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June 28, 2006
[ ZENFOLIO – an elegant photo sharing service ]
dpexpert LIVES BY THE BOWER BIRD PHILSOPHY -- if it’s bright and shiny we have to take it home to play with it. So when we stumbled across a web photo hosting service called Zenfolio and we saw some sample pages we had to have one.
Zenfolio is a newish service of this kind run from somewhere in California. It has a few stand-out features that make it irresistible, even though it costs real money to belong. The basic service is $25US a year and for that you get 1gb of storage space. Flickr, the Yahoo equivalent, is free, as is Zooomr which is promoting itself as the better Flickr. So Zenfolio has to offer something special to be worth the money. Other hosting-for-money services such as Smugmug and Pbase also have their devotees who can be pretty evangelical in defending their photo sharing service.
dpexpert has fallen in love with Zenfolio (but keep checking back, we are nothing if not fickle in our affections for this sort of thing). Although there is a 14 day free trial we had our credit card out within an hour of starting the tryout.
The first thing you notice is that Zenfolio looks elegant on the screen. There are a few different colour schemes and page layouts to choose from and they are all attractive. In fact they are the best layouts we have seen for this type of service.
The instant resizing of pictures from main display to the largest possible display is exceptionally good. And the slideshow is the best thought-out thing of its type.
When you create an account with Zenfolio you get a personalised URL for the home page of your Gallery. Ours is simply dpexpert.zenfolio.com. Send it to anyone you want to see your pictures and they have instant access to all your galleries and collections. If you’re the paranoid type who thinks that anyone seeing your picture on the Web is stealing your soul you can pay $40US and get a password locking system for your photos. That price also buys unlimited storage space.
Flickr, for which we still have affection, has one serious defect. If you use the Flickr “Invite your friends and family” link to send an email to a pal asking them to look at your photos they will be asked to sign up for Yahoo before they are admitted to Flickr. (This can be avoided by mailing the URL for your Flickr page directly, bypassing the Yahoo sign-up.)
If there’s one thing no one needs these days it is another user name and password. Who remembers these things? Even clicking the “remember me” box in the web browser won’t help when you are using a different computer and trying to remember whether this time you used your dog’s name or called yourself Ned Kelly or was that for Hotmail? Or perhaps Amazon? Who knows? Who can be bothered? At dpexpert we have ten user IDs stuck to the PC monitor and that is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
So three cheers for Zenfolio for not making casual visitors to the site jump through these annoying hoops.
Managing the Zenfolio site is a dream. Upload is straight forward. Editing is easy. So, is there a downside? Sadly there is. Zenfolio is not for the bandwidth-challenged. We tried looking at our gallery on a computer with a dial-up connection to Ozemail and we are still waiting. After several minutes not a single photo had appeared on the screen. Broadband is essential both for the Zenfolio user and for any visitors.
[Click here to go to the dpexpert sample site on Zenfolio]>
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Posted by terry at 06:00 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
[ OLYMPUS E-330 digital single lens reflex ]
Price: $1800
Rating: 3.5
The low-down: The Olympus E-330 DSLR is the first digital single lens reflex camera to have both a through-the-lens viewfinder and a “live” view on an LCD screen. The camera has a 7.5 megapixel sensor and uses the Olympus 4/3 system which presently is unique but will soon be joined by the first Panasonic SLR.
The 330 inherits the curious body shape of the 300 but adds the articulated LCD viewfinder which proved surprisingly useful for waist-level and overhead shooting. The trade-off is that the beam splitting to give both a viewfinder and LCD preview results in a seriously dim optical viewfinder.
Like this: The E-330 has a good on-camera flash. Illumination is even and natural even close up. Because the flash pops up high above the body red-eye is not usually a problem.
As we expect from Olympus the camera has a nice feel with all controls and mechanical actions nicely damped. Auto-focus is quick and precise. Controls are well laid out and intuitive in use, which is just as well as Olympus sticks to its cheapskate policy of not providing a printed instruction book.
The E-330 has the excellent Olympus ultra-sonic dust remover, something all DSLR cameras should have.
Dislike that: We subjected the E-330 to our usual image acid test -- our friendly rainbow lorikeets in the garden -- and we were surprised to see how badly the camera handles saturated reds. Colour bleeding in the red/orange areas on the birds’ chests was so bad that all feather definition was lost. We found a partial solution by turning down the in-camera saturation to its lowest setting. Default colours are absurdly over-saturated. Shooting RAW improves the image quality and the E-330 also records TIFF files which are very large and do not allow the same degree of post-camera manipulation as RAW does.
Parting shot: The joy of using a single lens reflex camera is in the through-the-lens previewing of the image. The bigger and brighter the viewfinder the better. So anyone considering the E-330 should take time to check the small, dark viewfinder to see if you can live with it. We would prefer the Olympus E-500, the cheaper and more conventional alternative. And compared with the Nikon D70s and Canon 350D the Olympus is an expensive camera.
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Posted by terry at 05:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 15, 2006
[ EPSON multimedia storage viewer P-4500 ]
Price: $1199
Rating: 4.5 stars
The low-down: The Epson P–4500 Multimedia Storage Viewer is best thought of as an alternative to a notebook computer for a travelling photographer who needs to empty camera memory cards every night.
The P-4500 is built around an 80 gigabyte hard drive and reads the contents of three types of memory card -- Secure Digital (SD), MultiMedia (MMC) and Compact Flash (CF). It doesn’t read Sony Memory Sticks or Olympus XD cards.
Image transfer from card to hard drive is lightning fast.
The P-4500 also stores and displays video files and can be used as an mp3 player. The well-heeled traveller can load the hard drive with movies to watch on the flight to Venice, delete them on arrival and replace them with camera images. Just about every conceivable image and sound format is supported, including RAW images from most cameras as well as the Adobe DNG universal RAW format.
The P-4500 can be connected to a TV for playback of all files.
Like this: The display on the 87mm TFT screen is superb. In fact it could be argued that it is too good because it has a tendency to make soft images look sharp. The screen has a 212dpi resolution and there is a zoom facility to enlarge the screen image to check for defects in the pictures.
Dislike that: The sound quality is not marvellous, sounding thin even through good portable headphones.
Parting shot: The Epson P-4500 multimedia storage viewer is expensive compared with a basic notebook computer but it offers considerable advantages of portability. It weighs 438 grams and is a little smaller than a fat paperback. It is rugged and beautifully made. The battery takes 3.5 hours to charge and Epson do not say anything about expected use time between charges. Our guess is that the P-4500 will perform better than the average notebook computer. We highly recommend the P-4500 to the affluent traveller as the best portable storage/viewer device we have seen.
Posted by terry at 05:26 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
[ SAVING THE PICTURE FOR POSTERITY ]
— OR AT LEAST FOR THE GRANDCHILDREN
The black curse of the 21st century has fallen on the house of dpexpert. We have a compact disc on which we have recorded pictures and documents -- the only copies, naturally -- that will not yield up its contents.
We have forked out real American dollars for software that promises to shake loose the information contained on any reluctant disc. Money wasted!
We have handed the disc over to experts who have laughed and promised to restore our files in a nonce, no worries mate! Nothing.
Which, let us tell you, sent a cold shiver down the dpexpert spine. We have image files stored on twenty-two CDs and one DVD and we are wondering just how long they will be accessible. We are pretty sure that our grandchildren won’t be looking through our disc albums in fifty years time, even in the unlikely event that they have access to an antique CD player.
How long will a home made CD or DVD last?
According to Herr Kurt Gerecke, IBM Deutschland’s expert on date storage, not long. Gerecke told the American magazine PC World that two years is about average for the life expectancy of a burned disc, and if you keep it in a dark cool place you might make it last for five. Not very reassuring.
Gerecke says that the burned disc has a short lifespan compared with a commercially pressed disc, which fits with our observation. We have compact discs bought from the shop on CD Day One in 1983 that are still perfect. On the other hand we have had DVDs give up the ghost in less than a year. So the bottom line is that optical discs look like a gamble.
Discs seem to be another of those consumables that obey the inexorable law of capitalism: You get what you pay for. The el-cheapo discs look attractive, but they won’t last. The more expensive brand name discs do better, but even paying that sort of money only buys five years.
The next big thing in optical writeable discs is Blue Ray, but even that must be seen as an interim medium between non-volatile memory on revolving discs and memory on solid state devices similar to camera memory cards or memory sticks. Samsung has announced a notebook computer with 32gb of flash memory and no rotating hard drive. That’s the future.
So perhaps all we need is five years of optical storage to tide us over.
If you’re both worried and serious then it might be worth looking into the Delkin eFilm Gold CD and DVD blanks. These discs promise a life expectancy of 100 years for the DVDs and 300 for the CDs. That should just about do the trick!
The longevity of these discs is attributed to the use of gold in the reflective layer of the disc, according to the Australian distributors, Baltronics. Gold is supposed to be impervious to the effects of temperature and humidity and therefore resistant to oxidation.
Given the impressive claims made for the Delkin discs they are not that expensive -- $1.72 for a single CD and $3.50 for a DVD. They are cheaper in bulk and more expensive with inkjet printable surface. They can be ordered from Photo Accessories, a Sydney supplier to commercial photographers.
Prints on paper are still the medium most likely to survive in the shoe box and be viewable by the grandchildren. Before investing in a photo inkjet printer it pays to check the Wilhelm Research web page (www.wilhelm-research.com) for the most recent longevity test results.
The superb Epson 2400 -- or any of the Epson rage that uses pigment inks (not dye inks) -- rates highly for life expectancy. Keep your Epson prints in an album or a box and, depending on the Epson paper used, the pictures will still be there in 200 years time and, in some cases, in 300.
Preliminary tests on the forthcoming Canon pigment ink printer show that colour prints will be in good order in 100 years time and monochrome prints even longer.
Pigment inks do not produce prints with the same resolution, colour range and snap as dye inks but the dye-based medium fades faster. Mind you, everything is relative. Canon claim that their brilliant dye-based ChromaLife100 inks used with certain of their papers will last 10 years “in air”, 30 years under glass and 100 years in archival conditions.
The moral of the story is that digital images might not be as ephemeral as once we feared.
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Posted by terry at 05:18 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
June 13, 2006
[ PHOTOGRAPHERS' RIGHTS IN NSW ]
dpexpert is grateful to visitor Paul for drawing our attention to this excellent summary of photographers' rights in New South Wales
This overview of the legal rights and restrictions for photographers probably applies to other states as well and is worth reading. Things are not yet as bad here as in some other countries -- notably in France where Henri Cartier Bresson would no longer be able to go out snapping the spontanetous "decisive moment". A couple of idiotic councils in NSW have tried to ban photography on beaches or parents photographing their own children at sporting events but in every case public outcry has restored common sense.
The bad news is that some places that lend themselves to interesting photographs, such as markets, can be off limits if the owners say they are. Although it is hard to imagine that the owners of the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne would be keen to ban photography while at the same time promoting the place as a tourist attraction.
Well, no one told me to cease and desist!
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Posted by terry at 07:51 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 08, 2006
[ SONY CYBERSHOT DSC-W100 ]
Price: $700
Rating: 5 stars
The low-down: The Sony Cybershot DSC-W100 is an 8.1 megapixel compact camera with 38–114 (film equivalent) Zeiss zoom lens. The Sony sensor has a larger area than most of its compact competitors which has some consequences for image quality. Generally speaking bigger is better.
The all-metal case is robust, attractive and well finished. The W100 is neither particularly light or small and all the better for it. And fitted into the snazzy body is an optical viewfinder which immediately moves the camera to the top of the preferred list.
The 6.2cm LCD screen is large, bright and high resolution. All controls are well laid out and intuitive to use. Sony have joined the mainstream by now providing a discrete button for image replay.
Colour is generally good but the auto white balance is easily fooled in open shade. Exposure and focus are fast and spot on.
The W100 is a responsive camera with no troublesome shutter lag.
Sony boast a top ISO speed of 1250 but they are claiming a little too much. Images at 1250 are noisy, particularly in shadow areas. But to Sony’s credit they haven’t tried to gild the lily with aggressive noise reduction at 1250. The output may be noisy but it is honest. And the 1250 is certainly useable in low light and is no grainer than fast film.
Like this: The Sony W100 stands on the borderline between an automatic point and shoot and a more sophisticated camera with greater user control. Because it combines ease of use with excellent images it is suitable for the novice who aspires to better things as the digital medium is mastered.
Dislike that: The Sony W100 has a small internal memory after which a memory card is needed and this camera only takes Sony’s own Memory Stick Duo Pro, the most expensive portable memory of all.
Parting shot: The Sony Cybershot DSC-W100 has a street price of about $600 which makes it an outstanding buy. Even with the high price of a Memory Stick it still represents excellent value. It is devoid of gimmicks and feels like a real camera, not an amusing electronic gadget. It lacks electronic image stabilisation but apart from that the Sony gets 5 stars because it perfectly fulfils its promised function.
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Posted by terry at 02:41 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
[ DVD PixPlay slideshow creator ]
Price: U$29.50
Rating: 4 stars
The low-down: DVD PixPlay slideshow creator is software that comes from New Zealand and offers an alternative to Memories on TV, the slideshow creation program we have recommended in the past.
DVD PixPlay can be bought online for U$29.50 and there is a trial version which is not crippled but which does put up a closing slide telling the world that the trial user is a cheapskate.
Memories on TV, in its latest version, costs U$50 and has a few more features than PixPlay -- for instance the so-called Ken Burns effects of panning and zooming. Most people will probably be well satisfied with the cheaper Kiwi alternative which can produce slide shows on VCD, SVCD and DVD in a number of different formats -- AVI, MPEG etc.
The PixPlay interface is clear and simple to use. Just select the images for the show from any folder or direct from a camera and arrange them in order. Video can also be imported into the show.
Add a title slide and music in MP3 form and, if you like, make the program match the duration of the slides to the length of the music. Choose transition effects from the 160 on offer and when it has been previewed and finished burn to disc.
Like this: DVD PixPlay is fast reacting software that can put a show together very quickly. It is also simple and intuitive to use. We like the fact that the trial version, which lasts for 45 days, works properly without any limits on file size or pesky text overlays on the pictures. 45 days is a generous trial time.
Dislike that: There is nothing to dislike. Discussion on the xequte website suggests that DVD PixPlay is a work in progress and that there will be constant improvements. There is a forum where users can swap information and make suggestions for new features.
Parting shot: DVD PixPlay is highly recommended for its sophisticated simplicity and excellent value for money. Keep in mind that, as with any similar program, the key to getting good results on the television is in the preparation of the slide images. Make them the correct size for the display TV and lower the contrast and brightness to better match the gamma of the television. Computer monitors and televisions are two different tools for image display and what looks right on one won’t look right on the other.
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Posted by terry at 02:28 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
June 04, 2006
[ PHOTOREVIEW Winter 2006 ]
PHOTOREVIEW Issue 28 for Winter 2006 is now on the news stands.
This issue includes test reviews of the Canon EOS D30 -- the Editor's Choice -- and the Olympus E330, the first DSLR with an LCD preview f8unction. There is also a test report on the Samsung GX-1S, the camera that is essentially a rebadged Pentax *istDL.
There is a fascinating glimpse by Steve Packer into the picture archives of the State Library of NSW which holds over one million historically important photographs that can be searched online.
PhotoReview web site lists the full contents of the current issue.
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