Review: Pentax K2000 digital SLR camera

Priced affordably with both an 18mm to 55mm and 50mm to 200mm kit lenses, Pentax’s 10.2-megapixel K2000 may tempt quite a few people to jump into the digital SLR pool. Though the supposed niche for the K2000 consists of consumers new to the DSLR market, the camera’s compatibility with previously issued lenses could increase the K2000’s appeal to Pentax enthusiasts of all stripes.

That’s especially true if you have a collection of Pentax lenses, as this camera accepts any lens from the Pentax line (keep in mind, though, that you may have to focus legacy lenses manually). Pentax has also retained in-body image stabilization, so any lens you add will also be stabilized. And according to our tests, the K2000’s image quality stands up to that of the best DSLRs out there.

In our lab evaluations, the K2000 outperformed much of the recent DSLR pack in many critical areas, particularly in color accuracy, exposure quality, and overall image quality. The K2000 also scored decently in sharpness and distortion levels. All in all, the camera earned lab rating of Superior for image quality.

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Review: Canon Selphy CP780 snapshot printer

Canon’s Selphy CP780 snapshot printer has its problems—namely, mediocre speed and expensive, wasteful consumables. But it’s affordable and its design is simple, making it a good choice for light home use.

Aimed at the family market, the compact Selphy CP780 comes in three colors (blue, pink, or silver) and can function with or without a computer. A 2.5-inch color LCD and oversize, intuitively labeled control buttons take you through simple editing and special-effects options.

The Selphy CP780’s features include three front media slots for CompactFlash, SD Card, MultiMediaCard, and Memory Stick, plus a PictBridge port on the left side. To use xD-Picture Card and other formats, you’ll need a third-party adapter. A Bluetooth adapter costs $50; a rechargeable battery pack costs $80. The front-loading paper cassette holds up to 54 sheets of 4-by-8-inch photo paper. To print on 4-by-6-inch photo paper, you must manually push the stack of paper to the front of the tray. The cassette’s double-lid design is confusing: You have to lift both lids to load paper, but just one to insert the cassette into the printer. An optional, business-card-size cassette costs $13.

Blame the CP780’s drawbacks (it slowness, its wastefulness) on its dye-sublimation printing technology. It creates images by transferring successive layers of cyan, magenta, and yellow dye from a roll of film onto photo paper, finishing with a clear-coat layer. Once a photo is printed, that section of film cannot be reused, regardless of how much dye is left, resulting in a lot of waste. Photos cost a pricey 33 cents each. And because completing a single photo requires four passes, the Selphy CP780 prints slowly, taking about 75 seconds on average (0.8 pages per minute) to finish a 4-by-6-inch snapshot.

Photo quality varies for the Selphy CP780. Photos of people and objects were a little light-colored but reasonably detailed. On the other hand, a mountain landscape appeared pale and unrealistic, like a bad 1950s postcard.

The included software is for Windows only.

Macworld’s buying advice

The Selphy CP780 is an inexpensive and nearly idiot-proof snapshot printer, but you make major compromises in performance and price per page.

[Susan Silvius is a freelance writer.]

New Casio EX-G1 camera is slim and smash-proof

Casio today announced the 12.1-megapixel Exilim EX-G1, which the company says is drop-, cold-, dust-, and waterproof, as well as being the "world's slimmest shock-resistant digital camera." The new ultrathin, ultratough point-and-shoot camera will be available for $300 in December.

Casio says that the EX-G1 can withstand all sorts of extreme conditions, including: multiple falls from heights up to 7 feet, 60 minutes of use underwater at a depth of 10 feet, and temperatures as low as 14 degrees Fahrenheit.

The superslim camera is just 0.78 inch thick and weighs 5.4 ounces. It has a thick, pressure-resistant, 2.5-inch LCD and a 3X optical, nonextending zoom lens that reaches from 38mm to 114mm. The camera takes microSD and microSDHC cards only.

The EX-G1 features action-minded shooting modes. Interval shooting, for example, allows users to take pictures while they're doing "extreme" sports (skateboarding, snowboarding, and chess) by automatically snapping shots at fixed intervals. Face-recognition, several scene modes, and a standard-definition, wide-format movie mode (848-by-480 pixels at 30 frames per second in AVI format) are also in the feature mix.

Like other recent Casio point-and-shoot cameras, the EX-G1 also has an "Advanced Dynamic Photo" feature that acts like a green screen: Users can cut a moving subject out of a number of images, then overlay the subject on a separate still shot, all within the camera.

The EX-G1 will be available in black or red, and we'll see just how tough it is once we get a test unit in. Oh yes, we shall see.

Snapshot: When is an iPhone better than a DSLR?

Chase Jarvis has a lot of very expensive camera equipment, his own photo studio, and years of experience as a professional advertising photographer. His current camera of choice? An iPhone.

Before this shot was taken, Chase and his wife Kate were enjoying a glass of wine on the deck of a beachside cabin, watching the sunset. When she stood up he saw her reflection in the window and instinctively reached for his iPhone.

“My iPhone just happens to be sitting in my lap, so I hold up the camera, say ‘hang on a second hon,’ and snap this picture. It’s her profile, the sunset, the trees, and how you can sort of see inside the cabin in this weird mystical way—if you look you can even see the 70s lampshades and wood paneling.”

Pictures like this inspired Chase to be one of the most vocal proponents of camera phone photography. He has developed a brand that includes an active online community, a book of his iPhone photos, and a photography app, all based on the idea that the best camera is the one that’s with you. The iPhone’s low-tech camera excels at capturing fleeting and random moments, just by virtue of being the camera you’re most likely to have in your pocket, bag, or hand.

The popularity of iPhone photography may have started with convenience, but it's been amplified by the diverse collection of editing, filter, and special effect photography apps available in the App Store. These Apps add another, easy level of creativity to the iPhone photography process. For this image, Chase added three filters in his Best Camera app: darken, candy, and vignette.

To an experienced photographer like Chase, another allure of iPhone photography is that it's refreshingly pure. “It’s not about pixels and high dynamic range,” he says. “With the iPhone there are no art directors, no lights, no crew. It takes me away from all the typical photography trappings. That really does inform the rest of my work.”

Today, almost half of all cell phones have a camera, and it’s quickly democratizing photography. Suddenly, anyone has the potential to be creative and take pictures, and that’s what gets Chase the most excited.

“My mom is sending me iPhone pictures now. That is dope.”

Want to submit your own photo to our Snapshot series? Send the photo (or a link to the photo) and a description of how you got the shot to digitalphoto@macworld.com. Include the text “Snapshot” in the subject line. We’ll pick our favorites and feature them on our Website. Chosen photographers will receive a free printed copy of our Digital Photography Superguide.

Photo Essentials 3 plug-in released for Photoshop Elements

OnOne Software has released Photo Essentials 3, a suite of five add-ons for Adobe Photoshop Elements. The suite includes tools for correcting color, removing backgrounds, creating frames, enlarging images, and adding artistic effects. The new Make It Cool module, gives you one-click access to more than 40 effects, including impressionist paintings, cross processing, Ansel Adams-esque black and white photos, and an HDR-like effect. A new palette lets you access all five tools from a single interface.

Photo Essentials 3 supports Adobe Photoshop Elements versions 6 and higher, and costs $70. Customers can upgrade from previous versions for $50.

Digital SLR cameras buying guide

For serious and professional photographers, Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras are the way to go. They offer faster performance and more flexibility with adjusting settings, and changing lenses than even a top-of-the-line point-and-shoot camera.

And thanks to recent innovations, their popularity with casual photographers is growing, too. Many DSLRs now feature preset shooting modes, friendly interfaces, and smaller designs.

You can find great DSLR cameras for well under $1,000. Still, a DSLR is a considerable investment. How to choose the right one? We’ve got some tips on shopping for a DSLR if you’re in the market for one this holiday season. And we’ve got a few recommendations for cameras that topped our testing over the past year.

Buying advice

The megapixel myth: A high megapixel rating doesn’t mean better image quality. However, it does give you more flexibility when making enlargements or cropping. As a point of reference, a 6-megapixel image will produce a top-notch 8-by-10-inch print. Also keep in mind that higher megapixel counts also produce larger files, which in turn take up more room on your hard drive.

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Slideshow: Hot SLRs for the holidays

Store photos outside of iPhoto's library

Despite its powerful cataloging tools and easy-to-use editing features, many users are still nervous about committing their photo library to iPhoto. The program’s approach to storing images feels a little like the photography version of Hotel California: your pictures check-in, but they can never leave. That may be fine if you don’t often venture beyond iPhoto’s borders; but what if you want to take advantage of the advanced image-adjustment tools in programs such as Aperture or Lightrooom?

The good news is you can enjoy the benefits of iPhoto and have some flexibility, too. The secret is to create a referenced library. This means that instead of importing all of your master images into iPhoto, you simply “point” iPhoto to where those originals live—whether on your Mac or on a separate hard drive.

The beauty of the referenced-library approach is that you can also point other applications to these same images. You don’t have to bother with first extracting the photos from iPhoto. This approach works particularly well with programs that use a non-destructive workflow, such as Aperture, Lightroom, or Adobe Bridge and Camera Raw. Since these programs don’t actually apply changes to the image file, you don’t have to worry about overwriting your original set of pictures—even if they’re all pointing to the same set of shots. (I don’t recommend using the approach with Photoshop or other destructive editors as you run the risk of altering your original image irrevocably. Instead, use iPhoto’s option to edit a photo in an external editor, so iPhoto can manage the process.)

The referenced-library approach is very flexible and perfectly suited for Raw shooters who have to manage large files. Here’s how you set it up.

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Four apps to turn your iPhone into a photo assistant

The app store is overflowing with great tools that can turn a photographer's iPhone or iPod touch into a photo assistant (though it falls short in the heavy lifting department). Taking pictures of children? Use the PandaCam app to make them smile. If you're working with models, bring up the iPoseU app for posing inspiration. Still life photographers can take advantage of the A Level app to make sure their images are properly aligned.

Among the many worthwhile apps there are a few standouts. These are our picks for the most all-around helpful tools that every photographer should have in their arsenal. Tell us what's in your iPhone "photo bag" in the comments.

Geotag your photos

There are many gadgets on the market to help photographers add geotagging information to their photos. The GeoLogTag app ($4.99) accomplishes the same task but uses a gadget you already have, your iPhone or iPod touch. You start by syncing the times of your camera and your iPhone or iPod touch. When you start shooting, open the GeoLogTag app and choose how often you want it to log your location: every 10 meters (called "Continuously"), or every 3, 5, or 10 minutes. The more frequently you tag, the more precise the final location information will be. However, it's also a bigger drain on your iPhone's battery. (The GeoLogTag app must be running to record location information, but will automatically turn off your iPhone screen to save battery life.) If battery life is an issue, or if you're only sporadically taking photos, you can also add tags manually. When you're done shooting, close the app and upload your images from your camera to your Mac. Adding the tags to photos is done in one of two ways. You can put your photos into a shared folder on your Mac, select the folder from the app, and tap the bright red button. Alternatively, you can select a Flickr account from the same screen and add the information that way. Tagged Flickr images will be instantly visible on your Flickr map. A free trial version of the app is also available.

Turn your iPhone or iPod touch into a remote

Having one eye glued to a viewfinder can stifle your creativity. If you’re shooting with a Canon or Nikon DSLR camera, DLSR Camera Remote by onOne Software gives you the additional freedom you need to move around, take self-portraits, or position your camera in unusual positions. Using DSLR Camera Remote Lite ($1.99) you can remotely trigger your camera’s shutter and see an instant preview of the picture you just shot. The pricier pro version of the app ($19.99) allows you to control more advanced camera settings, like shutter speed and aperture, as well as see a live preview of what’s on your camera’s viewfinder. Both versions of the app require your camera to be connected to a Mac running the free companion software; your iPhone or iPod touch communicates with the computer over WiFi. Check to make sure your camera is supported before purchasing the app.

Predict natural light

If you’re planning to shoot outdoors, or indoors using natural light, you’ll need to know exactly what nature plans to offer up. The thorough Darkness app ($0.99) tells you sunrise and sunset times, as well as moon times and phases for those long exposure night shots. You can look up information for any day and time, anywhere in the world. Also helpful to photographers, Darkness tells you the azimuth (angle of the sun or moon in relation to the horizon) and altitude of the sun or moon, what time the sun is going to peak, and how bright the moon will be. This information can help you determine ideal shoot times and locations. You can even figure out which way the shadows are going to fall.

Make fast photo calculations

DSLR photography is more than just having a good eye. Getting the perfect shot can require calculations and an understanding of how the different settings on your camera work together. The PhotoCalc app (; $2.99) picks up where your light meter leaves off. It provides depth of field measurements like hyperfocal distance, circle of confusion, and near and far limits. It calculates these numbers based on your focal length, aperture, and the distance of the subject from your camera. (You can choose your camera from PhotoCalc's  large database of existing models.) Other tools include an exposure reciprocation calculator which has fields for shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Using a flash? PhotoCalc does that math too, giving you the best settings for a specific flash exposure. Another convenient feature in PhotoCalc is the reference library. You can look up photo terms, details on the zone system and Sunny 16 rule, as well as lists of film and filter types.

Get better prints

No matter how much you enjoy taking digital photos and sharing them electronically, there’s something special about photos that you hold in your hand. These days, it’s popular to let someone else make prints for you—be it the neighborhood camera store, Wal-Mart, or an online photo service like Shutterfly. But there are advantages to printing your photos. For one thing, you don’t have to wait for prints to arrive in the mail. And if a print doesn’t come out the way you’d like, you can adjust the image and print again without having to send it off to someone else. (If you’re seeing strange lines or bad colors, see our printer troubleshooting guide.)

Here are some tips for getting the best results from your inkjet printer.

Start with enough pixels

This probably isn’t a big concern for photos you take with your digital camera; most modern digital cameras offer more than enough resolution to make prints of any size you’d want. But if you get an image file from someone else—especially through e-mail—you should check the resolution before you print it. Often, shared photos are resized to take up less space, and that can result in pixilated prints.

If you’re ordering prints online from iPhoto, the program will let you know if there aren’t enough pixels for a smooth print. But you won’t get the same heads-up when printing to your inkjet printer, so you’ll want to double check the image size. First, decide what print size you want. Then multiply the longest side by 200. The resulting number represents the minimus number of pixels the longest side of your image needs to have. If you’re trying to make an 8-by-10-inch print, for example, the longest side of the picture should be 2000 pixels or more. If it’s not, then you should consider printing it at a smaller size.

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