Digital Photography by John Rettie
Photokina—Not Quite All Digital

The SanDisk CompactFlash card in this camera survived the body’s destruction. Photo by Don Frazier, courtesy SanDisk. (sequence: www.sandisk.com/pressrelease/20040823.htm)

A month or so before the Photokina show in Germany (Sept. 28–Oct. 3), Ilford Imaging, the venerable photographic company, announced its traditional photographic materials division in the U.K was going into receivership, the British term for bankruptcy. The firm said its inkjet division in Switzerland would continue in business and was doing well. At much the same time Agfa announced it was exiting the film business. Both of these announcements were stark reminders that the transition to digital is progressing more rapidly than ever. For example, I have not shot a single roll of film in over two years, and recently a photojournalist friend of mine had to buy a digital SLR camera because one of his clients said they would no longer accept film for magazine work.

While some are mourning the disappearance of film, there are other reminders that digital has many benefits. One dramatic example was an amazing sequence of photos showing a bridge being demolished in Missouri. The explosions were greater than expected, and some photographers lost their camera gear. Fortunately, they were being operated remotely so no human beings were injured while getting the pictures. One camera was blown to smithereens but the Sandisk CompactFlash card survived, so the photographer still got his shots.

According to Canon, the industry is on track to sell 850,000 digital SLRs in the U.S. this year, which is 100,000 more than was forecasted. Canon says it will sell about half a million DSLRs in the U.S., giving it the lion’s share of the market. This will also be the first year that sales of digital SLRs will outpace those of 35mm SLR film cameras. Canon says 35mm SLR film cameras used to sell at a rate of about two million each year in the U.S. back in the 1980s. The number dropped to a million a year by the late 1990s as digital cameras started to take over. At first blush, this news might not seem surprising but when you consider the average selling price of a DSLR is well over $1000, while a film SLR sells for a couple of hundred dollars, it means camera manufacturers are enjoying a gross turnover considerably higher than it was a few years ago. Incidentally, Canon reports sales of high- end film cameras such as the EOS 1V and EOS-3 are all but dead.

	Nikon’s new 12.4-megapixel D2x sits atop a WiFi module for remote operation of the camera and wireless transmission of images.

New Cameras at Photokina
With this in mind, it was a surprise when Nikon announced it is introducing a new pro 35mm film camera. Yes, the long-rumored F6 was due to be announced just before Photokina. However, the rumors that it would be a hybrid camera capable of using film or digital were unfounded. Instead, Nikon believes the F6 will appeal to the remaining fans of film, especially outside of the U.S. It openly admits it is likely to be the last new film camera in the venerable F-series. Does that make it an instant classic?

On the digital side, Nikon fans should be pleased that at long last the D2x digital SLR was announced at the same time, although it will not be available until January 2005. It’s expected to be competitively priced under $5000. The D2x uses the same body as the other D-series digital cameras but with a 12.4 megapixel CMOS image sensor. This is quite a jump in resolution compared to the D1x, and offers a pixel density far greater than anything from Canon. Unlike Canon, which has three different sensor sizes in its range of pro cameras, Nikon is sticking with the same physical size in each camera giving them all a 1.5X crop factor.

Aside from the greater resolution, the D2x also gets faster processing and improved color rendering. It will shoot at 5fps for 15 consecutive NEF raw images. What’s more it has a second shooting mode called the High Sped Crop mode where the center of the chip is used to produce a 6.8 megapixel image at 8fps with a buffer of 25 NEF frames. In this mode the crop factor is 2.0X making it ideal for sports photography.

The well established Nikon WiFi transmission system has been further upgraded and will now transfer images at the faster IEEE 802.11g speed. In addition, when running the newest Nikon Capture (version 4.2) the camera’s functions can be controlled remotely.

Nikon has also announced a couple of new point-and-shoot cameras with 8-megapixel chips that offer a long 10X zoom with built-in Vibration Reduction (VR) and another with an unusually wide angle zoom with a 35mm equivalency of 24–85mm. Either one may well be of interest to those needing a handy point-and-shoot camera.

The unusual looking digital SLR E-300 eVolt is the second four-thirds system camera from Olympus.

Many readers have probably been thinking this column was beginning to look like a Canon propaganda machine in the past few months. It’s not surprising since earlier in the year Canon promised it would introduce 20 new digital cameras this year, compared to six from Nikon. True to its word Canon has now announced them all. Of course most are point-and-shoot cameras, but three of them are pro level digital SLRs. Last month I briefly described the new 8.2-megapixel EOS-20D. Now that Canon has publicly released information on the camera, I’m surprised, but pleased, that it is saying the 20D is suitable for use by professionals. Although it may not be as rugged as the EOS-1D Mark II, it is pretty good in the image quality department, especially at one-third of the price.

The third digital SLR from Canon is the flagship EOS-1Ds Mark II, which was announced just before Photokina. Not surprisingly, the camera gets many of the same upgraded features found in the EOS-1D Mark II, such as a faster Digic II image processing, better rear LCD screen with zoom feature. The big news is the full frame (35mm size) CMOS image capture device has 16.6 megapixels compared to 11.0 in the previous model. The body is the same, and it is capable of capturing images at 4 fps with a 20-frame buffer in JPEG mode. This compares to 3 fps with a 10-frame buffer in the old camera. The price, for what is now the highest resolution DSLR camera, will be $6999 when it goes on sale in November.

Two years ago, at the last Photokina show, Olympus took the wraps of the four-thirds system designed from the ground up for digital usage. The pro-level E-1 camera was only shown as a mock-up and didn’t appear in stores for another year. It has become established as a third-tier camera with quite a few fans that enjoy it’s compact size and good quality. Incidentally, I have been using an E-1 system for a few months and have actually grown to like the camera the more I use it.

The day before Photokina started, Olympus was due to introduce a new DSLR camera aimed more at advanced amateurs. Called the E-300 Evolt, it’s an unusual looking camera as there is no housing on top for the pentaprism. Instead it has a “side swing” mirror box that allows for a smaller aluminum body. It has an 8-megapixel CCD and can shoot at 2.5 fps, making it suitable for sports photography. The price has not been announced but should be around the same as the Canon Digital Rebel and the Nikon D70, its closest competitors.

	palmOne’s Treo 600 mobile phone also functions as a PDA, internet terminal and camera.

Treo 600 phone
Like most photographers I am always interested in new gadgets and technologies. Unless you’ve been sleeping in a cave for the past couple of years, you’re no doubt aware that mobile phones are becoming the digital camera of choice for many consumers. Although the image quality is limited, one can easily see how there might be an occasional need for a professional photographer to grab a shot of something urgently or there is a sudden need to send an image quickly to someone for immediate reference.

The other function that mobile phones are rapidly taking over is the ubiquitous address book or daily reminder. PDAs were all the rage a few years ago but now they are already disappearing as their functionality is built in to mobile phones. After some false starts with PDA phones that were cumbersome to use, palmOne’s Treo 600 has come along and is selling well. It’s not much bigger than a regular mobile phone, yet it has a decent-sized color screen and a small keyboard. I recently had the chance to try one very briefly and found it quite useful. It includes many functions such as a calendar, appointment book, address book, calculator and a low-res camera. In addition, it can connect to the Internet and be used for sending and receiving email. It can even be used to view web sites, as long as the mobile phone service supports such usage.

If you use a PDA and would like to combine it with a phone, the Treo 600 is a good way to go. I’m sure when the next generation is introduced it’ll have a much better camera. It’s easy to envision these phones becoming the replacement for most point and shoot cameras. It makes you wonder if Canon and Nikon need to jump on board to protect their investment in the camera business.

Quick Book Review:
Rick Sammon’s Complete Guide to Digital Photography
Most of my quick book reviews have concentrated on books that cater to professional photographers who are already using digital cameras and Photoshop. There are a lot of books that teach the basics of Photoshop just as there is a bunch that teach the basics of photography. Rick Sammon is not only a well known travel photographer and writer whose work appears in the travel section of newspapers, but he is also a lecturer and writer on photography. In addition to a weekly column on photography syndicated by the Associated Press, he has also written over 20 books, so his name may already be familiar to you.

His newest photo book is worth a look if you’re new to digital photography, or if you have a friend or relative who is new to photography in general as well as digital photography. Rick Sammon’s Complete Guide to Digital Photography (published by W.W. Norton, 512 pages with CD-ROM, hardback: $60, paperback: $45) contains 107 lessons, many of which are basic photography techniques. Each lesson is contained in a single chapter and there are over 1000 pictures that help the reader learn how to take good photographs. There are plenty of technical descriptions of cameras and lenses to help enlighten the reader. Over one-third of the chapters describe how to improve images using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, in a user-friendly format. There is even a chapter at the end on how to become a freelance photographer. Overall, it’s the type of comprehensive book that would make an ideal gift from a professional to someone who is starting out in digital photography.

John Rettie is a photojournalist who resides in Santa Barbara, CA. He has been using a camera as a professional for 34 years, a computer for 24 years, and has combined his knowledge of both for the past 11 years. Readers can contact him by email at john@johnrettie.com or by snail-mail c/o Rangefinder.