Attention Fuji X Series owners: Adobe has released Lightroom 4.4 which contains updated RAW image processing. You’ll definitely want to upgrade now!
As an aside, I’ve just received a X-E1 loaner from Fuji along with an assortment of lenses to test for an upcoming feature on travel photography. Also being tested is the Panasonic GX-1 and I’m waiting to hear back from Sony about their competing products.
For several years I’ve offered a free online course: 12 Weeks to Better Photography, or as many knew it on Twitter, 12WBP. A lot of you have asked for the course in ebook format instead of weekly emails, and I’m in the process of reworking the material.
I’m looking for a few volunteers willing to read the final draft and provide frank feedback. Please let me know if you’re interested!
Overall Rating (based on customer reviews): 4.6 out of 5 stars
The specs of the new Canon PowerShot G15 include a 12.1 MP sensor, 5x Wide-Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom, and the multiple exposure modes that keeps many of us coming back to the G-series.
Here are some REAL customer reviews:
“Nice upgrade from the G12. Simple review.”
I’ve long been a fan of my trusty Canon G12. Since it hasn’t been upgraded in quite some time, I thought it was the end of the line for the series. When the G15 was announced, I immediately wanted one. Having had it for a couple of days now, I’m very…Read more
“An excellent camera”
The first thing I noticed when I took the G15 out of its box for the first time was its impressive build quality. Everything is tightly constructed and what feels like a tough mag alloy body. It’s not necessarily pocketable but is slightly smaller and…Read more
“Quick summary of my first impressions of the Canon G15″
I have owned and loved my Canon G12 for the past two years. When I recently learned of the new G15 I wound up buying it on impulse due to my previous good luck with Canon and the promise of improved performance. Also influencing my decision was the fact…Read more
Get Canon PowerShot G15 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 5x Wide-Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom at the best price available today.
Overall Rating (based on customer reviews): 4.5 out of 5 stars
The specs of ‘Nikon D7000 16.2MP DX-Format CMOS Digital SLR with 3.0-Inch LCD (Body Only)’ are:
Here are some REAL customer reviews:
“Review Written for Beginner Photographers”
I am a photography teacher in NYC and online. (See my Amazon profile for my website.) I teach beginner and intermediate photography students every week. I’ve also been a professional photographer for the last five years with images published in The New…Read more
“Great Camera — A perspective from a D300/700 Owner”
This is very simple, if you are a Nikon shooter looking for a new camera then stop reading and buy this camera. It’s that good.HandlingThis camera is brilliant to hold and use. Nikon has done it again and has made the user interface more…Read more
“Cool things you might not know the D7000 can do”
Just take it for granted that this takes amazing pictures under all conditions, including low light, and that it contains all the manual controls that you’d ever want.Instead, here’s some things that the camera does that you might not have…Read more
Get Nikon D7000 16.2MP DX-Format CMOS Digital SLR with 3.0-Inch LCD (Body Only) at the best price available today.
For those of you contemplating an upgrade, the folks at dpreview.com have a great review of Lightroom 4. In summary, yes, it’s worth the upgrade!
As a G11 owner, I was quite interested to read The G1 X announcement. In summary, the G1 X features a 14.3-megapixel, 1.5-inch (18.7 x 14mm) sensor. That’s bigger than a Micro Four Thirds sensor and nearly as large as the APS-C sensors inside most DSLRs. It’s also 6.3 times larger than the sensor inside the PowerShot G12.
It also features an ISO range up to 12,800, aperture range from f/2.8 to f/16, and a 4x optical zoom from 28-112mm. It’s powered by Canon’s new DIGIC 5 processor, which Canon says is its fastest yet. The G1 X has RAW support, a super sharp, 922,000-dot 3-inch LCD, and 1080p video recording at 24 frames per second.
One of the highly desirable features of Lightroom is that editing is non-destructive. You can adjust, crop, retouch, and apply various settings to your images without loosing the original. However, it’s important to understand where the edit information is stored and the implications.
By default, Lightroom stores all metadata (including changes to the image) in its catalog. If you only use Lightroom on one computer and you never have any problems with your catalog, you’ll probably never notice – your changes just work. However, if you were to delete your catalog, all changes will be lost. In other words, you’ll only have your original image files. So even in simple use cases, it is critical that you back up your Lightroom catalog.
If you use more than one computer to work on your images, and use you a catalog on a portable hard drive, the same situation as above applies. However, since Lightroom will not use a catalog on a shared drive, the situation becomes more complex for those of us who share images across their network.
Lightroom, like many other photo packages, is also capable of reading and writing image metadata from image containers such as jpegs and from “sidecar” files. If you right-click on an image or folder in your library, select “Metadata” and then “Save Metadata to File”, the data will be written to either the appropriate place in the image file or an XMP file in the same directory as as the image. There is also a setting to do this automatically: Edit > Catalog Settings > Metadata Tab and place a check in the box for “Automatically write changes into XMP”. I strongly recommend that you turn this option on:
If you’re starting to work with a second computer and haven’t turned this option on:
As you’re working, you might notice an indicator in the upper right corner of an image warning you that metadata has changed on the hard drive, presumably because you edited the image on a different computer or within a different catalog. You can right click on an image (or a selection of images) under “Metadata” and select “Read Metadata from File”. If you’d like to force Lightroom to read Metadata at the folder level, simply click on the folder, choose Metadata from the main menu at the top of the screen, and select the appropriate option.
There are two drawbacks you should be aware of:
To recap: By default Lightroom 3 stores all your work in the catalog only unless you configure it to automatically write XMP or manually force it to. XMP files are cheap insurance and for most users I recommend configuring Lightroom to write them automatically.
I’m in the process of re-editing images from my 2007 trip to Death Valley. While I still enjoy the creative aspects of shooting and developing black and white film, when travelling shooting digital offers convenience, flexibility, and a lower cost.
Some digital cameras offer built-in greyscale conversion, and some of the latest models such as the Nikon D7000 also include simulated filters. However, if you’re photographing landscapes I strongly recommend shooting RAW and converting in post.
I use Lightroom for most of my editing these days, and the product includes a number of good presets for black and white conversion. I usually try them first. However, in this case the original image is very flat so I went the manual route.
First, I adjusted the image, slightly tweaking the black level, brightness and contrast. Since the majority of the digital information was in the middle of the range, I left the exposure level alone.
Next, I used the Tone Cure to significantly increase the contrast. I spent most of the time here. Note that the sliders at the bottom of the histogram set the areas of the curve (regions) that are changed by the Highlights, Lights, Darks, and Shadows sliders.
Finally, I converted to B&W by selecting “B&W” and tweak the mix slightly.
Depending on where the image is to be used I likely would tweak this some more, but as you can see even such a flat colour image can be turned into a reasonable black and white image.
If you’re looking for more advanced information, Adobe has a great video tutorial. Happy converting!
I recently had the opportunity to test drive the Nikon D7000, and in a word: Wow!
The D7000 is Nikon’s latest consumer DSLR. It includes a 16.2 megapixel CMOS Nikon DX format sensor (1.5x crop) and is capable of shooting up to 6 frames per second. It shoots video at 1920 x 1080 24fps, and has twin SD (SDHC/SDXC) card slots. The latter is a great feature – you can configure the camera to separate JPEG and RAW files or JPEG and movie files onto separate cards, or use the second to just keep shooting. I personally would prefer the larger and more sturdy CF cards, but SD has become the standard for consumer cameras, and the ability to simultaneously shoot JPEGs and RAW files to separate SD cards has definite advantages should one card fail.
Shown with Nikon 18-105 included in kit bundles. Full specifications are here.
Compared to my D200, I found the D7000 small and light. The live view (though the LCD) feature made some types of photography easier. The autofocus was fast, accurate, and responsive. But the dramatic difference was in low light capability. With a fast lens, I found myself shooting without flash indoor and outdoors at night.
In the end, image quality is what counts, and images from the D7000 were superb. The D7000 takes image quality to a new level. Ken Rockwell calls the D7000 “Nikon’s best DSLR ever.” Taking into account its $1200 price tag, I agree.
Added Oct 2011: The Nikon D7000 appears on our new recommended cameras page.
Added Nov 2011: I purchased a Nikon D7000 and Nikon’s new 35mm f/1.8 DX lens. They make a great lightweight combination.
Many Nikon fans have noted that in the past few years Nikon hasn’t introduced much in the high-end compact digital camera market segment. Last month I spent a week with the new Nikon P7000 and in summary, Nikon is back!
The Nikon COOLPIX P7000 specs include a 10 megapixel sensor and a 28-200mm (35mm equivalent) f/2.8-5.6 lens with vibration reduction. It records video at 720p. It offers ISO settings as high as 6400 at full resolution and 12,800 in 3-megapixel night mode. (Full specifications are here). Nikon has brought back dial controls for ISO and exposure compensation, which improves overall handling for those of us who like more control over our images.
Overall, I found the P7000 a pleasure to use, but wished it had an articulating LCD screen. One of the great things about small light cameras is the ability to hold them at waist level or place them close to the ground, but that’s difficult without an articulating screen. Despite this one snivel, the P7000 handled well, produced good quality images, and exhibited reasonable low light performance.