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January 31, 2006
[ ADOBE CAMERA RAW UPDATE ]
ADOBE has released the latest version of its free Camera RAW plugin for Photoshop.
ADOBE says of the new version:
Camera Raw 3.3 update
This new version of the Camera Raw plug-in replaces the original Camera Raw plug-in that was installed with Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 and Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 and 4.0 software.
Support for the following cameras has been added in this update.
• Canon EOS 5D
• Canon EOS 1D Mark II N
• Canon EOS 20Da
• Kodak EasyShare P850
• Kodak EasyShare P880
• Fujifilm FinePix E900
• Fujifilm FinePix S5200/5600
• Fujifilm FinePix S9000/9500
• Mamiya ZD
• Nikon D200
• Olympus E-500
• Olympus SP-310
• Olympus SP-350
• Olympus SP-500UZ
• Pentax *ist DS2
• Sony DSC-R1
The Camera RAW update is available for free download from the ADOBE web site.
Posted by terry at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)
January 17, 2006
[ THE DIGITAL CHRISTMAS TRADITION ]
At Casa dpexpert a tradition has developed over the years. Mrs dpexpert makes the pudding and Mr dpexpert takes the photos on Christmas day.
In the days of film the snapping was frugal -- film and processing cost money. We might fire off one or two 36 exposure films, have them processed, show the prints around once -- ho hum! -- and then put them in the famous shoe box.
Since no-cost digital came along we have been profligate in our shooting. For Christmas 2005 we were testing the wonderful Nikon D200 digital SLR, fitted with a 1 gb memory card, the Nikkor 18-200mm zoom and a Nikon SB600 Speedlight. Why stint ourselves? We took 400 pictures. The battery just coped but the memory card needed to be emptied every 107 shots.
From the 400 photos of pulling bon bons, wearing funny hats and giving and getting the “just what I want” presents we had to select about 100 for the DVD slide show. No more shoe box! These days everyone gets their very own copy of the Christmas epic.
Once the collection had been narrowed down to 100 we resized the images in Photoshop. Allowing for television over-scan and for the fact that not everyone has a widescreen TV we find that the best size is about 640 pixels by 420 at 72 dpi.
When all the images are resized, colour corrected and the brightness and contrast fixed then the gamma of all the slides needs to be reduced. A television is much brighter and of higher contrast than a computer monitor, so the brightness and contrast of the images must be reduced in the PC. The best way to establish the correct image brightness is by trial and error. Put a couple of images with various degrees of correction on a rewritable DVD and check them on the TV.
Photoshop File/New has a drop down list of Presets and two of these presets create new file templates for PAL television, standard and widescreen. We use a Photoshop action to Select an image, Copy, Close, open New/File/Preset/PAL 720x576, fill the background with black, Paste the image, centre it, Flatten Image and Save. It is harder to describe than it is to do.
We also amuse ourselves creating title, credit and end slides.
Once the slides are created we drop them into Memories on TV, add music, select image transition effects and delays and in “Burn” we select DVD, PAL and “Save to and then burn from file” and select a destination folder for the video file. This is important if the plan is to run off multiple copies.
Memories on TV is available for download at for US $50, complete with the MPEG2 rendering engine. There are other slideshow creation programs, including Nero that comes bundled with many DVD writers, that will do the job. The important thing to bear in mind is that the program must be able to convert still images to MPEG2 and burn to DVD. A CD, VCD or SVCD slideshow is a poor substitute.
We rip the music for the show using the free ripper Audiograbber and we use Audacity to edit the music so that it plays seamlessly for 10 minutes.
It all helps to fill in the hot, slow days between Christmas and New Year.
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MORE DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS FOR CREATING DIGITAL SLIDE SHOWS ARE IN THIS PDF >
Posted by terry at 08:16 AM | Comments (4)
[ REVIEW — NIKON D200 digital SLR ]
PRICE: Body only $2900 with Nikkor 18–200 zoom lens $4000
RATING: 5 stars
THE LOWDOWN: The Nikon D200 digital single lens reflex replaces the D100. The D200 has a 10.2 megapixel sensor and stands between the D70s and Nikon’s professional range. The camera accepts Nikon mount auto-focus lenses of most types.
The image stabilised zoom lens supplied with the test camera is fast and accurate in focusing and has good contrast and resolution, matched well to the high resolution sensor.
The high resolution LCD review screen is larger than that on the D70/D100 and comes with a clear plastic protector similar to the D70, something that other makers should emulate.
The viewfinder is large and bright with virtually all shooting information clearly displayed at the bottom of the screen. Naturally there is dioptre adjustment for spectacle wearers.
All controls are logical and intuitive and will fall easily to hand for anyone familiar with the D100 or D70. The action of controls is reassuringly solid if not as silky-smooth as the Canon 5D. Overall the D200 is not as well-damped in its mechanical actions as the Canon, but then there is a $2600 difference in price. The D200 mirror and shutter slap is too loud.
Menu layout is excellent but be warned, the user’s manual is essential to find the way through the plethora of settings and combinations. The manual, as we have come to expect from Nikon, is a model of clarity and comprehensiveness.
LIKE THIS: The combination of high resolution sensor and exemplary in-camera image processing delivers photographs of exceptional detail and wide dynamic range. The ability of the D200 to preserve detail in shadows without producing blown highlights is impressive.
The D200 also manages to avoid colour bleed which can be a problem in digital cameras where areas of red or yellow lose detail.
Skin texture and tone are the best we have seen from any digital camera. Portraits, whether of porcelain-complexion children or character-filled old men, are stunning.
DISLIKE THAT: The D200 is heavy and the two buttons for Function and Mirror Lockup are squeezed into the small space between the grip and the lens mount where they are susceptible to accidental pressing. Suddenly the auto-focus point shifts to some inappropriate spot on the dial and you don’t know why.
Auto white balance is easily fooled but setting a manual white balance is a simple procedure and well worth doing in tricky situations.
PARTING SHOT: The Nikon D200 rates 5 stars because it does perfectly all that it promises. For any serious photographer with Nikkor lenses the choice of the D200 is easy -- if you can afford it. Imaging has taken over 1000 photographs with this camera and it has produced consistently excellent results. Very highly recommended.
[See sample images from the Nikon D200 in the Gallery]
Posted by terry at 08:03 AM | Comments (1)
January 13, 2006
[ TIME photography blog of 2005 ]
TIME Magazine ranks the "50 Coolest Blogs of 2005"...
...and gives the photography blog gong to Chromasia
The TIME citation reads: "Instead of text, each daily post is a single (beautiful) photograph taken by amateur enthusiast David J. Nightingale of Blackpool, England. Tiny arrows at the top left-hand corner of the page allow you to view other images; to scan Nightingale's entire online portfolio (some 543 images to date), click on Thumbs. The Archives section offers a detailed description of each image, including how it was shot (which camera, type of lens, shutter speed, etc.). The Snowsuit Effort is also excellent; featuring close-ups of the individuals photoblogger Ryan Keberly meets on the streets of Detroit and the things they say. For a Top 100 list of photoblogs and a directory organized by country and language, visit Photoblogs.org.
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Posted by terry at 04:52 PM | Comments (0)
[ KODAK changes its logo ]
IN A MOVE THAT HAS SHOCKED many people KODAK has announced a change to its trademark. The red on yellow Kodak name and the distinctive font has made Kodak one of the most recognisable brands in the world. What point can there be in changing such a well-known brand image?
Kodak's explanation is: "The brand logo is one of many changes consistent with Kodak’s broader brand transformation activities. Everything about the digital Kodak is different, including marketing and PR implementation. The digital world moves fast and the new brand logo offers more utility and ubiquity in a style that is simple, fresh and modern.
"Whilst having its history rooted in innovation in photography, Kodak’s overall objective is to signal substantial change through the combined efforts of products, product design, advertising, public relations and brand identity."
SEE THE NEXT PAGE FOR THE EVOLUTION OF THE KODAK LOGO OVER THE PAST 100 YEARS.
Posted by terry at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2006
[ NIKON leaving film behind...]
NIKON UK announced yesterday [11 Jan 06] that the transition from film to digital is all but complete for the company...
"As the film camera market shrinks and the popularity of compact digital cameras increases, demand for products that offer advanced features and extra value is continuing to grow. High performance digital SLR cameras are performing well as users shift from film-based SLR cameras or upgrade from compact digital cameras to digital SLR cameras.
"As a result of the new strategy Nikon will discontinue production of all lenses for large format cameras and enlarging lenses with sales of these products ceasing as soon as they run out of stock. This also applies to most of our film camera bodies, interchangeable manual focus lenses and related accessories. Although Nikon anticipates that the products will still be in retail distribution up to Summer 2006"
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Posted by terry at 09:17 AM | Comments (0)
January 06, 2006
[ BARRY'S great adventure with the Canon S2 ]
BARRY CASTLE writes to tell us of his great adventure with the CANON S2IS... We recount some of his experiences here as a sort of cautionary tale.
My wife and I have just finished a caravanning holiday around Australia.
Before we left we bought a new Canon S2Is that dpexpert gave a great review on and each night we created a directory on the laptop and downloaded all of our photos that we had taken each day as our travel diary. We now have a collection of 4700 photos taken over our 8 week trip. Our main theme for the pictures was to collect as many photos of the native wild flowers as possible.
But as you can guess when you most want the technology Murphy strikes! We get out of bed early to go see the dolphins at Monkey Mia. Yes the dolphins are there on the beach. Turn on the camera and the message comes up "No card in camera" . We had left the picture card in the slot in the laptop back in the caravan at Denham. But as luck was with me the old Kodak was under the seat in the car resulting in some great photos, although at 3 MP instead of 5 mp.
Another time I was caught we were in the caves at Narracoorte and the message came up " Change batteries" after just taking a couple of photos with the flash. Where are the spares? They were in the Other Half's hand bag buried in the van.
We took a charger that could work off the cigarette lighter in the car and found it worth its weight in gold for the cameras as the rechargeable batteries work best when fully exhausted.
In summary: The hardest things to photograph – birds.
Second – close ups of flowers as the camera was unsure if it was focusing on the flower or the plant it was growing on.
Barry Castle
[Barry: Try setting the auto focus area to centre spot or same as spot metering area. If the camera is left to decide what should be in focus it will always focus on the closest object which is not necessarily what you want.]
Posted by terry at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)
January 03, 2006
[ NIKON D200 sample images ]
THE FIRST SELECTION OF D200 SAMPLE IMAGES is now on display in the Gallery.
All the photographs were taken with the supplied lens -- a Nikkor AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18~200mm f/3.5~5.6G IF-ED.
Where flash has been used it is the Nikon SB600 Speedlight.
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Posted by terry at 02:09 PM | Comments (1)
January 02, 2006
[ THE NIKON D200 so far... ]
The NIKON D200 is a remarkable camera, no doubt about it.
The test unit is supplied with the Nikkor 18~200mm VR lens which is proving sharp and fast to focus. The image stabilisation works well, allowing hand-held shots at 200mm at shutter speeds as slow as 1/20 sec.
The D200 is a perfect fit for the Nikon SB600 Speedlight flash, producing correctly exposed images every time with excellent tonal rendition bouncing the flash off ceilings and walls.
The best way to demonstrate the resolution of the lens and sensor is with an image and a cropped section. In the Gallery there is a full frame of this picture...
...and a crop from a section of the image. The photograph was taken hand-held with all functions set to default and Mode set to Aperture priority. Metering was Spot. Here is the EXIF. Note the shutter speed!
Model - NIKON D200
Orientation - Top left
XResolution - 300
YResolution - 300
ResolutionUnit - Inch
Software - Ver.1.00
DateTime - 2005:12:23 11:09:09
ExposureTime - 1/10 seconds
FNumber - 11.00
ExposureProgram - Aperture priority
ISOSpeedRatings - 640
ExifVersion - 0221
DateTimeOriginal - 2005:12:23 11:09:09
ExposureBiasValue - 0.00
MaxApertureValue - F 5.66
MeteringMode - Spot
LightSource - Auto
Flash - Not fired
FocalLength - 200.00 mm
ISO Setting - 640
Color Mode - COLOR
Image Quality - FINE
White Balance - AUTO
Image Sharpening - AUTO
Focus Mode - AF-S
Flash Setting - NORMAL
Flash Mode -
White Balance Adjustment - 0
ISO 2 - 640
Tone Compensation - AUTO
Color Mode - MODE1
Light Type - NATURAL
Hue Adjustment - 0
Noise Reduction - OFF
Total pictures - 336
Optimization - NORMAL
SEE CROPPED SECTION ENLARGED HERE >>
Posted by terry at 05:39 PM | Comments (3)