Fujifilm X-Pro1 mirrorless <b>camera review</b>

Hear any mention of retro-styled cameras with exorbitant price tags and it's hard not to get suspicious. That kind of talk brings to mind Leica's incessant re-branding of Panasonic Lumix models, or those unicorn limited editions out of Japan that just leave us baffled. But it's okay, you can relax with the Fujifilm X-Pro1. At $1,700 for the body only it's crazily expensive, sure, but not when you compare to an $8,000 Leica M9-P. Besides, it's a legitimate heir to a strong line of Fuji shooters that includes the much-loved X100 and the more accessible X10. That's a strong pedigree, and no matter how deeply you peer into its mirrorless aperture, the X-Pro1 should offer up enough technology to stop you being cynical.

Like what, you ask? Well, a genuinely surprising bespoke 16-megapixel APS-C sensor, for starters, plus a hybrid viewfinder designed to keep everyone happy all of the time, and a Fuji X lens mount that already has a Leica M9 adapter available (plus others, like Nikon, if you scan eBay). It all adds up to something special, but before you go tweeting this article to whimsical rich uncles, there are also some complicating factors you ought to be aware of. Even in a utopian paradise where everyone could afford this sip of photographic luxury, it's far from certain whether everyone would choose it over other interchangeable lens cameras. Read on past the break and we'll explain why.

Unboxing could be a full-on culture shock for the uninitiated. The X-Pro1 is designed to appeal to rangefinder lovers who dig over-sized control wheels along with over-sized everything. That's not everyone's tipple: we gave the camera to a seasoned photojournalist freshly returned from the Middle East who normally shoots on a Nikon D3, and she was repulsed. In her mind, it was too big to be a compact, too conspicuous, and too retro for her: "I'd be embarrassed if other photographers saw me with this."

That said, it's all subjective. Yours truly also has a foreign news background, though I've generally shot video rather than stills, and I experienced no such allergic reaction. On the contrary, the X-Pro1 brought back memories of when my first employer sent me off with a celluloid Nikon F3 to "go and learn about lenses." Yes, I was surprised by the size: at 140mm (5.5 inches), the body is significantly wider than the new Olympus OM-D Micro Four Thirds camera and 20 percent wider than even the non-ILC Canon G1 X.

No one could dispute that the X-Pro1 is solidly built and surprisingly lightweight for its size -- around 650 grams (1.4 pounds) with the 35mm lens attached, and easily usable with one hand. However, despite all its volume and mass, this camera is not weather-sealed, which will put some serious photographers off from the get-go.

The moral of the story? You need plenty of hands-on time with this camera before you take the plunge, and you need to be clear on what type of (hopefully dry) applications you want it for. Oh, and don't feel obliged to splash extra on the LC-Xpro1 leather case if you already use a camera bag -- it isn't strictly necessary considering the natural sturdiness of the chassis, and it perhaps pushes the retro thing a tad too far. On the flip side, it'd go great with safari shorts.

One of the biggest contributors to the X-Pro1's size (and no doubt its price) also happens to be one of its most useful specs: the hybrid viewfinder, which has been carried over from the X100. It simply caters for any possible situation, by allowing you to switch between optical and electronic modes. Optical gives you the brightest and most direct view of your subject because you're looking at them straight through a piece of glass. Electronic mode, which has an 800 x 600 resolution (or 1.4 million dots), gives you the most precise preview of your final image, with framing and focus displayed before you press the shutter. Both modes can be overlaid with all the information you need, including a live histogram, spirit level and lens-matched frame guides optical mode. Helpfully, the OVF also changes its magnification automatically when you switch lenses, so you get a broadly more similar view to what your lens sees. Overall it's not quite as natural as a DSLR's reflex system, but it's as good as you'll get on a compact.

Of course, there's also full viewing through the three-inch LCD panel, with an effective resolution of 640 x 480, which we found to be bright and clear when shooting outdoors. It's even usable in direct (albeit British) sunlight, which we guess is at least partly thanks to the RGBW configuration.

Before we get to the controls, a quick word on the lenses: there's already a Leica adapter in case you just happen to have some Leica lenses lying around, and a few others out of Hong Kong, but for now the camera is natively stuck with the three prime lenses for its all-new mount. These are truly delicious: an 18mm f/2.0 lens for your wides, a 35mm f/1.4 beauty for general use and a 60mm f/2.4 for zooms, portraits and macro photography. All these lenses come with quality metal hoods.

What we'd really like is a nice, fast and quiet zoom lens to go with this camera and it's all-new mount, and Fuji assures us that such a thing is in the works. Working with the currently available lenses will reduce your hit-rate if you're not already used to 'thinking' in terms of primes and planning ahead so that you have the right glass equipped for the shot you want to grab. For someone who's been raised on a lazy diet of powerful zooms, this is bloody difficult, but it can hardly be blamed on the X-Pro1. Over time, the discipline required to shoot with primes can only be healthy to learn.

Now, those controls: they're perfect, or at least almost perfect. There's no ISO dial, but we're beginning to realize that Engadget staff may be more concerned about that than the average photographer, because we're forced to take so many close-up shots of gadgets in low-light situations. What we get instead is three other dials that all make a ton of sense for most situations, plus the aperture ring on the lens itself.

The shutter speed dial works exactly like you'd expect, except it has a slightly superfluous lock button to stop you accidentally shifting it out of Auto. To its immediate right sits the exposure compensation dial, which feels like a more natural part of the workflow as result of not being a two-stage setting like on many other compacts and DSLRs. The dial is too easy to knock accidentally, but only until you learn to be a bit careful.

At the back of the camera is a mystery dial that at first seems to be useless -- especially when you make a habit of never reading the manual. But when you discover what it does, there's a genuine "Oh, right!" kind of moment. This dial works hand-in-hand with the Q button, which brings up a quick settings screen. This screen is comprehensive rather than customizable: every likely adjustment is offered; you use the direction buttons to navigate the grid and select the one you want to change; finally you twiddle the anonymous dial to choose the right setting. You don't have to accept your changes, which means that all these settings are brought within a three-step reach. Three separate actions just to change ISO or white balance might sound like a lot, but the point is that you can access them without taking your eye away from the viewfinder (because the Q screen appears as an EVF overlay as well as on the rear panel) it works a treat.

In addition to Q, there's also an assignable Fn button next to the shutter release. You can stick ISO or any other function on this button instead if you prefer, but it won't really speed things up: it's still a three-stage process to hit Fn, select ISO with the arrow keys and then hit Menu / OK to accept. Other functions will have less steps and therefore make more sense, such as depth of field preview.

It needs to be said that the X-Pro1 with the prime lenses doesn't auto-focus as fast as a regular DSLR kit, especially in low light, and the focusing is noisier too. You could spend $1,000 on a Nikon D5100 and a fast lens and get better AF performance, including the ability to get macro shots without having to tell the camera first. There's something slightly icky about that thought, and it's a reminder that our skeptical photojournalist friend might have a point -- in fact, the slow autofocus was also one of her biggest criticisms. It's so bad the continuous focus mode seems almost redundant -- we couldn't use it to track anything, even the object was right in the center of the frame. The shot above was taken with continuous focus, and neither the guy nor the houses are sharp.

Shooting from a standing start was less rapid -- it took around five seconds to power up, focus through the EVF and snap a shot. Using the OVF or rear LCD reduced that to four seconds. This is all way slower than the Sony NEX-7, for example.

Meanwhile, the Drive performance was great. Shooting RAW+Fine duplicates at the 6fps drive mode setting, we fired off 11 shots in 1.8 seconds before the buffer filled up, which is just under 0.2 seconds between each shot. Shooting Fine JPEGs we could keep going, achieving 37 images in the space of 11 seconds, with slightly inconsistent gaps between each shot, ranging from 0.1 to 0.4 seconds.

Another positive is the battery life: we repeatedly lost track of it, for the simple reason that it lasted so long. As these words are being written, the camera has been used on five separate occasions over four days without being recharged, with 680 Fine JPEGs, 100 RAW images and four minutes of 1080p video captured. The battery still shows two out of three bars. It took another 11 minutes of 1080p to finish it off.

The X-Pro1 does crash occasionally -- three times for us so far. We simply loosened the battery to restart the camera, and it wasn't so annoying because we tended to be previewing images when it happened. Hopefully it's something future firmware updates will fix; Fujifilm has a decent track record in that respect.

Ah yes, the magic ingredient: the X-Pro1's bespoke Fuji X-Trans CMOS sensor. It's the right size for the resolution: anything smaller than APS-C would make the 16 megapixels too crowded, while anything bigger would make focusing even harder. More importantly, though, it delivers surprising results: images you just could not predict and that you almost don't deserve. If you've ever taken a shot on celluloid, processed it and then thought "Wow, did I shoot that?" then you'll know what we're on about. If photography were an Olympic sport, this sensor would be the equivalent of nandrolone.

In our hands, clumsy shots were transformed into hobby-level art. In the hands of a street-fighting pro like Steve Huff (see the More Coverage link), the results are just awesome. Why? Well, maybe it has something to do with the extra randomness in the sensor's array of red, green and blue pixel units.

Regularly arranged color pixels can cause moire interference and false colors, which forces manufacturers to send light through an optical low-pass filter before it reaches the sensor. Like Nikon's D800E, the X-Pro1 does away with that filter, but due to the random pixel arrangement Fuji claims we should see all the benefits and none of the drawbacks of that omission. Certainly, we saw no moire patterns in our shots -- just wonderfully sharp images with incredibly stable colors that bring a sense of un-realness in the same way that celluloid used to.

We didn't mess too much with the in-camera digital filters, which promise to replicate the look of different Fuji film stocks. Those kinds of things can be done in photo editing software afterwards, but nevertheless it was nice to have these options and play with them occasionally to add some subtle nostalgia.

Images at high ISO settings were pretty good compared to other compacts we've reviewed, including the NEX-7 and the G1 X. Shots at ISO 3200 looked fine, and where we did spot grain at higher sensitivities it had a pleasant mottled look to it -- in keeping with the X-Pro1's analog vibes. We wouldn't reel 'em off at ISO 25600 necessarily, but there's nothing scary about 6400 or 12800.

Video was less exciting. It was just typical compact camera 1080p, with handheld wobble creating all the usual rolling shutter problems, and with slow autofocus and a bit too much hunting. If tripod-mounted and set to manual focus the X-Pro1 could potentially yield decent results, but how many people will use it like that? Ultimately, Fuji has just tacked on video recording because it felt it had to, relegating it to a slot at the bottom of the drive settings menu, and we'd just as happily have gone without it.

We've got a feeling that many people who buy the Fuji X-Pro1 will do so for its particular build as well as for the output of its unusual sensor. Since both those things are subjective and hard to quantify, it makes sense to leave them aside and compare the camera against its rivals based on more concrete specs.

This brings up obvious comparisons with the Micro Four Thirds Olympus OM-D E-M5, priced at $1,000 body-only, and the Sony NEX-7 at $1,200. We haven't reviewed the OM-D yet, but our preview hinted at promises of much better autofocus. It also has five-axis image stabilization and our few test shots revealed very good high ISO performance too. The OM-D also has a faster 9fps burst mode, is drastically cheaper and overall promises to be a real challenger to the X-Pro1's perhaps more emotional virtues. On the other hand, the X-Pro 1 puts more manual controls at your fingertips, and for a lot of people that's a primary concern. The upcoming fight between these two cameras ought to be on pay-per-view.

And the NEX-7? We were smitten with it, but it's already starting to lose some of its luster compared to newer competitors. It has 10fps continuous shooting, great battery life, decent high ISO performance and EVF, but none of that elevates it above either the OM-D or the X-Pro1. Its real advantage over the X-Pro1 is the $500 savings, but then the OM-D threatens in that area too.

Another option is the X100, which has accumulated many steadfast fans due to its quality optics and goes for around $1,000. It has the same hybrid OVF/EVF in its favor, a much lower price (especially now), and primarily only loses out in terms of its less impressive sensor.

Lastly, there has to come a point where you look at what a DSLR can deliver. $1,700 can buy you a weather-sealed Nikon D7000 or a Canon 7D with cash left over for a decent lens. These cameras will deliver superior autofocus performance, less noise and quicker burst rates. The only sacrifice is the size and weight -- so you have to find those two things seriously off-putting before you rule them out.

The Fujifilm X-Pro1 is a work of art, and like any masterpiece there'll be some who hate it and others who get into heated bidding wars. If you're sensible and price-conscious, then by rights you should be waiting for the auctioneer to bring out the Olympus OM-D E-M5. Or you should be looking at the X100, or even considering a DSLR, before investing this amount of money. But if the retro form factor befits your personality, you have an abundance of cash and you care about the subtleties of the sensor's output, a powerful viewfinder and great controls, then there's every reason to buy in.

Zach Honig contributed to this report.

View the original article here

Fujifilm X-Pro1 mirrorless <b>camera review</b>

Hear any mention of retro-styled cameras with exorbitant price tags and it's hard not to get suspicious. That kind of talk brings to mind Leica's incessant re-branding of Panasonic Lumix models, or those unicorn limited editions out of Japan that just leave us baffled. But it's okay, you can relax with the Fujifilm X-Pro1. At $1,700 for the body only it's crazily expensive, sure, but not when you compare to an $8,000 Leica M9-P. Besides, it's a legitimate heir to a strong line of Fuji shooters that includes the much-loved X100 and the more accessible X10. That's a strong pedigree, and no matter how deeply you peer into its mirrorless aperture, the X-Pro1 should offer up enough technology to stop you being cynical.

Like what, you ask? Well, a genuinely surprising bespoke 16-megapixel APS-C sensor, for starters, plus a hybrid viewfinder designed to keep everyone happy all of the time, and a Fuji X lens mount that already has a Leica M9 adapter available (plus others, like Nikon, if you scan eBay). It all adds up to something special, but before you go tweeting this article to whimsical rich uncles, there are also some complicating factors you ought to be aware of. Even in a utopian paradise where everyone could afford this sip of photographic luxury, it's far from certain whether everyone would choose it over other interchangeable lens cameras. Read on past the break and we'll explain why.

Unboxing could be a full-on culture shock for the uninitiated. The X-Pro1 is designed to appeal to rangefinder lovers who dig over-sized control wheels along with over-sized everything. That's not everyone's tipple: we gave the camera to a seasoned photojournalist freshly returned from the Middle East who normally shoots on a Nikon D3, and she was repulsed. In her mind, it was too big to be a compact, too conspicuous, and too retro for her: "I'd be embarrassed if other photographers saw me with this."

That said, it's all subjective. Yours truly also has a foreign news background, though I've generally shot video rather than stills, and I experienced no such allergic reaction. On the contrary, the X-Pro1 brought back memories of when my first employer sent me off with a celluloid Nikon F3 to "go and learn about lenses." Yes, I was surprised by the size: at 140mm (5.5 inches), the body is significantly wider than the new Olympus OM-D Micro Four Thirds camera and 20 percent wider than even the non-ILC Canon G1 X.

No one could dispute that the X-Pro1 is solidly built and surprisingly lightweight for its size -- around 650 grams (1.4 pounds) with the 35mm lens attached, and easily usable with one hand. However, despite all its volume and mass, this camera is not weather-sealed, which will put some serious photographers off from the get-go.

The moral of the story? You need plenty of hands-on time with this camera before you take the plunge, and you need to be clear on what type of (hopefully dry) applications you want it for. Oh, and don't feel obliged to splash extra on the LC-Xpro1 leather case if you already use a camera bag -- it isn't strictly necessary considering the natural sturdiness of the chassis, and it perhaps pushes the retro thing a tad too far. On the flip side, it'd go great with safari shorts.

One of the biggest contributors to the X-Pro1's size (and no doubt its price) also happens to be one of its most useful specs: the hybrid viewfinder, which has been carried over from the X100. It simply caters for any possible situation, by allowing you to switch between optical and electronic modes. Optical gives you the brightest and most direct view of your subject because you're looking at them straight through a piece of glass. Electronic mode, which has an 800 x 600 resolution (or 1.4 million dots), gives you the most precise preview of your final image, with framing and focus displayed before you press the shutter. Both modes can be overlaid with all the information you need, including a live histogram, spirit level and lens-matched frame guides optical mode. Helpfully, the OVF also changes its magnification automatically when you switch lenses, so you get a broadly more similar view to what your lens sees. Overall it's not quite as natural as a DSLR's reflex system, but it's as good as you'll get on a compact.

Of course, there's also full viewing through the three-inch LCD panel, with an effective resolution of 640 x 480, which we found to be bright and clear when shooting outdoors. It's even usable in direct (albeit British) sunlight, which we guess is at least partly thanks to the RGBW configuration.

Before we get to the controls, a quick word on the lenses: there's already a Leica adapter in case you just happen to have some Leica lenses lying around, and a few others out of Hong Kong, but for now the camera is natively stuck with the three prime lenses for its all-new mount. These are truly delicious: an 18mm f/2.0 lens for your wides, a 35mm f/1.4 beauty for general use and a 60mm f/2.4 for zooms, portraits and macro photography. All these lenses come with quality metal hoods.

What we'd really like is a nice, fast and quiet zoom lens to go with this camera and it's all-new mount, and Fuji assures us that such a thing is in the works. Working with the currently available lenses will reduce your hit-rate if you're not already used to 'thinking' in terms of primes and planning ahead so that you have the right glass equipped for the shot you want to grab. For someone who's been raised on a lazy diet of powerful zooms, this is bloody difficult, but it can hardly be blamed on the X-Pro1. Over time, the discipline required to shoot with primes can only be healthy to learn.

Now, those controls: they're perfect, or at least almost perfect. There's no ISO dial, but we're beginning to realize that Engadget staff may be more concerned about that than the average photographer, because we're forced to take so many close-up shots of gadgets in low-light situations. What we get instead is three other dials that all make a ton of sense for most situations, plus the aperture ring on the lens itself.

The shutter speed dial works exactly like you'd expect, except it has a slightly superfluous lock button to stop you accidentally shifting it out of Auto. To its immediate right sits the exposure compensation dial, which feels like a more natural part of the workflow as result of not being a two-stage setting like on many other compacts and DSLRs. The dial is too easy to knock accidentally, but only until you learn to be a bit careful.

At the back of the camera is a mystery dial that at first seems to be useless -- especially when you make a habit of never reading the manual. But when you discover what it does, there's a genuine "Oh, right!" kind of moment. This dial works hand-in-hand with the Q button, which brings up a quick settings screen. This screen is comprehensive rather than customizable: every likely adjustment is offered; you use the direction buttons to navigate the grid and select the one you want to change; finally you twiddle the anonymous dial to choose the right setting. You don't have to accept your changes, which means that all these settings are brought within a three-step reach. Three separate actions just to change ISO or white balance might sound like a lot, but the point is that you can access them without taking your eye away from the viewfinder (because the Q screen appears as an EVF overlay as well as on the rear panel) it works a treat.

In addition to Q, there's also an assignable Fn button next to the shutter release. You can stick ISO or any other function on this button instead if you prefer, but it won't really speed things up: it's still a three-stage process to hit Fn, select ISO with the arrow keys and then hit Menu / OK to accept. Other functions will have less steps and therefore make more sense, such as depth of field preview.

It needs to be said that the X-Pro1 with the prime lenses doesn't auto-focus as fast as a regular DSLR kit, especially in low light, and the focusing is noisier too. You could spend $1,000 on a Nikon D5100 and a fast lens and get better AF performance, including the ability to get macro shots without having to tell the camera first. There's something slightly icky about that thought, and it's a reminder that our skeptical photojournalist friend might have a point -- in fact, the slow autofocus was also one of her biggest criticisms. It's so bad the continuous focus mode seems almost redundant -- we couldn't use it to track anything, even the object was right in the center of the frame. The shot above was taken with continuous focus, and neither the guy nor the houses are sharp.

Shooting from a standing start was less rapid -- it took around five seconds to power up, focus through the EVF and snap a shot. Using the OVF or rear LCD reduced that to four seconds. This is all way slower than the Sony NEX-7, for example.

Meanwhile, the Drive performance was great. Shooting RAW+Fine duplicates at the 6fps drive mode setting, we fired off 11 shots in 1.8 seconds before the buffer filled up, which is just under 0.2 seconds between each shot. Shooting Fine JPEGs we could keep going, achieving 37 images in the space of 11 seconds, with slightly inconsistent gaps between each shot, ranging from 0.1 to 0.4 seconds.

Another positive is the battery life: we repeatedly lost track of it, for the simple reason that it lasted so long. As these words are being written, the camera has been used on five separate occasions over four days without being recharged, with 680 Fine JPEGs, 100 RAW images and four minutes of 1080p video captured. The battery still shows two out of three bars. It took another 11 minutes of 1080p to finish it off.

The X-Pro1 does crash occasionally -- three times for us so far. We simply loosened the battery to restart the camera, and it wasn't so annoying because we tended to be previewing images when it happened. Hopefully it's something future firmware updates will fix; Fujifilm has a decent track record in that respect.

Ah yes, the magic ingredient: the X-Pro1's bespoke Fuji X-Trans CMOS sensor. It's the right size for the resolution: anything smaller than APS-C would make the 16 megapixels too crowded, while anything bigger would make focusing even harder. More importantly, though, it delivers surprising results: images you just could not predict and that you almost don't deserve. If you've ever taken a shot on celluloid, processed it and then thought "Wow, did I shoot that?" then you'll know what we're on about. If photography were an Olympic sport, this sensor would be the equivalent of nandrolone.

In our hands, clumsy shots were transformed into hobby-level art. In the hands of a street-fighting pro like Steve Huff (see the More Coverage link), the results are just awesome. Why? Well, maybe it has something to do with the extra randomness in the sensor's array of red, green and blue pixel units.

Regularly arranged color pixels can cause moire interference and false colors, which forces manufacturers to send light through an optical low-pass filter before it reaches the sensor. Like Nikon's D800E, the X-Pro1 does away with that filter, but due to the random pixel arrangement Fuji claims we should see all the benefits and none of the drawbacks of that omission. Certainly, we saw no moire patterns in our shots -- just wonderfully sharp images with incredibly stable colors that bring a sense of un-realness in the same way that celluloid used to.

We didn't mess too much with the in-camera digital filters, which promise to replicate the look of different Fuji film stocks. Those kinds of things can be done in photo editing software afterwards, but nevertheless it was nice to have these options and play with them occasionally to add some subtle nostalgia.

Images at high ISO settings were pretty good compared to other compacts we've reviewed, including the NEX-7 and the G1 X. Shots at ISO 3200 looked fine, and where we did spot grain at higher sensitivities it had a pleasant mottled look to it -- in keeping with the X-Pro1's analog vibes. We wouldn't reel 'em off at ISO 25600 necessarily, but there's nothing scary about 6400 or 12800.

Video was less exciting. It was just typical compact camera 1080p, with handheld wobble creating all the usual rolling shutter problems, and with slow autofocus and a bit too much hunting. If tripod-mounted and set to manual focus the X-Pro1 could potentially yield decent results, but how many people will use it like that? Ultimately, Fuji has just tacked on video recording because it felt it had to, relegating it to a slot at the bottom of the drive settings menu, and we'd just as happily have gone without it.

We've got a feeling that many people who buy the Fuji X-Pro1 will do so for its particular build as well as for the output of its unusual sensor. Since both those things are subjective and hard to quantify, it makes sense to leave them aside and compare the camera against its rivals based on more concrete specs.

This brings up obvious comparisons with the Micro Four Thirds Olympus OM-D E-M5, priced at $1,000 body-only, and the Sony NEX-7 at $1,200. We haven't reviewed the OM-D yet, but our preview hinted at promises of much better autofocus. It also has five-axis image stabilization and our few test shots revealed very good high ISO performance too. The OM-D also has a faster 9fps burst mode, is drastically cheaper and overall promises to be a real challenger to the X-Pro1's perhaps more emotional virtues. On the other hand, the X-Pro 1 puts more manual controls at your fingertips, and for a lot of people that's a primary concern. The upcoming fight between these two cameras ought to be on pay-per-view.

And the NEX-7? We were smitten with it, but it's already starting to lose some of its luster compared to newer competitors. It has 10fps continuous shooting, great battery life, decent high ISO performance and EVF, but none of that elevates it above either the OM-D or the X-Pro1. Its real advantage over the X-Pro1 is the $500 savings, but then the OM-D threatens in that area too.

Another option is the X100, which has accumulated many steadfast fans due to its quality optics and goes for around $1,000. It has the same hybrid OVF/EVF in its favor, a much lower price (especially now), and primarily only loses out in terms of its less impressive sensor.

Lastly, there has to come a point where you look at what a DSLR can deliver. $1,700 can buy you a weather-sealed Nikon D7000 or a Canon 7D with cash left over for a decent lens. These cameras will deliver superior autofocus performance, less noise and quicker burst rates. The only sacrifice is the size and weight -- so you have to find those two things seriously off-putting before you rule them out.

The Fujifilm X-Pro1 is a work of art, and like any masterpiece there'll be some who hate it and others who get into heated bidding wars. If you're sensible and price-conscious, then by rights you should be waiting for the auctioneer to bring out the Olympus OM-D E-M5. Or you should be looking at the X100, or even considering a DSLR, before investing this amount of money. But if the retro form factor befits your personality, you have an abundance of cash and you care about the subtleties of the sensor's output, a powerful viewfinder and great controls, then there's every reason to buy in.

Zach Honig contributed to this report.

View the original article here

The cure for the VLC 2 audio skipping problem

The audio problem in the VLC Player 2.2 that causes the sound to drop out every few seconds can be cured very easily:

Simply Un-check "Enable Time-Stretching audio" under audio settings in the Prefs.

That's all folks:-)

How to Organize and Produce a Church Photo Directory for Free

Creating a church photo directory has many benefits.

* It is a great aid for pastors and families to remember who is who

* The entire congregation can benefit from photo directories, in that they can keep in touch with other people easier, and learn about others in the community.

* Staff members find the photo directories invaluable in that they can add notes to certain people, and then visually remember what role(s) those individuals play within the Church

Producing a photo directory is rather easy, but here are a few things you should do first.

* Talk with your priest/pastor/bishop about organizing a photo directory shoot, and organize one day when you will do nothing but take pictures. You need the help of the priest so that he/she can announce the photo shoot several weeks in advance, so that everyone can make sure that they can attend. As well, of course you want everyone wearing their Sunday Best!

* Find someone to take pictures. You can either find someone within the congregation, or hire a professional photographer. Advantages of in-house photography is that you can save some money, i.e., it's free. Plus, nowadays, pretty much any digital camera can take the kind of quality pictures that you need.

* However, in some cases you might want a bit higher quality if you can't find someone within your congregation. Professional photographers generally know how to bring out the best smiles in individuals, plus know what kind of lighting is necessary to create the best looking pictures. So you should decide whether someone within the congregation has the expertise you need to take high quality photographs, or look at hiring someone else.

* Send out an e-mail reminder to remind individuals and families of the photo shoots, or announce it several weeks in advance, every Sunday.

Now that you have the photographs, if you'd like to create a photo directory for free, you can do it this way.

Free Method

* Use something like Microsoft Word (or any word processing application such as OpenOffice)

* Create a table, and divide the table into sets of 2 columns. (For example, if you wanted a photograph on the left hand side, and text on the right, you would make it two columns. If you wanted two sets side by side, then you would make it four columns)

* Cut & paste the photographs into Microsoft Word. Resize them so they fit, and add the information.

* Make sure you organize everything alphabetically!

* Add pertinent information, such as the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the families you wish to add.

Alternatively, if time is important to you, and you want something that you can edit easily later on down the road, you might consider a professional photo directory application. Advantages include the following:

* It is much faster, you just import the photographs, and then the software automatically resizes it.

* Easy to edit/make changes - If you add new members, you can generally just insert the member where you want them to appear. Doing it manually might take a while, because you would need to shift everything around.

* Many other uses. Software can allow you to keep track of extra information (phone numbers, e-mail addresses, etc), customize the look & feel of your directory, plus much more. Doing it by hand would take some time

* Plus many more benefits, depending on your needs

Creating a church photo directory is a pretty simple and straightforward process. Just make sure you organize a time and date with your priest/pastor/bishop to take the photographs. Then, download all the photographs to a computer, import them into a word process or a photo directory application. Organize it, print it off, and then enjoy all the compliments you get for a beautiful photo directory!

Now of course you can create a photo directory for free. But it can be time consuming, and extremely frustrating if you have a lot of pictures and are trying to do it by hand. Why not get this church directory software that makes creating photo directories a breeze? It has been picked by the Top 3 Churches in the world, every year, for the last 7 years for making church photo directories, and is currently in use by 1000's of churches worldwide. See which software has made such a difference. Click here now

Selecting Custom Photo Playing Cards

You have decided to give photo playing cards at your wedding or party and want to make sure that they turn out well. Here are a few tips for success:

Start with a good photo. This is probably the most important step because the end result depends on your photo choice.

Select a photo that best represents you. Your guests will have these photo playing cards for a long time, so you will want to choose an image that portrays who you are. Many couples use an engagement picture, while others use a casual photo where the subject(s) appear very natural.
Decide upon the orientation of the photo. If you prefer a full body shot, than a vertical image is best. If the photo is more of a close up and is wider than it is long, a horizontal orientation will work well.
Focus on the face. A standard playing card is small, fitting into the palm of your hand, so close-ups work best. A photo from the waist up tends to allow the face or faces to be truly visible and clear.

Scan your image. You will want to use a high-resolution setting when scanning your image. Experts suggest a minimum of 300 dpi, which stands for "dots per inch." If you don't have access to a scanner, many office supply stores are able to scan your photo for a small fee. Fed Ex Kinkos and Office Depot offer this as a service.

Request a sample before placing an order. Photo quality can vary greatly, so you will want to get an actual card, from a previous order, in your hands. This will allow you to judge photo clarity.

Determine if and where you would like the personalization displayed. Most people like the copy on the bottom of the card. Be sure to limit the amount of information you include to the name of the guest of honor, event and date. This will prevent you from ending up with very small words or having the words interfere with the photo.

Give yourself time to order. Product of photo playing cards can take up to three weeks, so you will want to get started earlier than later. Include time for shipping when determining your timeline.

Ensure that you receive an email proof of your playing card image. It should include both the image as it would be displayed on the cards as well as your message.

Joyce Kreger is a party planner and recommends these custom photo playing cards offered at Cool-Party-Favors.com.

DIY Holiday Photos

The holiday season is upon us! For any of you camera enthusiasts out there, this is the perfect time to put those cameras to good use. Use photos to show and tell people about your holiday traditions, whatever you celebrate this time of year. It's the perfect time to take advantage of the free on-camera talent that you have - your family and friends!

Here are some tips on how to capture your next holiday get-together using your point-and-shoot camera.

Photographs Tell Stories

The whole point of documenting an event in a powerful way is to tell a story in pictures. Like all stories picture stories have a beginning, a middle and an end that take people through the experience. If they weren't there, you want them to feel as if they were. If they were there, it reminds them of the experience in intimate, loving detail.

Many people celebrate many holidays during this time of year, but let's use Christmas as one example of a popular holiday gathering because most people know the general events surrounding the holiday:

1) Check your gear - make sure you have enough batteries and space on your memory card. Bringing a tripod may be cumbersome, but if you don't mind the extra weight, it's good to have. For various alternatives to tradition tripods, see the Resources section at the bottom of this post.

2) Let people know what you're doing-"I'm going to be taking photos for a slideshow for later," or "I'm creating a Christmas story book we can all enjoy." This helps people relax and enjoy the spirit of the event when they know what you're doing with the photos.

The Beginning, Event and End

All good stories have an introduction, a main event and an ending or conclusion. For the photographer, this means shooting photos that show each of these phases.

THE BEGINNING - When photographing your event, there are several types of photos or shots that will anchor your storytelling. These are called: Establishing shots and consist of portraits, detail photos and pre-event or preparation photos. The various kinds of establishing shots tell the beginning of your story. They not only introduce the viewer to your story, they set the mood for the story.

To document an event most effectively, you have to get there early, at least an hour before it begins. Begin putting your story/day together by taking "Establishing shots." These will set the time and location for your photo documentation. Establishing shots put the rest of the photos that you'll be taking in the right context for what you do with the photos later, such as creating a photo album, photo book or slideshow.

Examples: Wide shot of your mom's house / A highway sign that says, "Welcome to Townsville," or a shot of your parents opening the door.

Preparation Shots - When there's a big event, there's always preparation in the background. This is a good time to take some candid shots of people getting ready before the big event so your viewer feels the excitement and anticipation begin to build.

Examples: Mom taking the turkey out of the oven / Kids sneaking under the Christmas tree / People getting dressed or ready for the big day, especially if they rarely get dressed up (teenagers, children, etc). Think fun and silly.

Detail Shots - Your photos don't have to have people in them all the time and it's better if they don't. Details shots will help enhance the flow of your photos and give viewers a chance to appreciate the details of the day. Detail shots can help evoke a mood or emotion as well. You'll shoot these throughout the day, not just in the beginning.

Examples: Shots of decor in the house, like twinkling Christmas lights / Close-up of hands breaking an egg and other food shots / Shot of window looking out / A family pet sniffing presents / Shots establishing the weather - snow or frost on a window or ledge, leaves changing color in a tree in the yard / Flowers or candles / The centerpiece on the table or the table set and waiting for guests to arrive.

Portraits - Portraits help remind everyone of who was at the event. A group shot, or poised portraits are great, but candid shots are more fun and interesting for the viewer. Think natural light and candid shots as well as posed portraits. Use light coming in through windows, firelight and lights from sources in the room more than you use flash. You'll tend to capture some of your best portraits when people are unaware you're there. Hard to do, but so worth it! You'll also shoot these throughout the day as well. They can be hard to get if you wait, so shoot them as you see them.

Examples: Close-up of someone unwrapping a present/ Staring thoughtfully into the fireplace or out a window/or admiring the tree / Portraits involving parent and child / children playing or sleeping / Think about a portrait of carving the turkey or ham.

THE MAIN EVENT -This is the moment of truth. As a storyteller, it is best to be an observer at this point, watching reactions and grabbing photos of the emotions you see - surprise, laughter, joy, tears and smiles. Don't be afraid to walk around and document what you see, but don't be in your subject's face. Being too obvious with your camera will take away the spontaneity, and probably their enjoyment of the event. There's not much to photograph when people are eating, so sit down and be a part of the event.

Examples: Unwrapping or handing out of gifts / Family pets playing with wrappings / Goings on of people during event / The interaction of babies, toddlers, children and animals / Food being served or eaten / People playing video games, watching television, having snowball fights or playing sports in the yard / People interacting, cooking, cleaning up in the kitchen.

THE END - The end is really the event's conclusion, winding down, or aftermath. The Main Event may fade into the end slowly, or quickly, but keep shooting. Documenting the aftermath will be a good indication of how successful the event was. It is also a great time for photo opportunities. People are happy, engaged and even sleepy as events wind down. The stressful part of the day - the main event, be it dinner or unwrapping presents, or decorating the Christmas tree - is over and people relax.

Examples: Photos of people leaning back at the table talking, laughing or enjoying a cup of coffee, hot chocolate or a hot toddy / Youngsters, exhausted by the day taking time to nap in unexpected places.

Conclusion - You've worked hard on documenting this event and if it stays in your camera all your hard work is just put to waste. Your great story goes untold until you tell it in a book, slideshow or album. While the moments are still fresh in your mind, take time to put them together where people can see, enjoy and share them. You can:

a) Build a photo gallery and share them with everyone.

b) Print them as a coffee table book

c) Make a calendar out of the best photos and give it to your relatives after the event to help them remember the fun all year long.

d) If you really want to have fun, make badges, buttons, bumper stickers or greeting cards out of your photos.

Photos tell the story of our lives and relationships better than words ever can. Photos not only help us connect our customers to our brands, but they help us connect our friends and families to our hearts and memories. May your holiday season be filled with love, memories and photos to last a lifetime.

For more information, visit Donna Santos Photography
http://www.donnasantos.com

Taking Great Photos - Photos With Impact

Do your photos seem flat?

In this modern day of photography, we have more tools available to use, than ever before. But are we putting them to good use? "A picture is worth a thousand words" is a mantra repeated again and again. However, how do we change those thousand words from boring to inspiring?

It is far too easy with all the resources we have, to get caught up comparing megapixels and other technical jargon instead of taking meaningful photos. The digital cameras we have today are brought to life by over 150 years of photographic growing pains. They are good. They are all good.

We can illustrate it by this point. Give the most cutting edge equipment to an amateur. This includes the latest in lenses, camera, filters, and all the other items we are pushed by retailers on a regular basis. Now take an artful professional. Give them a four-dollar disposable camera, and send the two out into the world. Who do you think will end up with the better photos? And why?

The answer is that the person who is more concerned about seeing their subject matter, and creating feeling on film is the one that is going to produce the best photos. Being concerned with 100 different buttons, and settings is going to get taxing and is certainly more than enough to distract and confuse the amateur who is eventually going to resign to have the camera set to "auto."

The fact is that the camera really doesn't matter. It is the person behind it that will make or break any photos that are produced from it. Don't get me wrong, there is a place for the terrific cameras that we have today, and I am not saying that you should junk that DSLR you just gave an arm and a leg for. But what I am saying is that many aspiring photographers would do well to clear their minds of all the rules they are trying to learn, and start to pay more attention to what they see.

Just like we can sit in front of someone whilst they talk to us and not hear a word they say, we can walk past a scene that truly displays beauty and not even notice. We need to listen more than just hear. We need to see, more than just look. Once we see something, we need to learn how to show it best. How to describe this scene; with the photo we will craft in order to best describe a feeling.

Upon starting out in photography, I was sorely mistaken when I thought taking a photograph was about reproducing reality. And this misconception still runs rampant among people with cameras in their hands. We even speak about "normal" focal lengths, as if a photo taken at the right focal length will take a page right from reality its self. This simply is not the case. Have you ever been taken at the beauty of a sunset, and had your camera handy? Perhaps from a trip or vacation you had taken. When you got the film back weeks later, and were eager to show it to friends and family something just wasn't right. Upon sharing the photo, you had to mitigate your own sense of wonder by explaining that perhaps "you just had to be there."

The fact is that they were not there. And they rely on you to tell the story. Unfortunately we often do a better job describing this vocally after the fact, instead of trying our best to get it in the photo. The photo can speak for itself, we know that because they are worth a thousand words remember? So what are your photos saying? What do they say about the mood of the scene? The mystery, or intrigue? Perhaps the playfulness of it all, or the pain and anguish in this fleeting moment on earth? We often call this capturing the moment. What are the thousand words telling us to feel?

This is easier said than done. As I said earlier, photographs are not about reproducing reality. They are about creating it. If your photo has impact, it will create a reality all its own. It might not be exactly as you remember it, but it has the ability to touch, move and inspire you and anyone who looks at it into something more than just a scene on a two-dimensional piece of paper. A photograph can create a new world for the person viewing it, only if it has impact. There are ways of inspiring this, but not until we have unbound ourselves from the boxes we so easily fall into in this information age.

In conclusion, the next time you are going to take a snap, ask yourself what story you are trying to tell, and hot it will make someone looking at your photograph feel.

Learn Nikon is a site devoted to sharing the wonderful passion of photography with amateurs to experts. Focused on being a definitive source for the aspiring photographer who wants to learn about all aspects of crafting great photos. Please visit Learn Nikon Taking Great Photos [http://www.learnnikon.com/impact-photos.php] For more insightful articles. Though the site focuses on Nikon brand cameras, many of the articles are universal.

Using Your Digital Photo Frame As a Motivational Tool

The advances in photography have now reached the stage where its a whole lot easier for many more people to capture, share and store fantastic looking snaps of all their precious moments in life. You can easily manipulate any image you take before printing it off and there is no need to pay for poor quality photographs, which was the case not so long ago.

And now with the advent of the digital photo frame, displaying your digital photos to their best effect has never been easier, nor have the results ever looked better. It's all very well to take thousands of digital images - some of which may be kept on your camera for an eternity, while the rest languish on your desktop computer's hard drive, rarely - if ever, to be seen again. And for those that are actually given life and printed - either at home or work with the trusty Canon digi printer or via an online order at Kodak or one of its many competitors - these are looked at when first received but what happens next? Left in a drawer along with all the others?

It's all changing now though with the digital photo frame. Your photos can now be uploaded directly from your camera, from your computer or from some other form of electronic storage device. And it's easy too - no time to setup, no fiddling about with lots of settings. It's all fairly much a plug-and-play setup, so you don't have to have a university education to figure out what's to be done just to get your photos from one place to the other.

How can the digital photo frame be used as a motivational tool however?

First, where might you want to use it to inspire? At home of course. Imagine getting out of bed in the morning and feeling the need for some inspiration, just to get the creative juices flowing. How about the idea of having a digital photo frame in your bedroom that has a slideshow of some of the most inspirational type photographs that you either took yourself, or you found on the internet and downloaded to your photo frame. You can add in some of your favorite music too - many digital photo frames have this facility.

Or, how about at the office? You need some motivation to get going in the morning so it makes sense to have your own digital frame filled with highly motivational images and captions. You can insert both images and words and make a slideshow of these. A great booster to add to your productive capabilities.

Or, it may simply be that you want to make some new years resolutions or a single resolution and you need a constant reminder about it too. Make up a slide show of images and captions to keep up the motivation to stay on the right track. This will help serve as motivation to push you in the right direction whenever you feel the desire to stray back to the old ways.

There are countless other ways that a digital photo frame can be used as a tool for inspiration, either on the personal or the professional level - it's really a case of using your imagination - use vivid colored images, and/or words that really sink home to make you think deeply each and every time you read them. This way you're getting the best use of your digital photo frame as a motivational tool.

Looking for a great digital photo frame? Just Click Here for more information.

Photo Birth Announcement Time Savers - 6 Fast, Easy Tips

Many new parents are choosing birth announcements with photos to share the good news of their blessed event. But photo birth announcements don't have to be time consuming.  They don't have to be one more complicated thing to do when your baby arrives. In fact, there are surprising stress-free ways to quickly and easily send out photo birth announcements.  

Before the baby is born:

1.  Make a list.  Write down everyone who will receive your photo birth announcements.  You can start with your Christmas or Hanukkah card list, and then add to it.  Do you want to send one to your doctor?  Are there old friends or colleagues you haven't heard from for a long time?  This may be just the opportunity to reconnect.  Make sure all your addresses are current.  Now you have an idea of how many birth announcements you'll need.  Be sure to get a few extra for anyone you might have forgotten and the family scrapbook.

2.  Browse online. There is such a variety of photo birth announcements in every color, theme, size and price imaginable on the internet.  This is the time to find exactly what you want.  If you wait until after the baby arrives, you may feel pressured to settle, just so you can get the announcements out.  But if you do your shopping now, you can find the perfect photo cards for your baby.  If you have enough time, you might even want to request some samples of your favorite designs, so you can examine them in person before ordering.  

3.  Decide on the design and the wording you want.  Although you won't know all the statistics yet, like birth date and weight, you can figure out the rest of the words.  Do you want to include a quote, a poem or some clever play on words?  Some companies are very flexible in what text you can use to personalize your photo birth announcements.

4. Preorder your envelopes.  This is a real time-saver.  Once you have selected your photo birth announcement, you can order the envelopes that match the announcement ahead of time.  Some companies will want you to reserve and pay for your birth announcements in advance, and then will ship your envelopes.  Other companies will "sell" you the amount of envelopes you require and include a coupon that refunds the cost of the envelopes when you are ready to order your announcements. Even if a company does not list this option on their website, most of them will offer this service.  It is well worth taking this extra step.   Then, you can address your envelopes, put stamps on them and have them ready to go.

5. Take lots of photos.  Yes, before the baby is born.  The time to learn all the bells and whistles of your digital camera is before you need to take great pictures.  Practice getting the right shot, so that when your angel arrives, you'll be ready to take awesome photos.

After the baby arrives.

6. Take lots of photos.  And then take even more photos.  Don't worry about how good they are, (you've already practiced!). Just click away.  Then leisurely look through them, choose the best ones, and upload or email them to the company you've chosen to create your photo birth announcements.  Let them know all your statistics and personalization, and wait for them to arrive.  The only thing left to do is stuff the envelopes!

Just imagine how delighted everyone will be who receives your baby's photo birth announcement.  And to think, no one will ever suspect that you did so much ahead of time or that it was this easy!

Linda Kling is the owner of www.photo-party-favors.com, which offers personalized photo favors and custom invitations. Visit her website for more information on photo birth announcements, featuring multiple photos of your baby.

Stay Connected With Online Photo Sharing

Memories play a vital role and they will never fade away. They play a confusing role in everybody's life. Old sweet memories bring tears, laugh, smiles, joy and much more emotions. A picture is worth thousand words. It is true in most of the cases. Being a good digital camera owner, one can diligently record all the events. There may have been several photos and video taken on a special occasion. Until few years back, it was not possible to share on a massive scale with friends and family members living at a distant place. The digital era is here and one can share all the photos and video with the click of a mouse how ever large it may be. Online photo sharing services will keep the people connected sharing each other's memory.

Flickr, Smugmug, Ofoto, dotPhoto, Google Web Albums are some of the portals which enable you to share the photos on web. Certain services will let the user to take print outs. Users have to select the services rightly according to the needs. If the objective is just to share the photos, then any service is good. Some of the common features offered by the online photo sharing portals are:

·        Users can have free account with restrictions to upload limited number of photos

·        Storage is limited with free account

·        Sorting photo options according to category is possible

·        Sharing the albums with friends

·        Adding captions and footer messages

·        Enables slide show of the photos

Those were the days to wait for a longer period of time to see the photos of loved persons staying away. The technology has given us great advancement and enables online photo sharing with which photos can be sent across the globe in a matter of seconds. Most companies allow the users to take print copies and they can order it online. They can just go to the nearby shop to collect the printed copies. How cool is this service? Photos speak volume about the past and the good thing is that the persons may change in the photo but not the photo. It stands for truth and originality.

It is now very easy to create photo album [http://www.glimbus.com] of your own. You just need to sign up for image sharing [http://www.glimbus.com/signup] on the website owned by the writer of this article and start sharing your photos with friends, family and some online colleagues you have.

Scavenger Hunts - How to Find Fun Ideas For a Photo Scavenger Hunt

Photo scavenger hunts can be a great way to get party-goers actively involved in having fun. If you are planning a party for teens or adults, there are many possibilities for coming up with some neat ideas for photos you will have your scavenger hunt participants taking.

If you've never participated in a photo scavenger hunt before, let me explain how it works. Unlike most scavenger hunts where you bring back physical things that you've had to find, with a photo hunt, you just have to bring back a picture. Nowadays, most people will have a digital camera, even if it is just on their phone, so it makes the game easy for everyone to play.

This can change the traditional scavenger hunt game quite a bit. For example, you don't have to send your groups out to photograph different objects they need to find. You can instead have them photograph themselves doing different tasks.

For a bit of retro fun, set each group up with a single Polaroid camera. Since Polaroid film is a bit expensive, you can make thriftiness part of the game, and it will also help keep the game short and fun. Make one of the rules that only a single packet of Polaroid film can be used by each group. So that would be 10 totals photo.

Planning the Photo Scavenger Hunt List

This is where the fun comes in. You should feel free to mix things up a bit. Make a list of tasks that can be done indoors and then some that can be done outdoors. Be sure to pick a couple of challenging locations too. And naturally, most of the stuff on your list should probably be a bit silly. Or if you are having a bachelorette party, you could try for a little risque.

If you find yourself stumped for ideas, think about the kinds of games you played as a kid that were physical and that would probably be pretty funny (and possibly embarrassing!) to do as an adult.

Here's a short list:

Charades
Statues
Pillow Fights
Light as a Feather

Then you task your party-goers with specific instructions based on these games. They go out and play them and bring back photographic proof! For example, have them prove that the party levitation trick (Light as a feather) actually works. Or tell everyone to go out and play Statues as specific types of statues (comic book characters, American presidents, etc). Or have everyone come up with a phrase for charades and then each person has to be photographed doing a different word in the phrase.

I think now you probably have a good idea of what kinds of silly things you can come up with for your friends to do on a photo scavenger hunt, but you can always get more great ideas from my compilation of scavenger hunt lists. There should be enough there to really help get your own creativity flowing.

Jennifer Connolly is a freelance writer who loves to plan parties when she's not busy working.

10 Fun Photo Christmas Card Ideas For Your Family Holiday Greeting

What are you going to do to make this year's photo Christmas cards really stand out?  You don't have to fall back on the same old ideas this holiday.  Here are ten suggestions to help you make this season's family greeting the best one yet.

1. Try a different spin on a traditional theme.  This fall take a picture of the kids with a pumpkin snowman.  Just stack three pumpkins, graduating in size with the biggest on the bottom and their stems removed.  Paint a face on the top pumpkin, carve a small hole to hold the carrot nose, then put a Santa hat or wool cap on top and add a scarf.  If you live near the beach, you can make a sand snowman instead.

2. Transform an ordinary photo Christmas card into a religious one by adding your favorite Bible verse. Look for a company that will let you create your own personalized message, instead of just sticking with the text shown on the sample.

3. Nothing is cuter than a holiday greeting that contains a photo of an adorable animal in a seasonal setting.  The easiest way to achieve this look yourself is to take a picture of your sleeping dog or cat on top a sheet of wrapping paper or under the tree.  Add the caption, "peace on earth" and wait for the "aaaahs".

4. Create a four seasons look with a multi photo Christmas card that has space for four photos.  Then choose pictures of your kids from the past year during the winter, spring, summer and fall. Personalize it with the words, "thinking of you at Christmas...and all year, too!"

5. Is your little one a budding artist?  He or she can help you to create a really unique holiday greeting.  Ask him to draw a picture of the family with crayons. Then, it's your turn to cut out the faces of each family member from snapshots and glue them to the top of the crayon bodies. Take a close up photo of the masterpiece for this year's card.

6. Are you famous for your holiday baking? If you're always being asked for the recipe for one of your seasonal goodies, you can turn that into a fun photo Christmas card.  Write out the directions on a pretty recipe card, then clip a family photo onto the card, perhaps of the kids baking cookies. Be careful not to cover any of the instructions with that picture. You might want to add the words, "wishing you a sweet Christmas".

7. For impact, try black and white with a touch of color.  Your favorite photo with the kids in Santa hats can be changed into an artistic black and white picture with just the Santa hats in red.  Most online photo Christmas card companies will do this for you at no extra charge.

8. Make a statement.  What makes your family tick?  Are you a bunch of beach bums, taking advantage of sun and surf every possible moment in the summer?  Then include photos in your holiday greeting of the kids playing in the waves and building sand castles.  Are you all sports enthusiasts? Then feature action shots of your children playing for their team.  Are you involved in animal rescue, active in politics, big on barbecues, busy selling homemade jewelry at craft shows, passionate about your faith? Find a way to work it into your pictures.  This year, instead of a posed portrait, give people a glimpse into your family dynamics.

9. Send a holiday greeting that takes a trip down memory lane.  For this idea, you will need to select Christmas cards that feature multiple photos.  Choose your current favorite family picture and then add one or more photos of the kids when they were younger for a then and now effect. You might want to ask the card company to change the older photos to black and white or make the current picture larger than the rest. Don't forget to add captions underneath indicating the year the photographs were taken.

10. If you're still looking for a fresh idea for this year's Christmas greeting, then it's time to browse. Start searching through the huge variety of designs in photo holiday cards online until you find one in particular that inspires you.  Maybe it's a candy cane motif and you'll think of posing the kids with comically oversized candy canes.  Or you'll fall in love with one that has a pale blue background with snowflakes, which might lead you to dress the family in shades of blue.  Many times, it's easier to pick out the card first, which will set the tone for the pictures you want to include.

This year you can have an amazing photo Christmas card that gets rave reviews from friends and relatives.  All it takes is a little inspiration and thought to make this season's greeting a one of a kind expression of your family.

Linda Kling, as the owner of http://www.photo-party-favors.com, has offered ideas to people planning celebrations since 1992. She recommends these unique photo Christmas cards. Visit her website for free printable Christmas gift tags, recipes, more.

Now That I've Got My Photos On My Computer

In an earlier article on this site "What to do with all those digital pictures?", we talked about our system of using the marvels of digital photography to take thousands of shots.

We created folders in "our pictures" directory on our computer, one for each month of the year, and simply off-loaded the camera's media into the appropriate month folder as it became full.

This process provided a historical time reference for any photos stored on the computer. In a year or two we could still correlate a specific photo to the month and year in which it was taken. A helpful process for those of us who's memory is starting to get a little wonky!

Now, what to do with all these photos?

Make digital slideshows with them, that's what.

Our "DVD" case is full of home made slideshows created from paper and digital photographs.

Some slideshows contain all the pictures from a complete calendar year, with the months of that year as the chapters for that show.

Others are slideshows of specific events; family gatherings, a trip to Upper Canada Village in Ontario, Canada; you get the idea.

Not only does having slideshows provide hours of entertainment for gatherings at our home, having the slideshows on Cd's provides a back up should any of the original digital or paper pictures be lost.

So, how do you make slideshows?

For those folks that haven't the time, or the inclination to learn some software the easiest route is to contact a provider of digital slideshow services. Their professional experience will ensure an excellent outcome for your shows.

If you are more adventurous, and would like to tackle making slideshows yourself, here are a some tips.

If it's paper photos you want converted into digital, or it's existing digital photos you want converted to slideshow, first select all of the photos in question.

On the back of paper photos, number them from one and up, in the order you want them to appear on your slideshow. Decide if you want on-screen captions for some or all the photos. If so, write the text for that caption on the back of those you wish.

If you are converting paper photographs into digital format, which is necessary for making a slideshow, you will need access to a scanner. If that becomes a bit daunting, reconsider using a service provider. They will be able to handle the scanning of your photographs for you. They can then provide you with an electronic album of your photos, or create the slideshow for you, or both.

For digital pics, select all of the digital photos you want for a particular show, and copy them into a folder you have created for the purpose. Once you have the copies in there, rename them from one and up, in the order you want them presented on your show.

Create a word .doc with the text for each caption beside the corresponding number of your photo should you wish captions visible as the slides are shown.

Do you wish any chapter headings, a cover shot for the slideshow? Make a note of these.

What about music? Select the music you would like as background for your slideshow. Try to get music long enough (or a number of pieces of music that are long enough) to last the length of your show.

Each slide in your show should play for about 6-8 seconds. That's ample time to see the shot and to read the caption without the picture becoming boring. Therefore, if your slideshow has 30 pictures in it, your music selection should be around 3 1/2 minutes.

Please note that if your slideshow is for other than personal use, you cannot use copyrighted music, which is pretty much all the popular music of the day. If your slideshow is for business use, consider finding public domain, copyright free music for your show. It's available if you Google those search terms.

Before you begin building your slideshow, decide if you want voice-over narration instead of word text. Or maybe you want both? Your call.

Limit each of your slideshows to about 3-5 minutes so that viewers don't get trapped into watching for huge lengths of time. Unless they have a vested interest in the show (for example, they were with you on the trip to that luxury resort) most folks won't hold the same interest in your photos as you do.

So how do we convert paper photos or digital photographs into a marvelous screen slideshow that you'll be proud to display for guests or at the next company function?

That's for the next article; "Making a slideshow".

As always, questions about the process are welcome. Feel free to contact us through our website.

Mr. Wade has parlayed a passion for computers, the internet, and digital photography into diverse activities including his own web site that discusses web site building, creating digital slide shows, and crafting Ebooks. He can be contacted via that site: http://www.solid-gold-websites.com

Titillate Your Kids Minds with Word Games

If you think your children play to many computer games - try this trick. Get them to play word games known to both develop kids mentally while improving their spelling. It works!

Spelvin

http://www.deprice.com/spelvin.htm

Spell as many words as you can with 7 letters. Use the Hold buttons and then pull Spin to refresh the tiles you wish weren't there. Play Spelvin as you scramble for words and gamble with Juice to spin for better letters.

Word Mojo Gold

http://www.deprice.com/wordmojogold.htm

Prepare yourself for an exciting new word game that takes spelling and creating chains of words to new levels of fun. Simply create intersecting words over the random colored tiles to acquire 3 or more Mega Mojo Letters and you'll advance to the Mega Mojo round. Exceed your target score each round and you've got major Mojo!

Flip Words

http://www.deprice.com/flipwords.htm

You'll flip over our new word game: Flip Words. Click on letters to make words and solve familiar phrases. The first letter of each word you make will be revealed in the phrase you're trying to solve. Once you recognize the phrase, you can submit your guess or try to reveal all the letters for a special bonus. You'll never run out of phrases because you can create your own and automatically download new phrases created by others. You can even save your game and resume it later!

Jig Words

http://www.deprice.com/jigwords.htm

Click on letters to spell words and reveal fun photos! There are two modes to play: "Jig Words" mode challenges you to find all the possible words and includes exciting "Word Duel" bonus rounds. "Letter Racing" mode places you in competition with 3 other players to see who can make words the fastest! As you make words, you're also revealing hundreds of fun photos and you can even add your favorite photos right into the game. Plus, you can create photo packs and easily share them with your friends and family!

David D. Deprice has long been facinated with word games. He has been following them for years and is proud to boast one of the largest collection of word and spelling games available at http://www.deprice.com/games.htm

Unique Photo Gifts For All Occasions

Photo gifts are a very popular variety of products you can create with a photo image on them and make unique and personalized gift ideas for a variety of occasions. They include items like T-shirts, photo mugs, magnets, calendars and one of the most popular in recent years, USPS photo stamps. When someone receives a photo gift, they feel special because it usually takes more time and thought to look for a particular special photo and have it placed on a stamp or mug. It often takes more effort than just cruising the mall and picking up a gift certificate or a pair of jeans.

Photo gifts are especially good for people with relatives who live far away. Often grandparents are not able to see grandchildren who are growing up in a different state. However, with photo gifts, grandparents can see pictures of the child at all stages of life. For instance, a grandparent could receive a USPS photo stamp with a picture of the grand child holding a piece of artwork they made in class or posing onstage in a play they acted in. With photo gifts, relatives do not have to miss the special moments of another relative's life no matter how far apart they are.

Just think about it; you were about to send a letter to your mother telling her about your 20th wedding anniversary. What better way to really make the message clear than to put a stamp of you and your spouse holding two wineglasses on the very front of the envelope? A picture is worth 1000 words. That's the popular saying. That stamp will say much more than your letter ever could. It will make a wonderful complement to your thoughtful words scrolled on the letter inside the envelope.

If you ever find yourself bewildered at what to get a parent for Mother's Day or Father's Day, photo gifts are a great choice. They are different; they are unique, and therefore they are special. Oftentimes, other gifts degrade over time. Clothing gets old. Candy gets eaten, and jewelry often begins to fade, but a picture, a captured moment in someone's life, lasts a lifetime.

Unique photo gifts make the perfect gift for a friend, relatives, and loved ones. Sometimes people just don't think of giving a photo as a gift. Most people lean toward the usual box of chocolates, sweater or teddy bear. A photo gift often surprises many and warms the heart of all.

Jonathan Plight is an Internet entrepreneur and author who has been published internationally and has written about Men's Unique Gifts and Women's Unusual Gifts.