Technology: The Enemy of a Good Photograph?

Oh, for a good quality manual camera again! I'm referring to flash pictures, which have become all too common since the advent of the digital camera, due to its automatic flash. This means that the lighting in most pictures is obviously artificial, overly harsh, or completely wasted--the latter owing to an extreme distance of the subject, or else because the sensor is spooked by a misleading shadow over the camera itself. It seems to me that if an average person were presented with one of the better cameras, he or she wouldn't have the faintest clue how to use it. This is because these cameras afford the photographer manual control over such settings as aperture, shutter speed, focus, and of course, whether or not to use the flash, whereas most modern digital cameras make all these decisions for you. "Quel domage," as the French say.

3D TV -- Coming Soon

For those of you who have been waiting for the advent of 3D technology for television, your wait may be over. The format will soon be here. Televisions are being made that will receive and display the 3D signal, with special glasses to separate the two images for your two eyes. The two proposed presentation formats are already in use by theaters. The one was developed by IMAX and involves switching the two sides of the glasses on and off. The other is the RealD format, which uses polarization of the two lenses 90° apart (vertical for one eye, horizontal for the other, or something like that).

ESPN and Discovery Channel are both launching all-3D channels for later this year, and other networks are expected to follow. If your set is not 3D-ready, there may also be converter boxes available soon. Check your local stores. But be patient, as this is new technology, and it might not be available right away.