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As I write this, 2001 is drawing to a close and
the Mac Design digital camera shootout deadline is upon me. I
found myself in the unenviable position of having too many
cameras at the last minute - one each from Nikon, Olympus and
Casio. With five cameras behind me, my mind is beginning to fuzz
over.
New Year's Eve trio from Olympus, Casio and Nikon
During the slow weeks before Christmas and New
Year's, I'm accustomed to weeding out my studio, throwing old
files and publications, before I'm buried in an avalanche of
dusty tomes.
I usually glance through old magazines, trying
to figure out just why I saved them in the first place. And
that's how I came across the July 1991 issue of HOW Magazine
devoted to computer graphics.
All the big advertisers are there. Aldus with
PageMaker and Freehand. Adobe with Illustrator. SuperMac with
PixelPaint Professional.
In the editorial section, 45mb Syquest removable
disks were the hottest thing and designers named Larry Hammill
(Columbus, Ohio) and Adele Shtern (Long Island City, NY) were
among the few artists using Photoshop.
After six years, desktop publishing was old hat
and multimedia and desktop publishing were the '91 new thing. Of
course, there were no www. addresses.
Apple's QuickTake. 8 high-res pictures at a time!
Then came the February 1994 issue of PUBLISH,
then a respectable publication about publishing, announcing the
Apple QuickTake 100 digital camera. Eight 640x480 pixel (high
res) images on a 1mb flash EPROM. This binocular-looking
behemoth is generally considered to be the first prosumer
digital camera.
A '96 issue of PUBLISH featured the latest wave
of digital cameras but, interestingly enough, the resolution war
had not yet begun (still 640x480). Nikon showed the Coolpix 100
and 300 models. The 300 boasted a color LCD as well as direct
viewfinder. Looking a bit like a PDA, the 300's LCD could be
written upon with a stylus.
Nikon CP300. A Palm Pilot with an attitude?
By the time these weird products were actually
available a year later, Nikon had upped the resolution to
780,000 pixels in the more conventional-looking Coolpix 600,
complete with an 8mb card. Price? $399.
PDN's Legends feature Jerry Uelsmann, a long time
inspiration to me.
Here's my New Year's present to Planet Photoshop
readers. If you're at all interested or involved with
photocomposites, by all means visit the PDN website http://www.pdnonline.com/legends/uelsmann/index.html
for a look at their Legends of Photography featuring Jerry
Uelsmann.
It was Jerry's work at the University of Florida
31 years ago that first interested me in photomontage. But it
wasn't until Photoshop arrived that I was able to do something
about it.
Well, that's 58 digital photography columns
behind me. Girding my loins for another year. Best wishes to you
all in 2002! |