George Schaub

There's lots to like about the new Olympus C-7000 camera, including the
size of the image files it puts out and the "seamless" 30X zoom
(5X optical and 6X digital combined) that delivers better quality digital zooms
than many cameras we've worked with in the past. The C-7000 is aimed at
those who like to get involved with their photography, and offers as many options
and modes as you could desire. They certainly make this a camera that allows
you to flex your creative muscles. Granted, you have to delve into the menu
to get at most of the options, something that helps streamline the body but
can hold up spontaneous changes.

...

While the usual photographic rules, such as using shutter speed to portray motion
(slow to blur, fast to freeze) and using focal length, aperture and camera-to-subject
distance to create a certain depth of field apply to both film and digital photography,
digital offers some intriguing options for making camera settings. In some cases
these settings relate to film photography settings, or choosing a specific film
for its "personality", but with digital you can alter these settings
on every frame you shoot and not be restricted to the attributes of a particular
film you might have loaded in the camera.

...

Extensis Inc. has announced an update
to its Pro Photo Raw Image Filter for Portfolio 7. The updated filter will be
a free upgrade for registered owners of Extensis' digital asset management (DAM)
solution for organizing digital photos, illustrations, page layouts and presentations.



With the Pro Photo Raw Image Filter, Portfolio generates high-quality thumbnails
and previews from the unprocessed raw image files created by professional digital
cameras from Nikon, Olympus, Kodak, Canon, Fuji, Konica-Minolta, Pentax and Imacon.
With the Pro Photo Raw Image Filter, Portfolio 7 can extract EXIF metadata and
IPTC from the Raw files, create thumbnails for displaying the images in catalogs,
and generate high-resolution JPEG previews on the fly for detailed viewing, printing,
slideshows and QuickTime movies.



The Pro Photo Raw Image filter for Portfolio is powered by technology from Bibble
Labs.



The following cameras and file formats are supported by the updated Pro Photo
Raw Image Filter for Portfolio 7:



Nikon - D1/D1x/D1h/D100, D70/D2h

Fuji S2 Pro/S7000Z

Olympus- E10/E20/E1/C5050/C5060

Kodak - DCS 14n/DCS 760C/DCS 760M/720X/ Pro Back/Pro Back Plus/Pro Back 645 for
Contax, Mamiva and Hasselblad H1/DCS SLR/n/DCS SLR/c



Canon - EOS D30/ EOS D60/ EOS 10D/ EOS 1D/ EOS 1Ds/ EOS 1D Mark II/ EOS Digital
Rebel/300D/Kiss/ Powershot G5/ Powershot G3/Powershot G2/ Powershot G1/ Powershot
S50/ Powershot S45/ Powershot S40/ Powershot S30/ Powershot Pro90 IS



Konica-Minolta - A1/A2

Pentax - *ist D

Imacon - (extracts 680X680 preview and metadata only. Extensis recommends the
newest version of Flexcolor for proper metadata support) Flexframe 3020/Flexframe
4040/All iXpress Backs/ All Flextight Scanners using FFF format.



Support for additional cameras will be added in the future.



Pricing and Availability

The Pro Photo Raw Image Filter for Portfolio will be available by later in 2004
via download from the Extensis website and is free of charge for registered Portfolio
7 users. Portfolio 7 is available for a suggested retail price of $199.95US for
full product.



Contact: www.extensis.com
or call 1-800-796-9798.

...

The pixels that make up a digital image each have an "address",
a code that defines color, brightness and shades. When we make images with a
digital camera or from film with a scanner we are creating a matrix of pixels
that altogether create the illusion of a continuous tone image. These codes
are not dyes or even densities, but specific information as to how the computer
will interpret the colors and tonal values on the screen. It is only when we
make a print that we leave the "digital" world and enter the world
of dyes and pigments. Because each pixel has a code, basically a bunch of information
that is composed of bits and bytes, we can alter that code to change the "address",
or color and tonal look of every pixel. In this lesson we'll use the Replace
Color dialog box, found in most versions of Photoshop, or under other names
in other programs, to illustrate the point and give you an easy, fun way to
play with your pictures.

...