digital camera

Photoshop Top 40, Feature #12: Camera Raw

Submitted by deke on 26 January 2010 - 12:15am.
Feature #12: Camera Raw

A couple of years ago, I petitioned a group of 50 or so photographers to seed me with raw images for some Camera Raw videos I recorded for lynda.com. The project went swimmingly, but I was troubled by the number of photographers (12? 15?) who told me they didn't shoot raw, even though they owned digital SLRs. Why not? Because the few raw images they had captured didn't look as good as the equivalent JPEGs.

Fair enough I guess. But it's rather like saying that your film negatives don't measure up to your Polaroids. The first are waiting to be developed and the second are processed by robots. Initially, you may marvel at the work of the robots--machines are a clever lot!--but in time you'll discover that you can do a better job yourself. Read more » 

. Tagged with:

Olympus Stylus 1030 SW

Submitted by deke on 3 January 2009 - 1:20am.

Immediately after Macworld Expo, I fly off to join my wife's family for a week-long Caribbean cruise. Don't envy me; it's my first vacation since I went to the Grand Canyon with The Brady Bunch in 1971. You may remember me as the blonde, bespectacled Cousin Oliver. (If you so much as think, "But Robby Rist, aka Oliver, didn't join the cast until 1974," I will label you a Brady Nerd and tell everyone to mock you.)

Anyway, I mentioned that I'll be doing some diving to a terribly helpful Olympus rep, and she took it upon herself to loan me a 10-megapixel Stylus 1030 SW. Which is a pocket-sized, quite stylish point-and-shoot camera that is waterproof down to 10 meters (33 ft). Billed as "the camera that redefines tough," this diminutive, shorter-but-thicker-than-an-iPhone camera is my favorite gadget of the first few days of the New Year.

1030SW

Time has not afforded me the opportunity to take this camera lower than a few feet. I'll get back to you after the cruise. But in the meantime, I was able to test out its toughness. And I'm here to tell you, this little camera is scrappy. Read more » 

. Tagged with: