Better Digital Photography

Nikon D60

2009-09-29T15:28:00.001-04:00

Nikon D60
Originally uploaded by Rick Blythe.

The Nikon D60 SLR camera may not give you the timing that professional photographers do, but it is equipped with a feature that will help you to catch that perfect moment. The SLR camera will allow you to shoot continuously, for as much as three frames per second; thanks to its continuous frame shooting feature. No need to worry about poor lighting, because this camera is well equipped to shoot in the poorest lighting conditions, and still capture a well taken image. You are sure to get the best camera for your money, since this piece of equipment is made by a trusted name in cameras, Nikon, which has been at the top of the photography industry for years. Do not worry about dust damaging this camera. It is equipped with an anti-dust system, which eliminates dust. Best of all, the price is reasonable for the quality Nikon has to offer.

Say goodbye to amateur picture taking. Say goodbye to ordinary shots. Say hello to that elusive, perfect shot. The Nikon D60 SLR camera offers only picture perfect image capturing, which will not disappoint.

Nikon D3000 Review

2009-11-22T21:50:00.001-05:00

The Nikon D3000 is the replacement for the extremely popular Nikon D40, which for a little over two years has marked the entry point to the company's digital SLR lineup.

The Nikon D3000 features a new body with slightly more rounded shoulders and a larger 3.0-inch LCD panel on its rear face. The control layout is nearly identical to that of the D40, ensuring that owners of the previous camera will feel right at home.

By no means will this model blow away the seasoned photographer, however it does cover the basics and more. The Nikon D3000 is a serious contender for the 2009 Christmas season.

PhotoReview has a written review up here.

How to Photograph Christmas Lights

2006-12-15T12:44:00.001-05:00

Here's a good tutorial on how to get the best results in your photos of Christmas Lights. It's all about the balance, light balance that is-

"When we talk about balancing light around here, it usually means balancing ambient with flash. But getting a good photo of holiday lights involves a different kind of light balancing: Continuous ambient with fading ambient.

You don't need a high-end camera for great results. You can use a very inexpensive digital camera and do just fine. You don't even need flash. It all comes down to what time of the day you shoot. And a couple of other little tricks.

The problem with 98% of the photos of Christmas lights is that most people wait until way too late to start shooting. After it gets completely dark, you can either have the lights or the surroundings properly exposed. But not both.

Conversely, if you were to shoot the lights in the middle of the day, they would not show up at all. The trick is find the sweet spot (actually there is a whole range of sweet spots) where the ambient light and the Christmas lights balance."

Olympus C-315Z

2005-07-01T09:34:00.000-04:00

Announcing the Olympus C-315 Z. It was only February that Olympus announced the camera this one is replacing. Talk about short life-spans. The new Olympus C-315Z boasts the same special blend of design, performance, handling and affordability. It’s resolution has also been increased to 5.1 million pixels to provide exceptional picture quality but what won’t be changing is the camera’s great value for money.

Olympus C-315Z – main features:

* 5.1 million pixels
* 2.8x optical zoom (equiv. 38-106mm on a 35mm camera), 1:3.0-5.0
* Super Macro mode: shooting from as close as 2cm
* 5 scene programmes (Portrait, Self Portrait, Night Scene, Landscape, Landscape with Portrait)
* Movie recording function
* TruePic TURBO image processor
* PictBridge & ImageLink support
* 4.6cm/1.8” LCD with multi-language menu
* Olympus Master software for easy file handling and editing provided

The C-315Z is designed to make digital photography accessible and affordable for ambitious beginners. Its predecessor’s winning combination of ease-of-use and high-quality has now been crowned with the additional advantage of 5.1 million pixels, enabling large print-outs and detailed image cropping.

Available from the end of July, the Olympus C-315Z comes highly recommended for first-time digital camera buyers and all those who are budget conscious yet still demand high-quality results.

Sony Cybershot P200 Digital Camera Review

2005-06-29T08:27:00.000-04:00

The Sony P-200 packs 7 megapixels of resolution into an ultra compact body that slips easily into a pocket. Those looking for differences from the Sony P150 will immediately notice the larger 2" LCD screen on the back, which makes framing and reviewing pictures easier than ever. Also improved is the better battery life than its predecessor, noting that it can shoot up to 370 images on a single charge of its InfoLithium battery. As well as single-shot and burst mode, the P200 also has an unusual multi-burst mode, which can take a sequence of shots in very quick succession, with the interval variable to either 1/7.5th, 1/15th, or 1/30th of a second. It then displays the sequence as a slideshow on the monitor, or, you can make these into an animated gif for your website.

Sony Cybershot DSC-P200

Trusted Reviews, a UK based site, today posted their review of the Sony P-200 and seem to like it a lot. Here's a quote-

"Image quality is outstanding; I would judge it to be almost the equal of the Nikon 7900. The high quality Carl Zeiss lens produces excellent results with no visible lens distortion even at wide angle, and the Sony SuperHAD CCD sensor and Real Imaging processor produce bright vibrant colours with plenty of zoomable detail. Close-range flash performance is outstanding, producing a well-lit shot with no burned-out highlights even at a range of a couple of feet. Image noise is well controlled even at ISO 400, although there were some noticeable colour inconsistencies. There is some very slight purple fringing on very high-contrast edges, but it is virtually negligible and certainly much lower than some cameras with which the P200 is competing.

All in all, a very creditable performance, and outstanding value for money. If you’re looking to replace a mid-range compact digital camera with one that has more megapixels, especially if you already use Memory Sticks, then the P200 is just what you need.

In a crowded and highly competitive sector of the digital camera market the Sony P200 stands out as a very high quality camera for a comparatively low price. It has plenty of useful features, excellent build quality, good image quality and lightning-fast performance. If you’re considering a camera upgrade this year, you should certainly give it consideration."

Read the full-length Sony Cybershot P200 Digital Camera Review here.

Pentax Optio S45 S55 - Digital Camera Review at DigiCamReview.co.uk

2005-09-25T11:53:00.000-04:00

The PENTAX Optio S45 is a compact digital camera featuring 4.0 megapixels, an SMC Pentax Sliding Lens 3x optical zoom, an all-metal body, and a large 2.5 inch LCD monitor. With the large monitor that simplifies composition and playback, the Optio S45 is well suited to any user. There's no doubt the S45 is an attractive camera, and thanks to the sandblasted matt metal finish it will stay looking good for a long time. Pentax build quality has always been good and the S45 is certainly no exception. The Optio S45 will be available in limited distribution for under $230 US.

Pentax Optio S45

The Pentax Optio S55 is a compact camera that packs a 5 megapixel imager and a 3X optical zoom lens in a sleek aluminum design. It featuring a smc Pentax lens coupled with their Sliding Lens system that allows the lens to fully retract inside the camera when it is turned off. Equipped with PictBridge technology, the S55 connects directly to any PictBridge compatible printer so you can print images without the use of a personal computer.

Pentax Optio S55

DigiCamReview.co.uk have compared these two cameras and posted their Pentax Optio S45 S55 - Digital Camera Review.

"Image quality is good, the images have saturated colour, good contrast and good detail - however there is some purple fringing, and some images were quite soft. Images tend to come out of the camera looking very good. The camera did a good job focusing the majority of the time, only slightly struggling in low light. Noise was well controlled and low upto ISO200 but at ISO400 resulted in slight loss of detail. I did not notice vignetting in photos. There is a good range of image sizes and a good choice of compression options. The macro mode is good, allowing you to be as close as 6cm away from the subject, this provides good detail. Auto white balance and metering seemed to be very good, the custom white balance helping in trickier situations. Red-eye was noticable. The movie mode is good, but nothing spectacular, at 320 x 240 / 30fps with sound.
...
The Pentax Optio S45 and S55 are both good all round digital cameras - easy to fit into pockets, full of features to suit all level of photographer. The cameras take AA batteries, and have a metal body so would make a great travel camera. The easy to use camera is capable of good results, although there is some purple fringing and images are slightly soft. The super macro mode is good. Both cameras are very good value for money at around £110 for the S45, and £165 for the S55. I would recommend this camera to someone looking for a versatile, highly pocketable digital camera. If you were to choose between the two, my preference would be towards the 4 megapixel Optio S45 which will produce photos capable of being printed at upto A4 and offers excellent value for money - for slightly more detail then I'd recommend the Optio S55."

Generally, these cameras offer:

Good photo quality

Custom White Balance

Manual Focus

Excellent value for money fully featured compact digital cameras

Contrast / Saturation / Sharpness controls (this should be standard on all digital cameras!)

Audio recording (I'd like it if this was standard on all P&S digital cameras)

Takes AA batteries

Very compact

Low noise upto ISO200

The Canon 5D: Time For 35mm Film Photographers To Go Digital?

2005-09-20T17:35:00.000-04:00

By Jason Busch

There is still a large population of 35mm users shooting in the photographic world. With Canon's 5D announcement, the digital enticement is certainly going to be hard to resist. Will film users convert?

Full-Frame DSLR Now Within Reach

Originally, a DSLR would cost around $7,000 for a full-frame shooter. Canon's 1Ds series was the only choice and it was an expensive one. It was also extremely heavy. Try carrying around 3.5lbs (camera and battery) and a 3.5lb lens (the Canon 70-200 2.8L IS USM), and 7lbs begins to take its toll. Canon has gone an interesting route by creating a full-frame DSLR in a conveniently small package, basically the size of its 20D, for under $3,300. A battery grip has been offered (BG-E4), and it's nice to see Canon giving users a choice of what to use. Sometimes you just don't want to lug around an extra pound and a half, as well as making the camera conspicuous by its size. I can say from using a Nikon D100 in the past, it was very convenient to take off the battery grip and just shoot with the camera, making it lighter and more compact to take on particular outings.

35mm Film = How Many Pixels?

This is really a controverisial subject, and quite honestly, you will get a huge variance of answers, depending on how zealous a photographer is in defending his particular format. I've read articles over the past several years of photographers saying anywhere from 3MP to 30MP for a DSLR to equal 35mm film. As usual, the facts are in between somewhere. Let me just state a few experiences from my own use with film.

From my own experience in shooting film and digital (about 15 years), I've noticed that a 6MP DSLR can just about match a 35mm Film camera's resolution. Notice I say "just about" and I say "DSLR", not a compact camera or a DSLR-Type camera. The main reasons are the pixel size and dynamic range.

Crash Course On Pixels

I will be covering this subject in-depth in another article, but for the purposes of this one, smaller pixels inherently have more noise, and lower dynamic range (that's why your compact camera does terrible in low-light situations). Larger pixels inherently have less noise and more dynamic range. Basically put, larger pixels enable a much higher tolerance of light accumulation before they carry over into nearby pixels (resulting in Blooming, a very common issue with digital cameras). Think of pixels as a bucket (which is a common example most imaging professionals and photographers use). Some buckets can hold more water than other buckets. Canon's 6MP DSLRs and Nikon's 6MP DSLRs have just about reached the 35mm film equivalency. And in fact, I would just about say a 6MP digital image properly exposed, could match up to a film image. Overall, my observations are that a 6-8MP DSLR can match a film print. Canon's 12.8MP full-frame DSLR at 8-microns square, easily makes this target.

Canon: Alone In The Full-Frame World

So far, there is no other company offering a full-frame digital even close to the price of the Canon 5D. In fact, we don't have any other camera manufacturers at the date of this article, even mentioning a full-frame DSLR as a possible offering in the future. This is quite disturbing. Why? Well, it appears most camera manufacturers are concentrating on compact camera sales (these are the highest profit products), in addition to sending a message that full-frame DSLRs are not necessary to get high quality images.

It is a shame we don't see as much leadership in the imaging technology. But we sure see a lot of hype and empty promises. Whatever happened to Foveon? LBCAST? I remember when these two technologies were touted as new and revolutionary in the DSLR sector, and how users would expect such great images, putting all other cameras to shame. Well, the shame only really started to form, when the promises became biblical. Come to find out Foveon sensors could barely survive over ISO levels of 800 (which required a second generation DSLR to come out, leaving previous 1st gen owners in the dark and irritated...and a worthless investment), and Nikon's LBCAST sensors were just politely and purposely forgotten. And we have one manufacturer creating "honeycomb" pixels (I'll leave that to another discussion). From my viewpoint, we have a terrible behavior from camera manufacturers denying the opportunity that people want full-frame digital cameras which mimic the 35mm film cameras most of us are familiar with using. Why are they denying us this? I guess we'll these questions and answers for another time, but currently, Canon is the only company to step up to the plate and take a chance. Personally, I think they made a good one, and I think they know the Canon 5D is a sure winner.

35mm Film Users Should Begin The Celebration!

If you're currently shooting Canon 35mm film cameras, your lens collection will do just fine. True, we have some who make arguments about the edge issues of wide angle lenses on full-frame digitals, but in my opinion, this is mostly an exploded issue. I've seen so many Canon 1Ds and 1DsMKII images which look absolutely amazing, with no edge problems, that I am purplexed at why it's an issue. While $3,300 is not small amount of money, this price point has surprised almost everyone in the digital sector. Even in the film sector. If you're thinking of taking the digital plunge, the Canon 5D might just be the answer.

©2005 by Jason Busch (http://www.digitaldingus.com)

Kodak EasyShare V550 Digital Camera Review

2005-09-18T20:20:00.000-04:00

The EASYSHARE V-series digital cameras are the smallest and thinnest cameras that Kodak has produced to date. Smaller and thinner than a deck of cards, the V550 is designed for those who seek high-style, compact personal electronics that combine excellent image quality, performance and simplicity.

The EASYSHARE V550 breaks new ground in blending video and still photography. For the first time, videos can be automatically turned into stop-action still pictures perfect for printing and sharing. Record longer, TV-quality videos with sound — up to 80 continuous minutes — while using less memory storage. Avoid on-screen shaking with built-in digital image stabilization technology, and zoom-in on video subjects while recording using the 3x optical SCHNEIDER-KREUZNACH lens. Then watch the videos with friends on the big, bright, 2.5-inch LCD screen, viewable from nearly any angle.

LetsGoDigital have posted on their site a Kodak EasyShare V550 | Digital Camera Review and here's what they think of it-

"Within the unsurpassed Kodak EasyShare system the Kodak EasyShare V550 takes up a prominent place. It's a beautiful and neatly finished camera with specifications that will appeal to many people. Kodak has actually used some good components here. Not only their own ones, like the EasyShare system but also from others. The excellent Schneider Kreuznach lens is a perfect example of it. Just as great is the huge monitor on the back of the camera. It enhances the photographic joy tremendously.
...
The Kodak EasyShare V550 is a good camera offering true value for its money. Excellent image quality, simple operation and easy to carry around with you. The EasyShare V550 is not yet perfect, but which camera is? It's mainly details where the EasyShare V550 drops a stitch. In general it's an attractive digital camera, not only because of its appearance. The users of the EasyShare V550 benefit to the fullest from the EasyShare concept. It's a strong concept, but still leaving room for improvement. We're not overwhelmed and uncritical but the Kodak EasyShare V 550 is definitely an excellent choice for the starting photographer, or it will serve greatly as a second camera added to the rest of your photographic equipment."

Kodak EasyShare V530 5MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

Features
Includes Photo Frame Dock 2 for stylish display of your photos and easy transfer to your computer
5-megapixel sensor captures enough detail to create photo-quality 13-by-17-inch enlargements
Up to 80 minutes of continuous MPEG-4 video with audio capture and playback
2.5-inch high-resolution color display with 170 degree viewing angle
One-button EasyShare system for quick, universal sharing of videos and photos

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5 Review

2005-09-27T10:41:00.000-04:00

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5 is a 5-megapixel digital camera with a high-quality Leica 12x optical zoom. The Leica DC Vario-Elmarit 12x zoom is equivalent to a 36 - 432mm zoom on a 35mm camera with a F2.8 to F3.3 maximum aperture. Panasonic's advanced MEGA O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer) enhances the camera's telephoto zoom capabilities, helping to deliver sharp, vivid images even when taking handheld telephoto shots or shooting in low light. It uses motion sensors, which detects even slight hand movement and integrally links the lens control to the motion of the camera to reduce jitter. Pretty cool.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5 5MP Digital Camera with 12x Image Stabilized Optical Zoom

Photoxels have posted a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5 Review today. They liked this digicam a lot. Here's a quote-

"While the new Panasonic FZ30 is currently generating the most excitement among enthusiasts, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5 remains the ultra zoom digital camera with the best bang for the money. It has pretty much everything a beginner to serious amateur photographer could wish for: very good image quality, superb 12x optical zoom with an effective optical image stabilization, fexible exposure control, and very fast operations.
...
The Panasonic FZ5 is fast, with no practical shutter/AF lag. In fact, auto focus is incredibly fast, approaching dSLR speed. The camera is very responsive and this responsiveness makes it a pleasure to use.

A large 1.8 in. LCD monitor makes focusing and composing easy. An AF-assist light helps achieve focus in low-light. The onboard flash is quite good with a 15 feet reach."

DMC-FZ5 Features:
* 5-megapixel effective CCD for images up to 2560 x 1920 pixels
* Leica DC-VARIO ELMARIT 12x zoom, equivalent to 36-432mm on a 35mm camera
* Optical image stabilization to help prevent camera shake and blurring
* Venus Engine II LSI for robust camera operations
* Mega Burst continuous capture @ 4 or 2fps up to 7 images (4 in Fine mode)
* Macro focus with autofocus down to 1.9 inches
* 1.8-inch TFT color monitor with 130,000 pixels
* Eye level color electronic viewfinder with dioptric adjustment
* Program AE, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and Manual modes
* Macro, Portrait, Sports, Panning, Night Portrait picture modes
* High Speed and Low Speed Continuous, AE Bracketing and Timelapse modes
* 320 x 240 QuickTime movies, 30fps or 10fps w/audio
* Shutter speeds from 1/2000 to 8 seconds (Shutter priority and Manual modes)
* Built-in flash with auto, fill, slow synchro and red-eye reduction modes
* Intelligent Multiple and Spot exposure metering
* TTL Auto White Balance, 5 presets and custom set
* Secure Digital memory card slot, 16MB card included
* Plug-n-Play USB, Mass Storage compliant
* PictBridge Direct-Print compatible
* Li-ion rechargeable battery and rapid charger included

Casio EX-S500 Review at DesignTechnica

2005-09-28T17:54:00.000-04:00

A thing of beauty is the Casio Exilim EX-S500 - a 5 megapixel version of their ultra small, ultra cool S100 - the S500 features a 3x optical zoom, VGA 30fps MPEG4 video that allows you to store one hour of video on a 1GB SD card, a larger 2.2" screen, all in a slimmer (16.1mm) body available in 3 colours: Grey, Red and White. The new camera has built in 'anti-shake' technology:

"With Casio's EXILIM Engine's Anti Shake DSP, blurry pictures are nearly a thing of the past."

Casio Exilim EX-S500

Designtechnica have reviewed the Casio Exilim EX-S500. Here is some of their commentary-

"Life is filled with disappointments but in this new era of Hurricane Katrina, a so-so digital camera doesn’t rank high up there. Still it does cost money and no one wants to throw it away. I tip my hat to the Casio engineers for creating such a small camera. Next time they should spend much more time on image quality."

Exilim EX-S500 Features:
* 5-Megapixel effective CCD imager, 3x optical zoom w/auto macro
* Stylish, durable and light-weight aluminum body
* Large 2.2-inch TFT color LCD with 84,960 pixels
* AF assist light makes focus operation easier even in dark settings.
* High-speed start-up enables shooting approximately 0.9 seconds after powerup.
* Release time lag of only 0.008 seconds after the shutter is pressed.
* High-speed picture playback of approx. 0.1 seconds interval.
* Continuous shutter function enables photos to be taken in 0.9 seconds intervals.
* 33 "BEST SHOT" scene modes set the camera for easy to difficult situations.
* Attach up to 30-second audio memos to still images at capture or later.
* Record voice-only audio, approx. 25 minutes on internal memory.
* MPEG-4, VGA(640×480 pixels), 30 frames/second high quality movies
* Movies can be captured continuously for 1 hour and 20 minutes
* Movie Best Shot, Past Movie, Short Movie and in-camera movie editing.
* 9-point autofocus system with selectable AF modes: Multi or Spot AF.
* ISO sensitivity from 50 to 400 or Automatic.
* Built-in flash with Red Eye Reduction and Flash-assist function.
* USB 2.0 high speed data transfer to PC or Mac computers.
* Super-Life battery enables up to 200 shots on a single charge.
* Li-ion rechargeable battery and charging cradle included.
* 8.3 Megabytes of internal memory and SD card slot for memory expansion.
* ExifPrint, PRINT Image Matching III, USB Direct-Print, and PictBridge compatible.

How to print digital photos at home cheaply

2005-10-24T21:37:00.000-04:00

Don't let anyone tell you that printing digital photos from home is inexpensive. Sure, the price you pay for a digital photo printer seems reasonable at first glance, but appearances in this case are definitely deceiving.

That's because the cost of a printer is usually just a small part of the home photo printing equation. If you add up all the money you need to spend for the printer, ink, paper, colour profiling equipment, and software, it adds up quickly.

It is easy to end up spending over five times what a local printing service would charge for each photo. The cost of printing and related equipment is so high that it makes sense for anyone who uses a digital camera and prints photos at home to do a cost analysis of how much is being spent for each print. But regardless of whether the figure you arrive at makes printing at home worth your while, there are ways to save on digital photo printing costs.

In-store printing

It used to be that your local photo developer was not set up to handle your digital photographs conveniently. That has changed in most places around the world. You can now typically copy your digital photographs to a rewritable CD or DVD and take the disk to your local photo developer for processing. Of course, you choose beforehand which photographs to drop off, so there's no development of photos that you might not want, as in the old film days.

Plus you'll have the advantage of having your photographs developed using equipment that is probably much more sophisticated than what you can purchase yourself for home use. And a good photo development shop will use traditional photograph paper, not paper intended for inkjets.

To prevent surprises when you get your digital photos back, you should make sure that your monitor at home is correctly calibrated to match the equipment used by your local printing service. Calibration is achieved by loading what's called a colour profile data file into the software that you use to edit and adjust your digital photographs. If your local service doesn't offer a colour profile, look elsewhere until you find one that does. A good quality photo printing service should provide profiles, as well as instructions on how to use them, and you shouldn't have to pay more for one that does.

Online printing

Professional photograph printers in your neighbourhood have plenty of online counterparts, and these may be more to your liking if you don't want to leave the comfort of your home to deliver your digital photos to the printer.

With online printers, you upload your photographs using a web browser while logged on to the service. You then order the sizes and number of prints that you want, pay your money, and then wait for the photographs to be mailed to you.

As with non-Internet printers, you'll want to get a colour profile to make sure that your monitor matches the colour qualities of the service's printer - either that, or you should do a small order to make sure that the quality is what you expect.

Home printing

Cost aside, there are plenty of good reasons why printing your digital photographs at home may be a good idea. You get complete creative control over the printing process, almost instantaneous gratification when seeing a print come out of your printer, and the freedom to reprint photos if they don't come out just the way you want them to.

But to print at home economically, you'll have to pay attention to how ink-hungry the printer you choose is, preferably before you purchase it. Some printers are known to consume more ink during operation than others, and some manufacturers charge a lot more for refills than others. It's a good idea to check online forums before purchasing a photo printer.

You can also turn to third-party ink manufacturers to save on printing photographs at home. Just keep in mind that using a third-party ink will typically void the warranty on your printer; many manufacturers will not even service a unit that has been used with third-party inks. So take this into consideration before going the third-party route.

Also, it's a good idea to minimize your experimentation with different photo papers. Find one or a few that work well with your photo printer, and stick to them. Going through the experimentation phase while tweaking colours and settings with different papers can consume a lot of ink and time, increasing your overall printing costs.

Here are a few digital photo printers to choose from-

HP Photosmart 7960 (a ZDNet Editors' Choice)

The industry's first eight-color printer, the 7980 is our pick for a photo specialist. It stands out for its superior photo print quality and extra features, such as a built-in LCD to preview images and direct printing from your camera.

Canon i560 (a ZDNet Editors' Choice)

Like the Epson Stylus C84, this printer is both inexpensive and a solid performer. The i560 doesn't guzzle ink and offers something the C84 doesn't: the ability to print directly from a digital camera.

Canon i70
The i70 is one of the speediest inkjets around--and it's small enough to carry along on trips or to and from the office. It connects directly to digital cameras and can churn out borderless photos and 8.5x11-inch prints.

HP Photosmart 245

Another portable, lightweight option, the 245 costs less than the Canon CP-300, but doesn't come with a battery option. It produces nice-looking photos, but only in 4x6-inch and similar-sized formats.

Canon CP-300

The most compact and sleek of the portables, it's also the most expensive. If you've got the money, it includes a battery and uses the dye-sublimation technology mentioned above. Because of its small size, it only prints 4x6's.

Paint Shop Pro X review by Vincent Oliver

2005-10-17T14:22:00.000-04:00

Photo-i has just reviewed Corel Paint Shop Pro X and Corel Photo Album 6.

Vincent says-

"Paint Shop Pro X is loaded with useful features that will enhance and improve your digital photographs with a few keystrokes. All in all this is a very good package offering excellent value for money. However, I feel that Corel may have released this version a bit too early, there are still some rough edges which need to be sorted."

Corel Paint Shop Pro X

Pros:
* Excellent set of tools
* Learning centre
* Photo Album 6
* B/W and Infrared filters
* Price

Dislikes:
* Too much emphasis on automated adjustments
* Browser performance
* Obvious application bugs which should have been spotted

Canon Powershot A410 3.2MP Digital Camera review

2005-10-09T09:57:00.000-04:00

Others digital camera manufacturers are abandoning the 3-megapixel market to camera phones, but not Canon. The Canon PowerShot A410 replaces the PowerShot A400 with a modified body design and a bump up to a 3x zoom lens from 2.2x.

New features on the A410 include:

3.2x optical zoom lens (versus 2.2x)
Refined body; only comes in one color (versus four on the A400)
DIGIC II image processor
Improved battery life
Improved continuous shooting and movie modes

DigitalCameraResourcePage.com have posted a Canon PowerShot A410 review and in it comment-

"While it's not terribly exciting from the spec sheet, the Canon PowerShot A410 is a pretty good entry-level digital camera. Even so, I'd probably recommend that most folks pay a bit more for a more full-featured camera (like Canon's A510).

The PowerShot A410 is as good entry-level camera and if you don't mind some of the missing or crippled features, it's a nice camera for the money. If you like what've you seen but you want a more capable camera then I'd point you to the next step up in Canon's lineup: the PowerShot A510 (see our review). For $50 more you get a 4X zoom lens, larger/brighter LCD, full manual controls (which you may not need now, but you might want them in the future), support for conversion lenses, and more."

Shooting Digital | Book Review

2006-05-03T20:44:00.000-04:00

Good digital photography books are hard to find.

There are plenty of good, even great, books about the art and science of photography in general. The newer ones often contain some specific digital information, and a fair bit of the info in even decades-old books is still perfectly applicable to digital. F-stops, focal lengths, lighting, composition; all of that stuff works much the same for digital as it does for film.

When a photo book starts banging on about emulsions and fixatives and cross processing and slide versus print film and enlarging lenses and colour compensation and how to keep light out of a Holga, though... well, those pages are good places for a digital photographer to rest a coffee cup.

And if you're looking for information about the relative merits of JPG, RAW and TIFF image formats in an old photo book, you're going to be looking for rather a while.

Shooting Digital: Pro Tips for Taking Great Pictures with Your Digital Camera

Mikkel Aaland's Shooting Digital (subtitle: "Pro Tips for Taking Great Pictures with Your Digital Camera") doesn't pretend that film doesn't exist. It mentions silver halide technology when it's relevant, which'll help film photogs making the leap to digital to get up to speed. But like the title says, this is a book about digital photography, and it aims to give the most inexperienced digital happy-snapper information on how to get good results in all sorts of photographic situations.

It's got 269 content pages plus an index, and they're good-sized pages, too; the book's about 205 by 255mm. Every page contains either digital-relevant info, or example photos; Shooting Digital is lavishly illustrated. Nowhere is there information that's dead weight to a non-film photographer.

What you get

Shooting Digital opens with a primer on the differences between film and digital, resolution, lenses and focal length differences and what's up with that "35mm equivalent" stuff, the kind of digicam you'll need for different tasks, and the importance of knowing your particular camera's capabilities.

Throughout the book, the ordinary point-and-shoot consumer cameras that most people use get a lot of air time. Shooting Digital is not a publication for camera snobs or penis-free young professionals. The book even makes clear those times when a light, simple, flexible consumer camera will be a better photographic tool than a hefty pro-cam.

Chapter two is about shooting portraits, both candid and studio. How to stop your subject from looking like a serial killer, the Elephant Man or a Rembrandt shadow study, when and how you can use flash without ironing your subject's face flat, and why non-professional photographers might still want to bother setting up a mini-studio.

The most difficult portraits - kids, animals and people at parties - get their own whole chapter, which addresses picking the moment to shoot, dealing with shutter lag, and how to minimise the chance of disaster if it falls to you to photograph an Important Event ("Sorry, I missed that - could you take it again from 'I do'...?").

Next, it's action photography; more on how to pick the moment, how to minimise blur, and how to make worthwhile pictures even if you can't get rid of a lot of the blur.

Movie mode gets a whole chapter to itself. The slow seepage of camcorder capabilities into still cameras is one of the biggest new things about digital, but most "mini-movies" might as well not have been taken. Shooting Digital talks about how to make even very short movie clips say something, and how to use them to work around the artistic limitations of still photography in general. This chapter goes on to talk about mini-movie editing and distribution, with software suggestions for Windows and Mac.

Where Aaland talks about software, he tends to talk about the Mac more than Windows. Here it's particularly obvious, with more than two pages devoted to telling you how to add a fat black border to a low-res movie so it won't turn into LegoVision when played back on a Mac OS system which, apparently, plays everything full-screen.

Shooting Digital isn't a really Mac-centric book, though. Windows users don't have to plough through much more irrelevant info than this.

Next, there's a chapter on shooting on the road - kit bags, camera care and maintenance, storage and archiving, shooting strangers, dealing with adverse weather, and so on.

Next up, interiors and exteriors. The insides and outsides of buildings may have the decency to sit still, but that doesn't make them easy subjects. This chapter has lots to say about light, composition, exposure, and maximising image quality.

This flows naturally into the next chapter, on shooting landscapes. This chapter touches on the ineffable-word-of-God or idiotic-creativity-strangling (depending on your point of view) Rule of Thirds, but that's about as artsy-fartsy as Shooting Digital ever gets. I like the fact that Aaland talks about the technical aspects of beautiful pictures - How You Could Do This - and leaves the pictures to do the rest of the talking for themselves.

Next, there's a whole chapter about panoramas, including the fully or partially spherical "virtual reality" variety, and "object movies", where you can turn a virtual object around on screen rather than looking around a virtual landscape.

The next chapter's about "Shooting Your Stuff" - photographing objects for fun and profit. EBay sellers and hardware reviewers, ahoy; this is the bit where you learn how to make good looking product shots.

Next comes the out-there chapter - infrared, underwater and aerial photography, night shots, and the benefits of "digital grid" mosaics of low-res images. Then there's information on organising and sharing your digital photos - printing, storing, sorting, sending, showing - followed by some technical appendices about sensors and RAW data and image processing. And then there's the index.

Everything, and I do mean everything, has at least one photo to illustrate the principle being discussed, and Shooting Digital is also riddled with boxes talking about how software can help (in an old school photo book, these parts would be darkroom tips), what accessories may come in handy, and what's going on inside your digicam. The accessory and Know Your Camera boxes aren't necessarily specifically relevant to the chapter they appear in, but it's all good stuff.

Web support

Shooting Digital has a companion Web site, the inventively named Shooting-Digital.com. The site's not what you'd call a heavyweight at the moment, but it's got a bit of content and some perfectly good links, and promises to be better in the future.

Even if Mikkel Aaland gets eaten by a hippo tomorrow and the site freezes in its current state, though, there'll still be plenty of excellent photography sites on the Web.

Shooting Digital is worth the money without any extras. And, pleasingly, its price is not pumped up by a CD of questionable value inside the back cover.

Overall

Shooting Digital is both commendably up to date and likely to age well. It doesn't mention the very latest cameras and software, but it's not talking about particular cameras anyway, except to show the moments when some feature of a particular camera made it able to take some particular picture. In five years' time some of the technical info in Shooting Digital won't be relevant any more, but its basic points will stand - and there'll no doubt have been another edition or two by then, anyway.

Shooting Digital really is packed with useful advice, the value of much of which I can personally confirm. For instance, "Bracketing The Heck Out Of The Exposure" is indeed a valid technique, and yes, "prying flesh from frozen metal is painful".

Modern digital photography is, genuinely, a step up from film for most purposes, and it's only getting better. Sure, digital doesn't have the grass roots hackability of film, or the near-zero-dollar entry point, but just removing the image capacity and processing time limitations of film gives the photographer a much more direct involvement with the activity of image-making. Digital definitely does make learning easier.

And, importantly, consumer digicams now have good enough price/performance ratios that regular people really can do better with digital than they can with film - much better. Books about high quality digital photography are no longer like books about Lamborghini maintenance - this is mainstream now.

If all you ever do is take badly lit pictures of stunned-looking relatives with their noses in the dead centre of the frame, you're missing out on almost all of the value of any kind of photography. That's where this book comes in. Shooting Digital genuinely is full of "Pro Tips for Taking Great Pictures with Your Digital Camera"; it is the digital photography book that the vast bulk of digicam users have been waiting for.

Shooting Digital isn't likely to be very useful to someone who's already an accomplished photographer, even if they're moving into digital for the first time.

But if you don't look at your digital photos and think "Wow!" very often, it's high time you bought this book. Highly recommended.

Top Ten Programs to get started in your own Photography Business

2006-04-12T13:15:00.000-04:00

1) Easy Photography Home Business!
Earn $200+ Per Day Taking Simple Photos In Your Local Area!

2) Digital Photography Success.
Transforms Your Digital Photos Into Beautiful, Professional Quality Pictures Even If You've Never Used A Digital Camera Before.

3) Profitable Photography.
How to easily start up & market a profitable photography business-even if you've never been in business before.

4) Automatic Digital Delivery On eBay®
In Seconds You Can Deliver Your eBook To Your eBay® Customer Quickly, Easily & Automatically, Without You Even Lifting A Finger!

5) Make Money With Your Digital Camera.
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6) Powerful Landscape Photography.
Discover The Secrets Getting Your Landscape Photos Looking Like Professional Magazine Quality Photographs.

7) Nude Photography For Fun & Profit!
Earn $1000+ per week photographing beautiful young women in your area!

8) Portrait Photography For Money & Respect.
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9) Improving Your Photography.
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10) Digital Information Income Generator.
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Tips for buying a Digital Camera

2006-05-17T21:03:00.000-04:00

Even if you’re just a casual shutterbug, there are options to consider

By ANICK JESDANUN

The Associated Press

QUESTION: What should I consider when buying my first digital camera?

ANSWER: If you’re a serious or professional photographer, your needs are obviously greater. But for a casual shooter, many digital cameras will give you what you need for a few hundred dollars. Some of the things to consider:

1. MEGAPIXEL CAPABILITY, or a photo’s resolution. The higher the better for printing photos — but in reality, nearly any digital camera can shoot at enough megapixels for decent prints.

Most new cameras can support at least three megapixels, good for 4 by 6 or even 5 by 7 prints, said Brett Larson, an expert at About.com. However, if you anticipate making larger prints, then consider megapixels. Go for at least four megapixels for 8 by 10 prints, more for larger.

More megapixels also give you more options for cropping. Remember that more megapixels require more storage space.

2. BATTERY NEEDS. It’s great if your camera uses standard types like AA — rechargeable to save money but ones that could be bought in an emergency. Many cameras use proprietary batteries, so expect to invest $25 or $50 for a spare.

3. ZOOM. Ignore “digital zoom,” which means a computer and not the lens is doing the magnification, and make sure the ad for your camera refers to “optical zoom.” Larson says most consumer-grade cameras will come with 2x or 3x zoom, plenty for basic needs. Going to 10x could cost you a few hundred dollars but is overkill unless you’re shooting lots of events from afar.

4. READINESS. Consider how long it takes for the camera to refresh itself for the next picture. Some cameras have a burst, or continuous shooting, mode that will store images in a buffer rather than wait until they are processed to a memory card. The built-in flash also will range in quality and speed — slower ones might mean greater delays.

5. FORMAT. Most cameras now store photos in JPEG format, but higher-end ones also support RAW — important if you want to do a lot of editing. Most consumers won’t need to bother.

6. BACKUP. When you buy, remember to make backup copies of photos — by burning them to a CD or storing them with a sharing service that lets you access the original, high-resolution image. Otherwise, all your precious memories will go when — not if — your hard drive crashes.

Photographing Fish: 5 Tips For Frustrated Beginners

2006-05-16T19:58:00.000-04:00

Photographing pets can often be a difficult proposition. Add water, glass reflections and the low lighting of an aquarium environment, and you've got the recipe for one extremely difficult photo shoot.

But it doesn't have to be that hard. Armed with the following tips, you can get great photos of fish in just about any situation.

1: Get a tripod.

Tripods are usually used for non-moving subjects. But they can be immensely helpful when photographing fish, even ones that are constantly moving. Low light levels lead to slow shutter speeds. So anything you can do to stabilize the camera will be of tremendous help. The best way to photograph moving fish with your camera on a tripod is to loosen the levers on the tripod so you can move the camera freely left, right, up and down but the camera will remain in position if left alone.

2: Get your fish acquainted with the camera.

Now that you have a tripod (since you faithfully followed the first tip), set it up in front of your aquarium with the camera mounted on the tripod. Now leave it. For as long as possible... several days would be ideal. The purpose of this exercise is to get the fish used to seeing the "thing" you're constantly moving around, pointing it at them and making noises. When they're comfortable with the sight of the camera, they'll be more relaxed and less prone to dart around the tank or hide.

3: Use a digital camera.

Digital cameras allow us to "just take the picture" without worrying about whether we're wasting the film and processing money on a shot that won't be good. When you can focus on getting the best shot possible, no matter how many tries it takes, you're on the right track to get the shot you want.

4: Turn off the lights in the room.

Ambient light causes reflections on the tank glass that may ruin a perfectly good fish photograph. Eliminate all sources of ambient light that you can, and be very aware of any reflections as you shoot. If there are some reflections you can't get rid of, try putting your body between the light source and the glass to shield the tank from the light.

5: Clean the glass, cut the pumps.

Turning off the aquarium pumps before you shoot is an excellent way to clean up your shots of particles and bubbles in the water column. and if you happen to have a planted freshwater tank or reef aquarium, this will also prevent the plants or corals from swaying in your picture, turning into a blurry mess.

Cleaning the glass is probably the most overlooked step to aquarium photography, and quite possible is responsible for more ruined photos than any other issue. Remember, just because you don't see it now, doesn't mean you won't see it in the picture. Amazing how that happens. So clean the glass well, every time, before you pick up the camera.

6: A Bonus!

Have fun. Aquarium photography can become an interesting and challenging hobby all its own. Have fun with it, experiment freely, and be sure to share your pictures online!

About the Author
Travis Staut has worked as a photographer for an online live coral retailer and has had several of his photographs published on the cover of Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine. You can see his work and more articles at his aquarium photography site.

A Quick Review of SmugMug

2006-05-24T20:35:00.000-04:00

By Richard McMillan
SmugMug, the online photo sharing service, has several outstanding features that have resulted in a faithful following; indeed it can be counted as among the best photo sharing services in the world.

Users can upload an unlimited number of photos, there are no ads to distract while browsing the site, sharing and uploading is quick and efficient, and the site offers unlimited storage. The site does not offer a free membership upon furnishing credit card details. All the same, the website, www.smugmug.com offers a 7-day free trial that allows users to get a feel of its services.

One can avail the services of SmugMug via three account types – Standard, Power User, and Professional. A Standard account costs $ 39.95 and comes packed with a host of benefits that allow adding and sharing of photos with just a click, a URL for the individual, and photo enhancement tools among other facilities. A Power User account costs $ 59.95 per annum; it offers all the benefits of the standard account plus the facility of replacing the SmugMug header and footer with the customer’s own. A Professional account costs $ 149.95 per annum and allows users to trade in photos and make money.

One can upload photographs in more than one way with SmugMug. Windows users can drag and drop photos, photos can also be uploaded in batches for Windows and Mac users as well as by those who use Netscape and Linux. Video clips of up to 8 MB per clip can be uploaded and played in the gallery. Photos saved on SmugMug can be printed on a home printer; high quality gloss, matte, and luster prints in 26 different sizes can be ordered from SmugMug. Visitors to a user’s home page on SmugMug can browse the photos without having to provide their email address or create their own account.

SmugMug is particular about maintaining decorum as would befit a family site. Uploading and display of content displaying explicit nudity is prohibited. SmugMug has an efficient customer support system that includes a detailed Help page covering several topics, a user forum, and problem resolving via email.

Richard McMillan recommends you check out the SmugMug review.

Making Money from Stock Photos

2006-05-17T21:04:00.000-04:00

Interested in making a little extra money?

Well, one of the best ways of making money from your digital photography is selling your photographs as stock photos. I recently found this site ( Featured in Popular Photography (Sept. 2005) that sells photos and pays you for each photo sold.

They recently increased their payout rate to $0.25 per download.

Though the amount per photo is not much, it all adds up and with the huge volume they deal with, who knows, you could be making some extra bucks to fund your hobby.

Photo sharing and the future of photography

2006-09-15T20:06:00.000-04:00

An interesting read over at photodoto.com

"It’s an exciting time for photography. Traditional, professional photographers have seen their share of the photography market erode to legions of digital camera wielding amateurs. At the same time, many people who might never have considered calling themselves a photographer are doing just that. The entire photographic landscape is shifting—for the better, I think, despite the fact that, in the short term, some pros are feeling the pinch. As in other markets, increased competition and supply lead to lower prices. Of course, sites like Flickr, the rise of micro-stock, and the availability of low-cost, high-quality digital cameras aren’t going to destroy the traditional photography industry. But those pressures are creating a new kind of photographer and a new kind of market for photography."

Very true. I am an amateur yet I now sell to Stock Agencies online, and make good recurring money doing it.

How Much Money do Photographers Make

2006-07-14T18:23:00.000-04:00

Interested in knowing the average salary of a photographer? Well the answer to such a questions is always a little more complex and therefore requires a little thought before a solid number is able to be given. First of all, it should be noted that there is a wide discrepancy between the earnings of photographers. Some make very little money, others spend more money than they make, while still others make decent livings, some of whom even make upwards of $100,000 a year. However, according to statistics the average photographer makes between $14,000 and $54,748 with the median falling somewhere in between those two numbers.

If you want to be a photographer who makes more money than average you?ll need to be very strategic with how you approach your career. Read these tips to ensure that you earn as much as possible during your tenure as a photographer.

Tags: money, photographer, paparazzi

Taking Great Digital Photos Every Time

2007-05-02T12:02:00.000-04:00

If you want to really learn digital photography... if you have a digital camera but don't understand half of its features... if you are considering moving up from an old "film-style" camera to a digital camera but aren't quite sure what kind of camera to get... this may interest you.

You see, digital photography is not complicated once you know a few basics. In fact, it's way easier than "regular old photography". I stumbled across this website which produces a guide called Digital Photography Mastery.

Here's some of what's inside...

All about going digital - the hows and whys of digital photography, and why it makes your photographs better. (page 6-10)
Photography 101 - yes, this is the world's quickest & simplest "get up to speed" guide on taking great pictures. (page 12-14)
Choosing a camera - If you don't have a camera yet, or you're thinking of getting a different one, this checklist will make your choice simple. (pages 14-17)
Accessories you need - hey, don't let camera salesperson load you up with a bunch of junk you don't need. Here's what you do need - plain & simple. (page 18)

Read on... Digital Photography Mastery

How To Get Paid With Your Digital Camera

2007-03-30T11:47:00.000-04:00

What if there was a way to convert all of those digital photos you take into real money?

How much money could you earn as a result?

"Here is a bullet-proof blueprint that reveals how to make some spare cash with your digital camera. There are plenty of opportunities out there - I know, I've been doing it for some time now. And you know what? The more you take photos, the better you get at it, and the better you get, the more money you make from your photos!" -- Rick Blythe.

Here you go-

If you have a digital camera and you have ever wished that you had more money coming in to pay off debts, buy those little extras you’ve always wanted, then this is definitely the most important letter you'll read today!

Download now

"This ebook is packed with tons of information so even the novice can start making money taking photographs immediately. Lots of tips on how to get your pictures selling fast! The ebook doesn't even begin to list all of the extras the membership area has to offer, from tutorials, to bonus ebooks, to a complete list of companies that want your photographs. The Camera Dollars System is a must have to get you started creating some extra cash-flow in your life!" --Becky Holmes - www.SuccessGraphics.com

Generate An Income From Photography

2007-08-21T19:45:00.000-04:00

Here is a Guide to Starting Your Own Profitable Photography Business.

This is not a get rich quick scheme!
You will need to supply the perseverance and passion. But you can become wealthy over time by being organized and working smart.

This eBook can make the journey much, much easier than attempting to fumble through on your own however. Your passion for photography can be realized and it can be your living - both at the same time! By default you can become much better at what you do and learn much quicker the quality elements and efficiencies that are paramount to success in photography. Even if you have to start part-time! Click Here!

Shozam Announces Web Gallery Generator

2007-07-27T15:51:00.000-04:00

Three months after its beta launch, “anti”-photo sharing website Shozam has announced the release of the Shozam Web Gallery Generator, which creates Web galleries for users to showcase digital media. The generator is released in conjunction with Komotion Inc.

“If a service goes out of business, the gallery - and the work and time that went into it - can disappear. Even worse, precious photos can be lost,” said Razvan Neagu, President and CEO of Komotion, in a press release. “With Shozam, users create their own photo Web sites and stay in control of their media.”

Content is imported and can be customized by the user with captions, audio, and themes. The generator allows for seven different page layouts that can be uploaded to any Web host.

“Why would anyone give up ownership of their images, and let others take control and make money from them?“ Neagu said. “Shozam eliminates the need for online photo sites which can over-compress photos, clutter the site with ads, impose restrictions, or require minimum purchases of add-ons like prints and calendars.”

The Shozam Web Gallery Generator is available in five editions, starting at $50. A Business Plus edition has been added to the site, which previous only hosted a Business edition. The Business Plus edition allows for the removal of the Shozam credit line. A lite edition is available for free, but does not allow for audio, video or text.

Shozam is compatible with Microsoft Windows and offers a free trial on its website.