DP Review has just published an in-depth report on the tantalizing new Canon PowerShot S3 IS. The one feature that catches everyone's eye is the 12X optical zoom... and it's a good one too. Canon has bundled image stabilization with this high magnification creating a terrific "long range" shooter in a compact body.

The swing out "tilt n swivel" screen is great for capturing at a variety of angles, and is a plus for movie mode. Another great feature, in my opinion, is that the camera is powered by 4 AA NiMH cells instead of a proprietary Lithium battery. In an emergency on the road, you can always substitute regular AAs if your NiMHs run out of gas. Canon does not, however, provide batteries with the camera, so add this to your budget.

On the downside, there's no RAW shooting mode. I'm disappointed by this omission. This is a top quality camera that could be used for assignment. The sensor provides 6 megapixels of resolution, which is plenty for most situations. The lack of a RAW mode hamstrings the S3's potential.

That complaint aside, this is an amazing camera that is bound to draw lustful glances from any serious amateur. You can purchase the S3 IS for about $460. That's a lot of camera for the money... especially in such a handsome, compact, rugged body.

Technorati Tags: camera, digital photography, equipment, product review

Voiceover adds a professional touch to slideshows. But you may not be ready to tackle new audio programs just to get a simple voiceover track. Even GarageBand seems daunting when you're in a hurry. Fear not, iMovie is a great tool for recording voiceover tracks that you can add to your slideshows created in FotoMagico or other applications. And the best part... it's really, really easy.

First, create a new project in iMovie. Then click on the "Media" button (as shown above) and choose the "Audio" tab. Press the record button (as shown above) and start talking into your Mac's microphone. You might want to play your slideshow in FotoMagico as your talk so you can time the audio to the pictures.

Once you finish recording, go to File > Export and click on the "QuickTime" icon. Choose Compress movie for "Expert Settings" from the popup menu, then click the "Share" button. You'll get another dialog box that lets you choose where you put the file (Desktop) and the export format. Choose "Movie to QuickTime Movie" from the Export popup at the bottom of the dialog box. Click the "Options" button to reveal a new settings box. Once there, uncheck "Video" as shown in the illustration. Make sure "Sound" is checked and click the Settings... button. Use these settings:

iMovie will place the audio file on your Desktop. Now, all you have to do is open FotoMagico and go to Slideshow > Add Audio... and choose your voiceover file. Like magic, your slideshow now has a voiceover track. This procedure might read a little complicated here, but it is truly simple and can be accomplished in minutes if you follow the steps.

This tip is to help you prepare your entry for the FotoMagico Slideshow Showcase. Submit your Entry Form today (to get on the books), then start working on your presentation. Deadline to submit Entry Forms is May 30, and your presentation itself is due by June 15. Don't delay!

And don't forget... if you wish to use FotoMagico to create your show, you can get a $10 discount off the software by entering "Digital Story" in the discount code box. Visit the order page and select FotoMagico. You'll be able to enter a coupon code at the first checkout page. The code is set to "Digital Story". Once the code is input, and the Checkout button is clicked, the $10 discount will be reflected on the final order total page.

Technorati Tags: photography, tips

Many Mac OS X "Tiger" users don't realize that they have a powerful Raw converter bundled with their operating system. Every 10.4 Mac comes with a handy application called Preview that most folks think of only as a PDF viewer. Even Apple touts its PDF capabilities without going into much detail about its hidden powers. The most notable of these lesser known features is Preview's ability to decode Raw files and convert them to other formats.

It's true. You don't need Photoshop Camera Raw. You don't need Aperture. If you want to open a common Raw formatted image, just drop it on the Preview icon on your Dock. Preview will decode the Raw file and display it on screen. But wait, things get even better. Go to Tools > Image Correction and you're greeted with a handy set of adjustments that include Exposure, Gamma, Saturation, Contrast, Brightness, Sharpness, and even Sepia -- all of which you can use for manipulating your Raw file.

Would you like to read the metadata embedded in the file header? Go to Tools > Get Info and click on the Details tab. Tons of image data are revealed including dimensions, aperture, shutter speed, color space, and even the camera model used to capture the shot.

When you're ready to convert the file, go to File > Save As and choose among four different formats: Photoshop, Tiff, PNG, and PDF. With the first three options, you can choose between 8-bits or 16-bits per channel. And if you choose the PDF format, you have more options including file encryption -- that's right, you can assign a password to your image to protect it from prying eyes.

And yes, there's still more. You can rotate the Raw file, flip it, assign a Colorsync profile, then print the image. If you go to View > Customize Toolbar, you can add a cropping tool and even a Scale resizer. So not only can you zoom in and out with the Zoom tools, you can set the numeric amount to scale the image, such as 25 percent. Then crop it if you wish.

Preview is an amazing photo editing application that's right there under your nose. If you haven't done so already, I recommend that you add it to your Dock, and use Preview whenever you have to make quick edits to a stray Raw file, or to save it to another format. For many simple jobs, this tool is faster than Photoshop.

Technorati Tags: digital photography, tips

I used to resize all of my images to 640x480 before adding them to my slideshows, but that was before zooms and pans were easily included in these presentations. I still crop and resize many of my pictures, but now I take into consideration the resolution needed for zooming and panning. Those images have to be bigger than your finished slideshow dimensions.

For example, let's say your finished presentation is going to be 640x480. But you want to have an image where you zoom in on a portion of the frame, maybe to show some detail. That picture needs to have enough resolution to maintain top quality as you zoom in.

My rule of thumb is that I like to have at least 1280x960, but often I will go 2560x1920 if I think I'm going to zoom in tight. When choosing among candidates for zooming, examine the photo at 100 percent magnification. If the detail looks good, then the image will most likely hold up as you zoom in during the slideshow. Both iPhoto and FotoMagico enable you to create this effect in your presentation. It's not a technique that you want to overuse, but I think a few well-placed zooms or pans give your movies a real professional touch.

This tip is to help you prepare your entry for the FotoMagico Slideshow Showcase. Submit your Entry Form today (to get on the books), then start working on your presentation. Deadline to submit Entry Forms is May 30, and your presentation itself is due by June 15. Don't delay!

And don't forget... iIf you wish to use FotoMagico to create your show, you can get a $10 discount off the software by entering "Digital Story" in the discount code box. Visit the order page and select FotoMagico. You'll be able to enter a coupon code at the first checkout page. The code is set to "Digital Story". Once the code is input, and the Checkout button is clicked, the $10 discount will be reflected on the final order total page.

Technorati Tags: digital photography