the electric artist news and reviews page

CANON G9

I bought this camera because I had occasion to use a friend's. A new camera wasn't on my list of things to purchase, but once I'd used it I had to have it.

You see, the trouble with a high-end digital camera is bulk. I was using a (deleted to save embarassment), which is a 10 megapixel Digital SLR with interchangeable lenses and all the fruit. Unfortunately it was too big for my glovebox, too big for my laptop bag and... well, too big. I also had another point-and-shoot from Minolta, a 5 megapixel honey which did fit in all my special places. This should bave been a good combination.

But no. Murphy, unfortunately, had a habit of imposing his infernal law on everything I did. A decision had to be made to take the SLR with me whenever I needed it, but the times I found it truly necessary, were always times I'd left it behind. The poor Minolta has taken many a 'serious' snap.

Enter the Canon G9.

This camera is the same dimensions as my Minolta, and has the same point-and-shoot capabilities. But at 12 megapixels, with ISO up to 1600 and a ginormous LCD viewscreen, the images it takes more than rival my SLR. In fact (although there are a couple of years between them) the Canon shots are in most respects superior.

My car even has a small pocket in the driver's door which holds the Canon perfectly.

Okay, so it's heavy (made of metal, not plastic), and it doesn't have interchangeable lenses - although there are aftermarket clip-ons to extend or widen the focal length. But the most important thing about this camera is...

It's always with me! And when I have to use it, it takes a professional image. What more can I want.

Probably the biggest recommendation I can give is that 2 professional photographers that I know (and I only know 3, so that's 66%) have bought one for the same reasons I have - to have by their side always.

(And no, I don't get any endorsement kickbacks or anything. I wish I did. Any camera dealers out there...?)

Bad press for photoshop?

Guns don't kill people, people kill people. And Photoshop is merely a tool. But it sees that Adobe's flagship program - and yours and my favorite - is coming under some flack here in New Zealand at present.

Why?

Simply because it's so good, that's why.

It seems that teenagers at high school are using their school equipment, and a copy of Photoshop, to create fake IDs and Driver's Licenses. While some of the examples shown on the evening news are shoddy, others are pretty competent examples of the forger's art.

Unfortunately, while the program is a handy tool for making 40-something actresses appear in their 20s, its use as a forging facilitator carries with it up to 10 years' imprisonment (in this country).

 

The Logo Handbook is available

 

imacs rule

This probably won't come as a surprise to most people, but sales of the giant tower Mac - most recently called the Mac Pro - have suffered slightly of late. And the culprit? Why it's younger sibling of course.

It seems that the iMac is so stylish, and yet so powerful, that many design firms are upgrading their hardware to iMacs instead of the 'traditional' tower plus a monitor that has ruled since the Mac separated back in the late '80s.

And why not? The latest iMac is blindingly fast and upgradeable to the point that only the super-power-user will feel inadequate. Yet is has such a small footprint, and is extremely quiet.

Moreover, taken on a bang-for-bang comparison, it's now debateable if you could purchase as much firepower on the PC platform for the same price. And that's a first for Macs.

 

Expose your images

A great new tool in Photoshop that could go unnoticed is EXPOSURE.

//IMAGE/ADJUSTMENTS/EXPOSURE

If there is anything wrong with your image (anything at all), before you resort to LEVELS or AUTO LEVELS or SHADOWS/HIGHLIGHTS, check out EXPOSURE - and be ready to be awed.

The most obvious use is to correct under- or over-exposed images. But the tool can do a whole lot more than that. Brighten a dull day, or dull an over-bright one, for example. I would suggest that you give it a try. It won't hurt you. Promise.

 

Freehand

The demise of Freehand is like the passing of a dear old friend - but one who has been ill for years.

Sadness is tinged with relief on the passing of this venerable drawing product. It's like seeing the last of the VHS videos come out of the factory, knowing that if you haven't yet converted to DVD and Hard Disk recorders, you'd better hurry.

In its day Freehand was my personal weapon of choice. CorelDraw was full of great fruit, but couldn't make Postscript, while Illustrator was quirky and lacked the fun tools.

Freehand's precision and superior Bezier tools (in my opinion) made it perfect for constructing logos.

But using Freehand today is like driving a ten-year-old car with no airbags, no ABS and a smoky exhaust. The world has moved on.

I will be sorry to see the end of Freehand, but I won't be sorry to see the end of Freehand files arriving at my office for print - with all their quirks and lack of transparency support.

Nor will I miss the use of Freehand as a page layout package by so many young designers. It's too easy to have a page in the middle of the document being the wrong size or orientation. Despite all it's good stuff, Freehand is not, and never was, an alternative for Indesign or Quark. Not even Pagemaker.

All we need now is to wait for the design schools to catch up and stop teaching Freehand to their students.

 

InDesign

I'm old enough to remember the fight between the two big page payout programs. No, It's not what you think. I'm talking about Pagemaker (from Aldus) and Ventura Publisher (from Xerox).

From the eighties and well into the nineties these two giants fought for market share in every forum imaginable. Pagemaker's acquisition by Adobe tipped the balance in favour of the inventor of Desktop Publishing (yes, that's right, Pagemaker was the first).

But just as Ventura Publisher began to sink beneath the waves of Pagemaker's fast passage, along came a newcomer to the fight; QuarkXpress. Quark had been gradually climbing the ladder for years, while Aldus and Xerox were at each others' throat.

For another decade these two fought it out, with Quark eventually emerging the winner. Ironically it was Adobe's development of a 'Quark-beater' called InDesign that hastened Pagemaker's eventual slip in the race. Adobe poured money into InDesign and let Pagemaker wallow on its reputation, while Quark pulled steadily away until by the year 2001 it's market dominance rivalled Photoshop in its area of expertise.

This was partly due to the teething trouble experienced by InDesign - a program with huge potential, but little reliability for professionals (who demanded reliability above all else).

Then along came InDesign 2.0. Suddenly it was war again. Only this time it was Quark who rested on its laurels while Adobe waged a very canny war for dominance. Adobe did two things that pulled the rug out from beneath its rival; first they offered extremely inexpensive upgrades and crossgrades to Indesign from almost any other program, and second they included InDesign in their new Suites of programs.

Everybody bought Photoshop, regardless of their page layout preference. And many also bought Illustrator. To be able to purchase a suite with Photoshop, Illustrator AND InDesign for LESS than the cost of a single QuarkXpress license was just too tempting - especially after InDesign proved its mettle.

So that brings us to today where InDesign is the market dominator and Quark, while not quite the vanquished, is fighting for its survival.