A huge number of ebooks fail because they are simply digital clones of print technology. To call 'the 123 of digital imaging' an ebook is a bit like calling Mouton Rothschild 'a bottle of wine'. Put quite simply, it is the best of its kind. Let's look at some of the advantages.

In the first place it compares very favourably with any printed book when it comes to price. It is available as a download for $44.87, which is about £28.50 at the current rate of exchange. A CD version is also available for a little extra plus shipping. Unlike the dozens of books on my library shelf, it doesn't become useless with the passage of time - it is regularly updated at minor cost, and now covers Adobe Photoshop CS2 as well as Camera RAW 3.1 and Bridge. The latest version of the software is 3.5 and the upgrade is offered at $9.99.

But what most separates it from static ebooks or print material is the level of interaction. It is described as an 'interactive learning suite'. And it is precisely that.

There are over 3000 pages in 123di, plus thousands of high quality graphics and animations. Chapter 1 (covering the theory of digital photography) has been completely revised. You don't actually need Photoshop to run the excellent tutorials, but the package covers Photoshop 7, CS, and CS2 as well as Elements 2 and 3, and now Nikon Capture 4.3 has been added. If you are new to digital photography and processing you can opt for the 'starter' level, and then progress through 'essential' to 'advanced'. There's something here for everyone. My slight reservation is that every page has so many links and cross-links that it is quite easy to get diverted. But there are good search facilities and a table of contents, and as the following screen shot clearly demonstrates, there is a good clear navigation system:-

The balance of theory and practical is excellent - you are invited to learn more about the inner workings of your camera, and how to produce better photography (in terms of things like exposure) and how to get even the most basic photo editing software to work with you. Tutorials include subjects as diverse as creating high dynamic range images, fisheye lens correction, restoring clipped highlights and adjusting levels/curves. It is good to see the Foveon sensor get more than a fleeting mention. Is there anything here of specific use to Sigma users? Absolutely! The more you know about your hardware + software combination, the less likely you are to produce poor pictures. Digital cameras are basically computers with an eye and it helps to know their inner workings and limitations. Likewise, software has its own foibles, and I doubt that anyone would admit they knew everything about it!

I thought the section (Chapter 12) on 'Working with RAW mode' and the background theory (Chapter 1) particularly useful without drenching you in too much technical data. As you will know by now, I am no fan of shooting in JPEG. I cannot see the point in spending £1000 on a digital camera with a decent lens, and then having JPEG on-board processing throwing away up to 80% of your carefully captured data. So I was thrilled to see this carefully explained graphically. Here, a picture paints a thousand words:-

This was followed by some sage advice - which I haven't seen in too many places before, and it concerns bracketing exposures and the difficulty of aligning two (or more shots);-

'So instead of bracketing your images on the scene by shooting multiple JPEG or TIFF images, you can shoot one RAW image instead and extract the desired detail on your computer. You could for instance extract one image with shadow detail and one image with highlight detail by adjusting the exposure slider in Photoshop CS2 Camera Raw. Combining these images is easier because both layers will be perfectly aligned. Alternatively, you could apply a different tonal curve to the RAW image and perform the highlight and shadow extraction in one step. Since the tonal curve is applied in 12 bit environment, any posterization will be minimal.
Of course, if the dynamic range of the scene is larger than the dynamic range of the sensor, you will still need to resort to exposure bracketing and combine the images. This is explained in detail in Chapter 11'.

The 123di interactive learning suite is a mine of information, and costs less than the annual subscription to your favourite camera magazine. Highly recommended. Forgot to mention it, but my digital photography students have fallen in love with it.

If you wish to buy it, please click on this link. As an affiliate, we will receive some funds to help keep our site running. Many thanks to Vincent Bockaert for supplying us with screenshots and images and updates.