One of the smallest Nikon digital SLRs ever, the D60 makes it fun and easy to take breathtaking pictures while also offering plenty of features for those who want to deepen their interest in creative shooting.

With a split-second shutter response, the D60 captures pictures that cameras with longer time lags miss. Ease of use and creative options both come standard with the D60, whose exclusive Nikon technologies help deliver high-quality pictures with vibrant color and stunning, edge-to-edge detail. Such superior results are achieved through a high-resolution image sensor utilizing 10.2 megapixels, world-famous NIKKOR lenses delivering razor-sharp pictures, and many cutting-edge Nikon features to further enhance your picture-taking experience.

Composing Your Digital Photo
By Andrew Low

When you look at a photo that pleases you, can you detect the subtleties that make it appealing? Are you able to see which of its elements capture your attention? This article will look at the basic techniques of good photo composition that will result in a beautiful engaging photo.

What makes a good photo?

To spot good photographic subjects, you must start by learning to take a fresh look at things around you. You don’t have to look far to find a good subject, but you will have to become aware of shape, form, color, and light, all of which combine to make interesting images.

Begin at home, you should not have to travel further than your own garden to find suitable subjects. Color - take a second look at objects that other people would take for granted. Candid photography - portraits make powerful and direct subjects that elicit immediate emotional responses.

Which format?

A common mistake made by beginners to photography is to assume that the camera should always be held horizontally because it is designed to be more comfortable that way. Use a vertical format if it complements your subject’s shape. The imposing height of a skyscraper is emphasized by adopting a vertical format. The horizontal format is a natural choice for landscape photography.

Filling your frame - a simple way to improve the impact of an image is to get closer to your subject so that it fills the frame. It prevents the subject from becoming lost against ugly or distracting background details. Use a telephoto lens if it’s not possible to get closer to your subject.

Where to place your subject - the rule of thirds. Where a subject is placed in the camera frame helps to determine its importance in the composition. But don’t feel that your main subject always has to be right in the centre - the effect of this can be rather dull. Composition is usually improved by placing the main subject off-centre. The rule of thirds - imagine that your picture area is divided horizontally and vertically into thirds by two equidistance lines. Each line forms a good location for important structural elements in the composition, and any of the points where two of the lines intersect (four positions in total) would be suitable position for your picture’s main centre of interest.

Using the foreground - choose your viewpoint carefully to include strong foreground detail, which gives your image a sense of depth and distance. You may be able to use complementary foreground details to fill the frame if your main subject is small. Emphasize foreground detail by raising your viewpoint and angling the camera downwards.

This is a short discussion on composition and I hope to discuss more aspects of composition in future articles.

Andrew Low is an executive search consultant who enjoys photography in his spare time. After toying with a digital compact camera, he had upgraded to a Digital SLR Camera and is enjoying and learning more of digital photography. You can read more news and reviews of digital photography at his website at http://www.leisure808.com and his blog at http://www.leisure808.com/updates

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Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses19 February, 2008

Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content

TOKYO–Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called ‘next-generation format war’ and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. “While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”

Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.

This decision will not impact on Toshiba’s commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.

Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.

[Toshiba]

Hi Everyone,

My apology for not updating my blog for a while. I had been busy revamping my website these past months. I think I have a pretty new look website now. Go to http://www.leisure808.com and check it out and give me your comments. I appreciates alot of feedback. I did the redesign without any professional help, so your feedback really helps. I had also attempt at writing articles so you can give me your comments on my articles as well. Go to http://www.leisure808.com , click on articles and read the article, “Hot To Compose Your Digital Photo”

Consumer Reports Reveals that HDTV Shoppers Get More for the Money

YONKERS, NY – Consumers who have a high-definition TV on their shopping list this holiday season TV will be smiling all the way to the store. Thanks to continuing price cuts, they’ll be getting more TV for their money. The December issue of Consumer Reports covers HD TVs in all price ranges and sizes to help consumers during this holiday season.

Prices are expected to be about 30 percent lower on average than during the 2006 holiday season, with even steeper drops on some TV types and screen sizes. CR says that plasma TV prices will shrink the most – with 720p 42-inch models falling below $1,000 by the end of this year, along with some 50-inch models selling for less than $1,500.

“This holiday season there are many more high-definition televisions on the market and at lower prices, so a consumer can get a significantly better TV for the money than they could have last year,” said Paul Reynolds, Electronics Editor at Consumer Reports. In Consumer Reports tests, the quality of flat-panel TVs has only continued to improve. Picture quality, a critical attribute, matters the most according to CR, along with resolution, screen size – which consumers should not skimp on – and reliability, though these differ by brand.

How to match size and features to budget $1,000 or Less:

Consumers will find mostly 32-inch and 37-inch LCD’s with 720p resolution. These sets are perfect for bedrooms, or offices, but are a bit small for the main TV in a typical living room environment. Some of CR’s Quick Picks for excellent picture quality include the Panasonic TC-32LX700, $950, the Samsung LN-T3242H, $900, and the Toshiba Regza 32HL67, $900.

Holiday Forecast: This price range will continue to offer more choices, and consumers will be seeing much more in the way of 37-inch LCDs from major brands and some 42-inch plasmas from secondary brands.

$1,000 to $1,500: The options grow significantly in this price bracket. A major-brand 720p LCD set with a 40- or 42-inch screen is a fine choice for most homes. According to CR, the 40-inch Sony Bravia KDL-40S3000, $1,500, and the 42-inch Toshiba Regza 42HL67, $1,150, a CR Best Buy, both offer excellent picture quality, for their price. Also in this price range consumers will begin to see top-quality plasma TVs; a good choice would be the 42-inch Panasonic TH-42PX77U, $1,200, which provides great picture quality at a low price.

Holiday Forecast: Consumer Reports expects to see 720p 50-inch plasma models from major brands for less than $1,500 and the first 42-inch 1080p plasma at or near the $1,500 mark.

$1,500 to $2,000: Here consumers will find the richest selection of TVs. In LCDs come in 720p and 1080p models and screen sizes from 40- to 47-inches. The Sony Bravia KDL 40S3000, $1,500, is a great 720p set; for consumers who prefer a 1080p LCD, the Samsung LN-T4061F, $1,700 is a good option. For the first time, consumers can buy a 1080p 42-inch plasma TV for the same price as a 40-inch LCD. CR recommends two Quick Picks from Panasonic – the 42-inch TH-42PZ700U, $1,900, a 1080p model, and the 50-inch TH-50PX75U, $1,700, a 720p model which is also a CR Best Buy. Consumers can also consider a 56-inch rear-projection set with 1080p resolution, such as Panasonic’s PT-56LCZ70, $1,900.

Holiday Forecast: Look for more 46- and 47-inch 1080p TVs from major brands and 52-inchers from secondary brands for less than $2,000. Prices for 1080p 50-inch plasmas from big brands could dip below $2,000.

$2,000 to $2,500: This is the sweet spot for 46- and 47-inch 1080p LCD sets from major brands and 52-inch 1080p sets from secondary brands. Consumer Reports typically recommends quality over size. Consider the 46-inch Samsung LN-T4661F, $2,500, a CR Quick Pick, which excels in picture quality. Plasma offerings in this price range are very limited – 50-inch 720p models are less expensive and 50-inch 1080p sets are a bit pricier. But if a bigger screen is a priority, consider Vizio’s 60-inch 720p plasma, Maximvs VM60PHDTV10A, $2,500, or Mitsubishi’s 65-inch rear-projection WD-65734, $2,400, which has a fine picture quality.

Holiday Forecast: There should be a growing selection of major-brand 1080p 52-inch LCDs, with more 60-inch and larger 720p and 1080p plasma models coming in early 2008.

$2,500 and Up: Here is where consumers will find 52-inch 1080p LCD sets from major brands and 46- and 47-inch TVs in high-end series, such as the Sony XBR line and Toshiba’s Cinema Series. These lines add features like 120-Hz refresh rates for smooth motion and sophisticated video processing. Consumers with a budget of about $3,000 should consider a top-rated 1080p LCD TV from a major brand such as the 46-inch Sony Bravia KDL-46W3000, $3,000, which provides excellent picture quality on all types of content. For about the same amount of money, shoppers can also buy a larger 1080p plasma TV, like the 50-inch 1080p Panasonic TH-50PZ700U, $2,900, also a top-rated model.

Holiday Forecast: It seems likely that there will be aggressive price drops in the largest-size 1080p LCD sets. There will be a growing number of premium series 50-inch 1080p plasmas next year and 60-inch and larger 1080p sets priced around $3,000.

Also featured in the December issue is Consumer Reports’ first-ever report on TV reliability which covers almost 93,000 TV sets. The report found that there is mounting evidence that flat-panel LCD and plasma TVs have been highly reliable and require few repairs during the first three years of use, reinforcing Consumer Reports’ advice that consumers should ‘just say no,’ to extended warranties.

An extended warranty for a TV ranges from $200 to $400. But both LCD and plasma TVs are overall very reliable and whilerear projection sets are more repair-prone, they are still often trouble-free for their first few years and needed repairs are often covered by the standard warranty, suggesting that the extended warranty is a poor investment for most consumers.

The full report is available in the December 2007 issue of Consumer Reports, which is available wherever magazines are sold and portions of the story are available for free online at www.ConsumerReports.org.

The Olympus E-510 digital SLR - main features:

• D-SLR with built-in image stabiliser
• 10 Megapixel Live MOS sensor
• Live View
• New image processing engine
• New TruePic III processing engine
• 2.5″/6.4cm HyperCrystal LCD
• Supersonic Wave Filter for dust reduction
• 28 shooting modes (incl. 5 exposure, 5 creative & 18 scene modes)
• Built-in pop-up flash (GN 12)
• 3fps with up to 6 images in RAW buffer
• AF-lock functionality
• Depth of field preview function
• Bracketing function (Exposure, White Balance, Focus)
• Detailed playback info screen with histogram
• Based on Four Thirds Standard, making it compatible with almost the entire range of system accessorie

Product Review – Sony Alpha 700 Digital SLR

Sony offers several bundles for the A700: body only; a kit with an f/3.5-to-f/5.6, 16mm-to-105mm lens slated to ship late in 2007; a kit with an f/3.5-to-f/4.6, 18mm-to-70mm lens; a kit with an f/3.5-to-f/5.6, 18mm-to-200mm lens; and a dual-lens kit with the aforementioned 18mm-to-70mm lens and a f/3.5-to-f/6.3, 75mm-to-300mm lens. If you opt for a kit, the dual-lens package looks like the best value; the lenses don’t add much to the cost, and together they cover a good general-purpose range. However, if you’re considering buying a body and lens separately, I think it’s worth the extra money for one of the Zeiss T* coated lenses. They feel more substantial and–as you’d expect for pricier models–are faster, sharper lenses. Personally, I’m fond of the SAL-1680 f/3.5-to-f/4.5, 16mm-to-80mm (equivalent 35mm focal range is 24mm to 120mm) as a general-use lens. As of this writing, the 16mm-to-105mm lens wasn’t available, but the focal range it covers (35mm equivalent of 24mm to 157.5mm) sounds promising as a kit staple. And though it won’t be available until next spring, Sony also announced an f/4.5-to-f/5.6, 70mm-to-300 mm (105mm-to-450mm-equivalent) lens that incorporates a supersonic motor (for quieter, smoother operation) in its autofocus system. As you’d expect, the A700 will also accept legacy Minolta AF mount lenses–you can find a surprisingly complete list of them in Dyxum.com’s Minolta Sony Alpha lens database.

The body itself is dust- and moisture-resistant, with an aluminum chassis and a magnesium outer shell. Weighing 1.75 pounds, the A700 feels solid and well made. Thanks to a deep indent on the grip beneath the ledge holding the shutter and a dial–much like the design of the Canon EOS 40D–the A700 also feels exceptionally comfortable and stable to hold. Like its Konica Minolta ancestors, the A700 implements a proprietary hot shoe. Though it doesn’t really matter for flash units, which are proprietary as well, the odd connector may limit your choice of accessories that use the hot shoe as a dumb mount. Not a critical problem, but one to be aware of.

Operating the A700 is pretty straightforward. Since it lacks a monochrome display on the top, you configure settings via a combination of direct-access buttons and the LCD. A function button pulls up the Quick Nav interactive information display of all your current settings, which you navigate via a big, comfortable joystick. Only focus modes (single-shot, continuous, single/continuous autoselection, and manual) and the three metering modes (spot, evaluative, and center-weighted) have their own selection switches. As with all dSLRs of this class, you control shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation, and program shift with dials.

One of the few issues I have with the A700’s operation is the way it handles switching among the three user-definable custom presets. Rather than allocating three separate slots on the mode dial as on the 40D, there’s a single Memory Recall slot that brings up a selection screen when you rotate the dial to MR. Once you make your selection, however, the screen disappears until the next time you rotate the dial. So if you shoot for a while using MR1, for example, you must then rotate the dial away and back to MR in order to select a different preset. How much this bothers you will depend upon how heavily you depend on the custom settings; I use them increasingly as time goes on, which inflates my annoyance a bit. On the other hand, and more importantly, the A700 doesn’t seem to lose overrides when it goes to sleep the way the 40D does.

Sony also makes the right calls on the A700’s feature set. It lacks Live View shooting; though Live View can be useful on occasion, I never miss it when it’s not there.

Instead, Sony includes a solid set of really practical features, including SteadyShot sensor-shift image stabilization, a built-in wireless flash transmitter and dual memory-card slots (although one is for Memory Stick Duo Pro rather than an SD or second CF card). It also provides Eye-Start AF–when the sensor below the viewfinder detects an object (ostensibly your eye), it initiates AF–a holdover from the A100. This model augments it with a grip sensor to minimize false starts. I’m not a fan of Eye-Start AF, since I find it disconcerting as well as battery draining, but I can see how some would find it useful. You can turn it all off if you want, as I do.

In some cases, the A700 offers features and options not usually found in a camera of this class. For instance, you can choose how long the AF area displays, as well as set both minimum and maximum values (not just maximum) for the Auto ISO range. As I’ve said elsewhere, I’d love the ability to set similar boundaries for aperture and shutter speed as well. It also has extremely nice power handling; like all Sony InfoLithium systems, it reports percentage of battery life remaining. With the battery grip attached and loaded with two batteries, the camera reports for both batteries. Like the 40D, the A700 supports interchangeable focusing screens.

And because it’s from Sony, the A700 naturally has a TV tie-in. You can display photos on an HDTV via HDMI, thanks to a mini-HDMI connector on the camera, though Sony doesn’t bundle a cable–and they’re still pretty pricey. The camera automatically downconverts images for optimal presentation. If you happen to have a recent-vintage BRAVIA TV, the latter can automatically switch into a photo-optimized colorspace, called PhotoTV mode, when connected to the A700 (and likely with forthcoming Sony snapshot cameras, as well).

Like the 40D, Sony supplies a compressed raw format, cRaw, designed for faster raw-format burst shooting, in addition to its various combinations of standard raw and JPEG files. Unlike Canon’s spatially compressed–that is, lower resolution–sRaw, however, Sony’s cRaw uses lossless compression to shrink file size from about 18MB to 12MB. On one hand, cRaw does let you shoot about 7 more frames in a burst (more, but not faster).

In-camera processing algorithms also get a boost. Sony’s Dynamic Range Optimizer, which applies image adjustment curves to expand the tonal range, now offers an advanced mode that analyzes 1,200 segments in the frame. In addition, there’s a DRO bracketing drive mode. In a similar vein, the A700 ships with seven Creative Styles, which are named presets of combinations of contrast, saturation, sharpness and brightness: Standard, Vivid, Neutral, AdobeRGB, Portrait, Landscape, and Black and White. Of those, the last three support user adjustments and add a Zone setting option, which can automatically adjust the tonal range for high-key (bright) or low-key (shadowy) scenes.

By the numbers, the A700 delivers very good–though not outstanding–performance for its class. (CNET Labs ran the tests using the 18mm-to-70mm kit lens.) It can shoot 0.5 second after power up, the same amount of time it takes to focus and shoot a typical well-lit scene, and two consecutive nonburst shots edges up to 0.6 second. These results put it about 0.1 second behind the 40D overall for single shots, though in practice I didn’t feel much of a difference. The responsive feel may be attributable to the overhauled focusing system, which uses 11 area AF sensors, 2 each horizontal and vertical line sensors in the center plus an f/2.8 sensor to improve focus speed when shooting with a wide-aperture lens.

Like the Nikon D300, the A700 also sports a somewhat confusingly specced 921,600-dot/307,200-pixel LCD with an approximate 170-degree-rated viewing angle. It’s quite a nice display, viewable in bright light, and surprisingly good for judging sharpness when you’re zoomed into a photo at the camera’s 13x maximum.

As for photo quality, the A700 fares quite well. Metering, exposure, contrast, and saturation look excellent under a variety of lighting conditions, and the photos exhibit a broad tonal range. Automatic white balance generally works well, though photos render a bit too warm under strong incandescent or fluorescent lights, and like many cameras, the A700’s auto white balance doesn’t deal well with mixed light sources such as shots taken under fluorescents near a window. Under daylight, balance is extremely good, however. Image sharpness depends upon the lens, and the 18mm-to-70mm kit lens we tested with proved decent, though not outstanding.

The A700 incorporates Sony’s latest 12-megapixel CMOS chip. Unlike most other sensors, this new model performs its analog-to-digital conversion on-chip, rather than in the imaging pipeline, a practice which Sony claims delivers better control over image noise. Though I can’t confirm or deny that this is a better technology, the A700’s noise profile is quite good. It does an excellent job maintaining color and exposure consistency across all the ISO sensitivity settings, and photos are quite usable up to and including ISO 3,200. Beyond that, as with similar cameras in this class, color speckles and smeary details begin to crop up.

All in all, I’m very impressed by the Sony Alpha DSLR-A700 as an all-around midrange digital SLR. Though more expensive than the Canon EOS 40D, the built-in image stabilizer and higher resolution are worth the extra bucks, unless you really need the little extra oomph in continuous-shooting performance that the 40D delivers. Of course, it remains to be seen how the forthcoming yet pricier Nikon D300 will stack up relative to the A700. If you want to buy now, however, the A700 is a great choice.

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