out using a look-and-click layout tool, which the company calls the ACE -- Aesthetic Composition Engine -- that spaces the images evenly on the page. A text tool is used to create body text or captions. The cover design and dust jacket are also handled by the intuitive software.
When the pages are laid out and the cover created the book is output as a PDF for instant proofing. If it looks good the Master Book File is created to send to Momento on CD. It is remarkably simple and free of drama and is a piece of software entirely developed in Australia. It is a Windows application, which means that Mac users must have Virtual PC installed in order to use it.
Once the layout is complete the book is saved to disc and sent to Momento in Sydney. The book is prepared for printing and sent out to be turned into pages on heavy satin finish paper. The cover dust jacket is laminated for protection from fingers, stains and UV light.
The price is approximately $80 plus 80 cents a printed page for A5 -- and in that size two copies must be ordered. In A4 the price is $105 plus $1 a page. A 45 page book costs $150. It takes 21 days from the receipt of the book file to delivery of the finished product. And there are discounts for quantities.
The quality of the product is superb, always assuming that the pictures are good. Geoff Hunt says that the company doesn’t presume to judge the quality of the images, so poor quality images will result in poor quality printed pages.
It’s not hard to see plenty of uses for the Momento service. Tim Clayton, a sports photographer with the Sydney Morning Herald, says: "The Momento service and software is a fantastic innovation for the professional photographer. We can now present our portfolios, photo essays and bodies of work in quality book form and it opens up the possibility of producing small print runs of books which would be otherwise impossible through normal publishing houses. The fact that you also have total control over the design and layout of your own book makes this simply brilliant.”
For the less ambitious there is always the creation of the permanent record of the special occasion to justify the cost of a Momento book. The family photo collection can be scanned into digital form and turned into a book for Grandpa’s 90th birthday. It beats handing the shoe box of snaps around at the party.
The printing is by a digital offset process and the images are guaranteed to last for 50 years under normal conditions. The paper, which comes from Norway, is made from plantation timber and by a chlorine free process.
The Momento service is illustrated on the company web site. There is a sample Mother’s Day book that opens and turns pages with a mouse click. A new version of the software will be released in two months time with inbuilt auto-correction for images that are not well exposed or accurately coloured.
Posted by terry at 04:23 PM | Comments (2)
We're old hat, already
Looks like DPExpert has climbed on board the digital camera locomotive at precisely the moment it's starting to run out of steam. According to research firm IDC, the market has reached maturity long before anyone thought it would, and the growth rates are about to slow.
"Digital cameras won't become as ubiquitous as film because manufacturers became obsessed with features instead of the unmet market," says Chris Chute, digital imaging analyst with IDC, in one of those quotes that we tend to file under "What The Hell Does This Mean?"
Mr Chute [what an apt name. We presume his nickname is "Down The"] is convinced that digital camera manufacturers have missed the opportunity to replace film cameras as the predominant method of taking photos, apparently because they thought customers wanted cameras with features, rather than ... umm, something else. Instead the market will be made up of "a more diverse range of devices with photo capturing abilities, such as cell phones and other combination devices".
If so, this may be because customers are hopelessly confused. IDC says the digital camera is still viewed as a PC peripheral. Like a printer, for instance, presumably because the most common method for downloading the images involved plugging the camera into a PC.
We have to wonder how accurate this is now, however, what with the development of technologies like PictBridge and Kodak's EasyShare system, to say nothing of digital photo labs which are doing an increasing amount of business.
On the other hand, the announcement of Nokia's new N90 camera, and Kodak's decision to sell mobile phones, indicates the digital photography market is becoming increasingly, umm, blurred.
The N90 looks interesting enough, with 2-megapixel resolution and Carl Zeiss lens, autofocus and 20x digital zoom [we suggest you don't bother with that], integrated flash, macro mode for sharp close-ups, and high-quality video capture with on-phone editing capabilities, but we can imagine a lot of situations in which it won't live up to Nokia's claim that it will deliver "high-quality images". Although that depends of course, on how one defines "high quality".
There's no doubting, however, that it's an ingenious little thing. There are two ergonomic modes for instant photo and video capture. You twist the rotating camera barrel, and it's ready to shoot. The cover display turns into a viewfinder (128 x 128 pixels), and there's a "dedicated capture key".
Unfold and twist the main display (352 x 416 pixels), and the Nokia N90 is ready to shoot "high-quality" video in MP4 format using the high-resolution (352 x 416 pixels) 262,144-color landscape display as a viewfinder. Dedicated record and zoom keys, including up to 8x digital zoom for video capture, allow "one-hand operation". We're tempted to say that expression might also describe this survey.
Posted by cw at 04:01 PM | Comments (0)
[ REVIEW — Fred Miranda's Resize Pro ]
Price: $30 US (download from www.fredmiranda.com)
Rating: 4 stars
The goods: Photoshop expert Fred Miranda has just released his image resizing plug-in for Adobe Photoshop, called Resize Pro and available in camera-specific versions. dpexpert tried the version for the Nikon D70 digital SLR.
Miranda’s older PS Action, called FMSI (for stair interpolation) was an automation of the routine for getting the best enlargements by increasing the image size in ten per cent increments rather than in a single hit. Resize Pro is a more complex and evolved realisation of the same objective. FMSI is still available.
dpexpert made a 500 per cent enlargement of a small section of an image using Photoshop single hit, Photoshop in ten percent increments, Genuine Fractals 3.0, the FM stair interpolation action and finally FM Resize Pro.
Choosing between the resulting enlargements is a very subjective exercise indeed. Photoshop single-hit is the least acceptable. Genuine Fractals and FMSI produce similar results, which gives the prize to Miranda’s action because it is cheaper (U$20) than GF (U$160). Comparing the output from ten percent increments in Photoshop and Resize Pro the difference that is noticeable is that Resize Pro produces a higher contrast image which makes for better definition of small details.
For downsizing images from camera output -- Nikon D70 images are 2000 by 3008 pixels at 300dpi -- to web-friendly measurements of 600 pixels high the Miranda Resize Pro is simply brilliant. First sharpen the image then set the numbers in the Resize Pro dialogue box and hit OK and bingo, an image perfect for the web or for emailing.
Like this: FM Resize Pro can be incorporated into a Photoshop action and applied as a batch and it is cheap for what it does.
Dislike that: Nothing much, except that metric measurement units cannot be set as default.
Parting shot: Do visit www.fredmiranda.com, register (free) and look at the gallery section. There are a lot of inspiring images.
Posted by terry at 01:38 PM | Comments (2)
[ REVIEW — RawShooter Essentials ]
RAWSHOOTER ESSENTIALS 2005 v1.1.2
Price: Free (download from www.pixmantec.com)
Rating: 5 stars
The goods: RawShooter Essentials is a RAW file converter that can handle the raw files from a number of popular digital single lens reflex cameras. It is an alternative to the conversion software supplied with the cameras and to free applications like the Photoshop raw plugin.
The RawShooter version for download is designated “trial” but there are no time limitations nor any pesky watermarks on the output files. The software is the product of the fledgling Danish company Pixmantec and is being integrated into Paintshop Pro by Corel.
Any owner of a digital SLR is advised to download RawShooter and try it. dpexpert compared it with the expensive Nikon Capture and also with the free Photoshop RAW add-on and we found the newcomer to be much faster than Nikon Capture and more sophisticated than Adobe’s add-on.
Converting RAW files is sometimes a matter of trial and error to get the best output to JPG or TIFF. RawShooter offers a high level of automation which sometimes produces excellent results and sometimes doesn’t. It’s easy enough to try and then revert to the pre-try condition of the image and then proceed with manual manipulation.
Whatever the algorithms are that the Pixmantec people have developed they seem to produce better output images more easily than in any other raw converter that we have tried. The “fill light” (akin to Photoshop “shadow/highlight”) which lights up shadow areas is brilliant.
Like this: The graphical user interface of RawShooter is gorgeous, intuitive and a pleasure to use. The 72 page instruction manual (pdf) is a masterpiece of clarity.
Dislike that: There is nothing to dislike about RawShooter unless you happen to be a Mac owner. This is PC only software.
Parting shot: Being of a suspicious turn of mind Imaging can’t help wondering if there is a catch in a commercial product that is perfect being given away. If there is a catch then we can’t see it.
*
Posted by terry at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)
[ REVIEW — Olympus E-300 digital SLR ]
Price: $1599
Rating: 4 stars
The low-down: The E-300 is the Olympus entry into the sub $2000 digital single lens reflex market. It uses the Four Thirds technology of the E-1 and increases the resolution of the sensor from 5 megapixels to 8.
The E-300 is a curious looking camera because the viewfinder mirror is hinged to swing horizontally, which means there is no prism bump on top of the body. This design re-think has not resulted in reduced bulk, it has merely redistributed the weight and volume. It is still a large and heavy camera compared with Olympus film SLRs. And sadly the E-300 doesn’t accept OM lenses.
The construction is reassuringly rugged and the controls are well placed and nicely damped. The kit lens focuses quickly and is sharp. It has a range of 14 to 45 mm which in film terms is 28 to 90. The Four Thirds system exactly doubles the focal length equivalent.
The Olympus E-300 has one killer feature -- like the E-1 it has an ultrasonic sensor cleaning function that shakes dust from the filter in front of the sensor when the camera is turned on and collects the debris on some sticky substance inside the camera. Anyone who has tried to clean a digital SLR low pass filter with a blower brush or expensive proprietary solutions will know just how valuable this feature is.
Exposure is generally acceptable but the auto white balance is erratic. It is easily fooled by commonplace situations, such as open shade. There are 13 different selectable white balance settings in the E-300 which is more confusing than useful. Reliable auto white balance in a digital camera is essential.
Like this: RAW images from the E-300 are exceptionally fine. The camera also captures in TIFF, but be warned, it takes nearly 20 seconds to write the 23mb TIFF file to the memory card.
Dislike that: The shooting information is displayed on the image view LCD rather than in a window of its own as with other DSLRs.
Parting shot: Other manufacturers are yet to embrace the Four Thirds system and until that happens there will be a shortage of third party, cheaper lenses. A few are beginning to appear but the Olympus Zuiko lenses remain the backbone of the system and they are excellent but ruinously expensive.
Sample photos from the Olympus E-300.
Posted by terry at 11:02 AM | Comments (0)