Test pics from the Nikon Coolpix900 show great detail, but seem to be lacking in contrast. White is not bright white. True? Any luck correcting this in Photoshop? Oly D500L is the other camera I'm considering, and the pics seem brighter.

-- Stuart (eureka@eureka-i-found-it.com), June 26, 1998

Answers

It's always a fine line between contrast and preserving image detail. The CP900 probably errs a bit on the side of detail. To answer your question about Photoshop, my experience has been that "auto levels" in Photoshop makes a noticeable difference with most digicams. Try it yourself with the CP900 images from the site: Download one or more, then try playing with the "Levels" controls. (On a Mac, you can preview what portions of the image are blowing out/plugging up by holding down the "Option" key while you move the white/black sliders.) Auto Levels adjusts everything to make whites pure white, blacks pure black, but in the process may also remove color casts you'd like to preserve, or go too far with images that don't have a pure white or black in them in the first place.

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), June 26, 1998.