Scott's Photo Blog

Note to Camera Companies: Focus on the Basics

The new E-30 DSLR from Olympus looks promising. A step up from their entry level model, the E-30 has some features - and the estimated $1,300 body-only street price - that makes it clear that it's intended for the hard-core enthusiast.

I'm totally behind the E-30's cool and useful swivel LCD, the built-in image stabilization and its "advanced" dust cleaning technology.

But what, I wonder, is the market for some of the E-30's other "features?" According to Pop Photo,

Equipped with on-board Art Filters... the E-30 makes it possible to shoot artistic photographs without the need to apply post-processing effects in the camera or on a computer. The six Art Filters include Pop Art, Soft Focus, Pale & Light Color (soft light and pastel colors), Light Tone (soft highlights and shadows), Grainy Film, and Pin Hole.

Who's spending $1,300 on a DSLR who wouldn't prefer the control and flexibility of applying those kinds of effects on their computers? It's not clear from the Pop Photo article if the camera also saves the unadulterated version of your photo. If it doesn't, you'd have to be nuts to take a chance on messing up a great shot with one of these filters. But even if it does, why bother?  Applying any of these filters is the work of a minute in almost any photo editing software.

Not to be a grinch or anything, but wouldn't you rather the R&D folks applied their efforts to developing better noise reduction and higher dynamic range capabilities than gimmicks like this?  I just don't see these as compelling or useful tools for this market. If anything, the inclusion of "features" like this make the camera feel like a less mature product for beginners, rather than an enthusiast's tool.

PS: I just tried it - it took about 45 seconds to open this image, hit "Filter Gallery," and choose this effect from one of the many offered. Plus, I had a bunch of sliders that let me dial in just the settings I wanted. That has to be more power and options than anything I could get in camera.

All the King's Men at Half Off

Scott Kelby is the King of Digital Photography, and his KelbyTraining resources are invaluable tools for getting the most out of Photoshop, Lightroom, your digital camera, and a bunch of other cool stuff.

For a limited time - through Labor Day - KelbyTraining is having a half-price sale on some of their popular DVDs. That's a savings of $35/each. These prices are insane! (Props to anyone who remembers that phrase from the old Crazy Eddie commercials).

This is a great way to learn the ins-and-outs of the programs you use. The sale items include:

• CS3 Extended: Photoshop in Motion
• CS3 Photoshop & Dreamweaver Creative Integration
• CS3 Camera Raw Workflow Essentials
• Automating Photoshop for Photographers
• Down & Dirty Tricks with Illustrator CS3
• Acrobat for Creatives

I'd like to take the Camera Raw Workflow Essentials, which clocks in at 174 minutes, or the Automating Photoshop DVD, 140 minutes of instructional goodness that promises to teach you "how to automate your work using actions, techniques for creating 'smarter' actions, tips for batch processing digital photos and how to build stunning, re-useable templates."

The Camera Raw DVD might be especially useful for those of you who struggle with the utility. Once you know it, Camera Raw really makes your workflow much smoother, and you get better results, too.

I don't see a page on KelbyTraining that has just the sale DVDs, so click here for a list of all the offerings and look for the price reductions. Of course, I'm sure Scott wouldn't mind if you bought some of the full-price DVDs, too. Smile.