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December 31, 2009
SAMSUNG ST1000 Price: $550
SAMSUNG ST1000
Price: $550
Camera for the Facebook brigade
The low-down: This 12.2 megapixel camera has a 35–175mm (film equivalent) lens. The lens optical path folds inside the body so that it doesn’t extend for focus or zoom. All controls, except for zoom and review, are via the 9cm touch screen. The special features of the camera are inbuilt geo positioning to record shooting location, and Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Samsung’s DLNA connectivity. Construction quality is good and the camera has a reassuring mass in the hand. Memory is on the miniscule Micro SD card, as used in mobile phones. There is also a generous 100MB of internal memory. The battery is charged by connecting the camera to a power point through a USB connector.
Like: This camera is the second we have tried with Samsung’s excellent touch screen interface. This is intuitive, easy to access and to use. There is a touch qwerty keyboard for setting up internet connections and it is easy to use with a finger-tip. The Wi-Fi connection provides for direct upload of pictures to Picasa, Facebook and YouTube. It works brilliantly.
Dislike: There is no printed user manual, which for a camera like this is unforgiveable. Neither the Wi-Fi nor GPS setup is even mentioned in the “Quick start manual”. Too many pixels.
Verdict: The image quality from the ST1000 is par for this type of camera. It would be better with fewer pixels, but as it is it is not bad, particularly at low ISO speeds. However, we suspect that image quality will be a secondary consideration for customers. It is a party gadget with interesting whiz-bangery included. The built-in instant upload to Facebook will be a winner. That it does 720p video at 30fps is the icing on the party cake.
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Posted by terry at 07:31 AM | Comments (0)
[THESE CAME TO STAY]
You remember the chap who liked the electric razor so much that he bought the company? Well, we are not in a position to buy up the companies whose products take our fancy, but we do sometimes find it hard to part with the gear we are testing.
This year we flattered a few products by adding them to our equipment bag.
We particularly liked the little Samsung ST550 compact camera with the dinky LCD on the front of the camera. This is the camera that Narcissus would have owned because it makes self-portraiture so easy. However, it has a couple of other virtues.
For one thing it has a wonderfully large, high resolution LCD (on the back, where it belongs). Samsung do LCDs really well, and this one, so we are told, is a spin-off from their mobile phone technology. It is big, bright and altogether beautiful in its full 16:9 widescreen format.
Add to the super screen a touch interface that is intuitive and easy to use and you have a winning combination. Every control except for zoom and review is accessed via the touch screen. This is not unique to the Samsung, it’s just that they do it better than any similar cameras. The only thing we don’t care for is the infuriating micro SD card used for image storage, which we take to be an unfortunate by-product of the phone connection.
At the other end of the camera scale we added the Canon EOS 7D to the bag this year. Canon have upped the pixel count to 18 million, which is a lot for an APS-C sized sensor, but they have done it without creating any noise or dynamic range problems. So you get extraordinary resolution – better than many lenses can deliver – without any nasty by-products.
The 7D has replaced our esteemed EOS 40D which we were able to sell without much trouble.
We couldn’t resist the Olympus Pen E-P1 when it was released. This gorgeous little camera gives DSLR results in a compact(ish) body. And it will mount our Olympus Zuiko legacy lenses from our last film camera, via an adapter. Here’s a cliché – the E-P1 puts the fun back in photography! We bought one.
With four computers in the house in different rooms we needed a printer that connects to the wireless network and we bought the Kodak ESP7 all-in-one printer/scanner/copier. The thing we like about this device is that it uses Kodak’s paper recognition technology, reading the paper type from a code printed on the back of Kodak papers. It takes the tedium out of matching up the printing parameters in Photoshop with the printer. We don’t use it for serious photographic printing, but for mundane mono and for quick postcard size colour prints it is excellent.
And still we weep for those we had to send back but for which we would gladly have bought the company.
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Posted by terry at 07:29 AM | Comments (0)
December 24, 2009
[REVIEW—CANON PIXMA Pro9000 MkII]
Price: $1100
Great printer, takes up a lot of room
The low-down: This printer will make borderless photo prints up to A3+ on a variety of paper types and printable CD labels. Print resolution is 4800 x 2400 dpi from 2 picolitre print-head technology using eight Chromalife 100 ink cartridges. Print speed is about 83 seconds for an A3+ photo with border. The useful Easy-PhotoPrint Pro Version 2 Photoshop plug-in is included in the software, as is a copy of Photoshop Elements 6. Some cameras can be connected directly to the printer. The printer footprint is huge, due to the fact that certain types of art paper must be fed through the printer flat. This means that there must be enough room at the back of the unit to allow the paper to protrude almost its full length.
Like: The picture quality from the Pr09000 is excellent. Black and white prints on Canon’s best glossy paper are superb with rich blacks, free of any hint of colour cast. Sharpness and resolution are exemplary. We prefer a good dye ink printer like this to a pigment ink unit because of the smoother surface, even though we are aware that professionals seem to be as devoted to their pigment printers as they are to their Mac computers. While pigment inks are supposed to be more fade resistant than dyes these Chromalife inks close the gap.
Dislike: The demand for desktop real estate is going to be the deal breaker for many potential customers. We were thinking of replacing our venerable Pixma i9950 with the Pro9000 but we don’t know where we would put it. Of course you are not obliged to use the heavy art papers, in which case the printer only needs about 50cm of shelf depth.
Verdict: Highly recommended, if you have the space.
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Posted by terry at 07:31 AM | Comments (0)
[HOW MANY PRINTERS DOES A CHAP NEED?]
Speaking of printers, as we are today, (see the Canon Pixma Pro9000 review) prompts reflection on the number of printers that live Chez Imaging. The answer is four, if we don’t count the little-used portable printer that we have for when travelling with the notebook PC. OK, five altogether.
We have a Canon i9950 for serious photographic work. It prints up to A3+, which is 32.9X48.3 centimetres. It uses eight ink cartridges which cost about $18 each to replace.
The print quality is excellent. However, because it uses older technology inks the prints fade quickly. This means we are looking to upgrade to the Canon Pro9000MkII as soon as we have paid off Santa.
The i9950 prints onto blank CDs, but it doesn’t do anything else. Top quality photo printers are never all-in-one printer/scanner/copier/fax devices. They are built to do one thing and to do it perfectly. Canon, Epson and Hewlett Packard make the best affordable photo printers.
The high cost of running this printer means that it would be folly to use it for everyday document printing. So for the mundane jobs we have a Canon laser printer. These little fellows are as cheap as chips, typically costing around $130 including a limited capacity toner cartridge to get you started. Full capacity replacement cartridges usually cost more than the printer. Print cost per page is miniscule. Printing is fast and we set the laser as our default printer.
But wait, there’s more. Because we have four computers in different rooms in the house we need a wireless network printer, and for that we have the Kodak EPS7. This is a multi-function printer/scanner/copier but it doesn’t print onto CDs. It is reasonably economical to operate even when it is printing in colour. It uses Kodak’s multi-colour cartridge plus one black and the ink is pigment, which means that colour prints will last more or less forever. Paper handling leaves a little to be desired – getting borderless prints is tricky. But on the whole we are happy with the Kodak.
The winning trick of the ESP7 is that it uses Kodak’s paper type recognition system. Kodak papers have a code printed on the back which the printer reads and sets the correct parameters for any paper type. Well, any Kodak paper type. It recognises plain paper and defaults to its basic settings.
Then, for when we need a postcard size print quickly and without any futzing around in Photoshop looking for the correct settings we have a little Canon Selphy dye sublimation printer. This only prints 10X15cm prints and the colours are a little dull but the prints last a long time without fading. It is ideal for the quick postcard print job. Replacement dye roller and paper come together in a pack.
USB has to be the most brilliant digital innovation of all time. How else can we connect four printers to one computer?
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Posted by terry at 07:28 AM | Comments (0)
December 17, 2009
[REVIEW—ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 8]
Price: $175
Half great, half infuriating
The low-down: The latest incarnation of Photoshop Elements arrives almost exactly one year after the release of version 7. Some of the most significant changes are in the Organiser module, which is also the biggest disappointment. (See below) Owners of 7 will probably find little incentive to upgrade, but there are enough improvements over 6 to justify the price. Elements is a cut-down version of Photoshop that does just about everything most people will need for photo finishing. The only feature we really miss is the ability to record Actions (macros). Elements will play them but not record them.
Like: The Edit module is excellent, striking the right balance between automation and full user control. There is an overview of features at tinyurl.com/yhe2uqq with comparison charts for versions 7 and 6. Adobe Camera RAW can be set as the RAW conversion front end.
Dislike: We spent a day trying to make face recognition work. This is one of the vaunted new features and we could not get it to function. There is no instruction book and as Elements is a complex program it will be necessary to buy a third party manual. The design of the Organise module is poor. There is a Nobel prize for the first person to find the microscopic Edit/Find/View dropdown menu button.
Verdict: Photoshop Elements is the economical and viable alternative to the very expensive full Photoshop program. It’s a shame that Adobe spends so much money on creating a bewilderingly beautiful interface and not a cent on documentation. The on-line help system is no substitute for a printed manual. This means that the cost of a third party manual must be factored in to the price of the software.
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Posted by terry at 07:54 AM | Comments (0)
[THE DECISIVE YULETIDE MOMENT]
Now is the time to start planning for the Yuletide photo ops. Especially for capturing that moment when the little tacker’s face lights up when she discovers that Santa has come good on her wishes. And also the moment of rapture when she gets her first taste of the joys of materialism and conspicuous consumption.
The first rule of happy Christmas snapping is so obvious it hardly needs repeating, but just in case you’ve forgotten it is this: get down on their level. There is no missed opportunity as boring as a shot from above from which you miss the eyes completely. Get down on the floor, eyeball to eyeball.
The second rule is: do not use flash, except as a last resort. Flash from an onboard camera unit will always look flat and artificial and is almost guaranteed to produce red eye. So if you don’t want your little one looking like an extra in a vampire movie you should use available light.
However, available light is not without its problems. There is usually not much of it under the tree and what there is will be a funny colour needing some tweaking of the white balance to compensate for incandescent or fluorescent light.
We compensate for inadequate light by cranking up the ISO speed. With compact cameras there is a limit to how far we can go and ISO 400 is about it. Beyond that point the picture noise becomes intolerable and even the smoothest infant skin starts to look acne blitzed.
With a digital SLR the limits are higher. ISO 800 is good and up to ISO 1200 may be acceptable, depending on the camera.
One way to move the odds of capturing the magic moment in your favour is to set the camera to its burst mode. Most digital cameras will take rapid sequences of shots by holding the shutter release down and following the action. Compact cameras have modest burst rates of three or fewer frames per second but DSLRs can usually manage five frames per second in JPG mode. It’s well worth experimenting with the camera in burst mode before the big day to see what it can do. Just keep in mind that you probably can’t do bursts with flash and expect them to all be correctly exposed – the flash takes longer to recharge than the time between exposures.
This is not an occasion for getting people to watch the birdie. (Does anyone still say that?) What you need as a record of the festivities is a collection of people interacting with each other, not with the camera.
In this day and age of big flat screen TVs and instant gratification don’t miss the opportunity for instant playback. Most LCD TVs have a USB port into which to plug a USB memory stick. Some can play back movies from digital cameras. And most have video inputs for connecting the camera directly to the telly. ‘Tis the season for convergence!
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Posted by terry at 07:51 AM | Comments (0)
December 10, 2009
[REVIEW—CANON POWERSHOT S90]
Price: $800
Variation on an excellent theme
The low-down: This10 megapixel camera is a svelte variation on Canon’s top compact, the G11. The fast 28–105mm lens is image stabilised. File formats include RAW for serious shooters. There is the usual PTAM user controls over exposure and in addition some of these functions can be assigned to a ring around the lens. The 7.5cm medium resolution LCD doesn’t swivel like the G11’s, which is one feature that has been removed to diminish bulk and mass. Also gone are the optical viewfinder and the flash hot-shoe. The result is a camera with the same fine picture qualities as the G11 but able to fit easily in a pocket.
Like: Picture quality – exposure, sharpness, contrast, colour – from the S90 is outstanding for a compact. Like the G11 it now stands at the top of the heap for image quality from a small camera. Canon’s well-evolved ergonomics, which differ only slightly from earlier S models, are also class leading.
Dislike: We regret the passing of the optical viewfinder. Our S50 of seven years ago had one. For such a well conceived and made camera that appeals to serious photographers as an alternative to their DSLR the viewfinder is a loss.
Verdict: The big story here is that, as with the G11, Canon has created a greatly improved camera by reducing the pixel count. 10 megapixels gives excellent resolution while avoiding the worst noise problems that plague over-pixelled compacts. We were delighted with the camera’s performance at ISO200, and even at 400 the results are good. The G11 at $900 is our pick of the compacts, but the S90 at $800 will appeal to those who want the same pictures from less bulk.
Posted by terry at 08:24 AM | Comments (1)
[FORMER GLORY]
A pal popped around last week with an old, battered photograph of his mother. It was probably taken in 1938 and has been seriously maltreated in the intervening years. He wondered if it could be restored to anything like its former glory.
Well, it was a rainy day and we were stuck indoors so we might as well use the time creatively. We set to work on the picture, using the restorative features of Photoshop. (Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, PaintShop Pro and The Gimp all do the same things with some differences in labelling of the tools.)
The photo is badly creased and cracked and has someone’s lunch embedded in it. One corner has been ripped off, but fortunately it contained only background, so that is easily replaced. We scanned the picture at 300dpi for maximum detail.
We started in Photoshop with the Healing Brush tool (the Photoshop icon looks like a Bandaid). This tool can be set to different widths and different degrees of elliptical elongation. We reckon that about 87.5 per cent of the clean-up was done easily and quickly with the Healing Brush, just by dragging it along the creases.
It works by picking up colour and texture from adjacent pixels, which means you can only use it where there is a distinct line or splodge surrounded by undamaged image. With some quick strokes we removed most of the cracks. Our pal was most impressed!
Some battered areas didn’t lend themselves to the brush and for these we used the Clone Stamp. This tool picks up colour and texture from one part of the picture and stamps it down on another, so you look around for an undamaged bit that will cover a spot and, holding down the Alt key, pick up a sample and click it down on the spot to be repaired.
The Clone Stamp also fixed the missing corner of the picture. We made a rectangular selection of the entire photo, including the missing corner, and then used the Clone tool to pick up texture from the background and fill in the missing corner. Voila! We now have an almost perfect photo.
The photo was taken in a studio against a softly mottled background. Over the years quite a bit of additional mottling has taken place making the background look very nasty. Using the polygonal Lasso tool we selected the background, drawing carefully around the edges of the head. Then we feathered the selection by a few pixels and chose Filter/Noise/Dust &Scratches and set a radius of eight pixels and pressed OK. Suddenly the dirt and scratches were replaced with a nicely blurred background.
All in all we were pretty pleased with the result. And the pal went away with eight prints and a grateful word of appreciation. After he had gone we allowed ourselves a round of applause.
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Posted by terry at 08:14 AM | Comments (0)
December 03, 2009
[REVIEW—ADOBE LIGHTROOM 3 beta]
Price: Free from labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom3/
An amazing gift from Adobe
The low-down: Lightroom is a digital darkroom for post-camera tweaking of images. Every darkroom control is replicated here and some controls are added that we never enjoyed in the dark. As well as white balance, exposure and tonal controls that can be applied globally there is a set of brush-based tools that can apply changes locally. For instance the Skin Softening brush smooths skin and hides blemishes without softening important detail of eyes and hair. There is new and better noise reduction. Controlled conversions from colour to black and white include variable grain effects. Adobe Flash slideshows are a doddle to create. Conversion from RAW is done automatically when the image file is imported. The Develop module of the program has every control available in Photoshop. The only things that can’t be done are the graphic design functions that turn a photograph into an illustration of some sort.
Like: With this offer you get to try the best image manipulation software, normally costing about $500, free.
Dislike: There is a catch. This version expires on 30 April 2010. Still, that’s nearly five months in which to decide if it is worth the money to buy the release version.
Verdict: The release of Lightroom 3 beta is part of a trend by software companies to offer fully functioning versions of upcoming programs for public testing. Microsoft did it with Windows 7 – many of us are using the new OS free until it expires. Bibble has just put up a new version of its RAW converter under the same terms. The suffix “beta” worries some people, and these programs come with the warning that if something goes wrong don’t call us. But we have been using Lightroom 3 for a month without nasty shocks.
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Posted by terry at 08:27 AM | Comments (1)
[‘TIS THE SEASON TO BE CREATIVE]
It’s that time of year again when we must deck the cat and dog with undignified Santa hats and tinsel and take the photo that will be core of our Christmas cards. Once we have the photo we are ready to go to town on the additional graphics, for which we offer some tips.
For the additional baubles and stars, not to mention Wise Men, mangers and holly, the best place to start is by googling “Christmas clipart”. There is a wealth of free imagery on the interweb, some of which is suitable for using in a card to be printed – that is, the resolution and size are adequate for the purpose – and some which is only useful for web-based communications. The resolution for printing should be at least 200dpi.
Paintshop Pro has a tool called Picture Tube. Pulling the Tube across a graphic lays down a sequence of clipart images. There is a reasonable degree of control over how they are placed on the layer, and there is a Christmas tube included in the program installation. Also there are plenty more on the interweb – just google “Paintshop Pro picture tube Christmas”. There are also Christmas corners and frames for download.
Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and the Gimp use the brush tool for a similar effect. You may be under the impression that the brush tool makes either hard or fuzzy dots and that’s it. Well, not so. The brush can be used to lay down lines of pictures, sometimes coloured and sometimes monochrome. With the monochrome brush images the actual colour on the card is determined by the combined foreground and background colours set in the program.
Googling “Photoshop brushes Christmas” will take you to a useful selection of brushes that will put down trails of leaves, baubles, Santas, Madonnas or stars. There is a useful tutorial on card design using the Brush tool at tinyurl.com/yk5ssec
Don’t stop there. Look for fonts that have a special Christmas character, such as those from the Holiday Spot website. Most collections of fonts also include dingbats which are useful for inserting the occasional angel or mistletoe into the picture.
The big question in this day and age is card or email? Frankly we don’t think that email does the job. You can’t pin an email up on the wall to boast of how many friends you’ve got, can you? So it will always be cards for us.
The best paper we have found for printing Christmas cards is Ilford’s Galerie Smooth Heavyweight Matte paper. This is 200gsm paper, so it is about as thick as you can use in a conventional printer, and it is bright white and printable on both sides. It has a classy feel and appearance and comes in boxes of 50 in A4. One A4 sheet makes two cards that fit into 16X11.5cm envelopes.
Here is our piece de resistance in card making – use a pizza cutter to score the fold line. It makes folding easier and neater. Merry Christmas carding.
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Posted by terry at 08:24 AM | Comments (0)