2005

CONTENTS

R L S D LL

DECEMBER 2005 VOLUME 69, NO. 12 CAMERA OF TH $3,300 Canon EO raises the bar for al but thrusts it into th

FE ATURES

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All I Want for Festivus Holiday

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Camera of the Year The Canon

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▲ 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.

The Editors

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A S R A ST

DSLR All-Stars of 2005 5 Best in the league Michael J. McNamara

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They Might Be Giants Will EVFs stomp DSLRs?

Dan Richards

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Mothers of Invention Cool digicam tricks

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Digital Optical Options Kit lenses vs. the pros

Dan Richards Peter Kolonia

You Fall, You Die Shootting to extremes

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Jad Davenport

HOW-TO Nature Bring Death Valley to life Tim Fitzharris Travel Fit to be Thai Digital Toolbox x Healing Brush step-by-step

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78 81 100

Tips & Tricks Tips our readers aders swear by You Can Do It! He shoots seashells Peter Kolon nia Read a Camera Test Behind the numbers

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Get Creative Alphabet City

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39 47 58

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

PLUS...

Debbie Grossmaan

12 21 27 31 64 136 154 167

Michael J. McNamara Bryan F. Peterson

TES T S/RE VIE WS ▲

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Canon EOS 5D The one to beat Michael J. McNamara

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1 Big, beautiful EVF

@ WEB SITE EXCLUSIVES www.POPPHOTO.com

Dan Richards

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“DIGITAL TOOLBOX” PODCAST Listen as Debbie Grossman leads you

Pentax 40mm f/2.8 DA Limited pancake lens

step-by-step through various Photoshop skills. Play it on your computer or download this audio file to your iPod so you can take Debbie wherever you go.

Peter Kolonia

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NEW PAPERLESS MAGAZINE Check out the new digital edition of POP

ACDSee 8 Photo Manager Organize fast

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

Debbie Grossman

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Quantum Qflash T5d Flash system

PHOTO EMERGENCIES! What do you do if a flood or other watery disaster

Peter Kolonia

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strikes your prints, negatives, slides, or electronic-image files? We come to the rescue with tips on saving your precious pictures.

Epson PowerLite 755c LCD digital projector Philip Ryan

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

DEPAR TMENT S 17 52 62 168

Editorial Show us your stuff John Owens SLR R DSLR boom Herbert Keppler Film Now Positives for negatives Russell Hart Showcase Ladies or Gentlemen Debbie Grossman

Letters Snapshots Just Out Your Best Shot The Fix Time Exposure Tech Support What’s Up With…

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

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= COVER STORY

© MICHAEL SOO (COVER AND CAMERA PYRAMID); RICO POON (OTHER CAMERAS)

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> 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

LETTERS A bull in the

© TIM FITZHARRIS

PHOTOSHOP What’s Tim Fitzharris doing? I maintain a virtual shrine to his scenic and wildlife photography. And when I glanced at the October issue (“Nature”), I saw that he’d scored again with the magnificent bugling bull elk. How amazing is that photo, with the breath and snow squall...or not. When I read the caption, I discovered he added frosty breath and the snow squall with Photoshop. Huh?! Now, I’m all for image correction,

Kodachrome: keepin’ the faith In response to Michael Gottlieb’s letter in the September 2005 issue suggesting that in 2027 when people hear Paul Simon’s song “Kodachrome,” they’ll ask, “What’s Kodachrome?” I think that in 2027 people will know Kodachrome quite well. After decades of gradually losing their digital photography to hard drive failures, corrupted files, unreadable disks, viruses, obsolete formats, and just plain mistakes, film photography may make up the majority of images from these times. Patrick McNamara Westfield, NJ

m an avid Photohop user, and I’ll et Tim’s gizmos and neutral-density filters slide, but this crosses the line. Next time, Tim should leave well enough alone. That said, I still have my shrine. Gary Lehman Pearl River, NY Tim confesses that only the snow and breath are real. The animal was made using Photoshop’s littleknown Bull Elk Tool on the Ruminant Palette. in each seat, but there’s no tell-tale signs of multiple exposures. I’ve also ruled out mirrors, since her expression 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 Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, NY, the picture was indeed made with mirrors. What appear to be slight changes in expression are due to the different

Noise—and speed—reduction Flying back ffrom a photo trip to Yellowstone and d Grand Teton, I picked up POP PHO OTO at the Denver airport. I wish h I had read the article “10 Things Y You Should Know About the Nikon D70” (October 2005) before I left for my trip. I learned at least three new things about my trusty D70, all of which would have helped me bring home a larger number of better pictures. In item 8, you recommend using the noise-reduction feature in exposures over 1 sec. But, as I found, don’t use it with faster shutter speeds, or the camera’s burst rate will drop significantly. While shooting my daughter’s soccer game over the summer, I couldn’t understand why the camera shot only 1 fps. I was about to send it back to Nikon when I glanced at the manual (page 133) and learned that the D70 slows to under 3 fps with noise reduction on. I switched noise reduction off and the burst rate went back up to 3 fps. James Fraser Warwick, RI Get in touch! Write us at Letters to the Editor, POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY & IMAGING, 1633 Broadway, New York, NY 10019; or send an e-mail to Popp [email protected]. p

Ñ Ye olde Photoshoppe?

Knowing that I work with old photos, a customer recently brought me this one, hoping I could shed some light on the technique. I can’t. It appears to be the same girl 12

angles at which the subject is presented to the camera. The illustration below, from an early edition of Photographic Amusements (first published in 1896), by Frank Fraprie and Walter Woodbury, shows how it’s done. The book says this type of shot was a popular moneymaker for photographers in summer resorts who printed the photos on postcards. Also, French police used this technique “for photographing criminals and thus obtaining a number of different portraits with one exposure.”

WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

EDITORIAL

BY JOHN OWENS

PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

2006 TAKE A LOOK AT THIS MONTH’S cover. It’s a damn good photo. Could you have taken it? If the answer is “yes,” then let me ask you a few 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?

μTHE 2005 FINALISTS

If you’re up for an adventure, I encourage you to enter POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY & IMAGING’s Photographer of the Year 2006 Competition. Our goal is to find the best shooter on the planet—and reward that person with a $5,000 grand prize, as well as the assignment to shoot the December 2006 cover of POP PHOTO. After three intensely competitive days of shooting, California-based software engineer Michael Soo emerged as the 2005 Photographer of the Year. His images grace this month’s cover and illustrate the articles, “They Might Be Giants” and “Camera of the Year.” You can see more of the work that earned Soo the title (and that big check), ll h

t’s your turn to prove who’s e best shooter on the planet

2006

talented photographers he was up against, in our October 2005 issue and 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 can get 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 files, and they must be no larger than 11x17 inches. The criteria defining “people,” “product,” and “action” shots are really wide open. And is Photoshopping allowed? Sure. But software won’t get you into the final round; photography will. Put simply, we’re looking for all-around photographic prowess. Out of the thousands of entries, our editors will pick 10 semifinalists. The work of these photographers will be posted on our web site from April 17 until May 30, where readers can see the photos and vote for their favorite. The top three finishers in this voting 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 hotel room in midtown Manhattan, even some spending money for each of the three finalists as they battle to prove who is really the best. As in the 2005 Shoot-Out, POP PHOTO’s editors will hit these shooters with a wide range of assignments that will test their talent, skill, creativity, resourcefulness, and stamina. In 2005, the assignments ranged from shooting food in Chinatown, to capturing the action behind the scenes of a Broadway show, to chronicling what goes on at a horse track on a rainy summer day. This year’s competition will be grueling, but it also could 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 five grand. The results will be published in POP PHOTO and on our web site. Talk about bragging 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 entries came from everywhere, including India, Argentina, and China. You can shoot digital or film (though with the Shoot-Out’s tight deadlines, digital offers an edge). And you must be available the week of July 9. So c’mon, send us those four prints. Your entry must be postmarked no later than Friday, March 31, 2006. Get all of the details, rules, and entry procedures at www POP-

> 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

DISCOVERIES

& COOL STUFF FROM THE WORLD OF PHOTOGRAPHY

NIKON D50

HOW THIS PRO GOT SATURATED COLOR AND A SUPER POSE

NAOMI HARRIS,

A NEW YORK photographer famous for her Haddon Hall series documenting the Haddon Hall retirement 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 final picture.

At $800 (street), the Nikon D50 DSLR kit is a heck of a deal. After all, you get 6.1MP, a big LCD, a body that’s small and lightweight, 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 giving 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 until December 16. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.

DO NOT NO

Try This At Home

CAM E RAHAC KI N G.CO M teaches 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 infrared remote). Just don’t tell anyone you heard about it from us.

Q

WHO IS THIS FELLOW?

Q

WHAT DID YOU SHOOT WITH?

The dog is Diva, and his owner is Norwood Young, a record producer and philanthropist. 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.

The Contax 645, with a 35mm lens. I used Kodak Portra 160 VC film, so that accounts for the bright colors. I used to shoot slide film—this is the negative film 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 reflectors 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 figured out what works for me outside.

Q Q

HOW DID YOU GET THE DOG TO YAWN?

Q

DID YOU HAVE A BACKUP LOCATION?

Diva was great. That was just luck.

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.

No. This was the picture. How could you not shoot the Davids? In the final 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.

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©NAOMI HARRIS (2)

NEWS

MOS DEF

SNAPSHOTS

©GETTY IMAGES (4)

COREL PAINTER ESSENTIALS

BROOKE SHIELDS

DENNIS HOPPER

THREE WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR PIC RES FAST PICTURES, 1. DOT IN THE MIDDLE: Get a Post-it Note, cut a 1⁄4inch square out of the sticky part, and place it in the middle of your DSLR’s viewfinder (or put a bigger square on your LCD screen). Now shoot, and make sure that all your action happens outside the blob. Better compositions guaranteed. 2. LOCK IT UP: Grab your fastest lens, turn on aperturepriority mode, open your aperture all the way (as far as f/1.4 if you’ve got it), and stay there. Switch to manual focus, and shoot. See how the shallow depth of field forces you to see the world through a whole new eye. 3. PICK A COLOR: Choose a color, like white, then try to find white everywhere. Fill your frame with it, make your pictures about it. Keep shooting until you’re seeing red. 22

3

IF 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 mother of all painting programs, the $350 (street) Painter IX, now has a $99 version for regular people. It requires little-to-no talent at mixing colors and rendering. Instead, it makes it easy to turn a photograph into a painting. Import an image, choose th paper you want (the progra simulates lots of textures), the hit “Quick Clone.” You get wh looks like a foggy version of yo photo—it’s sort of like tracing per. Pick the kind of clone br you want—anything from chalk to oils to watercolor that even behaves like it’s wet—then paint. The brush grabs both color and form from your image. You control the thickness and direction of the line but the the shape and shading are taken care of. The results are far better than what you get from quickie photo filters in your imageediting program. Instead, it’s fun, addictive, and easy. If you’re talented, mix colors and make your own compositions sans photo. One cautionary note, though: painting with a mouse is like writing with the wrong hand. It’s difficult and the results are somewhat clunky. Pressure-sensitive pen tablets (such as Wacom tablets) make the whole experience better. For info: www.corel.com or 800-772-6735.

> 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 . . . B Y P H I L I P R YA N

JUST 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 2.5inch, 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 opticalimage stabilization. Note the similarity between this Leica and Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-LX1 ($600 street). But also note that the DLUX 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 flop down to the floor? 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)

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

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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 Seinfeld fame), you can forget about that. Here are a half-dozen items for your shopping list— each priced under $25, plus one crazy splurge at $79.

Twinkle, Twinkle Nothing says Festivus more than a star filter, 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 filter 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 Situation Shooting 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 EasyTack creates a nonpermanent, slightly

28

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 acidfree, 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 Packer Carrying batteries loose in your camera bag is a bad idea. They can scratch your lenses and LCD screens. Worse, loose batteries can leak. Then there’s the annoying issue of distinguishing new cells from those half-used, I-think-thesestill-have-juice cells. The solution: a simple battery holder, like this one from Ansmann. Price: $3.50. (HP Marketing; www. hpmarketingcorp.com; 800735-4373)

Read Up Chuck 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 first 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 filled with personal insights and nuggets of information. Price: $23. (Allworth Press; www.allworth.com; 800-491-2808)

Luster for Life Almost everyone who prints photos— or has them printed at a store—goes for a glossy finish. But many of us are secretly in love with luster finishes. 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 finish, 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 ’Pod Looking 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 protective filter 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.stickypod.com; 866-544-3636) p

> 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 .

1

ST PLACE PEEK-A-BOO

This black leopard, Boo, lives at the Shambala Preserve in Acton, California, a sanctuary 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; film, Fujichrome 100. Scanned with Nikon Coolscan 4000, and Adobe Photoshop CS used for minor balancing and correcting.

YOUR BEST SHOT

2

ND PLACE FUN IN THE SUN

All 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 laidback nature of Sydney.” Tech info: Nikon F100; 35mm f/2 Nikkor lens. Exposure, 1/250 sec at f/9.5; film, Fujichrome Sensia 200. Scanned with a Nikon Coolscan LS-400ED; Adobe Photoshop 7.0 used to adjust contrast and brightness.

3

RD PLACE DUCK SOUP

Walking along the shore of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, Steven Reyer of Mequon, Wisconsin, spied this handsome mallard “couple” in the water. He took about 15 shots of the ducks, but he didn’t realize that they were giving each other the eye in this shot until he looked at all of his results at home. Tech info: Canon EOS 20D; 100–400mm f/4.5–5.6L IS Canon lens. Exposure, 1/350 sec at f/6.7; ISO 200. Adobe Photoshop CS used to crop the shot, modify the brightness, and sharpen the image. POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

YOUR BEST SHOT

HONORABLE MENTION WHITE CARPET Walking after a big snowstorm toward the building where he teaches at Syracuse University, Bob Gates of Jamesville, New York, noticed how the snow had blanketed the steps, isolating the forms of the railings, lights, and trees. He took some shots with his wide-angle lens, but that didn’t give the desired flat perspective. Gates backed up and used his telephoto for this winner. Tech info: Tripod-mounted Canon EOS 10D; 70–200mm f/4L Canon lens. Exposure, 1/250 sec at f/8. Adobe Photoshop CS used to correct levels and curves.

HONORABLE MENTION FIERY VIEW Lewis Abulafia of Carlsbad, California, had been visiting Yosemite National n Park for several overcast and snowy days. On O the fifth day, he trudged through the park with his gear and caught the sun bursting through the clouds, illuminating El Capitan. The hot-red mountain peak reflecting in the Merced River was the capping magical moment: “It was truly a glorious 10 minutes, what every landscape photographer lives for.” Tech info: Tripod-mounted Canon EOS 10D; 17–35mm f/2.8 Canon lens. Exposure, 1/15 sec at f/22. Adobe Photoshop CS used to dodge and burn.

NEW RULES & ENTRY PROCEDURES: SEND PRINTS ONLY “Your Best Shot” Entry Rules: To enter, send prints— and only prints—no larger than 9x12 inches to “Your Best Shot,” POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY & IMAGING, 1633 Broadway, NY, NY 10019. Do not e-mail p photos and do not send electronic files. If your photo is selected and material is needed for publication, we will contact you. Prizes are as follows: First Place, $300; Second Place, $200; Third Place, $100; Honorable Mention, $50. Up to five entries per month. Photos not chosen may be selected for “The Fix” feature. Include your address, phone number, and e-mail, plus any pertinent technical information (camera, lens, exposure, film, filters, software). Submission grants POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY & IMAGING the right to publish photographs and descriptions in print, electronic, and other media, and for promotional and advertising use. You represent that your photographs are original and of your own creation, publication of the material will not violate the rights of any kind of third party, and you have provided all necessary permissions and releases. Due to the large g number of entries,, we cannot return your y photos, p , and we cannot acknowledge g receipt p of them. For details on this contest go to the “Your Best Shot” button on the right hand side of the homepage at www.POPPHOTO.com. 34

NATURE

TUCKI MOUNTAINS, MESQUITE FLAT SAND DUNES

A perfect winter shooting spot: Death Valley! DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK encompasses nearly 3.4 million acres of airy wilderness furnished with tinted mudstone ridges, windsculpted dunes, winding canyons, lush oases, still pools of water, and vast stretches of sand and gravel. Mild temperatures, clear blue skies, and plenty of shooting opportunities make it an ideal winter destination for photographers.

Three-part strategy The best times to photograph in Death Valley are during early morning, twilight, and late evePOP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

ning, when the light is soft and warm. At other times, the park’s usually cloudless skies generate contrast beyond the range of fi lm or digital sensor. You can use the midday period, however, for the essential tasks of reaching and scouting new locations. This huge park contains two major valleys (Death Valley and Panamint Valley), each bounded by mountains running north/south on both sides. Within the park, three staging locations provide access to great photo spots: From the Scotty’s Castle area (which allows camping WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

only), you can work the Racetrack, Eureka Dunes, and Ubehebe Crater. Out of Stovepipe Wells Village (where you’ll fi nd camping and lodging), you can access Aguereberry Point, the Mesquite Flats dunes, and Devil’s Cornfield. And from Furnace Creek (camping and lodging), you can photograph at Zabriskie Point, Dante’s View, Artist’s Drive and Badwater. Of these various sites, here are five I don’t think you should miss:

1

MESQUITE FLATS SAND DUNES

Death Valley’s most photogenic sand dunes lie adjacent to California Highway 190, a few miles from Stovepipe Wells. Great shots are possible here at either sunrise or sunset. You’ll need to hike well into the dunes to find a stretch of foot39

NATURE

PANAMINT RANGE, BADWATER Follow 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 Intensifier and a 2-stop hard-edge split ND filter to hold back the brightness of the sky; film, Fujichrome Velvia 50.

2

PANAMINT RANGE, DANTE’S VIEW The well-defined foreground elements and saturated midground colors at Dante’s View 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 SinghRay polarizer and a 2-stop hard-edge split ND filter; film, Fujichrome Velvia 50.

print-free sand, so plan on spending at least an hour to find a tripod location, plus another 30 minutes to try out various compositions. The best light occurs during the 30-minute periods before sunset and after sunrise. 40

BADWATER

Right off the road you will find this spot, 282 feet below sea level, where saltwater pools reflect the snow-capped Panamint Range to the west. Arrive an hour or so before dawn to allow time to work out compositions using the scattered rocks, shrubs, and dried mud p patterns along the shore. Both soft twilight illumination and the momentary sunrise glow of rosy light on the Panamint Range offer prize-winning opportunities. On a cloudless day, the magic dissipates abruptly once the sun clears the horizon. You’ll need a 1-stop or 2-stop hard-edge neutral-density fi lter to control scene contrast.

3

ZABRISKIE POINT

This surreal terrain just off Highway 190 is best photographed at dawn when the rising sun spotlights Manly Beacon, WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

a dogtooth projection of tawny rock surrounded by rumpled ridges stained in pastel hues. Behind this feast of shape and color rises the ice-crowned Panamint Range. A two-stop hard-edge neutral-density fi lter is needed to restrain contrast on compositions that combine both foreground and sky.

4

DANTE’S VIEW

5

EUREKA DUNES

This rocky, shrub-covered prominence 35 miles from Badwater provides the most expansive view of Death Valley, 5,753 feet below. You can hike along an easily reached trail that skirts the rim, picking up vantage points northward and southward into the valley. Morning creates frontal illumination on foreground features and is my preferred shooting period.

Stretching up nearly 700 feet, these cream-colored dunes in the remote northern corner of the park are reached (continued on page 42) POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

NATURE

ZABRISKIE POINT

The best wildflower areas change from year to year (and week to week), so call ahead, 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 a 2-stop hard-edge split ND filter; film, Fujichrome Velvia 50.

Arrive at Zabriskie at dawn to have enough time to set up and capture the glow that strikes Manly Beacon as the sun rises. Pentax 645NII with 80–160mm f/4.5 Pentax lens on tripod. Exposure, 1 sec at f/16 through a Singh-Ray Color Intensifier/Polarizer and a 2-stop hard-edge split ND filter to hold back the brightness of the sky; film, Fujichrome Velvia 50.

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

build your compositions on curving dune crests. Happy shooting, and do your best to stay cool! p

WILDFLOWER BLOOM, UBEHEBE CRATER

on-site reconnaissance before the magic hour arrives. You won’t fi nd photogenic ripples here due to the powdery texture of the sand, so

CAUTIONS IN THE CAULDRON Death Valley is one of the hottest and driest places in the U.S. In summer, temperatures often exceed 120°F for weeks at a time. Humidity is so low that sweat evaporates before it can form on your skin. Even during the pleasant winter season you should keep these precautions in mind: Make sure your vehicle is in top condition, especially the cooling system, brakes, and tires. You will be traversing 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 film on the floor 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.

Visit Tim’s image-filled web site at www.timfi fitzharris.com.

LINKS, NUMBERS, INFO Web site and phone: National Park Service, www.nps.gov/deva p g , or call 760-786-2331. Book: National Park Photography, Tim Fitzharris (Death Valley plus 20 additional parks), AAA Publishing, $25; www.amazon.com. Newsletter: Photograph America newsletter, Robert Hitchman; web site: photographamerica.com p g p .

Bloom Boom

I n times of ample rainffall Death Valley is transformed db by fields ld off brilliant b illi bl blooms that h may first b begin i to show in early February. The best wintertime flower fields are usually found at lower elevations on alluvial fans, such as near Jubilee Pass, Highway 190 near Furnace Creek Inn, and at the bottom 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 p g owerstxt.htm or to www.desertusa.com/wildflo/wildupdates.html p . WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

★

TRAVEL THAILAND

AMAZING GRACE: Steve Gershberg

Magic Kingdom A land where photographers get a royal welcome FINDING COLOR IS NOT A problem in Thailand. Nor is finding exotic settings. Easiest of all, is finding 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 nineday POP PHOTO Mentor Series workshop 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 photographers on this Mentor Series workshop found, the Kingdom of Thailand is uniquely beautiful and resilient. While Bangkok has a skyline filled with glass and steel, at ground level you’ll discover truly one-of-a-kind settings. At the sprawling Grand Palace, there’s the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, one of the country’s most sacred sites, along with ornate architecture and a wide array

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.”

of visitors that includes scores of saffron-robed monks. In fact, from the ruins of the ancient former capital Ayutthaya to the beaches and reconstruction 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 workshops, a mentor accompanied trekkers. In this case, it was pro Roseanne Pennella, who offered tips on all aspects of travel photography. For details on all of the Mentor Series workshops, go to www.mentorseries.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)

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. WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

47

★

TRAVEL

Craig Gordon

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 fired a Canon 580EX Speedlite along with his EOS 20D. p 48

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POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

BY HERBERT KEPPLER

SLR

CATCH ’EM IF YOU CAN:

THE COMING DSLR EXPLOSION COULD WE BE HEADED NOT only for a greater choice in digital SLRs next year, but also an oversupply? Yes, the seeds were planted last year, when Canon and Nikon benefitted from concentrating most heavily on digital SLRs. They reaped a bountiful harvest, cornering 90 percent of the 1.5 million DSLR camera market in both the top level $3,000–$4,000 sector pro camera and in the even more profitable $1,000 amateur range. Both types were often in short supply. Though going by the numbers Canon was certainly the leader, Nikon was able to crow that its firstquarter profit this year was quadruple last year’s, thanks to the company’s concentration on DSLRs. With some 71.5 million pointand-shoot digital cameras shipped globally last year by all manufacturers, you might conclude that these companies should have done as well or better fi nancially—but they didn’t. The main target audience had already made their purchases, and the smaller group of holdouts could not digest the mighty river of new cameras—the hallmark of a saturated market (as financial types call it). 52

We were awash in overproduction—too many new models introduced too quickly, resulting in plummeting prices—a consumer bonanza and maker’s disaster. What can manufacturers do? Join the DSLR success club! Pentax was a typical switcher. With 2005’s first-quarter profits 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. Even before this year’s P/S debacle, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., (brand name Panasonic), Panasonic) a global monster combine of electronics and marketing know-how, decided there was money in DSLRs. While the group shows plenty of digital capability in its top-level Panasonic Lumix point-and-shoot cameras, it hasn’t had any SLR camera designing or manufacturing technology. Matsushita signed a joint development agreement with Olympus Corporation for digital interchangeable-lens cameras, (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 smaller diameter lensmount to make smaller lenses possible. Not so.

SLR (continued from page 52) based on the Olympus-developed Four Thirds System. Some would be developed cooperatively, others separately. Why pick this system? At first I reasoned that the 4/3 system had a smaller sensor than any other DSLR and so allowed a smaller lensmount and shorter back focus distances, both of which permitted smaller diameter lenses with extended rear element closer to the film plane. Wrong reasoning. The lensmount surprisingly is virtually the same diameter as Nikon’s, and the back focus distance isn’t substantially less. However, while Canon, Konica Minolta, Nikon, and Pentax must design and make both full-frame and small-sensor lenses, Olympus and anyone joining the 4/3 system can concentrate exclusively on 4/3 system optics. Olympus first 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 by itself. It could provide savings in manufacture, particularly of 4/3 sensors. Perhaps low-cost DSLRs may show up with the Panasonic brand name, ideal for mass markets and electronic stores, while Olympus markets most to photo specialty stores. Could Panasonic develop imagestabilization know-how for Olympus DSLR camera bodies? Maybe that’s not needed. There are rumors that Sigma, which makes lenses for the 4/3 system under the Olympus and Sigma brands, may also pick up the 4/3 system for its next DSLR. Sigma already has Optical Stabilizer (OS) technology for its lenses, and could also license Olympus and Panasonic to use it. q WHADDAYAMEAN IT’S GOTTA BE BIG? mm e. ght.

2.5 lb 24x3 sens EOS

lb 6mm or Canon 5D

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 magnification factor crops in to outlined rectangle area.

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

50MM LENS VIEW WITH 24X36MM SENSOR IN FULL FRAME DSLR. 54

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

SLR

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

Nobody is quite sure what Sony will contribute to its DSLR joint development agreement with partner Konica Minolta, which is technologically very advanced. The two companies have announced they would use the present Konica Minolta Maxxum lensmount and Anti-Shake technology. But Sony has its own CMOS technology, which is considered superior in many ways and much less expensive than the CCD technology Konica Minolta is using in its imaging sensor system. My suggestion: Sony should contribute CMOS technology, plus marketing know-how and many dollars and euros for advertising. Thanks to Minolta’s vast financial losses years ago, caused by a protracted lawsuit brought by Honeywell for patent violation monies sunk in overforecas Advanced Photo System (A sales, the company has been sta for sufficient advertising and p motion of its uniquely featured d ital cameras. Sony should feed it

An INFO/CAP Ventures industry analyst predicted an 81 percent DSLR sales growth this year, adding 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 you keep faith with them? Let me ask you a question. If you 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 calculate the equivalent 35mm camera focal length, would you have bought it if, instead, you could have purchased a full-frame DSLR with far more megapixels for about the same price? Many purchasers of small sensor

CLOSE TO BEING AN SLR? Kodak claims P880 EasyShare with fixed 24 140mm zoom is alternative to DSLR. if you need full lens interchangeability Maybe almost? POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

55

DIGITAL TOOLBOX

BY DEBBIE GROSSMAN

Healing Arts

One tool to smooth all imperfections

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

A

B

Find your Healing Brush on the toolbar on the left side of your screen in both Photoshop (left) and Elements (right). There are two kinds of Healing Brushes: the Spot, which does most of the work itself, and the Original, which requires sampling. The Original works best to correct areas that require drawing with the brush to fix, and the Spot works best on, well, spots. Here’s how to use both on the four things you’ll probably need to heal most.

3

Check your brush size:

58

a 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 finished.

Zap those zits:

2

Grab the tool and modify it:

5

Porcelain skin at last:

To fine-tune the brush, go to the Options bar on top of the screen. Click the down arrow next to the word “Brush” (A). Move the Hardness to 100% (B); defined edges work best with this tool.

Hold your cursor on some acne, and click. Poof! Way faster than Clearasil. In this shot I’ve gotten rid of the ones on the neck, and that big mother on the cheek, but not yet on the chin. Resize your brush as the blemishes require. Notice how Photoshop adds the right skin texture and luminosity.

If you’re working on a blemish near an edge where the texture changes, make your brush bigger and encircle the spot so the texture you like fills the brush, but the edge is left out. That way, you’ll encourage the brush to sample good texture, not bad. (continued on page 60)

THE FASTEST BLACK BORDER YOU’VE EVER MADE Here’s a

CHANGE BRUSH HARDNESS FAST You

quick way to add a border. Go to Image > Canvas Size. Check the box for “Relative,” change the Canvas Extension Color to Black, then type in 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 1⁄4-inch border? Then type in 0.5 in both boxes. Click OK and you’re all set.

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

Move the Diameter slider to the left 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 encircled, you’re good.

QUICK TIPS

1

SPOT-HEALING BRUSH: ZITS Here’s

4

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POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

DIGITAL TOOLBOX

1

continued from page 58

SPOT-HEALING BRUSH: DUST This is

a detail from a scanned, dirty negative. Using the Clone Stamp to get rid of it would take forever, but the Spot Healing Brush will make the task go by fast. Use the same settings you used to wipe out zits.

2

Make a duplicate layer:

5

Add subhead: Draw and cover: Draw on top of the wrinkle

Make a copy of your background layer by going to Layer > Duplicate Layer and click OK. Work on the copy— we’ll modify it later.

you want to hide. As you move your cursor, the little crossbar that represents your sampled area moves with you. Don’t mind the weird-looking line you’re drawing, because when you let go, Photoshop will do some calculations and the wrinkle will disappear. 60

2

Clear skies: Change sizes on

the fly by hitting one of the square bracket keys (“[“ or “]”) on your keyboard, and spot heal accordingly. When your picture is this dirty, the spotting can feel almost meditative. But next time, clean your negative better before you scan.

3

Make it a soft brush:

6

I’ve got your nose: If you ac-

Drag the hardness down to loosen up the edges, and size it so it’s just slightly larger than your first wrinkle. Make sure you’re good and zoomed in.

cidentally run over a different texture—part of, say, a nose—Photoshop will sample the texture of the nose near the eye you’re working on, which is no improvement. If that happens, type Ctrl + Z to undo, and pick a new place to sample.

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1

HEALING BRUSH: WRINKLES

Once you know how to fix 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.

4

Sample first: To use this Healing

7

Tone it down: This is definitely

Brush, first sample the texture you want to replace the wrinkle with. Hold down the Alt key (Option on a Mac) and click. Pick a smooth area that’s at least as long as the area you want to cover up.

an improvement, but our subject is looking a little Botoxed. To give her back some of her expressiveness, go to your Layers Palette. Grab the Opacity slider, and bring it down to about 80%. Or, if you really want to flatter, 85%.

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

BOTOXED

Wrinkle-free:

That’s better. Chances are your subject won’t even notice he or she’s had virtual plastic surgery.

8

NATURAL

1

HEALING BRUSH: FIXING DARK CIRCLES

Healing dark circles is pretty much the same as healing wrinkles, but with a few modifications. This time, make your brush larger, but don’t attempt to heal the whole area at once; if you do, you may end up spreading more darkness around.

QUICK TIP

Take your time: Instead, work your way up from the bottom in thinner strokes. It may take you several passes to get the color right. As when you’re healing wrinkles, work on a separate layer. You may find your healing of the dark circles is overdone, and your subject looks unnaturally well-rested. If that happens, decrease the opacity, as you did with wrinkles.

2

SHRINK AND SEND Here’s a quick way to make e-mail-sized images: go to File > Save for Web. You can adjust and preview four levels of compression at once, and check the length of time it will take a 28.8 modem 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

FILM NOW

Bor AN IRONY O revolution in p silver-halide film capture medium technology aims ply the best it h it’s good, film good. It’s actua ing detail than end digital cam ness and the ab highlights and delivers this qu starting price th You do need film into the d image-manipul options far sur with optical m halide photogra about scanning. include noise negative film’s redrenamed to reflect OLD COATING NEW COATING dish-orange mask this new family (something I harmony, with haven’t experiNPH 400 becomenced), and the ing Pro 400H and inability to capture NPZ 800 becomthe full scale of ing Pro 800Z. color slide film Other improve(despite the widements to the two spread notion that slower Fuji Pro slide film is best films include betfor scanning). ter neutral gray The bad news is balance, smoother skin tones (due to that manufacturers aren’t creating SHARPER IMAGE: Details from a photo of film boxes show how a new surface new color couall-new films; dig- overcoat on Kodak Portra improves scanning results. Left: Shot on old version of plers), and finer ital’s wild success 120-format Portra 160NC film, and negative then scanned; note artifacts along grain (an RMS has eroded any edges. Right: Shot on new 160NC with surface coating; edges are much cleaner. granularity of 3, incentive to do so. versus the 4 of The good news is that they’re fine- one is that they made the films’ their predecessors). But wait— tuning their existing emulsions to base tint and density consistent don’t improvements of this sort make them even better for scan- throughout the Pro family.” benefit traditional optical printing ning purposes. Such evolutionary In real-world terms, that means as much as scanning? Yes, not that change doesn’t always make for you can switch Fujicolor Pro emul- there’s anything wrong with that. sexy ad copy or editorial kudos, sions freely—using ISO 800 for an “The changes to our Pro films will something we hope to redress in existing-light shoot, for example, deliver better output whether the this continuing column. But it and ISO 160 in a strobe-lit stu- image is printed optically or digicertainly keeps film viable as a dio—and not have to adjust scan- tally,” says Fuji’s Fridholm. “To use capture medium. ning parameters to get consistent the old chemical lab terminology, 62

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POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

s family of fi lms can now be nted on a single channel.” n contrast, some recent changes Kodak’s professional color negae emulsions are aimed squarely at proving scanning performance. r example, medium- and largemat members of the Portra fami—both ISO 160 and ISO 400, in th NC (natural color) and VC vid color) versions, as well as ISO 0 and 160T—have been endowed h a new surface coating that ually fixes a widely reported nning problem. In addition to oviding scratch resistance, this er of dry-lubricant matte beads duces friction as film moves ough a camera. Until the change, had relied on an older formulation t made it “toothy,” according to omas J. Mooney, Kodak’s worldde product manager for consumer d professional films. (See illustran, page 62.) “What was happenwas that the matte layer was ng imaged,” Mooney explains. you scanned a negative and blew up, you’d sometimes see the actutexture of the matte beads, especially along high-contrast edges.” Since the original reason for the matte beads’ texture was to make the negative’s surface more receptive to hand retouching—still in fairly wide practice among Portra’s intended users when the film was introduced—the new replacement now has a coating in which the matte beads have a finer, more homogenous texture that won’t show up in scans. Oddly enough, Portra’s original matte bead layer was also creating problems for photographers using digital retouching—specifically, the Digital ICE automatic dust-and scratch-removal systems found in many desktop film scanners. “Digital ICE was picking up the texture of the matte beads and trying to correct it,” says Scott DiSabato, Kodak’s marketing manager for professional films in the U.S. “But as a result, the scans could end up looking noisier.” This applied to scanner models incorporating specular light sources, according to DiSabato, and is completely remedied by the new coating.

Photographers who scan their own film aren’t the only ones to profit from this attention to scanning. Commercial digilabs have also benefited greatly from the technology. “In general, scanning has improved the quality of our printing,” says David Kang, manager of New York City’s Photolab Part 1, whose prints from both color negatives and memory cards are made with a Fujifilm Frontier 370. “It’s

still harder to control skin tones and certain kinds of color with digital camera files than it is with negatives we’ve scanned.” Go film. p One of the most respected journalists in the imaging field, Russell Hart is author of Photography For Dummies (Wiley, $22) and executive editor of our sister magazine, American PHOTO.

> 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

BY DAN RICHARDS

FIXES BY DEBBIE GROSSMAN

HUNGRY HUMMINGBIRD Don Knight, Tucson, AZ THE PROBLEM The photographer cropped for a better 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 (inset) and halo along the bird’s back. NOW? BEFORE WHAT We could have used noise reduction software (like Dfine by nik MultiMedia), then upsized with Genuine Fractals 4.0 by onOne Software. But in truth, the digital file is too small for the chosen print size, especially with the higher ISO setting. NEXT TIME Move closer, use a longer lens, go to higher-res capture—or be satisfied with a smaller print. TECH INFO Canon EOS D60, Canon 70–200mm f/2.8L IS lens. Exposure, 1/1000 sec at f/6.7, ISO 400.

BEFORE AFTER

READER FIX 64

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POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

THE FIX

BEFORE READER FIX O U R FIX

OVERGROWN COURTYARD Bridgette Dickey, Stillwater, OK THE PROBLEM Interesting artistic decisions to gray-scale the lush vegetation and to crop in—but do they work? We think the irony of nature’s brilliant greenery trumping the dullish man-made structures in the original shot was lost. And it looks pasted together. WHAT NOW? We tried to improve the

original by goosing the saturation of the greenery and sky, leaving the contrast and color of the courtyard pretty much as they were, but added tone to the bright highlight to the right, using Photoshop’s Highlight/Shadow tool. NEXT TIME Have a little more faith in your original photographic vision—and work with that. TECH INFO Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1; exposure not reported. Adjustments and manipulations made in Photoshop 7.0.

CHERRY BLOSSOMS C i

i

F i f

A

OU R FIX 66

THE PROBLEM he original file setngs give a yellowish ast, which the photogapher kept in convertng from RAW. Also, what’s the subject of he composition? WHAT NOW? We ike our cherry blosoms pink, so we READER color-corrected the file accordingly. We cropped out the distracting dome in the upper left, letting the reflection stand on its own. NEXT TIME Watch your color when converting from RAW or adjusting a JPEG. Move around—place the building and reflection in different relations to the tree. TECH INFO Nikon D70, 28–80mm f/3.3–5.6 AF Zoom Nikkor G. Exposure: 1/160 sec at f/6.3, ISO 200. WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

FIX

TEST

CANON EOS 5D

BY MICHAEL J. MCNAMARA

A powerful DSLR that worked its way up the ranks

Meet the CANON’S NEW EOS 5D DSLR ($3,300 street, body only) is a study in the yin and yang of camera design. On the one hand, its 12.8MP full-frame CMOS sensor eliminates the 35mm lens factor found on all lower-priced DSLRs and gives it a potential image-quality edge. On the other hand, it costs more than twice as much as the 8.2MP EOS 20D ($1,300 street) from which it was cloned, and it’s missing a few of the 20D’s features. So you might ask, if the EOS 5D takes a picture in the woods and nobody hears it, does it make a sound purchase? Put simply, yes. Which is why we made it our 2005 Camera of the Year (see page 84). Last month, we gave you an overview of the EOS 5D’s features (see “First Look,” November 2005 or go to www. POPPHOTO.com). Here’s a closer look at the 5D’s top features, image quality and performance results from tests we ran on a production model. We’ll let you decide if the camera deserves Zen Master status. Those who already shoot with an EOS 20D will immediately understand the logic

What’s Hot

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

 What’s Not

•Missing pop-up flash. •High price might limit appeal. •Viewfinder magnification reduced.

68

behind the EOS 5D’s copycat construction and controls. Canon started with a great camera body and made a few modifications (and omissions) to fit in the extra features of the 5D. Like the 20D, its stainless steel and molded magnesiumalloy body make it ough enough to handle most of the abuse it’s likely to run into when used by pro news, sports, or wedding photographers. At 1 lb, 13 oz (body only) it weighs four ounces more than the EOS 20D, due primarily to the larger mirror and prism assembly for the larger sensor. Canon also expanded the left side of the camera to make room for additional processing circuits, RAM for the capture buffer, and a beefed-up main mode dial. Finally, the solid 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? Not likely, as the advantages of shoe-mount units far outweigh those of a pop-up system. Like the 20D, the 5D supports multiple flash arrangements, and it also supports E-TTL II capabilities found on the latest flash units such as the Canon Speedlite 430EX ($300 street). Highspeed flash sync (FP flash) is also possible with some units up to the camera’s maximum 1/8000-sec shutter speed, but standard flash sync has dropped to 1/200 sec from the 1/250 sec of the EOS 20D. The next, most obvious physical difference between the two cameras is the 5D’s gorgeous 2.5-inch TFT LCD monitor (compared to the 1.8-inch LCD found on the EOS 20D). With approximately 230,000-pixel resolution, its played-back images look sharper, and exposure data and menu controls can be read at arm’s length. The viewing angle is also extraordinary (nearly 170 degrees off-axis), and WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

this LCD is extremely accurate, showing nearly 100% of the image as shot. As with the 20D, you can view exposure information, highlight and shadow warnings, and luminance histograms, but the 5D also includes RGB histograms. The optical viewfinder also shows excellent image accuracy—rating 95% in our

CANON EOS 5D u

Certified Test Results

Resolution: Excellent (2050Vx2000Hx 2025D lines). Color accuracy: Extremely High (Avg. Delta E: 8.20). Highlight/ shadow detail: Very High. Contrast: Normal, and adjustable in 7 steps via menus. Noise: Extremely Low at ISO 100, Very Low at ISO 200 to ISO 400, Low at ISO 800, Moderately Low at ISO 1600. Image quality: Excellent from ISO 100 to 800. Extremely High at ISO 800 to 1600. AF speed: Very Fast in bright light (EV 12 to 7) from 0.52 to 0.62 sec, but slightly slower than the EOS 20D (0.49 to 0.55 sec). In low light (EV 6 to 3) it was still fast at 0.64 sec to 0.77 sec, and in very low light (EV 2 to 1) it slowed 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 a good rating, similar to the EOS-1Ds Mark II. It shows 95% of the picture area, an excellent result. The removable, etched focusing screen (below, type Ee-A) shows 9 selectable AF zones with center-cross type. Red boxes show actual sensitivity. Green boxes show invisible AF zones active in AI Servo mode. CIPA battery life: Approx. 800 shots with rechargeable BP-511A Li-ion battery. For info: www. canoneos.com; 800-652-2666.

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

TEST

CANON EOS 5D A

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

tests. Image magnification, on the other hand, isn’t as good as the 0.94X of the EOS 20D. But it’s on par with the EOS1Ds Mark II ($7,395 street) at 0.76X, a Good rating. Higher magnification viewfinders are easier to design when working with a smaller sensor, which explains why few full-frame SLRs have ever achieved an Excellent magnification rating. While most control buttons and dials are found 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

A

of field F the 20 5D’s m less clu include User po to your setting setting sures. G include Style s dard, scape, ful, and plus t custom ness, and saturation settings, unlike the presets on the 20D. Other control changes include a new easy-print button above the large LCD on the back, and the elimination of the pop-up flash button on the front. The easy-print button glows with a blue light when the camera is connected to a printer and gives you quick access to previous printer settings stored in the camera.

Inner Strength The EOS 5D offers even more from within. The full-frame, CMOS sensor features 12.8MP (effective) resolution, which gives it a sharpness edge over the EOS 20D. Thus, 14.5x22-inch photo-quality prints can be made from the 5D (at 200 ppi) compared 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. Way up at ISO 1600, both cameras delivered similar Moderately Low ratings—without resorting to blurring filters. Bottom line? The 5D delivers Excellent image quality from ISO 100 to 800, with better sharpness than the EOS 20D. However, both the Nikon D2X and the new D50 have lower noise levels at ISO 1600.

B C

E

D

(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), directprint button (F), and menu, info, jump, and playback buttons (G).

Canon claims the AF system on the EOS 5D is an improvement over the 20D’s, especially in motion tracking (AI Servo) modes where nine selectable and six invisible AF zones come into play (making a total of 15). With f/2.8 or brighter lenses, more of the AF zones are crosstype. 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 camera 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 path between two extremes. On the yin side, its full-frame sensor gives photographers the advantages of the expensive EOS 1Ds Mark II and the best image quality you can find in a sub-$3,500 DSLR. On the yang side, its construction, size, and array of features are closer to those offered by the APS-sensored EOS 20D. Now if it only cost less, more photographers would reach nirvana. p

VIEWFINDER LOWDOWN: This highly accurate viewfinder has nine etched AF

B

70

C D E

F G H

I

zones 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), flash-ready light and flash exposure comp indicator (D), shutter speed and aperture values (E), exposure level (F), white-balance correction (G), burst capacity (H), and focus-confirmation light (I). WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

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LENS TEST

Pentax DA 40mm f/2.8 Limited AF BY PETER KOLONIA

Gourmet Pancake

technically not limited) production runs. Cool factoid #1: It’s claimed to be the smallest and lightest-weight interchangeable AF lens in the world. Cool factoid #2: The lenscaps have the Pentax logo printed on the inside surface. HANDS ON: Matte black and small, even by pancake standards, this 40mm f/2.8 looks more like a teleconverter than a lens. Its manual-focus ring features an adequately THE EQUIVALENT OF A 60MM IN A damped turning action and, at 0.12 inches, 35mm system, Pentax’s new 40mm f/2.8 is among the most slender we’ve seen. The DA (digital only; $290 street) belongs to lenshood, focusing ring, and lensmount that rare breed of unusually flat lenses com- base all feature beautifully machined, knurled monly called pancakes. One of two made edges, which makes it tricky picking out the by Pentax, it extends a mere 0.61 inches manual-focus ring by feel while shooting. Due to limited real estate, the focusing scale combines feet 2.46 in. and meters along a single continuum (in blue and yellow type, respectively). Resembling a filter 0.61 in. ring, the included lenshood 0.12 in. extends a mere 0.25-inches from the outer barrel and is outfitted with its own set of 30.5mm filter threads. ACTUAL SIZE p IN THE LAB: SQF numbers from the camera body and weighs a feath- show unusual sharpness. Slightly better ery 3.2 ounces. Mounting it on the *ist DL, than the comparable Nikon 45mm f/2.8P Pentax claims, gives you the smallest and Nikkor AI-S, the Pentax pancake’s SQF lightest-weight DSLR system anywhere. performance falls in the Excellent range at This f/2.8 is one of only a few such every aperture and magnification. DxO shorties in production, and it is the only Analyzer 2.0 tests found slight barrel disone that autofocuses. Like Pentax’s full- tortion (0.20%), which is average for the frame 43mm f/1.9 pancake, it’s a Limited class. Light falloff was gone by f/4, also (edition) lens, with all-metal construction, average. At the close-focusing distance exquisite machining, manufacturing toler- of 15.7 inches, its magnification ratio is ances tighter than usual (resulting in bet- 1:8.2, better than the Pentax 43mm’s ter optical performance), and small (though 1:12.4, but not the equal of Nikon’s 1:7.4. CONCLUSION: Many Pentax shooters u looking for a normal/moderate tele lens will be justifiably tempted by the faster and less 40mm (39.93mm tested), f/2.8 (f/2.86 expensive 50mm f/1.4 ($220 street). tested), 5 elements in 4 groups. Focusing Though housed in plastic and converting to turns 70 degrees counterclockwise. a longish 75mm on the *ist DL, the 50mm n Diagonal view angle: 39 degrees. is lightweight (0.49 pounds) and quite n Weight: 0.21 lb. n Filter size: 49mm. sharp. The 40mm f/2.8 pancake, however, n Mounts: Pentax AF. n Included: will have a near-irresistible attraction for Lenshood. n Street price: $290. photographers who value fine craftsmanship and/or extreme compactness. p

A slim lens serves up a big performance

Specifications

u

Subjective Quality Factor 40mm

Size 2.8 4.0 5.6 8.0 11.0 16.0 22.0

5x7 97.6 97.8 97.5 97.5 97.4 97.0 96.3

8x10 96.9 97.1 96.8 96.7 96.6 96.0 95.1

11x14 95.2 95.5 95.1 94.9 94.8 93.8 92.5

16x20 92.3 92.9 92.1 91.8 91.6 89.9 87.5

20x24 89.1 89.9 88.7 88.2 87.9 85.2 81.4

key A+

74

A

B+

B

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

 What’s Not

• Unusually slim manual-focus ring.

C+

C

D

F

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REVIEW

ACDSEE 8 PHOTO MANAGER BY DEBBIE GROSSMAN

Quick Clean-Up Software for putting your image files in order

complex photo editor, ACDSee 8 Photo Manager ($50 download) helps you organize masses of images powerfully and efficiently—and, if you need to, fix them quickly. What a relief not to have to do the scroll-and-wait while your stateof-the-art hard drive is reduced to coughing and spluttering like an overheated toaster oven. The company’s priority has always been speed, but the graphics and interface have finally caught up. This update is the prettiest and easiest to navigate 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 of tasks that you can show or hide are conveniently organized into tasks that apply to files or folders and tasks that help you import, fix, 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, you can choose your settings right there, and even rename them according to your POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

EXIF data. Or you can tell the program never to bug you again. Another innovation? You can view the contents 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 or drag them into a more robust editor such as Adobe Photoshop or Corel Paint Shop Pro. Similar to the Image Basket is the Burn Basket, another virtual box that keeps track of what you’ve burned and when, and keeps those images 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 take advantage of the Quick Search box and superspeedily populate your screen with the pictures that qualify. Other useful stuff: you can find duplicates with the Duplicate Wizard, add audio comments to files, compare up to three images side-by-side, make a PDF, burn your DVDs and VCDs to PAL format for those European relatives, and all the while work with colormanaged thumbnails. For total beginners, ACDSee 8 may be all you need; you can do a good job fixing pics simply and keep track of all those images you’ve been snapping. For seasoned enthusiasts, the program is a thorough tool that’s fun to use to manage your images, repair your snapshots, and figure out which ones you’re going to put the time into fixing in earnest. For everyone, the speed and simplicity of the interface makes working with the program a simple pleasure. p For info: ACD Systems; www.acdsysy tems.com; 250-544-6701.

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.

75

TEST

QUANTUM QFLASH T5d BY PETER KOLONIA

Quantum Leap Qflash adds wireless TTL control IF YOU MATED A STUDIO STROBE and a portable TTL hot-shoe flash, the result might be something like Quantum’s popular Qflash T4d ($560 street). Batteryor AC-powered, the 26-ounce T4d looks equally at home softboxed on a lightstand for portraits or bolted to a flash bracket for run-and-gun-style event photography. Moreover, with the proper TTL adapters, it’s compatible with the latest SLR flash AE systems (E-TTL II, iTTL, etc). For all its strong points, however, the T4d lacks one significant tool: wireless TTL exposure control. For that, you need Quantum’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 flash, plus faster recycling, softer light output due to both the parabolic shape of the Qflash reflector and the included diffuser disk, and various Quantum exclusives. For readers unfamiliar with the Qflash system, here are a few of these exclusives: “Sensor Limit Control” lets the user set a subject distance range beyond which the Autoflash sensor ignores. If, for example, you set a subject distance limit of 10 feet, the flash’s AE system

E: s

will ignore anything beyond that. This, of course, is great for situations where a distant background is much lighter or darker than your flash-lit subject. The Qflash accepts a number of power sources, including three different Turbo batteries, select Lumedyne and Norman powerpacks, and AC power. The manual explains all aspects of flash operation and gives informative insights into studio lighting. Finally, Quantum is one of those rare companies that offer live telephone support for their products. The Qflash system fits 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 Fujifilm FinePix S3 DSLR and the other end into Quantum’s compact FreeXwire 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 fired off 20 shots. The Qflash recycled instantly and our exposures were close to perfect. Our impression: Master it, and Quantum’s new Qflash is an exciting and multifaceted tool that can propel your photography to new heights. p

What’s Hot

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

 What’s Not • No support for high-speed flash syncing. • Expensive.

ours. 76

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

TEST

EPSON POWERLITE 755C

TTriple Threat With three LCDs, this projector oozes c W DIIGITAL PROJECTORS, ONCE SOLELY for business use, are now for photograph hers, too. Take Epson’s PowerLite 75 55c ($1,700 expected street). With features like 802.11g wireless connectivvity, a CompactFlash reader, and automatic keystone control, it makes slide sh hows easier than ever. But its three LC CD chips—one each for red, green, and blue—make the real difference. The sampl e we tried produced well-saturated, ac ccurate colors after we calibrated it ussing GretagMacbeth’s Eye-One Beamerr ($835 street). Setup was quick and easy, especially wh hen we skipped a PC connection in favvor of a CompactFlash card. Without a co omputer, however, we lost the benefit of ou ur Eye-One profile. In our darkened ro oom, we got the best performance in Epson’s Living Room color mode with the color temperature menu option set to 6500K. Thanks to auto-keystone correction, 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 array numbers 1024x768. While it’s notably sharper than less-pricey models, those who are accustomed to traditional slide projectors will still yearn for the continuous tone and sharpness of chromes. They may also complain about its noticeable “screen-door effect,” the faint grid among pixels. But that’s true of any digital projector in this price range. (You can counter it by increasing your viewing distance or reducing the image size.)

What’s Hot

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

 What’s Not

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

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

Other gripes were mi control 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 all their vibrant color. p

TIPS&TRICKS Contact manager Leaking alkaline batteries can leave a residue that corrodes your camera’s electrical contacts until they become nonconducting. Here’s a quick way to revitalize them: First, because “battery acid” isn’t an acid, but a base (they’re called “alkaline” batteries, right?), neutralize the residue with a little mild acid. Apply it with a cotton swab and wipe the contacts clean. Don’t be alarmed if they bubble...that’s normal. Then flush the contacts with distilled water (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 bump When hiking, to control the movement of the camera hanging around my neck, I use a 48-inch length of string with a small hook on one end. I attach the hook to the right camera-strap eyelet, draw the string around my back, pull it taut, and tie it to the left camera-strap eyelet. To use the camera, I simply release the hook and let the string hang free. Tom Canapp Jarrettsville, MD

setting sun. Conversely, if you use yellow paper, the resulting color will be blue. Bonus tip: For a neutral white balance, camera instructions call for using a white target, but a neutral gray one will work, too. Sveta Dragovic Geneva, Switzerland

Pencil pusher I prevent my filters and close-up adapters from sticking to the front threads of my lenses by going over the filter threads with a No. 2 lead pencil. The tiny amount of graphite lubricates the threads just enough. Stanley Sizeler Pleasant Hill, CA

Dew this While on nature hikes, I occasionally come across a photo op that has literally dried up. Fall leaves, spider webs, wildflowers and other natural close-up subjects tend to photograph better wearing fresh coats of morning dew. To recreate early morning’s sparkling light and more saturated colors at any hour, I carry a small atomizer filled with water. A bit of its mist on flora or fauna, and, voilà, it’s dawn all day long! Bob Taylor Salt Lake City, UT

Breathe easy Neat feet As a crime scene photographer, I have to set my tripod in some rather nasty places. To keep my ’pod dirt-free, I cut the fingers off rubber gloves, slide them over the tripod feet like little boots, and secure the fingers with rubber bands. It keeps grit, water, mud, and worse(!) out of the tripod legs, extending their life in the process. Jim Yoghourtjian Racine, WI

Art warming If you’re shooting digital and want to get a warm-tone picture, try setting a custom white balance from a light-blue sheet of paper. Your picture will look like it was lit by the 78

When shooting an impromptu portrait that could use a little softening, try breathing on the lens right before releasing the shutter. The effect is like a soft-focus filter’s, but variable: The longer you wait to fire the shutter, the less the softening effect. Michelle Harbour Hayes, VA Got a tip, trick, or technique? E-mail it to [email protected] p p f . Readers whose tips we publish will receive a special-edition POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY & IMAGING Tamrac Photo-Video 1 Model 5201 camera bag. See this SLR-sized bag at POPPHOTO.com. p

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

PHOTOS BY HAROLD FEINSTEIN TEXT BY PETER KOLONIA

SHELL GAME

YOU CAN DO IT

CLEAN THEM FI ST! Before laying shells on a flatbed scanner, Feinstein cleans them to remove loose sand.

HAROLD FEINSTEIN IS ON A roll. In the past five years or so, the Berkshires-based dynamo has produced nearly a half-dozen glorious photo books; breathtaking tributes to the beauty of roses, tulips, shells, and other natural subjects. What accounts for this surge of productivity? Simple. The long-celebrated film photographer discovered digital. Using Adobe Photoshop and the Epson Perfection 4990 scanner, he’s become a master of camera-free photography. By simply placing his subjects on the Epson flatbed and using a black sheet of cardboard as background, he creates art. “If people knew how easy it was,” he laughs, “I could be arrested.” How easy? For his shell pictures, the hard part is finding the shells. “Don’t try wading into the surf at Sanibel Island,” warns Feinstein. “What you find there, even the good ones, are eroded and their colors are bleached from tumbling around in the surf.” The best shells come from deep water, and you get them at shell shops or through collectors. Retailers and collectors are easy to find on the Internet and may be willing to lend or rent valuable shells in exchange for prints. However, most shells, like those from the $8 bag Feinstein used for the photo on the pages that follow, are cheap.

To make the picture, Feinstein arranged the mini mollusks on the Epson 4990’s glass, carefully fixing spacing and orientation, removing and replacing any that were obviously wrong for the composition. The idea is to cram as many shells as possible onto the scanner, with as little empty space between them as possible. It’s like putting together a puzzle. Once the composition is set, he makes a preliminary scan and studies 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 takes about an hour, and as many as a dozen prescans. “For me, one scan usually 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 five or more inches long, are scanned at 100 percent. Feinstein also sets the 4990’s driver to automatically sharpen the image between 50 and 100 percent. The final 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 shell surfaces. “I’ve been working with shells for 18 or 19 years and am still in awe of them,” says Feinstein. “I’ve never found a human architect who could design anything so simple yet so fascinatingly intricate.” p BE GENTLE: When setting the paper nautilus (top), Venus comb murex (middle), and clear sundial (bottom) on his Epson flatbed, Feinstein handles the shells gently to avoid scratching the scanner’s glass plate.

5

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BOOK IT: Feinstein’s One Hundred Seashells (Bulfinch Press, $50), with writer Sydney Eddison, showcases some of his most superb work.

YOU CAN DO IT

OUR EDITORS’ CRITERION: The camera that best refines or redefines photography OUR EDITORS’ CHOICE: The Canon EOS 5D Digital SLR

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POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

WE THOUGHT WE HAD

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 first 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

©MICHAEL SOO

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 4.5frame-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 film (“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 EFmount glass. But there’s more to this camera than just sensor size. It’s also reasonably

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

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85

5 0 20

DSLRS: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

R L S D

e at th s t a n greeir game e v e S th

EL

MICHA

L L A S R A T S

NO 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.)

CANON EOS-1DS MARK II ($7,400) HIGH-SCORING CHAMP S THE LEAGUE LEADER IN IMAGE quality and pro features, the 16.7MP (effective) Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II demands top dollar. But if you’re a pro looking for a supertough, gasket-sealed DSLR that can deliver image quality exceeding that of most films, the investment may prove worthwhile. It boasts a full-frame CMOS sensor with no 35mm lens factor, a hyperfast and sensitive 45-point AF system, extensive exposure and metering controls, vertical shutter release, and long-life rechargeable battery. With dual card slots, the 1Ds Mark II is also capable of capturing JPEG, RAW, or JPEG + RAW images and saving them simultaneously to both CF (Type I and II) and SD cards. Canon includes its powerful (and free) Digital Photo Professional 2.0 RAW conversion software, and even a software utility that lets you control the camera remotely via its fast FireWire connection. Okay, the EOS-1Ds Mark II has only a 2inch LCD monitor, but in the perilous environments that this camera may find 86

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NIKON D2X ($5,000) LOW-LIGHT LEADER THE 12.4MP (EFFECTIVE) NIKO much more for those who can afford it th 4.1MP D2hS ($3,500). No other DSLR its noise at higher ISOs as well as the D to a blurring filter)—one of the reasons image-quality rating all the way up to IS goes to its Sony-manufactured sensor—t imaging sensor to be used in a Nikon DSLR. Although its APSsize creates a 1.5X 35mm lens factor that turns a 28mm wide■ angle into a 42mm lens, Nikon es lenses (e ■

etproof as DSLRs, but stainlessagnesiumather/dustso sports ease, 40 h-capacity gorgeous and faster 1 highestfps. And appreciate speed and

E t F J J c E p e M J is 8

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CANON EOS 20D ($1,300) FIRST DRAFT PICK N EOS 20D DOMIN r most of 2005 and w ra of the Year. It was un by its higher-priced y photographers, thou alue. e EOS 5D, with control ■ SENSO rugged ■ IMAGE ess-steel nesiumfrom IS a similar LENS FA sensitive JPEG, at locks on CF ■ AF SY ss than extrem ■ CONTR meterin image Up to 3 JPEGs Januar www.c 800-65

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

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

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KONICA MINOLTA MAXXUM 5D ($800) STEADY DEFENSE IF YOU’RE GOING TO DSLR major leagues, it’s g the one Konica Minolta built 5D. Along with KM’s 7D, it’ built-in Anti-Shake (AS) sys up to a 3-stop advantage light or at slower shutter spe all KM A-Type lenses, inc 18–70mm f/3.4–5.6 AF D kit lens ($100 additional). B price, the 5D has features earn it MVP status. It has APS-sized 6.1MP (effect sensor as the more expe giving you a 1.5X 35mm and extremely high-quality im body i

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

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

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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 the reinforced plastic body, along with fairly advanced exposure and metering controls that rival those on the EOS 20D. enger to the EOS 20D. Besides its rugged 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 less nsive EF-S lenses. The XT’s burst bility of up to 50 fine-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.

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in low light. And while the LCD monitor isn’t as sharp as we’d like, the terrific viewfinder includes an eye-activated LCD cutoff switch to reduce glare while shooting.

SCOUTING REPORT

NIKON D50 ($650) ROOKIE OF THE YEAR CLAIMED THE CAMERA 4 with its D70, Nikon’s bigg R that would compete with with the D50. While it lacks t as of the more expensive D capabilities not found in its 0’s image quality is sligh to changes in the APS-size or and image processing. T O speeds up to 1600. Am at its AF system, its class, which can n very low light down ■ And it has a high ■ flash sync speed ■ h in bright daylight. ■ also has advanced ncluding 3D Matrix) ure controls. Thanks ch LCD, with a well■ user interface, it’s t to the most useful exposure and metering. ■ BURST MODE: Up to 13 nd the extended-life h up to 2,000 shots JPEGs at 2.5 fps. ■ TESTED: per charge) should hold out September 2005 issue. ■ INFO: www.nikonusa.com;; despite increased LCD usage. The D50’s 2.5-fps burst mode 800-645-6689. is nothing to brag about, nor

gh-quality JPEGs at 2.8 fps. Images from the DL’s APS-sized 6.1MP CCD ensor have slightly lower color accuracy and solution than from the *ist DS, but it offers

PENTAX *IST DL ($650) MIGHTY MITE PENTAX SET THE SMALL DSLR STAN with the original 6.1MP *ist D in early 2004. Sin it has created ever-smaller models with the *ist now the *ist DL. Yet somehow, Pentax squeeze sharp, 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 system ■ on the DL. Don’t worry: all the zones are very sensitive cross-types, and the fr ■ DL’s AF, which almost matches that of ■S the DS, is sensitive down to EV 0. But, the data display is harder to read, and JP ■A burst capacity is only five se w ■C ex ■B 5 ■T 20 p pe

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With DSLR design and innovation in full swing at all the leading manufacturers, what’s in store for 2006? ★ We can comfortably predict that there will be high-res, full-frame (12.8MP) DSLRs available for the first 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 Olympus Evolt 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 what we might see from the two major electronics giants that are poised to enter the 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 flash system, the Four Thirds System could flourish. ★ 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 Nikon D50 and Pentax *ist DL). Let’s hope Sony brings not only its image sensor and processing expertise, but also smart batteries and manufacturing efficiency 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 for sure—2006 will be a really p interesting year.

THEY MIGHT BE

WILL 2006 BE THE YEAR OF THE ALL-IN-ONE? BY RIGHTS, THE CAMERAS in this category shouldn’t exist by now—yet not only are they alive, they’re thriving. These are electronic viewfinder (EVF) cameras, and they present serious competition for digital SLRs—even as DSLR prices continue to drop. How do they do it? Consider: The current cheapest deal on an 8MP DSLR with a 10X or better zoom starting at true wide angle is a Canon Digital Rebel XT body ($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 Fujifilm 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 8MP Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 with a jaw-dropping 35–420mm equivalent 12X zoom—plus an excellent optical image stabilizer. Still costs too much money? The Kodak EasyShare P850 has ample 5MP capture, a 12X f/2.8–3.7 zoom, and image stabilization—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 stabilization 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

90

drawbacks of these cameras. Namely, digital noise and viewfinders that have the disquieting habit of freezeframing when you’re trying to track a moving subject. Manufacturers are addressing both problems, with larger sensors, improved noise reduction, and viewfinders with faster redraw. HERE’S A RUNDOWN OF THE HOT EVFS FOR 2006. Megapixel monsters: If 8MP capture plus 10X optical zoom once formed a barrier, today’s EVFs are demolishing it. The aforementioned Fujifilm 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 taken at ISOs as high as 1600, and it can also reduce blur in photos via digital oversampling. Nikon, meanwhile, has continually refined its Coolpix 8000-series cameras. The latest version, the Coolpix 8800 ($700 street), has a 10X zoom at the longer end, a 35–350mm equivalent f/2.8–5.2, 8MP capture, and optical image stabilization. Clever tricks borrowed from Coolpix pointand-shoots include on-the-fly redeye fix and D-lighting, which can tone down the contrast in backlit shots. Panasonic’s Lumix FZ30, as we mentioned, combines a long zoom with image stabilization, plus stabilized video shooting at 30 fps and 640x480 resolution. How about a 15X optical zoom? Samsung’s Digimax Pro815 has a

WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

28–420mm f/2.2–4.6 Schneider lens, 8MP capture, and the biggest LCD monitor in the business—3.5 inches. That’s augmented by a 1.44-inch top LCD control panel that can also display the finder image for waist-level or ground-level shots! The Pro815 should be appearing in stores by holiday 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 2006 is the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1 (see “Hands On” on page 72). Sony made the bold move of building in a significantly larger imager to tackle the noise problem, and to allow wider focal lengths—the R1’s zoom starts at a nicely wide 24mm. Let’s see if other manufacturers follow this lead. Eagle-eyed compacts: When camera makers introduced 10X or greater zoom cameras with 2 to 3.2MP capture, they were fun novelties. Now that these cameras boast 5MP capture or better (as in the Kodak EasyShare P850), they can be taken seriously as wildlife and sports cam-

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

eras, and they remain the top funfor-the-buck cameras in all of photography. 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 stabilization using a shifting chip. The Nikon Coolpix 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-

BY DAN R ICHAR DS 500 Ultrazoom ($380) has a 10X 38–380mm 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. Fujifilm 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.

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

91

© MICHAEL SOO

ELECTRONIC VIEWFINDER SUPERZOOMS

CANON

CASIO

KONICA MINOLTA

FUJIFILM NIKON

HP

KODAK

OLYMPUS

MOTHERS OF

PANOSONIC PENTAX SAMSUNG SONY CANON

CASIO

FUJIFILM

HP

KODAK

INVENTION KONICA-MINOLTA

NIKON

OLYMPUS

PANOSONIC PENTAX SAMSUNG SONY

Chances are you’ve never used KONICA-MINOLTA NIKON OLYMPUS even half the features lurking in PANOSONIC PENTAX SAMSUNG SONY the menus of your compact camera. Just what are all those icon-happy CANON CASIO FUJIFILM HP KODAK modes? Actually, many of them are KONICA-MINOLTA NIKON OLYMPUS useful, convenient, or just plain fun. PANOSONIC PENTAX SAMSUNG SONY So we’ve taken a current camera CANON CASIO FUJIFILM KODAK from nearly every major HP maker and KONICA-MINOLTA NIKONknowing. OLYMPUS detailed features worth PANOSONIC PENTAX SAMSUNG SONY BY DA N R I C H A R D S CANON

CASIO

KONICA MINOLTA

FUJIFILM NIKON

HP

KODAK

OLYMPUS

PANA NASONIC PENTAX SAMSUNG SONY CANON

CASIO

KONICA MINOLTA

FUJIFILM NIKON

HP

KODAK

OLYMPUS

CANON POWERSHOT SD500

HP PHOTOSMART R717

KODAK EASYSHARE V550

KONICA MINOLTA DIMAGE X1

NIKON COOLPIX P1

OLYMPUS STYLUS 800 DIGITAL

PANASONIC LUMIX DMC-LX1

PENTAX OPTIO 750Z

SAMSUNG DIGIMAX i5

SONY CYBER-SHOT DSC-T5

D I G I T A L

Kit lenses vs. pro glass. What’s the real difference— besides cost? 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 computer makers bundle software with desktops, camera makers bundle inexpensive zoom lenses with amateur DSLR bodies. “Buy the kit. It’s practically like getting a lens for free.”

OLYMPUS 14–54mm f/2.8–3.5 pro zoom ($500) 96

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 optical 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 compared Nikon and Olympus digitalonly kit lenses with their higher-tier siblings, which have roughly equal focal-length ranges but much higher prices. We evaluated five compara-

ble lenses by seven criteria commonly used to assess lens quality, starting with...

SHARPNESS It may surprise you, but POP PHOTO’s standardized lens tests show little significant difference in sharpness between kit and pro zooms. Nikon’s $180 18–55mm f/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 magnification of 20x24 inches. The Olympus lenses fared similarly. DISTORTION In DxO analyzer tests of all five lenses, the kit zooms fared well at their longest zoom settings—matching, even beating, the pro zooms at controlling linear distortion. The Nikon 18–55mm kit lens, for example, showed Imperceptible barrel distortion (0.07%) at 55mm, compared to a weak showing of Visible pincushioning (0.34%) from Nikon’s 18–70mm at 70mm. At the mid and wide settings, 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 budget 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

OLYMPUS 14–45mm f/3.5–5.6 Evolt kit zoom ($249) WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

TEXT BY PETER KOLONIA PHOTOS BY RICO POON

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 flash and tripod at home when they’d be too intrusive or cumbersome. Shallow depths of field, with their creamy, defocused backgrounds, are another unquestionable plus of f/2.8. Good luck nabbing them with f/4.5! CLOSE-UP Judging from our subsample of Nikon and Olympus lenses, kit lenses can surprise you with close-up performance that equals, and sometimes even

NIKON 18–55mm f/3.5–5.6 D50 kit zoom ($180) POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005 PHOTO/AUGUST 2005

surpasses, pro glass. The Nikon 18– 55mm budget baby, for example, boasts a significantly greater maximum 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 manualfocus action, and easily legible subject-distance scales calibrated

NIKON Mid range 18–70mm f/3.5–4.5 ($360) WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

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 difficult, if not impossible, to use a variety of lensmounted filters, filter holders, and lighting accessories. One last thought on construction: While your kit zoom may have superior optics out of the box, it’s debatable how long you will enjoy such performance. Inexpensive materials

NIKON Pro quality 17–55mm f/2.8 ($1,250) 97 00

D I G I TA L

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

OLYMPUS 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 (92.5%)

Excellent

Excellent (94.7%)

Excellent

Excellent

(93.6%)

(92.6%)

(95.1%)

Visible Slight Imperceptible

Visible Slight Visible

Slight Slight Slight

Visible Visible Slight

Visible Imperceptible 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 (gone by)***

f/5.6–8.0

f/5.6–8.0

f/4

f/5.6–8.0

f/4–5.6

WEIGHT

0.47 lb.

0.86 lb.

1.69 lb.

0.68 lb.

1 lb.

COST

$180

$360

$1,250

$249

$500

(for 11x14 in.)*

LINEAR DISTORTION ** WIDE MID TELE

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.

tend to shift or even warp over time, throwing lens elements out of alignment, and sharpness out the window. Especially at wider apertures.

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

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 companion while trekking along city streets or mountain trails. And don’t forget the size consideration: pro glass is significantly larger than kit and will gobble up meager camera bag space fast. 98

SO, KIT OR SOMETHING MORE costly? Which zoom is right for you? If sharpness is your overriding concern, 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 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

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

in your pictures, like to shoot in low light without the hobbling effect of flash or tripod, or need speed to stop action (as with sports or stage performances) or defocus a background, invest in a lens that will serve you and your evolving photography well into the future. And, if you’re rough on gear, changing lenses frequently and tossing 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 POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005

HOW TO READ A 1 2 3

4

5

6

7

7 RESOLUTION (AVERAGE OF HXVXD LINES) ON AN IT-10 TARGET

100

1700+

EXCELLENT

1500–1700

EXTREMELY HIGH

1300–1500

VERY HIGH

1200–1300

HIGH

1100–1200

ACCEPTABLE

UNDER 1100

UNACCEPTABLE

CAMERA TEST WHAT THE NUMBERS AND RATINGS REALLY MEAN

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

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

LENS DISTORTION: (BASED ON DXO 2.0 TEST RESULTS FOR BARREL AND 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%

EXCESSIVE

AND HIGHER

HOW TO READ A CAMERA TEST

VIEWFINDER MAGNIFICATION 0.83X 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

ONWARD & UPWARD

OUR VIEWFINDER AND AF SPEED TESTS for DSLRs are identical to

those 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 as digital cameras add features and improve image quality, we’ll continue to add tests that help you decide which camera is right for you. p

ÇGAMUT VOLUME

102

ÇDIGITAL CAMERA GAMUT

ÇDYNAMIC RANGE S/N RATIO

HOW-TO

GET CREATIVE

TEXT AND PHOTOS BY BRYAN F

Letters create a personalized photographic present

The Name Game PHOTOGRAPHERS HAVE IT pretty easy. When we need to give someone a present and are short on time or stumped on ideas, all we have to do is make up an 8x10 print, put it in a nice frame, and voilà—the perfect gift! Of course, if the photo you’re giving doesn’t appeal to the recipient’s taste, it won’t be such a great gift. You have a better chance at making the gift meaningful if your framed photo is truly personal—and spells out 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. I zoom in close so I can photograph individual letters. Try it—soon you’ll have entire sets of the alphabet! Individual letters have distinctive personalities, based on their shape, color, and texture. As you assemble 122

the letters to form the name, you’ll realize that some the images of your letters actually fit the personality of that person. Once you have enough letters, make 4x6 or 5x7-inch prints of each photo. Take them to a frame shop, and have the images placed in a single frame, matted with individual windows cut out for each photo. Does this work? You bet! As my daughter Chloe recently told me, the most meaningful gift she received for her 10th birthday was her “name.” p ALPHABET CITY: All photos on this page were shot during a single day in New York’s Times Square with a handheld Nikon D2x and 70–200mm f/2.8D VR G AFS Nikkor lens. Exposure, f/8 in aperture-priority mode. WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

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

TIMEEXPOSURE 25

YEARS AGO COVER: DECEMBER 1980

3 2 1. ’Tis the season: Festive December ’80 cover image of New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral is by Yasuo Haga of Niigata, Japan. He took the night exposure with a 35mm SLR and 28mm lens on Kodachrome 64, duped the slide onto a larger transparency, then double-exposed it with a flash-lit, filtered, falling-snow image. 2. Smallest 35mm camera? That’s what Minox claimed in its ad for the Minox 35 GL, and it was probably right. The pocketable, scale-focusing folder had a good-quality, 4-element 35mm f/2.8 Color-Minotar lens. 3. Debunking the ad flaks: This Leica A of 1925 “markedly influenced camera design,” but was not the first 35mm still camera as claimed in a Leitz ad, accord-

1

1930

50

1

136

1940

1950

▼

YEARS AGO DECEMBER 1955

1960

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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 Graflex Super D camera, 190mm f/5.6 Ektar lens, and four Ascor speedlights! The picture copped 2nd prize in the Color Division of our International Picture Contest. 2. Auto-focus stereo 35? Ad for the Stereo Graphic claimed it had “exclusive Depthmaster Auto-focus,” but this was just adspeak for fixed-focus 35mm f/4 lenses set at different distances to increase apparent depth-of-field. 3. Incredible shrinking flashbulb: Regular Midget bulb at left, known as #5, or Press 25, was tiny compared to the classic light2 bulb-sized Press 22, but “new” WWW.POPPHOTO.COM

ing to photo historian Eaton S. Lothrop, Jr., whose column found “advertising fraught with poetic license.” 4. Two-light drama: “Place second lamp over Leslie, slightly behind, and her hair will really sparkle,” advised Michael A. Keller in his piece on basic portrait lighting, “but snoot the fill light or shield the lens to guard against lens flare.” 5. New York state of mind? Whimsically glamorous image of the Big Apple by Japanese photographer Tadao Matsuo appeared in “Outside Looking In,” an article showing how he captured the glittering fantasy New Y he had imagined before visiting the city.

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Powermite M2 at right was only a quarter its size and 3 cents cheaper. Image is from a General Electric flashbulb ad. 4. Times change: Nostalgic still life of vintage Kodak Timer, 4 Kodak 4x5 Super-XX sheet film, Tri-X 4x5 Film Pack, and can of highenergy DK-60a developer ran in “How to Develop 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.S Savings Bond and Honorable Mention in POP PHOTO’s ’55 International Picture Contest.

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TECH SUPPORT

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

Q

Perilous popping September 2005’s “Tech Sup” you mentioned possible harm to digital camera circuitry when using a Vivitar 285 electronic flash. I have Vivitar 283s that I would like to use with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20. Is their triggering voltage too high for digital cameras? C. MICHAEL HAYES MISSION, TX

A

t depends. The popular Vivitar went through several incarnations, all bearing the same model designation. If your 283s are less than 10 years old, you’re safe, but if you’re not sure, check to see where the units were made. The old “Made in Japan” models have high-voltage triggering circuits that can damage your Lumix DMC-FZ20.

Q

Stop bluffing push an ISO 400 b&w film Kodak 400 Tri-X Pan to ISO 1600, how many stops is that? I recently shot a concert with Tri-X exposed at 1600 and asked my lab for a two-stop push. After processing the film, the lab said I should have requested an eight-stop push, because the film was almost completely blank. Is it eight stops from ISO 400 to ISO 1600? RICARDO MONTAÑEZ ALCAZAR VIA E-MAIL

A

unds like your lab misrouted the internally, and it was processed normally instead of pushed the way you requested. As you suggest, ISO 400 to 1600 is a two-stop push, and if anyone knows of a film that can be pushed EIGHT stops, would they please send us a brick?

Q

Fuji fudging? xposed a 36-exposure roll of m Fujichrome Velvia 100F slide film in my Canon EOS Elan IIE. It rewound at 24 exposures, not 36. I sent it to Fuji for processing, and it came back as 24 exposures with no 154

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TECH SUPPORT (continued from page 154)

surplus, unexposed film in the box, and the slides were two stops overexposed. I think Fuji loaded a short roll of the wrong film type in the cassette. What do you think? RICHARD W. UNDERWOOD HOUSTON, TX

A

earn the film type, remove a few s from their mounts and look for their edge code. (Velvia 100F is RVP100F, for example.) If Fuji’s automated film 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.

Q

Moldychromes have 500–600 irreplaceable achrome slides that are about 50 years old. They show some evidence of mold. Can they be salvaged? WILBERT LAWLER VIA E-MAIL

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can have your slides professionally ned, scanned, and digitally restored, but, considering their large number, it would likely cost thousands. (Google “photo conservators” and/or “slide restoration” 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 fingerprinting. Next, moisten a Kodak Photo Chamois (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 cardboard mounts. Whatever you do, don’t use water, solutions that contain water, or ordinary rubbing alcohol (which also contains water), since fungus usually makes film emulsion water-soluble.

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TECH SUPPORT (continued from page 157)

Optically equal? ntly I had a chance to compare tax G wide-angle lenses with my Konica Minolta Maxxum lenses, and just as your SQF charts predicted, the Carl Zeiss G lenses were clearly sharper. Perusing your tests, however, I see one Konica Minolta lens, a 50mm f/2.8 macro, has put up SQF numbers very close to those of the Contax lens. Is that KM performance strictly for the macro range, or does that Zeiss-like sharpness extend out to infinity, too? LANGDON BEDELL EUGENE, OR SQF figures are based on an ysis of modulation transfer function (MTF) performance of the lenses focused at infinity. If the 50mm f/2.8 Minolta Macro has SQF numbers close to those of the Zeiss G lenses, its performance will be close as well, regardless of focusing distance. Furthermore, since most macro lenses are designed to deliver optimum performance at about 1:10 (one-tenth life-size), there’s a possibility the Konica Minolta 50mm f/2.8 may actually outperform the G lenses at similar magnifications. Diopter dilemma ve a set of close-up lenses marked +2, and +4 diopters. It came with magnification tables for various lens combinations but no advice as to the proper sequencing. How should I order the close-up lenses numerically on my camera lens? GEORGE R. BROWN VIA E-MAIL y: The strongest one (highest numgoes on the camera lens; additional filters are attached to it, in decreasing order of strength. Cool factoid: When you stack two close-up lenses, the effect is additive—combining a +1 and a +2 has the same power as a +3 close-up lens. For maximum sharpness, though, avoid stacking or using the maximum aperture for your lens. Instead, use one filter at a time, and close the camera lens down to f/5.6 or f/8. Got a question? E-mail us at [email protected] p f . 158

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WHATS UP WITH BY DAN RICHARDS

EXPOSURE COMPENSATION? JUDGING FROM THE LETTERS IN POP PHOTO’s mailbag and e-mail bin, you’d think exposure compensation was rocket science multiplied by brain surgery. Folks, you’re making it way too complicated. 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. In modern photospeak, these actions are called negative and positive exposure compensation. EC is measured in stops (traditional) or EV (modern); where once you’d say, “I gave it a half-stop more exposure,” you might today say, “I gave it +0.5 EV exposure compensation.” With the advent of autoexposure, EC seems to have become more confusing for people. But nothing complicated is going on here, either. Autoexposure simply sets the metered midtone exposure reading for you; EC raises or lowers the midtone point. Your camera’s exposure readouts (on the LCD panel or in the finder) are the exact settings the camera will make, and they take into account whatever compensation you’ve set. (Think of it as the sales tax being included in the price tag.) With shutter-priority automation, the camera will adjust the aperture to make the exposure compensation; with aperture-priority auto, the camera adjusts shutter speed. In program automation, the camera can adjust both shutter and aperture for EC. Some cameras allow EC in manual exposure, too. This is something like zeroing the needle on a scale to cancel out the weight of a container you’re about to fill. If, say, you want to underexpose slide film by a thirdstop for more color saturation, you can set EC for –0.3, then make settings exactly according to the camera meter. And your exposure will be a third-stop below normal exposure. p 167

SHOWCASE

LADIESORGENTLEMEN JEAN-LOUIS GINIBRE’S LADIES OR GENTLEMEN (Filipacchi, $65) brings together more than 700 images of actors in almost every film that uses a man in women’s clothing as a plot twist, comic device, or storyline. This is no polemic on transvestism—it’s an amusing, dramatic romp through cinematic history. It’s fun to see the greats (Bob Hope in ringlets), the strange (there’s a whole section 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, he says, have a passion for dressing in skirts himself. —Debbie Grossman Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon on the set of Some Like it Hot (above), Rock Hudson dons a mink in Lover Come Back k (far left), and Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan in Around the World in 80 Days s (near left). POP PHOTO/DECEMBER 2005