Type of Article: MacTech Reviews

By Steve Baczewski

Bordering the world of DSLRs — and sharing many of the same sophisticated features — is a breed of high-end, compact, point-and-shoot cameras. Leica (www.leica.com) has released one of those: their new V-Lux 3.

Although the V-Lux 3 doesn’t introduce any major new technology, it’s packed with features and its centerpiece is a versatile 24x zoom lens. The DC Vario-Elmarit lens is 4.5–108mm, f/2.8–5.2, and its range is the 35mm equivalent of 25–600mm. That’s a vast reach for stills and very handy for shooting HD videos at 1920×1080 pixels and 60 fps.

By Jeff Gamet

Processing HDR images to get just the right effect can be as much art as science. The new HDR Expose 2 from Unified Color Technologies (www.unifiedcolor.com) aims to help you find the right balance between the two, so you get just the finished image you want without headaches and frustration.

The original Apple evangelist/author/entrepreneur and jack-of-all-trades, Guy Kawasaki, has co-authored a book that any aspiring author needs to pick up: “APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur: How to Publish a Book” (US$9.99).

By Erik Vlietnck

Corel’s (www.corel.com) first professional photo catalog and RAW editing software, AfterShot Pro (US$99.99), is based on a number of technologies — Bibble Pro, Noise Ninja, and Perfectly Clear — that are widely known and respected in the photography world. It’s available for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux.

With ever more folks coming to the Mac platform, there are plenty of good books available for learning the basics. But what about going behind the basics? 
Enter “Master Your Mac” (http://macte.ch/3OHWp) from No Starch Press.

The 424-page, US$29.95 book by Matt Cone offers tutorials on how to change hidden defaults, enable undocumented features, repair disk permissions to improve performance, monitor their systems, how to create a bootable USB drive for emergencies and more. Topics include how to:

° Automate tasks with AppleScript, triggers, and Automator macros;