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April 23, 2008
[REVIEW–PENTAX K20D DSLR & Pentax 18-55mm lens]
Price: $2000
A camera designed by photographers
The low-down: This is a 14 megapixel (CMOS) evolution from the K10D with many of the same features – sensor-shift image stabilisation, dust removal, rugged construction and good ergonomics. There are a number of body seals to keep out dust and moisture with the memory and battery compartments being locked securely. The body is rugged. Every essential function is accessible either from buttons or through the Function sub-menu, activated by a body button. The feature list is long and there are no gimmicks. Mirror lock-up, Adobe universal DNG for RAW capture, RAW accessible with an on-body switch, 5 step auto bracketing – these are features not found on more expensive cameras. There is a preview switch for checking depth of field, white balance and exposure without actually recording an image. The supplied Pentax lens is one of the better kit lenses, being well made and delivering sharp images without too much distortion.
Like: The quality of images is really quite remarkable. We used the camera to take a sequence of photos of a white cat. This is as hard as it gets for exposure and dynamic range. The Pentax produced images in which every hair is sharp and no detail is lost in the highlights. To say we are impressed is an understatement.
Dislike: The LCD review screen is poor. We found it difficult to judge the quality of an image in review mode, which led us to suspect that our white cat photos were all under exposed and soft in focus, which they were not. The screen is the Achilles’ heel of an otherwise fine camera.
Verdict: The Pentax K20D is an improvement on the already good K10D. The new 14mp CMOS sensor delivers finer resolution without any apparent increase in noise. Compared with the Nikon and Canon competition the Pentax feels a little rough and gritty. The body graphics and the menus are not as elegant, which may be the area where production costs have been kept low. But where it matters, in truly important and useful features, it is clear that this camera has been designed by photographers and not by the marketing department.
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[ SHINE THE LIGHT ]
PICTURE THIS. You are the marketing manager of a camera company with a new product to flog. It’s a modest digital compact which you want the camera reviewers and retailers to try. But you must make certain that they go away from the launch convinced that the new camera is the cat’s pyjamas and that the reviewer/retailer is the best photographer ever to clap an eye to a viewfinder. How do you do that?
It’s easy. You hire a bevy of beautiful models and a whole studio full of lights, skilfully placed by a professional lighting director. Throw in a few props, like a Porsche, a boat and a white dog and the selling job is done.
A pal says: “It’s really too easy, isn’t it? You can’t miss.” If the light is powerful, diffused and truly white, and the models are brilliantly coiffed and made up, you can’t help taking some half way decent shots, no matter how basic the camera. You just hope that no one will think too seriously about the fact that a customer buying a $400 camera is not going to be kitting herself out with thousands of dollars worth of lights.
However, the admired professional photographer may start with the expensive basics that make photography mechanically easy, but the priceless factor of imagination comes into play.
Joe McNally is a New York professional who takes photographs for Time, Sports Illustrated and National Geographic, amongst other famous publications. His new book “The moment it clicks” is distributed by Penguin (RRP $50). Joe is blessed with imagination and a huge bag of lighting devices that he lugs with him on assignment wherever he goes.
Very rarely Joe is content with natural light coming through a window or doorway, but more often he will position remotely triggered lights outside the window or door to create his own, controllable light source. You read his descriptions of elaborate lighting rigs and you think: “Might as well give up now!”
But Joe’s advice can be boiled down to fundamentals. He makes the point often that if the light is coming from the camera then the photo will be a dud. In other words on-camera flash is what he calls “disaster light”. He does include one photo in the book of Mike Tyson with his handlers shot in a dark corridor with nothing but disaster lighting to hand. The picture is interesting, but only because the subjects are interesting.
McNally’s says: “There is a logic to light. It’s gotta come from somewhere and something has to be making it.” The viewer needs to sense the light origin, even if it can’t be seen. One of his best photos is an unposed shot of the actor Jason Robards Jnr, sitting near a window in a restaurant, with the light apparently coming from outside, And he has a dramatic photo of a submariner checking a torpedo tube with a hand held torch – the light appears to be coming from the torch when it is, in fact, coming from a remotely triggered flash inside the tube. Very clever and atmospheric.
McNally’s book is all about light and nothing much else. After all, what is photo-graphy if not about writing with light? And for $50 we get the distilled essence of a seminar that we are told has a ticket price of US $795. A bargain.
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April 17, 2008
[ REVIEW–CANON Ixus 80is camera ]
Price: $380
Good compact camera
The low-down: This is an 8 megapixel camera with a 3x zoom (38-114mm focal length in film equivalent). The lens has effective optical image stabilisation. There is face recognition which works in most, but not all, situations. Many of the features will be familiar to anyone who has used a Canon compact – access to most controls is through the Function button, where there is a choice of Auto or Manual (which is really Program Priority and not true manual control. Menus are clear and there is a comprehensive user manual. There is a small optical viewfinder, bordering on too small, but useful on a bright afternoon. The attractive metal body comes in five different colours and Canon reckon that this “allows consumers to express their individuality”. Hmmm!
Like: The camera is, in fact, a camera, never mind the fashion accessory. And it takes decent pictures provided the ISO speed is kept to 200. Auto white balance copes well with most indoor lighting except strong incandescent. Focus is good and detail is acceptable. For its intended purpose – the informal, unposed snap, the Ixus works well. The flash is reasonably powerful and well diffused. The movie mode is good.
Dislike: The dynamic range is limited and highlights tend to blow out in contrasty scenes. You can use exposure compensation to underexpose but you can’t adjust the in-camera contrast. Selecting the Neutral colour mode helps a little and reduces colour saturation, which is a good thing.
Verdict: This camera comes out of the box set for fully automatic point and shoot. It is easy enough to change to the Manual mode to get control of the ISO speed ssetting, but perhaps most people won’t bother. As a point and shoot it is one of the best at this price. Its face area is slightly smaller than a credit card and it is 20mm thick, so it fits easily in a shirt pocket. Its winning feature is the optical viewfinder. Only Sony offer a compact with viewfinder at this price. If your aim is to share photos by Internet or to make 10 by 15cm prints then this camera is a winner.
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[ THE DIGITAL HOUSE-CLEAN ]
THE GREAT WINDOWS VISTA REINSTALL OF '08 continues at Chez Imaging. We look on it as a combination of spring cleaning and hard rubbish collection day. It’s an opportunity to get rid of all the accumulated applications with the mysterious names that now mean nothing to us. And it’s the time when we remind ourselves of what it is we can’t live without.
From time to time we have mentioned Memories on TV (www.codejam.com -- US$50 Home edition, US$90 Pro version, Windows only) as our preferred slideshow creator. In its latest incarnation the program will make high definition slide shows which are truly spectacular on an HD monitor or TV. Codejam has a short list of happy educational customers on the site and there are three Australian schools using it. We like it, so it definitely goes back onto the system.
Lumapix Fotofusion is another must reload application. (www.lumapix.com – PC only) It comes in three versions, Essentials (US $40) Enhanced (US $120) and Extreme (US $300). The only serious limitation of Essentials is that the maximum output print size is 30 by 30cm. Enhanced makes prints to A3+ size, and Extreme is only limited by the printer output.
Fotofusion is an automatic page layout program for making photo collages, albums, cards, books and calendars.
Collages are created by importing images into the workspace, choosing an output size and clicking on the auto-arrange button (there are two, one for a regular grid pattern and the other for a jumbled, casual look) and standing back and watching the miracle. In a trice the collage is created and at that point begins the process of moving, panning and resizing the individual images on the layout.
Photos in the collage can be with or without borders and drop shadows. The background colour and image are customisable. Even some minor photo editing can be done on individual frames. To transpose pictures is a simple drag and drop procedure.
Creation of albums, calendars and cards is conveniently based on templates, which you create yourself or use those supplied with the software. And here’s where the popularity of Fotofusion has its benefits – there is a world wide community of clever users creating templates for all seasons and occasions. Click on the Community tab on the main layout screen and you are connected to the international user group, click on the Galleries button and you have access to their template creations. Rick, who presumably comes from Adelaide, has produced a very nice card layout to gladden the heart of any Crows supporter.
The supplied album templates are elegant and when loaded already have sample photos in place to show what the finished product might look like. On-screen instructions for replacing pictures and text with your own are clear and simple.
We mainly use Fotofusion to create A3+ photo collages because there is nothing like a poster of pictures to remind a child of her day at the zoo or an adult of a trip to the lotus farm.
There is a trial version of Fotofusion which does everything the program is designed to do, but it produces an output image that is watermarked with the company logo, so it is useless except as a way of assessing how the application works. We tried it and loved it.
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April 10, 2008
[REVIEW–PANASONIC DMC-FX36 compact digital]
Price: $660
A little camera with a brilliant lens
The low-down: This is a 10 megapixel camera with a Leica-branded 25-100mm (film equivalent) lens. It is the latest version of the beautifully made FX pocket cameras. There is no optical viewfinder and the LCD screen is useless in bright sunlight. There is effective optical image stabilisation. Manual controls are limited and easily accessible. There is face recognition which doesn’t seem to work as reliably as in some cameras. A feature is made of iA – “intelligent automation”. In this mode the camera recognises scene types – faces, landscape, flowers etc – and also a shaky hand and moving subjects, and makes its own exposure calculations. Fortunately it can be turned off. In many situations the camera selects an ISO speed that is too high for clean results.
Like: The 25mm wide angle feature is a winner. We were astonished that the camera could take such wide angle shots with no barrel distortion at all. Expensive, dedicated wide angle lenses on SLRs don’t do as well. Combined with high resolution and clean images at ISO100, the results are impressive. Colour is good, if inclined to cold, which is not flattering in portraits.
Dislike: Above ISO 200 noise is a problem, and so is the in-camera noise reduction. We compared the FX-36 with the 6 megapixel FX-9 and the results are intriguing. The appearance of noise in the new camera is greatly reduced. Blue skies at ISO100, have no obvious mottling. But when we do a bit of pixel-peeping in 100% view it seems that the noise reduction has been achieved at the expense of some loss of detail. However, the average user won’t notice this, so perceptually noise is well handled.
Verdict: This camera is ideal for a European holiday. Avoid the iA and keep the ISO low and this is a good camera to take to Venice, Paris or Rome – or anywhere where the buildings are close together and gorgeous. Because the zoom range is a modest 4x the image quality is good from wide to its moderate telephoto. Bravo to Panasonic/Leica for daring to create a lens that looks pathetic in advertisements but works like a dream in real life. We like it!
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[ DOWN TO THE ESSENTIALS ]
DPEXPERT IS A SUCKER for every new applet that pops up on the Internet promising to make the digital photographer’s life easier and smarter. So, over time – and a short time at that – the hard drive clogs up with stuff we use once and then forget what it’s name even means.
So, here we are dealing with the post trauma cleanup of the Great Vista Reinstall of ’08 and wondering what we really can’t do without. And it is surprising how little must go back onto the drive.
It goes without saying that Adobe Photoshop in one of its forms is indispensable, but after that, what? Adobe Camera RAW goes on. Irfanview, of course – you can’t live without a fast image viewer for all formats. The Nikon and Canon RAW codecs for Vista that are needed to view thumbnails of NEF and CR2 files.
Then come two applications we have found we can’t live without – Photomatix Pro and Lumapix Fotofusion.
Photomatix Pro is for processing images with a high dynamic range without losing detail in blitzed out highlights or inky dark shadows. The process begins with a set of three or more exposures of a scene, usually taken with the camera’s auto bracketing set to one or two EV intervals. In other words one correct exposure, one under and one over exposed. The under exposed shot has the highlights restrained and detail preserved and the over exposed shot keeps the shadows open. Photomatix Pro exists to merge the three images into one and to provide a high degree of user control over how the contrast and colour balance are managed.
Photomatix Pro was released in version 3, after a 16 beta gestation, just as we were reloading the hard drive. It’s not cheap for an application that does only one thing (US $99, downloaded from www.hdrsoft.com -- PC and Mac) but we have tried all the alternatives, including that built into Photoshop CS3, and nothing does the job as well.
HDR processing is getting a bad name in some quarters because some of the output looks more like a hyper-realistic illustration than a photograph. We do almost all our processing in the Details Enhancer panel which produces realistic final images. The Tone Compressor panel is for the fantastic result.
You will have guessed that the success of the merge depends on starting with identical photos, except for exposure. So this is strictly tripod stuff, and with a remote release is even better. It’s worth the trouble because the results are magical.
There is a free trial version of Photomatix which produces watermarked images. And there is a brief tutorial on the HDRSoft web site. There is a better, more comprehensive tutorial at www.nwpphotoforum.com (click on Articles and scroll down to HDR Blend tutorial).
There are cheaper HDR processors, including the free Picturenaut, but the key to HDR processing quality is the ability to handle RAW files and to align them perfectly. Photomatix can even align images that are not quite identical – although we’re talking small margins here, not three shots taken from a moving car.
One word of warning. Once you start playing with Photomatix it is addictive. You can easily fritter away a good part of your life taking and processing high dynamic range photos, and what’s more the results will astonish your pals.
Next week: Essential application number two – Lumapix Fotofusion. Start saving!
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April 03, 2008
[ REVIEW—PENTAX K200D DSLR, Pentax 18-55mm lens ]
Price: $1200
Still keeps the others honest
The low-down: This is a 10 megapixel evolution from the K100D Super with many of the same features – sensor-shift image stabilisation, dust removal, rugged construction and good ergonomics. No essential features have been removed to keep price down. In fact there are a couple not seen on more expensive cameras, such as the brilliant mirror lock-up when using time delay; the RAW button that switches instantly from JPEG to RAW; the ability to save in Adobe’s universal RAW format, DNG; an image preview function. Pentax has kept the status LCD on the body top and uses a metal, rather than plastic, mount for the Pentax lens. Compatibility with legacy Pentax lenses and a selection of third party optics is a bonus, as is the frugal use of rechargeable AA Ni-MH batteries. There is a mirror rather than prism viewfinder, so it is a little small and dim but on a par with the competition. Memory is on SD cards.
Like: The combination of Pentax body and Pentax lens works well. The lens is well made, focuses quickly and reasonably quietly and has a useable manual focus ring. A little more friction would be better, but it is OK. Images are sharp. Saturation and contrast are too high, straight from the box, but that is easily corrected. Skin tones are particularly fine when these adjustments have been made.
Dislike: It is almost impossible to extract the SD card without dropping it! This is the most annoying card slot we have ever encountered.
Verdict: This really is a fine camera. Comparing it with more expensive Nikon and Canon 10mp DSLRs shows just how good the image quality is. The lens, unlike most of the competition, doesn’t feel cheap. Pentax are to be congratulated for keeping the zoom range realistic at 18-55mm – 27-83mm in film terms. The camera is responsive and is only compromised by very slow write-to-memory times. Using the Adobe universal DNG format as well as Pentax’s own PEF RAW format is a bonus. As we said about the K100D this camera would be highly recommended even if it cost more.
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[ WORLD WIDE TIME WASTER ]
The American journal for health professionals, mdng, gives its readers some advice on addictive web sites that are guaranteed to waste a lot of time. Some of the time wasters mentioned are sticky traps for photographers.
Flickr, the on-line photo gallery, and National Geographic are sure to help fritter away an hour or two looking at other people’s photos. But the really dangerous addiction is www.dpreview.com. Mdng is blunt in its warning: “…this site might turn you into a gadget junkie.”
In fact its worst feature is that it is “guaranteed to induce gear envy and chronic drooling in shutterbugs”, so “before visiting the site, tell yourself that these products are just for looking at, not for buying. Even better, hide your credit cards.”
London-based dpreview.com has been so successful that it has been bought by Amazon. This is where everyone in the know goes for reviews of the latest cameras and lenses. The testing procedures are exhaustive and objective, with a little subjective assessment thrown in at the conclusion.
The site also has very busy discussion forums, divided up according to camera type, where Sony owners can pour scorn on benighted Canon snappers who in turn have nothing but contempt for Nikonians.
Speaking of Nikonians – if you are one then you should bookmark the site www.nikonians.org Discussion forums on this site are divided according to Nikon model, and like the dpreview forums provide for visitors to display their pictures.
For Canon owners one of the most inspiring sites is www.fredmiranda.com While this is not exclusively for Canonians it is certainly biased in that direction because Fred himself, model turned photographer, is a Canon man. There are collections of superb photos on this site which set just about the highest standards for anyone daring to show their work. To see some great work by Sydney photographer “Sheila” go to fredmiranda.com/hosting and search for Sheila.
Fred is also a dab hand at creating Photoshop plug-ins and actions. These are low-cost automation routines for sharpening and enlarging images and for creating monochrome from colour. He also has a plug-in that gives images the appearance of Fuji Velvia film. We use them all.
When we want to check our subjective assessment of a lens against objective measurement of resolution, flare, chromatic aberrations and distortion we always go to the German site, www.photozone.de As well as conducting their own tests of lenses photozone maintains an owners’ database to which users of the gear contribute their assessments, which are then averaged to give a rating to various lens characteristics.
If what you’re looking for is basic information about current camera models and their specifications and sometimes also their retail price then look no further than the makers’ local web sites. Sony, Canon, Olympus, Fujifilm and Panasonic list prices on their sites. Nikon doesn’t give prices but, like all the others, it gives full specifications on screen and most also have downloadable pdfs. Just remember that the URL is always com.au – if you leave off the .au you will get the American or international site.
OK. Now start wasting time.
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