How To...Take Auto-Focused SLR Shots

Doesn'tthis woman know how to hold a camera?Of course she does,but the AF didn't work when the camera washorizontal, so she's giving it a diagonaltwist (see text as to why).Thereare three grades of AF SLR systems based on autofocussensor complexity: A) Simple single central AFsensor (the viewfinder's AF area is outlined bya smallish rectangle or brackets). B) More sophisticatedmultiple sensors covering an appreciably largecentral area of the picture (with multiple finderrectangles or an enlarged central sensitive rectangleor brackets in the viewfinder). C) The new gee-whiztop-of-the-line multisensors that can switch fromsensor to sensor at your command or to followsubject activity.

Ifyour camera has a single central sensor, makesure you put the central viewfinder AF rectangledirectly over the subject you wish sharply focused.If you don't want the subject in the centerof the picture, focus the subject centrallynevertheless, but then hold focus using yourcamera's autofocus lock, recompose the picture,and then press the shutter release.

Manysingle central sensors are sensitive only tothe vertical lines in a subject: no verticallines, no autofocus. If your camera refusesto autofocus on a subject, turn your camerato a 45-degree angle (as shown in the photoabove) and try autofocusing again. If it nowfocuses, hold focus with the AF lock, recompose,and only then press the shutter release.

SomeAF cameras have AF-aid lights that project aline pattern on the subject to help the sensorfind focus. AF-aid lights usually turn on whenthere is low existing light. While all havea limited distance range, they are neverthelessquite effective within it. If your SLR doesn'thave one, most accessory dedicated AF flashunits do and it often can be used even if youdon't want to shoot with flash.

Multipleautofocus sensors are quite effective in coveringa large area. However, sometimes they don'tknow just what subjects within the area youdo want focused sharply. Some sensors are programmedto focus on the nearest sharply defined image.So a pronounced foreground area may be focusedsharply instead of your slightly more distant,less defined central subject. Wrong-subjectautofocus can also occur with complex groupingsof people at a party where individuals are atvarying distances from the camera. The cameradoesn't know where to focus. Only you do. Eithershift to central AF and lock focus on the subjectthat's important for you or manually selecta specific sensor that covers the importantsubject area.

Withautoswitching multisensor AF cameras, the mostimportant advice we can give you is to read theinstruction book carefully and then try out everyAF feature yourself. These cameras can yield thehighest percentage of successfully focused picturesever, but they do not have brains. Blind faithin multisensor systems is not enough. Use yourhead.

Nowfor some random AF thoughts: Don't grump ifyour camera refuses to autofocus on near impossibletest subjects such as blank walls or venetianblinds. AF sensors hate multiple-lined subjects—likeblinds. Stick to typical subjects you wouldshoot. Other subjects where AF may balk: low-contrastobjects, infinity horizon lines, shots throughglass having reflections.

MostAF sensors won't operate well or at all withlenses having smaller than f/5.6 maximum apertures.

When shooting action with an AF camera, switchfrom single focus to continuous focus—if yourcamera allows the switch.

WhenAF is balky or you have doubts, don't miss thepicture attempting to get it to autofocus. Switchto manual focus immediately!

http://www.ecoustics.com/photo/439

How To Clean SLR Finder Systems

Keep your camera clean and intact.

Do the eyepiece first: A brush, microfiber cloth, or cotton swab is good for the center. You may need lens cleaner to degunk corners.

Now for the viewing screen: Turn camera upside down and give it a blast with an ear syringe or blower brush. Dirt still there? Try a cotton swab (see text).

And now, gulp, the mirror: Start with a brush. Microfiber cloth or cotton swab with lens-cleaning fluid can be used to get rid of fingerprints and the like. But be careful! The mirror is very delicate.

SLR eyepieces inevitably get dirty, dusty, and often smudged with fingerprints or the oil from eyelashes. A gunky eyepiece is hard to see through and can make manual focusing difficult. Luckily, eyepieces are easily cleaned.

Unfortunately, dust and other dirt gremlins also accumulate inside the finder system, often when you change lenses, focusing screens, or prisms. A tiny piece of gunk can land on the mirror and then, when the mirror snaps upward, the gunk is transferred to the viewing screen and beyond. Probably, when you're taking pictures, you can ignore a blob, thread, or whatnot in the finder system. But at other times, when you're looking through the finder the glop is downright annoying. And perish the thought that you have dirt or, worse, a fingerprint on the mirror!

What's the best and safest way to clean inside a finder system? Let a professional repair shop do the work. But if you are handy and feel you must do the cleaning yourself, we'll tell you how we do it. Warning! First, an overenthusiastic cleaning or a heavy hand can put more junk into the finder system. And second, mirrors, all of which are front-coated, are very delicate indeed.

Let's start real easy, with the finder eyepiece, and see if that clears up the problem. Light dust or dirt is always best removed by a good-quality, clean paintbrush or a lens-cleaning brush. A microfiber cloth will usually lift off central fingerprints nicely. To clean the finder corners and remove any muck, including fingerprints, stuck to the glass, use a cotton swab moistened with lens cleaner or denatured alcohol (not rubbing alcohol).

When you look through your viewfinder after cleaning, do you still see dirt or other particles that don't belong? They're probably on the underside of the viewing screen. If your camera has a removable focusing screen, now's the time to remove and clean it with a microfiber cloth, as you would a lens—but lay off any lens cleaner (as we'll soon explain). No changeable screen? Remove the lens, turn your camera body upside down (so any dislodged dust or dirt won't fall back into the camera), and give the underside of the focusing screen some blasts from an ear syringe or blower brush.

Dirt still there? You'll have to go after it with a cotton swab. But keep it dry. Alcohol or even lens cleaner can streak the bottom of the plastic focusing screen. If you look through the finder at the same time you wield the cotton swab, you can see just where the swab head is and pinpoint the position of the dust or dirt. But be careful not to get the swab near the mirror!

Dirt still there? Try again. And don't be surprised if the cotton swab leaves cotton fibers. A blast of air will usually get rid of them.

OK, it's mirror time. A swipe with a brush will usually remove most particles. If there are tenacious bits sticking to the mirror and they don't affect the view, we advise you to leave them there. If it's a prominent fingerprint or the like, gently and oh-so lightly rub with a microfiber cloth or a swab moistened with lens-cleaning fluid or alcohol. Do not apply pressure on the mirror or you may damage it or throw it out of alignment.

We won't wish you good luck with your cleaning. Luck may play a small part, but care is far more important!

And when in doubt about cleaning, don't do it!

http://www.ecoustics.com/photo/440

How To...Use Fill Flash

Get the right exposures for your photos.

Finalcombo: Abackground exposure 1 1/3 stops over thecamera's spotmeter reading maintained aslight backlight effect without blowingout highlights. Flash setting of -1 1/3EV illuminated subject without an obviousflash effect. Combinations in this rangelook most natural.Fillflash is a method of using flash—usually in backlitsituations—so that it doesn't look like flashat all, but a perfectly exposed, ambient-lightpicture. Using fill flash correctly means understandinga single basic principle: every flash shot isreally two exposures occuring simultaneously.

Oneexposure is the ambient exposure. Lightnessor darkness is determined by a combination off-stops and shutter speeds. The other is theflash exposure. Lightness or darknessis determined by flash power and, if your flashis an auto unit, flash duration. You also canvary exposure by changing the distance of flashto subject, or your lens's f-stop. But shutterspeed has no effect on an electronic-flash exposure.

Manycameras today with built-in flash heads do thisbalancing act automatically; you need only setthe camera to fill flash (or pop up the flashhead) and snap away. But for full control overfine-tuning fill flash, you need a dedicatedTTL flash/camera system, or at least a built-inflash allowing flash exposure compensation.Here's how to do it.

1)Set the ambient exposure first; this is thegeneral exposure for the background—sunset,skyline, garden trees, etc. Whatever cameramode you use, make sure the shutter speed selectedis at or below the fastest flash-sync speedyour camera allows.

2)Determine how much fill you want. Usually youdon't want a full flash exposure (unless youwant it to look exactly like a flash shot),but one half, one third, or one quarter of fullexposure. For half intensity, dial in -1 EVof flash compensation; for one-third fill, -11/3 or -1.5 EV; for one quarter, -2 EV.

3) Shoot!

Forgeneric (non-TTL) autoflash units, the methodis slightly trickier:
1) Set the camera to a general exposure for thebackground, as above.

2) Fool your flash unit into thinking you're usinga faster film. The easiest way is to reset thefilm speed dial on the flash: For half flash power,set the flash ISO to double the actual film speed.(For example, if you're shooting 100-speed film,set the flash dial to ISO 200.) For one-thirdflash power, set the flash to 2.5X the actualfilm speed. For one-quarter flash power, set theflash to four times the actual film speed.

3) Shoot!

Youmay have to fiddle with your exposure settingsin this case. Many non-TTL flashes have a limitednumber of autoflash settings available—threeapertures is quite common—so you may have toshift your ambient exposure by means of theshutter speed.

Noteon flash-sync speeds: SLR focal-plane shutterscan synchronize with electronic flash only upto a certain speed. Most newer cameras can syncto at least 1/125 sec; high-end AF cameras oftensync to 1/250 sec. Check your manual foryour camera's top sync speed. If you gofaster than maximum sync speed, you'll get justa band of flash or no flash at all in the picture.

http://www.ecoustics.com/photo/441

How To...Shoot Candids

Learn how to get great candids from the pros.

Topsyain't turvy: Whenshooting from the hip, try holding yourcontemporary point-and-shoot camera upside-downfor better control. On most, the buttonswill fall directly under nimble fingersrather than awkward thumbs.Wantto shoot exciting pictures that can be memorableand fun to take? Shoot candids. Come to thinkof it, how many great pictures of people aren'tcandids?

Themajor problem faced by almost every neophytecandid photographer is lifting the camera toeye level and shooting people—those you knowand those you don't know—without posing themor asking permission. How do you overcome timidity,fear—or sheer panic? Practice! At first, perhapseven without film. Go ahead, you'll find thatfew people bite!

Atleast not hard. You may discover some peopleare disturbed by your shooting. Remedies: Asyou take more pictures in a variety of socialsettings, you'll gain confidence, self-assurance,and will win people over with your enthusiasmand good will. It works every time—almost.

Ofcourse, there are times when you don't wantto attract notice, and blending in is an importantcandid tactic. Don't walk into a room with flashblazing away. Take your time. Linger until youand your camera become part of the scene. Whenpeople become accustomed to you and your gear,they'll accept you and behave naturally whenthe picture-taking starts.

Thebest candids are often made by wading in closewith wide-angle lenses (or zooms)—from 24mmto 35mm. This physical intimacy will carry overvisually to your pictures.

Thetele end of your 70-210mm zoom also has itsplace in candid photography. Try pulling a vignetteor detail from a large crowd scene—two peoplekissing or gesturing in mid-conversation. The210mm setting is perfect for excising just thepictorial elements of interest and croppingaway the rest. Long focal lengths also helpyou keep your distance from people who mightbe distracted by your close presence, a whirringmotor drive, or a clicking shutter. Your lensisn't long enough? How about purchasing a tele-extender?

Foranother fun way to shoot candids, check outour tips for shooting with a concealed camera.

Isthe scene too dicey for a straight candid approach?Conceal your camera! Here's how.

Shootfrom the hip:Hold your camera discreetly by your side andshoot in one direction while looking in another.A wide-angle lens (24-35mm) or setting is bestwhen you can't frame via the finder.

Concealthe camera:The ways for hiding a camera on your personor property are limitless. With a little creativity,you can hide a camera under your clothing, ina hollowed-out book, even in a folded newspaper.

Concealyourself:As suggested, you can hide the camera, but itmay be easier to hide your entire person. Shootfrom a second-story window, a window table ina restaurant or, like Superman, from a phonebooth.

Shootquickly:Discreetly preset focus and exposure, and tryto estimate composition. At the decisive moment,flick your camera up to fine-tune framing andfire.

Shootremotely:A handful of cameras today, in many price ranges,feature infrared remote-release capability.With a tiny transmitter tucked discreetly inyour palm, you can fire a freestanding camerafrom across the room without ever getting nearit.

http://www.ecoustics.com/photo/442

Choosing a Camera for a Long Trip

Why a separate article on choosing a travel camera? Any photographic situation you might encounter when traveling would be better covered in a specialized article about specialized equipment. Getting a good picture of bears in Alaska presents mostly the same challenges as getting a good picture of bears in the local zoo. Getting a perspective-correct image of a church in Paris is the same problem as getting a perspective-correct image of the local Kwik-E-Mart.

What then separates travel photography from home-based photography? You can probably get your 300/2.8 lens down to the zoo. You can probably get your view camera down to the Kwik-E-Mart. But you certainly can't get the right camera for every potential situation into one backpack and carry it around the world.

Picking equipment for a trip is therefore a process of deciding what kinds of images are most important to you and making a conscious decision that you'll leave the rest for another trip.

What Kind of a Trip?

Is a primary purpose of your trip photographic? Or are you going to be gone only a few days with just a few hours in between business meetings? If you're not going to have time to concentrate on photography, then you'll probably get the best results by simply carrying a pocketable point-and-shoot camera.

If you're going to spend an hour or more per day trying to achieve some artistic objectives or seriously documenting your journey, only then is it worth considering taking a camera that won't fit into your shirt pocket.

What Kind of a Point and Shoot Camera?

Suppose that you're really just on a business trip. Read my buying guide to point-and-shoot cameras and pick one. The one additional caveat I have to offer is that P&S cameras aren't very reliable. This isn't such a big problem if you're at home and can just pick up another camera. If I had to rely on a shirt-pocket camera, I'd pick something as simple and expensive as possible. So the fixed-lens Yashica T4 Super or Ricoh GR1 would be reasonable choices.

What Kind of Serious Camera?

First, bring a P&S camera. There will be portions of your trip when you'll be too tired to carry the real camera but ought to be prepared in case an exceptional situation arises.

Second, resist the temptation to bring more than one serious camera system. Sometimes I go away for a few days and take a Canon EOS single-lens-reflex system (plus some 35mm film), a Fuji 617 panoramic camera (plus some 120 film), and a view camera (plus some 4x5 film). This is insanity and, on a short trip, I almost always end up taking 99% of my pictures with the 35mm SLR.

Does that mean a 35mm SLR is right for you? Probably. It works for professional photojournalists. But if what you truly hope to come back with are a few exceptional landscapes then a folding view camera or a medium-format rangefinder camera might be a better choice.

What Lenses for a 35mm SLR System?

If you pick a 35mm SLR, you've got yourself a reliable and comfortable-to-use body. However, you now have to figure out which lenses to buy/bring. Canon makes 50 lenses for its EOS bodies; Nikon makes nearly 100 lenses for its F-mount bodies. You probably can't carry more than 3 or 4.

A tempting decision is to get a single wide-range zoom lens such as Canon's 24-85 or Nikon's 24-120. I'm not a big fan of cheap slow zoom lenses for home-based photography and I'm not convinced that they work so great for travel photography either. What you are trying to capture in that exotic foreign land is the exotic foreign light. If the maximum aperture on your lens is f/4 then you'll be forced to use electronic flash far too often. The light from an electronic flash is the same in Paris and Peoria.

Is your goal to get great portraits? Take an 85/1.8. It is compact and admits more than four times as much light as a mid-price zoom lens. Is your goal to cover some of the cracks in your wall with scenery? Take a 24/2.8. The sharpness in 16x20 enlargements will be acceptable. Want photos taken inside museums where the lighting is subdued? Take a 50/1.4 (works in 1/8th the light of a mid-price zoom lens).

Is your goal to get photos of buildings without converging vertical lines? Take a perspective correction lens (explaining their use is beyond the scope of this article).

Is your goal to get some great photos of the Katmai bears? Take a 300/2.8 lens. Can't afford the $4500 or weight/size given that you're only going to be in Katmai for two days out of a one-year round-the-world trip? Enjoy the bears and buy a postcard. You must make some photographic compromises and expect to walk away from at least 5% of the great photo opportunities.

Oh yes, which brand and model of body? I don't think it makes much difference. I've written about the Canon v. Nikon choice and also try to keep current with a few models in my camera buying tutorial. Just don't get a Nikon N90 and 28-200 zoom lens.

A Tripod

Take a tripod if you possibly can.

What Film?

I wrote a longish piece about film. One item that I'll add for a long trip: stick to one or two emulsions. If you know that you'll want to do a big slide show at the end, then take only slide film. If you think you'll be doing only a Web site then consider color negative film, ISO 400 for everyday use and ISO 800 for low-light. If you're on an artistic black & white inner journey, then limit yourself to Ilford Delta 100 and Delta 400 (for example).

Airport X-Rays

The X-ray machines for carry-on luggage are safe. The X-ray machines for check-through luggage are not safe. Keep all of your film in your carry-on luggage and ask for hand inspection where possible but don't freak out in airports like Heathrow where this is not an option.

What about Digital?

What about a digital camera? You could replace either the point and shoot or the "one serious camera" with a digital camera. Then you wouldn't have to worry about film and X-rays. Also, whenever you can find Internet connectivity, you can share your images with friends.

The main problem with a digital camera circa 2001 is that it will most likely force you into carrying a laptop computer, laptop computer battery, laptop computer battery charger, laptop computer carry case, etc. Instead of shopping for AA batteries in the pulperia and stuffing exposed rolls of film in your pocket for processing and examination back home in Des Moines, you're constantly looking for places to recharge your traveling technology circus and spending evenings editing photos instead of enjoying the nightlife.

If your trip requires you to carry a laptop anyway, a digital camera may make sense. A pocketable like the Canon S100 or Sony DSC-P1 makes a lot of sense. As a travel camera, the bulky "full-size" point and shoot digitals like the Nikon 990 and Canon G1 don't make sense. They are sort of like the gargantuan 38-140 zoom point and shoot film cameras. Too large to put in your pocket and carry at all times; too limited, slow, and cumbersome for creative photography. Most of the single-lens reflex (SLR) digital cameras don't make sense for travel either. Cameras like the Nikon D1 and Canon D30 require you to pack lenses designed for 35mm film cameras. Given the small size of the image sensor in these digital cameras, that is sort of like carrying around a set of Hasselblad lenses for use with a Nikon. It works but why would you want to incur the extra weight, bulk, and expense of lenses designed to cover a much larger negative? Either get an Olympus E-10 with its built-in purpose-built zoom lens or wait until camera companies manufacture complete compact digital SLR systems, with their own lenses.

Trust but verify...

Whatever camera you buy, make sure that you test it before you leave! Expose a roll of color slide film using all the various different exposure, autofocus, and flash modes. Take it to a professional photo lab for 3-hour development. Ask them to look at the slides and tell you whether or not you and your new camera are working together properly.

http://www.photo.net/photo/travel-camera

Cleaning Cameras

Remember that your camera is just a tool. Don't pamper it. You can always buy a new one. If you leave your camera in a closet, it will never get dirty or broken, but you won't have too many great photographs to show for yourself. Many of the best photographs can only be taken under conditions that will render your equipment wet and/or filthy. That's life.

The photo at right was the result of spending six hours at the bottom of a canyon in the Navajo Nation. For the entire six hours, sand blew down from the top of the canyon and into a $20,000 Rollei 6008 system. Was there a sickening grinding sound when I focussed my $3000 50mm lens for the next few months? Yes. Did I have to send the camera back to Rollei USA to be cleaned? Yes. Did the camera get stolen in Filthadelphia a couple of years later? Yes. So it really didn't make sense to obsess over the camera, did it? We can still enjoy this picture even if that 6008 has disappeared. If the camera had been pampered, it would just be in that much better shape for the crook who is using it now.

Lenses

Basic lens cleaning tools are a blower, a microfiber cloth, and lens cleaning fluid (my favorite: Zeiss). Try to blast dust off the lens with the blower or canned air. Finger prints can be removed with a circular wipe of the new miracle micro fiber cloth (my favorite brand is Pentax because it is nice and thick; about $6). Persistent dirt should be removed with lens cleaning fluid, of which the safest is probably Kodak. Always drip the fluid onto the cloth and then wipe the lens; never put fluid directly onto a lens.

Even if your lenses don't look dirty, every few months you should give exposed surfaces a cleaning with Residual Oil Remover (ROR). Even if you were able to protect your optics from all environmental sources of filth, there would still be crud condensing on your optics as camera bag plastics outgas. It is tough to verify ROR's claims, but the optics do look visibly clearer after an ROR treatment and the $4.50 price won't kill you.

If you are going to use an expensive lens in a dusty or wet environment and don't want to obsess over your equipment, keep a B+W UV filter on the lens and count on replacing the filter every year or two.

http://www.photo.net/photo/cleaning-cameras

Tips on Buying a Camera in Japan

What's Available

As one of the photography meccas of the world, you can buy just about anything made for a camera here. I've been here on four previous trips and am now working about an hour outside of Tokyo in Kamakura, so by no means do I know even a large percentage of the camera shops. Here's a general introduction to some shops in Tokyo and the type of equipment they offer. There are three approaches to take when searching for a camera. One, obviously, is to go to a camera shop. The second choice is to visit one of the large chain stores. The last is to go to Akihabara in Tokyo (or Nipponbashi if you're in Osaka).

Akihabara

Practically anything that runs on electricity is sold there. The majority of electronics produced here are not even exported. Unlike in most other shops in this country, bargaining is expected here. Most large stores in Akihabara cater to tourists, meaning there are duty-free floors and salesmen who speak foreign languages (I've even seen one saleman speak Hindi!). From my experience of half a dozen or so visits to Akihabara over the past 4 years, I've found that the price of Japanese-brand cameras are not as competitive as in the large Tokyo chain stores. On the other hand, if you're looking for a tv, vcr, etc, that works with PAL, SECAM, and NTSC or want a tv that allows you to watch a dozen channels simultaneously, this is the place!

Camera Chain Stores

Probably the most well-known electronics chain store in Japan is Yodobashi Camera, which sells everything from cameras to fuzzy-logic rice cookers. Unlike the Akihabara stores, appliances sold here are designed for the domestic market (110V, 50 or 60 Hz). Most of the photography equipment carried here is produced by the Japanese camera giants (Nikon, Canon, Minolta, Kyocera, Pentax). For these brands, the large chain stores probably offer the most competitive prices. I've found that the prices for Nikon and Canon are about the same as compared to New York City mailorder. For example, the new Nikkor 80-200/2.8 zoom costs about 115,000 yen (about $930 USD). The real surprise for me was that although Contax SLR bodies costs about the same as in NYC, the Zeiss lenses, at least the more expensive ones I was looking at like the 100/2.8 macro planar and the 25/2.8 distagon are considerably less. I recently purchased a Contax RX w/ 50/1.4 planar for about 150,000 yen, plus a 25/2.8 distagon for 59,000 yen [$750 in the US], and the 100mm/2.8 macro planar for 138,000 yen [about $1800 in NYC]).

The price of point and shoots seemed to have come down in the past year. Now, the Yashica T4 (called the Kyocera here) with 35mm Zeiss lens is around 19,800 yen. I did purchase a Sekonic 408 lightmeter at Yodobashi in december 1996 for about 35,000 yen, though.

If you are in the market for Mamiya medium format equipment, it is significantly less here than in the States. As of Spring 1998, the 43mm lens was about 185,000 yen, the 65mm was 92,000, and the 150mm was 102,000 yen. I'm told that the Bronicas are also significantly less expensive, too. Pentax medium format bodies seem to be comparably priced to those in America, though I admit I didn't pay much attention to the prices since I was only considering Contax, Hassy, and Rollei for my new system. By the way, the Fuji GA645i's are about 110-120,000 yen depending on which lens configuration you get, and the GA645zi zoom is around 156,000 yen.

Obviously, the prices I have quoted are approximate to give you the idea of the potential savings. For tourists, bring your passport and you don't have to pay the 5% consumption tax. For the locals, there's a Yodobashi "gold point card," which is an account with the store. When you make a purchase they credit 10% of the total, after-tax price to your account towards a future purchase (can be the same day, it just has to be another transaction) if you pay with cash in yen. Yodobashi does accept plastic, but you don't get the full 10% credited to your gold point card.

Speaking of film, there's probably one of the largest selections of film available here in the huge refrigeration section in the basement. A box of Velvia 120 runs 415 yen, while Provia 120 (ISO 100) is 395 yen a box. They are also sold in bulk packs, although you really don't save anything until you buy the vacation-sized 20 box (of 120 film) pack. One note: 220 medium format film is not nearly as popular as 120 film; Yodobashi certainly carries it in their head store in Shinjuku, but it's difficult to find in other stores (the Yokohama Yodobashi store, which is quite large, has been out of Velvia 220 and Provia 220 for at least several weeks), while the smaller independent shops located near train stations are unlikely to carry 220. There is also a good selection of Kodak film, including the new 100S and 100SW films (at least in 120). Other brands are carried, such as Ilford, AFGA, Konica, etc., are also available, as are sheet film, darkroom and image storage supplies, refrigerator-like, de-humidifier units, and 3 (working) day developing.

Camera bags, at least US-made brands like Tamrac, are cheaper in NYC. I've found that developing color prints is more expensive here than in the States. So far, I have yet to find any mailorder laboratories. It costs almost the same per exposure to shoot and develop 6x4.5 color transparency film as it does to shoot 35mm color negative film when you factor in the prints, which are about the same size or smaller than the diminuative 3.5"x5" prints in America. For viewing your color transparencies, I've discovered that the brands of light tables are different than many of those in the US. There's Hama, Fuji Professional, Fuji, Cabin, and assorted others, though the prices of the Fuji Pro and Hama Pro models are in the 30,000 yen and up range (at least they run on 50 and 60 Hz!).

A few European labels are carried here (Leica, Hassy, Rollei), but I've found that independent shops generally have more competitive prices and a better selection of accessories. Yodobashi stores are located all over Tokyo and in other major Japanese cities, but the largest store is probably the Shinjuku store on the west side of Shinjuku station (about 5 min walking from the west exit). There's actually at least three stores clustered in the same area, one that sells cameras, one for video, etc. On weekend afternoons, it's almost as crowded in the narrow alleyways around the store as in the subway cars! To get to the Shinjuku store from the JR lines, follow the signs for the main west exit. You should see a rotary for cars. Veer towards the left and follow the major shopping corridor (used to be a cardboard shanty-town of homeless people until a fire struck last year; it's now boarded up) and head straight until you reach the entrance of the new Keio line. You can take exits 3 or 4 or any other one nearby. Yodobashi is located in the backstreets across from the Lumine store. If you're standing on the corner at the Lumine store, look for the corner with the large Konica sign on top. It's in the backstreets behind the sign. If you're in Yokohama, there are two stores near Yokohama station. Take the west exit from Yokohama station and exit the building until you reach the curb. Walk to the left down the sidewalk into the indoor shopping arcade (Takashimaya Dept. Store is on the right) and stay to the left when the hallway splits. You'll see the store (like 5 m in front of you) as soon as the passage terminates at the street. The second store (annex) is found if you continue to head straight from the station, past Takashimaya, and over the bridge lined bumper to bumper with cars (just follow the crowds), straight down the street on the right side near HMV records. Recently, as of late summer 1998, Yodobashi has begun a web page at http://www.yodobashi.co.jp. Although it's virtually all in Japanese, click over the first few frames until you see the main page with product icons (it may help to change the language encoding on your browser). Under the camera icon, most of their producsts will be listed according to category (the section with products with words "APS" and "35" are the bodies, including medium format), and lenses and film are under a different section. Not all products are listed, but prices are given. Japanese residents can order over the internet, but they still won't ship overseas.

Finally, there are other major chain stores like Yodobashi Camera, Bic Camera being one of them. Although bargaining does not occur at these stores, if you find a lower price at a competitor's store, the other store will presumably match that price. The salesmen in these chain stores tend to speak very little, if any, English since the vast majority of customers are locals. A couple of blocks from the head Yodobashi store in Shinjuku is Sakuraya camera, also another chain store.

Camera Shops

I've found that if you are in the market for a European label such as Leica, Linhof, Hassy, or Rollei, these are the places to go. They generally offer better prices and customer service than what the big chain stores offer. One surprise was with Rollei equipment, which, even after the price reductions in the US, is still less than that in NYC.

There are a large number of advertisements in Japanese photography magazines such as Asahi Camera, but you'll have to be able to read katakana to identify your favorite brand and to read the directions on how to get to the store. All the used equipment, as well as European equipment is advertised in these magazines (the best is Asahi Camera for advertisements). This is where significant savings for Rollei, Leica, and Hasselblad compared to what the chain stores charge can be realized. This is when the hotel staff may be of assistance. I bought a Fuji G617 used in mint. condition (fewer than 50 exposures taken) with case, center filter, and cable for 240,000 yen from Sanwa Shokai, a camera shop in Osaka, via mail. However, buying used via mail is very tricky (for one, you have to be fluent in Japanese); you're best off having someone fluent in Japanese call the shop for you to confirm that the goods are available at the advertised price and then visiting the shop yourself.

Two stores with which I have experience:

• Fujikoshi camera (in the "New Biru" building just west of Shimbashi station on the 2nd floor in the shopping mall, there's also a store in Nihonbashi). The salesman tells me their prices are normally 20% off on lenses/accessories with cash, 15% w/ a credit card. They belong to the distributor network in Tokyo (PROSYS: contact Allan Morrison for information on other dealers, etc. at morrison@gol.com), so if they don't have it in stock, they can probably get it provided it's a weekday. For example, the 90mm Schnedier APO symmar lists for about 495,000 yen, which is 396,000 yen or $3000, compared to $3500 in NYC. Since you're probably a tourist, you might not have to pay the 5% consumption tax. I recently bought a 6008 integral kit with zeiss 80/2.8 PQ planar for 398,000 yen during a special sale. At this time (July 1998), then yen was 146/dollar, so it was about $2700 USD! The 6008i with zeiss 80/2.8 PQS can easily be purchased for around 478,000 yen.
• Lemon Camera in Ginza is a gray market importer of that sells Hasselblad, Leica, Rollei, Linhof, Schneider LF lenses, and misc. imported bags/tripods, etc. The prices on Leica and Hassy seem to be about 10% less than the prices in NYC when you factor in the strong dollar (A Hassy 203 FE w/ 80mm/2.8 and E-12 magazine runs about 695,000 yen for a set, and the basic 503 cw w/ 80mm/2.8 and A-12 magazine can be purchased for about 358,000 yen. These were the prices I found in the summer '98.). Here, you don't have to pay sales tax if you're a tourist, but they lack follow-up service (if you're a tourist, it probably won't matter). Their Rollei prices are the same as what you pay for at the non-gray dealers in town, but their Linhof cameras/accessories cost less. I bought a Linhof profil 2 ballhead for 26,000 yen and a profil 3 ballhead for 41,000 yen, signficantly less than the NYC mailorder prices. Lemon is in Ginza near the JR Yurakucho station. Take the east exit and follow the major road at the south end of the station eastward into Ginza. Cross the major intersection (the Nikon store [sells only used Nikon stuff] is on one corner, the Sony building on the opposite side. Continue straight and make a left on the first sidestreet. It's on the right-hand side on the first, fifth, and eighth floors in adjacent buildings.

http://www.photo.net/photo/japan-buying

Where to Buy a Camera (in the United States)

I want to support photo.net

photo.net was started in 1993 as my personal Web site. Today the site attracts almost 5 million visitors per month and the server processes more than 10 million requests every day. The site has a staff of full-time employees working on editorial, programming, system administration, and customer service. After much discussion with readers in the spring of 2000, we concluded that the best way to keep photo.net alive was referral fees from retailers. So if photo.net has been a valuable resource for you, please help by following one of the following encoded links:

* amazon.com (oftentimes the best price and delivery time)
* Adorama (full-line professional store)

For more specialized needs, here's our original "where to buy" page ...
I want it cheap and fast

You don't have to go to New York anymore. amazon.com sells all of the popular cameras, most lenses, and many accessories. You probably already have an account there and they have more sophisticated credit card fraud system than the New York stores, so your "ship today" order will actually ship today.

If you want to got to New York, we recommend Adorama, which has obscure items that you won't find at Amazon:

Adorama
42 West 18th Street
(between 5th and 6th Avenues)
New York City, NY 10011
US voice (800) 223-2500
overseas voice +1 (212) 741-0052
FAX +1 (212) 463-7223
email: info@adoramacamera.com
www.adorama.com

Many photo.net readers who have never set foot in the United States are satisfied Adorama customers.

One thing that a big New York retailer can do that your local camera shop cannot is to go to Japan or Europe and import cameras themselves. Suppose that Nikon USA is selling F5 bodies to retailers here for $2500. Adorama has enough volume that they can fly to Japan and buy a bunch of F5s from a wholesaler there for, say, $1800 each. They bring them back to the US and sell them as "grey market" (parallel import) for $2200. It is exactly the same camera but you get a lower price. You will miss out on any rebates that Nikon USA is offering and the Nikon USA warranty, though the US retailer will give you its own warranty. Camera bodies are very reliable, lenses are even more reliable, and the authorized importers usually offer extremely slow service to consumers. Hence, it is probably not worth paying more than $25 extra for a "USA" model. Sometimes grey market bodies even have useful features that are disabled in US models due to patent problems.
I want to get screwed

Place an order with any store offering a camera for less than 90 percent of what Amazon is charging. When you have finished reciting your credit card number, they'll say "oops, that price was for the grey market version; right now we only have the US version in stock and that is $200 extra." Another popular fraud is to add a $150 shipping charge to an order for a camera body and two lenses.

You'll find more stories about bad (and good) retailers in the photo.net Neighbor to Neighbor service.
I want to see it in a catalog and have it explained to me

Try Calumet, based in Chicago at 1-800-CALUMET. Their sales people tend to be patient and experienced. Calumet caters to professionals and studio photographers. Calumet is not competitive for common items such as the Canon or Nikon systems. They tend to push their house brands even when the consumer would be better served with a name-brand product. For example, their view cameras aren't much cheaper than equivalent Sinar products, but any working photographer would be much better off with Sinar (see "Choosing a Large Format Camera"). A friend bought two of their house-brand flash packs. They had some nice electronic features and were a bit cheaper than equivalent name-brand flashes, but neither triggered reliably when one hit the test button or used the sync cord. By contrast, I've seen lots of cheap strobe packs that didn't have the features of fancy Broncolor packs. But the cheap packs always worked.
I want an intelligent recommendation for serious equipment

Talk to Jeff Hirsch at FOTOCARE, 136 West 21st Street, NY, NY 10011. (212) 741-2990 ( http://www.fotocare.com/). Don't ask him which point & shoot to buy, but he rents all the good large- and medium-format stuff plus studio lighting. Because he rents and uses this stuff, he knows what matters. This is the place to buy weird but essential stuff, e.g., ballheads, quick releases, etc. Jeff's prices on those items are often identical to B&H and Adorama.
I want to trade a Hasselblad and a Leica in for a new Linhof
Petrified Forest (north-central Arizona). Gil Ghitelman, www.gilghitelman.com used to be a psychologist in the Montgomery County public schools, where I suffered through 10 grades, but I won't hold that against him. He started collecting Leicas and then decided to go into the family camera business. You can trust Gil; he'll go the extra mile to make sure that you get what you need, and you might pay less than you would at B&H.

Although Gil is hidden away in Weston, Connecticut, he is a pretty high-volume Hasselblad dealer and has an in-house repair service (forget what anyone says; 'blads need a lot of maintenance). He also stocks oddities like $800 English camera bags.

I've bought a bunch of Linhof stuff from Gil, new and used.
I want to take a picture like this
Brooks Falls, Katmai National Park

Talk to Leonard Lee Rue III and Len Rue, IV. When they aren't out chasing wildlife or sitting in a blind with a 600/4, the Rues operate a mail-order service for wildlife photographers.

They've personally used every piece of equipment in their illustrated catalog and don't sell it if it doesn't work. Much of the stuff you'd be unlikely to know you needed. If B&H has the same item, it will be somewhere between the same price and 25% cheaper.

Leonard Rue Enterprises, 138 Millbrook Road, Blairstown, NJ 07825, (800) 734-2568, http://www.rue.com.

[Note: Bear photo was taken with Nikon 300/2.8, FOBA ballhead, 8008 body, Ektar 25 film, 1/60th at 2.8 under overcast skies. From Travels with Samantha.]
I want to buy a used camera
A tree in Petrified Forest (north-central Arizona).

If you don't see anything you like in the photo.net Classifieds, rec.photo.marketplace and Shutterbug magazine are the places to look for advertisements from shops and individuals selling used cameras.

Midwest Photo Exchange, 3313 N. High Street, Columbus, OH 43202, 614-261-1264, FAX 614-261-1637, is a good source for old view cameras and the like (esp. strong on Linhof Technicas).

http://www.photo.net/photo/where-to-buy

Buying a Point & Shoot Camera

Is a point and shoot camera the right tool for the job?

As I discuss in "Choosing a Camera for a Long Trip", you have to decide whether the purpose of an outing is primarily photographic. Are you trying to experience Paris or photograph Paris? If you're going to be spending 80% of your time exposing film or thinking about pictures, then a larger camera is a better tool. A standard 35mm SLR camera has larger and more convenient controls than a point and shoot. A medium- or large-format camera will give significantly better image quality (see "What Camera Should I Buy" for a discussion of these cameras). A tripod will be a tremendous help. But if you're only carrying the camera on the off chance that something catches your eye, it is rather unpleasant to lug around 50 lbs. of equipment.

Digital versus Film-based Cameras

There are pocket-sized digital cameras that function quite nicely as point and shoot cameras, for example, the Canon S100. The advantage of the digital camera is that the photos are available for instant sharing via the Internet and you don't have to spend money on film or processing. The main disadvantage of digital cameras circa 2001 is that they depend so heavily on personal computers circa 2001. With a film-based camera, you press the button 36 times then remove the film and take it to a lab. For long-term archival storage, a metal file cabinet serves nicely. With a digital camera, you need to transfer the images to a computer and learn how to use a high-quality printer or produce Web pages. For long-term storage and retrieval you need to get a big hard drive, a big tape drive, backup software, and the discipline to make backups regularly.

What if you don't use your camera regularly? Suppose that two years ago you loaded up a film-based camera with a roll of ISO 400 film and lithium battery. You took two photos of your dog's birthday party and put the camera on the shelf until the next birthday whereupon you snapped four more photos. Your dog's birthday is today. You grab the camera off the shelf and snap a few more photos then take the roll down to the local minilab. Most digital cameras rely on rechargeable batteries. If you tried the same scenario with a digital camera you'd have missed two birthday parties.

Why you might not want that fancy zoom P&S

Zoom lenses have more elements (pieces of glass) than fixed focal-length lenses. More elements means more ways for light to bounce around inside the lens. Stray light (flare) fills in areas of the picture that are supposed to be black, thus reducing contrast. That's why pictures taken with most zoom lenses are flat. If your subject is a stand of trees on a foggy day, you might not mind, but most of the time photographs taken with a zoom lens will lack snap.

You can forget about shooting into the sun with most cheap zoom lenses; all you will get is flare.

The zoom lens adds weight, cost, and size. You might not have the camera with you when you need it and that's the whole point of getting a P&S instead of an SLR.

• But I want the zoom to take portraits

  

  A longer focal length makes for better portraits, but you will generally want a fast aperture (e.g., f/2.8 or f/4) to throw the background out of focus and concentrate the viewer's attention on the subject. A Nikon 80-200/2.8 lens ($1000) makes a beautiful portrait lens, but the zooms on P&S cameras are usually around f/8 or f/11 when racked out and therefore will render the Exxon station behind your subject perfectly sharp.

  The photo at right was taken on the street in Whitehorse, Yukon (part of Travels with Samantha) with a 300/2.8 at f/4. Whitehorse, Yukon is not such an attractive town that you'd want it rendered perfectly sharp in the background.

• But I want the zoom to take artistic pictures

  Most artistic pictures are taken in fairly low light (see my technique guide). Even with ISO 400 film, a point and shoot zoom lens is so slow at longer focal lengths that you'll never get anything without a tripod. And a tripod kind of spoils the whole idea, doesn't it? (Though not as badly as on-camera flash, which spoils nearly every photo.)

  A Yashica T4 with its 35/3.5 lens will let you do creative things with ISO 400 print film and even ISO 100 slide film, without having to turn on the flash all the time.

Why you might want that fancy zoom P&S

Technology changes fast. Some of the very latest zoom P&S cameras can fit in a shirt pocket and don't have much flare. How do they do this? With aspherics. Most expensive camera lenses are still made with only glass elements that are sections of spheres. If you are willing to mold a lens out of plastic you have much more freedom of shape and can correct more optical problems with a single element.

Minolta sells a 28-70mm shirt-pocket zoom camera that uses four elements, two of them aspheric (Freedom Zoom Explorer, about $145 at Adorama). The exposure system is great with slide film and the contrast seems just as good as with the T4. Under a Schneider 4X loupe, the images from mine were sharp enough for the photo editors at Hearst magazines. The fill flash doesn't suit me very well on overcast days, however. The subject is usually brighter than the background and that looks unnatural. I'm not sure if the T4 was any better or if I just tended to use it more with ISO 50 film where the flash didn't have much reach.

I carried mine in my front left pants pocket for a few months and the viewfinder filled up with dust (lint?) then the camera jammed and prematurely rewound its 10th roll of film. This was the same failure mode as my old T4. I sent it back to Minolta and they cleaned it for me and claimed that it works perfectly now. It would seem that I've demonstrated the inability of these cameras to survive the pants pocket environment. [Note: the camera broke again a couple of months later. I sent it back to Minolta for warranty service. They held it for two months. It came back vaguely repaired but still not behaving reliably.]

The Yashica T4: a sensible choice

Thousands of pros have Yashica T4 point & shoots. These have a fixed 35/3.5 lens that is as sharp and contrasty as most SLR optics, an exposure metering system accurate enough for slide film, and a true shirt-pocket size. Even Consumer Reports top-rated this camera. It is about $150 in New York. The latest "T4 Super" (known as the T5 in Europe and Asia) has the same optics and film transport but adds a right-angle "waist-level" finder (good for low-angle and/or sneak shots) plus weatherproof construction. The latter is very important if you like to carry your camera in a pants pocket, where the high humidity from, dare I say it, sweat tends to fog the viewfinder.

My T4s have proven to have exposure metering that is sufficiently accurate for slide film though these days I never use anything other than ISO 400 color negative film in a point and shoot (or sometimes Kodak TMAX 400 CN black and white film, which is more or less the same idea).

Don't expect miracles from the T4, though. The plastic construction doesn't feel any better than the other P&S cameras; it is the beautiful Zeiss Tessar 4-element lens (with T* coating) that makes the T4 special.

Here's something I found in the rec.photo newsgroups about a German magazine's test of a T4 versus expensive ($600) Contax and absurdly expensive ($900) Nikon P&S cameras (yuppie class):

http://www.photo.net/equipment/point-and-shoot/

Kodak APS (Advanced Photo System)

Every ten years or so, Kodak decides that 35mm film is too good for consumers. They do a survey and find that "97% of pictures never get enlarged beyond 4x6". They conclude from this that the enormous 24x36mm swatch of film they've been selling you is excessive. Wouldn't you rather have half the image area? You'll barely notice the reduction in quality in a 4x6 print. And guess what, they'll charge you the same amount of money for film & processing despite the fact that they only have to use half the materials.

Kodak tried it in the 1970s with 110 cartridges. Image quality sucked so consumers rejected it. I've heard that the main reason for the bad quality was the lack of a pressure plate to keep the film flat.

Kodak tried it in the 1980s with the disc camera. They stuck tiny little pieces of film on the ends of plastic arms so that it was easy to rotate up to the next frame. Oh, yes, image quality was abysmal. Consumers rejected it.

My personal theory on what happened is that Kodak hired MBAs to do the surveys instead of photographers. Photographers know that one is lucky to take 10 great photographs a year. Forget 97% 4x6 prints; they'd be happy to throw out 99% of their negatives if they could get one more great picture. This is less true of casual photographers but even they probably have only a handful of images that they want to put up on the wall and look at every day.

The picture at right, part of my New York vignettes is about half of a 35mm Tri-X negative. I've had quite a few requests for enlargements. Had it been taken with a smaller format film, the grain would be the size of baseballs. The owl at left is a big bird. It was a snapshot in a zoo, now part of the infamous Heather Has Two Mommies. I never thought it would be a good image, but it turned out to be. I'm glad that I can enlarge it to 16x20. The owl deserves his wall space.

Half the size of 35mm

An APS negative is 56% the area of a 35mm negative. That's all that a serious photographer really needs to know about the format. Everything else is gadgetry.

If you want to be a little more exact, here are the dimensions of the various APS frames:

• HDTV: 30.2 x 16.7 mm
• Classic: 23.4 x 16.7 mm
• Panoramic: 30.2 x 9.5 mm
• (for comparison) standard 35mm camera: 36 x 24 mm

Bells & Whistles

Kodak did some cute things with APS that, had they been done with 35mm, would have been very nice. There is an optically clear but magnetically sensitive coating on the back of the APS film. The camera has a magnetic head like what you'd find in a floppy disk drive. It writes digital information on the magnetic coating. There is the obvious stuff like date and time and exposure settings. To help the processor, the use of flash is noted.

Communication with photo labs is expensive and they charge you for it. That's why a 4x6 machine print costs about 20 cents and getting one done at a pro lab, that sometimes won't even be as good, will cost you $20. APS lets you communicate with the photo lab by pushing buttons on the camera at exposure time. You can say "I want this to be panoramic", in which case the lab will print only from the center strip of the negative. You can say "I want this to be fake-zoomed", in which case the lab will print from only the center section of the negative, sort of as though you'd used a longer lens (except that image quality will be much lower because you're throwing away most of what was already a very small negative).

Film handling is better with APS. The cartridge is used to store processed negatives so they can't get dusty. You can use half a roll and then switch to a higher speed emulsion for night-time pictures, then switch back without going through leader-retrieval gymnastics like you'd have to with 35mm.

But they are making better film now

Aside from $millions in PR, the reason APS won't flop like 110 and the disc is that today we have films like Fuji Super G Plus. It really is possible to get an acceptable 8x10 print from a tiny negative. Kodak has even promised and delivered some improved emulsions in the APS format. However, any technology that makes APS film better is just as applicable to 35mm film. Fuji seems to be keeping its 35mm film right up to date with its new APS emulsions.

The Bottom Line

If you are reasonably serious about photography and are willing to be reasonably careful about choosing a lab and storing your negatives, 35mm is a better format. At least your images will have the potential to be great.

And now for a word from my vastly more intelligent friend...

... Kleanthes Koniaris ( kgk@martigny.ai.mit.edu) who already has his Ph.D. (and it isn't in a sissy field like computer science, but rather in physics).

For weeks, I wondered "How can somebody as smart as Greenspun not realize the genius behind the APS system?" Eventually I realized the answer: Greenspun looks at gear through the eyes of a professional, while I look at gear through the eyes of a guy who wants to properly document his vacation. It turns out that we're both correct, and you have to decide what you want.

The main idea behind an APS camera is that it is idiot-proof and it takes fantastic vacation pictures in sizes like 4x6", 4x7", or even 4x12".

Film Canister

There is no leader on the film canister, it is an elliptical prism. You never see your negatives, they also reside inside the canister. Each canister is uniquely identified by a six-digit serial number marked on the outside for humans and magnetically written on the film for the processor. The cartridge also displays one of four icons: unexposed (circle), half-exposed (half-circle), exposed ("x"), and developed (box). Canisters are available with 15, 25 and 40 exposures.

The magnetic surface on the film holds your bits, so be careful to keep it away from things that will erase your credit cards or floppy disks! (My local WalMart always tries to put my developed film on a plate that warns "WILL ERASE YOUR CREDIT CARDS" and I always manage to stop them just in time!) Neither Fuji nor Kodak warns against this hazard, but it would seem to be common sense to avoid magnetic fields.

[Comment received from one of my moles inside the Kodak research labs: "The magnetic particles used in APS file are similar to the particles used in Super VHS tape: They have a coercivity (Hc), i.e., field required to erase them, of about 900 Oersteds, three times the 300 Oersteds coercivity of credit cards and standard bias audio cassettes. Those nasty plates on the checkout counter have fields of around 300 Oe, enough to erase your credit cards and do funny things to audio tapes, but they shouldn't affect APS film. Of course I wouldn't take unnecessary risks, but if you get distracted by the same old photos of Jon Benet or princess Di, you probably won't have anything to worry about."]

Index Prints

Processed APS film comes with 4x7" sheet of index prints showing the roll ID (and bar codes, time stamps, etc). Each index print is numbered so you can say "I want to reprint picture #39 from roll ID850-939."

Prints

Prints come in 4x6" (classical), 4x7" (HDTV) and 4x12" (panoramic). Classical means "crop the sides," while panoramic means "crop the top and bottom." The form-factor is recorded when you take the picture, but you can override your choice when reprinting. WalMart charges me $.25 for each 4x6", and I believe that the price goes up to $.44 for a 4x12".

Printed on the back of each photo is the ID number of the roll, the picture number, the time of exposure (optional), as well as camera-specific printing. For example, my Canon ELPH can print "Happy birthday" (or four other phrases) in one of five languages. This printing is done by the developing machines, which read the magnetic bits off the back of each frame. I'm thinking of setting the camera to write "I love you" on the back of my prints in Japanese. The camera can also write hints to the printing machines (like "I didn't get as much light as I wanted"), so most of your vacation pictures are keepers.

Camera

I bought a Canon ELPH for $295 from B&H Photo. It is tiny, with a sexy black leather case. Girls find it very cute and tiny and always ask where they can get one. The viewfinder automatically masks itselfs to match the mode (classical, HDTV, or panoramic), which is nice, but the viewfinder corners are blurry. The only other thing that I dislike about the camera is that I sometimes press the "on/off" button by accident. This makes the lens extend and stretches the leather case, but hasn't caused the camera to fail.

The LCD display is always on showing you the time. I set the time to Universal Time (UT, also known as GMT), since I don't have to change it when on vacation---I just have to remember what time zone I was in (i.e., where I was!). For example, I'm looking at a picture of a dinosaur taken at the Minnesota Zoo at 5:40pm on 96/6/22, and I believe that Minnesota is -5 from GMT, so the local time was 12:40pm. Easy, huh?

You load/unload the ELPH (like all APS cameras) through a hatch, and I am sure that anybody can do it. My camera cannot do mid-roll swapping, but it will not load exposed film, etc.

http://www.photo.net/equipment/aps/