Digital Photography For What It's
Worth |
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A New Home for dpFWIW
dpFWIW finally outgrew its original host, www.cliffshade.com.
Thanks to the generosity of National Directory
Information Services, LLC, dpFWIW now resides at http://www.dpfwiw.com/.
Please update your bookmarks by replacing
"www.cliffshade.com/dpfwiw/" with "www.dpfwiw.com/" in the
URL. (The original dpFWIW subdirectory structure below
"www.cliffshade.com/dpfwiw/" has been preserved.) For example, you'll now find the
exposure article previously at "www.cliffshade.com/dpfwiw/exposure.htm"
at www.dpfwiw.com/exposure.htm.
We'll continue to redirect traffic from "www.cliffshade.com/dpfwiw"
through May, 2004. After that, such URLs will fail.
Funding
This user-to-user (U2U) online digital photography resource humbly
offers practical, experience-based information to fellow
digital photographers. All of the observations and opinions
and most of the photos published here are those of the dpFWIW
contributors. We've done our best to present accurate and timely factual material.
We've received no inducements or considerations for any of the products mentioned here; nor do we
have a stake in them. We just call 'em like we see 'em.
Our pages now include a few relatively unobtrusive Google ads to
help defray costs, but user-to-user donations remain an important source
of funding. If you find dpFWIW useful,
please consider a donation of US$2.00 (or any amount you deem fit over US$0.30).
Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for your continuing generosity.
hits since 10-01-2000
dpFWIW Article Index
Digital Photography Articles of General Interest
Articles with an Olympus Slant
These articles focus on Oly C-series digital rangefinders
(including the C-2100UZ) but also contain a good bit of information of general digital
photography interest.
What's new...
Use the links in the table below to go directly to the newest or most
recently updated dpFWIW
sections and articles.
The newest updates are on top. Changes too diffuse to link
effectively aren't chronicled here. Nor are the many small but potentially
important tweaks made on a frequent basis, as
explained below.
For a complete listing of dpFWIW
articles, please see the Article Index. If
you're looking for something in particular, try the keyword search.
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Date
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Entry
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04/01/04
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More updates and rewrites as experience with
the C-5050Z unfolds. |
03/25/04
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Updates and rewrites throughout the site following
acquisition of and initial experiences with a new Oly C-5050Z camera and Oly
WCON-07 0.7x wide-angle conversion lens, most notably in the exposure,
IR and C-series
lens articles. |
11/15/03
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Updates and rewrites (for greater clarity and
reduced verbiage) throughout the site. |
10/25/03
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800x600 image file sizes
reduced throughout the site via increased JPEG
compression (now at 65% quality) to reduce hosting costs related to bandwidth consumption.
Full-sized images should load much faster now. |
09/25/03
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Improved (read "less convoluted")
explanations of EV and EC
and how they differ. |
09/25/03
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New intelligence on IR work with Canon
DSLRs from Chris
Miekus. |
09/25/03
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Added donation button
in hopes of reducing out-of-pocket hosting expenses. |
12/01/02
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Updated the external
flash article for broader applicability for both Oly and non-Oly users. |
09/14/02
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An unusually stimulating discussion on RPD
inspired the a new section entitled Editorial:
The Proper Role For Rules at the end of the Exposure
strategies article. |
09/8/02
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Another
facelift in progress: Things may be a bit unsettled as I seek out a
new garish color scheme for dpFWIW. I'm monitoring e-mail at
dpFWIW@cliffshade.com
again on a sporadic basis, so if you see something you
really love
or really hate, feel free to drop me a line there—particularly if you're
one of those Mac/Netscape types who kept complaining (and rightly so) about
barely visible text. |
09/6/02
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Added material on blurring the background at
the scene and in
post-processing in Exposure
strategies. |
09/1/02
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Expanded generic discussion on mounting
and sizing filters on digital cameras in Filters
options for digital cameras. |
08/16/02
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Eating Crow Department: I hereby
acknowledge that near IR contamination can
produce visible artifacts in digital visible light photographs, and that
my long-abandoned Heliopan 8125 "Digital"
UV/IR cut filter may turn out to be useful after all—in some very
unusual situations, at least. However, I still contend that the 8125 offers no visible
benefit in outdoor work. |
08/16/02
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In the new Filter
Test—Color Bias
and Saturation section in the Filter
options for digital cameras article, I photographed a standard color
input target with 6 ostensibly neutral filters and no filter at all
under strong incandescent lighting. I found the results a little surprising with
regard to both color bias and saturation. |
08/13/02
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Updates to the section on neutral
density filters. |
05/26/02
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Updates to the image
retrieval article, particularly with regard to archival
image formats and retrieval
strategies. |
04/23/02
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The spammers finally stumbled onto dpFWIW.
Don't bother sending e-mail. |
04/19/02
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Getting started with unsharp
masking parameters. |
03/6/02
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New reciprocal link
policy statement. The short answer: All links here are strictly
content-driven. |
12/24/01
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Advice for
first-time digital camera users—a
new article inspired by the ever-growing Christmas rush on RPD |
11/26/01
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A new understanding
of the false colors seen in color
digital photographs taken through infrared filters |
11/20/01
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New illustrations and text enhancing previous
discussions of teleconverter-filter
synergies and the joys of infrared photography |
11/15/01
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Novel uses for digital
cameras—a new article full of useful and amusing things to do with
your camera between masterpieces, from the clever folks at RPD |
11/10/01
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Bounce
Flash to the Rescue—a new external
flash section detailing how to get the most from bounce flash and bounce
cards. |
11/08/01
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Shooting the Moon—an
extensive update inspired by a recent RPD discussion on
the moon as part of a landscape. |
11/03/01
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Whence the IR Look—a
renamed and extensively rewritten section based on new information about
why digital infrared images look the way they do. |
11/02/01
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Ever wonder why it's red-eye
in humans and green-eye or blue-eye or
yellow-eye in dogs and other animals? Well, wonder
no more. |
10/28/01
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A simple way to remember whether your extra battery
sets are charged or discharged. |
10/21/01
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Miscellaneous corrections and updates (mostly
related to batteries, filter
mounting and limited C-x040Z information) accumulated over the 5 month
hiatus surrounding our move to Colorado. |
05/20/01
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Revised the polarizer article
in the never-ending quest to write more clearly about this challenging
subject. |
05/18/01
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Updated Bagging
the Armor section in the Camedia tips
and tricks article to include my new hip
pack. |
05/13/01
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Updated color
post-processing article, still a modest attempt at a potentially huge
subject. |
05/12/01
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Updated lens
cleaning section in the Oly
auxiliary lens article. I've mended my gritty ways. |
05/10/01
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New When Not to Bother with
a Polarizer section in the polarizer article. |
05/09/01
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Much expanded UV
photography section in the generic filter
article cross-linked to a new, illustrated UV
flower photography section in the flower
photography article. |
05/09/01
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Much expanded flower
photography article, now with many annotated samples and a new UV
flower photography section. |
05/05/01
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New properly anti-aliased text
annotation bullets courtesy of Andrzej
Wrotniak. |
04/08/01
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Flowers—a
new dpFWIW article. |
04/05/01
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By popular request, black
marble background removed to improve readability. |
03/25/01
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Improved search
page instructions. |
03/22/01
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Pared
down image sizes (mostly to 800x600) to free up server space in order to
move toward a higher illustration-to-text ratio. |
03/03/01
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B&W
digital—a new dpFWIW article
celebrating black-and-white photography digital-style |
03/03/01
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Shooting the
Moon—expanded |
03/03/01
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Human
Vision and Digital Imaging—expanded |
02/25/01
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Human
Vision and Digital Imaging—a new dpFWIW article
exploring the linkages between how we see and how we photograph |
02/17/01
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First,
Know Your Sources—an expanded look into the sources of near
IR in the digital photographer's environment. |
02/17/01
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What a find! Light
and Color—a fabulous optics primer developed for microscopists but
fully applicable to digital photography. The Java simulations alone are
worth the trip. |
02/11/01
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Checklists—a
new dpFWIW article to keep me out of
trouble. |
02/10/01
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Shooting the
Moon—a new dpFWIW article
inspired by this month's spectacular full moon at perigee. |
02/10/01
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Now an official dpFWIW
contributor, Rick
Matthews has been a big help all along. |
02/05/01
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A new-found battery
caddy that doubles as a nifty nanobag. |
02/01/01
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Updated DOF
and hyperfocal sections in the Exposure strategies
article. |
01/27/01
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Expanded RPD
Tips section. |
01/21/01
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New white balance
section added to the Exposure strategies
article. |
01/14/01
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New
filter size option table summarizing the pros and cons of the most
common choices for the C-20x0Z and C-30x0Z. |
01/13/01
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Facelift complete: For
better or for worse, dpFWIW has a colorful new look intended
to enhance readability. Thanks for all the feedback. Most has been
positive, but the minority opinion (that light text on a dark background
is tiring to the eye) has been duly noted. |
01/07/01
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Updated thumbnailer information
here and here,
occasioned by an impressive new release of my old favorite, PIE. |
01/02/01
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Recording
Mode—Before the Exposure—a primer on resolution, compression,
sharpening, white balance and ISO choices. |
12/19/00 |
IR Filter Choices—updated
information based on new experience with the Wratten 87 and continued
experience with the Hoya R72 |
12/10/00 |
Bagging the Armor—a
minimalist's bag for the armored
C-20x0Z and C-30x0Z |
12/10/00 |
RPD Tips—how to get
the most out of RPD (rec.photo.digital) |
12/10/00 |
Oly
B-300 teleconverter—new, improved lens and filter mounting info |
12/06/00 |
Digital
Zoom—Mother of All Pointless Features |
12/06/00 |
SmartMedia
Device Capacities—can yours handle 64-128MB cards? |
11/26/00 |
EagleEye
OpticZoom 5x teleconverter—new intelligence from the front |
11/25/00 |
Suggestions wanted: How should dpFWIW
signal updates? |
11/20/00 |
What About the
C-30x0Z and C-2100UZ?
sections identifying salient differences in articles originally slanted toward the
C-20x0Z. BTW, information on the Oly C-2100UZ is being added throughout the
site as it
becomes available and verifiable. |
11/20/00 |
Uploading images for
slide-shows—proper filenames and Camedia Master required |
11/1/00 |
Tips
and Tricks for Camedia Users—a dandy macro
trick launches this new dpFWIW article |
10/30/00 |
Batteries for
AA-compatible digital cameras—the battery
article's been extensively rewritten, but NiMH AAs remain the answer for
most situations |
10/30/00 |
Lens tubes—updated
and summarized pros and cons in a new at-a-glance table |
10/1/00 |
Battery packs—updated
information and some nagging runtime questions |
09/20/00 |
Exposure strategies—a
much-expanded article, including a new section on tonality
control |
? |
New Oly C-180 teleconverter
information |
? |
New close-up lens test series |
? |
Improved monopod technique |
? |
E-mail announcement |
? |
Revised "Camedia
equipment" article—now with more C-30x0Z information |
5/01/00 |
Infrared basics for digital photographers—a
new article much expanded from a smaller IR section previously in the Filter
options for digital cameras article |
? |
Xtend-a-View
and Hoodman LCD hoods |
? |
Updated Oly 1.45x teleconverter
information |
4/19/00 |
Cokin A-series graduated
neutral density filters on the Camedia |
4/15/00 |
Hoya multi-angle
lens hood for the Camedia |
? |
Fun with reversed circular
polarizers—a diversion |
Vaporware...
Limited Warranty
I'm no expert in photography (digital
or otherwise), image processing or website design. (The last
should already be obvious.) Nor do I put forth this content as
fully verified and error-free, although I try very hard to make it so.
My goal here is simple—to share what I've
learned through experience and carefully cross-checked reading in
a rapidly growing and developing field still rather poorly
documented by the vendors themselves. Along the way, I've managed to enlist the
aid of several knowledgeable contributors who help
me extend dpFWIW's experience-based coverage. For more site philosophy, click here.
I've tried to stick with reliable
sources and reference them whenever feasible. Throughout this
site, you'll find the text marked with these annotation bullets and icons:
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Major articles, each subdivided into
topical sections listed and linked at the top of each article.
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Go with it—the paydirt,
bottom line, executive summary, action line. Material so marked comes from authoritative sources
confirmed by personal experience or otherwise verified to my satisfaction. If you don't read anything else...
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Caution—unverified content that should probably be confirmed
elsewhere before acting.
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Stop—please take heed
of these
items before acting.
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Skip—opportunities to cut straight to
the next short answer or action item, bypassing long-winded
discussions (one of my specialties according to my wife and kids).
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Under construction—incomplete
material too useful to hold back. Stay tuned—the entire site evolves
endlessly, but material so marked is particularly likely to change or
expand in the near future.
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Think of the
(caution) and (go) bullets as confidence
indicators. Watch out for anything marked with
(stop)—there's definite
trouble ahead.
The
bullet and (skip) icon
are navigational aids. Clicking on the
bullet in the article index on the home page will take you to the corresponding article. Clicking on
will always leapfrog you
to the next major point of interest. Clicking on icons and bullets will
otherwise bring
you back here to review what the icon says about the text so
marked.
I consider all unmarked content
reasonably reliable but by no mean infallible.
If you spot an error and have the
right stuff on good authority, try an offered solution
that fails the test of your own experience, or have other
constructive feedback to share, I'd very much appreciate an e-mail
at dpFWIW@cliffshade.com.
Please include your sources where pertinent.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to Andrzej Wrotniak for the anti-aliased bullets.
Contributors
Listed below are the digital photography enthusiasts who have made major additions to dpFWIW,
roughly in temporal order of
first contribution. Their mention here is a small recognition of the expertise,
experience, time and effort they've donated to the cause of user-to-user (U2U)
digital photography help via dpFWIW.
That doesn't mean that contributors endorse material other than their own.
Throughout dpFWIW, you'll find many other contributors cited by name on the fly.
They've all helped dpFWIW extend its experience-based
coverage. Special thanks go to Don Ellis, who volunteered to tidy up the dpFWIW logo
for a black background, and to Andrzej Wrotniak, who provided properly anti-aliased
bullets.
All dpFWIW
contributions large and small are greatly appreciated. If you have
pertinent material to share, please drop me an e-line at dpFWIW@cliffshade.com.
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Jeremy McCreary,
Editor and Primary Author
Contributions: All material except as noted below.
As editor and primary author of dpFWIW,
the buck stops with me for all the material presented here. Brevity is not one
of my long suits, as you'll no doubt see, but a taste for detail can be a
virtue now and then, especially when it comes to photography.
My credentials? I'm just an avid amateur with a passion for nature, science,
jazz and digital
photography. I enjoy digging to get the story straight and trying things out to find
and fix
the kinks. I also enjoy writing. (In fact, the writing often drives the learning.) My day job
as a physician designing
and interpreting medical imaging studies and performing imaging-based
interventions to help others return to health is another manifestation of all the same penchants. It also allows me to
"play" with some pretty amazing medical "digital cameras"
making images of the body using physical phenomena as diverse as x-rays, nuclear magnetic resonance,
ultrasound and positron emission, among other exciting technologies.
I currently use
an Oly C-5050Z for most purposes, but my C-2020Z is still my infrared
camera of choice, and my 7-year-old D-340L rides in the car at all
times. My next camera has yet to
be released. |
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Resistance is futile. You will be
assimilated.
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Ocean kayaking in Monterey Bay, CA |
See About dpFWIW and Limited Warranty for further insights into
the philosophy and terminology behind the content and presentation.
Paul Saunders,
Contributor
Contributions: Post-processing outdoor photos
Despite his steadfast devotion to film photography, Paul drops by RPD now and then. His
extensive experience with the digital post-processing of
photographs comes primarily by way of scanning 35 mm slides. Be sure to visit Paul's Wilderness Wales
website to see the spectacular Welsh landscapes he's produced
from scanned 35 mm slides using precisely the post-processing
techniques detailed in his article, Post-processing outdoor photos.
Mike Wright,
Contributor
Contributions: Raynox
lens tube info and C-2020Z intelligence scattered throughout this
site.
Mike traded up from an Oly C-2000Z to the C-2020Z soon after the latter became
available. His careful testing and manual reading originally supplied many of the C-2020Z details found here.
For more digital photography info, stop by Mike's Coastal
Fog site.
Jay Scott,
Contributor
Contributions: Low-light
post-processing techniques in Abode PhotoDeluxe, circular
vs. linear polarizers with the C-20x0Z and infrared
photography
A programmer by trade, Jay shares with us (among many other
things) his simple
and elegant adaptation of two of CCD astronomers' best tricks—dark field
subtraction and image averaging—using Adobe PhotoDeluxe
3.0, the modest but
capable image processor bundled with many a digital camera. Jay currently uses an Oly C-2020Z. Lately, he's been taken
with infrared
photography, and his IR observations—both on this
site and on his own—are worthwhile
for anyone exploring this fascinating corner of digital photography.
Dave
Tatosian,
Contributor
Contributions: DigiPower
AC adapter, Oly
C-210 teleconverter, and Raynox lens tube intelligence;
frequent voice of fact and reason on RPD
A Compaq engineer from Massachusetts, Dave's a frequent and valued
contributor to RPD. In fact, if there were a Croix du RPD medal, I'd nominate
Dave without hesitation. Look for his thoughtful and factual
posts over the "/daytripper" handle. I've certainly learned a lot from
them. After bravely
pioneering the DigiPower AC
adapter and the Oly C-210 1.9X teleconverter for the rest of us C-20x0Z owners,
he was kind enough to share his gleanings here.
Robert
Barnett,
Contributor
Contribution: CD-R
basics article
Robert first posted the material for CD-R
basics on RPD, where it stood out as an example of user-to-user help
at its best. He was kind enough to allow it to be reproduced nearly verbatim
here.
Ilkka
Valkila,
Contributor
Contributions: Cokin
square filter and Oly C-2020Z
external flash intelligence
Ilkka writes "I'm a 31-year-old dairy farmer in Finland who earns a
little extra as a freelance writer. Recently I have written mostly about using
computers and accessories (including digicams) in agriculture and small
businesses. Photography has been my hobby for about 14 years. Some of my photos
have been published with my articles, some elsewhere."
Carl Schofield, Contributor
Contributions: Digital IR photography
intelligence and samples
In Carl's own words, "I retired from Cornell University (fisheries
research scientist) five years ago and have since renewed my long term interest
in photography. I used to do a lot of traditional B&W landscape photography
using 35 mm and medium format cameras, but never explored the infrared. After
seeing Eric Cheng's
digital infrared work, I started experimenting with infrared filters on my
Nikon 950 and soon became hooked on this new way of viewing the landscape."
Carl's unquestionable talent as a landscape photographer comes through loud and
clear on his own gorgeous and informative "Beyond
Red..." IR site. His newer "Digital
Grey" gallery is a tribute to B&W digital photography and the power of tonality.
Tom Lackamp, Contributor
Contributions: Advanced exposure
considerations , Oly 1.45x
teleconverter intelligence and much-valued general photographic advice to
the editor
I've been tapping Tom's extensive experience as a 35 mm film photographer on
a regular basis ever since we met on RPD. After all, digital and film
photography have much more in common than in opposition. In fact, the saying,
"The more things change, the more they stay the same."
applies in spades to digital photography. Photographers (like me) with
experience mostly on the digital side would do well to learn what we can from
experienced film-based colleagues like Tom.
Rick Matthews, Contributor
Contributions: Focal Length vs. CCD Resolution
basis, But It's So Away! quote, Raynox
lens tube intelligence
Professor and chair of the Department of Physics at Wake Forest University,
Rick started in digital photography with a Kodak DC-120, then fell in love when
he moved up to an Oly C-2020Z (home) and a C-3030Z (work). His regular and well-grounded
contributions to RPD have inspired or informed
many a dpFWIW section beyond those listed above.
Physics lies at the very heart of photography but is never far
below the surface. Rick's expertise in that arena is especially
welcome.
About dpFWIW
This user-to-user (U2U) help site is
nothing more than an informal collection of useful digital
photography tidbits and recommendations gleaned from the personal
experience and carefully cross-checked reading of its contributors.
(Ronald Reagan's "trust but verify" doctrine proved that he
couldn't be wrong about everything.)
This growing site remains a work
in progress subject to change without notice and offered strictly on an FWIW (for what it's worth)
basis.
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Content
The solutions offered here are to
be taken strictly as examples of things that work—at least for dpFWIW
contributors. No doubt many visitors will find
our solutions
wholly unsuited to their needs—in which case they'll at
least have come away some ideas on what not to do.
Topics are chosen primarily for
their practical value and for the frequency with which they arise
in the DP-related discussions and newsgroups I encounter. Useful
information we've found difficult to come by will also appear here.
Cameras Covered
Since some of the material on this site will be specific to my own equipment, at least in part,
you should know that I have direct experience with only 4 digital cameras:
-
The handy, rugged and surprisingly
competent 1.3 MP Olympus D-340L point-and-shoot. The D-340L's
still going at 6 years and counting. Now it rides in my car, on the ready
for unexpected photo ops.
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The versatile 2.1 MP Olympus C-2000Z with
3x (35-105 mm EFL) zoom
and many other advanced features for its time, including aperture-
and shutter-priority exposure control and a lens bezel
mounting thread allowing adaptation of a wide variety of
filters and auxiliary lenses.
-
The 2.1 MP Olympus C-2020Z
upgrade of the C-2000Z adding fully manual exposure and focus, grayscale
recording, explicit external flash support and a much-improved user
interface with many, many small but welcome enhancements. Oly really
listened on this one. The C-2020Z remains among the best choices for digital
infrared work.
-
The finely-honed Olympus C-5050Z, with
a fast f/1.8 version of Oly's crisp 3x zoom lens. The C-5050Z offers
consummate control over every aspect of digital photography. Once again, Oly's
been listening to its user base.
I also do my
best to cover similar Oly C-series cameras like the C-2040Z, C-30x0Z,
C-4040Z and the C-2100UZ, but I make no attempt to cover other Oly offerings
like the C-7xx series and digital
SLRs like the E-10, E-20 and E-1. I know
very little about the specifics of other digital camera makes and models and plan to keep it that way. The other dpFWIW
contributors are mostly Oly users as well. Nevertheless, there's much here of general digital
photographic interest, even in the articles slanted toward Oly cameras.
E-mail
I deeply appreciate the many kind e-words that come my way
regarding dpFWIW. As with most labors of love, I've had little
choice in the matter, but it still pleases me to hear that digital photographers
find the material here useful.
Regrettably, since early April, 2002, the dpFWIW mailbox has
been targeted with daily floods of spam. Before the onslaught, I read every legitimate
e-mail dpFWIW generated. Now, I'm only checking dpFWIW
mail
sporadically and responding even less. (This is still largely a non-commercial site,
after all. Family and work
come first, and frankly, most
of what I know has already been covered here in adequate detail.) Corrections, contributions
and updates are always appreciated (after all, that's what U2U help is all
about), but at this point, they're likely to get lost in the flood.
Poking around a bit more here or
elsewhere on the Usenet or Internet will be
your best bet for answers to your questions.
Use the dpFWIW keyword search page
to zero in on material of interest within this site. The search page generates links to
other dpFWIW pages with text matching your search string. Once on a matching page, use
your browser's Find function (Ctrl-F in Internet Explorer) to drill down on your keywords.
You'll find related material heavily
cross-linked throughout dpFWIW.
If your search on dpFWIW comes up empty-handed, I strongly recommend taking your questions
public on the digital photography newsgroup rec.photo.digital, or RPD
for short. You'll benefit from seeing your issue from more than one angle, and
other RPD readers will benefit from the answers you receive. RPD welcomes questions at all levels.
If current threads don't address your topic, search the RPD archives via groups.google.com.
Please note that I'm usually quite ignorant about equipment not explicitly mentioned on dpFWIW,
and that goes in spades
for non-Olympus cameras. You'll
find it much more productive to float questions regarding other brands and models
on RPD.
Reciprocal Link
Policy
Sorry, dpFWIW does not engage in reciprocal link
arrangements.
Nor do we post link-related commercial logos. A few Google ads aside,
the links in this largely non-commercial site are
strictly content-driven and will remain so as long as the current
funding arrangement holds out. That said, sites wishing to link dpFWIW are welcome to do so.
Sorry, We Don't Carry
That
What you won't find here:
-
Glitz at the expense of content (in fact, you'll be hard pressed to find
any glitz on this site)
-
In-your-face ads (as long as donations
permit)
-
Camera reviews (sorry, not my bag)
-
"Why didn't they" rants and
whines (chances are, "they" had their reasons)
-
"My camera's better than your camera" neener-neeners (the root of all evil lurks here)
- Attempts to save the souls of
those still using and enjoying film cameras (they have a
right)
You can easily get your fill of all
that and more on the big commercial sites and in newsgroups like rec.photo.digital (RPD).
Updates
This growing site remains a work
in progress subject to change without notice.
My knowledge and resources
keep evolving right along with digital photography, which itself evolves at a particularly
daunting pace. It's easy enough to date the occasional entirely new article or
section, but in reality, most of the site's changes come in dribs and drabs.
Many of the articles here see small additions and refinements on a monthly
basis. Not infrequently, new insights, syntheses and organizing concepts come
along and set off cascades of changes affecting scattered portions of many articles. Some small
changes might potentially be quite important to certain users, but I'm afraid
that signaling all these updates in a timely and thorough manner would take
nearly as much time and text as the articles themselves.
RPD (rec.photo.digital)
This site functions in part as an unofficial reference for my favorite digital imaging newsgroup,
news://rec.photo.digital, or "RPD" for short. RPD is an unusually friendly and well-informed bastion of U2U
support well
worth frequent visits for any digital photographer. I'm greatly indebted to
the many RPD contributors who have enriched dpFWIW indirectly
through the expertise, experiences, comments and insights they've volunteered on
RPD.
On RPD, you have access to the collective experience and wisdom of many other
digital photographers of all levels and backgrounds. Everyone benefits
from the open discussion, and you're likely to see more of the angles on issues
that turn out to be controversial. RPD welcomes questions at all levels, but see
below before firing off questions likely to have come up
many times before.
Of course, all newsgroups require a healthy
dose of skepticism and even a thick skin at times, but no website I've seen
offers the breadth and depth of DP experience to be mined at RPD, especially
when it comes to specific products and techniques.
It's worth repeating explicitly that on RPD,
Even sincere, well-meaning responses may not be as authoritative as
they sound.
My wisest professor once said, "Two-thirds of everything you know is
crap—you just don't know which two-thirds." Judging from RPD, he may have
been a bit optimistic.
While dpFWIW
serves as an extension of RPD in some ways, it's no substitute for the open public forum RPD
provides.
RPD FAQ
With the meteoric rise of digital photography, RPD has more than its fair
share of frequently-asked questions (FAQ). Chris Friesen's thorough and beautifully compiled FAQ
for RPD is an invaluable resource on recurring issues. Erica Sadun
frequently posts a very helpful mini-FAQ (search the "from" fields for "Sadun")
which also resides on the
web.
I've nevertheless elected to develop
my own parallel FAQ material on dpFWIW out of
-
a strong desire to help out on RPD where I can,
-
an equally strong distaste for typing out the
same RPD responses over and over, and
- an awareness that I learn best through
writing.
However, the FAQ
for RPD is far greater in scope than this site. If you don't find what
you're after here, the FAQ should be your next stop.
RPD Tips
The Usenet is an invaluable self-help tool. And as with any tool, knowing how to use it
gets the best results, particularly on high-traffic newsgroups like RPD. You may never get a
scolding for straying from the guidelines below, but you may never get a reply,
either. These tips will substantially improve your chances of getting
what you came for—reliable help, instructive dialogue and perhaps even a sense
of community.
Reading RPD
To get the most out of the
material already available on RPD,
-
Check the FAQ first. However new it may
seem to you, your issue has probably come up before—often many times
before. Your shortest path to a reliable answer will usually be Chris
Friesen's comprehensive FAQ
for RPDor Erica Sadun's mini-FAQ. (The articles on this site address
many of the FAQs as well.) Look for the frequently-posted message pointing
to the FAQ and bookmark the link for future reference. Many RPD regulars
also include a link to the FAQ in their replies. Please check the
FAQ or dpFWIW before posting questions to RPD. If these resources
don't fully address your issue...
-
Check for pertinent messages on RPD before starting a new thread. If your
topic's been hashed out recently—and chances are, it has—your post may be
ignored if those in the know have tired of writing about it. Sort and scroll
through the subject lines if you like, but you'll generally find it much
more effective to...
-
Drill down on pertinent keywords or phrases using your news reader's
message search or "Find" feature. You'll save yourself lots of time,
you'll substantially improve your chances of locating the best answers
to your questions, and you'll improve RPD's signal-to-noise ratio by sparing this high-volume group many a redundant
post. Note that the most apt keywords sometimes appear only in the
subject field or only in the message body, so be sure to search both. With a
little practice, you'll be crafting message searches that are neither overly
specific nor overly broad in no time. And to
maximize the potential yield of your search...
-
Max out the number of message headers your
news client downloads at one time to capture more of the traffic. Some
news servers retain posts longer than others, so catch them while you can,
especially if you're an infrequent visitor. But don't despair if a keyword
search of your news server's current stock of messages comes up
empty-handed. Old posts never die—they're just waiting for you to...
-
Search a Usenet archive like groups.google.com
for pertinent RPD messages past and present. Chances are, the very best
answer to your question has already scrolled off your news server, but don't
let that get in your way. Todd's Walker's well-illustrated introduction
to Google Groups should be required reading for all new visitors to RPD.
-
Don't stop at the first promising thread you find. Popular topics
like batteries and printing are often the subject of several different
active threads on this high-traffic newsgroup. Some are more helpful than
others.
-
Watch for trolls. Some folks like to post inflammatory, rude,
abusive or even misleading messages just to watch the fur fly. Resist the
urge to reply. Ignore them and they'll go
away.
- Cross-check everything you learn on RPD before betting the farm on it.
Misinformation abounds, however well-meaning, and it can come in very
convincing garb.
Posting to RPD As
newsgroups go, RPD is both friendlier and busier than most. We welcome
contributions, but to keep the signal-to-noise ratio reasonable, we strongly
encourage visitors to take full advantage of the resources outlined above
before posting questions. Redundant questions ultimately work to
everyone's detriment, but if you have useful input, or a question that covers new
ground, by all means post it.
To post effectively to RPD,
-
Post only plain text—no images or HTML.
Out of valid
bandwidth and security concerns, RPD is a text-only group by charter.
Posts containing embedded images or HTML code tend to draw little more
than reprimands, if that. Worse yet, if someone complains to your
ISP about such posts, your ISP may terminate your account summarily. To
share an image, put it up on a web page and then post a link (URL) to it on
RPD.
-
Please keep it civil. Rude posts serve no one and are likely to sidetrack
otherwise productive threads. Entitled demands for help ("OK, help me
out here, folks...") are seldom answered, and rightly so: You'll find
us happy to help, but keep in mind that no one on RPD owes you anything. RPD
denizens and flies have little in common, but the old sugar vs. vinegar
adage certainly applies.
-
Craft an informative subject line to
attract those in the know. Opaque subjects like "help!!!" and
"camera question" tend to get skimmed over. Subjects like
"Oly B-300 Lens Mounting Glitch" and "Canon G1 RAW Files
Compatible with PhotoShop?" are much more likely to draw useful
replies.
-
Type Your Subject Line in Title Case. See
how this one header stands out among all the others? Messages with
subject lines in Title Case (like the title of a book) are much easier to skim
and tend to draw more responses. Subjects in all lower case tend to escape
notice in a busy group like RPD, and those in ALL CAPS tend to get actively
ignored—probably because many experienced Internet users take all caps as
SHOUTING.
-
Repeat your subject in the body of your
message. Don't depend on the
subject line to carry the freight here. Some news clients display only the first so many
characters of the subject line without user intervention, and some news
readers never return to the subject line once they've opened your message.
-
State your question or reply as clearly and specifically as
you can to help
keep the thread on track and avoid misunderstandings. Things have a way of spiraling off into the
ionosphere on the Usenet, even when there are specifics to constrain the
discussion. Well-crafted questions generally get better answers, and
well-crafted answers require less defending.
-
When you're guessing, speculating or
extrapolating, please say so. Guesses have contributed to many a
breakthrough on RPD, but less informed readers may well act upon guesses
stated as fact. Remember, bad guesses can have real consequences.
-
Don't ask for private e-mail replies.
They have a way of saddling the respondent with the full burden of helping
you from that point forward. Worse yet, they deprive the group of the
benefit of any ensuing exchange. Good donated help is worth coming back for.
Acknowledgements: Many thanks to Andrew Colfelt for the link to
the Geoffrey Saxe poem recounting this mother of all fables. Thanks also to Bill
Paire of RPD for pointing me to the RPD charter and a host of
other Usenet references.
Olympus Camera Terminology and
Coverage
In the fast-moving world of digital photography, camera models multiply
faster than
rabbits. To keep up with the proliferation of the Olympus C-series rangefinders
featured on dpFWIW, I use the shorthand camera notations below.
Notation
|
Meaning
|
C-20x0Z |
Olympus Camedia C-2000Z, C-2020Z
or C-2040Z |
2.1MP rangefinders with 3x zoom lenses |
C-2100UZ |
Olympus Camedia 2.1 megapixel
SLR sporting Canon's widely-acclaimed image-stabilized 10x zoom lens |
C-30x0Z |
Olympus Camedia C-3000Z,
C-3020Z, C-3030Z
or C-3040Z |
3.3MP rangefinders with 3x zoom lenses |
C-40x0Z |
Olympus Camedia C-4000Z, C-4040Z |
4.1MP
rangefinders with 3x zoom lens |
C-50x0Z |
Olympus Camedia C-5000Z,
C-5050Z, C-5060WZ |
5.2MP rangefinderss with 3-4x zoom lenses |
C-8080WZ |
Olympus Camedia C-8080WZ |
8MP rangefinder with 4x zoom lens |
Oly rangefinders |
All of the above
digital cameras |
C-series cameras |
Camedias |
All of the above cameras, but by
no means all Olympus Camedia camera offerings* |
I'll try to address at least the deltas pertinent to other similar Olympus
digital offerings as experience-based end-user information becomes available.
* Note: I make no effort to cover the C-211Z, C-7x0UZ, E-10, E-20 and E-100RS
Camedias or the new 4/3 E-1. They're different enough that I simply can't do them
justice, but a good bit of the Oly-specific and generic info presented on this
site will apply to them as well.
Why "cliffshade"?
Years ago on a hike in Pinnacles National Monument, California, I came across
a trailside plaque discussing some fairly ordinary-looking but apparently rare
plants clinging to the north wall of a slot canyon known as Condor Gulch. The
plants were apparently found only beneath overhangs casting just the right
amount of cliffshade onto otherwise sun-baked vertical rock faces with
southern exposures. The term resonated strongly with me for reasons I've never
fully divined, but I know I like the way it sounds.
I hope you find dpFWIW helpful in your
digital photography pursuits. Thanks
for stopping by.
—Jeremy McCreary
|
|
Selected Links
and References
Among the many digital photography
(DP) resources I've encountered on the Internet, those below are still very much
worthwhile. Here's a quick index into the links and references in this section:
Additional materials are listed in the References section found at the end of
each dpFWIW article.
DP in Depth
Reviews, industry news, tips, tricks, FAQs,
links, downloads and ads, these major, broad-spectrum DP sites have
it all:
General DP Help
Online
The DP in depth links listed above offer lots of help
on all DP fronts, but the Web abounds with DP learning resources. Below are the
best I've found, but these are just the beginning.
Photographic Science
DP-Related PC
Software
I don't claim to have tested all these titles
thoroughly, but I've poked around with most of them enough to comment.
Batteries,
Printing and Other Technical Issues
Noted Digital Photographers
- Nemus Wedding Photography - A wonderful Tahoe Wedding Photographer with a keen focus on technically sound operations and equipment. If you are in the area, find them here:
Nemus Photography
Carnelian Bay, CA
Phone: (530) 448-4614
- Ohana Photography - Talented Honolulu Photographer this has created some stunning landscape scenes. Great to chat with about digital photography chat. If in Honolulu you can find them at:
Ohana Photography
1917 Dudoit Ln #A
Honolulu, Hi 96815
(808) 201-0875
Suppliers
DP
Newsgroups
- rec.photo.digital (RPD)—there's
often more heat than
light released here, but the light's usually worth the
trip. Be sure to check out Chris Friesen's FAQ
for RPD—a beautifully compiled and invaluable resource dealing with
the many important DP issues the come up with some frequency on RPD.
Elsewhere, I offer some tips on getting the most
out of RPD.
- Special thanks to car rental belvidere il for my last trip out there, you were a lifesaver!
Unless explicitly attributed to another contributor, all content on this
site © Jeremy McCreary
Comments and corrections to Jeremy McCreary at dpFWIW@cliffshade.com, but please see here
first.
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