The 8-megapixel Olympus SP-560 UZ includes a remarkable 18x optical zoom lens, which is the 35mm film camera equivalent of 27–486mm with a maximum aperture of f/2.8–4.5. The zoom extends and retracts smoothly, stops on a dime, and, unlike many other point-and-shoot cameras, works in movie mode. Backing up the zoom is an effective optical image stabilization feature that works by shifting the sensor to compensate for camera movement.

Unlike its predecessor (the SP-550), the SP-560 UZ is fitted with a new, larger sensor and uses an image processor that supports face detection and shadow adjustment; however, the SP-560 also uses the less-desirable, ISO-boosting digital stabilization.

You can toggle between viewing your image on the 2.5″ LCD (that unfortunately washes out in bright light) and using the Electronic View Finder (EVF), which at times distorts color. The SP-560 has the usual Manual, Aperture, Shutter, Program, and Auto shooting modes plus one for customizing settings and 25 presets. Fortunately, you can access many features, such as macro, flash options etc., directly from labeled buttons on the camera body. Additionally, pressing the OK button opens a screen panel for quick access to change ISO, metering, and white balance. Most features, however, are accessed by scrolling frustratingly long menu screens.

The SP-560’s RAW format is supported by the latest version of Adobe Camera Raw; however the shutter lag time is 8 seconds, making RAW shooting impractical (I shot mostly in JPEG format). Image quality at ISO 50–200 is quite good, makes quality 16×20″ prints but above that, noise and fringing from long focal lengths is a factor. Bottom line: the SP-560 UZ is a solidly constructed, well balanced, and flexible camera.

499.99

The V350′s cover includes an innovative 35mm filmstrip chute that automatically feeds and scans strips of six frames of 35mm negatives or transparencies. Each frame appears as a thumbnail. It’s a more efficient method for scanning film in comparison to their plastic film holder. The cover can be raised up to 25mm for scanning dimensional objects quite useful.

A four-button panel on the cover automates tasks, such as creating a PDF file or email attachment. The driver offers three scanning modes from fully automatic with presets to an advanced professional mode.

The interface includes color restoration, backlight correction, and a new “intelligent” dust-removal technology that selectively emphasizes dust removal from uniform areas, such as sky. I used the Professional Mode and scanned in 2 minutes a 35mm negative at 48-bit 3200 dpi (68 MB). Scanning times are a function of the resolution and bit-depth selected.

Generally, both transparent and reflective scans were of very good quality, accurate color, neutral tones, and decent highlight and shadow detail, with minimal artifacts. I gave it one design demerit for an annoying omission of an on/off switch, which necessitates using the power cord for this function

149.99 Mac/Windows

Let’s start with the quality of the output because that’s paramount. Images are color accurate, with minimal setup time and effort. Users select the appropriate paper, profile, and desired application (for example, poster graphics, digital photo, etc.) of the final print in the normal print dialog, saving time. The edge detail is incredible, although selecting the best paper for the job is important for stylized text. Color saturation is spot-on, and accuracy is incredibly realistic (depending on your source) from this 12-color behemoth. Certain third-party papers may be slightly heavy in terms of contrast and overall black level output, but a quick fix was easily done from within the print-setting dialogs. It’s something worth noting though as the black output levels are a very rich black and images with dark backgrounds can appear a bit dark in some cases. Paper feeds come from either the cassette storage or an optional roll feeder with output up to 17″ wide.

On the downside, as with printers that produce output of this size, it’s a very large item that won’t sit just anywhere in your workspace. Measuring nearly 40x30x13″ and weighing in at around 100 lbs. (without the roll feeder), the iPF5000 is enormous compared to Canon’s professional Pro9000 or Pro9500 models, but for a good reason. The roll feeder initial setup is a bit tricky and the unit didn’t respond well until the paper was in exactly the one-and-only position that will allow it to work.

A feature-rich model, the iPF5000 is a 12-color inkjet printer with more than 30,000 nozzles on its dual-head print system. The latest LUCIA inks print images at a maximum resolution of 2400×1200 with a 4-picoliter droplet size. Each ink container holds 130 ml and, even after testing through dozens of letter, A3, A3+ and roll sheet prints, I have yet to replace any one of them. The iPF5000 responds to any clog, sheet-feed error, or paper jam instantly, saving both time and waste, although clearing the paper path can be a bit of a challenge.

One of my favorite things about the iPF5000, aside from the excellent results, is that it’s quieter than several other large-format printers of this type. Canon’s specifications measure 49 dB; however, I measured a reasonably quieter 45 dB (at 6′ in an already quiet office environment). The controls and navigation on the printer are easy to configure and it uses plain language for the setting controls and operations. The iPF5000 is also Energy Star-compliant. Add to all of that a nice suite of software (that may or may not be of use to the end user—not for me, but it’s a nice addition) and you have yourself an excellent large-format printer.

Given the quality, the features, the operating costs, the simplicity, and huge range of options included, the Canon iPF5000 is an outstanding choice if you want fast results that are color accurate and sharp.

1945 Mac/Windows

First, stabilize your display by letting it warm up for at least 30 minutes before using the software. Then minimize ambient light, as the Spyder can integrate ambient light readings into your calibration and it should only read light from your monitor. The software’s interface is well designed with clear instructions and an in-depth educational help section for each step.

During calibration you’re asked to adjust contrast, color balance, and brightness; however, many LCDs only have access to a backlight control. Just follow instructions for available adjustments. The Wizard suggests leaving the rest of the settings at the manufacturer’s default.

Next, the sensor reads a series of values and creates an ICC profile. To evaluate your results, a reference image is displayed that lets you see a comparison of pre-and post-calibration. ColorVision includes a Curves tool for post-calibration tweaking. When finished, you can name and save the profile.

To check out my new ICC monitor profile, I printed a standard reference chart, which includes color and grayscale patches, skin tones, and a range of images. The results were spot-on accurate colors, flesh tones, and neutral tone areas, free of colorcasts. The Spyder2PRO is an excellent user-friendly solution for reliable display calibration.

297 Mac/Windows

The PowerShot S3 is an image-stabilized compact camera that offers an ultrazoom (12x) optical lens and a 2″ LCD that twists out and away from the camera body. The most important part of the camera is its overall feel when you’re holding and shooting with it. The folks at Canon have used their design experience to create a compact camera that feels and performs like a digital SLR. This is especially true when it comes to the camera controls, which Canon has made accessible in the form of buttons on the body, rather than following the popular design philosophy of burying them in LCD menus. This means that it’s easier to make changes quickly when shooting. For those who like scene presets, you’ll find 20 of them covering a diverse range from the new Sports mode to Color Accent. When I was taking some sample shots, I noticed that the camera produced some chromatic aberration (also called purple fringing) at the higher zoom levels-not unexpected with an ultrazoom.

The Canon S3 is also a serious movie camera. The movies are recorded in Motion JPEG (AVI) with stereo sound (no kidding!). The quality of the movies that I shot (640×480 at 30 fps) equaled those shot with my camcorder. The difference is that in Movie mode, the SD memory card fills up pretty quickly. For example, a 1-GB SD card can hold about 8 minutes of video, so have a handful of the cards available if you want to include a lot of movie clips of your vacation.

The image stabilization (IS) works as well as its competitors’. Probably the greatest complaint that users have about IS is unrealistic expectations about what the feature can do. When shooting under low-light conditions, the Canon IS system allows you to shoot about one or two f-stops lower than possible without IS turned on.

The images that the camera produces are vivid and crisp. It has a pop-up flash that’s fairly powerful although it doesn’t pop up automatically. My complaints about the S3 are few: I was surprised to discover that it doesn’t come with rechargeable batteries (it runs on four AA batteries) and I found the LCD a little difficult to see on a sunny day. Another disappointment was that such a full-featured camera doesn’t offer a RAW image file format.

The camera has a $499.99 price tag but I was able to find it on the Web for as low as $424.

499.99 Mac/Windows

The CE240W comes with a bezel in either black or white/silver combination with a clearly marked touch-sensitive control panel at the bottom. It has a USB 2 hub with two ports, two DVI inputs, and an included analog adapter. A lazy Susan built into the CE240W’s sturdy base allows swiveling 172° right to left, and its unique curved ArcSwing stand lets you adjust the height and tilt.

This LCD monitor ships with several excellent canned profiles but for best results, use Eizo’s intuitive ColorNavigator CE calibration software, which lets you set values for brightness, color temperature, and gamma. It works with GretagMacbeth’s Eye-One, X-Rite’s MonacoOPTIX, and ColorVision’s Spyder, and within 4 minutes accurately calibrates the monitor’s 10-bit look-up table (LUT). You can tweak your saved ICC profile’s brightness temperature and gamma and the results allow for reliable soft proofing with Photoshop CS2.

Colors and illumination are consistent from edge to edge; however, at viewing angles greater than 70°, there’s a noticeable drop-off in color. Despite the limited viewing angle, the ColorEdge CE240W LCD monitor is still an excellent choice for professional photographers and graphic artists.

1699.99 Mac/Windows

The 750 comes with both Epson Scan and SilverFast Ai 6 scanning software. Epson Scan includes Digital ICE Technologies to reduce dust and scratches, and it also includes excellent color-restoration features for faded pictures. Using Epson Scan, a 35mm slide set at 24 bits at 6400 dpi took 2 minutes 13 seconds to scan, and opened in Adobe Photoshop CS2 at 135 MB. Image quality is excellent and color is very accurate, whether scanning documents or transparencies. With a Dmax of 4, the 750 produced very good shadow and highlight detail.

The 750 marks Epson’s introduction of an innovative new fluid mount accessory for wet film scanning. This reduces buckling and scratches with larger film sizes-quite an advance for a flatbed scanner, and with practice works well. Epson has redesigned the hard black plastic film holders to allow manual height adjustment to optimize image focus, and has added clips for securing 35mm slides. I found these holders flimsy, not on par with the professional quality of this scanner. The bottom line, however, is that the 750 is a great package.

799.99 Mac/Windows

That’s not to say it isn’t a great camera. If you’ve never used one of these Cyber-shot cameras, they fall into the compact, image-stabilized category of digital camera that has a very large (12x) optical zoom capability (36-432mm equivalent). When you combine the great optical zoom with a 7.2-megapixel sensor (3072×2304 pixels), you have a serious camera that can do just about anything you ask of it.

The first time I tested the camera, it had a nice SLR feel to it and that’s because Sony put most of the often-accessed controls where they can be reached easily rather than buried deep in a menu. Unlike a TTL viewfinder in an SLR, the H5 uses a 200,000-pixel electronic viewfinder (EVF) that produces a sharp image-although it would be nice if it were larger. The new 3″ LCD screen on the back can also be used to compose a shot even on a bright day.

The overall operation of the camera is excellent. The focus mechanism is generally fast for this class of camera except that it seemed a tad slow at the extreme zoom lens settings. The Cyber-shot DSC-H5 has five White Balance presets but during testing, the Auto White Balance worked so well, I didn’t need to use the presets at all. The flash is one of the best in its class with a reach of between 22-30′, while the colors of the flash images are perfectly corrected and consistent. One problem faced by all compact cameras with extreme zoom factors is chromatic aberration (also called purple fringing). The H5 exhibits more than its fair share of this problem but I saw it only on high-contrast, backlit images. The image stabilization of the camera is impressive and allows you to achieve sharp images at several stops lower than you could achieve without it. The Movie mode of the camera works as well as can be expected-great for short flicks but it won’t replace your camcorder.

For a non-SLR camera the Cyber-shot DSC-H5 has everything you need to take professional quality photos,almost. The only format that the camera supports is JPEG. With the increasing popularity of the RAW format it’s surprising that the H5 doesn’t offer RAW or another non-lossy format, such as DNG or TIFF.

499.95 Mac/Windows

The Zigview-R ships with the Zigview-R unit, a shutter-release cable, an assortment of eyepiece adapters, charger, storage pouch, and user manual, which does a good job of laying out the features and directions for use, though it could use editing to correct for its poor use of English. After you select the correct eyepiece adapter for your camera, you attach the eyepiece adapter to the Zigview-R using the included screwdriver and screws. The shutter-release cable that comes with the unit only works with certain cameras, so users need to check the camera shutter-release-compatibility chart to determine if a different shutter-release cable is needed, which would have to be purchased separately. Once the eyepiece adapter is attached, the Zigview-R slides right onto the camera’s eyepiece as easily as the camera’s original rubber eyecup. Next, you plug the shutter-release cable from the Zigview into the camera’s shutter-release socket, turn on the camera and Zigview-R, and you’re ready to shoot.

Note: By pressing the shutter-release button on the side of the device, the Zigview-R can also be removed from the camera eyepiece and used as a basic remote shutter release. When used manually, the Zigview-R provides basic shutter-release functionality, including timed and bulb.

You access the user interface for the Zigview-R by moving the joystick to the left and holding it there for a second or two. And the 2″ LCD makes it easy to read. The user interface allows you to make adjustments to the remote release settings. The intervalometer can be set to fire up to 999,999 times over a period of 999 days, with the delay between shots being programmable between one-half second and 99 days. The motion-detection feature operates by detecting brightness changes in the camera’s viewfinder. The sensitivity of the motion detection can be changed via the user interface. The Zigview-R allows you to use either the entire visible viewfinder area or one of nine available sections for motion detection. When setting the Zigview-R for motion detection using sections, you can make the settings independently for each section, allowing you to control which section fires the remote release.

While the entire viewfinder is not visible in the Zigview-R LCD, enough shows to give you a good idea of what is visible in the camera’s viewfinder. The Zigview-R performed well enough in field tests with only minor weaknesses exposed while trying to shoot fast-moving subjects. In these cases, setting the camera to motor drive with the focus manually preset, or with autofocus set for continuous, solved the problem. There were virtually no issues for slower-moving subjects.

The Zigview-R is a photography gadget, but one that many photographers will enjoy and use a lot.

299.95 Mac/Windows

To do Artlandia justice, if the user takes the time to read the 82-page manual and the tutorials that come with the program, the mystery of broken patterns will be solved-but not necessarily fixed. None of the plug-in’s controls (on the File>Automate menu) allow you to interactively drag an element in the image to identify the pattern seed. So, if you need to move the pattern-generating area down by several pixels, you must use the Control Path slider’s X and Y controls. To alter the size of the pattern-generating area, you likewise need to change both the height and width and then re-center the Control Path-with multiple iterations to get it right.

If you can deal with these annoyances, the output is excellent and you may lose a few hours just trying the various effects. In addition to the standard 17 symmetries, there’s a variety of other traditional repeat systems, such as the brick, half-drop, and spot repeats. You can re-edit the pattern as often as you wish and SymmetryShop remembers how it created the current version. You can also export pattern tiles directly to the Photoshop Pattern Preset library.

If you do a lot of pattern design, this is a good addition to your toolbox.

291 (download $265) Mac/Windows