Samsung has launched 4 new point and shoot cameras – two at 12.2 megapixels and two at 10 megapixels. Samsung makes some pretty cameras that will probably capture sales on their stylishness alone.
Unfortunately though, other than the unnecessary addition of megapixels and the standard bells and whistles, such as Face Detection, Blink Detection, Smile Shot, and Beauty Shot (“a unique functionality which will automatically brighten and even out skin tones as well as remove blemishes”), there is nothing that sets these new point and shoots apart from the rest of the 10 and 12 megapixel cameras we have seen over the past month or so. Each of these new cameras should be available in March 2009.
The models and key specs are as follows: [click to continue…]
Fundamentals of Photography was written by Tom Ang, who is an author of many other photography books prior to this one. The subtitle of Fundamentals of Photography is “the essential handbook for both digital and film cameras,” which I think better describes this book.
When I first heard about the book from Random House, I figured it was another “intro to photography” type of a book. It’s not. In fact, if you are a beginner, I recommend that you don’t pick up a copy of this book. If you are an experienced amateur, then this book will fit nicely into your library.
Fundamentals of Photography is really more of a handbook as the subtitle calls it. The book is divided up into a handful of chapters that cover various aspects of photography. Inside each of these chapters, Mr. Ang breaks down these aspects to minute subtopics and provides an overview of the key points of each subtopic. While not comprehensive for any given topic, Fundamentals offers you a solid grasp of many key concepts in photography.
Do you want to know what the different types of elements are that go into a lens? Turn to page 144 and you’ll get to see the differences between convex-concave, meniscus, biconcave, plano-concave, biconvex and plano-convex. And with Mr. Ang’s introduction and explanation of how these lens types form images from light, you’ll have a basic understanding of what this all means.
Are you curious about the different effects of layer blend modes in Photoshop? Turn to page 270 and you’ll get an introduction to the modes followed by several pages of examples that apply to the blend modes on the same image, along with a short explanation of what’s going on with each mode.
Fundamentals of Photography is not one of those books that you sit down and read cover to cover. It is a handbook, or reference book, to pull out when you have questions about a specific topic – be it color space, lighting set ups or darkroom equipment. It is a fair reference for both film and digital photography. Its also rather inexpensive at around $15 on Amazon.com.
Here’s a new reader question that I received from Patel via email.
Can you provide me the details as I am totally confused with the digital camera that i have to purchase. My target is 400$(US). I am more interested in optical zoom digital camera. I am totally confused between Panasonic DMC-FZ28, latest Nikon P90 (that is going to be launched on April 9th) , Panasonic DMC-ZS3. I want digital camera with the best photo and video quality.
You guys have rocked with the past several reader questions. I’m sure you guys also have some great advice for Patel, who is clearly interested in superzoom cameras that offer solid image and video quality.
Which one is the best?
What cameras has Patel failed to list that he should consider?
Why is the camera that you recommend better than others?
Fire away in the comments below.
DC Resource has posted a review of the Olympus E-30.
Images are fairly sharp by D-SLR standards, with lots of detail captured. In terms of noise, the E-30 performs quite well, though if you look hard enough you’ll spot some noise in shadow areas of a photo (even at lower ISO settings).
For more news and reviews, stay tuned to Photography Bay’s Olympus E-30 Reviews and Resources.
Digital Camera Review has published a review of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX150.
Image quality is reliably very good to excellent (outdoors in good light) with essentially no effort on the part of the photographer. Images are very sharp with balanced contrast and colors are hue accurate and slightly over-saturated.
