Reader Bill Baum writes in asking if it’s possible to batch convert DNG files to JPEGs. Bill says that several years ago, he converted several thousand images to DNG, but now wants them as JPEGs to ease the process of working with them in Nikon Capture NX, which doesn’t natively read DNG files. Fortunately, if you have Photoshop CS2 or CS3, you can easily use Bridge to batch process DNG conversions into JPEGs, Photoshop files, or TIFFs.

Reader Graham Long (no relation) sends in an image that he titled "An Almost Quite Good Photo." As he describes it: "the shot was taken at Granville Island in Vancouver. My wife took the kids for a bite to eat and I rattled off more than 250 ill-considered shots in about 15 minutes." Graham’s experience shows the merit of heavy shooting, as his blitzkrieg approach delivered an image that truly is almost quite good. However, there are just one or two issues that keep it from being a an outright quite good photo, and in this Before and After we’re going to discuss what those issues are, and explore some ways that you can fix them in an image editor.

Over the last few years, the digital camera market has been sliced into fine slivers. There are cheap, not-so-cheap, and expensive point-and-shoots; a full spectrum of SLRs from $600 all the way up to $8,000; and stratospherically priced medium-format digital backs, owned by a precious few.

Sitting on its own, outside the realm of the point-and-shoots and SLRs is the Leica M8, a rangefinder camera based on the traditional M-series Leica body. Priced at roughly $5,500 for the body only – with Leica-branded lenses starting at around $1,500 for a 35 or 50mm lens – the M8 sits in the same price category as heavy hitting SLRs like the Canon 1Ds Mark III and the Nikon D3.

If you’ve been shopping for a mid-range digital SLR, it’s a safe bet to say you’ve probably been considering the Nikon D-300. The latest rev of Nikon’s mid-range camera, the D-300 offers some impressive changes from it’s predecessor, the D-200. As with previous Nikon models, no other camera comes close to Nikon when it comes to feature list, and the D-300 backs up its features with improved image quality.

While the iPhone has a built-in camera – and one that’s surprisingly good for a cell phone – you might find that its real photo value lies elsewhere. I recently found myself needing to shoot some product shots of a camera. I decided to use the Canon PowerShot G9 because 1) it’s a very good camera, and 2) its big LCD viewfinder makes the camera easy to use when mounted on a tripod. However, after taking a few shots and moving them to the computer, I discovered my setup had some problems. That’s where the iPhone came in…