Sony Zone

   
S O N Y   e B O O K   V2   I S   N O W !

The Sony cameras are more than fun. They are world-class digital tools.

So they are the subject of another eBook from the best-selling digital photography author, Peter iNova.

Q: What is it about?

The Sony eBook covers the DSC-F707, F717, V1 and F828, cameras so rich in features, capabilities, qualities and opportunities that they deserve their own in-depth book-length volume.

One might assume that a camera is just a camera; end of story, but that would do these cameras a great disservice. These Sony flagship models are so far above their contemporaries in many ways, that they are the icon of compact digital cameras in the media.

The eBook lets you experience the special Sony point of view that designed this series, the techniques that bring them to optimum performance and the special software that extends their capabilities after the image has been transferred into your computer.

Q: What's an eBook?

It is an evolution in reading: an interactive book that arrives on a CD. Pages are of the highest quality with logical layout, scalable typography and generous size. Printed, they exactly fit letter paper.

Images can be blown up 400% without running out of pixels. That's like pushing a page up to 3 inches (75mm) from your nose. Even IF you could focus that close, a printed book would be showing you a bunch of dots at that scale. Not so with the eBook. It is literally sharper and more detailed than the finest printed page.

You can print pages out, if you like, too. We suggest printing a range of pages to study sections on the go. A good example is the Learning Digital Photography -- Shooting for Experience chapter 6. Here a wide range of challenging exercises are presented that send you on 22 different photographic assignments, each geared to sensitize your composition, appreciation of different subject categories, use of unique Sony camera features, lighting and special effects in a self-paced, highly effective process.

Printed image quality is maintained far better than from PDF print outs you pick up over the Internet.

It's interactive. Search for keywords all through the text. Find things with page thumbnails and interactive bookmarks. Roll the computer mouse over images for direct Before/After comparisons. When your computer is on line, you can even hit web links in the text and jump instantly to that web site.

It's full of iNova's famous InfoBites™ --always identified with the circle-i bullet-- and they are fast-acting concepts that bring quick awareness of special features, techniques and factoids relevant to the current topic. In the new Version 2.0 there are hundreds of new ones.

Q: What if you don't have an eBook reader?

You do now! The CD contains everything you need. In particular, Adobe Acrobat readers for Windows and Macintosh. Install the one for your computer and you are ready to go.

Q: What else is on the CD?

Software, example images, demos, Full Photoshop Tryout, a fully functional 20/20 Color MD (as in "Doctor") program that's good for 30 days and a whole lot more.

Plus the iNovaFX completely original Photoshop Actions
--over 420 of them !!!--
that do things inside Photoshop to make your images better, more correct, restored from operator errors, sharper, cleaner, sweeter, more dynamic and even more artistic.

Here's one of them at the right. And here's a page with more examples.

The iNovaFX Actions for the 707-717-V1-828 images do things like correct the shot when you shot it with the wrong white balance or when wide zoom setting showed barrel distortion on straight line subjects. Many of them change the image into a water color, an oil painting, a novel graphic or an abstract piece of art.

Others add the effect of physical filtration like crosstar filters, variable vignetting (and removal), color tint filtration and grad filters.

Some boost the apparent camera sensitivity far beyond the ISO 400/800 setting. Shots made as ISO 1600 become practical. ISO 3200 becomes reality for the 717 & V1.

For these, nderexposed images are "push processed" by the appropriate iNovaFX Photoshop Action, and out pops a decent-looking shot where only darkness showed before.

There are iNovaFX Photoshop Actions that reduce grain, smooth color noise, eliminate the effect of atmospheric haze from aerial shots, fix camera limitations, add borders and frames to your image... they do lots of things.

Q: When is it available?

The Sony eBook began shipping on March 30, 2004. Orders are filled immediately.

Now the fun begins.

Q: What do the pages look like?

    

Page 1 of the two most recent chapters.

As noted above, the pages come in two resolutions and formats. The Ultra Resolution pages can be viewed at up to 400% enlargement. That's like holding a book up to a few centimeters from your nose, if you could focus that close! Typical reading magnification on a laptop computer is in the 125% to 150% range.

Here is a link to an on-Internet demo of what the pages actually look like, so you can judge the quality with your own eyes.

Note: The sample page is lifted from the Nikon eBook, but this same page appears in the Sony eBook, too, at the same fidelity and resolution(s).

Other works by Peter iNova. The first digital photography eBook was the Best Seller, Mastering Nikon Compact Digital Cameras, now in its sixth version. It has been continuously expanded and now is in Version 6.0 covering Nikon's Coolpix cameras from the CP950 to the CP5400 and beyond.

Jump to the Nikon Pages to learn more.

 

© 2004 Peter iNova. All rights reserved.