Sep
01
2010

Apple Macs Get Shorted

Over the course of the 2010 one trend from Apple has become clear - Apple is short-changing its Mac line-up of desktops and laptops in favor of its iPad and ilk [aka iDevices]. The evidence is compelling - from the Adobe Flash attack to no touchscreen or multi-touch on the Mac lineup, Steve is asking the Mac fans to take not one for the Gipper but several short changes in favor of his new iDevices.

In January, Steve did his prestidigitation and out popped the iPad without Flash and with only the barest of connectors to hook up an iPad with other Macs. In June he announced the new iPhone4 with major iOS4 upgrade and redesign. In July the Mac lineup got an upgrade to the new Intel i5 and i7 processors, new ATI graphics processors plus bigger screens.

Today, Steve announced major new versions for 3 iPods and the Apple TV. That means iDevices are getting about 4 times more attention than the Mac line up and it shows. More telling - big features like AirPlay for the new AppleTV only work with iDevices, Macs are cut out of the circuit. Most of the changes to the iMac and MacBook line up were simple trade-ups on Intel and ATI chips plus a new SD card connection. In contrast, all the iDevices got major software and hardware upgrades.

But Apple continued with more bad-side blessings - the Magic Trackpad For three years and counting, Apple has been delivering multi-touch+gestures but only on iDevices. For all those rabidly loyal Mac users the only sightings have been the multi-touch enabled MacBook touchpads, the Touch Mouse and some multi-touch patent applications. However the graphics and design work that these Mac Loyalists do would really really really profit from direct on screen multi-touch + gestures. So then this summer the Magic Trackpad effectively made it official: Apple would not be delivering multi-touch+gestures to Mac screens anytime soon. In fact Engadget saw the Apple Magic Trackpad as the Beginning of the End for Mac OS X. But for Mac creatives, missing out on simple touch screen operations which Windows 7 delivers [but not multi+gestures] - this is  one of the most galling of Apple shortcomings.

But Steve is on a disappointment roll, so why not test the adoring Mac fans’ allegiance by rejecting Flash on all his iDevices. This decision forced a lot of Mac designers and other creatives to contemplate how they would design and develop in the future without one of their favorite tools, Flash being able to run on iDevices. This means looking at alternatives [and HTML5, contrary to Steve suggestions, is just not close to being ready for primetime as it is missing completely multi-touch standards, development tools, and uniform browser support]. So Mac developers are confronted with a lot of duplicated effort. Not Good!

But for No-Goodness Sake, Steve had one more nasty up his sleeve. As it turns out in tests of his Apple machines in May of this year, running identically the same Apple hardware but just switching the OS on those Apple puppies- guess what? Running the same graphics software programs[ OpenGL, games, and Flash ] on both Windows7 and Mac OS/X 10.6, Windows 7 runs anywhere from 10 to 70% faster than MacOS. Windows is never bested by MacOS. And in fact, Linux loaded onto the same Apple computer always outperforms MacOS in the same battery of graphic tests too. So its not Flash that is slow on doing graphics and movies on MacOS, but Macs fault. Apple MacOS run most graphics software slower than Windows and Linux on the same Apple machines.

As noted,Apple announced late in the Summer a new Mac refresh using the latest Intel i5 and i7 chips and new ATI graphics chips. This Man from Missouri is now waiting for new benchmarks using the latest Apple hardware which will demo whether or not the Apple Macs can deliver graphics performance at least equal to Windows and Linux.

Security, Ease of Use, Better Browsing

If you have to give up graphics performance, one of your favorite design tools is Flash and multi-touchscreen operations on Macs, so what do Apple Macs have left? Well security for one. Windows has continued to have those wonderful monthly patch Tuesdays often with an added zero day virus. Wait a second - Apple’s security record at Secunia, the respected PC security advisory service, is not much better. Secunia has shown that Mac OS has a comparable number of high alert advisories:

Secunia tallied 36 advisories on security issues with the [MacOS] software, many of them allowing attackers to remotely take over the system - comparable to figures on operating systems such as Windows XP Professional or Red Hat Enterprise Server.

Hmmmm - not good news for MacOS users.

So lets take ease of use - oops, MacOS does not have touch screens at all - only multi-touch Magic Trackpads and the Magic Mouse. But Windows 7 has had touch screens [but not multi-touch + gestures] for nearly two years. And more PC vendors, particularly for high end desktops, are featuring touch screen operations. And touch screen alone even without multi-touch does make users more productive.

Okay , so concede a slight advantage to Windows 7 with touch screen. One has to say MacOS with Safari provides a much better Web Experience than Windows 7 and IE8. That would be true if IE8 were the only browser that runs in Windows. But Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera are all superior browsing experiences and they run on Windows 7 and all of the downloads are fast and dirt simple to do. Even, Safari, the latest 5.0.1 edition runs in Windows. And Microsoft has been working triple overtime this Summer to bring you IE9 which test versions show is right up with the other browsers on speed of operations and meeting the existing HTML, CSS, and DOM standards. But there are serious questions on how well IE9 meets the new HTML5 standards and IE9 is not available for the legion of Windows XP users [50% of all Windows users still]. A beta release of IE9 on September 15th will reveal all.

Whoa - is Windows 7 the way to go? It is much cheaper on the hardware side, has better graphics performance, touchscreen operations and a bevy of great browsers available. But on the downside there is always the security horror stories, speed often slower than Windows XP, less support for older Windows programs and peripherals, the slow decay of reliability and performance during the day as memory leaks and handles proliferation slowly do their nasties. Why are Macs losing ground to Windows PCs?

Engadget is right - Apple is abandoning its Mac Line.

Apple has shifted its focus to the iDevices and has really short-changed the Apple Mac line. And why not ? iDevices bring in almost triple the revenues and profits of the old Mac line:

Make up of Apple’s Stock price
Tired old Macs? Definitely so. Macs are consistently getting the short end of the Apple innovation stick. Macs are graphically hobbled relative to Windows and Linux competition. As we shall see shortly Macs cost nearly double if not more. Macs still do not have touchscreen operations. And security has slipped a notch.

Apple engineers have to make tough decisions on where to put their software + hardware efforts. MacOS is a 20 plus year old code base that has gone through 3 major revisions from Motorola 68000 to IBM Power PC to the NeXTSTEP fusion to Intel chips. With about 65% of your revenues coming from iDevices, the MacOS is going to get the short end of the stick more often. So can Apple justify the Mac’s Prices?

The Mac Price Premium

When Apple switched from the PowerPC to Intel CPU chips, one of the reasons given was that Apple wanted to be able to be competitive with Windows PCs on price. Now many Mac users are involved in the highly competitive Marketing Design, Graphics and Web development fields. As small shops and freelancers they have to watch their costs carefully. But as we have seen, as Apple switches over to its iDevices the premium price for Macs is less tenable. And the prices are certainly premium:

Apple Deal at Best-Buy August 27, 2010


Windows 7 Deal at Best-Buy August 27, 2010

One has to wonder is the MacBook worth a $800 premium given the features that it is giving away to Windows PCs? One reader has noted the Flash blockade and no touchscreen were reason enough to switch to Windows.

Summary

iPad and the other iDevices are high level innovations and quite a legacy for Steve Jobs. But in order to promote his iPad and other iDevices, it appears Steve has badly short-changed his Mac Users. Creative artists and graphic designers devoted to the Mac are faced with some tough decisions on where to go. Business Schools call it “Creative Destruction” or borrowing from Mac to pay for iDevices. Unless Apple provides some bridging mechanism, Mac users have some trying times ahead. Redmond has already taken note - and is advertising accordingly.

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By admin | Posted in trends | Comments (0)
Jul
18
2010

Picnik Online Editor Adds to Google Picasa

Picnik is one of the best online photo editors - it is now a part of Google’s Picasa line of free online photo albums.  The good news is that Picnik is fast and has some of the best online help and hints.

The system seems to be a bit slower on startup than benchmarks on the same machine two years ago [20 seconds then 32 seconds now, but that may be online service variations]. But the operations are still fast and responsive. More interesting are three things Google has done with Picnik.

First, Google has barely changed Picnik at all from a functional and feature viewpoint. What you saw before is what you now get. Second, they have retained the $25/year Picnik Premium edition which adds a number of creative effects and special features to Picnik’s photo editing capabilities. This is an important decision because traditionally Google has not charged for its consumer web services - letting advertisements pay the freight. For example Maps and Gmail on the consumer side have added features that could be thought of as premium but they have not charged for them. Picnik appears to be a testing of the waters for charging for premium Google Online services.

The most important aspect is that Google continues to invest in Picasa and “social” image processing.
Google now has in Picasa roughly equal online web album features as Flickr or Facebook but now with a)unlimited free web storage of images; b)more useful image editing  than Facebook [but not Flickr which uses Picnik too]; and c)recently improved discussion capabilities to match Flickr,  Facebook and other online photo services. See here for Picasa’s nifty Explore page, which like Fotki and Flickr, watch the Photo Pulse of the World day in and day out.

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Jul
16
2010

Xara Designer Pro 6 - Preliminary Review

Xara has the fastest bitmap + vector draw program by far with Xara Designer Pro. Xara has had as one of its consistent virtues blazing speed. Xara is able to handle big bitmap 30-80MB files  [great for the thunderously sized images being produced by top of the line Canon, Nikon, and other  SLR cameras] and complex multi-layered vector+bitmap photo compositions consistently in 3 seconds or less. And Xara abounds with natural drag and drop features plus dozens of keyboard shortcuts [it pays to read the opening tooltips] which are fast as well. So if you want to get a graphics job done in a hurry on a Windows machine Xara Designer Pro is the place to be.

But I approached the new version 6 of Xara with a bit of caution. Other very good software like Corel Paint Shop Pro  X2 and Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 had come up with new features and skins  but at the cost of some spots of woeful response time or unexpected crashes [both have seen notable improvement in their latest versions]. So I was worried that with an all new interface skin and other improvements, Xara Designer Pro 6 would upset the apple cart.

Not to worry.

Xara Designer Pro 6 has adopted the attractive look and styling of its companion tool, the  excellent Web Design/prototyping tool, Xara Web Designer 6 [see our review here].  And Xara in our preliminary testing continues to deliver blazing speeds and familiar, easy-to-use drag and drop operations like beveling, drop shadow, transparency shading , 3D extrusion etc with very quick response. And the animation features [a basic subset of full Flash for GIF Animation or SWF output] are up and bouncing as in the diagram below:

So my biggest concern, the integrity and speed of the bitmap operations is set to rest. The bitmap operations appear conveniently in the top property property bar when the camera icon in the left sidebar is clicked. But as a photographer, ye editor has always felt a little short changed in Xara. But version 6 adds a number of new bitmap editing features which are much appreciated bcause the fill in missing core edits that had to be done outside of Xara.

First there is now a clone tool so that users can make corrections to blemishes on an image. This is handy because  often big images have smal flaws that become apprent when you crop them. A masking mode is now available so you can make selective bitmap brightness, saturation, sharpen, blur  and other corrections [but the blur tool is still very basic - no Gaussioan or Smart Smoothing options like in other photo editors]. Again this is a key added capability.

Xara Designer Pro 6 adds two highend bitmap feature. First, there is now content aware scaling that is conveniently added to the zoom arrows. Just hold down the ALT key when zooming an image and an alternative scaling algorithm is used. It worked spectacularly for a number of images but not always. Second, on import of large images, Xara offers the user the option of automatic scaling. At first I declined but after a few tries I find this more effective than the new auto JPEG optimizing offered on output of a Xara file. Clearly Xara though able to handle very large images very quickly has become more conscious of users needs to output to the Web or other sources that are size-limited.

There is an old feature, panoramic stitching of two images that finally got proper testing. the results were pleasing requiring a few post stitch adjustments. Also the new  perspective correction tools worked reasonably well But Photoshop and other tools have just upped the ante in both areas with perspective and panorama features getting joint improvements.  The bottom line is  that the new bitmap enhancements reduce substantially the number of times I have to round trip a bitmap to and from Photoshop or other photo editor and that is much appreciated along with the increased drag and drop support from external utilities like Windows Explorer.

Summary

This preliminary review concentrates on a)determining that the Hippocratic Oath [ "Do no harm" - with Vista and iPhone 4 its a worry] was observed; and b)I wanted to see how well the new look and layout worked - just as in Xara Web Designer 6, its quite effective. But last the many promised bitmap editing features were of interest. And it is good to report that Xara Designer Pro 6 certainly delivers very welcome and functional enhancements. Check back in 4-6 weeks for the full review.

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By admin | Posted in trends | Comments (0)
Jul
16
2010

Corel PaintIt

Corel has long had one of the best Windows natural media paint programs, Painter 11. The program offers numerous brush+media types with master control over each brush+media and its effects. Artist colleagues use Painter 11 as a basic creative medium and tool. Photographers use it to refine photos with subtle brush effects and enhanced compositions. So the launch of the new Corel PaintIt caught Picthat’s wandering eye. What was this? - a junior version of Painter? Well, as it turns out it is a wonderful intro to what it is possible to do in Painter but it is also just a great photo enhancer tool in itself.

Lets take a look see.


Corel PaintIt’s Fun interface

Corel Paintit has a simple, fun and easy to use interface. On the right sidebar  are the ten styles of  painting movies. I call them painting movies because once you press the the triangular Play button[just below the paint movies in the right sidebar], your image is repainted right before your eyes like a movie. First big strokes then gradually getting smaller. Hit the square Stop button and the painting sequence immediately stops.

But don’t hit the Play button again if you want the paint movie to resume where it left off - Paintit does not provide that functionality. If you want to continue you have to start from the beginning by hitting the Redo button at the top control bar, then replay the paint movie from the beginning.  Kids of every age will love this!

Now the next must-know feature is the Restore button at the bottom of the right sidebar. This paint brush allows users to restore the underlying image selectively on the page. But there is more! On the top control bar of PaintIt are 3 Brush control icons.  The one in the middle controls the size of the Restore paintbrush [actually all paintbrushes]; and the Brush icon on the right controls the transparency of the brush. Its this transparency setting that is crucial to the Restore operation. Set it at a low value of 20 or 30% at most - why? because a low value allows you to control the pace and extent of the restore more finely. Also use the Undo - Redo buttons [bent arrow icons just to left of the Brush control buttons on the top control bar] to quickly undo or redo a Restore change as required.

Now you have mastered the essentials of Corel PaintIt.

Here is some amusing tips  for getting more out of  PaintIt.  Apply one PaintIt movie, say the Oil Painting movie, down to the end with fine detail of the original coming through. Restore the original as required. Then apply one of the black and white Paint movies [Pen and Ink or Pencil Drawing]. Restore selectively the underlying painting to get a unique touch of color image.

Second, definitely use the brushes in the left sidebar at the top to add your own strokes and effects. There are pencil, airbrush, furry, distortion and 11 other brushes in the  Brush dropdown in the top control bar.   A colleague starts with a PaintIt movie but then uses the brushes to create masterful variations on the starting theme.  Users may want to use the cropping tool in the left sidebar to correct the tendency for PaintIt to create an irregular painted strip along the right hand side of the painting.

Wish-Fors

This program is simple and fun to use and so I am reluctant to add to the interface and kludge it up. So here are my top two wish-fors in Paint-it. It would be extremely nice to have a copy and paste it to the clipboard option. Then it would be simple to use PaintIt with Painter, Paint Shop Pro, even Adobe PhotoShop. Second  wish - the ability to right click on the Paint Movie icons to configure their basic settings - angle, density, stroke length etc. With these two editions PaintIt would then outdo programs and plugins like Virtual Painter etc.

At $39.99CAD [$10CAD if you buy any other Corel product], PaintIt is certainly priced right. There is a touch version that runs in special touch enabled versions of Windows 7. See here for details. Regular PaintIt runs on both Windows and Mac - and would make a natural on the iPad or the wave of tablets and slates coming to market in the Android world. Finally, I know two little kids for which PaintIt would be a die-for present.

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By admin | Posted in trends | Comments (0)
Jun
27
2010

Picture-taking - the new Forbidden Fruit

This is a story about the new forbidden fruit - picture taking at public events. After the Cobourg Highland Festival was washed out with a downpour, your PhotoFinishes editor wearing a PhotoFinishes cap and trying to rescue the day went down to the Cobourg Beach to catch the storm clouds over Lake Ontario. The graying Nimbus clouds were streaked with shimmering wind shear streaks  in the distance. However, there was a small problem - the beach was littered with beach volleyball nets ruining the haunting, near-deserted, rainy day beach shots desired. Okay, so adapt. Do what others are doing - taking snaps of some of the beach volleyball games with a riot of cameras: handheld, compacts, cellphone and even an SLR. Some are pickup games and others are part of an Ontario Volleyball Tournament.

Now four years ago yours truly with Sportpics covered the National Volleyball Championships that were held for 3 years in a row on these very same Cobourg’s beaches. Covering those tournaments one quickly picked up the etiquette of not getting in the way of the players. Stay close to the net poles on the opposite end  from where the referees stand - it has a bonus of being where some of the best slam shots, curves, and blocks can be snapped up.

Since two friends have kids playing serious volleyball I asked the scorers what age group the players are from. At that point Ms Officious arrives and asks “What am I doing.” Hunh? Taking pictures of the game since I cant get the beach shots desired because of the games here. “What organizations do you represent ? “- PixOfCanada, why? We covered the National tournaments here several times and I gave Ms. Officious my card. “Well you can’t take pictures there you are getting in the way of the game.” What? I am trying to get enough pictures for a story that will be run on the PixofCanada website. It will garner 30,000 readers per month for Ontario Volleyball. But the game is mediocre and Ms. Officious is like one of P.G.Wodhouse’s comic snapping terriers - so anxious to bite and snip at you, finding a better match seems the best course of action.


Three courts up the beach, the senior men are playing a very sharp game. Some great digs, even from full-blast slams. This is story worthy. But five minutes in Ms. P.R. Prettyface from Ontario Volleyball comes over and says “You cant take pictures here” . What? This is a public beach and your courts are in the way of the shots I originally came for. “Well you have to apply beforehand to get approval to take pictures … and its too late to do that”. But if I can get a few more pictures that will make a great story which I will publish on PixofCanada - you don’t want to miss out on 30,000 readers per month? “Nope, you cant take any more pictures” So I asked MS. P.R. to take me to her Ontario Volleyball Leader and sure enough he wanted to slit his own organizations best interests.

Exasperation

If you have detected a note of exasperation - you are an astute reader. Here are the reasons why:
1)The venue is a public park and beach paid for in part by PixofCanada tax payments. Since when could you not take pictures in a public park?
2)There were others taking pictures of the games - that was what convinced a change of heart from deserted beach to beach volleyball pictures.
3)There was no signage whatsoever declaring that this was an event at which picture-taking was forbidden.
4)Since this photographer had covered beach volleyball before, there was utmost observation of the proper picture taking etiquette while near the courts.
5)Finally there were some obvious questions. Does an event vendor using public property buy the right to decide who can take picture of the event? And are the city and county governments knowingly ceding this right of exclusive picture-taking to the event vendors? Also relevant - are governments charging extra for such privileges and demanding that advertising before the event and signage at the days of the event make this prohibition clear to prospective event goers?
So one can only conclude that Ontario Volleyball assumed that by renting the park for a period of time it had also been granted by the city of Cobourg and the county of Northumberland the right to designate who could and could not take pictures of the event.

It turns out Ontario Volleyball are not alone. Event sponsors using public property being used for public events with paid admission or not are reserving the right to prohibit picture-taking but not informing the public that they are doing so. A colleague discovered that at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto last year where pictures were confiscated and destroyed with the Toronto Police supporting Royal Winter Fair officials again without any signage or pre-event advertising warning photographers of the prohibition. Ditto on no more picture-taking for some photographers at Wakefest even though they were standing outside the grounds on the other side of the lagoon down on Toronto Islands a few years ago.

At least the Ice KiteFest near Orillia informs the prospective event go-er on their website [no confirmation that this is carried through on print advertising] that no picture taking is allowed except for designated individuals - so though attractive, this party does not go there despite the invitations.

Collision Course

For most events people want to take pictures or videos as a memento of the occasion. This is in conflict sometimes with event vendors that want to charge for those “services”. Think of the New York Yankees or the Toronto Blue Jays. In the case of the Blue Jays, many don’t go to the games because a)the product has not improved since 1993, b)the prices are sky high and c)taking pictures is in a state of limbo - sometimes its okay and other times it is not. Baseball which used to be a fun, inexpensive and photo-memorable outing is no longer so in Toronto.

But these event vendors have to take into account the fact that digital cameras which already have exploded in popularity have been supplemented by hundreds of millions of cellphone cameras. So now it is estimated that there are about 4 cameras per family in North America. These people want to take pictures of the places and events they go to - this is in conflict with event vendors like Ontario Volleyball or the Toronto Blue Jays who want to control who gets to take images of their events and may or may not clearly warn customers of those restrictions - especially in their pre-event and on site advertising. Unfortunately this is an ongoing conflict of interest that will likely get much more contentious before it gets resolved.

If you have experienced episodes of this forbidden picture taking - please make a comment and it will be added as soon as possible.

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By admin | Posted in comment | Comments (0)
Apr
24
2010

Apple vs Adobe Feud

Whats a waste! Apple’s Steve Job is getting awfully close to libelous scamming of Adobe Flash Player.Adobe has made the critical mistake of not putting enough resources into developing for Linux and Mac. And so Steve throws out HTML5 as a solution - and walks right into 3 big punches. First, HTML5 is far from a consensus standard among all the browser players[most notably Microsoft which begs to differ on some of the key elements in HTML5]. Second, just try to find HTML5 enabled tools like Dreamweaver CS5, lastets Eclipse, Aptana Studio, Netbeans, TopStyle - there are no tools ready for HTML5. Third and finally is that Google and others are delivering HTML5 stuff now that is “disruptive to Apple” Fo

For example, because Apple refused the Objective C version of Google Voice, the Googlites rewrote Google Voice using HTML5. So now can Steve not allow the HTML5 version of Google Voice? If he does allow it - then the iPad becomes a wonderful phone using Skype+Google Voice and future versions of iPad lose some allure. If he does not allow the HTML5 version of Google Voice then Steve has some real cedibility problems at the least - and maybe some lawsuits and/or antitrust action.

But Steve is shaky again in another area - he has rejected Flash even in the generated Objective C code form - saying that generated code does not take advantage of all the iPad and iPhone features. But this invalidates a number of other iPad/iPhone code generators too. So again what does Steve do - invalidate just the Flash to iPhone generator [and get slapped with a law suit in that case for discriminatory practices] or ban all code generators - and loose a good number of developers to other platforms and a loss of momentum for development on the iPhone.

For the best breakdown on whats up see the following analysis by the Gerson Lehrman Group. But the bottom line is that Flash has just received a huge blow similar to what Microsoft did to Sun’s Java on PCs. Microsoft had to pay $2billion to Sun for polluting Java; but hey they had $24billion in cash at that time and it prevented people from migrating from Windows to Linux and Macs which Java GUI applets and Weblets allowed. Hmmm, Apple right now has $24B in its Cash Kitty - and iPhone and iPad makes up more than 50% of its profit about - maybe Steve can afford a lawsuit costing $1-4Billion to save the $8-10Billion in iPhone and iPad profits per year and growing. See the model below:

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Apr
08
2010

Graffiti in Toronto

This series of pictures shows that if you have any choice, err on the side of underexposure because everyone of the photos was underexposed by 1 to 3 stops as dusk became nearly full night. One can tell the more underexposed images by the amount of noise and/or blue shift in the final images. What I find paradoxical is that over exposures leave the same amount of color information - but overexposures greater of two stops or greater cannot be rescued in a similar fashion.

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Mar
22
2010

Found at WWMSF: Mary Weilandt Photos

The Warkworth Maple Syrup Festival’s Art Show was a real find with a range of excellent artworks from sculptures to ceramics as well as photos and paintings. The entries were not only top notch but often very witty as well. However, taking pictures of the photos did not work as the glass covering of the framed pictures were picked up as obtrusive reflections. However, the top prize winner at the show, Mary Weilandt, graciously sent some copies of her photos which are shown here.


In this black and white floral image, Mary’s background in optical work certainly comes through. The lighting is broad, even, and leaves no harsh glare points. Instead the rich details of the bloom is just a touching fragrance away.


This portrait of cows in the field piqued my sense of humor - I had to be careful not to laugh out loud at the opening night. It is almost as if one were meeting some laconic Northumberland farmers. The fog in the background adds to the sense of drama. Now cows can be curious but some will say they are not the brightest light bulbs in the field. Given the somewhat menacing glare of the bull on the right, there is just a bit of sly reversal in this farm portrait.


I know this countryside and Fall setting well and Mary has done a a splendid job getting the eye to wander up and around along the road with white aspen and birch acting as conductors along with their yellow leaves. There are hints of wetness and chill and the dark greenery suggest a bit of foreboding for the coming of Winter to the woods. One can imagine settlers seeing the same scene but with a two track road 200 years ago. The exquisite lighting [one can imagine some dodging and burning] makes this a splendid image.

In sum, Mary has treated viewers to a touch of local fair with good styling, excellent photo finishing and a dash of humor that has been well rewarded with top ranking at the Spirit of the Hills Art Show.

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Mar
21
2010

“Picture” Journalism

Newspapers have long lead the parade with cartoons and pictures as integral parts of their papers. The Web has changed that just a bit and now a broad set of media are starting to show up in the websites of newspapers and magazines. The problem of course, is that new media such as slideshows, animated cartoons and video can only be translated back to their print publications either as a link or one or two image grabs - a few of many images.

With that in mind, here is how one paper, the NYTimes is coping with the reality that online allows the “newspaper” to be more real - provide more context, more realistic sounds and images in videos, and more expressive opportunity.

Cartoons are alive and sort of well

Cartoons in the Times appear episodically, Frank Rich’s column almost always has a cartoon but other columnists like David Pogue have cartoons sometimes.

But the Times has a whole section of their website devoted to photography. It is called the Lens and features not just NYTimes photographers but a broad range of outstanding lens men :

Here is another from the Lens.

This image is from a series about Bedroom War Memorials for soldiers killed in action in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is a most powerful piece.

Video is alive and well even though it is hard to reproduce faithfully in the print edition. There is a lot of sports action but also a broad range of topics in the Video section - you just have to look carefully:

Try the videos from the Opera, its great stuff.

Perhaps the best use of multimedia was the NYTimes depiction of the margin of victory in the recent Winter Olympics using sounds to beep the difference between first and tenth - absolutely wonderful.

Summary

So still images, cartoons and arts still prosper among the print media. But with the rise of iPads, Kindles and other eReaders do expect the move to electronic “reading” and therefore media to continue apace. After all with television and video this transition to full motion reality is already well under way.

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Mar
11
2010

Corel Paint Shop Pro Version 3: Resurrection?

Last year I wrote RIP: Corel PaintShop Pro on this blog and made the following comments:

Unfortunately, After Corel took over Paint Shop Pro - they appear to have applied their vaunted Corel Reverse Midas Touch [think PhotoPaint, Picture Publisher and Word Perfect franchises]. Right now, Paint Shop Pro V2 is in a contest with Microsoft Vista for most bloated, slowest and unreliable software. Microsoft Vista wins the fatty title hands down, its nip tuck on slowest, but Corel cops the fragility title hands and program down again and again easily.


Well I am a sucker for punishment and downloaded the full trial version of the new Corel Paint Shop Pro Version 3 in order to see if Corel had managed to fix anything. Here are my observation based on running:
Windows 7 on 2.1GHz Dual Core machine with 4GB of RAM and 500GB HDisk with 80% freespace
Testing was done with no other program running but Paint Shop Pro V3 and then Adobe Photoshop CS3

Here are the results:

Measure Corel PshopPro V3 Photoshop CS3
Install 30min 24min
Memory Used 476MB 386MB
Start up 11sec 9sec
Load 16MB Image 5sec 4sec
Curves Correction 1sec <1sec
Impressionist Plugin 21sec 24sec
Duplicate Layer 1sec <1sec
Convert to B+W 4sec <1sec
Rotate 1sec <1sec
Blur Gaussian 20 10sec <1sec
Sharpen 3sec 3sec
Unsharp mask 20 13sec 2sec
Save As JPG Max 11sec 8sec
Size of Final JPG 51MB 48MB

The bottom line is that Photoshop is distinctly faster than Corel Paint Shop Pro version 3, uses less memory and of course provides a wider feature set; but at $715 at Amazon for CS3 Extended versus Corel PaintShop Pro V3 at $100 - there is certainly a value trade off.

But the biggest news by far is that Windows 7-like, Version 3 of PaintShop Pro seems to have eliminated all the crashes I was experiencing in Version 2. In three days of fairly intensive testing, Version 3 has crashed only once [ditto for Photoshop CS3]. Big improvement.

Equally important for end users is the dramatic improvement in response time - still not in Photoshop territory [only one command , the Impressionist plugin, was slightly faster than in Photoshop CS3]. But this is a marked improvement on being 50-70% slower than Photoshop in our previous tests.

The size of the program is about 20% bigger than Photoshop CS3 - I don’t have comparisons with Version 2 of PaintShop Pro. So whats-new improvements like multi-photo editing a la Lightroom, Seam Carver, and direct video editing [about 20% of my web still images come from HD video image captures] will have to carry the day. And the active Learning Center plus Express lab simplify learning and using Paint Shop Pro V3.

I am looking for a simple and fast Photo Editor to compliment Photoshop - sort of like the handy, light Panasonic 10x zoom camera that goes with me everywhere while I reserve the Canaon SLR for major shoots. But I will wait one more version of Paint Shop Pro to see if they can improve the response time even further and add more to the Express Lab and multi-photo features. But clearly, Corel Paint Shop Pro version 3 is like Windows 7 [and SP1], on the road to redemption.

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By admin | Posted in software | Comments (0)
Mar
01
2010

When is a Picture More than Just a Picture?

Is this just a Photo?

Toronto Winter City Festival - Angel of the Apocalypse Exhibit by the Flaming Lotus Girls

I have been blithely producing this series of Olympic Plugin articles without asking a very relevant question - when is a picture more than just a picture? By that I mean in the process of doing photo-taking and photo-finishing a simple image can become a crafted production nothing like the moment in 1/50th of a second in time it is intended to capture. This is even more true using one or more of the currently recommended Olympic Plugins [and there a lot more Olympic Plugin reviews on tap in the next few weeks]. So while doing the articles I have had lingering thoughts about what makes up a true, real and legitimate picture.

Toronto Close-up from Angel of the Apocalypse Exhibit by the Flaming Lotus Girls

Here is the essential question. When, in the process of taking a picture with the aid of props, zoom lenses, and blitz flash attachments among other things, does the image change from a moment in time to a carefully crafted statement of what was seen? If a picture is worth a thousand words, is a carefully photo-finished or ‘hand crafted’ image production worth a million words [or dollars]? Or is a picture still a picture up until the moment it leaves the camera[or SD card] and is taken into Photoshop [or your favorite image/photo editing program] and then cropped, color corrected, sharpened, and/or smoothed to meet your remembrances of what it looked like when you took the image?

Another Close-up from Angel of the Apocalypse Exhibit at Toronto Winter City Festival

Or does an image not cross the line from photo to statement until one adds a new layer or a completely different image element into a composition? Say splice on a second viewpoint for a panorama view. Or cutout a portion of an image and then recombine and re-merge the pure elements into a “tighter” view of the scene. This is deliberate distortion of the reality of the scene; therefore this must be a true, realistic image changed to a statement about what was seen and felt. And is one required to make the statements explicit - so no none could be deceived into thinking that this “altered” image was in fact a true rendering of reality?

Redline from Angel of the Apocalypse Exhibit at Toronto Winter City Festival

Now to my surprise, I discovered yesterday that the people at Popular Photography and the New York Times David Pogue have been tending the same garden. I have always thought of photography as a moment in time - a slice of life. To me Photography is to video/movies as a poem is to a novel. And then the obvious became apparent. Photography is inevitability a statement about what one values. Indeed capturing a value to be perhaps shared with others or at other times.

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By admin | Posted in design, stillcamera, trends | Comments (0)
Feb
28
2010

Winter Olympics - Savviest Media Coverage

The Vancouver Winter Olympic Games have been a delight despite the warm weather. And the coverage in the Press around the world has been a lot more than I expected given that it is Winter events that just do not have traction in much of the warmer climes. What really surprised was the mixed coverage and usage of social media such as Twitter, Facebook and various blogging commentaries and forums. However, on the use of media such as video, graphis, and image slideshows the world media

So a perusal of the various websites covering the games found a cornucopia of great media coverage and how-to articles available describing the Game events and resultsa. Anybody interested in finding out how and why and maybe some of the physics and science behind an event has a wealth of articles to choose from. Here is our ranking of the top five Winter Olympic Coverage site for their use of Web media.

5th Place - Google Earth 3D Map of the Games
gooearth
Use of Google Earth and its special viewing files of the Olympic venues requires a free download of the Google Earth program if users don’t already have it downloaded. But Google Earth [and Google Mars for that matter] are well worth the while because they give such wonderful views of places and cities throughout the World. And Google has pulled out the stops for a great look see at Vancouver and the great BC countryside.

4th Place - HowStuffWorks How the Luge Works

HowStuffWorks is a website devoted to explaining how things work with pictures and explanations. This coverage of the Luge Event is typically thorough [although the map of the Whistler Luge Track is strangely missing given that maps of the luge runs in Torino 2006 and Salt Lake City 2002 tracks are shown]. After reading this article I have a much better feel for the equipment, speed and danger of luge racing.

3rd Place Bronze - NBC/NSF Science of the Winter Olympics

The NSF-National Science Foundation worked with NBC to put out a 16 part series of videos describing the science of some of the more popular Olympic events. What is novel is that they look not just at the physics but also the biochemistry and fluid dynamics that turn out to be crucial for the many different sports. These are wonderful learning exercises that I wish I would have had for my Science classes in grade or junior high school. Not only are they very instructive but also they are very motivational. Imagine seeing a sport up close and then getting the basic science behind the event. What a motivator for understanding and/or participation. The illustration at times is uneven, but the overall quality is high.

2nd Place Silver - NYTimes Tie - Inside the Action and Interactive Action
nytsports
The New York Times has set a standard for coverage of the Games that just blows away the competition for savvy use of graphics, video and blogs. They are consistently a level above the sports media - using video window in video, graphics, direct illustration on video and competitor’s own dubbed commentary to add great insights into the intricacies of the sports. I looked at a number of sites including TheStar, GlobeandMail, ESPN, CTVOlympics, NBCOlympics, BBC/Sports, LeMonde/Sports, LATimes, DerSpeigel, among others - and none offered the range of sports or the insights of the written and video coverage that could match the NYTimes.

1st Place Gold - NYTimes - Fractions of a Second: An Olympic Musical
nytmusic
Edward Tufte who is to communication graphics as Josef Albers is to Color Theory or J.K.Rowling is to childhood fiction - I suspect Tufte would give his seal approval to this musical graphic that shows in sing song tunes how close the finishes were in a number of the Olympic events [you must visit the site for the benefit of audio playback - its better than a blink of the eye]. The musical tones tell the story in sonorous fashion of just how close the finishes were. This is a gold medal triumph of Web media “illustration”.

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By admin | Posted in design, trends | Comments (0)
Feb
25
2010

Apple iPad: Missing the Media Community

The Apple iPad has been called a big iPod iTouch - and with good reason. iPad supports a big, full touch screen operations with a high resolution color screen which is readable in ambient light - think outdoors

on a sunny day. The iPad will certainly be a good game machine and a better book reader than Kindle if its oudoor performance and 10 hour battery life stand and deliver. But the iPad, despite all its Jobsian pizzazz, leaves the media and graphics community wanting.

The bulk of Apple’s strength on the PC and notepad computing is among graphic artists and media-savvy people. But here the iPad has some notable missing links. The creative community is going 16:9 and iPad does not quite fit. A small nuisance you say but the IPad omits a camera and SDCard features attractive to media people. Then the iPad sadds to the insult when, in a Jobsian hissy fit, the most popular container for media, Adobe’s Flash is stonewalled again. Woah! Whats going on?  And finally, the iPad OS still does not deliver multitasking - so presentations have to be self contained , non-Flash, and without quickly accessible backdrop apps. And if that is not enough, there is no Wifi Direct support for exchanging files in a flash. In fact, with 3G support exclusively given to AT&T [the last of the major US carriers committed to 4G/LTE expansion of network bandwidth], doing online shows will also be at risk.

In sum, iPad is a Kindle killer that can run games and photos/video blazingly fast but even a little short there because of no_Flash and the weak net connections. iPad is also missing no convenient way to quickly transfer media between iPad and notepads, other iPads and other media carriers. Hmmm. Maybe maybe this has been done deliberately by Apple to help make those upcoming MacBooks and other Apple notepads seem to be as loaded as Steve Jobs promised in a post iPad pronouncement - they will need to be.

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By admin | Posted in trends | Comments (0)
Feb
24
2010

Olympic Plugins: AutoFx Free Dreamy and Mosaic

The Winter Olympic games have been quite exciting and picturesque - inspiring this series of Olympic Plugins reviews that highlight some of the best free and for fee plugins available. The improvement in plugins capabilities over the past 3-4 years have been quite dramatic.  Here are two from the AutoFX that are both free and quite compelling. Users can not only get a free plugin but also a feel for the AutoFX standalone style of plugin - where autoFX allows users to openstandalone plugin program and apply various effects - [but not concurrently, one image at a time].

Dreamy Photo Plugin

The Dreamy plugin goes beyond Photoshop’s Blur | Surface Blur
Some users may note that the Dreamy Plugin produces results similar to Photoshop’s Blur | Surface Blur filter - and as the example below shows that is true. But look at the Dreamy Photo interface shown above users have  for zoom offset that is unavailable in Surface Blur. Also there are controls for ghosting and Tint Color in the Dreamy Plugin which are quite helpful. But the eseence of the plugin is to apply a softness that is shape and edge savvy as seen below.

Soft Focus styling
Notice three things in the use of the Dreamy plugin. First, I have warmed up the image a bit by using the the Tint Color  option with an orange red hue. Second I have ised the Ghosting option which places as a light ghost image at the outside edge of the figure skaters. This is more useful than the directional ghosting using say the drop shadow option avilable in the layer Fx styling functions. Finally using the Blur and Blend options I am able to achieve a better dream finish which adds to the mode projected by the figure skaters. I found this was achieved a lot faster than the many tries used in Photoshop’s <strong>Blur | Surface Blur</strong>  filter.

In sum for free, the Dreamy Photo plugin accomplishes a lot of tasks quickly that would require several steps in Photoshop. Its this type of productivity that a photo finisher really appreciates.

Mosaic Plugin

In the past, this reviewer has scoffed at painting and design plugins - because they often get abused. Arbitrarily applied with little value add to the image other than novelty. Mosaic is a classic example. And the screenshot above is just such a marginal case. There is not a compelling case for using Mosaic in this photo of a Freestyle Aerialist at the Olympics.

But now consider the before and after shot below of the pair skaters shot from above.

In contrast here the Mosaic plugin works well. First the shot is taken from above directly down on the skaters for a mosaic floor viewpoint. Second, the Mosaic look gives the feeling of a Moment in Time captured forever. Last but not least, one can visualize an Etruscan or Finish manor house with this floor piece to greet guests who enter the sun room or sauna bath. Very fine indeed.

Summary

These are the two biggest freebies up at the autoFX site - but they are certainly worth the download. This is particularly true if you plan to buy other autoFX filters and want to get a feel for how well the filters work and how easy[or hard] they are to get used to. Be forewarned - some of the other for-fee plugins have even more controls than shown here

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By admin | Posted in plugins, software | Comments (0)
Feb
21
2010

Olympic Plugins: Redfield Free Plugins

Redfield is one of those small plugin companies like Flaming Pear and Mehdi that have offered a lot of value to photo finishers in 3 ways. First, they have a number of free plugins [more on that just below] which provide good value to users. Second, all of their plugins are available in a fully functioning demo version which allows potential users to try out the real plugin getting a clear idea of how well it fits their needs. Last, but not least the plugins are modestly priced [well under $100] given the often superb performances they deliver.

So in this review , some of the free Redfield plugins are on display. Starting with Craquelure:

This plugin allows users to apply textured background to an image that reflects some or none of the existing background.  Craquelure works best in images where users are able to mask out the foreground figure and apply the plugin into the isolated background. See the results here.

I like this plugin because the transformations it allows are quite diverse while  the Opacity, Refraction, and Rotation controls allow for users to conjure some great textured effects.

The Lattice Composer is another free Redfield plugin that is useful when giving an overall look to an image with lattice lines and hue changes. Here is the Lattice Composer’s interface which gives an idea of all the control users can apply:

Note the use  of hue change and the directional control of the lattice lines.

Here is the same basic settings applied with one notable difference: the skier has been masked out of the image so the plugin is applied to the background. The intention is to give “another world” look to ski-jumping:

The effect just heightens an image already suggesting a nether world of competition.

Redfield has at least half a dozen more free plugins and some very useful pay-for ones as well which shall be featured in this Olympic Plugins series of reviews.

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By admin | Posted in trends | Comments (0)
Feb
20
2010

Olympic Plugins: Edges and Frames

The last step in PhotoFinishing is to add a frame to your image - and this can be an extraordinarily dangerous business. I have seen too many very good shots diminished by overstated metal/wooden frames and mattes. And in the digital world , the ability to do great harm to a good image seems to be  enhanced with sophisticated photo finishing programs with layering  like Corel Painter or Paintshop Pro and especially Adobe Photoshop.

That is why I like the crop of new plugins like onOne’s PhotoFrame 4.5 - $260US and Auto FX’s Photo Graphic Edges - $250US.They allow you to do two things very quickly: 1)tryout a very broad range of frames and edges[literally hundreds in all sorts of styles] very quickly and 2)customize the fit, width, coloring and opacity of those digital frames - again very quickly. True you can do it yourself in Painter or Photoshop using layers and brushes and sophisticated resizings/actions. But that is the problem - one becomes so invested in getting that grunge frame looking exactly right - one is not willing to walk away from it when it deflates the image it is supposed to enhance.  So perhaps the biggest advantage is that Frame/Edge plugins allow a photofinisher an opportunity to see quickly how a framing will work [- or not] for a particular image.

Examples of Frames

Enter onOne’s PhotoFrame 4.5 for example.
onOne Photoframe Design Interface
One can quickly see how good [or bad] a frame will look on your image. Err on the sides  of  simplicity and expression. The frame should not be ostentatious and drawing attention away from the main image. It also shoul help to express the feeling you want to convey with the image.  Here are some examples.

Using onOne’s PhotoFrame

Frames allow photo finishers to direct attention and add an emotional suggestion or hint to a photo. The first example of the Chinese gold medal figure skating pairs in practice, uses a line frame [the image on the right] to hint at the tentative nature of the practice skate with incomplete thin lines around:

Frame emphasizes tentative nature of practice

In contrast the second image uses a bold frame for ski-jumping. The Whistler area has such  beautiful panoramas and the ski-jumping event for most observers is like being launched into a new new world . This is the reasoning behind the use of the special artists frame:

Frame accentuates soaring into anew world view

autoFX Photo Graphic Edges examples

I really like the design interface for PGE-PhotoGraphic Edges. Its easy to navigates and gives users control over a lot of the frame/edge settings such as border, color, width of border etc. Here we use a grunge Edge to suggest that the downhill racers could easily go splat with a high speed tumble:

And here is an example of the before and after splat look:

Unfortunately our subsequent experience with autoFx PGE plugin was quite erratic. On the same Windows XP 2.0GHz 3GB RAM machine that PhotoFrame 4.5 performed flawlessly on, PGE produced quite a number of crashes like this:

PGE Designer Crashes Many Times

This is too bad because the filters and edges in PGE are very promising and the design interface very approachable.

Summary

Adding frames to your photo can be done either in software primarily as outlined here or using the glass, matte and framing crafts of Frame Store. i have always had troubles with the glass, even acid treated glass on photo images, so I tend to favor the software approach. But - as seen here, make sure the frame works for you image - working to convey the over all impression intended.

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By admin | Posted in design, plugins | Comments (0)
Feb
18
2010

The Apple vs Adobe Squabble

Steve Jobs has been dissing Adobe’s Flash for the past 2-3 years for reasons public but still fundamentally unknown. Since the launch of the iPhone in 2008 Flash has been programma non grata on Apple iPods and iPhones.  Various reasons have been supplied including not fast enough, buggy, and drains power. The legitimacy of these claims is under question.

With the launch of the iPad without Flash [which is used on 98% of all browser, and for 70% of all video browsing on the Web], Steve Jobs has seen fit to tell the Wall Street Journal that running Flash on the iPad  sucks the battery life out of the iPad from 10hours to 1.5hours; hence the reason for his ban on Flash.

But our own tests on an old PowerPC powered Mac and a new MacBook tell a slightly different story. On the old PowerPC Mac there have been no bugs, no speed differential versus Apple’s Quicktime for video display  and no “battery drain” problem. Admittedly this is an older version of the Flash Player so test were done on a new MacBook with the Leopard and then Snow Leopard OS. The results show Snow Leopard running slower[surprise!] but no bugs in either version of the OS. Unfortunately there was no battery life test[who could guess what complaint Steve would come up with next]. The same Flash files were then run on  a Windows XP  and the Windows 7 laptops.  The Flash player version is 10.0 [because 10.1 was beta it was not used].

In the case of Windows XP Flash’s speed was faster than in Windows 7 but from time to time sprouted non-fatal error messages. Windows 7’s Flash Players results were no error messages but slower run times. As for battery drain, the tests showed no notable difference between Adobe Flash vs Apple Quicktime vs Windows Media Player for battery usage while playing full screen movies [not the same ones unfortunately].

Independent confirmation of the idea that Adobe Flash runs fast enough is provided by this report in Wired in which Google Android based mobile phone which is notably slower than iPhone CPU runs Flash with no problems. Now in the commentary below the Wired article all sorts of mis-information flourishes- Google can now search Flash files, Flash does indeed run slower on Snow Leopard and especially in Safari but seems fine in Firefox using Flash Player 9.

Conclusions

Steve Jobs is having another hissy fit with Adobe. This has happened before with the intro of Aperture and Final Cut Pro - competitors to Adobe Lightroom/Photoshp and Premiere respectively. Its one of those masculine, zerosum conflicts where both side get scarred and then who cares? Google. Because their Android OS runs Flash just fine in Android for smartphones and Netbooks. And both of those will be competing with iPhone and iPad come this Spring and Google will be armed with Flash - the current best multimedia container in the world for numbers of users, features, and efficiency of storage. Hmm sound like a big giveaway by Apple.

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By admin | Posted in trends | Comments (0)
Feb
11
2010

Canons Nextgen Compact Camera

When I did my recent review of 3 NextGen Compact Cameras I could not help wondering where were Canon and Nikon. Well Canon has answered in no uncertain terms with its new Powershot line up. The top of the line Powershot SX210 IS is particularly impressive staking NextGen highs for MPixels and optical zoom:

Canon Powershot SX210 IS - $350, 14MPixel, 14x zoom, 217 grams with battery and SD card

These are top of the line basic specs just under Samsung’s 15x zoom and leading all the NextGen compact cameras for megaPixels captured at 14.5. But Canon has packed a lot of other features into this slim and light compact. The Powershot delivers 720P video and bevy of camera shooting controls including manual, shutter priority and aperture priority.

In addition , the camera provides ISO 80 to 1600 settings, 4 automated focus methods, plus White Balance Color Control of  high value. Like the other NextGen cameras the Powershot takes advantage of its on board image chip to provide Smart Shutter capabilities which include Smile, Wink Self-timer, Face Detection,Self-timer, Low Light, Color Accent, Color Swap, Fisheye Effect, Miniature Effect, Beach, Foliage, Snow, Fireworks, Stitch Assist. Lets examine just three of these.

How many times have you gone to the beach and found the shots not just a bit overexposed and/or color shifted on a perfectly sunny day. This is because of the glare  caused by  diffuse light reflections off the sand. Beach Smart Shutter corrects for these exposure shifts. But in dark lighting conditions, the camera has a Low Light mode that allows taking low-noise and sharper images. Finally, the camera supplies a circular Fisheye mode which adds fun and utility to cramped shots - where you want to catch the full spectrum of what is happening.

The Powershot has some nifty extras as well - a macro mode allowing images within 5cm about 2 inches to be taken - coupled with the 28mm wide angle or Fisheye mode - this makes for some creative macro image taking opportunities.  In a similar fashion, the movie mode allows recording 1280 x 720p movies with stereo sounds with HDMI output so you can show on TV or You Tube your movie productions. In sum, the Canon Powershot, also available in mid-March, goes onto my list of  now 4 NextGen Compact Cameras to try out this Spring.

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By admin | Posted in trends | Comments (0)
Feb
04
2010

NYTimes David Pogue’s Best Compact Cameras under $300

NYTimes David Pogue has a great sense for value - and this year’s choices for the best compact camera for under $300 are as usual quite good. As seen in this very helpful chart, 10MPixel or better storage and some prices well under $300 rule the roost.  Many of David’s recommended cameras have 10x zoom, several have HD video and many use SD cards and some have 24mm wide angle but only one has the choice of manual/aperture priority/shutter priority shooting.  My point - for $50 more users can get compact cameras with all of these features plus light weight and thin size, advanced image exposure, improved auto-focus, plus a neat collection of individual attractions like advanced burst mode exposures or GPS/Compass recording and display capabilities. So do read David’s best, but also take a glance at the top of the line compacts for $350.

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By admin | Posted in trends | Comments (0)
Jan
31
2010

3 Next-generation Compact Cameras

As a photo-artist I really appreciate always having a camera with me. Rather than taking a bulky, heavy SLR everywhere I have reverted back to compact cameras because they are certainly delivering on thin, light, wide zoom-range and gobs of features. They are also bound and determined not to provide a view finder - to my chagrin.

But the LED viewing/composing screens on the back are getting ever better. And now that HD video is on board so is multiple fast exposures. And most cameras provide at least 10MPixels and 10x zoom so there is a lot to like as portability with lots of picture taking power becomes ever better. And the new compact cameras are a real leg up on using smartphones with their tiny sensors and cramped, coke bottle lensing. So here are three compact cameras, two of which were at the CES 2010 show which show very great promise for the price:

1)Sony Cybershot HX5V/B - $350, 10MPixels, 10x zoom, 171grams

To these capabilities Sony has added a rich set of goodies including HD video clips at 1920 x 1080p using either AVCHD or storage efficient MP4 recording format, four anti-blur functions, and GPS capabilities - the camera records not just the time and date when the picture was taken but also its location and direction of shooting with an on board compass - orienteering people take note.

My 3 favorite new goodies are burst mode of 10 frames per second so you never miss that action shot. The Sony people have taken this capability a step further with the Panorama Sweep Mode. Press the shutter and sweep - then the camera does the rest, continuously shooting images and in one second stitching them together. Second, the camera takes face recognition to a new level with anti-blink detection and Smile recognition. Now all you have to do is coax the subject to relax and enjoy their portrait. Third, there is Transfer jet Technology which allows transferring up to 10 files by just touching two devices together. Most of the major camera makers are on board - Canon, Casio, Eastman Kodak, Hitachi Ltd, JVC-Kenwood Holdings, KDDI, NEC, Nikon, NTT docomo, Olympus, Panasonic, Pioneer, Samsung, Seiko Epson, Sharp, SoftBank Mobile, Sony, and Toshiba. The speed is about 35 MB second and the demo was impressive; but I am from Missouri on this, the Motion Detection,  and in camera Photo editing functions. You and I will have to wait until mid March this year to test out these features. But boy I wish the Sony SLRs could get some of these smarts. Oh and perhaps most important of all, the Cybershot HX5 supports industry standard SD/SDHC cards.

2)Samsung HZ35W - $350??, 12MPixels, 15xzoom, 245grams with battery and SC/SDHC card

Like the Sony Cybershot, the Samsung HZ35W has video but at 720P and 30fps with HDMI or USB connector and H.264 compression. It also has GPS capabilities and takes them a couple steps further than Sony. There is in-camera software for displaying saved images on a map interface so that users can in effect use the camera as a record of when and how pictures were taken - and as a live GPS compass.

Meanwhile The 3″ AMOLED screen [much better visibility in direct sunlight] not only shows GEO tags and maps but also delivers truer colors while reducing battery drain. The 15x zoom is tops in this compact camera field with equivalent of a 24-360mm SLR range.

Finally, the Samsung provides greater camera control - with manual mode, aperture priority and shutter priority as well as a choice of ISO 80-3200, shutter 16sec- 1/2000sec, and f3.2 to f9.8. This is coupled with 2 auto-focus corrections and 8 major picture taking modes. The one problem is that Samung has not decided on a price for the cameras debut at the end of March 2010 - the lower bound is the $280 price of Samsung TL105.

To this camera buff the great zoom and camera control options make the HZ35W a real contender depending on how that AMOLED screen performs and the final pricing.

3)Casio EXILIM EX-FH100 - $350, 10x zoom, 10MPixel, 181grams without battery

The CASIO EX-FH100 looks a lot like the Sony Cybershot in its key specs. However it does not have the Cybershot’s GPS feature and can only do HD at 1280 x 720p at 30 fps [ but also can do a range of small sizes from 640 x 480 at 120fps to 224 x 64 1000fps]. And its high speed exposure capability is carried into the still image taking where the camera can take 30 shots at 9MPixels shooting from 2fps to 30fps [user selected]. Given that the camera already has two auto focus correction systems, the sharpness of the image is enhanced by Best Shot Option that automatically selects the best image from burst exposures depending on what shooting mode is chosen.

The Casio EX-FH100 uses its burst mode operation coupled with its fast image processor to merge with the flash combining two or more images into one evenly lighted shot. Likewise the camera does auto-HDR combinations of 3 images shot at user selected ev intervals to get the best possible highlight and shadow areas combined into one image. This smart burst-shot technology is combined with a back illuminated CMOS sensor to provide a total 10 Best Shot modes of operation.

Having used the Casio EX-FH1 for the past two years, I am anxious to tryout the EX-FH100 in mid-March when the camera goes on sale. My contacts say that the Best Shot modes, new camera raw format, and 9MPixels [versus 5MPixels for the my EX-FH1] makes for outstanding image taking. I am anxious to confirm that.

Summary

Although these three cameras each have very similar basic profile [and for me that is light, thin, and fit in a shirt pocket], each has its own special attractions. I will definitely be at the camera stores in March and April to give readers an update on the performance of each of these compact cameras. I am from Missouri, so I have to see for myself how well these cameras perform before I give the final review on what appears to be 3 great mobile cameras.

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By admin | Posted in hardware, trends | Comments (0)