68

Popular Photography and Imaging - December 2005

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

CONTENTS

DECEMBER 2005 VOLUME 69, NO. 12

CAMERA OF TH$3,300 Canon EOraises the bar for albut thrusts it into th

FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

PLUS...12 Letters21 Snapshots27 Just Out31 Your Best Shot64 The Fix136 Time Exposure154 Tech Support167 What’s Up With…

WEB SITE EXCLUSIVESwww.POPPHOTO.com@

▲▲

“DIGITAL TOOLBOX” PODCAST Listen as Debbie Grossman leads youstep-by-step through various Photoshop skills. Play it on your computer ordownload this audio fi le to your iPod so you can take Debbie wherever you go.

NEW PAPERLESS MAGAZINE Check out the new digital edition of POP

PHOTO. Every feature and every page is there, only in an electronic format.Click “Subscribe Now” on the home page for all the details.

PHOTO EMERGENCIES! What do you do if a fl ood or other watery disasterstrikes your prints, negatives, slides, or electronic-image fi les? We come to therescue with tips on saving your precious pictures.

ADOBE PHOTSHOP ELEMENTS 4 Debbie Grossman reviews the latest versionof this superpopular program. Also, exclusive Podcast commentary by the “Digital Toolbox” diva.

Cover: Photographer of the Year 2005 Michael Soo shot the coverimage of a Canon EOS 5D using a Canon EOS 20D and a 24–70mmf/2.8L Canon lens, exposing for 1/250 sec at f/5.6; ISO 100. Whyf/5.6? “So that the rear of the camera is soft enough to melt into thebackground, bringing focus to the front, brand name, texture, andshape,” he says. With the 5D on a grill-like table, Soo set three red-gelled White Lightning strobes around it and one beneath.

=COVER STORY

68 Canon EOS 5D The one to beatMichael J. McNamara

72 Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1 Big, beautiful EVFDan Richards

74 Pentax 40mm f/2.8 DA Limited pancake lens Peter Kolonia

75 ACDSee 8 Photo Manager Organize fast Debbie Grossman

76 Quantum Qfl ash T5d Flash systemPeter Kolonia

77 Epson PowerLite 755c LCD digital projectorPhilip Ryan

17 Editorial Show us your stuff John Owens

52 SLR DSLR boomR Herbert Keppler

62 Film Now Positives for negatives Russell Hart

168 Showcase Ladies or GentlemenDebbie Grossman

▲▲

▲▲

▲▲

▲ DREAM TEAM: What a year for digital SLRs! Here are seven that we tested in 2005, along with a scouting report on those to come.

TESTS/REVIEWS

©M

ICH

AE

L S

OO

(CO

VE

RA

ND

CA

ME

RA

PY

RA

MID

); R

ICO

PO

ON

(OTH

ER

CA

ME

RA

S)

28 All I Want for Festivus Holiday

84 Camera of the Year The CanonThe Editors

86 DSLR All-Stars of 20055 Best in the league Michael J. McNamara

90 They Might Be Giants Will EVFs stomp DSLRs? Dan Richards

92 Mothers of Invention CCool digicam tricksDan Richards

96 Digital Optical Options Kit lenses vs. the pros Peter Kolonia

104 You Fall, You Die Shootting to extremesJad Davenport

HOW-TO

39 Nature Bring Death Valley to life Tim Fitzharris

47 Travel Fit to be Thai

58 Digital Toolbox Healing Brush step-by-stepxDebbie Grossmaan

78 Tips & Tricks Tips our readers swear byaders swear by

81 You Can Do It! He shoots seashells Peter Kolonnia

100 Read a Camera Test Behind the numbersMichael J. McNamara

122 Get Creative Alphabet City Bryan F. Peterson

2005

DSLRALL

STARS

▲ FEATS IN INCHES: Sure, they’re small, but these 12 digital compacts are packed with amazing features.

86

92

Kodachrome: keepin’ the faithIn response to Michael Gottlieb’s let-ter in the September 2005 issue sug-gesting that in 2027 when people hear Paul Simon’s song “Kodachrome,”they’ll ask, “What’s Kodachrome?”

I think that in 2027 people willknow Kodachrome quite well. Af-ter decades of gradually losing theirdigital photography to hard drivefailures, corrupted fi les, unreadabledisks, viruses, obsolete formats,and just plain mistakes, fi lm photo-graphy may make up the majority of images from these times.

Patrick McNamara Westfi eld, NJ

ÑYe olde Photoshoppe?Knowing that I work with oldphotos, a customer recently brought me this one, hop-ing I could shed some light on the technique. I can’t. It appears to be the same girl

in each seat, but there’s no tell-tale signs of multiple exposures. I’ve also ruled out mirrors, since her expres-sion changes slightly. Cut and paste would have been too expensive for a postcard. Any ideas? Bill Becker

Hillsdale, NJ

According to Todd Gustavson, Curator of Technology at George Eastman House International Mu-seum of Photography and Film in Rochester, NY, the picture was in-deed made with mirrors. What ap-pear to be slight changes in expres-sion are due to the different

angles at which the subject is pre-sented to the camera. The illustra-tion below, from an early edition of Photographic Amusements (fi rst published in 1896), by Frank Fra-prie and Walter Woodbury, shows how it’s done. The book says this type of shot was a popular money-maker for photographers in summer resorts who printed the photos on postcards. Also, French police used this technique “for photograph-ing criminals and thus obtaining a number of different portraits with one exposure.”

Noise—and speed—reductionfrom a photo trip to Yel-Flying back fd Grand Teton, I pickedlowstone and

up OTOPOP PHO at the Denver air-h I had read the articleport. I wishYou Should Know About“10 Things Y

the Nikon D70” (October 2005)the Nikonbefore I left for my trip. I learnedat least three new things about my trusty D70, all of which would havehelped me bring home a larger num-ber of better pictures.

In item 8, you recommend using the noise-reduction feature in ex-posures over 1 sec. But, as I found,don’t use it with faster shutterspeeds, or the camera’s burst ratewill drop signifi cantly.

While shooting my daughter’ssoccer game over the summer, Icouldn’t understand why the camerashot only 1 fps. I was about to send it back to Nikon when I glanced at themanual (page 133) and learned that the D70 slows to under 3 fps withnoise reduction on. I switched noisereduction off and the burst rate went back up to 3 fps. James Fraser

Warwick, RI

What’s Tim Fitzharris doing? I main-tain a virtual shrine to his scenic andwildlife photography. And when Iglanced at the October issue (“Na-ture”), I saw that he’d scored againwith the magnifi cent bugling bullelk. How amazing is that photo, withthe breath and snow squall...or not.When I read the caption, I discov-ered he added frosty breath and thesnow squall with Photoshop. Huh?!

Now, I’m all for image correction,

m an avid Photo-hop user, and I’llet Tim’s gizmos

and neutral-density fi lters slide, but this crosses the line. Next time, Timshould leave well enough alone.

That said, I still have my shrine.Gary Lehman

Pearl River, NY

Tim confesses that only the snowand breath are real. The animalwas made using Photoshop’s little-known Bull Elk Tool on the Rumi-nant Palette.

A bull in the

PHOTOSHOP

© T

IM F

ITZH

AR

RIS

LETTERS> S H A R E YO U R T I P S , E X P E R I E N C E S , Q U E S T I O N S , A N D C O M M E N T S W I T H O U R E D I T O R S

12 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

Get in touch! Writeus at Letters to the Ed-itor, POPULAR PHOTO-GRAPHY & IMAGING,1633 Broadway, New York, NY 10019; orsend an e-mail to [email protected]. p

EDITORIALBY JOHN OWENS

PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEARt’s your turn to prove who’s

e best shooter on the planet

TAKE A LOOK AT THIS MONTH’Scover. It’s a damn good photo.

Could you have taken it? If the an-swer is “yes,” then let me ask you afew more questions:

•How are you under pressure?•Can you think fast, work fast, and get the shot when the going gets tough?•Are you the best all-around photographer you know?•What are you doing the week of July 9, 2006?

If you’re up for an adventure, Iencourage you to enter POPULAR

PHOTOGRAPHY & IMAGING’s Pho-tographer of the Year 2006 Compe-tition. Our goal is to fi nd the bestshooter on the planet —and rewardthat person with a $5,000 grandprize, as well as the assignment toshoot the December 2006 cover of POP PHOTO.

After three intensely competitivedays of shooting, California-basedsoftware engineer Michael Sooemerged as the 2005 Photographer of the Year. His images grace thismonth’s cover and illustrate the arti-cles, “They Might Be Giants” and“Camera of the Year.” You can seemore of the work that earned Soothe title (and that big check),

ll h

talented photographers he was up against, in our October 2005 issueand at www.POPPHOTO.com.

But, chances are what you really want to see is what’s in store for the 2006 competition, and how you canget in on it.

Okay. Here are the basics.Send us four of your best photos:•One people shot.•One product shot.•One action shot.•One shot of anything, of any type you want.They must be prints. No e-mails,

no digital fi les, and they must be no larger than 11x17 inches.

The criteria defi ning “people,” “product,” and “action” shots are re-ally wide open. And is Photoshopping allowed? Sure. But software won’t get you into the fi nal round; photo-graphy will. Put simply, we’re looking for all-around photographic prowess.

Out of the thousands of entries, our editors will pick 10 semifi nalists. The work of these photographers will beposted on our web site from April 17 until May 30, where readers can see the photos and vote for their favorite.

The top three fi nishers in this vot-ing will be invited to New York for the four-day Shoot-Out during the week of July 9. We’ll provide coach

airfare from alm

any major city in the world, a hotelroom in midtown Manhattan, evensome spending money for each of the three fi nalists as they battle toprove who is really the best.

As in the 2005 Shoot-Out, POP

PHOTO’s editors will hit these shoot-ers with a wide range of assignmentsthat will test their talent, skill, creativ-ity, resourcefulness, and stamina. In2005, the assignments ranged fromshooting food in Chinatown, to cap-turing the action behind the scenesof a Broadway show, to chronicling what goes on at a horse track on arainy summer day. This year’s com-petition will be grueling, but it alsocould be one of the best weeks of your life.

When all of the assignments are in,the editors will select the winner of the title and the fi ve grand. The re-sults will be published in POP PHOTO

and on our web site. Talk about brag-ging rights!

Are you in? It doesn’t matter if you’re an amateur or a pro. It doesn’t matter where you live—the 2005 en-tries came from everywhere, includ-ing India, Argentina, and China. Youcan shoot digital or fi lm (though withthe Shoot-Out’s tight deadlines, digi-tal offers an edge). And you must beavailable the week of July 9.

So c’mon, send us those four prints.Your entry must be postmarked no lat-er than Friday, March 31, 2006. Getall of the details, rules, and entry

procedures at www POP-

20062006

μTH

E 2

00

5 F

INA

LIS

TS

HOW THIS PRO GOT SATURATED COLOR AND A SUPER POSE

> P O P P O R T R A I T U R E . . . S TA R S S H O O T. . . B E T T E R P I C S Q U I C K

NAOMI HARRIS, A NEW YORK pho-tographer famous for her Haddon Hall se-ries documenting the Haddon Hall retire-ment community in Miami, Florida, shot this picture in Los Angeles for a Marie Claire UK story on Angelenos and their dogs. We found out how she got the fi nal picture.

Q WHO IS THIS FELLOW? The dog is Diva, and his owner is Nor-

wood Young, a record producer and phi-lanthropist. He lives in Hancock Park [near Beverly Hills]—in what used to be Nat King Cole’s house. He rented the house for a couple of years and the neighbors were not too pleased. Then he bought it. He put up one [copy of Michelangelo’s sculpture] David and the neighbors were so livid that he put up a dozen more.

Q WHAT DID YOU SHOOT WITH?The Contax 645, with a 35mm lens.

I used Kodak Portra 160 VC fi lm, so that accounts for the bright colors. I used to shoot slide fi lm—this is the negative fi lm that’s the closest to the Kodak E100G.

Q WHAT TIME OF DAY WAS IT, AND HOW DID YOU GET THE LIGHT SO EVEN?

It was about 5 o’clock. The sun was right behind me and the lights are pretty much in the same place. If the sun was anywhere else I could have lit him but the house would have still been in shadow.

I brought three Profoto 7 heads, and we ran a cord from the garage. No silks, no umbrellas—just refl ectors straight on him. When you’re shooting outside you lose so much power anyway. In order to get the lawn and sky so saturated, I metered the daylight, then set the camera and the lights a stop brighter than reality. That way the sky and grass were underexposed. I’m not a real technical person—I’ve just fi g-ured out what works for me outside.

Q HOW DID YOU GET THE DOG TO YAWN? Diva was great. That was just luck.

Q ANY STUMBLING BLOCKS? This picture wouldn’t be nearly the same if the sky

weren’t blue. When we arrived the smog and fog were just burning off. I was relieved.

Q DID YOU HAVE A BACKUP LOCATION? No. This was the picture. How could

you not shoot the Davids?

21

DONOT

©N

AO

MI H

AR

RIS

(2)

At $800 (street), the Nikon D50 DSLR kit is a heck of a deal. Af-ter all, you get 6.1MP, a big LCD, a body that’s small and light-weight, and an 18–55mm f/3.5–5.6G AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor. What could be better than that? Getting it all for free. We’re giv-ing away a D50 kit this month at our web site. For your chance to win, go to POPPHOTO.com and enter as often as once a day un-til December 16. NO PURCHASE

NECESSARY.

CAMERAHACKING.COMteaches you super tricks with ordinary stuff. The site’s author, Chieh Cheng, gives you truly useful tips (like how to mount a camera to the dashboard of your car or simulate mirror lockup) and sneaky hacks (like how to get your negatives out of those dang APS canisters or make your own infra-red remote). Just don’t tell anyone you heard about it from us.

N E W S D I S C O V E R I E S & C O O L S T U F F F R O M T H E W O R L D O F P H O T O G R A P H Y

NIKON D50

In the fi nal image, Young looks natural and Diva the dog is smiling for the camera. Meanwhile, the sun lights the house and sculptures while three Profoto heads make the portrait’s subjects pop.

DONOTDONO

Try This At Home

22

SNAPSHOTS

THREE WAYS TO WAYS TO WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR YOURYOUR PICTURES, REPI SSCCPICTURES, FAST1. DOT IN THE MIDDLE: Get a Post-it Note, cut a 1⁄4⁄⁄ -inch square out of the sticky part, and place it in the middle of your DSLR’s viewfi nder (or put a bigger square on your LCD screen). Now shoot, and make sure that all your action hap-pens outside the blob. Better compositions guaranteed.2. LOCK IT UP: Grab your fastest lens, turn on aperture-priority mode, open your aperture all the way (as far as f/1.4if you’ve got it), and stay there. Switch to manual focus, and shoot. See how the shallow depth of fi eld forces you to see the world through a whole new eye.3. PICK A COLOR: Choose a color, like white, then try to fi nd white everywhere. Fill your frame with it, make your pictures about it. Keep shooting until you’re seeing red.

COREL PAINTERESSENTIALSIF PAINTER ESSENTIALS can make this nasty-looking piece of pizza appetizing,think what it can do for your images. Corel,the company that brings you the motherof all painting programs, the $350 (street)Painter IX, now has a $99 ver-sion for regular people. Itrequires little-to-no talent atmixing colors and rendering.Instead, it makes it easy to turna photograph into a painting.

Import an image, choose thpaper you want (the prograsimulates lots of textures), thehit “Quick Clone.” You get whlooks like a foggy version of yophoto—it’s sort of like tracing per. Pick the kind of clone bryou want—anything from chalk tooils to watercolor that even behaves like it’swet—then paint. The brush grabs both colorand form from your image. You control thethickness and direction of the line but thethe shape and shading are taken care of.

The results are far better than what youget from quickie photo fi lters in your image-editing program. Instead, it’s fun, addictive,and easy. If you’re talented, mix colors andmake your own compositions sans photo.

One cautionary note, though: paintingwith a mouse is like writing with the wronghand. It’s diffi cult and the results are some-what clunky. Pressure-sensitive pen tablets(such as Wacom tablets) make the wholeexperience better. For info: www.corel.comor 800-772-6735.

3

BROOKESHIELDS

MOSDEF

DENNISHOPPER

©G

ETT

Y IM

AG

ES

(4)

JUST> N E W G E A R T H AT H A S I M P R E S S E D O U R E D I T O R S . . . BY P H I L I P RYA N

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM 27

READY FOR HD For more than a year, the buzz about Leica has revolved around the 10MP Digital Modul-R camera back for the R8 and R9 cameras. Now, the company’s long-standing relationship with Panasonic has given birth to something else: a new digital compact called the D-LUX 2 ($800 estimated street). It features a Leica DC Vario-Elmarit 28–112mm (equivalent) f/2.8–4.9 4X zoom lens, along with a 2.5-inch, 207,000-pixel screen. Its most interesting feature: the 16:9 aspect ratio of the 8.4MP CCD sensor. That means you can shoot photos that display perfectly on any HDTV. If you prefer, a switch on the side of the lens lets you change aspect ratios to 4:3 or 3:2 with correspondingly lower resolutions of 7 and 6MP. The D-LUX 2 also incorporates Panasonic’s Mega OIS optical-image stabilization. Note the similarity between this Leica and Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-LX1 ($600 street). But also note that the D-LUX 2 has a 2-year warranty instead of Panasonic’s 1-year, comes with Adobe Elements 3.0 instead of ArcSoft’s software suite, and, of course, is a Leica. (Leica; www.leica-camera.com; 800-222-0118)

WALLET-SIZED VIEWER Still lugging around wallet-sized prints in plastic sleeves that fl op down to the fl oor? Get with the times. Apple’s new iPod Nano not only plays music, but also displays photos on a 1.5-inch screen that’s about the same size as those prints. And the unit itself is only 1.6x3.5x0.3 inches and 1.5 ounces. It comes in 2GB ($200 street) and 4GB ($250 street) versions. Apple says the 4GB unit can store up to 25,000 photos. Now people won’t think you’re weird when you carry around a picture of your Canonet. Well, maybe they will. (Apple; www.apple.com; 800-692-7753)

BUDGET PHOTO GIFTS FOR THE REST OF US BY PHILIP RYAN

We know you want a fully loaded, 12-megapixel DSLR this holiday season. But, if your family is anything like the Costanzas (of Seinfeldfame), you can forget aboutthat. Here are a half-dozen items for your shopping list—each priced under $25, plus one crazy splurge at $79.

Twinkle, TwinkleNothing says Festivus more than a star fi lter, such as this Hoya Cross Screen. It turns specular highlights into multi-armed sparkling stars. Plus, it’s a fun complement to the regular circular polarizers

and UV protectors that most photogs buy for themselves. This

one makes four-pointed stars, but you can also get six- and eight-pointed versions. And remember, you can always rotate the fi lter in the threads to control the effect. Price: $16.50 and up, depending on the size. (THK Photo Products, Inc.; www.thkphoto.

com; 800-421-1141)

Sticky SituationShooting and printing pictures can be fun. And it’s even better to do

something with those prints. But, mounting them or making scrapbooks can get, well, sticky. Krylon’s acid-free, photo-safe Easy-Tack creates a non-permanent, slightly

sticky coating on the back of your prints, so you can lay them out on mats or scrapbook pages and reposition them as much as you want. Then, when you make up your mind, you can stick them permanently with Krylon’s acid-free, archival-safe, Spray Adhesive. Price: Easy Tack, 10.25-ounce can, $6.50; Spray Adhesive, 11-ounce can, $5. (Krylon; www.krylon.com; 800-457-9566)

Power PackerCarrying batteries loose in your camera bag is a bad idea. They can scratch your lenses and LCDscreens. Worse, loose batteries can leak. Thenthere’s the annoying issue of distinguishingnew cells from those half-used, I-think-these-still-have-juice cells. The solution: a simple battery holder, like this one from Ansmann.

Price: $3.50. (HP Marketing; www.hpmarketingcorp.com; 800-

735-4373)

Read UpChuck Delaney has been the dean at the New York Institute of Photography for 20 years—so he has a lot of advice for photographers. His book, Photography Your Way (Allworth Press), a favorite since it was fi rst published in 2000, has been updated this year to include a fresh perspective on the progress of digital technology as it relates to novice, advanced, and pro shooters. Delaney’s

very readable book is fi lled with personal insights and nuggets of information. Price: $23. (Allworth Press; www.allworth.com; 800-491-2808)

Luster for LifeAlmost everyone who prints photos—or has them printed at a store—goes for a glossy fi nish. But many of us are secretly in love with luster fi nishes. Adorama’s ProJet Royal Satin and Projet Smooth Silk inkjet papers offer a great alternative to the usual glossy prints. Choose Smooth Silk if you want brighter whites. The Royal Satin, with what Adorama calls a Pearl fi nish, has a warmer look that’s great for portraits. Price: $11 for 20 8.5x11-inch sheets. (Adorama; www.adorama.com; 800-223-2500)

Press-on ’PodLooking for the best way to shoot the Autobahn? Mount a camera on the hood of your car. According to its manufacturer, the Original Sticky Pod will stay stuck even if you drive up to 110 miles per hour. Just to be safe, it’s probably a good idea to tether your camera to something and put a clear pro-tective fi lter on the front of your lens. Oh, yeah, and avoid shooting at insane speeds. You don’t want to spend Festivus in jail. Price: $79. (Sticky Pod; www.sticky-pod.com; 866-544-3636) p

28

> S H O W U S W H AT YO U ’ V E G O T ! T H E S E R E A D E R S D I D .

1This black leopard, Boo, lives at the Shambala Pre-serve in Acton, California, a sanc-

tuary for unwanted and abused big cats where Bill Dow of Van Nuys is

staff photographer. Dow photographed Boo’s intense face through a chainlink

fence. Wise move—just after the shutter clicked, Boo leaped at Dow as if he were prey. Tech info: Nikon F100; 300mm f/2.8 Nikkor

lens. Exposure, 1/125 sec at f/4; fi lm, Fujichrome 100. Scanned with Nikon Coolscan 4000, and Adobe

Photoshop CS used for minor balancing and correcting.

ST PLACEPEEK-A-BOO

2

3

YOUR BEST SHOT

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

ND PLACE FUN IN THE SUNAll the elements come together in this winning composition: a compelling subject matter, strong vertical lines, and zippy colors. While photographing surfers and sunbathers on Manly Beach in Australia (a half-hour ferry ride to the northeast of Sydney), Lisa

Wiltse of Redfern, New South Wales, befriended this family who had “brought their backyard to the beach all way from the suburbs of western Sydney.” For Wiltse, this shot not only captures the spirit of this particular family but, in essence, “represents the daily life and laid-back nature of Sydney.” Tech info: Nikon F100; 35mm f/2 Nikkor lens. Exposure, 1/250 sec at f/9.5; fi lm, Fujichrome Sensia 200.Scanned with a Nikon Coolscan LS-400ED; Adobe Photoshop 7.0 used to adjust contrast and brightness.

Walking along the shore of Lake Michigan in Mil-waukee, Steven Reyer of Mequon, Wisconsin, spied this handsome mallard “couple” inthe water. He took about 15shots of the ducks, but he didn’trealize that they were giving eachother the eye in this shot until helooked at all of his results at home. Tech info: Canon EOS20D; 100–400mm f/4.5–5.6LIS Canon lens. Exposure, 1/350sec at f/6.7; ISO 200. Adobe Photoshop CS used to crop theshot, modify the brightness, andsharpen the image.

RD PLACEDUCK SOUP

34

“Your Best Shot” Entry Rules: To enter, send prints—and only prints—no larger than 9x12 inches to “YourBest Shot,” POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY & IMAGING, 1633Broadway, NY, NY 10019. Do not e-mail photos andpdo not send electronic fi les. If your photo is selectedand material is needed for publication, we will con-tact you. Prizes are as follows: First Place, $300;Second Place, $200; Third Place, $100; HonorableMention, $50. Up to fi ve entries per month. Photosnot chosen may be selected for “The Fix” feature. In-clude your address, phone number, and e-mail, plusany pertinent technical information (camera, lens,exposure, fi lm, fi lters, software). Submission grantsPOPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY & IMAGING the right to publishphotographs and descriptions in print, electronic,and other media, and for promotional and advertisinguse. You represent that your photographs are originaland of your own creation, publication of the materialwill not violate the rights of any kind of third party, andyou have provided all necessary permissions and re-leases. Due to the large number of entries, we can-g ,not return your photos, and we cannot acknowledgey p , greceipt of them.p For details on this contest go to the“Your Best Shot” button on the right hand side of thehomepage at www.POPPHOTO.com.

YOUR BEST SHOT

Lewis Abulafi a of Carlsbad, California, had been visiting Yosemite National Park for severalnovercast and snowy days. On the fifth day, heOtrudged through the park with his gear andcaught the sun bursting through the clouds, illuminating El Capitan. The hot-red mountainpeak refl ecting in the Merced River was thecapping magical moment: “It was truly a glori-ous 10 minutes, what every landscape photog-rapher lives for.” Tech info: Tripod-mountedCanon EOS 10D; 17–35mm f/2.8 Canon lens.Exposure, 1/15 sec at f/22. Adobe PhotoshopCS used to dodge and burn.

HONORABLE MENTIONFIERY VIEW

HONORABLE MENTIONWHITE CARPETWalking after a big snowstorm toward thebuilding where he teaches at Syracuse Univer-sity, Bob Gates of Jamesville, New York, noticedhow the snow had blanketed the steps, isolat-ing the forms of the railings, lights, and trees.He took some shots with his wide-angle lens,but that didn’t give the desired fl at perspective.Gates backed up and used his telephoto for this winner. Tech info: Tripod-mounted CanonEOS 10D; 70–200mm f/4L Canon lens. Expo-sure, 1/250 sec at f/8. Adobe Photoshop CSused to correct levels and curves.

NEW RULES & ENTRY PROCEDURES: SEND PRINTS ONLY

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM 39

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARKencompasses nearly 3.4 millionacres of airy wilderness furnishedwith tinted mudstone ridges, wind-sculpted dunes, winding canyons,lush oases, still pools of water, andvast stretches of sand and gravel.Mild temperatures, clear blue skies,and plenty of shooting opportuni-ties make it an ideal winter destina-tion for photographers.

Three-part strategyThe best times to photographin Death Valley are during early morning, twilight, and late eve-

ning, when the light is soft and warm. At other times, the park’s usually cloudless skies generatecontrast beyond the range of fi lmor digital sensor. You can use themidday period, however, for theessential tasks of reaching andscouting new locations.

This huge park contains two major valleys (Death Valley andPanamint Valley), each bounded by mountains running north/south onboth sides. Within the park, threestaging locations provide access togreat photo spots: From the Scotty’s Castle area (which allows camping

only), you can work the Racetrack,Eureka Dunes, and UbehebeCrater. Out of Stovepipe Wells Vil-lage (where you’ll fi nd camping and lodging), you can access Aguere-berry Point, the Mesquite Flatsdunes, and Devil’s Cornfi eld. Andfrom Furnace Creek (camping and lodging), you can photograph atZabriskie Point, Dante’s View, Art-ist’s Drive and Badwater. Of thesevarious sites, here are fi ve I don’tthink you should miss:

1MESQUITE FLATSSAND DUNESDeath Valley’s most photo-genic sand dunes lie adjacent

to California Highway 190, a few miles from Stovepipe Wells. Greatshots are possible here at either sun-rise or sunset. You’ll need to hike well into the dunes to fi nd a stretch of foot-

NATURE

A perfect winter shooting spot: Death Valley!

TUCKI MOUNTAINS, MESQUITE FLAT SAND DUNES

40 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

print-free sand, so plan on spending at least an hour to fi nd a tripod location,plus another 30 minutes to try outvarious compositions. The best light occurs during the 30-minute periodsbefore sunset and after sunrise.

2BADWATERRight off the road you will fi nd this spot, 282

feet below sea level, where saltwater pools refl ect the snow-capped Pana-mint Range to the west.

Arrive an hour or so before dawn to allow time to work out com-positions using the scat-tered rocks, shrubs, and

dried mud patterns along the shore.dried mud pBoth soft twilight illumination and the momentary sunrise glow of rosylight on the Panamint Range offerprize-winning opportunities.

On a cloudless day, the magic dis-sipates abruptly once the sun clearsthe horizon. You’ll need a 1-stop or 2-stop hard-edge neutral-density fi lter to control scene contrast.

3ZABRISKIE POINTThis surreal terrain just offHighway 190 is best photo-graphed at dawn when the

rising sun spotlights Manly Beacon,

a dogtooth projection of tawny rock surrounded by rumpled ridgesstained in pastel hues. Behind thisfeast of shape and color rises theice-crowned Panamint Range. A two-stop hard-edge neutral-density fi lter is needed to restrain contraston compositions that combine bothforeground and sky.

4DANTE’S VIEWThis rocky, shrub-coveredprominence 35 miles fromBadwater provides the most

expansive view of Death Valley, 5,753 feet below. You can hike alongan easily reached trail that skirtsthe rim, picking up vantage pointsnorthward and southward into thevalley. Morning creates frontal illu-mination on foreground features and is my preferred shooting period.

5EUREKA DUNESStretching up nearly 700feet, these cream-coloreddunes in the remote north-

ern corner of the park are reached (continued on page 42)

NATURE

PANAMINT RANGE, BADWATERFollow the trail and explore different compositions. Pentax 645NII with a 45–85mm f/4.5 Pentax lens on tripod. Exposure, 2 sec at f/22 through a Singh-Ray Color Intensifi er and a 2-stop hard-edge split ND fi lter to hold back the brightness of the sky; fi lm, Fujichrome Velvia 50.

PANAMINT RANGE, DANTE’S VIEWThe well-defi ned foreground elements and saturated midground colors at Dante’sView contrast nicely with the hazy wash of colors in the background. Pentax 645NII

with 45–85mm f/4.5 Pentax lens on tripod.Exposure, 1 sec at f/22 through a Singh-Ray polarizer and a 2-stop hard-edge split ND fi lter; fi lm, Fujichrome Velvia 50.

WWW.POPPHOTO.COM POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

NATURE

ZABRISKIE POINTArrive at Zabriskie atdawn to have enoughtime to set up and capture the glow that strikes Manly Beacon as the sun rises. Pentax645NII with 80–160mmf/4.5 Pentax lens on tripod. Exposure, 1 sec at f/16 through aSingh-Ray Color Intensifi er/Polarizer

and a 2-stop hard-edge split ND fi lter to hold back the brightness of the sky; fi lm,Fujichrome Velvia 50.

Death Valley is one of the hottest and driest places in the U.S. In summer, temperatures often ex-ceed 120°F for weeks at a time. Humidity is so low that sweat evaporates before it can form on your skin. Even during the pleas-ant winter season you should keep these precautions in mind:

Make sure your vehicle is in top condition, especially the cooling sys-tem, brakes, and tires. You will be tra-versing rough roads and steep grades in sometimes isolated territory.

When hiking, wear a hat and carry adequate drinking water. Maintain awareness of your route back to the trailhead, especially when seeking photo ops in hilly terrain, canyons, and gullies.

If your vehicle has a trunk, use it for equipment storage. Otherwise keep your gear and fi lm on the fl oor of the vehicle with the windows slightly open for ventilation.

Carry a cell phone for emergencies, but remember that reception is patchy throughout the park.

by a 50-mile drive over mostly dirt roads. The dunes are best pho-tographed at sunset, allowing an unhurried daylight journey and

on-site reconnaissance before themagic hour arrives. You won’t fi ndphotogenic ripples here due to thepowdery texture of the sand, so

Bloom Boom I n times of ample rain-fall Death Valley is trans-f

formed by fi elds of brilliant blooms that may fi rst begin to show in early February.d b fi ld f b illi bl h fi b iThe best wintertime fl ower fi elds are usually found at lower elevations on alluvialfans, such as near Jubilee Pass, Highway 190 near Furnace Creek Inn, and at thebottom of Daylight Pass. To time your visit to catch this color bonanza, call park headquarters (760-786-2331) or go to www.nps.gov/deva/wildfl owerstxt.htmp g orto www.desertusa.com/wildfl o/wildupdates.htmlp .

CAUTIONS IN THE CAULDRON

build your compositions on curvingdune crests.

Happy shooting, and do yourbest to stay cool! p

Visit Tim’s image-fi lled web site atwww.timfi tzharris.comfi .

LINKS, NUMBERS, INFOWeb site and phone: National

Park Service, www.nps.gov/devap g ,or call 760-786-2331.

Book: National Park Photog-raphy, Tim Fitzharris (Death Valley plus 20 additional parks), AAA Pub-lishing, $25; www.amazon.com.

Newsletter: Photograph Americanewsletter, Robert Hitchman; website: photographamerica.comp g p .

WILDFLOWER BLOOM, UBEHEBE CRATERThe best wildfl ower areas change from year to year (and week to week), so callahead, ask a ranger, or stop in at a visitor center. Pentax 645NII with 35mm f/3.5 Pentax lens on tripod. Exposure, 1/4 sec at f/11 through a Singh-Ray polarizer and a2-stop hard-edge split ND fi lter; fi lm, Fujichrome Velvia 50.

TRAVEL

WWW.POPPHOTO.COM 47

THAILAND★

TRUNK SHOW: The trekkers visited a rubber plantation in Phuket where there were more than a dozen elephants. But Julie Williams and her Nikon D50 found a nice shot in one small piece of the scene…relatively speaking.

AMAZING GRACE: Steve Gershberg didn’t capture these Buddhas with his Canon EOS 20D right away. “I just stood there for a few minutes in awe of the site,” he says. “I want to go back just to stand there again.”

FINDING COLOR IS NOT A problem in Thailand. Nor is fi nding exotic settings. Easiest of all, is fi nd-ing willing models. It’s as simple as lifting your camera.

“The people loved having their picture taken,” says Mirjam Evers, who organized this past July’s nine-day POP PHOTO Mentor Series work-shop to Thailand. “The people were

so happy. I have never met happier people anywhere in the world.”

Surprised? Especially after last December’s tsunami had such a devastating impact on this country?You shouldn’t be. As the 18 photogra-phers on this Mentor Series work-shop found, the Kingdom of Thailand is uniquely beautiful and resilient.

While Bangkok has a skyline fi lled with glass and steel, at ground level you’ll discov-er truly one-of-a-kind set-tings. At the sprawling Grand Palace, there’s the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, one of the coun-try’s most sacred sites, along with ornate archi-tecture and a wide array

of visitors that includes scores of saf-fron-robed monks. In fact, from the ruins of the ancient former capital Ayutthaya to the beaches and recon-struction at Phuket, there’s an amazing amount to photograph.

That’s where the Mentor Series team comes in—sorting it all out and putting the photographers in the right places to get the best images. And as on all Mentor Series work-shops, a mentor accompanied trek-kers. In this case, it was pro Rose-anne Pennella, who offered tips on all aspects of travel photography.

For details on all of the Mentor Series workshops, go to www.mentorser-ies.com, or contact Michelle M. Cast at [email protected], 888-676-6468. For more on visiting Thailand, go to the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s web site, www.tourismthailand.org.

(continued on page 48)

A land where photographers get a royal welcome

Magic Kingdom

TRAVEL★

THE BIG PICTURE (top): Craig Gordon used the wide end of the 28–135mm lens on his Canon EOS 20D for this shot, a wooden boat on Phuket’s Patong Beach (exposure, 1/250 sec at f/5; ISO 100). “Seven months after the tsunami,” Gordon says, “there were no signs of the damage that this beach endured.” ■ STRIKE GOLD (above left): When rain pushed these monks under an overhang at Bangkok’s Grand Palace, John Hutchins saw a photo op. “Through a series of head nods and hand gestures,” he says, he persuaded them to pose by a gold-leaf tile wall, as he shot with a Nikon D2x. ■ ON THE RIVERFRONT (above center): Craig Gordon captured these buildings along the Chao Phrya River with his Canon EOS 20D. ■ MORNING GLORY (above right): “The fruit caught my eye because the dew was still fresh and undisturbed,” says Steve Gershberg. To brighten the shot, he fi red a Canon 580EX Speedlite along with his EOS 20D. p

Craig Gordon

48 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

SLR

52

BY HERBERT KEPPLER

COULD WE BE HEADED NOT only for a greater choice in digitalSLRs next year, but also an oversup-ply? Yes, the seeds were planted lastyear, when Canon and Nikon bene-fitted from concentrating mostheavily on digital SLRs. They reapeda bountiful harvest, cornering 90percent of the 1.5 million DSLR camera market in both the top level$3,000–$4,000 sector pro cameraand in the even more profi table$1,000 amateur range. Both typeswere often in short supply.

Though going by the numbersCanon was certainly the leader,Nikon was able to crow that its fi rst-quarter profi t this year was quadru-ple last year’s, thanks to the compa-ny’s concentration on DSLRs.

With some 71.5 million point-and-shoot digital cameras shippedglobally last year by all manufac-turers, you might conclude thatthese companies should have doneas well or better fi nancially—butthey didn’t. The main target audi-ence had already made their pur-chases, and the smaller group of holdouts could not digest themighty river of new cameras—thehallmark of a saturated market (asfi nancial types call it).

We were awash in overproduc-tion—too many new models intro-duced too quickly, resulting in plum-meting prices—a consumer bonanza and maker’s disaster. What canmanufacturers do?

Join the DSLR success club! Pentax was a typical switcher. With2005’s fi rst-quarter profi ts dipping 42 percent and forecasts indicating continued drops, Pentax admitted the problem was its primary reliance on point-and-shoot sales. Now, according to Pentax’s president, the

DSLR party big players. Evenbefore this year’s P/S debacle, Mat-sushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.,(brand name Panasonic), a global(brand name Panasonic) a globalmonster combine of electronics andmarketing know-how, decided therewas money in DSLRs. While the group shows plenty of digital capabil-ity in its top-level Panasonic Lumix point-and-shoot cameras, it hasn’t had any SLR camera designing or manufacturing technology. Matsushi-ta signed a joint development agree-ment with Olympus Corporationfor digital interchangeable-lenscameras, (continued on page 54)

NARROWING THE GAP: All DSLRs except Olympus use lensmounts originally designed for 35mm cameras. I thought the Olympus 4/3 System DSLR used smallerdiameter lensmount to make smaller lenses possible. Not so.

THE COMING DSLR EXPLOSION

CATCH ’EM IF YOU CAN:

SLR

50MM LENS VIEW WITH 24X36MM SENSOR IN FULL FRAME DSLR.

50MM LENS VIEW WITH AVERAGE 24X16MM SENSOR IN SMALL SENSOR DSLR

54 POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

q WHADDAYAMEAN IT’S GOTTA BE BIG? mm

e.ght.

(continued from page 52) based on the Olympus-developed Four ThirdsSystem. Some would be developed cooperatively, others separately.

Why pick this system? At fi rst Ireasoned that the 4/3 system had asmaller sensor than any other DSLR and so allowed a smaller lensmountand shorter back focus distances, both of which permitted smaller diameter lenses with extended rearelement closer to the fi lm plane.

Wrong reasoning. The lensmountsurprisingly is virtually the same diam-eter as Nikon’s, and the back focus distance isn’t substantially less. How-ever, while Canon, Konica Minolta,Nikon, and Pentax must design andmake both full-frame and small-sen-sor lenses, Olympus and anyone join-ing the 4/3 system can concentrateexclusively on 4/3 system optics.

Olympus fi rst offered the use of the 4

who wished to adopt it. But nobody came to the party. Panasonic is, in my opinion, a big enough party all byitself. It could provide savings inmanufacture, particularly of 4/3 sen-sors. Perhaps low-cost DSLRs may show up with the Panasonic brandname, ideal for mass markets andelectronic stores, while Olympus mar-kets most to photo specialty stores.

Could Panasonic develop image-stabilization know-how for OlympusDSLR camera bodies?

Maybe that’s not needed. Thereare rumors that Sigma, which makeslenses for the 4/3 system under theOlympus and Sigma brands, may also pick up the 4/3 system for itsnext DSLR. Sigma already has Opti-cal Stabilizer (OS) technology forits lenses, and could also licenseOlympus and Panasonic to use it.

q SMALL SENSOR SLRS LOSE MORE THAN YOU THINK:(24x36mm) Canon EOS 5D imaging sensor shows outer picture area with 18mm lens. Same lens on small sensor SLR with 1.5X magnifi cation factor crops in to outlined rectangle area.

lb6mmor Canon 5D

2.5 lb24x3sensEOS

SLR

FAKING A 35MM CONTACT SHEET:Miss those good old, highly visible35mm contact sheets? Canon 5D with PictBridge-compatible printers will be able to simulate them from memorycards—without a computer.

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005 55

Nobody is quite sure what Sony will contribute to its DSLR joint development agreement with part-ner Konica Minolta, which istechnologically very advanced. Thetwo companies have announced they would use the present KonicaMinolta Maxxum lensmount andAnti-Shake technology. But Sony has its own CMOS technology,which is considered superior inmany ways and much less expensivethan the CCD technology KonicaMinolta is using in its imaging sen-sor system. My suggestion: Sony should contribute CMOS tech-nology, plus marketing know-how and many dollars and euros for advertising. Thanks to Minolta’s vast fi nancial losses years ago, caused by a protracted lawsuit brought by Honeywell for patent violation monies sunk in overforecasAdvanced Photo System (Asales, the company has been stafor suffi cient advertising and pmotion of its uniquely featured dital cameras. Sony should feed it

An INFO/CAP Ventures industry analyst predicted an 81 percent DSLR sales growth this year, add-ing that he thought we probably would see $500 DSLRs before year end. I’d say that a $500 DSLR would be more likely next year,although Pentax’s $650 price for its *ist DL, just announced as I write this, is getting mighty close.

With Olympus-Panasonic, Konica Minolta-Sony, Sigma, and Pentax all expected to produce new DSLRs next year, what more can Canon and Nikon do to make sure youkeep faith with them?

Let me ask you a question. Ifyou own a Canon or Nikon DSLR using a small sensor that in effect multiplies the lens’ focal length by a factor of 1.5 or 1.6 to calculatethe equivalent 35mm camera focallength, would you have bought it if, instead, you could have pur-chased a full-frame DSLR with far more megapixels for about the same price?

Many purchasers of small sensor

CLOSE TO BEING AN SLR? Kodakclaims P880 EasyShare with fi xed 24140mm zoom is alternative to DSLR. if you need full lens interchangeabilityMaybe almost?

Check your brush size:Move the Diameter slider to theleft or right to pick the right size.

You want a brush that’s just slightly bigger than the spot you want to remove. To check,adjust the Diameter, then move your cursor over the speck on your image. If it’s encir-cled, you’re good.

BY DEBBIE GROSSMAN

Healing Arts One tool to smoothall imperfections

THE FASTEST BLACK BORDER YOU’VE EVER MADE Here’s aquick way to add a border. Go to Image > Canvas Size. Check the boxfor “Relative,” change the Canvas Extension Color to Black, then typein double the width and height of the border you want (it’ll split in half as it’s evenly distributed on both sides). Hankering for an even 1⁄14⁄⁄ -inchborder? Then type in 0.5 in both boxes. Click OK and you’re all set.

Zap those zits: Hold your cursor on some acne, and click.Poof! Way faster than Clearasil. In

this shot I’ve gotten rid of the ones on theneck, and that big mother on the cheek, but not yet on the chin. Resize your brush as theblemishes require. Notice how Photoshopadds the right skin texture and luminosity.

Porcelain skin at last:If you’re working on a blemishnear an edge where the texture

changes, make your brush bigger and en-circle the spot so the texture you like fi llsthe brush, but the edge is left out. That way,you’ll encourage the brush to sample goodtexture, not bad. (continued on page 60)

QUICKTIPS

CHANGE BRUSH HARDNESS FAST Youknow you can hit the open bracket (“[”) tomake your brush smaller and close bracket(“]”) to make it bigger. But did you know thatyou can hold down Shift at the same time tomake the brush edges harder or softer?

SPOT-HEALINGBRUSH: ZITS Here’sa section of a portrait

where, unfortunately, the subject did not wear any makeup. She’ll look like she’s never had a pimple in her life when we’re fi nished.

Grab the tool and modify it:To fi ne-tune the brush, go to theOptions bar on top of the screen.

Click the down arrow next to the word“Brush” (A). Move the Hardness to 100%(B); defi ned edges work best with this tool.

58 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

ZITS, DUST, WRINKLES, AND DARK CIRCLES. THESE PLAGUE ANY PHOTOGRAPHER on the quest to makea picture (or, for that matter, a person) more beautiful. Fortunately, with the help of the Healing Brush—one of themost versatile and magical tools in Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements—you can fi x them all in little time.

Find your Healing Brush on the toolbar on the left side of your screen in both Pho-toshop (left) and Elements (right). There aretwo kinds of Healing Brushes: the Spot,which does most of the work itself, and theOriginal, which requires sampling. The Orig-inal works best to correct areas that requiredrawing with the brush to fi x, and the Spotworks best on, well, spots.

Here’s how to use both on the four thingsyou’ll probably need to heal most.

1 2

3 4 5

A

B

DIGITAL TOOLBOX

60 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

HEALING BRUSH: WRINKLESOnce you know how to

fi x wrinkles realistically, everyone you know will be begging you to take their portraits. These crinkly crow’s feet are no match for the original Healing Brush.

Make a duplicate layer:Make a copy of your backgroundlayer by going to Layer > Dupli-

cate Layer and click OK. Work on the copy—we’ll modify it later.

I’ve got your nose: If you ac-cidentally run over a differenttexture—part of, say, a nose—Pho-

toshop will sample the texture of the nosenear the eye you’re working on, which is noimprovement. If that happens, type Ctrl + Zto undo, and pick a new place to sample.

SPOT-HEALINGBRUSH: DUST This isa detail from a scanned,

dirty negative. Using the Clone Stamp to getrid of it would take forever, but the Spot Heal-ing Brush will make the task go by fast. Usethe same settings you used to wipe out zits.

Clear skies: Change sizes onthe fl y by hitting one of the squarebracket keys (“[“ or “]”) on your

keyboard, and spot heal accordingly. Whenyour picture is this dirty, the spotting canfeel almost meditative. But next time, cleanyour negative better before you scan.

Make it a soft brush: Dragthe hardness down to loosen upthe edges, and size it so it’s just

slightly larger than your fi rst wrinkle. Makesure you’re good and zoomed in.

1 2 1

2 3 Samplefi rst:To use this HealingBrush, fi rst sample the texture youwant to replace the wrinkle with.

Hold down the Alt key (Option on a Mac)and click. Pick a smooth area that’s at leastas long as the area you want to cover up.

4

Add subhead: Draw andcover: Draw on top of the wrinkle you want to hide. As you move your

cursor, the little crossbar that represents your sampled area moves with you. Don’t mind theweird-looking line you’re drawing, becausewhen you let go, Photoshop will do some calculations and the wrinkle will disappear.

Tone it down: This is defi nitelyan improvement, but our subjectis looking a little Botoxed. To give

her back some of her expressiveness, go toyour Layers Palette. Grab the Opacity slider,and bring it down to about 80%. Or, if youreally want to fl atter, 85%.

6 75

continued from page 58DIGITAL TOOLBOX

SHRINK AND SEND Here’s a quick way to make e-mail-sized imag-es: go to File > Save for Web. You can adjust and preview four levelsof compression at once, and check the length of time it will take a 28.8modem to load. When you hit Save, you’re automatically saving a copy;once you hit OK you can go right back to work on your original. p

QUICKTIP

Wrinkle-free: That’s better.Chances are your subject won’teven notice he or she’s had virtual

plastic surgery.

HEALING BRUSH:FIXING DARKCIRCLES

Healing dark circles is pretty much the sameas healing wrinkles, but with a few modifi -cations. This time, make your brush larger,but don’t attempt to heal the whole area atonce; if you do, you may end up spreadingmore darkness around.

Take your time: Instead, work your way up from the bottom in thin-ner strokes. It may take you several

passes to get the color right. As when you’rehealing wrinkles, work on a separate layer.You may fi nd your healing of the dark circlesis overdone, and your subject looks unnatu-rally well-rested. If that happens, decreasethe opacity, as you did with wrinkles.

8 1 2

NATURAL

BOTOXED

overcoat on Kodak Portra improves scanning results. Left: Shot on old version of120-format Portra 160NC fi lm, and negative then scanned; note artifacts alongedges. Right: Shot on new 160NC with surface coating; edges are much cleaner.

Bor

OLD COATING NEW COATING

FILM NOW

AN IRONY Orevolution in psilver-halide fi lmcapture mediumtechnology aimsply the best it hit’s good, fi lm good. It’s actuaing detail than end digital camness and the abhighlights and delivers this qustarting price th

You do need fi lm into the dimage-manipuloptions far surwith optical mhalide photograabout scanning.include noise negative fi lm’s red-dish-orange mask (something I haven’t experi-enced), and the inability to capture the full scale of color slide film (despite the wide-spread notion that slide film is best for scanning).

The bad news is that manufactur-ers aren’t creating all-new films; dig-ital’s wild successhas eroded any incentive to do so. The good news is that they’re fine-tuning their existing emulsions tomake them even better for scan-ning purposes. Such evolutionarychange doesn’t always make forsexy ad copy or editorial kudos,something we hope to redress inthis continuing column. But itcertainly keeps film viable as acapture medium.

one is that they made the fi lms’ base tint and density consistent throughout the Pro family.”

In real-world terms, that means you can switch Fujicolor Pro emul-sions freely—using ISO 800 for anexisting-light shoot, for example, and ISO 160 in a strobe-lit stu-dio—and not have to adjust scan-ning parameters to get consistent

renamed to refl ectthis new family harmony, withNPH 400 becom-ing Pro 400H andNPZ 800 becom-ing Pro 800Z.

Other improve-ments to the twoslower Fuji Profi lms include bet-ter neutral graybalance, smootherskin tones (due tonew color cou-plers), and finergrain (an RMSgranularity of 3,versus the 4 of

their predecessors). But wait—don’t improvements of this sortbenefi t traditional optical printingas much as scanning? Yes, not thatthere’s anything wrong with that.“The changes to our Pro fi lms willdeliver better output whether theimage is printed optically or digi-tally,” says Fuji’s Fridholm. “To usethe old chemical lab terminology,

62 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

SHARPER IMAGE: Details from a photo of fi lm boxes show how a new surface

s family of fi lms can now bented on a single channel.”n contrast, some recent changesKodak’s professional color nega-e emulsions are aimed squarely atproving scanning performance.r example, medium- and large-mat members of the Portra fami-

—both ISO 160 and ISO 400, inth NC (natural color) and VCvid color) versions, as well as ISO0 and 160T—have been endowedh a new surface coating thatually fixes a widely reportednning problem. In addition to

oviding scratch resistance, thiser of dry-lubricant matte beads

duces friction as film movesough a camera. Until the change,

had relied on an older formulationt made it “toothy,” according toomas J. Mooney, Kodak’s world-de product manager for consumerd professional fi lms. (See illustra-n, page 62.) “What was happen-

was that the matte layer wasng imaged,” Mooney explains.you scanned a negative and blew

up, you’d sometimes see the actu-texture of the matte beads, espe-

cially along high-contrast edges.”Since the original reason for the

matte beads’ texture was to makethe negative’s surface more recep-tive to hand retouching—still infairly wide practice among Portra’sintended users when the fi lm wasintroduced—the new replacementnow has a coating in which thematte beads have a finer, morehomogenous texture that won’tshow up in scans.

Oddly enough, Portra’s originalmatte bead layer was also creating problems for photographers using digital retouching—specifi cally, theDigital ICE automatic dust-andscratch-removal systems found inmany desktop fi lm scanners. “DigitalICE was picking up the texture of the matte beads and trying to cor-rect it,” says Scott DiSabato, Kodak’smarketing manager for professionalfi lms in the U.S. “But as a result, thescans could end up looking noisier.”This applied to scanner modelsincorporating specular light sources,according to DiSabato, and is com-pletely remedied by the new coating.

Photographers who scan their own fi lm aren’t the only ones to profi t from this attention to scan-ning. Commercial digilabs have alsobenefi ted greatly from the technol-ogy. “In general, scanning has improved the quality of our print-ing,” says David Kang, manager of New York City’s Photolab Part 1,whose prints from both color nega-tives and memory cards are made with a Fujifi lm Frontier 370. “It’s

still harder to control skin tones andcertain kinds of color with digitalcamera fi les than it is with negativeswe’ve scanned.”

Go fi lm. p

One of the most respected journalistsin the imaging fi eld, Russell Hart isauthor of Photography For Dum-mies (Wiley, $22) and executive edi-tor of our sister magazine, AmericanPHOTO.

BEFORE

AFTER

FIXES BY DEBBIE GROSSMANBY DAN RICHARDS

> P H O T O S H O P A N D O T H E R F I X E S T H AT M AY D O M O R E H A R M T H A N G O O D

64 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

HUNGRY HUMMINGBIRD

Don Knight, Tucson, AZ

READER FIX

THE PROBLEM The photographer cropped for a bet-ter composition, but in upsizing to 8x10 and sharpening in Photoshop LE, the noise got a bit out of hand—note noise in shadow of wing (in-set) and halo along the bird’s back.WHAT NOW?We could have used

noise reduction software (like Dfi ne by nik MultiMedia), then upsized with Genuine Fractals 4.0 by onOne Soft-ware. But in truth, the digital fi le is too small for the chosen print size, espe-cially with the higher ISO setting.NEXT TIME Move closer, use a longer lens, go to higher-res capture—or be satisfi ed with a smaller print.TECH INFO Canon EOSD60, Canon 70–200mmf/2.8L IS lens. Expo-sure, 1/1000 sec at f/6.7, ISO 400.

BEFORE

OVERGROWN COURTYARD

Bridgette Dickey, Stillwater, OK

THE FIX

BEFORE

READER FIX

OUR FIX

66 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

CHERRY BLOSSOMS

C i i F i f A

READER FIX

OUR FIX

THE PROBLEMInteresting artistic deci-sions to gray-scale thelush vegetation and tocrop in—but do they work? We think the iro-ny of nature’s brilliantgreenery trumping thedullish man-made struc-tures in the original shotwas lost. And it lookspasted together.WHAT NOW? Wetried to improve the

original by goosing the satura-tion of the greenery and sky, leav-ing the contrast and color of thecourtyard pretty much as they were, but added tone to the bright highlight to the right, using Pho-toshop’s Highlight/Shadow tool.NEXT TIME Have a little morefaith in your original photograph-ic vision—and work with that.TECH INFO Sony Cyber-shotDSC-H1; exposure not reported.Adjustments and manipulationsmade in Photoshop 7.0.

THE PROBLEMhe original fi le set-ngs give a yellowish ast, which the photog-apher kept in convert-ng from RAW. Also,what’s the subject of he composition?WHAT NOW? We ike our cherry blos-oms pink, so we

color-corrected the file accordingly. We cropped out the distracting dome inthe upper left, letting the refl ection stand on its own.NEXT TIME Watch your color when converting fromRAW or adjusting a JPEG. Move around—place thebuilding and refl ection in different relations to the tree.TECH INFO Nikon D70, 28–80mm f/3.3–5.6 AFZoom Nikkor G. Exposure: 1/160 sec at f/6.3, ISO 200.

CANON EOS 5DBY MICHAEL J. MCNAMARA

TEST

A powerful DSLR that workedits way up the ranks

Resolution: Excellent (2050Vx2000Hx2025D lines). Color accuracy: ExtremelyHigh (Avg. Delta E: 8.20). Highlight/shadow detail: Very High. Contrast:Normal, and adjustable in 7 steps viamenus. Noise: Extremely Low at ISO100, Very Low at ISO 200 to ISO 400,Low at ISO 800, Moderately Low at ISO1600. Image quality: Excellent fromISO 100 to 800. Extremely High at ISO800 to 1600. AF speed: Very Fast inbright light (EV 12 to 7) from 0.52 to 0.62 sec, but slightly slower than the EOS20D (0.49 to 0.55 sec). In low light (EV 6 to 3) it was still fast at 0.64 sec to 0.77sec, and in very low light (EV 2 to 1) itslowed down just a bit to 0.95 sec. At its impressive limit (EV –0.5, just better than the 20D) it took 1.5 sec to focus.Viewfinder: 0.76X magnification gets agood rating, similar to the EOS-1Ds Mark II. It shows 95% of the picture area, anexcellent result. The removable, etchedfocusing screen (below, type Ee-A) shows9 selectable AF zones with center-cross type. Red boxes show actual sensitivity.Green boxes show invisible AF zonesactive in AI Servo mode. CIPA batterylife: Approx. 800 shots with rechargeableBP-511A Li-ion battery. For info: www.canoneos.com; 800-652-2666.

CANON’S NEW EOS 5D DSLR ($3,300street, body only) is a study in the yin andyang of camera design. On the one hand,its 12.8MP full-frame CMOS sensor elimi-nates the 35mm lens factor found on alllower-priced DSLRs and gives it a poten-tial image-quality edge. On the otherhand, it costs more than twice as much asthe 8.2MP EOS 20D ($1,300 street)from which it was cloned, and it’s missinga few of the 20D’s features. So you mightask, if the EOS 5D takes a picture in thewoods and nobody hears it, does it makea sound purchase? Put simply, yes. Whichis why we made it our 2005 Camera ofthe Year (see page 84).

Last month, we gave you an overviewof the EOS 5D’s features (see “FirstLook,” November 2005 or go to www.POPPHOTO.com). Here’s a closer look atthe 5D’s top features, image quality andperformance results from tests we ran ona production model. We’ll let you decide ifthe camera deserves Zen Master status.

Those who already shoot with an EOS20D will immediately understand the logic

behind theEOS 5D’scopycat con-

struction andcontrols. Canon started with agreat camerabody and made a few modifi cations(and omissions) to fi t in the extra fea-tures of the 5D.Like the 20D, its

stainless steel andmolded magnesium-alloy body make itough enough to

handle most of theabuse it’s likely to run into when used by pro news, sports, or wedding photogra-phers. At 1 lb, 13 oz (body only) it weighs four ounces more than the EOS 20D, dueprimarily to the larger mirror and prismassembly for the larger sensor. Canonalso expanded the left side of the camera to make room for additional processingcircuits, RAM for the capture buffer, and a beefed-up main mode dial. Finally, thesolid metal top plate covering the prism(where once sat a plastic pop-up flash)increased the weight slightly.

Will pros miss the built-in flash? Notlikely, as the advantages of shoe-mountunits far outweigh those of a pop-up sys-tem. Like the 20D, the 5D supports multi-ple flash arrangements, and it also sup-ports E-TTL II capabilities found on thelatest flash units such as the CanonSpeedlite 430EX ($300 street). High-speed fl ash sync (FP fl ash) is also possi-ble with some units up to the camera’smaximum 1/8000-sec shutter speed, but standard flash sync has dropped to 1/200sec from the 1/250 sec of the EOS 20D.

The next, most obvious physical differ-ence between the two cameras is the5D’s gorgeous 2.5-inch TFT LCD monitor(compared to the 1.8-inch LCD found on the EOS 20D). With approximately230,000-pixel resolution, its played-backimages look sharper, and exposure dataand menu controls can be read at arm’s length. The viewing angle is also extraor-dinary (nearly 170 degrees off-axis), and

this LCD is extremely accurate, showingnearly 100% of the image as shot. As withthe 20D, you can view exposure informa-tion, highlight and shadow warnings, andluminance histograms, but the 5D alsoincludes RGB histograms.

The optical viewfinder also shows excel-lent image accuracy—rating 95% in our

68 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

Meet the

•Full-frame, 12.8MP CMOS sensor eliminates 35mm lens factor.•Super fast and sensitive AF system.

� What’s Hot

•Missing pop-up fl ash.•High price might limit appeal.•Viewfi nder magnifi cation reduced.

� What’s Not

Certifi ed Test ResultsCANON EOS 5D

u

CANON EOS 5DTEST

tests. Image magnifi cation, on the other hand, isn’t as good as the 0.94X of the EOS 20D. But it’s on par with the EOS-1Ds Mark II ($7,395 street) at 0.76X, a Good rating. Higher magnifi cation view-fi nders are easier to design when working with a smaller sensor, which explains why few full-frame SLRs have ever achieved an Excellent magnifi cation rating.

While most control buttons and dials arefound in the same places as on the 20D, the EOS 5D has a larger main mode dial, which no longer includes the programmed presets and A-Dep (aperture-priority depth

of fi eldthe 205D’s mless cluincludeUser poto yoursettingsetting sures. includeStyle sdard, scape,ful, andplus tcustomness, and saturation settings, unlike the

presets on the 20D.Other control changes include a new

easy-print button above the large LCDon the back, and the elimination of thepop-up fl ash button on the front. Theeasy-print button glows with a blue lightwhen the camera is connected to a

printer and gives you quick access to previ-ous printer settings stored in the camera.

Inner StrengthThe EOS 5D offers even more from within.The full-frame, CMOS sensor features12.8MP (effective) resolution, which givesit a sharpness edge over the EOS 20D.Thus, 14.5x22-inch photo-quality prints canbe made from the 5D (at 200 ppi) com-pared to 12x17.5-inch prints from the 20D.

On the color accuracy front, the EOS 20D does slightly better, with an Excellent rating (Delta E 6.63) compared with the EOS 5D’s Extremely High rating (its Delta E of 8.2 just missed the 8.0 cutoff). While both the 20D and 5D produce Extremely Low noise at ISO 100, the EOS 5D holds down noise better at ISO 400 and above, a testament to the 5D’s larger pixels. Wayup at ISO 1600, both cameras delivered similar Moderately Low ratings—without resorting to blurring fi lters. Bottom line? The 5D delivers Excellent image quality from ISO 100 to 800, with better sharp-ness than the EOS 20D. However, both the Nikon D2X and the new D50 havelower noise levels at ISO 1600.

Canon claims the AF system on the EOS 5D is an improvement over the20D’s, especially in motion tracking (AI Servo) modes where nine selectable and six invisible AF zones come into play (mak-ing a total of 15). With f/2.8 or brighter lenses, more of the AF zones are cross-type. Our tests show that the 5D is very fast in bright light and even capable of focusing in very low-light levels at EV –0.5. But while the AF tracking system on the 5D is fast enough for most action, the cam-era drops its JPEG burst rate to 3.5 fps, compared with the 4.5 fps of the 20D. The good news? If you load it with a fast CF card, such as the SanDisk Extreme III, the 5D can capture up to 60 high-quality JPEGs in a continuous burst.

The EOS 5D appears to follow a pathbetween two extremes. On the yin side,its full-frame sensor gives photographersthe advantages of the expensive EOS1Ds Mark II and the best image quality you can fi nd in a sub-$3,500 DSLR. On the yang side, its construction, size, andarray of features are closer to thoseoffered by the APS-sensored EOS 20D.Now if it only cost less, more photogra-phers would reach nirvana. p

(A), AE lock, AF-zone select, and playback zoom buttons (B), multicontroller wheel and select button (C), CF card door (D),230,000-pixel, 2.5-inch LCD (E), direct-print button (F), and menu, info, jump, and playback buttons (G).

VIEWFINDER LOWDOWN: This highly accurate viewfi nder has nine etched AFzones in the center (A) and a circle delineating the 3.5% spot meter zone (B). Data display is smaller than on EOS 20D, but still shows AE/FE lock (C), fl ash-ready light and fl ashexposure comp indicator (D), shutter speed and aperture values (E), exposure level (F),white-balance correction (G), burst capacity (H), and focus-confi rmation light (I).

IMAGE QUALITY: The 12.8MP EOS 5D captures excellent image quality, with low noiseand wide dynamic range. A 1-inch squaredetail from a 14.5x22-inch photo (at 200 ppi) shows high defi nition in eyelashes and great skin tones. Photo taken withCanon 50mm f/1.4 EF lens, Speedlite 580EX fl ash, 1/90 sec at f/8.

70 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

E

C

D

A

BF

A

B

C D E F G HI

G

3/.9�#9"%2 3(/4�$3# 2�"9�$!.�2)#(!2$3

*�

"/"

-Ê9Ê,

�"

Ê*"

"

YHAS� BUILT��WITH� ���� MEGAPIXEL� CAPTUREON� AN�!03 SIZED� #-/3� IMAGER�� A� �8���n���MM� �EQUIVALENT� F����n���� LENS�A�KILLER�STREET�PRICE��AND�ENOUGH�ADVANCED� FEATURES�AND�CAPA

BILITIES�TO�KEEP�A�$3,2�USER�HAPPY�4HE�2��BEARS�A�SUPERFICIAL�RESEMBLANCE

TO�THE�DISCONTINUED��-0�3ONY�#YBER SHOT$3# &�����BUT�IT�IS�VERY�DIFFERENT�IN�MANYWAYS��4HE�2��FOREGOES�THE�����S�ARTICULAT ED�LENS�BODY�FOR�A�RIGID�DESIGN�AND�UNUSU AL� TOP MOUNTED�MULTI ANGLE�,#$�MONITOR��)NSIDE�� THE� 2�� USES� 3ONY�S� FIRST� LARGE�#-/3�IMAGER��MUCH�LIKE�THE�ONE�SUPPLIEDFOR� THE�����-0�.IKON�$�X�BUT�USING� LESS�AREA��AND� FEWER�PIXELS�OF�THE�SENSOR�

WITH�ITS�����ASPECT�RATIO�4H T BL ITH L

ACCURACY� RANKED� %XTREMELY� (IGH�� !NDNOISE�WAS� LOW� FROM� )3/� ���� THROUGH�����MODERATELY� LOW� AT� )3/� ����� AND�MODERATE�AT�)3/������

4HE�SCULPTED�HANDLEPROVIDES� AN� EXCELLENTGRIP�� THOUGH� THE�CAM ERA� IS�TOO�HEAVY�TO�BE�HELD�SINGLE HANDED�� )TBALANCES� EXTREMELY�WELL� BOTH� HORIZONTALLY

AND�VERTICALLY��WITH�A�FEEL�CLOSER�TO�THAT�OF�AMEDIUM FORMAT�CAMERA�THAN�A���MM�3,2��4HE� TILT AND SWIVEL� ,#$� LETS� YOU� SHOOTSIDEWAYS��OVERHEAD��ON� THE�GROUND��OR�AT�WAIST� LEVEL��BUT�AT��� INCHES� IS�A�BIT�SMALL��4HE�%6&� IS� REASONABLY� FINE GRAINED� AND�HAS�GOOD�MAGNIFICATION��AND�YOU�CAN�SET�ITTO�SWITCH� FROM�MONITOR� TO�%6&�AUTOMATI CALLY�WHEN�YOU�RAISE�IT�TO�YOUR�EYE�!�VERY�CURIOUS�OMISSION�FROM�THE�2��IS�

VIDEO�AND�SOUND�CAPTURE�PERHAPS�3ONYREALLY�WANTS�YOU�TO�THINK�THE�2��IS�A�$3,2��)N�ANY�EVENT��THE�2��LOOKS�LIKE�A�REAL�WIN AND�WE�LL�GIVE�YOU�THE�FULL�LOWDOWN�IN�PCOMING�TEST�OF�A�PRODUCTION�UNIT����

"!#+�6)%7��7ELL SPACED�AND�EASY TO REACH�BUTTONS�ANDDIALS�INCLUDE�PICTURE�REVIEW�!��EXPOSURE�LOCK��"��INPUT�DIAL��#��MONITOR�INFO �$��SETTING�WHEEL�WITH�CENTERJOYSTICK��%��MEMORY�CARD�SWITCH��&��MENU�ACCESS��'�FINDER�MAGNIFIER�DIGITAL�ZOOM�(��VIEWFINDER�MONITORSWITCH��)��SELF TIMER �*�BURST�BRACKETING��+�MONITOR�MODE��,��METER�PATTERN �-��MODE�DIAL��.�FLASH READY�LAMP��/�

(!.$3�/.

ÇÓÊ *"*Ê*�"/"É� � ,ÊÓääx

)MAGING�� ����-0� EFFECTIVE� #-/3������X�����PIXELS� ,ENS�� #ARL�:EISS4��8�OPTICAL�ZOOM� ���n���MM���MM�EQUIVALENT�F����n���� ,#$��4ILTING�SWIV ELING� � INCH�� ������� PIXEL� 4&4�� %6&����� INCH��������� PIXEL�4&4��3TORAGE�#&� 4YPES� )� AND� ) )�� AND� -EMORY 3TICK� SLOTS�� *0%'� AND� 2!7� FORMATS�%XPOSURE�CONTROLS�� ��n�������SEC�PLUS� 4� SHUTTER� SPEEDS�� F����n��� APER TURES��PROGRAM��APERTURE PRIORITY��SHUTTER PRIORITY��MANUAL�� FOUR�SCENE�MODES��AND�!%�LOCK��-ETERING��%VALUATIVE�MULTI SEG MENTED�� CENTERWEIGHTED�� SPOT�� &LASH�"UILT IN��UP�TO����FT�WITH�AUTO�)3/��ADJUST ABLE� IN� �b�bb %6� STEPS�� #OMPATIBLE�WITH3ONY�ACCESSORY�FLASHES�(6, &�����AND(6, &��8��/UTPUT��(I SPEED�53"�����.43#�0!,� VIDEO��0ICT"RIDGE� ENABLED��0OWER�� 0ROPRIETARY� )NFO,ITHIUM� ,I IONRECHARGEABLE� BATTERY�� 3IZE�WEIGHT����X���X����IN�������LB�WITH�CARD�AND�BAT TERY�� 3TREET� PRICE�� �������� )N� THEBOX�� "ATTERY�� CHARGING� CORD��!�6� AND�53"�CABLES��NECKSTRAP�� LENSHOOD��SOFT WARE��0IXELA�0ICTURE�0ACKAGE�AND�)MAGE -IXER�6#$���2!7�CONVERTER��&OR�INFO��WWW�SONYSTYLE�COMY Y ����� ��� �����

-" 9Ê9 ,�-�"/Ê�-�,£

6ITAL�3TATISTICSX

s�4OP QUALITY�IMAGES�WITH�LOW�NOISE�s�:OOMS�TO�A�WIDE���MM�s�,#$�SWIVELS�TO�NEARLY�ANY�ANGLE�

6���7HAT�S�(OT

s�7HAT��NO�VIDEO�CAPTURE��s�3MALLISH�LOWER RES�,#$�MONITOR�s�(EAVIER�THAN�SOME�$3,2S�

3�����7HAT�S�.OT

BIGGEST��BADDEST

� ��

6IRTUAL3,2

��

Pentax DA 40mm f/2.8 Limited AFLENS TEST

� What’s Hot• Extremely small.• Very sharp.• Very well made.

� What’s Not• Unusually slim manual-focus ring.

THE EQUIVALENT OF A 60MM IN A35mm system, Pentax’s new 40mm f/2.8DA (digital only; $290 street) belongs tothat rare breed of unusually fl at lenses com-monly called pancakes. One of two madeby Pentax, it extends a mere 0.61 inches

from the camera body and weighs a feath-ery 3.2 ounces. Mounting it on the *ist DL,Pentax claims, gives you the smallest andlightest-weight DSLR system anywhere.

This f/2.8 is one of only a few suchshorties in production, and it is the onlyone that autofocuses. Like Pentax’s full-frame 43mm f/1.9 pancake, it’s a Limited(edition) lens, with all-metal construction,exquisite machining, manufacturing toler-ances tighter than usual (resulting in bet-ter optical performance), and small (though

technically not limited) production runs.Cool factoid #1: It’s claimed to be the

smallest and lightest-weight interchange-able AF lens in the world. Cool factoid#2: The lenscaps have the Pentax logoprinted on the inside surface. HANDS ON: Matte black and small, evenby pancake standards, this 40mm f/2.8looks more like a teleconverter than a lens.Its manual-focus ring features an adequatelydamped turning action and, at 0.12 inches,is among the most slender we’ve seen. Thelenshood, focusing ring, and lensmountbase all feature beautifully machined, knurlededges, which makes it tricky picking out themanual-focus ring by feel while shooting.

Due to limited real estate, thefocusing scale combines feetand meters along a single con-tinuum (in blue and yellow type,respectively). Resembling a fi lterring, the included lenshoodextends a mere 0.25-inchesfrom the outer barrel and is out-fitted with its own set of 30.5mmfi lter threads.IN THE LAB: SQF numbers

show unusual sharpness. Slightly betterthan the comparable Nikon 45mm f/2.8PNikkor AI-S, the Pentax pancake’s SQFperformance falls in the Excellent range atevery aperture and magnifi cation. DxOAnalyzer 2.0 tests found slight barrel dis-tortion (0.20%), which is average for theclass. Light falloff was gone by f/4, alsoaverage. At the close-focusing distanceof 15.7 inches, its magnifi cation ratio is1:8.2, better than the Pentax 43mm’s1:12.4, but not the equal of Nikon’s 1:7.4.CONCLUSION: Many Pentax shooterslooking for a normal/moderate tele lens willbe justifi ably tempted by the faster and less expensive 50mm f/1.4 ($220 street).Though housed in plastic and converting toa longish 75mm on the *ist DL, the 50mmis lightweight (0.49 pounds) and quitesharp. The 40mm f/2.8 pancake, however,will have a near-irresistible attraction forphotographers who value fi ne craftsman-ship and/or extreme compactness. p

40mm (39.93mm tested), f/2.8 (f/2.86 tested), 5 elements in 4 groups. Focusing turns 70 degrees counterclockwise. n Diagonal view angle: 39 degrees. n Weight: 0.21 lb. n Filter size: 49mm. n Mounts: Pentax AF. n Included:Lenshood. n Street price: $290.

40mm

key

Size 5x7 8x10 11x14 16x20 20x242.8 97.6 96.9 95.2 92.3 89.14.0 97.8 97.1 95.5 92.9 89.95.6 97.5 96.8 95.1 92.1 88.78.0 97.5 96.7 94.9 91.8 88.211.0 97.4 96.6 94.8 91.6 87.916.0 97.0 96.0 93.8 89.9 85.222.0 96.3 95.1 92.5 87.5 81.4

A+ A B+ B C+ C D F

Subjective Quality Factoru

Specifi cationsu

GourmetPancake

74 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

A slim lens serves up a big performance

ACTUAL SIZE p

2.46 in.

0.61 in.0.12 in.

BY PETER KOLONIA

complex photo editor, ACDSee 8 PhotoManager ($50 download) helps youorganize masses of images powerfullyand effi ciently—and, if you need to, fi xthem quickly. What a relief not to have to do the scroll-and-wait while your state-of-the-art hard drive is reduced to cough-ing and spluttering like an overheatedtoaster oven. The company’s priority hasalways been speed, but the graphicsand interface have fi nally caught up. Thisupdate is the prettiest and easiest tonavigate to date.

The default setup reserves the center of your screen for viewing thumbnails. Choose the folders you want to view and check out a blown-up preview on the left. On the right, toggle between organizing with keywords or ratings and working on your images in the Task Pane. Sets oftasks that you can show or hide are con-veniently organized into tasks that apply to fi les or folders and tasks that help you import, fi x, or share.

Even though the program is a breeze to learn and navigate, it includes the options and controls a professionally minded shooter requires. Case in point: when you pop in a memory card, you get a window asking whether you want to import using ACDSee. If you wish, youcan choose your settings right there, and even rename them according to your

EXIF data. Or you can tell the programnever to bug you again.

Another innovation? You can view thecontents of multiple folders at once.Pick the images you want to address,then throw them in the Image Basket.From that virtual folder, choose a task ordrag them into a more robust editorsuch as Adobe Photoshop or CorelPaint Shop Pro. Similar to the ImageBasket is the Burn Basket, another vir-tual box that keeps track of what you’veburned and when, and keeps thoseimages searchable.

If you make good use of the keywords—and it’s easy to do that because adding them en masse is so fast—you can takeadvantage of the Quick Search box andsuperspeedily populate your screen withthe pictures that qualify. Other useful stuff: you can fi nd duplicates with the Duplicate Wizard, add audio comments to fi les, compare up to three images side-by-side, make a PDF, burn your DVDs and VCDsto PAL format for those European rela-tives, and all the while work with color-managed thumbnails.

For total beginners, ACDSee 8 maybe all you need; you can do a good jobfi xing pics simply and keep track of allthose images you’ve been snapping. Forseasoned enthusiasts, the program is athorough tool that’s fun to use to man-age your images, repair your snapshots,and fi gure out which ones you’re goingto put the time into fi xing in earnest. For everyone, the speed and simplicity of theinterface makes working with the pro-gram a simple pleasure. p

For info: ACD Systems; www.acdsys-ytems.com; 250-544-6701.

Software for putting your image fi les in order

BY DEBBIE GROSSMAN

REVIEW

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005 75

ACDSEE 8 PHOTO MANAGER

Quick Clean-Up

� What’s Hot• Scroll through thumbnails fast.• Color-managed.• Browses RAW.

� What’s Not• Can’t use Quick Search on IPTC data.• Serious users will need a separate editor.

BY PETER KOLONIA

QUANTUM QFLASH T5dTEST

IF YOU MATED A STUDIO STROBE and a portable TTL hot-shoe fl ash, the result might be something like Quantum’s popular Qfl ash T4d ($560 street). Battery- or AC-powered, the 26-ounce T4d looks equally at home softboxed on a lightstand for portraits or bolted to a fl ash bracket for run-and-gun-style event photography. More-over, with the proper TTL adapters, it’s compatible with the latest SLR fl ash AE systems (E-TTL II, iTTL, etc).

For all its strong points, however, the T4d lacks one signifi cant tool: wireless TTL exposure control. For that, you need Quan-tum’s newest Q: the T5d ($580 street). With the new hot-shoe TTL adapters and FreeXwire transmitters and receivers, your Canon, Fuji, Nikon, or other popular SLR can control one or more T5ds, wirelessly, with preset lighting ratios, via radio signals that travel up to 500 feet—even through walls and around corners. You also get more power than with a normal hot-shoe fl ash, plus faster recycling, softer light out-put due to both the parabolic shape of the Qfl ash refl ector and the included diffuser disk, and various Quantum exclusives.

For readers unfamiliar with the Qfl ash system, here are a few of these exclusives: “Sensor Limit Control” lets the user set a subject distance range beyond which the

Autoflash sen-sor ignores. If, for exam-ple, you set a subject distance limit of 10 feet, the flash’s

AE system

Quantum LeapQflash adds wireless TTL control

will ignore anything beyond that. This, of course, is great for situations where a distant background is much lighter or darker than your fl ash-lit subject. The Qfl ash accepts a number of power sources, includ-ing three different Turbo batteries, select Lumedyne and Norman powerpacks, and AC power. The manual explains all aspects of fl ash operation and gives informative insights into studio lighting. Finally, Quantum is one of those rare companies that offer live tele-phone support for their products.

The Qfl ash system fi ts together logically, if expensively (about $1,500 complete, street). For a quick test drive, we slid one end of a new TTL hot-shoe cord (D12w) onto a Fujifi lm FinePix S3 DSLR and the other end into Quantum’s compact FreeX-wire transmitter (FW9T). We then put the T5d and Turbo 2x2 battery on a lightstand, attached a FreeXwire receiver (FW8R), and aimed the rig upward to bounce its powerful output (GN 320 at 100mm and ISO 100) off the ceiling. Next, we posed our model and fi red off 20 shots. The Qfl ash recycled instantly and our expo-sures were close to perfect.

Our impression: Master it, and Quan-tum’s new Qfl ash is an exciting and multi-faceted tool that can propel your photog-raphy to new heights. p

• Wireless TTL exposure control.• High power.• Multiple power options.

� What’s Hot

• No support for high-speed fl ash syncing.• Expensive.

� What’s NotE:

s

ours.

76 POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

EPSON POWERLITE 755C

IGITALDI PROJECTORS, ONCE SOLELYr business use, are now for photogra-fohers, too. Take Epson’s PowerLiteph55c ($1,700 expected street). With75atures like 802.11g wireless connec-fe

vity, a CompactFlash reader, and auto-tivatic keystone control, it makes slidem

hows easier than ever. But its threeshCD chips—one each for red, green, andLCue—make the real difference. The sam-ble we tried produced well-saturated,pl

ccurate colors after we calibrated itacsing GretagMacbeth’s Eye-One Beam-usr ($835 street).erSetup was quick and easy, especially

hen we skipped a PC connection inwhvor of a CompactFlash card. Without a favomputer, however, we lost the benefit of cour Eye-One profile. In our darkened ouoom, we got the best performance in ro

Epson’s Living Room color mode with thecolor temperature menu option set to6500K. Thanks to auto-keystone correc-tion, images were square despite our table’s upward tilt. You can also access photos directly from any USB-equipped portable storage device.

Unlike most sub-$1,000 projectors,which sport SVGA (or 800x600-pixel)resolutions, this Epson’s XVGA pixel arraynumbers 1024x768. While it’s notably sharper than less-pricey models, thosewho are accustomed to traditional slideprojectors will still yearn for the continu-ous tone and sharpness of chromes. Theymay also complain about its noticeable“screen-door effect,” the faint grid amongpixels. But that’s true of any digital projec-tor in this price range. (You can counter itby increasing your viewing distance orreducing the image size.)

Other gripes were micontrol isn’t backlit, so it’s hard to use in a darkened room. Also, the wireless card occupies the CF slot, so you’ll have to

se between the two.Overall, the PowerLite 755c is an easy

way to show off your digital images in alltheir vibrant color. p

Triple ThreatTWith three LCDs, this projector oozes cW

TEST

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

• 3-chip LCD light engine.• Built-in CF reader.• 802.11b/g wireless.

� What’s Hot

• Still not as sharp as film.• Noticeable “screen-door” effect.• Remote not backlit.

� What’s Not

TIPS&TRICKS

78 POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

Contact managerLeaking alkaline batteries can leavea residue that corrodes your cam-era’s electrical contacts until they become nonconducting. Here’s aquick way to revitalize them: First,because “battery acid” isn’t an acid,but a base (they’re called “alkaline”batteries, right?), neutralize theresidue with a little mild acid. Apply it with a cotton swab and wipe thecontacts clean. Don’t be alarmed if they bubble...that’s normal. Thenfl ush the contacts with distilledwater (again, using a cotton swab).Result: the contacts are clean, shiny,and conductive again. Don’t have a“mild acid” handy? Try lemon juice.It won’t bubble, and it smells better. Gerd Kortemeyer East Lansing, MI

Dump the bumpWhen hiking, to control the move-ment of the camera hanging aroundmy neck, I use a 48-inch length of string with a small hook on oneend. I attach the hook to the right camera-strap eyelet, draw the string around my back, pull it taut, and tieit to the left camera-strap eyelet. Touse the camera, I simply release thehook and let the string hang free.

Tom Canapp Jarrettsville, MD

Neat feetAs a crime scene photographer, I haveto set my tripod in some rather nastyplaces. To keep my ’pod dirt-free, Icut the fi ngers off rubber gloves, slidethem over the tripod feet like littleboots, and secure the fi ngers with rub-ber bands. It keeps grit, water, mud,and worse(!) out of the tripod legs, ex-tending their life in the process. Jim Yoghourtjian Racine, WI

Art warmingIf you’re shooting digital and wantto get a warm-tone picture, try set-ting a custom white balance from alight-blue sheet of paper. Your pic-ture will look like it was lit by the

setting sun. Conversely, if you useyellow paper, the resulting color willbe blue. Bonus tip: For a neutralwhite balance, camera instructionscall for using a white target, but aneutral gray one will work, too.

Sveta DragovicGeneva, Switzerland

Pencil pusherI prevent my fi lters and close-upadapters from sticking to the frontthreads of my lenses by going overthe fi lter threads with a No. 2 leadpencil. The tiny amount of graphitelubricates the threads just enough.

Stanley SizelerPleasant Hill, CA

Dew thisWhile on nature hikes, I occasion-ally come across a photo op that hasliterally dried up. Fall leaves, spiderwebs, wildfl owers and other natu-ral close-up subjects tend to pho-tograph better wearing fresh coatsof morning dew. To recreate early morning’s sparkling light and moresaturated colors at any hour, I carry a small atomizer fi lled with water. A bit of its mist on fl ora or fauna, and,voilà, it’s dawn all day long!

Bob TaylorSalt Lake City, UT

Breathe easyWhen shooting an impromptu por-trait that could use a little softening,try breathing on the lens right beforereleasing the shutter. The effect islike a soft-focus fi lter’s, but variable:The longer you wait to fi re the shut-ter, the less the softening effect.

Michelle HarbourHayes, VA

Got a tip, trick, or technique?E-mail it to [email protected] p f .Readers whose tips we publish willreceive a special-edition POPULAR

PHOTOGRAPHY & IMAGING TamracPhoto-Video 1 Model 5201 camera bag. See this SLR-sizedbag at POPPHOTO.com. p

YOU CAN DO ITPHOTOS BY HAROLD FEINSTEIN

TEXT BY PETER KOLONIA

HAROLD FEINSTEIN IS ON A roll. In the past fi ve years or so, theBerkshires-based dynamo has pro-duced nearly a half-dozen gloriousphoto books; breathtaking tributesto the beauty of roses, tulips, shells,and other natural subjects.

What accounts for this surge of productivity? Simple. The long-cele-brated fi lm photographer discovereddigital. Using Adobe Photoshop andthe Epson Perfection 4990 scanner,he’s become a master of camera-freephotography. By simply placing hissubjects on the Epson fl atbed andusing a black sheet of cardboardas background, he creates art. “If people knew how easy it was,” helaughs, “I could be arrested.”

How easy? For his shell pictures,the hard part is fi nding the shells.“Don’t try wading into the surf atSanibel Island,” warns Feinstein.“What you fi nd there, even the goodones, are eroded and their colorsare bleached from tumbling aroundin the surf.” The best shells comefrom deep water, and you get themat shell shops or through collectors.Retailers and collectors are easy tofi nd on the Internet and may be will-ing to lend or rent valuable shells inexchange for prints. However, mostshells, like those from the $8 bag Feinstein used for the photo on thepages that follow, are cheap.

To make the picture, Feinstein arranged the mini mollusks on the Epson 4990’s glass, carefully fi xing spacing and orientation, removing and replacing any that were obvi-ously wrong for the composition. Theidea is to cram as many shells as pos-sible onto the scanner, with as little empty space between them as pos-sible. It’s like putting together a puz-zle. Once the composition is set, hemakes a preliminary scan and stud-ies it carefully. “I continue to prescan and make adjustments until I look at the computer screen and my mouth drops open. That’s when I know it’s time to go high-res.” It usually takesabout an hour, and as many as a doz-en prescans. “For me, one scan usu-ally suggests another and another. It can be hard to know when to stop.”

As for scanner settings, with smaller subjects such as these, he’ll scan at 300 percent. Larger shells, those fi ve or more inches long, are scanned at 100 percent. Feinstein also sets the 4990’s driver to au-tomatically sharpen the image be-tween 50 and 100 percent.

The fi nal stage, in Photoshop, also takes about an hour. It includes boosting saturation, adjusting tone,sharpness, and color balance, as well as cloning out irregularities in shellsurfaces.

“I’ve been working with shells for 18 or 19 years and am still in aweof them,” says Feinstein. “I’ve never found a human architect who coulddesign anything so simple yet so fas-cinatingly intricate.” p

SH

ELL G

AM

E

CLEAN THEM FIshells on a fl atbed scanner, Feinsteincleans them to remove loose sand.

BE GENTLE: When setting the papernautilus (top), Venus comb murex (mid-dle), and clear sundial (bottom) on hisEpson fl atbed, Feinstein handles theshells gently to avoid scratching thescanner’s glass plate.

5 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

BOOK IT:Feinstein’s One Hundred Seashells(Bulfi nch Press, $50), with writer Sydney Eddi-son, showcas-es some of his most superb work.

ST! Before laying

YOU CAN DO IT

84 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

OUR EDITORS’ CRITERION: The camera that best refi nes or redefi nes photography

OUR EDITORS’ CHOICE: The Canon EOS 5D Digital SLR

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM 85

©M

ICH

AE

L S

OO

a winner—the Canon EOS 20D. After all, when the criterion is “the camera that best refines or redefines photography,” how could the Camera of the Year title not go to the EOS 20D? This DSLR took the bar set by 2004’s Camera of the Year, the 6.1MP Nikon D70, and raised it to 8.2MP and a 4.5-frame-per-second burst rate, along with nearly pro-caliber construction, all for a street price that now stands at $1,300 (body only). In other words, the EOS 20D was the Great Serious Amateur Camera of 2005.

But it was unseated for the highest honor late in the year by a member of its own family. In fact, by a camera built on virtually the same chassis.

The Canon EOS 5D scooped up the Camera of the Year laurel not simply

because it raises the bar, but because it thrusts that bar into the stratosphere by obliterating the major shortcoming of the EOS 20D and every other under-$7,400 digital SLR currently in production—the 35mm lens factor.

Since the 5D’s 12.8MP sensor is the same size as a frame of 35mm fi lm (“full frame”), it’s good-bye “effective focal length.” Twist a 14mm lens onto the 5D’s steel lensmount, and you’re shooting 14mm, not the 21–22mm that you get with the usual DSLR’s 1.5X to 1.6X lens factor. Those who do lots of wide-angle work (such as architectural shooters) are rejoicing. So are those who grew up in the 35mm world and still think that way. Also smiling are photographers who have major investments in Canon EF-mount glass.

But there’s more to this camera than just sensor size. It’s also reasonably

light—less than 2 pounds with battery—and packs a large (2.5-inch) LCD, interchangeable focusing screens, and excellent resolution and image quality. (See the review and Certified Lab Results on page 68.)

About all that’s missing are a built-in flash and a superrugged, heavily gasketed body. The fi rst is typical of a pro tool; the second suggests an amateur-oriented approach.

The price, too, walks the pro-am line. Granted, at $3,300 (street, body only), the 5D is no impulse purchase. But it’s one heck of a value considering the megapixels, image quality, and full-frame sensor. Also, bear in mind that the 20D debuted a year ago at $1,500; today it sells for 13 percent less. If the same happens with the 5D, it won’t be merely 2005’s Camera of the Year, it could be 2006’s Deal of the Year. p

WE THOUGHT WE HAD

DSLRS: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

86 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

2005

DSLRALL

STARS

MICHAEL

LLNO DOUBT ABOUT IT.2005 was the year of the digital SLR.

Sure, serious photographers (with serious money) embraced them long ago. But this year DSLRs went mainstream, with sub-$1,000 models selling like crazy to soccer moms and football dads.

With 20 DSLR models, priced from $620 to $7,400 (street), how do you choose the right camera for you? Start with our All-Star lineup—seven DSLRs with talent, value, and features special enough to earn MVP status—listed in order of street price for the camera body only. (For our Camera of the Year, the Canon EOS 5D, see page 84 and test on page 68.)

S THE LEAGUE LEADER IN IMAGEquality and pro features, the 16.7MP (effective) Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II demands top dollar. But if you’re a pro looking for asupertough, gasket-sealed DSLR that can deliver image quality exceeding that of mostfi lms, the investment may prove worthwhile.

It boasts a full-frame CMOS sensor with no 35mm lens factor, a hyperfast and sensitive45-point AF system, extensive exposure andmetering controls, vertical shutter release,and long-life rechargeable battery. With dualcard slots, the 1Ds Mark II is also capableof capturing JPEG, RAW, or JPEG + RAWimages and saving them simultaneously toboth CF (Type I and II) and SD cards. Canon includes its powerful (and free) DigitalPhoto Professional 2.0 RAW conversionsoftware, and even a software utility that letsyou control the camera remotely via its fastFireWire connection.

Okay, the EOS-1Ds Mark II has only a 2-inch LCD monitor, but in the perilousenvironments that this camera may fi nd

■ ■

Seven greats at the

their gamen greats at gre

CANON EOS-1DS MARK II ($7,400) HIGH-SCORING CHAMP

35mm lens factor, but the camera ssmaller sensor allo ed Canon to design

NIKON D2X ($5,000)

LOW-LIGHT LEADER

(e■

Et ■

F ■

JJc ■

Ep ■

e ■

MJ ■

is ■

8

■ SENSO■ IMAGEfrom IS ■

LENS FA ■

JPEG, on CF ■ AF SYextrem■ CONTRmeterinimage ■

Up to 3JPEGs ■

Januar ■

www.c800-65

THE 12.4MP (EFFECTIVE) NIKOmuch more for those who can afford it th4.1MP D2hS ($3,500). No other DSLR its noise at higher ISOs as well as the Dto a blurring fi lter)—one of the reasons image-quality rating all the way up to ISgoes to its Sony-manufactured sensor—timaging sensor to be used in aNikon DSLR. Although its APS-size creates a 1.5X 35mm lensfactor that turns a 28mm wide-angle into a 42mm lens, Nikon

es lenses

etproof as DSLRs, but

stainless-agnesium-ather/dust-so sports ease, 40 h-capacity gorgeousand faster 1 highest-fps. And

appreciate speed and

r most of 2005 and wra of the Year. It was unby its higher-priced

y photographers, thoualue.e EOS

5D, with control rugged

ess-steelnesium-a similar

sensitiveat locksss than

CANON EOS 20D ($1,300)

FIRST DRAFT PICK

87

N EOS 20 DOMIND

1 sec at EV 0, as well aspo erf l e pos re metering

in low light. And while the LCD monitor isn’tas sharp as we’d like, the terrifi c viewfi nderincludes an eye-activated LCD cutoff switch toreduce glare while shooting.

of features it boasts. Weighing just 1.2 pounds and easy to hold,the XT body has a stainless-steel chassis that adds strength to thereinforced plastic body, along with fairly advanced exposure andmetering controls that rival those on the EOS 20D.

enger to the EOS 20D. Besides itsrugged body, its 7-point AF system as fast or as sensitive, and it has a r-capacity rechargeable battery (up 0 shots based on CIPA ratings).e XT doesn’t hold down its noise s at higher ISOs, though it beats the P Olympus Evolt E-300. Like the the XT has an APS-sized CMOS

or with a 1.6X 35mm lens factor, it’s compatible with Canon’s lessnsive EF-S lenses. The XT’s burst bility of up to 50 fi ne-quality JPEG es at 3.5 fps is impressive for the. But we’d sure like a larger LCD tor than this 1.8-incher.

KONICA MINOLTA MAXXUM 5D ($800) STEADY DEFENSEIF YOU’RE GOING TO DSLR major leagues, it’s gthe one Konica Minolta built5D. Along with KM’s 7D, it’built-in Anti-Shake (AS) sysup to a 3-stop advantage light or at slower shutter speall KM A-Type lenses, inc18–70mm f/3.4–5.6 AF Dkit lens ($100 additional). Bprice, the 5D has featuresearn it MVP status. It hasAPS-sized 6.1MP (effectsensor as the more expegiving you a 1.5X 35mm and extremely high-quality im

body i

■ ■

quality JPEGs at 3 fps. ■ REVIEWED:October 2005 issue. ■ INFO: www.konicaminolta.us; 877-462-4464.;

CANON EOS REBEL XT ($790) 8MP POWER PLAYER

88

NIKON D50 ($650)

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

exposure and metering. ■ BURST MODE: Up to 13JPEGs at 2.5 fps. ■ TESTED: September 2005 issue.■ INFO: www.nikonusa.com;;800-645-6689.

PENTAX SET THE SMALL DSLR STANwith the original 6.1MP *ist D in early 2004. Sinit has created ever-smaller models with the *ist now the *ist DL. Yet somehow, Pentax squeezesharp, 2.5-inch LCD into the back of the DL. 210,000-pixel resolution makes it very easy menus and view tiny details. Maybe there was room to spare when Pentax replaced the 11-point AF system of the *ist DS with the 3-point AF systemon the DL. Don’t worry: all the zonesare very sensitive cross-types, and theDL’s AF, which almost matches that of the DS, is sensitive down to EV 0. But,the data display is harder to read, and

burst capacity is only fi ve

PENTAX *IST DL ($650)

MIGHTY MITE

CLAIMED THE CAMERA4 with its D70, Nikon’s biggR that would compete with

with the D50. While it lacks tas of the more expensive D

capabilities not found in its0’s image quality is slighto changes in the APS-sizeor and image processing. TO speeds up to 1600. Amat its AF system,

its class, which cann very low light downAnd it has a highfl ash sync speed

h in bright daylight.also has advancedncluding 3D Matrix)ure controls. Thanksch LCD, with a well-user interface, it’st to the most usefulnd the extended-lifeh up to 2,000 shots

per charge) should hold outdespite increased LCD usage.

The D50’s 2.5-fps burst mode is nothing to brag about, nor

SCOUTING REPORTWith DSLR designand innovation in fullswing at all the leadingmanufacturers, what’s instore for 2006?★ We can comfortably predict that there will be high-res,full-frame (12.8MP) DSLRsavailable for the fi rst time priced below $3,000 (oh yeah, that describes our Camera of the Year, the EOS 5D, about six months from now).★ It’s high time Nikon had a replacement for the D100 with a lot more megapixels.★ We predict Pentax and Konica Minolta will have under-$900 8MP cameras by the Photokina show in September. ★ The just-out OlympusEvolt E-500 promises to be a player. We got a sneak peek (November 2005), but we can’t declare it an MVP until we test a production unit in the POP

PHOTO lab.

Harder to predict is whatwe might see from the twomajor electronics giantsthat are poised to enterthe DSLR market in 2006.★ Panasonic will showcase its DSLR prototype, one result of a partnership with Olympus,in just a few months. It will support the Four Thirds standard (including lenses), but little else is known. We’d sure love to see Panasonic’s image stabilization built in, and if Olympus contributes its imaging expertise to improve image quality and adds its dedicated fl ash system, the Four Thirds System could fl ourish.★ Sony, in partnership with Konica Minolta, is developing a DSLR—but, behind the scenes, the KM 7D and 5D already have Sony CCD sensors built in (as do the NikonD50 and Pentax *ist DL). Let’s hope Sony brings not only its image sensor and processing expertise, but also smart batteries and manufacturing effi ciency to the table.★ Although Kodak is out of the DSLR business, it still manufactures CCD and CMOS sensors. And it’s going strong on 3MP and 5MP sensors for cell phone cameras. We expect big news to come from Kodak,announcing bigger, badder sensors for medium-format SLRs and camera backs. Can you say 39 megapixels?

Only one thing is forsure—2006 will be a reallyinteresting year. p

gh-quality JPEGs at 2.8 fps.Images from the DL’s APS-sized 6.1MP CCD

ensor have slightly lower color accuracy andsolution than from the *ist DS, but it offers

fr■

■ SJP■ Asew■ Cex■ B5 ■ T20 ■

pep

THEY MIGHT BE

90 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

BY RIGHTS, THE CAMERASin this category shouldn’t exist by now—yet not only are they alive, they’re thriving. These are electronic viewfi nder (EVF) cameras, and they present serious competition for digi-tal SLRs—even as DSLR prices con-tinue to drop. How do they do it?Consider: The current cheapest deal on an 8MP DSLR with a 10Xor better zoom starting at true wide angle is a Canon Digital Rebel XTbody ($790 street) and a Sigma or Tamron 18–200mm f/3.5–6.3 digital zoom ($400 street). A sweet deal at just under $1,200, yes, but for about $500 less, you can get a Fujifi lm FinePix S9000, a 9MP EVF with the same equivalent focal length and a 2⁄3-stop gain in lens speed.

Or consider this: For the same 700 bucks, you can get an 8MPPanasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 with a jaw-dropping 35–420mm equivalent12X zoom—plus an excellent opti-cal image stabilizer. Still costs too much money? The Kodak EasyShare P850 has ample 5MP capture, a 12Xf/2.8–3.7 zoom, and image stabiliza-tion—for $450 street.

That’s how EVFs are competing:bang for the buck. They have longer zoom ranges, more megapixels, and wider apertures at prices that still undercut DSLRs—along with bonus goodies like built-in image stabiliza-tion and high-quality video.

But the two things that make the EVF possible—relatively small image sensors and the compact view-by-wire system—also make for the two major

drawbacks of these cameras. Name-ly, digital noise and viewfi nders that have the disquieting habit of freeze-framing when you’re trying to tracka moving subject. Manufacturers are addressing both problems, with larger sensors, improved noise reduction, and viewfi nders with faster redraw.

HERE’S A RUNDOWN OF THE HOT EVFS FOR 2006.Megapixel monsters: If 8MPcapture plus 10X optical zoom once formed a barrier, today’s EVFs are demolishing it. The aforementioned Fujifi lm S9000, with 9MP and a 10.7X 28–300mm equivalent zoom,should be selling now for $700 street or less. Fuji’s Real Photo Technology promises low noise in pictures takenat ISOs as high as 1600, and it can also reduce blur in photos via digital oversampling.

Nikon, meanwhile, has continually refi ned its Coolpix 8000-series cam-eras. The latest version, the Coolpix8800 ($700 street), has a 10X zoomat the longer end, a 35–350mm equiv-alent f/2.8–5.2, 8MP capture, and optical image stabilization. Clevertricks borrowed from Coolpix point-and-shoots include on-the-fl y redeye fi x and D-lighting, which can tone down the contrast in backlit shots.

Panasonic’s Lumix FZ30, as we mentioned, combines a long zoomwith image stabilization, plus stabi-lized video shooting at 30 fps and 640x480 resolution.

How about a 15X optical zoom?Samsung’s Digimax Pro815 has a

28–420mm f/2.2–4.6 Schneider lens, 8MP capture, and the biggest LCDmonitor in the business—3.5 inches. That’s augmented by a 1.44-inch top LCD control panel that can also dis-play the fi nder image for waist-level or ground-level shots! The Pro815should be appearing in stores by holi-day season for about $850 street.

Kodak joins the 8MP club with the EasyShare P880, an SLR-like camera with a wide-to-tele 24–140mm f/2.8–4.1 lens and many features for the enthusiast; it is coming onto the market now with a street price of around $600.

In many ways, the EVF to watch in 2006is the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1 (see “HandsOn” on page 72). Sony made the bold move of building in a signifi -cantly larger imager to tackle the noise prob-lem, and to allow wider focal lengths—the R1’s zoom starts at a nicely wide 24mm. Let’s see if other manufacturers fol-low this lead.Eagle-eyed compacts: Whencamera makers intro-duced 10X or greater zoomcameras with 2 to 3.2MPcapture, they were fun novelties. Now that these cameras boast 5MPcapture or better (as in the KodakEasyShare P850), they can be takenseriously as wildlife and sports cam-

WILL 2006 BE THE YEAR OF THE ALL-IN-ONE?

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM 91

E L E C T R O N I C V I E W F I N D E R S U P E R Z O O M S B Y D A N R I C H A R D S

eras, and they remain the top fun-for-the-buck cameras in all of pho-tography. Nikon, Konica Minolta,and Olympus have all pushed the resolution envelope to 6MP. The KM DiMAGE Z6 ($400 street) has a 12X 35–420mm equivalent

f/2.8–4.5 zoom and image stabiliza-tion using a shifting chip. The NikonCoolpix S4 ($400 street) is the style standout of the bunch, with its swiveling 10X zoom lens and a 38–380mm equivalent f/3.5 constant aperture. And the Olympus SP-

500 Ultrazoom ($380) has a 10X38–380mm f/2.8–3.7 zoom.

Stay tuned for reviews of these cameras in 2006. p

POWER PLAYERS:8MP Nikon Coolpix 8800 (1) has image-stabilized 10X zoom. Kodak EasyShare P880 (2) combines 8MP and 24–140mm zoom. Fujifi lm

FinePix S9000 (3) has 9MP and 10X zoom. A 15X zoom and 3.5-inch LCD (not misprints!) set apart Samsung’s 8MP Digimax Pro815 (4). Panasonic Lumix FZ30 (5) combines 8MP with stabilized 12X Leica zoom. ©

MIC

HA

EL

SO

O

CANON CASIO FUJIFILM HP KODAK

KONICA MINOLTA NIKON OLYMPUS

CANON CASIO FUJIFILM HP KODAK

KONICA MINOLTA NIKON OLYMPUS

PANANN SONIC PENTAX SAMSUNG SONYAA

CANON CASIO FUJIFILM HP KODAK

KONICA MINOLTA NIKON OLYMPUS

PANOSONIC PENTAX SAMSUNG SONY

CANON CASIO FUJIFILM HP KODAK

KONICA-MINOLTA NIKON OLYMPUS

PANOSONIC PENTAX SAMSUNG SONY

KONICA-MINOLTA NIKON OLYMPUS

PANOSONIC PENTAX SAMSUNG SONY

CANON CASIO FUJIFILM HP KODAK

KONICA-MINOLTA NIKON OLYMPUS

PANOSONIC PENTAX SAMSUNG SONY

CANON CASIO FUJIFILM HP KODAK

KONICA-MINOLTA NIKON OLYMPUS

PANOSONIC PENTAX SAMSUNG SONY

Chances are you’ve never used

even half the features lurking in

the menus of your compact camera.

Just what are all those icon-happy

modes? Actually, many of them are

useful, convenient, or just plain fun.

So we’ve taken a current camera

from nearly every major maker and

detailed features worth knowing.

B Y D A N R I C H A R D S

MOTHERS OF

INVENTION

KODAK EASYSHARE V550

KONICA MINOLTA DIMAGE X1

NIKON COOLPIX P1

OLYMPUS STYLUS 800 DIGITAL

Kit lenses

vs. pro glass.

What’s the real

diff erence—

besides cost?

D I G I T A L

OLYMPUS14–54mm f/2.8–3.5 pro zoom ($500)

OLYMPUS14–45mm f/3.5–5.6 Evolt kit zoom ($249)

96 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

TEMPTING, ISN’T IT? YOU’RE at the counter, buying a DSLR, and the salesman asks, “Want the kit? You save a hundred bucks.” Just like com-puter makers bundle software with desktops, camera makers bundle inex-pensive zoom lenses with amateur DSLR bodies. “Buy the kit. It’s practi-cally like getting a lens for free.”

Kit lenses aren’t new. Starting as early as the 1960s, 35mm SLRs were routinely sold with 50mm f/1.8’s—de facto kit lenses. The main difference between those 50mms and the kit lenses of today: They were primes, obviously, and today’s kit lenses are zooms. Beyond that, there’s a perceived difference in quality. Yesterday’s kit lenses were relatively fast, with all-metal barrels and lensmounts, plenty of sharpness, and distortion-free opti-cal performance.

Can that much be said of today’s kit zooms? To determine what you gain and what you lose by saying “Yes” to the kit question, we com-pared Nikon and Olympus digital-only kit lenses with their higher-tier siblings, which have roughly equal focal-length ranges but much higher prices. We evaluated fi ve compara-

ble lenses by seven criteria com-monly used to assess lens quality, starting with...

SHARPNESS It may surprise you, but POP PHOTO’s standardized lens tests show little signifi cant differ-ence in sharpness between kit and pro zooms. Nikon’s $180 18–55mmf/3.5–5.6 kit zoom, for example, produced SQF data indicating image sharpness almost identical to that of Nikon’s $1,250 17–55mm f/2.8, even at the maximum magni-fication of 20x24 inches. The Olympus lenses fared similarly.

DISTORTION In DxO analyzer tests of all fi ve lenses, the kit zooms fared well at their longest zoom set-tings—matching, even beating, the pro zooms at controlling linear dis-tortion. The Nikon 18–55mm kit

lens, for example, showed Imper-ceptible barrel distortion (0.07%)at 55mm, compared to a weak showing of Visible pincushioning

(0.34%) from Nikon’s 18–70mmat 70mm.

At the mid and wide set-tings, however, the kits fell far behind. Barrel distortion raised its image-warping head into the Visible range with both the Nikon and Olympus kit zooms. The Olympus 14–45mm bud-get glass, for example, showed Visible barrel distortion at most focal lengths, while the pro-grade 14–54mm produced

virtually no distortion (rated Imperceptible) at comparable

zoom settings—an improvement by two levels of magnitude. (For

POP PHOTO/AUGUST 2005 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM 00

TEXT BY PETER KOLONIA

PHOTOS BY RICO POON

NIKON18–55mm f/3.5–5.6 D50 kit zoom ($180)

NIKONMid range 18–70mmf/3.5–4.5 ($360)

NIKONPro quality 17–55mm f/2.8 ($1,250)

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM 97

the complete test data, visit www.POPPHOTO.com.)

SPEED It’s hard to put a price on speed. Every photographer craves it at one time or another, and the pro zoom’s got it. That maximum lens aperture of f/2.8 can bring home sharp shots in low light, allowing you to shoot handheld in available light and to leave fl ash and tripod at home when they’d be too intrusive or cumbersome. Shallow depths of fi eld, with their creamy, defocused backgrounds, are another unques-tionable plus of f/2.8. Good luck nabbing them with f/4.5!

CLOSE-UP Judging from our sub-sample of Nikon and Olympus lenses, kit lenses can surprise you with close-up performance that equals, and sometimes even

surpasses, pro glass. The Nikon 18–55mm budget baby, for example, boasts a signifi cantly greater maxi-mum magnification ratio (1:3.1)than either the mid-level (1:6.3) or pro Nikon zooms (1:4.1). Likewise, the Olympus kit zoom comes in at a not-too-shabby 1:4.5.

BUILD Nikon’s 17–55mm pro and 18–55mm kit zooms provide a stark lesson in the construction values separating pro and amateur glass. The pro lens is 3.5 times heavier, with a solid, substantial feel, rugged all-metal barrel, metal lensmount, ample focus and zoom rings, an extremely well-damped manual-focus action, and easily legible subject-distance scales calibrated

in feet and meters. In comparison, the airy 0.47-pound kit zoom is plastic-barreled (including the lensmount)—and feels it. Its relatively tiny manual-focus ring has a loose turning action and no subject-distance scales. It’s also one of the rare new lenses to have a front lens barrel that turns during focusing, making it diffi cult, if not impossible, to use a variety of lens-mounted fi lters, fi lter holders, and lighting accessories.

One last thought on construction: While your kit zoom may have supe-rior optics out of the box, it’s debat-able how long you will enjoy such performance. Inexpensive materials

tend to shift or even warp over time, throwing lens elements out of align-ment, and sharpness out the win-dow. Especially at wider apertures.

CONVENIENCE Like to travel light? If so, you’ll cringe at the sight of the pro zoom. It typically weighs two to three times more than the average kit lens, making it a very noticeable compan-ion while trekking along city streets or mountain trails. And don’t forget the size consideration: pro glass is signifi -cantly larger than kit and will gobble up meager camera bag space fast.

COST Well, we all know about cost. Kit lenses can dip under $200, while pro zooms rarely drop below $500and often reach levels that are rich by any standard.

SO, KIT OR SOMETHING MORE costly? Which zoom is right for you? If sharpness is your overriding con-cern, save some cash and grab the kit. Do the same if compactness and light weight or superlow cost are your top priorities.

If, however, you want parallel lines that remain (relatively) parallel

in your pictures, like to shoot in low light without the hobbling effect of fl ash or tripod, or need speed to stop action (as with sports or stage performances) or defocus a back-ground, invest in a lens that will serve you and your evolving photog-raphy well into the future.

And, if you’re rough on gear, changing lenses frequently and toss-ing them into your camera bag more or less unprotected, then you, too, need a zoom that’s more metal than plastic, more rugged than not, more pro than kit. p

D I G I T A L

98 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

Kit vs. Pro Zooms at a GlanceNIKON NIKON NIKON OLYMPUS OLYMPUS KIT ZOOM MIDLEVEL PRO ZOOM KIT ZOOM PRO ZOOM

LENS 18–55mm 18–70mm 17–55mm 14–45mm 14–54mm

SPEED f/3.5–5.6 f/3.5–4.5 f/2.8 f/3.5–5.6 f/2.8–3.5

SHARPNESS Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent(for 11x14 in.)* (92.5%) (93.6%) (94.7%) (92.6%) (95.1%)

LINEAR DISTORTION **

WIDE Visible Visible Slight Visible VisibleMID Slight Slight Slight Visible ImperceptibleTELE Imperceptible Visible Slight Slight Imperceptible

MACRO *** 1:3.1 at 11 in. 1:6.3 at 14.4 in. 1:4.1 at 14.2 in. 1:4.5 at 14.9 in. 1:2.6 at 8.6 in.

LIGHT FALLOFF f/5.6–8.0 f/5.6–8.0 f/4 f/5.6–8.0 f/4–5.6(gone by)***

WEIGHT 0.47 lb. 0.86 lb. 1.69 lb. 0.68 lb. 1 lb.

COST $180 $360 $1,250 $249 $500

GREEN TYPE: Top in group. RED TYPE: Bottom in group. *SQF performance for 11x14-inch enlargement at f/11 and mid zoom setting. **Barrel and pincushion distortion.***Maximum mag ratio at closest focus.

For more details, go to www.POPPHOTO.com.

100

HOW TO READ A 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

7

RESOLUTION(AVERAGE OF HXVXVV D LINES) ON AN IT-10 TARGET

1700+ EXCELLENT

1500–1700 EXTREMELY HIGH

1300–1500 VERY HIGH

1200–1300 HIGH

1100–1200 ACCEPTABLE

UNDER 1100 UNACCEPTABLE

For a compact camera or an EVF with a fixed zoom lens, we also includelens distortion ratings at several focal lengths, determined by the same DxO Analyzer 2.0 target, software, and scale used in our stand-alone lens tests. The same target and software are also used to measure the effectiveness of image stabilization systems built into lensesor cameras, plus light falloff (vignetting).

CAMERA TEST COLOR ACCURACY (AVERAGE DELTA E)

8.0 AND BELOW EXCELLENT

8.1–10.0 EXTREMELY HIGH

10.1–12.0 HIGH

12.1–15.0 ACCEPTABLE

15.1 AND ABOVE UNACCEPTABLE

NOISE (LUMINANCE, RGB AVERAGE)

BELOW 1.1 EXTREMELY LOW

1.2–1.5 VERY LOW

1.6–1.9 LOW

2.0–2.3 MODERATELY LOW

2.4–2.9 MODERATE

3.0 AND ABOVE HIGH (UNACCEPTABLE)

LENS DISTORTION:(BASED ON DXO 2.0 TEST RESULTS FOR BARRELAND PINCUSHION DISTORTION)O

0.0—0.10% IMPERCEPTIBLE

0.11—0.30% SLIGHT

0.31—1.00% VISIBLE

1.01—3.00% VERY VISIBLE

3.01% AND HIGHER EXCESSIVE

LENS DISTORTION

WHAT THE NUMBERS AND RATINGS REALLY MEAN

102

HOW TO READ A CAMERA TEST

VIEWFINDER MAGNIFICATION0.83X OR GREATER EXCELLENT

0.79–0.82X VERY GOOD

0.75–0.78X GOOD

0.71–0.74X AVERAGE

0.70X OR BELOW BELOW AVERAGE

OUR VIEWFINDER AND AF SPEED TESTS for DSLRs are identical tothose we’ve been performing on 35mm SLRs for more than 20 years, while our

relatively new digital camera tests conform to tried-and-true evaluation methods used by camera manufacturers and industry associations. But asdigital cameras add features and improve image quality, we’ll continue to add tests that help you decide which camera is right for you. p

ONWARD & UPWARD

ÇGAMUT VOLUME ÇDIGITAL CAMERA GAMUT ÇDYNAMIC RANGE S/N RATIO

HOW-TO GET CREATIVE

TEXT AND PHOTOS BY BRYAN F

122 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

pretty easy. When we need to givesomeone a present and are shorton time or stumped on ideas, allwe have to do is make up an 8x10print, put it in a nice frame, andvoilà—the perfect gift!

Of course, if the photo you’re giv-ing doesn’t appeal to the recipient’staste, it won’t be such a great gift.You have a better chance at making the gift meaningful if your framedphoto is truly personal—and spellsout the person’s name.

Here’s what I do: When I’m out with my camera, I always look for street signs, ads, and store signs. Izoom in close so I can photographindividual letters. Try it—soon you’llhave entire sets of the alphabet!

Individual letters have distinctivepersonalities, based on their shape,color, and texture. As you assemble

the letters to form the name, you’llrealize that some the images of your letters actually fi t the person-ality of that person.

Once you have enough letters,make 4x6 or 5x7-inch prints ofeach photo. Take them to a frameshop, and have the images placedin a single frame, matted with indi-vidual windows cut out for eachphoto.

Does this work? You bet! Asmy daughter Chloe recently toldme, the most meaningful gift shereceived for her 10th birthday washer “name.” p

ALPHABET CITY: All photos on this page were shot during a single day in New York’s Times Square with a hand-held Nikon D2x and 70–200mm f/2.8D VR G AFS Nikkor lens. Exposure, f/8 inaperture-priority mode.

Letters create apersonalizedphotographicpresent

TheNameGame

PHOTOGRAPHERS HAVE IT

TIMEEXPOSURE

136 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

HOW WE LOOKED AND WHAT WE WROTE BACK THEN…BY JASON SCHNEIDER

1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000▼

25

50

YEARS AGO

1. ’Tis the season: Festive Decem-ber ’80 cover image of New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral is by Yasuo Haga of Niigata, Japan. He took the night exposurewith a 35mm SLR and 28mm lens on Kodachrome 64, duped the slide onto a larger transparency, then double-exposed itwith a fl ash-lit, fi ltered, falling-snow image.2. Smallest 35mm camera? That’swhat Minox claimed in its ad for the Minox35 GL, and it was probably right. The pocketable, scale-focusing folder hada good-quality, 4-element 35mm f/2.8Color-Minotar lens.3. Debunking the ad fl aks: This LeicaA of 1925 “markedly infl uenced camera design,” but was not the fi rst 35mm still camera as claimed in a Leitz ad, accord-

ing to photo historianEaton S. Lothrop, Jr., whose column found“advertising fraught with poetic license.”

4. Two-light drama: “Place secondlamp over Leslie, slightly behind, and her hair will really sparkle,” advised Michael A. Keller in his piece on basic portrait light-ing, “but snoot the fi ll light or shield the lens to guard against lens fl are.”5. New York state of mind? Whimsi-cally glamorous image of the Big Appleby Japanese photographer Tadao Matsuoappeared in “Outside Looking In,” an article showing how he captured the glittering fantasy New Yhe had imagined beforevisiting the city.

1. Quizzical pooch:Sydney Silky Terrier on our December’55 cover was captured by Walter Chandoha, a well-known animal photographer, with, of all things, a 4x5 Grafl ex Super D camera, 190mm f/5.6 Ektar lens, and four Ascor speedlights! The picture copped 2nd prize in the Color Divi-sion of our International Picture Contest.2. Auto-focus stereo 35? Ad for theStereo Graphic claimed it had “exclusiveDepthmaster Auto-focus,” but this was justadspeak for fi xed-focus 35mm f/4 lenses set at different distances to increase ap-parent depth-of-fi eld.3. Incredible shrinking fl ashbulb:Regular Midget bulb at left, known as #5,

or Press 25, wastiny compared tothe classic light-bulb-sized Press22, but “new”

Powermite M2 at right was only a quarter its size and 3 cents cheaper. Image is

from a General Electric fl ashbulb ad.4. Times change: Nostalgic still life of vintage Kodak Timer,Kodak 4x5 Super-XX sheet fi lm,

Tri-X 4x5 Film Pack, and can of high-energy DK-60a developer ran in “How toDevelop Sheet Film and Film Pack,” by darkroom guru Dan Becker.5. Casino dancer: John A. De Visser of Toronto, Canada, sneaked this revealing shot during a theater performance, with a Leica IIIf and 50mm f/1.5 Summarit lens, with lens wide open for 1/25 sec. His reward: a $100 U.SSavings Bond and Honorable Mentionin POP PHOTO’s ’55International PictureContest.

COVER: DECEMBER 1980

1

1

23

4

5

DECEMBER 1955YEARS AGO

2

3

4

5

TECH SUPPORT

You’ve got questions? We’ve got answers.

154

Perilous poppingSeptember 2005’s “Tech Sup-QQ” you mentioned possible harmQQ

to digital camera circuitry when us-QQ

ing a Vivitar 285 electronic fl ash. Ihave Vivitar 283s that I would liketo use with my Panasonic LumixDMC-FZ20. Is their triggering volt-age too high for digital cameras? C. MICHAEL HAYES

MISSION, TX

t depends. The popular VivitarAA went through several incarna-AAtions, all bearing the same model des-AAignation. If your 283s are less than10 years old, you’re safe, but if you’renot sure, check to see where the unitswere made. The old “Made in Japan”models have high-voltage triggeringcircuits that can damage your LumixDMC-FZ20.

Stop bluffi ngpush an ISO 400 b&w fi lmQQKodak 400 Tri-X Pan to ISOQQ

1600, how many stops is that? IQ

recently shot a concert with Tri-Xexposed at 1600 and asked my labfor a two-stop push. After process-ing the fi lm, the lab said I shouldhave requested an eight-stop push,because the fi lm was almost com-pletely blank. Is it eight stops fromISO 400 to ISO 1600?

RICARDO MONTAÑEZ ALCAZAR

VIA E-MAIL

unds like your lab misrouted theAAinternally, and it was processedAAnormally instead of pushed the wayAAyou requested. As you suggest, ISO400 to 1600 is a two-stop push, andif anyone knows of a fi lm that canbe pushed EIGHT stops, would theyplease send us a brick?

Fuji fudging?xposed a 36-exposure roll of QQm Fujichrome Velvia 100F slideQQ

fi lm in my Canon EOS Elan IIE. ItQQ

rewound at 24 exposures, not 36. Isent it to Fuji for processing, and itcame back as 24 exposures with no

(continued on page 157)

Q

A

A

TECH SUPPORT

Q

A

A

surplus, unexposed fi lm in the box, and the slides were two stops over-exposed. I think Fuji loaded a short roll of the wrong fi lm type in the cassette. What do you think?

RICHARD W. UNDERWOOD

HOUSTON, TX

earn the fi lm type, remove a few AAs from their mounts and look AAfor their edge code. (Velvia 100F is AARVP100F, for example.) If Fuji’s au-tomated fi lm spoolers were misloading cartridges, we would have received dozens, even hundreds, of letters just like yours.

As we haven’t, it’s more likely that you shot a 24-exposure roll with +2 exposure compensation or an incorrect ISO set. Maybe your lens aperture is sticking intermittently. Film can bind in the cartridge, causing a premature rewind. Usually, the motordrive will make a grinding sound—your cue to head to a repair shop.

Moldychromeshave 500–600 irreplaceable QQachrome slides that are about 50 QQ

years old. They show some evidence Q

of mold. Can they be salvaged?WILBERT LAWLER

VIA E-MAIL

can have your slides professionally AAned, scanned, and digitally restored, AAbut, considering their large number, it AAwould likely cost thousands. (Google “photo conservators” and/or “slide res-toration” for a service near you.)

To clean the slides yourself, remove each one from its cardboard or glass mount. Be sure to wear cotton gloves or holding the transparency only by the edges to avoid fi ngerprinting.Next, moisten a Kodak Photo Cham-ois (a soft, plush pad) or an absorbent cotton ball with isopropyl alcohol in a concentration of 98% or greater (check local drug stores), and gently wipe the slide until it’s clean. Remount the slides in clean glass or new card-board mounts.

Whatever you do, don’t use water, solutions that contain water, or or-dinary rubbing alcohol (which also contains water), since fungus usually makes fi lm emulsion water-soluble.

(continued on page 158) 157(continued on page 158)

(continued from page 154)

TECH SUPPORT

Got a question? E-mail us [email protected] f . p

158

(continued from page 157)

Optically equal?ntly I had a chance to comparetax G wide-angle lenses with my

Konica Minolta Maxxum lenses, andjust as your SQF charts predicted,the Carl Zeiss G lenses were clearly sharper. Perusing your tests, how-ever, I see one Konica Minolta lens,a 50mm f/2.8 macro, has put upSQF numbers very close to those of the Contax lens. Is that KM perfor-mance strictly for the macro range,or does that Zeiss-like sharpness ex-tend out to infi nity, too?

LANGDON BEDELL

EUGENE, OR

SQF fi gures are based on anysis of modulation transfer func-

tion (MTF) performance of the lensesfocused at infi nity. If the 50mm f/2.8Minolta Macro has SQF numbers closeto those of the Zeiss G lenses, its per-formance will be close as well, regard-less of focusing distance. Furthermore,since most macro lenses are designed todeliver optimum performance at about1:10 (one-tenth life-size), there’s apossibility the Konica Minolta 50mmf/2.8 may actually outperform the Glenses at similar magnifi cations.

Diopter dilemmave a set of close-up lenses marked+2, and +4 diopters. It came with

magnifi cation tables for various lenscombinations but no advice as tothe proper sequencing. How shouldI order the close-up lenses numeri-cally on my camera lens?

GEORGE R. BROWN

VIA E-MAIL

y: The strongest one (highest num-goes on the camera lens; additional

fi lters are attached to it, in decreasingorder of strength. Cool factoid: Whenyou stack two close-up lenses, the effectis additive—combining a +1 and a +2has the same power as a +3 close-uplens. For maximum sharpness, though,avoid stacking or using the maximumaperture for your lens. Instead, use onefi lter at a time, and close the cameralens down to f/5.6 or f/8.

JUDGING FROM THE LETTERS IN POP PHOTO’s mailbag and e-mail bin,you’d think exposure compensationwas rocket science multiplied by brain surgery.

Folks, you’re making it way toocomplicated.

Exposure compensation (EC) just means nudging the exposure one way or the other from the meter reading.You want the picture darker, you give it less exposure. You want a lighter picture, give it more exposure. Inmodern photospeak, these actionsare called negative and positive ex-posure compensation.

EC is measured in stops (tradition-al) or EV (modern); where once you’d say, “I gave it a half-stop more expo-sure,” you might today say, “I gave it +0.5 EV exposure compensation.”

With the advent of autoexposure,EC seems to have become moreconfusing for people. But nothing complicated is going on here, ei-ther. Autoexposure simply sets themetered midtone exposure read-ing for you; EC raises or lowers themidtone point. Your camera’s expo-sure readouts (on the LCD panel or in the fi nder) are the exact settingsthe camera will make, and they takeinto account whatever compensation you’ve set. (Think of it as the salestax being included in the price tag.)

With shutter-priority automation,the camera will adjust the apertureto make the exposure compensation; with aperture-priority auto, the cam-era adjusts shutter speed. In program automation, the camera can adjust both shutter and aperture for EC.

Some cameras allow EC in man-ual exposure, too. This is something like zeroing the needle on a scale to cancel out the weight of a container you’re about to fi ll. If, say, you want to underexpose slide fi lm by a third-stop for more color saturation, you can set EC for –0.3, then make set-tings exactly according to the camera meter. And your exposure will be a third-stop below normal exposure. p

EXPOSURECOMPENSATION?

WHATS UP WITH

167

BY DAN RICHARDS

SHOWCASE

Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmonon the set of Some Like it Hot(above), Rock Hudson dons a mink in Lover Come Back (farkleft), and Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan in Around the World in 80 Days (near left).s

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

LADIESORGENTLEMENJEAN-LOUIS GINIBRE’S LADIES OR GENTLEMEN(Filipacchi, $65) brings together more than 700 imagesof actors in almost every fi lm that uses a man in women’sclothing as a plot twist, comic device, or storyline. Thisis no polemic on transvestism—it’s an amusing, dramaticromp through cinematic history. It’s fun to see the greats(Bob Hope in ringlets), the strange (there’s a whole sec-tion on children in drag), and the surprising (Johnny Depp makes it in three times). A product of Ginibre’s love for the movies, the book presents almost all of what he’s collected through his own globe-spanning research over the past nearly-30 years. As passionate as he is for the pictures, he does not, hesays, have a passion for dressing in skirts himself. —Debbie Grossman