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Upcoming Flips to Include Wi-Fi Functionality

Bart Salisbury — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:57:20 -0600

The Flip digital camcorder may be headed for an upgrade. So reports Pocket-lint, anyhow. According to the website, Cisco, which purchased Pure Digital, the creator of the Flip, is poised to integrate some new features, including its own networking technology.

Pocket-lint confesses “details are thin on the ground” but that the new Flip will have a large screen, which will slide to reveal the record and menu buttons. (It doesn’t seem that touchscreen, because of price, will be part of the upgrade package.) And that it will also have Wi-Fi, allowing users to record and upload with having to use an intermediary.

It’s expected the upgraded Flip will be available about the middle of 2010. No information on pricing was available.

Image Credit: Pure Digital

How to Build Your Own 3D Camera Rig for Under $20

Eric Kurland — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:00:00 -0600

How Does Stereoscopic 3D Photography Work?

Stereoscopic 3-D photography has been around almost as long as photography itself. In the 1830s Sir Charles Wheatstone theorized that we see the world in three dimensions because our eyes are set about 2.5 inches apart, and see from two slightly different viewpoints. You can test this by holding your thumb at arms length. Close one eye and look at your thumb, then look with just the other eye, and you will see that there is a deviation, or parallax, between what your eyes see. Your brain fuses these two views together, interpreting the amounts of parallax as depth. This is called binocular stereopsis.

Wheatstone figured out that two cameras could be placed side-by-side and take simultaneous pictures, creating a pair of photographs from both left eye and right eye perspectives. When viewed through a stereoscope, the left eye only sees the left image, the right eye only sees the right image, and we perceive a single 3-D view.

The author's 3D photos from Comic-Con

Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, stereo photos were all the rage, with many thousands of stereo cards produced. In fact, many Victorian era homes kept a stereoscope as the centerpiece of their living rooms - sort of the entertainment center of the day. Still, the process of making 3-D images was very complicated, as it was necessary to have two synchronized cameras to take the pictures, and quite a bit of skill to align and mount the finished prints or slides for viewing. Over the years, a number of film cameras have been made with dual optics and shutters, specifically for stereography, but these still require a great deal of meticulous work by the photographer in order to properly align pictures for display.

Do-It-Yourself 3D

The 21st century has seen a resurgence in the popularity of stereography, or 3D imagery, and thanks to the availability of inexpensive digital cameras and photo-processing software, do-it-yourself 3D imagery is now possible.

The simplest method for taking a 3D photo requires just a single camera, and a stationary subject. Place your feet firmly on the ground, with your weight on your left foot, and take a picture. Shift your weight to your right foot and take a second picture. You now have a stereo pair of images, one for the left eye and one for the right eye, which can be viewed in 3D. Obviously, this technique, called “sidestep” or “cha-cha” 3D, only works for subjects that are not in motion.

To take stereographs of dynamic subjects, we will need to take two photos at exactly the same time. Japanese camera manufacturer Fuji recently released the first digital camera equipped with two lenses for 3D. Of course, for the technologically savvy, you can make your own 3D camera rig using common building materials and two digital cameras.

For this project, we’ll use a pair of matching Canon PowerShot cameras and specialized synchronization software called StereoData Maker, or SDM, which is a nonvolatile firmware upgrade based on CHDK, the Canon Hack Development Kit. SDM adds a set of features to certain Canon cameras, specifically for the taking of 3D pictures.

What You Need

Two Canon PowerShot cameras compatible with SDM (Buy them here)
Two 4GB SD cards
Two right-angle metal brace clips
Two tripod screws or 1/4-inch thumbscrews
Cloth tape or sturdy electrical tape
Metal washers
Two USB cables
Altoids tin
Push-button switch (Buy them here)
Two female USB connectors
Battery holder
Three 1.5V AAA batteries
Hot-glue gun
A Dremel tool
Red/cyan 3D glasses (Buy them here)

Aside from the digital cameras and tools, the core components of the rig won't cost you more than $20! Now it's time to assemble the pieces.

Step 1: Load the SDM Firmware

First, you will need two Canon PowerShot cameras (they don’t need to be the exact same model) and the corresponding StereoData Maker firmware. While SDM isn’t available for all Canon PowerShot models, it does work on a wide variety. A full compatibility list can be found at the Stereomaker.net website. Scan the list for your cameras and download the specific firmware and common_files.zip for each. Unzip both archives to the same directory.

SDM comes with a simple installer program that will format your SD cards and install the SDM files. Run the sdminste.exe executable, insert one of your SD cards into a card reader on your PC and click “new install.” Select whether this flash card will be for the left or right camera and click OK, then follow the onscreen instructions for formatting. Do the same for the other card. Make sure to note which card is for the left camera and which is for the right.

Slide the physical write-protect tab down on the SD cards and insert each into the proper camera. The firmware only loads from the cards when they are in the “locked” position, but the cameras are still able to write photos to them normally.

Step 2: Build the Mounting Rig

The next step is to mount the cameras in a side-by-side orientation. Some hobbyists sell specialized 3D slidebars for two cameras online, but you can make your own. This can be as simple as drilling two holes in a wood ruler and bolting the cameras down with 1/4-inch thumbscrews.

Ideally, you want the lenses of your cameras as close together as possible—about the distance between two human eyes. The best way to do this is with one of the cameras turned upside down. To mount the cameras in this way, we will build something called a z-bar with two right-angle truss clips or braces, which you can buy at any hardware store.

Align the sides of these two bars and fasten them together using heavy cloth tape, leaving the holes along the base exposed. With 1/4-inch thumbscrews, mount a camera onto each clip, using metal washers on each side of the base to make sure you get a tight, level fit. Position the cameras so that the centers of the lenses are as evenly aligned as you can make them. Don’t worry if the alignment isn’t 100 percent perfect, as we can correct the images later in software.

Step 3:Build the USB Switch Remote

One of the functions added by StereoData Maker is synchronization of the cameras’ shutters via a 5-volt pulse sent through their USB ports. This requires that a battery-powered switch be attached to both cameras via USB cables. The Stereomaker.net website contains several varying schematics for this synch controller circuit.

The simplest to assemble uses a pair of USB connectors with both pins 1 wired to a button, and both pins 4 wired to a negative battery terminal. The batteries’ positive terminal connects to the other contact on the button, so that when it is pressed, it completes the circuit to both cameras. The cameras need to receive a 4.5- to 5-volt pulse, so you can use a combination of three 1.5V AAA batteries.

You can build this circuit into any small enclosure, such as an Altoids tin, which has a hinged lid for easy access. We found female USB connectors, battery holders, soldering supplies, and push-buttons online at Allelectronics.com.

Cut openings into the side of the Altoids tin to fit the two USB ports and glue the ports in place. Drill a hole in the face of the enclosure for the push-button as well. On the battery holder, connect the positive battery wire to one contact on the button switch, and carefully solder the negative battery wire to pin 4 on both USB ports. Solder a short wire from pin 1 on both USB ports to the other contact on the button. You can use the USB cables that are supplied with the cameras to connect them to your synch controller. Alternatively, you can hardwire USB cables to the controller in place of the connectors. If this step seems too daunting, there are links on the StereoData Maker website to sources that sell pre-assembled USB switches.

Step 4: Shoot Your Photos

Once you have the hardware assembled and the StereoData Maker firmware installed onto the SD cards, you are ready to start shooting 3D pictures. Power up both cameras and wait for the SDM splash screen to appear. You can access the SDM menus by briefly pressing the “direct print” button to put the camera into <alt> mode, followed by the menu button.

The SDM menus contain numerous options for both beginners and more advanced stereo photographers. For now, we will just check to ensure that the USB synchronization is turned on. Make sure that any settings you adjust on the left camera are also changed on the right camera. Press the “direct print” button again to exit the SDM menu.

The left photo

You can now set your cameras up as you normally would to take a photo, adjusting the ISO, shutter speed, and aperture identically on both cameras. Press and hold the button on your USB switch to auto-focus. When both cameras are ready, their blue LEDs will light up. Release the USB button and both cameras fire simultaneously, capturing your stereo pair.

A general rule of thumb for taking good 3D photos is that the distance between the rig and your subject should be at least 30 times the distance between your two lenses. In other words, if your lenses, measured from center to center, are 2.5 inches apart, you should be at least 75 inches, or about 6 feet, away from your subject.

The right photo

Step 5: Process Your Photos

Now that you have taken a pair of images, it’s time to look at them in 3D. To do this, the two images need to be aligned and put into a format suitable for 3D viewing. While this can be done with general image-processing programs such as Adobe Photoshop, most stereographers prefer a specialized freeware application called StereoPhoto Maker.

Begin by downloading and installing the StereoPhoto Maker program. Remove the SD cards from your cameras and copy the contents onto your PC. We recommend organizing your files into subdirectories for left and right images to make it easier to keep track of them. Run the StereoPhoto Maker program and under the File menu, select “open left/right images.” A dialog box will open, asking for the left image. Browse to the folder with the left photos, select a file, and click Open. Do the same for the right-side image, selecting the corresponding picture from the folder with the right-side images. The program will open both files and show you the two pictures side-by-side.

Under the Adjust menu, select “auto color adjustment” to match the tone of the two images. Next, select “auto alignment,” and StereoPhoto Maker runs an algorithm that corrects for misalignments between the cameras, and sets the stereo window based on the nearest point in the shot. Once the auto-alignment is finished processing, you can put on your red/cyan 3D glasses, select a color anaglyph mode from the Stereo menu (we prefer Dubois anaglyph, for its color correction), and marvel at the depth in your 3D photo.

If you would like to make more advanced alignments, you can select the easy adjustment mode, and do manual corrections as needed. StereoPhoto Maker will allow you to save your pictures as anaglyphs, parallel, or cross-view pairs, and will even print out a vintage-style stereo card for your Victorian stereoscope.

Additional Resources

Stereo Club of Southern California -- The Los Angeles–based 3D club offers 3D tutorials and information on 3D photography on its website.

3-DIY.com -- The author's website on do-it-yourself 3D.

Microsoft: Smartphone App Numbers are Meaningless

Bart Salisbury — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:31:51 -0600

One might be tempted to think that Ray Ozzie, chief software architect for Microsoft, spent a prior life at Apple. In a chinwag with technology developers at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference he maintained that the number of applications available for a smartphone platform isn’t all that big a deal. After all, he says, “All the apps that count will be ported to every one of them.” Wasn’t that the Apple mantra about ten years ago?

The crux of the matter, says Ozzie, is that mobile apps are pretty simple to crank out. “Mobile apps require very little development, so it’s much easier to bring them onto every platform,” he told his audience. If a particular app isn’t available now it probably will be in the future, so that shouldn’t be a crucial factor in deciding which smartphone, or smartphone platform, to buy into.

Ozzie’s comments suggest Microsoft is keenly aware of the all the apps currently available for the iPhone. It would hard not to be aware, the way Apple touts this as an advantage. A cynic would conclude that Ozzie is dismissive of app numbers because of Windows Mobile’s current disadvantage in this respect. An optimist might counter that Ozzie has a point: do you really need ‘an app for that’?

Image Credit: Microsoft

Hands-On: Chumby Classic vs Chumby One

Norman Chan — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:30:34 -0600

The newly released Chumby One arrived in the mail today, and we couldn't wait to see how it compared to the original digital connected companion device. The Chumby, in case you haven't heard of it, is a multi-function gadget that can serve as an alarm clock, RSS reader, gaming device, or music player. It connects to the internet with Wi-Fi, and runs user-created widgets to do cool things like read your Gmail or send you Twitter updates. You interact with it through a 3.5 inch resistive touchscreen, but it also has an accelerometer inside, since it's made to be held and encourages user interaction.

We liked the first Chumby an awful lot, and the One doesn't look like it's meant to be a successor or replacement for that. In fact, we're not sure not exactly sure how the Chumby One is being positioned in the marketplace. One the one hand, it's a budget model, sacrificing the original's squishy appeal for a significant price cut. On the other hand, it also adds new functionality that makes it a better device than the Chumby Classic.

First, the ceremonial unboxing ritual. The Chumby One comes in a utilitarian cube-shaped box, as opposed to the cute canvas sack of the original. This may seem like a minor change, but it's representative of the major difference between the two models -- the Chumby one is now housed in a rigid plastic chassis as opposed to malleable Italian leather.

At the top of the device is a large button, which is actually larger than the one hidden under the first Chumby's "skin." Hitting this button takes you to the home screen or turns off alarms. There's also a new physical knob on the right side of the Chumby One, which is very convenient for quick volume adjustment when you're playing music from a connected iPod or Pandora.

Here it is compared to the first Chumby. The One looks and feels much smaller, though without the soft shell, it's not nearly as comfortable to hold in one hand. Since the touchscreen works best when you're gripping the Chumby with one hand and navigating with your other hand, the experience loses a little bit of charm and whimsy. It feels less like playing with a digital pet and more like, well, an alarm clock. Whether that affects your emotional connection with the Chumby is up for debate.

The back of the device has a few minor changes. There's only one powered USB port, and the speaker is positioned above the ports instead of at their sides (a change from stereo to mono). There's still a headphone jack, DC power connector, and power button, but their placement has been optimized to avoid accidentally turning off the Chumby.

On the bottom, you'll find a slot for the removable battery. Yes, the Chumby One comes with a replaceable Fujitsu battery so the Chumby can operate without being connected to a power outlet. We haven't had a chance to test out how long this battery lasts, but replacements sell online for about $15 bucks. Being able to take the Chumby along with use on trips is a definite plus. You can also note the FM antenna cord that comes out from the base of the unit.

For international travelers, the Chumby One also comes with a variety of outlet convertors.

Operationally, the Chumby One functions exactly as the first Chumby does. Since it's powered by a faster 450MHz processor (up from 350MHz), launching the Flash-based widgets, as well as normal menu navigation, feels more responsive. Widgets still take a few seconds to start up, and you still have to set up account-based widgets on the Chumby website. The resistive touchscreen works well enough, but we still wish it was capacitive. Resistive screens tend to "stick" a little when we try to use any kind of gestures -- they're much better for pressing icons than sliding bars.

Even with its faster processor, the Chumby is best used for text and image-based content. Video feeds, like TrailerAddict's widget, still don't seem optimized -- movie trailers we tested weren't silky smooth.

As we mentioned earlier, another new feature is FM radio tuner. You can see the interface below.

Chumby works great as a music player, and come with a wide selection of built-in internet radio feeds. It also plays music off of connected iPods, but won't play from music from an iPhone. One problem we encountered was that we couldn't get iPhone charging to work off of the Chumby's USB port. This wasn't a problem we had with the Chumby Classic, and hopefully it's just a bug.

But the biggest consideration for the Chumby One is its price of $120 (currently on a pre-order sale price of $100). That's about half of the Chumby Classic's $200 price, which put it out of reach for many people. $100 is still a lot of money if you only plan on using it as an alarm clock, but if you're willing to download and experiment with the Chumby widgets, the Chumby One makes the investment a lot easier to stomach.

The Chumby One is available for pre-order now and ships on November 25th.

Firefox Add-on of the Week: Pricetrace

Florence Ion — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:15:00 -0600

With Firefox extensions, most users want to avoid adding more bulk to their toolbar and prefer browsing the Internet in a minimalist manner. However, for the frugal bargain hunter, Pricetrace.com makes the clutter worth it with a nifty Firefox add-on that helps users find the best shopping deals online. Simply install the toolbar, and use it to search for the best deal on any specific product that is readily sold at online retailers. You can also choose to have your search query displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the browser window.

Looking for the latest Radeon HD5770? It might seem like it’s cheap enough on a go-to site like Newegg, but Pricetrace will prove that you can find it for much less on other sites. Or, if you’re looking for a specific type of clothing style, type in the universal name for that article of clothing (for example: “Boyfriend blazer”) and Pricetrace will return a list of retailers carrying that item. We would like to close this with warning you that using this extension might encourage you to spend a little more money than you budgeted for.

Download Pricetrace here

Every Tuesday, we pick a new Firefox Add-on as our favorite of the week. Have an Add-on that you can't live without? Send suggestions to nchan [AT] futureus.com with "Firefox Add-On" in the subject line.

Asus Adds WiFi, Card Reader to New O!Play Air Model

Pulkit Chandna — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:25:36 -0600

Asus has extended its O!Play HD media player family to include the Air HDP-R3, the first model in the series to feature WiFi connectivity and a multimedia card reader. Nothing else has changed apart from these two additions. The O! Play AIR HDP-R3, as the new media player model is called, features 802.11n WiFi, HDMI 1.3, a multimedia card reader, a USB 2.0 port, one eSATA/USB2.0 combo port and a RJ-45 LAN port. The Air HDP-R3 retains the aesthetics and the dimensions (181x125.3x47.7mm) of the original O! Play player - one without WiFi. The only departure from the original's design is in the form of the WiFi indicator on the player's front. Its price hasn't been revealed.

How-To: Edit RAW Photos on a Budget (or for Free!)

Mark Edward Soper — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:30:00 -0600

Why Shoot in RAW Mode?

RAW mode, a feature of virtually all digital SLR cameras and an increasing number of high-end point-and-shoot cameras, enables your camera to capture all of the image data in your photographs in full quality without distortion caused by JPEG data compression. RAW files enable you to repair white balance and color temperature problems, solve exposure problems, and adjust color intensity and other settings far better than you can with JPEG files. Unfortunately, you must use software that supports RAW files to optimize your picture and export it to a format you can use for other purposes, such as JPEG or TIFF.

Thankfully, you don't need to spend a fortune on software to edit RAW images. In this article, we'll put three popular solutions to the test:

Canon Professional Digital Photo
Google Picasa 3.5
Adobe Photoshop Elements with Adobe Camera Raw

Professional Digital Photo and Google Picasa are free, while Adobe Photoshop Elements v8 runs around $80-100. Can you get by with a freebie, or should you cough up some bucks? To answer this question, we turned all three of our contenders loose on discolored, underexposed and overexposed Canon RAW (.CR2) photos taken with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi camera.

Google Picasa 3.5

Google Picasa is easy to download and uses the same interface for editing RAW images as for editing other supported image types (JPEG, TIFF, and so on). Picasa supports most digital camera RAW codecs (see this reference) and is updated frequently as new digital camera RAW file types are introduced.

Locating RAW Images in Picasa

RAW images are displayed in Picasa's image library window the same way as JPEG images. To determine the image type, click the image, and the file extension, size, and other basic properties are shown in the blue bar between the image browser and the action buttons.

Picasa and Automatic Photo Repairs

As soon as Picasa locates photos, including RAW images, it automatically applies fixes to those photos. This is very handy if you don't want to worry about making a lot of changes yourself, but if you don't agree with Picasa's changes, it can be frustrating, since you can't undo automatic fixes.

Fixing Color and Exposure Problems with Basic Fixes

To make manual changes, double-click the photo in the Picasa image library window. Picasa uses three tabs in its editing space. The Basic Fixes tab opens by default. For a quick automatic repair, click I'm Feeling Lucky. Sometimes you're lucky, but in this example, we've traded dark poor color for lighter poor color. Thankfully, you can undo changes made on this tab by clicking the Undo button

Using the Tuning Menu

For greater control over the image, click the Tuning tab. The Tuning tab enables you to use sliders to adjust Fill Light, Highlights, Shadows, and Color Temperature (the third tab, Effects, provides a dozen special effects). By using the Tuning tab, we achieved better color and exposure.

Once you make changes to a RAW file, the changes are stored in Picasa, but the RAW file itself is not changed.

Applying Changes to Multiple RAW Files

If you have a number of RAW images that have the same color temperature (white balance) or exposure problems, or if you want to apply the same special effects to a group of photos, you may want to make the same edits to each photo. Here's how Picasa does it.

1. Select the fixes desired from the Basic Fixes, Tuning, and Effects tab.

2. Click Edit, Copy All Effects.

3. Click Back to Library.

4. Use Shift-click or Ctrl-Click to select similar photos.

5. Click Edit, Paste All Effects.

Unfortunately, because you pasted the effects to the files, the sliders used to adjust exposure, color temperature, and effects do not show the actual settings on the target files.

Saving a JPEG File in Picasa

To create a JPEG file (which can be used for printing, emailing, websites, and so on) from your edited RAW file, click File, Save As, and select JPEG from the pull-down options. Unfortunately, Picasa does not provide options for file size/quality.

Picasa matches the image quality of the original photo, and uses a quality level of 85% when it cannot determine the quality level.

Saving Other File Types

If you need to convert a RAW file into a file type other than JPEG, current versions of Picasa can't do it (this feature was available in earlier versions).

Picasa 3.5 Summary

Pros: Free, supports most cameras that shoot RAW images, easy to use interface

Cons: Automatically makes changes to photos that can't be undone, more limited controls than others, can only export photos in JPEG, can't control JPEG quality levels.

Our take: Use Picasa 3.5 if it's all you have, but you'll probably be happier with your camera vendor's RAW image editor, or with Adobe Photoshop Elements with Camera RAW.

Canon Digital Photo Professional

Canon actually provides two ways to edit RAW files: ZoomBrowser EX and Digital Photo Professional. ZoomBrowser EX is clumsy, provides very limited editing features of RAW files only through an additional Canon-provided program called RAW Image Task, and is excruciatingly difficult to update. Our advice, after trying both: use Digital Photo Professional instead. You can install it from the CD packaged with your Canon camera, or download it from the Canon website.

Using Digital Photo Professional to Edit RAW Files

Digital Photo Professional (DPP) bears a striking resemblance to Adobe Lightroom. And, you can consider it a sort of "junior Lightroom" for Canon RAW files. Here's how to get started:

1. Open DPP

2. Select a RAW image created by a Canon camera (.CR2 or .CRW).

3. Click Tool to open the Tool palette.

4. From the RAW tab, use sliders to adjust brightness, white balance, picture style, contrast, color tone, saturation, and sharpness.

6. Use the RGB tab to adjust tone curves for RGB or separate channels, brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, and sharpness.

7. Use the NR tab to adjust noise reduction.

8. Click Tool to close the Tool palette.

Note: If you prefer to work with full-screen images, double-click the image in Step 2.

Using DPP to Save Changes to a RAW File

1. After editing a RAW file, click File, Save As.

2. Navigate to a different location if desired.

3. If you don't choose a different location and you don't want to overwrite the original file, enter a new name for the file.

4. Click Save.

5. A new RAW file is saved to the specified location.

6. If you have selected multiple files (see "Processing Multiple Files" for details), you will be prompted to save each additional file.

Saving a RAW Image as a Different File Type

1. Click File, Convert and Save.

2. The saved file uses the same name as the original file. Enter a different name if desired.

3. Select the image type (Exif-JPEG is standard; you can also select 8-bit or 16-bit TIFF, with or without JPEG image).

4. If you select an output option that includes JPEG, the image quality defaults to 10 (best). To decrease file size (and reduce quality), use the slider to select a smaller value (1 is smallest/worst quality).

5. Select the desired resolution.

6. Click Save.

7. The file is converted and saved.

Processing Multiple Files with DPP

To work with multiple files in DPP, you can choose from several methods.

Interactive Processing

1. Click each file you want to process to select it.

2. Click a check mark (check 1, check 2, or check 3).

3. Repeat Steps 1 and 2 until all files you want to process have been marked with the same check mark.

4. Click Edit, Select Check Mark x Images Only (x=1, 2, or 3).

5. Click Tool to open the Tool palette.

6. Make adjustments as needed using the RAW, RGB, and NR tabs.

7. Save or convert each file as desired, using File, Save As or File, Convert and Save.

Create a "Recipe" for File Editing

DPP also enables you to create a "recipe" from an edited file and apply it to other, similar files.

1. Make the changes as desired to the photo.

2. Right-click the photo.

3. Click Save Recipe in File.

4. By default, the name of the photo is used as the name for the recipe (.vrd) file. Enter a different name if desired.

5. Navigate to a different folder if desired (recipes are stored in the same folder as the source photo by default).

6. Click Save to save the recipe.

Applying a Recipe to a Different File

1. Select the file you want to apply a recipe to.

2. Click Edit, Read and Paste Recipe from File.

3. Select the recipe desired.

4. Click Open.

5. The recipe is applied to the selected file.

To apply a recipe to multiple files, select the files first as discussed in "Interactive Processing" earlier in this article.

Digital Photo Professional Summary

Pros: Free, powerful interface, able to save changes to a RAW file, doesn't make any changes for you, enables you to output both JPEG and TIFF files in a single operation, can save recipes to make the same changes to similar files.

Cons: Need to read the manual (available on the Canon camera CD or online) to learn all features; only works with Canon RAW files.

Our take: If you use Canon cameras that work with RAW files, DPP is a bargain – but read the manual to learn everything it can do.

Adobe Photoshop Elements with Camera Raw

Adobe Photoshop Elements can't work with RAW files unless you use Camera Raw to process the files first. However, once you install Photoshop Elements and Camera Raw, you're ready to work with Raw files. Camera Raw is available from the Adobe website at no charge.

For Windows

For MacOS

Cameras supported by latest Camera RAW version

Using Camera Raw to Edit RAW Files

You can open any RAW file recognized by Camera Raw with Photoshop Elements, once you install the appropriate version of Camera Raw. Here's how to get started:

1. Open a RAW image file from File, Open in Photoshop Elements, or drag the file to the Photoshop Elements window.

2. Camera Raw opens.

3. Use the Basic tab to adjust white balance, color temperature, exposure, fill light, contrast, and other settings.

4. Click the Advanced tab if you need to adjust sharpening or noise reduction.

Using Camera Raw to Create a Digital Negative

Adobe's digital negative (DNG) format provides an industry-standard file format that retains all image information, making it a useful replacement for proprietary RAW files. In fact, a few digital cameras store their RAW files as DNG files. Here's how to save a DNG file with Camera RAW.

1. To create a digital negative (DNG) file, click Save Image.

2. Enter the image name and select other options, then click Save.

Saving a RAW Image as a Different File Type with Camera Raw and Adobe Photoshop Elements

1. After making changes with Camera Raw, click Open File.

2. The file opens in Photoshop Elements.

3. Use File, Save as to save the file as a JPEG, TIFF, PSD, or other file type.

4. If you select JPEG, you will be prompted to select the desired image quality (1-lowest, 12-highest).

5. Click Save to save changes.

Processing Multiple Files with Adobe Camera Raw

To apply the same changes to multiple files, you should open the files at the same time:

1. Select the files you want to edit with Camera RAW.

2. Drag the files to the open Photoshop Elements window.

3. Click Select All to select all files.

4. Use the Basic and Advanced tabs to make editing adjustments as needed.

Adobe Camera Raw Summary

Pros: Great preview, makes most changes with a single interface, works with both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements (which provide the most flexible file output options of any program in this roundup, can make the same changes to multiple files, works with virtually all RAW file types.

Cons: Requires you to buy Photoshop Elements (or Photoshop); if you buy a new camera, you might need to upgrade Photoshop Elements/Photoshop, as the newest Camera Raw versions support only current Photoshop Elements/Photoshop, can't save settings for reuse later.

Our take: If you already use Photoshop Elements (or Photoshop), Camera Raw is a no-brainer; it's also the best of the three solutions if you plan to make a lot of additional changes to your photo afterwards. However, if you are looking only for a RAW converter, your camera vendor's software may be satisfactory – and it's usually free!

Mark Edward Soper is the author of The Shot Doctor: The Amateur's Guide to Taking Great Digital Photos.

Peek Tries Its Hand Once Again, This Time With Twitter

Bart Salisbury — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:55:32 -0600

Technology produces a marketplace that is both fascinating and puzzling. The fascination comes with the incredible devices that are rolled out in a constant stream of “wow.” Puzzling in that some of these devices don’t seem to make a lot of sense.

Peek, a New York mobile start-up, has introduced the TwitterPeek. It is a device with the sole purpose of allowing you to post and read tweets. That’s it. Nothing more. And it goes for $100, with an $8 per month service charge after six months. Or you could spring for a life time of tweeting nirvana for $200. (Exactly how long is a lifetime in today’s digital world?)

This isn’t Peek's only foray into mobile messaging. There is also Peek Classic and the Peek Pronto, designed for email and text-messaging, but not for making phone calls.

It would seem that the functionality of the TwitterPeek is available on most smartphones. And certainly handheld WiFi devices, like the iPod Touch, can manage this as well. And better yet, these devices can actually do other things, like make phone calls or browse the web, or listen to music, or watch video.

If there’s a market, then there’s a market. Still, all-in-all, puzzling.

Image Credit: Peek