At this rate, when can we expect that the camera will go out and take the
photo all by itself?
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/13/te.../13camera.html

Published: March 13, 2006
For digital camera makers, it's a mode, mode, mode, mode world.

On point-and-shoot cameras, as well as single-lens reflex cameras meant for
more serious photographers, camera makers are adding a bevy of preset modes
that remove the guesswork for setting up a perfect picture.

The Canon PowerShot 80, for example, has 21 modes, including settings for
shots of foliage and fireworks, as well as for pictures taken in the snow or
at the beach. Nikon has cameras with modes set for shooting document text or
museum objects. Hewlett-Packard has a mode on its new R-series that it says
removes the 10 pounds a camera is said to add. And Casio will sell three
models in April with an eBay mode that sets up the camera to take shots that
can be easily uploaded to the online auction site.

After four years of rapid growth, sales of digital cameras are expected to
peak this year, according to analysts at InfoTrends, a market research
company. As sales slow, camera makers have to find new ways to differentiate
their products. Some do it with styling, others with new technology like
image stabilization or wireless connections. (Competing on the number of
megapixels is passé, analysts say.)

The shooting modes are proving a popular way to differentiate products.
Panasonic, a relative newcomer to the digital camera fray, has settings for
shooting food and a soft-skin mode aimed at removing wrinkles in a person's
face in a photograph.

"We are trying to put these modes in all our cameras," said Bob Kozlarek,
senior engineer in Panasonic's product engineering center.

The modes do more than adjust the lens aperture and the shutter speed,
actions that a skilled photographer can perform with a single-reflex lens
camera. Many of the modes have a computer chip in the camera that tweaks the
image.

For instance, Canon's underwater mode filters out the plankton in the water
in the same way most digital cameras remove the glowing red-eye in
portraits, caused by the flash reflecting off the retina. The underwater
mode also adds red to the photograph, a color missing in the underwater
spectrum.

In a similar fashion, a foliage setting accentuates blues and greens and
sharpens the image.

"The idea is not as much to make an accurate image, as a pleasing one," said
Chuck Westfall, director of marketing and customer relationships at Canon
USA. Mr. Westfall said that camera makers had found "90 to 95 percent of
what we will ever need."

Nevertheless, new modes keep popping up. Casio's new eBay mode - found on
three new cameras in its Exilim line, the Z60, Z600 and Z850 - resizes an
image and, on cameras taking 6- and 8.1-megapixel pictures, lowers the
resolution of the picture to 2 megapixels so it can appear on the auction
site. The mode includes an additional setting for capturing fine detail. The
eBay mode is one of 33 modes the cameras offer.

Casio has exclusive rights to the mode for one year, said Karl Wiley, senior
category manger at eBay. He said the company was in discussions with other
camera makers.